#He still knows nothing about fashion but now he plans to make that everyone elses problem

[bunnieswithknives]

what would david look like untraumatized? like, if the car accident never happened

ooooh I had to think about this one, the car accident shaped his life a lot, and it deeply effected the way he presented himself. Cannon David held onto his childhood a lot because it was the last time he remembered feeling happy, even if a lot of that was just idolization, as a result he tended to dress and present himself in the same ways his mom would dress him, haircut, similar styled clothes, ect.

Without the accident he's able to get to know his parents as he grows up and move past that idolization. He goes through phases, learns to be a reasonable adult, ect. He's still got issues, bipolar and maybe some narcissism, but he's miles better adjusted, and can actually hold friends start conversations.

[retroaria]

Domestic Life w/ Osamu Dazai ⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ ⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊

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summary: life with agency!dazai, days off, date nights, the whole shabang!

warnings: slightly suggestive at some points (not sure if MDNI is necessary but keep it in mind) NOT SAD AND MISERABLE CANON DAZAI!!! Pretend he is happy and joyous for this, why would he want to die when he has you? Not proofread!!

BSD M.LIST | enjoy 🐈 - aria

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The days where Dazai can fully devote himself to you are unfortunately far and few. On top of that, he’s a rather forgetful man. He saves all his reports for the last minute, needing to finish them up while everyone else is already gone (or spend just as much time begging Atsushi to do them for him). He makes plans, promises, deals, all of which take up his time aside from the usual agency agenda.

You know that Dazai loves what he does, so you put up with it. At the very least he still comes home almost every night, flops himself down on the bed and wraps his arms tight around you. And he’ll still be there in the morning. flashing you a warm smile as you wake up to see him adjusting the collar of his suit, throwing his jacket over his shoulder before planting a soft kiss to your lips and heading out the door. The purely intimate moments you get to experience together always happen in the dead of night or at the crack of dawn.

Aside from that, as well as all the work related events Dazai brings you to, his days off don’t come often. Whenever the stars align and those days do happen to fall upon you, you know immediately as you wake up in the morning. He’s still wrapped around you, arms and legs, almost in a death grip. He would’ve left for work by now if he had too, not that he hasn’t slept in late before, but his suit is still sprawled on the floor of your room. He hadn’t taken the time to wash it or hang it back up because he wouldn’t be needing it the next day.

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These days begin with an absolute power struggle in the bedroom (not the fun kind). This man will not wake up and will not let you out of bed. He will whine and groan and sometimes even shed tears at the fact that you would ever want to leave him when he finally can spend a morning with you. “Dazai we still have stuff to do today, you can just hold me captive.”

“Do you hate me Bella, is that it? Has our love truly dwindled? I finally have the chance to engulf you in my affection and you want no part of it.” He’ll give you a full Shakespearean style monologue about how cruel it is that you would deny his neediness.

“Oh my god Osamu, you are so dramatic”

Eventually you do escape his grasp and leave the bedroom to start the day, to which he must follow suit. These days are spent with Dazai following you around like a lost puppy.

He follows you to the bathroom, you guys get ready together, he sits on the toilet while you shower, talking to you through the curtain about all the recent agency drama, casually mentioning all the times he’s almost died in the last week alone. (He’s also sneaking peaks of you, slyly pulling the curtain back when you won’t notice)

On days where the two of you get to go out you always let him pick your outfit. Dazai’s list of skills typically pertain to crime and manipulation, but style and fashion is somewhere in there too. He’s usually wearing simple jeans and a crew neck, but he wants you to look like a runway model next to him. “Gosh you look beautiful, gonna make me look like the luckiest guy in the world standing next to you!” he gushes in a sing-song tone.

The first order of business is breakfast, a task which Dazai wants desperately to help you with, but always fails miserably. You opt to let him make coffee for you two, which he adorns with an ungodly amount of sugar and creamer. you’ve been drinking Dazais coffee for so long you’ve grown to like it. It’s like a sweet treat with breakfast, nothing you could complain about. If he gets his hands on a frying pan you’re truly doomed, so this is the one thing you let him have. He can handle the toaster too so he’ll make toast for you guys with jam on it that he spreads on in the shape of a heart with a smiley face in the middle “Dona’ look, can you tell what it is?” he says with a smirk of confidence on his face.

“Very sweet Osamu, your hearts are getting better and better” You can’t actually tell what it is but you know he does the same thing every time. You grab the toast from him and plant a kiss on his cheek, it’s like his reward.

One of Dazai’s favorite things in the world is going to the grocery store with you. It’s such a simple task, that always ends up being so much fun. He relishes in the domesticity of it. It feels almost intimate in a way, it’s something you both would have to do if you were apart, but you’re together, so you do it together for the both of you. He loves being reminded that you are a part of his life in every way.

But god is he troublesome

Dazai is the kind of person to stay at the sample stand and talk to the employee for forever. After about 10 minutes he knows their geographical lineage, their favorite flavor of ice cream, their mother’s maiden name, the name of the high school they went to, the name of their first love, but then he gets bored and moves on. Btw he ate the whole tray of samples while he was talking to them, but made sure to swipe one for you before he bounced. “Don’t think I forgot about you darling” he’d wink as he hands you the cup.

Once you guys get everything you need you head back home. Dazai is a gentleman and is obviously carrying all the heavy bags, but not without complaining. “I don’t remember us getting 3 tons of milk”

“I have the milk, that’s the bag with the 10lb rice”

“I don’t remember us getting 3 tons of rice either.”

When the two of you get home he acts like he just got back from a 12 hour shift, like he’s been fighting an enemy organization all the day, like he’s been strategizing with Ranpo for hours, like he just had to get rescued by Chuuya. He helps you put the groceries away and throws himself onto the couch.

Once he notices you’ve start cooking he returns from his corpse like state on the couch and peaks over at you. He likes watching you cook because you look so focused yet so relaxed at the same time (I’m sorry if you don’t like to cook oops) . He likes to try and read your mind whenever he watches you do things.

Eventually he’ll get up and walk over to the record player in your living room. As you’re chopping away you notice the feint sound of a jazzy tune ringing away behind you, before you can turn around to see the source there is a pair of hands on your hips, swaying you from side to side. “Osamu, I have a knife in my hand”

“That’s never stopped me from anything before in my entire life” he hums away, pushing his body up against yours as he lays his head in the crook of your neck. You guys stay like that as you continue to cook, him humming into your shoulder, planting soft kisses as you simply sway to and forth.

“This is really nice, but I’m about to start chopping onions.” You lied, you were already chopping them.

“Augh god, my eyes! Why would you ruin the moment!?”

“I have to make dinner ‘samu!”

After dinner you guys both enter a corpse like state on the couch, snuggled together, either watching a movie or a parallel play type thing, usually both of you reading your respective books. During this time Dazai can be rather clingy, wanting to literally lay on top of you or have you lay on top of him. He also needs to get your opinion on whatever is happening in the movie or this crazy new suicide method he saw in his book (it’s a novelty interest now, how could he want to die when he has you!)

As bed time approaches, Dazai gets into the shower and it’s your turn to sit in the bathroom with him and tell him about all of your own work drama. Unlike Dazai, your peaks behind the curtain aren’t very sly “hey I see you~” he’d say in a teasing tone.

When the two of you finally get into bed, a wave of sadness washes over Dazai. He is unpleasantly reminded that he has to go to work tomorrow. His little life with you would end once morning came and he’d go back to having to use 100% of his brain power to focus on anything but you. He dreaded the thought and all he can do now to eleviate the pain is pull you close beside him. He plants a million kisses on your face before pulling your lips against his into a deeper kiss that usually lasts until both of you are tired and slightly out of breath.

At this point you begin to drift off to sleep in each others arms. You awaken the next morning to Dazai flashing you a warm smile as he adjusts the collar of his suit, throwing his jacket over his shoulder before planting a soft kiss to your lips and heading out the door.

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I FINALLY wrote something for my husband Dazai. I hope you guys enjoy and I can’t wait to keep writing I’m having so much fun here!! Stay safe guys and much love 🤍🤍🤍 -aria

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[thatonewritersomewhere]

Cat's Game

Warnings: Fluff, dating, smut (blowjob, fingering, p in v, creampie, aftercare)

Summary: College au, aged up characters, Kirishima x fem!reader, Kirishima is somewhat of a soft dom - partners for a project becomes... something else...

Word Count: 6.2k

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"The partners for your project will be posted on the board at the beginning of tomorrow's class," Mr. Aizawa drawled in a tired voice, as usual. You wondered if he got any sleep, ever. The class collectively gathered their things and got up from their seats. 

With your things in your bag, you walked out of the school and to the local coffee shop nearby, since you and Mina had planned for a day together after school. She had another class before she was done, so you grabbed out your laptop and started looking at possible topics for your research project. It was a National History Day project, except your teacher had to make it mandatory. And of course, you couldn't even choose your partners. 'I just hope I get a good partner,' you thought. 

This year's theme for the project was "Turning Points in History", so a lot of major events that had a lot of evidence would be pretty good. You started to write out a list of events that would be good, when Mina walked through the door and into the shop. 

"Mina!" You called out to her, getting up to give her a hug. You both have been super busy this school year, so it always feels great when you get to see each other after a while. In the embrace, you could tell she smelled like bubblegum, her favorite perfume. She wore white dress pants with a pink blouse, and her hair was down. She is one of the most fashionable people you know, and always lives up to that. 

"You look so good today!" You told her, gesturing at her outfit. 

"Thank you! You do too!" she said. Your outfit was not at nice as hers - just some lighter jeans with a long pink sweater on. It was funny that you were matching, without coordinating at all. 

You waved her over to the table you were at, a smaller booth in the back of the shop. It was cute, and had multiple like this one - closed off on 3 sides, cute small pillows on the booth seats, and a large lamp hanging overhead. It was actually a really nice place to study. 

You two sat down, and you closed your laptop as you moved back to where you were sitting. 

"So how have you been? Is there any new tea?" Mina asked, a smirk poking at her lips. 

"I don't know," you said. "Nothing new with people right now, thank goodness." Your luck with drama was not always the best, as it usually was more negative.  Thankfully, though, there hasn't been much drama at all, so it's been good so far, and you told her this. 

"There is this huge project we have to do for my history class, and the partners are assigned. I just hope I get someone good for that." 

"Well, that's good," she said, her smile sweet. "I hope that any drama that comes your way is good drama that you can tell me about, and I hope your partner is who you hope it is," she said, and her sweet smile quickly became a smirk. You both laughed. 

There wasn't anyone on your mind that came up at her comment, but you hoped that soon someone could fill that void. 

The next class finally rolled around, and so the partners were posted on the board at the beginning of class. Since everyone was already crowded around the paper, you decided to set down your things and then come back. You maneuvered your way around the people that were done looking at it, and found yourself in front of the paper. You scrolled down the list of names. 

Denki Kaminari, Sero Hanta

Bakugo Katsuki, Izuku Midoriya

Yn/Ln, Eijiro Kirishima

Kyoka Jiro, Momo Yaoyurozu

You didnt look much after that, since you saw your own name. If you were being completely honest, you didn't know a lot of these people name-to-face. You would have to find Kirishima, whoever that was. The hope that they were someone good still remained in the back of your mind as you looked around the classroom, walking back to your seat. 

Once Mr. Aizawa started calling out attendance, an idea popped up in your head. You would have to pay attention to figure out who Kirishima was, especially since they would be one of the first ones to get called. A few moments passed until you finally heard Mr. Aizawa call out their name. You looked around the room to find that the person who responded was a bright red-haired guy towards the back of the class. 

You realized you would have to talk to him after class, and your anxiety shot up. 'I need to push through this and just talk to him,' you thought to yourself. Calming yourself, you took out your laptop to take some notes on the requirements for the project. You didn't want to look, but you hoped that he was taking some notes of his own at least. 

After you made a whole rubric and watched a few videos, you felt more prepared about the requirements. 

"The next few classes will be structured so that you are learning about National History Day and the requirements for the project, because apparently I have to show you those. Also that way you aren't learning anything new while also trying to do this entire project," Mr. Aizawa stated, his tone laced with boredom and fatigue. Contrastingly, his statement brought a few smiles to the students. Class time for a project would be a great way to get ahead on it. 

Tentatively, you raised your hand. 

"Yes, Ms. L/N?" Mr. Aizawa asked. 

"I was wondering if we would be able to move closer to our partners so that we could use this time to work with them?" you asked, your voice a lot quieter than it normally was. 

"Yes, you may," he answered. "As long as you are still quiet and not making too much noise. This is supposed to be a lecture class, so it's supposed to be quiet except for me, but I'm nice today."

A nice smile was brought to your lips, despite the anxious butterflies flitting around in your stomach. You snuck a glance back up at Kirishima, and found that he was looking at you as well. Quickly you turned away, your cheeks flushing red. You realized that you needed to talk to him, though, and turned back around. 

"Do you want me to move up there?" you mouthed at him. He gave you a thumbs up and a smile in response. 

"Okay, you may get started," Mr. Aizawa told the class. You packed up your things other than your open laptop and got up from your seat to move closer to Kirishima. 

"Hi," you said as you placed your laptop down in the seat next to him. 

"Hi," he replied. Out of the corner of your eye you saw that he was looking you up and down. Your skin erupted with goosebumps, and you set down your bag behind the seat. You pulled the chair next to him out and sat down, re-logging into your laptop. 

"Do you know what topic you want to do?" you asked Kirishima, turning to him. On your laptop was open the list of different topics you thought might be good. 

"Right to business, huh?" he chuckled, taking a glance at your laptop. You laughed with him. 

"Well, we have the time now, I'd rather use it and have to work less outside of class," you explained. 

"That's... valid," he decided. "I wasn't quite sure yet, was there anything you had in mind?" 

"Well..." you began. 

The two of you ended up going with the Civil Rights Movement, which wasn't exactly the least common topic, but it was perfect for the theme of the project and you had decided that you were going to make the best presentation you could possibly make. Soon, though, the clock was close to the time the bell rang, and so you had decided to wrap up. 

"Since we're partners for this project, do you wanna work on it outside of class? This might be the only class time we have to work on it," you told him. 

"Yeah, that's fine," Kirishima said. 

"Okay great," you paused, opening your phone. "Do you wanna put your number in and I can text you?" 

"Yeah, sure," he said, taking your phone from your hand offering it to him. Quickly he typed in his number and his name, and then handed back your phone. It wasn't a moment too soon, either, because the bell rang right then. 

"Awesome, thank you!" Closing your laptop and putting it in your bag, you shot a sweet smile at Kirishima. This time, he smiled back. 

The walk back to your place wasn't that bad, and with his smile in your mind, you felt like you were back in no time.

That night you couldn't sleep. Turning over, you checked the clock, and it read: 

1:03

You groaned as you turned back over. You had been doing so all night, and you were tired of it. You turned on your phone to see if you had any notifications. There weren't. 

'Oh shoot,' you said aloud in the dark. Of course there weren't going to be any notifications. First of all, it was 1AM, and second of all, you were the one who had his number. Not the other way around. You went to contacts and found his name. You clicked on the info button and went to message. 

'Hey, it's Y/N - can't sleep so I figured I'd text you even if you aren't up - if you see this, I was wondering if you are free tomorrow after class to work together for a bit on our project? If not it's fine, just let me know. Thanks!' You sat there with the message in the draft box, not yet sent. Finally, your 1AM self decided that it would be a great idea and sent the message. You closed the app and turned off your phone, setting it down on the nightstand next to you. Turning over once again, you closed your eyes and tried to sleep. 23 minutes later, you received a message. You grabbed your phone off of the nightstand to open a text from Kirishima: 

'Yeah, of course - I have practice but I am definitely free after that. Couldn't sleep either btw' Kirishima responded. 

The butterflies came out of their cocoons in your stomach at his response. You tried to calm the butterflies as you responded, but it was tough when you were trying to schedule studying with him. 

'Okay, when does practice end for you?' you asked. 

You saw the typing bubble pop up after he read your question. 

'Around 7:30' he answered. 

'Jeez, that's kinda late' you replied. 7:30 would be around dinner, possibly after depending on when you made it. 

'Yeah, if you're cool with that?' he asked. 

Probably making a bad decision, you replied: 'Yeah, sure - my place' 

'Ok cool' he answered quickly. 

':)' Ending the conversation, you sent an emoji, put your phone down, and went to attempt to sleep again. 

The next day went by extremely slow. 

You weren't exactly happy about the late study time, but you weren't exactly opposed, either. Throughout the day, though, you watched as the time ticked by, taking as long as it possibly could, it seems. Your classes never seemed to end, the assignments and lectures dragged on and didn't help to pass the time, either. Finally, though, you were able to pack up your things and get back to your place. On your way home, you texted Kirishima your address. He probably wouldn't see it, but it will be there when he's done with practice. 

When you got home, you rewrote your notes from your classes and got started on a few papers and assignments. Once you were done, you got started on making dinner, which was around 7. You weren't exactly the best cook, so it took you a lot longer to make things, but you got it done. 

You had started the sauce for spaghetti, when you heard the doorbell ring. Your roomates wouldn't be home tonight, since they were going to a party. Expecting only one person to be at the door, you walked over and opened it. 

There he was. Kirishima. And he was... wet?

"Sorry I'm late, I had to shower after practice," he said. "Took me a bit longer than I wanted to." 

Quickly you glanced over at the clock to see what time it was. Chuckling, you said, "It's not even 8 yet."

"Oh, shit, my clocks run a bit fast. Forgot about that," he replied sheepishly.

"That's okay," you said, moving aside so he could step through. As he did, you took your split second of a chance to glance at him up and down. He was dressed comfortably (you couldn't blame him, he was just coming from practice) in sweatpants and a black t-shirt. The t-shirt was school merch, with the logo printed large on the front. 

He walked in enough to close the door, so once you did, you started walking back to the kitchen where you were finishing up making dinner. 

"You can sit down in here if you want, you don't have to be a lurker," you told him, chuckling. "None of the girls are gonna be home tonight, so we have some privacy." 

"Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't want to intrude."

"That's fine, you're in here now, so you might as well get comfortable. Plus, I'm almost done with spaghetti if you want some," you offered. 

"I might take you up on that offer," he said. While you stirred the sauce, you could hear him behind you sitting in one of the seats at the counter. Your laptop and a few paper sources were also over on the counter. 

A few minutes later, the sauce was done, and the noodles were now in the strainer in the sink. 

"How much do you want?" you asked Kirishima. 

"I can get it," he said. "I don't want to take too much." 

"Okay," you said, grabbing out plates from the cabinet. You left the door open so that he could grab one too, and you went to grab your own food. 

You sat down at the counter where your laptop was, and when he came and sat down next to you, he said, "Wow, this looks really good y/n. Thank you."

"Of course," you replied. 

Since it was already late, the study session went by pretty fast. The two of you were getting a lot of work done. 

When you took a pause, you glanced over at the clock, which read: 11:24

"Oh my gosh, you need to get back and get some sleep!" you exclaimed, not realizing how long you had been working for. "We have been working for way too long!" 

"It's fine, no worries," he reassured you. "You do too, though, okay?" His gaze was soft as he looked at your panicked face. He must have been tired after almost 3 hours of work, plus it being after practice. This was normal for you, but you didn't know if it was for him. His soft gaze had to have been from tiredness, you told yourself, trying to push the butterflies and blush away. 

"Okay, I will, but you need to get home first." You told him. 

"Alright," he decided. 

Even though his room was within walking distance from yours, you drove him home (because it was so late, you told yourself. Definitely not because you like him). In the walk back to his room from your car, you both listened to the light sounds of the night. It was sweet and calming after studying for so long. 

"Thanks for coming over and working with me," you told Kirishima. 

"Thank you for inviting me, and your spaghetti was great, too," he told you. 

"Definitely. We should do this again," you suggested. 

"For sure. Maybe my place next time?" he asked. 

"Yeah, sure." 

"Awesome. I'll text you."

His last glance at you of the night was one where he was smiling, and it filled you up with a warmth inside that you couldn't get rid of all the way home. That warmth helped you to sleep better than you had most nights at school yet. 

3 weeks later and almost completely done with your project, you closed your laptop for the night. Kirishima was next to you, finishing up his last bit he needed for the presentation. 

"This Friday was a bit rough, huh?" Kirishima asked you. 

"Yeah, definitely. Classes lately have not been fun," you replied, a small smile sneaking onto your face. 

"Glad we're almost done, though - this project will definitely be worth it once we're entirely finished," he commented. 

"I did enjoy spending this time together, though," you said, trying to bring a positive aspect back to the topic.

"Same, I'm really glad we're partners," Kirishima said, his face flushing a pink where normally you never saw that. He turned away quickly, and you did too, smiling a bit at his blush. 

Tonight you were dressed a bit nicer, since you were coming from dinner with an old friend, and you decided not to change. He was dressed nicer too, but you weren't quite sure why. It was definitely getting to you though, since normally you both dressed casual when you studied together. 

"Hey," he said, clearing his throat. "Um, so normally I would ask if you wanted to study sometime this weekend, but since we're almost done with the project, would you like to go on a date with me instead?" 

Immediately your heart swelled, suddenly your stomach was filled with hundreds of flitting butterflies and your face was hot, blush lighting up your face with red. 

"Yes, I would love to," you said, the wave of joy finally breaking with a huge ecstatic smile on your face. 

Kirishima's face lit up with red, almost as bright as his fiery hair. He proceeded to celebrate by jumping into the air as high as he could, pumping his fists in the air. 

"YES! Okay, awesome!" He almost yelled, his excitement making you giggle. 

"Okay, I'll pick you up tomorrow, then?"

"Yes, I'm free tomorrow so that should be okay," you told him, a cheesy grin stuck on your face. "Text me any other details I might need, okay?" 

"Okay, awesome," he replied, his excitement still clearly showing on his face, also still bright red as well. 

Soon after that he drove home, and when he stepped out the door to leave, you closed the door and pressed your back against it, standing there for a minute with a wild grin. Your emotions were running high, and you stepped away from the door only to jump around cheering in your front hallway for a bit. 

The next day was the longest you have ever been through. He texted you in the morning that he was going to pick you up at 6, and that you could dress casual (because you asked him what you needed to wear). However, after waking up at 8 with a free day ahead of you, you didn't know what to do with yourself. Somehow, though, you managed to fill your day (partly because you were in a call with Mina half the morning, describing the situation and her giving you advice) and you were ready by 5:30 for Kirishima to arrive. You had decided to wear a dressier t-shirt with leggings. 

Before 6:00 rolled around, Kirishima got to your place and walked up to your door, and before he got to knock on it (he took a second to hype himself up before he knocked on your door), you opened it and saw him standing there in a cute white shirt with black pants on. The outfit accentuated his figure well, and you could tell he was strong, and his muscles were toned. His bright red hair was fluffy, like he normally has it, and he donned a cute smile as he checked you out as well. 

"Wow... you look really pretty," he said, blush creeping onto his cheeks. Your eyes were planted on his, and you could see he couldnt take his off of your shirt, which was a low, V-cut shirt and helped to show off your cleavage a bit. 

You laughed as you replied, "Thank you, you do too." 

This finally brought his eyes back up to your face, and the blush that was creeping up just onto his cheeks now covered his entire face as he realized he was totally caught. 

"I'm sorry, you just... your outfit is- it's-" he stuttered, trying to explain himself.

"It's okay, I'm the one who wore the outfit," you told him. "Come on, take me where you want to, Kiri," you walked out the door and past him. 

After a second he followed you back to his car, and he unlocked it so you both could get in. 

The ride there wasn't very long, so you only got through a bit of small talk before you saw he was taking you to a mini-put course. You smiled as the memories of the last few times you had gone mini-putting, and you thought it was very cute that it would also be your first date with Kirishima. 

The man who checked the two of you in was old, and he could tell that you were on a date together. He had a very dopey smile on while you both got putters and balls, and when you were walking out the door, he called, "Have fun, you lovebirds!" When the door shut, both of your faces were bright red, but you looked at each other and burst out into laughter.

Still laughing, you walked over to the first hole. This one was probably the easiest, being the most straightforward with only a few obstacles. After that, though, it only got harder. 

The theme of the place was cute - it was a bit plain, being that it was outdoors-themed, with a few water features, but it was cute and it was fun. There were only a couple other people there, one group being a cute older couple that was almost done by the time you and Kirishima had started, and the other group being a small family that was about mid-way through the course. It was nice, though, because it meant that the two of you could go at your own pace, and talk about the things you wanted to, and just have fun together without any interruptions. 

At each hole, you tried to get Kiri to go first so that you could stand behind him and sneak a few looks. Sometimes it worked, but other times he would catch you and laugh, or he would refuse (so that he could do the same thing, even though you definitely caught him more times than he caught you). 

The evening was filled with laughter, teasing, and fun, and in the end, you both tied. At the last hole, Kirishima was in the lead by 1, and his first putt missed the hole by inches. He ended with 2 on the last hole. When your last turn came up, you gave it your best shot, even though you thought you weren't going to win. Your ball ended up making it in one shot, and when you went to pick up your ball out of the hole, Kirishima was there, his mouth wide open in shock. In the adrenaline of your comeback, you walked over to him. 

"Cat's game," you whispered in his ear, planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and gently closed his jaw as you did so. 

Quickly you walked back into the check-in building, the heat in your cheeks rising extremely fast after that. You put back your ball and putter, told the older man that you would be right back, and rushed to the restroom. While you were in there, you took a second and washed your hands, calming yourself down. 

You hadn't bothered to see if Kirishima followed you into the building, so when he burst into the bathroom, you were only half shocked. The shock only hit you when you turned around, your back to the sink, and he grabs your hips.

"Can I kiss you?" He asks, his face red with blush, his voice deep, but a little desperate.

