#HI HELLO NEL!! GREETINGS

[thatcheeseycandle]

♥️😖 for oc ask

🤍- What are three of your oc's neutral/questionable traits?

OOO NOW THATS INTERESTING CONSIDERING THOSE ARE MAINLY THE JOBS OF THE KEY-PLOT CHARACTERS

But lets start off with the one that goes STRAIGHT to number one in that category, the Platinum Entity, she's got questionable traits

Like example: Her hybrid/non-human features, the Court of Eq-ki-min

(the pronunciation for a word in their language meaning "harmony, health, and hybrid" which gives their court the nickname of "the triple Higher-ups")

have seen moments where Platinum comes back to the maintenance room with her wings and tail looking like they've had their skin been burnt off revealing the bones of it and some missing patches of skin, but they're faint memories so they've brushed it off as, in the Ruby Entity's words, "Wack hallucinations that started forming due to our absurb aging and magic" (he's a chill lad, it's just sometimes he's blunt like this-)

Though the Golden Entity has seen more questionable things about the Platinum Entity, being that she'd act somewhat sarcastic whenever they're interacting with Gold like Platinum knew that she forgot something about eachother.

(it's importanrt to their lore together so I'll most likely explain that in a seperate post)

😖- Is your oc an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert? do they let people in easily, or are they more reserved?

WELL TO CONTINUE ON FROM THE H COURT- Platinum is very VERY extroverted, even above Mixie and Gonta's (another sibling of hers) level of extroversion.

Gold is ambivert, her introvert side is the one that shines most throughout her journey before her "Adventure" arc

Ruby is ambivert, he isn't exactly introverted but doesn't talk much unless he's in a proper mood to but he isn't extroverted. He's like an office-worker, he's chill

Diamond is.. Yeah most likely ambiverted, I havent decided what side they are since they're like the "elderly god that doesn't show emotion which is intimidating yet is chill" trope. I havent exactly explored their personality considering they just always stay in the maintenance room, not being like Platinum and Ruby who explore outside the maintenance room into the "main-verse" aka the world they look over (they're basically seen as Gods in this multiverse)

[maochira]

Hello! Can I ask you for some soft general headcanons about Neo egoist assistants? I just want to read something cute like how boys simping for their assistant(s). Maybe some headcanons who is more likely to fall in love with a manager. Have a great day!~

OHH ANON😭😭😭You're just begging me to be self-indulgent again, aren't you? Limiting myself to the PxG team with this request tho because otherwise, it'd be too many characters,, feel free to request another team as well tho!!

Requests open! - NEL assistants masterlist

PxG boys simping!

Tags: gn!reader, fluff, just soft cute silly stuff

Series synopsis: you, Claire (@deerangle3) and Mao (me) are assistants in the Neo Egoist League

First! Who simps for who?

Your simps: Rin, Shidou, Nanase

Claire's simp: Karasu

Mao's (platonic) simps: Zantetsu, Tokimitsu (short note: I'm a lesbian but I have a MASSIVE platonic crush on Zantetsu and developing one on Toki as well, also wanted to still add myself to this!!)

Rin is rather subtle about it, but it's very noticeable how happy he is when he sees it's one of those days when you're there to assist the PxG team. He respects you and the work you do so much and always makes sure to avoid putting more work on you. Instead, he puts that work on Claire and Mao because he thinks they're annoying. In the entirety of Blue Lock, you're the only one who ever got a hug from him. A kiss on the cheek as well, but that's your secret.

Shidou is INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS with his simping. Pick up lines and flirting all the time. But even though he's. Uhm. He's Shidou. He never says anything sexual towards you. He's so careful and soft towards you, he avoids making you uncomfortable. To everyone else, it seems so out of character for him - and yeah, it is out of character for him to suddenly be so soft. But he appreciates the work you do so much, he can't help himself but treat you special.

Now, about Nanase? He's literally the sweetest. Always greets you so politely and asks how you're feeling. If he needs your help with something, he always makes sure you don't have much work to do that day because he doesn't want you to work so much harder than you already do. He constantly compliments you for everything you do and thanks you over and over and over, even if you did a small thing like refilling his water bottle.

Of course, Karasu, Zantetsu and Tokimitsu appreciate your work a lot as well! But you won Rin's, Shidou's and Nanase's hearts a lot more. Plus, you can't have everyone for yourself. After all, there's also Claire and Mao.

About Karasu and Claire. How did that even start? It actually started with Claire simping for him, but in secret. You told Karasu about it and the feelings became mutual. Now he's constantly flirting with her and nobody knows if they're dating or still only teasing each other. Well, nobody knows except for you. You've caught them making out at night in the hallway once, but promise to not tell anyone.

Zantetsu and Mao became best friends extremely quickly and they're almost inseparable. There's definitely more than a friendship between them, but it's not romantic or anything like that. Mao keeps calling him her platonic boyfriend, though. Zantetsu doesn't properly understand what that means, but he acts as if he does. They love each other very much - just in a strong platonic way.

Tokimitsu is always a bit intimidated by his teammates and was very nervous around the assistants at first. He's always so afraid to ask you or the others for help, even if it's for minor things. But Mao pays a lot of attention to him and always notices when he needs some assistance. Definitely some platonic simping going on between them.

[r4d14t3lov3]

Chapter 16 is finally up.

From late in chapter 16:

Over on the rich lawns beside the settlement’s gate a group of children were playing with a ball Fashav knew to be woven of reed and softened with moss. When they saw him draw nearer they raced towards him, greeting him cheerfully, bouncing up and down, dancing around him.

“Marshal! Marshal!” they called, and joined him the rest of the way, chatting lively. 

Fashav’s heart lifted a bit, and he bent to pick up the little girl who always clung to him whenever he visited. 

She threw her small arms around his neck and put her head on his shoulder. “I’m so happy you’re back, Marshal Fashav,” she whispered into his ear. 

Fashav smiled, warmth spreading through him, though it broke his heart at the same time, tears burning in his eyes unexpectedly. 

Fashav carried her through Riverhymn’s gate, the kids clouding around and in front of him like a great entourage, his guards walking off to find food and rest. 

People turned and waved, Fashav said many hellos and gave one-armed hugs, the little girl still holding on tight. 

Fashav saw her long before Nel even turned from the commotion the children were causing in the settlement. There she stood in all her slender beauty, her dark hair shining, her shoulders a bit sunkissed; she had probably spent too much time under yesterday’s cloudless sky. 

His heart skipped a beat when their eyes met, her face lighting up with such joy and a glow on her cheeks he hadn’t seen before. She was positively radiant. 

Nel clapped her hands over her mouth and nose in disbelief, then came running towards him. Apologizing to the little girl, he sat her down, then caught Nel in his arms, as she came flying towards him, twirling her around and around, their noses buried in the other’s neck.

“Oh, my darling,” Fashav whispered, and Nel wrapped her legs around his waist, holding on, never wanting to let go. 

“I have missed you so,” she whispered back, her hands cupping his face, her lips inching closer to his. 

“And I have missed you,” Fashav said, as their lips finally met.

[embodyingchaos]

❥ heart to heart | chapter two

pairing: abner krill x oc genre: best friends to lovers! warnings: angsty wangsty, very short oof, mention of murder word count: 1.9k masterlist: heart to heart last chapter: chapter one next chapter: -

eden yawned as best as she could with the head gear that was somewhat like a scold’s bridle that was placed over her head and mouth. she was very tired from everything she had to deal with over the last week. not only did she get arrested, she had to deal with the press, had barely any time to say goodbye to nellie, wyatt, viola or abner, and to top it all off, she was sent to good ol’ belle reve.

her cell guard opened the door, “you got a few visitors, ‘37.” she said, making eden flinch at the sound of the name. she got up, “can’t you just call me eden, flora?” she asked, muffled. flora pressed her lips together, “you know i can’t do that.” she told her, holding onto her as they walked to the non-contact visits room. when she got there, she turned to the woman. “could you take this off? kinda hard to talk with it on me.” eden said, pointing at the mouth guard. flora sighed and took it off before moving her to sit at the first counter. 

she stretched her mouth muscles before picking up the phone, “hi there, wy.” she greeted with a lazy tone, looking unbothered. “hi, eddie.” he greeted back with the nickname he fashioned for her a long while ago.

“weren’t planning on telling me and nel that you escaped from a lab facility that was experimenting on you and that you killed all the scientists and guards?” eden remained expressionless. “i’m pretty sure you would have called the police, wy.” “no, i wouldn’t have. you’re like a daughter to me, kiddo.” he said, his gaze softening. “it’s not right that they’re keeping you here.” eden sighed heavily, “i killed people, wy. yes, they did horrible, unspeakable things to me, but i killed them, and that’s a crime. the last person alive has to take the blame, and i don’t mind. i’m happy i was able to spend the last ten years with freedom, with you and nellie, and viola. i got to see the stars at least more than once, and that’s enough for me.” wyatt wasn’t one to cry or get too emotional, but seeing her behind the glass accepting her fate and not even trying to defend herself, it hurt him.

he stayed quiet for a bit before speaking up again. “there’s someone else here to see you.” wyatt told her, eden nodded as he left to go get them. the person who came in fidgeted as he took a seat. eden smiled at them as she picked up the phone, “hello, abner.” she greeted, happy to see him.

abner looked horrible. it seemed that her whole situation definitely affected him. his facial hair had grown much more since a week ago, it was much more prominent. the bags and dark circles under his eyes were also very visible, he hadn’t been sleeping. “abner, you look like you just came back to life-” “i miss you.” he cut her off immediately, tears threatening to escape his eyes. eden was trying to lighten the mood with a joke but it didn’t seem like it would work. “i miss you too, abbie.” she said, fiddling with the end of her shirt. abner sniffled, “it’s not fair. those people deserved to die.” eden gave him a small smile. “nobody deserves to die, abner. it’s not my job, or anyone else’s job to decide who gets to live or die. we don’t have the right to do so. i was wrong to do what i did.” she suddenly let out a choked sob, “and i ended up killing everyone, even the other patients, the kids. it was all my fault.” seeing her crying was something abner was not used to. he had never even seen her cry this much before.

abner didn’t know what to do, or say. he couldn’t even hug her to comfort her since she was behind the glass. then, he thought he should say exactly that. “if i could right now, i-i would hug you, and- and tell you everything is not your fault.” he nervously said, “you’re human, and you lashed out and made a mistake, and that’s okay. those kids are in a better place now thanks to you. they would have been in misery if they stayed in that lab any longer, ed.” eden looked up from her lap and stared at abner through her blurry vision. she wiped the tears from her face.

“i’m sorry i told you i love you, abner. now, you have to deal with me being in here and i’ll probably never be able to hug you ever again.” she apologised, her voice cracking. “i'm such an idiot." "no. you aren't." he adamantly said, determined to get his point across. "i am so happy you told me. it’s not your fault, you didn’t know they’d found you are that they’d been following you for a month now.” he teared up, “i’m going to visit you every day and-” “belle reve doesn’t allow more than three 1-hour visits per week, ab.” eden cut him off and he huffed in frustration, “then, i’ll visit you every gosh darn week! back-to-back with a day break! i’ll visit you on monday, wednesday, friday and repeat!” he shouted, slamming his hand on the table.

abner slid back into his chair, “this isn’t fair.” he whispered, but not to eden, to himself. abner looked back up at her and found her staring at him with her old, empty, black eyes. “life’s never fair.” she simply said, her lips falling into a flat line. in a matter of moments, she was entirely detached and that terrified him. being terrified was nothing new to him though, was it?

as days passed by, eden only spent time in her cell. she had asked for a book or two, and they allowed her to have a few. the most annoying part of being at belle reve was the fact that she constantly got ridiculed for having to wear the scold bridle. even if it did annoy the living shit out of her, she honestly didn’t care, she couldn’t care. plus, she was able to take it off during meal times and when she wanted to brush her teeth so it wasn't so bad. eden had been warned many times that if she even thought about spitting at one of the guards, she’d get tasered and sent to solitary.

as a year passes by, time has never been slower yet faster. eden spent most of her time sleeping or doing chores around the facility. she made a friend, the only problem was that the friend liked rats.

“i still don’t understand why out of all the animals your father could have chosen, he had to choose a rat.” eden mumbled as she played around with her plate of food as she sat opposite of her friend, cleo cazo, also known as ratcatcher 2. “what’s with the judgement, eddie?” “do not call me that, caz.” the older girl warned as she glared at cleo who only gave her a cheeky grin. “sorry.” she was not sorry when she said this. the two of them always spent a lot of time together, mostly because when cleo doesn’t feel like talking to her pet rat, sebastian, she talks to eden. eden usually just endures it, she didn’t like to talk when using her dehumanising muzzle.

after lunch, cleo had decided to go back to her cell early because she wanted to sleep. eden looked around the lunch room until a familiar head of hair stopped her in her tracks. there was no way that was him, right?

she slowly got up from her table and made her way to the man that sat at the table in another corner. he kept his head down, his black hair covering his eyes. there was no doubt about it, this was him. “abner?” eden’s voice was barely above a whisper when she called out his name but somehow he had still heard it. abner’s head snapped up as his eyes glistened from the lighting, “eden…” he said in disbelief, “wh-” eden scrambled to sit opposite of him, “what happened?! why are you here?!” she asked, obviously shocked at the fact he was in belle reve. “you haven't visited me for a whole month. i thought something happened. clearly, i was correct.” abner smiled sadly, nodding.

“i’m sorry. i was going through a hearing, and-and then trial, and there was no time to see you at all.” he rambled before taking a deep breath, “i killed her. i didn’t mean to.” the words were so quiet, eden didn’t pick it up. “and now, she’s everywhere.” she looked at him with perplexity, “what? i didn’t catch that?” abner looked at her with teary eyes, “i killed my mom. i thought she was going to hurt me. i didn’t mean to.” eden’s gaze softens, “it’s okay, abbie. it’s not your fault. your mother was a horrible person for putting you and your siblings through all of the things she did.” she reached out to grab his hand under the table which he easily accepted.

he whimpered, “but now she’s everywhere, everyone looks like her.” eden looked down at the table, “do i look like her to you?” abner stared at her face and her eyes, shaking his head. “you’re the only one who doesn’t.” he confessed, making her grin, “then, i guess you should stick with me, huh?” she nudged his foot with her own and a tiny smile finally took over his lips.

for the next few months, the two hung out around the facility whenever they could. they’d try to get the chores where they would be able to clean at the same time so they’d get to have a conversation or two. on more than two occasions, other prisoners would start picking on or insulting abner. this caused eden to get into more than a few fights, resulting in solitary confinement. 

abner was never one to complain, but he hated the fact that they made her wear a scold bridle. “it’s dehumanising!” eden smiled as she sweeped the floor, “well, they have to take precautions.” she mocked amanda waller’s voice, remembering the exact words she used when eden herself complained about the bridle. the girl didn’t care about it that much, but she did care about how it kept her from being able to kiss him.

they tried their best to keep their relationship on the low. word was getting around that waller had been trying to recruit villains for a task force of some sort. eden knew amanda waller would try to use their relationship to her advantage, and the day she was proven right came quicker than expected.

the crinkling of potato chip bags and the click-clacking of keyboards were the only sounds that filled the room. a woman with long curly hair stood up from her chair and headed over to their chief’s office.

she knocked on the door before turning the handle, “ms. waller?” she asked, “yes, crawley?” waller answered, not looking up from her computer. “i’ve got the files for the prisoners you wanted to recruit.” crawley said as she placed the information on her desk. “all of this includes 037 as well?” waller asked, opening up the first file which consequently was eden’s. “yes, but they called her eresidae in the lab after they’d studied her powers so that’s her name for her file.” crawley explained and was immediately dismissed. “thank you, crawley. you may leave.” waller stared at eden’s headshot before looking back at the computer screen.

there on the screen was eden having a conversation with abner, sitting closely to him. waller knew exactly how to get her on the task force now.

[romeoandjulietyouwish]

(Waves) 10 for Vaxleth? P.S. you are fantastic. I hope you know that. 💜

A hello/good-bye kiss that is given without thinking - where neither person thinks twice about it. (happy ending au)

When Keyleth finally emerges from their bedroom, dressed and ready for the day, she finds Vax in the kitchen with the kids, in the midst of making them breakfast.

"Mama!" Piper cheers, running over and hugging her mom tight, burying her face into Keyleth's stomach.

Keyleth chuckles, "Good morning, Pip. All ready for school?"

"Just about to get some food into them," Vax tells her as he sets two plates of blueberry pancakes in front of Lark and Piper's chairs. Birdie is halfway through her own stack, holding a book open with one hand.

Keyleth greets all of her children with a smile and a kiss to the head, before making her way to her husband. Of course she saw him this morning, he did her hair after her shower, but she can't resist leaning over and kissing him again.

Vax smiles, kissing her cheek, "Want some pancakes?"

She shakes her head, "Nel promised to bring me something this morning."

As their children eat, the two of them converse softly about their plans for the day and what they should make for dinner later this evening. Vax presses a mug of Keyleth's favorite tea into her hand along with a kiss to her temple, "You have to go soon."

Keyleth sighs, "I do." One by one, she goes around to the kids, kissing their heads again before she grabs her bag. And as Vax is starting to wash dishes, she puts a hand on his waist before kissing him softly. Vax doesn't even look up as he smiles into the kiss.

"Have a good day, Kiki."

kisses prompt list

[sociallyawkwardfoxwriter]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Relationships: Orym/Dorian Storm, Orym/Dorian Storm/Will | Orym’s Spouse Characters: Orym (Critical Role), Dorian Storm, Cyrus Wyvernwind, Dariax Zaveon, Will | Orym’s Spouse (Critical Role), Laudna (Critical Role), Fearne Calloway, Ashton Greymoore, Nel (Critical Role) Additional Tags: Hugs, Comfort, Banter, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, Panic, Sibling Love, Conversations, Exhaustion, Parenthood, Longing, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Worry, Flowers, Florist Orym, Blood, Stitches, Injury, Hair Braiding, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Alternate Universe - Class Swap, Getting Together

Relationships: Dorym

Characters: Orym, Dorian

Tags: Worry, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Chapter Preview

“Hello, sweetheart.” A bright smile greeted him as he leaned down to lift Aria out of her crib and onto his hip. “How are we doing this morning? You slept so well! You're going to be full of energy today. Daddy and I might just have to take you out because that always tires you right out, which is understandable. There's a lot of stuff out there to see and it's all very interesting.”

After changing Aria from her adorable quokka onesie into a long sleeve silver dress with navy leggings and a pair of socks to keep her little toes warm, he carried her to the living room. Seeing Dorian still in the process of preparing her breakfast, he set Aria on the ground right in the middle of the toys they'd been too exhausted to put away last night. She gave a happy squeal as she picked up a stuffed monkey that she slammed her face into with absolute glee.

“Her breakfast will be done in a few minutes.” At the sound of Dorian's voice, their daughter dropped the monkey and made grabby hands in his direction. “I'll be right over, little lady. I promise.”

[theonespoopyghost]

Chapter 8: Hospital Visit

Kikuko and Midori are joined by Pallavi for some investigating.

Contains the following updates:

2H - Introverts And Extroverts/Visiting Hours Interlude - Fourth Incantation 2I - Pursuit Of Juiceboxes 2J - Debriefing 2K - When A Plan Comes Together

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

2H - Introverts And Extroverts/Visiting Hours

"I think it'll just be easier if she doesn't know, for now." You decide.

"I guess that makes sense; it would take a while to explain. So that brings me to the other issue - if you have questions, how are you going to tell me?"

You pause, mulling that over. "Have you ever played the back-writing game?" You'd mused about using it to communicate after the funeral, but here you may just have to start putting it into practice.

Midori nods an affirmative. "I guess that'll work."

Before you can say anything else, another door appears against the left wall, and you detransform instantly, standing up and moving out of the way as you do so. Nel steps through, and an unfamiliar girl follows them in, gazing about in understated awe.

There are two things you immediately notice about her. First, she is indeed wearing a different school uniform from the one you and Midori use; hers belongs to the more prestigious academy in town, situated right in the middle of the really rich neighborhood. She must either be incredibly smart or incredibly well-connected to get in there; it's kind of intimidating, honestly.

The second thing you realize is that she is both objectively gorgeous, and clearly foreign. She has a tall and willowy frame with curves in all the right places, and wide, round eyes with long lashes. Her long, flowing hair is brown, but dyed orange at the tips, and her fingernails are painted in a similar shade, as she extends a slender hand to shake. "Hello," she greets Midori, speaking fluent Japanese, but her voice tinted with a light yet noticeable accent. And her skin is a dark olive bronze. "My name is Varma Pallavi. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Midori stares at the Indian girl in surprise for several long moments, before shaking her head and reluctantly taking the handshake. "Varma-san. It's nice to meet you too." She mumbles, and you notice with amusement that she's struggling to suppress a blush.

"Please, call me Pallavi!" The newcomer says, taking Midori's hand in both of hers and giving an enthusiastic pump. "And what is your name?"

As Midori shies away from Pallavi's beaming grin, you find yourself thinking Wow. This one is far too friendly. "Just call me Kazane-san…" Pallavi finally lets her go, and the verdette sighs in relief.

Pallavi finally notices her discomfort and steps back, putting a hand behind her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so forceful. I'm told I can come on too strong, but I just really like meeting new people! My apologies."

"It's fine," Midori says, but keeps her distance regardless.

"So you said there was another girl?" Pallavi asks, glancing about as if expecting you to appear out of thin air. Which you could do… but decide against it. "Where is she?"

Nel glances over at you curiously, and you make a shhh gesture, finger up in front of your mouth. Nel nods in understanding. "I forgot to mention, it seems that Yukimura-san had other commitments, and will not be able to join you after all."

"Aww," Pallavi sighs. "I suppose I can meet her some other time." You shiver a bit, feeling more threatened than reassured by her innocent statement. Turning back to Midori, a more measured smile graces her expression. "Well, that just makes more time for us to get to know each other!" Midori gives a nervous grin in response.

"Anyway, shall we get on to business?" Nel suggests, giving her respite. "Last night, Kazane-san and Yukimura-san defeated a human who had been turned into a monster, and were able to successfully revert him to his original form. Now, the goal is to meet with him and try to find out how much, if anything, he remembers about the incident, and attempt to glean any clues from that we may be able to in order to discover the base cause of his transformation."

Pallavi taps her chin thoughtfully. "How will we get in to see him?"

"We could just pretend to be family members," Midori suggests. "Though, he himself would know we aren't relatives. That might make it difficult."

You step over to Nel and whisper a suggestion to them; they relay it to the other two. "Yukimura-san called the hospital after the battle, remember? If you say you were the ones who made the call, and wanted to check on him, that should make a solid alibi without requiring any falsification of your identities."

"I like the sound of that better," Pallavi says. "I don't like the idea of lying too much."

Midori side-eyes her with an odd expression. "You know you'll have to keep this," she points to the orange crystal ring on her finger, "a secret, right?"

Pallavi nods soberly. "I know that. I don't like it, but I'll do it. I'd just rather not hide things any more than necessary."

Midori glances over at where she last saw you with a guilty expression, but you don't feel the same way. There's no need to share absolutely everything with the rest of the world, is there?

Okay, maybe you feel a little guilty too, but you still think this is the better option.

"Just so long as you understand the necessity," Nel assures, "I won't ask you to hide anything more than that."

Pallavi nods, and Midori speaks up. "Well, with that settled, should we go?"

"Right." Nel creates another doorway. "Earlier, I was able to find out the man you're looking for is Gushiken Daisuke. Though as witnesses, you technically don't know that."

"Alright, I've got this covered," Midori says confidently.

"And make it quick; visiting hours won't last long!" Nel opens the door and ushers them through, holding it open long enough for you to slip out after them. "And good luck!"

With that, the doorway vanishes, and the three of you are left in a small alleyway, downtown once again. The sky is a light blue with wispy clouds starting to scud in, and the sun is a little lower now than before. You step out onto the sidewalk, looking up and down the busy streets, and it doesn't take long to orient yourselves. "Here, the hospital is just a block this way; follow me." Pallavi takes the lead instead, Midori following behind at a swift pace. You, being slightly shorter than either of them, struggle to keep up.

