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overly-b · 4 years ago

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Say It Again - JJ Maybank

In which JJ questions if he is deserving of you and your love.

Warnings: swearing, sad JJ, fluff, awful editing don’t come for me

Word Count: 3.5k(whoops)

Author's note: this is my first time writing in so long, be gentle with me friends. I know that a lot of people have done similar prompts of JJ feeling undeserving of love and the reader helps him through it, so this is a little bit unoriginal but, this is my take on it.

Bold italics is a flash back.

Thank you to @maybe-maybanks to the late night inspiration!

not my gif

As you, Kie and Pope approached the yard of the chateau, it became undeniably clear that JJ had gone off the rails with extravagant spending since you had seen him last.

“What did you do JJ?” Pope questions the boy sitting in the hot tub. Looking at you through his sunglasses, he smirks.

“I got a jet going straight in my butt right now” He ignores Pope. “Y’all, should get in here immediately, you hear me?” His sentence slurs slightly. “Salud!” He toasts his plastic champagne flute in the air, but opts to take a swig from the bottle in his other hand.

JJ scans the faces of his three friends, eyes lingering at yours a moment longer than Kie and Popes.

You see, just days ago, after getting arrested, then beaten by his father, JJ found you, and poured his heart out, to find that you shared his feelings, and the two of you started seeing each other in secret.

Being that it was a secret, the two of you had yet to put any kind of label on it, but you loved that blonde boy to the ends of the earth, despite what had happened earlier that day.

“You know what, that's exactly what I’m gonna do. Go off, by myself.”

You watched as JJ began walking away. Pope attempted to stop him, but Sarah and John B had halted his efforts. You stood silently fuming at the actions of the boy you had such strong feelings for. How could he be doing something like this? This wasn’t the JJ you knew, had been friends with for years, and were now in love with. Though if you were being honest with yourself, you had loved him for years prior.

“JJ!” You seethed, shaking off John B’s attempts to hold you back from running after him. He was already a good distance away from the group, he probably couldn’t even hear you yelling, so you started speed walking. It soon became apparent that he was simply ignoring you.

“JJ!” You were merely twenty feet from him, screaming at his back. “JJ stop!” His strides continued.

“You were real quiet back there princess, finally decide to comment?” You stepped in front of him, shoving his shoulders to force his walk to a stop. “What the fuck Y/N!”

“What the fuck me? What the fuck you! What has gotten into you right now JJ what are you doing?”

“Nothing has gotten into me Y/N I’m simply paying back what I owe.” He states, trying to walk past you.

“By stealing the money from the drug dealer that just jumped us?” Your brows raise as you interrogate him.

“He jumped us, he has this coming.” He nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders, succeeding in getting past you, as you stand shocked by his words.

“JJ you and I both know that you’re not that goddamned stupid.” His steps slow, he stands still. “Stealing money from a drug dealer? JJ I know that you owe money because of Pope but this isn’t right! You’re better than this-”

“Am I?” He turns on his heels to face you again, this time squaring his shoulders to be purposeful in standing tall over you. Him standing over you made you feel small in comparison to the raging blond. “Am I better than this?” He repeats his question.

“JJ what are you-”

“Because I’m starting to think that you, and your high standards, and your perfect life, only think that I am better than this because you want me to be better than this.”

You knew what he was referring to. You were by no means a kook, but your family was financially stable enough to afford a nice house, you had your own car, and if you wanted, you could afford to go to college on the mainland. Your life was unlike most lives on the cut, but JJ knew that your life was far from perfect.

“What the hell-”

“And that if we’re gonna be together, you need me to be better than this so that I can fit in with your life.” You had no idea what he meant. Your life was on the cut, with the Pouges, with him, and the difference of financial well beings of your familys never changed that before, so why was it now?

“What the fuck JJ stop-”

“Well you know what Y/N! I’m not better than this, this is who I am! I get into fights, I steal, I have a criminal record, when I get hit, I hit back this is who I am!”

“We both know that stealing twenty five thousand dollars from a drug dealer is never going to make anything better.” You attempt to reason with him. “This isn’t hitting back this is loading the gun that's already in your face!”

“Y/N I have to!” He spits. “I know you could never understand being in so much debt but this is my only option.” His words hit you like a punch to the stomach. He looks down to his boots before continuing. “So I’m sorry that I’m not what you pictured as a boyfriend, but this is what I do Y/N. Maybe you trying to fight it means you deserve better than me.”

And just like that, it was clear that he was more mad with himself then he was with you. However, everything that he said was uncalled for, and nasty, and he had no right. You watch as he storms away, even more tense than before, and you couldn’t help but wonder how this affects your newfound relationship. You blink away the water from your eyes, and do your best to compose yourself as you slowly wander back to your friends.

“How much did this cost?” Pope asks. Your head was spinning as he listed all of the things that he had purchased since he left you standing in the woods.

“Uh, well. With the generator, the petrol, and, oh, hey, express delivery,” You knew the answer before he even had time to speak. “Pretty much all of it, yeah.”

“All of it?” Pope exclaims.

“Oh my god” You whisper, mostly to yourself, rubbing your forehead with your palm.

“Yeah all of it.”

“You spent all the money in one day?” “Yeah burned a hole right through my pocket.” He confidently explains. “But, I mean like come on guys, look at this!” The tone in his voice told you that he was holding back, it was alway his biggest tell when he would hold back his feelings. “Finest in jet based massage therapy, that's what they told me.”

The three of you are left speechless.

“Kie what? Can’t a man have a little luxury in life?” JJ still could not bring himself to look you in the eyes for more than a moment. “Come on, all this scrimping’ and scraping’” you notice his voice falter again. “I mean like, guys, we, you only live once. Right?” JJ finally locks eyes with you, and he reacts spastically, your dreaded look having the gravest effect on him.

“Y/N, stop, why are you looking at me like that?” He knew full well, but he was trying too hard not to show it. “I know that you’re mad about earlier okay, but, everything is fine now!” His voice was louder now, concealing the breakdown you knew was coming, sooner or later, here with the three of you or somewhere else. “Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat’s Ass come on.” He smiles, waving you to join him.

“The what?” Kie furrows her brows.

“The Cat’s Ass.” JJ smugly replies, proud of himself. “That's what I named her. Oh hey yo, I almost forgot,” JJ leans forward, pressing a button that makes water spray across the tub, and even more colorful lights flash in front of him. “Huh! Yeah that's right, disco mode, thats right baby!” His eyes scan yours, noticing that they were clouding with tears. He quickly looks away from you, not wanting to see the damage that he had done, and was still doing.

“JJ,” Your voice is low and hushed as you blink back tears.

“Are you kidding me?” Popes harsh voice overpowers yours, cutting off you and your tears. “You could have paid for restitution!”

“Or literally given it to any charity” Kie fumes at the sight before her.

“Guys,” You mutter, wanting them to stop being so hard on the broken boy you secretly called yours. You were mad too, if not more than Pope and Kie due to your argument. However, you could see straight through the smug grins and happy fasad that JJ was trying to project. He was hurting, and you knew it wasn’t just about the fight the two of you shared.

“Or better yet, you could have helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well!”

“Guys!” You spoke up louder this time, only to be cut off by JJ.

“Okay well you know I didn’t do that!” As JJ’s swimsuit clad body surfaces from the hot water, you are confronted with what you knew would be there, and the tears pour from your eyes. “I got a hot tub!” JJ shakes in what appears to be anger, but you know it isn't anger he's reeling from. “For my friends,”

Kie and Pope gape at JJ’s bruised abdomen and instantly connect the dots as to who is responsible.

“I bought a hot tub for my friends.” He repeats. “You know what, no, you know what, screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family.”

“JJ what the hell-” Kie gasps.

“I got this for you! Guys look what I did for you! Alright?” JJ spins and gestures to everything he bought. “Look at this!” When he turns back, he finds that you were no longer holding back the tears your eyes once held.

“Y/N stop being emotional don’t, don’t cry okay? I know that I hurt you before,” His voice fails him as he recalls the words that he said to you. “But I did this for you,” He hangs his head, he knows how bad he fucked up, and it was hitting him all at once that this was not the way that he needed to make things right. This was not the way back to you, and the high of his twenty five thousand dollar spending spree was dissapating at his realisation, and at the sight of you before him.

“I mean, it’s sweet right?” JJ hadn't even realized that as he began talking, you had climbed into the hot tub. He looks into your eyes for a moment as you stand before him, and lets out a sob as you gently wrap your arms around him. His forehead falls to your shoulder, and all of his pent up energy released in the form of tears and heaves.

“I’m sorry. Baby I’m so sorry.” He whimpers to you, only for you to shush him tenderly. Kie and Pope share a confused glance at the nickname. “I couldn’t do it.” You rub his hair and hold him close as he convulses. “I can’t take it anymore!” JJ wails, your tears land on his shoulders, and his tears land on yours. “I was gonna kill him!”

Kie is next to join you, jumping into the steaming water and embracing the both of you. Pope follows.

“I just want to do the right thing.”

“Shh, JJ, I know. I know” You coo him, trying to calm his weeping.

After minutes of holding him, Kie announces that she has to head home, and Pope offers to drive her. JJ rests in a nearly catatonic state in your arms, no doubt exhausted and knowing JJ, not ready to face the fact that he just broke down in front of his friends.

The pair leaves bidding reassuring words to JJ, and a few more hugs.

You are left in the hot tub, holding the blond boy as he clutches onto you. He wasn’t crying anymore, but his breaths were rapid and heavy as he was shaken, the events of the day had caught up to him in the form of you and your tears. He begins to spew soft “I’m sorry”s and other apologises, but his panic makes him stutter and his sentences start to lack direction.

You shush him and direct the boy to listen to your heartbeat, trying your best to bring his shattered thoughts back to earth.

“JJ, we should get out of the hottub.” You tell him, to which he simply sniffles and nods, unsure of how to speak to you after the horrible things he said to you, and his inability to form a proper apology. He knew that you were nothing like he had depicted, yet he said what he said, and there was no taking it back.

His skin was red from the overheated water, and it itched with chlorine, so as the two of you entered the chateau, you started the shower.

“You should rinse off the chlorine.” You told him, not sure of how to speak to him either. He followed your order and stripped of his bathing suit. You were able to track down clothes for him to sleep in, and as you waltzed back into the bathroom, you decided you couldn’t leave him alone in the shower.

Taking off your soaked clothes quickly, you slip into the shower to find JJ standing still under the water. You snake your arms around his torso, careful of the bruises pressing your chest to his back. His hands find yours he holds them tight. You place a kiss on his spine, then rest your head where your lips touched.

“I’m so sorry” He croaked, his voice was tired, worn out from the day.

“JJ-”

“No stop Y/N” He turns around to face you, grabbing your face in his hands. “I’m sorry. I should have never said any of those things about you, none of them were true, it's just that, its,” He stumbles on his words. You rub his back to ground him again, he takes a deep breath. “It's just that you do deserve better than me.”

“JJ please-” He doesn’t let you continue.

“No you do, Y/N you do. You deserve so much better than me, than this life, than what I can give you. You don’t deserve some, broken kid that's never getting off the cut, you don’t deserve, to, have to watch as I steal money from drug dealers, you don’t deserve any of the shit that I know that I put you through you just, you deserve better, better than someone who doesn’t come close to deserving you.”

The tears streaming down both of your faces mix with the water coming from the shower and you have no idea how to make his saddening speech stop.

“JJ” You sob, he pauses. “You deserve so much more, than what your life has given you. You deserve to be happy, you deserve to be loved JJ, you deserve everything that you want, why can’t you see that?”

And instantly you feel stupid for asking. JJ’s eyes wander and find the bruises littering his body, answering your question. You stifle another sob as your eyes graze his battered skin.

“Listen to me.” You demand his attention. “You are not worthless.” His eyes divert from yours as he realises what you’re referring to. “JJ look at me,” After a moment or two, his gaze wearily finds yours. “You are not worthless, you are worthy of love, and affection, and someone who takes care of you, and not only are you worthy but you deserve it too. Do you hear me?”

JJ swallows thickly, nodding in acceptance of your beautiful words. He embraces you tightly, having no words of his own. No one had ever made him feel like this. No one had ever made him feel worthy of the good that was before him.

He was hesitant to think that he deserved you. To him, no one was good enough to actually deserve you, especially not him. However your speech made him open to the idea that maybe he was at least worthy of your love.

Your love.

You both realised in the same moment that the word was shared between you. You had never shared the faithful declaration of love to each other since you had been together romantically, and yet now you had mentioned love twice in the span of thirty seconds. JJ smiled as he held you. You loved him, and this was one of the ways that you showed it.

“Let's get the chlorine out of your hair J.”

He let you massage his scalp with the shampoo that he's seen you use before to get pool chemicals out of your hair. He didn’t really know what it did or how it was different from other shampoos but, it smelled like you and he loved getting his head rubbed. His breathing was still shaky, but he finally felt some of his anxiety from the day wearing off. Fighting with you was something he never wanted to do again. Fighting with his dad was something he knew he would have to do the next time he went home. He elected to ignore those thoughts, as your fingers worked magic on his hair, seemingly drawing all of the negative ideas out of his head along with the chlorine.

As JJ rinsed his hair of soap, he noticed you reaching for the bottle again, no doubt to wash your own hair. He holds out his hand, wordlessly asking if he could wash your hair for you, like you had done for him. This makes you grin as you hand him the bottle. JJ then realises that he doesn’t really know how to do what you did for him. That kind of small, soft, intimate touching was foreign to him.

He squeezes way too much shampoo into his hand, but you pay that no mind. He starts slow, trying to remember the way your fingers moved on his scalp, but in the end knowing that he just wasn’t good at giving head massages.

“I used way too much.” He states, watching as suds continue to produce from your locks.

“It’s okay.” You hum watching the bubbles disappear down the drain. “I set out clothes for you when you’re ready, I’m probably gonna be another minute” You tell him, referring to the other bottles you had in the shower that you still had to use.

“Okay, thank you” He kisses you as he exits the shower. You finish up quickly, wanting to be next to him, and hoping that his thoughts as he sits alone don’t carry him away like they had before.

You find that he left his tee shirt for you, like he had on nights before. You wear the shirt that smelled of him along with a pair of comfortable running shorts and head to the spare bedroom of the chateau that JJ called his most nights.

You spot JJ sitting at the edge of the bed, waiting for you. You slowly and carefully climb onto his lap, straddling him and holding his head close to your chest. You notice anxiety still radiating off of him.

“Hey,” You start softly. “It’s okay, everythings okay-”

“I love you” He states bluntly as he picks up his head from your chest.

“What?” You stumble, surprised at his outburst.

“I love you, and I want to be with you, like, publically, or whatever. I wanna tell the Pouges and-” before he starts rambling, you stop him.

“I love you too JJ.” This pauses him.

“Say it again.”

You giggle, but inhale, knowing that he needs to hear it.

“JJ.” You start. “I love you.”

He lets out a breath you didn’t realize he was holding, eyes watering for the millionth time.

“I still don’t think that I deserve this.” He admits, looking into your eyes with his crystal clear blue ones.

“You do.” You push his hair back from his face. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you that you do.”

He was hesitant to accept everything that you had said to him that day, but he never doubted that you would give him your all. This was all he needed to know before he allowed himself fully over to you, kissing you with more desperation and love than ever before.

“I love you so much.” You muttered into his lips, and from that day on, you would say it again and again, as many times as he needed to hear it. A constant reminder to him that he was deserving and worthy of good, of love, and of you.

Taglist: @maybe-maybanks @myrandom-fandomlife

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oldjane · 3 years ago

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👻🎃TRICK OR TREAT 🎃👻

“Oh, Joe,” Booker says, sounding way too casually to actually be casual. “You coming to the bar tonight?”

Joe hadn’t planned on it. Nicky was supposed to have a rare Friday evening off, and Joe had really been looking forward to spending the night in with his boyfriend, but Nicky had just sent him a message.

Amore, Nile is throwing a surprise party for Quynh before she leaves on her trip. She didn’t invite me sooner because she assumed I’d have to work, but it would be nice to get to say goodbye. Would you mind terribly?

Joe sighs. He hasn’t had a chance to meet Nicky’s friends yet, but he knows Quynh is going on a trip around the world or something, planning to stay away for a year at least. And Joe can empathise with saying good-bye, since his co-worker Andy has just left the firm for a similar trip. So he cannot deny Nicky this opportunity, can he?

“Sure,” he says to Booker, not paying attention as he texts Nicky back.

Of course not, hayati. I’ll go have a drink with Booker, then. Be safe and see you tonight.

He follows Booker out, and they walk to their usual pub. Joe’s trying to look forward to an evening of handing out with Booker, talking about football and ribbing each other about the other guy’s team’s losses. Nicky doesn’t really care for football – except when Italy plays. He’ll mope for days if they lose, but Joe handles it stoically, because when they win, Nicky likes to celebrate with some truly inspired, mind-blowing sex.

“Hey!” Booker punches his side. “Are you even listening to me? I’m saying Feyenoord should never have even gotten into the UEFA League, they’re clearly the weakest team in there.”

“Oh, right,” Joe says sarcastically, putting thoughts of Nicky aside. “I’ll bet you 50 euro they make it to the next round unbeaten.”

“You’re so on, bro,” Booker says, ordering another round.

“Thanks,” Joe says as he tips the bottle against Booker’s.

“Oh, I can afford it,” Booker replies loftily. “I got a nice, crisp 50-euro bill coming.”

To be honest, he’s probably right. Nicky would tut at Joe for betting against the house, but, truth be told, Nicky loved a good wager just as much as Joe did. Only, between them, they didn’t bet money. Sometimes, they bet household chores, but more often there were other prizes to be won.

“I might as well not be here,” Booker sighs dramatically. “Christ, Joe, am I really that boring?”

“Of course not,” Joe hastily says, mentally shaking himself. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I asked if it’s okay if my girlfriend stops by,” Booker says, as if it’s no big deal, but the way he ducks his head tells another story. He blushes faintly.

“Bro!” Joe claps him on the shoulder. “Of course that’s okay! Why is this the first I hear of a girlfriend? I’m so happy for you!”

It’s the truth. Booker has not had it easy, after a nasty divorce in which his ex spread vicious lies about Booker to get not only all his assets, but also keep Booker’s sons away from him. In the end, Booker had won the trial, but it had made him wary about love, and way too cynical for his own good. In all honesty, that’s really the only reason Joe hasn’t brought up Nicky yet. He didn’t want to make Booker feel bad. But if he’s serious about this new woman… Joe feels his heart lighten at the thought. Maybe they can all go out together one day.

“Well, it’s – new,” Booker says bashfully. “We’ve been on a couple of dates, but it’s going really well, Joe. She’s so vibrant and lively and I don’t even know what she sees in me, but…” He shrugs self-deprecatingly. “Anyway, she said she’d come meet you.”

“That’s amazing!” Joe smiles widely. “What’s her name?”

“Nile,” Booker says dreamily.

Joe smiles at his confident friend being so clearly in love. It’s a funny name, though, Nile. Coincidentally, Nicky’s friend is also called –

“There she is,” Booker says excitedly, waving at a pretty woman with a mass of dark braids. She’s waving back elegantly, rather more dignified than Booker, but her eyes light up when she spots him. Good. Joe would have hated for Booker’s crush to be one-sided.

And then Nile steps closer, and she’s gesturing at somebody to follow, and –

Suddenly Nicky is standing at their table. He’s looking good, too, and Joe is reminded he hasn’t seen his boyfriend since very early this morning.

“Hi,” Nile says brightly, holding out her hand to Joe. “I’m Nile. You must be Joe. This is my friend Nicky.”

Joe stares at Nicky.

“Uh, hello,” Nicky says, cautiously.

“Joe is a graphic designer,” Booker says with gusto. “But really he’s an artist. Are you interested in art at all, Nicky?”

“Oh, uh, I –”

“Oh, he is!” Nile replies in Nicky’s place. “It’ll be a nice change from what he usually gets, though, right, Nicky? Nicky is a paediatric nurse,” she adds, presumably for Joe’s benefit. “And a damned good one, if I say so. The kids always love you, don’t they, Nicky?”

Joe’s eyes flit from Nicky, to Nile, to Booker, and back.

“Anyway!” Nile says a bit too loud when nobody reacts to her words. “Booker, can you come to the bar with me? I won’t be able to carry all the drinks.”

Joe and Nicky stare at their friends’ retreating backs bewildered.

“I thought you were going to a farewell party for Quynh?” Joe says stupidly when Nicky turns towards him again.

“I thought so too – I mean, we did meet with Quynh, but not for long – what’s going on here?”

“Apparently your friend Nile is Booker’s new girlfriend,” Joe shrugs. “That’s all I knew.”

“She was really insistent I come along...”

They look at each other, and then –

“Are we being set up?” they both chime in unison, incredulously.

“Oh, damn,” Joe says, and Nicky shakes his head.

“See, this is why I don’t talk about my private life to Nile.”

“Imagine if you had, though. Who knows who Booker would have tried to set me up if you hadn’t been an option.”

Nicky stares at him, clearly unimpressed. Joe stares back, a challenge on his face. And then they burst out in laughter.

“Santa Maria Madre di Dio,” Nicky hiccups. “I’m being set up with my own boyfriend.”

Joe wheezes. “Wanna swap me for your newest set up, babe?”

“Well,” Nicky manages between pelts of laughter. “I guess we might as well give them what they want. Or at least, I might take what I want.”

He leans over and kisses Joe soundly. Joe doesn’t hesitate a moment, and before long, it’s probably a bit too deep and passionate for a public space.

But it’s all worth it when they hear the shocked gasps of their friends as they come back with drinks.

Nicky tears himself away from Joe with some difficulty.

“Booker,” Joe smirks. “Meet my boyfriend, Nicky. He’s interested in art, did you hear? Especially when I draw him in the nu-”

Booker holds up his hands, and Nile actually shrieks.

“Oh, god,” Booker says when everybody is past the first shock, and they’re all seated in the booth, with their right partners by their sides. “I gotta hand it to you, Joe. You should have bet on this, could have made you a pretty penny.”

“That’s fine,” Joe says. “I accept bad luck in the game. I already hit the jackpot in love.”

Nicky rewards him with a long kiss, and Booker pretends to be grossed out by the sappiness, but judging by the way he looks at Nile, he might stop betting soon, too.

