#I just wish he looked angrier when he's supposed to be angry

[artsyneurotic]

This is an excerpt of my first Dawntrail stream on twitch ( https://www.twitch.tv/krentistthedentist ) Gaddes is still pretty, but does he look as cool or imposing as before..? This is probably my Pepe Silvia moment, but let's examine this, as I basically discuss the loss of my WoL's previous character design.

[jazzyoranges]

Can I humbly request Wednesday x winged reader? Like idk they have angel wings or bird wings or something

Maybe fluff with some angst/comfort >:D

Thanks for entertaining me

Feathers

young!Wednesday Addams x young!fem!reader

Summary: your parents fight. you don’t know where to go, so you run to your favorite Addams

Words: 1.4k

Warnings: hurt/comfort, domestic violence, implied alcoholic, toxic relationship (R’s parents), soft ooc Wednesday

A/n: R is a raven btw :) also don’t ask why Wednesday thinks and talks like a depressed poet at 7/8 yrs old. she’s just experiencing some big emotions 😞

You ran as fast as your little legs could take you. There wasn’t an exact location you were running to, but somehow you knew where you’d end up. Tears left your eyes and a few feathers had been plucked from your gorgeous wings. The night air sent shivers down your spine but you refused to look back. You never wanted to look back.

Tired, cold, and sleepy, the Addams Mansion finally came into view. It’s brambly trees threatened to scratch and pull at your skin, but you happily greeted the forest you’ve come to love. It reminded you of your favorite Addams.

The whistle of trees beckoned you away, but you fought against their singing and continued to the front of the mansion. You loudly knock against the large door, and a butler you recognize so dearly groans behind it.

“Mr. Lurch!” Your small voice cut through the dark night.

What anyone else would assume to be a groan of annoyance, you knew was one of confusion. Lurch takes one good look at you and scoops you into his arms, as if you weighed absolutely nothing. His feet thumped against the floors of the mansion and you could only assume he was taking you to the owners of the terrifyingly beautiful home.

Mrs. Addams and Mr. Addams who’ve you known so well, sit in their living room while Morticia reads a book about who knows what to her husband. He listens intensely with love in his eyes until Lurch’s thumps bring you to the married couple.

“(Y/n)? Lurch, why have you brought us Miss (L/n)?” Gomez questions, while Morticia goes into mother mode immediately. She takes you from Lurch’s arms and thanks him as he pats you on the head before leaving.

“(Y/n), dearest. Who’s caused you such harm?”

Your eyes fill with tears as you recall what happened.

“D-Daddy, he-“

Your father came home angry. Angrier than usual. You tried to hug him, but he pushed you away for the fridge instead. Your lip quivered while you ran to your mother, and she had an angry expression when you told her.

You felt so bad for telling on Daddy. He… he did love you! He did! He was just a little sad for some reason. You decided maybe Daddy just needed space.

You were supposed to be asleep when Mommy and Daddy started fighting. Daddy said a lot of mean stuff. Something about how he wished he was never with Mommy... surely he didn’t mean it! He said something about how you were a mistake, but Daddy didn’t mean it! Right? Daddy loved you…

You didn’t realize you were crying until a small hiccup escaped your throat, and your parents spun around to look at your pained expression from the stairs. You felt bad Mommy and Daddy were fighting. Your father tried to comfort you by closing in for a hug, but you didn’t want a hug. Like how Daddy didn’t want a hug earlier.

You pushed the man away, and he made a scary face. You wished you could say he wasn’t your daddy, but only your daddy’s voice could be so scary. Turning to hide in your room, he grabs at your right wing to keep you close.

It hurt a lot.

But as fast as it hurts, it stops and you look behind you. With a fist full of your dark feathers, your mother slams your father into the stairs. What she actually says are a little muffled to you, but you get the idea after she points to a nearby window.

You try to fly, but the difference in feathers throws you off balance. You manage to glide down from the second story, but not without an ungraceful landing.

You didn’t know where to go.

“A-And then Mommy told me t’run away. B-But I didn’t know where t’go…”

“Oh, my darling, I’m so sorry.” Morticia shares a concerned look with her husband, and he immediately springs into action. Gomez grabs his coat and is out the door in less than a second.

“How about we get you cleaned up, would you like that?” You nod.

Morticia brings you to one of the many bathrooms of the mansion, and sits you down on the toilet seat lid. She soaks a towel with warm water to wash your muddied face and clean off any cuts you might’ve had. Both of you fall into a comfortable silence.

—

There’s an ache in Wednesday’s soul she can’t place. It’s kept her up for hours, and sleep hasn’t been able to take her away just yet. Wednesday had paced circles in her room with only the moon as a light, yet her ache has yet to subside.

Only when Wednesday hears the front door open, she knows she’s found the reasoning for the ache. With feather-light steps, the young Addams creeps down to where she can hear talking.

What Wednesday doesn’t expect is the face of her best friend crying and whimpering. It takes everything inside of her to not run in and steal you away. Instead, she listens to your story.

You tell the older Addams woman about what happened, and Wednesday’s blood starts to boil. You didn’t deserve that. You didn’t deserve that atrocity of father. Wednesday can’t continue listening to your story or she’ll commit unforgivable crimes not even you would approve of.

Wednesday creeps back up into her room. She’s really not getting any sleep until she knows for sure you’re safe and with her. Wednesday was awfully aware of how little power she had at her age, but that didn’t stop the young Addams from formulating a plan. Specifically, a plan to make you feel better. (and maybe a plan to get revenge on your disgrace of a father, but that’d have to wait)

Wednesday decided to make her move when her bathroom light was turned on just near her bedroom. She decided to pay you a visit.

“Mother.” Wednesday appeared behind Morticia, her monotone voice causing you to jump the slightest.

“Wednesday, dear, unable to sleep?”

“Someone had been keeping me up, and I think I know who.” The younger girl peers over her mother’s shoulder to meet your curious gaze. You flush in embarrassment and look at the ground.

“Sorry I woke you up, Wens… I didn’t mean to come here so late”

“Sleep in my room.”

“Wednesday, are you sure you’ll be able to sleep with company?”

“Her safety directly corresponds with my sleep schedule.”

“If you insist, my little death.” Morticia sighs. “You two go straight to bed now, hm?”

You nod before getting up off the toilet seat lid. Before you enter Wednesday’s room, Morticia stops you. She bends down to reach your height.

“Don’t you worry about Mommy and Daddy, dear. Mr. Addams and I have all of it covered. You just have sweet nightmares tonight, alright?” There’s nothing but kindness and worry in her voice. Morticia stands up, and you give her a quick hug before she leaves. The older woman feels her heart melt.

You sit on Wednesday’s bed just like you have countless times before. The moonlight illuminates you perfectly, Wednesday thinks. She wasn’t one for holy comparisons, but nothing described you better than an angel of death.

With a halo made of the moon and wings darker than hell, you were no less than ethereal.

“Wens?” Your voice snaps the Addams out of her thoughts.

“What happened to your wing?”

“Uhm… can I tell you tomorrow? I’m sleepy” You emphasize your point with a yawn

“I understand, let’s sleep.” Wednesday nods, and you move over to make some room on the bed.

Wednesday has been in this exact position many times before, but somehow this time felt different. Perhaps it was the fact there’s a blatant elephant in the room, or the fact she knows the reason due to your escape from home. Either way, something was different.

You were basically passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow, leaving Wednesday with her own thoughts as she watched you sleep. The younger Addams ran her fingers through your right wing, successfully finding the patchy spot.

Your face contorts into something like pain and fear, and Wednesday quickly pulls her hand away. She didn’t mean to hurt you. When your pained expressions continue, Wednesday knows you’re having a nightmare. And not an enjoyable one.

Almost like second nature, Wednesday pulls you into her arms. Your wing falls atop her like a blanket, and you seem to go back to uneventful sleep. Even unconscious, you hold the Addams like you’re awake.

Wednesday is finally met with sleep when she could press a hand against your chest and feel the rhythmic thumping of your heart.

[atarathegreat]

Scary Wife Privilages Tokyo Revengers

Featuring: Kokonoi Hajime, Ken Ryuguji (Draken), Rindou Haitani, Atsushi Sendo (Akkun)

Synopsis: They don't need you to stand up for them, but damn do they love when you get feisty.

It was crazy to you the extent of disrespect that Kokonoi would put up with while you were around. Everyone was aware of how ruthless the man could be, but they were also aware of how he hid it when you were around, and they took advantage of it. You lost count of how many people stopped in with random complaints about whatever Koko had done the previous week.

You lost count, sure, but not your temper.

Another poor soul walked in, anger evident on his face. Kokonoi wasn't any less pissed than you were, but he didn't like to explode when you happened to be with him. Of course, you knew this. You'd seen him strangle a man for information. You rolled your eyes thinking about it: how could he strangle a man in front of you with zero hesitation but he didn't want to get angry?

"Don't." You glared at the fancy suit and tie as he sat in the chair opposite the desk where Koko sat. "Don't say a word if it's negative." your voice was dark, heavy, almost dangerous, "Give your report and leave."

The man stared up at you as you leaned on Kokonoi's chair, "If there are problems then the boss needs to know."

Koko would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed with the way you leaned over his desk, grabbing the man by his tie and jerking him forward. He knew you had a temper but this...this was different. This made him wish he was on the receiving end of your death glare. "Say it then." Your words sent a chill up Koko's spine, "Tell me your complaint."

And for the first time, Koko seen one of his men speechless. You were scaring the hell out of him, even more so than any gun.

"No, ma'am, it's okay..." His underling whimpered. Koko had never heard any of his men whimper. But there it was, the fear in his eyes and a very pathetic whine that came out as he spoke.

Inui and Kenny had been busting their asses all day. They'd fixed bike after bike, crushed their fingers, bruised their legs, and Kenny slammed his head into the shelf holding parts, effectively bringing the whole thing down. Inui had laughed, stating, "You're too damn tall for this little shop!"

You smiled, and your smile could've made the devil himself kneel in terror, "Then give your report and go."

As they were replacing a whole gas tank for an old rusted up bike, (Kenny knew it would be more use to the customer as scrap, but the man was adamant about getting the poor heap of metal fixed) someone started hitting the bell on the front desk like it was an emergency. Kenny looked up, sharing a look of exhaustion with Inui before they both stood and slowly made their way out.

"Finally!" The woman yelled and slammed her hands on the counter, "You fixed my sons bike and charged him extra! Who do you think you are?"

Inui, who was busy pulling the books for the week, responded before Kenny could, "I'm Inui Seishu, he's Ken Ryuguji."

Inui's sarcasm made the woman angrier, and Kenny, for the very first time, hated that his friends kneejerk reaction to people was dry sarcasm. She started yelling louder, getting on Ken's nerves as he stood and took it. What was he going to do? Him and Inui charged fairly on their work, and this was a woman, Kenny couldn't exactly brawl with her.

"Would you just give me your sons name so I can find what we fixed and how much we charged?" Inui asked dryly, glancing up from the computer.

"No! You're supposed to know this stuff already! Unless you're scamming everyone that comes into this store!" The woman was becoming red in the face, "Scammers! Overpriced mechanics."

A sweet gust of wind carried over Kenny, he didn't have time to groan about someone else coming in before you had analyzed the situation. You'd heard the woman yelling from outside, a plan of action already made and ready to be executed. Inui smiled at you, "Good evening, Y/n."

"Evening, Inui." Both men paused at the calm air in your voice, "What's the problem here?"

You were here, meaning Kenny could relax and let you handle this problem on legs. He smiled and waved at his daughter who was holding your hand tightly, she waved back and giggled when your hand absently rested in her hair. God, how did his day get twenty times better with just a simple little sound?

The woman quickly tried to usher you out of the shop, stopping when you gently shoved her hand away, "You better get your little girl out of here, these scammers-"

"Enough." Your tone was cold, "These men are charging just right for their expertise and parts they replace. Do you understand how much money it costs to order half the parts for a motorcycle?''

Inui piped up quickly, "I don't think she does, Miss Ryuguji. Enlighten her."

Now Kenny was regretting how funny it was that his friend loved instigating you.

"In the last month this shop has spent over 6734610 yen in bike parts, three pieces of which went to your sons bike three days ago. Inui," You looked over at him, "search the name Kyoka. Broken clutch, broken break and an old spark plug."

Everyone waited silently as Inui looked it up. Your daughter pulled her hand free and ran to her dad, whispering to him as he picked her up, "Mommy is real scary right now." Kenny nodded, "Mommy doesn't take this type of shit, does she, baby girl?" The young child giggled, "She said she was gonna have to beat ass when we came in."

Kenny covered his daughters mouth, "Hey, we talked about the swearing, didn't we?"

He didn't have time to get an answer from your daughter because you started yelling back at the older lady, "I don't care if your son used his whole damn paycheck to get his bike fixed. He's in his thirties and doesn't need his mommy to come and bitch about price for him. Go on! Yell some more, because I promise you, I am much louder."

She tucked tail and hurried from the shop, leaving you alone with the two mechanics, "You charged twenty yen over..."

Rindou, while he loved his brother very much, didn't like the man coming over. Ran had a bad habit of flirting with you and Rindou had caught his brother setting his hands on your thighs too many times. He wasn't worried about you falling for the ridiculous antics, you'd always removed Ran's hands promptly but respectfully, he just hated that his brother was encroaching on his wife. Ran could have any woman he wanted, why did he have to go after you?

Inui grinned, "Agree with us in public, huh?"

"Rin?" You called to him from across your shared bedroom, "I can see the way your eyebrows are moving. What are you thinking?"

He snapped out of his thoughts quickly, looking at the beautiful outfit you were wearing, the way your arms stretched as you struggled with the clasp of your necklace. "Nothing." Rindou muttered, stepping up behind you to grab the ends of the silver chain.

"Have I ever told you that you suck at lying to me?" Your eyes pierced his through the mirror of your vanity. He couldn't hide the small smirk, "You have."

Rindou appreciated the way you called him out so openly, most people were too afraid of him to, but you didn't fear anyone, not even Mikey, and Mikey had held a gun to your throat. "I...Is it bad that I don't want Ran to come over? I love him, but-"

"I think it's a normal reaction when a man keeps trying to seduce your wife." You were nothing if not brutally honest, "I can't say I'm thrilled to have him over, either."

And yet, despite neither of you being excited to see him, you both greeted Ran with smiles and hugs. You, of course, had to peel the older man from your body, chuckling as you stated, "Boundaries, Ran."

Ran knew the extent he could go, and he exploited it. Placing his hands on your lower back, just above your ass where you couldn't protest your boundaries, or grabbing your hand and tugging you away from Rindou at the worst moments. It was getting on Rindou's nerves the more the night went on, to the point that Rin was hanging onto your back and refusing to let you do anything without him. He was acting like a koala, and as much as you loved him, it was getting aggravating having two grown men following you around.

"Enough!" You snapped, scaring the brothers, "Sit down!"

They did, Ran smiling as you finally lost your temper with them. Rindou glared at his brother, kicking him under the table, "This is your fault..."

"Quiet." You sounded like a mother scolding her children, "We're going to set some new rules, okay? Good."

Rindou knew that none of the rules were meant for him, but the tone in your voice was, at the very least, worrying to him. He knew you could strangle Ran, not with pure strength but because Ran would let you, and he didn't want you to get any more pissed.

It might as well have been a brothel. The second you walked in you were slammed with the smell of perfume and expensive fabrics. You'd learned to take headache relief before showing up, and it helped for the most part. The women, Hostess's as your husband called them, were lined up all day. Mostly they stood and watched men walk in and pick another woman to have their fun with before they walked out, half drunk and with their pants undone while the woman spent the next hour getting fixed up.

"And for the love of god, Ran, stop flirting with me! I don't like you!" You huffed, crossing your arms, "I have zero attraction to you, give up. Because if you don't, and I say this heavily, Ran, I will bring out every ounce of Haitani that I have picked up in the last three years and I will sink you to the bottom of the ocean."

The man who greeted you as you walked in was quick to remove a dark velvet rope, letting you go up the steps to where you knew Atsushi was sitting. But you were greeted with a sight that made you cackle.

Atsushi was sitting in his usual spot on one of the overpriced couches, legs spread wide and his arms resting over the back. He laid his head back to see you, smiling as you walked closer. You stared down at the woman who was crouched between his knees, "I can hear you begging from the doorway. It's pathetic."

Her poorly manicured nails slowly pulled off his knees, her wrongly glossed lips parting as she spoke, "Wh-who are you?"

You moved Atsuhsi's hand to show off his ring, "Take a guess. Tell me-Oh, no, don't get up!" You stopped her from moving from her position, "Tell me, how does it feel to beg for a married man?"

She was silent, staring up at you. You were like the boogey man for the girls who worked, as each one had tried to make themselves Atsushi's favorite.

"Good to see you, babe." Atsushi reached up and held your face, "Come just to see me?"

