#Keith taught him to say fuck

[demiboydemon]

Lotor’s generals: *betray him*

Lotor: fuck. This is going to ruin the tour.

[dark-night-star-light]

This was supposed to be a Talina post, but it turned into a fucking Talon backstory post instead. Whoopsie. It's long. Be warned.

Talon is Stetriolan. Naturally, this meant she joined the Conqueror army. But it's so much more than that.

Drina met her when they were seven. She was sneaking off during a royal procession in her honor (she was crown princess, which she was eventually knocked down from after she got bonding sickness) and Talon was there. Drina was intrigued because she'd never seen much of kids her own age besides Shane.

They stole food together. Drina had money, but who cares about that.

Talon's father had a spirit animal and the bonding sickness, and keeled over from it when Talon was ten years old.

Drina snuck out of the palace a lot to meet Talon, whose family was significantly poorer, and eventually started inviting her over. They grew up together, basically. Talon's family benefited a lot from her connection the the royal family.

Then Drina summoned Iskos, and it all went downhill. Screaming, crying, you name it, but the entire relationship went sideways. But Talon couldn't let go of her attachment to Drina.

Talon tried to teach Drina how to use a crossbow, but Drina was hopeless. Talon stopped trying to teach her when Drina almost shot the iconic Stetriolan throne.

Talon always saw Shane as an annoying younger brother, and treated him as such. She also taught him how to use a saber, and is the reason he's so good at it today.

Drina eventually begged Talon to join the Conqueror army, and Talon did it for Drina.

Yeah, Drina and Talon were kissing behind the scenes during the entire war, actually. This is canon, actually.

Talon became a double agent during the war. She pretended to join the Greencloaks after summoning her bird, claiming she bonded to it naturally. They believed her, and always seemed skittish around her, because bonding naturally meant they, the Greencloaks, the supposed protectors of Erdas, hadn't been able to protect her. Talon hated them, but pretend it was all fine and dandy.

She became friends with Keith. Who's Keith? Some guy. Shit fighter, he was. He eventually caught her sending letters via her bird to Drina. Fortunately for Talon, the letters were written in code, and they appeared to the layman as disgustingly over-the-top love letters.

Thus, Keith learns that Talon has a girlfriend. He is the biggest Talon-girlfriend shipper ever. Talon refuses to tell him who the girlfriend actually is, but lies and says she's Euran. Keith learns to make a shepherd's pie to impress the girlfriend for "when I finally meet her". He never does.

Talon is a trans girlie, by the way. In case you care.

Talon learns Drina got killed through Shane himself. He took it upon himself to tell her. He tells her that the sacrifice was worth it, and to come home for the final victory. It's through writing, so Talon can't decipher his tone.

Out of grief and rage, Talon recklessly tries to escape Greenhaven. Of course, she runs into Keith on the way out. He asks her where she's going, and she tries to knock him out. He's a better fighter now so he blocks her. She runs into the woods, but unfortunately Greenhaven's an island. That's not good for her.

She waits in the woods until Keith leaves, and hopes he doesn't hate her. But she has a feeling he already knows.

She sneaks onto a boat and eventually ends up back at Stetriol. Shane's there. They talk about Drina. It doesn't really help.

She sees Drina's dead body and now her entire purpose feels destroyed. Drina was the reason she joined the Conquerors and now she won't even be there to celebrate the final victory.

She tries to kill herself, but Gerathon herself stops her using the Bile-control. She thinks it's ironic that Gerathon killed Drina against her will but is keeping her alive against her will.

She sees Keith at the battle at the base of Muttering Rock. She feels nothing. He feels nothing. They fight like two soldiers on opposite sides, not two friends. But she can't help but notice that he doesn't make any truly dangerous moves against her. And she can't help but notice the same about herself.

The Conquerors lose. Talon doesn't care anymore. Shane does his best to keep her alive because he knows Drina would want him to. They eventually part ways.

. . . Until Shane hires her to the Redcloaks. She'd been noticing how her features were slowly warping, but she didn't take much notice. She just felt numb. Just nothingness.

Shane brings her back. Tells her that there's a new threat, and that they finally have a chance to redeem themselves. And that the real Drina, the Drina that existed before the bonding sickness and the Bile warped her beyond repair, would want them to. He begs her to do it for Drina. And he tells her about his conversation with Yumaris. She is the only one to know besides Anya, Yumaris, and Shane himself.

Shane didn't send her after Grif and Anuqi. She sent herself. Shane pretends to be annoyed, but in reality, he's glad she has some drive and is acting like her old self again.

She disrespects Shane in front of the other Redcloaks. A lot. She'll never see him as a leader, just as the annoying preteen that asked her what that painting in the palace was supposed to mean and flicked food at her across the table as a kid.

When she saw Keith on the mission with Grif and Anuqi, she knew that she had to make things up to him, and him personally.

After the mess with the Wyrm, she makes a journey to Greenhaven with Stead. Keith isn't there. So she travels to Amaya, where he's from, to meet him herself.

He has incredibly mixed feelings upon seeing her again. But he knows who the Redcloaks are, really. And he's wondered whether she'd be with them since he found out about them.

He's shocked at her transformation. Naturally.

Eventually they make up. They spar. He's better than ever.

When the Oathbound are hunting Greencloaks, Talon hides Keith with the Redcloaks. They almost find him, too. The irony in Keith pretending to be a Redcloak is not lost on either of them.

Once things settle down, Talon helps Keith find the two missing bond tokens in the sea near the Zhongese palace. Keith returns one and Talon returns the other, which symbolizes for how the Greencloaks and Redcloaks are really and truly working for the same side now.

[breitzbachbea]

Could you answer ALL the questions for pady

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING ABOUT PADDY, I'D LOVE FOR YOU TO GET TO KNOW MY FUCKED UP OLD MIDDLE AGED MAN.

Ask Game for someone's OCs

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Babyname website, ten most popular boys names in Ireland all time. I don’t know if I picked his surname from a similar/the same site, but I must assume so. Et voilà – Patrick “Paddy” O’Neill!

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Born on the 2nd of May 1965 in canon. He’s 48 in Irish Problems, the first story in the mainseries, which is usually the age range he also appears in in most AUs.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Ohhh, does he ever! My man used to be quite the charmer in his youth! Not really putting the love in love interest, but he had a ONS with Daisy Grey, the mother of Shane Grey, who’s part of Charlie’s gay social circle after he left school. He’s also had a few flings with Þóra, @swabianmapley’s lovely OC and one of the Icelandic subordinates. The list could go on - Ben didn't call him a louser for nothing!

But the woman he ends up dating (if I'll get this far in the main story and stick to it) is Donella Ramsay. She's a middle school physics and english teacher from Glasgow he met on a bender in Dublin, where she has relatives. It's ... an odd match, but it works out for both of them.

Shoutout to his childhood/teenhood friends Kilian MacLeod and Angus O'Malley though! I don't ship them in canon, but I love a good AU with Kilick, Padus or a Derry Trio OT3. Welcome to the worst Polycule this side of the Foyle, maybe in the entire North West.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Honestly, I think nothing would top a good full Irish breakfast roll for this man. Something as big as his entire hand, stuffed with eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms ... only acceptable way to start the day.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Be a menace to society! No literally, he's in the mob. Right hand to Harry O'Connel, the biggest shark in the Irish tank. Aaron O'Connel, Harry's father, was who picked Paddy off the Dublin streets and offered him to work for him. Ain't much of a living with the guilt his job produces but well, someone's got to protect the kids now and make their life cushy.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

He plays the guitar! His father taught him. He also branched into other string instruments and is pretty good at the Banjo. His fiddling is good enough for government work. Needless to say, not only does he play, he also sings.

🎯 -What do they do best?

Being a calm mediator, to be honest. Everyone else always looks to him, due to his experience and Paddy's here to get shit done. Doesn't mean he's always calm or hides his emotions particularly well, but he's determined like no other and very good at both executing orders and giving orders. He's so splendid at being a father to be honest, it's a shame he never had any kids on his own, but doesn't matter - he loves Harry, Soph and Charlie to bits. Adopts every lost kid in need of a dad he can find, giving as much love as his big body can store.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Loves to be a bastard with his children, a carefree ne'er-do-well, hates that to live that life he routinely makes it worse for a hundred other families who're just struggling to get by. Paddy is filled to the brim with guilt, believes God no longer listens to him and that there's no redemption for a man like him.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Night out in the pub with friends in Derry; Kilian, Angus, a few others - and the daughter of the Orangeman who's none the wiser that his daughter is hanging with at least one Catholic and Rotten Prods and getting shifted by the latter.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Hearing about Kilian's death after the funeral already happened. Kilian's older brother Keith didn't want him there.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

It is! I rarely change designs, mostly because the hugest chunk of my characters exist solely as personality and a vague idea of a physical appearance for months, if not years. Paddy had his design pretty quickly because I had to describe him, but I love it anyways. Especially the fact that he's 2 m tall and built like a brickwall.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

I needed a right hand man for my mafia story and I knew vaguely that there's Protestants in Northern Ireland. That's it and as I learnt more and more about the actual situation and nuances of Irish history and identity, it just has made Paddy more and more interesting.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

Born to be in a romantic comedy or a GOOFY heist movie, forced to be in Angela's Ashes meets The Godfather.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Cishetero man as they come, though I make exceptions in AUs for Derry Trio OT3 shenanigans babyyyy. To be fair, too, he's moved in overwhelmingly queer circles due to the job and the kids in the past years that he's not at all fazed by the myriad of gender expressions and sexualities this world got to offer.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

None! However, he has/had a cousing called Caoimhe, who he loved so dearly, pretty much like an older sister. However, after his aunt/her mother died in a bombing, the family moved away and he never heard from her again.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Very good! Both of his parents died in the 80s, sadly, but he loved them very much and they did him. They also were both rather old parents (William O'Neill was born 1917, Davian O'Neill in the early 1920s), so it's sad they died so young regardless, but not out of the clear blue sky. As I said, his father taught him how to play guitar and Davina also always looked out for her son. Paddy wouldn't have left Derry if one of his parents were still alive.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

