#I��m 22 and slowly losing my vision

[kentochronicles]

***SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODE 6***

So I’m still processing everything but holy shite that ep was wild...

FIRST THINGS FIRST - WANDA, VISION, BILLY AND PIETRO ALL IN COMIC ACCURATE-ISH COSTUMES AND TOMMY IN A MINI QUICKSILVER COSTUME

PIETRO CALLING BILLY AND TOMMY DEMON SPAWN - GOD DAMMIT, IT’S MEPHISTO ISN’T IT? HOUSE OF M HERE WE COME

HERB ASKING WANDA IF SHE WANTED SOMETHING CHANGED

AGNES ASKING VISION ABOUT THE AVENGERS AND STUFF AND AT FIRST SHE SEEMED GENUINELY FREAKED OUT BUT THEN STARTED LAUGHING MANIACALLY AND I STILL DON’T TRUST HER AND AGNES BEING DRESSED AS A WITCH? AGATHA HARKNESS WAS A WITCH - COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

DARCY LOOKING OVER MONICA’S MED SCANS AND TELLING HER HOW THE HEX AFFECTS HER EACH TIME SHE GOES IN - IS SHE DEVELOPING HER POWERS?

PIETRO’S CORPSE - SCARED ME JUST AS MUCH AS VISION’S

MOVIES SHOWING IN THE THEATRE IN THE BACKGROUND - THE INCREDIBLES: A MOVIE BASED AROUND A SUPERHERO FAMILY AND THE PARENT TRAP: A MOVIE ABOUT TWINS WHO MEET AT CAMP AND TRY AND SET THEIR PARENTS UP

DON’T GO PAST ELLIS AVENUE - NOW I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A CONNECTION OR JUST A COINCIDENCE BUT ELLIS IS THE LAST NAME OF THE PRESIDENT DURING IRON MAN 3

TOMMY HAVING HIS SPEED POWERS AND BILLY HAVING HIS REALITY WARPING/TELEKINETIC POWERS - WELCOME SPEED AND WICCAN

A CALL BACK TO INFINITY WAR WHEN VISION EXITED THE HEX? SLIGHTLY DUSTING AND HE PROBABLY WON’T SURVIVE BEING OUTSIDE OF THE HEX - HE’LL JUST DIE AGAIN 🥲

I STILL DON’T TRUST HAYWARD - HE’S VERY SUS

DARCY BEING TAKEN INTO THE HEX WITH THE OTHER S.W.O.R.D AGENTS - HOPEFULLY WE CAN SEE THE OUTFITS THAT KAT DENNING’S WAS EXCITED ABOUT

I SWEAR THEY BETTER NOT STRAIGHTWASH BILLY AND TOMMY OR I WILL RIOT 😤

***FURTHER UPDATES***

So sit-com wise, it seems they were referencing Malcolm in the Middle as the twins broke the fourth wall and talked to the audience, like Malcolm did

However, the theme song has told the viewer to stop questioning the reality of Westview - which could be a little reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000? - When Pietro first shows up in the title sequence, along with his name title card, the lyrics say “Though there may be no way of knowing who’s come to play” - Istg, I do not trust Pietro

Vision says to Wanda that he had to wear his Halloween costume because there were no other clothes in his closet, Wanda is trying to move the plot along and forcing Vision to play along

Evan Peters’ ‘Mom’ tattoo is shown, which is a tattoo he actually has in real life ! But could this stand for ‘Multiverse of Madness’ or some other red herring?

Pietro mentions to Wanda that if he had found ‘Shangri-La’ he wouldn’t want to leave either - Shangri-La is a real place on Earth-616 that was founded by a version of Vision

Tommy refers to Pietro’s speed as ‘kickass’ and then Wanda repeats that, saying ‘kickass’ again - Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters (both versions of QuickSilver) were in Kick-Ass together

The ad for this episode was freaky af - the character on the beach who starved and decomposed could be a little nod to Indiana Jones, where a Nazi’s face melts in - and it could also be reference to Wanda being all alone and struggling to process her grief. The shark in the ad could also be Nightmare or Mephisto or just someone more powerful than Wanda offering her a new beginning with Vision or trapped her in some way - and is feeding off her magic? The flavour of the yoghurt is strawberry flavoured and strawberry’s are red on the outside and pink-ish on the inside - much like Wanda’s og costume and her magic being red 👀

Pietro and Wanda talk about their Sokovian accents at a point in the episode and how neither have them anymore. Wanda’s, as we know, has disappeared over the course of the MCU movies and Pietro’s just doesn’t exist - another nice little nod to Peter Maximoff from the fox X-Men films? Also, Pietro states that “I’m just trying to do my part, okay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the Rugrats (a 90’s cartoon 👀) and ultimately give you grief.” - in reference to the grief part, could Pietro be killed off again? Stir up trouble with the rugrats, being possible shards of the demon Mephisto’s soul, could this be Mephisto trying to influence them on a deeper level? It’s also many many common sitcom clichès

Pietro talks about how “I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all” - nice little nod to how Pietro was killed off unnecessarily and how we as a fandom still talk about how regular bullets shouldn’t have killed him

Herb is dressed as Frankenstein’s monster - Dr. Frankenstein created his monster and soon lost control over him, and he was created using electricity or lightning - much like Vision was created and brought to life by Thor using Mjolnïr to bring lightning down to his incubator thingy majig. Could this also be a reference to either Wanda slowly losing control over Westview or someone else controlling Wanda/controlling the citizens of Westview - we saw in episode 3 that Agnes told Herb to be quiet as it seemed he was about to spill the beans 👀

Vision goes towards Ellis avenue and is at a ‘crossroads’ of sorts - in folklore, crossroads are often used to speak to or summon the devil and are also used when an important character is making a decision that could change everything. He spots some citizens repeating certain actions and/or just standing completely still, could these be npc’s (non playable characters)? And now that the barrier of the Hex has spread, will those citizens now start to move? 👀 Also I know that all stop signs look like it, but the stop sign is also a red hexagon 🛑

Darcy scrolls through Hayward’s computer files and goes past a file called “Project C4-113” - it could reference Avengers Issue #113 in which Wanda and Vision both appear on the cover and she says she’s going to make the world pay for Vision’s death. There’s also another file called “Project M5-247” which could be a nod to Avengers Issue #247, which shows the origin of the Eternals and in the same vein, Scarlet Witch and Vision trying to help Captain Marvel. And when Darcy emails Hayward’s cataract plans, you can see the names of “James Alexander and James Gadd” - James Alexander is a visual effects producer on Wandavision and James Gadd works on post production at Marvel

Also: Agnes pulls as Mrs Hart and repeats the same phrase over and over again

After Wanda blasts Pietro, you can see on a fake grave stone the name of “Janell Sammelman”, Janell is a first assistant director on Wandavision

When Wanda moves Westview to save Vision, she turns S.W.O.R.D and it’s agents into clowns + a circus - I just love that the agents turned into clowns 😂 but there is a nice little plot line in the comics where Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye join the circus - and this COULD be stretch, but earlier in the episode there is the number #22 which could be Avengers Issue #22, which is the Issue that they join the circus

As soon as Vision was brought back into Westview, he was healed - which means if he was to exit again, he probably wouldn’t survive 😭

The episode title is ‘All-New Halloween Spooktackular!” - which “All-New” is a designation that is often used on covers for comic books. And the first issue of the second The Vision and the Scarlet Witch series takes place on Halloween night - but the events in this comics didn’t influence this episode’s plot

Pietro points out that he has the “XY chromosome” - X for X-Men? Plus there’s the X gene 😂

He mentions “Uncle Peter to the rescue” - Peter is the name of Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men Franchise

Pietro and Tommy quote the movie Top Gun (1986) by saying “I fell the need, the need for speed”

Wanda almost seems hesitant to trust this version of Pietro (rightfully so, in my opinion) and is wary of him being around Tommy and Billy

Pietro says some very Mephisto/Nightmare-like things this episode - “Unleash hell, demon spawn!”, “The kids need a father figure”, “Damnit, if Westview isn’t charming as Hell...” - And if Pietro isn’t Mephisto/Nightmare, it HAS to be Agnes or her other half Ralph and Pietro is probably Ralph tbh...or could Pietro just be a scapegoat and Hayward is Ralph? 👀

The theatre in town, which is playing the Incredibles and The Parent Trap, is called the Coronet. There’s a classic poem called “The Coronet” written by Andrew MARVELL (Marvell, is also the true name of the first incarnation of Captain Marvel in the comics) and is about a guy who knows that the sins of mankind led to the death of Christ. He attempts to create a new crown for Christ’s head in an attempt to atone, but finds that there is sin in the crown as well, as the devil is within the crown and therefore he may achieve glory and success with his new creation 👀

Hayward’s confidential project “Cataract” included experimenting on Vision’s body, as was revealed by Darcy (my wife 💙 and Monica is also my wife 💚 and so is Wanda 💛, I just love women, you know? 😂). A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision - is Hayward trying to weaponise Vision? Or maybe even trying to bring Ultron back? Or do what Tony wanted to do in the first place, and make a suit of armour that’s around the world? Either way, it’s for nefarious purposes

Who is Monica’s guy? Jimmy and Monica are off to meet him - could it be Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic)? Or could it be Victor Von Doom (Dr Doom)? Could it be Hank McCoy (Beast)? Or even Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel)? Or if it is a woman, could it be the Skrull daughter of Talos that Monica befriended at the end of Captain Marvel? Could it be Abigail Brand (A major character in recent S.W.O.R.D comics and an Alpha Flight Member)? Or even Toni Ho (Iron Patriot, and could she be introduced to help lay the ground work for my other queen, Riri Williams/Iron Heart?)? Or could it even be Sue Storm (Invisible Woman)?

In the background of the episode we see a number of children and adults dressed up as many different characters, which includes: Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, Jason Voorhees, with a sweater striped like Freddy Krueger’s and even a kid that looks dressed in an off-brand Charizard costume 😂 Pokèmon has always been popular, but saw an increase during the 90’s

Pietro and the kids are drinking “Kane Cola” which could be a reference to the 90’s drinks “Jolt Cola” or even “Surge” - it could also, with all the X-Men Easter eggs, be a reference to Garrison Kane, who was a member of Cable’s mercenary team “Six Pack” and is sometimes also known as ‘Weapon X’

The kid that Wanda mentions having a “skin thing” in the orphanage - could that be a reference to her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants co-worker Toad? Or maybe even Mystique? Maybe Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler)?

One of the houses has a sign up that says ‘Macabre Mansion’ - another possible reference to House of M?

During a flashback, it’s shown that the twins are playing Dance Dance Revolution, which came out in 1999. Also this might be a stretch, but the boys have a dog plushie in their room the right - which is coloured red and black - could this be a reference to Dogpool? 😂

I love this show 🤣💙

[cinnella]

Name: Libelle Abrams (chosen name); Varda Lesedi (birth name)

Age: 22 years old

Sex: Female

Sexuality: Demi-homosexual

Zodiac sign: Libra

Birthday: October 7th

Patron Arcana: Justice (Major); Queen of Swords (Minor)

Occupation: Magician, healer, painter and gardener

Height: 5'9" (1.76 m)

Weight: 194 lbs (88 kg)

Relatives:

Briella Lesedi - mother (deceased)

Abanus Lesedi - father (deceased)

Gushvin Basu - distant family friend

Origin: Born in the Catclaw Desert, grew up in Vesuvia

Race: African-American

Powers: White (purification) and healing magic, as well as telekinesis and precognitive dreaming

Intelligence Level: On a scale from 1 to 10, she's a strong 8.5

Backstory:

During the beautiful sunset of the Catclaw Desert, little Varda was born not far off from their home, where her parents had built their sculpture selling stand.

About 7 months later, while they were enjoying their time at home, their friend, Gushvin, hurried to tell them that an unexpected aggressive sand storm started heading their way.

They made sure to give Varda to him as he was faster and went ahead of them. They tragically got swept away by the storm and inhaled too much sand. They were found without breath or pulse hours later.

As selfish as it was of him, Gushvin didn't want to take care of a child, so he made sure to find someone willing enough to do that, soon running into a person who said they specifically searched for orphaned children that needed care.

After a couple of days of traveling, they arrived in sunny Vesuvia, where Varda was brought to the orphanage in the South End. There she was cared for and raised like promised.

She grew up to be one of the sweetest but most naive kids there. One day during lunch, she noticed a kid was sitting alone at his table, sulking and not eating. She approached him and offered to eat with him.

He had silverish eyes and ash-blond hair and the kindest smile she'd ever seen. She'd heard the adults call him Lucas and she knew he was kind of a troublemaker, but he seemed so lonely. They became best friends almost instantly, and always spent time together.

Some years later, when both of them were around 5 years old, they befriended three other kids, all significantly older than them. She learned that their names were Eris, Syro and Morana, and immediately became worried.

They were the biggest scoundrels in the entire orphanage, and quite honestly, all of South End. But Lucas insisted that they join their group. And she trusted him.

She didn't think that these four kids would become so important to her, that they'd become her family. But they did, and she couldn't be more thankful.

When it became clear enough to the adults that they couldn't raise nameless kids, the more capable ones took to teaching them the importance of knowing how to read and write and then they could choose a name for themselves, on their 7th birthday.

Soon enough, her sweet 7th rolled around and after months of searching, she found a name that would complete her.

And so, Varda Lesedi became Libelle Abrams.

Lucas, not much later, also changed his name, to Calyx. Libelle thought it was such a beautiful name for him.

Many years passed by with the four causing as much trouble as possible, to her unfortunate luck. But once she approached her preteens, devastating news came with them. When they'd reach the age of 17, they would need to leave, one by one, and search for a different home.

They discussed about it, made plans and set goals to find their homelands, their roots and possibly their families.

Obviously, Eris was first in line to leave as the eldest between them. Then Morana with Syro. It was only her and Calyx left. She made the promise to not abandon him there and take him with her when the time would come.

And she did. After celebrating her 17th birthday and talking with the one that had found her so many years ago, they set out to travel towards the Catclaw Desert. The journey was a couple of days long and it took them almost as much to find the one who knew about her parents.

Gushvin was sat on the bench in front of his home when they approached, and when Libelle called out to him, he recognized her immediately. There was some confusion with her name at first, but they quickly caught onto everything.

He told her everything that had happened the day she became an orphan and although he was hesitant, he confessed how selfish he'd been back then, something he regretted deeply and hadn't let him sleep properly since then.

All of the discoveries shocked her beyond belief, so much so that she wanted to go back to Vesuvia right away. After a while of mulling over everything she found out, she decided to focus on helping her best friend.

Luck had seemed to smile upon them, because Eris insisted on tagging along with them. After all, they had to travel across the sea all the way to the Macawi Port.

After even more shocking reveals about Calyx' parents, none of them wanted to know anything more, so at dawn they started back home.

Now, Libelle could focus on the things that she wanted to do most. She learned how to become a professional healer and magician, so she would help people in need. Around that time, her secret powers slowly surfaced as well.

She realized she could move objects with the will of her mind and at night, she would have visions and dreams of the future. After consulting with an expert in healing magic, she discovered that most people have these gifts and adviced her to learn to control them.

Everything was fine in her life until the Red Plague rained upon them and they each made the decision to leave Vesuvia. Well, all except for Eris. She wanted to help the doctors with the dead, confided to Libelle that she'd taught herself necromancy and wanted to reverse their deaths.

Eris had been too stubborn to listen to reason, so they had no choice but to leave her behind. Syro and Morana left for the Southern Spines, while Eris specifically told Libelle and Calyx to go to Venterre and find her brother, Sethos. He would shelter them until the nightmare would be over.

So they did, they took the first boat straight to the west coast of Venterre, where they ran into the young man in question.

When they finished explaining everything to him, he insisted they go back and get her too, but there would have been no use in doing so. His sister would have been way too stubborn to listen to anyone.

Days later, a letter arrived in their mailbox and all three were devastated to find out Eris died from the plague. Libelle and Calyx were sobbing messes and Sethos almost thrashed the room before collapsing too.

They informed the other two through a letter as well, but they figured there would be massive delays because of the distance, so they didn't expect an answer right away.

Suddenly, about 6 days later, Libelle had a dream, of Eris being alive. It had felt so real she woke up in a cold sweat and with tears in her eyes, she went to wake up the other two, shaking them hard.

She couldn't form clear words but Calyx caught onto it right away, and while with shaky hands, Libelle explained that she could sense Eris' aura and presence in the real world.

Although Sethos was very skeptical about it, he would have rather held onto the tiniest string of hope that she was indeed alive than live with the thought of losing his sister a second time.

So they wrote another letter to Syro and Morana and immediately packed their things and headed back to Vesuvia in plain midnight.

True to everything Libelle said and sensed, Eris was alive. How, they didn't know, until they spoke to Asra, one of her older friends and apparently, the one who brought her back. She was shocked to find it involved a deal with the Devil. She'd heard of the sacrifices needed to make such deals.

After about 3 years of total absence, Syro and Morana also arrived in Vesuvia and the shock cycle began again.

Not much later, when Eris got assigned to solve the mystery of Count Lucio's murder and catch his fugitive murderer, everyone offered to do something to help her out.

Though she was shy about it, she could sense that the Countess, Nadia, needed help as well. So Libelle suggested assisting her in whatever Nadia would need.

She didn't expect to catch feelings, but she didn't complain either.

Personality: shy, sensitive, kind-hearted, gentle, imaginitive, creative, generous, loyal, honest, trustworthy, observant, reliable, cheerful, too forgiving and sometimes naive

Interesting facts:

Although it isn't very noticeable, she does have a white lotus tattoo on her left middle finger.

Her wrists are littered with past self-harm scars, which the others love to kiss just to make her feel better about them.

She is very insecure about her body, but she has the others to lift her moods up when she's down.

Has an entire collection of earrings, but her favorites are the peacock feathers.

Even though she wakes up early in the morning, she usually takes a nap in the afternoon.

Her thighs and hips are full of stretch marks.

Has the biggest sweet tooth in the world.

Can play the clarinet, but you would have to really indulge her to get her to sing on it for you.

Appearance: Dark espresso skin tone, neck-length curly chestnut brown hair, dyed periwinkle blue halfway down, jade green eyes, chubby slight hourglass body shape, D cup breasts

Familiar: Lumi, a cute and sweet stoat but a sneaky little thief all the same

Voice claim: Dana Gourrier

Full sprite:

WOOOHOOOO I FINISHED ALL MY MCS' BIOS AND I'M SO HAPPY!!

My girl turned out so damn beautiful too and I'm just hhnnnnn- 😖💜

PLEASE SHOW HER SOME LOVE AS WELL!!! ✨

[imagine-loki]

Life's Great Lie

TITLE: Life’s Great Lie CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 1 SOS AUTHOR: christycreature ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine being a dark fae, being sent to Midgard, then losing your memory. You meet Loki post Ragnarok, assisting the remaining Asgardians and the Avengers with Thanos.  RATING: M

Flashes of six colorful stones danced behind my eyes. A tall pale man with dark hair offered me his hand. A little girl clung to my leg, crying. War, blood, and then darkness. I woke with a jolt in the darkness of night, gasping for air, goosebumps flowed down my arms like rain drops on a leaf. “Are you alright Lily? Should I call Mr. Stark?” Friday asked through the walls. “No, I’m okay. Thank you and goodnight. Or morning.” I grumbled before flopping back onto my pillows and waiting for the return of the sandman. 

“This is the Asgardian refugee vessel Statesman! We are under assault, I repeat, we are under assault – The engines are dead, life support failing! Requesting aid from any vessel within range…We are 22 jump points out of Asgard. Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here! This is not a war craft, I repeat, this is not a war craft!" 

"Hear me, and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No…It is salvation. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile…For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos.” Ebony Maw praises to the last living Asgardian royalty. The rest of the Black Order files into the place, making room for their master. The Mad Titan. Thanos. “I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right… yet to fail, nonetheless.” He stands over Thor, pausing and grabbing him by his chest piece and dragging him to the center of the mostly destroyed ship. “It’s frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it’s here. Or should I say…I AM.” He held his fist up, revealing a golden gauntlet already embedded with the power stone. “Y-y-ou talk too much.” Thor stammered with a groan, Thanos tightened his grip before staring Loki down. “The Tesseract. Or your brother’s head. I assume you have a preference?” Thanos asked before holding the gauntlet to Thor’s head. “Oh I do. Kill away!” Loki stated coolly, watching Thanos press the power stone into his brother’s temple. The horror and dread forming in his chest until it finally burst into words. “ALRIGHT STOP!” He begged, “We don’t have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard.” Thor panted, trying to recover from the miniature torture session that had just occurred. Loki dropped his gaze to the ship floor before materializing the cube into his hand. “You… really are… the worst… brother.” Thor stated, glaring up at Loki. There was a faint smile on his face, “ I assure you brother, the sun will shine on us again.” “Your optimism is misplaced Asgardian.” The Titan stated before taking the cube from his grasp. “Well… for one thing: I’m not Asgardian. And for another… we have a Hulk.” Loki stated before diving out of the away, reaching his brother as the Hulk took on Thanos. “Let him have his fun.” Maw stated, waving off Black Dwarf. Heimdall glanced between the two princes and the battling beast before making a quiet plea. “Allfathers… let the dark magic flow through me one last… time.” The once gate keeper opened his arms, carrying away the princes and the beast in a flash of rainbow light.“ Thanos turns to face the dying man, "That was a mistake.” He growled before plunging his blade into his chest. 

“Again Lily. Concentrate. Imagine what color it is.” Strange mumbled, attempting to help focus my energy. I imagined a deep, almost black, violet color surround my hands. “Good. Now slowly push it up your arms.” He pushed on, staring at me intensely. I bit my lip, tasting metal in my mouth as a sweat formed on my brow. Suddenly a feeling of fear crept up my spine. I stopped, the color evaporating from my hands in a mist as my eyes flew open. “Something is coming.” I stated lowly before shoving Stephen out of the way. A tube of rainbow lights came through the roof, crashing onto the stair case we were just sitting in front of. Wong and Stephen took defensive stances, pushing me behind them. I heard groaning and strings of curses before someone finally spoke. “Thanos. H-He’s coming.” Stephen and Wong glanced at each other before turning back to the pit. “Who?” “Doctor… h-help… us-s…” A deeper voice pleaded before fading out. Stephen and Wong dropped their shields before helping the three men out of the hole. I silently gasped at the sight of Thor, Loki, and Bruce Banner being pulled into my line of sight. I quickly noticed something was off by the way Thor hung limp between his brother and Doctor Banner, moving towards them in a rush. “Lay him down here.” I said, motioning to the yoga mat I was using earlier. “Lily, you ca-” “Stephen. I can get him healed enough to get him to Stark Tower.” I growled before he could finish his remark about how unskilled I was. “Loki?” I called softly, his head snapped up to practically glare at me. “I need your help. I’m new to using magic and I’m drained from training earlier. Mind giving me a boost?” I asked, pulling at Thor’s difficult armor. He offered his hand to me, “Take whatever you need young one.” I saw Strange step to the side with Banner, pulling more information from him quietly as I did what I could to focus. I saw tendrils of emerald flow from Loki’s hand into mine, weaving into my violet magic like an intricate braid. With all my concentration I forced the braid into Thor, focusing on his most dangerous injuries. Once Thor took a deep breath I stopped, the magic flow halting to hit me like a broken rubber band. “Thank you…” Loki trailed off, raising an eyebrow at me. “Lily.” I said clamoring to my feet. Stephen grabbed the god of thunder and opened a portal for all of us to step through. “Hey Loki… can you do me a favor?” I asked, feeling sick and extremely tired. “Don’t let my head hit the floor?” I mumbled as I felt my vision go dark and my knees buckle. 

[evendeadlmthehero]

The Five Year Promise: The Arrival (6/10)

Summary: Y/N Stark, a 20-year-old, makes a promise with Peter Parker, a 16-year-old, that if 5 years pass and and they both haven’t found love, they’d have their first date. Then the snap happens. Y/N is gone. Peter isn’t.

Warnings: Angst. Some swearing.

A/N: this is a short/filler chapter but you guys aren’t READY for part 7

Five Year Promise Masterlist

Based on Avengers: Endgame (2018)

It was quiet in the ship. Tony was sitting by himself, not accepting food, and giving it to Nebula and Peter. Peter also didn’t feel like eating, but on day 15 on the spaceship, his stomach had begged him to eat. His cheeks were sunken and his face had lost colour. Peter no longer grieved yet was in a state of numbness.

Thoughts kept racing in his mind. Is Aunt May okay? Is Ned fine? He couldn’t deal with another loss. Thanos had won. And he truly did leave a mark on the universe. A legacy. Peter snuggled up to nothing but his arms wrapped around himself.

Tony had saw this and whilst he was asleep, he had put his jacket on him. Both him and Peter were deprived of food, meaning more susceptibility to the cold of the endless space. Nebula however was part robot, and although she was starving, her bionic side slightly eased the pain.