"Mhm, that was the initial goal." You walked around and sat beside him, grabbing the woman's hands and placing them on Atsushi's thighs, "Now, I want to see something."

The woman looked even more scared as you moved her around, "Did you think you would get away with this, sweetheart? I know these girls share stories of me, so there's no way you didn't hear about me."

"I swear, I didn't know the boss was married...I hadn't heard anything..." She was wide eyed, shaking a little. You laughed, "Come now, Atsu, are your girls hazing each other?"

He shrugged, "You know I don't pay that much attention."

You stood quickly, dragging the woman backwards and bending her painfully over the small table behind her. She gasped, eyes going wider if that was even possible. Atsushi had seen you do this before.

Both your faces were only inches apart, your wide smile would haunt her for days, "Does this hurt you? Can you take more?" She shook her head, muttering out a quiet "no" that made you giggle, "Then know that you can't handle what my husband could do to you. Even if you were just sucking cock, he's too brutal for you to stand. So, please, attempt this again. Do it, sweetheart, on the very, very slim chance he cheats on me, I'll know you won't be walking for a few days while I file divorce."

The doubled threat wasn't lost on Atsushi, who quickly moved to drag you into his lap, "Babe, c'mon, this place needs ladies who work." He sounded calm, but you could see the emotion hidden in his movements. Atsushi didn't want you to even mention divorce ever again, let alone after you threatened his employee.

The woman ran away fast when you waved her off, "Atsu, honey, my love. Don't let me find this again. I might just kill the next bitch."

[lvrcpid]

love / paranoia.

tonowari watched what was unraveling in front of him. scared you were going to do something drastic, he quickly put a hand on your shoulder as you followed behind neteyam, your tight grip still attached to his braids, but was shocked when you harshly pushed him away.

you then threw down neteyam down onto the hard floor as he rubbed his head and yelled at you “what the hell is your problem (y/n)!” quickly getting up and rushing to you, shaking your shoulders, trying to snap you out of whatever little fit you were having.

“get the fuck off of me!” you shoved him away, he stumbled back and fell into lo’aks arms. the family was..shocked to say the least. you rarely talked but this is the first time they had ever heard you yell like that. you asked tonowari to take tuk out of the mauri for a few to go to the ocean, she had done nothing wrong. she didn’t deserve what they had coming. when he fulfilled your wishes, you turned back to your family and shut the entrance of the mauri.

“i’m the one who has a problem..? no..no.” you chuckled, shaking your head. “i’m not the one with the problem, it’s you egocentric imbeciles who have no compassion or thought for anyone but yourselves!” you began, your face turning a dark indigo as you began to get angrier with each word you spoke.

“when was the last time any of you had hugged me? when?!” you started back up “it was..” jake trailed off, he really couldn’t remember when was the last time he held his oldest child. “silence. dead silence. do you guys even remember when i completed my right of passage?! oh yeah you don’t cause you guys weren’t there! you were never there for me!” tears started to brim your eyes as you continued.

(everyone cheer for y/n cause this is gonna be a long one)

“for 16 long years i’ve been the black sheep. neteyams shadow, lo’aks big sibling, tuks babysitter! there’s nothing special about me! at not once have you tried to make me feel that way! it’s always them over me! i’m the oldest! i’m the one who’s supposed to be olo’ekytan/tsahìk in training! not neteyam/kiri!” you paced around the mauri, meeting your fathers now crying eyes.

“oh you want to cry?! you want to shed tears now that your shitty parenting is coming to light?! i haven’t referred to you as dad in years!! years! and you want to cry ?? i don’t even know who the hell you are anymore, you could be walking around and i wouldn’t even bat an eyelash in your direction.”

neteyam and lo’ak were now crying, seeing you spit venom at your father. “oh please don’t tell me you two are crying?! i spent my entire life covering for you idiots! and not one thank you! god neteyam it should’ve been you!! you should’ve been the one to die! not me!!” you pointed to your chest. neteyam gasped and looked at you. you took that bullet for him?

“i’m so embarrassed to even call myself a sully..sullys stick together? yeah right” you were now full on sobbing , running a hand through your hair and clapping “come on! give yourselves a around of fucking applause for the best family of the year! come on!” you laughed through tears and shook your head when your family stood there awkwardly crying.

“you guys are pathetic..i actually wish eywa didn’t give me another chance. i hate you guys. every single one of you..” you spoke through tears , looking each and every single family member in their eyes, making sure they felt the hatred in your eyes . “you all are dead to me..never-“ your voice cracked. “never speak to me again.” and with that you left. leaving the remaining sully family members in ruins.

a few minutes had passed and the family was still in their state of shock. neytiri then broke down onto her knees , begging eywa to wake her up from this nightmare. lo’ak just stormed out of the mauri, angry tears sliding down his face. kiri just quietly slipped over to your hammock and laid down, hugging the cover up you had made yourself, letting tears fall onto it. neteyam just moved to the corner of the mauri and just cried. no matter how much he tried , he just couldn’t get the tears to stop flowing.

when tuk came back from her excursion with tonowari she was shocked to see the crying faces of her family. when she asked where you were, the little girl was shocked at the answer, immediately bursting into tears with the family. jake was quick at neytiris side, hugging her tightly and crying himself, praying that you would return to them.

but it was too late.

meanwhile with you, you were an emotional wreck. the tears wouldn’t stop and the sobs wouldn’t stop erupting, no matter how hard you tried.

the olo’eyktan and his family tried everything to calm you down but they knew you had to get this cry out. they could tell you were holding this in for a while and it was a long time coming.

tonowari genuinely thought about banishing your family back to where they came from that night. when your sobs began to die down, tonowari was soft at your side , asking “‘tìyawn just say the word and they’re gone..” but you couldn’t do it. granted they put you through hell.

they were still your family.

after you had calmed down, hours later. it was already past eclipse, the stars in the sky twinkled against the ocean as you sat on the rock near the sea.

tonowari and ronal were hesitant about letting you go, arguing that you weren’t really in your right mind and needed to stay by their side for the night. you quickly shut them down and walked to the ocean, the cool sand cooling down your warm body.

you didn’t move as you felt a strange presence arrive next to you. “if mom and dad are trying to get me home tell them no-“ you turned to meet face to face with rotxo, a sad smile on his face.

you sighed as you ran a hand through your hair, looking back to the ocean. “sorry, i thought you were my brother” you apologized, your tone of voice changing from the bitter one you held before. “no need to apologize..ao’nung told me what happened today..im sorry (y/n)..i know it must be hard for you” he added. “yeah tell me about it” you stretched , cracking your neck in the process.

a few minutes went by before rotxo spoke up again “we’re having a music festival tomorrow..i would love if you joined us..” he smiled towards you, hoping to at least lighten your spirits a little. “eh i’ll pass” you said, not really in the mood for a loud party. “please (y/n)? come on i’ll promise it’ll be fun!” he asked with big puppy eyes. you rolled your eyes before nodding. “fine” you got up, leaving him at the rock alone “you’re coming to get me” you said before walking back into the family mauri.

the party came quicker than you would’ve liked it to. you groaned as you were dragged into the festival. the sounds of drums and war chants filled your ears as rotxo and tsireya began to dance, ao’nung not far behind.

you were weary to the festival at first, but you gradually got more comfortable with each song. you were having a blast! but of course thanks to the wonderful author sae, not all good things last forever.

you plopped down on the floor and watched your friends/siblings dance around with eachother. suddenly you were tapped on the shoulder by an unknown person.

“(y/n)..can we talk?”

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tags 🏷️: @23victoria @avtprint @bucky12345 @boilingpots @Marcswife21 @elegantkidfansoul @itsyogurl @stars4deku @stvpidscvpid @uniltsatirey @urdeadpoet @annamarieisbae @graysonmalik2550 @blueberryfailureclinic @jordan-network @newjeansbonnie @stickyfictioninwriting @fanboyluvr @zatarias-pandora @jjkclub @elvyshiarieko @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @adaiasafira @scarletrosesposts @spicycloudsalad @vane28282 @nuttyrebelflower @aemondmyl0ve @msbimb0 @neteyamforlife @gamorxa @sharni07 @thegooberboy @theesexystallion @nanaitesully @destinylb @fandom-garbage @dakotali @1ntefly @kiricomics @osumarusjade @rosemaryblossoms @malfoylaufeysonweasleybarnes

[bosbas]

Chapter 12: did you wish you'd put up more of a fight?

series masterlist previous part || next part

pairing: benedict bridgerton x best friend!fem!reader WC: 4.1k words

Warnings: period-typical gender roles, idiots in love being idiots in love, mutual pining, physical altercation (nothing serious but a few mentions of blood), mentions of sex if you squint, benedict being so so stupid

Summary: You and Benedict have been best friends since childhood, but things change dramatically once you come out in society. You’re struggling to find someone you’re as compatible with and who knows you as well as Benedict, all while trying to quell your ever-growing feelings for him. Shenanigans ensue.

A/N: guys idk anything about physical fights sorry if this is super unrealistic LMAO

August 12, 1814 - But, dear reader, I cannot fail to mention the upcoming gathering hosted by the Bridgertons at Aubrey Hall. Those lucky enough to receive an invitation are surely busy preparing for the eventful trip ahead. Every year, the Bridgerton country party proves to be an excellent hunting ground for ambitious mamas with daughters of marriageable age. Will this year's party bring forth new proposals? Whispers around the ton indicate that a certain Bridgerton brother might propose to Miss Y/N Beaumont, and that would certainly be the news of the season. Fear not, for this author shall keep the ton abreast of any and all developments.

"I beg your pardon?" he spoke, tone low and venomous as he breathed heavily. "What the bloody hell did you just say?"

Benedict saw you exchange a nervous glance with his older brother and his blood boiled at the sight. It was him you should be exchanging glances with. Not Anthony, of all people. He could hardly believe it. In fact, he didn't believe it at all. This had to be some sick joke, some cruel prank that you and his brothers and perhaps even your brothers had all been in on to rag on him for disappearing to the countryside for a month and a half. He desperately wanted you to burst out laughing and start making fun of him for believing that you and Anthony were to get married. But as the seconds ticked by, it became more and more unlikely that this was the case.

Interrupting your prolonged eye contact with Anthony, you looked down at your hands anxiously. This was not how it was supposed to go. There was no nature walk, no time alone with Ben, just an angry Benedict standing at the door to Anthony's study, waves of fury rolling off of him. A small part of you had hoped he would be angry, yes, but now that you were seeing him, unmoving, you wanted nothing more than to disappear from the room. You wished Ben had come ten minutes earlier, where you would have greeted him with a hug instead, feeling his strong arms make themselves at home as they wrapped around you. Benedict was not often angry, especially not at you, but when he was, he usually voiced his displeasure quite loudly to anyone who would listen. However, knowing he was standing there, stock-still and seething, you weren't quite sure how he was going to react.

"How much of that did you hear, exactly?" you asked meekly, trying to gauge how much damage control you would have to do. You kept your gaze firmly on your hands, unable to meet his eyes and slightly fearful of his silent anger.

"Enough to know that my brother is the man you're marrying," Benedict responded, sounding angrier than he was when he first walked in, if that was possible. "I see it's been quite a productive season," he added in a clipped tone.

Your head snapped up at his last comment. You felt Anthony tense beside you as he felt your anger rising, but you didn't care. How dare Benedict blame you for finding a husband after he so unceremoniously walked away from you? Meeting Ben's intense gaze and flinching as you practically felt the daggers shooting from his eyes, you yelled back, "What did you expect, Benedict? You walked away from me and I did exactly what you wanted me to do. I found a husband. I don't know what more you want from me."

Try as you might to keep your voice strong, a wobble at the end had betrayed your true feelings. You had sounded more pleading than anything, but you were beyond caring. You were absolutely crushed, and you could see that Benedict was hurting as well. After years of looking into his eyes, you could recognize that he, too, was hiding sorrow behind his anger. Trying to remain composed, you bit the inside of your cheek as you felt Anthony reach over and place a comforting hand on your shoulder.

"I didn't–" started Benedict, unable to continue once he saw Anthony's hand on you. It was true, then. The courtship. Or the proposal. Or whatever else you two had been doing while he was in the countryside five seconds away from tearing his hair out in desperation because he loved you so much. Suddenly, it was difficult to remember why exactly he hadn't wanted to marry you. Marrying you couldn't have been worse than what he was feeling right now, the devastating realization of having truly lost you. Surely nothing could be worse than this.

Carrying the unspeakable grief that came with losing one's best friend and soulmate all in one evening, Benedict turned around to walk out of Anthony's office. He couldn't bear to be there any longer, watching the woman he loved be caressed by his brother. Without a second glance at the two of you, he closed the door behind him and made his way to his own room. He would have been better off going there in the first place, he thought. Then he could've had a few more moments of peace before he found out what you and Anthony had been up to in his absence.

Looking at the closed door, Anthony's hand dropped from your shoulder as he stood in shock at what had just happened. "Are you alright?" he asked you, knowing the answer but needing to reassure you anyway.

You shook your head, holding in tears that were threatening to spill. "Someone should go after him," you said pressing your fingers to the corner of your eyes. What you really meant was, you should go after him, Anthony, but you wanted to give him a chance to say no. To decide he wasn't going to clean up yet another mess you had made because of your stupid feelings for his brother.

But Anthony, ever the eldest child, nodded in agreement. "Just stay put for a bit while I get him into his room. I don't think it would be the best idea to have the two of you talk right now."

Aubrey Hall had already seen too much chaos today without what he expected was going to be a shouting match between you and Benedict. If only the shouting match could lead to the two of you realizing that you did, in fact, love each other very much and that you would, in fact, be very happily married. He gave you one last squeeze on the shoulder and took off determinedly to find his brother.

Benedict saw Anthony catching up to him out of the corner of his eye but didn't stop or slow down. He couldn't bear to stop now, he needed to get to his room. Or really anywhere that was stripped of every trace of you. Benedict could barely think, the moment when Anthony placed his hand on your shoulder replaying relentlessly through his mind and preventing him from thinking about anything else.

Feeling Anthony stop right behind him, Benedict turned around to face him. The two brothers stood, staring at each other, for several moments. Anthony trying to think of what to say and Benedict getting angrier by the second.

"If you had–" started Anthony, only to be cut off by Benedict immediately.

"How could you do this?" Ben shouted, voice raw from holding back the string of curses he wanted to direct at Anthony right now. Anthony bit his lip, grimacing. He knew Benedict would be mad, but he had been unprepared for the magnitude of his fury. In a way, he felt bad for Ben. Anthony could tell that you were the love of Benedict's life—it was ridiculously obvious—and it couldn't have been easy to see you with someone else. But enough was enough, and Anthony had seen you heartbroken for long enough to know that Ben had only brought this upon himself.

"Might I remind you that you left, Benedict? After she asked you to marry her, no less," shot back Anthony, arms crossed tightly over his chest. He could see Ben waver at his words, face blanching slightly at the realization that you had told Anthony about your quasi-proposal.

"And you think you're better than me? Anyone with half a brain knows you don't want to marry for love. Did that change in the last four weeks? Are you now suddenly unequivocally in love with her? Is that what happened?" asked Benedict, an unfathomable bitterness on his tongue. His words were mocking, but deep down he did want answers. Did you and Anthony really fall for each other while he was gone? Had he been that foolish, to ever imagine the possibility of having something beyond friendship with you when his older brother was right there?

Anthony rolled his eyes, "Come off it, Benedict. You can't play the victim every time. She's aware that I don't want to marry for love. After some very negative experiences with the men of the ton, you included, she's decided she is perfectly fine not marrying for love either." Seeing Benedict's brow furrow in protest, Anthony continued, "Honestly, I promise I didn't force her into anything, I only gave her the option. She decided all by herself that this was what she wanted. And if you'd stop being a prick for about two seconds you'd realize this is what's best for her, anyway. That I'm what's best for her." And sure, Anthony knew he had probably gone too far with his last comment, but Benedict was being incredibly frustrating at the minute that Anthony didn't care.

However, Benedict didn't want to stop being a prick for two seconds. Especially because you were about to get engaged to his brother, who was being a massive dick right now. So instead, he chose to give into his anger, pushing against Anthony's shoulders so he was knocked against the wall.

"That you're what's best for her?" he scoffed. "I've been best friends with her for two decades but suddenly you're the one who knows exactly what she needs? Seems quite logical," finished Ben, pure poison dripping from his voice.

Undeterred, Anthony pushed Benedict back. "What is so wrong about our courtship? You left her so she could find a husband and that's exactly. What. She. Did," he yelled, accentuating every word with a shove at Ben's shoulders, who responded by swatting his hands away.

"She was off limits, Anthony. You knew that! You never should've done that," cried Benedict, grabbing his brother by the collar, and growing more frustrated by the second. However, whether he was angrier at Anthony or himself was unclear.

Exasperated, the elder Bridgerton reached over to slap the side of Benedict's head. "Off limits? Why would she be off limits? She seemed pretty on limits when you said you couldn't marry her and fucked off to the countryside for half the season," came his response.

