#I remember seeing a beautiful picture of him holding a stuffed rabbit a long time

[daxwormzz]

Youngin years

[translations-by-aiimee]

Dig a Grave to Dig Out a Ghost - Chapter 28

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 28 - Immortal

In some remote mountainous areas in the south, Miao women used clay pots and menstrual blood to raise hundreds of insects. They sealed them, placed them in a damp place and cast curses on them. Once the day was done, the poisonous insects will have killed each other and the last one was embodied with Gu poison*. The curse made with Gu poison could make someone's love interest fall helplessly in love with them for the rest of his life, and it could also plague one's enemy with nightmares, madness, and even death. The women who concocted Gu poison were typically loners, often muttering to no one, avoided by the general public.

*(T/N: 蛊 - Gu poison was believed to be the combination of all the venoms from the insects that died and would be used for black magic in southern regions of China)

In Nanyang Black Magic, they would use the body of a baby that died recently, boiled out the toyol*, poured it on a puppet doused in human blood and placed it in the home. The imprisoned baby ghost would protect the house but the curse-caster will be punished. They would also carve birthdates into wood, causing the other to die.

*(T/N: 尸油 - literally 'corpse oil.' I'll spare you the graphic details but basically taking a dead body's chin and boiling it until oil drains out of it)

This black magic flourished in the Ming Dynasty. The Eastern Depot eunuchs* were in turmoil. Everyone was reporting each other, no one would speak to each other, eyes darting between each other daily. These curses were developed as a branch of Daoism to oppose political rivals. A-Yan said that the Daoist practices used to drive out ghosts and save people were declining, but this black magic has stuck around. It was one of the biggest spots in Daoist history.

*(T/N: 东厂 - a secret police & spy agency run by eunuchs meant to suppress political opposition towards the emperor)

Saturday morning was a beautiful day. The sun was shining but not to the point of being unbearably hot. The distant mountains stood silently under the blue sky. A black Audi passed quickly through the country’s tree-lined roads, raising a cloud of grit and dust. A white goose with its head held high on the roadside was startled by the car, flapping its wings and stretching its neck to hide behind a fence.

The car stopped at a small farmhouse in the northwest corner of the village.

In the courtyard, a tall Shuzi tree stretched out dense branches, looking extraordinarily vibrant. In contrast, the entire courtyard was strangely decrepit. A well was covered by a millstone and the stone-paced path was full of weeds. The doors of the three mud-brick houses were closed, with straw curtains covering the doors and windows covered with dust.

Everything was very different from a month ago. Lin Yan remembered that the last time he came here, there were hens and rabbits. The old lady in blue embroidered clothing was kneeling on the futon with her eyes closed. The small courtyard was filled with the mysterious atmosphere of the countryside. The current yard would give people the impression that the homeowner hadn't been home for years when, in fact, a fresh grave in the back of the mountain had only been built a month ago. Rural people were convinced that the houses inhabited by the living were blessed by the gods and sheltered from the elements for decades. Once the owner of the house dies, the gods will follow, so the empty house often collapsed and was destroyed in less than six months.

"When Second Immortal Gu was in the village, she would help children that fell sick with fever, and the adults that were dealing with evil spirits. Young men would ask her when they'd get married and, for the right price, she'd tell them." The village chief said with a cigarette in his mouth.

The village leader knew Yin Zhou’s mother well. He heard that Yin Zhou wanted to bring someone to pay tribute to Second Immortal Gu and waited at the entrance of the village to welcome them. It took ten minutes to drive from the village leader's house to Second Immortal Gu’s house. The village head smoked four cigarettes in a row. Yin Zhou squeezed his eyes shut while Lin Yan and the little Daoist priest twisted their heads out of the window every 30 seconds to gasp for a breath of fresh air. The village chief was the only one of them chatting in the smoky car. Lin Yan saw how the complaints of three people and a ghost just flew over his head.

If a ghost could complain.

Lin Yan found a roll of incense from the little Daoist's bag and lit it. He put the incense burner at the door of the mud-brick house and offered his respects.

"Last time, we left just before Second Immortal Gu had her accident. I should have come to offer some incense sooner, it's just things with school got busy and I haven't been able to make it until now." Lin Yan brushed the straw curtain and the accumulated dust fell on his face. "Cough, cough. Does - Does anyone take care of this place?"

"Of course not. You big city kids wouldn't know. Doing this line of work is only good for putting food on the table. Immortal Gu came out here in her twenties. In less than ten years, her husband and two sons had died and she was the only one left. She couldn't even save herself." The village leader stuffed his yellow striped shirt into his pants. "Don't feel bad. No immortal in this village could escape that fate."

"Come on, let's go, you guys are here to see her grave. We don't put up any gravestones here. We just build a stone platform, but the villagers will remember who it's for. I'll take you up there."

The sun was growing hotter. Several of them used broken branches to smack the grass in case of snakes while they hiked up the rugged mountain trail. A rural cemetery wasn't as neat as an urban cemetery. Each family claimed a spot, with every newly deceased buried next to the rest of their family. The grave was a prominent mound of dirt with a large stone on top. Some of the graves were too old to even make out the mound, the ground studded with small light blue flowers. A date palm tree grew wildly, and they needed to watch their step when walking so they wouldn't disturb the resting dead.

Second Immortal Gu's grave was off on its own. The mound was freshly dug. Other than a crooked wreath lying on it, it was indistinguishable from the older graves that had been abandoned for years.

The scene made Lin Yan feel incredibly guilty. He burned a large stack of paper dollars in front of the grave, playing with his branch while saying silently in his mind: Auntie, if you're still here, please come back and tell us who harmed you. We'll avenge your death.

The village chief took the cigarettes Lin Yan had bought him and squatted off in the distance to smoke. Lin Yan winked at the little Daoist priest and said softly, "Let's start?"

A-Yan nodded and took out a crumpled photo from his pocket that he had found in a frame in Immortal Gu's house. The immortal in the photo was still very young, wearing a floral cotton jacket and staring vacantly ahead.

"Now isn't a good time. The s-sun is too high. The mountains are filled with Yang energy, and the ghosts may not be able to be reached." A-Yan said. He jumped up and grabbed a twig from the date tree above his head. He hung a spirit summoning flag on it and patted the dust off his shoulders. "Here's a picture, here are the bones. Um, Lin Yan, I'm going to borrow your birthdate for this."

Before Lin Yan had time to ask, the little Daoist priest handed him a dagger. Unlike his usual mahogany sword, this one was actually made of metal. The handle seemed to be a few years old, and the tip of the blade gleaming a bright white in the sunlight.

"H-Hold this for a minute. You might feel a little uncomfortable, but don't let it go." A-Yan instructed: "I-I'll read one sentence and you read the next."

Yin Zhou chuckled but he felt that it probably wasn't the time to laugh so he quickly turned his laughter into a string of coughs.

Surprisingly, A-Yan never stuttered whenever he talked about Taoism and charms, Lin Yan muttered.

Time passed by and it was almost noon. The date trees in the mountains couldn't block the hot sun. After standing there for a long time, most of them were covered in a layer of sweat. The village leader couldn't bear the heat and left to join some nearby people to drink some tea. Lin Yan stood in front of the grave with the dagger in his hand. He rubbed the sweat on his cheeks off with his shoulder, hoping that this time it would be over quickly.

The little Daoist started reciting. His voice didn't sound like proper speech, but the slow rate of speech wasn't too difficult to follow. Lin Yan held the hilt of the dagger and along with the chant. Not even halfway through the incantation, Lin Yan already began to feel that something was wrong. The temperature around him began to drop, and the hot sweat condensed on his back. He kept shivering like he was suffering from heatstroke. A chill came from the handle of the dagger. First, the temperature seeped into his palm, and then his whole arm, up to his shoulders, through the bones in his spine to the back of his head in a numb wave. It was as if he wasn't holding a dagger but a frozen fish that had been left in the bottom tray of the freezer for a year.

The spirit summoning flag above his head began to move.

"It's cold." Lin Yan took a breath and scanned the silent mountains around him. "Have you reached the soul?"

"I t-think I found her." The little Daoist hesitated. "Huh. . . that's weird. . ."

After reciting two more incantations, the bone-chilling cold air had spread to his calves. Lin Yan's teeth chattered and he shivered out: "A-. . . A-Yan, are you sure this is okay. . . it's too. . . cold. . ."

The chanting continued, the little Daoist priest shot him a sideways glance, his eyes cold. Lin Yan can only brace himself to keep follow the mantra incantations, a heavy cold sweat forming on his forehead.

"Hold on for a little longer. The soul is bound to something, I want to break it free." A-Yan gritted his teeth, and a piece of talisman paper was slapped against the blade. All of a sudden, the cold washed over him like a tsunami. Lin Yan's whole body felt like it was being stabbed by needles, veins popping on his forehead from the pain.

"A-Yan, what are you doing?!" Yin Zhou knew something wasn't right when he saw Lin Yan's lips turn blue. "If you can't do it now, someone's going to get hurt. Lin Yan, use the ghost that's following you!"

"Almost there. Don't let go!" The little Daoist was flushed a sickly pale colour and he rapidly chanted the mantra. The spirit summoning flag above his head was being whipped by the wind. There was a ripping sound and the whole piece of cloth was torn in half and fluttered down onto the old grave in the distance.

"I-It's okay. . . A-Yan, go faster. . ." Lin Yan was so cold that he could barely get his tongue to work. He tried to move the hand with the dagger to it but he found that his skin was stuck to the metal and he couldn't budge it. He was shivering from his arms all the way down to his legs. Lin Yan staggered back and stepped on the bag they'd brought, almost falling backwards.

A force of strength supported his back. Xiao Yu's voice sounded right when he needed him, but his low voice didn't let him retort: "Let go."

Xiao Yu's hand covered the back of Lin Yan's hand. Compared to the temperature of the dagger, his palm was actually warm. It was just right to block the cold air that kept pouring into Lin Yan's arm. A-Yan's expression changed in an instant and he shouted loudly: "Back off, beast!"

"I'll fucking finish this. . ." Lin Yan abruptly closed his eyes and pressed his palm to the blade. All at once, the bone-chilling cold air felt like ten thousand needles running through his palm up to his arm. At the same time, there was a cold that grew behind him. He quickly opened his eyes but Second Immortal Gu hadn't appeared. On the contrary, Xiao Yu snapped Lin Yan's wrist with completely overwhelming strength, forcing the sharp weapon out of his hand.

The moment the dagger was taken out of Lin Yan's hand, he felt like he was immediately torn out of an ice block and thrown into a fire. The ritual was broken, the hot sunlight licked his back, making his whole body numbly feel like it was going to dissolve. However, he couldn't care less about his body's reaction. What happened next made Lin Yan and Yin Zhou - who was freaking out off to the side - shocked. They saw Xiao Yu holding the dagger inching towards A-Yan, frigid eyes filled with killing intent. When the palm of his hand touched the hilt of the knife, it sounded like searing flesh. But he didn't care. He grabbed A-Yan's collar with one hand, and violently plunged the dagger toward his left eye with the other!

Lin Yan's mind kicked into action. He subconsciously rushed over to hold Xiao Yu's waist, using all his strength to drag him back. However, something was wrong with the little Daoist priest, too. His usual cowardice was gone and his eyes burned with rage. He rolled away and broke free, rapidly taking out a handful of cinnabar and tossing it towards Xiao Yu. His voice changed because of the trembling: "An evil beast is an evil beast. You can't stay!"

"What the fuck is going on!" Yin Zhou couldn't see Xiao Yu. He could only see the little Daoist tumbling on the ground alone trying to avoid a shimmering dagger. Lin Yan's nerves were fried. While dragging Xiao Yu back, he roared towards Yin Zhou: "How the hell should I know? You grab A-Yan!"

He had never seen Xiao Yu so angry. The midday sun was burning and blinding. The ghost's whole body was emitting a faint greenish-black aura. The knuckles of both hands snapped open, sharp claw-like nails grabbing the back of the Daoist priest's head. Lin Yan thought he was seeing things and closed his eyes, but the scene stayed the same. The place where the ghost stood glowed a greenish-black and the place where the human stood was a dancing orange fire, intertwining with each other, but the orangish-yellow flames were gradually dying out. . .

Later, he would learn that people have yang energy and ghosts have yin energy. When the energy was extremely concentrated, he could directly perceive the yin and yang without his eyes confusing it in his mind. This was the foundation of excellent Taoism. He had inadvertently opened a long-closed door to the mystical arts.

However, the current situation was extremely dangerous. Xiao Yu held A-Yan’s neck with one hand and the dagger cut inch by inch into the little Daoist priest's arm blocking it. The hand holding the knife was searing black from the contact with the blade of the evil spirit's. A Yan's face grew purple, his eyes bulging. Lin Yan didn't dare to hesitate for a moment and scrambled over to protect A-Yan from behind. There was a clanging sound and the dagger rolled to the ground.

The little Daoist broke free from the evil spirit's hands, clutching his bleeding wound and groaning intermittently: "Lin Yan. . . Immortal Gu. . . Immortal Gu's spirit is trapped. . . I couldn't get her. . ."

Lin Yan supported the little Daoist's shoulders. His eyes gleamed, and the soft deer-like eyes were different from those when he had when he cast the spell. "The curse. . . Be careful." A-Yan whispered. Lin Yan hadn't gotten the chance to ask what was going on before his thin body couldn't support his own weight. His eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Lin Yan and Yin Zhou looked at each other, shocked by the outcome, unable to utter a word.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Tokyo Love Story (Part 5) The Truth of Black Swan

The following Scene takes elements and themes from the novel scenes and game quests surrounding Akira and Kogure Sakurai and weaves them into the MCs journey in a way that is meaningful. This scene does not appear in the Novel or the Game.

Please Enjoy

You’re riding in the passenger side of Chance’s Audi R8, the city lights flashing across the pale makeup on your face. Caesar might have turned up his nose at the car, but you found it very stylish and unpretentious. It was a sports car you could drive to work. You stare out the window at the many people walking down the streets. Tokyo’s nightlife was just as vibrant as the daytime. Only, instead of being locked in the offices for work, people spilled into the streets to visit karaoke bars and eat street food. There were also plenty of couples holding hands and laughing. Girls in skirts and women in tight dresses walking with friends. Men in sports jackets and a few in suits and ties. The people your age were casual in t-shirts and jeans.

When you imagined going to the big city, it was something like this. Having lots of friends, going out on the town, enjoying food and walking under lights.

Chance’s phone vibrated. “Yes, she’s with me, we’re on our way to the safe spot, notify me of the all clear.”

His expression was grim and he spoke like a soldier reporting to his commander. You’d only seen him as a carefree guy but now he was acting as a member of the Devil Clan, a Yakuza organization. Looking up at this, you notice that he’s no less muscled than Caesar, but he was a bit more wiry and lithe.

“We’ll give it a couple of hours to let things calm down before taking you back.” He said, stuffing the phone in his pocket.

“Thanks,” you say. “I have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“Did Izanami really love Izanagi?” You rest your head against the window.

“That’s a matter of philosophical debate, even among White King Descendents. Her motives were selfish. She fooled him and lied to him. But when he betrayed her, no one can deny her emotional reaction had to be rooted in some genuine attachment.” He maneuvered the car as he spoke, keeping his eyes on the road. “The common consensus is, for dragons, love is never the goal. It’s a means to an end. Once that end is fulfilled, love fades or dies completely. If the object of the dragon’s love refuses to cooperate with the end goal, that love can quickly turn to hatred. Humans pursue love for the sake of it. But Dragons do not. The emotions are real, but they’re not the goal.”

“That seems manipulative.” You say.

“It can be. Keep in mind that Izanagi wasn’t exactly the best example of human love either. Bottom line, it’s not good for humans and dragons to fall in love. They both will end up hurt somehow. But it does happen.”

He keeps driving until the city spires flatten to more residential spaces. You pull into a small park with rolling terraformed hills and tiled roof shelters. Chance killed the lights on his car and opened the door, getting out with a briefcase. “We can hide out here for a while.”

At the center of the park is a large dark lake. The stars couldn’t be seen over the lights of the city and the moon was shrouded by dense clouds. He leads you by the hand through a pea gravel path. You could feel your cheeks grow warm. The idea of running away to hide from the world with a man was depicted in TV shows you watched and in magazines you read, but now it was happening to you.

“It’s going to rain tonight, so let's stay under the shelter until we get the all clear.” He said.

He settled you down on a bench and sat next to you. He was handsome, with his red hair in his ponytail and his green eyes in the dark. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Now comes the hard part.” He opened the briefcase and took out a thin yellow folder.

“Ruri Kazama wanted me to give this to you.”

You accept the folder and open it. Much to your shock, you immediately recognize the title. Black Swan Harbor Initiative! 

“You’re from Siberia right?” He looks at you. Those eyes glittered like jewels.

“Where did you get this?” You ask, anxiously flipping through the pages. There were photos of Black Swan Bay, just as you remembered it. There were even photos of orphans that you remembered, ghosts of the past. Vera, Khorkina, Anton… you pause. A knife of pain piercing your heart.

Renata’s picture stared at you, smiling from the yellowing paper, her eyes sparkled too, even in black and white.

“Ruri Kazama had it. I don’t know what it all means or where he got it from.” He reaches over and flips the pages back to the beginning. “He wants you to understand your situation. The reason why Black Swan Harbor was created. Black Swan Bay was like a dragon graveyard. Even though Cassell holds a lot of ancient artifacts, Black Swan Bay had the actual specimens for direct study of the creatures. You were created there as part of a study on making perfect, super hybrids.”

“What?” You whisper.

“I’m only telling you what I read. None of this makes sense to me either. You’re an 18 year old girl from 20 years ago. I…” He shook his head. “It must have to do with your bloodline, that you can rest so long and retain your youth. Anyway, because you’re not perfect, you will eventually become a deadpool. You’re a ghost. There’s no changing this.” 

He flipped over a page in the folder leading to Anton’s file. “This is from one of the research papers. The average lifespan of the Black Swan Bay children is 20 years before they lose their grip on humanity. This orphan was eliminated because he’d reached the end of his life.”

You stare blankly at the page. You remembered Dr. Herzog tested hybrid children thoroughly and then, around age 20, some were selected to go to school in Moscow. Back then, you had excitedly chatted with Z about how one year you might be selected. But instead of feeling excited for you, he led you to a lab. There, you saw Anton, who had been selected to go to the capital, sitting in a wheelchair. Despite his power to stop a bullet, he couldn’t stand.

Dr. Herzog was like your father. So your mind rejected his words when he said that going to Moscow was a lie. And when he shot and killed Anton, it was something your mind couldn’t fully process. This all happened 20 years ago but for you it was only a few weeks ago, and you realized you still couldn’t process it. It was like a missing puzzle piece, floating on the side table, waiting for its place in the picture. And now it snapped into place. 

Anton wasn’t ever going to Moscow. None of you were. Khorkina, Vera, Renata… You were all going to die by euthanasia. As deadpool.

Chance reached over and massaged your shoulder silently. You closed your eyes. No wonder Ruri Kazama told you that you were a perishing flower. No wonder he sang that happiness was fleeting. Ruri Kazama knew that you were going to turn into Deadpool. That you were going to die.

“So I only have a year and a half left?” You ask after a moment.

“I’m afraid that’s the maximum. You might have even less. I’m sorry.” Chance says. He drops his hand in his lap.

You take a deep breath, absorbing this terrible blow in still silence. “Thank you for telling me. I will show this to Caesar.” You close the folder and sigh again. Your hands are pinching each other hard to stem your roiling emotions.

Chance marvels at your reaction. “You’re a really strong woman. A lot of people would scream and cry in denial at this news.”

“I’m strong because my friends are strong.” You look out over the water, expressionless. The reflection of the moon peeked from its cloudy veil. It rippled but when it stilled, you could see the shadow of the moon, shaped like a rabbit. You weren’t sure what you could do to stop this eventual demise. Caesar promised he wouldn’t let you die. No… it wasn’t a promise, he just wouldn’t let it happen.

“Hm.” He chuckled, elbowing you. “Do I still have a chance to get a star-heart ticket?” He was attempting to lighten the mood.

You allow yourself the distraction. “Maybe.” You smirk and swing your legs under the bench. The wind was starting to blow, bringing the smell of rain, pulling leaves and cherry blossoms down from the trees to land on the water and make little ripples. The gusts disturbed the glassy water. It wasn’t the time for cherry blossoms, but odd weather had caused them to bloom twice this year. “Let me ask you something to test you. Do you seek death?”

Chance gave it some thought. “It’s not a matter of seeking it. I know it's coming. I just try not to think about the future. Live my life one day at a time, appreciate every moment.”

You nod and your eyebrows lift. It was a good answer. “I’ll ask you something else. Given the circumstances, if you knew you had to give up your life so I could live, would you do it?”

He laughed. “In a heartbeat!”

You turn to him and frown.

“What? Don't tell me you don’t like that answer. What do you expect me to say? It’s an honor for a man to give up his life for a lovely woman.” The stiff breeze had teased some hair out of your comb. He brushes your hair  from your face and tucks it behind your ear. The wind stirs the flowers in your hair while he watched you.

You shake your head. “Well, in that case, you’re not getting a star heart ticket.” You cross your arms and look away

“Oh come on, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” He leaned forward, trying to catch your gaze when you turned away from him. “What am I supposed to do? Just let you die? Look at you! You’re beautiful and smart and … and… you’re so strong!” Chance was shaking his head in confusion. “If that’s not the right thing to do, please tell me the answer.”

You turn to him again, your eyes blazing. “And you’re not beautiful and resourceful and strong? Why is my life, somehow, worth more than yours?”

Chance’s good humor suddenly fades and he lowers his eyes, damping his mood like a lantern lowering its wick. He turned back to face the lake, looking down on the ground, but his mind was somewhere far away. When he speaks again, it’s with a lump in his throat. He swallows hard. “You have people. I don’t have anyone any more.”

You knew that look. You had that look. It was the look of someone who had nothing else to lose, so why not give up his life for you? You reach out and put your hand over his and look him in the eye, even as the fires of grief ignite in your chest.

“The Hydra came for my family last week. We all lived in the same apartment block, but we’d never done anything. We were just an extended family buying out condos and dealing in real estate. But they were merciless. All my brothers and their wives were killed and f…” His voice caught and his eyes sparkled with tears. “My five nieces and nephews were taken prisoner.”

“Prisoner?”

“Yes!” His voice turned hoarse in distress. “Back in World War II, Hydra had these black prisons to lock up unstable hybrids. When the government found out about them, they ordered them closed. But twenty years ago, they started operating them again. If you resist and fight, they kill you. If you give yourself up… they lock you away in those prisons forever. I had been working when the raid happened. When I turned the corner on my way home, the whole apartment block was on fire! There was nothing I could do, so I ran away. That’s how I ended up at Club Takamagahara. That’s where Ruri Kazama found me.”

He turns back to you, his green eyes as dark as an endless forest. “It’s either death or prison and then death for me. So if I can make my death mean you get to go free and shine under the sun like you did tonight… I will absolutely take that.”

Your heartaches in sympathy. You scoot closer to him and rest your head on his shoulder and he wraps his strong arm around you and holds you close. “You’re not going to accept my next words, Chance. Because I didn’t want to accept them either. But I will say them because they’re the truth. Chance… you have to live.”

He let out a single bitter laugh, but he turned away and blinked away tears. “Didn’t you listen? Life isn’t in the cards.”

“You think it isn’t. I didn’t think so either.” You reach up and turn his face back to you. The tears wet your fingertips and sink into our nails. You’re willing him to listen but you understand that it might just be too difficult to accept. “But… you will be shocked at how long you can live if you really try.”

“What? Really try? Are you saying my whole family didn’t try hard enough?” His voice breaks with grief and anger.

“That’s not what I’m saying. If death comes then it does, but what I’m saying is, you shouldn't just… give up your life. Not for me. Not for anyone. Make death fight you for it.” You whisper. Your throat hurts. Your eyes burned..

“And then if I don't give up my life for you… what will happen to you?” Tears were slipping down his face and he trembled against you.

“I will fight too.” You reach out and twine your fingers in his hair. “We will both fight death.” You look up at him, determination filling your dark eyes, defying reality. You knew he probably thought you were a fool, that you were just fantasizing that you could both fight the fate you were given, hit the ball out of the park, and live happily ever after. “What’s the point of love if you both don’t make it out? If Izanami taught me anything, it’s better to end up in the Yomi-No-Kuni together.”

He sighed softly and he leaned forward until your noses touched, your faces wrapped in night shadow. “You already gave me permission.” He whispered.

“I know…” You rise up to meet him halfway. This kiss was nothing like Z’s. Z took you like something that belonged to him. In this case, your kiss was a gift, a bow to tie your words in an oath upon his heart. 

