#Kinda sucks cause i only have yellow not any brown color

[gedannjackal]

How dare he suggest store-bought

"Frick you, hot chocolate provider, i do what i feel like"

He's just a cat for real. Maybe thats why ccino snatched him.

Ccino gets another cat in his collection.

Error totally goes there to 'steal' some hot chocolate ccino leaves out.

Maybe knit in the back.

[firephoenix23]

Episode 6: Hidden Depths

Wow okay I feel like there it a lot to unpack with this episode from uni to the high plains monster and what this means for ascension to well everything. I’m just gonna start off with how the short begins. So the gang are following Uni just like we left off with the last short and he is little oblivious to everything but he’s having a good time

Look at him he’s just hopping around and helping the gang out not even aware of what’s going on. I absolutely love him so much!! So they get to a tunnel that’s blocked, they unblock it (I know enriching stuff right now) but then Eli wants to see what Uni can do. Trixie isn’t convinced that he can do anything but Eli says he knows Uni special. Which he definitely is

Skipping the high plains monster for second we come to the main event of the shorts which is that Uni turns all of the slugs into babies. And if I can just gush for a second look how cute they all are. They’re just so tiny and I love that they are still in they’re megamorph designs and colors despite being little babies. I’m just so excited to see what baby slugs look like because they have shown them before in the show but never really went into depths. Like I know I won’t get any answers to my big questions about baby slugs but it’s still nice to see them like this instead of that little brown one that was in the original show

Now back to Uni he’s the only one that didn’t get turned into a baby so Eli decides to use him to fight against the high plains monster. What’s interesting is that in the picture you can see that he has a little fire on his chest and considering he transformed into Burpy maybe that’s how he uses their powers.

Maybe the little yellow beam that he shoots causes him to like store the powers in himself which would make him a pretty powerful slug if he can store the powers of multiple slugs. So we know the slugs are suck as babies for how long we don’t know but I’m gonna bet that the way the slugs go back to being adults is that Uni has to release his powers??? Like I’m not entirely sure but if he can call them up on his chest there must be a way to give them back. Maybe with a different colored beam.

Also if Uni was ghouled does that mean all the powers that he has from Eli and Trixie’s slugs are ghouled too? I know he stole the powers of the hop jack’s from episode 4 so can he use their powers now? I mean we have to find out later at some point but now let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the high plains monster

Or Eels as Eli apparently calls them on the slugterra wiki. Not sure why that’s the name he thought of when he seems them but okay Eli go off I guess 😅. Yeah unfortunately I had to look up what the hell this guy was on the wiki because I’m not at the episode it comes by night. I know that’s like it’s debut episode but I don’t really care about spoiling it for myself since I did recognize the monster as soon as it showed up. I just couldn’t remember anything about it so all of this comes from the wiki so bare with me.

So the high plains monster is a beast from the deep caverns which might be confirming my theory that ascension means like coming back up from the deep caverns. It’s the only being from the deep caverns that can pass through the barrier that guards slugterra from the darkbane of the deep caverns. When it does pass through the barrier loses it’s physical form. This means it has to suck up the energy or life source from any living creature like people or slugs. And apparently it’s weakness is light and fire.

I think what strikes me the most here is that it doesn’t have a physical form when it comes into slugterra but it looked like it did in ascension. It tripped Trixie and Burpy bounced off of it when Eli shot at it. Now I’m not sure how it worked in it comes by night but I can assume if it said no physical form it’s kinda like a ghost. So anything that is shot at it would go right through it. So the only way that it could have a physical form is if it sucked up a lot of slug and people energy or, here is the big one, the barrier is open.

I think the barrier being opened is the most likely answer and this would explain why blakk is back why the eel (I can’t with that name it doesn’t even look like an eel 😂) has a physical form. This could be huge for the show because if Blakk can come back then that means Will can come back too. But it also means the darkbane could as well. I don’t know all of this is speculation but if anyone else has any other ideas about this I would love to hear them

[cmyknoise]

so thinking bout it. i definitely know why people tend to use reds & blacks in drawing wilbur. and that’s the whole ‘vilbur’ thing as well as the ycgma color palette.

which, vilbur is a problem in of itself. but the ycgma palette isnt nescessarily bad in design, especially since thats canonically associated with him.

the problem in character designs with wilbur isn’t the traits. its not colors. its not even specific traits or features. 

hell, i draw my wilbur with imp horns & a tail. so im definitely not gonna talk about features like the zombie features ‘dehumanizing’ wilbur. cause features alone aren’t what does that. 

its the intent of portrayal. 

wilbur’s colors have always been warm earthy colors of browns and yellows, and its something his designs have lacked for a very long time. since pogtopia and his decline in mental health, he was drawn with these colors less and less. 

i think that there could definitely be something there about then villainizing his state of mental health, something the fandom still struggles with today, but its not the colors alone that do this. 

ive drawn very peaceful and happy images of wilbur with high contrast, with reds, with the zombie like and imp like features. i’ve seen plenty of others do it. 

like i said before, its not a problem. 

the problem where design choices come into play is intent. when you draw wilbur with these colors and features, are you doing it for fun, because its cool, because of a headcanon, OR are you doing it to bring out ‘vilbur’. The portrayal of his mental health in a villainized way. Are you giving him reds and crazed faces and posture and having him do out of character things in tandem with these design choices? Cause then it’s a problem I think. It’s the intent and use of the features. 

Someone drawing him with inhuman features isnt inherently demonizing or dehumanizing him. People draw characters like Tommy and Tubbo and various others in the same way all the time! Messing with inhuman traits and headcanons is fun. Hell, the only reason I’ve started drawing him and Ghostbur again with some of these features is because it’s fun. Plus I think portraying them in a positive light with these features helps show that narritive that they aren’t bad people. That vilbur isn’t a thing. 

Drawing Wilbur with these things are fine. The YCGMA palette is beautiful and works so well. Reds in WIlbur’s color palette is great because of it’s large inclusion in the L’manburg flag, as well as his red beanie, or making him primary colored like Tommy. The rose colored glasses are also a huge headcanon which is such a good one in my opinion. 

But it’s these features along with how you draw his expressions, what you have him doing, etc, that leads into the whole ‘vilbur’ thing and certainly hasn’t helped his reputation as a character. 

I think its fine to draw characters with as many headcanons and stuff as you want. I also think trying to tell people what features to draw and not draw characters with just kinda sucks, because that doesnt happen to any other character.

I mean people have made the argument that drawing Tommy in flowers and blue ‘woobifies’ him, which isn’t true and has been argued so much that it isn’t true. So I think this is no different. Drawing Wilbur with reds and giving him inhuman characteristics isn’t bad, just be careful on why you’re doing it, yknow? 

Are you doing it just to make him look scary or evil or bad, or are you doing it because its fun or looks cool? Because the latter is a-okay!

Just have fun with designs and be careful of your intent. Wilbur’s character is very widely mischaracterized in this fandom, and it’s in part that such a large percentage of people have joined post his death. And due to his actions in Pogtopia, he’s been villainized to a very exaggerated degree and also villainizes his mental health during that time. Because of this portrayal, its become so so common in art, that people genuinely don’t have any idea that he was or is a good person, which again, just leads to further mischaracterization of him. 

So just, be careful, but have fun and draw what you have fun doing! 

[yanderecandystore]

PLEASE i need more of your among us concept, it was so good!

Hi!! How are you doing? I saw a lot of people want more of these, so I wanted to gain some time to be able to come up with more stuff about Yandere Among Us.

So, I hope you didn't wait too long. How about we continue where we left off?

But this time with an proper begining.

TW/Tags: Everyone is fighting // more characters because I hate myself! // Shy boy is a really suspicious boy // not as much as yandere tendencies, but maybe the start of them?? // All characters have real names, but calling each other by colors is a formal military way in this universe, ya know? // Mentions of blood and possibly (just maybe) scent kink 👀 // It may low-key not be like the original game but I tried ;-;

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

"- You're pretty sus, not gonna lie." Ch - 1 [Yandere!Among Us x Reader - Short Fanfiction]:

(Ch - 2)

"- And then I told her:' Yo, your chicken is dry as hell!' And then she beat me with a stick." You were currently talking with your best pal, Cyan! You two were in the cafeteria taking a snack-break, while everyone was trying to repair the ship by doing their own assigned tasks.

"- H-Heh, that's so you [Y/N]." Cyan said, although their tone was extremely off, like they didn't know what to say. They haven't eaten anything since the day began, and you were starting to worry if they were okay or not.

"- Buddy, are you okay? You haven't touched any of the snacks I brought you, you haven't even eaten a single marshmallow yet, and I thought these were your favorites!" You told them while shoving more potato chips down your mouth.

To you, the situation was mildly confusing, but to "Cyan" it was an absolute nightmare! How are they supposed to keep this up?? You're going to end up blowing their cover, they just know it!

They started to consider making you their next meal, yet if they did it right now everyone would be suspicious of them, since "they" have been with you ever since you two went to do tasks.

Stars help them, because things can go wrong any minute now! They were sweating under the suit out of nervousness and because of how hot and wet the suit was.

They didn't have time to clean the blood inside of the suit, so it was basically really, really sticky inside it.

They were disassociating until you've put your hand on top of theirs.

"- Cyan, what's wrong?!" You sound so worried, so loud yet concerned. For someone that was floating through space using asteroids to move around, your voice is so- Different, from the empty void out there. They aren't accustomed to this feeling yet.

"- I-I am! Don't worry about it, I, I think I just had a really long day, that's all." They lied through their teeth hoping that you would fall for it. But of course, you're way too stubborn to fall for that.

"- Are you sure tho? I- I could call White to see if you're sick, or maybe-" You were interrupted by the Cyan's scream while they suddenly stood up.

"- No! No, please- You-" Stars, they're terrible at this, aren't they?? They just need to shush you for now, they can't let you call someone else! The more people around them the more anxious they'll be and they will obviously be exposed to-

"- Look, [Y/N]-" -They tried to calm themselves, everything is fine, they just need to think of a way to make your worries go away- "- I'm fine, I promise, okay?" They said while putting their hands on your cheeks forcing you to look at their space suit's helmet.

You feel flustered by the sudden movement. Not only were you caught off guard by their sudden reaction, but-

This- this little thing that they did? Was starting to blossom a lot of unwanted flowers inside your heart.

' God, take a grip [Y/N]! You can't be all flustered in a time like this!' You think to yourself while shaking your head to wipe the lovey-dovey thoughts out of your mind.

You just can't help it though! You guess that ever since your team has been stuck in space- No, ever since you first met Cyan in the facility on Earth and were introduced to your team as their new crewmate, you have found yourself having a crush on Cyan. You hate to admit this, but yeah, they were always kinda… Cute, to you.

Ah well, Cyan was always the rascal, the flirty over the top one. The one that was always playing around yet also keeping their head strong when facing a conflict. Always so radiant yet so down to earth. Oh well, here you go, simping again, oh geez...

You try to wake yourself from your fantasy world, this is not the time [Y/N]!

"- Okay-y then! I-I'm really sorry if I was bothering you!" You try to speak up yet you stutter all the way, making you feel embarrassed at how silly you're acting right now.

And while you're dealing with your inner struggles, Cyan is looking at you really confused (not that you would be able to see it because of their helmet). There is something really strange about the way you talk to them that is making them wonder what your previous relationship with this "Cyan" human was all about, and wondering if they can keep it up with this charade if they observe you and learn more about, well, "how to be themselves" around everyone else.

Actually, this may work perfectly! By getting small clues out of you, they'll be able to decipher how to properly imitate humans!

But, they're still oblivious to human emotions, so this may take more time than expected, luckily you two can spend a lot of time alone-

"- Yooooo, look over there y'all!" You two heard someone shouting while coming into the cafeteria. Oh God, really?-

Of course it was Red, who else would be making fun of you two?

Well, he is not mean, he is just- ARGH!! He keeps picking on you for liking them, and it frustrates you so much when he comes looking all smug-

If your face could, it would turn itself into a tomato and probably pop off of your body and roll away from the embarrassment.

Wow… Okay, that was a little exaggerated, but still!-

"- How is my favorite couple doing on this pleasant evening?" He said while coming forward. His words making you turn on your defensive mode instantly:

"- We're not dating you know! I told you this nineteen times, Geez, stop being an ass…" Yep, really subtle how your cheeks lighten up at the idea of being a couple with Cyan.

And while the rest of the crew is now appearing into vision and coming forward to the cafeteria, Cyan is losing their grip ever so slightly- They can't handle this! It's- It's literally too many of you!

They can't take out every single one of you at once! This is terrible!

They need- They need to calm down and take this suit off. The heat is starting to take over their head.

"- So, how's it been for you two? Ya know, beside all the smooching-" Red says as he looks directly at you awaiting your delicious response, which was a little pouty face, so it meant that his job was done for today "- Have you guys finished your tasks?"

"- Oh! Well, we didn't manage to complete everything, the lights turned off out of nowhere and we couldn't see anything!" You tell him honestly. You're still kinda sad about it, it sucks to finish the day without completing everything you needed to.

Everyone's gathering around and sitting at the main table, it's time for a dinner meeting and assignment of tasks for tomorrow before everyone goes to sleep. God, you already miss your bed so much!

"- Ha! I knew it wasn't just in one room!... But yeah honestly me too, I couldn't finish my task because of the blackout. All that I needed to do was to swipe the card though!" Red said, while stealing one of your snacks, which earned a little "hey" coming from you, he was only joking though, as he returns the snack back to you before he can eat any.

"- Well, don't worry, tomorrow we can finish it!" Said Yellow, trying to lighten up the mood by being positive.

"- I sure do hope so-" Orange was about to say when Blue came in and interrupted all of you.

"- But what if we can't do any of them tomorrow?" Their voice echoed through the cafeteria. Everyone was silent as Blue's words caused a new feeling to arise inside the crew's hearts. Despair.

As no one was saying anything, they continued-

"- You guys seriously haven't noticed our situation yet, have you? We're floating through space because or engines have been broken by the asteroids outside, we can't even navigate this spaceship-"

"- We're trying to fix this-" Pink started, but failed to continue.

"- And while we keep "trying" and not actually doing anything, we are all in danger! Even the facility has stopped communicating with us-"

"- Blue! That 's enough!" White had interrupted his rant. His yelling was starting to get hold of Yellow's feelings, she was always sensitive to yelling and loud noises in general. Truth is, that the most positive person in your group was truly the most negative one in this scenario, yet she wanted to keep everyone together, to keep bringing hope inside everyone, even though she herself didn't truly believed in that hope.

"- W-We-" Yellow tried to speak through her sobbing, trying to hold enough strength to control her bottled up emotions from spitting out.

"- Come on, take deep breaths, I know you can do this-" Black tried to comfort her, like he would to everyone aboard.

"- We-We are all going to die here-e." She whispered in between sobs. Her breathing became more frantic and more desperate for air.

It's the eight time this week someone had a breakdown while everyone was present.

"- Blue, seat down." White asked, yet her normally stern voice made it sounded more like a command, which Blue absolutely despised.

"- I'm-" Blue started, yet, stopped themselves. Wanting to say something towards their distressed crewmate yet deciding to go away and miss tonight's meeting. Again.

"- This is stupid." They said before leaving.

"- Blue come back this instant-" White tried to call them, they didn't even look back.

"- … Didn't even apologise…" Brown said, trying to keep his cool even though he couldn't stand Blue's antics ever since the ship was stuck in space.

"- D-Damnit!" Orange punched the table with her wrists. God, she hated every single second spent in this hellish place. She only retracted her anger when she noticed Yellow flinching from the sound.

"- I'm- I'm so sorry Yellow-"

"- It's fine! D-Don't worry about it!" She said while trying to keep her own little charade going on. But after a month, no one believes her at this point.

"- Yellow I can lead you back to your room! Do you want to company?" Said Pink, their voice sounding just as sweet and cute as their personality. The only one helping everyone stay sane by simply being there and saying "Hi!" every "morning".

"- I would like it." Yellow had calmed herself down enough so she could at least say a couple of words. She said her good nights and followed Pink back into her room.

"- It's another meeting wasted." Green said while packing their things.

"- Well, it could be worse, right? Good night everyone!" Said Purple not really caring about anything at this point.

"- Oh, come on everyone! Shouldn't we discuss our tasks for tomorrow?" Red asked, if not begged for them to come back. How has this happened? How has all your crew started to fall apart so easily?

"- Don't worry Red, we can do that tomorrow morning." Black said while comforting White who was having a headache because of the endless fights inside the spaceship.

This was the third time just this week that your meetings were interrupted by arguing. This is only the second time Blue has actually been the cause of it though.

"- Maybe they miss their family?" Lime asked while referring to Blue.

"- We all do." Brown said while standing up and going to his own bedroom. Muttering something through his teeth that no one could understand.

The whole situation happened so fast, you couldn't even understand what just happened!

"- Are, are we-"

"- Yes [Y/N], you're all dismissed." White answered already knowing what you were going to ask.

"- Oh…. Do you want some?" You asked motioning the snacks up to her, which surprised her yet she appreciated the gesture.

"- Thank you…." She whispered. You nod your head and decide to give her some space. You knew that you didn't need to worry too much about it, as Black was there to help her feel better.

If Black wasn't in this ship, she would have already fallen apart. All of you would.

"- Well, I guess dinner has ended sooner than expected!" Red tried to joke to lighten up your mood, to which you give a little chuckle. God, today is a really terrible day isn't it?

"- Uhn, hey, you're okay? You have been quiet throughout the whole meeting." Red asked Cyan.

Oh. Oh no, please no.

"- Uhn? Yeah? I… did?" They're so dead.

"- Yeah, it was… Pretty odd. Last time Blue yelled you had put them in their place, and it was pretty cool of you to stand for Yellow like that". Red said remembering that day. He didn't have anything against Blue, as he knew Blue is trying their best like everyone else. Yet he didn't like how Blue started to act like an ass lately, especially not even apologising towards Yellow or even the whole crew for that matter.

Cyan was sweating like crazy. They were panicking at the beginning of the meeting because of the amount of humans surrounding them, but when they noticed how easily humans let their distrust control them, they decided to let them speak and see what would happen. Seeing them argue with each other made them feel calmer and safer.

' I won't die!' They thought.

But now? They're raising suspicion again, by literally not doing anything??! How is this possible-

"- Well, it is true but, I don't know Red, Cyan has been pretty tired all day, and besides, Blue doesn't listen to us anymore, so it wouldn't matter anyway." You tried to reason. Yes, Cyan was acting a little different, being a little more shy than their normal self but come on now, everyone has their bad days! Maybe today they are not feeling really well….

You looked up at them, trying to show sympathy to your friend who you still thought was having some personal issues of their own.

"- Yeah! Exactly… Today has been pretty crazy! I think I just need some sleep.". Yeah, really crazy! Their body had hit an spaceship filled with free food, and then they had to disguise themselves as one of the humans inside so they could easily take one by one. But now? They're regretting each second of it! Stars, the anxiety eating them from inside is worse than being all alone in space.

Well, if they ever get out alive, they'll at least have some cool story to tell their own kind about…. If there is anyone waiting for them to return, that is.

"- Oh… That sucks buddy, but you got an point, I guess we all need to relax, and hey! Tomorrow is a new day right?" Red smiled at you two, offering a little bit of positive before you two went inside your rooms. Well, he offered a little bit of positive and a hug, to which you had gladly taken.

Although, Cyan was at first really confused about this gesture, so they stayed a little further away from the sign of affection.

"- Oh come on! Stop being a dork, come over here already!" Red said as he pulled Cyan into the tight hug. It was comforting but you couldn't lie that you felt sandwiched between the two, you tried to warn Red that you couldn't breathe, and Cyan was still panicking but now for a different reason.

Because of the helmet, their sense of smell has been limited considerably, yet by being so near to your bodies, they realized they could still take in your scent. Or maybe it was all the blood inside the suit? Who knows, they just knew that the idea of a next meal was absolutely mouthwatering, and they weren't even hungry! Maybe the idea of having a whole place filled with eleven people was starting to make them salivate uncontrollably, as a child having to wait until they can pick their next candy from the jar.

Maybe they could basket in your scent until they actually feel the need to consume another crewmate.

Red was the first to break the hug, but not before fussing your hair.

"- Well, that's my goodbye for today! I need to restore some energy before I can give you two more hugs!" He entered the door behind him, which lead to his room. An oddly well organized bedroom which was only a couple of steps before your own bedroom.

And after your bedroom, there was Cyan's bedroom.

He gave his last goodbyes before closing the door. You can't help but appreciate that dork, the endless bickering between you two was pretty fun in your opinion.

While turning your back you noticed that was Cyan looking straight at you this whole time, which caused you to squeak in surprise. God, they were way too close! And your hair is a mess!

"- Sooooo… I guess we're alone now, right?" You asked timidly, trying your best to make small talk which still came off pretty awkwardly. You avoided their gaze while trying to come up with what else to say.

"- Yes. Yes we are." Cyan said, their tone was unnaturally dark for their nature, yet when you noticed them approaching you closer, you realized what you said.

"- Oh! No, I didn't mean it like-" You tried to explain the the misunderstanding, thinking that Cyan was about to flirt back with you, even though your comment was purely without malice! You swear it!

"- No making out in the halls, ya love birds!" Red opened his door and screamed, with his smug little face.

"- Geez get a room you two!" Said Pink from the other side of the corridor, their voice being really faint because of the distance between you.

"- We were not, okay?!" You yelled hoping Pink would hear it.

"- Shhhh! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" Orange banged on her door while scolding all of you. Even though she herself was making a lot of noise.

"- S-Sorry!" You responded.

Cyan distanced themselves from you, fuck, every single one of them was hearing you two. Were they all listening to your whole conversation? How were they supposed to kill anyone if everyone is this spaceship is an gossip addict? Always listening for the next tea to be spilled.

While looking at your face they recognized that same hue popping off of your cheeks. Are you perhaps sick? Actually, now they have mentioned it- What would happen if they ate a sick human?

"- Your face is red." They mentioned nonchalantly.

"- Sigh… Yeah." You sigh defeated. What's the point of hiding something that is in your face?! Even if it's fainted, everyone can tell at this point. The only person you aren't sure if they know it yet is, well, Cyan themselves.

"- …"

"- …" An awkward silent start emerging from you two, until they ask:

"- Is it because of me?" Did they, I don't know, brought some sort of sickness aboard with them? Are you passing out? Should they be concerned that your meat could be possibly damaged because of this sickness?

Although their tone is really vague, you still interpreted the question as one of their flirtatious jokes. Truth is that Cyan loves going around flirting with everyone, even with you! And they know that this makes you flustered, so you can't tell if they do it because it's fun for them or if-

Or if they like you….. A little bit.

"- Oh no! You won't fool me this time, I know what you're up to!" You say dramatically, trying to change the conversation to have a more silly tone, yet your whole attempt was dismissed, because as soon as you said that, Cyan started shaking anxiously.

You knew? You knew?! Oh stars, they're done for! They're so dead now!

"- W-What?!" They scream, please don't hurt them, they were only hungry and trying to survive!

"- … Uhn, Cyan? I'm joking." You tell your really skittish friend. Geez they really were acting weird! Normally they would have returned your joke but they are acting so easily terrified!

Did something happen in electrical while you were away?

"- Cyan… Are you hurt? You never told me what happened when the blackout happened." You once again ask them if they were okay. What if… They are scared because of something that happened in electrical? What if… They saw something?

"- What? Oh, I'm- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to freak you out like that." They laugh realizing that you were only "joking" with them. Honestly, your jokes are going to be the death of them.

"- Are you okay tho-"

"- Yes, for the fifth time, I'm doing fine [Y/N]." They… Growled? What? Their sudden anger made you take some steps back, what just happened??

They didn't realize how their tone had come off, they needed to be more careful if they wanted to keep your trust. You… You look so distressed! Did they scared you that bad? If not, than why are you distancing yourself? Why are your eyes so… Watery?

"- I-I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to…." And why were they apologising? Why does your frightened face cause such an intense feeling inside them? They were supposed to harvest your fear as an way to easily control the situation, but instead they can't help but pity your current state.

"- I've been, really stressed out, I didn't mean to yell." They say, half true, half lie. I mean, their first day is already being so strange and stressful, anyone would've expected them to end up blowing up at some point.

"- No! No, don't worry about it, I, sigh… Honestly I'm pretty stressed out myself. I guess I was so worried about you that I ended up bothering you with my questions." You say while guilt starts to form inside you. You haven't given them enough space, maybe you been pestering them too much.

To be honest, everyone was so on edge that you should have expected something like this happening, even from someone as chill as Cyan. Before you even considered finding a way to comfort them so you two could talk about it, Cyan was faster than you and had managed to trap you in their arms.

"- Hey, it's fine. Don't worry too much, I'm glad you're worried but I can reassure you, everything is okay."

It's an little awkward long hug, but you don't really mind, it's not as suffocating as Red's was. Oddly enough, Cyan wasn't being dishonest, but that fact only brought more confusion inside their mind.

"- Well… Goodnight Cyan, I'll see you tomorrow, kay?"

"- Yeah, sure…"

After some time spent looking at the ceiling waiting to see if everyone else had gone to sleep, Cyan had gotten out of their bed and started to unzip the space suit frantically.

Putting it on wasn't so hard, but getting out of it feels ten times worse now that they're sweating and tainted with the blood from the suit's previous owner. They don't need oxygen, but the feeling of suffocation inside that thing was starting to get over their heads. They needed something to cool down, anything!

So that's when the ventilation came into mind. The cold air coming from it was pleasant but not nearly enough for them, so they opened the top and got inside.

The cold air mixed with the cool metal touching their skin felt amazing compared to the heat and blood inside the suit. They need to remember to not only clean the suit, but to clean themselves very soon.

Without the helmet, their senses are so much better. They can hear and smell better, the vibrations passing through the ship helping them understand where they are and where they're going, as technically, they're kinda blind.

But who needs a great sight when they can easily smell and hear their prey from kilometers away? Speaking of which, the vents sure do help them a lot in that regard, as they can hear the soft breathing of all of your crewmates sleeping.

The smell of flesh is absolutely incredible! Just the thought makes their mouth water, maybe they deserve a little "midnight snack".

"- Eeny. meeny. miney. You!" They were deciding which one of your group should be the next, and the answer seemed pretty obvious, why not go to the nearest person?

It could lead to some issues with the other crewmates, but when they smelled your scent the need to enter your bedroom was way more important than considering the dangers of acting without thinking.

While entering your room as quietly as possible, they took a look around until they found your sleeping body almost falling from the bed. This is their chance!

Coming near you, savoring in your heavenly smell and dreaming what your taste is like, they-!... They stopped themselves from doing anything.

Your face is going to hit the floor if you continue to slowly slip from your bed.

You speak in your sleep sometimes. Not actual phrases, just occasional words. It's funny actually.

They poked your face multiple times out of curiosity. Were you awake or just dreaming? It seems like it's the latter.