"Yes," you responded, your voice shaky with shock and emotion. The clash of his lips against yours was electric, sparking throughout your body. One of his hands reaches up to your cheek, while the other stays at your hip. Slowly, the one at your hip moves from its position towards your stomach, where he slides his hand underneath your shirt and up, his thumb brushing against the bottom of your cleavage. At the same time, he moves his lips from yours and towards your jaw, moving down to your neck. He finds your sweet spot and begins to suck, earning a small moan from you. 

"Kiri.." you start, but trail off when he continues. 

"Don't worry, no one's coming," he says, trying to reassure you. 

"Kiri, no," you pause, making him stop. "I want you, and I want more, I just don't want it here, in this bathroom at a mini-putt-course."

His bright red eyes change from hurt to confusion, to bright again when you tell him this. 

"Ohhh," he says, pulling away gently. "Shoot, and I still have to pay for the date, too. Good idea," he commends you, which earns a laughing smile from you both. 

Thankfully, when you leave the bathroom, the old man is turned around, reading something. Together, you walk up to the counter. Kiri pays for the time at the course, and together again you walk out and to his car. 

When you sit down, Kiri takes a second before he starts the car to move your hair out of your face and behind your ear. The contact is filled with electricity, and makes you shiver, only being able to hope he didn't notice. After putting the car into drive and pulling out of the parking lot, he puts his hand on your thigh, and you shiver even worse than you did seconds ago, goosebumps lighting up your skin. Discreetly, you try and close your knees to hide the heat pooling between your legs. You realize it doesn't quite work, though, when you see his smirk, and he proceeds to move his hand a bit further up. 

Once you get to his place, he moves his hand from your thigh to put the car in park, and you immediately miss the contact. You don't have to miss it for long, though, when you get inside.

The door barely closes before his hands and his lips are on you again, making your skin light up with electricity. He starts to suck on your sweet spot again, which also earns another moan from you. You can barely get out the next few words, he's making you feel so good already.

"Kiri.." you try to tell him. This time it works - his head perks up, ready to listen to you.

"Kiri, where is your room?"

The simple question ignites a fire in his eyes, lust being the fuel. Quickly and easily, he picks you up so that he is holding you by your thighs. You wrap your legs around his waist and your arms around his neck to help him, and he takes you to his room.

Gently, he places you on the bed, where you take a breath before you kiss him again, pulling him down on top of you. He takes this and moves his hand onto you again, one on the bed by your head, the other carefully placed against your stomach. Your hands are in his hair, tugging and pulling it, showing him how much more you want.

Once again, he moves his hand up and under the bottom of your shirt, just underneath the cup of your bra, his thumb barely brushing it. The slight touch sparks electricity through your body, and it pools in your core.

You push back at his collar, and he lets you sit up enough to take off your shirt. His eyes are on you the whole time, and once you get it off, his jaw drops once more.

"Holy shit, you're beautiful," he says, still not taking his eyes off of you.

"Hold on a minute, though," he continues, once you reach out towards his collar again. "Are you sure you want this?"

The question brings back that warmth he shared from his smile weeks ago, and it was something even as simple as asking for consent. That warmth ensured that the fire burning inside of you right now would never go out.

"Kiri, I have wanted you since the first day we became partners for that project," you stated. "Yes, I am sure I want this."

"Okay, good, because I have, too," he says, and as you finally pull him down onto you, at the last second you flip him over so that he is on the bed and you're on top.

He grins wildly as you start unbuttoning his pants, and he helps you by taking off his shirt and tossing it to the side.

You pull down his boxers to reveal his erection, and his huge cock. Your core throbs at the sight, and you fight the urge to lick your lips, failing miserably.

When you place your lips around the tip of his length, Kiri throws his head back with a loud moan. Slowly, you start to bob your head up and down, sucking gently as you did. Your hand stroked the rest of him as well, and you could tell the sensation was doing lots of things to Kirishima. He was moaning so loud, you were sure the neighbors could hear, but you didn't want to stop. Kiri tried (and failed) not to thrust up into your throat, but you didn't mind it too much.

"Im.. so close-" he said, just a few seconds before you felt his white hot release in your mouth. When you were sure you had sucked him dry, you swallowed, earning yourself another groan and a wild grin from Kirishima.

"My turn," he said. He helps you to unclasp your bra, your cleavage falling out and bouncing in front of his face. Quickly he flipped you over, so that you were underneath him, your back against the bed. Contrastingly slow, he pulled your leggings down your legs, revealing your underwear and soaking pussy.

"Wow, all for me?" He started, pulling aside your underwear and rubbing a single finger through your folds. This immediately follows by a groan from you.

"Yes- Kiri, all for- for you," you just barely manage to stutter out once he puts that finger inside of you and starts to pump it in and out. The action makes you bite your lip, trying to stop the loud moans escaping you.

When Kiri sees this, he grabs your chin and pulls it to face him, still not stopping his fingers inside of you.

"Don't hide your voice, I want to hear every single sound you make tonight. And no one is going to hear but me," he says, and you let go, loud moans breaking free from your lips.

"Atta girl," he praises, which only goes down to your pussy, where he adds another finger inside of you now. He hits your G-spot every time, curling his fingers just so that he can get it. And he definitely does - you were close to your release.

"Kiri-" you warn, feeling the string of ecstacy being pulled tight, about to snap. "Don't stop-"

You gasp as your orgasm hits you like a waterfall, ecstacy and electricity rushing through you as that string snaps. You cum on his fingers, the stringy substance coating his fingers thickly. You ride your orgasm out on his fingers, and once you're done, he puts his fingers in his mouth and tastes your sweet release.

"You taste so fucking sweet," he praises you. You're still panting from your orgasm off his fingers, and it doesn't help when he pulls your underwear off your hips, tosses it to the floor, and pushes your legs up so that your knees are almost touching your shoulders.

He lines up his cock with your entrance, and your eyes widen as you realize you are about to take his monster of a cock inside you. He passes through your folds a few times before he slowly enters you, one inch at a time. He gets through just the tip before he stops so that you can adjust to the pleasant burn he gives you. Once you're adjusted well, he pushes inside of you just an inch further. He pushes down to the hilt inside of you, and you gasp again as his dick hits your cervix easily.

You adjust to the burn quickly, and thankfully because he begins to pump in and out of you, earning multiple pornographic moans from you. You can feel the buildup of pressure already, building up like a wall about to crash.

Kirishima drives into your pussy, moans releasing from both of you as you get closer to your high. His hands roam your body, one cupping and kneadind your breast and nipple, the other holding onto your waist.

He fucks into you harder and harder, faster and faster, until you can feel the cracks in the wall, a dam about to burst. Your moans mesh together as you both reach your high simultaneously. The dam breaks, erupting as his does too, resulting in a mix of his and your release together at the base of his cock, still hilt deep inside of you. Your legs shake from your release, and the last few pumps of your orgasms fall out of you both.

You lay on the bed in ecstacy as Kirishima pulls out of your ruined pussy, gets up from you and goes to the bathroom to cleanup. He comes back with a towel for you, and helps you to clean up the mess that is the two of you. Once he is done, he puts your previously discarded clothes into the hamper, and gives you a pair of shorts and a too-big shirt for you to wear, and he changes into a loose shirt and boxers as well. He helps you change, and when the two of you are done, he climbs into the bed next to you and places a kiss on your forehead.

"So, does this mean I'm your boyfriend now?" He whispers. You turn around and push his forehead lightly back to play with him.

"I think we need to play another game to determine that," you reply, a coy smile playing at your lips, despite recent events.

"Or..." Kiri trails off, trying to think of a comeback or an easier situation.

"Or... what?" You tease him, giggling as you watch his eyes light up with an idea.

"Or I could just fuck you again, except harder," he states, and this time you can't tell if he's serious or not.

"Harder?" You whisper, thinking about how he could possibly do that after what he did tonight.

"Yeah, although we might have to wait until the morning to do that, cause then you can walk," he says, his tone nothing but factual. He places one last kiss on your cheek this time, spooning you in the bed. The kiss makes the warmth inside of you burn brighter, never to go out again.

[j2hoes]

Police Cars And Paintings. (Wally Clark x Reader)

Summary: Wally helps Y/N get her justice.

Word count: 2,593

Gif Not Mine. Requests Are Open!

Warnings - Murder? Swearing.

“Y/N Y/L/N was loved by all, caring, supportive and kind are just three words that her family and friends used to describe the young woman whose life was so tragically cut short at the age of seventeen. Y/N was a senior at Split River high school, with hopes of attending New York Fashion School, in order to pursue her dreams of studying fashion design. She was the valedictorian with a passion for the arts. We learn today that her body was discovered in the school’s art room, with multiple stab wounds to her  neck, chest and stomach. Police believe the attack was premeditated and to remain vigilant as her killer is still yet to be caught.”

Letting out a pained scream, I launch the tv remote directly at the screen in front of me, causing the image to shift and blur before settling into a dull, gray static. Feeling multiple pairs of eyes on me, I grip my hair, tugging slightly to feel the tightness in my skull as a way to relieve the emotional pain weighing me down.

“Hey, let’s not do that okay. It won’t help you.” Wally tells me, gently grabbing my arms and forcing them down as he wraps his arms around me in a comforting hug. Well as best as he can leaning from behind the sofa.

“Are we not gonna talk about the fact that she just broke the tv? She’s ruined movie night for everyone.” Rhonda complains, eyes shooting daggers at me.

“Like you even care about movie night. There’s other TV's in this school, we’re not gonna miss one.” I snap back, rage still coursing through my body. “At least your murderer was caught.”

Rhonda scoffs, turning to look at Mr Martin, who has remained oddly silent, as she slips her lollipop back into her mouth. Mr Martin simply shares a disapproving glance, not impressed by either of our actions or comments though he still remains silent. Not wanting to make the tension in the room any worse. It’s so thick you could cut it with a knife, cliche I know.

“At least you know who did it, that’s got to count for something and I’m sure the police will work it out soon enough. I mean, they already know that it was a planned attack.” Charlie comments, hoping to make me feel a little better, yet I still feel just as bad. If not worse than moments prior.

“Yeah and he’s still walking about school as though nothing happened! The cops don’t give a shit Charlie, I’m already dead, it’s not like anything worse is going to happen to me that they have to worry about.”

Wally’s embrace relaxes as he stands up straighter, arms falling to his side, causing me and everyone else in the room to turn and look at him. A serious expression is settled upon his face, an unusual sight as he is normally sporting a soft smile or at least a playful lightness in his eyes.

“Wait, the guy that did this goes to school here? He’s still here?” Wally asks, his questions directed at me as though nobody else is even in the room. Clearly something has rattled him.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m so pissed off. I still have to see him every single day and there’s no escape. Not even in death I get peace.”

With a huff, I push myself off the sofa. Forcing a smile at the group as I make my exit, the moment I step out of the gym I start running. Sprinting as fast as I can to the other side of the school before climbing up the stairs to the rooftop. The art room used to be my quiet place, where I would find myself able to relax and feel at ease. Not anymore. So, the roof is my quiet place now. After moving all of my art supplies here, I’ve found that there’s no reason for me to even step foot in the art room anymore. It’s been a month and it’s still too painful to be in there.

Picking up my paintbrush and dipping it into my paint to continue the mural I have been working on, I hear another pair of footsteps lightly jogging up the stairs. I know it’s Wally, I don’t even need to turn around to know it’s him. Ever since I arrived in this world, he’s been my rock. Helping me get through everything and it’s safe to say that in the short amount of time I’ve known him, he’s found a special place in my heart. It’s not a crush. I swear it’s not a crush. I just happen to have a soft spot for him.

“Holy shit. I knew you liked art but this is insane, why have I never seen this?”

Wally’s stare is glued to the mural I’ve painted, each ghost gazing back at him from their position on the wall. Rhonda’s trademark moody stare, Charlie’s sweet but somewhat shy smile, even Dawn’s curiosity shines through in her chestnut brown eyes. I watch as he notices himself. A proud smile resting on his lips. Wally was the most difficult to paint, I wanted to make sure I captured his beauty properly, though that tends to be very hard to do when someone is physically perfect.

“You even got my necklace, Y/N this looks so real. Like you’re so talented, this belongs in a gallery or something.” Wally continues, brushing his finger down the side of his painted face, still in awe.

“It’s still a work in progress. I haven’t even started on Mr Martin, or the band kids or the girl in the theater whose name I always forget.” I tell him, swatting his hand away from the wall before he smudges any paint that may still be wet.

“Yeah, but do you really want them on there? Mr Martin sure, but the others, they never show up to the support group. You should keep it contained, no? You haven’t even painted yourself yet.”

“That’s kind of rude Wally. I painted Dawn and she never comes to the group, but she’s my friend.” I tell him, placing my paintbrush down and beginning to walk over to the rail at the edge of the roof. “We’re all dead, we deserve some sort of memorial.”

Leaning against the rail, I watch the kids below living their lives as normal. As though nothing is wrong, as though I wasn’t just murdered a month ago. God, if they knew this is what happens after death, they’d be terrified.

The football team are running drills on the field, accompanied by the cheerleaders who are going over the same routines. Students sit in the bleachers, either reading or making notes as they study. Occasionally laughing together as they discuss the latest gossip or show each other something they’ve seen on social media. It’s a peaceful scene, watching as they stress over things so trivial, things that won’t matter in ten years time.

“How come you never told me that the guy who killed you still goes to this school? I knew he hadn’t been caught but I assumed that’s because was on the run or something.” Wally asks me, leaning with his back against the rail so that he can watch me rather than the school.

“I don’t know. I try to avoid him and I know how nosey the rest of that group are, especially Rhonda. No doubt you’d all be following him around the school like a bunch of creeps.”

“Yeah but that’s just because we care about you.” Wally nudges me as he speaks, trying to get me to smile, which proves to be very easy as I make eye contact with him.

My heart flutters, making me nervous as I stare up at him. Wally’s height would intimidate me if I didn’t know how much of a big softie he was. I truly don’t think there is a bad bone in his body, he breaks the stereotypical idea of what a jock is. Charming and popular, sure, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Feeling his hand touch my chin, my smile grows wider as it gently moves to cup my cheek. His other hand combs through his hair, a nervous trait of his. Something I picked up on a while back, it doesn’t happen often because Wally isn’t one for getting nervous. He opens his mouth slightly, about to ask something. However, before he can my eyes catch sight of something on the field below.

“That’s him.” I point out, a flash of disappointment crosses his face before he removes his hand and turns to see what I’m looking at.

Harry Cole, clad in a dark hoodie is walking by the side of the field, heading straight to the art block. His pace is quick, almost like he’s in a rush and it’s the most panicked I’ve seen him since my death. Clearly something’s happened, a breakthrough in the investigation maybe? Police hot on his tail. Whatever it is, I need to know.

“That’s the dickhead that killed you?” Wally asks, scowling now as he takes him in.

“Yeah, come on, he’s up to something.”

Without even a second thought, I grab Wally’s hand, taking off in a slight run in order to catch whatever Harry’s up to. Wally’s gripping my hand in a firm hold, as if he’ll lose him if he lets go, thumb gently tracing circles into my skin despite us running.

Upon entering the art room, I immediately see Harry at the sinks, furiously scrubbing at something. Sharing a confused glance with Wally, I slowly approach him. I know he can’t see me and yet I’m still worried that I’ll disrupt him and spook me off, leaving me with no answers.

The closer I get the stronger the smell of bleach is, and then I finally see what he is cleaning. Butcher knife gleaming under the bright white lights, I spot the specks of blood still coating the handle and I know he’s trying to remove any evidence. Gloves adorn his hands in an attempt to mask his fingerprints. A silent tear rolls down my cheek at the thought of him never getting caught.

Wally’s arm wraps around my shoulder delicately. “You don’t need to see this.”

To my surprise, I don’t fight with him as he gently escorts me out of the room. I make no noise as I let the tears fall down my cheeks and I know Wally sees. Yet, he stays quiet. Not wanting to further upset me. He helps me to sit down on the old sofa that resides on the roof. With his hands on my knees he crouches in front of me, a concerned look on his face.

“You’ll be okay Y/N. I promise.” He tells me, words soothing my pain little by little. “Look I’ve got to run somewhere but I will be back so fast. I swear.”

Nodding my head gently, he presses a soft kiss to my forehead before dashing off to wherever he needs to be. Allowing me to wallow in my pain. The more days that pass, the more I feel as though justice isn’t possible. The more I feel like Harry will get away with everything.

Curling up into a ball, I allow my emotions to take over. Wails audible and body shaking with anger and sadness. I don’t want to feel like this anymore. I don’t understand how the others do it. They’ve been dead longer but surely they still feel the pain and anguish of being dead. Surely they must be hurting too.

I’m brought back to reality by the sounds of sirens, I’m not sure how long I was sat consumed in my sadness but I know that Wally is standing by the rail. Watching whatever it is that is taking place below. The sirens ring through my ears and I jump up to stand beside him, his arm instantly wrapping around me despite no words being said.

Police cars fill the car park, grabbing the attention of pretty much everyone in the near vicinity. Students stand in shock at the commotion being caused. Each window is filled with faces, eager to bear witness to what is happening outside. Wally’s arm squeezes my shoulders, a show of encouragement and support. I swear if he wasn’t by my side, physically holding me up with the arm that is wrapped around me, I think I would be a nervous heap on the ground.

With that, I spot it. Several police officers surround Harry as he is walked out of the school building in handcuffs. His hood shielding his face from view to the majority of students, however, I know it's him. Same outfit, same demeanor, same person. They’ve got him. I feel a weight lift from my shoulders and I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

“How did that happen? How did they know it was him?” I ask, completely bewildered by the entire situation.

Wally looks down at me, a shy smile on his face. He knows something I don’t. Turning to face him properly, I take his hands in mine, raising my eyebrows in an attempt to get an outside. Only for him in turn to focus his stare onto the floor.

“Wally?”

“Dawn has a pretty big social media presence within the school community. She runs it as though she’s an anonymous gossip blog, nobody knows who she is but everyone knows her.” He starts, still leaving me confused as to how this happened. “I managed to get her to the art room in time to take a picture of him with the knife. She posted it, it went viral and now the police are here.”

Feeling a rush of emotions run through my body, I somehow gain the confidence to pull Wally down by his gold chain. Gentle enough that it doesn’t snap but with enough force that he’s taken off guard. My hands hold his face as I press my lips to his, feeling his hands hold my forearms as he delicately moves his lips against mine. As I pull away slowly, my mouth drops open in shock as I gaze at Wally who is now eye level with me. Hunched over in order to kiss me.

“I am so sorry Wally. I have no idea where that came from, I just -”

Wally cuts me off with his lips on mine once again, he maneuvers slightly so that my back presses against the rail and I wrap my arms around his neck as the kiss begins to grow more passionate. His hands are holding my waist, body pressed tightly against mine as I feel every inch of my body tingle with excitement. I know Wally feels it too. When I force myself to pull away for some air, he doesn’t hesitate before moving to press light kisses against my neck.

“I’ve never felt this with anyone before Y/N.” He whispers against my skin, goosebumps raising at the feel of his lips moving against my neck.

He moves to look at me, a big, goofy smile on his face as I move my hands to play with the necklace dangling in front of me. Wally places his hands on the rail besides me, watching me eagerly, awaiting my next move.

“I really, really like you Wally.”

He chuckles softly, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I really, really like you as well.”

[ldrfanatic]

Okay first of all.

I am so proud of you girl <333 Like literally you deserve it so much and the event is just 🛐

So I will go with a milk - Slytherin boys

My info:

I am quiet tall 5’8.5 but it’s good cause i am the biggest fashion lover. And my height let me rock fits. I am obsessed with shoes especially sneakers. I love streetwear and high fashion.

When it comes to my appearance i have dark blond/light brown wavy long hair and icy blue eyes. My friends are always making fun of me cause i got huge lips naturally and they call me either bitch face or bristlenose.

Nevertheless, I am the biggest sweetheart ever. I am always life and soul of the party and i just love people. It sometimes sucks as my friends need to protect me as I am bit too naive and trusting.

+ I love flirting. Like making boys lose their heads is my full time job. I don’t like hurting people feelings so when things can get serious i ran away as i am kinda scared of love after my father being a cheater.

When it comes to hobbies as i said Fashion is my whole life and plan for future. But i also dance i am ex hip hop now ballet dancer. And i wear headphones 24/7 listening to ASAP rocky, Plaboy Carti or Travis.

That’s all :)))))

Sending kisses to you shanty 😫 and i am so so so excited for it‼️

Bye!!!

Thank You So Much Anon!!!

1000 follower celebration my bookcase

I pair you with…. Mattheo Riddle! Hear me out:

So, Mattheo is not that much taller than you because he’s only about 6’0 but it’s perfect. He’s the perfect amount of taller than you to still be hot but not so much taller that either of you has to work too hard when you want a kiss (and kisses are very important to Mattheo)

He loves your style. Mattheo is a big fan of ass and there’s nothing that he loves more than a good paid of jeans. and with your long legs too? yeah he’s passed out.

Mattheo likes to joke but he will seriously lay out anyone that genuinely hurts your feelings or pokes fun at you for your lips. He’s dead serious. And completely unapologetic. Your eyes were definitely the first thing that he noticed about you and he’s not ashamed to admit it.

He is 100% down for protecting you and keeping you innocent and like untouched in a way. Before you started dating a lot of people warned you about Mattheo but then you realized how much of a teddy bear he is inside and that most people just only got either scary Mattheo or super flirty Mattheo.

After the two of you start dating, you guys become the center of pretty much every major happening at hogwarts. not only because you’re both super social, but also because Mattheo now focuses all of his efforts on you and can and will get distracted by your existence no matter what setting it is. (Mattheo, it’s the middle of a quidditch match, get back on your broom dawg).

He does understand that with your past and his reputation, why you might be scared. For the first few months you guys take it kind of slow. He doesn’t put any labels on anything until you’re ready but he lets you and everyone else know that he’s yours.

He loves watching you dance and will sometimes sneak into the room if he sees you dancing just to watch for a little while. He will be whatever you need him to be when you’re designing whether it’s someone to give a second opinion, hold your supplies, or just test out fabrics to tell you which ones are too scratchy.

You guys have incredibly similar tastes in Music due to the fact that Mattheo will listen to pretty much anything that he thinks has a good beat. He loves Travis and listens to a decent amount of both Jack Harlow and Rod Wave. Don’t ask him about a favorite song tho. He can’t choose.

mattheo’s nicknames for you:

- goddess (most frequent use)

- honey bunches (mostly in the beginning said it to annoy you but now it’s caught on and he can’t stop)

- will call you a siren or a temptress if you’re in a really killer dress for any kind of event or date.

TYSM for this ask. I tried to get it as detailed as possible! :)

[curlsandsnakes]

AU POLIN FANFIC

Courting Penelope Featherington

It’s raining the day he comes home.

Dark, moody weather that sets the tone wonderfully for the rather lackluster greeting he gets from his preoccupied siblings and absolutely rung dry mother. With two girls out in society, 1 pair of newly weds, 2 youngsters, and a Benedict, he can’t quite blame his mothers half hearted declarations and wandering eyes. He’s fully aware they’re happy to see him, Hyacinth even cries, but they all have their own dramas going on and have no time to entertain his stories of travel.

It doesn’t matter any, there really is only person he’s desperate to talk too, desperate to thrill with detailed accounts and sketched photographs.

It’s a shame Penelope Featherington wants absolutely nothing to do with him.

Eloise is the only sibling who never responded to a letter he sent. It’s clear she’s fully aware of the horrible things he’d spoken in a drunken haze nearly five months ago , and in true Eloise fashion she has no intention of betraying her best friend. She doesn’t even speak to him until he drops into the chaise beside her.

“Eloise. I missed you.”

Her bored expression never falters.

“Lovely to have you home, colin.” It’s so formal he nearly snorts at his rebellious little sister.

“I understand you are still displeased with me about my error last season.”

That does it.

“Error?! You call what you did an error?” Her body twists towards him and she fixes him with an outraged glare.

“Well yes, it’s was uncalled for and I…”

“Uncalled for?! I’ve never known you to be a fool but I find I do not know you at all. You nearly ruined her , Colin! She was wiped from the marriage market by your comments alone! If even her best friend couldn’t imagine being with her, why would anyone else? You have no idea what you accomplished!” Eloise pants, her face alarmingly red. “And then, when the damage was done you ran off to travel the world leaving Penelope to fix her reputation entirely on her own! And the audacity to write to her.”

Theres pain in his gut, crushing and turning everything in his stomach until he’s left nauseous and weak. What had he done? Was he truly that blind to see how fragile Pen was already? If anyone knew how desperately she wanted a husband, a family, it was him. And he had spoken so callously, degraded the one decent woman in the entirety of the ton.

“But you needn’t worry, penelope is no longer the Insipid wallflower you once knew. She has blossomed quite beautifully, I myself was astonished by her transformation.” Kate calls from her place at the head desk in the drawing room, a knowing sparkle in her eye.

“It’s true! She’s the prettiest one at all of the festivals.” Gregory is fussing with his gift while he speaks but makes sure to keep eye contact with Colin when he continues “and everyone says so.” It feels strangely like a warning from the 12 year old.

“Do we speak of Penelope?” Violet Bridgerton waltzes back into the room “I’ve heard from a reputable source that Lord Debling and Master Anderson both have plans to begin a courtship with our beautiful friend. I’m so intrigued to see who she will choose to marry.”

“Marry?!” His voice carry’s over the deafening crack of thunder “she can’t marry! She would need at-least a season of courting and this one’s nearly over. If they haven’t begun courting her yet, it would be wise to wait until next year to begin!” He feels hot, sweaty, his heart beating so fast it’s bound to give way to his mania any moment now.

