#In theory I love fight chapters in practice fuck fight chapters

[avocado-frog]

Dahlia. 2

Rating: M Word count: 7,000 (i'll write with a reasonable length soon i swear i just needed to get the first two chapters done) Warnings: Mentions of a suicide attempt, referenced ableism, violence, I think that's all but let me know Title: 4/16/2019-4/20/2019 Summary: Kai and Marcy visit. Leo and Jaxon are still fighting

4/16/2019

"How long are you staying?" Sam asked, leaning his head on the armrest of Logan's couch. He had stayed up late, waiting for his cousins to show up. They timed their visit weird, had some setbacks, and had only showed up at ten at night. Later than Sam usually liked to stay awake for.

"A couple of days, I think," was Kai's response, frowning at a lit-up phone screen. He glanced up at Logan. "If that's okay, of course."

"Of course it is." Logan smiled at the two, taking Kai's backpack and Marcy's suitcase. "I'll set up an air mattress in the living room, if you want."

"Yeah, thank you." Kai nodded politely, and turned back to Sam, smiling. "Hey, happy birthday. That was yesterday, right?"

Sam chuckled nervously, fidgeting with his hands. "Yeah, it was."

"Cool," Marcy joined in on their conversation. "How old are you now? Four? Five?"

"Eleven," Sam corrected. Logan, holding a rolled-up air mattress, came back down the stairs. Sam let out a stifled, relieved sigh.

"Alright, Sam." Logan must have sensed his mild discomfort. "It's probably time to get to bed, or you'll be tired in the morning. You have school. You can catch up with your cousins tomorrow."

"Right, okay." Sam nodded, and waved to his cousins. He mouthed a quick thanks to Logan, who gave a small, subtle nod, and he ran up the staircase faster than he ever had before.

It wasn't like his birthday had been bad, necessarily, it was just... uncomfortable. After they left Jaxon's friend's house, Jaxon had opted to stay behind, and Ryan went to bed when they got home, apparently having done too much that day. Logan had made him a cupcake, and his sisters, Dylan, and Lily got him presents, but it just felt off without his brothers there, too.

Ryan had left his door unlocked, so that was progress. The others had been happy, of course, when he told them that Ryan not only left his room, but left the house. The fact that he left the door unlocked was huge. Sam was optimistic.

Though, he still wasn't ready to go back to sharing a room yet. Ryan said that the place was too messy, and that he needed a little bit more time by himself, that he was overwhelmed, but that it was okay for him to visit. So, Sam kept that spare room, leaving his cousins with an air mattress and the couch in the living room.

Sam flicked the lights to his room on. It wasn't decorated, and the bedsheets weren't his normal ones, just the generic, maroon ones that had been there when he took the room. It was a little boring, and if he were to stay there much longer, he wanted to get some of his stuff from his old room.

He didn't dare turn the lights off. Maybe it was childish to still be afraid of the dark, but the lab had gotten pitch black at night, with the lack of windows, and blindingly bright during the day. As long as his room was brighter than the lab at any given time, he was okay. If he woke up and it was pitch black like it used to be, and he was alone, then there would be a problem.

He didn't consider himself fully safe until the TV was on, and the windows and door were open. Once the TV was on and turned to some random cartoon he'd never watched before, he could turn the lights back off and be okay.

If he didn't do all that, he would wake up screaming. That had only been an issue recently, and it had only happened three times. Leo, closest to his room, was there the fastest, quickly followed by Cass and Lily. Technically, Elliot was the closest to his room, being just next door, with Ryan diagonal from him. But that wasn't the point.

Even after he did his routine- the room was bright enough so that he wouldn't wake up and think he was in the lab again, the door was open so he wouldn't believe he was trapped, the curtains on the window were open so that he could see outside- it still took his brain a minute to calm down, still took him a long time to get his mind to slow down, and it took forever to really convince himself that he was safe.

---

Kai woke up from a half-sleep, barely able to relax in the living room of someone who was almost a stranger, on a slightly-deflated air mattress.

Eyelids still heavy, he reached out for the phone he set on the coffee table that Logan had moved out of the way, and knocked the poor thing to the ground, causing his sister to make some weird sound and roll over to her other side, from where she laid on the couch.

Wincing, Kai gingerly picked his phone up, and saw that it was only two in the morning. He sighed to himself, knowing he would never get back to sleep.

He stood up, stumbling a little from the lack of steadiness of the air mattress, and wandered to Logan's kitchen. He had said it was alright for him to take whatever he wanted from there, though Kai still felt a little guilty for it.

Mostly, he and Marcy had only decided to come over for two days to help out their cousins, especially after learning what had happened with the youngest kid. He didn't know exact details. He told his parents about it, and they insisted that they visit, despite the fact that they were going to miss school. They were told that this was more important, and that they could hire a tutor if they really needed to, but Kai was still thoroughly against missing that much school. Two days felt excessive.

He began filling a cup of water, after searching through the cabinets to find a single cup anywhere, when the front door quietly clicked shut, breaking through the dead silence. Kai made some embarrassing squeak noise, turning around in a panic.

Jaxon, standing on the other end of the hall by the front door, looked just as stunned to see him there. Quietly, he shuffled past the air mattress, and to the kitchen.

Out of all of the twin's new friends, Jaxon and Logan were the only ones he kept in contact with. Though, recently, Jaxon had stopped responding to any calls or messages, which was unlike him.

"You are... in my house?" Jaxon muttered softly, as not to wake up Marcy. A smart decision. Marcy was nearly homicidal when she got woken up.

"I texted you, and said I was on my way." Kai leaned back against a counter. Jaxon balled up the edge of his hoodie in his fist. "What are you doing, breaking into your own house at two in the morning?"

Kai remembered something about how being tired made you lose control over your emotional regulation, resulting in getting all sad when it was night.

Jaxon sniffed, and swiped at his nose with his wrist, trembling a little. For a minute, Kai worried he would start crying. He wasn't sure what to do if that happened.

"Woah, don't cry..." Kai sort of slurred. He felt a lot more tired than he had a moment ago. "Just tell me why you were gone."

"I was just with a friend." Jaxon crossed his arms over his chest, hands clenched into fists. Under the moonlight coming through the window, blue hair sparkled. Kai found himself transfixed on it.

"Have you ever dyed your hair other colors?" Kai decided to drop the earlier subject. It was making his friend upset. Maybe later.

"Huh?" Jaxon looked caught off guard. He pulled a strand of his hair in front of his eyes, and shrugged. "Oh, uh... yeah, I have. When I was first starting to dye it, it was black, with green stripes. I was, maybe twelve."

"Hm." Kai leaned back against the counter again. "I think... purple would look nice."

"Purple?"

"Yeah. Like-" Kai waved his hand in a circle as he tried to form the correct words. "Like, dark purple. It's a little more subtle than your blue, but I think it'd look pretty with your eyes."

"Oh."

"I think you should stay here," Kai said, out of nowhere. At this point, he was just spewing garbage out of his mouth. He was only half-aware of what he was saying. It felt like a dream.

Jaxon glanced up at him, sitting on the counter opposite of him. He shrugged loosely. "I don't- I don't know."

"How come?" Kai had a feeling he knew, but he was curious, anyways.

"Leo's mad at me, I don't know why, and..." he glanced at a spot on the floor. Kai's gaze trailed to a spot that had been cleaned a little too hard. "I can barely stand to be in here."

"This is where that kid-"

"Yeah."

Kai hummed a little, contemplating. "I think... I think you owe it to him to stay. I think that the others need you here."

"Really?"

Running off to stay with a friend after something bad had happened, sounded like the twins back in November. Kai didn't even hear from Leo until almost two months later, too.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so." Kai nodded, mostly to himself. "I don't know about Leo, haven't talked to her today, but I think I can get her to calm down a little. Leo's never... been through anything like this before, but yeah. Usually, her first reaction to anything bad ever, is getting angry."

"I can tell," Jaxon deadpanned.

"You probably didn't do anything wrong," Kai continued. "Collateral damage. Wrong place, wrong time, you know?"

"Yeah." Jaxon nodded tiredly. He yawned. "...I'll think about it. Only came over because I wanted a better blanket. He won't notice I left. ...I can stay for a while."

Kai frowned again. "You shouldn't be walking out by yourself at night. That's not safe."

Jaxon snorted, smiling. "Yeah, okay, mom."

"I'm serious!" Kai scolded, genuinely distressed. "You could get hurt."

Jaxon, like a flipped switch, went back to his usual self, smiling. "I can take care of myself. Nothing bad will happen to me, walking two blocks down the street."

"You don't know that..."

Jaxon hopped down from the counter, reaching up to place a hand on the top of Kai's head.

"Yes I do. I  have magic, you don't." Jaxon still grinned. "If anything, you shouldn't be out at night. You couldn't fight to save your life, either."

"Well, there's no need to be rude about it."

Jaxon snickered, and gestured towards the staircase with his head. "Well, are you going back to bed? Dylan won't wake up, if you want to watch a movie, or something."

Kai wasn't going to be able to sleep anyways, and watching a movie with him did sound more fun than laying on an air mattress trying to sleep. He nodded.

"Sure."

4/17/2019

Dylan stared up at the dark, looming staircase to the attic. It was a room they never used until recently, having been just a storage room until a couple of weeks ago, when it had been changed to Elliot's room. Dylan never bothered to ask why they didn't use Elliot's real room. Didn't matter, they supposed.

A pit formed in their stomach just looking at the door at the top of the stairs. They felt bad about it, but they didn't like to visit Elliot. They needed to. Elliot was scared of being alone.

The worst part, was that Dylan knew something would happen. They had Logan hide the knives. They locked every cabinet with any sort of medicine, hid anything that could even be a little dangerous, and yet, Elliot got hurt.

When Dylan saw that vision of Elliot's stab wound, they saw one for Leo as well, though they couldn't remember exactly what it was, and it never came back up again. If Leo noticed Dylan's desperate attempts to keep her safe, she didn't say anything. They didn't want her to die, too.

Elliot died for a whole five minutes, legally speaking, before Dylan was able to reverse it. That was definitely in the top five scariest moments of their life.

They had a visiting-Elliot cycle, as they called it. Lily usually went in the mornings to check on him, then Logan to do the important medical stuff, and then Sam or Leo. Dylan hadn't been going to school, and visited whenever they had the opportunity.

This time, they were being accompanied by Ryan. To Dylan's knowledge, Ryan hadn't gone to visit his brother at all, since the incident.

"Are you sure?" Dylan signed one final time to their friend, who gave a small nod in response, hands balled into fists, shoulders tense.

Ryan couldn't even go into the kitchen. Dylan thought that it was still too soon, that he should wait until he could stand in the kitchen again, but Ryan insisted.

"I have to," Ryan signed back. Dylan shook their head. He didn't have to do anything. The obligation was purely fictional. "I promised Sam I would leave my room more."

And Dylan, while glad Ryan was doing better, making a little bit of progress in the short span of two days, was still convinced he was going too fast. Dylan knew Ryan well enough, he preferred to go slowly with this sort of thing. They couldn't help but worry.

If Ryan really wanted to go up there, it wasn't like they could say no.

Dylan walked up the staircase, ahead of Ryan, so he could leave if he wanted, and unlocked the attic's door. That automatic locking thing was going to be the death of them, they were sure. When they were around eight or nine, they got trapped there trying to look for something, and it took five hours before anyone realized they were in there. Jaxon had practically broken the door down in a panic, and refused to let Dylan out of his sight for the next week. A bad day for everyone involved.

Dylan paused before opening the door. Ryan was still there, when they turned around.

They shot Ryan the most serious look they could. "Don't shut the door," they signed, and Ryan nodded. "It will lock. We'll be stuck."

Ryan nodded again, like he had experience in getting locked in the attic. Out of all the group, it would be the most unfortunate for Ryan and Dylan to get stuck in the attic. Neither of them were loud, and definitely not loud enough to be heard all the way in the first floor where Kai and Marcy- the only ones that were there- were. Dylan could only hope Ryan would listen to them.

The other worst case scenario was if Ryan saw his brother and started to panic like he did whenever he went into the kitchen. If that happened, Dylan would have to leave him alone to get help.

To his credit, Ryan didn't panic when he saw Elliot. Instead, a certain, sad, resigned look flashed across dull eyes. He wasn't afraid of him, like he was afraid of the kitchen. Ryan twisted his hands together, before turning back to Dylan.

"How often do you visit?" Ryan signed, and Dylan had to think about it.

"Maybe... three times a week?" Dylan signed with a shrug. "I try, often as I can. Visit you, too."

It wasn't like, staying home by themself all day, they had much else going on. It was hard to do anything else. They had a routine; wake up, eat breakfast, see Ryan, watch TV, see Elliot, lunch, TV, dinner. Simple, comforting. Dylan didn't want to stray from that routine. Anything else was overwhelming, they found out.

"I should have come up sooner," Ryan signed. His arms fell limp to his sides. He looked like he would cry. This was not Dylan's area of expertise whatsoever. Still, they were almost upset that Ryan thought like that.

Dylan shook their head firmly, when they got Ryan's attention. "Don't say that. You're here now."

Ryan nodded silently. Dylan turned back to Elliot. A pang of guilt struck them.

Dylan had never been great at making friends outside their family. Most kids their age didn't know sign language, so there was a slight barrier there. Despite them being in a class with other deaf kids, it still just didn't work. It was frustrating, they couldn't get why. They didn't think they were rude, or boring enough to ignore, and yet, it was a struggle.

Jaxon said it didn't matter, that they were stupid if they didn't want to be friends with them, and Logan said that they were bound to find someone who liked them outside of home, and Lily said she would beat anyone into the dirt for them if they asked, but they never got an answer as to why.

Dylan wished they could say that they just got along better with the teachers in their classroom, but they didn't. The teachers talked to them more often than the other kids, yet, they couldn't help but feel babied by the teachers. Talked down to, ignored. Dylan liked to think they were smarter than that.

Elliot understood that.

Logan was in online college, but he had a job, and he was relatively well-liked. He didn't understand. Leo gained a sort-of popularity among her classmates, though it hadn't always been like that. Leo almost understood. Cass was smart, and everyone seemed to like her, too, so she didn't understand. The same for Lily. Jaxon got along with everyone, and so did Sam. Ryan and Elliot both truly understood when Dylan said no one liked them.

Like them, Ryan wasn't good at reading people. Social cues were a tricky thing, and people seemed to get offended by the slightest misreading. It was a minefield.

Elliot, missing an eye, constantly deadpan, jumpy, he told Dylan that his classmates were genuinely afraid of him. Dylan didn't think that was justified. At worst, Elliot knew how to scare people. In truth, Elliot was only a kid. (Though, to be fair, Dylan was only a year and one month older.)

So, seeing Elliot in the condition he was in, and seeing Ryan hurting so bad over it, it felt like a hot knife carving a hole in every inch of their skin. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Visiting whenever possible was the best thing they could do. Their only fear was that Elliot didn't know they were there. Some people in comas can hear, and Dylan's hearing aids were downstairs in their room, they didn't usually like to talk without them, and the high-pitched ringing noise was getting a little irritating. They must've needed new batteries.

One thing they used to do as a kid, before they knew sign language, but after they went deaf, was something Logan had started; writing letters in their palm. It was easier than sign, but you had to pay attention. Logan had caught onto sign language pretty quickly, and so had Dylan, but it was taking Lily a while, and Jaxon had been having trouble with the right hand movements. His brain injury mostly damaged the part of the brain that controlled speech, so for a while, neither Dylan nor Jaxon said a word to their new friends.

Dylan used the old trick of writing into Elliot's hand to let him know they were there. They didn't usually say much, as it took a while, and touching other people's palms sort of grossed them out. It was strangely leathery. Usually, they just wrote a simple greeting. They could only hope Elliot knew it was them. He hated being alone.

"I wonder if I could have stopped him," Ryan signed out of nowhere, and Dylan glared, already hating where this was going. "If I tried hard enough."

"Stop," Dylan signed, with the sternest look they could possibly manage. "You got hurt trying to take the knife. You did what you could."

Somehow, they doubted Ryan believed them.

4/18/2019

Leo was not acting normal, despite what the others were saying.

She sat across the table from Jaxon, staring at her phone in one hand, holding a sandwich in the other. Sometimes, one of the others would start talking, and she would look up, and her gaze would flicker to the phone.

Something wasn't right, and it seemed like he was the only one who noticed.

Leo scrolled up for maybe half a second, and then back down to the same thing, over and over. Her eyes held a dim blankness, like she was just on her phone for show and didn't care what was on it. If someone talked to her, she would answer in brief, quiet sentences.

It wasn't like Jaxon was the one who had known her the longest, so that wasn't why he knew this, either. Cass was her sister, Kai and Marcy were her cousins, Logan and Lily were her childhood friends, the triplets, while her brothers, she only met them five months ago. Jaxon had met her in November, so he was not the one who had known her the longest, by a long shot.

And still, Cass thought she was acting fine. Logan said she was just recovering from the shock of what happened the previous month, like they all were, to just give her a few more weeks. If Elliot were there, he would notice, Jaxon was sure.

Kai was probably right, about what he had said before. Leo was probably targeting him out of everyone because he happened to be there. Leo would be fine in a few days, and everything would be okay again. He hoped so, at least. He missed her.

Jaxon took an angry bite of his sandwich, setting it down on his plate. He stared at the table, resting his chin on his hand. He glanced at Leo, who glanced at him, scowled, and looked back at her phone.

He tried everything he could. He tried to apologize, to get her to talk, to leave her alone, everything. And nothing worked.

Jaxon didn't ever really get angry with any of his friends.

His hand tightened around his cup, his eyes burned, a scream threatened to claw its way out of his throat. He was shaking, his knee bounced as his foot tapped against the floor.

He wasn't angry at her. He was just a little annoyed. Irritated, if you will.

Leo would get over it, and so would he.

---

"Ew, you've been on an air mattress all weekend?" Jaxon made a face, rolling it back to it's original rolled-up form. "I hate air mattresses. I always think I'll fall."

"I did fall," Kai remarked, and handed him the box that the mattress was supposed to go in. "Multiple times."

Kai glowered at his sister half-heartedly. "She called dibs on the couch when we got here."

"Not even a trial with rock-paper-scissors, huh?" Jaxon sat on the floor, his friend sat down across from him. Kai always seemed to sit with perfect posture, Jaxon couldn't get why. He thought it was just how he was raised, but then Marcy sat backwards and upside down on the couch every day. Jaxon cupped a hand over his mouth. "Lily always does that with the TV remote!"

"Well, maybe you should get to the couch faster!" Lily yelled back, from wherever she was.

Kai snickered behind his hand, and Jaxon stared at him with wide eyes.

"I didn't even know she could hear me!" Jaxon made a wide gesture with his hands, and began picking at the carpet. "Do you need help packing anything else?"

"Nah." Kai shrugged. "I didn't bring much." He gestured at Marcy's entire suitcase. "Unlike somebody."

Jaxon smiled thinly, drawing his knees close to his chest, resting his chin on his arms. He was that close to going with Cass's cousins.

"Oh!" Kai shot up, staring at his phone. "My parents are here. Guess it's time to go, then."

"Oh, okay!" Jaxon stood up, and followed his friend to the door. Marcy probably knew it was time to go. Jaxon genuinely didn't have a clue where she was anymore.

Kai turned around, looking a little concerned. "You'll be okay here?"

"Yeah, of course!"

"Seriously." Kai's expression became a bit sterner. "Tell me if things get worse with Leo. Or with Elliot."

Jaxon suppressed a flinch. A slight pang in his heart. "I will. He'll be fine."

Elliot was going to be fine.

"Okay." Kai nodded. His arms wrapped around Jaxon's neck in a swift hug. "I'll text you on the way over, if I have any internet."

"Alright!" Jaxon grinned, heart racing a little. "Drive safely! Tell your grandma and your cat that I said hello!"

Kai laughed a little. "I will. See you later."

4/19/2019

"Do you ever watch where you're going?"

Ryan's head thumped against the door. A headache pulsed behind his eyes. Dylan hung upside-down on Sam's bed, playing a game on their phone. Sam searched through boxes underneath Ryan's bed.

"Sam."

"I'm looking."

"Sam."

"I know, I know." Sam waved his hand absently in Ryan's direction. "Ha! Found them!"

Triumphantly, Sam held up Ryan's sound-cancelling headphones. He lost them at some point, even after he had cleaned his room. Sam handed them to him. Ryan pulled them over his head, cringing a little at the pressure.

Sounds became muffled, like he thought he should have been used to by now. Putting them on would suddenly plunge him underwater, and he'd be sinking, he couldn't swim, water would flood his ears through the headphones, it would all still be muffled when he got out and stood on the dock, shaking, about to cry, Jaxon was panicking, a group of kids frantically apologized.

Ryan shook his head. He was fine. He couldn't drown, he had been fine. He just got a little sick afterwards, was all.

"You okay?" Sam signed, and Ryan nodded. He could still hear his sister fighting with Jaxon outside of their room.

From the little context he had, Jaxon tripped and fell, and knocked Leo over, and Leo was overreacting a little.

The fights got worse after their cousins left. Practically the minute the two had driven off, it had been nonstop.

Logan tried to stop them, tried to separate them, but it never seemed to work. Ryan knew that Leo was messing with Jaxon on purpose now, and that he was taking the bait. It was annoying. If it continued, Ryan would have to resort to violence.

"Think they'll stop?" Sam signed, looking equally annoyed. Their fighting became muffled, he couldn't tell their voices apart, or understand what they were saying.

"No." Ryan signed back, and pretended to fist-fight the air. Sam snickered.

"They won't fight."

"They'll fight."

Sam glanced over at Dylan, then back to Ryan. "Leo will win. Dylan doesn't agree."

Ryan nodded. He didn't think Jaxon really had the heart to seriously fight any of them. Although, he had heard from Lily and Logan that he used to get in fights at school all the time. But then, so had Leo.

Someone knocked on the door, and Ryan shot up, seconds before Lily kicked the door open, slid inside, and shut the door behind her.

"Hey, I hear this is where we're hiding." Lily's voice was louder than the other's, Ryan could hear her quite clearly through the headphones. He slid them around his neck. "Cass left her laptop in here. She's at the store right now, but she asked me to find it."

Sam pointed to a thin, silver laptop covered in little sunflower stickers. Lily nodded, and picked it up, choosing to sit on the bed instead of leave.

"Annoyed yet?" Lily chuckled lightly, but all four of them flinched when a loud thud sounded from the hallway. "I barely got in here without catching on fire." Lily made a dramatic gesture with her hands, leaning forward. "I think Leo's this close to snapping my brother's neck clean off."

"They shouldn't be using their magic indoors," Ryan mumbled. "They could both burn down the house..."

"Mhm, totally." Lily nodded in agreement. "They'll wake up your brother with all their fighting."

Ryan winced a little. Sam cringed, but nodded.

Dylan sat up, turning their phone off. Their hearing aids were out, and carefully placed on Ryan's dresser. "Are they done?"

"No."

Dylan groaned and flopped back down on the bed. Lily patted their head sympathetically.

"Dinner should be ready in a few minutes, Logan thinks." Lily turned back to Ryan and Sam. "And Cass should be home any second now, which means that she'll mom-friend those two into submission and get them to shut the fuck up!"

She shouted that last part in the direction of the door, and momentarily, the argument stopped. It then continued with, "and now you're annoying Lily!"

Lily buried her face in her hands and pretended to cry. "Oh my god..."

"They're annoying the rest of us, too." Sam glared at the door. He looked back at Ryan. "Should we go downstairs, since dinner's done?"

"Ugh!" Lily stood up, and sighed dramatically. "I guess."

She signed to Dylan that they were going downstairs for dinner. Lily was the first one to open the door, acting like the hallway was a warzone, as she carefully inched outside. She was followed by Dylan, who didn't seem to care all that much, and then Ryan and Sam at the back of their line.

By the time they got out there, Leo had seemingly pushed Jaxon down, and had already gone downstairs. Lily silently helped Jaxon back up.

Cass had come back home by the time they got to the dining room, she was helping set out the food with Logan.

Lemon chicken and rice, one of Ryan's personal favorites. He could hardly bring himself to enjoy it.

Usually, it was Leo and Jaxon talking the loudest at the table, which caused the others to all join in. With Leo and Jaxon not on speaking terms at the moment, it meant that the others didn't talk, either.

Cass and Lily made light conversation, though it was strained and reduced to small talk. Across the table, Logan asked how the food was, to which Ryan responded with a thumbs-up.

Leo was eating slowly. She glanced up, looking around the table and sighed to herself, going back to eating the rice.

Leo finished first, and had run up the stairs.

When it was finished, Ryan helped to collect the plates, placing them in the sink. Logan gave him a small smile, patted him on the head, and Ryan ran off to go find his sister.

He darted up the stairs faster than he normally would have, slowing down at the sight of Leo's open door.

Leo's room was Ryan's favorite out of all of them. It was messy, disorganized, yet somehow, Ryan was instantly anxious upon entering (like he was with Dylan and Jaxon's room). It had a calming effect, he was safe there.

Leo was on the floor, emptying school supplies from her backpack, leaving them scattered on the floor. He thought that was odd, since they had school the next day. Leo skipped school often, so he wasn't too worried about that. Still, he had a bad feeling.

"What're you doing?" Ryan asked, and Leo jumped.

"Oh, Ryan." Leo smiled thinly. It was forced. "I'm going to a friend's house tomorrow night, I thought I would pack early."

Ryan stepped inside, kneeling down on the floor in front of her. He gestured to a pencil, rolling away. "You aren't going to school tomorrow?"

"Nah." Leo shrugged. "But don't tell Logan."

Ryan chuckled a little. He hugged his knees, watching Leo neatly fold a shirt from a red hanger, setting it inside her backpack.

"Are you going to school?" Leo picked up the runaway pencil and poked him in the forehead. "It's been a while, but there's no rush, you know. Take as long as you need."

Ryan shrugged. Going to school still made his stomach churn. He hated leaving Sam alone for so long, and he felt a bit better than he had been before, but he wasn't sure if school was too much or not. The principal had given him, Dylan, and Sam all a pass to skip the rest of the year, if they wanted.

"I don't know..."

"Don't force yourself, if you aren't sure." Leo placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling softly. "And hey! You went to the kitchen today! You're making progress."

Ryan blinked, remembering how he had gotten to the dining room in the first place- through the kitchen- and how he had helped Logan with the dishes earlier. He hadn't even noticed.

"Now, go get ready for bed, watch a movie or something. Whatever it is you kids do." Leo ruffled his hair gently. "We'll do something fun tomorrow, when the others leave, yeah?"

Ryan smiled a little. "...Yeah."

"Alright. Goodnight, love you."

"You too."

4/20/2019

Leo took him to the aquarium downtown, had even bought something from the gift shop. That was something she never did, complaining about how expensive they were, how she could buy something eighty-five dollars cheaper at the Dollar Store.

It was just a stuffed axolotl, but Ryan looked deeply suspicious of it, and Dylan was deeply suspicious of the frog keychain they got as well. Yet another frog thing for their collection, Leo had said.

They went to the park afterwards. Leo sat on the bench and watched Dylan water the flowers in the garden with their water bottle, and Ryan swinging on the swing set. She snickered as another kid approached him, and he began signing a bunch of nonsense until the kid left him alone.

Leo didn't want to leave them. The more she thought about it, the less appealing it became. Funny, this was the same bench she stayed on while trying to decide whether to stay at Logan's house in the first place, where she wondered if looking for her brothers was worth it. It had been. Ryan had just started leaving his room again, she didn't even know how Sam was doing, and Elliot was in a coma. It'd been worth it, but Leo wasn't able to take care of them like Logan or Cass could. As soon as she hit eighteen, it would be her responsibility. She doubted Logan was going to let her stay that long, as nice as he was.

This made sense, as much as she hated it. Her and Jaxon's fighting wasn't a good environment for the kids, and she knew that the older ones were getting irritated as well, and she couldn't stop.

She didn't hate him...

...Maybe she did.

It was his fault she was leaving. It was all his fault.

She would miss them, but they would be fine. She didn't know where she was going to go- certainly not back to Emily's house, though she could possibly take her old one if nobody moved in. Or maybe that was too obvious. She wasn't old enough to legally own a house.

If she left- when she left- she likely wasn't going to know whether Elliot would be okay. She couldn't just take him, after all. If he woke up, he was going to be so pissed at her.

But Elliot was going to be fine. Dylan's weird spooky voodoo shit was keeping him alive, Cass's healing magic was keeping the wound stable. He'd be fine.

She walked across the street with the younger two, to where Logan's house was. Her hand was heavy, as she unlocked the door, pushing it open for what could have been the last time.

Leo still had to finish packing. She was leaving for a friend's house in just six hours now. Six hours left.

She would finish packing, go see her brother, wait until seven o'clock that afternoon, talk to Jaxon, and then she was going to leave.

...Leo found packing to be quite upsetting.

She tried to focus. She had done this before, when she left Emily's house. Back then, five months ago now, Leo had been rushing, there had been a sense of urgency. She needed to get out. 

This time, Leo was slow. She didn't want to leave, not really. This wasn't fair.

Leo tried to convince herself that she could get by just fine on her own. She barely talked to Cass before they left for New Hampshire, she barely talked to Kai or Marcy before they left. She only met the others five months ago. Leo's aunt and uncle- she could argue that she spent more time with them than her sister and cousins before they left, and they were hardly around. Leo took care of herself just fine before, she'd be fine now.

In one year and six months, Leo would be eighteen. That was old enough to buy a house, probably. At least, rent something. Leo could manage a year and a half. This wouldn't be hard.

"I'm sorry," was what Leo managed to say to her brother, still asleep. Leo adjusted the stuffed rabbit on his bed to be closer to him. Elliot didn't stir. Leo sighed a little. "I don't think I'm coming back. You'll be okay, won't you?"

"You will..." Leo continued. "You'll be fine. I'm sorry. This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault. Maybe I'll come back someday? I don't know."

If Elliot chose that specific moment to wake up, he'd be able to get Leo to stay. She knew that, and she hoped that he would choose that specific moment to wake up.

Leo took a final look at her brother, and left.

---

Something was up.

