#I have a five hour asthma turned panic attack

[witchofthewild]

Maybe this is controversial. But some people are a little too weird about weed

[fr4nkoce4n]

better together!

matt rempe

warnings: asthma, panic attack maybe?

this one is for my asthma girlys or the girls who need a puffer! i feel you☺️

I had always needed an asthma puffer since I could remember. I was one of those kids who couldn’t go five minutes of physical activity without needing my puffer.

I honestly felt like an idiot having to carry it around in the time, but I guess I would rather that then die from not being able to breathe.

It was currently 2:43am as I rolled over to look at my phone, I could not stop coughing, I needed my asthma puffer. I reached for the one on the side table and went to take a puff, surprisingly nothing came out.

My coughing must of woke Matt up because he put his arms around my waist as he spoke, “you okay?” He asked as he sat up, his hands still on my waist.

“I need to get another puffer, I think there’s one in the first aid kit.” I began to hop up but Matt pulled me back down into the bed, “Matt I need-“

“I’ll get it baby.” He whispered and lifted himself up from the bed making his way out to find the first aid kit.

As I laid back down and pulled the sheets over me once again, I could hear him rustling around in the kitchen.

A few minutes later, he came back with nothing in his hand, “I can’t find one, come help me?” He pouted, obviously disappointed that he couldn’t find it for me.

I hopped up and reached for his hand as we walked out the bedroom into the kitchen together, still coughing, I started looking through the kit on the bench. Finding nothing.

“Shit. I swear I had one.” I groaned as I frantically searching, my throat felt like it was closing up.

Matt grabbed my hands and played with my fingers, “it’s okay, hey look at me, don’t worry. I’ll go get you a new one.” He spoke calmly, trying to get me to come out of panicking state.

He grabbed my waist and sat me on the bench, he walked away and came back out with his phone. “The closest 24/7 chemist is an hour away. Do you think you can last that long without it?”

I nodded, he nodded back and grabbed a drink bottle from the draw and filled it up with water for me and handed it to me. He grabbed a jumper and pulled it over his head, slipping on his Nike slides.

“Hop on pretty girl.” He smiled as he turned around for me to hop on his back.

I was now on his back as we rode the elevator down to the basement where Matt’s bmw lived. We got in the car and he immediately turned it on and gave me his phone to put some music on, “or we don’t have to listen to anything.” He said softly.

I shook my head, trying to hold in my coughs but I was unsuccessful, he pouted at me. I knew he hated seeing me like this.

I searched through his phone and played out playlist, it shuffled and played the song where the skies are blue, by the lumineers.

I smiled and leaned into the chair as Matt began to drive, I tried to fall asleep but i couldn’t from all my coughing.

Matt had hardly said a word since we left, it was starting to make me scared, maybe he was mad at me, or tired. I was hoping he was just tired.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered as I fiddled with my fingers.

“What for?” He turned to me.

“For making you drive all this way, for waking you up, for you having to see me like this. I should have been more prepared. I’m sorry Matt.”

He shook his head and grabbed my hand with his free hand, “No, there is absolutely nothing to be sorry for beautiful. If anything I’m happy you woke me up, I get to spend more time with you, beats sleeping when I can’t talk with you.”

My heart had just melted. “I love you.” I smiled at him, squeezing his hand.

“I love you too.” I saw his little smile out the corner of his eye.

We finally arrived at the chemist after a long hour, he pulled into an almost empty car park, “ you can stay in here, I’ll get it for you.”

“Here take my card.” I tried to give him my credit card but he refused and shut the door locking me in the car.

It was only few minutes before he came back to the car with a bag. He jumped in the car and gave the bag to me, I opened it and was met with a bag of my favourite chocolates.

I squealed and opened them immediately, before I was interrupted. “Don’t you think you should use the asthma puffer we just drove 1 hour for?” He laughed at my actions.

I let out another cough, “oh yeah.” I giggled and opened the box, I clicked it in and inhaled the vapour into my lungs. “Thank you baby.” I leaned in and placed a sweet and soft kiss on his lips.

“Anything for you.” He smiled. “I bought two more, just incase.”

“You know me so well.” I chuckled and hugged his arm as we started to drive off back home.

[teenwolffan-with-nolife]

Breathe

Word Count: 829

Characters: Scott McCall, Liam Dunbar, Reader

Pairings: Scott McCall x Reader

Warnings: angst, small fluff, TW: panic attack

A/N: only five more! gif from google

Masterlist

Everything was stressful. Everyone was stressed. Malia was dealing with her own shit, adamant about taking care of it on her own, Stiles had been off, not ignoring you and Scott, but not exactly with you two. Lydia was at Eichen, against all of your wishes. Her mother thought it would be helping her. Kira barely talked to any of you either. Theo was still on your nerves, unfortunately, but you pushed it aside for Scott. He wasn’t doing great either. Somehow, his powers were failing him, everything began to get worse. Liam was the only one who wasn’t ignoring you completely.

“Hey,” Liam leaned against the locker next to you, while you gave him a soft smile.

“Talk to anyone?” you asked.

He shook his head, as you sighed.

“I hate this,” you said softly.

“You’re not the only one. Scott… he had an asthma attack today in class,” you tensed, turning to face Liam.

“What? Is he okay?” you frowned.

“He… He said he was but I don’t believe him. He went home for the rest of the day,” Liam explained.

“Shit. I’ve been so anxious about everyone else, I haven’t had any time to even look at him. I need to call him,” you dialed his number on your phone, hearing it go straight to voicemail.

You dialed his number once more, only for it to go to voicemail again.

“That happened when I tried to call him too,” Liam sighed.

Shit

“Screw it. I’m ditching, I’m gonna go check on him, okay?” you said.

“Okay, I’ll come with you,” Liam started.

“Dude, get your little sophomore ass to class. I’m a senior, I’m not taking any important classes,” you raised an eyebrow.

He let out an exaggerated sigh before nodding his head.

You closed your locker, walking out of the school. 

---

“Scotty?” you entered the house slowly, not spotting Scott. 

The lights were all off, you couldn’t see him anywhere. Melissa was at work, you couldn’t call her.

You heard the sound of something falling as you tensed up, running up the stairs.

You pushed open Scott’s room door, unable to make out anything except for his glowing red eyes.

“Scott,” you said softly.

His breathing was labored, you could slightly see him gripping onto the table next to him tightly.

“Hey,” you said softly, walking next to him.

“Scotty…”

“I can’t breathe,” you heard him wheeze, feeling him hold onto your arm, taking you by surprise.

“L-Like an asthma attack? Where’s your inhaler?” you asked.

He shook his head no, before you quickly ran, flipping on the lights. You gasped softly, seeing Scott’s figure laying on the floor, wheezing for air as tears rushed to his eyes.

“Scott,” you ran to him, putting your hand on either side of his face.

“Hey,” you wiped his tears, as he gripped onto your arm.

Panic Attack

“Inhaler,” he wheezed, pointing to the bed.

You nodded, running to his bed before looking for the inhaler. You picked it up, before feeling your heart rate increase.

“You don’t have any pumps left,” you shook your head.

“I-I can’t…” his voice drifted off as he dug his nails into his palms. You could see the blood dripping before you sat in front of him, trying to think of what to do.

Skin contact

“S-Scott, okay, I need to help you breathe. Y-You know how skin contact can help people relax when they have panic attacks, it’s why some people take their shirts off when hugging a kid when they can’t breathe, i-it gives them a sense of comfort,” you began rambling, feeling nervousness in your chest, looking at Scott’s shaking figure.

“(Y/N),” Scott’s voice was shaky as he held onto you weakly, his eyes flashing between red and their natural color.

“O-Okay, Scott. Do you trust me?” you asked softly.

He nodded, before you quickly threw your bag aside, taking off your shirt before pulling off Scott’s.

He shivered slightly, before you wrapped your arms around him, rocking him back and forth slowly.

---

The two of you stayed there for a few hours. You reached for his bed blanket, wrapping it around the two of you. You could hear his sniffles as he rested his head on your chest.

“We’re losing everyone,” he said softly.

“We’ve been through worse and we’ve come out on top. We can do this, Scott,” you stroked his cheek softly, while he looked up at you.

He nodded, before pressing a kiss to your lips.

“Thanks,” he said.

You kissed his forehead, before resting your head on top of his.

“Stay the night?” he mumbled.

“Of course,” you ran your fingers through his hair, before helping him up, handing him his shirt.

“Crap, I have to bring my mom some dinner, I forgot,” he sighed.

“I already had someone send something. We can just breathe for the night,” he nodded, before the two of you made your way down the stairs, walking to the kitchen.

taglist:

@lokisgoldscepter​

@sonnydoesrandomshit​

@aprilfire18​

@confuscita​

@teen-wolf-obsessed4life​

@eunoia-kth​

@shortimaginewriter​

@linkpk88​

@mrs-scottmccall​

@noncannonships​

[fandomwriterstuff]

Shoot to Kill

Rated T, WinterShieldShock

The Avengers were on a mission, and Darcy was distracting herself with work. Distracting herself from what? She couldn’t tell you. It’s not like she was dating any of them. Though she wished she was, she thought to herself. Jane was off galavanting with Thor and had left Darcy in charge of the readings for the weekend.

That was how Darcy found herself completely alone on the eightieth floor of the tower, nobody in the Avengers’ residential floors, nobody in the labs, nobody in the penthouse. Just the schmucks who lived and worked on the first few floors.

She was be-bopping along to the music blasting through her noise-cancelling Stark Tech headphones for the third day in a row when things started going wrong. She didn’t hear the call for lockdown past her music. She had the blinds pulled closed and shut, so she didn’t notice the steel walls shut over the external windows. She didn’t notice anything for over an hour, actually. That was when Darcy popped up from behind a machine and saw the man in all black standing in the door and mouthing the words ‘all clear.’ He was tall, taller than Steve, and brown hair was poking out of his helmet.

“Wait!” Darcy shouted, hurrying over to the agent, pulling her headphones off.

“What are you doing up here? Civilians were evacuated an hour ago,” his gruff voice did nothing to quell Darcy’s uprising panicked feelings.

“Evacuated?” she squeaked. Steve and Bucky would be so pissed that she fucked up an evacuation.

“Stay here, I’ll be right back Miss…”

“Doctor Lewis,” Darcy narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Stay here,” he called and shut the door behind him. Darcy pondered what she should do when there was a deafening noise that echoed down the hall. Did he just shoot someone? Were there enemies in the tower?

Darcy quickly pulled out her Stark phone and dialed her father.

“Short stack, what did I tell you about calling while we’re on a mission,” Tony huffed, out of breath and Darcy let out a nervous laugh. “What’s wrong?” He was suddenly all business.

“The tower went into lockdown and I missed the evac,” she bit her lip.

“Fuck, sugar. Are you alone?” she heard him call out to his companions next. “Cap, get your ass and Barnes’ back to the Tower ASAP!”

“There was a SHIELD agent here, but he left me,” Darcy was good at staying calm under pressure, but when your one hope at getting out left you in a room alone… You start to get nervous.

“Cap and Barnes will be there in forty minutes. Stay where you are. Eightieth floor astrophysics lab. Stay,” he shouted before hanging up. Fuck.

“Doctor Lewis,” the unnamed SHIELD agent had returned with a...vest? “What is that?” Darcy had a bad feeling.

“Do you remember your training, Doctor Lewis?” The SHIELD agent walked closer and helped Darcy put the vest on. All she could think was that it was heavy. “This is kevlar. It will keep you safe.”

“What training? Why am I in kevlar?” Darcy gulped.

“We’re getting you out of here, but I’ve got to get to the rooftop. The first seventy nine floors have been cleared. Do you know what that means?” Darcy shook her head as the man pulled a piston from somewhere on his body. He seemed to have multiple. “It means if you see anybody, and I mean anybody,” he stressed the word and looked into her eyes. He put the pistol in her hands. “Shoot first, ask questions later.”

Fuck.

“You want me to take eighty flights of stairs?” She tried to be sassy, but her words came out thin, her voice wavering.

“You can do this, Doctor Lewis. Look around every corner. Safety off. Shoot first, ask questions later. Am I understood?” His voice was very serious and Darcy nodded her head, a slight lightheadedness and sense of anxiety coming in at the corners of her mind. This is not a time to panic, she told herself.

“I understand,” the man nodded and held the door to the stairwell open.

“What’s your name?”

“Agent Winchester. Sam Winchester,” he gave her a winning smile before taking the stairs up two at a time. Darcy heaved in a deep breath, her lungs expanding as she looked around the corner, gun held out with two hands in front of her before the started down the stairs.

Each floor had a doorway with a window, so it was a lot of crouching and pointing her gun around. Her thighs were beginning to ache. The kevlar was snug over her chest, and she had begun to sweat in her thick-knit black sweater after climbing down ten flights of stairs. It became a routine though: point the gun, peek around the corner and down the flight, scurry down. Point, peek, scurry. Point, peek, scurry.

It took her thirty minutes to get to the bottom and she’d forgotten that Steve and Bucky were coming for her… Or rather Captain America and the White Wolf. They’d be decked out in full gear and would be in civilian-saving mode.

She was on the last flight of stairs, the routine coming back to her as she felt the lightheadedness of relief start filling in her mind.

Point the gun.

Peek around the corner. Walk into the hallway.

At that moment, a man in black came around the corner five feet in front of her. Darcy’s arms were still outstretched, the safety was off.

Point and shoot. Point and shoot. Point and shoot. The words were repeating in her head and she made herself do it.

She pointed, and she shot. But something was wrong. There were two loud noises, not one. In a moment, Darcy was flying back. There was a sharp aching pain in her ribs and as she flew back and smacked her head on the concrete wall of the stairwell, she blacked out.

“She’s on the eightieth floor, Cap, how are we supposed to get there. Fly?” Bucky was covering his panic with sarcasm again, but Steve couldn’t blame him. Their… Darcy was in danger. She wasn’t their anything, really, but they wanted her to be.

They ducked into the tower, by the time they’d arrived SHIELD had assured them the hostiles had been taken care of. Then why hadn’t Darcy called? Steve couldn’t help but worry.

“Any eyes on Doctor Lewis? She should be in the labs, eightieth floor,” Steve asked into the comms in his ear and there was a chorus of negatives.

“Two bodies in the north stairwell. First floor,” a muffled voice called though and Steve shared a panicked look with Bucky as they headed towards the north stairwell. ���One enemy, dead. Point blank gunshot to the head,” the agent was still speaking as Steve and Bucky tore through the first floor. “Fuck,” they heard him as they opened the door to the stairwell. “Second body's Doctor Lewis.”

Steve nearly choked on his breath, feeling small and panicked and like he couldn’t breathe, like he was before the serum when he would have asthma attacks. Steve walked over to the agent crouched over the sweater-clad woman.

“She’s been shot,” he looked up at Steve and Bucky. “No external injury. She’s got kevlar on. Somebody was looking out for her.”

“She was supposed to stay in the labs,” Bucky grunted and the agent paled.

“She’s lucky she didn’t, the fight came down to the lab floors pretty quick. They’re a wreck,” he shook his head and gave the rest of his assessment. “No external injury on the gunshot, but her head is bleeding. And,” he gestured to the bloody splotch on the wall. “I’d bet she flew back when she was shot and hit her head here.”

“We’ll take it from here agent,” Steve commanded and the man thankfully hurried away. He could practically see the panic in Bucky’s face being covered by the wall of stoic indifference he used as a coping mechanism.

“We should get her to medical,” he spoke and Steve nodded, unsure how to carry her if she had a head injury.

“We should call them in. With a stretcher. People with head wounds can’t just be moved,” Steve shook his head before calling for medical to come down and find them. He couldn’t help but crouch near her unconscious form and brush the sweaty hair off of her forehead.

“We should get her out of the kevlar,” Bucky noted, sounding calmer. “There’s a bullet in it, it could be putting pressure on her lungs if it compressed any.”

Steve shook his head.

“I think we should just wait for the medics,” he stood and stared at her slumped body, Bucky keeping watch for medical attention. When they finally arrived they did come with a stretcher and they gingerly removed the kevlar before laying her down.

“Told you, punk,” Bucky came to stand next to his partner. When the two men made a move to follow, one of the medics stood apart from the rest and crossed his arms.

“There’s no way you two are following her all the way up to medical when you’re looking that hungry for revenge,” the man sassed them and Steve opened his mouth to rebuke him when the smaller man stuck a hand out. “No. You can come see her when we’ve thoroughly checked her through. Alright? I’ll put you on her visitation list,” he rolled his eyes and Bucky sighed. He was smaller than them but Steve had a feeling he would put up a helluva fight.

“Alright. Thank you…?” Steve cocked his head to the side. He didn’t spend a lot of time in medical and didn’t know the doctor or nurses there.

“Doctor Leonard McCoy, at your service,” the man stuck out his hand for a shake and Steve took it, shocked by the firm grip. “Now, I’m going to be Doctor Lewis’ attending physician, so I need to leave. I assume you boys will stay out of my hair?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Bucky rolled his eyes, but focused in on the doctor once again. “Is she going to be alright? She killed someone,” Steve was wondering the same thing, but the man just let out a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m a doctor, not a therapist. Find her one of those,” and with that, he turned on his heel and followed the medical procession into the elevator.

When Darcy awoke, she was in pain. Like, worse than period cramp pain. Worse than the time she fell off her bike and hit her head on the mailbox pain. Her head was throbbing, her ribs were aching, breathing was a chore and she’d never felt so in pain just to be alive.

“Fuuuuck,” she let out an exasperated breath and winced when she had to inhale again. She’d never craved breathing so much before, but it hurt to do it.

A moment later her physician walked in.

“You got anything for the aching pain in my entire body?” Darcy groaned, and closed her eyes. “I didn’t know you were into emergency medicine, Bones. I thought you just did physician shit.”

“You’re lucky it’s me and not some first year med student with a bumbling mouth and a need to prove themself,” he shot back at her and boy, did it hurt Darcy when she laughed.

“Why’s that, doc?”

“Because it was me talking your hunky boyfriends down from sitting at your bedside for the past five hours. I doubt anyone else could have prevented them from breaking in,” he shook his head and Darcy’s face heated up. She knew exactly who he was talking about. “Anybody else would have broken under the former Winter Soldier’s death glare and Captain America’s ‘I’m Disappointed in You™” voice.”

Darcy huffed out a painful laugh.

“I did tell them to come check on you about ten minutes ago because I knew you’d be waking up soon,” he muttered and Darcy smiled.

