#I wasn’t surprised that I latched onto this boy cause so many people said I would be him

[himbionn]

My personal take on the gender boy(ish) Taako! ✨

Everyone thank my partner for getting me into TAZ finally LMAOO

Character sheet! I like the idea of his fashion style being the equivalent of peacock barf. He’s a walking fashion disaster icon.

[strawberrylemonz]

Fateful Night

Grian never forgot his original home, his original family. He didn’t remember the adoption of him and his brothers, but he remembered time after that. His father, King Philza Minecraft, was kind and firm to his sons and his kingdom. He remembered Wilbur’s love of all things musical, how he preferred words over a blade. He recalled his days training alongside Techno in the courtyard, both laughing as they beat their opponents together. He remembered his bedroom in the right wing of the castle, in between Technoblade and Wilbur’s. He remembered his crown and his cape, how he would proudly wear them during celebrations and balls.

But those days were over, he had to remind himself to move on. SMP Earth’s portal had been out of commission for years now, and no one knew why. Signs that the server still existed were found, but no one could piece together the pieces to find the issue with the server. No one could make contact with anyone stuck inside the server, and no one inside could get out. Grian couldn’t get back to his former home, he couldn’t get back to his family. In a way, that makes things easier to live somewhere else. He had disappeared from SMP Earth as a young child, much too young. Now, as a grown man, no one knew of his royal status. He didn’t push to hide his status from his new friends and family, but his situation wasn’t exactly anything that anyone could easily bring up into a conversation. Instead of trying to find a way to tell people, he just found it easier to not acknowledge at all.

He still can’t help but wonder, to question. He still didn’t understand how he was taken away from his room, his palace. He did question some of the competitors in MCC, how they seemed so familiar yet so different. He did wonder whatever became of his baby brother. He remembers many names for the child, but his brain couldn’t pinpoint what name was chosen in the end. It had been so long ago when the child was adopted that his brain couldn’t mush together his name. But he still remembered his eyes, how they shone with curiosity. He still recalls the night that he and his brother’s met the young babe for the very first time.

----------

The winter was colder than usual that year, too cold. Techno and Grian were walking beside Wilbur, taking sips of hot cocoa as Wilbur rambled about his newfound hatred of anteaters. Classes had ended hours before, and they were trying to their best to pass the time until dinner was prepared. They would have usually spent this time with their father, all talking about their day as they sat in the king’s study. Unfortunately, for the princes, this tradition was broken that night. Their father had left after lunch to conduct his weekly visit to the cities and towns that fell under the kingdom’s protection. Unlike the previous visits, however, he had not returned yet. Visits usually lasted a few hours, but tonight was different. It had been six hours since lunch, and he was still gone. As much as they wanted to panic, the triplets knew that things would be okay. This was their father, after all, nothing could scare or harm him.

Grian waved at the night guards as he and his brothers entered the courtyard. They made it halfway when they heard the familiar sound of wings flapping. Turning around, they greeted their father as he landed in front of them. They were stunned, however, why their father hastily nodded to them, before rushing away without a single word. The boys watched in confusion as he curled his wings over himself, as if to shield something in his arms. Although his face appeared to stay neutral and calm, the triplets knew better. Their father was afraid, they could tell by the way he held himself. After exchanging glances with each other, they rushed to follow him, their hot cocoa long forgotten. They followed in worry, listening as Phil barked orders in an unfamiliar, stern voice. They watched as servants ran off, gathering all the nurses and doctors they could find. Phil kicked his bedroom door open, causing the triplets to jump back in surprise. When they regained their composure, they rushed forward to see what their father was shielding. Or, in this case, who he was shielding. The three princes froze in their spots as their father unraveled his wings, revealing an infant babe, bundled in a tattered and burnt blanket. They made their way to step inside the room, but were quickly ushered aside by nurses, who closed the door before them.

“Was that a baby?”

“New sibling, pog.”

“What do you think their name is?”

“I bet it’s a boy!”

“Nuh uh, it’s a girl!”

“Guys, they’re a baby, not an it.”

“I bet I’ll be the favorite brother.”

“No way!”

The triplets sprung into action, ready to greet their new sibling. Rushing back to their rooms, they all quickly worked to make themselves presentable for the welcoming. Dawning their softest sweaters, they each exited their rooms to return to their father. Wilbur adjusted his beanie, Techno his crown, as Grian adjusted the grip on his stuffed cow. All sharing a satisfied smile, they made their way to their father’s room. As they walked down the hall, they took note of the sorrowful expressions of the nurses and doctors who were walking in the opposite direction. When they finally reached the door to the room, they were greeted by a familiar witch doctor. The man smiled down at the young princes, tipping his hat to them as he walked away. When they entered the bedroom, they saw their father sitting on the bed, his back turned to them. As they moved towards him, they were greeted by him, his voice soft.

“Boys, you should be at the dinner table by now.”

“Is that our new sibling?”

Wilbur played with his fingers as he watched his father’s movements, Techno and Grian following their brother’s actions. Phil finally turned to face the three boys, who all faltered at his tired eyes. Giving his sons a tired smile, Phil beckoned the three boys over to him. Slowly approaching the bed, they saw the infant lay on the comforter, his small hands balled into a fist and clinging to his blanket. They watched as he took ragged breaths, his chest rising and falling in uneven patterns. Techno was the first to speak up.

“Is it okay?”

“Techno, don’t be rude!”

“Heh?”

Phil lightly chuckled as he returned his gaze from his sons to the small infant, who was sprawled upon the bed, his breathing becoming shakier as the seconds passed. The triplets frowned as the sadness returned to Phil’s eyes, his voice getting quiet.

“I found a village outside of our kingdom’s borders. It had been burned and destroyed by pillagers. I searched the village many times, but he was the sole survivor. I found him, bundled up, laying in the snow. He wasn’t moving or responding, but he was breathing. That was enough to get me to rush him back here.”

Grian tore his eyes away from his father, deciding to look at the sleeping child. The boy was cute, Grian will admit, but he did look sickly. Wiping some of the sweat off the infant’s forehead, he asked the question that plagued his mind.

“Will he be okay?”

His father and brothers turned to face him, watching as he combed the baby’s hair to the side. Techno and Wilbur quieted down as they faced their father. Phil sighed as he watched the tenderness in Grian’s actions. Closing his eyes, Phil spoke up.

“The regular doctors said there wasn’t anything they could do for him. The nurses said that only a miracle could pick him up from death’s door.”

The triplets felt colder than they have ever felt. They had just got their new baby brother, and now they were losing him. They had to say goodbye before they could say hello. It just wasn’t fair-

“However,”

Three small heads quickly returned their gazes to that of their father’s.

“The last doctor, an old friend of mine, managed to contact the stars. A goddess, Clara, had apparently responded without hesitation. She happily agreed to revive the child and give him her protection.”

The three couldn’t bring themselves to make a witty remark to their father. Magic was real, this was true. Totems of undying were real, this they knew. But as much as they loved listening and reading the stories, the three could not bring themselves to believe that the gods would care for an unknown babe. Complete nonsense, if you asked them. For all they knew, their father was just trying to keep their spirits up, so he most likely crafted a story so that the boys wouldn’t panic when the magic occurred. As they all turned their attention to the sickly baby, they noticed that he stopped breathing. There was silence as the four waited, watching. Wilbur couldn’t stop the watering of his eyes as he latched onto Techno, who was stiff as a board. Phil just closed his eyes, appearing to be praying to whatever entity was listening in, watching the panicked family. Grian, blinded by his own tears, watched over the infant. He let out a shuddering gasp as he held onto the child’s stiff hand with his own. Suddenly, the feeling of warm hands passing through him caused his eyes to widen in shock, the stuffed cow in his arms being pulled closer to his chest. The warmth left as quickly as it came, but that wasn’t what kept him silent. There, laying on the bed, was the baby, breathing normally. Leaning over to get a better look at him, he noticed the warmer tone in the baby’s skin. He took note of the small freckles that began to fade into view, seemingly to mimic small stars. Clutching the cow, Grian prepared to call his family over, only to be stopped by the child furrowing his eyebrows. With a quiet yawn, the baby slowly blinked his eyes open. Grian felt his throat tightened as beautiful, big blue eyes stared into his. Grian couldn’t help but notice how the child’s eyes were as of the sea and the stars conjoined into one. Suddenly, the child switched his gaze down to the stuffed cow in Grian’s arms. Eyes widening with excitement, the baby wiggled his arms free and reached for the toy, squealing in delight.

It was then that Grian knew that he fell in love.

----------

Grian always thought of his family, every day. He had found a new family with Hermitcraft, with its people and with his makeshift children. He was grateful for the family he had now, but he couldn’t help but miss the one he once had.

“Grian! Are you almost ready?”

Shaking his head, Grian called back to Mumbo, who was outside of the room. Reassuring Mumbo that he would meet him at the gates, he smiled as he finished getting ready. As he adjusted his shirt, Grian couldn’t help but feel giddy for tonight. How could he not? It was a special night on the server, after all. One of their youngest members, Tommy, had something grand planned for everyone to see. Tommy was a unique and unusual case for all the hermits. He had appeared two years prior, broken and dull. With nothing but a few personal items, he was nothing but a broken shell of what he used to be. The hermits worked hard to get him to where he was today, to help him heal. They still didn’t know his past pain, but they didn’t push him to reveal anything he didn’t want to. It took a while, but the boy eventually trusted them enough to settle down and make a home there with them. Now, they were ready to see his biggest project on the server. Months prior, Tommy had requested a big area to build an amusement park. He explained that it would be a fun and safe place, and that it was the gate for him to open up about his past to them. He brightened up as the hermits all voiced their encouragement and approval. He insisted on completing the project all by himself, and he did. As soon as it was complete, he sent out invitations to all the hermits for a private opening night. The invitations were dated for tonight. Humming to himself, he peeked into a spare room, satisfied to see Jrumbot and Grumbot asleep for the night. Grabbing his coat, Grian gave his reflection a nod as he left the house, on his way to meet the rest of the server.

----------

Tommy was almost jumping with joy as his friends arrived at the gates, each dressed in casual formal attire. His eyes scanned the crowd, pride blooming in his chest as he took note of everyone who arrived. When he saw Grian, he couldn’t help but cheer alongside his chat. Once he saw that everyone had arrived, he cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Fellas! Can I get a humina?”

Laughter bubbled in his throat as the hermits chanted without hesitation. Joy filled him as he cheered alongside them.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

Taking a deep breath, Tommy nodded to himself with a smile as joy filled his tone. Quickly thinking over the few points in his speech that he wanted to voice, he happily spoke up.

“Thank you for coming, I mean it. Believe it or not, it took me forever to convince myself to send the invites. I’m glad I did, and I’m glad you all came. It means so much to me that you guys care so much. I hope to repay the kindness to the fullest. For now, however, I’ll give you guys a park and a backstory. Y’know, because I’m cool and shit. I’m like Spider-Man, tragic backstory and all that shit. Mentor tally is through the roof, heh.”

The hermits laughed and cheered at the young man, who glowed with pride before them. They had watched him pick himself up from the brink of death, watched as his dull eyes brightened with love and joy. Ender, they all loved this young hermit.

“Okay, enough stalling. I, TommyInnit, proudly present-”

Affectionate snickers filled the air as Tommy mimicked a drumroll.

“Innit an Adventure!!!”

Cheers erupted from everyone as the sign was revealed, and the gates unlocked. With a giddy bow, Tommy let them enter the newest star attraction of the server. Stress and Impulse doubled up, snatching Doc while they were at it. Grian smiled at Mumbo, who joined his side in the front of the crowd. The two nodded a greeting to Xisuma, who nodded back as Tommy began to show them the map, explaining the different areas of the park, as well as how he would conduct the tour, leaving his tragic hero backstory for the end, when they reached the campfire. After the basic points of the tour for opening night were completed, they all went on their merry way.

Their first stop was the center entrance of the park, dubbed “Tavern Town”. Living up to its name, there were two large taverns, both surrounded by shops and booth games of all kinds. As Tommy explained the way the lodging system would work in the different areas of the park, everyone took note of how much Tommy’s building skills had improved since his initial arrival, something they all felt pride in. He had truly grown so much since he first stumbled in, scared and confused. Once the excited teen finished going over the points for the area, everyone was free to explore the area. Grian opted to ruffle the teen’s hair, praising him for his work so far.

“What the fuck, Big G? Watch the hair, bastard. You know my badass locks take time, bruv.”

“Oh, shut your mouth, princess. I’ll mess with your hair if I feel like it.”

Grian could feel a few affectionate glares directed at the two, but he and Tommy could only smile at each other. Just as he was going to continue showering the younger boy with affection, Mumbo called him over. Tommy smiled as he followed in suit, not quite ready to leave the older man just yet. Soon enough they approached Mumbo, who happily dragged them to a door in the mountain that everyone seemed to be entering, interested. Grian glanced at the lit up sign that addressed the building.

The Cavern of Memories

Determined to face his past, Tommy put up a determined face and followed everyone in.

It was beautiful. There were rows upon rows with sections that represented different servers. Each small section represented a person. Everyone explored the various bonds their favorite bandit obtained during his life so far. The saw the elegant and aesthetically pleasing section of Eret, a strawberry dress neatly sewn by hand with a bi flag hanging above it. Flowers surrounded the stand, and the lighting made it beautiful. A crown and a pair of sunglasses sat elegantly by the stand. They murmured in awe at the different people from different worlds. Niki, Puffy, Schlatt, Dream, Karl, Quackity, Sapnap, BBH, Skeppy. They snickered as they stared with adoration at the sections for a Lani and Drista, which were made to be elegant, dainty, and full of chaos. They never prepared to see so much bedrock and forks in one section, with bee plushies and butter knives in the other. They studied the section created for Tubbo, who, according to the sign, was still Tommy’s best friend.

The group grew excited as they entered the rows for the hermits, dispersing and happily gawking over their personal sections. They couldn’t help but let the happiness swell within them as they saw the sections made especially for them. They appreciated everything in the sections, each item carefully crafted and picked for them.

Mumbo laughed as he pulled Grian over to the sections for Grumbot and Jrumbot. As Mumbo voiced his interest with the detail, Grian’s eyes wandered to an unexplored set of rows. Well, the entrance to it, at least. Furrowing his eyebrows, he headed over to it, curious. Tommy took notice and decided to follow, wanting Grian’s feedback the most. Little by little, everyone began to follow Grian and Tommy into the last section. As Grian stood at the entrance, he peered over to read the sign that stated the server these rows represented. He felt a sharp intake on his part as he read it over and over again, trying to make sure he was reading correctly.

‘SMP EARTH’

Letting out a breath, he entered, Tommy and Mumbo by his side. As he studied the sections and it’s layout, he knew where he was. This first part was obviously Business Bay. Perhaps Tommy was from there? Perhaps Tommy came from the same server he did.

Maybe Tommy knew a way back home.

“The Antarctic Empire? You really are social, Tommy.”

Grian’s eyes widened as he quickly looked over to Doc, who was reading the sign of the next part of the sections. Desperate to see what Tommy knew, he hurried over in unusual silence. The rest of the group quietly followed, worried for Grian’s sudden shift.

He froze.

He couldn’t believe his eyes.

How did Tommy even get all this?

Ignoring the worried voices behind him, Grian made his way to the largest section, and the last one. There, sitting elegantly upon the wall, was a family portrait. Phil lovingly smiled as his wings spread proudly behind him, his arms open and slightly extended. To Phil’s right was Grian’s eldest brother, Technoblade. He sat with a sharp yet, somehow, kind gaze. To Phil’s left was the second eldest, Wilbur. He smiled brightly, his eyes barely visible behind the grin. And there, in the center of the two, sat Grian. He smiled slightly, eyes filled with joy and love. In his arms, was his brand new baby brother, who stared curiously at who had to be the painter.

The royal Antarctic Empire outfits were on display, the crown of each respective member set on display beside each outfit. Many items were hung with sorrowful pride. Elytra there, a guitar in the corner, piano against the wall. Weapons of all kinds hung in an organized manner. Emeralds decorated the empty space. Grian felt his chest hurt as he choked on his words. He wasn’t even aware he was being addressed until two hands firmly grabbed his arms, and a face appeared.

“-kay, big man? What wrong?”

Tommy’s worried gaze trapped Grian in uncertainty. Finally able to form words, Grian’s broken voice filled the silence.

“How…How did you know them?”

Tommy blinked a few times, before turning around to face the display. They didn’t need to see his face to see the sorrow in the teen. Sighing, Tommy pointed at the baby in the portrait.

“See that lil’ man right there? That’s me, as a baby. Apparently I was found by the King, Philza Minecraft. He’s my adoptive dad. Then there’s my oldest brother, Technoblade-”

God, everyone could see how he tensed upon saying the name of his brother.

“-Then there's Wilbur. He practically raised me-”

Once again, his body language told the story. The way he slouched in defeat gave off warning alarms.

“-Then there’s my last older brother. I actually can’t remember his name, he went missing while I was still so small. I do remember some things from him, he gave me a cow on my first day. He’s also great at playing games, very pog. He’s actually the first face I saw when I arrived. You see, I was found in the snow of the ruins of what was once my village. I was dying, but then a witch doctor came and spoke to a goddess in the sky who agreed to revive me and shelter me. I still talk to her, whenever I get the chance. She’s guided me through a lot, she’s great. Her name is-”

“Clara.”

Tommy froze as he turned around, facing the owner of the voice. Grian just stared at him, desperation and hope in his eyes. Tommy stared in confusion as Grian approached him. Furrowing his eyebrows, Grian peered into the teen’s eyes. They stayed blue for a moment, but only a moment. Suddenly, Tommy seemed to have burst to life. Constellations painted his face, wonderful and beautiful as they are. They were Tommy’s one-of-a-kind and unique freckles, crafted specifically for him. And in his eyes? The stars and the sea danced together once more. Suddenly, Grian was wearing his best sweater in his father’s room once again, a cow hugged to his chest.

And then, he broke.

Tears escaped his eyes and he let out a strangled sob, throwing his arms around the younger boy, pulling him into a hug. Tommy let out a startled yelp as his friend engulfed him into a tight and gently embrace, sobbing into Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy had no idea what was happening. Why would Grian be so entranced by SMP Earth? Why would he care about Tommy’s relations to his family? Why did he know about Clara-

Wait-

Oh.

Oh.

Hol y sH I T

Pulling away, not quite believing what his mind put together, Tommy peered at the mess that was Grian. He looked, truly looked at his features. He still wasn’t sure, he didn’t want to hope. He didn’t want to hurt again. But as soon as Tommy peered into Grian’s eyes, he knew. There was no denying it. He knew those eyes. He’d never forget those eyes. They were the same, loving eyes that welcomed him into his new life.

“What the fuck, man.”

Mans before anyone could half-heartedly tell him off for his language, Tommy broke as well. The floodgates were let loose, and Tommy was the gatekeeper who allowed them to be free. Big blobs of tears fell off the boy’s face as he shoved his face into Grian’s chest. Grian, in turn, held onto Tommy as if he would disappear. The two crumbled to the floor, Grian rocking his baby brother in his arms once more, whispering soothing words to him. The rest of the group watched, and their very own hearts seemed to have burst alongside their two friends once they heard the next words.

“I’ve missed you, big bro.”

“I’ve got you, shooting star. I’m not letting you go, not again.”

All the hermits knew right then and there that the rest of the night would be filled with nothing but happiness and love.

They knew that the two finally found their home.

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

This series has been inspired by @petrichormeraki (my beloved, dearest enemy of a blog)

@petrichormeraki has also made art based on this chapter! So has @sydneys-sketches !

New Brother Pog - @petrichormeraki

The Royal Family of the Antarctic Empire - @petrichormeraki

Grian finds the portrait - @sydneys-sketches

Part 1 [CURRENT]

Part 2

[wing-ed-thing]

Retail Therapy (Kakuzu x Reader)

Synopsis: Deidara has a new partner for a combined effort with the Zombie Combo. However, something about you has Kakuzu heated.

Word Count: 2,123

Tags/Warnings: Violence, Threat of Violence, Probably Language, Gender Neutral Reader

Notes: Kakuzu content is probably some of the best stuff I’ve ever written. Right now I’m watching a video on fried milk. Ever hear of such a thing? Fascinating.

Kakuzu didn’t like being paired up with Hidan, let alone joint missions where he’d have to deal with even more people. Not to say that Kakuzu hated people, because he did, but he never thought that he’d hate anyone more than he absolutely hated you. He hadn’t even met you yet, but he knew at his very core that you would quickly become the bane of his entire existence.

“Shopping?” Kakuzu asked slowly, the word forming on his lips as if he had an aversion to even speaking it. Deidara leaned back on the large bounder that he settled on and stretched his arms up above his head. The blond nodded with a short groan before his hands came to rest behind his head.

“Yep,” he answered, “And for hours too, so I’d get comfortable.” Hidan plopped down on a patch of dirt below, his back and scythe against the side of the rock. Kakuzu glared down at his partner causing Hidan to shrug. To Hidan, if Deidara thought that the three of them would be waiting a while, he would take his word and make himself comfortable. Kakuzu’s attention turned back to Deidara.

“Hours? What possibly could someone be purchasing that takes them hours?” Hidan gazed up from his spot, head tilted back against the surface behind him.

“And we only came like five minutes late too. Who takes off like that?” Kakuzu almost nodded in agreement, but knowing his partner, Hidan would take any excuse to complain. Deidara shrugged, basking in the warmth of the sun and stayed lounging even as a rustling came from the woods. Hidan’s hand immediately reached up to grip the handle of his weapon and Kakuzu took a defensive stance. Deidara’s eyes remained closed.

“Oh hello, boys! I didn’t know you were here!” You sauntered out of the trees, bags hanging from both arms. They were pushed tightly in a line, every other patch of your skin strained by the handles of a different shopping bag. Even in your altered Akatsuki cloak, Kakuzu took a look at you and immediately decided that you were decorated far too ornately and that he’d like to kill you when he had the chance. You were objectively beautiful, but if Kakuzu had his way, Deidara would have to be assigned another partner soon. “You haven’t been waiting for too long, have you?”

“You shouldn’t have left us waiting at all,” Kakuzu glowered, although not any more than usual. Either you didn’t hear him or you ignored him as you walked up to your partner. You plucked a package from one of your more reachable bags.

“I got you something, Dei-dei!” You threw it up to Deidara weakly but he managed to catch it. He opened the small, folded, paper bag. Deidara glanced down at you with a nod of his head and a fold of his lips. He took the neat band in his hand while you looked at him expectantly. “Aren’t they nice? Hair ties. Silk from a small village in the Land of Water.” Deidara held them up to the sun.

“That’s some great quality you found. Thanks.” Your partner glanced down at you again. “Must’ve been one hell of a fight assuming that you got a good price for it.” Kakuzu looked on at your exchange, increasingly beginning to lose his temper.

“Believe me, I did. And I found a ton of other great finds too. I gotta show you—”

“Enough,” Kakuzu growled and you finally turned your attention his way. Hidan had since passed out against the boulder that Deidara sat on. “You’re wasting all our time. The sooner we start, the sooner we can part ways.” You gave Kakuzu a once over with your nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Well someone’s grumpy,” you mused. You rolled your eyes and pointed your nose upward. Huffing, you threw your shopping bags into the air and as they fell, you swiftly unfurled a scroll. Your new items disappeared one by one. You rolled the paper back up, scowling as you slipped the scroll into one of many slots that you wore strapped to your clothing. The pockets ran down the small of you back and you latched the bundle of paper in place with a flip of your nimble fingers. Kakuzu frowned back, tentatively wondering if all the scrolls you carried contained the same amount of shopping bags. You approached him with crossed arms. “Okay then, tough guy. Let’s get started.”

You sat down and summoned a map of the next village. It laid out in front of you and placed your hands on your knees in challenge. Kakuzu sat down on the other side of the map, eyes boring into you. You didn’t budge. And as you began to speak, it was hard to focus, at least for Deidara. Though he supposed he’s seen you this fired up before.

“It would be easier if we lure the jinchūriki outside of the village,” you said, gesturing to the small, unnamed village on the map. It wasn’t large, but just big enough to serve as a maze for your prize. At least you knew the woods better and a jinchūriki was bound to stand out among the trees.

“I can get up some traps,” Deidara added and you nodded.

“Back them into a corner and cage them into a small space—” You nodded again— “We can use some explosives around the area… maybe here?” You pointed to a section of the map outside of the village. You looked up at Deidara. “You’d be our last line of defense when the jinchūriki tries to run.” Deidara smirked and puffed out his chest.

“Leave it to me!”

“We’ll need someone to drive the jinchūriki out of the village,” Kakuzu cut in, not particularly liking how you dominated the strategizing. “I’ll go with Hidan.” While Kakuzu thought that he would stop at nothing to get away from the Jashinist, this had to be a regrettable first. Hidan napped a few feet away.

You raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “You and Hidan? Psh… might as well have Deidara set off fireworks in the sky that spell out ‘single, hot jinchūriki in your a—”

“I can do that!” Deidara cut in before immediately backing down at Kakuzu’s pointed glare, not that he’d show it. You locked eyes with Kakuzu, taking his fiery stare off of your partner.

“I’ll go. You’re too conspicuous and, really, have you seen Hidan? You two would be spotted a mile away.” Kakuzu almost snarled.

“And you wouldn’t?” You let out a short, bitter laugh. Your left arm supported your weight as your knees touched together on the right side of your body. Kakuzu scowled at your blatant lounging. Everything about you challenged him and he hated you for it. Your lids narrowed in a smug smile.

“I’m not the one—” who’s fuckin’ jacked — “ with big-ass black stitches across my whole body.”

“And four faces on his back…” Hidan called out, still half asleep. You turned back to Kakuzu.

“And four faces on his back,” you repeated, much to Kakuzu’s vexation. The sass in your blinks was lost on the older shinobi. He stood, causing you to stand too. Deidara took a hint and retreated. Kakuzu crossed his arms over his chest and he planted his feet on the ground about the same width apart as his broad shoulders. He pointed two fingers at you harshly.

“And you’re—” Gorgeous. — “a brat. I should just kill you right here.” You stood your ground, daring to slap Kakuzu’s hand out of your face.

“As much as I’d like to see you try, tough guy, I’d actually like to do some quality work and get the hell away from you as quickly as I can.” Kakuzu huffed, gritting his teeth underneath his mask.

“Nice to hear that we’re on the same page.”

And with neither of your partners wanting to deal with either of you pissed off, you and Kakuzu were paired together.

***

Deciding that your cloaks were too noticeable, you sealed yours away. Kakuzu kept his draped across his arm, distrust of you evident. You walked down the road together under the late afternoon, waiting for nightfall. You hoped that striking at night would give you not only the surprise advantage, but also minimize the number of clueless civilians that would no doubt wander in your way. But as soon as your eyes fell onto the market, Kakuzu quickly began to wonder if his stubbornness landed him with an even larger headache. But his usual, standoffish demeanor remained the same. Kakuzu’s eyes drifted to their corners as he scowled down at you.

“No.” That was all he said, as if you would actually listen to him and not immediately march in the direction of the market. He reluctantly followed, every reach to hold you back by your robes falling just a bit short each time. By the time you were stopped, too many people surrounded the two of you for him to pull you away without drawing attention. Normally, attention from others wasn’t anything that Kakuzu would be concerned with, but your two teams had their orders and Kakuzu would be damned if he had to spend anymore time with you.

You stood in front of a booth with your hand on your chin. Kakuzu stood next to you, following your gaze to a simple, but sturdy-looking sword. You gingerly picked it up, carefully studying it’s craftsmanship. The man behind the booth leaned over his table, motioning to the piece of merchandise in your hands.

“Ah, you have a good eye, mercenary.” You glanced up at him.

“Land of Earth? Lots of excellent craftsmanship comes from there, I’m not surprised.” You ran your thumb across the dull of the blade. “Antique too, but still hardy.” The merchant nodded pointing to a few spots across the weapon.

“Could get you out of a bind too. Reliable smithing comes from Tsuchi no Kuni.” Kakuzu looked on at the show in front of him. In stark contrast to earlier, you seemed poised and he found you knowledgeable. You appeared calm and competent enough to handle yourself and for a second, Kakuzu became lost in your analysis.

You stepped back, turning the sword around in your hand to feel out the balance. The blade whipped around your body with ease. The seller softly applauded your embellished practice. Kakuzu almost rolled his eyes, but took some comfort in the fact that you were looking to purchase something of quality and not just anything at the very least. You looked down at the weapon with a nod or two before asking the dreaded question.