"This is exciting!" Pallavi says with an eager grin. "We aren't just fighting, but also investigating, like detectives! I wonder what we'll find out."

"Why did you wait so long to join?" Midori says abruptly, and Pallavi comes to a stop.

"I'm sorry?" She asks, then adds "Oh. I'm sorry." Midori halts as well, looking at her with a tilted head. "I wanted to help from the start, but… when that stranger talked about everything that was happening, and the problems they've been having with getting others to join, I… the only things I could think were that it sounded really lonely, and that I was afraid for my parents if something happened to me. If I… disappeared out of nowhere, what would that do to them?"

"I guess I can understand that." Midori nods, glancing back in your direction. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be questioning your motives. It's not like I had such selfless reasons for hesitating, myself."

She stiffens up as Pallavi pulls her into a brief but tight hug before parting again. "It's alright. What matters is now we're in this together, and can watch each other's backs. And Yukimura-san, too!"

"Yeah." Midori smiles. "I like the sound of that. Shall we continue?"

The rest of the walk progresses easily, and soon enough you're entering the main lobby (the automatic doors, thankfully, provide plenty of time for you to sneak through on Midori's tail) and approaching the front desk.

Midori moves forward here, stepping up to the counter and leaning forward a little too far. The nurse glances up from a set of files, blinking in surprise at her closeness. "Can I… help you?"

"Uhh, yeah," Midori says, affecting a higher, more nasal tone than usual. "Can I, like, ask for some directions? I wanted to see someone." Behind her, Pallavi looks on in confusion at the sudden personality shift, while you find yourself unable to restrain giggles, thankful that you're currently inaudible.

The nurse raises an eyebrow. "Someone, huh? Can you tell me their name and information?"

"Well, like, I don't actually know him," Midori says, twirling her hair around a finger as she leans back. "Last night, my friend and I were walking around when we saw this guy, like, getting kicked around by a bunch of jerks. After they left, we called you guys to help him, but after that, we…" she lowers her voice slightly, looking ashamed, and leans in again as if telling a secret, "got scared and ran. We felt kinda bad about doing that, so we just… wanted to make sure he was okay, you know?"

"I see," the nurse says flatly, turning to her computer screen. "I can look into the admittance records from last night. Did you catch his name at all? That would help me find him easier."

"Uhm," Midori says, glancing up at the ceiling, looking like she's trying very hard to think. "I think one of the guys beating him up called him, like… Daichi, Daisu…"

"Daisuke?" The nurse prompts, and Midori nods fervently. "That's Gushiken Daisuke, admitted at 11:57 PM; he's suffered from stab wounds and a broken nose, but recovering well."

She stares up at Midori, who stares back expectantly. "You wanted to know if he was alright, and it appears he is. There's no need to disturb him now. Besides, visiting hours will be over soon. Shouldn't you be going home?"

"But we, we wanted to apologize to him!" Midori pleads, brushing her bangs aside to reveal her other eye, giving the nurse a big pouty stare; you notice she's hidden everything with makeup again. "Like, it was really bad of us to just leave him like that! Please let us make it up to him!"

The nurse sighs. "Alright, alright." After a couple clicks, she adds, "He's on the fifth floor, room 511B." She points over at a set of elevators along the back wall. "Essentially, go up, turn right two times, and you'll find it on your left. Now please just leave me alone." She turns back to the folder on her desk with a frustrated expression as Midori bounces back to Pallavi with a satisfied smirk, and they depart for the elevators. It's a moment or two before you remember you're supposed to follow, still stunned by the performance.

Once the doors have closed behind you, Midori drops the flighty attitude, shoulders slumping again as her face reverts to neutral. Pallavi, meanwhile, puts her face in her hands and laughs uncontrollably. "W-what was that about?" She finally manages to gasp out between chuckles.

"Given how fancy you look, I figured it would make more sense for me to blend with you than the inverse." Pallavi nods in acceptance of that logic, but you can't help but wonder if the compliment wasn't a little backhanded.

"Well, let's go," Pallavi says, finally pressing the button for the fifth floor. The ticker moves along, the ride up otherwise silent. Midori looks a bit bored if anything, while Pallavi is fidgeting nervously. Soon enough, though, you're deposited out onto the fifth floor, and follow the hallway around until you find rooms 511A and 511B. Midori opens the latter, gesturing Pallavi through and letting you brush past before closing it again.

"I told you, I'm fine! Please, I don't need another juicebo- eh?" The patient inside lifts his head, staring in surprise upon realizing you're not who he expected. He is indeed the same bald man from last night, his buff figure barely concealed under the loose-fitting hospital clothes, a huge bandage covering his nose. However, in the light cast through the window, you realize he's actually more elderly than you assumed last night, with wrinkles under his eyes and a scruffy grey chin beard. "Ah, hello there, little ladies. I think you may have come to the wrong room…?" He suggests, offering a polite but confused half-smile.

"Are you Gushiken-san?" Pallavi asks, bowing respectfully. "We were indeed looking for you." Midori follows suit, and you do the same out of guilt, even knowing he can't see it.

"If you're sure, I suppose I can entertain you for a bit. Sit down, sit down. What are your names?"

As they introduce themselves and take seats in the two empty chairs sitting opposite his bed, you take up position behind Midori, squeezing between her chair back and the wall. Normally you wouldn't bother, but there's a mirror positioned next to the windows, that you're still paranoid may reveal you if Pallavi were to simply look left.

"So what brings you in here to speak to me?" Daisuke continues. "Not that I mind the company, of course."

Midori and Pallavi exchange glances; it's the verdette who speaks up. "We were the ones who called the ambulance for you. We were walking… back to the station? when we saw you getting beaten up. We hid until they left, and when we realized you were still breathing, I called the hospital. We… after that, we thought we might be in trouble for being out so late, so we ran off and left you there." Standing up again, Midori falls into another bow. "I'm deeply sorry for my cowardice! Please forgive us for abandoning you!" She sounds legitimately passionate, too, and you're again surprised by her ability to act.

Daisuke nods slowly, smiling in understanding. "Please, there's no need to apologise. It seems you two saved me if anything… and I certainly know my fair share about staying past curfew." He adds with a wink. Pallavi blinks obliviously, while Midori blushes at the implication. However, Daisuke's expression falls into a troubled frown. "I never thought I would make such enemies. And I have no clue what I could have done to have earned them."

"What do you mean?" Pallavi asks. "Perhaps it was simply muggers?"

"No, no," the old man says, shaking his head. "I don't remember much about last night, but it seemed they had planned this. If it was just muggers, I could have fended them off myself," he flexes a bulging bicep to illustrate, "But when I left my friend's gym, someone talked to me, and then I believe I must have been knocked out, because I don't recall anything past that."

Midori nods, and you similarly recognize his account as matching what you saw after restoring him. You tap Midori's shoulder, and she leans forward a bit to let you access her back. She waits for you to finish tracing your message in before she speaks up again. "Was there anything else that makes you think that someone was specifically gunning for you?"

Daisuke tilts his head thoughtfully. "As I said, I was at a gym my friend owns; he allowed me to stay behind longer if I locked everything up once I was done." Midori nods, and he continues. "While I was there alone, I saw someone watching me through the front windows. I thought they were wondering whether or not the place was closed after hours, so I went to go talk to them, but the moment I looked away, they vanished. I just put it out of mind, but after everything else that happened, I think that they may have been making sure I truly was alone." He shivers slightly, and it's strange to see such a mountain-like man so afraid.

Pallavi looks sympathetic, but Midori remains focused. "Did you see what they looked like? Were they a man or a woman?"

"It might not be a bad idea to tell the police, or something," Pallavi supplies as an explanation.

"Well, they did seem rather-" Daisuke begins, but is cut off as the door abruptly opens again.

"Alright, I'm back with another juicebox!" A nurse cheerfully announces, bustling in with about five of them in her arms. Or at least you think it's a her; they're a tad androgynous. Daisuke restrains himself from giving the offending drinks a scathing glare as the nurse dumps them on his lap, before fussing over the bandage on his arm. "Don't worry, dear, it's all fine now; you've done a great job!" Glancing over, she notices she isn't the only one present, and puts her hands on her hips. "Visiting hours are up, you three! You should get out of here now." After a moment more of pestering the patient, she holds the door open, waving your companions through. "Come on now, I can't let you stay any longer. There will be plenty of time to talk later!"

Midori and Pallavi reluctantly stand, giving Daisuke parting bows before filing out. You're about to do the same, when a sudden realization hits you. You three.

What do you do?

Chase (Follow the nurse, because something's not right here.) Stay (Stay here, and once the nurse has left, transform to continue asking Daisuke questions.) Leave (Stick with Pallavi and Midori, and plan your next move.)

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

Interlude - Fourth Incantation

Surging forth along forceful tides My power crashes and collides A relentless steely will that rends Pushing on to the bitter end

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

2I - Pursuit Of Juiceboxes

Eyes widening, you fix the nurse with a suspicious glare as you step closer. She just looks back innocently. "Well, I'll be closing the door, now!" she announces, Daisuke nodding gratefully. Taking the hint, you step through before she shuts it, leaving you in the hall with she and your already-departing companions. Something is clearly up here, and you're still not in a position to transform and warn them of your suspicions. Besides, it may not be a bad idea to follow her. She could have simply misspoke… you honestly doubt it, but you still want to make sure.

And so it is that you turn and follow her down the hall, in the opposite direction Midori and Pallavi are headed. At first nothing seems odd, but after passing a few doors, she glances back over her shoulder, and picks up her pace. You glance back as well, but it's just the usual assortment of doctors and a few other visitors also making their way back to the front elevators. You speed up in turn, and she shifts to all-but-jogging through the hall, dodging around a thicket of people to slow you down. You're relentless, though, and do your best to regain lost ground as she turns the corner, suspicion turning into outright anger.

There's another bank of lifts up ahead, with one already open and waiting; she quickly dashes in and hurriedly smashes a button to close the doors on you. You don't even bother stopping, running straight for the doors in hopes of wedging through, focused solely on catching her without any higher thought. The opening is already shut as you close in, but you don't even care, slamming full-tilt into them -

And so you're caught off guard when you rush right through and into the open elevator shaft. Sickening vertigo pushes away your singlemindedness as you fall down, clipping painfully against a beam on the opposite wall, and in the moment of pain, fall through the ceiling of the elevator itself and land face-first on the floor, making the lift judder a tad - though that may just be dizziness from the blow.

By the time the pain clears enough for you to regain your feet, the nurse has already left and the doors are closing again. This time you're able to stop them, roughly slapping the trigger to make them reverse direction as you stagger through. You're in a sub-basement, the friendlier atmosphere of the floors above replaced by cold concrete and harsh fluorescents, but you barely process much more than that as you scan for any sign of your target. She's disappearing around a corner a little ways down to your left, and you rush to pursue again.

Turning into the narrower side hall, you see it runs diagonally downward quite a ways before leveling out and widening again, ending at a bigger loading dock door. There's another door up against the side wall, though, a fancy gold-embossed thing that seems out of place against the sparse surroundings. The nurse is stepping through as you run down towards her, smirking and sipping from another juicebox as she watches you. At the last second she's engulfed in (or rather, replaced by) tangerine-tinted black smoke and shadows, and then the door slams shut behind her, the lock turning with an audible click.

You slam into the door a mere millisecond too late, the frame flattening out and the edges beginning to fold in on themselves like origami, until nothing is left and you're facing a blank concrete wall. "NO!" You shout, punching the space it had just been, but all you get is more pain for your trouble.

Taking a moment to calm down, you think things over. You know this wasn't Nelchael, but it's obviously someone of their same race. Maybe they could provide some insight into this… but you might not get any useful answers, if this is some sort of setup. It might be more prudent to tell Midori and Pallavi, but then you might have to explain to the latter why you were here and chasing the 'nurse' in the first place. Maybe you could just keep it to yourself and investigate further on your own before sharing anything, just in case there's something you're missing here. Though with your present state, it would be difficult to ask the hospital staff about the suspicious nurse, so any such investigation would require more indirect tactics.

You make your way back upstairs, (thankfully this sublevel is almost deserted, so nobody is around to see you pushing elevator buttons) pondering your next course of action. Unfortunately, you don't see any point in sticking around here, so make your way back around to the lobby and outside, glancing up and down the city street. Midori and Pallavi are long gone by now, of course, likely back at Nel's office. With that in mind, you return to the alleyway from earlier and tap your ring, leaning against a wall as you wait and wondering vaguely why you aren't falling through.

Soon enough, another door rises up from the ground, and Nel steps through. "Varma-san is still in there," they whisper to you, "So I'll have to act like this is a false alarm, alright?" You nod and step through as they loudly announce something inane about raccoons, and slink into the far corner. You watch the discussion intently, but troubled thoughts continue to swirl in the back of your mind.

"Anyway," Midori says as Nel closes the door again, "After that a nurse came by to tell us visiting hours were up, so we didn't get to hear any more details."

Nel nods. "I see. Still, we now know this was premeditated. It means we have a culprit to look for; this isn't just a random occurrence."

Midori lets out a sigh, counting on her fingers as she offers a rebuttal. "On the other hand, we still have no clue who this person is, what their motives are, how they're transforming these people in the first place, or why these specific victims were chosen."

"Well, I think there may be a pattern to the last one, though a sampling of only three means it's by no means certain." Nel says. "First of all, all three victims are extremely physically healthy, unusually so. This man is on the older side, but keeps fit, and while the other two were less dramatic cases, they too boasted a lack of significant illnesses or conditions. Secondly, all three seemed to be alone at the time of transformation. It made it easier for them to be dealt with undetected, but also for our culprit to get at them in the first place."

"Maybe they don't want witnesses any more than we do?" Pallavi suggests.

"Possibly, yes." Nel agrees. "While the first monster did get seen by some before it could be contained, since it was so unexpected, that was only after a great deal of wandering from its initial position. The subsequent ones both went largely unnoticed despite being in densely populated areas, because they were transformed late at night when very few humans would be out and about. If this continues, we can likely expect it to occur in that same time frame."

Pallavi's intrigued expression turns into a concerned grimace. "I'm a heavy sleeper; this could be a bit difficult to get used to."

"Don't worry," Midori says, smirking in amusement, "You can just catch up on sleep during classes!" Pallavi's horrified expression in response finally breaks through your troubled mood, and you snicker a bit as Midori facepalms. "I was joking, joking."

"Anyway," Nel speaks up again, "If that's all, I'll let you both go for now. Hopefully we can find further clues soon, and put a stop to this before anyone gets truly hurt."

They nod in agreement, and a few summoned doors later, make their exits. You're left to approach Nel's desk, still feeling pensive. "Why did you return later?" They simply ask, curious and excited rather than judging as you expected. "Did you find something else?"

How much to say?

Talk about the nurse (Nel may be able to identify them, one way or another…) Make something up (You just fell behind by accident, nothing special, sorry…)

Where to go?

Home (You want to take some time to relax before something else comes up…) Follow Midori (To perhaps discuss with her how things went...) Follow Pallavi (Maybe you can learn a little bit more about her…) Head to the library (To see if there are any records of sudden death or murder at the school...)

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

2J - Debriefing

No point in hiding this, you figure. "Well, I think so. As Kazane-san said, a nurse came to tell us to leave, but she was acting… strange, so I decided to follow her instead. In the basement, I saw her leave through a door."

"A door?" Nel stares at you blankly. "What's so strange about that?"

"I mean, a door. Like the ones you make. It disappeared behind her, and while she was walking through, she turned into a shadow, like you."

"Wait, are you saying…?"

"Yeah."

"But that wasn't me! I was talking to Shimizu-san." You facepalm at Nel's protests, "Finally convinced her to join, too. She's been stubborn." They sound a little proud of themselves at this, and your palm meets your face a second time.

"That's not what I meant. Let's try to focus, okay? The point is, I think the nurse may be our culprit, and is another shadow person like you."

"It may just be our contact in the hospital; that's how I knew Gushiken-san's name in the first place." Nel points out.

You hesitate a moment, but the memory of the nurse's smirk flashes in your memory, and you shake your head. "I don't think so, not with the way they were acting."

"If you say so," Nel shrugs. "It's at least worth looking into; I'll try to see if I can arrange a meeting with our contact, and you can tell me if they're the same person you saw."

"But…" You grimace, fist clenching, before sighing in defeat. "Fine, I guess. Thank you."

"I just don't want to jump to conclusions," Nel says. "Either way, thank you for taking the initiative there. Please don't take it the wrong way when I say I hope you're wrong, but if not, this could let us solve this incident much sooner." You simply nod. "Well, will that be all, or is there anything else?"

"I think that's it for now," You sigh, still a bit disappointed at their response, before another thought occurs to you. "Is it alright if you send me to Kazane-san? I wanted to talk to her a bit more."

"Uh, certainly," Nel says, and after a moment pulls up another door. "Sorry if this isn't what you wanted. Again, thank you for telling me." You simply nod in acknowledgement, and make your exit.

You find yourself in Midori's room again, though it takes a moment to realize it's the same place as last night; better-lit now, and with you coming in from the opposite direction, you're left a bit disoriented. Midori is leaning back at her desk, talking on the phone. "Yeah; like I said, sorry for being absent; something came up, but I think it's been resolved now. I'll be back like normal tomorrow."

You decide to take a seat on the edge of her bed, waiting for her to finish before announcing yourself. You make a point of trying not to listen in, but wind up catching her side of the conversation anyway. "No, I can't really tell you what it was. Just some family stuff; not a big deal, but still something better kept private." Another pause, and then she snorts with laughter. "No, it wasn't them. Trust me, that's never happening, and even if it somehow did, I wouldn't lie to you about it." The other person responds more quietly, and Midori rolls her eyes in response. "Well, don't you think you're being a bit too paranoid about this? Just trust me. I'll be there. Bye!" She hangs up too fast for a response, lightly tossing the phone down and shaking her head in bemusement. "Why are you like this?"

You're not sure whether to reveal yourself now or not, but she turns around before you can decide. "I saw that door appear; I know you're somewhere in here."

You transform, shrugging sheepishly. "Seemed like you were busy with something."

"Ehh, not really." She sighs, side-eyeing her phone. "Leader of my club was calling, wanted to know why I skipped out on today. Seems to be under the impression the Theatre club will snatch me up the moment he's not looking."

"Oh, the Botany club?" you guess, but she shakes her head.

"Nope, Wilderness Survival. We do some hiking and camping up in the hills sometimes. I do like to lunch on the roof, but gardening isn't for me either; I just have this way of making everything wilt if I even walk near it." She chuckles again, and you give an uncertain smile in response.

"Well, anyway," you change the subject, "I wanted to talk about the thing today. Also, Varma-san. What did you think of her?"

"Uh, sure." She tilts her head, then frowns abruptly. "Varma-san… she seems perfect." Somehow, the way she says it makes the descriptor seem more like an insult than anything, annoyance dripping from her words.

"How do you mean?" The venom doesn't quite seem warranted to you, but you're curious nonetheless.

Midori shrugs. "Just, we were talking on the way there and on the way back, and she's too perfect. Wealth, brains, beauty all going for her, and her attitude? She's a precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. It's annoying. She's either legitimately that nice a person, in which case she's way too naive, or she's hiding something. I don't like it." She crosses her arms, looking annoyed to just be thinking about this again.

"I guess…" You're still not sure you agree with her indictment, but you have to admit it is an interesting perspective on the newcomer, something to keep in mind next time you meet with her. "Anyway, as for the meeting itself, did anything stick out to you?"

"Aside from what we already talked about back there, not really. The nurse was a bit weird; who on earth needs that many juiceboxes? Seriously. But the guy's story matches up with what we saw, so I've got nothing else." She shrugs. "Why, did you see anything?"

What do you say?

Tell her too (Maybe she can help you in a way Nel can't right now) Don't tell her (Telling Nel is enough; no need to spread it around until you know more)

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

2K - When A Plan Comes Together

You already told Nel, didn't you? But that didn't quite turn out like you'd hoped… And besides, so far you've been fairly honest with Midori, (outside of Death-related matters) haven't you? You bite your lip a bit, but ultimately give in. "Yeah. That nurse said for the 'three' of us to leave, remember?"

Midori frowned. "You're right, she did. I guess I just assumed she'd misspoken, but now that you mention it, that was really weird."

"Between that and being kind of strange in general, I went and followed them." You explain. "They saw me, and ran."

She blinks in confusion, before realization dawns, catching on to what's wrong with your statement. "She could see you?"

"Evidently. I chased them down into the basement; they became a shadow person and left through a Door." Midori thankfully catches on to your meaning much easier than Nel did, eyes going wide. "I already told Nelchael-san, but they weren't much help."

"Maybe they're working together," Midori suggests, glancing suspiciously down at her ring, but you shake your head.

"I don't think so. Nelchael-san doesn't seem like that kind of person."

"If you're sure," Midori acquiesces. Leaning back in her seat, she strokes her chin thoughtfully. "But this is still pretty serious. Did you hear the discussion after we got back?"

You nod in confirmation. "Most of it, yes. Why?"

"Well, if the nurse is behind this, she- err, they might be using the hospital to find their victims. Nelchael-san said all three were in really good health, right? If they're looking for people like that specifically, where else would they find the records to figure out who to go after?"

It's your turn to experience dawning realization. "Ooohhh…"

Midori nods, a cocky grin appearing. "So they have to have been around a lot recently. Even if they tried to Door in after-hours to look at the files, it would have been caught by security. More likely, they're posing as a nurse there regularly, so someone would have to have seen her. If I can find a way to get in and ask around, we might be able to learn more about them that way."

"The problem being the getting in part, if you aren't there to visit someone." You point out.

"Yeah, that could be difficult. Still, though, I think I can figure something out, in a couple of days." Both of you trade excited grins, and you can't help but feel a little bit more optimistic. It's not a sure thing any more than Nel's plan, but it feels a little more promising, somehow.

"It may not be a bad idea to tell Varma-san, too," you suggest, and she nods thoughtfully. "At least about the plan, anyway."

You both stare at each other for several moments more, before you realize the conversation's concluded; you've run out of things to talk about. Glancing down at your lap for a moment, you play with the fold in your dress again. Midori's eager gaze softens to a quieter smile, and she takes on a shyer posture. "Well, I guess that's it for now. What are you planning to do next? I suppose I should let you go…"

You open your mouth to respond, before realizing you hadn't thought that far ahead.

Where Are You Going?

To the library (As reluctant as you are to revisit the site of your death, you want to look into some obituaries and news articles from the past...) To just wander a bit (You want to find somewhere secluded to practice again, and maybe even transform a bit to figure out your powers better, too...) Maybe you'll just stay a little while (If Midori is okay with it, you just want to stay here and take a proper break for a while, before the next crisis inevitably appears...)

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~

Previous Chapter - Main Index - Episode Index - Next Chapter

[ketso]

Sneak Peek Friday!

Today, I am sharing two chapters out of my upcoming novel with you!

We have said that with the competitions that we have run throughout the posting of this season’s story, some lucky winner will get to win a hardcopy of my new novel that is to be released in October 2023, titled Yeni: A family & its business.

You can still stand a chance to win!

All you need to do to stand a chance to win is:

1. Invite 5 friends or more to this read

2. Share your views of the story (posts, not today’s sneak peek into the novel)

3. Tell us about your favourite characters

The prizes are as follows:

Three people will win customized notebooks;

Two people will win copies of the new novel (snippet being shared in today’s post);

One person will win a collection of all Ketso Madonsela novels (My Worth Crowned You; Nosi & The Church; Mrs Him Book 1; Mrs Him Book 2; Last Wife Standing) PLUS the new novel that is set to launch this October 2023 (snippet being shared in today’s post)

I am looking forward to announcing winners soon and sharing these prizes with you! So please, keep tagging people and inviting them to our reads… keep commenting and telling us what you think… keep telling us about your favourite characters!

For today, happy reading Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the new and upcoming novel!

…

Chapter 1

"Hello handsome", Ayanda greets her fine godauve of a man, Nathaniel Nel.

It has been a long day for both of them. Nate was in theatre all day performing surgeries, and Ayanda was living the life of an executive PA: making her chief's life a lot easier at the expense of her own sanity.