#I write things #The Old Guard #Trick or Treat #JoeNicky #Kaysanova #Halloween treat

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spiltscribbles · 3 years ago

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Prompt: remus and lily as siblings or half siblings or biological family in any capacity pls 🥺

Oh God!!! Baby!!!🥺🥺😭 This is such a favorite AU of mine!! I’m literally— sorta— writing a To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before AU right now and they are the bestest siblings in that!!! They share a little sister and they are just so cute!! And Petunia is conveniently off in university oaiwefjoiaswejfiogreghoij And I just love Remus and Lily both so much it hurts!!! And so I wanna spit out a bullet point Ficlet at you! And I’m not even sorry just because I love you so endlessly for tossing this into my inbox foiwaeifmkaeoirfgjieoarujoidkioweajgh

So like in my head, becs that Voldy bitch doesn’t know how to actually world build, the Muggle born children who get their Hogwarts letters, are also invited to join this like support group for ordinary folks with magical children. It’s like a thing that’s held in the Ministry of magic over in London once a month, and the parents are taught about the Wizarding world while their children kind of go to this separate room to intermingle and read Hogwarts; A History with one another, and just vibe, because pure bloods and those close to that have always sorta known one another and such, so this is a nice way for the Muggle borns not to feel so excluded.

So the thing is, obviously Lyall was a wizard, but also we all know I don’t fuck with him lmfao. So I picture that after he leaves for the final time when Remus is around nine, and finalizes the divorce with Hope, she— being the bad bitch that she is, just marches to the ministry with her half-blood, werewolf son, and demands to learn everything about the world he’s part of, because she refuses to let him be deprived of anything.

Eventually she becomes one of the tutors for the adult section because she’s such a quick study— being a professor herself back in Cardiff and just being an all around bombshell tbh. So one day, in February of 1970, there’s this ginger haired, northerner who stumbles in with his daughter who looks so much like him that it’s crazy— dimples and smile and upturned nose. Though she has her mother’s eyes, who had past away when she was only seven from a freak car accident.

And when he first shake’s Hope’s hand, he’s like kind of mind boggled over how beautiful she is, and thinks that maybe all wizards just put on some sort of charm to look unearthly, till he finds out that she’s as Muggle as he is towards the end of his visit. And he is just entirely love struck tbh.

And for the next couple months or so, he kind of just yearns from afar, and then spends the ride home to Cokeworth listening to Lily’s excited chortling about her friend Remus who’s apparently a half blood and who likes the same treats as her and knows how to draw things so amazingly, and it isn’t until like May, when he ambles to the other room and realizes that Remus is actually Hope’s fucking son, and he already knows that she said she began this group after separating from her husband who was a wizard himself. So Lily’s father— Nate— quite literally just shoots his shot and asks if Lily would like to get ice cream with her new friend since Petunia won’t be coming back from there Grams’s house till late, and Hope sorta smirks from over the kids’ heads because she sees exactly what he’s doing and is impressed that he’s finally done something for fuck’s sake.

And like obviously they fall hard for one another, and they probs get married like Lily’s second year at Hogwarts.

Wait, just Lily’s you ask??

Yes my beautiful duckling, because plot twist!! (We lovee plot twists!!!)

In this AU i picture that McGonagall kind of visits during the summer months leading up to the children’s first year at Hogwarts, just to give them some supplementary readings and answer the questions for their future schooling, and when Dumbledore tells her about Remus’s full situation with his lycanthropy and all, she does some research, and figures out how Beauxbatons is much, MUCH more accommodating to “dark” creatures, and she’s already pretty chummy with Hope and knows that she’s actually a French citizen herself, the daughter of Algerian immigrants. So Remus technically has the possibility to attend Hogwarts or Beauxbatons, and so Hope and Remus talk on it long and hard, and she knows he’s already become fast friends with Lily and their thick as thieves with one another, but it’s also just so much safer for him.

So the week before Lily is set to go off to King’s Cross, they fly over to France and they get Remus settled in his dorm abroad.

I think while they’re away, Lily and Remus actually somehow become closer, because their parents are still dutifully dating and neither of them are all that familiar with their surroundings, so they send one another so many fucking letters through that first term, that the owls of their schools always give them the dirtiest looks lmfao. And they really catch on like a house on fire, like it’s one of those relationships that is just innate? Like you know when you have a best friend you guys kind of just slip into one another lives? Like even when you don’t talk for a while or whatever, it’s just natural<3 <3

So neither of them ever spend the hols of winter or spring in Hogwarts/Beauxbatons, becs that’s when they really get to vibe.

They tell one another the different cool charms they’ve learned, and hate that they can’t show them with their actual wands yet. And they watch all their favorite films and almost adopt this secret language that’s only the quirk of their brows and twitch of the lips, and Petunia hates how freakily attuned they are with one another and sneers at them for being such freaks in all aspects. Also in this AU Lily fucks off from Snape wayyyy sooner, because instead of having to deal with that nasty, bigoted, slime ball she has the cutest and funniest and most amazing bestie in Remus!

And before Hope and Nate exchange vows in the winter of their second year, the little family of five go to this tiny park that’s all lush grassland and a shiny jungle gym and a pair of swings tucked away by trees, and they sit at this picnic table, and Hope— with her steady, ever buoyant voice, explains to them why she and Remus decided to send him to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts, and Petunia is like gawking in fright, and Nate looks sort of distressed, but Lily just cocks her head and shrugs her shoulders, because it’s still Remus— her closest companion Rem— and nothing could change that. So she takes his hand from where it’s fiddling with a splintered piece of wood on the tabletop and she squeezes it tightly, watches him glance up at her with the late summer wind billowing in his tawny curls and the fear in his honey eyes, and she simply tells him that it doesn’t matter. And Lily will never forget the way his features spasm at that, going suddenly loose and bright and thankful, and then Nate probably tousles his hair and kisses Hope’s temple and shyly asks how they should accommodate once they move in with one another.

And that park becomes sorta special tbh.

It’s in that alcove with the swings and trees where Lily and Remus go when things are becoming too much, or they would just like to escape the world by one another’s side.

It’s where they tried their first cigarettes that Remus had gotten from an older bloke in Beauxbaton’s when they were thirteen and feeling adventurous. And where they go to listen to the releases of their favorite albums, and when Remus told Lily that he’s gay for the first time before leaving to both their fourth years and it’s like one of those spots they both think of and feel golden.

Oh God! Imagine how cute of a celebration that Nate and Hope hold for them both becoming prefects!!! Hope and Nate definitely insist on some sort of summer todo! And they invite their friends and all that jazz and OMFG what if Lily’s wearing some sorta powder blue sundress that matches Remus’s oxford shirt and they both are grimacing in all the photos and are just not thriving foieajfoierjgiearfoijsdkgxh But like they would be doted on rotten that whole day! This is so cute! OMFG! And this probs means James became Prefect as well and so Remus gets to tease her when he sends her some sort of congratulations letter and she’s totally blushing and trying to hide her grin, and Lily retaliates by kicking his ankle tbh bahaha

Okay also now I’m thinking of like Lily’s like fifth year, and her Muggle studies class is doing some sort of seminar to see if these idiots can actually survive in a totally Muggle area without a lick of magic, so like it’s spring hols, and guess who she’s partnered up with???

Cookies for you because we all know she had to work with James and Sirius lmfao!!!

And she’s totally still trying to hide her crush on James— who’s nearly always leering and winking her way— and she might actually punch Sirius’s face simply because he’s such a smug bastard, and being from a working class family like herself, she’s like always ready to fight preppy rich boys tbh

So James and Sirius decide to plan out the simulation in her house that’s right outside Cardiff and Remus is cackling the entire morning before they’re set to arrive because she’s so pissy about it lmfao

Okay so like obviously the boys end up taking the port key and land in front of her place and it’s Remus who answers the door, still painted with humor because Lily was just screaming about “if Potter brings that insufferable snitch here I’ll bloody shove it up his arse” and James is immediately on the defense because Lily’s only ever talked about her sister and brother who live with her at home, and this dude is golden where she’s pale and has curls over her straight hair and just, obviously they’re not related by blood at all. And for his part, Sirius is like *Oh! Oh! Oh! Pretty!!! Pretty boy!! Muggle boy? Pretty Muggle boy!*

But Remus obviously knows who they are straight away, so he like waves them inside before rounding to the stairs and calling for her to stop clogging the toilet or something else mortifyingly embarrassing, and Lily promises to put like pickles in the next set of face masks that they do because she knows how fucking allergic he is to them, and she wants her chuckles damn it!!

“Potter— Black,” is how she greets them with a derisive sort of glower that Remus can completely see through, so he has to excuse himself while laughing over to the kitchen. “You’ve met my delightful brother I see.”

And James’s entire posture relaxes and he’s back to grinning like a dope, and the only weird part is that Sirius has got on the very same face, *Pretty Muggle boy is Evan’s brother* So like they are both scary levels of elated, rip.

But sucks to be Sirius because Remus leaves after that to meet up with a friend from town who’s also the best dealer tbh, and so he has to deal with James’s awful levels of flirting with Lily while they scrounge up their itinerary to send their professor for the seminar type thing, and he doesn’t even have a pretty distraction XS

But Lily does force Remus to come along with her on the trip to London because “On God, if I spend a day alone with those bellends by myself I will punch a wall”

And it is literally the worst, but best double date/first date that’s full of Sirius and James fucking up with everything— including asking some poor Tesco employee where are their fudgeflies and giving a homeless man a hand full of galleons and James’s snitch somehow ending up in the meaty hands of some kid at the tube. But also tbh it’s hella cute when Lily lets James give her his jacket when they’re walking along the Thames and it’s getting chilly, and when Remus lets Sirius share his stick of cotton candy and they both sorta stare at the sugar on each of their lips.

But then they go to some tiny museum, and while they’re looking at a impressionist piece, Sirius is totally trying to show off to Remus and is explaining how he could turn the bench their sitting on into a really nice bouquet of Lupins, and in the middle of his stupid showboating, Remus lightly corrects him on some facet of Gamp’s law, and Sirius freezes— shocked still— and he’ sort of gaping like an idiot, before Lily stops his blustering with a scoff “He’s a damn wizard also you arse.”

And Sirius is floundering for the rest of the evening, and he has so many questions, but they all die on his lips every time he glances over at Remus and he’s just smirking at him with this electric glint in his golden eyes

So obviously when they’re back at Hogwarts he pesters Lily every second of every day about Remus, and why he’s not at Hogwarts. “None of your fucking business.” And asking where Remus goes instead. “Beauxbatons, thankfully far away from you.” and he asks her about a thousand other questions that Lily either scoffs at or simply cuffs him around the head for daring to even try getting his address.

And she pokes fun about the situation to Remus and tells him how much more of an idiot he’s acting like, and how hilarious it all is. And she’s shocked when he responds to her letter merely by saying, “Hah- he’s cute.”

And so obviously she shoots back a reply that’s a letter of all his worst traits, mainly that he’s an arrogant toerag, and that he’s a posh idiot who could probably live off his inheritance for three lifetimes without blinking, and about how he doesn’t date anyone for longer than a couple months, and how he’s practically brothers with James bloody Potter, and yet again, Remus just tells her, Hah- he’s cute, before mildly moving to talking about his latest charms paper and how he’s been asked to be their DADA’s professors TA next year, and how Andrew keeps trying to try again with him but Remus would rather poke his eyes out with a spork.

So Lily is totally fuming when she recognizes that she’s lost and begrudgingly gives Sirius Remus’s info, after telling him lowly and with her most menacing glower, “IF you fuck around with my brother I will murder you without a flinch.” And she’s quite literally five feet nothing to Sirius’s broad, six-foot frame, but he knows that she could do it with a snap of the finger, and he promises that it’s not just a gag on his end. And Lily actually believes him.

So Remus and Sirius begin writing to one another a sickening amount, like so steadfastly that it gives Lily a complex whenever she finds Sirius waiting at the Owlry every Wednesday morning for the bird that arrives with two letters tied to it’s leg, one for each of them.

And God, one time, right before they let out for summer hols, Lily accidentally takes the one marked for Sirius— and holy christ!!!, She did not need to know just what exactly her brother has been getting up to in the sex department of things— like she legit contemplated using a memory charm on herself JFC

And Sirius probably ends up on their doorstep again in late July, with James at toe, and somehow their is a small harmony painted between the four of them, and it’s by Christmas of sixth year when James and Sirius begin talking about how amazing it’ll be when they’re actually in-law brothers, and Lily blames Remus for everything when she’s pretending to be cross over it, but then James puts his arm around her shoulders, and she sees how gentle Sirius is when he twines his fingers into Remus’s own, and it feels good, feels right.

It feels like something that can be forever.

Send Me A Prompt/Chat With Me💜 | My Wolfstar FIC Masterlist

#WOLFSTAR #JILY #REMUS LUPIN #SIRIUS BLACK #JAMES POTTER #LILY EVANS POTTER #LILY EVANS #MARAUDERS #WOLFSTAR FLUF #THE HARRY POTTER SERIES #HARRY POTTER SERIES #HEADCANONS #HEADCANONS BY LEN #spilt ink

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savathuns-pyramidscheme · 3 years ago

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Smoke and Retribution

-Tell me, would you be so forgiving if Crow carried more of Uldren with him? Would you still accept him?-

Peregrine-3 had not responded to this. Had not spoken thoughts she knew would only enrage the slighted Queen. Knife's edge as the situation was, and with Savathun listening always listening, what could her answer possibly offer?

Nobody seems to understand this, airing their grievances like nasty laundry on open channels, for any and all to hear. Lost all their damn sense.

There is so much Peregrine wants to say, and cannot. Not until Savathun is dealt with. Not until it's safe.

'Crow, I have something you need to hear. It's...not pleasant.'

'Mara, Petra, if you talk about him like he's the scum under your boots one more time I swear to Light I'll...'

'Osiris, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry I didn't see...'

'Crow... Uldren... It doesn't matter. Whoever he is, whoever he chooses to be, however he wants to be called, however he wants to behave, to believe, to... I have his back.'

Would I forgive him? Would I accept him?

The truth is the time for this introspection had long since passed. Peregrine had spent her years running as fast and as far as she could from the vision she'd witnessed in Mara's throneworld.

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

Uldren, risen?!

A hoax. A little twist of the knife in her wound from a Queen who can't even see her brother's victim as a person. Surely...

And if not... If it were true and that peacock had gotten a second lease on life then...what? He's not her responsibility. She's not the Hunter Vanguard, not mentor to every new light that shines.

If she just ignores it, it won't be an issue.

If she just ignores it, she won't have to think about the morality of it. Won't have to ponder culpability. Won't have to ask herself 'what would Cayde think?'. Nothing, he's dead. Cayde-6-feet-under doesn't get a say anymore, does he?

Uldren's got his Ghost, he'll be fine on his own. Not my problem.

Don't make him my problem.

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

Running had obviously done no good. For either of them.

She is the reason he exists in the first place, and she'd neglected her duty to him. And he'd paid. Paid so, so dearly for a sin that wasn't even his. The astronomical debt she owes him is one she will owe til the end of her days.

-Tell me, does Crow cling to you with the same blithe disregard that Uldren did with me?-

She's responsible for his wellbeing whether she wanted to be or not. And she does want to be, now that she knows him. Stubborn, snarky, sweet Crow. Wants to see him become himself, whatever that entails. Wants to guide Crow the way those journals guided Cayde...wants to see him be a good man.

She doesn't know whether or not that makes her just as bad as Mara.

Can I forgive him? My forgiveness is pretty moot, now, dontcha think?

Peregrine-3 speaks aloud to the quiet of her apartment, chuckling bitterly, alone. Even her Ghost is absent. "If Crow carried enough Uldren in him to matter, I'd probably be dead."

She regrets saying it as it leaves her mouth. The clock on the wall tisks tisks.

"I've gotta be better than this." Setting her coffee mug in the sink, she leans heavily on the cool marble countertop, grateful Nolan had gone out to his Ghost bookclub for the evening. Perry shrugs on her coat, grabs keys. Datapad in hand she types out a quick little note for her Ghost - {Heading to H.E.L.M. Need to work. No rush.}

The sooner we can get Sov's Techeuns, the sooner we can save Osiris. The sooner we can deal with Savathun. The sooner I can tell Crow the truth. And wait for the axe to fall

Evening blankets the Last City in a wistful, smoky haze of fog and streetlamp light. The Traveller presides over her trek to the interim Tower, its will an ever irritating enigma.

I'm doing the best I can, you know. I'm sorry if it isn't always enough.

I'm only human

That hasn't been true in ages, even before the Traveller picked her up, brushed her off, and tossed her into the fray.

It's become increasingly apparent to her over the years that she simply doesn't have the luxury of righteous fury. Zavala had tried and failed to impress that upon her, once, fists clenched and eyes simmering with hatred and grief. She hadn't appreciated the difficulty of that restraint at the time. She still feels justified in her actions, still feels the heat of glorious retribution in her metal-and-wire gut. Younger days, creeping through into the present, declaring their right to be felt.

The line is thin indeed.

Savathun had played them all for fools. Riven had puppeted masterfully both the Prince and the Wolf hunting him. A multilayer cake of wrongs and injustices far greater than the death of one man, and a pair of puppets who couldn't see it for the icing.

The matter was settled. Had to be settled. I'm sorry Cayde, that's as far as I can take it. It's done.There's no room for another Taniks.

The doors to the H.E.L.M's command room slide open. The room is quiet at this hour, save for the squeak of hatchlings up past bedtime in the adjacent hall. The Awoken guard nearby nods at her as she passes. Peregrine wonders idly if she's glad for the posting, far from the Dreaming City's curse.

Perry never uses the wartable. Scooching a disgruntled Frame out of the way, she logs into the terminal in an alcove, reviewing scout reports of Xivu Arath's force movements. It isn't an optimistic picture, but it never is really. She tries to wrap her head around the intricacies of the leylines, the reports on their condition written in near incomprehensible Techeun-speak.

A tap on her shoulder. She hadn't heard anyone approach. He's learning.

"Coffee?" Crow asks, offering a mug and peeking around her to read the screen. "I really don't know why you bother with this stuff; knowing the numbers won't change the fact we're gonna have to shoot them all anyway."

[It's a GOOD thing to be prepared, Crow.] Glint admonishes from his resting place on the top of Crow's head.

They're adorable

"I am prepared! I've got the Guardian and I've got you."

"Because we do the footwork." Perry elbows him softly in the ribs. "Wanna help me read through this shit?"

"Not even a little bit. Give me a sec, I'll grab some chairs."

As she watches him turn and jog over to the supply closet, Perry wants never wishes nothing more than a million nights like this. A million nights where his faith in her is justified. A million nights where he doesn't know how monumentally she's let him down, time and again.

She'll always have his back, but not his trust. She doesn't deserve it. Doesn't deserve him.

But that's a worry for tomorrow.

#destiny 2 #destiny the game #peregrine-3 #crow destiny #pre crow/guardian #my selfindulgent fics

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peach-the-owl · 4 years ago

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I am sorry but after this I need more Essek and child stuff. You can't just leave me hanging there. Give me home life with Essek and his now child. Vacation time! Fun time! I need everything please! The child reader getting like there first crush or something later on and he is like "That adorable, no." I just need some more please. Anything. I will love it.

The fic was great. I loved it. Please give me more serotonin.

Ask and ye shall receive! I know this took a long time to get around to finishing, but I rewrote the plot like 3 times or so until I got to this end result. With that I thank you for the patience and I hope it was worth the wait 😁

Worth

Essek & Child!Sorcerer!Reader

Getting to live with Essek was a quick and easy adjustment seeing as you already spent quite a lot of time in eachothers company. The only big change being to have to meet his mother and gain her approval, it was honestly very nerve wracking to meet the woman so you presented yourself to the best of your abilities. Essek himself was very nervous on the outcome but being on your best behaviour and displaying some of what you were capable of doing seemed to put you in their good graces and you were welcomed into Den Thelyss, much to Essek’s relief. The days went on as usual but you soon noticed the stress Essek was putting himself in from all the hard work he does day in and day out.

"You need a break." You blurt out unexpectedly one morning.

"Pardon?" He looks at you questioningly.

"You work so hard all the time, I think you need to take a break and we have a fun day just for ourselves." You say with a smile.

"You almost sound like my brother." He sighs, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Well he's right." Essek just gives you a playful side look, you just cross your arms. "Oh, please? You deserve it and we'd get to spend more time together without your job getting in the way. Come on, pretty please?" You quickly uncross your arms and look at him with big pleading eyes that you know by now he has a hard time saying no to. After a minute he lets out a quiet sigh.

"As much as I’d love say yes, you and I both know my position wouldn’t allow it." You pout a little but give a small nod, he was right but that didn’t mean you had to like it. The days went on and more work started piling up for Essek were it would now cut into any personal time or any teachings he’d normally have with you, Essek would also leave for long periods of time without telling you where or why. You grew worried, after everything you went through in hopes of spending more time with him it was like none of that mattered anymore, making you feel like you didn’t matter anymore.

You started to try and take your mind off of things by studying in the library but let’s face it, you can only read books for so long before you start to feel restless and need to do something else for entertainment. This leads to you focusing more on practicing with your own magic, if there was one thing that you thought could help prove you're still worth Essek’s time it was magic. Of course this didn’t suddenly stop the work load the poor man had but it kept you occupied at least. However you were starting to develop a nasty habit of overexerting yourself, you having figured since Essek worked so hard all the time you could do double as much seeing as you were a sorcerer, ending the day feeling extremely exhausted with several glowing runes appearing on your skin.

This went on for some time and slowly it was starting to take a toll on you until one day it all came crashing down at once. You were practicing both offence and defence with a soldier who agreed to help you with practice, saying they also needed more of their own practice against magic users. You were feeling a little lightheaded but brushed it off, thinking nothing much from it, you’ve been lightheaded before so if you ignore it it’ll go away by itself. It didn’t go away, it just got worse making you become unsteady and everything was starting to spin around you. Your visions blurs and you suddenly topple to the ground, only making out moving shapes and the muffled sound of someone frantically calling your name before you lose complete consciousness…

When you manage to open your eyes again you find yourself back in your room in bed, looking over you see a nice bowl of soup on the little bedside table, still warm and waiting to be eaten. You sit up to enjoy the meal knowing time and effort was put into it before carefully climbing out of bed to make your way out of your room. You decide to head over to Essek’s study room, figuring he’d probably be working in there, you enter and sure enough there he sat a book in hand. Upon hearing you enter he almost immediately closes the book and places it down, that was certainly the fastest you’ve seen him redirect his attention before. Neither of you say anything right away, Essek just stands from his chair and hovers over to you, scooping you up into his arms and makes his way to sit down again.