Everyday, Peter had nightmares of you. Sometimes it’s you turning into ash, sometimes it’s you turning into roaches and spiders. He woke up screaming, yet no sound would come out. Water had ran out, and his throat was too dry to produce sound.

On day 22 he had made a little video for his Aunt, in case he himself did not make it. He sat down, putting on his suit as he told Karen to record.

“Hey May,” he mumbled tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “It’s been 22 days. In the rare chance you get this, I’m sorry. I-I’m sorry you have to go through this again, i-if your still there. If you aren’t gone-“

He stopped himself, unable to finish that sentence. He then looked at his watch that you have given him, making bile rise up to his throat as he was reminded of what had occurred almost a month ago.

1796 days and 2 hours, it had read. He then looked back into the recorder, letting a tear leave his eye. “She’s gone. Y/N, the girl I told you about. S-she- I couldn’t save her. She didn’t want to die. She told me she didn’t want to. She was scared. She was too young. She didn’t even get to graduate. I-I don’t think I will too. Water ran out days ago and I think I heard Mr. Stark say that oxygen will run out soon. M-May, please take care of yourself. I love you a lot and thank you for all that you’ve done. T-this world hasn’t been kind to you. A-and you deserve better.”

His hand shook as he ended to video. He then slept in the same position he was in, not really wanting to move. You were gone. And this time, the suit didn’t save you. He couldn’t save you. He tried to tell himself that Thanos is a menance, that it wasn’t his fault. But then a stupid voice told him he was so close to taking off the gauntlet, if only he was just that bit stronger.

His eyes started drooping down, begging him to sleep. Peter didn’t want to succumb to it. He was so exhausted, sick of being reminded of what had happened in the form of nightmares. He hated waking up in sweat, more dehydrated then before.

And Tony wasn’t any better. His mind was consumed with malicious thoughts towards himself. And how can he not? The worst pain for a parent is losing a child. Tony had to watch his slowly decay and disingrate into ash. He had kept some of your ash in a jar he had found in the ship. Kept it just in case you’d come back.

Your dad also didn’t want to leave you on that planet. He wanted to leave your ashes in Earth, right near his mother and father. You had to be close to your grandparents.

On day 23, your father and Peter had no energy left. Peter had his ribs sticking out of his skin and his cheekbones now more prominent then before. He could feel death closer then ever.

Nebula watched as she saw both your father and Peter drift off into what had looked like sleep, but was imminently death. She felt alone, cold as she realised she was truly going to be a left alone.

All hope was lost until a bright light came near the window, making Peter and Tony open their eyes. They saw a figure in the light, thinking it was you. It had looked like your powers. The lights then dimmed down and there she stood.

An unfamiliar face of hope donning a red and blue suit.

-

Natasha Romanoff ran into the field as she saw a spaceship coming down from the sky. It was held by a female, a glow circling around her. Her heart was beating against her chest, awaiting to see if you were alive or gone like the rest.

When the plan had landed, Tony was the first to get out of the ship. Steve had run towards him, holding him upright. Tony then looked at his old friend in sorrow and grief. “Couldn't stop him.”

“Neither could I,” Steve had spoke as he guided Tony down. Natasha kept watching, waiting to see you arrive. She saw movement, and realised it was the Peter kid she had seen during Germany. He looked in bad shape, skinnier than ever and blue bags under his eyes.

She watched as a blue female also walked out of the ship, when Rocket, a person who she’d made friends with in the recent weeks, ran out to greet her.

Natasha’s smile faltered for a secound, little hope now left that you might actually come out of the ship. But you didn’t. Her eyes welled up as she took a look at Tony who finally made his way towards her. “I l-lost her.”

Natasha let out a little breath as she shook her head, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed Tony’s shoulder. “Tony, we lost.”

“Is, uh?,” Tony struggles to ask about Pepper. He then sees the stressful blonde run up to him, embracing him.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” She gasped as she let out a sob, thinking that she lost him. She then moved back, her eyes looking for you. She then looked at Natasha, who was held by Steve to stop her from collapsing and then to Peter, who had sat down, not saying a word. “No, no, no, no, no.”

You were a simple girl, an infectious girl. You had a bubbly attitude, was fierce and determined. You were brave, heroic and a genius. And today, you were mourned.

-

In the Avengers Compound, the heroes sat in a living room area. Tony was sitting at a table, getting blood in order to heal. He hadn’t spoken since he got off the spaceship. He didn’t want to speak about the horrors he went through. And neither did Peter, who sat down without saying a word, also attached to a tube and a blood bag.

“It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth,” Rhodes spoke, the tone of his voice in complete tiredness. You were like his little niece. He had known you since you were born. He knew who your mother was, before she died giving birth to you. He knew how Tony was before and after you. He knew you since you were in diapers.

“World governments are in pieces,” Natasha’s voice wavers, too emotionally distressed to speak in her usual voice. “The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did- he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures.”

“Where is he now?” Tony had asked, rubbing his bottom lip. “Where?”

“We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through,” Steve had replied back, looking at the various images of those who vanished. Wanda, Sam and T’Challa. Then, a photo of you appeared, with a beaming smile. Peter quickly looked away playing with his fingers.

Tony swallowed the lump in his throat before looking at Thor, sitting on a bench and seemingly deep in thought. “What's wrong with him?”

“Oh, he's pissed,” Rocket spoke, making Tony look at him weirdly, not expecting him to speak. “He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?”

“Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear,” Tony replied back, looking at him curiously.

“Maybe I am,” Rocket had spoken to himself, as he too did not know what he was.

“We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing,” Steve spoke, before looking at your father. “Tony, you fought him-“

“Who told you that?” Your father asked harshly, looking at Steve with anger. “I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone and my own daughter decayed right in front of me. That's what happened. There was no fight.”

“Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?” Steve had asked him in his usual professional voice, angering Tony even more.

“I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming. And then Y/N had the same vision too. You all told me that I was making her crazy, that I was planting ideas in her head-“

“Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus-“

“And I needed you! As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?” Tony asked as he stands, pushing things off the table with a clatter. Everyone winces at the noise. “I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse!”

Tony goes for Steve. Rhodey quickly comes in front of him, trying to stop him. “Tony, Tony, Tony!”

“Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!” He yelled at Steve, the frustration and betrayal of the passed years finally exploding.

“Well, that didn't work out, did it?” Steve had spoken back, trying to get Tony to calm down. But it looked like it had the opposite effect.

“I said, "we'd lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what, cap? We lost. And you weren't there. And now my own daughter is dead. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers! Right?” Tony had yelled, his hands swaying around and hitting everything.

“You made your point. Just sit down,” Rhodey had spoke, trying to help Tony from hurting himself.

“She's great, by the way. Has similar powers to Y/N. You guys do remember Y/N right?” He then looked at Carol who looked like she didn’t want to be apart of this argument. “We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules! I got nothing for you, cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar.”

Steve looks affected by Tony's words. The old friends just gaze at each other. After a moment, Tony rips his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoves it into Steve's hand. “Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide.”

Tony falls to the ground, making everyone gather around him. He whispers “I’m fine,” before collapsing onto the ground.

-

“Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day,” Rhodey told Peter who was sitting on the same couch for three hours now. “You okay man?”

Peter is snapped out of his stare before he gets up from the couch, taking the tube off his arm. “Yeah, I- I need to go check if May and Ned are fine.”

“Peter you need to recover first,” Rhodey yelled out at Peter’s retreating figure. Peter continued walking away, not listening to him. He walked outside the building and into the cool breeze. It was quiet, no sounds of birds or anything. He didn’t realise until now that Thanos really did take away half of the population.

It took a couple of days until Peter got home. No landlines were working, due to a national emergency. There was no cellphone reception because of fires and crashes. No trams, trains or buses were working, due to obvious reasons. Peter had to steal a bike and ride it back to his home.

Of course that only made him weaker. Shops and fast food outlets were abandoned, giving him a food source. It was a tough couple of days for Peter to get back home. But he had to see her. He had to see if his Aunt was okay.

His hand was shaking as he picked the key that was hidden under the mat. He held his breath as he unlocked the door of his house. The door let out a creak as it opened.

It took Peter a while before walking inside the apartment. He tried to prolong the process of finding out the truth. Delayed the inevitable. But he knew he had to at one point. So after letting out a breath, he finally stepped inside the apartment.

It was cold, wind blowing in from the half opened window. He then looked over at the kitchen, where a bunch of dishes were stacked on top of one another. He then looked at the living room and that’s when he saw it.

Ash all over the coach and floor. A broken mug and coffee stain on the carpet. It was true, you were gone.

Before Peter could mourn, he quickly ran out of the aparentment and to Ned’s house location. He passed many houses. Many old folk and children were lost, sleeping out on the streets and crying. It was a horrific scene, straight out of an apocalyptic movie. He even saw a one year old calling out for his mother.

He then caught a glimpse of the familiar house and ran in full speed towards the door, knocking. No one answered. Peter ran towards the windows, trying to find any sign of life. “Ned? Ned!”

He smashed down the window with his fist, his hand now bleeding. But he didn’t care, he had to find his friend. He looked around furiously, up and down the house. He checked and re-checked rooms, the backyard and front-yard. He then waited hours, days outside Ned’s home, hoping that he was just returning late from the trip.

But he never did.

Everyone was gone.

Taglist (CLOSED)

@kissingtrutharchives @autobotgirl15-blog @clockblobber @im-a-stranger-thing @isabella-bby @jonsnowdoesknow @fangirlingonrhys @trenchcoatedwhiskers @platonictrashh @misswritingintherain @itsbebeyyy @xs-hoodie @callmedaddys-blog @fangirling12566 @editsbyjenny @bubblegumholland @hollandinq @lordofthunderthr @hgacutan @colored-confetti @legendarydazekitten @maya-t-13 @house-arya @cutie1365 @buckysblondie @clipopex-writing @wifunozomi @babebenhardy @sadgirlhours247 @sweetdarlingholland @taliarosej00

[realllllfangirllllll]

More Than Friends ||

Chp. 32 (M)

Masterlist

CEO!Jaehyun AU x Reader

College Student!Jaemin AU x Reader

Summary: After a complicated relationship with the infamous CEO, you want nothing more than to live your life as a normal college student; however, Mr. CEO just can’t let you go.

{ Previous / Next }

Warnings: SMUT

~~~

Last call, are you coming with me I got some things you want to see Tell all your friends that you’re busy, they know

~~~

You cursed at whoever was ringing the doorbell to your apartment at six in the morning. Waiting for the person to leave your door alone, you covered your face with a fluffy pillow. Your actions were of no avail as the person kept attacking your doorbell. You wanted to cry right then and there, frustrated to lose your extra hour of sleep before work. 

You angrily kicked the blanket off you and slugged towards your door. Before you even reached your living room, the person pounded on your door. You shook slightly, now fully awake, you screamed, “Oh my god! Who is it?!”

You heard a deep voice on the other end reply, “It’s me, you lazy ass. Open the door so I can give you a hug.”

Instinctively rolling your eyes, you shouted to your boyfriend, “The passcode is 1497! Open the door yourself annoying ass.”

You heard his deep chuckle as the door opened. Looking at his fully dressed appearance, you groaned, running your hand through your messy hair and falling to the couch. With your face pressed against the furniture, you mumbled, “Why are you here so early Mr. CEO...”

He laughed and took a seat next to you, grabbing your legs to place on his lap. He started running his hands absentmindedly up and down your legs, “So, 1497 huh?”

You flipped your body and sat up, your legs still on top of his lap. Grinning cheekily, you kissed his cheek. “Happy Birthday my love.” 

He turned his head towards you, flushed. You giggled at his reaction and laid back down on the couch. It took a moment for Jaehyun to recover from such a sweet, innocent kiss on the cheek. But when he did come back to his senses, he hovered over you. Grabbing the tip of your chin, he questioned, “That’s all I get? A kiss on the cheek and the passcode changed to my birthday?” 

You teased him and responded, “Mhmm. Also, if you haven’t kicked my door open last time, you would’ve already known that my passcode was 1497.”

He raised his eyebrow, eyeing you suspiciously and you rolled your eyes. “I still can’t believe you did that...” You continue thinking aloud, speaking with a teasing voice. 

He sighed, “Stop talking and give me my real present already.” 

You attempted to respond but his lips came crashing onto yours. You gasped slightly, allowing him to tangle your tongues together. Both of you continue to meld your lips together, not allowing either one to pull apart. It felt like hours until Jaehyun pulled apart, finally giving both of you a break to breathe. You stared at him with love in your eyes, thinking to yourself of how lucky you were. 

Fate let Jaehyun into this world, on this very day, allowing you to be with him 22 years later.

You were snapped out of your thoughts when Jaehyun stood up and pulled you along with him. He ruffled your hair and told you, “Now go change. We have to get to work, you lazy sloth.”

You chuckled and dragged your feet along the cold floor, slowly walking to your room. 

~~~

“I can’t believe that lady told me they were 99 cents per pound! Who sells watermelons for that much? Jesus...” Mark ranted and as he was about to continue his story, he stopped to look at you. He huffed in annoyance, “Are you even listening to me?” He got closer to your face and moved his head to align himself with your vision. He whispered next to you as the two of you stared at the conference room, “Or are you too busy thirsting for our boss?”

You snapped out of it and continued to walk back to your work area. You feigned innocence and replied, “What do you mean? I just thought there was a spider on the conference room door.”

He stared at you with disbelief as you look up at him, flashing him a sly grin. “And I don’t have to fantasize, I get that every night.” You walked a little faster and turned around winking at Mark before you sat down at your desk. Mark scoffed as he sat on his swiveling chair, he slid next to you and whispered next to your ears, “Hoe.”

You stuck out your tongue at him as the head of your department called for Mark. With an exhausted voice, she said, “Go give this to the CEO in the conference room.”

Your ears perked up when you heard her talk to Mark. You stood up and told her, “I’ll do it! Mark gets really sweaty when he’s near the CEO so I think I should go. So we can keep our cool reputation you know?” You implied the last statement with a sly smirk towards Mark. 

Your boss took a second to think and then sighed, “Ok, but make sure you tell him to thoroughly look over the files. The last time he just threw it in the shredding machine.” She said while rolling her eyes, “He’s such an ass sometimes.”

Nodding, you took the papers with you, getting ready to head towards the conference room. Mark walked back to his desk, glaring at you, “Sex changed you.”

You stuck your tongue out at him and sped walked to the conference room, anticipating to see Jaehyun again. It was, after all, his birthday, and you wanted to give him his actual present. Both of you were too rushed this morning to actually do anything so you had to find the perfect time to get him alone. 

Slowly, you turned the door handle. When you walked in, Jaehyun’s sharp, intimidating eyes floated over the employees as their attention shifted towards the door.

Jaehyun was ready to scold the person for interrupting the important meeting but when his eyes met yours, his gaze softened. You felt his shoulders drop slightly, not wanting you to see the stress and burden hanging on them. His hands shot up to his tie, loosening the material around his neck and announced that the meeting was over.

The workers in the room rushed towards the exit as you waited for them to clear out of the room. You walked towards Jaehyun as the last person left. He sat back down on his chair and tossed the tie onto the table. You were about to speak but he cut you off, “Lock the door.”

“W-what?”

“Ok don’t lock it then. I’ll be glad to tell them you're mine,” he says as a sly smirk grew on his face. 

You rolled your eyes and locked the door. Handing him the papers you were holding, you scanned the conference room to make sure no one could peek through. As you looked around the room, Jaehyun rejected the papers and grabbed your wrist instead, pulling you onto his lap. You looked at him a little surprised and laughed, “So how’s my birthday boy doing?”

He immediately pouted and rested his head on the crook of your neck. He let out a long groan and replied, “I just want to go home and cuddle you until my birthday’s over.” 

Giggling, you ran your hands through the back of his neck and lifted his face off of you. Gently, you swiped your thumbs across his cheeks and stared at him with adoration. You sighed, “How lucky am I to be able to see The Jung Jaehyun so soft and clingy?”

He stared at you for a second and smiled brightly. You loved seeing him smile. The fact that he only smiles so wholeheartedly when you’re around, made you feel so warm inside. You touched his dimples and giggled, “I love you birthday boy.” 

Hearing you confess your love to him again made him feel so happy. After hearing your sweet words, he didn’t even feel the need for a birthday present, but you kissed him and pulled out a black square box that was decorated in velvet. You smiled and said in a sing-song voice, “Happy birthday babe.”

He chuckled and opened the beautifully wrapped box, “So you did get me a present.”

You rolled your eyes, “Of course stupid. It seems like the rest of the world forgot it’s your birthday so I, at least, have to celebrate it with you.”

Scoffing he told you, “It’s because I don’t tell anyone my birthday. So consider yourself special baby.”

You rolled your eyes at his confession, “Just open it already, Mr. ‘I’m too cool for birthdays.’”

He unboxed the gift and revealed the smooth, black leather belt. You anticipated his reaction, but he just smirked. Looking up at you he said, “Kinky now are we?”

Your jaw dropped at his reaction to the supposedly sweet gift that turned into a possible sex toy. Glaring at Jaehyun you huffed in annoyance, “You dirty, unappreciative man you don’t get this belt anymore. Give it back.” You extended your arm to get it back but he pulled away. He laughed and wrapped his hand around your waist, “No baby I love it,” He continued reassuring you and peppered your face with kisses. “It’s for the ball tonight right?” Crossing your arms, you did not give him a reply. He continued laughing, trying to sweet-talk his way back to your good side. He kissed the side of your head and whispered, “I love it. I promise to wear it all the time.” His breath fanning on the side of your neck gave you goosebumps.

Attempting to continue ignoring him, you refused to give him eye contact, turning your head to the left. His hands left your waist and trailed underneath your skirt. You hear his deep voice say, “I’m sorry baby. Is there anything I can do to make you forgive me?” He continued apologizing with a soft whisper, hands moving up and down your inner thighs. You let out a soft gasp and gave in to him, pressing your forehead on the nape of his neck.

Suddenly worried, you grabbed his hand to stop him and whispered, “What if people see us?”

At this point, he started kissing up and down your neck, not caring what happens next. Your stomach started doing flips and your heart raced, quickly forgetting what you asked him. The two of you started making out like your lives depended on it. He eagerly explored your mouth with his tongue, hands running through your hair causing a mess. He firmly grabbed your hips, ready to make you grind on him but someone knocked.

Annoyed, Jaehyun pulled apart from the kiss, yelling, “Fuck off! I’m on the phone.” He then continued kissing you while you unbuttoned his dress shirt.

You heard a deep chuckle from the man as he responded, “A phone call with the little one?”

Your ears perked up at the nickname you despised. Jaehyun’s pissed off expression was apparent as you sighed, “Lucas...” and got off his lap.

You ran your hands over your hair to smooth it out and went to open the door. You were met with a cocky smirk and a tall figure, “Wassup little one.”

“Xuxi.” You rolled your eyes and let him in.

“Hey Mr. boss man,” you heard Lucas chuckle.

Jaehyun glared at him and replied, “What the fuck do you want Yukhei.”

“Well first, please button your shirt up. You’re blinding me,” Lucas said with an exaggerated tone and covered his eyes.

“Fuck you.”

You laughed at Jaehyun’s hotheaded response and went to button up the hot mess you made. You gave him a kiss and told him, “Pick me up at 6, boss.”

You turned to Lucas and he made a gagging motion causing you to laugh.

~~~

You smoothed out your white dress and looked over your appearance on the long mirror. It had a slit that exposed your entire left leg and your cleavage was barely covered due to the v-neck opening. You shook your head and turned to Soyeon, “I am not wearing this.”

Soyeon came over and smacked your butt, giggling, “Why not? You look hot in this.” 

Rolling your eyes you raised your voice in exasperation, “I don’t want to expose so much skin! Why can’t I just wear what I had on earlier?!”

She scoffed, “Because that dress made you look like an old lady. Plus, you wouldn’t have to wear my dress if you didn’t spend all your photoshoot earnings on Jaehyun’s present.”

Sitting down beside her on the bed, you sighed, “It was so worth it though.” You continued with a grin on your face, “I can’t wait to see it on him tonight.”

Soyeon stared at your lovestruck expression, “Tsk tsk, you’re so whipped sweetie.”

You smirked at her and she tackled you onto the soft linen, “I’m so happy for you! I’m going to miss my single babe but at least you’re getting some!” 

You chuckle at her ridiculous words and hugged her back, “Ok but I’m so happy for you and Lucas!!” You separated from the hug and stared at her seriously, voice laced with concern, you asked, “But he’s treating you right, right? Because if he isn’t I could set his house on fire.”

Soyeon laughed and sat up, “He’s treating me like a princess, and you live on the same floor as him. If you set his house on fire, your house is screwed too, dummy.”

Grinning at her, you told her cheekily, “I don’t care. I’d die for my wifey.”

You looked at each other, then the both of you started laughing, only stopping when the doorbell rang. Your best friend jumped up with excitement and told you, “That’s my date! See you later babe!” Lucas appeared at the door and took off with Soyeon. 

You sighed as you smoothed out your dress, wondering what was taking your boyfriend so long. Dialing his number, you waited until his deep voice was heard on the other end, “Hey baby, hold on ok?”

You asked him with irritation lacing your voice, “What the hell is taking you so long? You literally live right across from Soyeon.”

He chuckled, “This might sound ridiculous...but I can’t put on the belt you got me.”

Laughing, you rolled your eyes and replied, “You idiot. Come over, I’ll help you.”

A few minutes later, Jaehyun walked in holding his maroon suit jacket in one hand and the belt you got him in the other. You laughed as he walked in, “Get over here silly.”

He said with slight embarrassment, “Who the hell makes such complicated belts?”

You shook your head at him and grabbed the belt, kneeling down to put it on. Jaehyun was too irritated by the belt and only realized what you were wearing when you knelt down. As you looped the belt around his velvet pants, he looked down to see your exposed cleavage. He also caught a glimpse of your lace panties through the slit. He gulped, trying to hold himself back. His self-control seemed to quickly dissipate as your hands unintentionally grazed his crotch. He let out a soft groan, “Baby, what the fuck are you wearing.”

You finished putting his belt on and looked up, “It’s Soyeon’s. I couldn’t find a suitable dress for tonight so I just borrowed one from her.” 

He sighed and you questioned with concern, “What? You don’t like it?? Should I change?”

Chuckling, he pulled you up, wrapping his arms around your waist, “Shit baby, no. You look too good in it.”

“Oh.” You giggled and wrapped your arms around his neck and gave a peck on his lips, “You look better.”

He whispered, “Let’s go before I rip your dress and take you right here on the couch.”

You gasped and smacked his arm, “Keep it in your pants Yoonoh. Your goal today is to impress Starship, not me.”