"Hello gorgeous. You look exhausted. How about I give you a foot massage while you tell me all about your day?" Nate suggests. But it is nothing out of the ordinary. Nate is a thoughtful person, and his love language is literally performing acts of service.

"You are far too sweet, Dr Nel. I had actually planned to come here and cook you a mean meal so that you can tell me all about your surgeries. I couldn’t get hold of you all day. I missed you." Ayanda says as she cuddles into his warm big arms filled with incredible love and passion.

Nate smiles. He loves this woman. They have been together for seven years now and he still looks at her as if he just met her.

Ayanda starts preparing dinner and Nate goes upstairs to dress down into something more comfortable. Ayanda started at her place, so she has already changed out of her heels and tight dress outfit. She is now dressed in short shorts, sneakers and a baggy basketball t-shirt. She pours herself a glass of wine to keep her company while Nate is changing upstairs.

Nate eventually comes down the stairs wearing shorts and no t-shirt. He is a handsome and fine-looking white man. He feasts on gym sessions and his chizzeled body keeps Ayanda’s eyes glued to him as he makes his way back to her. Nate is about twelve years older than Ayanda, but somehow, they make a beautiful couple. He is so tall. Ayanda is up to his chest in height. He loves it though.

"How are the twins?" Nate asks Ayanda as he has her wrapped in his arms.

"They are okay. They are visiting my mom, that's why I'm here without them today." Ayanda explains.

Ayanda has a set of twins who are now eight years old. They are fraternal twins: a boy (named Melusi) and a girl (named Ntandokazi). The father of these twins is not only a worldwide known businessman who is known for his true brilliance and unexplainable charm, but he is also the true love of Ayanda's life.

Ayanda ran away from Gauteng to live in Umhlanga for reasons still unknown to Sakhile Yeni. Ayanda found out about her pregnancy three months into living in Umhlanga. Today, Ayanda can follow his life because someone is always writing about him in the media. He still believes that she just left and never looked back.

Ayanda met Nate when the twins were a couple of months old. He has been helping her raise them ever since.

"I miss them. I bought them a few gifts", Nate says.

"Thank you, baby... not just for the gifts, but for everything. Not a lot of men would raise kids that aren’t theirs", Ayanda.

"Not a lot of men get to call you their better half", Nate.

Ayanda and Nate passionately indulge in an incredible kiss.

"I really want you upstairs and in bed. We will dine out tonight", Nate whispers.

Ayanda jumps on top of him. Nate catches Ayanda with one arm and stretches the other arm to switch off the stove.

He carries Ayanda upstairs and when they get to the bedroom, Nate puts Ayanda down. The pair are now breathing heavily.

"My angel, I want to make love to my fiancé tonight", Nate randomly says between the heavy breathing happening between him and Ayanda.

Huh?

Nate turns Ayanda around and she faces the ring lying on the bed.

She turns around to look at Nate and he is on one bended knee.

"Ayanda Kunene, will you please give me the honour of calling myself your husband? I want to marry you, baby, and I want to adopt the twins. The three of you are my family. I love you. Please marry me. Then tonight, I can make love to you as your fiancé", Nate.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Ayanda screams.

With that, they have their first evening in bed as fiancés.

...

Lira is performing at the private dinner reserved for the Yeni family and their partners. Tonight, the Yeni brothers celebrate the engagement of Sakhile Yeni to his beautiful fiancé, Lefika Letuka.

Lefika is a beautiful woman who was born and raised in Dube, Soweto. She is a solutions architect by profession, she is madly in love with Sakhile by favour of the simple things in life.

Lefika and Sakhile are dancing to the melodies of Lira, celebrating what is about to become a powerful couple.

Sakhile's brothers (Thomas and Ntokozo) are also dancing with their wives (Thimna and Zuziwe).

Sakhile is the middle brother. You can imagine the running jokes that came with Ntokozo (the youngest) making it to the altar before he did. However, he was always stuck on the one that got away; the one he had already traditionally married, but could not make it to the altar with where their union would be sealed by a priest and witnesses dressed in their Sunday best.

He still keeps her pictures. His brothers have told him – pleaded with him that it is time he let her go. It has been nine years. If she were ever coming back, she would be back by now. Nevertheless, he always had hope... he had hope that she would come back to Gauteng and they would still have a chance. I guess his engagement to his three-year long girlfriend is his first step to moving on.

"I have something to tell you", Lefika whispers in Sakhile's ear.

"Yeah?" Sakhile.

"I'm pregnant", Lefika says with excitement.

Sakhile spins her around in the air and shouts at the top of his lungs, "She has made me a father! I have definitely made the right decision with this one."

Being a father means everything to Sakhile.

"I'm finally going to have my first child", Sakhile announces.

The following morning, the engagement of Sakhile Yeni and Lefika Letuka is all over the media - social media included. Ayanda bumps into it as she is scrolling through her phone. She is at the office already, preparing the day for the chief that she is an executive PA to. She cries a bit. It is not easy seeing him this happy with someone else.

She starts something that she knows she will never be able to take back. However, it must be done, she thinks to herself.

"Congratulations on your engagement", she dms him on twitter.

After 3 seconds...

"Ayanda Kunene? Is this a prank?" Sakhile replies to the dm.

"No Sax. It's me. I just wanted to say congratulations. Have a good day", Ayanda.

Sakhile knows that Ayanda is the only person who calls him Sax.

"Yanda, please give me a number to contact you on", Sakhile requests.

"082 123 1234", Ayanda replies.

---

A throwback: Yanda & Sax

“Hi, I am Sakhile Yeni. I am the CEO of the company. I thought I’d come down and meet our new Operations Manager”, Sakhile says as he stands in front of Ayanda in her new office.

“I remember you. You were in my last round of interviews. I had no idea that you were the CEO though. Thank you for coming down to meet me. I really appreciate this, Mr Yeni.” Ayanda replies.

“Please, call me Sakhile. You have a very impressive CV. I am confident that you will take this company to the next level. As a founder of any company, you need to know when you have reached your ceiling and can no longer take the company or brand any further. That’s when we start hiring brilliant people such as yourself to take us to the next level”, Sakhile says.

“That is very profound. I am looking forward to serving under you, Sakhile. Leaders such as yourself are very rare.” Ayanda.

“How are you settling in? Do you like your office?” Sakhile says, getting comfortable in Ayanda’s office as she is unpacking her boxes, making her office homey and comfortable.

“My manager has already had a one-on-one with me and dumped three piles of files that I need to get through. It is mostly the company’s progress reports, operational reports and reports for the board and investors. He has already introduced me to the team. They seem great. I believe I will be meeting with more managers later today.” Ayanda explains.

“Wow, Tom is really not giving you a break. Today is your first day. I will talk to him.” Sakhile says.

“No, please don’t do that. He is a cool guy and I knew that this role came with pressure and responsibility. Don’t worry about me. I will be good. I am here to make the company proud.” Ayanda says.

Sakhile smiles at her and says, “I am very happy to hear that. I just don’t want the company to be the reason you start having problems with your husband.”

“That should not be your problem, sir. I am here to work. My personal life should be the last thing that you worry about”, Ayanda.

Sakhile nods his head.

“Have a great first day, Mrs Kunene. I will be on my way now.” Sakhile says, standing up and making his way to the door.

“It is actually Miss Kunene. But, you can call me Ayanda.” Ayanda says. Sakhile nods and leaves Ayanda’s office.

…

9pm

Ayanda is still in her office reading the files that Thomas gave to her and making notes for her team meeting scheduled for 11am tomorrow. It is raining. Ayanda told herself that she will work until the rain calms down. Sakhile has just knocked off himself and as he makes his way to his car, he notices that the light in Ayanda’s office is on. He knocks on Ayanda’s door and lets himself in.

“It is 9pm, Ayanda”, Sakhile says. He is standing at the door and looking at Ayanda.

“I am very much aware of that, Sakhile.” Ayanda says, raising her head to smile at him.

“You should be home by now. Thomas, your boss, left the office at 4pm.” Sakhile states.

Ayanda closes the file and looks at Sakhile. Sakhile sees this as a sign to come into the office and get comfortable. He closes the door.

“I need to be on top of my game. I have a meeting with my team tomorrow and there is a lot that I need to get through before that meeting.” Ayanda explains.

“We don’t expect you to overwork yourself like this. You know that, right?” Sakhile says to her.

“What is it exactly that you expect me to do? You are paying me a lot of money as an investment in my talent. Surely you expect an ROI on that.” Ayanda tells him.

“Awusho, don’t you have a family? A steady partner? Kids?” Sakhile asks her.

“I could ask you the same question. Or is it only men that are allowed to work into the still of the night while a family waits for him at home?” Ayanda.

“Well, I am a CEO. However, I do not have a wife or kids. I have a girlfriend, but she understands how hard I need to work for her to live the life that I give her. My mother lives in KZN, my eldest brother is married, and my youngest brother is whipped by his new girlfriend. That’s why they are usually out of here by 4pm.” Sakhile explains.

“Maybe you should marry your girlfriend and make sure that you follow their example”, Ayanda comments.

“There’s a reason why I am the CEO. Whoever I marry needs to understand that this is how it will always be. Our plans are to grow this business and nothing else. We started from nothing and our goal is to not end up with nothing when all is said and done. I don’t think my girlfriend understands that.” Sakhile states.

Ayanda nods her head.

“So, what about you? A steady partner? Children?” Sakhile enquires.

“I don’t have a husband, a steady partner or children. My career is very demanding and I demand a lot from myself. I left the country upon my undergraduate graduation to further my studies and work abroad. I had a dude there, but I always knew that I was never going to marry him. I spent two years in LA then moved to London. I worked a bit there while completing my Masters Degree. My LA guy was still hopeful about our relationship. I felt bad about having given up on him already, so I decided to be a nice person and not cheat on him.”

Sakhile laughs at this comment that Ayanda makes. Ayanda smiles.

“He had money to travel between the countries, so I let him. Then I came back to South Africa and ghosted him. So here I am, single and able to do my job until whatever time I see fit, and no one will ask me crap about it.” Ayanda concludes.

Sakhile laughs, taking in how free Ayanda’s spirit is.

“Your parents must have missed you while you were away”, Sakhile says.

“Not really. We were used to being apart. I am an only child. My mother practiced nursing in the UK from when I was six. My dad passed away. I have been in boarding school since grade three. It’s just how we are. My mom returns from the UK next year. She is retiring. I am thinking of buying her a house in KZN, Umhlanga. We are from eMlazi anyway, so I think she will appreciate staying in KZN. I could never live with her. I have never had to and starting at this grown age might ruin our relationship. My mom and I are closer when we live apart.” Ayanda says.

“I see. You really are a breath of fresh air.” Sakhile.

“Thank you. Now that you have finally interviewed me, may I get back to my work?” Ayanda says.

Sakhile chuckles.

“I have a bit to do as well for this evening. How about I get us some food then we can work in my office? It is bigger and more comfortable. I am sure you haven’t eaten.” Sakhile suggests.

“You don’t have to –

“I insist. Please. It’s just the two of us here. I am sure it is only decent that sihlale sobabili as we burn the midnight oil. Come on.” Sakhile insists.

“Okay. Please get me Chicken Licken hot wings, McDonald’s fries and a McDonald’s Mango frappe. Thanks.” Ayanda places her order and starts packing her bag.

Sakhile chuckles and shakes his head.

…The beginning…

…

Chapter 2

Tonight is Ayanda's and Nate's engagement party. First, they have to get the Friday at work out of the way. Ayanda has been complimented all week for her beautiful engagement ring.

"I can't believe you are getting married to a white boy", Nomzamo said to her on Monday when Ayanda announced her engagement. Nomzamo is also a PA in the same company. She and Ayanda have become good friends.

"Well, who did you want me to get married to? You know I love me some Dr Nate Nel", Ayanda.

"I thought you would have fixed things with baby-daddy by now", Nomzamo.

"You do know that he is getting married, right?" Ayanda.

"You are still the mother of his twins – his first children may I add. All you have to do is object that those two people should be married, and you know for a fact that you will have him back", Nomzamo.

Ayanda simply looked at her and did not comment.

"Anyway, congratulations my friend", Nomzamo concluded the conversation.

"Aya, may I please have a minute with Titus?" one of the executive heads disturbs Ayanda's thoughts as she stands at Ayanda's desk requesting time with the chief that Ayanda assists.

"May I ask what the meeting is about?" Ayanda asks as per her usual routine to determine the level of priority of each meeting. Titus is a very busy man and the key part of Ayanda's job is to ensure that matters are prioritised appropriately.

"It's important, that's all you need you know", Charmaine responds.

Charmaine has a reputation of being the cow in the office. Even Titus himself has an issue with her behaviour and attitude. However, that does not stop him from sleeping with her.

"Charmaine, I cannot help you if you do not give me information. You know how this works", Ayanda softly says, careful to not draw attention.

"The problem with you PAs is that you have appointed yourselves as CEOs. I am not asking you to schedule time for me to see Titus, I AM TELLING YOU THAT I NEED TO SEE TITUS AND I NEED TO SEE HIM NOW!" Charmaine speaks at the top of her voice. Now the entire open-plan office space is staring at these two women who look like they are fighting for a man.

Ayanda gives her one look then puts earphones on and carries on with her work.

The thing is, Ayanda is an educated young woman. When she still lived in Johannesburg and worked in the company that was owned by the Yeni brothers, she was a manager for operations. She became a PA to Titus, but she is also heavily involved in operations at the company that she is currently working in. She consults on massive projects. Senior management loves her. They wanted to give her the position of COO (Chief Operations Officer), but she declined it because she wanted to keep a low profile and not be all over the news. She did not want Sakhile Yeni to find her or her children. Charmaine is the outlier that seems to have a gripe against Ayanda.

Charmaine slams her fist against Ayanda's table and yells, "TELL TITUS I AM HERE TO SEE HIM AND HE MUST MAKE HIMSELF AVAILABLE".

Ayanda whispers to Charmaine, "You are sleeping with Titus, not me. Kindly refrain from disrespecting me. You do this nonsense at his house, not on my desk. Titus is not available. Now be a professional and get back to work".

Charmaine is shocked. Didn't she get the memo? PAs know everything. PAs book all your hotel stays, honey.

Charmaine walks away in shame, but grateful that Ayanda is matured enough to not make that announcement to the entire office. The truth is that Titus is in his office with his wife. Even if he wanted to be disturbed, Ayanda knows better than to let his pregnant mistress walk in while he is with his wife.

...

"I am so excited about going to Paris, my goodness", Lefika is excited to go to Paris to celebrate hers and Sakhile's engagement. Sakhile has not exactly reached out to Ayanda yet, but he has been thinking about her a lot. He is thinking about her as he always thought about her when she had just left. He is thinking about her with hope in his heart. Sakhile is back at that dangerous place of wanting to find her again.

"Babe, ushup?" Lefika asks non-responsive and non-excited Sakhile.

"You know my love, Tom, NTK and I were talking. The business needs all three of us right now, so we cannot leave. I will not be able to go to Paris with you, but you are welcome to take Thimna and Zu", Sakhile.

"Ok, kodwa Sakhile I am not engaged to Thimna and Zuziwe, I am engaged to you. I also have a career, but I have taken leave so that I can enjoy my engagement to the man that I love. Why am I not put first in your life?" Lefika.

"Lee, this is not a good time for me to be on holiday in Paris. I told you this when you were booking your tickets. I am running a business. I cannot just take leave like I am some employee who has no real responsibility to the company", Sakhile frustratingly says.

"Are you being serious right now?" Lefika.

"I am not going to Paris, end of story", Sakhile.

With this, Sakhile leaves the bedroom and heads to the bar. He pours himself a stiff drink then goes into his study.

"It is 8pm now. What could she be doing? Probably sleeping. Nope. She was never the type to sleep early. That girl works hard." He thinks to himself.

Sakhile pulls out his phone and gazes at her cellphone number on his cellphone screen. He dials the number.

Ayanda is slow-dancing to mood music and enjoying her engagement party. Her cellphone vibrates in her clutch bag, which is somewhere in Nate's parents' house. It does not help that Sakhile is calling with a private number because now Ayanda cannot return the call when she sees that she has a missed call.

---

A throwback: Yanda & Sax

"So -

"Sir, I'm literally emailing you the report you asked for, right now", Ayanda says, interrupting Sakhile as he had walked into her office to say something.

"Report?" Sakhile enquires.

"The one the board asked for. Tom said I should send it to you, him and NTK before I go home", Ayanda explains.

"Oh. Do you mind just taking me through it now on your laptop?" Sakhile.

"Sure", Ayanda.

They spend two hours going through the report and making the necessary changes. After the two hours, Sakhile thanks Ayanda for her dedication to the company.

"A friend of mine has invited me to his place for a braai and some drinks. It's his wife's birthday so after taking her out all day, he invited a few people to come by and hang out", Sakhile.

"Okay. Have fun", Ayanda.

"I was hoping you'd come with me", Sakhile.

Ayanda looks at Sakhile. She sighs. Then she says, "Listen, this is not going to end well. I've seen how you look at me and I know that you don't invite everyone to work in your office after hours. But you are my boss. I don't want to sleep my way to the top."

"You are a beautiful woman. And yes, I do like you. Our time will come for us to explore this chemistry between us further. But tonight, it's just drinks." Sakhile explains himself.

"Okay then. In that case, let me make my way home so I can change out of these clothes and get into something more comfortable". Ayanda.

"I'll pick you up at 8pm."

"It's 7pm right now."

"How much time do you need?"

"Come at 8:30. I'll send you my location at 8pm", Ayanda says with a threatening eye.

Sakhile laughs.

...

Ayanda just looks simple, but beautiful. There is a natural beauty about her that just cannot be denied. Her spirit is out of this world. She is wearing blue jeans, torn at the knees, and a t-shirt torn in rows at the back, but she looks beautiful. Her sneakers are cool too. Sakhile definitely notices her chilled side too, but even in that, she is as hot as she is in the office with her heels and professional wear. Her block braids make her look gorgeous and bring out her hoop earrings well.

"A punctual man? I'm impressed", Ayanda says as she settles in the front seat of Sakhile's BMW X5.

"I couldn't wait to see your gorgeous self. I have been waiting for that location to arrive on my phone. You definitely didn't disappoint. You look gorgeous." Sakhile tells Ayanda, driving away from Ayanda's complex in Sunninghill and making his way to his friend's house in Midrand.

The drive to Midrand is nice. Ayanda and Sakhile are chatting and laughing away. It started off as a conversation about work then it turned to a "getting to know each other better" conversation. There is some singing here and there to old skool jams that are playing on the radio. When they arrive, Ayanda puts her handbag in the boot then she and Sakhile walk in.

The friends are excited to see Sakhile. They welcome Ayanda beautifully and she likes it.

"It’s nice to finally see this guy with a girlfriend. And such a gorgeous one, I am proud", his friend the host says. His name is Kwanele.

"Girlfriend? He told you that I'm his girlfriend?" Ayanda says, making Kwanele, Sakhile and Kwanele's wife, Zakithi, uncomfortable.

"Are you not his girlfriend?" Kwanele.

"Well if I am, then your boy really lacks game. Can you believe that he has never laid his lips on mine?" Ayanda.

The smiles come back on everyone's faces.

"Sakhile, come on. Such a beautiful woman? How?" Kwanele.

Right there and then, Sakhile gently pulls Ayanda in by her waist and kisses her. Ayanda returns the kiss.

"And now? Am I your boyfriend now?" Sakhile says, eyes still closed from the enduring kiss.

"Pending", Ayanda.

The laughter fills the moment. Ayanda comes out of Sakhile's arms.

"It's lovely to meet you Ayanda and I look forward to attending yours and Sakhile's wedding. You are family now". Kwanele.

...

Saturday morning at 9am, Sakhile calls Ayanda. He dropped her off at home just after 4am this morning. The braai at the friend’s place was a lot of fun and ended quite late. After the braai, an after party of some sort was attended in Tembisa. Ayanda and Zakithi hit it off really well and in Tembisa, they brought Durban to GP after a few drinks. The men had beer and definitely enjoyed watching their women unwind - especially Sakhile.

It takes a few rings before Ayanda answers her phone. She is deep in her sleep.

"Hello", Ayanda answers her phone. She is still drunk on sleep.

"Good morning to you too, lovely lady", Sakhile.

"How and why are you awake and so chirpy?" Ayanda.

"I'm at your gate and your security has been trying to call you. Please ask them to let me in", Sakhile.

"Okay", Ayanda.

Ayanda rolls out of bed. She is wearing bumshorts and a lingerie vest. Security phones her again to let her know that she has a guest. She instructs security to let Sakhile in. She walks to the door to unlock the door then she goes back to her room to make the bed. She checks the time and is slightly annoyed.

Sakhile walks in as Ayanda goes back into her TV room.

"Hello sexy", Sakhile.

"I'm just tired and hung over", Ayanda.

"I was hoping you'd pack a bag and go spend the day and evening with me somewhere nice. Our flight takes off to Cape Town in a few hours", Sakhile.

"What the fuck, dude? I'm still recovering from yesterday. And who just wakes up and decides to go to Cape Town?" Ayanda.

Sakhile laughs.

"If it’s any consolation. It is a business meeting that I need to attend. You and I will have fun afterwards. Please shower and pack an overnight bag. Please?" Sakhile.

Ayanda looks at Sakhile for a minute then goes to pack her bags. Sakhile watches some sports channel.

After Ayanda is all packed up, she takes a shower. This time, she wears a sporty dress with Jordan four retro sneakers. She wears a cap over her braids and packs some stuff into her handbag.

Sakhile holds her overnight bag for her then they leave Ayanda's place. Ayanda is still drinking cold water.

After their two-hour flight, Sakhile and Ayanda make their way to their hotel. They are staying in two separate rooms. The first thing Ayanda does is pass out. She just throws herself on her bed and sleeps. Luckily, Sakhile has business meetings to attend in Cape Town. However, upon his return, Ayanda is dressed up and ready for dinner.

She is determined to return to Sakhile's room and solve this sexual tension issue between the two of them. Plus, she has been starving for some time now.

The dress of the night is a red body-hugging strapless dress. Underneath the dress is beige lingerie.

Dinner is exciting. As expected, they walk back to their hotel rooms hand-in-hand.

"I thought we could chat some more in your room before I retire to mine?" Ayanda.

"I'm not going to say no to that", Sakhile says as he leads Ayanda to his room. Ayanda walks in after Sakhile.

"May I use your restroom?" Ayanda.

"Sure. If you don't mind, I'll just change into something more comfortable", Sakhile.

"I plan to do the same", Ayanda.

She disappears into the restroom, leaving Sakhile confused. What is she changing into? Her clothes are in her hotel room, not Sakhile’s. He changes into shorts and a t-shirt while Ayanda is now just in her lingerie and touching up her braids and make-up.

She parades into the bedroom, finding Sakhile on his bed drinking a glass of whiskey. He takes one look at Ayanda and he drops his glass. The glass breaks and whiskey spills.

"I hope you don't plan to break my heart like that", Ayanda seductively says.

"Ayanda -

"Sakhile, just kiss me", Ayanda says now that she is lying on top of him.

She kisses Sakhile.

Sakhile is too shocked to respond. He is still. Ayanda climbs on top of him, now sitting on his erect penis.

"If I'm wrong about our chemistry, I'll put on my dress and leave. I promise you, there'll be no hard feelings. But if I'm not wrong, I need you to show me or I will walk away and never look back", Ayanda says.

"I just don't want you to feel as if I expect this from you. I enjoy spending time with you. I like you a lot. I definitely want to see where this goes. But I am happy to wait for you if you are not ready", Sakhile.

"You are such a gentleman. It's just unfortunate that tonight, I don't want a gentleman. I want my CEO in bed, giving me one hell of a night to remember. You think you can be my beast tonight? Or are you the type that generally requires some motivation?" Ayanda.

Sakhile has flipped her onto her back and is ripping the lingerie off her body. The rest of the evening is...

Well...

Between the two of them and the walls that surround them.