Jaxon didn't trust Leo at all. He kicked a pebble on the sidewalk, watching it bounce to the street. In the garden, he could see Leo sitting on the marble fountain, waiting for him.

After dinner (she was acting weird. She thanked Logan for letting her siblings stay there for so long, she looked near-tears as she claimed she was going to a friend's house, with a bag slung over her shoulder.) she had asked Jaxon to meet her in the garden, saying she wanted to talk.

Jaxon crossed the street. Crickets chirped in the dark silence, there was a quiet mumbling among people still walking this late in the night, the wind provided a cool breeze. The streetlights provided a faint, white light on the street. Cars drove past, wheels splashing against puddles from an earlier rain.

There was no gate to the garden. It was simply rows of dirt with flowers planted. Bushes formed arches, grown around curved wires and neatly trimmed, about five of them led to the marble fountain.

This was Dylan's favorite spot, the quietest part of the city. Dylan watered the flowers here in the spring and summer. They had met Cass here, which had led to the twins staying over.

Leo hopped down from where she sat on the fountain, walking towards him. Jaxon glared at the gravel trail beneath his feet. A petal laid on the ground. Aconite, wolfsbane. A poisonous flower.

A deadly foe is near. Jaxon always liked that particular flower. The meaning of it, he only remembered because Dylan got super into it once when they were nine. Jaxon remembered that specific one, because it sounded like a video game's final boss. He thought that was cool.

Leo was about five feet away, hands in her pockets, head hung low, expression unreadable.

"Leo," Jaxon startled himself with how low his own voice got. "I'm not in the mood-"

"I'm not going to fight." Leo's voice was dangerously monotonous, though it wavered a little. "I'm leaving. I wanted to apologize first."

Jaxon blinked, heart dropping a little. "You're... what?"

"I'm leaving," Leo repeated, harsher this time. "I'm not coming back, so I wanted to talk to you before I go."

Acid rose in his throat. His heart pounded. A thick knot in his throat made it impossible to speak. "You're- you're just going to leave?"

Leo nodded. Like she didn't even care. Jaxon took a few breaths, they came out shaking. Tears stung at his eyes. He wasn't going to cry-

He gritted his teeth, breathing grew sharp and unsteady. "You can't just do that! You can't just leave because things got a bit harder!"

Leo flinched backwards, gold eyes became cold and narrowed. Jaxon tensed, nails biting into his palms.

"That's the exact same fucking thing you did!" Leo made a wide gesture with her arms. "What the fuck are you talking about? What's the difference?" 

"I came back!" Jaxon took a step forward. "You're just leaving. Were you ever going to tell them?"

Leo didn't say anything. He was standing closer to her now. She was still six inches taller than he was. Leo's hands curled into fists, but her expression softened a little as she looked at something in the distance.

"Jaxon, Ryan's here..."

Jaxon whirled around, and sure enough, Ryan was hiding behind a streetlight, watching the fight. He noticed Jaxon staring at him, and recoiled, trying to make himself smaller. Jaxon winced. He knew what Leo was going to do.

And then, a hard punch to the side of the head sent him straight to the ground.

Jaxon barely had the time to brace himself for the impact, slamming into the gravel. For a moment, he was disoriented, having to blink to relocate himself. His palms stung.

Jaxon forced himself to stand, moving slowly, stunned.

Leo didn't move, didn't speak, stared with burning, yellow eyes. Red sparks flew from clenched fists. She wouldn't...

Jaxon lunged forward and knocked Leo to the ground. A crack echoed through the park, as Leo managed a kick to the stomach. Jaxon gasped, falling on his side. Leo hovered over him. He grabbed a handful of gravel, she stumbled back as the small rocks hit her face.

He managed to stand back up, shaking, breathing quick and painful, and glanced up in time to be shoved back to the ground, back digging into the sharp rocks.

Jaxon knocked her down with a kick to the knee. He was losing. Jaxon stood up. His fist collided with Leo's face, and for a moment, the sharp, pulsing agony of feeling his fingers crack distracted him. Her nose was bleeding now, bent awkwardly.

She grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie, he heard the fabric begin to rip, and suddenly, colors blurred around him, and a sharp pain- the fountain- collided with the back of his head, and he slumped over, vision fading.

Leo left.

[anisespice]

“ the fuck-it list ” || hq! pt. 3

one || two || four

synopsis: there’s a list going around consisting of hot guys on campus that are deemed “fuckable” with theories as to what they’d be like in bed. it’s all fun and games until somehow your boyfriend ends up on this list. 

pairing: various x gn!reader [ osamu, sakusa ]

warnings: cursing, suggestive language, MDI. literally can’t be bothered to think of anything else, but feel free to let me know lol

notes: sooo i lied <333 i’ve decided to give suna his own chapter later on (srry suna lovers !!!!) i just wasn’t satisfied with how his was turning out, and it was the only roadblock delaying my progress soooo figured we’d just put a pin in his for now lol especially for those who were FROTHING for these two in particular (this for y'all ✨) hope you enjoy :)))

notes ii: nobody LOOK AT ME, this took me an embarrassingly long time lol. i’m not familiar with them, personality-wise, but i tried ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

notes iii: this one’s got atsumu written all over it LMAOOO

tagged: @daedaep69 , @ahahadumbo , @viktoryn , @mdsb , @ourgoddessathena , @ushygushybaby , @hyori2 , @lumpywolf , @fantasycantasy

“Aht-CHOO!”

The bowl of popcorn nearly flew out your lap when you shrieked bloody-murder, body in fight or flight from the abrupt sound happening moments before a jumpscare in the movie you were watching. Head on a swivel, you soon realized the culprit wasn’t a psycho-killer in a ghost mask, but your darling OSAMU with his lawnmower of a sneeze coming through your front door.

You exhaled, relieved, but scared shitless. After pausing the movie, you glared down the hall leading to the door. “Seriously? You had to do that with your entire chest?”

Osamu sniffled, then muttered. “…Y’supposed to say bless ya before scoldin’ at your sweet and thoughtful boyfriend, y’know…”

“Aw, bless you, my love. And, fuck you.”

The brunette snorted, no doubt rolling his eyes as he toed off his shoes. Coming down the hall to soon reveal his handsome face, illuminated only by the bright tv screen, Osamu held up a large plastic bag filled with something greasy and delicious as the smell traveled up your nose. He grinned smugly at you intently eyeing the bag. “Fuck me, huh?”

You immediately doubled down, waving your hands. “Waitwaitwait I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it as in…fuck you’RE so sweet and thoughtful, and I love you so much..?”

Osamu hummed, taking off his ball cap to place it on your head. Shaking it a little by the brim, he winked. “Nice save, darlin’.”

He made way for your inspace kitchen to get dinner assorted with you trailing not too far behind. Your eyes eagerly ate up the widespread of all your favorites displayed on the countertop, practically hanging off his back since there was barely any room for the both of you in the tiny space. Popcorn long forgotten, your stomach sang a symphony for some real food, Osamu saving you the trouble of eating instant noodles for dinner yet again.

And without you even having to ask him for any of it, too.

Your gaze eventually locked onto the former volleyball player, eyeing him up with a newfound hunger that he was quick to pick up on while he popped a piece of fried chicken in his mouth. Looking down at you with a raised brow he patiently waited for you to voice your thoughts, a boyish grin growing on his face as he chewed.

You blinked. He blinked back, then chuckled lightly. “We communicatin’ telepathically, or somethin’?”

“If we were, you’d know I wanna suck you dry right now.”

Osamu.exe—E R R O R.

Man straight up inhaled the little that was still in his mouth, hurling him into a fit of hacks as he turned away from the food to fight for his life at your sink. Coughing up what he could into the drain with you behind him hitting his back for support, you couldn’t stop the evil, little laugh from slipping out seeing this as a form of karma for the scare earlier. Osamu fixed you with a weak glare once he calmed down, reaching over to pinch your cheek. “A warnin’ next time, would’ya?…”

You winced, but mirth still swam in your eyes. “Your only warning would’ve been your pants around your ankles-”

“Oi, quit that.” He gently grabbed your jaw to squish up your mouth, though it didn’t repress the cheeky grin you wore. The brunette did his best to remain unfazed, but the flush across his face was evident, your words clearly effecting him. “…Jeez, at least ask me how m’day was before ya slut me out. Soundin’ like all them thirsty-ass comments floodin’ my socials all damn day.”

Osamu let go of your face to grab plates from your cabinet, leaving you standing there, dumbfounded. Pursing your lips, you crossed your arms with a raised brow. “‘m sorry…the what flooding your socials?”

He busied himself with fixing your plate, nonchalantly recalling the very incident that occurred the other day, “That dumb fuck-list or whatever, mixed up me ‘nd ‘tsumu in their little post. Had his ugly mug front ‘nd center, but had my name attached to this long-winded thread ‘bout me basically being better in the sack than him. Shit’s wild.”

“The fuck-what now?” Osamu handed over a healthy plate full of food, you absentmindedly took it but made no move to eat. He started fixing his own, acting as if he didn’t just delay your appetite with this information. “Y—…you’re joking right? There’s no way something like that exists.”

“Oh, t’s very much real. Read it with my own eyes,” he licked the spoon he used to spread sauce across his chicken. “What, ya sayin’ ya haven’t heard of it? Seriously?”

“You know I don’t care enough to keep up with the trends that go on around here. And with good reason, clearly. What’s even the purpose?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. But it’s got ‘tsumu givin’ me the silent treatment, so maybe it’s not that bad after all.”

“Pfft. He’s pissy because some random on the internet said you’re the better lay? How would they know?? You’re both happily taken, and I wish a bitch would.” You smugly declared, bringing your food to the living room.

Osamu grinned at your possessive tone, trailing behind you holding plate and soda cans in either hand. “Damn straight. But, wasn’t just some random, babe. We’re talkin’ millions.”

Had you not already gotten situated on the couch, you would’ve surely spilled food all over yourself. Jaw nearly to the floor, you blinked up at him, bewildered. “Nuh uh.”

“Yuh huh.”

“Holy shit.”

Osamu took his usual spot next to you, large frame nearly taking up most of the couch. With bellies empty, knee knocking against knee, and elbow nudging elbow, the brunette hummed contently as he soaked in his favorite atmosphere—Your voice, your warmth, you. Though too busy monologuing about the absurdity of such a thing going viral to notice his fond gaze, Osamu silently listened to every word as he began eating from his plate. Although, all that mushiness is soon pushed to the back of his mind when the next sentence fell from your lips. After you eventually found said post to see it for yourself, needless to say you had some…hot takes.

“How could someone write this and not cringe? I mean, I love you ‘samu, but a Dom? If only they knew how nervous you were our first time, it was so adorable.” You giggled, tossing some chicken into your mouth. “You are not that guy.”

Osamu’s chewing paused. Your laughter eventually died down.

You didn’t feel his stare earlier…but you were definitely feeling it now, Mr. Krabs. Suddenly, the same dread you got when anticipating a jumpscare resurfaced. A sinking pit in your stomach like a rabbit stumbling upon a fox—Cliché aside, you fucked up. And you knew it in your bones the second your eyes locked with his, void of fondness and full of hunger despite his plate being half-eaten.

He swallowed the bit in his mouth, then spoke. “Sure ‘bout that?”

You mouth moved, floundered even, but nothing would come out. And Osamu didn’t rush you either, if anything he gladly watched you struggle while he continued munching away. “I—..I-I mean..I was just saying. Because…y’know, you never…we never really-”

“Mm. Jus’ cause we usually take things slow doesn’t mean you can’t get a hole fucked into your mattress, sweetheart. Keep tryin’ ya luck, ‘nd ya just might. Finish eatin’ first, though. Ya gonna need your energy.”

SAKUSA couldn’t give a flying fuck about the list. He would literally walk away from someone mid-conversation if said topic got brought up. And don’t think that you’re the exception, either—Man parked and got out of his OWN CAR during the drive back to his place, refusing to get back in until you dropped the subject entirely.

“Omi-”

“No.”

“C’monnnn.”

“No.”

You giggled, “I won’t talk about it anymore, I promise.”

He had his back to you as you spoke through the rolled down, driver’s side window, trying to ‘pspspsps’ him back into the car like a stubborn cat. Sakusa knew he was being ridiculous, but he just couldn’t stomach anymore nonsense. Plus, there’s a bit of suspicion on his end whenever it came to talking about the accursed list—Sakusa saw it as a bad omen.

Anyone who talked about it within his circle, be it teammates or personal friends, miraculously found themselves posted up the following day like fresh meat on the market. Once he caught wind that not even taken people were spared from being thirsted over, his disdain merely amplified, as did his precaution.

“Baby, I’ll burn some sage back at your apartment to scare away the bad energy from my filthy words. Would that make you feel better?”

Sakusa huffed, looking over his shoulder to give you a good ole stank face—One you barely paid any mind to as you batted your lashes at him. He glitched. Had it not been for the mask he was wearing, you’d see the harsh flush that spread across his face. Too bad his neck was exposed, giving him away as you grinned knowingly. But, you weren’t about to distract him from the issue at hand, you temptress.

“Don’t patronize me. Besides, you didn’t say it at my apartment, you said it in the car. Would completely defeat the purpose.”

You blinked.

There was no stopping the laughing fit you fell into when his words eventually processed, borderline cackling. “I-I’ll sage the car then, how ‘bout that?”

The ravenette squinted, marching up to the car to stick his head in before pulling his mask down so you could see his heavy frown through your tearful hysterics.

“You’re laughing. You’ve doomed me to becoming targeted by perverts, and you’re laughing.”

“‘yoomi, PLEASE.” You wheezed, waving a hand at him for mercy. With a couple stuttered intakes of air, you did your best to pull it together. “Don’t you think…you’re being a little paranoid?”

Amusement colored your features when you made eye contact with the outside hitter. Sakusa rolled his, tugging his mask back on before re-entering the car. “We’ll see how funny you find it when we can’t be seen together in public anymore.”

“And why not?” You raised a brow, still giggly.

Sakusa buckled in, taking the car out of park. “Because. When I do get posted, I won’t be leaving the safety of my room until that shit gets banned.”

“Oh my god, honey, I promise. You’re worrying over nothing. If you were gonna be on the list, don’t you think you would’ve by now? I mean, c’mon, even Hinata got on it before you. Majority of your teammates did!”

“That’s exactly my point. I’m the only one left.”

The two of you continued a playful back and forth pretty much the whole drive, more so you teasing him than anything else. After a while, having had your fun, you gave it a rest much to Sakusa’s relief. “Can still burn some sage, if you want-” “You’re not funny.”

Your evening continued on as normal, him taking a shower while you busied yourself by looking for a show the two of you could binge. Although, even after the discussion from earlier had been dropped, your boyfriend’s words still echoed in the back of your mind like a mantra. ‘I’m the only one left.’

As much as you’d hate to admit, though never to his face, your over-suspicious companion had a point. Without the safety net of his more extroverted teammates being in the spotlight of rabid fans, what’s delaying the swarm of unsolicited desires now? Even with his sourtude, Sakusa was an attractive individual—The dark curls that frame his face perfectly, his piercing pools of obsidian that shred through you like paper, the beauty marks above his brow, his THIGHS. And those were just surface-level things.

Being one of the privileged few who’ve seen all layers of Sakusa, you couldn’t blame them for wanting to explore deeper into who he was beyond that cold exterior…in more ways than one. Who better to fill those burning questions than some horny randos with too much time on their hands?

But, he’s made it this far without issue, what’s there to worry about now?—*Bzzzzt*

You jolt slightly, the harsh vibration coming from the sofa table breaking you out of your thoughts. With a short glance at your phone, the lit screen revealed an incoming call from Sakusa’s cousin, Komori. You exhale a breath you didn’t even realize you were holding, reaching over to grab the device and answer it. However, as your thumb hovered over the green button, a small part of you couldn’t help but wonder…why would he be calling you?

You shook your head, answering the call before your mind could wander. He probably just wanted to catch up, make small talk. A smile graced your face as you happily greeted him, “Mori! Hi, what can I do ya for-?”

“Has he seen it?? Am I too late??”

You froze, blinking widely in stunned confusion. Your silence must have been loud enough for the man to grow more anxious, calling out your name to regain your attention. “Uh…has who seen what?”

Komori exhaled, in what you could only assume was relief. “Thank God…you sound blissfully unaware. That means there’s still time. You’re at his place, right?”

You blinked, eyes looking around as if he could see you.

“Kiyoomi’s? Yeah, I am. He’s in the shower at the moment if you were trying to reach him. Is everything okay?”

Now it was him who turned silent. You waited with bated breath, fidgeting with the hem of your shirt as you wracked your brain for every worst case scenario…but a small part of you already had an idea.

“It’s the complete opposite, I’m afraid.”

‘Kiyoomi Sakusa. 6’2ft of ?????. An enigma. We had to take our time this one. This tall, personification of a hand sanitizer bottle may appear to be disgusted and disinterested, but once you get past those disinfectant defenses of his…Lady in the streets, but a freak in the bed. Why else would he keep so clean all the time? It’s ‘cause he’s hiding an absolute FILTHY ANIMAL behind his mask (literally and figuratively) you cannot convince me otherwise. Definitely a Hard Dom, would degrade you for making a mess all over him even though he’s the one to blame; THRIVES when you get messy for him tho. Firm believer that he’d spit in your mouth, both as punishment and a reward. He won’t make much noise, you’ll think he’s doing taxes while deep in your guts, but just watch his face; homie is EXPRESSIVE. Aftercare could go either way, but he’d probably focus more on getting the sheets changed than cleaning you up. 7/10.’

You clenched the phone in disbelief, eyes watering due to the sexual word-vomit burning them the more you read on. It didn’t even take you long to find the dreaded post you were convinced would never manifest, refreshing the page multiple times just to confirm its existence. “Shit. I really did doom him to being targeted by perverts…”

“Huh??” Komori voiced. You merely brushed it off.

“Nothing,” you sighed. Taking the conversation out on the balcony in case Sakusa overheard, you had Komori on speaker as you attempted to do damage control. “Do the others know about this? Oh God, does Atsumu?? Knowing him, he’d surely jump at the chance to tease Omi with something like this.”

“Dunno. Just found out myself, and you were the first person I thought to call.”

You looked over your shoulder, peeking inside to see if the outside hitter was roaming around. There didn’t appear to be any movement, but there’s no doubt he finished showering by now.

Exhaling, you began sifting through your contacts. “We need to do whatever it takes to make sure he never finds out about the post. I’ll text everyone I know to help flag it down, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take before-”

“Who’re you talking to?”

Startled, phone nearly tossed off the balcony, you turned toward the sudden appearance of your freshly washed boyfriend, towel around his neck and adorned in lounge wear. Komori held his breath, as if he also were caught in the act even though he could easily escape with a mere press of a button. “Um…your cousin.”

“Okay, but…why’d you come out here? You wouldn’t have disturbed me if you took the call inside.” Sakusa raised a brow at your stiff posture, perplexed but concerned. “Something the matter?”

“No!” You winced at your own volume. His eyes widened slightly, making you nervously chuckle. Clearing your throat, you attempted to play it cool. “No, uh…just wanted to get some air while catching up with Komori, that’s all. W-why d’you ask?”

Sakusa squinted at you. “You’re jumpy.”

“J-Jumpy? Me? Uh.. that’s because…” Searching your brain for an excuse, luckily Komori had your back with his quick thinking.

“B-Because! We’re talking about the list! And t-they figured you wouldn’t wanna hear us, so-” SLAM!

Before he could even get the rest of the explanation out, Sakusa had already closed the sliding door. You and Komori shared a sigh of relief. You watched Sakusa’s back retreat into the living room as he sat on the couch, flickering around for something to put on to pass the time.

Just as suspected…still paranoid.

“That was close…”

“Super close. Think he bought it?”

You groaned, hesitant to take your eyes off him. “Won’t matter if he decides to check his phone at some point…”

It didn’t appear to be anywhere in sight, hopefully charging in another room. But, there was no point in wasting time worrying about that. You had some flagging to do. And as long as he had no reason to look at it, you’d be fine.

Sakusa, now bored with you occupied by something else, couldn’t help but to watch you longingly from the couch. You were speaking so animatedly, using your free hand to gesture, pacing back and forth. He frowned—How can that stupid list be more important than snuggling up with him? Yet another reason to hate it.

Exhaling through his nose he leaned back on the sofa, remote in hand as he looked for something to help pass the time. However, before he could get very far in his search, his phone rings.

Confused, he reached into his pocket. Instantly, his mood went from neutral to shriveled when he read the caller ID—Miya.

He had half a mind to ignore it, but knowing Atsumu he’d probably just keep calling until the inevitable happened with him turning up on his doorstep. Sakusa gave an annoyed huff, reluctantly answering the phone.

“Better have a good reason to be calling me this late, idiot.”

“Oh ho ho. Believe me, Omi-Omi. You’ll wanna see this.”

Back on the balcony, after the sixth time flagging the post for misinformation and harassment, you suddenly felt a shift in the atmosphere that wasn’t there moments before. Halting your frantic thumbs, you slowly looked up from the screen as a cold chill ran up your spine; something didn’t feel right in the force.

You weren’t sure what made you turn back to look inside the room, but the moment you did…it was like the world had gone into slow motion—Komori’s voice faded into the background as he called out your name, drowned out by the sound of your heart pounding through your ribs at the sight of Sakusa on his phone, face contorted into what could only be described as pure humiliation as he stared into the endless abyss while on his knees.

Probably should’ve burned that sage when you had the chance.

© 2023-2024 anisespice ッ all rights reserved. likes, comments & reblogs much appreciated!

[cowgirlcherrie]

⬭ 𓈒 hey there! all star. chapter two: the pink pen

╰   * rockstar! ellie x singer! reader x rockstar! abby

synopsis: At All Star University deviance isn’t tolerated. When the band room is up in flames with 3 music students to blame, community service at a band camp in the summer is in order.

warnings: 18+, MDNI, smoking, mentions of arson, fighting, sexual undertones if you look closely, jealousy, slighty dark! ellie n abby, descriptions of blood, stabbing (with a pen), touching, jabs at hooking up, crazy-exes, if you watched tsitp (like a team conrad vs team jeremiah type beat), big feelings denial

a/n: (9k + words) There is definitely a change of speed this chapter, now for the fun, a lot of stakes a presented this chapter which lines up for future chapters, thus why there is one flashback to the fight scene, and some gaps of events — as always my inbox is open I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter if you ever wanna pop in to talk about it, I would love to hear theories as well

previous. next chapter

02. the pink pen

You wish you could super-glue your eyes shut. 

The heat scorned your back, as the light layer of sunscreen you applied started to melt. The terrible air circulation from the broken bus fans didn’t help how sticky you felt against the red leather seats of the school bus.

Of course, apart from the 3 of you that had to volunteer, some other campus students were there as well; naturally volunteering out of the kindness of their own hearts. They were often plastered on the University’s Instagram as appreciation for their service.

Recognizable to you was first, Nora, who walked onto the bus with a pep in her step, followed by Dina and Jesse who you knew as friends of Ellie, Manny -- Abby’s practice buddy, and the silhouette of the last person who made your heart drop. A scowl appearing on your face as you brought a hand up to your face in shock.

Elora was the last campus student to enter the bus. 

The smug look on her face made you want to walk right up and slap it off of her. This was ridiculous. In this very moment, you hated the fact that you signed up for this – you should have just taken the expulsion, this was fucking awkward. You turned your head to look at Abby who was already looking at you as if she wanted to slam her head into a wall. 

With a loud – thud, Abby’s head hit the window, while you slowly slid down in your seat.

“If you act like you don’t see IT…it’s not even there” Abby whispered, referring to Elora as ‘it’ - making you only groan in response.

Ellie was to your right in the 3 seater, making you sandwiched between the two. Squinting at the two of you in confusion. The loud screaming music of her headphones masked any sounds your lips were making – so she tried to read lips. 

Ellie only got “don’t look” “not… there” and she eventually just tilted her head forward to mind her own business. Ellie was quiet this go round, you were waiting for her to just unclip her seatbelt and try to switch with Nora, who sat with Dina. Mentally, you thought she probably had enough of you and Abby’s shenanigans. 

Ellie wore long jorts in the heat, her leg rubbing against your own; one leg slightly further out in the middle aisle but her left leg still touching yours. You could feel Ellie’s cold hands slightly brushing at your knee from its position that it had on your own. You were overstimulated at this moment. Between Elora looking at you, Ellie being basically on top of you, and Abby throwing insults about Elora in your ear, it was too much. 

Abby and yourself went from cracking jokes and laughing to now trying your best to be invisible and unseen on the bus. 

“It’s hard not to she’s literally looking at me.” You hissed lowly back to Abby, who popped up from her slumped position like a popcorn kernel to look back at Elora as she twirled the drumstick in her hands some more. Abby pretended to throw the drumstick at Elora’s head, clicking her tongue and pretending that she hit her target. “Maybe I should wack her…again”

“Maybe you shouldn’t”

“Nah maybe I should, ya know…poke her eye out or—”

“Seriously…Abby?”

“The bitch can’t even read music!”

“What is up with you guys?” Ellie’s voice boomed as she took out her headphones to look at the two of you. Her sea green eyes were deep into your own, suddenly feeling yourself shake slightly under her gaze. Now that you got to see her features up even closer, she was more beautiful than your brain sought her to be. Her freckled face is slightly red from the sun and glossy from the sunscreen she wore as well. A cropped Guns & Roses muscle tee on her body, exposing the familiar tattoos on her arms. Sunglasses on her forehead – mirroring Abby. You broke the contact, your eyes pleading with Abby to help you.

Deny Deny Deny 

“You know…ex-flings” Abby blurted out, making sure to emphasize the word ex making you gasp and jab an elbow into her hip. Abby let out a huff at your unexpected jab. 

Abby entirely missed your que. 

You could feel your body getting jittery, your cheeks warm as your lips were slightly parted. You were not about to tell your crush about your failed situationship that nearly set you off. 

“I wasn’t asking you, rookie, I’m asking y/n…” Ellie interrupted, not breaking eye contact with you. Great. She was staring you down like a hawk watching its prey. She was onto you. Ellie bit her lip leaning into you “Y/n…?” 

You couldn’t focus. Between Ellie’s peppermint, eucalyptus scent that was hovering over you, your mind almost shutting dow; you looked past Ellie to look at Elora, who was already staring at you. Like you were a hunk of meat. It grossed you out, body shifting under her gaze, you could feel her eyes shifting to parts of your body that were exposed. Looking at places that she shouldn’t. Like your thighs, or your cleavage that was showing as your boobs pressed against each other in the tight pink halter top you wore.

Abby, on the other hand was twirling her drums got faster…and faster – to the point where you can hear the whizzing of the wood slapping against her flesh fingers.

You swore the wood was going to snap.

Ellie followed your train of vision, her lips shut as she looked at Elora. You could feel Ellie tense next to you, taking her hand off of her own thigh to crack her knuckles briefly.

“You fuckin’ around with Elora?” Ellie sounded disgusted, “ooh you could do better” she sang, reaching down to fix your signature necklace that was slightly crooked at the center of your chest. Your hand gently grabbing at her own, but still looking elsewhere.

You were still hyper-focused on Elora, Ellie periodically looking back between you and Elora to see if she stopped looking.

“I’m not– I didn’t,” you sighed “We used to talk she kinda fucked shit up it’s just awkward to see her here…and now she won’t stop looking at me” Your voice was small, soft, almost whining.

Ellie could feel that you were uncomfortable. So could Abby to your left who fallen awfully silent. Your discomfort makes both girls grow angrier by the minute. Ellie didn’t like Elora. It wasn’t even for the fact that you were previously entangled with her but Ellie had her personal beef with Elora. 

Starting with the fact that Elora swept her own ex-girlfriend from right under her own arms and was pretty determined to make sure anything Ellie touched would be briefly removed from her hands. Ellie’s hands gripped the backboard of the seat in front of you, her knuckles turning white.

“Stop staring back at her, just look at me” Ellie whispered aggressively making you blink rapidly out of the haze you were in. 

Her raspy voice was like a siren call, making you instantly submit yourself to do whatever she said, whatever she wanted “Want me to do something– say something? Cuz I will” Ellie whispered her voice, dark.

Ellie looked murderous at the moment. What the fuck were you doing to her? Ellie hasn’t felt this way in months. Jealousy nagged at her heart, enraging her head until all she could see was red. She hated the way Elora looked at you, it wasn’t in a saying hi to an old friend way, but like she was stirring the pot in her head cooking up the most chaotic and disruptive recipe. 

No sugar, bitter table-salt. 

Given the opportunity to put Elora in her place, she would do it any day free of charge. A scowl made home on Ellie’s face. In the moment she was rather expressive– extremely expressive, in comparison to her stoic face 10 minutes ago. Ellie dug into the front pocket of your shorts taking out your pink pen that was peaking out. Double clicking it a few times. The clicking becoming obnoxious to the ears, like nails on a chalkboard — Abby sat up this time watching Ellie’s hands as her eyes flickered to Elora who of course was aloof as ever.

Ellie spoke up again, 

“Say the word…” 

You couldn’t find it in you to speak. Your silence defies the room. Ellie bounced her leg steadily growing irritated at the fact that you weren’t giving her an answer. The minute your supervisor turned to sit in her seat after doing attendance checks, Elora took the chance to give one final glance at you - Ellie’s jaw clenched as she felt the pen almost liquifying in her hand and flying uncontrollably.

Ellie held the pen like a dart as it whizzed in the air whacking Elora in the face. Elora turned around holding her cheek, letting out a groan that could be heard throughout the bus. Abby laughed to your left in amusement at Ellie’s sudden behavior;  your mouth going wide staring at Ellie who only sunk back into her chair with a smug I don’t care - look on her face. Ellie’s head was skewing out different curses. The red she was seeing was pulsing, like a beating heart. 

Two could play that game. 

“So you let her do it but not me?” Abby shamelessly admitted, trying her best to conceal her laughter against the window. Even though she wasn’t the one to do it Abby found the situation entertaining.

Elora turned again, trying to figure out who threw the pen, locking eyes with Ellie who was already staring her down.

“Next time…” Ellie croaked,  raising a hand to point at her right eye “It’ll be your fuckin’ eye” Ellie’s voice was prominent, threatening; sending Elora a cocky wink to finalize her statement. 