Smirking, he started walking out and said, “I don’t need to impress you, you already know I can make you scream my name all night long.”

~~~

The car ride was at least half an hour and you couldn’t stand the traffic nor the annoying radio ads. You went to switch the radio channel, unintentionally flashing your boobs to Jaehyun. You noticed quickly and reached up to cover your cleavage, muttering, “Stupid Soyeon and her flashy clothing.”

Jaehyun chuckled, “If you show me your boobs one more time, we're taking a u-turn back home.”

You didn’t believe he’d stick to that promise, and you were bored out of your mind at this point, so you decided to tease him a little. You leaned closer to him and whispered in a seductive voice, “And what if I don’t listen?”

His right dimple appeared when he smirked. You then fell back on your seat as he made an abrupt lane change, exiting the highway. He stopped the car at an isolated parking lot. Taking off his seatbelt, he ordered, “Go to the back seat. Now.”

Eyes wide from the sudden change of plans, you told him, “B-but Soyeon and Mark is waiting for me to go in...”

He growled, getting impatient by the second, “Tell them you’re busy. Now go to the back.”

You knew he wasn’t going to give you any other options, so you hurried to the back seat. Throwing your heels on the ground, you crawled into the back of the compact sports car. Jaehyun had already unbuttoned his shirt completely and climbed on top of you, smashing his lips onto yours. You gasped as he roughly stuck his tongue inside your mouth. He ripped the top of your dress down the middle and cupped your boobs, sucking on the right mound, hungrily. You let out a soft whimper at his rough but pleasurable actions. With a deep groan, he warned you, “Don’t ever test me like that babygirl.”

You moaned, getting turned on by the new nickname he gave you. You whispered to him, “I need you Jaehyun.”

He left wet kisses up and down your neck and smirked against your skin, “What was that?”

You moaned out breathlessly trying to grind on him for some sort of friction, “Fuck... touch me...I need y-”

He completely tore off your dress without warning and plunged two fingers into your core. You let out a loud moan and gripped onto his shoulders. He continued to finger you at a fast and rough pace, leaving you breathless from moaning. When his lips came in contact with your nipple, you clenched around his fingers. Grinding on his long digits, you warned him breathlessly, “I’m so close...”

Hearing those words, Jaehyun moved his fingers at a much quicker pace, your wetness coating his fingers. You were so close to reaching your orgasm but he pulled his digits out. You whined at the loss of contact and he smirked, sucking his fingers clean. You looked up at him, disappointed. He threw his shirt to the front seat and leaned forward, whispering, “Take my belt off if you want to cum.”

You chuckled and quickly took his belt and pants off. Not waiting any longer, you wrapped your fingers around his length and position your mouth above his cock, letting your spit drip down onto his tip. You rubbed it all over his thick  member and he let out a deep groan, “Fuck that’s hot babygirl.” 

Smirking you laid back and pushed his dick inside you, not wanting to prolong your orgasm any further. You moaned loudly as he roughly thrust into you without letting you adjust to his size. He let out deep grunts, “Shit why are you still so tight...”

Running your nails down his back, you replied with loud moans of his name. His fast pace never faltering, he hit your g-spot perfectly. The windows were fogged and the only sound that filled the parking lot was the loud, skin-slapping noises and you moaning his name over and over again. You loved the feeling of his dick filling you up and when he hit the perfect spot, you clenched around him. He groaned deeply, “Fuck don’t do that babygirl, I’m going to cum inside you.”

The thought of that turned you on so much, you continued moving with his thrusts. You moaned loudly, “I’m going to c-” Jaehyun connected his lips with yours, muffling your loud moans. Your orgasm washed over you as he continued thrusting into you at a slower speed. Coming down your high, you heard Jaehyun cursing as you felt his dick twitch inside you. He barely had enough time to pull out of you as he cummed all over your stomach. 

With your fingers, you scooped the cum off your stomach and into your mouth. Letting your fingers go with a pop, you told him, “I should tease you more often.”

He chuckled, “Don’t get all cocky on me baby. Don’t forget I ripped that so-called dress off you.”

You rolled your eyes as he went to the trunk, grabbing a sweater for you to cover up. He pulled the sweater over your head and said, “Now let’s get you a dress.”

———

• This took kinda long to publish...sorry about that my dear readers •

• Also I tried making this a Highway to Heaven themed smut? Idk if it worked out but here it is lmao •

• Happy late bday to my bby Lee Mark 💓 •

• Stream BOOM 💥 •

[lloydshoulddyehishair]

our time is up [russian roulette]

(this is not part of the on-going story line of russian roulette this is like,,, an au in an au?)

[plays about 2 years after chapter 2 "worth risking one's life for"]

also if u want to listen to music while reading this i recommend 6.18.18 by billie eilish because that's what i was listening to while writing this

----

Everything had gone so fast.

One second they had the upper hand fighting against the army of serpentine and in the next everything had just gone out of control. They were quickly outnumbered and spread across the whole battle field – leaving everyone of the team to be completely on their own.

'We're losing- We're losing-'

Ninjago's safety depended on them, they couldn't fail – couldn't lose.

Lloyd did his best to fight the serpentine off but quickly found himself grow more and more exhausted. He didn't know how long he'd be able to endure – they had to come up with something fast.

Now an unspoken rule when fighting someone, especially an entire army, was to never lose focus. And he tried, tried so hard, but the exhaustion took him over and he saw his vision go black for a short second.

A mistake. A terrible, terrible rookie mistake that he would regret for the rest of his life. A mistake he would never be able to life down. A mistake he would never forgive himself for making.

Because all of a sudden he heard a familiar voice call his name in a panicked manner and he felt himself being pushed to the ground.

The second the darkness started to blur away it was already too late and he couldn't do anything but watch Aiden – his boyfriend – the love of his life – get skewered by a serpentine's sword that was meant for him.

He saw the colour draining from his face and the horror in his eyes as they widened before the fluttered closed.

Lloyd let out a scream sending the serpentine that held the sword with Aiden's blood – his beautiful significant other's blood – crashing through a brick wall. Quickly turning to the elder he ran over to him.

“No, no, no, no-”, Lloyd sobbed as he held onto his boyfriend, slowly falling to the ground and creating an energy shield around them to protect them from any other attacks. “You'll- you'll be alright-”, his right hand pressed onto his heavily bleeding wound while the other softly caressed his cheek, meeting his dull orange eyes with his shiny green ones. “We will get you to the hospital and- and you'll be just fine- you'll- you'll see.”, he tried to give him a reassuring smile but the tears falling down his face could be easily mistaken for waterfalls at this point just getting worse with every second that he kept on denying the inevitable.

A shaking hand slowly placed itself over his right hand loosening the pressure on the wound. “I-it's okay, G-garmad-dork-”, the sound of Aiden's voice made him almost scream. It was shaky and breathy and so- so weak.

“Don't do this to me- This is all- all my fault-”, he choked out grabbing his hand as if his life depended on it. “After everything you- you”, his lover's free hand made his way up to his cheek and Lloyd noticed how cold it was. His words died in his throat – unable to do anything but stare at Aiden.

“You're- you're so be-beautiful-”, a weak smile placed itself on Aiden's lips. “It's not- not your fault- Remember wha-what I said o-once?”

The Blonde shook his head slightly and bit his lip, he didn't dare to move too much.

“I- I said that you are- worth ri-risking ones li-life for and I s-still stand by th-that.”, with every second the grip on Lloyd's hand started to weaken making the 21 year old panic.

"Let me-", the blue haired male sucked in a breath, hissing. "Let me see them one m-more t-time-"

The Green Ninja tried his best to stop crying. He had to be strong for him. "What do you mean?"

"You're eyes- y-you're red ones-", his voice was barely anything but a whisper and Lloyd wondered how he could even understand him so clearly in between the battle cries. "O-one last time-"

"No, no, no, don't say that! We'll-we'll get you to the hospital, you'll be able to see them so many more times Aiden please-"

"I don't have a-a lot of time le-left, love-", he tightened his grip on the 22 year old's hands even more just nodding quickly, closing his eyes.

'Calm down- For Aiden-'

He opened his eyes and looked at injured boyfriend again.

"Better?", his voice shook just as much as the hand that made his way up his cheek.

"I wanted t-to do so many m-more things with you-" a tear slipped out of his eye. "B-but our time is u-up and I am s-so glad to have h-had you-"

"You still have me.", Lloyd choked out running his hand through his purple hair. "You always will."

"I-I love you- you dork-"

"I love you too.", he forced himself to smile but he was sure he still looked miserable.

"D-don't blame yo-yourself, thi-this was my decision a-and it was w-worth it.", Aiden's started to faint more with each word. "I had a-a great life- th-thanks to you. Y-you made me feel s-special- Thank y-you-", his eyes fluttered closed.

"Thank you for exactly the same.", his voice cracked as he kissed his lover's cheek softly.

The grip on his hand went limp.

Lloyd froze.

"Aiden-", he muttered, slowly shaking him. "Honey-", the tears fell again and this time he didn't try to stop them. "Sweetie- W-wake up."

Nothing happened. His chest didn't rise. His eyes didn't open.

He would never hear his voice again- or his laugh. He would never feel touch on his skin or see the cheeky grin on his face-

And all of that because of a stupid serpentine. All of that because he lost focus for a mere second.

It was his fault.

Aiden was gone and it was his fault.

Lloyd screamed louder than he ever had before, laid his head on his boyfriend's chest in hope of hearing his heart beat again – but it wouldn't. It wouldn't ever beat again.

And all because he looked away for a second.

[kevinspaceyarchives]

Looking Closer at Kevin Spacey, Star of American Beauty

by MATT MCCORMICK, Texas A&M Battalion Staff writer | November 22, 1999

(photo not included with the original article)

Kevin Spacey established himself as one of Hollywood's most gifted actors with his Oscar-winning role in 1993's The Usual Suspects. Known for his ability to lose himself in a character, Spacey went on to star in such films as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The Negotiator.

His new film, American Beauty, has opened to widespread critical acclaim and box office success across the country and has many people saying his name and Academy Award in the same sentence again. The Battalion participated in an interview with the actor as he talked about his latest film and the character he plays, Lester.

Battalion: When you take on a character, you always have a different look. How do you prepare for a character role?

Kevin Spacey: It starts with usually a discussion. Sometimes you might have a notion of how somebody might look, just from reading it. Or, in fact, it might be described by the writer. It usually starts with a discussion with the director. How do you see this character looking? How do you see them dressing?  Do they have a particular walk or way of moving that's different? So I usually try to collaborate with the director. Then you have other people come on. You have a production designer who decides how your desk in your office is going to look and a costume designer who may bring in a huge rack of stuff. All of those things go in to make a sort of image and a picture of what someone will look like. Hopefully you do it in connection with all the other departments. You're not showing up in a jacket that, against that wallpaper, looks like hell.

In this movie, there was this transformation that Lester had to go through, and we didn't have the luxury of shooting in sequence. In the morning, we created Lester, and we had his kind of pear-shaped, defeated pasty look with slightly larger costumes and really white, horrible makeup. I slumped a great deal. And then in the afternoon, I'd be shooting the later stuff. I had to be in the best shape possible during the whole shooting of the movie. We just sort of created the earlier stuff in the movie through performance.

Battalion: When you were shooting some of the earlier stuff later in the day, would you go work out?

Kevin Spacey: It's embarrassing to admit, but we had a muscle truck. It was like a roving gym. It was a big moving van, but they made a gym out of it. I'd go in there before a particular scene -- we had target dates for particular scenes -- so we worked toward the target, I and the trainer, knowing I had to have a certain kind of build for that next two weeks. If they needed me to be a little bloated, he would let me go out and eat pizza and banana splits and all sorts of stuff.

Since there was never a moment in the screenplay when there was an epiphany, or a sudden change, we never wanted the audience to see him change. We wanted there to be an almost seamless and organic evolution of who he became.

Battalion: Mentally, what makes you draw into this Lester character?

Kevin Spacey: I just think I understood, maybe like most people do, the feeling of wanting to break out and do new things. I was on that sort of journey for the last couple of years, and this gave me the opportunity to go to a new place. I think everybody understands the feeling of wanting to shake it up and try new things. Who wouldn't want to tell their boss what they're really thinking about them?

Battalion: Lester's transformation was shaped by the music of his youth -- What kind of music shaped your youth?

Kevin Spacey: A lot of that music I loved, and Sam (Mendes, director) was very specific about music very early on about the kind of cuts he was going to try to get. The first issue in movies is "can you get the rights?" Will the songwriter or their estate let you use it? We got very lucky with a lot of cool music. You forget the '70s and the trajectory of what that music was and all the artists. We found something in common. We say "Wow, that's the kind of music I would listen to in my garage." So I listened to a lot of the similar stuff that Lester listened to. He's two years older than me.

Battalion: In the movie, the garage is Lester's personal space. Did you have a choice in the kind of props used in there?

Kevin Spacey: Sam and I started talking about the garage sort of becoming Lester's sanctuary. It clearly had been taken over by just storage, you know. It lost its...whatever a garage might have been in his life earlier. We decided to go back and find all the things Lester would have had if he was still in college. That sort of became his place. He left the cold and rather stark home inside that house and slowly moved his life out into the garage. One of my favorite images is that red car sitting in the driveway. He's just shaking it up.

Battalion: What's your stage background? What was it like having somebody like Sam directing this film?

Kevin Spacey: I've been incredibly fortunate with first-time or second-time directors. I like it a lot because there's no pattern to their way of working. They really are open to almost anything. So you find that they are willing to take more chances. They're not sort of entrenched in their own ideas.

And he kept us informed. He would always show us storyboards and how he wanted a scene to be framed -- what he wanted it to look like, how he wanted us to look in the frame. So I knew all that going in, but I could have never known going in that his use of images, his use of music, his feeling and mood cinematically was startling.

Battalion: I love the narration in the movie. Was it scripted?

Kevin Spacey: All of the narration was there [in the script]. Sam and I, one day, needed a guide track to give the editors and we went up to a small room with a recorder, like these little ones, and we recorded all of Lester’s voice-overs. And I never redid it. There was something about not knowing what those images would be that that dialogue went well with.

Battalion: Your movie shatters the vision of a utopian suburbia. If you had a message you'd like the audience to take away from this, what would it be?

Kevin Spacey: Let me play devil's advocate with the premise of your question because I don't think it reveals anything specifically about suburbia any more than it reveals anything about urban life. I think where this film takes place, the fact that these two very specific families are examined, in no way shape or form means that we're trying to say this is what life is like in suburbia. I think this is what life is like for a lot of people.

Battalion: Tell us about the catchline, "Look Closer".

Kevin Spacey: We actually give our production designer the credit for that. She cut that out of a fashion magazine. She was going through a fashion magazine deciding what should go on certain walls and she decided "look closer" should be on my bulletin board at the office. And that wasn't the campaign, but what happened was, they kept screening the movie and finally the Dreamworks marketing people said "What does that say behind his desk?" So they saved themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing meetings to find a concept because it actually turns out to be pretty accurate.

Battalion: What would you say to those who are upset that an older man is having a relationship with a teenager?

Kevin Spacey: I think that anybody that feels uneasy about it, it's uneasiness about the subject, not uneasiness with the actual relationship because there isn't one. There's a fantasy life that Lester has. There is no relationship until the very end of the film, where he makes the right decision.

Keep it in the context of the film. Those two people, what they learn from each other, I think is breathtaking. I think its the most uplifting message you could possibly have.

Battalion: The movie is about finding beauty. What things do you find beauty in?

Kevin Spacey: Sometimes the things that are presented as beautiful or the things that we think are beautiful sometimes makes us miss the things that are really truly beautiful, but appear mundane. I think that's true with people, too. People judge people on how they look or how they dress, how they behave and how they act -- I think of the two characters from the film...you first meet them and you think a certain thing about them, And as the film goes on they begin to emerge.

Battalion: You've got the Hollywood star of fame. What is involved with that?

Kevin Spacey: It started with a fan club. They recommended to the Hollywood chamber of commerce that they consider me for that. I didn't think anything happened like that until you were much older. In fact, all of my colleagues who came that day said "we don't know anybody as young as you, that's pretty cool." There's a certain part of that stuff that's a little Hollywood cheesy, but what actually made the day amazing is it actually became a pretty personal thing. I think it meant even more to all the people that have been working with me than it did for me. But I understand already that there's gum on it.

[iwriteficsnottragediesladies]

Search and Seizure Pt 7

A/N: So my fren @ladevoteeshirts helped me come up with a cool plot for this installment of S&S! There are 2 bandom references in here (as long as you count Paramore. Hayley Williams is bae.) I’m tagging people who encouraged me to keep writing this fic/showed interest in it. If you want to be taken off or added, lemme know! @un-surpassable @wren-the-emo @lolisded @itsdangerousblues @kyky9103 @lizzrossstories @j2minion

It almost becomes smut, but also definitely does not.

Pre-read Epilepsy Disclaimer

You had just gotten back from the grocery store and started to put everything away. You hear Brendon enter the kitchen and soon feel his arms snake around your waist.

“Hi sweetheart,” He said quietly into your ear. The hair on your neck stands.

“Hi,” you replied not turning around, just a smile playing at your cheeks.

He slid his hands down to hold your hips.

“I missed you,” He spoke, placing kisses down your neck. You turn around to look at him.

“I was gone for a half an hour!” You smile.

“Well I was thinking about you,” He said innocently, “For a half an hour.” His tone changes. “All by myself,” he adds as he pushes his hips into yours, pinning you against the counter.

God, you love it when he gets like this. Just an ordinary afternoon turns into something hot, purely because the thought of you turns him on. You enjoyed having such power over him.

You wrap your arms behind his neck.

“All by yourself, huh?” You teased with a smirk, “Well it’s a good thing I’m home.” You take him by the hand and head to the couch, pushing him down to sit. You climb onto his lap and kiss him, lacing a hand into his hair. You roll your hips a little and pull away.

“Is this what you were thinking about?” You cock your head.

He nods hungrily and you smile, diving back in. He slides his hands under your shirt and squeezes your breasts. You sigh and slip your tongue between his parted lips. Suddenly the feeling disappears and replaced with something else entirely. Something horrible.

Oh no. Not now.

The hand in his hair becomes heavy and you let it slide down to your side. Your stomach twists. Everything becomes confusing.

This exact same situation happened when you were dating your ex--and it caused the end of your relationship. You’re not thinking clearly, but know you don’t want to lose Brendon.

Brendon’s hand moves down your body and into your panties. Your senses heightened yet fell away all at once. You jump away from him, onto your feet.

Brendon looks terrified. You’d had sex so many times and he was stunned--nothing like this had ever happened. He worried his touch made you uncomfortable. 

“I’m sorry!” He says quickly, standing up and searching your eyes, “Y/n?”

“I--I...” You stumbled on your words, trying to come up with something rational to say, “I forgot to get something at the grocery store.” You had no intent to actually go anywhere and you knew you wouldn’t be able to make it anyway. You just wanted to escape it all so badly. You don’t want to lose Brendon over this, like you lost your ex. Before Brendon could respond, you were walking over to the table to grab your keys and he followed you closely.

“Stop, Baby, what’s wrong?” He asked, filled with concern. He takes hold of your arm to turn you around.

You wanted to throw up, even just spinning 180 degrees was far too much. Your arm tingled. You avoided eye contact and walked past him.

“Ij ‘ust--” You try to say.

Brendon caught the dazed expression on your face as you went by and he would know that slurred speech from a mile away. He jogs after you and steps in front of you, grasping your shoulders.

“Sweetheart, are you gonna have a seizure?” He asked, more of a statement than a question. To his surprise, you object and step out of his hold.

“No,” You replied like a defiant toddler.

“Why are you lying to me baby?” He asked gently, mostly to himself. He reached out and held your shoulders again as you became unbalanced. “Why don’t we lay down,” he directed you.

“No!” you tried to shrug off his grip, but you’re too weak. He furrowed his brow, perplexed by your refusal to admit what was happening.

As much as you try to deny it, your body inevitably betrays you. You start to drop to the floor and he immediately grabs you.

“Okay, okay,” he strains as he helps you down before placing you on your side.

He looks at you and he can tell you’re still resisting.

“Just relax, sweetheart,” he says sweetly as he pulls a blanket from the couch and tucks it under your head, “I’ve got you.”

He pulls up Zack’s number on his phone, tapping the call button as he watches over you. After a ring, the line clicks as Zack answers.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Zack greeted him normally.

“Where are you?” He asked, barely waiting for him to stop talking. His voice made it clear that something was wrong.

“I’m driving--almost home,” Zack replied quickly, “What’s going on?”

“Y/n’s having a seizure,” Brendon informed him, his voice cracking slightly. Zack knows that always happens when Brendon is scared. He tries to comfort him.

“Okay, I’m about to pass by your house soon,” Zack said, “How bad is it? Do you need me to call?”

“No, not now,” Brendon replied.

“Okay. I’ll be there in a second, alright?” Zack reassured him.

“Okay,” Brendon says.

He hangs up and opens his timer. He sees the tears dripping across your face.

“Y/n, you’re okay sweetheart,” he reassured you emphatically, still thinking about your bizarre behavior.

“I’ms-orry,” you said in a small voice, “’M a terrible w’fe.” Your words are so slurred it was hard to make out, but Brendon hears your message loud and clear.

“Shhh, Y/n, stop,” He consoles you, heartbroken that you could think such a thing. “You’re a perfect wife, baby. I love you.” He reassured you.

“Bren,” you said quietly, filling with fear.

“it’s okay, Y/n,” He says softly, “I’m right here.”

Your face falls blank and Brendon starts the timer as you start to seize. He runs his fingers through your hair and dries your tears. Some blood starts to come out of your mouth and he wipes it away.

“It’s alright baby,” He said sweetly. He continues to whisper words of comfort to you, glancing at the timer every so often. It had been almost three minutes when he hears Zack pounding at the door:

“Brendon?” he calls.

“Backdoor!” Brendon shouts back.

Zack runs around the back of the house and finds the door unlocked. He threw it open and it smacked the wall but didn’t leave a mark. He was next to you in no time.

“Jesus that was fast,” Brendon looked at him.

“I broke a couple laws, I think,” Zack panted. He glanced over to the timer. They were coming up on three and a half minutes and you started to slow down. Brendon wiped your mouth again.

“Good job baby,“ Brendon spoke softly, “There you go.”

“3:22,” Zack said aloud as he stopped the timer. Brendon acknowledged him with a nod. “What happened?” Zack asked.

“I don’t know,” He said with a sad shrug, “Maybe she forgot her meds or something. She was fine. But she did act really weird right before it started.”

“What was weird about it?” He asked.

“She was trying to, i don’t know,” Brendon tried to put it into words, "Once it started to come on, she kept telling me ‘no’ and didn’t want me to touch her, wouldn’t lay down... It was like she was fighting it.”

Zack sighed, watching you sympathetically. “Were you arguing or something before?” He asked Brendon.

Brendon nearly chokes on his own spit.

“Uh no, not at all,” He shook his head. He wasn’t about to admit what you were really doing when it started.

“Hm,” Zack said, a bit unsure. He wasn’t about to push it.

Some blood suddenly comes from your mouth with a cough.

“Oh--” Brendon reacted. Zack pulled your hair out of the way.

“Get it all out, honey,” Zack said calmly as Brendon wipes the blood away.

Both of them are noticing your eyes start to move and they know to back up.

“Hi Y/n,” Brendon started slowly, “You’re okay darling.”

You look at two figures in front of you. There were rays of warm light blurring your vision. It may even feel nice on your skin if you could understand what the fuck was happening. You start to hear something. You connect the sound to one of the figures.

“You’re safe,” Brendon says, “I’m right here.”

Your vision focuses and you realize you’re on the floor and there are two unknown men above you. You withdraw quickly, your muscles aching in protest.

“Hey hey, you’re okay Y/n,” Brendon speaks reassuringly, “It’s me baby, it’s Brendon.”

You recognize the voice, matching it to Brendon’s name and the face above you.

“Bren,” you tried, looking around, “What...”

“It’s alright,” He nodded, addressing your confusion, “We’re at home, it’s me and Zack.”

You look over and notice Zack sitting next to him.

“You had a seizure, but you’re okay,” Brendon nodded.

“Oh,” you said blankly, voicing your understanding. You push yourself up to sitting, Brendon and Zack spotting you closely. You look down at the floor and stroke your fingers through the plush carpet.