Chance was overcome. He rested his head against your neck, crying. He held you so tightly your ribs resisted against his arms to breathe. You held him like that until his sobs subsided. But you were in no hurry to part, instead you leaned against each other, watching the wind play against the water until your emotions calmed. Every few minutes, he would sigh deeply and kiss your cheek.

In the distance, thunder rolled. Chance’s phone buzzed. He reached down and looked down at it. “That's all clear. Let’s go.” He gave you one more kiss. “Here, you keep this.” He tucked the folder into your dress. “Thank you. I..” He paused for a moment and then just stood up.

He doesn’t remove his hand from yours as you make your way back to the car, but as you’re turning the corner on the path to the parking lot, he yanks you back! “Damn it!” He hisses.

The car was surrounded by men in black trench coats armed with swords and powerful guns. The way out of the park was blocked by a huge van. The park was so small, it would only take a minute to penetrate the entire space and there was nowhere to hide. Chance urgently whispers. “Quick! Let’s go to the other side!” 

How could they have found you? Kaguya?

There was no way to hurry and stay silent. The pea gravel made too much noise. If you stepped off the path the surrounding vegetation rustled against your clothing. You can only use your method of stepping in his foot prints to hide your own sound and it was hard in your ornate gown. Your heart was screaming with adrenaline as you started to hear voices behind you. In the back of the park, behind the trees and fountains, there was a high eight foot stone wall that enclosed it from the rest of the neighborhood. You hurry to it.

“I’ll lift you over the wall!” He said. “If you jump, you can make it over!”

“No, I’m not leaving you. We need to find a way out together.” You say, planting your feet.

“You’re serious? There’s no way! We can’t fight all those guys!” He hissed.

More voices are coming. You must have been heard! Bright beaming flashlights are sweeping the park. The men from Hydra are bounding up the hill behind you! The group fanned out. One member was sweeping up against the wall you were next to and heading straight for you. More voices are coming from the opposite direction up the path ahead of you. Apparently, the Hydra following you had alerted more men on the other side of the park who were coming around the other side to encircle you and cut off your escape.

Chance pulled you along the wall and together you crawled carefully against it, staying away from the ones approaching from behind and getting to the other side of this dragnet. As you came close to those approaching from the front, you noticed that there was no one sweeping the wall! If you could sneak past through this gap, you could make it past them!

You hurry through the gap and crouch still. The Hydra were only a few feet from you. You could see the shine of their leather shoes and hear them talking, but you couldn’t understand their Japanese. One of them laughed.  All they had to do was sweep their flashlights to their right to find you. You both hold your breath even though you felt breathless from running and staying low to the ground. You tremble there until their shoes turn away. Their footsteps finally started to fade, but you couldn’t wait for them to fade completely. 

“There’s a backgate this way.” Chance whispered as quietly as he could.

You could see it. It was covered in vines and looked like a maintenance entrance. It didn’t look locked but even if it was, it was less than four feet high  and you can both make it over. Your heart beams with hope. He returns your smile. You couldn’t wait to tell Caesar. He was right. His justice was right. You don't have to leave friends behind.

A sudden sharp hiss and a burst of wind rushes by your head! A silver projectile blade cut through the air and embedded itself into Chance's calf! Chance gasped and howled in agony! He fell to the ground, clutching his leg. You scurry towards the gate and dive behind a statue of a praying Buddha.

Chance is writhing on the ground, and moving away from something looming in the dark. Someone is approaching him as he scoots frantically away, begging. “No… No!  No! Please!”

Out of the shadows steps a young dark haired man. His silver-blue long sword glowed in the dark like a shattered piece of moonlight. His trenchcoat caught the air and it waved like the hem of the Grim Reaper’s cloak. He stood over Chance like a towering god, gazing at him with frigid black eyes.

Chisei Gen!

[dreamscapesin1582]

Still There

for blanc’s birthday~ (again, late ksksk im so sorry)

The aroma of freshly brewed breakfast tea permeated the air as Blanc finally sat down. He lifted the teacup to his lips, catching the sight of his own eyes reflected on the liquid, along with the uncommon emotion that glazed it.

He removed his gaze to find the younger version of his housemate placing a large plate of carrot cake in the middle of the table. Curiosity replaced the melancholy as he turned to Oliver. “Oh?”

“As per our agreement.” He huffed as he turned around, as if disgusted by the thing he made with his own hands. “This is the only time of the year when I will allow this… abomination… on the table.”

“My, aren’t you sweet?”

“Quit that.”

Blanc chuckled. “Either way, thank you for the indulgence. You made a lot, so why don’t we share?”

“Oh, someone else would be happy to take that offer.”

As if on cue, Oliver began walking to the door and opened it to reveal a young woman whose hand was hovering in the air as if about to knock. Meeting Blanc’s surprised stare, she smiled sheepishly.

“Hello there, Blanc!” She waved as she lifted the basket she carried on her other hand. “I’ve brought more carrot desserts!”

“Come in!” He immediately exclaimed, his eyes finally gaining a twinkle of joy. Oliver rolled his eyes, rethinking whether he imagined the sadness he exuded just a few moments ago, and went back to the kitchen to prepare more tea. Blanc stood from his chair to greet her as she entered.

“This is proving to be such a lovely day. A pretty lady came to visit me for my birthday.”

“Of course! I’ve been excited to spend the day with you that I brought… this!” She pulled out a camera out of her purse, leaving the man curious. She beamed at him. “You wouldn’t mind me taking pictures today, would you?”

“Well, if it keeps that smile on your face for the rest of the day, then I see why not.” He replied with a smile of his own, tugging on her heartstrings as a lighthearted giggle spilled from her lips. He invited her to sit down.

The morning seemed brighter than it had been moments ago, as if her presence were the sunbeams that graced their humble home. She happily explained to Blanc that the camera was able to produce a photograph in an instant, with the help of Oliver who tinkered with it. Seeing his interest, she demonstrated it by taking a picture of the cake.

“That’s brilliant!” Blanc picked up the small photograph that came out from the slit of the camera. “It looks nice. Now I have a picture of Oliver’s carrot cake.”

“Don’t forget the magic crystal installed there could only go for about 50 photos, so don’t go wasting it on something like that awful orange stuff.” Oliver came back with a huff as he sat down with them. She went on to argue that they could spare one for the cake, since it was probably the only time Oliver would touch anything related to carrots.

The three of them sat around the table, chatting before a variety of sweets and tea. The atmosphere was cheery, but almost too blithe for the third party… like he was sitting with two people whose heads were stuffed with rainbows, as if living with one wasn’t enough already.

But it wasn’t that bad… or so he told himself.  

While serving herself a slice of the cake, her fingertip grazed on the white frosting. Feeling a little silly, the woman went on to poke Oliver’s nose.

He glared. “What do you think you’re doing, girl?”

“Aw, you look just like a bunny!”

“Why you—”

Blanc watched rather peacefully, even when their little tea party was going for a rather noisy turn. He felt something spark in his chest, a moment to remember, and had an idea. He plucked out the camera lying in wait on the side and tried taking a picture of the two of them. However, they stopped after something flashed before them. Another photograph came out.  

“You think this is memorable, you randy old rabbit?!”

“Oh dear—” Now Oliver switched to going for Blanc. Unfortunately, due to the height difference, he wasn’t able to get the camera nor the photo.

Peace finally returned after the woman proposed to let him get back at her. And unexpectedly, he relented by having her wash the dishes, which she faithfully obliged despite Blanc’s protests.

In the end, the two of them tended to the dishes together.

“Hmm, this actually feels nice.” He told her as they stood side by side. The running water fell continuously as he went over the used dishes, while she stood in wait with a towel at hand. “Indeed, simple things are the best.”

“It feels homey, isn’t it?” She giggled as she took the plate to dry. “I’m glad you’re having fun.”

Blanc began reminiscing the past few days, recalling the routine of his timeless days. And his mind went even farther away, noticing that in those simple resting moments did he have at least a modicum of awareness that he was alive.

And with her… everything else is alive.

Hm. The soft clink of the last plate took him away from his train of thought before he goes way back. He met her eyes, still bright and chipper. Full of color. In fact, nothing looked as vibrant as she did.

…Will she remain in my memory, too?

At some point, Oliver suggested they both go outside to enjoy—said in the words, “I need to work on something and I could use the peace, since I know having the both of you around won’t grant me that.” And off they went.

While they were at Central Quarter, she never failed to take pictures of him. Blanc led her to many places, much to her delight. And almost everywhere they went, people had dropped birthday greetings here and there.

“You really know a lot of people.” She commented once while they stopped at the fountain for a small break, while Blanc handled the camera to take a few photos.

“Yes. Some of them, we go way back.”

Then he sat beside her, staring at the lively plaza. Kids running around. People walking their dogs. Couples holding hands.

Then that thought came to him once more. He’ll most likely be there once those kids become adults… those people without their dogs… those couples no longer here…

Those thoughts vanished when her cheerful voice interrupted them, thankfully. They continued their unplanned date until it was sunset, and Blanc walked with her back to Black Army Headquarters.

They parted then, with him feeling that the day with her was worth it… not knowing there was more to it than he thought.

A few hours later, there was a knock at the door. Blanc opened it to find the same woman. “Oh my, did you forget something?”

“This!” She revealed what she was hiding behind her back. A book, or rather, a photo album. “I finished my present for you.”

“I thought you might feel like your birthday is just another day, so I wanted it to be a little special for you. And all of what happened today is right here.” She continued to explain. “So that you could remember what you may have felt today.”

Memories. It was both a beautiful and a painful thing to have. But her words may have convinced him that maybe this time… it wasn’t so bad to keep it with him.

He took the photo album she offered, catching her hand in the process. He placed a chaste kiss on her knuckles, the gesture dusting her cheeks with the prettiest pink. Blanc smiled.

“Maybe these pictures would not last forever, but perhaps the image of you today would remain with me for a long time.” He placed a hand atop his heart. “That is enough for me.”

“Oh, Blanc…” She whispered his name as she offered one last smile for the night; one he’d etch in memory. “I actually hope you would be remember this well, because from now on, we’re going to make lots of good memories…”

“…so much that everywhere you go, you’d know I’m still there with you.”

And September 10 ended with the promise of a vibrant future, with the moon above them as witness.  

[joachimnapoleon]

The Flutist

This latest addition to my and @histoireettralala‘s ever-growing Trifecta AU was partially inspired by our love of the fact that Michel Ney played the flute, and partially by a scenario we randomly came up with one day regarding baby Louise Murat being fascinated with Ney’s red hair. 

... Also, partially by my constant need for Marshalate fluff these days. 

Enjoy! :)

***

[Age: 1]

Michel Ney can't remember the last time he's been stared down this hard by a baby. But he is prepared to give as good as he gets; blue eyes lock on to blue eyes. The contest commences.

He hasn't spent much time around this one-year-old who bears such a striking resemblance to her father. In addition to sharing his eyes (both in color and mischief), little Louise Murat has also inherited Joachim's dark, curly hair, rounded chin, and thickset lips.

His attention span, too, apparently, Ney thinks, as the baby quickly grows bored with the stare-down; the wide blue eyes shift upwards. Settling on Ney's hair, they widen yet further.

Murat, holding the squirming child, grins at Ney.

"You're the first redhead she's ever seen."

Ney can't help but smile.

A plump little arm stretches towards him. A stream of incomprehensible baby gibberish babbles forth.

"I think she wants to touch your hair," Murat interprets without missing a beat. "Is that okay?"

Ney chuckles. "Sure, why not."

Murat gently lowers baby Louise, guiding her wobbly steps--she has only recently started walking--across the narrow gap on the sofa between the two men. A moment later she latches onto Ney's shoulder, mouth agape in wonder as she continues studying the red hair intently.

"Bababababa," Louise says, staring Ney in the face.

"My, aren't you a talkative one," Ney replies. "Just like your Papa." He gives her a wink.

"She is indeed," Murat says proudly.

A tiny hand reaches towards Ney's hair.

"Gently, sweetheart," says Murat.

"It's okay," Ney reassures him.

Her face full of wonder, baby Louise pets and pats the strange red hair, narrating the exploration with a series of random coos and gurgles. Murat is smiling in delight; he pulls out his cellphone to take a picture--no, a video! Caroline and Aglaé will both love this!

Ney is beaming too--until Louise suddenly grabs a fistful of his hair and gives it a much sharper yank than he would expect from a one-year-old.

"AHHH-D-D-D-D-D" Ney grits his teeth, bending down slightly towards the baby to alleviate the pulling. He sees Louise opening her mouth wide and--Wait, is she trying to--

Yes. Louise is trying to eat his hair.

"JOAC--"

But Murat has already dropped the phone and is hastily reaching over to gently extract Louise's hand from Ney's hair, scooping the baby up into his arms. The little girl looks, for a moment, as if she is about to cry--she flails towards Ney, whining--but Murat is an expert at this sort of thing, and has her distracted and laughing again in no time.

Twenty minutes later, Murat has to take a phone call.

"Go on," Ney says. "I can keep an eye on her."

"Thanks."

By the time he returns, the reconciliation is complete: Louise is sound asleep, snuggling against (and drooling on) Ney's shoulder. She hadn't even tried to eat his hair again.

Murat reaches out tentatively. "Here, I can--"

--Ney shoots him an indignant look, unconsciously pulling the slumbering baby away from her father.

"Um. Okay then," Murat says, chuckling as he runs a hand through his hair. "Just, you know, make sure to give her back to me eventually."

"Do I have to?"

"Yeah. I've gotten pretty attached to her."

That makes two of us. He and Aglaé have four sons, but no daughters. He'd always hoped a girl would come along for them eventually, but it didn't seem to be in the cards. Now all of a sudden, tiny Louise Murat, with her wild curls and curious blue eyes and grabby little hands, has stolen his heart.

Either Ney's face is betraying his thoughts far more than he means for it to, or Murat is a mind-reader.

"Tell you what," Murat says with a knowing smile. "How 'bout if we share?"

"Deal."

***

[Age: 6]

Ney has been invited to a tea party.

Although he isn't entirely sure whether "invited" is the right word.

Actual invitations can be declined. But Louise has no sooner "invited" Ney to the tea party than she takes him by the wrist and begins dragging him up the stairs. He looks down at BunBun, being likewise dragged along by Louise's other hand. The giant, floppy stuffed rabbit has been Louise's favorite toy since Murat brought him home from a recent trip to an amusement park with Ney and Lannes. Apparently BunBun has been "invited" to the tea party too.

"Is there going to be room for both me and BunBun?" Ney asks.

"Yes," Louise says. "It's a big table. And you're my special guest!"

"I thought BunBun was your special guest?"

"BunBun lives here," Louise says dismissively. "You're my special, SPECIAL guest."

"Well then," Ney says, "I consider myself honored."

They finally reach the top of the stairs and Louise opens the door to Letitia's room, where all the tea parties are hosted.

Already seated at the table are Letitia, Mr. Bear, and Murat, the latter scrunched precariously into a pink plastic chair that is clearly much too small for him.

"Greetings!" Murat says with a broad grin. "I take it Louise invited you?"

"Indeed," Ney confirms with a nod. "I'm a special, special guest."

***

[Age: 10]

Ney's fingers flutter expertly over the keys of his flute; the cheerful notes of Bach's Partita in A Minor peal through the air. It is a difficult piece, but also a long-time favorite, and after playing it for so many years, he has little need to reference the sheet music in front of him anymore.

He had fallen in love with the instrument at twelve years old. The only boy in his school band to choose the flute, Ney had endured some teasing from his peers for picking what they considered a "girl's instrument," but it had never fazed him. In his eyes, it was their loss for not being able to appreciate the flute's beauty and versatility.

By high school he was the best flutist in his class, and his talents ended up earning him a college scholarship. In college, they helped him charm Aglaé, who played the clarinet in the college orchestra. And the rest was history; as far as he was concerned, Ney could trace all of his current happiness to learning to play the flute during his childhood.

He had hoped one of his sons would develop a liking for it as well, but so far they were all gravitating to--Ney grimaces inwardly--the brass section. Where did I go wrong?

Ney concludes the final notes of the piece, and is startled to hear applause. He turns to see Murat and little Louise, clapping happily from the doorway.

"That was so pretty Uncle Michel!" Louise exclaims.

"Incredible!" says Murat. "Why have I never heard you play before?"

Ney blushes. "I rarely play in public anymore. Thanks though, I'm glad you liked it."

"Well you absolutely should play in public more! Our friends would love to hear it! Isn't that right, darling?" he asks Louise.

"Papa is right! You play so good!" the ten-year-old says.

"Thank you, my dear."

"May I hold the flute? I've never held a flute before."

"Yes, of course!" Ney hands Louise the flute. The child studies the instrument in rapt fascination, running her littlefingers over the intricate keys and tubes.

"Next year she'll be old enough to play in the school band," Murat says.

"Oh yeah? Has she chosen an instrument yet?"

Murat looks down at his daughter, who is still captivated by the flute. He smiles.

"Possibly." ***

[Age 11]

The following year when Murat informed Ney that Louise had, indeed, decided she wanted to learn to play the flute for the school band, Ney had scarcely been able to contain his joy.

"Also," Murat began, "she's wondering if you'd be willing to teach her some of the basics, before her formal lessons begin next month?"

"Tell her I would be delighted to."

Sitting in the Murats' beautiful garden now, he has, so far, taught Louise how to put the flute together, what all the various parts are called, how to clean the instrument, how to hold it, and proper posture. Now, for the most important part: how to make the sound come out.

He shows her how to form the necessary embouchure--the positioning of the lips in relation to the blowhole of the flute--and demonstrates with his own flute: a clear, sonorous B-flat emanates through the garden.

Louise tries to copy his face, and blows into her flute.

PPHHHHHTHTHHTHTHTHHHHH.

She tries again.

PPHHHHHTHTHHTHTHTHHHHH.

And again.

PPHHHHHTHTHHTHTHTHHHHH.

Louise is dismayed. It isn't working! Is her flute broken?

She hands the instrument to Ney; he holds it up, arranges his embouchure, and plays another B-flat.

"Your flute works perfectly," he says reassuringly.

Louise tries again and again, over and over, but still fails to get any sound to come out of the flute. Ney can see that she is getting frustrated.

"Don't be discouraged," he tells her. "This is usually the hardest part for every beginner."

"Was it hard for you too?"

"Oh yes. It took me hours to do it right the first time. And multiple lessons. I was in total despair after a while, but then I just... did it. Somehow. And once I made that first note, I didn't have any problems doing it again. It was like something had just clicked, and now I could play the flute. So, don't worry. You'll get it eventually, I promise. We're not going to give up. Okay?"

"Okay."

A little over an hour later, the PPHHHHHTHTHHTHTHTHHHHH suddenly morphs into a resounding OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Louise lowers the flute, staring at Ney with wide eyes.

"Uncle Michel!! I did it!!! I'm playing the flute!!!!" she raises the flute again and, making the same embouchure as before, plays a full, crystal-clear note.

Ney turns away just for a brief instant, to wipe away a sudden, unexpected tear.

***

Ney makes his way towards the front row, his eyes finding Murat's curly hair in the dim light of the school auditorium.

"Glad you could make it!" Murat greets him. "Caroline and I saved you a seat."

"Thank you," Ney says, sitting down beside his friend. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Louise has been working very hard for the past six months, and tonight is her first concert with the school band. Additionally--and Murat had barely able to contain his excitement when he'd told Ney--she was going to be performing a duet with another student. The band instructor had been so delighted with the progress of both girls so far, that he wanted to give them a moment in the spotlight to showcase their developing talents.

"Is she nervous?" Ney asks.

"Honestly, I think she's more nervous about playing in front of you than anything," Murat chuckles.

Ney grins. "I can't imagine why. We practice together all the time!"

"Yes, exactly. She's worried she's going to mess up and disappoint you."

"No, that won't happen," Ney says firmly.

The concert begins. While the band of eleven- and twelve-year-olds performs its ensemble, Caroline dutifully records it on her phone, Murat sniffles and wipes his teary eyes with a handkerchief throughout, and Ney wallows in nostalgia, vividly remembering his own days playing with the school band. He smiles at the sight of Louise, so poised for her age, playing every song without missing a beat, as if she'd been in the band for years.

"My little princess," Murat wibbles during the break between pieces, falling apart into the handkerchief again. Caroline smiles and runs her fingers through his hair, but Ney can't help but notice her own eyes are glistening in the darkness of the auditorium.

"You should've seen him when Letitia played the Butterfly Queen in her first school play," Caroline tells Ney.

Murat gives a shuddering sob into the handkerchief at the memory; Ney, shoulders shaking, conceals his laughter behind a hand.

Now it is time for Louise's duet. She is introduced to the audience. Only the firm hand of Caroline on his forearm keeps Murat from springing up out of his chair to cheer for his daughter.

"Don't embarrass her, dearest," Caroline whispers reprovingly.

"Right. Sorry," Murat says sheepishly.

Louise and her companion begin playing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," with the band instructor accompanying them on thepiano.

Ney smiles. The Ninth Symphony has always held a special place in his heart, and now it is going to be even morespecial.

Louise hits every note perfectly.

The audience applauds after the girls finish their performance. Louise curtseys, lighting up at the sight of her parents and Uncle Michel in the front row. She gives them a wave before returning to her seat with the rest of the band.

Murat is a mess. But Ney is surprised to find his own face suddenly wet too. He fumbles through his pockets for a tissue. Damn it all. Probably should've anticipated this.

Murat hands him a handkerchief.

"I always bring a spare," he explains.

"Thanks." Maybe I should too. What is happening to him? He's slowly turning into Murat--a big, blubbery, walking catastrophe. Oh God.

After the concert, he stoops to give Louise a hug.

"Did I do good, Uncle Michel?"

"You were brilliant, my dear. I'm more proud of you than I can possibly put into words."

Louise is beaming. She hopes he'll come with Papa and Mama to all her concerts from now on.

"As your special guest?" Ney asks.

"My special, SPECIAL guest."

Murat claps him on the shoulder cheerfully.

"In that case," he says, "you might want to order some handkerchiefs."

***End***

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

with you [chapter one]

Summary: Clementine pops the question, Louis has nightmares, Violet can’t let go of the past, Mitch doesn't know how to handle gross feelings, Ruby's a goddamn sweetheart, Willy doesn’t ever remember to knock, Aasim can't dance, and James is here, too.

Nothing like a wedding to bring this family together.

Note: Holy shit, you mean I’m finally posting actual [with you] stuff again? Yeah, I can’t believe it either. If for whatever reason you don’t know why this is being re-uploaded, then you can find all the information on this post here. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. 

Otherwise, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my stories and for the support y’all have given me through this nonsense haha. It truly means a lot, and I can’t tell you how nervous I am about posting this because I AM proud of it and I want y’all to like it, too! 

So, I hope you enjoy it! Thank you! ❤️

Ch1 | Ch2

Read on: AO3 | FF.net | Wattpad

---

A supply run to the train stationed was a spur of the moment decision. 

While finishing up their morning hunting trip- checking and resetting traps, hunting adult rabbits and capturing any babies for their ever-growing rabbit farm- it seemed their duties were done. Just as they were ready to head back, Louis mentioned it wasn’t too far away.

“Up for a little adventure?”

Given that they’ve torn the place apart, Clementine wasn’t sure if it’s really an adventure to travel that way anymore, but AJ was more than willing to go back and look around. 

She figured it wouldn’t be so awful to go and collect anything they might’ve missed from their previous trips, though she felt this was more of an excuse to stay out longer, to enjoy the cool air and each other’s company.

Aasim deemed it a waste of time, choosing to take back everything they collected and meet up with Mitch and Willy, mumbling something about repairing one of the gates. 

Up ahead, but not too far, Louis tells some crazy, exaggerated story as AJ hangs on to every word. Something about Aasim and a shark, she gathers. It’s ridiculous enough to make her rolls her eyes but smile all the same, especially when AJ calls him out on absurd details.

“Aasim doesn’t have a peg leg!”

“Or does he? Tell me this, has anyone actually ever seen Aasim’s bare leg? No, and that’s because it’s a peg stuffed into a boot.”

“No, it’s not!”

Clementine spots a walker lingering in the trees from the corner of her eye, its head twitching with interest at the sound of the boys’ laughter. 

It’s the first one she’s spotted today, likely due to James doing his part of their arrangement.

They worked out a decent system when first offering him a place to stay; anywhere they plan to hunt or scavenge, they let James know in advance so he can gather and lead stray walkers away, making trips a lot easier and quicker. In exchange, he’s welcome to stay in a room and eat with them whenever he wants. 

He rarely stays multiple nights in a row, but Clementine’s glad to see him and the others get along when he does stick around. 

She picks up a large rock and chucks it. The walker follows the noise with a low gurgle.

The decrepit train station is empty. 