It was safe to say that Elora didn’t look at you for the rest of the bumpy ride. Eventually, your head slumped against Abby’s bulked arms letting out silent snores as you slept peacefully for the 30-minute bus ride to the cabins. Abby was doing the same her head against the glass of the window while her hand was gently on your thigh.

Ellie looked like a guard dog, a Doberman, protective and alert – wired headphones returned in her small ears, zoning out ahead. Occasionally boring a hole into the back of Elora’s head before hitting the skip button to the song on her phone.

Ellie’s green eyes tilted down to Abby’s hand that was protectively over your leg — like a blanket keeping you warm in the winter. She wasn’t sure why she was feeling jittery all of sudden, she knew better than to think anything more of it.

Just a friend…

Abby was just a friend, right?

☆*•. 

Arriving to the camp-site, smelling the air filled of freshly cut grass, merky salt water from the lake, a boost of serotonin ran through you. When summer calls and nature picks up the phone it was truly a sight to see. The buzzing of the bees – working overtime in pollination and flies out for blood put you at ease. 

Stepping off the bus, you took your bags from the lower compartment to sling the pink duffle over your shoulder. Waiting in front as Abby did the same thing. Abby rightfully brought her drumsticks, tucking them in her butt pocket like she always does, while Ellie had her guitar case strapped to her back. A guitar pick hanging from her neck around a ball-chain silver necklace. 

It truly reminded you of the times there was marching band practice during high-school summers. 

Certain cabins with labels on them indicating the music rooms, dorms, and dining hall, nostalgia hitting you like a wet brick. A navigation stick at the center with arrows pointing at different locations of the camp. 

The bee’s decided that your perfume was perfectly sweet, making you swat your arm around your head at the bees that were effortlessly trying to kiss your ear. 

Abby, slid into the empty pocket of standing distance next to you, as you turned slightly to point at Abby’s sunglasses – your way of asking to wear them, to which she gracefully handed them to you with a smile.

Abby cleared her throat, “Ehm…Robin, hope you didn’t forget about our deal” 

Right. The fucking bet, you wanted to forget the bet and honestly just ditch it. Feeling ridiculous and immature for making the deal in the first place — words slipping out of your mouth uncontrollably. You looked like you just got caught doing something you shouldn’t – shrouding bashfully away from Abby, looking up at her through your tinted glasses.

“How about we delay that til’ fall?”

“It’s too late we already swapped spit” Abby grumbled, pretending to do the act of spitting in her hand and shaking an imaginary one in front of her. 

You puffed out your cheeks, rolling your eyes as you did so, letting the air deflate “I’ll bump it up to $40”

“Hey…you have one little interaction with the punk and now you’re giving up?” Abby began, nudging you with her arm “She got you feelin' hot and wet don’t she?’' Abby teased, her voice low and cunning almost as if she was daring you to try something. 

Abby slyly put two fingers in her mouth, slowly sucking on her fingers – humming out a low moan deep in your ear before pushing her fingers out of her mouth with a loud pop! 

Abby wasn’t wrong you were hot and bothered, probably not in the way she was thinking but definitely in need of a long cold shower to kill any sexual desires arising in your psyché. 

Lewd thoughts attacking your neurons, sending shots of dopamine throughout your body – wondering what sweet nothings she would whisper in your ear, lips grazing your ear – before meeting your jawline, running her tongue against your skin. Then swirling her tongue at your neck occasionally giving the flesh a bite like a vampire, creating art on your body and leaving you in violet hues.

Was it normal to have such lewd, unholy thoughts about your best friend? 

You couldn’t— no you shouldn’t. It felt almost illegal like you have been committing a crime.

No…you didn’t feel some type away it was just how she was. Maybe it was how she flirted you like always, but that was who she was, that was just…Abby. You needed to distract yourself - refocus, so you chose Ellie.

It didn’t help with how good Ellie looked under the sun’s gaze either. Shifting your gaze to where Ellie stood talking to Dina and Jesse who were giving very animated responses back to the girl. Ellie’s hands were on her hip slightly applying more pressure to lean on one leg. You could see the pack of Marlboro Reds in her back pocket, peaking out just a tad. Her cropped muscle tee lifts up every few minutes exposing the hemline of her boxers. You could feel the lace of your underwear in your denim light wash shorts, feeling stickier and wetter.

You were frustrated…extreemly frustrated, sexually.

Fuck 

Was it the sun beaming or was it her?

Maybe it was the way Abby was seductively trying to get a rise out of you that was turning you on even further.

Snapping out of your trance, that had you tilting your head in different directions, biting at your pink glossed lips while your fingers played with the ends of your hair.

Abby was an asshole, an asshole that was causing your heart to palpitate in an unusual manner. She was a little devious devil on your shoulder pushing you to the edge.

“Dude seriously! – gross”

“Whatever you say dear” Abby sang putting her hands up in defense – a shit-eating grin on her lips. “Ellie’s about to make you her bitch…watch…not like it’s hard” Abby swiftly looked you up and down.

Not that you would mind – sitting at her feet begging her to touch you, it was your perfect wet fantasy.

But you wanted to prove Abby wrong. You wanted to be in control and call the shots, you desperately wanted the ball to be in your court.

“Yeah…we’ll see”

As if on cue, your supervisor tucks the clipboard under her arm giving a triple clap to grab everybody’s attention. The woman appeared to be in her 50s and the name tag on her her breast pocket saying ‘Adalaide’ sealed the deal for you. Her smile was wide, and looking up at everyone through her visor, she almost looked robotic – artificial. 

“Welcome counselors to All-Star sleep-away band camp!” She shouted, bringing up her hands to give a mini applause. No one else followed suit to clap. It was almost humorous.

“We are so pleased to have you here! Helping to aid our student ran camping program is a big responsibility and the All-Star University family thanks you! At this table I have your staff shirts and name badges which you will be expected to wear, if you don’t wear your staff shirt because it gets dirty or unsanitary at any moment, name pins must be worn. Upon receiving your shirts you will initial next to your name, which has your cabin number at the top. We typically have separate cabins for the counselors…So that line of cabins,” 

Adalaide pointed to the row of cabins down the rocky road from where you were standing

“...has two beds and a bathroom. On the desks of each bedroom, there will be a clipboard with rules and the group you are running or teaching. We will be meeting back here – at this central spot,  around 12:30 which is when the campers start arriving”

You turn around to give Abby a slight smirk, taking off her sunglasses from your face and putting them on your head this time.

“We ensure you have a great experience, we hope you can make this a responsible and fun summer for the kids” Adalaide finished her announcement with an ear-splitting smile, the woman out of breath, clasping her hands together to make a loud clap. 

The group of you made your way towards the wooden picnic table, picking up a woefully ugly red shirt with the word STAFF bolded in white lettering on the back, it was definitely something you had to personalize.

 Initialing your name with the blue ink trailing your painted nail across the thin paper seeing your cabin number and bunkmate.

Cabin 3 with…ELLIE WILLIAMS

You mentally cursed at yourself, it was as if your downfall was being prayed upon. It’s not that you didn’t want to bunk with Ellie, but the thoughts of her that possessed you drove you insane. You didn’t think you could hold yourself back in a room alone with the girl.

Tilting to look at Abby, you let out a sigh seeing that she was occupied.

Abby got into a good conversation with Nora, Abby smiling, occasionally pushing her bangs out of her face. She was beet red, fiddling with the shark tooth around her neck.

Your small grin turning into a frown at the sight of it. It’s not that you were jealous…of course not — but Abby looked at Nora with such admiration, like she was the most beautiful girl you have ever seen.

You wanted Abby to look at you like that— no

You wanted someone to look at you the way Abby looked at Nora. You let out a growl at the conflicting voices in your head.

Looking around the mix of counselors you saw that Ellie had already disappeared off into the cabin. Deciding it would be best to just walk off on your own.

☆*•. 

Heading down the trail, your white vintage classic rebooks got dusty. The sand gravel blowing onto your feet from the breeze of the trees. You walked into your cabin, the door letting out a loud creek as it slammed behind you.

It was homey – definitely smelled of slightly rotting wood and water from the lake, and was rather small; It was going to do the job for the month. Ellie’s bed and your own are across from each other with a desk at the center of the room. The in-cabin bathroom is small and in the corner of the 4x4.

Ellie’s eyes shifted up, eyebrows raised in amusement as she saw you come into the cabin. Looking at you up and down with a small smirk across her lips.

“Hey roomie, it’s an honor to share a bunk with you” Ellie teased taking out clothes from her bag and putting them into the bedside drawers. Her tone was cocky, almost poking fun at you.

“Something tells me I’m gonna regret it” You challenged cracking a smile. You slammed your bag down on your bed, which was followed by your body resting against the hard mattress that almost was the equivalent of sleeping on a box. Ellie was moving with great speed, picking up her fitted linen sheets and putting her blankets on the bed. She was almost finished packing. There was silence between the two of you. Mutually comfortable as you both did your own thing. 

Ellie fluffed out her pillow one last time and looked up to where you were resting. Her eyes skimmed over your exposed skin: from how your shirt rode up and the way your shorts rested on your thighs. Ellie bit her lips looking closely at your waistline to see the light-pink underwear strap peaking through. She felt dirty for doing so, but she couldn’t help it. Your eyes were closed long eyelashes poking at your cheeks, giving your under-eyes butterfly kisses.

“Need a hand?” Ellie spoke up gently, as you heard a drawer close from her end, followed by the creaking of her bed. 

“…y-yeah I could use the help juuust taking a breather” you whispered, bringing up your arms to block your face almost as if you were about to start a game of 7-up. 

“You don’t mind me touching your stuff right,” Ellie asked, dipping a knee into your mattress and she fiddled with the puffball at the zipper of your duffle bag. 

“No no– go ahead, do your thing” you responded, mentally counting to three before pulling your body weight to help. The two of you put away your clothes, followed by your sheets and blanket in silence.

You tried to ignore the fact that Ellie was gracefully putting your intimates in the top drawer with ease, her fingers running across the hemlines and edges of your bras and underwear as she slid them into the drawer.

Was it bad that you wanted her to take one?

“The shirt they are making us wear is fucking ugly” Ellie confessed, as she pulled down the remaining corner of your blanket, her muscles flexing as she moved. Ellie shifted her body this time, collapsing on your bed as she watched your body move. Ellie thought you were attractive – she always did, but granted the right person wrong time was very much real, the both of you were somewhat involved in relationships before she could make a move.

Ellie was smitten for you, hell half of the shit she would do for you, she definitely didn’t do for her ex. 

Lifting up the red shirt and the pair of scissors on the desk, you pretend to snip air “Ugh I know, I was about to cut it into something” you began.

This wasn’t uncommon for you, fixing and revamping old clothes has been your creative passion since you were 10. Freshly in the 6th grade making your outfits yourself no matter how badly the colors matched. It was you; came strongly from your large heart. This was one of the moments where you could express your authentic self freely.

You rested the shirt flat on the desk, cutting a vertical slit at the neckline to create a small v-line and splitting the bottom into two halves so it would be easier to crop and tie in a knot. Smiling at your work you swiftly pulled the pink-halter top off –�� ignoring the presence of Ellie who was gawking at you. Her eyes glossed over your boobs admiring how nicely they sat in your push-up bra. The glittery lace compliments your skin well. Her thoughts were interrupted when your previously displayed bra had been covered by the red shirt.

You were teasing her.

Giving her a show — just enough to where she wanted to taste you and then pulling it back with that typical sweet look that was placed back on your dolled-up face. You tied it off in a knot at the bottom, the shirt fitting as you turned around to face Ellie fully this time.

“Ta-da!” you sang giving a twirl as Ellie whistled at you from her positioning at your bed. Ellie bit her lips watching the way you playfully danced. She wanted to grab you by the waist and pull you on top of her. Grabbing at your hair and your face like it was her last time touching it. 

Ellie walked over, slightly tugging you aside by the waist as she set down her own red shirt on the table cutting off the sleeves – the shirt now in a muscle-tee format. Ellie mimicked your actions, disregarding her black top over her head leaving her in a Calvin Klein sports bra as she put the red top on. Ellie wasn’t breaking eye contact with you – like she always does. Staring you down as you adjusted her shirt to her body. It seemed like she got the hint – perhaps you were teasing her, maybe you did want her to look at you.

No 

You DID want her to look at you 

“That’s more like it…” Ellie mumbled, stretching her arms in the shirt. 

“Looks like we are going to be having a lot of fun this summer” Ellie whispered, her fingertips ghosting over your waist, as she trailed her fingers along the side of your exposed skin, before picking up the clipboard behind you. You exhaled at the feeling of her cold tips on your skin sending shocks through your body at the sudden temperature change.

Your body being hit with flashes, from cool to warm and eventually burning hot, as if someone turned on a heater and blasted in your face. Heart thumping in your ears like rolling thunder.

You quickly cleared your throat trying to push the out of body experience you were having out — followed her actions. Turning around to face the desk–  lifting up your own clipboard to see the thick layers of paper. A stack of 4 to 5 pages. 1-2 being rules, 3 being your attendance sheet and any dietary restrictions, 4 being the section you were teaching – which in this case was vocal lessons, and page 5 was your daily hour schedule. 

“So…where did they place you?” Ellie inquired, tilting her head to try to get a glimpse of your board.

“I’m at vocal lessons, with Jesse…” you mumbled eyes furrowing at what you were being expected to teach “Who were you so lucky to get?”

“More like unlucky… guitar lessons with your little weird friend, Elora” Ellie snickered bitterly, you almost choked on the air at her words. It seemed like a never-ending slope of bad luck – now would have been a good time to tape a clover to your chest. When things were doing just fine they would eventually reach the lowest of lows that you have seen them. Perhaps it was your karma for your negligent and careless way of thinking. Perhaps this was being done to punish you. 

“She’s not my friend”

“I know, just teasin’” Ellie shrugged, as she grabbed the sunscreen off the table to quickly reapply the aerosol. You watched as her body started to glisten, almost twinkling under the dim overhead light in the cabin. The thoughts of Ellie and Elora possibly working together escaping your thoughts. “Want some?”

Ellie shook the bottle of sunscreen in front of your face. You nodded faintly reaching for the bottle and making Ellie slap your hands away. Ellie took the initiative to spray the sunscreen for you, hitting your arms legs, and your exposed neck. Settling down the can with a faint smile. Ellie was sweet to you – from helping you avoid creeping Elora, unpacking, and now she was applying your sunscreen. You tried to keep your head screwed on tight. She was just being nice. You were convincing yourself that every little inkling or intuitive tingle you had about her liking you was untrue. You couldn't believe it. You didn’t want to. The bet also reappears within your head in flashes.

What Abby doesn’t know – won’t hurt her right?

That was your best friend, why did you suddenly care what Abby thought, what she felt?

You couldn’t grasp why that had such meaning for you.

So what if you got close with Ellie…fucked around – kissed and maybe even profess your liking. Wasn’t this all you wanted? Your happily ever after?

Ellie was making her way out of the door, while you were preparing to follow suit. Looking around swiftly for your pink pen – noticing its absence on your body. Right…it was probably with Elora after Ellie chucked it at her head. 

“Wait…Ellie!” you called out, rushing out the door with the clipboard tucked under your arm like a blanket. “Can you get my pen back?” 

Ellie smirked, casually rolling her eyes at your request. Of course, she’ll do it, she’ll do anything for you. 

“What– you’re gonna die without it?” Ellie teased abruptly turning around to face where you stood on the porch of the cabin, “Of course I’ll get it, back in blood” Ellie sent you a wink. 

By the tone of her voice, you couldn’t tell if she was joking or if it was just her dark-humored nature. Nodding your head to yourself, trailing behind her to get back to the main campsite. 

☆*•.  

Taking care of children was free parenting to you. The runny noses, spontaneous injuries; “he said” – “she said”. It was enough to make you never want to have children. Today went rather peacefully than you expected. Naturally, the campers were settling in, making best friends with their bunk buddies, provided with a tour from Adalaide, meeting with the counselors briefly for an introduction and schedule update, and now they were briefly in the lunch rooms for a quick lunch break. 

The dining hall was well cleaned and put together, wood against wood with fairy lights hanging through the ceiling. It was a cute attraction – something that the youth definitely would enjoy. On the wall there were plaques with BEST CAMP and CHEF OF THE WEEK engraved in the metal. Paddles hanging from the wooden banisters made years prior at the camp. 

With a sharp inhale, you dove head first for the table that sat all the counselors. Parking yourself next to the empty seat that Abby had left open for you. You felt like you haven’t seen your best friend in hours – so caught up in the camping activities it was like you didn’t exist to each other. Abby gave a comforting smile as she patted the wood next to her. You of course sitting at the table. The rotation was rather odd, Jesse, Dina, Abby, and Nora sat at this table but two familiar faces were missing. The absence of the cocky redheaded airhead was gone. 

Ellie and…Elora. 

“Where’s Ellie?” you question, looking at the empty spot next to Jesse. The mood of the table shifted at your words. Everything suddenly became awkward, Abby letting out a small unprovoked cough – Dina taking an awfully large sip of water and Jesse suddenly finding interest in the ice pop that was melting in between his lips.  You quirked an eyebrow, lips apart as you analyzed the faces at the table everyone was silent – avoiding eye contact. “Uhm..hello?”

Jesse coughed, “Infirmary [seriously Jesse!]” 

As soon as the words left his mouth everyone at the table tried to hush him up, Abby muttering under breath, Nora had her head in her hands, and Dina was jabbing at him in his hip. Scolding him. Something was up. “So…why is Ellie in the infirmary?” you pushed fiddling your thumbs against the wood of the table.

“Elora stabbed her hand with a pen” Dina finished, making everyone at the table groan. Ellie’s familiar words of Back in Blood ringing your head. 

“Now that the cat is out of the bag” Abby shot a glare at Jesse and Dina “Special delivery for you” Abby lifted the pen, your pink pen from her back pocket handing it to you gently. Taking it within your hands you felt almost guilty – like a criminal holding a murder weapon, your once cute and pink pen was now splattered in a crimson gooey mess – blood cleaned but spots noticeably there. Ellie’s dry blood was on your pen, staining the plastic. If you knew that Elora would have spontaneously jabbed a pen at her you would have never asked Ellie to fetch it for you.

Elora had her own intentions with Ellie – their beef running deeper than Ellie and Abby’s ever could. 

“Great…” you dragged, grimacing and almost gagging at the blood on the pen – carefully rotating it so your fingers wouldn’t touch the pen.

“This is a fucking biohazard”

Taking a napkin from the napkin holder you gently wrapped the pen with the cotton - briefly walking it to the trash and sitting down again.

“So why did this happen?”

“Payback from getting hit with it earlier, according to Ellie it was unprovoked”

Ellie was pacing in the room, walking around the group of kids doing a headcount – having them stand around in the circle. Ellie just had gotten finished reading the rules and expectations and playing a gentle round of icebreakers for the day. Everything was going fine – apart from Elora staring down Ellie like she wanted to kill her, everything was presumably fine.

“Okay, looks like everyone is here you are all free to go to the dining hall – no running right! We don’t want an injury” The students nodded pushing and shoving their way out of the cabin as Ellie let out a breath of air at the slam of the door. The students were gone. Ellie’s mouth was dry from all of the talking she had been doing. 

Sliding her guitar off from around her neck, she launched it into the stands – backing away to where her water stood on the floor. Picking up the bottle as the lukewarm liquid traveled down her throat, making Ellie groan in satisfaction.

Elora was hunched over in a chair. Watching Ellie as if she had been plotting something rather devious. 

“Is there something on my face or…” Ellie spoke up. Tightening the rest of her water bottle, before tossing it to the floor with a loud BANG! 

“Nah, I’m not even looking at you” Elora spoke up bluntly, her eyes still focused on Ellie. Are you fucking kidding me? Ellie thought. With the absence of people around leaving the two of them alone, she wouldn’t hesitate to send a fast blow to Elora’s rather punchable face.

“Yeah, the fuck you are– you got a real staring problem…do we have a problem?” Ellie was raising her voice, clearly irritated at Elora fucking around with her. Ellie’s hands crossed her chest as she looked at Elora up in down in disgust. 

“You know Cat warned me about you”

Ellie froze at the mention of her ex's name. Cat, who was vastly swept off of her feet by Elora and whatever bullshit lies Elora was feeding her. Ellie felt that her love for Cat was real – rather raw, one of the happiest points in her life. Then Joel died and every strip of happiness faded away into black and grey. She didn’t wanna see Cat anymore – enraged by anything and everything, she didn’t like how open Cat was about their relationship – now everything she did was catching up to her at full speed. Cat confided in Elora who whispered sweet nothings and “Ellie doesn’t know how to treat you right” in her ears.

Elora was a demon sent straight from hell.

“Warned you about what?” Ellie laughed, bitterly,  walking closer to Elora who had stood up from her seat.

“About how reckless you are…how you hit and quit…serial heartbreaker…a cheater, a player” Elora spat making Ellie roll her eyes at her statement. 

“Notice how she only said that after you stole her from me – you stole my girlfriend”

“Ex-girlfriend”

“Same fuckin’ shit!” Ellie fussed, throwing her hands up.

“She said since the death of your father you got reckless… that you get possessive to bitches n’ groupies you taped once…that you’re a freak who can’t control her anger” It was all true. Ellie feeling betrayed by the exposure. But for Ellie’s sake, she would deny it. For your sake…she would deny it too.

Deny Deny Deny.

“Tis’ not true” Ellie then thought about the situation again. “That would be the pot calling the kettle black don’t you think?” 

“Sure about that? Wonder what Y/N would think when she finds out her little crush is no better than her last” Elora shot back, with a shit-eating grin on her face. Ellie was rather startled. 1. By the sudden mention of your name and 2. That Elora was so far up her ass to bring you into this mess and 3. The fact that you liked her. It seemed wrong to come from Elora – your personal feelings had nothing to do with her. Ellie felt herself heating up. 

“Our issues got nothing to do with her” Ellie confessed “She doesn’t want anything to do with you either!” 

“They will now…the way I see you looking at her like you want to eat her.. I dunno fuck her – let her see how much of a crazy bitch you are…bring the lion out rockstar”

Ellie snapped, “Well she’ll be screaming my name over…and over…and over again – and not yours if that's what your insecure ass is worried about” 

“Oh, not for me…I think you should be worried about Abby” Elora warned, making Ellie furrow her eyebrows. Abby? What the fuck did any of this have to do with Abby either? That was your best friend like hell she had to worry about Abby. But Abby did sit a little too close, grab at your waist, call you names, kiss your forehead– do friends do that?

Elora smirked watching as Ellie began to rethink every interaction she saw between you and Abby. Like the day she returned your pen and Abby just had to drag you away. Her arm around your shoulder rubbing circles into your skin. No No No, Elora was just trying to get in her head, Abby wasn’t a threat to her and she knew that.

“And what about her?” Ellie squinted 

“Anderson’s got a wandering eye…y/n might be screaming her name before yours – she’s been 2 steps ahead of you this whole time,”

Ellie poked her tongue in her cheek about Elora’s warning, choosing to ignore it and change the subject. She couldn’t think about that right now she didn’t want to. Fuckfuckfuck! Elora was already enough. Ellie looked down to the clipboard on the chair remembering what you said about the pen. Perfect time to change the subject during this brief period of silence. 

Ellie swiftly pointed at your pink pen in the clipboard “Oh and I need that back” 

Elora turned around to look at your pen, darting her eyes back and forth between Ellie and the pen. The mood shifted again it was hostile, like the moment of peace and tranquility before everything goes terribly wrong. Ellie felt her intuition bubbling, sharp pains jabbing in her stomach – Elora was up to no good.

Before Ellie could say anything else Elora bolted for the pen jabbing it into the flesh of Ellie’s left hand making Ellie let out a blood-curdling scream. Blood pooled out of her gash as Elora twisted the pen-point side allowing the tip to dig into her bloodstream. Ellie shook off the pain bringing up her free hand to right-hook Elora in her face. 

“Fuckin’ bitch – and you’re calling me crazy?” Ellie shouted, reaching for the pen in her hand and taking it out with an animalistic growl. While Elora was still trying to recuperate from the sudden smack, Ellie took this as an opportunity to tackle Elora to the floor, straddling the brunette as Elora’s hands grabbed at Ellie’s face. Ellie bit her finger in a rush, sending another punch to Elora’s face with a loud THUD as Elora’s skull bounced against the wood floor.

The thud almost matched Ellie’s heartbeat - the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she felt herself reaching euphoria at Elora’s displeasure. Ellie always wanted to punch Elora, get the deed out of the way and she didn’t particularly care if she looked like a bad person now. Ellie wasn’t pulling her punches.

With each punch Elora’s words kept on playing in limbo at the back of her head ‘what would y/n think”

What would you think if you walked in at this very moment seeing Ellie on top of Elora hitting her repeatedly? That would make anyone pray it wasn’t a dent. Blood on her rings dripping down her hands both from the stab wound and Elora’s now bloody nose, Elora sent a hand up to Ellie slapping her across making Ellie fall back. It was Elora’s turn this time – getting on top of Ellie and sending two punches to her face. Ellie groaned out with each tension-filled punch, watching as Elora’s hand drew back one more time before a big- muscular hand dragged Elora off of Ellie. It was Abby, almost crushing Elora’s hand 

“Get the fuck up…and get this fucking shit off your face you look ridiculous”  Abby spat at Elora, Elora scrambling out of the cabin holding her face.

Ellie was beat…on the floor letting out heavy breaths as she tried to recollect her thoughts. A wave of relief cast over her body at the sight of Abby. Ellie wasn’t sure why she felt relieved or why Abby’s presence wasn’t bothering her anymore. Perhaps Ellie was tolerating Abby, just for you…But Ellie didn’t want to make Ellie an enemy, not anymore.

“Well don’t you look like shit” Abby sneered bringing an arm down to Ellie. A helping hand. Ellie grasped on with ease as Abby pulled her up from the floor. “What happened here?” 

“I was just asking for y/n’s pen and she stabbed me unprovoked – a crazy shit talker too” Ellie spat, wiping her bloody nose at the back of her hand. Ellie recalled your pen, bending down to lift up the pink pen that was tinted red, coated in her blood.

“Here” 

“I’m not giving her this…” Abby pinched her fingers together to hold the pen trying to avoid touching any blood. “Clean it and don’t tell her…just give it back”

Abby ignored her statement, “What’s your deal with Elora?” Ellie let out a sarcastic laugh at Abby’s question. 

“Try having a girl steal your ex-girlfriend and then try to plot on a girl you’ve been eyeing…I’m sure you’d react the same” Ellie breathed out, reaching for her water to take a sip.

“Touché”

“What are you gonna tell y/n?” Abby spoke up again.

“You ask a lot of questions…j- just that I fell” Ellie shrugged skewing a ridiculous lie. She didn’t spend years of heartbreaking to be a shit liar. 

“She’s not gonna buy it fuck-face…what about Elora, I mean come sunrise her face is pretty fucked up too” Abby confessed. Ellie cursed under her breath. She didn’t care anymore. Elora could tell you whatever she wanted – that’s if she could even catch you

“She can tell her whatever the fuck she wants “ Ellie’s voice was monotone. The freckled-face girl dug in her pockets pulling out the flavored stick to her lips realizing she didn’t have a lighter. Sitting on the chorus bleachers that were set up in the cabin for the students. “Got a light?”

Abby dug into her pocket flicking out a black BIC lighter, a replacement for the one from the school fire. Safety broken off, Abby lit Ellie’s cigarette for her – the fresh smell of tobacco filling the room. 

Ellie’s bloody hand was the one to bring the cigarette too in from her lips. 

“She brought up my dad…what kind of fucker does that?” Ellie mumbled as Abby took a seat next to her, “I want to–no I need to get rid of her, she is plotting something against y/n and I can feel it” 

Abby hummed looking at the small smudge of blood against the floor, “I could help you”

“What?”

Ellie was confused. Why would Abby want to help her? Why would the blonde go out of her way to give Ellie a hand? Clearly, it was not for her but rather for you. Ellie knew that Abby cared about you more than you can imagine or even muster up in words. Abby was your safety blanket, the bell ringer to call you home.

“It’s not for you…” Abby whispered, looking up at the ceiling briefly before finishing her statement “We both don’t like Elora, and we both want to protect Y/n…I say we team up”

“You wouldn’t…”

“You don’t know how far I’ll go…”

“Jeez, I don’t wanna kill her Abby, just fuck around with her a little – make her kiss my boot you know…She has this isolation technique I know how she moves – only a matter of time before she makes Y/n hate you too” Ellie assured, tapping the ash building up at the edge of the bleachers, Ellie spoke like a pro. Abruptly remembering the words that left Elora’s mouth that tormented her.

 “You like her or something” 

Abby was silent, it was evident she was hesitating and thinking before she gave her answer. It wouldn’t be an honest answer of course not.

“Actually scratch that…how long?” 

Abby’s eyes went wide at the question. Ellie wasn’t even giving her any room to answer. 

Abby scratched at her neck, reaching into her back pocket and cursing when she realized her drumsticks were missing. Clearing her throat, she instead played with the bracelets on her wrist, “Uhm…3- no, 5 months”

Ellie cursed under her breath. Ellie only liked you for 3 ½ Abby led the majority and she was a strong believer of first come first serve. Ellie quite frankly didn’t know how she felt about sharing – Elora wasn’t exactly wrong about her possessiveness. Ellie reached into her pockets of Marlboro’s offering Abby a stick – it was her offering solidarity. Abby obliged sticking the slender tobacco in between her lips and bringing a light up to get herself started.

“She knows?” Ellie questioned watching as her cigarette got shorter and shorter.

“Hell no, I’m not telling her either – she thinks I like Nora I wanna keep it that way”

“No, you don’t” Ellie read right through her like a book. Abby ‘nepo-baby’ Anderson certainly didn’t wanna hide it from you it was painfully obvious, no mind reader needed to see! 

“I don’t do the sharing shit” Ellie confessed blowing out the smoke, “But I can accommodate” 

“Let her choose it isn’t our decision…” Abby elaborated, making Ellie nod at the response. She was right. Who were they to choose who gets to have her? Ellie knew deep down you would trade her for Abby any day – she’s been with you through it all. 