"Because she is my best friend," Benedict roared back. Hearing Anthony's mocking laugh brought out a level of anger Ben did not know existed within himself, and he found his fist flying to make contact with Anthony's mouth. Ignoring the metallic taste on his tongue, Anthony responded by kneeing Benedict in the groin until he doubled over and slammed the fist that had just hit him into the wall.

Ben cradled his hand against his side, wincing as he saw his grazed knuckles, but he was unrelenting. It was like all of the pent-up emotions of frustration and uselessness he had been feeling in the countryside were finally bubbling over now that he had someone to direct his anger toward. "Because she is my best friend and you know that I'm in love with her. I know you know, Anthony, you cannot pretend otherwise," he said, desperation evident in his voice.

Fairly done with the conversation and itching to go sort out his busted lip, Anthony tried to straighten out his collar as he spoke to Benedict, "Well, even if you are, it doesn't do her much good if you have no intention of marrying her, does it?"

Benedict was stunned to silence. Anthony was right, of course, but Ben couldn't find it in himself to concede to the man who was going to take away Benedict's best friend and the love of his life all in one go. So he just stared at his brother, breathing heavily and searching for words that would not give away just how destroyed he truly felt.

"I am proposing to her in a week. You have until then to fix this, otherwise, you will truly have lost her forever." And with that, Anthony walked off without a second glance, leaving Benedict to grapple with his thoughts.

Walking upstairs in search of something to stop the bleeding at his lip, Anthony couldn't believe that Benedict had admitted his feelings for you. The intensity of the argument between the two brothers had most likely been the catalyst for the confession, but Anthony hoped that this might be what allowed Ben to finally see right by you and love you the way he so obviously wanted to. Regardless, Anthony couldn't help the protective instinct that surged within him. He cared about you, and he was acutely aware of the heartbreak that awaited you if his brother didn't come to his senses.

Too caught up in his thoughts, Anthony missed your presence entirely as he made his way past your room. "Anthony, your lip!" you exclaimed as you closed your bedroom door behind you, bringing him out of his musings. He touched his hand to his injury, hissing in pain slightly as he was reminded of the blood coming out of his cut lip.

He waved his hand dismissively, "It's alright, just a scrape," he assured you.

You seemed doubtful but nodded anyway. "I was going to ask how your talk with him went but I think I have a very clear idea," you said, earning you a short laugh from Anthony.

He cleared his throat, looking at you up and down with a mix of concern and determination. The atmosphere in the room was heavy, charged with the aftermath of the confrontation with Benedict.

"Look, I gave you my word, and a gentleman's word is his bond. I fully intend to honor our agreement," Anthony began, his tone steady and resolute. "But, I also think it's crucial for both you and Benedict to have a conversation, to sort out feelings on both sides."

You looked at him nervously, not ready to confront your feelings for Benedict, let alone any that Benedict might have for you.

He gave you an encouraging smile. "If you decide you still want to marry me afterward, that's perfectly alright, and I'd be delighted to do so. But I think it's only fair that you both have a chance to speak your minds before we move forward." He met your eyes, sincerity evident in his gaze. "Talk to Benedict. I think he went to his studio. I'll give you both the time you need."

You knew he was right, unfortunately. So you nodded, giving him a grateful hug before he excused himself to go clean up his injury and you headed down the stairs to go look for Benedict.

---

In the solitude of his studio, Benedict wrestled with a storm of emotions he was feeling as he paced the room. He couldn't believe that he was going to lose you to his brother. Even if you and Anthony were not in love with each other now, it was only a matter of time, he reasoned. You were, at the very least, the most extraordinary woman he had ever encountered, and surely Anthony would see it that way eventually. Especially if the two of you had children. His heart dropped at the thought of you and Anthony in bed together, but he pushed the image away once he heard a knock on his studio door.

Seeing your face poke into the room, he couldn't help the butterflies that erupted in his stomach, even despite his tumultuous thoughts. "Well, hello," he greeted you curtly, lifting his hand to run his fingers through his hair nervously, knowing a difficult conversation awaited him.

But you gasped before you could respond, immediately distracted by his bloodied knuckles. "Benedict, what on earth...?" you trailed off as you rushed to grab his injured hand in both of yours.

Benedict's breath caught in his throat as he felt your hands on his. The tenderness with which you turned over his hand made a previously dormant warmth rise in his chest, and he bit his lip to keep from shivering. You looked so beautiful, face pinched in focus as you ran your finger over his injury, and he inhaled sharply as your finger traced over his open wound.

"So this is what you and Anthony were doing instead of talking, then?" you scolded, looking into his eyes but not letting go of his hand. It didn't matter that you were still furious with him, it felt too good to have the heavy weight of his fingers half-intertwined with yours after so long of having him away.

"It's nothing," Benedict responded, shaking his head. Then, remembering why his knuckles were grazed in the first place, he added bitterly, "Why don't you go check on Anthony instead?"

Your face fell immediately and you dropped his hand. He hadn't meant to upset you, and he certainly hadn't meant to make you let go of his hand, but it seemed like his anger and jealousy had taken the reins today. But even when you were angry with him and looked about three seconds away from hitting his other hand, he couldn't help but marvel at you. He was completely enamored, looking from your furrowed brow to your narrowed eyes to your full lips. And his eyes stayed on your lips because it seemed that no matter how angry you were he couldn't ignore the ever-growing urge to kiss you right then and there, consequences be damned.

You rolled your eyes, anger bubbling up inside of you once again. "Benedict, I simply don't understand why you're so upset. If anything, marrying Anthony is a better option than marrying anyone else. Our families will remain close and you and I can still see each other fairly often. And once you're married–"

"I'll never marry," he interrupted, voice clipped. He was appalled that you would even suggest that, although he reasoned that you had no reason to believe that he wouldn't marry.

You look at him, confusion written all over your face. "I– What? What do you mean you will never marry? Benedict–"

"I love you," Ben blurted out. "I love you in a way that even words cannot express. I would rather remain unmarried than be with someone who isn't you," he added, needing to make sure that you understood that he loved you beyond what the boundaries of your friendship allowed. He had thought that you might fall in love with some other man, and he would be fated to watch you be besotted with someone else. However, now that he knew that you intended to marry Anthony, who you were most definitely not in love with, he needed you to know that he was the one who had loved you for years now. And he hoped that you might love him, too.

But you did not swoon like he expected. And you did not rush into his arms to kiss him or confess your undying love for him. You didn't even smile. "Are you joking?" you said angrily.

Benedict's eyes widened, shocked by your response. "I'm not– Why would I be joking?" he stumbled over his words.

"First you tell me you won't marry me, which is fine by the way, and then you leave so I can find a husband, which is also fine. Except," you let out a disbelieving laugh, "once you find out that your older brother is the man I'm going to marry, you are suddenly in love with me." You're still staring at him, daring him to challenge you. "It's a little too convenient, don't you think?"

He was panicking, horrified that you thought his confession was merely a way to get back at you for going after his brother. Guilt was coursing through his stomach in an entirely unpleasant manner, and he was struggling to find the words to convey his love for you in a way that you deserved to hear.

"It's not like that! I do love you. I want you and I don't want anyone else," he said desperately, reaching for your hand so he could reassure you.

But you were having none of it. After all this time, you couldn't believe he had the nerve to show up at Aubrey Hall, get into a fight with your future husband, and then confess his supposedly undying love for you. Feeling his hand clutching yours, a feeling so familiar, brought tears to your eyes. You ripped your hand away from his, not able to parse the gentleness with which he held your hand with his careless words.

"Stop it! Having you leave after I asked you to marry me was painful, but this might be the cruelest thing you've ever done, Benedict," you said, tears blurring your vision. "You can't just march in here after weeks of being away and demand that I stop my plans so that you can get back at your brother."

Benedict's eyes welled with tears, reflecting the pain that echoed in your own. He couldn't believe you still wanted to marry Anthony after all this. You were his one big love. There was no one else. And it was all too much to think that you didn't feel the same way.

So he pressed, "Is my love not enough? I have been falling apart on my own from the magnitude of my love for you. Should that not be enough? To know that I love you with every fiber of my being, more fiercely than I've ever done anything in my entire life?"

Tears were running unobstructed down your face now and you choked back a sob. If Benedict had told you this about six weeks ago, you would have dropped everything to be with him. But it was too late now.

"It's not enough when I had been feeling the exact same way and you still walked away from me," you responded, clutching his hand for comfort even though he was the one who had caused you pain.

He pulled you in fully, wrapping his arms around you and rubbing your back comfortingly. Benedict put his chin on your head as you buried your face in his shirt, breathing in his familiar scent that never failed to make you feel at home.

"I'm sorry, darling. I'm so sorry," he murmured, hugging you tighter when he heard you sob. "I suppose being in love with you feels so natural I didn't quite realize what it was until recently." He kept rubbing your back, tracing patterns on your skin.

"And– And I thought I was ruining our friendship. When I wanted you, I kept thinking I shouldn't have been," Ben added, cringing as he realized the gravity of his misunderstanding.

You were overwhelmed by his confession, barely believing that he actually reciprocated the feelings you had struggled to keep hidden for so long. You couldn't help the steady stream of tears running down your face, and you burrowed deeper into Benedict, needing to be closer still. You felt one of his hands lifting your face to look up at him and the other keeping you pressed firmly against him. Your tear-stained eyes met his as you sniffled, struggling to breathe normally.

You watched, almost in slow motion, as Benedict's eyes fluttered shut and leaned down, lips slightly parted as he leaned down toward you. This was everything you wanted, wasn't it? In the rose garden, you had wanted him to kiss you more than you had wanted to keep breathing. You had probably spent hours looking at his lips, wondering what it would be like to taste them. To have them on your lips and enjoy the feel of them as they moved against yours. To know what it felt like to have Benedict be truly yours.

But that was then, and you wanted different things now. So you broke free of his grasp and pushed him away, breathing heavily as he opened his eyes in shock and looked to you for an explanation.

"You can't just do that, Ben! We haven't resolved anything, and it certainly won't be resolved by you kissing me," you exclaimed, playing up your anger to hide your pain.

So you turned on your heel, exiting his studio as quietly as you had entered, and he was left, for the second time that day, speechless as someone walked away from him. 

—

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[barbarianprncess]

annabeth chase and her many losing dogs: an (incomplete) anthology

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chapter one: a (brief) introduction to the game and it's players

She gives Cerberus her red rubber ball.

Because he’s a monster, but she doesn’t think he means to be.

Because he’s a lonely dog and she is lonely the same way. The kind that doesn’t know how lonely it is until a person shows up and reminds them. The kind that wishes to just be left in loneliness long enough for companionship to be forgotten altogether.

The ball will make him happy. He will destroy it within minutes, it will disappear after he does nothing but be himself.

(She does that sometimes too.)

First Round: Frederick Chase

Bet Type: Blind Faith; awarded via mass tradition.

Made with no experience. 

Trust given without the knowledge that trust must be earned. 

Annabeth is four years old and hungry. 

She hasn’t eaten since dinner last night. 

Dad is playing with his planes again. The fancy small piece ones that Annabeth is not allowed to touch, ‘not now, not ever.’ She’s not supposed to bother Dad when he plays with his planes. 

Plane time is Dad’s very special ‘by himself’ time. He’d explained a while ago that he has lots of very hard work to do, and then he has to take care of her which is even more lots of hard work,  and sometimes he needs his special ‘by himself’ time, because Annabeth is a big girl now who can read her books and not touch the sockets. 

(She wonders why he doesn’t do his special ‘by himself’ time when she’s taking her naps. That way they could have their together time when she’s awake.)

This would be fine, but she just ate the last of her super secret dad-is-in-his-study snack stash that she hides under her bed last week. 

She wants to go in and ask, but the last time she’d interrupted him, even though he smiled at her, his eyebrows got all scrunched up together. He was not happy to see her.

(Sometimes, she wonders if he ever is.)

Annabeth is really very hungry.

There are bananas on top of the fridge.

Annabeth creates a plan. 

The plan goes south almost immediately and she ends up dangling from the top of the white mountain with glass and bananas all over the ground. 

“Christ! Annabeth!” She is being yanked from her very small cliff and carried into the living room and Dad’s voice is very loud and his face is more than scrunched eyebrows and Annabeth is ashamed.

“What were you doing?”

“I was climbing on top of the fridge. I knocked over a vase.” 

That was the wrong answer because somehow his face gets even angrier. “Yes, I can see that. What were you thinking?”

“I wanted a banana. They were on top of the fridge.” 

He pinches his nose. That wasn’t the right answer either. “You just had breakfast.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. You had the fruit circles.”

“That was yesterday.”

He hesitates. “Okay, well you did wake up late, you couldn’t have waited until it was time to eat lunch?”

The clock on the microwave says 4:13 pm. “It is lunch.” 

He looks at the clock. Closes his eyes. When he opens them, he still looks angry but not at her. His voice is much quieter. “Why didn’t you come get me?”

“Last time you got sad. You were in a groove, you said unless it was an emergency not to come in. I thought I could reach it.”

She watches his face change. His eyebrows are still scrunched up but his eyes get gentler and sadder all at once. He sits down on the couch and lifts her up into his lap. It’s been so long, she sits on his knees like he’s a chair. He turns her around in his arms. 

“You’re such a quiet kid, Annabeth. Sometimes I forget you're here.”

She doesn’t think he said it to make her sad, but it does anyway. Which is irritating because she didn’t do anything wrong and she feels bad anyway. 

“I was a quiet kid too.”

She doesn’t want to be quiet. She wants to scream. She wants to cry. She wants to hit him. She wants—

“I’m gonna clean up the glass and then we’ll have mac and cheese.”

She nods and lets herself be sat back on the couch.

Second Round: Ms. Helen (from Dad’s work)

Bet Type: Good Faith; awarded via proxy.

Made with no experience. 

Trust given without the knowledge that trust must be earned. 

The first time her father forgets to pick her up from daycare, she is too young to remember. She was also too young to remember the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th times. 

She remembers the sixth.

Ms. Helen, dad’s work friend that has come to dinner  every wednesday for four weeks, shows up at school wearing black yoga pants and a messy-on-purpose bun.

(The kind that always looks strange in the bathroom mirror when she tries it on her curls in the morning before they leave.)

She smiles at her teacher, tight and pinchy. She does that laugh/talk/sigh thing adults do when the words they're saying don’t really matter. And before Annabeth knows it, she's staring at the backseat of a minivan.

“What’s that?”

Ms. Helen raises an eyebrow. “The car seat?”

Annabeth nods but looks down. She said it like it was obvious. Annabeth knows obvious things.

“Don’t you sit in one of  these to come to daycare?” 

“No.”

“You just sit in the seat?”

“Yes.”

“You're too little. It’s not safe to sit by yourself.”

Annabeth doesn’t know what she's supposed to say. This happens a lot. Adults do this thing where they ask you a question that they want a specific answer to. Annabeth has developed a skill in which she can always tell when the truth is not what an adult wants to hear. It has, so far, been a pretty useless skill because she has yet to master the skill of knowing what it is that they actually want to hear. 

(Sometimes, she figures it out and tells the truth anyway. Those times she doesn’t really mind getting in trouble after.)

“Your father must’ve put you in one of these.”

Annabeth shrugs. Her talent has deduced that Helen does not want Annabeth to say that she has never been in one of those, and figures nonverbal is the safest option because she would like to go home.

Helen crouches down and gets way up close to Annabeth's face. Her grown-up face-paint is smudged around the corner of her left eye. She smells like dish soap. 

“I borrowed this from my friend when your father called, so we have to get you your own. From now on, you don’t get in a car without one of these. Understand?”  

Annabeth nods.

Helen is looking at her with something strange and sad in her smudged up eye. She takes a deep breath.

Annabeth crawls into the backseat and waits to be tied in.

Fourth Round: Thalia Grace, Grover Underwood & Luke Castellan

Bet Type: Calculated Risk; awarded to an individual after carefully evaluated outcomes

Made after a great loss, in which perceived benefits outweigh potential detriment. 

Trust earned after a win. 

Thalia is frowning at her. 

Annabeth hasn’t been with her and Luke for that long, but she knows that this is not cause for too much concern because she’s usually frowning. 

Luke is the one with the smiles, and the cuddles, and the soft spot for the helpless strays—dogs and girls alike.

Thalia is the one with the frowns. 

(Annabeth can tell she has a soft spot for Luke though.)

Before she can muster up the courage to ask, Luke beats her to it. “What’s up with you?”

“Her hair.” Thalia has a talent where she can frown and speak at the same time. Annabeth wants to learn how to do that.

Luke smiles at her before fixing his eyes on her puff. She gets that feeling in her stomach she used to get when her teachers asked her questions about her house, like she should be hiding behind her fathers legs. 

(The last time she tried, Helen had snatched her arm and told her she was being rude.)