“You’re one of a kind, Bones,” Darcy added as the door to her room opened and her two super soldiers barged in.

“I thought your name was McCoy,” Bucky started and the doctor only laughed.

“Bones is a nickname his college best friend gave him. You might know him, he’s a pilot for SHIELD’s super secret space program,” Darcy added and Steve balked. “Wait, you don’t know about SHIELD’s super secret space program?” She squeaked, and Bucky shook his head, coming to sit on a chair near the bed Darcy was currently occupying.

“What’s Bones mean, then?” Bucky was trying to be nicer to the doctor who was clearly a friend of Darcy’s.

“Ah, you tell ‘em, doc,” Darcy laughed and Steve’s eyes darted to her ribs when she winced, biting her lip hard enough to make the skin red and angry. The doctor let out another one of those sighs, drawing both of the boy’s attention.

“When the wife left me, she took everything. I got nothin left but my bones,” he shook his head dramatically and Darcy smiled.

“You got me and Jim though!” Darcy exclaimed, and at Steve’s questioning look she elaborated. “Jim Kirk, he’s a prodigy. He’s the pilot I mentioned. He can pilot anything, a jet, a plane, a helicopter, a spaceship,” she shrugged slightly. “Him and Bones over here are men of many talents.”

It was clear to Steve that Darcy was trying to keep her mind off of what had happened, but in her relaxed moments she had a look in her eyes. She looked so tired and scared.

“What’s the verdict, doc?”

“Bruised ribs, medium concussion. You’ll be here overnight and you can leave tomorrow if you can have someone with you 24/7. I know you live alone so it might mean having Doctor Foster stay over or…” he trailed off and nodded towards the two men sitting attentively at her bedside. “Talking your feelings out with the Wonder Twins,” Darcy squawked in indignation as the man finished checking her vitals and left her alone with the super soldiers.

“So,” Bucky started and Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. She was trying to get a read on him, but a shit-eating grin was growing on his face. “You got some feelings you wanna tell us about, doll?”

“You know as good as a time as this seems to suddenly talk about my feelings,” Darcy pursed her lips. “It sounds like an even better time to ask why you two dopes tried to follow me into medical when you knew I wouldn’t be up for several hours.”

Both men blushed and Darcy was thriving. The three of them had been walking the tightrope of flirting and genuine care for each other for quite some time now. She felt as if she was on uneven ground though. The two of them had a history, and she was new to this whole feelings thing.

“Well we thought you might not want to be alone when you woke up,” Steve mumbled and Darcy couldn’t help the soft smile that grew on her face.

“You’re too sweet,” she shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation, but stopped abruptly and raised her arms to hold her head. “Whoa, note to self. Don’t move your head. Very dizzy,” but the act of moving her arms hurt her ribs so she was just in a world of pain. “Do you think he would give me more pain meds? I feel like it’s worn off,” she groaned.

“I’ll go find Doctor McCoy,” Bucky reached out and squeezed her now resting hand before exiting and looking for the sarcastic man. He liked that doctor, and he wanted to be on good terms with Darcy’s friends.

“You two really are the sweetest,” Darcy offered Steve another smile and he returned it, taking her hand in one of his. They’d never held hands before and Darcy found her face heating up. Steve had nice hands, too. She’d never noticed before.

“We were so worried when Tony called us back to the tower, and we couldn’t get a ride up to your floor,” he looked down, examining his shoes. “When the agent told us you were down, I didn’t know what to think, he was just crouched over you, checking your pulse and making sure you hadn’t been shot through,” he shook his head and looked up at Darcy as Bucky walked in. “I know it can be dangerous, living and working in the tower, being related to Tony, being close to the two of us,” he glanced over at Bucky as the other man sat down. “But I was panicking when I saw you on the ground, and I wished that maybe things were different, that you could be safer…” he trailed off and Bucky patted him on the shoulder once, squeezing it for comfort.

“But things are dangerous,” the other man started, gulping and looking up at Darcy. “And we can’t promise you won’t be in danger if you want to pursue something more with us. But we can promise to be careful and do our best to make you feel safe with us.”

Darcy’s lower lip stuck out and she tried to get her misty eyes to dry up at his sweet words.

“You two are too much you know,” she sniffled and blinked her eyes. “You’re so nice and you’re like very emotionally intelligent considering all the bullshit you’ve been through. I expected at least a little bit of posturing and misunderstanding,” she laughed a little and the two handsome men smiled back at her.

“I can’t say I’m not super hot headed,” Steve started.

“And sometimes I get jealous,” Bucky added with a little shrug.

“But we’d try our best for you,” Steve finished with a very pretty smile and Darcy returned it.

“Alright well, I don’t want to give this new thing a super test run yet so I’m going to have Jane come take care of me until I can be on my own. But,” she added when they looked like they were going to argue. “I expect you to come over for movies and dinner tomorrow night. I can’t cook because moving my arms hurts like a bitch, but I know a lot of good take out restaurants that would be perfect for a stay at home movie date,” at the word ‘date’ they perked up.

Steve smiled and Bucky let out a sigh of relief. Their Darcy was okay, and they had finally started the conversation about their feelings. Things were looking up.

[anjuschiffer]

82, IzuOcha; Ochako having a panic attack and Izuku trying to calm her down

Ohoho! A BNHA prompt owo

Haven’t done a BNHA fic in a while ^^

Hope you like this!

-----

Prompt 82: “Just breathe, okay?”

-----

Even At Home, I’m Not Safe

“I’m home.” Izuku tiredly announced, kicking off his shoes as he let his duffel bag hit the floor with a thud. 

It was another rough day at the hero agency, Izuku finally allowing himself to relax as he stepped further into his home. 

Being a hero was nice and all, a job Izuku held with pride and honor, but nothing beats being home. 

At home where he can himself...where she can be herself. 

Ever since the two found themselves under the same agency, Izuku offered Ochako a place to stay at his apartment. It had an extra bedroom and it was quite close to their agency, Ochako hooked into the offer once he told her about the low rent. She quickly moved in and as quickly as she had moved in, Izuku had quickly adored her company. 

The two would often train together, eat together and even clean, although if you asked the two of them, they enjoyed laying on the living room floor together the most. 

Especially during the summer. 

They would move everything to the side and just lay there on the ground, their eyes closed as they were enveloped in the sun’s warmth, the breeze occasionally tickling their faces.

But today, as soon as Izuku stepped into the living room, something felt off and that was without noting the dark room that was usually brightly lit. 

“Ochako, are you alright?” Izuku asked, spotting Ochako sitting in front of the television, her eyes glued to the screen.

Izuku turned his attention to the screen, feeling his heart drop when he saw what was there. 

It was the incident from earlier today, the one where the two were at just hours ago. The one where-

“Ochako.” Izuku called out again, approaching the woman, noticing how wide her eyes were, new tear trails running over the old ones. Her breathing was still stable, but Izuku could clearly hear how she was starting to lose control of it.

“Ochako.” He coaxed, turning his attention back to the screen, watching as the villain incident replayed on the screen, watching as buildings started to collapse. Izuku was able to vividly remember how the place smelled of. Of dust and burning wood, a smell Izuku would never get over. “Ochako, please. Ta-”

“If only I got there quicker.” Ochako managed to whisper, Izuku grabbing her hands. 

They were trembling.

“Ochako, you know-”

“It’s all my fault Izuku.” Ochako said a bit louder this time, more tears falling down her face.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Izuku reminded her, glancing at the tv once more, the news coverage talking about the tolls of the villain incident, talking about Izuku and a few other heroes with praise, never once mentioning the rescue squad. “We both know that-”

“But in the end, it was my hesitation that caused many to-”

“You didn’t hesitate.” Izuku argued.

“Yes I did Izuku! If I never hesitated to leave a few behind, they wouldn’t have died!”

“Ocha-”

“I let them die Izuku! And it’s all my fault!” Ochako yelled, looking down at her hands, recalling the moment she retracted her hand. She was there, and yet she froze when she realized she couldn’t save them all. 

Yes, there were only 23 of them, but her quirk couldn’t save them all. A few had to stay back, a thought that Ochako hated. After all...what if she never saw them again?

“Ochako, look at me.” Izuku pleaded, lifting her chin so that she could face him, his other hand now holding her own trembling one.

“I let them die because of my stupid hesitation, Izuku! I let them slip from my grasp! I let them die! I-I-I!” Ochako attempted to speak, but nothing came out, only quivering breaths and more tears.

The lump in her throat burned, her chest hurting.

“Ochako, just breathe, okay?” Izuku coaxed. “I’ll help you, okay.” Izuku said. “Let’s exhale.” When Ochako didn’t do anything, he asked again. “Let’s exhale.” And when he saw that she was about to, he got up and ran to the kitchen. “Exhale and hold your breath.”

Grabbing a cup, “Now let’s inhale for 4 seconds. 1.” He then went to grab ice from the fridge. “2.” He made his way back to Ochako, seeing her still holding her breath. “3...4, now let’s hold it for seven.”

Izuku counted the seconds out loud, watching as Ochako did her best to hold her breath, Izuku placing the cubes of ice between them on the floor. “Now we’re going to exhale for 8.”

Izuku led her through it, doing the breathing exercise twice more, a smile forming on his face when Ochako was finally able to see him again. “How are you feeling?” he asked, handing her the ice cubes. He watched as she chewed on the ice.

“A bit...better.” Ochako confessed. “Terrible, but not as bad as earlier.”

“But it’s progress.” Izuku said, grabbing a blanket from the couch and wrapping her with it. How did he forget the safety blanket?

“I just...how did I let them down so badly?” Ochako cried out. “How can I call myself a hero when-”

“But you were one.” Izuku said with a smile, grabbing hold of her hand. “Your squad was the only group to have perfectly assessed the situation, you being the one to have found that particular group. If it weren’t for you, they would’ve been reduced to statistics.” Izuku said, putting down a finger. 

That would’ve added 20 counts to the death toll of that incident. But thanks to Ochako, the death toll of that incident was only 5.

“Out of the 23, you rescued 20 of them.” He put down another finger. “Out of those 20, five were kids. You rescued five futures and inspired them at that.” Izuku said, putting another finger down. He then recalled his conversations with said children.

Two of them wanted to become rescue heroes, wanting to one day work under Uravity when they were older. “Thanks to you, no one was injured, not even those who you left behind.” Izuku placed down another finger. Ochako had managed to make a safe zone for those three left behind, making their surroundings stable enough to endure another villain attack while they waited for help. 

“Yes, two of those three couldn’t make it, but it wasn’t your fault.” Izuku said softly, wrapping his arms around Ochako. Izuku remembered the faces of the elderly couple who passed away. He died with a smile on his face. The two civilians who were with him retold his last words to Izuku.

‘Tell Uravity that it wasn’t her fault. We were already old and suffering from asthma. Or at least one of us is. Even if she did rescue me, I would’ve only had a few more hours to live before reaching my fate. So tell her to not beat herself over us. We’re thankful that she saved our family, especially our grandson. He’s only 3 after all.’

“Your hands were meant to save and you did. You saved 20 lives today, your squad saving 50 in total.” Izuku reminded her. “You were a hero, through and through.”

Izuku felt her hug him back, hearing sobs emerge from her.

“Thank you for all the hard work. Thank you for saving them.”

[ilkkawhat]

just for the sake of sharing. and since i didn’t get the fic done like i wanted to yesterday. here’s a preview of that haunted mansion fic. feel free to ignore.

They’ve been driving for hours on an impromptu road trip to California, since the lab was being shut down for the week due to unfortunate circumstances that they decided to make the best of, collectively pooling the reaped rewards of their overtime paychecks as well as their rainy day funds to sponsor the vacation. They would hit all the big spots in Los Angeles at Greg’s request, then visit the Sequoia National Forest at Nick’s, all while visiting the big tourist attractions per Hodges’ wish—and then finally, in a half-joke but not really a joke, a trip to Disneyland prompted by Henry. 

It was an ambitious quest and one that lost its appeal as highway hypnosis drained their exuberant energies, adding in the fact that they had left rather late to begin with, making little progress in the vastness of the state. Their lighthearted banter turned sour, teasing became tense, and Nick in particular had white knuckles decorating the steering wheel as he pushed a couple digits over the speed limit.  

They find a motel, the flickering neon of a broken sign outshadowed by the green tinted fluorescence that engulfs Nick and Hodges as they walk through a thin, floating slab of cloud surrounding the entrance to check in. Greg may as well be alone in the car, as Henry is knocked out in the back, overcome with drowsiness from his motion sickness medicine. As he watches Nick enter the office, he swears he gets some sort of double vision, seeing another Nick standing by the pillar on the edge of the canopy, staring at the car. 

The hairs on the back of his head stand up, goosebumps tickling his skin and he keeps wary but also weary-eyed contact with the duplicate, and when Hodges and Nick emerge from the office and he finally blinks, the doppel-Nick vanishes and so he takes it for what it was; a figment of his overtired brain playing to the part of him that is truly unsettled in this desolate nightscape void of the flashing sirens and bustling crowds that he’s used to—this is pure isolation. 

That, or the apparition was an omen, warning him of danger, possibly to Nick. 

It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Guy at the front desk said there’s some nasty fog rolling into the valley,” Nick’s voice startles Greg out of his thoughts as he lingers on the empty space, and as Nick pats his back softly he asks a silent question with his eyes, and Greg gives a quick nod of his head.

“Plenty of rooms vacant but none with more than one bed,” Hodges announces, patting Henry awake gently despite his loud voice doing the deed, earning a glare from the awakening man, rubbing his eyes. 

So they get two rooms and split up. Henry and Hodges in one room, Nick and Greg in the other—the obvious choices, of course, but also logical as Greg snores, and Nick’s an insomniac anyway. 

Yet Greg doesn’t seem to fall asleep so easily, or at all, despite his exhaustion. Plagued with restless dreams of a flickering Nick-less void, there’s an unease churning in his stomach and a thumping concert of paranoia in his heart. 

“G? You still awake?” Nick asks from the armchair in the corner of the room, leafing through a magazine in the intrusive fluorescent light bleeding through the thin curtains. His voice perks Greg’s ears, but yet doesn’t soothe the flight response bubbling under his skin.

“Yeah,” Greg grunts, still resisting his urge to toss and turn to the other side, not wanting to be uncomfortably watched by the grumpy zombie in the corner. “How’d you know?”

“Y’ain’t snoring.”

“And how’d you know that?” 

“Sara told me. Remember when we had...that case...in Pioche?”

Of course Greg remembers, and finds it odd that Nick didn’t refer to it as the McBride case for the first time in almost five years.

“You and her shared a room,” he pauses, Greg can envision how his tongue is washing over suddenly dry lips, even with his back turned. “Me and Rick in the other. She told me in the mornin’ how badly you snored.”

“So you can remember that...but you can’t remember...” Greg sighs in exhaustion, his eyes finally dropping but then snapping open at the sound of the magazine getting tossed harshly to the ground with a groan trailing after it. Hears the creaking of leather, and knowing Nick, he’s gotten up from the chair to start to pace like a lion trapped in a cage.

“I told ya I’m sorry—”

“No.” Greg’s turn, to bite down on his lower lip and decide if he really wants to have this conversation right now, but they’re both cranky and tired anyway. “No, from what I recall you just promised not to do it again. You never actually apologized—“

“Well, I’m sorry. Happy?”

“You don’t mean it.”

“Greg—of course I mean it!”

Greg doesn’t realize how tightly his jaw is clenched until it seals tighter when he feels the space next to him sink down. He almost rolls backwards into Nick, whose touch indicates a softness not found in Greg’s vision of animalistic anger and places a tentative hand on Greg’s shoulder which quickly retreats when he feels how stiff Greg is.

“I know that...I’m not invincible,” Nick’s fingers curl into the palm of his hand.

“Coulda fooled me,” Greg scoffs. 

“And I didn’t mean to accuse you of being...some sort of bad guy, I-I mean, you had a point, that kid was probably gonna kill me—”

“He never would have stood a chance anyway,” Greg admits dully. “But that’s really not what upset me. You were just so...angry.”

“I was almost blown up. Twice!” Nick laughs, dropping the softness in his words and exchanging it for daggers. “What, was I supposed to be prancing around giddy with glee that I was alive? That wore off fast after I was pulled outta hell the first goddamn time, Greg.”

“Cath told me what you said.”

“What do you mean?”

“‘I’m not afraid to die.’”

“Yeah. Well...I’m not.”

Greg spins around, propping himself up on his elbows.

“But maybe I am, Nick!” Greg hisses. “And maybe...I’m afraid of...”

“What?” Nick wipes his nose to mask the escaping sniffle. “What are you so afraid of?”

Losing you.

Greg’s elbows give out, he falls back onto the bed, a hand rubbing throbbing temples while the other shoves down the heart bulging out of his chest. There’s an odd sloshing in his lungs, airways in his nose blocked. If he’s not careful he’ll work himself up into an asthma attack. He turns his head away from Nick to ensure the inhaler is right where he left it on the end table. 

“Nothing. Just forget it.”

Nick gets up from the bed, and it’s the sound of clicking—a certain clicking, the one that only comes from the opening of a door, that snaps his head back to the main attraction, the man standing in the opened doorway, ready to escape the suffocating imprisonment of spending the night with Greg Sanders. 

“Wait, where are you going—?” Greg sits up, his heart now soaring, telling him to give Nick a reason to say because he knows that really, he’s about to....

“I’m taking a drive,” Nick answers gruffly, popping the collar to his jacket and pulling on his sleeves. “Gonna fill up the car, I’ll be back by morning.”

“Let me come with you—”

“Get some sleep. You need it.”

“Nick—” Greg gestures to the empty space that Nick just occupied, waving a hand for him to come back. 

He knows he won’t.

He picks up the car keys instead.

“Save it.”

He walks out the door without another word, and Greg leaps out of bed, boxers be damned he flings the door to call out to his friend.

“Nick!” 

Nick enters the car, slamming the door without consideration to the sleeping residents and prying eyes of the motel.

Or even to Greg.

“NICK!” 

Squealing tires, a loud gasp—multiple gasps, from his passengers who start shouting in the white noise of panic as Nick veers off course of an almost collision with a shadowy figure ahead—a figure that was short enough to pass for a child, long hair and a faceless face but the curvature of the body under a slender dress registered the humanoid figure as potentially female—but he doesn’t dwell on that for long as he regains control of the car, swerving in and out of the parallel yellow lines—the car almost tips, he doesn’t release his breath until all four wheels touch the ground and he finally tunes into his passenger’s dialogue.