“And if she wants both of us?”

“We let her have it” Abby shrugged.

 Abby could care less nor give a flying fuck if she had to share you…She rather it is with Ellie than some dick-wad like Elora. Ellie was a pure reflection of herself – perhaps that's why they clashed so much. Maybe that’s why she hated her. It was like arguing with a broken mirror. 

She was arguing with herself.

 Ellie nodded at Abby’s response, putting out the butt of her cigarette. 

Ellie took her bleeding hand out preparing to shake Abby’s with a mischievous grin, Abby’s lips slowly curled into one as well, taking Ellie’s bloodied hand in her own. A tight firm handshake. Business is business. 

“But seriously… go to the infirmary, it looks is gross” 

☆*•.  

After the lunch break, the campers were settling around the burning wood for a quick bonfire and s'mores night. Fire sparks filled the air as the radio blared a mix of recent pop hits while other mini activities and s'more building stations were happening. The sun was down, stars twinkling in the sky like a scene right out of a movie. 

You had enough of the fire. Flashbacks to how you ended up at this camp in the first place peaking through.

When the music room advises no outside equipment, like liquids – don’t bring them. Save yourself the trouble, the fines, and the embarrassment. 

Making a plate of s’mores, you looked around realizing the absence of Abby and Ellie. Other counselors dancing or talking to the kids but you were alone. Your best friend wasn’t around and the familiar faces started blending in with each other. It seemed like since you arrived at the camp this disappearing act had started. If it wasn’t disappearing then it sure was secrecy. Your white pullover sweater rested on your body, while your lower half was still covered in shorts, picking up your flashlight from the picnic table. Now that it was nightfall Adalaide was responsible for the children. She was the one to do bunk checks making the counselors free for the rest of the night. 

You walked down the gravel trail from the main campsite, the flames getting smaller and smaller behind you. Reaching up to your cabin the shiny number 3 flashing under the moonlight brought you comfort, flashing your flashlight around the open air to make sure there was no one else behind you. You haven’t seen Elora all afternoon. Not that you wanted to, nor did you care but it was as if she became a ghost. There one minute and gone the next. 

Approaching the steps, as the wood creaked underneath you, your nose tilted up at the sudden smell of freshly lit tobacco almost lethargic to the nose. The air was potent and spicy which lead you to believe that the people you were looking for were nearby. Deciding to reverse your feet at the steps, pausing to listen if you heard any voices. Hearing Abby’s subtle raspy voice against the wind you fully reversed your steps, turning away from the cabin to follow the voices. This leads you down a mini trail in the gaps between each of the Cabin, finding Abby and Ellie leaning up against the cabin walls, on opposite sides of each other blowing out smoke in conversation.

This was weird – strange almost.

It didn’t make sense to you – last time you checked they didn’t get along. You held up your flashlight at the two flashing it which caused their conversation to stop. 

Abby smirked seeing your figure approach the two, admiring your relaxed state. Her eyes eventually trailed down to the plate of s’mores that you had in her hand, three perfectly placed and put together on the plate. Abby thought to herself about the common phrase, “The best things come in 3’s"

“What are you guys doing here?” you whispered, voice soft as always – angelic and pure. Ellie looked up at you blowing smoke away from your face. This was the first time you got to see her all day, her hand wrapped in white gauze almost like a cast and the plump flesh around her eye was swollen. Hues of purple, yellow, and green blended around her eye, her skin clearly sore from all of the hits she had taken. A frozen ice bag was placed near her temples just above her eye. It was worse than you expected. 

“Well hello to you too…” Ellie spoke up, bringing the cigarette up to her lips for another hit. Abby pulled you into the two of them, her hands reaching down to the plate to take one of your s’mores off of the plate. 

“Thanks for the treat [It wasn’t for you?]” Abby whispered, sending you a quick wink as she took a bite of the rich and sticky dessert. Abby let out low moans in satisfaction at the gooey substance. Ellie looked down at the plate seeing that you had two more smores left. Mocking Abby’s actions and taking one for herself. You weren’t sad about it hell you weren’t gonna finish the dessert anyways. Queasy knots turning in your stomach.

“Why aren’t you hanging out at the bonfire?” Ellie pondered. It’s not like you would enjoy it anyways, ever since the fire incident in May that was enough to have you never want to see a fire again. The burning of the wood was enough to make your chest burn – having flashbacks of your feet feeling cemented into the practice room floor as the instruments melted and melted. Ellie’s tone was kind of cold almost as if you had been interjecting something you shouldn’t have. 

“Sorry…am I interrupting something” Your question was enough to shut up the both of them. Between Abby’s aggressive chewing, she abruptly stopped — eyeing down Ellie, very slowly shaking her head. 

“No, why would you be?” Ellie was reclining from her original tone, giving Abby the quickest glance before focusing on you with a killer smile. The way the light from the moon gently cast onto your face was enough for you to fully see how her eye looked.

“Holy shit…your eye” Your voice was full of concern, pushing the plate with s’mores into Abby’s hands as you walked towards Ellie running your fingers gently along the side of her face, Ellie fluttering her eyes closed briefly as her free hand dusted yours to bring it down, squeezing softly in appreciation.

“You should see the other guy” Ellie joked, putting the cigarette back up to her lips. The joke brought a slight frown to your face, you vastly looking at her hand that was bandaged up to the best security. “How���d you get the..uhm, bruise?”

Ellie cleared her throat, spitting out the build-up of phlegm onto the rocky road to her right, taking a breather – she wanted to stay true to her lie. “I fell, bumped into a table as I was crashing down – I’ll be fine though just have to keep icing until the bruising goes down”

Ellie’s voice was convincing – not a single hint of a lie being there. She was telling you the same story she told the nurse.

Abby cleared her throat making you redirect your attention towards her who was leaning against the wall with your plate of smores, She looked up at you through her lashes, a rather serious tone in her voice “You see Elora?”

“Mhm no not really…She was at the bonfire for a quick second…seemed like her face was bruised too” You recalled, voice trailing off as you glanced at Ellie briefly squinting your eyes at the girl. Something was up, and you knew it…the two just weren’t telling you. You weren’t to be fooled and you were gonna find out what the issue was – but you instead played it off while the deep intuitive knowing itched at the back of your brain.

“Well if she tries to talk to you, avoid her – come find me or…Ellie for that matter” Abby’s tone was rather serious. You knew she wasn’t the biggest fan of Elora but this time it seemed more advanced than the time that she had comforted you the night Elora broke things off. She was angered.

Your head jolted back in confusion at Abby’s mention of Ellie’s name. Reminding you of all the times she would be throwing insults – jabbing negatively at the girl, what was with the sudden switch up?

“Wait since when were the two of you, friends?”

Abby and Ellie looked at each other briefly – Ellie putting the cigarette back up in silence meanwhile Abby looked back at you, “Not important…– but I’m serious don’t talk to her”

“Not like I planned on it” you shot back, Abby nodded her head – Ellie repeating the nod as well.

“Good [yeah, good]” The both of them talked over each other.

“You guys are being weird…very weird” you blurted out, finally stating what was on your mind. They weren’t doing the best job at hiding it – it was painfully obvious. A thick awkward tension was in the air as well. 

“If the Elora issue was about me you’d let me know right?” you inquired. Testing the waters to see what they would tell you, “Right?” you repeated yourself.

“Yeah…yeah – of course, but it isn’t about you so don’t worry your pretty little head about it” Abby smiled at you reaching to grab at your head, shaking it gently like she had done in May after your meeting in the Dean’s office. Abby didn’t exactly deny that there was a problem though, her poor word choice digging – almost scratching at your beliefs. Abby reached a hand down grabbing you at your waist with one hand before bunching up the fabric of your sweater in the ball of a fist at your back.

“You look sleepy – think you should call it a night?” Abby analyzed your face, pushing the plate with a singular s’more in your hands. You weren’t tired – well at least you thought you weren’t, you couldn’t focus with Ellie’s gaze on you and Abby touching you. As if on instinct you let out a yawn bringing the back of your hand to your lips to block your mouth that was agape. At this moment Ellie knew that Elora’s words were correct. Ellie’s eyes were zapped on Abby’s hand, clenching her jaw seeing that Abby had gentle control over you. Dear ol’ Abby knew what was best. 

and Abby was 2 steps ahead of her.

But she didn’t wanna cave in now, or turn it into some fucking competition when she was already trying to handle Elora – but if she could just sway you to want her and her only, she would do it in a heartbeat.

This might have been the rocky first day of counseling. From losing your pink pen, Elora’s unwanted appearance, Ellie getting into a fight, and Abby and Ellie’s consequential team-up, this only seemed to be the beginning of a dark, wild, treacherous ride. Every action from this night forward would have consequences. Back in blood, definitely meant deeper now.

Eye for an eye…tooth for a tooth. 

taglist

@ellsss @rarestdoll @luvrgalore @starologist @destielcore @beforeimdeceased @kissesskittens @emluvselandabs @abbyily @sawaagyapong @zahraaziza

© cowgirlcherrie 2023

[skyfallslayer]

Should We Stay or Should We Go? || Chapter Three

-A ST Rewrite Feat. Steve Harrington x Henderson!OFC-

Main Masterlist || Series Masterlist

🎲Summary: An Increasingly concerned Nancy looks for Barb and finds out what Jonathan’s been up to. The boys pair up with El for an investigation. Joyce is convinced that Will and Steph are trying to talk to her. Meanwhile, Steve feels like someone’s watching his every move.

🎲Pairings: Will x Platonic!OFC; Dustin x Sister!OC; Slow burn! Steve x Henderson!OFC (Ex-bestfriends to Lovers); Slow burn! Byler

🎲Rating: Teen-Mature

🎲Word Count: 15,209 (Oh, lord)

🎲Date: 05/27/24

🎲Warnings: Angst; Heavy Language & Dialogue; References To Broken Friendship; Talks of Kidnapping; Mental Strain/Breaking Down; Talks of Mental Health Issues; Bullying of All Kinds; Physical Fighting; Lying; "Death"; Crying (Lots of it); Brief Mention of Corpses; Gun Use; Implied Unloving Parents; Will & Steph's Mental Strain - Joyce's Too; Hopper Being a Great Cop & A Total Mess; Dustin Being a Gangster & A Total Mess; Steve's 'Asshole Era'; Steve's Emotional Damage. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

-This also contains me not knowing how the fuck the Upside Down works despite so much research.-

(And let me know if I missed anything)

🎲A/N:  So… this is a very long, very intense one. Very emotional too. Hopefully y'all are ready for this. I notice a lot of you readers are spitting out theories and I can't help but love them. But unfortunately I have to stay silent and let you guess wait 🤭. While rewatching this episode, I totally forgot how fucking good of an actress Winona Ryder is. Seriously, rewatch the scenes with her and the lights again and you'll see. Any who, Happy Memorial Day everyone! Enjoy!

Steve practically had to “bully” Tommy into taking his girlfriend home last night. It was hard for him to make eye contact with her after their argument – A real argument, not just some mindless bickering they’ve done in the past that doesn’t pack much heat, but a real, real argument – and when she came back to his room only a few minutes later telling him that Barb must have left already and needed a ride, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

Was this making him feel and look like a coward? Probably. But it’s not like he didn’t want to risk having another eye opening conversation with her again.

Eye opening, my ass. There was no “eye opening”. I’m just being paranoid. But was he though?

Nancy, oh, sweet Nancy, always talked about how she was aiming for journalism as her major. For a while, to be honest, he couldn’t really see it. Sure, curiosity was practically tattooed on her heart, but the months they’ve been dating he hasn’t seen anything else that screams “I’m a Journalist”. 

That was until last night.

He’s not sure why he never put that box away after their friendship ended, he doesn’t know why he didn’t just stuff it into his closet or under his bed, but the fact that someone had found it in his spot he called “out of sight, out of mind” shocked him. The little box that could fit under his dresser, completely oblivious to anyone who stands next to it. Of course out of all the days for someone to finally have spotted it was the day he brought his girlfriend to his home (Still, it might have been better for her to find it rather than his parents. They sure were… nosy).

And of course she would be the one to break him down when he was trying to forget, forget because it was the best option here.

And his girlfriend was smart, one of the traits he most admired, and she could read through his lies most of the time, a trait he hates. Loathe. But… did he really think he could have avoided all this? That once he put a lid on their friendship she would suddenly vanish? Every single thing about Stephanie Henderson would be forgotten? That was the plan, the “dream” so to speak. I guess dreams don’t always stay dreams unless you put work into them.

.

“So who is she to you?” Nancy asked, standing up and flashing the memorabilia at him.

.

She was just… just some kid he knew since they were five. Nothing more than that, It shouldn’t be more than that. She was just some girl that had confidence radiating out of her as they lock pinkies and swore–

.

“I’m not jealous. I’m just curious.” Nancy replies, honestly. She takes another look at the photos in her hand before looking back at him. “I mean, if she isn’t your friend anymore, then why do you hang on to all this stuff? Or better question–”

“Nancy, stop, it’s just–”

“Why did you break it off?”

His brain short circuits again. “What?”

“I said, ‘Why did you break it off?’ I mean…” She flips through some of the photos he has, memorized. “From what I see, you two remind me of Barb and I. You two look like you were tied at the hip. So why break it off?”

.

Because he had to. He needed to. God knows if he didn’t, her and her family would be… Jeez. He could barely remember it, not wanting to remember it.

The memory was blurry. So blurry. Maybe it was the many hits in the head for his shitty memory, or maybe he was really, really trying not to remember it. 

What was his parents planning on doing again that made him so… scared?

.

“Look, I just want to understand you. I mean, every time I think I have you figured out you throw me through a loop.” She gives him a reassuring look as she picks up the box, shuffling whatever was remaining around. “I mean, from what I see, you seem like a completely different person then. I just wonder if it’s a good thing or a bad–” 

.

No… no. He still doesn’t understand what she meant. He hasn’t “changed”. He’s still the same person since the day he was born. What was she even getting that from? A couple glances at some photos gave her a new impression of him? There’s no way. It’s laughable. It’s totally laughable. Everything that’s happened between him and Henderson was totally laughab–

.

“‘CAUSE IT WAS MY FAULT!! OKAY?!” Steve snaps, startling them both (He can’t believe he just lost his cool like that). He swallows again, head spinning at the memories (Why did he fucking leave the box right there?). “I just… there was an incident and… it… shaped my decision, okay? But it didn’t involve me or her with a gun, it was… s-someone else. Someone I know. I don’t know why I’m holding onto it, I…” 

.

That certainly wasn’t laughable.

Sometimes that memory is hazy, which he preferred, but the other times it was crystal clear. Too clear. Just a heated exchange between him and someone else just before it went to shit. He still remembers the pain in his bicep, the wind feeling like it was getting knocked out of him with someone’s loud scream. Then came the sinking realization that Henderson wasn’t bouncing up to her feet like he did. 

It still… fucks with him sometimes. Taunting. Haunting. Torturing. 

.

Nancy breaks eye contact, and only reverses it when she gathers the right words. “Look, Steve, I’m sorry I intruded, I probably shouldn’t have but… I’m just trying to understand you.”

Steve shakes his head, still confused. “I-I…” He shrugs, and crosses his arms defensibly. “What’s there to understand?”

.

Exactly. There’s nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Nothing. She doesn’t need to go digging around Pandora’s box.

.

But Nancy looked at him with eyes full of pity and took another step closer. “I don’t know what the reason was for you two to stop being friends, but all I know, from what I gathered, she wasn’t the one to end it.” She places Steph’s flier on his chest that he subconsciously grabbed, and said one last thing before leaving his room. And that was,

“Maybe there was a good reason for you to end it, but that’s not an excuse for you to stop being who you really are.”

.

But I haven’t changed. I’ve been the same person since I was born. Even his own gut coiled at his denial. The heaven’s beyond were probably busting a lung. Hell was shaking its head. He just keeps telling himself that lie and maybe it’ll come true one day.

Yeah, right.

This boy’s been telling himself that for almost two years now and hasn’t even sunk in yet.

Steve sighs, rolling in his bed to face his alarm clock; The red numbers glaring at him. It hadn’t even gone off yet, he still has about an hour but… 

Another sigh. School. Right.

He didn’t even feel like going, too mentally exhausted from staying up pretty much all night, completely alone with his thoughts – His very dangerous, troubling thoughts. He didn’t want to go, but his parents were going to be home any minute now from their trip and were not going to be happy if they saw him just lying around. They were surely going to berate him for missing a day of learning. Except...

Fuck. Going wasn’t an option, his brain hurts and his body was dragging and he really, really didn’t want to see Nancy’s pitiful eyes, or listen to Tommy’s mocking, or Carol’s sexified comments. Fuck, no. Fuck.

Where can he hide out for the next eight hours? He started putting what was left of brain together as he threw something on, not even trying to dress to impress today, and snagged his precious car keys. He is about a foot outside his bedroom when something tells him to stop. His chocolate eyes stare at the box on the end of his bed, something deep inside tells him not to leave it unoccupied.

He swallows, wanting to tell his subconscious to fuck off and leave him be, but… 

“Fuck it.” He races back over, making sure the lid was on before taking it with him. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

It’s been… how many days since then? They don’t know. They stopped counting every time they ran into trouble. Like… right now. Traumatized by the beast pulling an innocent woman into the Harringtons’ pool and violating her before coming after them. They were lucky to have some kind of head start or otherwise they might have been goners. But–

Jesus. It was getting hard to breathe in this place, the cold weather was getting to them too. 

Eventually, miraculously, they had escaped from their predator when their bodies finally gave out.

“Fuck.” Stephanie gasped as the two of them collapsed in someone’s backyard. They both sat on their hands and knees, a line of sweat dripping off their icy noses. She sniffles and pants, her breath being seen in the air. “This is getting ridiculous.”

It really, really was. They can’t even take a break without worrying if that thing would come after them. 

How am I supposed to figure out how to get out of here if I can’t even stop to think? She sits back on her news, frowning. “Why does it keep coming after us?”

Will sneezes, and sniffles before resting his body against the side of the random house. He starts fiddling with his frigiding fingers, worried if he was going to say something wrong. “I don’t think this time it was. It looks like it was attacking someone else.”

“That’s true.” She sighs, taking her cap off for a second to rest. “However, we either were at the wrong place at the wrong time, or that thing was following us and grabbed the first prey it saw.”

He nods. “Yeah. But that doesn’t explain where the person came from. Does… that mean we aren’t the only people here?”

“I don’t know.” Are there actually more people here? “I mean, I guess on the bright side, if more people are going missing someone’s gotta know what’s going on, right?”

That honestly didn’t cross her mind at all while being here. She was so worried about keeping herself and especially Will alive that she didn’t think about what was going on on the other side. How was her family reacting? His family too? And what about the town? Did the police actually give a fuck this time?

I really hope it’s Hopper. He seems like the only one who gave shit last time. Stephanie prays he’s on her case as she subconsciously tries to grab the chain around her neck, only to find nothing. Her heart sinks as she looks down and feels around the front of her shirt.

“Shit.” She says, dreadfully. Did she really lose her–

“What?” Will replies, concerned. 

“Uh, I just…” Fuck. “I just uh, lost my necklace.” She frowns again. “I didn’t even realize it.”

Now it was his turn to look sad (I guess you could say he was just copying her expression). “We can go look for it if you like.”

She’s already shaking his head. “No. It’s okay. I could have lost it on the first day here without realizing it.”

“Can you replace it?”

“It’s… I don’t know. It was a gift.” She looks over at him, his expression seems so broken over her confession. “It’s okay, Will. It’s not a big deal.”

“I know, but still.”

Stephanie couldn’t help but crack a small smile on her peach lips, and ruffle the boy’s hair. “Don’t ever change, kid. You’ve got a good little heart.” That seemed to do the trick because the boy blushed and seemed all proud of himself.

“Do you think it’s safe to rest here for a bit?” Will asked, as she looked around.

“Yeah.” She nods. “I think we’ll be fine. How about you pull out the blanket?”

They both shrug their backpacks off, and keep their guns by their sides pointed safely away; Will unrolls the blanket they took from her house and scoots closer. Steph tucks the fabric under their feet before the boy snuggles up to her side. Dying from the cold was off the menu for the both of them. For most of the time they stayed quiet, controlling their breathing and rubbing their cold hands in their laps.

“There’s something I don’t understand though.” Will blurted out. I guess this was the thought that came to mind in the moment of silence.

“And what’s that?” The older girl asked, sparing him a glance.

“If that thing is supposed to… you know, kill people, then why bring them here?” He stares up at her nervously. “Why not just kill us in our world? Why the extra hassle to bring us here?”

Her eyes widened slightly, those words hitting her like a truck. “That’s… a good question.” A really good question. It was something else she hasn’t thought about either. If the beast could go between worlds, why bring them here for the kill? 

Will must have noticed the wheels turning in the girls head and looks down hopelessly. “It’s going to be hard for people to find us then, right?”

Stephanie says nothing, and gnaws on her bottom lip because he’s right. If they’re stuck in another world then…

.

.

.

How are their loved ones going to know?

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

When Jonathan woke up the next day he wasn’t expecting his mother to be leaving before he did. “Mom? Where are you going?” He asked, as she stopped upon hearing him speak.

“Oh, I’m going to town. I’m going to pick up a few things.” She replies, putting her belongings into her purse. “I was… you know, thinking about maybe getting some stuff Will likes to eat so he can have it when he gets home. Or, you know–”

“Mom?”

“And maybe a new phone? Our old one’s obviously not fine, so–”

“Mom?” Jonathan tries again, getting a hum. “You sure you’re okay going by yourself? I can miss school again if you don’t feel comfortable yet.”

“No, no, don’t do that. Go… I just need to get out of the house. I’ve been stuck in here for a few days.” Joyce replies, reassuring her oldest. “I’ll be okay.”

“Okay.” He nods. “But if something happens just… call the school and I’ll be there.”

“Okay.” She says, giving her a quick hug. “Thank you, sweetie. I’ll see you later.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

In the early morning at the Wheeler’s house, the boys were planning a mission to finally figure out what happened to their friends.

“We just tell our parents we have AV Club after school. That’ll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood.” Mike explains, the three of them gathered around the upside down D&D board.

“You seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will and Steph are?” Lucas said, making the other boy eye roll.

“Just trust me on this, okay? Did you get the supplies?”

“Yeah.” He nods, and shows off what he’s got. “Binoculars... from ‘Nam. Army knife... also from ‘Nam. Hammer, camouflage bandana…” He grins. “And the wrist rocket.”

Dustin looks at him strangely, almost laughing. “You’re gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?”

“First of all, it’s a wrist rocket. And second of all, the Demogorgon’s not real. It’s made up. But if there is something out there, I’m gonna shoot it in the eye–” Lucas snaps the rubber and startles his friend. “And blind it.”

“Dustin, what did you get?” Mike asked, trying to get straight to the point.

“Well, alrighty.” Dustin starts pouring stuff out of his bag, also proud of what he grabbed (Which is totally not what Mike told him to bring). “So, we’ve got... Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apple, banana, and trail mix.”

“Seriously?” Lucas said, disappointed.

“We need energy for our travels. For stamina. And besides, why do we even need weapons anyway?” He points to the girl on the couch. “We have her.”

“She shut one door!”

“With her mind! Are you kidding me? That’s insane!” Dustin could almost laugh with all the stuff he could think of about her powers. “Imagine all the other cool stuff she could do. Like…” He quickly looks around and grabs a giant toy version of the Millennium Falcon. “I bet that she could make this fly!” He stands in front of El and holds it out. “Hey. Hey. Okay, concentrate. Okay?” He lets go of the toy that quickly drops to the floor. “Okay, one more time. Okay. Use your powers, okay?”

“Idiot.” Lucas mumbles once the toy drops to the floor again.

Mike sighs. “She’s not a dog!” He says, taking it away from him.

“Boys!” Karen calls out from above. “Time for school!”

He crouches down in front of Eleven as the rest of his friends make their way up stairs. “Just stay down here. Don’t make any noise, and don’t leave. If you get hungry, eat Dustin’s snacks, okay?” 

“Michael!”

“Coming!” Why must he be rushed? “You know those power lines?”

“Power lines?” El asked, confused.

“Yeah. The ones behind my house?”

“Yes.”

“Meet us there, after school.”

“After school?”

“Yeah, 3:15.” It took a second for Mike to realize that she didn’t understand. “Ah. Hang on.” He unstraps his watch and ties around her own wrist. “When the numbers read three-one-five, meet us there.”

“‘Three-one-five’.” She repeats.

He nods. “Yeah. Three-one-five.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

“Did you get any rest?”

Her tired blue eyes looked back at him, his face scrunched up in concern for the girl that almost tripped two seconds ago. And to answer his question, it was ‘no’. Their little rest had turned into sleep, but once again she couldn’t dare close her eyes with the beast lurking somewhere (She’s honestly surprised she’s still standing at this point).

“Yeah, I got a little.” She said, hoping that sounded convincing. 

Will narrows his eyes and steps in front of her, stopping them from walking any further. “No you didn’t.”

“Will–”

“Why aren’t you getting any sleep?”

She sucks in a breath. Guess there was no point in arguing with a twelve year old. “Because I’m keeping an eye out.” She tries taking a step around him but he follows.

“That’s bullshit.” He replies, shocking her (She’s honestly heard him cuss before. Which is ironic since he hangs out with three boys that act like cussing is their first language).

“Will, it’s true. I’m keeping an eye out.”

“Yeah, I understand. But you can’t keep missing sleep because of that.”

“Someone’s got to protect you. Just like I promise.”

“Well how are you supposed to do that when you can barely stand?” That seemed to strike a nerve. “Can you just… next time we sleep, I’ll watch and you actually sleep.”

“Will–”

“And, if I hear something, I’ll wake you up immediately. How’s that?”

Well… she can’t say no to that face. She sighs. “Okay. I’ll sleep.” She replies, getting him to smile. “But you wake me up if you hear anything, okay? Don’t you even think about doing the opposite and handling it yourself. I don’t want you to wound up hurt or dead. Got it?”

“Got it.” 

The two of them continued their unwanted detour that ended up being Hawkins’ little downtown. This place looked more like the apocalypse than their neighbourhoods. Dark, abandoned, quiet and completely trashed. It seemed a little scarier to walk around than the previous routes they took. 

“Maybe we can hide out somewhere here?” Will asked, as they stopped at an intersection to look around.

“Possibly. If anything’s open we can. I want to avoid making too much ruckus in case that’s what attracts the monster.” Steph said, thinking. 

They walked slowly and carefully by each store, peeking inside to see if anything got their attention. Stephanie blissfully sighs upon seeing a familiar sign and points.

“Dude, I kill for some chicken parmesan right now.” She says, smiling at the thought of eating Italian at ‘Enzo’s’. 

“Hmm, meatball’s sounds good. But I think I really want my mom’s Sloppy Joes.” Will admits, and can already picture it in front of him.

“Sloppy Joes are awesome too. I wouldn’t mind eating that when I get back either. Then Enzo’s.”

“Totally Enzo’s.” He chuckles. “Uh, so when we do get out of here, how do we explain this to someone?”

“What? This?” She gestures to the open air. “You mean that telling the authorities that we were abducted by an eight foot tall creature with just a mouth and brought to a creepier version of Hawkins doesn’t sound truthful?”

He makes a face. “I… I don’t know. They might think we’re crazy.”

“Crazy, but it’s true.” She shrugs. “I really do wonder how we’re going to explain this.”

“I hope my mom contacted Chief Hopper. I know they were good friends growing up, I’m sure he believes her.”

“I hope it’s him, I don’t really like some of the people he works with.”

Will tilts his head, confused. “You don’t like cops?”

“No, I don’t certain cops here. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”

“How come?”

“Well–” She cuts herself off and stops, eyes trailing to something inside one of the shops. She takes a second to make sure she’s seeing that right before pointing and saying, “November 6th.”

Will perks up at that. “That’s the day when we had our D&D campaign. The night we disappeared.”

“Yeah.” Steph looks around her hand following up to another object, a clock. “Nine Twenty-Three. That’s probably around the time we disappeared too.”

“But why is everything stuck this way?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, didn’t this place exist beforehand?” Will asked, head spinning. “How come everything is stuck on the night we disappeared?”

She purses her lips. “It… exist because of us? Or does time run differently here?”

“This is making my head hurt.”

She chuckles. “You and me both, kid.”

They continued their walk, popping into a few shops when they saw something useful, like another set of matches or even a sleeping bag they could share. They eventually ended up at a hunting store and scavenged there. Steph started grabbing a couple boxes of shotgun shells and ones that could fit inside Mr. Harrington’s pistol. It felt strange to have something like this in her possession, especially given the history of it. A very… bittersweet history of it. 

Stupid, Harring– The small box tv on the counter startled her when it made a noise. When her gaze locks onto it, she realizes it’s not even on. She sighs, shaking her head. Now I’m imagining shit? This is getting fucking ridiculous.

She starts making room inside her bag for the ammunition when–

.

|| –Those Poor Children. ||

.

Stephanie nearly drops everything and grips the gun and starts frantically searching for the voice. What in the fucking–

.

|| Jesus, I know. I can only imagine what their families are going through. ||

|| It’s such a shame– ||

.

“What the…?”

“Did you hear that too?” Will asked, eyes full of hope as she looked between him and empty space behind the counter.

“Huh? Um… Y-Yeah. I-I did.” She swallows and then realizes something. “Wait… is that what you– Is that what you were talking about?”

“Yeah!” He shakes his head eagerly. “I told you, I swear I could hear my mom and Jonathan talking that night. I told you I wasn’t crazy.”

Stephanie takes a deep breath, still in a bit of disbelief I mean– This changes everything she’s thought about this place. “If we can hear somebody, then…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence. It was so shocking.

“Maybe we can talk to them. I know for a fact my mom heard me when I called the phone. She even responded when I talked back.”

“So it’s totally possible.” She goes silent to think, an idea coming to mind in a matter of seconds. She grins. “Follow me.”

Will of course does, a little intrigued by the fact that they found themselves climbing to the top of an old bell tower that overlooks most of Hawkins. “What is this place?”