“So what’s your price?” The merchant didn’t hesitate.

“A hundred thousand ryō.” Kakuzu almost left right there, but a dominant part of him wanted to know what you were going to do. His hands grasped his biceps, his cloak still hanging from his forearm. Kakuzu watched you closely. You shook your head.

“You’re going to give it to me for twenty-five thousand.” The merchant gaped at the outrageous price you named. He sputtered a few times.

“That price is far too low for this quality. You must be joking if you think I’d sell this fine piece of equipment for practically nothing.”

You did name a ridiculous price. Not even Kakuzu could see getting what you wanted for that price without a fair bit of violence and intimidation. But you ripped into that merchant. You ripped into this poor seller like nothing Kakuzu had ever seen before. He didn’t even know if he could call it bartering, but whatever it was, it was likely one of the most skillful things that Kakuzu had ever seen.

He folded his lips under his mask. You didn’t yell. Kakuzu didn’t even find your appearance intimidating in the slightest, yet every point and number the merchant brought up, you countered. And by the end of the intense conversation, if Kakuzu didn’t know any better and had less of a spine, he’d likely be handing the sword over too. The man had long since started sweating, tugging at his collar. If Kakuzu didn’t see it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it as you handed over exactly twenty-five thousand ryō. He almost overlooked the complete waste of money as he still stood stunned, though not outwardly showing any such emotion.

You nestled the sword by your hip and the seller let out a breath of relief by the time you walked away. Kakuzu followed wordlessly next to you as you strutted off in triumph.

Perhaps he misjudged you. He stared, not noticing as he did so.

Yes, you were going to save the organization a fortune.

Notes: “oH mY gOd KaKuzU sAiD hE wAs GoNna KiLl rEader! wHy wOuLd yOu wRiTe sOmEtHiNg sO tOxIc???”... They’re criminal terrorists, Susan.

Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed and otherwise supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

[dreamwraith]

Teleport

Summary: Danny finally learned how to teleport, but where is the 'off' switch? Pairings: Hints of Sam crushing on Danny Warnings: Danny accidentally teleports into the girl’s locker room, but only for a few seconds; he’s as startled as they are. Danny and Tucker have a no-homo thing going on, they should probably just hug it out already.

On Ao3

-

"Hey! Sam! Sam, wait up!"

Sam glanced over her shoulder. When she saw Tucker chasing after her with an anxious look on his face, she stopped walking down the sidewalk. Tucker was able to reach her in no time, but he had to bend over and gulp in large breaths afterward.

"Something wrong, Tucker?" she asked after giving him a few seconds to catch his breath. "I thought I was meeting you and Danny at school today?"

"Well, yeah," Tucker panted, "that was the plan, but…Have you seen Danny?"

She raised an eyebrow. "No. Why? Did something happen? Is he in trouble?"

Tucker waved his hand, chuckling between gasps. "No…well, yes…well, kind of…"

"Tucker…"

"No, he isn't in any real danger. Yes, his secret may be in jeopardy."

Sam widened her eyes. "His secret might be in what? What happened exactly?"

Tucker stood up straight, using his beret to wipe his sweaty forehead. "Well, this morning, while Danny and I were walking to school, he had a breakthrough on teleporting. He practiced it a couple times by teleporting up and down the sidewalk when no one was around, getting farther and farther away. He was getting really good at it!"

"O-kay," Sam said slowly, "so somebody saw him doing this?"

"Um. No."

"What went wrong then?"

"Well, we were almost to school, so he changed back to Fenton. But a few seconds after he did, he disappeared and—"

POP!

"Tucker!" Danny jumped on Tucker. His best friend screamed and would have shot three feet in the air if Danny's Hug of Death was any less secure. "Finally! I've been trying to get back to you for who knows how long now! Oh, hey, Sam! Wait, where'd you come from?" He loosened his hold on the trembling Tucker and looked around. "This isn't where I left you, Tuck…"

"He came to find me after you apparently disappeared," Sam explained for their shell-shocked friend. "Danny, what's going on? Are—"

"I can't stop teleporting, Sam!" Danny all but shouted, unwrapping one arm from around Tucker so he could wave it around for emphasis. "One minute I'm walking peacefully down the sidewalk, the next I'm in my room! So far I've teleported to school three times, to the Ghost Zone twice, my room five times, yours once, Tucker's three, Vlad's house one time too many, and once I somehow ended up, like, fifty feet in the air! I can't control it!" He released Tucker, and latched onto Sam's shoulders, earning a surprised gasp from the Goth. "Make it stop, Sam! I can't take it anymore!"

"Danny, calm down!" She brushed Danny's hands off her shoulders, but he quickly grabbed her wrists. She scowled. "Danny, let go of me before I show a very incriminating photo of you and Tucker to Jazz."

Danny's hands flew away from Sam like she was an evil ghost in disguise. "I thought you burned that!" He hesitated before giving Tucker a one-armed hug again.

Sam smirked. "Why would I get rid of perfectly good blackmail material? Is there a reason you keep grabbing onto us, Danny?"

"Yeah, dude," Tucker said, finally regaining his wits enough to eye his strange friend. "It's getting awkward."

"I am being teleported all over the place without my consent," Danny reminded them, "can't I get a little sympathy from you guys?" They gave him bland, completely unsympathetic looks. "Alright, fine. By holding onto you stationary people, I'm hoping you will anchor me and stop me from teleporting."

"Wouldn't we just teleport with you though?" Sam asked.

Tucker's eyes grew large and he struggled against Danny's hold, but even in human form Danny was stronger than him.

"No," Danny grunted, "because it takes a lot of control to be able to teleport more than one person, and clearly I don't posses any control over this, whatsoever."

Tucker relaxed but his nose wrinkled. "It still feels awkward, Danny. Go hug, Sam."

"I'm not hugging you," Danny protested. "This is a manly arm grip!"

"It doesn't feel very manly."

"Doesn't look like it either," Sam said, smirking.

Danny huffed. "Fine." He dragged Tucker closer to Sam and then threw his other arm around her neck before she could protest. Sam gasped and struggled, upset—if her red face was anything to go by—but Danny started walking, and his friends were forced to follow. "Alright! Now this is teamwork!"

"More like kidnapping!" Sam shouted.

Tucker teased, "You know you like it, Sam."

"Oh, yeah, I just love to be held against my will."

"It's only until this stops," Danny tried to reason.

"Oh? And when will that be?"

"Uh…I don't know…"

She sighed, resigned. "This all started after you changed back into Danny Fenton, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, maybe you'll have more control of it if you're in your ghost form. Seems to me your ghost half would have more control over your powers than your human half would."

Danny hung his head, wishing he could face-palm without losing his anchors. "I should have thought of that…"

"That's what I'm here for. Now hurry up and change while the streets are empty."

Danny nodded, and in a flash of light, he became Amity Park's number one ghostly hero.

After a few seconds, Sam cleared her throat. "You'll have to let go of us to test this, Danny…"

Danny flinched. "B-but what if it doesn't work and I start teleporting like crazy again?"

"Then we'll just have to think of something else!" Sam hissed, "Now let go of us before somebody sees Danny Phantom hanging out with Danny Fenton's friends!"

Danny grimaced. He slowly, very slowly, released his best friends. They walked a few steps farther ahead before stopping and facing Danny again. He had his eyes pinched shut and his hands fisted at his sides.

"Did I teleport?" he asked, keeping his eyes sealed.

"No." Tucker chuckled. "But you look constipated. Loosen up, dude."

Danny cracked an eye open, but upon seeing the same setting as before, he grinned, and jumped in place. "Alright! Way to go, Sam!" He went to high five her, but seconds away from making contact, Danny became consumed by green mist. The mist disappeared along with Danny, followed by a popping sound.

Sam lowered her hand slowly, and exchanged glances with Tucker. "Uh, I guess it didn't work…"

Tucker sighed. "We might as well get to school, Sam. He's not going to show up here any time soon…"

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

POP!

"Paradise Lost!"

Danny's momentum carried him through the motion of the high-five, but because Sam's hand wasn't there to meet his, his swat carried into a somersault in midair. "Whoa!" He righted himself and jerked his head from side to side. The faces staring up at him were familiar, but the location wasn't since only teachers and their favorites were allowed inside the teacher's lounge.

Danny laughed nervously. "Um, uh, whoops?"

Mr. Lancer was the first to regain his composure. He stood up and fixed his tie in a nervous habit. "Mr. …Phantom, what is the meaning of this?" Sweat noticeably broke out over his forehead.

Danny flushed. "Um, I'm having a few technical issues with my powers…" He cleared his throat and floated with his back straight, adopting his 'hero' voice. "Sorry for the inconvenience, citizens. I'll just be going…"

But after a few seconds, Danny still floated in place above their table, staring fixedly into space. The teachers looked at each other in confusion. The Art teacher pulled out a sketch pad and started sketching the focused Ghost Boy in profile.

"…Any second now…"

If they had crickets in the staff lounge, they'd be chirping.

"…Any second…"

Mr. Felucca stepped forward, his index finger poised in question. "What power are you having difficulties with, Mr. Ghost Boy? As a scientist, perhaps I can be of assistance."

Danny grimaced. "Uh, actually—"

Ms. Tetslaff slammed a fist on the table, and the sudden violence made Danny start in surprise. "If it's power he's having trouble with, it's me he should be coming to for help! I'll whip him into shape!"

He winced, and drifted away from her. "Uh, it's not really a physical power—"

"I have studied many classical stories that teach great, historical lessons," Mr. Lancer said. "Perhaps one of those will be of some use to you, Mr. Phantom?"

"Thanks, but I don't—"

The Mythology teacher scoffed. "Your literature is of no use to a being of exponential power. My myths have way more value to him than your 'fiction'."

"I don't need—"

The Psychology teacher snapped her fingers. "It may be psychological! Please feel free to tell me all about your problems. I'm here to help!"

"I don't have a psychological issue! Why does everyone always think that?"

Ms. Loretta gazed at Danny's skinny body with a critical eye. "Perhaps it has something to do with malnourishment. Do ghosts have to eat? I can make you something, boy."

"…Uh…no…"

The Government teacher trembled in his seat, staring up at Danny in fear. "W-we should call somebody about this! Call the Fentons! Call the Guys in White! They'll know what to do!"

The Art teacher reached out and pinched a fold of Danny's jumpsuit. "Is this latex?"

"Hey!" Danny knocked his hand away and floated a few paces away from him. "No touching!"

"We should give him a physical!"

"He needs to learn a moral lesson!"

"What he needs is more meat on his bones!"

"Oh, how am I going to capture that glow…"

"Something must be wrong with the inner workings of his mind!"

"The FENTONS!"

"Perhaps it is his molecular structure that is causing the problem!"

"QUIET!" Danny shouted. The teachers instantly quieted. "There is nothing wrong with my body, my mind, or my morals, alright? I just developed a new power and I'm having some difficulty controlling it. That's all!"

The teachers backed away from the panting ghost boy.

Mr. Felucca was the first to gather his courage. He asked, "What kind of power?"

Danny relaxed. "Teleport—"

POP!

The teachers gasped, and stared at the spot where the Ghost Boy had once been.

"NOOO!" the Art teacher cried, and threw down his half-complete sketch. "I was so close!"

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

POP!

"—ation."

"Breach in Sector 8! We have a breach in Sector 8!"

Before Danny had a chance to gather his bearings, several ghost nets crashed into him and bound him to the floor. Where the net touched him, little bolts of electricity shot into his system like static jumping to a doorknob. Danny growled and struggled against the painful bindings, but the whirring of a ghost gun made him freeze. He looked up into the tinted sunglasses of a GiW operative.

"D-Don't move, Phantom!"

Danny's eyes half-lidded in boredom. "Oh great. The Mr. Clean Groupies…"

"Quiet, ghost," another agent ordered. "We have you surrounded."

Danny looked past the two standing over him. "Let me guess, the reinforcements are invisible?"

Danny wasn't able to see his eyes, but the second agent's brows furrowed, and his mouth turned down.. "I don't like your tone, boy."

Danny used his infamous cocky smirk. "Like I care? With only two agents, why should I worry? I could take you guys out easy."

The first agent, the one who had stuttered, gulped. Without warning, he shot at Danny.

Danny gasped, and dove to the side. He needn't have bothered, though. The shot was way off target. It crashed into the wall five feet behind Danny.

"Agent N!"

Danny eyed the scared agent warily. Like cornered wolves, frightened hunters packing heat were dangerous. "New agent?" he asked the other guy.

He grunted. "As green as they come. Listen, kid," he faced Agent N, "there is a rhythm to these things. We exchange witty banter, and then we start shootin' them."

Agent N nodded his head rapidly. "Y-yes, sir. Understood, sir! Should I tranquilize him, sir?"

"Wow, he is green."

The senior agent scowled. "Tranquilizers don't work on ghosts, recruit. Get your facts straight!"

Agent N stuttered apologies. Danny rolled his eyes and wished he would teleport out of there already.

"W-what do we do then, s-sir?"

The other agent grinned sadistically. "We shock him until he loses consciousness."

Danny flinched, but tried to hide it. "Gee, so humane. You must be very proud of your species."

"I am." The senior agent pulled a button switch out of his pocket, and poised his thumb above the large red button. Danny breathed in a deep breath, readying a Ghostly Wail. Passing out and transforming in front of them wasn't an option. "Or, I don't care about yours. Prepare yourself, ghost scum."

POP!

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

POP!

The first thing Danny noticed was the absence of annoying static shocks. The second thing he noticed was the absence of everything else. Including air. He was really glad he took a deep breath before, though the breath was almost stolen from him when he looked down at the Earth. Like, the Earth, the blue planet Earth.

I'm in space! he thought, grinning goofily. He gazed around himself in wonder. He had been to space before, but he'd been too busy fighting to really admire the scenery.

Stars in every direction, as far as the eye could see, he was on the sunny side of the Earth, but he could see the moon poking out from behind the rocky planet. A comet was off in the distance, its ice and dust particles trailing behind it as the solar wind tore at the ice rock. He closed his eyes, and lights danced behind his eyelids as the solar wind hit him.

Danny sagged, and his expression became dreamy. It's so beautiful…this just makes me want to be an astronaut even more! I wish I could stay—Air! He gripped his throat. Air! I need air!

POP!

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

POP!

"Chronicles of Narnia!"

Danny gasped in air, like he'd never tasted anything so sweet. Space was awesome, but it'd be a lot better with oxygen.

"Danny Phantom!"

Danny spun around, and found his first period class staring up at him the same way he had stared at Outer Space. A nervous smile worked its way onto his lips. "I'm just dropping by. I'll be gone in a second, so please, don't let me interrupt."

The class started whispering to each other in excitement, looking like they were seconds away from mobbing him. In the back row, he saw Sam scowl. She hated his 'hero' voice. Tucker waved discreetly to him, and Danny subtly nodded back. He was glad Valerie didn't have his first hour…

"Mr. Phantom!"

Danny looked over his shoulder at Mr. Lancer. "Uh, hello again…"

Lancer frowned. "I take it you haven't fixed your 'problem'?"

"…No."

"Then perhaps you would like to sit in for my lesson," he said, smirking like he had just won a contest. "Perhaps you will learn something."

The students screamed. No longer able to contain themselves, they jumped out of their seats and rushed for Danny. He floated out of their reach, feeling nervous and slightly nauseous. Tucker and Sam joined them in order to keep up appearances, and Danny was annoyed to see Tucker filming it all on his PDA. His classmates gathered below him, shouting for autographs.

Danny backed away, breathing fast. "Uh, I don't know if that's such a good idea! Besides, I probably won't be here for much longer, or at least I really hope not, so I—"

POP!

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

POP!

"…and that is why, I believe we can use the town's little ghost problem to our…" Vlad trailed off when it became apparent he didn't have his audience's full attention. "…advantage…"

Despite the meeting being comprised of mostly professional reporters and self-important civilians, they were whispering rudely amongst each other, laughing and pointing at something behind Vlad. He looked behind him, but all he saw was the red curtain. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"…As I was saying," Vlad said, turning back to the microphone on the podium, "with an interest in ghosts growing worldwide, more and more people will be traveling to Amity Park in search of the fabled beings—one in particular, I might add. I say we encourage this by building tourist attractions that will bring in large crowds of people."

"What?" a familiar voice exclaimed. Vlad smirked, his suspicion confirmed. Danny Phantom flew in front of him, his arms thrown out. "You can't bring more people here! I knew you were a fruitloop, Vlad, but this is going a bit far!"

"Ah," Vlad said suavely, "Amity Park's famous Ghost Boy. So nice of you to join us."

"Cut the crap, Vlad…er, Mr. Mayor…" Danny blushed and glanced over his shoulder at the flashing cameras and excited audience.

Vlad chuckled. "If it puts you more at ease, you're welcome to use my first name. It's the least I can do for our star attraction."

Danny refocused his righteous gaze on Vlad, but he floated to the side of him so his back was no longer to the cameras. "You can't bring tourists here, Masters."

"Oh? And why not? It'd be very profitable for this town."

"You mean it'd be very profitable for you," Danny corrected. "And you can't bring them here because, in case you haven't noticed, this town isn't very safe. The people living here know to run when a ghost attacks, but tourists will get closer because that's what they came to see. People could get seriously hurt…"

"Do you doubt your ability to protect them, little hero?" Vlad questioned, smirking mockingly. "We can use the funds the tourists bring in to hire more competent ghost hunters, so I assure you there is no need for such fear."

Danny scowled at the 'competent' part. "You're making a mistake, Masters. You can hire a hundred ghost hunters, but they won't be enough to—"

POP!

Vlad raised an eyebrow. Interesting… He hadn't expected the boy to develop his teleportation powers so soon, but his apparent lack of control more than made up for his accelerated growth. He'd make the boy suffer a while longer before he approached him.

He turned back to his murmuring audience. "Any questions?"

The crowd shot to their feet.

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

Ms. Tetslaff blew her whistle. Her students looked at her with hope in their eyes and sweat covering every inch of their exhausted bodies. "That's enough for today," she said. "Shower up, you lazy maggots!" The students silently cheered and limped toward the locker rooms.

Tucker almost fell over in relief. He'd take helping Danny fight ghosts over gym any day. He was tempted to curl into a ball and fake dehydration, just so he could sit and relax for a few seconds. Sadly, it was not to be. Sam bounced to his side, and Tucker for the second time that day cursed the girl's athleticism.

She grabbed his arm, and forced him to stumble toward the locker rooms. He muttered complaints, but being the good friend she was, she ignored them.

"Any sign of Danny since this morning?" she asked him quietly.

"Once," Tucker replied. Even his voice sounded tired. "He made a brief appearance in third period chemistry class, and I mean brief. He was there for all but five seconds, but it was still enough to disrupt the whole class and get us out of homework." He grinned. "It was awesome! What about you?"

Sam shrugged. "He popped into second period Art Class. Everybody started sketching him, including Mr. Coal." She smirked. "Danny looked so embarrassed."

Tucker chuckled. "I bet. How long did he stay?"

"Five or ten minutes. There were a lot of disappointed groans after he disappeared, but Mr. Coal managed to finish. It looks really cool too…I also heard he made an appearance for History Class, and Government." She rolled her eyes. "The Government teacher tried to call the Guys in White, but he got taken captive by his class."

Tucker laughed. "Oh man! I wish I had seen that!"

"We can ask Danny all about it once we see him again," Sam pointed out. "If he stays long enough…"

Tucker chuckled.

They split into their gender specific locker rooms, waving goodbye. Still chuckling, Tucker grabbed his shower supplies and strolled into the shower area. Because of a recent ghost attack, tarps littered the area, for once creating some much needed privacy. Too bad Danny was missing it. Mr. Modesty would most definitely appreciate the seclusion.

Tucker stripped down, and was just about to turn on the water when…

POP!

"Tucker!"

Tucker jumped.

Danny nearly hugged him like he had that morning, but he stopped at the last second. He pulled slowly away, making a face. "Uh, you're my best friend and everything, Tuck," he said, "and I love you like a brother, but I am so not touching you when you're naked…"

Tucker hurriedly wrapped his lower half in his towel. "Well no asked you to!" He looked at his best friend, noticing the tousled white hair, the tear in his jumpsuit, and the way his eyes twitched and darted around the room. "Having a rough day, Danny?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!" Danny pulled on his own hair—explaining why it was so messy—and stared at Tucker with unnaturally large eyes. "I never know where I'm going, or when I'm going there! It's all completely random! And I've seen things, Tuck! I've seen things…"

Tucker held his fists against his naked chest, mocking a scared expression. "Were they dead people?" he whispered.

Danny blinked, scowled, and crossed his hands over his chest, sulking. "Oh yeah, ha ha. Laugh at the poor kid who just saw Ember and Skulker making out."

Tucker's jaw dropped and his face turned slightly green.

Danny smirked. "Yeah! Not so funny now, is it!"

POP!

Tucker stared at the empty space before him for a moment, wondering where his traveling friend would end up next.

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

POP!

It happened very fast.

Danny saw what every straight guy dreams about, committed it unintentionally to memory, and was then deafened by shrieks. He screamed too and quickly covered his eyes with his hands. He turned around and tried to fly out of the Girl's Locker Room, but he forgot to go intangible, and he crashed into the lockers. The girls started throwing towels, hairbrushes, and other items at him.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" he shouted over their screams, cowering in a corner. "I have no control over where I'm going!"

POP!

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

POP!

Danny was never so glad to hear that sound. Still, he stayed in a fetal position, too afraid to see where he had teleported to. Maybe if I stay still, he thought desperately, I won't teleport!

"It's alright, Danny," a kind and familiar voice said. "You're safe here."

Danny opened his eyes slowly, and stared up at Clockwork. The Time Ghost in, the form of an old man, smiled kindly back down at him.

Danny grinned and jumped to his feet. "Clockwork! Man, am I glad to see you! Listen, you have to help me! I can't stop teleporting everywhere, and I'm seeing things I really don't want to be seeing, going places I shouldn't be going, and you probably already know about all of this, because you're the Master of Time and everything, but I have to tell you because—"

"Danny, you have something on—"

"—I'm freaking out here, because I can't stop teleporting—"

"Danny, your head—"

"—and I'm seeing things I should not be not be seeing, and it won't stop, Clockwork, make it stop!" Danny leaned his head against his Guardian/mentor's chest, whimpering pathetically. "Make it stop…"

Clockwork hesitated, unsure. He reached up a hand, and patted Danny awkwardly on the shoulder. "I…I'm sorry, Danny," he said, sounding sincerely apologetic. "It's not my place to help you."

Danny's shoulders slumped in defeat. He drew away from the timeless ghost and shook the hand off his shoulder. "Yeah…I should have figured that…Sorry for putting you on the spot, Clockwork."

Clockwork changed into a toddler. He sighed, and shook his head. "There is nothing to apologize for, Danny. You ask far less of me than most ghosts. However," his tone made Danny glance despondently up at him, "I can tell you it will end soon."

Danny straightened, and his eyes brightened with hope. "Really?"

The Time Master nodded sagely. "Indeed." He smirked, and it was very odd to see such a sarcastic look on a kid's face. "By the way, Danny. You have something on your head."

Danny frowned. He brought his hand to his head and pressed down, immediately feeling something lacy. He grabbed it and brought it down to eye level. It was a white bra. Danny let out a half-yelp and quickly tossed it away from him. He wiped his hand against his pants, making a face.

Clockwork chuckled, now a middle-aged man. "I thought you were over the 'cootie' stage by now, Danny."

Danny grimaced. "I'm fourteen, and I have an older sister. You do the math."

Clockwork nodded. "Fair enough. You have ten seconds before you teleport again."

Danny looked dismayed. "So soon? Can you tell me where I'm going?"

"Home, Danny. To Fenton Works." Danny smiled in relief. "But you won't get a warm welcome."

He frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Five…"

"Clockwork!"

"Four…"

"I can't believe you're counting down!"

"Three…"

"Whoever heard of Master of all Time counting down the time?"

"Two…"

"'Hey, I'm Clockwork! I'm counting down because I'm awesome like that—'"

"One."

POP!

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

POP!

"GHOST!"

"Ghost!"

"Warning! Warning! Ecto-entity in the lab."

Danny blinked. "Wow. What a welcome home…"

His mom grabbed an ecto gun off one of the lab tables and shot at Danny. He gasped and quickly dove beneath it, escaping the shot by a hair. Jack shot a net at Danny, but it missed him completely. Still in a ball, it ricocheted off the wall and expanded over Maddie, knocking her to the ground and sending her gun flying. Danny clamped his hands over his mouth, trying to smother his giggles.

"Jack!" Maddie shouted angrily, struggling inside the net.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks!" Jack dropped the net launcher and grabbed the weapon they'd been working on before Danny arrived. "I'll get you out of there as soon as I capture this ghost!"

"Jack! We haven't fixed the—"

"BONSAI!" Jack pulled the trigger. Ectoplasmic goop shot into his face.

"—trigger…"

Danny wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed by his father (again), or be grateful he messed up an attack (again). He just chuckled weakly, and rubbed the back of his neck.

POP!

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

POP!

As soon as the green mist cleared, Danny looked around his new surroundings. What he saw made him grimace, and not just because the green and gold color scheme was an eyesore.

"Ah, Daniel. I was wondering when you'd 'pop' in."

Vlad stepped out of a darkened hallway, haunting smirk in place. Danny spun around and crossed his arms over his chest, lifting an eyebrow. "Do you always have to make a creepy entrance, or is this another fruitloop thing?"

Vlad huffed, looking offended. "It's dramatic, Daniel, not creepy."

"Where'd you learn it from, Villainy for Dummies? Seems like overcompensation if you ask me."

Vlad's eyes flashed red, before he schooled his expression into one of mocking regret. "I was going to offer you my expertise on teleporting, but if you're going to be immature, I have more important things to do." He turned around, walking back into the dark hallway.

Danny gasped, and quickly flew in front of the man. "Whoa, hold on!" He held up his hands in front of Vlad, forcing him to stop. "You can stop this? You can make me stop teleporting?" Vlad nodded, and Danny smiled happily. "Great! I—Wait." The smile fell from his face, and he eyed the man suspiciously. "What's in it for you?"

Vlad's lips twisted into a smirk. "No longer naïve enough to expect anything for free. I'm proud of you, little badger. My price is the usual."

"Renounce my dad and become your evil apprentice?" Danny crossed his arms again. "Forget it, Vlad."

Vlad shrugged his shoulders. "Then enjoy the rest of your life filled with uncertainty." He walked around Danny, raising a hand in farewell. "Ta."

Danny winced. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking. He hated teleporting. If he ever got out of the rut he had fallen into, he swore the power would definitely be crossed off his list…He groaned, and flew after Vlad. "Vlad wait!"

Vlad halted, his expression triumphant. "Yes?"

Danny refused to meet his eyes. "I…The reward isn't worth the price, Vlad, but…will you teach me to control this power for…Mom's cell number?"

Vlad's eyes sparkled in interest. "You'll give me her phone number?"

It was difficult, but Danny managed to keep from grinning triumphantly. "She'll probably never forgive me, but yes. I mean, it's not like you'll get anywhere with it…"

Vlad smiled cockily. "I assure you, Daniel, I can be quite charming. I'll be your legal father in no time." Danny gagged, and Vlad rolled his eyes. "I suppose we have a deal?" Vlad held out his hand.

Danny stared at it, making a show of hesitating. "Alright…" He reached out and grabbed the other hybrids hand. "Deal."

POP!

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

POP!

Danny blinked, and when his eyes opened, it wasn't Vlad's ugly décor that greeted his sight, but Amity's newspaper office. People occupied cubicles, writing down stories on computers and scribbling notes in their notebooks, but no sign of Vlad.

"No!" Danny screamed, frantically searching the office for his savior. He could have followed him in ghost form, right? The sound of typing and pencils scribbling on paper instantly ceased, but Danny didn't notice. "I was so close to ending this!" He ran a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth on the open air. "I finally outsmarted the creep, and I get whooshed off before I can even celebrate! Where's justice in that? Is this some great cosmic joke? Just—"

POP!

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

POP!

"GHOST!"

"Jack! Get this net off me!"

"—how many people are laughing at me? The Observants—"

POP!

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

POP!

"Danny Phantom!"

"—are probably having a grand ol' time laughing at me, the jerks. No doubt Vlad finds this whole thing amusing—"

POP!

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

POP!

"Breach in Sector 11! Again!"

"—because he's a total bastard like that. Clockwork, Master of all Annoyingness, acted—"

POP!

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

POP!

"BEWARE!"

