#I don’t have words for how sad and panicked this episode made me

[danascullysjournal]

“Why Can’t I Remember His Name?”

This episode was gut wrenching. 😭 Martín panicked, confused and losing all of his memories- including the name and face of Jon 💔

Full size downloads are on my kofi with subscription. Detail under the cut. As always click for better resolution on this app. :)

[eden4eva]

Let me out.

Summary: Nick is going through a rough breakup to which he falls into a depressive episode that he can’t seem to get out of.

Warnings: self harm, crying, use of cigarettes, little fluff, depression, cursing, homophobia, ed, throwing up

•Nick is not dating anyone in this fic he is single

•I actually hate this so much😀 BUT this is my first fic so i obviously don’t really know what the fuck I’m doing

“Nick you have to get up” Chris’s voice could be heard from outside nicks door, it was late, Nick had been sleeping all day but still couldn’t find the energy to get out of bed. His brothers knew he was going through a breakup and they somewhat had an idea on how much it hurt him, what they didn’t know is Nick was struggling to stay alive.

After Chris heard no answer from Nick he sighed and his footsteps could be heard walking away. Nick rolled over so he was on his back, staring up at the ceiling.He let out a shaky breath, the memories of his ex boyfriend play in his head, he remembered the night they had broken up, and how Nick caught him kissing a girl, sadness pangs in his chest as he remembers how he was dating a homophobic asshole who was only with him for a bet. It hurt, and it hurt bad. Nick bit his bottom lip as a tear rolled down the side of his face he let out small sobs as he cried into his sheets stained from previous tears, he sat up and put his face in his hands rubbing his eyes roughly “fucking pathetic” he mumbled as he threw the blankets off of his body and made his way to his bathroom.

He knew he shouldn’t but he simply couldn’t help himself, Nick had convinced himself that the only way to silence his mind was to bleed, so that’s what he did. he was standing in the bathroom, a razor blade in his hand, the metal was a burning cold as it rested in his palm. he stared at the razor. Taking in how the edges were jagged like it had been worn out, he wondered what it would feel like to have it drag across his pale freckled skin. If it would burn or if he would feel relieved, either way, it didn’t matter he deserved it.

~~~

He starred back at himself in the mirror, a scowl on his face, he hated himself for this, he looked back down at the razor that rested in between his finger tips, blood dripped down the end of it, splattering on the counter. He gulped and brought the razor back to his fore arm, he pressed it against his skin and swiped, hissing and squinting his eyes shut as the pain settled “fucking cat scratches” Nick groaned staring at his arm. The words “go deeper” repeated in his mind as he zoned out, without thinking he pressed the razor into his arm again wanting, needing to go deeper he bit his lip and jumped when he was suddenly interrupted by a knock on his door. he dropped the razor on the tile floor droplets of blood splattered on the floor and counter “shit” Nick whispered.

“Are you okay in there Nick” Chris said through the other side of the bathroom door “y-yeah just a minute!” Nick yelled, panicked he picked the razor back up and quickly put it in the trash can that rested by the counter, blood still dripping down his arm, he grabbed some tissue and tried to not whine out when he pressed the tissue to his arm, it quickly soaking up the blood, “what do you need Chris” Nick said staring at his arm, still cleaning himself up. “Me and Matt made dinner, come down when your ready” Chris stated before leaving quickly leaving no room for argument, knowing Nick would try to talk his way out of eating. Nick grumbled and took the tissue off his arm, whimpering, tears pricked in his eyes as he looked at himself in the mirror “stop fucking crying” he told himself, he leaned on the counter and sighed running his hand through his hair. he gripped his hair and rubbed the tears away from his eyes. Standing up fully he took a deep breath and opened his bathroom door, quickly making his way to his closest he found a long sleeve and carefully put it on, hissing when the cloth brushed his cuts. He checked himself in the mirror one last time and frowned, he looked horrible, he has bags under his eyes, tear stained cheeks, and his unwashed greasy hair felt like the finishing touch.

Nick made his way down the stairs, seeing Matt and Chris eating, their legs propped up on the table, with their plates in their laps, the boys didn’t seem to notice Nick coming down the stairs. Nick felt disgust churn in his stomach at the thought of eating, “what did you guys make” Nick asked in a monotone tone, almost catching his brothers off guard “we didn’t make anything crazy it’s just pasta, we made you a plate it’s in the microwave” Matt said not taking his eyes off the romcom that was blasting through the tv. Nick slowly made his way to the microwave he grimaced at the food, not because it looked bad, but because he knew in the next 30 minutes he would be on the floor puking it up into his toilet.

~earlier~

Chris walked downstairs seeing Matt on the couch “I told him dinner was ready” Chris said with a sigh making his way to the couch, plopping down next to Matt. “You didn’t talk to him?” Matt asked yet it was sounding more like a statement than a question. “No..he was in the bathroom” Chris bit the inside of his cheek as he grabbed his food that was resting on the table, placing it in his lap he leaned back and scooted his food around with his fork, almost like a toddler who had to eat something they didn’t like. “I don’t think-”Chris cut himself off before he said anything but it still caught the attention of Matt, “you don’t think…what?” Matt said raising a brow, turning his head to look at Chris “I just don’t think Nick is…you know..doing the best right now..” Chris stated quietly “well yeah- obviously he’s going through a break up, of course he’s not going to be one hundred percent.” Matt said, Chris sighed and put his fork down “no- well i obviously know that but I think it might be worse than we think..” Chris said turning his head to look at Matt. Matt put his fork down, his eyebrows pinching together as he bit the inside of his cheek “what are you talking about.” Matt stated narrowing his eyes at Chris, “I just think the break up might have hit him harder than we think” Chris mumbled not thinking he would get this far in the conversation, he instead thought Matt would tell him to stop overthinking it and that Nick is fine. “Chris what are you getting at?” Matt said again, more frustrated that Chris won’t spit it out already “fuck Matt I don’t know! I think Nick might have depression” Chris said quite loudly. Matt put his plate down on the table, “what the fuck are you talking about. Nick doesn’t have depression he’s just upset” Matt said, his eyes narrowed and his lips partly open. “Think about it Matt, he’s always in his fucking room, he zones out way more than he use to and he almost has no energy!” Chris argued back, frustration clear on both of their faces “ok yeah- but that doesn’t mean he has depression! And the breakup probably did hit him harder than we think but just give him time!” Matt yelled. “Matt just listen to me! Why wo-” “because why are you thinking the worse!” Silence awkward silence.

~present~

Nick was seated between his two brothers, there was a heavy tension in the air as they sat in silence, the only sound being heard was the background noise of the tv and the sound of silverware being clanked together.

Nick shifted in his seat uncomfortably, he stared down at his food grimacing. He didn’t notice how his hands were shaking or how his lower lip was quivering, Nick picked up his fork with his shaky hand and closed is eyes. He brought the food to his mouth and almost gaged at the feeling of it on his tongue. Tears were filing his eyes as he somehow managed to swallow the food, “I think I’m done I’m not that hungry anyway” Nick said quickly as he quickly stood up and brought his food to the trash, scraping his plate clean and setting it in the sink.

He could feel Matt and Chris’s eyes on him as he quickly made his way up the stairs. He opened the door to his bathroom and stopped, staring at the toilet he felt as if his legs had a mind of their own as he walked over to it and sat down on his knees in front of it.

Using two of his fingers he he slowly opened his mouth and leaned forward, pushing his fingers into his mouth, his actions paused as he thought for a moment is this really worth it? I don’t even think I’m fat so why am I doing this? Why can’t I eat like a normal person? What’s wrong with me..

~Flash back~

“God you’re so fucking fat!” His boyfriend yelled as he slammed the bathroom door shut, locking himself in there. Nick was staying at boyfriends house for the night, an argument broke out when Nick asked who Selena is because he saw the text message pop up on his phone reading,

Selena🩷

Hey, you still coming over tonight😘

When Nick brought up the message asking who she is, his boyfriend got defensive and ended up telling Nick who she was. “Well maybe if you weren’t fucking huge I wouldn’t have cheated on you!”

~end flashback~

Nick jammed the fingers down his throat, gagging he attempted to push them farther, tears pouring down his cheeks he gaged one last time before puking. He gripped the end of his bathroom counter and sobbed, he was shaking again, sobbing in his bathroom on his knees throwing up his dinner how pathetic.

“God fuck” Nick sobbed gripping the counter harder, he stood with shaky legs. Wiping his mouth he flushed the toilet, tears still streaming down his face. He lifted his shirt off his head throwing it on the floor. He looked at himself in the mirror, disappoint clear on his face, he looked at his arm in the mirror his eyes taking in the dried blood and the opened wounds. his fingers traced the cuts some of the cuts we’re already scabbing.

Scoffing at himself he opens the bathroom door making his way to his closet, grabbing a white wife beater and throwing it on.

He walked to his bed side table opening it and grabbing out a pack of cigarettes and a red lighter. Grabbing a cigarette out of the pack placing it between his lips, he walked to his window opening it and lighting the cigarette. He placed the lighter down on the window seal and rested his arms on it, he inhaled and blew out the smoke looking up at the sky. The cigarette placed between his two fingers his eyes scanned over each star, the cool wind blowing his hair as he took a drag of his cigarette. The night sky is aways able to calm his nerves.

~flashback~

Nick sobbed in his brothers arms, Matt holding him tightly while Chris played with Nicks hair. They were sitting outside as the night sky sounded them, “it’s going to be okay Nick he was an asshole anyway” Chris said soothingly still petting his hair, Nick hugged Matt harder sobbing into his shoulder. Chris and Matt shared glances before Nick looks up at the sky, surprisingly, he smiles he always loved night time. He loves how cold it gets and how bright the moon and stars are. Matt and Chris look up as well, Nick rests his head on Matt’s shoulder, Chris wraps his arm around both of his brothers. Nick couldn’t be more happy in that moment. if only he knew it went down hill from here.

~end flashback~

Nick took one last drag of his cigarette before putting it out on the ashtray that sat on his nightstand. He rubbed his cut up arm and looked down at it, his eyes glanced up to his bathroom and back down at his forearm. Making his way to the bathroom he opened up the medicine cabinet and grabbed some bandaids. opening one by one he gently put them over his cuts, hissing when the sticky part got stuck to the actual cut. “God this is so fucked” Nick said opening another bandaid.

~~~

Nick sighed and collapsed in his bed, immediately wrapping his body in his blankets. He hated how empty his bed felt, hated how he couldn’t wrap his arms around someone and bury his face in their neck, hated how no one could rub his back while he drifted into sleep.

His heart pangs in his chest, his lower lip quivering as he feels tears brim his eyes I’m such a fuck up, a suicidal loser… Nick thought as a tear escaped his eye. Squeezing his eyes shut he bit his pillow to stifle his sobs. Wrapping his arms around it, imagining it was someone who actually wanted him. If no one wants him in real life you could at least dream, right?

Thank you for reading I absolutely hate this😭😭 but I still hope you enjoyed!

[agaypanic]

i was watching the chapter of "cynthia's back" and i would like to ask for an image with the same theme. only this time reader (fem!reader) is reese's girlfriend and she is insecure about her breasts. and reese consoles her somehow, nothing nsfw, rather sfw!!! please and thank you. 🫶🫶

Who Says (Reese Wilkerson X Reader)

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Request Something!

Summary: Reese tries convincing you that you shouldn’t pay your insecurities any mind.

A/N: Bc of the similar theme to the episode, reader has bigger breasts, but other than that her body isn’t really described. Also fic is titled after that Selena Gomez song bc sometimes titles are hard

***

You were already having a shitty day. You slept in late so you had to run to school, had a surprise pop quiz in the class you hated the most, grouped with the worst people for a project in your favorite class, and the lunch was horrible. Like, you wouldn’t be surprised if you got food poisoning from it. You just wanted to go home and nap off your bad mood, but when school let out, your boyfriend Reese reminded you that you two had agreed to go shopping for prom. You wanted to reschedule but knew that if you did, you’d never get around to it, especially with Reese’s tendency to get grounded and pull crazy schemes.

When you got to the mall, you ran into a bigger problem.

“God, why can’t you just zip?” You grumbled to yourself. This was the fifth dress you’ve tried on, and none of them fit, even though they were your size. Puberty had cursed you with big boobs, and although you usually were okay with them, they made clothes shopping a pain in the ass. “Please, I’m fucking begging for you to just zip.”

“Everything okay, Y/n?” Reese asked on the other side of the door. The question just made you more frustrated because everything wasn’t okay. You flung open the door, yanked Reese inside, and slammed the door shut. “Y/n, I don’t think we’re allowed to fool around in public.”

“Shut up, Reese.” You laughed weakly, the stupid joking lifting your mood slightly. You started unzipping your dress. “Nothing’s fitting.”

“Do you need me to get a bigger size?” He caught your sad look and panicked. “Not that your fat. I’m not saying that; I don’t mean that.”

“No, it’s not that, Reese.” You let the dress pool on the floor and threw on your sweater, oversized enough to hide what you were currently having a problem with without drowning you in fabric. “It’s no use. I might as well show up to prom in a burlap sack.”

“Y/n, what’s wrong?”

“Everything! If I get a dress that fits me, it doesn’t fit my boobs. If I get a dress that fits my boobs, it’s too big for my body. There’s no middle!” You turned to stare at yourself in the mirror, feeling hopeless. 

Reese looked at you through the mirror’s reflection. Comforting people wasn’t exactly his expertise; it was more the opposite. He was usually the reason people needed comfort. But he had to at least try. Hesitantly, he rested a hand lightly on your hip. When you seemed okay with his touch, he pulled you until your back was to his chest. He rested his chin on your shoulder, now making eye contact through the mirror.

“It’ll be okay.” That seemed like a good start, but you didn’t look so convinced. “You have time to figure it out; prom’s in like two months anyway.”

“But that’s not enough time to get rid of… these.” You gestured to your chest defeatedly.

“Who said you had to get rid of them?”

“I feel like a freak.”

“Well, you shouldn’t.” Reese’s hands slithered to wrap around you. “Look, I’m not gonna lie. I think it’s hot that you have big boobs.” You couldn’t help but laugh. “But that’s not the only thing about you I like. I’d list them, but we’d get kicked out from how long we’d be in here. The point is, you’ll have the time to figure it all out. Don’t stress it. You could show up in a burlap sack and still be the prettiest girl there.”

You nodded, taking in the words. Reese was right, you supposed. It’s not like you needed the dress tomorrow. But you wanted to be like the other girls who get their dress in advance so they could hang it up on their door and count down the days until the special event to wear it.

“Now, here’s what we’re gonna do; let me know what you think. You put your pants on, we put all this shit back on the racks and go to Auntie Anne’s. I want a pretzel.” You couldn’t help but smile.

“That sounds like a good plan.” You turned your head to meet Reese’s lips, kissing him sweetly before pulling away to finish getting dressed.

[spnexploration]

Collared part 26

Pairing: Dean x Reader eventually

Series summary: Sam and Dean save a woman from where she has been held as a slave by a witch. But things turn dark whenever they try to take her magic collar off, leaving them with a slave to look after and a curse to break.

Episode summary: Your high continues.

Warnings: drug use

Word count: 1.6k

Series masterlist | Supernatural writing masterlist

Part 25 <- -> Part 27

It was a long afternoon for the brothers. At times Sam thought of you like a child, you were so excited, jumping round and singing. And then a minute later you were screaming at him, or more frequently, at Dean. It was the yo-yoing of the past week, on steroids.

Well, he reflected, it pretty much was you on steroids.

He had watched you for a while before Dean took over, telling him to get some sleep so he could take over again to get you to bed later. Sam agreed with Dean’s assessment that you were more likely to go willingly if it was him, not Dean. And they needed to watch your breathing, opioids could depress it to the point you stop breathing altogether.

So here he was, ushering you to your bedroom. You were dancing around and pretending to be a fairy, which he had to admit was adorable, but also slightly unhelpful for what he was trying to do. The two of you made it to your room, finally.

“Ok, how about you get changed,” Sam said while he was looking on the floor for your pyjamas. He turned around to find you full-frontal naked. He quickly shut his eyes and turned away. “Uh, I meant when I wasn’t here...” he said lamely. He passed the PJs behind him to you. “Put these on, please.”

“Are you a bit prudish, Samuel?” you asked with a cheeky edge to your voice.

He felt himself starting to blush, “I don’t think you’d be doing this if you were in your right mind.”

“You’ve never seen me in my right mind,” you said, suddenly sad. He had to agree with you though, you’d either been controlled or traumatised the whole time he’d known you. He wondered when or if he’d ever get to see the real you.

“You can turn around now!” You called, seemingly happy again. Yo-yo, he thought.

“Ok, how about you hop into bed now and try to sleep off the rest of the effects? It’s pretty late.” You pulled back the covers and jumped on to the bed, bouncing on your knees on it like a kid. He hadn’t actually meant the real bed, it was just a turn of phrase, but he wasn’t going to stop you now that you were there. He was pretty sure you’d never touched it before.

“Uh, ok, I’m going to turn the light out and I’ll come back soon to check on you, ok?”

“Goodnight Sammy!” you said in a singsong voice.

“Goodnight Y/N.”

---

You woke up. Your head felt heavy. What happened?

You realised you were on something soft. Your eyes flew open, worried about where you might be. You were in a bed. You breathing quickened, you couldn’t remember getting on to the bed.

“You ok, Y/N?” Dean’s gruff voice asked.

You panicked, where was he? Your eyes moved quickly around the room, finding him sitting on a chair against the wall, near the door.

You backed up against the headboard, bringing your knees to your chest.

“Wh-what happened? Di-did you- did we…?”

His face softened, “No, no, of course not. You don’t have to be afraid of Sam or I doing anything to you, we’re not going to touch you like that.”

You bit your lip but nodded. That didn’t explain why you were in the bed.

“What do you remember about yesterday?” he asked.

You shook your head, terrified of what he was going to say.

“Ok, you took some pills and got delusional. But aside from Sam and I having to disarm you when you were playing with a revolver, nothing bad happened. You skipped around pretending to be a fairy a few times, that was pretty funny.”

Now that he said it, you had vague memories of sneaking to the infirmary and getting the bottle of pills. “Oh.”

He didn’t say anything, just let you sit with your confusing memories.

“How-how did I get on the bed?”

“Uh, I think Sam said you just climbed in. It was his shift when you went to bed.”

“Shift?”

“To watch you.”

“WHAT?”

“Did you know opioids can stop you breathing? At least that's what Sam tells me. So yes, we took turns to watch you. Plus, I didn’t want you finding any more guns and blowing your fingers off, or worse.”

“Well, um, my breathing is fine now. You can go.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“Tomorrow, you can choose whether you talk to Sam or I or both of us, but if you want to be let off suicide watch then you need to open up. For now, I’m sitting here.”

“Suicide watch?! What the fuck?!”

“You took a bunch of pills, Y/N. What do you want me to call it?”

You stared at him. You hadn’t meant- that hadn’t been the point- that’s not what you were… But now that you thought about it, you couldn’t really remember why you took them. You were upset. They seemed like they would help. You didn’t think further than that.

“I wasn’t trying to die,” you said very quietly. “I just wanted it to not hurt.”

Dean nodded.

You started to tear up. Great, emotional overload again.

He stood up and took a step closer. He opened his arms, looking a bit awkward. “Do you, um, do you want a hug?”

“You don't have to pretend to care about me anymore, the collar’s gone.”

“Who said I ever pretended to care about you? Why do you think I was pretending?”

You didn’t say anything. You knew it was true, he was just nice to you with the collar on because he pitied you.

“You were entitled to comfort when you had the collar on and you are still entitled to comfort, sweetheart,” he said quietly. This time, the nickname didn’t annoy you.

He stepped towards you, watching you carefully. When you didn’t react, he took another step and gently put his arms around you. You lent into him and let him hug you properly.

“I know it sucks, but you will get through this. I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, I’ve even literally been to hell. But when I look back, the resounding thing is – I got through it. I am sure there is more shit in my future because that’s just the kind of life my brother and I lead, and some days, the only thing that keeps me going is knowing that we get through these things. And you do too, you will get through this.”

---

Dean sat in his chair, watching you sleep on the floor. It’d taken some convincing, but you’d finally agreed to go back to sleep. You’d looked so exhausted, so drained.

It was killing him. This was all his fault. First he let you get captured by Azaneth again, then he’d let Azaneth get away. You were so upset about it you’d done this.

He put his head in his hands.

.

.

.

Taglist (removed the ones that didn't work last time)

@malindacath @stoneyggirl2 @iprobablyshipit91 @tiggytaylor @ellie-andthemachine @muhahaha303 @deans-spinster-witch @mrswhozeewhatsis @kazsrm67 @foxyjwls007 @sassy-pelican @saiyanprincessswanie @sojuxxi @ilovedean-spn2 @lacilou @agirlwithdemonblood @rachiem4-blog @miss-madness67

[trashjuicesmidrewrite]

Episode 6 >:) (MID Rewrite)

I had to redo the draft I had from ep 6 because I’m stupid and deleted it when I meant to work on it 🥰 I’m like kinda lucky tho because I spent way too much time introducing too much stuff so I guess it’s okay? Anyways enjoy my dinner (light snack) also for Lorelei’s boyfriend NOT ME FORGETTING JAKE WAS ALREADY A CHARACTER BEFORE WITH A WHOLE DIFFERENT PURPOSE. He’s a whole different character yall I just forgot the name Jake was already taken by the character 💀

Episode 6: Have an Easy Explanation for Once…

Lady Ki’s crowning sparked tension and fear throughout not only Chikara, but the rest of Daemos. All the royalty made sure to reassure their kingdoms they were okay, but not all of them were sure. Especially Garmon.

“It’s true that our tensions with Chikara have grown stronger before Queen Ki took Yakedo’s spot. Still, I’ll work night after night making sure our kingdom is safe.” Said Garmon during his speech

Hesitant applause filled the air as guards started to crowd around Garmon as he re-entered his palace.

The more and more Garmon began to think, the more he thought his speech was terrible. It felt as if he’d be better off if he hadn’t said a word. Could he really call himself a good king if he even did that?

In all honesty he’s been asking himself this question a lot these days. He felt like a cheater, smudged, dirty.

What he did to Yakedo had to be done, but what if it made things worse? What if his judgment was skewed? He did feel like there was some sort of change going on.

He could sense Yakedo calming down, something just got him riled up again. Garmon feels terrible that he panicked. Now Yakedo is suffering in some dungeon when there could’ve been change.

He wants to think it wasn’t his fault, but he also can’t blame Mothando.

Yakedo is a terrible Daemon, capable of things even the worst person couldn’t dream of. So he doesn’t blame her.

He didn’t know who to hold responsible.

Garmon couldn’t go further into his mind before a guard barged into his room.

“GAH! Oh heavens you scared me right out my head…what on Daemos are you doing?”

“My King I’m deeply sorry, I couldn’t find you and I panicked and…uhm…h-here!” The guard hurriedly shoved a scroll in Garmon’s hands.

“What? I-…thanks..?” Said Garmon while fumbling with the tie on the scroll.

When he finally managed to unfurl it, he saw it was from Mothando.

It read: “Hello Garmon. Apologies for the dry introduction, but this is urgent and I’m writing this quickly. I’ve told Yakedo about the decision Chikara made, and his reaction is peculiar. He’s starting to display something that isn’t sadness nor anger. It’s emptiness. We could blame the sitting in darkness, yet he’s been through much, much worse I’m sure. What’s even weirder is that he asked to see you. He didn’t hint at it or was cryptic he said it loud and clear ‘May I see Garmon?’ I understand if you don’t want to be near him, I wouldn’t either, but consider. By tomorrow preferably.”

Garmon’s eyes grew as wide as the moon. Why would Yakedo ask for him?