“Somewhere I probably shouldn’t have been hanging out at when I was young.” Steph admits. “Don’t worry, the tower hasn’t been used in decades ‘cause the bell’s broken. Alright.” She smacks her hands together. “We have to figure out a way to get someone’s attention. Whether it’s your family, my family, friends, or hell, even some random stranger. We just need to get someone’s attention.”

“But how? I’m not even sure how any of this works.” Will asked, truthfully. He’s still not even really sure how he was able to contact his mom that night. 

She hums, scratching her head. “Where’s your house at?” He gets close to the edge, looks around and points to it in the distance. She nods and starts doing the same as she speaks, “Alright, well there’s mine, Lucas’, and Mike’s. So we got options. We just need to figure out how you were able to speak to your mom that night. If we can figure that out, maybe we can do it again.”

“All I really did was just dial my house’s number and she picked up.”

“Okay. Maybe it’s just that simple after all.”

“Well… I know whatever happened that night, it fired the house’s phone. We’re going to need a new phone.”

“We can get one. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll move on to another house. Hopefully, one of our friends will pick up.”

And they have to. This is our only plan right now. She waves for him to go first. “Careful going down, it’s more tricky than going up.”

“Okay.” He says, doing what he was told.

She starts to follow closely behind when another voice appears.

.

|| I am such an idiot. || 

.

She froze, her heart sinking again. She looks back at one of the corners of the tower, and an aching feeling in her gut.

“Steve?”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Steve had a cigarette in one hand, and his other tangled up his own locks; One leg was dangling off the tower, while the rest of his body laid against the arch of the opening. Today was stupidly sunny, barely any clouds and no smell of precipitation in the air for a chance of rain – the aesthetic was the complete opposite of his mood right now.

He took a puff of nicotine and blew it out like a long, heavy sigh. The shit from last night keeps replaying in his head, provoking him to do or say something he’s probably not supposed to (or is supposed to, his subconscious yells at him) – He still doesn’t understand why he suddenly ended up here out of place. He could have gone to skull rock, or even the quarry, or maybe even just running around the mall hoping no one realizes he’s a teenager and asks why he’s not in school.

He groans, closing his eyes, listening to the traffic below and people bickering, praying nobody looks up and finds him here. Again, why did I pick this place?

“I am such an idiot.” He mutters, then the insecurities he had slowly started to fade away when he felt a presence nearby. Worried that maybe a cop finally found him, he changes his sadden look for something cooler before opening his eyes and looking. 

But strangely enough, no one was even there.

“Huh.” Steve blinks, swearing that he could feel someone was watching him. Maybe though? I mean, this was an old church that may or may not be haunted.

He shakes his head. “Fuck this.” He puts his bud out on the ground and stands up to leave.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“Hey, Where’s Steve? I didn’t see his car in the parking lot.” Nancy asks, butting into Carol and Tommy’s conversation. She honestly wanted to see him to give him another apology, she still felt bad for prying so much about something she probably shouldn’t have seen. And I want to see if he’s in a good mental state today.

She watches the couple spare a look and gets worried, “What?”

“You haven’t seen him yet?” Carol said, as she shakes her head. “That’s weird.”

“Steve never skips school.” Tommy adds.

“What did you guys argue about last night?”

“Us?” Nancy said, pointing to herself. “You think he’s not here because we fought?”

“It’s a possibility. He finally has a girlfriend who’s charm finally made the King skip class.” Carol said, arms cross. “I’d say that’s an achievement.”

She scoffs. “First of all, It was just a disagreement, nothing more. A second, there’s no way that’s the reason he’s not here.”

“Maybe you hit one of his insecurities you were yelling about last night.”

Nancy holds her tongue and ends up just leaving in a huff. Every time she thinks she’s finally on their level, she’s pushed back down. She sighs and enters her first class of the day. Her gaze follows over to where her friend would be at, but atlas, her desk was empty.

She reaches out and taps the girl in front of her shoulder. “Hey, Ally. Where’s Barb?”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Um, shouldn’t you know?”

Nancy’s stomach dropped. “You haven’t seen her anywhere... at all?” 

Ally shakes her head just as the bell rings and everyone’s ordered to sit down, leaving the Wheeler to wonder if she stayed home too because of their bickering.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“There she is. Emerald City.” Powell announced as they pulled up to the one and only laboratory in Hawkins. They were going off really their only lead at this point, and hoping it plays out.

“I heard they make space weapons in there.” Callahan replies, getting a look. 

“Space weapons?”

“Yeah. You know, like, Reagan’s Star Wars. I guess we’re gonna blow the Ruskies to smithereens.”

“Hey, can I help you?” The guard asked once the police car rolled to a stop just in front of the gate.

“Uh, yeah. We’re here for a tour.” Hopper lied.

“Oh, we don’t give tours.”

“Okay... A quick look around.”

“You have to get clearance for that. You can contact, uh... Rick Schaeffer at the Department of Energy.”

“Maybe you seen it on TV.” Hopper pushes, not backing down from this. “We got two local kids missing. We have reason to believe they might have snuck in here.”

“Like I said, you have to speak to Mr. Schaeffer.”

Hopper exhaled through his nose, and turned the car and placed his hat on the dashboard; His partners beside him grew quiet, and let him have at it. “What’s your name?”

“Patrick.” 

“Patrick, I got a panicked mayor, and I got reporters breathing down my neck and I got two very upset mothers.” He said, his face growing softer, more wounded like. “Now, I know the kid’s not in there, but I gotta check off this box. Patrick, would you do me a favor? Would you speak to your boss and see what you can swing for us? I’d really appreciate it. I’m talking ten minutes, tops.”

Just ten minutes to see if they were in there. That’s all that the police chief needs…

And wants.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Steve heads inside the shop nearby, his stomach growling for food. It completely slipped his mind this morning – or afternoon now – he’s completely lost track of time. 

Now what kind of junk sounds appetizing today? He starts wandering around, not at all familiar with this layout or the shop for that matter (Why didn’t he just go to the sandwich shop next door again?). As he slips through one of the aisles, he notices the person in front of him struggling to reach for something off the high shelf. 

Deciding to be a nice boy, he reaches up and grabs it down for her. “Here you go, Ma’am.”

“Oh, thank you.” She said, surprised and grateful. “How kind of you.”

“Early Christmas shopping?” 

“Oh, I wish. No, I just need a new phone in case my son calls the house.”

He nods. “Your son lives far then?”

“Um, no, h-he’s missing.”

Oh?

Oh…

Oh!

Steve’s eyes widened at the realization. “Oh, oh my god, I’m so sorry. You’re that kid’s mother.”

“I am.” Joyce says, shifting her weight around. 

“Am… so sorry, I-I didn’t know, I–”

“Like you said, you didn’t know.” She puts the phone into the shopping cart. “It’s okay.”

“Okay, um…” This was awkward, right? Steve shifted on his feet too, not really sure how to wrap this up. “Uh, do you have… uh… heard any updates?”

Joyce shakes her head, sadly. “Not yet. I know the Police Chief has put many of his guys and volunteers to work. But I think at this point they covered all of Hawkins.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I just, uh–” He trails off, struggling to make a sentence. “Sorry, I was just being nosy. I don’t really hear much news, I…” He swallows. “I went to school with the Henderson girl, so...”

Is he making any sense? Hopefully she’s understanding what he means– Fuck, his heart’s racing so fast.

“Oh, yeah?” Joyce said, looking bittersweet – Looking like she was a mother staring at her hurt child (How come his own mother never looked at him like that?). “Must be hard knowing someone you knew is missing.”

Damn, right on the money. “Yeah.” He says, his throat feeling tight.

She hums, and then gives him a stern expression. “Shouldn’t you be in school though?”

Annnnddddd… Fuck. 

Nice Going, Harrington. He scolded himself as he racked his brain for a believable lie. “Oh, uh, I-I graduated already. I was a grade ahead.”

“Oh.” She says, apologetically. “My mistake.”

“No worries, seriously. It happens all the time.” At least he didn’t say something stupid, and needs to get out of this conversation before he does but… damn his little heart sometimes. “Uh–” He gestures to her cart full of different items. “Do you want me to pay for some of that? For bothering you? Or uh, I… I know you’re probably–”

“Oh, no!” She shakes her head. “No. Thanks, but I can get it. Money’s a little tight, I’ll admit, but there’s nothing I can do about it. You know?”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I appreciate the offer.” Joyce smiles, and subconsciously pats the young man on his shoulder. “You’re very sweet. Take care.”

“You too.” He says, seeing this as he exits and walks past her.

Joyce watches as he turns to another aisle, growing a bit sad by the interaction. 

Alright, do I have everything? She has a new phone, some groceries– things she knows Will would like– 

The display of string lights flickered for a second.

Confused, thinking most likely it was probably a short circuit, she doesn’t understand why she ended up muttering her youngest name, “Will.”

Coincidentally, the light flickers shortly afterwards. “Will!” She says, again, hope blooming in her chest. Then, all the lights on the display shined for a few seconds. 

God, call her crazy, but maybe this was a sign that her son is still close by.

Before anyone could blink, the checkout counter was filled up with so many boxes of Christmas lights, some just the basic color, and some of the tri-colors. She can only imagine how much this is going to cost her, but who cares! If this is strangely how she can talk to her son, then this is what she shall do.

Her Boss, who was the clerk for the day, looks at her worriedly. “Joyce–”

“Just ring me up, Donald.” Is all she said, patiently waiting until he was all finished. Without sparing another word, she gathers all the bags into her hands and races to her car.

Donald sighs while watching her leave. “That poor woman.” He says, just as Steve comes up to the counter with his snacks and drinks. He raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” 

“Aren’t you supposed to be minding your own business?” Steve said, becoming bitter again.

“Mmm, hmm.” He scans everything and a price pops up on his screen. “That’ll be Five-Fifty.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

“Found a phone.” Will said, almost immediately as they entered. It shouldn’t be a shock since this is the place his mother works at.

“That should work.” Steph said, smiling. “Let’s get a move on.”

Will gets up on his tippy toes to grab it, slowly pulling it off the shelf when something presses his hand. Startled, he falls back and the older girl grabs the box before it falls. 

“What happened?” She asked, worriedly.

“S-Something touched me.” He says, taking a step back.

“What?” She hands him the box and peeks over the shelf herself (She’s not exactly tall either). There was nothing odd out of the ordinary, just the normal dust and native plants that grew in this world. She frowns. “I don’t really see anything.”

Suddenly the display of lights flickered. Out of instinct her hand reaches for the pistol at her side. Then her heart sinks at the next thing.

.

|| Uh, do you want me to pay for some of that? I know you’re probably– || 

.

“Steve?” Stephanie says, surprised. 

So she wasn’t crazy after all. She did hear him. 

Will looked up at her, stunned too. “Steve Harrington?” He asked, but before she could speak another voice could be heard.

.

|| –I can get it. Money’s a little tight, I’ll admit, but there’s nothing I can do about it. You know? ||

|| You sure? ||

|| Yes. I appreciate the offer. You’re very sweet. Take care. || 

.

“Mrs. Byers?/Mom?!” They both erupted, then went quiet to see if they could hear anything else.

Nothing.

“Shit.” The oldest said, and now gnawing on her lip again, nervously (And completely forgetting about Steve for the time being). “That might have been our chance.” She hears the boy drop the phone somewhere next to her. “Will?”

The boy seemed fascinated with an idea swirling around in his head. Stephanie finds herself just watching, waiting to see what he had in mind. Will reaches up and lets his fingers brush the display of some string lights, the lights getting a little bit hazy – It was almost like his touch was giving them electricity. 

.

|| Will. || 

.

Joyce’s voice broke through very faintly, but they both heard it and nearly cried.

“Touch the light again.” Steph said, urgently. Will does what he’s told and they both stay quiet again.

.

|| Will! ||

.

“She hears us.” He says, happily. 

“Holy shit…” She chuckles. “I have an idea. Touch all the lights.”

Frantically, they rush to touch all the lights they saw on display, not even questioning how this was even possible, they just hoped Joyce got the message. Once the hue died down they both held their breaths, and crossed their fingers. And then…

.

|| Just ring me up, Donald. ||

.

Stephanie threw her hands up. “Yes!” She says, with Will laughing beside her. “Thank you, Ms. Byers.”

“My mom’s the best.” He said, with a warm look.

“Hell, yeah she is. And forget the phone–” She locks eyes with him, determined. “I think we figured out a better way to communicate.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“And you think these missing kids may have crawled through there?” 

Hopper spares the man a glance before looking back at the drain. Somehow, he convinced the security guard to let him and his guys in, but so far their theories are turning out pretty sour. “Well, that was the idea.”

Their “Tour Guide”, I guess you can call him that, made a fact that was all smug and prideful. “Yeah, I just don’t see how that’d be possible. We’ve got over 100 cameras. Every square inch covered, plus all my guys. No one breaks in here. Certainly not some kids.”

Hopper perked up at the news, eyes trailing to a few cameras in view. Now it was his turn to be the smug one as he asked, “Those cameras, you keep the tapes?”

Well… I don’t think the guide was expecting that reaction.

Now, the three of them were following the man inside, the hallways swarmed with men in lab coats, and a security team blocking a room that was marked “hazardous”. 

The police Chief found this a bit suspicious and asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, what do you guys do in here?”

The guide chuckles. “You’re asking the wrong guy.”

“Staying one step ahead of the Russians?”

“I expect. Something like that.”

“Who’s in charge here?”

“That’d be Dr. Brenner.”

“And he builds the space lasers?” Callahan asked, eagerly. 

“Space lasers?”

“Ignore him.” Hopper replies, sighing. They eventually entered the surveillance room, the three of them watching the screen closely. “This is the night of the 6th and 7th we’re seeing here?”

“That’s correct.”

Hopper narrows his eyes, waiting to see if he sees anything unusual. However, to his surprise, the tape only lasted less than a minute. “Is that it?” He asked, in disbelief. 

“Like I said, we would have seen them.”

And then the cops were practically shoved out of there, and the guide gives them their condolences for the tired search (Yeah, what an asshole, right?).

“The night of the 7th, we had a search party out for Will and Stephanie. You remember anything about that night?” Hopper asked, seeing if he wasn’t the only suspicious one. 

“Mmm, not much to remember. Called it off.” Callahan replies, thinking.

 “‘Cause of the storm.” Powell adds.

“Yeah, a lot of rain that night.” Hopper says, arriving at their car. “You see any rain on that tape?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know.” He spares a look at the building, a sinking feeling in his gut. “But they’re lying.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the boys were outside shifting through the playground for some rocks. Mike picks one up and shows it off. “How about this one?”

Dustin looks and shakes his head. “Too big for the sling.” He says, getting on his knees to do some digging. “So, do you think Eleven was born with her powers, like the X-Men, or do you think she acquired them, like... like Green Lantern?

“She’s not a superhero. She’s a weirdo.” Lucas replies, rolling his eyes.

“Why does that matter?” Mike snaps, offended. “The X-Men are weirdos.” 

“If you love her so much, why don’t you marry her?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Mike, seriously?”

“What?”

“You look at her all, like…” Lucas makes a giggly face, and softens his body language, followed by a higher pitched voice, “‘Hi, El! El! El! El! I love you so much! Would you marry me’?” 

“Shut up, Lucas.”

“Yeah, shut up, Lucas.” Their bully, Troy, announced as he stomped towards the group. “What are you losers doing back here?”

“Probably looking for their missing friends.” James said, smirking.

“That’s not funny. It’s serious. They’re in danger.” Dustin hisses, annoyed.

“I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but they’re not in danger.” Troy bites back. “They’re dead. That’s what my dad says. He said that Byers was probably killed by some other queer. And maybe your sister’s been killed by some crazy stalker who is into weirdos like her.”

The two bullies laugh as Dustin looks like he’s about to strangle someone. No one says anything about Will like that. And nobody especially says something like that about his big sister.

Mike sees this, and puts his arm in front of his friend to soothe him. “Come on. Just ignore them.” He says, and starts to leave, only to be tripped – and face planted into the ground.

“Watch where you’re going, Frogface.” Troy spats, but he instantly gets a taste of his own medicine. 

To everyone’s surprise, Dustin was the one to deliver the karma, which was forcibly shoving him to the ground. 

Everyone stared, and before someone could speak he shoved James too and scrambled to pick up Mike.

“Lucas! Let’s go!” Dustin yells, and silently tells Mike to go. As they were leaving, he flips the bullies the bird and snaps, “You shitheads need to keep Will and Phanie’s name out of your mouths! Got it?!”

And then they broke off into a Usain Bolt type sprint.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

They finally ended up back on Mirkwood, guns loaded, backpacks full, and hope in their chest. If this works, if Joyce does this right, then maybe they can finally communicate to the other side. All they needed to do was tell her where they are, and maybe they could figure out a way to get back. 

It sounded easy, and they just hoped it was.

The two of them were silent for most of the walk, and when they got to this specific road, the boy grabbed her hand, shaking. She says nothing, ‘cause nothing needs to be said about it. If that’s what made him feel safe then so be it.

“Do you think it’s negative emotions?” Will eventually said, breaking the ice.

Stephanie tilts her head, confused. “Hmm?”

“Do you think that’s how we can hear some people? Through negative emotions?” He looks up at her. “Like my mom, she must be worried about me, maybe that’s why we can hear her?”

Her eyebrows shoot up, shocked. It’s definitely a plausible theory (But would that apply to Steve as well? And if so, why is he so worried?). “Maybe.”

“But would that go with us too?” He adds, the wheels in his head really were turning today. “I mean, is that how the beast picks their victims? Because they’re in a bad mental state?”

Well, now that makes sense if you put it that way. “It’s possible.” She said, nodding. Yeah, that’s completely possible. 

It explains a lot of things. More or so she wanted to admit. She knows these last two years were… interesting to say the least. Definitely could qualify as a ‘Bad Mental State’. And… she also has felt a bit stressed about school and talks about her future. But if she knew herself was in a bad state, then that means–

“Then… are you okay?” Steph asked, realizing something. The boy froze, like actually froze when she said that. It was a trippy sight to see. “Will?”

“What?”

“Are you okay?” She tries again, a bit gentler this time. “Mentally?” Nothing. “Will–

“I… I’m fine.” 

And then he lets go of her hand and starts walking a bit quicker– not even realizing he was doing so. She stops, concern on her face. She wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction from a simple yes or no question. She makes a note for herself that when they do get out of here she’s going to have a talk with him (Or at least tell Joyce about her concerns).

She sighs. Always got to be the therapist, Henderson.

She takes a step to move but stops, her eyes trailing off the road to her right, right into the void of the trees. It was weird. She felt like someone was standing right there – The same kind of presence back at the clock tower. 

“Huh.” She turns her attention back in front of her, then proceeds to freak out a bit when she notices how far Will was. She cusses and breaks into a sprint to catch up quickly.

Completely unaware of who that presence really was. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Steve steps over the barricades, his feet sinking into the leaves. Curiosity got the best of him you could say, or maybe the conversation last night really was getting under his skin (Like he’ll ever admit that), but he found himself here. Standing at a… crime scene, I guess. 

Her car went off road with herself and the Byers boy in it. Not long afterwards, they ditched it. 

His brown orbs trailed from the tree the vehicle hit and down the long road. He also knows, from what he’s heard, they both ran back to the boy’s house and then the trail went cold after that. But that’s the part that tickled his brain a bit. 

Why run all the way back home, a place you’re probably the safest at, and then leave it? It didn’t make sense in his book. Hell, it shouldn’t make sense in anybody’s book. What was the urge for them to run away from home and into the thick woods that surrounds Hawkins? 

He rubbed his chin and started thinking like he was going to solve this or whatever. Like…

He then scoffs at himself. 

What the fuck am I even doing? What is he doing? Why did he drive himself here? It’s not like he should care anymore. I mean, he shouldn’t care anymore. His parents would have his head if they knew–

Then there it is again.

That strange feeling that someone’s watching him. 

He turns around, half expecting a cop to be there to scold him, the other half expecting nothing and– Oh! What do you know? It was nothing. 

But even if it was nothing, he swears someone is standing there, watching his every move. Almost like this presence was here to judge him and see what other stupid things he can do today.

It was definitely giving him the heebie-jeebies.

He frowns, and looks away. “What the fuck…?”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

It took her an hour, but Joyce got all the lights up. She strung them all through the house, up along the wall and hanging gently off the ceiling. She hopes that she’s not losing her mind – She knows how silly this looks; Putting up Christmas lights in November (I mean, the holiday’s not that far off but still). She was expecting some reaction to happen, some or maybe all of them would immediately start blinking; Instead, her doorbell rings and she’s met with Karen Wheeler.  

Not wanting to be rude, Joyce invited her and her youngest in. Karen pops in a casserole she made into the oven, sitting next to the worried mother and tries to see what state she was in.

Joyce chuckles nervously when her guest notices the festive decoration. “Will always loved Christmas, you know. So I thought if I... I put the lights up... I don’t know, he... I’d feel like he was home somehow.” She covers part of her face with her hand. “I-It’s silly, I-I know…”

Karen shakes her head. “No. No, it’s not silly.” She takes the other woman’s hand in hers, giving her a gentle squeeze. “How is Jonathan holding up?”

Joyce takes a deep breath. “You know, he’s good at taking care of himself. He always has been, you know? I…” She scoffs. “I mean, he thinks I’m losing my mind, but…”

“Joyce.” Karen says, softly. “I want you to know something. If you need anything, anything at all... Ted and I are here for you.”

This sentimental moment caused them both to become oblivious to the lights flickering on in the hallway, a walkway pointing towards Will’s room. The only one who didn’t miss it was Holly, who was now sliding off her chair to follow.

“Thank you.” Joyce said, sincerely. 

Karen smiles. “Okay.”

The two women continued to talk, Joyce even bringing up Mike’s feelings about the whole thing – and even wondered if Claudia and Dustin were okay too. Meanwhile, little Holly Wheeler watched the lights flickered on and off, guiding her to the bedroom. Her eyes watched in awe as the many, many lamps that were lingered around Will’s room turned off and on one-by-one in a symphony-like way.

She giggles and claps, excited to watch this “show”. Then…

They all stopped and the nightmare began. 

Her happiness starts to pool away as she hears a scary sound. She then turns white as a ghost when she notices one of the walls was moving and stretching out towards her.

Who knows what would have happened if Joyce hadn’t come in and grabbed Holly, handing her back to her mother. 

“She shouldn’t be here.” Joyce said, scared in both tone and facial expression. 

Karen didn’t notice the seriousness of her look as she apologizes, “Oh, I’m sorry. She’s quite the explorer these days.”

“Wait, did you see something?” The worried Byers brushes her off, and the little girl nods quickly. “What did... what did you see? Tell me. What did you see?”

“Joyce!” The blonde scolds, but she’s already being shooed away.

“Karen, thank you for the casserole, but I need you to leave.” 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Nancy tapped her foot repeatedly, impatiently waiting for the person to pick up the phone. “Come on, come on, come on…” She mumbled, gripping the payphone tight. “Come on–”

[ ‘Hello?’ ]

Oh, thank god. “Hi!” She says, eagerly. “Hi, uh, Ms. Holland, it’s Nancy.”

[ ‘Oh, Nancy, how are you?’ ]

“Good. I’m good. Um, I was just wondering, uh, is Barb there?”

[ ‘Mmm... No, she hasn’t come home yet.’ ]

“But she did come home, right? After the vigil?”

[ ‘No, she said she was staying with you last night.’ ] 

Shit. Nancy mentally scolds herself. “Right, yes. She did, sorry. I meant, did she come home this morning? I think she left some textbooks and she was gonna go pick them up.”

[ ‘Oh, um, no, I haven’t seen her.’ ]

“Do– do you know what? I just remembered... she’s at the library.”

[ ‘Nancy, will you please have her call me as soon as you find her?’ ]

“Yeah.” She shakes her head, frowning at how worried Barb’s mother was sounding. “Yeah, I will. Sorry to bother you.”

She hangs up the phone, frustrated. This wasn’t like Barb at all. In the past when they’ve had some disagreements, she’s never once disappeared like this. The only thing Barb’s ever done that was “extreme” was she did the silent treatment for most of the school day. 

This is so weird. This whole day’s been weird. She sighs and digs out some more change for the machine, and dials another number she knows by heart. The whole time as it rang she was nipping at the tip of her thumb. To her surprise, a voice she’s never heard before answered the phone.

[ ‘Hello?’ ]

The voice was a bit husky, but sweet with a pinch of sass. 

Nancy’s confused, and twirls the phone cord around her finger. “Oh, I’m sorry, who’s this?” She asked, wondering if she dialed the number wrong. “Is this the–”

[ ‘This is Jessica. How can I help you?’ ]

Jessica?

Jessica?

Jessica? Who’s…

Her eyes widened. 

Oh.

Now she recognizes the name. 

It was Steve’s mother – The woman she hasn’t met yet – The woman she’s “meeting” for the first time over the phone.

She swallows, nervously. “Oh, I-I’m… sorry. I was trying to get a hold of Steve.” She replies, feeling a bit awkward (and nervous?).

[ ‘Steven? And who are you to him?’ ]

Well she sounds lovely. She can hear the snobbishness in her tone, almost offended that someone was calling for her son. That’s a little weird.

“Um, I’m his girlfriend.” Nancy replies, trying to sound confident. “I was just wondering if he’s home? I haven’t seen him at school day and I’m a little worried.”

Then came the very long, very uncomfortable pause. For a second there she thought the mom hung up, it was so quiet.

[ ‘Girlfriend? That’s new. ]

“Did Steve not tell you about us?” Nancy asked, a bit hurt and a bit confused. He seemed so proud to show the whole school that they were dating, how come he never told his mother?

[ ‘What’s your name?’ ]

Skipping my question. I love it. “Um, Nancy. Nancy Wheeler, Ma’am.”

[ ‘Wheeler, you said?’ ]

“Um, yes.” Now she was puzzled even more. Was this a bad thing–

[ ‘That’s wonderful!’ ] 

Nancy blinks. “It… is?”

[ ‘My son’s dating a Wheeler! I almost can’t believe it.’ ]

And the woman was laughing with joy(?), which Nancy puts to the side. She just needs to get an answer to her own simple question. “That’s… wonderful, um… is Steve there?”

[ ‘No, he’s not. *Sigh* I swear if that boy’s skipping school, we’re going to have a problem.’ ]

And I think I just made everything worse. She straightens herself up, ready to end this. “Okay, Well… thanks, Mrs. Harrington, I’ll see if he’s maybe hiding out somewhere in the school.”

[ ‘Okay. Well, you have a good rest of your day, sweetheart.’ ]

Sweetheart? Nancy shakes her head again. “Thanks. You too.” She hangs up the phone. Well that was even weirder than the last one.

She crosses her arms, turning to head inside only her eyes to beeline to Carol and Tommy following someone closely – Tommy looking pissed off, especially. 

“What the heck?” She says, and hurries towards them.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Hopper and his partner entered the library with an idea – an idea hanging on a very thin thread that is. So, he puts on his best smile and takes off his hat, strolling up to the woman at the desk. “Hey, Marissa. How you doin’?”

The librarian pursed her lips. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here.”

He blinks. “What?”

“You could have at least called, said, ‘Marissa! Hey, it’s not gonna work out. Sorry I wasted your time. I’m a dіck’.”

Oh, now he remembers. “Yep.” He said, agreeing immediately. “I’m sorry. Uh... Maybe we could go out again next week?” She, and even Powell, made a face at him that gave him his answer. He smacks his lips and looks around. “Newspapers? You guys got newspapers around here?”

Marissa nods and shows them where they all are. “We have the New York Times, the Post, all the big ones. Organized by year and topic. You can find the corresponding microfiche in the reading room.”

“Okay, we’re looking for anything on the Hawkins National Laboratory.”

“Well, shouldn’t you be looking for that missing kid?”

“Yeah. We are.” Hopper pushes, and adds, “So, why don’t you start with the Times, and we’ll check out the Post.”

She scoffs in disbelief and walks off, Powell stepping up with a look on his face. “The librarian?” He said, getting a shrug.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Nancy sped up when she saw who they were stalking in the parking lot. Why would two people like Tommy and Carol go after a kid like Jonathan Byers? Nothing that went through her mind would give her that answer. When she got closer is when it got more intense. 

Tommy was practically manhandling Jonathan, yelling and trying to take his bag away from him. The eldest Wheeler sped up even more, full on running now.

She manages to step between the two of them, arms out in defense. “Hey! What’s going on?”

“This creep was spying on us last night!” Tommy said, pointing furiously. “Nicole says he was taking pictures of us by the pool.”

“I was looking for my brother.” Jonathan replies, holding his bag close.

“Bullshit. Now let me see.”

“Back off!”

Nancy steps in between them again. “Tommy, stop!” She yells, making him scoff.

“You’re defending this creep, Wheeler?” Carol asked, in disgust.

“First of all, you really going to believe what Nicole said? The girl’s like the boy who cried wolf.”

“Nancy–”

“Lastly, so what if he has photos of us at the pool? It wasn’t like we’re naked.”

“Naked or not, he still took pictures of us!” Tommy snaps, taking a step closer as she takes a step back.

“Pictures or not, he was looking for his brother–”

“How do you know, huh? How?”

“Because he’s been hanging out missing poster signs of him and missing school because he’s the big brother.” Nancy looks over her shoulder, locking eyes with Jonathan. “Go.” He hesitates. “Go, man!”

Not wasting another opportunity, he hustles off towards his car. Tommy tries to lunge towards him, but Nancy isn’t letting up.

“What the fuck, Nancy?!” Tommy shouted, and she chose to ignore him by walking away once she knew Jonathan wasn’t around. “Nancy!”

“Nancy, get back here!” Carol yelled.

“Nancy, you such a fucking princess! Wait until your boyfriend hears about this!”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“Dude, I can’t believe you did that!” Lucas said, as they bike away from the school. “You know Troy and James are not going to let that slide.”

“I don’t care!” Dustin says, bitterly (and if he could cross his arms right now he would). “I don’t like when people bad mouth my friends, bad mouth my sister! I mean, for Christ’s sake, she was giving Will a ride home. What’s so bad about that?”