The dead couple remains as left; slumped over, tied to their chairs, and still holding hands. 

They try and gather as much as they can, like salvageable, leftover food hidden beneath the trap door, duct tape and a few bandages. Clementine finds a working lighter beneath the table, stuffing it in her pocket as heavy thump vibrates behind her. 

“Oh-ho!” Louis calls out from behind the counter. “Looks like I found your secret stash.”

Clementine quirks a brow, leaning over the counter to peer down at him. He flashes her a bright smile and waves a beaten up chocolate bar.

“Seriously?” When she tries to reach for it, he teasingly jerks it away.

“I don’t think so, darling,” he pockets the bar. “Gotta save stuff like that for a special occasion.”

“Special occasion,” she scoffs. “Like?”

“Like when it’s your birthday, or if it’s someone else’s birthday and you forgot to get them a present,” Louis glances away, shrugging a shoulder with a sheepish grin, “or, y’know, for date night.”

“Date night, huh?” 

“Woah...”

From behind her, AJ shuffling around the dead couple, unfolding something small and gray. Upon a closer look, Clementine can tell it’s a wallet, and from it, AJ pulls out a five-dollar bill.

“Look at that,” Louis approaches the boy with a grin, “looks like dinner’s on AJ.”

“Huh?”

Louis takes the wallet and pulls out some credit cards. “By the looks of it, we’re getting a three-course meal.”

“With extra dessert,” Clementine smiles.

“Triple dessert.”

“Quadruple dessert.”

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about!”

AJ looks between the two of them, clearly confused. “I don’t get it.”

Louis goes to explain, but something small falls from the wallet with a soft thump. A plastic casing preserves a photo with handwriting on the back and a bent corner. 

“Oh.”

“What is it?” AJ asks.

Louis holds up the picture, motioning to the couple. “It’s, uhm... their wedding photo.”

“Wedding photo?” AJ studies the picture. Clementine moves around them to look as well.

It’s jarring, the idea that the young couple are the same people as the decaying bodies in the chairs before them. They’re both so clean and happy with wide smiles and life in their bright eyes. 

The woman’s beautiful, Clementine thinks, with her hair braided back into a bun of curls and her cheeks a pretty pink. Her dress glows white with glittering details, and the diamond ring is visible on her hand resting against her husband's chest.

“They look...” AJ’s mouth twists as he searches for the right words.

“Happy?” Louis offers.

“Well, yeah, they’re smiling, but...” AJ looks at the dead bodies. “I don’t know. It’s weird. Why’re they dressed like that?”

Louis laughs, “Well, little dude, back before the walkers came, people used to get married. It was a pretty big deal, and when they did, they’d have a wedding. Think of it like a huge party with lots and lots of people to celebrate the couple’s marriage.”

“Okay,” AJ says. He takes the photo and studies it. “What does that mean? To be married?”

“Uh, well,” Louis scratches his neck, “it’s what people used to do to prove they really loved each other, I guess. It was, like, this big step to take to marry someone and call them your wife, or your husband.”

“Everyone did it?”

“No, not everyone.”

“How come?”

“Uh, well,” Louis says, “it wasn’t for everyone, I guess.”

“But anyone could do it?”

“I think so.”

“Even me?” asks AJ. “I can get married?”

Clementine smiles. “You’re a little young for that right now.”

AJ frowns and crosses his arms. “How old do I gotta be?”

“Well, there isn’t really a set age-”

“And I can marry who I want?”

“Yes, but,” Clementine shoots Louis a glance, looking for help with an explanation. He shrugs a shoulder in response, clearly amused.  “It’s not something people do anymore.”

“Why not? I mean, you just throw a party. We’ve done that before. And I can marry whoever I love? Like you, right?”

At that, Louis laughs. Clementine sighs. “Uh...”

“Marriage wasn’t for that kind of love, buddy,” Louis says, “it’s a bit more complicated than that.” He puts the picture back into the wallet and tucks it into the dead man’s pocket. “These two didn’t love each other like you and Clem do. They got married because...” Louis’ smile almost turns sad, “they were in love, as a couple.”

“Oh...” AJ thinks, “oh, like a kissing love.”

“A kissing love,” Louis agrees. “Exactly.” 

He winks at Clementine, making her roll her eyes and suppress a smile. 

“Like you and Clem?”

Warmth rushes to Clementine’s cheeks as a loud, nervous laugh escapes Louis.

Before AJ can ask his next question, there’s a soft bang against the door. The conversation’s forgotten as they glance among themselves, silently telling each other to stay on their guard, get low and carefully maneuver to the door. 

AJ peeks out the window, confirming their suspicions. 

“Monster.”

Clementine nods. “Just one?”

“Looks like it.”

They all stand, relaxing a little. The door’s closed, so one walker isn’t a threat.

Louis hauls a hefty bag over his shoulder. “Well, I think we’ve gotten all we can get,” he says. “We should head back.”

“Right.”

Louis hesitates, glancing back at the walker couple. It’s quick, but she catches it. The look in his eyes is like whenever someone mentions Marlon or Brody or other fallen classmates, or whenever he brings up his parents in passing. Almost a sad nostalgia, with maybe some pity and longing. She hasn’t quite deciphered that one yet. 

Regardless, it’s gone when he turns back to AJ, Chairles in hand, saying, “Think we can take that deadhead?”

Clementine remains behind as they go, the crack and squelsh of the walker skull being struck echoing from outside as she approaches the couple, glancing down at the man’s rotten hand entwined with his wife’s.

He still has his ring on.

“Clem?”

“...Coming.”

---

It stuck with her for the rest of the day. 

From when they entered the gates of the school again, continued with their daily chores, all throughout dinner, to now sitting on the couch with Louis in front of the burning firepit. His arm rests comfortably behind her as he chats with Omar, allowing her to lean back into his shoulder and chest. 

From what she could tell, he wasn't thinking about it, and neither was AJ. 

He let the conversation of marriage go after Louis moved onto another topic. She knew he was trying to avoid the obvious question on AJ’s mind to spare everyone the awkwardness. 

“Like you and Clem?”

Like Louis and her...

Marriage isn’t something she thinks about. Not truly, anyway.

Sure, there had been that dumb “marry, ‘flip’, kill” question that seemed to come up during their card games, and sure, from all the groups she’d been in, some had married couples.

Like Kenny and Katjaa.

Christa and Omid.

David and Kate. 

Rebecca and Alvin.

And before the walkers, her parents had been married. Happily married with little to no problems. 

She doesn’t remember a lot about them, but some things stood out in her brain when she concentrated hard enough.

Like how her father would always kiss her mother’s cheek before going to work and after coming home. It didn’t matter if she was cooking, or still in bed, or working on a project, or on the phone, he always kissed her. It was like some unspoken rule.

And how they laughed together. Her father had this deep, rumbling voice that practically shook the house when he laughed, and his laugh only made her mother laugh harder.

And the cute names they called each other. 

Sweetheart. That’s what her father called her mother. 

Sweetheart.

But, marriage isn’t something that stuck in her brain, not something she actively thinks about. 

Seeing that wedding photo, the couple who chose to die together tied to those chairs, and actually talking about it, hearing Louis talk about it, seeing him look back at them the way he did... it stuck with her.

And-

Something lightly tugs as her hair, breaking her thoughts. She cranks her neck to look up at Louis as he pulls something from the messy ponytail of her hair. 

“Sorry, you had some grass there,” he grins, holding up a green stem before flicking it away. “Figured you wouldn’t notice with how zoned out you were. Where’d you go?”

“Nowhere.”

“You went somewhere.”

“I was just enjoying the fire.”

“Hm,” Louis nods before reaching up to tip the hat off her head. “Here, turn around.” 

She shifts around with her back to him and hat in hand as Louis, as gently as possible, frees the purple band from her hair. His long fingers attempt to comb through the absolute mess of curls, and if she weren’t so used to him doing this by now, she’d be embarrassed by the disaster placed upon her head.

“Haven’t heard from James in a while,” Louis mentions. “Didn’t see him out there, either.”

“There were barely any walkers today, so he’s out there somewhere. Probably in his camp.”

“He does know that he as a bed here, right?” Louis begins braiding her thick locks, weaving chucks of curls the best he can, “I mean, it’s nothing fancy, but it has to be better than sleeping on the ground. Or in a tree.”

“Maybe you should tell him that,” she suggests with the hint of a grin, glancing back at him with a perked brow.

Louis chuckles. “Yeah, because I’m gonna get through to him.” He jerks his chin over to the tables where Mitch and Willy sit together with Ruby and Aasim. “If you and Mitch can’t convince him to stay permanently, then I’m afraid no one ever will.”

Louis ties off the braid, placing it over her shoulder to look at. 

He’s gotten better at this. The first time he ever braided her hair, it was, for lack of a better term, very ugly. 

Aasim was appalled upon seeing it, insisting he shows Louis how it’s done. Which was a bizarre thing to learn about him- Aasim could braid hair quickly and beautifully. 

Since then, Louis’ skills have improved immensely. 

Facing him again, she smiles, leaning forward to press a kiss to his cheek. 

“Thank you.”

He goes to speak, but Ruby’s approaching figure catches their attention.

“Ya got watch, Lou,” she jerks her thumb back at the post. “You and Aasim.”

“Aw, seriously?” Louis pouts, which quickly turns into a smirk. “Hey, wanna switch? I can take your morning shift and you can go with Aasim tonight?”

“Nope,” Ruby shakes her head, pointing back at the tower. “Get goin.’“

Louis slouches, mumbling quietly, “I tried, my dude...”

“Don’t keep ‘im waitin’.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Louis stands, reaching his arms high over his head to stretch out his body. He lets out a satisfied groan as they fall back to his sides. “I’ll be there in a second.”

Ruby nods before walking off.

His foot taps hers. “Guess I’ll see you tonight,” he says, leaning forward. His fingers caress her jawline as he lightly pulls her towards him and places a quick, soft kiss on her lips. “I’ll try not to wake you.”

“Goodnight,” is all Clementine can muster up to say.

“Goodnight.” 

He leaves her with a smile. 

And as she watches him walk away, twirling the end of the braid around her finger, it occurs to her with a single, strange thought.

I want to marry that boy.

---

Clementine tries to fall asleep, but she’s restless. She doesn’t know how long she’s laid there, but no position, no angle allows sleep to take her.

AJ snores quietly in his bed on the other side of the room, and Louis still won’t be back for a few hours, leaving her with nothing but a near-silent room and noisy thoughts. 

It’s maddening. 

Not bothering to gather her boots or grab her hat, she tiptoes out of bed and slips out, quietly closing the door behind her to not disturb AJ. 

Footsteps thump against the wooden floors causing her to turn, alert and listening. 

Violet keeps her eyes forward as she walks down the hall, not giving Clementine any acknowledgment as if she were nothing but the door itself. 

Clementine watches her, a greeting caught in her throat that she pushes down. 

By now, she knows better. 

To say it’d been awful between the two of them ever since the delta fight two years ago would be an understatement. She still can’t even breathe in Violet’s direction without getting ‘fuck you’ eyes, and talking was completely out of question. Not that Clementine didn’t still try, but it seems that Violet’s determined to keep herself in the shadows of the school. 

She’s gotten a little better, though. Two years ago, she’d only talk to Tenn and Louis. As time went on, she expanded her daily communications to Ruby, Omar, and Aasim.

Not her, though. 

Louis once tried to help them patch things up. 

It didn’t go over well.

Clementine tries to put it out of her mind as she moves down the opposite direction. Down by the entrance doors, grumbles echo through the quiet air where she finds Ruby grimacing at something in her hands.

“Hey,” she greets.

“Oh, Clem,” Ruby smiles. “Thought you went off ta bed?”

“Can’t sleep.”

Ruby expression softens. “Bad dreams?”

“No.”

“AJ snorin’ too loud?”

Clementine chuckles. “No, I’m just not tired, I guess.”

“Ah, well, ya wanna help me fix Willy’s shirt?” she holds up a dirty blue shirt with a tear along the side. “Got it caught again and didn’t bother stopin’ to untangle himself.”

“Sure.”

Clementine kept the shirt still and flattened against the table while Ruby goes to work.

“Wish that runt would be more careful,” she murmurs, “always tearing his clothes up. What’ll happen if he ruins all of ‘em? That boy’ll be in nothin’ but rags here pretty quick.”

“You could have him sew his own stuff.”

Ruby scoffs. “Yeah, right.”

Clementine watches her steady hand as she sews in comfortable silence. Being around Ruby like this is peaceful. The two had gotten close over the years, and for that, she’s grateful. She adores Ruby.

“So, somethin’s got you wanderin’ around this late. What’s on yer mind?”

Clementine hesitates, thoughts going back to earlier at the train station, as well as racking her brain for any time she’s ever talked “romance” with the girl before her. Aside from a few comments about her and Louis, nothing sticks out. 

 ”Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure, hon.”

“Have you ever liked someone? Like, had a crush?”

The redness on her cheeks brightens as Ruby blinks down at her needlework, processing just what the question entails. “I-uh- what in the world are ya askin’ me that for?”

“Just curious if anyone ever caught your fancy,” Clementine replies. She didn’t think the question would actually make her flustered.

Ruby pokes herself with the needle, hissing a cuss.

“Well,” she says, “hate ta disappoint you, but no.”

“Never?”

Ruby shakes her head. “Nu-uh.”

Clementine thinks back to Aasim and Louis’ constant teasing of the poor boy.

“You don’t like anyone here like that? Not even a little?”

Ruby hesitates.

“No.” 

She finishes sewing up the shirt and holds it up in front of her. 

“Why the sudden question?” she asks. 

“I don’t know,” Clementine answers honestly. “Just was curious, I guess.”

Ruby shifts her weight onto one foot and scratches at her arm. After an awkward silence, she sighs. 

“Well... alright, can ya keep a secret?”

Clementine perks up, nodding, “Yeah, of course.”

“Don’t get excited. He, uh... he’s not real.”

“What?”

Ruby’s blush deepens. “Sometime after all the adults left, I had a hard time sleepin’ at night. Ms. Martin was startin’ ta worry ‘bout me. She told me I should try readin’, it’ll take my mind offa everything, and I remember tellin’ her how stupid that was. But...” Ruby sighs, “I still let her read ta me before bed one night. A love story called ‘The Woodsman.’ Well, kinda a love story. She read it so well and,” she grins sheepishly, “I guess I kinda fell in love with Milo.”

Clementine smiles back. “Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Milo’s this handsome woodsman doin’ everythin’ he can to help support him and his family, right. He’s kind, like, genuinely kind. And the way he describes and talks about Abigail just is enough ta melt your heart. Or make ya cry, mostly both.”

“Do they end up together?”

“No- Well, sorta? Ya see, Abigail’s taken and forced ta live on top this big ‘ol mountain by this old, ugly witch as punishment fer Milo killin’ one of her wolves- uh, it makes more sense when ya read it,” she explains, running her fingers over the fresh stitching in Willy’s shirt, her mouth twisting. “Milo tries and tries again ta climb the mountain and save her, but every time he gets a little bit closer, he slips and tumbles down.”

“Shit.”

“Everything he does, he does it fer her. To free her of that witch’s cruelty. And the crazy part’s that he doesn’t even know if she loves him back. He don’t care if she does or not, he keeps climbin’ anyway and it eventually kills him,” Ruby shakes her head. “Never makes it back to Abigail.”

“That’s... awful.”

“Can’t tell ya how many times that part’s made me cry,” Ruby laughs dryly, “and it’s even worse ‘cause as he’s laying at the bottom dyin’, he’s still thinkin’ ‘bout how only he knows she’s up there and only he can save her and... he dies. He dies and becomes a star.”

“A star?”

“In the sky. High up there and he watches and protects her from the witch until eventually, Abigail dies, too.”

“And becomes a star, right?”

Ruby nods. “Right.” 

She folds up Willy’s shirt neatly, draping it over her arm.

 “After we lost Ms. Martin, I went through some of her things and found the book. Can’t tell ya how many times I’ve read it. Guess I always liked the idea of someone lovin’ me that much, enough ta fall down a mountain over and over again just ta save me. It’s justa silly fairytale,  ‘cause I know someone like that doesn’t exist, but… thinkin’ they do still helps me sleep at night.” 

“That’s not silly,” Clementine grins. “I think it’s really sweet.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Ruby smirks. “Don’t want ‘em ta think I’m too soft.”

Clementine laughs. “I won’t.”

Ruby’s gaze falls as she mulls over something, something sorrowful passing over her brow. Clementine nudges her. 

“Hey, you’ll find your Milo someday.”

“...Ya think so?”

“I do.”

With a sincere, thankful grin, she says, “Well, sorry I blabbered so much. Think it’s time I hit the hay. Thanks fer helpin’ me and... fer listenin.’”

“Thanks for sharing that with me. It sounds like a good read.”

“I’d let you borrow it if ya want.”

“I think I’d like that.”

Ruby beams at her, smile wide across her face. She gathers all her things and is just about to walk back to her room when Clementine stops her.

“Ruby?”

“Hm?”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Don’t hafta,” Ruby says. “Just ‘cause I shared, I mean.”

“I know.”

“Well, alright, then.”

Clementine hesitates, and in a whisper, she says, “I think I’m in love with Louis.”

Ruby laughs. “Oh, hon, that ain’t no secret,” she grins, “it’s all over yer face when yer together. His, too.”

“No, I mean...I really love him.” Clementine laughs again, this time feeling silly herself. “Y’know, if Louis were cursed by some witch and put on top of a mountain, I’d never stop climbing to get him back. Is that crazy?”

“No,” Ruby walks toward her, reaching down to grab her hands. “Not at all.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Ruby says firmly. “In fact, you should tell him that.”

“Yeah?” Clementine smirks. “’Hey, Louis, by the way, if you ever happen to get cursed and kidnapped by a witch, I promise to save you.’”

That makes Ruby giggle. “Well, if any one of us were ta get cursed, it’d probably be him.” 

They laugh together now. 

“Does he already know? You ever tell him how much you love ‘im?”

“I have,” Clementine says. “Lots.”

“Good. Ya never know in this world... don’t want any more regrets than we already got.”

“I know. Believe me, I know.”

---

He shouldn’t still be thinking about it, but he is. 

Even now, up on the watchtower looking over the silent forest, Louis thinks about all the times he, Clementine, and AJ have gone back to the train station, trying to remember if he ever stopped to actually look at the walker couple hunched over in their chairs together. 

No, he barely paid them a glance once he knew they were taken care of. 

Now, they’re all he can think about. 

“You’re quiet,” Aasim mentions, lowering his binoculars and paying him a side glance. 

“And you’re observant,” he retorts without missing a beat. 

Aasim’s gaze falls down to the deck of cards in Louis’ hands as he absently shuffles them, but says nothing more, rolling his eyes and turning back to peer through binoculars.  

Watch is uneventful as always. 

Not that he’s complaining- it’s what Louis prefers. 

A calm, quiet night of watch is better than a night of being constantly on edge, panicking at an extreme increase of incoming walkers, or catching assholes trying to sneak in. 

No, he appreciates the silence outside the walls.  

It gives him time to think about things. 

Back home- well, back in the old house he lived in before being sent away to Ericson, they had an incredible dining room on the first floor. Monochromatic, with dark hardwood floors and a glass chandelier above the dining table. 

There was a fireplace, too. They only used it during the winter, but above the mantle hung a beautifully framed photo of his parents on their wedding day. Around the holidays, when the fire was ablaze and his jam-packed stocking hung from the mantle, his mom would string lights around the frame, the same lights trimming the rest of the room. 

And for the life of him, Louis can’t actually remember what the photo itself looked like, what his mother’s wedding dress looked like or if his father had his beard or not. He can’t even remember what color the background was. 

The only thing he remembers about it is seeing it poke out of a cardboard box the morning he was being brought to Ericson, surrounded by several belongings packed away, ready for a move away from the freshly bare walls and empty fireplace. 

Of course, all three of them were going in different directions. 

He hasn’t thought about that for a long time, but thumbing through the walker’s wallet and seeing their wedding photo struck something. 

His parents were happily married at one time, just like the walker couple. They fell in love, had a wedding, had him, and then everything went downhill from there, didn’t it? 

“Tomorrow, we should work on expanding the kennel for the rabbits,” Aasim mentions. “We’ve got two who could have babies any day now.”

“Lucy one of ‘em?”

Aasim frowns. “Dude, I told you not to name them.” 

“I didn’t. Willy did.”

“...Wait, seriously?” Aasim sighs, rubbing at his brow. “I told Mitch to keep him away from them. They’re not pets, they’re food.”

Leaning forward with his elbows against the wooden edge, Louis rubs his eyes and sighs. 

He needs to stop thinking about this shit- his parents, marriage- it’s all in the past and nothing will come out of letting it weigh on his mind. 

He forces himself to think about how at the end of his shift, he gets to go back inside and up to his dorm where Clementine’s waiting for him, then he’ll get to climb in their warm bed and finally get some sleep.

Hopefully. 

Shit, he needs a distraction. 

“You even see anything out there?” he asks.

“No, everything’s quiet.”

“Good.”

Moving closer to Aasim, Louis shuffles his deck of cards one last time before dealing out seven to Aasim and himself, setting the rest between them. Picking up his cards, he moves his fours all together and waits for Aasim to get the idea. 

With a sigh, Aasim follows suit. 

“Usual rules?”

“With a twist.”

“Of course.”

“Winner gets to ask the loser a question.” 

“Fine.”

“Alright... got any fours?” Louis asks.

“Go fish.” 

“Damn.”

He draws a card. 

Aasim rearranges his cards, asking, “Got any sevens?”

"Double damn.”

Louis hands him his seven.

“Nines?” Aasim asks. 

“Go fish.” 

---

The night sky is a comfort compared to inside, the cool air offering more solace than her own bed.

Rubble crunches and kicks beneath as Violet drags her feet, her focus stuck on the cracked cement, fallen bricks, and the upcoming bell laying motionless on the side. It’s rusted over from years of being left in the rain, a sickening metallic smell emanating off of it.

She comes to a stop, her gaze stuck without really looking at it, as if her thoughts have smeared her visual focus. Thinking back on it, there isn’t a time where she remembers the bell actually being attached where it was meant to be. Not that it really matters. She’s not here to admire the fallen bell and it’s greater purpose, nor to mourn its untimely fall.

“Vi?”

She nearly jumps, whirling around to find Tenn watching her, his fingers twisting nervously and concern furrowing his brow.

“Shit, Tenn,” she curses, fully facing him while crossing her arms over her chest. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m on patrol,” he says, reaching into his pocket to proudly pull out his patrolling knife, the same one AJ uses when he walks around at night. “I saw you come out here and you looked mad.”

“So you followed me without saying anything?”

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he offers a soft grin. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t,” she lies, rolling her eyes. “I’m fine.”

He nods slowly but doesn’t turn to leave, instead eying her over-sized coat and the bell she stands beside.

"It’s a little cold out here. Why don’t you come inside? It’s late.”

“I said I’m fine, Tenn. I’m just getting some fresh air.”

“Then, do you want some company? I can take a break from patrol and go up there with you.” 

She knows he’s trying. He’s always trying with her, trying to get her to talk to him the way she used to or smile or… something. 

Sometimes he as bad as Louis in that regard.

“No.”

“Oh.”

She hates to think it or feel it or whatever, but right now she can’t deal with him. She can’t deal with anybody. She can barely stand to look him in the eye and his voice gnaws at her eardrums, too loud and too damn concerned. 

She just... really needs some quiet. 

When he doesn’t move or say anything else, Violet turns on her heels and approaches the stairs, only for him to call after her.

“Are you sure? I can climb up with you-”

“I said I’m fine, Tennessee,” she snaps much harsher than intended. “Go back on patrol.” 

The effect of her words is instant in his soft, slightly hurt expression.

Fuck.

“Oh-okay,” he stutters out, nodding. “Just- just be careful not to slip, and if you need anything...” he trails off, waiting for any type of response. When he doesn’t get any, he turns and walks back the way he came, adding, “Goodnight, Vi.” 

She watches him go, wanting nothing more than to bang her head against the bell until it rings. 

Why the hell did she have to do that? Why couldn’t she just say, “Thank you, Tenn, I would love the company” or “Thank you, Tenn, but I want to be alone right now” or-

It doesn’t matter now. Tenn’s gone, back on patrol and doing his best to protect them and the school from danger. She’s proud of him for that, though she’s never had the opportunity to tell him that. 

No, that’s a complete lie. 

She’s had plenty of opportunities. Every time she sees him practicing his bow with Willy or learning defensive strategies from AJ, she could easily walk over there and tell him how good he’s doing. 

But she doesn’t, because each and every time those things happen, Clementine’s there with him. 

And that just-

Fuck. 

A yawn builds up in her throat as she takes the first set of stairs to the wall. She shakes it off, beginning her climb to the top.