THE GHOOOOSTS, Paddy is so fucking haunted! He has lived three lives and to not lose the third one, he is willing to dig himself and everyone a grave without a bottom. Willing to do and encourage the worst things out of a deep, deep sense of love. He lost his cousin, his parents, Angus moved to London and then a bomb wrecked his and Kili's flat, so he walked out of town, left Kilian behind who died in the mid 2000s in a car crash. He got taken in by Aaron, traded his morals for a new family and helped raise Aaron's kids. Then Freya, Aaron's wife, dies in childbirth, Aaron's other right hand Ben gets shot in 2006 and Aaron accidentally poisoned in 2009. Once again, Paddy is the last man standing. So if anything happened to Harry, his sister Sophie or Harry's best friend Charlie, he'd kill everyone and then himself. No hyperbole. His actions in Irish Problems underscore that.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Pretty much any time I work on the mainseries. He isn't in every AU and I also write a lot of one-shots/other fanfics about entirely different corners of the world that have nothing to do with him, but Paddy never strays far from my mind. Since I've been rewriting Irish Problems since 2022, rarely a month went by without writing about him.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

I've toyed with the idea of killing Paddy a lot, because he'd be potent drama. But at the end of the day, I could never go through with it because it breaks my own heart far too much.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Don't think he likes anything about bombs, but that's less of a phobia and more ... being traumatized by a civil war. He's got over his dislike of guns for the same reason, but still loathes most big guns and will not use anything automatic unless you held the man himself at gunpoint.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

Ben was always the man to pick fights and hold grudges, so Paddy doesn't really have any personal nemesis or rivals. Team England can be counted as such, simply because they're Team Ireland's biggest antagonists, but he has no particular bone to pick with Arthur (unlike Harry), Robert (unlike Charlie) or Tahir.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Since 2013! "Like Father Like Son", how the entire story universe is called, was a Hetalia AU I created for an art trade. I needed human OCs for the story and that is how he came about.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

14. Insane shit.

Here's a drawing of him done by @pyromaniacqueen!

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

And once again, a day at Family Video:

"So? How did it go this time?"

"Oh yeah, I've totally got a date."

"Do you really, though?"

Steve sighs. Sometimes knowing each other inside out is more of a curse than a blessing.

"That's what I thought. Get the You-Suck-Board out of the back"

"Sure thing Your Majesty"

"Excuse me? If anything I would be elected by the people, King Steve"

Whenever she hears anyone else say one of his old shameful nicknames at school, she will make sure to "accidentally" hit them very hard in the face during football practice. Or PE. Or sometimes just in the hallway, if they have no classes that overlap. Or the balls, if he is a real buttface. "With my luck I would rearrange his features into something less hideous" is her justification when Steve winces in second-hand sympathy. He truly adores her with everything he has.

Whenever he hears someone else use "dyke" or "fairy" or "queer" as an insult, he will glare at them so hard they never dare wear their current outfit again. Ever. If there is one thing years of being a jackass taught him, it is to give the most judgmental stare you can imagine.

They are also not above inventing a bullshit excuse to demand extra fees if it happens in the shop. He and Robin consider it compensation for having to listen to such bullshit with their own two poor queer little ears. Somehow Keith hasn't caught up yet.

Steve sighs. Again. It is truly impressive how much of an effect Robin can have on him without even physically being there.

" Alright-y, Dyke-y."

But Steve isn't anyone else, and neither is Robin. They are Steve and Robin and they are soulmates. It is almost like exposure therapy, in a way. Hearing it so often from someone they know will never really mean it takes away some of the sting when others use it maliciously. Steve didn't even have the designated-self-loathing-hour that normally follows the last time Mike sneered one of his old nicknames at him. (Didn't stop Robin from "accidentally" spilling her milkshake on him later. Steve only felt a little bit bad for laughing.)

"I can still hear you breathing on the phone. Dingus."

"So sorry. I was just waxing poetry about how meaningful our friendship-"

"Well I am about to start waxing poetry about what a loser you are. Loser."

Steve gives her a middle-finger she cannot see but is satisfactory either way, and places the phone back on the table. For a second he considers hanging up for a few moments if only to save a few cents. But it isn't he who is going to have to pay the phonebill and the job sucks anyway, so he doesn't. That's what Keith gets for his blatant favoritism.

He goes back to the phone after giving himself a point in the Gay-Jokes-Board. If she truly wanted him to play fair, she should've come to work instead of blowing him off because of "sickness" or some bullshit. Karma, bitch.

Another customer enters. He takes a short look at the door and braces himself. To be honest, flirting with girls isn't nearly as fun without Robin's silent running commentary. By now he doesn't even expect a second date, he does it mostly to have something to do while everyone he knows is at school. But he knows that Robin truly is at home feeling miserable right now (she even skipped band practice yesterday. And nothing comes between Robin and band practice), so when he sees the flowing dress entering through the door he is already mentally preparing himself for another conversation that will make him cringe at 2 AM and steal his sleep for the next week. The things he does for Robin.

He is not above admitting how he visibly deflates when he recognizes the bright red hair entering through the door. Thank God.

"Hey Dorothy!"

"VICKIE IS THERE?! FUCK"

Steve laughs at her outrage. By now he does actually know her name (hard not to, with how often she coincidentally comes to browse the store whenever Robin has a shift), but he has called her "Friend of Dorothy" so much that it has stuck. He is just very bad with names, okay?! Besides, in his humble and correct opinion, Dorothy is simply the superior name. It suits her way better. One day he will be able to convince Vickie of his correct opinion, and when that day comes, he will be ready to immortalize the moment she tells Robin with his camera.

Vicky comes towards the counter and Steve makes the executive decision that torturing Robin is more important than costing Family Video money. Robin realizes what he is about to do, but her cries of protest only encourage him further. Will he pay for that? Probably. Is it still worth it? Abso-fucking-lutely. The click when he hangs up sounds like music to his ears.

He smirks when he sees how her eyes immediately search out something behind him. When she sees his expression, her cheeks flush as bright as her hair. Every time that happens he has to think about Robin's hour-long monologue about how adorable Vickie looks when she blushes. He realizes that for once there isn't anyone here to stop him from saying that. He may not be good at mantaining relationships, but no one can deny that he is an expert at getting a date. And if Robin refuses to make a move? Well, he always has wanted to play matchmaker.

He leans forward and gives her his most charming smile. "So...do you come here often?"

She blinks at him. "Are you...flirting with me?!?!"

"Pretend that I'm Robin, alright?" He brushes one of her red locks behind her ear.

"Jesus Christ"

"Superstar. So, when are you free? Lucky for you, I have Robin's entire schedule memorized."

They stare at each other for a time, at an impasse. And then-

"LISTEN TO THAT HOWLING MOB OF BLOCKHEADS IN THE STREET-!"

(Steve vaguely notes that they scare a few potential customers away with their musical numbers. (Yes. Plural. Obviously.) To say that Vickie isn't a great singer is a bit of an understatement. He thinks it is only fair, considering he already saved Family Video's phone bill by hanging up on Robin. ROBIN. If they wanted him to care they should pay him better.)

It is only once they have gone through the entire "Jesus Christ Superstar" Discography and Vickie is already stepping into her car that he realizes he never actually arranged the Robin and Vickie date. Rockie date? Wait......

He basically throws himself onto the the phone

"ROBIN!"

A very confused Mrs. Buckley calls for her daughter. Steve is practically vibrating on his feet.

"ROBIN! IF YOU COMBINE YOUR AND VICKIES NAME TOGETHER YOU GET ROCKIE!!!!"

"OH MY GOD, LIKE IN THE ICONIC AND VERY QUEER ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW?!"

"I TOLD YOU THAT SHE'S INTO YOU BITCH!"

btw. people. please tell me your Vickie headcanons. <3

Hey look the WIP game actually works lol

-> tramp-stamp

-> gatekeeping 101

-> anti-heteronormativity

-> jancy appreciation hours

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Kuron lance and allura for the headcanon thing(if that's not too many lol)

Kuron-

Headcanon A: realistic

After that time on the ice planet he started keeping extra water pouches and snacks with him at all times

He does not like the smell of burning meat

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

He enjoyed being a paladin in monsters and mana so much he was planning to cosplay his character when he got back home :)

Also pretty decent at cooking and uses it to make fun of Shiro

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

He had even picked up some cloth he could use for cosplay, it got blown up with the castle since no one thought to pick it up with him being yknow

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

CLASSIC LIT NERD!KURON FOR THE WIN!!!!

Lance-

Headcanon A: realistic

Knows a Guy™ for everything, like even the most random and specific ass situations he just Knows someone who can get them out.

Also big fan of point and click puzzle games, and is getting pretty good at it too

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

His grandma taught him how to shoot as well as other things like administrating first aid, carjacking, how to read and write in code, impersonation, 5 different language etc. When asked why she just said "for the future" and didnt elaborate

Lance and Hunk once pretended to be toxic-couple-fighting-in-public-and-making-a-scene as a distraction for Galra long enough for the others to complete the mission

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Because of the entire died-but-revived and altean marks thingy he will either end up dying slowly or has extended life and is going to outlive almost all of his friends and loved ones :)

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

I have said this before but i'll say it again cause this is my favourite hc. I do not care what canon or fanon says but Lance is bi with shittiest taste in men. It's alright my boy, i perceive you, i know you have kissed men and i know they all fucking sucked.