"Mind telling me what exactly was going through your mind when you decided to give me a heart attack?" There was some firmness to his voice with genuine concern laced in.

"I-I don’t know." You fidget with your hands a little trying not to look him in the eyes.

"Yes you do (y/n), so please just tell me what’s wrong." He lifts your chin up making it so you look at him, seeing your glossy eyes, a few tears already sliding down your face.

"You work so hard and are so busy all the time you never have enough time for me anymore. I thought that now that I get to stay with you we’d have more time to play or at least teach me more about magic, but instead it’s like you now have less time for me. I just, I don’t know, thought that if I work as hard as you do you’d see that I'm still worth your time. But I guess I was just being stupid." You duck your head down from him again once you’d finished your little rant.

"You are still young and still developing your abilities, pushing yourself like that isn’t going to…" He trails off and you hear a sigh come form him, feeling his grip on you tighten a little. "I blame myself for this," you stare at him confused but let him continue. "Had I known my actions would lead to you doing this to yourself I would’ve done something sooner, I should’ve done something regardless. I suppose I have gotten so used to having you around I began to see you less as my student and more as simply a new constant in my life." He pauses and places a hand to his forehead, shaking his head in disappointment at himself. "I let myself go about the day by day blindly without considering how it could effect you and because of this I was neglecting you." He was the one to look away from you now, resisting the urge to let any tears fall.

"Hey, it’s okay." You try to comfort.

"I don’t think it is, I haven’t been treating you the way you deserve to be, made you think you had to prove something you didn’t. Of course you’re worth my time, you’re worth much more to me then I ever could’ve imagined possible and I let you down. I am so terribly sorry." He looked so defeated, like he was now the one thinking he wasn’t worth your time. You reach up and give him a comforting hug, feeling him tense slightly before returning it.

"I know you’re not perfect like you try to be for everyone." You start, nestling yourself into his chest more. "But that’s okay, you don’t have to be for me. I like you as yourself, and that’s what matters. Still would like to spend more time with you though." You mumble the last part but he still hears you giving a small chuckle.

"Tell you what, I’ll talk to the Bright Queen about getting myself a free day, like you once suggested or at the very least compromise to have less work on my plate and more time to teach you. How does that sound?" He gives you a small smile, you give him a bigger one in return. With that he tries to stand but you let out a small whine in protest, tightening your grip on him a little. "I thought you liked the idea." He gives you a slight confused look.

"I do, but you can do that later, don’t go yet, please." You give him your big eyed stare, it didn’t take long for him to agree this time. You curl yourself up against him more as he soothingly brushes your hair back, the calming motion eventually putting you to sleep.

#critical role #critical role & reader #mighty nein #the mighty nein #essek thelyss #essek & reader #nothing romantic here

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afairytalestray · 4 years ago

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The Deutabella Family (1)

So a while back I thought about sharing some of my Cats headcanons (extended editions) here, and since then I’ve been trying to compile them all into a document, which feels more a bit like herding unruly sheep. But I finally finished part 1 of many more to come :) So here’s my headcanons for the Deutabella family! All hcs in this little series will be pre-canon, if we accept the musical as the present day canon, if that makes sense. It’s basically my take on the characters’ past. Pls enjoy! (they won’t all be this long probably) (masterpost here!)

Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella are former mates, who had Macavity, Munkustrap and Tugger together. They got together and became mates at a young age. At that time young Old Deuteronomy was a lot more like present-day Tugger than Munkustrap. For a while they were happy, but when Old D became the tribe leader he had less time to spare. He changed a bit when he took on the leadership role, becoming more serious and less free-spirited and Griz became lonely. She never really had a lot of close friends within the tribe, she never really felt like she fit in and she always had big dreams of fame and fortune outside of the Junkyard which her peers just didn’t get. She always liked attention, but with her mate so busy all the time she begins to crave it in a less healthy way. When she wasn’t performing and basking in the limelight, she became sullen, withdrawn and moody.

Things got better for a while after she had her kittens. She never let go of her dreams of fame, but she had a distraction, somewhere to direct her restless energy. First came Macavity, then 3 years later Munkustrap, then Tugger 5 years after that. Grizabella loved her kittens, but gradually her brooding moods began to come over her again. Her dissatisfaction with her life grew and grew, and so did her itchy feet and panic that she was wasting her best years. The thought that she’d never be anything more than Old D’s mate eventually became unbearable to her and one day, not long after little Tugger was born, she snapped. She packed her bags and left with only the briefest goodbyes. Later in life, this lack of full farewells/explanations would be what haunted her the most. She didn’t mean to be cruel or to hurt anyone, she was only thinking of herself and her own happiness.

Old Deuteronomy never realised how neglected she felt until it was too late. He never meant to hurt her or make her feel alone, but being the tribe leader had taken over a lot of his time. A gap had slowly and subtly been growing between them, but he didn’t notice how truly bad it had gotten until she told him she was done. Grizabella’s departure sent their whole family into a tailspin, and none of them dealt with it really well. Old D felt it strongly, their strained mating bond began causing him pain, and he missed her dearly. Once she left there was a hole in his heart, one that no one else could ever fill. He felt guilty for pushing her away, and for his children losing their mother. Although he tried his absolute best to keep it together for them, he felt horrible and weak all the time, and thus withdrew a lot to try and shield them from it. This sure did not have the effect he wanted.

Little Tugger basically never knew his mother, and grew up only ever hearing how terrible a thing she did from the other adults and this was only ever countered by Macavity. He was raised by the tribe and so grew up with a great deal of respect for his father, but never had a particularly close bond with him until later on. He was closest with his two brothers, Macavity in particular. Tugger loved Macavity’s magic, especially how he could levitate him so high it felt like flying and then drop him and catch him in his arms. Munkustrap, bless him, was a bit of a wimp (once a stressed-out worrywort, always a stressed-out worrywort) who never enjoyed the “dangerous” games, but always seemed to end up having fun after being dragged along. As he grew, Tugger was caught between the tribe and Macavity. While the tribe was generally negative about Grizabella (although never to his face they avoided talking about her and brushed him off, never said anything more than “she did a bad thing”), Macavity would talk about her all the time and tell him how great she was and how when she came back for them she’d be a big star. However as time passed, Macavity began to realise his mother wasn’t coming back, and that began to push him down a dark path.

Macavity gradually went off the rails after Grizabella left. He had been his mum’s little star, and was the closest one to her. Griz was always very supportive of Mac, and adored the magic tricks he could do when his powers began to show. Unfortunately (and unintentionally) she leant on him a bit too much. Mac always wanted to spend all his time with her and not with the other kittens his own age (he knew she was lonely) and she let him, and as a result he never really learned how to interact with his peers or form any real friendships. He learned how to put on a fake smile and act at his mother’s knee. Griz would often vent to him; although he never quite understood how she was feeling, and he understood it as being with the Jellicles made her sad. When she left, he blamed his father and the tribe for it and began to grow angry and bitter, which would build until the events of the day of his banishment.

Munkustrap was the first one to see the change in Macavity. Tugger hero-worshipped his oldest brother, but Munkustrap was always the responsible one of the three. He saw that Macavity’s smiles had turned to sneers, that his jokes became more cruel than funny, that his little tricks became nasty. He saw that whenever Tugger went to play with Macavity he’d return worse for wear, but never thinking anything of it. Other adults wrote it off as the result of typical kitten rough and tumble play, but in truth Macavity began to bully Tugger, take advantage of his trusting nature and take his bad moods out on him (under the guise of “helping him grow big and strong”), but Tugger wouldn’t realise this until much later. Of the three of them, Munkustrap was the closest to his father, his natural maturity and steady/calm nature being a comfort to Old D, and he brings his concerns to him.

Old D could never acknowledge that Macavity had gone dark and evil, but he did recognise that a huge gap had grown between him and his son. He immediately began trying to bridge it, but he was never able to get through to Macavity. He tried really hard, but his eldest was too far gone, and threw all his efforts back in his face. Macavity, as the eldest, was supposed to be Old D’s heir, but the two always ended up arguing, and Mac would always end up yelling how Old D had neglected Grizabella and pushed her away and that he was the reason he no longer had a mother. The more Old D tried to reach out to him, the further away Macavity got. He began to push his magic deeper and darker, shirking his duties and lashing out at other Cats. Eventually he went too far.

One morning not much later, Old Deuteronomy named Munkustrap his heir. Macavity had become too unstable for the job. Macavity didn’t take this well. That afternoon he snapped, and when Tugger came up to play with him, he magically threw him away so hard he crashed through a large pile of garbage and was badly hurt. Munkustrap went ballistic, and he and Macavity got into a massive fight before Old Deuteronomy stepped in and physically separated them, and banished Macavity.

It broke Old D’s heart to banish his son. He spent some time with his younger two and successfully managed to salvage his relationship with them (loving, although still somewhat distant), but once Munk was fully set up as the heir he began spending less and less time in the Junkyard. He feels guilty for not seeing the signs sooner, for not listening to Munkustrap, for allowing Tugger to get hurt, and the pain of losing both his mate and now his son, too.

Tugger ended up blaming Grizabella for Macavity’s fall - he knew that her not coming back hurt Mac, and maybe if she had none of this would have happened. This was the first time he really felt alone and abandoned since she left. He barely knew her, but Macavity had adored her, and Tugger connected his upset about his brother with her. His relationship with Munkustrap also went downhill after the latter was named heir, and wouldn’t see improvement for a long time. Macavity would continue to try and hurt Tugger after his banishment; whenever he attacked and caused havoc in the Junkyard, he’d send visions and voices to scare his youngest brother, which leads to Tugger’s current knee-jerk reaction to run and hide whenever Macavity makes an appearance.

Although he had never developed any real relationships with other Cats his age, Macavity was a master of lies and manipulation. On the day of his banishment, before she knew what had happened, he convinced the kind Demeter to feel sorry for him and to elope with him. He paints a picture of rejection and sadness that he was passed over for Munkustrap, lying by saying that Munkustrap turned on him when it happened, telling him to leave, and that he feels so scared and alone and that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He tells her that she has always been so kind to him and that he has fallen in love with her. In reality he doesn’t give a crap, but he knows that Munkustrap has secretly been in love with her for ages but was always too shy to tell her. Demeter, unaware of the attacks, feels for him and agrees to the elopement. She was always a shy queen who never felt as pretty as her big sister Bombalurina, and so was overwhelmed by Macavity’s carefully constructed flattery. Bomba falls for it too, to an extent, and follows to protect her sister. However, by the time they realise the truth of what Macavity is, they’re both trapped in his web. They’re both his prisoners, and stick together as much as they can. They try to come up with plans to escape back to the Jellicles, but aren’t able to manage it until they’re joined by another one of Macavity’s tricked captives, a young tom just out of kittenhood, Mistoffelees.

#so this got really long I'm so sorry #once I got started I couldn't stop #cats the musical #my headcanons #deutabella #Old Deuteronomy #Grizabella #Macavity #Munkustrap #the rum tum tugger #Demeter #Bombalurina

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sproutsgcrden · 3 years ago

Text

sentinel of naruhata | chapter two

mr. nice guy

warnings: graphic descriptions of violence, one short scene implying sexual harassment (non-graphic), manga spoilers for my hero academia: vigilantes

word count: 3383

previous chapter | masterlist | read on ao3 | next chapter

want to be tagged? send me an ask and let me know!

If someone had told Koichi that he would get jumped, well, he may have believed them. That’s not too uncommon, especially around Naruhata. And it really wouldn’t be odd if it happened to him specifically. He just had that kind of luck. However, if they had also mentioned that a nine-year old would jump in and save him, he’d be a bit skeptical.

He honestly didn’t know if he quite believed what he had witnessed. One moment he was about to get hit by a guy he had managed to piss off earlier in the day, and the next some kid had shown up seemingly out of nowhere, threatening to steal his attacker’s quirk. Koichi didn’t think that was possible. Sure, there had been copying quirks, and erasure quirks were rare, but a quirk that allowed a person to take another quirk? That didn’t seem right, at least, it didn’t seem too entirely possible. A quirk is an integral, unique part of each individual- there’s no way somebody can take that, right? He could be wrong, it wasn’t like he was studying quirk theory.

As soon as the kid hightailed it out of the store with his strange assortment of items, Koichi knew he’d been in for it. He had already been late to work today because of the whole fiasco from earlier. He didn’t mean to run into Spiky Dude- it had just happened! Yeah, maybe he shouldn’t have been using his quirk in public, but he was running late! And then, of course, Spiky Dude just had to show up at the same convenience store Koichi worked at, and had to rough him up on the same day he was late. His manager was already absolutely pissed, and Koichi really didn’t want to stick around any longer than he had to in fear of a lecture, or something worse.

Luckily for him, he was nearing the end of his shift by the time Spiky Dude had entered the store, and the kid had helped him waste a lot of time due to the insane amount of items he was purchasing. All he had to do was clock out and sneak out of the door, which should be fairly easy. After punching out on the system and closing the register, Koichi grabbed his bag and began to get ready to leave.

“Haimiwari.” Koichi closed his eyes in disappointment, sighing before turning around with a fake grin.

“What can I do for you, sir?”

The angry tapping of the shoe really should have been enough warning, in hindsight.

------

The streets of Naruhata were busy for the late hour, not too unusual but it was something that Koichi didn’t want to bother with after the night he had. Of course that stunt had gotten him fired. Perfect. It wasn’t like it was his fault! He was the victim in all of this! What, did his boss really think that he wanted to get dragged into an alleyway and get beat up? Koichi grunted as he walked around a slow-placed couple. He would have to find another job and fast. Rent was coming up, and he still had payments due on his tuition. His left hand adjusted the strap of his backpack while his right passed over his face. This was too stressful to think about right now.

There was something he knew he could to help take his mind off of things for a while. Koichi’s eyes narrowed in determined concentration. Yeah, tonight was a good night for that.

------

The wind rushed through Izuku’s loose hair, tousling it beyond fixing. It felt wonderful, racing across the rooftops of an unknown city in the dead of the night. He was barely let out of his room and the training hall on good days- he could never hope to leave the confines of Kurogiri’s watchful eye. Which, unfortunately, meant that it was a rare opportunity to go outside… ever.

Izuku let out a harsh giggle, letting it echo in the air with a wide smile. He had never felt so free.

Slowing to catch his breath, Izuku pulled a wrinkled, old notebook out of his bag. Skimming through the pages, he stopped on the last entry he made. When researching Eraserhead, it wasn’t that hard to find out that the underground hero mainly patrolled in the Narahata Ward. However, it was a bit more difficult to find out specific times and locations of his daily patrols. He assumed that it changed quite frequently due to Eraserhead’s cryptid-like nature, but it was still frustrating to not know exactly where to find the hero. Especially since he wasn’t aware how much time he had before Tomura caught on to where he was.

However, Izuku did have a few locations that seemed to be promising. Most of them were hidden back alley’s, which made perfect sense. A majority of petty crimes took place during the day- they were a beacon to spotlight heroes, those who lived off the praise and popularity from civilians. But the nasty, evil villains? Oh, Izuku knew from experience that the worst of the worst were always found in the dead of night. Underground heroes always had to be on their toes, and it spoke volumes to Eraserhead’s vigilance that he’s remained pretty much untouchable and unnoticeable to those who wished ill intent.

Pulling up the map on his outdated phone, he inputted the first location he had written in his notebook. The specific alley was only about three blocks away. With a manic grin, Izuku pulled up the hood of his jacket and let Enhance swim through his veins once more.

------

The discs of air underneath Koichi’s palms lit up with a familiar burst of light, making the nineteen gleefully chuckle. The feeling of his signature All Might hoodie snugged tight over his torso provided him with an unexplainable comfort, as did the plain black mask covering the lower half of his face.

Koichi was inexplicably known for his plain nature at college (save for the rumors that said he was some creep that tried to lure girls into abandoned buildings. He really was just trying to make friends!), so it wasn’t like anyone would expect him to be the vigilante that ran around Naruhata at night.

Well, he supposed the word “vigilante” was a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn’t like he sought out and fought criminals, he just used his quirk to get around a bit faster and help out the common man. Koichi lost out on his chance of being a hero a long time ago, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t help people when he had a bit of free time. As Mr. Nice Guy, he was able to get a glimpse of what he had dreamed about being his entire life.

Koichi zoomed through the lit up streets of Naruhata, providing directions to the lost, helping find missing items, and picking up bits of random trash. Everytime he received a “thank you” his eyes lit up- it was nice to be appreciated sometimes. The chorus of grateful civilians echoed within his mind as he continued to do good deeds throughout the night. After a few hours, he found himself moseying down a side road in hopes of heading home.

“All that do-gooding sure does make a guy thirsty.” He slipped down his mask, mumbling mostly to himself as he readjusted the straps of his bag.

A water bottle was thrust in front of him, followed by a peppy voice. “Here ya go!”

Koichi took the water bottle without thanking, shouting a quick “thank you” to whoever handed him the drink. And then, once he realized what had just happened, immediately did a double-take. Wide eyes looked over to the side of the road, only to see a young girl with pink, puffy pigtails staring at him with a bemused smirk.

“Pop Step?!” Koichi straightened his posture. “What are you doing here?!”

Ignoring his question, she began to walk out in front of him, hands stuffed in the pockets of her jacket. “So… you’re the guy picking up trash around town?” Her hand went to frame her cheek in wonder. “What’s your name again? Cockroach Guy?”

Wide, admiring eyes became downtrodden in an instant, an annoyed glare taking their place. “It’s Nice Guy!”

“Whatever! You’re the one who alerted me to the fuzz during my show, right? I wanted to say thanks, somehow!”

Koichi was the one who let her know the police were coming when she was performing her illegal street show earlier in the day. He didn’t care much for her music, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see her get arrested. Either way, he wasn’t sure why that provided an excuse to essentially stalk him. “So, you’ve been tailing me all day, huh?”

“Yup! I saw you almost get pummeled by those customers while you were working at that convenience store! I probably wouldn’t have stepped in either way, but wow! You were lucky when that little kid showed up, huh? Gotta admit, Cockroach Guy, that was pretty lame!”

“I don’t do well with violence, okay!” Koichi felt his eye twitch in annoyance; it was probably time to get out of this conversation before he lost his temper.

Pop Step’s face twisted with confusion. “Isn’t that dweeby hoodie supposed to be an All Might cosplay? And yet, you suck at fighting? That totally makes sense…”

“Sure, I look up to the guy. I wanna be useful to society however I can, just like he is! It’s got nothing to do with fighting! And the hoodie isn’t dweeby! It’s cool!”

“However you can?” Pop Step giggled, using her quirk to jump ust high enough to appear a little taller than Koichi. “So you know your place, at least!”

Koichi clenched his teeth in frustration, stepping around Pop Step to try and speed around her. “Stop getting hung up on the details! Knowing your place is important! If you keep playing at being some sort of pop idol, the cops will catch you sooner than later.”

Pop’s face scrunched up with a flash of anger, and if Koichi hadn’t had the night he had, he may have even been terrified. “Hey! I’m not ‘playing’ at anything! I’m the real deal!” She sped up, stopping in front of him as she pointed a perfectly manicured finger in his face. “You’ll just have to keep an eye out for the police! Also, I’ll need you to usher in my fans, set up the venues, and sell some merchandise!”

“Are you pissed off or hiring me for a job?!”

“Don’t you need one? Wouldn’t be surprised if you got fired after what happened!” Pop didn’t even take a moment to notice Koichi’s crestfallen glance towards the wall. “Anyways! If anyone can help me, it’s you- Know Your Place Guy!”

“Ugh. It’s Nice Guy!”

“Oh whatever!” Pop Step turned away from Koichi in order to run further down the alley, sparing him a glance backwards as she made her getaway. “I went through all of this trouble to express some gratitude… I didn’t think it’d be such a big deal, asking a ‘Nice Guy’ like you to do a little work to help a girl out!”

Koichi, good mood effectively ruined once again, went to bite back with a response. That was, until a familiar group popped into his view. He flinched as he saw Pop Step run straight into the leader, none other than the Spiky Dude who threatened to pummel Koichi into the ground just hours before. He could do nothing but stare as the group cornered Pop Step up against the wall, no doubt making her uncomfortable. Probably much more so than he was when he was in her position.

Now, if Koichi were a hero, this is when he would pull out all of the stops. He would crouch low to the ground, speeding to the men terrorizing the young girl and knocking them all on their asses. He would make sure he sped Pop Step to a safe location before coming back to make sure those bozos got arrested like they deserved. But, Koichi wasn’t a hero. And he would never be one. What could he do? His quirk was essentially useless in a fight. The only thing he was good at was running away.

But didn’t he have a duty to try and help? After all, if he couldn’t find the strength to help a young girl in this kind of situation, how could he try to help anyone else? With shaky legs and a determined glint in his eyes, Koichi bent low to the ground. The familiar pulse of his quirk activating below him provided little comfort, but he knew he had to push through this fear and go.

Mask pulled up, Koichi flew against the dirty pavement, locking eyes onto one of Spiky Dude’s lackeys. Now, if he could just get by unnoticed this time, he could knock this guy off his game and get Pop out of there. But of course, things never go Koichi’s way. That’s his luck.

The man caught him, large physique towering over him. The small tuft of flame acting as his hair cast an eerie shadow against the ground. “Well, well, well… look who we have here! Hey, boss! It’s the cockroach from earlier!” Still holding onto the back of Koichi’s hoodie, the large criminal threw him against the wall.

The pain of his head hitting against the rough edges of brick didn’t compare to the spikes slashing against his cheek.

“That annoying brat ain’t here to save you this time.” Spiky Dude’s eyes seem to glow in the dark night, and Koichi couldn’t ignore the sinister feeling pooling in his gut. “You ain’t getting away with just a small beating this time. I’m going to crush you. And I’m gonna enjoy it.”

The spiky criminal stalked closer to him; Koichi’s eyes immediately latched onto the blood dripping from the thick barbs protruding from the knuckles of his enemy. Shit. Shit. What could he do?! He really was going to die. Koichi shut his eyes in gruesome anticipation, hoping that at least Pop Step was using this opportunity to get away. A rush of air flew past his nose, and he blinked slowly. Looking up, Koichi locked eyes with Spiky Dude. The skewers had vanished from his knuckles, and the same, pale look of absolute petrification the criminal wore earlier in the night was on his face once more.

“Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t going to warn you next time?” The familiar voice of the kid that had stepped in during Koichi’s earlier encounter with this group echoed through the street, venom and animosity clear as day in his tone. Even Koichi shrunk into himself in fear. His wandering eyes latched onto a figure leaning down from the rooftop above, All Might hoodie bright against the black of night.

“I was looking for Eraserhead, but maybe I can do his job for him tonight and knock you fucker’s out.” Holy shit, what was up with this kid?

Koichi had noticed earlier that the kid had bright green eyes, but they seemed almost electrified, bright green sparks lighting off in his pupils as his glare deepened. He jumped off the roof, floating just above the ground before he hit it at full speed. His hand was held out, and Koichi glanced at the numerous scars stretching against the palored skin.

While Spiky Dude was distracted, Koichi took the opportunity to get back on his hands and feet, and forced himself to crash into the lizard looking man that was still holding onto Pop Step. She used the momentum from Koichi along with her quirk to jump out of the way and out of the alley. In his happiness of the fact that Pop was able to make a getaway, he wasn’t able to stop his momentum. Koichi ended up crashing straight into the other wall, the force of it knocking out the criminal he held tight in his grip.

“There’s no need for that!” A deep, grudd voice echoed from the other side of the street, and before anyone could react, a large fist connected straight into Spiky Dude’s nose. “The name’s Knuckleduster. And it’s my job to take out the trash like you.” Koichi barely even blinked, and the next moment the other tone was conked out right beside the leader.

What the fuck was happening?!

------

Izuku sighed in relief as he felt the rubber band snap against the quirk he held in his grasp, sending it back to its original owner as some random old man knocked him out. He didn’t want to steal a quirk, but that dude really wasn’t going to give him any choice. Luckily some geezer showed up before he could make good on his threat. He watched the man with a careful stare, seeing as he checked each of the criminal’s tongues before standing back up. His red sneakers crunched against the pavement as he lowered himself back to the ground; he walked towards the cashier he met earlier and held his hand out for him to take.

The man sitting across from him scratched the back of his head in a sheepish manner, choosing to take Izuku’s hand in order to get back up. “Uh, suppose that’s twice you’ve saved me, huh kid? We really have to stop meeting like this.”

Izuku chuckled, nodding his head in agreement. A cough sounded behind the two of them, and they both turned around to find the old man staring straight into their souls. Knuckleduster’s bandana covered his entire head, including the top half of his face, only leaving holes to see out of. His black trench coat was grimy, not to mention ripped on the hemlines. Everything about this screamed “homeless old man”, even down to the gritty way the man seemed to fight.

Izuku couldn’t help but think the man seemed familiar.

“You take quirks or something, kid?” The man’s eyes narrowed, his already gruff voice deepened.

“No! I don’t take quirks! I was just playing a bluff, really!” Technically, Izuku wasn’t lying. He hadn’t ever willingly taken a quirk before. “I have an erasure quirk! That’s why I’ve been looking for Eraserhead. I’m hoping he’s willing to train me.” Now, there’s the lie.

“Hmph.” Knuckleduster’s eyes stayed on Izuku a little while longer, tense silence following before he shrugged it off. “You both show promise. Gotta admit, when I heard about Naruhata’s newest vigilante, I wasn’t expecting him to have a sidekick.”

Both Izuku and Koichi stared at him in shock, making the old man laugh. It was a hearty laugh, scratchy and sarcastic. “People are gonna make that sort of assumption when you’ve got two kids helping fight crime in the exact same hoodie.” The two boys flushed, causing Koichi to shake his head.

“We just met today.”

“So? Doesn’t mean the two of ya don’t work well together. I almost didn’t need to come down here. If it weren’t for the threat of Trigger I probably wouldn’t have. Don’t know if it’s luck or not, but these thugs didn’t have a trace of the drug on ‘em.”

“Trigger?” Izuku knew what he was talking about. His father was one of the main benefactors of the production and distribution of the drug. Or well, he was before he got forced into a coma. He had originally thought the distribution would slow after the underworld had found out about All for One’s current medical status, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

Knuckleduster waved it away. “I can explain that later. After you two accept my offer.”

Koichi paled, backing away from the crazy old man. “What offer?”

A sinister grin formed its way onto Knuckleduster’s face, making the duo in front of him back away even further. “Let me teach you kids what it takes to do hero work, and how great it feels to pound some villains!”

Koichi thought this man was absolutely insane and would only lead him to more trouble.

Izuku thought that he had enough training from the villains themselves.

They met each other’s gaze before turning back to Knuckleduster.

“We refuse your offer.”

#bnha vigilantes fanfic #bnha vigilantes #koichi haimawari #kazuho haneyama #midoriya izuku #afo is hisashi midoriya #midoriya has a quirk #midoriya has all for one #midoriya fanfic #deku fanfic #deku au #bnha au #bnha fanfic

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metalheadcowboy · 4 years ago

Note

tw mention of suicide.

that list you posted got me thinking (the one abt the nightmares and steve running into the forest). maybe he hasn't gotten any sleep in a week and hes so tired and confused and waiting/hoping one of the monsters come to end him, he runs out into the forest and can barely breath, ends up passing out from exhaustion and found a little bit later by joyce and hopper cause she thought she heard something.

Not sure if I should put it under a cut or not, so I’m just gonna do it just in case <3

Steve was exhausted.

He hadn’t slept in three days or just shy of it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to sleep, trust him, he did, but he couldn’t. Scared of the nightmares that laid just beyond the void of closed eyes.

He couldn’t think straight, and maybe that’s why he did it. Or maybe it was something he’d wanted to do for a long time and the delirium was the thing that finally pushed him over the edge.

One second he was looking out of his sliding glass door that led to his pool and the next he was running. Running fast through the dark woods of Hawkins, Indiana dodging trees and rocks, fallen branches and roots. The sounds of nighttime nature were loud, but his heavy footsteps crunching again crisp leaves were louder. Sure to attract any predator nearby.

He had to have run at least a mile before he slowed down, feeling light headed and dizzy.

“Fuck!” he screamed at the top of his lungs up to the night barricaded by the towering trees. He clenched his fists, hands shaky, same as his legs, weak with exhaustion.

In the distance he heard a howl, probably a coyote, but he couldn’t help but find himself wishing it was something different. Something bigger, something with a lot more teeth, something that could kill him in mere seconds if it wanted. And he wanted that, wanted one of those vicious beasts to come find him, wanted them to surround him, defenseless and too feeble to fight back. He wanted the relief, relief from his own mind, from the nightmares, from the intrusive thoughts always at the back of his mind, wanted to be free.

He started running again after a few minutes, after nothing happened, going to seek out something.

The more he ran the dizzier he got, but he pushed through it, not giving himself a break. His legs were burning like nothing he’d ever felt before, but it was kind of nice, nice to feel something when he felt so detached.

Before he even knew what was happening suddenly his legs just gave out on him, causing him to fall to the ground. Smooth dirt smeared all up his side, cheek getting a pretty nasty cut from a twig. He was panting like a dog, but not trying to get up, he had accepted his fate. He looked up through the branches and leaves to the stars, vision becoming more clouded and polluted by the second.

And just before everything went to black he couldn’t help but think. “This would be a pretty nice way to go.”

When he came to he wasn’t in the woods anymore, too comfortable for that to be the case, too warm. There wasn’t much noise as his hearing slowly faded back in, just the hum of something akin to an A/C unit then a voice-

“Mom, Mom! He’s awake!”

He would recognize that voice from anywhere, even if he was half out of it. Will Byers. His eyes opened and immediately closed again, clear distaste for the sunlight seeping through the window.

“Steve, honey?” There was a gentle hand on his cheek, eyes fluttering open at the touch, looking up to find a concerned looking Joyce Byers. And really it should have hit him sooner, but this is when he realized that he was at the Byers’ house.

He whined, “No,” his eyes were brimming with tears as he tried to sit up, but there was a stronger hand on his bare shoulder keeping him in place, Hopper.

“Why?” he croaked, sniffling pathetically, sounding frantic, “Why didn’t you just fucking leave me!” He struggled against the hands holding him down, chest rising and falling again as air aggressively entered and left his lungs.

Jonathan and Will were standing by the doorway almost looking scared of him, and not in the old ‘King Steve’ way. El on the other hand just looked more worried, like Joyce but more so. She looked sad almost watching Steve flail and scream trying to get them to let go of him.

“Jesus, kid!” Hopper exclaimed, holding him against the bed with his forearm pressing firmly into his chest trying to keep him in place.

“Why didn’t you leave me, why didn’t you leave me?!” Steve repeated on a loop, tears streaming down his face like a waterfall, snot dripping onto his top lip. Nothing seemed to be calming him down. And they didn’t get it, this wasn’t what they were expecting. They were expecting Steve to be grateful that they brought him in, not that they needed the thanks, his behavior was just strange.

He didn’t calm down until El stepped up to him, pressing a soft, quiet hand against his tear stained cheek, even them he was still heaving out sobs, lungs trying to keep up with his frantic breathing.

“You’re sick.”

“Get out of my head, El,” Steve grimaced weakly.

“Not good in there.”

Steve growled, “You don’t know a damn thing about what’s going on in there.”

He could see Joyce trying to pull El away from him and his sudden aggressive behavior, but she was persistent. Her hand trailed down from his cheek, fingertips carefully cascading down to his shoulder running over bumpy, circular burn scars.

And maybe if it was Hopper he would have given him a mean left hook, but his was El, sweet El who he could never in his life even imagine hurting.

“You...”

“El, please,” he pleaded, looking up at her with big, damp puppy dog eyes. She just looked down at him with tears in her own eyes. He felt horrible, couldn’t believe he had put on such a show, scared her half to death like that. But he could only imagine what she was thinking now.

All of a sudden he was being squeezed, thin arms burrowing their way under him as El engulfed him in a hug. It might have been awkward in his laying down position, but that didn’t matter.

“We need you, Steve.” She whispered into his ear.

And he wasn’t sure he believed it, but he wanted to, wanted to for her.

Send me hc’s 💛💛

#tw suicidal thoughts #tw suicidal intentions #tw mentions of self harm #suicidal thoughts tw #suicidal intentions tw #self harm tw #Steve Harrington #Joyce Byers #Jim Hopper #Will Byers #Jonathan Byers #El Hopper #Stranger things #I can't tell if this is good #or horribly bad lmao #also please lmk if I missed any tags

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vigilantegetawaydriver · 4 years ago

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Definition Forbidden C1

Frank castle slightly x oc

word count: 2.1k

warnings : violence, other stuff, no smut I think there might be fluff

summary: Amy's adoptive sister and Frank only have one thing in common, and that's keeping Amy save. They don't get along really well.

Rose groaned as she sat up from the couch she`d been sleeping on, and was happy to see Frank hadn`t come back yet. She got up, quietly as not to wake Amy who was peacefully sleeping on the only bed the trailer had.

She made herself a cup of hot brew and ate this protein bar that was laying on the counter.

Then changed into her workout clothes and did some pushups, and pullups at the doorframe leading to the kitchen, all while trying not to be too loud.

As she was doing a set off pull ups she heard Franks voice from the outside, announcing his arrival.

She opened the door and told him to keep quiet , because of Amy , ignoring the fact that he was covered in blood beneath his jacket yet again. Frank let out a grunt as answer and made his way to the bathroom,

to probably tend to his wounds. Meanwhile Rose started doing her last set of push ups, while listening to the frustrated sounds Frank made.

She decided to ask if he needed help, so she went to the bathroom door and knocked :"You sound like you could use some help, I know we`re not exactly besties but yea I just want you to know Im here if you need help."

She waited a few seconds, Frank had gone totally silent since she had spoken. She was about go when the door to the bathroom opened. As she stepped inside she could see that Frank had taken off his shirt and was apparently trying to stitch up a nasty cut at his lower back.

She immediately reached for the wet cloth that was laying on the counter and the rubbing alcohol, and started cleaning his wound with it.

"How the fuck does that happen?" She asked while preparing to stitch the cut. "Didn`t wear my vest

and one of those fuckers jumped at me from behind." He flinched as she started stitching.

"He wouldn`t have gotten the jump at you if I had been there to back you up Castle." At that he visibly tensed "Yea right what would you have done? Shot him?

killed a man?" Now Rose was pissed too, at his total disregard of her abilities "You`re damn right I would have shot him, and you fucking know it, you know I`m a goddamn good sniper." He flinched as she angrily forced the needle to

go in. After a moment he said" Yea you keep tellin yourself that, and maybe it`s gonna happen, but I ain`t seen you shoot any weapon before kid." Rose kept her composure and responded passive aggressively

"Yea because you don`t just go off shooting at random things, and you just don`t want any help because you hope that you get killed right? So you can finally die, well let me tell you something Castle, I don`t like you I don`t give a shit

if you die or not, but if you do. And I hate to admit it , there won`t be anyone able to protect Amy like you do from what’s commin, so if you really care about her Castle, I suggest you stay alive. And don`t you ever call me Kid again."

At that he didn’t respond, she silently finished his stitching and put some bandages around his wound. Then she wordlessly cleaned and took care of all the minor injuries he wouldn`t been able to reach and left.

Well that was one nice conversation she thought as she took her bag and exited the trailer.

Frank still just sat there, thinking about what she had said, it had really gotten to him. The fact that she knew that he didn’t care whether he died or lived. But he forgot to tell her that he didn’t want her to die too, he didn’t want anyone else to get caught up in this mess, and as far as they knew there was no one looking for her, yet. He suddenly heard the door being shut and got out to find Rose was gone. “Damn it .” He uttered.

Rose was determined to get the guys that were after Amy, and so she did something she promised herself to never do again, but it was Amy , so she had to.

Later that day Rose returned , with a large sport bag contents unknown. She strode inside like on a mission and placed it on the table , ignoring Franks questions as to where shed been and what she had been doing.

She wordlessly opened the duffle and pulled out a long black box.

A weapons case, frank recognized.

“Hey what are you two up to?” Amy asked walking up to them from behind. “Amy I don’t want you to see this, could you please wait in the back?” Rose inquired.

“Like hell I am, I am sick of being shut out, and treated like a kid from the both of you. I am staying.”

“Fine, but don’t touch anything, you too castle!” Rose spoke with an annoyed undertone, as she opened the case, and revealed its contents a black Barrett M82.

“Where the hell did you get this?” Frank furiously inquired. “I took it with me when I left the army.” She answered calmly to release the tension. “Right , you have been deployed, you’re what 20 ? With a criminal background , when would that have happened?”

Rose let out an annoyed sigh at his disbelief and explained: “ I`m twenty one actually, I went to the army when I was eighteen , stayed till I was like nineteen and a half , I was a natural as sniper, was deployed for a few unimprtant missions, then they wanted to use me and a few other recruits as hitmen, I knew with what I knew they wouldn’t let me live if I refused their offer, so I took my shit and went AWOL. I had to disappear , after that I had to keep over water somehow, and so I did some jobs where I could put my special skills to use. It was extremely violent, and after a while I realized that I couldn’t keep doing it anymore all the things I did were just so wrong. So I searched myself a new kind of job, promising myself to never bring up my past again. I found these guys that were giving out jobs where you had to con people and it was pretty well paid that’s when I met Amy. That was about a year and a half ago.”

Amy had just been silently listening and suddenly uttered “ I thought you trusted me , and that we tell each other everything, and now I hear that you were a hitman , a mercenary?! So you lied to me about your past, and that’s how you were able to shoot a gun and beat up those guys that were after us once. Its like I don’t even know you anymore.”

Frank just silently watched, though it looked like he was contemplating something in his head.

“ Amy , you know I love you, you are like a sister to me, and I didn’t want you to know about this because its dangerous, there are still people looking for me and its dangerous for everyone who knows about this. And I tried to leave that part of my life behind, so I decided to never tell anyone , till now.”

“Yea its too dangerous, that’s what everyone keeps telling me , you know what you two , deserve each other, both keeping secrets and telling everyone its for their best ,but you-“ she was pointing at Rose “and especially you –“ now she pointed at Frank “ Are just psychopaths who like to find excuses for the awful things that you do.” With that Amy took her stuff, and went to exit the trailer. “Wow where do you think you are going.“ Frank suddenly inquired. “ Don’t even try to stop me , I am staying with Curtis, I am so sick of you too, but hey maybe you two can go on a murder spree together now. That’s what you do right?!” With a loud thud the door was slammed shut and Amy gone.

Rose wanted to go run after Amy, but Frank grabbed her arm and held her back “Don’t , she’s save with Curt , and you and me have to talk anyway.” Rose wriggled out of his hold and countered :” Oh we have nothing to talk about, the only thing we had in common , just left, I don’t owe you anything!”

She made her way to the table and started packing her stuff. Frank in the meantime phoned Curtis, about Amy.

Curtis told him that Amy had already called him and asked if she could stay with him, and that he was on his way to pick her up.

Now he turned to Rose, he watched her furiously trying to fit all her belongings in one small duffle, he would have never thought that she was ex military, but he had never seen her fight before too, except for when they first met ,she had pointed a gun at him and they had almost killed each other if it hadn’t been for Amy stepping in.

“I just talked to Curt , he is picking her up , she’s save now, you don’t need to worry about her kid.” Rose ignored him, but stopped packing and sat down burying her head in her hands.

She had realized that she wasn’t mad at Amy, or Frank, she was mad at herself, for burying up her past.

“Look just give her some time, she`ll come around sooner or later, you were just trying to protect her she`ll see that.” Frank spoke sitting down on the other end of the couch. Rose didn’t look up but mumbled :”I don’t think so, she hates me now, I messed it up again, she’s the only one I care about and now she hates me too. I should have never lied to her , I mean how could I keep this from her ?” Now it sounded like she was crying. “Look , kid. I – . I knew when I was deployed I signed up for this shady operation that wasn’t the normal kind of mission, hell I knew that this might affect me later in my life. That it might have some consequences when I`d come home. Even endanger my family. But I ignored those thoughts , I ignored all reason because I liked it, I always loved it. War all that shit. My wife knew , she told me herself that it was ok , that she loved me anyway.

But in the back of my head I knew , I always knew that I was and undoubtably am the reason they died. I had a choice, I could have signed out, lived a happy life, but I didn’t. What I wanna say is , you had the chance to get out, and you did, you are a good person Rose , and I don’t believe that Amy hates you for one second.”

Rose sighed “Yea , but I am just as bad, when I fled I could have gone under, really disappeared , but I didn’t I searched the fight I took jobs that were just as bad as the one they had offered me in the army. Back then I beat up guys just for the fun of it sometimes. I decided that I wanted to fight , and it didn’t matter if it was in the army , as private security, or something else. When I fled I noticed it that itch , the need for violence. Till I finally realized that it had to stop, that I had to stop.” She looked at him and when Frank didn’t answer she continued :” And keeping it from Amy was wrong, I should have told her who I really am, what I had done, but I just wanted to feel normal. But regardless of what I did , I never killed anyone. I beat them up, tortured even but I never killed, I didn’t want to go that far.”

Frank now regarded her and said:” You´re better than me kid, you haven’t crossed that line you still have a chance at normal. You were right trying to keep the past in the past and when this is over, you should take Amy and go start a new life, get a chance at normal.”

Rose regarded him for a moment before getting up and grabbing her bag “Thanks Castle, for keeping Amy save, and for the advice. I´m gonna go now, call me when Amy comes back.” She said laying a burner phone down next to him, before walking to the door.

“Castle you are probably the only one that’s able to give her the protection she needs, now , but I want you to know that when she’s save you don’t send her to me, my life never was normal and never will be. And don´t take this personally, but I hope we´ll never meet again.”

-And with that she left.

Authors Note: I hope this makes any sense at all

#frank castle x oc #the punisher #frank castle #frank castle imagine #frank castle edit #jon bernthal #the punisher x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #marvel #amy bendix #karen page #the punisher fanfiction #frank castle x you

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tiptapricot · 4 years ago

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I wrote a fic based on the wonderful @aloofwindbag ‘s Batgirl!Tim AU for their bday and the first two chapters are up! I’ll be finishing it in the next 1-2 weeks depending, so I hope y’all like it :-D

***

The report was on the news that morning. After the weather, and something about a new bowling alley opening on the East side, the anchor moved on to a breaking news segment. Tim wasn’t totally paying attention, the TV was turned down to background noise while he ate breakfast, something to fill the space while his parents were away. Nonetheless, his ears perked up at a familiar name.

“Barbara Gordon, the police commissioner’s daughter, was shot in her apartment last night.”

He froze, a spoonful of cereal halfway to his mouth. He strained his ears to make out the rest of the report. This couldn’t… he couldn’t have heard that right.

The anchor continued, explaining what had been released to the public (barely anything), and finished with, “We’ll be following this story as it develops, so stay tuned,” before the feed switched to a commercial. Tim was already at the door, a daypack slung over his shoulder and a note to the sitter taped to the fridge.

Continue reading on ao3 or under the cut!

***

As it turned out, Barbara wasn’t as easy to find as Tim had expected. It was largely because none of the hospitals would let him past the help desk without a guardian present, but there was also a frustrating lack of news updates. He was carrying out an investigation practically blind, and it was frustrating.

The sitter caught up to him when he stopped to buy a bag of chips a few blocks from Gotham General. She manhandled him into her car, bordering on frantic as she scolded him for going out without supervision. Tim tuned out most of it for the drive home, rolling his eyes as she brought up ‘safety concerns’ again. He’d heard the same speech a thousand times.

“’M sorry,” he mumbled as they pulled into the driveway. He wasn’t, not really. The apology was more of a courtesy and to stop the woman from prying than anything else. He was plenty capable of taking care of himself without some nutty college student looking over his shoulder.

The sitter let out a long sigh and gave him a strained smile. “Just don’t do it again, Mr. Drake.” She said. Tim nodded and got out of the backseat without another word.

They spent the rest of the day inside. The sitter ordered food and put on a movie like she always did, but Tim wasn’t interested. He couldn’t stop thinking about Barbara.

She had to be fine, right? She was Batgirl, she was super strong and cool and awesome and she’d been hurt plenty of times, but she’d always come back sooner or later. Maybe Tim just had to be patient. He could wait. He could.

He spent the night lying awake with a police scanner propped up next to his pillow, listening intently for any reports of a girl in a cape.

There were none.

***

A week passed and Batgirl still wasn’t back on the streets, then two, then three. Even after Barbara was released from the hospital (discreetly, with almost no news coverage) there was nothing. At the month and a half mark, Tim had had enough. He was going to get to the bottom of this, and he was going to do it now.