You're still falling in slow motion. There is both the need to see what will happen next, and help you get back into bed.

They could just watch and see what happens. Besides, it is too dark for you to see them anyway.

Hmm… What should they do? Maybe they're wasting too much time by being here. They need to make a decision, it's to either kill you or to go back to their room.

After a couple of minutes of observing, another option has appeared, and they chose that one over the other options. They helped you get back into bed, hopefully you won't slip out again.

Maybe they should stay, just to guarantee you don't fall.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[burntmcnuggies]

Hawks and S/O Play Among Us

Hawks x Reader

Just a small headcanon I made since me, my mom, my brother, my step-sister, and some of my friends play all the time! If you wanna play together or just chat with me lemme know and I’ll make a private group for you all to join and chat with me! ;)

Warnings: strong language, excess use of profanity, so if you don’t like very strong language please leave! A slight little bit of suggestive sexiness from Hawks, but it’s very very brief! That’s it!

Enjoy!

* Cheats all the time. So make sure you both are in separate rooms. If you’re beside him playing on your phones, he will for sure peek over and see if you’re an imposter or not.

* If you’re both Crewmate he’ll stay glued to your side. He’ll do all tasks with you, make sure he follows you if something got sabotaged, even though this may cause you to lose. “Hawks go to the other one! We only have 15 seconds!” “But what if you die? I’ll be all alone, and everyone will sus me because I stayed with you all the time!” “That’s why you don’t follow me and act sus!” Needless to say it’s difficult getting him to leave your side. If you do die, he’ll start blaming your killer even though he has no proof at all. Then he gets voted out and you do tasks together as ghosts. He’s one of those people to randomly start accusing people, and will use you as an alibi. “I was with my girlfriend and brown was following us. He’s pretty sus.” Then you get spams in the chat saying “wtf.”

* if you’re both imposters, he’ll make sure to sit by you and run around freely by himself knowing you’re safe. Even in a fictional game he makes sure you’re safe... most of the time. “FUCK! FUCK!! BROWN SAW ME!!! WHAT DO I DO?!?!” “LIE!” “THEY ALL WANNA VOTE ME OUT WHAT THE FUCK?!?!” Voting occurs, and you vote him out. “YOU BETRAYED ME?!?!” “WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?! IT WOULD BE SUS IF I DIDNT!!!” He’ll start pouring and follow you around in his little ghost form, assisting in sabotage and warning you if there’s anyone around so you can kill people. If you were away from each other, he would venture on his own and sometimes follow you to see if you can double kill. “Yes! Good job, dovie, you make a great sidekick!” If you are being accused, he’ll defend you immediately, which makes it all the more suspicious. Then you both end up getting voted out.

* You’re the imposter and he’s the crewmate. You kill Hawks first. Always. You have to or else he’ll rat you out immediately. He’s very competitive if you are on opposite teams. If you do get voted out he’ll rub it in your face and laugh. “You’re so predictable, dovie. It’s not even funny!” Well, apparently he thinks it’s funny. He also thinks it’s funny seeing the pouty expression on your face. If your teammate kills him, you start laughing at him. “Hah! Yellow got revenge! Thank you yellow! Carry us to victory!” He scowls. “At least I made it farther.” If you successfully kill him, he’ll stalk you through his little ghost and scrutinize your methods. “You killed him in the open, If it were real you’d be locked away by now.” “It’s a game babe. Let me play how I wanna play. You’re acting childish cause I killed you.” “I hope they vote you out. Liar. Murderer. Imposter!” When you end up winning he’ll pout. “I’ll get you next time, baby bird.”

* He’s the imposter and you’re the crewmate. He’s very good at it. He likes to wait and kill you last since he loves to taunt you. Then he’ll lie to the entire chat and act all innocent. However, if you’re playing with friends, this plan always backfires. You don’t even suspect him because he’s so good at playing the role of an imposter, it’s almost scary. If he’s the imposter, he always wins. If he’s acting sus, you call an emergency meeting and immediately convince everyone to vote him out. It’s a desperate last effort tactic to try and win against him. Of course, he smooth talks his way out of things and you’re the one that gets booted. There will be a small little thing at the end where you are playing with friends :)

* Characters, of course yours is whatever you want, but Hawks... he loves to do stupid ass nicknames that you and all your friends and his make fun of. It’s consisted of “Sexy Bird” “No. 2 Bitches” “(Y/N)’s dick giver” “chickenman” “nugget king” “Endeavor my daddy” “Endeavorsimp” “Hawks” The last one is to try and make his fans day if he has any that play when you both just play online together. His character is almost always yellow with little goggles on top, a white suit, and a mini crewmate as his pet. Many don’t believe that it’s actually Hawks, not until he posts pictures on his social media of you and him playing together.

* Playing with Friends: You, Hawks, Endeavor, Mirko, Dabi, Tokoyami, Shoto, Twice, Shigaraki, and Aizawa (you convinced him to play) All of you are on call. Hawks invited Endeavor, Mirko, and Tokoyami. You invited everyone else. (Lets all pretend that you all are normal and there’s no heroes or villains, just all adults with jobs playing kid games. (U/N) is username by the way since you all get to choose ^^

Below is a short story I wrote for this!

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

Small Key!

-(U/N) = You (Orange, Pink, Light Green)

-Sexy Bird = Hawks (Yellow)

-Dabeebee = Dabi (Purple)

-Zzzawa = Aizawa (Dark Green)

-QueenRab = Mirko (White)

-MyDadSucks = Shoto (Cyan)

-DarkBoy = Tokoyami (Black)

-Crustball = Shigaraki (Dark Blue)

-2wice = Twice (Brown)

-Endeavor = Endeavor (Red)

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

“Hey everyone!” -(U/N)

“Stop being so happy (Y/N).” -Zzzawa

“Hey Doll.” -Dabeebee

“Dabi~! Your user name is your name in my phone!!! How sweet!” -(U/N)

“Hey, I’m right here. Don’t make me come up there and teach you who you belong to again pretty birdie.” -Sexy Bird

“TMI!! I don’t wanna hear about you’re pathetic sex like Keigo. Baby dick.” -QueenRab

“Language Mirko. Please. Who else is joining (Y/N)-“ -Endeavor

“YOU BITCH WE HAVE BOMB ASS SEX!!! TELL HER (Y/N)!!!!” -Sexy Bird

“Can we just start?” -Crustball

“Please.” -Zzzawa

“I agree.” -MyDadSucks

“Shoto change your name.” -Endeavor

“Fuck off old man.” -MyDadSucks

“I am ready to begin this journey of darkness and deceit.” -DarkBoy

“Me too! Oh hell no, I’m not doin’ this.” -2wice

“Guys! Shut up! I’m about to start the game so we all have to go on mute okay?” -(U/N)

“(Y/NNNNN)! You didn’t tell Mirko about our fucking amazing se-“ -Sexy Bird

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

You pressed start before your lover could even finish whatever he was saying and rolled your eyes shouting from the guest bedroom. “KEIGO YOU BASTARD IM REALLY GONNA KILL YOU IF YOU SAY ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT OUT SEX LIFE!!!!” He shouted back almost immediately. “SHE CALLED OUR SEX PATHETIC!!!!” You called back. “ITS NOT BABE ITS FUCKING AMAZING NOW SHUT UP AND PLAY!!!!” The little ‘Shhhh’ appeared and it turned out you and Dabi were the imposters. You grinned widely and went towards the right of “The Skeld” map. You ran up towards weapons to pretend to do the task. You took the time to attempt to sabotage the lights like you always did, but it sadly was still loading. Then a purple little astronaut came beside you with little wolf ears. And the name labeled above was red with the word “Dabeebee.”

‘Alright Dabi... lets kick some ass.’ You thought to yourself with a grin as you finally got your kill cool down relinquished. The first thing you sabotaged was lights, and then you began your search for your lover. You went down and turned left, checking to see if anyone was in communications. No one. You then went through lower storage and up Into electrical. You were met with a dark blue color. Poor Shigaraki, your first victim. Keigo could probably wait. Dabi would back you up. You clicked the kill button on your phone and immediately jumped into a vent. You popped out of MedBay and pretended to do the sample task. Then your screen flashed.

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

*DISCUSS/ Dabeebee reported a body*

*Crustball has died*

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

“Well, there goes the crusty bastard. He sucked anyways.” -Dabeebee

“Where was the body?” -(U/N)

“It’s (Y/N). I know it is.” -Sexy Bird

“What the hell kinda evidence for you have that it was (Y/N)? I’ll kick your ass if you do it again. You weren’t near her you were with Endeavor and I.” -QueenRab

“Those are some pretty bold accusations against me my love.” -(U/N)

“(Y/N) was with me the whole time. The body was in electrical. We were together going down there and she kept going while I went to go do a task.” -Dabeebee

“It was Dabi! No it wasn’t, he’s a good guy! No! He’s evil!” -2wice

“It was Endeavor.” -MyDadSucks

“It’s (Y/N) and Dabi. You guys have to believe me! I know my birdie and she is an imposter right now. Don’t trust her.” -Sexy Bird

“Shut the fuck up.” -QueenRab

“Kei baby you soundin’ kinda sus, quickly blaming me and Dabi.” -(U/N)

“It’s Dabi and I. And no, I didn’t-“ -Endeavor

“WHATEVER ENDEAVOR WE AREN’T IN SCHOOL!!!” -(U/N)

“I’m a school teacher, (Y/N). Don’t forget I tutored you our freshmen year.” -Zzzawa

“That makes me sound old Shōta.” -(U/N)

“Discussion time just ended. What’re we doing?” -MyDadSucks

“I’m still voting (Y/N).” -Sexy Bird

“Oh yes, I love you too Kei’. So much.” -(U/N)

“It was dark. I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know where I was.” -DarkBoy

“I’m votin’ Keigo cause he’s bein’ a petty little dickless bitch.” QueenRab

“RUDE.” -Sexy Bird

“I’m skipping.” -Dabeebee

“Me too.” -(U/N), DarkBoy, 2wice, Endeavor, and Zzzawa

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

7 skips: (Y/N), Dabeebee, DarkBoy, 2wice, Endeavor, and Zzzawa

1 vote for Endeavor: MyDadSucks

1 vote for Sexy Bird: QueenRab

1 vote for (U/N): Sexy Bird

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

*NO ONE WAS EJECTED*

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

‘That’s good no one believe Keigo. If they did me and Dabi would be- Dabi and I would be dead.’ Next turn you went left, heading down to MedBay to “finish” the samples. While you waited you checked to see if you could sabotage. A couple seconds later the oxygen depletion was activated. ‘Nice Dabi!’ You cracked a smile and left MedBay, running into a red character, Endeavor. Poor Endeavor. You successfully reached lower engine before killing the old player. You quickly passed Mirko and your face paled once you realized she would find the body and report it, seeing you leaving. You only continued in, receiving nothing from the others about a dead body. You weren’t gonna ask questions. Suddenly...

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

*DISCUSS/ MyDadSucks reported a body*

*Endeavor and QueenRab have died*

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

“Well, it wasn’t my old man.” -MyDadSucks

“ITS (Y/N) AND DABI!!!! VOTE (Y/N) OUT OR WERE GOING TO LOSE!!!!” -Sexy Bird

“I already voted.” -Zzzawa

“That fast? Who’d you vote for?” -(U/N)

“Hawks.” -Zzzawa

“WHAT?!?!” -Sexy Bird

“I agree! No wait! He’s telling the truth! No way! He’s totally an imposter!” -2wice

“You are being very loud and suspicious. You’re also only blaming (Y/N) and Dabi for no reason. You didn’t even ask where the body was. You passed me coming up from reactor. And the body was in lower engine. You were the only one I sa-“ -MyDadSucks

“I WAS WATCHIN’ SECURITY CAMS!!!! CMON MAN!!” -Sexy Bird

“I’m voting Kei’ too.” -(U/N)

“Me too.” -Dabeebee

“I will not eject my mentor. He’s taught me a lot. He’s intelligent. I believe him.” -DarkBoy

“THANK YOU TOKOYAMI!!! SOMEONE HERE APPRECIATES MY SMARTS!!” -Sexy Bird

“What smarts? You’re a total birdbrain.” -(U/N)

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

5 votes for Sexy Bird: MyDadSucks, Zzzawa, Dabeebee, 2wice, and (U/N).

2 votes for (U/N): DarkBoy and Sexy Bird

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

*Sexy Bird WAS EJECTED*

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

(Dead Chat)

“YOU WERE RIGHT KEIGO ITS (Y/N) and DABI!!!! HE KILLED ME WHEN I FOUND ENDEAVORS BODY AFTER SHE KILLED HIM IN LOWER ENGINE!!!” -QueenRab

“I was the first one to die. It’s been boring. I haven’t been doing anything.” -Crustball

“YOU ARENT DOING TASKS?!?!?!” -QueenRab

“They’re already going to win.” -Endeavor

“SHUT UP!!!” -QueenRab

“I KNEW IT!!!!” -Sexy Bird

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

You covered your mouth in shock that you actually got everyone to vote out Hawks. Aizawa was annoyed, Shoto was getting suspicious of how loud and pushy he was being to vote you out without any evidence, Dabi was your teammate so of course he’d vote with you, and then Twice just went with everyone else. You ran down first, running to admin with Tokoyami following right behind you. All the sudden your lover burst into the guest bedroom and stomped over towards your bed, spreading his wings and plopping beside you. “I knew it was you and Dabi. But nobody fuckin’ believed me.” You rolled your eyes and pretended to do the key scan while you sabotaged reactor. “Keigo, you were acting wayyyyy too sus. This is why you always lose when we play with friends. You’re too loud. You gotta be calm and persuasive. How on earth did you become an undercover agent for the FBI.”

“Shut the fuck up. I just wanna win that’s all. I also wanna be right, and I was, and now everyone’s comin’ and tellin’ me I’m right.” He smirked smugly and wrapped one of his wings around you, pulling you close to his chest while he watched you play. You went with Tokoyami and when you finally got him alone in navigation you killed him. Your thumb jerked upwards to go to the vent, but as soon as you did a Dark Green astronaut cane into view. Seeing you vent and leave the dead body. “Fuck!” You cursed and banged your head lightly in your head as the screen lit up. Your lover laughed. “Hey~ there’s still a chance we could win.” You sent him a glare. “Dabi will let us win. He’s a pro! C’mon Dabi! Help me out bro!”

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

*DISCUSS/ Zzzawa reported a body*

*DarkBoy has died*

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

“(Y/N) vented.” -Zzzawa

“What? Aizawa I literally just fucking saw you leave the body—SHES LYING!!!!” -(U/N)

“Is that Hawks?” -MyDadSucks

“OH MY GOD YOU’RE LITERALLY THE WORST GET THE FUCK OUT OR YOU’RE SLEEPING ON THE COUCH!!!! —THIS IS MY HOUSE!!!! AND I NEED THE BED FOR MY WINGS BABY BIRD!!!!” -(U/N)

“Can you guys fuck some other time? Are you sure you saw (Y/N) vent Mr. Caterpillar man. Do you have your contracts in?” -Dabeebee

“I don’t need input from a unemployed burnt looking drug dealer. It was (Y/N).” -Zzzawa

“A bit harsh coming from a raggedy looking old man.” -Dabeebee

“Can I just point out Twice has been awfully quiet? He bein’ pretty sus right now.” -(U/N)

“I’m the imposter! No I’m not! I’m a crewmate believe me!” -2wice

“He’s too stupid to be an imposter. I’ve been with him he was in MedBay.” -Dabeebee

“Yeah I was! But Hawks is already dead and ratted (Y/N) out! So it’s gotta he her!” -2wice

“Voting ends soon. I’m voting (Y/N). My apologies.” -MyDadSucks

“Agreed.” -Zzzawa

“Awe Shoto it’s okay, I love you so much. This is why you aren’t dead yet because you’re a pure angel! -I’m sittin’ right here pretty bird- no you aren’t an angel, you’re a devilish asshole.” -(U/N)

“I love you too, (Y/N).” -MyDadSucks

“Sorry doll, votes are stacked against you. Good game though.” -Dabeebee

“Yeah, fuck you Dabi.” -(U/N)

“Anytime baby, I’m open.” -Dabeebee

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

4 votes for (U/N): MyDadSucks, Zzzawa, Dabeebee, and 2wice

1 vote for Zzzawa: (U/N)

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

*(U/N) WAS EJECTED*

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

(Dead chat)

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the imposter who killed me.” -Crustball

“(Y/N) I TRUSTED YOU!!!!” -QueenRab

“Guys it’s just a game, don’t take it so-“ -(U/N)

“I STILL WANNA BEAT ALL YOU LAME ASS BITCHES!!!! ILL KICK ALL YOU’RE ASSES!!! JUST YOU FUCKING WAIT!!” -QueenRab

“Mirko please calm down. You’re being loud and obnoxious.” -Endeavor

“(Y/N) is right, even though she killed me. I applaud her devotion to the role. She outsmarted us well.” -DarkBoy

“TOKOYAMI!!! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON MY SIDE!!!! -HAWKS GO GET YOUR OWN PHONE STOP YELLING AND GRABBING MINE!!!” -(U/N)

“HAWKS YOURE NOT DOING YOUR TASKS?!?!” -QueenRab

“HELL NO THATS BORING. I LIKE WATCHING (Y/N) LOSE! -HEY! I KILLED YOU!” -(U/N)

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

You muted yourself and stopped listening to the chat of everyone arguing, mainly Mirko to everyone about doing tasks. You wondered around and looked for Dabi, following him around and assisting in Sabotage. Warm hands roamed over your waist, and a soft kiss was placed on your temple, soft red feathers brushing over your shoulders and lightly dusting over your leg. “Someone’s getting cuddly.” You announced quizzically, watching Dabi lure Twice into comms before killing him and running out. Your lovers scruffy chin rested against your shoulder, his head leaning against yours as he watched your screen. “Even though I’m still annoyed that you killed me, I’m proud of you baby bird. It’s difficult for people to out talk me. Especially you.”

“Was that an insult or a compliment?” You asked not really sure how to feel about his comment. He laughed lowly, the rumbled of his chest vibrating your back. “Hmm... let’s say both. Win win, yeah?” He began to kiss up your neck, the soft smacking of his wet lips against your skin echoing in your ears and making you shiver. “Keigo... what are you doing?” He hummed in dismissal of your words, rubbing your sides gently before slipping down to your hip. “What? I can’t love on you? I show my pretty bird some affection~?” Your lips set into a firm line and you gave him a look. “...you’re still sleeping on the couch.” He pouted. “So... no sex?”

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

*DISCUSS/Zzzawa reported a body*

*2wice has died*

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

“It was in communications.” -Zzzawa

“Dabi was with me the whole time. I met up with him after he finished a task in weapons. We fixed oxygen and met back up in the cafeteria and moved to reactor.” -MyDadSucks

“You’re the only one down there, and imposters can self report. You put yourself in a bit of a bind there. Mr. Caterpillar man. Guess the teacher ain’t that smart.” -Dabeebee

“I agree. My apologies Mr. Aizawa. No offense or hard feelings.” -MyDadSucks

“None taken Shoto. The evidence is stacked against me. Good game Dabi.” -Zzzawa

“Nice knowin’ ya both.” -Dabeebee

“Wait what-“ -MyDadSucks

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

*Zzzawa WAS EJECTED*

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

Victory flashed in your screen and you fist pumped the air cheering in victory. Hawks frowned beside you, pulling his hands away and tucking his wings between you, cocooning himself away from you to sulk that he had lost in a game he was supposed to be really good at. “Baby come here.” You called out to him, gently stroking his wings. He grunted and moved a wing down to glare. “...we can have sex later?” He moved his wings to wrap around you again and his arms were around you tightly, hot breath fanning slightly over your ear. “Thank you love bird~ and congrats on winnin’ the game. But...” You swallowed thickly. “B-But what...?”

“I’ll be winnin’ in the bedroom.”

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

“Did you forget we weren’t on mute anymore? Horny idiots.” -Zzzawa

“Hawks!” -Endeavor

“(Y/N) IM COMING TO BEAT HIS ASS!!! DONT LET HIM TOUCH YOU!!!” QueenRab

“I think I should get reward for winning, doll. Wanna come to my place? Forget about that birdbrained idiot. Cum for me~” -Dabeebee

“DABI THE FUCK?! Stop being sexual. It’s disgusting.” -Crustball

“I don’t understand why you’re all like this. Was there a class I missed about being weird?” -MyDadSucks

“No. They’re just weird.” -DarkBoy

“Wait we lost.” -2wice 

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

END.

[aonogifreactions]

Prompt 5: “What’s that smell… are you making cookies?” + 60. “I feel like there’s more frosting on you than on the gingerbread.” + 75. “Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, love.”

┍━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┑

Requested: Yes, by anon. 

Pairing: Yukio Okumura/Reader

Word count: 1,5k + bonus at the end 8)

SFW.

Warnings: takes place after current manga events. Read the bonus plz 8)

Beta-read by @/no-remorse. Thank you! <3

┕━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┙

Your ball pen scribbled on the paper angrily, causing you to hum in defeat sixth time this day. You facepalmed and looked at the mug with hot chocolate, that was now only half-full. Getting suspicious, you furrowed your brows and squinted at the mug - where was that mountain of tiny marshmallows you had put earlier? Did one of your familiars decided to prank you and - unintentionally - make your day a little bit worse than it already was?

Before you could summon them, what suddenly dawned upon you was your very own thought - that YOU did, in fact, eat all the marshmallows. Furthermore, prior to the eating, you thought it was a good idea to count them all; you don't get the chance to procrastinate very often, especially in front of your very important paper.

Swallowing the last amounts of the sweet, brown liquid in a few gulps - you decided to head downstairs to clear your mind and check on Yukio, who a few hours ago claimed to go and help Rin in the kitchen. As you were going down each step, the smell of baking pastries filled your nostrils; the smell so good that you felt was almost seductively inviting you to the hot room. Despite the internal battle to resist further distraction, you gave in.

“What’s that smell… are you making cookies?”

Upon entering the kitchen and awaiting hearing the answer, you almost collided with running Rin, who screamed as he made his way to the oven. You stared at him, rising one of your brows; you watched as he hurriedly took the baking tray out and place it on the counter nearby. Half-demon sighed, voicing his frustration out loud.

"You should go and take a break, I can watch the cookies in the meanwhile. And yes, we are," You hear Yukio say after placing the dirty mug in the sink. He was cutting out the cookies with many different cutters and seemed not to take his eyes off them, even if talking to Rin. His brother whined, not fully convinced, "I don't know, man... I'm kinda scared to leave you alone with... all that baking..." he murmured the last part, but - much to his dismay - Yukio's sharp ears picked it up, for which he got scolded anyway.

"Hey! It's just baking, I am able to turn off the oven and get the baking tray out, okay?!" Yukio slammed his fist against the table, causing one gingerbread man to fall off. You watched them in entertainment, picking the cookie up and placing it back on the parchment paper, "Alright, boys. I'll help Yukio in the kitchen, you go get a nap, Rin. You look like shit." you said honestly, playing with Yukio's brown locks lightly. Rin appeared to be fake-offended by what you said, but eventually, he agreed; his apron has been hung on a rack and he left the kitchen, heading to the shower first - after all, baking for all day long has taken a toll on him.

You shifted your attention to Yukio, who still kept quietly cutting out the cookies; you placed a soft kiss on his forehead and messed his hair up in a joking manner to annoy him. You asked him if he needs any help with his current task, but Yukio only shook his head, and politely declined. You sat next to him and started to cure your boredom by observing Yukio's face - even if it still seemed to be a little annoyed, you knew that deep down, he's happy. After all those events, his relationship with his twin brother was getting better; he's been reaching out to him more and more by himself, even if the activities were rather trivial - nonetheless, Rin appreciated that and the fact, that his brother wanted to fix their broken relationship was enough for him already.

"Can you... stop looking at me like that?" he asked embarrassed, blushing ever so slightly, "Have you finished your paper?"

"No," you started to nudge one of the cookies with your nail, only to get your hand lightly slapped away by Yukio, "I haven't. I couldn't focus, but I have most of it done already." You answered somewhat coldly, checking out your rainbow-colored nails. Yukio noticed your irritation, concluding that it was better to let you have a break, so he could later help you.

Yukio readjusted his glasses with his arm, placing the cookie cutters on the table, "Do you wanna... decorate the cookies with me?" he asked shyly, glancing at the full baking tray that Rin left on the counter earlier. You perked up, nodding your head happily, and stood up to get everything ready - you got the unbaked gingerbread cookies ready on the baking tray, then got decorating supplies ready on the table that Yukio had cleaned up with a damp cloth. You carefully arranged the cookies next to each other, then sat down and waited for Yukio, that was getting out another batch of cookies from the oven.

Your legs were dangling as you observed him getting closer and closer, your eyes not leaving his hips until he sat down with a loud "thump"; he glared at you playfully, "No shame. Not at all..." he murmured, receiving a kiss in return, "Well, we have everything. Do you wanna sta-" he stopped mid-sentence, noticing that you had already started decorating. He sighed heavily, grabbed one gingerbread cookie, and cracked a smile when he heard you giggle at his overdramatic reaction.

There was quite a variety of different flavored frosting types on the table - banana, strawberry, coconut, toffee, chocolate, and more - Rin really seemed to buy every single one. Yukio worked precisely with his frosting pen, giving a reindeer-shaped gingerbread a smiley face, as well as red, strawberry-flavored antlers and bright nose. The reindeer got "extremely long, white legs"  - or what Yukio claimed to be - socks, as well as a light brown body made out of toffee-flavored frosting. As the brown-haired male proclaimed that the gingerbread is done, his hand reached for another one - this time, the cookie happened to be in the shape of a snowflake. The curiosity within got the best of him though, and even though he started to decorate it - his sight wandered onto you.

You, on the other hand - managed to somehow decorate six gingerbread men already; your face was covered with yellow frosting, as well as your lips.

Is this why the banana one vanished so quickly?

"[Y/N],"

You looked at his face innocently, blinking at him, "Yes?"

“I feel like there’s more frosting on you than on the gingerbread.”

"Wow. I just needed to see if it was eatable. Besides, I worked hard on my cookies, you know!" you declared, dropping your frosting pen and crossing your arms.

Yukio laughed softly, tapping your shoulder to make you face him.

You turned your head to gaze at his face, but before you could do that - you felt a pair of warm lips in the corner of your very own.

"I know you worked hard. And I do love every single one. I just... I'm sorry that I don't say things like that more often, and I'm sorry that I used to leave you thinking that I don't appreciate things you do... for me. For everyone. I-"

You pulled his chin and crashed your lips onto his to silence his neverending rambling.

After making sure the kiss was long enough for him to shut up, you pulled apart first, "I know, Yukio. We talked about it," you started, "I love you. I know you always wanted the best for me, hell, you still do now. I always knew you cared, even if you didn't say anything."

He leaned his forehead against yours, closing his eyes.