Lance went on spy missions while the entire time Lotor was staying in castle and Keith was gone

Allura-

Headcanon A: realistic

She really doesnt like healing pods, or going to sleep and first thing she does after waking up is check the date and time

Also she would have loved glitter bath bombs

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

She loves building pillow forts. Lance and Hunk showed her how to make one and that is now her go to stress relief

Also she knows how to play an altean equivalent of a hurdy gurdy but like can only play altean equivalent of Wonderwall

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

As a little kid she used to look upto Zarkon and Honerva. You know how little kids have these adult figures (not parents) they really wanted to impress? That was Zarkon and Honerva

As a kid she was much more interested in Diplomacy and altean martial arts than in alchemy despite being naturally gifted with it because she thought the lessons were too boring. She regretted than when she woke up 10000 years later

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

She was researching on altean alchemy even before Lotor showed up to feel a bit closer to her culture

Technically she can pilot any lion because of her bond with them i do not care what canon says

[sailorspica]

its scares me that a good chunk of the characters.(notable ones too) we need to delve deeper into them ie july leos vs august leos. also how yams is a virgo himself but putting like 2 of the arguably worst characters (karina and rod reiss) as virgos. also if yams is the creator of the world, that means aot world's god is a virgo?????

begging for astrology asks

yams put himself in a sandwich between a cop (MP ralph aug 26) and karina (sept 3) like?? virgo is notably the least populated of all the signs in my all character breakdown, like he wanted to avoid himself, but the narrative weight these virgos pull does the opposite imo

on leo: you have fallen into my trap of advanced/esoteric soapboxing: decanates. so! each sign is a 30 degree wedge in the sky. the sun moves about 1-degree per day, hence why each sun sign "season" is a month long. astrologers divide these 30 degrees into 10-degree (in sun terms, 10 days) slivers called decans. there are different ancient systems of assigning planetary rulers to these decans, but the most popular, chaldean, has uses in tarot

1st decan (mostly july), ruled by saturn: willy, niccolo, sasha, dina fritz, zeke, reiner

2nd decan, approx. aug. 2-11, ruled by jupiter: onyankapon, pieck, marcel

3rd decan, approx. aug 12-22, ruled by mars: colt, keith shadis

the decans create basically 36 mini-signs, which neatly corresponds to the minor arcana of tarot without the court cards. for leo, we're in the fire suit of wands that is the most MARtial:

1st decan = ♄ = 5 of wands

2nd decan = ♃ = 6 of wands

3rd decan = ♂ = 7 of wands

the pamela colman smith cards:

the five of wands shows a kind of pointless fight. night of the end vibes. aggression for aggression's sake, prolonging a conflict because well! we're in it. i like seeing niccolo and reiner here as soldiers who came to paradis and were challenged and changed, much like the joining the cadets did for sasha and her libertarianism. but also, doesn't it look like stage combat like from stupid willy tybur's fuckass play?

the six of wands is so painfully what all the warriors, or soldiers in general, are taught to aspire to: surviving war, returning home, and earning recognition. it's a card for honorary marleyans, but the trio of characters whose birthdays are here is kinda sad: marcel never made it home; ony's home country is presumably rumbled; pieck only cares about her dad, not any wider renown or the myth of eldian atonement

the seven of wands is so... so... colt and shadis. oh my fucking god. i'm kinda ill looking at it ngl. they both could have saved themselves, if colt literally just ran for cover from falco's transformation, if shadis jumped ship like magath told him to, but they go down fighting, to protect other people. kids! shadis still looks at the 104th as his students. jesus christ

further things about leo in AoT:

of my chosen major characters the only paradisians are sasha and shadis

three sets of warrior + parent: dina fritz and zeke, reiner and sperm contributor, and pieck and her dad. we can throw in colt grice and his uncle

zeke, marcel, and colt. two brothers GOAT chapter episode

i've said this elsewhere but i'm quite sure the return to shiganshina arc happens in the fall, zeke, reiner, and pieck all had birthdays back to back on that docked marleyan warship, i assume. do they actually celebrate? doubt it

and not to be dark on your last point: virgo is a maiden, the mutable earth sign. i think it's genesis 7 where a million different translations say the abrahamic god made adam out of dust, clay, soil, etc. if there is a creator god, it's founder ymir.

[monstersinthecosmos]

this is such a silly question but... how old do you envision keith to be in ttsr!? i think about this fic all day every day to the point where i'm like filling in the gaps in my head and reconstructing his entire life before meeting shiro and whatnot so yeah just. wondering how old he actually is? (((also please know you are my favorite fic writer ever. and i'm the pickiest of picky readers, so it's like you've been inside my brain! IT'S EERIE! and i'm so grateful <3 <3 <3)))

sdgads oh my gosh thank you so much

look at this fucked up little baby i love him SO LIKE INSOFAR AS THEIR AGES IN CANON ARE A LITTLE FUZZY I think he's 19 in TTSR. I think I'm using the idea that in S1 Keith is 19ish and Shiro is 25ish, and I go with the idea that they met when Keith was 15ish and Shiro is 21ish. And maybe by the end of canon, with Keith's time skip, Shiro is 27ish and Keith is 23ish? I sometimes adjust that number in my mind, it's not a hill I'm gonna die on in general, but for this fic I think those are abouts the ages I'm working with. It makes the most sense to me to imagine that Shiro would be recruiting from high schools, and I was comparing to like ROTC and stuff and they typically don't accept kids under 17, but it seems like the Garrison has younger students and since it's a space exploration program and not strictly a military institution that we have some wiggle room to make up rules haha. So maybe they meet, he finishes 10th grade or whatever, then joins the Garrison? Even though they use very obvious visual language on the show in the flashbacks to tell us KEITH IS SMOL BBY, he's gotta at least be a high school student. I also want to leave him a little time to get to know Shiro. In chapter 4 I wrote like a lil bit of exposition just to like keep everyone on their toes and I thought it would be a fun pacing shift to just start talking about his childhood out of nowhere which is why I sketched out that overview of like his JOURNEY REALIZING HE'S GAY LOL, but in that chapter I mentioned that Shiro leaves for Kerberos when Keith is 17 and he gets kicked out of the Garrison at 18/19. It says this RE:Keith's sexual history lol: But at seventeen with an NCO and eighteen on Iverson’s desk and nineteen with some grad student from the bar, all he knows is that he doesn’t want to give up control.

I also really wanted to give weight to how different he would've looked to Shiro when Shiro comes back, especially leaving Earth off a breakup. And the breaking up is relevant because like, Keith has always just been this kid that he mentors and Shiro is in a committed relationship up until the very end right before his mission, so there's no reason why he'd ever see Keith as desirable. Not just that Shiro is too much of a cinnamon roll and I think he's so faithful & committed to Adam, but Keith is also so fucking immature and messy as a kid right?

When he leaves, Keith is his lil buddy that thirdwheels him & his boyfriend and sleeps on their couch sometimes, and when he comes back Keith is like this angry shell that regressed on all the lessons Shiro taught him. But he's grown and strong and violent !!!! And Shiro sees him as a grown man now! And it's surreal to him! And he feels weird about it sometimes! And when Keith is ready Shiro wants to be topped & dommed because he's so burnt out from making decisions and being in charge and being responsible for everyone's lives and it would be so nice if this violent alien-man would dick him down please!

Sorry I got off topic lol I mean, I think 19 is a nice age where like, there would be a visible difference, he'd be taller, broader shoulders, (if he were fully human maybe he'd be fully grown but I think his Galra genes are gonna keep going lol but Shiro doesnt know that)!

I don't always stick to these ages because canon is so fuzzy so I think like for all writers, readers, & enjoyers we have some space to adjust as needed when it fits the story we're trying to tell. But I think this mostly is the story I'm telling this time and like, if I haven't nailed it down explicitly in the text already you never know if I'll wiggle later or even retcon it LOL. So anyway, the basic TTSR timeline

They meet when Keith is 15

He joins the Garrison at 16

Shiro leaves when Keith is 17

Pilot error etc happens when Keith is 18

He gets kicked out of the Garrison at some point! Do I know when in this following year? idk I didn't decide. Bonus question: Does Keith even know? Does he know what month it is? Does he know how old he is? Pilot error happens and time stops existing for him.

Shiro comes back/canon S1/TTSR begins when he's 19. I also didn't nail a number down yet but I think he was 6 or 7 when his dad died in this. In the upcoming chapter that I haven't finished, there's an extended scene about him and his dad from when he's 5!!!!!!!!!! You didn't ask but, in general if this helps you imagine the TTSR timeline lol. :) :) BOY. I'm upset lol.

[dark-elf-writes]

Clone Shiro didn't know he was a clone.

Do you think Allura and Coran would sense the horcux inside Harry ? Because I can imagine with Allura powers and their technology can remove from inside Harry.

Also, Harry become best friends with the mouses . If they are not with Allura they are with Harry doing something.

The paladin created rules around Harry like the no swear around Harry.

Somehow I can see Harry being able to communicate with all the lions and they show some of their past to Harry. Basically they teach him history and funny events about their previous paladins.

Something like

" Harry? What are you doing here in front of the black lion ?" asked Shiro

" he was talking to me..... Shiro ?"

" yes ?"

" he is sad.... because he couldn't prevent his paladin to fall in the dark side"

I could definitely see an argument for them being at least aware of the horcrux even if they weren’t able to fully remove it due to the differences in magic or what have you. Not fully sure what I want to do with the Harry Potter side of the canon yet.

(Imagining Allura skating her finger’s over Harry’s brow only for both of them to gasp like they’ve been burned, each pulling away with wide eyes as they try to work through what happened. Imagining Allura pulling Harry to the infirmary for an in depth scan, twisting her fingers and pacing as she waited on confirmation. Imagining Allura, jaw set as she had been taught when receiving bad news as her shaking hand clench hard enough that her nails cut into her palms.

What was done to this child was horrific.

She has to find a way to help him. She will help him.)

-

All of them are incredibly protective of Harry both physically and mentally and emotionally.

When he came to them he was clearly not in a good state. Was a skittish little thing that was all skin and bones and bruises from far larger hands. Besides Keith the first person he bonded with was Pidge and considering they are the youngest and smallest of all of them…

None of them really know how to raise a kid, but they do know what their parents did and that includes attempting to limit their cursing (to varying levels of success Pidge and Keith curse like sailors at the best of times) and trying to remember what they were learning in school at eight years old (“not calculus pidge!”)