His parents had gone on another spur of the moment business trip and they’d hired a different sitter than usual. She didn’t know Tim like the last one had, didn’t guard his door or lock his windows. She just tucked him in, turned out the lights, and half an hour later Tim heard her car pull out of the driveway. No one to catch him leaving, it was the perfect time to sneak out.

He gathered a few things first. His camera, a notepad and pencil, a bottle of water, a thick hoodie, and a wad of cash from the drawer in his mom’s room. He wasn’t supposed to know the stash was there, but it wasn’t exactly hidden either.

Barbara lived over in Old Gotham, in the clocktower near Wayne Enterprises. It was on the opposite side of town from Tim’s house, but if he rode his bike a few miles down the road and across the bridge he could catch a cab and take that the rest of the way. If the driver let him on, that was. Most Gotham cabbies didn’t care how old he was, as long as he paid them, but there were always those odd few that would mistake him for a runaway and try to take him to social services. As if. He was only two months shy of eight and a half now, not some baby. If he ever wanted to run away he’d be much more discreet about it.

It was a cool evening when he stepped outside, the streets and concrete damp with rain and the swelling clouds overhead promising more. Tim coasted down the driveway on his bike, water pattering against his sneakers, and out the gate to the main road. He stayed on the hard shoulder, flicking his handlebar light on when the first few cars came into view.

It wasn’t the first time he’d made the trip to Gotham. He’d been sneaking out a few times every week to go bat-watching ever since he was old enough to work a camera.

He’d never told his parents that though, and he didn’t know if he ever would.

There was a box of faded Polaroids and undeveloped film stuffed under his bed, full of blurry photos of capes and masks streaking across rooftops. Some of them were clearer, shots he’d gotten by climbing up fire escapes or ducking behind dumpsters to observe a fight, but each one was special to him.

The bats had shaped his childhood. They were guardians and mysteries wrapped in Kevlar suits, something he could look forward to when the house was boring and empty. He’d been following them for years, it was how he’d worked out their identities, and it was precisely why the mystery surrounding Barbara worried him so much.

It started raining as Tim turned onto the bridge, a drizzle that quickly turned into a downpour. He shivered and flipped his hood up, leaning closer to the handlebars.

About a year ago, Robin had gone missing too. A week or so after the disappearance, the news had reported that Jason—Robin—had been in a nasty car crash. Nothing else, no specifics, just that he was in critical condition at one of Gotham’s hospitals. He was eventually released, but Robin hadn’t appeared again for almost seven months after the fact.

The whole situation was eerily similar to the current one. That should’ve made Tim feel better, in theory, since Robin had come back in the end, but it didn’t. Something felt off this time, but he couldn’t place what. Maybe it was because Barbara had been released much sooner than Jason, yet still wasn’t back on the streets, or maybe because he was just paranoid this time around, he didn’t know. Either way, whenever he thought about it he felt… weird.

He couldn’t quite explain the feeling, a worry that twisted in his gut and made him feel queasy and sad. Batgirl was his hero, or one of them at least. She was gorgeous and powerful and awesome and he looked up to her. He didn’t know what he’d do if she never turned up again.

He had to get to the bottom of what was going on. If not him, then who?

Tim rode off the bridge and onto a sidewalk, weaving around a few pedestrians before swerving into an alley. He got off, unclipped his helmet, and shoved his bike in the small gap between one of the dumpsters and the wall. It was the best hiding spot he’d been able to find over the years, and it had only taken three stolen bikes to find.

He managed to flag down a cab after only a few minutes, smiling to himself when the driver grunted nothing more than a brief “Where to?” as he slid into the backseat.

“Gotham Clocktower please,” he replied.

“‘Aight kid.” The driver mumbled.

Tim stared out the window as they drove, watching raindrops slip down the glass. Gotham was kind of pretty at night, when the buildings blended with the sky and didn’t feel as huge and ominous. Sometimes, if he could make them out, he would read the words on the street signs under his breath. He wasn’t doing that now, of course, this driver didn’t seem like the type to appreciate that. Instead, he scanned the rooftops, hoping to catch a flash of cape or boots between the gargoyles. He knew he probably wouldn’t, the Bats were rarely ever out this early, but it was worth a shot.

When they pulled up to the clocktower it was pouring even harder. Tim handed a wad of cash to the driver and thanked him before getting out, groaning as he stepped right into a deep puddle. He sighed and tugged at the straps of his backpack. The sooner he could get inside, the better.

Tim looked up at the clock face towering above him. He was nervous, but excited too. He was finally going to get his answers, and get to talk to one of the Bats for the first time. He could do this. He could do this. Squaring his shoulders, Tim walked towards the entrance with determination, and stepped through the double doors.

Ch. 2

#hbd toothens #please check out their art!!#it is of the highest quality #tim drake #barbara gordon #batgirl #dc #dc comics #batfam #batfamily #fanfic #fic #my fic #my-fic

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

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OWL POST AGAIN

Remus hated to be the one to get their attention, to remind them there was still a chapter left, but he figured they may as well get this all over with sooner rather than later. They'd have more than enough to be dealing with later as is. Lily came down the stairs with the baby, but decided to hand him over to James while Remus got started.

Hermione was trying to get Harry's attention, telling him they had ten minutes left to get to the hospital wing before Dumbledore locked the door.

"The fact that you still somehow pulled all of that off is a miracle," Lily muttered.

They began running down the spiral stairs of the tower,

Sirius couldn't help but wonder if this was the same tower Hermione and Harry had been caught on with Norbert, and how much trouble he could have left his pup in if he was discovered helping him. They may be almost done but he felt like his worries would never end.

and as they reached the bottom and began tearing through corridors, they had to come to a quick stop as they heard Snape saying that he hoped Dumbledore wouldn't cause a fuss about Black receiving the Kiss.

Remus ground his teeth together as he forced that out. He just couldn't believe anyone was okay with this punishment, that the Minister had given his permission for it to happen! The only reason he wasn't still shouting about it was because Sirius had gotten away, but that didn't make what they'd tried to do feel any better.

Fudge agreed it would happen the moment Macnair arrived with the dementors, and how grateful he was this whole matter was to be over, how much he was looking forward to telling the Daily Prophet about this.

"Ha!" James snapped, no real humor to be found as he scowled at the book, though briefly distracted when his infant took advantage to their proximity and made a grab for his glasses. The father had a chore for a few moments getting them back from the tight little fists.

Fudge even said that when Harry came back to his right sense he'd probably want to tell the Prophet all about how Snape saved them all.

Harry made some gagging noises as he theatrically clutched his throat at the thought.

Finally the voices passed by, and they kept running for some time until Harry heard Peeves approaching, and they had to duck inside another classroom as the poltergeist went bouncing by with laughter. Hermione was muttering how terrible a thing he was, laughing about Sirius getting Kissed.

"Oh he wouldn't," Lily frowned. "He can't hate you that much. Why would he hate you at all?"

"I like to think Hermione may have just jumped to the wrong conclusion that time," Sirius agreed with his head cocked to the side. "He has no personal interest what happens to me, could be anything that's got him in such a good mood."

Then she warned Harry they only had three minutes left to get back, and as Peeves' voice floated away and they started running again, Harry asked what would happen if they didn't get back in time.

"Madam Pomfrey will know you got out," Lily guessed, "and you could get into a cart load of trouble."

"They can't prove anything," James said at once, bouncing around in unease because he knew how untrue that was. At least Snape would try to pin the whole thing on Harry, and since Fudge clearly liked him this could turn pretty nasty.

Hermione groaned she didn't want to know as they sprinted forward, the door finally coming into sight and Dumbledore saying what time it was and that he was going to lock them in.

"Did it say anything about Dumbledore not seeing you?" Remus asked, "because otherwise that really would have been impossible."

"I think Dumbledore's okay," Harry shrugged, "he did know about all of this after all, we just couldn't let him lock the doors."

Sirius was still cross eyed as he tried to work out that Hermione and Harry had just left to save him...but now they were arriving and talking to Dumbledore because they just had...man he hated time travel.

He began to shut the doors just as the two came barreling forward, and he smiled at the sight of them, asking if they'd accomplished everything. They agreed, and then Dumbledore pressed his ear to the door and agreed that they'd left as well.

"Because, you know, that's a sentence that exists now," James rolled his eyes.

He ushered them inside and then really did lock the door. The hospital wing was empty once again except for Ron who was still passed out.

Sirius cracked up laughing at that, imagining the poor kid's face when they had to explain all of that to him later.

Madam Pomfrey came back out in a very bad mood.

"I believe that," Remus nodded in sympathy.

Harry and Hermione thought it best to accept their chocolate quietly. Madam Pomfrey stood over them, making sure they ate it.

"Think it's kind of moot by this point," Lily shrugged, "since it's technically been what, three, almost four hours since that run in with the dementors, and since Harry warded them off the second time Harry never even got a second blast."

"Please stop," James moaned, "I've only just wrapped my head around this, don't make it worse."

"Just let them enjoy the chocolate in peace," Remus agreed.

Harry could hardly eat his share though, sitting tense on his bed, worrying and waiting for some kind of news, which he received by hearing a fearsome roar of outrage.

"Who wants to bet it's some new horror?" Remus sighed, trying to imagine what else could have happened tonight to cause that.

"Oh come on Remus, now you're just depressing me," Sirius tried to give a light laugh, though admittedly on the same page as him.

Madam Pomfrey was alarmed at the noise, demanding to know what that could be, but in answer, they heard Fudge trying to tell Snape that Black must have disapparated!

They couldn't help it, they all started laughing at once. Sirius had just gotten the best of Snape, and the man didn't even know how. He'd just had every last bit of false glory snatched away from him, and he deserved every second of it for what he'd tried to do to Sirius. Only Lily felt the tiny spot of pity, as he didn't know any better, he thought Sirius really had done all of those things, but what he'd tried to do wasn't forgivable. He could have listened to them, which she knew he never would, shouldn't have been out there in the first place, he'd only gone out to torment Remus. So even she couldn't help giggling a bit at this comeuppance.

He was reprimanding himself that they should have left someone in the room with him!

"Yeah, they should have-" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"But thank Merlin they didn't," James finished for him.

"I think Dumbledore might have had something to do with that," Remus said without any of his usual warmth in speaking of their old headmaster.

No one argued the idea, but they all noticed his tone, and he kept reading quickly before they could ask.

Snape wouldn't hear it though, storming through the hallways and screaming that this had something to do with Potter!

"Well he's not wrong," Harry smirked.

"But still," Lily shook her head at just how stupid and sad this display was. "His first thought is to jump to you? He doesn't even know why you'd help him, he has no idea about any of this, but his first instinct is to blame it all on you."

"They still can't prove anything," Remus grinned, as Harry and Hermione had the perfect alibi now.

Fudge tried to protest that, but then the door opened with a bang.

Five scowls were aimed at the book though, that bit of violence really was uncalled for.

They both came in, with Dumbledore who was the only one looking like he was enjoying the show.

Remus and Harry gave a happy little laugh, they found the Headmasters attitude perfect with their own, but nobody else still looked very pleased with him, still working out and wanting answers from him before they'd allow any good feelings to surface again.

Snape stormed over to Harry, demanding to know what he'd done!

"Yeah, cause he's really going to tell you," James rolled his eyes.

Both Madam Pomfrey and Fudge tried to calm Snape down, but he wouldn't hear of it as he shouted in the kid's faces that they'd helped Black escape!

"Best part is, he's actually right," Sirius cackled.

"Those were always the best moments," Remus agreed with an old smirk. "When he'd try to catch us at something, and he'd be the one telling the truth, but we still got off." His face fell at the end, old memories of the four of them laughing about this all day after the fact, and unable to picture that without going blood thirsty again, so moving on fast.

Fudge demanded he stop, he was talking crazy.

"Least he admits it now," Lily huffed.

Snape was adamant though, saying he knew he was right, but then Dumbledore interrupted by pointing out they'd been in the locked door this whole time, to which Madam Pomfrey confirmed. Dumbledore went on smoothly that unless Snape was implying they were in two places at once, it couldn't be done.

Remus full blown laughed as he realized Dumbledore had just told Snape what Harry and Hermione had done, and yet in such a tone they all knew it wasn't possible, they wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't just heard Harry's account.

Harry also got the realization that somehow Snape had been left out of the loop of Hermione's Time Turner, otherwise he would have thrown that out. Maybe Harry had been wrong before and Flitwick hadn't known about Hermione's secret either, Flitwick just hadn't questioned Hermione missing one class from her perfect attendance, so McGonagall probably had been the only teacher to know about it.

Snape froze as he looked at everyone, Fudge's shocked look,

"Goodbye Order of Merlin," Sirius sneered.

to Madam Pomfrey who looked mildly concerned, to Dumbledore who was still giving a small smile. Snape stormed out then without another word, and Fudge cautioned Dumbledore he should keep an eye on that one.

Harry couldn't help a small frown, wondering why that felt foreboding to him?

Dumbledore sighed though, saying that he understood Snape's feelings of disappointment.

"Disappointment!" Lily nearly shrieked. "He wanted to watch Sirius be, well murder would have been kinder!"

"Ge, thanks Lil," Sirius grumbled.

Fudge sighed that Snape wasn't the only one, how the newspapers were going to have a good laugh at him.

"Oh you poor thing." James snapped, his dislike of this minister growing more with every time he spoke. Every time he'd been mentioned all he'd seemed to care about was what the Prophet, and by extension, the public would think of him. He may be in his rights to do what had happened so far, but it didn't make any of them like him one little bit.

He would be humiliated between Black and that hippogriff getting away in one night. Before he left though, Dumbledore asked about the dementors, and Fudge agreed they'd have to be taken away as well.

"Thank you!" They sighed in relief, thinking that if one good thing had come of tonight, it was that! They didn't even care about the reason. Even if Harry did know how to get rid of them now, the last thing they wanted was him going near them again.

He couldn't condone their behavior of letting them try to Kiss Harry.

"Now how did he know about that?" Harry asked in surprise, he'd certainly not told anyone, and Sirius didn't even know, he'd passed out too soon to even tell Dumbledore, and Snape had shown up too late to see that.

Remus did not look happy to answer, but he hated talking about dementors at all so that wasn't new. "Dementors can, ah, communicate, but it's not something pleasant at all. When they wish to, they can string together thoughts in your head, putting together what they wish for you to understand what they're telling you. It's, unnerving to say the least. Honestly though, I'm surprised they would admit to doing it."

Sirius offered back, "well the Dementors don't have any sense of loyalty to the Ministry and as Hagrid says, they don't care about innocence, so telling Fudge that they were going to perform the Kiss wouldn't have stirred any sense of guilt in them. Harry was in the way of their mission, so they were just doing what came naturally to them-" he couldn't help but stutter for a bit right there, the vivid mental image still trying to suck the soul out of him now at his little pup in that situation. "They were probably just told to report what had happened, why they'd come after me and why they left, and they did."

Harry nodded in understanding, but still asked for more, "how did they know to come out there though?* Snape nor anyone ever got a chance to call for them."

James despised every last word he was using, it only served as more of a reminder of how long Sirius had to be there for this to be true, but he still offered, "they say if you're around a dementor enough, it gets ah, a sense for you. It can tell when you're nearby. That's also why they were even used as guards over just say Aurors, they didn't know about Sirius being a dog so the Ministry would have figured the dementors would sense him approaching miles before he got there. Now Sirius has been a dog all year, so they wouldn't have been able to tell that, but he came out of the Whomping Willow as a human talking to you, and the second he did that they would have sensed him and come swarming." He finished with one more great shudder, still feeling sick all over at the thought of this topic.

Harry decided he was out of questions for now, still knowing he'd much rather never have to deal with those things again then keep coming up with questions for them, but also trying to ignore the feeling saying that was wishful thinking.

No, they were too unmanageable, and they'd have to find something else to guard the school, maybe dragons.

Sirius groaned something unintelligible that none of them needed to translate. They all agreed anyways, they really hoped Fudge was kidding.

Dumbledore agreed Hagrid would enjoy that.

"Least someone would," Remus laughed.

Then they left as well, and Madam Pomfrey went back to her office, but the sounds of the doors closing again finally awoke Ron.

"Oh boy," Lily muttered, not exactly looking forward to hearing this story explained again in detail, she'd barely held it together the first time around.

He caught sight of his friends and at once began demanding to know where Sirius and Lupin were.

"Actually that one's a valid question," James frowned, getting a little twitchy as he realized they may not be as in the clear as he'd hoped. Remus hadn't exactly slipped his mind, but as Sirius' problems had been slightly more pressing he hadn't thought about it since Remus was last mentioned. Now he realized there was still a fall guy around, and it wasn't Harry. Snape himself had said he would try and get Remus Kissed along with Sirius, but while Sirius had made a run for it, Remus would probably wake up somewhere in the forest and come stumbling back up to school into the waiting arms of Merlin knew what.

Remus hardly looked concerned, he just gave a halfhearted shrug and tried to keep reading in the most nonchalant way possible. He'd already worked all of that out and knew he wouldn't have a problem dealing with those consequences, someone other than Sirius deserved them and because it was Remus' fault he'd gotten away, Remus would pay for it and wouldn't let his friends dwell on it any more than he could allow.

Harry helped himself to some chocolate as he told Hermione to explain.

Time skip to the next day, where a Hogsmeade visit was being enjoyed by most of the school, though the trio rather enjoyed spending their time out by the lake and talking about the previous night's events, and wondering where Sirius and Buckbeak were now.

"Wherever the nearest non extradition country is I would hope," Lily muttered.

Harry was lounging in the shade, absently watching the water and the giant squid floating just underneath the surface, his mind across the shore where he'd seen his own patronus stag gallop towards him...

James still gave a happy little smile at that reminder, beaming down at his infant son and cooing to him with pleasure.

Then Hagrid arrived, greeting them with still happy filled teary eyes. He admitted he should be upset about the escape of Black, but asked if they knew what good thing had happened? They feigned they didn't know,

"Can't imagine how well that worked out," Sirius snickered.

and Hagrid beamed as he explained Buckbeak had gotten free! Hermione praised how good that was, while trying to subtly give Ron a shove for starting to laugh.

"That could have still been appropriate," Remus chose to laugh now, "happy laughter for his friend."

Hagrid didn't seem to notice as he explained he must not have tied him up right, though he had been worried Lupin had gotten to him last night.

"Wasn't actually a problem," Harry gave a slight laugh, worried that Remus' good mood had vanished the moment his name came back up.

Thankfully Lupin had said he hadn't eaten anything.

Harry was very torn, he wanted to ask how Remus would even know such a thing, was it just like a feeling he would get? Vague memories that wouldn't make sense, and he had to piece them together? He held that in though, the same fears as everyone else bubbling up because they really wanted to know what had happened to Remus.

Harry asked in surprise what that could mean, and Hagrid was shocked that they hadn't heard, since Snape had told the Slytherins this morning and the whole school must know by now.

"Snape told the Slytherins what?" Sirius began dangerously, his eyes narrowing to near slits as Remus tried to keep going, ignoring his own mounting sense of doom at how this was starting.

Lupin's a werewolf.

"HE DID NOT!" James roared, his hands shaking so bad he was in danger of dropping his child, who began crying at the outburst. James tried to force himself to calm down, rocking his baby gently but the shaking wouldn't stop. He'd been so angry at hearing all of this for so long now, he should have had plenty of practice, but hearing what Snape had just done to one of his friends was not going to be an easy thing to move past.

"I am going to kill him." Sirius vowed right then, his eyes going dangerously dark and his hand already wrapped around his wand. "He couldn't have my soul sucked away so he turns on you! What's he trying to do, get you arrested next!"

Remus tried to pacify them, as Lily and Harry weren't looking much better, "honestly I'm considering myself lucky Hagrid's not yet saying I've been executed. I'll take this over-"

"Snape had better have been fired for that, or so help me I'll wring Dumbledore's and Snape's neck!" Lily cut him off with pure venom. "That was private information that in no way affected anyone at the school, he should not be able to get away with that!"

"It's probably Dumbledore who stopped the Committee for the Control of Dangerous creatures coming after me the moment Fudge made it to the Ministry," Remus argued back, shrinking into the couch at the looks he was getting. He kept going though, he'd always been the persistent one, "if that's all Snape could get away with doing to me, then I'll still be thankful."

"That's it, you're going on the chopping block next," Sirius snapped, unable to comprehend how Remus was still defending them. He'd been targeted as much as Sirius this year and still he was straining to keep peace.

Remus didn't look happy about it though, he was wavering terribly as he struggled to keep going.

He was still torn apart inside at what Dumbledore seemed to have done to Sirius in leaving him in Azkaban, how it must have been his Headmaster who had convinced Remus Sirius had done all of those things in the first place, but still it had also been Dumbledore who'd allowed him his job this year, who was clearly still protecting him from the worst of what could happen. Dumbledore had tried to fix his mistake and had helped Sirius in the best way he knew how by giving Harry and Hermione the means to slip Sirius out, shouldn't that give him some redeem ability? Despite how fearsome everyone still looked, Remus kept going while the silence lasted.

Then Hagrid explained he was packing now of course.

"Packing?" Harry repeated, looking just as shocked as anyone at hearing the news. "Why, you aren't really leaving because of that!"

"He better not be," Sirius snapped when Remus failed to answer.

Truth was that yeah, Remus could see it. He'd come closer in that night to attacking three students, one of them being Harry, than he ever had in his life. It had been his fault the rat had gotten away because he hadn't had the sense to stay in the Shrieking Shack, the kids were convinced enough they could have come up with any other solution and dealt with this in the morning, anything other than what he actually did! Still being smothered with guilt, Remus kept going for now, loudly, as he knew James and Lily were fixing to start telling him off like Sirius was going to. He wanted to hear the full thing, find out if he had quit, or was being fired, or something much worse could still be happening that Hagrid didn't know about.

Harry repeated that back and demanded to know why? Hagrid was surprised at Harry's shock, saying he was leaving of course,

"Hagrid just lost some points with me," James muttered, thinking that Hagrid should be at least a little more upset, but then he reflected that may be too harsh on him. Hagrid had only gotten the story second hand, probably didn't know all the details of how and why Remus was out on the grounds like that. It still irked him anyone would expect Remus to leave because of this.

that he'd resigned and wouldn't risk it happening again. Harry jumped to his feet despite Hermione and Ron protesting that if he'd already done the act, but Harry insisted he still wanted to go talk to him and he'd meet them later.