“Her hair.” He repeats in a way that tells both Annabeth and Thalia he has no idea what the problem is.

Thalia ignores him, and scribbles something down on his arm. “I saw a beauty supply store down the road. I need you to figure out a way to get this stuff.”

Luke frowns over her shoulder. (Uh-oh.) “That’s gonna be a bit of a stretch.”

“So stretch.”

“Thals—,”

She looks up at him and her eyes are all intense like when she’s fighting a monster. “They weren’t combing her hair. I took the hair tie off and it’s staying put. She’s only been on the run for 3 days.” Thalia looks back down at her. “Right? That’s how long you were by yourself?”

“Yes.” Annabeth nods. One of her favorite parts about being with Luke and Thalia, is that the truth is always enough.

Thalia looks back at Luke with something in her eyes that’s even softer than when Luke sleeps. “They weren’t combing her hair.”

Luke nods, a new kind of frown. The one he had when they found her. “On it.”

He winks at Annabeth and tweaks her nose which makes her laugh. Then he’s gone and it’s just the two of them. 

Annabeth and Thalia have never been alone for that long before, except for bathroom trips and when Luke gets them snacks.

Annabeth knows it wasn’t Thalia’s idea for her to join the two of them. Annabeth doesn’t think she wanted to leave her there, but she knows Thalia liked it when it was just her and Luke.

She’s looking up at the sky muttering something angry in another language. “What’s Luke going to get?” 

Thalia considers her for a moment and then sits down leaning against the brick alleyway. “Some hair stuff. Basics.”

“I thought we only took risks for food.”

Thalia smiles a little and it makes Annabeth's chest feel fuzzy. 

“You’re a smart kid.” She pats the ground next to her and Annabeth goes to sit next to her. 

“My mother…had a bad time. Things that aren’t supposed to be hard for mortals were very hard for her. And sometimes that made her not very nice to me.” She pauses and Annabeth waits patiently, doesn’t dare speak a word.

“She couldn’t really take care of herself. So, she couldn’t really take care of me either. My hair is curly like yours. And hair like ours needs special attention. When you don’t give it the care it needs, it gets stuck like this.” She takes Annabeth's hand and brings it up to her head, lets her tug on one strand gently. 

“I like your hair a lot!”

“Thank you. I do too. But, it wasn’t my choice. My mother let my hair loc up so she didn’t have to comb it every day. You should get to decide whether you want your hair like this. Did you ask to have your hair up in a bun for that long?”

Annabeth could tell her how her Dad used to braid her hair on Sunday nights. How they would sit and listen to music and he would spray and comb and braid until she fell asleep on his leg. How when he and Helen got married, he suddenly had no time to do anything that Helen could do instead. How her slick, shiny, and smooth haired stepmother would wrinkle down at her curls, yank a brush through her head and tell her she was ‘impossible’. 

But, she doesn’t. She looks down at her shoes and doesn’t say anything at all.

Thalia, even smaller than before, says, “Your parents weren’t very nice to you either. Were they?”

She doesn’t answer. 

She doesn’t have to. 

‘You’re such a quiet kid, Annabeth.’ 

(When Luke gets back, he and Thalia spend three hours spraying and combing and braiding until Annabeths hair isn’t stuck anymore.)

(In a few months, a satyr named Grover will take them to camp. 

Thalia will not make it across the border.)

(Annabeth will refuse to let anyone touch her hair for a year.)

Final Round: Perseus Jackson

Bet Type: Wild Card; awarded to an individual that fails to qualify through conventional procedure.

Made with gut feelings, no logic, and excruciating human defiance. 

Trust is given without measure.

Annabeth's first thought when she sees him for the first time is, “He must be the one.”  

She’s sure of it. She says it out loud. Chiron tells her to hush, and she doesn’t even care. 

He's the one. 

She's not sure how she knows. She's waited for so long, seen so many campers. Many were far more promising than he is.

That's her second thought. He's skinnier than she thought ‘the one’ would be. Skinny and pale and more gangly limb than person.  

He’s blinking up towards them but his eyes are unfocused and hazy. That's her third thought. He's fading. They’ll have to carry him. 

‘Percy’ Chiron calls him. It’s a hero’s name. 

She wonders if whoever gave it to him knew he’d be the one too.

‘He’s the one.’, she thinks again. It feels strange and tingly in her head. 

Strange, but not false. 

Hello, Percy Jackson. It's nice to finally meet you.

[immeasurablesaladagere]

can i have a fic where little House has a nightmare where Wilson acts cruel and bad like his dad and then he's scared of Wilson but eventually realises Wilson's safe after he gives him space and then comes to him for comfort (mayb featuring kitty)

- @tummy-rubs-for-wilson-pup

Here you are :) This fic includes the taking of comfort objects and some mean things said about agere by nightmare-Wilson, as a heads up. Might not be super fun to read if you're small.

-----

Word Count: 1318

Summery: House has a nightmare about Wilson resenting him for his regression.

-----

House woke up small, buried in the soft blankets of his bed and pleasantly fuzzy. He yawned and looked around for Kitty, but he was nowhere to be found. He was probably just hiding. For now, his growling stomach was more important than finding Kitty, who was probably just having an adventure in the closet, so he reached for his cane and made his way into the kitchen where Wilson was typing on his laptop and drinking coffee.

“Wilson, I want breakfast. Can you make pancakes?” He asked. He expected Wilson to follow it up with a ‘what do we say?’, but instead he sighed, almost irritated.

Wilson didn’t even turn around to look at him. “Make your own breakfast, House.” 

“…I’m small. You’re supposed to make breakfast when I’m small, ‘cause I’m not s’posed to use the stove.” Maybe Wilson didn’t notice that he was little? Usually he did, but it was early. Wilson had been very insistent that he do all of the cooking when House was regressed, because the oven was only for adults and he could get hurt. And even if he was allowed, he couldn’t remember all of the steps to make pancakes by himself.

“Then get cereal, I don’t care. I’m not going to make you breakfast, you can do that by yourself.” 

Wilson sounded angry with him, but he didn’t know why. Did he do something? He couldn’t remember doing anything bad… “Are you… mad at me?” He asked hesitantly.

This time Wilson did turn around, and House wished he hadn’t. His glare was cold and it sent a chill down his spine. “You know what? Yes, I am. I’m mad that myroommate is an adult man that acts like a child that I have to take care of, carrying around that stupid cat and throwing temper tantrums!” He laughed harshly, “I mean, what has my life come to, looking after a man-baby in my own home?”

House stood frozen. Fear and shame swirled around in his stomach. Did he really think that? Wilson had told him so many times that he was okay with his regression; he’d walked him through tantrums and meltdowns, read him stories, told him that he loved him, and he never seemed upset, but maybe House had just missed it?

“But I-I thought you said it was okay..?” Did this mean Wilson didn’t wanna take care of him anymore? He didn’t want that. “I didn’t mean to be bad, I—“

“Oh cut the crap, House!” Wilson snapped, standing up from the table, “Enough with the baby-talk nonsense! It’s embarrassing! This whole thing is embarrassing!”

He wanted to be big again. He didn’t want Wilson to keep yelling at him, but his headspace was only slipping younger the angrier Wilson got. His head was too fuzzy for him to think and he was afraid, he was afraid of Wilson, of his caregiver, as he got closer and closer venting his frustrations at him, backing him up until he hit the kitchen counter. He wanted Kitty. Where was Kitty?

Wilson chuckled in disbelief and disgust. “Seriously? That’s all you can think about?” House watched in horror as Wilson’s face began to distort, turning into warping and twisting goo before settling on a gruesome mixture between Wilson and the face of his father. “I threw that stupid thing in the dumpster—“

No.

His father’s voice echoed through his head, “I threw those stupid toys in the dumpster. You don’t need them anymore, Greg. This is for your own good.” 

“—your own good. Are you even listening to me!?”

Not Kitty. He needed Kitty back, Kitty couldn’t be gone, he needed him. Tears welled up in his eyes but he couldn’t even move to wipe them away, and that seemed to make Dad-Wilson angrier.

“And now you’re crying! You know what?” He threw up his hands, “Get out. Go find your cat, and don’t bother coming back. I’ll leave your stuff outside the door.”

Wilson was kicking him out? He was panicking now. His entire body felt like it was about to shake apart. Could he do that? He was so little and he was gonna be all alone!

“House.”

“Get out, House!”

Wilson hated him all this time. He thought he was gross and embarrassing and stupid—

“House.”

Dad-Wilson got right up in his face. “Can’t you hear me!? I said—“

-

“House!”

House shot awake with a jolt. He was fuzzy and small and his entire body was shaking and damp with sweat. It took him a second to catch his breath and realize that Wilson was leaning over him, but once he did he shoved him back as hard as he could and squirmed away to the other side of the bed.

“Woah, easy!” Wilson held up his hands in surrender, and he was just Wilson now. He didn’t look scary anymore, or angry, or like Dad, but House kept a large distance between them anyway. 

“Go ‘way.” He spat, voice wobbling.

“It’s alright, it was just a dream…” Wilson said gently, and he tried to get closer.

House grabbed the nearest pillow and clumsily flung it at him. He missed, but Wilson stopped moving. “No! You got rid of Kitty! Get out!”

“I got rid of—? No, I didn’t- House, look.” Wilson turned towards the closet and opened it, and after a moment, pulled Kitty out from between some boxes. “See? Kitty’s right here. I’m just going to put him down on the bed, okay? You can have him.” He set Kitty down on the bed, and House grabbed him the second it was in reach and clutched him to his chest.

House let out a shaky breath of relief into Kitty’s fur. Kitty was okay! Wilson didn’t get rid of him, Kitty was safe.

Wilson stood back from the bed uncomfortably, watching him like he was a scared animal. He felt like one. Was it really just a dream? 

Wilson slowly sat down against the wall. “I’m just going to sit here, okay? You don’t have to talk, I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

They sat in silence for several minutes as House calmed down, petting Kitty’s fur to remind himself that he was there and that Wilson really hadn’t thrown him away, and that the other things in his dream probably weren’t real either. Wilson stayed where he was the whole time, watching him with a sad look on his face, and now that House wasn’t panicking all he wanted was for Wilson to comfort him. He usually didn’t like cuddles, but now he wanted a hug. He wanted Wilson to tell him that everything Dream-Wilson said was wrong.

“‘Had a dream you got rid of Kitty, and you were mad at me…” He mumbled.

“That sounds scary.” 

“Because I was little.”

Wilson made a hurt noise. “I was mad at you in the dream because you were little?”

“Mhm.”

“That sounds awful. Can I come onto the bed?”

House was pretty sure that Wilson was safe now, so he nodded, and Wilson sat down carefully beside him. Now that his caregiver was so close, he couldn’t resist the part of him that was desperate for reassurance, for a hug, for anything. 

“Can I—“

House cut him off by tipping forward into his arms and hugging him.

“Oh… Okay.” Wilson’s hand rubbed up and down his back in slow, calming circles, and the jittery feeling under his skin slowly began to fade away. “I’ll never be mad at you for regressing, House. It makes you happy. And I would never take Kitty from you.”

House hummed against Wilson’s shoulder and held Kitty close. He believed Wilson, but he still didn’t feel like letting Kitty out of his sight any time soon. 

Suddenly his stomach growled loudly, and Wilson pulled away.

“Are you hungry? I can make breakfast. How does pancakes sound?”

[ughtyrell]

Abusive Felix Catton AU

Alright so continuing from the second ending of the Obsessive Felix post I made. (This post this gets a little intense and violent at some parts so watch out. Though I cant help myself from imagining a funny end to all my posts so you get that at least.)

Just poor Ollie alright, thinking he's such a lucky guy to be graced with Felix's friendship, one that he didn't even need to lie much for! Loving how attentive Felix is and how much he pushes others away just so he can hang out with Oliver. It's everything he's ever wished for and more. Way more actually.

He didn't mind when Felix was pushing people away at school because he didn't care about any of them. But now at Saltburn he wants to know Felix's family. He wants to make a spot for himself there so he can belong with Felix. But it seems Felix doesn't want that. Is he ashamed of Oliver? Does he not want Oliver to be welcomed by them? It makes him upset and sad so he brings it up with Felix.

Who then asks Oliver if he'd rather hang out with his family than with Felix himself? Is he here to get closer to The Cattons or Felix? Really bad form Ollie. 😕

When Oliver panics and rushes to explain that no of course not! Felix shushes him and forgives him, rubbing his hands in Olivers upper arms to calm his panicked breathing and tells Oliver that he doesn't think any of that really. But, isn't Oliver here to be with Felix? Why does he need to hang with the others? Isn't he enough Olls? 🥺 Of course, of course he's enough! Oliver just let his silly insecurities get ahead of him, sorry Felix.

Another time Oliver brings up the bruises Felix leaves on him. His wrists and random spots up his arms and shoulders marked by Felix. Felix is devastated. Saying how sorry he is, that sometimes he just can't control his strength and Oliver is just so much smaller and more fragile than Felix. Especially with how Oliver has such naturally pale skin, it must make Oliver so easy to bruise. And that...makes sense to Oliver. Okay, it's okay Felix.

Oliver starts to have quiet doubts. He feels strangely not happy and he can't figure out why? He has Felix. Felix absolutely adores Oliver and treats him so well, so why isn't he happy?

He wants someone to talk to but Felix is already insecure about Oliver getting close to his family so he can't do that. But then Oliver is left alone for a moment, Felix having gone to do something saying he'd be right back. A family member spots Oliver, Farleigh lets say, who decides to use this opportunity to talk to Oliver. Asks if Olivers noticed anything strange with Felix. When Oliver hesitates Farleigh goes on to say that while he doesnt care for Oliver, Felix's actions have been seeming really fucked lately. Just tell him if somethings wrong. (Please just tell him he's just seeing things, tell him something isn't wrong.) It doesn't go well because Felix does come back and sees them and is instantly incensed. Asking what they're doing but it comes out harsh and biting. Both of the two panic a bit and it makes them seem so guilty and it only makes Felix angrier. Dragging Oliver off in a rush, not paying attention to how Oliver says he's hurting him. Ignoring the look Farleigh is giving him.

They get into a bit of a argument. Felix angry because he thought they talked about how Felix is the one Oliver is here for. And Oliver getting upset because he didn't do anything wrong. He was just waiting for Felix when Farleigh came up to chat with him. Was he supposed to tell Farleigh to piss off? He was only asking if Oliver was alright.

And it's both the right and wrong thing to tell Felix. Because Oliver should've told Farleigh to piss off but, he's right, Oliver was just being good and waiting, it's not his fault Farleigh doesn't know how to not bother what's Felix's. And why is Farleigh suddenly interested in how Oliver is doing??? Farleigh who was the only family member that Felix didn't care to actively stop from interacting with Oliver simply because they already don't and if they do then they're bickering. Suddenly Felix is suspicious of him.

And that's really bad for Farleigh because now, Oliver wants to talk to him. Continue their conversation and will be trying to talk to him the next chance he gets. (Why does Oliver feel like he has to hide this from Felix? He's allowed to talk to others right? But, Felix gets so upset. It'd be better to just wait for another opportunity where Oliver is alone so Felix doesn't get upset.)

It blows up, Felix catches Oliver trying to sneak away and confronts him in a hallway. Oliver is defending himself. He wasn't sneaking anywhere, he's his own person and if he wants to wonder off he can! If he wants to go find someone to chat with, he can! Felix can't just-!

Felix raises his hand against Oliver. Sending him to the floor and then it's dead quiet.

Then it's loud with Felix apologizing and trying to see the damage and tearing up and explaing how he didn't mean to do that! Please forgive him Oliver! Oliver is just so important to him and he can't stand the thought of someone like Farleigh or anyone stealing him away. Oliver doesn't say anything but wonders why Felix would even think that. Is that a normal worry? But then tears are running down Felix's cheeks and Oliver pushes the thoughts away and reassures Felix he's okay. Just shocked. Which starts up Felix's apologies again, don't hate him please Ollie?? You can't hate me it was an accident! And Oliver agrees and reassures he doesn't hate Felix, just help him up.

If anyone saw this no one comes forward. At the breakfast table though everyone sees how Olivers cheek is red and swollen. How Felix looks incredibly guilty. Oliver tells them it was a accident when asked if he's alright and what happened.

Farleigh who has been dealing with seeing signs he doesn't want to see and maybe saw the whole thing earlier can't help but make a snide remark about the bruises. Asking if those were all accidents too. And Oliver who didn't think to hide the bruises because, yes, Felix said those were all accidental too so why would he hide them, suddenly feels exposed when asked about them in his context. Suddenly he's all too aware of the clear finger like bruises on different places across his arms. He freezes for a moment and instinctively covers one but quickly realizes how guilty that looks. Of course he says, they're accidents. When it's a bit too silent for a few seconds he goes on to say, we rough house and I'm much smaller and more fragile than Felix, these things happen. Immediately thinking back to what Felix said about the bruises.