“Merry Christmas, love.”

"Merry Christmas to you too, my babycakes."

Yukio inhaled sharply, "...This one time," the air he sucked in got exhaled through his nose, "I will agree to be your babycakes."

  Bonus:

"Alright, guys! Good job with the cookies!" Rin exclaimed happily, grinning at the pile of gingerbread cookies, "And none got burned! I'm impressed!" He placed his arms on his hips, standing proudly. "Yeah, whatever. We ran out of the frosting too fast," you yawned, rubbing your eyes, "Anyway, I gotta go and finish my paper. See ya, boys." You kissed them both on the cheeks and left the kitchen, lazily getting upstairs.

Yukio was doing the dishes, as the growing pile of dirty plates and bowls seemed to frighten him.

Rin finished brooming and wiped the sweat off his face, then looked mischievously at his twin brother.

"So, babycakes, huh?"

Yukio flinched, choking on his own spit.

Yet, you still wonder what made Rin laugh so hard he passed out that day.

[retromotherfuckers]

Six Years (Part 3)

Pairing:

Past/Eventual Bellamy Blake x Fem!Kane!Reader, Platonic!Octavia Blake

Summary:

Octavia knew who she was now, but you couldn’t figure out what the hell you’d become.

Warning: 

so much mf angst, themes of addiction and depression, self-destructive behavior and a tiny bit of comfort in there

Word Count:

2k (i got a little ~carried away~ lol)

A/N:

IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. i wasn’t happy with the og thing i had down so i literally just rewrote the whole thing in a few hours and it’s sm better than it would’ve been. me holding off posting this did wonders and i’m more confident in it too even tho i kinda think i suck at writing but also kinda don’t idk my self esteem varies wildly

Merry Christmas Eve Eve to those who celebrate ❤️

the gif (and all the other ones) are not mine and i take no credit for them

if you want to be tagged in any of my works, send me a message or an ask and i’ll add you :)

@shipshipshipau

The girl with aqua eyes - although now they were more of a spotted gray - had only seen one moment of weakness from you. It would be the last time Octavia had seen you, and you, her. 

“We’re surviving!” She had started shouting, as if she believed that set in a lower tone, her words would be construed as lies. “The human race is surviving! That’s what matters!”

“He wouldn’t be okay with this, and you know it!” Your voice broke involuntarily as it rose to match hers. You shook your head as you tried to desperately stop the ache in your chest as you brought her - probably dead - brother up. Tears clung to your eyelashes, waiting for you to blink so they had permission to fall. Your throat had been closed for a while now, and the rest was merely a weak cry. “If this is the price that we have to pay...maybe we shouldn’t be.”

You’d never know if it was the crack in your demeanor or your choice of words, but either way, her eyes softened when you spoke.

“Look at me.” You did as told and she gripped the back of your neck in one hand, pulling your forehead so close it almost came into contact with hers.

The air changed as Octavia came alive under the monster she wore for armor. Her mask coming off allowed you to let out a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding. You would begin to regret not smashing the helmet to bits while it was off and vulnerable.

“You have to stop listening to them,” She said. “It’ll tear you apart. It’s better they get to live to hate us than die slowly and love us-”

“They don’t deserve this either, O-”

“We bare it, so they don’t have to. You’re the one that told me that. You can’t back out on me, now. I can’t do this without you.”

For so long you were okay with her needing you to do the dirty work. Besides the first time - when you did it together - she’d give the sentence and you’d see it through. Every single time, it felt like it was killing you more than them, but that didn’t matter, did it? If you weren’t going to do it, who would?

It was the last thing Octavia had asked of you and you had no intention of letting her down.

Bellamy didn’t know what he would see when they finally dropped him down into the bunker, but it definitely wasn’t that. Surrounded by more death than he was prepared for, he couldn’t help himself to not move his gaze around the arena. The fences between him and the living reminded him of the cages the Mountain Men held him in. The walls were stained deep with crimson, leaving the dull concrete behind it unrecognizable. He looked to the blonde at his side, and they asked each other the same silent question:

What the hell happened down here?

His whiskey shaded orbs kept moving, albeit reluctantly. They stopped on Marcus Kane, who looked so much older than last time. His hair and beard were inches longer and grayer than the natural brown he used to have. He was so pale, it was unnerving - almost as if he was close to death. They connected eyes briefly and that’s when the younger saw the deadly weapon held to his neck by the hands of-

No.

Your back was facing him, but it didn’t matter how long it had been, he’d never miss you. The locks that adorned your head were longer too, almost to your waist. The natural shade was faded though, like you had aged twenty years instead of six. He watched your shoulders heave and your hands start to shake as Kane talked to you.

He couldn’t pull his eyes from the impure red that dyed your skin and clothes.

While you were distracted, he chose to act, protecting Marcus from his own flesh and blood. He didn’t miss the gears in your head turning as your gaze landed on him. He saw your eyes sink into a trance of recognition and a deep sort of longing overtook your senses. The melancholic need you had tried to numb for half a decade came back in full force and held no mercy.

You remembered how he always smelled of the forest after the sky wept. You remembered how sure but gentle his touch was on your skin. You remembered how his remarkably soft lips would feel when they pushed against yours as they begged for more at every turn. You remembered how it felt to be wrapped in his arms, listening to his heart thump as he assured you everything would be alright, even if he didn’t think it would be.

Was that gone forever, now, too?

Bellamy noticed something else, though; something he didn’t recognize. Something he’d never seen before.

Something that scared him.

It had been hours since and neither of you had bothered to find the other. Getting everyone out was a great distraction for him. Talking to his little sister, whose eyes seemed to hold the same thing yours did, was another.  She had explained to him and Clarke that Wonkru had deemed her Bloodreina and you, Ripa. So, no, nothing as special as death from above or the red queen or the commander of death, but death, nonetheless.

People have done well not to forget that.

When Clarke told him you still hadn’t come out and no one had seen you, however, he didn’t have a choice anymore.

The halls were those of nightmares, spirits lurking around every corner and it was cold and empty. He knew the lights were kept low to save power but it felt almost purposeful, like they were meant to scare you. To tell you not to act out or some kind of monster would jump from the shadows and make you pay.

But he didn’t know if it was you or his sister.

A chill slithered up his spine.

If someone told him this wasn’t real, he’d do anything he could to believe them. He wished that he was seconds away from being shaken awake by Raven or Monty, and they would tell him it was just another nightmare. He wished he was still on the Ring, praying ignorantly to anyone that would listen that his family on earth were still okay. 

Breaking him from his thoughts, a yellow lamplight caught his attention. At the end of the windowless corridor, it shone out of a slightly ajar door. Using every ounce of strength he possessed to not walk away, he pushed it open. It cried at the motion, diminishing any and all remnants of silence that swallowed the floor.

His eyes found you catching yourself from falling caused by a failed attempt at standing. A half empty bottle of whatever works in one hand, the other one holding you up against the bed frame. The high-pitched creak pulled your attention to the front of the room with a furrowed brow and he allowed himself to take in your appearance.

A wrinkled, cotton shirt sat on your chest and it was a different one than before; faded white and thin, yet cleaner than the other one which was colored with blood. Your hair was damp - the result of taking a shower - but lazily tied back in a half-assed effort to get it out of your face.

You stared at each other for a minute. A million things were hitting your slow-moving thoughts at once, too much for you to even try to comprehend. He finally took one step towards you, parting his lips to say something but no sound came out. He was stumped, hundreds of words flooded his mind but not a single one sounded good enough.

Nothing he could say would make what happened in the arena okay.

It was unbearably painful. There he was, finally right in front of you, and you had no idea what to talk about. No idea what to start with, end with, bring up, discuss, laugh about, cry about, scream about. Nothing was good enough to say to the man that kept you alive for such a long time, such a long time ago. 

Too long ago.

You inevitably broke the silence, though your words came out cracked and in a slur. A defensive and humorless scoff left your lips, an effort to cover up the discomfort. Or it was because you were too drunk to shut yourself up. “You gonna say somethin’?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

You didn’t know why, but you hoped he’d sound different. It was childish and irrational, but you hoped that you could say you both changed too much and he would have nothing to hold against you.

Because no matter how far away it seemed, sometimes you could still remember what it felt like to be that innocent seventeen-year-old that hadn’t lived yet; what it felt like to be that girl who still couldn’t stand her father. To be that girl who sprained her ankle within ten minutes of being on earth for the first time. To be that girl who hadn’t made a friend aside from Clarke and Wells in her whole life. That girl who had just kissed a boy for the first time.

The girl who was loved and not lost yet.

“Well, that makes two of us.”

Where the hell did she go?

That made the room spin, and you had to blink a few times to make it stop, taking a seat on the thin mattress. You took a drink, making the liquid slosh from the base to the neck of the bottle and back again. When it settled, you rested your head between your shoulders as you heard him say your name. It bounced off the walls in the room, hitting each one again, and again, and again like it was a bullet waiting to find its target. You had wanted the word to fall from his lips for so long that you’d forgotten what it sounded like. You had forgotten what he sounded like, and you fucking hated yourself for it.

Then you realized he said, “Ripa,” and those four deadly little letters crushed your throat and stole the air from your lungs.

That name hadn’t felt right from the start, but it was what you had been simultaneously promoted to and reduced by. The only person who refused to call you that over the years, was your father. For two thousand days, he made sure to steer clear of it.

That’s not who you are and I know it, even if you don’t.

A sudden and hauntingly raw sob escaped, and you knew his eyes were on you in an instant.

“Don’t call me that,” You begged, meeting his gaze for the first time since he entered. Breath picking up, you were practically terror-stricken at the idea that all you were to him now was a murderer. You vigorously tried to shake the thought away, squeezing your eyes shut as everything that kept you numb seemed to vanish into thin air. “Y-You can’t-Not you too. Please, not you.”

Bellamy’s hand brushed your cheek and tears rained freely. You immediately leaned into the familiar and delicate warmth and you really fucking hoped this wasn’t your mind playing a trick on you.

“It’s okay, Y/N.” When he spoke this time, his words sounded choked too. His other hand cradled the back of your head as he pulled you into his chest and just...held you. “It’s okay.”

It was like you were standing at the edge of a building, teetering the edge before accidentally falling. Only, before you could plummet to your death, someone caught your hand, and it occurred to you that you really wanted them to pull you back up.

“Please don’t leave me again.”

Your voice was just so, so weak. Beaten down and broken.

“Never.” He said it with so much confidence and finality, you almost had to convince yourself it was real and not a dream. “I promise.”

[waokevale]

Chapter 1 - New Kid

[To Virigl's luck his school was in the middle of the town and was considered better than the other ones, so it meant there will be a lot of new students.]

The kid came into the class introducing himself:

"I'm Ethan Fictilem. I'm from Florida and I hope we can all be friends..." The boy said with an unsure expression on his face.

He was...beautiful....That's what Virgil thought at least.

His skin had vitiligo. It was very smooth and kinda shiny, he wore a black jacket, yellow sweater with one of Virgil's favourite music bands, Fall Out Boy, black leggings, a yellow beanie, a scarf and yellow trainers. 

His hair was very fluffy, but it also seemed to look unrealistic and intriguing.

He had pretty and inviting eyes which were both different colors. One was chocolate brown and the other was hazel. No, it wasn't hazel it was true yellow and if you would look close enough it resembled a snake eye.

Soon enough the new kid turned his head around in the cardboard boy's direction which made the boy hide his masked face in his hood.

Virgil felt a light feeling in his chest and he blushed a little under his mask, but soon he frowned realizing he would never ever get to even be friends with the boy.

Everyone hated him and everyone soon enough will turn Ethan against him.

Life sucked....

The boy was told to take his sit as the lesson was finally about to start.

To Virgil's surprise he took the sit right next to him, since it was always free because no one else dared to sit next to him. Yeah, that's probably the only reason.

As the lesson ended his "favourite bullies" had to pick up on him yet again... 

-"What do we have here?" - Roman smirked maliciously.

-" P-please leave me alone"- Virgil replied with a pleading tone and a very terrified expression painted on his cardboard face.

-"Nah cardboard freak I don't think we will" - Roman's twin brother, Remus added.

The other bullies around them started laughing and saying mean words again...

Virgil started shaking and crying as he was being picked up by the front of his hoodie and was about to be punched in the "face" ,when suddenly someone yelled.

-"Hey you! Stop it!"

It was the new kid's voice. At least that's what Virgil thought as his panic attack began to rise.

-"Ugh, what do you want new kid?" - Asked Roman.

-"Leave the one with the hoodie alone. All of you." The new kid demended.

-"Why??? He's a freak with a mask 24/7! He deserves to be punched, right Ro?" - Remus said questioning his brother who nodded confidently. 

-"That is not an explanation for why you're bullying him. What did he do to you that you are being SO mean to him?" Ethan began asking with a calm yet annoyed expression on his face.

-"He showed up at our school! We don't need freaks like him" - someone else laughed making Virgil sob which the boy with the beanie noticed making him more angry at the society and it's useless lack of justice.

-"Okay, that's enough!" Ethan yelled grabbing Virgil by the hand and running away with him before any of the bullies could reach back for him. He barely could go fast forward as he collapsed on the second hallway which made Ethan very worried.

-"Hey are you okay there kid...?" He said with a soft and worried look on his face before noticing that the other boy's mask made a face of "lacking breath" as he couldn't breathe do to his panic attack.

Ethan then took the cardboard boy's hand making circles around it saying:

"Hey there buddy. Please, could you do something for me?

Breathe in four, hold for seven, out for eight.

Virgil failed a few times feeling like his mask was going to go all wet because of all the tears behind it, but soon after a few tries he started doing better.

-"T-thank you....W-why d-did you h-help me...?" 

The cardboard boy asked while still trembling a little.

-"Shhhh...It's simple. I hate when people are being mean to someone for no reason, it's just who I am.

A "normal" boy who hates society and loves justice that this world can't provide with him enough.

Besides you seem like a very nice kid and I couldn't resist it.

 I couldn't watch you suffer because of someone else's sadistic excuse"

That sentence made Virgil sob again which the new kid shushed by stroking his hair gently and whispering the words of encouragement.

-"...Virgil" - the boy in the hoodie exclaimed.

-"Hmm..? Are you saying your name is Virgil, dear cardboard boy?" Ethan asked getting a small nod from the other.

-"That's a beautiful name you got there, Virgil." The boy in the beanie said with a true smile on his face which made the other one flustered as he blushed under the mask making his "face" reappear with a few red lines on it like in some sort of anime.

-"Awww your cardboard face is really cute!" the beanie boy laughed causing another wave of blood to come to his face making the paper one even more redder with more lines.

-"Here, take my hand, Virgil." Ethan stood up as he pulled his hand close to Virgil giving him the motion to take it and get up.

The boy in the hoodie took it with slight hesitation as the bell rang making them head back to their next class.

Virgil finally had a friend.

Maybe life would be a little bit better now.

_____________________________

Yup, this chapter's a little shorter than the other one, but still....

[buckleyirondad]

No. 15. Into The Unknown “Magical Healing”

A 15-year-old Morgan saves Peter's life, and in doing so, Tony learns her secret.

AO3 Link

Tony remembered the moment that Peter’s life was claimed by Thanos’ lottery. Holding his terrified kid, in his arms, utterly speechless, was something he couldn’t shake.

Even, in the eleven years since Peter returned, alongside the rest of the fallen, the memory still nagged Tony’s mind and tugged on his heart. He struggled to look at Pete, for the first couple of months without his stomach leaping into his throat.

Losing someone and getting them back was a strange process.

Tony forgot, that despite having Peter back, the kid wasn’t invincible.

Looking back, Tony knew he should have tried harder.

Perhaps, he should have convinced Peter that the superhero life was not a path to be taken. Instructed him, or pushed him, to throw away the suit, and move on with his life.

It would have been rich, Iron Man telling Spider-Man to step down, after the biggest battle the universe had ever seen.

Tony didn’t care, he should have taken the chance, and claimed the title of a hypocrite, with pride.

If he’d done that, he wouldn’t have found himself, sitting on the floor on a balcony at the Headquarters, under the moonlight of New York City, cradling Peter, as he died.

It was slower than the first.

Peter was aware, of what was happening, and he seemed to be okay with it.

He didn’t scream plea after plea, to be saved.

He was quiet.

Tony couldn’t believe it, but the silence, was worse, than the pleading; Peter had accepted the fact that he was going to die, and the knot in Tony’s stomach tightened, at the thought.

Peter’s head was tucked up, against Tony’s chest, and his legs were sprawled across his lap.

Tony was holding onto him, as tight as he could without causing him any more harm.

Peter’s eyes were filled with tears, but his pupils were unfocused, staring up at the night sky, “Tony—”

Tony flinched, reaching up to comb a trembling hand through Peter’s curls, “Hey…” He scraped his teeth over his lower lip, “It’s okay, I’m here.”

There was nothing Tony could do.

It was too late to rush Peter over to the Infirmary, he wouldn’t make the trip.

Instead, all Tony could do, was hold him, comfort him, love him, knowing that after he drew his final breath, life would never be the same again.

Peter sunk against his side, “I—” He broke into a violent cough, tugging weakly on Tony’s jacket with his balled fists, he flickered his eyes up, “I’m sorry.”

Tony gently shushed him, “I’ve got you, kiddo, nothing bad is gonna happen,” He bent down, pressing a kiss, in the kid’s curls, “Not when I'm here.”

“I—” Peter stammered, “I-I got the flowers, MJ and I wanted—”

For the wedding.

Tony ducked his head, “I know, I know.”

The balcony doors were thrown open, by heavy hands.

Tony jumped out of his skin, instinctively pulling Peter closer to his chest.

Morgan’s scream followed, “Peter!”

Tony’s heart dropped, “M—”

“Oh—” Morgan collapsed beside them, her cheeks devoid of color, “Shit—” She cried, “Peter?”

Tony reached out, with a single hand, resting it on her arm, “Baby—"

Morgan’s sob tore through her, “Peter?”

“Morgan?” Peter blinked slowly, holding his hand up, “Hey—"

“What—” She locked her hand, around his, “What happened—”

Peter managed a weak smile, trying to soften the blow, “It’s too late.”

“No,” Morgan barked sternly, “No, we can fix this.” She snapped her head up, looking to Tony, “Dad’s here, we’re gonna fix this.”

Tony once carried all six infinity stones, he felt the power of the universe, rage through him, tearing him apart, atom by atom.

It made open-heart surgery in a cave, seem like a papercut.

Looking at his daughter, as his son died in his arms, was worse than both.

He shook his head.

Morgan’s face twisted as she sucked in a sharp breath, “What?”

Tony’s throat ran dry, “I can’t—"

“No,” She doubled over, “You can’t—” She cradled Peter’s bloodied hand to her chest, “You can’t go.”

Tony rubbed his hand, up and down her arm.

Morgan swung her head back, sitting straight, “Okay,” She wiped tears out of her eyes, with the back of her hand, “I—I can fix this.”

Tony frowned, “Honey?”

She rolled back her shoulders, knocking off his hand, “I can do this.”

Tony studied her, “Do what?”

She raised Peter’s hand, and clasped her other hand around it, “Come on..."

Tony had no idea what was going on, which was new for him, “What are you—”

Morgan closed her eyes, drew a shaken breathe, and started murmuring under her breath.

“M—”

Tony stopped, not understand what he was seeing.

A bright yellow light wrapped around Peter’s hand, and whatever it was, was radiating from Morgan.

The light swarmed, surrounding them, in long stripes.

It was like a scene straight out of a Disney movie.

It slowly disappeared, leaving them under the moonlight once more.

Morgan jerked forward, letting go of a pained breath as she opened her eyes.

Tony’s jaw dropped.

Her eyes were glowing an unfamiliar white, she blinked a few times, and they faded back to their usual brown.

Tony stalled his shock, turning to look at Peter.

His eyes were closed, but the gaps between each breath were frequent, and his pulse was stronger.

Friday spoke up, “Boss, my scan indicates that Peter has a 98.7% chance of surviving surgery. I have called for a medical team.”

Morgan dropped down, sitting on her heels, as a look of relief crossed her face.

Tony stared at her, unsure of what to say.

The medical team charged, onto the scene, with a gurney, at the ready.

Cho rushed over, kneeling beside them, “We can take it from here, Tony.”

Tony turned to her, with teary eyes, “Okay,” He nodded, “Be careful.”

The team lifted Peter, out of Tony’s arms, onto a gurney.

Morgan stood, letting her hand fall from her brother’s as they rolled him away, she seemed unsteady on her feet.

Tony cautiously reached out, locking an arm around her, making sure she didn’t take a nosedive.

She looked up, blurry-eyed, “I’m okay, Dad.”

“Sure,” He squeezed her close, “Let’s go and grab something to drink, he’s gonna be in surgery for a while.”

Tony wasn’t sure what happened, but it seemed his daughter could do with a glucose boost.

Morgan stepped away, walking in front of him as they headed down to one of the living areas.

Tony bought two cans of full-sugar cola from the vending machine, “Here,” He handed it over to her.

“Thanks,” She opened it, and downed it, without taking a second to breathe.

“You know what,” Tony leaned over, handing her the other, “Take this one.”

She nodded her gratitude, turning away to drink the other, a little slower than the first.

Tony perched, on the edge of an armchair.

Everybody else were on their way up, and it wouldn’t be long until he was met with a wall of questions about Peter.

Morgan saved him, and he wasn’t even sure how.

They were only at the Headquarters, to collect a few boxes from a Laboratory. Tony got the alert about Peter, while Morgan was getting coffee, and he hadn’t had the time to leave a note, Friday must have told her.

They were seriously in the right place, at the right time.

“Um...” Morgan rubbed the nape of her neck, “Is he gonna be okay?”

Tony nodded, putting his phone away, “It looks like it.”

She paced, back and forth, “Are you—” She pointed, “Are you gonna—"

“Gonna ask about the light show?” He scrunched his nose, “I’m processing it.”

Morgan wiped her clammy hands together, she hovered by the window, looking out, “Same.”

“Honey, I’ve seen everything,” He began, “Aliens, Gods - Your brother and I have been to space.” He held up his hand, “You know all this, and Pete having mutated gene still surprises me, but this—”

She turned, arms crossed, “Me having powers?”

He breathed, “It’s different.”

Terrifying was also another word.

Two superpowered kids were not something Tony had anticipated.

He slouched his shoulders, “What is this?”

“I’m inhuman…” She told him, “I think.”

He raised an eyebrow, “You think?”

“You know how there’s been an influx of mutated cases, since…” She stammered, “Thanos, Uncle Bruce, and you…used the stones?”

Tony nodded, “Yeah.”

“I think…one of those…changed me—”

“Of course,” He stood up, “How long—have you known—”

She answered, fast, “Two years.”

“Two years?” Tony squealed, “You've known since you were thirteen?”

“Yeah,” She confirmed, “I-I—I found an injured bird, and it kinda just happened, it was terrifying—”

Tony softened his tone, “You should have come to us, baby.”

“I didn’t wanna worry you,” She smiled, “I’ve done a few times, you know? With Peter mostly, whenever he’s sleeping off injuries.” She lifted her shoulder, in a half shrug, “Nobody noticed.”

Tony grinned, “Oh, we kinda did.”

“Huh?”

He walked over, pulling her into a side hug, “We were wondering why Peter’s healing gene was working faster than usual,” He pressed a kiss against her cheek, “Seems like he has a guardian angel.”

[combat-wombatus]

uHm if you do these and if you want to do it I’d love a bnha matchup <3?

• my name is Aubri, I’m bi but prefer MHA boys tbh. I go by she/her, too.

• I’m a very Gryffindor person. (Sorry if you don’t know Harry Potter - 😖)

• I’m a June cancer, and I have ADHD and anxiety. My anxiety can be literally crippling somedays, but it’s gotten better overtime.

• I’m a bit of a class clown and usually just a clown 🤡 but that’s irrelevant. My teachers all hate me but like school-wise I do well so we have a love and mostly hate relationship 🤧

• I’m usually the ‘entertaining’ friend, in elementary the popular kids would invite me to play games with them because, “you’re funny” and it was like the biggest achievement ever 😭👍🏻 then they’d ignore me but that’s another therapy session

• I’m usually made fun of by people for being ‘weird’ and ‘insane’. Like all through elementary everyone thought I’d be a criminal when I grew up JUST BECAUSE I HAD UNDIAGNOSED ADHD - I hate it here 😐🦶🏻

• I’ve always been super into crime stories/true crime (where my anxiety comes from, I’m always worried about a pesky serial killer just killing me. It’s usually being kidnapped tho lmao) so I knew and still know like all these murder facts and sometimes I’d just randomly be like;

“Hey did you know it takes 12 hours and 2 days to dissolve a body in acid?”

or

“If you bury a dead deer over a dead body you buried deep in the ground, when police dogs sniff it and people dig they’ll just think it was the deer and won’t dig any farther.”

• So maybe people had a reason to be scared of me and think I’ll be a criminal someday, i dunno.

• I love love love reading and writing, and also debating. The things I’ve wanted to be when I grow up are basically: Dog shelter worker, actress, FBI agent, politician, and a writer. But usually I just want to do something that makes a positive impact on people. Like i wanted to be an FBI agent to solve crimes for people. I wanted to be a politican so I could actually help a lot of people. The entertainment industry also seemed like a way to make people happy. Idk, but then I decided I couldn’t be a politican at 10 because they were all corrupt and to be one I would have to be too. 😫🤌🏻 we love some good childhood angst

• the only subjects I’ve ever excelled at are ELA and Social Studies aka History, and Math I can’t do to save my life. ELA comes easy for me and I usually don’t have to work that hard and/or get too stressed over it. But I always get the meanest teachers for some reason. For example, one time I did my final essay for like 30% of my grade in 30 minutes the day it was due and I got an A+ 🦟🦗🦟🦗

• Uhhh id describe myself as a pretty loyal friend, I’m a ride or die type of girl. A story from my childhood that summarizes it pretty well is when I was in 2nd grade my friend wet her pants and she didn’t want to go to the nurse for it alone so I peed my pants so I could go with her and she wouldn’t have to be alone. Like, you know, a professional problem solver

• and I have genuinely attacked people for fucking with my friends but don’t snitch pls 🕳🏃‍♀️💨

• But also just anyone, people at my school tend to come to me with their problems for me to either help solve them by reasoning, or just to confront the other person like the bad bleep I am 😈😈

• I also have a huge daydreaming problem, it’s literally maladaptive daydreaming. So paired with my ADHD I don’t get shit done like ever.

• I have really high empathy levels I guess, like I always say hi to everyone I see on the street, especially if they look sad 😔 I’ve done it ever since I was a little kiddo.

• My fashion sense is very much a preppy/alt style. I wear those ripped tights and fishnets, I also have the MOST BIZARRE JEWELRY- like who allowed me to buy the gummy worm glittery earrings, hmmm???????? and those Mary Janes???????