“My…My king..? May I take my leave?” Asked the guard still standing beside Garmon.

“Oh! My apologies. Yes, I permit you to leave.”

The guard immediately rushed to leave the room. Garmon thought it was odd how unprofessional the guard was, but he decided he may have been a rookie.

He thought he should do a better job at funding training for his guardsman. They’ve never been the strongest, and the only things that saved them from death were the animals they controlled.

Garmon laid on his bed still in his outside wear. He decided to sleep on his decision, this was a tomorrow Garmon’s problem.

Lady Grandma sat in the darkness of Chikara’s deepest dungeon bored out of her mind. She’s been through much worse by the clutches of her father, this was nothing.

“Mio…how’s my favorite grandma doing?” Said Queen Ki’s voice echoing through the hallways.

Something Lady Grandma wasn’t at all used to was Queen Ki using her real name. Throughout her entire life not many have called her that, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Queen Ki then became visible through the bars of the cell. She looked at Lady Grandma like that of prey.

Lady Grandma didn’t want to admit, but she felt genuine fear in Queen Ki’s present. When she was her student, she barely wanted to learn anything. Now she was preforming advanced rituals in order to get what she wanted, and Lady Grandma didn’t want to be a victim of that.

“I’ve…asked you to respect me.” Said Lady Grandma sternly.

“Aw, but you’re going to be my grandmother-in-law…if I get your blessing that is…” said Queen Ki with a sly grin.

Lady Grandma’s blood started to boil. If Queen Ki did anything to Hitoma, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

Lady Grandma slowly got up, as a magical aura started clouding the space around her.

“I’ve let you take this kingdom, I’ve taught you magic, and everything you need to know as a queen.” Lady Grandma braced herself assuming Queen Ki would use her magic.

“Yet, I rather die than let a bitch like you marry my grandson.”

“Well then you’re not needed. That was the last phase of the plan you were wanted for.”

“What..?”

Queen Ki formed her scythe and sliced Lady Grandma through the bars of the cell. She was too quick for the blanchette to respond.

Lady grandma could on get a few hiccups and sobs through before the top half of her body fell to the ground.

“You were a great service Lady Grandma…I hope you live your afterlife in bliss.”

Ava woke up by her alarm that she still hadn’t turned off since she got fired. It was way too early to go out there, and she knew she was gonna be half tired till about 9:00.

She wanted to be a bit more responsible, so she decided to plan the day out. Remembering how her dads called her last night, she wanted a way to distract them so she could get rid of the odor that surrounded those five guys

At this point they smelled like ass and fish, and she was bewildered to know that they apparently hadn’t noticed until she said something.

She had to get someone who both knew her dads well and would get them to listen to them.

And that someone was Lorelei.

Ava felt really bad about not responding to her text. Even worse now that she needs something from her, but Lorelei’s her only hope.

She opened her texts, and completely ignored Lorelei’s last message.

Ava: Hey girly!

Ava started to feel dumb as rocks, because she’s never called Lorelei “girly” or used punctuation marks unless she wanted something. It’s hard to break old habits though.

Lorelei: Hi Ava.

This was even worse. Lorelei never used “Hi” without a couple of I’s.

Ava: OKAYYYY IVE BEEN AN ASSHOLEEE but yknow I need u for sumthin my dads r worried about me since YOU TOLD THEM ABOUT MY JOB okay srry shouldn’t use caps but like could you distract them so I can get the guys to take some sort of bath plssss????? 🥺

Ava saw the …’s from Lorelei pop in and out. If she said no she couldn’t blame her, she’d just have to face everything head on.

Then, Lorelei finally responded.

Lorelei: why do you call me girly for these things? I’ve told you it brings back memories and I won’t help you until you promise not to call me that anymore.

Ava felt even more terrible. Sometimes she forgot it was miracle Lorelei still wanted to be friends even after they broke up.

Ava: I’m sorry. I won’t call you that anymore.

It felt like centuries until Lorelei finally responded.

Lorelei: Okay I’ll help. It was my fault just know they called ME and I panicked.

Ava kinda figured they called her first. She knew Lorelei was mad at the time, but not mad enough to get her dads involved.

She looked at the time. It was 7:55. Still way too early, but there’s no way all five of them were gonna shower before nightfall. Ava then caught a stench with her nose

It wasn’t worse than what the guys smelled like, but it was still horrible. It was like a wet cat dog mix.

Ava then connected the dots.

That smell was her.

She hadn’t showered in a bit, and that rain probably made her smell worse from the other day.

She needed to take a shower, and it had to be without any of those guys noticing. If they did, she had to make sure they wouldn’t break down the bathroom door thinking it was some sort of torture device she was setting up.

She absentmindedly grabbed some clothes from her drawer, and slowly cracked open the door.

She saw all five of the men crowded around something on the kitchen counter. The fridge was wide open and looked like a raccoon that was being chased by a bear ran through it.

They were all breathing heavily too, and Ava could hear them all crunching on something with the occasional hiccup or cough. She guessed from almost choking on something.

She normally would be more than pissed off from seeing them roam through her kitchen and turn it into a pig’s paradise, but she needed to get this shower done, and this was the perfect distraction.

She quickly tip toed into the bathroom and locked the door. She tried to look for something to block the door with, but there was just a box of toilet paper, and that wasn’t going to stop anything.

Ava decided to depend on the lock and turned on the shower to get started.

“Oh. My. GODS. Human food tastes so good!” Said Noi while stuffing his face with pre-cooked pasta.

“Quiet down, idiot! If Queen Ava finds out we’re doing this, who knows what she’ll do…” Said Asch in a harsh whisper.

“What was that thing a human on the TV said? Foodgasm? I think I’m having one of those” said Leif while munching on a granola bar.

All the Daemons immediately stopped eating to look at Leif.

“What?” Said Leif.

“You do understand what that word entails right?” Questioned Rhys.

“‘Course I do! I’m not a dumbass, I was making a joke! You don’t know what that word means though, do ya Rice!” Insulted Leif with a rising temper.

“I keep reminding you it’s Rhys not Rice! Is it too hard for your brain to comprehend?” Said Rhys, losing his patience.

“Well it’s spelt wrong first of all! How come the scholars name isn’t spelt R-I-S-E? Your name is stupid!” Yelled Leif on the edge.

“Don’t act like yours isn’t spelt abnormally too. Shouldn’t it be spelled L-E-A-F?” Taunted Rhys speaking in an outside voice.

“Well how’s about both of you chucklefucks got dumbass names! Shut up and let me sleep!” Said a human on the upper floor.

“How about you mind your goddamn business before I come up there and burn your bed so you have nowhere to sleep!?” Shouted Leif genuinely meaning what he said.

“….okay…” said the human sounding defeated.

Silence fell in the room before Noi picked up a bag of chips and struggled to open it. Pierce later snatched it from him and popped it open.

“Thanks…”

Lorelei rushed to put her clothes on so she could make breakfast for Jake. Her whole schedule was changed, and she couldn’t lie, that made her a tiny bit irritated.

What was originally planned was that she’d wake up, make breakfast for Jake, gently wake him up so he could get ready, get a serving for him and herself, kiss him goodbye while he rushes to leave, get ready herself, go out to make good on a few brand deals, make a few unsponsored posts, welcome Jake back from work, make them both dinner, and go to bed.

It doesn’t seem like a lot but social media’s her job. So it kinda is a lot for her. Especially the brand deals.

She needs to go to Pineapple garden to advertise their new wine, and go record Puss’s Sporting Goods commercial for their new cat fitness line.

It was a ton of work, and to distract Ava’s dads of all people would be overkill.

She did made a promise to Ava though. Yes, it’s in exchange for something she asked her to stop doing years ago, but it’d be progress. That’s something she wants more than anything.

Lorelei burst through the door to make breakfast, but when she got there, Jake was already making it.

“Babe? Aw…did I spend too much time daydreaming? Gosh I’m really sorry…” Said Lorelei, who sounded like she was about to cry.

“Nah Lorelei, I woke up early today so I wanted to give ya a break!” Jake looked at Lorelei to smile at her, and Lorelei’s heart started to swole.

When Ava and her broke up, Lorelei was in a really rough place. The only thing to take her out of it was Jake.

His dark brown hair styled in a comb-over, his dark brown eyes, silky smooth skin. She fell in love with his looks but the way he cared for her made her swoon.

Jake looked like he was sweating bullets when Lorelei stepped out of her head.

“Oh shit! Does this mess with your schedule? Damn Lei I’m super sorry” Said Jake looking nervous as ever.

“Oh? Oh! No, no, no, babe you’re fine! I was just think how this kinda lightens things today…” She rubbed the back of her head while she grabbed her stuff.

“Why? Gotta film some stuff today?” Said Jake while he put some bacon on a plate.

Lorelei was going to tell the truth, but she thought of how Jake felt about Ava.

He kinda hated her, not in a jealous sense, but with a more “respect my girlfriend” type of hate. At least that’s what she hopes.

“uh, yeah, Raisin Garden and Puss’s sporting goods remember?” Said Lorelei already feeling bad about the lying, even if it was only a half lie.

“You sure did tell me. My bad I forgot babe” Said Jake while handing Lorelei her plate.

Lorelei wanted to say she didn’t have the time to eat her breakfast here, but Jake took the time to organize it how she liked.

She quickly scarfed down the breakfast by sections and put the plate into the sink.

“Alright babe, gotta go! Bye!” She slammed the door in a rush.

Jake waited for a bit, and Lorelei ran back in.

“And I love you so much!” She blew a kiss at him and ran back out.

Jake sat in silence for a bit before a lightbulb shown in his head

“It’s not called Raisin Garden…Pineapple and Raisin doesn’t even sound the same…”

Ava slowly unlocked the door and cracked it open to see what the guys were doing.

She heard two of them yelling while she was showering, but she couldn’t tell who or what it was about. She just figured it was something dumb and harmless.

Ava saw all five of the Daemons sitting on the couch, seemingly in a bad mood. Especially the purple dude and the green dude, they looked livid.

She assumed they weren’t gonna be in a can-do attitude, and she was honestly relieved. She wasn’t either.

Ava walked out of the bathroom and stood in front of the TV like always.

“Guess we’re in a mood today aren’t we?” Said Ava trying her best to not make any of them angrier.

The only response any of the Daemons had to offer was a few grumbles. Ava thought this wasn’t going anywhere so she wanted to get to the point.

“So you guys smell like shit, as I’m sure you know.” Said Ava while all five of the men smelled themselves and recoiled.

“And y’know there’s this neat thing on Earth called a bath. Maybe even a shower depending on-“ Ava was cut off by a scoff coming from Asch.

“We’re not animals, we know what that is. Just lead us to your nearest river and we’ll get started.” Said Asch while standing up and starting to take off his shirt

Ava started to stammer and slur her words out of panic, “WOAH WOAH HEY!”, She ran to grab Asch’s shirt and pulled it all the way back down. She pulled it so far down it started to rip at the top.

“Woah…either these shirts are weak…or Ava’s the strongest human alive…” Said a mesmerized Noi.

Ava’s face started to get warm as she looked up at a now shirtless Asch.

“Fuck…I made it worse…” she murmured as she backed away from Asch.

“Is this how humans take off shirts here? Weird.” Said Asch while signaling the others to take off theirs.

All of the other four Daemons ripped off their tops the same way Ava had accidentally ripped off Asch’s.

“Okay maybe the shirts are weak, b-but I’m sure you’re still strong Queen Ava!” Said Noi while fiddling with the shreds of the now ruined shirt.

“S-Stop riding my dick and I’ll get a bath ready!” Yelled Ava blushing hard while rushing to the bathroom.

Ava slammed the door shut behind her and looked at herself in the mirror.

She had to give herself a pep talk. So what if there were five shirtless guys in her living room? So what if her landlord walked in she be in trouble? So what if that whole incident was low-key her fault?

None of that matters! Because there’s something those guys don’t know!

She’s Ava, goddamn, Thatcher-Valentino! And sometimes she wishes her dads just decided to take one of their last names so her name wouldn’t be so weird!

Ava pumped up her chest and went to setting up a bath for one of the guys.

Lorelei ran up and down New Rune trying to get everything done today.

The photo shoot for Pineapple Garden went okay, but it definitely could’ve been better. She kept daydreaming and missing when people would say things thinking about how Ava’s dads could already be on their way to her house.

Luckily, the commercial for Puss’s sporting goods wasn’t till 2:00, and it was 10:30 right now. That gives her about three and a half hours to distract Ava’s dads. There was no way it would take Ava more time to get those guys to shower, right?

Lorelei almost ran past the apartment building Ava’s dad lived in overthinking things. She opened the doors only to see Ava’s dads walking out of the elevator.

The unnatural blond was Devon. He had a tan complexion and wore a light blue dress shirt with khakis. Around his waist was a dark blue flannel that had clearly been over worn.

The blanchette was Andrew. He was about as white as paper and wore a typical business suit with a pair of glasses. Lorelei remembers Devon begging him to wear something different, but she guessed he never did.

She was really glad she wasn’t too late, but she had to come up with something that could get them to follow her around. She was terrible at lying though.

“Andrew! Devon! Hi!” Said Lorelei with her voice getting more high pitched as she talked.

Devon’s head whirled seeming confused as to where the voice was coming from until he saw Lorelei.

“Lorelei! Hi! How’s my favorite person?” Said Devon speed walking on his tip toes to hug the brunette.

Lorelei slightly laughed at what Devon called her. It used to be “How’s my favorite daughter-in-law?” Until her and Ava broke up. She thought it was funny how Devon respected her more than her own friend, but she couldn’t start getting snarky now that she’s doing something for her.

Lorelei wriggled out of Devon’s embrace and started thinking of a lie. A lie so good, there was no way they’d think it even was one.

“I’m good Devon! U-Uhm…listen I need you guys for…” she was silent for about three minutes, which was totally not suspicious at all.

“A COMMERCIAL! I-I need you guys to film a commercial with me!”

Dammit. Dammit! DAMMIT!

That was probably the worst thing Lorelei could’ve said. What on earth would everyone on the shoot think if she just brought in two random guys?

She’s got to commit to it though. She’s not gonna break her promise, because she knows Ava might break it back.

“W-What? Really!? Wow, Andrew! I guess my TV debut is finally here!” Said Devon while fake fainting into Andrew’s arms.

“What’s it even for? What would we be doing?” Said a skeptical Andrew, “besides we were going to visit Ava.”

Lorelei desperately scrapped at her brain for something that would make sense.

“haha! Uhm…well Ava she’s…got friends! And she’s hanging out with them! In a completely different part New Rune!” Blubbered Lorelei, “Also…they uh need…A COUPLE IN THE BACKGROUND. Yeah…a couple in the background…”

Devon and Andrew looked at each other worryingly and then back at Lorelei. She didn’t wanna know what they thought was happening.

“Hey Lorelei, we should go ahead to the shoot shouldn’t we? We’ll drive.” Said Andrew while letting Devon get back on his feat and heading towards the door.

“Uh…yeah…Sure!” Murmured Lorelei not at all understanding what the two men thought had happened.

“Wait! Wait! Wait a minute! Not ready yet!”

“What do you mean ‘not ready yet’!? Why do you have to get ready for me to take my pants off!?”

“I just do, okay!?”

Leif and Ava have been going at it like this for about 20 minutes, but it’s felt like 20 years. The other Daemons have been getting sick of their bickering, and all they wanted to do was get this over with.

“Queen Ava, it’s rather childish to think of all nudity as sexual. Just let Leif get clean.” Said Rhys.

“Whichever smartass said that better shut up before I kick their nuts in!” Shouted Ava through the door.

All the other Daemons snickered as Rhys’s face grew warm because of slight embarrassment, “Ah”, was all he could get out.

In the bathroom, Ava was in the farthest corner away from Leif.

“Okay…maybe if I count down it’ll be better for me.” Guessed Ava while putting a hand over her eyes.

“You said that the last two times, but guess where the fuck we are now!” Leif huffed.

“A-Alright but I mean it this time!” Spluttered Ava, slightly peaking through her fingers.

“Ready?”

“You’re just gonna stop me again…but sure”

“three…”

Leif untied his pants.

“two…”

He readied himself to pull them down.

“one!”

Leif fully pulled his pants down and kicked them off his feet leaving him naked. Then he just stood there, not really knowing what to do.

“The hell are you doing get in the tub!” Ava shouted.

Leif was about to dip a toe into the water until both him and Ava heard a shriek from the other room.

“Mrs. Oats!” Gasped Ava shooting out the bathroom door and running toward the other room.

The four men who were waiting didn’t know at all what was going on, but they decided on rushing after Ava to help with whatever she needed.

Leif swiftly followed behind while struggling to put back on his pants.

Ava kicked open the older woman’s door to see a peculiar sight.

Mrs. Oats was chasing a fluffy purple cat running on its hind legs with a broom.

“Hey! Hey! Come on, would you really wanna squish me? Let’s communicate! Old hag to old hag!” Said the purple cat before squeaking out of fear while dodging a swing from Mrs. Oats’s broom.

“Who are you calling old hag? How are you even talking? Answer my questions!” Yelled Mrs. Oats.

“What kind of cat would I be to tell my secrets? Or was that a fox…ugh humans are complicated.” Complained the feline while avoiding Mrs. Oats’s broom like the plague.

Ava and the others watched the two bicker back and forth. The cat’s dodging skills were immaculate, it looked as if it was popping in and out of reality just to escape Mrs. Oats’s broom.

Eventually it got pretty tiring for Ava to watch a magical cat call itself and Mrs. Oats the many synonyms for “old”.

She looked around to see the male Daemons absolutely terrified. With all the shit they looked like they’d been through, a walking and talking cat is where they draw the line?

Yet, the more she looked between the cat and the men, the more worried she got. She wanted to stop the two apparently old women from fighting before she finds out whatever happened.

“Alright ladies! Time out!” Ava declared before cutting between the two challengers.

The purple fuzz jumped on top of Ava trying to reach toward Mrs. Oats.

“Yo! Mamacita! Lemme try to win this round, would ya? See? I know human slang!” Jeered the cat.

“Ma…mamacita!? Ew! The fuck!?” Ava cringed while trying to get the cat off of her.

All five of the men were horrified by the sight, but it was mostly because of the cat’s voice. It happened to sound just like Lady Grandma. Asch especially felt petrified.

“Ma…?” He whimpered.

The fuzz ball immediately froze and slowly turned to look at the man. Its smile widened, looking ecstatic to look at him.

“Asch! Whew! I was worried I’d have to run all throughout this place to find you!”

“Devon…Andrew…excuse my language, but…”

Andrew steered the car illegally left and right all throughout New Rune to get to Lorelei’s apartment.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE GOING!?” Shrieked Lorelei.

“We’re saving both you and Ava pumpkin!” Devon said triumphantly.

Andrew swerved and ran about two red lights before slamming the breaks right in front of the apartment building with a screech.

Lorelei felt she was going to throw up because of her panic. She was way too stimulated and felt like she was gonna burst because of stress.

The brunette squeaked startled at how the window beside her went down to reveal Andrew standing right outside. She hadn’t even noticed they got out the car.

“Sorry to scare ya Lorelei, but you should stay here while we handle that bastard.” Said Andrew while adjusting his glasses with confidence.

Devon snatched Andrew by the collar and ran towards the front doors of the complex.

“The hell do they- wait…no! No, no, no! Come back! Ava’s dads you got the wrong idea!” She banged on the car windows to no avail, as the couple had already disappeared into the doors

Mrs. Oats, the five Daemons, and Ava all sat on the couch before the purple cat that was apparently named Lady Grandma.

“It’s really you…? Does that mean you’re…” Asch didn’t even want to utter what he was referring to.

“Yup! I croaked! Don’t really remember how though…” said Lady Grandma completely fine with saying she’s dead.

Asch sat there in disbelief as the cat-ified Lady Grandma swung her legs while munching on some tuna she stole from Mrs. Oats’s fridge.

“W-What do you mean you don’t know!? Isn’t like the whole purpose of this type of reincarnation is to connect with Daemons with those same memories!?” Fumed Asch, admittedly getting more and more irritated at the older.

“I mean, yeah. I’m thinkin’ someone put a spell in my final moments that I could live peacefully with no bad memories. Which I guess includes how I died. And a lot of other stuff come to think of it.” Answered Lady Grandma while picking at her fur.

Everyone in the room sat there in silence as Asch silently did his best to hold back any tears.

Ava slowly raised her hand to grab the old cat’s attention.

The feline noticed her, “Whoops!”, she said while jumping on her feet on the table, “Forgot we had a couple a’ humans here!” She cleared her throat

“Alright so when a Daemon dies there’s two things that’ll happen to ‘em depending on what the family does!” Explained Lady Grandma while grabbing two sardines from a can she also stole from Mrs. Oats.

She held up one, “No matter what ya do, a Daemon will always get reincarnated into another thing. It’s just what we do.”, she completely stripped the fish of its meat, symbolizing it becoming something new.

Lady Grandma then held up another, “There’s a special spell that can let Daemons keep their memories even while reincarnating…except it’s only the good ones.”, she stripped the meat off this one too, except she chose a few pieces to stick in the head.

“Now,” she started while turning to Asch, “I’ll be honest, I’ve got no idea who did this to me, but if I had to guess it might’ve been your father or Hitoma…” she scratched her chin while thinking.

“What!? What do you mean!? What if it was someone…we’re not affiliated with?” He didn’t want to say “dangerous” that’d include his father and Hitoma.

“Listen squirt, if it was someone we didn’t trust I wouldn’t even be dead! I’d be fightin’! But look at me! Clearly deceased, so the kingdoms clearly fine…I think”

Asch was starting to get tired of all these guesses. Lady Grandma probably didn’t know a thing about what was going on. Asch knew dying was most likely not gonna be the happiest memory, but if she can’t remember much leading up to it, it had to be a struggle.

Asch then remembered something, “Rhys you brought that book right?”

Rhys’s ears slightly perked up, “of course!” He then formed a large notebook out of his hands.

Asch grabbed it and started wildly flipping through it. Rhys started to get anxious by the second.

“M-My prince! Be careful with that, I beg! I had to transcribe the whole thing myself. Th-There’s only one copy after all and they don’t let you take notes in it so I-“ Rhys nervously rambled, but Asch silently waved him off.

“Aha!” He declared, “here! In Rhys’s…legible…handwriting is this!”

Asch shoved the page in the fluffy cat’s face. She stepped away for comfort and scanned the page.

“Eugh, Rhys I forgot how…intricate your writing is…” said Lady Grandma as Rhys grumbled to himself about the comments on his penmanship.

With a bit of deciphering, the page read: “Of course, not all hope is lost. To help the reincarnated gain the ‘bad’ memories back one must take them on a journey of sorts. Bring them to sights and sounds that could jog it, or simply just live life. It takes time, and unless their mind proves to be troublesome, all should be fine.”

“Yup…I see it” the cat meowed under her breath. “One question, how are we gonna jog my memory if we aren’t on Daemos?”

Asch’s train of thought stopped as soon as he tried to think about it. It wasn’t possible. At least he didn’t think.

“It said to ‘simply live life’ right? It’s alien but here on earth is living life.” Said Pierce

Everyone looked at each other with a newfound sense of hope. Except for Lady Grandma.

“Damn it! I don’t wanna remember anythin’ bad!” Spouted Lady Grandma while rubbing her temples.

“We need to know what’s going on in Daemos Ma!” Argued Asch

“Well I’ll be damned if you get me to remember shit!”

The Grandma and Grandson went back and forth for what felt like ages. Mrs. Oats had at some point enough of it.

“Would both of you shut up!” Yelled the older woman, catching both Asch’s and Lady Grandma’s attention.