It's the perfect excuse the table needed, any excuse would've done really even if it's spotty but Elspeth is eager for anything to hide the ugliness that was being implied at her table. She laughs, high and no where near genuine as she playfully scolds her son. Telling him to be more gentle with poor Ollie, he does seem a great deal more delicate. Sir James letting out his own laugh and agreeing with his wife. And soon, the subject is dropped and moved away from. Even if it's on the back of The Cattons minds.

Oliver spends the day laying in bed alone thinking, having told Felix he was going to rest today. Felix who is still feeling guilty, while not liking it one bit, agreed. Of course he comes in an hour later to check and when he sees Oliver awake he barges in. Though when Oliver isn't saying anything he gets more and more frantic until he makes his way into Olivers bed as well. Where he pulls Oliver close and asks if Oliver is actually mad at Felix? Please say no. And Oliver is just a man, a weak, weak man who has Felix's arms around him and soft voice telling him not to be mad. Which he wasn't really, just confused and lost. But that all takes a back seat again once Felix is here to sweet talk him and even hold him!!

It all escalates obviously. Felix accidentally hurting Oliver, Oliver feeling confused but forgiving him and the family sometimes accidentally witnessing some of these moments and then ignoring the marks when seated together to eat, rinse and repeat.

Until one day there's a louder than usual commotion happening. Felix and Olivers voices echoing across Saltburns hallways loudly. Summoning the inhabitants, from family to the workers. Who all stumble on the scene of Oliver attempting to run away from Felix who catches him in the main entry way. Holding him as Oliver struggles to get away and yelling to let him go! Let him go! And Felix screaming louder NO!

At first, no one knows what's happening. Why is this happening? Did Oliver do something?

Then tears are falling Olivers cheeks as he says he just wants to go home. Felix please I just want to go home now, let me leave!

Felix isn't moved by the tears and only tightens his grip, shaking Oliver, saying he doesn't understand why Oliver would want to leave. It doesn't make sense to leave Saltburn, Ollie just stay! How hard is it to listen?!

Oliver screams that Felix can't listen. Why does he need a reason to go home? Can't he just want to go home? Felix you can't keep him here against his will!

Then just want to stay here then!! It's not fucking hard! And Felix raises a fist and sends Oliver to the ground once again. Another dead silence before Oliver is glaring up at Felix from his place on the floor and starts yelling at Felix again. Why are you always doing that?! You say you want me to stay but then you do stupid shit like that!!!

Felix only huffs and glares right back. I wouldn't need to do that if you just stayed put and didn't try to run away!

It only makes Oliver let out a incredulous laugh. Yeah right Felix! How many times have you said you wouldn't do it again? How many times have you cried you're sorry and that it was a accident and promise it wouldn't happen again. Ollie please don't leave. It'll be better, then you go and do it again anyway??? You- you sounds like, like an abusive prick and I'm the idiot victim who forgives you everytime!! It's ridiculous Felix! Just let me go home! I don't want to be here! I don't want to be near you! I think I'm starting to hate you and I fucking hate that!! I don't want to hate you you're my best friend!

And Oliver runs out of steam. Left trying to catch his breath while on the floor. While Felix stays looming over him, hands at his sides constantly opening and closing his fists. Everyone else in the room a silent audience. Then Felix questions in a low voice that is heard by everyone. Abusive prick? Hate me? You want to see an abusive prick Ollie? Then Felix lunges for Olivers exposed throat and starts to strangle him.

For a moment no one reacts, no one believes what they're seeing, then they hear Oliver gasping and choking, see him clawing at Felix's hands on his throat and Sir James is yelling at the help the do something. Elspeth is covering her mouth in horror at something so, so, raw and grotesque, what is her baby son doing? Farleigh is stress gripping his hair while Venetia tears up and uselessly screams at Felix to stop it.

Staff run and grab Felix, attempting to pry him off Oliver but it's too late by the time they manage too because Felix lifts Oliver up and down quickly by the throat. His head hitting the ground with a sickening crack and he goes limp. Felix lets the staff drag him off.

In the distance you can hear Farleigh hysterically say oh fuck.

What is the meaning of this? Sir James shouts at his own son, red in the face angry. At Felix who shrugs off the staff and takes a calling breath, pushing his hair back once before facing his family only to say. Sorry you had to see that. Especially you mum, I know you hate ugly things and that got pretty ugly. I'll talk to Ollie about it so it won't happen again. Now, please get the doc here to take care of Oliver and once that's done would someone put him back in his room?

Everyone there stares at him in disbelief. All except the doctor who someone had already fetched earlier, they don't stop moving until they're beside Oliver and doing a check up to see what treatment he will need and if he's even alive. The rest are in a state of shock from what happened and Felix's unconcerned attitude.

In the end, when the family tries to confront him about what he just did Felix is unapologetic except for the fact he made a scene. When they try to send Oliver off, even just to the hospital, Felix says it doesn't matter if they do send Oliver anywhere, he knows where Oliver lives and they go to Uni together, Felix will just bring him back. So SIr James orders their personal Healthcare staff to take care of Oliver. Who is relatively alright. He passed out mostly do to the strangulation rather than the head wound at the end, it just shocked him and made him faint.

Felix is happy, the family and staff are disturbed. Oliver is just trying to recover and figure out how to keep Felix happy so this doesn't happen again. He gets it eventually and they live happily ever after because Oliver ends up really liking how much effort Felix went to, to get Oliver to stay. Really flattered and once Felix gets that Oliver actually wants to stay now and has a stark raving mad crush on Felix he feels more secure. Turns out he just didn't know how to deal with his homosexual feelings for his best friend.

Farleigh mentions stockholme syndrome at the table once and Oliver laughs and says maybe. Felix asks what that is and Farleigh is forced to explain it and looks like he regrets bringing it up. Felix laughs once he understands and makes the joke that his courting method seems to be a well tried and proved method. The rest except Oliver don't find it that funny but politely chuckle along.

So basically we're back to the original ending from the first post but took a longer route.

[buddiebeginz]

That scene with Eddie and Kim dressed as Shannon is that supposed to be the big emotional scene that was being talked about leading up to this episode? If Tim is expecting me to be invested in a scene like that he's sorely mistaken.

I love Ryan and Eddie but there was too much wrong with that scene for it have any kind emotional impact. I honestly just left it being confused and angry.

In the first place the scene initially came off looking like a dream especially since Kim was styled almost exactly how we saw Shannon talking to Chris in 701. I thought okay Eddie is going to say all these things to dream Shannon that he wanted to say (even get angry with her) things he didn't get to say before she died. Except here's the other problem Tim is trying to prop Shannon up and make her into a better person than she was. He's also trying to make it seem like Eddie had all these huge feelings for her that were never shown previously.

I definitely believe that Eddie loved Shannon and of course he had a lot of history with her and she's Chris' mother but I don't believe he was in romantic love with her. Eddie was always running away from Shannon even in s2. The only reason he even asked her to be with him again is because of Chris and because they thought she was pregnant. And really because Eddie has always done what he thinks he's supposed to do not what he truly wants to do especially when it comes to relationships.

I really can't stand when shows try and rewrite history like this. Shannon was important to Eddie but the show keeps trying to make her relationship with Eddie into something it wasn't and it really makes me hate when they bring her up.

Back to the scene with Eddie and Kim like I said I thought it was a dream so I really wanted to see where they were going with it. But as soon as they kept having Eddie talk about how he can't move on from Shannon because of how much he loved her I'm like nope I'm out. Let this man move on. Let him finally admit to himself that his relationship with Shannon wasn't perfect and let him stop comparing every relationship he ever gets into to something that never even existed.

The bigger problem I had with this scene though is that it wasn't even Shannon. If you wanted the audience to have some kind of emotional response to Eddie grieving his dead ex wife maybe don't have some woman he's cheating with dress up as her. It was all so bizzare. I also fail to see what Kim's motivation is for even doing that. She barely knows Eddie and she knows now that he was only even seeing her as some kind of replacement for his dead ex yet she's still interested in him. Then to top it off we had Marisol and Chris walking in on the whole scene. Having Chris see this woman who looks like his dead mom is just really cruel. I love Eddie but I really hope he's going to have to answer for that. I don't want to see the show just brush this off with some kind of talk between them because the level of so not okay that was is off the charts.

I just wish I knew where Tim is going with any of this because it's all so weird. I thought this Kim storyline was going to be about helping Eddie get closure and move forward but now I don't know what they're doing. I really hope that both Marisol and Kim will be gone by next season. This isn't even about Buddie neither one of them would make a good love interest for Eddie at this point.

Also why give Kim a birthmark like Buck if it's not supposed to make us think of Buck? Far as I can tell it's not a birthmark Devin has or her real hair color so what even was the purpose of that?

What is the purpose of bringing Buck into this storyline? I know Buddie are friends and they had most of the characters busy doing other stuff but I do wonder if Buck will play any more of a role in what's going on with Eddie.

I mean I'm glad they had Buck confront Eddie but tbh I wanted to see him get angrier about it. Buck said something to Eddie like have Marisol and Chris met her because Eddie was saying Kim was only a friend. I just feel like Buck would never want Chris to meet this woman. He just talked to Chris in 701 about how much his mom's death is still seriously affecting him. Why would he want Chris to meet this doppelgänger of his mom?

I know it's a shorter season but some of the writing choices this season feel messy and rushed. I honestly don't anticipate this Vertigo storyline having a satisfying conclusion. As it is they should have started it earlier and now it's being crammed into two already over stuffed episodes. I just hope that Eddie is going to get some better storylines next season because I haven't really been a fan of anything they've done with him on his own this season. Like first the nun and now this. What kind of vendetta do you have against Ryan Guzman Tim because these storylines are awful.

[celestiall0tus]

Miraculous AU - Chapter 50 - Ripper

Beginning || Previous || Next

            Viperion ran along the rooftops. He found Chat at the rendezvous point, leaning on the railing. Chat’s ears twitched and he turned as Viperion joined him.

            “Hey,” Viperion said.

            “Hey. How’s it been since, you know?”

            “Quiet, for the most part. Nathalie has been playing mom. Rose and Juleka seem to love it. I haven’t minded, only because she leaves me alone.”

            “She’s doing well?”

            “Yeah. Except for her kwami. Duusu doesn’t like his new accommodations and is always prowling around the house, ready to fight. However, the past few days he’s been perched on Nathalie’s shoulder, refusing to move. I’ve wondered what happened, but I don’t pry so long as fancy bird isn’t out to kill us.”

            “Has Nathalie been any different?”

            “You’d know better than I.”

            “I wish I could see her more often.”

            “How’s it been without her?”

            “There’s a shift in the atmosphere and everyone seems to be in foul moods all the time. My cousin is always angry, throwing tantrums and breaking whatever he can. My aunt just badmouths my cousin when she isn’t yelling at him, which then makes him angrier. And Father seems like he’s unraveling with them around. Probably not helping that I slip out whenever I can. Not just to be rebellious, but I just can’t stand being in that house right now.”

            “I’m sorry to hear that. I can’t even imagine what that’d be like.”

            “It is what it is, I suppose, right?”

            “I suppose. It should get better once the relatives leave right? When are they supposed to?”

            “I don’t know. However, I think that Father will send them back to London right after tomorrow.”

            “Why after tomorrow?”

            “Cause it’s my birthday and that’s the whole reason that Father let them come in the first place. At least tomorrow I can leave the house without sneaking out. Though I’ll have to spend the day with my cousin.”

            “Is that why you invited me along?”

            “Kinda? I also just wanted to hang out with you some more. I had fun when we hung out several nights ago. And I feel like I could learn a lot from you as well.”

            “From me?”

            “Yeah. It’s painfully obvious how sheltered I am. A lot of what I’ve experienced has been from Ladybug and her friends, but I can’t help and feel I’m missing out on something. Not to say that I’m ungrateful to Ladybug, but it just feels like there’s something else I could be experiencing. And when I’m with you, I don’t feel that.”

            “But, why me? I’m no one special. There’s nothing to me at all. And if there is, it’s just a reflection of Souris.”

            “You know we talked about this before, Viperion.”

            “I know, but it doesn’t change the fact of how I feel about myself. Who I am, what I am, it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t exist. I’m just a shell of a person, a mirror that reflects how other people act around me. I mean, look how I treat those close to me. Juleka and I are direct mirrors to each other, always reflecting and bouncing off the other. Marinette I’m nice to because she’s nice to me. Everyone else pretty much ignores me, so I just ignore them.”

            “What about with Alix?”

            “She’s… a unique case. I’m not a reflection with her, but I don’t know what I am.”

            “And what about with me?”

            “I don’t know. It’s a lot like with Alix. I don’t feel like a reflection of you, but I don’t know what I am.”

            “Maybe that’s the real you?”

            “And what is the real me?”

            Chat smiled and brushed Viperion’s cheek with the tip of his tail. “You’re a grumpy, standoffish guy who is kind and loving to those close to him. Who is also very passionate about music. You’re also a great listener and easy to talk and open up to.”

            Viperion blushed and looked away.

            Chat looked back out to the city. “It’s why I want to make amends. I know you’ve forgiven me for what I did, but I hadn’t forgiven myself at the time. It actually took Duusu to make me realize I needed to move on and let things go. That I can’t really afford to hold onto things like that. It was cemented more when Mayura killed someone. I wanted to be more disappointed in her, to reprimand her, but I couldn’t. She did what she had to, just as I did.”

            “So, what now?”

            “I would like to start over. To be your friend, if that’s ok. I enjoy your company just as much as Ladybug’s. In a lot of ways, you two are similar. You’re both incredibly compassionate people, extremely passionate about your work, and enjoyable to be around.”

            Viperions’s blush deepened. “You think so?”

            “I do, for what it’s worth. I know I’m not that great a judge of character. Not in the way that Souris and Louve, but I can make my own conclusions, right?”

            “You can, though don’t set the bar that high. Louve and Souris are in leagues all their own. They can pick you apart before you have a chance to blink.”

            “Isn’t that the truth. Both figured out who I was off the smallest of things. It’s quite terrifying how analytical they are.”

            “It is. Though it does make them both a little pushy, in their own ways.”

            “I don’t think Souris is pushy.”

            “That’s because you don’t live with her or are her brother.”

            Chat smiled, then it faded. He stood up as his ears twitched, then straightened. His pupils narrowed into slits as he grabbed his staff. He held it at the ready as he turned. Viperion looked behind and saw a hooded figure dressed in black. Viperion stepped back against the railing when he saw a red forelock from the hood, gold claw armor on the shoes, dark blue tail feathers, and a gold chain at his hip.

            “I hope I’m not… interrupting, am I?” Rooster asked. His voice low and deep with a growl added to it.

            “What do you want?” Viperion asked.

            Rooster smiled. He held up his hands to reveal yellow gloves with golden claw armor that was stained red. “Oh, you know, don’t you? Looking for some… entertainment. And it looks like I found it.”

            Rooster took a step towards Viperion, but Chat stood in the way.

            “Does the kitty want to play?”

            Chat hissed. He charged at Rooster and threw them both from the roof.

            Viperion ran to the edge as the pair sparred in the street. He searched for this phone, but it wasn’t on him like this. He backed away and knelt. He de-transformed and pulled out his phone.

            “What are you doing?” Sass demanded.

            “We need to let Alix and Carapace know. Mayura too.”

            Luka got a message out to Alix when he heard Chat yowl, then a loud crash.

            “Sass, scales-.”

            Luka was cut off when Rooster pinned him down by his throat. He fought to stay calm as the smell of fresh blood made him sick.

            “Look what I have here. You’re Adrien’s new boy toy, aren’t you? I’ll give it to Adrien, he knows how to pick the pretty ones. Though I don’t feel you quite fit the bad boy look without a few scars. What do you think?”

            Luka tried to transform, but Rooster tightened his grip on Luka. Luka clawed at Rooster’s hand as he fought for air.

            Rooster ran a clawed hand over Luka’s chest. “What can I do? What can I do? I don’t want to cause too much damage. It’d be no fun if I just killed you after all.”

            Luka gasped and struggled against Rooster. Sass hissed and transformed into a snake. He bit onto Rooster’s sleeve.

            “Do you mind? Actually, I have an idea. Why don’t we test how much your kwami can heal you, snake?”

            Rooster moved his hand as he raked the shoe claw armor across Luka’s chest, from the throat to the stomach. Luka screamed and Sass gawked at Rooster in horror.

            Luka tried again to transform, but Rooster slashed at Luka’s face. He winced and cried in pain.

            “Not just yet.” Rooster slashed at Luka’s left arm as deep as Chat cut his right.

            Sass removed himself from Rooster and transformed into a larger snake. He sank his fangs into Rooster’s leg. Rooster sneered and swiped at Sass, but his claws couldn’t harm Sass. Rooster stepped back from Luka’s throat as he wrestled to get Sass off him.

            “Sass, scales slither.”

            Sass released Rooster as he vanished into the bracelet and transformed Luka.