Remus sighed, he'd gotten the feeling Harry would come and see him, it didn't make him feel any better though. He owed Harry a world of explanations, even with everything come clear about Sirius it still didn't really explain where in the name of Merlin he'd been these past thirteen years. Maybe now that he wasn't technically Harry's professor anymore, but an old friend of his father's, he could explain just a little bit more.

Harry charged up to the office and found the door cracked open. When he poked his head inside he found everything packed away, but Lupin watching the door expectantly. He smiled as Harry came in, saying that he'd known Harry was coming while gesturing towards the Marauders Map.

"That joke never got old," Sirius muttered, as they'd done that to each other all the time, though with more spirited fun of hiding behind a doorway and trying to freak out the others. It only served as yet another painful reminder though, that the rat had fallen for that trick the most and often retaliated by trying to shoot a curse at them no matter how many times they repeated it and it had always been funny. Great, now he couldn't even think on his map without getting a cold and murderous chill.

Clearly seeing something was bothering Sirius, Harry quickly asked, "I've just thought of something. If Remus was watching us all night, how come he wouldn't have seen me and Hermione twice on that?"**

Remus did a double take at Harry, nodding and saying, "now that's a fair question, but I think it was the timing of it all. I would have turned on the map at about the time I was done with my own exams, to watch you lot head down to Hagrid's. We know Hagrid's Hut itself can't actually be seen on the map, so the doppelgangers wouldn't have been seen any more than the original trio. When you guys left, the second Harry and Hermione would have been following along in the edge of the Forest of their own progress, perhaps still just out of sight of the maps range. By the time Sirius collided with Ron and dragged him and," he grimaced for a moment but still managed to get out the name without biting his tongue off, "Scabbers underground, I would have been sprinting out the door and probably not paying too much attention to anything anymore." He looked around like he was expecting someone to argue with him, but when no one did he concluded. "The only instance where I possibly would have seen them both was when Harry and Hermione are first in the closet after they've time-turned back, and the trio were on their way down to Hagrid's. The only way I can explain this is that I hadn't opened the map to see this yet."

"Makes as much sense as anything that happened that night," James snorted.

Harry belayed that and repeated what Hagrid had told him, and Lupin agreed it was true.

"Remus!" Lily snapped. "You're being ridiculous!"

"How so?" He shot back, trying for a pleasant tone. "How are you not trying to strangle me and agree with me, I nearly bit Harry. I could have killed those kids because of my oversight, and what if it happens again? I won't let some accident hurt anybody, and Sirius won't be around next time."

"But that was-" James tried to add, but Remus was being adamant.

"A one time event, but what if it happened again? I'm actually happy I'm not taking the risk."

The others were at their wits end with him, but what could they do? They couldn't force him to keep the job, it was just maddening that something like this had been taken away from him.

Remus was a good teacher, by far the best one Harry had yet in that subject, but more than that it would have just been nice for him to be on hand more for whatever mayhem Harry was clearly going to get into. It was hard enough for him to keep down a job, especially one as good as this.

James and Sirius still blamed the rat for this happening, linking Remus' fall from his certainty in the job to his interference, yet another thing he'd ruined in their life.

Lily couldn't help but blame Severus, he'd gone and told everyone about this for a petty justice he thought he deserved. The students would tell their parents and Remus would be terrified of what the public would think of him, and he'd lose every last drop of faith he should have in himself. That potion was good for him, but she couldn't begin to imagine how expensive it was, plus Remus wasn't that good at potions himself. So this all meant he was probably going to go back to a relatively closed off, and pained life. Remus had been very right in saying Sirius wouldn't be around to help, with any luck he'd left the country and wouldn't be coming back until his name was cleared.

Harry was the most monstrously disappointed, still grumbling, "but you're the best Defense teacher I ever have." He still meant it with the utmost sincerity, he didn't need his memories to reinforce that assured feeling. It would have been even better now that he knew of Remus' connection to his father, and with Sirius gone out of the country with any luck, he would have liked someone closer by, but he wasn't getting anything from that. With the gentlest of prodding he tried to deduce that he never got that close to Remus. He didn't even think he'd remained in his life all that much, which just wasn't adding up with what he felt now. It left him confused and hurt and still he couldn't help but think that he never got an answer for this.

Remus though was thinking on something else, that maybe if he was lucky he had quit for a totally different reason than his lycanthropy. After all if his assumption was right and Dumbledore had convinced him of Sirius' actions, then everything had come out properly, well that meant that Remus would have turned on Dumbledore. If he was lucky, he may well have stood up to the headmaster and said something about it, maybe quit in some shot of spite for what he'd been convinced of. That may have been giving himself too much credit though, he'd proved time and again he'd back Dumbledore's play no matter what. He didn't really want to keep bringing the idea up, but he wanted so badly for it to be true he offered that to the others. Sirius actually smiled, he rather liked that idea of Remus telling off the headmaster. When no one else put up an argument for it, Remus decided to keep going.

Harry demanded to know why, if the Ministry thought Lupin had been helping Sirius? Lupin went behind Harry and shut the door before answering,

"Always a good idea," James sighed, still not happy, but willing to hear Remus out. "Even if the map showed no one else there, I wouldn't put it past half the paintings in that school to go chatting."

that no, Dumbledore had convinced Fudge otherwise.

That at least gave them all a shot of relief. Whatever wrongdoings Dumbledore had done to Sirius, at least he'd made up for them in that action of protecting Remus. He had been at Hogwarts on Dumbledore's orders, so he'd better have stood up for him. Sirius knew he would have wound up in Azkaban all over again if he heard otherwise.

Then he explained that act had just been too much for Severus, having that happen on top of his Order of Merlin taken away from him,

"Clearly not hard enough, as he's still breathing," James snarled.

so he'd told everyone about his werewolf status that morning.

Lily began swearing colorfully under her breath all over again, unable to believe he'd done something so horrid and cruel. Snape had better have been fired for that as well, it just wasn't right he could get away with doing that to Remus!

Harry was still confused why he was leaving just because of that! Lupin gave him an odd smile as he explained that within the hour letters would be arriving from parents,

Remus couldn't help but notice how he hadn't actually answered Harry's question, maybe giving him a little more hope for his own idea, but it still wasn't enough. It would never be enough for what he owed Sirius for believing that lie, but if leaving this job and with any luck actually helping Sirius now, perhaps spending his now free time looking for the rat while Sirius was safe, then he'd take the trade any day.

that they wouldn't want a werewolf teaching their children.

"They can bite me," Sirius snapped! Remus had gone to school with most of those people, Dumbledore should have pointed out to all of them that Remus wasn't dangerous, stuck by his Professor as much as he'd surely done for Snape when he'd been hired fresh as a Death Eater. He really wished Harry had sat in on that conversation, because if Dumbledore hadn't done everything in the world to convince Remus to stay then he was going to have a shit fit all over again.

After last night, he agreed with them, he could never let those circumstances come about ever again. Harry still rebutted that Lupin was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they ever had, and pleaded with him not to leave.

"Or ever will have," Harry still agreed.

"Maybe it won't be permanent," Lily offered hopefully. "Maybe once that rat is caught, and Sirius' name is cleared, maybe Remus will get it through his thick head he's needed at that school."

Everyone else wanted to look like they believed that, but the fact that Harry didn't add anything but instead just gave a slight frown wasn't encouraging.

Lupin just shook his head as he finished packing, and while Harry stood there trying to come up with something else to prove his point, Lupin changed the subject by saying how proud he was of how much Harry had accomplished.

They all sighed, grateful and at least agreeing that if Remus had to leave at least he'd left with something good behind him.

Then he asked about Harry's patronus, but Harry first asked how he'd even known? Lupin pointed out how else had all of those dementors gone away? Harry explained what had happened, and Lupin agreed that's why they'd called James Prongs.

Harry couldn't resist the bright smile that crept over his face all over again, words didn't describe how happy he was his patronus had been his own father, that he'd finally gotten to see the magnificent animal that had spent countless nights protecting his brother from himself. He still couldn't help but wonder though, if he was an animagus, he'd clearly be a stag as well, but what would he look like? So similar to his father that they'd hardly be able to be told apart even then?

Then Lupin handed Harry back his Invisibility Cloak, saying he'd found it in the Shrieking Shack.

"I thought you pocketed that in the Shack?" Lily frowned.

"Don't look at me," Remus frowned, as that had been the last time he'd heard it mentioned as well.

"Maybe I found it on the grounds and put it in there," Sirius shrugged, that being unlikely as he didn't really think he could spot that from the air on Buckbeak, but he also liked the idea that he wouldn't have just up and left without saying goodbye to Remus. Maybe he had thought back to Remus, and found him after he transformed and dragged him back to the Shack, and found the cloak along the way. Maybe he'd wanted to make sure Remus woke up with a friend at the end of his bed one last time before he had to leave for how long. It didn't sit right with him if he really hadn't considered Remus at all after his own freedom was offered.***

Then he also added on that he felt Harry should be given the Marauders Map back, saying that he was sure he Ron and Hermione could find something to do with it.

"Hopefully the good kind," James added on happily, thinking it was high time his son use that for its intended purpose.

Lily didn't even disagree anymore, she'd happily take hearing her son pull some goofy prank rather than constantly worrying about his life at this point.

Harry took the map back with a smile, asking about how those manufacturers would have found it funny if he'd been led out of the castle. Lupin agreed James would have been very heartbroken if his own son had never learned any of the secret passages of the school.

"Well he's got you there," Sirius agreed with a real laugh.

"I can't deny I'm disappointed it took you three years, and you didn't even find the first on your own," James sighed, wagging his finger in mock scolding at his son, causing him to laugh all the harder.

Then there was a knock on the door, and only after Harry stuffed his cloak and map out of sight did Remus call for them to come in. It was Dumbledore, telling Remus there was a carriage waiting for him. Lupin thanked him, picked up his suitcase and old grindylow tank,

"So that's actually your tank then," Lily muttered. "Why do you even have that?"

"For fun," Remus rolled his eyes at her. He was known to randomly catch wild animals and study them before releasing them again, he actually had a niffler at his house right now he was most likely keeping in that tank, though thankfully as they lived off of dirt and he'd left plenty in there he wasn't worried about it going hungry.

and said his goodbyes to Harry and the headmaster. He told Dumbledore he didn't need to be seen down,

Though still disappointed and argumentative on the subject that Remus should keep his butt right where he was, the others noticed for the first time Remus was acting a little odd around Dumbledore as well. Maybe Remus' idea wasn't all that crazy.

and he gave a final smile at Harry before the two shook hands and he shuffled out the door. Harry got the feeling Lupin was trying to make a quick getaway.

Harry couldn't help but frown, he had a bad feeling he wasn't going to be seeing Professor Lupin for some time, and it wasn't making him feel any better.

Harry sat down in the empty chair as he watched the door, and it took him a moment to realize Dumbledore was still there. He asked what Harry was so upset about, that he should be proud of what he did last night. Harry sighed that he hadn't made any difference, that Pettigrew had still got away.

"That's not your fault at all," the four of them all tried to say at the same time, making Harry try to shy away at so many people half yelling at him at once.

Remus, James, and Lily gave a quick pause when they realized they'd startled him, but Sirius kept going, "Harry you must realize that wasn't your fault. What were you supposed to do?"

"I even went back in time and couldn't do anything about it," Harry shot back, still frowning deeply, wishing he could have taken Hermione's Time Turner and still tried something!

"What am I, chopped liver?" He demanded right back. It still stung, that Harry had to rescue him at all when it should have been the other way around. Yes he was eternally grateful, but he should be the one protecting Harry, not causing even more problems with his life! Still he kept up his point, "you did exactly what you were expected to do, help out my sorry arse. Now come on pup, I'll get upset all over again if you're really going to be stubborn on this."

Harry couldn't help a light laugh then, surprised that he actually did feel better. If Sirius didn't blame him, the one person who'd been most affected by the rats getting away, then maybe it really wasn't his fault.

Remus and Lily smiled, pleased Sirius had gotten through to him, but James couldn't help that feeling again. Something he'd never felt before wanting to make an appearance, like he should have been the one to comfort Harry about that. Why would it bother him now though, Sirius was doing just fine.

Dumbledore was shocked, repeating what Harry had said, but instantly corrected Harry had made a huge difference! He'd found the truth, and saved an innocent man from a terrible fate. Terrible. That word niggled at Harry, and all at once he remembered 'Greater and more terrible than ever before' and he realized those were the words of Professor Trelawney's prediction.

"Oh wow," Remus muttered.

"Yeah, I forgot all about that," Sirius said with some real annoyance. She really couldn't have thrown a name into that stupid prophecy. Some other clue that would have made his life a lot easier to cope with! Even if he had been the one to convince the others this Professor was a real Seer, he now probably disliked her the most of all.

Harry began to tell his headmaster that his Divination teacher began acting strange yesterday, and Dumbledore asked if he meant stranger than normal?

Harry couldn't help a little snort, at least the Headmaster admitted it.

Harry agreed that she'd said something about Voldemort coming back because of a servant, that he'd return even more powerful.

Harry gave a terrible shiver at that remembrance, and he wasn't the only one. Now that Sirius wasn't having his life ruined by that, he considered all of the words all over again and felt bile curling his stomach as he realized how true that felt. It wasn't real though, right? Voldemort wasn't really going to come back, all because of that rat? At least now he didn't really think it was his fault, but he got the feeling no one had really convinced him of that in his own time.

The others weren't feeling much better. They recognized Trelawney had clearly made a real prediction, but maybe they were lucky and it wasn't being literal. Maybe he wouldn't really 'come back' but...and they couldn't really think of any other way that could mean. Well, hopefully it still wouldn't have to deal with Harry, right? That could take years to happen, and Harry was safe here with them now, so they really didn't want to linger on that long.

Then she hadn't remembered what she'd even said, and Harry asked if that had been a real prediction? Dumbledore agreed that made her account up to two.

Harry felt a little stirring in him, wondering why that felt significant. He remembered back to feeling he would be grateful he kept Trelawney's class, and he wondered if it had been because of this prediction about the rat and Voldemort, but he didn't really think so. Was it because of this other prediction then? Why would he care about that?

Harry was shocked at how calm Dumbledore was about this.

"With any luck, because he knows Voldemort coming back isn't ever going to be a problem," James muttered.

Pointing out that he'd stopped Sirius and Lupin from killing Pettigrew, so if Voldemort did come back it would be his fault!

"Oh Harry," James quickly said this time, frowning slightly at him. "You can't really believe that one? You showed him mercy, that's a lot more kind than he deserved. They were still his actions though, his decisions, not one thing would be linked back to you."

"I'm still grateful you did as well," Sirius quickly added while Remus nodded vigorously. "If we had murdered him, then who knows, maybe I never would get my name cleared, because that rat couldn't admit to anything he did. I may not have been able to prove that was his body, but I'd done something to it to make it look like him. No, we needed him alive."

Harry had to chew on that for a moment before he nodded, finally admitting that while he would always feel guilty Peter got away, Sirius had been kept alive and that was the important part. He nodded his agreement and while Sirius and Remus looked happy enough to move on James couldn't help a lingering frown, a tickle of annoyance that yet again Sirius had gotten through to Harry while he hadn't.

Dumbledore disagreed at once, explaining to Harry that he did the right thing in sparing Pettigrew's life, because he now owed his life to Harry.

'Which is a hell of a lot more than he deserves' James still couldn't help but snarl, wishing they could change the subject again already as the longer this dragged on the more agitated he got.

Voldemort's most loyal servant was now also in Harry's debt.

"Something which will bite both of them in the arse," Remus said pleasantly, hoping Harry would stay well away from that, but enjoying the irony for as long as he could.

It was something that had happened the moment Harry stepped up, creating a bond between the two of them. Harry protested he didn't want a bond with Pettigrew, he was the person who'd got his parents killed! Dumbledore though said that this was magic at its roots, unintentionally or not, something that could not be undone.

"Like when I saved you," Lily added on. "That wasn't a spell, it was an action that created magic, not something you can or can't do on purpose."

Harry was still frowning, hating to think he had any connection to that rat for what he did, but he leaned a little closer into his mother anyways and let it go for now.

Dumbledore finished with the idea that he had a feeling Harry would be grateful for this someday.

Harry considered that for a moment, and realized that Dumbledore may have been speaking the truth. He had no idea why, it was a very faint feeling, but something in him was agreeing with Dumbledore, and he hoped it was worth it.

Harry couldn't picture it, and Dumbledore seemed to sense this as he also said that he'd known James quite well his whole life, and he knew James would have done the same for Pettigrew.

James sighed and looked away from everyone. He still didn't know what he'd do when the time came and they could leave this place, when he knew for a fact Sirius and Remus might still go and act on that now before the rat even saw it coming. Would James join them, would he try to stop them, or would he stand by and do nothing which would be just as bad as either option. He hated himself right then, for not wanting Peter dead for what he did to them, but he still couldn't bring himself to want his death either. And yet when he looked him in the face again, would that still be true? Wormtail, one of his brothers. Maybe Dumbledore was right, but it didn't make him happy either.

Harry admitted that he'd thought he'd seen his dad last night, he'd thought it had been James who had sent that patronus saving Harry's life. Dumbledore agreed it was an easy swap, and though Harry may grow tired of hearing it, he did look remarkably like James. Expect for the eyes of course, those were his mother's eyes.

"Nope, that never gets old," Harry smiled brightly, trying to catch his dad's eye as they were all well aware of the battle warring in him right now, none of them feeling they had a right to make the decision for him, he had to come to grips with that on his own just like before. Harry did want though to keep his mind on something more pleasant until then, so he kept going even though his dad wouldn't really look at him. "I never get tired of hearing that, makes me happy every single time."

James heard that alright, and gave him a bright eyed look right back.

Harry still called himself stupid for thinking it, he knew his dad was dead.

Remus still couldn't read that without a hitch in his voice, the news never getting easier to hear, the act that had caused it now more fresh and disturbing than ever before, but James was still distractedly smiling at his son and so Remus kept going past that.

Dumbledore gently told that he didn't really believe the dead left the living. Harry showed the best quality of his parents every day, which helped them to live on. His father had come alive again last night through his son, Prongs rode again.

James was so giddy he was nearly bouncing, because that's exactly what he'd wanted. Even if it had only been in spirit, he had been there for his son when he'd been needed most. Sirius could give all the advice he wanted, at least James had that! His brain gave a quick little pause, realizing what he'd just thought and for the first time understanding what might have been bothering him, but then he got distracted by Sirius blurting out, "ah, what? How did he know about Prongs?"

Remus was frowning down at that, wondering if perhaps he'd finally told Dumbledore?

It took a moment for Harry to catch up and realize what Dumbledore had said, and then Dumbledore explained that Sirius had told him everything last night, including the animagi part.

"Oh," Sirius shrugged. "Guess I really did tell him everything."

"Well I suppose that's a good thing at least," Lily sighed, this also meant that Dumbledore would also know about the rat's animagus as well, he'd be much easier to find with Dumbledore and Remus looking for both personas of the traitor.

Dumbledore gave a small chuckle as he congratulated his past students for the feat, and then he gently reminded Harry that he'd found his father inside of himself when he'd needed him most.

Harry and James were beaming at each other, more happy then they'd ever been that they at least had this to identify with to each other, something that couldn't just be put down to a genetic look or old possessions. Harry truly emulated his father right then and forever with that one simple spell.

Then Dumbledore finally left, with Harry more lost than ever.

Nobody at Hogwarts really knew what had happened the night of Black's escape except for the trio and Dumbledore.

"That seems to be a running theme for you," Remus rolled his eyes, "you getting caught up in the mess, and at the end of the year everyone else trying to catch up."

The closer school came to an end, the more wild the stories became of what really had happened, but none of them ever came close to the truth.

"I'd like to think that if anyone did guess that well, they'd put Trelawney out of a job," Lily laughed.

Malfoy was furious about Buckbeak.

"Oh boy," Sirius groaned, his eyes narrowing with distaste. Now that he realized his own life had been saved because of that hippogriff, he felt insanely protective of the beast, which made Malfoy's actions this year all the more loathsome to him.

He was convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he had been outwitted by a gamekeeper.

"Ha," Remus snapped, happy that Malfoy hadn't actually been able to get away with anything this year.

Percy was as talkative as anyone about Sirius,

"Oh great," James groaned in disgust, he already didn't like this one, he really didn't want to hear anymore failing statements about his brother now that he knew the absolute truth.

speaking of the political side and how when he entered the ministry he'd come up with some new proposals for the Magical Law Enforcement, mostly going over this to the only person who listened to him, Penelope.

Lily on the other hand couldn't help but be interested. While she would curse anyone who tried to use those on Sirius, she could think of plenty of other people those could do some good towards.

Percy was clearly a smart and ambitious boy, she did want to hear these things and see how they could be put to use.

Though the weather was perfect, though the atmosphere was so cheerful, though he knew they had achieved the near impossible in helping Sirius to freedom, Harry had never approached the end of a school year in worse spirits.

All four of them couldn't help but be in absolute agreement with him. Between Remus leaving, Sirius still being on the run, and the rats escape plus the horrid rise and fall of hope of wanting more than anything for James to have been alive, this was by far the worst year for them to have lived through.

He wasn't the only student upset at their Defense teacher leaving, having overheard Seamus glumly wonder what they could be getting next year, while Dean gave a hopeful offer of a vampire.

"I'd prefer the werewolf," Sirius grumbled with distaste.

It wasn't just Lupin though, Harry also couldn't keep his mind off of that prediction, and kept wondering if Pettigrew had caught up to Voldemort yet.

Remus couldn't get that out completely coherent. He may agree with his friends, the rats actions had nothing to do with Harry's decision, he'd done the right thing, but it didn't erase the black hatred he possessed whenever the name was mentioned, whenever he realized all over again what he'd become and what he was going to do to James, Lily and Sirius.

The thing that was lowering Harry's spirits most of all though, was the prospect of returning to the Dursleys.

"Oh," Lily moaned, placing her face in her hands and nearly bursting into tears all over again at that. In the following events that had led her to worry about Sirius' life, she'd almost forgotten about that horrid reminder but now it was back full force. It just wasn't fair that this had been ripped away from Harry and Sirius, that he was forced back with those horrid excuse for people. His return would be made all the bitter because of what that rat had done, his hand being the one to wrench all of that away.

For barely ten minutes, Harry had been offered something more, a real home with Sirius, his dad's best friend, it would have been the closest thing he would ever get to having his own father.