Harry definitely is regularly saying fuck by the time he’s ten, knows how to wield a variety of weapons, and could probably test out of muggle high school if he wanted because in space there’s not a whole lot to do other than learn things.

-

God little Harry sitting cross legged in front of the seemingly dormant lion with his head tipped to the side and tears in his eyes when Shiro finds him.

“Harry? Bud, it’s late what are you doing in here?”

“He’s sad, Shiro. Cant you feel it?”

(It’s hard most days to know what he felt on the other side of the connection. The lions are alive yes but their emotions are different than how a human would feel. Shiro has picked up the occasional twinge of regret? Melancholy? Sorrow? From his lion even if he wasn’t entirely sure what the source of it was)

So he sits beside Harry, pulling the kid, blanket and all, into his lap while they looked up at Black.

“Did he tell you why?”

“His friend left him. Hurt the others. He feels… bad for missing him sometimes.”

Shiro gets it. He really does. Not everyone you loved was good to you. Good for you. But that didn’t meant the feelings always went away.

You can love an idea.

You can love the past.

“Well,” He says both to the Lion he can feel stirring in the back of his mind and to the drowsy child leaning further and further into his chest, “we’ll just have to help him make some new memories with us, won’t we?”

He isn’t fully sure what the exact emotion he could feel swirling through the connection with black was, but based off of the warmth and the way Harry’s lips tugged into a contented smile he was sure it was something positive.

Something a lot like love.

[poor-sickies]

For concussion, maybe Keith? He takes a hit to protect Shiro (or anyone) and gets a really bad concussion. It could also lead into a separate fic for healing pod malfunction. Maybe they put him into the healing pod and it’s focusing on his head. It malfunctions, and he winds up seeing visions from the past, his fears, his fight with Shiro, etc. and he freaks out/is distressed af and Shiro gets him out and comforts him :3

Read my post first! - TLDR: I'm releasing unfinished drafts!

Original draft (written back in 2018):  he’s alone in a Blades mission, in a really cold snowy place, and gets a really bad concussion. He is rescued by Lance, and ends up in the back of the red lion, with Lance telling him not to fall asleep, like in “the fall”. He recovers at the Castle, and winds up seeing visions from the past, his fears, his fight with Shiro, etc. and he freaks out/is distressed af and Shiro gets him out and comforts him

My comments (written now): Okay, so I suppose I should explain myself - “The Fall” is a book from the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore. I used to read them when I was young, it’s about a secret unit in the Secret Services where the agents are kids (aged 12-18), they are military trained and go on missions. This collection is pretty cool, and it did feature some great whump here and there. The Fall is the seventh book in the series, and has an amazing scene, in the middle of the mission, where the main character was just rescued but has a concussion and is overall pretty beaten up. The banter is so amazing, and i just really wanted to write something like that for Keith with Lance. Of course, I intended to develop it, and keep going to the part when Keith would have some dreams and visions from the past (induced by the concussion during recovery), but I didn’t really get there. At least I’ll leave you this initial snippet from when he’s rescued.

“Don’t fall asleep back there,” Lance reminds him, head turning to the side to check on Keith.

“I know, I’m not an idiot,” Keith snaps back, from the bundle of blankets he’s wrapped in.

“Just checking,” Lance answers softly. “We should be arriving soon. Did you contact Kolivan?”

“Not really.” Keith grits his teeth. His vision swims, and even sitting, with both hands on the ground to steady himself, he feels like he’s about to fall down at any minute. “My comm was dead when I crashed.”

“Alright. We’ll let him know when we get to the Castle.”

Keith shivers beneath the fabric, hands wrapped around his torso. He desperately wants to lay back and close his eyes, but Lance is right. He most likely has a bad concussion, and his training at the Garrison had taught him to not attempt sleeping like this before he was cleared by a doctor. So he takes a deep breath through his nose and keeps his eyes open.

His body is battered and sore, from the terrible beating he took earlier. His lower jaw is bruised and swollen, courtesy of the heavy armour used by the Galra. His left wrist is probably sprained as well, and most of his chest and back is mottled with bruises cuts. Despite it all, the pain helps him focus, keeping him from falling asleep.

“Hey, Shiro, I got him,” Lance says into the comms, glancing behind him to check on Keith, “we’re heading back now.”

“How is he? Is he okay?”

“Beaten and bruised, but he’s gonna make it.”

“I’ll wait for you guys at the hangar.” Shiro’s sigh of relief is heard, even through the comms, and Lance chuckles.

“So,” Lance starts, “you want to tell me what the fuck happened?”

[greyfix]

Justice

Title: Justice

Ship: Keith Kogane/Lance McClain

Summary: Things haven’t quite changed post war. It’s going to take alot more than a couple of teenagers to fix the bias against Galra.

Word Count: 2.1K

Requested By: n/a

Warnings/Tags: hurt/comfort, angst, Post-war, canon compliant, hurt keith, protective lance

Author’s Note: Sorry it’s been taking me so long to post, I’ve been really busy recently and there haven’t been alot of circumstances in which i can write and post. Ao3,

Lance was in his usual position by the stove when he noticed the time. In the years since the war had ended, Keith and Lance had fallen into a routine. They went into work at the Garrison together in the mornings. Lance taught strategy at the boarding school in the beginning of the day, and then went in as a consultant in the afternoon. Keith did combat training with anyone who was assigned to him. He started as a teacher for the older students, but he became someone sought out by those with the ambition to get better. He did this in the evenings and was an ambassador to the Blade of Marmora the rest of the time, so his schedule was more flexible. 

It became routine early on that Lance would make sure to cook dinner every night because he loved reminiscing on something he did with his family growing up, and he wanted to be able to sit and eat and talk with his Husband every night.

Keith normally came home around 7 O’ Clock. That was their schedule. If he had something to do off world or was working late he always let Lance know. Tonight it was 8:17 PM and Keith still hadn’t walked through the door. Lance was reaching for his phone to send a text when he heard keys jingling outside. 

The second Lance is able to look at his husband’s face, his expression hardened and he pointed to the stool near the counter. “Sit.” 

Keith knew exactly what he was in for. He did as he was told and waited patiently for Lance to get the med kit out of the nearby bathroom. He’d come home beat up many times and Lance’s reaction was always the same. Intense worry and affection.

When he returned, Lance still didn’t say anything. He only unzipped the red pack that all of their emergency supplies were kept in and pulled out what he would need. Disinfectant wipes, sticker stitches, bandaids, neosporin, etc. 

He tilted Keith’s chin up to get a better look at his face and the evidence of a fight. He delicately thumbs away a streak of blood by Keiths mouth, saying nothing as he examines it. After a brief pause, Keith’s heart skips a nervous beat as Lance looks him dead in their eyes. His voice is quiet and tense, their anger barely restrained. 

“Who did this to you?” 

Keith took a deep breath. “Lance, you have to understand. It’s only been a few years. Things aren’t going to change in an instant.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“People still blame the Galra as a species for what Zarkon did. You know that. That’s not something that can be fixed by winning a war.” 

“You’re telling me, someone found you and attacked you, because you’re part Galra?” Lance spoke incredulously. 

“Yes. That is what I'm telling you.” 

“And what did you do about it?” 

“I didn’t hurt him.” Keith said. “He may have been an asshole but I wasn't about to kill someone for that, lance. It wasn’t-”

Lance cut him off. “It wasn’t a big deal?! Keith this is a hate crime! You could have fought back and it would have been self defense!” 

“Yes, but-”

“I’ll go and fucking fight back! I thought we were over this bullshit! We went off into the world as children to fight a war while these people had no clue what was going on until the very end, and they have the nerve to be Racist?? To you of all people? Where is the respect, or gratitude, or human decency!?”

Keith tries to interrupt but can’t get through. If there’s one thing that Lance is passionate about it is the safety of his family. Especially the family he has fought and died (momentarily) for. Nothing would stop lance when it came to protecting them. Whether it was Keith, Rachel, Veronica, Marco, Luis, his nieces and nephews, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, even Axca. Lance would fight. 

“Fighting isn’t the answer!” Keith finally shouted, really hoping that this didn’t turn into an argument between them. 

“What?”

“If we fight, or kill, or do anything physically violent to the people who think differently than us, are we any better than Zarkon? Zarkon was insulted once and decided the solution was to commit genocide. Do you want to stoop down to his level?” 

Lance was silent for a long time. Keith was right and he knew it. He knew he was being irrational, and that in any other situation he would be saying the same thing. He also knew that in saying this himself, Keith had grown from the reckless hotheaded kid he’d once been. 

“You’re right.” Lance said as he slumped down into the chair next to his husband. He was silent while he worked. Patching up the cuts and cleaning up the blood. Making sure everything was in order. 

It was a long time before Keith spoke again. “We have to go about this the right way.”

“We do.” 

The next morning went as usual, with only a slightly larger amount of wincing and sighing on Keith’s part. 

Dressed in their Garrison uniforms they were permitted through the strict security system after only a flash of their badges. If voltron was worth anything it was not having to wait an hour to get through security checks. 

This time instead of parting to go to their respective departments, they both headed to Legal. Since they didn’t go there often there were alot of people stopping them to talk. The usual things.

‘Haven’t seen you around here before’

‘You get into trouble?’

‘Goodness! What happened to you, Paladin Kogane?’

‘Paladins!’

‘My kids are huge fans’

It wasn’t long before they had made it through the pleasantries and dropped off the paperwork. It was when they were heading out that the chaos ensued. 

Not long after they left the legal department and were heading towards their car did they run into Pidge. And Matt. And Shiro. And Curtis. And Coran. And- You get the picture. 

They all immediately jumped into fussing over Keith.

“What happened?”

“Did you get into a fight?” 

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Keith shrugged away their touch. “It’s not that bad” 

They took a moment to stay and explain to their friends what had happened and how they were dealing with it. They all agreed it was the right thing to do. Those things would be okay. 