“There’s nothing I hate more than seeing a grandparent not respect their grandkids! If I had the chance to visit my grandson again, I’d gladly help him with anything for however many years I’m with him!” Mrs. Oats condemned while grabbing the cat by the coat.

“You’re only a kitten! You’ve got 12 years with this young man! 20 if you’re lucky! How can you call yourself a grandma if you don’t even care about your grandson or your own world enough to remember a few bad moments!?” Chastised Mrs. Oats while shaking Lady Grandma.

She dropped the old feline and it landed on its feet. Lady Grandma looked dizzy, as if getting fussed at by Mrs. Oats was a roller coaster.

“Fine…but I need breaks. I’ll be crashing at yours most of the time.” Appealed the purple fuzz.

“Fine with me.” Said Mrs. Oats while signaling for the cat to follow.

Before they went out Mrs. Oats stopped by the door.

“Oh and Ava!” She called out, “before y’all start doing anything, get them boys to take a shower. And take breaks! If they smell like that they must be overexerting theirselves.” Mrs. Oats then closed.

Ava laughed to herself until she realized what Mrs. Oats said.

“WHAT? No! You’ve got the wrong idea! They just stink!” She yelled, but Mrs. Oats had already walked out the door a long time ago.

Ava groaned, “let’s finish this bath day…” she got up and grabbed Leif’s hand to his surprise.

“This is why I hate Ava.” Fumed Jack.

“C’mon babe…don’t say that…” said Lorelei while trying to comfort him.

She couldn’t really act like she didn’t have the same thoughts about Ava at the moment though. She missed the meet up time for the Puss’s Sporting Goods ad, so either they found a replacement or it’s gonna be delayed to a month or more.

She almost broke down two times, and she hated crying. She’d be drowning in tears right now if Jake and her weren’t comforting each other right now. Being in a jail cell is a stressing thing.

Oh yeah. They were in a jail cell.

Ava’s dads had made a scene in the apartment check in center that Lorelei was in some sort of “kidnap” situation. They’d also blamed Jack for it.

Jack was detained for more investigation and so was Lorelei because she was apparently “too defendant of the suspect”. So now they were both in jail until the cops finally realize the two men were probably overreacting.

“At least I know how her dads think of me…” said Jack sounding hurt.

“Babe…”, comforted Lorelei, “Everything will be fine…it’s not like they’ll be in our lives 24/7.”

Despite this, Lorelei could hear movement from the other cell. She put her ear to the dry wall and could barely hear whimpers and sobs from the other end.

She’s never really seen Jack cry, he’s always been so tough. Hearing him cry made Lorelei want to wail, so she backed away from the wall to stop that from happening.

“Sorry Lei…” Jack sniffled, “it’s just I planned this to be a big night for us.”

Lorelei wished she could break through this dry wall, pick up Jack bridal style, and fly them to their apartment so they didn’t have to deal with this anymore.

“It’ll be alright Jack” reassured Lorelei. “Another night. K’?”

There was silence from the other end and she didn’t know what else to do.

Finally she could hear a door opening, and the jingling of keys of a guard. The man walked up to Lorelei’s cell and kneeled down to her level.

“Sorry miss, you and your boyfriend can go ahead and get outta here. Seems like the case was some baloney.” He said, and he got up and fiddled around to find the right key for the cell.

“This is ridiculous! No rocks, no salt, and you’re cleaning me like I’m a child! I am a prince!” Complained Asch as Ava scrubbed his underarm.

Ava mumbled curses at the man as she started rinsing the suds off him. The only saving grace of this was that he was the last guy, but this was a slog to get through.

Leif yapped the whole time about how long it took, and how he only really took ten second showers. Which was not only disgusting, but also you can’t count that as a shower.

Pierce just stared at her intensely the whole time. She couldn’t tell if she had preferred Leif’s constant talking, or if this was fine. It still unnerved her though.

Noi kept talking about anything other than the bath to distract himself that Ava was touching him. Ava could feel every insult that was building up over the past few days clawing at her throat to let them out. It was honestly a miracle she didn’t say anything.

Rhys kept asking a question about every little thing in the bathroom, it was like she was bathing a big ass toddler.

Then there was Asch. It was tiring hearing him constantly blabber about being a prince and how he should have some respect.

Finally, she was done. She threw Asch a towel and some oversized clothes.

Ava then triumphantly opened the bathroom door and crashed into the couch exhausted.

This accomplishment was only temporary, as she heard banging knocks from the door.

They must’ve been police knocks Ava thought. She then comprehended what she just described.

Those were police knocks.

“G-Gah! Everybody go in my room and don’t come out till I say so!” She harshly whispered.

“You crazy? Didn’t you say-“ started Leif but was cut off by Ava pushing him and the other guys into the bedroom.

She rushed to the door to open it as the knocking got louder.

As soon as she opened it, she was shocked with the sight of her dads in handcuffs with a cop between the both of them.

“W-What the!? What did you- what happened?!” Ava yelled.

“These two caused a scene at Rune Complex. They also wasted the police’s time with a fake accusation of kidnap.” Said the cop as he typed something up on his phone.

“We just wanted to see you honey, but everything got so out of control!” Whined Devon. “We’re gonna spend a night in the slammer…”

Ava’s face was now adorned with shock and looked at the cop looking for some sort of explanation.

“Don’t worry ma’am, that’s only for resisting arrest.” The cop put his phone away, “It’s only in county jail too. They just have to do a few weeks of community service.”

Ava face palmed and groaned into her hand, “okay…do I have to do anything or…”

“Nope” the cop cut off Ava “they just wouldn’t stop whining about wanting to see ya. Have a good rest of your night ma’am.”

The cop tipped off his hat and led the couple to the elevator as Ava closed the door.

She pinched the bridge of her nose while walking to the bedroom door. When she opened it, she saw no one.

She was confused, her room was kinda small so there’s no way five large guys were gonna hide in here.

“Queen Ava! Look!” Said Noi, his head peaking out of Ava’s wall.

Ava stared at the ginger with disbelief. That was definitely a solid wall, and there’s no sign of damage. Were these guys ghosts or something?

“C’mon! We can’t settle in until you give us your blessing!” Hurried Noi as he got out of the wall, and grabbed Ava’s hand to lead her to the it.

Ava closed her eyes and braced herself for some sort of impact, but it never came.

She slowly opened her eyes to see something that’d only be possible in her fantasies.

In front of her was a large grand staircase with a dark lavender carpet and golden steps and handrail.

These stairs led up to six doors each with corresponding colors that matched the five men and her.

Was this in her apartment the whole time? Could she just walk through this spot in the wall and be here? Here alone. Away from anything else.

It felt like a dream. Her legs were feeling wobbly and she could see dots in her vision. She couldn’t tell if she was about to faint, or her body was trying to handle this newfound excitement. She should’ve known it was a mix of both.

Ava collapsed on the ground to all the Daemon’s surprise.

As Ava started to lose consciousness, she could still hear the five men bickering about what they should do. She couldn’t care less right now though, she wanted to explore this place forever once she wakes up.

AANNNDDD WE’RE DONE. This took a while especially with the setback I stated earlier but I’m rlly glad it’s over. This was a really long episode and I really hope you guys enjoyed. Also I really hope you imagined Lady Grandma’s new form kinda like Turbo Granny from Dadadan bc that’s what I was going for lol. The next ep might not be to the same scale to this one but only time will tell. I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOYED.

[itsjuststardust]

Heaven in Hiding - Chapter 7: The Choice

Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Chapter Summary: Mando faces a choice on Sorgan. A choice he didn't expect to have to make so soon.

Word Count: 11,305

Author's Notes/Chapter Warnings: When I initially started plotting this story, I really wasn’t expecting to spend so much time on Sorgan, but after going back through that episode, Cara Dune mentions that they’d been there for weeks… and... well… A lot can happen when you’re stuck in close quarters for a few weeks… Who am I to not give Alaina and Din the chance to get to know one another? There is some dialogue from “Sanctuary” that is not mine, but I've used it where I see it fits within both the original and my story. There is one mention of unaliving oneself. There is a brief discussion about s e x (gasp). Lastly, there is a sprinkle of angst. Enjoy 🩶 MINORS - DO NOT INTERACT - 18+ ONLY

Chapter 7: The Choice

“Not again.”

Not again. He wasn’t putting the girl and the kid through the Empire again.

“Mando.”

He saw that walker's footprint in the forest ground and saw red. 

It felt like something inside of his chest slid into place. Some part of him that had laid dormant for years was suddenly woken up by the feeling of this strange cord winding its way through his chest until it snaked around every vital organ and then cinched into place.

He knew without a fraction of a doubt that they needed to leave. That he needed to get Alaina and Grogu and get them off this planet. 

Of all the places he could have chosen, he picked the one with an Imperial presence on it. 

“Mando,” Alaina pleaded again.

How could the girl even still defend staying here, knowing that she was a breath away from possibly being captured again—

“Mando.”

“I told you, it’s not up for debate,” he growled lowly, shaking his head.

“No, Mando,” Alaina whispered, “you’re hurting me.”

His helmet snapped to her at her statement. He was surprised to find that they had somehow made it back inside of their shack, and he still had her arm in his grasp. His fingers were digging so tightly into her bicep that he felt the delicate limb would snap in half if any more force was applied to it.

Abruptly, he released her arm with a mumbled, “Sorry.”

Alaina and Grogu stared at him with equally large eyes. He shook his head, clearing the rest of his panicked tunnel vision from his mind, and took a step further into the room to start evaluating what needed to be packed.

Alaina seemed to study him for a moment before she walked silently to the crib to place Grogu. The kid stood up in the wooden crib, gripping the edge of his bed, and looked back and forth between the two adults.

Mando ignored his new companions' wary looks as he started gathering some of their belongings to store in one of the crates. To his surprise, Alaina started stripping the bed and folding the sheets and bedding without another word.

“I know you don’t agree,” he mumbled as he picked up one of his crates and placed it next to the door.

Alaina shrugged her shoulders as she started folding his old tunic she had been sleeping in the last few days. “I don’t want to go back,” she started quietly. “I don’t want to go back so much that I would kill myself before I let that happen again.”

Mando froze at her words. The terrifying image of Alaina shoving the weasel-looking doctor down to the ground… Her sad green eyes as she looked back at him one last time before she lifted the doctor’s blaster under her chin…

“I appreciate you looking out for us,” she continued, giving him a sad smile. “Really,” she nodded. “I know it may not seem like it sometimes, but in my defense, our past is... complicated at best, and it kinda feels like I’m waiting for the other boot to drop,” she smirked, but her smile was short-lived, and her eyes still remained sad. “I guess… I don’t know what I’m trying to say," she stopped herself with a shake of her head. "I don’t think it’s my place to say anything.”

“Go on,” he nodded for her to continue, but she looked back skeptically. “This isn’t the Empire, Alaina. You have a right to voice your concerns. Doesn’t mean that I will change my mind—” Alaina rolled her eyes, “but that shouldn’t stop you from speaking up.”

“Maker forbid you have to admit you might be wrong about something,” she mumbled, shaking her head at him.

He cocked his helmet and took a step closer to her. “You’re here, aren’t you?” he pointed out, and Alaina’s mouth snapped shut.

When she continued to stare at him, he stretched his hand out to motion for her to continue.

Alaina pursed her lips and stared at him for another beat before continuing. “I’m not used to being on this side of your wrath,” she admitted, studying his helmet. “Wrath maybe isn’t the right word… protectiveness perhaps? I’m not sure which description is more appropriate, although I suppose time will tell,” she paused for a moment, and her eyes finally flicked away from his head. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone looking out for me.”

“Is there an argument in there somewhere, or are you going to help get the rest of our stuff packed up?” Mando nodded to the small mess of belongings and weapons scattered across the small shack from their short time here.

Her eyes slid back to rest on his helmet. “Do you know what the difficult thing for me to understand about you is?” Alaina asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Mando tilted his head at the question. There was no telling what things Alaina could not understand about him. Hell, he didn’t understand everything about him, especially when Alaina was concerned. 

Alaina’s eyes softened before she continued. “You have the ability to be protective, kind, and caring. I’ve experienced it myself first hand,” she paused to shrug her shoulders. “But you can be unflinching, abrupt, and lethal when you need to. It just depends on who you’ve given your word to. Five years ago, you gave your word you’d turn me in, and you did. Now, you gave me your word that we’re under your protection, and I believe you. I may not trust you fully. I may never. But I’ve never questioned your word.” She paused again, and he could already guess what she was going to say next. “You gave your word to those people.”

He let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head, “That was before we knew about the possible Imperial remnants and that AT-ST.”

Alaina crossed the small distance between them in three small steps and looked up at his helmet with her emerald doe-eyes. “These people came to you, Mando. I vouched for you! I told Omera you were a man of your word.”

“So, what do you suggest I do?” he asked, making her think through her suggestion of staying here.

Alaina seemed surprised by the question. “Give them a choice,” she answered as if it were the most obvious solution in the galaxy.

He blinked, “A choice?”

“They held up their end of the bargain—their healers helped me, and they gave us a place to stay. They stood by their word. Now it’s your turn,” she stated, poking at the middle of his chest. “You know what they’re up against… Just—just talk to them, Mando. Explain to them what they are up against. If they all want to move, then they can move… but if they want to fight…”

“They’ll die,” he answered easily.

Alaina turned her pleading expression up a notch. “Not if they have your help. You and Cara may not be able to take them by yourselves, but what if you had an entire village behind you? You have weapons—plenty of weapons,” she paused to point at a stack of crates in the corner filled with his entire weapons locker that he wasn’t about to leave behind.

Mando was silent as he contemplated the suggestion. Even with the help of the villagers, it was the help of a handful of shrimp farmers. 

“Did you see any Imperial soldiers?” Alaina questioned, staring up at him with a curious expression.

He shook his head, “Didn’t need to. The Imperial walker tracks were enough evidence for us to turn around.”

“What if it was just left behind?” she asked, and he narrowed his gaze at the spark he saw catch in her eyes. “I spent the last five years with Imps. I hear things. Troopers would talk all the time about how when they would get pulled off planets or when they fled, they would leave basically everything behind. The Empire was more worried about making sure they still had people, and some of their tech was more of an afterthought. What if that walker was just left behind for some random thugs to find?” Alaina suggested, and Mando had a hard time arguing with her logic. “Think about it! That makes more sense than the Empire going after a small farming community.”

He heaved a sigh, “Then you have a bunch of thugs operating a very large, deadly piece of equipment. They won’t be trained. They’ll be unpredictable.”

“But you and Cara could still help! You know what you’re doing—”

“And there is still the chance that we’re dealing with Imps,” he interrupted, hoping to make Alaina see reason.

“Mando,” she started slowly, and her hand came to rest in the center of his chestpiece. “I know you’re worried about Grogu and me, but if we aren’t safe here in a backwater skughole like Sorgan," she paused to give him the whisp of a smile and a small shrug of her shoulders, "where will we be?”

He stared into her green eyes and hopeful face. He didn’t know how Alaina was always able to look at him and find a way to meet his eyes hiding under his helmet almost every time, but it was becoming unnerving.

Mando took a step away from Alaina, and her eyes tracked him as he walked to the door. When his hand reached for the door, he turned to look back at Alaina and tilted his head. “You coming, or did you change your mind?” 

Alaina’s face broke into a smile. Mando shook his head as he watched her turn back to grab the kid, who was already holding his hands up for her to pick him up. Alaina smiled at the kid and rubbed at one of his ears until she came back to join him at the door.

He opened the door for her and ushered her outside to talk to the villagers.

It turned out not to be a very long walk because a flock of them was already gathered a few meters from their porch. A few recognizable faces, including Omera and Dune, were in the front row, waiting for him to exit the small shack. 

He didn’t miss the way Dune’s eyes slid to Alaina before looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.

He leaned against one of the posts holding up the porch. “Bad news, you can’t live here anymore,” he started, his words causing an instant commotion amongst the crowd of villagers.

Alaina’s head snapped to shoot him an irritated glare. “Mando,” she growled under her breath.

Dune shot him an equally disbelieving look and came to stand on the opposite side of the post from him on the small deck. “Nice bedside manner,” she snarked. “Here I was thinking you’d let Alaina change your mind.”

“You and me both,” Alaina grumbled from the other side of him.

“You think you can do better?” he asked the soldier next to him with a challenging tilt of his helmet.

Dune rolled her eyes, “Can’t do much worse.”

The crowd's angry murmurs slowly escalated in front of them, and Mando lifted an arm back up before they turned into an angry mob.

“You took the job!” one of the men in the front row reminded him. “We paid you. We helped tend to your wounded!”

Alaina, not so subtly, elbowed him in his side.

“That was before we knew about the AT-ST,” he replied easily.

“What is that?” the man asked, clearly unfamiliar with the terminology.

“The armored walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn’t tell us,” Dune shot back.

The crowd seemed to discuss this for a moment before their voices climbed back to a roar again.

Cries and pleas for their help murmured around them and he looked to Alaina when he felt her elbow dig further into his side.

Her large emerald eyes stared back at him, and he tilted his helmet at her. “If they aren’t brave enough to offer their lives, then it’s not worth my time to train them.” Alaina seemed to consider this for a moment before she nodded and turned back to the crowd.

“Please. We have nowhere else to go,” another nameless face at the front begged.

“Sure you do,” Dune started. “This is a big planet.”

“My grandparents seeded these ponds.”

“We’ve been here for generations!”

“I’ve seen Mando—I’ve seen them both fight,” Alaina spoke up, surprising both him and Dune. It didn’t look like Alaina was going to bring up the fact that she saw them both fight each other, but that probably wasn’t going to help her case. “This isn’t just some small band of raiders like you led them to believe. If it were, they would have taken care of your problem already.” Mando blinked in surprise at Alaina’s defense of his skill. “This is an Imperial walker, possibly manned by trained soldiers. You should have been upfront with them.” Some of the villagers, including the two who had sought him out, seemed suitably chastised by her words. “Besides, there’s just two of them.”

Ah, he smirked to himself. Leading the question. Sneaky.  

Mando kept his helmet directed at the crowd, analyzing their reactions to Alaina’s statement. The villagers murmured low as they appeared to be talking amongst themselves. Several looked fearful, but the looks of determination among them outweighed the rest.

“No, there’s not! There’s at least twenty of us!” one of the men up front called out, looking around at his fellow villagers standing behind him.

He could see Alaina smirk out of the corner of his eye. Apparently, she was satisfied with herself.

“Yeah!” a chorus of villagers agreed.

Dune scoffed, “Be realistic. We need trained fighters.”

“Give us a chance!” the villagers called.

Mando turned his helmet to share another look with Alaina. Her emerald eyes sparkled in the late afternoon sun, and she couldn’t hide the smirk that was slowly breaking out into a full grin across her face.

“You cannot fight that thing!” Cara all but laughed at the suggestion.

Mando’s helmet swiveled on its axis from Alaina to Dune, “Not unless we show them how.”

Mando had his crates of weapons open in the middle of the shack, organizing them into one crate with blasters and weapons he could use to train the villagers while leaving the more deadly weapons, like his backup magnetic bombs, flash bombs, and grenades, behind.

He pushed the crate he was planning on taking down to the open fields by the door and stretched his back out. 

Somehow, he’d let Alaina talk him into ‘sharing’ the bed with her again. Yesterday was her first full day awake since her fit, as he called it, and he could see how exhausted it had left her. The kid had gone down easily, and Alaina had gone behind the small partition in the room to change back into his tunic before collapsing onto the bed. 

He was about to tell her he was taking the floor again when she looked up at him and said, “Thank you for sitting with me last night. I can’t remember the last time I got any real sleep without having nightmares.”

It was a combination of her words, those huge emerald doe-eyes, and his exhaustion, but against his better judgment, he went to sit next to Alaina on the bed.

She raised her knees to her chest, tucking them under her borrowed tunic, making her a blob with blonde hair next to him. Alaina wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her right cheek on top of them so she could stare at him.

“Mando?” When she finally spoke, her words were a whisper, like she was afraid to wake him up.

“Mmm?”

“Is this real?”

His helmet turned to look at her, confused by her question.

“Is this real? You really saved me? This isn’t some kind of trick? You’re not gonna give me back?”

He froze, and the cord that had wrapped around the organs inside his chest tugged painfully around his heart. Is that what she really thought? That this was some nefarious plot that would end with her back in the hands of the Imps?

“Alaina,” he said, his voice low as not to wake the kid but no less lacking every ounce of conviction he could muster. “Alaina, this isn’t a trick. You’re never going back there, do you understand? I’m going to take care of you both until we find someplace that is right for you and the kid. Until then, you and the kid… you two are under my protection.”

He could see tears gathering in her eyes. The water reflected the moonlight that crept in through the cracks in the wood planks, and the silver light almost completely obscured her green eyes from his view.

In a surprising move, he watched in slow motion as Alaina’s left arm unwrapped from around her legs and reached over the small distance between them to rest on top of his gloved hand.

“I still haven’t forgiven you,” she whispered in the dark. 

Mando nodded and turned his helmet to look forward. He hadn’t expected anything more from her. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness—her hand squeezed his, and he looked down at the small, delicate hand holding tightly to his.

“But… maybe someday I will.”

His eyes closed at her words, and he gripped her hand back. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, but he would be lying to himself if he denied that he hoped for it. 

He hoped that he could eventually find her and the kid somewhere out of the way and safe so they could heal. A place where they would, hopefully, one day be able to put the tragedies of their lives behind them. Maybe then, once they were safe and healing, he could finally begin to forgive himself.

“Alaina?” His vocoder struggled to keep his digitized words soft as he whispered to her.

“Mmm?” she hummed back. Her cheek was still resting on her knees, looking at him, but her eyes were beginning to droop.

“Go to sleep,” he whispered, giving her hand one last light squeeze before letting her go.

Alaina smiled and let her eyes drift close.

So, for the second night in a row, Mando slept sitting up next to Alaina in that bed.

He’d take the floor again over sleeping like that for a third night. He was used to sleeping in uncomfortable positions, and sleeping upright was not uncommon for him, but that was usually done in the comfort of his command chair on the Crest.

Alaina stepped out from behind the partition where she’d redressed for the new day—back in the green shirt and gray tactical pants he’d gotten for her. She flashed him a quick smile as she finished tying her hair off in a braid.

“Do you think two pairs of socks will prevent me from getting blisters in these boots?” she asked hopefully.

He looked down at her boots and then back up at Alaina, “Planning on taking a hike?”

“No. Training. I’m in Cara’s group today,” she replied as if it were the obvious answer.

He felt his eyebrows raise high into his head. “Training? As in, you’re training with the villagers?” he asked, positive he had misheard her.

“Yeah,” Alaina confirmed with a frown. “That’s okay, isn’t it? They were dividing people up into groups last night. I’m in Cara’s group today working on hand-to-hand combat, and then your group next for weapon training,” she informed him, nodding toward the crate of blasters by the door. 

He didn’t answer immediately, having a difficult time imagining the petite waif of a girl training to fight—

“I didn’t think to ask you,” Alaina mumbled before her body stiffened. Her eyes flicked down to the floor, and she started wringing her hands together. “I didn’t think—I thought it would be okay,” she started rambling. “Cara told me she’d help me out.”

Mando rolled his eyes. He was sure the ex-drop trooper was excited to get a chance to work with Alaina without him. She hadn’t exactly made her little infatuation with the former ballerina a secret. 

“But I don’t have to—”

“Alaina,” he stopped her and sighed when her worried green eyes looked up at him. “It’s fine. I’m just surprised you were interested in learning some self-defense, is all.” Alaina stared at him for another minute like she was waiting for a but or for him to change her mind. “Really,” he confirmed with a nod. “I actually think it’s a good idea for you to learn a few things.”