Another sleepless night that will undoubtedly lead to a deep sleep in the morning. Seems to be her usual schedule these days; complete daily tasks with as little issue as possible, eat dinner, retire early and pretend to try and fall asleep for the rest of the night until dawn breaks, then actually sleep until breakfast is long over.

It’s not so bad when she has night watch, but tonight’s not the case.

In fact, tonight’s a completely different story.

She managed to fall asleep peacefully with a full belly and a relaxed state of mind, something that’s rare even now. She’d been hopeful curled up in bed with the comforter wrapped around her, and that was stupid.

“Shit,” she hisses when her foot slips, causing a short pang of panic in her gut before she catches her self, holding tight and waiting as Tenn’s words repeat in her mind. 

She wonders how long it would take them to find her body -her walker body- if she did fall, as morbid as that may be. 

Deeming herself safe, she continues her climb.

It was a good dream.

Of course it was.

The one night she finds some peace and her own brain has to fuck it up with false, happy realities. On top of it all, she crossed paths with Clementine on her way here and that made everything worse.

Now it’s all she can think about.

The mere sight of her pisses Violet off.

Though, at this point in her life, she’s not even sure if she can accurately pinpoint why. They haven’t spoken- really spoken- in nearly two years but the pain is still present in every second she’s near and Violet can’t stand it. She refuses to stand it.

Never again.

The breeze is stronger at the top, sweet against her face and through her hair. It’s one of her favorite feelings to be up here alone beneath the stars, the wind calming and the sight breathtaking.

Planting herself down in her usual spot, Violet takes a few deep breaths and pulls off her jacket, digging around in the pockets for her notebook and an old green glitter pen.

The notebook isn’t traditional in style, but completely handmade with loose leaf paper sewn together and her name decorating the cover. It was a gift she received two years ago from Tenn, Aasim, and Ruby when everything seemed to finally calm down after the delta.  

It’s a gift that she’s held onto earnestly, one that she used regularly, one that she needed.

Aasim said it was for her thoughts because “writing’s easier than talking sometimes,” and that’s one hell of an understatement.

She refused to write in it at first, knowing that once she did, everything that happened would become more real and the weight of that would crush her into dust. It wasn’t until that fight with Louis that she began writing in it, listing a number of ways she could possibly apologize to him.

Now, it contained everything; memories, different constellations she found in the night sky, thoughts, observations, mini diary entries…

Sometimes she wrote about her parents, her grandma. Sometimes she wrote about the others, sometimes she wrote about Louis, about Minnie, about Tenn.

Sometimes she wrote about Clementine.

Sometimes… she wrote about the delta, the interrogation room, about the cold water, the walkers, the explosion…

And sometimes, she tore pages out and tried to forget.

Opening up to the next blank page, Violet draws a series of dots representative of stars before connecting them in the shape of two birds. Next to one, she draws a speech bubble and writes, “Fly away with me!”

She sighs.

It was a good dream, far from a nightmare and somehow, that made it worse.

She and Minnie were in the fishing shack, lying on the bed and holding hands, talking in muffled, obscured voices. Everything around them was warped, but they were together without any chaos.

Violet always wanted to do that.

She always wanted to go there with Minnie, carve their initials on the wall together, then cuddle in bed while Minnie sang to her until the sun set. When night fell upon them, the need to be together kept them in that bed, even at the cost of worrying the others.

That never happened.

The closest Violet ever got to the fantasy was waking up early and going there by herself to carve the initials, then leading Minnie back as a surprise.

That was the first time they ever kissed.

But, that was it.

They grabbed their spears and went fishing.

The only thing memorable about the kiss is that it was her first. Quick and a little awkward, but enjoyable, she thinks.

Maybe.

Fuck, it was so long ago.

Violet rubs her face on the sleeve of her shirt, murmuring “stop” several times under her breath.

While being up here is calming and peaceful, now that she’s sitting alone beneath these stars, Violet realizes just how lonely it can be.

Yeah, lonely.

It’s fucked but it’s nights like this that she wishes for the comfort of another beside her to talk to about this stuff, but when someone offers her it to her like Tenn did, she refuses it. 

Why?  

Because she actually longed for the comfort of a girl who aided in her suffering at the hands of an evil bitch hellbent of kidnapping as many as she could for her army? A girl who had a face she once loved but eyes as hollow as cold space itself and who was a lovely yet sorrowful memory she’s held on to for far too long, but just can’t seem to loosen her grasp of?

That comfort is a falsity, a pipe dream and she knows it. 

No, she longed the comfort of friends who desperately want to help her no matter how much she pushes them away. Someone who understood the pain she felt and comforted her with beautiful art and kind words, or someone who saved her life and loved her and never stopped trying.

Someone there in the flesh who offered himself to her every day who she repeatedly turned away from.

Because isn’t that who she is now…?

A person who craves the comfort of interaction but also flees from it the first chance she gets.

One big, stupid, fucking contradiction.

But at least she has the night sky, right? 

No matter what, the moon and the stars would never truly leave, they’d come back to her every single night, and that’s more than she could say for most. 

---

Clementine’s still awake when Louis sneaks in. 

He tries his best to be quiet, stopping at the door to slip off his boots and jacket, tiptoeing around before slowly sliding into bed with her with a huff.

She lifts her head off the pillow, silently watching him rub at his tired eyes. 

“Hey,” she whispers.

“Shit,” he curses, startled, but relaxes when she sits up on her elbows. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” she sighs. “Been in and out.”

Louis scoots closer to her so that her chin rests against his shoulder. He entwines their fingers, bringing their hands to rest against his chest. 

He’s freezing from being outside, so she yanks the blanket up closer to fully cover them, causing him to let out a content sigh.

“How was watch?” she asks.

“Same ol’, same ol’,” he replies. “Convinced Aasim to play go-fish with a twist ‘til he got mad,” he yawns. “Asked him when he’s finally going to confess his undying love to Ruby and he threatened to throw my deck over the wall.”

Clementine chuckles. “Sounds about right.” 

They find a pleasant position with her arm around his waist and her body pressed snug against his back. He kisses the back of her hand as his eyes flutter shut, the day's exhaustion catches up with him.

"Guess we’re going to expand the kennel tomorrow,” he says. “Lucy and another rabbit are going to have babies soon, so that’ll be a lot of fun.”

“Hmm.”

“How was your night?”

“Better now.” 

The corner of his mouth twitches into a grin.

Their hands raise and fall with every breath he takes, and soon he’s fast asleep. His heartbeat is soft against her hand, the rhythm a sweet lull. She keeps herself awake a little longer to make sure he remains peaceful.

She runs her thumb over his, thinking back to the couple in the train station, wondering what their last kiss was like, what their final words to each other were. She wonders if there were a lot of things left unspoken, things that wanted to be said, needed to be said.

She squeezes his hand and allows her eyes to rest.

[hybridfanfiction]

Lost In The Echo - 2

Pairing: Keith x Labrador hybrid Lance

Summary: After his brother went MIA, Keith’s life began to fall apart. He dropped out of high school and got a job, barely doing enough for himself to survive. He’s reached the point where even he is worried about how far he’s fallen into the depths of his depression. After learning about emotional support hybrids, he takes a chance and adopts a Lab hybrid named Lance.

Word Count: 3033

Requested

It was nearly closing time when Keith finally stood outside of the hybrid shelter, fidgeting with his hood so it covered as much of his face as possible. It had been a long time since he’d left his apartment for the sole reason of interacting with other people. That alone makes him nervous enough, but he knew what was causing his feet to act like they were glued to the pavement was the particular person he had to interact with. 

Katie Holt was a spitfire on a good day and terrifying on the bad ones. She had once held the title of Keith’s best friend (rather loosely, he’d never said it but he’d never stopped her when she claimed it) and more than likely had felt betrayed when Keith just took off without a word. He knew when he managed to grow enough balls to walk inside he’d meet with the face he’d pictured a million times the past couple years - Eyes bright was anger and hurt, hissing at him like an angry kitten. He knew he deserved it. 

He squared his shoulders and willed his feet to move, wanting to get the inevitable over with. Once inside, he paused to take in the atmosphere with a bit of surprise. The decor was light and cheery, with hybrids and families openly meeting in a floor to ceiling windowed playroom. The hybrids themselves all looked happy and well cared for, playing games or watching TV. Keith had always figured a shelter would look more like...well, an animal shelter. With cages and crying animals, workers giving you the stinkeye and demanding a donation to even look at the animals. This place looked more like a high-class resort inside. 

Keith pulled the hood from his head and ruffled his hair a bit, suddenly feeling way too underdressed with the ancient hoodie that he’d stolen from Takashi years ago and his ripped jeans that were less a product of fashion and more him not caring enough to buy new ones. He awkwardly walked towards the unmanned front desk and just stood there waiting, no sign of a bell or any way to call for help. 

Just as he was contemplating making a run for it, he heard a familiar voice coming closer from a nearby closed door. He watched it open in slow motion, knowing he probably looked like a scared rabbit about to bolt. 

Their eyes met, and instead of the scorn and vicious anger he’d anticipated, they were soft and glistening with growing tears. 

“Keith...” she uttered with a faint almost reverent voice, rushing towards him and pulling him into a tight hug. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to hold her close, offering a little half smile to the top of her head. 

“Hey, Katie Kat.”

They stood there for what seemed like hours, though it was mere moments. Keith couldn’t even remember the last time he’d hugged someone. Katie was probably the last one, honestly. 

“You’re not stabbing me. Aren’t you mad at me?” 

She didn’t move her face out of his chest, but he felt her grip on him tighten. 

“I was. For a while. Then...I was just sad. I missed you and I was so worried. I was upset that you didn’t trust me or want my help. And Matt kept asking about you, checking to see I’d heard from you yet, and it hurt always having to tell him no.” 

Keith felt guiltier than ever. “It wasn’t like that, Pidge. I was just so angry and - well, you know what happens when I get angry.” 

“You do stupid shit.” 

Keith chuckled and pulled her away from him so he could take a good look at her.  She still kept up with the short hair that suited her so well and the glasses he knew that she didn’t even need; she just liked the look of them. She’d grown a bit taller and her face was sharper. He couldn’t believe how much she’d changed in just a few years. She looked every bit a grown ass adult that had her shit together. He felt proud knowing that even if he was a dud, his friends were doing damn good. 

His musings were interrupted when her foot suddenly slammed into his shin, making him cry out and hop a couple times in pain. He glared at the smirking woman as he reached down to rub the ache. 

“What the hell, Pidge. That hurt.” 

“Good, now we’re even,” she sniffed, then turned and grabbed a clipboard from the front desk. 

“When Hunk told me he’d run into you, I thought I was shocked enough. Then he told me he thought he might have talked you into getting one of our support hybrids, and Lance at that. I felt like I’d entered the Twilight Zone.” 

Keith felt a twinge of unease when he realized both Hunk and Pidge talked about this hybrid like he would be crazy to get him, yet they still kept mentioning only his name. 

“Is he that bad of a match then?” 

“No, actually. At first glance he probably is. On the surface, the two of you are complete opposites. He’s loud where you’re quiet, he’s obnoxiously outgoing where you’re introverted. He’s an unapologetic flirt, you run to the bathroom when Stacy Cobb tries to ask you to prom,” she adds that last bit with a teasing grin as Keith groans. 

“You guys will never let that die, will you?” 

“Nope,” Pidge smirks mischievously and pulls him with her towards the windowed playroom. 

They stand there for a moment in silence as Keith tries to guess which of the hybrids is Lance. There are probably at least forty people in the massive room, so he had no way of picking him out. 

Pidge sighs and reaches out to squeeze his hand comfortingly before continuing. 

“Like I said, at first glance you guys seem like an impossible match. But I have the advantage of knowing what you both have under your armor. You’re both loyal, intelligent, and passionate. Courageous.” 

Keith snorts at that one but she smacks him lightly with the back of her hand on his chest. 

“I’m serious. It may not seem like it from your end, but you’ve always been the brave one. There’s a difference between being heartbroken and being a coward, Keith. Not to mention just coming here today for a support animal is incredibly brave of you. It means you recognize you have a problem and you’re going out of your way to solve it when you could just have easily ignored Hunk and kept to yourself.” 

She sighs dramatically. “Unfortunately, you and Lance are also both stubborn and competitive, so I anticipate some clashing heads no matter what,” she snorts, bumping Keith’s shoulder. 

“However, the trait that you both share that won me over is how you both go all in, and when you care about someone you give them everything. I think that’s what both of you need. You need who will make you a priority and not let you get away with your crap. He needs someone that wants him - that will accept and need him. He’s got a huge heart just waiting for the right person.” 

Keith swallows nervously. “I don’t know. This is starting to sound super serious.” 

Pidge glances up with a quirked brow. “It is super serious. You’re not just renting him until you feel better, Keith. You’d be taking him into your home and making him your family. He’s trained to focus on you and your needs, true, but he’s still a person with thoughts and feelings and needs of his own. He’s not there to replace Shiro - no one can. But it’s okay to live and love and have a family that cares about you even though he’s gone. He would want that for you.” 

He nods silently, because logically he knows she’s right. Doesn’t make it any easier. 

“Do you...do you think he’s still alive out there?” he asks softly, and the hand gripping his squeezes gently. 

“I think if anyone has a chance of surviving the impossible, it’s him.” 

“Yeah,” he sighs wistfully as they lapse into silence again, watching the activity in the room. 

“KEITH!” 

He finds himself suddenly wrenched away from Pidge and into the perfumed embrace of yet another of his old friends, Allura. She was as beautiful as ever, with her long flowing hair and sophisticated manner. Behind her stood a woman that looked ridiculously similar in style to Allura, except her long hair was blond. She was watching the two hug with a fond smile as she observed Allura happily gushing over Keith. 

“Oh, Keith. I missed you! We all did. I am so happy you’re here,” Allura exclaimed, pulling back to observe him. 

“You’re far too thin, however. I’m surprised Hunk let you get away from him looking like that.” 

“He didn’t. He stuffed me until I fell asleep.” 

The girls snicker, then Allura brings forward the blonde woman, looping her arm with hers. 

“Keith, this is our girlfriend Romelle.” 

Keith tried to hide his shock as best as he could, reaching out to shake the blushing woman’s hand. 

“It’s uh...nice to meet you.” 

He glanced over at Pidge when the coast was clear, mouthing ‘Our?’ She winks and holds a hand up, silently telling him she’d explain in a bit. 

“I’m going to demand an old fashioned dinner at Uncle Coran’s soon because we all need to catch up, but you’re probably anxious to meet Lance. I’ll go get him for you!” Allura smiled brightly and hugged him once more before dragging Romelle off with her towards the back. 

“So ‘Our’, huh?” Keith turned to a smirking Pidge with a raised eyebrow. 

She shrugged, trying to act like there wasn’t a smug cloud circling the air above her. 

“Yeah, you know. The whole not being into sex thing never went away, and the more serious things got with Allura and me, the more I worried about it. I mean, we’ve been together since high school so she’d never even gotten the chance to do anything but kiss because I actually enjoy that, but I knew she wasn’t like me. She kept saying she was fine with it and that she loved me no matter what. I believed her and we weren’t actively looking to add another, but then Romelle started working here.” Pidge shakes her head with a smile, sighing wistfully.

“She fit in with us so well that it took us a while to realize she was basically already a part of us, just without, you know, titles and stuff. So we asked her out and here we are. Allura gets to do all the gross bedroom aerobics she wants, I still get all the cuddles and kisses I want times two. At first, I thought she was only in it for Allura, which would have been fine with me too, but then we kinda fell in love too. It’s been a whole...thing.” 

Keith chuckles quietly, bumping fondly against her. 

“Leave it to you to end up with the hot harem.” 

She groans dramatically, sporting a shy smile. “Oh my god, shut up.” 

Loud chattering echos down the hallway and they both turn to watch as Allura and Romelle return to them. 

Keith inhales sharply as the person in the middle of the two women smiles at him. The smile alone is stunning, wide and beaming. But the whole package...Jesus. He was beautiful. Slender but lightly muscled bronze-toned skin that he wondered if it was as soft as it looked. Gorgeous eyes and an ass that wouldn’t quit. Golden brown hair - topped with floppy chocolate-colored ears. Because, oh yeah, he’s a hybrid. 

Keith cringed at in inner thoughts, trying to drag them out of the gutter. He wasn’t sure, of course, but he assumed hybrids stuck to their own kind and didn’t like humans in that way. Keith observed the happy sway of the other’s dark brown tail and thought it was more likely the poor thing would run away screaming if he’d just heard Keith’s thoughts about him. 

“Hi! I’m Lance!” the hybrid grins and sticks out his free hand; his other one holding a duffle bag so stuffed he wondered how he’d gotten the zipper closed. 

“Uh, hi. I’m Keith,” he mutters shyly, shaking Lance’s hand. Lance’s large warm hand that was oh so soft. 

No! Stop it, Keith. 

“So,” Pidge started as she ruffled through some papers, handing a couple to Keith. “The paperwork is already finished. I did it all as soon as I heard. The fee is waived, as I’m sure Hunk told you I’d do already. His official adoption certificate will be ready in a couple days because I like to get them notarized, but I won’t give it to you until after the probational period.” 

“Probation?” Keith repeated, crinkling his nose in confusion. 

“Yeah. Our support hybrids generally work with individuals with like, PTSD or other trauma. Sometimes it turns out that they need more than a hybrid can give or they just aren’t a good fit. So probation. A month to see if you think it’s a good fit. If at the end of the month it’s not working, no hard feelings. We’ll pair you up with someone else, or help you figure out something else that might help you. I have a really good feeling about the two of you though.” 

Keith hums as he looks over Lance’s information, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Same age as him, has been in the shelter for about a year, high marks in all of his training classes. 

“What about you, Lance? Are you okay coming home with me? They told you about me, right? And I’m way more messed up than they even know.” Keith asks, finally meeting the hybrid’s warm gaze straight on. Pidge clicks her tongue with disapproval as he basically talks himself down. 

“Oh yeah. I’ve totally trained for this, man. Plus, you smell great. And you’re pretty, even if you have a mullet.” 

Keith blushes and sighs as Pidge falls into unrestrained laughter. 

“It just grows that way,” she giggled, using air quotations to mock him. 

“Anyway...is that all of your things?” he asks the hybrid, gesturing towards the duffle bag. 

Lance nods and wiggles it a bit. “Didn’t want to collect too much and have to move everything whenever I got my assignment.” 

“We’re including vouchers for buying Lance more clothing and supplies since he’s a support hybrid, so you don’t have to worry about that,” Pidge adds. 

“Okay. Uh, should we go home now? It’s getting late and you guys are closing soon, right?” 

“Yup. You two are free to go. Just keep your phone handy, because we’ll be calling and texting you like crazy now that we have you back in our grasp, asshole,” Pidge grumbled even as she squeezed Keith into a quick hug. “Also, we’ll be staying away from the apartment for only one week. Take the time to get to know Lance and get settled, then we’ll be on you like fleas. And expect a phone call from Coran demanding your attendance to Sunday dinners.” 

“Thanks, Katie Kat. For everything,” he said softly, trying to convey everything he felt into those few words. Her eyes softened as she nodded, automatically knowing what he was trying to get across like no time had passed. Damn, he really had missed his friends. 

“Bye, Lance. Take care of Keith, okay. And don’t let him get away with being a brat,” she turned to hug the hybrid who happily accepted her embrace before turning to the other two women, hugging them as well. 

“See ya, Princess,” he added towards Allura, shooting her finger guns that she rolled her eyes at, though she was grinning. 

“Have a good time, Lance. Be sure to call if you or Keith need our assistance. Keith, it was so very good to see you again. I look forward to Sunday dinner,” Allura winked and walked them towards the front door and watched them walk to the car, waving until it was out of sight. 

❦

Keith ushered the hybrid into the apartment, extremely relieved that Hunk had helped him the previous night with cleaning. It was still an unimpressive place, but at least it didn’t look like a hoarder’s home anymore. 

The hybrid set his bag on the floor and glanced around, his nose wiggling as he scented the place. Keith hoped it didn’t smell like the trash that had built up still. 

“So, uh, it’s just me here and I’ve basically been using the couch. I can keep doing that because I only have one room. You’re free to take it.” 

Lance looks at him sharply, assessing him in a way that nearly made him feel uncomfortable. Like he was just an open book to the hybrid. 

Finally, Lance shakes his head. “Nope. We start out how we mean to go on. Part of healing is routine, as boring as that sounds. Same bed, same time. No couches or mats on the floor. Bed, 10:00pm bedtime.” 

“Bedtime? I have a bedtime?” Keith scoffs. 

“Uh huh. Ten to six is your sleeping schedule. Learn it, live it, love it.”

Keith almost wanted to laugh, like really laugh, at the ridiculous hybrid. 

“Yeah, okay.” 

Lance perked up and directed Keith towards the bathroom. 

“Great! I’m so happy you agree because it’s bedtime right now. Let’s brush our teeth and hit the sack.” 

Keith huffed but let Lance direct him through preparing for bed, deciding it was easier to do so. Besides, he’d already used up more energy today than he had in...he didn’t know. Years maybe. He was actually pretty freaking tired. 

Eventually, he found himself laying on his back in his little used bed, the warmth of the hybrid snuggled in next to him seeping into his bones. It was crazy how comfortable Lance seemed to be with him already, but instead of questioning it, he simply closed his eyes and followed him into sleep. 