"—all sincere, but I bet he's laughing on the inside!"

POP!

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

POP!

"Mr. Phantom! A few questions—"

"And don't even get me started on my friends—"

POP!

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

POP!

"—probably laughing about it at this very moment! Some friends!"

"Danny?"

Danny spun around. His friends stared up at him, along with the whole Casper High cafeteria. He was floating over the lunch line, and even the lunch ladies were gaping openly at him. Slop slipped off one of their spoons.

Danny laughed. "Great. Just great. Of course I'd wind up here, again."

"Danny," Sam hissed, "go invisible!"

Considering the students were starting to rush in his direction, that was sound advice. Danny turned invisible. His fans slowed, groaning in disappointment, but Danny felt no sympathy. He placed a hand on Sam's shoulder, and whispered, "I'll meet you guys at our table." She nodded and whispered the message to Tucker.

Danny sat in his designated seat and placed his head in his hands, just taking time to relax and not think about anything. A few minutes later, Tucker and Sam sat at the table on either side of him.

"Danny?" Sam asked quietly. "Are you still here?"

Danny nodded his head, but realized they couldn't see it. He sighed. "Yes."

Tucker stuffed some mystery meat into his mouth. "So how's your day been?" he asked cheerfully.

Danny groaned.

"Aw, it can't be that bad." He grinned, and nudged what he hopped was Danny's shoulder and not his head. "Sam says you teleported into the girl's locker room while they were changing…"

Sam stabbed her salad, growling low in her throat. She muttered what Danny assumed were threats against mankind.

"They nearly killed me, Tuck."

"Yeah, but you would have died a happy man!"

Danny's lips twitched. "True…"

Sam slammed her spork down, her face flaming. "We are never speaking of it again, and you—" she pointed a threatening finger at Danny's seat "—are going to forget what you saw. Got it?"

"…I don't think I can, Sam…"

Sam growled, and Tucker laughed. Danny smiled, though they couldn't see it, and snuck a fry from Tucker's tray. Being invisible had its perks.

"The school is in an uproar, Danny," Sam said after a minute of silence. "…More than usual. Valerie is going crazy trying to find you, Paulina constantly fixes her makeup, and the teachers seem to be competing against each other…"

Tucker nodded. "There's even a bet going around about where you'll pop in next!"

Danny raised an unseen eyebrow. "Do I want to know who started the bet, Tuck…?"

Tucker coughed into his fist. "Depends on what you plan to do to him—or her! For all we know, the evil, clever, and no doubt charming mastermind might have been a girl."

Danny rolled his eyes, and stole another fry from the 'clever mastermind'. "Uh-huh."

"Have you learned any control yet?" Sam asked.

Danny grumbled. "No. I convinced Vlad to help me, though."

"How'd you manage that?" Sam asked.

He smirked slyly. "By offering my mom's cell phone number."

Tucker frowned. "But your mom doesn't—" His eyes cleared in understanding. He smiled at Danny. "Niiice, dude."

"So, you know how to stop now?" Sam asked.

Danny sighed. "No. Before he had a chance to tell me, I teleported away."

"Well," Tucker said, "that explains the rant. That must have been really frustrating."

"I wasn't ranting!" Danny protested. "I was…expressing my anger to the universe."

"In other words, ranting," Sam concluded.

"…Alright fine, I ranted."

"Maybe there's a pattern to it," Sam suggested. "You've been here for a while. What are you doing differently now?"

Danny shrugged. "Talking to you guys, focusing on not teleporting so I have a chance to relax."

"Maybe that's the answer then. You just have to concentrate on your surroundings and on staying in one place."

He grimaced. "I don't know, Sam. What about when I—"

POP!

Sam groaned, and leaned back in her chair. "Great. Here we go again."

Tucker chuckled. "Look on the bright side, Sam. At least the bet—that I had no part in making—is still on. I'm going to be rich!" He went to grab a fry, but the bucket was empty. He frowned down at his tray. "Where'd my fries go?"

[faulty-writes]

If or when you're ready, I have a request please. A Bakugou VS Mirio scenario where both the boys end up having to stay in the hospital after a mission, and they have to share a room (oh no). And then the reader arrives, to dote on them because her heart can't take knowing they're probably in pain! Bakugou puts on a tough act like it's no big deal so she'll see how heroic he is, but Mirio's probably torn between wanting to assure his sunshine that he's fine and wanting to be babied.

[ Oh dear...this will be fun to write. ]

When you heard that Katsuki and Mirio were returning from a mission, you had expected them to have minor injuries as many heroes did. However, you hadn’t expected the two of them to share a hospital room.

“So, do you know if they have any broken bones?” you asked Izuku who shyly glanced down. The members of Class A were always there when one of their own got hurt and in a way, it was touching. “Well, they both seem fine,” he replied before Kaminari shook his head.

“Are you kidding? Bakugou looked pissed! I’m surprised he didn’t end up attacking Kirishima,” he said as he pointed to the redhead who merely gave his pointy-toothed smile. A chuckle then came as he reached up to rub the back of his head.

“Well, you know Bakubro. I’m sure he’d appreciate a visit from Y/n,” he concluded and you took a step back as several eyes turned on you. “Um…” it seemed everyone knew of your odd relationship between Katsuki and Mirio and the constant battle for your affection.

“W-What makes you think that?” you questioned before Kaminari stepped forward, invading your space much to your dislike. “He totally likes you, that’s why!” he declared and you found yourself at a loss for words.

“Is that true?” Eijirou questioned excitedly as he took a step closer to you. “I mean…” you trailed off, glancing at Izuku as if silently begging for help. “Maybe...Kacchan would like a visit from you?” he said in a hushed voice and you let out a sigh. ‘Thanks, Izuku’ you thought before shaking your head.

“I don’t know, whenever I’m around Bakugou and Togata, things get a little...weird,” you rubbed the back of your neck, uncertain if you actually wanted to visit them. It would be rude not to, but it would also avoid a headache. “Ah!” you stumbled forward when Eijirou pulled your arm.

“Come on!” he encouraged you. “Yeah! I wanna hear what happens after you visit them!” Kaminari stated as he grabbed your other arm. “W-Wait a minute!” you tried to dig your feet into the floor, ignoring the looks of nurses and doctors alike as you were dragged past them.

"Help!" you cried as you bent your head back, watching as your so-called 'friends' allowed the two boys to drag you away. Izuku was standing there looking too nervous to do anything while Uraraka held a hand over her mouth and Kyoka shook her head in disappointment.

“Guys I really don’t think this is-'' Eijirou interrupted you. “Too late!” he said before looking at Kaminari and the two exchanged a nod before pushing you forward. You stumbled and a soft growl rumbled in your throat. “Hey!” you exclaimed as you watched them dash down the hallway.

You sighed, bringing your hand up to press against your forehead. Well, it wasn’t like you had much of a choice now. Somehow or another you knew you were bound to find yourself in another situation involving the two blonds. You took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob.

The butterflies in your stomach seemed to increase as you slowly opened the door. “Why don’t you just shut the hell up, damn it!” came Katsuki’s voice. You should be used to it by now, but somehow it still threw you off. Then you heard Mirio’s chuckle which caused you to turn your head.

Your jaw clenched when you noticed his bandage wrappings, though they were only visible on his forearms and part of his exposed chest. You turned back to Katsuki, much like Mirio he was covered in wrappings. But he had one of his legs in a cast.

“Uh…hello,” you said, waving your hand at the pair and effectively catching their attention. Mirio’s reaction was what you’d expect, happy-eyed and beaming with a bright smile. “Hi sunshine!” he said, which caused Katsuki to scoff. “What the hell are you doing here?” he questioned, though his glance softened as he looked at you.

“I’m glad you’re here!” Mirio chirped in which you were partly grateful for considering you felt a tad awkward. But nonetheless, you began walking over to him. You swore you could hear faint growls coming from Katsuki, but you tried to ignore it as you came to stand by Mirio’s bed.

“How are you feeling?” you questioned as you reached over to touch his arm, he gave a smile and was quick to lay his hand over yours. You could feel the warmth that came from his palm and it made you smile. “I’m better now that you’re here sunshine!” he said in a cheery tone and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, another growl rumbling his throat as he watched you and Mirio interact. “Damn extra doesn’t know when to shut the hell up,” he muttered, obviously not caring that you were present in the room.

But, that was just like Katsuki. Since you met him, he always had a brutal sense of honesty. You felt Mirio’s hand tighten over yours as you continued to look at Katsuki with a raised eyebrow. “You two aren’t getting along?” you questioned and only received another scoff in response.

“Why the hell would I get along with him!?” Katsuki snapped and you turned back to look at Mirio who gave a sheepish smile. “I guess it is kind of weird, but Bakugou and I get along fine!” he stated confidently and Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched, you swore you heard the sound of his teeth grinding together.

“Um…” you weren’t sure how to respond, luckily Katsuki seemed to know what to do to break through the silence and you yelped when the sound of explosions filled the air. You could smell the faint lingering smoke that now seeped from the palm of his hand.

Yours was currently fisted into the front of your shirt and you felt the pressure of Mirio’s arm across your back. You turned to look over your shoulder and froze when you saw the glare Katsuki was sporting, it could turn you to stone.

The steel railing that was attached to the side of the angry blond’s bed was now covered in soot and his sheets were thrown to the side. “Bakugou?” you questioned as he started to move, his jaw clenched as he scooted himself closer and closer to the edge of the bed.

It was obvious he was having trouble with his leg considering it was in a cast and you couldn't help yourself. Your body seemed to react quicker than your mind and you found yourself by his side. Mirio frowned as you dashed away and folded his hands on his lap.

“Bakugou!” you exclaimed as you dared to grasp his shoulders in an effort to keep him in place. “Get the hell off of me, damn it!” he growled and while you were a little scared, you swallowed your fear back. You were a hero and Katsuki was no scarier than any of the villains you had faced thus far.

“No!” you replied and tried to force him back onto the bed, but he continued to squirm. “You’re going to hurt yourself!” you tried to reason with him and he stopped for a brief moment before turning his head and letting out a soft, “Pff” sound.

He then reached up to smack your hands off his shoulders. “Whatever,” he said as he finally laid back in his bed. You were partly grateful you got him to stop, but you were a little worried about what he was planning to do if he got back up. Still, you reached down and gently lifted his cast-up leg onto the bed.

You noticed the way he clenched his jaw, and how his body tensed up. “Bakugou, does this hurt?” you questioned, but you were only greeted with his glare in return. “I’ll take that as a yes,” you muttered before taking a seat on his bed.

“You know, you don’t have to be afraid to tell me if something hurts,” you knew that wasn’t the best set of words, especially considering that Katsuki continued to glare at you. After a few moments, he turned to face the window.

“Hm?” you curiously turned your head as well, taking note of the sky that was colored orange and red. Was it that late? “Do you like sunsets?” you questioned as you turned back to look at him. Katsuki now had his arms crossed over his chest and that same scowl across his face.

You latched onto your lip, “They’re okay…” Katsuki muttered before he looked at you, then his hand shot out and grasped your shirt collar. “Ah!” you cried out as you were pulled down and felt a small rush of fear when you found yourself staring into his eyes which were currently filled with anger.

“Tell anyone and I’ll blast your damn face off!” he snapped and more cries escaped as he proceeded to shake you about. You reached up to wrap your fingers around his wrist in an effort to get him to stop.

“Hey! Be easy on them, it’s not nice to treat them like...a bag of chips?” Katsuki stopped but still kept a secure hold on your collar while the attention in the room turned to Mirio who stood there rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

“Bag of chips?” you questioned before reaching up to tear Katsuki’s hand away. “You’re going to injure yourself again if you try to get out of bed with that broken leg,” you said with a slight growl before you turned to Mirio and reached out to grab his shoulder. “Come on,” you said as you guided him back to his bed.

“Both of you need to stay put,” you ordered, but Katsuki rolled his eyes yet again. “I’m fine! Quit worrying, damn it,” you pressed your lips together in a frown, your eyebrows coming down to complete the overall disappointed look on your face.

Mirio glanced between you and Katsuki, a little disappointed in himself that you seemed stressed at the moment. He reached out, gently touching the side of your arm. “Hm?” you turned to look at him, somewhat feeling at ease as he smiled at you.

“I think what Bakugou means is, your concern is appreciated but people have kind of been worrying about us enough today. Not that I don’t appreciate it or anything!” he exclaimed, slightly panicked. “Don’t talk for me, hedge head!” Katsuki snarled with a held-up fist.

You were worried he’d try to use his quirk again and proceeded to run over to him. Clasping your hands around that fist which only seemed to anger him and for a moment you worried about being the third addition to the hospital.

“Why don’t we try talking without yelling?” you suggested as you felt the sweat begin to drip down your forehead, Katsuki growled in response before jerking his hand to the side. You glanced away, bringing your hands back to fold against your chest.

Silence filled the room for a moment before you spoke up once more. “Are either of you hungry?” you questioned, you knew from experience that while healthy. The food provided by the hospital wasn’t always the best and despite the setting sun, you could still order take-out.

Mirio seemed to like the idea and instantly sprang up in his bed, another big grin across his face. “That sounds amazing sunshine!” he said, prompting you to turn your head. You gave a soft chuckle before turning back to Katsuki who was still wearing a scowl and otherwise seemed unhappy.

“Well that’s one, how about you Bakugou?” you questioned and got another scoff in response which made you sigh. “How does pizza sound?” you reached into your pocket and pulled out your phone, waving the device back and forth.

Katsuki’s expression seemed to change slightly and he glanced up at you, but his lips remained sealed shut. Mirio on the other hand was more verbal. “Pizza!” he shouted as he raised both hands above his head, though not without a wince or two.

“You better be careful,” you warned him, so far Katsuki had already tried to get out of bed with a broken leg while Mirio had gotten up and walked around. Though you weren’t sure exactly how they were feeling, you knew if a nurse or doctor came into the room and saw the two of them out of bed, there was a chance you’d be blamed.

Somehow you always seemed to be dragged into some type of trouble whenever you were around the two. “Just call for the damn pizza!” Katsuki snapped and once more caused you to frown. “Fine…” you muttered before taking a deep breath. “I’ll be right back,” you said before bowing and turning to walk out the door.

You just prayed they’d both still be alive by the time you walked back inside the room. Regardless, you let your mind wander a minute before you ordered the food. It was almost ironic how the three of you always seemed to navigate towards each other, was it some type of magnetism? You weren’t sure.

A sigh came once you lowered the phone, allowing your hand to rest against your thigh as you glanced out one of the windows in front of you. The light outside was completely faded and you could make out a few faint stars in the distance.

‘I wonder if they are looking at the stars too,’ you turned your head back, glancing at the door. ‘I better check on them’ taking a quick peek at your phone, you estimated the time the pizza would arrive before deciding to enter the room once more. Of course, you shouldn’t have been surprised when you saw the scene before you.

“Yeah!? Why don’t you shut the hell up and actually say what you want to!? Damn coward!” Katsuki’s angry voice echoed, followed by Mirio's nervous laugh because of the fact that Katsuki had a tight grip on the collar of his hospital gown. “Heh, angry as ever I see,” Mirio commented which caused Katsuki's hair to stand on end.

"What the hell did you say!?" you were standing in the doorway, clenching your phone in your hand as you took the scene in. Mirio seemed to be the first one to notice you. “Hi, Y/n! Thanks for ordering!” he said with a bright smile as if everything were normal and he didn’t have Katsuki’s hand curled into his hospital gown.

“Hm?” Katsuki paused before turning his head to look at you. His jaw clenched and he could feel the slight ache course through his teeth before he released Mirio. “Pff, whatever. Damn extra,” he muttered as he turned to walk back to his bed, or at least try to.

He dragged his casted leg along the floor before you stumbled in front of him with your hands held up, indicating him to stop. “Get the hell out of my way!” Katsuki snapped as he reached over to grab your arm causing you to cry out.

“Hey!” you said as he attempted to shove you out of the way, but you were quick to reach out for him in turn. Your hand curled into the back of his hospital gown and you pulled yourself closer. “What the hell are you doing?!” Katsuki snapped as he glared at you from over his shoulder.

“Uh…” you didn’t have an answer for him, instead you found yourself pressing against him and wrapped your arms around his shoulders. “Please don’t walk with your injury,” your words were soft and slightly desperate as you whispered them into Katsuki’s ear.

You felt his once tense body relax some, but you missed that confused look that played across his face. He knew you were concerned about him, yeah. You were concerned about everyone, always wasting your energy and time on extras that didn’t deserve it.

He could feel the pain radiate up his leg and while he was partly thankful it was in a cast, he’d much prefer life without it. More than likely he’d continue to try and move even while in pain. Somehow, he knew you knew that, or else you wouldn’t be trying to stop him like you were.

“Why the hell do you care?” he muttered, but yet again he knew the answer. His hands curled into fists, he hated feeling...no, appearing weak. He was supposed to be the strongest, the next number one hero. His body trembled and you could hear Mirio move on his bed, the subtle squeaks of the mattress echoing.

You immediately turned your head, “Don’t move!” you snapped as you pointed a finger at him, unintentionally making him jump. “Oh uh...sorry sunshine, it just looked like you could use some help,” you let out a sigh. “I don’t need you to get injured too!” you said before feeling Katsuki tense up once more.

“Bakugou…” you said as you turned back to rest your chin against his shoulder. “I’m going to help you back to your bed,” you insisted. “I don’t need your help!” Katsuki snapped and you felt your stomach twist with anger. “I wasn’t asking, I was telling. Now come on,” the words came out of your mouth with a hiss and you stepped back.

Katsuki seemed surprised by your tone, those normally angry slit eyes widened slightly as you stepped in front of him. You slipped your phone into your back pocket and reached out to take his hand, threading your fingers together.

You watched as Katsuki glanced over at your conjoined hands and a moment later, you felt his fingers tightened around your hand. Almost like he was silently telling you not to let go or rather making sure you wouldn’t. Then your other hand reached out, grasping onto the curve of his hip.

That’s when Katsuki frowned. “What do you think you’re doing?” he questioned, his voice flat and you could hear the slightly annoyed tone that carried through it. But you paid it no mind, only glanced up at him. “Helping you,” the explanation left your mouth in a blunt fashion.

“Now grab onto my hip,” you instructed. You heard a growl, but Katsuki followed through. Though you felt him dig his nails into you, more than likely another indication he wasn’t happy with following your instructions.

But at the moment you didn’t care, rather you took a step back and began to guide him safely to the bed. Once there, you helped him sit down and Katsuki’s eyes locked on you as you gently placed your hands underneath his cast.

“Ready?” you questioned, watching as the blond turned away from you. His jaw clenched but his teeth were visible in their normal snarl. You almost wanted to sigh again, but instead, you moved his legs without warning. “Hey, watch it!” he hissed, his body slightly trembling and while part of you felt bad.

You crossed your arms, “Maybe if you weren't so stubborn and accepted help instead of trying to go off on your own, this wouldn’t be happening,” you replied. But you knew you sounded more like you were scolding a young child, then again if that’s how Katsuki was acting.

You then placed your hands on your thighs and leaned down, watching yet again as Katsuki’s expression changed. “It’s okay to ask for help if you’re in pain,” you tried to reason with him again which had his hands tightening into fists.

“I’m not in pai-” his words were interrupted when your phone began to vibrate. “Hm?” you reached back, pulling it from your pocket to see who it was. You blinked and slid to answer, “Hello,” you said and realized it was the pizza delivery. “Huh?” you blinked and pulled your phone back to glance at the time.

“That was quick…” you muttered before pressing the phone back against your ear. “Yeah, I’ll be there shortly. Thank you,” you hung up and glanced at Katsuki, then you turned your attention to Mirio who sat on his bed with his legs crossed and a smile on his face. You almost didn’t want to leave them alone again.

“Can I trust you two not to kill each other if I leave to get the pizza?” you crossed your arms, letting your foot tap against the ground. Mirio looked confused, tilting his head to one side before he shrugged. “I won't, sunshine,” he replied before looking over at Katsuki who much like you, had his arms across his chest.

“What about you, Bakugou?” he questioned enthusiastically, a smile coming to his face shortly after. The angry blond remained silent and you had no choice but to take that as a yes. “I’ll be right back, I’m counting on you two,” you said as you waved them goodbye and headed to get the pizza.

You could only imagine the look on some people’s faces as they saw a delivery man standing outside the hospital doors holding two pizza boxes. But even so, you made your way to the entrance. Though you noticed your classmates weren't around, had they left already? How nice, you’d certainly make sure to scold Eijirou and Kaminari when you got back. If you got back.

After you had paid for the pizza and returned to the room, you were slightly relieved to see that the boys were behaving. “I got the pizza!” you said with a smile and Mirio raised one fist above his head. “Heck yeah!” he called out and Katsuki merely turned his head. “Do you need help with them sunshine?” Mirio questioned.

“They carried it all this way hedge head, why the hell would they need help now!?” Katsuki snapped and you almost expected him to get out of bed once more. “Uh…” you chuckled before walking over to Mirio. “Here, take one,” you instructed before walking over to Katsuki with the remaining pizza box. “I hope you like it,” you said, but your words seemed to get brushed off.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he responded before taking it. The aroma of melted cheese and spice filled the air, “It smells wonderful,” you commented before hearing Mirio cry out and immediately turned your head to see him fanning his tongue. You raised your eyebrow and walked over.

“Too hot?” you questioned, watching with some amusement as Mirio wiggled his tongue and looked at you with his slightly watered-over eyes. You glanced down to look inside the pizza box only to discover there was indeed a slice of pizza absurdly thrown back into it, resting on top of the rest of the pie.

Not only that but there was a clear bite taken out of the slice. You lowered the lid and moved the box aside before taking a seat on the bed. “Let me see,” you reached out to grasp his chin. “Hm!?” he seemed surprised by your action but you were only trying to observe his now burnt tongue.

“It looks a little red,” you said as you dropped your hand and gave a sympathetic smile. “Would you like me to get you a cup of cold water?” Mirio blinked, he knew he’d be fine without the cold water. But somehow, he found himself being a little selfish for your attention.

A quick glance at Katsuki revealed the other blond wasn't paying attention. Rather he had the pizza box across his lap, a slice of pizza was in his hand and he seemed to be eating it without a problem. His head was turned and Mirio assumed he was looking outside, even though there wasn’t much to see considering it was dark.

He looked back at you, shaking his head which confused you. He pulled his tongue back into his mouth and instead, raised his arms. You knew he was indicating he wanted a hug. “Would...a hug make you feel better?” you questioned, and your words seemed to have caught Katsuki’s attention as he turned back to see Mirio nodding.

His fingers curled into the crust of his pizza and he felt a surge of envy course through him as he watched Mirio wrap his arms around you. A snapping sound occurred when Katsuki’s fingers broke the crust which then fell to crumbles.

The rest of the pizza slice fell from his hand, leaving behind a few sauce stains on his palm. The slice hit the corner of the pizza box and fell to the floor below. His jaw clenched and he could feel his head pulse.

‘Of course, that damn extra would get their attention,’ he thought, every fiber of his being feeling a wave of anger because Mirio was touching you. His eyes shifted to the box that laid in his lap, pizza slices he was probably going to waste just laying there and he felt a smirk come to his lips.

When you pulled away, you found yourself smiling before something flew across the room. “Ah!” you stumbled off the bed, nearly tripping over your own feet. Your hands clasped over your mouth before you realized what was thrown and what now stuck to Mirio’s face.

“Is...is that?” you trailed off watching as the slice of pizza slowly fell from Mirio's cheek, leaving behind spots of cheese and a red sauce stain. You wanted to laugh, but you also turned your head to look at Katsuki. All your joy seemed to leave when you noticed just how angry he was.

“You think you’re some tough guy, huh!?” he snapped at Mirio who then reached up to touch his sore cheek and you noticed the surrounding skin was tinted pink, more than likely due to the fact the pizza was hot when it had been thrown. You wondered how helpful that cup of cold water would be now, but at the moment you were busy attempting to scold Katsuki.

“That wasn’t very nice!” you said, even though that was somewhat of a childish statement and more than likely wouldn’t phase Katsuki who decided to completely ignore you. “Think a damn hug is gonna fix your burnt tongue?! You’re not even that injured you idiot!” unlike him, but he’d be damned if he admitted he was in pain.

“Bakugou!” you shouted as he took another slice of pizza and proceed to throw it towards Mirio who, in turn, held his hands out. “Hey!” the slice in question hit the palm of his hand before falling to the floor with a splat.

You stood there with your hands resting by your sides and looked between the two slices of pizza that were now on the floor. Then you glanced back up, watching as Mirio threw a slice of pizza at Katsuki in return. “Togata!” you cried out, but the two boys seemed to be at war with each other and you took a step back as more cheese and sauce was thrown back and forth.

A sigh came before you brought your hand up to your forehead, once again you were in the middle of their mess. “Well…” you began, though it was unlikely they’d hear you as they were too focused on their food fight.

“I’ll just be going,” you said as you pointed toward the door and proceeded to walk out of the room. You could hear the noise the two were creating even from the hallway and you offered an awkward smile at some passing nurses before one of them asked ‘What’s going on in there?’ you took a deep breath.

“The same thing that always happens,” you offered as a reply, but it only seemed to confuse the poor nurses. You shrugged and continued walking down the hall. Taking out your cell phone to dial Eijirou. Maybe you could get that scolding done early and some help to break up Mirio and Katsuki.

[lord-of-gender]

A Small Problem - Part 3

The Red Banquet

2761 words

As the 25th came Phil and Niki were having alot of trouble getting Tommy into something nice. He refused to wear the suit that was his years ago claiming it was 'too itchy'. So they resorted, with much protest from Techno, to making him a version of Techno's cape from some of his extra fabric and the old L'Manburg suit that once was Fundy's to be wore underneath.

"Oh my god, finally," Phil said as Techno grabbed Tommy from running out of the cabin.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Tommy chanted, giggling as he latched onto Techno's arm, he picked the boy off and handed him to Phil.

"Are you sure you're not coming," Niki asked.

"No, I don't trust that Eggpire, besides I have other things to do." Techno said.

During the trip through the Nether Niki and Phil politely chatted, but Tommy remained silent and huddled against them, as if they were the only things keeping him there. He never liked the Nether, he didn't know why, it was just scary and didn't sit right with him. When they neared the community portal Tommy sprinted to it, wanting, almost needing to get out.

"Niki!" Hannah said when they came out of the portal, "you look beautiful. Who's this little guy?"

Tommy looked to Sam who was behind her, he'd learned that there were certain people who couldn't know his name. "I'm Tommy," he said when Sam nodded.

"Ooh! Are you now," Hannah said, surprised.

"Yeah!" He said excitedly.

"We should probably get going so we're not late," Sam said as Tommy ran up to him and walked next to him.

"Sam, Sam," Tommy pulled on his suit, trying to get Sam's attention, "look what I can do."

"What is it," Sam said, looking down at him as Tommy furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.

"Oh you're going to be freaked out by this," Phil laughed and Niki giggled.

Slowly Tommy's features changed, he started sprouting fur and whiskers on his face. Tommy grinned up at Sam as his face looked like a raccoon.

"Okay, that's weird, how long has he been able to do that," Sam asked Phil.

"A few days, but Techno's discovered he can only do animals. We were in quite some shock when we found him fully transformed into a raccoon," Phil explained. "And of course Techno's first instinct was to exploit it."

"Ranboo didn't let him," Niki inputted when Sam started to look worried.

Soon they came up to the entrance of the banquet, everyone wore nice suits and dresses. They all stuck with the red theme of the banquet. Tommy morphed back to look normal as everyone fawned over him. Everyone had complied with the Eggpire's request of no weapons or armor, well except for Phil. Techno had insisted that he bring at least his bow and sword which could easily be hidden, a totem, and a few potions.

"Wow, you all look amazing," Antfrost greeted them. Not mentioning Tommy, who as soon as he saw Ant didn't budge from Sam's side.

"Thank you, you look very dapper yourself Ant," Puffy said, laughing.

"You okay buddy," Sam took Tommy to the side as they entered the basement where the Egg had taken over.

Tommy shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes. "I don't like it. Something's wrong."

"Do you want to stay with Phil," Sam asked, thinking maybe Tommy would feel safer with someone he was more familiar with. Tommy thought about it then nodded, trying to stay as far away from the Egg as he could.

"You alright Tommy," Niki asked the boy as he came up to Phil and grabbed his pant's leg.

"I-I fink something is going to happen, I don't know if we should be here," Tommy said.

"I'm sure everything is going to be fine Tommy, you have so many people here who care about you." Phil said, "I promise nothing bad is going to happen to you. Okay?"