• But I love crew necks and pleated skirts so I always obide by the National “hoes dont get cold” policy 🇺🇸😫🦅

• I wanna move somewhere someday, I don’t want to stay in America for very long

• I can speak Latin, French, and my native language which is English.

• My music taste varies, but my all-time favorite artists who all of their music they’ve ever put out has been my favorites are, Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, and Conan Gray.

• I no-joke have a sign in my front yard that says;

In ✍️ this ✍️ house we ✍️ don’t ✍️ worship Jesus ✍️ but instead ✍️ Melanie ✍️ Martinez

• My favorite shows are MHA (duh), The Promised Neverland, and Malcolm in The Middle.

• and I’m not going to tell you what I prefer in a partner, because that ruins the fun 😤

• but I will say I cannot be friends with someone who doesn’t really make me laugh. Like I’m used to doing most of the talking in convos but if you’re just boring I’m sorry it’s nothing personal but no thanks 😐✌🏻

• About my physical appearance, I have fluffy n curly brown hair, but when it’s in the sunlight it looks sort of brown but golden yk?? It’s shoulder length :) I have bleach blonde streaks in the front. I like wearing eyeliner most days, too. I’m pretty average size/ on the skinnier side. Kinda high key inscure abt my body bc I got flat shamed in elementary EVEN THOUGH I HAVE TIDDIES NOW- whatever 😤🙄. I also have crystal type blue eyes, and I do have fairly big eyes. But, like, not weirdly big. A good big. My cheekbones are ALWAYS PRESENT so sometimes I get called a Tim Burton character but it’s cool ig ☠️☠️ oh and I’m kinda short. I’m 5’3, even though my doctor said I’d be 5’7. I feel like I was either tricked by the doctor or someone just stole my destined height while I was asleep. It’s probably cause I didn’t keep an eye out for Selener 👁 😔😔

• I’m a definite night owl, like all of my energy comes at night which really sucks cuz I can’t do much since everyone else is asleep.

• My love language is touch starved so I’ve never figured it out ✌🏻😗🔫

• but I am an attention whore so idk 😏

• I’m a huge introvert with social anxiety. It isn’t as bad as it used to be cuz I used to not be able to like go to restaurants but now I’m much better.

• I’m a huge history person, mostly like sad history LMFAO. Uh but a lot of my hyperfixations have been on history. Some examples are The Roman Empire, Julius Caesar himself, Anne Frank, The Titanic, the Black Plauge, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Slavery in the US, Joan of Arc, and just a lot more. I always love talking about these things if someone would let me ramble to them but no one ever does 😖 it also got to a point where for all these subjects I’d go to the library and try to find a book on them but usually I’d either have already read it or I’d read it and know all the information.

• I’m super into Greek Mythology, I have 7 books filled with the stories, I’m going to Greece maybe this summer to see it’s history, and named my hamster Aphrodite but we call her Aphie. I also will talk about this forever and ever if you let me.

• My favorite color is yellow, my favorite food is literally nothing I never have an appetite, my favorite planet is Saturn, favorite song is Tag Your It by Melanie Martinez atm but it changes like everyday.

• Music is a huge safe-space for me if I’m feeling down or having a panic attack. It calms me down n is overall my coping mechanism 💃🏻💃🏻

• Biggest fear is spiders, even looking at one gives me a panic attack and I cannot sleep at all for that night, adding to my insomniac ass 🧎🏻‍♂️🏌️‍♀️

• I’m mature for my age, I don’t exactly like hanging around kids my age and I get along better with older crowds.

• i don’t like conventional dates, (I PROMISE IM NOT TRYING TO SOUND ‘QUIRKY’ AHAHA) I kind of like having a best-friend type partner more so dates that aren’t as romantic as like the movies or a fancy restaurant suite me better. My dream date is playing Monopoly on my bedroom floor 🦧

• Also I hate getting gifts. End of story. If someone gets me a gift like awe that’s nice but never again, I’d prefer to get you one. Especially in a romantic partner 😐 i keep a journal of my friends’ interests and hobbies so I can get them the perfect gifts for their bdays and Christmas’s. Been doing this ever since 4th grade.

• Though I don’t have much actual experience with relationships🧍🏻‍♀️

• I’m a huge believer in ‘family isn’t blood, it’s who you make it’ because I have a pretty shitty family life and my childhood has been trash. My friends are my family to me.

• Also if my friends don’t like my romantic partner ✨ GOODBYE ✨. Sorry girlie, bros before hoes 🦨💨

I was going to put more but I’m so so sorry for how LONG AND COMPLICATED THIS IS- idk if this is a autobiography or a matchup at this point 🤦‍♀️ don’t feel pressured to do this and if matchups aren’t open IM SO SO SORRY LMAO uh yeah ilysm 🦎🎂🧃

OMG ASLDFKJHASLKDJH

🥺 i’m so sorry bby but matchups are closed ;-; my 100 follower event was over while ago (i guess i should’ve specified that in the asks i answered LKSAJHFLKJAHDS SORRY IT’S MY BAD) but you sound so cool?? i had a lot of the same hyperfixations interests (heLLO helen keller was badass AF and the roman empire was messed up but still v cool, anne frank was awesome too) i also may or may not have wanted to be a politician when i was younger alskdjfhalkdhj but now i’m just 🧍🏻‍♀️ lost and anyways you’re amazing >.< love u lots and don’t forget to drink water and eat a lil something hehe :p 

[lovemesomesurveys]

“spin me around like you did when we first met”

What do you have to shave more often: legs or armpits? I rarely have to shave my legs because hair doesn’t really grow there.

If someone gave you a broken car, would you be able to fix it by yourself? I could take it somewhere or ask family members who work on cars, but no I have no idea about car repair. I know nothing. I’d like to not be given a broken car in the first place, though...

Have you ever seen a tornado? Nooo.

Do you have any pet chickens? No.

Does the color red look good on you? I don’t think I look good in anything in general.

Do you have any of your Easter candy left over still? Ew, it’s November.

Do you have blue eyes? No, I wish.

Do you have big or small ears? Small.

Do/did you enjoy it when your school would have pep rallies? I did enjoy the pep rallies.

Do you leave everything to the last minute? I’m a PROcrastinator.

Can you hula hoop? Nope.

What color is your keyboard? Black with white lettering.

Do you know someone who has two different colored eyes? No.

Do you like meatloaf? Meh, it’s alright. I like it paired with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Do you pray before every meal? No. I tend to forget. :/

“I’ve been waiting all day, for you to call me baby”

Do you have any goats? No. I don’t live on a farm, so I don’t have chickens or goats or any farm animals.

Can you stand on your tippy toes? No.

Do you live across from a corn field? No, I live across from other houses.

Is your driveway stone? Nope, it’s cement.

Do you like the lemonade Vitamin Water? Yeah. I haven’t had that in a long time, though.

Which is worse: losing your memory or have to be in the hospital for 3 days. Uh, I’d say losing my memory... that’s kinda a huge deal.

Would you ever go to a Lady Gaga concert? Sure. I bet it would be fun.

How many black tank tops do you own? I have a couple black undershirts. 

How many pages do you have bookmarked? I have 8 on the bookmarks bar at the top, but that’s it.

Is your age an odd or even number? Odd.

How often do you use the toilet? Uhhh I don’t know, however many times I need to.

Is your best friend older or younger than you? My mom is 23 years older than me.

What color is the back arrow at the top of the page for you? Black.

How many shirts of yours are red? A few.

Have you heard the song Brokenhearted by Karmin? Yeah.

“Tell me how to get back, back to summer paradise with you”

What's something in you room that starts with the letter P? Pillows.

Are you good at pulling pranks? I’m not a prankster.

Do you play Xbox? No.

Can you do a black flip? Nope.

Were you ever on student council in school? No.

Do you have any pets? I have a doggo.

Do you hate when a teacher calls on you and you don't know the answer? That always used to bother me and make me super self-conscious, yes. <<<

When you're sad, do you only listen to sad music? If I listen to music at all, yes. 

Have you ever touched a fish? No.

Is your mom's birthday in February? Nope.

Are you hungry right now? No, I had ramen not too long ago.

When's the last time you laughed? Yesterday.

What does your dream prom dress look like? My prom dress was white with gold specks.

Do you still have a Facebook? Yeah.

Do you like Twix candy? Yes. I don’t recall the last time I had one, though.

“We are, the same”.

Do you play the game Draw Something on your iPhone etc..? I used to be obsessed with that game. It was pretty popular a few years ago.

Does your house have two kitchens? No.

Are you a slow or fast runner? Slow.

True or false: You have brown eyes. True.

If you had dark hair, would you get blonde highlights? I had blonde highlights for several years.

Do you have a nickname that you don't enjoy? No.

Do you enjoy chicken noodle soup? Nah.

Do you hate missing school? Catching up on what I missed could be annoying, especially if I had to miss more than a day. 

Do you own animal print pants? No.

One of the best feelings in the world is turning in a test, agree? One of the best feelings in the world is not having to even take a test in the first place. <<< Hahah, for real.

Do you use tanning lotion? No.

Have you ever been hurt and then had someone tell you to suck it up? Yes.

Can people read your feelings like an open book? My mom is pretty good at that.

Do you know someone who has lost their entire memory? No.

Do you like turnips? No.

“Sometimes the only person that understands me is my friend that I tell nothing to”

Do you think your life would change if you were on the cover of a magazine? Yikes, I would definitely not want to be on a cover of a magazine. 

Do you really think Monday's are that bad? They’re just another day for me now since I’m not in school or have a job.

Is there a movie coming out that you will be seeing for sure? There’s several I want to see whenever they do come out; dates keep getting pushed back.

Are you tired of the question "Are you single" on surveys? No, the ones about relationships annoy me cause I am single.

Are you sad that this month is almost over? It’s only the 5th.

Do you think you could give up eating desserts for a month? Probably. I’d just miss cheesecake.

Do you think your life would change if you switched places with a nerd? I am a nerd.

Do you think you could jump for an hour straight? No. Or at all.

Do you have a pillow pet? No, but I have a small keychain version. It’s a giraffe, of course.

Have you ever told someone something secret and then they told people? Yes.

Do you like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal? Yesss. It’s one of my favorites. 

Do you like ice coffee or it hot? Hotttt.

1-10 : how tired are you? 10.

Have you ever thought about being a rock star? No.

“Let’s be the same crazy people we used to be”

Have you ever woken up to a good morning letter beside you? No.

What color is the roof on your house? Brown.

Will you be seeing the movie the Hunger Games? I saw all of them.

Was your first job being a babysitter? That’s the only “job” I’ve had. I only babysat my brother and cousins, but I did get paid, so.

Is your nose stuffy right now? No, not at the moment, thankfully.

Would you ever get your nails done? I only got them done once. It was for my 8th grade promotion, so it’s been quite a long time. I don’t care to get them done and I don’t have any nails to get done anyway, ha.

Don't you hate when you type and get letters mixed around? It’s annoying.

Have you ever not accepted someone's apology? I’m pretty forgiving.

Does your car have a sun roof? I don’t have a car; I don’t drive.

When's the last time you went fishing? I’ve only done it once back in like 2005.

Have you ever thought about being a movie director? No.

When you get older, do you think you'll have short hair or long hair? I like my long hair, but a part of me does want to cut it short because I just don’t have the energy or motivation to manage or do anything with it.

Would you ever spend over $100 at one store? It happens.

Have you ever snuck out of your house late at night? Nope. I never snuck out of my house. I never wanted or felt the need to do so. 

Have you ever danced on the road when it was wet? No...

“Hey, I just met you and this crazy, but here’s my number - so call me maybe”

Do you prefer the sunset or sunrise? Both are pretty.

Have you ever seen a tadpole? I feel like I probably have when I was a kid.

Do you ever miss Myspace? Nah.

Are you currently wearing a sweatshirt? No.

Do you like fudge sundaes? Sure.

Are you one of those people who wear sunglasses inside? I don’t wear sunglasses, ever.

Least favorite month? May-August.

Do you own a yellow umbrella? I don’t have an umbrella.

True or false: There is a 4 in the current time. True, it’s 4:01AM.

Has anyone ever said "Hello?" and then it all fell into place? Huh?

How much money do you usually receive for your birthday if any? My nana sends $20-$25 every birthday and Christmas. I sometimes get money from other family members as well.

How many famous people have you met? Two.

How long is your favorite song? I couldn’t choose just one favorite song.

Was it sunny out today? It’s only 4 in the morning, so it’s currently cold and dark outside. It’s going to be 81F today, though, so it will be sunny later.

Do you like classical music? I enjoy some of it, especially piano pieces. 

[tealvz]

Make Like a Bubble (And Fade Away)

(AO3) Summary: Despite everything, Remy finally makes a friend. He tries not to let this one slip his grasp too. Warning(s): Near drowning, vomiting, bullying(??) Pairing(s): Remile (platonic or romantic it’s up to you lol) Character(s): Remy, Emile, Deceit (Ethan in this) Word Count: 7188 A/N: sooo uhh here’s the story i said i was writing like 3 months ago sdhfsjkdfjkdsfh sorry it took so long, i got kind of self conscious about it… but now enough time has elapsed so that i dont really care that much anymore lmfao also… just a reminder… i dont really write that much so dont bully me too hard ple ase dssdhfjkdsh hope you enjoy tho! :)

A yawn escaped Remy’s mouth, and he held a hand over it in a feeble attempt to disguise it.

Today it seemed like the lights in the coffee shop were especially bright (he supposed it was due to the gloomy weather outside), so he’d opted to wear his glasses inside as well. Business was slow, since the hellish rush that were the hours after school let out had already passed. Remy found peace in the quietness of the shop, his only other companions being an old lady with tea chatting quietly with her husband and a college student clack clack clacking away at her keyboard in the corner next to the fern.

The bell atop the door jingled as someone walked in. Remy shut off his phone and stood up from the stool he was crossing his legs on, placing the device under the countertop.

“What can I get for you, cutie?” Sure, this method of greeting had gotten him in many heated conversations with his manager over the years, so he dialed it back from using it on every single person that entered the store to cute old ladies and cute boys.

And boy was he cute. And boy did he stand out. Remy had never met a person with dyed pink hair before (although he did have a period in middle school where he seriously considered it), but the vibrant color was fading so that it gave way to his natural brown. He was wearing a cardigan, and, perhaps most pressingly, was soaking wet.

The boy took off one of his earbuds, digging around in a pocket of his cardigan with a tongue sticking out. He was creating puddles on the hard wax floor that Remy would have to clean up (read: leave it for the next guy to deal with). “I’ll just take a large black coffee!” He chirped, seemingly unfazed by the nickname. Remy quickly punched the order in.

“Can I get your name?” Remy asked once more.

“It’s Emile,” The stranger said. Remy typed in ‘Emil’ into the machine and allowed a white sticker to print out.

A faint purple glow surrounded one of the large cups stacked near the register. It grew in intensity as Remy levitated it towards his person, slapping the sticker onto it lazily as it spun away from him. He was counting the $2.57 he’d have to give back in change to Emile as a similar purple aura lifted the coffee pitcher behind him.

“Oh… Wow,” Emile mumbled, causing Remy to glance up. His light brown eyes were trained on the scene unfolding in front of him, coffee pitcher pouring into a white cup all by itself. Streaks of yellow light accompanied the purple aura occasionally.

The finished drink landed in his hand alongside a lid to cap it. He settled the coffee pitcher safely on the table as he handed the drink and change to Emile.

“What’s your size cap?” Emile asked, leaning in ever so slightly as he took the items. “My mom has powers too, but they don’t look nearly as pretty as yours!”

“Well, I don’t do cars,” Remy listed. “I think the biggest it’ll go is people,” He omitted the fact that the only person he’d done it on was himself.

“My mom’s can only go up to jars… Things like that. Hers don’t have any colors though,” Emile nodded, more to himself than to Remy he supposed. “Imagine you could levitate buildings and stuff? Li-Like freaking Superman?! How awe- I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be that cool now that I think about it...”

“Nah, I think it’d be pretty cool,” Remy absently tapped his finger to his chin. “Lifting up the Statue of Liberty and just dunking it into the sea for kicks. That sounds kinda rad. But I guess it’d suck if it were some kind of like… Maniac.”

Emile nodded again solemnly. “With great power comes great responsibility,” He said. “In the wise words of Uncle Ben.”

“Sounds like a nice guy,” Remy conceded.

“... It was a reference,” Emile laughed to himself quietly. “Anyways! Thank you, I don’t want to keep you away from your work for too long!”

Remy glanced around the near empty Starbucks. The elderly couple were getting up to leave. “No, it’s okay, you really aren’t. It usually doesn’t get too busy unless it’s like, 3 or 4 o’clock.”

A grin spread across Emile’s face. “Ah! Good thing I usually stay behind a little later then,” He laughed to himself again, looking down and one hand playing with the wires on his earbuds. “Will you be here again tomorrow?”

“All week, babe,” Remy responded.

“Cool! That’s cool,” Emile mentioned that he had a bus to catch soon, and he apologized for not sticking around longer. Remy in response told him not to worry about it, and truth be told he had never met anyone who apologized for not being able to hang out with him more. Most of his friendships had ultimately ended with the other party always slowly but surely trimming him out of their life.

So Remy sat back down on the stool as Emile left the shop, bell jingling to signal his departure. His phone sat forgotten underneath the table as he leaned into the palm of his hand. Remy watched the fluorescent lights of the Starbucks filter into his vision as his glasses slipped further down his nose, raindrops falling against the clear windows allowing him to close his eyes…

-

As Remy fell into the depths of the ocean, feeling his body catapult deep into an underwater cave, light entered his vision.

The dream ended as soon as it began, and Remy stirred at someone gently shaking him awake. He blinked sleepily from behind his glasses, and he used them to hold back his hair as he looked around in bewilderment. Various objects were hovering in the air surrounding him, a few couple cups, lids, spare change and a Sharpie. The purple glow surrounding them faded as Remy became more aware of his surroundings, and they all dropped to the floor.

“Wha’ time,” Remy mumbled, rubbing his right eye as he looked to the person who woke him up. The lights were way too bright, lines and starbursts nearly blinding him. He put his glasses back on.

“Almost 6,” His coworker responded. He had a disinterested expression on his face as he tied his green apron around his waist. “I’m guessing it wasn’t very busy?”

Remy felt hot all over. He abruptly stood up, the world spinning slightly before everything stabilized. “No, I don’t think so.”

He left before he could hear his coworker’s reply. As soon as he collected his bag from the back room, Remy realized he’d forgotten to bring an umbrella. While this elicited a strong swear from him (mentally), Remy decided not to dwell on it for too long and proceeded to exit the establishment only mildly annoyed with himself.

It wasn’t pouring, but it wasn’t drizzling either. Remy took a deep breath, holding his leather shoulder bag over his head as he lightly jogged towards the bus stop. He was not going to look like an absolute clown sprinting and slipping on a puddle. Or worse, just flat out passing out in the middle of the sidewalk. No ma’am. Not today.

As he rounded the corner however, a familiar stranger sitting on the bus stop’s bench made his jog slow.

This wasn’t a stop with a roof covering the bench, so the boy with pink hair was even more soaked than when he’d come into the shop for the first time. He was holding a mint colored umbrella with his knees, shielding not his head but the yellow notepad he was scribbling furiously on. Remy wondered how he could see with his glasses dripping water down the lenses like that.

“Hey,” Remy announced his arrival, pace slowing to a walk as he approached. Emile jumped at his voice, turning to look at him with wide eyes as his pen finally stopped writing. However, as soon as their gazes met the tension in his shoulders relaxed, and he gave Remy a sheepish smile.

“H-Hello again!” Emile said cheerfully, like he was desperately trying to hide the shaking of his voice. “Gosh, what abhorrent weather, huh?”

“True that,” Remy plopped down on the bench next to him and shifted his bag so it rested on his lap. Raindrops dripped down his dark hair. “Bus never came?”

Emile laughed to himself and rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, no it did. Several times probably. I think I got a little carried away…”

Remy glances down at his notepad, filled with lines and lines of tiny text all squished together as to conserve space. He seemed to be almost running out of pages. “You don’t say?”

“I-It was important, so!! I just wanted to take a little extra time-“

“An hour.”

Emile blinked in bewilderment at him. “Excuse me?”

“You left the shop an hour ago,” Remy elaborated.

Emile swiftly checked the time on his (waterproof) watch and groaned loudly. “Ah, dangit, mom’s gonna kill me! … Oh, wait, do you need this?”

Remy stared at him as he scooted closer to him on the bench, putting his notebook back into his bag (it was shaped like a cheeseburger, Remy realized. A really soggy cheeseburger). He lifted his umbrella from between his knees with one hand and held it up over the two of them.

Although, truthfully, it wasn’t working that well. The umbrella only covered Remy’s right side as the left was exposed to the relentless rain, but he still gave a soft thank you regardless.

After a moment’s silence (Remy checked his pocket for his phone, except it wasn’t there. He cursed his forgetful brain for the second time as he now had to settle for staring awkwardly at the cars passing in front of them), Remy opted to speak up.

“... What were you writing?” He asked.

Emile gave a noncommittal shrug, shifting the umbrella so that it was covering Remy more. Remy frowned at this, pushing Emile’s hand back to where it was hovering between the two of them.

“It’s kind of dumb-,” Emile cut himself off with a sneeze.

“Bless you,”

“Tha-”

“And nah, I’m sure it isn’t,” Remy reassured him. “Anything that makes a guy stay outside in the rain for an extra hour probably isn’t that dumb.”

It seemed as though this was enough for Emile’s expression to brighten, and he immediately sat straight up on the bench while unknowingly bumping Remy in the glasses with his umbrella. “Well!! If you must know,” Emile began. “I actually write just a teensy, weensy bit,”

He emphasized this with a pinch of his fingers before he leaned backwards on his free arm. “Basically, I thought of this idea where a girl named Elizabeth gains the ability to travel through different dimensions as a result of her ingesting some bad salmon! On her journey, she meets a cute girl who, plot twist, is actually a fish! And then, they’d both get married in a meadow on another dimension’s Mars, and she’d have salmon as a part of the catering on their wedding day which is where Fish-Girl, horrified, would be disgusted with Elizabeth due to the very notion of consuming salmon because of her ancestors, who-”

Emile took a deep breath of air, red coloring his cheeks as Remy tried to retain the information that had just been spilled out in front of him. Elizabeth was a constant, there was a fish in there somewhere, multiverse…

“Elizabeth doesn’t know she’s a salmon,” Remy asked.

“Well, actually, salmon isn’t a specific type of fish. It encompasses a wide variety of them (I read that once on Buzzfeed), and no, that revelation comes in the second act,” Emile pushed up his glasses. “It’s kind of a metaphor on how you may not know your partner as well as you do, and the value one should place on communication in a relationship.”

It seemed as though pure, unadulterated happiness was radiating off the boy next to him, and it took everything within Remy to keep his smirk at bay. Emile seemed content, despite him sniffing occasionally (because of the rain) and his fingers twitching (because of the cold) as he played with the sleeve of his cardigan.

“It’s okay if you didn’t follow that,” Emile laughed hollowly, tone suddenly turning self deprecating. “I know my words are ah, kinda a handful! To keep track of that is.”

“I don’t follow anything anyone says,” Remy blurted out. “Like, ever. So it’s cool.” Emile blinked, opening his mouth to respond before a bus suddenly pulled up in front of them as though it materialized out of the raindrops. It wasn’t Remy’s bus, but Emile stood up from the bench and tugged his school bag over his shoulders.

“Oh! Here, you can have this!” Emile exclaimed abruptly. He jerkily shoved the umbrella towards Remy, who only stared at him for a few moments in bewilderment.

“Uh, what?” Remy said dumbly.

“You can have it! I’ll just tell my mom I lost it,” Emile looked off to the side, rain cascading down his face in rivulets. Remy thought he looked like he desperately needed it more than he did. “I-It’s as thank you! For talking to me.”

Remy began, “I don’t really need it-” He was cut off by Emile all but throwing the umbrella towards him as the bus driver honked loudly.

“I’lltakeitbackfromyoutomorrowbye!” Emile sprinted up the steps of the bus and Remy was left fumbling to gain a grip on the mint colored accessory, it clattering to the ground as the bus pulled away.

Remy stretched out his cold, numb fingers towards the umbrella. Upon closer examination, there was a little tag that looked suspiciously like a yellow Post-It note stuck to the inside with clear tape, the words “Emile Picani! =)” scrawled across it in barely legible handwriting.

Ah… There was an extra ‘e’ at the end of ‘Emile’. He’d keep that in mind for next time.

-

Remy’s head slammed against the underside of the countertop when he woke, and he let out a hiss of pain as he dropped back to the floor again. His glasses, hovering in the air in front of him, promptly fell onto his face and proceeded to clatter to the floor. A couple other items followed suit, including but not limited to: An old Sharpie, some spare change, and Emile’s umbrella.

“Good morning,” A voice called curtly. Remy, not moving from his spot on the floor, turned towards the darkness under the countertop and let out a groan.

“Oh, don’t even right now, Ethan.”

Ethan shrugged, slipping off of (Remy’s) barstool easily. He stepped towards Remy, crouching down and picking up the umbrella. “Didn’t peg you for a teal kinda guy,” Ethan said, turning it over in his hands.

Remy snapped his attention to Emile’s umbrella, and hastily began trying to scramble to his knees. “P-Put that down, man” He huffed, gripping the edge of the countertop as the world spun around him. Ugh, he got up too quick. “That isn’t mine.”

A frown appeared on Ethan’s face. “You… Stole it…?”

“No I- I didn’t,” Remy wobbled over to Ethan, grateful for the fact the only customer in at the moment being the same college student from yesterday. With a quick hand that totally wasn’t shaking at all, he snatched the umbrella from his hands with a scowl.

His scowl, however, quickly softened into an expression of anxiousness. He bit his lip as he leaned against the counter. “Hey, you didn’t see a guy with pink hair come in here, by any chance?”

Ethan shrugged. “I just got here. They totally shouldn’t give me more hours for the afternoon when the only guy working here keeps passing ou-”

“Ah ah ah!” Remy jabbed the end of the umbrella at Ethan’s shoulder. He let out an offended hiss in response. “That’s enough outta you, sis.”

As though he hadn’t just assaulted his coworker, Remy continued, “He had pink hair and glasses,” Remy explained this by making circles in front of his eyes to imitate glasses, as though he wasn’t already wearing a pair. “And his school bag was, like, a burger or something. He-”

“By any chance was his name Emile?” Ethan interrupted. 

Blinking, Remy nodded. “Wow, that was easy.”

“Yeah, he totally blends in at school,” Ethan said bluntly. “Like, I barely ever notice him.”

“Really?”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Whatever, just,” Remy, exasperated, shoved the umbrella towards him. “Give this to him, please? He was supposed to come in today but I think I missed him.”

Ethan eyed him warily before saying, “He wasn’t at school today, so I’m guessing he probably didn’t come in anyways,” Although he took the umbrella from Remy regardless.