[lenin-it-to-win-it]

rabbit tour!

i just made a “shelf” so all my stuffed animals weren’t crowded on the windowsill and i used this as an opportunity to take pictures of all the ones i have with me so here we go!

this is artemis, a majestic and powerful silver rabbit with a very dramatic backstory

basically i was 5 hours away from home on a work trip and i saw her in the window of a shop BUT it hadn’t opened yet so i had to walk away not knowing if I would have time to get back to the shop before it closed, if someone else would buy the rabbit, or if i even had enough money to buy the rabbit in the first place 

the most I was willing to spend was $20, not because I don’t think this rabbit is a priceless artifact of beauty, but bc im a peasant and my job was technically volunteer work and paid less than minimum wage but ANYWAY i go on and on about this fucking rabbit to anyone who will listen, my coworkers are plotting ways to murder me that will look like an accident, but we get back to the store and the rabbits still there AND ITS ExACTLY $20 SO I IMMEDIATELY BUY IT WITH NO REGRETS BEST PURCHASE OF MY LIFE 

here are some little baby babies i have clipped to my backpack (can you tell i like rabbits???), the yellow one on top is bun might for obvious reasons

 the one in the middle is technically unnamed but i call him sergeant pez bc hes a pez dispenser and he was in one of my dads old military trunks for like a million years until he was cleaning them out and gave him to me 

the light green one is the newest addition, her name is mochi and shes so fucking soft you guys its like petting a delicate cloud 

these arent rabbits but theyre still valid so shut up, the black cat is named agugu (short for akutagawa) bc i was into bung/ou s/tray d/ogs at the time 

the panda in the middle was a gift from my roommate and her name is monochrome because i have another panda back home thats purple and her name is. purple. so i wanted to stick with the theme here

the white tiger is named at2shi after atsushi (from b/ungou st/ray d/ogs again) who can turn into a white tiger but also i already had ANOTHER non-white tiger that was named atsushi so this one is at2shi 

more wild thangs that arent rabbits!

the elephant is слон or “sloane”, слон means elephant in russian and it’s kind of pronounced like the name sloane so it’s a very deep complex and intellectual name, clearly. слон is a puppet that shrieks like the souls of the damned when you squeeze him and he was a gift from my high school russian teacher because i would be Blessed with the duty of making слон scream at students who were speaking english in class, he’s a good comrade 

the tiger is atsushi, im sure you can figure out his deal based on at2shi, i got him at the zoo and hes lovely

the red panda with the minnie ears might have had another name at some point but during my regrettable b/s/d phase i started calling him chuuya and it stuck, also now i put my minnie ears on him bc his head’s the perfect size so im more or less using him as a hat rack which is very on brand for chuuya actually

the purple sloth staring into the camera (and your soul) is gasloth leroux and i won him at dave and busters after re-reading phantom of the opera

(last batch of non-rabbits)

the bear in the snazzy tunic is radar, he was originally my mom’s as a baby and she gave him to me as a baby and since i dont intend on spawning im hoarding him forever #life hack 

yall better know who fucking kermit is 

aannnd we already went over слон in the last picture so! back to the rabbits!

welcome to the purple corner, friends!

the little all purple one in the back is sukie, and she is just baby, only little creacher, nothing can change that, she was a gift for easter i think two years ago now 

the purple and white rabbit with the pink nose laying next to the cardboard shapes is named violet and her fur is very soft and lovely but she has some kind of hard panel inside (she moves, maybe? idk) so not exactly optimized for cuddling, still shes a good girl

the hulking googly eyed purple yarn monstrosity is roundy blumbo and he was handmade by my terrible but talented sister @rattypants​

most of these are new arrivals because walgreens has easter rabbits out and some of them were literally only three dollars so yeah but anyway

the grey one with the pink bow is named toshi after all might (i got him about the same time as bun might so b/nha heavily owned my ass at the time) and hes absolutely perfect for cuddling, very soft and long

the blue one is named bluebell the second or “twobell”, when I was younger I had a really tiny blue stuffed rabbit named bluebell that i would take everywhere but one day i dropped it somewhere in or around a ymca and lost it forever and i literally did not stop crying for two whole days because of it, bluebell the second is a spiritual successor who hopefully wont get lost 

the one that looks just like bluebell the second but not blue is marshmallow, bluebell the seconds identical twin brother who was also 3 dollars because literally, THREE DOLLARS

the one with light brown fur and orange ears is named gingersnap carrot cake because I liked both names and couldnt decide and since i bought him around the same time as bluebell the second and marshmallow, he’s their mischievous older brother and together i guess that makes them the rabbit mcelroys 

now the round rabbit next to toshi with the floppy ears and a smaller rabbit with a green dress on its back is rose and bunnia, the larger one is rose, the mother, and bunnia is her daughter, they have a very close relationship as you can see

the small white and brown rabbit next to rose and bunnia is spenser, named after edmund spenser, creator of the spenserian sonnet, bc i bought her at a renn faire and thought she should have an old timey name, shes a literary icon 

now we’re getting into the old guard! all the rabbits in this picture (aside from carrot cake gingersnap whomst is a SLUT FOR ATTENTION) are all ones i got between the ages of 6-10, so theyre my day ones uwu

the brown rabbit with floppy ears is mocha, she was a christmas present when i was 9 years old and shes probably the most rabbit-shaped rabbit i have 

the rabbit with the bright pink scarf is beatrice (i dont have favorites except actually i do and its beatrice), I got her when i was 7 years old from goodwill and one of her arms was kind of loosely connected and started falling off which Horrified me and i tried to “take care of her” by using a bit of ribbon as a sling, eventually my grandma sewed her arm back on so then i used the ribbon as a scarf and ever since then beatrice has had a scarf of some kind  

the rabbit next to beatrice with the black button eye is wrinkly pinkly, who lost her eye in the warTM (it fell off years later but she claims to have lost it in the war anyway and shes old so everyone just goes along with it), shes very loose and as the name implies, VERY wrinkly which makes her fun to wiggle around 

the bright pink rabbit with the wide head is anna, beatrice’s mom and wrinkly pinkly’s sister, her husband griffy is back home so i dont have a picture of him but their story is very enemies-to-lovers (they were on opposite sides of The War) and shes a very ambitious and powerful figure in rabbitopia despite having hundreds of kids to raise #feminist icon 

the light pink rabbit with the yarn dress is madison, ironically named long before i even remotely knew that madison, wisconsin was a place that exists, and shes beatrice’s younger sister and shes very active and athletic but she also likes being pretty which is why i made her the yarn dress

cottontail (he doesnt actually have a tail) is the town drunk and a constant nuisance, his wife left him so now he’s always hoeing around and causing trouble for everyone (which is also what he did Before his wife left him), one of his legs is more filled than the other so he walks with a limp. his wife took most of the children except

darnell (the long pink rabbit lying down), who inherited her dad’s troublemaking tendencies and loves playing pranks and talking shit 

(last one, for all the zero people who are still reading at this point)

next to cottontail we have aminta in the green dress, i bought her at the airport and shes a very beautiful and distinguished young rabbit who madison is ABSOLUTELY gay for, she’s very proper and is being brought up by

hera nova (the white rabbit with the pink nose and floppy ears in the back) who is the oldest rabbit i have (Ive had her since i was at least 5, though she didn’t get a name until i was in my greek mythology phase a few years later), shes sort of a grandma to all the other rabbits and could absolutely destroy them all if she wanted to 

karoline (yes with a k, i didnt know the kardashians were a Thing back then) is the yellow rabbit with the basket, she works at rabbitopia’s most popular restaurant, the spinning carrot, and she is one of the three main chefs along with her sister 

bonnie, the pink rabbit with only one ear, she got torn up pretty badly over the years but shes still alive and still spinning those carrots!! (there was a third rabbit that worked with them named fritz who was white and holding an easter egg but i don’t remember what happened to her) 

so there we go! rabbits! lots of them! 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

9x10: Omega - Details

Okay, let's talk details. I’ll put these in three major groups: Lydia-related details, a few Carol details, and general/Alpha details. Some of these will touch on the things I said in my First Thoughts post yesterday, but with little more detail.

***Once again, spoilers abound for episode 9x10. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Lydia details:

My group has talked a lot about the strangeness of Lydia's ear condition. In 9x06, Daryl watched a bluebird/Songbird pull a worm out of a walker's ear. It then fed the worm to its babies. My theory with the worm is that it represents something negative that's being taken out of someone. Like negativity or negative belief of some kind. Now, in this episode, we saw both Lydia and Henry eat worms, and we also saw that she had some sort of pain or medical condition associated with her ear. Could be something as simple as an ear infection that’s gone untreated.

In truth, we’re not sure exactly how all of the stuff fits together, but here are a few ideas we’ve brainstormed. 

1) Naturally we’re relating it to Daryl eating the warm in 5x10 and Beth in general. 

2) Several of my fellow theorists have suggested it shows Daryl becoming a father figure and protector to Lydia. 

3) I would go so far as to say that, if the worm represents something negative, and it's being taken out of the year, then maybe it represents him showing Lydia how she's been thinking wrongly about things. About how her mother is crazy and abusive, and revealing the lies Lydia has believed all these years.

Even those I’m not completely satisfied with. We’re fairly certain the walker on the tree in 9x06 represented Daryl himself. So, it feels a little backwards as of right now. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this as the arc progresses.

Daryl offered Lydia water several times. First of all, Beth equals water. So there’s that. Another parallel to Beth. And what did Daryl use to give her water? A Big Dipper. Or Little Dipper. We can relate that to the North Star and Sirius/Dog star symbolism. I know @frangipanilove is working on a new post about this. The symbols are definitely important.

Some interesting dialogue.

At one point, Daryl says to Lydia, "You don't know shit about me." That really jumped out at me because it's exactly what Noah said to Beth at Grady. So, we’ve got some Grady stuff going on here.

Lydia also use phrases like "she's a good person," or, "they were good people." Obviously, that dialogue is the same Beth used.

Lydia was convinced no one was coming for her. This parallels her strongly with Beth at Grady. Beth specifically said to Dawn, "No one’s coming." 

She wasn't really talking about herself being rescued so much as about Dawn's misguided belief that the army or FEMA would show up to rescue them. Beth meant the world had pretty much ended and they were on their own. 

But even so. We have Dawn's misguided belief and Beth telling her that no one is coming. Then we have Lydia, whose also has misguided beliefs, and she tells Daryl that no one's coming for her. 

In both cases, this person's family turned up at the gates, and a prisoner exchange took place. At Grady, obviously Rick and Daryl showed up to collect Beth and Carol and there was the prisoner exchange that went very badly. Here, Alpha and the Whisperers, Lydia’s family, showed up to get her. We haven't seen it yet, but it's obvious that a prisoner exchange is about to take place. I'm actually very excited to see how this plays out because I'm anticipating a lot of Grady parallels.

It's also important to notice that things are kind of opposite from what they were at Grady. As I said yesterday, Lydia is actually being heavily paralleled Daryl. So in S5, Beth was the one who was the prisoner and TF came to get her. Here in S9, the Daryl figure (Lydia) is the one who was imprisoned and her family, who we know are villains, have come to her. I'm thinking the prisoner exchange will go well, specifically because the Grady didn't. But that remains to be seen.

After re-watching, I was also very intrigued by the baby references. When Henry got Lydia out of her cell, she reached for a hammer and was going to hit him with it and run. She didn’t know Daryl stood a few feet away watching.

When the woman from Hilltop came outside with her crying baby, it really freaked Lydia out. It made her want to go back into the cell. 

Not sure what that means, but now we have the Whisperers at the gates and one of them has a baby. I've read spoilers about what will happen with this, and I won't go into them here, but it's obvious the Whisperers aren’t big on babies.

As I've mentioned before, in the CBs there’s a major rape culture among the Whisperers. And we know Alpha abuses Lydia to keep her in line. This is complete conjecture on my part, but I'm sort of wondering if maybe at some point, Lydia got pregnant and had a baby, but Alpha forced her to give it up. That might explain why she had such a visceral reaction to hearing the baby cry. It also might play into the other worm/Songbird/babies in the nest symbolism going on in 9x06. Again, we’ll just have to wait and see.

With stuff like this, I immediately start developing head canons about it. Like maybe Lydia did something to try and save her baby, and Beth ended up with it. Maybe Beth will show up with Lydia’s baby, which would explain the child/baby symbolism around her. I even wondered if Gracie could be Lydia’s baby, but I don’t think the timeline works. Based on her age, Lydia would have only been ten when Gracie was born, so probably not. 

Daryl brought in the branch of a birch tree when he confronted Lydia about her abuse. This is super important because we’ve long thought the trees in the plate glass picture in FG’s church, which Sasha shot in 5x16, were birch trees. We couldn’t be sure, but they look like they were. Birch tree symbolism points heavily to Beth, and the fact that that picture was shot with the bullet suggests a retelling of Beth being shot at Grady. Don't forget, that's the scene where FG says all kinds of things about them sacrificing their own that makes absolutely no sense. Again other theorists are working on metas about the birch tree, so I won't go into it further except to say we’re glad they specifically named it as a birch tree because it validates a lot of our earlier theories.

As a child, Lydia had a stuffed rabbit. They said in TTD it was a nod to Judith's rabbit from Carl’s vision of the future. That’s significant because it could show that this war with the Whisperers will in some way lead to Carl’s vision of the future. I think, especially in terms of Negan, that's probably true. But we’ve also seen rabbit symbolism around Beth before. There are pictures of rabbits in 4B, and then there were the rabbits Lizzie killed.

I started to wonder if maybe we should look for some Lizzie/Lydia or perhaps Lizzie/Alpha parallels. I honestly haven't thought about that too much, but Lydia is pretty messed up, and Lizzie was he was pretty messed up. Lizzie killed a bunch of rabbits and Lydia had a stuffed rabbit. Carol mothered Lizzie, and we’re starting to think this whole Lydia arc is going to end up having to do with Carol. I get to that in a minute. So just some food for thought.

In terms of eating worms, we’ve talked about a few different ways to interpret it. @wdway suggested maybe we could parallel it to Beth and Daryl eating snake together. 

Yes, we know they’re two different species and even symbolically, they generally mean different things, but they’re both long and skinny and slither on the ground, right? All that aside, I think we can read into Beth and Daryl eating snake together at the beginning of their journey, and now Henry and Lydia eating worms together at the beginning of theirs. I think that's too close a parallel to ignore.

 @rabia___81 (IG) also suggested something I thought was really beautiful and wanted to include. She said she believes Henry fell in love with Lydia when they ate the worms together. I think that’s valid, as right after that we see them holding hands. So, she suggested perhaps Daryl eating the worm in 5x10 shows it was then, after he lost Beth, that he realized he'd been in love with her. All together now: 

 Carol stuff:

Henry, talking about Carol to Lydia, said, "She's tough." This is exactly what Daryl told Carol of Beth in S5. Actually, he said it to a few people. So, I wondered how we should interpret this. Does that mean Carol will be missing and presumed dead, much like Beth? Possibly, but I think it's more complicated than that.

Several of us during the episode last night started to get the vibe that they might be juxtaposing Carol and Alpha. This came in several different forms. When we first started seeing the flashbacks of Lydia's father, and she presented him as being a being somewhat abusive, we made comments that he seemed a lot like Ed, Carol’s first husband. 

Of course, as we move through the story, we find out that the opposite was true. Even though Lydia remembered certain things that way, it was only because her mother brainwashed her. In each of those scenes, it was really Alpha who was abusive and the father was the more loving one. So, we have a reversal from Carol and Ed. Carol was the abused and Ed, the abuser. In Alpha’s case, she was the abuser and her husband was the abused. Now, Alpha abuses her daughter, where we know Carol protected Sophia from Ed as best she could.

Then there’s the hair thing. I said at the beginning of the season that her long hair probably reflected that Carol was so happy with Ezekiel, and I was willing to bet something would happen down the line, some tragedy, and she’d cut it off again. The first part of that was confirmed by Henry in this episode. He said the reason she cut her hair short was because Ed used it to grab her by and summer against the wall. When she finally found love with Ezekiel, she finally felt happy enough and safe enough to let her go wrong again.

It’s super interesting that they chose this episode to put that story in, because Carol wasn’t even in this episode. But we saw an iconic scene of Alpha, completely bald, showing up at the gates. So, it may be a juxtaposition there between long-haired Carol and bald alpha. 

And there's the fact that this arc is about parents abusing children. Obviously, Daryl has a huge link to that because he was abused as a child, but Carol was abused as an adult and if they are heading toward a Carol/Alpha showdown, we’ll have a woman whose fought abuse her entire life and fought to protect her daughter against a woman is been abusive all her life and specifically abuses her daughter. That’ll be a pretty epic showdown. I think it’ll be a really great story. Obviously we aren't the only ones thinking this as the caller on TTD last night asked the same question. So, people are definitely picking up on this vibe.

And that’s what I mean about not being sure about the whole "she's tough" line. I think it will end up playing into this entire arc, but I'm not sure exactly how yet.

We also have an anti-parallel in the reason behind the hair length. We can surmise from Lydia’s flashbacks that Alpha only ever kept her hair long to please her husband. She cut it off for selfish reasons. (“I’m doing what I want now.”) Carol cut her hair off specifically as a way to fight against her abusive husband, and she kept it long because SHE was in a good emotional head space.

I kind of hope Carol doesn’t cut all her hair off again. I mean, she probably will, but it would be nice to see some growth in her by having her not cut it off when her losses start piling up again. And it’s interesting that Daryl knows this about her now, because if she does cut it off again, he’ll know why, and it will make him sad. 😥

Aside: someone in my group also made the very good point that Carol never felt safe enough to grow her hair long before Ezekiel, and that includes with Daryl. So in terms of proving Carol and Daryl aren’t romantic...just thought I’d point that out. 😉

Miscellaneous:

In one of Lydia’s flashbacks, she and her mother played checkers, and Alpha said checkmate. Obviously, a chess reference. My post on the chess game is HERE, but remember we saw the Governor playing chess a lot in S4. During that time, he was very heavily paralleled with Beth and they used his episodes to foreshadow her arc, so that's important. Perhaps we could argue that seeing chess again might suggest that this is when the resurrection arc will finally come back around.

I also think they use this to foreshadow the bad guy TF is now faced with. The villain is overly confident and thinks they’ll win easily. This was definitely true of the Governor who I believe said “checkmate” more than once. He felt confident he could take the prison down. Of course he didn't, which I suppose we could see as a foreshadow that eventually TF will beat Alpha as well. (Of course, most of us figured that anyway.)

I think this is especially interesting because we now know it was Lydia’s father who said this, not her mother. But we never saw him saying it. It’s like the writers came up with an excuse to specifically show Alpha saying it. That’s obviously intentional.

Another parallel: the Governor attacked the prison and took it down. Lydia keeps saying that this place, meaning Hilltop, will fall, just like every other place. It just feels like a call back to the Gov bulldozing the prison.

They emphasized a 23 in Lydia’s flashbacks. We saw it on the wall, and then we heard her parents talk about it at least twice. It seemed to me that we’d seen this number before, but I couldn't remember where. I looked into my old theories, and I found it. We saw it prominently in episode 5x11, directly after the music box woke up, when the TF goes with Aaron to Alexandria for the first time. He tells them to take Highway 16. The reason is that it's been cleared of walkers and they’ll get there safely. Rick doesn't trust Aaron because he doesn't know him. He says that they're going take Route 23. Aaron warns them heavily against that, saying it hasn’t been cleared and it's a bad idea, but Rick does it anyway. Sure enough, they run into walkers.

Originally, I tried to use these numbers as a way to point S7 or S8 for Beth’s return. Obviously not. But the meaning hasn’t gone anywhere. Route 16 (a multiple of 8, btw) led to a smooth journey, life, and safety. Route 23 (2+3 = 5 for S5?) on the other hand, led to death and separation. TF got all split up and ended up having to reunite at the end. It was especially significant that there was a flare (fire) and a water tower (Beth equals water) that were present were TF reunited. So, I always saw this as a Beth parallel.

We could argue the 23 here might be a Beth thing, but I think it's more likely that it shows that in TWD symbolism world, this is just a very negative number. It will always result in death and familial separation. This definitely happened with Lydia. We saw day 23 and the sequence that followed led to her father's death. It also could foreshadow that the war with alpha is going to be long and deadly.

We later saw the number 43, after more time has passed. Episode 43 of the show was Too Far Gone. And its when this number is shows that we see Alpha kill Matias. Kinda interesting and another parallel to the Governor.

In closing, I wanted to touch on the Omega title. I’m not clear yet why they called this episode Omega. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and of course it's Lydia’s mom's name. Omega is the last letter of the alphabet, and the title of the episode. 

I think this could be a Carol/Alpha thing. As in, if Carol equals Omega, then Carol will be the end of Alpha? I'm not positive about that either. Because Carol wasn't in this episode and I'm not sure that it makes sense to think Omega equals Carol.

Of course, in terms of TD, the title “Alpha and Omega” is one of the best known titles for Christ, so we can’t help but think this might be a Beth thing. But again, even if that’s the case, I’m not sure how to specifically interpret the title of this episode.

This was essentially the beginning of the war with the Whisperers, as they are at the gates. This is the first real encounter with them. But I’ll keep an eye on this symbolism as we progress.

Okay, that's it for today. I will talk about all the musical references in this episode tomorrow. Can't wait to hash that out because they’re really good! Stay tuned!

[nedsrpblog]

Don't chase the rabbit (Lysandre)

Send “Don’t chase the rabbit” for a memory

Memory: Night Fall

He was supposed to be dead. He knew that he was. He knew that he was lucky to still have his life after everything. And he knew that he could easily lose it were he to show himself. He couldn’t. He was dead to the world now. Instead of making it better he’d made it even worse. He couldn’t live with himself for that.

He knew that his husband would be hurt. That he couldn’t handle this alone. But he’d been gone long enough now that he should have moved on already. It had been nearly a year since the collapse.

He approached the door and took a deep breath, letting out a sigh of relief when his key still worked, He closed the door carefully, knowing just how to keep it from clacking too hard. He moved through the apartment, avoiding the creaking floorboards with ease and noting the minor changes. Pictures taken from the wall. Or flipped down. An empty wine bottle here. Or there. Or there. He worried for his husband and sighed softly. He had to move on as well.

Opening the door to their, no... his bedroom, he was careful not to let it creak. Augustine slept soundly, he was glad for that. But not for the wine bottles still scattered about the room. How long had they been collecting? How much had be been drinking? He couldn’t focus on it, he couldn’t.

He set the letter on his side table and his hands shook. He’d cried through writing most of the letter. He was sure that it was tear stained. His cheeks still were, he knew. Now came the hard part. Augustine wasn’t wearing his wedding ring, which meant he had to search. He searched his desk first, coming up empty and then moved through a few other rooms, being careful not to put too much out of place. He went back to his room and looked down at him and then to the side table. It always creaked when it was closed. But it was the last place to look.

He found the ring and held it tight, remember how so many ears ago they’d given theirs to each other. They’d been laughing in the rain. Happy. The world was still beautiful then. He felt himself starting to cry, especially upon seeing Augustine with the little stuffed Pyroar that he’d patched and fixed himself. It was all too much for him. He wanted to stay. He wasn’t ready to leave him.

It felt like he was dying. Really, truly dying.

That couldn’t compare to the muffled groans Augustine was making. He couldn’t look away from the tired blue eyes staring up at him, for once actually full of sleep. “Mon amour...? Am I dreaming?”

Lysandre took a deep breath and steeled himself. He leaned down and kissed his lips softly, savoring the contact. He didn’t want to break away. He didn’t want to lose this. But it had to be this way it had to. When he pulled back he did his best to give him a warm smile, pushing his hair behind his ear. “You are, mon ange. I love you.” He swallowed thickly. “Sleep now, mon amour. Goodnight.” Augustine nodded, head bleary with sleep and Lysandre waited til he knew that he was.

He left, holding back his tears yet, and moving to leave.

It would be the last time he set foot there, he knew. That was their final kiss. He was glad he could say goodbye. Glad that he hadn’t really woken him.

But that was it. The last he’d see of him.

[blueplanettrash]

“No, I Do Remember” (Part 2)

Here you go guys! Hopefully, I’ll be able to get stories rolling out every day again. We had our first snow day of the year today and it’s still going strong now at 5PM. I would post a picture but you’d just be seeing a white screen. I hope you all enjoy! ❤️

Shiro carefully set his gifts on the other paladin’s plates before they arrived. It really did make him feel better, he hadn’t been able to spend Christmas at home for such a long time and he really did worry about his mother and grandfather. He had seen the decorations that lined the hallways as he made his way to the dining hall and he had to hand it to Lance, they really were beautiful. He heard the door open and he turned to the open door, smiling at Keith as he walked over the threshold. He was followed closely by Pidge, who slipped in right after him.

“Hey Shiro,” Pidge said cheerfully as she sat down in her seat. Immediately, her hands reached out to take the small rabbit off of her plate and investigate it. She looked up at Shiro curiously and opened up her mouth before she was interrupted by Hunk as he shouldered his way out of the kitchen with several dishes in his hands.

“Whoa Hunk, do you need help?” Shiro asked as he got up and quickly approached him.

“Nope, don’t worry about it,” he quickly replied, easily setting the dishes down in the centre of the table. He uncovered them with a flourish, releasing the delicious aroma trapped inside. There were loud sniffs as each of the paladin’s inhaled the scent and quickly started taking from the plates as Hunk watched them with a smile.

“This is so good!” Keith groaned stuffing a spoonful into his mouth.

“Where’s Lance? He really outdid himself,” Shiro asked Hunk, assuming that he just helped him carry out the dishes. Hunk blushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Actually I made this, Lance let me make another one of my family’s dishes,” he admitted with a small smile.

“Well, it’s really good Hunk!” Shiro said with a smile. He focused back on his plate. He would really have to go and find Lance afterward and thank him. It was kind of understandable if Lance let one of them take his turn but it was pushing it with letting two of them.

“Did you help Lance with these?” Pidge voice suddenly cut through his thoughts and he looked up at the girl.

“No, those are mine, Lance let me make those instead,” he said. At his words Pidge froze, almost dropping the paper figure in her hand.

“Wait, he let you take that too?” She asked. Confused Shiro nodded and waited for her to explain.

“Lance let me make one of my family’s desserts again today,” she said quietly. They all froze and stared at her. Three. He let them have three of his traditions on his day.

“He-he put up those decorations right?” Hunk asked glancing around the table at them.

“No, those are mine,” Keith said shaking his head. They gaped at one another.

“He didn’t do anything?” Pidge asked in disbelief.

“But he didn’t even complain or anything,” Keith argued in shock.

“You all know how Lance is, even if we were hurting him he wouldn’t complain,” Shiro said. They nodded their heads in agreement and looked down at the table.

“How could we have been so selfish?” Hunk asked the quiet room.

“Because we knew that Lance was too nice to say no?” Keith suggested to the room. They didn’t say anything, knowing that it was true. When they woke up that morning, they knew that Lance wouldn’t say no to them. Even though they knew that Lance was excited to share his traditions, they were only thinking of themselves and what they wanted.

“We have to make this right,” Keith stated.

“Does anybody know anything about Lance’s traditions?” Shiro asked glancing at each one of the paladins. Keith shrugged almost immediately, it wasn’t that surprising since they weren’t really friends in the Garrison. Instead, he turned his attention to Pidge and Hunk who both looked to be deep in thought.

“This might be a long shot but the few years we were at the Garrison, he always brought a new stuffed animal back after Christmas,” Hunk suggested looking up at them.

“What about food or desserts?” Shiro asked. He was ashamed to admit that he didn’t know Lance all that well. They hadn’t really talked about their families to each other, none of them have.

“Sorry, I don’t know,” Hunk said shaking his head sadly.

“Well, we’ll just have to work with the stuffed animal,” he started going towards the door, the others trailing behind him.

In was easy to come up with an idea for a stuffed animal. Lance absolutely adored Blue so they decided to make a small plush version of her. It came out soft and fluffy, perfect for someone like Lance.

“I hope he'll like it,” Hunk said anxiously, wringing his hands together.