"Okay," Tommy nodded and the trio walked over to where the others had gone over to dance.

"Care to dance," Bad said, offering his hand to Puffy. She accepted, this could be a statement between the two leaders. One against the Egg, the other for. A symbol of unity and peace.

As Hbomb continued to play music Niki and Eret danced as well, Foolish swept up Tommy and started to dance with the kid, sending Tommy into a fit of giggles as he was spun around. The boy forgot about his uneasy feelings and started to enjoy the party.

"So who's ready for a feast," Ant announced and they were led to a large table. Tommy sat by Phil as he sat near the edge of the table.

"So toasts, speeches, does anyone have any," Bad said.

"I do actually," Foolish said, as he spoke Tommy's ears started ringing and he zoned out. Something was wrong, he didn't know what put something was happening. "But I'm willing to give you a 3rd- 4th chance."

"Phil, I want to go home," Tommy whispered, but Phil dismissed him. He wasn't going to be rude, the Eggpire seemed to have changed.

"I'd like to say something as well," Eret said and started speaking how he was glad the SMP was turning back into how it was.

"You know what I've learned over my time," Ponk said, "as a wise man once said, people do change." They expected him to elaborate but he just stopped there.

"You look beautiful tonight," Sam muttered.

"I would like to speak as well," Puffy said, breaking the silence and standing up. "Bad, I'm glad you hosted this party. We've been through alot together and this egg has separated us quite a bit. And I'm happy that I won't have to sacrifice anymore friendships. Thank you for today, and I hope this brings us all together. I also hope that after today we never have to hear the words 'a new neaf' or 'second chances' or 'bygones be bygones' because you will start doing what's right. And I'm glad that the fighting's finally over."

"I can agree with that," Eret said, raising his glass. Everyone copied saying cheers and raising their drinks.

"Would anyone else like to say some words," Bad asked, looking around.

"Well do you have anything to say, Bad," Puffy asked as she sat down.

"Why yes, I do actually," Bad said. "I would like to say I appreciate you all coming. This was a perfect opportunity for us as a community to come together and honestly, to let bygones be bygones. To set any past issues aside and to set things right, so we can grow and advance in the future."

"Phil," Tommy tugged on his jacket, starting to panic as lava poured from walls, trapping them in the room. "Phil, we need to go."

"Not now Tommy," Phil hissed, why was he so insistent on leaving? Realizing he wasn't going to get Phil's attention he got up and was going to Niki who wasn't sitting too far from them.

"And now," Bad said as the lava encased them, "prepare to die."

"What," Puffy exclaimed and the others started to panic as well. "What about turning over this leaf?!"

"No, the leaf is staying the way it is," Bad said.

"Tommy," Phil grabbed him, and gave him a potion as Puffy uncovered the armor she had hidden, but was gone. "Listen to me you take this fire resistance and get out of here. The entrance is just over there, you run, and you go find help. Okay?"

Tommy nodded, he looked at the lava nervously but Phil and everyone was counting on him, he had to do it. He gulped down the potion and sprinted where they had come in.

"Stop him," Hannah yelled, running after Tommy. "Tommy get back here!"

Phil pulled out his bow and shot the few arrows he had at Hannah. She whirled around to look where the arrows had come from. Unsheathing his sword he ran after Hannah, buying the time Tommy needed to escape. She had armor and Phil didn't so he was forced to throw his sword to the side in order to not be killed.

"There, I have nothing else," Phil said, putting his hands in the air. He'd done what he needed. He'd got Tommy out and soon he'll be back with help.

"Now Sam!" Puffy said, Sam flipped a hidden lever and tnt came pouring down onto the Egg. But as it blew up obsidian covered the Egg and vines surrounding it, protecting the Egg from the explosion.

"Did you really think that would work," Bad laughed with the others as Phil was forced back to the crowd. "After Quackity tried that, we took extra precautions. Now who should we execute first?"

"Execute?!" Eret exclaimed with the others freaking out as well. "You're a monster."

"You're one to speak," Ponk said, he was apart of the server when Eret had betrayed L'Manburg.

"I've changed, I have learned not to betray others trust in me," Eret said.

"Well maybe you could be our first sacrifice," Bad said, "we'll take care of Phil and Sam next."

"No, no, no," Eret said as he was forced up to the area in front of the Egg.

"Stop!" Foolish said, he couldn't let Eret be killed, not while he could still do something. "Enough. You know protecting itself from tnt, that was impressive. But can it survive a barrage of lightning?" He raised his hands and started to channel his power as a god, but nothing. Nothing happened. "I-I don't understand."

"You really think you can come into the Egg's domain and be able to defeat it," Bad said, "I have an even better idea. How about we sacrifice the totem first."

"No!" Puffy screamed as Eret was let go and Foolish forced up to the podium and forced down to his knees.

"You could have prevented this Puffy," Antfrost said, "you could have stayed with the Eggpire and none of this would be happening."

"We don't know that," Sam said.

"I left the Eggpire cause I realized we were hurting people," Puffy said.

"But look at where that got you, we're going to kill your son," Ant said.

"Puffy, it's okay," Foolish said, and Ant swung his sword down, a bright green light filling the room as the totem lost his first life.

"No!" Puffy cried, tears started to spill from her eyes, and there was nothing she could do.

"One down and so many more to go," Bad laughed, looking at all of them. "Now who do we kill next? Perhaps Sam for trying to blow up the Egg, or Philza for hiding Tommy from us or even-"

"You're not going to be killing anyone!" Quackity leaped down from a small opening in the basement. "Bad, this isn't you. This isn't you Bad, we both know this."

"Where did you come from," Bad demanded, pointing a crossbow in Quackity's direction. He had nothing and didn't seem to have any weapons.

"I know what you're doing here but you're going to stop right now," Quackity said, pulling out a sword. "Look at what you've done. This is impressive. But you have to stop. This whole Egg thing has gotten out of hand. You just killed a man. Was that your plan all along? To kill innocent people? This has gotten completely out of control and I'm not going to have it. You're going to stop, right now."

"Now why would we do that," Bad walked towards him as Quackity equipped armor. "You think putting on armor will help you? Why do you think we did all this, we did this for the Egg. You can't give us what the Egg can give us. Don't get in our way. Don't try and stop us."

"Bad, look what you've done," Quackity walked around the room. "You've trapped all these people here, all these innocent people. In what you've disguised as a party. What have they done to you?

"You are a pawn to power, something that doesn't care about you. I mean look at the Egg, it doesn't mean anything Bad." Quackity slipped a golden apple and axe to Puffy, "So how about he stop playing games. How 'bout that?"

"I can't, I can't stop and you know why," Bad said. "And you know what Quackity if you wanted to stop us, you should have brought an army."

"I did, in fact I brought the next best thing," Quackity laughed, "I brought my biggest enemy."

"Alright Quackity, where's this Egg you were talking about," Technoblade emerged from the same opening. Phil started laughing as dogs came in behind him, teeth bared and ready to attack at Techno's command.

"It's right here, Techno," Quackity grinned, putting his sword against his shoulder.

"Let's go!" Phil said as Niki whispered it, he wasn't afraid to show his support to his friend.

"And not only that, I went looking across the entire lands for the best mercenary I could find. Cause you're right, I can't take you alone. So I got two of the best fighters on the server, welcome him Bad," Quackity said and Purpled emerged as well.

"Purpled," Bad exclaimed, "we hired you to kill Puffy and you join the enemy's side!"

"Bad, to be frank with you," Purpled said, "Quackity just had the better price."

"And Techno," Bad said, thinking he could negotiate with him. "You and Quackity are enemies! Why would you side with him?"

"Did you really think Bad, that you could execute my closest friends." Techno said, "No, your biggest mistake here was inviting Phil and thinking you could attempt to kill him without me finding out. And that's just the tip of the iceburg. This Egg, it's warping peoples' minds, it's controlling them and has no plans of stopping. And this Egg is the epitome of everything I stand against as an anarchist. So yeah, you've given me enough reason to work with Quackity."

"We're not going to let you stop us," Bad said, his voice wavered though, could they taking on The Blade himself? Most of them had seen the destruction he brought upon L'Manburg. "We still out number you, four against three."

"Not for long," Puffy said, splashing a potion of strength on herself and ran at them with the axe she now had. "You're dead Antfrost!"

"Wait! When did Puffy get a weapon?!" Bad yelled as Puffy attacked Ant.

"You've taken my kindness for weakness," Puffy said, swinging the axe down and killing Ant before he was able to defend himself. She turned around, tears streaming down her face, ready to attack the others as well.

"Dogs attack!" Techno yelled, attacking Ponk. Quackity and Purpled followed, attacking Bad and Hannah.

The three did their best to fight off the dogs, able to kill and injure some of them. But is wasn't enough they would soon be overwhelmed.

"Retreat," Bad yelled, they were no match for them. He broke into a wall near the Egg that opened up into a maze of tunnels.

"Purpled, you follow them, we'll take care of things here," Quackity said, Purpled nodded and ran into the tunnels.

"Phil, are you alright," Techno went up to him and Niki. "Where's the kid?"

"I gave him a fire res and sent him out, I thought he would have ran into you," Phil said.

"And the Eggpire knows who he is," Niki added, "we have to find him."

"Got it, we should take care of this Egg though," Techno said.

"I-I'll build a prison for it if I have to,” Sam said.

“Okay, but will that contain this?” Quackity asked, “are we sure that’s going to be enough?”

“We need to leave,” Techno said, the only way out was the opening they had made in the wall. “Tommy’s out there, we have to make sure he’s okay.”

“I should come,” Sam said, he needed to prioritize Tommy, even if it ment pushing back trapping the Egg.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do here,” Quackity said, “Techno, you know the way out.”

Techno built a path up to the opening and handed Phil a weapon to defend himself with. When they got out of the basement Phil spotted someone wandering around, thinking it might be Tommy he ran in their direction, Niki following.

“Phil!” He exclaimed when he saw them, “boy am I glad to see you.”

“Wil-Wilbur,” Niki said, she couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t Ghostbur, but Wilbur himself, in the flesh.

Alive.

[marshmallow-phd]

Healing Touch

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Yixing x Reader

Summary: Medical school abroad was the last line on your to-do list before starting the rest of your life. Everything was going according to plan. Everything, that is, until tragedy strikes your campus. In the wake of a professor’s untimely death, you’re partnered with the cute boy with a breathtaking smile in the newly combined labs. You find yourself unable to resist the dimples and shy glances, but his life is here with no plans of leaving. Will you continue on as planned or will you accept the hand that Fate had dealt you?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Final

**

Yixing sat at the kitchen table as the others finished up their breakfast. Minseok took the now empty plate that had belonged to Ji Yeon and rinsed it off in the sink, scrubbing away at the bits that had caked onto the white porcelain. Yixing continued to stare at the newspaper article. He’d read it so many times in the last fifteen minutes that surely he had it memorized by now. Worry pounded in his ears and not simply because of the rise in wolf-related deaths in the area. It had been his professor that was killed this time.

The same splitting headache that had been plaguing him for weeks now came back in full force. Dropping the paper, Yixing rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. It didn’t do any good.

“You okay?”

Yixing looked up at Baekhyun, who stood on the other side of the table. He smiled. “Of course. Given the circumstances. I’m just hoping I can catch up in this new class.”

“It sucks that it had to be one of your pre-med classes,” Baekhyun said, shaking his head.

“It’s terrible that it had to happen at all.”

“You know what I meant. We’re already worried enough about these attacks, but now you’re connected to one of the deaths. We’ll have to be extra careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

“Yixing isn’t the one we have to worry about.” Junmyeon said pointedly. Baekhyun feigned a wounded look. Snickers echoed around the room, except from Minseok’s mate, Ji Yeon. Her eyebrows were pinched tight with concern. And she had every right to be. Perhaps she should even be more worried than she already was.

The headache still throbbed behind Yixing’s eyes. Relief didn’t seem to be coming soon. He stood up from the table, excusing himself quietly as he left the kitchen for his bedroom to be alone.

“Yixing?”

He stopped a few steps up.

Ji Yeon stood just inside the short hallway, arms folded in front of her with the fingers tucked underneath. Yixing thought of her as a strong person, someone who stood as a good foundation for Minseok. He didn’t know her that well yet, but he already say her as the strong type, the sturdy kind.

“Yes?”

“You guys will catch this omega, right?” She glanced off to side, probably to check that Minseok hadn’t overheard her question. The eldest wolf was more than aware, Yixing was sure of it. The connection between a mate and their wolf was strong, indescribably so from the stories he’d heard. If he was honest, he was a bit jealous that Minseok was the first to be mated. The hope he had, however, was that she would not be the last. Once a pack started finding their other halves, it was a domino effect. His time would come, sooner or later.

Yixing mustered up a smile that he hoped came off as reassuring. “There’s nine of us and one of him. Eventually, we’ll find him.” Accepting that answer for the time being, Ji Yeon nodded and walked back into the kitchen. As soon as she was out of sight, Yixing dropped the smile and swallowed thickly. He headed up the rest of the way to bedroom and shut the door.

Tense energy tingled through his feet as he sat on the edge of his bed. They were aching to move, to pace in hopes to work out the nerves, but he didn’t want to concern his brothers who would certainly hear it from the floor below. A run was out as well. As soon as any of the others got a whiff of someone shifting to wander through the woods, they jumped in to join. Only Minseok had the talent to get away clean.

Honestly, that was the least of his worries if he were to go running.

He wasn’t a killer. He wanted to help people. That was why he was studying medicine, why he wanted to be a doctor. But lately… These headaches were never ending, plaguing him over the last several weeks. And then there were the blackouts. Moments of time where he couldn’t remember what had happened. No one saw him during those times. Though he didn’t have to ask when he saw the pack after an episode. He was usually questioned where he had been himself. And he never had an answer. Not a truthful one.

No. This couldn’t have been him. There was another explanation for what was happening, both with the killings and with himself. It would just take time to figure it out.

**

Your fingers clenched tightly to the textbook against your chest. All morning you had been spending time at the library, reviewing last week’s vocabulary in an effort to distract yourself. Unfortunately, in a place like this with a wild animal running around killing people, escaping the whispers and rumors was not an option. It seemed that everyone was discussing the latest tragedy. And it made sense with how close it hit to the university.

“I hear her body was found in pieces.”

“I’m surprised they even found a body with all the animals that live in the woods.”

“Some of the hunters are talking about going out to kill the animal before it kills someone else.”

“No way. Did you see the pictures someone took of the paw prints in the dirt? That thing has to be huge. Like a bear.”

“There’s no way its as big as a bear.”

“I didn’t even know there were wolves in the forest.”

“What? Did you think it was all bunnies and squirrels?”

Unable to take it anymore, you’d slammed the textbook shut (gaining annoyed glares from those around you as if they weren’t the cause of your inability to utilize the library in the way it was meant to be used) and headed out. It was mystifying to you, the way others would talk about what was happening, like it was sports game or a thriller on TV.

Professor Xui was strict and stern, but she was also admired by the students. The “tough love” type. Though you personally had never been in any of her classes, you did know who she was, and you’d cried when you’d heard the news. Naturally, the university was on top of how to move forward. You’d groaned audibly when you’d read the email that the classes would be combining. Your human physiology class was already close to capacity. They had moved your session into one of the larger science rooms where freshman chemistry classes typically took place. Goodbye uncomfortable wooden desks, hello overly tall lab tables and bar stools with no back support.

You were one of the first to arrive at the lab, giving you the pick of the lot. One of the front tables was free so you settled there. You continued to clutch to the textbook that should have been opened to the page written on the white board in front of you. It was hard to let go. This thick, overpriced book wasn’t going to protect you from anything. And besides, you had no reason to be afraid. You didn’t go into the woods. You weren’t the kind to hike or camp or go near the trees for any reason. The flannel shirt you wore was simply because it was comfortable. You were absolutely fine.

Rolling your eyes at yourself and the silliness that was the track of your mind, you let go of the book and flipped to page thirty-four. Other students filed in as the seconds ticked closer to the allotted time. Professor Jiang, a short, salt and pepper-haired man with wired-framed glasses and a dad-level sense of humor, walked into the room with his old school briefcase, corners wearing thin and the metal on the push latches showing the brass base until the silver coating. The duet of the latches still made you jump even after fully expecting it.

“Good morning, everyone.” Professor Jiang adjusted his glasses. A nervous twitch he completed at the beginning of every class. All it took was five minutes into his lecture and he developed the steel nerves of an alligator wrestler. Pulling a pencil out from your bag, you barely paid attention to the rest of Jiang’s announcement. “I know it's difficult to process, but we’ll all get through this together. For the new students, I will be available for anyone who needs help adjusting to the new teaching style. And I- Oh. Hello.”

You looked up to see what the interruption was.

A late comer had entered the classroom, the door slowly closing behind him. Slim yet athletic, the newest student wasn’t overbearing or imposing, but he still captivated your attention, holding on to it as if his life depended on it. And he was staring right back at you with an intensity that matched your own. Mouth hanging open by the slightest of centimeters, he didn’t move or pay any attention to the professor or the other students staring at him. The muscles in his hand strongly gripped the strap of his backpack that hung off one shoulder. He was going to misalign his back if he kept doing that.

Professor Jiang cleared his throat pointedly, ending the staring contest. “New student?”

The new student blinked rapidly as he turned to the teacher. “Yes. Sorry. I got lost with the new room assignment.”

“One of Xui’s students?”

He nodded.

“That’s alright. We all need an adjustment period. Please, take a seat.”

You stiffened as Professor Jiang held his hand out in the direction of the empty seat right next to you. And that’s exactly where the new student sat. You forced yourself to keep your eyes straight ahead, concentrating a little too hard as Professor Jiang started his lecture of the circulatory system. But his words were drowned out by the shuffling beside you as the new student took out his textbook and other necessities for notes. You leaned forward, holding your neck up by your palm as you mentally repeated the highlights of the pulmonary circuit in order to be productive. The scratch of the pen against your notebook seemed louder today. Your heart seemed to be working in overtime as well. Was everything louder today? Or were you being overly sensitive to noise due to the current circumstances?

“Alright. Please, take a few minutes to go over the review questions located at the end of the section,” Professor Jiang said. It was almost a relief for his short lecture to be over. “Feel free to check with your partner at the table. To make things easier for all of us, the seats you chose today with be permanent for the rest of the semester and who you are seated with will be your constant collaborator.”

Oh, joy.

You were not the best at getting to know new people. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t think. The other person always wanted to start off with the weather or their job or some other subject that you found difficult to bounce off of to continue the conversation. It was like your mind wasn’t built for small talk. Somehow, you’d missed the installation of pre-programmed responses that everyone else carried around. You had a tendency to go a little too deep a little too quickly. Those were the conversations you wanted to have. Those were the kind that you found easy responses for. But people tended to find your passion about Rosalind Franklin and her forgotten contribution to science a little much.

“Hi.”

The cool voice that broke through your scrambled thoughts made you jump. You hit your knee against the lab table. Careful to hide it from view, you rubbed the sore spot to make the throbbing go away. Your new lab partner must have heard it given the shy smile that pushed up left corner of his mouth, revealing a deep dimple in his cheek. As much as you wished it wasn’t, your heart beating rapidly against your ribs.

For several seconds, you said nothing. No greeting back, no “I’m trying to focus on my work”, not anything. You were silent, staring back at him like he was walking around with a windmill on his head.

“I’m Yixing,” he continued in an effort to get you to speak.

Right. Conversations were two-way streets. “(y/n).”

His smile spread even wider. “It’s nice to meet you, (y/n).”

Words had apparently abandoned you today. All you could do was nod. He didn’t take it offensively. A small chuckle pushed passed the silence.  

“Do you want to do the questions together?” he asked. “Or maybe when we’re both finished, we could compare what we got?” he suggested when you still didn’t answer.

“Compare,” you finally spat out. “I think it would be better if we compared. Afterwards, that is.” Not that you were usually the most articulate person, but this was becoming painful.

Yixing nodded. “Okay.” And with that he turned to his book, numbered the lines down on his paper and read over the questions. Taking a deep breath, you turned to your own station to do the same. Big mistake.

His natural scent hit you like a gust of wind on a previously calm day. You weren’t expecting the soft pine smell that he radiated. It wasn’t an overly musty, too-much-cologne type smell. It was subtle; the reason you didn’t catch on to it until this moment. Glancing over at you, Yixing frowned.

“You smell nice.” Oh, gosh, someone kidnap you now. Get you out of here in a fashion that would give reason as to why you didn’t come back. Did those words actually just leave your lips? Turning away from him, you reprimanded yourself for the slip up. Yixing laughed softly, making you turn to face him again.

“Thank you,” he said sweetly. “I appreciate the compliment. Especially since this building has a tendency to smell bad between the chemicals and dissections. I’m always worried that I’ll leave with some of it on me.”

You smiled at his joke. And that was where your thought train stopped. Instinct told you that an additional response was appropriate, but none came to you. You tried to rifle through the possibilities. Before you could find one, though, Yixing had turned his back down to his work.

With the awkward exchange over, you were able to make it through the five questions, writing down the answers with confidence.

“Do you want to compare?” Yixing asked as soon as you wrote the last word.

“Sure.” You slid your paper closer to the middle and shifted your body so you were partially facing him. One by one, you went over what each of you had gotten. Physiology of the human body was a strong suit of yours, more so than of your other science classes. That little bit of pride you had was perking up. It was ready to show off its penchant for knowledge. Unfortunately, this was not going to be one of those times for showing off. For the most part, you were evenly matched. Your answers were close, nearly identical in some parts.

“Professor Jiang might think we cheated,” Yixing teased.

“Well, he did say to collaborate with each other.” Good response. Appropriate response. You nearly patted yourself on the shoulder with that one. You even gave it the kind of tone that said you were merely teasing back.

“Yes, that’s true.”

“That concludes today’s class,” Professor Jiang announced. “As you leave, please stack your answer papers on the corner of the desk up here.” He patted the black top for emphasis. “Have a good day, everyone.”

Standing up, the sounds of stool legs scraping against the scuffed tile echoed through the large room behind you. Once your textbook was zipped up safely in your bag, you reached for the paper. Yixing swiped it up first.

“I’ll take it up there for you.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

You might not have been the only one blurting out thoughts before you stop them. A slight pink hue bloomed on Yixing’s cheeks. You were left there speechless as he hurried to the front, dropped off the papers, and left the classroom.

Dazed was an understatement. You didn’t know what to make of what had just happened. So, you ignored it. It was probably nothing anyway. Checking your watch, you calculated the amount of time you had until your afternoon sessions. There was a long break in between. The smart decision would be to hang out somewhere on campus to ensure that you actually went to your afternoon classes. But you needed quiet. Somewhere with no whispers about the woods or comments about the college’s new schedules. The only place you were guaranteed to find that was in your apartment. The building was a couple blocks away, a short walk no more than five minutes. You would have plenty of time to head there and back.

The front door was unlocked when you arrived. A bad habit from your roommate. She didn’t see the need to lock it if she was home and awake. You, on the other hand, clicked it tight and double checked it before stepping in deeper to the apartment.

Ran was sitting at the table, eating noodles and scrolling through a site on her laptop while her phone played a soft melody led by a pipa. It was a dreamy song, soft and comforting, like what your parents used to play for you after a nightmare.

Sighing to yourself, you sat down across from Ran and let your bag fall off your shoulder and to the floor. You hadn’t taken your computer with you, so the loud clump wasn’t one to panic over.

“How was class this morning with the new students?” Ran asked over the music.

The two of you weren’t extremely close. Friends, but not blood sisters. Ran had been your roommate freshman year and when you started talking about moving off campus, you’d offered her the other room to cut down on cost. She’d taken it rather than risk getting a new roommate that she didn’t like. You were similar some ways and vastly different in others. It balanced out, though, and you got along to the point where neither of you kicked up a fuss about cleaning the rooms or washing the dishes. You simply cleaned up after yourself. It was a co-habitation of convenience.

You shrugged. “It was fine. We’re all partnered up now, which is a little awkward, but I’ll survive, I guess.”

“Are they cute, at least?” Ran said with a smirk.

Yes. “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” Reaching over to the stack of envelopes, Ran plucked the one off the top and handed it to you. “I picked up the mail this morning. Thought you might want to see what came for you.”

Your stomach whirled like it was in a tumble dryer. The envelope had a familiar red emblem of a brick clocktower stamped in the top left corner. With a shaky hand, you took the envelope and ripped open the top. The nicely folded letter slipped out easily. Your eyes scanned the black letters. When they finally sunk in, you slumped back in your chair with a sigh.

“Oh, no.” Ran frowned. “They didn’t reject you, did they?”

You shook your head. “No, not out right. They want to see how well I do this semester before giving a final decision.”

“Well, that’s not too bad. It’s not a no.”

“It’s not a guaranteed yes either.”

Closing her laptop, Ran crossed her arms. Her lips were pursed, eyes down on the table. “You could just stay here. I mean, they have a pretty good medical program and you said that this was where your parents had met-”

“I don’t want to stay here,” you stated firmly. “There’s no reason to.”

“Your aunt is close by.”

“She wants me to do what I want. If that means going to medical school far away, then so be it. I’ll stay in touch with her. Visit when I can.”

“Well, I hope you get in.” Ran stood up and stretched. “On a brighter note, Hae In and I are going out tonight if you want to join us.”

You shook your head. “I’m good. Thanks for the invite, though. I appreciate it.” Whenever Ran and Hae In went out, things tended to get a little crazy. You were sure they had fun and they always came home safe. You just didn’t think that it would your kind of scene. She left a few minutes later and you were finally granted that peace and quite you had been searching for. Well, the quiet, at least.

Peace was nowhere to be found. Stress was rearing its ugly head as you stared at the letter. Ran was right, it was wasn’t a flat rejection. They were, at minimum, interested in giving you a chance. As one of the most prestigious medical universities in the country, you were eager to walk their halls.

The fact that it was far away from any reminders of your life was the bigger incentive. Releasing all the air your lungs were holding on to, you folded the letter back up and tucked it away in the front pocket of your bag. All you had to do was make it through this semester with no hiccups and you would be fine.

Shouldn’t be too hard. There was no reason for any of your plans to be derailed or for you to change your mind.

As long as you survived the next few months, that is.

[fanficsfromyesteryear]

SICK & TIRED

A STRANGER THINGS ONE SHOT

— PAIRING: Billy Hargrove x Reader — WORD COUNT: 2,077 — WARNINGS: Cursing, Billy being...himself — REQUESTED BY: @udontneedtokno 

Um hi, can I request a billy x fem reader where she Is feeling a bit sick and crappy and he takes care of her? Also could you make it so they aren’t dating yet so he’s still a bit of a meanie and flirts pretty hard with her while he’s taking care of her? I love ur billy x readers sm🥺💖

— A/N: First of all, thank you so much?? Honestly, he’s my favorite character to write for. He’s so unapologetically rude and flirtatious, and I think it’s hilarious. Secondly, I’m sooooo sorry about how long this took!! Life got really busy for a while, so I didn’t have much time to sit down and write, but it’s slowed down again for the time being. Anyway, I can’t even tell you how excited I was when I saw your request! I’m such a sucker for sick reader/character storylines, probably because I relate to them so much. Any time my stomach hurts even slightly, you would think I’m dying with how much I milk it. I had lots of fun writing this, and I hope it was worth waiting for!!

Despite your best efforts to convince your mom to let you skip school, she wasn’t having it. For one, she thought you were just being overdramatic—so what if your nose was a little runny? She handed you a pack of Kleenex, forced cough syrup down your throat, and shoved you out the front door with a promise that you would be fine. You weren’t so sure, and your suspicions were only confirmed when you ran out of tissues by the end of first period, and instead of clearing your head, the medicine had only succeeded in making you drowsy. More than once, you felt yourself slipping away from reality—you weren’t quite falling asleep, but you could tell that you weren’t wholly present either. You wanted nothing more than to go home and take a nap, but your mom was at work, and you didn’t trust yourself to walk all that way on your own.

“Wow, Y/N, you look like shit.”

You were standing in the hallway, unsure of how you had come to be there—you must’ve zoned out again. With a blank stare, you turned to look at Billy Hargrove, who was leaning with his back to the locker beside yours. “Thank you,” you said, sniffing. You couldn’t breathe—it felt like you had a thick wad of cotton shoved inside each nostril. “I feel like shit, too.” As if on cue, you let out a sneeze.