“Not in Penelope’s case. This is her third season with no matches, she’s more than welcome to accept whomever she chooses at whatever time.” Violet is perched on Simons lap.

“I quite like Debling. I believe he would make a good addition to the family.” The duke tickles his wife’s ribs.

“As do I. We all get on quite well and since Penelope is essentially a sixth Bridgerton sister it will be nice to have someone we can all tolerate.” Anthony adds.

“She is not marrying Debling!” Colin’s voice is firm and slightly frantic, panic rising up the back of his neck. “She will not marry this season.”

“And who are you to decide what she does brother? Have you not done enough. Your opinion is inconsequential and it would do best for you to keep it to yourself, lest you scare any more suitors off.” Eloise has her hands on her hips and it’s almost intimidating enough for him to stop speaking but God himself could not save Colin Bridgerton now.

“There will be no more suitors and she will not be marrying any of these men!” He barks, firm and unmoving.

“Why do you keep saying that?!” Eloise shouts.

“Because she will marry me!” The words pour out of him in a roar, his chest heaves and his hands ball his neatly pressed pants. “She will marry me when I am done courting her, she deserves the full courting experience. I had intended to come home at the start of the Season so I could do it properly but my boat went down at a shipping port and I didn’t make it out of Greece for weeks.

Violet claps her hands, a watery smile on her lips

“These are your intentions, dear?”

He has never seen his mother so proud, joy shining in her eyes.

“Yes. They have been since I left All those months ago. I regret the words I spoke instantly and I needed to figure out why. It didn’t take me long to realize Penelope is the one I desire, I crave, I need her in every humanly way.” It feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest

… until of course, Eloise speaks.

“We’ll best of luck on that journey, brother. Penelope Featherington absolutely loathes you.” She takes too much pleasure from his pain.

“All will work out as it should.” Violet pats his shoulder gently before walking back out.

He needs to fix this before someone else takes his place.

He needs to court Penelope Featherington, and he needs to court her right now.

[verilly]

Open Book

•••|•••|•••|•••|•••

Yoshida x Reader

•••|•••|•••|•••|•••

What’s to come: fluff, ooc yoshida, technically manga spoilers but not really, reader has an ex boyfriend, not proof read, gen I cannot tell if this is good or not haha pls tell me if it’s acceptable

Description: You can read everyone, except Yoshida. You soon make plans to get to know him better, they fail abruptly and he’s the one reading you instead.

•••|•••|•••|•••|•••

The seat next to you is empty, it always is. Your classmate is never here. You don’t exactly mind, he has a good excuse. The teachers love him, the girls love him, the guys want to be him. Hirofumi Yoshida.

You liked him too, he was nice to be around. Always so calm, it was sort of concerning. His smile was freaky and his eyes were dark, no light to be seen. His hair covered them nicely, you weren’t sure how he was even able to see. He had a small beauty mark under his lip towards the left side, it complimented him perfectly. Yoshida wore his uniform with his coat always worn properly. It was cute on him, nothing out of the ordinary. Though, his actual personality was quite strange. You could never place your finger on it, he was different from everyone else. He was extremely hard to read.

Fortunately for you though, Yoshida found you hard to read as well. You always found your way into his brain whether he liked it or not, lying at the back of his head at all times. Of course, that was usually because he had to focus on his job. If it weren’t for that, his main focus would be you completely.

Yoshida had been gone from classes for almost a week, this isn’t unusual. You weren’t lonely, you had other friends, but he was interesting and you were still in the middle of trying to decode him.

You felt bad for him, missing days of schoolwork because of “family emergency’s”. Not that you really missed his presence next to you though, right?

You didn’t need to miss him again because you two would regain all that time apart when you tutored him on all that he missed, whether it be school work or the latest gossip. He didn’t seem to mind your ramblings about the latest clubs, fashion trends, what the class average was, none of that. Yoshida listened to what you had to say, well… you hope he was listening. You still can’t really tell yet. He was a strange phenomenon, you could tell everything about everyone just by the way they breathed. Yoshida is strange. He’s crept up on you and scared you without meaning to. His presence is unknown until he makes himself visible. He breathes quietly, too quietly.

Today, Yoshida was back. You waved to him, he waved back. Nothing new. What is a good way to learn more about one another? What if you two were to hang out together after school, that sounds fun. Maybe you could do that after you give him your notes, yeah. That’ll work, and if he declines, then you’ll just have to think of something else.

“Hey Yoshida, you’re a popular guy, right?” You speak up, you were sat backwards on a chair so you could look at him up close. He was a lot more pretty up close. Yoshida nods and continued to scribble down more notes without looking up at you, “Do you have any free days? I’d like to hang out with you without it being related to school. We are friends, right?” You pout a little, his expression didn’t change. Maybe you will need to come up with a different plan.

“Mmm, yeah. We’re friends. I’m free tomorrow, and I’m done.” Yoshida looked up from his paper, he looked into your eyes. You quickly looked away, how awkward. You take back the note book as you praise him for his efficiency. Glancing at his notes, his handwriting was nice, but his notes weren’t as detailed as yours, “If we’re done now, I’ll be leaving.” Yoshida got up from his chair and began putting his notes in his book bag. His hands looked nice too, you noticed they were also slightly bruised. What does he even do after school?

Yoshida watched you for a second before waving a goodbye, you waved back. You hung your head down, you smiled to yourself. He said yes to hanging out with you. You couldn’t wait to learn more.

Yoshida thought about you, he was thinking exactly what you were. This hang out session would be a perfect way to learn more about you. He needed you. You knew a lot about everyone in this school, he needed to utilize that. Especially since his main mission is to protect Denji.

Getting you on his side wouldn’t be hard, it never is. Yoshida’s charm is unmatched, anyone would fall for him. You wouldn’t be an exception. You were cute, you caught Yoshida’s eye the first day he stepped foot into the building. The best part was that you were the most useful person to him in school, he listened to your ramblings. He hasn’t been here for long, but he knew a lot about everyone thanks to you. He wouldn’t even need to work hard to talk to you, you’re always the one starting to conversation anyways. Yoshida smiles to himself as he makes his way to Denji’s classroom. This will be easy.

-

Tomorrow came in an instant, Yoshida was waiting for you to pack everything back in your book bag, his eyes were on you. You could feel them. The classroom emptied slowly, you said goodbye to your friends and shifted your full attention to Yoshida.

“Alright then! Let’s go, we’re not going to go far from school. All you need to do is follow me!” You grab your book bag and walked out of the classroom with Yoshida to your side, he loomed over you like a shadow.

The walk was nice, Yoshida actually spoke up first for a few conversations. They were mostly about school, but you liked to blurt out new interesting news going around.

“Did you know that some girl from class 2-A showed up to school drunk? Apparently it’s because she went through a bad break up!”

“Isn’t drinking illegal at our age?”

“Haha, yeah. I have no clue where she got it, maybe it was her parents?”

Yoshida’s voice was cool and collected, even when he was interested in what you had to say. His voice was soothing, you liked it a lot actually. Walking with him was nice, maybe you should do it more often.

“Oh, Yoshida! Are you in any clubs?” You asked, if he answers then you might be able to learn what his interests are! You’ve seen him stay after school a lot, so maybe he is in one.

“The Devil Hunters Club.”

“Oh. Really? I didn’t think you’d wanna be a Devil Hunter when you were older… Cool I guess” Your tone shifted slightly, The Devil Hunters Club. What a joke, it was just made recently and it’s been taking members from all the other existing clubs. That made you a little annoyed, the club you were partaking in had recently disbanded due to the lack of members.

“What about you?” Yoshida looked at you, his eyes were dark but mesmerizing.

“Well, I’m not in a club anymore. Maybe I should join the Devil Hunters Club? How is it so far?” You look up to the sky, releasing yourself from staring at Yoshida. You weren’t really interested in Devil Hunting, but you could fake it for him.

“I’m not sure. I already signed up, but I haven’t attended a meeting yet. Maybe I could bring you with me.” Yoshida smirked, you blushed just a little and stopped your walking.

“That’d be fun… Anyways, we’re here. This is the place!~” You gesture to the building in front of you. It was nice and large, in fact, it was an arcade. An arcade you used to spent most of your free time with friends, but recently you’ve been coming alone. The games Yoshida chooses to play would be a terrific way on understanding him more. The factors being; what the genre of game is, how well he plays them, and if he’d be willing to play games that he’s never played before and or you suggest! The plan was secured as you held the door open for him. “You brought your money, right? I can pay for you if you didn’t.” You smile and play generous, but in reality, you’re only doing this so he could like you better.

“It’s fine, I brought enough for myself.” Yoshida smiles back, he hands his money to the worker at the front desk as you two gather tokens, “An arcade? I didn’t think you’d be the type of person to like things like this.”

“What does that mean? I love this place, I love all the games they have here! I’m not like amazing at them, but their really fun…” You speak your truth while walking with him to a specific game you wanted to start the day off with, it was your absolute favorite game. Project Melody, it was simple rhythm game. The mechanics were easy to understand; tap, hold, swipe. This game specifically can tell you a lot about someone, some people refuse to play games like these because they don’t believe that it’s a “real” game. Some don’t play because they aren’t confident and don’t feel like trying. Some play and have no rhythm, which says a lot about ones character. Meanwhile some play and succeed or even overachieve. Things are going to play perfectly for you. “We can play this one first, yeah? It’s a single player thing, and I’m great at it! Watch me work.” You giggle as you sit down on the game’s chair and select a song you were the most confident with after inserting one of your many tokens.

The song had an absolutely amazing vibe, the lyrics were passionate, the singer was powerful, and the musical chart was perfectly matching the melody. A full combo, you gleefully turn back to look at Yoshida. He looked amused at your situation. “Alright Yoshida, how about you try and play as good as me? I’m a master at this game so ask me if you need any help!~” You joke, but you slightly wished he would indeed need help. Yoshida looked at you and sighed as he sat down slightly, the game booth was small for him. You laugh to yourself and watch him play. You couldn’t tell if he chose a song at random, but the song he selected was an up beat song with questionable lyrics. He was good, but not as good as you. You look at him with pride after he finishes, “I can see why you like this game so much, [name].” Yoshida says as he lifts himself back up.

“Ohohoho, not a full combo? Don’t worry your little head, some people just aren’t as gifted as me!” You laugh, he scoffs to himself as you two walk around the arcade again.

Making your way to another game, it was bigger. Big enough for two people to stand inside of, specifically a shooting game. One you had enough practice on.

“Yoshida, are you afraid of zombies?”

“Not really, they aren’t real so their isn’t anything to be afraid of.” Yoshida looked smug as usual, nothing about his expression changed. Is he keeping his guard up or was he always like this?

A two player zombie shooting game, Yoshida was terribly good at it. Maybe this one’s his favorite? You died first and he snickered at your failure, you watched him play. He was still so good even after you try and grab his attention to focus on something else. You tried your best to make him fail, you didn’t succeed. He continued until the word “WIN” was seen on the screen. He hit the jackpot, tickets started shooting out of the machine. You complimented him and groaned internally.

The trip was a delight, you two played together for a long time. Your time spent here was the most fun you had in awhile, so fun in fact, it had slipped your mind to pay attention to your surroundings.

“Hey, do you want anything to drink? I can get you water or something.” You ask, you’re throat had been getting dry after all the walking and talking you’d been doing.

“Sure that’s fine, I’ll come with you.” Yoshida stood up from the booth and made his way next to you

“You don’t need to do that, it’s only a small trip to the lounge.” Despite your best efforts, Yoshida continued to follow you to order a few beverages.

The drink you ordered was sweet, it was the house special. Perfect for a picture, Yoshida ordered the same thing as you. His face was pretty while he spoke to the ‘bartender’. You closed your eyes and turn your head as you could feel your face turning red.

“Why are you back here, [name]?” You heard a familiar voice perk up from behind you, your ex. “Is this your new boyfriend?” You turn around to face him, he was just as disgusting as ever. You forgot he also spent his time here, you should have never chosen this place.

“He’s not my boyfriend. We’re just hanging out as friends, why don’t you still understand that?” You scoff as you grab your drink and pay. Yoshida was still by your side, you slowly shift further away. “And why would you care?”

“Why wouldn’t I care? You still like me, it-“ He spoke up, his voice was annoying. It’s burnt into you brain. You would never be able to emotionally recover from him, he was nice while he lasted.

“Shut up.” You raised your voice, you shocked yourself a little. Yoshida looked at you, his face was concerned. He shouldn’t be concerned for you. You could read his face just a little better, his eyebrows were furrowed just the slightest.

“What, you wanna look cool in front of your new boy toy?” He stepped closer to you, you step back

“Don’t cause a scene, bitch.” You spit out, his whole existence made you mad. You couldn’t look at his face, “Let’s go, we can keep the tickets and coins for later…” You step further away and gesture to Yoshida to leave.

“If you two aren’t together, why is it ‘we’?”

“I don’t know why you’re acting like this, you’re the one who broke it off!” You sigh and walk away, your ex soon latched onto your arm, his grip was tight.

“Let go.” Yoshida separated you from your ex with a swift shove, his glare was strong. You stare at your ex, he had fallen to the floor. You look at your arm, is was definitely going to bruise soon. You leave the arcade, you probably won’t be allowed back in for causing a scene. You mutter a few curses as you stepped out of the building.

Yoshida trailed behind you. You didn’t dare look him in the eyes, your ex’s voice faded away. All noise did. Your face was red from embarrassment, what would Yoshida think of you now? In fact, you were tearing up. You hid your face from him and stumbled into a small cafe.

“Go sit down, thanks for helping me” You lift your head up to face him, you didn’t look at him though. “I’m going to the bathroom, order anything you want. I’ll be paying!” You pep up your voice and give him a thumbs up before going to the restroom as hot tears slipped from your eyes.

Yoshida was kind and mature, he didn’t think he had anything for you. He just wanted to use you so his mission could succeed, that’s why he pushed your ex of you, right? He sat down uncomfortably, the cafe was nice. You were nicer though, he noticed your red eyes, he wanted to say something, but he decided against it.

He watched you make your way to the restroom, your head was hung low. He feels bad for you, maybe he should deal with the ex problem himself. He knows he has enough power to get rid of him. Then again, that isn’t something a normal high schooler would do. He’s trying his best to keep an uneventful life and keep things under control behind the shadows, using you was his plan to know everything about everyone. You weren’t easy though, he couldn’t read you, but now your barriers were gone and you were defenseless. He didn’t want anyone else seeing that, maybe that’s why he stepped in.

Yoshida ordered a coffee and a small dessert, he wasn’t planning on making you pay. You walk back from the restroom, your face was less red and covered in small splashes of water. You smile at him and order something for yourself.

“Yoshida, you don’t think any less of me now, right?” You sweat just a tad while looking at him

“No, everyone has relationship problems at some point. It’s normal-“

“Do you think everyone else sees me as calm and collected and cool like I see you?” You blurt out, your barriers were indeed fully gone.

“Where is this coming from?”

“It’s just that, I’ve been playing this facade so I wouldn’t have to be alone again. You’re different from everyone else and I can’t read you at all, and I’ve basically been training my entire life for stuff like that! It feels so dumb, I planned this trip so I could get to know you better but it failed and now I feel bad.” You kept going on and on, “I’m sorry. I said a lot.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. I like listening to you.” Yoshida smiled, this time it was sincere and you weren’t scared off.

“Oh, and I’m sorry you had to be caught up in all that stuff…” You put your head in your hands and sigh

“No seriously [name], it’s fine. I like hanging out with you, even if it’s not the way you planned it out to be.” Yoshida’s voice was soft, softer than you’d ever heard him before. You blush just a little bit, it would be unnoticeable to others, but you were an open book to Yoshida now.

“Thanks for being my friend, Yoshida. You’re great.” You smile back, your heart aches for him. You ignored it and concluded your hang out session for the day.

Yoshida smiled, he knew you already fell for him. Though he didn’t notice he’d slightly fallen for you too.

•••|•••|•••|•••|•••

A/n: I wasn’t on hiatus or anything sorry for not posting I was just writing this and also tests started back up and after school activities blah blah

Hashtag this fanfic might be just a bunch of one shots, like there might be a part two to this I don’t know…

I love yoshida but my small little brain is just NOT WORKING I HAVE IDEAS BIT I CANT PUT THEM I TO WORDS

anyways would u guys b ok if I posted pics of this y/n (who happens to be an oc) and Yoshida pics like cute little cute things

ALSO MANGA SPOILERS!!!!!! (If/when I make a part two)

[oumaheroes]

Yes ‘how the UK fit in within their politics’ is defo an interesting topic for me! Please shoot me your insights should you feel like it!

The Cleaner

Characters: Scotland

The Captain (England)

The Artist (France)

------

‘Who’s he?’

The lady next to her looked up from the elections sheets she was running through, ‘Which one?’

‘The reddish haired one. Big guy.’

She squinted down the corridor, ‘Oh. He’s... Kirk, something. Part of the treasury lot, I think? He’s always about.’

‘How long’s he worked here?’

The lady looked confused, an embarrassed realisation, ‘I don’t know.’

---

There is a strange man in Parliament.

He isn’t young, isn’t old. He’s worked here for years, yet no one knows entirely how long. Part of the building almost, the cleaner once heard him joke, older than the walls themselves.

The cleaner is old too. She’s been here years, wiping at the floors with the same type of bleach whilst the fashions and technology changed around her. She hadn’t planned to be here forever, it had only been a temporary job at first, but she found that liked it. Still does. It’s solid, sturdy. Old buildings full of her people’s history, its future made around her in the same walls. She’s seen Prime Ministers come and go, seen the Queen visit several times, and all the while she’s right at the centre watching from the side lines.

It’s funny. She doesn’t have the education to be here, nor the money nor class, yet here she is anyway. Even if she had, she couldn’t have been a politician. Not the brains, her mother used to say. All heart, no head. But she loves listening to them work, loves hearing current events unfold even if she’s not included in their making. They never care that she’s standing nearby to lower their voices. Either that, or they don’t see her there at all.

They don’t always seem to see him, either.

She sees him.

She always sees him. She sees how the tall, broad man has been here for years, standing at the side of the party leaders and officials. Sees him listen as keenly as she does to their talk, sees him stare off up at the paintings of old Scottish royalty on the walls. Watches him stand next to the guards and the boys who work down in electrics- his hands smeared with oil whistling next to polished marble and fine expensive gold.

Everyone else, though, seems to forget. Groups part to include him and then leave him behind. She used to ask about him sometimes, drawn to his laughing eyes and confident walk, but no one ever really knew him to tell her. No one remembered clearly that he’d spoken to them yesterday, or that he’d stood all day in the sun with the security team until the sun had gone down. He’d turn away and grow vague, details of him hard to recall and difficult to bring to mind.

Never for her though. For some reason, he’s as clear in the cleaner’s mind as a bell.

He sees her too.

He catches her eye amongst a crowd and lifts his chin in greeting. Winks at her from a podium, gives a wave on the telly that she somehow feels is just for her, where he stands next to men who look just like him, just as strange. Old green eyes, young face. Unseen ghosts over their shoulders, left over from something her mind can’t bring itself to consider.

Some things should not be questioned. There are things in this world that should not be named or recognised, things that deserve the respect of silence. The cleaner has always believed in the old way of things, the wisdom of the past that has endured down the centuries. The rules of the fae, the ways of an older world that is not meant for her. The years have forgotten this man for a reason, and she knows that it is not her place to question the way of things.

It is her last day today.

She still loves her job but it hurts to climb stairs now and there are so many here. She has a few years left in her, would grow bored sat doing nothing at home, so she’s got another position starting Monday to tide her over until she can’t go any longer. It’s somewhere newer and flatter and she’s disappointed with it already.

He finds her just as she’s about to leave, uniform folded and returned and her hands half in gloves.

‘I hear you’re leaving.’ He offers her a card and a small gift bag, ‘Glad I caught you.’

She takes them. ‘Thank you.’

She knows some things about this man. She knows that she loves him as much as she does her own son, knows that she would give him anything if he asked. She knows him as if they’ve been friends for years, and she knows that he knows her too. Her name, her family- all the way back through the generations to the very beginning of her kin.

She doesn’t know what to say. The questions she really wants to ask stay caught in her mouth as they should, buzzing and dangerous. She can’t get them out, can’t put the words in order.

He sees her. All of her.

‘Thanks for all your hard work.’

He offers his hand to shake and she takes it. Understanding flashes through her and then recedes, softly, like mist on the high northern hills.

‘Thank you.’ She says, eventually, ‘For remembering me.’

He squeezes her hand and winks, ‘The same in kind.’

A name comes to her that she dismisses. Swallows it back, feeling foolish.

Deep in her bones, she knows that it’s true.

[robinshandhurts]

More of Milo, and you know what? Heck it I’m gonna do a lore dump as well.

Plot

Milo is really bland guy. He’s got a basic fashion sense, has no talents, no friends, and no ambitions. Until one day when an amulet falls from the sky and hits him in the face while on his way to school.

Nothing happens until much later in the day when the town is attacked by an unknown galaxy like creature and he transforms….into a really uncomfortably girly fit, but he’s got a whip so now he can fight the monster. He very unceremoniously strangles whatever it is and untransforms.

When he’s returned to his normal state a very angry lion familiar bursts out of the amulet to yell at him. Turns out he was never meant to get this amulet and turn into a magical girl, the amulet was actually supposed to go to the clumsy pink-haired girl who’d been standing next to him at the bus stop. But she’d hopped on a bus right before the amulet fell out of the sky.

The lion familiar (Lee) is really pissed off because if Milo hadn’t triggered the transformation then they could’ve just found another way to get to that girl from earlier. But now they’ve fought together they’re bonded and neither of them can do anything about it. Milo’s confused, Lee’s pissed, it’s generally not a fun time for anyone.

Eventually (after a really awkward silence), Milo asks about whether Lee can change his magical outfit. Lee reluctantly agrees even though they rlly liked the outfit they made up before (the outfit in the art above is the new outfit).

From there they’ll meet the other girls in the group and over time Milo becomes the leader of the group, finally becoming less boring.

The magical world

Now that we know the plot (or well the shell of it), let’s move onto the magic system.

So I didn’t make this clear before but all the magical girls represent a Zodiac (Milo is obviously Leo). And all of them have a special animal as a second theme:

Aquarius: Seal

Pisces: Some kind of fish

Aries: Ram

Taurus: Bull

Gemini: Bunny

Cancer: Crab (specifically a yeti crab)

Leo: Lion

Virgo: Swan/Peacock (I’m still deciding)

Libra: Owl

Scorpio: Scorpion

Sagittarius: Horse

Capricorn: Seahorse

They each have three powers: Moon power, Sun power, Rising power. Their rising power is the weakest but they can use it multiple times if they need, it’s based off of their Zodiac’s element and normally involves their weapon. Milo’s for example is a fire whip kinda thing.

Their Sun power is stronger but they can only use it once per transformation. It’s based off their special animal. Idk what Milo’s is yet, what I had planned worked better as his moon power.

Speaking of: their moon power is their strongest move. When they use it (which can’t be often because it drains their familiars a lot) they go into a trance like state and their special animal forms around them. The power they can use in this state is based off of their Zodiac. For example: Milo can use a power called ‘Nemean wall of Fire’, which is a huge fiery shield he can summon and use to protect himself or others (main character type power yk).

Both the person and the familiar have to be in sync with one another to use these powers, so there needs a bond between them otherwise the magic might not work properly. This would be explored later once Sagittarius is introduced as she uses a wheelchair and so if her transformation goes wrong then the support she needs could disappear (I’ll explain it more once I have her design down) and that would suck real hard for her because then she wouldn’t be able to move without leaning on something. So for her the bond is vital. And that gets explained to her and everyone else in the group.

Anyway this is all still a work in progress so any suggestions are welcome. :)

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 15: RACHEL MAKES A BAD DEAL

Will snapped out of his daze like a bad dream, right into the familiar feeling of someone needing his attention.

It was Nico, but to his surprise, the son of Hades had concerned eyes on him. A question in the tilt of his head.

Will used the back of his hand to brush Nico's cheek in thanks as he shook his head.

"If you need out," Nico whispered, trying to make him hear the urgency in his quiet voice-

He shook his head more forcefully and whispered back, "I'm, just, I don't want to dwell on this. I'm not proud of the fact that I, kind of still have some anger at Percy lodged somewhere in here about nobody telling me I was suddenly head of my cabin as I rushed off to save someone else," he gestured with his other hand to the back of his head with an uncommon frown.

Reaching over to take the book, he'd thought the matter was settled. He wasn't expecting the distance to be closed and Nico to take the moment to place a quick kiss on his cheek, right on the edge of his lip.

Nico looked as surprised as he did for the impulse, and both blushed as Nico hastily put the book in his hand.

"You two are dating?!"

Percy's blurted shout was just loud enough they all winced at the noise and he only felt a bit sorry as he tried to modulate his voice back down, "I've been here the whole time, when did you two..." he trailed off in maximum confusion and great relief Nico's crush really had apparently full blown faded. Either that or Nico's Italian roots had flared up at a strange time?! Or was that a French thing to kiss someone on both cheeks? But Nico hadn't kissed the other one-

"Oh, Percy," Annabeth sighed.

Will's voice was now squeaking as he flipped to his spot to start without responding and the chapter title came out like someone was plucking on his vocal cords. "Rachel Makes a Bad Deal."

"Get this girl a lawyer, stat!" Alex said as if nothing had happened.

Percy was still ogling the pair and then looking at his assortment of books, then to Annabeth; but was clearly going to be ignored by everyone else.

I grabbed Will Solace from the Apollo cabin and told the rest of his siblings to keep searching for Michael Yew.