He doesn’t care if James’s waiting tomorrow to give him a wedgie, or Troy’s fist plummeting into his face, he doesn’t care. Both Will and Phanie had their fair share of bullying themselves, or whispers of derogatory names and speeches – All because Will was the “quiet kid” and wears “colorful” clothing; All because his sister wasn’t a “girly-girl” and a total nerd. He’s heard that all throughout his life, and sometimes he said something, sometimes he stays silent when told too – He probably should have done that today.

But those… fucking bullies just had to poke him when he was the most stress. Stressed out with each day that none of them had come home.

Jeez, he’s either going to get scolded or praised by his mother if she finds out about that interaction. 

“And don’t even try to convince me to beg them for forgiveness. They don’t deserve it and I’m standing my ground.” Dustin adds, shutting his friend up. As they rode closer and closer to their houses, he frowned, worriedly.

I just hope El knows what she’s talking about. He just wants to find them both soon (Safe and sound would be a plus).

The boys continued to ride until they arrived at the power lines behind the Wheelers’ house. Mike shouted and told the girl to hope on, warning all of them they only had a few hours to pull this off.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Joyce was standing in her kitchen with a cigarette when Chester started barking. She looks up to see the lights in the living room start flickering, and hurries in there. As soon as she entered they died down. Then, slowly the light directly above her activated, and then made a pathway to the other side of the room. Her fingers laced around them, and followed, ending up being directed at a bundle of them lying on the floor.

She rushes to take them in her hands, sitting down and taking a deep breath. It was now or never to find out if she was really losing her mind or not. She closes her eyes, and whispers,

“Will... are you here?”

There was a brief pause followed by the ball lighting up and fading. She chuckles in excitement, completely over the moon with fresh tears in her eyes. 

“Okay, good, good, good, good. Are you…” How should she do this? “Um, blink once for yes, twice for no. C-Can y-you do that for me, sweetie? Can you do–” The ball lights up again just once as she feels a tear run down her cheek and hugs the object.

She can feel it in her bones, in her heart now. She knows this is her baby boy. She knows that her son is still with her.

Joyce smiles and sniffles. “Oh, good boy. Good boy. Okay, Will, um–” Another deep breath. “Is… Is Stephanie with you too?” 

One blink. The girl who was kind enough to pick up her son is still with him despite all this time. She can finally put some of that guilt away now.

“That’s wonderful news.” She said, her expression growing bigger. However, this was going to be the hardest question yet to ask. “Baby, I need to know…” She swallows. “Are you guys alive?”

One blink and her heart skips a beat. She thanks any God who’s listening for this.

Her lip quivers as she follows up with, “Are you guys safe?”

Two blinks.

Her son and Stephanie were not okay.

Now, Joyce was shaking like a leaf as she clenched the lights tighter, her mind running a mile a minute on what she can do. What could she say that wouldn’t revert to playing twenty questions four times over?

“I need to know where to find you two, honey. Where... where are you? Can you... can you tell me where you are? Can you…” She chokes, her cheeks completely stained. “Please, baby. I need to find you. Tell me what to do. Please just... Will…”

She didn’t know how long she sat there and cried, wondering what she could do for her baby, for Steph; But at some point a light bulb idea appeared. She suddenly found herself stringing some lights on the wall over her couch, a row of three, before popping open a can of black paint and began brushing letters on.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

“How do we get my mom’s attention when we can’t see what she’s done?” Will asked after hours of walking back to his home, he was disappointed to find that his house still looks the same. I guess their theory about earlier was right–

This world was stuck on the day he and Steph got kidnapped by the beast.

The oldest walked around a bit, thinking. Unfortunately, despite all the lights Joyce bought, they can’t see any of them. “Did she put it in your room, maybe?” Stephanie thought, and wandered inside.

Nothing. Of course. The only thing she saw that was possibly different was some scratch marks on the wall, ones that would be too high for a dog to do.

She swallows and leaves, meeting the boy in the hallway. ���Did you have scratches on your wall before?” Will gives her a weird look and shakes his head. She hums. “We got to find those lights quickly. I think that monster’s been lurking around here.”

They found themselves back in the living room, and started moving their arms around, squinting too to see if something would appear. All hope was starting to seem lost until her hand hits an object above, a glowing hue appears for a split second.

“Whoa…” Will said, in awe, and suddenly, they both swore they heard a dog barking. “Chester?”

Steph took this as a sign to keep going, hitting the same spot again before gently moving her hand along the imaginary line. She trails to the little cabinet against the wall, feeling around until she hits something that makes light.

Come on, Ms. Byers. Please tell me you’re home. The two of them waited anxiously, waiting for the woman to speak, waiting for–

.

|| Will... are you here? ||

.

Joyce’s voice broke through, breaking them.

“Mom.” Will breaths, coming down to sit on his knees. “What do I–”

“Start feeling around. Just like I did.” Steph said, coming to sit next to him. He nods again, keeping calm and feels around – His fingers touching something that made the hue appear again. “Perfect. Just like that.”

.

|| Okay, good, good, good, good. ||

.

“See?” Steph says, happily. “It’s working.”

“Mom.” Will says again, smiling. Now, they just have to stay silent and listen.

.

|| Are you… Um, blink once for yes, twice for no. C-Can y-you do that for me, sweetie? Can you do– || 

.

Of course they can. So Will reaches out and touches it once.

.

|| Oh, good boy. Good boy. Okay, Will, um– Is… Is Stephanie with you too? ||

.

One touch. Will is eternally grateful that he’s not alone in this scary place. 

.

|| That’s wonderful news – Baby, I need to know… ||

.

There’s a pause, and they hold their breaths.

.

|| Are you guys alive? ||

.

Their hearts clenched at how painful she sounded. 

His poor mother. I can only imagine what she must feel like. Steph thought, and touched his shoulder, trying to give him some comfort.

He touches the air with a shaky hand, trying not to beat himself up over how much his mother was suffering.

.

|| Are you guys safe? ||

.

They frown, and he touches the air twice.

I’m sorry, Mom. Will says, trying not to picture the state she was in after that answer.

.

|| I need to know where to find you two, honey. Where... where are you? Can you... can you tell me where you are? Can you… Please, baby. I need to find you. Tell me what to do. Please just... Will… ||

.

“Mom?” He croaked, after she went silent. “Mom?”

“Ms. Byers?” She said, worriedly.

“Mom, please… where did you–”

Then they heard the couch scrap across the floor, hitting the wall, followed by the sounds of hammering. 

“What is she doing now?” He asks, both of them standing and hearing the string lights she must have in her hands clink together, and move along the wall. “Why is she hanging up more lights?”

Although he was puzzled, Stephanie was not. She walks over to the couch, getting onto the cushions and feeling around, the hues returning when she hits a certain spot. She laughs blissfully.

“Oh, your mom’s a genius.” Steph said, with a huge smile on her face.

Will gives her a look. “I don’t get it.”

“Watch closely. See–” She touches a line of lights near the ceiling. “Eight.” Then the middle. “Nine.” Then the bottom. “Nine. It makes twenty-six. Your mom’s a freaking genius.”

“Still not getting it.”

“Don’t you see? She didn’t just hang up more lights–” Her smile grows, and soon will his. “It’s an alphabet wall.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Nancy wasn’t sure what she was going to do. First Steve doesn’t come into school, and now no one knows where Barb is. She decides to kill two birds with one stone after school, and takes a drive over to the Harrington house. A quick driveby shows that her boyfriend’s car wasn’t there, so she figures he must have just skipped school because of last night’s disagreement. As for her best friend though, she couldn’t have said the same thing.

She slows down and parks directly behind Barb’s car, jogging over and taking a peek inside. Everything was the same, Barb’s purse was on the floor board, and the sweater she changed out of was laid in the seat. 

No. No way. She couldn’t believe this. If Barb didn’t drive home last night then where was she? She tried to come up with excuses, tried to make up ideas that would lead to her coming home without her car but…

Nothing made sense. 

She about cried on the way home, on the verge of a breakdown as she thinks only but the worst of the worst. 

“Hey!” Her mother calls out as she enters the house. “You’re home early! How was the game?” When her mother notices how quiet she was, it is when she meets her daughter halfway. “Nancy? What’s the matter?”

“I-It’s Barb.” Nancy croaks, shaking. “I think... something happened. Something terrible.” She hopes she’s just over exaggerating, but she doesn’t know about that.

She can’t shake off this dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“I don’t know, Chief.” Powell begins, really on the fence about all that they read.

“What don’t you know?” Hopper asked, confused.

“This lady, Terry Ives, sounds like a real nut to me. Her kid was taken for LSD mind control experiments? She’s been discredited. Claim was thrown out–”

Hopper sighs. “Okay, forget about her. Take a look at this.” He slides over a newspaper clipping he printed out. The headline said: ‘MK ULTRA EXPOSED’. He points to a familiar face in the picture. “Dr. Martin Brenner.”

“Who?”

“Brenner. He runs Hawkins Lab.”

“Okay…”

Hopper sits back in his chair with disbelief and scoffs. “You don’t find that interesting?”

“Not really.” Powell said, with a shrug. “He was involved in some hippie crap back in the day, so what?” 

“No, this isn’t hippie crap. This is CIA-sanctioned research.”

“Doesn’t mean he had anything to do with our kids.”

“Come on. Look at that.” Hopper points to the other people in the picture. “Hospital gowns. All of ‘em. Now, that piece of fabric that the teacher found by the pipe. That sure looked like a hospital gown to me, huh? Am I wrong?”

“I don’t know, Chief.”

“Come on, man. Work with me here. I’m not saying that there’s some grand conspiracy–” (You sure about that?) “I’m just…” He sighs, exhausted. “I’m saying maybe something happened. Maybe Will and Stephanie were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they saw something that they shouldn’t have.”

Powell makes a face. “It’s a reach.”

“It’s a start.” 

Before more could be said, Powell’s radio goes off, and Callahan starts speaking.

[ ‘Hey, Powell, is the chief with you?’ ] 

Hopper wastes no time to reach over and take the radio off his partner’s shoulder, answering it, “Hopper here. What do you got?”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

The boys follow Eleven through the woods, the sun finally setting, slowly engulfing them in darkness if it wasn’t for the lights on their bikes. To everyone’s shock and confusion, she had brought them to a familiar place.

She turns around and faces them, replying, “Here.”

Mike gives her a look. “Yeah, this is where Will lives.”

“Hiding.”

He shakes his head. “No, no, this is where he lives. He’s missing from here. Understand?”

“What are we doing here?” Lucas asked, dropping his bike in annoyance. 

“She said he’s hiding here.”

“Um…” He looks around. “No!”

Now it was Dustin’s turn to look annoyed. “I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing–”

“That’s exactly what we did. I told you she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about!”

Mike sighs and looks at her. “Why did you bring us here?”

“Mike, don’t waste your time with her.” Lucas replies, fed up and tired.

“What do you want to do then?”

“Call the cops, like we should have done yesterday.”

“We are not calling the cops!” 

“Hey, guys?” Dustin says, something catching his attention. 

“What other choice do we have?” Lucas yells again. 

“Guys!” He snaps, drawing their attention to the police cars rushing by, followed by an ambulance. Their sirens were blaring loudly, and were heading in a direction they all knew where it led to.

A dreadful feeling came to all of them instantly. 

“Oh no…” Mike whispers.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE OTHER SIDE ||

Stephanie wrote on the wall with a marker the best she could, drawing the alphabet in each row. They couldn’t see the lights or the letters Joyce probably scribbled on too, but they could make do with what they had.

“This should probably help, right?” 

“Definitely.” Will agrees with a nod.

“Good.” She smacks her hands together. “Alright, come on Mrs. Byers, talk to us. Ask us some questions.”

“Come on, Mom.”

They waited and waited, until they finally heard her speak.

.

|| Okay. Okay, baby, talk to me. Talk to me. Where are you guys? ||

.

“What should we say?” Will asked, as he climbed onto the couch.

“Uh…” What could they say? “Here! Right Here. Tell her that.”

“Okay.”

Will Reached up and started touching right above each letter, listening – His mother repeating back whatever he touched.

.

|| ‘R’. Good, good, good, good. That’s good. Come on, come on. ‘I..  G... H... T... H... E... R... E…’.‘Right here’. ||

.

Stephanie frowns, worriedly. Yeah, I know it doesn’t make any sense but it’s true.

“Come on, Mom. Understand. Please.” Will begged, quietly.

.

|| ‘Right here’? I… I-I don’t know what that means. I need you to tell me what to do. What should I do? How do I get to you guys? How do I find you? What should I do? ||

.

“Um…” Will looks over at the teenager. “What should we tell her?”

Steph’s mouth opens and closes quickly. What do they tell her if they’re not even sure what this place is? “Fuck… um…” She scratches her head. “How about–”

. “I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.” .

The vicious voice seemed to spread itself around the house like a disease making the hair on their necks stand, and a chill ran up their spines. And then all the supposed “dead” electricity started going off, turning the whole house into a light show; Radios and TVs started going frantic; Fans turning on and spinning around too.

Will starts looking around all disoriented. “Steph, what’s going on?” 

“I–” She gasps as she hears the infamous growl in the distance, then the sound of the beast trying to bust through the wall behind her. “Will!!”

The boy frantically writes something out of his mother, just as the monster’s claw broke through the house. Steph takes a quick shot to stun it enough for them to run out the back door – From there, they were off running into the forest.

Again. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Joyce set the brush down, her alphabet wall was done and ready to use. She takes a few steps back so she can see the whole thing, and rubs her hands impatiently.

“Okay.” She breathes, mentally preparing herself. “Okay, baby, talk to me. Talk to me. Where are you guys?” It takes only a second for a letter to appear. “‘R’. Good, good, good, good. That’s good. Come on, come on. ‘I..  G... H... T... H... E... R... E…’.‘Right here’.”

What? 

That doesn’t make sense. What do they mean they’re right here?

“‘Right here’?” She says again, puzzled. “I… I-I don’t know what that means. I need you to tell me what to do. What should I do? How do I get to you guys? How do I find you? What should I do?”

She sees the light flicker again, and waits to see what they spell. Slight spoiler…

It was not what she expected them to say.

They were letters that were going to take her breath away.

R

U 

N 

And then all the lights in the house turned on and flickers rapidly, a sound of growling coming from behind. Scarcely, she turns to find something trying to crawl out of her wall. Terrified to even scream or speak, she starts to back away towards the door as a beast breaks through the wallpaper and hisses. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

The boys biked faster and faster, trying to catch up to the emergency vehicles, fearing the worst was yet to come. Just like they suspected, they ended up right at Sattler Quarry.

Meanwhile, Hopper was shaking, praying that what Callahan told him was not true. He arrives at the scene to find paramedics going deep into the water, two stretchers trailing behind. He doesn’t even know if he parked the car or not as he rushes out; A terrible, terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He runs and blends into the crowd of firemen, waiting (im)patiently for their findings. 

“Oh, Jesus.” He mutters, trying so hard to keep his composure. “Oh, God. Please tell me it’s not the kids.”

The boys and El hid behind a truck, hearts in their throats as they watched as a waterlogged body of a boy was being loaded on the stretcher – soon followed by a larger female.

As soon as he saw the clothes, as soon as he saw the color of their hair, Hopper knew he was too late. Not wanting to break down right there and scream, he turns away and heads to his car. How in the world was he going to be able to tell Joyce and Claudia about this? How was he going to tell them that he failed to save their children after they begged him to? What could he have done differently to change this atrocious outcome?

The boys were shaking their heads from afar, not wanting to believe what they’re seeing. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. It has to be! They can’t really be–

“It can’t be them.” Mike choked, shaking his head. “It can’t be.”

“It’s Will and Steph.” Lucas says, lips quivering. Both boys were a mess, almost coming undone, but Dustin…

Oh, Dustin.

He felt like he was about to faint.

“Phanie…?” He whispers, taking a step back while holding his head. No. No. No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No– No! This can’t be real! This can’t be! She can’t be–

“It’s really them.” Lucas said, after getting another look once the bodies were brought back to shore. Tears were in his eyes, and they were ones he wasn’t even going to try to hide like he normally would.

Same thing goes with Mike, who was hugging himself, and sobbed. His best friend was gone. A girl that was like a sister to him was gone. He just couldn’t… wait. “Dustin?” He begins, looking over his friend who seemed so far away from this world.

It was a scary look, enough for even El to get scared and worried. She reached out to him, to comfort him; She even muttered his name for the first time.

To everyone’s surprise, he slaps her hand away.

“‘Dustin’? ‘Dustin’, what?!” He snaps, hatefully. “You were supposed to help us find them alive. You said my sister was alive?! Why did you lie to us?” He points at her, scaring her again. “What’s wrong with you? What is wrong with you?!” 

Eleven stays quiet, not even sure what to say from his outburst.

“Say something! Give me an answer, damn it!” He yells, as Lucas and Mike take a step closer.

“Dustin–” Mike tries, but the boy shakes his head and backs away.

“Screw this! Fuck everything!” Dustin turns around and grabs his bike, his friends ushering him to calm down before taking off. But whatever they say wasn’t going to be enough. The Henderson was practically up the hill when they finished their speech, and wasn’t planning on slowing down no matter what happens.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Meanwhile, not too far down the road, Joyce was running for her life – running whatever that thing was that crawled out of her wall. She was so scared that she didn’t even realize a car was coming towards her. Luckily, it stopped mere inches away, causing her to scream.

“Mom?” Jonathan says as he gets out. “Mom, what happened?” His mother couldn’t speak, only reaching out to grab her son and hold on to dear life. “It’s okay. It’s okay. I got you.” 

But everything is not okay. Far from it. 

Because in the distance, police were coming to inform them of the unfortunate news of their son and brother.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Steve slips through the sliding door in the back of his house since it was much quieter. He really didn’t feel like facing his parents just yet, and he knows this is around the time at night where they sit around with a glass of wine/beer and watch their shows. He’ll just see and deal with them in the morning, and hopefully they don’t notice any signs that there was a party last night.

He walks lightly across the floors, his mind set to go for the stairs which was going to be a bit tricky since they do tend to creak in some spots. A quick look into the living room he finds his dad on the couch, and his mother standing up but facing the opposite way. 

Perfect. He thought and made his move just as his mother’s voice broke through.

The black, wavy haired and brown eyed woman was pacing around a bit, clearly upset about something – or someone to be exact. 

“The boy was skipping school today, Richard. Can’t you believe that? How is suppose to keep up his grades?” 

Steve had to hold back from groaning as he eye rolled. Here she goes again. He chooses to ignore it, and is about to when he hears the next thing.

“If it wasn’t for his girlfriend calling we would have never known.”

He froze as soon as his foot touched one of the steps. Nancy called? 

His girlfriend actually called the house? She was actually calling because she was wondering where he was at? Even after their fight? He could smile because it warms his heart that she cares, but he was also devastated that his mother was the one to pick up the phone. He hasn’t even told–

“On the bright side, he’s dating a Wheeler. A Wheeler! You know what her father does for a living, right?” She chuckles with excitement. “It’s perfect. I can almost cry.”

And here comes another eyeroll. See this is why he didn’t bother mentioning this girlfriend this time around to his mother. He knew once she found out who her family was it was going to be a game changer. 

Jesus, Christ. He can’t wait to see what’s in store for him in the morning.

“Well, it beats the other choices he’s had in the past.” His father said, pouring salt into old wounds and making him shake his head.

These freaking people, man. I swear. Steve starts to go up the stairs when he hears another voice; This time it was on the TV.

. < In Other words– breaking news. The bodies of some local children, William Byers and Stephanie Henderson have been found. > .

He froze again, this time more rigid and cold.

No.

No, he didn’t just hear that right.

No, his mind’s just playing tricks on him because of last night…

Right?

. < The children have been missing since the 6th, and local authorities and it’s volunteers worked many hours to bring them home, only for it to end in a tragedy. >  .

“About fucking time.” Charles said, raising his beer with joy. “Damn weirdo. I guess our worries about her hanging out with our son again are put to rest.”

Jessica sighs with relief. “Thank God for that. I was tired of seeing her face everywhere.”

“Amen to that.”

He listened to his parents laugh, and clink their drinks together as the world started to spin around him.

No.

No.

This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t–

He’s not sure how much noise he made, or if he made any, but Steve was out the door again in a split second – running straight for his car where he’ll speed off to the unknown parts of Hawkins.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Dustin stumbles inside his house, slamming the door with more force than necessary. Maybe it was necessary ‘cause it got his mother’s attention. She came from the other room, asking what’s going on as he stares at her with a red face and puffy eyes, cheeks stained with tears that wouldn’t stop falling.

“Dustin? What’s wrong?” 

He felt like something was wrapped around his vocal cords, and there was a knife sticking into his chest, and there was something hot poking at his lungs. He has to speak. He has to tell her. It’s better if she knows from his lips rather than a man in blue. 

“Dustin?” She tries again, getting closer.”

“M-Mom…” He begins, his whole body starting to tremble. “St-Stephanie… sh-she’s… she’s…” Oh, god. Why can’t he freaking say it?

“She’s what?” Claudia asked, worriedness creeping up onto her features.

“Sh-She’s… she’s gone.” He whispers into a sob. “Th-They found them both in… I-In the quarry.” Another sob. “Th-They’re b-both gone. M-Mom. St-Stephanie’s gone…”

And then his mother started to shake her head and said ‘No’, followed by Dustin’s reassurance. This went back and forth for who knows how long, but it ended with Claudia being in the same state as her son – a hobbling mess.

“I-It’s true…” He gasps. “I-I saw it my-myself. They’re r-really b-both gone.” And then he broke down again, this time in her arms. She holds him tight, trying to be the strong one here. 

“Shh, baby, we’ll get through this.” She soothes, rubbing the curls on the back of his neck. Her son grips onto her clothes, burying his head into her chest and lets out never ending gasps for air.

“Mommy…” He choked, as his ears picked up on the sirens in front of his house.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Steve’s surprised the gas pedal hasn’t gone through the floorboard yet with how much force he’s applying. He doesn’t even know where he’s going, doesn’t even know if he’s hit something, or runs a red light, but he does know that he’s not anywhere near the speed limit. 

The news story was still playing around in his head and it was certainly not helping the situation. 

. < From the looks of it, the poor children had plummeted into the quarry and ended up drowning with possible hypothermia. But the mystery still remains on why these two disappeared in the first place. Hopefully, the police can find the answer to that, and bring some closure to the grieving families. > < Hopefully so, Liz. I can only imagine what they’re going through right now. > < Everyone here at WCPK would like to give our condolences. And we advise everyone watching to give a moment of silence for the children. > .

Steve slams on the breaks, the wheels spinning and making an awful sound as he stops along one of the abandoned roads in the town. He starts breathing heavily, which slowly turns into panting. His heartbeat was in his ears, his throat tight and dry, his brown eyes starting to gloss over.

“Fuck…” He whispers, in disbelief. No matter how many times he thinks this is a dream, thinks that maybe they were wrong and it was two other kids they found, his guts tells him ‘No’ and ‘This is real’. 

“Fuck…” He says again, the pain was slowly turning into anger which eventually led to him banging on every surface in his car. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!”

Stephanie Henderson was dead. The girl he knew since five was dead. The girl he made promises with was dead. The girl who was there for him at his every low was dead. The girl who was the only one to make him really laugh and smile was dead.

The girl he had to give up to protect was dead.

Stephanie Henderson… The girl that was his friend.

No.

Screw that! 

He didn’t want to make that choice but he had to.

The girl that is, and will always be, his friend is dead.

She was just supposed to keep moving on in her life, she was just supposed to keep hating him until she completes her dreams. She was supposed to stay in Hawkins and pretend not to know him until her dream life opens up and whisks her away. 

She was supposed to be alive and safe. 

She wasn’t supposed to be dead at the bottom of a quarry with a boy she offered to protect.

Everything he did to make sure she lived was now pointless.

Now, tears rolled down his face, his hands trembling and his lower lip quivered. Every emotion he kept locked up from their old friendship had returned and it was eating him away, tearing him bit by bit, suffocating him till he turned blue.

He still couldn’t believe it. He wishes he could blink and reality would reveal it was just another dream. 

He knows it won’t be like that. It never will be. So instead…

.

.

.

.

Steve found himself screaming until his throat ran raw.

(TBC)