A sudden pang of concern hit Remy as he recalled the boy’s creative episode in the rain the day prior. Maybe he should have thrown the umbrella back at him (Wait, no, it would’ve just hit the bus instead…).

“Does he skip a lot?” Remy asked, trying not to let the worry show from behind his glasses.

Ethan kept feeling at the handle of the umbrella, like rubbing it was going to unearth some ancient rune that he needed to discover. “Hm… I don’t think so. He cares a lot about his grades, definitely,” Ethan, smile suddenly appearing on his face, turned the umbrella once more. “Wow, this is bumpy.”

“... Alright I’m gonna go now,” Remy said, walking into the back room. “Make sure he gets it.” He added, only slightly threatening. “Like, seriously.”

“Yeah, yeah, definitely,” Ethan mumbled. His attention was diverted from the umbrella to a customer walking into the store, his voice fading into the background as Remy walked, “Hi, how may I help you…”

Remy shook his head, pushing open the door to the back room. Well, it wasn’t like Ethan was totally untrustworthy or anything.

-

The next day it was raining again (Because of course it was, it was Florida), but Remy was, surprisingly, not fast asleep when Ethan walked in for his shift.

The first thing he noticed was the mint umbrella in his hand, and Remy’s neutral expression very quickly turned into a frown.

“Hey-”

“He said I could keep it,” Ethan explained cryptically.

“He what-” Remy, who had been busy questioning Ethan’s moral integrity all day already, tried not to scream as his coworker briskly entered the back room to deposit his things. Because his mind was already going to the very imperative questions of Well, why didn’t he come in today? Didn’t he give me the umbrella? Am I being #clingy right now? 

“Also, he had to monitor for a teacher after school for parent teacher conference, so he couldn’t come today.” Ethan emerged from the back room, in the middle of tying his apron around his waist. “He told me to tell you that.”

“Are you two friends or something?”

Ethan moved to the register after tying his apron and pulled out his phone. “Eh… We just have Latin together.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. He already has a bunch of them, so I’m sure he’s fine without me.”

For some reason that statement made a knot twist in Remy’s stomach, but he ignored it. Because jealousy was not a good look, and Remy would not be caught dead looking so desperate for friendship he saw in a dude he’d only known for one day.

So he made himself a coffee (so that he wouldn’t fall asleep waiting for the bus) and ended his shift. He glanced back at Ethan as he neared the front door, still toying with the umbrella handle under the counter while on his phone, and realized that he’d once again forgotten his umbrella at home.

-

Emile came back in for a black coffee. Remy spelled his name correctly.

They talked briefly, Remy questioning his decision on the umbrella, and Emile just gave that same nervous laugh. He was wearing a sweater today, with a cartoon cat on it shaped like a cookie.

“He seemed to like it a lot, so I thought I’d give it to him!” Emile heaved his backpack up so that it rested more comfortably on his shoulders, smiling so brightly at Remy he felt like he needed to put his glasses back on. “I didn’t know you two worked together!”

Remy smiled. “Small world.”

He couldn’t stay for long this time, because he was going to be hanging out with his friends, Remy learned. They were going to be studying for a test together at the library, which didn’t sound that fun to Remy, but Emile seemed rather ecstatic about the whole thing.

Before he left the shop, Emile paused at the front door and turned his head around. “Oh! I almost forgot to tell you! I was working on the story again yesterday: Elizabeth and Ella (her girlfriend) make up afterwards! But the story leaves off at a cliffhanger when a meteor strikes the wedding reception. Whether or not it was premeditated is still to be determined.”

Remy took a long sip of his coffee as Emile was talking. “Love that for them.”

Emile grinned, pushing up his glasses and waving as he exited the coffee shop. Remy decided to begin wiping down the counter while waiting for his shift to end.

-

“You haven’t seen Steven Universe?!”

Remy picked at the inside of his ear with a pinky finger. “I mean. I’ve probably seen like, half of an episode. Or something.”

“Ohmygosh, you have to watch it-” Emile abruptly cut himself off, realization dawning on his face. A wide grin spread across his blank expression, and he pulled the hem of his sweater down to gesture at it.

“Look! Remy, this is Steven Universe!” Emile animatedly went through the effort of pointing each colorful character out on his sweater, going as far as to explain their faults, character arcs, backstories…

“I like this one,” Remy said as Emile was taking a breath, and pointed at a girl in large comical glasses. “She looks pretty cool.”

“That’s Connie,” Emile continued, Despite him being in the middle of explaining… One of the colorful ones before Remy interjected. “She’s very inquisitive yet cautious, and I think one of the most interesting traits about her is her feelings of loneliness.”

Remy quirked an eyebrow at him, absently rubbing the countertop with a cloth. “She doesn’t look very lonely here,” He said, poking at the character on his shirt. She was grinning with her eyebrows set in a determined expression. Also she was carrying a huge sword.

“Well, due to her father’s job, there is a lot of instability in her life,” Emile elaborated, leaning forwards so that his elbows were on the counter and a hand was propping his chin up. “Simply put, her family moves around a lot, and thus she finds it difficult to hold onto friendships.”

“That’s… Kind of depressing,” Remy said, an odd knot of sympathy forming in his throat. “For a kids show.”

“Well, I guess, but it’s just so… So frickin cool how realistic that is,” He sighed dreamily, and he let his head rest on his forearm instead of his elbow. “Gosh, I love cartoons! Do you have a favorite show, um…”

Emile blinked at him owlishly, straightening up. “Wait, I don’t know your name.”

“Oh.” Was Remy’s only response to that.

“Gosh, that’s so rude of me!” Emile squeaked, the onset of embarrassment on his face so fast that Remy almost had whiplash witnessing it. “I-It must have slipped my mind! I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Remy said with a smirk. “I was just worried you’d never forget it if I told you.”

“Don’t keep me in the dark any longer!” Emile gasped, leaning forwards suddenly. “What’s your name? Or I’ll just keep referring you to as ‘Starbucks Guy’ in my head.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It could be.”

After a drawn out pause as Remy sipped his iced coffee, he responded with a simple, “Remy.”

Emile stared at him for a moment, before a squeal escaped his mouth and he clamped his hands over his lips. “Li-Like from Ratatouille!! Remy and Emile, oh my god!!” He exclaimed loudly. A woman on the phone in the corner of the establishment sent him an odd look that Emile didn’t notice.

“Like… From France…?”

“Ratatouille!” Emile repeated. “Please tell me you’ve seen Ratatouille.”

Remy took a guilty sip from his coffee. “It’s probably a TV show?”

“It’s a Pixar movie,” Emile took out his phone and typed something into Google (He didn’t have a passcode it seemed) and showed him various pictures of a 3D cartoon mouse. In a chefs hat.

“Wow, she’s cute,” Remy deadpanned. “Glad that reminds you of me.”

“He’s great! It’s a great movie!” Emile smiled despite the sardonic slight. “You should watch it sometime! Oh, you have Netflix, right? It���s probably there.”

“Totally,” Remy lied.

“Awesome! Um…” With his gaze stuck on his phone, Emile trailed off, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. A look of horror then struck his face, and he immediately shoved his phone in his pocket. “Shoot! I was supposed to meet up with them like thirty minutes ago! Ah-”

Emile gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry I can’t stay for much longer, I’ll see you on Monday, though!”

“Why Mon-” Oh, yeah, the school week ended on Friday. “Yeah… Yeah I’ll see you then.”

Emile waved as he bolted out of the Starbucks, and Remy all but sagged onto the countertop, glasses sliding off the bridge of his nose as he glared at a speck of dust in his peripheral vision.

He probably should have asked for his number… Or was it too soon for that? Ah, whatever.

-

One nap, his boss yelling at him for it, and an hour later, Remy had officially clocked out. He didn’t have much else to do for the night, since he had finished his homework the day prior, so Remy settled for the grim reality of going home to watch a rerun of The Office before he inevitably fell asleep halfway through the episode.

On the way to his bus stop, there was a bridge he had to walk past. It laid across the polluted river, shitty paint job and all. Graffiti consistently covered the underside of it (somehow), and Remy never spared a second glance towards it.

Well, the reason why this insignificant, minute detail in his own insignificant, minute life was suddenly relevant was due to the head of pink hair on the bridge.

It was a group of about five people, including Emile. His bright, pastel colored sweater was tinted to a pretty shade of dark periwinkle due to the sunset over the bridge. He stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the group of individuals wearing mostly earthy, warm colors.

Remy catapulted himself behind a building, sticking his body up against it and digging out his phone. He was just going to check Instagram really quick. He definitely wasn’t eavesdropping, nope.

“... ile, isn’t that show like, for little kids?” A voice drifted from over the bridge. Remy adjusted his sunglasses. This was stupid. He should just keep walking. Pathetic how attached he grew to one person even after knowing them for a grand total of three days at most.

“Well,” Emile’s voice was loud. There was a cartoonish quality to it that Remy couldn’t place, maybe it was the way he said his e’s. It might’ve been an accent, but Remy could not place which one for the life of him. Despite this, his voice didn’t seem to carry as much authority as the speaker prior. “I just thought it was fun, I guess.”

A bubble of bitterness welled up in his throat at Emile’s tone, because it was softer than when he had spoken to him at the bus stop. Like he wasn’t using it to its full potential.

Whatever, Remy conceded he’d leave it alone. This was kind of bad, wasn’t it? To be eavesdropping like this. #Clingy! Blared in his mind as he walked slowly away from the scene, towards his bus stop.

“That’s weird, Emile,” Another speaker said. “Don’t you watch any, like, real shows?”

“... I don’t really watch that much TV.”

-

Remy awoke with a start, much like he always did. Though this time he was floating above the ground, drool pooling in a puddle on the countertop.

The barstool clattered to the ground as Remy scrambled to get a grip on the countertop before he fell off of it. He heard snickering, and whipped his head around to glare at Ethan.

“Your shift’s over, princess,” Ethan said. He sprayed whipped cream into his mouth, setting it back down before his attention returned to his phone once again. Remy sighed, rubbing his still groggy head before clocking out for the day.

The sky was clear, though there were a gaggle of looming rainclouds near the horizon. Remy didn’t mind, however, since he found the sunset was freaking gorgeous today. Definitely Instagram-worthy.

So he decided to take a picture of it before heading to the bus stop. Who knew when he’d get another opportunity like this, especially since it was rainy season. Maybe the bridge would be a nice photo-op?

As he passed by the old, graffiti-littered bridge, Remy’s steps slowed.

It was Emile again. While Remy didn’t find it odd to witness highschool students being outside during the weekends, the odd thing about this was that Emile was completely alone.

He had an elbow on the railing of the bridge, propping up his chin in a way that he looked almost serene, gazing out over the polluted water. The oranges and angry yellows of the sun made his beige cardigan look more like a deep red-brown.

Remy’s hand lingered over his hand. This was probably the most perfect photo he could ever imagine for his Instagram, but of course he wasn’t going to take a picture of someone just standing there. That would be weird, right? Should he forget about this now? Go up to Emile and talk to him? The lack of an expression on his face didn’t suit him well, Remy noticed.

In his other hand, hanging by his side, was the yellow notebook Remy had witnessed him writing into many days ago.

As Remy continued debating whether or not he should go up to him, Emile had shifted his position. He was walking backwards from the railing, face set in a determined grimace. His grip tightened on the notebook so much that his fingers were smudging the ink and the pages were wrinkling in his grasp. He seemed to be psyching himself up for something, clenching and unclenching his fingers as he kept his gaze on the water in front of the bridge.

Then he swung his hand back, and flung the notebook into the river.

Similar to how people, quote on quote, had their lives flashing before their eyes upon their deathbed, Remy only saw his friends. Or lack thereof. The empty birthday parties, the pitying stares from other students, a teacher extending a hand to him as he laid asleep on the floor…

And it was probably then that he realized he hated being alone. The feeling clawed inside of him like a vice, and yet he could never seem to hold onto anyone before they faded away from his life. He didn’t want to feel that way again.

He felt his feet moving before his mind could wrap itself around the situation. It was like a primal instinct had taken over, and suddenly Remy was vaulting over the railing with a strength he never knew he possessed, extending a hand towards the yellow pages that were half submerged into the water.

And as he let the notebook float gently into the air, his familiar purple aura surrounding it, Remy felt his knees give way.

A mute scream bubbled from his throat as his grip slacked on the railing, body falling into the water despite his mind yelling at him to move, to regroup, to do something-

A rush of cold water hit him like a ton of bricks, and Remy felt dizzy as all the breath from his lungs left him despite himself. He felt the familiar haze of sleep cloud his mind, and he thought ruefully that he had never fallen asleep in a river before…

As his vision went darker and bubbles filled it, he saw the stream of light from the sunset, a soda can surrounded by purple float to the top of the river, and there was something pink coming towards him… He was fading, fading...

-

Emile Picani watched as the Starbucks barista, the one who always knew to get him a black coffee, vaulted over the railing of the bridge. He watched as his powers made his notepad levitate into the air, and watched as the barista’s legs seemed to freeze up, hold on the railing slacking all of a sudden. And he watched as he plummeted into the polluted river, notepad still floating with a pretty spark of purple surrounding it despite it all.

He was stunned! Flabbergasted, floored, er… He didn’t really know what to do. Emile was still standing and staring at where the man had disappeared under the water… And he wasn’t floating back to the surface… Oh no-

Things suddenly started shooting to the surface, a soda can, old shoes, a couple fish and a hair dryer. That was probably what spurred Emile to lurch himself over the railing as well to dive into the water.

It was murky and hard to see- And oh god why was everything brown?! Emile resisted the urge to gag as his heart raced, eyes squinting to make out anything in the water atop the bubbles escaping his nose. There were still things rising to the top of the water, a phone, a ring of keys, glasses…

Emile’s eyes focused on a hazy blob of darkness lying on the river floor, and he quickly shot his hands out to grab at it. By now he was very quickly running out of air, and it didn’t seem like Starbucks was going to wake up at any point either. So Emile gathered as much of the man’s jacket as he could in his hands, panic pooling within his stomach as he felt a large amount of air leave his nose through bubbles.

Okay, okay, it’s fine, this is fine, fine and dandy, Emile heard his voice scream inside of his head. He tried not to gasp at the darkness fluttering in and out of his vision, trying to kick his way back to the top of the river. But his movements were growing sluggish, and everything was suddenly covered in a haze that wasn’t there before. And Emile was sinking, sinking…

Floating…?

He felt a light feeling overwhelm him, and looked down to see his hands surrounded in a purple aura. Was Remy… Doing this?

Emile’s hands were in a death grip on Remy’s jacket, squeezing his eyes shut as his body was shooting to the top. Bubbles were escaping his mouth, but soon enough, his head broke the surface and he was gasping for air.

Sweet, sweet oxygen invaded his lungs and Emile allowed himself to cough up the water he had accidentally swallowed while resurfacing. His attention snapped to Remy, still submerged in the river and he quickly brought the other boy up to the surface while trying to kick to shore at the same time.

As the effects of Remy’s powers wore off, Emile had gradually reached the shore. He all but threw Starbucks onto the shore, and laid himself down next to the sleeping barista atop crushed soda cans and sharp plastic. His arms felt like they were on fire, and his heart wouldn’t stop beating like he was running from a known serial killer… Man, maybe he should start working out more.

Then, Emile’s attention refocused onto the matter at hand… Oh god, Remy probably swallowed a gallon of dirty  river water or something. Emile quickly scrambled to his side, looming over him as he surveyed the condition of the unconscious teenager. Would he have to perform CPR? Oh no, Emile wasn’t qualified to do that!! Maybe if he looked it up on Google he’d have a better understanding- Oh, but he’d lost his phone in the river…

As soon as the feeling of helplessness welled up inside of him, it popped like a bubble. Remy’s eyes cracked open, squinting against the harsh rays of the sunset. His fingers twitched as he tried to sit up.

“Wh-” Remy began, voice hoarse, but as soon as he started his face turned a sickly shade of green and he turned his head to vomit up river water. Emile kindly looked away from the scene, grimace present on his face. “Um,” Emile started, but a strange feeling overwhelmed him, made his eyes water and the back of his throat burn. He’d realized that most of what happened was mostly because of him, and his little stunt back on the bridge. If he hadn’t been so stupid, Remy wouldn’t have…

“I’m sorry,” Emile couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks, and he was pointedly looking away from Remy as well. “I-I, oh gosh,” He mumbled wiping at them with the sleeves of his cardigan despite them also being soaking wet.

As Remy opened his mouth to respond, another torrent of river water escaped him and onto the shore. He held out a hand, motioning for Emile to wait a second and spoke after vomiting.

“Do-Don’t apologize,” Remy muttered, wiping his mouth sheepishly. “I think I dropped it anyways. Your notebook.”

All that statement did was make him cry even harder, and he curled in on himself, hugging his knees and burying his head in them. He tried saying that he didn’t care, it really didn’t matter to him, because the fact of the matter was that his actions nearly caused another human being to die. Not only that, it was Remy, someone who had been nothing but kind to him through the brief interactions they’d shared together.

Remy was patting him awkwardly on the back. “Sor-Sorry, yi-yikes, it’s kind of cold out, huh?” He said, laughing. 

Emile didn’t respond, and Remy opted to draw his hand away from Emile to sit cross legged on the shore line. He reached down to extract a soggy piece of paper from one of his leather boots.

“So… I kind of fall asleep sometimes,” Remy blurted out suddenly. Emile blinked at him, furrowing his eyebrows in questioning. “Like, it’s really random.”

“Huh,” Emile said. “That’s why you-”

“Yeah. Um,” Remy scratched the back of his head. “It gets really strong when I fall asleep. My powers, I mean. I’m usually not strong enough to lift people or anything.”

Emile thought back to when he was surrounded in a purple aura, the feeling of weightlessness as he floated to the top of the river despite him sinking just a moment before… “Ah.”

“Sorry if that’s weird,” Remy laughed bitterly. “But I just thought I should tell you ‘cause… You know.”

He didn’t know, but Emile suddenly wondered what Remy’s life must have been like living with a condition like that. He wondered if he had a hard time connecting with other people too, he wondered if he was lonely too.

“It-It’s not,” Emile remedied. “I mean, kinda but I don’t care… You’re great, I-I just don’t know why you… Did that.”

He wondered if it was the lighting or if Remy’s face had grown red. “I just… I know it means a lot to you,” He answered. “And don’t give me that crap and pretend it doesn’t matter. I know it does.”

Emile tried to pretend like that statement didn’t make a new wall of tears well up in his eyes. “Y-Yeah,” He whispered, hugging his knees closer to his chest. “It does.”

So they sat together on the shoreline, Emile trying to ignore the chill that came with a gust of wind. Looking up at the sky above, Emile wondered if there would ever come a day where he’d make a friend that he could show his writing to without the debilitating anxiety that came with being judged. Maybe a friend he could watch cartoons with without them asking to change the channel to something like a reality show instead. He wanted someone who would spend time with him that didn’t come at the expense of having to do a project together for AP English.

Then he looked over at the barista, staring blankly out at the water, dark hair plastered unflatteringly to his forehead while squinting. Was it too bright? Was that why he wore sunglasses indoors too? It seemed like Emile was learning something new about him every time they interacted.

A hopeful feeling ignited in his chest, and Emile wished that he could learn more about Remy with time.

-

“This is my number!”

Remy quirked an eyebrow as he took the post-it note. “Uh-”

“I lost my phone because of, you know,” Emile waved his hand vaguely, but Remy already knew the incident he was talking about. “So I had to get a new one.”

“... Thanks,” Remy said. He furiously engraved it into his skull to remember to text Emile, because he’d probably never forgive himself if he forgot. “I’ll text you after my shift’s over.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Emile said flippantly. “I just wanted to say thanks for the other day… I was kind of- heh, kind of a wreck! Emotionally, haha.”

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Remy thumbed over the new cracks on his phone- He referred to them as battle scars in his mind though. “I’d nearly drown in a shit-filled river anytime for you, babe.”

Although he was kind of joking, Remy was delighted to see a nervous smile on Emile’s face. Much better than tears for sure. 

“Haha!! Um, I uh, hah,” Emile squeaked, putting a hand to his red face. “Gosh, it feels like Agrab- You probably don’t know what that is! Haha!! Anyways!”

He unceremoniously dumped a shoddily wrapped parcel onto the table. The wrapper was a repeating pattern of cartoon characters he didn’t recognize.

“It’s the Loud House! Okay, uh, happy Saint Patrick’s day, bye!”

With that, as soon as he came he was gone. Remy watched mutely as Emile bolted out of the shop, though not before nearly tackling an older gentleman making his way in and apologizing to him profusely as he colorfully swore at the retreating teenager. A genuine snicker left his mouth, and he looked down at the gift in his hands.

He’d open it after his shift ended, Remy decided. Using his powers, he levitated it so that it rested underneath the counter, hidden from view. Remy smiled at the older guy and adjusted his glasses.

“How may I help you?”

[tropicalfreckles]

Friends Again CH 2

MASTER LIST found here B**TLEB*BES DNI

Summary:   Lydia wasn’t sure what to expect, but prepared herself best she could as that familiar figure filled her bedroom with smoke and fire.

WARNINGS: They talk about trauma briefly and Lydia impaling Beej

Lydia raised her voiced the third time, feeling the air around her becoming heavy. Books and knickknacks flew off her bookshelf, clothes flew out of her dresser. A gust of wind flowed through the room out of thin air whipping her hair around. The lights in her room flickered as a fog crept from under her dresser and bed. It swirled with a vibrant green glow that crackled from the floorboards, becoming more intense as the force of the wind joined it. An eerie cackle bounced off the walls of her room. Lydia was glad she raised the volume on her music earlier. Just as a thunderous boom rattled the windowpane of her bedroom, the fog exploded in a light show and floating before her eyes was the demon.

   Just as she remembered him. Though right now he was floating above her floor looking a little bewildered, yet elated with a malevolent grin plastered across his face. He scoped the room out as his body vibrated a little. Jagged, yellow teeth. His dirty disheveled striped suit. That electric, messy green hair bleeding into the brown roots that met his forehead. The moss still growing on the side of his face. Those sunken in eyes, wild as ever. He hadn’t even noticed that she was in the room with him.

    “Hooollllyyyy shiit! Someone actually summoned me! I’m out of that piles of paperwork, bureaucratic hellhole! FREEDOM! FREEE-EEEEDDOOOMMM!” That raspy voice rang out as his fingers rung through that grimy, soft hair of his. He was so ecstatic that he jumped right into being destructive when his eyes darted to the curtains. With a swipe of his hand it lit ablaze and he turned to do more mischief next. Lydia panicked, jumping off her bed as she grabbed at her pillow and threw it at his head to get his attention.

        “Put that fire out, you dumbass!” She hissed pointing the water gun at him. The joy that was once displayed across the demon’s features now was replaced with a more complex one after he looked down. Shock hit him fast. The flames that began to engulf her curtains died out. He let gravity plant his ass right on the floor. Lydia followed his body with her gun never letting up her stance.

    “You? You.. You.” His voice cracked at first. Then became more gravelly and hoarse on the last ‘you’ he managed to croak out. Realization hit like a trucker ramming into fresh roadkill when he noticed which house he was in. Staring up at the girl he once called his friend, his hands balled up into fists as he furrowed his brow. Streaks of blue, purple, and red shot out from his hair a vibrant mix of colors betraying him with it’s display of his emotions. He inhaled deeply as he went to stand up. Lydia stomped her foot down, causing him to flinch for a moment. Beetlejuice stayed where he was instead.

        “No! St.. stay there.” She frowned. His gaze traveled down to stare at the water gun. A guttural laugh ripped from him as he gave her a snort, shaking his head.

    “What’re you gonna do? Get my suit wet? Please. A little bit of water ain’t gonna hurt me. Even if I rather stay dry.” He mumbled, crossing his arms as he eyed her up and down. Clicking her tongue, Lydia rolled her shoulders.

        “It’s holy water! Look, I..” A flash of guilt hit her causing her expression to soften for a moment. “…I just want to talk.” She awkwardly shuffled her feet around a little. Beetlejuice’s shoulders slumped  as he rolled his eyes, giving a heavy sigh.

    “…alright, I’ll give ya ten minutes, kid. Then I’m outta here; now that I’m summoned I rather be any place than here.” He mumbled. Lydia took a step closer to him. In response he shuffled away from her. She opted to sit down then where she was, so she could look at him at eye level. He was curious why she would even want him near her after everything that happened. He’d never admit it but he did feel the tiniest, smallest bit of guilt for what he did to her. Alright he did actually feel guilty. Even though he felt she was a little selfish which he usually valued in a person. I mean really who chooses a mother over their own friend? Most people, probably. However he still had a  smidgen of a grudge about it. She was still fun to hang out with though and treated him nice in her own way. Nicer than anyone ever had been to him, in fact, as pathetic as that was. She even gave him a hug. The colors in his hair slowly faded back to his usual green though small streaks of blue were still branched out from his roots. Lydia seemed to be struggling with starting with whatever she had to say to him. BJ knitted his brows feeling a little anxious himself, though opted to be patient once in his life and let her speak when ready. Still had the gun pointed at him; that was fair with their track record.

        “So.. I just.” She groaned, rubbing a hand over her face. This was hard. This was harder than she thought it would be.

        “..I. I wanted to start off by saying, that. I’m not sorry about doing what I did. I couldn’t let you hurt everyone. I was mad that you almost made me get rid of Barbara. I was hurt that you betrayed me, I told you I just wanted to get my mom back. We could’ve gone back to scaring people after I figured it out. I was hurting, I missed her. I know.. it’s a sore subject for you. I get why parents are something that make you upset after meeting Juno.  But, my mom was nice.. I love her.” Her arm begins to tremble a little.

         "I am sorry for being the reason you had to see Juno again. I’m sorry she tried getting rid of you for good. You’re not a screw up, or a fool.. I just.“ She teared up a little, feeling everything she has been holding back for months begin to creep up on her.

He could just use this opportunity to split. It was uncomfortable dealing with an emotional teen. Plus she was talking about his mother the person he hated the most in any existence. A nagging feeling was keeping him there however. Something about watching this girl. That enjoyed scaring almost as much as he did, crying. It hurt a little for some reason. He rubbed the bridge of his nose when he heard her crying pick up, becoming harder. She hiccuped a little and it was annoying.

    "Okay, okay; no water works kid, please. Also it’s kinda hard to hear you over that music.” He snapped his fingers and the music turned down just a little. He sighed, glad that her attention came back to him when he spoke.

    “Take your time if you gotta. I suck at reading people outside of scaring them. It looks like this had been bothering you for a while. Don’t rush through it.” He mumbled not really knowing how to comfort her. “This the reason you summoned me?” He asked while leaning back as his hands moved behind him to hold his weight. Lydia nodded, wiping some tears away.

    “It’s. It’s more complicated than that… ever since you left. I’ve been having nightmares..” Lydia’s voice gave out near the end of her sentence.