The first time Will's name had even been mentioned on Percy's radar, and it was him he turned to for help, Nico noted with interest. It was no surprise to him, Will was the most helpful guy he'd ever met.

We borrowed a Yamaha FZI from a sleeping biker and drove to the Plaza Hotel at speeds that would've given my mom a heart attack.

Nico couldn't help a flinch of distaste at the mental picture of Will clinging to Percy's back for no other reason than fear for his safety. Percy might be able to walk off crashing that bike and keep running to get to Annabeth, but Will wouldn't.

Of course, Percy was more likely to fling Will over his shoulder and keep going, engine or not, but it was still a bad stint to envision.

 I'd never driven a motorcycle before, but it wasn't any harder than riding a pegasus.*

"It is nothing like riding a pegasus," Annabeth looked at him in her usual concern for his mental faculties. "The skill set is completely different seaweed brain, how you even think one relates to the other- no, how you're not dead is-"

She shut up as Percy gently kissed the back of her hand, looked her in the eyes, and said, "Quite time wise girl." The strain in his voice was unmistakable. He might have her here, warm and alive beside him now, but he still needed that security from his past like a blanket to feel like she'd stay that way in his memory too.

She nodded dumbly and squeezed his hand in understanding of that.

Along the way, I noticed a lot of empty pedestals that usually held statues. Plan twenty-three seemed to be working. I didn't know if that was good or bad.

"Why is that so accurate to every part of your life?" Magnus sighed.

Percy would honestly like an answer to that too.

It only took us five minutes to reach the Plaza—an old-fashioned white stone hotel with a gabled blue roof, sitting at the southeast corner of Central Park.

"Whoever picked that spot was trying to get in your good graces," Jason rolled his eyes, wishing he knew New York better to instead glean if that was a strategic place.

"I don't like something just because it has a blue roof," but Percy's protest sounded half-hearted at best. He had smiled at the building on more than one occasion as he passed for the color.**

Tactically speaking, the Plaza wasn't the best place for a headquarters. It wasn't the tallest building in town, or the most centrally located. But it had old-school style and had attracted a lot of famous demigods over the years, like the Beatles and Alfred Hitchcock, so I figured we were in good company.

"It's not the worst reason to pick it," Nico nodded along. Taking a moment to remember its historical importance and why other demigods had been drawn there was a motive he'd consider.

I gunned the Yamaha over the curb and swerved to a stop at the fountain outside the hotel.

Will and I hopped off.

Nico was a little surprised at the jealousy that flitted through him. Had Will once had a crush on Percy like he did? It wouldn't surprise him. He'd once had a mild panic attack at the idea of getting on the back of Mrs. O'Leary with Percy and him being that close, so he knew he had no right to begrudge Will if he'd had a bit of a thrill for this chance.

The statue at the top of the fountain called down, "Oh, fine. I suppose you want me to watch your bike too!"

She was a life-size bronze standing in the middle of a granite bowl. She wore only a bronze sheet around her legs, and she was holding a basket of metal fruit. I'd never paid her too much attention before.

Then again, she'd never talked to me before.

"That is the best way to get your attention," Thalia nodded. "Gods forbid you try giving the boy a silent signal."

Percy ignored her as he continued holding Annabeth close and watching the book intently. Or he really hadn't registered she was talking to him. They'd believe both.

"Are you supposed to be Demeter?" I asked.

A bronze apple sailed over my head.

"Great guess Percy," Alex gave him a thumbs up. "Hope you try again."

"Why do you want to hear her throw more apples at me?" Percy gave her an exaggerated hurt face.

"Your thick head can take it and I crave violence through physical comedy you don't get enough of," she shrugged.

"Yeah, no, I get that," Precy nodded in understanding while Magnus and Annabeth looked between the two in ever-growing concern.

"Everyone thinks I'm Demeter.'" she complained. "I'm Pompona, the Roman Goddess of Plenty, but why should you care?

"No, yeah, why should I care about a Roman goddess?" Percy looked around at Jason. "I have enough of my own to deal with!"

Jason held up a finger for each point he made. "They overlap frequently, you should be more respectful, and so she might actually care about you."

Percy didn't seem to hear a good reason yet as he kept watching him before shrugging and turning back towards the book while Jason studied his fingers with a stubborn frown of how he could do better next time.

Nobody cares about the minor gods. If you cared about the minor gods, you wouldn't be losing this war! Three cheers for Morpheus and Hecate, I say!"

"Watch the bike," I told her.

Pompona cursed in Latin and threw more fruit as Will and I ran toward the hotel.

At least Alex got a laugh out of that while Percy grinned along at least it was easy to please somebody around here.

"An apple a day keeps the Percy away, got to make note of that one," Jason huffed.

"It took two apples, gods Jason, thought you were the smart one," Percy smirked.

"I'm just glad he didn't decide to catch one," Thalia said saintly, "that's a marriage proposal in Greek culture."

Percy looked at her and spluttered in concern, but for once he didn't drop Annabeth's hand and act like a scared little kid embarrassed of the future. Just an average boyfriend put on the spot of such words being spoken in his presence.

Will didn't try to fight off a small smile for these guys, and gave Jason a silent nod when he threw him a look, having obviously dodged the real stupid quote that he was mocking.

I'd never actually been inside the Plaza. The lobby was impressive, with the crystal chandeliers and the passed-out rich people, but I didn't pay much attention. A couple of Hunters gave us directions to the elevators, and we rode up to the penthouse suites.

"You might not have paid it much mind, but somebody made sure you got the best view," Magnus's skin crawled at the idea of how much a carpet in that place would cost while his shoes went across.

Of course, Annabeth was in there, and he'd shove his way past any security guards to get to her side too, it just bothered his brain a little that somebody had taken the time to make a keycard for the top of the building instead of just utilizing the lobby that could fit two or three entire homeless shelters more conveniently.

Demigods had completely taken over the top floors. Campers and Hunters were crashed out on sofas, washing up in the bathrooms, ripping silk draperies to bandage their wounds, and helping themselves to snacks and sodas from the minibars. A couple of timber wolves were drinking out of the toilets. I was relieved to see that so many of my friends had made it through the night alive, but everybody looked beat up.

"Percy!" Jake Mason clapped me on the shoulder. "We're getting reports—"

"Later," I said. "Where's Annabeth?"

"So that she can be there for the sweet revenge of you dumping those in Chiron's lap and tell him to figure out the alphabet," Will nodded.

Percy laughed, a cautious noise of hope that if Will could joke at a time like this Annabeth's injury hadn't been to bad at all.

"The terrace. She's alive, man, but . . ."

I pushed past him.

"I would too," Thalia scowled. That boy was lucky he'd still had all his limbs attached, or hadn't gone through a wall while being in Percy's way.

Under different circumstances I would've loved the view from the terrace. It looked straight down onto Central Park.

It was the perfect height too, Will hadn't really the chance to look on with the kind of awe he'd wanted to. High enough that the people below were indistinguishable, just little specks of life around, but not to tall he felt above them like a god would, easily able to overpass the sight of them and just see around what they were there to do.

The morning was clear and bright—perfect for a picnic or a hike, or pretty much anything except fighting monsters.

'But that's what he and Annabeth did best,' the thought flitted through Percy's mind strangely. Not joyful, exactly, a bit of pride sure because that kind of skill was what kept them alive and what made them friends in the first place, working so well together.

It was more of longing. Not quite sadness, just that he wanted them to be able to do more than just be good at that.

He glanced down at her now comfortably melded into his side as if she'd never leave again, and gods he hoped she wouldn't even as his imagination ran wild in the world above of everything they could do together. Picnics and hiking and more, finally without a single bad thing happening to one of them.

It sounded like a pipe dream, and he should just settle for being happy his girlfriend was here with him too.

Thankfully for Percy, such similar thoughts were floating through her head, but she had more plans and schemes afoot to make sure they'd come true before the next problem.

Annabeth lay on a lounge chair. Her face was pale and beaded with sweat. Even though she was covered in blankets, she shivered. Silena Beauregard was wiping her forehead with a cool cloth.

Percy's hands ached for a moment like he needed to pop his knuckles. What he wanted was to shove them all away from her like he had on the bridge, scoop her safe into his arms and never put her down until she was at the feet of a god who could, and would heal her without a single hesitation. No deals, no posturing, no tit for tat. Just godly healing out of the goodness of their heart so she'd be okay again.

That kind of alternate reality just didn't exist.

Will and I pushed through a crowd of Athena kids. Will unwrapped Annabeth's bandages to examine the wound, and I wanted to faint. The bleeding had stopped but the gash looked deep. The skin around the cut was a horrible shade of green.

Nico vividly remembered Will once promising to show him a wound every color of the rainbow, and his mind wandered for a moment wondering what it would take for a wound to turn blue...no that was probably oxygen deprivation and bad. Or purple...maybe a rare kind of poison?... Percy's wound had once been green when Annabeth nearly died, what an interesting comparison...

"Annabeth . . ." I choked up. She'd taken that knife for me. How could I have let that happen?

"You didn't let it happen Percy," Annabeth looked up at him with her eyes solid steel gray. "I did it, and I don't regret it."

Because she'd lived to not regret it, Percy still felt compelled to call Blackjack over and stampede him for this happening. What good was that curse if he couldn't protect what mattered most?

"Poison on the dagger," she mumbled. "Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

"Loving the correlation here that your hubris has no effect on you claiming idiocy on cleaning your own bunk for inspection, and saving Percy's life," Jason grinned.

"It's a very short and top-secret list my enemies would kill to get their hands on," Annabeth nodded seriously.

Will Solace exhaled with relief. "It's not so bad, Annabeth. A few more minutes and we would've been in trouble, but the venom hasn't gotten past the shoulder yet.

"You could almost die really isn't 'so bad' as you are about to die," Nico mock agreed that sounded like a great thing.

"See, this is why you'll do great work in the infirmary, making sure they hear the important details," Will nodded.

Just lie still. Somebody hand me some nectar."

I grabbed a canteen. Will cleaned out the wound with the godly drink while I held Annabeth's hand.

"She doesn't have to, drink it?" Magnus wasn't trying to correct Will, but up until this point that's how he understood it.

"No," Will kindly agreed, "it's preferable to ingest it orally to make sure it breaks down fully in the body, but in situations where they're unconscious, or worse some sort of poison is involved, better to pour it on the wound directly to let the healing kick in as fast as possible. Both are dangerous of course, we're always afraid of using to much, so you have to make that kind of choice on the fly."

Magnus and Jason both nodded in understanding, low levels of anxiety still circling the room despite Annabeth obviously being okay.

"Ow," she said. "Ow, ow!" She gripped my fingers so tight they turned purple, but she stayed still, like Will asked. Silena muttered words of encouragement. Will put some silver paste over the wound and hummed words in Ancient Greek—a hymn to Apollo. Then he applied fresh bandages and stood up shakily.

The healing must've taken a lot of his energy. He looked almost as pale as Annabeth.

His anger he'd been helping her instead of looking for Micheal had been well buried. He'd been professional and done all he could for her like any kid who passed through the infirmary any other day of the year.

After though, as he'd fallen slowly down the tacky patterned wall and sat alone in the hallway, he'd let himself cry softly for a while, letting it all have him before he made himself get up and go find his siblings. Memories of Micheal teaching him that hymn following him, trying to ask himself what Lee would say to them, to him as the oldest now.

It was a petty feeling he wasn't proud of as he'd glanced back at the door without a last prayer for Annabeth before turning away.

Nico rested his head gently on Will, causing Will's breath to catch softly as he stayed like that for several moments after Will kept reading, only pulling slightly back away again when his voice managed to get back to steady.

"That should do it," he said. "But we're going to need some mortal supplies."

He grabbed a piece of hotel stationery, jotted down some notes, and handed it to one of the Athena guys. "There's a Duane Reade on Fifth. Normally I would never steal—"

"I would," Travis volunteered.

Will glared at him. "Leave cash or drachmas to pay, whatever you've got, but this is an emergency. I've got a feeling we're going to have a lot more people to treat."

Will had known Travis was just trying to lighten the mood, but Will had found it far from endearing or funny. He'd felt five times his age. He'd felt very alone and frustrated beyond words to shout at even his dad, only a vague hope even he'd understand a fraction of what he was feeling and not even that was enough to bother trying to ask for a summons that would only be ignored. Obviously he was doing the most important thing in trying to quell Typhoon right now.

But having Nico here now really was like a missing puzzle piece he hadn't realized was needed in that picture back there. He fit so easily into the moment in Will's imagination, like he'd been standing silently off to the side and followed him out and just been a quiet acceptance for everything he'd been feeling. It really did make the memory retroactively bearable instead of a painful new twisting he'd been expecting.

Nobody disagreed. There was hardly a single demigod who hadn't already been wounded . . . except me.

'The obvious solution here was to throw everybody in the river Styx so nobody could ever get hurt again,' Alex shook her head as she bit her lip. She couldn't make herself say that even in jest. Even if they all knew she wasn't an actual idiot and nobody tried to explain why that was a bad idea, it just wasn't for anybody else but her.

"Come on, guys," Travis Stoll said. "Let's give Annabeth some space. We've got a drugstore to raid . . . I mean, visit."

"Really wasn't any funnier the second time," Nico grumbled too, giving Will another small moment to smile he wasn't the one to say it even if he'd been feeling it. It would have just sounded scathing coming from him right now.

The demigods shuffled back inside. Jake Mason grabbed my shoulder as he was leaving. "We'll talk later, but it's under control. I'm using Annabeth's shield to keep an eye on things. The enemy withdrew at sunrise; not sure why. We've got a lookout at each bridge and tunnel."

"Thanks, man," I said.

He nodded. "Just take your time."

He closed the terrace doors behind him, leaving Silena, Annabeth, and me alone.

She hadn't heard that, and a part of Annabeth wanted to smack Percy for not sharing such a thing with her while part of her mind had been running calculations and numbers and more plans of what needed to be done. Not that she didn't trust the rest of the campers to get it done without her, she just needed to be involved, she had been practically since she set foot in camp.

Silena pressed a cool cloth to Annabeth's forehead. "This is all my fault."

"No," Annabeth said weakly. "Silena, how is it your fault?"

"I've never been any good at camp," she murmured. "Not like you or Percy. If I was a better fighter . . ."

Her mouth trembled.

Thalia's fist formed tight, wanting to punch this girl in the face and then hold her tight and promise she understood. Gods did she understand what Silena had fallen into. She wished she could scream in her face for being pulled under Luke's charms, and she wanted to promise everybody who'd ever met him had been fooled too.

She'd never had the chance to act on any of it, and a part of her was selfishly glad for it. Silena had been drowning long before Thalia had known to help pull her out and maybe splash her a few more times to make sure she stayed awake the rest of her time at Camp.

Ever since Beckendorf died she'd been getting worse, and every time I looked at her, it made me angry about his death all over again. Her expression reminded me of glass—like she might break any minute.

Jason understood that feeling all to well, it's how he looked at himself every time in the mirror. Like even if all the pieces were found and glued back together, you'd always see the cracks.

I swore to myself that if I ever found the spy who'd cost her boyfriend his life, I would give him to Mrs. O'Leary as a chew toy.

Will was just to emotionally exhausted to read that as he should, the same tempo as his usual reading like he had not a single insight into how he should feel about that, the same way most of them had been getting along so as not to agitate Percy about the truth.

He was just a little off this time, and it made Percy flinch. His hand to his temple, his core shaken by the mixed emotions that were poured in from the truth creeping a little closer than it needed to right now. His stomach rolled violently, the only thing grounding him was Annabeth wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing close as she whispered, "it's okay Percy."

It wasn't okay, he felt feverish all of a sudden, then cold flashes before the world was forced to settle back and he looked down at her still swallowing convulsively.

"You're a great camper," I told Silena. "You're the best pegasus rider we have. And you get along with people. Believe me, anyone who can make friends with Clarisse has talent."

Annabeth had been hard-pressed not to lean forward and hug him tight, and judging by the look on Silena's face she'd felt the same. If it hadn't felt like someone had ripped her arm off and sewn it on backward she absolutely would have.

She stared at me like I'd just given her an idea. "That's it! We need the Ares cabin. I can talk to Clarisse. I know I can convince her to help us."

"I guess if anyone could, my money would be on her," Magnus agreed hesitantly, not that he had any money to be betting, so, what did that say?

Percy agreed, yet something about all this still set him on edge. Like if he could go back in time or give himself a dream he'd shut this down.

"Whoa, Silena. Even if you could get off the island, Clarisse is pretty stubborn. Once she gets angry—"

"She turns into a raging green monster?" Alex asked hopefully.

"Nah, that would be useful," Percy huffed.

"Please," Silena said. "I can take a pegasus. I know I can make it back to camp. Let me try."

I exchanged looks with Annabeth. She nodded slightly.

Percy exchanged a look with Annabeth now, still reeling just a bit from Chiron basically saying he was in charge, still wrapping his head around the fact that he and Annabeth were basically defacto leaders here. When did Silena need his say-so to do this? Gods, nobody was going to start trying to get him to do supplies counts next were they?! Camp didn't have the math budget for his attempts!

I didn't like the idea. I didn't think Silena stood a chance of convincing Clarisse to fight. On the other hand, Silena was so distracted right now that she would just get herself hurt in battle. Maybe sending her back to camp would give her something else to focus on.

Jason listened with an intense fascination at hearing Percy handle this situation. He had a sense in the back of his mind like he could have weighed in on a similar situation if he could ever unlock his own head, but for now he found himself nodding and feeling Percy was leaning in the right direction even if nobody had asked him.

"All right," I told her. "I can't think of anybody better to try."

Silena threw her arms around me. Then she pushed back awkwardly, glancing at Annabeth. "Um, sorry. Thank you, Percy! I won't let you down!"

Percy glanced from Annabeth to the book with a smile much less awkward this time. "Does everyone need to apologize to you when they hug me now?"

"I'll give you a list later," she chuckled.

Once she was gone, I knelt next to Annabeth and felt her forehead. She was still burning up.

Magnus shivered at how much necter she must have been given to be feeling so warm, how close she'd come to dying and he never would have known. He knew their magic healing wasn't instantaneous either, like with Percy's scorpion sting, or when they taxed themselves to much. She just needed rest. The question was if she'd let herself do that.

"You're cute when you're worried," she muttered. "Your eyebrows get all scrunched together."

"You two are the worst," Thalia rolled her eyes in pain. "You only admit you like each other in life or death situations and I'm the one who has to hear about everything in between."

"Not anymore," Annabeth tried to protest from under Percy's arm.

"Percy was about to kill us all, again!, when he decided to kiss you instead! My statement stands," Thalia huffed.

"You are not going to die while I owe you a favor," I said.

"The important things in life," Will nodded.

"Duly noted," Nico chuckled.

"Why did you take that knife?"

"You would've done the same for me."

It was true. I guess we both knew it. Still, I felt like somebody was poking my heart with a cold metal rod.

Alex looked a little to interested in that analogy, which gave Magnus the conclusion that she'd either A, done that personally before, or B, felt that personally. Neither conclusion was giving him the best feeling.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

I looked around to make sure we were alone. Then I leaned in close and whispered: "My Achilles spot. If you hadn't taken that knife, I would've died."

She got a faraway look in her eyes. Her breath smelled of grapes, maybe from the nectar.

"Mmm," Annabeth agreed fondly. "It had tasted like those jam tarts your mom mailed me last weekend."

For some reason Percy wasn't the slightest bit surprised his mom had done something like that and he hadn't known about it.

"I don't know, Percy. I just had this feeling you were in danger. Where . . . where is the spot?"

"More like why was the spot," Jason shook his head, he still couldn't get over that.

"Nobody ever asks how is the spot," Alex said seriously. "Let me know if you need a massage Percy."

"Alex is over there planning to kill me," Percy decided, only mildly kidding.

Annabeth nodded, like the thought had crossed her mind at least once too.

I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. But this was Annabeth. If I couldn't trust her, I couldn't trust anyone.

"The small of my back."

She lifted her hand. "Where? Here?"

She put her hand on my spine, and my skin tingled. I moved her fingers to the one spot that grounded me to my mortal life. A thousand volts of electricity seemed to arc through my body.

This felt private in an awkward way, when they already knew such a thing. Magnus blushed and Jason averted his eyes to everywhere in the room while Will kept reading with only a slight change in expression of sweetness like he was reciting a poem.

"You saved me," I said. "Thanks."

She removed her hand, but I kept holding it.

"So you owe me," she said weakly. "What else is new?"

We watched the sun come up over the city.

Annabeth finally felt the urge to lean away from Percy and rub her cheeks from smiling so much. She didn't act on it, but the thought still crossed her mind that she'd finally managed a time to sit around, holding hands with Percy in the most romantic place possible for them.

Of course it finally happened after one of them nearly died, again, Thalia hadn't been wrong about that, but she'd take what she could get.

The traffic should've been heavy by now, but there were no cars honking, no crowds bustling along the sidewalks.

Percy had once tried to read this weird book of poems from a big white book, mostly for the cool art on every page. This morning felt like it would have fit right in, it had that other world vibe to it.

Everything was normal, the world was about to end as usual. Everything felt disconnected, his city at a screeching halt and holding its breath for what he'd do next.

He and Annabeth, at the center. Not talking, but finally, not a world apart.

Far away, I could hear a car alarm echo through the streets. A plume of black smoke curled into the sky somewhere over Harlem. I wondered how many ovens had been left on when the Morpheus spell hit; how many people had fallen asleep in the middle of cooking dinner. Pretty soon there would be more fires. Everyone in New York was in danger—and all those lives depended on us.

His mom was somewhere down there, Percy leaned forward anxiously in his seat to no one's surprise. Anybody in danger and of course his first instinct was to lean into it.

He hoped she'd stayed in, knowing the invasion was on the way. That she and Paul were anxiously watching the news and had ordered takeout that would be forever until it got there at this rate. They'd have the usual friendly argument about which pizza joint was better, but Percy couldn't be there this time to decide which sounded better, Famous Sal's with the crust or Original Sal's sauce, or both. Usually they never went for both.

"You asked me why Hermes was mad at me," Annabeth said.

"Hey, you need to rest—"

"No, I want to tell you.

"Don't ever tell Annabeth she needs to rest," Thalia sighed from experience. "She thinks that's the perfect time to find the end of pi or something."

"I'd be happy to help her with that one at least," Percy said with his trademark smirk, just to hear Annabeth call him a seaweed brain when she knew he knew which kind of pi Thalia meant.

It's been bothering me for a long time." She moved her shoulder and winced. "Last year, Luke came to see me in San Francisco."

Thalia startled, her bow appearing in hand with an arrow loaded on pure instinct as she looked around at Annabeth who didn't even blink as she watched with an apologetic frown.

No, she never had told anybody but Percy about this. She'd wanted to, after she'd slammed that door shut. Thalia had been the first person she wanted to call, then Percy, but she'd sat on her bed alone and done neither because nobody would have understood.

She'd heard her brothers playing outside, they'd been having a watermelon fight or something without inviting her as usual, and she'd wished she still had her cousin around. To be six again playing blocks with Magnus.

It had never strayed past the thought, fear had trumped the idea to quickly about getting yet another person in her life hurt and killed just by her proximity.

Annabeth watched him now, sitting across the room from her, watching her back with true concern in their shared eyes. The fact that he was down here and seemed to be mildly enjoying himself most of the time was not something she'd ever mentally prepared for in her life and was still cautiously trying to figure out how to approach.

But she flashed him a hopeful smile now, weary, and tired, but really looking at him in a 'yeah, this happened,' way just for him, and he instantly returned it.

Thalia had already tucked her weapons back away but still seemed shaken. Annabeth finally leaned out from under Percy's arm, her heart fluttering at his little throat protest but storing that away for later as she put a questioning hand on hers.

Her sister didn't push her away, but she didn't look happy either as she studied her silently while listening.

"In person?"

"Well, I'd hope if he sent her an Iris Message she'd just hang up on him. I assume this conversation was needed in person anyways," Will instantly started babbling unwieldy with his words at the sudden tension of Thalia's piercing look, more deadly to some than anything she could shoot.

Percy started cutting his hand across his throat and giving him an obvious look, and yeah, Will agreed, forced laughter never improved a situation no matter what Percy's impulsive mouth tried to say otherwise.

I felt like she'd just hit me with a hammer.

"Don't be ridiculous Percy, hammers are for children," Alex rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, use a better example, like mule, maul, muah, shit how do you pronounce that thing?" Will went crosseyed as he tried to remember the strange name of Thor's hammer.

"No, you got it man, mewmew," Jason chuckled, "deadliest weapon in the universe."

"Mjolnir," Magnus offered anyways. "Like, mule, near."

"We're never getting out of here," Percy sighed. They couldn't even shut up about which hammer to hit him with.

"Yeah," Annabeth nodded like she'd already accepted that. She seemed pretty comfortable though, all things considered, so he couldn't find it a bad thing in that moment either.

"He came to your house?"

"This was before we went into the Labyrinth, before . . ." She faltered, but I knew what she meant: before be turned into Kronos. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him."

Thalia felt an immediate sense of pride as she heard that. Her little sister finally learned her lesson, would finally stop running to him right into death's arms, but the feeling was rotten just under the surface. Just like a gift from her own dad. Of course Thalia finally got her wish, and the pain on Annabeth's face was her reward.

"But you didn't trust him."

"Of course not.

Percy had wanted to scoff right back at her scoff, but she'd looked to weak to take it. Having to be propped up in that chair, having her arm be supported by bandages, it made this moment of her finally calling him the idiot for the obvious in Luke have zero satisfaction.

I thought it was a trick. Plus . . . well, a lot of things had changed since the old days.

She hadn't changed as much as she thought she did, Magnus hid a wince well. Honestly, if he'd been hearing this any time other than past tense, he would have been just as convinced she'd have dropped everything to do what Luke asked too.