[agentsoftie]

mistletoe

summary: you like him, a lot. so penny does something. something that may or may not involve mistletoe

a/n: it’s vlogmas y’all! also just act like this was uploaded on the 1st instead of the second. also, this love isn’t proof read so bare with me

pairing and word count: spencer x (f) reader & 1.6k

The day was December 1st, and in the paradise that is Virginia, that meant Holiday season. The lights were already up. And the cold air was picking up so much that one couldn't possibly go outside without wearing a coat, fearing for hyperthermia. Carolers were out around the town, singing their hearts out and freezing their hands off. Pictures With Santa was being set up in the park, and elves were practicing their dances and jingles. You could smell the cookies and the peppermint from a mile away. Christmas songs and melodies were playing all across town. And in response, all the hungover college kids were groaning and sulking all across town as they got their morning coffee and went to class.

Each radio was playing some form of holiday music instead of its general hillbilly religious crap. And you honestly didn't mind. Although, it's not like you ever bothered to turn on the radio. But today, something was different. Something had just changed. Maybe it was the fact that it was now the time for laughter and joy instead of harm. Maybe that was the change.

The cold air suddenly leaves your ears as the feeling of warmth rushes in. And to your surprise, you're greeted by a very peppy Lenny. Although, you did bring him a donut this morning, so that might have an effect. “Y/N! Good Morning!” He said as he buzzed you in. “You too Len! Hope you like the snack.” Before you could finish the question, he was half way done with his donuts. You smiled to yourself as you entered the elevator.

“Wait!” You heard someone yell as you were about to hit the button. You waited, as one does, and soon saw the figure that was running towards you clear up. “Spencer,” you breathed out as he ran in. “Y/n, hi.” He said as he was catching his breath.

You hit the button and quickly looked down, trying to avoid his gaze as much as possible. You see, you loved him. Ever since the dawn of time. Or, at least since last December. See, today, technically marks your one year anniversary since you joined the team. See, the first time you first laid eyes on him, the first time you said hello, your heart skipped a beat. The way he moved, the way he talked, just him. Him- himself, was memorizing enough. Never though. Never did you have the courage to talk or say anything to him. The team always noticed, but they never said anything, saying as you got along with them all great.

As soon as the elevator opened you ran for the two glass doors… As subtly as possible. The office smelt like peppermint and hot chocolate, and there was only one possible reason for that. Penelope.

“Good morning my lovely little love birds!”

You both stopped in your steps and looked at each other dead in the eye. “You guys, I’m joking, come on.” You both chuckled awkwardly and he quickly sprinted to his desk as you but your coffee on your desk.

“Like what you’ve done with the place Nel. Quite nice if I say so.”

She set a stack of piles on the desk, and straightened your hair.“You better like it. I stayed till like 10 getting everything ready and paid Lenny 20 dollars to help me set up half of these things.”

“Sucks that it’s gonna be down by mid January.” You say as you take some files off.

“Ooooh, yeah no, that’s not gonna happen.”

“Hey Nel, these aren't files.” You say as you give her the file you were looking at and picked through the other ones. Just to find that they weren't files either.

“Oh! Look at that! I never even noticed,” she said as she straightened her pasture. Spencer looked over to see what the commotion was about, but you tried not to pay attention.

“Spencer, would you come here please!”

You looked at Penelope and cursed in every single language you knew, and that was including ALS. She was the only one at the BAU who knew about your crush on Spencer. Since she was the reason you ever even wanted, or considered joining the BAU.

He got up and walked to your desk as you tried to look busy.

“What’s up Pen?” He said as he put his hand on your desk.

“I need you and Y/N to do something for me.” You looked shocked, but luckily, Spencer didn't see anything. “Can you please go down and do a few errands for me. Or well, for us.”

“Will we get paid?” You asked, she nonned.

“Is Hotch okay with this?” He asked, she, again, nodded. “Alright then, just text us what you need.” He said as he grabbed your hand and walked towards the door. You quickly grabbed your phone and wallet and pulled yourself forward. Your cheeks were rosy red. Or, as red as they could be, so you kept your head high. Although that probably doesn't work in your favor when you will be stuck with him the entire day.

“Okay, first of all, fresh roses.”

“Oooh, I know a great little flower shop. It’s by the bakery near Santa’s Little Shop.”

“Where?”

“It’s by my house here I’ll-”

“Got it.” He said as he cut you off. You wanted to ask him how he knew where you lived, but then you figured that before you came, he went over you and your file like 50 times. Or with him, most likely one.”

You looked out the window as snow fell down to the ground. It was a light snow, nothing big, nothing new. It was the type of snow where you could build a snowman, but it might take an eternity. He drove slowly and carefully turning on the radio to find The Beatles playing.

“Here we go.” He said as Blackbird was dying down in the background.

“Perfect.”

You both got out of the car and looked around. Some things just never change. Even when you’re off of work.

“Hi! Welcome!”

“Hey Blair! Where are all or your red, white, and green flowers?”

“That’s… oddly specific.” She spoke as she got up from behind the counter.

“Work.”

“Uh-huh, sure. Whatever you say… Well okay, here we have our roses, a staple piece. Then, some white roses, another staple piece. And Finally, green roses!”

You smiled a little. It was small, but she saw it. “I think Y/N’s looking for something more festive? Like… these poinsettia’s!” Spencer said as he walked around the store/

“I’ll take the roses, all three colors, and the poinsettia’s please.”

She rang up the total and you were gonna give her your credit card, but he beat you too it.”Spence…” You trailed “Y/N don't.”

You grabbed the flowers and so did he. He opened the car and as soon as you got it, the conversation picked up once more. “You know, you never had to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

“Okay well so did I.”

“Well I did it first.”

“What are you, five?”

“Is that supposed to mean something Y/N?” He said as he looked over at you.

“Ehh ehh, eyes the road!” You said as you snapped at the road.

He simply laughed as he looked back. “Okay, Now the coffee shop. She said that we need fresh treats since some of the kids are coming over tonight.”

“What’s tonight?” You asked as you looked around at the white ground. This was the first time in a while, or maybe in forever that you were having a normal and fluent conversation with him. It’s always, “Hi Spencer *runs away” or “Hey, *dies inside*” BUt this, this was different. This was fun. This was something you could get used to.

“Remember the office party.”

“Fuck… Yeah I forgot.”

“Ehh don't worry, so did I. But I think I’m just gonna stay home and re-read something.”

“Weirdo,” you said as you ran your fingers through his hair and messed it up. Somehow, just somehow, your heart wasn't beating 20 times fast almost causing you to fall dead on the spot. But instead you were just having fun and laughing. With Spencer. Spencer Reid. Dr. Spencer Reid. Someone you’ve had a crush on for a year.

“Do you like the Holidays?”

“Yeah, of course. I mean, it was the only holiday that I looked forward to when I was a child. Still now too I guess. Which is highly concerning, but we’re not gonna talk about that.”

He chuckled. “You’re funny Y/N,”

“I know.” You said as you smirked.

You looked around at everything that was going on. Kids running around and people drinking hot chocolate. Other people watching the carolers sing, and others kissing under the mistletoe. One person though couldn't stop staring. They couldn't stop staring at you. They looked at your magnificent hair and melted. They looked into your eyes and watched them shine. And heard a baby laugh for the first time every time you talked or laughed.

“What about you Spence?”

“Huh?”

“You like the holidays?”

“Yeah,”

“Well, why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you like the holidays?”

“Because of mistletoe,”

“Because of what?”

You were cut off by his hand cuffing your face. I took you a moment to realize what was happening, but once you did, you melted in. You put your hands in his hair and pulled a little. The kiss was aggressive for a public kiss but you soon eased it up due to the fact that this was happening in public. You broke apart due to the fact that breathing exists. And smiled into each other's lips.

“I said… because of mistletoe.”

“Screw you Spencer Reid.”

“You wish.”

“Really, cuz that didn't look like it.”

“You kissed back.”

“By default,”

tagging; @criminalmindsmoodrn​, @marshmallowtraver​, @ghostly-angelic​, @himarisolace​

moot tags: (sorry if this annoys you) @blakeprentiss​, @lizziechase​, @goldenxreid​

[scripts4dreamers]

I literally JUST sat down, pt. 7

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six

AN: Tick Tock goes the clock. Characters: Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia, Derek Morgan, Aaron Hotchner, Jennifer Jareau, David Rossi.

Pairings: Spencer Reid x reader

Spoilers: None

Warnings: Mentions of crime and violence, alcohol

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

The buzzing of his phone is what woke Spencer up. He grumbled, fumbling around his bedside table for the source of the noise.

“Hello?”

“Agent Reid?” A vaguely familiar voice asked, “I’m sorry to wake you but I didn’t know who to call and I-“

“What’s going on?” Spencer interrupted, sitting up quickly as he recognized the voice of one of Hotch’s cleared agents.

“I’m on watch at the park this morning and I think something’s wrong. There’s a note and a clear bag full of stuff but no body, and we’ve been here all night. Hotch took the others to meet the director. He said to call you if anything happened.”

“Are you alone?”

“No, my partner’s with me, she’s checking the bushes.” He explained. Vaguely, Spencer could hear the rustling of the partner in the background, “Agent Reid I don’t know what to do here….”

Doctor. The voice in his head corrected instinctively, but he kept quiet, already three steps ahead. Today was the day your stalker was supposed to drop off his next body. Everybody would be on high alert, especially you. If Hotch had gone to the director he must’ve been expecting a pretty serious escalation, and that made Spencer nervous. He glanced out into the lounge, to where he knew you were curled up on the couch, fast asleep.

“Okay, wait there. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” He explained, pulling on the first clothes he could find and strapping on his firearm belt, “Just keep the perimeter clear and make sure no one gets in and out, alright?”

“Alright.”

Spencer got ready as fast as he could, running through every possible scenario in his head as the adrenaline started to slowly creep in. He slowly snuck through the living room, smiling softly as he noticed your sleeping form huddled under a pile of blankets. There was something tender about the way you looked then, something different to all the times he’d seen you fall asleep on the jet. Here, you were completely unguarded, comfortable and soft, and it made Spencer absurdly proud to know that he’d made you feel safe enough for that. For a moment he considered waking you up, but he remembered the dark bags under your eyes and the way your shoulders drooped with exhaustion and he decided against it. You’d been going through hell, and you deserved to sleep. Plus, he rationalized as he opened the door and snuck out, it’s not like you could come with him anyway. There was no need to worry you.

Spencer sighed, pushing all thoughts of you to the back of his mind as he forced himself to focus on the case.

——————————-

You could hear your heart pounding in your ears as you tried very hard to look busy, fiddling with a completed report as you walked through your master plan one last time. Your eyes flickered to Spencer as he talked animatedly with JJ about something you couldn’t really hear. He leaned back against the desk, casually tucking a strand of hair behind his ear and crossing his arms over his chest. The sleeves of his read sweater and shirt were rolled up above his elbows and you couldn’t help but glance at his exposed forearms and hands. Spencer’s hands were...unfairly attractive. Truly, truly unfairly attractive. The kind of attractive that made doing your job really difficult and made you wonder what exactly was going on with you. His hands, Y/N? You asked yourself, his hands? Really? Get it together man.

But it was too late, you were completely and utterly smitten. You knew it, your friends knew it, the lady at the coffee shop knew it. You were pretty sure every living person in Virginia knew it, except Spencer. Hopefully. Hopefully Spencer didn’t know, yet at least.

Just then you heard him laugh and your nerves intensified. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe you should just go home and forget this stupid plan and everything would go on as normal. You could do normal, right?

“Hey there, pretty girl,” Morgan greeted, “what’re you doing here so late?”

You flushed, “Oh I-you know-“ you let out a breathy laugh, “just finishing off some work.”

He raised an eyebrow at you questioningly, but let the matter drop, pulling you into a right side hug, “Alright, Y/L/N, keep your secrets. You know I’ll find out, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re relentless, I know,” you smiled back, “seriously Morgs, I’m all good.”

He nodded and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of your head, “Okay. I’ll see you, kid.”

You waved him off, feeling a familiar pinch of guilt in the pit of your stomach as he vanished off into the elevator. Out of the corner of your eye you saw JJ step away from Spencer and you took a deep breath, steeling every last bit of nerve you had.

“Hey, Spence, can you wait for a minute?” You called, hoping you didn’t sound quite as nervous as you felt.

Spencer cocked his head to the side, but gave you a small smile, “Sure, Y/N/N, what’s up?”

You took another deep breath, fighting the urge to look away or fiddle with your bag, “I was-um-what’re you doing tomorrow?”

Spencer thought for the briefest moment before answering, “Tomorrow? I’ve got a report to do and some cold cases to go over and then I was just going to go home and read a few books. Why?”

You flushed. This was it. This was the moment you’d been hyping yourself up for all week.

“I was just wondering if you’d maybe want to go see a movie or something?” You asked all in one breath, forcing yourself to meet his eye.

Spencer frowned, “A movie? Y/N, you know I don’t have a DVD player.”

“No!” You quickly corrected with a nervous laugh, as your heart rate doubled, “No, Wise Guy, I meant with me, like at a cinema. There’s a foreign film festival in town I thought you might like.” You paused and then continued, “And maybe after we could get dinner, or coffee or something? If you’d like.

You waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming. For a long while Spencer just stared at you, opening and closing his mouth like a confused goldfish. Every second that he was silent, your heart sank just a little further and you felt your skin start to burn with embarrassment.

“Y/N-“ Spencer started.

Your eyes were pricking with tears of embarrassment, but you blinked them away, quickly shoving your last few possessions into your bag and forcing a smile.

“It’s cool. I get it,” you said quickly, “No hard feelings, but I had to try. See you, Reid.”

You vaguely heard him call your name again, just once, but you ignored him, rushing through the bullpen faster than you’d ever gone before. You wanted to scream, or rip your face off, or curl up in a ball and die, but you could do that here. Not with Spencer’s eyes still boring into your back like a drill. The elevator door closed and you slid to the ground, burying your face in your knees as the suppressed tears slid down your cheek.

You pulled out your phone and dialed the first number you could think, “Morgs? Are you and ‘Nel still at her apartment?” You asked, sniffing, “Can I come?”

————————————-

When you woke up you had the vague impression that you’d been sad recently. It was a fleeting impression, gone as soon as you registered it, but it confused you and set an odd tone for the day. You looked around, remembering the previous night and the conversation you’d had with Spencer, and smiled gently. You’d never thought that you’d be able to be friends with Spencer again, not after your disastrous attempt at asking him out. Ugh, just the thought made you cringe with embarrassment. But he’d forgiven you, it seemed. Or at least he hadn’t brought it up or acted weird and uncomfortable with you, which was a relief.

“Morning, Doctor Reid,” you called, “what’re you making me for breakfast?”

The only answer was silence. You sat up, letting your blanket fall away.

“Spencer?” You called again, “Are you home?”

Again, no answer. Just then, your phone rang and you answered.

“Hey, ‘Nel, is Spence with you?” You asked quickly.

“Sugar Plum!” She greeted, “You’re up.”

Despite yourself, you smiled, “I know, it’s miraculous. Is he at the office?”

“Nope,” Penelope answered, “he’s not on duty today. Well, he is but not like, FBI duty, he’s on Y/N duty. He’s not with you?”

“No,” you admitted, strolling through the apartment to double check, “looks like he left in a hurry.”

“Maybe he went to get breakfast or coffee or something,” Penelope suggested, “you know he doesn’t tend to keep actual people food in his lair.”

You worried at the inside of your cheek, a nagging worry still sitting in the pit of your stomach, but you pushed it down.

“You’re probably right,” you sighed, “can you ask Hotch if he’s seen him just in case?”

“Sure thing, hun. Him and Emily are right here.”

“Okay, thanks ‘Nel, let me know if you hear from him?” You asked.

“But of course, mon ami,” she agreed, “and if anything comes up in the case I’ll call.”

You put the phone down and shook your head, trying to snap yourself out of whatever funk you were in. It wasn’t abnormal for Spencer to leave to get coffee without telling anyone, and it was just like him to do something sweet like going to get breakfast for you both. But it wasn’t like him to leave without waking you, especially not with what was going on.

“Stop it,” you told yourself, “stop worrying. He’s fine. It’s fine.”

So you forced yourself to behave normally. You made coffee, brushed your teeth, pulled on a set of fresh clothes and perused Spencer’s extensive library, picking a book and settling onto the couch. More time passed. More time, the clock tick tick ticking away the minutes. Pretty soon it was obvious that Spencer wasn’t getting coffee, and then your anxiety spiked. For a long while you just stared at a random page in the book, not absorbing anything whatsoever as your mind raced.

Your phone beeped and you grabbed it frantically, relaxing when you saw Spencer’s name on the screen.

“Spence,” you sighed with relief as soon as you picked up the phone, “oh my god I was so worried. Where the hell are you?”

For a second there was just heavy breathing and then, frantically “Y/N don’t-“

“If you want to see Spencer Reid alive again, meet me at the address I’ve programmed into your car’s GPS,” a robotic voice said, “come alone. If you tell anyone where you’re going, I’ll kill him. If you bring back up, I’ll kill him. If you don’t show up, I’ll kill him. You have twenty minutes.”

You felt like the world had stopped spinning, like the floor had dropped out from under you and you were free falling into empty space. There were chills running up your spine and your heart pounded like an anvil in your fragile rib cage. Spencer. Spencer. Spencer, it pounded. Spencer, Spencer, Spencer. How had he gotten him? You were living your worst nightmare in real time. You saw the mutilated body in your bookstore, the gruesome crime scene photos on Rossi’s crime boards. Was that Spencer now? Was he dead because of you? You imagined him lying on the ground, helpless and bleeding out, his deep brown eyes lifeless and still and, without meaning to, a whimper ripped itself from your throat.

“He’s alive.” You told yourself firmly, “He’s still alive.”

You could barely think. You were in a kind of fugue state. Nothing but pure instinct and muscle memory got you into your car and onto the road and the first cognitive thought you had, as you got closer and closer to the destination, was that you would never be making this return trip. This type of stalker would never let you go, never. He’d never let Spencer go. He’d kill himself and both of you before he let you slip out of his grasp again. This was his endgame for some reason, and you were playing right into it. But what else could you do? He had you in the palm of his hand. The fact was, no matter what you wanted or thought or knew, there was nothing you wouldn’t do for Spencer Reid, nothing you wouldn’t risk. You would walk into hell and back for him, and that was that.

Somewhere along the drive you accepted your death. You would not make the return trip, and that was okay. You would die sometime soon, but so would this monster. He would kill you, and you’d use your last moments of strength to take the son of a bitch down with you. He wouldn’t get the chance to hurt anyone else, you promised yourself. No matter what happened, you would be his last victim. You would find a way to save Spencer too, you repeated to yourself again and again. You wouldn’t make the drive home, but Spencer would. You would do whatever it took to keep him alive.

The GPS announced that you had arrived at your destination, an old house on the outskirts of a quiet suburb. You took a moment in the car to breathe, tightening your knuckles on the steering wheel. You ached to just call Penelope, to tell her everything and let the team rescue you. Oh God, your friends. How would they feel when they found your body? After all the work they’d done to keep you safe, here you were throwing it all away. On a whim, you grabbed your phone and sent a quick group message.

From Y/N Y/L/N

Thank you for everything. I love you all so much

Short, sweet, not even nearly enough. You’d meant to say more, you’d always meant to say more, but you’d thought you had years. Two tears slipped down your cheek as you stepped out of the car, leaving your keys in the ignition so that Spencer would have a way to get away when it was all over. There was an FBI sedan parked in the driveway, but at this point you didn’t care much about the profile. All that mattered was getting this over with.

Luckily your stalker hadn’t specified that you couldn’t bring a gun. You drew your weapon, but didn’t bother with stealth, striding straight into the house with a single minded focus.

“I’m here,” you called, “where are you?”

You heard the sound of shuffling coming from a back room, a fist connecting with something solid and you bit back a whimper.

“We’re in here,” Spencer said, his voice tinged with pain.

You could hear your blood rushing in your ears but you kept your trigger finger steady. Despite the terror, you were trained for this. You would not fail. Before you stepped into the room, you felt a tinge of panic. You weren’t ready for this. You weren’t ready to face the man who’s caused all this, but you had to. You had to. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, calming yourself down and schooling your features into something serene. You had to focus on not escalating the situation, that was your best shot at keeping Spencer alive.

“You can do this,” you whispered, to yourself, “you can do this.”

And, with that, you stepped into the room, “FBI, put your hands in the air.”

—————————

“Y/N,” a familiar voice greeted with an almost breathless excitement, “I was worried that you wouldn’t come.”

You felt bile rise in your throat, “Agent Connolly?”

“I knew you remembered me!” Rick Connolly cheered, the barrel of a handgun pressed to Spencer’s temple.

Your heart pinched at the sight, but you tried not to let the fear show up in your face. Rick Connolly had worked at the BAU for longer than you had. It made a sick sort of sense, the worst kind. He’d been on cases with you, written up paperwork with you, helped with filing. His background checks were always clean, there’d never been any complaints against him. Never. He was a good agent, a reliable ally for the BAU. No matter what happened, Agent Rick Connolly was always close by.

“Of course I remember you, Connolly,” you said with a forced smile, “how could I possibly forget you?”

“Rick.” He insisted, “It’s Rick.”

“Rick, of course, sorry-“

“You call him Spencer,” Connolly interrupted, pressing the barrel of the gun into Spencer’s temple harder and snarling down at him, “not Reid, Spencer. I heard it when he called you.”

“Hey, hey hey,” you said quickly, lowering your gun and raising your hands, “I’m sorry. It was a mistake, of course I should call you Rick. I mean, Spencer is just a work colleague, right? But you’re so much more.”

His eyes lit up with a perverse hope, “I am. I love you more than any of them. I’ve done more for you than any of them. I did all of it, all of it!”

“I know, thank you,” you replied, forcing another gentle smile, “for doing all of that. For loving me like you do.”

You could feel Spencer’s eyes on you, watching you like you were a lifeline, or like he was scared he’d never see you again, but you kept your eyes on Rick.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled back.

“But, now that I’m here,” you tried gently, “now that you’ve got my attention and I know how much you love me, why don’t you let Spencer go, hm? That way we can be alone.”

Rick frowned, “Let-let him-? No! No way!” He tightened his grip again and Spencer groaned with pain, “Don’t you see? He needs to die. He’s trying to keep us apart! He wants you gone for good.”

You shook his head, feeling the rising panic, “No he doesn’t, Rick. Reid is my friend, he would never try and keep us apart, right Reid?”

For a moment Spencer was silent, swaying on his feet, but he managed to nod his head and get out a small, “She’s right.”

“YOU’RE A LIAR!” Rick yelled, cocking the gun.

“No!” You screamed, forcing Rick’s attention back to you, “Rick, I don’t understand. I don’t understand why he needs to die. I understand the rest, but I’m still confused. Can-would you be able to explain it to me?”

Rick looked confused for a moment, his gaze jumping between you and Spencer. You held your breath, praying you hadn’t overplayed your hand, only relaxing when he turned back to face you.

“He,” he started, gesturing the gun at Spencer, “got you shot. He let you walk into an active bomber situation alone,” he explained, “he spent years nearly getting you killed and then, when he saw our love, he made you leave! He wants you to be alone and miserable! He wants me to be alone!”

You tried to process the rush of information as quickly as you could, latching onto the first advantage you could find.

“Spencer didn’t make me leave,” you said.

“He did! I saw it! You asked him to go out and he turned you down! He lead you on and then he rejected you, so you left!” Rick yelled, “You thought you were alone, you both did, but I was there, watching. I was always watching. I had to keep you safe, I had to make sure you were protected.”

Spencer whimpered, his shoulders slumping with defeat, as though he’d been found out, and you looked at them both, confused. What on earth were they on about?

You felt the realization click, and your eyes widened with surprise “Oh Rick, oh no you misunderstood.” You started. You stepped closer, keeping your hands raised to show that you weren’t a threat, “You’re right, Spencer did say no when I asked him out, but I’d already resigned by then. I was going to tell him that night but I didn’t get the chance. It wasn’t his fault, it was mine.”

———————————

Spencer was in pain. Deep, aching, throbbing pain. He was pretty sure he had at least one cracked rib, maybe more, and the swift punches to his stomach had knocked the wind right out of his chest. His head was heavy and thick with confusion and, without the strong arm holding him up, he would’ve collapsed onto the floor. Everything in Spencer’s body screamed for an end to the pain. But that was nothing compared to the sick, heavy weight of guilt that hit him when he saw your face. He’d brought you here, you’d come for him. He’d let himself get caught, he’d fucked up. He’d put you in danger when you’d trusted him, but God, he was relieved to see you. And he hated himself for that.