“Of course he’ll like it Hunk, its Blue,” Pidge said coming up beside him and patting him on the back.

“I know, but it just feels like we’re not doing enough, I mean, this is his family we’re talking about, it had to be a huge punch in the gut for us to do this,” Hunk rambled. They looked down to the ground again as the realization washed over them. He was right, above everything, Lance cared about his family the most. Christmas had to be super important to him and they took that away from him.

“We’ll spend however long it takes to make it up to him,” Keith declared, determination shining in his eyes. They cheered in agreement.

“Alright guys, let's go see Lance,” Shiro said walking down the hallway to the quarters.

They stood silently in front of Lance’s door, listening for any sign of movement. Although they hoped that he was in there, at the same time they were nervous to confront him. Before they could hesitate any longer, Shiro knocked on the door.

“Lance?” He called. Only silence greeted him and he glanced over his shoulder to gauge the other’s reactions. He knocked once more. Silence. He reached over and pushed the scanner.

“Whoa,” Their mouths opened in awe as they looked around the room. The simple garland that Lance made glowed softly throughout the room. They twinkled as if there were fairies floating around. They quietly stepped over to Lance’s bed and saw him curled into his blankets fast asleep. Their stomachs clenched when they saw the obvious tear tracks on his skin.

“Lance?” Shiro quietly said, shaking his shoulder gently. Lance let out a muffled groan and opened his eyes slightly. At the sight of the others, he curled up tighter and turned around to his other side, his back now facing the paladins. He clenched his eyes shut as tears rolled over his nose and pooled by his ear. The pain he felt earlier was still raw and seeing the others didn’t help it at all.

“What do you want?” He asked bitterly. They flinched slightly at the tone, it didn’t sound like Lance at all. They glanced at each other before turning back to look at Lance.

“We’re so sorry Lance,” Pidge started quietly. Lance didn’t turn to look at them. Sure they were sorry, but that could only be saying that because they don’t know what’s wrong.

“We shouldn’t have asked to take your day, it wasn’t right and you were just as excited as all of us to do this,” Keith said. Lance tensed up. Keith’s voice was trembling like he was getting ready to cry.

“We were selfish Lance and we’re so sorry,” Hunk cried. Okay. Hunk was definitely in tears behind him. He really didn’t want to turn around now. If he did then he would start crying even harder then he was before. The longer he listened, he could hear different people crying and sniffling.

“We knew that you wouldn’t be able to say no to us and we took advantage of that, we’re so sorry,” Shiro said. Unlike the others, it seemed like Shiro was able to keep face. He never thought that they would have come to apologize to him. He didn’t think that what happened would be important in their eyes. Sure it hurt him, but he thought that they would just ignore what happened. He gave them his permission after all.

“Will you forgive us?” Shiro asked. This time his voice was smaller. Lance pushed himself up and turned to look over at them. His eyes widened at the scene before him.

Keith, Pidge, and Hunk were clutching on to the shoulders of Shiro’s shirt. They were rubbing their eyes and sniffling but trying to look determined at Lance like a bunch of children who just fell and scraped their knee and were trying to pretend it didn’t hurt. That alone made Lance’s heart squeeze, but it was Shiro that had him lunging forward to collect them in a hug. He was bowed forward, his head lowered and was holding out a plushie version of Blue to Lance in trembling hands. His head was partly hidden by the stuffed animal but Lance could still see tears dropping from his eyes. He looked like he was holding his breath to stop any sounds from coming out. The guilt on his face was as plain as day.

He wrapped his arms around Shiro, snagging as much as he could of the others in his grip from behind Shiro’s back.

“It’s okay,” he soothed. And it was okay, they apologized and that’s all that he wanted out of them. For them to recognize their mistakes and learn from them.

“How can you forgive us so easily?” Pidge asked, curling her hand in the back of Lance’s shirt.

“We hurt you,” Hunk added.

“You came to make it up to me, there’s been a lot of people who haven’t even tried to do that,” Lance started, he squeezed his arms tighter around Shiro. “I know you guys, I know that you won’t try to do this again, I know that you can learn and you never meant to hurt me,”

They nodded in agreement and curled closer to him, tears still streaming down their faces. Lance couldn’t help but smile at them. Hurt and guilt can only last so long, and it helps to have people that care about you, who can make them go away even quicker.

Part 1/2

[mysmewiththatstraightshit]

mc appreciating every single member of the rfa (+ vanderwood & saeran!!) on valentines. no one can escape, they will be drowned in affection.

This is such a sweet request heh ! The RFA (and others~) deserve some love and affection on Valentines as well ! 

I wanted to get this done before Valentines Day is old news, so...here we go !

Zen

I think the best way to appreciate Zen would be something like a valentines card of a collage of his selfies. Digital or not. Probably with some added glitter or stickers or something, just lots of hearts and lots of love

MC would know Zen loves physical affection as well, and would smother him in kisses and hugs and never leave his side for the entire day.

Zen would return the favor of course. But he’d be emotional over MC being the one to begin the day so romantically-it really shows him that they care. He wouldn’t have expected it, since he’s always determined to do stuff for them without them lifting a single finger.

But he really loves that they did something for him anyways. That day, he felt that his Prince/Princess/Princet truly treated him like royalty. The day ends with happy tears.

Yoosung

Best way to Yoosung’s heart is-well, I imagine there’s actually quite a few ways. Two immediate thoughts-LOLOL merch, or your own cooking. 

He’d honest to god cry over the MC getting him anything really, since he worked so hard on thinking up what to do for MC that he didn’t even think about getting something himself.

Chances are he got the MC something he made entirely himself along with offering to make Dinner for the two of them. A cute candlelit dinner. It’s in his kitchen, but it’s cute and romantic, and when MC excitedly agrees, Yoosung feels relief wash over him, and he’s finally able to enjoy the day.

Jaehee

Best thing for Jaehee? Greeting her in the morning by telling her she has the day off. MC talking to Jumin and convincing him to let Jaehee have Valentines Day off ahead of time would mean the world and more to Jaehee.

In fact, she’d probably collapse back into bed with a huge sigh of relief, and even possibly tears-she’s just so happy about not working.

Of course, once that relief is basked in, she remembers the day, and she rushes to get what she got you. It’s likely something small but cute, like a stuffed teddy bear with a heart or a bunny holding chocolates, or maybe matching coffee mugs

She apologizes for not having the time to get or make anything extravagant, but MC gives her a small kiss and reassures her it’s perfect. And by then, Jaehee already knows it’ll be a perfect day.

Jumin

Jumin’s always ready for some huge gift, or a million gifts, so honestly, the MC getting him pretty much anything would put a genuine smile on his face. 

Getting something like a tie with perfect stripes or a new toy for Elizabeth would make him chuckle, like a sorta you really do know me sorta way.

Getting him something wildly expensive that you saved up your own money for would probably hugely move him. “You worked efficiently and saved your money well enough to afford this, just for me? That’s...” He probably ends that sentence with a hug instead.

He’d probably have all sorts of plans for the day. He reassures you if you don’t want to do any, he can easily cancel, though he insists on at least doing one thing together-it’s a special day and you are the most special person to him. You gotta at least have lobster dinner with him!

The day ends warm and loving, holding hands and sitting at the seats at the window in his room, looking over the city lights and basking in the moonlight, feeling at home.

Seven

Seven’s gotta have some wild ass scheme planned for Valentines day-so I think the biggest surprise for Seven would be the MC surprising him back.

He’s ready to call MC when he gets a call instead from Zen, panicking about something with MC in the chatroom

Seven is immediately to the rescue, following the instructions left by MC in the chatroom, running out his house, speeding in his sports car, probably ignoring the confused Vanderwood along the way.

He arrives at the location to find a small gift left at the base of some tree or something. It could be anything really, a little phone charm, a new necklace, maybe some piece of clothing he had torn that MC sew back together-either way all the panic is gone and he lets out a small laugh, realizing that this year, he was on the rabbit chase.

And so he follows the instructions, getting small gifts or cute notes from MC until finally Vanderwood catches up with Seven, probably yelling at him about ignoring them until they finally give him one last paper with a location.

Finally Seven meets up with MC, likely in a clear field of some sort, and they grin from where they sit in the grass, waving him over excitedly. Seven runs over like some sort of romantic chic flic movie and dives next to the MC, giving them a huge hug and millions of kisses.

“I’m not done yet!” MC laughs, and they take out a laptop-their own, or maybe one Seven gave to them. Seven watches in amazement as they place it down and click a single button, letting a small slideshow take place of pictures of them together along with the RFA, and gifts Seven had gotten them before.

Finally, it ends with, “Be my Valentine and watch the stars with me?” and a yes or no button-to which Seven clicks yes without even thinking about it. Little transparent cats with party hats and confetti appear on the screen, playing cute music as well.

Seven is extremely touched, knowing that they had been asking him about programming and trying to learn all sorts of things to make tiny programs, and this is the best thing he could imagine them using those skills for. He’s emotional and he’s so full of love!!! And in the end, he definitely doesn’t mind that this year, he was the one chasing them.

As they lie down and snuggle, listening to calming music as they stargaze, Seven asks them, “What would’ve happened if I pressed no?”

MC laughs. “It rick rolls you.”

Seven never forgets it.

V

V is a simple person, but with a big heart and deep feelings. Pretty much anything from the heart would end up being cherished by him.

I feel like something that would reflect their growth together would probably be the most emotional. A painting of the two surrounded by stars and the sky and sun, a collage of happy photographs from their time together, composed music, a song, a poem-he’d no doubt cry as he goes to hold the MC close to him.

Of course he got something beautiful for the MC with deep meaning, but, god. He didn’t expect anything in return. He’s still working on believing he deserves it, but it’s not about that. He just really didn’t think about giving and then the fact he could receive, too.

But god, it makes him happy, and he offers to do anything with the MC that day, anything at all. He feels so inspired, so full of energy and love, anything would be fun so long as the MC is there with him.

By the end of the day, he makes the two of them some sort of warm drink (tea for him, and your drink of choice for MC) and curls up with them on the couch, soft blankets over their legs, and the two just enjoy their time together.

Saeran

Saeran isn’t used to the idea of getting nice things, so you could get him something he hates by accident, but he’d still be so deeply touched that you got him anything at all.

He’d probably be confused at first though. “I...I’m supposed to give you something, right? So what’s this?”

MC explains that Valentines Day doesn’t have strict rules, and that in their opinion, it should be a mutual exchange! Saeran feels his heart jump out of his chest at the words, and he stands there in shock a while. The biggest gift you could’ve gave him was just being there for him-and yet here you were, holding up some cute stuffed bear, or maybe a sweater or a new potted plant. Whatever it is, he loves it.

He wouldn’t have anything huge planned for the day, secretly afraid of planning something underwhelming, and so he just has a few ideas he offers to the MC. Simple things like watching stuff on Netflix together snuggled on the couch, ordering MC’s favorite food...

But then it’s stuff like going out to a field or maybe somewhere new, like an aquarium or this new cafe with an outdoor section and all these plants-his eyes sparkle as he blurts all these different ideas in his head, and it’s the most endearing thing.

Whatever MC agrees to, the two are glued to each others side the entire day, and Saeran smiles enough that his face hurts by the time they get home. He’s still not used to the affection and happiness, but it’s something he’s willing to keep learning from and getting used to.

Ray

Oh, this darling would have so many ideas, and he’d have all sorts of things planned. He’s so focused on making the day perfect, when the day comes, his mind blanks the moment MC holds their gift up to him.

Like Saeran, he’s still not used to gifts and kindness and affection. He tilts his head a little, asking, “Is this...for me...?” and MC nods excitedly.

If it’s a plant, especially a Lily of the Valley, he’d probably end up crying. He almost looks in pain, but he reassures the MC that he’s simply overwhelmed by emotions. Good ones. He kisses the MC on the head a million times, thanking them over and over.

Finally, he remembers the stuff he had planned. Likely a cafe date, and then with a wide grin he pulls out a few packets of seeds-he got some of MC’s favorite flowers to plant in the garden you two keep together! Whether MC likes to get down and dirty or not, it’s okay-he’s okay with just talking with them and laughing as he gardens. So long as they’re there.

He’s just happy to be with MC. And god, he’s happy to see MC happy to be with him too.

Vanderwood

Vanderwood probably does something really simple. They want to express that they care, that they have feelings, but god forbid they overdo it.

They feel a bit speechless when as they pull out the small little box of chocolate they got, MC pulls out their own gift as well. It’d probably be something more practical, useful, something Vanderwood had mentioned in passing.

“M-Me?” is all Vanderwood manages to get out. And MC giggles and nods, offering the gift once more.

Vanderwood for the first time lets themself go a little more for the day after that. They just can’t get over how you had paid attention to them enough to no only get them something on Valentines Day, but something special. Something fitting to them.

They even offer to cook for MC, even if grudgingly-but they’re smiling later as the two eat together, in a comfortable silence that’s warm and feels like home.

- Mod Grim

[sueboohscorner]

OUTLANDER S3 EP 9: "The Doldrums"

So here we are folks, only FOUR....yes...FOUR more episodes before the dreaded Droughtlander strikes again.  I pause for a quiet moment of reflection on this.  Know this...if you think Jamie and Claire will see Scotland again in the near future, you, my friend will be disappointed.  It's going to be a LONG time coming if at all.

First thing....the theme song has changed some!  It has the same initial opening music but then the imagery changes and you get a more tropical touch to the music!  Love it!

We left off last episode with the abduction of Young Ian (and the treasure!) from the island.  This episode Jamie and Claire are in France and get the help of Jamie's cousin Jared.  Jamie will be employed aboard the Artemis as supercargo.  Funny name, but all ship terms are weird.  It just means he will be the one in charge of all the cargo aboard the ship.  Jamie is going with Claire, Fergus, Mr. Willoughby (Yi Tien Cho) and two other men, Hayes and Lesley who know Jamie from Ardsmuir prison.  Jared tells Jamie that they have checked the log books and the only ship from that day flying a Portuguese flag was the Bruja.  They are headed to Jamaica and if Young Ian, being a young healthy lad behaves himself, he will survive the journey and most likely be sold for at least 30 pounds in the West Indies. Awesome.  Jared makes sure to point out that winter is almost upon them and the sea will most likely be a little rough.  Oh...even more awesome for poor sea sick prone Jamie.

As Jared leaves, Claire inquires about Jenny and Ian.  Jamie tells her that they still think they are all on their way in France, so they have no idea yet.  However Jamie is sending them a letter to explain what happened to Young Ian and what they are trying to do about it. Hmmmm...would love to be a fly on the wall when THAT letter arrives and Jenny reads it!  Jamie turns to Claire and reiterates about her belonging with him, however, if she indeed wishes to return he will take her to the stones himself.  Claire says there is something more important right now and that is finding Young Ian.

Jamie and Claire are on board and Claire watches all these men say hello to Jamie and also touch the post nearby with a horseshoe.  Claire tries to soothe Jamie by telling him to look at the horizon.  He says it isn't his stomach right now, but the sight of Scotland fading away in the distance.  "We shall not set foot on her shores again without Young Ian." Jamie tells Claire.   

Of course, Fergus appears as they are now far enough away and surprises them with Marsali.  Apparently they were "handfasted" which means they are married.  Jamie is fuming and drags off Fergus and asks if he has "bedded the lass" yet and Fergus says no.  To which Jamie yells out as he turns away that it is not yet binding.  Marsali is a huge bitch like her mom.  She calls Claire a "hoor" but Fergus tells her not to speak to Milady that way.  She also tells Jamie that if he makes her disembark and go home, she will tell everyone that she and Fergus have already slept together.  Jamie decides that Fergus is not to touch Marsali, so he and Fergus will be in one room and Marsali and Claire are in another.  The women are less than pleased. 

As Jamie and Claire head to go below, Claire looks at him and says “We’ve been apart for 20 years and you want me to room with her?” “I’m obliged to protect her virtue,” replies Jamie. “Mine as well, it seems,” Claire snaps. When Claire stalks off in a huff, an almost-seasick Jamie notes sarcastically, "Now I am gonna be sick." 

Jamie's seasickness finally sets in and Claire brings him some ginger tea.  Before knowing what it was at first, he asks what God awful stuff was she going to put in him.  She hands him a cup and he sips it.  Claire looks around and sees a trunk and asks what it was.  Jamie replies that it is something Fergus brought from Lallybroch.  She opens it to find their clothes from Paris and his tartan in there also.  She was surprised that he held onto those and said he could have sold them.  Jamie just answers "Sell them? Memories of you? Never."

With Jamie feeling seasick, Claire is dining alone with the captain.  That is fine, as it is she he wanted to speak to anyway.  He tries to convince Claire that men that are alone on the sea for a long time tend to get very superstitious and for her to respect that. 

Claire of course has to argue some and mentions the horseshoe.  The captain replies that it doesn't matter if he believes that touching a piece of iron will bring good luck, but these men do and that they also believe that someone on board had not.  Claire replies that "Believing something doesn’t make it real," and the captain retorts, "On this ship, it does."

Down below Jamie is doing a fair job at trying not to be sick as he discusses Marsali with Fergus.  Fergus uses some words about his love for Marsali is akin to him breathing and other romantic stuff.  Jamie says he won't bless the union because Fergus has not been honest completely with Marsali in regards to the other women he has been with.  

A little while later, Jamie is vomiting his brains out.  His door to his room is part way open and Mr. Willoughby comes in and warns Jamie he cannot continue on this path as it can cause serious injury to certain parts of the body, including the twisting of the testicles in which case the only cure is removal.  He reassures Jamie he has a cure for the seasickness.  

The next morning, Jamie is feeling much better and Claire is amazed and says it must be that ginger tea she has been giving him. Jamie goes off to do something and Claire is walking and sees Mr. Willoughby using water from a bucket with a Chinese brush to write Chinese characters on the deck floor.  She kindly asks what it is he is doing.  He tells her it is part of his life story and when she asks about it, he says he cannot share his story yet. 

Claire walks in to Jamie's room to find Mr. Willoughby putting needles into Jamie's face.  She chastises Jamie for not telling her the real reason he was feeling better.  Jamie admits that their relationship has been on rocky ground and he didn't want to upset her and adds  I didn’t want you to see it as more proof you didn’t belong here."  Claire gingerly takes Jamie's face in her hands and says that yes, her return has been hard with struggle and turmoil, but it has never been the question of her not loving him.

Jamie realizes that the ship is not moving and they rush up to the deck.  Apparantly the wind has stopped and they are temporarily stuck where they are.  Of course, Jamie forgot about the needles in his face and the Captain and other crew give him the strangest looks.  Mr. Willoughby tries to explain and Claire says she knows of acupuncture.

Days turn to weeks and the crew are now looking for their "Jonah" the one who didn't touch the horseshoe in the beginning of the voyage. This person, when found will simply be tossed over into the water.  Most of the barrels of water have spoiled due to water in the bilge and rations are cut in half.  There has been no rain either.  

The Jonah is believed to be one of Jamie's men from Ardsmuir.  He wasn't seen touching the horseshoe and he doesn't remember if he did or not.  Suddenly there is an uproar and Jamie and Claire rush out to the deck to see what is going on.  The man is up on the mast, sitting and drinking while the crew below is telling him to jump.  Jamie climbs up and tries to reason with the man.  He reminds him of Ardsmuir and it was "them against us" and that is the situation now.  The man moves to act as to jump, but eventually gives in to Jamie and grabs Jamie's hand. 

He slips and Jamie has to hold the man and try to swing him to the rigging which eventually succeeds.  When they come down, the ship's crew tries to grab for the man and Jamie and his followers stand in the way.

Meanwhile, Mr. Willoughby looks out at the ocean and sees a pelican flying low.  Apparently, this means something and before a full out brawl happens over yonder, he rings the bell to get everyone's attention.  He announces his real name and tells everyone a story of how he was chosen even at a young age to be great and was eventually chosen to be employed by the Emperor's second wife.  However, to have that job meant one had to become a eunuch to do so.  He says he fell in love with "woman" and Claire thought he meant the wife of the Emperor, but he tells her no, ALL WOMAN.  He goes on to describe a way a woman smells and certain body parts feel in a most descriptive way with metaphors using fruit.  He continues saying that he loved women too much and had to flee his homeland.  He ended up in a place where most women are disgusting (Chinese bathed a hell of alot more) and not even a prostitute wanted to lie with him. 

Sad,   Yi Ten Cho, steps onto the edge of the ship and throws his life's story away into.....WIND. 

Yes, the wind has returned and along with that rain.  The men are happy and now there is no Jonah.

We finally get a Jamie and Claire sex scene, but it is a quickie.  However the part right after and the words Jamie uses to describe Claire's gray hair like a piece of moonlight....beautiful. 

Claire replies with a smile that if he were to say such things in the 20th century, he would be The King of Men.  Big grin on my face as that is a little easter egg for us book fans as Jamie is indeed the King of Men!

At night, Jamie and Claire are alone on deck and are looking at a full moon.  Jamie says something about the man in the moon and Claire goes on to say that just before she left her time, they had put men on the moon and sent back pictures.  It is very barren and rocky and the dark marks we see are the craters she tells Jamie.  She says a small quote from Goodnight Moon and says she used to read that every night to Bree and that their daughter had it memorized even before she knew how to read. 

She mentions Bree always slept with her stuffed bunny toys...."She loved rabbits", Claire says, her eyes filling with emotion.  Jamie asks "Do you miss her."  "Terribly" Claire says as Jamie holds her tighter.

Bad luck is to come again.  This time as a British Man of War is signaling them (by shooting at them) to stop and prepare to be boarded.  The captain thinks that they will want men, but when a VERY young man comes aboard and introduces himself as the Captain, and then explains that he is probably the 4th captain by now, everyone is wondering what is going on.  The man asks if they have a physician on board and eyes turn to Claire.  In the captain's quarters, the man explains there has been an outbreak and they have lost many men....most of the crew actually.  Claire chastises him for even coming aboard because he could endanger everyone on the Artemis.  She asks him what the symptoms are.  The young captain tells her that it starts with pain in the gut, high fever, and the blazing s**ts.  Claire asks if there is a rash on the stomach and he confirms that yes there is.  She agrees to go aboard to look and Jamie is not too happy. 

Out in the hall, he says it is too dangerous, but Claire says it is Typhoid Fever, but not as Jamie and them know it.  It hasn't been "discovered" yet.  She has been innoculated against it, so she cannot get it.  She reminds Jamie that she swore an oath to help save and preserve life when she became a doctor.  Jamie looks at her and says that he knows there is no talking her out of it.  However, he is not taking his eyes off that ship until she returns.

Claire goes over to the British ship and I can't even imagine the smell of the vomit and feces, etc in that space below!  Claire even has to cover her nose and mouth.  She verifies what it is and back above tells the captain what needs to be done and that she is willing to help stay a bit longer to help get them organized.  She gets a man to get others to bring the sick to the upper deck and she is escorted to Mr. Murphy, the cook to discuss boiling water.  He is giving her a hard time when there is a sudden jerk and the ship is moving.  Claire rushes up to the deck and confronts the captain about why they are moving.  He tells her that she is needed and that they too are headed for Jamaica and have sent word that they assure her safe return upon arrival there.  

Claire is speechless and looks toward the Artemis as it is getting smaller and she has to be wondering if and when she will see her husband again. Until next episode......

So, I have seen mixed reviews.  I believe the show only people out there were pleased, however, they are rolling their eyes over Jamie and Claire being separated again.  Don't worry, it won't be nearly as long, but a little more dangerous.  For us book people, some of us are getting very upset to the disregard of Diana's work,  So, we don't get a trained pelican to fish for us now?  There was no horseshoe thing.  There was no Jonah.  Mr. Willoughby's speech, though still intact, isn't supposed to happen until Jamaica.  To me, they have been changing Claire and Jamie too much also.  Claire is never so overbearing and rude at times.  Jamie has dreams of Brianna as well as looking at a picture or two SO much it becomes worn around the edges.  He yearns to meet his daughter.  He seems so distant from that. 

Anyway....what are your thoughts???  Thanks for reading!

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Your best chance; Bucky x child reader

This requested oneshot is actually one of my personal favorites because it’s just got soo much DADDY!BUCKY FEELS!! Seriously, give this guy more father roles he is SOOO GOOD AT THEM (He’s good in any role) but enough of my rambling I’ll let you all enjoy one of my favorite oneshots and I hope it becomes a favorite of yours too :) And for the rabbit Bucky makes her, just picture the rabbit Jefferson made for Grace in OUAT.

Taglist:

@evyiione

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I was tossing and turning in my small, rickety bed as I was having another round of nightmares. I don't know why those bad men gave me these powers and I don't even know why they call me a monster. I don't mean to hurt them, I really don't and sometimes I feel like something else is controlling my body to make me hurt innocent people.