This sounded like it should have been a victory, he could have been hopping around with joy and wanting to go get ice cream with her to celebrate she was finally seeing this creep clearly. She might shove that ice cream up his nose, and he'd probably deserve it.

I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said . . . he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get."

Oh how the temptation had been there too. Annabeth had been to exhausted to cry in front of Percy, finally saying all of this out loud. The memories of her time with him from that first day had gone through her mind faster than even a god could beam them in. For one breath she'd been about to say yes. To run away with him again and make new memories. She'd take him somewhere safe, she'd do what the gods couldn't and help him, cure him of Kronos and all the wicked that had taken him over and he'd be there for her again just like he always was when she'd needed him-

But her thoughts had stopped cold right there as more recent times had come to mind. Percy holding her tight at the bottom of the ocean as the sirens played in her ear. Percy rushing to her side on top of Mt. Othry's. Percy following her into that Labyrnth without hesitation.

That's when she'd told him no. Because Percy wasn't perfect, but he was the one she truly needed more than Luke would ever be, even if he'd started her on this path.

Her forehead broke out in sweat again. The story was taking too much of her energy.

"It's okay," I said. "Try to get some rest."

"Not the bedtime story I'd use before naptime, but, it might work for some," Will muttered, jiggling his leg anxiously. He should have stuck around, made sure she wasn't over-taxing herself, or that Percy wasn't instigating anything. She was his patient at the time, he should have kept a better watch on this.

Percy whispered something in her ear. She shook her head, keeping her eyes on Thalia. He shrugged and turned back to the book, to Will, with an obvious 'get with it' look.

Will smiled and agreed. He'd left her in the best hands possible.

"You don't understand, Percy. Hermes was right. Maybe if I'd gone with him, I could've changed his mind. Or—or I had a knife. Luke was unarmed. I could've—"

Thalia swallowed the nasty comment she would've without hesitation. She also knew Annabeth never could have done it.

"Killed him?" I said. "You know that wouldn't have been right."

"Coming from a guy who actually did not just stab the guy in the face for stabbing you, I guess Percy does have some authority on this," Nico nodded casually.

"The only authority I should ever be given," Percy groaned as he sagged in his seat. He was already tired of being in charge of Camp, and it had only been one night!

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Luke said Kronos would use him like a stepping stone. Those were his exact words. Kronos would use Luke, and become even more powerful."

"He did that," I said. "He possessed Luke's body."

"But what if Luke's body is only a transition? What if Kronos has a plan to become even more powerful? I could've stopped him. The war is my fault."

Jason couldn't help biting at his lip, probably stretching his scar out another few inches. 'My fault,' left a hollow echo in his mind, words he knew had come from his own mouth. That part of him wanted to agree Annabeth should have done something about this instead of doing nothing, a choice in itself.

He watched though as Thalia gave a look of such anger it would have sent any other person running but Annabeth as she watched back, clearly bracing herself for impact as his sister told his would-be-sister, "You're still doing it! You're still putting everything he does on yourself! His actions and going through with it are not your fault!"

"You can't pretend I'm not at least partially responsible when I had the chance-"

"It's not pretend! It's not make believe! We've never played that because we don't need to make up monsters in our life to fight! I swear I'm going to kill your stepmom one of these days, what other people do isn't your fault!"

Percy, nor anybody was obviously going to intervene here, nobody was foolish enough to think these two couldn't handle their own fights. Jason couldn't stand to watch anymore. "Guys!" Both girls stopped and looked at him, them, like they'd forgotten anybody else was in the room. "Can you not put a pin in this like you've clearly been doing for years." Clearly not a long-term answer for a long overdue conversation, but even now neither would give ground that both were sort of right. He didn't know how long ago all this had really been, but probably not that long! He didn't know how much time or what it would take to make them feel at peace, but arguing about it now didn't seem to be bringing them much good.

Her story made me feel like I was back in the Styx, slowly dissolving.

Annabeth sighed she'd ever made Percy feel like that. She really only brought misery to everyone in her life. Gods knew why she fell back into Percy's side and he put his arm back around her at once, but she wasn't going to deny the comfort she needed right now as she willingly sank back into him.

I remembered last summer, when the two-headed god, Janus, had warned Annabeth she would have to make a major choice—and that had happened after she saw Luke. Pan had also said something to her: You will play a great role, though it may not be the role you imagined.

She repressed the urge to slam the book shut as she once again realized everybody in this room had seen that moment and she hadn't been able to shut it down then either.

I wanted to ask her about the vision Hestia had shown me, about her early days with Luke and Thalia. I knew it had something to do with my prophecy, but I didn't understand what.

Percy couldn't take his eyes off her head resting on his chest. He gently stroked her hair out of her face a bit, the feel of her gray bangs had no different texture than the rest of the golden locks though his brian half expected them too.

To his surprise, she somehow relaxed a tad, sinking more of her weight into him. So he kept doing that.

Before I could get up my nerve, the terrace door opened. Connor Stoll stepped through.

Thalia was admittedly disappointed a change of subject was coming as she chewed on the rest of her long overdue words to Annabthe. Luke had already accepted Kronos into his mind years before she or Annabeth could have done anything to make a difference, the Titan's influence ran to deep for him to change, there were any number of things she still wanted to shout in her face to make her drop this once and for all about this being anyone but Luke's fault.

"Percy." He glanced at Annabeth like he didn't want to say anything bad in front of her, but I could tell he wasn't bringing good news.

"Pretty sure if a poisoned knife couldn't finish her off, another hour of that day going as expected won't either," Alex said with way to much confidence over somebody's mortality who wasn't Percy.

"I think I'd rather have the poisoned knife than hear it though," she was mostly kidding as she rotated her shoulder exaggeratedly, but she had been pretty grateful at the time for the brief interruption of Percy's intense look on her being distracted. Maybe she should leave a few jars of shaving cream unattended when she got back in retroactive thanks.

"Mrs. O'Leary just came back with Grover. I think you should talk to him."

"I still hope she gets rewarded with more hotdogs," Magnus never would have thought he'd say such a nice thing about a dog in his life, but she really had earned it after doing so much for Percy.

"I'll find a way to hire a hotdog guy to follow her around as long as I can," Percy nodded.

Grover was having a snack in the living room.

"You mean he was snacking on the living room," Nico corrected mildly.

"Mmm, got to love that oak finish," Jason nodded with a fond smile.

"I always wonder if he likes the aftertaste of sawdust or if that's a drawback," Percy said. "Like, that shiny stuff they put on wood, does it make it taste smoother going down? Does he get the runs and doesn't care?"

"So this is why Grover started hanging out with Juniper over you," Annabeth finally nodded in understanding.

"Hey, he does not," Percy huffed.

She sat up from him with a teasing smile and would have happily weaved together the past months in a delicate half-truth to prove her point before Will decided to keep reading loudly before another of their arguments could get started.

He was dressed for battle in an armored shirt made from tree bark and twist ties, with his wooden cudgel and his reed pipes hanging from his belt.

The Demeter cabin had whipped up a whole buffet in the hotel kitchens—everything from pizza to pineapple ice cream.

"Why do I feel like that was some kind of peace treaty regarding Hawaiian pizza?" Annabeth chuckled.

"Katie's a great mediator like that," Will agreed.

 Unfortunately, Grover was eating the furniture. He'd already chewed the stuffing off a fancy chair and was now gnawing the armrest.

"Dude," I said, "we're only borrowing this place."

"I had no previous assumptions that would stop him," Thalia rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm just hoping nobody tried to book the room under my name," Percy sighed. It would be just his luck for the desk clerk to wake up and find Percy Jackson attached to the mini-fridge bill.

"Blah-ha-ha!" He had stuffing all over his face. "Sorry, Percy. It's just . . . Louis the Sixteenth furniture.

"Is he a furniture conisure?" Alex asked with interest. "Or does he gain knowledge of the chair from nibbling on it?"

"You mean like, if he ate a book he'd know it back to front?" Jason grinned.

"Yeah!" Alex smirked.

"No!" Jason's grin didn't dim anymore than Alex's as they snickered anyway.

Delicious. Plus I always eat furniture when I get—"

"When you get nervous," I said. "Yeah, I know. So what's up?"

He clopped on his hooves. "I heard about Annabeth. Is she . . .?"

"She's going to be fine. She's resting."

The fact that she hadn't barged past Percy to see what this was, and in fact had barely tried to sit up before practically nodding her agreement to sit this one out spoke volumes of just how worn out she was.

Grover took a deep breath. "That's good. I've mobilized most of the nature spirits in the city—well, the ones that will listen to me, anyway." He rubbed his forehead. "I had no idea acorns could hurt so much.

"What kind of wildlife has Grover been living in?" Magnus rubbed the side of his head with a little to much experience. "I've known that for months."

"Coins, apples, branches, squirrels, phones, honestly anything with enough gravety will hurt," Alex agreed.

"Alex, only one of those things is normal to fall on your head, and that's a bad day in itself," Percy frowned at her.

"You right, who stands around and waits for an apple to fall without their mouth open," Alex mock agreed, "must be why doctors are so afraid of them."

"Nope, we're moving on from this," Will sighed as Percy opened his mouth wearily.

Anyway, we're helping out as much as we can."

He told me about the skirmishes they'd seen. Mostly they'd been covering uptown, where we didn't have enough demigods. Hellhounds had appeared in all sorts of places, shadow-traveling inside our lines, and the dryads and satyrs had been fighting them off. A young dragon had appeared in Harlem, and a dozen wood nymphs died before the monster was finally defeated.

It wasn't mentioned how the dragon was killed, and Nico was very hard pressed not to ask for personal interest of how a bunch of nature spirits managed that. Did one of them manage to throw some belladonna down its throat?

Magnus went pale like somebody had just tried to get him with a poison dagger next. He was not pleased dragon's were just casually showing up in these armies still! He tried to take some comfort that they hadn't needed Percy around to get rid of it at least. Maybe they weren't as deadly as he kept imagining... yeah, and maybe Alex had a crush on him back. Time to get out of delusional land Magnus, he scolded himself.

As Grover talked, Thalia entered the room with two of her lieutenants. She nodded to me grimly, went outside to check on Annabeth, and came back in.

Annabeth had always been a side sleeper, so to see her lying prone on her back, her body trying to twist onto her side to get comfortable but then murmuring in pain and shivering to stay still had caused her to pull out her own vial of nectar and trickle a little more on just to help ease her a few moments more. Thalia had snagged a few extra pillows off more chairs and finally, hopefully gotten her comfortable by giving her legs some elevation and giving her just enough cushion to be partially in her natural way.

She listened while Grover completed his report— the details getting worse and worse.

"We lost twenty satyrs against some giants at Fort Washington," he said, his voice trembling. "Almost half my kinsmen.

Percy hadn't needed an empathy link with Grover to understand the pain in his voice for that. His entire Camp had been out risking their life last night and he hadn't even gotten reports back from all the cabins on how many kids died. He could already feel in his bones the long-reaching repercussions this battle was going to have on Camp if they even survived this, how huge the place was going to feel without so many satyrs running across the field, how quiet the cabins were going to be.

River spirits drowned the giants in the end, but . . ."

Thalia shouldered her bow. "Percy, Kronos's forces are still gathering at every bridge and tunnel. And Kronos isn't the only Titan. One of my Hunters spotted a huge man in golden armor mustering an army on the Jersey shore. I'm not sure who he is, but he radiates power like only a Titan or god."

I remembered the golden Titan from my dream—the one on Mount Othrys who erupted into flames.

Annabeth's eyes flickered to Jason, watching with his usual intent interest in all things, and deeply wondered herself at the other Titan that they'd never come across. She'd always theorized the rest must have gone into hiding, like Oceanus, crawled back to the shadows to scheme again; hopefully waiting another thousand years or so. Now she wondered what exactly other kids out there had been dealing with in all this.

"Great," I said. "Any good news?"

"Always get the bad news first, makes the good news linger," Will tried to say in his usual chipper tone of voice.

"Or just emphasizes there was no good news," Magnus frowned.

"Okay Debbie Downer, we're going to go around the room after every chapter now and say what the best and worst part of this was," Will mock threatened.

The fact that he got unanimous horrified faces from everyone else quickly destroyed that idea, but Will got a genuine moment to smile again at everyone agreeing on that.

Thalia shrugged. "We've sealed off the subway tunnels into Manhattan. My best trappers took care of it. Also, it seems like the enemy is waiting for tonight to attack. I think Luke"—she caught herself-

Annabeth made a small sigh of relief. The feeling of being understood came rarely to her. Whether Thalia wanted it or not, she couldn't stop her little sister from putting her arm through hers and leaning comfortably like that. Thalia's tense jaw clearly showed she wanted to snap at her again.

The fact that she didn't push her away meant she really appreciated the support.

Gods, Percy was getting a headache just looking at Thalia, he had no idea how she played jump rope with that line when he still had no clue how to deal with it either.

"I mean Kronos needs time to regenerate after each fight. He's still not comfortable with his new form. It's taking a lot of his power to slow time around the city."

It hurt Magnus's brain a lot to imagine how exactly he was doing that. Did he just, concentrate really hard on a clock taking an hour to move a second? Did he clench all his muscles and make some gross noises before brushing off his hands in triumph? Was there a magic potion with the blood of his enemies involved? And all in a borrowed body?!

Grover nodded. "Most of his forces are more powerful at night, too. But they'll be back after sundown."

I tried to think clearly.

"A tough act on any other day," Jason nodded seriously.

"One I usually don't manage unless I'm about to die," Percy sighed.

"Okay. Any word from the gods?"

"Which is really showing how desperate you are," Alex said, "you get annoyed when they do that."

"Special circumstances and all that," Percy groaned. He'd take Mr. D showing up to save their butts compaling the whole time. He'd take Ares showing up and yapping nonstop!

Thalia shook her head. "I know Lady Artemis would be here if she could. Athena, too. But Zeus has ordered them to stay at his side. The last I heard, Typhon was destroying the Ohio River valley. He should reach the Appalachian Mountains by midday."

"So at best," I said, "we've got another two days before he arrives."

Jake Mason cleared his throat. He'd been standing there so silently I'd almost forgotten he was in the room.

Nico mock jumped in his seat. "He's stealing my gig."

"Honestly though," Percy chuckled. "I'm so used to it being just my friends dealing with all this, not half the camp just hanging around for the end of the world with me this time."

"Percy, something else," he said. "The way Kronos showed up at the Williamsburg Bridge, like he knew you were going there. And he shifted his forces to our weakest points. As soon as we deployed, he changed tactics. He barely touched the Lincoln Tunnel, where the Hunters were strong. He went for our weakest spots, like he knew."

"Like he had inside information," I said. "The spy."

Will's voice shook with unease of how he was supposed to keep casually saying that. He'd never asked his dad to place a curse upon anyone like he had the person who ratted them out, but then when he'd found it was Silena...to put a name to the faceless person in his mind...the idea still made him sick what he'd wanted done to her. Obviousy his dad had been to busy to pay attention to do it anyways...

"I'm really starting to hope this whole spy thing is just a conspiracy gone way out of hand," Magnus grumbled, "and Deadlus just made Kronos one of those crazy shield vision things. Maybe Kronos just has a prototype not as good as yours he doesn't want to brag about."

"Yeah man, let's hope," Percy knew it was a joke, and yet some part of him hoped it was true. Especially after the horrible results of that bridge, he still didn't want to believe anybody inside Camp would conspire to kill the rest of them.

"What spy?" Thalia demanded.

I told her about the silver charm Kronos had shown me, the communication device.

"That's bad," she said. "Very bad."

"Thalia, with the most potent quote of my life," Percy waved grandly at her.

"Sounds like she's been taking lessons from Tyson," Jason agreed, Percy had beat him to saying that by one breath.

Thalia waved grandly from her seat with the hand that wasn't being held in a vice-like hold by Annabeth.

"It could be anyone," Jake said. "We were all standing there when Percy gave the orders."

"But what can we do?" Grover asked. "Frisk every demigod until we find a scythe charm?"

"And that comes with its own problems, not the least of which is how good the frisk will be," Alex tried to say snidely like the most innocent interpretation of that was someone keeping the charm in their mouth while Percy went through their bag, but they all twitched unpleasantly at how quickly that could turn into a shit show of distrust.

They all looked at me, waiting for a decision. I couldn't afford to show how panicked I felt, even if things seemed hopeless.

The thing was, Thalia smiled to herself, she was sure that Grover and Jake had felt the exact same way. She knew she had.

"We keep fighting," I said. "We can't obsess about this spy. If we're suspicious of each other, we'll just tear ourselves apart. You guys were awesome last night. I couldn't ask for a braver army. Let's set up a rotation for the watches. Rest up while you can. We've got a long night ahead of us."

The demigods mumbled agreement. They went their separate ways to sleep or eat or repair their weapons.

It wasn't the rousing comfort Percy would have liked to have given them, but it was the truth he'd needed to hear out loud. Just something to get them through another few hours.

"Percy, you too," Thalia said. "We'll keep an eye on things. Go lie down. We need you in good shape for tonight."

I didn't argue too hard.

"You called me a nanny and threatened to throw a baby bottle at me," Thalia accused. "I don't even know where you planned on getting one! You call that, not too hard?"

"I don't even remember that," Percy said with an apologetic smile. "I think I was just hangry."

"Fair, you did actually go to bed after some food," she chuckled.

I found the nearest bedroom and crashed on the canopied bed. I thought I was too wired to sleep, but my eyes closed almost immediately.

In my dream, I saw Nico di Angelo alone in the gardens of Hades.

"Nico's back," Will said with as much enthusiasm as ever.

Nico gave him the least begrudging smile humanly possible. "Of course I am you McNugget, I'm stuck in Percy's life apparently."

"And nobody said that was a bad thing," Percy shrugged.

Nico gave him a grateful smile as his dull surprise faded quickly. Of course Percy had dreamed about this moment, it made sense with the hindsight he'd been dreaming of the coming Oracle so frequently and this was tied in. It just bothered him a bit that the one time he'd been hesitantly willing to offer a part of his life voluntarily, that had been snatched away from him too. He was still half convinced his life was a cosmic joke to some god out there.

He'd just dug a hole in one of Persephone's flower beds, which I didn't figure would make the queen very happy.

"I could cure cancer and it wouldn't make her happy," Nico clearly said what he thought about that concern.

"Well yeah, more people, more people destroying plant walkers out there, I can see how she wouldn't appreciate that," Percy nodded like Nico had just agreed with him.

He poured a goblet of wine into the hole and began to chant. "Let the dead taste again. Let them rise and take this offering. Maria di Angelo, show yourself!"

"No McDonald's sacrifice this time?" Alex asked in surprise.

"I tried, multiple times," Nico sighed. "Nothing. I was starting to wonder if my dad was blocking me, so even though I didn't like it, I tried ditching the ceremonial aspect and just using my raw power."

"And how did that work out?" Will asked, still trying to get a handle on how much of Nico's powers he used casually and how much was pushing some limit.

Nico just grinned at his interest and pointed at the book. Will grinned back and turned away, but one of these days he wasn't going to get to use that excuse anymore. Will was looking forward to that.

White smoke gathered. A human figure formed, but it wasn't Nico's mother. It was a girl with dark hair, olive skin, and the silvery clothes of a Hunter.

"The one time you didn't try to summon her and now she pops in," Jason agreed with Nico's put-out look. "She's your sister all right."

"Hey-" Thalia muttered, narrowing her eyes at the pair and trying to figure out what was being implied here.

"Yeah, really miss conspiring with her to steal extra cookies from the cafeteria and tag teaming our dad for another hour to stay up," Nico's voice was dripping with sarcasm, but it didn't hide the hurt nearly as well as he thought it did.

"Bianca," Nico said. "But—"

Don't summon our mother, Nico, she warned. She is the one spirit you are forbidden to see.

"Why?" Magnus, Jason, Alex, and Will all said at the same time, Will admittedly because he was reading it and thinking it.

"I get a half-baked answer," Nico groused. He wasn't pleased at the idea it was his dad blocking her from him specifically, or perhaps her soul was being kept somewhere safe so vengeful gods or step-mom's couldn't do anything to his mother's spirit. Either way, he'd still never had a proper face-to-transparent-face with her, and it was a deep wound to him he didn't know what to do with any better than his crush on Percy. He was surprised he didn't resemble Swiss cheese more and more lately.

"Why?" he demanded. "What's our father hiding?"

Pain, Bianca said. Hatred. A curse that stretches back to the Great Prophecy.

Alex and Magnus exchanged interested looks. They hadn't been expecting that tid bit.

And more, how the heck did Bianca know that? What ghost gossip was she getting, and how reliable were her sources? Magnus couldn't help but think of an infinite line of whispers with ghosts and what got lost in translation there.

"What do you mean?" Nico said. "I have to know!"

The knowledge will only hurt you. Remember what I said: holding grudges is a fatal flaw for children of Hades.

"I know that," Nico said. "But I'm not the same as I used to be, Bianca. Stop trying to protect me!"

Brother, you don't understand—

Nico swiped his hand through the mist, and Bianca's image dissipated.

Will was shocked at the cold dismissal. All he'd wanted for so long was to talk to her, to get just a piece of his family back, and Will had understood every bit of that. This was starting to feel more like revenge. Like Nico was slipping back down the slope holding onto something to tight, only now it wasn't so much a person as just an idea of how to make sense of something not even the Lord of the Underworld had full control over.

"Maria di Angelo," he said again. "Speak to me!"

A different image formed. It was a scene rather than a single ghost. In the mist, I saw Nico and Bianca as little children, playing in the lobby of an elegant hotel, chasing each other around marble columns.

A woman sat on a nearby sofa. She wore a black dress, gloves, and a black veiled hat like a star from an old 1940s movie.

"Maybe that's because she was," Thalia rolled her eyes at Percy managing to get a timeline from that of all things.

"My mom and Paul dressed up for a Halloween event one time in a getup like that," Percy shrugged why he even recognized it.

She had Bianca's smile and Nico's eyes.

On a chair next to her sat a large oily man in a black pinstripe suit. With a shock, I realized it was Hades. He was leaning toward the woman, using his hands as he talked, like he was agitated.

Jason couldn't help a mental mark of interest that was also a trait passed down to his kids. Like with Sally and Posideon, he found it deeply fascinating to note such things...only to glance at Thalia and think of the few things Zeus had done when present. He'd never really felt a connection like that to either parent mentioned, and while he understood why in theory, it still left something lacking in him he didn't understand why everyone got that except him.

"Please, my dear," he said. "You must come to the Underworld. I don't care what Persephone thinks! I can keep you safe there."

"Ooo, can I get that one in writing?" Alex demanded. Most likely only to wave it under the Queen of the Underwold's nose, but for a delusional moment, Will thought she also meant as proof the gods cared for their mortal lovers.

"You do," Percy sighed, "for a limited time now, and this offer expires until we get out of here, so act fast," he said in a false sponsorship voice.

"Deal of a lifetime I won't pass, no downpayment required, no interest," Alex chuckled.

"No, my love." She spoke with an Italian accent. "Raise our children in the land of the dead? I will not do this."

"Maria, listen to me. The war in Europe has turned the other gods against me. A prophecy has been made. My children are no longer safe. Poseidon and Zeus have forced me into an agreement. None of us are to have demigod children ever again."

"But you already have Nico and Bianca. Surely—"

"No! The prophecy warns of a child who turns sixteen. Zeus has decreed that the children I currently have must be turned over to Camp Half-Blood for proper training, but I know what he means. At best they'll be watched, imprisoned, turned against their father. Even more likely, he will not take a chance. He won't allow my demigod children to reach sixteen. He'll find a way to destroy them, and I won't risk that!"

"Certamente," Maria said. "We will stay together. Zeus is un imbecile."

"Okay, Nico's mom was kind of awesome too!" Jason threw his hands up in exasperation. He was mostly kidding, but it was ingrained a little to deeply to entirely just be a joke. "Thalia, how did we luck out of this!"

"Dad does not know how to pick um," Thalia reminded in exhaustion.

The others gave a soft laugh for their antics, Nico's sticking out the most for being able to look back on this moment with anything but a sob.

I couldn't help admiring her courage, but Hades glanced nervously at the ceiling.

"Percy's braver than a god confirmed," Annabeth managed a light joke about this, nobody in here had even glanced nervously at the ceiling. They'd really grown far to comfortable down here. They'd probably all be blasted to ashes the second they got top side again just for Zeus's pent-up anger with no obvious target.

Percy just grinned at the compliment without a care in the world.

"Maria, please. I told you, Zeus gave me a deadline of last week to turn over the children. His wrath will be horrible, and I cannot hide you forever. As long as you are with the children, you are in danger too."

The phrasing of that kind of bothered Will, and the way Nico flinched made him confident he'd gotten the same understanding from that. Hades seemed to care more about Maria than the kids. Gods, had anybody besides his own mother ever put him first?

Maria smiled, and again it was creepy how much she looked like her daughter.

Which Nico heard as, apparently he'd inherited more from his dad.

"You are a god, my love. You will protect us. But I will not take Nico and Bianca to the Underworld."

It really was just the greatest thing Nico had found a way to disappoint both of his parents at once, Nico mentally congratulated himself. That was obviously something all aspiring teenagers long to do in their lives!

Hades wrung his hands. "Then, there is another option. I know a place in the desert where time stands still. I could send the children there, just for a while, for their own safety, and we could be together. I will build you a golden palace by the Styx."

"Was it, of any comfort it wasn't just some random act that landed you in there?" Magnus asked in sympathy. "Got to mean something your dad wanted you there to be safe and out of the way."

"Yeah, I guess," Nico said lackluster. It didn't sound like there were any great options, but still, the fact that his dad had basically cast him aside would never feel great. He glanced around and wondered just how long Posideon expected them to be in here.