You were beautiful. So so so beautiful. Had he ever told you that? Even with your face set into a mask of calm and determination, you were radiant. Wait, what? He thought to himself, what’re you thinking? Your eyes flickered over to him with a subtle note of concern. Focus, Spencer, he told himself, what did she just say?

His captor seemed confused. He was shifting his weight from one foot to another, looking between the two of you like you were a particularly frustrating puzzle.

“What-what does that-why are you saying this?” Rick asked loudly, lifting the gun to point it at you, “Why’re you saying this?”

You flinched, but stayed calm, “Because it’s the truth. Spencer isn’t the reason I left, he had nothing to do with it. Spencer wants us to be together, that’s why he brought me here.”

You spoke to Rick in a low, soothing voice like he was a wild animal and, as you spoke you were creeping closer and closer. Spencer tracked your movement with his eyes, noticing that you’d shifted your gun belt to be on the side closer to Spencer. It wasn’t an accident.

“Rick, baby,” you crooned, “I’m so proud of you. You’ve accomplished so much, but you don’t need to do it anymore. I’m here now, I’m yours. Let’s get out of here, just you and me, before anyone else arrives.”

“You want that?” Rick asked.

“Of course I do,” you said, with a sweet laugh, “but that gun is scaring me. Can we put it away and let Spencer go so that we can go?”

There was a long pause. Rick looked like he was in a trance, staring at you like you were a walking daydream. Your eyes flickered to Spencer and softened for just a second. Just a brief moment of acknowledgment, almost as though you simply couldn’t help yourself. You were close enough now that Spencer could smell your perfume, which was lucky because, right then, Rick’s dreamy look vanished and he began lifting his gun and pointing it right at you.

“LIAR!” He yelled.

Spencer heard the unmistakable pop of a gunshot, but he had no time to check where it had landed. Instead he lunged forward, grabbed your gun and, in a moment of instinct, pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight into Rick’s right shoulder. Rick dropped his gun and, in an instant Spencer was on his back, immobilizing him with the pair of cuffs you handed him and rendering him harmless. For a long moment there was just silence as Spencer stared down at the man who had tricked him, savoring the moment of victory until it was broken by a pained gasp. His stomach sank. The bullet, the bullet, where was the bullet Rick had fired?

“Oh my God.” You said breathlessly, sinking down against the nearest wall as blood started to stain your crisp white button down, “Fuck.”

The blood was coming from your abdomen, from a hole just left of your naval that you were pressing your sleeve against in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Your cheeks glistened with tears as you fought not to tense up despite the pain and Spencer felt, for the first time that day, true unadulterated panic.

“No, no no no no,” he said quickly, rushing to your side and gripping your free hand with his, “hey, look at me, we’re gonna be alright. Just keep your eyes open. Stay with me.”

You breathed out slowly through your mouth, “Don’t worry, doc,” you replied through gritted teeth, “ ‘M not goin’ anywhere.”

Spencer tried to assess the situation, but there was too much panic and adrenaline and fear in his system, and all he could see was the tender way you looked at him, and how you’d smiled the night before. His hands were shaking even where they held yours, and his eyes pricked with suppressed tears. You needed a hospital. You needed surgery and he couldn’t save you. He couldn’t carry you without making you bleed out, and he didn’t even know where you were. He was helpless.

“I’m so sorry, Spence,” you said softly, “I never-I never meant for you to get hurt.”

Spencer laughed incredulously, even though nothing had been less funny in his entire life, “You have nothing to be sorry about. You saved us,” he squeezed your hand and was rewarded with a weak smile from you, “you always save us,” he continued, even more gently, “Rick was right about that. You’ve been saving me for years.”

“And you've saved me right back,” you pointed out, your voice heavy with the effort of keeping your eyes open.

Spencer pressed his lips together, tears pouring down his cheek as he fought back sobs and silently prayed to a God he’d never believed in for some kind of miracle.

“But I can’t save you now,” he sobbed.

“No, but we can,” a third, familiar voice answered.

If Spencer had been any less shocked, he would have laughed at the timing of it all. As it was, he just stared into the eyes of his team as though he wasn’t sure they were real.

“MEDIC! We need a medic in here.” Derek Morgan continued, appearing in the doorway like the miracle he was and instantly taking control of the situation.

He scooped you up like you weighed nothing, carrying you out through the doorway just as Emily helped Spencer to his feet and slung his arm around her shoulders to help support his weight. Somewhere in the background Spencer could hear Hotch reading Connolly his rights, and Rossi making some comment about Rick wishing it had been a kill shot. Everything felt surreal, like some sort of fantasy or a hallucination he’d created to keep from having to lose you again, but he didn’t have the strength to fight it.

“Y/N,” he said softly as Emily handed him off to a nearby medic in the back of a waiting ambulance, “I need to see, Y/N. Please, is she alive?”

The medic gave him a sympathetic smile, bundling him onto a gurney, “I can’t let you see her, sir. They’re taking her straight to surgery.”

“But she’s alive?” Spencer insisted as the paramedics fussed and flitted around him.

The original medic nodded, “For now, she’s alive.”

----------------------- 

Taglist:  @ourfavoritesergeantbarnes, @confused-and-really-hungry, @word-scribbless, @reidloversisforever, @ashookykooky, @l0ve-0f-my-life, @shilohpug, @tangerinenotions95, @petitchatonbleu, @pirateismywayofspeaking, @must-be-a-weasley-92, @whovianayesha,  @holding-on-to-my-youth, @quie-pls, @fear-less-write-more, @astraea-writes, @mac99martin, @levylovegood, @easygoingtheatre, @purpleraindrops, @eevee0722, @bisexualdisaster106, @sgold, @openheart12, @poisondragon, @martinafigoli, @ellegreenawayapologist, @jasongideonapologist, @url-under-construction 

[spxcemuses]

@nighttbound asked: "Dracula, my dear! Hello! I am hosting a Halloween party," Nel smiled and extended an orange invitation to him between his fingers. "If you are available, I would be more than happy to see you there."

[ Random Ask ] | Always Accepting

The hotel manager was currently at the front desk, having just assigned a newlywed monster/human couple to their designated room. He gave a small sigh as the couple went up the stairs, snapping out of it when Nel had greeted him. Blue eyes look over to the orange invitation, going back to the other vampire before taking it from him. He held the envelope in his hand, feeling a little uncertain. The sentiment was nice, but Dracula was so busy with the hotel. How could he even fit it into his schedule? 

“ Hello, Nel! Thank you for the invitation...But I might have to check my schedule first. I, I mean-! ” “ I would like to go, but the hotel... It’ll be in shambles without me there. ” He placed the invitation down, hands placed over his face in exasperation. He simply was a workaholic, so it is going to take some time to pry him from his occupation. The vampire felt his heart race in anxiousness, dragging his hands down his face before clarifying what he meant.

“ Alright. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. That sounded like I didn’t care, and that’s not true. ” “ I will see what I can do to arrive at the party, especially if you are the one hosting it. Maybe Mavis can run the hotel for the night while I am gone. I trust her very much, you know. ”

[gloves94]

To Be So Lonely [Draco Malfoy] 28

Rating: M Pairings: Draco Malfoy/OC Chapter warnings: Drug use! SuicideMentions! SlightGore! Violence! Death! Depression!

CHAPTER MASTERLIST

MY MASTER-LIST

The dull oatmeal might as well have been sawmill dust. It was just one of those days that felt duller than the last. Lately for Nel it had kind of been like that. She shot a woeful look at the empty seats across from her where Tracey would usually be joking around and Daphne talking about her latest work of art. Letting out an exhausted sigh, she turned her attention to The Daily Prophet which was next to her breakfast. She didn’t care much for the articles but attempted to keep her mind busy from the fact both her best friends weren’t speaking to her and the horrible holiday she would have to spend with her cruel guardian, Cloelia Lestrange, and her psychotic adoptive brother.

“This has to stop,” A voice interrupted. Nel looked up to see Theodore quickly sit in front of her. He looked over his shoulder making sure his girlfriend wasn’t around to witness him threading with the ‘enemy.’ “Nel, this is absurd, just apologize for whatever you did and make up with Daphne and Trace. I can’t be looking over my shoulder like this every time I talk to you.”

For somebody who knew a lot about everything, Theodore didn’t know much about people.

“You know Daphne is upset because of what you did and well, I think Tracey is just hurt,” He expanded.

Her dark eyes fixed on him with no expression. Theo was acting worse than the girls. He was acting like a two-faced bitch. Sneaking around when interacting with the orphan girl so he wouldn’t upset Daphne. Nel didn’t know what was worse his cowardness or his willingness to do anything for his girlfriend. She secretly prayed never to be that pathetically whipped.

It was then that the rest of the Slytherin’s arrived and Theodore scampered away to take a seat with them. To make matter’s worse Pansy’s loud laughter and cheerier attitude at the new company she kept was the cherry on top. Part of the reason she didn’t want to speak to them was – yes, because of the whole telling Dumbledore her story, but the other half of it… The Dark Lord wanted to kill her. He had placed a bounty on her head. The Lestranges knew it, so did Mr. Malfoy, she eyed her friends from a distance. This time her gaze shifting into a suspicious one. Just how much did they really know? How much had they overheard during dinners with their families? Eyes moving across the room she looked at the Headmaster who seemed distracted in a hearty conversation. Dumbledore’s façade of being a kind, sweet, twinkly eyed, old man became more corrupt as time passed by and she saw the ugliness in him. He definitely knew. There was absolutely no way he didn’t.

Looking all the way across the Great Hall she saw the Gryffindor table. The House she initially wished she had been sorted into. She could see Harry half away struggling to keep his eyes open spilling some pumpkin juice on his uniform. Hermione lecturing from a thick book and Ron trying to help Harry stay awake. They were her friends, too right? They were nice to her, so were some of the other Weasleys. But what if they didn’t really like her? What if they only talked to her because they felt sorry for her? Anxiety pricked at her and her insecurities. They hadn’t spoken in a while, maybe they hated her too. Elowen was so engrossed in her own dark cloud of anxious thought that she didn’t realize the second boy that noticed the anxious look on her face from across the room and decided to join her for breakfast this morning taking a seat across from her.

He sat down confidently with an easy smile resting his elbows on the table and greeted her. “What are you doing?” She asked wide-eyed and surprised self-consciously turning to see the dozens of prying eyes that were staring at the two. “Everyone can see us!” She asked wide-eyed.

“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” Cedric let out a charming laugh. She looked greatly frustrated at his unannounced appearance. They were supposed to keep their partnership down and under the wraps, it simply made everything less complicated. “We haven’t discussed the Third Task yet. What are we going to do?” He leaned forward with interest, his elbows resting on the table.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” She admitted sincerely. “I haven’t really thought about anything lately,” She said miserably slumping her head on one of her palms. She hadn’t even been in the mood to have any sweets she might encounter. For some reason there had been a lot of pear tarts around her as of the late. However, she didn’t fancy them.

“You don’t look too excited,” He noted observing her obviously upset demeanor. She neither agreed nor disagreed with his statement. “Say, what do you want to be when you grow up?” He tried shifting the subject. “A menace to society,” Nel droned out numbly. Cedric couldn’t help but laugh, “You know, I’m going to be Ministry of Magic one day,” He boasted with pride. Being in a foul mood Nel fought the urge to roll her eyes of course the golden boy wanted to be Ministry of Magic. How could she have forgotten that?

She didn’t even hear what he said after that. Somehow the conversation quickly shifted back to the Tri-Wizard Tournament and the Third Task. “Meet me at the Room of Requirement tonight, I’ll see you there after prefect duty,” he leaned forward and whispered before leaving.

The school year was near its end. It was almost the Tri-Wizard tournament so the two really had to get cracking to find out what they were going up against and properly strategize. That meant Nel also had only a few weeks to make up with her friends. Turning her head, she hoped to meet Tracey’s brown eyes from across the dining table however, the Quidditch player seemed more focused on whatever Millicent was gossiping about.

Nel thought she hadn’t done anything wrong, she was sure, more than certain about it. She even hadn’t gone out of her way to make some elaborate plan for vengeance yet, despite this she felt the need to apologize. Even Theodore had advised her to apologize, but for what? She hadn’t done anything wrong. What would she apologize for? For not wanting to come forward to Dumbledore in fear of retaliation from the Lestrange family? For lying to the Headmaster? If anything they had done her wrong. They had gone and babbled her story. It was hard, but she had to remind herself she wasn’t the antagonist in this situation.

Once again looking forward across the room her eyes accidentally met an icy pair this time. She looked away quickly, if she had moved any faster her neck would’ve probably snapped. Suddenly, she couldn’t be in the same room as her attacker any longer. Quickly picking up her belongings she rushed to her first class of the day.  

She rushed out of the Great Hall and was about to reach the stairs when a handheld her back, the grip stern, not gentle or too harsh. She already knew who it was.

“Hello Elowen,” She was pulled back and cornered trapped in between a body and the wall with a stretched arm. Keeping her eyes down her jaw clenched when she saw the bottom of a Beauxbaton eggshell blue uniform pants. Impulsively she pushed past him and tried to walk away but the long boy didn’t flinch at her violent shove.

“I want to speak to you,” He spoke in a smooth voice cornering her further into the small space he had created in between the wall. “I want to give you something.” He spoke suspiciously scratching the tip of his nose, no doubt from having been snorting dragonpuffs.

It was the type of interaction which was downright ugly. Snape had already confirmed the girl’s worst fears. Ellar was planning something vile. So was his mother. Now all she needed to do was prove it. Prove it and find a way to escape going to their home this summer. She knew the moment she crossed the door she was as good as dead, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Stay away from me!” She spat once again attempting to rush past him. “Elowen come on,” Again, he spoke in an unstrained and eerily calm voice. “I’m late for class,” She snapped ignoring him. “History of Magic can wait,” He said senselessly. Nel tried to catch the eye of anybody passing by. She hoped someone would see and help her get out of this trap. “How do you expect me to talk to you after everything you’ve done to me?”

“Everything I’ve done?” He let out a cool laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” He ran a hand through his shinny dark hair. “No ide-“ She coughed incredulously eyes widening in disbelief at what she was hearing. “You forced yourself on me, pushed me into the lake and tried to drown me!” She exclaimed, voice breaking at the admission. “You’re imagining things,” He didn’t bat an eyelash. “I didn’t do that,” He lied with terrifying ease.

“Yes, you did!” She spat back in a firm voice.

“You must be confused,” His eyes narrowed, and he looked at her as if she was the one acting insane. “We went down there just to talk, we started dancing-“ “Against my will,” She interrupted. He didn’t stop his manipulative narrative. “You fell in and I tried to get you out. In a moment of rush, I can understand how that can get confusing,” He smiled at her and even had the audacity to flick her nose in a playful manner. “Here, I got you something,” He said pulling up a small brown pastry box with a pear tart inside. She smacked his hand and the stupid tart away making it fall to the floor and looked at him furiously.   “You could’ve killed me!” “Elowen,” He shook his head, ignoring the pastry she had rejected or her livid expression. She hated the way he said her name stretching it out like a long drawl he was too lazy to properly pronounce. “Stop twisting things,” He clicked his tongue remaining composed. “Do you hear yourself talk? I didn’t do that. You need help,” He let out a chilling laugh as he gaslight the hell out of the Fourth-Year girl.

She knew he was lying, but why did he sound so certain? There was no way somebody had used a Polyjuice potion to imitate him. There was no  absolute way he had someone posing as him at Hogwarts. No way he was telling the truth. So, if she knew he was lying why did she find herself doubting her own memory? “And even then, it’s your fault for going down to the docks and falling in the water.”

“I didn’t fall-“ She stammered, deciding to stick to the facts she knew. “You pushed me.”

He flashed her an irritated look as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. Elowen was beginning to question herself. Was she actually imagining things?

The hallway was now empty and Nel was officially late for class. “Don’t be unhappy,” He lifted her chin up with a finger and she jerked her head away not wanting to meet his eyes. “Watch the Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with me.” This time she looked at him in the eye. “No. This is the last time I ask you. Leave me alone,” she warned him before giving him a hearty shove that made him stagger back on his feet. Ellar stood back racking his brain for any idea to once again seize an emotional grip of control over the girl. He had really messed up at the Yule Ball. He should’ve sucked it up and strung her along for the rest of the year. How could he get her to stop walking away from him? To once again succumb to his will and squeeze her under his thumb. He needed her to attend the Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with him. After all, it was all part of the plan. “I just asked you to go steady and you walk away from me?” He followed. To be clear he didn’t ask, it was just another of his demands. “Nobody’s going to want to go with you just like nobody wanted to go with you to the Yule Ball,” He didn’t stop there when she realized the brunette continued to ignore his calls. “And Malfoy?” He let a rueful laugh aiming for where he knew it would hurt. The mentioning of her friend’s name brought her to a sudden halt. Ears automatically perking at the mention of his surname. “You think he’d ever be interested in a nobody like you? An orphan girl with no past, present or future?” He laughed, this time cruelly. “Please, Elowen, he’s only toying with you,” He said rounding around her his hand touching her back and caressing around her arm and shoulder. “But you already knew that didn’t you?”

She didn’t want to think about that… “Then again, he did strike me like a muggle. That brute. Perhaps, vulgar really is his style,” he chuckled. She smacked his arm away from her body and held her books closer to her body as she shrunk her shoulders forward. He side stepped around her this time and stood in front of her blocking her way. She continued to shrink under his intense gaze.

“You’re not pretty, you’re not smart, not even darling or graceful in any way shape or form without an ounce of elegance-“ “I already told you to stay away from me,” Her jaw was beginning to hurt from clenching it so tightly. Eyes beginning to sting. Why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Why did he have to be so cruel? Why couldn’t she see past the fear and find the strength to attack him with all of her bloody rage? “Who told you to say that?” He spoke in a low voice. “Your friends? The ones who don’t even like you?”

She was at a loss of words.

“They don’t know what’ good for you,” He paused. “But I do,” he insisted. His voice dripping like a bittersweet honey, the type that lingers in flytraps ready to capture an innocent passing by fly. How can someone be so damn fucking twisted? Who did this guy think he was?

“God, Ellar, you’re such a-“ She couldn’t even manage to get the word out. “You’re such a-“ As much as she pondered on picking the perfect word only one word came to mind. Ellar didn’t have a moment to react little by little a headache he had been feeling evolved into a migraine as his head began to swell and grow larger and larger until it inflated into large balloon. “You’re such a fat head!” She stomped her foot down and whipping her wand out of the inside of her sleeve zapped his back as he scurried away spitting out a trail of curses. His small body tipping from side to side as he struggled to keep his bobble head up. She would have to deal with whatever his mother would do to her over the holiday when the time came. Frustrated she wiped the one tear that had managed to escape.  

“Nel?”

‘Oh Merlin, really? Now what?’ Spinning on her heel she turned to face Harry Potter with her wand still held high and up. “Are you alright?” He asked with a confused look on his face. Shouldn’t he be in History of Magic? “Oh, er- yeah,” She lied wiping at the tip of her nose and slid her pale wand up her sleeve. “Was he bugging you?” By now Harry knew that Saintday kept these types of things to herself. The abuse, the bullying- He understood why, probably better than anybody else at Hogwarts and decided not to press about it today. However, things like this he couldn’t ignore. His green eyes remained looking in the direction in which Ellar had turned and vanished into. “I took care of him already,” She muttered looking down at her cheap black shoes. Suddenly she didn’t feel like going to class anymore.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Really?” Harry pressed. Why couldn’t she confide in him? Why didn’t she really trust him? She would rather be alone that reach out to him, Fred, George or anyone really. Of course, he had noticed the girl’s aloofness as of the late and what was that whole thing in the morning? Cedric Diggory having a word with her. “I think the question is, how are you Harry? I’m sure dealing with the Tri-Wizard Tournament has been bad enough as it is. Tell me,” She crossed her arms and approached him immediately switching the topic of conversation with ease. “What are you going to do with all that fame and glory?” She arched an eyebrow somewhat still bitter that Harry was allowed to enter the tournament and she hadn’t been. Harry frowned at her comment. He couldn’t tell if she was being spiteful or not. “I don’t care for either,” The Boy Who Lived admitted humbly.   Funny, considering it would be something The Girl Who Died would kill for.

“Hm,” She pondered on that thought wishing she could be Harry. She didn’t know if to take him for a fool or appreciate his humility. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She teased cracking a false smile. Harry saw right through it. “You know,” He began. “We should go to Hogsmeade someday. As friends. I know you’re banned from the Three Broomsticks, but there’s other stuff to do. We can go to Zonko’s? Or Honeyduke’s?” He offered with a casual shrug.

So, Harry actually was her friend. She felt rather foolish for forgetting but with the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry and clouds of anxious thoughts it was easy to forget. “Hogsmeade sounds nice,” She smiled at him sincerely. Harry was about to respond when someone bumped into his back shoving him forward. Irritated he turned to see Malfoy swaggering down the steps standing next to him shooting daggers at him. His eyes seemed to shout, ‘Shove it!’ Without acknowledging Potter, Draco turned to look at the girl. Harry returned the death stare.

“I’ll-uh, see you later Harry,” Nel broke the tense silence between the three bidding the Gryffindor goodbye subtly asking him for some space. “Yeah,” Harry looked between them. “Maybe at Hogsmeade,” He said purposely knowing it would irritate Malfoy to no end. He waved at her before walking away in the direction of Professor Moody’s classroom.

“Hogsmeade?” Draco exclaimed. “I heard you were with bad company, but Potter? Out of all people,” He combed his hair away from his forehead and shook his head. “And you’re going to Hogsmeade with him?”

She didn’t answer and kept her arms crossed looking at him with an irritated expression. They were just going as friends but that was none of his business.

“I’ve been with worse company,” She shot at him remembering that the time the two had attended together.

Ouch.

Despite the jab he let out a throaty chuckle. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” He asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” She shot back irritated that her hostile comment hadn’t made him upset. “Seems hardly fair you get to skip while the rest of us have to deal with Binns incessant rambling?”

Touché. “What is it to you if I’m in class or not?” She sighed pessimistically before walking away towards the Slytherin dormitory. The morning had been way too long. She didn’t want to think about anything Ellar had said to her. The thought of crawling into bed and laying in a fetal position underneath the covers passing the day by doing nothing was very tempting. “Davis and Greengrass still giving you a hard time?” He changed the topic both of his eyebrows knitting, the edges of his mouth pulling down in a frown. He sounded genuinely concerned, but then again- did he really care? She wanted to block him out of her head, but Ellar’s hurtful words sounded back like an echo: “He’s only toying with you.” She remained quiet her answer was her silence.

“I’m waiting,” the blonde said impatiently.  

Exasperated she didn’t mean to explode but she did. “What’s there to say?” She paced around the corridor walking back to him. “My best friends won’t even look at me- I get harassed by Lestrange first thing in the morning and now!” She didn’t’ mean to raise her voice. “Now youwon’t let me skip the most boring class at Hogwarts!”

“It’s not even noon and I just want today to be over with! I just want to lay down and die,” She shouted frustrated.

It took her a moment to compose herself from her loud tantrum and depressive statement. “Are you done?” He cocked an eyebrow up.

She felt her blood begin to boil. Why was he invalidating her emotions like that? She was about to push him away just like she had done to Ellar, like she did to everyone when he interrupted her in a surprisingly cool tone.

“I’ll take care of it,” He said cooly trying to reassure the girl. She was more than perplexed by his statement. Taken aback she looked at him oddly. Just what did he mean by that? “Just like I took care of Lestrange.” “Huh?” Slowly she could feel her anger begin to melt away. A mischievous smile grew on his face before he began to walk away. Purposely leaving her to wonder just what he had done.

“Draco?” She asked in awe. “What did you do?”

“Wouldn’t you love to know,” he let out a low laugh and walked away leaving a very confused Slytherin girl behind.

Xxx

Nel never apologized to Tracey or to Daphne. She knew that sometimes it was best to yield and bend a knee in these types of circumstances. However, this time she would not apologize. It was her story and they had taken that away from her.