    Nightmares usually were fun so he didn’t understand what the problem was. Although he knew breathers some times had nightmares about things that were really shitty. Maybe it was that. He motioned for her to continue.

    “I don’t know if. If it’s guilt, or my trauma, but.. I never killed someone before. I don’t really want to do it again either. It was.. it was scarier than anything I’ve ever experienced before.” Her voice trailed off barely an audible whisper. She set the water gun down now that she was sure he wasn’t going to do anything.

Even though he wasn’t usually around ankle biters. He had some understanding that while murder was fun for him, that would take a toll on a kid. It was different than him killing for her. She actually killed for herself. He grimaced a little, unconsciously grabbing at his chest where she had impaled him. Lydia had noticed this however and balled her hands into fists while she gripped her dress.

        “If this is too hard for you, you can leave.” Lydia spoke up again staring up into his eyes.

Beetlejuice wrinkled his nose. He wasn’t scared of this kid. He didn’t need any pity. Although maybe she did just want him to feel comfortable. Why was she being so considerate? They never really were friends, right? Even if he thought so. He snorted, waving her off.

            “Kid, I’m fine. So, what’s this nightmare.” He fixed his composure, tightening his tie.

Lydia shrugged as she looked for anything else to focus her gaze on. This next part was going to be hard. She didn’t want to open up to him but she no longer wished to feel dread whenever she slept. The nightmares had to come to an end. She wanted to move on with her life.

     "The nightmares are all the same one, actually. It’s the day I killed you. It starts of as it actually did. You talking about how life was too much to handle. Getting ready to murder someone because you couldn’t process it. Then, me stabbing you. After that though, everyone starts to turn into weird blobs. You and I are the only ones that still have a shape. Everything fades into a dark abyss. Mouths appear out of no where, laughing in a creepy way at us. Blood pours from their mouths..“ She starts listing the things off on her fingers. She was having trouble keeping up with what she was saying unable to make eye contact with him. Beetlejuice tensed a little when she mentioned murdering him, thinking of course she has to talk more about it.

     "Then your mom is there. She’s holding you up, like you’re her captive or something. Then a sandworm eats us. That part got kind of weird. Even compared to the rest of the nightmare.” She mumbled. Finally she manages to look back up at him. Beetlejuice was leaning forward now, his elbows resting on his thighs, hands in his lap. He was staring right at her.

        “Well fuck, Lyds; that is a lot to unpack.” He moved a hand up to stroke his chin. Not really sure what to say in the moment. He needed to collect his thoughts. When he noticed her fidgeting in place, tears brimming her eyes again, he didn’t want her to cry. Beetlejuice crossed his arms as he sat up straight.

       "Alright.. so. Dreaming about killing me, which, I gotta admit; now that I’ve had time to mull it over the past couple of months I’m impressed. You successfully manipulated me by agreeing to help me be alive. Then killed me so you could send me back to the Netherworld. Haven’t been tricked by a breather like you before.“ He gave a small smirk almost proud that the first person that agreed to help him scare in a long, long time could have a conniving side.

       "We should probably get to the bare bones of the matter.” He clapped his hands together and a bunch of bones came into existence. Clattering onto the floor around them. Lydia jumped a little then stared at them, trying not to let out a small snicker. Good, laughs, that was something he could work with to try and cheer her up.

      “Fiiiirrssst, even though I am impressed you killed me and fair enough since I was being kind of an ass…” Before he could finish his sentence Lydia had chimed in with a quip.

    “I’d say more than kind of. You did threaten me and my family to get me to do a green card marriage.” She quirked a brow, her fingers tapping on the ground as she gave him an unamused look.

        “Alright. That was shitty of me.” He conjured a white flag waving it in peace as he heaved a dramatic sigh.

     "For real I’m sorry I did that. It wasn’t cool and came off pretty sketchy. If you hadn’t noticed I don’t like being alone. So I panicked because I thought you were going to ditch me.“ The purple in his hair began to creep back and Lydia just gave him an understanding look to let him know he could continue.

        "Unfortunately the only way to bring a ghost alive again is to marry them. I should’ve weighed my options better. I’m.. uh..” He gagged a little as he tried to form the words, having a hard time. Saying sorry was one thing, yet doing a heart-felt apology made it feel like he was going to combust.

      “Gimme a sec..” He slapped his face, his head spinning around on his neck comically in a 360 spin as he came to his senses. When he was done being a ham he looked back to her.

        “I’m deeply apologetic about what I did. Normally I take being creepy as a compliment, however out of context of what I was trying to do it’s super…” He wrinkled his nose. “Yeah. Fucking creepy and not in the good way. Even in context it’s still shitty.” He mumbled. “Having a talk with Miss Argentina made me realize that. When I heard it outloud for the first time after the fact. I swear I didn’t meant to come off that way, though.” Beetlejuice raised his hand as if doing a mock boy scouts honor salute.

        “Oh, that nice ghost lady I met in the Netherworld..” Lydia leaned back against her bed, feeling like she could relax a little finally.

     "Well. You actually sound sincere, which is weird since your voice always drips with sarcasm or something like that.“ She looked away for a moment as if contemplating something. ”..I know you said that you were impressed. However.. did killing you hurt you? Like, besides the obvious.“ Her gaze drifted back to him.

    "Hurt me? I mean, yeah, it would fuckin’ hurt getting bad art impaled through a meatsack body.” He thought more on what she said then it dawned on him. She meant if it hurt his feelings. He ran a hand through his ever-shifting array of colorful hair trying to figure out how he should respond. Sure it did kind of did hurt his feelings. Yet it’s like he said, the situation he forced her in was pretty shitty. She also mentioned she wasn’t sorry for what she did to him. She was still being nice at least. Maybe those dweeby Maitlands rubbed off on her a bit. Even though he only knew her a brief time the Lydia he knew before probably wouldn’t have given too much a shit about this. While she was fun and sort of nice to him when they scared people. She still easily jumped to kill him.

   "Eh. Maybe just a bit. However I already said I probably deserved it. It’s better that I’m dead anyways. Being human was hard. Even if it was just for like four minutes, or less.“ He counted off on his hand.

    "Okay..” She looked him over, unsure if she should continue. Wanting to get back to the topic on hand she cleared her throat. “So, about the dream..” Beeltejuice took his hand, pounding a fist into the other one.

        “Right, right. The thing you summoned me here for in the first place. Yeah.. so, blood, my shit mom, sandworm. I ain’t really a shrink, Lyds. So what I’m gonna say next is probably gonna be some bullshit. Like.. I don’t know, is it a guilt dream? Why’d you tell me about it?” He was still unsure about some things that were going on her. Though he tried to give his best bet. Lydia shook her head as she grabbed onto her feet, tilting forward.

    “I already kind of understand what the dream means now thanks to my therapist. What I called you here for is I wanted you to hear it. I wanted you to know how I feel. What we all went through together and I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Also how you felt about how we ended things. I did the apology I felt like you needed and I told you what I wasn’t sorry for. I kind of feel a little better. Although I still feel like crying a lot, too.” She moved her hands away to wipe as her face again.

   "It’s… so overwhelming. I’m.. I’m scared, Beej.“ Lydia softly spoke, admitting finally what she was afraid to say. Beetlejuice was stumped. She actually admitted for the first time to him ever she was afraid. Not of him, he was sure of that at least. Of what he wasn’t sure. The nightmare itself? It’s meaning? He really did suck at this. He grumbled a little then began to drift off the ground, floating into the air to move closer to her. He plopped himself down next to her. Startling her a little as she jumped from him. He raised his hands up in defense quick to respond.

    "Hey, hey, wait; don’t be.. uh. Scared. Just…” He began to hesitantly wrap an arm around her before realizing he probably should ask.

    “Uh.. this okay?” He asked, staring at her as he kept his arm in mid air. Lydia stared at his arm then at him. She wrinkled her nose from the smell of his unwashed suit along with the earthly-dirt scent that lingered off his body. The sentiment he was offering had to have been tough for him to do and it showed he actually cared about how she felt. She gave just a small nod and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He moved his other around around her front and gave her a small hug then patted her back.

     "I don’t actually know what you’re scared of kid. Although I’ve gotta say I’m hurt I’m not scary enough for you.“ Beetlejuice gave a mock-hurt tone to the end of his sentence as to try and lighten the mood. Lydia surprisingly clung to him as she let out a soft whimper. His shoulders dropped as he started to let go of her, only to be stopped when he felt her tighten the hug. She began crying again. He lost count how many times this made now. She buried her face into his chest, sniffling as she curled up in his arms. He wanted to just phase out of the room yet opted to stay since it seemed like she needed this. He rested his chin on top of her head as he just let her continue to sob.

    "I hate this. I hate feeling… this scared. It’s-it’s so suffocating. Why does this hurt? Why do I feel horrible.” She managed to choke out. Beetlejuice tensed while she spoke.

        “Wish I knew, kid; my specialty is scaring, not helping people stop feeling scared. But ya got a good support system Lydia. Those sexy, nerdy Maitlands actually nutted up to try and protect you. Your dad chased after you into the Netherworld when you ran off. That Delilah chick probably cares about you too.” He tried thinking up everyone that she actually had in her life that cared. He wish he had that. Wish he had someone who loved and cared about him. It was a hard concept to wrap his head around, he always felt like he never deserved it. Lydia shook her head, looking up at him finally.

    “Her name is Delia, not Delilah. You know, it’s weird. She actually does.” She sniffled, smiling softly.

  “You weren’t there for that part. Since your mom kind of tossed you out. Delia threw herself in front of me, saying that she wanted to protect me when Juno was threatening to drag me back to the Netherworld. Ever since then she’s been trying her best to understand me. Even if I’m not the warmest to her sometimes. I appreciate the effort at least. I know she’s isn’t faking it.” Lydia patted his side, indicating he could let her go as she sat back again. Beetlejuice moved his hand to rub the back of his neck.

  “You know for someone who says he sucks at comforting, you didn’t do that bad of a job.” She gave him a tired smile, then picked up the water gun again. He eyed it bit warily. She tossed it away then gently nudged him. “Can you believe I was gonna blast your face with that?” That made him crack a grin then gave her a snicker.

    “Yeah that probably wouldn’t have done much, anyways. Other than make me slightly clean.” He stuck his tongue out.

    “Well, it might’ve stung a little. I don’t know. I haven’t had holy water thrown on me before, if you would believe that. It’s rare I scare priests. It’s a hoot when I do even if it’s never in a church. Those places are waaaay too stuffy.” He rolled his eyes. He snapped his head back to her. “So, I actually helped ya..?” His tone shifted to a more softer one. She nodded giving his shoulder a pat.

    “You did; I never thought I would actually hug you again. Oh.. that reminds me.” She got up, walking over to her nightstand. He floated off the ground once more so he could peer over the bed to see. She pulled out from the small cubby under the drawer of her nightstand, a cowboy hat. She held it up as she turned around to show him.

    “I still have this. I don’t know why I kept it, honestly. Guess deep down I couldn’t let a piece of you go. I did hate you for a while. I’m not sure if I can forgive you for everything. Although.. it means a lot that you apologized. Maybe one day.” She walked over, motioning for him to float up a little higher as she set the cowboy hat on his head.

  “Maybe we could be friends again, some day. I’m not sure. I thought this exchange was going to go a lot differently.” He gawked a little. A warm feeling hit him, as he moved his hand up and felt his hat.

        'Be friends again? Is she serious? Why doesn’t she hate me. It’s okay if she hates me, I’m used to people hating me. She kept my hat, though. I just gave it to her as a sign of peace. Even if I was still a little mad. Did she really care about me, then?’  What she told him seemed impossible. He felt like life was just fucking with him again. There’s no way she would ever forgive him he just didn’t deserve anything good. As if sensing sort of what he was thinking, she poked his nose.

    “Listen, I’m not a shrink either. However I think you have a problem with self esteem. I can’t fix that right now. I meant what I said to you. I do appreciate what you said to me, how you tried comforting me. I would’ve liked if you didn’t toss all my shit everywhere when you got here though.” She looked around the room, putting her hands on her hips as she sighed.

   "You’re lucky you didn’t break my camera. It’s a family heirloom from my mom.“ Beetlejuice looked around the room, then gave a small laugh.

    "Hey you know me, Lyds; I gotta make an entrance! It feels nice to be out of the Netherworld. I had to stretch my legs.” He turned his head back to grin at her. There was a worm she hadn’t noticed before wiggling in-between his teeth and she stuck her tongue out. There’s that weird, gross charm of his. She flicked his forehead causing him to scowl. He rubbed where she snapped her fingers against his clam-y flesh. She motioned to her room when his attention was drawn back to her.

   "I know you can bend reality or whatever it is your demon powers do. Please clean my room, I don’t feel like doing it because I’m tired.“ Lydia politely requested. Beetlejuice groaned yet didn’t complain as with a flick of his wrists. Everything began to move back into place. The curtains were no longer fire-damaged, her clothes went back neatly into her dresser and her books were slid neatly into the shelves. Even the random bones he conjured up were gone. She gave him a pleased smile along with a thumbs up. He flipped her off which just made her laugh. He couldn’t help but join her in her laugh. He tipped his hat to her then looked towards the window a moment later.

   ”..so, that all you needed, kid? Guess… we part ways again?“ He looked back to her a tinge of sadness edged at the end of his words. She rubbed her arm as she looked towards the window as well. She walked around him and the bed, then opened the curtains to see it was raining now.

       "I guess so. You did say you wanted to get away from here, right?” She looked over her shoulder at him. He pursed his lips then tapped his fingers against his chin.

   "Yeah that was the deal. I hear you out, then be on my way..“ He sighed then floated over towards her and the window. He placed a hand on the glass, staring off into the distance. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about him yet she knew she wasn’t really scared of him. Even though he was acting off for how he normally was. Maybe he wanted closure as much as she did? He  couldn’t come back on his own before so she hoped this was good for him. She playfully nudged him with her elbow.

   "I mean; even though you probably shouldn’t show yourself around the house. I wouldn’t mind if you came back to my room some times. If you wanna try to build up trust again or something. If you don’t hate me. It’s kind of nice having someone I can weirdly relate to that isn’t a parental figure. Someone I can talk to about this.” He looked over to her then scratched his head.

   "I don’t know. Pretty sure everyone would hate it if they saw-wait. Did you summon me without telling anyone about it?“ He slowly became aware of the very lack of parental supervision as he peered over to her bedroom door. There was no way the Maitlands nor her parents would’ve let him near her without them being around. She inhaled sharply, staring a little bug-eyed down at the ground while pressing her lips together. Shit.

       "Uh.. maybe.” She mumbled. He looked to her. Then let out a bellowing laughter, slapping her hard on the back.

   "Well! Look at you, you little rebel! Ahhhh shit. Part of me feels like messing with the Maitlands again. Unfortunately for me they probably would try to send me back to the Netherworld.“ He grimaced then looked back to the window. "I’m not so sure if it would be safe to keep coming back here. However, other breathers are usually boring as hell. You were pretty fun. As long as the others don’t find out I guess I wouldn’t mind stopping in every so often. Maybe we could even scare together again.” His eyes flashed a mischievous glow as he gave her an malevolent smirk. She gave him an wicked smile back.

   "I probably am gonna have to tell them about you eventually. It’s kind of hard to hide all this.“ She motioned to him knowing how much of a show off he could be. He nodded.

   "Eh it’s true; we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it.” He stretched out a little. Taking the cowboy hat off he slapped it onto her head. She stumbled a little, giving him a small scowl.

  “Well how about you hold onto this, lil scarecrow. So I have a reason to come back. Now if you’ll excuse me. I wanna go stretch my legs and scare the shit out of some Karen in her forties while she’s kicking back, sipping on her wine box.” He grinned while ringing his dirty hands together.

 "I’ll be back later, Lyds!“ He cackled, then dashed off, phasing through her wall and disappearing into the stormy night. She placed her hand on the window, staring off at nothing now as she fixed the hat on her head.

   "See you soon, Dorothy.” She decided it was finally time for that nap.

[grownups-are-the-real-monsters]

My Friend Emmett Kelly

Summary: Eddie pulled away and looked off into that bright orange sky. “I miss them.” He frowned as he started walking up to a dead freight car. Mike followed and accepted the helping hand of his friend when it was apparently came time to hop inside and sat at the edge. “I miss them and I couldn’t even remember them a few days ago.”

{IT happened but these 3 idiots meet-up before the 2nd showdown w/ Pennywise. They’re about 28 in this story}

By the way, just in case you don't know: Emmett Kelly was a circus performer, who created the clown character "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Depression era :)

{She doesn’t care but I dedicate this to the #1 Emmett Kelly fan @m-o-o-n-thatspellsblog ;) !!}

Words: 5,184

Ship: Reddie, 

“No one wants to ride and train when they can just jump in a Ford and go.”

The Hitchhiker came and went through the bloodied recesses of Edward Kaspbrak’s mind often. He would repeat old time-y sentiments that were not necessarily blatant horror, sentences Eddie could take as calmly as a pill only a little too thick to swallow on the first try. But they were the kind of words that ripped another stringy clot of skin from the wound that the first had created.

Sometimes,The Hitchhiker would open his mouth to a gentle ‘O’ and out would pour the sounds of an old radio trying to tune itself to a station. Static would salt out of his painted lips before landing on something like Roger Miller singing ‘King of The Road’.

“Third boxcar, midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine Old worn-out suits and shoes I don't pay no union dues...”

Though The Hitchhiker hadn’t started doing that until he tunneled his way out of Eddie’s mind and bled into the real world. But there was also the likely possibility that Eddie had manifested the character into the air by building him a subconscious bridge.

The train-yard in Derry, Maine was the first place that he saw his little friend slinking around a plain of existence that Eddie hadn’t made-up.

It was late-afternoon with the company of a low-hanging sun and nice screeches coming from under the wheels of great long freight trains. Passenger trains long since halted their run in the town. But the freights were loaded with goods to bring into places to the north and to the south. His favorites used to be the ones which had gleaming Fords and Chevies because it had been a real dream of his childhood to own a car like those.

His little hitchhiking friend must have known of this affection for the yard because that afternoon, when he was back in his hometown to watch over his sick mother, the sad man was just sitting on a paused freight.

His eyebrows frozen in what looked to be an upward quiver and lived under a flat little brown hat. A shadow of paint took over his chin like a beard and made the white around his lips truly stand out. But most notably, a ball of red sat in place of his nose.

Eddie recognized the familiarity of the man in an instant. For he...was what Eddie had begun to associate with patterned, fuzzy memories that sometimes came back into his head. They were never complete nor useful, just sentences that could be a mighty pain to that first wound. But the man on the freight was the image they were almost always voiced from.

In an old worn out suit, lived an Emmett Kelly looking clown who sometimes appeared to Eddie in passing thought. Of course, he was never quite sure why he’d first began to associate a clown with old childhood memories but it never much bothered him until he set foot back into Derry.

And in that moment, as he sat on the train with a clutched fist around a small sack, the Kelly lookalike seemed so real.

The man turned to Eddie and spoke one of those charmed little sentences but this time, he had his very own voice because there was the absence of him being trapped in Eddie’s own internal narrative. “No one wants to ride and train when they can just jump in a Ford and go.”

That had been his mother. Sonia. Eddie was sure that she had once said something of that sort to him when he asked about the trains that ran through town. It was a plain sort of comment she’d thrown into her little story but nonetheless, it had pained the boy in that childhood memory who adored trains for whatever odd reason. 

Emmett, Eddie supposed he could refer to him as such, reached out a hand which poked out from the boxcar. Eddie flinched in some sort of sweaty fear but calmed slightly when he realized he had only been pointing to a crate sitting in the cinders. 

Eddie was sort of paralyzed with either fear or shock but decided to take a peek when Emmett covered his eyes in a playful manner. As if to say ‘Hey! I’ll look away, if you want’!

So Eddie tipped his body and took a small, gentle peek into the crate that was clicking around and caught sight of something eerily familiar. Slithering and crawling inside were 4 lobsters. Printed across the side of the box in faded yellow paint were the words; ‘Take em’ home to yer mum’. 

“Oh, Fuck off” He shook his head and stepped back to his original spot. His memories of the early days had begun to clear up ever since he returned to Derry some days ago and if he recalled right, this had once happened to him before...in a different way. 

When he glanced back to the train, Emmett had disappeared altogether. 

                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four days later, Eddie decided to sort out all the closets and his old bedroom for any hidden treasures or shit to just jog his memory. He ran into an old looking photo-book and some old books he decided to bring to the library because he doubted his mother would ever miss them. 

Plus, it was a good excuse to leave the old home. So Eddie took a nice mid-afternoon stroll through Derry with the small box of books under his arm. 

He went through the train-yard, walking along track 4 and browsing that old photo-book. He glanced up every few minutes but never once did he catch a glimpse of his Hitchhiker Emmett. 

It was strange...that kind of fear that his little Hitchhiker caused him now. Bouncing from mind to reality like that and something about clowns absolutely terrified him lately. A fear that, he again didn’t notice until returning to Derry. 

The air smelled strongly of dark brown perfume and mild touches of wet autumn leaves as Eddie moved back towards the main street. He found the library in mere seconds and attempted to balance the box and the photo-book underneath it as he took the stairs and strolled inside. 

His forearms itched, that dirty itch, when he set the box onto the main counter. Which felt like bugs had crawled under his skin and were now making themselves comfortable.

“You wanna donate these or-...?” 

Eddie glanced up when the man didn’t finish his sentence and found a nice looking dude looking completely wrecked with shock. 

Little Emmett Kelly was back in his mind, opening his mouth and tuning it specifically to a song...“Like the pine trees linin' the windin' road I've got a name, I've got a name...”

“Mike-...Mike Hanlon?” Eddie heard himself say out-loud before he truly could place him. But when the man smiled back at him, wide and lovingly, he found his place and Emmett smiled too before the image left his mind. 

“Eddie Kaspbrak!” Mike reached out for a hug that felt amazingly soft. Eddie melted into him like butter...and kinda like a man about to breakdown and cry. But the long lost pal just tightened his arms around him and sighed with something like relief and pride. 

‘Long lost pal...that reminds me of a song...’ Eddie paused to think. ‘Something another friend used to sing-’

Emmett reappeared in his mind’s eye for a brief second and used his magic mouth-radio to play just what he was looking for. 

“If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al...”

Eddie nodded to himself and pulled away from Mike even though he desperately didn’t want to move an inch. 

The man before him was so obviously placed now that Eddie couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. He was just as charming, handsome and grounded as he was in their childhood days. Michael Hanlon. 1 of 7.  : : : : :

Before Eddie could stop himself and maybe be polite enough to leave Mike to his work, he had begged him to come walking with him. He hadn’t felt that deeply connected to anyone in many years so he planned to enjoy it while he had the time. It sucked that the catch-up had to take place in Derry, of all places, but it was a town that would live in each of them for as long as they lived even if they forgot for a while. ‘How fucked was that?’

That photo-book now curled up in his fist. He took Mike back by the train-yard and the two strolled down track 4 while the sun bathed them both in colors deserving of Summer even though it was mid-fall. 

“And I suppose...once you leave, you’ll memory will fade again.” Mike finished his long story of their fucking shitty childhood nightmare which seemed to drag Eddie down like the thick filmy sweat that use to coat his body after a long summers day in the Barrens, the one that made him realize that day was over. 

“I’ve been seeing a clown-...”

Mike snapped his eyes directly to Eddie’s, they were filled with dreaded fear. 

“No-...It’s not like that...” Eddie couldn’t really explain himself because he wasn’t sure if it really made sense out-loud. “It’s this character that I sorta created a few years back, the angel and devil on my shoulder or something.” Eddie scratched behind his ear and Mike hopped off the rail and strolled closer.

“When memories pop into my brain or weird shit that I can’t place, it speaks through him in my head. Which is fucked-up I guess but I didn’t really give a shit about it before. I just thought it was something I did, y’know? He was a train-hopper kinda...dude. Which I always liked but now...”

Mike pulled Eddie’s sleeve just to let him know he was safe to speak. 

“Mike, he scares the shit outta me. Not because he’s doing anything scary. But when I got to Derry and started feeling things the way I used to...Clowns just didn’t fucking sit right with me-” 

Eddie broke into a loud laugh which Mike had to join in because their lives were too fucking weird. 

“One time, I was driving this client of mine, right?” Eddie bumped their arms together and laughed. “And my little Hitchhiker popped into my brain when a really good song was on-...‘Roll Me Away’ Bob Seger, I think...-and in a clear impression of Richie Tozier, which I now recognize and can place as I’m telling you this, he said ‘Life is just what happens in between long drives.’.”

Eddie sighed like he couldn’t believe his own words. “That’s what Emmett does. He repeats things like that to me...like a moment’s reminder not strong enough for me to keep remembering but strong enough to deepen a wound I didn’t know I had.” 

His eyes were watery when he turned back to Mike, which he didn’t realize was breaking Mike’s heart a little. “Emmett?”

“Oh, That’s what I call him. Because he isn’t a Bozo kinda clown...looks more like an Emmett Kelly, you know him?” Eddie asked and suddenly pulled out an inhaler to suck on which sent Mike back some years ago. “Anyway, I think Richie told me that once when I got my license and drove him to a K-Mart one town over.” Eddie giggled. 

Mike smiled with a touch of sadness that now broke Eddie’s heart. “If there’s anything I learn from staying here in Derry, Eddie, it’s that you can’t live your todays being scared to wake up for the tomorrows.” Mike gently put his arm around him and squeezed. “It’s not a good way to live and...” He looked to him with warm eyes. 

“If there’s no reason to, don’t start convincing yourself to be scared of your Hitchhiker. We all got our angels and devils on our old shoulders. And don’t let the memories of...IT...-” Mike hesitated before he said that “Overwhelm you. No use in giving it a thought unless there should come a day when we have to.” Mike added that with a look of sorrow but found the joy to smile again. 

“I should live by those words, Mike.” Eddie shook his finger and repeated them in his head, like a mantra. ‘You can’t live your todays being scared to wake up for the tomorrows.’ 

He thought upon all those horrible nights spent wide awake and being scared of how many times he might lose his breath the next day. Clutching his inhaler like an anxiety filled mess. 

Eddie didn’t notice he’d been anxiously clasping and unclasping his hands until Mike held out his arms for a hug. He fell into Mike’s grip as if the number of years hadn’t actually passed and they were still teenagers who saw each other everyday. Mike rubbed his hand in a circle on his back. “We have to be there for each other...”

Eddie pulled away and looked off into that bright orange sky. “I miss them.” He frowned as he started walking up to a dead freight car. Mike followed and accepted the helping hand of his friend when it was apparently came time to hop inside and sat at the edge. “I miss them and I couldn’t even remember them a few days ago.” 