Maria di Angelo laughed gently. "You are a kind man, my love. A generous man. The other gods should see you as I do, and they would not fear you so. But Nico and Bianca need their mother. Besides, they are only children. The gods wouldn't really hurt them."

"Oh such sweet naivety I've never been blessed with," Alex genuinely tried to say without disdain but wasn't quite sure she hit it right.

"Can we rewind back to kind and generous?" Percy scratched at his ear. "Because I'm not entirely sure which god she thinks she's making googoo eyes at."

"Guys," Nico groaned, more tempted at every growing mocking comment to cast them into a black hole.

They actually shut their mouths, a rarity nobody was used to seeing.

"You don't know my family," Hades said darkly. "Please, Maria, I can't lose you."

She touched his lips with her fingers. "You will not lose me. Wait for me while I get my purse. Watch the children."

She kissed the lord of the dead and rose from the sofa. Hades watched her walk upstairs as if her every step away caused him pain.

Despite his jokes and his irrevocable grudge on Hades for taking his mom as leverage, there was a small part of him that felt bad for the Lord of the Underworld as he touched his lips for a moment and looked at Annabeth, knowing what was coming in a way he couldn't explain.

A moment later, he tensed. The children stopped playing as if they sensed something too.

Like a low buzzing in his ears, a feeling that started in the base of his skull and with practice he'd even learned to hone in on. Death had been approaching.

"No!" Hades said. But even his godly powers were too slow. He only had time to erect a wall of black energy around the children before the hotel exploded.

Will instinctively shifted closer to Nico at the display of power going on there. Nico had managed to hide him from a Titan with only a fraction of that energy. He couldn't help but wonder where in the continental US that explosion had taken place and what the Mist had manipulated the rest of the world to see, like if Zeus had just bombed Pearl Harbor or something.

The force was so violent, the entire mist image dissolved.

It probably had felt like the entire world had blacked out there for a second, Thalia shook her head in misery for what those mortals had just been caught in the middle of. They hadn't even the chance to catch their breath before her father locked in on his target, and of course, hadn't even managed to hit his target. She felt the need to apologize to Nico for what her father had done, but she tightened her grip on Annabeth's arm with no other idea how to convey to her that she didn't need to. Her father's actions weren't her choice.

When it came into focus again, I saw Hades kneeling in the ruins, holding the broken form of Maria di Angelo. Fires still burned all around him. Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled.

Little Nico and Bianca stared at their mother uncomprehendingly. The Fury Alecto appeared behind them, hissing and flapping her leathery wings. The children didn't seem to notice her.

They had no reason to, she might as well have been a noisy cloud to them for all the threat she was.

"Zeus!" Hades shook his fist at the sky. "I will crush you for this! I will bring her back!"

"My lord, you cannot," Alecto warned. "You of all immortals must respect the laws of death."

Hades glowed with rage. I thought he would show his true form and vaporize his own children, but at the last moment he seemed to regain control.

"More than some gods can say," Annabeth gave her own soft, begrudging compliment amid the quiet of the room and Nico's set-in-stone face. There didn't seem to be any 'right words' any of them could have given right now, acknowledging what his mother had died wanting. Hades wasn't the boogyman of their lives like some believed.

"Take them," he told Alecto, choking back a sob. "Wash their memories clean in the Lethe and bring them to the Lotus Hotel. Zeus will not harm them there."

"Why?" Magnus asked hesitantly. He didn't want someone to think he was wishing Zeus had blown up that hotel next, but, you know, weird.

"That place is, outside of time," Annabeth grasped at old texts swimming in her head to explain. "Out of bounds for the gods, like entering one another's domains, except in this case no one has dominion over that place."

"Of course, once we came out, we're kind of free game again, so I'm not sure what's stopped Zeus in the meantime," Nico said acidly.

Jason and Percy were much more caught on the part where Hades had ordered his own children's memory erased of such events. Even Percy couldn't totally write off Posideon doing such a thing to him if he'd done something to far above his place as a half-blood.

Perhaps his guilt had led him into changing his mind and their current whereabouts? Reagrdless, the clear betrayal in Nico's hidden face as he sat far back in his seat, the shadows pulsing around him again as if itching to pull him in once more said all he wouldn't. Despite what he'd previously claimed, they both knew in that moment he hadn't fully gotten his own life back, and he'd been living with bits and pieces of his past for years now.

It left a discouraging feeling in the pair of them what they had to look forward to if they made it out of here.

"As you wish, my lord," Alecto said. "And the woman's body?

"Take her as well," he said bitterly. "Give her the ancient rites."

Alecto, the children, and Maria's body dissolved into shadows, leaving Hades alone in the ruins.

"I warned you," a new voice said.

"Well that person's dead," Percy shivered. Even he might not have walked up to a god and said 'I told you so,' after a thing like this happened.

Hades turned. A girl in a multicolored dress stood by the smoldering remains of the sofa. She had short black hair and sad eyes. She was no more than twelve. I didn't know her, but she looked strangely familiar.

"Errr," Alex cast her mind around trying to guess which god this could be, but she just didn't know the Greek pantheon well enough to make any wild guesses. This could be Hera, Persephone, Athena, or anyone else not even mentioned yet for all she knew.

"You dare come here?" Hades growled. "I should blast you to dust!"

"You cannot," the girl said. "The power of Delphi protects me."

Magnus shivered as that made a wicked kind of sense. The propchyes that tormented everyone who heard them were somehow 'gifts' from Delphi, weren't they? Somehow more powerful than even the gods could shut down, hence the stupid law that caused all this.

With a chill, I realized I was looking at the Oracle of Delphi, back when she was alive and young.

"Nope, don't like that," Jason shook his head, mildly considering curling into the fetal position for a second. This whole Oracle business had always sat with a weird taste in his mouth he'd never properly known how to define because the idea of Oracles didn't phase him, just the way they were delivered in Percy's life.

This started with that same feeling it was going to end badly, and he didn't think Percy's luck was going to be anything to do with it this time.

Somehow, seeing her like this was even spookier than seeing her as a mummy.

"I disagree," Magnus groaned as he raised his hand. "Mummies are ten times scarier than ghosts. Only powerful bad ghosts can hurt you, from what I've heard. This mummy has been sitting in her shell for how long?! Alive and, and- just stuck!" Percy had once said she wasn't malevolent, just present, but that didn't make him feel better.

"I'm going to have so much fun later just jotting down what Magnus's scale of top 100 scariest monsters are," Jason said absently.

"As long as you get his reasoning in why on each," Alex agreed.

"You've killed the woman I loved!" Hades roared. "Your prophecy brought us to this.'"

He loomed over the girl, but she didn't flinch.

His mom would have liked her, Nico had remembered absently thinking as he'd watched this the first time alone. She had guts, she'd looked Hades in the eye without fear and spoken to him with a calm sense of respect where most trembled in fear. It hadn't done her much good in the end.

"Zeus ordained the explosion to destroy the children," she said, "because you defied his will. I had nothing to do with it. And I did warn you to hide them sooner."

"I couldn't! Maria would not let me! Besides, they were innocent."

"Nevertheless, they are your children, which makes them dangerous. Even if you put them away in the Lotus Hotel, you only delay the problem. Nico and Bianca will never be able to rejoin the world lest they turn sixteen."

"Because of your so-called Great Prophecy. And you have forced me into an oath to have no other children. You have left me with nothing!"

An oath that he'd kept, the only one to do so, Thalia couldn't help some grudging admiration for Hades in that moment. As much as he resented his lot in life, he seemed to make the best of it, something she still struggled to do herself under Artemis's tutelage.

"I foresee the future," the girl said. "I cannot change it."

Black fire lit the god's eyes, and I knew something bad was coming. I wanted to yell at the girl to hide or run.

"Then, Oracle, hear the words of Hades," he growled. "Perhaps I cannot bring back Maria. Nor can I bring yon an early death. But your soul is still mortal, and I can curse you."

The girl's eyes widened. "You would not—"

"Oh, but he would," Will couldn't help but say in a smaller voice. Honestly, before he'd gotten to know Nico this was most of what he knew about Hades. His unique curses, his wrath more wild than Zeus's.

Around camp, children of Zeus were spoken of as good omens, many great heroes to come following in their footsteps. Children of Posideon were wild cards, causing the good and the bad. But children of Hades were rarely even acknowledged they existed at all, more a myth than the surrounding stories of why the Oracle was trapped in her fleshy prison.

He felt humbled by moments like this, getting to hear a piece of history through the greatest heroes of his time. This poor girl who deserved to have her story told through the children of the gods who had wronged her, the facts; not Travis's old joke she'd slept with the wrong ancient priest.

"I swear," Hades said, "as long as my children remain outcasts, as long as I labor under the curse of your Great Prophecy, the Oracle of Delphi will never have another mortal host. You will never rest in peace. No other will take your place. Your body will wither and die, and still the Oracle's spirit will be locked inside you. You will speak your bitter prophecies until you crumble to nothing. The Oracle will die with you!"

"That was a, surprisingly elegant curse," Alex said in fascination.

"Hades really said I'm sick of being singled out and somebody's going to remember it," Magnus agreed.

Percy shivered down to his core at what he'd heard, a sense of danger that always seemed to follow him he felt sickened over. The worst kind of pain. This wasn't a danger he was afraid of, but knew it meant something to someone else.

The girl screamed, and the misty image was blasted to shreds. Nico fell to his knees in Persephone's garden, his face white with shock. Standing in front of him was the real Hades, towering in his black robes and scowling down at his son.

"And just what," he asked Nico, "do you think you're doing?"

A black explosion filled my dreams. Then the scene changed.

"What, did Hades do to you for that?" Annabeth asked him quietly as Will caught his breath.

"Turned me into a goat for a while, sent me to my room, the usual," Nico shrugged to hide how his hands still shook slightly having that memory forcibly revisited. The empty echo of the emotions he'd felt back then, tied into the crazy mix of feeling it all again with an audience. Gods, was this how Percy felt all the time?

Will bit back the rather important question of how long he'd spent as a goat and how he'd gotten changed back. Pesky details that Nico obviously didn't want to get into right now.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was walking along a white sand beach.

Percy's eyes burned like she'd kicked sand in his face. His skin twitched uncomfortably, that urge to get up and do something but he had no clue what. Sometimes his dreams were connected and wanted to show him something, but what exactly he was supposed to be putting together here he was fumbling as much as he did every quiz he'd ever been subjected to.

She wore a swimsuit with a T-shirt wrapped around her waist. Her shoulders and face were sunburned.

She knelt and began writing in the surf with her finger. I tried to make out the letters. I thought my dyslexia was acting up until I realized she was writing in Ancient Greek.

That was impossible. The dream had to be false.

Annabeth made a face that very clearly said she'd rather Percy be having a dream that was meant to lead him somewhere rather than an average old night seeing Rachel in swimwear.

Rachel finished writing a few words and muttered, "What in the world?"

I can read Greek, but I only recognized one word before the sea washed it away: Περσεύς. My name: Perseus.

Will hadn't quite realized he'd read over Percy's name the first time because they read through this so naturally. He only realized it when he noticed Jason was trying to crane his neck around Nico to get a look at the book so he could see the Greek on the page for himself.

Percy sighed indulgently as Will showed the book to him, and then Alex and Magnus so they could see some more Greek letters. He'd never been patient enough to sit through his writing class on getting a lowercase Q right, he didn't get the big deal personally.

Rachel stood abruptly and backed away from the surf.

"Oh, gods," she said. "That's what it means."

He didn't get the big deal of what that meant either!

"Has she been, plagued by dreams of what the original Perseaus got up to?" Jason asked hesitantly.

"She said she needed to talk to Percy about something, hopefully she literally meant you and not hoping you could summon ghosts of your name," Alex agreed.

"I feel bad for Percy that even in his native language he still can't read all the material before it's snatched away," Magnus said. Percy actually seemed to enjoy reading sometimes, he might get into it more if other books were magically geared for his brain.

She turned and ran, kicking up sand as she raced back to her family's villa.

She pounded up the porch steps, breathing hard. Her father looked up from his Wall Street Journal.

"Dad." Rachel marched up to him. "We have to go back."

Her dad's mouth twitched, like he was trying to remember how to smile. "Back? We just got here."

"There's trouble in New York. Percy's in danger."

"Did he call you?"

"No . . . not exactly. But I know. It's a feeling."

Mr. Dare folded his newspaper. "Your mother and I have been looking forward to this vacation for a long time."

"No you haven't! You both hate the beach! You're just too stubborn to admit it."

"Now, Rachel—"

"I'm telling you something is wrong in New York! The whole city . . . I don't know what exactly, but it's under attack."

Her father sighed. "I think we would've heard something like that on the news."

"I like that that's his protest," Thalia frowned. "Not, hey, if it's under attack, we're safe here my only child."

"Yeah, don't think anybody's safety has ever been this guy's concern," Percy rolled his eyes.

"No," Rachel insisted. "Not this kind of attack. Have you had any calls since we got here?"

Her father frowned. "No . . . but it is the weekend, in the middle of the summer."

"You always get calls," Rachel said. "You've got to admit that's strange."

Her father hesitated. "We can't just leave. We've spent a lot of money."

"Can not convince me this man doesn't know when to cut his losses," Alex said scathingly. She had a feeling Rachel was going to be one of them someday.

"Depends on the brand of stubborn asshole he is," Magnus scowled.

"Look," Rachel said. "Daddy . . . Percy needs me. I have to deliver a message. It's life or death."

"Can she though?" Jason asked with a raised brow. "Will she be slowed by the magic keeping everyone else out? Is Percy's mom and a handful of others actually awake in the city watching all this?"

"We'll have to put a pin in that one too Jason," Thalia reminded him in a tone only an older sibling can have, one part revenge, one part sympathy, as Percy shivered with distress for that jumble of questions and thoughts now in his head.

"What message? What are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you.

"Then you can't go."

Rachel closed her eyes like she was getting up her courage. "Dad . . . let me go, and I'll make a deal with you."

"Oh, no," Percy said at once, his gut in such painful knots with his stomach even his mom couldn't untie them.

Mr. Dare sat forward. Deals were something he understood. "I'm listening."

"Clarion Ladies Academy. I'll—I'll go there in the fall. I won't even complain. But you have to get me back to New York right now."

"Rachel, no," Percy said again, knowing full well she couldn't hear him, but still having half a mind to somehow storm out of here right now and convince her she was being nuts! He would know, he was an expert on impulsive plans!

He was silent for a long time. Then he opened his phone and made a call.

"Douglas? Prep the plane. We're leaving for New York. Yes . . . immediately."

"That moment where he finally accepts his daughter's brand of crazy and it's still with a string attached," Annabeth said in sympathy Percy heard clear as day in her voice. He licked his lips nervously as his sense of nausea increased like someone was trying to flush his system the wrong way.

Rachel flung her arms around him, and her father seemed surprised, like she'd never hugged him before.

"Oh, gods," Magnus frowned. Why was that easily in the top ten depressing things he'd heard in here?

"I'll make it up to you, Dad!"

He smiled, but his expression was chilly. He studied her like he wasn't seeing his daughter—just the young lady he wanted her to be, once Clarion Academy got through with her.

"Yes, Rachel," he agreed. "You most certainly will."

Rachel wasn't the kind of person to back out of that either, Percy knew without question. Assuming the world still existed up there and wasn't some wasteland of destruction.

Heck, even if it was! And Rachel had somehow been one of the few survivors on earth! She would have honored her promise and still gone to see the stupid building to at least throw a brick at it.

The scene faded. I mumbled in my sleep: "Rachel, no!"

I was still tossing and turning when Thalia shook me awake.

"Something I will always be happy to do for you Perce," Thalia said way to casually, but Percy couldn't even deny he'd like to be awoken from his nightmares more often. Even if it was by her worried expression.

"Hey, if you throw water at Percy to wake him up, does it work?" Jason asked in delight.

"No," Thalia sighed, "I tried that first."

"Of course you did," Percy scowled, he knew he didn't drool on his pillow that much!

"Percy," she said. "Come on. It's late afternoon. We've got visitors."

I sat up, disoriented. The bed was too comfortable, and I hated sleeping in the middle of the day.

"Visitors?" I said.

Thalia nodded grimly. "A Titan wants to see you, under a flag of truce. He has a message from Kronos."

"I need you to tell him very specifically," Alex took a breath, then released a wild raspberry.

She held it too, as long as she could, while Will passed the book to Jason.

"Hang on, stop going to fast," Percy was mock digging through his pockets, "I got to jot this all down!"

She finally ran out of breath and they both started laughing. Annabeth smiled at their antics, she'd been desperately wanting to shake Percy out of his rut of usual pain in knowing something important with Rachel was coming but still unsure what to do without hurting him more by bringing something else up. Alex seemed to have the magic touch for that.

Thalia squeezed her arm again in mutual understanding of that feeling too.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*I have in fact ridden horses (not pegasi sadly) and motorcycles and they do feel and move completely differently, proving to me that RR has likely not ridden at least one, likely either.

**I would be totally guilty of picking a building for nothing more than the aesthetic. There's a rainbow building in downtown Dallas I've already decided will be my headquarters during the zombie apocalypse. My brother thinks I'm nuts, but he'll regret not thinking ahead like me when he's scrambling for a cool building to stake a claim in.

[rainbowmoonstonestories]

Let Your Dreams Be Your Wings | Chapter 11

Chapters: 11/? Fandom: The Sandman (Netflix 2022, minor content from the Comics) Rating: Explicit Relationships Dream of the Endless/Morpheus x F!Reader  Characters: Dream of the Endless/Morpheus, Lucienne, Matthew the Raven, Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Hob Gadling, Death, Rose Walker, The Corinthian, other minor Sandman characters, Original Characters. Warnings: 18+ content (minors DNI), explicit sexual content, POV switching, very long chapters to read. Summary: You always dreamed of becoming a successful Fashion Designer, sharing your creations with the world and making your father proud. But with him being very ill and so many costs solely weighting on your shoulders, things didn’t go as planned and you had to take a different path instead. An interesting offer led you to the elder Alex Burgess and you were hired as a new housemaid for a very good pay. However, your kindness and outstanding empathy convinced the man to give you an additional task for a doubled compensation; gaining the trust of Dream Of the Endless, held captive into the basement for over a century. Despite the shock of finding such an ethereal entity stripped of all his clothes and contained into a confined space, you had to accept for the sake of your father. But the more you got to speak to the mysterious anthropomorphic personification who didn’t utter a single word, the more you were lost into his eyes that, conversely, seemed to contain the entire universe. A deep connection formed between the two of you, separated only by a thick layer of glass.

Little did you know, what started like a simple housemaid job was about to change your life forever.

Credits: The moon dividers were made by firefly-graphics

Tagging: @number-0-iz. If anyone else wants to be tagged in the next updates, let me know! I noticed that Tumblr sometimes won't let me tag everyone for some unknown reason, so if it comes to that I can at least send you a message to notify you.

You can also read this on AO3 if you feel more comfortable!

Right when you feared losing the man you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, Ella's suggestion turned out to be the best decision you could ever make. However, as your relationship with Morpheus grew, more secrets about yourself began to surface. Secrets that you were still unaware of.

Writing a love letter proved to be more challenging than depicted in movies. Your pen hovered above the paper, frozen, and you repeatedly withdrew it when nothing came to mind.

You didn't struggle with knowing what to write, but rather with finding the right words to express what was inside you. Guilt, love, fear and shame were all swirling within you simultaneously, leaving you uncertain about which one to convey.

Ella had graciously given you permission to leave work a little earlier, solely for the purpose of going home, resting, and potentially writing that letter without any unnecessary delay. It may have seemed absurd to leave your job for such a reason, but your friend appeared unusually eager to learn about the progress of your relationship with Morpheus.

It took you several hours to compose the first paragraph, as you frequently left the table, pacing back and forth, and consuming at least three bags of calming tea in an attempt to soothe your nerves. Ultimately, you made the choice to release everything at once, beginning with the first thought that crossed your mind and the words you would want to share if Dream were standing before you.

After discarding approximately ten crumpled sheets that now littered the floor, you took a deep breath and resumed your seat. You allowed your hand to move with the same fluidity as when you were drawing with your pencil, letting your emotions be imprinted on the page in ink.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒖𝒔,

𝑵𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏. 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅—𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒑𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅.

𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑰 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒆𝒔.

At the conclusion of each paragraph, you found yourself pausing and revisiting what you had written, carefully re-reading your own thoughts aloud.

𝑨𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅, 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆.

𝑰 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑨𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏, 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒖𝒍𝒈𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔.

𝑫𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝑰 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑰𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.

The mere thought of losing him indefinitely, of never glimpsing his face again in your waking moments or within the realm of dreams, caused your heart to constrict with agony.

Your hands began to tremble, prompting you to slow down your writing in order to prevent any potential damage or smudging of the text.

𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒖𝒔, 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚. 𝑴𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒖𝒑𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖; 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕. 𝑴𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇����𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆.

𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒏𝒐 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒔.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒚. 𝑰𝒇 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅, 𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔.

You reminisced about the initial encounter when you first laid eyes on him, trapped in that glass enclosure, exuding an aura of desolation and defeat. The intensity of his gaze and the regal poise of his seated form left an indelible impression. You recollected how your emotions blossomed for him even before knowing his name or hearing the sound of his voice.

Maybe your love was deemed toxic, misguided, and unrequited, yet you couldn't fathom a life devoid of it. The thought of existing without the presence of that love was intolerable to you.

𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰 𝒔𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓. 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔. 𝑨𝒏 𝒆��𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒖𝒑𝒐𝒏 𝒖𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏.

You pondered whether your proclamation would be too audacious and inappropriate, but you were determined to follow Ella's advice and unleash the truth that resided in your soul.

𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒎𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.

𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒐 𝒇𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚. 𝑰 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔, 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒎. 𝑻𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐 𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆.

Once again, you felt the tears welling up at the corners of your eyes. You lifted your head and silently cursed yourself for being so sensitive and vulnerable, again.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅𝒍𝒚.

A tear escaped, smudging the ink that had not yet fully dried.

𝑰 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒖𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈.

A self-deprecating laugh escaped your lips as you felt utterly pathetic and hopeless, writing a letter that you didn't even know how to deliver.

𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏.

𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆,

𝒀/𝑵

You read the entire letter once more, then twice, three times, and continued to do so until you lost count entirely. As the sun neared its descent, you clutched the sheet in your hands with such intensity that you feared you might inadvertently tear it.

A part of you believed that the letter was adequately written and required no further alterations, but you couldn't shake off the fear of him discarding it without even giving it a glance or, worse, scoffing at its sentimental tone.

In the end, you let your shoulders slump as you gazed at the folded paper with his name inscribed on the front. "Ridiculous," you muttered, rising hastily from the chair and making your way to the balcony. "It's far too cheesy. This won't work.”

You retrieved a lighter from one of your drawers, along with a small ceramic bowl that you positioned on the ground. The air outside grew colder, but you paid it no mind. Placing the folded paper over the bowl while holding it, you used the lighter to ignite the bottom corner. Your gaze remained fixed on the flame as it started small, slowly engulfing the entire letter in its embrace. Dream’s name vanished, taken by the transforming embers.

You allowed the remnants of the paper to slip from your grasp, watching as the fire consumed it completely and eventually diminished into the bowl. Sitting onto the armchair positioned in front of it, you kept your tired eyes on the flickering flames, captivated by their sinuous dance.

In that moment, you became acutely aware of your exhaustion from the lack of sleep. Struggling to stay awake, your eyelids grew heavier, making it increasingly difficult to resist the drowsiness.

You adjusted your posture and took deep breaths, but despite your efforts, your head gradually drooped to the side as the world around you faded away.

In an instant, you were engulfed by a profound sense of nothingness, until your surroundings began to take on a different form.

You found yourself unsure of your whereabouts. The environment appeared hazy and indistinct, yet you felt a sense of tranquility as you strolled along what seemed to be a lengthy bridge. Without hesitation, you continued onward, drawn towards the white light that awaited you at the other end.

As soon as you passed through the gate, vivid images began to materialize before your eyes. The place you arrived at seemed strangely familiar now, as if you had encountered it in your past.

In a sudden moment of realization, you identified it. The once shattered and deteriorating stained glass windows were now restored to their former glory, radiating an array of vibrant colors. The majestic throne above you stood with its grandeur, evoking power and significance. The curvaceous staircase at the center had been meticulously repaired and polished, exuding a newfound elegance. Even the floor beneath your feet was pristine, resembling a flawless opaque mirror, devoid of any debris or traces of dust. The Greek statues adorning the columns emanated an imposing and commanding presence, their eyes seemingly fixed upon you.

As you stood in the opulent throne room, you marveled at the lavishness of it. The embellished walls and the magical ambiance created a sense of peace and beauty, but a tinge of unease crept over you, causing you to fidget nervously with your fingers. You anxiously awaited either a transformation of the scenery or for yourself to awaken, fearful of the return of Morpheus and the realization that you were an uninvited guest in his realm.

You surveyed the unchanging nature of the dream, making a determined decision to take matters into your own hands. Perhaps by venturing far enough, you could escape the confines of the castle without losing your sense of direction.

You turned to leave, but before you could take another step, your progress was abruptly halted by the resounding voice of Morpheus. His commanding tone had a grave authority, freezing you in your tracks.

"Wait."

Sensing his presence growing nearer, you could hear Morpheus approaching with a composed gait, causing your anxiety to heighten. As he slowed down in front of you, your nervousness intensified. IIt took a moment for you to gather the courage to lift your eyes from the floor.

"I know I have no right to be here. It wasn’t my intention to come," you asserted.

“I invited you.”

As you finally forced yourself to properly meet Morpheus' eyes, your tense state began to soften. His unwavering stare mixed with yours, his countenance austere and solemn, yet there was a subtle undertone of sadness evident in the tightness of his jaw.