Sirius couldn't help but wriggle with displeasure. Of course he wanted that to, to be that missing piece of James for Harry, but it hurt terribly that he'd have to play the role at all. James should be there for his son, to be the scolding parent and happy go lucky father all in one, while Sirius could be the goofy Uncle and help him get away with everything.

James couldn't help in that moment leaning away from Sirius slightly. Of course he still wanted Harry away from the Dursleys, of course he wanted Harry to have a proper home life, but it still didn't erase his rising fear that he was only just beginning to realize he had.

While it was supposed to be a good thing he hadn't heard a word from Sirius, as this meant he was going underground, it still didn't erase how miserable he was that what he wanted most of all was impossible.

"Not impossible," Lily said at once, watching all of them take several steps back in their mood with displeasure. "It just might take a little more time." What they wouldn't give for Harry to even have gone on the run with Sirius than go back to Privet Drive, after the cupboard and starvation and whatever else Harry wouldn't speak about, anything Sirius could provide would be better than that!

Their exam results came back, and they'd passed everything. Harry was shocked he'd actually gotten through on Potions, and couldn't help but wonder if Dumbledore had done something to stop Snape failing him.

"I didn't even know he could do that," Harry admitted, "it was just a guess."

"Well, I'm not really sure, but I wouldn't be surprised either," Remus couldn't help with some blistering hatred still lingering as it was made clear Snape still had his job.

Snape's behavior toward Harry over the past week had become quite alarming.

Sirius couldn't help a low whine of fear, he'd been afraid of this but now his earlier joke had come back and it wasn't nearly as satisfying as he'd thought. He'd been so sure that he and Remus could step in and Harry would tell them whenever Snape did something to horrible and the two of them could tell Snape to shove it for Harry! Now neither of them were around, and Harry was the only one left to take the fall for all of Snape's built up hatred, and it just wasn't just!

Harry wouldn't have thought it possible that Snape's dislike for him could increase, but it certainly had. A muscle twitched unpleasantly at the corner of Snape's thin mouth every time he looked at Harry, and he was constantly flexing his fingers, as though itching to place them around Harry's throat.

Lily's throat vibrated she made such a scathing noise, she wanted to jack slap him all the way to the Whomping Willow and let that tree finish off the rest of him she was so sick of him. She'd thought he'd hit his low in calling her that word back in fifth year, and she just kept being proven how wrong she was but the hurt had stopped chapters ago, now she was left with simmering hatred that was going to boil over on him the second she could.

He'd concern himself with that next year though, as for now he heard about Percy getting top grades in all of his N.E.W.T.s, and Fred and George getting a couple of O.W.L.s each,

"How would they know that?" Remus chuckled in surprise, "they wouldn't get the results until summer."

"I, have no idea," Harry said, blinking in shock as well. "I suppose with their dad being in the Ministry, maybe they got a heads up that they at least passed a few, and just guessed the rest. I just remember them talking about it is all."

"Well good for them anyways," Lily sighed, finding at least one thing to smile about again.

and because of the Gryffindor win with the Cup the end of term feast was done with lion pride because they'd won the House Championship as well. Even Harry managed to put all of his worries aside as he laughed happily at everything that night.

All five of them gave great sighs, wishing the story would just end there, wanting more than anything to move to the part already where the most eventful part of Harry's next year of school would be him reading in the paper about the capture of the rat and Sirius arriving on the next holiday break. The fact that Remus kept going just wasn't giving them any pleasure, and they didn't see how it could.

Hermione offered up some more news, that she'd quit Muggle Studies.

"What, are you telling me she actually got tired of being tired?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

Ron was shocked, saying how she'd only just told them she'd made a three hundred percent score on her final.

"And she still got a perfect score!" James balked.

Hermione shrugged that off, saying that now she'd dropped that class she had a normal schedule, and she'd turned her Time-Turner back in. She couldn't handle another year like this one.

"But, but she didn't even use it for anything fun," Remus couldn't help but whine. "She had that thing for a whole year and only used it on homework."

"Well I'm happy to hear that," Lily sighed, "that poor thing needs more of a break, if she went another year like that I'd be even more worried for her."

They were boarding the train now, and Harry couldn't find the enthusiasm to jump in to discuss this. Ron noticed first and told his best mate to cheer up, he'd be sure to call Harry over this summer as he knew how to use a fellytone now.

That at least gave them a little chuckle again, yes Ron clearly knew exactly what he was doing.

Hermione corrected him on the proper name, and told him he'd do some good from Muggle Studies.

"I'm sure he gets enough of a lesson at home," Harry corrected, fondly remembering most conversations with Mr. Weasley started or ended with something to do with Muggles.

Ron ignored her and kept going, talking about how Harry would have to come over to his place, as it was the Quidditch World Cup this summer!

"It's what!" All four boys perked up like the sun anew. Lily couldn't help a girlish giggle at that, she would hear about twenty more Quidditch matches then the disaster of a year she'd just lived through.

"Oh please Harry, I'm begging, tell me you go," James moaned, clasping his hands together as if in actual prayer.

"I sure hope so," Harry nodded back eagerly, he had a very good feeling about this!

"With any luck Ron wouldn't have mentioned it without having some way to listen in as well," Remus pacified, his own eyes lighting up with hope at the possibility.

Ron also mentioned that his Dad could normally get tickets from work.

"That's even better," Sirius practically squealed. "Can you imagine hearing about an international game through Harry! He'll get to see the professionals at work, oh glory I think I'm going faint-" and he was actually jittering around so much he may not have been joking.

"Relax Padfoot," Remus had to restrain himself from laughing to hard. "Don't go wetting yourself before it even starts."

Harry was laughing too hard to respond, the longer he thought about it the more sure he had been right, or at least he really hoped so and this was one good thing to be looking forward to.

This idea actually managed to cheer Harry up, agreeing he was sure the Dursleys wouldn't mind seeing him leaving after what he did to Aunt Marge.

"Thank you for that lovely reminder," Lily forced a laugh this time, her bad mood still lingering enough Harry had to go back at all, that this would be the first time he'd be face to face with them since Harry had left that place. She still couldn't help but ask "why couldn't you just stay at the Leaky Cauldron again until Ron's parents would let you come around?"

"I asked Dumbledore," Harry groaned, "and he said Tom wouldn't allow it, as I'm still underage and would need consent again, apparently the Minister gave it the first time but wouldn't again."

They had to suck in air very carefully to prevent themselves from screaming about that all over again, wishing Dumbledore and the Minister would stop making decisions for Harry already.

Couldn't he at least go stay with Remus! It would be tricky, but surely they could have worked out something other than this!

Feeling much better, Harry now happily joined them in a game of Exploding Snap, right up until the lunch cart came around and they all got some treats of everything except chocolate.

"Can't even blame you," Remus couldn't help a light snicker, at least happy he had another line or two before he had to think on the end of the train again.

It was late in the afternoon before the thing that made him truly happy turned up...

"Oh yeah," James asked, trying to perk himself back up.

Hermione noticed it first, saying there was something out the window.

Well that was an odd way to start, but Harry had said it was something happy, so none of them could even get worked up about it, instead Remus kept going with heavy interest.

Harry pulled the window open and found it was a very tiny gray owl, twisting this way and that from the stream of the train, but clearly making its way to Harry's window, while holding a too large letter.

"Aw," Lily couldn't help but coo with a smile, wondering who on earth that could be from, but knowing mail always made her son happier.

Harry reached out and caught it, finding it felt like a fluffy Snitch in his hand.

"Jeez, that thing is tiny if it'll fit in your palm," Remus raised a brow in surprise.

He brought it inside and released it, where it began zooming happily above the ceiling, clearly proud of itself as it dropped the letter to Harry's lap. Hedwig watched with a disapproving look, and Crookshanks yellow eyes were following its progress as well.

"Uh oh," they all couldn't help but say a little indulgently, no one able to pick a bad feeling towards the ginger cat after what he'd done for Sirius this year.

Ron noticed this and snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.

Sirius couldn't help but laugh, wondering why the little owl hadn't swooped back out when it was done with its task, but finding Ron's actions nice enough.

Harry unfolded the letter, and happily exclaimed it was from Sirius!

"What?" They yelped in shock.

"Sirius, why would you be sending me mail," Harry frowned in concern. "Wouldn't someone be able to trace that back to you?"

"Oh no," Sirius brushed that off, that hadn't been why he was surprised. "It's plenty easy to make yourself untraceable, paranoid old gits do it all the time when they think the Ministry's out to get them, which they're probably right about," he finished absently. "I can send mail and not have the owl unable to trace it back to me with a spell or two, no I'm just surprised I'd send it so early."

"I'd have thought you'd wait at least a month, you know put some believability into the idea that you aren't in contact with Harry, rather than on the train when anyone could have seen that," Remus explained their confusion.

"Oh," Harry shrugged, that hadn't been what was bothering him at all, he always rode with just Ron and Hermione.

Harry began reading out loud, that Sirius' note started with a hope Harry got this before he reached his own home, he wasn't sure how used to his aunt and uncle were to owl post.

Sirius muttered something under his breath that made James and Remus give an almost cruel laugh, and though Harry and Lily may not have been opposed to whatever he'd just suggested, neither really wanted to ask for details either.

Then he said that he and Buckbeak were safe in hiding, but he wasn't going to say where in case the owl was intercepted.

"There's that Marauder brain I've missed hearing about," Remus said fondly, he just knew Sirius had to have some sense still about him.

He wasn't too confident of the owl he'd picked, but it had seemed up for the job.

"Where would you have gotten him anyways," Harry couldn't help but ask, when he realized Sirius wouldn't have explained that.

"Probably found him in the wild," Sirius shrugged. "It's a lot more rare to find intelligent owls that aren't wizard bred up for the job, but it's not impossible either."

He was sure the dementors were still out looking for him, but they weren't going to find a trace of him where he was. He planned on letting some Muggles get a sight of him sometime soon,

"Sirius," Lily began with worry, but hoping he had a good idea of why Sirius would do this, James waved her down so Remus could keep going.

very far away from Harry so that some of his security would get let down.

"Oh," Lily still pouted, but then acknowledged, "yes, well I guess that's alright. Just please at least tell me you let them spot you from a long ways off, even Muggles could be dangerous if they catch sight of you."

"Worry wart," Sirius returned fondly, loving he could still pick on her at all for this and receiving the glare she gave him with pride.

He did add on that he was sorry he hadn't a chance to mention it before, but it was him who'd sent that Firebolt-

"What a shocker," James rolled his eyes with a laugh.

"Never saw that coming," Remus snickered.

Hermione interrupted to say she'd known it all along.

"And still with the 'I told you so's from her," Lily couldn't help but chuckle, still finding the girls faults more human than alienating. "Hasn't she learned anything this year?"

"Don't take so many classes," Sirius shrugged.

Ron agreed, but pointed out that it hadn't been jinxed either. Then he yelped in pain as the little owl he was still holding nipped him too hard on the finger in what it clearly thought was being kind.

"Yes, owls tend to do that a lot," James smirked, his own owl Click having a knack for doing that whenever he delivered a letter.

Back in Sirius' letter, he explained that he'd done it by having Crookshanks hand in the order for him, but the money for the broom had been taken out of his own vault.

"See, it wasn't difficult at all," Sirius laughed happily, joyfully imagining the confusion on those shopkeepers face at the cat delivering such odd instructions, but happy it had worked out for the best for his pup!

He hoped Harry would consider it worth the other thirteen years of presents he'd missed.

"It most certainly is," Harry agreed cheerfully, wishing he had it now, to share with his whole family and take another spin on it, wondering why that would cause another bump in his throat.

He also gave an apology for having frightened Harry that night when he'd been outside of his uncle's house.

'Wish you'd gotten around to asking him why he left' Remus couldn't help but think, still wanting more than anything for Sirius to go teach them a lesson about how they'd treated their Harry, but he didn't want to ruin the good mood again so soon so he hurried past that.

He'd only wanted to see Harry, but he realized he may have given him a fright.

"Perhaps a bit," Harry smiled lightly, now wishing he'd caught many more glimpses of that Grim, as it was the most important dog in the world to him, and not exactly liking that aching that wouldn't seem to go away, reminding him of how long he should be expecting the wait for the next glimpse.

He also added something else extra in the letter that should make his next year a little better for him.

That gave them all a perk of interest, what on earth could Sirius have wrangled together for Harry on the run?

He promised if Harry needed anything, all Harry would have to do was send him a letter, Hedwig would find him.

"So, was that spell like, specialized or something?" Harry asked, scratching his head as he tried to work out this complex bit of magic he'd never heard of.

"Well, yes," Sirius shrugged, trying to think of the most basic way to explain it. "I could change the spell just slightly so that only your designated letters would find me."

"You know I have been wondering though, if that spell wasn't placed on Harry long ago," Lily couldn't help but point out now that she thought about this.

"Why's that?" James scoffed.

"Well, Harry is the famous Boy Who Lived," Lily shrugged, always hating the reminder, but willing to say it to work this out loud. "That's got to come with say, some kids wanting to write to him, he is almost like a celebrity. I can't believe not one kid would have addressed an owl to him in their youth, but Harry never received a scrap of mail. If Dumbledore could wrangle together to get your key like he did first year, maybe he placed that no messages spell on you as well, and lifted it for Dumbledore himself through the Hogwarts letters, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and now Sirius. Of course that wouldn't count for the Improper Use of Magic Office, you can't get out of the trace."

"I, guess," Remus frowned, it did make some sense, even if it did bother them all the more, since any mention of Dumbledore now came with the added irritation of whatever he did to their lives, and really wishing he'd stop interfering already. If he hadn't done this, then Harry would have known his whole life he was a wizard and those Dursleys could have possibly backed off all the sooner. It hadn't happened though, and this was still more speculation than outright answers, so since Harry had no idea of the possibilities himself he just waved Remus on.

He promised he'd send more mail soon, and signed off. Then Harry peeked inside the envelope and found the other thing mentioned, and read it to find it was a note, as Harry's godfather, giving him permission to go into Hogsmeade.

"Yes!" James yelped with joy, catching Sirius by surprise by hugging him and still laughing. Sirius wasn't so unobservant he hadn't noticed James acting a little shifty, but he hadn't understood why which is why he was all the more happy he seemed to have done something good in that moment.

"How would you have even known he couldn't?" Lily couldn't help but ask between laughing. "That hadn't come up in your five minute conversation."

"I am positive I've been sending letters with Remus as well," Sirius shrugged, "maybe he mentioned it."

"I am a little disappointed," Remus couldn't actually say that with a straight face, he was smiling as well but still kept going, "now Harry won't have any reason to use that secret passage anymore."

"I'm sure Harry will still find plenty of reason to get into trouble," Lily giggled.

Harry cheered that Dumbledore would accept that! Then he noticed a PS on the first letter, and found it saying that since Sirius felt guilty Ron no longer had his pet rat, he could keep this owl.

Sirius couldn't help a violent snort of laughter, well he wasn't wrong, but at least this was his way of making up for attacking Ron that night, offering up an owl in return. What an odd way to phrase that though.

Ron went wide eyed in shock as he repeated that.

"Well that backs up that you must have found him in the wild or something," Lily giggled, "I can't see you going through an Owl shop and buying him, or stealing him from someone either."

"Hopefully Molly and Arthur won't say anything," Remus chuckled.

James couldn't help but do a double take, Ron's parents never really having occurred to him before, but suddenly wondering just how much Ron would tell them about this year. If Ron could convince his parents of Sirius' innocence, then that would be yet more people on his brother's side to help him. If he even got Percy to believe it, that would be all the better with his career path, it would do some good for someone in government to know the truth. Ron would have to be careful though, he couldn't go spouting too much before his family really believed the truth or all three kids could do more harm than good.

Ron eyed the owl still held tight in his hands in shock for a few moments before stunning them all by offering it up to Crookshanks.

Harry broke out laughing, thinking that all of their problems could have been solved a lot sooner if Ron had done that in the first place to Scabbers, cracking up even more at the idea of Ron being suspicious of an owl and not even being able to blame him.

Asking the cat what he thought, it was a real owl right? Crookshanks gave a purr.

"There's a sentence you don't get to hear much," Lily gave a half hearted laugh, wanting to find as much amusement as Harry, but the reminder only causing her more hatred again, as well as the boys.

Ron cheered that was good enough for him, he was keeping him!

"So glad someone got their wish this year," James muttered with sincerity.

Harry kept rereading his note from Sirius all the way back onto the platform.

Sirius still beamed with pleasure, happy that he could still do some good for Harry from afar. His pup would never again have to wonder if he had someone to turn to, someone out there to look after him.

He still had it tight in his hand as he went out into the rest of the world, and spotted Uncle Vernon.

Which didn't make his murder suspicions any better upon hearing of those useless excuses of caregivers all over again. He wished he could have arrived on that platform for Harry instead, wanted to be able to walk right up to them and deck them a good one and take Harry far away.

Lily still found it a bleeding miracle they showed up at all to pick up Harry, wondering at what their motives for that could be, knowing that either Harry didn't know or wouldn't tell her anyways.

He was standing a good distance away from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, eyeing them suspiciously, and his worst fears clearly came true as the first thing Mrs. Weasley did was hug Harry.

"Well how dare Harry ever receive a hug," Lily scathed, more venom then she'd expected making an appearance the more often she heard about Mrs. Weasley doing this, but her terrible theory confirmed and wondering if Mrs. Weasley was the only bleeding person to ever give Harry a hug! She wrapped an arm tight around him now to at least comfort herself.

Ron gave Harry a quick wave goodbye as the Weasley's departed, promising he'd call about the World Cup!

James gave a lackluster sigh, never having believed the idea of a Quidditch World Cup could be dampened, but hearing about those stupid Dursleys actually did the trick.

As Harry approached Uncle Vernon and he caught sight of the paper in Harry's hand, he began to threaten that had better not be some new thing he was expected to sign for! Harry told him it was a letter from his godfather, and Vernon began spluttering at once Harry had no such thing.

"I will tear every last one of your limbs off if you ever say that again," Sirius vowed, his eyes narrowing into cold slits while something else gave him a happy spark. So he couldn't be there for Harry in person, but if Harry set this up right, he could be in another more important way.

Harry said that in fact he did, he'd been his parents best friend,

Remus was so eager to hear if he was reading this right he couldn't even bring himself to make a crack about that.

that he was a convicted murderer,

"What a lovely way to start," James beamed, bouncing in place and making baby Harry trill with laughter.

and that he was on the run for now, but he'd be checking in on Harry frequently, to make sure he was happy of course.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Lily cheered, doing a little happy dance. If that didn't scare those Dursleys into treating Harry right then nothing would!

Still grinning at the look of horror on his Uncle's face, Harry wheeled his cart towards the cars outside, hoping for a much better summer than the last.

That wasn't the happy ending they'd all wanted, so many things had been left unresolved and they were just so tired of at the end of everything Harry was still forced back into their presence, but for now they'd take whatever happiness they could find, knowing by now it wasn't meant to last.

THE END

"That's the end of this one," Remus finally breathed in relief as he gave it a careless toss away from him.

"Finally," Sirius moaned, slumping back and running his hand across his face. "Remind me to skip the next one."

"No way," Harry yelped in protest, now trying for a frown but just unable to keep the expression as he teased, "then I'd miss out on all the Sirius/ serious jokes."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Lily scoffed, trying to lounge a bit more comfortably as she noticed the time. It was still too early for the next meal, but she had something even more important she wanted to discuss. She didn't really want to bring it up, but she turned to Remus with regret filled eyes and began carefully, "Remus dear, we need to have a talk."

"I know," he agreed at once, some color coming into his pasty skin, though it was red tinted with shame and some fear. His eyes flickered to the baby in James lap and away again, his hands starting to tremble as the idea just kept replaying in his head of what he'd almost done to that baby, what he could do tonight. For a wild moment he wanted to suggest that he should try to leave. Most likely the same thing would happen to him, he'd be knocked out for trying to vacate and the true monster should be as well...but what if that didn't happen? He'd never yet seen magic that would affect his transformation, so what if he did go on a rampage and possibly hurt someone? He couldn't ask Harry to come, it would be far too dangerous either way. Either Harry would be out there alone with him unconscious, or he'd have to single handedly deal with a full grown werewolf.

"You guys are overreacting," Sirius scoffed, placing his elbow carelessly on Remus' shoulder and trying for an offhand tone. "The three of us will barricade ourselves in one of the guest rooms, we'll repair whatever damage we'll make, and be done with it. Moony won't get past us," he finished, gesturing at himself and James for emphasis. "Then I'll come back down here, crash on the couch for a day, and we'll all be good to go."

"Just one problem," Harry frowned, "you should sleep in an actual bed."

Sirius made to shrug that off, but Harry cut him off.

"No way," Harry insisted, a set look in place and crossing his arms. He looked so much like James in that moment Sirius actually had to do a double take. "I've heard how bad this was going to get, and you should get a real bed. I'm sleeping down here tonight, I don't get special treatment."

"Looks like you lost Pads," James snickered as he stretched to stand up.

Remus rolled his eyes to cover a scowl as he muttered something about going to the bathroom and exited the room.

HPHPHPHPHP

Insane girly squealing taking place probably in the background even as you're reading this! I cannot believe I've actually completed three books in a row! There was a lot of hype and build up for this book, and I hope I did it justice! Please let me know what you liked or didn't like!? Got any plot holes or questions in general you want to see me dissect? Got two more chapters to post before I create 4, just because I really couldn't cram everything into the bottom of this one this time. Promise it will come up very soon, ain't no way I'm stopping now!

Thoughts on Prisoner of Azkaban:

The beginning, set up, and basically anything I've ever said previously regarding this series, still holds true 98% through the largest of portions through this book. It never felt like it was dragging to me, once again I was completely thrown off by the bang of a plot twist at the end, the setup of some small backstory on Harry's dad was done beautifully but never felt forced, there is a reason this is my second favorite book in the series. My only reserve on this book is the time travel plot at the end, which I've stated my opinion on, but even that's done so well I can't find nearly as much to complain about as I can in other medias this is done. The wonderful world of Harry Potter has successfully done one of my biggest problems of a plot and gotten away with it beautifully because of the way in which it happened. 9/10 for me! You cannot skip this book by any means, it holds too much for what happens in later books, and why would you with characters like these?

*Question offered by nahte123456! Thank you for the endless discussions you always offer!

** Question offered by maana999, kudos to you, I've never seen anyone ask this, hope you like my explanation.

***I've got a second story called Moon and Stars where Remus and Sirius do have a proper goodbye.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #Marauders #PoA #reading the books #James Potter #Lily Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black

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pretty-rad-arson-dad · 4 years ago

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Hey guys so, about the whole situation that had happened with me being fasley accused of being a pedo, I said I'd make a post telling our side of the story (cause this involves so much more than me and them) and involves about 10 other people.