“I love this rug,” You said contently. Brendon and Zack both laugh a little at your random observation.

“It’s a pretty nice one,” Zack agreed. You look at him.

“Oh,” you say as you realize he wasn’t there before, that he must have arrived at some point during your seizure. “Hi Zack!”

“Hi Y/n!” He greeted you with a chuckle.

“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Brendon asked. You thought for a moment, taking inventory of your body.

“Tongue hurts, muscles hurt,” you reply with a shrug, “Just the usual.”

He nods and you hold his eye contact.

In his brown eyes, the events of the day suddenly come back to you. You remember how the feeling started when you were kissing Brendon, that you tried to get away...

Your stomach twisted into a new kind of knot as sadness and shame pulled at you. Your demeanor changes and Zack and Brendon notice.

“I’m sorry,” you apologized lightly to them, “I’m fine now. Made such a big deal,” you laugh awkwardly. You shift where you’re sitting and look down at your hands, fidgeting with your fingers.

They are both looking at you curiously. You always feel embarrassed after a seizure, but the way you were trying to completely dismiss it was different than usual.

“I don’t think I took my medication this morning,” you shook your head, “I’m sorry, that was so stupid of me. Sure won’t do that again,” You chuckle strangely, “I’m so annoying.”

The way you were speaking, it was like you were trying to minimize what happened, as if you would be punished for having a seizure. Brendon and Zack glance at each other before Brendon speaks up.

“Y/n, you’re not annoying, why would you say that?” Brendon shakes his head, pausing before asking you cautiously, “Are you sure you’re okay, sweetheart?”

“Yeah, yeah,” you reassured them weakly with a forced smile, “I’m sorry, I think I’m just really tired.”

Brendon and Zack were semi-satisfied with your excuse.

“Well why don’t we get you on the couch and you can rest for a little while?” Brendon offered.

“Okay,” You said, fake happy. You got up quickly, much more quickly than you should have. You clearly don’t have the energy nor the stability for that.

“Easy, baby,” Brendon warned you, taking your arm as they walked you the couple steps over to the couch. Once you laid down, Brendon put a blanket over you. “How’s that?” He asked.

“Perfect,” you lie. Brendon reads you better than that--you’re cold and you have goose bumps.

“How about another blanket, just for good measure,” Brendon smiled as he draped another over you. Why are you lying to me? he thought to himself.

You snuggle up and after a few minutes you start to look sleepy.

“Alright, I think we’re good here,” Brendon said to Zack.

“Yeah, I’ll head out,” Zack replied. Zack knew that having alone time with Brendon might help whatever was going on. Brendon starts to walk him to the door.

“Thanks, Zack,” Brendon said.

“Of course. Just--text me if you need anything, okay?” Zack added, still suspicious of your behavior. Brendon nodded with an expression of understanding. They both knew something was off.

“I will,” Brendon replied.

You hear the front door close and Brendon walking back into the living room. He sits down in one of the chairs and sighs, going back over your actions in his head.

You aren’t asleep, just laying with your eyes shut. Your mind raced, thinking back to your ex, Paul. You wanted to tell Brendon about what had happened in your last relationship, but you weren’t sure if you could without completely falling apart.

What if Brendon feels the same way that Paul did? And he wants to leave you, just like Paul did?

It wasn’t rational, but your thinking was skewed. Your mind was still so fogged over with seizure, you weren’t thinking clearly.

The anxiety and pain surfacing was relentless. What if your break up with Paul was about to repeat itself? You don’t want to feel that kind of hurt again. 

Tears escape from your eyes. You love Brendon. You can’t lose him. Finally you start to cry with your tears.

Brendon simultaneously realizes you’re both awake and crying. He is kneeling in front of you instantly, placing a hand to your shoulder.

“It’s okay, Y/n,” He soothed before asking with concern, “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Please don’t leave me,” You cried, “I love you.”

Brendon climbed on the couch behind you as he spoke and gathered you in his arms.

“I would never leave you, Y/n,” He pressed a kiss to the top of your head, “Never. I love you so much.”

You can barely respond, you just clutch onto him and cry into his soft t shirt.

“Please don’t leave me,” You murmur in tears.

“I’m never going to leave you, Y/n,” He repeated sternly.

“Please,” you choke.

Brendon tilted your chin up at him and cocked his head to get a good look at you. He can see the pain deep within your eyes but he doesn’t know where it is coming from or how to help you.

“Tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart,” He said gently.

“Don’t,” you shake your head, stuck on the thought of him leaving you.

“Y/n,” he said with deep sincerity, “I am not going to leave you, okay?”

You nod hesitantly.

“Please baby,” Brendon pleaded with you, “talk to me.”

“He told me that he loved me,” you try to explain but can’t finish, “But he left.”

“Who left you?” Brendon coaxed you along, not at all understanding what you were talking about. He hoped maybe more information will make it clear.

“Paul,” you reply. You’ve never really talked in depth about your ex, but Brendon recognizes his name. “He--he didn’t want me, because of...” You gesture to the place you had been lying on the floor with disgust, “This. Epilepsy is too much, Brendon. I’m too much.”

“You are not too much,” Brendon says adamantly, “Epilepsy doesn’t matter to me. You matter to me.”

“He was tired of dealing with me,” you recall in tears, “When I had one when we were trying to have sex... That was it. It was too much.”

“Y/n--” Brendon started, but you interrupted him.

“I’m a problem, Brendon,” You assert, falling apart into desperate anger and sadness, “Tell me you wouldn’t rather have someone who didn’t have seizures all the fucking time? Brendon, he was right. I’m just a fucking problem. How long is it going to be until you give up on me?”

“Y/n, I need you to listen to me,” he said slowly, “I need you to hear me, okay?”

He wipes away your tears and cups your cheeks in his hand.

“Are you listening?” He confirmed sweetly.

You nod.

“I would never want to have someone who didn’t have seizures, because that means it wouldn’t be you. Epilepsy is just a tiny part of you. You are so much more than that. Helping you when you have a seizure is not annoying and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but by your side. Paul was a fucking dick. The way he treated you was awful and wrong. Y/n, you are not a problem. You are my solution. You are the answer to what I’ve been searching for all my life. I love you and I would never, ever leave you. Okay?”

You think you might melt, overcome with relief.

“I love you Brendon,” Is all you can muster before you cry gratefully, holding him tighter. Brendon is so glad that you finally see the truth. He runs his fingers through your hair soothingly.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” He replies, “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

You sniffle and try to collect yourself.

“I guess it’s a good thing that Paul was a douche then,” You chuckle a little, wiping your eyes with your sleeves. Brendon tries not to laugh as hard as he wants to.

“I’m very lucky to have you,” He agrees. He thinks about Paul again and becomes heated. “The way he hurt you... If I ever saw him I swear I would--”

You cut him off.

“He’s in the past, Bren. You’re my present, and my future,” You remind him, then pausing as you smirk, “But if you want to kick his ass, I wouldn’t protest.”

He smiles widely. You move closer and kiss him and he gladly reciprocates. As you pull away, he sees peace in your eyes.

“Do you want to get some sleep?” He asked.

“Yeah,” you replied, nuzzling in. He adjusts as well. You close your eyes and enjoy the easy darkness. After a few moments of stillness, you speak up.

“Hey Bren?” you speak.

“What?” He replies.

“Can we fuck later when I wake up?” You ask simply. Brendon just about dies.

“Oh my god, Y/n!” He exclaims laughing. “You’re unbelievable!”

“Brendonnnn,” you complain.

“Go the fuck to sleep.” He rolls his eyes.

You sigh a little in discontent.

“But yes,” Brendon whispers, “definitely yes.”

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think, if you want more/what you want. Like/reblog if you’re feelin’ it!

[ohwhatamessiam]

All or Nothing - Chapter 1

Summary: Almost two years after she left him, Bucky is still trying to move on from their relationship. But when one of his nightmares begins unfolding in real life, he and the team must do what it takes to find her before it’s too late. Will she survive this? Is there any hope for their relationship to begin again? And will Bucky ever get closure?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Bisexual!Reader, Bisexual!Reader X OC

Word Count: 2.9k

Warnings: Language, quite a bit of violence, implied smut (no physical depiction of sex, just some noises, PLEASE BE MATURE), a really cute fluffy wlw couple, sad and nostalgic Bucky, angst.

A/N: Hey guys, I’m here with the first chapter of All or Nothing! This is my first time writing an action/fight scene, so forgive me for it being so long. We jump between POV’s in this one. The chapter takes place right before the prologue, and during/right after the prologue. A huge thank you and I love you to @fangirlisms-22 for beta-ing this again! Here’s the playlist for the whole series. If you’d like to be tagged in any future AoN updates, send me an ask! I love feedback, so send your thoughts my way! Thanks guys, see y’all hopefully soon with updates!

This is the sequel to Give, check out the first series masterlist here!

All or Nothing | Masterlist

“I didn’t know how they were gonna fit all those details into a two hour movie but they did it really well. I mean, even the set design was so realistic to what the books always depicted!” I enthused as I turned to Nikki, my girlfriend of 8 months to find a huge grin spread across her face. “What?”

“Nothing!” she shook her head as she shrugged, the smile remaining on her lips.

“No, tell me! What is it?” I asked, turning to walk backwards so I could look at her.

“It’s nothing, you’re just, you’re really cute when you geek out about things,” she answered, hiding her face in hands.

“Oh my god, I love your dorky ass,” I grinned, gripping her wrists to lower them from her face. Her cheeks were flushed as I continued to pull her down the sidewalk and closer to where we’d parked. “You know that right?”

“Yes, I do,” she nodded, her eyes shining with affection. One of my heels dipped into a hole, causing me to lose my footing and I shot my arms out for balance. Her hands snaked out for my waist as she tried to steady me. Once I knew we weren’t gonna crash on the concrete, I started laughing as I pulled her against me.

“I’m not even drunk and I’m already a clumsy mess!” I chuckled into her dark hair.

“You’ve never needed alcohol to stumble around, (Y/N),” she pulled away from me with a sly smile on her lips.

“So I’m always a mess?”

“Oh definitely. But a really hot one,” she agreed as she raised her brows.

“I’m a hot geeky mess then?” I beamed at her, feeling a blush already creeping across my cheeks.

“Yep, you’re my hot, geeky mess.” Her fingers brushed a strand of hair from my face as she rose on her toes. “And I love you for it.”

Our lips brushed as she wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me into her. Moving my own hands to her face, I kissed her back. She smiled against my lips and I wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

Holding her against me, I almost didn’t hear the engine of a black SUV pull up or it’s lights bounce past us.

Our mouths separated as she leaned back on her feet and loosened her grip on my waist. “Let’s go home,” she suggested as she turned to lead me to her car. I followed her further down the sidewalk, ignoring the sounds of the SUV’s engine cutting off, and its light’s going out. Doors opened and shut behind us, but I kept walking to her blue Toyota, thinking about cuddling in bed when we got home.

Boots pounded against the pavement and I couldn’t focus on Nikki any longer. I let go of her hand as I turned on my heel to see what was coming. A man in all black shoved me out of the way before he wrapped his arms around Nikki’s body. Keeping her arms pinned to her side, he lifted her off the ground and attempted to carry her past me. Another man in black appeared beside me and shot his hand out to grab my elbow. I smacked his elbow down forcing him to lose his grip, before I planted a hard kick to his hip to keep him away from me. Nikki swung her legs and shouted as I ran to get to her.

“Idiot, she’s not the one we want,” a huge, bald man yelled as he stepped out of the SUV. He wore a black shirt and camo military pants. Another man in all black stepped out of the back of the vehicle and set his sights on me.

The one carrying Nikki set her back on the ground but she was ready to fight. Digging her heel into his foot, she took her opening and jabbed her elbow into his ribs. “Bitch,” he yelped. He hoisted her into the air before throwing her against the cement. Her head smacked the ground hard.

“Nikki!” I shouted as I slid to my knees in front of her. The man who’d grabbed her yanked at my hair, pulling my head back sharply and I tried my best not to scream. Aiming for his groin, I punched as hard as I could and then grabbed his ankle to yank him to the ground. He hit the concrete with a satisfying groan and thud. Nikki’s eyes opened to me as I caressed her face and examined her head, “Can you see me?”

No blood was trickling out of her ears and nose which was a good sign. “Yeah, you’re just kinda blurry. And my head really hurts,” she answered softly. I almost laughed in relief. “Behind you!” she warned and I stood back up.

Arms wrapped around my upper body with enough force to tackle me to the ground. Trying to remember the techniques Nat taught me, I held onto his arms as I went down on a knee and used his momentum and my core to throw his body over my head. As I got back up, the two other men in black each seized one of my arms. The one on my left landed a hard punch on my jaw, and I rolled my head in an attempt to stop the vibrations in my skull. Tugging my right elbow into my body, I shot the same leg out and thrust one of them several steps back. Turning to the one on my left, I swung wide and smacked the front of his face hard before I landed a forceful kick to his knee, and heard a crunch as he crumbled to the ground.

The one who was on my right lunged for me and just as his torso came near me, I brought a sharp knee into his groin. His body weight fell onto me and as he collapsed I used one of Nat’s favorite moves and brought my elbow down on his head. As I turned to whoever was coming for me next, I realized how heavily I was breathing. Nat could have done this without breaking a sweat.

The large, bald man, wearing the camo pants stood several feet in front of me with a gun pointed at Nikki’s head. “Take another step and I blow her brains out,” he warned, his voice a deep growl.

I stood still then, peeking over to make sure she was okay. The one she’d elbowed and I’d punched in the groin, delivered a sharp kick to her gut and I nearly ran to her.

“Really?” the big man, who was clearly in charge, snapped at the other. As he turned his attention to his inferior I started running.

Two shots rang through the air.

All my breath left my lungs and I felt like I was being ripped apart. I turned to Nikki, praying that she was okay, that those were just warning shots.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, and only when she screamed, “No!” did I realize that she was okay.

I turned back to the giant and saw that his gun was already re-holstered. His eyes, even in the dark, were filled with worry. I followed his line of sight and registered why. Two spots of blood slowly spread across the front of my shirt. As I pressed my hands to my abdomen and felt the sting of open flesh, I finally understood that I was the one who got shot.

The rest happened so quickly that I could barely comprehend it. The huge man moved toward me as he yelled at the man standing next to Nikki with his gun drawn, “You dumbass! We need her alive!” The leader’s large arms lifted me off the ground with little effort and I swatted at his chest but he looked down at me with sympathy in his eyes. “Don’t fight me, keep applying pressure to wherever it hurts.”

I followed his orders. The one who I’d elbowed in the head fished my phone out of my back pocket and tossed it to Nikki. The glass sounded like it cracked but maybe that was just my bones responding to my attempt at breathing. Arms tightened around my body, encouraging me to pay attention, and as the large man asked his question again I forced myself to nod. “It-it’s Sammi, with two m’s and an i,” I managed to say loud enough for Nikki to hear. She nodded at me and I focused back on my hands that were already slick with blood.

The men hustled me into the SUV, the leader staying with me in the backseat to make sure I didn’t bleed out too much. As the car started moving, I knew an argument was going on but I couldn’t pay attention to the bickering. Lifting my hands to my face, I finally saw how red they were.

“Well fuck,” I whispered.

The man holding me chuckled before replacing my hands with his own. “Well fuck is right,” was the last thing I heard before I felt a sting on my bicep. My vision became foggy and I just prayed that Sam would get to Nikki in enough time.

Bucky felt so cold that he almost thought he was frozen again. He was standing in the dark, eyes trying to find any crack of light. A playful screech came from somewhere on his right and he moved toward it. After a few steps his body hit something hard and flat, and he groped the barrier for any difference in shape. He heard a small whimper then, and he hurried his attempts at finding a break in the wall.

As he felt along the cool surface his fingers finally found a small crack in it. Pulling his left arm back, he punched as hard as he could. A tiny shred of light appeared where he had hit and it was enough to motivate him to punch there again. And again, and again, and again.

When his fist finally broke through the barrier he saw a golden light so bright it nearly blinded him. As he stepped into this new space, his eyes adjusted and he took in the entire room. It was his room in Bucharest, the newspapers on the windows, his chips still sitting on top of the fridge, and the shitty coffee pot sitting next to the coffee maker. His eyes found his bed and suddenly he felt warm.

A beam of light landed on his mattress, and he saw the most holy sight he’d seen in his entire life. (Y/N) was curled onto her side, head resting against his chest. His metal arm was wrapped around her protectively and her arm held onto his waist. The Bucky that laid there with her was watching her sleep, her breath brushing his skin gently. He slipped his left hand up to her hair, stroking it gently as he smiled at her.

This was the moment that Bucky knew he loved her.

Sure, he’d told her that he thought he loved her, and he had, but everything up to that moment had been so shaky for him. It had been years since he’d felt any of these emotions, and one bold lady who lived downstairs had somehow brought all of these feelings back to him. He felt almost human again. Almost like the person he should have been.

This exact morning had been the first time he’d woken without the monster gnawing at his conscience. The asset was nowhere to be found in his head, only the reminder of him on his arm, and he wanted this to last forever. Maybe it was selfish, but he never wanted to spend another morning thinking about anything but her. Never wanted to wake up without her body against him.

Yet, that wishful thinking had been wasted. He’d been without her for nearly four years, but only two of those he could remember.

The him in that moment leaned his head forward and pressed a small kiss to her temple. He whispered, “Te iubesc.” He knew she was asleep, and even if she wasn’t she probably wouldn’t have understood him, but he wanted to test the words on his tongue first. He repeated them another time, “Te iubesc.” They felt perfect. “Te iubesc,” he murmured against her hair. I love you.

A low moan came from behind him and he turned to locate it. The sound occurred again and he moved to find it. He opened the bathroom door first to see it was empty inside. He moved to the closet next, and as he yanked it open the light in the room changed completely.

Gold turned to gray and black, and as he turned back to his apartment, it was no longer his.

The far end of the room was dark except the cracks of light coming through the window above the large bed in the corner. A smothered gasp echoed from that side of the room. Fear shot through Bucky and he moved toward that side of the room until he heard a soft giggle.

No, no no. He didn’t want to see this. This dream had been the first pleasant one in weeks. But of course his own subconscious wouldn’t let him be happy.

A low groan came from the bed, followed by a whimpered, “Oh my god, yes.” The cracks of light hit her face and he wanted to run away as fast as possible, but his legs wouldn’t move. He was forced to stand there and watch her lips fall open as her eyes screwed shut in pleasure. “Fuck,” she gasped, “right there, oh fuck.” Her hair moved around her face and a flush crept up her chest and neck.

A deep groan came from somewhere near her, where the light couldn’t reach. The sound of flesh meeting flesh carried throughout the room, followed by a whine from her mouth. Bucky willed himself to be anywhere but there, to be seeing anything but this, but he couldn’t seem to escape it. The thumping of the bed hitting the wall seemed to surround him, somehow growing closer with each second.

A door slammed shut, prompting Bucky upright in bed. He was covered in sweat, his hair damp against his skin. Feet moved quickly down the hallway and he heard a quiet, “No, no, no no no…”

Pushing his sheets back he walked to his door quickly and pulled it open to see Wanda’s hair flaring behind her as she turned the corner. Stepping into the hallway, he noticed that neither Steve nor Sam’s doors were locked. They were supposed to be leaving for a mission tonight, so their doors should have been locked and their bags should have been sitting next to them. Yet as Bucky peered into each of their rooms, he noticed neither had finished packing.

He followed Wanda’s trail, her chant of “no” leading him down to the conference and mission wing. The rest of headquarters sounded eerily quiet except for Wanda’s words. He reached the balcony overlooking the indoor section of the hangar to find Tony, Steve, and Sam huddled together near a quinjet. They were supposed to be taking a larger plane for the mission overseas.

“Tell me it’s not true,” Wanda spoke loudly, fear rattling her voice as she approached the men.

“Dammit Wanda, I told you not to listen to my thoughts!” Sam reacted first, breaking their quiet conversation off.

“I was asleep, you know I can’t always control it when I’m unconscious,” she answered, growing quieter as her nerves took back over. “Tell me it isn’t true.”

“Wanda,” Steve sighed, his eyes clearly betraying whatever was wrong to her immediately.

“No, no. This can’t be happening, you have to go on a mission tonight. You need to be there.”

“Hey, I’m still going. Vision’s coming now too,” Tony cut in, a hand resting on Wanda’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

“Yeah, and Nat’s still going,” Steve reassured her. “They’re taking Scott and Peter too, they just have to wait a little longer to leave.”

She pushed her shoulders back as she stared down Sam and Steve, “You’re not doing this alone. I’m going with you.”

“Wanda, if you don’t stay behind then what do you think will happen when he wakes up alone here?” Sam asked, making a clear reference to Bucky.

“You can say his name Sam. He followed me down here,” she sighed, taking a step back and pointing to Bucky standing in the doorway.

Tony rolled his eyes while Sam and Steve both tried to make their expressions seem neutral. Bucky finally shifted from his fixed position, his hand reaching for the railing in front of him.

“What’s going on, guys?” he asked, making direct eye contact with Steve. Wanda turned to him, her lips pursed as Sam and Steve exchanged glances. “Come on Steve, don’t sugarcoat it.”

“Well, uh, (Y/N)-,” he started but kept searching for the right words.

Sam grimaced and cut Steve off, “(Y/N) just got taken.”

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked, anger rising in his chest as his grip tightened on the metal in his hands.

“Not the railing!” Tony yelped before anyone answered, but Bucky paid him no attention.

Steve sighed, hoping that getting this over with quickly, and from his mouth, would help. “She’s gone, Buck.”

It didn’t help.

Bucky ripped the railing off the balcony.

Tags: @irishdancr24 @lostboyinneverland @suz-123 @yo-yo-bro-bro @hollycornish @captainamericasbeautifulbutt @nedthegay @kitty11223 @whatisanniedoin @sebastianst-n @idksolonya @tequilavet @plan3tmadison @gratittie 

Names that are slashed through wouldn’t let me tag them.

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

The Heaven We Didn’t Choose, Chapter 8: In Which The Internet is Invoked

...And Sans nearly loses his edgelord club membership card. 

First: Chapter 1: In Which a Child Makes a Friend

Previous: Chapter 7: In Which Skeletons are Explained

Next: Chapter 9: In Which Dog Marriage Saves the Day

Click here for the story overview.

The next day went about as well as Sans expected.  He was once again woken up by the flurry of alarms reminding him of Undyne’s impending invasion of the apartment, but he made sure to have Attie up and dressed in ’training clothes’ before she arrived.

It was worth the extra effort.  Undyne had calmed considerably, having apparently slept at some point, but she kept eyeing him with a very...intense expression.  Attie demanded enough of her attention that she didn’t say anything, but he felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

Either Frisk had made good on her threat to talk to Undyne about Boss or Sans had messed up on his paperwork again.  Possibly both.  He was betting on the former, though, especially since Boss hadn’t come back to the apartment the previous evening.

This meant that Undyne wound up giving them a crash course in breakfast...literally.  The kitchen looked like a war zone by the time they were finished, with globs of oatmeal across the ceiling, floor, and stove top.  The oatmeal itself was full of dark brown flakes that made Attie wince every time she took a bite.  He made a mental note to look up an oatmeal-making tutorial on Youtube; there had to be a more efficient way to do this.

“No paperwork today,” Undyne said once she’d scarfed down her own portion of oatmeal.  “The queen’s doing the morning visit before she meets with the...well, with...important people.  We’re also moving her room and posting a guard outside.”

Sans blinked at her, slowly.  “...What are you talking about?”

She growled.  “Frisk.  The ambassador.  Queen Toriel is going to see her this morning to assess her status.  You,” she gestured to both of them with a strange figure eight motion, “stay here.  You can see her this afternoon if you get the all-clear, but text me first.  We’re relocating her to a more defensible room and posting a guard.  Make sure you bring your ID, ass-clown, or you’ll be locked out.”

“Don’t lock me out!”  Attie said, grabbing Undyne’s arm.  “I wanna see my mommy!”

“Oh, you can go on in just fine, punk; the guards won’t bother you.  They’re just gonna make sure no one gets to see your mommy without permission.  If a bad guy tries something funny they’ll beat ‘im up!  It’s for security, right?”

“Cool!”  The girl bounced in her seat.  “Can I be security for Mommy too?  I wanna beat up bad guys!”

“Haha!  You’ve gotta train a little harder than THAT if you wanna be in the Guard!  Ready?”

“Ready!”

“I’ll be here,” Sans said, staring intently at the last globs of oatmeal in his bowl.  “You guys have fun.”

Being lifted by his skull was a new and special kind of painful, he discovered.  Also, Undyne’s grin was even more terrifying close up.

“You’re not getting out of training THAT easy, nerd!  A little exercise never hurt anyone!”

Attie made a mad dash for the living room, screaming about training and friendship and how wonderful everything in her little life was.