Billy backed away, warily studying you. You had dark circles beneath your puffy eyes, and your nose was red and raw from being smothered with one too many tissues. You looked absolutely miserable, and even though a part of him wanted to stay as far away from you as possible—just in case whatever you had was contagious—he felt bad for you more than anything. He reached up to brush aside a stray piece of your hair. “Hey—” Billy was about to say more but stopped himself mid-sentence, his hand lingering on the side of your face as his eyebrows scrunched together. “You’re kinda hot,” he informed you.

Letting out a groan, you rolled your eyes and swatted his hand away. “Billy, I’m not in the mood for any of your—”

“No, seriously. I think you have a fever or something.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” you said simply. Turning, you started off down the hallway toward your next class. You’d gotten this far—you might as well stick it out until the end of the day. As much as you didn’t want to be there, you didn’t have much of a choice. You figured you might as well try to carry on like normal.

Billy thought otherwise. You hadn’t gotten far when you felt his hand wrap around your elbow. He pulled you backwards, and in your weakened state, you were in no shape to fight against him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Billy demanded.

“To class,” you said, your voice muffled by your hand as you wiped your nose on the sleeve of your sweater.

Billy scoffed. “No, you’re not,” he said. “You’re sick.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” you whined. “My mom’s at work, and—”

“I’ll take you home,” Billy offered. “I need an excuse to get out of here anyway.” Before you could argue any further, Billy slung his arm around your shoulders and led the way outside.

As the two of you trekked across the parking lot to where his Camaro was parked on top of the hill, you were grateful for how close Billy was—you could lean on him for support whenever the need arose, which proved to be quite often.

Billy made sure to help you into the passenger seat—“Watch where you put your hands, Hargrove”—but as he was climbing into the car himself, he looked to you with an air of seriousness. “You better not puke in here,” he warned. “If you do, you’re cleaning it up.”

“I’m not gonna puke.” You hoped that was true because you knew Billy well enough by now to know that he wasn’t kidding, and you didn’t feel like scrubbing your own throw up out of his car’s upholstery.

As the Camaro pulled out onto the main road, you could feel your eyelids growing heavy. At some point, you must’ve drifted off because by the time Billy’s car came to a stop in front of your house, he glanced over to find you fast asleep. Billy yanked his keys out of the ignition and got out with a heavy sigh. As he bent down to scoop you up, he grumbled about how you were going to give him whatever the hell was plaguing you. He concluded with, “Be glad you’re cute,” before kicking the car door shut and walking up the driveway.

Once inside, Billy dumped you onto the couch in the living room. He stepped back and stared at you for a moment with crossed arms as he tried to assess the situation. What had he gotten himself into? He didn’t know the first thing about taking care of sick people—he avoided sick people, mainly because he couldn’t be bothered with them, not to mention how gross they were. You were different, though, and Billy mentally kicked himself for feeling that way. All this trouble just to get you to like him? It was a new low.

When you awoke, you were surprised to find yourself inside your house with a blanket thrown across you, alongside Billy, who was sitting on the other end of the couch with your feet in his lap. You couldn’t remember having walked in—maybe that cough medicine was still messing with your head—and you hadn’t expected Billy to stick around. You had assumed he’d drop you off and then be on his merry way. As far as you could tell, he wasn’t exactly a nurturer. At the very least, you doubted this was how he wanted to be spending his time away from school.

As soon as Billy felt you stirring, he glanced over tentatively and caught sight of you staring at him. He raised his eyebrows in question. “What?” he asked.

You shrugged. “I didn’t expect you to still be here,” you answered.

Billy looked almost offended at this. “And leave my favorite girl to die alone? I would never.”

A small laugh escaped your chapped lips. “I’m not dying,” you said, poking Billy’s knee with the toe of your sneaker. “At least, I won’t be once I take the right medicine.” You must’ve slept off the effects of the cough syrup your mom had given you—you were no longer insufferably tired, which was a plus, but the congestion in your head had culminated into a headache, and it had brought a side of chills with it. You swung your legs over the side of the couch and were about to get up when Billy stopped you.

“No,” Billy said, pushing you back down. “I’ll get it.”

You told Billy where the bathroom was and what to grab—“Aspirin’s fine”—then he disappeared down the hallway branching off of your living room. You were no expert on what the average time should’ve been for completing such a task, but after several minutes had passed and Billy still hadn’t returned, you started to wonder what was taking so long.

The answer to your silent question came in the form of Billy irritably yelling, “Y/N, why do you have so much shit in here?”

Grumbling, you rose from your spot on the couch and shuffled into the bathroom. “What do you mean?” you asked.

Billy turned to find you standing at his elbow, wrapped up in a blanket somewhat reminiscent of the way E.T. had been in the flying bike scene. Only your pouting face protruded from the folds of fabric. The blond couldn’t help cracking a smile at your appearance—comical, yet undeniably cute—and just like that, he had forgotten what it was that had caused your sudden presence.

You took no time jogging Billy’s memory. “It’s right there,” you said, your eyes resting on a bottle sitting on the bottom shelf of your medicine cabinet. A moment later, your hand poked through the blanket and seized the small container. You bumped Billy out of the way as you popped a pill into your mouth and stepped in front of the sink to pour yourself a glass of water. By the time you’d swallowed, he was gone.

“Billy?” you called, stepping out of the bathroom.

Billy’s voice came from somewhere down the hall, saying, “Holy shit, Y/N, is this your room?”

You appeared behind Billy in an instant, latching onto his arm and giving it a tug. “Oh, my God,” you said, your face burning. “Don’t go in there. It’s a mess!”

Being the sort of person that likes to do the exact opposite of what he’s told, Billy easily pulled free from your grasp and wandered inside. He was like a kid in a candy shop as he admired the things lining your shelves—trinkets, books, records, and the like—with wide eyes. Bedrooms tell a lot about the person to whom they belong, and boy, was Billy learning about you.

“And, who is this?” Billy asked with a devious smile as he picked up the faded brown teddy bear that had been lodged between the pillows on your bed.

Groaning, you buried your face in your hands, the soft fabric of the blanket covering your eyes. You wished the floor would open up and swallow you whole. If you had known that Billy Hargrove, of all people, was going to be in your room later, you would’ve made an effort that morning to clean up a bit—at the very least, you would’ve hidden anything embarrassing.

You risked a peek up at Billy, but he wasn’t where you’d last seen him. Instead, he’d moved over to your dresser and was rummaging through its drawers. How typical, you thought with a roll of your eyes. I look away for one second, and already, he’s trying to find my underwear.

Billy achieved his goal, too—you could tell by the cheeky grin on his face. His gaze cut over to you, then back down to the contents of the drawer in front of him, nodding thoughtfully all the while. He was about to pull something out, but you intervened—extending an arm, you slammed the wooden compartment shut, and if Billy hadn’t been so quick to pull his hands out of the way, he would’ve gotten his fingers smashed.

“That’s enough of that,” you said, grabbing Billy’s hand and dragging him back into the living room.

“You’re no fun,” Billy complained.

Both of you returned to your spots on the couch in moody silence. You tried to cross your arms, but you stopped abruptly when you realized that your fingers were still entwined with Billy’s. Blushing, you glanced down at your hands, then up at him, however, he didn’t seem to be paying you any mind. He was facing the wall directly opposite the couch with his eyes closed.

“What are you doing?” you asked.

Billy raised an eyebrow in acknowledgment. “Trying to picture you in that underwear,” he stated simply, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.

You snatched your hand away to shove him with it. “You’re the worst, Billy Hargrove,” you said, but you couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped your mouth afterward.

“Damn it, Y/N,” Billy said. “I can’t concentrate with you giggling like that.”

“Good!” you remarked, nose held in the air as you squinted tauntingly at Billy.

Despite the two of you constantly teasing each other, you actually felt substantially better by the time Billy left your house that afternoon to pick Max up from school. He may not have been a doctor in the making, but where he lacked in nurturing qualities, he made up for with playful flirting and good company, and as they say, laughter’s the best medicine. You thought your troubles were over until you woke up the next morning to the sound of your phone ringing.

“Hello?”

You were answered with a sneeze from the other end of the line, followed by a hoarse voice saying, “This is your fault.”

“Aw, Billy, are you sick?” you asked, feigning surprise as you bit back a chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m sick,” Billy whined. “Get over here and fix it.”

“What’s the magic word?”

Another sneeze, then, “Now.”

And your mom thought you were dramatic when you were sick. As if.

[hardskz]

[ 10:46 pm ] “god, i’ve been hard all day.” the words come out as a hoarse sigh and cause more adrenaline to run through your veins, as if the blindfold covering your sight wasn’t enough. you fist the sheets even tighter and suppress a moan when a third digit is circling around your rim. “think you can handle a third finger, baby?”

you were absolutely hooked on the idea when felix brought up his liking to having a threesome. you were surprised but should’ve seen it coming when he said he knew a guy who was open to this idea too. you only took it with a grain of salt when said guy was his close friend chan who also happened to be a global fucking superstar sporting two million followers on twitter and a large herd of fans thirsting over him. 

“his only condition is that he doesn’t want you to see his face,” felix told you, which made you raise eyebrows. “i promise you though, it really is him.”

you didn’t think anything good would jump out. maybe mystery guy had some kind of inferiority complex and was into roleplaying as other people? who the fuck knows. you didn’t set any high expectations going into this predicament. 

but oh boy. oh boy.

you haven’t seen his face (or his body) even once, but the confidence dripping from his voice has you rubbing your thighs together. you’ve heard this voice too many times on the radio and on tv — no doubt that he really is chan. the australian accent that seems to ring more prominent in this setting doesn’t help either. nor does his significantly bigger hands than felix’s.

“he asked you a question, baby,” felix rasps, his hot breath fanning against your neck. he presses a thumb on your bottom lip, causing you to swallow thickly before squeaking out a weak “yeah”.

not even a heartbeat later, chan pushes a third digit into you. your voice breaks and the borderline pornographic moan following suit has felix’s breath hitching, yet you don’t find it within you to care. chan seems to be impressed by your responsiveness and lets out an airy chuckle. “god, you’re so tight but it looks like you want to be filled up even more, hm?” the words are so filthy that you can’t help but moan.

taking advantage of your parted lips, felix muffles your voice as he shoves three fingers past them. “ssh, the walls aren’t soundproof. we don’t want our neighbors to hear you and barge in with the complaints, do we? don’t want anyone disturbing us, do we?” the sensation of you being stuffed in every way possible and the lack of vision has your head spinning, and you arch your back when both of them speed up their thrusts.

“you’re so filthy, baby. do you even know how pathetic you look right now?” felix starts, groaning as you eagerly suck on his fingers. “bet you’re about to cry because it feels so good. you’re almost there, aren’t you?”

“my my, you’re a selfish one,” chan adds, just as he curls his fingers and hits your nerves with full force, drawing a muffled cry from you. “all you’ve done is just lie there and take it while we’re the ones doing the work and yet you’re still about to come first?”

the words hold some truth to them. your response is garbled around felix’s fingers. a hand detaches from the sheets and slowly reaches down, but before you can get any further, chan grabs your wrist and plants it right beside your hip. “if you’re already coming first, you’re going to come untouched.”

before you can interject, he speeds up his movements, fingers thrusting in and out of you in a frantic pace and curling up in all the right places. meanwhile, felix pulls his fingers out before his mouth latches onto yours for a kiss. except, it’s more of a clash of teeth and tongues and drool leaking out of the corners of your lips. it’s too much for you to process at once, and the next thing you do process, felix swallows your cries up whole as you come undone while chan keeps pounding your nerves until you finish riding out your high.

felix detaches himself from you to catch some air. your heartbeat is still banging against your ribcage as you sink into the aftereffects of your orgasm. chan is about to pull out too but comes to a standstill when you place your hand on his wrist. “n-not... yet...” you cringe at how broken your voice comes out, but decide to suck it up.

confusion is laced in chan’s tone. “pardon, what?”

“want... m-more...”

it’s silent for a moment. another silence after felix breathes out a wary “like right now? are you sure?” and then chan speaks up.

“fucking hell, you’re such a greedy slut. fine then, whatever you want, you will gladly get.”

[theright-sideofme]

The Healer. Kang Yeosang

Prince Yeosang x healer fem!reader WC: 2.6k Warnings: Mentions of death and violence

10 years ago

     The forest surrounding the castle was off limits to prince Yeosang. His father had warned him about the dangers in the forest: Thieves and barbarians, werewolves and vampires, and worst of all, witches. Yeosang had promised his father he would never enter the forest alone under any circumstances. However, teenage rebellion was a right of passage, and after the fight he had gotten into with his father today, the only thing on his mind was braving the forest alone. So without thinking, he ran, he ran out of the great hall and through the castle garden, he ran straight into the forest, where he continued to run until he stumbled upon a little white cottage. What was a quaint little cottage doing here?

     The cottage door swung open and Yeosang froze. A girl around his age came bouncing out of it, the large smile on her face dropping as soon as she saw Yeosang. Fear flashed across in her eyes right before they started welling up with tears, she was afraid of him? “I’m not going to hurt you” Yeosang reassured, slowly holding up his hands to show he meant no harm. “Who are you” she asked as bravely as she could. “I’m Yeosang, and you are” “... Y/n” “it’s nice to meet you Y/n. May I ask why you’re out here” Y/n looked at him as if he had asked the stupidest question ever, “I could ask you the same thing” she shot back defensively. It was not going to be easy to get her to warm up to him. “Well, I’m just out on a stroll” he shrugged gently with a smile. She raised her brow at him, skeptical. “I live here.”

Present

     “Y/n, I got that herb you were talking about” Yeosang announces as he lets himself into the familiar cottage. “Angelica” Y/n asked, jumping off her latter to make her way over to Yeosang. “I’m pretty sure that’s the one” Yeosang handed Y/n the bag and watched as her face lit up, “Yeosang, you absolute angel” she squealed, hugging him tightly before running off to ground it up. “What’s this for anyways” “a mother in the village needs something for her sick son and the healer’s trying to charge her an arm and a leg for it.” Yeosang hummed in response. Y/n was a kind soul, she just couldn’t say no to helping people. When they first met, despite Y/n’s apprehensions, she gave him a warm meal and a place to stay for the night (It was too dark to walk home in the dark) before helping him find his way back.

     “You know the castle could use a new healer” he said, “ your father would hang me for witchcraft before hiring me to be the castles healer.” Yeosang sighed, she was right of course, women weren’t allowed to be healers, at least not in this kingdom. Yeosang still couldn’t help but ask, as much as he liked the time he gets away from the castle when he comes to visit, he started to realize something as he got older; seeing her once every two weeks wasn’t enough, he wanted to see her everyday. 

     Yeosang watched her work in her little kitchen, asking questions so he could understand what she was doing. She patiently answered every question, even showing him exactly how everything was done.

She would be lying if she said she didn’t like his company. At first she was apprehensive of him, thinking he was another witch hunter, she thought he was going to kill her how the last ones killed her parents. But he was kind and showed her he wasn’t a threat.

*Flash Back*

     “You’re back” Y/n said in surprise as she watch Yeosang walk up to her small little cottage with a basket in his hand. “I told you I would be” he said simply with a large smile on his face. Once he reach Y/n he held out the basket, earning a weird look from the girl, “it’s a gift, for helping me, open it.” Y/n couldn’t keep the smile off her face, a gift? Opening up the hatch, Y/n’s eyebrows furrowed together as she pulled out a small white box. She looked up at Yeosang who just nodded to her, telling her to open it. So she did, “Yeosang-” she looked up at him with a bright smile, he’d remembered.

“A pumpkin pastry, they may not be as good as your mother's, but I figured it was worth a shot.” It had been a late night discussion during his first visit here, she had told him about the pumpkin pastries her mother used to make, and how much she missed them. Never did she think he would remember something a silly and small as that. Carefully placing the pastry back into the basket, Y/n latched herself onto him. “Thank you” she giggled into his chest, sending butterflies straight to Yeosang’s stomach. “I-it’s just a pastry, don’t thank me” “but-” “it’s fine Y/n” he laughed, pulling away to see her still smiling brightly. “Well what are you waiting for, go on, eat.”

*End of Flashback*

     Y/n smiled at the memory as she carefully bottled up the medicine and gently placed it in her bag, alongside a loaf of bread and some berries. “All that for a sick child?” “No, the loaf’s for Hongjoong, he promised me a bowl of his mothers onion soup if I brought him some rosemary bread.” Nodding, Yeosang helped her into her coat after she slipped on her shoes. “Why don’t I come with you, I haven’t been to the village in ages” “and what would people say if they saw me wondering around town with the prince” “I’ll be sneaky” he joked as he wrapped her scarf around his head. The small laugh that left her lips caused him to smile, he quite liked her laugh, and he definitely liked being the cause of it. “You can come on one condition” “anything” “you have to bring me a pumpkin pasty next time you come to visit” “easy enough, now come on, let’s go.” Y/n laughed as he dragged her out of her home, eager to get to the village.

-----

     Yeosang looked around the village with wide eyes, it had changed quite a bit since he had last been here as a boy. There were many more buildings and even more street stalls. The smell of freshly cook pork nearly dragged him away from Y/n’s side. He never understood why his father hated coming to the village, it was so much more lively than the castle: children ran through the streets, people conversing and laughing, everyone, young and old dancing in the village square. Yeosang wished he could live a life like this. 

     “Yeosang, come on, I don’t need you getting lost” Y/n sighed as she tugged on his sleeve. Yeosang just looked down at her with the brightest smile, and she could’ve sworn her heart jumped. “This place is amazing!” Y/n stared at him, admiring his childlike happiness and the sparkle in his eye. She found herself entranced by his beauty just like she had countless time before, and each time she was left breathless.

She took in a deep breath and smiled, “I know your excited, how about this, you go get something to eat from one of the stalls while I drop this off, and we’ll meet in the village square in 10 minutes?” Yeosang shook his head, catching her off guard, she was sure he would want to explore on his own a bit. 

     “I want to stay with you” just when she thought he couldn’t prod his way any further into her heart, he goes and says something like that. “Okay then, come on.” Yeosang grabbed her head and gestured for her to lead the way, and she did, quickly turning away to hide the blush on her face as she lead him to the house.

     As they were walking towards the house, Y/n noticed some palace guards making their way into town. The atmosphere had changed almost instantly, everyone quieted down, the music stopped, and the children quickly disappeared. Y/n quickly pulled up her hood and encouraged Yeosang to do the same. 

     Yeosang had noticed the shift as well, it was impossible not to. He wonder why everything had changed so fast. Was it the guards? It couldn’t have been. Oh how naïve he was.

      The head guard made his way over to a old man, they whispered amongst themselves for a few seconds and the air only seemed to get thicker. Y/n’s grip tightened around Yeosang’s hand as she tried to get him to hurry. 

     “What’s going on” Yeosang asked quietly as he quickened his strides to keep up with Y/n. “Weekly inspection” the dreaded part of every villagers week. Y/n had only been in the village once during an inspection, and she did not like it one bit. She made an effort to avoid the weekly inspections, but unfortunately, they were random. The guards would come down to the village and ransack houses and shops, anything ‘incriminating’ would get confiscated and anyone could get arrested for anything.

     Yeosang turned to look at the guards once more, only to see them throwing the old man off his patio. “Hey-” Yeosang was quickly shut up by Y/n yanking his down to her height. “Don’t, please” she practically begged in a small voice. “They’re hurting him” “They hurt everyone, we can’t stop them, please Yeosang” “I can-” “You can what? If they find out your here you’ll never be allowed to leave the palace again” “I can't just let these people get hurt” Y/n took a deep breath and looked up at him, her heart beating out of control the longer she stood where anyone could see. “Then at least wait for me to be gone” “what?” “Please.” He looked down at her and the tears in her eyes- she was scared, she was scared of his men- no, his father’s men. He was going to fix this, but first- “go, quickly.” Y/n thanked him quietly before running down the street and quickly disappearing down a alley.

     Once Y/n was out of sight, Yeosang ran over to the guards who were now restraining a mother to keep her from the guards who were taking her child. “Stop!” Yeosang commanded in such a deep voice that everyone froze. The guards looked over, wondering who in their right mind would talk to them like that. 

“P-Prince Yeosang” “let them go.” The guards stood frozen, allowing the mother and child free. “What- does you’re father know your here” “does my father know you beat on innocent towns people” “he does actually, we’re simply acting on his orders.” What? His father ordered this? His felt repulsed, how could anyone be so cruel? Shaking his thoughts away, he walked over to the guards “We’re leaving, now” “yes sir.” All the guards mounted their horse, one guard giving up his horse for Yeosang. And as he rode out of the village with thoughts of what he would say to his father. All of his thoughts were interrupted when a poster with a familiar face on it caught his eye.

      Wanted: Y/n Y/l/n for the charges of witchcraft and heresy of the crown.

     Now he understood.

-----

     When Yeosang returned to the palace, his father was furious. He yelled at him for being irresponsible, for interfering with his direct orders, and he forbade him from ever leaving the castle again. 

     “You were having innocent people beaten for taxes?!” “You have no right to question me” “I have every right to question you! You want me to be king, to rule in your footsteps, well I won’t! I won’t be another tyrant” “you watch your mouth boy” “or what, you’ll have me beaten to” “don’t tempt me.”

     As the two men continued to scream at each other, the doors to the great hall were opened. “What is the meaning of this, can’t you see I’m speaking with my son” the king spat at his guards. “Yes your majesty, and we’re deeply sorry, but we found someone trying to escape during the inspection and we thought you would like to know who it is.” Yeosang felt his whole body tense up, his mind wandering to one place- well person-Y/n. “Why would I care about some commoner trying to run-” “It’s her your majesty.” The king’s mood seemed to instantly change as a cheshire like grin spread across his face. Yeosang, however, felt horrible, her? Who’s her? He felt like he could throw up any moment. “Bring her to me” “yes sir.” Yeosang’s whole body was on edge as he waited for the guards- God why were they taking so long!

     Everything felt like it was set to 100. The sound of foot step accompanied by the clanging of metal armor rung in Yeosang’s ears. Finally, a figure appeared at the door. He wanted to look, every nerve in his body was screaming at him to look, but he couldn’t. What if it was her? What could he do? He didn’t want to look and see her terrified face, not again, not when there was nothing he could do to help her.

     “Y/n Y/l/n-” No. Yeosang’s head snapped up, his eyes immediately landing on her glossy, red eyes. “-you have been a tough one have you?” Silence hung in the air like a swinging blade. Y/n stared at the floor, taking in a deep breath as she prepared herself to speak. “I’ll tell you as I told your men, I’m a healer, not a witch.” The king let out a hearty chuckle, a chuckle that let Y/n knew that there was no hope for her life. She blinked slowly as she tried to accept her fate, the tears that had welled up in her eyes now falling down her cheeks effortlessly. One after another they fell from her face and onto the cold, hard ground. 

“Take her to the dungeons, she’ll be the villages entertainment for tomorrow” “No.” Yeosang spoke before he could think. He couldn’t help it, watching her stand there so hopeless and then hearing her father talk about her as if she was some play thing for his amusement- he never felt such anger before. 

     “No? No! Don’t you question me boy! If I say she’ll hang, she’ll hang!” “No! What proof do have to convict her of any crime” “Boy are you dense! I’m the king, that’s all I need to convict someone- Take her away, Now!.” The guard yanked her by her arms and Yeosang felt the urge to run and punch them for being so rough with her. How dare they? Yeosang turned to his father, his face red and his breathing heavy as this burning anger ravaged his body “If you kill her, I’ll kill you. That’s a promise” and with that, he stormed out of the throne room.

-----

     “Y/n? Y/n are you down here” “I’m here” Y/n called out as she made her way over to the cell bars. Yeosang was quick to meet her there, their hands locking through to gaps of the bars. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?” “I’m okay” “are you sure” “yes Yeosang, I’m sure” she said as she smiled sweetly at him.

     After being overwhelmed by everything today, Yeosang finally felt safe enough to let it all out. Hot tears fell from his eyes as a sob wracked his body. Why was his father so cruel? Why was she being punished for it? Why did he feel so helpless? Y/n squeezed his hand tighter, wishing that this bars would evaporate and she could pull him into her arms.

      She knew her time on this Earth was coming to an end, but her mother always taught her to have hope. She wondered what good hope was in a situation like this? But when she looked at Yeosang, she couldn’t help but have hope, he was her best friend, she couldn’t leave him, not like this.

     “Hey, don’t cry, you act like I’m dying” Yeosang looked up, obviously not amused by her joke. “I’m serious, I’m not leaving you” “good, because I wasn’t going to let you.” Y/n smiled as he seemed to calm down a little, his breathing slowly returning back to normal as the tears slowed down. 

     Yeosang stared at her, admiring every bit of her as if he would never see her again, he was totally and utterly in love. He finally admitted it to himself, he was in love with Y/n Y/l/n. A weight felt as if it had been lifted as a small chuckle left his lips. “Y/n” “yes” she asked, a bit confused by the sudden change in his demeanor. “I love you.” As shocked as she wanted to be, she wasn’t, because deep down, she already knew. “I love you too” she mumbled quietly as her head rested against the bars. A sigh of relief left his lips as he tightened his grip on her hands, “promise me you’ll stay alive” “Yeosang-” “promise me” and she did, she promised that she would stay alive, despite knowing she may never see him again after tonight.

[capri-ramblings]

I don’t know if you’re still doing requests but if so, I reallly liked the not wanting a child one with Vil Leona and Malleus. Could you do it with Lilia, Rook, Azul, Floyd, and riddle? If you have time? If that’s too many people than just Azul, Rook and lilia. Only if you’re able to. Thank you. Have a nice day. 💖💖💖

Oh boi this was challenge but I love how it turned out! Sometimes when writing dialogues for the boys,I hear their Japanese voices and the struggle of needing to find the English equivalent to that hurts my braincells 😂😂 I'm looking at you, Floyd (눈‸눈) Lmao but really,I enjoyed writing this, so thank you for requesting this! Hope you all like it as much as I do ♥️ imsorryriddlegotangstyandimblackbutlertrash

Warning; Toxic relationships and mentions of physical abuse

Lilia Vanrouge

- He's planned this the moment he realized he wanted to be with you! Children are a hassle, true, but the thought of being the father to your child made Lilia want to run in circles.

- He was aware of how you often avoided the question though,and unlike Malleus, he was more patient as he slipped in small hints and tested the waters. Seeing which part of the topic took you off.

- Lilia, ancient and wise, believed that if he pushed you the wrong way, nothing good would come out of it. You'd be unhappy and an unhappy mother would lead to an unhappy child, and that's the last thing he'd want.

- Lilia sees the image of him standing beside you with your three children almost every single time he looks at you, and he knows happiness is key!

- So,he pampers you and he studies you. Every single reaction you give him, he digests it then analyses it and finally forms an approach.

- The two of you were in his manor's library when he went into the conversation, and as he expected you were trying to divert the whole topic.

- "I'm practically a child myself, I don't think I can handle such a responsibility...I'm sorry,Lilia" You hung your head low,averting his gaze when he came up beside you.

- Lilia was always hard to read. He wore the exact same expression most of the time and even when he's in a whole other mood, it doesn't show.

- When he intertwined your fingers with his though, a slight sense of relief washed over you and a small smile curved on your lips when Lilia pecked your cheek.

- "But little lantern, having small candles beaming through the manor would be pleasant in a way wouldn't it? I'd especially spend more time here with them" His voice was so soothing then, you could never have sensed the sourness in it at all. The way he simply and casually carried his aloof air around you, and had you feeling a sensational warmth from the way his hand held yours.

- You were clueless to the fact he was spinning you into a web. One you'd never be able to escape from.

- "And think of the things you could teach them about your world! Or how anyone can do anything despite having no magic"

- "Doesn't that bother you though? Our children not having magic?"

- The word 'Our' perked his ears. Lilia smiled, feigning an innocence you were too naive to see was rehearsed.

- "It doesn't. Any child from you is magic already."

- "You say that, but you could have children as strong as Malleus if I wasn't a simple human"

- Ah, that's when Lilia's plans ticked perfectly.

- "It's because you're human I want to have children with you,little lantern"

- "I'm here with you now because despite being considered someone defenceless against mages, you've proved yourself to be just as capable as the next student, even more so actually! You're a mystery,my love bird. Don't you see that?"

- You didn't. Of course not. You came from a place where magic was a fairytale, nothing but fiction. Twisted Wonderland was a place you had to struggle even more to be able to have your own footing and none of your trials were easy.

- He saw you as someone so special despite that? Your heart clenched at his words.

- And that's how he gets to you. He doesn't try it once and forces you into it when you refuse. No, Lilia simply keeps pushing.