She smiled at him.

“Although…” he began but tapered off when Alaina’s smile fell off her face again. “It looks like people are already making their way down there,” he commented, nodding out the window where they could watch the villagers start to make their way to the open fields to start their defense training. Alaina’s forehead scrunched in confusion at his statement. “Dune may have mentioned that the last person to show up was going to have to run ten laps around the village.”

Alaina’s eyes went wide, and she quickly sidestepped him to head out the door.

Mando smirked as he watched her run out the door, and her long, blonde braid struck the door as she turned the corner.

He chuckled to himself and grabbed the crate he left by the door. He couldn't help but be amused with himself as he followed after her.

Several hours later, the afternoon sun was high in the sky, and Mando’s amusement from the morning had completely vanished after seeing the villagers’ gun skills. His expectations had been low, but even that bar was higher than what their skills actually ended up being.

Abysmal was an understatement, he thought as he watched another shot go wide.

A flash of gold in the distance distracted him and he looked away from his group toward Dune���s down the hill from his.

Alaina was easy to spot in the crowd; her honey-blonde hair reflected the afternoon sun, making her a beacon. 

He watched as she repeated Cara’s moves step by step. She looked like a natural. He wasn’t sure why that surprised him. She was a dancer. She was treating her training as if it were merely choreography. He wondered if Dune noticed it too—if she could spot Alaina’s meticulous observations and the way she had memorized the exact way Dune ran through her motions. Memorizing the motions was helpful to learn the basics but not helpful when you needed to improvise in the heat of battle.

The sound of several rounds striking the metal pots that were strung up as targets brought his focus back to his own group. 

Omera was steady and focused as she let another round go, striking the next pot.

Well, at least the entire group wasn’t useless.

He called his group’s training a couple of hours later. A few had made progress, but for the most part, they just needed practice. The few that didn’t need practice needed to pray to whatever god they worshipped that they wouldn’t die within the first five minutes of their attack.

He trekked down the hill where Dune appeared to also be wrapping up her training. Several of her group were milling around, but they all appeared to be watching—

“Block!” Dune yelled out.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he sauntered over to look for Alaina and see how she fared on her first day.

“Careful, don’t get too close,” Dune commented.

Mando came to stand next to Dune, who was casually leaning back against a wooden fence while she watched her students spare.

“Where did you find this girl, Mando?” Dune asked him with a grin, unable to tear her gaze away from the fight.

His helmet turned to look at the center of the ring, and felt his jaw drop at the sight of Alaina fending off her sparing partner, who was on the attack. Both Alaina and her attacker had makeshift wooden staffs, and his eyebrows raised high into his forehead when he watched as Alaina twirled her staff as she spun out of the way to avoid a strike. The move was quick, and immediately put her on the attack now instead of the defense.

He leaned over to rest his arms against the top rail of the fence next to Dune. “She’s a ballerina,” he commented just as Alaina made another spin.

Dune snorted and finally turned to look at him, “You’re shitting me.”

He shook his head, but before he could say anything, he watched Alaina attempt to plant the end of her spin but ended up tripping over her boots. Mando watched helplessly as she fell flat on her back, giving her opponent the opportunity to bring his wooden staff down to gently tap her chest, signaling she’d lost this round.

“Alright,” Dune called, pushing off the fence. “That’s enough for today.”

Alaina didn’t move and continued to lay flat on her back, panting out of breath on the ground. Oh, she was going to be sore, he thought, shaking his head. After being with the Empire for five years, she’d lost virtually all of her muscle mass, and it was going to take time to rebuild that. She’d be lucky if she could stand in the morning. 

Mando hopped over the fence, walked to Alaina, who was still sprawled out on the ground, and offered her his hand.

“Of course, you had to see that,” she grumbled but still accepted his help anyway. “I would have had him if it wasn’t for these boots,” she grumbled. “They’re too big and heavy.”

He couldn’t help but smirk at the sore loser attitude. “Learn to use them as an advantage. They’re heavy—you’re lightweight,” he countered. “If you ever find yourself in the middle of a real fight, you’ll be thankful you’re wearing those instead of your dancing slippers. If you have to kick someone in the head—ribbon and satin won’t knock them unconscious, but thick rubber soles with enough force will.”

Alaina snarled and rubbed her backside. “First, stop calling them slippers; they’re called pointe shoes,” Alaina corrected him with a grumble. Then she arched an eyebrow at him and said, “Second, maybe I want to use the ribbon on my pointe shoes to strangle someone.”

A bark of laughter escaped him at the picture she just put in his head. He hadn’t been expecting that answer to come from the former dancer.

Alaina smirked but ducked her head to hide her smile.

“Come on," he laughed, bringing his hand to the small of her back. "Let's go save whoever is watching the kid,” he suggested, giving her a little push to head back to the center of the village.

Later that night, after they’d all eaten and taken turns washing the day off of them in the bathhouses, Mando took his turn trying to get the kid to go to sleep. He seemed extra restless that evening and fussed anytime Mando tried to place him in his crib.

“You should tell him a story,” Alaina suggested, coming around the partition dressed in his tunic as she tried to brush her hair, frowning when she snagged the comb in a tangled curl.

“A story?”

“Yeah, you know, a story,” Alaina confirmed, still focusing on her tangle as she went to sit on the bed. “Starts with once upon a time, has a plot, characters, exposition, and then a happy ending—you know—a story. Or do Mandalorians not believe in reading bedtime stories of people finding their happy ever after to their children?”

He cocked his head at the jibe. “I wouldn’t know,” he commented, trying and once again failing to get the kid to go in his crib.

Her green eyes looked up at him from her hair, and he could see the teasing glint in them shining back at him. “Just talk to him, Mando,” Alaina said, the snark completely dropping from her tone. “You haven’t been around much the last couple of days. He’s missed you.”

Mando held the kid in his arms in front of his helmet and studied the stubborn little womp rat. “What do I talk about?”

“Anything,” Alaina shrugged. “It’s more just so he can hear your voice. It doesn’t matter what you talk about.”

He continued to study the drooling child held out in his arms. The kid waved his hands and cooed excitedly. Evidently, sleep was the last thought on the womp rat’s mind.

“Talk about something you know,” Alaina suggested. “My mom said when I was a baby, my dad used to read me blaster manuals when they couldn’t get me to go to sleep.”

Mando couldn’t help the slow turn of his helmet to look at the woman at her admission.

“What?” she asked with a frown.

“And you became a ballerina. Maybe I’ll pick a different topic.”

Alaina rolled her eyes, and he smirked when he heard her mumble the word, “Ass,” under her breath. “You know, I was just trying to be nice and give you a suggestion.”

“Since I left all my manuals back on the ship,” Mando started, turning to look back at the kid, “how about I walk you through how to take apart my rifle?”

Grogu blinked at him, and he took that as the go-ahead to launch into his descriptions. Mando carried the kid around the room, holding him to his chest while he spoke about the correct way to clean a rifle, being as detailed as he could possibly be. By the time he was done with the most boring, monotone description of how to completely dismantle his Ambam phase-pulse blaster, the kid had been snoring for the last five minutes.

Mando smiled down at the little womp rat as he gently placed him in his crib, careful not to wake him up. He looked over to Alaina to thank her for the suggestion but found that the blonde was already passed out on the bed.

He silently went to the table and turned the lantern off before making himself comfortable on the floor next to Alaina’s cot. 

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor, ya know,” Alaina’s sleepy voice startled him from above.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“Mmm, kinda,” she mumbled. “I can scoot over and make room. It’d be a tight fit—”

“It’s okay,” he stopped her.

Silence settled back over them and just when Mando thought Alaina had drifted back to sleep, her quiet voice spoke from the cot above him.

“I don’t understand why you are so stubborn,” she grumbled. “The floor can't be comfortable. I get that you haven’t shared a bed with someone before, but this is literally just sharing a bed with someone.” Mando’s face scrunched in confusion by her words. “Besides, I don’t bite.”

“But you do kick,” he muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Alaina, It’s called being a gentleman,” he cut her off. “And for your information, I have shared a bed with someone before.”

There was a pause before her shocked response came, “You—You have?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” he groused.

Alaina was silent above him, but he knew her questions weren’t over when he heard the cot shift above. He blinked, and half of Alaina’s face was staring at him from above.

“What?” he sighed.

Alaina’s eyes widened slightly, “So… does that mean…Do you leave your helmet on for... sex?”

Mando choked at her question and sat up on his elbows to stop so he wouldn’t wake up the kid. “That’s what you want to know?” he whispered incredulously.

“What?” Alaina defended, bringing more of her head over the edge of the cot to stare at him. “I think it’s a valid follow-up question!” she whispered loudly.

Mando laid back down and stared up at the ceiling, silently wishing that the raiders would come to attack the village now or that the floor would open up and swallow him whole—anything to get out of this embarrassing line of questioning.

Alaina smirked down at him. “Well?”

He heaved a long sigh. Clearly, the Maker wasn’t listening at the moment. Alaina’s green eyes blinked above him, and he let out another irritated sigh. “My helmet doesn’t come off,” he eventually confirmed. “It doesn’t need to to get the job done.”

Her face fell flat. “How romantic,” Alaina deadpanned.

“You asked,” he retorted.

Alaina continued to stare down at him, and he prepared himself for whatever she was working up the nerve to ask him.

“So…” she began but tapered off for a moment to chew on her lip. “So, does that mean you’ve never kissed anyone?”

“Alaina,” he sighed.

“Yes?”

“Go to sleep.”

She rolled her eyes but she did finally roll back on the cot next to him.

“Good night, Mandalorian,” she whispered in the dark.

He smirked and shook his head at her, “Good night, ballerina.”

There was a small giggle, but after that, the room was enveloped in a blanket of silence.

Mando continued to stare at the ceiling until his eyes eventually drooped closed.

What didn’t even seem like an hour later, Mando’s eyes flew open at the feeling of something jumping on his chest.

Green, wrinkly skin with large ears and eyes swam into his vision. Grogu had his face squished against his helmet. At the close distance, the kid was a shadow, illuminated by the early morning sun creeping in through the slats in the wood walls. The kid’s little three-finger-clawed hand came and banged excitedly in the center of his silver helm, and he let out a tired sigh.

“Morning, kid,” he grumbled.

Something else grumbled, and his helmet rolled to his right to find a distinctly Alaina-shaped figure wrapped in a blanket. She had evidently made her way to the floor at some point in the night and was now on her side facing him and about as close as she could be to him without actually touching him. Her blanket was completely wrapped around her, with only a sliver of her cheek and a curly lock of hair escaping from the blanket.

Grogu gurgled and smiled at him, eagerly slapping his helmet again.

“What am I gonna do with the two of you?” he asked, shaking his head. 

Grogu blinked at him, and Mando grabbed the kid, bringing him up off the floor with him, careful to step over Alaina’s sleeping form.

Sorgan was idyllic.

Except for the small fact that he had been helping train the villagers who lived here to defend themselves against raiders—it was idyllic.

Almost two weeks after they had arrived, Mando kept waiting for something nefarious to come out of the woodwork—the villagers sacrificed their children or elders or perhaps even used the shrimp farming as a front for a secret spice ring, but so far he hadn’t found anything incriminating—and he’d tried to.

He kept telling himself that was a good thing, but something still felt uneasy, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Aside from him looking for something wrong with the farming community, Alaina and Grogu took it at face value.

They were smitten with the small village. 

Grogu had children to play with and would come back to the shack at the end of most days exhausted, which meant Mando hadn’t had to embarrass himself with any more weapon cleaning lectures.

Even Alaina, who had been cold and reserved since he had stolen her back from the Empire, had warmed up to the charms of the village and its occupants. She trained with them. She ate with them. She even had drinks with them and Dune to celebrate the first week of training. She was happy. Her green eyes had lost some of their steel. Her hair got some of its shine back. With regular meals and exercise, even in the short time they’d been here, he was surprised to see how quickly her body responded to the healthy routine. Her face lost some of the haunted look it had developed, and it was slowly starting to take on a happy, contented look. Her body became less gaunt and while it still had some sharp angles, those angles were slowly softening.

The facts stared at him head-on. The reason why he had reservations about the village… how happy his new companions seemed to be… was it possible they had stumbled across the perfect place for them on the first try?

Shots firing pulled him out of his internal discourse, and he put his attention back on the task at hand—training the villagers how to handle firearms.

Mando had not been very hopeful after the first couple of days of training, but they had slowly begun to improve.

Today, he had Alaina in his group.

He watched the blonde in question try to handle the rifle she’d gotten paired with this time, but he could tell from a distance that the weapon was too large for her smaller, inexperienced hand. He took a moment to observe her as she took aim and fired off a shot, missing her target completely.

Hand-to-hand was obviously where her talents lay, but he had held out hope that some of that would transfer over to firearms…

Another shot was fired, and another target missed.

She was getting frustrated. He could see it in the way her eyebrows drew together in concentration—how her teeth worried on her bottom lip—how every muscle in her body was tense.

Mando shook his head and walked behind the line of villagers doing target practice until he made it to Alaina at almost the end of the line. She was lying on the ground with the butt of the rifle digging into her shoulder. Her technique was decent, but the fact of the matter was it was just too large for her, throwing off her aim.

He nudged her boot with his, and when she turned her head around to stare at him, he said, “It’s too big for you.”

Her shoulders sagged in frustration, and her head lolled forward in defeat.

“Get up. I want to swap you out with something else,” he told her, giving her boot a kick again.

With a groan, Alaina got up from the ground, passing off the rifle she’d been using to him before brushing the dirt off the front of her dress.

“I know,” she grumbled as she followed him back to the crate of weapons he had stored away.

“You know what?” he asked her.

Mando made sure the rifle’s safety was engaged before propping it up against the crate while he began searching for a particular blaster he had in mind.

“I’m no marksman. I’m better with Cara’s stuff,” she pouted, crossing her arms across her chest.

Mando paused his search to raise his helmet and looked at the blonde. “When’s the last time you shot a blaster?” he asked her before resuming his search.

“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last two weeks?”

Ah, Mando smiled, finding the blaster tucked away at the bottom of the crate. He looked the old blaster over, inspecting it with a trained eye, and went through the motions of making sure it was ready for use.

He’d had this blaster since virtually the beginning. It was a hand-held blaster. The grip was small, and didn’t have much of a distance between that and the safety. The muzzle was slightly extended but still lightweight, so it didn’t affect the balance of the blaster. It was old, probably older than he was, but Mando still serviced it regularly as he did with all of his weapons, so he knew it was still in working order. It had been a gift from the Mandalorian who had rescued him from the ruins of his homeworld all those years ago. The man had given him one of his own blasters as a gift before he went to train in the fighting corps. As he had grown, so did his taste in weapons, and this blaster was simple and smaller than what he preferred now. 

Which made it perfect for ten year olds and ballerinas alike learning how to shoot for the first time.

“You do better with Dune because you were a dancer,” he told her as he directed her back toward her spot in line. “It’s all choreography,” he finished as they reached her position.

Mando presented her with the new blaster and showed her how to hold the weapon. He showed her how to grip it, where the safety was, and how to use her thumb to click the safety on and off. Alaina took the small blaster from him and mimicked his moves. He nodded. She fumbled a bit with the safety, but she could still reach it with the thumb on her shooting hand.

Next, he pointed ahead to the targets in the distance. Mando used his boots to gently kick at hers to get them into place. He placed his hands on her wait to position her upper body before moving them to her shoulders. 

“Shooting is different,” he continued as his hands positioned her shoulders where he wanted them. “You have to have patience.”

Alaina scoffed, and her head whipped to glare at him. “You have to have patience in dancing, too!” she argued. Mando placed his hand on the top of her head to force her to turn to look back at the target. “Well, you do,” she grumbled.

Mando came to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her small frame, grabbing her hands in his to stretch her arms out in front of her and position them. He could feel her tense under him, and he gave her hands a reassuring squeeze as he moved the blaster to take aim at the target.

“Relax,” he instructed, bringing his helmet down to be level with her head to help her line the shot up. It took a few long, drawn-out seconds, but eventually, he felt Alaina relax, and her body sank back against his chest. “Good. Now, both eyes open; you want to see everything,” he continued as he made a couple of slight changes to her hands and arms before slowly letting his grip go.

He hovered his hands, but Alaina was able to keep that same position, so he slowly began to unwind from her while he backed away.

“Take a breath." Her chest expanded. "Line up your shot." She corrected the blaster slightly. "Fire." Her shot just nicked the edge of one of the steel pots hanging in the distance.

“I hit it!” she exclaimed, pointing at the pot swaying on the rope it was hanging from, and turned back to look at him. “Did you see that?!”

Mando chuckled at her excitement and gave her a congratulatory pat on her back.

“Keep practicing,” he instructed, pointing back to the targets.

Alaina’s green eyes sparkled in the sun as she beamed back at him, her smile filled with triumph. He gave her a little nod and pointed back at the targets in front of her. Still smiling, she turned back to take aim again.

Mando continued to walk down the line, occasionally stopping to correct someone's posture or grip.

He told himself the reason why he kept smiling for the rest of the afternoon was because, by the end of today’s lesson, everyone in the group was consistently hitting their targets.

It had nothing to do with the fact that Alaina's excitement over finally hitting her target was contagious.

After the two groups called it quits for the evening, the villagers broke up to go about their usual chores and dinner.

He and Alaina had gotten into a good routine in the evenings. She would bring him a tray of food from the hall before taking Grogu back with her so they could both eat dinner. He could usually count on her giving him an hour or two to be on his own. Which allowed him the privacy to remove his helmet to eat, clean up, and change clothes before his roomates returned for the evening. Then, he and Alaina alternated nights, putting the kid to bed. Although he was slightly suspicious that Alaina did something to wind the kid up on his nights to get him to settle down, regardless, it was a routine that the three of them fell into easily.

Unfortunately, his smile from earlier didn’t last the rest of the day. It was that evening that the Mandalorian received confirmation that the village had taken just as much to the Mandalorian and his companions as they had to them.

He frowned when Alaina walked back up to the shack without Grogu. He tilted his head curiously at her, silently asking about the missing womp rat while he sat in one of the chairs on their porch.

“He’s with Winta,” she explained with a shrug, coming to sit in the chair next to him. “The elders were telling stories around the bonfire, and I didn’t have it in me to take him from his friends just yet.”

The two sat in comfortable silence for a moment, watching as the last bit of sun began to sink under the horizon.

“You didn’t want to stay with your friends?” he asked curiously when he noticed that there were several adults huddled around the bonfire, and it wasn’t just the children.

Alaina shook her head. “And listen to ghost stories?” She gave him a skeptical look. “No, thank you,” she finished, shaking her head and looking back into the distance. “I have enough of my own,” she murmured.

Mando didn’t take his helmet off her after her statement. 

They hadn’t spoken anymore about her time in the Empire since she woke up. She hadn’t offered, and he hadn’t pushed. Even when she would jolt awake in the middle of the night, and he knew she had been woken by another nightmare. After two weeks, he learned that Alaina seemed to recover quicker if he faked sleep than she did if he questioned her about her dreams. Although Mando found it difficult to fake sleep when Alaina would crawl off the cot to lay next to him on the floor. And it was even more difficult to pretend when she would rest her head on his shoulder before going back to sleep. 

It was his fault she had those nightmares in the first place, so he felt that he should help her shoulder some of that burden. And if that meant his shoulders literally needed to support her, then that’s what they would do.

“You know it’s my night to get the womp rat to go to bed,” he commented flatly.

Alaina scrunched her face in confusion before she turned back to look at him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I had suspicions you were doing something to the kid to wire him up on my nights.” Alaina snorted, and he smirked when Alaina’s lips quirked up at his admission. “And now I have proof," he accused with a point at the grin on her face. "Letting the kid listen to ghost stories before bed?” he scoffed, shaking his helmet at her.

“It’s not intentional!” Alaina laughed.

He continued to shake his head, “The kid’s never gonna go to sleep tonight.”

Alaina’s mouth was open to say something else, but her eyes slid to something off to the side. “Omera?”

Mando turned to find the woman who had befriended them, walking up to their small shack with an easy smile on her face.

“Is Grogu okay?” Alaina asked, and Omera nodded, immediately easing any worry from both of them.

“I actually wanted to come check in on you. Make sure the three of you were doing okay,” Omera told them as she came to stand next to him on the porch.

Mando turned to share a look with Alaina before looking back to Omera and nodded. “It is very nice here,” he told her honestly.

Omera smiled, “Yes, I’m glad you think so.”

“Yes,” Alaina agreed. “Everyone has been so kind and welcoming…” She faded off but quickly schooled her features to be happy when Mando looked back at her. “You and your people have been great. Really. Besides, it’s clear that he’s happy here,” she finished, pointing to the bonfire in the distance where Grogu was sitting with the other children.

“What about you?” Omera asked, looking at Alaina first and then at him. “What about the both of you?”

He shared another look with Alaina, who also seemed confused by the question.

“Us?” Mando asked when he looked back at Omera.

“Are you happy here?” she asked with a smile, looking between the two of them. “We—We want you to stay. The community is grateful for your help.”

He blinked at the declaration and looked back at Alaina, who had a blank expression on her face.

“Think about it,” Omera continued with a smile. “It’s evident that you have all been through a lot. The village doesn’t care what you’ve done; they are just grateful for your help.” Omera turned her focus on him before continuing her argument for them to settle down. “You can pack all this away in case there's ever trouble. You, Alaina, and your boy could have a good life. He could be a child for a while. Wouldn't that be nice?”

Mando looked at Alaina again but her face remained a blank, emotionless mask.

“It would,” he eventually agreed, turning to look back at Omera. “Your offer is kind, but I don’t belong here,” he said, hoping that he was doing a decent job of masking his own emotions. He took a deep breath and returned his helmet to Alaina, “But maybe they do,” he agreed quietly.

Omera smiled understandingly and looked hopeful at Alaina. “You’ll consider it then?” she asked the former ballerina sitting next to him.

“Oh, um, yes,” Alaina replied, obviously still surprised by the offer. 

Alaina���s answer seemed to appease Omera and Mando watched as the villager turned to walk away from the shack on the outskirts back toward the bonfire in the middle of the village.

Silence stretched between the two of them, and Mando kept his helmet directed forward. “What do you think?” he asked Alaina quietly.

“I don’t know,” she answered, the quiet tone of her voice matching his own.

The last couple of weeks had added up to this moment. Mando had no right to feel so despondent by the offer. He’d even slowly come around to the idea himself. Once the raiders were taken care of, there would be no reason why the two of them shouldn’t stay.

“I think you should stay,” he told her, sounding more confident than he felt.

Alaina’s eyes widened, and he watched as they flickered across his helmet. Her face eventually closed off so he couldn’t read her, and rose from her chair without a word.

“Alaina?”

“I’ll think about it,” she agreed stiffly as she shuffled past him to get the the door of their shack.

“What’s there to think about?” he questioned, confused by her sudden sour attitude.

“I don’t know! Nothing, I guess,” she bit out angrily. Mando heard the telltale sound of the crack in her words, and he knew she was fighting back tears.

Mando stood up from his chair to follow her, “Alaina—”

“I’m tired, Mando,” Alaina cut him off. She paused in the entryway to the shack but refused to look back at him. “I said I would think about it, so I’m going to think about it, but right now, I just want to go to bed. You should probably get Grogu and make sure you don’t need to walk around with him for a bit before you try and put him to bed,” she recommended before walking the rest of the way inside, leaving him alone on the small porch.

Mando stared after her, feeling confused and a few other emotions that he couldn’t quite place. His heart clenched, and that damned cord in his chest tugged as if it were pulling him to follow after her. 

Unable to shake the feeling he’d done something wrong by suggesting that she and the kid stay here, Mando took the steps off the rickety wooden porch and headed toward the bonfire to collect Grogu.