A/N: Did I emotionally destroy all of you enough? I apologize a bit if so...

~~~

-Taglist is Open-

@ladygrey03 @poppet05 @tooearlyforthis @lovesfics @lordzzz

@mirkwoodshewolf @sadbitchfangirl @olivewisp

@emsownuniverse @unspecifiedvisitor @smaryamsstuff @kitty49646 @jinxeee @bookkeeperlove

[syndrossi]

resonant ch29 dvd commentary

Very belated, but since ch30 is right around the corner (aka tomorrow), I figured I should get this written!

Favorite line(s):

It's a tossup between:

“Your uncle has not wronged me. Please spare him your wroth.”

Because angry/fierce/protective eight-year-olds summoning the king to answer for his perceived crimes was the very first thing I imagined when writing this chapter, even if we didn't actually get to see it!

And then:

Daemon’s hands clenched around fistfuls of blanket as his heart stuttered again in his chest, light and hollow, a chill emanating from it that left him trembling for what felt like minutes, eyes fixed on his sword, which had been propped against the bed table. There is only death here.

Because one of the more fun (for me, not Daemon) things to write recently has been all the ways the candle has fucked up and continues to fuck with Daemon. It's so sneaky and insidious, I love it, even if I seem to be mostly alone in that. 😅

Favorite detail(s):

Again, all the ways that Daemon is not okay in this chapter, and even under siege, in ways that he can't even fight against. The way the candle's words seamlessly meld into his own thoughts/fears. My main goal in 29-30 has been to introduce a subtle sense of unease to every Daemon POV.

But I also had a ton of fun writing the Caraxes + hatchlings bit, especially their family lamb roast and Jon learning that sometimes your dragon having a snack makes you hungry.

Favorite dynamic:

The twins navigating Daemon's fragile state. Jon starts off very bull-in-a-china-shop, much to Rhaegar's dismay, but they effectively defuse the worst of it.

Also Rhaegar saving Allard's life by lying and claiming that Crayne threatened Lady Lynda.

Quick hitters:

Wondering if readers are less into the current direction of the fic or finally getting fatigued by the slow pace. The comment totals have been pretty consistent per chapter after the expected drop-off once HOTD S2 finished airing, but ch29 had two-thirds the normal response. (It feels like very first-world writer problems, since I'm fortunate to have so many people commenting to begin with, but I definitely notice when there's a seeming "off" chapter!)

I'm hoping it's the latter, because I was so pleased with the 28-30 stretch!

The biggest struggle this chapter was writing the damned City Watch scene. I went into it all excited because hey, Jon getting to maybe do Little Lord Commander shenanigans, but it's a lot harder in practice/execution than theory, especially when the stakes are this high. The conversation itself was written/rewritten probably a half-dozen times before I was reasonably happy with it.

Daemon finally learning about Ser Thoren was originally written to happen in the Watch barracks, but the setting wasn't right for it, so I cut it entirely. When they returned to the apartments, I realized that it made for a much more natural place for Daemon to have a breakdown.

Daemon's breakdown toward the end is triggered by a combination of hearing about the boys being in peril, helpless, and the Trident vibes of Rhaegar being dragged to the stream banks by Crayne.

It seems like a useful thing that Caraxes's behavior can confirm that there's something wrong with Daemon, but that has disturbing implications of its own.

I just love writing about the hatchlings. Full stop. I will never be afraid to interrupt the angst for some hatchling shenanigans.

Sometimes, someone worries about precisely the right thing in a comment and it's so satisfying.

We are so close to being able to advance the clock a bit and I'm ready for it. Y'all, Larys is almost here! With Ser Kelwyn maybe a week behind him.

[picklefics]

Benefits of Camping, or How to (not) Hunt Bigfoot With Your Parents

This was originally posted on Ao3, but I decided I'd see what posting on Tumblr was like for fanfiction :) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/47138986/chapters/118767895)

I already have chapters 1-5, just not gonna put em all up right now as I'm at a coffee shop and need to work on heading home.

Summary:

It could've been a great vacation. Probably. Except there's one tiny issue: Danny's parents have decided to take a break from hunting ghosts, instead supporting their fellow cryptobiologists in hunting Bigfoot. The big problem? They do find Bigfoot. And Bigfoot can talk. (...and has a PhD?)

Chapter 1: Benefit 1-New Cooking Skills

Danny’s folks are usually ghost hunters, but that doesn’t mean they don’t branch out. After all, they’d spent almost 20 years of their life studying a science practically everyone thought of as a paper house in a rainstorm. Surely one of those droplets of evidence would disprove the science as a whole.

Really? Entire beings made of one substance? Supernatural entities?

Absurd .

Maddie and Jack have a great deal of sympathy for cryptobiologists. They also have a tendency to suspect that ghosts are involved every time someone spots Bigfoot or some other being. But really, they’d be happy with either the discovery of a ghost or a new animal to dissect.

Danny, on the other hand, is not in love with either of those two discovery options. He is having a great deal of fun tormenting Jazz, who’d been forced to come along on a trip to the red cedar forests of California. He’d tried to bribe Sam and Tucker into coming along. Sam, with the lure of a new animal (maybe) to check out, and Tucker with peer pressure and lots of grilled meat. Unfortunately, after the reality check that was another fight with a new ghost named Fortuna (self-proclaimed follower of Fortuna, Goddess of Fortune and Misfortune, and with luck-related powers), they’d been forced to concede that having people at home who could fight ghosts was too important to have all three of them on a camping trip.

Thank fuck that Val wasn’t in school right now and that she’d gotten less extreme about ghosts since meeting Danielle. One day Danny might even consider telling her about him, if she doesn’t figure it out first. As a result, there are three competent ghost hunters in Amity Park who don’t actively hate ghosts while Danny is on vacation.

At any rate, Danny is trapped with a bunch of adults who are way too enthusiastic about hunting down rare animals and (in at least one case) killing and taxidermy-ing them. The guy in question keeps tracking new hunters down and showing off pictures of his living room and business, covered in eerie deer, bear, and alligator heads, among other things. There’s even a snake wrapped around a driftwood piece on the table. It reminds Danny of Skulker, and makes him consider yet again whether ghosts might be more likely to form out of these kinds of people. He’s pretty sure his parents were obsessive before they started regularly working with ectoplasm, and after?

They grew much more extreme.

And who knows? It could be due to exposure to ectoplasm, or maybe the obsessiveness causes ectoplasm to accumulate near them. He’s heard theories going both ways.

This guy, Danny could easily imagine dying and becoming a ghost.

At least he helps with setup. The camp takes a while to go up, yellow and beige tents popping up like gophers among the trees. His parents’ tent is a green dome, one of a few splashes of color in the group. Another guy sets up a big grill and a solar panel in a little clearing, one of the few places with sunlight. His incredibly buff partner totes a bag of backup coal to the grill like Mom would carry a sack of flour.

All around the area, people bring up folding chairs and situate equipment. In a big, waterproof, black container, they all put their tech away. The container is anchored with thick ropes to be absolutely certain that nothing can drag it away. It’s flash-flooding season in the area and there’s a river nearby, so they’re concerned that the container could float away, but they had wanted to make the equipment available to everyone, so they aren’t keeping it in anyone’s vehicle. 

A cage goes up towards the far west corner of the camp, away from the fire pit, because they’re worried anything they capture might be unduly frightened by said fire.

With that, a few people sign up in rotation to monitor the grill, planning to bake some potatoes and apples in the fire pit and grill weenies. It’ll be about three hours before supper, but the planning, and a snack, are needed. As the only kids present (apparently many of the others’ kids are nonexistent or at summer camps), Danny and Jazz are put on apple coring and potato poking duty involuntarily. 

Matthew Kapp is their instructor. He practically drags them to the fire pit and tells them how to make the food like he thinks they have infinite memory space for commands, no matter how long the list is.

He explains that potatoes explode when in the ashes without holes, then shows them the basic steps to prepare the food. Essentially, they’re supposed to stab the potatoes with a fork “until it feels right”, wrap them in tin foil, and then yeet them into the fire. Then they have to be surrounded by the ashes and dug out later. Jazz and Danny both work on this, quietly chattering.

Danny grins and with particular emphasis stabs a potato old enough to have green sprouts studded all over its surface. He has to use his right thumb to put enough pressure on the sides of the sprouts that they fall off. He jokes, “If I were Skulker and this potato was me, I’d be so happy right now…”

Jazz raises her eyebrows at him. “Sometimes I worry about the normalization of violence you’ve experienced, Danny.”

Danny is like 90% sure she’s saying that mostly to get on his nerves, but he’s not 100% sure. Ah, the delights of a sister who adores psychology and tormenting her little brother. He rolls his eyes. “Literally everybody in town probably has that. The school has at least one attack every week.”

Jazz retorts, “That’s really not normal.”

“Well it’s normal for me.” 

At that, Jazz changes topics. “Did you remember to bring our tent?”

Danny gives her a thumbs up.

“Great. We don’t have to listen to their snoring!” She cheers. Granted part of the reason they have the tent is because of Danny’s nightmares and occasional power use. Particularly, he’s prone to leaping out of bed and turning intangible the second he gets startled awake because of the sheer number of times ghosts have woken him up.

“Thanks for suggesting it,” Danny offers. Then he adds, “Stabbing the potatoes until it feels right is so…imprecise. How do we know when it feels right?”

Jazz groans sympathetically. “I know, right? I get it for people who’ve baked campfire potatoes before, but we’ve never done this. Mr. Kapp is a scientist, isn’t he supposed to know to be exact for beginners?”

Danny tosses his potato back and forth. “This potato better be good. It’s very hole-y now.” He sets it in the metal bowl to his right and adds, “It’s starting a cult.”

Jazz raises her eyebrows at him. “...why?”

“Holy? Y’know, like saints or whatever?”

Jazz snorts and grabs the tin foil roll. She starts unwrapping it to the familiar crumbly crackle of ripping metal, tearing off pieces big enough for each of the potatoes they’ve prepared. Danny snitches some of the squares and starts wrapping them around each potato as fast as he can. For this part, they don’t talk. The aluminum is too loud anyways. It covers speech pretty well.

After all 14 potatoes are wrapped, they toss them into the fire. Sparks flash into the sky and drift away, and one of the logs collapses into the pit with a soft thud. The white ashes have increased in number, but there aren’t many yet, so they wait to bury the potatoes in the ashes. While they wait, they move on to the apples.

Danny mixes the cinnamon and other spices together and Jazz cores the apples while grumbling about how hard it will be to work on her paper out here. She brought paper so she could handwrite some of it, but out here there isn’t any internet so the most she can do is type on her phone. She isn’t doing that because she’s worried about running out of power and not being able to call if there’s an emergency.

They both stuff the apples with the mixture and then wrap them and toss them in the fire in the same way as the potatoes but to the side. About 15 minutes later, they use sticks to roll the apples out of the fire. The potatoes are saved for later since it will be a few hours before they’re done, while the apples are served as a snack/dessert immediately. 

Having had a long drive and therefore possessing a strong craving for sweets (or any sort of snackage really), everyone swarms the apple pile and as a result only gets one each. Danny plots to sneak another apple into the fire later so he can have seconds, and Jazz wholly supports him. He forgets to eat, and she has to remind him far more often than she’d like.

After the apples are all eaten, some of the people sit down to rest (those who weren’t already asleep) and some of the others begin prowling the area, including Taxidermy Guy (Oscar Polson) and his wife Paloma.

When the two of them come back, they have a map of the area filled with markings denoting where they want to put various kinds of traps. The Polsons are the experts on trap-setting and location, and they’re responsible for deciding which places to put the traps each person brought. With the locations for each trap decided, everyone fixes the last few supper items and sits down for supper as the sun sets, mostly because there’s not enough time to set up the traps that evening.

Next Chapter:

https://www.tumblr.com/picklefics/730299785376104448/boc-chapter-2?source=share

[thelastbraincellofthehive]

Ok so, back from work and finally had a chance to rewatch the episode and do my thoughts about it not that I haven't practically said it all in reblogs already lol

Neo, baby, I love you... But it was honestly so disrespectful of you to change into Penny while fighting Ruby???? WTH! I know when I started watching this show I basically gave RT full permision to rip my heart apart, but do they have to take every chance they get to do it? The fuck?!

Honestly in love with the Wonderland aesthetic of this volume <3 which is funny because I'm not actually a fan of Alice in wonderland lol.

But like... It's so pretty???? Also it's exacto what the girls need right now. Can't wait for the character development this volume.

Ruby making alies and friends by being kind and helpful is always one of my favorite things honestly. We need more Rubys in the world.

Remember when Weiss was considered the most annoying character in the show? God following her journey is just so rewarding! I love her so much!

Seriously that scene of Weiss cheering lives rent free in my mind now lol precious little bean<3

I thought it would take maybe two or three chapters to have team RWBY all together, but I'm happy it was so fast! Specially with such a small volume, now it's time for adventure!

Yang being upset that everyone is there because she just assumed she had died 😭 baby no!!!

Ruby's "if you thought we wouldn't come for you, you forget who raised me" is now top-10 moments of the show for me 🥹 perfection in every way

The tackle-hug 😭😭😭 I can't!!!! I'm never gonna grow tired of watching it!!!!

Also that's the SOFTEST "Yang" that Arryn Zech has ever said and I will always thank her for her work! I've been fed!

I have this weird feeling theory/idea that the weather in Wonderland is affected by the girls' emotions... Like, it literally started raining both when Ruby and Weiss started crying, while it goth Sunny when Blake expressed positive thoughts. O feel like it's no coincidence.

Also I can't stop thinking about how Oscar and Ozpin talked about The girl who fell through the world being about a girl who failed to learn from her mistakes and I'm sooooo excited to see how this is gonna play for the girls!

Like... We've gotten two fallen kingdoms in big battles that ended up with Penny dying and Cinder victorious and I think it's interesting.

Weiss having to tell everyone about Penny and Ruby just dropping to the ground 😭 I'm seriously never forgiving RT for doing that to my girl again.

Again: the new opening fucks! Which is not new and not surprising, but God sometimes I forget how much I love Casey's voice and just the Williams' talent in general <3

Also all the depressed Ruby shots in the opening are doing things to my heart and I don't like it! Let Ruby be happy 😭😭 with her girlfriend Penny

Also can I just say that I feel so proud about seeing Arryn Troche in the credits? 🥹 They deserve it so much!!!

I think that's all I can think... Now I'm gonna go keep rewatching the chapter <3

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Protector

Chapter One

Author's Note: *peeks my head out* hi

You guys over here on tumblr can't see the chapter count, but this is the last chapter! This story has been… shit, at least three years in the making? From the first brainstorm to today it has gone through a fuck ton of changes and updates and fights between me and my own characters when they wouldn't do what I wanted them to. But I really honestly love where it ended up and how things worked out. I hope you did too, and thank you so much for reading! I've really loved seeing everyone's comments and theories as the story goes on, and sometimes I honestly can't believe how many people read it, it's easily my most popular story for this fandom xD

But anyways, thank you so much for reading it! This story means a lot to me, and I hope you enjoy the ending and that you enjoyed the whole thing overall!

Chapter Forty-Three:

Most days, Virgil woke up alone now.  Logan said it was a good sign that he no longer worried enough about Remus’ safety to have to sleep in the same bed with him every night.  If Virgil had a bad night, he’d end up there.  If it was a really bad night, sometimes Roman would already be there.  But those were becoming few and far between, and more likely, Virgil would wake up, get dressed, and head downstairs to find Remus making some kind of monstrosity in the kitchen with Patton.

That was precisely what happened this morning, as Virgil walked downstairs and found Patton had made a horrible mistake in apparently thinking Remus was ready to learn how to make pancakes.

Spilled batter was covering everything in the kitchen, including Patton and Remus themselves.  Currently, Remus was pouring batter onto the griddle, and Virgil cringed and stepped back lest Remus somehow find a way to launch it several feet.

But some of the practice must have paid off, because Remus pulled the bowl up in time to make a pancake that actually looked more or less okay.

“Alright!” Remus called happily, setting the bowl down on the counter and spilling more as he did so.  “Now when do we add the bacon?”

“Bacon is normally a side that comes with the pancakes,” Patton said.  “But we might be able to add some to yours after we flip it.”

“Hell yeah!”

“Language!”

“Good morning,” Virgil called, startling Patton into spinning around.  Remus simply glanced over his shoulder and called “Hi Virgil!”

“Oh, good morning kiddo,” Patton said with a smile.  “We’re attempting to make pancakes.  I’ll admit you were a much less messy student.”

“Thank you!” Remus called, beaming at Patton.

“It may be a while before breakfast, but I think Logan was actually looking for you,” Patton said.  “He went back up to his room, but he should be down any—”

“Ah, Virgil, you are just the side I was looking for.”

“Minute,” Patton finished with a smile and nod behind Virgil.

Virgil turned around as Patton turned to try and explain flipping pancakes to Remus.

“What’s up teach?” he asked, following Logan into the living room.

“I wanted to invite you to the editing session today,” Logan said, setting his notes and his copy of the script for the upcoming video down on the coffee table.

“For the video?” Virgil asked in confusion.  “I don’t normally have much of a part in that process.”

“I am aware.  However, Remus mentioned the other day that you used to do quite a bit of editing for his ideas, back when there wasn’t anyone else around to do so,” Logan said.  “And as someone more familiar with his contributions as I am more familiar with Roman’s, I thought it was only fair to see if you wanted to join.  I think it is an especially good idea considering this latest video will be heavily focused on you and Remus.”

Virgil smiled a little.  “Well, that’s… not a terrible idea, I guess.”

The corners of Logan’s lips turned up slightly, and he nodded.  “Excellent, I look forward to seeing you there.”

“Oh, are you talking about the editing session later?” Remus called from the kitchen, turning and flinging a pancake up as he did so which promptly landed on Patton’s head.  “Virgey, are you going to come?”

“I’ll be there, Re, pay attention!” Virgil called, though Patton was laughing and didn’t seem at all upset.

“Awesome!” Remus called, turning to pour more batter now that the pancake was ruined.

Virgil picked up on Roman’s footsteps just before they started down the stairs, and had just enough time to realize that he was going to be disappointed before he called, “I smell pancakes!”

“Remus is making them,” Virgil called as his head came into view.  “I’d stick with frozen waffles unless you want to wait a while.”

“…That’s probably best,” Roman sighed.

“Hey, I didn’t even add anything poisonous this time!” Remus called from the kitchen.

Virgil leaned back on the couch with a chuckle as Roman headed into the kitchen to make waffles.  Remus made sure to flip a pancake onto his head anyway.

The volume in the kitchen started to raise as Roman and Remus started exchanging banter, and Virgil used the cover to turn and face Logan.  “Do you know how Janus is doing?”

“A little better, I think,” Logan said with a smile.  “He did some acting with Roman yesterday, and didn’t seem to even have a motive beyond having fun with him.  At least, that’s what Roman said he thought was going on.”

“That’s good,” Virgil said.  He shifted so he could push himself up to sit on the top of the couch.

“He’s also started forcing people to take breaks again,” Logan said.  “And if he’s confident enough to do that, I think that’s a good sign.”

“People?” Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow at Logan.

“I did not do anything work-related after dinner yesterday, like we all agreed on,” Logan said, adjusting his glasses.  “I was researching purely for the sake of enjoyment.”

“Yeah?  What’d you find out?”

Logan’s eyes lit up, and he launched into a rant about astronomy that Virgil could mostly keep up with.

They were both there until Remus and Patton managed to finish one pancake for each of them, and Patton headed upstairs to take a shower with a remark that he’d grab Janus on the way back down.  Remus, on the other hand, was attempting to lick the batter off to clean himself, which would be more efficient according to him.

Patton’s showers didn’t take long, meaning about fifteen minutes later he and Janus started down the steps and over towards the kitchen.  Janus sat next to Logan on the opposite side of the table from where Virgil and Remus had picked, but the dark circles under his eyes were less heavy today, which was progress.

“So!” Roman called happily, and everyone turned their gazes to him.  “The video is making good progress, and Logan said he was going to ask Virgil to start helping with the editing…?” he gave Virgil a hopeful look.

Virgil gave a thumbs up around a mouthful of pancake.

“Excellent!  In that case, I believe we’ll be ready to start filming by the end of the week!”

“That’s wonderful, kiddo!” Patton said happily.

“Indeed, I believe we are all eager to get started,” Logan said.  “Not because it is unreasonable that this video is taking longer, but because I think we are all happy to be working on something again.  And I very much look forward to having the figurative record set straight with Virgil and Remus.”

“Good luck with that!” Patton, Remus, and Roman all called at the same time.

Logan looked up at the ceiling, seeming to be contemplating his life choices.

Virgil caught Logan’s gaze and gave a roll of his eyes that Logan returned a grateful smile to.  He was pretty sure they were both glad there was at least one other side to be annoyed at antics with, especially since Janus was obviously hiding a smile behind his hand at the other end of the table.

“When does the editing session start?” Janus asked a second later.  “Do we have anything else to do today?”

“The plan was to begin after lunch, and I don’t believe there’s anything else on the schedule, why?” Logan asked.

“Because I am in dire need of a movie night with Thomas,” Janus said.  “And I was hoping we could fit one in.”

“We’re all eating breakfast,” Logan pointed out.  “It would hardly be considered—”

“Movie night!” Roman called with a happy clap of his hands.  “I’m down as long as I get to use your hat for voting!”

Janus hissed and put his hands protectively over his hat.

“I think that’s a great idea kiddo,” Patton said with a smile.  “I’ll ask Thomas after I finish eating.”

“I’m done,” Virgil called, standing up with his empty plate.  “I’ll do it in just a sec.”

He headed over to the sink to wash the dish as the conversation continued behind him.  He washed the dish and set it over on the drying rack, and sank out to Thomas afterwards with a wave at the others and a call that he’d see them soon.

Thomas was already sitting in front of the TV flipping through Netflix, so clearly some of the idea had bled over already.

He did pause and give Virgil a smile once he noticed him, though.

“Hi Virgil!  It’s not game night already, is it?”

“Nope.  Janus suggested an impromptu movie night before the editing session later.  I came to ask if you were alright with it.”

“We’re going to try and settle on movie all seven of us agree on?” Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not, that’s why I got here early,” with a mischievous smile.  “I say we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

“That doesn’t sound half bad,” Thomas said.

“Well, look at that, the vote is unanimous,” Virgil said, moving to his spot on top of the couch.  “Let’s get it set up so it can be ready when everyone else gets here.”

Thomas huffed a laugh and shook his head.  “You know sometimes I remember why you were originally a villain.”

“Oh you’re right, it doesn’t get any more devious than rigging movie votes,” Virgil said.  “Clearly I’m the worst side you’ve got.”

Thomas winced, and Virgil paused.

“Too soon?”

“Maybe a bit,” Thomas said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry.  Joke rescinded.”

“It’s okay,” Thomas said with a small smile.  “So do we want popcorn for this movie night?”

“At 9 in the morning?”

“We’re adults, who’s going to stop us?”

“The debilitating social anxiety and shame,” Virgil said.

Thomas gave him a deadpan look, and Virgil laughed.

“No but you make an excellent point,” he said.  “Let’s make the rest of your popcorn all right now.”

“All of it?”

“There are seven of us.”

Thomas laughed, and they both headed to the kitchen to do just that.

Virgil expected it to be a little longer before anyone else showed up, but he was proven wrong when a second after he got out the popcorn he heard someone appear behind him and turned to see Remus.

He was holding something and looking uncharacteristically nervous, which set Virgil’s alarm bells off.

“Re?” he asked, setting the bag of popcorn down.

“I uh, made you a thing,” Remus said, shoving the thing he was holding at him, which looked like a wrapped gift.  “The thing that I was gonna make you before Janus was an idiot and ran off to the subconscious.”

Virgil took in it in surprise, looking down at it.

“If you want to go open that in private I can finish here,” Thomas said to Virgil.

Virgil gave him a grateful smile.  “Thanks,” he said, and he and Remus both sank out to Virgil’s room.

“I hope you don’t hate it,” Remus said instantly, with a casual tone Virgil could read through immediately.

“I’m not gonna hate it, dummy,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes with a fond smile.  “Hang on, let me just…”

He let his sentence fade off and pulled the wrapping paper off the gift, then set it to the side on his desk, and was met with a hoodie.

It was still black, but unlike his current one, this had bright purple patches and was the kind of brand-new fuzzy that hoodies had before you sent them through the wash.

“I figured, you kind of don’t have a color,” Remus said, still sounding very forcibly casual.  “And the rest of us do.  So.  You know, I made you it, and whatever and stuff.”

Virgil looked up at Remus with a smile, and then stepped forward and pulled him into his arms.  “You’re amazing,” he said.  “You know that, right?”

“Obviously,” Remus said, with a slightly choked up tone of voice.

“I love it,” Virgil said.  “Thank you.”

Remus made a small noise but didn’t say anything else, just pulled Virgil closer and squished him.

Virgil squished him back, and they both stood there for a moment being squished, which was as wonderful as always.

Eventually, they pulled apart, and Virgil took off his current hoodie and put on his new-and-obviously-improved version.

“You want to head out to Thomas and watch movies now?” he asked with a smile at Remus.

“Yes I do,” Remus said, starting to grin.  “You have to show off your amazing new outfit.”

“Naturally,” Virgil said with a smile, and he wrapped his arm around Remus’ so they could sink out together.  They had a 9AM movie night to get to, and a really good day after.

And a really, really good life to come after that.

[goddess-aelin]

Little Did I Know

Chapter 7: The Match

Masterlist | LDIK Masterlist

Word count: 2.7k

Warnings: language, innuendos. Oooo we’re gettin spicy in here (no smut, sorry)

A few days had passed since the Independence Day Parade and the subsequent realizations that came after it. Aelin definitely had feelings for Rowan, that much she knew for sure. More than friendly feelings. Feelings that greatly outpaced anything she ever felt for Dorian, Chaol, or Sam, the only men she ever dated. 

He made it a habit to take his breakfasts and dinners with her every morning and evening. She had even found him waiting for her in the hallway by her rooms a few times. She thought it was incredibly sweet and definitely added to her budding feelings.

It was a few days after the damned magazine came out with the seven page spread of pictures of her and Rowan that she was cornered in her room by her best friends. Lysandra and Elide caught her unawares while she was taking a hot bubble bath, locking the door and holing themselves in the bathroom with her. They claimed that it was the only way they could get some privacy with her but she had a theory that this was the only way she couldn’t run away from the conversation.

Because that’s why they were there. They wanted to speak with her on her growing feelings for Rowan. And it’s not that she didn’t want to talk about them, she just didn’t know what to say. 

“Ok, now that I’m finally here and apparently missed so much the last few days, you need to fill me in.” Elide was practically bursting with excitement, having missed the entire parade when she traveled back to her home town of Perranth. 

Aelin just groaned and sunk further into the bubbles. “I don’t know what to tell you. We’re friends. That’s it.”

Lysandra scoffed. “That is not just it, and you know it. I told you the same thing the other day and I stand by it. I see the two of you together and you have never been like this with anyone else.”

“I mean, I’m marrying the man, for fucks sake! How do you want me to act? Like I hate him? Because let’s not go back down that road, please. It was not fun.”

Elide took her hand and gave her a knowing smile. Her friend always knew how to calm her down. And not many people could resist Elide’s dark brown puppy-dog eyes. “Ae, just start from the beginning. Pleassseee? For me?”

With a sigh, she did. She told them how they didn’t get off to the best start, about their fighting. And then she told them about their late night kitchen talk, of which neither Lysandra nor Elide knew about. Both of them were trying to contain their enthusiasm at the news. She filled them in on their ride up the mountain, about their later conversations. 

When she got to the part about the parade, Lysandra just happened to have the magazine from the morning after with her. Because she was always prepared. Elide was practically vibrating with excitement once she saw the pictures, not commenting for the longest time but rather just taking the pictures in. 

She slowly turned to Aelin, asking, “Aelin. I mean this in the most non-prying way possible. But…do you love him?”

Aelin sputtered. “Love him?!” That was ludicrous. How could she love a man she barely knew? She had strong feelings, sure. But love? “No, there’s no way.” Elide looked like she wanted to protest. But before she could, Aelin added,  “But I will admit that I have developed…more than friendly feelings towards him. Possibly.” 

Both Lysandra and Elide tried, and failed, to hide their glee. “Oh we know that. We can tell by these pictures.” Elide was having way too much fun with this. “But I think these pictures also tell another story, too. I hate these magazines. With a  passion. But I can’t deny that you, both of you, look super in love here.” 

“We had to play the part since we were in public. Rowan is really good at selling his charm despite not liking people all that much.”

“With all due respect, this is not the face of a man who is pretending. Especially not this particular gem,” Elide pointed to the picture of Rowan kissing her hand. “No, this is a man who is more than smitten. I’ve seen his smiles for the public and this is not one of them.”

Silence followed.

“Are you guys here to do anything other than pester me or can you let me get out of the bath so I don’t look like a prune? I have to get to the orphanage today.” 

Lysandra and Elide reluctantly got up from their spots on the tiled floor. “Just think about it, Aelin. We just want the best for you. And if you say to back off, we will. But I also know that you have a tendency to run when things get to this stage. I think you’d be throwing a good thing away if you did so.”

“Well, I can’t exactly run, can I? Since I’m in a contracted marriage. That’s probably all this is to him anyway. He’s doing his duty. That’s all.” 

“Maybe that’s something you should confirm with him.,” Elide said with a raised eyebrow. Aelin knew Elide meant well but she did know that Rowan was here in Terrasen because Queen Maeve ordered him to be. He left his family, his friends, his lover behind. He said as much on their ride up the mountain. Sure, maybe he didn’t blame her for his situation. But it sure as hell wasn’t going to make him love her any more easily. 

With a sigh, Aelin unstuck her pruney fingers from the tub and got ready for her day. 

- - - - -

Aelin got home late from the orphanage, meaning she missed dinner with Rowan. She hoped he wouldn’t be mad but something told her he would’ve encouraged her to stay and have the meal with the people at the orphanage, anyway. The only problem with not seeing him was that she was overthinking things. Lysandra and Elide’s conversation did not help to calm her nerves about the situation. She had hoped being in Rowan’s presence would help the anxiety but since she didn’t get to see him, here she was. Sitting in her room, trying to read a book but spectacularly failing. 

She decided that perhaps a nice kickboxing workout was in order. She dressed in her workout clothes and made her way down to the palace gym. It was blessedly empty, her cousin opting to have morning workouts instead of six at night. 

She started going through her warmup motions. Since there was no one else present, she was going to use the kickboxing bag today. She was trained since she was little in a few different martial arts forms, mostly for self defense. But kickboxing was her release. The high intensity of it calmed her mind and allowed her to get out any pent up energy. And tonight’s workout promised to be one where she put everything into those kicks and punches.

She was deep into her workout when a throat cleared behind her. She hadn’t even noticed anyone come into the room but there was a familiar head of silvery hair, leaning against one of the machines, smirking. 

“You ok there, princess?”

She let out a huff of breath. “Fine. Just couldn’t turn my mind off.” A thought came to her then. “How long have you been watching?” 

“Long enough. You know, you’re not so bad. You have great form and obviously have enough pent up anger to beat up these poor punching bags.” He patted one of them, followed by a chuckle.

“I’m not angry.” Rowan raised an eyebrow.  She let a sheepish smile show through. “Ok, maybe I’m always a little angry. But it just feels good to let it out here. The Gods know I can’t do it anywhere else. I always have to be the prim and proper princess.” She started unwrapping her hands. “Sorry I missed dinner, by the way. I got caught up with the orphanage and some of the kids asked me to stay. I can’t say no to them,” she smiled.

“No worries. I figured something of the sort happened.” He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “I was actually coming to find you and when you weren’t in the library, I just decided to wander around a little. And then I heard some pretty alarming noises coming from in here,” he smirked. “I thought someone might be getting murdered. But it turns out it was just you murdering the punching bags.”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the small laugh that left her lips. “I was not murdering. Like you said, I have great form. I knew exactly where I wanted to punch and kick. It was a very controlled environment.”

“How about we make things interesting? Would you like a real partner to spar with?” It was Aelin’s turn to raise an eyebrow. Rowan’s eyes raked down the length of her body. “See how much control you have over your form?” Was he flirting with her? This was an entirely new side of Rowan that she hadn’t seen before. It gave her a little hope that what Lysandra and Elide had been prattling on about this morning was slightly true. 

“I’m trained in four different martial arts, a black belt in three of them. Plus I’ve been kickboxing since I was 10. This isn’t going to be easy for you,” she snarked. 

“Then prove it.” 

Aelin was never one to back down from a challenge. “You said to make it interesting. What do I get if I win?”

“Well, given that that’s not happening, when I win, let’s just say a favor of my choice.” Rowan sobered a little. “Nothing bad of course.” Ah, there he was. That sweet, sort of dorky Rowan that made her insides feel like mush. The other Rowan, though. He was making her insides feel like they were on fire.  

“Ok, ditto. When I win, favor of my choice.” “I honestly dread to hear what you might come up with.” 

“Are we going to talk all night or are we going to spar?”

Rowan’s eyes met hers and a smirk crossed his face. He reached behind his head to tug at his shirt. Right, of course. He wasn’t dressed for sparring. Perfectly natural that he’d have to take off his shirt. She was totally not going to get distracted.

She was totally distracted.

His abs were delicious. She knew he worked out before, could tell just by holding his arm. But feeling the muscles beneath his shirt and seeing them were two different things. Her mouth went dry at his tanned skin rippling as he finally got the shirt off. Godsdamnit. Either he was really horrible at undressing or he was doing it on purpose. She was inclined to think the latter given the way his body looked like a god. 