- He'll make you feel as if you were no different to him or the other Twisted Wonderland residents who wielded powers you can't.

- His words would coo in your head whenever you doubted that a child of yours would do well in this version of the world.

- "They'll have you as a mother after all. Strong and reliable,they won't have any problems you couldn't fix!"

- "Bullied? You wouldn't allow such a thing in the first place"

- "Imagine them having eyes just like yours. Maybe then you'd be able to see how fiery your spirit is!"

- Lilia knows you all too well. Your lack of joy when talking about children came from the fact you were afraid you couldn't be good at it. Poor thing, being constantly dogged at by Crowley to run errands that drained you with exhaustion and confronting people who thought magic made them powerful. It's no wonder you feel numb from it.

- Oh,but no worries. His plan is perfect, and plays well for both of you.

- You don't want a child because you feared it being neglected? He'll just change that image of yours.

- On the day, you wake up to the sound of a baby crying and realized it was simply from a dream, you swear you've never felt so empty before. So, incomplete.

- Lilia doesn't bring up the subject of children for a while and it makes you anxious. Did he not want them anymore? Did your constant refusal made him give up on that? Give up on you?

- Your thoughts would run wild until you find yourself wrapping your arms around Lilia, teary eyed and apologizing as if the words had been burned into your throat and you desperately wanted it out before you lost your voice.

- And Lilia being the ever so gentle,ever so understanding lover, would hold you. Cooing to you as he plays with your hair softly.

- He'll ask you what was wrong, the hue in his gaze shifting when you stare deeply into them and you'll shed tears.

- "It's okay,my sweet" He coos, smiling, despite your sorrow weighing down the room. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

- Lilia takes the long route to having children but it's all worth the wait when he sees you smiling lovingly at the newborn child in your arms as you gesture to the five year old next to you to come see their younger sibling.

- "Mommy,look, same eyes as you!" Cheered the child, and you perk up at the sight. Lilia was right, children were perfect remedies to a tired soul.

Azul Ashengrotto

- The thought of children,at first, terrified him. It'd be like trying to leash two more Floyds, wouldn't it? But then Jade mentioned that having children was similar to having a contract and something just clicked in his head.

- If he impregnated you, it'd be harder to run from him, right? And when he was truly a father then you'd have to look up to him to care for both you and the child, right?

- Of course! How didn't he see this sooner? What a fool.

- Azul would be hellbent on wanting a child and he'd try his hands at it multiple times, and was equally disappointed each time since all you ever did was refuse.

- "Kids are too hard to handle. We'd both be busy, and I don't think even Jade would have time to juggle them around when we can't." You sounded so bitter, so disapproving. It made Azul feel all dejected, as if you were just disgusted at the thought of having his seed inside of you.

- From then on,Azul starts to mope. His cool composure slips from time to time and it gets too often that Jade has to handle most of the clients. He'll pull a face when you ask him what's wrong and harshly tells you to leave him alone

- He's hurt,but he doesn't want to say it and he frustratingly tries to wrap his head around a plan to make his desire come true, playing out multiple routes in his mind to find a weak spot he could probe you with.

- "Why don't you want a child?" Azul asked you this right after closing Mostro Lounge. There's a hint of sorrow in his blue gaze when you come to meet it, and you wonder if you were too blunt with your answer.

- You shifted on your feet, something you did out of habit, and Azul took note of how out of place you seemed.

- "Cause I don't think either of us are ready?" You answer and in a split second, Azul's sorrow sharpened into irritation and you could just feel how badly that answer set him off.

- "Was that supposed to be an answer or a question?"

- "Azul, I don't want to fight over this." You reach out a hand to place on his shoulder, but he slapped it away with surprising speed and the hit leaves you slightly stunned. He'd never hit you before.

- "It's someone else isn't it?" He asked, almost a murmur. The way his gaze seemed to latch onto you then gave off an unsettling feeling.

- "You're seeing someone else,aren't you? That's why you don't want to have kids with me."

- "Azul,what are you—"

- He moved swiftly, but when his hands came to grip you by your shoulders, his nails sunk into your skin and his lips snarled at you.

- "Who is it? Tell me or I can't promise I won't hurt you right now." His rage practically frothed and you found no words to compensate for your lack of comprehension of the situation.

- "I don't care if it's Jade or Floyd. I'll take out anyone who wants to take you away from me!"

- Your lips parted,to speak perhaps, but Azul silenced you with his spiteful stare.

- "You're mine, aren't you? Why won't you just admit it? Why won't you just accept me already?"

- You thought the pain was from the words he threw at you; Sharp it resembled a hit from a whip,but then your vision had blurred and you were coughing up dry air it made your lungs hurt to take in anymore. Then you felt something run down the side of your lips, and only then did you realized Azul had thrown you right across the room and the wall collided against your body.

- There was a scream, so filled with frustration it wrecked your entire being you had to curl up in a ball before a strangled whimper came from your lips.

- "You're taking everything from me" Azul said, his still gaze watching your crumpled form. He sounded distant as if he wasn't really there, yet when he came over to cup your face with his hands, he had felt so real it hurt to look.

- You were so broken in his grasp then, he was sure you didn't even know where such anger came from, then again Azul was always aware of how reluctant you were in your relationship. You were with him only because he stirred you up in a contract. You never really did loved him as much as he loves you.

- The rising pleasure of being able to make you go through at least a portion of the pain he had to go through was surprisingly pleasant to have.

- He laughed before pulling your face close to his,nose almost touching. "Look how beautiful you are when you don't run your mouth or fight back", the words came in a coo yet you shivered from it.

- "I could make us the happiest couple in the world,you know. Our children would be the best among the best." Azul placed a lingering kiss on your lips, the scent of your blood edging him on. When you weakly tried to pull away, he gripped harder and bit your cheek until it bled and you were letting out small whimpers.

- "Don't cry,my sweet small seashell. If it hurts, I'm here for you. I'll make everything okay again. So, stop crying,I don't want our night of conceiving to be filled with tears."

Rook Hunt

- "Little Lamb, aren't you well enough to give me children?"

- You were merrily drinking tea when this question came out of the blue.

- Rook stood behind the chaise you were sitting on, his arms gracefully enveloping you in an embrace as his breath grazed your skin. He smelled of the forest right after rain, and his words left you rather stunned.

- "In the letter I received from Vil, he and his small hare were planning on having children of their own", he bent down slightly, enough to place a kiss on your cheek before he went around the chaise and faced you. The smile he wore rivalled the morning sun itself.

- You tried to collect your thoughts, tried to piece up the right words to tell him that you simply did not want children. In the end though,you decided it was better to just come out and say it.

- "Rook—"

- "Yes,my love?" His eyes seemed to beam, and Rook's eyes always beamed but this time, it was as if he had been playing the scene of your children running around the halls of his manor the entire day. Mesmerized was the word you'd use to describe it. Your chest tightened at the thought of breaking that dream of his. But you had to tell him...This was something you truly didn't want.

- "I don't want children,Rook." Blunt and precise, the words came from you without hesitation, and in that piercing second that held the room in silence, Rook felt his heart sank into the metallic jaws of disappointment. A mighty bear caught in the savage claws of man's horrid trap.

- He blinked. Once, then twice. By the third blink, you were already regretting your refusal and desperately searched for a way to amend for it.

- Unfortunately for you,Rook had already taken great damage, and as a result, he completely shrugged off your comment.

- "It would be splendid, wouldn't it? I would teach our sons to hunt and our little princess would have an entire garden built for her!"

- "Rook, didn't you hear—"

- "Yes! I can see it already! Our family would be such a joy to have!"

- You stood up then, exasperated by how delusional he sounded. You knew he didn't like the answer you gave him but to just pretend as if he hadn't listen! Just when you were about to turn on your heels to speak your mind,Rook stood as well, swiftly without a sound, and with the strength of a seasoned hunter he gripped you firmly by the waist and hoisted you up into the air.

- Your scream lodged in your throat and blood rushed to your head. Instinctively you held onto his hands, but when your eyes finally locked onto his, the deep-set emerald of his gaze turned luscious and vicious all at the same time and your words lost their volume.

- His lips curled, deliberately coy. When he lowered you and pressed your lips against his, your body flinched.

- "You'll give me good children,won't you?", he murmured before another kiss stole your breath again.

- "My precious dove, you'll make a fine mother."

Floyd Leech

- "Nee,nee, little shrimp,let's have kids,okay?" Floyd threw his arms around you as casually as always but the words he had said with the same amount of casualness was what staggered you on your feet.

- His sharp teeth bared,lips pulled into a grin, Floyd eyed you with great interest.

- You returned it with a terrified look.

- "No." You blurted out before even thinking, and Floyd frowned faster than he had grinned.

- "Why?" Flat and practically monotonous, his question sent a chill down your spine and you bit your lip out of habit.

- Floyd had always been unpredictable, mostly because he acted on how he felt rather than thinking it through first, and that's how you saw this whole situation. Maybe someone had said something, or maybe he met up with Cheka and somehow thought it would be nice to have kids, but he didn't really meant it. Right?

- "Nee,why don't you want kids?" He repeated his question, inching closer to you as you tried to avoid any physical trigger that would set him off. The mer-male had a tendency to bully you whenever you showed him any hint of feeling inferior to him, and that often ended with Jade having to tend to the 'love marks' he left behind on your body.

- "Why do you want kids anyway?" You shot back, minding how your tone sounded while still seeming firm. "They take up a lot of time you know? I'd have to pay more attention to them than to you"

- At the statement, Floyd arched his brows. The distant look in his eyes told you he was having a thought before his expression turned lax.

- "That's okay, I'll be there anyways so it's no big deal"

- "What?"

- "Hm? I'm telling you it's okay,little shrimp. Even Jade said he'd help around if it gets too much"

- He snaked his arms around your waist,pulling you real close to his chest until he could squeeze you tight.

- "It'll be fun,won't it?"

- Your body reacted before you could even comprehend anything, and it was only after you heard the dull thud of Floyd's back hitting the wall did you realized you had pushed him away.

- "You pushed me" He said this so softly, you thought you only heard it in your head but then he lifted his gaze and the mismatched orbs held such malice, your stomach lurched.

- "Floyd,I'm sorry...I didn't mean it, I just—"

- "Shut up. You're really pissing me off. " He elicited the words,each enunciation cut into sharp edges of glass scraping against your skin you wanted to close your eyes and run away from the whole thing.

- But with Floyd,if you ran, it meant you'd already lost.

- "What's with you? I ask all nicely and hug you and stuff, and you're pushing me? Jade said you didn't like kids but I told him that if it was with me you'd definitely say yes, cause after all, you're my little shrimp right?"

- You opened your mouth to speak, to say anything to avoid him having a tantrum, but Floyd let out a low growl and cut you off before you could.

- "Ah,I'm annoyed now. You should've just said yes but now...Now,I want you to come here"

- He opened his arms, the look in his eyes a spiral of aggression that shredded through your nerves.

- "I said come here,___, or you're gonna make me even more angry"

- You hated the way your body reacted to him. How it felt like you were a ghost in your own body as you watched yourself obey him.

- The coldness of his embrace had tears brimming your eyes and you pressed your face into his chest as if it was an instinct. An instinct to protect yourself.

- Floyd eased into your desperation, arms closing around you as he held you in his grasp. He was smiling but it was bland and it was meant to scare you.

- "Aha, you're crying! Aw,did you think I was gonna hurt you,little shrimp?"

- You shook your head,hands gripping onto his shirt as Floyd patted your head playfully.

- "Ah,it's cause you went and made me mad, right? Hahaha! You're a funny one,little shrimp. Always getting yourself into things you can't handle"

- Floyd then cupped your face with both hands, a feverishly possessive look in his eyes.

- "But,If you're really sorry you'll have to show me,okay?"

Riddle Roseheart

- Funnily enough,the suggestion of having children was brought up by Cater, and it had taken both you and Riddle off guard.

- Though, unlike you, Riddle saw it as an enlightenment. He adores you and acknowledges you to a great degree and so when the thought of being a father to your child crossed his mind, everything changed for him.

- "Children would be nice" He said,voice a soft lull as he nuzzled into the crook of your neck. The two of you had been laying on his bed all day, Riddle claiming his fellow dormmates had made his day stressful as always.

- You were running your fingers through his hair when his question struck a cord in you,yet you opted to keep your thoughts to yourself.

- Riddle was a rather conflicting partner to have. Unlike the other yanderes, he wasn't at all aggressive or wholly dominant when he began his recession of obsessive love for you, at least not all the time. When Riddle admitted his feelings for you, he had laid himself bare.

- Gentle but clingy, he latched himself onto you as if you were stitched together, and due to the lack of childhood his mother deprived him of, Riddle found great comfort in the way you handled him with such an understanding and loving attitude. Sure,you had your days when you let loose your tongue of sarcasm but that was also an aspect about you he adored.

- "Don't you think so,____?"

- Riddle called you by your first name now rather than your title as supervisor, he didn't have a nickname, said it was all just too stuffy for him. Plus, the way your name rolled so lusciously on his tongue, satisfied him.

- "I guess" was your answer, and somehow despite how casual you sounded Riddle couldn't help but to hear a slight hint of disapproval in it.

- Still, he smiled when he looked up to you and let out a gentle laugh.

- "Our children would surely be an outstanding batch, won't they? I'd teach them how to use their magic and if one of them can't, they'll have you" He sounded so genuine, so soft. It hurt you to inwardly disagree with him.

- You weren't really fond of kids but you were also not the type to admit it out loud, afraid that people would look at you badly if you did.

- "Hmm, you don't seem like you're excited..." ,His voice a gentle coo,Riddle pressed his body against yours,his lips lightly caressing your skin. You arched your back and a small laugh escaped him.

- "Doesn't the thought of having children makes you want to try it?"

- If your silence didn't set him off, the way fear swirled in the hues of your eyes did, and like a switch, Riddle clasped your throat with his hand, a snarl scrunching up his expression.

- "Answer me when I talk to you,____."

- You let out a strangled gasp,your hand coming up to grip his wrist only to feel it burn instead

- Riddle's gaze shifted,clear blue eyes resembling a flickering flame.

- "Don't touch me. If you even move from this position, I'll rip that head off of you faster than the March Hare himself."

- You flinched at his words,eyes shutting close as your chest throbbed in panic. This was what you were avoiding, yet ultimately failed to notice. His moods shifted so profoundly after all, it was like treading on Alice Liddle's stubbornness.

- "I... I'm sorry!" You managed,half a sob and half a plea. Despite his hands looking so fragile, Riddle's grip was like an iron clamp, and somehow his skin seemed to burn into yours.

- "If you're sorry, then why am I still angry,___?" Riddle laughed, "Why do I still want to punish you?"

- You broke into tears easily after that, hopelessness coursing through your veins and warping your features.

- This broke his heart as well, Riddle now knew the answer he was waiting for. You didn't want children with him.

- Near tears himself,Riddle released his grip on you, letting you fall onto his mattress and curl into a ball as he sat there, kneeling before you. He watched as you let out an agonizing sob and called his name,for what reason he wasn't sure. He didn't know if you really loved him or not. You probably stayed because you feared him as well like most people did. But he loved you,he really did. If the world he lived in was a twisted Wonderland, you were his salvation, his home.

- "I'm sorry,___",he said after tears had stained his own cheeks and his heart weighed him down and his chest felt like exploding. He inched closer to you before gathering your trembling form into his arms and burying your face into his chest.

- "I'm sorry I hurt you. I won't do it again,I promise" He held you so tight, you couldn't even grasp enough air into your lungs,but you held onto him nonetheless.

- "I don't like hearing you cry" Riddle murmured in-between sobs, "I love you,___. I just wanted to show you that I do"

- He repeated those words like a mantra, and you fell deeper into your sorrows, as if you shared a single heart with him and the pain the two of you felt somehow had mixed together until you were unable to tell them apart.

- Love with Riddle was maddening,it really was. It was like diving into a rabbit hole. Endless.

- "I love you too, Riddle. I'm sorry for making you mad"

- "I don't care about that anymore" Riddle held your face in his hands,cheeks flushed when you leaned close to kiss his lips first. "I don't care about children or anything. I just want to be with you"

- You smiled. "Maybe having a few wouldn't hurt,if it's yours,I'll be okay,won't I?"

- He pressed his forehead against yours, chuckling, "Yes,my Lady"

[johannas-motivational-insults]

“Friendship” in the Horde

Season 4 raised some interesting questions about how people who grew up in the Horde define friendship. Kyle claimed that his squadmates were his friends, despite how we've seen them bully him, and Scorpia admitted she didn’t even know how to be a good friend. We also saw further developments in Catra and Lonnie’s dynamic that have some interesting implications about their bond, both past and present. However, while these themes became more explicit this season, they are hardly new. The Horde worldbuilding is really quite brilliant, as the writers have been laying the foundation for these revelations by showcasing certain patterns since season one.

This got a little lengthy on me, but there was a lot to consider. The lack of healthy emotional expression and relationship modelling is one obvious problem in the Horde, but the hostile environment has also led to some very specific power dynamics and social structures. These structures, while potentially helpful in hostile environments, are maladaptive in terms of fostering healthy relationships. Ultimately, every character who grew up in the Horde is emotionally crippled. (I’m not even going into Adora, an excellent example, because her repression and communication problems are well-documented and I wanted to focus on characters still in this environment.)

Scorpia

Let’s start with Scorpia. Her revelation that she doesn’t understand what friendship is was a big moment for her, but for those of us who have been watching closely, it’s no big surprise. Scorpia was so desperate for a meaningful connection that she latched onto the first person who showed any signs of considering her a friend, ignoring all the red flags indicating that the relationship was not healthy. Actually, she didn’t ignore them so much as not recognize them, because she didn’t even know what a healthy relationship looks like. To her, the fact that Catra invited her to her room and chose her to accompany her on a mission was enough for her to dub them the Superpal Duo.

Of course, we all know how that went for her. She continued to support Catra unconditionally despite the latter’s tendency to use Scorpia as her emotional punching bag. They did settle into a somewhat more reciprocal and caring relationship after Scorpia saved Catra against her orders during 2x05, proving that Catra was more important to her than the mission (even if that wasn’t what Catra thought she wanted). It’s sad when you think about it, because that was probably the first time Catra ever experienced her wellbeing being prioritized above all else.

Unfortunately, the revelation that Shadow Weaver had gone running back to Adora after betraying her triggered a trauma response and made her clam up again, lashing out at Scorpia and shutting her out even though she had done nothing to betray her trust. It took Catra blatantly attacking and insulting Scorpia when she failed to bring back Entrapta’s recordings (and some well timed reality checks from Emily) for Scorpia to realize that Catra was being a bad friend and she couldn’t win her over by being a good friend.

And actually, Scorpia’s confession in 4x10 that she “thought” she was being a good friend to Catra implies that she had since realized that she wasn’t actually being a good friend to Catra either. She knows the scorpions were a loyal people and she ascribes to that ideal, and she has so much love to give and always tries so hard to be positive, but not setting boundaries with people or demanding a measure of basic respect does nothing for them or you. Also, you can’t ignore the fact that Scorpia forced her affections on Catra, inserting herself into Catra’s life in a way that made her uncomfortable, and continued to ignore Catra’s attempts at setting boundaries with her (which is also very disrespectful). While Catra was certainly the aggressor, she was not the only one who failed in this partnership.

Let’s go back for a moment to Scorpia’s earliest indication that Catra might want to be her friend, when she confides in her and enlists her help coming up with and then executing a plan. Being chosen as Catra’s wingman seems to be important here, and perhaps she was wilfully ignoring how she was the only person who could make Catra’s plan work, but being confided in and trusted was huge to her. And since Horde soldiers are so used to being used, they don’t see it as a red flag. Catra actually flat out said Scorpia was the only person she could trust. How could a lonely gay not interpret that as a sign of being special to someone?

The squad

The importance of trust also becomes evident when considering the interactions among the main squad. Loyalty seems to be paramount in the Horde, not just the scorpion kingdom. Adora defecting to the Rebellion and leaving her squad behind was seen as a huge betrayal, and not just by Catra. Did anyone else want to cry when Lonnie struck back at Adora with “we were your friends” in 1x09? Lonnie was deeply hurt by Adora’s abandonment, feeding into her disillusionment with the Horde. Similarly, when Double Trouble revealed they had double-crossed Catra, her devastated reaction was not that her plans were ruined, but that they had betrayed her. That no doubt was also related to her previous betrayals, but also serves to highlight the importance of loyalty in their subculture.

While all the Horde characters were interesting to watch this season when it came to the themes of friendship, the arc was most pronounced in Lonnie. As I’ve mentioned previously, Scorpia had a short arc over one episode where her rosy worldview was destroyed, causing her to leave (much like Adora), while Lonnie was already a cynic who was aware of the Horde’s imperfections and had to go through more extreme hardships to detach from this unhappy but familiar environment (much like Catra, we hope).

Though she and the boys didn’t leave the Horde until the finale, her disillusionment was already evident in her first episode this season. After Catra berated them for something that wasn’t their fault and demanded they risk their lives to fix it (big Hordak energy), she had her first big revelation: “Catra doesn’t care about us, Adora left us. Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless. It’s everyone for themselves.” In the next episode, she was frustrated by Scorpia’s naïve enthusiasm and trust in Catra, but it took a big blow up between her and Catra for her to finally decide she was done with her, done with the Horde in general.

Kyle represents a sort of middle ground between Lonnie and Scorpia in terms of outlook. He was not treated well in the Horde, but still believed in the ideals of loyalty and squad unity. He wanted to believe Catra had sent them out on a mission into the Whispering Woods because she trusted them and wanted it to be a team-building exercise. His take on it was: “She may be mean, but we’ve always had each other’s backs. Ever since we were kids.” He saw the squad as his family, including Catra (and previously Adora). It took Catra baring her claws and threatening to attack Lonnie outside of a battle sim for him to lose faith in her.

Bullying, the pecking order, and squad unity

As is clear by this point, the Horde defections this season were driven by Catra mistreating the others, but we can’t lose sight of how mistreatment is a fact of daily life in the Horde. And as I mentioned above with Lonnie, it’s those who were most aware of and desensitized to the mistreatment who had the hardest time naming it and leaving the toxic environment. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, call it the sunk cost fallacy, but either way once you’ve submitted to a system that dehumanizes you, it’s hard to admit that that system is wrong and leave it for a better life. Scorpia and Adora grew up somewhat privileged in the Horde in that they were destined for greatness, so they were never abused overtly and they had a level of protection from power-hungry cadets looking to claw their way to the top of the heap. They were already at the top and couldn’t be taken down, so they didn’t have to bully or be bullied.

The importance of pecking order is much more evident when considering people like Kyle, Catra, and Lonnie. Within their squad, Kyle is obviously the omega of the gang (get your heads out of the gutter, that is not what I mean), the one who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong and is constantly getting picked on. Lonnie shits on him, Catra shits on him, and even Rogelio gives him shit and goes along with the blame game. Despite all this, Kyle considers them his friends, his family.

This starts to make sense when you consider it in terms of intra vs. extra squad relations. Maybe the squad didn’t show Kyle any respect or treat him with kindness, but they did protect him in battle sims (sometimes lol) and rescue him from the spore storm. You also kind of get the impression that although they bullied him and asserted their dominance on the regs, they would protect him if other people tried to hurt him. You might say he’s the pet of the gang – he has no power within the structure and it may not be pleasant, but the structure still offers advantages. Having allies was still good for him even if he was at the bottom of the pecking order within the alliance.

Through a sociology lens, you might say the squad (and the Horde in general, given it’s a military society) follows the stereotypical male model of friend groups with clear pecking orders that everyone buys into (with exceptions for blatant power struggles), as opposed to the stereotypical female model that appears less hostile and more cooperative outwardly but involves a lot of underhanded infighting. (Obviously those are broad generalizations and it can be argued how much of it is nature vs. nurture, but they are observable patterns that boys and girls are socialized into in many human societies.) This ties in interestingly to @jaelav3​‘s observations about masculinity equating to strength and femininity equating to power in the Horde (a meta she really needs to write, because it’s brilliant). The hostility of the Horde forces soldiers into these rigid pecking orders in order to find protection in a dangerous place. When everyone knows and accepts their role, it is easier for the squad to function in a unified manner and protect each other, even if it’s at the cost of their mental and emotional health.

Now, when not everybody buys into the pecking order or it’s ambiguous, and/or if there’s a sudden power vacuum, that’s when things get interesting…

Catra and Lonnie, the perfect case study

Catra also suffered a lot of bullying and abuse in the Horde, but in a very different way than Kyle. She was in a unique and kind of contradictory position where she was somewhat protected by her close friendship with Adora, but she was also Shadow Weaver’s favourite chew toy and everyone knew it, which made her a target as well. If Shadow Weaver abused her, she wasn’t going to care if the other cadets abused her as well. Catra’s defensive body language and general distrustfulness and hostility gives the impression that she was bullied behind Adora’s back and Shadow Weaver turned a blind eye, perhaps even encouraged it.

This was all illustrated in 1x03, when Catra and Lonnie butted heads and Catra was forced to back down when two other cadets backed up Lonnie, then Lonnie told her to watch it because Adora wasn’t around to protect her anymore. That one line alone told so much of their story. This was also one of the few times we saw cadets using people from other squads to affect their own squad’s dynamics, as – like I said – that seems to be kept mostly in-house. It may have had something to do with Lonnie’s overall standing among the cadets or how Kyle and Rogelio rank lower in their little hierarchy and seem uninterested in getting involved with the power politics, but I digress.

The argument itself was meaningless, really - the whole thing was a pissing contest, an attempt to assert dominance within their squad’s sudden power vacuum. Lonnie fancied herself the new leader of the squad, and she ended up getting her wish in a backwards way when Catra was promoted out of the squad and given official power over her. Catra, of course, took every opportunity to rub this in Lonnie’s face, perpetuating the cycle of abuse she’d fallen victim to.

The reason they had a power struggle in the first place wasn’t just because Adora left, it was because their pecking order was previously unclear. Catra wasn’t very cooperative and tended to go rogue, so she didn’t slot nicely into the power structure. She was also perceived as lazy, as she had adopted an air of nonchalance once she realized she’d never get the recognition or praise so easily heaped on Adora. (Why try when failing hurts so much?) That being said, she was Adora’s best friend and basically her sidekick, so in a way that made her second-in-command of the squad.

On the other hand, Lonnie was devoted to the squad and was always around to provide tangible support, so she was also kind of Adora’s second-in-command. Combined with her harder work ethic, this also gave her a very legitimate claim to the throne. She was obviously pissed when her teammate she saw as a lazy asshat got promoted, but to her credit she lived up to her own personal ethics, buying in and not pushing back against Catra’s authority until late in season 4.

Despite the power struggle, however, Catra and Lonnie do seem to have a bond. Even if they don’t like each other, they have a certain level of trust in each other. When the princesses invaded the Fright Zone in 3x04 and shit started to go sideways, the first person Catra was looking for to try to get support and/or answers was Lonnie. Then in 4x10 when she was starting to lose her mind amid a lack of sleep and Scorpia’s defection, she pulled Lonnie aside and demanded to know what was going on among the soldiers, what they thought of her.

This was an incredibly interesting scene with some deep implications. Because while it was on one hand an expression of trust in Lonnie, it was also an acknowledgement that Lonnie was one of her bullies and held clout among the people who have demeaned and abused her in the past. It also showed that Catra still has social anxiety and her sense of social power (as opposed to power in terms of rank) is very fragile, which is extremely characteristic of a bullying victim. Also, the fact that Catra said, “Just leave. Like everybody else.” implied that Lonnie leaving would hurt her emotionally, which is rather illuminating.

As for Lonnie, her loyalty meant she bought into the system and expected to Catra to do her job running the place, taking care of the Horde. And Catra certainly succeeded early on, taking territory and increasing productivity. In return, Lonnie was a loyal and obedient soldier, even if she never hesitated to give Catra a bit of attitude. But she became frustrated in season 4 when Catra went on her sunk cost fallacy spiral and ended up making things worse for everyone else as well as herself. This failure was a huge betrayal to Lonnie, and it’s important to note that she wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed if she had expected nothing of Catra in the first place. It’s one thing to be kind of a dick about your superior rank, another entirely to endanger your squad/friends (or anyone you are responsible for, really) and run them into the ground as a remedy for your own anxiety.

The breaking point of course was the scene in the locker room in 4x12, when a lonely Catra tried to be “friends” with the squad again and was briefly successful in mending fences a little until she snapped at Kyle and then at Lonnie, calling them pathetic. This prompted Lonnie to shove her, which in turn made Catra bare her claws and rush Lonnie. There was really no coming back from that, even though Kyle intervened before anyone got hurt.