The days in the wake of Omera’s offer were tense. 

Alaina did her best to avoid him, often waking up before him, getting an early start to the day, and not returning until the evening, completely exhausted and passing out without another word. She threw herself into her training, and he figured that if that helped her work through whatever was making her angry, then he wouldn’t stop her.

He would catch her running laps with Dune around the village in the morning on his way to take the kid to the hall for breakfast. She tired easily in the beginning and still obviously struggled to run in her heavy boots, but she kept trying. Every morning, he watched as her strength slowly started to build up. With each new morning, she was able to run a little faster and go a little farther than the day before.

On the days her group worked with Dune on hand-to-hand combat, she would often stay behind after lessons were over to work one-on-one with the former drop trooper. 

The first time that he caught one of their private lessons on his way down the hill, he watched as Dune didn’t hold back and tripped her, making her flip and land on her back onto the ground. He ran to intervene. Only, when he made it to their makeshift sparing ring, Alaina got herself back up and shot him a challenging glare, before giving Dune the go-ahead to continue.

When he finally realized that this was going to be Alaina’s new routine a few days later, he made it a point to stop on his way down the hill to watch for a few minutes.

Dune was working with Alaina on how to get out of certain positions if she ever found herself being restrained by an attacker. After a few minutes of struggling in the other woman’s stronger hold, Alaina tapped out.

“You’ll get there,” Dune encouraged her. “You just have to learn to use your smaller frame to your advantage. What do you think, Mando?” Mando nodded in agreement. “Alaina here asked for a crash course,” the former soldier unnecessarily explained. “Got any suggestions on future lessons?”

Mando nodded and reached behind his back to pull Alaina’s dagger from its hiding spot. She hadn’t asked for it back since he’d attempted to help teach her how to throw knives in the woods weeks ago. It felt wrong to keep something of such sentimental value from her. Besides, if Alaina was serious about learning to defend herself, then it felt right for her to have the blade back to incorporate into her training.

Alaina blinked at the sight of her mother’s dagger. Mando held it by the tip of the blade and offered it for her to take. She approached him slowly, and even though she wasn’t looking at him, he could see the stormy torment behind her green eyes as she walked. She took the blade by the hilt and only took a moment to inspect it before looking up at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

“I think she should practice her knife throwing skills,” he recommended and then walked away from the sparing ring without a look back.

Their limited interactions continued like this for days.

Mando couldn’t even call her angry or cold. She was just… focused. Aloof even.

When her group had their turn to practice their firearm skills with him, Alaina still joined them. She would take the same blaster he had worked with her to use and practice with the same determination as the other villagers. He put them through drills—having them run while shooting targets, having them try and shoot moving targets, having them shoot in every position possible. She took constructive criticism when he offered it but made no other attempt to interact with him.

Alaina put in the work, but there was a wall there that hadn’t been there before, and if it had been just him she was like that with, it would have been one thing, but she had even put the kid at arm’s length.

After weeks of their routines and bonding with the kid, Grogu had become upset when Alaina appeared to just be going through the motions with him. To make matters worse, Grogu seemed to pick up on his caretakers' tense emotions and appeared just as frustrated by Alaina’s lack of interaction with him as Mando was.

Mando was over it.

At the end of their third week in the quaint shrimping village, there was a meeting at the hall that meeting. The villagers had convened, and after a brief debate, it was decided that they were as ready as they were going to be. They would take two days to rest and finish the last-minute touches to their barricades and fortify the Elder’s hut to give them and the children and those unable to fight a safe place to hide. Then, in two nights from tonight, on the night of the full moon, they would make their attack.

Mando and Dune shared a nod at their decision.

Dune was rambling off a list of suggestions for the necessary fortifications when a flash of gold grabbed his attention. He watched Alaina stalk away from the hall in the direction of their shed, and he decided it was time to confront the angry woman about her attitude.

Dune just gave him a knowing, annoying smirk when she caught him looking after Alaina’s retreating form. Mando ignored her and went to Omera, asking if she could take the kid for the night before going after Alaina.

He trekked through the village to their shack on the village outskirts, taking his time to come up with his words as the moon slowly made its way up into the night sky. When he finally reached their place, he took a deep breath before entering the small lodging—which was surprisingly empty.

“Alaina?” he called, not wanting to invade her privacy if she was changing behind the partition, but received no response.

He heard something thud loudly against the outside of the wall opposite him. Mando stayed still for a moment listening for the sound to repeat, and when he couldn’t hear anything else, he walked back out of the shack and walked around it to inspect the noise further.

When he made it around to the back of the shed, he discovered Alaina standing in position with a look of determination on her face as she stared down the back of the house. After another second, Alaina lobbed her mother’s dagger at the shed, and Mando’s helmet tracked the small weapon as it spun through the air until the dagger’s serpentine hilt bounced off the wall and fell to the ground at his feet.

Mando picked up the dagger and carried it back to where Alaina was staring him down. Her green eyes glared at him the entire time. 

When Mando offered her the blade back, and she refused to take it, he shrugged his shoulders and casually flicked his wrist, flipping the dagger straight up into the air. He easily caught it by the blade and spun to launch it at the shack, where it embedded into the wood with such force it vibrated for a few seconds.

He couldn’t help but give Alaina a smug look, and his smile only grew when her glare intensified.

With a scoff, Alaina took off to pull the dagger out of the wood.

“You seem upset,” he commented, earning him another infuriated glare when Alaina returned to her previous position. “Alright,” Mando started, not bothering to hide the frustration in his voice, and Alaina blinked in surprise at the tone change. “I’m done with the petulant teenager act—”

“I’m not a child,” Alaina cut in with a growl.

“Yeah? Then drop the attitude and talk to me,” he challenged her. “This all started after Omera offered for you and the kid to stay.”

“And?” Alaina asked.

At first, he was confused by her question until he realized that she was leading him to continue.

“And I suggested you take her up on it,” he finished, confused why that had anything to do with her anger.

“Is that all it was? A suggestion?” Alaina asked, looking up at his helmet.

He frowned, “I don’t understand what you're so upset about. It’s a good offer!”

“What if it’s an offer I don’t want to take?” she seethed quietly, staring up at him with those large, pleading eyes of hers.

“Why wouldn’t you want to?”

Alaina rolled her eyes, and her head fell back in frustration. “What if I want more than this, Mando? What if I want a city? A place with more things to do and see and experience?”

He sighed, “Alaina, you’re in hiding from the Empire,” he reminded her. “A bigger city poses even bigger problems.”

“So I’m just supposed to hide away from the rest of my life? I’m only twenty-seven!”

“Alaina—”

“No!" Alaina yelled and stomped her foot in the grass. He wanted to point out to her that she was acting more like the petulant teenager she insisted she wasn't, but for his own safety, he decided against it.

"Mando, I never thought I’d ever get a chance to leave the Empire, and now that I have... I don’t want to be chained to someplace with nothing to do! I want to experience what’s out there!” she argued, her green eyes pleading with him to understand. “At least on a bigger planet or city, I wouldn’t look so out of place! I could blend in! I would have more things to do—”

“You’d be in hiding in a bigger city, too,” he countered. “At least here, you have the support and protection of the other villagers. There’s safety in numbers. Alaina, you have to be smart about this.” She rolled her eyes again, and he let out a frustrated sigh. “It just seems overwhelming right now, but it will get better. You’ll see. At some point, the Empire will move its attention to its next fixation. When that happens, and you still want to leave, we can look at other options.”

“Oh, so you’ll still be around then?” she asked and placed her hands on her hips as she stared him down. “In twenty or thirty years, when they finally find another avenue to pursue, you’re just going to still be here to take us wherever we want?” A hollow laugh left her mouth when he didn’t answer, and she shook her head, “So I ask again, Mando—was it just a suggestion to dump us here, or is that your final decision?”

“I’m not dumping you,” he sighed again. “Alaina—”

“You said I had a choice,” she cut him off. “You said I had a choice, and instead, you’re the one making the choices for me. What, a few weeks of traveling with a girl and a baby cramping your style too much? Just ready to dump us—”

“I’m not dumping you,” he repeated, growing frustrated by the argument. “You’ve seemed happy here. You both have. You deserve to be happy, Alaina.”

“Of course, I’ve been happy! This is the first place we stopped at! You could have taken me to a planet that was made of garbage, and I would have been happy!" He rolled his eyes, becoming exasperated by Alaina's half-thought-out ideas of what her life would look like outside of the Empire. "I’ve had a chance to get used to the idea that I have options! Just because I’ve seemed happy doesn’t mean I want to be stuck here!” 

“Alaina, for once, stop thinking about just yourself!” Mando snapped back at her. Maker, no one could make him angrier than Alaina could. “This isn’t just about you! Grogu deserves the chance to get to be a kid.”

“Grogu understands more than you give him credit for. Were you even going to try and explain it to him?” she asked before making another attempt at throwing the dagger at the shack. Alaina’s toss was better this time, but still, there was no luck landing her throw. “You told me I had a choice and you didn’t even try and talk to me about it to see if it’s what I—What either of us wanted!”

“Talk to you about it?” he huffed and shook his head. Mando crossed the distance to retrieve the dagger this time. “Because you’ve made it so easy to talk to you about it when you’ve been avoiding me and Grogu since it was brought up,” he accused. “You wanna talk about it, then let's talk,” he said, handing her her dagger back.

Alaina worried her bottom lip between her teeth, a nervous habit he’d noticed she did whenever she became overly anxious about anything. 

He tilted his helmet at her when she remained silent. “What’s there to talk about?” he prodded her, becoming even more frustrated when Alaina just blinked at him. He studied her green eyes and the way the emerald pools reflected the silver moon back at him. 

“Alaina," he started again, dropping his voice to a softer tone. "I know that you’re scared. It’s not easy to start somewhere new, but this is the right thing for you and the kid. You’re both happy here. That’s obvious. Besides, I thought you’d be happy that you’d get rid of me so soon,” he tried to joke, but the joke fell flat. Alaina just continued to frown at him while her fingers idly fidgeted with the dagger. “You’re just scared. You’ll see this is the right call later on.”

Her frown deepened at his words, and before he could say anything else, Alaina tossed the blade with a grunt. Mando watched it as its tip struck true when she finally hit her target.

He had to blink for a second as he watched the dagger sway but still held on without falling out of the wooden plank it was embedded in. He smiled and turned his helmet back to her to congratulate Alaina on her successful toss, but his smile faltered when he locked onto her bright emerald eyes, which were still sparking in anger.

“You said I had a choice,” she said, speaking lowly. “I looked at you and asked if I had a choice, and you looked me in my eyes and gave me your word and told me from here on out, I would have a choice.” She reminded him of his words when he had come to rescue her from the compound on Nevarro. 

He wanted to argue with her and remind her that they had done all of this just to make sure that she and the kid would be safe somewhere, but his arguments were cut short when Alaina spoke again.

“I guess it really wasn’t my choice all along,” she murmured sadly and turned to walk away from him.

Mando stood there, simmering in his own complex, frustrated feelings, as he watched her walk past her mother’s dagger, which was still embedded in a wooden plank, and turn the corner to head back inside.

Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Next chapter in series - Chapter 8: Invisible String

[myfairkatiecat]

for the ask game, I’ll do a fun one. “Who did this to you?” with the twins.

YES A TWINS PROMPT! I love the Benedict twins. I love this one!!

Beware—I made it REALLY ANGSTY.

Title: “don’t you ever wonder if I’m okay (after all you put me through)”

——————————————

“Hey Nicky! I won the bet!” Nathaniel exclaimed, running towards the spot where he and Nicky had said they’d meet. He saw his brother’s shoe behind the next tree. “I knew I could finish the scavenger hunt before y—” he paused when his brother was finally in full view.

He wasn’t sitting or resting by the tree—he was passed out.

Nathaniel had seen his brother sleeping during the day many times before, he had narcolepsy after all. But the swelling that was beginning to form around his brother’s eye was what worried him.

This wasn’t a narcoleptic episode.

“Nicky!” he exclaimed, with worry this time, running to his brother and kneeling down next to him. He shook his shoulders, trying to wake him up. “Nicky, are you okay?” Stupid question, Nathaniel, he’s obviously not okay…”

Nicholas blinked slightly, looking disoriented as he sat up. He looked relieved to see his brother. “Oh, hi Nathaniel—”

“Who did this to you?” Nathaniel demanded to know, furious. Whoever had dared to hurt his brother was going to be very, very sorry. Nathaniel was a small boy and neither he nor his brother were truly fighters, but they were smart, and Nathaniel was sure he could slip something into their food that would make them violently ill for a few days without making him a murderer.

“No one,” he said. “It was just me—narcolepsy, you know? Passed out, hit my head—”

“Someone told you to say that, Nicky, because I found you when you were lying here and you were on your back. You can’t have hit your face on anything.”

Nicholas paused. “It was Michael. The older one.”

Nathaniel set his jaw, and he knew Nicholas could see that the fury dancing in his eyes was directed at the other orphanage boy. What kind of sad, pathetic thirteen year old gave a nine year old a black eye and then told him to lie about how he got it?

“Come on. Let’s go find an adult.” Nicholas looked panicked for a moment, so Nathaniel reassured him, “We’ll tell them you hurt yourself falling asleep, I promise.” And they did.

But Nathaniel slipped a bad egg into Michael’s breakfast every morning after that until he got salmonella.

—

Curtain had prepared words to say to his brother during their inevitable confrontation. But now, standing across from him in the Whispering Gallery, his mouth felt too dry to form any words.

Nicholas was the first to speak, his voice breaking as he said, “Who did this to you?”

The words hit Curtain harder than any physical blow ever could have. Not even what happened to you, no, who did this to you, and suddenly Curtain was transported back to when they were nine, and one of the older children at the orphanage had hurt his brother and left him passed out by a tree during a scavenger hunt the staff had arranged for Easter, and he was staring down with concern asking his brother who did this to him except it was Nicholas asking him now and Curtain had no idea what to say.

“Excuse me?” Curtain hated the way his voice broke as well.

“Who hurt you, Nathaniel, so that you would isolate yourself like this? Turn your back on the entire world, caring about it only to control it?” Nicholas said, so quietly it could have been a whisper, but here in this blindingly white room it echoed so loudly it could have been spoken into a microphone.

“I make my own choices, Nicky,” and oh he wishes he could reach out into the air and take the nickname back like it was something tangible, but he knew he couldn’t. He blamed Nicholas for calling him by his old name, calling him Nathaniel, a reminder of the child he once had been and had finally and gloriously escaped being.

“I know you do, Nathaniel, but I knew you. You made me presents on our birthday, and caught me whenever I had narcoleptic episodes and quietly punished the kid who knocked me out on Easter a few springs before we were separated and I look at you now and I know that someone else had to have done something because you didn’t get here on your own!”

Curtain squeezed his eyes shut, taking deep breaths. He had intended to end this by making his brother laugh and fall to the ground asleep, but he could feel his own narcolepsy and absolutely refused to have an attack, not now. Go away. Force of will, he’d told the children, which had failed him then and wouldn’t fail him again.

He remembered all of the things Nicholas had mentioned, and it was true that he had loved his brother more than anything in the world. (A part of him still did, not that he would ever mention that.) So what happened?

His brother left him.

Abandoned him.

Curtain opened his eyes back up, relaxing fists he hadn’t realized were clenched. “Who did this to me, you ask?” he managed to grind out, though every word tasted like fire. “You did, Nicky. You did.”

It was in that moment that his force of will once again failed him, and he was vaguely aware of himself falling forward to the ground. A pair of arms caught him. He didn’t have any time to be outraged by it.

When he woke up, however much time had passed, his brother was still holding him, his eyes squeezed shut to hold in tears that were already rolling down his cheeks. When he realized Curtain was awake, he wiped them away from his eyes. “I’m sorry, Nathaniel. I’m sorry.”

——————————————

I warned you it was angsty 😭 if it’s ok with you I think I’m going to post this one on AO3 (when it’s back up 😢)

The title is from Crisis by Joshua Basset.

Thank you for the ask!! I loved writing this one (I love torturing myself and other TMBS fans :)

EDIT: there’s a part 2 now on AO3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48509713/chapters/122363455

[wow-cool-robot]

Episode 30: A Wish of War Orphans

this is either going to be really depressing or be about the little kids. possibly both

the grunts bitching about nothing happening before getting crushed by that massive suit was pretty good

that snake just panicked and left its spots behind, so i have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be a comedy episode

they all have official ranks now! it's not just bright anymore

amuro isn't crazy about it, but it'd be pretty silly to complain only in episode 30 that you're a soldier. i mean, i get it. i wouldn't want to be conscripted into daily duels to the death either, and i don't think he's wrong to have second thoughts, it just wouldn't make much sense to vocalize them. and so he stays quiet

does amuro outrank sayla? i'm not totally sure how military ranks work, but i think chief petty officer outranks petty officer first class. feels weird

also weird is hayato and kai being the same rank. these 2 do not fill the same role at all. hayato is there to occasionally take out a grunt, but mostly to panic and be taken out of the fight by the enemy, while kai is there to hold off the enemy until amuro shows up. and also has a personality

fraw bow is doing her best to take the kids to daycare, but sadly has not realized this show would be too depressing to show to anyone under 14 without them

ryu got a poshumous promotion. that's nice, but it was a little cold to act as if he was the only one who mattered. i mean, he was, but the characters don't know that!

thought amuro was jealous for a second, but he actually thinks they deserve more than 2 ranks for giving their lives. unusually selfless of him

now amuro. you didn't deserve to get slapped, and the strict hierarchy found in the military is bullshit. but at the same time i do feel you should have expected that

i was going to say "you can't be considering keeping them! you're taking them from warzone to warzone!" but then i remembered everywhere they go gets destroyed, so the white base is probably safer than most places

it's definitely true they should be allowed to not deal with this though. amuro's on a roll re:thinking of others this episode!

this is one cynical kid!

kikka crying at the word mother is very sad. but the way they animate it is so good, i love it

and now they're all crying :(

running away is obviously dumb, but i'd have to be an asshole to care about that

them walking over the zeon troops without noticing is pretty good

char still wearing all red and his stupid mask and helmet on this misson fills me with joy

the kids magooing their way through the zeon attack and just being like "wow! it's like a gundam but it isn't!" is wonderful

you can't treat the kids like that! was gonna say "at least he didn't kill them" but he left them there with the bombs, so he just didn't want to see it happen

i'm surprised he can reach the pedals

kai staring at the bombs piled up in the back made me laugh out loud

kai's good with the kids, remaining the best character

yeah there's no way the kids would have survived being that close to the explosion

and now we have a return to the char and sayla subplot. i originally typed char/sayla but figured i should change that

sayla's acting like she didn't see char after mirai just started blasting. she saw you!

i think char just doesn't want to hurt sayla

i would not go on any missions involving char if i was a zeon grunt tbh. they have worse survival rates than federation officers helping the white base

char's willingness to just run (and also the fact that he's 3 times faster than normal) remain his biggest strength. though if he was slightly less cautious he might have destroyed the gundam in like episode 2, when amuro didn't know what he was doing

he's also a big adherent to the principle of 'you don't have to outrun the gundam, you just have to outrun everyone else'

their safety didn't seem very guaranteed to me!

thank you kai, 'these kids are so traumatized it couldn't possibly hurt them worse to come with us' is the perfect message for the situation

don't know it's necessarily worth celebrating the fact that they can't adjust to life not during wartime, but whatever

'bright. the white base is doing a great job. but you bring destruction along with you because zeon keeps going after you. you should have them do that somewhere else. like space. space is nice this time of year'

guessing this episode isn't very popular, but it's nice

i believe this is where the second movie ends, but i decided i didn't care after how nothing the first one was

[miraculouscontent]

“Sentibubbler” summary? “Sentibubbler” salt?

Why not both at the same time?

Something a little experimental, though also somewhat reminiscent of some of my past videos. Calling it “summasalt” for now, based on the word “somersault” because this episode was an exercise of my patience.

It’s basically just me going through the episode with my usual episode summary, but salting along the way instead of making you guys read a wall of text without any images or clips or me making snarky comments.

(By the way, yes, I did in fact have caffeine before recording.)

script below for anyone who wants/needs it:

"Sentibubbler" begins with Marinette having food with the Cesaires and I already know this isn't real because Marinette is actually getting to interact with her best friend's family. That's only happened, like--when, two episodes of Season 2? [”Sapotis” and “Anansi”]

Marinette sees Trixx and points out how they're supposed to be a secret, and Alya asks why while calling Marinette "Ladybug." Marinette plays dumb but is told by Nino that everyone already knows her secret. Chloe is also there, chiding Marinette for her identity rule - it's not Marinette's rule but after "Reflekdoll" I've just gotten used to Marinette being blamed for things she didn't do - and Marinette goes to question Chloe's apperance when there's a knock on the balcony door. Alya invites Shadow Moth in and--[Shadow Moth has to duck to come inside]--huh, I thought Sole Crusher was seven episodes ago.

Anyway, now obviously, Marinette is just being ridiculous and overemotional as usual, because why would Marinette ever think that Alya would reveal any information to--["Feast"]--oh yeah, that's right.

Tikki doesn't transform Marinette and says that Marinette shouldn't have trusted Alya with her secret. Enter Chat Blanc, who says that they can be together now without any secrets. Not really sure what this episode is aiming for with the mixed message of "your identity rule sucks" but also "your fault for trusting someone instead of having a mental breakdown," but a’ight. Trixx also gets another dig in on Marinette for giving Alya the fox miraculous.

Marinette wakes up from her nightmare and panics, but Tikki reassures her that Alya is loyal. [”Chameleon”] Mm. Also, that kind of support might've been nice from Tikki literal seasons ago when Marinette could've used a confidant.

Wayzz - I swear, they've had eyelashes more often than not in this season - points out that Trixx is mischievous and Xuppu talks about Trixx being the cause of the Loch Ness monster rumors, which worries Marinette further. Marinette runs out in her pajamas and I can already predict that neither Tom nor Sabine are going to check on her later or care.

Marinette finds the Cesaires looking for something, their words vague enough for Marinette to think that they're talking about Trixx. Alya brushes Marinette off and tells her to help with looking instead of lecturing her.

Marlena makes a comment that reminds Marinette of her nightmare, only increasing Marinette's stress. A tarantula crawls up a ladle and Marinette freaks out when she sees it, which Marlena has a laugh at because Marinette's anxiety, fear, and panic is hilarious, guys!

This is my laughing face. [not a laughing face]

Nino exits, having been too afraid of the spider to leave the room, so Nora compares Marinette to him. Nino tries to play it cool, then changes the subject to point out Marinette's pajamas. Alya wonders aloud why Marinette showed up and Marinette tries to act casual, but Alya sees through it and states that she doesn't usually lose things when someone lends them to her.

I presume the exception is Marinette's trust. OH-HOOOOHHH, we'll get there.

Nora takes a jab at Alya for losing the spider and Marinette drags Alya away to talk. Nino tries to join but Alya states that it's between her and Marinette, which makes Nino sad.

Nino, does the phrase "guys' time" ring a bell by any chance?

Marinette is explaining her nightmare and is simply told to calm down by Alya, though Marinette is briefly startled by a phone ringing. Marinette puts together what she knows that Shadow Moth knows, including that Alya is Rena Rouge, adding on that Shadow Moth could steal the fox necklace if he figured out that Alya has it permanently. Alya reassures her that no one will ever know and Marinette states that this must include Chat Noir. Alya agrees and brings attention to the fanny pack around her waist, which Trixx has been hiding in, and Marinette has Trixx promise not to show up at the dining table like in her nightmare. Tikki tells Marinette that everything will be fine and Marinette admits that it was silly of her to worry, which it was! ...If you ignore all the anxiety, mental scarring, and constant pressure to be perfect or risk Paris lighting itself on fire, much like I presume they accidentally did with their original script for this episode.