“What was that?”

“Was that a girl?”

“Jesus, man! Keep your eyes on the road!”

He allows himself a few shortened gasps before gulping down the remainder of his adrenaline, forcing calm on himself as fatigue comes crawling from under his eyelids, daring to pull the curtains.

“Sorry,” Nick gulps. He looks at the clock on the radio. Five A.M. He feels as if he’s been on the road all night, but he remembers getting some semblance of sleep in the dingy motel room with Greg after filling up the gas tank, going back and apologizing through pillow talk. 

Phantom whispers fill his ears, unintelligible voices but it sounds like Greg. He tries to focus but his attention is taken by the urgency of looking for his almost-fatal victim in the rear view mirror and the returning reaction of panic as his mind unscrambles.

Whatever shadow was there that he almost hit is gone. All that’s left is a thick layer of fog that swirls around the car, trailing behind yet also retreating ahead of them. Thick walls sandwich the car and Nick cracks his window to suck in the cold, misty air as a reminder that he’s not necessarily entrapped so much as they are just...well, okay maybe a little trapped but he doesn’t want to admit it, parting his lips and gritting his teeth as he reels himself in before he unravels further.

“Should we go back?” Henry mercifully asks and breaks Nick’s concentration on his inner self. He’s spun around, looking out the rear window but seeing nothing but the same fog, though it’s much less suffocating to him than it is to Nick.

“Y-yeah,” Nick breathes, then swallows down the last nagging thought of panic. It’s time to be the leader of the assclowns. “But I don’t know if a U-turn is a good idea with this fog.”

“Maybe we should stop. Stretch our legs, we can just take a quick walk down the road, we haven’t gone too far yet,” Greg offers. Nick’s ears perk up, he’d very much like that, and immediately schemes a scenario of holding hands so they don’t lose each other. 

“I don’t know, with Lightning McQueen here, we may already be into the next town,” Hodges scoffs, an intrusive finger sliding past Nick’s shoulder to point at the speedometer. 

Fifteen over the speed limit. Whatever the speed limit actually is—the sign is masked and as faceless as the road wanderer.

“I don’t think walkin’ in the fog will do us any favors either,” Nick reluctantly growls as he takes his foot off the pedal and bats Hodges’ finger out of the way. The initial appeal of walking around loses to the settling danger of either losing each other, or losing the car, or losing their minds walking around the ceaseless skyfallen ground. He thinks of how Sara described wandering in the desert for hours and hours and hours, while the intense desert heat is the polar opposite of the frigid foggy roads, he still empathizes with the prospect of having no direction, no hope.

Only difference is, he wouldn’t be so alone.

He puts his foot on the brake and pulls off to the side, channeling his frustrated energy into putting the car in park. He swivels in his seat for a full group discussion.

“Well, what’s it going to be then?” Greg sighs, his tone dripping in annoyance. 

A beat.

“I’ll turn around. If we find the girl, we’ll pick her up and take her home,” Nick concludes, nodding his head to amp himself up for this more logical plan, rather than the more emotionally driven choice of walking around, stretching the cramping legs that kick at the floor of the vehicle. “‘S why it’s a good idea to drive, cover more ground that way.”

“Think she’ll fit back here between us? And she was walking so slow—” She was walking? Nick thinks to himself, astonished that he really wasn’t paying any attention. “—what if she’s hurt, or diseased or something?”

“C’mon, Hodges, wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a girl between us,” Henry teases.

Hodges begins to stammer, the corners of Nick’s lips twitch up as he does a three-point, as efficiently and cautiously as he can in case there are other blind drivers in the fog, but after nearly ten minutes of driving, there’s no girl in sight.

“There was a turn about a mile back, maybe she went down that road?” Henry suggests.

They follow the road, and reach a dead end with nothing but the road sign sprouting in the sea of fog.

“Guess not.”

They turn around, but the main road is either passed or not reached. They find themselves in a fork that doesn’t seem familiar to Nick.

“Do any of y’all remember seein’ this? Did I run a sign?”

The backseat passengers shake their head, Greg is looking to the left, past Nick.

“Turn left,” he nudges.

“You sure?”

“Positive,” Greg nods his head.

They turn down the road and continue on, Nick’s eyes flicker to the clock. Seven A.M, and no signs of the fog letting up—in fact, it’s somehow more packed, though specks of what might be...snow? Scatter the air—It makes no sense, Nick thinks, this part of Cali doesn’t get snow...does it?

Snow was such a rare occurrence for a young boy growing up in Texas that it was a little more disturbing than it was luxurious. He of course, would often see depictions of children such as himself building snowmen, making snow angels, having snowball fights and so at first, the idea of snow excited him—but it was never enough to stick, never enough to craft meltable creations, never enough to get a cold. He appreciated how lighter it was compared to the heaviness of rainfall, but didn’t quite appreciate how it would disappear just as soon as it fell. 

Fleeting, like life itself. 

The wind slices across his cheek, waking him from a ride down memory lane to find a more distorted one, winding downward—he doesn’t typically get nauseous when he’s driving, but something sinks and settles to the pit of his stomach, clogging the drain with a tight not that threatens to burst like a geyser out of his body.

The road straightens out, and they reach another fork that’s missing a prong.

Nick keeps driving forward.

“You sure this is the way?” Hodges asks.

“Quit bein’ a backseat driver, I know where I’m goin’!” Nick hushes him, his accent thickening in his annoyance. “The map had a long winding road, just like this one, dinn’t it?”

“Here, I can pull it up on my phone—Oh...maybe not. No cell service,” Greg mutters. “Maybe we should find the gas station, ask for directions?”

Nick puffs his chest, lifts his chin. 

“Don’t needta. Fog’ll clear up soon.”

“Well, it hasn’t yet—” 

“Calm down, G—”

“I am calm!” 

“I think we’re lost,” Henry groans. 

“We ain’t lost,” Nick proclaims. “When have I ever steered us wrong?”

“When you rolled the car and sprained Henry’s ankle,” Hodges responds immediately.

“That—That wasn’t my fault, just the rolling—which you laughed at, and hey, if I didn’t, we coulda crashed—”

“When you told me that riding that mechanical bull was as easy as those twenty-five cent kiddie rides at the grocery store,” Henry offers.

“That one just had a screw loose is all—”

“When you, Warrick and Sara convinced me to stage a coup against Catherine,” Greg jabs.

“She betrayed our trust, Greggo!” 

“No, she betrayed your trust. You guys kinda forced me into it.”

“That’s not—It wasn’t just—This was years ago and what the hell’s gotten into you?”

“Me? What’s gotten into you? You’ve been all over the place since we got to the motel—”

“Well, sorry I can’t close my eyes for more than a minute without gettin’ nightmares, and therefore, no goddamn sleep!” 

“Mm. Suddenly saying ‘sorry’ a lot now, I see.”

“You know, Nick, if you need a break, maybe I can drive—” Hodges interrupts.

“No.” Nick and Greg say flatly, simultaneously. 

A terse, awkward silence flitters in through the open window, which Nick rolls down even further. He allows himself a few breaths after a few endless minutes before he speaks again.

“Just...need some food in me or somethin’, tank’s gettin’ empty.”

“So’s the gas tank,” Greg observes. 

“I knew that,” Nick mutters, though really, he didn’t know that. He scrunched his face, hadn’t he left to fill up last night? 

They reach another fork with no sign in sight. Nick squints and leans, before getting out of the car to do a quick sweep, as if he’d suddenly find the direction along the listless roads, but the only signs are the red ones telling him to stop. 

He gets back in the car, flexes his fingers around the wheel, and takes a deep breath. 

“I think we’re lost,” Nick admits.

“Oh, really?” Greg sighs loudly in exasperation, tossing a hand into the air to wave at the directionless driver. 

“Relax, man, I’m sure we’ll find our way.”

“Then why even bring it up?” Henry whines from the backseat.

“Just to make you whine, buttercup,” Nick teases with a playful smile into the mirror.

[writemywaytoyourheart]

Onsra- Chapter 16: The Hunted

Pairing: vampire!jungkook x female reader

Genre: horror, angst, drama, romance 

Word count: 2k

Warnings for this chapter: nothing~

Tag list: @jjungkook99 @ditttiii

Onsra: ML, Previous

Enjoy :)

~

All you can focus on is not letting your legs give out underneath you as you charge for the trees; blocking out the sound of someone shouting for you to come back. You're not going back anywhere without Ga-In and Yuri.    

When you're a little way into the forest you look around blindly, the voices having faded away by now. "Ga-In?? Yuri??" You scream into the night, praying that someone will answer you. Then, you hear a voice call out your name, but your heart sinks in your chest when you turn and see who it is clambering through the branches.

"Y/n, what the hell are you doing?" Jungkook hisses at you through clenched teeth when he sees you crouched on the forest floor, trying to catch your breath.  

"I heard Ga-In and Yuri! I think someone took them." You cry breathlessly when you feel Jungkook come up beside you. Jungkook sighs heavily and grabs your arm, roughly yanking you to a standing position. Your mind is in a flurry, trying to decide which way to run to find them. You push out of Jungkook's grasp and take off further into the woods, ignoring Jungkook's string of curses as he follows you.

"Ga-In! Yuri!" You scream again, then you hear a twig snap somewhere to your right. A dead silence follows, and suddenly you feel like something isn't right...

You look around, then go to whisper shout their names one more time, when a hand clamps down over your mouth.

"Ga-In! Yu-mmmf!"

You reach up to claw at whoever has their hands on you, but you're not nearly strong enough to resist them when they wrap their arms around your torso. The cold hand is still pressed tightly to your mouth as you struggle to break free from their grasp. Your captor easily wrenches you into the air and carries you into the undergrowth, where a huge patch of leaves and bramble are your cushion when they throw you onto the ground. You try to scramble away but you get yanked back and your mouth is covered once again. Then, you feel warm breath on your neck when they whisper harshly into your ear.

"Stop moving unless you want to end up dead."  

Jungkook?

You freeze at his words, your breath going in and out of your nose slowly. You're trying desperately to calm yourself down.

"Nobody took them."

What?

You make a confused sound against his palm and feel his breath against your ear once more, "I said nobody took your friends. It was a trick, and one you fell for so easily. Stupid." He sounds out of breath as he whispers so lowly you can barely hear him. "Don't make another sound."

You steady your breathing as much as you can and then give him a small nod. Jungkook slowly removes his hand from your mouth and you take another deep breath as quietly as you can. You turn to see Jungkook's face extremely close to yours, so you scoot a little to the side, giving him a questioning look as he just glares at you, slowly shaking his head side to side. That's when you hear another twig snap somewhere off to your right.

Oh.

It's nighttime, isn't it?

Dread flows through you and your heart stops in your chest. It was a trick? What kind of trick? Why? Then you remember Hoseok's words, 'It's a diversion! Nobody leave! Stay close to the house!'...You mentally facepalm yourself for behaving so rashly.  

So that means.

Jungkook leans over and whispers into your ear so quietly you almost miss what he says, but you catch it, "You're being hunted." Goosebumps break out on your skin as he moves back, putting a finger up to his lips.

~

The two of you sit there in dead silence, hardly daring to breath. A few times you hear branches snap and footsteps running past your hiding spot, but no one ever finds you. After a good half hour of sitting quietly, Jungkook looks over and sees you curled in a ball, your hands over your ears and your eyes pinched shut.

A hand touching your shoulder makes you jerk your head up in fear, but it’s only Jungkook. He just stares at you blankly while you look around the quiet forest, the only light is coming from the moon as it seeps through the branches of the trees. You look over at Jungkook again and see him staring out of the bushes at the open forest, his eyes unblinking as the moon illuminates his pale skin. You’re not sure how long the two of you sit there, but eventually your feet start to tingle. You’ve been sitting curled up with your feet under you for so long that they went numb a little while ago, apparently they’re waking up again.

The vampire next to you looks almost bored as he stares out into the dark forest. Then it’s like he snaps out of some trance when he suddenly looks at you. You wonder if he forgot you were there for a minute.

“Ok, let’s get out of here.” Jungkook stands up and you stumble over your tingling feet trying to follow suit.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

Jungkook whirls on you angrily at your quiet inquiry.

“Does it matter? You don’t seem to give a damn about safe. You’re constantly getting into stupid situations because you don’t think! So tell me y/n, do you really fucking care if it’s safe? Why don’t you go run off and try to be the hero again and let me know how that works out for you.” You bite your tongue before you lash out at him, you know he’s being an ass just to be one. You’d rather not start crying right now though, so you swallow the lump in your throat and stare at the trunk of a tree, trying to memorize the pattern of bark while you blink back the angry tears.

Jungkook just laughs in disbelief and starts to walk. Following him reluctantly, you wipe at your eyes to make sure there’s no trace of how he made you feel. It’s only a matter of time before you hear his footsteps cease. You bring your head up to see why he stopped but run into his hard back before you can catch yourself. Stumbling back a bit, you catch yourself, then your whole body tenses at the sound of something rustling behind you.

“Run, go go go.” Jungkook shoves you in front of him and you blindly take off. You’re not sure where you’re going, but as long as it’s away from whatever is lurking in the bushes behind you, it’s good with you. You stumble over the branches and logs; your arms stretched out in front of you in case a tree decides to pop out of nowhere and clock you. You can hear Jungkook jogging behind you, when a sudden burst of anxiety makes your legs pump faster. Jungkook’s heavy breathing makes your heart leap to your throat when you realize he’s speeding up too. Now you’re in full on sprint mode as you pray that you don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip.

Your lungs are starting to constrict as you feel an asthma attack coming on, you push through it. Your legs are aching now, but the sound of something behind Jungkook crashing through the trees gives you a newfound will to keep running as fast as you can. The panic in your body right now could make you freeze up and collapse on the ground, and you’re contemplating on just curling into a ball and giving up at this point. Nature makes that decision for you though, because in the next second, your foot catches on a log and you crash to the ground in a terrified heap. A horrible stabbing pain flares from your ankle up through your leg and it’s all you can do to not scream. You reach down to touch your ankle and pull your hand away when you feel something wet and warm.

What am I supposed to do now? Oh, just let them take me. You think miserably before Jungkook almost trips over you as he comes barreling through the forest, but he stops himself just in time. The ebony haired vampire looks at you, then behind him, then back at you before it seems like he comes to a decision.

Jungkook sighs in irritation at the lump of pathetic pain you are, then he easily picks you up and quite literally tosses you a couple feet into another bunch of bushes before you can even comprehend anything. You land on the ground hard and hiss in pain, then quickly clamp your hand over your mouth when you see something approach Jungkook in the darkness. A couple somethings, actually.    

“Well, lookie what we found here.”

A mocking voice comes from one of the two figures as they stand only about five feet from where you lay in cover. You hear Jungkook chuckle darkly and see him cross his arms over his chest.

“What do you want?”

“Aww, is the little boy lost? Wander too far from mommy?” A second voice pipes up and the two silhouettes start moving around as they laugh. After they get no reaction from Jungkook, they straighten up and the first voice clears its throat, “We almost caught some dinner. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten away from us. Have you happened to see anything?” You see Jungkook shift a little before he responds cockily, “If I had, you think I’d tell you?”

One of the figures steps towards Jungkook, but he doesn’t budge an inch.

“You think you’re brave, kid? Just be glad I’m in a good mood or you wouldn’t be able to open that sassy little trap of yours ever again.” You hear Jungkook scoff and he’s about to snap back when the second vampire hushes everyone.

“Do you smell that?”

What.

No.

He cannot smell you right now.

What the hell are they? Dogs? Since when could vampires sniff out their prey? You cover the gash on your ankle as best you can while still trying to hold your breath.  

“What is it? What do you smell?”

“Blood.”

Please no.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am. Shut up.”

You peer through the bushes and see one of the figures has crouched closer to the ground and is sniffing, moving his head up and down almost like a dog looking for a treat. Your stomach twists into a knot of anxiety as you keep one hand clamped over your mouth, the other gripping your ankle like a vice.

Then something snaps somewhere to the right and the three vampires’ heads shoot up at the sound. You can almost hear the smirk in his voice when the first vampire whispers, “Gotcha.” 

~

Eyes clenched shut and both your hands squeezing your mouth and ankle, you almost scream when you feel a hand grab your shoulder and yank you to your feet. But, once you look up, the fear fades away and is replaced by something you don’t understand when you see Jungkook’s red orbs staring back into your eyes. 

"They're gone. Let's go."

The second he roughly lets go of you and you grunt in pain at the soreness in your ankle, you realize the feeling in your stomach.

Shame.

You hate that he makes you feel like this.

Your cheeks turn hot at the glare he sends your way before he’s stalking back through the bushes. It’s not like you care what he thinks of you, but you realize that the two of you never would have been in this situation if you hadn’t acted out so rashly. You just wish he wouldn’t act like you were a useless idiot.

“Are you coming or did you plan on spending the night here?” Jungkook grumbles ahead of you as he makes his way through the brush.

“My ankle…”

“Your ankle, what?”

“It hurts, I don’t know if I can-“

“Too bad. Get moving now unless you want to be killed and eaten for a midnight snack.”

Your eyes sting with tears that threaten to spill at the tone of his voice. You start to limp after him, wincing as quietly as you can. The blood on your ankle still feels a bit wet as it brushes against leaves and brambles in your path.

It’s so quiet in this forest apart from the sounds of your hushed footsteps that you can’t get rid of the pit in your stomach, wishing you had someone to talk to.

Even talking to Jungkook right now would make you feel better, his rude remarks aside. At least it wouldn’t sound like not a living soul but you was left on this earth. You clear your throat and whisper cautiously.

“J-Jungkook?”

Immediately, a growl leaves his throat and you bite your lips; stopping yourself from continuing. Instead, you start to fiddle with your fingers anxiously; tapping them in a certain beat to distract yourself. You focus on the rhythm you’ve created for your hands and the way Jungkook’s shirt moves as he walks. The moonlight barely seeping through the trees as you desperately try to keep an eye on him, seeing as he’s wearing all black and his hair is dark as night. The little sliver of moonlight is the only thing keeping him in your sight as he moves ahead of you stealthily.

It feels like an eternity since you started walking, but Jungkook is showing no signs of slowing down or that he knows (or doesn’t know for that matter) where the heck you two are and how far away the house is. He just keeps walking, not making a peep. It has to have been at least an hour since you left the spot where the two vampires almost found you. You should be home by now, right?