The next hour and a half could only be described as torture.  Sans didn’t know a whole lot about humans and fish-monsters (or whatever Undyne was), but he was very certain that skeletons were not designed to bend in some of the ways she was trying to make him bend.  He could feel the strain on his joints; he was sure he was going to dislocate something.  It didn’t help that the stretches were interspersed with periods of intense movement, pushing his still-sore bones well past their limit.  He hoped Boss never found out about this; the big guy had enough punishment ideas to last him a lifetime.

He collapsed onto the couch when Undyne finally stopped.

“That was a GREAT warm-up,” she said.  “Now for the REAL training!”

Sans debated crawling under the couch.  There wasn’t a lot of space under there; his skull and ribcage would be a problem...

She laughed at him.  “I’m just kidding, NERD!  Don’t you know how to take a joke?  Hey, hey Attie, look at this loser!  He can’t even do a little exercise!”

“Mr. Sans isn’t a loser,” Attie solemnly reminded her.  “He’s a asshole.”

“You BET he is!  Anyways, make sure he doesn’t fall asleep, huh?”

“Okay!”

His phone went off.  Oh, right; he hadn’t texted Frisk all morning.  He’d get on that.  Just as soon as he could feel his arms again.

“Mr. Sans?”

His vision started going...a little fuzzy…

“-ey?  Hey?  Can you hear me?”

Sans looked up at Undyne.  She was looking a little worried or angry, one of the two.  He wasn’t sure why; he hadn’t actually passed out, had he?  “‘Mfine,” he mumbled into the couch cushion.

“Yeah, no, punk.  Attie, go grab me the bottle of green juice in your fridge and a cup.  Sans, talk to me.”

“‘M fine."

She huffed.  “You’re an idiot.  No, listen to me: you’re an idiot.  Anyone knows to speak up when they’re being pushed too far.  Except you, I guess.  Do you know what’s happening?  Your magic levels are so low you’re losing HP.  Slowly, but still.  You’re literally killing yourself.”

“Thought a little exercise never hurt anyone.”

“Yeah, a little exercise.  We didn’t even do much, really.  Heck, Attie’s had more exercise over the past few days than we normally do in a week, and she’s just fine.  You?  You collapsed under your own lack of magic.  We’re not even practicing magic, beyond whatever’s holding you together and making you move!  You’d have to do...well, pretty much no exercise at all on a regular basis AND be super low on magic to get to this point.”

“Sounds ‘bout right.”

“And that’s why you’re an idiot.  Oh - thanks, Attie.”  She took the bottle of juice, poured some into the cup, and pushed it towards Sans.

He managed to get himself upright and tipped... most of the juice into his mouth.  It tasted like something that was brewed in a froggit’s armpit, but he did feel better after.  “...What is that stuff?”

“Magic-infused sports drink.  Good for the body AND the SOUL!  The Royal Scientist came out with it a few years back.  You never heard of it?”

“It’s disgusting.”

“I’ve seen what you leave behind at your sentry post; you have no right to criticize anyone else’s eating or drinking habits.”

Fair enough.

“Also, next time we do this, frickin’ tell me when you’re about to collapse, would ya?”

“Gee, didn’t know you cared.”  Also: next time??

“Oh, I don’t.  Someone needs to watch this little punk, though, and she seems kinda fond of you.  Stars know why.”  She ruffled Attie’s hair.

The kid grinned widely.  “It’s ‘cause he feeds me hot dogs and lets me do fun science and lets me color and takes me to see my mommy.  And he didn’t let Mommy die and he helped me beat Mr. Papyrus and stuff.”

Sans eyed her.  “...Right.”

“I told Undie all about the fight with Mr. Papyrus!  I have her phone number in my phone and I was texting her last night when I was supposed to be sleeping.”

“‘M I gonna have to take your phone away at bedtime?”

“Noooo!”  She flopped over onto the couch next to him dramatically.

Undyne laughed.  “Well, since you’re not about to dust, I’ll be off.  Drink another glass of that stuff, asshole.  Attie, make sure he does.”

“Okay!”

“And Vice Captain Papyrus will be back sometime this evening.  If he scares you at all, even just a little bit, you tell this worthless lump here to get you out and you text me.  Okay?”

“Okay!”

“Oh, and a word of advice, Sans?”

He raised his head a fraction.

“Walk around a little.  You’ll be even worse off if you don’t.”

The very atmosphere seemed to deflate when Undyne left.  Sans felt like melting into the couch cushions and just...not moving until Boss came back and kicked his lazy butt into gear.

“Come ooooon!”  Attie whined, grabbing the back of his jacket and trying to drag him off the couch.  She was succeeding.  “Undie said you have to keep moving!  If she says so then we have to do it!”

“Noooo.”  Sans dug his claws into the couch, trying to anchor himself without leaving obvious rips that Boss would scream at him for.

His phone went off again.

He reluctantly disentangled himself from the kid enough to sit up (though she wound up clinging to his back) and pulled it out.

Frisky Dreamer 9:22 AM Sans, I’m waiting for a check-in.

Frisky Dreamer 9:42 AM I’m calling Undyne if I don’t hear from you in five minutes.

You 9:44 AM Undie just left We were doing morning torture

Frisky Dreamer 9:44 AM Explain.  Now.

You 9:46 AM U know the stretching and the posing and the running in place that kindve thing The usual stuff undie likes

Frisky Dreamer 9:46 AM Training?

You 9:47 AM Yeah that

Frisky Dreamer 9:47 AM Don’t call Captain Undyne’s training ‘torture,’ or I’ll tell her you called her “Undie.”

You 9:48 AM U got it

“Oooh, ask her if we can come see her this afternoon!”  Attie said, leaning over his shoulder.

You 9:49 AM Kid wants to know when we can come see you this afternoon If ur up for it

Attie dragged him off the couch when no answer came immediately.  He reluctantly shuffled his tired bones around the living room a few times, but gave up when his phone remained silent.  “Uh, you’d better change your clothes, kid.  Maybe your mom’ll text us back later.  She’s probably busy, remember?”

“Oh, yeah!  Granny Ree’s visiting her this morning, right?”

“Right.  So let’s see if we can find something your mom’ll approve of, okay?”

“Okay!”

Attie wound up in a yellow and white striped shirt and jeans.  He mentally reviewed the fashion lessons from the morning before.  It looked...pretty good?  Jeans went with everything, right?  He couldn’t tell if the yellow was supposed to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for Attie’s skin color (all of that had gone clear over his skull) but Frisk wouldn’t have bought her kid a shirt that looked bad on her, right?

...Hopefully?

He snapped a picture and sent it to the overbearing mother, hoping for the best.

Schoolwork went better than the day before.  Sans was still mostly lost, but a few subjects (mostly Math and Science) weren’t too different from what he’d been taught in the Underground.  At seven years old, Attie wasn’t doing anything too complicated; he was able to follow along and help out fairly well.

It reminded him of teaching Boss, really.  The sad structure that passed for a school in Snowdin had burned to the ground around the time Sans graduated (in a completely unrelated incident, not that he hadn’t been tempted), so Boss had been deprived of a few years’ formal education.  It had been challenging to get an excitable babybones to sit still long enough to do a page of multiplication, but he’d done his best.

His best, he knew, wasn’t great.  It was probably the reason Boss turned out the way he had.

Attie, at least, was used to the routine.  She knew to check her list of schoolwork (Undyne had left it on the counter this time, and had removed the one she’d pinned up with the knife) and found her assignments based on the numbers associated with each subject.  It boggled Sans’s mind.  Teaching kids at home was, apparently, something humans had simplified greatly.  There was a whole system of what to do each day and everything.  It made remembering to text Frisk a little easier, too; he just shot off a text as they finished each subject.  Attie did the same, happy for an excuse to use her new phone.

Lunch was hot dogs, again.  Attie, predictably, demanded that Sans eat his all in one bite.  He initially refused, but...well, the thing she did with her eyes was growing on him.  He caved and swallowed his hot dog whole.

He didn’t sit still long enough for Attie to take a picture of him doing it.  She did her best, but it wasn’t quite enough.

Ding!

Frisky Dreamer 12:58 PM Sans, what exactly are you teaching my daughter?

You 12:59 PM Nothing were just having lunch

Frisky Dreamer 12:59 PM So bragging to a young girl about how you can swallow weiners is normal for you?

Sans squinted at his phone, trying to make sense of the message.  He knew ‘weiner’ was another word for ‘hot dog,’ but...he felt there was something he was missing.

You 1:00 PM Kinda i mean i run a ‘dog stand Dont really talk to the customers but sometimes onell wonder y a skeleton needs food Where r u going with this?

Frisky Dreamer 1:02 PM I can’t decide if you’re naive, stupid, or far more creepy than I ever gave you credit for.  Where is Attie now?

He looked around.  The kid was at the table doing more Grammar.  He snapped a picture.  

You 1:04 PM *1 picture message sent

Frisky Dreamer 1:05 PM Okay.

You 1:06 PM Kiddo what the hell is going on

Frisky Dreamer 1:07 PM You can’t do that anymore.  And stars, keep Attie from talking about your ‘hot dog trick.’

You 1:08 PM Uh y

Frisky Dreamer 1:09 PM BECAUSE I WON’T HAVE YOU INVOLVING MY DAUGHTER IN YOUR DIRTY PRANKS!!

Yep, he was definitely missing something.

You 1:10 PM U high again?  I have no idea what ur talking about

Frisky Dreamer 1:10 PM Stupid it is, then.  Look it up. NOT around Attie.

Sans double-checked that Attie was studying and not peeking over his shoulder, then opened the web browser on his phone.  He typed in ‘eat a weiner.’

Oh.  OH.

...Humans were disgusting.

You 1:12 PM So uh what the hell U humans r crazy Like what even Y would u do that with ur mouths With all ur gross fluids Thats unsanitary Like wow

Frisky Dreamer 1:15 PM That’s about the reaction I was expecting.  So NO MORE, OKAY?

You 1:15 PM I may never eat a hot dog again What the hell Y didnt anyone say anything Like do people think im some kind of weirdo for working at a dog stand Like theyre just in the store with other food Is that normall Is tht what huans do

Frisky Dreamer 1:17 PM Oh, you sweet, innocent child. You have no idea.

You 1:17 PM Y do humans destroy everything good This is a travesty against Science Like y

Frisky Dreamer 1:19 PM Sans, calm down.

You 1:19 PM O ok Uh So No more dogs for the kid

Frisky Dreamer 1:20 PM They are just normal food.  Deal with it however you want. It’s just that said food happens to vaguely resemble part of the human anatomy that a little girl DOES NOT need to know or think about. Just watch your words, okay?

You 1:23 PM O so im off the hook

Frisky Dreamer 1:23 PM Not hardly.

“Mr. Sans?”

Sans quickly pocketed his phone and looked over at Attie, holding her Grammar workbook to her chest.  “What’s up, kid?”

“Are you okay?”

“Uh...fine?  Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been texting for a long time now.  And you look kinda sick.”

“Heh, yeah?”  He gripped his phone, wishing he had some of that...what did humans call it?  The stuff that makes you forget stuff?  Brain bleach?  “Your mom was just telling me that ‘dogs aren’t good for ya.  So I guess that’s out.  For now, at least.”

“Awwwww.”

“Yeah, me too, kid.”  He was never going to live this down, he realized.  

“Say, uh, you done with your school?”

“I’m done with Grammar.  It was easy today.”

“Yeah, uh, great.  What’s next?”

Sans fought for focus the rest of the afternoon.  It wasn’t so much that humans apparently had some weird kinky ideas about what to do with their gross squishy body parts and fluids (though that was part of it); it was the fact that he’d lived on the surface for seven years and had never come across such an idea.  Did humans think it was weird that a monster had a hot dog stand?  Why had no one said anything to him?

Oh, right.  He was a rude, violent asshole who hated people.

That...probably explained a lot.

Still.

“Can you help me with art today?”  Attie asked.

“Uh, I’m not really an artsy guy, kid.”

“It’s okay.  Everyone can do art.  Making art is a way of showing other people how you see the world; that’s what Mommy says.”

“That sounds…” kinda whimpy, actually, “...cool?”

“Yep!  And today I’m feeling spikey!”

“Wait, what?”

“Do you have toothpicks and glue, Mr. Sans?”

As it happened, Sans found an unopened jumbo box of toothpicks in the back of a drawer.  Attie found glue...somewhere.  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know where.  “What now?”

“Now, we build stuff!  Here, can you hold this?”

Over the next hour or so, Attie glued toothpicks (and half of Sans’s fingers) into a spiked wooden death trap.  It was actually a little impressive.  The design was basic - a pit trap with spikes in the bottom - but the pit cover had working hinges that allowed it to drop open in the middle...once he disentangled himself from it.  They’d found a pair of old bottle caps, and gluing one on each side of the pit cover gave the two halves enough of a counter-weight to reset themselves each time.  She found a bag of grapes in the fridge and amused herself with rolling them over the top of the pit and watching them fall to their squishy deaths on the toothpicks below.

There wasn’t enough force to actually impale the grapes properly, but it was the thought that counted.  For a seven-year-old, she was well on her way towards carrying on the proud monster tradition of death traps.  Not for the first time, Sans wondered if he should be worried.

Then the kiddo surprised him.  She’d been rolling grapes onto the death trap, watching the cover open and close, and out of the blue she asked why it worked the way it did.  Sans hadn’t expected that, not from a kid her age, but gave her an overview of the physics.  She was trying to understand, he knew, but her eyes glazed over halfway through his explanation.

“...Well, that’s enough for today.  We’d better head out if you wanna go see your mom.”

“Okay!  Can I bring my deadly death trap of grape death?”

“I...think that’d be a bad idea.  You don’t wanna scare the humans, do ya?”

“Yep!  I wanna scare ALL the humans!  Well, except for the people at the Embassy.  They’re nice.”

“Oookay.  You don’t think the doctors are nice?”

“Nnnope!  They give you shots and take your temper’ture and do things that make your soul feel funny.  They try to bribe you with stickers but Mommy said that she got candy as a kid and that’s way better than stickers.”

“Eh, fair enough.  Put your shoes and jacket on and we’ll go terrorize some doctors.  Uh...without your death trap.”

“Aawww!  Why?”

“Think of it as...a challenge?”

Attie whooped a wild war cry and charged off to find her outerwear.  She really was like a little Boss in some ways.

He was sure he was forgetting something.  What had Undyne said?

Oh.  Right.

You 4:42 PM Hey undyne im gonna take the kid to see her mom

Capn Undie 4:44 PM HANG ON ASSHOLE

There was a long pause, and Sans took the time to retrieve his ID from where he’d left it in the pocket of his other pants.  He hated disturbing the sanctity of his laundry pile but showing up without identification to one of Undyne’s checkpoints was always unpleasant.

His phone gave a loud ping.

Capn Undie 4:53 PM You’re cleared with security.  Room 249, down the hall and around the corner from the old room.  BRING YOUR ID and we’ll have no problems, got it??

You 4:56 PM Got it

Capn Undie 4:59 PM And don’t even THINK about causing trouble or I’ll have you KICKED OUT.  You can sit outside while Attie does whatever she does visiting her mom.  I’m sure there’s a kiddie chair we can grab for you.

Sans narrowed his eye sockets.  “Hey, Attie?  You ready to go yet?”

“Not yet!”  Attie appeared with her shoes on, holding her jacket.  “My laces were being doo-doo-butts,” she said conversationally.

“...Right.  Okay.  Hey, why don’t you grab that death trap after all?  And some grapes; we can show yer mom how it works.”

“Physics!”  Attie screamed as she stumbled off to find her creation.

Sans grinned.

[strangersihavedrawn]

170ish albums/EPs you should have bought in 2017.

This year has been a strange one. After a pretty desperate 2016, our bubbles remain burst, our political systems are still in shambles, the planet is slowly dying. It’s business as usual pretty much, except this time all of our heroes are sex pests (Cue a bit of guesswork as to which album has been redacted from this list). Fortunately, business as usual means there’s too much good music to even keep track of, but I’ve done my best. So, without further faff, here’s my annual list in chronological order, with my featured album from each month in a doodle, as I am want to do.

January

04/01 Pink Guy - Pink Season (Self-Released) 13/01 Code Orange - Forever (Roadrunner) 13/01 Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Roman Lips (ORL Projects / Ipecac) 13/01 The xx - I See You (Young Turks) 20/01 As It Is - okay. (Fearless) 20/01 When We Team Up - Shut Up and Fly (Self-Released) 20/01 WSTR - Red, Green Or Inbetween (No Sleep) 21/01 Palladino - Supersymmetry (Hembleciya) 27/01 Japandroids - Near To The Wild Heart Of Life (Anti-) 27/01 Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Zen Thrills (ORL Projects / Ipecac) 29/01 On a Hiding to Nothing - Formaldehyde (Umlaut) 31/01 Push Over - Demo EP (Esque)

February

03/02 Less Than Jake - Sound The Alarm (Pure Noise) 03/02 The Menzingers - After the Party (Epitaph) 03/02 Smile and Burn - Get Better Get Worse (Uncle M / Grand Hotel Van Cleef) 10/02 Homebound - The Mould You Build Yourself Around (Rude) 10/02 Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Chocolate Tumor Hormone Parade (ORL Projects / Ipecac) 13/02 Glowbug - Fantasma Del Tropico (Self-Released) 24/02 Broadbay - Five Year Plan (Hanger / Copper Top) 24/02 Crystal Fairy - Crystal Fairy (Ipecac) 24/02 Decade - Pleasantries (Rude) 24/02 Guillotine - Sapphire (Failure By Design) 24/02 Nightlife - Salt & Acid (Speaking Tongues) 24/02 Thundercat - Drunk (Brainfeeder)

March

03/03 Converge - Jane Live (Deathwish, Inc.) 03/03 Minus The Bear - Voids (Suicide Squeeze) 10/03 Can’t Swim - Fail You Again (Pure Noise) 10/03 Self Defense Family - Bastard Form b/w Maybe You Could Explain It To Me (Alternatives Label) 11/03 Atta Girl - Betty’s Begonia (Trrrash) 13/03 Traits - Limits (Self-Released) 17/03 Pulled Apart By Horses - The Haze (Caroline International) 17/03 Sorority Noise - You’re Not As ____ As You Think (Triple Crown / Big Scary Monsters) 17/03 Stolas - Stolas (Equal Vision) 17/03 Western Addiction - Tremulous (Fat Wreck) 24/03 Catch Fire - A Love That I Still Miss (Rude) 24/03 Coast To Coast - The Length of a Smile (Fox) 24/03 Creeper - Eternity, In Your Arms (Roadrunner) 24/03 Fucked Up - Year Of The Snake (Tankcrimes) 24/03 Great Cynics - POSI (Specialist Subject / GUERRILLA ASSO / Lame-O) 24/03 Lotus Eater - Lotus Eater EP (Self-Released) 31/01 Mastodon - Emperor of Sand (Reprise)

April

07/04 Blood Youth - Beyond Repair (Rude) 07/04 Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (Bella Union) 07/04 The Flatliners - Inviting Light (Dine Alone / Rise) 07/04 The Smith Street Band - More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me (Specialist Subject / Pool House / Side One Dummy) 14/04 Loathe - The Cold Sun (Sharptone) 15/04 Lost Avenue - Best Friends (Rustys Rekords) 16/04 Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (Aftermath / Interscope) 20/04 Eternity Forever - Eternity Forever (Esque) 21/04 Bear Trade - Silent Unspeakable (Everything Sucks / Dead Broke / Waterslide) 21/04 Have Mercy - Make The Best Of It (Hopeless) 21/04 Self Defense Family - BBC Session (Deathwish, Inc.) 21/04 what gives - feels good (Skeletal Lightning) 21/04 The Winter Passing - Double Exposure (Big Scary Monsters / 6131) 28/04 Gorillaz - Humanz (Parlophone / Warner Bros.) 28/04 He Is Legend - few (Spinefarm) 28/04 New Found Glory - Makes Me Sick (Hopeless) 28/04 Thurston Moore - Rock N Roll Consciousness (Ecstatic Peace!)

May

01/05 X-TV - EXIT (Self-Released) 05/05 At The Drive-In - in.ter a.li.a (Rise) 05/05 Gnarwolves - Outsiders (Big Scary Monsters / Tangled Talk) 05/05 Mac Demarco - This Old Dog (Captured Tracks) 09/05 Self Defense Family - Wounded Masculinity (Triple B) 12/05 Gun Shy - The Long Dance (Wrong Way Round) 15/05 Jordan Mackampa - Tales For The Broken (Self-Released) 19/05 Employed To Serve - The Warmth of a Dying Sun (Holy Roar) 19/05 Higher Power - Soul Structure (Venn / Flatspot) 19/05 Miss Vincent - Somewhere Else (Uncle M) 19/05 Tigers Jaw - Spin (Black Cement) 26/05 Create To Inspire - Sickness (Basick) 26/05 Frenzal Rhomb - Hi-Vis High Tea (Fat Wreck) 26/05 Pet Symmetry - Vision (Polyvinyl)

June

02/06 ‘68 - Two Parts Viper (Cooking Vinyl) 02/06 Dystopian Future Movies - Time (Oak Tree) 02/06 Grove Street Families - VOL 1.0 (Venn) 02/06 Mutoid Man - War Moans (Sargent House) 02/06 Rainfalls - Creep (Self-Released) 05/06 EAT DIRT. - I (Self-Released) 08/06 Bares - Salty Kiss / In Lieu (Self-Released) 09/06 BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION (BROCKHAMPTON / EMPIRE Distribution) 09/06 Donnie Willow - Exhibition (Sunbird) 09/06 Kamikaze Girls - Seafoam (Big Scary Monsters) 16/06 Broadside - Paradise (Victory) 16/06 Chon - Homey (Sumerian) 16/06 Color Film - Living Arrangements (Epitaph) 16/06 Faux - Faux (Speaking Tongues) 16/06 Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (Nonesuch) 16/06 Harbinger - Human Dust (Basick) 16/06 Portugal. The Man - Woodstock (Atlantic) 16/06 Single Mothers - Our Pleasure (Dine Alone / Big Scary Monsters) 23/06 Aviator - Loneliness Leaves The Light On For Me (No Sleep)  23/06 Rozwell Kid - Precious Art (SideOneDummy) 23/06 Slowlights - I Try So Hard (Killing Moon)

July

07/07 Melvins - A Walk With Love and Death (Ipecac) 07/07 Puppy - Vol. II (Spinefarm) 12/07 Baggage - The Good That Never Comes (Self-Released) 14/07 Bad Sign - Live & Learn (Basick) 14/07 Fights and Fires - Live Life Like a Tourist (Lockjaw) 14/07 The Gospel Youth - Always Lose (Rise) 19/07 Listener - Being Empty: Being Filled I (Truth Seeker / Black Bassett / Smiths Food Group DIY) 21/07 Energy - The Witching Hour (Self-Released) 21/07 Tyler, The Creator - Flower Boy (Columbia) 21/07 Wot Gorilla? - Angel Numbers (Self-REleased) 21/07 Young Hunger - Wear Me Down (Self-Released) 25/07 Converge - I Can Tell You About Pain (Epitaph / Deathwish, Inc.) 27/07 MC Lars - The Jeff Sessions (Horris Records) 28/07 Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (Caroline International) 28/07 Milk Teeth - Be Nice (Roadrunner) 28/07 Oceans Ate Alaska - Hikari (Fearless)

August

04/08 Dale Crover - Fickle Finger Of Fate (Joyful Noise) 04/08 Dead Cross - Dead Cross (Ipecac) 11/08 The Cribs - 24-7 Rock Star Shit (Sonic Brew) 11/08 Mush - Protect Your Brand (Skeletal Lightning) 18/08 Everything Everything - A Fever Dream (Sony RCA) 18/08 Wallflower - Where It Fell Apart (Self-Released) 24/08 Fizzy Blood - Summer of Luv (Killing Moon / Ayla) 25/08 BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION II (Question Everything, Inc. / EMPIRE Distribution) 25/08 Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains (Matador) 25/08 Turnover - Good Nature (Run For Cover)

September

08/09 Comeback Kid - Outsider (New Damage / Nuclear Blast) 08/09 Death From Above - Outrage! Is Now (Last Gang) 08/09 Stray From The Path - Only Death Is Real (Sumerian) 08/09 Such Gold - Deep in a Hole (Bird Attack) 08/09 Angelo Badlamenti - Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack (Rhino) 08/09 Various Artists - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series (Rhino) 15/09 The Apology Tour - This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Save Your Generation) 15/09 Arcane Roots - Melancholia Hymns (Easy Life / Red Essential) 15/09 Beaumont - Honestly (Reclaim Music) 15/09 Hot Water Music - Light It Up (Rise) 15/09 Seaway - Vacation (Dine Alone / Pure Noise) 22/09 The Bronx - V (Cooking Vinyl) 22/09 Caracara - Summer Megalith (Flower Girl) 22/09 Circa Survive - The Amulet (Hopeless) 22/09 Mastodon - Cold Dark Place (Reprise) 22/09 Metz - Strange Peace (Sub Pop) 22/09 Prawn - Run (Topshelf) 29/09 Primus - The Desaturating Seven (ATO) 29/09 Propagandhi - Victory Lap (Epitaph) 29/09 The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Always Foreign (Epitaph)

October

06/10 Citizen - As You Please (Run For Cover) 13/10 Beck - Colors (Capitol) 13/10 Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice (Matador / Marathon / Milk!) 13/10 The Front Bottoms - Going Grey (Fueled By Ramen) 13/10 Iron Chic - You Can’t Stay Here (SideOneDummy) 13/10 Knuckle Puck - Shapeshifter (Rise) 13/10 Roam - Great Heights & Nosedives (Hopeless) 17/10 FUCK *(It’s Pronounced SHIT!)* - It’s Still Pronounced SHIT! (Self-Released) 20/10 Movements - Feel Something (Fearless) 20/10 Muskets - Chew (No Sleep) 21/10 Listener - Being Empty : Being Filled Vol. II (Black Basset) 27/10 Gold Key - Hello, Phantom (Venn) 27/10 Heavy Hearts - On a Chain (Failure By Design) 27/10 Jamie Lenman - Devolver (Big Scary Monsters) 27/10 Slaughter Beach, Dog - Birdie (Lame-O / Big Scary Monsters)

November

03/11 Converge - The Dusk In Us (Epitaph / Deathwish, Inc.) 03/11 Lifetight - Self-Tightled (Crooked Noise) 10/11 Listener - Being Empty : Being Filled Vol. III (Sounds of Subterrania) 10/11 Quicksand - Interiors (Epitaph) 10/11 Versus You - Birthday Boys (Noiseworks / G Chord) 17/11 Milk Teeth - Go Away (Roadrunner) 17/11 Onsind - We Wilt, We Bloom (Specialist Subject) 17/11 Valliers - Lost In Familiarity (Dream Atlantic) 24/11 At The Drive-In - Diamanté (Rise) 24/11 Björk - Utopia (One Little Indian) 24/11 Lightcliffe - For a While (Failure By Design) 24/11 Rain - Abstract Vision (Venn)

December

01/12 The Dear Hunter - All Is As All Should Be (Self-Released) 01/12 Glassjaw - Material Control (Century Media) 15/12 BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION III (Question Everything, Inc. / EMPIRE Distribution) 15/12 Gun Shy / THE EAST / summerbruise / Superdose Gangway - BSR / OPR 4-Way Split (Beth Shalom / Old Press) 15/12 Lemuria - Recreational Hate (Turbo Worldwide / Asian Man / Big Scary Monsters) 15/12 N.E.R.D - No One Ever Really Dies (i am OTHER / Columbia) 21/12 Original Sharks - Hundred Grand to the Man (Self-Released) 26/12 Scum Couch - Ignorant Bore (Self-Released) Okay, that’s your lot. Now go away.

[vin-taege]

Psycho (j. jk ft. k.nj)

Summary: It could be hard identifying madness, for no one ever truly knows what’s normal and what’s not. Who to believe and who to ignore. But even the most twisted tales can get untangled.

Trigger Warning: mentions of physical abuse

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Based on this prompt.

Day 1

You woke up with a pounding headache. A musty scent filled the room, and a constant dripping noise resonated around. You groaned and sat up. You tried moving, only to find out that your hands were tied together. You moved your foot and heard a chain rustling. A sense of panic and dread filled you. You tried opening your eyes, the light making your head throb.

When your vision cleared, you saw a small flight of stairs at the corner of the room, leading to a door. You looked around, finding nothing else but a table with a chair tucked into it. You sat on an old mattress, one of your feet in a shackle which was connected by a long chain to the wall. A worn-out pillow was next to you and you figured that that’s where you’ve been laying on before. There were some pipelines on the ceiling. One of them was leaking, which led to a small puddle in the room. A basement. You were in a basement.

The door opened with a creak. You snapped your head towards it, your heart beating faster by the minute. A boy wearing a hoodie went in. He was looking downwards as he went down the stairs, but as he reached the bottom, he focused his gaze on you. 

His height told you he was at least twenty, but his face seemed younger. It was angular, but also rounded in all the right places. He had a mischievous glint in his eyes, and this just added confusion to your mind. He smiled at you, showing two front teeth slightly larger than the other ones. 

“Hello. I see you’re awake.” he said, rather calmly. Under different circumstances, you would’ve swooned over him. He was undeniably cute, and his face looked innocent. But the way he casually said that sentence, as if there wasn’t a stranger in his basement, sent shivers down your spine. He took a step closer to you, and you inched back. 

He frowned, noticing your uneasiness. “Hey, talk to me. I didn’t bring you here for nothing.” he said, lightly kicking your leg. You didn’t know what to say. What did he expect? For you to say ‘hi’? For you to greet him with a bubbly attitude? All you knew was that you woke up somewhere unfamiliar, with a teenage boy who could potentially kill you. 