Alya tells Marinette to trust her and also herself - I'll be sure to keep that in mind, Alya, thank you - then Alya loses her temper at the phone continuing to ring. She leaves to find an empty living room, then answers the phone only to hear Shadow Moth on the other line. Alya turns upon hearing Marinette scream to see that Marinette has been trapped in a bubble. Cue the reveal/return of the Bubbler, who is definitely Nino akumatized and not--like--a sentimonster, because the episode didn't spoil it at all with the title of Sentibub--

show, this is freaking embarrassing. Why even bother akumatizing someone when you can mold a sentimonster with the exact power you want?

At least they reveal it quickly, though that also means I have to live with the knowledge that Shadow Moth wINKED AT ALYA, NO.

Anyway, Shadow Moth tells Alya that he wants her to betray Ladybug. Marinette, meanwhile, is panicking over being unable to transform while in public, whereas Tikki remains calm and reassures her that Alya will figure something out and it's why Marinette gave Alya the fox miraculous in the first place.

Weird, I thought it was for the show to continuously validate Alya as a worthy choice for a confidant despite repeatedly covering up her sINS and so the show can push for more anxiety on Marinette's part while simultaneously not having to make a new hero model for Alya, which they would have to do if the realistic decision had been made to give Alya a different miraculous due to Shadow Moth knowing her identity as Rena Rouge.

Marinette texts Alya to inform her that the Bubbler is a sentimonster and so Rena can tell Chat not to use Cataclysm on him or the bubbles will burst due to the sentimonster's lack of control.

Hate to burst the show's bubble but Alya could literally see Nino up in the sky and they could see her; the bubbles are in viewing range. Did this even go through a quality check?

Alya goes to look at Marinette's text, but the phone is bubbled away by Sentibubbler. Marinette sees the phone floating by and panics, only to be reassured again to trust Alya and at this point I vaguely wondered if I was watching this episode on repeat. Tikki also adds that Alya has never let her down - [”Ladybug”] MMMM - and Marinette agrees, also certain that Chat Noir will show up soon.

Oh yeah, he exists. Oh no.

Cut to the Agreste mansion where Adrien is watching the news - dude, how is there never anything better on when you need to be told that there's an akuma? here, look, I'll show you [”Silencer” Lukabug clip] there, much better, see? - and it's pointed out that the bubbles are identical to the ones Bubbler had, yet Nino is in one of the bubbles. Adrien readies himself while Plagg is - for once - okay with leaving since his cheese isn't "edible" yet.

I feel like he should be a little more concerned about Marinette being in a bubble.

Meanwhile, Shadow Moth is explaining to Alya that Ladybug will come to give her the fox miraculous due to the bubbled people in the sky - plenty of other choices that aren't within breathing range of the obvious danger zone, but a'ight - and SentiBubbler will catch Ladybug. Alya brings up Chat Noir saving her but Shadow Moth states that she'll create an illusion of Ladybug and Rena to lure Chat Noir, who won't see Sentibubbler coming, at which point Rena will hand Shadow Moth her miraculous. He adds that her loved ones will only be returned once all three miraculouses are in his possession, though if she tries to warn the heroes then Sentibubbler will send the bubbles into space, too far for any hero to save them.

[clip of space power-ups] Hm.

Also, I would've just let her keep the miraculous as an extra bribe since he doesn't need the fox and she wouldn't have time to recharge anyway - at least to his knowledge - but that's just me.

Marinette is relieved that Alya still hasn't been captured--TIKKI, I KNOW, YOU'VE BEEN PARROTING THIS ALL EPISODE, I KNOW--but Marinette changes her tune when she sees Alya blindly calling out for Ladybug's help, unaware that Alya is buying time. Marinette laments the idea of transforming there and having using the rabbit to go back in time to reverse, as that's never a good thing (seconded), but gets the idea for Tikki to take her miraculous to someone else. Tikki rejects the idea, as the earrings won't go through the bubble, and Marinette realizes that Chat Noir is their only hope.

I mean, it was nice knowing them. Sure is interesting how Marinette has only been getting herself into these situations where she requires saving when the show needed to present Alya as a valid choice for a confidant.

Meanwhile, Chat Noir is leaving a message for Ladybug about the bubbles in the sky, saying that he'll wait for her; I already see where this is going and I don't like it.

Alya mutters to Trixx about how they need a plan to release Marinette. Through Alya Vision, we're shown Sentibubbler, a bowl of fruit, and the bathroom door. Alya tells Sentibubbler that she needs to go to the bathroom and - wow, we're really doing this, aren't we? - which Shadow Moth rejects. Shadow Moth is also on top of a building holding a coffee cup which honestly makes about as much sense as the rest of the episode, so whatever. Alya claims that she can't wait and that it'll be awkward for Ladybug to find her like that, which gets Shadow Moth to relent but also remind her of what's at stake if she tries anything. Alya states that she can't do anything without a miraculous anyway, then purposefully falls onto the table, concealing her long enough for her to transform and allowing an illusion of herself to go to the bathroom while she escapes. She detransforms in the twins' room and feeds Trixx with some grapes that she'd picked up.

Alya explains her plan to trick Shadow Moth and Sentibubbler since they don't know that she has a miraculous, though she also has to make sure that Chat won't ruin things. Rena then proceeds to call Chat Noir and claim that Ladybug wanted her to call him with her plan, but adds that it's a two-person plan and Chat himself isn't needed, so he needs to wait for further instructions. Chat demands that Ladybug call him to tell him herself, but Rena insists that she can't, as Ladybug is very busy. She warns him not to use Cataclysm if he sees the Bubbler, as he's a sentimonster, then promises to talk to him later before hanging up.

She uses Mirage again, making the Alya illusion reappear as well as creating a Ladybug. Chat Noir, infuriated at being left out, destroys part of a building with his baton. He then dismisses the action because Miraculous Ladybug will fix it.

Spoiler alert, it will, which is a very fascinating detail! I mean, I can't imagine another situation where a hero did something while there was an akuma going around and Miraculous Ladybug decided to help 'em out, but it just goes to show what happens when you're the writers' pet. Just look a little pitiful and they'll give you all the sympathy in the world.

By the way, didn't expect them to actually confirm my theory that Chat Noir does Chat Noir things because he knows that Miraculous Ladybug will fix it anyway, essentially allowing him to earn brownie points from Ladybug via sacrificing himself regardless of how it affects her mentally, yet here we are and I don't know whether to be sad, angry, disappointed, or a mixture of all three.

Chat Noir sees the Ladybug illusion jumping off and gives chase, refuses to stay where he is. Marinette, seeing that Rena Rouge's illusions are active, panics at the sight of Chat Noir, as the illusion will vanish if Chat touches it.

I like to imagine the immediate concern is the idea that Chat Noir will try to take Ladybug's hand while trying to flirt.

Anyway, Marinette flails inside the bubble in an attempt to reach Chat Noir, while illusion Alya and SentiBubbler get into position. Chat Noir watches what he perceives as Ladybug heading into the Cesaire house with Alya, but Marinette gets to him in order to tell him not to go anywhere. Chat complains about everyone telling him to stay put, but Marinette explains Rena's plan to him. Chat is skeptical of how she knows that, to which Marinette insists that she saw it from where she was. Chat Noir relents with a sigh and stays where he is.

SentiBubbler watches as the illusion of Alya and Ladybug talk to each other, Rena making it look like Ladybug is piecing together what happened and refusing to give Alya a miraculous ever again due to Shadow Moth knowing her identity. She claims that she'll find another holder and give them an even more powerful miraculous, which interests Shadow Moth and gets him to follow after the Ladybug illusion. Once Sentibubbler leaves as well, Chat sees this as his chance to stop the sentimonster, as the Ladybug illusion will vanish if it's touched. Marinette strokes his ego for the token love square moment of the episode, and Chat Noir fights SentiBubbler while Shadow Moth goes after the Ladybug illusion.

I'm noticing a real lack of tension in this episode. Once Alya has her plan, it's kind of a clean sweep from start to finish with no interference or unexpected roadblocks in the way. Even Shadow Moth following the Ladybug illusion goes fine, with Shadow Moth even punching a building thinking that Ladybug actually got away from him.

Dude, it's fine, Miraculous Ladybug will fix it, just put on your best sad face. Maybe Chat Noir gets it from you actually, is treatment from the writers a hereditary thing?

Sentibubbler and Chat Noir are still fighting. Shadow Moth shows up and Marinette tries to warn Chat, but Chat gets caught in a bubble and Marinette apologizes; she doesn't have anything to apologize for but after "Reflekdoll" I--wait I already did this.

Chat Noir uses Cataclysm to escape, only to get caught in another bubble. I'd just like to throw out there that this guy's a hero three seasons going and the love interest for the main character, yet his role in the episode has amounted to complaining about the authority of a hero Ladybug chose, throwing a property-destroying tantrum over being excluded, and wasting his power without a single thought which just got him captured again.

Chat, does the name "Syren" ring any bells by any chance? I'm just sayin', you could always quit. In fact, wasn't it you literally one episode ago saying that you understood if Ladybug couldn't always come get you? Then, after seeing the jump from "Glaciator" to "Frozer," I'm about as shocked as rubber.

Back with the competent one, Alya notes to Trixx that Rena Rouge can no longer be seen by Shadow Moth or else the jig is up. She transforms and texts Marinette to be ready, creating an illusion of Marinette that simultaneously hides the real version, allowing her to transform into Ladybug.

Chat Noir's bubble gets dragged down and Shadow Moth gets SentiBubbler to mute Chat Noir's bubble.

[clip from “Silencer” where Ladybug takes amusement in Chat being muted]

Ladybug uses Lucky Charm and receives a pot, her Lucky Vision spotting Shadow Moth's coffee cup, then SentiBubbler, then the tarantula trapped in a bubble. Ladybug deduces that the cup is the sentimonster's object, then pulls the horse miraculous out of her yoyo and unifies it with the ladybug--oh.

Oh my.

You know, it's times like this where I'm reminded that the show knows nothing about fashion... or girls... or good writing actually--there's just a lot of stuff they don't know.

Sentibubbler does a countdown, then starts sending the civilian bubbles up into the sky. Chat Noir is about to de-transform while PegaBug notices of Shadow Moth's two miraculous, up for grabbin'. She notes that she won't be able to catch everyone, so she forms a portal behind Shadow Moth and goes for the coffee cup first, thus putting her in control of SentiBubbler, who happily brings the bubbles back down at her command.

Shadow Moth erases SentiBubbler from existence though, causing everyone to fall, but Chat and PegaBug manage to catch them. PegaBug de-transforms and presents the Cesaires with the tarantula, which had been trapped inside the lucky charm. Ladybug and Chat Noir watch Shadow Moth escape and Ladybug laments that it could've been the end of Shadow Moth once and for all because it's not a Miraculous episode without Marinette being at fault or feeling guilty in some way! Chat Noir reassures her [*by “reassure,” I mean he might as well have said, “Well, you saved ME, so you did great!”] - wow, that's two token love square moments for the price of one episode, don't I feel spoiled - and Ladybug leaves to retrieve the tarantula's tank.

Rena Rouge is waiting for her and they hug, with Rena repeating that she doesn't lose something that someone gives her. Ladybug states that she never should've doubted the idea of giving Alya a miraculous and Imma just give you guys a counter real quick. [counter that shows that Tikki has complimented Alya four times, Alya has complimented herself/told Marinette to trust her thrice, and Marinette has said that she was wrong thrice]. Miraculous Ladybug is cast and everything returns to normal, with Alya explaining what she did and Marinette being relieved that Shadow Moth won't be going after her anymore. Alya confidently asks if she was smart and Marinette is happy to praise her, confirming it and stating that Alya is a real superhero and honestly? If the narrative wanted to marry Alya this badly, they should've just used some of the budget to buy a ring instead of projecting onto the other characters.

Then again, the apparent budget can't even afford a new hero model nor new akuma to a very noticeable degree, so I guess they're taking what they can get.

Alya praises Marinette as well for her work as PegaBug and they do a fistbump, thus ending the episode. There's also this ever-so-lovely post-episode scene with Gabriel and Nathalie where Gabriel laments the fact that Ladybug never makes mistakes which--I... has he even watched the series at all? Gabe, babe, Babriel Agreste, it's literally part of the show's formula that Marinette makes a mistake in every episode and she felt guilty like a minute ago over not yoinking your miraculouses when she had the chance, where have you been?

But, yeah, anyway, the episode.

Needless to say, not a fan. Like I said, the show seems so intent on immediately validating the choices they make with Alya in order to make her look like a better character. "Gang of Secrets" basically replaced her with someone different at the end of the episode, and the episode immediately afterwards in chronological order, "Mr. Pigeon 72," did everything it could to push Marinette out of her guardian position long enough for Alya to figure out the grimoire despite having zero onscreen experience with it, the episode even trapping Ladybug in a situation that forced Rena Rouge to come into play to validate that decision as well.

And now we have "SentiBubbler" here following immediately after "Optigami," desperate to reassure its audience that Alya is cool, smart, truthworthy, and that not needing to make a new model--sorry, I mean Alya continuing to have the fox--was a good decision. All the while, they continue pushing Alya's flaws under the rug [Note that it’s not even considered that Alya is even remotely at fault for Shadow Moth going after her specifically after her stunt in “Optigami” when no one else but Ladybug and Chat have ever given out a miraculous], hiding them instead of Alya actually acknowledging them, the only reason she did so in "Optigami" being the same as in "Gang of Secrets"; to make her look good while Marinette makes a big decision in their relationship.

The episode tries so hard to drill in this idea that Alya is a good friend who can be trusted, and I'm just not here for how much they try to hammer it in. Marinette's very real anxiety over Shadow Moth's power and ability to plan things is played off as her being silly instead of something to be concerned about, and instead of giving her a hug and trying to help her calm down - [clip from “Heart Hunter” of Luka hugging Marinette] I miss Luka - she's just told to trust and believe and hAVE fAiTh in Alya.

Shadow Moth is an adult; he has abilities that the teenage heroes don't. I'm not even saying that Marinette isn't overreacting [Basically, her concern about Shadow Moth is valid, especially after “Optigami” where her identity was almost found out], but she has anxiety and some obvious trauma over "Chat Blanc." I was already upset that Alya got a free pass to Marinette's identity, but the constant stressing over how much Marinette should trust her just doesn't affect me when I know Alya and I know the kind of stuff she's done that the show blatantly ignored in favor of pushing for her.

But okay, show, I'll give Alya the benefit of the doubt that she doesn't deserve. Let's say that she's turned a new leaf, and has become the reliable, trustworthy, and loyal partner that Marinette deserves. I'm sure that Alya has Marinette's back, and will never go behind said back in order to do something completely unsurprising and wholly indicative of the character I actually know her to be.

Especially not a mere three episodes later...

[brook-e-lynns]

Bucky Barnes- Hard Goodbyes | Drabble |

Summary: you and Bucky broke up years ago but stayed best friends, you end up leaving New York to Chicago, almost without saying goodbye to Bucky.

Warnings: Angst, sadness, fluff.

Based: off of a episode of friends, so most of the dialogue is from friends!

A/N: this is really short because I just wanted content out because I'm currently working on a big project that I'm slightly proud of at the moment so I'm out of juice.

Bucky tramples up the stairs of your apartment catching himself as he stumbles opening your door finding it nearly empty beside your roommate.

“ Sorry Bucky but she just left for the airport” she apologizes, her eyes sad. Bucky’s fist unclench from the tight hold he had letting out a sigh.

“shit” he breathes

“ But it might not be too late,” she slightly smiles, offering the idea to him.

He hurriedly nods his head before running out the door again starting the engine of his old car that you always made fun of him for though you were the one that found it for him.

The car he had spent summers outside under the hood while you read out loud to him.  Softly spoken words that he’d never hear again if he let you go.

Bucky let out cusses for every minute that had passed terrified he’d never see you again.

The airport was busy taxis pulling in at every corner as you pulled your bag from the trunk of your own bright yellow Chauffeur.

Your large luggage dragged behind you as it hit every dip of the tile as you walked towards Security.

Bucky’s eyes finally found you out of breath after he had ran from parking to your gate.

“ Y/N!!” He yelled over the crowds of people.

You froze at his voice stopping in your tracks from continuing.

His walk sped up, finally coming close to you.

“ Bucky? What are you-“ you panicked. “You can’t be here”

“So I don’t get a goodbye?” He says sadly.

“ what?!”

“ This is how you want to leave us, no goodbye?” He shakes his head.

You chewed on the inside of your cheek in sadness and anger. You never wanted to leave but at this point. It was too late.

“ have fun in Chicago I guess” he shrugs slowly, taking a step back preparing to leave.

“You think I didn’t say goodbye because I don’t care?” You scoff.

“ well that’s sure what it looks like”

“ That's not true” your eyes widen at the realization that Bucky thought you didn’t care about him, when in fact you were helplessly in love with him.

“ then why didn’t you say anything?!” He says quieter than normal, scared his voice would fail him.

“ cause it is too damn hard James!” You cry the tears threatening to spill over. “ I can’t even explain how much I’m going to miss you, thinking about not seeing you makes me not want to go!” You argue 

He cradles your face in between his hands staring at your teary eyes. His head rests against yours, closing his eyes.

“I’m sorry” you sniffle

“ promise you'll visit?” He asks.

You let out a soft quiet laugh, your palms brush up against his cheeks tipping him to look at you.

“I promise” you gently press your lips to his, his arms wrapping around your torso, your feet departing from the ground.

“I’ll miss you”

“ I’ll miss you too”

[lampmanliveblogs]

That hat and those glasses were in Luz’ room earlier and this is also totally something Luz would wear. Depending on how big the town is and how notorious Luz is for being a weird kid, Vee might not actually arouse much suspicion if she looks a little weird.

…this episode just won’t let me catch my breath. That is Philip Wittebane on the right! Not only did he live in this town, but he was apparently pretty important, possibly one of the founders, alongside the other fella with him. He might be important later.

I went back to last episode and rewatched the scene with Belos without his mask and I can’t help but see some resemblance between him and this statue, just saying.

RATS

Why are you running, Vee? You’re a snake, aren’t you supposed to eat rats? Snakes eat rats, right?

Also, I guess whatever Eda did to those croissants made the rats sentient and capable of speech. That is not concerning. Or at the very least, the staff at this cafe don’t seem too worried about it.

I wanna point out that Vee appears to be a very fearful person. She ran away when she saw Luz in the mirror, she panicked when she was ensnared by the trap and now she’s running from the mutant rats. Contrast to Luz, who was excited to find out the rats could talk. I point this out because I’m like 76% sure we’re gonna get a super sad backstory for Vee any moment now that explains why she’s afraid of everything.

Ah, so these were the people Vee shared a cabin with at the summer camp. Which means she actually took Luz’ place at the camp. I suppose that explains why the camp counselors didn’t call Camila to let her know her daughter made it to camp.

Let’s see, new unnamed characters, we need some nicknames… Ah, got it! Left to right we have Mira, Glen and Henrik!

(would that make Vee Peo or Irina? Luz is guiding her from afar, so would that make her Alien?)

So, remember that thing I talked about just now, about the contrast of Vee being afraid of the rats vs. Luz being excited? Here we see a similar example, in the opposite direction. Luz is still anxious about talking to normal kids her own age, whereas Vee doesn’t have a problem with it.

Hey, do you remember when I said I was 76% sure we were gonna get a tragic backstory for Vee in this episode? You should, it was less than fifteen sentences ago, pay attention. Anyways, we can bump that up to 82%

So I wanna highlight one particular thing Mira here said in their reading. That being ”…the guilts and fear you carry will eventually catch you in a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

I had already gathered that Vee’s life before coming to the Human Realm was not kind to her. I had also gathered that she was fearful. The thing that stands out to me though is the word guilt, because that implies she did something wrong, maybe got someone hurt. It could also be something like survivor’s guilt, if my theory about the extinction of basilisks ends up being true.

(Edit: I have been informed that "Mira" goes by they/them. I have edited this post to reflect this.)

[dreamkidddream]

😂 May I request Prompt 8. Hurt/Comfort with Yuji then, please?

Taking a mini break from my BSD requests for some slight angst with Yuuji (even tho he’s already going through it in the manga 🥲). Reader is gender neutral!

CW: slight angst, small mention of death, episode 12 spoilers

“Hurt/Comfort” Trope with Yuji!

Dream’s 800 Follower Special 📖

You knew what you were getting into becoming a Jujutsu sorcerer- the suffering that curses can inflict in mere seconds, the life lasting physical and mental trauma, the risk of never coming back alive. You’re aware of it all, fooling yourself into believing that you could handle it. That you were up to the challenge to play hero, that you were strong enough to do so.

You’re not.

You’re weak.

A pathetic coward that couldn’t save anyone. Hell you couldn’t even help yourself, if the lacerations adorning your body proved anything. Good, let them scar as a permanent reminder of tonight, of your failure. That and the vision of your partner getting slaughtered, seeing their horrified, tearful expression before getting cut down. Their last look was shared with your own panicked one, one to haunt you in your dreams and for the rest of your life. That’s fine, you deserve it.

If you were stronger, if you trained harder, if you were powerful- the list can go on and on. It shouldn’t have been them, it should have been-

“(Y/N)?”

Your breath hitched and you wiped away your tears hastily (when did you start crying?) when the door opened. Damn it, how could you forget to lock the door?! It’s too late now, as Yuji already stepped in bags in tow, the door closing behind him. Here he was, looking down at your miserable form curled up in blankets like a child. You didn’t move an inch. You didn’t want to see anyone- you didn’t want them to gaze at you with sadness, pitying your condition because it wasn’t warranted or wanted. But Yuuji was persistent, a quality that can be both golden and damning, and just making eye contact with him made you feel sick to your stomach. And it made it harder for you to hold back your sobs.

“Just leave me alone Yuuji, please.” You didn’t have the energy to even get irritated with him, you just felt numb.

But whatever biting words were going to come out next never came, as he dropped everything and lurched forward, taking you into his arms. He grasped onto you like you could disappear at any second, and you felt your eyes welling up once more. You hated this- you hated how much of his warmth covered you, how safe you felt in his arms, how close you were to unraveling. You hated it all. You shouldn’t be here, you should be-

“It’s okay to cry, and you don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to talk to me.”

You don’t deserve this, you don’t deserve him being here for you-

“I just want to be here for you right now.” He squeezed you just a bit and cradled your head towards his chest. “Please- let me be here for you.”

Your lip quivered and tears streamed down your face before you knew it. Just by a simple whisper of words, you unraveled right there while he held onto you.

“I shouldn’t be here Yuji! I should have died! Why was I the one to come back?!” You wailed out. And you continued to bawl into his chest until your throat felt raw. And Yuji let it happen, not a complaint in his mind. He let you release your grief, only rubbing shapes into your skin and just being there for you.

Yuji understands all too well your pain and the concept of loss- he lost his grandfather, Junpei, and tonight, he almost lost you. He understands what it means to fail saving people, because he’s done it too, he’s been through it all first hand. But the difference is while he tried to face it alone, he won’t let you do the same. He can’t. Life has so much value, and he doesn’t want you to live the rest of it having the sins of tonight weighing you down, eating away at your soul the rest of your days. To him, that’s not living at all. Your life means so much to him- more than you’ll ever know.