…right?

A sudden dread fills you as you watch the vampire ahead of you, walking as though he has a destination in mind. He’s not like…leading you away to get revenge for your stupidity…is he?

You accidently let the anxiety of that being the case seep into your chest just before he abruptly stops in front of you. Your heart stopping right along with him as you pull yourself up to a halt, frozen and still staring at his back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a/n: sorry I was gone for so long. I'm back now and hopefully I'll have some reactions out soon, people seem to like those more anyway haha

[wordscorrupt]

Febuwhump: Lost

Welcome to Febuwhump Day 1 where I completely disregard the whump and write fluff instead. There’s like 1% whump in this story. More like emotional whump. You’ll understand.

Tags: Superfamily, Toddler Peter, Squishy our beloved lost teddy bear

~

They had been at the park for almost two hours at this point. Tony’s joints were aching after running around after Peter for a solid hour as the three-year-old rushed through the entire playground structure numerous times, giggling as he demanded his daddy to chase him. 

Now, Tony was waiting at the end of the slide Peter was going down and the second he caught a glimpse of the tiny legs, he reached out and grabbed the squirming toddler who let out an excited squeal.

“Gotcha ya!” Tony exclaimed, hugging Peter close to his chest before tickling his belly. 

“Daddy!” Peter giggled, kicking his legs. 

Tony smiled, securing Peter on his hip and reached over to smooth out the tiny curls that were plastered to his forehead. He pressed a kiss to Peter’s forehead as the boy settled his head on Tony’s shoulder with a loud, exhausted sigh, signaling that their day here was officially coming to an end. 

“I think it’s time to head home, baby, hmm? Papa’s making your favorite dinner,” Tony said, rubbing circles on his sons’ back. 

“Mac n’ chee’e?” Peter called out hopefully. 

“You bet your small cute butt,” Tony answered with a grin and playful pinch on the boy’s bottom. 

Peter giggled before wrapping his arms around Tony’s neck, stuffing his face into the man’s shoulder. Tony knew he was going to be out like a light by the time he packed their bag and got back to the car and sure enough as he carefully peeled Peter from his chest and settled him into his car seat, he was fast asleep. He was able to get him strapped in with no trouble, pausing to press a kiss to the boy’s cheek before heading to the driver’s seat. 

Steve met him down in the garage with a smile and kiss. 

“How was the park?” Steve asked as he opened the door to Peter’s side, smiling softly as his eyes landed on his sleeping toddler. 

“Hell,” Tony answered gruffly as he swung Peter’s bag onto his shoulder, “I don’t know where he gets all that energy from. I think I get less of a workout on one of our missions than I did today running around after him.”

Steve laughed, nodding his head in agreement as he reached in to grab Peter. Some days it felt like his super-soldier serum wasn’t always up to par with the energy needed to tackle on a hyperactive toddler. But the aftermath was a snuggly, sleepy Peter which Steve had determined was the best thing in the entire world. 

Peter let out a little whine from being jostled around as Steve settled him in his arms. 

“Ssh, baby. Go back to sleep,” Steve cooed, pressing a kiss to the boy’s head and gently rubbing his back to soothe him which worked in an instant as Peter wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck and settled back into sleep. 

Later that night, Tony was busy drawing up the schematics for a new arrow design when Steve came in carrying a drowsy Peter in his arms. They usually alternated night duties when it came to Peter so Steve had been busy the last half hour giving Peter his bath and getting him ready for bed which is usually included a minimum of three stories. 

“Babe,” Steve called out, waiting for Tony to turn around, “do you have Squishy?” 

Squishy was the teddy bear from Tony’s childhood that had been passed down to Peter the day he was born and there was not a single night that Peter had gone to sleep without the stuffed animal next to him. 

“W’nt Squishy,” Peter reiterated. 

Tony got up from his chair, nodding his head as he went over to Peter’s bag that he left on the kitchen counter. Peter had been adamant about bringing Squishy to the park with them earlier today. He remembered putting the teddy bear right on top so it must have been right where he left -

“Umm.” Tony fished throughout the bag, not a single Squishy in sight. 

“Tony,” Steve called out wearily. 

“Don’t worry,” Tony answered quickly, starting to take everything out of the bag, “it’s in here, somewhere. I’m sure of it.” 

At this point, Peter’s head perked up at the growing worry and hastiness in his fathers’ voices. 

“Papa, where’s Squishy?” 

Steve smiled reassuringly, patting Peter’s back gently. “No worries, bubba. Daddy’s looking for him now.” 

At that point, Tony turned around with an alarmed look. He had taken everything out of the bag and Peter’s beloved stuffed animal was not in there. 

Steve tried not to panic at the moment. “Maybe, it’s in the car?” He suggested. 

“Yeah, yeah, right. Of course,” Tony answered back as he ran to grab his keys. 

“Papa,” Peter whined as Tony ran down to the garage. 

“It’s okay, Petey. Squishy’s in the car and daddy is gonna go get him now. Let’s get into bed before daddy comes,” Steve said while turning around to walk to Peter’s bedroom.

“No,” Peter howled, fighting his way out of Steve’s arms, “not without Squishy!” 

“Oh God,” Steve whispered under his breath, praying the teddy bear was actually in the car. 

He knelt down in front of Peter, gently taking a hold of his hands and bringing the boy closer. 

“Squishy is in the car and daddy’s bringing him up right this second,” Steve reassured at the same time Tony came out of the elevator empty-handed and pale-faced. 

Peter turned around and upon seeing Tony immediately ran towards him, holding his arms out. 

“Squishy, daddy!” He demanded and when came closer and saw both of Tony’s hands completely empty he finally decided he had enough of this situation. 

Steve and Tony grimaced as Peter let out an ear-piercing cry before throwing himself onto the floor. 

“I want Squishy!” Peter howled, kicking his feet.

“Tony, where the hell is it?” Steve asked as he approached his husband, having to sidestep Peter and his tantrum. There was no point in trying to console his toddler at this point. They both knew from past experiences dealing with Peter’s tantrums. 

Tony was beside himself as he shook his head, running a hand over his face. “I must have left it at the park. I have to go get it.”

Steve stopped him as he started to make his way back to the elevator. “Tony, it’s the middle of the night. How are you going to see where you are looking? Plus at this point, someone else must have taken it.”

“I’m going to have to at least try, Steve! That’s Peter’s Squishy! I’m pretty sure he loves that thing more than us. You know he won’t ever go to sleep without it,” Tony answered back. 

At this point, Peter had stopped shouting for his Squish and was just straight up screaming at the top of his lungs out instead. 

“Look,” Tony said, grabbing his jacket, “I’m going to the park while you try to handle him. And you know how it usually is. Five minutes of screaming and he’ll tire himself out.” 

Tony’s words could not have been more wrong. It was fifteen minutes into Peter’s crying, screaming filled temper tantrum and Steve felt like throwing his own at this point. He had tried every tactic from trying to put on one of Peter’s favorite cartoons to pulling out every other stuffed animal he had to distract Peter and finally trying to hug and rock Peter in his arms which just let to Peter kicking and punching his way out of his arms. 

“Honey, please, I’m sorry. I know you want Squishy back. I want him to. But you have to calm down for me, baby,” Steve cooed as Peter started coughing and sputtering in the middle of crying. None of Peter’s tantrums had gone on this long and Steve was starting to worry it was going to lead to an asthma attack. 

He was rummaging through the cabinet for one of Peter’s rescue inhalers, just in case, when the elevator door opened and Tony was running into the room. 

“Squishy!” Peter exclaimed as he saw his beloved stuffed animal in his dad’s hands. Steve let out a deep breath, putting his head in his hands and was close to crying in relief. 

“Here you go, baby,” Tony said as Peter ran up to him to grab the teddy bear. Peter grinned, sniffling as he hugged Squishy as tight as possible as if life depended on it. Which at this point, it might as well have. 

Tony was ready to collapse from the relief when Peter wrapped an arm around his legs. 

“Thank you, daddy. You found Squishy!” 

Tony smiled softly, reaching down to pick up Peter. He glanced over at his husband who looked like he had just gone through World War II a second time around, yet had a tired grin on his face. He winked at him, before turning back to Peter and pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

“Anything for my Petey.” 

~

[enchantedlokii]

Obstacles

Chapter Three: Safe

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: language, mentions of death

Characters: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson

Mentioned: Natasha Romanoff, Thanos, Sarah Rogers, Shuri

Steve stood his ground, clutching his broken shield. His body felt like it was on fire, but he knew that he couldn’t back down. Not now, when they had finally brought everyone back. Not when Natasha had given her life to give them a chance. He had to keep fighting.

“Steve!” Steve turned his head and saw Bucky coming closer. His hands were gripping a rifle and every now and then he would stop and shoot at something behind Steve. It reminded Steve of the war. “What the h*ll is going on?”

Steve started to speak when they were attacked by a group of Chitauri. The two fought side-by-side for longer than Steve could keep track of. But when he finally got a break, he looked around and wasn’t able to find Bucky. He tried not to let the panic set in as he searched for his friend. “Buck?!”

“Steve!” Steve’s eyes widened as he finally found Bucky. He was fighting Thanos. Alone. The Titan took advantage of his moment’s distraction and picked him up, a hand held tightly around his neck. “H-help!”

“Bucky!” Steve ran forward but Thanos held out a fist and twisted his arm, green light surrounding him. He found himself frozen. He was forced to watch helplessly as Thanos’ grip tightened. “No! You’re killing him! Bucky!”

“Steve! Steve, I’m here.” Steve’s eyes shot open and frantically searched for the sound of the voice. He was surprised to see Bucky kneeling beside him with wide eyes. “It’s okay, I’m here. I’m here, Steve.”

“Buck?” he murmured, trying to steady his heavy breathing. He felt a hand on his chest, firm but gentle. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurry, but the touch was grounding.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Bucky said softly. Steve recognized the tone he was using. It was the same way he had spoken as he talked Steve through countless asthma attacks as they grew up. “Just breathe, Stevie. It was just a nightmare. I’m here. I’m safe. You’re safe. Just breathe for me, alright?”

Steve nodded slowly, focusing on breathing. As he came to more, he noticed the worry shining in the blue of Bucky’s eyes. He suddenly felt guilt wash over him. He knew that his friend was already having trouble sleeping. He was struggling mentally more than Steve was, but Steve must have woken him up screaming. Still, Bucky was by his side, rubbing his arm gently as he calmed down like he had done hundreds of times in the past. “I’m sorry,” he choked out.

“Shh,” Bucky hushed him, moving his metal hand from Steve’s chest and letting it brush the hair away from his face. “You have no reason to be sorry.”

“I woke you up,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning into the touch. It was comforting, reminding him that like Bucky said, they were safe. Thanos was gone. He was dead. He couldn’t hurt them anymore.

“I was still awake,” Bucky told him. Steve wasn’t sure if that was true, but he knew that it was likely. “You okay now? Feeling better?”

Steve nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he murmured. He did feel better with Bucky there by his side. He wasn’t sure he was okay, really, but he would be. As long as Bucky was safe, he was okay. He let his eyes drift close. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Bucky whispered. “I, um, I hope it’s okay I came in. I hated to barge in but you were so upset and I just— I couldn’t just not do anything, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Steve said quietly, reaching to brush a strand of hair out of Bucky’s face. He smiled up at his friend. It was a bit wavy with the nightmare fresh in his mind, but it was genuine and he hoped Bucky could see that. “I’m glad you came.”

Bucky gave him a small smile. “I-I guess I should go now, if you’re sure you’re alright.”

Steve was frozen for a moment as Bucky started to scoot off the bed, but snapped out of it and touched his friend’s arm. Bucky looked at him with a worried expression. “Will. . . Will you stay?” He was afraid that Bucky might say no. He probably wasn’t ready to be in the same bed as Steve again. He might never be. But if he slept outside Steve’s door, Steve wondered if maybe he was just nervous. Maybe he wanted to be closer to Steve but was afraid to.

Steve’s worries faded when Bucky smiled softly. “Sure, Stevie.” Steve hadn’t noticed the returned nickname earlier, but he caught it now in his less-panicked state. “Let me go get a pillow.”

It didn’t take Bucky long to leave and return with a pillow, and Steve silently wondered if he had been laying outside his room again. He noticed that his friend was a bit hesitant as he climbed back into the bed and laid down, but he didn’t mention it. “It’s been awhile since we’ve done this,” Steve murmured as Bucky faced him.

“Yeah,” Bucky says quietly. Steve can hear the exhaustion in his voice. “You were smaller then. I was always afraid you would get sick from the cold. Even if I was right there with you.”

“Sometimes I wish I could undo it,” Steve admitted. “Not go back in time and never get the serum in the first place, but get rid of it now. I’m tired of fighting, Buck.”

“I am too,” Bucky sighed. He hesitantly reached and rested a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “But as stupid as I think you were for letting them do this to you, I’m grateful that you’re not so sick anymore. That was the hardest part about leaving for the war; knowing that you might not still be alive when I got back home. It. . . It really f*cking scared me sometimes. Especially after that last bout of pneumonia. I wanted to believe that you would be fine. That you could beat it again if it did happen. But it was so close. I was so close to losing you.”

“Oh, Buck. . .” Steve twisted his arm to put his hand over Bucky’s. He could see that his friend’s eyes were glistening. Bucky never cried, but Steve could faintly remember him sobbing at his bedside when he was in the hospital, begging him not to leave. He knew better than to mention it once he was better. “It’s okay now.”

“I know, I know,” Bucky closed his eyes. “Just. . . Please, if you ever have the chance to undo this. . .”

“I won’t,” Steve promised him. “I won’t.”

The two didn’t talk much after that. Steve was faintly aware of Bucky falling asleep not long after they fell silent. It took him a bit longer to fall into a fitful sleep. Again, he had nightmares. This time, about being sick as a child.

“Steve, Sweetie, you have to eat.” Sarah murmured. Steve was aware of a cool rag on his forehead, but he was burning up. He didn’t feel like he could move, let alone eat. “Please, Dear.”

“Is he going to be okay, Mrs. Rogers?” That was Bucky. He was on the other side of Steve’s bed. Steve thought he could feel his larger hand in Steve’s small one. Worry edged his young voice.

“I hope so, Jay,” Sarah sighed. “He’s never been this sick before.”

Steve woke with a start. He glanced over and saw that Bucky was still asleep beside him. He was glad that he hadn’t woke his friend, but part of him longed for the comfort that came with hearing him talk in such a soothing tone. He knew it was a selfish thought, but he didn’t try to push it away as he rolled over and grabbed his phone. It was past five now, so he wouldn’t be going back to sleep.

A few minutes after he started scrolling through his news feed, a text popped up at the top of the screen.

Sam 🦅 || 5:35 a.m.

Hey, Man. Up for a run in a couple hours? Barnes can come too.

Steve || 5:36 a.m.

You in Brooklyn?

Sam 🦅 || 5:38 a.m.

Thought I would try it out for awhile. Get a few months free rent with that Blip Recovery Program. Couldn’t pass that up.

Steve snickered at his friend. He knew good and well he could have stayed with Steve until he found a place, but he was glad to let the government take care of him for a bit. In Sam’s words, they owed him.

Steve || 5:39 a.m.

Nice. Buck’s still asleep but I’ll see if he wants to come. Want to meet up here?

Sam 🦅 || 5:40 a.m.

Sure. Ping me the address. 🤙🏿

“Turn your phone down,” Bucky mumbled beside him, turning over and raising an arm to cover his exposed ear. “Tryna sleep here.”

Steve smiled down at him, clicking the phone onto silent. “Sorry, Buck,” he whispered, moving a hand to his shoulder. “Go back to sleep. It’s early.”

Bucky hummed in reply. He stayed still for a bit before rolling back over. He reached an arm over Steve, causing him to blush. He wasn’t sure it was intentional. He probably did it in his sleep, but it made him feel warm.

Steve quietly returned his phone to the nightstand before shuffling closer to Bucky. Bucky’s eyes opened a bit and he seemed to glare at him. “You’re just as fidgety as you were when we were kids,” he mumbled, smiling sleepily. “What time is it?”

“Almost six,” Steve told him, smiling back. He had an urge to move a hand to his friend’s long hair, but he resisted it. Bucky didn’t want that. He was sure of it. “I’ll get up so you can go back to sleep.”

Bucky frowned slightly, his eyes opening a bit more. “Don’t go,” he pouted. For a moment, he looked like a kid again. There was a small spark on his eyes. One that Steve hadn’t seen in so long. “You’re warm.”

Steve chuckled slightly, shaking his head. “You’re such a child,” he teased. Still, he waited a few minutes before getting up to get ready. He would love to stay in bed with Bucky all morning, but he had to get ready before Sam got there. “Hey, I’m gonna go run with Sam in a bit. You can come if you want, but it’s fine if you want to stay home and sleep.”

Bucky opened his eyes again and raised an eyebrow. “Why you gonna run with bird boy?” he asked.

“Because he asked if I wanted to,” Steve replied. He had told Bucky they used to run together, but he was sure that his friend was a bit too tired to remember that at the moment. “He’s going to be here in an hour and then you can have some peace and quiet.”

“I wanna go,” Bucky protested. “Can’t let your go have fun without me.”

Steve smiled, glad that Bucky didn’t seem hesitant about hanging out with Sam. The first few times they met didn’t go too well, but they seemed to be okay now. He knew Sam was finally starting to trust Bucky after Shuri fixed the Hydra programming. He could see past the Winter Soldier now when he was reluctant to before. “Wouldn’t be fun without you.”

Bucky smirked before he rolled over to get out of bed. “I’m telling him you said that.”

[etlunainmorte]

🎸 Saved By The Siren 🎸

***

~ A Nero X Reader set in an Alternate Universe.

~ This is dedicated to one of my friends, @shadowrosess , who loves Nero, and to you, Nero fans! I hope you like this.

~ Enjoy!

***

"I QUIT!" The band's lead vocalist raged as she slammed the door closed on the way out, startling the other contestants.

"YEAH! FUCK YOU!" The band's lead guitar screamed back, making the other people shook their heads.

But, who could really blame him? Nero and Lady just couldn't get along well from the start.

"YA MESSED UP BIG TIME, PSYCHO!" Nico, the band's bassist shrieked hysterically at him as she pointed her cigar stick at him.

"WHO NEEDS A VOCALIST LIKE THAT, ANYWAY? SHE JUST STRUTS ON THE STAGE AND SHOW OFF!"