Mike watched with a tilted chin as Eddie paced the length of the old boxcar in that nervous way he had always approached stress with. It brought a little light into the car, Mike thought. He could only be what the situation handed him in moments like this, where he was pretty vulnerable. And the situation tossed him a memory of joy so he smiled at his friend who’d been young once too despite the speed in which they’d all had to grow up in. “I can’t imagine how you’ve been feeling. Considering you didn’t forget.” Eddie dropped his shoulders and sat back down. 

Mike shrugged like it was no big deal but there was a bit of pain behind his kind eyes that gave him away. 

“I mean...at least we got to forget all that shit and have the luxury of not being aware we had any trauma. What the others made of it, I don’t know but...” He waved his hand out into the air but let it fall. “Well...who’s there for you?” 

Mike’s lips trembled which was strange to see. “I don’t if either of those two options is great, Eddie.” He rolled his lips together when his friend raised his brow. “Remembering our trauma for the six of you is extremely exhausting. But also...forgetting trauma leaves room to pick up unhealthy habits again...” 

Eddie clutched his inhaler and blinked back some stress tears. He looked off towards the middle of the train-yard and found his little hitchhiker in the distant boney and dead grass. Emmett was shaking what looked like his very own inhaler except when he went to suck on it, water squirted out and drenched his face. He frowned and made brief eye-contact before tossing the thing deep into the field, looking betrayed.

‘Yeah’...Eddie decided the Hitchhiker was nothing to be scared of. 

                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside. That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive...”  Bruce Springsteen lyrics. That’s what Emmett tuned his good ol’ mouth radio to in Eddie’s dream last night. 

He wasn’t entirely sure what he was aiming for with that but decided it’d be best not to think too hard about it. Instead, Eddie made his mother some breakfast and tried not to self-diagnose the itchy spot on his arm as eczema. 

The bushel of pink-painted roses covering the delicate plate was covered in scrambled eggs and a side of bacon made just for Sonia. 

They say the older you get, the harder it is to forgive & forget. Fixing up moist yellow scrambled eggs...for a mother only surviving on the given notion that her son was too much of a victim to say no...-Eddie was finding that saying to be true. He plopped the mess of food onto the table in front of his mom and remembered something simple. 

Upstairs & and on his wooden bedroom window-sill there was a small carving. Eddie smiled to himself and took of for his room, no matter how his mom complained that they needed to spend actual time together. He just had to see if it was what he thought it was...

Kneeling down, he dragged his finger against the wood he couldn’t see until he felt the markings. He dipped himself to take a peek & found that it was still there, of course. ‘BADLANDS’

The song in which those Bruce Springsteen lyrics had come from. “Holy shit.” Eddie mumbled to himself and slapped the window-sill in pure shock. He laughed to himself, a deep sort of chuckle that may have sounded a little crazy.

Richie Damn Tozier. The memory was getting a little clearer now. 

Fourteen year old Tozier had carved that into the weak wood with the butter knife Eddie had used to spread butter onto his toast that morning. 

The Hitchhiker spoke in Richie’s voice as he reappeared in Eddie’s mind- “I’m tellin’ ya, Eds. You gotta listen to the song, there’s this part that reminds me of you. Listen-....” Emmett paused and instead of continuing with young memory version of Richie reading out the lyrics, he tuned that good ol’ mouth radio and sounded out that specific part. 

“You wake up in the night With a fear so real You spend your life waiting For a moment that just don't come Well don't waste your time waiting” 

Bruce sang out lyrics that eerily reminded Eddie of what Mike had said a few days ago; ‘You can’t live your todays being scared to wake up for the tomorrows.’ 

He really couldn’t blame Richie for associating that lyric with him. Eddie smiled to himself and dragged his thumb across the carving once more before standing. The dork had carved the title in so Eddie wouldn’t forget to listen to it. 

His heart skipped a beat or two and he tried to wrap himself in that happy memory. 

: : : : : : : :

A call came in through Eddie’s cell when the man was showering some two days later and was answered by his loving mother. Sonia picked it up without a moments hesitation because she had as much of a right as her son, after all she had paid for his living for around 17 years. 

“-Is Eddie there, Mrs. Kaspbrak? I have an important message.” 

She paused and glanced up the stairs to listen for a stop in the running water but it was still going off and probably splashing onto the tile because her boy always left a mess in there. “Michael Hanlon, right?” 

“Yes, Ma’am.” 

A small snort escaped her lips because it felt very much like the past when those rowdy kids would ask for him to come play. “What is so important? Don’t you know Eddie is here to take care of his sick mother? Is that not more of an emergency-?”

Sonia was cut off not by Mike but by Eddie who’d suddenly burst down the stairs and snatched the phone out of her hand. “Mike? Sorry, it’s me.” He spared a look to Sonia, who only shook her head and left to lay across the couch in the other room.  “What is it?”

“Nothing bad, actually. I think there’s someone down at the library you’ll want to see again.” 

                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ED’S!”

“Richie fucking Tozier, what on earth blew you into town?” Eddie jogged towards the main desk and threw his friends a warm grin. 

“More like who on earth blew me into town!” Richie broke into that little chuckle he used to do whenever he was being a little shit. Mike and Eddie only tossed each other annoyed looks and waited for an actual response. “-Yeah, nobody did...ha...Not funny, huh?” He swiped his curled knuckle under his nose and shook his head.  

Mike rolled his eyes fondly and thumped their arms together to urge Richie to spill. “Um, yeah I-” Richie awkwardly began and ran his palms down the legs of his jeans. “I’m just visiting my parents for the weekend. Wentworth is being a little asshole, say’s he wants to redo the living room.” Richie shrugged. “So ma called me to try and y’know, talk him outta it...distract him - which is my talent after all -” He broke for laughter. 

“But my ulterior motive, you ask?” Richie waved his arms and smugly grinned. 

“Oh, tell us!” Mike chirped happily from behind the desk. 

“I want to try and convince ol’ Went to hand over all his old or vintage luggage and suitcases to me, y’know?” He leaned back onto the desk and shrugged. “He’s got tons of nice junk perfect for me stuff my shit into. I just gotta get him to make the big journey to our storage unit place.” He grinned madly. 

“What did you pack your stuff into to get here if you are without that necessity?” Eddie narrowed his eyes and came to stand against the desk, to Mike’s left and Richie to his right. 

Richie waggled his finger and clicked his tongue. “A garbage bag-” 

“Jesus, Richie-”

“What it wasn’t a used garbage bag, Eddie. I have some class.” 

“Yeah, you’re the picture of class. Just drop the C & the L.” Eddie shook his head and feigned his attention elsewhere which always used to annoy his friend. A few seconds of silence passed them. 

“Oh, I’m the ass?”

“Congratulations, you figured out the joke!” Eddie playfully clicked his own tongue and pretended he was more interested in the books stacked just next to his elbow. Richie reached over and smacked his other arm off the counter.

“Don’t start with me Kaspbrak, I can so pick up where we left off back in fifth grade & you stole my Twinkie!” Richie was now trying to smother his laughter and playfully swatting Eddie’s hands.

But his friend paused for a second and turned to Mike. “So, you remember that?” Eddie turned back to Richie. “What else are you remembering?” 

“Oh, the killer fucking clown? Yeah, no - Mike helped catch me up to speed.” Richie stuck his finger out to point at him and laughed but it was not at all happy. It was bitter and miserable which could strike any Loser’s Club member with fear. The three men went quiet again, which the library was probably thankful for. The sour change in the mood easily took them over and kept them from enjoying the nice reunion. “Anyway, why are you in town?” Richie gently tapped Eddie’s hand. 

The strong smell of his mothers perfume suddenly filled Eddie’s nose as he let himself frown. “My mom is sick.” His throat suddenly tightened and he knew it was because the anxiety was trying to worm it’s way into his body again, the subject commonly triggered it. He dragged his pointer finger around in small circles against the cold counter. “It’s nothing serious, I mean I know that but...you know Sonia.” He sighed.

“Boy, do I know your mom!” Richie automatically fell into a joke but realized his mistake when Mike thumped his palm onto the back of his head. 

“She’s really laying the guilt on thick this time.” The misery was clear in his voice and he was kind of embarrassed. “Telling me to move back because she’s very weak-” He rolled his eyes “Your father was sick, Eddie-bear. I took care of him just as I took care of you. I’m sure you’re grateful for that, aren’t you?” He mocked her voice and shook his head. 

“Eddie-” Both Richie and Mike started, knowing exactly where this was going. The panic on the man’s face was clear and sad. 

“I sure as shit don’t want to come back here, guys. Jesus, I hate to think about living here with her again but...” Eddie was finally having the mental breakdown he’d been pushing since just before he left New York. “What if it kills her? Fuck, my leaving again could really upset her and-”

“Hey, hey, hey-” Richie Tozier’s hear shattered into a million pieces and he clasped his hands around his friends arms to calm him. “Ed’s, you said it yourself, she’s not seriously sick. I hate to say it...y’know what? Maybe I don’t...but I hate your mom!” Richie let go to wave his arms and a few people stared when he laughed. Mike gave them a charming grin and laid his gentle hands on both pals. “She manipulates you. It’s all she’s done since we were kids, man.”

Eddie blinked a few times and shook his head. “I know...I know that-...” he shrugged. “But she’s my mom. Shouldn’t that mean something?”

That broke something in Richie. The boy he’d grown up...loving with the entirety of his thirteen year old soul (not that he’d speak a word of that memory), was absolutely wrecked. “It should, yeah-” Richie nodded. “And that’s why it’s so fucking shitty that she treats you like that, Eds. ”

Mike nodded. “You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your happiness and well-being for your mother. That’s not a good relationship.” He spoke in a more reserved and mature tone than Richie but seemed to be in agreement. 

Eddie slowly nodded and leaned away from their grips. His mind somehow went back to the train-yard and all the childish thoughts of traveling he’d used to express to himself there. Dreams of being a wanderer who didn’t get worked up from simple messes. No, he went wherever the trains took him. He couldn’t imagine having that sort of lifestyle because he was nowhere near the type of person who could handle it. He could barely ask to bum a ride off a co-worker, let alone hitchhike. 

Emmett returned to his mind’s eye, as he so often did these days, but this time he carried a garbage bag as if it were filled with extra clothes. Next to a deserted road, he stuck his thumb out. It was the kind of uncertainty that Eddie couldn’t even entertain at the moment but used to admire as a silly kid. 

Mike took the moments where Eddie was in deep thought to admire the way Richie was so blatantly staring at the nervous man. The wonderful thing was that Mike didn’t need to piece it together like his friends did, he just remembered the way those two drifted together. He wondered if Eddie’s little Emmett friend would help him remember that. “Why don’t you two take a walk? I gotta finish my shift and you have some catching up to do.” 

Eddie shook himself out of thought and smiled. “I could use the distraction.” 

Richie playfully smacked his arm and started ushering him away. “See ya later, Mikey!” He blew several kisses and tried to hide the small blush on his face from the touching. 

Mike had to laugh. 

                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So why do you want to steal Went’s luggage?” Eddie asked after several minutes of silence which had succeeded Rich’s story about his old gig as a radio DJ for the collage that ate all of his money. 

“Oh, I’m thinking of moving out to L.A.” He nodded. “New York just isn’t my place and I don’t-”

Eddie stopped walking and was overcome with the giggles. “We were in the same city, dude. I’ve been living in New York!” 

Richie let his mouth hang open for a bit. “I wonder if we ever crossed paths.”

“New York is a huge city, Rich. I doubt it.” Eddie shrugged and started up the stroll again. “It’s not like Derry when we were just a bike ride away.”

Richie looked back at Eddie, a pace or so behind him, and was struck with how much he’d grown. Jesus, Richie's world had pretty much revolved around walking him home from school and earning his laughter. And now...Well, there was no school to chase him away from. They were both grown-ups...

“Badlands?” Eddie interrupted his thoughts with a strange sort of laugh. 

“Huh-?”

“You were whistling. You used to do that all the time when you were nervous. Badlands by Springsteen.” Eddie smacked his arm like there was a joke between them but Richie didn’t get it. “Un-fucking-believable.” 

“Ed’s, let me in on the joke or I’ll kick you in the shin.” He pushed up his glasses and pretended to kick out his leg. 

Eddie looked off in thought again like he was debating something but he soon settled on an answer. “It’s just...you carved that song title on my window-sill, remember? So I would listen to it? I found the carving.”

“Ohhhhh, Well, did you listen to it?” he grinned. 

Eddie rolled his eyes but nodded. They kept on walking that natural stride towards the Kaspbrak household while the sky faded into a cloudless blue. 

They hadn’t had a childhood innocence since about thirteen but the simplicity of being young and stupid was to be grieved just the same. Sweaty days of summer spent climbing trees, riding bikes like no damn car was ever a desire...and falling out of trees. All of that was behind them and Richie would be lying if he said he didn’t want just a taste of that kind of joy now. What was the adult equivalent of that nice itch you got after rolling down grass hills all day? ‘Is there a dirty joke to be made there?’ Richie paused. 

“We’re gonna forget each other again soon.”

“What a downer, Eds.” Richie frowned. 

Eddie stopped at the steps of his home and twirled around. And there, sitting on a neighbors porch a few houses away, was his Hitchhiking buddy. Emmett's head was hanging so low that he couldn’t spy his quivering brows or the tired and lonesome frown. He waited for the clown to repeat something or...do something at all but he just sat there on Mr. Walsh’s steps. Dejected and lonely. Longing for something?

‘Fuck’. Eddie realized that maybe he, himself, was the one feeling dejected and lonely. Emmett was a manifestation of his own thoughts and feelings, wasn’t he? And he knew damn well what he was longing for. 

So, with a little skip step, Eddie bounced closer to Richie and fell into his arms.

Richie made an exaggerated ‘oof’ sound but instantly returned the embrace and even rested his head atop the shorter mans. “I’d really like to kiss ya, Eds.” 

The man pulled back and stared at this friend who he’d forgotten and felt all the sentimental love shit that a person could feel. “Do it then, Dick.” 

Richie moved in and kissed him gently. 

And Emmett bled back into Eddie’s mind and away from the real world.  

[loversandantiheroes]

I was listening to my rainy day playlist and when this came out, I kinda pictured your Harvey playing this on piano for the farmer Flax. Not singing, cause it has the L word in the lyrics and he can't say it yet. But even if he can't say it, I think its lyrics suits him and his feelings quite well:) (tumblr won't let me put a link in here, but it's "The way you look tonight", Tony Bennett version)

This is very sweet and also calls for a minific.

——————————————-

“You’re sure this is alright?”

Emily flaps a hand at him.  “Of course it’s alright.  Besides, as far as I know the only other person in town who has a piano is Elliot, and sweet as he may be when you can actually get his attention, I really doubt he’d warm to this idea of someone sat in his living room tickling his ivories.”

She offers a smile as she swipes a rag over the top of the old upright in the corner of the bar, kicking up a little dust.

“Besides,” she adds, fanning the air in front of her, “Gus clearly isn’t using it.”

Harvey chews his lip, lifting the lid.  “Any idea when it was last tuned?”

“Hm.  Not that long.  Four months?  Five, maybe?  Though I expect that’s just about the last time anybody’s laid hands on this poor girl.”

Tentatively, Harvey finds middle C, hoping for a clear note and not an off-tune warble.  Or worse, a thunk.  But the note rings out, pitch-perfect as far as his ears can tell, and he smiles a little.

“I’m surprised you have time for this,” Emily says, leaning against the piano as he eases himself onto the bench.  There’s a knowing grin on her face.  “I thought your lunch hour was booked from here to eternity.”

Harvey only raises an eyebrow and tries to pretend his face doesn’t immediately flush hot.  “I…it’s a busy week.  I’ve got some free time.”

He doesn’t mean it to come out quite as dejected as it does.  But there it is.  He can’t even bear to look at whatever expression that has brought to Emily’s face.

“You miss her already,” she says, a bit too gleeful for his liking.

He mumbles something, very possibly in agreement, and begins digging in his satchel for his sheet music.  “Sort of why I’m here.  Not just the free time, I mean, of course that’s why…I….  I used to play,” he says, stumbling lamely into the point as he so often does.  He takes a deep breath, holds it until his head starts to swim a little, then lets it out in a rush.  “I want to see if I still can.  Or can pick it back up.”

“For her?”

“For me,” he says, a small, considering crease in his brow.  “But for her, too.”

Another thing he can’t quite find the angle to unpack.  How much she makes him want to chase after the things he once loved.  To throw himself at them, half-reckless, to try and reclaim them.  For the chance to prove to himself that he could do it.  Even the things that terrify him.  Especially the things that terrify him.

“Well, would you want a hand with that?” Emily offers, startling him out of his thoughts.  She is, he realizes a bit belatedly, pointing at the music book in his hands.  “I’ve got plenty of experience from high school.  Can’t sing for the life of me, so most days in music class I just turned sheet music for the teacher.”

“Oh, I…y-you don’t have to,” he says, awkwardly clutching the book.  “I don’t want to get you in any more trouble with Gus than I already am.”

Emily only laughs.  “Please, I couldn’t get in trouble with Gus if I tried.  He’s so much of a softie he can’t even bring himself to make people settle their bar tabs half the time.  Besides that, he’s got his hands full right now.  Willy’s got his crab magic going again and dropped off a huge basket full of the little snippers.  We’d both prefer it if I wasn’t there for it.”

Rather reluctantly, Harvey gives up his death grip on the music book.

At the sight of the cover, Emily’s face lights up like a Winter Star tree.

“The Way You Look Tonight.  Bless your heart,” she says, and for once the phrase doesn’t ring of a thinly veiled insult.  “You’re really in love with her, aren’t you?”

Harvey blanches, fumbling the book away from her and setting it against the stand.

“Oh.”  The levity’s gone now.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that word was so…” she pauses, and he can feel her eyes tracking him and Yoba he wishes she would stop looking at him.  

“Sharp,” she finishes.

“It’s fine,” he says, too curtly.

“Your aura’s gone all bubblegum.”

“I- what?”  He blinks up at her, in the moment suddenly too confused to remember to be upset.

“Your aura,” Emily says, wiggling her fingers a few inches over his head.  “Pure pink.  I struck a nerve.  I didn’t mean to.”

“My aura.  Right.”  And suddenly he remember it is Emily he’s talking to, or, closer to the point, being a bit of an asshole to, and his puffed up anxiety bubble deflates just a bit.  “Sorry.  I, uh, I suppose I’m usually chartreuse,” he says with an attempt at a smile.

“Kind of brown, actually,” she says musingly.  “Brown and yellow, like old gold.  But you’ve got this mix of red and pink and orange going on these days,” she adds this with a knowing smile, as if it’s some secret that only the two of them are in on, and he can only smile back, completely baffled.

“Well that’s…good?  I hope?”

“It would strongly suggest you are that thing I said that I won’t repeat again.”

“Thank you,” he says.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“Apology accepted.”  She leans in, opening the booklet and patting him on the shoulder.  “It also means the sex must be amazing, so congratulations.”

Harvey swears, covering his face and nearly sliding off the piano bench in embarrassment.

“You’re almost as bad as she is,” he mutters through his hands as she laughs.

“And you’re not even going to ask?”

He uncovers his face, which he knows has to be blisteringly red.  “Ask what?”

“What color her aura is?”

Emily raises her eyebrows, the offer dangling.

“Alright, alright.  I’ll bite, why not?  What color is her aura?”

She smiles, big and broad.  “The girl is a bonfire.  Red-orange.  Bright as anything.”

“I see,” he says.  He doesn’t.  “And red, that’s…?”

Emily’s smile softens.  “That thing I said that I won’t repeat again.”

“Oh.”

Harvey falls quiet.  He doesn’t quite believe in auras.  Not in a fashion that has any real weight.  And it isn’t as though he doesn’t know how she feels.  That he hasn’t seen the look in her eyes when she’s nearly said the words he has to dance around, or said something in surrogate.  But that someone else could look at her and see it, see that in her face, and know it was for him.

Auras or no auras, that’s something.

Harvey rubs the tip of one ear, smiling unconsciously.  “We should get started.”

There’s a moment of mortal terror as he lays his hands on the keys.  How long has it even been since he’s done this?  Ten years?  Longer, surely.  The lessons stopped when he was seventeen, but he vaguely remembers noodling around on borrowed keyboards in college once or twice after a few too many drinks.

He takes a breath.  Fumbles his position.  Plays the first chord.

The world, he is relieved to find, does not implode.

It’s clumsy.  He has to start over twice after his hands shake so hard he can’t quite keep his fingers on the keys properly.  But it’s nerves more than rust, he finds, and by the time his phone starts blaring the end of his lunch hour, he’s made it fully to the end of the song twice.

“Thank you,” he tells Emily as he packs up.  “For the help and for your patience.  I can’t imagine that was too kind on your ears.”

“Harvey, I’ve heard Gus singing along to Carmen, I have been tempered in fire,” she says with a laugh.  “And you’ve got some pretty solid skill, you’ll knock the rust out in no time.”

He smiles, dipping his head.  “Thank you.”

“Coming back tomorrow?”

Harvey nods, sucking in a breath.  “I think I can probably squeeze in a rush through before…um…” he gestures vaguely in the direction Pierre’s lies.

“Aerobics?”

He makes a choked sound in agreement.

“Does she know you’re-”

“No!” he says, mortified.  “I mean, Yoba, I hope she doesn’t.  I don’t have much pride, but I’d rather not sacrifice the last shred of it by telling her the only reason I can… keep up with her is because I spend Tuesdays Sweatin’ To The Oldies.”

“You really think it’d make a difference to her?” Emily asks, eyebrows raised.

Harvey frowns, thinking of her face.  The way she laughs when he’s done something ridiculous that she somehow finds endearing.  His shoulders drop an inch.

“Maybe not.”

From his back pocket, his phone blares off another warning.

“Right, sorry, I have to go.  Thank you, again, for, for you help and I uh-”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Harvey,” Emily finishes helpfully.

“Yes.  Right.  That,” he stammers, fumbling his book back into the bag.  “See you tomorrow.”

[ts-into-the-coinverse]

Made of Love, Chapter 26

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Table of Contents

Ship(s): Logicality, (platonic) Prinxiety

All Characters: Thomas, Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, Dr. Picani, Joan, Talyn, and Deceit

Synopsis: Humans Roman and Virgil get wrapped up in some serious magic business without meaning to. Their other companions aren’t exactly as they seem, either. Together they all must defeat a great threat for the safety of humanity.

Chapter Desc.: Patton realizes there are some things you can't hide forever. And one of them is standing at the door.

TW: Cursing, violence, heavily implied autophobia, unsympathetic character, manipulation, deadnaming(?), blood mention, allusion to transphobia. kinda. it makes sense when you see it

Prefer to read it on Ao3? Click here!

He locked the door.

“What?” Roman shot up from his seat. “Then who is it?”

The person on the other side banged on the door, causing everyone to jump.

“I, I don’t — it can’t —” Patton took a step back — “It can’t be him. He’s not… He said he’d leave us alone. He said he went back home.”

“Who?”

They hit the door again. “C’mon, Pistis,” they yelled using Logan’s voice. “You know you can’t hide from me forever.”

Virgil furrowed his brows. “Pistis?”

“Oh, no.” Patton backed away, eyes blown wide. “Why is he here? How did he —?” He stopped himself and placed a hand on his chest. “Where’s Logan? I-I need Logan.”

“Woah, hey,” Virgil held his hands up as if ready to stop Patton from running out. “Calm down. I’m sure Logan is fine.” He didn’t believe that, really, but he couldn’t have Patton freaking out right now.

“You don’t understand.” Patton turned his desperate expression to Virgil. “I have to find him. I can’t let Dolos do this again.”

Both Roman and Virgil flinched. It felt like something went through their chest to punch their hearts. It ached.

“Wait — Dolos?” Thomas stood up. “Like, like your brother Dolos? Freaky manipulation mind control Dolos? That one?”

“There aren’t very many others.”

A bright flash of light came from the other side of the door. Patton grabbed Virgil's arm and pulled him back to the others. Then the door fell forward. It crashed to the floor with a loud bang, causing everyone to flinch despite watching it happen. In the now open doorway stood Dolos still masquerading as Logan. He stared down at the door as if it was some mild inconvenience. He stepped around it and stopped, making direct eye contact with Patton and Patton alone. But instead of the dark blue of Logan's eyes, they were a bright yellow. They glowed the same way Patton's did without his glasses.

"What gave it away?" He didn't use Logan's voice this time.

Patton, whether consciously or not, stood in front of the group like he prepared for a fight. "You don't know Logan well enough to imitate him."

Dolos huffed and rolled his eyes, changing their color back to Logan's. He adjusted his posture before speaking in a very Logan-like way, "I've never felt anything in my life. My magic doesn't scare me at all and I have full control over it all the time. I definitely have no regrets about anything ever. All of my decisions are correct and precise because I'm always right." His eyes changed back and he dropped his posture. "Does that sound better?"

Patton frowned. "No."

"I don't know. It seemed pretty accurate to me." He examined his fingernails. "What do you think, Thomas? Sound about right?" His blazing eyes moved up. They widened a bit in surprise. "You seem a lot bigger than I remember. Did you get less naive since then?"

Thomas shifted from foot to foot.

"Stop." Patton stood in front of him. "Don't you start with that."

Dolos rolled his eyes again. “You never let me have any fun.”

“Maybe you should get a better definition of fun.”

“Maybe you should learn to see things from my perspective.”

They stared each other down, neither of them moving an inch or uttering a single word. It was a bit odd, and a little unnerving, to see Logan and Patton glare at each other like that. Even when they got mad at each other, they never looked at each other in such a way. A cold, hard glare to make anyone stop in their tracks. No one knew what to do next.

At last, Patton broke it with, “Why are you still pretending to be Logan?”

“You wouldn’t like what I’m wearing.” He pouted. “Unless… Is this upsetting to you? Do you not like that I have your boyfriend’s face? I could be someone else if you’d prefer. Oh — how about Ananke? You haven’t seen her in a while. Would you like to be reminded of what she looks like? I’m sure she’s somewhere out there still. Waiting faithfully —”

“Stop.”

Dolos complied with a bit of a smug smirk. “I didn’t realize you were still touchy about that. The guilt hasn’t gone away yet, has it?”

Patton must have been seconds away from losing his composure. “What are you doing here, Dolos?”

“Ooh, that’s a bit of deja vu, isn’t it?” His smirk widened. “Unfortunately, you’re not my main priority this time. I was really only sent to kill your boyfriend, but I thought that was way too easy. I mean, he was right outside. Alone. Where’s the fun in that?”

Thomas bit his thumb nervously. He eyed Patton the same way one would eye a bomb beginning its countdown. Not that Virgil could blame him. He could feel the outskirts of a very volatile emotion Patton was trying rather hard to keep to himself.

“You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me. I caught him completely by surprise."

Patton balled his hands into tight fists. "Where is he?"

"What do to think?" Dolos ran a finger across his neck.