            Viperion ran for the edge, but Rooster grabbed his tail. Rooster pulled and smashed Viperion into the ground. Viperion moved to stand when Rooster pinned him down again.

            “You’ll need to be faster than that.”

            “Let me go.”

            “If I do, you’ll run to the kitten and heal him. Unfortunately, I can’t let that happen.”

            “Why? What do you have against us? Why do this at all?”

            “Because its fun watching you all squirm and suffer. Especially the pretty ones like you.”

            Viperion grimaced as Rooster’s claws settled on his face. A green flash from behind Rooster caught his eye. Rooster turned as a pink whip wrapped around his waist and pulled him back. Viperion gasped with relief and made a break for the edge. Viperion scanned the area and saw a large hole in a building. Viperion jumped over and moved away the rubble. Under it was Chat.

            Viperion felt sick at the sight of Rooster’s quick work. Blood stained Chat’s hair as it trailed from his head in rivers. Long, deep lacerations marred Chat’s face and chest as Rooster cut through his suit. He reached out and touched Chat’s pale skin. He shuttered when it was lukewarm. He pulled Chat into his arms.

            “Rejuvenate.”

            Golden light enveloped Chat, then faded away. Chat gasped and woke with a startle, like Alix had. He looked around frantically before he stared at Viperion.

            “What happened? Where is he?”

            “He’s-.”

            A loud crash interrupted Viperion. He shielded Chat from the debris that fell around them. A moment later, Souris fell onto the rubble pile.

            “Souris!”

            Souris coughed and hauled herself to her feet. There was a long cut on her arm and a nick on her cheek. Tears fell from her eyes as she rushed to Viperion. “Are you ok? I saw Rooster had you. He was hurting you and… and… I’m so sorry!”

            Souris wailed as she hugged Viperion.

            Viperion patted Souris back. “I appreciate the concern, but now’s not the time.”

            Souris ignored Viperion as she clung to him.

            “Chat, can you fight?”

            Chat looked up at the rooftops. “I don’t think I should get in the way.”

            Viperion turned and saw Liberte and Rooster. Rooster’s hooded disguise was torn off to reveal himself. He wore an orange dress vest with a yellow collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and brown pants. His skin was a yellow-ish orange and his hair red, spike up in a mohawk. In his fight against Liberte, he wielded dual hand scythes connected by a golden chain. Viperion grimaced with each blow Rooster landed on her until he put her in a type of headlock with a blade at Liberte’s throat.

            Liberte craned her neck back. “You’re a son of a bitch.”

            Rooster grinned. He raised the second blade to Liberte’s face. “Thank you, love.”

            “I’m waiting.”

            “Waiting for what?”

            “Fuck, you’re stupid.”

            “Now, where would the fun be in that? After all, you’re the most fun I’ve had in a long time, love.”

            “Oh, the fun isn’t over yet, love. Defiance.”

            Rooster’s eyes widened as Liberte landed a swift jab to his gut. He fell back. His blade ran across her throat, but it went unnoticed. He attempted to stand, but she knocked him down. She kept him down with each blow. She launched him in the air, then threw him back down. She stood in the air before she fell. She increased her mass and landed on his gut as they fell through the roof to the ground floor. She held him down by his throat.

            “You have two choices, love. Renounce your jewel or die.”

            “Is that all? You seem to be missing a few options.”

            “What makes you so sure?”

            Rooster grinned. He tapped his throat. Liberte felt her own throat and discovered the large gash.

            “How did you…? I didn’t feel anything.”

            “Quite the power you have, love. The ability to defy almost anything must be quite intoxicating, but it can’t last forever. And if I’m a betting man, which I am, you don’t have much longer.”

            Liberte sneered. “Damn you.”

            “I know, love. It’s unfortunate we must part like this, but this must be how we leave each other. For now.”

            Liberte spat in Rooster’s face before she leapt from the building. She stopped beside Viperion and knelt. She craned her neck so he could see the cut.

            “How aren’t you dead?”

            “Just fucking heal me before you grill me.”

            Viperion moved his free hand up to Liberte’s neck. “Mend.”

            Gold light stitched together that wound and the others Liberte had sustained. Viperion looked at his bracelet and saw the final segment had dimmed.

            "Liberte, is it safe to leave?”

            “Safe enough.”

            “Please get us out of here.”

            Liberte put her hand on Viperion’s head. She teleported all of them back to the Couffaine residence. Souris released Viperion as he scooped up Chat and sat him on the couch.

            “Sass, scales rest.”

            “Kaalki, dismount.”

            Their kwamis popped out from the jewels and fell towards the floor. They caught their respective kwami and headed to the kitchen. Luka grabbed an apple and cut it up for Sass and Kaalki to share. Souris approached Luka.

            “Are you ok?”

            “Why ask me? I’m not the one that was almost killed.”

            “No, just tortured!”

            “Hey, can we hold off on fighting until we assess what happened? Take note of damages and all that fucking shit?” Alix suggested.

            Luka nodded and pushed past Souris. He took a seat beside Chat. “How are you feeling?”

            Chat shook his head.

            “Do want to talk?”

            Chat shook his head.

            Luka nodded and moved to Alix. “Can I see your neck?”

            Alix craned her head up. Luka grimaced at the small scar where the cut was deepest. Her other wounds healed without any scarring.

            “He got us both good, didn’t he?” Alix pointed to Luka.

         ��  Luka looked down. His jacket’s sleeve and shirt were shredded where Rooster struck him. Long scars remained of the wounds.

            “Fucking hell,” Luka breathed.

            “He truly is a monster, isn’t he?” Chat whispered.

            “He certainly doesn’t need butterflies to make him one,” Alix agreed.

            “So, what now?” Luka asked.

            “Answers. Chat, what happened with you?”

            There was a long silence. “Rooster was stronger and faster than me. I got him away from Viperion, but he quickly took me down. He slashed my back and chest through my suit. Then he threw me into a building, and everything went dark.”

            “So, you were transformed? Why did you de-transform?” Souris asked.

            “Because I needed to tell someone. And I wasn’t expecting to come across the bastard when I headed out, so it was on Luka, not Viperion.”

            “That is fair. Even Carapace and I were starting to have our doubts that Rooster would show up. However, now that he has shown up, we can come up with a plan. Namely, who should be the ones to handle him.”

            “Who else besides you?” Luka asked.

            “If he’s stronger and faster, then his bond with his kwami must be superior to ours. So, we need people who stand on equal footing. However, there’s not a lot of us with those bonds yet.”

            “I agree, but it’s not all bonds,” Luka said.

            “What do you mean?” Alix asked.

            “Our natural skills are enhanced when we transform. So, for example, the more athletic and in shape a person is, the stronger they are.”

            “Wait, really?”

            Luka nodded.

            “So, if that’s the case what the fuck was the point of the training we had in our hero forms? Shouldn’t you all have been training yourselves?”

            “It was to train our powers further too, Alix. We’ve all gotten stronger with them. We all also learned to fight through people like you. After all, not all our kwamis give us access to such knowledge,” Souris pointed out.

            “Fair enough. Still begs the question, doesn’t it?”

            “Maybe we should start exercising more, no?”

            Luka grimaced.

            “What’s the matter, Luka? Afraid to get all hot and sweaty?” Alix teased.

            Luka glared at Alix.

            “Hey, a thought. Maybe we should let Ladybug know that Chat is here?” Souris asked.

            Alix nodded and took out her phone.

            Souris moved from the kitchen to the stairs.

            “Where are you going?” Luka asked.

            “I’m going to scout things out. And get your phone.”

            Luka felt his pockets and didn’t feel his phone.

            “I appreciate it. Thank you.”

            Souris nodded and left. They sat in silence until they heard a thud and the click of heels. Luka and Alix turned as Ladybug ran downstairs. Luka’s jaw dropped when he saw her new outfit. It was a long, short-sleeved red cheongsam with black spots. The skirt had splits up to her hip on both sides that allowed her to move with complete freedom. She had black shorts, long gloves, and thigh-high, high heeled boots on. Platinum armor guarded her ankles, wrists, and rimmed the top of the boots and gloves. She still had her mask, but her hair was half up in twin tops buns with the rest of her hair down.

            Alix cat called. “Looking sexy, gorgeous!”

            Ladybug staggered and growled. “Shut up, Alix!”

            Chat looked up and gawked at Ladybug. “Ladybug?

            Ladybug chuckled nervously as she sat beside Chat. “Pay me no mind. I was just trying something a little… different.”

            Chat blushed. “You look stunning.”

            Ladybug blushed, then shook her head. “Thank you, but this isn’t about me. Are you ok? Alix told me what happened.”

            Chat looked away and shook his head. He pulled Ladybug into a hug as he rested his head on her shoulder. Alix rolled her eyes and moved to the kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of water before she sat beside Luka.

            Alix grinned.

            Luka’s eye twitched. “Fuck off, Alix.”

            “But I didn’t say anything, yet.”

            Luka hummed. He looked away when he heard Rose and Nathalie’s voices. They walked in as Lapine and Mayura, carrying groceries. They paused when they saw everyone.

            “What happened?” Mayura asked.

            “Rooster,” Alix said.

            “Rooster? Why didn’t you tell me?”

            “I didn’t have time. I was only able to get a message out to Alix before he came back after me,” Luka explained.

            “And Souris wouldn’t let me contact you with Luka in trouble,” Alix added.

            “Can you tell me what happened?”

            Luka explained what happened with Rooster, then Alix finished the story with her part.

            Mayura exhaled. “This is… troubling. From this point, be more cautious. Avoid combat with Rooster. If you have to engage Rooster, don’t do it alone. If you are able, reach out to me or Alix immediately. Understand?”

            They all nodded.

            “Good. Now, I’m going to keep an eye out for Souris. Lapine, would you get started on what we discussed?”

            Lapine nodded. She de-transformed and moved to the kitchen.

            “Can I join you, Mayura?” Chat asked.

            “Of course. Would you like to join us, Ladybug?”

            “I would, but I should get back home. I’ve got a lot of work to do still.”

            “We’ll see you out. Come along you two.”

            Mayura left with Ladybug and Chat. They saw Ladybug off before they strolled along the Seine.

            “How are you feeling, Chat?”

            “I don’t know. There’s a lot of everything that I don’t quite know. It’s making everything feel different. Like, really different.”

            “Different how?”

            “I feel a lot more in just the past few minutes than what feels like my entire life. I’m pissed that Rooster hurt Luka the way he did. I’m ashamed that I let him beat me so easily. I’m loathing having to return to the hell that home has become. And that’s not even mentioning Ladybug. Whatever I’ve felt around her feels so much stronger. And with those feelings come new thoughts that I’ve never had before. Why am I feeling so much like this?”

            “That’s the power of Rejuvenate. It heals the body and purifies the mind and soul. Gets rid of barriers that allow for healing to take effect. It’s like taking medication and going through years of therapy in a matter of seconds. So long as you capitalize on it. Just look at Liberte and Carapace for examples of Rejuvenate’s effect.”

            “So, what I’m feeling is because of Viperion’s power? I don’t like this. Everything feels stronger and scarier. And there’s so much of it too. Is this normal?”

            “At your age, yes. You should have been experiencing these kind of things for a while, but due to your upbringing, you were stifled and stunted. Now, not so much.”

            “What do I do then?”

            “Just let yourself feel. Don’t try to stuff away how you feel. Allow yourself the luxury to feel and shout it to the world.”

            “Ok, but what about with Ladybug? The feelings are so much stronger, and they come with thoughts I never had before. Thoughts that make me feel weird. And I don’t know why.”

            “That’s love for you.”

            “Including the weird feelings?”

            “Weird how?”

            Chat blushed and looked away. “I’m not sure. Just… weird.”

            Mayura sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Chat, did your father ever have that talk with you?”

            “Which talk?”

            “The sex talk?”

            “Uh, no. He said he’d have that talk once I was dating, at eighteen. With a girl of his choosing.”

            “I hate that man. Alright then. Let’s head to a rooftop while we wait for Souris to return home. We’re going to talk.”

            In the back of Mayura’s head, she heard Duusu snicker.

            ‘I told you so, Precious. But you never believed me. Tsk tsk.’

            Mayura’s eyebrow twitched.

            “Are you ok?”

            “I’m fine. Just a small headache. Come along now.”

~~

            Felix slipped in through the window of his room and leaned against the wall.

            “Orikko, sundown.”

            Orikko appeared from the twin chained rings and fell onto Felix’s shoulder.

            “Ugh! I forgot the horse packs a punch.”

            “Quit your whining. We need to come up with a plan.”

            “Why? It’s clear we can easily take these heroes.”

            “We took on a small sample of them. Yes, their cat is weak and the snake an idiot, but the horse is a threat. We got lucky with her that I slit her throat. Next time we may not be so lucky. And that’s not accounting for the other heroes that didn’t show up tonight.”

            “No thoughts on the mouse?”

            “How could I? The horse removed her from the fight after I landed just one blow.”

            “I suppose. So, what is this plan you insist upon?”

            “Chat Noir. He may be able to fool his fellow heroes, all of Paris even, but I can see him for who he is.”

            “Are you sure? He doesn’t seem the type to be the cat.”

            “I wouldn’t have thought so either. But I see Adrien in Chat Noir, only because I see myself. And I hate it. Not to mention that Adrien’s clearly changed. Or at least starting to.”

            “Oh, that’s nothing. You’ll see massive changes after tonight.”

            “Why’s that?”

            “Rejuvenate, the snake’s greater power. It’s needed to heal us kwamis, purge the effects of our powers, and so much more. Especially with your kind. It’s like if you actually were sent to therapy for years and received the help you needed to become a better person, condensed into seconds.”

            “And how will that affect Adrien in any great way? What trauma could that perfect bastard fucking have?”

            “Beats me. I just know whenever Rejuvenate is used, the holder tends to change. Typically for the better, though not always.”

            “I see. We’ll have to see if we can use it to our advantage. Regardless, we’ll need to use him to lure out the peacock.”

            “Why?”

            Felix scoffed. “Because Nathalie raised both of us. And I don’t think she’d leave Adrien to die.”

            “Then why didn’t she show up tonight?”

            “I don’t know. I hope she was just busy with something else. At any rate, we will be trying again tomorrow night.”

            Orikko cooed. “She’d have to show up tomorrow. Can’t let anything bad happen on his special little day.”

            “Exactly. We’ll follow Adrien once he leaves as Chat. We’ll strike before more of his companions show up. If more heroes do show up, then we show them the power of the rooster. Sound good?”

            “I have no complaints.”

            “Good. Eat up. We’re going to need to be at full strength for tomorrow.”

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[galos-writing]

hey, y'all, uh sorry for my absence but i was so damn busy with uni im sorry T_T i had completed a request i received a long time ago but i accidentally deleted the message, fortunately i copied n pasted the request above the ff itself, so for whoever asked it to me, im so sorryyy and i hope the ff arrives to you Q-Q enjoyyy

Request: Hi! May I ask for Arthur Fleck x gn (*gender neutral) reader where the reader has green eyes and how would he react? Thank you!

You were standing right in front of a vast apartment block completely dumbfounded, you couldn’t believe such a majestic building could erect in a trashcan of a city like Gotham. Indeed, the poor lifestyle was mirrored by the appearance of what would become your new home: broken windows, a neglected shared yard full of trash bags, roaches and sewer rats, and the paint outside grayed or even consumed in some spots. 

You made a face at the view, but it was all you could afford at the moment: you would have surely moved as soon as you would have found a job with a good salary. However, the luggage you were holding reminded you that you weren’t living somewhere better than this. You could almost dare to say your new home would be a mansion if compared to your parents’ house; even the rudest flatmate would be nicer than the ones who were supposed to love and support you no matter what, but that instead kicked you out, not even letting you collect all of your stuff. ‘Just your clothes’, they said, ‘and then get the fuck out.’. 

Their words were carved in your memory and will probably be forever, you took a deep breath to hold back tears. 

You were so deep in your thoughts that you didn’t hear the taxi driver behind you, until he honked, startling you. You turned to him, he was visibly pissed, angrily smoking his cigarette butt and then throwing it at your feet, not even putting it out. 

“Ya deaf, pal?! I fuckin’ said it’s 50 bucks! Ya gon’ pay me or not?”, he shouted at you, sticking his hand full of rings out towards you, expecting his money on his callous palm. You turned pale at how angry he was and quickly pulled out your wallet to give him his money. 

Your anxiety turned into full panic when you saw your wallet was completely empty. Fuck. You were sure your brat of a little brother stole all your money, oh how you wish you were still at your home to strangle him. 

“So?”, the taxi driver insisted, pressing on the accelerator to increase the price according to the taximeter. His judgmental beady eyes were scanning you while you started emptying your backpack, in a desperate attempt of finding a single cent in the bottom of it. Nothing, just old stuff, some comic book and clothes. You let out a defeated sigh that made him visibly angrier, and your lips quivered as you opened your mouth to speak the only words he was hoping not to hear. 