"Guys, we really need a vocalist now,or we're gonna get disqualified." Lucia, the timid drummer nervously spoke from the corner of the room, not wanting to be shout at by the ever grumpy Nero.

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water,... and breeds reptiles of the mind." V, the ever calm keyboardist, quoted, not once taking his eyes off his William Blake illustrated collection.

Nero face palmed.

Ever since that incident involving Lady erupted, of her planning to leave the band for a much more popular one to become famous, Nero has been on a rampage, picking unnecessary fights with her and, therefore, almost ruining the band.

And who could just put them together but him? Not Nico, who just messes around ( one time, she almost set the old and smelly studio they were practicing in on fire with the cigar butt she carelessly threw away ), not Lucia, who was just too timid and shy to ever lead any kind of group ( she almost depleted the band's funds by having no guts to refuse the cute little scouts that always come knocking in to sell them all sorts and flavors of cookies ), and definitely not V, who was either busy reading, or busy being a regular member of the National Orchestra as a Concertmaster ( who was so talented as heck, he rejected the last twenty or so who auditioned as vocalist, only accepting Lady because he wasn't there to see or hear her sing due to one of his asthma attacks ).

So, simply put, they're all doomed.

No.

More like fucked up.

All of a sudden, Nero's phone vibrated. He took it out from his pocket and saw that his dad was calling him.

"Ugh, him again?" Nero muttered, not really wanting to answer the call.

"Answer that call, ya don't want him to come in here and drag ya away from him like a brat." Nico suggested calmly.

And so, with a deep sigh, he answered the call -

"What are you doing right now,... scum?"

"Fuck off, Vergil!"

"Don't you disrespect me in front of your so - called peers. If I hear that you get beaten by Dante's band once more, I will have no choice but to take away that wailing and foul - smelling instrument of yours, drag you out of there, myself, and send you to boarding school in Berlin."

"D- DAD! PLEASE! NOT MY ELECTRIC GUITAR!"

"Don't you ever dare lose,... scum."

And with that last threat, Nero's father hung up. The place was almost filled with loud applause and cheers a few seconds later as the last band just finished performing. The door opened, and in came the dynamic guitar and singing duo of Dante and Trish.

The sight of Nero's ( and Vergil's ) rival Dante looking so proud and confident that he'll win this battle of the bands made his stomach churn. And before he could even turn away to not be noticed by the man, his father's younger brother saw him and immediately went towards him.

"Hey, nephew! How's it going?" Dante greeted as he put a heavy arm around Nero.

"Piss off, Dante!" Nero growled.

"Ooh! What's with the little puppy growl? Oh! Let me guess: Lady left you, didn't she?"

"FUCK. OFF!" Nero pushed Dante away in anger, his uncle's taunt proving that his statement was, indeed, real.

But, Dante just smiled and chuckled at him as he shook his head helplessly. "Oh, well, I wonder how Vergil would react to this news?!"

"Stop."

"Maybe he'll come down here and take away your second hand guitar! Or! Maybe," Dante taunted once more as he stalked closer to Nero like a predator. " ...he'll send you to that military boarding school in Berlin!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Nero finally exploded as he grabbed Dante's collar.

"No! You shut up, DEAD WEIGHT!"

"Okay, okay! Guys, stop!" Nico intervened, successfully drawing Nero out before he could make a nasty scene in front of the people.

"What do we have here?" One of the organizers who saw the argument came in and asked.

"Oh, nothin'! Nothin' to worry 'bout!" Nico lied as she laughed hysterically.

The organizer only shook his head and left. After that, the door opened and a head popped out from it.

"SWEET SURRENDER?!" The person called the name of their band.

"Yeah! We're here!" Nero answered unwillingly, flinching at his own words.

"YOU'RE UP! AND MAKE IT FAST!"

"Good luck, kid! Adios!" Dante mocked once more as he saluted on his way out.

"I'll send you my autograph." Trish said as she blew all of them a good bye kiss and gave V a very sultry look, to which the poet only ignored.

All of four of Sweet Surrender's members looked at each other.

"What do we do now?" Lucia, who was already in panic mode from the start, stuttered as she clutched her drum sticks.

"We perform as usual." Nero replied.

"What if we fail? Yer dad's gonna send ya to boardin' school fer real!" Nico added as she pushed the rim of her glasses up the bridge of her freckled nose.

"Stop saying that, will you? I will sing in place of that bitch."

"But, Nero! That song is meant to be sung as a duet! This will not work! This will be a disaster!"

"Whoa, Lucia! Calm down! Trust me. We'll get through this!"

After those words, Nero, Nico, and Lucia turned to V, expecting him to say some words of encouragement.

And to this, the poetic musician only answered, "A man can't soar too high,... when he flies with his own wings."

"Okay, V. You're an interesting guy but, you're right." Nero responded as all of them faced the door that led to the stage. "Let's get this show on the road!"

However, no matter how hard V tried to give them enough words of motivation, courtesy of William Blake, they just couldn't shake the foreboding feeling.

That something bad was going to happen.

Nico, Lucia, and V may have done their best to perform their parts, but Nero's song, which was supposedly a duet, just couldn't, would not, work out. It just felt wrong.

And not even a few minutes in and they were already being booed by their audience. This made Lucia even more nervous and stopped playing altogether. Nico tried to pitch in for her but failed miserably because she lacked proper practice. V, on the other hand, remained calm as he multi - tasked, playing both Lucia and Nico's part on his keyboard.

"LOSER!" A girl from the crowd shrieked as she threw her candy wrappers at Nero. Some people took this as an opportunity to throw things at them.

"Look at them! They look so pathetic!" Dante laughed from the back of the crowd, enjoying Sweet Surrender's downfall. "I guess it's boarding school for Nero now - "

"HEY, GUYS! So sorry I'm late!"

Everyone in the room went dead silent as one unknown girl wearing a floral dress came up the stage and joined Nero.

"I'm sorry. Who are you?" Nero questioned as he watched the girl take hold of one of the microphones.

The girl just winked at him and gave him a confident smile. "We're gonna do this, right?"

"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!" Lucia bravely screamed at the top of her lungs as she tapped her sticks together for their cue. And with the wailing of Nero's guitar, they played their song once more.

"Oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh! So jet lagged!" Nero started singing. "What time is it where you are?"

"I miss you more than anything." The mysterious girl sang, her beautiful voice surprising Nero, and the rest of the band.

"And back at home you feel so far."

"Waitin' for the phone to ring."

"It's gettin' lonely livin' upside down. I don't even wanna be in this town. Tryin' to figure out the time zone's makin' me crazy!"

"You say good morning when it's midnight. Going out of my head, alone in this bed. I wake up to your sunset. And it's driving me mad, I miss you so bad. And my heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged, is so jet - lagged!"

"Oh, oh!" Nico, Lucia, and V sang at the same time the people stopped booing them and started bobbing their heads along with the song, actually enjoying the performance. And by the time the unknown girl started singing, the crowd started to finally cheer for them.

"What time is it where you are?" She candidly sang as she winked once more at Nero, who really enjoying their performance.

"Five more days and I'll be home."

"I keep your picture in my car."

"I hate the thought of you alone."

The girl took the mic out from the stand and pointed at the crowd. "I've been keepin' busy all the time just to try to keep you off my mind. Tryin' to figure out the time zones makin' me crazy!"

She, then, went over to Nero's side and by the time they're singing on the same mic, the crowd just went wild cheers.

"You say good morning when it's midnight. Going out of my head, alone in this bed. I wake up to your sunset, And it's drivin' me mad, I miss you so bad. And my heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged, is so jet lagged!"

"Oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh!"

"I miss you so bad."

"I miss you so bad."

"I miss you so bad."

"I miss you so bad."

"I wanna share your horizon."

"I miss you so bad."

"And see the same sun rising."

"I miss you so bad."

"And turn the hour hand back to when you were holding me."

"You say good morning, when it's midnight. Going out of my head, alone in this bed. I wake up to your sunset. And it's drivin' me mad, I miss when you say good morning, but it's midnight. Going out of my head. Alone in this bed. I wake up to your sunset. And it's drivin' me mad, I miss you so bad. And my heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet - lagged! Heart, heart, heart is so jet-lagged, is so jet-lagged, is so jet - lagged!"

"Oh, oh!"

"So jet - lagged!"

Nero and his friends, so was Dante, who was still watching, couldn't believe the amount of love they received from the audience.

All thanks to this mysterious girl.

"That was crazy!" Nero told her the moment they went back to the room. "You're really awesome!"

"Thanks!" The girl answered with that charming smile of hers.

The smile that made Nero's heart skip a beat. She's just,... so beautiful, and charming, and,...

"What's your name?" Nero asked her.

"Oh, you can call me (Y/N)."

"Heya, (Y/N)! I'm Nico." Nico introduced herself even before Nero could shake her hand.

"Hello, Nico!"

"I'm Lucia, the,... drummer,... at the back. You know,..." Sweet Lucia shyly introduced herself.

"You were awesome back there, Lucia!"

"Really?!" The girl's face lit up in excitement.

"Yes!"

"And I'm Nero. Nice to meet you." He said as he was finally able to touch her smooth hands.

"Same here, Nero." And she gave him that charming smile with that cherry colored lips again.

"Hey, where's V?" Nico asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"At the back, hiding from Trish." Lucia answered.

"Poor tattooed Shakespeare,..." Nico shook her head in disbelief.

"They're gonna announce the winner!" Lucia excitedly said as she pulled her friends back to the stage,...

... only for them to get disappointed when the host announced Dante and Trish's name.

(Y/N) noticed Nero's sadness and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulders. The boy smiled at him and shook his head.

"Thank you, (Y/N)."

"No, Nero. Thank YOU."

They were about to make way for Dante and Trish to perform their encore when the people started yelling their name!

"SWEET SU - RREN - DER! SWEET SU - RREN - DER! SWEET SU - RREN - DER! SWEET SU - RREN - DER!"

"OH, MY GAWD! THEY WANT US BACK!" Nico shrieked as she happily jumped up and down.

"Then, we're gonna give 'em what they want. Isn't that right, Nero?!" (Y/N) confidently announced as she nudged the boy's arm, who still couldn't believe what just happened.

"Okay! We're gonna do this!" Nero took his guitar and positioned himself in front of the mic once more. "Where's V?!"

"Right here." The poet calmly said as he reappeared and faced his keyboard once more.

"ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!" Lucia gave the cue, finally confident for their sweet, sweet encore.

After that, it was safe to say that nobody's instrument, foul - odored, second - hand, or no, got taken away by an angry parent. There were no more old, combustible and smelly practice rooms because they were invited by a talent manager named Morrison to perform to much better and popular places. There were no more girl scouts selling one particularly shy drummer some cookies because they were now being offered M&Ms and more backstage and for free. One skinny poet has to run and hide more often from crazed fangirls because someone released his photos and videos on Instagram, which quickly became viral. And no one got sent to a boarding school in any part of Europe.

And (Y/N) and Nero?

Let's just say that their first duet was the start of a truly sweet and meaningful romance.

***

🎸🎸🎸

***

[harvestleaves]

Breathless at the Ballpark (Undrafted)

Rating: T

Word Count: 1,405

Summary: Maz ignores the signs of an oncoming asthma attack and worries his teammates.

It was a warm summer day when Maz pulled up to the ballpark, the pollen visible in the air as he wrinkled his nose up in disgust. He’d woken up in the middle of the night having an asthma attack and ended up only getting about four hours of sleep. Taking a wheezy breath, Maz dug through his baseball bag for his inhaler and frowned when he pulled it out, noticing that the device had only five doses left.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he shook up the medication and brought the inhaler up to his lips to take a breath before he shakily exhaled the bitter medicine.  Hearing a knock on his window, Maz looked up to see Pat peering at him in concern and unrolled his window to smile at his best friend.

“Hey, what's up?” Maz asked curiously as he quickly shoved his inhaler back into his bag, hoping the other male wouldn’t ask about it.

“Not much. You feeling okay?”

There was a nod to his now-closed bag as Maz gave Pat a look that pretty much said ‘drop it’.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Hey, if you’re not feeling up to playing today, no one is going to be upset with you.”  Pat’s brows were drawn close in concern as he eyed Maz, noting his slightly labored breathing in addition to the way his shoulders were heaving with each raspy breath.

“I said I’m fine, now drop it,” Maz finally snapped with a glare to Pat, the outburst shocking his friend.

“Okay, calm down.  You’re really fucking pissy this morning,” Pat snarked right back as he turned to head down to the dugout, shoving past Dells as he got to the field.

“What’s wrong with you?” Dells asked curiously as he looked over where Pat was fuming at the end of the bench, throwing his bag into the corner with a glare.

“Fucking Maz.  His fucking asthma’s acting up, but he refuses to take the game off,” Pat huffed out as he turned to aim his glare at Maz, who was setting his bag down next to Fotch.

“Tell Ty?  Maybe he’ll force Maz to sit on the bench this game,” Dells offered with a shrug, not really sure what else to say as he turned to watch Maz as well.

“He won’t listen and you and I both know Ty won’t bench our best fucking player,” Pat snapped, his worry coming out more as anger as he sat down with a huff.

Maz ran a hand through his hair as he sat down next to Fotch, letting out a wheeze filled breath as he pulled a water bottle out of his bag to take a swig, not noticing when his inhaler fell out into the dirt.

Fotch raised an eyebrow at the blue object and reached down to pick it up, frowning at the low counter.  He gently nudged Maz before handing the object to him.  “Hey, you feeling okay kid?  You’re wheezing pretty badly.”

Maz sighed heavily as he took his inhaler from Fotch and took another dose of it, shaking his head as he took another swig of his water.  “Not really, but what choice do I have, everyone is counting on me.”

“You could sit this game out if you’re really feeling this awful, but I’m not going to push you.  I’m guessing your stubbornness is the reason Murray is currently throwing a fit?” Fotch asked, a slightly amused smirk on his lips as he glanced over at where Pat was still huffing on the bench.

“Most likely.  But I know my symptoms and I know when I need to take it easy.  I just wish he trusted my decisions more, ya know?” Maz sighed, shoving the inhaler back in his bag as Ty came into the dugout to give them the lineup for the game.

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

Maz was honestly surprised that his lungs had held out until the fourth inning.  Though the longer he was out in the summer humidity, mixed with the high pollen count, the more he could feel his breath start to catch more as he got ready for his up to bat.  He couldn’t remember the last time his allergies had made his asthma act up this badly, and he knew that he was definitely going to need his inhaler again once he was back on the bench.

“Maz, you’re up,” Ty snapped as he looked up from his clipboard to watch Maz approach home plate.  Dells had already told him about Maz’s condition and he’d been keeping a very close eye on the shortstop throughout the first half of the game.  So far, he wasn’t too worried about his teammate, but Ty had noticed how labored Maz’s breathing had become after his last at-bat.

Maz closed his eyes to refocus for the pitch before he stepped into the batters' box.  He watched the pitcher intently before swinging on the second pitch and running for first.  Smirking when he was counted safe, Maz reached down to adjust his batting gloves before he turned to watch Barone strut to home plate.  Coughing into his elbow, Maz winced a little at the tightness that clenched his chest before he focused on the next pitch, taking a few steps towards second base.

The next pitch was quick and Maz grinned when Barone hit it over the fence, running past second and around third before he ran back to home plate and turned to high-five Barone as the other man rounded third to head home, oblivious to the fact that he suddenly couldn’t catch his breath.  Barone quickly returned the high-five before he surprised Maz by tugging him into a tight hug, only pulling back when he heard the harsh wheezes coming from his teammate.

“Maz?  You okay?  Breathe,” Barone frowned as he pulled back from the hug, narrowing his gaze at the other man, gently setting his hands on Maz’s shoulders.

“Fuck, it’s his asthma.  Someone grab his fucking inhaler!” Pat yelled back to the dugout as he jogged over to Maz and Barone, gently setting his hand on Maz’s back to lead him to the benches.

Turning his head to look at Pat, Maz leaned slightly against him and reached up to press a hand to his heaving chest, panic starting to rise as he was led to the dugout and sat down.

“I’ve got his inhaler, sit him upright,” Vinnie stated as he tossed the inhaler to Pat before digging through his own bag for an extra bottle of water.  “Should we call an ambulance?” he asked nervously as he watched Maz gasp the medicine in.

“Shut up, give it a minute to kick in.  Maz, you feeling better?” Pat asked gently as he opened the bottle of water to offer to Maz, his brows creased in concern.

Maz squeezed his eyes shut, letting the medicine sit in his lungs for a few seconds before he shakily exhaled and reached for the water Pat was holding out.  “Th-thanks, I’m okay,” he wheezed out as finally opened his eyes to look at the faces of his worried teammates.

“Good, now why the fuck didn’t you say that your asthma was acting up?!” Pat finally snapped with a frown to Maz.

“I dunno, I guess I just didn’t want to let you guys down.  You’re always counting on me.” Maz admitted as he looked nervously back down at his inhaler, avoiding everyone’s gaze once more.

“Hey, it’s okay to ask for help.  Sometimes you need a reminder that we care more about your health and wellbeing than we do about the score of a game.  You can’t score a run if you can’t breathe,” Fotch said as he settled a hand on Maz’s shoulder, causing the shortstop to look up in surprise.  “Now, I think we all can agree that he’s done for the day, right Ty?”

“Yeah.  Maz, you’re benched for the rest of the game, Barone, you’re in for Maz,” Ty agreed as he wrote the change on his clipboard.  

“Of course, I’ve got you covered Maz.”

“Now, let’s get back to the game,” Ty huffed as he grabbed his helmet and bat to head to home plate.

Smiling slightly at the eccentricities of his teammates, Maz settled back against the wall of the dugout as he watched Ty walk onto the field, glad that the D-Backs always had his back.

A/N: You can also read this fic on Ao3 here.

[scaredbisexual]

Reddie - Eddie loses his inhaler and has an asthma attack and Richie comes to the rescue?? Comfort/fluff? I need more cavity-inducing fluff. (Sorry if this prompt has been done a thousand times - new to the fandom lol)

I was happy to do it, hon! It’s a bit cheesy and then there is not a lot of plot there but it’s fluffy and SOOO CUTE! I hope you like it!