Also, ahead of time, sorry if this is messy, I just really don't know how to make these kinds of posts to clear things up? Explaining things like this is not something I'm good at. I was also going to post this sooner, but stuff in my persona life happened, and I've also received threats from this person's friends if I tried to come forward with my side of the story (or more like made anymore posts about it, as there's already a whole call-out post about them on Instagram, which I'll be showing later). After some debate, I actually realized it would probably be best if I actually did, just to get a warning out, even though I know there's a chance this won't be recieved well cause this is fucking Tumblr... And again, I'm just trying to tell our side of the story and warn others so the same doesn't happen to them. Also because I do believe this guy might have a Tumblr account and might try to seek out more people to abuse. I sure as hell know one of his friends who helped stalk us have a Tumblr though.

So, the person making the accusations was someone who joined my discord server, and at the time of joining, he was saying that he was of age. Several members on the server can vouch for me when I say this. Of course, in regards to him telling us he was of age, this is apparently something he failed to mention when he decided to make that callout conveniently enough. I'm still unsure of what his actual age is, wether he actually lied to us about being an adult when he joined the server or if he was lying when he claimed to be a minor in his callout.

Anyways, sometime after he joined the server, he started to become a problem. Me, being an idiot and feeling bad for him, allowed his behavior to slide, though I didn't know the full extent of what he was doing til a bit later.

He would constantly talk about how he was being abused and we'd try and help him with advice, which he never really listened to, and if anyone on the server mentioned that they had done something fun or had a great time doing something that day, he'd go off and make us feel guilty for having fun, cause his at home life was shit and apparently if he wasn't happy, we couldn't be either. He actually tried to pull some shit while I was celebrating my birthday with my family. This kinda becomes a bit important later? Or at least the day becomes important later.

He's also known as kind of a pathological liar on the server, claiming that they one of the official FNAF artists (one who doesn't exist, btw), and start rumors about YouTubers and other people we liked, and whenever I'd ask for proof, they'd get all defensive. This itself isn't a big deal, except he also has the tendancy to start rumors that people are pedos if he gets into a heated argument with said person. It's actually happened when one of my friends said he didn't feel comfortable with people shipping things between adults and children. This caused a giant argument to erupt and I had to temporarily boot said friend from the server. At this time, my accuser then decided to make accusations that the friend of mine was a pedo because he... Didn't like people shipping adults and children.... Of course, we told him to cut the bullshit and stop causing rumors.

Now, keep in mind, they got upset over someone being grossed out by shipping adults and children.

This becomes a bit important later.

We ended up having a few other problems with them as time went on, them critizing other members AUs (well, more along the lines of bullying them for their AUs and projects), more guilt tripping and at one point, even bragging about pushing someone to suicide (at least that's what 2 of the other server members are telling me, I can't confirm this, as it seems it happened during a period I had no internet, and there's a good chance they might have deleted it, but do feel free to take this with a grain of salt).

Eventually, he actually ended up leaving the server for good because of Tupperbot. Adding the stupid bot was the second best decision I've ever made in regards to him, honesty.

However, for a lot of us, the main tipping point was the roleplays and private DMs.

He loved to roleplay some pretty fucked up shit with a lot of people on the server. We've actually had one member as young as 11 come forward and say he had tried to do shit with them too. Keep in mind, he told us he was an adult when he joined. He would love to roleplay all sorts of weird, incestous and pedophilic shit with us, and would force it on us out of the fucking blue. Another thing worth mentioning, me and a few others are victims of childhood sexual abuse and rape. He CONSTANTLY put this shit in most of the roleplays he did with no regard to how triggering it was for some of us. We never even got a warning or an ask if it was okay to have something like that put in a roleplay. Some members spoke to him about their discomfort involving the shit he was putting in the roleplays, but it was disregarded and he'd continue to do it. Some of us were even so scared to say anything about it, as we were afraid he'd lash out at us and threaten us, so we just put up with it.

Aside from the roleplays were the really weird direct messages he'd sometimes send. There were times someone would be venting (this would happen in the server as well) and he'd respond with that they had no reason to be upset and that he's been through much worse. There would also be times when someone would be feeling depressed, and he'd make these private little group chats to try and "intervene" by inviting a few of us in there with the said person. This would be fine on its own, but he always made it a point to invite one person that we've REPEATEDLY had to tell him not to invite. I'll call this person Wah, cause I don't want to cause them any more stress by exposing their account name. Wah was someone we've told him not to invite because she was, at the time, experiencing a lot of suicidal idealations and we were worried putting her in a situation like this where one of her friends was feeling like killing themselves and her having to help to talk them down would be the sort of thing to set her off into hurting herself. We obviously didn't want that, so we made it a rule not to ever get Wah involved. Accuser knew this and went and always invited Wah anyways. And would shrug it off whenever we'd go off and remind him of Wah's own mental health issues. There has also been at least one instance with them and another user, who was feeling suicidal. They mentioned they had been wanting to kill themselves and accuser went off about how if they killed themself, accuser would kill themself too. This obviously scared the shit out of this person and made them feel more awful.

And there of course, is the shit they did to me. They'd sometimes randomly flip out on me in my DMs out of literally fucking no where, and purposely trigger my PTSD.

There's more, but I can't remember all of it because just so much went on.

Anyways, sometime after they left the server, people began coming forward with their experiences with accuser, telling all that he'd been doing in DMs, and mentioning his prior behavior on the server. We started venting about the way he had been treating us in the vents chat because well, we figured if we couldn't try to talk to him about his behavior, at least we could vent amongst ourselves. Apparently he had actually made a few friends on the server and they let him know we were talking about him.

Fast forward to my birthday celebration and I'm getting DMs from him. They start our fine enough but eventually he suggests we start a thing where we mention one positive thing that's happened to us each day. Cool, a fine idea on it's own, but as I've mentioned above, he's had the tendancy to make us feel like shit for having anything cool and fun in our lives, so of course me, and a few other people who apparently had received the same message, were hesitant.

I left him on read to think about it and also because, again, I was celebrating my birthday and I was about to blow out the candles on my cake and open gifts.

I don't remember all of what went down, and I don't seem to have access to the Instagram DMs anymore since I have him blocked on there too, but eventually, I received a message of him flipping out because he knew about our vents. I believe I might have ended up calling him out and telling him exactly why we were doing it, but I can't remember. This happened back in May so the memory is a bit fuzzy and I don't have the DMs anymore.

All I know is that most of the members of the server decided to cut him off.

After that, he tried to tell Wah I wasn't who I seemed to be and attempted to ruin our friendship, made several accounts to stalk the Instagram accounts of serveral other of the server members and I, and then we ended up having to kick a few of their friends from the server cause they were starting to cause trouble.

Then there was silence for a bit.

And then there was the incident. They had gotten a (at the time former) friend of ours involved by lying and manipulating them into believing I was doing all sorts of nasty shit. The friend, who I'm going to call Pasta, ended up bringing that stuff over to Tumblr, unaware that they had been lied to. I'm not sure if it was Pasta who reached out to us, or if it was one of us who reached out to Pasta, but we ended up telling them what was going on, and somehow, accuser found out, and accused them of being a traitor and freaked out on them. They admitted that accuser was responsible and we ended up making up.

I've also since then had some of accusers former friends come to me and tell me about the call-out, further confirming that it was them who started all this as a way to try and get back at me.

And, since of course some obligatory proof is required, I shall provide these call-out posts with some screenshots. And you can even see in the comments we're far from the only ones who have dealt with them.

These aren't the only things from them, obviously, but considering the fact that we've all now got them blocked and some of us have even deleted the DMs (because tbh, most of us thought that cutting them off would be the last of it), this is what we currently have.

Anyways, thanks for reading this long ass mess. Hope y'all stay safe.

#drama #//pedophilia #//incest #//rape

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stevenismyboy · 4 years ago

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I like me better when I’m with you ~Part 5.

a/n: three parts to go, yay! I'm super proud of this piece, I hope you like it too! My masterlist is finally working properly, I solved the problem so you can find the previous parts there!

summary: based on ‘To All The Boys I Loved Before’. Y/N Henderson used to be in love a couple of times. This time she’s sure it’s something bigger, something serious. Her love for Jonathan Byers is unlimited, untamed and endless. At least she thought so.

warnings: mentions of alcohol, lightly drunk reader

Something's changed that night. You weren't exactly sure what, you didn't know what to call it, but that feeling was with you all the way to Steve's friend's house. You had the feeling that the electricity was flowing through your body, just like on those nights when a storm is about to come. And today the sky was completely cloudless.

Steve was driving a totally different way from Jonathan. He was driving with one hand, clenching his ankles loosely. The other hand was hanging lazy on the door from his side, the wind blew his hair when he opened the window. And although he looked more like he was lying on a couch than he was driving, he was completely focused, reacting to walkers and changing lights.

He was so focused that he didn't see you looking at him. Or he didn't want to see. He was sure that if he looked at you for a moment, he might not look away. He didn't have a 13-year-old girl sitting next to him anymore, but a lovely teenager. He'd rather focus on the road than on you, because, my God, he could swear he'd drown in your eyes.

“I don't know, Steve...” you said not so sure when the boy stopped in front of a house full of people. It's weird that he found a parking space when the street was completely covered in drunken kids' cars. You leaned forward, resting your hands on the dashboard, trying to see anyone you knew through the big windows of the residence. The music tried to break through the walls so you could hear it already in the driveway. “Are you sure you don't want to go with someone else? I don't know your friends...”

“Do I really need to remind you of our rules, Miss Henderson? You committed to something with your signature” Steve bent his head and looked at you insightfully. You nervously bit your lower lip. School was a necessity. You had to be there every day anyway. But a party? People really think there's something serious between you two. And what's worse... what if you feel something serious between you two? “I promise if you feel bad or don't like it, we'll go home”.

“I don't want to ruin your night” you moved your arm. Steve opened the door slightly. “Conversely. I'm sure I'm gonna have even better fun with you” he smiled. Your hand went to the handle, but before you opened the door, Steve circled the car to help you and did it for you. You were shocked when he gave you his hand. “My lady” he bowed slightly and you could see he was trying not to laugh. With his help, you got out of the car. You went up the stairs shoulder to shoulder, but before Steve opened the door, you stopped in front of them, taking some deep breaths to calm down. The boy turned to you and put his hand on your shoulders. Where his fingertips came into contact with your skin, goose bumps immediately appeared on it.

“I won't even leave you for a moment unless you want to, okay? They'll like you. If any of the boys... says or do something that makes you upset, tell me right away. I'll take care of it. And... have some fun” Steve smiled and pinched you gently on the cheek like your disliked Aunt Ruth, who visited you and Dustin on Christmas. But Steve's gesture was different, not annoying, not unnerving, more... adorable.

“I trust you. And that's the only reason I know I'm gonna have a good time” you said and you were the first to open the door. Surprised Steve let himself be dragged inside right behind you, into a whirl of bodies, music and alcohol. He greeted everyone with a broad smile, holding your hand. Everybody knew who you were, they sent you friendly smiles or jealous glances, but that doesn't matter. As long as Steve's hand held your hand, nothing could happen to you.

“Harrington! You made it!” Evan, the tall blonde boy who apparently owned the house and was the host, patted Steve on the back, almost pouring out his drink from red cup. His eyes were glowing at your sight, the corner of his mouth was up. “And you brought your fiancée! Nice to meet you. Harrington has been bothering us with stories about you after every training. Believe me, sometimes it was hard to believe you were real”.

“Really?” you asked surprised and you looked at Steve, who got nervous and his eyesight went somewhere above you. You did know that Steve had to tell the boys on the team something, but did he really talk about you as often as Evan said?

“Don't embarrass her, Y/N can be very shy” he finally said something got his arm around you. “It wasn't me who started blushing” you said, looking at his red cheeks. Evan laughed, and Steve looked at you. A small creature that clung to his side and smiled innocently, even though it was annoying him on purpose. He couldn't help but smiled, even though his cheeks were burning from the inside. Until then, only Nancy was able to embarrass him. He didn't expect anyone else to succeed.

“It's beautiful here. This is your new place?” he changed the subject quickly. Get yourself together, man. “Parents. But I take the credit” Evan touched his shoulder. “I guess I'd like a drink. You want something? A drink, coke, water?” Steve asked. His hand went down your back, stroking you along your spine. “Drink, please. But I'm begging you, don't be like Robin. I'd rather have more juice in the cup than vodka, or let the proportions be equal” you ask, and made puppy eyes.

“I'm feeling a little offended. I can not only consume but also prepare alcohol perfectly. Stay here, Henderson, and wait for me to bring you something, and then you'll feel like you're in paradise!” Steve started screaming as he was getting further and further into the crowd. You laughed quietly, standing on your toes to see his hand still waving at you.

It turned out there was nothing to be afraid of. The boys on the team turned out to be quite nice, at least those around Evan. Their girls sent you friendly looks, one complimented your outfit. Steve made you feel safe, but his friends didn't give you any cause for concern.

“Well, well. Nice to see you, Y/N. Outside the school” somebody's been talking to you, standing behind your back. You turned around seeing Becky, in fancy makeup and hair tied up in a tight ponytail. Becky had P.E with you and Robin. She was pretty fit, and you guys... well, let's just say running wasn't your strength. She's the one who threw a nasty commentary at your friend the day the letters suddenly disappeared from your room. And ... is it possible that that's who Steve was talking about when he said he liked her?

“I heard... and I saw that you and Harrington are a thing now” she added, shaking her arm. “Becky, pushing people was probably always your strong point. Give her a break” Evan asked. “You're right” you moved your arm towards her. “Me and Steve... we're dating”

“Since when? How did this happen? I didn't expect that... you might be friends” Becky wrinkled her nose as if talking to you was completely below her dignity. Once again, something that should be obvious has become a problem for you. Sooner or later, one of the girls had to ask. Nancy is different. Nancy is your friend, she's not pressing, she's not mean or sarcastic. But Becky? This conversation could end badly.

“How far has it gotten? I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Steve... Honey, I don't think he's looking for a permanent person. He's looking for someone with whom... who he could have a nice time with. I don't think you're willing to make that deal, do you?”

You swallowed your saliva, praying that Steve feels something's wrong. So that something would touch him in the kitchen, so he'd put down a bottle of vodka and come back here as soon as he could. “You're right, Becky. Y/N wouldn't be willing, but apparently you are, if you're trying to upset her and make her doubt” Evan said angrily.

“I'm only saying this because I know her. I don't want her to get hurt” the girl pouted out her lower lip. It's obvious that none of what she said was honest. “And I know Steve” you said quickly, even though Evan already gently pulled you away from the girl. “And I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt me or anyone else. So if you're only doing this because you're angry that he didn't come here with you... I'm sorry for you, Becky”.

The girl clenched her fingers so tightly on the cup that her ankles whitened and drops of alcohol splashed on the floor. She walked away mad as a wasp, without saying a word more. “Everything okay?” Steve spoke suddenly behind you. Evan left you alone, pointing his finger at Becky leaving, and then he made a disgusting face. Steve served you your drink. His dark eyes were full of worry. He didn't understand what was happening or what happened. He was starting to get angry at himself. For promising not to leave you, then he disappeared in the kitchen just to get a drink.

I know Steve. You smiled at yourself. Would you have been able to say that a couple of weeks ago? Of course not. But it took a few days in his company, really in his company, to see what he really is. Warm, tender, caring. It's not the Steve that Becky described. That's your Steve. The one you once knew.

“Nothing to worry about. Evan and I handled it ourselves” you said a smile and put your hand on his shoulder to calm him down. Steve relaxed by your touch, waiting for you to dip your mouth in a drink. The liquid flowed down your throat, smoking it from the bitter and spicy taste of vodka, which softened the sweetness of coke. Your eyes went wide, you licked your lips. “This is actually really good! What did you add here?”

“You don't want to know” Steve twisted his head, laughed and drunk himself. “I hope... it's not a beer” you said quickly. The boy twisted his head again. “I'm driving. It's just orange juice. Only your drink took me so long, so you'll have to forgive me” he shrugged his shoulder innocently. You laughed and drank the drink to the end. The cup landed on the coffee table, and your shoulders went into Steve's hand. You took his drink, dragged him into the crowd.

“I suddenly felt like dancing” you laughed, clenching your fingers on his shirt.

Steve swore to God, he didn't want you to get drunk.

He didn't drink a drop, knowing he had to get in the car and take you both home safely. When you asked him for another two drinks, he agreed without hesitation, but he didn't know you had such a weak head. You were on your feet, but everything started to be funny for you, your giggle mixed with the music, the words sometimes resembled gibberish in combination with the music played by Cutting Crew.

“Steve. Suddenly. Incredibly. I got hungry” you said suddenly, with a serious expression on your face, stopping to dance. So Steve didn't even wait a moment longer. He went into the kitchen, took so much food out of it that a few packs of crisps slipped out of his hands and went out with you before you could do it yourself.

You walked next to each other, laughing loudly at Evan, who was taking off his shirt in the living room. You held Steve's arm like a lifebelt, afraid that your legs would let you down and you were not wrong. As soon as you were both on the dewy lawn, your sneakers slipped on the grass, and you fell on your ass painfully, pulling Steve behind you. He landed on his back, looking up at the sky full of stars, and then he looked at you, writhing with laughter, in a dirty green shirt.

“Oops” you just managed to say, when tears flowed out of your eyes. “Oops? This situation doesn't qualify for 'oops'! That shirt was new!”. “I'm sorry” you said, desperately trying to stop laughing. You must've looked hilarious, holding on to your sore stomach, gagging in the wet grass in the driveway. “Whatever. You'll just wash it. I didn't expect you to be so strong”. “Hey!” you wrinkled your eyebrows and looked offended at him. Your face made him laugh again. “I'm small, but strong”.

“You don't even know what the top shelf looks like”. “Listen-” you tried to say something, but he quickly put a cake in your mouth to keep you quiet. You lay back on the grass, but Steve was too afraid you'd choke, so he helped you sit down.

“Dustin can't find out about this. He would laugh at me for the rest of his life”. “Because your ass is drunk or because you fell down with me in front of all the guests?” “Both. You can't tell him that. Otherwise... I'll be very, very angry at you”. “I will think about it. You ruined my shirt, I can ruin your life”. “You're really like that?” you asked, reaching over him for another cookie, but the he raised his hand so much that you couldn't reach the box. “I hope you trip into a puddle”.

“Well, I hope you fall of a ladder” he showed you his tongue, though it wasn't very mature. “Yeah?. Well, I hope you step on Lego” you added, and he opened his mouth. “Okay, that went way too far!” he said and threw the cakes on the ground when his fingers went to your sides. He couldn't remember where you were ticklish, but as soon as you laughed, he remembered where you were most sensitive. His fingers went up to your belly and then up to your neck. It all hurt from laughing. You got winded trying to free yourself from his hands, but he wouldn't stop until your pants were completely wet from rolling in the dew.

“I guess that's enough. Because you're gonna die right here” Steve took a deep breath, moving away from you. “Thank God” you said, trying to get up and rest your head on your knees. You laughed for a while until suddenly there was silence. Except for the music, laughter and conversations coming from the house, none of you made any sound. Your cheeks were red from laughter, warmed up from emotions. Steve fixed his hair and looked at you, laughing and amused like a child.

“You did good over there. Becky was furious” he confessed, when you both calmed down so much that you could actually tell each other full sentences instead of uncontrollable laughter. “I hope this was the first and last time you” you said, opening a pack of jellies. “I like the fact that you weren't afraid of her. You didn't even need Evan to help”. “She's scaring me. By the way, she's not the only one. Carol was always scaring me too”. “Carol?” Steve snorted in disbelief. “She was only strong in talk. She's such a coward when it comes to real confrontation”.

“But her presence is intimidating. Because of the way she treats other people. That's why everyone prefers to stay away from her” you said it quietly, raising your shoulders. The stars were shining so bright that you even squinted your eyes to get used to them. I'm only being honest with you.

“So be honest with me” Steve said suddenly, turning his head away from the sky to look at you. “Why... of all the people at school... you told Jonath that you love me?”

“I can't answer that question” you admited. Although the alcohol was still flowing in your veins, you could have sworn you were absolutely sober at that moment. “You were the first person that came to my mind. I didn't even have to work harder than that. I just... I thought of you. Maybe because you were the first boy in my life... the first boy I ever had feelings for. Before Ralph or Stanley showed up. Maybe you never really came out of my head and you're still sitting there, just... just not in the same way you used to”.

He sat there quietly for a while. He had to digest it, rethink what you said. In some way, he never forgot about you either. Maybe he just thought he did, because he preferred spending time with someone else, but somewhere in the back of his head he still remembered the smile of the girl you used to be. He remembered riding on bikes together, swimming in his pool, although his parents forbade you to do so. The memories that he had hidden deep in his heart came out and took over him completely, not wanting to be hidden again.

“You think that... when this is all over and we stop pretending... We're gonna let this whole show go... we can still be friends?” he asked, full of worries. Fear of your answer paralyzed him. He even stopped feeling the cold. He'll understand if you disagree, but will he be able to stop talking to you? Stop saying hello in the hallway, drive up to your house every morning? Will he be able to give it all up?

“I don't think it'll be easy to forget about you now, Steven Harrington” you said quietly. He turned around carefully to look you in the eye. His hand went to your cheek. He gently pulled the hair off your face to get a better look at you. “Yeah?” he asked. Your breathing mixed together. You smelled his hairspray, perfume and washing powder. If he does what he's definitely going to do now, he'll break the rules. You made it clear in the contract that you didn't want it. And as partners, you have to stick to the rules.

“Yeah” you felt like his lips are touching the corner of your mouth first, like he's waiting for an invitation, confirming that what he's doing won't make you angry. And you gave it to him. You opened your lips a little, deepening his kiss, digging your fingers into his long hair. Do friends do that too? You didn't know. But you knew that every day, Jonathan's place as a fairy tale prince in your head was replaced by Steve.

Taglist: @mochminnie @sydzygy @krazykatkay456 @ghostineleven @the-almond-dinger @l0ve-0f-my-life @jxnehxpper

#steve harrington imagine #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #jonathan byers imagine #jonathan byers #dustin henderson imagine #dustin henderson #robin buckley imagine #robin buckley #nancy wheeler imagine #nancy wheeler #stranger things imagine #stranger things

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