“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t…”

You got cut by a bony and shaky hand extending next to you, handing some banknotes at the taxi driver, who smirked and snatched them from it.

“H…Here…”, a thin male voice shyly stuttered before the money had been literally ripped off his hand. The driver filled his thumb with his gross saliva to start counting the bills, and when he was over he just left in a hurry, not saying a word. 

You were at a loss for words due to everything that happened so quickly, but you managed to snap out of your trance and looked at the guy who just saved you from an unpleasant situation. 

You were stunned when you saw the appearance of your saviour: a short and slender man who was still standing next to you, his arm was still extended and his eyes were wide open, staring off into space. He seemed to be in his mid-forties but you weren’t sure.

He flinched when you touched his shoulder, and slowly turned his head towards you. His eyes looked so sweet, but they were now so wide, still in shock at what just happened. 

“Hey…”, you softly called him, trying to calm him down by awkwardly stroking his shoulder. “A-Are you okay? I’m so sorry you had to get through this, really… I’m willing to give you back your money, for sure, sir.”, you kept telling him, your tone was soft to sooth him, and you sketched an embarrassed smile when he looked at you. He first babbled some letters, as if he was starting the engine of his brain to reconnect and formulate a correct sentence, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of you. His gaze soon flustered you, making you look away. 

“Well, then… It's been a true pleasure to meet you. Thank you again, sir.”, you politely saluted, grabbing your bags and walking to the entrance of the condo where the landlord was waiting for you. 

As weeks passed by, some threatening letters from your father didn’t manage to break the new cocoon of comfort you built up all for yourself. You were so proud of your job of house decorating that you couldn’t resist but invite some friends over. What an idiot you felt by seeing your fridge was empty, how were you supposed to have guests over with no food in the house? 

You found yourself forced to go emergency grocery shopping the day before their arrival. As you were walking to the grocery store, you had the crippling feeling of being observed, but the thing didn’t scare you too much: lots of people in Gotham were weirdos, or just envious bored fellas who enjoyed watching others to judge them without a reason. When you arrived at the cashier to pay for your stuff, your eyes met a familiar face: the nice nervous man who paid for your taxi! You instinctively smiled and poked his shoulder to catch his attention. When he turned around towards you, his cheeks turned a deep red as you joyfully waved at him. 

“We haven’t talked much since you helped me that day, huh?”, you giggled, holding your bag of groceries as you were walking out of the store, followed by Arthur. He didn’t respond, he was too flustered to speak. You turned to him, tilting your head, your face showed concern. For a moment, you decided to ignore your worry and resumed smiling, extending your hand at him.

“I’m (Y/N), by the way. (Y/N) (L/N). We didn’t manage to introduce each other. It’s a pleasure to know you. We do live in the same condo, right?”, you happily asked, patiently waiting for the man to shake your hand. But he didn’t. 

“I-I’m Arthur, Arthur Fleck… nice to know you too…”, he shyly murmured after a few seconds, trying to avoid eye contact. You worriedly looked at him again.

“Hey… are you okay? Did… did I say something that offended you?”, you asked, trying to approach him, but he stepped back. 

“I have something to confess to you. I, uhm… I followed you… like, stalked you for a while. It’s better you immediately know, I don’t want you to find it out by yourself and get even more scared…”, he admitted, making your face turn pale; that explained your feeling of being observed all the time. 

“... why?”, you just asked, feeling numb. You were confused, that man seemed so kind, silent and polite during condo reunions, you couldn’t believe someone like him could do something like that. But you appreciated his honesty, despite the fact you were definitely creeped out by him. 

“I… just wanted to make sure you were real. And, y’know, not just some… some kind of delusion.”, he bluntly answered, as his face turned even redder. “It’s just that…”, he kept saying, “ … you quite… caught my attention, not gonna lie. You feel like a fresh breeze in this trash-stuffed pit.”. 

His words hit you like a hammer, those were the first kind words someone outside your friends group had told you in weeks. Your eyes filled in tears, but you firstly refused to let them out, giggling. 

“I… I don’t know what to say… Just… Thank you so much, Arthur. I’m glad you’re my neighbor. You’re the kindest man I’ve ever met in a long time.”, you told him, touching his shoulder. Your words made him blush even more, but this time a relaxed and genuinely joyful smile appeared on his thin and scarred lips. 

“Why did you come to live here, though…? You’re so pure and joyful, your kindness doesn’t belong here…”, he asked, blushing a bit. His question upset you more than you wanted to admit.

“... my parents kicked me out because I refused to work for their shitty business. I wanted to escape that narcissistic and toxic environment to start all over again. And for now living here is all I can afford.”, you gloomingly explained. 

He got silent, nodding a bit. His silence made your anxiety grow more than when you announced to your father you had no intention to work for his company. 

Arthur noticed you were observing him, and stopped nodding. “ …what?”, he asked.

“What?? Aren’t you gonna say nothing?!”, you asked back, in full panic.

“What do you expect me to say? (Y/N), if there’s something I learned by living in this world is that insecure people will insult everything outside their range of comprehension. But believe me, it’s not worth your tears until you’re happy. That’s life.”, he just said, taken by a moment of confidence, he felt oddly comfortable by speaking so openly to you, for once he didn’t feel unfitting or out of line, he felt heard and he knew his words could be helpful to someone he cared for that was struggling.

“And, in all honesty, I wouldn’t be taken by surprise by your family situation, yet… by, uh…”, he kept going, struggling a bit to say what he was thinking of, but just by looking at you, he suddenly found the courage. He was feeling good by spilling all that out right now, and wanted that wellness to keep going. 

“Yet by the fact yours are the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen.”, he suddenly blurted out, making you heavily blush. You looked at him, you could see his wave of confidence disappear to make him blush as well, so much he had to pull on the collar of his shirt. 

After some awkward second of silence, you smiled. “Do you mind if we… get back home together?”, you asked. Your proposition took him by surprise this time, making him slowly nod. The two of you walked back to the condo, in complete silence, drowning in fluster, but so happy you had met each other at that moment.

Tags: @darknessisafriend @werewolf-and-go-wild @indieblair @pursuit-of-comedy @ajokeformur-ray @fly-like-a-phoenix @five-miles-over @hebimoonlightwrites @jokerflecker @callmejokerr

[hwaseonghwasworld]

Brothers best friend chapter 4: I’m Sorry

Summary: Yunho doesn't want his baby sister (Y/n) dating any of his friends especially Mingi since they are like brothers to him and it's an issue when all Y/n's friends are dating Yunho's friends but he wouldn't let Y/n talk to any guys since he's so overprotective, it's such a shame that she's been with Mingi for almost 2 years and no one knows. What will happen if Yunho finds out?

Song Mingi x Reader

Warnings: cursing, smut, fights

Word count: 740

Genre: series, angst, comedy, fluff, hidden relationship, High school au

Updates: probably Friday at 10pm BST

"I’m your father's significant other," I stated as I peered down from the upper level, taken aback by Yunho's clenched fists as he struggled to contain his anger. "He is on a business trip," I continued, attempting to clarify the situation. "Perhaps you have the wrong residence. My partner is occupied with his work and does not have the time for any romantic involvement."

"He typically meets with me after his business trips, which is why he informed you that he would return in a week. However, the actual duration of his trip is only three days. When he states that he will be gone for two weeks, he is actually scheduled to return in one. Do you understand what I am implying?" I wished to approach Yunho to calm him down, but he appeared as though he might strike me, so I remained seated and listened.

"He visits me during those additional times," I continued. "So, are you suggesting that my father lied to me?" The woman did not appear apologetic; rather, it seemed as though she was doing this on purpose, which enraged me. "No, he was simply attempting to keep it hidden for a while, you know, since your mother passed away three years ago, and we have been together for two years."

Did my father only mourn my mother for a year before moving on? Did he not love her? "And why are you here?" Yunho's tone became increasingly passive-aggressive as he attempted to be polite, and I did not blame him, given that the woman was smiling at everything she said as if she enjoyed it.

"I thought your father would be here, but I suppose not," the woman replied. Yunho gave her a sarcastic smile. "Okay, bye." "Perhaps I should stay until he returns," the woman suggested. Yunho's expression changed from a fake smile to a neutral one. "Yeah, that's not going to happen. Goodbye."

He slammed the door in her face, and I ran to my room since he was going to go upstairs. I called my father to inform him of what had occurred. "Hello, honey, what's going on?" "A woman came over claiming to be your girlfriend. She's lying, right?" My father sighed, obviously not wanting us to find out just yet. "I'm sorry; I didn't want you both to know this early."

I couldn't believe he had kept this from us for so long. He always told us that he would never keep secrets from us, and this... this was a significant secret. "So when were you going to tell us? Once you get married? Once you have a child with her?" "You dated her two years after Mom died!" My father attempted to calm me down, but it only made me angrier. "I know; I'm sorry."

"Look, why don't you order yourself something, new clothes, jewelry, anything?" I scoffed at the fact that he was attempting to buy my forgiveness. "Not everything is about money! I just want to talk to you and ask why you kept this from us!" "It's because I didn't want you guys to be angry with me." "I'm not angry, Dad. I just wanted to know why."

"We'll continue this conversation as soon as I get home. Alright?" "I'll see you later then. Goodbye." I said goodbye to my father, and he ended the call. I walked to Yunho's room and knocked on the door since I knew that if I walked in, he would start shouting since he was angry, and it would be much worse.

He let me in and looked at me with annoyance. "What do you want?" "I just spoke with Dad, and he had a reason for not telling us." "What is it, then?" He appeared a little sad, and I sat on his bed and explained it to him. "Because he knew you would react that way, he wanted to tell us at the right time."

He began shouting as if I were the one who had kept it hidden, and I could hear the pain in his voice. "Mom died! I don't think there will ever be a right time." "I know, but-" "Y/n, just get out of my room." I rolled my eyes and hit him with his pillow before leaving his room. I put on my AirPods and listened to some music while making a smoothie, attempting to figure out why he was being such a salty asshole.

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Masterlist

Taglist: @scarfac3 @huachengsbestie01 @tunaasan

[angelmichelangelo]

hm… either a leo sickfic or a human au comfort no hurt fic would be kewl :3

SURPRISE YOU GET BOTH!! >:3 enjoy!!

tw for implied child neglect/abuse

read on ao3!

x

“Mom?”

He presses a hand against her cheek where it’s warm and clammy, brushing away the damp strands of hair that are stuck across her skin, wielded there by sweat.

She doesn’t fully stir, her face only tightening up before she’s lazily rolling away from him, long matted hair trailing over her shoulder.

Leo sniffs. He clutches at his aching tummy, twisting the fabric of his pajama shirt in a small, tight first. The ashtray on the side of her bed is still sizzling out the last dregs of smoke that make the room stinky and hazy, so it couldn’t have been long since she’d fallen asleep, even though the sun was only just starting to poke up from beyond the horizon.

“Mommy.” He tries again, a little louder.

He hears her sigh, a long drawn out sound that makes him back up a little from where he stands. Leo watches as she stretches her bare arms out in front of her and rolls over to her back, the large swell of her belly protruding from beneath the blankets that houses his newest and youngest sibling.

“Hm, Leo. What?” She says it without so much as cracking open a single eye, running her hands down her face before they flop at her sides, looking like she might instantly fall back asleep again.

He shifts from foot to foot, confidence rapidly dwindling, the more time he spends trying to build it up again, she’s opened her eyes, narrowing them to glare at him where he stands at the head of her bed.

“Um. I have tummy ache.” He tells her, clutching his middle as another ripple of heat spreads through him.

Mom frowns and lets her eyes slide shut. “You and me both, kid,” is what she says after a while. A loud yawn rips through her, but she makes no effort to shake it off and get herself up out of bed. “There’s some medicine on the counter. In a little pink bottle. A spoonful of that should help.”

Leo knows he’s not supposed to take things like medicine or food without help; he can just about clear the countertops when he stands on his tippy toes, so when he watches his mom sweep herself back to the other side of the bed he feels an anxious flurry rise hotly in his chest.

“Can you get it for me?” He finds himself asking in a small, unsure voice. “I… I can’t reach.”

Mom doesn’t turn to face him again, but she’s sighing again, a little harsher and angrier around the edges, Leo knows he’s toeing into a territory he knows better to cross.

“You’re a big boy, Leonardo.” Is her final word on the matter. “Mommy has a real tummy ache, go fetch the medicine yourself.”

When mom says such things, it makes him feel small. Mom’s bellyache isn’t real — it’s a baby, one she undoubtedly didn’t want, just like her other three children, it doesn’t diminish the fact that Leo had woken up hurting and wanted help.

But he knows better than to argue with her so he slinks away to the other room to check in on Raph and Donnie.

They’re snoozing away on their bed, tangled up with one another, blissfully whisked away by the land of dreams and ignorance, Leo lets the pair of them sleep the morning away as he makes his way to the kitchen for his medicine.

There it sits, the little pink bottle that has a tricky cap he can’t always work when he’s got to dish some of it out for his brothers when they get sick.

He stands himself up on his tip toes and reaches it for it with a desperate, grabby hand.

It’s out of reach by a small, frustrating fraction, fingers only bruising past it before it’s pushed back against the wall.

He whines, a small pitiful sound because he’s still only seven, and he wishes the ache would just go away already. He wishes for a lot of things that don’t ever seem to come true.

He cannot bother his mommy any more. She gets angry and loud and he’s read from some of the picture books at school that it wasn’t good for her when there was a new sibling growing in her belly.

He doesn’t want to make her sick, too, so he looks around the kitchen in hopes of an idea striking him.

He looks at one of the chairs and thinks about perhaps climbing it to reach the counter.

Leo didn’t quite like heights, he remembers being picked up one time, by the front of his shirt by mom’s boyfriend, feeling a million miles up, like he could touch the moon if he wanted, legs dangling beneath him, he sucks in a brave breath and squashes the memory down into a deep, dark corner of his mind.

He pulls the chair over with all of his might, his stomach still aching and burning. He judges it by a single look over before he clambers up on top.

He’s able to reach the medicine bottle with ease now, desperate fingers clasp around the bottle, he pulls it close to him, like he was afraid it would grow legs and jump around the kitchen away from him.

He tries the cap, pressing hard like mommy had shown him once before, but he lacks the proper strength to get it open, the lid twists around and around with the familiar clack, clack, clack of the child lock that was secured around the rim.

Growing distracted, Leo tries again, pushing his palm flat against the lid as he twists, waiting and searching for purchase of the lock to come undone.

He fails again, the same full clack, clack, clack as it turns slowly has anger bubbling up in his chest.

He wanted, no he needed mom to do this for him. He wasn’t strong enough.

The hot anger that brewed away inside of him turned to tears, making his eyes go misty, he tries again and again to undo the cap only to repeatedly fail.

He wasn’t strong enough.

Out of frustration, he tries to rip the thing clean off the top, but his hand slips, jerking his elbow out to the side, it unbalances him momentarily, and in his attempt to steady himself, he lets go of the bottle, and it crashes against the floor with an almighty crack, and the whole thing quickly shatters.

Leo stares down at the mess he’s made; flecks of glass stand stark against the pale pink goo that was now a river against tile, more tears spring to his eyes, pushing the previous ones down his cheeks.

Mom doesn’t stir to the sound of glass breaking, or to the hiccuping sob that crawls from out of Leo’s chest like a big, ugly monster.

He stands there on his chair, still feeling far too small for the world, knowing that he’d have to clean the mess up before Raph or Donnie came plodding in and hurt themselves badly.

He sniffs, and carefully clambers down the chair, toeing around the glass, his tummy ache seemingly having grown from the pit of his gut, up through his chest around wrapped around his head, as he carefully plucked up the sharp shards, he knew that in reality there wasn’t any kind of medicine to fix this.

Nothing in the world to make his family any better.

[islenthatur]

Mihawk stared at the young swordsman before him, several parts impressed, amused and somewhat exasperated, though the latter emotion was what won overall because Mihawk was beginning to see a pattern.

A pattern that he did not wish to see repeated in this instance because now he was going to be several berries lighter and Benn would never let it go.

This was supposed to be a quick kidnapping for a family dinner... not... this.

"You're serious?" He asked the young swordsman, brow-raising ever so slightly.

Zoro stared back, face set blankly just as Mihawk's but the Warlord could see the emotions hidden in those dark eyes. "Accept my challenge and then you'll see how serious."

"Hm." Mihawk cocked his head, eyes flickering to the left where he knew Luffy to be. It was proven true when the familiar shishishi echoed faintly in the wind.

"You will not touch him," Zoro uttered in a low growl all pretences dropped as he realized where the Swordsman's attention snapped to, drawing Wado Ichimonji. "You accept my duel now or not, it doesn't matter, but I will not allow you to touch my captain." Mihawk glanced around at everyone else, partygoers freezing in their merrymaking the moment the sword was drawn. "I suggest you all vacate for now, we shan't be long."