That day has started in an awful way, with Eddie’s heart racing after a rather intense dream and anxiety tightening his chest, making the boy reach out for his inhaler. He then took a puff, and then another one, just for good measure. He felt incredibly unsafe, even in his own bed, and felt a strong urge to beg his mother to let him stay home from school. But he knew that this could only turn out bad or horrible, so he decided against that idea and dragged himself out of bed. He quickly got dressed into a big, grey hoodie (probably belonging to Mike, Eddie loved his clothes ‘cause they always smelled really fresh and were at least three sizes too big for him) and some shorts, given it was quite warm outside. He skipped breakfast and took off, leaving for school a little early.  

His way there wasn’t the worst, warm sun shining into his face made the walk really pleasurable and calming even, so when he got to school his mood was a tiny little bit better. He even smiled at his lab partner on the corridor and helped the janitor with some heavy boxes. When he finally got to his locker it was still pretty early, so there were not a lot of people around. He sighed and scratched his head, turning around and taking in his surroundings while thinking about what he could possibly do with all the time he had. Eddie decided to just call Richie and see where he was, so he could move towards his boyfriend.

The little word, even unspoken, made Eddie smile like a maniac. He had started dating Richie some time ago, exactly 5 months earlier on his 17th birthday. Rich had gotten him a necklace, a tiny and delicate one, with “Eds” pendant on it and it had made him a tiny bit angry but mostly happy, like really happy. When he was thanking his friend for the gift, there was a thought that had crossed his mind “Kiss him”. So, he did and the rest, like they say, is history.

He could hear “Never gonna give you up” playing somewhere in the end of the hall and a silly grin tugged onto his lips yet again. It was Richie’s ringtone for Eddie.

“Oh Edwardooo!” The taller boy called out and emerged from behind a corner. Eddie giggled silently while shaking his head in disbelief and the anxiety that he felt in the morning seemed like a distant memory. He moved to get closer to his boyfriend and when they met halfway, he kissed Richie’s cheek.

“Hi!” He said in a quite cheerful tone. Richie smiled at him, his expression going soft, and the smaller boy’s head.  

“Hello my lovely, couldn’t you wait for me longer, you eager…. wait, what can be eager?”  

“You are so stupid, oh my god.”

It was about five minutes before the end of lunch hour when it all came back to Eddie. He was sitting on a bench outside of school, enjoying his salad with Beverly eating every other spoonful of it. It was nice and peaceful, with all his friends gathered together. Up until Stan suddenly stood up while looking at his watch.  

“Well, I better get going, this bio test is going to start in few minutes and I need as much time as I can get,” he sighed while gathering his stuff, entirely missing the shocked expression that suddenly appeared on Eddie’s face.

“We have a bio test?” He asked in a small voice.  

“Yeah, from chapters 11 to 20,” Stan answered his question, still unaware of the wires that started to link inside of Eddie’s head.

But, thank God, Richie was far more observant than Stan and he quickly picked up on Eddie’s fidgeting. It started with the widening of his eyes, then came the shaking of his hands and it all was summed up with-

“I forgot,” whispered by the boy, seemingly to nobody.  

“Fuck,” Richie muttered and got to his boyfriend at the speed of light. He took his hands into his own and started rubbing them together, attempting to calm this boy down. He could see the wheels turning inside his head, how panic spread through his body- making in shake more and more, and finally cutting off the air source.

“Ca-n’t- ah! Br-e-athe!” Eddie choked out while desperately trying to get some air into his lungs. It wasn’t new for him, the panic attacks that his mother made him believe were asthma attacks. They happened from time to time on days that made the boy feel particularly anxious and unsafe. So, days like that one.  

“Where’s your inhaler, hun?” Richie spoke in a calm voice, trying to make Eddie a little reassured that he knew what to do. The smaller boy’s eyes only widened even more, making Richie worry that his eyeball would fall out, and he shook his head. He had left it at home after taking a puff in the morning. “Bev, there is a spare one in my locker, can you get it?” Richie asked, not even considering the option to leave his boyfriend alone when he obviously needed him. Beverly only nodded, she knew his combination so she could easily open said locker. Mike run with her, just because he was the best athlete out of the group and he could come back faster.                                  

“Okay, sweetcakes, you gotta calm down babe, ‘s all gonna be fine, just breathe, in and out, like me,” Richie murmured sweet nothings into Eddie’s ear while sitting the boy on his lap, circling his gangly arms around him and pressing him tightly to his chest. “I’m here Eddie, I’m not gonna let anything happen to ya, ‘s all good.”

Mike, as predicted, came running back with Beverly far behind him. He almost tossed the inhaler into Richie’s hands and then watched as the taller boy applied it to Eddie. The little boy took three big puffs and then his breathing calmed down a bit, making it possible for him to relax a bit. There was still some tension in his body but Richie was working on it.  

“Thank you,” he murmured into his boyfriend’s ear and smiled tiredly. It was a really hard day and he only wanted for it to be over.

[loreweaver-universe]

All right, all right, people are started to get annoyed rather than laughing, so let’s cut this short.  Here’s the story of how my mom accidentally poisoned me!

So I have asthma.  This went undiagnosed until I enlisted in the Air Force in 2007 and subsequently passed out in formation less than a week in.  (It went undiagnosed, interestingly, because in the words of the Air Force medic who tested me, I have the lung capacity of a lifelong wind instrument player or long-distance runner--so it all muddled out to slightly worse than average, and we thought I just got winded easily.  Nope!  I’m a weird mutant whose weird mutation just doesn’t work.  Go figure.)  People with asthma, it turns out, are quite often allergic to aspirin--something I didn’t take once in my entire runup to my twenties.

The first time I took an aspirin, because I’d run out of ibuprofen (the stuff in Advil) and decided to try something else, I just kinda wheezed a little and didn’t think much of it.

The second time I took aspirin, it was worse, and I realized I was having some kind of weird reaction, so I stopped taking it.  Then I found out I was allergic because asthma, went to the store, bought a five hundred pill candybottle of ibuprofen, put it on my shelf, and didn’t have another headache for four months.

The next time I had a headache, the ibuprofen gave me a pretty rough asthma attack.  Because!  Guess what!  There’s a whole class of what’s called Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, or NSAIDs, that are perfectly fine for asthmatic people to take...until they trigger their aspirin allergy.

After that, they’re poison.

At this point, I do a bunch of research and discover that nearly every over-the-counter painkiller available to me is ibuprofen-based.  The stuff that I’m told is safe for me to take is acetaminophen, the stuff in Tylenol.  Half the acetaminophen-based painkillers out there have ibuprofen in them, too.  It’s a nightmare finding stuff safe for me to take, and around this time my sinus polyps are really getting going and I’m suffering daily pressure headaches which is a whole other ball of fun let me tell you.  So I get in the habit of buying 500-pill candybottles of generic 500mg Tylenol tablets, keep a general eye out for safety’s sake, and otherwise largely leave the whole thing on the shelf.

I make it to my second year of college without another incident.

Spring of 2014, my mother’s in Bangor, picking me up so we can have dinner out, and I complain about headaches when I get in the car.  (I had surgery to remove the sinus polyps!  They’re growing back by this point.)  She hems and haws, because she has a couple Aleve in a plastic baggie that she keeps around for her personal painkilling needs, and she can’t remember whether they’re ibuprofen or not.  We look it up--there’s no ibuprofen or aspirin in it, hooray!  It’s got something called naproxen sodium instead.

At this point, we aren’t aware that acetaminophen isn’t just safe for me to take, it’s the only safe painkiller for me to take.  Naproxen sodium is another NSAID, and I’m in for a rough night, because I pop that sucker in my mouth like it’s the cure for nose cancer and we head off to Chili’s to try them out for dinner.

I’m pretty much okay when we walk in the door.  We order appetizers--I get a little dish with soft pretzel sticks in it--and we get to chatting about life.  As the conversation goes on, I get a little coughy, and a little snotty, and then I have to excuse myself to the bathroom a few times to blow my nose, because at this point my respiratory system is trying to strangle itself.  The pretzel sticks come and I’m starting to wheeze, but I barely care because I tried one of those bastards and they were goddamn incredible.  My mother starts to get scared, despite my insistence that this has happened before, and she and I eventually get up to leave because she wants to drive me to the emergency room.  While she’s apologizing to the restaurant manager (who insists on turning down her offer to pay for the food we ordered), I dash back to the table and grab the five remaining pretzel sticks, because screw leaving those behind.

So begins the most memorable car ride of my entire life.

Mom’s driving through downtown Bangor, starting to panic, because at this point I am audibly choking on my own throat, but I’m on cloud nine because these god damn pretzel sticks, man, holy shit.  I’m snarfing them down, and babbling about how good they are--and anyone who’s spent any amount of time around my mother and I at the same time knows my absolute favorite game is making her laugh--and generally doing my best (somewhat on purpose, even) to distract her from the fact that her son is suffocating in the passenger’s seat.  She, meanwhile, is doing her damnedest not to swerve off the road, because she’s alternating between hysterical tears of terror and hysterical tears of laughter.  She rolls down the window so I can get some fresh air, and I alternate between gulping down oxygen and suffocating myself with pretzel sticks because why are these so goddamn good.

Mom’s losing her shit laughing when we pull up to the hospital, and I’m red-faced, pretzel-less, and starting to slow down, so she pulls up to the ambulance door and runs inside.  After being directed by a very annoyed desk clerk to pull around the side, we go inside, and while I make a few more half-hearted efforts to tell jokes, I spend most of the rest of my wait red-faced and desperately dragging breaths through my closing windpipe.  I’m in a bad way, guys.  Mom finally gets them to bring me in ahead of some people who aren’t suffocating to death, and they pump me full of some kind of Benadryl cocktail, which makes me loopy and high and sleepy.  I spend a few hours drifting in and out of consciousness, high off my ass (and boy howdy do I hate being high) and at one point, because I’m in no state of mind to do social math, I tease Mom about getting me that Dave Strider figurine I wanted.  Then i go back to sleep.

Eventually, I’m good to go.  I get sent off with some information about my condition, plus the knowledge that this particular allergic reaction gets worse every time it happens.  The next time it happens, I may die before I get to the hospital.  Mom takes me to a pharmacy, buys me a pair of epi-pens I never wind up needing because I get religious about being careful what I put in my mouth (I still have ‘em, because I’m not throwing away three h u n d r e d dollars of medicine, what the hell is wrong with you) and...well, honestly, the night past that point is a bit of a blur, because I’m loopy from the meds and just had a near-death experience.

A couple weeks later, though, I got a surprise in the mail!

This is Dave Strider!  I almost died to get him.  Literally!

To this day, Mom and I tease each other about how she spent my entire childhood not murdering my insufferable mug, only to almost kill me by accident once I was out of her hair.  I’ve been sending her screenshots of your reblogs and tags and discord messages and she has been laughing her ass off.

So, I’m sorry I strung you all along for that long, but I did say my favorite game was making my mother laugh.

[just-jordie-things]

Confinement Syndrome - Stiles Stilinski

word count: 2817 warnings: swearing, panic attacks request: 40 with Stiles 😍 this is so something he would call Lydia about prompt #40 - “Hey, you okay? Whats going on?” “She won’t stop crying, and I don’t know what to do!”

The Dread Doctors have proven to be a real pain in the ass, as Stiles had so lightly put it during the pack meeting at Scott’s house.

“It’s… it’s like you can’t even breathe” Malia was explaining her own experience with them, though it wasn’t like it was a real sunny moment she was sharing.  “I felt so powerless, I couldn’t do a damn thing to help Tracy and I… well I never want to feel like that again”

(y/n’s) mind wandered to what it must feel like, to be a strong werecoyote and to suddenly have that completely shredded from you.  Malia always did her best to help, and her assets as a coyote were what she relied on to do that.  (y/n) was only human, so she knew all to well the fragility of her life, not to mention her bones.  But right now that was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about.

“Really?” Kira chriped in.  “I’ve felt the complete opposite… as if I’m learning control for the first time and that I’ve been completely taken over by the kitsune itself.  Like we aren’t one anymore, like we’re both fighting for control” She said.  (y/n) shuddered, turning away to hide the fact.  Stiles, who stood next to her, looked over to her, his expression silently asking if she was okay.

‘Don’t worry about it’ She mouthed back, so the werewolves couldn’t listen in.  He faced his attention back to Kira as she continued to speak, but his hand reached for (y/n’s) hidden behind him.  Her fingers linking between his with ease.

As Scott began to talk about his asthma attack in the elevator just days ago, Stiles’ hand squeezed onto hers.  She thanked him silently.

Since (y/n) had moved to Beacon Hills last year, her and Stiles had been close friends.  They hadn’t even crossed paths until her name wound up on the Deadpool, and him and Scott had found her fighting for her life against Garrett and his twisted girlfriend.  While (y/n) turned out to only be human, she had a family history of banshees, so she carried the gene.

“Any ideas? I’ll take anything at this point” Scott sighed, slumping down at the kitchen table.  (y/n) felt bad for him in this moment, the alpha always tried to protect the entirety of Beacon Hills, and right now he was clearly feeling beat.

“The frequency” (y/n) said quietly, earning a very puzzled look from Scott.  “It’s how they run… how they’re able to do the things they do with the electrical currents, like in Eichen” She explained.  “I don’t know what they are, or how that works, but I think it’s how they communicate, how the overpower things”

“Yeah” Lydia nodded her head, understanding what she was saying.  “If we can throw that off, we could maybe take that away from them” She thought allowed.

“Like kicking them when they’re down?” Malia asked, and the girls nodded back at her.

“That makes sense” Scott finally got it.  “How do we throw off their frequency though?”

“Easy, overload it” Lydia said,

“Sound waves” (y/n) snapped her fingers, pointing to the banshee.  “We use audio files of you…”

“… and then surround them with it…” Lydia finished (y/n’s) thought.  “That could work!”

“You think?” The human girl smiled, glad that she’d helped with the plan.

“Lydia, Malia, you get the recordings” Scott said.

“Why me?” Malia whined.

“You’re the only one who can tolerate it” He answered, and she wanted to argue further, but it made too much sense.  “Kira and I will figure out how to find them, I’ll call Liam tonight and ask him to come searching with us” Scott said, thinking through each aspect of the plan.  “(y/n) and Stiles, you figure out how we switch up the frequency”

The two looked at each other, (y/n) pulling her hand out of Stiles’ as she smiled at him awkwardly.

“We’ll meet back here tomorrow, shoot for noon?”

Everyone nodded collectively in agreement.

“You want to get going then? Maybe we can get to a bookstore or something  for research?” Stiles offered as the two headed for the door.

“What’re you eighty? Why can’t we just google?” (y/n) responded.  Stiles shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah we could just go back to my place” He suggested.  “You could stay the night, i-if you wanted.  Then we could just meet up with the pack together and-”

“That sounds fine” She said, ending his rambling as they got into the jeep.  “But could we stop at my house then to pick up some things?”

“Yeah-yeah of course” Stiles stammered out in response.

The trip to (y/n’s) didn’t last more than five minutes, filling her backpack with the necessities.  Clothes to sleep in, and change into for tomorrow.  Toothbrush, deodorant, phone charger.  That was about it.

“So I was thinking we start with getting all the research printed then going through it and trying to track down where we can get the kind of speakers that can carry the intensity of a banshee scream” (y/n) was explaining her ideas to Stiles as soon as they walked into his bedroom.

“Sounds good”

“Also, we’ll look super prepared when we go to Scott’s” She added with a sheepish grin.  Stiles chuckled at that.

“Good.  Go A team!” Stiles said, holding his hand up for her to high five, but she shook her head.

“We aren’t celebrating over this” She said, stifling her giggles as she pushed past him to get to his computer.

“Fine.  But we’re still A team” Stiles said, sprawling onto his bed to do his own research through his phone.

It must’ve been an hour of mumbles between the two, printing off sheet after sheet of papers that (y/n) felt would be necessary, until something in particular caught her eye.

“Hey… Stiles…” She called for him softly, unable to tear her eyes away from the laptop screen.

“Yeah?” He got up to walk over to her.

“There is a book” She told him, pointing to the screen.  “On the Dread Doctors, by…” Her eyes scanned over the page.  “T.R McCammon”

Stiles’ eyes squinted as he read over the page she’d pulled up.  “Is it… reliable?”

“Only one way to find out, yeah?”

“You mean you want to go buy this?” He asked incredulously.  “Didn’t I say we need to go to a bookstore?”

“Don’t be such a grandpa” She mumbled, the back of her hand slapping his arm.  “I’ll print the pdf” She giggled at Stiles’ inability to process modern technology.  She was already printing out a copy.  “I could probably finish this tonight”

“Are you serious?” Stiles asked, looking over at all the sheets currently being stacked on his printer’s tray.  “You’re paying me for that ink” He grumbled.

“Okay” She shrugged.

“I was kidding.  And there’s no way you’re reading that all tonight” He said, wandering over the the sheets and flipping through them curiously.  “They’re double sided!”

“I’m aware, Stiles.  I’m saving paper” She rolled her eyes.  The boy threw his hands in the air.

“(y/n/n), it’s already ten o’clock, you’re not going through the whole thing tonight.  You’ll be up till the morning”

“I’m okay with that” She shrugged.

“(y/n)-”

“People are getting hurt, Stiles” She said seriously, looking away from the computer and back up at him now.  “I can handle staying up past my bedtime” She said, then got up from the chair to go collect her twenty-some pages.  Stiles sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to talk her out of it.

(y/n) took her spot on the bed, getting comfortable with a pen in one hand for notes and a highlighter between her lips just in case.

“Are you gonna sit with me and keep me company?” She asked Stiles after a few minutes of being by herself.

Stiles had just been standing there, trying not to stare at her, but it was getting kind of hard nowadays.  The boy nodded, propping himself up next to her on the mattress.

“You just want me here to ask me questions on big words” He said with a goofy grin that earned him a smile.

“Maybe” She responded softly.

And she did ask hima  few things, as well as run a few ideas by him as she scribbled down notes and highlighted certain areas.  She was taking it very seriously, each page taking her longer to read through than the last.  Until eventually it didn’t matter that Stiles kept his eyes trained on her breathtaking features, because she was so captured by the words.

Stiles fell asleep by midnight, and she wasn’t even half way through it by that point.  Not that (y/n) minded, his head had fallen onto her shoulder and his soft snores were something that made her chest flutter with adoration.

But that was when things got difficult.

The reading was getting intense, and the further she went, the easier the picture in her mind became, until it was so realistic that she just couldn’t stop.  Because she was certain that at any moment the Doctors were going to come to get her, after her own mutated genes.  The image was crystal clear.  (y/n) was practically trapped by the book.