It didn’t help that since she had been seen with Ellar that day some of the Slytherin girls began to call her nasty synonyms like victim, tease, and attention-seeker, slut was also on that list.

She tried not to let it bother her. Words hurt, even if she had sworn she didn’t care what anybody else thought. Not that any of them would ever say it to her face considering how scared they all were of her.

It was nearly the end of the year. After having spent all morning long packing her belongings and getting ready to return to her guardian, something which she had been terribly dreading, Nel decided to head to the Great Hall to have a late breakfast alone before going to the greenhouse to spend the rest of the day with Nathair. It wasn’t like she had much interest in bidding goodbye to anybody else. Maybe to Professor Snape and a few others, but it wasn’t urgent. Besides, everybody and their mother would be viewing the last task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

“Saintday!” A voice interrupted her alone time and her meal. “There you are the tournament is about to begin!” It was Professor Moody. It looked like he had been running around the castle. For some reason he looked more agitated than per usual.

“So?” She shot back rudely. Not caring if her attitude caused her some lost points for Slytherin or landed her in some detention. At this point she was beyond that.

“All students must attend the tournament,” He repeated again. The edge of his mouth twitching oddly. His eye unnervingly shaking as it focused on her deep frown. “That’s not true,” She mumbled taking a mouthful of cereal. “Professor Snape said I could stay in the castle,” She lied.

Not to mention the fact she was also avoiding bidding Cedric and Harry good luck. Not because she didn’t wish it upon them, but because she really didn’t know what to say to either of them. Sometimes words were, well, hard. “No students are allowed in the castle without supervision. Tournament now,” He leaned down to try and meet her eyes, but she ignored him. Before she knew it, he had aggressively lifted her by the arm and dragged her out of the empty Great Hall. The cereal spoon she had in her mouth dropping halfway as the two made way to the arena.

“Get your hands off me,” She whipped her arm back to her person. By now she had an idea that the retired Auror had more than unconventional, perhaps even unorthodox methods of teaching, but she drew the line when it came to physical boundaries.

He led her all the way to the arena and all the way there he complained about ungrateful, slimy orphans, or something amongst those lines. Arriving to the arena she realized that it was actually the Quidditch pitch which had been modified to resemble a massive auditorium with tall stands so that everyone could see the tournament. It seemed like the Third Task had not been what her and Cedric had been imagining. It was a massive maze of hedges that were at least 20 foot high. The maze was filled with dangers and traps and in the middle from the distance one could see a bright celestial glow – the Triwizard cup. The first to reach it would be the winner of the tournament. This was it – the moment her and Cedric had been waiting for all year.

It seemed like the Third Task hadn’t started yet.

She sat far away from everyone on Ravenclaws’ side. The students didn’t seem to mind her presence. Cedric’s girlfriend Cho was in the group and the two shared a friendly wave. Distracted by this, she didn’t notice the Slytherins watching her from the distance.

She sat in the top corner towards the end where she could hopefully be invisible for the time being. Little by little she was starting to understand Professor Snape more and more. She understood his aloofness, why he dressed and acted like a wet bat, always trying to camouflage every day. She looked at him from across the pitch, he was sitting with the Headmaster and other professors in a private box. “If we were up any higher, we’d have nosebleeds,” a voice interrupted her wish of being aloneand train of thoughts. Sulking Simon, she acknowledged the ghost boy. Maybe his company was more than appropriate.

“We?” She asked. “Simon, you don’t bleed,” She let out a humorous snort. Everything was fine until the ghost began ranting, moaning and sulking about his status as a lost soul in this cruel and very dull world. “I mean, I don’t even like Quidditch that much, and I’m stuck here. It makes me want to dieall over again.” Avoiding him, really not feeling charitable enough to help a poor soul cross to the other side Nel walked down the stands and instead took a seat next to a blonde girl that had a dazed look on her face and was eyeing a bird that was flying over the arena. She didn’t pay much mind to the bird. She was just grateful this girl didn’t talk. She sat pretending not to hear Simon calling at her from the highest stands in the seating area.

“Saintday,” Malfoy who had been watching her from the distance approached her. “Malfoy,” the other greeted emotionlessly. “Why on Earth are you sitting with the Ravenclaws?” He half sneered looking at his surroundings with disdain.

Nel shrugged. She just wanted to be alone. She was mourning her last hours of freedom before she had to return to La Maison de Lestrange. She also didn’t feel like sitting together with the Slytherins. What was the point? Why would she put herself through the martyrdom of attempting to capture her friend’s attention through pleading looks of pity?

“Come on,” Draco tossed his head back cooly.

“No, I think I’m okay, I’ll just sit here and cheer,” she said in the most uncheerful tone hoping he would go away, and she could simply return to her silence.

“It’s because of them, isn’t it?” He realized looking back at her friends.

Before Elowen had a chance to answer Malfoy grumbled a mysterious “I’ll be back,” before leaving.

Once he was gone, Nel let out a heavy sigh. She wasn’t expecting him to be back any time soon. And finally, it was silent. Nobody would speak to her. All she had to do was sit tight, watch the task and hope that Cedric came in first place.

“You know, it’s bad luck to see nightjars in the daylight,” The girl sitting next to her spoke in a soft voice. Nel ignored her hoping she would stop talking or go away. She didn’t.

“They’re an omen of death.” She continued with an eerie soothing tone that contrasted her morbid statement. Looking at her closely she realized who it was.

Great – Out of all people she had to end up sitting next to Looney Lovegood. Momentarily distraught, she didn’t feel the presence creep up behind her.

“Hello, Elowen,” The silky voice made her body turn stiff. With an abrupt flinch she slapped the owner of the voice by swatting her arm over her shoulder. She didn’t stop to see his reaction simply stood up and walked away.

“I’m glad you made it,” Ellar said strained trying to keep his temper in check, rubbing his wounded nose. He snorted and sniffed right afterwards cleaning his nostrils from any leftover substance.

“Bloody fuggin hell,” She exclaimed vulgarly her temper leaping from zero to hundred. “Merlin,” She growled out pulling out at the roots of her hair in stress. “Leave me alone!”

God all she wanted to do was be alone and stay alone in the stupid castle and marinate in the misery and little time that was left of her few hours of freedom. She noticed Moody standing near the exit of the stands. He had witnessed the entire interaction and hadn’t even flinched. Why hadn’t he come and jinxed Lestrange just like he had done to Malfoy earlier in the year? Frustrated she decided to head the opposite way, descending down the stairs of the stands heading down underneath them.

Walking underneath the stands she followed the trail which led to the Champion’s Tent. However, hearing a creak she stopped and turned, but didn’t see anyone behind.

It was suspicious. “Where are you going?” Simon suddenly appeared levitating besides her. “Away,” She grumbled pessimistically. “You know the champions’ tent is on the other side, right?” There was no use in avoiding it, but maybe there was just no going around it. She’d have to face Cedric and Harry eventually. “Thanks,” She said shortly, not lengthening the conversation but not dismissing him either.  She walked a long way, he hovered slightly behind. Once outside of the champions’ tent she assumed the participants were probably being interviewed by the media and preparing for the task.

She stood outside anxiously fidgeting for a moment and took a huge breath.

“You know it’s for champions only, right?” Simon said. “rules are for fools,” She scoffed self-importantly suddenly feeling some of the nervousness melt away as she pushed the tarp away and stepped in. She ignored the “Champions only!” Shout that came from a blonde journalist in the back.

All four champions turned to look at the intruder. “Nel!” Harry was the first to approach her. He was wearing a sporty long sleeve maroon shirt that was half black. “What are you doing here?” He asked surprised. “Harry,” She exhaled the breath she had been holding. Her dark eyes darted from Harry’s green to meet her friend’s across on the other side of room. “I just came to wish you good luck.” She really did. Even if her money was running on Cedric. “If you get lost, remember to keep your hand to the right, and eventually you’ll find your way out,” She advised wisely.

“Thanks, good advice,” He nodded looking exhausted. “You’ll do great, I know it,” She slapped his arm stating the end of the brief conversation. She turned to Cedric. ‘Harry already had made a name for himself, fame, fortune… Why not give somebody else a chance? It would be selfish of him not to do so’, she thought to herself with bitter resentment.

“Nel, you came,” Cedric looked pleasantly surprised as he approached the two students. Harry looked between the Hufflepuff and the Slytherin peculiarly. He had only seen the two of them interact a handful of times. However, after seeing the two in the Great Hall he decided to keep a close eye on them using the Marauder’s Map. To his surprise he found the two would sometimes vanish off the map. Not only that but they also spent a conspicuous amount of time together. Alone.

‘But wasn’t Cedric with Cho?’

Harry looked at them, it didn’t look like that type of relationship to him. However, with Saintday- it was always hard to tell these kinds of things.

The Chosen one pretended to busy himself with warming up and stepped away from the two.

“I’ll admit,” She began timidly. “I wasn’t going to come,” She admitted with discomfort, “Yet, here I am.”

A normal person would’ve perhaps taken offense to this but not Cedric. Instead, he chuckled at this. It was one of the great things about him, one of the things that made him so cool and easy going in the eyes of well, practically everyone. “I can’t believe you weren’t going to come bid your favorite person good luck,” he shook his head still wearing an askew smile that was perfect on him. This time it was her turn to laugh. “You? My favorite person?” “It’s been a pleasure Diggory, but I’m afraid this has all been business, not personal,” She joked stretching out her hand to him like partners usually did at the end of a successful business deal. Both shared a laugh. “Good luck. You’ve got it in the bag!”

Cedric smiled back and stretched out his hand to shake hers. However, instead, he pulled her into a hug. The girl wasn’t surprised by the gesture, she welcomed it and hugged her friend back. “Whatever happens Nel,” Cedric said pulling away. “If I win or lose, we’ll still be friends, right?” She wanted to joke and say that hadn’t been a plan of their business deal but chose not to. She was in a lonely moment of time, scarce in friends, and Cedric was a very good one at that. “Why wouldn’t we be?” She arched an eyebrow acting perplexed at his question.

“Good,” He nodded. “Because I’m going to need some eyes and ears in Gringotts when you get there. Specially since I’ll be working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement starting this summer,” he boasted.

His friend couldn’t help but be genuinely happy for her. He was one step closer in the long way to accomplishing his goal as the next Ministry of Magic. She congratulated him and their moment was interrupted when a loud announcement was made indicating it was time for the champions to take their positions in their designated areas of the maze.

“Good luck everyone!” She said in general to all, including Viktor and Fleur. “I’ll see you on the other side!” Cedric waved as he began to walk away. “Oh, and Nel?” He paused on his step. “Be good?” He chuckled heartily before exiting the tent the opposite way.

To the Slytherin’s surprise Harry lingered behind.

“You’ll do fine,” She gave him a half side hug. “See you on the other side,” She exited the tent.

Walking out of the tent and underneath the tall stands she looked for Simon, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she saw Professor Moody approaching the tent. The scowl on his face was deeper than usual and his walk was rushed. He did not look pleased.

“Oh, the task is about to start,” She explained. “I was just returning to-“ She ducked barely dodging a nasty hex the professor had cast in her direction. Her shocked mind barely had time to register when he again tried to hex her.

“Immobulus,” He spat. “Protego!” She blocked with swiftness.

“Professor,” She was tongue tied. There was no time to ask questions. Mad-Eye was lashing all kinds of spells in her direction. The attacks weren’t calculated yet weren’t sporadic either.

Nel took what she had said in the beginning of the year. So far, they had had a mass murderer, an idiot and a werewolf as a professor. This was a surprise – she hadn’t dealt with a psychopath before.

Taking back steps, she looked up the tall ceiling where people were sitting down witnessing the tournament. All oblivious to the hell that was being raised literally underneath their noses. “Help!” She shouted loudly hoping anybody would see her, would hear her. She shouted again until she backed up to a wooden rod that held the stadium up.

She raised her wand ready to cast any spell to the ceiling of people. Maybe then somebody would- “Incarcerous!” Like serpents, thorny ropes magically appeared and crawled over her body binding her with knots. Collapsing to the side her heart began to pound, she spat at the dirt she bit when she fell and attempted to blow a strand of hair off her face. She could see Mad-Eye’s limp legs approaching her.

“Filthy brat,” He walked over to her. Kneeling down he grabbed a fistful of hair with his good hand he turned her to the side roughly, “Scum,” he grumbled pulling on her hair making the student wince. She wanted to ask what he wanted. What his vile intentions were but suddenly couldn’t find her voice. She was looking at the man with hatred when a sudden zip knocked him back. Only then did she hear “Plumbum rectio!”

‘What was that spell?’ She could hear the footsteps crunching the ground below. Eyes peeled, shocked she looked up to see a boy holding his wand out looking down at Moody with a sneer. “Crucio!” He cursed without mercy making the older man writhe in uncontrollable pain. The ropes around her loosened and wiggling out of them she staggered to her feet she looked down at the horrifying scene. Strings of saliva, bulging veins and a twitching tongue were all in an irrepressible spasm as the man groaned and grit his teeth in terrible ache at the torment.

This had to stop. “Stop it!” She shoved the boys arm roughly.

Without removing his eyes from the professor, still wearing a sickly-sweet smile, he shot a final spell at Professor Moody making his body twitch one last time before becoming stiff.

Elowen looked at him with disbelief.

“I told you to stick by my side, didn’t I?” Ellar said gruffly closing the space between them and wrapping an arm around her side leading her away.

Panic and fear ridden she took his side without question as they walked away in rushed strides. “We have to find a professor! We Have to tell Professor Snape!” She looked over her shoulder to see that Mad-Eye was still laying limp on the dirt. “No,” He snapped harshly reaching for her hand. “It’ll only make things worse,” he said before once again leading the way. “How do you know there’s not more like him around? How do you know Snape isn’t with him? Or Dumbledore for a matter of fact.” Her mind was still processing what had happened. He was right, what if there were more people like Moody around the school grounds holding a wicked intent. “I mean- you don’t even know what that man was going to do to you. Do you ever use your head Elowen? Do you ever think?” He snapped cruelly making the girl flinch away from him, but his grip on her shoulder remained tight. “I know what to do,” he spoke without emotion.

Maybe he was right. Maybe he did have the best intentions after all. He wouldn’t have saved her and attacked Moody if he didn’t, right? But then again – he had tried to drown her earlier in the year. Snape had even admitted to her that the Lestranges had some evil plan in the works. So why trust him? Glancing over her shoulder she caught sight of the professor’s silhouette still laying down in the distance.

“Elowen, listen to me,” His tone was threatening. She started to step away from him, but he closed the space between them. “The only safe way out of here is through the maze. It’s dangerous out there,” He reasoned with a flawed logic that seemed to only make sense to him.

Going into the maze? Was he insane?

“It’s the safest place,” He insisted. “Somebody will see us there. We can hide! We don’t know who else is coming-“ He hurried towards her side, trying to take her hand in his, but she would not allow it. Her gust twisted at the thought of following him. All of her instincts should at her not to follow the boy into the maze.

“You,” a third voice made the two students turn their heads back. Before them stood Simon his translucent eyes were wide. He looked struck, almost as if he had been split by lightning. Eyes wide, thin jaw slack, the ghost remained frozen. ‘What was wrong with him?’ Nel turned to look back at Ellar who wore a contrasting nasty grin on his face. Unlike the ghost, he seemed pleased. Almost as if he was enjoying this.

“Sulking Simon. Hufflepuff died a couple of years ago. Some say it was a Quidditch accident, others say there was more to it,” She remembered Draco had said to her once. "I used to be the Slytherins Seeker and there was an accident," She remembered Ellar sharing. "They were looking for a scapegoat and well, there I was," She could still remember the way he oh-so innocently claimed to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh! And the worst part is that she believed him! “I-It was you,” She looked at him horrified. “You killed him!” Slowly she began stepping away from him creating as much distance as she could between the two. She looked in between the two males. “Nothing about your death was an accident. Was it?” She asked Simon who was rendered speechless. Triggers and lost memories of the night he lost his life came flooding back to the ghoul.

“Big deal,” Lestrange broke the silence with a loud scoff. “I had to prove myself to him,” he began. “Alas, my range of devotion was limit due to my schooling so I did what I could best. I began cleansing Hogwarts of the impure. Filthy blood mixed among us not worth the teachings of Sacred Salazar!” He shouted. “You tricked me,” Fuming Simon finally snape. “You tricked me into coming to the pitch at night and then used me to play your sick little game with your friends!” He rolled up his sleeves showing his twisted limbs and fractured bones. “Eighty-six fractures in my body!” Nel winced at the horrific sight, she couldn’t even imagine what Ellar and his accomplices had put Simon through. It sounded like they got away scat free by making it seem like Simon had fallen off a broom. “And there’s nothing you or anyone can do to prove it,” He threatened with a smug smirk with his crooked wand raised.

Nel felt nauseous. How had he conned her so easily? How had he done it again and lured her to this place and almost inside of the maze? Lying was a part of Ellar’s nature, just like violence was, it was a weed that had long been ingrained into his core by the environment he was brought up in. Yet, he was beyond the point of saving. At this point, he had no remorse, no conscience. She didn’t want to stick around and find out why he wanted her to go into the maze with him. “Simon,” Nel mouthed, her movements calculated as she waited to attack or deflect. The ghost waited. “Get help.”

Simon left.

And just like that- like a coin he flipped. Wands raised at each other, Nel wasn’t fast enough to deflect the silent Imperio curse he cast upon her. Just like his mother, he didn’t need to vocalize it.

Ellar smirked, pleased when he saw Saintday’s body tremble against her will as she dragged her feet towards him slowly until she was standing before him. A cross look on her face as she appeared to be struggling to fight back the curse. It was useless.

“Y-You’re a murderer,” she spat through a stiff jaw.

More than pleased and feeling haughty he opened his palm for her to hand her wand to him. “See? That wasn’t too bad,” He smiled before brushing her lose hair over her shoulder. Being close enough she socked him square in the nose. He bent down in pain feeling the hot rush of blood coming down his nostrils. God, that felt good. “Sniff that!” She shouted.

Heaving, quickly ducking for her wand Nel ran as fast as she could hoping to reach the stairs at the end of the underneath the stands. Her pounding, mind racing, consistently looking over her shoulder on the offense. It didn’t take the Beauxbaton student to catch up. She could see flashes of red as he casted aggressive dark spells in her direction. This time she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

“They’re an omen of death,” She remembered Lovegood saying early. She cursed the omen, did this mean her time had come?

Again, looking over her shoulder, she was so close to reaching the stairs, so close- when she stumbled on a wooden block and collapsed face first into the ground. The friction of the rocky roughly scraping her skin.

Ellar was unstoppable. She winced turning around to feel a sharp pain shoot up her ankle. He was getting closer, so close he lunged at her and in her moment of fear casted the only spell that came to mind.

“Expecto Patronus!”

A manic grin grew on the boy’s lips. It was useless. Instead, he was not expecting the creature that came out of the wand to be dark. Dozens of night jars shaped orbs of darkness surrounded him engulfing the boy in a whirling haze of energy sucking entities which rendered him weak and made him collapse on the ground. Again, struggling to her feet, she didn’t dare stop to see if he was fine or not. Instead, she limped towards the end. The stairs were closer now. Where was help? Why wasn’t anyone coming? Where was Simon? Finally reaching the entrance of the stairs she stopped to catch her breath and attempt to fix her wounded ankle. Leaning against the frame’s entrance she was about to cast the charm when she was unable to move her hand.

Stunned, her petrified body collapsed in a full bind.

She fell to the floor stiff, helplessly trying to find her attacker and when she did, she saw Professor Moody straightening out his ragged coat licking his chapped lips.

“Now, you’re coming with me,” was all he said before everything turned black.

Xxx

Alastor Moody barged inside of the Defense Against Dark Art’s Office. He tossed the student that limped like a ragdoll on a chair in the corner of the room. Her head lolled to the side as she struggled to regain consciousness. A haze of dark blurs blinded her dazed vision.

“You got lucky, eh,” He said over his shoulder as he opened and closed several of his desk drawers shut as he scavenged for a powder. “Real, real, lucky.” Finding a small vial with white glittery powder he rushed back to the Slytherin’s side.

With a flick of his wand, a robust manilla rope magically appeared binding the girl’s arms and legs to the chair. Head still down as she struggled to remain conscious the man uncapped the small vial and waved the dust under her nostrils making the girls back straighten out like an arrow. Eyes wide, chest heaving, a full-on panic began to settle in as she racked her body from side to side in a struggle to escape the binds of the chair. From across the room, she could see her wand on Moody’s desk.

“It got late, real late,” Moody said flipping a small blade on his hand. “You’re of no use for the Dark Lord today.”

She was trembling like a leaf in the wind. Looking at him terrified. Her eyes glued to the knife the man was playing with.

“Let’s see now-“ He held on the blade tightly and leaned in close to her. His breath stunk of fluxweed, not alcohol like she had always imagined. His tongue poked out. “I want to taste your blood, your precious blood.”

The man before her suddenly began morphing. His face molded and disfigured before tightening into the one of a younger man. The all-seeing mechanical eye fell to the ground with a loud thud. A thin man with sharp face features whom Nel had never seen before towered over her. A compulsive twitch which made his tongue stick out of his mouth revealed his psychopathy and mental instability.  

She could’ve wet herself with fear. She didn’t even realize the door opened and closed.

“Was the Crucio really necessary?” He turned to look at Ellar Lestrange who had shut the door behind him and locked it as he approached the two.

Of course, the two bastards were in it together. “Had to sell it,” The other shrugged an invisible speck of dust off his shoulder. Without much of a care he pulled out a small, thin vial from his pocket, popped it open and snorted a hit of whatever was inside. “Want a hit?” He asked the man, who ignored him. “So, what are we going to do?” Ellar asked. “We can’t get her in there now that the Tournament has started.” “We wouldn’t have this issue if you hadn’t been so coked up on dragonspuff done what I instructed you to do since the beginning!” The other snapped. “Didn’t you slip her the amortensia that I gave you?” “I did! But she didn’t take it!” “Then who did?”

Both exchanged a look before looking back at their hostage. It had collapsed to the floor that time he had tried to give her that pear pastry. Sitting in her seat, with adrenaline pulsing through her system she watched the two males carefully and attempted to remember and memorize every single word they said. Struggling was futile. If they wanted to kill her, they would’ve done it already. She sucked in a deep breath as if she were going to sink and held it.   “What’chu starring at?” The man growled out raising his knife. “Wan’ me to poke an eye out?” He warned pressing the blade against the thin skin on the edge of her eye socket. She winced pressing her back against the top rail of the chair.       “Hold her,” He ordered, and Ellar pinned down her left arm. The man she did now know was Barty Crouch Junior undid the bindings of her left arm and rolled her sleeve up over her elbow. She struggled coughing a “No,” as the breath she had been holding escaped. Screaming, trying to kick, or fend for herself she failed. The knife dug into her forearm and tore her flesh down vertically in a long line opening her skin to pouring red ribbons. She cried out in pain as the blood began to seep out. Trembling and in tears the horrified child was rendered silent.

Ellar simply watched, Crouch could’ve been muttering something to himself gibberish or Latin, it was hard to tell. Elowen thought the pain was over, but it wasn’t, she let out the loudest most horrifying scream when the man dove and with his long, filthy, and twitchy tongue licked her open wound.

A loud pop echoed the room as the light fixtures violently exploded making glass rain. The curtains caught on fire, windows cracked, and a moment latter shattered. Books began tumbling outside of their spaces in the bookshelf and the door blasted open.

The men remained undisturbed by all the chaos in the room. Instead, their eyes were pinned to the poor girl’s horrified expression. “Try whatever you want, you’re not getting out of here anytime soon,” Crouch laughed evilly licking and wiping some of the smeared blood that stained his bottom lip and chin. Undisturbed, perhaps too drugged and numb Lestrange chuckled and seemed to waltz around the room before standing before a large trunk. Crouch stuck an arm behind the chair and dragged it with her body still on it. He dumped her inside of the trunk without much care. As if she were waste. “And – into the trunk you go,” Ellar singsong as he slammed the opening locking her alone in the darkness.  