The air was sucked out of the room. Or at least, that’s what it felt like to Virgil. Like someone whacked him full force in the chest with a hard object. All the blood drained from his face. It was almost impossible to tell if this was his own reaction or the result of Patton’s. They were so seamless. Unlike the times before where it felt like an added emotion thrown on top of his own, this time it intertwined with them. He didn't like the feeling.

"You're lying."

Dolos pouted again. "That's not very nice. Why would you think that?"

"That's — that's what you do.” Patton almost sounded desperate. As if he needed to convince himself rather than prove it was true. “Y-you mess with people so they'll listen to you. You, you lie to get your way. I've seen you do it."

"Maybe so. But I just needed you to let your guard down." His eyes got brighter.

"Uh oh," Thomas whispered.

"Uh oh? What uh oh?" Roman questioned.

"I'm going to need you to listen to me very carefully, brother of mine, no one is allowed to leave this house alive. Got that? Do whatever it takes."

"Time to go.” Thomas grabbed Roman’s and Virgil’s wrists to drag them away from Patton. He led them up the stairs to his room, shutting the door behind them. "Okay, okay. Uh." Plan. He needed a plan.

"Thomas, what the fuck?" It came out more as a statement, but Virgil still clearly wanted an answer.

"No time." There really wasn't. Thomas glanced around his room. The setting sun spiked his anxiety a bit, but he ignored it for the time being. "Just know that Patton is going to come up here at any second and he can actually kill us without a second thought. So…" There was only one way to fix it. A very long time ago, Thomas once saw Patton pull Logan out from under Dolos's magic. It was a scary situation to see as a kid. It wasn’t any easier now.

"Okay. You two need to hide. Right now." He rushed them to the closet and slid open the door. "Get in."

"Really?" They both gave him looks.

"Yeah, I get the irony, don't fight me on this." He pushed them in. "Whatever happens, don't come out. No matter what you hear just stay inside. Be quiet. I need all his focus to be on me. I'll be fine." Hopefully. "Just — just don't come out until I get you." He shut the door to cut off their protests. He backed away, taking a deep breath, then the door swung open.

He wasn't ready.

Patton stood at the doorway. Instead of his eyes swirling in yellow like Thomas expected (like they had been for Logan all those years ago), they were still brown. It caught Thomas off guard for a second until he remembered the glasses. His glasses were enchanted to make him look human. Unfortunately, they worked a bit too well. Now instead of warm and inviting, his eyes were hard and cold. He looked prepared to set out the task Dolos commanded him to do. And Thomas had no doubt he’d do it if given the right circumstances. Because he wasn’t really Patton right now. Not at the surface level. Right now he was a task — a mindset. One he was far too capable of completing. And that was the scariest part of this whole thing. Patton has had literal centuries of practice. He wouldn’t wait for Thomas to fix the problem. He’d see an opportunity to strike and take it. Thomas didn’t know if he could handle those conditions.

"Patton," he held up his hands. As if proving he was defenseless would somehow help, "listen to me. You're under Dolos's magic. You have to break free from it."

When Patton walked forward, Thomas backed up. He needed to keep space between them. That might have been a slight disadvantage on the "save Patton" front, but it sure helped for the "don't die" situation.

"I know you can do that. You know Dolos and his magic better than anyone." He bumped into his dresser. "There's no way he can have you completely under."

Patton held out his hand. But nothing happened. A moment of confusion passed his face.

Thomas couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “Yeah, I don’t keep any plants up here.” The smirk wiped clean off his face when Patton swung at him. Now, he wasn’t very good at fighting, but he was good at one thing: running away. He ducked out of the way in time for Patton's fist to connect to the dresser. Much to his surprise, it was a lot sturdier than he thought. When Patton pulled his fist away there was only a dent and splintered wood. "Oh, you are so not going to be happy about that when you come to."

But the Patton that was right here and now didn't care about it at all. He wasn't even phased. In fact, he was sort of… blank. A true neutral expression rested on his face. What made it all the more unnerving was that it was still Patton. This wasn't someone else. It wasn't an illusion or an advanced form of mimicry. It was Patton returned to his original settings. But he didn't have much time to think that. Patton lunged for him.

A squeak left his mouth and he dove over his bed. He felt a hand brush against his ankle before falling to the other side of the floor rather ungracefully. "Patton, come on." He picked himself up. "You're still in there — I know you are. Just listen to me. Drown out Dolos's orders. You can do this."

It didn’t seem as if Thomas’s words were getting through. Patton continued on his mission, oblivious to any attempts. This was not good. Thomas tried to fight back his rising panic and his instincts to call for help. His usual go-to for assistance was always Picani, but there was no way he was showing up any time soon. Then he thought of Logan, but there were a few reasons that wouldn’t work out right now. He couldn’t ask Roman or Virgil — they could get hurt. He was on his own. He didn’t want to be on his own. He couldn’t be on his own. He… he…

He couldn’t breathe.

Oh.

Oh no, no, no, no. Not now. Why now? He needed to be able to function. He needed to move. Instead, he was frozen in place with his lungs refusing to work. This was horrible timing. Snap out of it! Breathe!

Patton shoved him into the wall. He felt his chest constrict in the usual way that meant the wind had been knocked out of him. Not that it made much of a difference. He couldn't breathe anyway. He couldn't move. He couldn't focus. There was too much happening and yet nothing all at once. It was like trying to grab a cloud — impossible even when it seems so tangible. There was so much that needed his attention but he couldn't hold onto any of it.

Shit.

Did he say that out loud? Probably not important. The important thing was the pair of scissors trying to be jammed into his throat. Well, important wasn't the right word. More like urgent. Or even holy-shit-Patton-might-actually-kill-me. He didn't recall the split-second decision he made to save his own life. His body reacted on its own. He had one hand around Patton's forearm and the other around his fist. There was one problem that all his panic decided to focus on: Patton was a lot stronger than him.

His arms shook under the effort and pressure and fear. If he let Patton get any closer that would be it. "P-please." He didn't want to fail. Not like this. "Patton, please." But he was scared. He was so very scared. "Stop. Please." He wanted Picani. He wanted Logan. He wanted someone. Anyone. He didn't want to lose the last of his family. But what else could he do? His arms couldn't take it anymore. Patton kept pushing back. "Don't…" His whole body was consumed by fear. He couldn't think anymore. His one primal urge was to survive. He didn't want to be afraid. He wanted Patton back. He wanted everyone safe. He wanted to feel safe. With the scissors being so close to him, and sensing this could be the end, one last instinct was ripped from Thomas. One last desperate effort.

"Dad, stop!"

Patton froze.

Thomas held what little of his breath stayed with him. He didn't move.

Patton continued to stare at him, expression fixed in a perplexed manner. He slowly took a step back, the scissors slipping from his hand. He blinked once. Twice. A few times. Then that familiar warm color entered his eyes again. "Thomas?" He seemed to connect the dots on his own. "What did I —? Oh my goodness." He pulled Thomas into a tight hug. "Did I hurt you? Are you okay?" He pulled back enough to check for any injuries. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let Dolos get to me like that. I —"

He was cut off by Thomas bringing him back into a hug. He didn't say anything. He couldn't. He buried his face into Patton's shoulder and failed to keep his tears from falling. His chest ached. But having Patton back made it a bit easier to breathe again.

"I'm right here," Patton whispered, rubbing his back. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

That was a familiar phrase to hear. Thomas elected not to dwell on it.

“No offense, Patton,” Virgil started, stepping out of the closet. “But I was about two seconds away from stabbing you in the back.” He tapped the ends of his daggers together.

“I don’t blame you.” He tried to let go so he could look at Virgil, but Thomas refused to let that happen. “Uh, thanks for not doing that, I guess?”

“Really you should be thanking Roman.” Virgil crossed his arms and tilted his head towards Roman, who was closing the closet door. “I wouldn’t have waited that long.”

“I was just listening to Thomas,” Roman stated defensively.

“It worked out okay in the end,” Thomas replied, voice muffled by Patton’s shoulder. He felt pretty crummy. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed, or maybe a dark hole, and sleep forever. But that had to wait for now. He needed to pull himself together to help get Dolos out of here. "It's fine."

Patton made a slight noise of disagreement yet made no effort to comment any further.

Thomas closed his eyes and sighed. His body was heavy. He didn't want to move. If he had to go through another situation like that he'd probably die on the spot.

"Maybe you should stay up here, kiddo." Patton managed to free himself so he could look at Thomas. He cupped his face and used his thumbs to wipe the remaining tears. "You've done a lot and I think you need…" He trailed off, his expression twisting into confusion. "Hey — wait a minute — did you call me dad?"

"Dolos is downstairs." Thomas tore himself away and hurried out of the room.

"Thomas!"

He ignored that in favor of going down the stairs as fast as he could. Which, really, wasn’t as fast as it could have been. He didn’t have a lot of limb coordination at the moment. So the others reached the bottom of the stairs about the same time that he did. Dolos was on the couch, still disguised as Logan, flipping through a book. It didn't seem as if he had much interest in it; he appeared pretty bored.

Patton practically seethed in rage when he spotted him. He marched right over to him and grabbed his shoulder. But then he vanished. Shattered into millions of pieces like yellow glass which faded out of existence.

"Has there been a time where you haven't fallen for that?"

They all turned to see Dolos sitting on the kitchen counter. He examined a coffee mug as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Es gematim mijka," Patton nearly growled.

Dolos looked up in shock. "Language." He set the mug down and hopped off the counter. "Living amongst ostalloi for over six hundred years has certainly changed you quite a bit."

"Turn back." Patton marched to the kitchen.

"Why should I do that?"

"Because I really want to punch you in the face but I can't do that while you look like Logan."

Dolos raised a brow. "You certainly could." He examined Patton. "And I get the feeling you will if I wait long enough." He sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Then his disguise melted away. His skin and hair got darker. By contrast, his hair was a lot curlier and messier than Patton's. He had an interesting pattern of freckles that stopped at one half of his face. Like someone took a paintbrush and splattered paint but forgot to finish. He wore a suit, which would have been fine, except it wasn't modern. It had that particular look that modern suits don't have. More angles. Muted colors with subtle patterns. This wasn't the right time period for it.

"That…" Patton furrowed his brows. "Why are you wearing that?"

"I told you you wouldn't like it." He straightened out his jacket with another mock pout. "I'm afraid my hat's been misplaced. It might help you recall the last time you saw me."

"The last time —?" His eyes widened. "Th-that was over seventy years ago. Why would you still be wearing that?"

"Oh, come on, Pistis. You're smart. Piece it together."

"I…"

Dolos waited.

Patton didn't speak.

"You're dead," Thomas whispered.

He shrugged.

“But…" Patton appeared to go over the situation in his head, "you said you were going back home. You were leaving. Why would you stay?”

Dolos sighed. Like an unfortunate secret had been found out. “Well, that’s what I told you. But after that incident we promised not to mention again, I decided to help you out. I didn’t think it’d cost me a life but I suppose that’s the price I had to pay for being soft.”

“I’m —” Patton looked conflicted — “I’m sorry.”

Dolos paused. He studied Patton curiously before rolling his eyes. “Yes, well, if I were more of myself. I’d probably tell you that my job as an older brother has always been to protect you — no matter the cost. Unfortunately, this version of myself lacks any of that compassion. So I’m afraid I must continue with my mission.”

"What are you going to do?" Thomas asked, a nervous edge to his voice.

"Wing it."

A figure appeared in front of them. Humanoid in nature, but certainly not human passing. It had no distinguishable features other than being a towering presence. It shimmered yellow with thin strings protruding from its appendages like that of a marionette. They led nowhere; fading from view after passing the full height of the apparition. It jumped on Patton, knocking him to the ground. The apparition noticed Virgil and Roman draw their weapons, and in response, shot out appendages from its back toward them. It wrapped around them, making it almost impossible to move.

"I'll be back to collect later. Please do try to make it quick." Dolos stepped away from the mess and left out the back door.

Thomas stood there. He watched Patton struggle to get out from under this strange creature. He saw Roman and Virgil try to break free. And then there was Dolos making his escape.

He chased after Dolos.

"Where are you going?" He stopped him in the backyard by the pool. Most of the backyard was composed of concrete except for a small section of grass closest to the house. He hadn’t spent much time back here in a while. Most of his outside time was spent passed the fence at the training grounds.

"Shouldn't you be inside?" Dolos turned to him with a raised brow. "Is coming after me really the best idea?"

"I can't just let you get away."

"And how will you stop me, exactly?" He approached him. "You can't fight, you have no magic — what are you expecting to happen?"

Thomas's hands fidgeted at his sides. He didn't have a plan. All he knew was that he couldn't let Dolos leave. He'd go back and alert Altair. That's what Figments did.

"You haven't changed at all. You're still that same scared little boy I met all those years ago. That's all you'll ever be, isn't it?"

"I'd like to think I'm a lot braver than I was." Maybe. Hopefully.

Dolos didn't appear to believe him. "Why don't we test that, shall we?" Another yellow figure sprouted up. This one was a bit shorter. It still had strings attached to its many limbs. There were quite a few arms. "I'll make it a fair fight."

Thomas felt a weight enter his hand. A sword. It shimmered yellow at certain angles but otherwise looked pretty real. He lifted it and almost sent it flying. It was lighter than he expected. When he held Logan's sword, it was a lot heavier than it looked. This one weighed about as much as someone would guess it should weigh. It wasn't real.

And neither was that creature right in front of him.

But his perception of it didn't change all that much. It was real enough to cause damage in the same way the sword was real enough to be held. This was still a dangerous game to play.

He gripped the sword with both hands. He still had no idea how to use one properly. If everyone made it out of this he should ask how to use one. That seemed like a valuable life lesson at this point. The number of times he’s held a sword these past few weeks without knowing how to use one… too many. Well, this was only the second time, but once was enough.

The creature shuffled toward him. It seemed unsure how to move. As if it didn’t know if it should use its many arms or the legs it was given. They stared at each other. It may not have had any features, but Thomas could feel what should have been its eyes boring into him. Neither of them made a move.

Dolos sighed in what sounded like annoyance. “You take after Logan, don’t you?”

Thomas gave him a confused glance. “Wha —?” He didn’t get the chance to ask a complete question. The creature swiped at him and he instinctively backed away. He held the sword in front of him and mimicked the stance he had seen Logan teach Roman how to do.

The creature swiped at him again, and this time, he swung the sword. He made contact, slicing through the arm. Both parts of it shattered like glass which left one less arm to deal with. Thomas sort of wanted to apologize. That seemed like it would hurt, but the creature was silent. It didn't scream or cry. Perhaps a mouth was needed for such things.

It did, however, manage to convey that it was pissed off.

It went after Thomas with no hesitation. And Thomas was too inexperienced to keep up. The sword was hit out of his hand. When it connected with the ground it shattered into pieces. He was defenseless. Not that he had time to dwell on that. He was knocked down soon after.

He tried to scramble away, but the creature was faster. It caught up to him. He shut his eyes and braced for impact. Except it didn't come. He cracked one eye open to see someone else in front of him.

A broad grin stretched across his face. "Logan!"

Logan pulled his sword out of the creature as it shattered into pieces. He turned his head to address Thomas. "Are you okay?"

"I'm…" The guilt rammed full force into Thomas again. The first thing Logan did was make sure Thomas was okay. That was always the first thing he did. Because he cared. Of course he cared. God. Thomas was such an idiot. "... sorry."

That wasn't what Logan was expecting. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Thomas got to his feet. "I didn't mean what I said. It was wrong to even think it."

"Thomas."

“I wish I could take it back, but I can't, a-and it's out there and I’m sorry you heard it. I never should have said it.”

“Thomas.”

“I’m just really sorry. Y-you don’t even have to forgive me, I understand. It was wrong and dumb a-and I just wanted someone to be angry at —”

“Thomas.” Logan put a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe. I know you want to rectify everything right now, but it is not the best time. We're kind of in the middle of something."

Dolos wiggled his fingers with a slight smile. "Still here."

Right. "Y-yeah, I guess that's a bit of a problem."

“Let me take care of him and then we can talk, alright?” Logan smiled at him.

He took in a deep breath. “Alright.”

"That's very sweet," Dolos drawled with exaggerated kindness. "Yet I can't help but notice that you're implying you'll beat me. I think you're forgetting I'm a Machai elf. I may have been out of the loop for quite some time, but my expertise still exceeds yours for centuries."

Logan frowned. "Maybe you should put that to the test."

"Maybe I should." A thin string of light circled around his palms and wrists, tracing the shape of slick gauntlets. They were a bit bulkier around the wrists but otherwise appeared like normal gauntlets. Though with someone who was proficient in illusion and mimicry, looks could never be relied on. In addition, two human-like figures rose up from the ground. In a way, they almost resembled the dummies Patton made. Except these were swirling with yellow lights and had the same strings attached to their limbs as all the other creatures Dolos created did.

"Stay behind me," Logan muttered to Thomas.

Thomas wouldn’t dream of doing anything else. He kept a safe distance while Logan fought off the dummies. As well as them, he also had to deal with Dolos. The gauntlets proved to have something else to them. The bulkier part lifted to reveal a dart. Once one was shot out, it shifted to move on to the next dart. There were a few close calls with that already. Thomas sort of wished he could do more, but that wasn't an option. He was a bit inept at fighting if that wasn't obvious already. He had to have faith that Logan could handle himself.

Then he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up. The itchy feeling of being watched crawled up his spine. He spun around to see a beastly creature on all fours right in front of his face. It resembled a bear with a longer snout and thinner claws. It didn't have any eyes, but Thomas had a feeling that didn't matter. With a mouth full of jagged teeth, it posed a major threat.

"Um, Logan?"

"What is it, Thomas?" Logan spared a glance back and gasped.

"We have another issue."

The beast roared, loud and booming.

"Aw, are you scared of Ursa?" Dolos asked the same way one would address little kids. "She's a familiar. Well — she's more of a fail-safe. If my life is in danger, she pops up. It’s very convenient for not dying."

Ursa pounced. Thomas and Logan dove out of the way, but now they were separated. Ursa turned her attention onto Thomas. Which was unfortunate. He didn't have anything to defend himself with. She growled, inching closer.

But she stopped. Something between a roar and a yelp escaped her mouth. When she turned to look behind her, Thomas was able to see Logan. She snarled and redirected her attention to him.

"Bold choice," Dolos commented as he examined his gauntlets with mild interest. "You're just gonna let him handle this on his own?" He moved his eyes up to Thomas. "A one on one with Ursa is a very unfortunate situation."

"Don't listen to him Thomas," Logan shot back. Ursa tried to take a bite at him. "I have it under control. Just get out of here."

Thomas idled. He wasn't a fighter. But could he really leave Logan alone like this?

Dolos tsked. "Never try to be the hero, Logan. That won't make up for what you are." He lifted his arm and the thick part of the gauntlet popped out again. As he took proper aim, he stopped and seemed to reconsider. Instead, he aimed at Thomas.

Logan narrowly avoided a swipe from Ursa. He had his eyes on Dolos. "Stop!"

He didn't.

The dart flew out of the slot and, to Thomas, everything seemed to go in slow motion. The dart was heading right towards him. He gasped. An automatic response that seemed like a bit of an underreaction considering the circumstances. But he couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he had was an urge. A strong need to not die. Not today. Not right here. Just…

Don't.

It missed him. Barely. But it did. He felt it slice along his cheek as it whizzed passed his ear to stick in the wall behind him. He let out a soft breath. He wasn't sure if it was out of relief or because he suddenly felt so winded. The edges of his vision turned fuzzy and nothing was staying still. His whole body had extra weight hanging off of it, sliding down and begging him to reach the floor.

Dolos looked shocked. And then confused. "How did…?"

Logan got hit by Ursa's claw. He collided with the ground and his sword went sliding along the concrete. "I'm an idiot," he groaned. "Thomas, rule number one. Always keep an eye on your opponent."

“Ursa. Stansei."

Ursa growled. Her teeth were inches away from Logan’s face but she backed off.

Dolos scowled. "Stand up."

Logan did so with visible reluctance. He was bleeding a lot. Most of it came from the fresh claw marks across his arm.

"Both of you, get over here."

Thomas's legs started moving on their own accord. He didn't want them to move. His body hurt. But… he couldn't get them to stop. He was forced to follow Dolos's orders, as was Logan.

"Anytime I visit your little family I always get a surprise."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

A yellow line sprouted from Thomas's feet. It wrapped around his legs and up his torso, pinning his arms in place. In the end, it covered his mouth to stifle any protests. He glanced over to see Logan in a similar predicament.

"Well, no matter. You two are coming with me."

“Dolos!”

Dolos cringed and faced the doorway. “Pistis.”

Patton scowled and stepped out of the house. “Don’t call me that.” A cut on his face was already starting to heal. Behind him, Roman and Virgil followed. They all looked like they went through hell and back.

“You're still on about that? My sweet, naive baby brother. It doesn’t matter what you call yourself. It will never change what you really are.” He pushed his curls back to reveal pointy ears. "You'll always be one of us no matter how far you run."

Patton scowled further. “We’re not going to talk about this. Just let them go.”

Dolos didn’t speak for a moment. He glanced between his captives and Patton. “Choose one.”

“What?” Patton looked at him incredulously.

“Choose which one you want to save. The other will come with me to Altair.”

Patton gaped. He shared astonished looks with Roman and Virgil. He was downright dumbfounded by such an idea. “You… you can’t just ask me to choose —!”

“Either you choose one of them or you get neither.”

Thomas could feel the coils tightening. He was being squeezed from all sides. Pressure began to build up from the places under the coils. It was so tight. He felt like any second he could pop.

"Stop! Fine, I'll do it." As the pressure lessened, Patton looked between the two of them. He truly didn't want to choose. Thomas could see it. Then he saw something else. Patton and Logan started doing that silent conversation thing they did sometimes.

Patton sighed. He pushed up his glasses as he pressed his palms to his eyes. "Boéos, Dolos…" He dropped his hands. "Okay. I — I got it." He didn't look at either of them. "Thomas. I choose Thomas."

Thomas's eyes widened. What? No. He frantically shook his head and tried to protest. Why him? Logan was the one that needed to be saved — not him. They couldn't let Altair get near Logan.

"Interesting." Dolos looked somewhat surprised. "Not what I expected, but it's your choice." Without any type of warning, Thomas was released. Well, released was a bit of a gentle word. It was more like he was tossed to the side. Instead of smashing into concrete, as he expected, he fell into water.

That would have been a good thing… if he could swim.

Hey — his childhood didn't exactly leave a lot of room for extracurriculars. He meant to learn, but he didn't think it was that important at this point. Pools had shallow ends for a reason. What an idiot! Of course this is the one thing that would come back to bite him.

Through the disturbed water, he could see a few bright flashes. Like sparks from when a match is struck but on a larger scale. He kind of assumed he was seeing things until hands reached out to grab a hold of him. He was pulled toward the surface, and when his head was above the water he took a deep breath, suddenly feeling as if he hadn’t been able to breathe for ages. And he saw Logan. Logan was helping him out of the pool. He wanted to apologize again, just on impulse, but he didn't have the air to say anything yet. Plus, there were a lot of other things happening.

Roman and Virgil were on either side of Logan, worry on their faces. Patton had an earthy bow trained on Dolos. When he saw Thomas was fine, relief visibly washed over him. That relief soon switched to a glare that he aimed at Dolos. He dropped the bow, snatched a dagger from Virgil’s hand, and marched straight toward him.

“Woah, n-no, no, no — wait.” He held his hands up in defense and backed up. “This body may be a result of Altair’s patchwork, but it’s still going to hurt a little so please for once in your life, don’t stab what’s right in front of you.”

Patton kept the dagger trained on him. “Then tell me something useful.”

“Sure. Yes. What do you want to know?”

“Why are you acting like this?”

Dolos furrowed his brows. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re different. I mean, you were never the nicest person in the world, but you still had…" He tried to search for the right word. "Decency. You never would have thought about hurting Thomas or trying to control me. I thought you...” He struggled to find the right words again. "What happened to the Dolos that let me run away with Logan?"

Dolos paused. His eyes flickered over everyone before returning them to Patton. “When Altair brings someone back, they don’t come back… whole. He’s stronger now, so he can bring back more of what made that Magus alive, but it’s impossible to piece everything together again. Returning from the dead is nearly impossible as it is, but with the way Altair kills people, there’s no coming back from that. It doesn’t matter how much magic you use, or what god you pray to, that person will never be who they used to be. They will always miss a part of themselves.”

Logan rubbed his wrist.

“Can you tell us where he is?” Patton continued.

“I’m afraid that’s classified. Or rather, I wasn’t put together with that information.”

“Smart move,” Virgil muttered.

Roman crossed his arms. “Then what can you tell us?”

Dolos gave him a look. “I can tell you a few things. I can tell you you don’t have much time left. I can tell you that Altair will decide to come here personally if all of you aren’t taken cared of soon. I can tell you that the second Logan dies, Altair will have complete and utter control of his magic and — well — it’s time to prepare for the end of the world at that point.”

“Seems a bit extreme,” Logan mumbled.

“Possibly. But I’ve been around for almost eight hundred years. Humans and Magi alike haven’t changed much in all these centuries. When confronted with ‘conform or die’ not even the most complacent Magi will take that lightly.”

“W-what do you mean?” Thomas spoke around chattering teeth. He leaned into Logan to try to get some warmth.

Dolos sighed. “Altair doesn’t see himself as the power-hungry control freak anyone with a sensible mind would paint him as. He thinks he’s playing the hero in this story. He wants to help us.” He motioned between the Magi of the group. “Humans,” he pointed to Roman and Virgil, “cause trouble. They’re the reason we have to hide. And outliers,” he looked right at Thomas, “well, they’re just not nice to have around. He wants a perfect utopia. No outliers, no mistakes, and no trouble. And if he gets his hands on Logan’s magic in its pure and raw form, then everything you have been working for for the past two hundred years will start to go down the toilet." He glanced around at all of them. “Is that all or have I successfully dampened the mood?”

"How did you find us?" Logan asked.

A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Dolos's lips. He didn't answer with words. Instead, his eyes trailed over to Virgil, and his smirk widened.

"Virgil?" Thomas stared at him with wide eyes. He might have been freezing already, but he felt any heat he had left seep out of him. He wasn't sure what to think. His heart dropped to the deepest pit of his stomach. The same exact feelings he felt when he found out he was the reason he'd never see the rest of his family again took over him. Pain. Regret. Disbelief. Did he trust the wrong person? Was this his fault?

Virgil acted just as shocked. "I, I didn't." He looked at everyone, begging them to believe him. "I wouldn't. I..." With each passing second, he seemed less sure of himself.

"Right. Well, this has been fun." Dolos's voice dripped with heavy sarcasm. "I'd love to keep up this pleasant chat, but I have places to be. Any last remarks?"

No one said anything.

Patton gazed at Ursa for a long time, then he turned to Dolos, speaking in a soft voice, “Are you actually dead?”

He winked. Ursa went up in smoke as every other Figment did, and Dolos’s body shattered into millions of glass-like pieces that faded once they hit the ground.

(Next)