She didn’t even know she was shaking until Stiles began to stir and woke up because of it.

“(y/n)?” He mumbled, clearly confused.  “How long was I- O my God you’re crying” He sat up straight as soon as he’d noticed, but she didn’t say or do anything, just kept on reading as she trembled and tears fell down her cheeks.  “(y/n), hey, seriously stop reading now”

She barely even showed a sign of life if it weren’t for her tears.

“I’m serious (y/n), stop reading”

A small gasp escaped her lips, but it was only as a result of her crying.  Stiles began to shake her shoulders, snapping his fingers in front of her face, anything to direct her attention elsewhere, but it wasn’t working.

Finally, he gave up and called the one person he figured would be good with this sort of thing.  They picked up after a couple rings, sounding only slightly annoyed from being called at one in the morning.

“Hey, you okay?” Lydia’s voice asked, wondering why the hell Stiles would be calling at this hour.  “What’s going on?”

“It’s (y/n)” He answered quickly, sounding panicked.  “She won’t stop crying, and I don’t know what to do!”

“Oh my God… what’d you do to the poor girl?” The banshee sighed.

“Nothing! She was just reading this book thing about the Dread Doctors and just- I don’t really know I fell asleep-”

“Typical of you to leave all the work to her”

“Not now” He muttered.  “But she’s shaking and crying and it’s like, it’s like she’s in a trance and I don’t know how to help her just tell me how to help her”

“Well maybe start by taking away the book” Lydia stated calmly.  Stiles did so, reaching out and practically ripping the pages from her hands.  The girl’s eyes looked up to his, still wet with tears and there were trails on her cheeks.  Her breathing quickened, but she still didn’t say anything.

“Okay I think that worked” Stiles near whispered into the phone.

“Good, now… maybe treat it like a panic attack?”

“How the hell do I do that?” The boy whisper screamed.

“I don’t know! You’ve had them before, you figure it out!” Lydia replied defensively.

“Fine, I’ll figure it out on my own” Stiles answered, before hanging up on her and tossing her phone to the side.  “(y/n), hey, can you hear me?”

He got onto the bed in front of her, sitting on his knees as she stared at him.  Her head shakily nodded.

“I-” She took in a sharp breath.  “I feel like I-I can see them” Her voice came out in whimpers and Stiles’ heart broke right into two.

“There’s nothing here, it’s just me” He assured her, reaching his hands out to set on her shoulders.

“But I-I just f-feel them, like they’re everywhere” The tear flow continued on and Stiles was about ready to burn that pdf printout.

“Nothing is here” Stiles whispered.  “I need you to breathe”

“I can’t I-”

“(y/n)” Stiles spoke sternly.  “Breathe, in and out”

“Stiles I can’t-” She panted again, shutting her eyes in an effort to at least stop the crying.  “I can’t do this I- I can’t help them not like this-”

“Don’t think about that right now” He said softly, realizing his hands had been caressing over her arms involuntarily to try to soothe her.  He wasn’t all too sure if it was working, but he didn’t stop.  “Think about something else”

“How am I-”

“Just try” He pleaded.  “Try for me, find something else to focus on”

(y/n’s) eyes opened, red and sad and flickering between his.

“It-it’s n-not working” She sniffled, voice hiccuping.

Stiles gaze wandered from her tear filled (y/e/c) eyes down to her trembling pink lips.  Quickly snapping his line of sight back to his eyes, he wondered if his last ditch effort idea was even a good one.  But we know what they say about desperate times.

His hands released her arms to gently cup her face, and without a second thought he tugged the girl closer to him, slanting his lips over hers.  (y/n) squeaked with surprise, but didn’t try to push him away whatsoever, so it must’ve worked on some level.  He let his thumbs swipe tenderly over her cheeks to get rid of the wetness.  After he felt her let out a soft and steady sigh through her nose, he pulled away from her, removing his hands from her face and looking at her worriedly.

“How’d you know that’d work?” She whispered, no longer sounding panicked, but he could tell that she was still scared on some level.

“I… didn’t” He responded, chuckling nervously and rubbing the back of his neck.  “Sorry”

“It’s okay” She responded maybe too quickly.  “Thank you, I mean” (y/n) spoke almost under her breath, even though he was sitting just inches in front of her.  “That was… um… terrifying”

“I’m just glad it’s over.  It was terrifying to watch” He said, getting up off the bed, and placing the stack of papers she’d been going through clear on the other side of the room on his desk.  “We’ll worry about that all tomorrow, you need sleep” He told her.  (y/n) nodded in agreement.

If she was being honest with herself, she could still feel his velvety chapped lips on hers.

Stiles began to head for the door, shutting off the lights, and (y/n) stiffened instantaneously.

“Wait- Stiles” She called, sitting up straighter on his bed.  He turned back to her, silently asking what she needed.  “Can you… will you stay up here? Tonight?” She spoke slowly.  “Not on the couch?”

He smiled gently at her, closing the door and heading back to the bed.

“Thanks” (y/n) mumbled as they laid down across from one another, her eyes staring at him with a soft sort of intensity.

“Mhm o’course” He mumbled sleepily, pulling the covers over the both of them.  His eyes were shut as his head hit the pillow, but (y/n) was still looking at him.

“Stiles?” She murmured, like a frightened child.

“Mm?” He hummed, his eyes flickering open to see her unsurely watching him.

“Can I come closer?” His lips tugged gently, and without a word he opened his arms up for her.

She’d spent the night in the same bed with the boy before, many times actually.  After Lydia’s parties, late night pack meetings like to night, for movie marathons.  She’d grown accustomed to having him sleeping by her side, but cuddling was a new concept.

Without hesitation, she moved forward and tucked herself underneath his strong arm, pressing her hands to his check and her face against his collarbone.  Stiles held onto her securely, just enough to remind of her safety, but she could still breathe in his sweet scent of cologne.

“Thank you” She whispered.  He rubbed her back gently in response.

“Mhm” He hummed again.  “Get some sleep”

“Goodnight” She yawned, eyes fluttering shut as she pursed her nose into the crook of his neck.  “I love you” She purred without much of  thought of all, meanwhile making Stiles’ heart nearly burst out of his chest.

“Love you too pretty girl” Stiles said carefully.  He could feel her lips pulling into a small smile against his skin, but no more words were shared between the two.

But more words than those they’d let so tiredly slip out were needed.

prompt list

taglist: @the-crime-fighting-spider @socially-awkward-nerd  @all-alone-he-turns-to-stone @lovelynerdytraveler @writings-and-stuff @black-tights-black-heart @catcrown21 @anabundanceoftrash @dylxnob

xoxo ~ jordie

[etherealrj]

running on ice - reddie

pairings : reddie

warnings : jealously ?

masterlist

requests are closed

a/n sorry this took so long, I have so many request right now and i'm like mentally sinking under pressure. I hope this is okay anon!

Eddie always came along to Richie’s shows. It was a tradition, even both they started dating. Eddie would face his fear of the germs to come and listen to his boyfriends loudly obnoxious band play covers of songs he’s never heard, in favour of watching Richie get hot and sweaty as he periodically exhorted his energy banging on his drums.

 Richie on the other hand would come to the pep rally every Friday night to support Eddie’s appearance, regardless of his hatred for most of human kind nothing could rival seeing your boyfriend in tight pastel pink booty shorts. 

Eddie usually sat backstage at Richie’s shows, this was usually due to Richie not wanting Eddie to panic and cause an asthma attack from stressing over anybody out on the floor.

But today was different.

Eddie claimed that sitting behind the curtains just wasn’t good enough for tonight, therefore he just had to stand dead centre stage to watch his lover perform. Richie was hesitant because he didn’t want to see the fragile boy get hurt. He knew how rough the floor could get scattered with intoxicated youths and Richie knew it was no place for a five foot four, skinny, pale, flower crown wearing teenage boy. But Eddie had insisted that, that there wasn't any other place he going to be regardless of Richie’s protests.

Richie had placed himself behind the drums, twirling the drum sticks that loosely rest in his hands. As he scanned he crowd, it was a pretty good turn out tonight. A small non-existent smile made it's way onto his lips at the idea of people actually appreciating him for his talents, a wave of relief fled through his body, maybe he could actually get somewhere in life. Soon the idea of the masses of people seemed to have changed his opinion.

He scanned the crowd looking for Eddie's figure, even if he wasn't dating him, the poor boy he stuck out like a saw thumb among the copious amount of dark clothes that stood on the floor, covering the space with an aura the Richie was all too comfortable with.

 Blinking behind his glasses, he narrowed his gaze slightly to this side of the stage where he found Eddie standing leaning slightly against a tall bar table. Richie noted that Eddie had found someone to talk to, and that in itself made Richie smile. Knowing that Eddie was comfortable in one of the only other places Richie was. Richie must have been staring at the pale boy for a bit longer than he thought because the only thing that broke him from his gaze was the fact it was getting harder and harder to see him. The stage lights had begun to dim and the loud strum of the bass guitar echoed the dark room.

 Richie straightened his back and placed his drum sticks in their selected hands, starring out at the audience and seeing only the faint outlines of human bodies.

 The coloured stage lights were suddenly turned on, and Richie heard the loud cheer from their small crowd. He heard their lead singer speak into the microphone probably asking the basic and stereotypical 'hey, how's everyone was doing tonight,' but Richie paid little no attention as he looked back over at the space Eddie was currently occupying.

His mouth dropping a gape as he watched the boy laugh at something the delinquent had said. Richie whole opinion on the other male had changed as fast as a drop of a pin.

Eddie's back was turned to the stage and his full attention was focused on a complete and utter stranger. He faintly heard the beginning of song start and he subconsciously hit drums the way he had been practicing for the past weeks but his gaze still pierced the back of Eddie's head wondering what was just so interesting that he couldn't even face the direction of his actual boyfriend and pretend like he was enjoying the music even though Richie knew otherwise.

Richie narrowed his eyes as he watched a hand creep up the sleeve of Eddie's jacket. Eddie obviously didn't feel the need to brush him away. One of the only faults that Eddie Kaspbrak will ever exhibit is the inability to be able to recognise that literally everyone wanted a piece of him. Richie wasn't even going to hide the fact he was jealous. He gave that up long ago.

Eddie was his, and only his. It wasn't that he didn't trust Eddie, he just didn't trust anyone else around him. The boy was small, cute and docile, meaning he would be just as easy a target as it would be to steal a puppy from a shelter. Eddie trusted everyone, and Richie was the complete opposite.

The band played a few more songs before they were able to take a break. As soon as the stage lights turned off and the floor was lit, Richie rushed down onto the hard concrete despite the protest from his lead singer about their need to recuperate behind stage.

Richie's long limbs were seen jumping from the side stage and striding five short steps in Eddie' direction. Once arriving the older boy sat  his head onto of the younger and his arm sliding around Eddie's waist. Eddie flinched away from his touch and Richie tried not to let his disappointment show. Glancing to the right he saw the denim jacket wearing loser that was trying to steal his boyfriend, sipping on a drink that was clearing not cherry cola. He glared at the side of the strangers face as he brought the glass cup to his lips.

Eddie turned his head to meet the hard face of Richie Tozier. Body immediately relaxing under his touch. "Hey babe." Eddie said, a comical expression plastered itself on his face as he observed Richie's stoic look. Turning slightly to kiss the taller boys cheek. Richie tore his glare from the other the boy and focused his gaze on Eddie. "It's been a good show so far." Richie scoffed.

"Yeah, like you would fucking know." Richie said, sound muffled by Eddie's dark brown curls. "Watcha doing with this guy." He gestured across the table to where the guy now stood starring across at the pair.

The unknown guy reached his arm across the table holding out his hand. "Hi I'm-" "I wasn't talking to you." Eddie pushed back against Richie's chest and moved from out of the taller boys grasp.

"Richie that wasn't very nice." Eddie's eye widened in surprise at the blatant bluntness coming out of Richie's mouth.

Richie's eyes widen, "Can you not see that he's trying to get with you!" Richie gestured wildly, sending his long limbs flying about. Eddie sighed, and turned back to the mysterious man informing him that the pair will be right back. Eddie gripped onto the side of Richie's leather jacket, pulling him through the masses of people toward backstage.

As they past the heavy black curtains, Eddie let go of Richie's sleeve and turned to face him. "What's up with you?" He asked, curiosity shown in his eyes. His eyes travelled over Richie's sweat cladded face, dark curls clung to his forehead, his face was flush with a light shade of pink making the freckles that Eddie loved disappear for an apparent amount of time.

Richie kicked the tip of his shoe against the concrete, reluctantly looking into Eddie's eyes. "Nothing, Eddie Spaghetti." Richie beamed a smile toward the boy. Eddie quirked an eyebrow at Richie's all too wide smile. Eddie placed his hand son his own hips and gave Richie an expected stare. Richie rolled his eyes and dropped the smile off his face. "I don't like you talking to that guy."

"Rich, you can't get angry every time I talk to other guys,"

"Eddie! He was touching you! I was watching the whole time, you didn't ever turn to face the stage once!" Richie sighed. "I love you too much to just sit back and watch. I don't want to lose you to som-some denim jacket tattoo covered freak!" Eddie's lip twitched into a side smile, as he reached out and took a hold of Richie's hand.

"You are the only denim jacket tattoo covered freak for me baby, I promise." Eddie stood upon the tips of his toes, to press a chaste kiss upon Richie's lips. Richie faintly heard someone callout for him, informing him he's got two minutes until they go back on stage. With an annoyed grunt, Richie pulled Eddie into his embraced, wrapping his arms around the smaller boys shoulders tightly. Richie felt Eddie hug back just as tight, while wrapping his own arms around Richie's middle section. Muffled by Richie's jacket he faintly heard Eddie's teasing tone say,

“There’s no need to be jealous, Rich.” Richie scoffed and pulled away began walking in the opposite direction, shouting in response.

“Shut it Ed’s.” Richie walked away with a genuine  smile on his which made a few of his bands members send him questioning looks which he all dismissed with shake of his head.

As the stage lights turned back on, Richie glanced through his fingerprint cladded glasses to see Eddie's bright smile staring right back at him from  centre stage.  

Richie couldn't be happier.

fic requests and headcannon requests are closed

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a/n I currently have 25 requests sitting in my ask box and I want to get around to all of them so pls no more fic requests until i'm finished them all lmao. moodboard requests are open tho bc I'm using them to distract myself from writing. i am working 6, 8 hour shifts this week so I'm really busy with work but I'm trying lmao

if you wanna be in the reddie taglist lemme know!

taglist : @colinmorgay @its-ya-girl-mercy @tastes-like-cherry-coke @netzoflix @bitch-its-youknowwho @prkrptr @ladycataztrophe @whoisjjacob @eddies-inhaler @stenbroughh @eddierichietozier @scienceyyy @randvmfandoms @loserichie @puddlewing @letgoofmygreggo

ive forgotten like 5 ppl I'm sorry ^

[deflcresco]

Drabble: Six Weeks (After)

It’s been three weeks after Mitsuki’s outburst in the car. Hibari can’t say that things have changed much since then. She worked, all the time, he wasn’t sure it was good for someone to do that. Not the work part, but the no rest part. He’d get her back home near midnight & she’d be out leaving by five in the morning. During the short amount of time he saw her, she didn’t really say much to him. She’d be tired, she will shower & go to sleep, or pretend to be sleeping. He knows that she’s not sleeping but he doesn’t want to corner her, not when she was feeling like this. She would pretend to be sleeping until she think he’s gone to sleep. He’d feel hear leaving the room & not coming back to bed. He wished to do something for her, something that would make her feel better, or to let her rest. The way things looked, it didn’t seem like she wanted to get any rest. She was overworking herself & not listening to anyone. Ryosei was over a few times, but his words didn’t reach her. He wanted her to stop going to work, he wanted her to go back home, but she didn’t listen to him. She would get up, while he was talking & she’d leave the apartment. She wasn’t listening to anyone. It made them feel helpless; they wanted to help her, they wanted to make her feel better, but she was closed off. Hibari knows that what’s happening currently is a result of her last visit to the hospital. Being Kagero’s guardian, the doctors can’t disclose anything to anyone else aside from her. Whatever is going on, it is between Mitsuki & the doctor.

It was nearing ten p.m. He would be leaving in an hour to get her from her work. He was worried about her, wondering how much longer she can keep this up before she’d collapse. She wasn’t eating & her sleep was a mess, she’s already lost weight, even more than before. Now she is overworking herself on top of that. He felt helpless watching her go through this without being able to do anything. He didn’t know what he can do, he can ask her to come home earlier, to try to eat something, or even sleep for longer. Nothing he did was working.

He was startled when there was rapid knocking on his door. It was strange, no one he knows knocks like this & it’s late. Maybe someone has got the wrong address ? He opened the door, revealing a foreign woman. She must be lost. He wasn’t sure his English would get him far, but he can at least tell her she’s got the wrong place.

❝  Is Kouga Mitsuki here ? ❞  He must be more tired than he thinks; was she speaking in Japanese or was he imagining things?

❝  S-She’s not here right now. ❞   Who was this woman?

❝  Where is she ? ❞   That’s Japanese alright. He never saw this woman before.

❝  At work. ❞

❝  Work ?!  Why ? Aren’t you supposed to be looking after her ? ❞   He was processing so many things at once. One, there is a foreign woman at his door. Two, this woman can speak fluent Japanese & can snap at him with ease. Three, she seems to know Mitsuki & him ?

❝  Who are you ? ❞  

❝  I’m Mia, Mia Simmons. I’ve known your girlfriend since our kids were toddlers. ❞   Right, she must be Erica’s mother. Now that he thinks about it, she looks a lot like her. They had the same hair & eyes. He’d met the girl a few times, she confused him but she was harmless. Her mother, on the other hand, had a distinctive presence.

❝ Nice to meet you. I’m— ❞

❝  I know who you are. Now tell me, why is Mitsuki working ? It’s late & this is not supposed to be happening. ❞

❝  She wants to work. I was going to pick her up later. ❞

❝  Makihara-san, when we say ‘take care of her’ it means to stop her from self-destructing. Not standby while she is self-destructing. This… I can’t believe you’d let her do this for three weeks. No wonder she’s gone dark all of the sudden. ❞  

❝  Tell me, what happened right before that ? ❞   She wasn’t done interrogating him yet.