“You did…?”

Acknowledging your confusion, Morpheus nodded before speaking. "There is a matter that we need to discuss," he stated, his voice carrying a sense of heaviness.

You felt a spark of optimism, knowing that you still retained your connection to the Dreaming and that he wanted to communicate with you in person even after your earlier altercation. Still, the atmosphere was undeniably stressful, and you felt as if a knife was lodged in your abdomen, draining you of all your energy.

"I assumed you hated me for the things I said to you," you declared.

Morpheus was astonished and looked at you as if you had just told the most abominable joke in the history of comedy. "Hate you?”

“You don’t…?”

"My love, I may have given you the wrong impression," Morpheus said, gazing at you with a somber expression on his face. His eyes showed concern, while his features revealed a distinct degree of distress.

Once again, you were addressed in that affectionate manner, causing your stomach to flutter and turning you into a puddle of mush.

“Don’t call me that. You’re confusing me right now.”

“My apologies.”

Taking a deep breath, you pinched the bridge of your nose in frustration and asked, "Morpheus, why am I here?”

The King of Dreams looked down and slowly opened his coat, reaching inside. This simple action revealed a breathtaking detail that you hadn't noticed in your dreams before: the interior of his garment was a cosmic marvel, adorned with twinkling stars and swirling galaxies that seemed to move in a mesmerizing parallax effect. Withdrawing his hand, he held a folded paper between his fingers. You observed as he contemplated it for a moment, then handed it over to you with a gentle, almost timid gesture.

"What's this?" you asked, taking the piece of paper from his hand and turning it to examine it.

Morpheus offered no response, and the way he looked at you made it clear that he wanted you to open it. The paper appeared strangely similar to the letter you wrote for him, until you noticed his name on the outside.

You quickly unfolded it and perused its contents. To your astonishment, you indeed recognized the letter that you set of fire just moments before drifting into sleep. It contained the very words that poured out from the depths of your soul, written in your own distinct ink and calligraphy.

A surge of intense embarrassment washed over you, causing you to wish you could disappear into a dark void. "This... how...? I burned it on the balcony, how is it in your possession…?”

"You are displeased. You have devoted effort into writing this for me, and yet you did not wish for me to read it?”

You stuttered. “No. Yes. I mean… I don’t know.”

"It is beautifully crafted. The words you have penned are remarkable in their composition."

"It's horribly cheesy."

"No."

"Yes."

"Then why did you write it?"

You swallowed hard, closing your eyes. "You sent me away, and I thought I wasn't welcome here anymore.”

"Severing your connection to the Dreaming is not my intention," he expressed in a calm and measured tone of voice. “It never was. And it never will be.”

Unable to continue reading the letter, you folded it back up and tucked it securely into the pocket of your jeans. His pouty expression was incredibly comical and the cutest thing you had ever seen, resembling an offended grumpy cat. But as much as you wanted to lighten the mood, now was not the time to beat around the bush.

“You haven’t answered my question. Why am I here? Is it because of the letter?”

Morpheus paused for a moment, taking a step closer to you with a hint of hesitation in his words. "You have shown me immense kindness and concern. Yet, I repaid you with complete dismissal. I had no right to exile you from the Dreaming.”

You let out a sigh. "You told me to hold my tongue.”

"I... I did not give the situation the attention it required.”

You chortled softly, looking at him with teary eyes. "Is this your way of saying that you're sorry, by any chance?"

"Perhaps."

You shook your head. "You told me about Nada, revealing a significant detail from your past without me even asking. But then I pushed you to share something more, something you weren't ready to reveal. Not now, maybe not ever."

Your anguish highlightened the contrast between your humanity and his eternal lifespan.

"I hurt you, Morpheus.”

It was in the nature of the human species to succumb to temptation and fulfill their desires, often disregarding the consequences that mere curiosity could bring. Your fascination with the King of Dreams had veered onto an incorrect path, fueling an insatiable craving to uncover details about a past that Morpheus only wished to bury in the sands of time.

"You are mistaken," he corrected. "It was them. The Three that are One twist their words and reveal only what they want you to hear. They wield control over the threads of destiny, using their artistry to manipulate their stories as they see fit.”

"What do I have to do with them, anyway? Is it because of Paregoros?" you inquired.

He hesitated. "This, I cannot explain. They utilize their abilities to trade their knowledge for inexplicable gifts, and sometimes they make such deals purely for their own amusement.”

The machinations of the Fates seemed to be specifically targeted at Morpheus himself, and the idea of being manipulated solely to harm him stirred a furious and indignant sensation in you. The manifestation of such derisive insanity provoked both anger and loathing.

Nevertheless, despite being a victim of a similar form of control, the benevolent purpose behind your intentions remained unchanged.

"Morpheus, as I mentioned in my letter, it was not my role to determine whether you should feel guilty about what happened to your son.”

Morpheus looked downward, processing your explanation and giving you a silent permission to continue.

And so you did. "I know I shouldn’t have done that. Still, you can raise your voice at me, be angry with me, or even send me away if that's what you wish to do. But whatever your decision, know that I won't stop searching for you in my dreams."

His attention returned to your face, and his lips parted in a silent gasp as his eyebrows furrowed. "Do you still wish for my company? Even after everything?"

You shrugged. "Is it really so surprising to you?"

"Y/N, fulfilling my duties as Dream of the Endless is of the utmost importance to me. I am unable to provide you with everything that a typical human man is capable of giving.”

Your blood began to boil, and you let out a loud scoff. "Oh, screw that! I never asked you to forsake your role for me. Yes, I cherish our encounters in the Waking World, but I would never want you to jeopardize your realm again just to fulfill my desires. When I chose to be with you, I understood the implications.”

Your voice echoed off the walls and columns, carrying a power that exceeded your intention.

But you had more to say. "I know I can never be deserving of you. As a human, there’s no way for me to reach your level."

His expression softened. "Do you truly believe that I see you as unworthy of my time and affection?”

"I don't know, Morpheus. Sometimes, you make me feel like the most magnificent goddess in the entire universe. But other times, I feel like nothing more than an ordinary dreamer lingering in your realm.”

"Y/N, please listen to me.”

The tears that you had struggled to hold back finally broke free, cascading down your cheeks and wetting the floor below. They served as a symbol of your inherent emotional vulnerability and sensitivity, amplified within the realm of dreams.

You swiftly wiped away the tears with your fingers, erasing the glistening paths as soon as they appeared. "Fine, I'm listening.”

"Why are you crying...?"

You averted your eyes. "Nevermind. I said I'm listening."

“Y/N-”

You raised your hand, stopping his words from continuing any further. "Don't. Please. Just tell me what you need to say. I can handle it.”

Morpheus was rendered speechless, his attention fixed on the wetness beneath your tear-filled eyes. You wished to be seen as something other than a victim deserving only pity, but you feared that you were inadvertently giving him that very impression.

The sound of a heartbeat suddenly filled the space, starting at a faint volume and growing in intensity. It seemed as if the walls themselves were trembling with each pulse, coming alive and resonating with the steady sound in the air.

And then you realized that it was emanating from your own heart, beating so hard in your chest that the dream itself reflected its rhythm. All your emotions left you feeling vulnerable and exposed in a way that Morpheus had never witnessed before, not even during your brief moments of intimacy.

As the surroundings began to blur, the Endless moved closer, placing his right hand against your chest, maintaining contact.

"Look at me," he murmured, his voice barely audible and becoming a distant echo. "Feel me.”

His eyes served as an anchor, keeping you suspended between reality and your dream, firmly rooted and focused on his aura. A surge of power burst forth from his palm, resonating in your heart and engulfing your entire being with warmth and calmness. As the sound of the heartbeat gradually grew faint, all your distress and uncertainties melted away. Your eyes remained locked on his face, and you clutched his arm tightly for reassurance and security.

You came to the realization that there was no better moment than the present to let out those essential words, regardless of the result, even though you were already convinced that it was evident from your letter alone.

“I love you.”

While you were certain that he was well aware of your emotions, a look of surprise still appeared on his face when he heard your declaration.

You smiled serenely and said, "Don't worry. I don't have any expectations from you.”

While the idea was heartbreaking, if you could have a small corner in the Dreaming and find solace in his embrace from time to time, you would be entirely content with what he could offer.

"I won't put pressure on you. I won't ask for anything you're not willing to share, either. Just... please, keep me by your side. That's the only thing I ask.”

You disliked how desolate you sounded, but in the end, it no longer truly mattered to you. The only thing you wished for was another chance with the man you loved.

His hand slid from your chest to glide through your hair and gently brush against your nape. His mouth drew closer to yours, almost grazing your lips but not quite touching them.

"The depths of my feelings for you surpass even time itself. If you truly desire me, then you shall have me. As the King of Dreams and Nightmares, as Morpheus, as all that I am.”

You quivered at his words, so profound and melodic, stirring both excitement and need. Your heart raced once more as you whispered in response, "That's exactly what I want. The real you, just as you are."

As his forehead gently touched yours in a beloved manner, your fingers tightened their grip on his sleeve.

Amidst a mix of hope and apprehension, you gathered the courage to ask the question that had taken shape. "Morpheus, do you love me...?"

You braced yourself, almost expecting a negative response despite his actions and the words he had just spoken.

Your assumption couldn't have been further from the truth.

“Immensely.”

The brightest smile graced your lips as soon as you heard his admission. Your hands reached down and took hold of the edges of his coat, gently pulling him closer. As you kissed him, the Dreaming responded with a burst of vibrant colors pouring from the windows behind the throne, surrounding both of you in their radiant glow. Morpheus intensified the kiss, exerting more pressure with his mouth and hand on your head, deepening the bond between you. Your tongues entwined, and your breaths merged into one.

You could sense his love and remorse in the way he touched you. Dream of the Endless was a fervent lover, occasionally restraining himself, yet constantly prepared to give his everything during every intimate moment. Regardless of how he spoke to you and the emotions he evoked with his actions, the fear of being merely a temporary flame always lingered in the depths of your mind.

However, now, even with the uncertainty of a future together with an immortal being, you were resolute in cherishing his tenderness - embracing each other, locked in a passionate kiss, and feeling his closeness against you - an experience you were unwilling to interrupt.

He cherished you. And he longed to be with you as much as you wanted his presence in your life. This newfound understanding propelled you to heights of bliss and exhilaration, awakening your senses as you embraced him, your arms encircling his neck while his hands settled around your waist, holding you tightly. Time seemed to slip away as you immersed yourself in kisses and cuddles, reveling in each other's presence for as long as you could maintain your clarity.

Your lips traced a trail along his cheek, your knuckles gently caressing the contours of his face as you brushed his hair aside. He was entranced by the moment, closing his eyes and tightening his grip on the lower part of your spine even further.

Morpheus was proud, hot-headed and quite impulsive. Yet he was also kind-hearted, generous, and unwavering in his integrity despite the obstacles and hardships he faced. You were determined to remain by his side until the end of your days, striving to shield him from sorrow or betrayal in a universe teeming with dangers beyond his grasp and influence.

Nestling your foreheads against one another again, you exhaled profoundly. "I suppose I am forgiven, then?" you queried him.

"My love, you have done nothing that warrants my forgiveness," he clarified.

When he pulled away from you, you felt that there was something he wished to share. You stayed composed, waiting for him to find the right words, holding his hands in yours.

"The words that I have spoken to you... I...”

You raised your index and middle fingers to his lips. "I know you didn't mean it. You were angry, and I don't hold it against you for feeling resentful.”

He tenderly grasped your wrist, holding it firmly as if attempting to prevent you from departing. "No matter. I cannot absolve myself of the guilt that stems from my mistake.”

Your lower lip trembled, not from the pain you had experienced, but from the sentimentality that his considerate words evoked within you. "And I reopened an old wound, pouring salt into it. We're even.”

His lips gently pressed against your fingers, the firmness indicating a strong need to hold them. "Perhaps, with time, I will share more with you - about Calliope, my son, my family... and myself.”

You smiled softly, but then shook your head. "Please, don't push yourself. I know you trust me, I don't need anything else.”

He released a silent sigh, his expression displaying evident relief.

"Listen," you told him, cupping the sides of his face in your palms. "I promise you, regardless of the Fates or any other obstacles, I will never let that affect me again. I want you to talk to me whenever you feel like it - if you ever feel like it.”

Morpheus maintained his gaze on you, remaining steadfast and unwavering.

"I don't need to know every detail of your past. What's important to me is who you are now, and I apologize for not realizing that sooner."

While you were aware that he wasn't flawless, your own imperfections nearly shattered your relationship. Morpheus had just as much to learn from you as you did from him. He was the missing half that made you feel whole, and you were the piece he had finally discovered for his eternal puzzle.

For the first time since you met him, you witnessed a genuine smile spread across his lips. It was a wide, sincere, and affectionate grin that made you fall even more deeply in love with him than you had ever imagined possible.

In response, you devoted yourself to expressing your feelings of love through your subsequent actions, showering him with quick yet firm pecks all over his face. Morpheus let out a brief chuckle, placing his hands on your neck and returning the kisses to your mouth, slowly but resolutely. His thumbs gently glided back and forth along your jawline, sending delightful shivers of contentment coursing through your body.

After placing one more gentle kiss on your forehead, Morpheus released his hold on you. The illumination around you took on a dreamlike quality, causing his eyes to shimmer with a mystical gleam.

As you moved your hands to your pockets, you noticed that the folded letter you had placed in your jeans had disappeared. You took a moment to contemplate the situation before raising an eyebrow in his direction, conveying your suspicion.

"Morpheus? What happened to the letter?"

He tried to conceal a smirk, but you could still catch a glimpse of it at the corners of his lips."I have no idea."

You couldn't help but let out a laugh, partly from amusement and partly from disbelief. "You're so sneaky! Did you put it back in your coat?”

With a playful demeanor, you reached for his coat again, gripping its lapels and opening it to take a peek inside. The celestial spectacle within was truly breathtaking, causing you to pause in awe and admire its beauty.

"What's on the other side? Does it work like Mary Poppins' bag?" you jokingly inquired as you peered into the depths of his garment, curious about what secrets it might hold.

"Why are you all so obsessed with this Mary Poppins?" Morpheus asked with a hint of curiosity.

"Mary Poppins is a timeless classic. Are you telling me you never watched it?”

"I did not.”

You gasped. "That's sacrilege! You know what, I can ask Hob if he wants to join us for a movie night. You absolutely have to see it, it's so delightful and heartwarming!”

His expression appeared so indignant that you had to stifle a laugh from escaping.

"I will pass."

"Oh, come on, it will be fun!"

"No."

You playfully pretended to judge him, adopting a serious expression and placing your hands on your hips. However, your self-control didn't last long, and you quickly abandoned your act, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and hugging him tightly. The force of your embrace caused him to take a step back as your bodies collided.

You erupted into laughter, utterly joyful. "I'm just teasing you, my love!”

Morpheus eased into your hold, his touch growing tender as he softly stroked your back, his hands gliding up and down in a comforting rhythm.

After sharing a flurry of affectionate moments, you loosened your grip around him and looked directly into his eyes. "You know I would never ask you to do things you don't want to, right?”

He nodded in agreement, gently tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. "I do.”

"I still want the letter back, though," you stated firmly.

He grinned mischievously. "It belongs to me.”

“Oh, does it now?”

“It has my name on it.”

"I set it on fire!" you retorted.

"Everything that is written in the Waking World finds its place in the Dreaming. The library contains every book, every piece of literature, and every letter that has ever been created, or ever will be,” Morpheus stated.

“Lucky me,” you responded ironically.

“Why did you burn it?”

You nibbled on your lower lip, feeling a warm blush spreading across your cheeks as you remembered the weaknesses that had compelled you to write the letter. "I thought you wouldn't like it."

"It is a thoughtful and sincere gift. One that I have never received before," he acknowledged, his words filled with gratitude. They carried a certain charm, akin to honey enveloping you with its irresistible allure.

You made a clicking sound with your tongue. "Fine. I surrender.”

“A wise decision, my dear.”

You couldn't help but chuckle and replied, "Just as long as you don't hang it on a pillar or a wall.”

"I might decide to frame it."

"Don’t you dare!"

Since your last visit, your father couldn't shake the sound of your question about your origins from his mind, and the pain that he had painstakingly tried to erase for many years came rushing back into his heart with full force.

In truth, since you left to pursue your independence, he found it incredibly difficult not to reflect on what he once had, and the experiences that you, regrettably, never had the chance to partake in. Taking care of you on his own had never felt like a burden, but there were moments when he believed you would need your mother more than anything else in the world.

A movie played on the screen in front of him, but his mind was elsewhere. He sat on the couch for quite some time, lost in thought, as his mind and heart battled each other repeatedly. He understood that he had no alternative, and every action he took was solely for your benefit from the very beginning. However, the fact that you had dared to seek further information about your family lineage was a perilous path, one that he knew he couldn't tread alongside you.

Almost instinctively, as if guided by an unseen force, he reached for the wallet tucked in the back of his trousers. Carefully unfolding it, he slid two fingers into one of the compartments, retrieving an old Polaroid picture filled with cherished memories from the past.

In the picture, his younger self was beaming at the camera, while the face of the woman next to him was barely visible. Somehow, the only photograph he had of the two of them together happened to capture the woman he loved partially obscured by a peculiar rainbow-like reflection, rendering her features unclear.

Even so, he still remembered the woman as vividly as if it were yesterday, and the resemblance you bore to her reminded him of her beauty every time he laid eyes on you. It was bittersweet, yet he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in the woman you had grown into. So courageous and resolute, so resilient and selfless, never letting go of your dreams despite how much his illness may have hindered your progress.

He found himself chuckling softly, wiping away the tears that welled up in his eyes and streamed down his cheeks. However, his moment of solitude was interrupted when a knock sounded at the front door, loud enough for him to hear it in the living room. He startled slightly on the couch, clearing his throat and wondering who could be visiting at dinner time. He certainly wasn't expecting you.

Your father hesitated, contemplating whether someone had mistakenly arrived at the wrong house. However, a second, slightly louder knock resonated through the corridor, convinving him to rise and investigate for himself. He paused in front of the door, his gaze fixed on the polished wooden surface and his uncertainty growing. Nevertheless, a voice within urged him to trust his instincts, to open the door and welcome whoever was on the other side into his home.

His heart pounding, he slowly undid the locks and gripped the cold handle in his hand. He had to take a deep breath to steady himself before turning it and opening the door, the faint squeak echoing in the air.

As soon as the door was open enough for him to catch a glimpse of the visitor at the entrance, he felt his breath catch in his throat. His eyes widened in shock, and his fingers involuntarily slipped away from the handle. He had to take a step back to reassure himself that he wasn't hallucinating, his hand instinctively covering his mouth as a fresh wave of tears welled up at the corners of his eyes.

There she stood, the only woman he had ever loved, the one he believed he would never encounter again. She looked exactly the same as the day they first met, so flawless and otherworldly, without a single wrinkle marring her smooth skin.

She smiled, suppressing the pain and blinking rapidly to hold back her own emotions. Her voice, like a forbidden song, whispered his name.

"It's been a long time, my love."

Since your sweet reconciliation and the officialization of your relationship, Morpheus felt as if he could walk on clouds. The ongoing work to repair the damages caused by humans in his realm was still keeping him and Lucienne busy, and while balancing his duty as the King of Dreams and your increasingly demanding job, he couldn't spend as much time with you as he wanted.

He cherished every moment he could be in your company, feeling his love for you grow with each passing second. You were a beacon of light in his dark existence, an anchor in the storm, and his hope to shape a better future for himself.

But despite the strong, unusual positive feeling he had in his heart, the weight of an undisclosed secret was starting to be a problem to him. Morpheus knew that you would have wanted to be informed, and didn’t wish to continue deceiving you when you always shared yourself openly without any hidden agendas.

Unfortunately, just as he made the final decision to reveal what he had discovered, he received an urgent request for a meeting in the Waking World. The fact that your realm had been chosen for the occasion was quite unexpected, and he couldn't help but anticipate that things wouldn't go in his favor at all.

He sat in front of a pond, watching the ducks swim peacefully. His hands were crossed in his lap, and he pouted in concentration as he waited for his interlocutor to arrive. The two of them had never crossed paths before, although they were well aware of each other's roles and reputations. However, what worried him the most was the clear subject of their impending conversation, as he was no longer welcome on that specific side of deities.

Beneath the surface, the Endless felt restless. His greatest desire was for you to maintain your happiness and well-being, but this was one of those rare moments when he wasn't quite sure what to expect.

As Morpheus looked up from the water in front of him, he was struck by the remarkable resemblance the approaching woman bore to you. The sound of heels hitting the pebbles grew nearer, each step calm and steady. He became completely still, hardly even meeting her familiar eyes.

She sat on the bench beside him, maintaining a certain distance between their bodies. For a brief moment, silence enveloped them as she calmly brushed her hand along the grey cardigan she wore. Everything about her was flawless, from the meticulously styled hair to the perfectly manicured nails.

At first glance, one could easily mistake her for an ordinary human being, but Morpheus could discern the unmistakable divine aura radiating from her presence.

"Greetings, Oneiros. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Dream Lord." she said. He immediately detected a hint of irritation in her voice.

“Greetings to you, Paregoros, Daimona of consolation. I’ve heard you wanted to speak to me.”

The deity smiled, crossing her legs and resting her hands upon them. "Indeed. We must discuss something that we both consider to be of utmost importance.”

Morpheus swallowed, stealing a quick sideways glance at her. “I suppose.”

"Let's skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point, then. What do you say?”

“Very well.”

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and straightening her posture. "I'll be blunt with you. I am fully against your relationship with Y/N.”

He pressed his lips together, his expression growing tense. "Is that so?”

"You can't possibly blame me for that, can you? Or have you conveniently forgotten what you did to Calliope?”

His knuckles turned white as anger surged inside him again. "May I remind you that she was the one who abandoned me?”

"You destroyed her life, Oneiros. Rest assured, I won't let you do the same to Y/N.”

His eyes darkened, and the tension between them grew palpable. The air crackled with electricity, to the point where the wind picked up its pace, as if two forces were clashing.

"It is not for you to decide," he retorted.

"Perhaps you're right, but I won't stand by and watch her crumble because of you. She’s not a Goddess, Oneiros. She deserves someone who can truly appreciate her, a mortal man who can grow old with her, devoted and unwavering.”

His heart sank. As much as Morpheus was deeply and completely in love with you for who you were, he knew that you were destined to leave him behind, your mortal flame getting extinguished.

"Is there any other reason for you to meet me here?”

Paregoros nodded affirmatively in response to his question. "Indeed, there is something else that we need to address.”

"Then speak clearly.”

She let out a heavy sigh, leaning back against the bench. "She must not know about me. Under no circumstances should you reveal the truth to her.”

Morpheus turned to face the woman completely, and as their eyes met directly for the first time, the gravity of the situation became apparent in both of their expressions.

"Are you asking me to deceive her?"

"Isn't that what you excel at?" She retorted, her tone laced with bitterness. "You create dreams and nightmares, twisted realities that are aimed to distract the human mind.”

"I will not do that to her," he asserted firmly.

For a moment, Paregoros appeared taken aback. "If… if you genuinely care about her as you profess, then you must."

"And yet, you had the audacity to tell me that I am not allowed near her.”

His words stunned her, and he could see the sadness in her eyes as she averted her gaze. "Do you think it was easy for me? I had to sacrifice everything I held dear. You, more than anyone else, should understand the weight of fulfilling your duty.”

"As a matter of fact, I do," he replied.

"Then I trust your judgement, Oneiros.”

Could he truly face you, knowing that he was keeping such a significant secret from you? Would he be capable of looking into your magnificent eyes, pretending that the truth you had always known was the only reality?

"The consequences of her knowing could be dreadful for Y/N," she explained. "She would search for the truth, for me. She might not find peace until she uncovers it, losing sight of her own goals in this realm. She would begin to question her own nature, overwhelmed with a sense of confusion and disorientation.”

Morpheus couldn't deny that what Paregoros was describing had some truth to it. But at the same time, he had immense faith in you and your resolute determination.

"You are underestimating her, Paregoros. After all, she has accepted me despite everything I have done.”

Her focus shifted back to him, her eyes widening and her mouth slightly ajar. She pondered his words for a moment, deep in thought, before a gentle chuckle escaped her lips.

"You might have a point, Dream Lord. It appears that I don't know her as well as I believed.”

He remained silent, sitting there motionless, waiting.

“Still, there are rules that we all must adhere to. Isn't that correct?”

As someone who had broken those rules multiple times, Morpheus understood their significance.

“Yes.”

"Then I hope you won't let me down," she said, her voice filled with a blend of uncertainty and entreaty. "I know who you are, but please grant me this one request.”

He sincerely wished for an alternative solution, a means to inform you about the most significant aspect of your existence. While you never explicitly discussed your family with him, except for your father's illness, Morpheus had the power to delve into the depths of your dreams and unearth aspects that you may not even be aware of yourself. There was something missing, a part of you that you had never dared to explore, believing it to be lost forever.

In the end, he had no option but to submit to the will of the deity, even if it meant suppressing what he knew in your presence.

“As you wish. Your daughter will never discover the truth. Not from me.”

Without waiting for a response, he rose from the bench and walked away, never once glancing back at your mother. The woman’s eyes were brimming with sorrow and despair, etching holes into his retreating figure.

The following night, Morpheus took you to a place you had visited together before. It was the forest he had created for you on your first full time in the Dreaming, complete with colorful flowers and magical Moonstone rocks. Everything appeared exactly as you remembered - not a single glassblade was out of place, and the minerals glowed with increasing intensity as you both approached the majestic clusters. Everything looked like a scene straight out of an RPG, with its fantasy-inspired aesthetics and breathtakingly surreal visuals.