[wickedxlovely]

ELENORA ( @mysticomplex​​ ) : “LOOK, IT’S THE QUEEN!” a fae shouted from the doorstop of his home, alerting the fair folk around as Cirilla entered the small village. It wasn’t unknown that the Seelie Queen did this, it was one of the things that her people admired about her. Unlike her mother who stuck to her own castle and court, Ciri took time out of her day to visit her people. It was one thing to hear about how her kingdom was fairing from her advisors and then another to see it herself, especially when the realm was shaken by the past few months. The Queen greeted her subjects with a smile as a crowd gathered, they in turn happy to see their Queen fairing well. It did not take long for the seelie to notice a familiar face not far away, observing her and the smile almost faltered from her face. She approached Elenora, her features delicate as their last encountered had not been very pleasant. “Hello, Nel,” she greeted, the nickname awkward on her tongue, but her smile was genuine, if not a bit sheepish. “Do you... do you have a moment?”

[ladyfogg]

Cold is the Night - 20/20 (Epilogue)

Cold is the Night - 20/20 (Epilogue)

Fic Summary: You and Pat have known each other for years but this summer, everything will change. As the two of you start to grow close, your matching tempers threaten the foundation of your rocky friendship and prevent both of you from realizing your true feelings. Cold is the Night Masterpost. 

Fic Song: Cold is the Night by The Oh Hellos. Fic playlist can be found here. 

The song in this chapter is Till the World Stops Turning by Kaleb Jones and is on the playlist.

Pairing: Pat Murray/Female Reader

Rating: NC-17

Warnings: Language, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut, Multiple Chapters

You stood in the bridal suite, staring at yourself in the mirror. 

Your dress was similar to the other bridesmaids, except for the trim, which signified that you were the Maid of Honor. Behind you, Nellie stepped out from behind the changing screen, her mother fastening her buttons.

"Nel, you look amazing," you gushed to your soon-to-be sister-in-law.

She smiled brightly before taking a deep breath. "I should have eaten something," she said. "I feel like I'm gonna faint."

"Got you covered, sis." You motioned to a tray of fruits, crackers, and cheeses you had ordered from the hotel kitchen. Gina stood by the table, a champagne flute ready and waiting for the bride as well.

Nellie gave you both a smile of relief. "You guys are the best."

"We know," Gina beamed.

There was a knock on the door and Gina answered it. She called your name and you went to see who it was.

Pat was in the hall looking fucking stunning in his tux. "Hey, beautiful," he said. "The groom wants to see you."

"Just a second." You motioned for Gina to help Nellie before you slipped out of the room. "You are wearing the hell out of that tux, Murray."

"Oh yeah? Like seeing me in a tux, do you?"

You definitely did. He had stayed with the guys the night before while Nellie and the girls had stayed and yours and Pat's place. It was the first time you had seen him all gussied up.

"I really do." You two had discussed eventually getting married but seeing him in a tux made the fantasy more tangible. But that was for another time. "How's Vinnie doing?"

"Nervous. He hasn't made a single joke all morning."

"Damn. I'll see if I can loosen him up."

Pat brought you to the groom's suite where Ty and Dells were just leaving. "Hey, bros. Step aside and let me handle this," you said.

"We'll go check-in and make sure the guests are being seated," Ty said.

Pat kissed your cheek and the three of them made their way to the banquet hall. You let yourself into Vinnie's room. 

Your brother stood in front of the mirror, fixing his cufflinks. "Hey, big brother. How are you doing?"

Vinnie turned around, giving you a nervous smile. "I might throw up."

"Don't. It's gross."

He chuckled nervously, fixing his suit jacket. "Well, it's almost time."

Smiling, you crossed the room to take his hands. "You and Nellie are amazing together. You're going to be so happy. I love you."

"Love you too," Vinnie said. "Who knows, maybe soon I'll be giving you a pep talk on your wedding day."

"Oh hush," you said, trying not to blush. "This isn't about me. It's your day."

"I mean it," Vinnie said. "I hope you and Pat will be as happy as Nel and I are."

You gave him a big hug, squeezing tightly. "Alright, showtime," you declared, pulling away. "I gotta go help the bride. Make sure you don't get lost on your way to the altar."

"I'll do my best."

The wedding was sensational. You were an emotional mess the whole time. Throughout the ceremony, you and Pat couldn't take your eyes off each other. He was smiling warmly, hazel eyes soft with love. 

At the reception, everyone had a blast. The food was delicious and the music was fantastic. You and Pat danced the night away. 

At one point, the music slowed and Pat grabbed your hand, pulling you close. "May I have this dance?"

"Always."

You slipped an arm around his shoulders while his free hand rested on your lower back. 

When your well is drying up, like a desert into dust

and there's no rain on the horizon, I'll be there to fill your cup

"Have I told you how much I love you?" Pat asked, kissing your knuckles. 

"Not today," you smirked. 

"Well, I love you more than anything in the world."

I will love you till the world stops turning, and ever after when it comes

And all the days between are left for learning, what this life's about

So I'll love you till the world stops turning round

Pat pulled you close, his forehead touching yours. He closed his eyes, losing himself in the moment. You followed his lead, ignoring everything else.

When your burdens weigh you down, like a cloud about to burst

Rest your head upon my shoulder, and I will carry all your hurt

I will love you till the world stops turning, and ever after when it comes

And all the days between are left for learning, what this life's about

So I'll love you till the world stops turning round

"I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you," you whispered.

Pat sucked in a deep breath before he leaned down and captured your lips in a gentle kiss.

When our bodies fall apart, a broken puzzle of the past

We can put it back together, cause honey all the good things left

I will love you till the world stops turning, and ever after when it comes

And all the days between are left for learning, what this life's about

So I'll love you till the world stops turning round

By the time the celebration came to an end, you were exhausted. Months of helping them prep and set up had been difficult. Pat helped you into his car and you dozed off before he even closed the door.

Pat drove towards home, quietly humming along to a song on the radio. The ride came to an end faster than you anticipated.

You opened your eyes, expecting to be in your driveway. Instead, a familiar field greeted you and you sat up, turning to Pat. "What are we doing here?"

"I'm feeling nostalgic," he said, putting the car in park. "Come on."

The night was chilly, still clinging to the last of winter. You found yourself cuddling close to your boyfriend for warmth as you sat on the hood of his car. Without hesitation, Pat took off his suit jacket and draped it around your shoulders.

"Can you believe our first kiss was right here almost a year ago?" he asked.

"Ten months almost to the day. It simultaneously feels like another lifetime and just yesterday."

You sat in silence for a bit. Pat studied the stars but you studied him, just as head over heels in love as ever. Your relationship had strengthened over time. Sure there were fights and disagreements, but you always talked them out.

Once he had moved in, it got easier. You fell into a steady routine and having someone to help share the financial load was such a huge weight off your shoulders. You were able to slow down, enjoy things. All because of Pat.

He caught you staring, smirking in response. "What are you thinking?"

"How much I love you," you said. "And how much I can't wait to get home so I can take that tux off you."

Pat leaned in, giving you the gentlest of kisses. "Let's just sit here a little while longer. Then we can go home and do things to each other."

"Sounds good to me." You shoved your hands into his jacket pockets to try to warm them.

In the right one, your fingers brushed up against something hard. Curiously, you pulled it out to see what it was.

It took you a moment to register the small velvet box. You were so confused, you didn't notice Pat slide off the hood of the car, quietly moving to stand in front of you. 

When you finally looked up, he was smiling. "Took you long enough."

Heart beating wildly against your ribcage, you stumbled to your feet, clutching the box with both hands.

"Pat...what is this?"

"Thought it was obvious." Gingerly, he pulled back the lid. In the moonlight, a beautiful diamond sparkled above a silver band. "It was my mom's."

You looked between him and the ring several times. "Where did you get it?"

"Dad gave it to me. A week after the Bulldogs game."

"That long ago?"

Pat carefully took the box from your shaking hands. "I knew I was going to marry you the second you said you loved me. When I told my dad, he gave me this. Had to take forever to learn your ring size so I could resize it. By the time that was done, Vinnie's wedding plans were in full swing and I didn't want to be that asshole."

"So you're giving it to me now right after the wedding?" you giggled, trying to hold back tears.

"Well yeah, they had their moment. Now it's our turn."

Pat took your left hand, slowly getting down on one knee. Your head was spinning, unable to process that this was actually happening. He said your name with his strong, sure voice, eyes never looking away from yours.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" you blurted out before he even finished. "Yes. Yes! Fucking hell, yes!"

Laughing, Pat slid the ring on your finger and when he stood, you threw your arms around his neck, pulling him into a big kiss.

Pat kissed you back and you could feel his tears mingling with yours. 

Under the stars, you kissed the love of your life, thinking of all the precious moments that led to such a perfect one. And you knew, in your heart, the best was yet to come.

The End

[nelvana]

In which they travel to another continent

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which there are dreams and discussions Previous: In which they arrive at the guild

    The first trio staggered slightly after the teleport, then glancing around at each other and their new surroundings. Nelvana flipped over the now dull stone in her hands, passing it over to Alex to hang onto instead while she got a better look around.

    “Yeah, we’re a bit off, but we definitely made it! There’s Gull Village just a bit south from here,” she told them, pointing out to where she spotted the nearby village, just past some trees from where they currently were.

    “That’s great!” Keahi cheered, “we’ll just have to wait for the others to show up then, and we can head over,” zie continued, stepping up to stand beside zir partner again.

    “Pretty nifty the guild makes extra teleport gems for cases like these, seem to be a capable bunch,” Alex commented, joining the other two. “Seeing as how Team A.C.T. was like, I’ll admit I was a bit worried that the others around the guild would be similar. A bit of a rude assumption to make, I know, but…”

    Keahi sighed, “just being safe. Yeah, I get that’s what you were thinking.”

    Alex smirked back, “glad to know we’ve been together long enough to pick up on those sorts of things.”

    “Hate to interrupt, but shouldn’t the others have shown up by now?” Nelvana questioned, standing up on the tips of her toes in an attempt to get an improved look at their surroundings; searching for their allies.

    “Nel’s got a point,” Alex agreed, his smirk fading away.

    “Well, they shouldn’t be too far, right? Maybe they’re a bit closer to Gull Village, or maybe even a bit farther. Either way, that seems to be the point to meet up at,” Keahi suggested, though a worried look crossed zir eyes as well.

    “Good idea, seems to be the best one we have, anyway. For as good as the teleport gems are, they aren’t perfect.” Alex nodded. “We were a bit off, so it’s reasonable to believe that the others were too.”

    “Alright, let’s make our way to the village then,” Nelvana responded.

    Taking the lead, she began to walk down towards civilization with her partners quickly following suit. They had just appeared right where the forest began thinning out right before the beach town, so it was simple for Nelvana to recall the steps and follow the sight of the buildings over to Gull Village itself.

    It occurred to Nelvana that the last time she had been here, it had been nighttime. Thus, it was a mild surprise to see the town filled with more activity. Though it was beginning to drag on to late evening now, there were still plenty of villagers wandering the streets, and the lights illuminating the inside of the houses displayed shadows through the windows of other pokemon enjoying themselves indoors.

    “Well…” Nelvana trailed off momentarily, adjusting her scarf absentmindedly. “Here’s Gull Village,” she announced, “you can see the docks over there-“ She pointed slightly eastwards of where they were. “-and right by those should be the tourist shop or whatever that runs the ferries.”

    Alex peered over to where Nelvana pointed, and a smile grew on his face, “looks like Ceebee and Tsuki beat us there!” he said.

    “They’re at the docks?” Keahi responded, “we should go over then! Come on!”

    Laughing with relief, the trio hurried over to the docks where they found Ceebee and Tsuki, staring out over the water while they waited for everyone else to arrive. The waiting pair glanced over as the others approached, smiling back and getting up to meet them halfway so they could chat together.

    “Glad to see you made it safely,” Tsuki greeted, “we had been worried at first when we did not see you here right away,” she admitted.

    “But!” Ceebee chimed in, “I soon sensed you all were just by the outskirts, so we decided to wait for you to turn up here on your own. Figured everyone would turn up here eventually, and if not, I could have always just sent a telepathic message.”

    “Hey, we were worried about you two too!” Alex replied, “where did you two teleport to?”

    Ceebee tapped her forehead, “right where we were supposed to, here at the docks! You forget that I can teleport too, I’d be pretty bad at that if I didn’t remember where places were,” she told him with a giggle, “nothing against you, Nel! Don’t worry, you still were pretty close to here. So is Damien and that group, though a bit farther out than where you teleported to.”

    Nelvana shrugged, “it’s alright, I’m not offended or anything. As you said, you’re the one who actually does this more often. You were also here more recently.”

    “True that!” Ceebee agreed.

    “So, how far away are the others now then?” Keahi asked, shaking zir feathers. “Does this place have closing hours? And are we actually going to use the ferry right away, or should we rent a place for the night?” zie continued.

    “It doesn’t seem to have closing hours, when Damien and I showed up last time it was still open in the middle of the night,” Nelvana told zim, “you do have a good point though, this may be our last chance to get an actual room to stay in for the night.”

    “Also, looks like the others are showing up now!” Ceebee chirped, “we’ll be able to ask for their input too!”

    At Ceebee’s comment, the group glanced over to see the three ghost-types in the group heading over from the other end of the docks. They waved over at the trio, prompting Edgar to split off from the other two he was with and bolt over to the main group, too impatient to wait until all three of them got there together.

    “Hello everyone!” Edgar greeted, “I hope you weren’t waiting too long for us!” he added.

    “No problem, we have not been here for too long. We had just been discussing plans for tonight,” Tsuki replied, “there is some consideration of finding an inn to stay at for the night.”

    “The original idea was to just set out right away, but if we don’t want to rush ourselves too much, I remember there is an inn we could stay at; seems like a nice spot,” Ceebee added.

    “What’s this about an inn?” Damien asked, finally catching up with the others, Dusknoir right behind him.

    “We’re thinking about staying at the inn here for the night to get rested up again before heading out on the ferry,” Nelvana told him, “we don’t know when we’ll get another chance for a good opportunity like this.”

    “Yeah, I can get behind that idea,” Damien added, stretching idly.

    Alex sighed, “mhmm… I wouldn’t want us to waste our time, but who knows what it’ll be like when we first show up at the Grass Continent. This definitely doesn’t seem like a waste, to build back some proper energy.”

    “Hey, if Mr. Hasty can agree to this, we seem to be in the clear!” Keahi teased, “how about we look for that inn? Ceebee, you said you saw it last time you were here?”

    “Yup!” Ceebee nodded. “So, we’re all in agreement to stay in Gull Village for the night then?”

    Tsuki kneaded the ground in front of her with her claws absentmindedly, “I don’t believe this one night will make that much of a difference to our progress, so we should be fine to rest up here before going.”

    “I…” Dusknoir paused, letting out a cough before continuing. “I recall someone mentioning that it could take another day on the ferry ride to get to the Grass Continent. Could we not rest on the ride instead? If we do not, we will end up needing to rest again right when we get to our destination.”

    “Might be for the best though,” Keahi replied, “it means we’ll have rested right before needing to take on Brine Cave and any other dungeon before Dialga,” zie pointed out.

    Dusknoir paused again, before nodding sagely, “very well, you have certainly convinced me.”

    “Well, I think you were the only one on the fence about the matter,” Alex huffed, “alright, Ceebee, lead the way to the inn then.”

    Obliging to Alex’s instruction, Ceebee fluttered into action again, navigating through the streets of the small town and over to where she could recall seeing an inn. While she paused momentarily at first to catch her thoughts and properly remember where she needed to go, she easily led everyone over to the building they were looking for.

    Fortunately, despite being a docks town, there were enough rooms for all nine of them to stay in. While they had only intended to reserve their places there for the night, the team ended up being identified by another team staying there at the inn, and the two teams began conversing together in the lobby of the building for longer than intended.

    During that, Damien requested to borrow the stone that housed Giratina from Alex, and managed to fill his own time speaking with the deity. He had initially done it to just pass the time, but soon found himself telling Giratina about how Gardevoir was doing and more of what had happened with that incident, and in return, Giratina spoke about Ninetales, and also about their own experiences with spirit guides like Gardevoir. Damien found it strangely comforting, and silently wondered if Giratina felt the same about their own conversation.

    Dusknoir, on the other hand, felt adamantly against speaking to Giratina with Damien, and yet obviously lacked any place with the others’ conversation. He simply watched the larger group at first, but eventually grew bored and oddly envious, and left the building instead. He knew they would not be pleased to find that he had wandered off, and instead leaned against the outside wall right against the doorframe, watching the few townsfolk still walking the streets. For awhile, he was simply silent again, and let himself zone out into his own thoughts.

    “Excuse me, mister?”

    Snapped out of his thoughts, Dusknoir looked down to see that a young munchlax staring up at him. He mentally scolded himself for allowing himself to get so distracted as to not even notice a mere child getting so close to him, but forced himself to keep his body language neutral. It had… been a long time since he had been in the presence of someone so young, and part of him wished to hold onto such a simple moment.

    “Yes?” Dusknoir finally responded.

    Munchlax gave him a wide, toothy smile back, “hello! I noticed you looked kinda sad; do you want this chocolate? That usually makes me happy,” they said, presenting a thinly wrapped bar to Dusknoir.

    Dusknoir blinked, and then narrowed his eye slightly, “…didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?” he questioned.

    To his surprise, Munchlax shook their head, continuing to offer the item to Dusknoir. He almost wanted to sigh and shoo the child away for being so foolish; didn’t they know he could harm them if he felt like it? However, he found himself instead accepting the gift, eyeing it carefully now that it was in his own hands.

    “I see a lot of new people here,” Munchlax said, “mum ‘n dad said that I should always be nice to them,” they continued, answering Dusknoir’s previous question whether they actually realized it or not. “Why were you sad?” they asked innocently.

    “What made you think I was sad?” Dusknoir asked in response instead.

    “You were standing here all alone and just staring at nothin’!” Munchlax answered, waving their arms in the air. “You looked sad.”

    Dusknoir wasn’t quite sure what to think of this child, but he realized that despite Munchlax’s evident naivety and foolishness, they were right about Dusknoir’s prior mood. He wondered if all children of this time were so innocent, eyes wide open to the world around him. The kids back at Pokemon Square had been far too loud for him to really consider interacting with them much, and he almost found himself regretting that choice now. He couldn’t even recall if he had ever been like that, though he doubted it. He had grown up to a harsh world, and learned to act harshly right back. It was strange how much simpler and more peaceful things could be here.

    “Well, thank you then,” Dusknoir simply replied instead, “you should go back to your parents now though.”

    “Okay, mister! I hope you feel better!” Munchlax chirped, waddling off back to the streets; hopefully back home.

    Dusknoir sighed, shaking his head as he watched the kid leave. Glancing behind him at the in again, he could faintly hear the conversation between the two teams closing up. He turned his gaze down to this… chocolate he held in his hands. Deciding it would be best to deal with this before the others found him, he carefully peeled away the wrapping to look at the contents inside. He had heard of chocolate before, and knew that it was a treat meant to be eaten. Crumpling the wrapper in one hand, he pried open his belly mouth with the other to place the food in. His jaw, or more specifically, the scar running through it, ached from the effort, but he managed to eat the chocolate bar.

    It tasted good.

    Soon afterwards, everyone else in the group exited the inn together. While they were momentarily displeased by Dusknoir leaving the building without them, seeing as he didn’t wander off too far, and they had to admit that they had talked for awhile, no one seemed to judge him terribly for it; which surprised himself slightly.

    Deciding that while they were staying in a town for the night, they all decided to look for some sort of restaurant to eat supper at. The inn itself was too small for serving food itself, so they had to look somewhere else in Gull Village. Ceebee offered the idea of a bakery she had visited in her time here, but that was turned down in favor of finding something else. While Gull Village was small, they found that it did, in fact, have a restaurant in it. It was a local pub and grill, which seemed to suffice for what the group was looking for. They headed in and managed to get a nice warm meal out of the trouble, and fortunately had enough coins from the two dungeons they had been through to pay for the bill; as they had left their other savings back with Persian.

    The rest of the night continued in a similar, relaxed fashion. Not wanting to just meander the streets for the remainder of the evening, after they had finished eating everyone went back to the inn to settle in their rooms for the night. They had rented two rooms, figuring anyone could go back and forth between the two when needed, and considering nearly half of them technically didn’t even need to sleep, this loose system was comfortable for everyone.

    They stayed all in the same room for the time they were awake though, still having a few hours left in the day before they would need to go to bed. Normally at times like these, as Keahi commented, they would be able to play some of the board games at the base, but they lacked those here. Fortunately, zie instead offered to play some other games that were just vocal, introducing some simple games. Once zie got the ball rolling, Damien had his own ideas to offer, so they were able to keep entertained until it was time to turn in for the night.

    In the morning, the group quickly checked out of the inn, ready to take on the next part of their journey. Ceebee again suggested the bakery for some breakfast, but at that point they had spent most of their spare change on the stay at the inn and the food at the grill, aside from what they were saving for the ferry fee, so they had to pass again on that idea in favor of just going back to the packed rations.

    Without anything else to delay them further, they made their way back down to the docks, entering the building that was familiar to some, and finding Dewgong still there at the counter. Dewgong blinked with surprise as the large group entered, but smiled politely at them and waved them over.

    “Why, hello there everyone! Welcome to the Gull Village Docks,” Dewgong greeted, “I see some familiar faces in the group, hello! How have you been?”

    Nelvana nodded back politely, and Damien waved as well, though it would be Ceebee who would step in to carry on the conversation first.

    “Hi again! We’ve been doing well, thank you,” Ceebee hummed, “we were hoping to get a ride down to the Grass Continent? Do… Do you provide rides down that route?”

    “Yes, we do! Not many of our guides do know that route, but you’re in luck, we do have Lapras on shift. He’s also the best for taking large groups such as these,” Dewgong answered, “some of you got a ride from Lapras as well, which is another bonus! We always try to let visitors ride with familiar guides if they so wish anyway, so this seems to have worked out smoothly.”

    “Yeah, that does sound nice!” Nelvana chimed in, “we’ll get tickets there for all of us then.”

    Nodding, Dewgong rung up their total, with the group thankfully finding that they had saved just the right amount of coins to afford the tickets. With such a large group, and a faraway destination, they had predicted that the price would be high.

    “Do you run this place on your own?” Keahi asked curiously, glancing around at the various souvenirs up for sale around the store.

    “Well, not all by myself,” Dewgong answered, sliding over the tickets to be collected. “I do own the docks though, if that’s what you were wondering! I get plenty of help from a few other employees for this store, and then of course none of this would be possible without my lovely guides here,” she explained, “now then, since there are more than four of you, you’ll need the extra boat…”

    Trailing off, Dewgong shuffled around behind the counter for a few moments before pulling out a thick walkie-talkie. It audibly fizzled with static, and she held down a button and leaned over to speak slowly and clearly into the old item.

    “Barbaracle, Lapras is going to need the spare boat attached for a ferry group,” she said.

    Through the static, they could hear a gruff voice of approval. Dewgong chirped out her thanks before turning off the device and setting it behind the counter again.

    “Alright, Barbaracle should be making sure everything is ready for you all!” Dewgong told them, “Lapras should be on the dock just outside on your right.”

    “Thank you for your help!” Keahi replied cheerily, prompting a chorus of thanks from many of the others.

    “My pleasure! Safe travels, have a nice day!” Dewgong hummed, waving farewell.

    When they got outside and over to where Larry was docked like before, they found the previously mentioned Barbaracle attaching a wooden boat behind the lapras. They tied a few ropes to the spikes on Larry’s shell, letting the small boat float behind him. The boat itself was decently sized, and could probably fit an extra four size category one pokemon in it if needed.

    “Greetings!” Larry called out as the group approached. “Ah, Gengar, Nelvana, it is nice to see you again. Heading out to the Grass Continent with your friends, I see?”

    Damien nodded, “yeah. And it’s actually Damien now,” he responded.

    Larry smiled, “ah yes, names! Such a wonderful thing! I would love to get more introductions underway, but first we should settle the seating arrangements,” he said, oh, and thank you for your help with the boat, Ronald,” he added, turning back to look at Barbaracle, or Ronald.