The thought of his execution lingers in his mind every single day, but he still chooses to live despite that. He still chooses to wake up every day and make memories with the people that he cherishes. He wants to continue that, and he wants you to do that too. Life is already so short and can be so unfair- but he doesn’t want that to stop you from living. From creating memories that you both will treasure until the end of your days- whenever that day will come is not his focus. His focus is to spend the remaining time that he does have with his friends, with you. It’s easier said than done, and while this night will always be unforgettable, he’ll be there to help you get through the pain when you stumble. He won’t leave you alone, and he’ll keep being by your side regardless of whatever challenges you’ll face. You’ll face them head on and together.

Yuji waited until your breathing slowed before he glanced at you. You were sniffling now, obviously exhausted as he found you dozing off in his hold. His face donned a sympathetic smile and he went to lay you down, bringing the blankets over you when he felt you clutch onto him. “Yuji…can you- can you stay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, the smile glued onto his face. He picked up the bags filled with snacks and whatever else he bought to cheer you up and went to put them away, feeling a yawn forcing itself out of him. The bed shifted and he locked eyes with your own droopy ones, arm resting lazily around your waist. “Hey (Y/N)?”

“Hm?” The moonlight from your window was casting a glow across your face, bringing your dull eyes that bright shine that he’s so used to seeing. The one that he never grows tired of seeing. It was a sign of hope that you’re still here with him, and not the numbness that he saw earlier. You’re still here, and he’ll do everything in his power to keep it that way.

“Let’s keep making memories together.”

[notanotherinfjblog]

The types as strangers I wish I had known (version 4)

Previous versions: One, two, three

INTJ: She was the first person to show me kindness in a new place. Moving across the country all alone in the middle of a pandemic is not exactly the ideal start of your first real job. So she took it all on herself to take me by the hand, to organise all the things that I had no clue about. She gave me a little tour around the workplace, recommended me places to eat once the pandemic is over, asked me about how I was settling in, remembered little things I mentioned. She was the only person not working from home when I first arrived and so it was just the two of us. She was quiet and reserved as most people here seem to be, and she was awkward in every way when interacting with me. But she tried so hard and maybe it’s just me projecting, but she said her son was in the very same situation as me right now, and it felt like she tried to help me in the way she couldn’t help her son, like she wanted to take me under her wing, but not make it awkward, and then actually making it slightly awkward in doing so. Her heart just felt warm and so did mine when I said thank you.

ENTJ: Everyone knows the classic character of a self-righteous doctor in a hospital show. You know that one. The one that everyone thinks may be hard-working and clever, but heartless and uncaring and egocentric, but a few episodes down the line you start to see that there is more going on underneath the rude attitude. I’ve always believed this to be a stereotypical depiction that is more of a caricature until I met her. She was a doctor at a hospital I stayed in, and damn, she was just like that. She stormed into the rooms, rolled her eyes at a patient whose German was bad, even though she had a thick accent herself, couldn’t be bothered to commit to polite standards of communication like saying hello or thanks, and she didn’t care to wait for just a second when a nurse was in her way and pushed her aside instead. Especially two young nurses were exasperated with her and complained about her as soon as she stormed out of the room. They really made me feel like I had gotten myself into a hospital show as a patient, it was fantastic. And I have to say, even though this young doctor had all of these flaws, she was the only one that actually talked to the patients and explained what was going on, hell she even talked to that woman’s daughter on the phone for a few minutes because the woman didn’t understand the language. Just like on tv, she may have been rude, but at least she seemed like a good doctor.

INTP: My university department held a conference and I was responsible for making sure that all these professors and PhD students didn’t die from their coffee cravings, so I spent most of my time running around with giant coffee cans. And I have to admit, among all the scientists that were roaming the halls, I couldn’t help but stare at him. He was a PhD student from the Netherlands and there was just something about him that did not fit in. You know how professors are often a bit eccentric or strange by normal standards (which explains why we had to explain to an unspeakable amount of them how a coffee can works), so you’d imagine he’d fit right in. But he didn’t. He was his own universe. While everyone was networking, he was studying the research posters in silence. Not because he was too shy, he seemed very comfortable in his own skin. He just didn’t seem to care all that much about other people. I got to listen to a few talks and as he sat in front of me, I saw him play a video game. At an international conference. With professors and colleagues sitting behind him. And he still managed to ask intelligent questions about the talk afterwards. No idea how. Part of me wished I could have talked to him, not because he was cute though he was, but rather because I really could not tell you what kind of person he was. Was he a good person? A bad one? Probably something in-between. But I don’t think my opinion would have fazed him all that much, since to me, he seemed like the kind of person that valued his own opinion on himself the most, and I think that’s a good thing that he’s got there.

ENTP: I had just moved to a different city in a completely different part of the country, and I had just gotten back from my first walk around town. Sounds exciting, but I got back to this unfamiliar flat that I was supposed to call home now and I was panicking. So I stepped out on the balcony hoping the cold air and the stars above could calm my nerves. But it wasn‘t them that did. I stood there in the dark and saw an elderly couple in the parking lot. The woman was in a very similar mental state as me. She was running around their car and was talking about all the things they still had to take care of and things they‘d need, but had forgotten, and her voice got higher and shakier with every word. And then her husband just went and hugged her. She kissed him goodbye three times and every time she did, he let out a little laugh, calm and gentle. He pat her on the back and said that everything was going to be okay, that they would see each other again tomorrow. She kissed him goodbye one last time before she drove away, and I stood there alone in the dark and thanked the universe that I was there at the right time to hear this old man‘s words. For some reason he always seems to appear every time I‘m feeling low and strikes up a little chat with me. And every time he leaves, I have already forgotten what I was sad about.

INFJ: I think everyone pursuing an academic career has this one hero, this one scientist that lit the spark in their heart to dedicate their life to science just like them. I know I have one. So when I started an internship at his lab with one of his colleagues, I didn‘t really expect to meet him. I had seen him around once in a while, yes, but who was I to approach a stranger to tell him what his work meant to me? But then came the plenary meeting that was meant to get more people of the lab to get to know one another - and he approached me. He sat down next to me, asked me about my academic past and future, asked about my current project with his colleague. And I still can‘t believe it. Only a little girl singing in the church choir who is suddenly approached by Beyoncé can hope to imagine what it felt like. He was an internationally renowned scientist, he would have had every reason to look down on the rest of us. Many of them certainly do. But here he was, talking to a little intern from abroad. He was such a genuinely nice person, was sweet and slightly awkward, he even mirrored my weird head nodding that I always do when all the words have left me. He felt like a kindred spirit. I didn‘t tell him what these few minutes talking to him meant to me though part of me wishes that I did, yet still he invited me to the meetings of his research team even though I was not a part of it. And when I came and sat down, he turned around, smiled at me and turned away again, and I can‘t tell you how insane it feels that all of this actually happened.

ENFJ: I’ve written about him before and I will write about him forever. I remember the day our eyes first met in that crowded school corridor almost half of my life ago. I don’t know why neither of us could look away that day, why neither of us could ever look away again from this day on. Somehow our eyes always found each other. I remember the snowy day at the train station so many years later, how he stood there alone in the cold and how he slowly walked towards me, his eyes glued to his feet that abruptly stopped right next to mine. And yet he stayed silent. As did I. So we stood there for an hour waiting for our train, quickly averting our eyes every time they came close to meeting. I remember him looking back at me over his shoulder once we got off the train. He seemed quite flustered that I was about to find out that he had parked his car right next to mine and so he fled. Both of us kept parking our cars next to each other, even when we didn’t see each other for months. But I could never follow him out. He was my own personal mystery. I spent countless nights staring at the ceiling wondering what it was, this strange thing that was going on between us, this little secret that we shared, and I wondered who he really was inside, not who he pretended to be in front of his friends. He was like an island in their midst, always a bit detached, always tucked away behind a smile. Soon twelve years will have passed and still we’ve never spoken a word, but somehow these dark brown eyes still feel more familiar than my own, these eyes that always seemed to look right into my soul. I could have stared at them my whole life. I honestly have no idea what it is that is tying me to him, what it is that I felt back then and what I’m feeling right now. Maybe I’ll never know. I haven’t seen him in three years, but I know our paths will cross again some day. I can feel it in my bones. This story is not over yet. Maybe then we’ll finally be ready to meet properly. Maybe then we’ll finally be able to speak. 

INFP: I happened to stand at the window when I saw the new postman approach our letterbox, and so I watched him throw letters and magazines inside - and stop. He moved his head closer to the box and a frown appeared on his face. He backed off, wanted to leave, came back again and didn’t seem to know what he was supposed to do. So he rang the doorbell. As I opened the door, there he was, shy and with slight panic in his eyes. “I’m so sorry”, he said. “There is a sign on your letterbox that you don’t want advertisements, but I saw that too late and I had already thrown it in. I’m terribly sorry. I can’t get it out of the box and so I thought, I should ask if that’s alright.” And my heart just went awwww, that’s adorable. I smiled at him and told him that it was absolutely fine. He seemed so relieved. So he went away and I closed the door.

ENFP: This is for the man with the kind, but heartbreakingly sad eyes who sometimes sits in front of the train station silently begging for money. This is for the grandparents who spent their train ride trying to teach their little grandchildren the numbers from one to five. This is for the old woman who always kneels down in the middle of the train station with her forehead pressed to the ground, keeping still for hours, enduring the devastation of thousands of people passing by without stopping. This is for the woman who knelt down next to a homeless man, who took his hand and asked how she could help him. This is for the man who made faces at the little boy sitting next to him on the train to make him laugh. This is for the anger I felt when I saw the distraught face of a 10-year-old boy coming out of the movie „1917“ at the cinema with his father. This is for the happy little puppy who lives next to the bakery where I usually grab my lunch. This is for the twenty people who decided to all speak a foreign language during a meeting with each other just because I was there too, a total stranger they had never even seen before who is bad at their native language. This is for the creep that asked me in the middle of the street at night to accompany him. This is for the two teenagers who went to buy sandwiches and coffee for a homeless woman. This is for the families I often see sitting at the train stations, sometimes with a baby in their arms, holding a sign saying „Syrian family. We are hungry, help us please.“ This is for the man who yelled at his girlfriend because she gave them some money. This is for the people who play music during everyone‘s morning commute on the train. This is for all the people who approached me speaking in French and started to laugh when I apologised for not being very good at it. This is for Paris, in all its beauty and all its ugliness. This is for humanity, in all its beauty and ugliness.

ISTJ: He was sitting alone on the train, looking out of the window while listening to something with headphones. He was a tall guy in his mid-20s, one with a full beard, long brown hair in a neat ponytail, and a t-shirt of some rock band that I had never heard of. So, I was sitting there, three meters away, minding my own business, when I suddenly heard a giggle. The entire car of the train had been quiet all this time as it usually is, so I looked up and saw this guy trying to contain his laughter. He pressed the lips together, scratched his nose in order to inconspicuously cover his mouth. I don’t know where this sudden burst of laughter came from. Maybe he was listening to an audio book and reached a funny part. Maybe he was listening to a voice message of a funny friend. Maybe he just had a very amusing thought, I don’t know. But I’ve always had a soft spot for people who randomly start laughing in public and get embarrassed about it cause it’s always, always adorable.

ESTJ: She was a PhD student at my university and she was the one who mainly organised the conference that the above mentioned INTP was attending, too. And even though she didn‘t get tired of complaining about how much work this all was, how typical it was of her boss to volunteer to hold the conference at our university and then not lifting a single finger, she was like a fish in the water, not out of it. She observed everything and everyone, immediately recognised little problems or things that could become a problem, she was constantly running around checking everything, and she kept so many things in mind, it was impressive. One of the attendees sat in a wheelchair and as soon as she noticed, she made us rebuild the entire cafeteria immediately so that everything was reachable for her. And in all the running around, all the obligatory smalltalk, all the stress, she still found the time to stand with us student helpers and joke around.

ISFJ: It was 6pm on a Friday afternoon when all of Paris was trying to get home in the middle of a train strike, so the trains that did run were even more crowded than usual. I did not enjoy sharing 5 square metres with almost 40 other people. But then he entered the train and stood right next to me, leaning against the doors without moving, looking like an intellectual in gangster clothes. We were surrounded by noise of people talking and of rails screaming, by strangers breathing onto our skin, and he just stood there unfazed by it all. He radiated calmness like I‘ve never seen anyone do before. Soon it reached me too, filled me up and left no place for any distress or anxiety. He was like an island in the storm that grew and grew and grew until all of the 40 people around him were safe. I felt safe. I don‘t think he has even the faintest clue about how special he is, but I feel like it has been a privilege to have crossed paths with him.

ESFJ: Did you ever meet someone who, on first glance, looks like the perfect example of a jock, just a short guy with bigger arms than he’s tall? But then you look again, take a closer look at him and you realise that his face has goodness written all over it. He may be horribly bad at grammar for a linguistics student and he may be a bit too sensitive for his own good, but he never made it a secret of how much of a sweetheart he really is. And in situations like these, when he talks about how emotional he got as a tutor when his student told him about a dying grandfather because he felt responsible for the student’s wellbeing, in situations like these, when he approaches my friend after a class to apologise for his harsh criticism of her presentation and to tell her that he didn’t mean it that way, to which she gets all confused because she didn’t take the slightest offence to anything he has ever said in his entire life and he mumbles that he may have to stop beating himself up about stuff like this, I just want to give him a hug and never let go. 

ISTP: I saw her on the metro during rush hour in Paris, and I immediately noticed her to be different. Everyone else always only stares at their phones or into space, everyone else always look like a tired zombie. She was not a zombie. She was leaning against the doors, shaking her leg in the rhythm of the music she was listening to. She was short and skinny, and not even her punk boots could hide that, but there was such a confidence shining out of her, a confidence in who she was that made her look like a giant. She looked like she‘s probably had it rather rough in life, but it didn‘t break her. She rose to the adversity, rose in spite of it all. She seemed to be capable of so many things. Intelligent enough to go into science if she ever wanted to, vicious enough to end someone who ever dared to cross her, warm enough to love deeply and with all her heart if she let it.

ESTP: It was a hot day and far hotter than a September afternoon ever should be. I was stuck in a traffic jam in the city, melting in my car as were so many others, waiting for that red light to finally turn green. And then he came, a young guy in an ugly shirt and with a hat on his head. He started to cross the street, but then stopped right there in the middle. And he started to juggle. In the middle of a traffic jam on a Friday afternoon, he juggled. Just before his green light turned to red, he bowed down to the cars a few times, and then jumped to the sidewalk and left. Thanks, mate, you enigmatic juggling traffic hero.

ISFP: I met him at a wedding. He was a bald man in his 70s with thick horn glasses and probably the most intimidating person I’ve ever met. Not because he was mean, but because he was so confident in himself and so observant. His gaze constantly changed direction. He took everything in that happened around him, he didn’t miss a single thing that was going on, and still he was calm and sure of himself that everyone at our table felt like they had to impress him in some way. Just by looking at him you knew he must have lived an extraordinary life and he really did. He liked talking about himself. He talked about living in the American desert, on a mediterranean island, in a Buddhist monastery, and on a cruise ship. He talked about the smell of the desert at night, about the taste of oranges picked from a tree. He talked about the people he met, about professors and musicians, about cooks and monks. He talked about how much his village loved him. But he also liked listening to others talk about their own lives. It was obvious that he treated life as an experience, as a journey that cannot be planned or imagined, only lived. When we said goodbye, he looked me right in the eye and told me that he thinks it’s great what I’m doing with my life and that he’s looking forward to meeting me again some day. It felt a bit like receiving praise from a deity. 

ESFP: He was a nurse in the accident and emergency department at the hospital and the first person to talk to me while I was waiting in front of an examination room. He was only passing by with a colleague, but he stopped the conversation when he saw me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Aw, sugarmouse, what happened to you?”, was the first thing he said to me. You know, if an unknown man in his 50s is coming towards you and calls you “sugarmouse”, you’re usually not exactly happy, but he was just an overwhelmingly non-threatening guy that called all of the nurses and doctors by kitschy nicknames and radiated warmth wherever he went. He had noticed that I was nervous, and so he came to me and tried to gently put my mind at ease and I was really grateful for it.

[thorin-is-a-cuddler]

Archive of laughter

A/N: Natasha realizes that Clint’s motivation is at a new low and tries to shift his mind away from the present. When he accidentally offers her the perfect method for doing so, she does not hesitate. Set in the What if… episode 1x08 with post-apocalyptic Clintasha vibes. I missed them.

2766 words

„Ughhhh.“

„…“

„Hngggh.“

„…“

„Aw man aw man aw man.“

Natasha looked up from the sheets in her hands with a reprimanding look in her eyes. „Clint!“

„What?“ With a sour expression he sent her a glare over his metal shoulder from where he stood in front of a gigantic shelf, stacked with boxes full of documents. „If I don’t get to bitch about this, I doubt I’ll live through it.“

Natasha’s annoyed countenance made room for worry when she saw how large the shadows under Clint’s eyes were. How dark and hopeless they looked over the left-over shelves of the Archive. Hundreds of them, holding God knew how many files they had to look through to find answers.

It wasn’t like Clint was being dramatic. He was at the limit of his strength, at the far corner of his already fragile mental stability after years of running, hiding, bleeding and grieving. After years of trying to endure the fact that him and Natasha were, as far as they were informed, the last two living beings not only of their planet, but of the entire universe. After Ultron had destroyed everything and everyone else.

Natasha knew what he felt like, knew how hard it could get to keep it together, to not succumb to madness. Especially when faced with an enormous Russian Archive stacked with billion sheets of paper that may or may not offer them a solution in a single printed line or a minimal percentage of about 0,0001 percent of the files at hand.

She could see the horror Clint was experiencing in connection to the possibly hopeless workload that lay ahead of them and she was scared of the thoughts that were currently running through his mind, unseen, pondering dark questions and possibilities she did not dare to even consider.

She had to do something.

Slowly she lowered the files she held in her hands and stared at Clint’s back while he was already busy flipping through boxes again, his head hanging almost as low as his shoulders.

„Hey,“ she gently addressed him, making him stop and look over his shoulder again. Such tired blue eyes. She’d never seen them look this tired before. „Clint, I promise, this will be worth the effort. We will find something that will make all this go away again. Something that will defeat Ultron. I know it.“

His eyes lingered on her for a few moments longer, sadness reflected inside them. Then he turned around again, his shoulders as heavy as before. „Yeah. Sure.“

Now Natasha’s shoulders slumped down as well.

No, no, no, she could not leave him be this way, she could not let this slip and act as if everything was a-okay. She was acting cheerful for the sake of the both of them. But she knew it wouldn’t be good for anything if Clint continued faking smiles and showcasing his I-have-no-hope-left-but-I’ll-do-this-for-you expression.

He didn’t want to worry her. Which was the exact reason why she was so worried.

„Clint?“ She tried again, smiling, despite his loud sigh as he put his box away and turned around another time to face her. With one hand resting on the shelf to support himself he looked at her, softly, despite his obvious frustration. „Yes?“

„Can you imagine that we once thought being caught in an airvent for two days was basically the worst?“

Something in Clint’s posture changed at that. He opened his eyes a bit more and suddenly huffed a short laugh, nodding at her words. „Yeah. Two days. How laughable that seems now.“

„It sure does. But we made the most of it, didn’t we? How did we keep ourselves distracted back then?“ 
Clint pushed himself away from the shelf with a smile, his thoughts obviously shifting from the dark corner of his mind to a brighter one. Natasha’s smile widened.

„Well, you took an awful load of time to find out that I repeatedly wrote the same word during our Hangman matches.“

Natasha had to laugh out loud at that. „Okay, to my own defense: I did not yet know how stupid you actually were back then!“

„Touché,“ Clint grinned, the shadows under his eyes vanishing slightly. „You did find out about quite a few things while we were hiding out up there. The worst part being that you discovered how ticklish I was. Not exactly fun times for me.“

Natasha smirked at the memory. „Oh no, those were actually reeeeally fun times for you. I remember you laughing incessantly in fact.“

„Do you now?“ Clint squinted his eyes at her in mock anger, a warning spark shooting through them.

„Especially when I tickled you in that one particular spot… where was that again? I think you actually begged for me to stop when I got you th-“

„Tz, shut up!“

Natasha gasped in fake indignation as Clint suddenly turned his back to her, his voice altering to a slightly more embarrassed tone and his hand waving her off, as if to tell her not to dwell on it too much. Of course, that was, in her opinion, the most adorable reaction he could have possibly chosen and she would now dwell on it even more than before. Slowly she moved out of her cross-legged position on the floor, threateningly wiggling her fingertips around. Wasn’t this actually the perfect way to cheer up her favorite person in the world? Why hadn’t she thought of this before?

„Wait, I think I actually do remember. Would you mind if we test this memory, just to make sure-“

„Now is not the time, Natasha.“ He gently tried to reason with her, a meaningful look in his blue eyes when he shortly turned his head around to glance at her.

Natasha lowered her hands. But a teasing smirk remained on her face. „The time for what?“ Clint tried to appear unimpressed by her attempt to make him say it. He seemed determined not to step into her trap this time. Not after all those times he’d already made that mistake.

„You’re not gonna make me say it.“

„Say what, Clint?“

Natasha noticed that he kept looking over his shoulder ever so slightly, as she started approaching him, taking note of her sneakily coming closer. The smallest smile played around the corners of his lips.

„I said you’re not gonna make me say it.“

Natasha felt a wave of happiness course through her stomach at the way Clint’s voice altered ever so slightly. He was smiling, she could tell. Now she was going to make him laugh.

Clint sighed as Natasha came to a halt right behind him. By now he had to be able to feel her breath on the back of his neck.

Natasha’s fingertips were itching to search for some ticklish spots.

„Don’t!“ He said gently, without any conviction whatsoever, the small smile still audible in his words.

„Don’t what, Clint?“ Natasha asked again, her hands slowly nearing his sides from behind.

Clint sighed, his shoulders moving up and down. It was a sigh of defeat. The sigh of someone who had accepted his own fate. Probably already had on the day he’d met her. A fate filled with being Natasha’s favorite victim. She could feel anticipation surge within her as Clint tried to mentally prepare himself for the consequences of his actions. Or rather of her actions.

„Tickle me!“ He submitted with a slightly panicked ring to his voice.

And Natasha didn’t allow him a moment to second guess. „My pleasure.“

Clint was on his knees in no time, dropping the files he’d held in his hands and throwing his head back against the awful feeling spreading on his sides. He instinctively tried to press his elbows to his sides to limit the access for Natasha’s ticklish scratches but she easily wormed her way past his defenses, making his suppressed groans turn into giggles effortlessly.

„NO!“ He huffed, trying to bend over more, further away from her, giggling madly as Natasha’s fingers managed to weasle their way under his arms to scratch at his ribs. „Noho plehease!! Tasha!!“

Natasha chuckled triumphantly and tried to climb her fingertips up higher, tried to get them past his ribcage to wiggle them right into his most ticklish spots, right under his arms. But Clint was trying his utmost to keep her from reaching that spot.

„You are saying no, but you asked me to do this, remember?“ Natasha teased, chuckling when Clint tried to snarl at her, with the emphasis on „tried to“ since any possible effect fell flat due to his laughter mixing in loudly.

„Stahahhaap I mean it!!!“ Clint barked when she suddenly pulled her hands away from his ribs to sling her arms around his chest and pull him down on his back, trying to climb on top of him to pin him down properly. He had to laugh at her antics as he in return tried to grab a hold of her arms or legs or basically any part of her body to have a minimal chance of coming out of this without ridiculing himself senseless.

He didn’t stand a chance though, for his bones and muscles already had to start feeling like useless goo, his laughter wouldn’t seize and he couldn’t see properly through his closed eyes. Natasha couldn’t stop smiling either as she could witness all the beauty of Clint melting underneath her touch - into a tiny puddle of giggles and shrieks.