Never one to play the easy way, Aelin decided to even the field. She ripped her tank up and over her head, leaving her only in her dark green sports bra. The one that she knew made her boobs look fantastic. She smirked right back at the man who was now as still as a statue. She didn’t let him recover as she attacked first. He barely dodged the impending attack, only tumbling out of the way at the last minute.

“Huh, thought you’d be more graceful, Prince.”

“Are we going to talk or are we going to spar?”

He was flustered, she knew. 

They went back and forth for a while, both of them getting hits in but not enough to turn the tide of the battle they were currently engaged in. For every jab she threw at him, he deflected. And for every kick he offered in return, she spun out of the way before his foot could make contact. 

She must have been distracted by the sweat running down his pectorals because in a moment, he had her flipped on her back, straddling her thighs. They both were breathing heavily, tired out from their well-matched fight. But Aelin was nothing if not persistent.

“Didn’t think you’d give up that quickly,” Rowan taunted.

“I know when I’ve lost.” 

Rowan bent down slightly and Aelin angled her neck just so. She saw his eyes flick to her lips, her neck, just slightly lower. And she took her opening. She maneuvered one of her legs out from under his, wrapping it around his waist and pushing with all her might. A man caught unaware was quite the easy target despite his larger body size. She pinned his hands above his head, straddling his legs and pinching them tightly between hers.

“And good thing for me, I knew I hadn’t lost just yet.”

Rowan let out a huff of breath that seemed more than just a laugh. 

“Guess this means that I win. Favor to be determined.” Aelin just smirked and rolled off of him, laying right next to him.

They both caught their breaths for a moment, neither acknowledging the tension that was filling the room. If she was a bolder person, she would call in the favor right then and there. She knew exactly what she’d want it to be. And the favor would be to continue what he started before she flipped them over. But she wouldn’t do that to him, not with so much up in the air about where they stood in their marriage. 

Rowan slowly rolled up and gracefully got to his feet. He offered a hand, which she gratefully accepted. At the last moment, before she let go, he pulled her close enough to share breath. “This isn’t over, your highness.” Aelin just smirked in return and he gave her a devious smile. 

They both went their separate ways with a promise to meet for breakfast again the next morning. Aelin had to say that she was disappointed when he put his shirt back on to walk back to his room. She hated for him to go but loved to watch him leave. 

She had hoped that working out would help her mind to settle but after their little match, her mind was spinning faster than ever. She decided a quick ride on Kasida was in order. She had to sneak by the guards, which was incredibly easy. She wondered if she should have a talk with Aedion about that. 

Quickly, she saddled the beautiful Asterion horse up and rode off into the cool night. It was unseasonably warm for the usually long, bitter Terrasen winters and Aelin was taking advantage of that fact. Her mother always told her that she had fire in her blood. She knew she meant that more about her personality but she couldn’t help but get as much sun as she could whenever it was out. 

She was lost in thought as she traversed the easy path that veered into the Oakwald forest. She wasn’t planning on going far but she needed the crisp air to clear the raging storm in her head. The way Rowan was flirting with her tonight pointed to him more likely than not returning the feelings she held for him. Perhaps she should talk to him about it. Or maybe they could just keep going like they were tonight, flirting, sparring, and having the raging sexual tension build up until one day, it would hopefully just burst. 

A twig snapped behind her and she halted Kasida so she could get a better listen. It was most likely just a small rabbit or squirrel but she couldn’t be too careful, especially since she didn’t tell anyone where she was going. 

Another branch rustled off to her left, making her turn quickly towards the sound. Maybe this was a good place to turn around, she thought. Just as she was about to give the signal for Kasida to race back to the palace, something grabbed onto her left leg, pulling her from the saddle. Kasida reared up, almost trampling Aelin in the process. She took off at a breakneck speed, leaving Aelin laying in the dirt. 

But those twigs snapping didn’t stop and before she could figure out what was happening, blinding pain shot across the back of her head. The last thing she registered before she hit the ground were polished brown riding boots stalking toward her and a distant whinny from Kasida. And then everything went black.

A/N: You really thought this was just going to be a fluffy, spicy little chapter, didn't you? Next chapter, we'll get Rowan's POV because you know our bird boy will lose his mind.

Tagging: As always, lmk if you want to be added/removed!

@cretaceous-therapod @morganofthewildfire @tomtenadia @live-the-fangirl-life @charlizeed @violet-mermaid7 @euphoric-melancholyy @kritical24 @rubyriveraqueen @dealfea @wellofnothing @ayaashryver @moonknight-spector @leiawritesstories @whoever-you-choose-to-love @holdthefrickup @heirofflowers @thecrispypotatochip @shanias-world @rowanaelinn @bruiseonthefaceofhumanity @hanging-from-a-cliff @fantacysoup @swankii-art-teacher @thegreyj @fromthelibraryofemilyj @westofmoon @lovely-dove-zee @books4eva04 @cookiemonsterwholovesbooks @backtobl4ck @dreamer-133 @elentiyawhitethorn @writtenonreceipts @shyvioletcat

[libraryofneith]

Out of Mind - Chapter 6 (Joel Miller x Female Reader)

@hiroikegawa @evyiione​ If anyone else want to be added to the taglist so you know the minute this is updated, let me know. Otherwise please show your appreciation via likes, comments and reblogs : D 

Sorry it’s been sooo long since I updated :’( FYI  I'll be working and travelling a lot over the Summer so won't be updating very frequently. I haven't abandoned the work, I love writing this, but unfortunately life gets in the way. Especially when you're singing your way through the Scottish highlands.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Summary: You finally meet the infamous Bill and Frank.

Warnings/tags: [18+ minors DNI], honestly this is a very tame chapter, just some chill Bill and Frank goodness, hints at queer Tess, Joel sees reader in a dress for first time and exe. stops working. 

He wants to tell her that she looks pretty, that she always looks pretty, that for a brief second when he saw her he wasn't in the middle of an apocalypse anymore...

You

You fucking love Bill and Frank. And Frank fucking loves you, Bill is wary but as you're informed, that's not necessarily a bad sign. He's suspicious of anyone new which is fine - you're already used to that from Joel. In fact, Bill seems to be an older and, if possible, scruffier version of Joel: both hard-wired to survive no matter what, both with impenatrable emotional walls and both fiercely protective of the few people who have managed to scale those walls. Unfortunately you have not yet succeeded in scaling either of theirs, so thank god for Frank.

He's completely unlike anyone you've met since the world ended. The complete and utter devastation doesn't seem to have darkened his warmth and kindness. In fact, if anything, it's made it shine all the brighter. He's not naïve or foolish as you know some people would dismiss him, he's well aware of the relentless cruelty of the world beyond the gates of the home he shares with Bill and he's determined to fight it; not with guns and brutality but by creating a space of joy; somewhere people can live instead of merely surviving. It's a rare thing and it's something you didn't realise you were craving until you found it.

You and Frank connect the moment you lay eyes on each other.

"She's cute. Did you adopt her at a shelter?"

"Actually they fed me and I followed them home." "Excuse you," Tess interjects, "I think you'll find she stole from us."

"Right, then I followed you home."

"Oh this is rich! You gotta tell me the whole story," Frank gushes as he links his arm through yours and leads you away from a disconcerted Joel, Tess and Bill. From that point on you two are practically inseperable. You leave Joel and Tess to haggle with Bill while you paint, garden and explore the town with Frank.

"So I gotta ask..." Frank ventures as he gives you a tour of the small abandoned village, preserved as a shrine to those who were taken from it and the life they led, "what exactly is the relationship between you guys?"

"Us guys being?"

"You, Tess and Joel."

"Well, in theory the arrangement was that I'd come work for them, put my skills to use and they'd put a roof over my head and give me some measure of protection."

"And in practice?"

"This is the first time that they've let me anywhere near a job, though Joel did take me for shooting practice and I saved him from an infected, so that was cool." Frank gapes at you.

"You saved Joel?"

"Ummm... he kinda had to save me straight after, but I saved him first." "

Right, but what I mean is..."

"They don't hurt me if that's what you're worried about." Frank jerks to a stop.

"I... I didn't mean... Ok that's good."

"Look, if you're about to give me the whole you don't know what you're getting into with them speech, don't bother. I know what they are and what they do. I know because I've done it too. I'm not some innocent flower who needs protecting from the big bad world. However bad those two are, I've seen worse. And at the end of the day I'd rather have them on my side than face the worse alone."

There's a somewhat awkward pause as Frank mulls over your little speech and you give him time to figure out what to say.

"Ok then," he eventually lets out. "I'm glad you're looking out for yourself. Sorry, didn't mean to pry."

"That's alright, you weren't"

"It's just... look, I love Tess and Joel, they're like family - yes, even Joel - but I know they're not always - what I mean is, they have to do a lot to survive." You nod slowly.

"We all have."

"But it's good we've all found people."

"Well, I'm not sure if I'd classify Joel and Tess as my people just yet. Tess is nice but I feel like I'm still on probation with Joel."

"No, Joel likes you."

"What?" "He's a grumpy son-of-a-bitch but he likes you underneath all that- you know..." and he does a more than passable imitation of Joel's scowl.

"I don't- how do you- why are you saying this?" He gives you a sympathetic look.

"I think you know why."

"Oh god!" You cringe, covering your now crimson face from his view.

"It's ok, I get it. For all his emotional constipation, Joel's really got that sexy smouldering thing going on."

"I don't- ugh- I know nothing will come of it. It's just a crush. I'll get over it." An inscrutable expression passes over Frank's face at that moment.

"I'm sure you will. You know there's a boutique on this street."

"Boutique... like... for clothes?"

"Handmade too. You wanna check them-" but you're already dashing up the street in the direction of the hand-made with love fashion sign.

---

Joel

"So... you picked up a stray?" Joel can feel his face flush as he busies himself setting plates on the dining table.

"This ain't a free ride. She works for us."

"Doing what exactly? Goofing off with Frank?"

"She gotta learn first before we let her in on our business."

"Interesting response to someone stealing from you: letting her into your home."

"Weren't my idea. Tess was the one who took a shine to her."

"And you just tolerate her right?"

"Right." It's only when he says it out loud that it sounds unnecessarily cold. "I mean... look, she's a nice girl I just... I'm not sure if we can rely on her."

"That's all?"

"Well what else would it be?" Bill gives him that can't pull the wool over my eyes look.

"She's pretty." He gives Bill a look of his own.

"I know I'm not exactly the best judge but she's not exactly an eye sore."

"I don't think Tess was too worried about that."

"How would you know?" There's a smile in Bill's eyes - as much of a smile as he's capable of. Does he know something about Tess I don't?

"It ain't like that alright?"

"Whatever you say."

"Shut up." The sound of the door closing thankfully prevents Bill from offering any retort.

"We're back." Frank calls out.

"Great, just in time to not help out with any-" Joel stops short when he sees her: the low evening sun shining behind her, creating a glowing outline almost like a halo, dress wrapped loosely around her body, swishing about her legs with each movement. Her hair has been pulled out of its normal messy high ponytail and braided into a loose plait, a soft frame around her smiling face.

"Well shit." Tess emerges with a smile on her face. "Look at you."

"You like it? I found it at that clothing boutique."

"I love it."

"Joel." Frank snaps him out of his trance. "What do you think? Doesn't she look pretty?" He can suddenly feel everyone's eyes on him. He can't bring himself to look her in the eye, shit, he's grasping helplessly for something to say.

"You can't wear that on the hike back." Everyone's eyes roll.

"No shit Sherlock I wasn't planning on it."

He wants to tell her that she looks pretty, that she always looks pretty, that for a brief second when he saw her he wasn't in the middle of an apocalypse anymore, he felt like a kid at the first sign of Summer; but she's already gone, and you're both spared what would inevitably be a very shameful outburst.

He's still watching you all the way through dinner as you grin and whisper in Frank's ear - whatever you say prompting a snort of laughter and a disconcerting glance in his direction. You even manage to coax a smile out of Bill, telling him this risotto is the best you've ever had, assuring him you're not put off by the inclusion of mushrooms. You allow him to lecture you about the wine he's paired it with - how the sharp undertones compliment the tanginess of the parmesan. Honestly it all tastes like wine and cheese to Joel. You catch his eyes in a subtle smile, indicating that the same is very much true for you, but it's nice that Bill is warming up to you.

After dinner, Frank drags everyone to the piano and despite Bill's protests that he will absolutely NOT be playing, he is forced to interfere when Frank plays so badly it hurts everyone's ears.  

"Works everytime" Frank whispers to you triumphantly as Bill rifles through his collection of songbooks. After discarding almost every book in the pile, Bill picks up a 'Best of Elton John' collection to a chorus oohs and that one that one from you, Tess and Frank. With a heavy sigh he flips open the pages and launches into the opening bars of 'Your Song'.

"It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside..." Frank and Tess start crooning as Bill cringes. Joel remains silent. With enough liqour down him he might join in, and before he's completely fucked out of his mind he might be persuaded to grab their dusty old guitar out of the attic, but he's nowhere near that drunk yet, so he hangs back and listens as they launch into the chorus:

"I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is now you're in the world." Joel can hear something else now above Tess and Frank's out-of-tune wails, someone singing a sweet soft melody; a voice that if he heard it on the radio in another life, he would've cranked up the volume and danced to around his kitchen.

"I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss, well a few of the verses they've got me quite cross." Tess and Frank gradually taper off as everyone realises that the beautiful sound is coming from you.

"But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song, it's for people like you that keep it turned on..." your voice fades as you realise you're singing on your own. "Sorry, did I do something wrong?"

"No sweetheart." Frank and Tess are grinning brilliantly. "Keep going."

"So excuse me forgetting, but these things i do. You see I've forgotten if they're green or blue." Joel can feel that tugging feeling in his chest again and suddenly he wishes he had his guitar with him right now. He knows the chord progression, it's not hard, and he wants to hear how your voice would sound over his playing.

"Anyway the thing is what I really mean, yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen." Frank and Tess come in for the last chorus and everyone is dewy-eyed by the time they finished. Frank pulls you in for a hug as Bill asks:

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" You're blushing, unable to make eye contact with anyone.

"You're not the only Elton John fans left y'know."

"No, I mean how did you learn to sing like that?"

"Don't know, I've always been able to really." Bill turns to him and Tess.

"You two could get her to busk - you'd make more money than you ever do smuggling."

"I'd rather be eaten by infected" you butt in quickly, earning a laugh from Tess.

"I think we're more suited as smugglers than roadies."

"Joel?" Frank is giving him yet another piercing stare. "Wasn't she great?" That familiar feeling of panic is clutching him again: the sense of everyone's eyes on him, the feeling that his heart has been ripped out of his chest and splayed across his face, but he resists the urge to grunt or say something non-commital. He forces himself to look at you when he says:

"You sang great."

He wishes his chest didn't burn when he sees you smile.

---

Here’s what I imagine the dress would look like.

[daybreakrising]

okay quick little post with my thoughts on the update. i'm gonna have to go and watch a playthrough at some point bc i zipped through it at 3am and probably missed some stuff in the process bc my brain is Shit but-

i am so very, very intrigued by the yaoqing trio for a number of reasons & i absolutely believe there's some ulterior motives going on as to why j.iaoqiu and m.oze were sent down to the shackling prison beyond "hey we want this mortal enemy of our people under our watch kthanks". i feel like we got a glimpse of one of them with j.iaoqiu already so i'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. and sending m.oze away in the midst of the fight? yeah, highly sus. they have a plan for sure.

also absolutely love the dynamic between the two of them. i want to sink my teeth into their background so bad. they're clearly highly aware of each other's capabilities and i've touched on this already in dms but like....... i believe m.oze was being truthful when he gave his practical answer of 'no point getting myself killed trying to save him' to j.iaoqiu's capture, but also... he doesn't need to save him. he knows what j.iaoqiu can do. (he's also probably exactly where he wants to be - just a theory, we'll see how it pans out eventually i guess)

some slight negatives based on what we've seen so far:

not enamoured by all of the new characters, which isn't necessarily anything to do with the characters themselves but the writing. y.anqing, the prodigy, getting stamped on again? that's getting real old, hyv. i'm hoping that will be redeemed later but i don't have high hopes for it. i just want to see a glimpse of this prodigy he's supposed to be without him going up against insanely powerful people who are basically playing with him, if anything. let me see what he can actually do on a more level playing field. i'm sure that's what they're trying to do with this weird little rivalry thing with y.unli but it already feels skewed against him from the start and i... hate that.

and the insulting dismissal of everything that happened to the high cloud quintent by saying they "went their separate ways" ????? what the actual fuck ???? now i might be biased bc i love the HQC, but. come on. no, no. a group of people who choose to disband to seek new paths - that is "going separate ways". not a group that is viciously torn to pieces by grief and death and suffering. fuck that one general in particular.

that aside, intriguing plot so far. i love the new enemies (look, i'm a sucker for anything wolf-adjacent), and i'm hoping that bc she's been named specifically a few times, we'll get to see j.ingliu again. please, hyv, please don't disappoint me on that.

and bc i care so very little for march (and find her voice incredibly grating, no hate to the va ofc), i was spam-tapping through all the dialoguue of her swordplay event (except for the bit involving j.iaoqiu bc... well, i'm biased) so i may have missed any lore that might have been dropped in there, but i also found the whole "teach march swordplay" thing very boring in general >_> so i may have to look that up again

i'm reserving full judgement on any of the characters until this little interlude chapter is complete and we've seen everything we're gonna get, but so far i'm fairly neutral on most of them. l.ingsha does seem interesting, i will say, but we've not had enough of her yet to form a proper opinion.

[redotter]

Thought on ASOIAF and GOT

Some background: I own the books since 2014 but I didn't care much for them when I first gave them a try so I stopped after a couple chapters. Then the show was a massive hit, yet I remained uninterested and rather annoyed at how popular it was. But then I watched some tiktoks with best scenes and it really sparked my curiosity so I picked up the books again last year and it was a much more enjoyable read - for once I already knew the characters and the main plot beats from social osmosis so it felt like a reread (I mean this in the best way possible; I could actually focus on the details and make little head-cannons and theories instead of trying to keep up with all the names).

Long story short, sometimes things that are popular... are good. I love the books! GRRM is a good writer and all the negative reviews I've heard about them are not founded imo. For example, while the world is sexist, the narrative is not sexist at all. It has some really well written, strong and complex female characters, and that was in the 90s (I know, the bar is low but I'm giving credit where credit is due)! Now that I'm currently reading the forth book, I decided to also watch the show instead of piecing it together from gifs and... I'm mildly disappointed? Don't get me wrong, it's still a very good show so far, and it must have been mindblowing back when it was still running, I'm just less invested in it that in the books. And I wanna rant about it :^)

Aging up the characters

I entirely understand why this choice had to be made from a myriad of practical and ethical reasons. But it seems like they aged the characters, then kept a couple details from the books that work the way they work because of the age. For example, a lot of Sansa's lines and behavior are written for a preteen girl (her getting her period for the first time, her not understanding Margaery... just generally being naive and child-like). Then there's Jon being a virgin while looking like an attractive dude in his 20s (how could that even happen?). Or the tragedy of Robb fighting a war while so young (at least they changed the wife story, because an adult Stark would never fuck a woman while his odds of winning the war depend on him specifically not doing that). Or the horrible situation Dani is in at such a heartbreakingly young age, stuck between her brother and Drogo. Or Arya being confused for a boy while looking like a woman. All of these characters are also very idealistic and ambitious and have that teenage-y The Power of Believing in Yourself. They all make some extreme choices that a more seasoned adult would be way more cautious with.

2. The sex

Again, I get why it's there (it sells), but the show somehow has more sex scenes that the books? Or is it just me? There's also this weird focus on Renly being gay, which in the books is very subtle. The show also has some sexual violence scenes not present in the books, whose purpose I didn't fully get. Meanwhile, Daenerys goes "all men must die but we are not men *smirk*" as if the creators gave themselves a feminist pat on the back in-between nude scene #30 and a rape scenes #12. I've heard that it gets worse too.

3. The actors

I love all of them, but I feel like some characters are so beloved because of the charisma of the person portraying them. I hated Drogo's guts until he died, same with the Hound. Can't believe they have such a fanbase. Even Daenerys, I like her as a character but her POVs are some of my least favorite. On the other hand, Sansa comes of as more sympathetic in the book, mostly due to the age thing I mentioned. I love Jaime and Brienne just as much in both and I care for Bran just as little in both.

4. The pacing

I have brain rot from fast media consumption, FINE, but some of the scenes move so sloooow. If you put together all of John's POVs, I bet half of it is snow scenery.

5. The setting

Why is everything beyond the wall a dessert? The book has woods, fauna and flora well into the north. Every time I see them march through Antarctica I can't help but wonder what do all of those people EAT. I know that humans can live in harsh conditions, but there's also no fishing options so???

There's some other smaller things (like Stannis being into the Red Woman for some reason) but there's no main category for it. Overall I'll continue watching it cause I'm curious how it will get worse (I already know that it does). And hey, if you've only watched (some of) the show and didn't like it, you might enjoy the books.

[w-stote]

Vacation au

|| Jujutsu kaisen post chapter 236 headcanons. It follows the fic I written for a friend and posted on ao3. Heavy spoilers guys, get out of this train of thoughts if you don't wanna get smashed.||

Gojo isn't dead and not cut in two

He is cut though, deeply in the abdomen

Basically, only his spine area is still connected to his lower body

Though, everyone thinks he is dead, because not moving, no healing visible and fogged eyes

So everyone goes to fight and they defeat Sukuna

Yuuji unlocks his own curse technique and thats how he is able to save megumi's body and megumi inside it too

then they kill kenjaku

at the same time, shoko was about to retrieve Gojo's body

she took a break next to it after healing people before kenjaku's fight

she was talking to it about vacations that should have been taken before all this happened

what happened to nanami's idea of going south?

but when she gets up to take the body back, it gasps

She goes to help Gojo heal himself

"You are right. We need vacations." is the first thing he says

Few weeks later and some experimentation later, they know that Gojo cannot fight anymore

The brain and spine damage he got during the fight was too much and while healing saved him, it also fucked his cursed energy

Also I am bringing back the Gojo losing his left eye theory back

His left eye is damaged also during the fight and now he is practically blind with it

and lets add that the six eyes where dmg in the same process. It works with his vision so if he cannot see properly because his eyes are not working, the effect is diminished

so the tinted glasses stays! but now they help him with seeing because cursed tools

Also his body is not.... well anymore

so yeah he cannot fight properly anymore

He stays a teacher but no more mission on the side

Higher ups "bans" him from being involved in politics anymore too

he is totally fine with it, as long as it means they leave him alone

Gojo is able to fully concentrate on his work as a teacher and he is loving it

He helps Yuuji with figuring out his new curse technique

having sukuna inside him unlocked the curse energy kenjaku "locked away" when making him

Also Gojo support Yuuji and Megumi while they help each other with getting their bodies back to themselves again

Nobara lives (for fuck's sake where is my girl)

She also lost an eye, completly on her part and now wear an eyepatch

Gojo and her complains about their looks being ruined because of the scars (even though they still look gorgeous hello?) and the struggle of visual impairment

The school got more teacher now too

those kids need to learn about math and japanese and Gojo cannot do all of that pls

also they got a whole team of counselor, social worker and nurses

Shokok doesnt have to work 24/7 and heal every little cut

also she got help for when major stuff happen

Those new folks aren't necessarily curse user, but most of them have a background in it

they also all knew about jujutsu world before the culling game

Jujutsu politics is still a nightmare and it takes more than a year to figure out things out

The higher ups after trying to fight to stay in charge are finally fired

Coming back on the first year trio, they do movie night every week or so with the second and third years now. also they sometimes get the students from the other school to join. or they do a shared watch with a video call at the same time

gojo and shoko do brunch every month to catch up and be sure to see each other outside of work

Gojo rides now a bike or takes the subway, no more fast forwarding his way through space and time anymore

it does him good

he goes bike with Ino sometimes

he got a fancy pricy bike but it is the best model bike industry got to offer, he also got a bike helmet that his so extra, like it got six eyes or something on it

or like gojo cats everywhere

I think thats all for now

[dhampiravidi]

hot take: it should’ve been Izzy/Jace & Clary/Simon! Spoilers thru The Dark Artifices…

am I the only 1 who read City of Bones & City of Ashes & thought that Clary would be better w/Simon, while Izzy should be w/Jace?

hear me out!

I should start by admitting that from the 2nd chapter of COB, I disliked Clary. Throughout the series, there are SO many times where her refusal to listen to her allies makes things harder. She yells at Jace a lot in the beginning, despite the fact that he kinda saved her life. But then, all of a sudden, we’re told that her take-no-shit attitude breaks through his façade of arrogance & she’s the 1st girl he’s ever truly loved—as if that’s not dramatic. & then in COHF they fuck (while in an equivalent to Hell), since y’know, all couples have to fuck at least once before they die. & don’t get me started on how they proposed to each other.

Basically, their whole relationship is just a lot of over-the-top shit. Felt like they were both the “saviors” of the Clave, so they were pushed together (mind you, the 1st series takes place in a matter of MONTHS). It’s supercharged puppy love.

ANYWAY…

I guess my main thing is, Clary & Simon knew each other for a long time. Yeah, she somehow didn’t notice his crush on her. But she didn’t have to date him just because she wanted to ignore her feelings for Jace. (Tbh it seems like she was using Simon in that way, but whatever.) I’m a fan of friends-to-lovers, because I think your endgame should also be 1 of your best friends. & weirdly, Clary finally seems to find Simon attractive once he grows out his hair & other girls (Izzy & Maia) show an interest in him. Also, there were numerous occasions where Simon felt intimidated by Izzy, even when she treated him as a part of their group.

I’m sure that the biggest issue people have w/the idea of Izzy/Jace is the fact that they were raised together. Yeah, well, Alec had loved Jace practically since they 1st met, but we focused on Alec’s struggle as a gay young person in a partly homophobic atmosphere (+ the unrequited nature of it all). That parabatai curse from The Dark Artifices wasn’t mentioned (or *cough* created) until that series.

Back to Izzy/Jace. She’s said to be the only 1 who can keep up w/him & unless the popular theory that she’s Valentine’s other child-slash-experiment proves true…that’s fucking awesome. Whips are extremely hard & dangerous to wield, especially when you’re running in heels. So she keeps up w/him in a fight. She also keeps up w/him verbally—Jace is known to be well-read & sassy, but she always has a witty retort prepared for him. & again, for those who focus on them being raised together…1) there were lots of unrelated Shadowhunters living under 1 roof & 2) Jace thought he was related to Clary, but aside from some guilt, they still got all hot & bothered about each other. Lastly, everyone seems to forget that Simon lowkey cheated on Izzy & Maia by secretly dating them both AT THE SAME TIME. Considering Izzy’s relationship w/her dad in TMI, you’d think that’d cross Simon off of her list. Jace, on the other hand, is ridiculously loyal. The only time he ever does anything to hurt his love interest is when he’d rather hurt their feelings than watch them die.

So yeah…

[crowtrobotx]

Can't remember the exact words or chapter but I absolutely love that you addressed lottie becoming aware that her parents may or may not have made out once and being like 👎

Who's gonna tell her how she came to be?? "My dad fucks? Incorrect. I was born a larva"

LOL thank you! I do heavily imagine Lottie to be somewhere on the ace spectrum - I promise it’s not just “she’s my fictional baby and I don’t want her to grow up,” I actually think she just is so invested in her other interests (machines… cars… bugs…) that she’s like ???? why would anyone waste time on sex when you can restore a classic car and train your pet rats to run an obstacle course???? (Relatedly, if he’s not ‘bisexual slut in theory but not in practice’ I also think this makes the most sense for Karl. I still tend to try to portray him as demi-bi.)

@grisailledreams and I have discussed the various hilarious and awful ways with which Lottie is confronted with the fact that Kris and Karl fuck and it never stops being funny tbh. Like imagine her straight up fighting the health teacher at school like “MAMA JUST LAID AN EGG ONE DAY AND THERE I WAS.” She’s 40 years old and someone comments that her parents are still embarrassingly affectionate/physical and she’s just “well good thing they begged the stork for me!”

I 100000% think she’s the kid who walks in on them even just having a relatively chaste smooch in the kitchen and she yells “OH MY GODDDDDD GROSS WHERE IS MY SPONGEBOB MAC N CHEESE”

[xemobladechromicles]

Ok, I'm rank the Xenoblade 3 protags from favorite to least now.

1. Mio

Cutely presses the dodge button. Cutely presses the dodge button. Cutely presses the dodge button. Best class. I liked the part where she cutely pressed the dodge button against the concept of aging by body swapping with herself. We all talk about chapter 5 but chapter 4 was the mio moment that made me cry. Mio whyyyy. Fucking iconic. Definitely the character I was most invested in getting a happy ending. Also. She's a cat. Fucking perfection.

2. Eunie

Yass Eunie's the bass. Feather's are a bitch to dry. Queen's knees. Up, up up up up. The Chad who responds to "no more killing ppl" and immediately goes "ok.. but why?" The ultimate character. I wish I was a fraction of Eunie's power. Let Eunie say Fuck. Tragically I didn't actually care for her much beyond her status as a meme queen, but consider: Eunie is the ultimate meme and I enjoyed every moment she was on screen. I also really like the idea that Eunie isn't naturally a healer but learned the role after Joran's death (I forget whether that's a theory or straight up canon but I do really enjoy that). I also have to say that a lot of her high affinity classes are a ton of fun to play as. Very satisfying to watch Eunie fucking eviscerated someone off the face of the aionios. Pretty funny how both Eunie and Taion would run you over with an ambulance.

3. Noah

Def my favorite protagonist. He's so soft spoken. Also pretty funny that his magic laser sword is literally just a sheath for a really sharp katana. Pretty good of him to be the first Xenoblade protagonist to canonically have sex (consider that we didn't get proof of Rex fucking until after we learned about Noah fucking). I like how he's the quiet and thoughtful type, has the best romantic subplot in the series easily (or at least the only one I gave a shit about). I will say that N was a pretty underwhelming antagonist. Man's backstory brings me to tears, yet I still just don't care for a single moment he's on screen (except for "Mio wHYYY" memes those can stay, thank you Henry McEntire for your contributions to this series). As far as protagonist powers go, Shulk sees the future, Cross is mute, Rex gets all the girls, and Noah turns into Evangelion. I think the only conclusion here is to stick Noah and Shulk in a pit and make them fight for who gets to be the Protagonist tm. Also, Noah wears his hair similar to me, therefore he's hot. +10 points for that.

4. Taion

Someone should make the virgin/chad meme with Taion's class in gameplay vs Taion's class in the story. Like, every other character in story is using their class like they would in gameplay, but then Monolith had negative ideas how to translate a swarm of paper airplanes into tangible gameplay. So Taion's class feels very bad to use. That said, love his banter with Eunie. Also love that one H2H where he says he wears practical clothing, then Eunie calls his scarf lame. Poor man acts like a kicked puppy lol. Also has the vibes of that kid who lost chess against Eunie because she ate all the pieces when he wasn't looking. Tries to be the adult of the group, is still, like, 9 years old. Energy of being the one kid in the group project who's trying to lead the other squad of 8 year olds in any given direction. 10/10.

5. Sena

Ngl, I do not relate to her on a single level and also may or may not have forgotten half the scenes about her. Not the character's fault, I just wasn't paying attention. It does feel like Sena's arc wasn't treated with as much importance as everyone else's tho. Also I really didn't get to know Shaniya well enough for her to act as an effective foil. Tho I do think it's quite funny that Sena is Brighid's kid since Brighid is all elegant and shit while Sena just beats you to death with a really big stick. Definitely the character I imagine to have the most different personality between Alrest and Aionios (mostly because she's so concerned about fitting in and stuff). Tho her arc about learning to express herself just comes across as false due to her in-game dialogue contradicting that (and that being the dialogue players will have bludgeoned into their skull). Kinda hard to see Sena as someone who's insecure and feels the need to fit into the group when she shouts "I'm the Girl with the Gall" every other encounter.

6. Lanz

Feels too much like Reyn but not as iconic. Most interesting part of his character was the guilt he felt over Joran's death because he was a dick to Joran and never got to apologize but then Joran sacrificed himself to save Lanz anyways because Joran felt like his life was less important than Lanz's. Sadly, all of this good shit got completely derailed when Joran showed up as an antagonist. Kinda sucks that the villain writing ruined Lanz for me. Lanz's best moments were definitely in his ascension quest. I liked it when he showed his no shit side. Sadly never found a comfortable role for him in the gameplay because evasion tanks are way more fun than block tanks and I don't particularly love any of the classes Lanz specializes in (why does he keep getting S affinity healer classes when his healing power is literally shit?) Tho I will say that I love seeing Miyabi and Fiona class become w i d e on him.