“Talk!” His voice boomed. A sharp pain made its way to your cheek. You stilled for a moment before you felt a tear slide down your now stinging cheek. “P-please don’t hurt me.” you managed to whisper. He stared at you with an unreadable expression. With a sigh, he sat in front of you.

“That’s the first thing you say to me?” he cracked his knuckles, making you flinch. He noticed the action and smirked. “Darling, don’t be so scared. We’ll have an amazing time together.” The sweetness he put in that word made you sick. You wanted to scream, to lunge at him, but you feared for the consequences. If he could slap just for not responding, who knows what else he can do?

He stroked the cheek he had slapped. “I’m Jungkook. You’re lucky I’m in a good mood right now, or else I would’ve done more than that.” You cried harder at his words. He tsked, and you thought he was going to slap you again. But then he paused and then leaned back. “I suggest you build up a chattier attitude before I get bored of you and put a knife in your neck.” he said, lazily rocking back and forth.

You looked him in the eye. He gave you the same blank stare, and something told you he was being serious. “W-why?” you sputtered. Why did it have to be you, out of all people? You have always been unlucky. Missing the bus numerous times, getting lost in cities often. But this was the final nail on the coffin.

He breathed out loudly. “I don’t know actually.” he shrugged. “You just seemed different from the others. Usually, most people would’ve screamed right now or try to tackle me. Then I’d pull a gun out and boom, end of story.” He mimicked a gun with his fingers, brought it up to your forehead, and pretended to shoot you. You squeezed your eyes shut, tensing as he made contact with you. “But here you are, being silent as ever. Damn, I knew I was right.” He said, raising a fist up, basking in his small victory. 

Jungkook got up and began walking away. “I’ll let you rest more. Maybe even calm down, if you can. Dinner’s going to be ready in an hour.” He reached the door and turned back at you. “Goodbye for now.” he shot you one last smile, and disappeared behind the door. Dinner never came.

Day 8

The only time he’d unchain you was when you needed to go to the bathroom. You’d call for him and he’d drag you towards a door behind the stairs. From your position, it wasn’t that visible, unless you stood up and walked over to the other side. He always made sure to secure the chain after. He wouldn’t want to lose you. Not when you were his favorite toy.

Jungkook often came down to talk to you. The most he got out from you was a few short replies and nodding. Jungkook didn’t mind though. He still seemed annoyed that you wouldn’t respond the way he wanted you to, but he was content to get a reaction. 

He would still hurt you when he found an excuse. He tugged your hair harshly once, his reason being “You were staring at the wall for too long”. Still, he fed you twice a week with some leftovers. Even though the food obviously wasn’t the best kind, you were thankful you received it. You’ve heard of cases like this, and most of the victims were starved by the captor. 

You couldn’t really accept everything happening to you. It was just so surreal. You even remembered carrying a bag of groceries the night before it happened. Your boyfriend, Namjoon, even sent you a text, telling you to wait for him at the bus stop. He was supposed to pick you up. 

Now you couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing. Did he call the cops? Is he looking for you? Does he know where you are? Even you don’t know where you are. All you knew was that you were in some psycho’s house and you were going to end up either dead or locked up forever. 

“Hey. I was talking to you.” Jungkook tugged at your hair again. You whipped your eyes to him. He looked pissed, and you didn’t want to get hit again. “S-sorry, can you repeat that?”

He sighed but gave in. “As I was saying, it’s just so boring. We go to school, work, and then what, die? Just like that? When you drop out of school, everyone’s going to tell you that you’re wasting your life. Joke’s on them though. They’re the ones wasting their lives. Slaving away like the ignorant fuckers they are. Do you get my point?” he paused and looked at you, making sure you were hanging onto his every word.

You nodded briskly and he continued. “You see, no one believes me. I’m creating fun here. I’m putting thrill in other people’s veins. You feel the thrill right?” you nodded again. “Good. Anyway, I just see the world differently. And I want you to see it the way I see it. So, no need to thank me for helping you.” He got up again and wiped his hands on his jeans. 

“Y-you’re going al-already?” you peered curiously at him. You didn’t like him, not one bit. Sure, he was handsome, but underneath that pretty face laid a demon. However, it calmed you more with him in the room. You could see everything he does, meaning you’d notice if he makes a move to kill you. 

He looked at you, confusion written over his eyes. Then, he gave you another chilling smile. “Do you want me to stay, darling?” You didn’t know how to respond. A long silence hung over in the air. He stopped by the door again, but this time he didn’t face you. “I thought so, Y/N.” He disappeared behind the door again.

How did he know your name?

Day 11

You couldn’t stop the tears that poured out each time he went out the room. You desperately wanted to go home, wanted Namjoon to find you, wanted anyone to find you. You even thought Jungkook’s craziness started to rub on you. It might’ve been anxiety, or pure fear, but you swear you saw some figures at night.

“Guess who’s on the news?” he said in a sing-songy voice. You looked over at him with puffy eyes. They were starting to get strained from crying so much. “M-me?” you said weakly. You were slowly obliging to his request, and you hated yourself for it. You just wanted to get on his good side, until he gets close enough for you to escape. 

“Mhmm. Your boyfriend’s looking for you, I see.” Your eyes widened. ‘No.’ you thought. ‘No. Not Namjoon. Anyone but Namjoon.’ 

“Don’t you dare fucking hurt him!” It was the first time you’ve yelled. Your throat hurt from the sudden action, mostly because it was more used to hoarse whispers. Even Jungkook got taken aback. He soon regained his composure, and smiled down at you. That stupid smile. You wanted to punch it out of his face as soon as you got out of this place.

“Oh, I won’t. That would be too much of a hassle. I wouldn’t waste my energy on him, darling.” He sighed as he looked at you. “I didn’t know you could yell. How rude of you, when all I was doing was helping you keep up with recent events.”

“You’re a sick bastard.” you spat. He gave you another blank stare. “Rude indeed. I guess someone’s not getting food then.”

Day 22

The amount of times he fed you decreased instantly. Twice a week went down to once a week. You grew weaker than before, even starting to lose hope, and your will to live. Somewhere along that period, Jungkook decided to untie your hands. You didn’t have the strength to move anyway. Even when you so wanted to escape, you can’t. You didn’t want to hear his stories anymore, and you doubt the police were doing shit to find you. 

That night, you heard a knock on the door, and at first you thought it was your savior, but then Jungkook came in, wearing black clothes that were becoming too scarily familiar. He had a paper bag with him, and what almost looked like guilt in his eyes. “Hey. I’m really sorry. I really am. I’m so sorry, I’m going to help you, I-” he rambled on. 

As soon as he sat in front of you, he broke down. He was balling his eyes out, fiddling with the paper bag. You couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was all a jumble of ‘I’m sorry’s’ and ‘I’m going to get you out’. It was as if he was an entirely different person. As soon as he calmed down, he moved closer to you, automatically making you tense. He flinched at your actions, but understood why you did it.

He inspected your the chain that held your foot. He tugged at it, and pulled. It was useless, you knew that. You’ve tried it yourself countless times. “Listen”his voice wavered. 

“There’s something wrong with me, okay? I’m a sick man, keep that in mind, and I fully understand that you hate me. But I’ll get you out, okay? Just give me time, please. I’m so sorry.” He scampered up the stairs, and was out as fast as he came in. 

You looked into the bag he left. It was some takeout, and the first proper meal you’ve had ever since he dragged you into this hell. You were still confused as to why he acted that way. Maybe it was just a joke. Knowing, him, he loved to toy with you.

However, you didn’t think much of it, letting your hunger take over as you scarfed down your food.

Day 30

He didn’t visit you everyday anymore. On some days, you could hear him upstairs, talking to someone. Maybe even himself, you presume.

“What the fuck?! Why would you do that?”

“I should be asking the same to you!” 

“You have no right to be down there. No fucking right!”

“Well, you have no right to keep her prisoner. You’re such a piece of shit, that’s why everyone left you.”

Was he actually talking to himself? It had to be. There was no one else in the house except from you, and there was no way he had any friends over. His words from the other night rung in your head.

“I’m a sick man.”

You recalled the guilt, the remorse laced in his voice, and you wanted so badly to believe him. Instead, you kept quiet when he had his sudden bursts of anger. You just prayed that Namjoon would be safe. 

Day 36

You knew the difference between them now. The Jungkook you could trust, and the Jungkook that would hurt you without blinking an eye. The Jungkook you could trust always knocked first before entering. The Jungkook you could trust promised you a way out. The Jungkook you could trust even sang you to sleep on nights you felt like you were going to lose your sanity,

He often took over, ever since he burst into your cell. He carried the same paper bag full of takeout for you to eat. “You aren’t giving me false hope?” You were more comfortable talking to this side to him, than the other. “I’m not. I swear, I’m not. I’m going to help you, before he takes over again.” He said firmly, conviction filling his tone.

“In case he comes back, don’t show any signs of relaxation. Don’t be confident around him, or else he’ll know. I tried to reach Namjoon once, but the next thing I knew, when I woke up, the computer was destroyed with a bat.” You wanted to cry, You didn’t want to bring Namjoon into this anymore. He noticed your surge of sadness, and awkwardly reached over to pull you in for a hug.

You tensed at first, but when you felt the warmth in his embrace, you slowly hugged him back. He let you sob on his shoulder for a good while before pulling away. 

“I’ll get you out, okay? I promise.”

After he left, you noticed a piece of paper lying on the mattress. You took it and read what was written on it. It was a home address. You assumed it was the house’s address. It confused you why he’d leave you such information, then you read the note on the bottom.

‘Tell them to find you here.’

Day 44

You had a theory why Jungkook’s bad side didn’t come to you anymore. Maybe he was preventing himself. You noted that the last time you saw him, there were rope marks on his wrists. You didn’t know how he could tie or untie himself, but whatever he did worked.

You just held on the last sliver of hope you had, which was the same man that imprisoned you. He never did anything sexual to you, but he marked your body in other ways. A grip that was too tight, or a slap that had too much force. But having two personalities was the final nail on the coffin. He wasn’t even physically abusing you that much, but what he did to you mentally was a whole other story.

“I’m a sick man.”

You don’t know if he’s playing more of his games with you. If he was putting on a show, it was a pretty damn good one. At first, you acted like you believed his ‘good’ side. However, little by little, you started to get convinced by him. He was far from sane, and you didn’t want anything from his twisted mind. The things he had told you still stuck to your head, and the more you thought about them, the more you saw his point.

“Even butterflies get to do whatever the fuck they want. They eat, then they grow wings and go wherever they please. And their lives are shorter than ours. Simple animals, such as butterflies, outsmart us just like that. And we’re supposed to be superficial.”

“The point is, humans are useless unless they realize the truth. We’re a shameful species driven by greed and power-lust and the only people that can stop us are ourselves.”

“You should thank me for helping you. If I hadn’t seen you in that coffee shop one day, then you wouldn’t have known the truth.”

“I’m not mad. Everyone else is. You see, the difference between me and them is that I admit the crazy shit I do. They don’t. Plus, I’m doing this for a good cause. I’m an eye-opener. Them? They’re nothing. Do you think all those businessmen can pay their way to heaven? If they’re going to hell with me, then at least I sinned for a good reason.”

“Darling, you’re honestly so beautiful. Strip someone off their luxury and you get their purest form. Strip someone off their ‘knowledge’, ‘moral code’, or whatever they thought were right, and to see them so vulnerable is a pleasure. A blessing.”

“You’re fucking insane.” you snapped at him. He was in the middle of one of his speeches, and you just didn’t want to listen anymore. You wanted to get the fuck out of this place. You wanted your bed, back in Namjoon’s place, where you weren’t slapped or psychologically attacked. 

“Darling, I never denied it.”

Jungkook’s voice kept repeating itself. The Jungkook you could trust. The good side. The side who always knocked before entering. 

“I’m a sick man.”

He never did deny it.

Day 50

A rushed knock. The familiar squeak of the door. Footsteps hurriedly padding on the stairs. You didn’t know what time it was, but you were sure it was somewhere during one to three in the morning. Jungkook shook you frantically, but gently too. For some reason, you weren’t scared. The knock comforted you more than anything ever did.

“Jungkook, it’s late. Is something wrong?” It was odd how you cared for him. It was definitely not love. More of a worried kind of thing. You didn’t think it was possible for him to get well, but when you considered the little things he did for you, you thought that he still had hope.

“I found this. Keep it. Don’t let him know you have it. I need to go before-” he had handed you a small taser, but abruptly stopped talking. He stood up quickly, then tripped, landing backwards. He was silent for about a full minute, and during that time you had hidden the taser within the top of your jeans and the hem of your shirt. You had your back completely pressed to the wall, alert at whatever move Jungkook made. He may have just helped you, but he could switch personalities anytime.

His head cocked to the side. He snapped his head to your direction. The look in his face was menacing. There was nothing but pure anger, and this time he didn’t look like he was going to hold back. “You’ve been talking to him, haven’t you?” He was on his feet again.

“That little bitch never knew how to keep his mouth shut.” It took him two large steps, and now he was kneeling in front of you. He grabbed your face and forcefully brought it in front of his own. “What did he tell you?! What?!  Spit it out!”

Jungkook slammed you on the wall, and with a quick jerk of his hand, you felt your cheek sting again. “Did he give you anything? Talk to me!” His hands finding their way to your throat, and you needed to act fast. Without thoroughly thinking it through, you spat on his face.

He instinctively moved away from you, but not before giving you another smack across the face. You fell to the mattress, clutching the spot he had hit. Pain ran throughout your body. It was the hardest he’s hit you, and you couldn’t find the energy to move.

“See? This is what happens when you talk to him. Now do both ourselves a favor, and tell him to fuck off.” He said, his voice low, almost sounding like a growl. You flinched as he slammed the door shut.

Then something else hit you. Jungkook’s personalities were aware of each other. They coexisted, but they didn’t share memories.

Day 56

You saw the key. It was in his pocket the whole time. He was back to his original state when he visited you again. His hands were tucked in in the large sweatshirt pocket, and when he pulled them out, the key came tumbling to the floor. 

“Shit.” he muttered. He picked it up and put it back in his pocket. You just wanted to laugh at how stupid everything is. 

A young man, who loved wearing hoodies and sweatshirts, who basically worshiped the color black, who you would’ve had a crush on if you saw him at your school, was holding you hostage in a dingy basement and was manipulating you with his impromptu speeches, with your path to freedom being in his pocket.

You had to act now. He knew you saw his little mistake. If you didn’t act now, he would’ve hidden the key somewhere else, and you’d have to kiss everything goodbye. Even Namjoon. 

You felt the outline of the taser on your shirt. It dug into your hips, begging to be used. You waited for Jungkook to sit on his usual spot. “About the other, I just want to clarify-” he started off. 

You pretended to listen to him, while also slowly edging your way closer. You never lost sight of his face, and couldn’t help but notice his features. He had soft brown eyes, adorned with long lashes. His lips were plump and light pink. His nose was sloped perfectly, and everything about him screamed beautiful.

“Darling, you’re honestly so beautiful.”

He paused, taking the sight of you in. You’d grown much thinner when he first saw you. One side of your face was swollen, and purple marks riddled your wrist. The clothes you were wearing were dirtied, but for him, you still looked amazing in them. He still remembered seeing you in that cafe.

Your hair framed your face perfectly, and the sunlight had hit you just right. That’s when he decided that he needed to save you. He didn’t want you to waste away just like what happened to the others. 

“Darling, you’re honestly so beautiful.”

You lunged at him. The chain restraining your foot was just long enough for you to tackle him. You took him by surprise, and you quickly pulled out the taser, turning it on. With all your force, you drove it to his side. His body shivered violently, and you had a few seconds before he came to. 

Quickly, you slipped your hand in his sweatshirt pocket and grabbed the key. You drove the taser to his side again, before slipping the key in the shackle. It opened up, and you bolted out the stairs.

You shut the door behind you. You looked for the nearest object you could block it with, and pushed a table on it. You spotted a bookshelf to the side, and it took you multiple times to bring it down. 

On the other side, Jungkook banged on the door. “Y/N, open this damn door right now!” His fists pounded against the wood and he kept yelling. “Why are you acting out like this?! We could help people together. We could save them!” 

You ignored his shrill cries and looked for a phone. You found your way to his living room and so one on a table. Your hands shook from your panic-filled state. You dialed Namjoon’s number and prayed for him to pick up. He did, on the first ring.

“Jagi? Oh my God, I was so worried about you. Where are you? I’ll alert the police right now, jagi send me your location.” With a quivering voice, you read the address Jungkook gave you out loud. He was still screaming in the background, and it sounded like he was almost out.

“Shit, I’m coming jagi. I’ll be there. I’ll bring you home.” 

“No you won’t!” Jungkook’s voice rang from the doorway. He stood outside, the table and shelf both parted. 

Day ???

“Mr. Jeon, you need to understand that my patient is extremely traumatized. Seeing you would only trigger her.” Jungkook hated hospitals. He hated the chemical scent they had. He hated the white walls peering at him all the time. But asylums were worse. Way worse.

“She’s my girlfriend! She’s been missing for months now, and I’ve never been so fucking worried before.” he exclaimed. The doctor stopped walking and turned to him. “Mr. Jeon, your girlfriend has been manipulated to believe that you were her assailant. If she sees you, she will break down again.”

Jungkook pulled at his hair and tears pricked his eyes. “Didn’t you explain everything to her? Did you miss out the part where the police found Namjoon strangling her?” He felt nothing but rage towards that name. When you got taken away from him, all he ever felt was fear and worry. “She would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for that call. And the worst part is he’s not even going to jail. He’s going to get locked up in another place like this, instead of paying for what he did to her. What he did to us.”

“Mr. Kim pleaded insanity at court. They have no choice but to oblige, especially since his personality disorder was confirmed. I’m really sorry, Mr. Jeon. We’re doing everything we can to cure Ms. Y/L/N, but based on what she recalls, everything is still jumbled to her. Until she’s gotten through enough counselling and enough medication, she’s going to remember you as her attacker, and Namjoon as her boyfriend. Please be patient.” with that, the doctor left him at the hall. 

He slid down the wall, feeling his knees give up on him. He felt like screaming until his lungs burst, punching something until his fists bled. He felt nothing but pure rage towards Namjoon. He didn’t even want to think about what happened to you. You looked so unhealthy when they found you. He even got to beat Namjoon up before the police had the chance to pry him off.

But he had to accept the fact that he can’t do anything to help you. All he can do was wait. Wait and pray that you sort the mess out in your mind. That you can be back in his arms again.

[nerdydoll-sims4]

Till Your Last Breath - Chapter 1

Summary: The countdown plastered to one's skin showed how much time the other's soulmate had left to live. For Felicity Smoak, that meant she had 3 months to find and warn her soulmate before he would die. When she met him though, she got more than what she signed herself up for. Especially when his secret identity was revealed to her... Soulmate, Bratva AU mixed with Olicity Fic-A-Thon Prompts. Prompt: Eye Contact Word Count: 1662 Rating: M Tagging: @thebookjumper, @olicityhiatusficathon  Notes: Heyyaaa people :) I'm very excited to be back with this small prologue. This fanfiction will be updated weekly, depends on how much the prompt fits the storyline I have in mind, and of course the response will determine how many chapters this story should get. While this prologue is very quick, I will try to aim for a word count between 2500 and 5000+. The chapters will focus heavily on that week's prompt, except for this one, because this is the chapter that gets the story going. I hope you enjoy this little ficlet and follow the characters' journey to the end. :) Let me know what you think at the end by dropping a message. Comments and kudos feed the soul of my Muse. :P Enjoy! :)

Read on AO3

The worlds of Soulmates were a cruel one. For instance, not everyone had a soulmate while some people had more than one. The appellation "cruel" did not come from that reason though. It came from the marred skin on a person's body that hid a countdown. The countdown itself showed the years, months, days and minutes that were left until their own soulmate died, spraying an invisible shadow of death and clock over people's heads as a reminder. Those who carried the different looking countdowns were much more tensed, depressed and led a life only the strongest could. But even so, from the connections soulmates shared, people called it a blessing.

For Felicity Smoak, it was more of a curse.

The curved numbers changing from day to day did not show a high number like in the case of most children at her age. Instead, when Felicity turned 13 and the mark appeared, it displayed the following combination of numbers: "12:03:20:05." Which meant she had a little over 12 years until her soulmate died.

From the moment people saw the number on her wrist, they started whispering behind her back, pitying her, mocking her. Some were kind, some were not. Some offered condolences to her, while some told her it was because no one wanted her. Overall, Felicity received a load of varying reactions that pushed her into a dark place. She did not want a simple number to rule her life, especially when it did not necessarily mean anything. Sometimes, the dates were wrong.

So, Felicity bought a bracelet with the help of her mother to conceal the countdown and focused on making a bright future for her. That helped her in more ways than she thought it would at first. The pity looks ceased then vanished altogether after a while and her classmates stopped making fun of her. And while it solved many problems, she couldn't ignore the rising nervousness and later panic at the low number.

She wasn't into soulmates, but if the numbers were true, it meant an innocent person was going to die and she knew exactly when.

Felicity was 22 when she decided to find her soulmate and warn him. For years, she sat back and focused on her life, waiting for the countdown to switch to a higher number. But since she only had three more years, she decided it was up to her to make sure the man she was destined to be with wouldn't die so early. She wasn't sure she would actually start a relationship with him once found, as she was still too young to settle for "her forever," but she couldn't do nothing any longer.

Unbeknownst to him, he needed her help.

At the age of 25, after 3 years of hopeless searching, Felicity was tired both physically and mentally. She listened to what her guts told her and moved from Las Vegas to Starling City and yet, she caught no sign of him. It was believed that when you met your soulmate, the countdown's color would change from black to a lighter, colorful one, indicating someone's status. The mark would only turn back to black once the mate died. Felicity checked her wrist a lot per day, but whenever she looked down, she had to swallow back a disappointed sigh at the sight of dark ink.

She had four months left and Felicity had visited each club, hospital, social place, plaza, hotel and so on the city had to offer for people. No matter what though, the mark stay unchanged with only the numbers growing smaller.

And after years of searching, she was losing her optimism.

It took her two hours of standing in line to get into the new club, called "Verdant." It was kind of her last hope. She had three months left, if she didn't find her soulmate there, she didn't know where to check next. She moved to Starling City 3 years ago and while her heart told her he was in that city, she couldn't help but question the accurateness of her instincts. He could be in a different city, unaware of his upcoming death whilst she wasted time here. Felicity had no idea what she would do if he died and she couldn't even try preventing his death. If it could be preventable of course, like a car crash or a wrongly gone mugging - not that mugging could be good. If it couldn't be prevented because it was a sickness, Felicity had no idea what she would do next. She had gifted the last few years of her life to finding her soulmate.

She knew people managed to live a content and happy life without their mate, but truth be told, Felicity was unsure. A bigger part of her wouldn't be able to move on from his death, while another part of her would like to explore her other chances. It wasn't like she had never been with anyone, but fate existed for a reason. They were soulmates for a reason.

Not every soulmate relationship worked out the way people hoped, like in the case of her parents, but there were ones people could only dream of, like in the case of her grandparents. The love and connection they shared... It was what drove Felicity to at least try. She didn't want to live her life in a bubble of what ifs and maybes. She had to try and if she failed, she at least failed knowing she did what she could. Although, she wasn't sure anymore if she was talking about saving him or having a relationship with him. For all she knew, he could be a drug addict or a serial killer. Or a seventy-year-old beer-bellied man. That would explain low the numbers. Not that Felicity wanted to think about that option.

Back to the present though.

Felicity made her way through the crowd on the dance floor toward the bar, ignoring the eager hands that touched the red material of her dress and naked flesh they found, knowing the alcohol would help soothe her over-stretched and tensed nerves. She couldn't focus on her task if she was only paying attention to her own body's emotions. Hopping down an empty seat that looked inviting, she ordered her favorite cocktail and placed her palms flat on the cold glass, breathing in and out deeply.