It was only a week later when they started to worry. They still hadn’t heard back from the garrison about their complaint. Things as simple as this should be pushed through relatively quickly. Why weren’t they? 

They decided to give it another week, because things happen, but when they still didn’t hear back they took a day off work and went to speak to the head of the Garrison’s Legal Department. 

This time, since they were there not that long ago, they didn’t have to filter through the pleasantries as much so it went significantly faster. They went straight to the very back of the building to meet a man named. Mr. Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas was a large man in a barely fitting three piece suit. He had no hair and a beard that had seen better days. He welcomed them in and gestured for them to sit down on the two brown leather chairs in front of his cluttered mahogany desk. “Well, Paladins. What can I help you with today, on this rare visit.” 

Lance spoke first, as always. “We sent through a complaint a couple weeks ago, but we haven’t heard back once. We were just hoping to see about that.” 

“Oh, well we get a million complaints around here. It takes time to sift through them all.” 

“I’ve heard about quite a few getting through in less than a week. Ours isn’t very complicated.” Lance said, deceptively eloquent. 

“There’s no reason for it to take this long.” Keith spoke for the first time, startling Mr. Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas smiled a fake smile and opened the laptop sitting atop his desk. “Well, let's take a look at this then shall we?” 

He browsed for a moment, asking some questions to find the file in what had to be an unseemly large database of files. When he finally came across it his expression fell. “Oh.” 

Lance tilted his head, “Oh?”

“Things like this happen all the time. If we caused a fuss every time someone assaulted a galra we would never get a break. It’s really not a big deal. I suggest you move on with your life.” 

Silence. For a long moment no one spoke. Lance, for once, was at a loss for words. Keith was only dejected. He’d known a long time ago that he would face adversity for this, even though he had no control over it. It was just the luck of the draw, and Keith had always had the worst luck. 

Keith looked over at Lance, ready to let this all go and, like mr. Thomas said, move on with his life. However, he didn’t see a face that would be receptive to that idea. 

Lance’s facial expression had hardened, and his eyes had that stiff laser focus that was only seen when there was a rifle in his hand. All his attention was on Mr.Thomas as though he was a direct physical threat. In lance’s mind, he was. 

Lance stood up calmly and walked towards the desk, making complete eye contact with Mr.Thomas. “How often do ‘things like this’ happen? Do you get many complaints? Complaints that you overlook because of your own bigoted beliefs?” 

Mr. Thomas’s eyes widened. He didn’t dare speak. 

“Did you know that this is how Zarkon acted before he became a bloodthirsty dictator intent on genocide? He believed that anyone different than him deserved to die, along with anyone who got in his way. Is that what you believe? So much so that you would knowingly allow people to hurt others for that reason knowing that you have the power to stop it?” 

Thomas sputtered, trying to get out some excuse but lance didn’t give him a chance. “Push our reports through. And any like ours. Or i will make your life a living hell.” 

“Lance.” Keith spoke. He wouldn’t let this get any farther. He knew what would happen otherwise, and he learned that this wasn’t how things should be done. With threats and violence. He knew that in order to keep the peace they all worked so hard to create he had to be peaceful as well, and so did everyone else. “He’s not worth it.” 

Lance looked over at his husband’s solemn expression and all the tension in his body dropped. “You’re right. Let’s go.” 

This time they didn’t try to go straight home. This time they found an empty meeting room and gathered everyone they knew. They were going to make this right, and they were going to do it properly. 

Once everyone was there and the situation had been explained Pidge was the first to take action. They found all of the complaints similar to Keith and Lance’s in the last few years since the war. They filed through them together one by one. Sorting them by severity and time passed. It took hours. 

Shiro and Sam Holt used their high rank and large amounts of pull with the higher ups to plant some information about what’s been going on and Mr. Thomas. They even got a bunch of the legal team to help out. 

They personally contacted everyone who filed a complaint and was ignored. They explained the situation and they made sure everyone knew that they would do their best to get them recognized. 

In the next weeks they brought each case including their own against Keith’s assaulter, and against Mr.Thomas. They made sure everyone was seen, and everyone got the closure they deserved. This wouldn’t happen again. 

They won both of their cases. Keith’s assaulter was found guilty and was sentenced to reasonable time. Mr.Thomas was removed from his position and Keith and Lance got some say in who was hired in that place. They put in good words for the people in the legal department who helped and stood up to Mr. Thomas. 

They fought a war as children. They rebelled against a man intent on universal genocide. And they won. They weren’t going to let all of that go to waste. Things wouldn’t go back to the way they were if Keith and Lance had a say in it. 

Things would change. 

[returntosaturn271995]

Friday, October 4th: Jacket Weather

Today started off sleepy and slow, with grey skies and heavy eyes. It was finally cold enough to don my white NorthFace puffer jacket over my standard athleisure uniform of matching grey with white piping workout set and grey Asics. Moody music and a pumpkin-flavored latte accompanied me to the beach.

It was one of my favorite walks- the kind where I wrote fictional dialogue for the characters in the book I have yet to fully write. Although chat GPT has been so scarily good at re-writing things for me lately, I wonder if becoming a novelist will soon be replaced by wittier robots who understand the human condition through a thousand eyes instead of one flawed view.

After all, they say the best writers need to read, and AI has access to every word on the internet. And if trash-watching Love is Blind with Makenna has taught me anything, it's that people could fall in love with a glowing blue wall if it said enough of the right things.

How much does the human experience and expertise even figure? Even in this Tumblr, my grammar is getting corrected, and my slang is underlined in red. The Hinge algorithm is taking more educated guesses on who I should fuck than I'm actually considering ending things with Keith out of self-doubt.

Today's meditation was on distractibility. In a way, we've been both designed and coaxed towards it. Attention is money, and our chosen focus both deepens and dulls our reality.

Yet today, it was also peaceful and private. My mind was a creative and funny place to be. My own intelligence is inspired by therapy, books, nature, art, music, and a general love of the things I'm distracted by. This whole week has been ordinary, and yet I feel motivated and content, not because of the conditions but because of my chosen scope of focus.

They say the scholar learns something every day, but the Buddhist unlearns something. Loosening a knot inside of me that demands satisfaction to standards unthinkingly agreed to.

Something I wrote today:

“You don’t strike me as the childhood sweetheart type,” says Paul. 

That’s like saying someone didn’t strike you as a model before they were shot in the face. I’ve gone through some changes, Fucko.  (invisible monsters reference)

I don’t say this. 

“We weren’t, we always felt the need to tell people we weren’t Mormon, that we always assumed we’d break up and date others but never wanted to.” 

“That’s so true, Luce.” My dead husband’s voice pipes in. “Also, if I had to do it all again, I would have absolutely had sex with a bunch of other women. Like a LOT. A gross amount. Anyone who would have me. Maybe even a dude here or there, life is short.”

Well, yours certainly was. I think back. It struck me then that I hadn’t spoken out loud to him in a while. 

“That’s pretty funny, but also really nice.” Paul says. 

“Yeah, it’s a very funny, nice story”. I say. 

[blackplanct]

when she finally recovered from the other woman's blunt confrontation, ashanti was dealt another blow: the glint of the dazzling rock on izidora's ring finger. she tried not to seem affected, but her eyes were locked on the perfect, round diamond, the sheer size of it. suddenly, the restaurant became a lot smaller, and the chatter, much too loud. this was not ideal, throwing a multi-million-dollar wrench into her plans. but if the industry did nothing else for her, it taught ash how to smile when she wanted to seethe. with a sharp breath, she did just that, ignoring the diamond for now. "i wanted to apologize for the what i sent to rich, yeah," ashanti nodded her head slightly—still a hint of malice laced in her tone. she was only human after all. the one, maybe two shady tweets, she believed, did not warrant an apology, and she wasn't prepared to deliver one. she barely felt any remorse for the nudes. it's not like it worked anyway— at least not yet. there were times keith tried to play hard to get as payback, but he always folded eventually. "like i said, i didn't think it was serious. he'll get no more pictures from me." she promised with a swiping gesture, and she was genuine this time. what was the point of a paper trail?

as their meeting continued to unfold, ashanti remained vigilant, observing izidora's insecure body language, the pain in her voice as she spoke— the very fact that she entertained this dinner. it all lent ashanti the upper hand. izi was raw with absolutely no room for pretense. there was no hiding her frustration in her contorted features or the tension in her muscles. her heart was on her sleeve, completely vulnerable and just within ashanti's reach. her talons patiently danced atop it, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. she poked and prodded until the mention of keith's mother. izi's tone was short again, and ashanti's interest was piqued. "really? how did that go?" she quipped, trying not to salivate at the thought of keith's mom despising her.

pouring salt in the wound, ashanti circled back to just how little stock she placed on izidora and keith's sudden nuptials, likening the bride to a toy. it was true. keith often threw tantrums when he didn't get his way — particularly after an intense week of lovebombing, when he wanted ashanti most and she wanted to focus on other things. that was all part of the thrill of she and keith. the bass in izi's tone at the mention of it deeply amused her. though she ballparked it at over a million, the ring's actual price point stung. that was a steep cost to pay, but she didn't put it past the nepo baby of an almost billionaire. also, she could be lying. either way, she blinked at izidora, a blank stare. her demeanor was eerily calm as she leaned in, "he's so desperate for me...i think he would." it's a stretch, but she's not going to bitch out now.