I can hear their screams of agony as their bodies twist and bend in strange figuration's. I see my hands are making them bend that way and I try to stop but I have no control of it. I then hear the screams of people calling me a freak, a demon's child, a monster. I couldn't take it anymore. I sat up screaming and panting as my entire body was covered in cold sweat.

"(Y/n)? (Y/n)? What is it?" I turn to see Bucky at my bedroom door with a rifle in hand aiming for any threat that he thought had come into my room. When he saw no one he put down his gun and walked up to me and asked, "the dreams again?" I sniffled and nodded.

"I'm sorry Bucky, I don't mean to have them, I try to think of happy thoughts but it was too scary. I didn't do anything to them, why did they kill grandma and grandpa? I never did anything to them". I lowered my head and sobbed softly. Growing up I never knew what happened to my parents so I was raised by my grandma and grandpa, but when I was 2 the bad men killed granny and Pop-Pop and took me.

And for what felt like forever, I was only shown pain and hurt, forcing to use my new powers the bad men call "Blood-bending" to torture and kill anyone they saw fit. That wasn't until a year ago when Bucky found me and took me away from that pain and we've been on the run for over a year now and now we live here in a place call Bucharest.

Bucky took me in his arms and made soft cooing sounds as he sat down on my bed with my head lying over his heart and his arms wrapped around me protectively. Ever since Bucky found me, I looked up to him as my hero because he saved me from the bad men, he was also very strong and brave, and kind, and he always did whatever it took to protect us. He'd try to give me a good life while we hid from anyone who may appear as a threat to us.

"I know kid, I know. I always ask myself that every day too".

"You do?" I asked as I looked up at him with tears in my eyes.

"Of course," he gently wiped away a few of my tears and continued, "Listen, sometimes in life things happen to people, many different kinds of people. Sometimes they get good things, sometimes they get bad, you and I unfortunately got some of the bad things. But there's always a chance for something good to happen in the darkness".

"Like what?" I questioned.

"Well look at us right here, two misfits trying to make it out in the world". He then started tickling me making me squirm and giggle as I tried to get away from his tickly fingers which made him smile warmly down at me. When he finally stopped he stroked my hair away from my eyes and said again, "I promise, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make sure no one tries to take you back to that god awful hellhole. Okay?" I nodded and kissed his cheek and hugged him as I said.

"I love you Bucky".

"And I love you too (y/n), now what do you say we get you cleaned up and changed into something else and you can stay with me in my room tonight?" I nodded then he picked me up out of my bed and took me into the small bathroom just a few doors down the hallway. 

Bucky cleaned me up and once I was done, he got me into a new nightshirt and carried me to his room and tucked me in. 

"There we go, comfy?" I nodded then Bucky got under the covers with me and brought me close to him and I nuzzled underneath his chin and I fell back to sleep almost immediately.

As Bucky looked down at me sleeping, he kissed my head and thought to himself that he wasn't going to allow anyone to take me away from him and damage me up like the bad people did to him. He had lived over 75 years of torture and brainwashing that he took orders like a mindless zombie, and just three years ago he sees after his recent mission a small 2 year old being experimented on and forced to do unspeakable acts that she doesn't even understand how or why she has these powers.

Bucky saw me as this little ray of innocence in his life because whenever he would see me, he got this warm and fuzzy feeling in his stone cold heart that HYDRA forced him to have. When he got me out, he vowed that he wasn't going to let my innocence be taken away just like they did to him, I wasn't going to grow up to serve them and be their monstrous puppet, instead he was going to give me my best chance by him raising me and protecting me from any threats that came near us. With that last thought, Bucky fell asleep holding me closer into his arms.

The next morning, Bucky and I went to town to pick up some food. We were at the fruits cart and as Bucky was speaking to the woman in Romanian about the plums, I took notice of the toy cart just nearby.

"The toy cart!" I released Bucky's hand and ran towards the toy cart and looked at all the many, many beautiful toys the cart was showing. My eyes soon caught onto a beautiful white bunny in a waistcoat. I walked up to the bunny and stroked its soft material. I felt Bucky walk up behind me and he crouched down beside me as I said, "wouldn't he make a lovely guest for our tea parties Bucky? May I have him, please?" I said to him as I held the bunny in my arms. Bucky smiled softly at me and then said to the old gypsy woman who was running the cart.

"Excuse me, how much for the rabbit?"

"That cost 23.93 RON". Said the old gypsy lady. Bucky went through his pockets and counted the remaining money he had left after buying the supplies. He softly chuckled and said, 

"Would you take it for 8 RON's it's—all I have".

"Ahh you are good father, hmm? Your last RON's for your little girl's happiness, huh?" Bucky went to give the gypsy woman the remaining amount of money he had as he said thank you to her but the gypsy woman said, "oh I did not say I accept, alas I cannot take less than 23.93 Ron's. The economy, you understand?" The bunny was then roughly taken away from me and the gypsy woman eyed Bucky greedily. The crowd around the toy cart started to get a little bit crowded as some people were even stating impatiently for us to get out of the way and move on.

"It's okay Bucky, come on, people are waiting". I stated not wanting to cause any more trouble. Bucky looked down then held out his hand as he demanded.

"I will not take no for an answer!"

"Bucky please, I don't need it". I stated trying to hold him back by holding onto his metal arm from starting a fight. Bucky continued to stare down the woman but he soon gave up as he said.

"Come on (y/n), let's go home". He picked me up and we left the town square and headed back to our small apartment.

When we got back to the apartment, we unpacked the supplies and once that was done, Bucky disappeared into his room. I knew that whenever Bucky was shut up in his room, he told me to just leave him be because he says he's still trying to remember who he is and he needs absolute quiet as he writes stuff down in a journal and try to remember stuff from his past.

So in that time I quietly set up my own tea party and placed down my two pillows and wrapped my blanket around one of them and placed my cap on another and pretended they were my guests for my tea party. As I quietly talked with them thinking that Bucky was still in his room, Bucky soon came into my room with something behind his back. He sat down before my tea table and said.

"I know it's not the same as what you wanted earlier, but I—I went ahead and made you this". He then revealed a stuffed bunny he made himself. This bunny's eyes were made of two different sized buttons, a yellow and green patch formed different shapes on the face to cover up the holes on the bunny's face. Its waistcoat was sewn together by different types of cloths and rags.

Sure it wasn't as neat as the one the toy cart had but Bucky went out of his way to make it just for me and I loved every bit of it.

"I love it Bucky, thank you". I said in adoration for his try at making me a friend. Bucky smiled lovingly at me then asked if he could join in on the tea party which I happily invited him to join in on. As we had our tea, Bucky suddenly turned around almost like he heard someone coming in the house. "Bucky?"

"Shhh!" He shushed me and kept listening for the faintest sound coming in from the next room. I also began sensing someone else in the room for I could feel another blood flow other than Bucky's and mine. Bucky grabbed me and he said sternly, "stay behind me, and don't leave my side okay?" I nodded then we both walked out of my room slowly and silently until we stood just a few feet behind the figure that was in our house. When he turned around, the person that was in our house was Captain America.

Bucky has always talked about him in his sleep and I always see his name being written down on any strand of paper that he could find, I began to piece that maybe Bucky knew him personally long ago since he told me that he was originally from the 1940's a long, long, long time ago.

"Do you know me?" Captain America asked Bucky.

"Your name is Steve, I read about you at the museum". Stated Bucky.

"I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be".

"I wasn't in Vienna, I don't do that anymore".

"Well the people who think you did are coming here now. And they don't plan on taking you alive".

"That's smart. Good strategy". I looked up at Bucky confused. Why was he saying yes to that idea of being hurt like that? What was going on? And why is Captain America here saying all of this stuff to Bucky?

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck".

"It always ends in a fight".

"You pulled me from the river, why?" Bucky removed his glove revealing his metal hand and he said to Steve.

"I don't know".

"Yes, you do". Suddenly the door was knocked down and guns were firing. I screamed as I ducked down and tried to hide myself. Bucky went full on defensive as he blocked the bullets with his metal hand, then used his human hand to knock out any oncoming enemy. As Bucky continued to fight off the cops who were firing at him then Captain America said.

"Bucky wait! This doesn't have to be this way!" Next thing I saw was Bucky pushing Steve against a cop that was coming in through the window and soon Bucky was pinning Captain America on the ground.

"I'm not going to kill anyone, not in front of her" he muttered before he punched the floorboards and took out our two backpacks. He handed me mine and I quickly stuffed my newly given bunny into my backpack and Bucky knelt down in front of me. "Hold on tightly and stay low". I nodded then I got onto his back and he ran outside our apartment.

Punching and twisting his way through the path of multiple cops, whenever the cops took notice of me and tried to fire at me, Bucky protected me and did away with the cops with their guns. When we finally got free, he got to a good balcony and tossed his backpack towards another building just below us and it successfully landed on the roof of the building.

Bucky then set me down but then picked me up and held me close to his chest.

"Don't look, keep holding onto me okay. I won't let go okay". I nodded and buried my face into Bucky's neck before I felt him take a running start and I soon felt us flying in air. Bucky tucked me in as he rolled on the rooftop of the other building so that I wouldn't take the hit. He rolled over a few times before landing on his back with me huddled close to his chest. "You okay?"

"Uh-huh" I nodded softly. Bucky stroked my hair away from my face and said in relief.

"That's good, thank god". He leaned in and kissed my forehead.

"Bucky, why are they after us? What did we do?"

"It's more like what I've done, but it doesn't matter now, we need to leave, go back underground and find somewhere else to lay low, so just stay close to me and try to refrain using your powers, okay?"

"Okay". He stood up and picked me up then ran and picked up his backpack. As I held onto him I suddenly saw someone coming towards us. I exclaimed out Bucky's name and next thing I knew, the two of us were flying and I skidded hard along the roof. When I brushed my hair away I saw someone in a cat-like suit with very sharp claws coming out from his fingers and his eyes narrowed at Bucky.

The two of them soon broke out into a fight. The cat-man kicked and tried to scratch Bucky, every now and then his claws would get his shirt but Bucky fought hard to try and defend himself but he was soon knocked onto his back with only a pipe to protect him. The cat-man broke the pipe into pieces and Bucky tried with all his strength to hold back cat-man's claws from scratching his face. I know I had promised Bucky but if I don't do anything he could get hurt.

I took a deep breath in and softly breathed out then I raised my hands and waved them into positions like the bad people taught me how to move my hands and fingers and soon cat-man's hands began to retract backwards as he screamed in pain. I then threw him off of Bucky just as I began to hear shooting from above. I turned my attention towards the people on the giant helicopter and focused my energy on their blood, mostly the one behind the gun.

I could hear their screams as the helicopter soon span out of control and Bucky picked me up and jumped off the roof and took off running with me on his back once again.

"What did I tell you about using your powers!?" Bucky snapped. I lowered my head shamefully and whimpered.

"I'm sorry Bucky, but they were going to hurt you!" Bucky took a deep sigh and said.

"I'm sorry I snapped, okay. But please, don't use your powers in front of these guys, they're only after me, not you. Not if they think you're still normal, okay". I nodded into his neck as Bucky kept running from the Cat-man as well as Captain America.

He then saw a guy on a motorcycle coming right towards us so Bucky told me.

"Get off for a second," I hopped down then Bucky stopped the motorcycle and threw the guy off and skillfully got on himself. "Get on!" He shouted at me as he revved the engine. I quickly hopped on and off we rode down the street with sirens chasing after us.

As Bucky drove on, I turned to see Cat-man coming towards us running super fast as well as lots and lots of police cars chasing after us. I turned to Bucky and said.

"They're coming closer!"

"Alright, hang on!" He revved the engine faster and swerved the motorcycle sharply to dodge the police. But Cat-man soon caught up and gripped onto Bucky's shoulder but Bucky held him up against the tunnel wall and then threw him off. We soon saw someone flying towards us with metal wings and as we reached the end of the tunnel, Bucky tossed a bomb onto the ceiling of the tunnel making it collapse and close off. Suddenly cat-man appeared again and gripped onto the back tire of the motorcycle sending us flying onto the street.

I ended up hitting my head against the pavement so hard that my vision was starting to go fuzzy. I barely caught onto what happened except cops surrounding us, two metal men coming down and voices going in and out. Before I blacked out, I felt someone pick me up and I heard Bucky screaming out my name.

When I awoke, I felt my arms were raised up on either side of me and my hands were encased in strong metal and my feet were chained up so that I couldn't blood bend anyone. I felt something around my neck like a collar and saw a leash attached to my collar. I looked up to see a man standing before my cell. He wore glasses and had short brown hair that was combed neatly over the top of his head.

"You're awake, good, good. I was beginning to wonder if you were still alive to being with". I stared at him and muttered.

"Who are you?"

"I am here to analyze you along with Mr. Barnes".

"Where is Bucky?"

"He is safe, now answer me this, did Mr. Barnes kidnap you from your home?" I felt like I shouldn't answer these questions something deep I my gut was telling me that this man was bad news. His accent was almost similar to the people who kidnapped me when I was a baby. "Miss (l/n) I can't help you if you don't answer my questions, did Mr. Barnes kidnap you from your home?"

"No". I bluntly stated.

"How did you meet Mr. Barnes then if he did not kidnap you?"

"He saved me, from the bad men".

"Who are the bad men?" I glared at him refusing to answer when I suddenly felt a shock surge through my neck. I cried out then when it stopped I lowered my head and panted. "I didn't want to resort to using this method but everytime you give me sass or refuse to answer my questions, you will receive a little shock, now let's start again, shall we?" I slowly raised my head up to look at him.

As he talked to me, asking me random questions about who I was, what my powers were and how I got them, and each time I didn't answer not wanting to relive the memories of the hurting that I had caused people, some good people too, the shocks I received each time were more powerful than the last.

"Last question, based on your powers and what you've done. Are you known as The Puppet Master?" My eyes widened. I haven't been called that since I was with the bad men. They would always call me their little puppet master due to my blood bending. I hated being called that name and when I didn't answer I received the most painful shock for not responding to his question.

I screamed in agony until I cried out 

"Yes!" When it was left to lay there limp, the man smirked evilly and he said.

"Excellent, the soldat and I will retrieve you whenever his mission is complete". I looked up at him and said.

"You're with them. The bad men. You leave Bucky alone! He doesn't want this! Leave him alone! No!!!" I tried to free my hands so that I could bend this guy in so many different ways that he won't be able to even blink without feeling pain. But due to my bonds, I couldn't even move. He walked away but not before turning the knob all the way over and sending shocks over my entire body but this time they didn't stop.

I was left there to scream in agony.

*Time skip to the warehouse scene*

"Hey Cap!" Sam called out. Steve walked forward to see Bucky trapped with a device holding his metal arm and starting to wake up after the whole Winter Soldier phase.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Bucky looked at Steve then said hoarsely.

"Your mom's name was Sarah, you used to wear newspapers in your shoes".

"You don't read that in a museum".

"So that's it? We're supposed to be cool now?" questioned Sam.

"Sam, he wouldn't say that if it wasn't really him".

"I didn't—I didn't kill anyone did I?"

"No, who was that guy that was with you? Do you know him?" asked Steve.

"No I've never seen him before, but he knew how to bring out the Winter soldier. All he had to say was the goddamn words".

"And Vienna? Was it really you?"

"No, I already told you I wasn't there and that I don't do that anymore".

"And I believe you, do you know how could've done it to frame you?"

"Possibly".

"What do you mean?" asked Sam.

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier. Hydra created the same serum used on me and got multiple volunteers. All highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, they can speak 30 different languages, blend anywhere around the world, and can take down a whole country within 24 hours, you'd never see it coming". Steve and Sam looked at each other nervously then Steve had to ask.

"Okay, one more thing before we move on. What about the kid? How does she fit into all this?"

"Oh god, please tell me she's alright? Does the government know about her?"

"Hold on Buck, tell me who she is?"

"Hydra wanted to create a weapon. More dangerous than the Winter Soldier and one that no one would ever suspect. A torture device. Sure they could've kept using machinery but it was getting too old even for them, so they decided to go with an innocent. Like a child. She told me that Hydra killed her grandparents in front of her when she was just 2 years old and then they took her. They experimented on her until she could do what they wanted. They called her "The Puppet Master" because her blood-bending, controlling the life of another body. It may look like someone is having a seizure or even very skilled in contortion but it's her. She was used to be Hydra's favorite torture device. To get out any information they wanted by forcing her to control their prisoner's body by using their blood. I was awake when she was given to Pierce at the time 2 years ago, after the events of DC and I started remembering somethings from my past, I just had to get her out of there".

"So you took her from Hydra?" asked Steve.

"Yes, I promised that I wouldn't allow anyone to use her as a weapon again. She's just a kid and I couldn't allow her to lose her innocence and end up like me. A monster". Sam walked up to Steve and whispered.

"This would've been a lot easier a week ago".

"If we call Tony—"

"He won't believe us".

"Even if he did—"

"Who knows if the accords will let him help?"

"We're on our own".

"Maybe not, I know a guy". The two men looked at each other and Steve said.

"I'll call Sharon and tell her to bring the girl along with our things". Steve walked up to Bucky and continued, "don't worry Buck, we'll get to her before anyone else does". Bucky lowered his head and smiled softly thanking God that he was going to get his (y/n) back.

*Back in my cell*

I don't know how long I was there for, I don't know what day it was or why I wasn't moving. I could still feel something zapping me until it suddenly stopped and I was dropped like a ragdoll onto the floor of my cell. I then felt arms wrap around me and feel for a very weak pulse.

When I opened my eyes I saw that I was in a moving car and a woman with blonde hair was driving the car. I moaned and tried to sit up but she reached over and stroked my cheek with the gentlest touch even more gentle than Bucky's and her voice whispered softly.

"Shhh, shh, don't get up so fast now. It's alright, I'm here to help". I then felt something cold being placed in my hands and the woman said again "take little sips now, don't want you choking". I slowly raised the drink to my lips and the water filled my mouth and soothed my dry throat from all the screaming I did.

When we stopped, the woman got out and I saw her talking to Captain America and she gestured to me and they both turned towards me. I nervously shook then the door opened and Steve knelt down in front of me.

"(Y/n) right?" I nodded as I clung onto my water then he said with a soft smile, "don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. I've got Bucky in car behind us if you want me to take you to him". My eyes widened at the sound of Bucky's name. "Do you want to see him?" I nodded shyly then he picked me up in his arms and took me to the next car.

In the backseat I saw Bucky and when he saw me, his eyes widened and he tried to move around in his seat but thanks to bird-man from earlier with his seat pulled against Bucky's legs he couldn't quite move around as much. But when Steve told him with his silent gestures to move up his seat, Bird-man reluctantly moved his seat up a little bit allowing Bucky to open the door and Steve handed me over to Bucky.

I hugged Bucky as tightly as I could as I cried softly.

"Bucky that man he—he's with them".

"I know, I know baby, I know". I could tell that Bucky was in pain due to looking into his big sad eyes that were filled with pain and regret. I nuzzled under his chin which made him relax and pet down my hair and kissed my forehead holding me close. Next thing I see looking out the window of the car is Captain America kissing the woman who brought me here. I tilted my head in confusion as I saw Bucky and Birdman nodding softly while grinning at Steve after the woman left.

After getting Steve's and Sam's (now that I knew Birdman's name) we headed to the airport garage to meet up with some other members of our Team. Steve had called in Hawkeye, a girl named Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, and they also took a man named Scott Lang who was known as Ant-Man. While Scott was going crazy over the rest of the Avengers, I slipped from Bucky's grip and walked up to Wanda. Once I got up to her and she took notice of me, she knelt down and I said shyly.

"You're pretty".

"Thank you, you're pretty too you know". She said to me with a soft smile. "What's your name?"

"(Y/n)".

"Nice to meet you (y/n), in case Steve didn't mention it my name is Wanda". She held out her hand and I took it and we both shook hands.

"What powers do you have?" I asked.

"Watch this," she then gently waved her fingers around and red magic came out and I stared at it in awe. "I can lift things with my mind and I can also read other people's thoughts and dreams".

"Wow, that's cool".

"Not always, people sometimes fear my power for what I can do"."I know, people call me a monster because of what I can do, I hurt people a lot and I don't mean to, but the bad men forced me to". Wanda looked at me sadly but before we could exchange another conversation the alarms went off and Bucky said.

"They're evacuating the airport".

"Suit up" said Steve.I was currently with Bucky and Sam in the airport and Sam said as he was controlling his 'Redwing'.

"We got it, the quinjet's in hanger five, North runway" Sam told Steve through our communicators. Bucky looked down at me and he said.

"Remember what we talked about". I nodded remembering exactly what he said just before we started this plan.

*Flashback*

As the team prepared and got into position, Bucky held me back and he said.

"(Y/n), I need to talk to you about something". I nodded then he continued, "now we're going to be facing a lot of tough people okay, and you know what we said about your powers".

"Don't use them?"

"Well here's where the deal takes a turn, you're gonna have to use your powers this time, but not to kill, I want you to only use them to defend either yourself or anyone of us that's in serious trouble, okay?"

"Okay Bucky, but why are we fighting against Tony Stark? I thought he was a good guy like us?" Bucky didn't answer that question but just carried me as he followed behind Sam towards the airport.

*End flashback*

Soon Sam, Bucky and I started running across the empty airport when something landed on the window with a thump and Bucky asked.

"What the hell was that?"

"Everyone's got a gimmick now" Sam groaned. Then the next thing I knew, glass shattered and Sam was knocked to the side and Bucky threw a punch towards him with his metal arm but surprisingly the figure caught it like it was nothing.

"You have a metal arm? That is awesome dude!" Said the new guy as he slowly moved Bucky's arm Sam then tackled the new guy and flew him in the air as I heard the new guy exclaim out, "you have the right to remain silent!" Sam and the new guy kept flying around each other trying to bring the other one down that's when Bucky picked up a huge billboard and threw it towards the stranger but the stranger managed to dodge it without even looking back. "Hey buddy I think you lost this!" He then threw it at Bucky who was hiding behind one of the airport pillars.

I then came into action before the new guy could start swinging again, he cried out in pain and said.

"What the? Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's like my brain as mind of its own! Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!!!" I made him fall to the ground and swung him from side to side and made him stand straight up and still while Sam came behind him and kicked him in the back. But the new guy managed to get away from Sam and webbed his wings causing him to fall towards the ground. I acted fast and stopped Sam from falling to the ground and hurting himself.

As gently as I could, I set Sam back down and he looked at me and nodded in thanks but it was shortly lived as he was soon pinned by his hands and I by my waist against the railing in what looked like to be spider webs. It was then Sam and the new guy started talking in science-tongue that I didn't quite understand that's when the new guy turned to me and said.

"It was you who was controlling me earlier, wasn't it?"

"Sam is right, you do talk a lot". I stated not wanting to answer.

"Your right, and I really hate to do this especially to a kid, but Mr. Stark said to do whatever it takes to stop anyone who wasn't on our side". The new guy then came swinging down towards me but Bucky came in front of me and soon the three of us came falling down towards the ground and soon Bucky's metal hand was trapped in the same webbing as me and Sam were in now in more webbings to keep us pinned to the ground. "Guys look I'd love to keep this up, but I've only got one job here today and I gotta impress Mr. Stark so, I'm really sorry" before he could fire more webbing at us, Redwing caught him and sent the kid flying out of the airport.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" asked Bucky.

"I hate you" Sam grumbled.

"That's not nice Sam say you're sorry" I stated as I tried to squirm out of my webbing imprisonment.

"Alright, I'm sorry".

"It's fine". Bucky stated.

"Hey kid, with that blood bending of yours do you think you could dehydrate these webbings?"

"I've only worked with blood, they never trained me to do anything else, not even water".

"But blood is 92% water, and if these webbings are like any other spider web they absorb water, so this should be second nature to you". Sam stated.

"I don't know if I can".

"Just try it sweetheart". Said Bucky as he turned to me. I looked at him and said nervously.

"I'll try". I got a good grip of the webbing as best as I could and took a deep breath in then exhaled out. I could then feel the webs drying up and soon they snapped and I was free. I gasped and turned to Bucky and Sam who were looking at me proudly.

"I knew you could do it" said Bucky. I then walked up to them and freed Bucky's hand then moved onto Sam and got the webbing off of him.

"Alright let's get moving, we have to meet up with Cap and the others and get onto the quinjet" Sam stated then the three of us ran out of the airport.

As we met up with the rest of our team and raced towards the Quinjet, a beam suddenly shot out and stopped us just a few feet from the hanger where our escape was. It was then Tony Stark and the rest of his team stood in front of us and Sam asked.

"What do we do Captain?"