❝  Nothing. She went to speak to the doctor at the hospital & that was it. ❞

❝  That’s it ? Did she say anything about what he said ? ❞

❝  No. ❞

❝  & that’s it ? You just let her do as she pleases ? ❞

What else can he do to stop it ? There wasn’t much he can do besides what he already did. If Mitsuki didn’t want to talk about it, she wasn’t going to talk. He can’t force her to say anything if she doesn’t want to do talk. If this woman knows her as well as she claims then she should know this.

❝  What else can I do ? ❞

❝  For one, you can loosen her tongue with some alcohol. ❞  

He didn’t respond. It was unexpected but it sort of made sense, in a strange way. Alcohol just never really crossed his mind. He didn’t think that getting her drunk would be a good idea.

❝  Three weeks & you did nothing ? Seriously why did you say you can do something you aren’t doing well ?  ❞

He didn’t like this woman. How was she friends with Mitsuki? They’re very different, it’s not possible that they would get along.

❝  I’m doing all that I can. ❞

❝  You know what, never mind, I’ll handle this now. ❞  She picked her phone & dialed a number.

❝  Hello Rei. I have a favor to ask, keep your bar open until late. I’m bringing a friend over in a bit. Yes, this is good. The less people around the better it is. Thank you. ❞  After hanging up, Mia turned to leave.   ❝  Keep your phone close, I might call you later. ❞

❝  I should go get her. ❞   He didn’t want to feel so useless.

❝  I got this for now. ❞

Mia drove all the way to the Kouga HQ. She liked how the traffic has died down, it will make for a much faster drive. She learned from Erica what had happened. She couldn’t believe that Kagero was in the hospital at first. She thought it was a minor thing, like a traffic accident or something. But when she spoke to Ryosei later she learned the extent of her injuries. She’s still in the ICU after all of this time. It wasn’t getting any better & she understood how her friend felt. She could lose her daughter & that’s not something anyone can cope with.

She has experience this feeling before. When younger, Erica would have some scary asthma attacks that would get her hospitalized. She’d always panic that they won’t make it to the hospital in time, that her daughter would suffocate before anyone can help her. It was a frightening feeling. But in her case, it doesn’t last. She would have an answer by one or two hours. This, now, has been going for a long time. She is surprised Mitsuki is still holding on for so long. If it was her she would be a mess.

There wasn’t much point thinking about it. Mitsuki can’t shoulder everything on her own. She will break at one point & there is no telling when that point will come but it will come, & it won’t be pretty. She can at least weasel something out of her. She wasn’t sure how far she can go, but she will not hold back. It will be the two of them with a bar full of alcohol. She has high hopes for this working.

She parked her car outside of the building & entered it. The place was empty, only security guards were around. She took the elevator all the way up to where her friend was. She wasn’t as naive as to think that she will leave with her easily or willingly. But she can try at least. She was still going to get the alcohol & will have it done in Mitsuki’s office if she has to. Mitsuki might be stubborn as heck sometimes but she is not one to give up easily. She has a good track record when it comes to this sort of thing.

She knocked twice before entering the office. She didn’t wait for a reply, that’s not what she’s here for tonight. She will take things in her own hands & from this moment on, she will be the one in control over this situation. Well, she will be for as long as she can be. Unlike Makihara, Mitsuki is not really that easy to sway. It was this part of her that appealed to Mia the most. She just… She has this kind of energy, that she’s not someone you’d want to mess with or make an enemy out of. She looks the opposite, but she will destroy you if you cross her. It wasn’t all for show either, some people had a loud bark but no real bite. Mitsuki— She gives off the vie that she’s low-key but she can really pack a good bite. Mia knows not to poke her when that happens, she just pulls back & keep her distance until things are calm again, however long it takes for it to happen. Friendly fire is a big possibility & she’d rather stay away from that.

❝  What are you working so late for ? ❞    She won’t bring up the little run across the city she did earlier. Trying to locate Makihara’s apartment building was a bitch to deal with.

❝  There is a lot to do. ❞

❝  Yep, & guess what ? It will never be finished. That’s why we stop & come back the next day to try & make a dent in this never-ending pile. Come on, let’s get out of here. ❞

❝  I’m not done yet. ❞

❝  I know— Look, I won’t force you to stop, just come with me for an hour or two then I’ll get you back here. ❞  

❝  Go where ? ❞

❝  A friend owns this small low-key bar. It’s quiet at this time so we can go grab a drink or two. She has an outside seating area so it’s not cramped. It has a nice atmosphere. The outside deck is by the lake, a real soothing place to be at. ❞   Good, it was working.  She was glad to see her stop tapping on her keyboard and leave her seat.

Mia wasn’t counting on talking much during the car ride. She wasn’t surprised when Mitsuki opted to turn up the volume high while music played, eliminating any chance for any conversation to happen. It was alright though, that’s not the route she was going for anyway. She won’t bring up anything until she gets at least some shots in her friend, otherwise she should just give up.

Luckily, the bar was deserted. It was open after hours, costumers wouldn’t expect it to be open at midnight so they had the place all to themselves. She picked a table next to the windows. That was she easily gesture for Rei to get them drinks without having to move.  She wasn’t really planning on drinking, she was driving & she needs to be sober to do anything she has planned to do, getting her own self drunk would be a disaster. But, she doesn’t have to reveal all her cards right now.

They started with shots; she took one shot & placed it next to her, swirling it from side to side. During this time, Mitsuki had already downed the remaining three shots.

Oh yeah, it must be bad. She needs to brace herself for this one.

Rei came outside again, she come over to ask them if they wanted any thing specific to drink. She still had her shot, untouched, but she remained quiet. She will start talking after Mitsuki would have had a glass or two, that would be a good place to start.

❝  Woah, wait, I’m not drinking bourbon tonight. Leave the bottle for next time.  ❞  

❝  I’ll take the bottle. ❞   Right, Mitsuki wasn’t lightweight, she can handle her liquor just fine. But an entire bottle? This can go downhill pretty quickly. On the plus side, she could get drunk to the point where she’d pass out. That would give her the rest she should be taking. If all else fails, this can actually work.

❝  Coming right away~ ❞  

Mia settled for a glass of water after the bottle was brought to their table.

❝  I haven’t seen you in a while. Got any updates for me ? ❞

❝  Not really. Everything is the same, more or less. ❞   For the most part, she seemed more interested in drinking than talking. It was fair. Mia won’t argue against it. Perhaps more alcohol is needed. Although that doesn’t seem to be an issue, Mitsuki wasn’t holding back . There were already three different bottles on their table, & they were running out quickly. It’s only a matter of time now.

❝  Have you been to the hospital lately ? ❞

❝  — don’t need to.  ❞   She was pouring another glass, she was beginning to get tipsy.

❝  Mhm, I’m sure things will turn out for the better. It takes time. ❞

❝  Ha ha, yes, any day now. ❞   She saw her reach for the whisky this time, filling her glass to the rim. At the rate she’s been going, she was going to drink it in one go & Mia wasn’t sure that would be a good idea given the amount she has drunk so far. But it was working, so why not keep it going for a little bit longer?  

Mitsuki didn’t disappoint, soon the empty glass slammed  back on the table. With a shaking hand, she refilled it to the rim again.

❝  Okay slow down mama, we said you’re going back to work after this, remember ? ❞ To her surprise, Mitsuki laughed & got up. She was intoxicated alright, but she was still able to move.  She heard her mutter something, but she didn’t catch it.

❝  What was that ? ❞   She got up as well. She wouldn’t want Mitsuki to go off premise without her being close by.

❝  I said, not for much longer. ❞   What? That didn’t make much sense… No longer what? Wait— Shit !!

❝  Hey now, you can’t say that. No one knows what’s going to happen. ❞

❝  It is done. ❞  She kicked one of the chairs.

❝  What’s done ? ❞  Mia stayed close.  

❝  Everything. ❞    

❝  It will be over soon. She will pull through, I know that she will. ❞   She hoped they were talking about the same topic.

❝  She won’t. ❞  

❝  You can’t know this. No one can. ❞   She tried to make more sense of it. She will let her speak while she connects the words, try to understand what’s really going on. If the doctor contacted her to discuss this, to tell her to lose all hope… Wait— did they…?

❝  She’s… Not getting better, only worse. ❞   Mitsuki’s back was to her still. Mia was caught between getting closer or staying where she is. She feared that if she moved, Mitsuki would stop talking. But she couldn’t stand there & do nothing while this unfolded. To be told by doctors that things are getting worse, it means all sorts of bad things. Fuck, she wasn’t counting on this happening.

❝  There is no reason to keep her there any longer. Her organs are shutting down one after the other.  ❞   None of the two women moved from her spot. Mia felt scared. There wasn’t anything she could say to make this any better. Multi organ failure only meant one thing.

❝  I— have to make the decision… ❞  Mia was frozen in her spot. This was not something she expected. It was bad, really bad, worse than bad. This sort of thing, it will crush Mitsuki, it will destroy her. To make the choice… If Kagero is truly gone then keeping her hanging like that was meaningless… At the same time, to make the decision to— There was no right choice to make. Both were a nightmare on it’s own.

The first sob was Mia’s cue to move. She turned to Rei ❝  Call the number I gave you, tell him to get here.  ❞   There wasn’t anything she could do or say. The only thing she can do is be there & help her friend release some of this weight that’s been crushing her. All she can do is hold her close & let her cry, for as long as she needs to. She won’t tell her to stop, or to calm down. She wasn’t sure what she can do, what can she do in this situation? She was paralyzed & this wasn’t her going through it. The only thing she can do is be there for her friend. Even if she can’t be of any real help, she can’t— she won’t leave her friend alone during this.

Hibari was alarmed when his phone rang. A strange woman called him by his name, telling him to come to her bar. He recalled Mia telling him about her plan, maybe it worked. He got in his car & drove to the location. He parked outside & walked inside. A woman wearing a colorful outfit was inside. He figured she was the one who called him.

❝  They’re outside, through the back. ❞

When he opened the door he saw them. They were by the far side of the deck, near the water. They were sitting on the floor. Mia had her arms around Mitsuki, who was crying like he’s never seen before. It was unlike anything he’d seen before. It froze him, it wasn’t anything he can do anything to stop. But he couldn’t turn back & leave. He can’t… He can’t stop this. It was different, he felt scared. A sense of desperation invaded him as he realized how useless he is in face of this situation. He didn’t know what was going on, he was afraid to know. He didn’t want to know. Mia looked up after hearing his footsteps, she had tears running down her face as well. It scared him, he wanted to get closer but she shook her head at him. He stopped, not knowing  what to do in this situation. He doubted anyone could do anything about it.

He couldn’t remain there any longer. This was unlike anything he’s been through so far. This was different, this was much worse than what was happening earlier. It was the kind of pain no one could anything about. It was unstoppable, it was sweeping & destroying everything in its wake. It was a tornado intent on destroying everything it got close to; it wasn’t going to leave anyone untouched by it. Mitsuki is stronger than him & she’s… breaking. This is what was happening to her; she was breaking right in front of his eyes & he couldn’t do anything to stop it or slow it down. It wasn’t anything anyone can do anything to stop. All they can do is wait & hope that by the time it’s over, she will remain intact somehow. This was coming from her soul. It told him what she’s been avoiding for the past three weeks. Keeping busy as to not think about it… Shutting the world out, focusing on what she can use to keep her busy… All for the sake of not facing reality. If it has come down to this, then…

Mitsuki felt like she was dying. Every time she would consider the options she’s given, she felt like she was suffocating. It was better if she doesn’t think about it. She went back to work & did that for twenty hours each day. She was content with that. With work keeping her busy, she didn’t have to worry about anything else. She was surprised when Mia cam to visit her late at night. It was nearing midnight & she was tired, getting a drink or two didn’t sound like a bad idea.

Drinking was a social activity. But she wasn’t feeling like talking. She had nothing to talk about anyway. She just wanted to drink enough to forget who she is & what is going on in her life right now. Mia was curious & persistent. Her words made her nearly choke on her drink. She is no longer a mother if her only child is dead. She will be… Something else, but not that, not anymore. She can’t claim that title anymore. There, while she was trying to get up, she remembered random snippets. Various stages of her daughters life all came rushing back to her at once. She nearly lost her balance, she will never see her again. She will go back to an empty house. There will be no more chats between them. There will be no more Kagero coming to her room to tell her about her day. There will be no more of anything anymore. She will not see her daughter graduate, or see her become an adult with countless possibilities in front of her. She will never have her by her side again. It wasn’t something she could process. Nineteen years ago, her soul was split in two, one half remained with her, while the other half became the child she bore. She cannot live without her; how can anyone live on when part of them is gone forever?

She couldn’t imagine it. She didn’t want to think about it. She was dying every day thinking about agreeing to take her daughter off of life support. Would it be the right thing to do?  It wasn’t. She can’t just send her away like this. Even if she isn’t getting better… Would it be fair to let her go slowly? Wasn’t this just making her suffer more? She was ready to go. She came to her in a dream, telling her that she was leaving. Giving her one last chance to hear her voice again before she departs. It wasn’t enough. She wanted to see her, she wanted to hold her, hearing her voice like that wasn’t fair at all. She didn’t know what to do. She knows it’s better to end her pain now, but she can’t go through with it. She just… She can’t.

She sank to the floor. The thought made her crumble & there was nothing she could to stop it. She couldn’t imagine a life without her daughter being present in it. This reality didn’t exist, she didn’t want to think about it. It made her hurt & she hated it. For the first time in a long time, she let it take control over her. She was tired, she couldn’t fight it anymore. She didn’t want to fight it, she just wants it to leave her alone after it’s done. She didn’t want to feel anything anymore. & so she cried. She cried for a daughter she was not going to see anymore, she cried for a life lost, a life taken from her so brutally & abruptly she is still trying to make sense of what has happened. It wasn’t fair at all. She can’t go on when what’s more precious than her own life is gone forever.

She was beyond processing what happened. This is something she never thought she would deal with. It’s against nature for parents to bury their children. It’s the other way around for a reason. She can’t go through with this. To be the one to send her daughter off… At what point does it become normal? She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to deal with that. Who gave themselves the right to do this to her? She can’t even send her daughter off with a proper goodbye. She had so many things she wanted to say to her—-  If she only have her back for a day, an hour… She has so many regrets— She has to reassure her daughter that it’s for the better. It’s better for her to go instead of being trapped in a body that is no longer functioning. If she makes this choice… She has no right to make it. Who gives her the right to decide when to kill her daughter. Was it really the better option? What if she was to improve one day? Even years later, what if she wakes up? If she dies now, that possibility will die with her. She couldn’t make a choice. How do people decide on what to do? Every time she thinks about it, she feels the entire world crashing around her. She would do anything to make this stop. It was a feeling like nothing else. She hated it, it was all around her & it was never going to leave.

Mia was torn. On the one hand, it was good that Mitsuki is finally going through her emotions even if they were destroying her. Letting it out is better than keeping it all bottled in, that was the rule. On the other hand, she didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, given the intensity of her emotions. Not that she blamed her. No, she doesn’t blame her at all. It was a situation she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy. She was going through her own feelings as well. This wasn’t just some friend she met. She has known Mitsuki since their kids were barely able to walk & talk, that’s an entire lifetime. Kagero is like a third daughter to her. It was not comprehensible… Why would anyone do this?  But this isn’t about her, not tonight at least. Tonight, she needs to support her grieving friend. It was a lot to go through; everything happened so quickly she can’t believe things have come down to this point. To take someone off of life support… There is no walking back from that. If she’s gone… she’s gone. It wasn’t a light decision to make. To let your child suffer & drag out their suffering even while they’re technically gone, or to end things…. How can anyone walk out sane from that?

& so, she chose to remain quiet. She’d let Mitsuki mourn for her daughter for as long as she needs.

She stopped Hibari from approaching. He might interfere & stop this. She hated it. She hated how she could do nothing at all, she hated that this is what needs to happen. Letting Mitsuki cry like this was tearing at her, she almost couldn’t bear it, but she will not stop it. It has to come out, all of it. Even if takes all night, she will still be here. She will not leave her side, not during this time. She won’t let her shoulder it alone, no matter what happens, she will be with her every step of the way. But for now, she will take it one step at a time. They just have to get through this night… If there is any sort of moving on that is going to happen… She won’t tell Mitsuki what to do, that is a decision only she can make. But Mia knows that whatever choice she makes, it will destroy her. If she leaves her daughter to go slowly, she will be torturing herself over it, that she made her suffer before she was gone. If she turns off life support, she will believe that she killed her.  It’s nothing like that, she knows it, but it doesn’t make it any easier to rationalize. This sort of decision is not something anyone can make easily. It will be weeks, perhaps months before Mitsuki reaches a decision about how to let this end. It wasn’t going to be easy; the next days & weeks will be impossibly difficult. All they could do now is wait.

The silence was not perceived at first. Both Mia & Hibari were caught in their own thoughts to keep up with what was happening. Mia was the first to notice, not knowing how long it’s been since it has gotten quiet. Going weeks in overdrive & now having this cathartic release, it was only normal for Mitsuki to lose consciousness at one point. It’s restless sleep, not something anyone would take comfort in & it certainly didn’t make her think that what happened tonight was good. It was better than what was happening, but it was still… Terrible. She hoped that after all of this, Mitsuki would be sleeping for a few hours at least. She needs to rest, she needs a few hours to not think about what’s happening.  She looked up towards Hibari, gesturing for him to come over to them.

❝  Take her home. I’ll be right behind you. ❞   Luckily, he didn’t say anything. He picked up Mitsuki & walked out of the bar. She remained sitting there. She was still in shock. It took her a few more minutes to pull herself up & head outside. She thanked Rei for opening late for them & got in her car.

She sat on the couch across from Hibari. She couldn’t leave just yet, she was still worried.

❝  She’s— Don’t let her out of your sight. ❞   Even if he has to tag along with her to work. She just… Didn’t think it good to leave Mitsuki alone for the time being.

❝  What happened ? ❞

❝  She’s been given an ultimatum… ❞   She couldn’t go through with explaining it to him. It was difficult for her to articulate & besides, he is Kagero’s father. There is no way this won’t crush him.

❝  She… She was told to consider turning off life support. ❞   The doctor’s way of saying ‘your kid is dead, might as well get this over with’.

❝  I— I have to go now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. ❞   She couldn’t remain here any longer. She felt the air tightening around her just by thinking about it. & that’s her not going through it herself, just imagining it made her panic. To accept that your child is gone… This wasn’t something anyone can go through & not be affected. Having learned this, she wasn’t going to stay away. She will get involved , she is worried about Mitsuki & what this is going to do to her.