    “You’re welcome,” Barbaracle responded, though grumbled something about keeping first names to outside of work under his breath before leaving.

    “How many should be fitted on your shell versus the boat?” Alex asked once Barbaracle had left.

    “Well, Dewgong does her best not to overload anyone, but I’d say I could fit most of you onto my shell myself; most of you all are fairly small,” Larry answered, “no more than four on the boat, I’d say, and no more than six on my shell.”

    “I’ll take the boat then,” Dusknoir decided, taking the initiative and carefully floating into the boat himself without another word about it.

    Eyeing the situation, Damien sighed, “I’ve ridden on the shell before, I’ll try the boat too.”

    “In that case, it would probably be best for me to ride on the shell,” Tsuki announced, “I am not sure how well I would have done in the boat regardless of who was in it; it does not appear steady enough for my comfort,” she admitted quietly afterwards.

    The rest of the seating arrangements were handled swiftly afterwards. Alex was the next to go straight for riding on the shell, and finding comfort with her partner, Nelvana was quick to follow, though surprisingly she sat by the back of the shell, close to the boat. Keahi followed suit, and Ceebee simply perched atop one of the spikes on the shell, inviting Edgar to join her up there.

    And with that, they were off.

    As promised, Larry was quick to address introductions. He admitted that he couldn’t promise that he could remember everyone’s names, but assured them that he would try his very best to.

    After that though, the awareness quickly sank in that they were all stuck sitting like this for the next several hours. It would be a long ride, and they had already previously begun exhausting their game options back at the inn the night before.

    “Hey Larry, how’s about some songs?” Damien requested during a long period of silence after the first hour or so of the ride.

    “I would be honored to!” Larry responded, “do you have any specific requests?”

    “Not from me, just wanted something to fill the time.” Damien shrugged, though glanced over at Nelvana afterwards to encourage her to give her input, if any.

    “How about one of the peppier songs?” Nelvana asked, “I feel like we’re in need of one of those.”

    Eager to oblige, Larry chose one of the more upbeat songs he knew and began to sing for the group. Damien, again, began keeping beat, but this time chose to do so by tapping the edge of the boat he had lounged out onto with the extra space from only being himself and Dusknoir; he still felt mildly on edge around the larger ghost-type, but he felt it was worth the leg room to be on the boat regardless. Nelvana began simply keeping beat by tapping her club on the shell like she had the previous time, but she was soon interrupted as Keahi stood up on the middle of the shell and gestured for Nelvana to join zim.

    “Come on, dance with me!” Keahi prompted.

    “Dance?” Nelvana repeated, “I… I’m not good at dancing. I’ve only done it a couple times.”

     Alex smiled, “you’re not bad at dancing, I’ve seen it once, so long as you have the steps down. I’m sure Keahi could teach you something if you can’t remember any human dances,” he chimed in, choosing not to mention that Nelvana had managed to recall something about her past at all as to not ruin the moment, despite how his heart leapt with excitement at hearing her mention even small details of her past.

    “Come on!” Keahi continued, “Alex is right, I could teach you some steps. It’s just for fun, no one’s judging you about it!”

    Sighing, Nelvana relented to the eager eyes of her partner and stood up. It was slightly shaky, to try moving on something that was moving itself, but Larry was steady as he swam and it wasn’t difficult for her to keep her balance. Keahi squealed with delight as Nelvana stepped over to join zim.

    “Alright! Okay, I’ll teach you an easy one first, it goes well with most songs anyway, so it’s a good place to start for this…”

    Beginning, as zie promised, with a simpler dance, Keahi led Nelvana through some steps to follow along as Larry sang. They both had to do the same thing, so if Nelvana ever felt too lost all she had to do was mirror her partner’s movements and just try not to fall behind. Getting excited watching his friends try dancing, Edgar ended up floating in circles around the pair for awhile before leaving to lay back down and just watch instead.

    Afterwards, Keahi progressed to another type of dance that zie explained was traditional for zir family.

    “Do you want to try another one?” Keahi offered, “this one will be a bit harder though, I don’t think we’ll get through the entire thing, but I can teach you some of the early steps at least.”

    “Okay, sure!” Nelvana agreed, feeling more confident while the whole dancing idea by this point.

    This dance required different steps for each person involved, so Keahi would show Nelvana what to do, and when they would actually try together, zie would do something different. They quickly found that this one wouldn’t be as easy. Nelvana’s part required more tapping around with her feet, which was difficult on the back of the shell, and in general the movements were more complicated than the previous one. Still, they tried it a few times, with Larry politely even repeating some songs to keep them better in beat. Besides, it was a pretty and fun dance to do. Even after finally giving up, Keahi promised that maybe some other time they could try again.

    By the time they stopped with that kind of dance anyway, they were both getting pretty tired and decided to take a break from dancing altogether. Nelvana sat down after deciding that, though Keahi stayed standing a bit longer to bounce in place and flap zir wings about, almost similarly to how zie was supposed to in the dance, but quickly ended up wearing zirself out completely and sat down as well.

    Larry continued singing despite the end of the dancing, but his voice by now was beginning to wear out slightly, so he moved on to some of the calmer songs he knew before eventually stopping altogether after a quick apology. At this point, he had been singing for at least an hour, and everyone agreed that it would be unfair to try getting him to continue, and he deserved to give his voice a break.

    The ride remained quieter for the next couple hours, but any previous tensions had been mostly relieved after that and everyone began having various conversations. Edgar floated back down beside Tsuki, who was stubbornly not looking down at the water and just had her head resting in her paws, so he began energetically chatting with her, distracting her from her previous uneasiness. Ceebee leaned down to Keahi to ask for more details about the types of dances the torchic knew, since they had caught her interest.

    Nelvana ended up rolling over to her belly, facing the boat being towed behind Larry again. She wrapped her arms around one of the spikes to make sure she wouldn’t slide off or something, and cleared her throat to get Damien’s attention.

    “Hey,” Nelvana greeted.

    “Nice moves back there,” Damien teased, propping an arm back to rest his head against. “What’s up?”

    Nelvana rolled her eyes, but chuckled, “I actually wanted to ask you something, you jokester.”

    “Alright, shoot,” Damien replied, turning more of his focus towards his friend.

    “If you want, you could strategize a bit more,” Nelvana told him.

    “That wasn’t a question,” Damien snickered, though Nelvana noticed that his smile faltered slightly now.

    She sighed, “fine. Why don’t you contribute your thoughts more when we’re making plans?” she asked instead.

    Damien shifted in place, as much as he really could for his position on the boat, “I don’t really have thoughts to contribute. You all are better at strategizing. What gave you the idea that I would be able to help with that.”

    “Okay, well, this isn’t the best example… but you did plan that entire accusation against me really well,” Nelvana responded, and Damien stiffened. “Yeah, it wasn’t a good thing, we both know that. But at the same time, it was really well orchestrated. If we hadn’t actually gone out for evidence ourselves… I’m not sure how long the town could have just hung there in suspense,” she continued, trailing off slightly at the end of her explanation.

    Frowning more, Damien curled up into himself slightly, shifting his gaze out to the water instead of at Nelvana. Eventually though, he exhaled and faced her again, though he did not say anything, instead looking to her expectantly, silently prompting her to go on.

    “My point is… you’ve proven that you can contribute good ideas, even though you say that you can’t. It’s always good to have more input, especially from varying perspectives,” Nelvana finished.

    “…fine. I’m just… not good at planning in the moment,” Damien admitted, “back when I was a trainer, I would do best when I could plan ahead, and when things didn’t go to plan, I would start struggling. You’ve seen that. Alex coming in during all… that, caught me really off guard,” he chuckled dryly.

    “That’s still pretty good though. Alex ‘n I are a bit better at acting on the fly than strict plans ahead of time, so you could still help with planning more before hand,” Nelvana insisted, “I’m just saying, think about it. You’re welcome to share more of your ideas for planning; you’re smarter than I think that most people think you are.”

    Damien sighed, “alright, thanks Nel.”

    Smiling again, Nelvana nodded back to Damien before sitting up again and then turning to face forward. She simply sat back against the spike she previously had wrapped her arms around, before seeming to change her mind and carefully getting up to move so she could speak to Alex instead.

    The day continued on for their ride across the ocean. Around noon there was discussion about actually having a lunch, but a few members were still feeling a bit seasick, so everyone decided to wait until they were on shore. A few minutes after that, Damien asked if Larry had his own lunch to eat, to which he was relieved that the lapras did, in fact, pack his own lunches for longer trips such as these.

    “Are we there yet?” Edgar’s voice cut in suddenly.

    Larry chuckled warmly, “no, not yet. We are over halfway there now though.”

    “Okay…”

    Finding more ways to occupy themselves for the remainder of the ride varied in difficulty, but in general everyone was able to keep themselves from getting bored for too long. Sitting around for so long with limited space was unusual to them; everyone was used to walking or having other games to play with, but they managed. While there were times they began thinking that they had run out of discussion topics, there was always something new for someone to talk about when reminded.

    Eventually, as the sun began to set on that day, land could be spotted in the distance. Excitement and cheers bubbled up right away, but seeing didn’t mean that they were quite there, and everyone sat anxiously in wait for the last minutes to past before they finally arrived at the Grass Continent.

    “Is there a particular location you wanted to land nearby?” Larry asked as they began approaching. “I’ll want to alter our course slightly if that’s the case!”

    “We’re looking for Brine Cave,” Keahi told him.

    Larry nodded, “got it! I’ll just have to go around some of the land to get as close as possible, hang on for a bit longer!”

    Turning further west momentarily, he altered his path slightly to begin swimming around the land they had spotted. They watched as they moved past forests, mountains, and even what appeared to be a desert, on the mainland, continuing past all that as Larry curved around the land and finally docking where the water flooded in as a lake in the distance.

    Right away… there wasn’t much to look at. In fact, while some of them had been expecting something new and unfamiliar compared to where they had come from, nothing stood out right away. They landed at a rocky part of the shoreline, and in the distance, there was mostly grasslands, with some mountains even further out.

    “This is it,” Alex murmured, hopping off from Larry’s shell to navigate the rocks so that he could look out to the horizon. “Brine Cave should be just a bit north from here. You can almost see it from here.”

    “Oh, wow!” Ceebee exclaimed, following the grovyle up to the land. “I remember this area! We camped nearby here when we came through here to get to the Temporal Tower last time! It’s so strange to see everything in color like this, so much healthier too…”

    Nelvana carefully made her way over to the other two, scanning the area around her in hopes of meeting that same familiarity that her friends obviously had. She bit her lip, furrowing her brows as she studied their location. As Alex pointed out the direction that Brine Cave was supposed to be, she couldn’t help but silently agree with him about that, but past that she barely got any sense of déjà vu. Perhaps it was because last time she had been here it would have appeared differently enough that her current memory couldn’t piece it together the same way she had recognized Alex and Ceebee upon seeing them, but it was still disappointing to her to not recall this place the same way her friends could.

    “Thanks again for the ride, Larry,” Damien told the lapras as he attempted to pull himself out of the boat, with it rocking as he stood up and began trying to walk around on it.

    “Yeah, thanks Larry!” Keahi chirped as well, hopping off onto the rocks, pausing before going to join the others. “Will you be staying here the night, or do you have to swim all the way back tonight?” zie asked.

    “I will rest here for the night, and head back in the morning, so long as you do not need me for the return trip,” Larry answered.

    “We have the badges to get back, thanks though,” Keahi told him.

    “Very well then! Thank you for allowing me to guide you all out on the trip here,” Larry replied cheerfully, “do not worry about how I will get back, I am still prepared to make the return trip on my own; I have done this before. Good luck on your journey!”

    “Thank you!” Edgar responded, following by more thanks given by the others, chorused together and mixed with farewells to their helpful guide and ferry ride.

    Once everyone had gotten off from the boat and shell, and in some cases taken a moment to recover from the trip overseas, they traveled on foot a bit off from the shore so they could set up camp further inland, walking until the sun had almost fully set. Due to lacking nearby trees for a campfire, the group was soon submerged into the darkness of the night. Seeing this as reason to sleep early so they could collect their bearings properly the following day, everyone turned in for the night, excluding Dusknoir and Edgar. Tsuki herself decided that this may be her best chance to get some proper rest and refill her energy, having stayed up at their stay at the inn, and thus she too eventually fell asleep with the others for once.

    Nelvana had not been asleep for long, or at least she did not feel it had been long, before, to her surprise, she opened her eyes to a familiar green void in her dreams.

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which there are dreams and discussions Previous: In which they arrive at the guild

[soulangel]

Angel’s Christmas pt. 3

Summary: Finally able to visit with her family, everyone learns about what she’s been up to in South Korea. But really Angel is just happy to be with everyone again. But why does J.Seph shy away from the questions Jiwoo and BM are asking him? 

Group: Angel

Genre: Fluff, Family, Adorable Crack, mild angst at the end

Warnings: Some swearing at the end

Word Count: 2k

Main Masterlist     Angel’s Masterlist     Pt. 1     Pt. 2     Christmas Outfit

    At finally making it to the familiar house close to the woods, about 10 cars in the gravelly driveway, and 3 dogs barking like mad at the sound of a car pulling into their home; Róisín and Matt took a moment in the car to gather some of the bags and their travel bags. Gently dropped the bags on the gravel, they then stepped out of the car as Róisín opened the trunk door. “There are a lot more gifts than I remember bringing.” She mumbled, glancing up at Matt who just smirked.

    They quickly bundled up everything onto their backs and arms before starting up the steps towards the porch holding the three dogs barking like mad. “Lilah, Jack-Jack, Jeffie step away from the gate.” Róisín laughed while opening the gate and stepping onto the porch with Matt following close behind.

    “Róisín you’re here!” A small voice shouted happily before two little bundles of yells and screams bounced into her legs.

    She laughed loudly and ruffled the heads of her nephews as they continued to latch onto her, Ashtin asking so many questions of what she’d been doing and whether or not she could stay for a while to play with them. “Please Auntie, we wanna know about your adventure!” He’d whined to her, tugging on the dress edge she was wearing.

    Róisín smiled at the two before motioning for them to step away from her. “I’ll tell you in a little bit you turds. We need to set this stuff down first before our arms falls off.” She chuckled as her and Matt both set down the bags in their arms.

    Then she helped him take out the smaller boxes from their duffel bags to set under the tree as well; most of them hidden from the kids who were insistent on looking at every single thing the redhead placed on the ground. “Whatcha dooooing? Can we help? Oooooo are these presents? Can we open them now?” Ashtin started rambling, picking up a more medium sized box to shake it.

    Matt grabbed the gift from the kid’s hands and laughed a little at the energy Ashtin had now that his aunt was around. “You’re the spitting image of what your aunt has explained to me.” The tower rumbled, gaining the attention of everyone in the house.

    “Róisín, who’s this?” Her aunt Janelle asked tentatively, peeking her head around the corner of the kitchen doorway to see into the living room where half the family was at.

    Matt grinned and waved at the group in front of him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Matt, or BM. I’ve known Róisín since she first moved to South Korea for her music. I’ve been helping her get used to it there.” He replied easily, looking around at the people just staring at him.

    Janelle tilted her head in confusion before a big muscular man walked out from the kitchen to size up the deep voice he heard. “Matt huh? I’ve heard a lot about you Man. Thanks for watching out for my daughter. I really don’t know how I can say thank you properly.” The man said, holding out a hand to Mathew to grab in a friendly handshake.

    Róisín rolled her eyes and smiled a little at the exchange. As much as she hated how overprotective the family was and how paranoid they could be, she could count on her father to see passed the paranoia and greet someone civilly. But that couldn’t really be said for the toddler and young boy who were at the two’s feet staring up at Matt as if he was an alien. “You’re not dating my aunt are you? I don’t want to share another aunt with someone!” Ashtin yelled out, pointing up at Mathew who held his hands up in defense and stared down at the boy wide eyed.

    “No way Little Man. She’s like a sister to me. I would never take her away from you.” He said as he crouched down to be eye level with Ashtin, who was very frustrated with the guy staring at him.

    He leaned in to the boy’s ear to whisper in his ear, something Róisín couldn’t catch since it was so quiet. She gave up on those two as they started laughing and walked into the kitchen, straightening out the dress she wore with a sigh. “Kylee you better be happy about this.” She grumbled to the brunette sitting at the table.

    Kylee grinned and rushed over to hug the redhead tight. “Hello to you too Rose! I knew you’d wear that dress, how could you not? Look at it! It’s so cute!” She gushed, stepping away to look at the younger woman’s attire in full.

    Róisín rolled her eyes and sighed. “You know I don’t like this type of clothing. But yes I’ll admit it’s pretty cute.” She grumbled, sitting down beside Kylee to snack on some black olives Janelle had brought to the table at the same time.

    Nels, her father, had just walked up behind her and plants a large and heavy kiss to the top of her head. “It’s good to see ya Kid. How’s work over in Korea? Are you still having problems with people? You’re not dating yet are you?” He asked her, frowning a little at the bright red flare to her cheeks.

    She waved him off with a groan. “Da! I’m not seeing anyone right now, and no I haven’t had issues since I told everyone off. You should know that, I told you about it the moment it happened.” She whined, hiding her face in her arms on the table.

    Nels nodded his head with a sigh. “I just wish you’d come around more Roe. We miss you so much.” He mumbled softly, placing a hand on her head.

    She opened her mouth to respond to him when an elderly voice yelled out throughout the house. “I disappear to the bathroom for 5 minutes and there’s a tall Asian man in the living room! Where’s my great granddaughter!?” Maeve cried out while waddling herself into the kitchen.

    “Mimi!” Róisín screamed, barreling into the white haired woman as gently as possible to give her a huge hug.

    The two started mumbling to each other in Gaelic as Róisín led Maeve out into the living room, talking about how her life has been in South Korea away from everyone. “Mimi, remember that guy I was dancing with when I first debuted? This is Matty, that guy.” Róisín explained, motioning to Mathew who immediately stood up and bowed to the elder.

    After the introductions were made, Ashtin yanked on Róisín’s dress like he did when he first caught her legs and pointed to the tree. “Can we open presents now?!” He whined.

    Janelle walked out to the living room with a plate of food and grinned. “Yes we can open presents, but how about after we eat?” She suggested, handing the food to Maeve who was sat on the couch.

    Ashtin and his brother Jace both rushed into the kitchen to grab their plates, speaking with Kylee and Nels about what they wanted for food. “I want stuffing!” Ashtin yelled.

    Róisín stuck her head in the doorway and narrowed her eyes at him. “You better not eat all of it mister! I want some too!” She told him, pointing at him.

    Ashtin shook his head and giggled happily. “No! I want to eat it!” He replied, gaining a look of disgust from his aunt.

    She then sat down on the floor next to Matt and leaned against his leg, grinning as the family started to slowly get their food and come back out to talk with everyone. “Your family is awesome.” He mumbled into her ear when Janelle offered him a plate of food.

    Róisín snorted as her aunt walked away and shook her head. “You’re just saying that ‘cause you were given food. You pig.” She replied before he knocked her side with his leg. They gave each other weird faces while the rest of the group either started laughing or tried completely ignoring them.

          xXx

    As the two stopped at the hotel they decided to get for the next week and a half or so, they finally managed to drop their things and flop on the beds. “Ugh, I’m so done with the holidays. I need a drink.” Róisín groaned as her body started flailing on the bed.

    Matt laughed at her from his own bed and stood up to start unpacking his suitcase to see if he had something to drink. “I got something I think...somewhere?” He said, searching through his clothes and unwrapping things to see if it was what he wanted.

    As he was searching for the alcohol, Róisín was scrolling through her phone while on the app Skype, checking to see who she wanted to call up first. It took her quite a while to figure it out though and she decided to set the phone down for a little while to just hang out with Matt. “Should we call JJ and the girls?” She asked him, grabbing a couple glasses and sitting on Matt’s bed as he finally found the bottle he was looking for.

    He snorted and gave her a look while popping open the bottle. “Awwww do you miss your boyfriend already?” He replied, immediately getting hit in the shoulder.

    She grumbled softly and took a hit of the drink that was poured into her cup. “Of course I miss the group. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you guys, I feel bad.” She whined, “and he’s not my boyfriend!”

    Matt shrugged his shoulders and sat on the bed next to her, calling up the trio once they both got comfortable against the headboard. “Oi! Took you long enough to answer!” He said as soon as Taehyung picked up the phone.

    The tired yawn that came from the other end made the two glance at each other with a grimace. “JJ! Morning!” She squealed without thinking, immediately gaining a look from Matt who was trying his hardest not to laugh at her excited squeal.

    She shoved his shoulder with a scowl as they both heard the tired chuckling from Taehyung. “I’m assuming it’s night time for you two then? What did you guys do today? Roe-Roe, did you see your family?” He asked as he shuffled around on his end.

    She grinned despite herself and somehow curled in on herself while resting her shoulder against Matt’s. “It’s about 10pm here. And we went to go see my family yes. Matt finally got to me the insane people I’ve grown up around.” She replied, glancing up at Matt who was just smirking at her with his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

    “Taehyung where the hell did you hide my shampoo this time?!” The familiar shout of Jiwoo called through the phone.

    “Ow hey hey! I’m on the phone! Say hi to Matt and Róisín!” He called out, most likely holding the phone out for the blonde to say hi.

    Jiwoo started squealing as she snatched the phone from Taehyung and ran from him if the yelling was any indication. “Red! I miss you so much why don’t you come visit anymore?! Ugh Are you guys having fun out there? Find any cute guys? Please tell me there are cute guys.” She was yelling and grumbling all at the same time.

    Róisín tilted her head and clamped her lips shut to keep from laughing at the exchange she heard over the phone. “U-UH I’ve been really busy with my comeback, and you’ve had your own comeback to prepare for. And no i have yet to see any cute guys here. I’ve lived in South Korea for the last 4 years, it’s a bit of a blur to me what the guys look like here. Where did you run off to? We wanted to talk to everyone.” She whined at the blonde, hoping she’d be able to talk to the others soon before they passed out on the bed.

    “We’re here Rose don’t worry!” She heard Taehyung call through the phone, smacking Jiwoo who started whining in pain.

    For the next couple hours the 5 friends talked and chatted about what was going on until Róisín started nodding off against Matt’s shoulder. It was only when Taehyung had asked how she was fairing that everyone realized she’d fallen asleep. “Matt, wanna set her in her bed to sleep?” Taehyung suggested, sighing quietly on the other end.

    Matt followed the suggestion and put the redhead in her own bed before he walked back over to his and picked up the phone. “Yeah she’s passed out. You should probably get ready for practice today.” He said quietly so he wouldn’t wake her up from her sleep.

    The three started agreeing with him before Taehyung grabbed his phone back. “We were in the middle of getting ready when you called. Tell her we miss her yeah?” Taehyung mumbled, not mentioning names yet knowing Matt was still trying to flip him shit.

    “You two are so damn obvious just fricking date already!” Jiwoo screamed from her room.

    Matt started chortling like mad, trying super hard not to get too loud while Taehyung was groaning on the other end. “We all know exactly why that won’t work!” He shouted angrily, causing Matt to drop the phone in surprise.

    He looked over at the stirring silhouette of Róisín and gulped softly, hoping they didn’t wake her up. “Shut up you dick. You almost woke her up.” He hissed into the phone after she stopped moving.

    He saw her phone light up at the perfect time with one person’s name showing, hearts around the name. “Hey Girl, just checking to make sure you’re alright. Sweet Dreams Angel!” 

    Matt sighed and shook his head. “Is it because she might like someone else?” He replied easily, hearing the deep intake of breath from his friend and team member. “H-How’d you find out?” He hissed out, making Matt frown. “I just saw their name. But how do you know she won’t date you until you actually ask her out?” 

    “I just can’t. She’s not ready for something like that.” He mumbled out, “we gotta go. Time to practice.”

    Matt tried calling out to Taehyung one last time but the elder of the two finally hung up. “Shit...I didn’t mean to...ugh!” He groaned softly and dropped his head back against the headboard.

    The light shone on her phone again and he couldn’t stop himself from standing up to read the message. On top of the one name with hearts around it was Taehyung’s with a couple hearts as well. “Sweet Dreams Babygirl, call me when you wake up. <3” 

    “Taehyung you liar.” Matt chuckled with a shake of his head.