As an aside, Kyle stepping up in this scene was amazing - this season in general was everything I wanted for him. And it’s important that it was him who intervened, because he was really the only one who could ask Catra, “We used to be your friends, why are you treating us like this?” It makes perfect sense for Catra to push back at Lonnie given their history, but Kyle doesn’t have a history of bullying Catra (quite the opposite). And wow, it had an impact on Catra. You could just see the confusion and regret on her face before she brings back the façade of anger and kicks them out.

When the squad left the Horde, Lonnie said that they were done protecting Catra. This assertion is interesting, given their checkered past – since when was anyone protecting Catra? Lonnie bullied her, and none of them protected Catra from Shadow Weaver, not even Adora (though bless her heart, she tried). But this does make some sense when you consider how much of the idea of friendship is based on loyalty, and how important that adherence to the structure is for protection. In Lonnie’s mind, even if Catra was now their commander, they were still a unit in a way. And she saw standing by and obeying Catra to be a form of protection, helping her stay respected and carry out her plans. Lonnie is a good support person, and by removing her support, she was in a way removing her protection as well.

(After the series is over I might just go all out and do a huge-ass meta about Catra and Lonnie through the seasons. I am absolutely fascinated by this relationship, if you can’t tell.)

Allyship

Overall, you can’t help but get the impression that the Horde’s version of friendship is more akin to allyship. It’s protection, unity, loyalty. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t get emotionally attached, it’s more that how you feel about someone is less important than what that relationship can do for you. That’s why Scorpia doesn’t even understand what friendship is. That’s why Catra tolerates “friends” who annoy her, because they’re useful to her (not that she doesn’t get attached in time, but that’s not why she tolerates them in the first place).

Catra’s one of the few people in the Horde who has experienced real friendship, as her bond with Adora was much more emotional than practical (even if it was both). And that explains why she eventually lashed out at Scorpia and said they were not friends when clearly they were by the Horde’s definition. Her and Adora really had taken the friends thing to a different level, and she was missing that dearly.

It will be interesting to watch the interactions between the Horde characters when they are thrown back together in new circumstances, out of the Horde’s rigid power structure. Honestly, the redefining of these alliances and friendships is one of the things I am most looking forward to in the final season.

[bitch-im-your-biggest-nightmare]

Parenting 200!

Hey people, its ya boy, the bitch. I’m making another one of these cuz someone asked and YES.  Corpse Husband x Son yes.  Tags: @save-the-sky @alilshit @whatifwedo @hughugh20@fleurmoon @bi-andready-tocry @itsminniekat @yoongi-holland@loraleiix @hacker-ghost @fanworrior @marvelous-musicals @annshit @unknown-and-invisible @letsloveimagines @babyhoneystvles 

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Corpse was running some errands (which he really didn’t wanna do) with Tyler (that's what we calling him)- his son. Y/N was home relaxing and doing her thing, she already did enough. She cleaned the entire house, woke up early to make them both an amazing breakfast, did the laundry, and made sure Corpses office space was nice and well kept so he could be in a nice area to record and stream. Corpse told Y/N that she needed to get some rest when she said she needed to go out to run some errands- he also made the mistake of deciding to bring a literal toddler around with him.  

Now don’t him wrong- He loved Tyler more than he loved himself, but Tyler can be a little shit sometimes. This child has gotten into a rainbow of different substances. 

Vaseline.  “What the hell- what is that- what is that on your face?” Corpse asked, though he already knew. “Baseline.” They said, rubbing their hands together. 

Coconut butter.  “You know better than this Tyler! Now you look all shiney!” Corpse said as he washed coconut butter off of Tyler. “Iz fun.” Tyler replied while Corpse just let out an exasperated sigh.

Baby powder.  “Tyler what the hell!-” Corpse yelled as he walked in and saw Tyler pouring baby powder down his pants. Tyler looked up at him and said “go way.” ANd when Corpse just stared and then Tyler yelled, “go WAY!”  Cake. “Sweetie! That was for your father!” Y/N said as she saw Tyler sitting on the ground shoving his face with chocolate cake. His hands were covered in it and his mouth was a mess. Tyler looked at her innocently and said “Izs mine!” Corpses clothes.  Corpse walked into the closet to put some brand new hoodies away when he saw none other than Tyler chilling there covered in Corpses clothes. It was a mess. Corpe just stared and shut the closet door, not wanting to deal with that just yet. Y/Ns clothes.  Y/N walked into the closet to see the mess. Tyler was putting on her heals and wearing her scarfs. She sighed and took a picture of a very surprised Tyler. Then she went to go yell at Corpse. Deodorant.  “No no no no no NO NO NO!” Y/N yelled as she pulled the deodorant away from Tyler's hands. He was crushing it all up and smearing it on the floor. “It smell gud.” Tyler said innocently as he was picked up.  Soap.  “Tyler no no no! Take that out of your mouth!” Y/N screamed as she saw Tyler put dish soap in his mouth. She panicked and immediately told him to spit it out. Not even a second later Corpse came tripping into the room asking what the hell happened.   Y/Ns pads. “Tyler no-” Corpse said as he wheezed. Tyler was sticking Y/Ns period pads onto his body. “They stickers!” Tyler laughed, opening another one. Corpse fell onto the floor in sheer laughter, not being able to breathe. Corpses Stream. Corpse left to take a quick pee while he was streaming with his friends. While he was gone, Tyler snuck into his office and joined in as a replacement. “Haii” Tyler said, causing laughter. “Whos this?” Sykkuno asked. They all knew Corpse was a father but never heard anything else about him. “Tyver.” Tyler said, making everyone nearly cry from the cuteness. When Corpse came back, he sighed and took his headset away. “Uhm-” Corpse was cut off, “HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING PUT TYVER BACK ON!” 

They were all memories. Some good, most bad. None in the middle. He was currently in the store grabbing some things for Y/N. She got her period like just this morning and she was running out of pads so he needed to cop some of those and the more important things. Every female reading this oneshot who has gotten their period will understand the following. He threw oreo cookies, red velvet oreo cookies, hershey's chocolate chip cookies, more cookies, two whole bags of snickers, three whole bags of kit kats, chocolate milk, and a chocolate cake into the cart. Then lastly, he awkwardly strolled into the feminine product isle where two other females were. Tyler was jumping around looking at everything and Corpse was avoiding eye contact. 

One of the girls looked at his cart, looked at him, looked at Tyler, looked at the cart, and back at him and said “She hit it hard didn’t she?” 

Corpse looked at her and sighed, “Yeah...” then he picked out the kind he always saw in the bathroom and then dragged Tyler away and out of the isle. 

“Nooo! Im still looking!” Tyler whined. 

“Well you’re done looking.” Corpse said, walking up to the check out area and checking his stuff out himself. He already felt enough anxiety today so all he really wanted to do was go home and cuddle with Y/N and watch Shrek for the fifthteenth time with Tyler. 

After he bagged everything he pushed the cart out of the store and towards their car. Tyler was jumping around again and being a little shit, so Corpse had to pick him up and hold him and load groceries into the car one handed. Painful. After loading the groceries he set Tyler down and went to bring the cart back. 

On his way back, Tyler latched himself onto Corpses leg and cried. Good lord. “I want icereeeeem!” Tyler whined as Corpse sighed, dragging him around. 

“Tyler we already spent enough! Mom will share some of her food!” Corpse said, tugging Tyler off of his leg like a cat and walking him to the car. Tyler kept complaining and screaming, but Corpse did his best not to listen. But while driving home, the screaming got worse, and Corpse gave in. 

“FINE DAIRY QUEEN IT IS!” Corpse yelled, immediately apologizing for yelling. Then he took a sharp turn and headed to DQ to get this toddler an icecream cone (And Y/N an oreo blizzard, but don't tell). He really didn’t wanna pull into the drive thru, but his anxiety said indoors is worse so he pulled into the line. It was November so Corpse did not understand why there was so many people in the line. Corpse sighed, trying to ignore Tylers whining. “I know it’s long and annoying but we have to wait Tyler.” 

“I want icecreeeemm!” Tyler whined, and Corpse began to grow frustrated. He loved Tyler, but he really wanted to get home. Y/N was probably scrunched up in agony with her period pains and when he gets home shes gonna be fucking dead. Yes you heard me. Dead. Corpse didn’t want to go to court for being blamed of his girlfriend's death. 

During the wait he actually got a call from Y/N. He instantly picked it up, saying hello. 

“Where are you?!” Y/N complained. She was hungry, in pain, and worried. Corpse and Tyler should’ve been home an hour ago. But instead they were stuck in a DQ drive thru. 

“Dairy Queen. Tyler wants an icecream cone.” Corpse sighed, “He’s been a pain the ass so far...” 

“He’s always a pain in the ass but we love him.” Y/N chuckled, “Can you get me a cookie dough blizzard?” 

“Oh. Ok.” Corpse was surprised. Y/N always went for that legendary oreo blizzard. Guess he’ll get it for himself then. “Are you feeling ok?”

“Mmm no. Periods suck. Men will never feel real pain.” Y/N groaned, and Corpse rolled his eyes playfully. 

“Say that next time people are calling me sus in Among Us.” Corpse laughed, “Oh- I gotta go, this lines finally moving.” 

“Ok, bye love you~” Y/N said. 

“Love you too.” Corpse said before hanging up. He got up to the speaker and breathed in, trying to order his food without getting nervous. Social anxiety sucks, I don’t recommended having social anxiety. He stuttered a little, but it wasn’t too bad. When he got his food, he quickly got the fuck out of there and zoomed back to his place.

When he got to a stop light, he handed Tyler his ice cream cone. Almost immediately he began to chow down, his teeth didn’t even seem sensitive at this moment. It impressed Corpse. His boy was something else. 

When he finally made it home, he had many things to do. He got Tyler out of the car safely and picked up all the bags full of food with one arm. On the other, he held Tyler and the ice cream. From there, he made his way into apartment building like a goddamn champ. Sure, he was in pain, sure his muscles were gonna burst, but this, this guys, is what real men do. He is a super dad, he will do what no man ever dares to do.

People were looking at him, it made him uncomfortable. He was glad the apartment had elevadors. Tyler kept eating his ice cream loudly, which made Corpses pain ever worse. When he finally got to the door, he lifted his already weakened arm and turned the doorknob, shoving himself into the room. 

“Honey I’m home!” Corpse said tiredly, dropping the bags on the floor and lightly setting Tyler down. He walked over to the living room, seeing Y/N laying in a mess of blankets and pillows on the floor. She was wearing one of Corpses hoodies that were way too big on her. She looked distressed, but when Corpse put a cookie dough blizzard in front of her, she looked up and took it. 

“You look like a mess.” Y/N laughed, sitting with her legs crossed and beginning to eat.

“I’ve had a long day.” Corpse chuckled and sat next to Y/N in the mess. “Tyler seemed to have fun I guess.” 

“What do you mean I guess?” Y/N chuckled into her words.

“Oh you know how Tyler is baby.” Corpse took a big bite of his blizzard, “I bought everything you will need for a week.” 

“Great!” Y/N leaned in and kissed Corpse on the cheek. Corpse blushed a little, but smiled. Next thing they know, they are cuddling against each other and eating their blizzards. This was the only way to make Y/N happy while she was on her period. 

Then heard a loud crash.

“waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” 

“God fuckin’ damNI-”

[malereader-inserts]

He Always Does

Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing: Remus Lupin & Son!Reader Summary: Remus was the first to arrive, and you were the last. Word Count:  1,307 Request: “ It's another dad!remus fic! The night they have to get Harry from privet drive to the weasleys in the 7th movie, Lupins son is also there, and when Remus arrives at the weasleys, he realizes his son isnt there yet when he should've been. After a while when his son 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 isn't there, Remus starts to get 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 worried. Eventually his son does show up but he's severely injured because he took a spell for someone. Tonks, maybe? (he lives though)” Warning: Blood, description of injury A/n: Y’all be enjoying angsty shit,  tbh i take pride in my angst shit - take a look at stuff we did, made me sob whilst i wrote that. y’all be enjoying remus being a father RIGHTLY SO ANYWAY - I HAD A THOUGHT. I DUNNO IF I SHOULD MAKE A SERIES OR A ONE OF ONE SHOT WHERE THE READER IS DATING HARRY AND IS REMUS IS SON BUT ALSO THE DESCENDANT OF MERLIN, IN WHICH HE IS THE NEXT MERLIN - IF THAT MAKE SENSE. ONLY THE GOLDEN TRIO, GINNY AND THE TWINS KNOW ABOUT IT ALONGSIDE DUMBLEDORE AND MCGONAGALL BUT IT IS REVEALED TO THE ORDER - SO WHO WOULD READ THAT?

Remus was getting agitated, he was the second one to arrive and one by one he was watching people return from the mission and yet there was no sight of you yet. 

He wanted to rage at Mad-Eye for bringing you without a purpose. However, he couldn’t, you did have a purpose. You were the most skilled in duelling out of the school, since your second year you had excelled in fighting. Advancing further than all your year mates, receiving advanced lessons from Dumbledore, himself, proclaiming to McGonagall that this would serve you purpose and help within the cause.

You were much more talented than Harry, you always led the duelling club and most often not, you were the “boss” battle that no one could ever beat. So, in the fifth year, during the battle of the department of mysteries, you had proven yourself a skilled fighter that you were able to hold and defeat many death eaters that night and leave barely scathed. 

It’s why Mad-Eye wanted to bring you along in moving Harry. You were skilled in duelling and if anything was to happen you were there to defend. Kingsley and Hermione was the first to arrive after him, then Bill and Fleur. Remus believes you should be there, you should be arriving soon. Even Harry was getting agitated that only one of his best friends had returned, anticipating for yours and Ron’s arrival.

Tonks arrived with Ron, Hermione diving in to hug him as Tonks engulfed Remus into a tight loving hug. Remus was relieved for a moment, his darling wife had returned safely. 

“He deserves that,” Tonks mentions, looking at Hermione and then to her husband, “If it wasn’t for him and (Y/n) I wouldn’t be standing here.”

“Really?” Hermione asked, she could fully believe you but Ron was a different story.

“Always full of surprises.”

“So what kept you? What happened?” Remus asked, wanting the details, distracting him that you weren’t there yet.

"Bellatrix. She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus...” Tonks explained, also adding that Ron had stunned another death eater whilst she was preoccupied.

Lastly, Fred and Arthur were last to arrive. Whilst they fussed over George for a bit, who was injured with a missing ear - proclaimed himself fine. Bill had announced that they hadn’t seen Mad-Eye return. Remus was getting agitated even more, because where were you? You’re supposed to be there, at the burrow, safe. 

Whilst Molly patched up her son. Arthur, Remus, Tonks and Kingsley stayed outside waiting for yours or Mad-Eye’s arrival.  The night was cold and still, it sent Remus’ chills. Agitation wore off and was quickly replaced with worry, panic was slowly setting in the pits of his stomach as Tonks held onto his arms, trying to reassure him that you will return.

“He’ll show up, Remus,” Arthur says, loudly for the group of four, offering the man a smile, “He always does.”

Of course, Remus smiles, because you always seem to have a habit of turning up when you least expected to. When it was the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, you had turned up to defend the incapacitated aurors, fending the death eaters as if it was second nature to you.

When you turned up to fight when Hogwarts was infiltrated by Voldemort’s people, casting non-verbal spells as if it was as easy said than done. Your dad cannot fault you for being good as magic, he can’t fault you for being protective. 

He’s proud of you, like any father should be. 

Mad-Eye was seething with anger.

He doesn’t know if you’re dead, just he’s carrying a limp body back to the burrow. He’s one of the most known aurors who had a reputation and yet he was saved by an eighteen year old kid. Mad-Eye was flying through the skies, concerned with how much blood you were losing. Diffindo, not usually used in battle however, it’s known to tear or rip and object. That object was your torso and Mad-Eye cannot imagine the pain you went through. 

“We’re almost there,” Mad-Eye said, reassuring himself, hoping you were awake. 

You were conscious when you tackled Mad-Eye to avoid him from getting killed by Voldemort, and managed to keep him on his broom as you flew close to him. Within seconds you were gone, flying ahead, Mad-Eye can recall you defending Tonks as they flew into the portkey. You battled with Bellatrix in the sky, Mad-Eye couldn’t leave you behind, as Bellatrix fled upon Mad-Eye arrival, the pair of you had flown once more around to survey the sky.

One thing after the other, the rays of light of each spell hindering everyone’s sight as Mad-Eye loses you in the cloud of chaos. Mad-Eye just sees you falling from your broom. As he catches you, you were badly injured, but gripping your wand as tight as you could.

From that point, Mad-Eye just wanted to get you medical help, get you to the burrow. As you go in and out of consciousness, Mad-Eye was racing with time. You had not responded to him in ten minutes, he had assumed that you had passed out, and not dead. He dreads to deliver a dead son, a dead friend, a dead companion. 

In the nick of time, Mad-Eye goes to the portkey, before it allows anyone else to get through. Travelling via portkey was always unpleasant with unpleasant side effects. 

Mad-Eye lands roughly, he’s on his knees as he looks up to see four shocked faces.

“Mad-Eye!” Tonks bellows, indicating to the people indoors that he had arrived.

Mad-Eye surpasses the dizziness as he sees four figures approach him, but his mind is somewhere else - looking behind him, he sees you writhe in pain due to the portkey. He crawls towards you, the moment he had placed a hand upon your arm, you screamed. 

“LUPIN!” Mad-Eye had found himself shouting as Remus’ pace picked up.

There, he finds you struggling to breathe, blood everywhere on your clothes, on your skin. Your torso, bloodied, open. Your eyes shut tightly as you fidget, despite every movement in your body was on fire. Remus gets on his knees, he wants to hold his baby boy but he holds his hand shakily as he tries to mutter healing spells upon you. 

Molly came running as Arthur wanted to stop anyone from looking at the situation, ushering your best friends away, but cringing when another scream was emitted from you. 

“(Y/n)...” Remus says softly as Molly continues to place spells upon you, “I’ve got you, you did so well...”

Remus muttered more spells, watching the blood return to your body, watching the tear and rips of skin repair itself. You were in pain, but the thing you latched on was your dad’s wrist.

“Please,” They hear you whimper, “Please, dad, make it stop.”

Finally, you opened your eyes, tears forming. Remus nods as Molly says it’s okay for you to come inside. Remus picks you up carefully, trying not to cause you more pain, you grip onto his jacket, your dried bloody hand strongly holds against him. 

As Mad-Eye gets helped to stand up by Tonks, who gives him his stick, the pair cannot help but feel bad that they were the one to cause you to be in pain. Watching how a father tries to comfort his distressed son, if only they had been more wary of their surroundings, then you wouldn’t be in the position. 

“He’ll live,” Harry says to the adults as they watch Molly, Remus and you enter the burrow. Harry looks at his friends and then to the adults with a tight smile.

“He always does.”

[ichika27]

TWEWY 12

Grande Finale already!

I felt the same nervousness and excitement I felt when I watched the first episode while watching the last one. I’m excited, half knowing what I’d see but not knowing what else to expect.

Can’t believe we finally got to this point. I took so many screenshots... I had to limit myself cause they’re not all gonna fit in one tumblr post.

Also I don’t have to give a spoiler warning anymore. Length warning though cause this is super long!(longer than the usual posts I made for this series at least).

Kitaniji transforms into a three-headed monster and unlike in the game, he doesn’t capture any of Neku’s partners nor use Josh’s power to do so. I’m not sure what explanation there is as to how he got more than one noise form but I guess he’s the Conductor so maybe it’s part of his powers here.

Shiki and Beat awaken in the middle of Neku’s fight and help out. The trio then forms some kind of three-way pact (four if Rhyme actually counted although now completely sure?) and continue battling Kitaniji. The fight scene was pretty cool especially Beat’s attack with the chains. It just sucks the fight ended too fast. I guess all of TWEWY anime’s boss fights end kinda fast even though they’re uh, boss fights.

Final attack beam like in the game! It was too fast and I couldn’t get a good shot of the white version this transforms into (which looks like the one in the game). They have an explanation later as to why it looks different at first but they’ll talk about it later.

It’s sad Joshua isn’t part of this. This is supposed to be the four-way fusion attack. (;-;)

They defeat Kitaniji who disappears, sad that he was unable to protect Shibuya. Joshua never showed up in this boss battle so Kitaniji never got to talk to Joshua for the last time. In the game he at least dies happy in a way - he lost but he gave it his all and his Composer praised his efforts. He was also able to tell Neku that the rest is up to him now. Here in the anime, he just... he lost and felt bad. I wish they had Josh show up here but they had other ideas.

A new door opens and Neku braced himself as he knows the fight isn’t over cause there’s still one last guy on top.

They find themselves in this room/hallway (is this supposed to be the Trail of the Judged?) filled with CAT murals. This somewhat confirms the “CAT = Composer” theory and Neku has now accepted it, calling out Mr. Hanekoma to show himself.

And yeah, the last episode’s title is the show’s title as well “It’s a Wonderful World”.

Someone else showed up instead. Joshua finally makes his reappearance!

Boy, have I been waiting for you! I wish you were with them in the final battle earlier so you guys could be a team (and you could be one of Neku’s partners) one last time.

Neku is surprised but happy to see Joshua again. He thanks Joshua for saving him before and is glad that he’s okay.

In the game, this never happened cause Josh appears in the middle of a fight. Things were too hectic and when the battle with Kitaniji finally ended, he and Josh talked about their own game and so after Kitaniji disappears, what’s left is questioning what was happening. Since Josh didn’t show up earlier, they were able to reunite in a more peaceful way and Neku had no suspicion until Joshua himself brought it up.

And I guess that’s why I was so nervous when I watched this. It’s a bit too peaceful. I know what’s gonna happen next but not exactly how they’d adapt it.

Joshua finally explains the truth to Neku and his friends.

This felt more... awful to watch. Like we had both Joshua and Kitaniji giving bits and pieces of the truth in the game via their conversation so there’s two people to focus on. Here it’s just Joshua. But in a way, I guess this works cause there’s no one else there to soften the blow and Joshua could make the revelation hurt more if he wishes so. It also kinda feels worse cause you see Neku happy to see Joshua earlier before the reveal happens. Kinda heartbreaking.

“I’m the Composer of Shibuya.”

He finally says it clearly to a confused and surprised Neku.

We get a flashback of Joshua and Kitaniji talking about Shibuya’s impending destruction, why it must happen, and Kitaniji making a deal to try and save it. He has a month to change things for the better and if it works out, he wins. If not, Joshua continues the destruction plan.

Joshua’s Composer form is more vague here. It’s human shaped but you don’t see his face and the outline glows like this so you don’t properly see the shape. I think this is better cause there’s no way you can tell who the Composer is like this and he looks less human.

Beat gets angry at the revelation and tries to attack Joshua which he couldn’t do because of Joshua’s powers. I wasn’t able to get a screenshot of this but Josh is twirling his hair after this while Beat struggles to try and punch him. He’s cute and I know this is kind of inappropriate to say in this situation given he legitimately made someone mad and he deserves that punch to his pretty face.

Joshua uses his powers to freeze the others (and later renders them unconscious to keep them quiet). Neku is worried about his friends and is mad.

Joshua tells him he won’t hurt Neku’s friends. He then explains about how he found his proxy. Which is Neku much to his horror at what this meant.

I just had to get this with the subtitles on. I replayed the scene several times to hear if there was no error. Joshua says “Daiji na Neku-kun no tomodachi...” and I google translated it. It says “daiji” means “important”. So yeah, he definitely called Neku “important” to him. It’s surprising although this wouldn’t be out of place in the original game since they had more moments to just talk on there.

Yeah, I know I focused on this a little but I’m a nekujosh/joshneku shipper so forgive me for latching onto this.

Neku slowly sees the bigger picture as Joshua continues to explain himself. As a reward for getting this far, Joshua returns Neku’s memories.

He really had to get that close while saying Neku’s name, didn’t he?

Neku’s death flashback. The scene plays almost similar to the game right down to the censored guns (is this a creative decision to make it faithful to the game or are they really just not allowed to draw actual guns?). I was gonna make a joke about how Joshua stopped Minamimoto’s bullets using an AT field but the shot was different and the bullets just looked like they froze midair and not stopped by some kinda force field like in the game.

Neku ends up getting shot by Joshua complete with bleeding unlike in the game. I just have to wonder if I was the one who got it wrong cause in the game, Joshua looks like he’s aiming for Neku’s head and here, Neku gets shot on the chest. Did they change it cause a headshot would be too much or has it always been a shot to the chest?

Neku angrily walks over to Josh and grabs him by the collar. Joshua stops Neku with his powers as he continues to explain about what happened regarding the death scene and Minamimoto. Joshua then materializes two guns out of thin air and places one on Neku’s hand as he tells him the rules of their final duel: just shoot and if Neku wins, he could save his friends and he becomes Composer and do what he wants. What stood out with how he said it is that he didn’t exactly go “If you don’t beat me, Shibuya is destroyed.” and instead went “If you win, these are what you get to be Composer and whatever else you’d like! Sounds good, right?”. As if saying killing him has a lot of perks.

It feels weird seeing Josh physically placing the gun on Neku’s hand cause in the game, the gun was by Neku’s feet and Neku had to pick it up on his own accord. Anyways, I like the effect they used to materialize the gun cause it’s the same effect for the names of the routes when they show them on screen. Like graffiti or something.

At this point Neku’s crying. The shot didn’t feel as dramatic as in the game in my personal opinion. Neku is tearing up here but he looks tired and was about to sob in the game. Joshua meanwhile, counts down from ten.

Before Joshua’s count hits three, Neku hears a somewhat distorted voice (which we know is just Mr. H) saying “Trust your Partner”. This reminded Neku how he got to where he is: by trusting his partners. (I have something to say about this later)

In a very shocking turn of events, instead of just lowering the gun and letting himself be shot like in the game, Neku drops his gun and with a hand outstretched tells Joshua “I’ll trust you”. Oh my god... they really did it. I love this change not gonna lie. I think they might have added this cause they didn’t adapt Neku’s ending monologue where he does say he trusts Joshua. It’s less dramatic than the game though since Neku doesn’t say anything while Joshua is counting down. In the game, he was crying and saying how he thought Joshua was his friend and how all of this really hurt him. Guess we take what we can get and they gave us this.

Joshua smiles as he shoots but as Neku falls, the smile on Joshua’s face disappears.

Mr. H didn’t show up at the end here either so Neku didn’t get to see him.

Neku wakes up in the middle of Scramble Crossing like usual but he bumps into people and so he realizes that he’s alive now. He doesn’t scream after the very stressful crap he went to like in the game. Might not be entirely the same but Joshua still left him lying down in the middle of the street. Nice.

We then see a short timelapse from above Shibuya which is probably supposed to show a week has passed. Neku’s monologue wasn’t added in and no ending music as well. I’m disappointed “A Lullaby for You” wasn’t used. Here I was hoping for a miracle.

By the way, Shooter, Yammer, and I think Makoto all passed him by the scramble. They really didn’t get much screentime but at least they made cameos.

Neku finally meets up with the Bito siblings like at the game’s epilogue! The shot they did was almost the same as with the game, too. They have dialogue here instead of just stills with Neku showing how happy he was to see his friends alive again, too. I’m happy the anime version showed him smiling more at the end cause he needed that after everything. It’s nice to see him smile.

RG! Shiki is here! With the same shot as in the game! They really aren’t gonna show us her face, huh? Also, all of the shots with Shiki on them has her back towards us. Like there are scenes where Neku and the rest are looking forward and she’s in front of them with her back turned on us. Why? They could’ve used the lighting on her glasses to obscure her eyes, too. So her bangs are a secret as well then?

They show Eri later, too enjoying a concert, by the way. I was hoping to see a reunion between her and Shiki as well and them finally talking after the stuff from before. Oh well.

Neku takes off his headphones and he and Shiki do a proper introduction with each other with Shiki being herself this time. (Is Shiki the same height as Neku? It looks like that from this angle.)

Anyways, this was a nice way to adapt Neku taking off his headphones since they can’t do it like in the game.

They adapted the secret ending but expanded it to add stuff from the secret reports to explain other lore stuff which would’ve been missed by the anime-only watchers since those are part of bonus game contents. Mr. Hanekoma and Joshua talk about the events of the long game and Joshua says he knew it was Mr. H whose responsible for Minamimoto.