"listen babe, you're cute and all. you're new and fresh and exciting to him, but i know keith. for years now. he is not one for commitment. yes, he's all about you now and it's fun and sexy," she lingered with a quick flashback from one of their many sexy moments together, "until he gets fucking bored, and he moves on." ashanti explained with a snap. up until izi entered the picture, that was pretty spot on in regards to keith's love life. he wasn't the type to commit long-term; marriage was definitely out of the question. yet, here they were. "hey, maybe he's changed...maybe he just needed someone real," ashanti suggested, somehow making real a pejorative. she pointed to the ring, "rich sure was tryna to prove a point, though— huh? it's gorgeous...but you know what they say..." she brought her glass of ice water to her lips, "the bigger the ring, the shorter the marriage."

izi doesn't budge at the stunned laughter that comes from the other woman in response to her rigid question, nor does she react to the compliment thrown at her feet. in fact, she just stares at ashanti with a nearly bored expression; almost urging the woman to get to the goddamn point with little more than a look. however, izidora does react when ashanti suggests that she invited her over to apologize. at that, her brow raises just slightly — this had to be a joke, right? "apologize for what?" izidora interrupted, leaning into the table a little to gesture in between them with her left hand. "apologize for the shit you was tweetin' 'bout me, or for the shit you was sendin' to him?"

irritation bubbled beneath her skin all over again at the audacity. she should've expected a slew of jilted lovers at their doorstep, but something about the way ashanti spoke about keith felt oddly personal; completely ignoring the question of their seriousness, the longevity of the relationship. she even starts to ignore the reminder that keith was actually ridiculous enough to conjure an entire fake family just to fuck with his parents. but when ashanti brings up meeting his mother, izidora felt a pit widen in her stomach. she has a soft spot for me. a painful pang settles in her chest, hearing this woman speak of an approval she never would get. "i met her." izidora's tone didn't give away the humiliation she felt as she recalled his mother's cruelty towards her. but the pit widens the more ashanti spoke, giving way to nausea.

maybe it was the baby, or maybe it was the callousness behind ashanti's next words, but izidora felt completely sick to her stomach. her jaw clenches tightly, swallowing down the bile creeping up her throat as the words settle. losing his favorite toy. she's reminded of the antics he pulled outside of her job, the way he'd gotten in her face over her absence. it aligned near perfectly with the example ashanti gave. was that all she was to him, really...? izidora felt numb as she dismisses the waiter with a shake of her head; she didn't want a fucking thing from ashanti, and she braves herself for what could've come next as she attempted to regain composure, iciness in her tone as she spoke. "yo' attention? you that desperate, you think he gon spend over four mil on somebody else for some fuckin' attention from you?"

[autisticlancemcclain]

They’ve stopped at tons of different planets in their time in space, but none so many as on their long, long trip home. Desert planets, jungle planets (a lot of those, actually) sprawling urban planets, you name it. They’ve seen ‘em all, and they’re all cool in their own ways.

Tonight’s planet, though, is particularly spectacular. It’s essentially a giant evergreen forest, and the locals all live in quiet cabins and huts. The very air is green and fresh, and it’s wonderful.

Keith’s biased, of course. He’s always been fond of forests, ever since he was a baby — his Pa regularly took him to the giant ones in east Texas, where the only thing you saw for miles was pine trees and dirt. He’s always found the scenery beautiful, and camping is always fun. (Even if that’s the only way they’ve been living for months. Poor Hunk is at his wit’s end, as are Allura and Shiro, but Keith could live like this the rest of his life and be happy.

Well, maybe not the rest of his life. His back certainly misses mattresses, that’s for sure.)

“Earth to loverboy.” A dark hand waves in front of his face, shaking him from his thoughts and back to the present, where he’s gathering firewood with Allura.

“That doesn’t even make sense. We’re not on Earth. Who taught you that?”

She shrugs. “Pidge and Shiro have been updating me on Terran slang so I blend in once we get there.”

“I wouldn’t trust them as a reliable source of information,” Keith says, snorting. He adjusts the stack of firewood in his arms. “Pidge enjoys lying for her own amusement, and when I was a kid, Shiro had this can of dried beans and every time I misbehaved he took one bean out. He told me that once the can was empty, the world would end. So I’m not saying that they’re intentionally misleading you, but, you know. Not sure I’d take them at their word.”

There’s a long stretch of silence between them. After several minutes, Allura adjusts her own stack of wood (which is, technically, several full-sized logs for them to sit on) and looks at him solemnly.

“Everything about your childhood is confusing,” she says. “But at the same time, explains so much about you as a person.”

Keith nods. He really can’t argue with that, as he was raised first by one (1) hermit monsterfucker and then two (2) gay losers.

“That’s fair.”

They chat idly as they make their way back. They’re the first to arrive to the campground, so they start setting up as everyone else starts trickling back in.

Pidge arrives next, face buried in her holopad. She throws a bag of freshly washed laundry at Keith’s head, snickers to herself, and then scampers back to her lion before Keith can grab her and throw her into a stream, like she deserves. (Allura also points and laughs at him, but Allura could beat him up blindfolded and with one working limb, so he’s long since accepted his fate on that front.)

Coran and Krolia aren’t far behind, completely wrapped up in their conversation about the rare medicinal ingredients in this quadrant. Next is Shiro and Romelle, carrying a massive bucket of water between them. (Well, it’s mostly Romelle and her Altean superstrength, but Shiro is Doing His Best, so.)

“Anyone seen Lance and Hunk?” Keith asks, once he’s gotten the fire going and Pidge has deemed it safe to emerge from her lion. (Fool choice, that, but Keith will wait until she least expects it.)

“You know Lance,” Shiro says. “Hunk too, honestly. We sent our two biggest nerds — besides you, Pidge — on what amounts to a nature walk. They’re going to stop to ogle at any bug and critter they see. Let’s just hope they actually remember to get us food.”

“We’re here! We’re here! Sorry we’re late!”

“Speak of the devil,” Pidge says with a grin. “Or, both of them, I guess. I’m fucking starving.”

“Sorry, we got distracted,” Hunk explains, hurriedly putting a pot over the fire and dumping in some ingredients. Lance speedwalks over to the pot of water Romelle brought to add some of that.

“Hold it,” Allura says, making Lance freeze. “You’re walking different. Explain yourself.”

Lance turns back to face her, hands behind his back and expression the picture of innocence.

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” he says, very obviously full of shit. Keith narrows his eyes, trying along with everyone else to figure out what changed. It’s not his hair — it’s gotten a little longer and curlier since they left Earth, but nothing drastic. He’s wearing his regular baseball tee and jeans. His eyes are as mischievous as ever.

But wait a second. Is that —

“Did you get your ears pierced?” Keith asks, and Lance beams.

“No!” he says with a lot of enthusiasm. Keith blinks. That’s — that’s a confusing mesh of a response, there.

“Huh?”

“Tone doesn’t match what your saying, buddy,” Hunk supplies helpfully.

Lance is undeterred, but pats Hunk’s head in acknowledgment. “I’ve had my ears pierced for years! Couldn’t wear earrings in the Garrison, though, so I wasn’t wearing any when we went to space. But when Hunk and I were looking around for mushrooms and stuff, and I saw something cool in a tree so I climbed it to get it and it turns out it was this phial for a potion that this cool witch lost to a bird —”

“Cool witch?” Romelle mumbles, but Lance doesn’t hear her.

“— and she was so grateful that she wanted to give us a gift, and Hunk and I said she didn’t need to repay us, obviously, but she insisted and gave Hunk a cool bracelet —” Hunk dutifully holds up his wrist, showing off a pretty leather band with several ornate stone beads — “and me these beautiful little gold hoops! Aren’t they awesome?”

“They look dope as hell, dude,” Pidge says, uncharacteristically earnest, making Lance grin sunnily at her.

Everyone else offers their compliments, but Keith is — he’s struck. Without his permission, his brain is thrown back to his nine year old self, with a flashlight and an old, worn copy of collection of Greek myths under the blankets of his bunk bed in the group home. He remembers reading about the hearth goddess Hestia, and how all the gods loved her so deeply and desperately that they were ready to tear apart the universe to earn her hand. How she choose to remain an eternal maiden to avoid a civil war. He remembers rolling his eyes, wondering what was so good about a goddess of the hearth that made gods fall to their knees before her.

He looks at Lance, at how the warm glow of the flames sends dancing shadows over his face. His eyes — deep and dark and endlessly, endlessly brown — reflect the soft burn of the fire, and his new earrings gleam.

And suddenly he understands.

“I like your earrings.”

The words are nearly a rasp, barely escaping the dryness of his throat. He’s — he’s breathless, in shock. The feelings he has for Lance aren’t new, exactly, but in the warmth of the campfire and the quiet of the forest, the intensity of them nearly bowls him over.

Lance smiles, shy.

“I haven’t worn them in a while. I’m excited about them, but I — I wasn’t sure if they were right for me anymore.”

“They suit you. You look — you look really nice, Lance. I mean, you always do, but — you get it.”

Lance laughs softly. His cheeks are red. Keith wonders if it’s from the heat of the fire, or something else.

“Yeah? You think so?”

“‘Course I do,” Keith says, grinning. “You know it, too. Now you’re just fishin’ for compliments.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am —”

“Alrighty there, Romeo and Juliet,” Hunk says drily. “Dinner’s ready, although I’m not sure I have the stomach for it after seeing that.”

Well, Keith sure as shit knows what Lance’s blush is from now. He’s got one that matches.

“Thank you for the food, Hunk,” Keith says, loud and telling. Lance laughs along with everyone else, even though they’re the butt of the joke. The conversation moves on quickly, warm stew and good company making everyone loose and jovial — even though a good amount of that joy comes from teasing Keith and Lance as often as possible.

Keith shakes his head, grinning. He looks at Lance, who’s happily teasing Allura right back about all the goo-goo eyes she makes at Romelle, and feels something warm settle in his chest. Despite all the teasing and nosy comments, he’s happier than he’s ever been.

He thinks that nine-year-old Keith, quiet and sullen, sure that love was stupid, would be so happy to see how things have changed.