„No no NOO!! AHahaha GET OHOHFF MEE!!!“ Clint yelled when she accidentally pushed a knee in his stomach in their grappling for the upperhand, resulting in her managing to sit on his hips properly, keeping him down where she wanted to keep him.

„Youhohu fohohoul cheheeater!!“ He laughed when her fingertips started crawling up his sides again and he only had limited space for flailing and turning anymore, his laughetr sounding deeper and more breathless already.

„Cheater? Really? What, just because I hit you here?“ She questioned, making him choke on his laughter when she scribbled her fingers on his stomach.

„Dohohon’t!“ He shrieked, hitting his head against the floor by accident and laughing even more in the aftermath. „IT TICKLES!!“

„I know, honey, it’s why you’re laughing!“ Natasha explained in a playful voice, before she had to free her wrists from one of his iron defensive grips in protection of his upper body, which didn’t stop her for long as she merely had to lean down to blow a raspberry on his unprotected neck, making Clint who had not expected this at all squeal with laughter.

„TH-THAHAT’S NOT ALLOWED!!“ He argued, letting go of her hands and trying to push her away from himself again, laughing helplessly when her fingers were back on their way up his ribs in no time. „Stahahap it already!!!“

„No! We haven’t yet tested my memory!“

„It’s my armpits!! I prhohohomise!! No need for tests, rehehheally!! rEHEHEALLY!!“

Clint kicked out as hard as he could behind Natasha’s back as she managed to wiggle her fingertips the slightest bit underneath his biceps and metal arm to get at the sensitive spots. She smirked and tried to distract Clint by blowing air into his face, chuckling when she saw him squeeze his eyes shut even more. „StAHHAP THAT!!“

„Come on, lemme! Just for a second!“

„Nohoho wahahay!!“

Clint’s laughter was flowing completely freely by then. He had seemingly let go of all things depressing for just this small amount of time, giving in to the unrelenting ticklish feeling and not trying to fight his own laughter anymore. Natasha hadn’t seen him this carefree in years.

She could not stop now, where she was seconds away from making him lose all track of thought. Just for a little while. Determined she moved up a little further on his body, sitting down on his upper stomach and almost making his eyes pop out by the sudden shifts of weight. He couldn’t form a coherent complaint though, since Natasha quickly moved her hands behind her back to dance her fingers down his sides, that were now completely at her mercy due to their new position.

„NHOHOO!! Nohoohoho!! stAHHAHP!! I can’t bREHEHEATHE!!!“ Clint’s eyes were shining from his laughter by now, the bright blue of his iris taking Natasha’s breath away. She grinned at his futile attempts to get a grip of her hands and took this opportunity to push her knees up further, blocking Clint’s ability to defend his armpits any further. He realized this immediately and barked out a single „SHIT!“ before her fingers attacked, making him arch his back and give in to a defeated laughter that came straight from his belly and sounded deeper and richer than all the sounds he’d already made. He couldn’t get another word in, as his laughter kept pouring out of him, merely started shaking his head around and kicking out less than before.

Natasha smiled fondly as she listened to his hearty laughter, the one she hadn’t heard in so long and saw how it brightened up his features.

„I think this proves it alright.“ She chuckled, removing her fingers from his armpit to allow him a breather before she evilly snuck them in again.

„NO NO NO PLEHEHEASE!! STAHAHP!!“ Clint barked out, his laughter sounding a tad bit hysterical as he tried to move out of his fatal position now. But Natasha immediately stopped at his request and gently shifted back to sitting on his hips, allowing his arms to cover his ampits again.

She chuckled softly as he gasped for air, noisily, sounding as if he’d just ran a marathon, his head falling back to the ground. She put her hands on his stomach and grinned when he flinched underneath her touch, gently patting the spot in an offer of peace.

„No more tickling, I promise.“

Clint sighed in relief and moved his head up to look at her again. They glared at each other for a little while, before they both had to laugh - about each other, about themselves, about the fact that they had just done this in the midst of an apocalypse.

Clint groaned and tried to stop chuckling with a pained expression. „Ah, I can’t laugh no more. My stomach will explode!“

„What can I say, Clint, you asked for this!“ Natasha smirked, chuckling when Clint squinted his eyes at her dangerously.

„Oh, you better watch it! I know that you’re not immune to this either!“ Clint tried to poke her in the side, but Natasha snatched his wrist and held on tightly.

„You wouldn’t stand a chance!“

Clint grinned at her, a grin she hadn’t seen in quite a while.

„I’ll attack when you least expect it!“ He purred in a voice that sent a goosebump down Natasha’s arm. Damn, she’d missed this Clint.

„I’ll always expect it then,“ she retorted and stuck her tongue out at him, getting back to her feet and offering him a hand but dropping it again before he could reach for it. Clint chuckled at that. Slowly he pushed himself off the ground as well to get back to where he’d been so rudely interrupted previously.

With his hands on his hips he looked over the shelves of the Archive and sighed. „If you keep doing things like that, we’ll never be done here.“ Clint remarked, bending over to pick up the files he’d dropped earlier.

Natasha waited until he was standing upright again, before she took a step closer to him and threw her arms around him. Clint gasped in surprise, the files flying from his hand to the floor. With a tired huff, he ignored the mess and gently wrapped his arms around Natasha as well. She could feel his warm breath on her head and snuggled closer to his chest.

„It’ll be okay,“ Clint suddenly whispered, stealing her line. She moved her head away from his chest in surprise to look at him. He was smiling, nodding - and she realized that it was all she’d needed from him: reassurance.

She turned her lips into a thin line and nodded as well, a weak smile on her face.

„It will be,“ she agreed, meaning to move away from him and get back to work. But his grip tightened around her. She looked up in horror.

„You didn’t expect that.“ He smirked and Natasha could not believe that he had turned the tables this sneakily until he lifted her into the air, threw her over his shoulder and tickled her sides until her laughter and her fists to his back grew weaker.

[dean-samw67]

This is Hell

Chapter 32: Season 4 Episode 6

Warnings: None

Words: 2094

Just the few hours that Daryl and the others had been gone Harper had gotten worse. She could barely move from the bed she was laying in and was trying so hard to catch her next breath. She could hear Hershel, Glenn and Sasha a few cells down trying to help one of the others. Her breaths were short and raspy. 

She looks around the room, her eyelids drooping so low that she could just barely see. In the corner she saw something wrapped in a blanket on the floor. She blinks a few times trying to make out what it was. Her head and ears start ringing with cries of a baby. She grunts and reaches up to her head. 

“No.” She mumbles. “No. No. No.” She repeats that one word over and over again. Hershel had overheard her and as soon as the person he was with was okay and had the air tube down his throat to help him breath Glenn took over, pumping air into his lungs. Hershel rushes to Harper’s cell, Sasha following being. 

“Harper, it’s okay. Calm down.” Hershel gets down next to her. 

“Make it stop. Please make it stop.” Harper whimpers. 

“I think she’s hallucinating. Get me some of the tea.” Sasha does as asked and hands a cup to Hershel. He attempts to lift Harper up and get her to drink some of the warm liquid. 

“No!” Harper panics and smacks the cup from his hands. It hits the wall and clatters on the ground as Harper covers her ears and begins crying. She turns to her side on the bed and curls in a ball, back turned to them. Hershel tries to rub her back in hopes to calm her. 

“It’s not real.” 

***

“You think my parents will be okay?” Alexis asks, leaned against the wall. She was sitting with Beth and Judith. 

“They're tough.” Beth nods. 

“So were so many others. But they are dead.” Alexis stares down at the knife that Harper had given to her right before this all went down. Ironic how she gave her something of hers perfectly in time for them all to be separated. 

“Well… if that's the case… we don’t get to be sad.” 

“Why?” 

“Because these things happen now. We have to keep going.” Beth looks over at the teenage girl. 

“What if I can’t.” 

“You’re just gonna have to.” Lexi nods as she runs her finger, carefully, over the sharp tip of the blade. 

*** 

After Hershel had left Harper’s cell he shut the door. Harper was looking around panicked as she breathes heavily while in a cold sweat. She was shivering and coughing every so often. It felt like she could hear every sound around her. And each one was worse than the next. Her head was pounding and it made her feel like she was going to throw up. 

She begins hearing a panic outside of the cell. Screams and gunshots ring in her head as the attack down below breaks out. She gasps for air as she feels tears well up in her eyes. 

Daryl wasn’t back yet. She didn’t think she could hold out much longer. She didn’t even know if she wanted to keep holding out. Maybe letting go was what needed to happen right now. She lets her eyes shut as the cell block continues to fill with cries and gunshots and struggles. 

***

Daryl and the others pull up. Tyresse gets out and rushes inside to see Sasha. Daryl helps gather the medicine that they got and take it in. They set the bags down for Hershel to look through the meds. 

“Where is Harper?” Daryl’s words were rushed and panicked. 

“Upstairs, cell 105.” Daryl runs up the steps and to the cell, throwing the door open. He gets down next to the cot and turns Harper over. She had blood streaks down her chin. He places his fingers to her neck in search of a pulse as his heart races. He finds a faint beating under her skin. 

“Hershel!” Daryl shouts. Hershel and Bob run in with the stuff needed and Daryl steps back. They begin giving her the medication that is needed and making sure she is breathing. 

After all is said and done Hershel cleans her off and looks at Daryl, “We need to help others. I suggest you leave. Let her rest. She’ll be alright now.” Hershel places his hand on Daryl’s shoulder before going to give meds to the others. Daryl looks at the practically limp body of the dark haired woman. He leans down and brushes the hair from her forehead and kisses it. 

“You’ll be okay.” He whispers before standing up straight and leaving. He walks outside and leans against one of the walls before sitting on the ground. Rick notices him and walks over, taking a seat with him. 

“Before all this, Harper used to get sick with everything. Flu, every possible cold, she had pneumonia once, pretty sure Lori said she had lice once as a kid too.” Rick chuckles. “Not that it makes her sick but she somehow manages to catch everything.” Daryl looks over at him. “Point is, Harper is tough. She’ll bounce back quick.” 

“I know she will.” Daryl nods as he fiddles with his fingers. 

“Listen, I know you aren’t a commitment type of guy. But I see how you look at her. I know how you feel.” 

“She means a lot to me.” Rick reaches in his pocket, fishing something out. He holds up a ring. 

“This used to be Lori’s. I never intend to put it on another person's finger, ever. But… if you want to think about it, Harper would love to have something of Lori’s and coming from you it’ll mean so much to her.” Rick holds it out to him. Daryl turns his hand over and the ring is dropped into his palm. 

“Ya mean…” 

“Think about it. But if you want to, you have my blessing.” Rick smiles. “If it means anything, if you were to ask her, she would say yes.” Daryl nods, taking it all in and staring at the ring in his hand. 

“Things are going to be okay now.” Daryl closes his hand over the ring and looking forward. 

“It will be.” 

***

It was finally daylight out. Harper’s eyes flutter open as she looks around. She was alive. She could breathe again and felt mostly normal, aside from being weak from the sickness. Her body still ached a little but after how she felt before she could care less. 

“You’re awake.” Alexis smiles, standing in the doorway of the cell. “I’ll go get dad.” 

“Wait. Just stay.” Harper holds her hand up. Lexi nods and walks over, sitting on the edge of the bed. 

“They said you almost didn’t make it.” 

“But I did.” 

“But you did.” Alexis smiles to herself about that. There is an explosion and the whole building shakes. Alexis stands up. 

“Stay here. It could be dangerous.” Harper pushes herself up slowly.

“I need to. Just relax here.” Alexis holds her hand up and runs out with Maggie. Everyone else runs out as well. Rick, Daryl, Beth, Carl, all of them. Across the field are cars and a tank parked outside. 

“Rick! Come on down here! We need to talk!” The voice of the Governor’s voice carries through the air. 

“It’s not up to me! There’s a council now! They run this place!” Rick shouts. 

“Is Hershel on the council?” A girl pulls Hershel from a car and places him on his knees in front of the fence. “Michonne?” Michonne is pulled from the car next and placed next to Hershel. 

“I don’t make the decisions anymore!” 

“Well, you are making them today, Rick.” The Governor crosses his arms. “So come on down here.” Rick sighs and heads down to talk. Alexis looks at Carl who gives her a nod. Daryl carefully and slowly, so not to be noticed, begins to hand guns to everyone. Alexis looks at the gun in her hand and then up and Daryl. He gives her a quick rundown on how to use it. 

“Do not shoot it until I say so. And do not put your finger over the trigger until you are ready to shoot.” He explains as he stands near the fence and aims his gun. Alexis nods and does the same, hands a little shaky. She lets out a deep breath to calm herself. 

As Rick and the Governor talk, walkers approach them. The Governor turns and aims his gun at them, shooting three bullets. 

“That’s going to bring more in.” Alexis whispers. 

“I think that was his point.” Carl whispers back. “We need to do something.” 

“Your dad’s got it.” Daryl grips his gun. 

“We could kill the Governor right now.” 

“From 50 yards?” 

“I’m a good shot.” 

“Just listen for once, Carl. Shooting him could start something worse.” Lexi huffs. After a while of talking that the others can’t hear, the Governor jumps down from the tank and pulls out Michonne’s katana. He walks over to Hershel, holding the blade to his neck. 

“No!” Maggie gasps as her and Beth run forward, closer to the gate. Rick steps back and begins trying to reason with everyone there. The governor starts pulling the blade from Hershel’s neck. It falls quiet for a moment before the Governor swings back the katana and slashes it through Hershel’s neck. Alexis gasps as Maggie and Beth both start to cry and scream. 

“No!” Rick shouts and starts shooting, signaling for everyone else to start shooting. So they do. Every person now filled with rage watching what just happened. Alexis aims and shoots at every person she could see, through clouded, tearfilled eyes. They begin driving the tank through the fences. Alexis ducks down for cover as she shoots. 

Back inside Harper is helping and ushering everyone out of cell block A. Everyone was in a panic. Crying filled the rooms as Harper helped each one of them. 

“Is that everyone!?” Harper called into the cell block as she got the last person out. She hears a groan in one of the upstairs cells. She runs up and around the railing to the cell. An older man was holding himself up on the wall. She takes his arm and helps him down the stairs and out. She tries helping him to the bus as there is gun fire. Maggie runs over and starts to cover her as she helps him. They reach the bus and Harper helps him on. 

She takes a deep breath as she places her hand against her neck. She panics at the realization that her locket was off. It was taken off while she was sick so she didn’t have anything on her neck while she was struggling to breathe. 

“Harper, get on the bus, come on.” Maggie ushers. 

“My locket. I left it in the cellblock.” 

“Harper, you can’t go back for a locket.” 

“That’s all I have left of them.” Harper shakes her head and pulls her gun from the back of her pants and turns the safety off before running back inside. She runs in and up the stairs as an explosion comes through the side wall, causing her to fall on the stairs and grab the railing to pull herself back up. She finishes up the steps and runs into her cellblock. 

She grabs the locket and pushes it into her pocket before running back down, ducking as another explosion bursts through the concrete wall. She tries to catch her breath as she stops. She looks at her hand which was shaking wildly. Her body felt weak as she picks herself up and runs  back outside. 

Alexis runs with Beth after looking for Judith but failing to find her. They stop by Daryl. 

“We were trying to find the kids to get them on the bus.” Beth explains. 

“Daryl!” Harper yells and coughs as smoke surrounds her. 

“Harper!” He goes to run toward her but she is shot and falls back to the ground, behind one of the file cabinets they had outside for cover. A walker stumbles over and behind the cabinet. 

“No!” Alexis screams and shoots at the guy who shot Harper. He falls to the ground. Walkers begin approaching them. Daryl shakes his head. She can’t be dead. He never even told her he loved her back. He grabs Alexis’s arm. 

“We got to go!” He shouts and the three of them run from the prison.

Chapter 33~

This is Hell Masterlist

[joshuas]

facts

♫ pairing: hwang hyunjin x female reader

♫ genre: fluff, crack (seriously, do not question how i came up with this), domestic au, established relationship au

♫ warnings: mentions spiders, and mentions use of alcohol?

♫ word count: 1.5k

♫ prompt: “are you drunk?” “not nearly enough” from this prompt list !

♫ a/n: this was actually a request from @starteez and dedicated to her as a very very belated birthday present <33 hope you like it :)))

♫ summary: hyunjin gets super drunk and has a Crisis, meanwhile you just wanted to watch the latest episode of your favourite drama.

♫ tagging: @jadezircon @mostlikelynotmelissa and @potato2earth - let me know if you would like to be part of the tag list !

You sighed, settling into the couch, tub of ice cream, and tv remote in hand.

It was Friday night. Otherwise known as you and Hyunjin’s drama night, in which you’d watch the latest episode of the most recent drama the two of you were hooked on. However, today, Hyunjin had decided to go out for drinks with Felix, ditching you and your drama night. Initially, you were annoyed (not that he was hanging out with his friends but more so that he messed with your tradition), but you realised that you could just watch it without him. I mean... he was going out and having fun, who’s to say that you can’t do the same by chilling with your favourite characters and finding out about whatever dark secrets they had been just about to reveal in the previous episode. Okay... the latter of that was your main motivation for it. You’re not that lonely or sad.

Nodding resolutely, you scooped your ice cream, settling into the couch as the drama played, your attention fixated on the screen.

The sharp buzz of your phone startled you out of your immense concentration, the caller ID flashing to reveal your boyfriend, Hyunjin.

Your eyes widened in panic, your hands knocking the ice cream off of your lap as you reached around for the TV remote. The phone buzzed continuously, ringing as you fumbled around for the off button, leaving you breathless as you picked up the phone on the final ring,

“He—“

“Y/NNNN~” Hyunjin whined into the phone, his breathing heavy.

“Hyunjin? What’s wrong? Are you crying? ...Are you drunk?” You closed your eyes, only to open them again in confusion as you heard sniffling on the other end of the phone.

“Not nearly e-enough! I-I don’t w-want to be e-eaten.” He sobbed into the phone.

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion,

“What?” Your tone coming out sharper than expected, eliciting more sobs from Hyunjin.

“F-felix w-was telling me about how f-female s-spiders e-eat their m-mates, and now I’m scared and I’m n-never coming h-home because y-you’re going to e-eat me.” Hyunjin breathed, between sobs.

...What?

“Excuse me? Why would I eat you. Felix was talking about spiders.” You said, slightly offended by his drunk comparisons.

He breathed deeply,

“Y-you know how the other day we were watching a Marvel movie and y-you k-know what you s-said? You said that the c-character you r-relate with t-the m-most with is Black Widow!” He exclaimed, almost hysterical.

You pinched the bridge of your nose, as he spoke incoherently at the phone, sobs heaving out of him as if he had just witnessed something deeply distressing. Well... what his drunk mind was picturing was slightly distressing, so it made sense.

“Well yes, because she’s a strong, independent female lead. Anyway, you’re too drunk to understand any of that. Hyunjin. Where are you?”

“I’m not telling you! Y-you can’t come to Felix’s house!” Hyunjin attempted to ward you off before realising his mistake a second later. “FELIX! Y/N’s COMING! She’s going to eat us—“

You hung up on him, grabbing your keys and heading out the door... ignoring the melting ice cream on the floor.

As soon as you reached Felix’s apartment you flung the door wide open, apologising profusely as a wincing Felix came out from behind, guiding you to your extremely drunk boyfriend.

Not noticing your entrance, Hyunjin had positioned himself quite... oddly, so that his head was on the rug on the floor but his legs were on the couch, a hand flung dramatically on his forehead, and another hand on the floor, not too dissimilar to someone doing a one-handed snow angel.

He looks like a four-year-old...

You cleared your throat behind him, approaching him tentatively. Whipping around, his eyes widened when they landed on you, panic flashing through them as he scrambled to sit upright.

“What are you doing here?” His words, although slightly slurred, still portrayed fear that was not well-founded at all. How his drunken state got to thinking you were a spider was beyond you, but then again, he was drinking with Felix, so who knows what went down there.

“I came to pick you up since you’re um. Drunk.” You raised your eyebrows, stating the obvious.

“No! You’re not allowed to take me back to your web.” He stumbled forward, couch cushion in hand in an attempt to ward you off.

Web? Oh my god...

“Can you— ugh. I’m not a spider! I’m not going to eat you! You’re my boyfriend, for God’s sake, and I love you, and I’m not a cannibal. Besides, you wouldn’t be very delicious, you’re mostly just muscle.” You sighed, raising your arms in frustration and defeat.

Hyunjin’s eyes widened in offence, placing a hand on his chest and stepping back, tears started to well in his eyes.

“I— oh no. What? Why are you crying again?” You panicked, settling him on the couch, rubbing his back soothingly as you mentally cursed his current over sensitive state.

“Y-you really t-think I w-wouldn’t be d-delicious?” He sobbed louder into your shoulder, as you rubbed soothing patterns on his back.

You rolled your eyes,

He’s so drunk.

“This conversation is so concerning, and one that I want to discontinue at all costs. I'm not a spider, and I'm not going to eat you. I don't want to comment on... that.” You deadpanned.

“How did you guys even get this drunk?” You glanced between Hyunjin and Felix who had emerged from the kitchen, ice pack on his slightly bruised face.

“It was all him. I asked him if he wanted to come over and watch the latest episode of this drama we’re both really into. He started drinking as soon as we started watching because he didn’t want to remember any of it so that when he watches it with you his reactions are genuine. Eventually, he got too drunk to even sit still, so we turned it off and started talking about stuff.” Felix shrugged.

“...and you somehow got to talking about spiders?” You asked, unimpressed.

“We were baking because he wanted to make you cookies, since he felt guilty...for basically watching nothing. I guess he still felt guilty for the action. Anyway, he freaked out after seeing a spider. Hyunjin, plus being drunk and his usual dramatic self is not fun. Especially when spiders are involved. I told him that fact because it was at the top of my head and he gave up on the cookies and started freaking out about you. Speaking of the cookies, I should probably check on them. You need to take this home before the rest of the guys come here if you want to have any of it.” He headed to the kitchen, leaving you and Hyunjin alone in the living room.

“Hyunjin, why didn’t you just stay home if you were just going to watch the drama? You know that today is drama night.” You crossed your arms, directing your attention once again to your sniffling boyfriend.

“I didn’t want to cry in front of youuu,” he sobbed. “I didn’t know what was going to happen next and I thought they might break up and I just...” he trailed off.

“You know that makes no sense right? You’re literally sobbing in front of me now. Also, you’re my boyfriend, I’m supposed to be there for you, tears and all. Besides, we’ll probably both be sobbing if the main characters broke up. We’ve shipped them too much for that to not be devastating.“ You said resolutely, your gaze softening as you looked at him, snuggling closer to you.

“I knowww.”

“Come on, let’s go home. There’s a tub of ice cream waiting for the both of us.”

Your drama night was postponed to Saturday seeing as soon as the two of you arrived at your apartment, Hyunjin collapsed and fell into a deep sleep on the couch... and your ice cream was on the floor, melted and no longer edible.

Leading you to Saturday night, where you and Hyunjin were snuggled together on the couch, wrapped in a blanket burrito, eating the cookies he baked yesterday, alongside a new tub of ice cream, whilst bawling your eyes out.

“I told you,” he sniffed “I knew this would happen.”

Your tear-filled eyes blurred your vision as you tried to focus on the crying characters on the screen, reaching for another tissue,

“I know, but it’s not as bad when we’re watching it together, and besides, these cookies are incredible with ice cream.” You snuggled into him and gave him a watery smile.

“Hey, as long as you’re not a spider and about to eat me, I’m all for our drama nights and cuddles,” Hyunjin smirked.

You pushed him lightly,

“Oh my god... how do you even remember any of the stuff you said? You were ridiculous.”

“I don’t know but the fact still holds.”

“It’s not even a fact! I'm human!”

💫 masterlist !