He had to be there, she refused to leave without knowing who her soulmate was.

Swirling in her seat, Felicity took in the place, gazing from faces to faces in the rows of grinding dancers, praying she would feel some kind of pull toward him if she managed to lay her eyes on him. Nothing. She felt absolutely nothing. She scanned the crowd again, only stopping the search to get her drink, the loud music the DJ played, resonating in her chest. The sensation was both unwelcome and unsurprising. Starling City had more than 100 nightclubs and she had been to all.

When she restarted her search for the third time, Felicity felt a set of eyes on her face from the left she hadn't felt before, drawing her attention from the crowd to the shadowed corner upstairs. There, her eyes collided with the gaze of another person, the pull she hoped to feel flaring to life like those flames had been woken suddenly from a light sleep.

She couldn't see his face fully, she couldn't even see his body in full glory, but she didn't have to. Her eyes were strictly stuck on his. From the changing brightness in the dimly lit place, Felicity couldn't see the color of his eyes, but the intimacy it held still got to her. A shiver ran down the path of her spine and her grip on the glass tightened, as his stare kept calling for her.

His eyes showcased power and yet, he didn't even try to use it on her. The muscles in her stomach tangled and Felicity slowly slipped her lower lip between her teeth, the small, almost invisible action drawing his attention from her eyes down to her dark red lips. Her body pulsed with the rhythm of her pounding heart, her breathing that had been mostly normal mere minutes ago quickening.  

A face appeared in her vision out of the blue, covering the mysterious man's gaze and Felicity shook her head a tad to sweep away the magic of the jiffy, blinking rapidly at the stranger ahead while her insides screamed at her to follow the man who held her stare.

"Hey, babe. What you doin' here alone?" he asked a tad unsure about himself, and Felicity almost laughed at his attempt to form a normal, coherent sentence. He most definitely wasn't thirsty anymore.

Before she could reply though, the man was gone, in his place standing a different yet familiar stranger, his piercing bluest of blue eyes making her breath hitch. He was the guy from upstairs. Her eyes roamed over his features and she took in the stubble that littered his jaw, the lips that were drawn in a tight line and the mole his skin wore proudly. Felicity's gaze moved upward and once more, she was struck by his silent look, her lips parting at the sight. He held her captive in that trice, closing out the outsiders from the bartenders to the people surrounding them on the dance parquette. The music that had been bothering her ears before quieted as she got a read on him through his eyes, her heart beating furiously under her breast.

Longing. Surprise. Wariness. Fierceness. Lust.

She didn't need a mirror to be certain her eyes unmasked the same emotions for him. The temperature of her body rose, her skin under the bracelet burning a tad as they stayed unmoving in the spur of the moment.

Felicity didn't have to look down at her mark. She knew it changed colors.

It was him.

Finally.

[deactivated4179291]

Star Crossed - Part 22 (H.S AU) - “Go Find Your Girl”

Recap:

“Hi...” I awkwardly greet them, while they took in the appearance of me bumming it in sweats and a t-shirt with a messy bun that just looks more like a birds next on my head... “can I help you?”

“Yes, I believe you can. Is Maddie Wilkinson here?” His gravelly voice asks. I know that voice from somewhere. It’s the same voice that haunted my dream and tore my father from our family. He was a law officer.

Maddie’s POV

I tried not to panic as I realized just why the three men were at my doorstep, as I quickly answered back as calmly and cooly as possible for me.

“Uh, sorry, wrong house,” I shrug with a casual laugh and go to close the door, but a foot is instantly wedged between it and it’s frame.

“You see,” he pauses for dramatic effect after prying the door open. I stumble back when I can’t resist his strength anymore, as he walks inside casually, with his head high as if he’s a powerful ruler staring at a peasant in his kingdom. I mentally gulp as with every step – every click of his shiny combat boots against the wood – going forward, I take one back. “that’s funny because your stepdad said you lived here when he turned you in, Madeleine,” he smirks menacingly. My heart plummets to my stomach as I whip around, making a run for the back door. I know no matter how loud I scream, no matter how many things are broken, Louis would inevitably be unable to hear me. He was going to be in the studio ‘literally all night,’ he said. “Don’t just stand there, dumbasses! Get her!” I hear his voice echo throughout the entire first floor of the house. My feet pound against the dark wood beneath them before I skid to a halt swinging the back door open. I make a dash for the iron-rod fence separating the backyard, and me, from the woods. Just as I reach up to start climbing, I feel a sharp pinch in the back of my neck, and everything went black.

Harry’s POV

(The next morning)

I awake in the hotel bed with a groan at the sound of the door closing itself loudly. Niall walks up and tosses a brown McDonald’s bag onto the bed beside me.

“Eat up, and take the aspirin I left ye, I have to go see Maddie, and you’re bloody coming with me because I know how badly you want to. You just won’t quit torturing yourself. Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll listen to what you have to say.”

I only nod at his words, knowing there’s no point in arguing with him. I didn’t want to see her, though. I needed to. I needed to just be able to see her sweet face. It would take away some of the pain, but most of it would remain. I know she needed time, but I was back to being selfish and needing her more. I was going mad at the thought that she was hurt and I wasn’t there to hold her.

Niall and I hopped into his car, and took off toward the house. Every miles that passed was a mile that I spent trying to figure out what I was going to say. The truth was that I deserved it. I deserved every ounce of anger or disappointment that her heart targeted me with. My final thought as the car pulls into the driveway, just as it’s done almost a hundred times is that I have to make things right, no matter what it takes. My thoughts of the circumstances I’m drowning in, however, come to a screeching halt when Niall parks the car, and we both see the front door blown wide open.

“Tha’s weird,” Niall comments, eying the door with suspicion. We warily approach the house, bracing ourselves for some sort of burglar lurking within our midst, but are met with the perfectly tidy interior to our living room and kitchen.

“Hey lads,” Louis nods to us, walking toward the kitchen as if nothing is wrong. Niall and I eye each other confused, before looking back at Louis, who remains un-phased by our discovery.

“Wha’?” He asks us, looking up from his cereal bowl after he’s poured milk into it.

“Lou…why the hell was the door open? And where’s Mads?” Niall asks. Just the sound of her name – or nickname, I guess – sends a sad pang through my chest, almost knocking me off of my feet.

“In her room ‘m guessing – was in the studio all night,” he shrugs as if it’s nothing, but it’s most definitely not nothing, “wait, you said the door was open?” he asks. We nod, watching him closely as his face grows concerned. Niall darts past me, practically tripping over the stairs as he carries himself to presumably her room as fast as his wobbly knees can carry him.

When he returns to the bottom of the stairs, his face is enough to spread panic throughout my whole body. He grips his hair tightly, tugging at it as he raggedly pants from his efforts to find her. “She’s not in her room,” he shakes his head frantically, and my heart all but stops inside my chest. Where is she? What if something wrong? What if she’s hurt herself- no, stop thinking like that. Just calm down and try to find her. My hands shoot to my back pocket and whip out my phone as I press the speed dial designated to her number.

The phone plays those stupid button noises in my ear, before ringing. All of a sudden, buzzing can be heard echoing from somewhere in the house. I look over to Louis who shakes his head to tell me it isn’t his and turn to Niall who does the same as the ringing continues. I gulp, as I walk in the direction where the buzzing gets louder leading me down the hallway toward the back door. Sure enough, there lies her phone – face down on the hardwood floor. I bend down and pick it up, with a shaky hand, turning it over. I hang up the call from my line and feel myself shuddering at all the bad things that could have happened when Niall pulls my attention from the phone to the back door.

“Harry…” he says frightfully. There it was – swung wide open, swaying back and forth slightly, in the breeze. I shake my head frantically, refusing to believe that she’s gone.

“No,” I whimper, “no, no, no!” I scream slamming my fist into the wall. She had been running from someone – that much was evident. My heart definitely stopped the moment I realized just who she was running from.

“Call her mom,” Niall mumbles to Louis sadly, “Now, Louis! Call her mom and find out where she could have gone!” he shouts at a frozen Louis. I can’t even fully focus on them as I fall to my knees, full of nothing but emptiness. Tears brim in my eyes as I yearn for her. As I yearn to know what’s going on.

“That won’t be necessary,” an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind the three of us. We all turn our heads to the source of the sound and are met with a woman in her later thirties, maybe early forties. She stood, covered from head to two in the same gear that the ‘law officers’ as they were called wore. Except, her outfit was all black, while officers were required to wear all white. If she wasn’t an officer, then who the hell was she?

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Louis spits, raising an eyebrow curiously at the woman.

“My name is Margot, and if you wanna see your girl again, I suggest you come with me.” She says calmly despite Louis’ attitude towards her.

“Y-you know where she is?” I ask desperately.

“Yes, now get up, and come with me,” she snips rolling her eyes for having to repeat herself. I rise to my feet and wipe my face. My cheeks grow warm with embarrassment by my display of utter despair.

“Lou, you stay here with Robin. Not a word of this to her, do you understand?” I ask. He nods and pats my back.

“I’ll have them send someone for you from our base,” Margot says, turning on her heel, walking back toward the front of the house.

“Go find your girl, Styles. Hurry.” He says.

“How exactly do you know her whereabouts?” Niall asks her skeptically.

“There’s no time for that, I’ll explain everything once we’re back to the base.” She groans, leading us out to a black SUV. Base? We all thought, what the fuck is she on about?

Maddie’s POV

My eyelids fluttered open slowly as I blinked trying to rid the blur of my vision from losing consciousness. My fists came up to rub my eyes gently before I opened them again. As I sat up, my eyes wandered every inch of the space I was in, only to be met with nothing but concrete and metal bars. Where the hell am I? It looked a lot like a jail, only darker and dirtier.

It was clear that the people placed behind these bars didn’t make it back out, by the aura of the room. Hysterical crying could be heard from all sides of me as we had all realized what our fate was. We were all going to die. I somehow stand through the numbness in my body, and shuffle over to the bars, gripping them tightly in my hands to hold myself up. As I lifted my hand I noticed the handcuff chaining me to the back wall. Great.

I wasn’t getting out of this. I wasn’t just goig to die in here, though. If I hadn’t been so quick to turn on him, maybe we’d still be safe now. If I had realized then what I do now – which is that yes, he did a terrible, terrible thing, but with good intentions – maybe if I realized that, I would still have him.

I was going to die in here while the man I loved thought that I hated him. If I had a last wish it would be to tell him one last time that I loved him. I sit on the cold concrete ground and rest my head against the cold metal bars weakly. Loud footsteps echo in the isle between cell blocks, sending a wave of fear through me when those squeaky clean black boots stop in front of me before my arm is yanked between the bars, making me yelp in aching pain. My face contorts to what I can only imagine is a hideous frown as I let out what will be my final tears. “I love you, Harry,” I whisper before I feel that same pinch I felt before losing consciousness last night this time in my arm and my eyes flutter shut again.

-

Harry’s POV

We sit in the car, hidden from the Dalton “prison base” as Margot called it, going over the plan for what felt like the millionth time. Margot’s men were responsible for hacking into the base’s security and shutting it down. We would have exactly fifteen minutes before the backup generator came into full effect. Margot’s insider said that Maddie wasn’t in her cell – that she had been taken into the lab for “research,” which sounded more like torture by the way it was described to me. Of all the thoughts I’ve had tonight, the thought of her strapped to some table with wires drilling her brain for her memories, torturing her body as it tries to fight off the invasive technology – that was the most terrifying thought of them all. The conversation went a little something like this-

“Quit losing your shit and listen to me!” Margot’s voice barked turning back to face us from the passenger seat of the car. “when we find Maddie, she’s not going to be in a good mental state. These people like to play with what they catch before they kill it-“

“She’s a person, not an ‘it,’” I growl.

“Do you want to get her back or not?!” She bites back. I bite my tongue at any witty comeback I have, knowing it’s not in the least bit productive towards achieving our goal.

“Now, once we’re inside ill guide you through the earpiece as to where to go. Once you reach her, you grab her, and you get the hell out of there. She’s the only prisoner that I know of right now, which means that we need you to do this alone. Any more people wandering about the place could draw attention, and I’m not about to lose my insider to this place, you got me?”

I nod, soaking in every last word.

“This is insane,” Niall exclaims, emphasizing the word insane. I roll my eyes, and try to focus on the task at hand. Margot hands me a gun.

“In case of an emergency,” she says and I nod, understanding. I tuck the weapon into the waistband of my jeans, behind me and slide my shirt over it so it’s perfectly hidden. Margot stares me down with curiosity across her pale skin. She had skin a lot like Maddie’s, and I only just now noticed it. Very similar hair, too.

“What?” I ask her in monotone as she continues to read me like she’s a scanner and I’m a barcode.

“You’d really die for her, wouldn’t you, kid?” she inquires.

“Any day,” I nod assertively.

“Good, because tonight might be the night,” she says, turning back around with a huff as she rests her back against her seat.

“What the hell! Harry, you can’t do this!” Niall shrieks. I ignore his comment which prompts a scoff from him. “why the hell are you helping us, anyway?” Niall asks her. She stares onward at the road, fiercely as if she’s ready for anything to jump out and send a surprise our way.

“Let’s just say I owe someone a favor. Someone I care about deeply,” she say vaguely, as the car begins to pull into the city of Dalton. Our search and rescue mission was in full effect and if I didn’t find my girlfriend free of bruises, there was going to be complete and utter hell to pay. And I would stop at nothing until that debt was paid in its entirety.

Maddie’s POV

I somehow pry my heavy eyelids open as I regain full consciousness, in another room. I’m lying strapped down in a chair like the one you’d sit in during a dentist appointment, and I turn my head from one side, all the way to the other, observing my surroundings. The room is completely white, with fluorescent lights on both the ceiling and wall accents. I groan as I feel a sharp pain in my neck, pulling it back into its original place, staring at the ceiling. I can hear muffled voices in what sounds like an observation room.

I scowl at the glass window on the wall facing my feet, realizing that they’re behind the shiny surface. Watching me. Waiting for me to break. What didn’t make sense to me was why they were doing these things before they eliminated me. But then I heard it – heard their voices clearly.

“I just don’t get it,” one of them sighed. Their voice was high pitched and feminine, “what’s so special about this one?”

“Do you even know who she is, Dawn?” a deeper voice chastised the woman, Dawn, with a scoff. “that girl back there,” he said point over his shoulder towards me, “that girl is Dean Wilkinson’s daughter.”

What did my dad have to do with what made me so-called ‘special?’ I wondered.

“Holy shit..” the woman gasped slightly.

“Yeah,” he reprimanded her, “ ‘Holy Shit’ is right.”

“Do we have everything we need?” a silver-haired man with a deep voice steps into their little viewing party, interrupting their gawking over my father. I could recognize that ugly head of (probably fake) hair anywhere. It was the Mayor of Adelton.

“Yes sir, we have everything we could find,” the male officers nods, messing with buttons on a dashboard in front of him before three television screens light up above him. I draw my focus to what they are watching, before feeling a sense of déjà vu. It’s my dream…the one about my dad. With the pushing of a few more buttons, another image flashes onto the screens. It’s my father, teaching me how to surf…and then the third and final presentation comes into view. It was my mother, confessing to me my father’s tragic fate in all of its detail. They were watching my memories…

“Wait, rewind that part,” the mayor points to the screen. The image drags back to the moment just before my mom told me about the beach.

“Write that down – something about this place seems significant to these people.”

“But Sir, with all due respect why don’t we just dispose of her, it could draw him out, for good.” Dawn chimes in. Their blatantly little regard for my life sends a shiver down my spine.

“Because, Officer, Dean Wilkinson doesn’t break that easily. He doesn’t even know what his daughter is – that’s our leverage. We keep her alive, and we keep digging until we find the resistance. Bring her back to her cell, we’ll keep digging more tomorrow.”

“Keep digging,” he commands.

“Sir, she showed signs of struggling are you sure we should-“

“Officer, that wasn’t a suggestion it was an order. I don’t care if you bend her mind so hard she breaks. Get me the answers I need.”

“Yes sir,” the both mumble.

Within seconds I hear the sound of a door open to the left of me and tilt my head in the direction of the sound. The male Officer approaches and reaches for a syringe filled with clear liquid. He injects it into the IV fluids being pushed through my veins, and I feel myself growing tired again.

“Sweet dreams,” he snickers. It’s the last thing I hear before I am back to my unconscious state.

[kinkykinard]

V is for Visual Impairment (22/26)

Fandom: Star Trek (AOS/TOS) Pairing:  ReaderXBones. Prompt: Fic 22 of 26 in the CMO’s Log – A to Z series.  Click here for a listing of all the fics in this series!  V is for Visual Impairment. Word Count: 4597. Warnings: vision loss, anxiety, surgical procedures. Rating:  Teen+. Author’s Note: Requested by my cinnamon roll @fandomheadrush – this fic got away from me.  I just started writing and couldn’t stop.  A lot of it is written from personal experience (word to the wise: don’t ever detach a retina if you can help it, it really effing blows), and I’ve left the procedure very much the same as the way it’s performed today just because from what little I know about physics and lasers, even 200 years from now we’re not going to have the kind of technology required to close a large retinal tear without invasive surgery.

V is for Visual Impairment Your head is still reeling as you swing your legs over the edge of the bio bed you’ve been lying on for the better part of the afternoon and your ears are still ringing.  You’d been involved in an explosion on an away mission, and while you’d been armored well enough that you’d avoided shrapnel injuries, you’d been close enough to the epicenter of the blast that you’d been knocked on your face by the shockwave that followed the detonation. As soon as you’d been beamed back up onto the ship, you’d been rushed to medical with the rest of the team and thoroughly checked over.  After looking over your scans and monitoring your condition for a while, Dr. McCoy had finally pronounced you fit to leave medical, and you’d jumped at the chance.

Now, however, you’re shaky as you slip off of the bed and stand, and you glance up at the CMO as he steps in to put a steadying hand on your shoulder. “Alright there, Ensign?”  He asks. “Yes sir,” you reply.  “Thank you.” He nods, ensuring that you’re stable before dropping his hand away once more and giving you some space. “You might feel a little bit dizzy for a few days after that kind of a shock so I’ve put you on light duties until you’re feeling more like yourself,” he explains.  “All of your scans look fine and I don’t anticipate any complications, but if you’re concerned about anything at all, I want you to come right back in here to see me or anyone else on duty, alright?” “I will, sir,” you assure him.  “Thanks again.” “Don’t mention it,” he says with a brief smile. “And you can stop with the sir nonsense – it makes me feel old.” You laugh and nod, acknowledging his wishes, filing away his request for the next time you see him.  He steps aside, giving you room to get to the door and you give him a friendly wave before slowly making your way out of the exam room. The walk through the med bay, down the hall, and to your quarters isn’t a long one, but you’re exhausted enough that it’s daunting. By the time you reach your quarters you’re ready to hit the hay and so you make quick work of stripping off your uniform, washing up, and changing into a pair of pajamas.  Once you’re all set, you crawl into bed, take a long, deep breath, and put the day’s events out of your mind as sleep carries you off into the night. You stir many hours later, groaning as you stretch your aching muscles and yawning.  You slowly blink your eyes open and you furrow your eyebrows as you realize that something’s not right.  Blinking again once, twice, a third time, you realize that the problem isn’t resolving itself; the vision in your right eye is extremely fuzzy and dim, like there’s a shadow being thrown over part of your visual field.  Reaching up, you rub your eye and blink a few more times, hoping that the defect will clear.  When it still doesn’t, you begin to panic. Jumping up and out of bed, you don’t even bother getting dressed as you head for the door.  Slipping on a pair of flip-flops, you dash out of your quarters and head for med bay.  The trip isn’t a very long one but it’s extremely clumsy as you’ve lost a lot of depth perception with the occlusion of half of your visual field. Tears of panic are streaming down your face as you finally reach med bay.  Losing your vision has always been one of your biggest fears as problems with visual acuity run in your family, and now that something is happening to you, all of your fears are crashing over you like breaking waves, dragging you further down into the abyss of terror. A nearby nurse spots you first and she’s out of her chair in a flash, rushing toward you and gently taking your shaking shoulders in her hands.  You remember her from yesterday even though it’s hard to make out her features through the haze and you reach up, clinging onto her arms as you try to breathe through your panic.  You hate med bay as it is; being there for a problem as serious as the one you’re afraid you’re facing now is literally your worst nightmare. “Ensign Y/L/N,” the nurse says gently, already leading toward a bio bed.  “What’s going on?” “My eyes,” you reply, sobs choking you and threatening to burst out of you at any moment.  “Something’s wrong with my vision.” The nurse nods in understanding as she helps you up onto a bed, giving your shoulder a squeeze as she activates it in preparation for the doctor. “Just hang in there a moment,” she soothes. “I’ll go and get Dr. McCoy.  Try to take some deep breaths.” Her words fall on deaf ears; you’d stopped listening after she’d said your attending physician’s name.  Instead, you continue to hyperventilate, crossing your arms over your chest and curling in on yourself as you feel the world start to crumble in around you.  You’re not sure how long you sit there like that, afraid and anticipating the worst, but eventually your attention is drawn to the sound of hurried footsteps approaching. You look up just in time to see the CMO breeze into the room, followed by your good friend and his best nurse, Christine Chapel.  She moves in beside the doctor as he comes to stand before you and hovers on the periphery, waiting for orders while he reaches out to put a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “Try to calm down for me, Ensign,” the doctor insists, his tone gentle but authoritative.  “Breathe in and out and tell me what the problem is.” As you attempt, however shakily, to comply with his instructions, he exchanges a few words with Christine and she rushes off to fetch him the equipment he’s requested.  His hand remains on your shoulder as he glances at the bio bed’s readout, assessing all of your vital signs.  He stays quiet, waiting for you to catch your breath, and he listens closely when you finally find the wherewithal to speak. “M-my right eye,” you wheeze in between sharp, shallow breaths.  “My vision’s really blurry, I can barely even make out shapes.  It’s kind of dark.  Oh, God, am I going blind?!” The doctor’s grip on your shoulder tightens even more and he puts his face right in front of yours so you can easily see and read his expression. “No,” he replies firmly.  “I promise you, you’re not going blind.” “B-but my dad,” you explain weakly.  “And my aunt.” “Both have macular degeneration,” the doctor supplies.  “I know, darlin’; I’ve read your file.  I promise you that’s not what this is.” “What is it, then?”  You ask, your tone barely above a whisper like you don’t really want to know, and like if you ask quietly enough you can avoid facing whatever horrible reality you’re afraid is waiting for you on the other side of his next statement. “I’m not entirely sure,” he admits.  “But I have a good idea.  Still, I don’t want to say anything until I’ve confirmed it. I’m going to have Nurse Chapel put some drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils so I can get a good look at the back of your eyes.  While those drops do their thing, I’m going to give you a little something to help calm you down – nothing too strong, just enough to take the edge off.  I don’t want you driving your blood pressure up while you’re still recovering from that blast yesterday.” “Is that what caused this?”  You query. The doctor nods as he turns away from you briefly to accept the tricorder and the hypo Christine has brought him.  She also sets a number of other tools down on the bed beside you before holding out a dropper bottle.  Dr. McCoy steps aside and begins to assemble a hypo as the nurse takes his place and encourages you to tip your head back. “If it’s what I think it is, then the force of the blast or your impact with the ground probably contributed to the problem,” he explains.  “Trauma to the head can cause all sorts of eye injuries.” Christine gets the drops in both of your eyes easily – two different kinds in each one – and moves off again.  She stays nearby, reaching out to gently rub your back as the doctor rejoins you, holding the hypospray in his hand. “Just a small pinch here, Y/N,” he says softly. You nod and close your eyes, wincing as they sting from the medication.  You feel one of his hands gently rest on your collarbone, bracing you as his other hand presses the hypo to the opposite side of your neck and discharges it with practiced ease.  You start a little at the sound it makes and the bite of it but Dr. McCoy’s hand is there immediately, massaging the injection site and soothing you. “You should feel better any second,” he explains. Somehow, miraculously, you do.  You’re still thinking clearly and worrying about what your symptoms could mean, but the anxiety accompanying your thoughts has been removed, to a large extent, and so you disconnect from those worries even more, focusing instead on the doctor before you. “That’s it,” he encourages you quietly. “Now, open your eyes for me so I can take a look at you.  