Everyone vacated quickly except Luffy's crew and Mihawk was done, next time he was going to get Benn to come and get the kid for family dinner. It would save Mihawk a lot of time and the lack of a headache. He held up a finger as he pulled out his den den and called his husband. 'Hawky! Did you find Anchor!? He hasn...' the voice rang out in the silence, stilling the three kids.

"Please tell me when Luffy was allowed to start dating?" He interrupted eyes pinning the young swordsman with a look.

'Dating!? Luffy? No... he would have told us, are you sure? I thought for sure that he was more like you in that regard.' Shank's voice was a mix of horror and confusion, so it was only natural for Mihawk to sigh lowly.

"He takes after you apparently," Mihawk explained and he could see the smug smirk on his husband's face. He resisted to the urge to close his eyes in exasperation in favour of watching the kids before him grow confused and for the young swordsman to blush.

'Really now?' The humour was loud and clear, and the message received. 'A swordsman I take it?'

"Yes!" Mihawk snapped, giving into temptation at the smugness. "One who aspires to beat me. He challenged me before I could even introduce myself!"

Laughter echoed through the denden and all three of the Strawhats watched with wide eyes, each sharing a look of confusion as they watched the sudden breakdown of a fierce warlord that Zoro had told them about. They had no clue what was happening, who was laughing or why he was here for Luffy.

"Hey!" Zoro snapped through gritted teeth, the growl low and annoyed.

'Was that him? He sounds angry, just like you!' The voice laughed and it seemed to echo with others.

"He is broody, rude, green hair and carries three swords, nothing like me!" The tone was sharp and only caused his husband to laugh harder, which in turn only caused Mihawk to grow angrier. He should have stayed on Kuraigana Island instead of agreeing to this, he shouldn't have been swayed so easily. Oh who was he kidding, there was nothing Mihawk wouldn't do for his idiot - loss of dignity be damned - nor would he give up a chance to spend time with his son.

'So how did this make you feel Hawky?' Shanks finally got out once he was able to settle down. 'Sounds like you may have found a protege in this swordsman.'

Mihawk blinked slowly his mind flipping back through the last hour of meeting the young man before him. There wasn't a moment where he could not see that the young swordsman was not actively looking for threats against his crew members, even whilst drinking, hand always at the ready to draw.

He admired the fact that his dream was to be better than him, that he even had the gall to state as such when Mihawk had countered many pirates with decades on them who couldn't even look him in the eye. He could admit that he was even more impressed over how protective this Roronoa Zoro was towards Luffy. How he knew where Luffy was even when he wasn't near and Mihawk couldn't even tell or know if this upstart even knew what Observation Haki was.

"I would approve if this wasn't making me feel weird," Mihawk admitted after a moment, scowling as the laughter started again. "Oh, fuck yourself, Red."

'Now, now, Hawky, no need to be so...' Shanks trailed off as the smirk on Mihawk's face translated across the snail.

"Our son definitely takes after you, Red." Mihawk started as the idea struck, making his grin grow wider which unsettled all of them. Mihawk was known never to smile, smirk yes, but smile? no. "Perhaps it would be prudent to bring him with me, you can see for yourself how... like you... he is."

The smile on the denden that had been there since the call was answered suddenly vanished, dread flashing across the line. Mihawk's smile dropped into a smug smirk as it finally caught up. Shanks understood now. Luffy was grown, he had found himself a boyfriend and was no longer the young boy they raised.

A chuckle escaped Mihawk, more of a soft wheeze, as he hung up the denden, eyes locked on the swordsman before him who paled and braced himself. "FATHER!" Luffy screeched as he flung himself across the small open water into Mihawk's embrace. "What are you doing here!? Gramps didn't send you again, did he? Have you met my crew?"

"Luffy, what have we told you about slingshotting yourself across the open water? No Garp did not send me, it's time for our yearly family dinner and I have come to collect you. Yes, I have met your crew, I quite... like your swordsman." Mihawk replied as he scruffed his son who went limp in his grasp, a bright D grin on his face.

"To not to but when I saw the Hitsugibune I had to come quick!" Luffy explained unashamed. "I didn't think the dinner was so soon! Is everyone going to be there? Where is it? Oh but... we can't leave I have to work off my debt and there is still the other issue of Nami being forced to work for Arlong! We have to her! Nami's my navigator and he makes her sad!" Nami spluttered as she was called out, her eyes widening and horror welling as Luffy spoke. How did he know? How could he know? Her eyes flickered to Usopp and Zoro and saw they were just as confused. Everything about this was confusing.

"You have a week and a half to complete this task then." Mihawk instructed as he placed Luffy back on his feet. "Then all of us will be waiting for you at the twin capes. It is Ace's turn to host all of us, Davy Jones help us, so if this takes more time than that and I have to come fetch you then I shall be disappointed."

Luffy nodded sharply, face set in seriousness, hat-tipping low to cover his eyes. In times like these, Mihawk sees where his influence shines through and he couldn't be prouder. Plus, nothing motivates Luffy more than a time limit.

Mihawk turns away to leave, "I will pay off the debt, your treasure fund can pay me back. Be sure to bring your crew with you, nothing like trial by fire to see how they measure up. Oh, and Roronoa Zoro? Tomorrow at dawn, I will test you myself, be ready."

With that, he disappeared back into the darkness of the night leaving Luffy alone with his crew.

"Luffy?" Zoro asked once he heard the footsteps vanish. "What was that?" The question set Usopp and Nami off as well, only earning laughter in reply.

"Ah! Mihawk helped Dad raise me and my brothers, he's my Father! We have a big yearly dinner with everyone cause there are lots of us and we can only do it once a year, I didn't think it was so soon! And Nami I knew 'cause the ocean told me so!" Luffy replied with a shishishi hands coming up to cover his laughing mouth sheepishly.

Zoro dropped into the chair, hand going for the sake he was drinking before Mihawk showed up. "Why didn't you tell me when we started dating that Mihawk was your father? You knew that I wanted to beat him, to kill him."

"Ah! Cause it is Zoro's dream and who am I to stand in the way of that!" Luffy replied simply. "I want to be the pirate king and the Pirate king can only have the best at his side! I swore to surpass Dad and I will."

Usopp and Nami followed Zoro in drinking, neither one knowing how to reply to all that.

Though something did niggle at Usopp. "Hey Luffy? Who is your dad?"

Luffy looked up, cheeks stuffed with meat he pulled out of nowhere. "Oh! Shanks is my dad!"

"WHAT!?"

Some AU where Shanks raises Luffy and Mihawk gets involved if only to see that Luffy makes it into adulthood in relatively good health, because he's apathetic but doesn't approve of infanticide, and then years later when Luffy goes off by himself it circles back around to the duel at the Baratie, (Mihawk got sent over to round Luffy up for a family dinner) except instead of agreeing to Zoro's challenge, Mihawk pulls out the bluetooth and asks Shanks exactly when Luffy was allowed to start dating? And that no, it's Shanks that Luffy takes after. Yeah. Some brooding boy who's a swordsman. Yeah. He's got green hair and three swords. And I'd approve if this wasn't making me feel weird. Oh, fuck yourself, Red.

[fluffydisneyprincess]

Training Session

I was looking forward to this training session. With my magical skill being a little more potent than my peers it was decided to keep me separated while I learned to weaponize it. At first it made for easy bait for flirting, but I wasn't in the mood for it today. My jaw still ached and I could still taste blood from last night.

Superior said nothing as I shucked off my jacket and rolled my shoulders. There was the faintest trace of concern in his eyes which wasn't surprising. He was the only person to see me still covered in blood last night. Even if the bruise had faded a bit, he knew how bad it had been only hours ago. I swear on every Gift on this miserable planet that if he goes easy on me I'll just murder him.

"We're starting with physical sparring," he announced without looking up at me. His attention was wholly focused on adjusting the glove on his left hand. Did he think hiding it would make it less obvious?

"Excuse me?" I snapped harder than I should have. "If I wanted to just spar with someone I would have picked that egotistical ass making comments earlier. You're supposed to be training my magic."

"We'll get to that," he said finally looking up at me. "First I want you to hit me. As hard as you can."

"Is this about last night?" My blood was starting to boil. The taste of my own wrath was acrid on my tongue and yet I couldn't force it down. Did he really believe I couldn't defend myself? What did he take me for, some stupid damsel?

"It might be." He shook out both arms and both crystal blue eyes locked on me. "What would you do if it was?"

He was trying to stoke my anger. Dimly, I was aware of that. Maybe he just didn't believe I would give it my all if I were in a good mood. Mauve he knew if he passed me off enough I'd stop asking questions and just do it. I grit my teeth and pulled my fist back before feeling the temperature drop.

"If you try to use magic I will freeze you to the floor," he warned so casually I nearly ground my fangs dull.

I took a swing as hard as I possibly could and without so much as blinking he shifted out of the way. Another swing and he deflected by knocking my wrist away. He was amazingly quick. How could a human be so fast? It made me feel frustratingly slow and weak. So much of me was locked behind that gods forsaken seal. The thought only made me angrier and soon I wasn't just trying to hit him. My leg swung out to try to catch him in the ribs when he caught my foot and twisted me off balance. I hit the floor with an angry snarl.

"Just as I thought. You rely entirely on your magic to get you by. Should you find yourself in a situation where you can't use it you'll be powerless. Completely helpless." He crossed his well muscled arms, looking down at me like I was a child that had disappointed him.

I was ready to burst. I had speed, strength, and so much power it would boggle his annoying human mind. I just couldn't get to it. Was this really worth it to stay here? At least in Hell I'd be able to be myself. I wouldn't be looking over my shoulder all the time. I'd be among people like me.

But Nessa would never see Hell, and neither would Aunt Ley. Even this absolutely insufferable ass of a superior... That was what I was hiding for. Not for the first time I wished there was a way I could have the same both I had grown up with.

I took a deep, calming breath, and forced myself to get to my feet slowly. If he wanted a fight then fine. I would fight. I would anything if it meant staying here.

"You've calmed down," he noted approvingly. A lopsided grin sparked to life on his lips. He took a loose stance with his feet apart. "Now show me what you can really do."

[bravewolfvesperia]

He wished he could explain. Wished he had time to warn him properly. Even for Yuri, it was almost insane how quickly everything in the world just went completely haywire. Things were normal for a while at least, aside from the constant fear of never know who was next on Vision Central. That was just the norm though. Other than that, Yuri's life had been normal. Average. Things were fine until... Van happened.

When Repede nudged him, he looked back at him for a moment, a small sigh leaving him and he nodded. Repede was right and he knew that, but walking away like this was just... difficult. He knew Repede understood, but they all knew Yuri getting noticed here did none of them any favors. Rather, it could just end up getting them all killed.

Flynn's apology could have broken his heart though if it wasn't already basically broken. Yuri had already lost so much of himself that was hardly recovering around Kanata's group. It was nothing compared to what he was before. Flynn probably noticed it too... how everything about his demeanor had reshaped itself for survival and reality.

"It's okay. All of this has been... a lot." They both knew why he cried. Yuri might have felt the same way if he had as well, and eventually he would, even if only out of frustration. Their entire situation just felt like... a lie. In some way, it almost felt like it was just there for people's entertainment. To watch some supposed criminal just try to keep living and struggling all the time. To see who else suffers in the meantime who knew him.

Maybe he did need to leverage with Jade. Not only was he important in his military, but he was also technically in opposition to the side that was... rampant with these things. Yuri didn't know much about Gadel, but he was at least aware he was to blame for Aegis' sin being completely made up. For all Aegis insisted he had committed at least a sin of sorts, it was nothing worth the lie he was being put through.

Even if Flynn was partially joking, Yuri still gave the smallest nod in understanding. He was still right. If they met, Flynn couldn't risk his position or his entire life by associating with him in front of others. Some soldiers might be understanding if they knew he was an old friend, but most of them would only give him so long to "steel himself" and "get over it". They would likely only leave him to a grieving period - not a chance to explain the truth.

Still, he knew he had to go and sighed again, almost as a means of bracing himself to be able to leave. Being condemned was difficult and painful, but taking him away from his life - Flynn and the Lower Quarter - was even worse. His hand reached for Flynn's as he leaned back toward Flynn for another, this time brief, kiss. "I love you too. Always." It had taken everything left in him not to choke on his words. It was too late for that. He had to leave.

He gave the longest glance he could before turning around, patting Repede's head to let him know it was time to go. Repede answered with a quiet bark and followed Yuri down the alleyway. Yuri stopped only briefly to look back at Flynn, not saying a word; no expression on his face that remained before he rounded the corner.

He wasn't sure if he was angrier than he was sad. Angry that this had to happen in the first place. Yuri had been angry enough to kill before, but seeing the effect a single condemnation could have on so many others was a lot more than aggravating. Yuri's life hadn't been the only one ruined and nobody cared. None of the masses cared about the others who lives were in danger now just for associating with him. Just for knowing him.

This all started because of Kasque, didn't it? No matter how much he blamed Van, if Van was just working for Kasque, he needed to skip right over Van's head and go for her. Kanata and the others were doing that, but they weren't strong enough yet. None of them were. They needed to be. If Yuri was going to kill anyone, it had to be her. If Van got in the way, he would just have to go down too.

Whether it was a lie or the truth, Flynn didn’t know nor did he care. Just hearing Yuri was enough to give him some spark of hope to cling to in his mind. As long as Yuri said those words, Flynn could pretend that Yuri was definitely going to come home one day. It was such a strange way to fool his mind but he knew he could trust Yuri and his strange ability to survive, even the smallest of odds.

Even if Yuri were lying about his promise to make Flynn feel better, Flynn had a feeling that it didn’t matter too much. Because Yuri was Yuri and his friend would find a way to make it through alive, even if it seemed entirely impossible at the moment. He wasn’t sure who Yuri’s new friends were and he definitely didn’t have the time to ask but he just had to trust that these friends would help Yuri along this path he had taken. 

Meanwhile, Flynn would have to assist from a distance. Though he wasn’t too sure what he could even do from Zaphias, not to mention he would have to leave the city occasionally as well. Thinking back to their long term goal… To get rid of the vision orbs and Vision Central… He could always start from there. Research their origins, find connections and maybe even research the Goddess as well.

Though even if he found anything, there was no guarantee that he would be able to give the information to Yuri unless they were able to meet up. And him leaving to go search for the other would be entirely out of the question for a multitude of reasons. But he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, could he? He had to have something to offer Yuri for when they inevitably meet up again. (Because they would, wouldn’t they? It seemed impossible that this would be the last time they see each other.) 

So, he would have spend what little free time he had researching the topic of the Vision Orbs and of the Goddess Kasque. Carefully, of course. The last thing he needed was someone to catch him looking into the matter and getting suspicious about Flynn’s sudden interest in the topic.

At the mention of the twins, Flynn is suddenly caught off guard by the sudden topic change as Yuri wiped at his face. “What…? Twins? I don’t… think I’ve ever come across them…?” As he speaks, he notices the worry on Yuri’s face and whoever these two twins were, they were already filling Flynn with a sense of dread.

If Yuri looked this worried and was needing to bring it up to warn Flynn in the middle of their goodbyes, it must be serious. But did Yuri know this first hand? Had these twins hurt him in some way? Tricked him? Were they dangerous? Flynn had too many questions to ask and not enough time for any answers. For now, if he were to come across these twins, he would probably just have to opt to avoid them if possible. It would be nice to know what he was dealing with but they did not have the luxury of time.

Repede wanders over and lets out a tiny whine as he bumps his head against Yuri’s leg, ears pushed back as he glances back over to Flynn for a moment. Repede… was right. They were spending too much time here and it was only a matter of time before one of his knights came back and found him still hanging around the alleyway. He could only cover for himself for so long. 

“I have a lot of questions about… well… everything but… But Repede is right. We don’t have time.” Flynn’s chest began to ache again as he moved his hand to dry his tears. “I… didn’t want to cry. How embarrassing…” 

A weak laugh escapes him. This wasn’t how he ever wanted to see Yuri off. How could Yuri find the strength to do any of this after such a depressing goodbye? No, Flynn had to do better than that. To salvage this the best he could and, despite his red eyes and tear stained cheeks, see his most treasured friend off on a good note. With a smile. 

Reaching over to cup Yuri’s cheeks in both of his hands, he leans forward and kisses him one last time, short and gentle before mustering up the biggest smile he could make in these circumstances. It was shaky but he hoped it would be enough.

“When we see each other again, I hope we’ll have enough time to actually sit down and have a talk about everything. If you come across me while I’m with our Knights, we may have to pretend to be enemies for both of our safeties but just know I wouldn’t do anything to actually hurt you… Badly, anyway. I know you’re perfectly capable of taking a few hits from me. And vice versa.” 

He offers another tiny laugh at his poor attempt at a joke as strokes his thumb against Yuri’s cheek. “You should go… We’ll see each other again soon. I love you.”