———

based off this picture by @intrepid-class again because i’m so serious when i say i think about it every day

[dualityvn]

me theory posting again? more likely than you might think

Demo Spoilers below

now that my ban on talking about this has finally been lifted since its now out in the open, lets talk about some things. so, the boys exist as two entities in one body, they both have their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations, but when those align, they can co-exist in the body at the same time. this can be painful (see that one 'bad' end) because Keith's body isnt built to hold more than one person at a time. speaking of, it is technically Keith's body, it was the one made by his parents that he would have inhabited alone without Tenebris' being there, and Tenebris has a different form that is entirely his own. they are not aware of the outside unless they are the person actively in control, but they can share thoughts and dialogue with each other when only one is in control.

now that we have that all established, which does answer like, all of my initial questions, we're gonna get off on a tangent. now, this hasnt really come up before, but one of my favorite things to theorize about is morality issues, specifically when it comes to controlling the narrative a person sees. and i see a Very Delicious moral dilemma with Keith and Tenebris and how Keith is like, the only person Tenebris regularly interacts with.

let me explain. like it or not, we are all a product of the things we interact with on a daily basis and the experiences we gain from those experiences. whether its the lessons we learned from our parents as children, or the interaction we have with our friends on a daily basis, the way other people interact with us is fused with who we are and how we react, even if just on a subconscious level. now lets apply this to the boys. Keiths parents hated Tenebris, and treated Keith coldly as a result. This would be hard on anybody, but especially young children who arent able to really understand the complexities of the situation they were in. this would also continue to be a problem, due to the nature of their inseparability making it hard for either of them to make friends, Keith having difficulties because of Tenebris' existence in his life and Tenebris having difficulties because he's not human, and also presumably because he's not around all that much. this makes socializing hard to impossible for both of them, leading to the state we see Tenebris in in the Demo.

Presumably, Keith is the one who has taught Tenebris everything he knows about humans/the human world/ human customs, but theres still a lot of holes in his knowledge as we can see demonstrated by Tenebris thinking it is alright and normal to just,, show up in our house. There are things that Keith has forgotten to mention because he thinks of them as pure common sense, common sense that Tenebris doesn't have because he never had a social support network to allow him to develop common sense. Keith can't be expected to have explained everything to Tenebris perfectly, especially when Keiths own understanding of the world might be a little skewed.

Lets not forget that they are Both Yanderes, Keith's twisted idea of love may stem from his abandonment issues, but its still there. and considering that Keith is the one who teaches Tenebris everything, its no small wonder that their combined "love" for the MC was enough to put them in sync enough to co-exist completely.

basically what im getting at here is that Keith is the epitome of an unreliable narrator and having an unreliable narrator as your only consistent source of information about the world leads to a very fucked up idea about the world. im not saying that Keith would lie to Tenebris on purpose, i dont even know if he could since they read each others thoughts, but if the lie isnt on purpose then thats a whole different game.

anyway, yeah, Thoughts. once again, congratulations on the demo release!!

I've missed your huge theory asks, Cacti.

But the funny thing is, Tenebris wasn't born at the same time as Keith. Yeah, he was also a "kid" when he entered his body, but he also got a small amount of knowledge from his own species. He started out with a few prejudices, if you can call them that.

In truth, the two of them being together kinda resulted in Tenebris getting better and Keith getting worse :') Since Keith did his best to teach Tenebris compassion and empathy, things that he did not have. But the struggles and trauma he suffered along the way tore at Keith's mind.

As for the yandere tendencies. Well I don't wanna spoil anything for you guys.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Burn The Witch 24 - Post Break Up [Bucky Barnes x Reader]

A.N: Thank you so much for your wonderful support and feedback my loves ! ❤ Here’s the next chapter, I hope you like it as well and please let me know what you think! ❤ Thank you! ❤❤❤

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Warnings: Enemies to lovers, lovers to enemies, fake dating, mentions of blood, sex, violence, death, manipulation, language, guns, knives.

Summary: Break ups are never easy.

Series Masterlist

A real spy, a good spy didn’t get scared.

That was one of the most important things they had taught you back at the academy. Being scared got you killed, so you always had to look for weapons or something you could use to save yourself.

Save yourself, take the target down if you can, and if you can’t; get out of there as soon as possible.

For some reason, none of those options felt like they would work against the most feared assassin in the world. Bucky tilted his head, his gaze bored into yours and you stole a look at the counter from the corner of your eye to see what you could use against him.

“Oh come on, do we really have to do that?”

You grabbed the knife on the counter, flipping it in your hand.

“What kind of an assassin would I be if I didn’t fight back?”

He pulled his brows together.

“Fight back?” he asked but before he could say anything else, you had already lunged at him. He dodged the knife way too easily and grabbed to twist your arm, but you went under his arm and jumped to wrap your legs around his neck, using the momentum to make him lose his balance before you both fell to the ground.

“Brings back the memories,” you grunted and he got out of your tight grip quite easily to grab at you, but you had already jumped on your feet. You darted at him and he sent you back, your back hitting the wall hard. You fell on your knees and snatched the knife off the floor but as soon as you got on your feet again, he let out a breath.

“I’m not going to hurt you, okay?”

A hysterical laughter escaped from your lips, “You do realize that it’s not my first day, right?”

“Do you seriously think I’d hurt you?”

“I think if somebody crossed me the way I crossed you, I wouldn’t let them live.”

“Yeah well, good thing I’m not you.”

You frowned slightly, trying to catch your breath as you held the knife tighter.

“Then what the fuck is this?” you asked, “Closure?”

“Oh no I think we’ve had closure,” he said, anger dripping off his voice, “This is a transaction.”

You stared at him and he reached into his pocket to pull out a thumb drive.

Well.

Okay. It was clear that you had misread this situation.

You put the knife on the table and crossed your arms, leaning back, “What is that?”

“This is the information of everyone I hurt on my Winter Soldier days,” he said, “Dates, names, occupations…. Your father’s name isn’t on it.”

Your stomach did a painful flip, “I know,” you rasped out, “I… um- I found out after I left that night.”

“HYDRA doesn’t have anything on your father, as far as I’ve seen.”

You nodded slowly, “And you’re helping me why?”

“I’m not helping you,” he stated, “I just know how it feels to be manipulated into doing something. Everyone deserves answers, no matter how terrible people they are.”

Well, you deserved that and much more.

“I see,” you said, “Well, for what it’s worth, thank you.”

He eyed you up and down silently.

“Why did you try to get me out of the country?” he asked after a beat, “That night? Why did you try to help?”

You bit inside your cheek, commanding yourself to stay strong.

“Does it matter after this point?” you asked back and he let out a breath, shaking his head.

“I guess not,” he mumbled and walked to the window, making you take a step towards him.

“Can I—“ you spoke before he could jump out, making him turn around to look at you, “Can I ask you something?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Why would you not want revenge?” you asked, “It’s assassin 101. Why not come after me for all these months?”

Why didn’t you try to find me?

That was what you wanted to ask. As twisted as it was, you would’ve taken him coming after you over him forgetting about you.

Well, as it turned out, no one could say assassins were reasonable people when it came to romance.

“I’m not that person anymore,” he said, “And honestly? You’re not worth it.”

Ah. That.

You could swear your heart was cracking but you pursed your lips together, forcing yourself to look unaffected.

“Fair enough,” you rasped out and took a deep breath. “Goodbye Bucky.”

He swallowed thickly, his gaze fixed on you.

“Goodbye Shrike,” he murmured and jumped out of the window, leaving you all alone, standing there in the middle of your apartment. You blinked back the tears, then ran a hand over your face.

“Get your shit together,” you murmured to yourself, then grabbed the wine glass to down it.

                                             *

The next day you were so busy with the HYDRA files Bucky had given you that you barely noticed Keith pulling a seat to plop down beside you.

“Hi there.”

“Hey,” you said without pulling your gaze off the screen as Keith put a cup of coffee on the table. “Thanks man.”

“No problem. What’re you working on?”

“Oh just some old files.”

“Old files? Where did you get them?”

“Bucky gave them to me last night.”

Keith sputtered out his coffee, causing you to make a face and grab the napkins to wipe the screen.

“Is this your first time they let you out into the real world or something?” you asked him, “Like, what is this? Were you raised in a barn? I don’t want your fucking germs—“

“Screw you. You met Barnes last night?” he lowered his voice, looking around and you shrugged.

“Met is the wrong word.”

“Y/N, what the fuck?”

“It’s not like I texted him to meet!” you whispered, “He just showed up!”

“Okay, we need to give you some protection—“

“No, and you’re not telling anyone.”

“You’re not safe!” he whispered and you shook her head.

“He’s not gonna hurt me.”

“Y/N-“

“He’s not,” you cut him off, “If he wanted me dead, I’d be dead. I talk big talk, but trust me if he came after me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I actually saw that last night.”

“Why was he there?”

“To give me this thumb drive,” you said, “I’m just going through this HYDRA stuff to see whether they had something on my father, whether— I don’t know, whether I missed something on our files.”

“We checked everything we had on HYDRA.”

“I’m just making sure.”

“What did he say?”

“Hm?”

“What did you talk about last night, when he showed up?”

“You know, typical break up stuff,” you murmured before peeling your eyes off the screen. “He broke into my apartment, gave me a thumb drive with top secret information and oh—before I forget, he said I wasn’t worth going after.”

He blinked a couple of times, staring at you.

“I’m sorry?”

“So much for civil exes huh?”

“More like evil exes,” he commented, “You know he’s being a jerk to you because you tore his heart out, right?”

“I can’t really blame him,” you muttered, “He’s right to be upset.”

“But are you okay?”

You scoffed a laugh, “I betrayed the one person who I could see a future with,” you admitted, “And six months apparently wasn’t enough to get over him. So no, Keith, I’m really not okay.”

He pressed his lips together.

“What if we got you out there? You know, maybe you can’t get over someone without getting under someone.”

“I’ve had sex in the last six months, that’s not working.”

“Barnes hasn’t.”

That was enough to make you turn your head, your whole attention on him.

“What?”

“We’ve um… we’ve kept an eye on Barnes and Wilson, you know, what they have been doing. Barnes isn’t even meeting people.”

“Maybe he is and you don’t know.”