They also talk about the Red Skull Pins and how Mr. H made it for Kitaniji. Mr. H says the pins imprints Kitaniji’s will on people and that he himself (Mr. H) doesn’t need that cause he could do so with all the graffiti he left all over town.

Which brings me to earlier in the duel: Neku hears a voice, clearly (to us) is Mr. Hanekoma’s and it’s in a place filled to the brim with CAT graffiti. Did he imprint the words “Trust your partner” to Neku?

Meanwhile, Beat wonders how they were able to pull off the final attack. Neku says it was probably the pin Hanekoma gave them (the keypin looking thing). I guess they needed an explanation for the last attack but they didn’t have the fusion pin so they used this keypin instead. It’s why the attack looked different in the beginning when the attack was powering up.

There’s apparently a new CAT graffiti at Udagawa and of course, CAT-fanboy Neku has to see it. On the way, they meet Sota and Nao who are now alive! I’m so happy!! Joshua brought them back, too! I always felt bad about what happened to them in the game. I’m glad they got a happy ending in the anime.

Def March, 777′s band, are back as well and look... they got their winged mic back! It makes me wonder if they found it later on or if Joshua gave that to them back the same time when he brought them back lol. I’m just really happy for all of them.

Joshua’s wings!! This is, unfortunately, the best shot I could get since they never really zoom in on this. In the game he is in his Composer form in the secret ending and turns into a ball of light when he leaves. Here, we see his wings. It’s smaller than the one he has in KH:DDD. At least we canonically see it here.

I can now use the term “Joshua Maji Tenshi” and be accurate!

Mr. H points out that Joshua looks lonely and is in denial and Josh just leaves. Mr. H also shows his wings and leaves afterwards, too. I didn’t take a pic of it since we see it in the game’s secret ending anyways. His wings also seem smaller than in the game.

Final shot of the new CAT graffiti. I was so close to crying the entire ending and this nearly tipped me over but it didn’t. If “A Lullaby for You” was playing, I’d have probably bawled my eyes out. This graffiti is beautiful. I want a sticker of it.

Also, I just noticed but CAT’s old graffiti at Udagawa had mostly darker colors. This new one is brighter and is more colorful.

--

First of all, I wanted to thank tumblr for not giving me an error for posting more than 15 images like I usually did. I was bracing myself for the error pop up and was gonna make a part 2 instead but there was some kind of miracle and I got more than 20 pictures on here.

I have a lot of melodramatic things to say about the anime but I’ll save it all for later. For now, I’ll say something else. I’m sad they didn’t adapt Neku’s monologue. Those words from Neku still hits me in the feels to this day. Him saying that the entire ordeal really affected him in more ways than one and it wasn’t all good even though he’s happy about changing and what he learned from the experience. His line about how he can’t forgive Joshua but trusts him was cut along with it and it would’ve been nice to have to know what he thought of Joshua.

The thing I missed the most was the “I have friends now. We’re meeting each other for the first time in a week. See you there?” lines. It shows how happy Neku is that he now has people to call his friends which is super heartwarming and the line implies that he counts Joshua as one of those friends, too (which is properly confirmed in KH: DDD which I’d probably make a post about later if I get the motivation to do so). That would’ve also made the last scene with Josh hit harder. In the game, knowing Josh wanted to be with them and is sad he couldn’t already makes me sad but also knowing Neku is waiting for him makes it much worse (and I still feel pain thinking about it even after all these years).

Maybe we’d see them get reunited in NTWEWY. Hopefully. I really do hope so.

The anime isn’t perfect but it did what it could with the limited amount of time it had. The show would’ve been better if they had more episodes but we don’t know why it ended up with just 12 so we can’t really say anything else. They did it and it wasn’t as bad as I was fearing in a way. Would I recommend it? I’d probably rec the game first, to be honest. I was only okay with watching cause I have played the game and could fill in the missing stuff but the anime-only fans couldn’t and the thought that they won’t be able to fully appreciate the entire story of twewy is kinda sad. It was a nice watch though and I’d miss waiting for it every week.

I wonder if they’d make “A New Day” OVA since the anime is supposed to help the ones who haven’t/couldn’t play the first game but would go play NTWEWY and that scenario has story stuff that’s connected to the sequel.

Anyways, thanks for reading this far if you did! I’ll be watching gameplays of NTWEWY when it comes out in full (since I don’t have the money nor the console for it). 

[walkerwords]

“The Bowman’s Sister” Part 1 of 4 - Daryl & Sister!Reader

GIF CREDIT: http://gph.is/20IqJ25

PART II PART III PART IV

Word Count: 5231

Daryl Dixon & Sister! Reader (possible rick x reader in future)

Summary: You are Daryl and Merle’s sister. You had been with your fiance and daughter when the turn happened. After losing them, you made your way through the world trying to survive. When you come upon a prison and man in cowboy boots, your brother may be closer than you think.

Warning: swearing, mention of death, mention of past rape and abuse

Song I Wrote To: “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron

Note: this could potentially move into more parts, but for now here we go!

(Y/N): your name

(Y/E/C): your eye color

(Y/N/N): your nickname

------

The dark forest was quiet as you moved through the thick brush.

Blood stained your hands and was soaked into your hair, but you were still alive and the new cruel world hadn’t won yet. You didn’t know where you were, but as long as the bastards who had gone for you while you slept were long gone, then all was good.

At least for now.

The cold air was not friendly as it seeped into your bones and surrounded you. You had lost your warm jacket to a pack of Dead when they had grabbed at you, tearing through the warm material. You had managed to stick an arrow in two of them before taking off in a sprint, leaving your only source of warmth behind.

You couldn’t remember the last time you had more than a few hours of sleep at a time. When you were able to, you found a sturdy tree and strapped yourself down high up in the branches with a bungee cord, but even that had its faults. The Dead could still smell you and would circle the tree, causing more and more to converge on your hiding place. It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but it was all that you had and it was better than being beaten and raped by passing groups or having to relive the nightmares that lived in your head.

As long as you focused on surviving and kept distracted, your emotions wouldn’t overwhelm you and you may just survive the new world.

The sound of running water reached your ears and you nearly wept at the sound. You had run out of water yesterday and even if everything else was going to shit, the world let you have this. It was something. 

You picked your way through the woods, keeping an arrow notched on your bow just in case. You found the stream not much further down the path and wasted no time in kneeling down by the bank and gulping down a handful of cool running water. Boiling it be damned, you thought.

After you had drunk your fill, you pulled your bottle from your pack and filled it to the brim. You then dunked your head into the water, trying to scrub the blood that stuck to your hair. You weren’t even sure if it was your own, your assailants, or the Dead’s blood. You decided that you really didn’t care.

You were so wrapped up in trying to feel human again that you didn’t hear the person sneaking up on you until the hammer of the revolver was pulled back. Your hands went to your bow, but their voice made you pause. 

“Don’t even think about it,” a gruff voice said and the deepness of it made you shiver. It was never good when a man snuck up on you. “Hands where I can see them.” Slowly, not seeing another option, you raised your hands and turned to him, keeping your eyes lowered. His worn leather cowboy boots came into your view and as you lifted your (Y/E/C) eyes, he lifted the barrel of his revolver. 

The man before you was tall, his hair was curled around the nape of his neck, and a brush of stubble was across his cheeks. The look in his eyes was deadly and it made you swallow thickly. You had managed to evade strangers for a while now, the ones you had been running from had been a fluke. A couple of men traveling that had come across you. You figured they had given up on you and continued on their way hoping for a new victim.

However, this man could be worse and that was offering no comfort to you. Your eyes flicked between the gun and the boots, trying to gauge your chances of escaping without a hole in your head.

“Please,” you said quietly, “take whatever you want.” You then steeled yourself and pushed to standing slowly and faced down the man with the gun. “But if you try to lay a hand on me, I will kill you. Even if I have to come back and tear you apart with my teeth.” You let your threat settle between them and the man lowered his gun slightly, but didn’t drop it.

“Was that a threat?” He asked. 

“More like a promise,” you answered. You moved to grab your bow, but the revolver moved back into place instantly. “Asshole,” you bit out. He narrowed his eyes at you and took a step forward, but then a voice called out. 

“Rick, stop!” You started at the voice and hole opened up in your chest. It sounded like… No, you wouldn’t let yourself think about him again. Not after the many times you had thought you heard the voice of your brother.

A figure came through the trees, still cloaked in darkness and you took a step back, tripping on a root, sending you down to the forest floor. 

“Rick!” The voice said again and your heart thudded in your chest. It nearly stopped as the figure stepped into the light of the moon. “Oh my god.” You didn’t say anything as you beheld the man that stared down at you, his eyes wide. 

Tears immediately started falling and you didn’t care if the man with the gun was there. “Daryl…?” You choked out and then he fell to his knees next to you. “Daryl!” You cried as you looped your arms around your younger brother.

You had finally found him.

----

Daryl clutched his sister to him, nearly crushing you into his chest. He smoothed his calloused hands over your hair, breathing in the smell of you and feeling the vibrations that went through you as you cried. “(Y/N),” he sighed, holding you tighter.

----

You pulled back, your hands going to his face, brushing the hair from his cheeks. “I thought you were dead,” you said, looking into his eyes, the eyes of your mother. 

“Ya know it takes a lot more than an apocalypse to kill me,” he said in his low accent and hearing that deep Georgian accent was like coming home.

“Daryl,” the man, Rick, said. “Who is this?” Daryl looked back over his shoulder and his form went rigid. 

“Put the damn gun down, Rick. Point that thing someplace else, will ya?” Rick looked at Daryl for a moment before holstering his weapon. Daryl then gripped your arms and helped you up. “It’s okay, yer okay now,” he said in your ear. Keeping an arm around you, Daryl turned to Rick. 

“Rick, this (Y/N), my sister,” Daryl said and Rick’s face turned from concerned to surprised. 

Rick didn’t say anything as Daryl shouldered your pack and handed you back your weapon, smiling slightly at the sight of your mother’s old bow. 

“It was in the garage,” you told him, “figured nobody was comin’ for it.” 

“Glad you took it,” Daryl said, adjusting his crossbow on his arm. “You were always better with it than Merle.” That made you stop. 

“Is he…?” You trailed off, not willing to ask the question. 

“Merle’s dead,” Daryl said and something about his face told you not to push the issue, at least not yet. You could tell that he wanted to ask questions of his own, but he also wanted to get out of the woods. 

“Where are we goin’?” You asked, trying to keep up with the men who had much longer legs than you.

“We have a place,” Daryl said, “you’ll be safe there.”

“Daryl…” Rick said, his voice full of warning. 

“Just...wait, Rick. Alright? Let me get her some place warm and then we’ll start askin’ the questions.” 

“What questions?” You asked, through shivering teeth. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” Daryl said, tugging you along further. A few more moments and a large chain link fence came into view. 

Along with a large group of the Dead.

Your footsteps faltered as you beheld the sight, reaching for your weapon. 

“S’alright,” Daryl said to you and then he took a flashlight from his belt and flashed it twice. A second later, a light from what looked like a tower, mimicked the movement. Suddenly, there were shouts.

“Hey! Over here!”

“Come on and get us!” 

“Hey!”

The shouts just kept coming and more voices joined in. Just how many people were here, you wondered. Daryl and Rick lead you towards a large metal gate. The Dead were too preoccupied by the new waves of noise that they managed to get onto the gravel road without incident. Still, Daryl kept his crossbow in front of him and Rick kept his hand on his gun.

You were between both men as they approached the gate. Then the large gate rattled open and a young boy in a sheriff’s hat ushered you inside, slamming the gate behind the three of you. As soon as the latch was secured, Daryl relaxed and then finally looked you over, taking in your face. The look in your eyes and the way you carried yourself was a lot like your older brother, but so much was strictly you and it nearly brought tears to his eyes. 

“Who’s this?” The kid in the hat asked. 

“Daryl’s sister, apparently,” Rick said as he stared between you and Daryl. 

“I’m Carl,” the kid said, waving awkwardly. You nodded to the kid, noticing the gun on his belt. 

“Let’s get inside before we freeze to death,” Daryl grumbled as he led you through the yard and toward a large building. As you looked around, it finally clicked as to what this place was. 

“You live in a prison?” You gasped. 

“It has fences and beds,” Rick said as he strode next to you . “We’ve made it home.” You nodded, taking in the sights around you, but you couldn’t shake the sounds of the Dead just down the small hill. You kept your eyes forward, tightening your grip on your brother.

The four of you stepped through another gate and headed for a large cell block. As soon as the metal door closed behind you, the sounds of the Dead were drowned out and you let out a breath. “Come on,” Daryl said, pulling you further into the building.

He took you into an area with a few tables and beyond that you saw a few people looking at you through a gate that you were sure was locked.

Carl went over and stood by the door, his hand on his gun. Daryl took your bow from you and set it gently on the table and then helped you with the quiver on your back, careful not to brush up against any of the fresh scrapes and bruises he could see on your bare shoulders. 

“Beth,” Daryl said to a young blonde girl, “can ya grab me a blanket?” She nodded without having to be asked twice and quickly returned with a wool blanket that you figured was from the prison inventory. Daryl quickly pulled it around your shoulders, rubbing your arms with his large hands. “Yer gonna be okay,” he whispered, taking a seat next to you and looping an arm around your shoulders.

“This is Daryl’s sister,” Rick announced to the others and you got a look at the others in their group. There was Beth and a woman next to her that was keeping a protective watch over the blonde. You figured that was Beth’s sister and an asian man who was holding hands with the woman. Then there was an older woman with short gray hair who stood next to a tall dark skinned woman who had a sword along her back. An older man with one leg sat at the table next to yours and then of course there was Rick and Carl. Judging by the way Rick was standing in front of the kid, you figured Carl was his son.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” the woman with the short hair said, breaking the silence. 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Daryl grumbled as he took a piece of your hair and moved it from your face, trying to keep you warm. “She’s my older sister,” Daryl continued, “but younger than Merle.” 

“How’d you find us?” Rick asked, clearly not fully comfortable with your sudden appearance. You felt Daryl tighten his grip on you. You reached over and held onto his hand. 

“I wasn’t lookin’ for people,” you explained. “In fact, I wasn’t even headin’ this way. I was tryin’ to get more North, but I got turned around when I started running from them.” 

“The Walkers?” Rick asked and you looked at him in confusion. 

“The Dead,” Daryl clarified. 

“Oh, no,” you shook your head, “Yeah, I mean they’ve been around. Pretty big group of them not too far away a couple weeks ago, but no, I was runnin’ from people not...Walkers,” you said, trying out the word.

“People?” The woman next to Beth asked. 

“Couple of men who tried…” you trailed off and then shook away the fear that crept up your spine, “A couple of men tried to take me, they had rope and knives, but I managed to cause a distraction. Let out a couple of the Dead from a nearby van and they went for them so I could get away.” 

“I would have killed them,” Daryl growled from next to you. You looked at him and nodded slightly. 

“I know.” You then looked back to Rick, “I wasn’t planning to stay after I found the stream. If you hadn’t of found me and pointed a gun at me, I would have never known my little brother was here.” Daryl rested his head on your shoulder and you leaned into him. 

“(Y/N),” Rick began, “I need to ask you some questions.” 

“Rick,” Daryl warned. 

“Daryl, I know she’s family, but—”

“It’s fine,” you cut him off, “ask your questions.” Rick looked at you for a moment before nodding. 

“How many Walkers you killed?” He asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t keep count. More than two dozen at least?” You offered.

“How many people you kill?” Rick asked next and you felt your heart stutter. 

“Three,” you said. 

“Why?”

“Two because they tried to kill me and,” you paused, trying to find the courage to finish. You leaned away from your brother and leaned your elbows on your knees. “The third was because he asked me to.” 

“Who?” Carl asked, interjecting. Tears pooled in your eyes, but you wouldn’t hide them anymore. It was Daryl that spoke next. 

“Carter?” He asked quietly. You looked at him and nodded. “Her fiance,” he clarified for the others. You felt your hands shaking and you knew what his next question would be. “(Y/N), if Carter...if he’s dead,” he paused and the tears began dripping off your chin. “If he’s dead, where’s Hannah?”

Something broke inside you at her name. It wasn’t sadness anymore, it was just hollow. You looked at your brother with a frown, your face wet with tears of guilt. “No,” he whispered as his arm fell away from you, to cradle his own head. “No, no, no,” he said, the anger growing. 

“Daryl, I’m sorry,” you said, nearly pleading as you gripped his shoulders. “I took my eyes off of her for thirty seconds. Then the camp was overrun and neither of us could get to her in time. Carter...he saw it happen.” Daryl shook as he listened. He could barely speak so you looked to the confused faces of the prison group. “Hannah was my daughter,” you told them, “she died at the start of all this.” Daryl fell to the floor, leaning back on his hands as he took in the news. His niece, only six years old, was dead, taken by this new world.

“Maggie,” Rick said quietly as he watched his friend slowly fall apart, “can you get (Y/N) some dry clothes and help get her situated?” Maggie, the woman you thought to be Beth’s sister nodded and disappeared through the gate as Carl held it open. “Let’s just give them a moment, everyone,” Rick said and ushered everyone out as you held onto your heartbroken brother and let the grief wash over you both. 

Once Daryl had calmed down, you helped him up and he wrapped his arm around your waist and then pulled you in for a hug. 

Neither of you said anything as you held each other. You just breathed him in and relished in the feel of family once again.

“Come on,” he said, his voice low, “let’s get some sleep, we can talk more in the morning’.” He took you into the cell block and up the metal staircase and into a cell. Maggie had brought fresh clothes and an extra blanket for you. Daryl pulled the mattress off the top bunk and lay it down on the floor. He then pulled back the blankets of the bottom bunk and gestured for you to lay down. As soon as you settled onto the cot, he lay down on the mattress next to you on the floor, staring up at you. 

“I’m sorry,” you whispered. He shook his head, reaching for your hand. You let your hand fall over the edge of the bed and grab onto his. 

“Wasn’t yer fault,” he promised, “don’t you ever think it was, (Y/N). Never.” You nodded at his words. “Get some sleep.” You wanted to stay up, talk to him, but the overwhelming fatigue took you and soon, you fell into the darkness as you held onto Daryl’s hand. 

The only family you had left. 

----

When you woke up the next morning, you were alone in the cell. 

It took you a couple of minutes to wrap your head around everything that had happened. You had found Daryl, you were safe behind fences, you were alive. Those three things were all that mattered as you sat up in the bunk and rubbed the sleep from your tired eyes.

The clothes you were wearing were the ones you had been wearing as you ran through the woods the night before. Peeling off your stiff boots, you changed into the clothes Maggie had gotten for you. You and Maggie were roughly the same size so luckily everything fit well enough. Stuffing your feet back into your boots, you grabbed one of Daryl’s button ups and pulled it on, noticing the prison walls didn’t do much for warmth, but it was better than being in the woods or up in a tree. 

The sun was filtering in through the windows near the ceiling and you could hear the other prison residents starting their day.

“Good morning.” You jumped slightly at the sound and turned to see Maggie coming out of a cell at the end of the walkway. “We didn’t officially get to meet last night, I’m Maggie.” She offered you her hand and you took it, pushing up Daryl’s long sleeves.

“(Y/N),” you said, “thanks for clothes,” you said, gesturing to the jeans and tank top. 

“Not a problem at all,” she said with a grin and then gestured for you to follow her down stairs. “If you’re looking for Daryl, he’ll be back soon. Michonne found some Walkers down by E Block so she, Rick, Daryl, and my husband, Glenn, went to take care of them. Shouldn’t be long. My sister, Beth, said she saw them take a walkie so if they’re in trouble, we’ll know.”

“Michonne is the woman with the sword?” You asked, already feeling the anxiety rise as you thought about Daryl going after the Dead. 

“That’s right,” Maggie said, still cheerful. “She’s a hell of a fighter and from the way your brother fights, I’m assuming so are you.”

“I can shoot,” you said.

“Then it's a good thing we have you now, (Y/N),” Maggie said with a grin. You and her made it down to the lower level. Carl was sitting with Beth as he cleaned his gun. Beth watched on in curiosity. You didn’t know how old Carl was, but it made you feel a bit sad to see the kid with a gun, but this was the way the world was and it was better than becoming a victim. 

Maggie sat across from her sister and patted the seat on her other side. You sat down, slowly, fiddling with your sleeves. Beth slid over a container of peaches. “I can never finish a whole can by myself,” she said, “too sweet.”

You looked down at the fruit in the syrup and your mouth watered. It had been weeks since you had anything besides squirrel and canned tomato soup. “Thank you,” you said with a small smile as you dug into the canned fruit. 

“So,” Beth continued, causing you to look up, “what was Daryl like as a kid?” 

“Beth,” Maggie warned.

“You can’t tell me you’re not curious,” Beth said and then looked back at you with patience. You swallowed another peach.

“Uh, he was like most kids, I guess. Looked out for me, even though I was older, played in the woods, was always runnin’ around being...Daryl,” you said with a light laugh that took you by surprise. It had been so long since you laughed. “He was a good kid and an even better man. I can tell he still is.” Beth smiled and Maggie mirrored her sister, Carl was listening, but not offering any of his own commentary. 

“You look like him,” Beth noticed. You laughed again. Maggie then reached out and touched your arm. You looked at her and saw the sorrow in her face. 

“I’m very sorry about what happened to your family, (Y/N),” Maggie said sincerely. “We’ve lost people, but I could never imagine what it would be like to lose a child. I’m so sorry.” A wave of...something washed through you and you lay your hand over hers.

“You’re actually the first person to say that to me,” you said after you realized it was the truth. “Thank you.” 

“We look out for family here,” Beth said, “and you’re Daryl’s family which means you’re ours now.” Your throat was too thick to speak so you just nodded.

Before anyone else could say something, commotion sparked behind you as two people walked in with grins on their faces. “Victory is mine!” The woman said, her grin lit up her face.

“You found some?” Beth asked, suddenly very excited. 

“Hell yeah,” the woman said as she dumped a duffel bag on the table and Maggie looked like she wanted to say something but before she could, the unknown woman unzipped the bag and showed the table what she had found. 

Cases of baby formula.

Your blood ran cold. 

“Sasha fought off four Walkers for that stash,” the man said, clapping Sasha on the shoulder. 

“Shut up, Tyreese, you helped,” Sasha said, shrugging off his hand. He smiled at her and then Tyreese noticed you. 

“Who’s this?” Sasha turned to look at you and then looked at Maggie. .

“This is (Y/N), Daryl’s sister, we found her last night,” Maggie explained, but you couldn’t focus on Sasha and Tyreese. All you could do was stare at the formula. 

They had a baby here.

“(Y/N),” Beth said, lightly touching your wrist. You looked at her finally. “This is Sasha and her brother, Tyreese.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Tyreese said kindly while Sasha just looked at you, much like how Rick had looked at you the night before. 

You tried to speak, but again the words were locked in your throat. Maggie noticed. “Sasha could you go put this with the others,” Maggie asked and then gave Sasha a look that had the other woman hauling the bag off the table and disappearing around the corner. 

“Who’s the formula for?” You asked, finding your words.

“My sister,” Carl said, “she’s still working her way up to solid food.” It was then that it clicked. Rick had a daughter. That was why he dispersed everyone so quickly when you and Daryl had your moment.

“Yeah, it can, uh, take some time,” you said roughly, trying to keep a pleasant look on your face. The only thing going through your mind was Hannah’s little hands wrapping around your fingers and the smell of her head after her baths or even the little noises she made when she slept on your chest. It was all coming back to you at once when you had worked hard not to think about your baby. 

“Are you okay, (Y/N)?” Maggie asked and you turned to her, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” you said, getting to your feet. “I’m just gonna go get some air. That okay?” You asked, still not sure if there were rules here.

“Yeah, the yard is safe, just don't go into any of the far cell blocks,” Maggie said and you nodded. You left the cell block behind as you quickly made your way out into the open air. There were more people here than you expected and then you realized there must have been more people in Cell Block D. You avoided their gazes as you walked through the courtyard, shaking off all the memories that threatened to overtake you. Finding a picnic table, you sat on the top, resting your elbows on your knees as you looked out over the yard. 

You could see the Dead as they tried to break through the fences, but a group of four were walking along the chain link and stabbing the Dead through their decaying skulls. The sounds of their groans were nearly deafening even at a distance. It was a sound that would never leave you, even if it all stopped one day, that noise would follow you forever. 

You stayed there as the sun rose in the sky, leaving the morning behind as noon approached. You didn’t know how long you were out there until a hand came down on your shoulder. Daryl looked down at you with concern. “Hey,” he said softly.

“Hey.”

“Maggie said I’d find ya out here,” he said, taking a seat next to you, “she said ya left after Sasha brought home the formula.” You just nodded, keeping your eyes on the yard. “Probably should have warned you about the little one.” 

“It’s fine,” you told him. “You didn't know about Hannah.”

“I’m sorry, (Y/N),” he whispered, “M’sorry we weren’t there to protect ya’ll. I figured because of Carter’s service record that he’d get ya out and then when we tried to get back into the city…”

“There was nothing left,” you finished, remembering the napalm that rained down from the sky. 

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“We got out, but it was so chaotic and when we got back to the house, the Dead were everywhere. I managed to get the bow and some clothes and food for Hannah, but then we had to run and we couldn’t get back.” You turned your eyes to him. “I didn’t know if you would make it or if you had Merle with ya. I tried looking for both of you when it happened, but I had Hannah and I…”

“Ya had to keep her safe,” Daryl said. 

“And I couldn’t even do that,” you said, wringing your hands. 

“You can’t blame yourself for what happened, (Y/N/N),” he said.

“Since when do you call me (Y/N/N)?” You asked. 

“Haven’t gotten the chance to in a bit,” he said and you nodded, understanding. 

“I’ll work on not feelin’ guilty for Hannah and Carter, if you stop feelin’ guilty too. Deal?” You offered your fist just as you had when you were kids. He nodded and then tapped your fist with his. Then, he reached over and tugged you closer to him, planting a kiss to the side of your head. 

“It’s really good to see ya, girl,” he whispered. You leaned into him before pulling back.

“You smell like rotting corpses,” you told him and he grimaced. 

“Had to take care of a few Walkers down in E,” Daryl said, “Imma go get a new shirt, you just try and relax for a bit. Yer safe here, (Y/N), don’t forget that.” You nodded and he squeezed your shoulder once before heading off to go get a clean shirt.

After Daryl left, you decided to walk the yard. Slipping through the gate, you meandered through the field, keeping a wide distance between you and the far fences. They had a well groomed garden going as well as some pigs. It seemed that even amongst all the death and chaos, they were doing well. It was enough to lift a bit of the weight off your shoulders.

As you walked through the tall grass, you let your fingers brush against them and felt the warm sun on your neck. You sighed at the feeling, letting the peace swirl around you. 

“You know, Beth did the same thing when we first got this place under control.” You turned to see Rick approaching you and in his arms was a beautiful blonde little girl. You stayed where you were as he approached, your eyes on his daughter. 

“I can understand the draw,” you said.

“Not everyday you feel some sense of security,” Rick said as he stopped in front of you. “I figured you should meet the remaining member of our little family,” he said. “This is Judith.” Your heart swelled at her name. 

“Hello, Judith,” you said with a grin. “Aren’t you just the prettiest rose in the garden?” Judith looked over at you, her hands holding onto her daddy’s shirt. You looked up at Rick. “She’s beautiful.” 

“You wanna hold her?” He asked and you went to argue, but he was already moving her from his arms and holding her out to you. 

“Oh, okay,” you said as you took the baby and held her against you, feeling the familiar weight of a child in your arms. She reached up and took hold of your nose, her curious eyes roaming your face. “Hi, sweetheart,” you cooed. 

“She likes you,” Rick said and you smiled at him. “Look, I just wanted to apologize for last night.”

“For what?” You asked, your brows pulled together. 

“I shouldn’t have pointed the gun at you or pressed you with questions, especially after Daryl told us you were his sister.” You bounced Judith slightly as she played with a lock of your hair and turned to Rick again. 

“Don’t ever apologize for protecting your family, Rick,” you said sternly. “I would have come in handcuffs if it meant that you felt that your children and your people were safe. You can’t be too careful in this new world, so no apologies necessary. Isn’t that right, Judith?” you said, scrunching your nose at the baby. Rick looked at you and nodded his head.

“I see it now,” he said. 

“See what?”

“The Dixon in you,” he explained, “but it’s all Daryl, not Merle.” You snorted and looked up at him, your eyes shining in the sunlight. 

“You just haven’t seen the Merle side yet.”

Note: I could definitely add more to this. Requests are open!