"We fight". Steve stated firmly. Both our sides slowly walked towards each other, then trotted and then a full on run until our battle began.Captain America vs. Iron Man, Bucky vs. Black Panther (I found out the names of Team Iron Man from Steve a little bit ago), War Machine vs. Falcon, Black Widow vs. Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch vs. Spiderman, Ant-Man vs. Vision and I helped along anyone of my teammates that needed serious help.

Punches were thrown, guns fired, objects were flying, and groans and grunts were made as one person was being beaten. As I saw Bucky and Black Panther in a tug of war of strength I heard Bucky say to him.

"I didn't kill your father".

"Then why did you run?!" Black Panther snarled then he punched Bucky and threw him across the field and just before he could kick Bucky in the face, I used my blood bending to bend back his leg making him scream and then I threw him away from Bucky. Black Panther narrowed his eyes at me then ran towards me but Bucky tackled him to the ground like a protective dog and snarled at him.

"You even lay a claw on her and you'll be sorry!" Black Panther kicked Bucky off him and just before he could charge at me again, I used my bending on him to make him stop dead in his tracks. Though I was controlling him, he was still slowly moving towards me trying to fight off my bending which no one has ever done before.

"Bucky is telling the truth! The day of the bombing he was with me comforting me after a bad dream".

"Why waste yourself protecting him child? Do you know who he is?"

"The question is—do you know who I am?" I snarled as I twisted my hands around forcing the Black Panther to rise and bend before I forced him down on his knees but suddenly a loud sound was surrounding me. I screamed as I couldn't take the piercing sound any longer and then I was scratched across my arm badly by Black Panther. I ended up hitting several cargo boxes as blood seeped out of my arm. Before I could even defend myself from Black Panther coming towards me again, Steve kicked Black Panther across the field then he ran up to me and said.

"(Y/n)? You okay kid? Here, here let me see". He gently held my arm and quickly took out a roll of cloth and wrapped it around my arm. I hissed in pain and he asked me, "you okay? It's not too tight is it?"

"No, no it's fine, I've been through worse". Bucky then came over to me and he saw the scars bleeding through the cloth and he turned away regretfully. "Bucky?"

"You're done".

"What? No Bucky I want to keep protecting you!"

"No, don't you get it, he will fight to kill and he almost did! Look at your arm (y/n)!" I sadly looked down at it then Bucky stated regretfully, "You need to get down and stay low, hide and get as far as you can from here. If they catch you when this is all over I don't know what I would do, you need to hide (y/n). I'll find you when this is all over, I promise". He placed his normal hand gently on my cheek and I stared at him with teary eyes.

'Cap he's right. You guys need to get to the quinjet, none of us are going anywhere' said Clint through our comms.

'I agree, we need a diversion. Something Big!' stated Sam.

'I've got something kind of big, but I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell and if I'm tear myself in half, you don't come back' said Scott.

"He's gonna tear himself in half?" Bucky questioned. Next thing we saw was Scott growing super tall almost giant size. With the diversion in play, Steve and Bucky took off running leaving me to stand helplessly watching them run towards the quinjet.

I took notice of Black Panther trying to follow them so I decided that I was done playing the helpless little girl card. I was going to follow them whether Bucky liked it or not, he needs me to protect him from the bad guys just like I've always needed him. He says he's trying to protect me from losing my innocence, but sadly I lost all childhood innocence when the bad men took me from my grandparent's home.

I raced after Black Panther towards the garage and saw the building was just about to collapse, I managed to blood bend myself far from the rubble and hid in the shadows waiting for the perfect move. Steve and Bucky flew off successfully on the quinjet and I prayed that nothing was going to stop them as they took off flying.

When the time was right, I put my plan into action.

[mlbrinkworth]

Day 6: Mark, stop trying to make leopard happen.  It's not going to happen

Today we had another early morning safari. We of course started off searching for the elusive leopard. Now the lady guide has delivered the leopard 3 times to her group while we beg and barter for scraps of information on their sightings. We did see all the usual suspects though, rhino, rhino babies, hippos, Vermeer monkeys, zebras, warthog, wildebeest, impala, Nyala, and giraffe. One giraffe was only 1-2 days old and still had the umbilical cord attached. Giraffes are born as tall as a human and weighing about 200 kg! They fall to the ground out of the womb and the impact gets their breathing started. This early impact to the noggin may explain their incredibly awkward fighting moves. We have a video that we will post of this later. What it lacks in visceral impact, it makes up for with some of the best neck to neck combat you’ve ever seen.

Zulu Nyala has 19 rhinos currently. One of the rhinos we saw this morning got shot in the leg by a poacher when it was young. They were able to set the bone for him in a plaster cast. This is the first time a wild animal has successfully had a bone set this way, at least according to Mark.  He seemed confident enough for the purposes of the story. 

After the morning safari we had a quick breakfast and headed off to Emdoneni Cheetah project. Here was saw four different kinds of cats: African wild cat, caracal, serval, and Cheetah, the most (only?) exciting one being the cheetah. But it was super exciting!  This project actually lets its cats back out into the wild as soon as they show they can survive, unless they came to the project already domesticated. We got to go into the enclosure with 2 of the Injured cheetahs and have our picture taken with them. They used to  let people interact with them, right up until a few weeks ago when there were two cheetah attacks on the visitors in one week. I would have taken my chances but Justin kept a close eye on me. 

The cheetahs were majestic with their beautiful tails used for balance during a hunt. How many spots do you think a cheetah has? Did you guess 1500 to 2000 spots? Cheetahs can run up to 120km/hr, but can only hold that pace for 20 seconds. Therefore if they don’t catch their prey in that amount of time, they abandon it. Cheetahs will occasionally also hunt together so they can take down larger prey, like a wildebeest (nature’s tastiest animal). On the way out, one of the cheetahs was prancing towards the fence line, so naturally I held the camera up to the fence to film this grace. I was mesmerized. At least until I finally heard Justin yelling at me to be careful (this is a theme for the trip) and saw the guides running towards me. They said I was too close to the fence and the cheetah that was prancing towards me could have gotten his head through that fence and bitten my hand off. I disagree, but will post the footage and let you decide for yourself. 

To be fair, it’s not like I was the only one who got scolded. Another girl was running around, which is a big no-no around predatory cats. Yes, she was six but she seemed mature for her age. 

It was neat seeing the cheetah so close up, but seeing the cheetah in the wild is much more spectacular!

We got to interact with the African Wild cat (which is clearly just a house cat, you actually have to have a DNA test done to know which is which), and the serval (which is just a weird huge house cat). Soon after we got into the enclosure with the serval,  the cat sprayed (meaning squirted with cat urine) a woman and kid, much to Justin’s delight. It was pretty disgusting and we kept our distance from that cat! (And those people)

On our drive back to the lodge, we had to stop for gas. Gas here is not self serve, and the workers wash down your entire car with one of those squigies while you watch. You are supposed to tip them, but we had no small bills. I asked if I could tip on the credit card, and he said no,so I asked if he had change or if it I could get some from inside. He said he had change. So I handed him 100 Rand and asked for change. He said thank you, showed all of the men working with him what a great tip he got. And came back eventually and told us we were done. We laughed and moved on, he sure was happy with his 100 Rand (about $8 USD) tip, and we had a lessons learned. 

We came back to the lodge, had a delicious lunch, and relaxed until our 4:00 evening safari. It was raining at this time, so Mark (you might remember him, the one with the eyes) seemed hesitant to go out. However, our safari vehicle group is hard core and we were not letting him off the hook. We put our ponchos on and we were off searching for animals.  The fact that our part of the jeep is covered while Mark sits in the rain doesn’t make us any less hardcore right?

It was a slow start and everyone was cold and wet. But we persevered until the animals came out. We got to see giraffe (one of them pregnant) drinking from the pond,  which can only be described as gracefully silly. We followed behind a rhino walking down the road with quite the swagger, as to not let us pass him, so we rolled behind him slowly until he made the turn to the watering hole.

We saw three elephant, two that tried to charge the safari vehicle and were stopped in their tracks by Marks harsh words and loud noises. It was funny seeing them angrily swinging their giant trucks away from us and pouting their way across the street. 

We also got to see a baboon, and at the very end while tracking that damn leopard we saw a jenet (a small cat). It was all definitely worth going out in the rain.

Then we came back here, ate a huge dinner with dessert, and watched a performance of the tradition dancers while we stuffed our faces.  We witnessed that the traditional dance consists primarily of violently kicking your own face.

Favorite part of the day: Getting charged at by the elephants crossing the street, and hearing Mark discipline them, and it working.

Fun facts:

Rhino-you can tell male and female apart because the women have the long horns and the men have shorter stupider horns.

The big five ‘African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros’ are the five animals in Africa that if you hunt will hunt you back!

Favorite part of the day:

New sightings: Baboon, Jenet, Rabbit

[bambamsgotjams]

Home || Park Jinyoung

Title: Home ~ Park Jinyoung

Words: --

Genre: Fluff

A/N: This is a strange idea that I’ve had stuck in my head for a while. It’s basically just a CEO!Park Jinyoung AU X Child!Reader. I have no idea what caused me to think this was a thing that needed to happen, but hey, it didn’t turn out to bad and I didn’t realize how much I actually needed this in my life until now. So without further a do, please enjoy xx

Park Jinyoung never had a time in his life where he truly felt pain. He had always been a successful man. Throughout his entire life he had grown up in a rich and loving family. Never once had he felt betrayed or depressed. His parents would come in, tuck him in every night, read him his favorite bed time story, and then kiss him goodnight before reminding him how much he meant to them. Not soon after the night was over, he would wake up to the fresh smell of pancakes that his housekeeper would wake up early and place in the shape of a heart on his favorite Ryan the Bear plate. To say the least, he always admired his childhood.

 In his teen years as well as his college years, he found himself becoming the center of attention for all the ladies. He had to admit, he was amazingly handsome. There wasn’t a man in his class that didn’t want to be him. The girls all tried to get with him by confessing their hearts out to him in the most sincere way the possibly could and made him the tastiest chocolates he ever had. As much as he enjoyed the love and attention he got from his peers, he was a modest and respective man and preferred to be on his own and take his life slow. He had a couple girlfriends in his life, but no one really stuck out and seemed to want to be with him for him, they only wanted him for his looks.

 Despite having what a person could describe as a perfect life, he never really felt complete. It was like something was missing from his life. At first he thought it was because all of his closest friends were settling down, starting a cute little family on their own, but Jinyoung wasn’t like that. As jealous as he felt from time to time about not having a family, he promised himself that he was going to stay single so he could focus on what truly made him happy, working in the music industry. He was a manager for one of the biggest labels in Korea and that meant that he would rarely get to spend time and take care of a family as is due to the fact of being busy with all the idols and groups he had signed under his label.

 It wasn’t until one cold winter morning when he finally realized on what he had been missing his entire life. Jinyoung was walking down the nearly abandoned streets of Seoul, with it being only 3:30 am, not many people were out and about. He didn’t have to get up as early as he did, but he felt this strange feeling in his chest that seemed to be telling him that he had to go out and just walk. So he followed what his gut told him to do and threw on the quickest pair of dress pants and a nice shirt, grabbed his favorite suit jacket and left his apartment just like that. And now here he was, following in the direction his heart was leading him to.

 He gave a couple quick glances and smiles towards the friendly city goers as the past by and shoved his hands in his pockets as he continued down the streets. He turned a corner to an unfamiliar street and swallowed hard, nervous about what could be down this way. His heart began to race as if it was telling him that this was it, this is where he was meant to go. Jinyoung stopped walking for a couple minutes and took his chance to look around at his surroundings. The street was dimly lit, only one street light seemed to be working but even that one flickered every now and then as if it would go out at any second. Tall buildings and dark buildings seemed to crowd the street, making it look smaller and narrower than it actually was. Jinyoung almost had to squint his eyes as he noticed a small shadowy figure under a small hutch that was attached to the side of one of the buildings. He decided to take a closer look and walked closer to the figure, unsure of what was ahead of him. Once he arrived, he crouched down to the height of the tiny hutch and he swore his heart almost dropped at the sight in front of him.

 Sat under the hutch was a small girl who looked like they couldn’t be much older than the age of 5. Her body was stick thin, only small tattered up rags covered her body. Her arms and her legs were covered completely in goose bumps from shivering so much in the cold. Jinyoung reached out to her and touched her arm slightly. He gasped at how cold her body felt. His eyes traveled down to her finger tips that he swore looked blue. At this moment, Jinyoung couldn’t tell if the young girl was alive or not. Luckily she was breathing, he could tell from the rise and fall of her chest. He reached out and brush her scraggly hair out of her eyes and smiled at the sleeping young girl.

 “Yah,” He said quietly in his husky morning voice as he shook her small frame ever so gently afraid that he would hurt her if he shook any harder.

 The little girl stirred in her sleep and turned her body towards Jinyoung. Her eyes fluttered open as her jaw stretched out into a long yawn. Her own [e/c] eyes looked into Jinyoung’s darker colored ones. She quickly flinched backwards at the sight of the older man in front of her and began to tremble.

 “W-Who are you? You’re not my mom!” She screamed as a tear began to leak from one of her eyes.

 Jinyoung felt a pain strike his heart for the first time since he was child. He had never met a little girl who was in such bad shape as this one. She looked so terrified to see a person it almost looked as if she had met the devil himself. Her eyes looked bloodshot as her skin looked as white as snow, probably from being in the cold all night, but needless to say, Jinyoung felt as if he needed to help this young girl.

 “It’s alright, you can trust me. I won’t hurt you,” He stated as he looked back at the younger girl with sincerity in his eyes.

 The girl just sat in the corner of her hutch, refusing to move and not taking her eyes off the man in front of her in case he planned on doing something to her.

 “I want my mom,” She whimpered.

 “I don’t know where you mom is,” He replied to the girl, “But can you tell me when the last time you saw her was?”

 The girl was silent for a couple of seconds before speaking up.

 “She dropped me off here 2 months ago and told me to wait here. She gave me this cloth and backpack with food. I haven’t moved since.”

 Jinyoung furrowed his brows and looked at the girl quizzically.

 “She just left you here?” He asked as the young girl nodded in response.

 “Now can you please leave in case my mom comes back?” She asked as she turned her back from the man and closed her eyes to sleep again.

 Jinyoung knew that he should have listened to the little girl’s request, but he couldn’t help but feel a strong feeling in his chest that was telling him to reach out to her and take her in. He knew that it was uncommon for a woman to just leave her child in the street, not only just that but with a bag full of necessities one would need to survive. This child seemed convinced that her mother was coming back, but somehow Jinyoung knew that she wasn’t, but the little girl just couldn’t seem to understand that. He understands though, if his own mother would have done that to him at her age, he too would want to wait as long as he needed to in order to see his mother again.

 “Yah,” He called out once more, “At least let me take you inside my workplace so you can get warmed up. It’s awfully cold outside.”

 The young girl shook her head and curled up into a little ball.

 “We have a hot coco machine, I can make you some if you want,” He said.

 “Mommy said that men cox little girls out and promise them goodies so that way the cant take their virginity, whatever that means,” She replied.

 Jinyoung couldn’t help but chuckle at the intelligence this little girl had.

 “They aren’t real men if they do that,” he told her, “A real man helps out those in need, and you my dear are in need of my help, so please let me help you. If you want, afterwards I can take you back here.”

 The girl looked up at Jinyoung questioningly and hesitantly stood up, pulling a small stuffed rabbit behind her. She walked carefully over to Jinyoung before nodding to signal him that she would go with him. Jinyoung remembered how his parents would always warn him about crossing the street without holding an adults hand when he was the little girl’s age, but he figured that if he wanted to prove to this child that he wasn’t some creepy man, it would be better to just let her walk on her own.

 He gripped his knuckles tightly as he made the young girl walk in front of him so that way he could keep an eye on her and make sure that she was safe. He told her the directions on how to get to his work building, following closely behind her in case of any danger that might cross their pathes. Lucky for them, they made it to Jinyoung’s label without any harm done to them. He watched as the girl looked up at the large building, admiring the pictures of the different groups and artists that we displayed on the outside. She looked up at Jinyoung and cocked her head to the side.

 “You work here?” She asked, “My mommy said that only talented people get into places like this.”

 “This is my label,” He replied, “I own and run all those bands in the pictures.”

 The girls looked up at the pictures in amazement and back at Jinyoung. She let out a small yawn before rubbing her eyes. She looked as if she was about to fall asleep any second. Jinyoung crouched down to her height once more and looked at her in her beautiful eyes.

 “Do you want to come in? You can sleep on my sofa in my office,” He said.

 The girl nodded and hesitantly reached her arms up to Jinyoung. He sent her a warm smile and lifted her up in his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes and Jinyoung slowly made his way inside the building, greeting his secretary who he was grateful for coming in at such an early hour of the morning. He then made his way to the elevator and pressed the button that led to the floor his office was on.

 Once the elevator arrived at his floor, Jinyoung stepped out and quickly walked into his office, closing the heavy wooden door behind him. He then set the girl down on his sofa and began searching his office for a blanket to cover her with. The girl looked around his office and studied the items with in it. He had many record awards placed along the walls and the shelves. She squinted as she tried to read the shiny gold name plate that was placed on the edge of his desk.

 “Park Jinyoung,” She read it out loud.

 Jinyoung turned towards her at the mention of his name. The girl pointed at the plate she read outloud, causing Jinyoung to smile as he found a blanket on the top shelf in one of his closets.

 “That’s my name,” He said as he walked back over to her, placing the blanket on top of her.

 The girl laid down and cuddled her rabbit close to her chest. She looked up at Jinyoung with tired eyes as she made herself comfortable on her sofa. Judging by the way she smiled as she laid her head down on the soft material, it seemed as if she hadn’t slept on something comfortable for a while. He stroked her tiny head gently before walking back over to his desk to get some work done.

 “My name is [y/n],” She spoke up suddenly.

 “Well it’s very nice to meet you, [y/n],” Jinyoung said as he looked up from a stack of papers on his desk.

 “…you too…” She muttered as she fell into a deep slumber for the first time in a long time.

 [y/n] peaked open one of her eyes as she finally woke up from her morning nap. She stayed laying down, too comfortable and warm to get up and move. She snuggled into her stuffed rabbit more as her ears perked up at the sound of two men having a conversation, one of them she recognized as Jinyoung.

 “…I found her on the street all by herself. You didn’t expect me to just leaver her there, did you? I’m not heartless,” Jinyoung said as he began to pace in front of one of his assistants.

 “But she’s a complete stranger, Jinyoung,” A deeper voice replied.

 Jinyoung let out and exaggerated sigh as he finally stopped his pacing to face the man once more. [y/n] finally sat up slightly and rubbed her eyes to see what all the commotion going on was about. Knowing that she was involved made her more curious to see what was going on. There stood along with the man known as Jinyoung was a taller and more built looking man. He had brownish-redish dyed hair that was flat against his forehead. She noticed that his appearance looked far more intimidating than Jinyoung’s. The man wore a pair of black skinny jeans and black turtle neck that went along with a black blazer. The man turned his gaze towards the young girl who was staring back at him. He stopped talking to Jinyoung and made his was over towards the girl on the sofa. [y/n] looked back at him with terrified eyes as he grew closer to her frame. Once he was right in front of her, he knelt down to her height and smiled at her. Jinyoung followed behind and stood behind the other.

 “You don’t have to be afraid, [y/n],” Jinyoung spoke in a gentle tone, “He’s not going to hurt you.”

 [y/n] didn’t fully trust Jinyoung yet, but she somehow knew that no matter what, he wouldn’t let her get into any danger that would potentially hurt her in any way.

 “So you’re [y/n],” the man asked, “My name is Lim Jaebum, but you can just call me JB, okay?”

 The younger girl nodded as she looked back up to Jinyoung, her stomach growling afterwards making her blush slightly. Both men laughed at her reaction. JB stood up from his position, never breaking eye contact with [y/n].

 “Sounds like someone’s hungry,” He stated as he turned back to Jinyoung and placed a hand on his shoulder, “You better take care of that.”

 JB’s voice sounded strict. [y/n] could tell that he wasn’t talking just about feeding her by the way Jinyoung seemed to grow tense at his words.

 “I will,” He said as he watched JB leave his office.

 Jinyoung sat on the edge of the sofa next to [y/n]. He reached down and stroked her head gently, smiling the entire time. [y/n] sighed contently at the touch of his hand.

 “Let’s go get you something to eat, yeah?” Jinyoung asked as he stood up and walked towards the door, waiting for [y/n] to follow.

 [y/n] stood up from the sofa and grabbed her rabbit before walking up to Jinyoung, grabbing his hand without hesitation before the two walked out the office and towards the lunch room. Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel a flutter form in his stomach as she grabbed his hand. Little did he know that [y/n] would soon become a huge part of his life.

 Soon enough a couple of months had passed since Jinyoung had met [y/n]. [y/n] never left Jinyoung’s side since that day. She knew that even though her mother had told her to stay put and that she would be back for her someday, she wasn’t going to come back. Something in her gut had told her that, but she couldn’t help but feel so attached to Jinyoung as if he was her own father. Jinyoung had called many adoption centers and stations to get any news on [y/n] to see if they knew anything about the girl or her past. Sadly, he was unsuccessful in finding out anything.

 It’s not like her minded though, he enjoyed spending his days taking her to the local park or just to his work building in general. [y/n] got along well with the idols and staff within the label., particularly one man and general. He was a trainee rapper/singer who went by the stage name of Bam Bam. He was basically like a child hiding in a middle aged man’s body. He would offer to spend time playing and entertaining [y/n] in his free time for Jinyoung when he had work to get done. No matter how many idols [y/n] would get close to, there was no one she loved more in the building than Jinyoung himself.

 Since [y/n] didn’t have a home, Jinyoung decided to take her in for the time being. He found himself growing attached to the girl more and more as the day’s went by. He loved spending time playing, snuggling, and just taking care of [y/n]. She made his life more interesting and worth something. It was like she was the missing link that he needed in his life all of this time.

 Jinyoung looked in the mirror on the wall of his bedroom and straightened his black tie before walking out of the room and into the living room where [y/n] was quietly watching a cartoon on the television. She turned as she heard Jinyoung’s footsteps enter the room. She smiled and run up to the man, clinging onto his leg almost immediately.

 “You look so handsome, Jinyoungie!” She exclaimed at the older man making him crack a smile as he reached down to pat his head.

 “Are we going into your work today? Bam Bam said he had a new game that he wanted to teach me!”

 Jinyoung laughed at her enthusiasm and shook his head.

 “Actually, I had something else in mind that I have been meaning to do for a while. I hope it all works out though, I don’t know what I would do if it didn’t,” He replied.

 “Where are we going then?”

 Jinyoung reached down and picked up [y/n] in his arms, giving her and eskimo kiss before answering her question.

 “Why don’t you go put on your prettiest dress and we’ll find out together okay?”

 [y/n] nodded and ran into her bedroom to get changed quickly. She quickly ran back out, her hair still in a knotted mess as she struggled to put on her fancy pink dress up shoes. Jinyoung sat down to help her out before the two grabbed a quick breakfast and left their small apartment.

  Jinyoung held [y/n]’s hand tightly as they entered a large white building. The young girl looked around in amazement at the fancy place before looking up at Jinyoung with questioning eyes.

 “What’s this place?” She asked him.

 “It’s a court house, it’s where a person can come to get legal work done,” Jinyoung replied.

  [y/n] didn’t question any further, still not quite knowing what was going on, but she trusted Jinyoung. She knew that he was a smart man and knew what he was doing. That was all she needed to know to understand that he was doing what was best for her in his life.

 Jinyoung talked to an older looking man before following him into a room. Jinyoung took a seat down in the room they were led to, placing [y/n] on his lap. A funny looking old man walked out with a document and handed it to Jinyoung. Jinyoung carefully read over the paper before signing his name with a smile, then sliding the paper to [y/n], handing her the pen.

 “What’s this?” She asked.

 “Legal adoption papers,” He replied, “It’ll will give me fully custody over you.”

 “You mean-“

 “I want to be you new Daddy [y/n],” He replied, “Only if you want me to be.”

 [y/n] was speechless. She looked over at the paper and back to Jinyoung, thinking about all the times he took care of her and made her happy. She loved him, very much to say the least. No one would ever come close to being her parent though. But Jinyoung was different. She had never met a person who had ever loved her as much as he did to her. It made her happy. Is this what she really wanted?

 Yes

 [y/n] smiled before writing her name out in her neatest handwriting before handing it back to Jinyoung. Jinyoung took the paper and handed it to the man who stamped it and declared full custody of [y/n] onto Jinyoung.

 “I love you, Daddy!” [y/n] declared as she threw her tiny arms around Jinyoung’s neck.

 Jinyoung hugged her back, too happy to say anything in return. He never thought having a daughter would make as happy as he was now. That thing he mentioned before about having a missing piece in his life, this was it. A family. A child that he could call his own. This is everything he wanted.