The light’s going to be really bright, but it’ll be over quick.” You nod mutely and watch him reach for a tricorder.  He waves it around your face, watching the screen intently.  Once he’s done with the first one, he picks up another scanner, repeating the process.  You have no idea what kind of information he’s gleaning from the instruments, but whatever it is he seems not entirely displeased, and you hope that’s a good sign. Putting away the second scanner, he picks up an opthalmoscope, holding it up in front of you as he levels his gaze with yours. “Keep your eyes open, try your best not to blink,” he instructs.  “This’ll only take a minute.” You follow his orders, keeping your gaze fixed straight ahead as he leans in close to you, shining a light in your eyes one at a time, examining you carefully.  The light very quickly becomes uncomfortable almost to the point of making you nauseated but you tolerate it; if it means he’ll be able to diagnose you and treat whatever is affecting your vision, you’ll hang in there indefinitely. You comply further as he asks you to look up, down, and to either side so he can see as much of the back of your eyes, particularly the affected one, as possible.  Eventually he finishes and removes the awful, intense light from your field of view, allowing you to relax.  You blink away some tears, shutting your eyes tightly to hasten the disappearance of the persistent burn left in the wake of the light and you feel his hand land on your shoulder again. “I’ve got some good news and some bad news,” the doctor begins softly. Christine is still rubbing your back reassuringly and you take a deep, shaky breath. “What is it?”  You ask weakly, your head swimming a little from the sedative he’d given you. “The good news is that this is something we can fix,” he explains, and your heart leaps, though carefully as you wait for the other shoe to drop. “What’s the bad news?”  You query. “It’s a retinal detachment,” the doctor continues.  “It’s spared your macula, but it came extremely close.  I’m confident that we can restore your vision to near perfect levels, but if your macula’s been disturbed after all, you may have a small bit of distortion in the vision in your right eye afterward, and that would be permanent.” “What kind of distortion?” You question, bouncing your legs nervously where they hang off of the side of the bio bed. “Does that mean I’ll be grounded?” One of the doctor’s hands lands on your knee, calming the anxious habit as he goes on speaking. “No,” he assures you.  “It’ll be minor, it might cause a bit of double vision until your brain gets used to the defect, but it’s not going to end your career, I promise you that.  I do have some concerns, though.” You meet his gaze, silently urging him to keep talking.  If you’re going to have to contend with even more complications, you just want to know what you’re facing so that you can start to get your head around things. “Neither myself nor Dr. M’Benga have much experience with the type of procedure you require,” Dr. McCoy says plainly. “I’ve watched several, assisted in a few more, and performed one.  The tear in your retina is, unfortunately, a fairly large one – too large to close with just a laser.  The surgery you need, a pars plana vitrectomy, is invasive and best performed by a specialist.  Now, we have all the equipment we need to fix it here, but we’ll be passing by a starbase in the next week that has a surgeon that would be able to perform the procedure for you.  There are risks to waiting, though; the tear can become bigger, and if it spreads in the wrong direction, you could face blindness.  If that’s what you want, however, I’ll keep you in here and resting so I can keep an eye on it until we can get you where you need to go.” “What’s my other option?” You croak, all of the moisture suddenly gone from your mouth, chased off by adrenaline. “I can perform the procedure,” the doctor answers slowly.  “I’ll need to take it slow, so you’ll be under the knife longer than you would be with someone more qualified, and while I’ve got steady hands, there’s still a risk that I might come too close to the macula while closing up the tear, endangering your vision further.” You sit in silence, absorbing what he’s said. You trust him implicitly, but you also know that your vision is critical to your work and things will be a lot harder for you if you’ve got to contend with losing your depth perception and fifty percent of your visual field.  With a sigh you glance up again, meeting his gaze. “What would you do?”  You ask. The doctor doesn’t hesitate. “I’d let me perform the procedure,” he replies. “We can always have you follow up with that specialist once we reach the starbase, but your vision stands a better chance of recovering if we act now.” It’s settled, then.  You nod. “When?”  You query.  “And… can you please explain what’s going to happen?  I’m really, really out of my depth here.  I’m scared.” “Of course you are, Y/N,” he murmurs.  “I don’t blame you.  I’ve got you though, darlin’; it’s going to be okay.” You smile weakly at the term of endearment, only just noticing that Christine’s gotten busy without so much as a word from the doctor while he’s been comforting you.  She’s pulled out a gown for you and assembled some IV supplies, and you marvel at their partnership as the CMO speaks again. “The procedure is relatively simple, though it takes an hour or two depending on exactly how complex the tear is to patch once I get in there,” he explains.  “We give you a bit of a sedative to keep you relaxed, we numb your eye with an injection of anaesthetic to the space around the nerves behind it, then we-“ You cut him off, sucking in a sharp breath at his words and shaking your head. “N-no,” you stammer.  “I can’t handle a needle in my eye.  Please.  I-I don’t think I can do this.” “Okay, okay, sweetheart,” the doctor soothes you.  “It’s alright.  It’s higher risk, but I can put you to sleep for the surgery.  You’re young and healthy, I don’t foresee any problems with that.” You calm a little at his words, relief washing over you.  Your head is reeling so much that the sedative he’d given you minutes before already feels like it’s wearing off and you can feel yourself trembling.  You tip your head a bit, encouraging the doctor to keep talking as you keep on top of your emotions. You listen carefully to his explanation, trying your best to keep the mental images of what he’s talking about – incisions into your eye, lasers, stitches – at bay.  You groan inwardly as he explains what the recovery process will be like – two weeks of strict bedrest without any bending or lifting.  Once he falls silent after a couple of minutes, you stare off into space, processing what he’s said.  He gives you a moment to collect yourself, but after a minute has passed by in which you haven’t reacted, he bends to your level, catching your gaze. “If you’re okay with that, I’d like to get you set up right away,” he prods gently.  “The sooner we do it, the sooner you’re out of the woods and on your way to recovery.” You glance up sharply, your head snapping to attention and your heart rate increasing a good measure as you realize what he means; you’re going to be having surgery for the first time in your life, and on your eyes no less, within the hour.  Tears spring to your eyes again as panic consumes you, effectively overcoming the sedative he’d given entirely. “Y/N, hey, it’s alright,” the doctor says softly, his palms coming to rest on your shoulders.  “Just breathe for me.  Now, I’m not going to do anything without your consent – I won’t force anything on you.  You just tell me whenever you’re ready, okay?” You nod silently, looking into the doctor’s eyes as you work to breathe more evenly.  A few minutes go by before you’re able to speak but you finally find your voice. “Let’s do it,” you say quietly. “Alright,” the CMO says with a nod, moving to step away from you, intent on getting the ball rolling. You reach out, grabbing a hold of his sleeve to keep him from getting too far away.  He stops and turns his attention to you once again, searching your expression as you let go, your cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “Sorry,” you mumble, casting your gaze downward.  “I just… Will you be there when I go to sleep?” The doctor nods. “And the second you wake up,” he promises. “I’m going to ready the OR – Christine will take good care of you for me in the meantime, darlin’.” Christine sweeps in to take his spot as he leaves the room and does her best to comfort you as she leads you to a different part of the med bay.  It doesn’t take her long to get you changed into a patient gown, and less time still to start an IV line and get you settled onto a bed.  You watch her go through the motions as she explains exactly what she’s doing, giving you more eye drops and some other standard pre-op medications. Before long you’re being wheeled into surgery and you’re beside yourself with anxiety.  You keep trying to find your voice, to ask Christine where Dr. McCoy is, but all you can do is lie there and tremble, withering from the fear.  You relax a fraction, however, as your bed is pushed through the OR doors and the doctor appears at your bedside. “I’m right here,” he assures you, then gestures to a woman behind a surgical mask.  “This is Amy; she’s going to be putting you to sleep.  I’m going to stay right here and hold your hand while you drift off and then I’ll see you in recovery.  Are you ready?” You take a deep, cleansing breath as Amy moves around, attaching monitor leads to your skin and tucking some blankets in around you to keep you warm and still throughout the procedure.  She leaves your hand out, though, and you shiver as you feel the doctor grasp your cold, clammy palm between his warm, gentle hands. A mask is placed over your face and you shut your eyes tightly as the doctor’s grip on your hand tightens.  You breathe deeply, wrinkling your nose at the rubber scent that permeates the mask, and before long Amy is telling you to count backwards from ten.  You feel a flush of warmth through your body and a stinging in the arm that your IV is in and that’s the last thing you remember before you’re off to sleep. You wake up a few hours later groaning and reaching up to pull at something uncomfortable on your face.  Your hand is met with another and you attempt to open your eyes but find it impossible to do so with the right one.   “Good morning,” Dr. McCoy says from your beside.  “The surgery went very well.  You reacted a little more strongly to the anaesthesia than I had anticipated so I’m keeping you on a bit of low-flow oxygen to help wake you up for a while and your heart rate and blood pressure dropped a little more than expected so I’m going to keep you for observation until tomorrow.” You haven’t understood any of what he’s just said; you’re still floating in an anaesthetic haze, but his presence is comforting.  You could swear you hear him say something about getting some rest and you do, dozing off once more and sleeping for a while longer. You wake up throughout the night on occasion as a nurse comes in to check your vitals, and while you’re curious as to how the surgery went, you don’t feel any of the anxiety that you had before and you’re certain Dr. McCoy has given you something for those nerves again.   Hours later, you’re sitting up in bed when he comes in to check on you at the start of his next shift.  He smiles warmly at you as he approaches your bedside and asks how you’re feeling as he glances at the screen at the foot of the bio bed, reading through the log of your vital signs from over night. “Okay,” you answer hoarsely.  “Li’l bit sore.” “Yeah, that’s the anaesthetic, I’m afraid,” he explains.  “I’ll give you something for the pain shortly, but first I’m sure you’re dying to get that dressing off.” You nod, reaching up to gently run your fingers over the patch that’s covering your injured eye.  You watch the doctor move closer to you with bated breath and sit perfectly still as he reaches up and gently begins to peel the tape away from around the patch. “Remember,” he reminds you.  “You’re not going to be able to see clearly out of it for a week or two, so don’t panic.” You take a deep breath, trying to still your racing heart, and blink your eye open as he removes the patch at last.  It stings like crazy and feels like there’s something in it – the stitch he’d mentioned, most likely – but you can still see. Everything is extremely distorted, but you can make out shapes and colors.  You know that it’s just the gas he’d mentioned instilling to apply pressure to the repair, and you’re hopeful that even the little bit of vision means you’ll be back in working order soon. You and the doctor exchange some words as he gently cleans the remainder of the iodine from the procedure away and cleans the crusty bits that have collected in your eyelashes overnight.  He examines the eye and pronounces the procedure a true success.  You’re elated to hear it, and anxious for the next couple of weeks to go by. They do so excruciatingly slowly with you confined to your quarters on bedrest, but your vision improves day by day and you don’t mind the doctor stopping by to check on you twice daily much, either. The two of you are quickly becoming good friends as the time passes and by week’s end, he’s coming by to hang out just as much as he is to check in on you.  The two of you have a lot in common. When he appears the morning of your tenth day of recovery, he finds you sitting in bed and beaming.  With a smile of his own, he approaches you and takes a seat on the edge of your bed, setting down his med kit.  Reaching up, he gently cups your face, tracing his thumb over the cheekbone beneath your injured eye.  It’s still red and irritated from the sutures, but the drops he’s got you on are helping with the discomfort and besides, you’re no longer overly bothered by the residual symptoms. “I can see!” You burst out before he can say anything.  “The last of the air bubbles are gone!  I was reading before you came in!” Leonard, as he’s now having you call him, reaches out with his free hand to take one of yours and gives it a squeeze. “That’s great!”  He says excitedly.  “What about distortion?  Any double vision?” You shrug. “A little bit, but it’s nothing I can’t work around,” you reply. He smiles and pulls away from you, reaching into his med kit.  He quickly instills an antibiotic drop into the operative eye and then pulls something you’ve never seen before out of his kit.  It’s a small sheet of plastic with a grid printed on it with a dot at its center. He holds it up in front of you and asks you to close your uninjured eye and tell him what it looks like. “Uh, the lines are a little wavy,” you venture. “More around the very middle.” He nods and puts the grid away. “It looks like I may have done a small amount of macular damage,” he explains.  “The central distortion is characteristic of it.  I’m sorry, darlin’ – there’s no way to fix that.” You smile softly and shake your head, reaching out to take his hand in yours and giving it a squeeze. “If I have to live with a little bit of double vision, I will,” you say firmly.  “It could have been so much worse if you hadn’t acted quickly.  You saved my vision, and I don’t know how I can ever thank you for that.” He laughs softly and meets your gaze, his eyes dropping to your lips for a moment and making your head spin before settling on yours again. “Have dinner with me,” he suggests. You’re floored and you want nothing more than to pounce on him for a hug, but you’re still on bedrest and you somehow feel like throwing yourself at the man would be a violation of the “take it easy” rule.  Instead, you nod and edge forward a little, reaching out to put your hands on his shoulders. “I’d love to,” you murmur, your own gaze dropping to his mouth this time. It's all the encouragement he needs and a split second later, his lips are pressed gently up against yours.  He tastes like coffee and you drink him in, finding him as bold and rich as what he’d imbibed.  You can’t help but smile into the kiss. It took you nearly losing your vision to find a lover, and now that you have him, you’re never letting him go.

@whatsthematterwithamelia @imamotherfuckingstar-lord @feelmyroarrrr @starshiphufflebadger @trekken81 @yourtropegirl @theonlyparadox @musingsongbird @the-alpha-otter @gerardnot-gerald @earinafae @ababyinatrenchcoat @arrowsshootyouforwards @alluramc @medicatemedrmccoy

Graphic by @wonders-of-the-enterprise

[asunafairywizardessheart]

Snow Fight

Vincent/Asana

Special Christmas Prompt #22

Requested by: @ravenvampiress

Summary: Agreeing to help set up a festival, Asana falls from the ladder into Vincent’s arms. 

My shivering body woke me up earlier than I had expected, but I felt the space next to me occupied by Vincent. Looking down at my own body, I realise when he had tossed onto his side, he took the blankets with him and the cold air hit my naked skin.  

"Vincent," I yanked some the blanket back over my body to keep myself warm, but he tugged the blanket back in his sleepy state. Then, it started a little tug of war over the blanket because the house was extremely cold in the winter.

Grey clouds covered the morning skies and snow fell from them to the ground. Small soft rays of greyscale sunlight flooded through the windows, but was diffused against the curtains, keeping it a little dark inside the room.  

Since Vincent kept tugging on the blanket, I had no choice but to hug him from behind. I wrapped my arms around his exposed body, and suddenly my thoughts wandered from ideas on how to become warmer, instead they concentrated on the feeling of his muscular planes against my skin.  

Then, he tossed around a bit more and took the little bit of blanket I had salvaged off my body, "That's it," fed up with his constant stirring and hogging the blanket, I pressed my cold feet against his back and it woke him up.  

"Your feet are cold," he grumbled.

"You blanket hogging is the reason why they are cold," I replied.

He tossed around to face me, making the mattress bounce in his carefulness not to crush my body under his broad weight. He pulled the blanket around me and snaked his arms around me, bringing my body closer to his and cuddling me into his warmth, "Sorry, I didn't know," he mumbled, still half-asleep, and squeezed my body inside his cuddle.

"Hmmm," I hummed, feeling his warmth and love through the cuddle. I love it when he holds me like this, he knew it too and we pressed ourselves against each other, pleasuring ourselves with the satisfaction.

I felt his lips close to my neck and they brushed against my skin, awakening desires within my core, "It's snowing outside," he whispered, "We could spend all day like this."

"That does sound good," I hummed, not caring that my breathing had hitched, but...we couldn’t, "...But, we can't...," he pressed his lips against my neck and caressed my ear lobe, "We promised to help the school string lights for the festival."

Our noses bumped gently as he brought his lips closer to mine, and sweetly pressed his lips to mine, "Hmmm," I heard him hum and he pulled me closer to him again, sending a jolt of pleasure through my entire body.  

Returning his sweet kisses, we had somehow ended up trailing kisses on each other's skins, wherever our lips could reach, and whatever self-control we had began to fade. "Vincent...," I arched into him and tilted my head as he shifted our bodies so that he was over the top of me, blankets firmly, and comfortably surrounding us. I accepted his morning love.  

"Are you warming up now?" He teased.

"...Yes," I breathed as he ran his hand up my thigh, feeling my body against his skin, my pulse racing in response to the electrifying touch, "...What do you want for breakfast? After this...ah...I can make us something."

He pressed his body weight on mine, though lightly enough not to crush me, and my vision became filled with his handsome face, "...I'm having my breakfast right now," he teased, leaning down and capturing my lips with his, my hands ghosting down his muscular frame and across his shoulders, down his sides to his waist.  

"...You can't eat me, Vincent," I finally managed to reply, but he only chuckled. His hair tickled my cheek on purpose as his lips travelled across my skin, slowly and sensually, each touch sending my mind wild that I bucked underneath him to control my aching desire. Slowly, I could feel him descending down my body and had his head between my legs. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, I helped guide him to where I wanted him to be, my breath and moans filled the room and suddenly I did not feel cold.  

Of course, we missed breakfast because Vincent used me for his breakfast fill, and because of that I was hungry when we walked to the academy. Headmaster Randolph tried something brand new this year, an event that invited in visitors, mostly of parents and ex-students of the school.

Our footprints made indents in the snow and it began to fall from the grey clouds above our heads, but Vincent’s strong and warm arm around my shoulder kept me tucked in with warmth. “Why did the Headmaster want it to snow?” I asked, wrapping my arm around his waist, underneath his jacket.

“Well, it’s not Christmas without snow, is it?”

“There are places in the world where it doesn’t snow during Christmas.”

“Yeah, but that’s not how we do Christmas,” he flashed me his smile and opened the door to the auditorium where we found Prefect Klaus arguing with his brother.

It didn’t seem to tense but I could tell by Klaus’ eyes he had enough of this conversation and walked away from Elias’ complaints. Naturally, Vincent and I were curious about the argument, and approached Elias begging for his brother to listen but being ignored he sighed.

“What’s up, Elias?” I asked.

“Klaus is being a monster as per usual. He has paired groups off to work on different parts for the school’s first Christmas festival, and Luca is in ours. Of course, Luca decided to tick Klaus off, and of course we happen to be hanging up the lights. Now, we can’t use magic as part of our punishment.”

I couldn’t help but giggle and Elias shot me a glare, “You will not be laughing for long since you are assigned to our group and Vincent is going to be helping with putting up stalls, and other attractions.”

(We’re not in the same group) The thought made me sad, and my laughing stopped. “Told you so,” Elias teased. He is, of course, clueless, I am not sad that I can’t use magic to string the lights, that would be more disastrous if I could, but because I won’t be with Vincent.

“Vincent!” Klaus called for him from a nearby spot.

He looked down at me, smiling as he does and bumped his forehead on mine, giving a cute kiss on the tip of my nose, “Don’t make that face. I’m not too far away for you to look at, and we can have lunch together,” he leaned in and kissed my lips gently, making me smile, but feeling his warm body slip away from mine I couldn’t help but feel sad.  

(I really wanted to put up Christmas decorations with him. It’s our first Christmas together as a couple). Reluctantly, as he slipped away, our fingertips finally separated and I watched his back walk away.  

“Asana!” suddenly, Elias snapped me from my daze, “We are here to put up decorations, hurry up.”

“Okay,” Elias can be strict, but he’s kinder than his brother, and I feel incredibly less nervous around him than I do around Prefect Klaus. “What would you like me to do, Elias?”

“Well, we can all thank Luca for having to use these ladders, but you seem light enough to go up there and string these lights according to the design my brother blueprinted for us to follow.”  

A wooden ladder leaned against the wall in front of me, and each person upon one wore unhappy expressions. I think they are mad at Luca for pushing the boundaries with Klaus’ humour. Nonetheless, they proceeded with the task, and there was a person below guiding the person on top with the design and straightness. Elias, became my spotter.

“Elias, our fair Prince, would you mind helping us, please?” of course, his fan club were part of our group, but majority of the people in our team were from our class.  

As light as I am, Elias didn’t need to hold the ladder for me, since it was safely leaned against the wall. “I will be right back,” he told me, and gave me the blueprint to follow. I continued to work without him, and next to Vincent and two other people began to set up a stand near my ladder.

Of course, unlike us, they were allowed to use magic. I looked down at Vincent, and watched him work, effortlessly, deciding not to use his magic for such a simple task. (He’s so handsome) I stare, love-struck, and happy he chose me to be with him this Christmas.

Lost in my thoughts, and awe of him, Elias returned. “Would you stop getting distracted?” his harsh voice sounded like Prefect Klaus that I flinched and the ladder rocked in my startled jump.

Trying to ground the ladder back towards the wall, I lose my stance on the slats and begin to fall. “Oh no,” I felt my body floating in the air, and closed my eyes anticipating the impact of gravity plummeting me to the stone covered ground, and from this height I’m going to seriously hurt myself.

However, where I expected to land on the hard-covered ground, I felt my body fall into something soft and warm, but I’m too nervous to open my eyes. “It’s alright, I caught you,” (that’s Vincent’s voice), and hearing his calm tone, cautiously, I opened my eyes.

Gazing down into my eyes are his golden-flame eyes, and he is so close that I can see my reflection within them, "You alright?" He asked, worried since I didn't say anything and could only look into his eyes, my hand unconsciously moved to cup his cheek, "Stop doing cute things here," he chuckled.

(He caught me) I noticed, and could see he held me in his arms princess-style, and the people around us had been watching us, the ladder I was standing on had fallen to the ground and the lights I had stringed on the wall came undone. Then...

"What happened over here?!" Klaus angrily sauntered up to us, unhappy with our team today, "Never mind, don't answer that! I can't count on this team to string the lights, so we will swap with the wreath-making team," he ordered, and no one argued with him.  

My team moved off to the tables where another team came from and took over stringing up the lights, but Vincent still had me locked tight within his arms, "Um...Vincent?"

"Hm?" His attention came back to me.

"Um...you can put me down now."

"I don't want to, and maybe we should ditch this whole thing?" He thought, and watched to see where Klaus was, and started to sneak away with me in his arms.

"But, Vincent...we can't!" I protested, imagining the lecture we'd get from Prefect Klaus when he catches up to us, "Klaus will get angry with us."

"Let him be mad, it's not like this is part of your grades or anything," he shrugged it off, like a child ditching his chores to go play.  

Suddenly, that thought made me laugh because he always teased my childish antics, "I thought you are supposed to be the adult in this relationship?"

"Sometimes...," he threw me into a large pile of snow in the courtyard, and then covered my body, "...it's good to let your inner child run wild."

I laughed and brought my hands around his waist from underneath his jacket, and felt his lips closing in on mine. It is tender, and beautiful, and when he his parted from mine and held me close to him, "Glad you're not seriously injured though."

"Luckily, I had my knight nearby and I fell right into his arms," I teased him, and couldn't contain my excitement for the holidays to come, "...I'm so happy to be with you these holidays, Vincent."

"Me too, it's been a while since I shared this holiday with someone I love. Anna doesn't celebrate Christmas."

"Why?"

"Her religion."

"I had no idea she was religious?"

"Yeah, she is...sort of."

"Do you like this time of the year, Vincent?"

"...That depends, on what I'm doing. I do remember my brother and sister and I would stay awake all night to catch a glimpse of Santa, and my sister once tried to summon the reindeers with her Carrot Circle."

I had to laugh, because they sounded so adorable, but, of course, he read my expression and instantly could tell what I was thinking about. "You're thinking about how cute I am, aren't you?"

As I tried to cover up my true thoughts, my giggles and smile betrayed me, "N-No, you're always so cool, Vincent, and I'm sure you were as a kid."

"Hmm, you are a terrible liar," he said, and gathered up a ball of snow, from the pile he had thrown me into, and squashed the ball of ice onto my head, "Punishment."

Catching him off guard, I managed to flip him over onto his back and moved away from him, gathering up a ball of snow myself and hurled it towards him, "Then, make it a fair fight," I said, hurling another one at him.  

He sat up, and smiled, devilishly, snow in his hands, "Bring it on babe," he said, and we chased and dodged each other in our own snowball fight, with our first Christmas together just beginning.