“Nope,” he said, “He and Captain America have been going on their own missions, but since Accords 2.0 didn’t pass, we can’t touch them.”

You tilted your head, “Hold on, what missions?”

A big grin pulled at Keith’s lips.

“Y/N, are you asking me to share classified information with you?”

You arched a brow and eyed you up and down, then steered your office chair a little to the left.

“I’m glad you came back,” he said, dragging his fingers on the touchpad to find the files, “Things were getting a little boring here.”

                                                    *

As a spy, finding targets wasn’t something you were unfamiliar with. In fact, since coming back here you were beginning to feel less like a professional spy and more like a rookie in training. You were growing restless every minute you weren’t working, and maybe that was why you were dying to keep yourself busy with something.

Even if that something was completely forbidden by your agency and you would probably be sent to another country again if they ever found that out.

So searching for where Bucky and Sam were using the agency’s resources was probably a bad idea, yet there you were.

You took a deep breath, then approached their table and plopped down to the seat next to Bucky’s.

“You’re going after HYDRA’s leader?”

Bucky’s head whipped up and Sam gawked at you for a second before pulling his brows together.

“What the…”

“Who’s your source?”

“What are you doing here?” Bucky asked through his teeth and you crossed your arms.

“Paying back the favor.”

“Well don’t. I don’t want you here.”

“How did you even know-“

“I’m a spy, Sam,” you stated, “And the agency has been watching you, do you guys seriously think we've left you alone?”

“I was actually hoping you’d leave me alone, yeah.” Bucky growled through his teeth and your heart dropped to your stomach, but you managed to shake your head.

“I don’t—“

“Your agency has been keeping tracks on us?”

You nibbled on your lip, “Just because Accords 2.0 was a failure…” you trailed off and Bucky scoffed, drumming his metal fingers on the table.

“Why are you here?”

“Listen I get it, you hate me,” you said, “Fine. Not a big deal, I can live with that. But I just- I can help.”

Bucky stared at you as if he was waiting for you to say you were joking, but when you didn’t, he let out a bitter laugh.

“You’re not serious, right?”

“Bucky,” Sam said warningly and he threw his hands up.

“You can’t possibly be entertaining this.”

“I’m just asking what the agency knows, that’s all.”

You heaved a deep sigh, trying your hardest not to show your disappointment on your face. It wasn’t like you expected Bucky to welcome you, but you were at least hoping—

Well.

It didn’t matter what you were hoping, it was very obvious that Bucky would never forgive you.

“They’ve just been keeping tracks on you,” you said, “I don’t think any of them put the clues together, and they can’t touch you even if they did, you’d have to do something first. Especially after the last fail—“

“Oh you mean when they took me in after you lied to me about everything and leashed them on me?” Bucky asked you, “That fail?”

You clicked your tongue, “Yeah. That one.”

“Un-fucking-believable.”

“Bucky.”

“But I’ve been going after different HYDRA officials for the last couple of years, and I’ve spent the last 6 months going over everything we had on them, I know some of their locations. So going after HYDRA leader then? Or his super secret location? Why?”

Bucky narrowed his eyes, “Forgive me if I’m not in a sharing mood after learning about what a liar you are. As far as you’re concerned, we’re not doing anything.”

“But I’m trying to make amends—“

“Not interested.” Bucky cut you off and you swallowed thickly.

“You’ve seen me fight,” you insisted, “You’ve— you’ve seen how good I am at my job, okay? I just— I swear I won’t say anything to the agency, just let me help.”

Sam looked between you two and turned to Bucky.

“That’s not such a—“

“Don’t say it.”

“Even you have to admit, that’s not a terrible idea.”

“You’d have to be crazy to think you can trust her,” Bucky argued back, “I get that you always want to see the best in people, but you can’t, not with her.”

“I’m sitting right here,” you reminded him and Bucky shrugged his shoulders.

“I know, feel free to leave.”

“Don’t,” Sam told you and Bucky frowned.

“You’re joking.”

“Bucky, she could help.”

“And then turn us in.”

“The agency lied to me about my father, I’m not going to turn you in or do anything to have me manipulated by them again. Whatever the mission is, they won’t know about it, you have my word.”

“Because your word holds any value for me?” Bucky asked you, his voice way too calm and you clenched your jaw.

“The mission doesn’t require a honey trap,” he said when you didn’t answer his rhetorical question, “Thanks for the offer though, Y/N. Go to hell.”

With that, he walked out of the café and you just sat there completely frozen. You could swear your heart weighed a ton in your chest, and your eyes were burning but you quickly blinked the tears back, then shrugged your shoulders.

“That went well.”

“Do you really want to help?” Sam asked after a couple of seconds of silence and you nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

You scoffed a bitter laugh, “Other than apparently signing my own death warrant?” you asked, “I owe him. He doesn’t want to go after me for using him, fine. He still deserves justice. HYDRA destroyed his life, the least I can do is help him get back at them, make them pay.”

Sam raised his brows, “You feel that guilty huh?”

You didn’t have any answer to that, and he took a deep breath.

“Can I trust you?”

“You can,” you murmured, “I want you to, but… I wouldn’t.”

“Okay. Let me rephrase the question, will you betray his trust again?”

There was no hesitation in your voice when you spoke, “I’d rather die.”

Sam held your gaze as if trying to see whether you were sincere or not, then cleared his throat.

“Let me think about it,” he said, “I’m not saying no, okay? Let me think about it and talk with him.”

You nodded slowly, “Thank you.”

He shot you a small smile, then walked out of the café, leaving you alone there. You shut your eyes, leaning your head back and letting out a breath.

“Great,” you muttered, “This should be fun.”

Chapter 25

[tumbledfreckles]

Ok ok ok here we go. Prompt o'clock.

Lily calls him James in a very public setting, thinking during a class, in the Great Hall, somewhere he can do nothing about it and he works himself up overthinking it. Then when they inevitably kiss someone is getting pushed against a wall that isn't a wall (secret passage/tapestry) and they fall through into some sort of situation.

Can prompts be this long? Also it's very on theme, but why need with a good thing?

Hey @relyingonoldships Sorry this was definitely from ages ago, but I had to wait for inspiration to strike. Hope you enjoy it xxxx

The words were ringing in his ears. Had been for two hours and seventeen minutes. Enough time that he should have forgotten by now. Thought about something else at least. Hell, a bit of attention on the History of Magic NEWT in front of him wouldn't have gone astray.

What was she thinking, springing that on him, just before their last exam?

Didn't she know it would throw him for a loop?

Was she trying to put him off his game?

James wouldn't put it past her.

The final thirteen minutes of the exam dragged. The OWLs had taught him the dangers of sketching his feelings, too many wandering eyes, so he forced himself to read through his answers, triple checking as the clock counted down.

Then finally, it was over.

He was on her before they'd even made it out the Great Hall doors. "What were you playing at, Evans?"

To her credit, Lily's spine barely stiffened as he whispered harshly in her ear. If he didn't know her so well, hadn't spent months barely away from her side, maybe he wouldn't have noticed her tells. The tension in her shoulders, the flush sweeping up her neck, the clench of her teeth, purse of her lips.

"Hi James, my exam went well, thanks for asking. How was yours?"

There it was again.

"Evans," he growled, placing a firm hand in her waist, pushing her gently but insistently over to the side the Entrance Hall. "Don't mess with me."

"I got a bit stuck on question five myself, what did you think was the main cause of the 1626 troll strikes?"

"Enough," James pushed her against the tapestry Count Keith of Kantolope, noting with satisfaction the look of surprise in her eyes as he braced his hands on either side of her heae, using his significant height advantage to look down at her.

As if that would ever give him the upper hand.

"You don't want to talk about the exam?" Lily's eyes were wide. Too wide.

"No," he stepped closer, one foot on either side of hers. "I don't."

She licked her lips, teeth sinking into her bottom lip. "Okay."

"I want to talk about what happened before the exam."

"Before?" Her voice caught on the word. She finally sounded unsure.

James' hand shifted, the back of it grazing down her cheek. "Right before the exam." His voice went up several octaves. "'Good luck, James.' What the fuck was that, Evans?"

Lily frowned, "What's wrong with wishing you luck?"

"You used my name, Evans. It's like you wanted me to fail."

"I did not!" She was indignant.

"You never use my name."

"You've never kissed me before." She scowled at him now, jabbing at his chest. "I was just being polite. Like you're meant to do when someone kisses you."

"Being polite," James ignored. "Just being polite."

Lily's face twisted in a smirk. A look he was sure she'd picked up from him. "I can go back to Potter, if you'd like."

"Oh, no, Evans. I've waited seven long years for you to say my name. If I'd known I only had to kiss you, I'd have done it first year."

"I'd have slapped you."

"It would have been worth it."

She smiled, shaking her head. "Did you really fail the exam?"

"I think my head was in the clouds for at least the first hour." James shook his head, lips twisted wryly. "Just being polite, she says. I'll show you polite."

He launched himself at her, closing the distance between them. Unlike last night's hesitation, this kiss was purposeful. Instead of a sleepy, half delirious moment after cramming half the night, this was intense, intentional and utterly absorbing. Lily pulled at his shirt, dragging his front against hers. Her fingers in his hair tugged him down, the friction pulling a groan from his throat, muffled only be her lips.

James lent into the kiss, resting down onto his elbows against the tapestry. His eyes closed as her mouth opened, allowing his tongue to slide and tangle and play with hers. Her touch made him dizzy, his head swimming, he felt like he was falling, head over heels-

And then James realised they actually were falling, the tapestry giving way behind them. He had only split seconds to twist them and thanked every Quidditch reflex in his body as he managed to pull her on top of him before the hit the ground, instead of the other way round.

"Smooth, Potter," Lily giggled, her head tucking into his neck, making no move to get off him.

"What happened to James?" He couldn't help grumbling, even as his arms wrapped around her. "Thought you were being polite."

Her face turned, lips catching his jaw, his cheek, the corner of his mouth, his lips. "I'll always keep Potter for special occasions, I think."