Morpheus remained strangely silent, his gaze locked onto the Moonstones, which greeted him with a dazzling brillance. He raised his hand towards one of the rocks as you stood closely behind him, observing his actions and marveling at the enchanting scene. His right hand was bathed in a gentle, light blue energy as something became clearly enclosed within his palm. When he turned towards you, it was apparent that he was clutching one of the stones in his fist. But as he extended his hand and unfurled his fingers, you were shocked to find a beautifully crafted necklace delicately resting against his skin.

The Moonstone was noticeably smaller compared to the ones embedded in the clusters, yet its intricate details were still mesmerizing to behold. A soft blue glow swirled around its pearly surface, adding to its magical allure. A silver pendant securely held it in place, connected to a short chain of the same color.

Morpheus patiently awaited your reaction, and it took a moment for you to comprehend that he was actually offering the necklace to you.

"It's absolutely stunning," you whispered, gently brushing your fingertips against the smooth surface of the Moonstone. "Did you make this for me...?”

"This Dreamstone will provide you with protection. A part of me resides within this jewel now.”

You looked at him in complete shock. "What...? Morpheus, no. I can't accept this," you protested, gently closing his hand again and pushing it away.

"Why not?" he asked, his expression a mix of confusion and hurt. He seemed genuinely perplexed by your rejection.

"I can't take your power away. You need it," you explained earnestly with concern.

"My love, the fragment of my essence that I infused into this Dreamstone is not nearly enough to weaken me. I am far more powerful now than I ever was," he reassured with tenderness and sincerity.

"But... why...?”

"Because I need to know that you are going to be safe even when I am not beside you," he answered softly, his words laced with emotion and a deep sense of care.

Your heart pounded heavily in your chest. "Oh, Morpheus.”

He took a step closer, gently grazing your cheeckbone with his knuckles. "If you keep this with you at all times, I will always be there to protect you," he murmured. “Please, accept my gift.”

You couldn't help but notice a hint of desperation in his request, and the last thing you wanted to do was to fuel his worries with your unjustified refusal.

You smiled brightly, brushing your hair away from your neck and turning around. "Will you put it on for me?”

Morpheus responded with a soft hum, and you could feel the coolness of the metal against your collarbones as the Moonstone descended and settled delicately underneath. With the necklace securely fastened, he lovingly traced his hands along your shoulders and upper arms, planting a gentle kiss on the side of your head. The stark contrast between his sweet, affectionate gestures and the angry version you had recently encountered was striking. Yet, you found yourself growing to appreciate every facet, every aspect of his entire being.

You turned to face him, and the moment your eyes met, an irresistible urge took hold of you. you gently cradled his face in your hands and bestowed upon him a passionate, longing kiss on his soft lips.

"Thank you. I will never take it off."

"You should not," he responded with a subtle smile before leaning in to kiss you once more.

Little did you know, that pendant was about to become the key to saving your life. And much more.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 (currently reading) Go to Chapter 12 ->

[ravenwitch45]

yay yay-! i shall send one right now, and I do t mind waiting either… so feel free to decline this request if it’s to hard but may I request(platonically) Stolas with a Male! or GN! Teen! reader who has a Rui Kamishiro Personality from Project Sekai? Like stolas basically adopted the reader and they are like really good at inventing things and the reader even made a robot for his friend for their social anxiey and many people around them see them as a “werido” when their really not? hope that’s not to confusing… thank you again!

also I hope this sends 😭😭

Ah okay, This is my first platonic x reader request if I recall correctly but I'm good trying it and all. Only one slight hiccup... This is the first time I've even heard of Rui or Project Sekai at all. So I looked up some clips of Rui to try to gauge his personallity so I'd get it a bit better for this, sorry if I'm still off but here goes nothing! XP

Stolas with a Teen Reader with a Rui Kamishiro personalilty who's really good at inventing (Platonic)

Stolas doesn't exactly fit into the norm himself, so despite sometimes having a hard time understanding your eccentricities he loves you like his own child.

He's very fascinated by your inventing, he hardly understands it at all but he'll praise your work often.

The first time you tag along with him to a formal party you can tell he's miserable, so you offer to spice it up with some of your gadgets, while he thinks it might cause too much trouble he lets you, and whoo does he not regret it, you both have a good laugh and get off scot free, and he has half a mind to bring you next time.

When you made the robot, he was awestruck in all truth, not only that you managed such a feat but that you went to so much effort for him, he's seen robots before of course but that you made one from scratch just for him warms his heart.

He enjoys it very much, it being nice to have someone to ramble to about random stuff, not caring about their mechanical nature, it's another friend after all.

As for everyone else around you too, it's a varied experience to say the least XP

Octavia likes you quite a lot though, since essentially she's your adoptive sister, you have a lot in common. Out of the box interests, being lowkey smothered by affection by Stolas as well XP She also finds your... 'colorful' fashion sense very cool, she isn't the biggest fan of wearing it, but you've gotten her in some outfits, in exchange for trying out some darker looks yourself.

Your interests don't really compliment eachother that much, inventing and taxidermy but you both support eachother in them, and Stolas thinks it's so sweet how well you get along.

Blitz though? Oh he immediately loves your chaotic nature, kinda recruiting you for help with gifts and stuff, he thinks you could be a great weapon smith, but your happy with just wholesome inventions, which he likes a lot too, low key will borrow some gadgets to mess with people, Stolas also loving how well you get along with him.

And anyone who dares makes insults to you, or bout your eccentricites, well we all know what happened to agents don't we ;)

Stolas despite his unwavering support and love, finds himself panicking when you try something a bit risky looking, you have it all planned out to perfection of course but he can't help but freak out a bit.

Overall you love eachother very much, happy with not fitting in together and loving all parts of eachother, interests and quirks and all, plus everyone else you bond with after he takes you in, a very wholesome time.

[good-beanswrites]

Hi there!! Your milgram drabbles are actually giving me life. If you're still taking requests (if not, totally fine!!), how about Haruka and Colours? :)

Aww thank you so much!!! :D Thank you for the request ooh, it's such a fun prompt for him! I ended up going with something for him and Muu between the first two trials, but I still wanted the main focus to stay on his voice and growth 👍

“This is your wardrobe?” Muu's eyebrows raised. “That's all there is?”

“W-well, I don't own much else that I, I really like to wear. Sorry." Haruka’s mind whirled into a panic. His new friend had been in his cell for less than two minutes and he was already a disappointment. She knew a lot about clothes and fashion, but he didn’t know a thing about that. They’d have nothing in common. She’d grow bored of him, and hate him, and -- 

“Aw, you don't need to apologize! The warden should be sorry for making you wear this. Muu will have to fix it.” 

“Fix what?” He bit down on his thumbnail. He knew there was a lot of him that needed fixing. That’s what he’d been told as long as he could remember. But what did she plan on doing that no one else could?

“All white does not do you justice. I'll request some things for you, okay? Let’s see…" 

She spun away from the clothes to examine him. He squirmed under the sudden, intense gaze. She looked him up and down, without saying a word. He hugged his arms to his chest. He had too many painful memories of people looking at him like that. But at the same time, he hoped she would never stop…

Her lips twisted into a gentle pout. “See? You poor thing, you don’t feel confident in that at all.”

“W-well, it’s only that --”

 “-- Don’t worry about a thing. Muu will get some neutrals, and a few accents. That will help bring out your eyes.”

“My, uh, my eyes?”

“Mm, they're your best feature.” She said it as if he were crazy for not knowing. His mouth gaped. He had a best feature? 

“Speaking of, I'll have to grab some pins to keep your hair back, so you can actually see them…” She reached out to brush some of his hair aside. He flinched, but let her touch him as she tried out a few things. While poised over his face, she looked at him seriously.

“How do you feel about purple?”

He swallowed. How did he feel about purple? Haruka thought it was a strange question, but if Muu was being so nice to him, he should trust her. He should respond perfectly. He went back and forth on what the right answer could be. How did everyone else feel about purple? How did Muu feel about purple?

“Nevermind.” She put her hands on his quickly raining shoulders. He relaxed them. “I think I’ll go with green.”

He sighed with relief. “Oh! Okay!”

Muu continued muttering to herself about different colors and styles, to which he nodded along. If she thought it would help him, he believed her. 

———

He stepped into the dining hall for breakfast. The prisoners were used to their routine by now, so nothing really caused disruption anymore. It was why Haruka was unprepared to be a disruption himself.

“Haru~” Mahiru called. “Wow!” 

His eyes widened. As he scrambled for a reply, Mikoto nodded from another table. “So colorful!” All the eyes turned to him. Even Es turned from where they were speaking with Jackalope in the kitchens. They all smiled at him.

“How fashionable!”

“It suits you well.”

“Aw, look at you!”

The sudden praise forced his hands up to cover the huge smile on his face. “Me?” 

He could feel his cheeks redden, but his heart raced in excitement. At their request, he did a stiff turn to show off the whole outfit. “Ah… it’s only because of Muu…”

“And it looks like I did a great job!” She appeared beside him, pressing her palms together. “You look wonderful.”

With so many kind eyes on him, he couldn’t help the giggle that spilled between his fingers. 

“Buuut Muu can’t take all the credit,” she said. “Or your clothes. This is you. You look happier. You’re holding yourself differently.”

“I didn’t know…” He hadn’t meant to do that. That was a good thing, right? Haruka felt his legs shift, as he thought too hard about how he was standing.

Is this why he was forgiven? People were finally seeing him. Es really looked at them during his interrogation. The prisoners had noticed him more and more. Even the voices that whispered in his cell at night had taken a strong interest in him. And now, everyone was showering him with their praises. Muu was right, it was more than the bright colors he was wearing.

“Yeah, you seem more confident.” 

He lowered his hands to return her beaming smile.

“I… I think I am.”

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

prepare (1)

Riven exhaled as she shut the door to Sunward. Wuk Lamat had been set up at the Baldestion Annex. For the forseeable future, there was a great deal of preperations to be made...but first things first.

"What did you all think?" She asked, turning around to face the others.

"Green." Reinhardt, Mathye, and Augustine said in unison, causing Sebastian to blink in surprise.

"She is green." Mathye said. "Fresh out of the training hall and running about in new-made armor green. If it weren't for the fact that she does have skill in combat, I'd doubt she'd even gotten any type of first blood."

"She's got smarts, however." Reinhardt added. "And bold. I imagine she probably was the only contestant who had the idea to approach foreigners and ask them for help. It means she's flexible in her thinking and can adapt quickly to a changing situation."

"But something's wrong somewhere." Augustine mused. When the others looked at him, he gestured.

"Think about it. It's one thing to hire foreign adventurers--mercenaries even. But instead she pings directly onto us--Erenville's stories aside. It's one thing to want our battle skills--but with everything else? We're overkill. And while she's being honest about her reason to win--I can't help but feel there's something more to the story."

"That was my thought as well." Riven admitted. "But Tural may not know about us. And from the little I read, I don't think they had any effects of the Calamity, or the Final Days."

"I would suggest we talk to Alphinaud." Sebastian said. "He can handle the politics of the situation much better than any one of us. In fact, when we make it over there--let's leave anything dealing with governmental affairs to him. As far as everyone's concerned, we're just the hired help to Wuk Lamat." Riven hummed at that, crossing her arms.

"With everything we've been though, it never occurred to me that someone would want to threaten Eorzea's peace from the other side of the world."

"Honestly I don't think anyone has." Augustine replied. "And now that I think about it...we never saw anything with the Empire considering going that far out."

"Nor the Allagans now that I think about it." Sebastian added. Mathye frowned.

"...That...does seem strange. The Garleans made inroads to the farthest reaches of the east, but not the west? It's not like they didn't have the ability to do so."

"Technological constraints?" Reinhardt offered. "Airships only have so much fuel."

"No. I've seen plans that can turn them into nothing but flying ceruluem tanks." Augustine mused. "And it's a known fact that there's plenty of untapped wells in Tural. And an Agrias-class airship can fly though almost anything."

"Might be something worth asking Jullus about." Riven offered. She exhaled. "At least we've got some time to prepare. I've got to get my requests in to the Arcanists' Guild library, and quickly."

"All done with Aloato Island then?" Sebastian asked. Riven offered a weak grin, shrugging.

"Not really, but my rotation turn to go out there won't be for a few weeks. And I'd rather not fight someone for their spot--or have somebody challenge for mine." The Arcanists' Guild had been forced to create a rotation research schedule for their students and members who wanted to study the still-unknown arcane geometry of the Thavnarian island. And in true Limsan fashion, academic combat had been decided as a way for one to possibly advance to a higher spot in the rotation schedules.

"If it's alright, I'm next on the supply delivery list for Garlemald." Reinhardt offered. "I'll poke Jullus's brain, see if he heard or knows something."

"I'll come with you to Limsa." Mathye said to Riven. "I need your Mastery clearance anyway for the medical libraries. I think we'll need updated vaccinations and I'd like to know what diseases we'll need to look out for."

"I'm going to track down Nero." Augustine said. When the group blinked at him, he continued. "I think getting you a backup leg might be a good idea, Mathye. We don't know how long we'll be over there. And we have to discuss ways for your maintenance to be easier on you." His older brother started.

"I--"

"No." Riven interjected. "That's actually a good idea." Mathye flushed, crossing his arms and looking away.

"If it's alright, I'll go speak with Wuk Lamat and do some research in Sharlayan." Sebastian offered. "She might be willing--or let something slip around me." He paused, chuckling.

"This is actually strange, preparing for something that isn't world ending."

"It's a little unnerving." Riven admitted. "But...exciting. And I'm glad we're all doing this together."

[yourfellowhuman07]

Alliances of the Heart

A She-Ra: Princess of Power 2018 fanfiction

For centuries, the All Princess Ball has been a time for the nobility of Etheria to let loose. Flaunting their power, prestige, and fashion for all to see. The ball had always been politically neutral, but, as tension from the war rises, not everyone is so keen to forget what happens beyond the walls of Castle Chill.

Lord Hordak, along with Princess Scorpia and Force Captian Catra, have come to the party to make alliances and find out everything there is to know about their enemies. Careful to not arouse the suspicion of the Princess Alliance.

Princess Entrapta, being the scientist she is, decides to come to the party to decode the secrets of body language, despite getting the same data from every other party she has ever attended.

When the two rulers cross paths, their plans flip on their heads as the two grow closer. Now it is up to Catra and Scorpia to push the two together as Adora and Glimmer stick their noses where they do not belong.

________________

Sorry it's been a hot minute, but chapter eight is here!

________________

Chapter 8: Contemplation

Bow kept a firm grip on Glimmer’s forearm as he dragged her away from the prying eyes of the ballroom into an empty hall. Once the door closed, Bow released Glimmer and turned on his heels to face her.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, a little harsher than he needed to.

“Nothing, Bow,” Glimmer assured, rubbing her thumb across her forearm.

“Glimmer,” Bow adjusted to a softer tone. “I’ve known you for years, so I can tell when something is bothering you.” He took her hands in his own. “What is it?”

Glimmer’s stomach churned as Bow waited for a response. How was she going to explain this to him? That she’s mad he went with someone else to the Princess Prom. In trying to rationalize her thoughts, she slowly realized how stupid she was being. What gives her the right to say who he hangs out with? If he doesn’t want to spend time with her, then he shouldn’t.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry for being rude about you hanging out with other people besides me. You don’t have to spend time with me if you don’t want to.” “Glimmer, that’s not the point-” “I shouldn’t feel entitled to your company. I just assumed since we’ve been talking about it for so long we would go together, but I shouldn’t have assumed-”

“Glimmer!” Bow grabbed Glimmer by the shoulders, halting her spiral. “Just because I was Perfuma’s plus one doesn’t mean I didn’t want to hang out with you. I wanted all of us to hang out together.”

Glimmer had no response. She only stared at him.

“But, I should have explained that to you. I didn’t realize it meant so much to you. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Glimmer wrapped her arms around Bow’s midsection, squeezing him tight. Bow quickly returned the hug. The two stood there, probably longer than they needed to.

“Are you ready to go back to the party?” Bow asked, his voice a little over a whisper.

“Yeah, I guess so,” the two let go of one other. “We probably should go find Adora before she starts stalking Catra again.”

“Huh?” Bow looked at Glimmer confused, causing her to laugh.

“I have a lot to catch you up on.” The two made their way back to the party, their hands loosely holding each other.

_____________________________________

Entrapta blinked and rubbed her eyes through her tired haze. Reluctant to leave her soft bed. As she took a deep breath, she smelled something rich and smokey scent that made her head swirl.

This fully woke her up. She looked down to see Lord Hordak’s cape still wrapped around her body. She also noticed her gloves and boots were still on. She knew she was tired last night, but that tired.

With this revelation, memories from last night flooded her tired mind. How the warlord brought her away from the boring party, gave her his cape, talked with her for hours, and carried her through the icy cold. She also remembered how quickly she left him due to an amalgamation of flustered and tired. Even if he did walk her to her room, she doubted she could hold a conversation.

She begrudgingly rolled to the side of her bed, discarding her boots and gloves. She went to take off the cape, but she stopped herself. She didn’t want to take it off.

This prompted Entrapta to think. Really think. For the past three days, she has been fluttering around the strange feelings brewing in her mind. All of those thoughts had one common denominator: Lord Hordak.

It made sense he would occupy her mind, given the time she had spent with him. However, things were different. Her interactions with the warlord had a different tone compared to other interactions she had with people. It wasn’t like her newfound friendship with Catra and Scorpia or the relationship she had with her most trusted bots. This specific relationship with the warlord had more substance. She couldn’t quite comprehend it.

She might need more data. Yes, that’s what she needs! More data. Then she could draw a proper conclusion.

Now she just needs to occupy herself until the evening. She thought of what she could do as she fiddled with the seams of Hordak’s cape. Then it hit her.

She should return the cape. 

It would be stupid to give it to him at the party. He would have to carry it around for the rest of the evening. She wouldn’t want him to do that. It’s only logical to return it now. No other reason, right?

_________________

Entrapta walked on her hair down the icy halls of Castel Chill, slowly picking up speed with each step. The warlord’s cape was folded neatly in her lap, the perfect vessel for Entrapta’s fidgeting.

Then, the princess found his room, tucked into the back corner of the long corridor. The doors were large and white, bordered by an icy blue trim. Entrapta sat herself on the ground and raised her hand to the double doors. After a moment's hesitation, she gave a quick knock on the door, praying Hordak would answer.

Suddenly, the door flung open to Lord Hordak’s annoyed face. When he registered who stood in front of him, the hardness of his features melted away.

“Princess Entrapta, what do I owe the pleasure?” the warlord asked, slightly crouching down due to the doorframe lacking in height for a being of his size. Entrapta took a moment to examine the man in front of her. He wore a white button-up loosely tucked into black pants. His hair was down and he lacked his striking black eyeliner. Then, something shiny caught her eye. The first couple of buttons of Hordak’s shirt were undone, exposing metal plates flush with his skin. Entrapta raised herself on her hair to get a better look, but Hordak’s hands shot up to his collar, swiftly putting the buttons in the proper place. Entrapta scrunched her face in confusion until Hordak cleared his throat, calling her attention back to reality.

“Oh! Here,” She held up the black cape, “you should have this back.”

“Thank you, Princess Entrapta.” Hordak took the cape, his hand slightly brushing her own. “Perhaps tonight, if you wish to return to the garden, we could pick up your coat beforehand,” Hordak suggested, preventing a laugh from brushing his voice.

“Oh, my coat is missing.”

“Huh?”

“My coat is missing,” Entrapta repeated, sitting back on her hair chair.

“No, I heard you. I am just confused.”

“I gave it to the coat checks and they lost it.”

“I am sorry that occurred.”

“It’s fine,” she shrugged. “The castle is heated through magic anyway, so I’m fine.”

Except when we went to the garden, Hordak thought as guilt set into his skin.

“Well, I shall see you at the party tonight,” Hordak noted, not wanting to take up all of Entrapta’s time.

“You too.” She affirmed, “Maybe we can talk about those larger-scale robots you wanted to add to your forces.”

“Of course.” He assured, pushing down the urge to talk about the bots at that very moment. “See you this evening, Princess.”

“See you there.” 

___________

Hordak closed his door as his ears turned, listening to the sound of Entrapta’s footsteps gradually fading away. He looked down at the cape in his hands, lightly rubbing his thumb over the smooth cloth. He unfolded the cloth to see it had been wrinkled. Hordak sighed as he draped the garment over a door. He unzipped a black suitcase and pulled out a hand-held steamer. As he went to attend to the wrinkled cloth he began to think.

Hordak was confused, and he didn’t like it. Why had he been so keen on spending time with Princess Entrapta? He had spent the past three days thinking about her and what they were going to talk about that evening. Traditionally, he couldn’t stand to make small talk with anyone, let alone speak with someone for hours on end.

Perhaps it was the fact she was a scientist like him. Yes, of course. It was their superior intellect that connected them. Never before had Hordak met someone on this planet who could truly understand what he was getting at. Someone who appreciated his ideas beyond how they could benefit the war. Someone who listened because they wanted to, not because they had to.

Another thing that weighed heavy on his mind was the fact that Entrapta didn’t have a coat. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much, but friends worry about each other, right? Still, he feels like he should do something. No, he will do something.

[sburbian-sage]

Hey There, DurationPrince Here again... Hopefully not for the final time.

So last time you told me that there's a possibility that the player ID of mine was changed due to me Halting the [Infinite Rage]. So we did some digging and sure enough, that was the case. I had the Waste of Rage's ID, and he had mine. Thankfully it didn't cause any Freaky Friday sort of thing between us, but it did cause both of us to be not feeling like ourselves. And at the time we didn't know any way to fix that (First Session, Remember?). So I panicked, thought that now our plan is completely null and void if both me and the waste of rage are stuck like this, not feeling right at all. Combine that with all the weird timeline thing that I mentioned and something within me couldn't handle it anymore... I entered an Berserk Trigger.

You Know That One Episode of Steven Universe Future Where Steven Accidently Encloses him and all his friends in a giant bubble so that they wouldn't leave him? Yeah so that what happened to me, except I'm all alone. In A Red Bubble that is devoid of any sense of time. I guess so I wouldn't have to deal with all the time bullshit that happened because of my [Infinite Rage] Cancelation.

And I'm still in it right now. I don't know how much time it's been for me or the people outside. But I can't get rid of it, even with my powers.

Thankfully I still can write and read your blogs despite not having time around me, and found out about the fix for the player ID of removing and putting back up the sprite pendant. but it didn't work either. I guess it's either because of me being stuck in a timeless bubble, The Waste of Rage probably having my ID and therefore I can't or Both.

So I'm now stuck here, still with a misplaced player ID with only two options: Either I Kill This Body with my Swordkind and hope that will both cancel this bubble and have enough time for someone to kiss me so I will go to my Dreamself... or somehow manage to cancel this bubble.

So should I do the first thing or the second? and if it's the second then how?

P.S: My whispering still keeps talking to me and it annoys the hell out of me.

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the "seppuku and have someone revive the dreamself" option is not an option. Not because I'm opposed to it, I'm almost certain your (temporary) death would disable the ability, and if your players have someone positioned near the body (which they will if they're smart) they're in position to corpsesmooch it. The complication here is that the game disables suicide. Some Carapacians with a keyboard are going to yell at you for trying it and you won't be able to do it. You might starve to death in there, or suffocate if it doesn't let in air, but you will be able to do nothing by your hand (and setting off a bomb counts as "by your hand", in case you try to act smart).

As for the second option, this is a Berserk Trigger for a Prince of Time, so I doubt this is a "will last forever" type ability. If you're experiencing no sense of time, I think I might know what's going on. Time Players intuitively can tell the passage of time, so you either exist outside of time, or the bubble stops all time within it. Check your computer's clock. If it reads something like "--:--:-- XM", you exist outside of time, it it's an actual clock and the seconds aren't passing by (so maybe "1:35:27 PM" and it's stuck like that), you're in stopped time.

If I might be even bolder, I imagine this "bubble" is an extension of your own abilities. You make processes happen faster, but not in an overtly supernatural fashion, things just "finish up" quicker because the extraneous events that "stall it out" are removed. Well I'm afraid that it is now overtly supernatural in nature. If you can't contact your players, I imagine it's because this bubble only exists for a second or two, while you're experiencing the "actual time" that's been truncated for everyone else. As for why it's trapping you here... You said you were tired of dealing with the Time Bullshit that happened when you cancelled [Infinite Rage], so it's possible that this manifestation of your powers was in response to extreme emotional turmoil, and it attempting to "resolve" the stress you've been feeling. I imagine a psy-buff exists that could have solved this, and in fact might actually be a lot better by "fast-forwarding" through your hang-ups so you arrive instantly at the mental state you need, but you Berserk Triggered, so here you are.

So if you want to get out of the Time Bubble, there are a few psychological exercises and points you might want to go over with yourself. Think of this Time Bubble as an egg, and you will emerge like a phoenix.

How can I feel like myself? Ignore game mechanics, reinforce what makes you you.

Those timelines where I died (or it feels like I died in them), what do they mean and what do I do? If you think they're a danger because a Berserk Triggered Waste of Rage might hijack the time machine and travel backwards, erase the timelines. If you think they're lands of corpses cluttering up the timestream, erase the timelines. If they're of no consequence, erase them from your mind. Don't let them be a distraction in any case, resolve what to do with them.

You can think of how to solve the Player ID issue, but no matter what plan of action you come up with, you have to steel in your mind the will to get it over with, even if it means "ignoring it until relevant".

I have a *really good feeling* about this line of advice. You have all the time in the world, so feel free to give these issues as much mind as you want. Just make sure you don't dither with them. Action is needed.