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bewaretheidesofmarchyall · 4 years ago

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Dream SMP Good Omens AU Part 3!

There’s another chapter of the Good Omens AU! This one is Bedrock Bros, it’s on AO3 here, but also below the cut

Technoblade was determined not to care about Tommy. He lost that particular battle.

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

"Let me get something clear. I'm not sure why you're here, or what you're planning, but I haven't survived as long as I have by giving strangers the benefit of the doubt.". Technoblade paced around his opponent, making every word clear.

"You may have been able to pull the wool over Phil's eyes, but I see through this whole game.

You think you can show up in our home, learn our secrets, and report back to your boss, right?

Well, mark my words: I'm going to find out your plan, I'm going to track down the guy you're working for, and I'm going to get you out of our lives.". He glanced back.

"Are you even listening to me?".

The opponent stared blankly at him through crib bars. Technoblade folded his arms.

"I'm starting to think you might actually be a month-old baby.". Phil walked into the room, looking exasperated.

"Techno, are you interrogating the child again?"

"Listen, this orphaned child is hiding something, I know it."

"He didn't crack the first seven times you tried this. Just give it a rest, mate."

"I think I have the perfect negotiation strategy this time."

"Which is?"

"The threat of violence. Allow me to demonstrate.". He removed a sword from the wall and held it over the crib.

"Who do you work for?". Tommy looked at the blade like it was the coolest thing he'd seen in his young life and reached for it. Techno held it out of the child's reach.

Phil, unamused, swooped in, took the sword out of his hands, and half-led half-pushed him out of the house.

"I think that's enough for today."

"But-"

"Nope!”

"Just promise me you won't trust him."

"I already don't, but it's my job to keep Tommy away from danger, and I think a sword qualifies."

"I wasn't going to stab a baby. It was an intimidation tactic, I was intimidating the baby.".

Phil apparently thought that was a ridiculous thing to do, and he closed the door, leaving Techno on the porch.

The new neighbors were out in their yards.

The surly one two houses down with the business suit flipped him off as a way of greeting, while the strange guitar guy waved cheerfully, "accidentally" pointing a garden hose at the businessman in the process.

Technoblade hadn't bothered to learn either of their names. He neither liked nor trusted them, but they weren't the most important issue at hand.

No, the most important thing right now is figuring out how to end the Tommy Problem, so me and Phil can be unbothered and safe. I look after my family and no one else.

His days of living in our home are numbered.

-----------

Now, knowing your enemy is crucial to any conflict.

So, when Technoblade wasn't maintaining the old secret identity, exercising Steve, or looking after his collections of books and bones, he was gathering intel.

Unfortunately for him, babies were perhaps the most boring creatures in existence.

They couldn't speak, they couldn't move around much, they didn't have any kind of personal philosophy to argue against.

Even after two years of gathering information, he wasn't able to learn much about the thing's strengths, weaknesses, and motivations besides the basics:

Strengths: Phil's protecting him and might be a bit attached.

Weaknesses: A literal baby, untrained in combat.

Motivations: ??? An enigma.

He was a patient man, but two years of learning nothing was testing his patience. This was the only reason why he agreed to look after the toddler for an afternoon.

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

Phil dropped Tommy off at Techno's house with very little prior warning.

Techno hadn't been expecting to ever have to look after a toddler, even for a couple of hours, and he reacted to the idea with reluctance.

"Why can't Wilbur do this again?"

“Because I’m leaving to go look for him. I had a concerning phone call, and Wilbur might be in trouble with the law or something worse. It’s a long story, but could you please watch Tommy for a little while?”.

Technoblade tried not to show his distaste for the idea of babysitting, and agreed.

All I have to do is keep him alive and unharmed for a couple of hours, hopefully learning more about what he is and why we have him. I can do that.

As soon as Phil left, he found a notebook and pen. He was going to take copious notes to make this worth it.

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

1:32 PM: The kid has just been released into my house. He immediately tried to fall down the basement stairs. I stopped him, but he's on the loose again.

1:45 PM: Note to self, add Unlimited Energy to the strengths column.

2:00 PM: Another round of are all children like this, or is it a supernatural thing! He apparently has the capacity to scream for five minutes straight without breathing. This is because he's upset that I won't let him on the basement stairs, which he has decided is the best part of the house because I don't want him there.

2:04 PM: On the loose once more.

2:15 PM: It's like someone released a miniature earthquake into my house. This thing is chaos incarnate loose on the mortal plane.

2:28 PM: he may or may not have a knife

2:29 PM: Crisis averted, he does not have a knife anymore.

2:33 PM: It has now been over an hour. The child is alive, my sanity is not.

2:46 PM: Steve likes him. He's an impeccable judge of character most of the time, wonder what went wrong. This would be kind of sweet, if it weren't for the fact that Phil might see that I googled if polar bears ate children.

2:47 PM: Just to clarify: Steve has not eaten the child at the time of this entry.

4:19 PM: You know what really annoys me? The voices haven't helped at all with this. I'd assume one of you would have some helpful advice, but it's just "blood for the blood god" and "E". I know that I didn't become the blood god by saying "Yeah, that seems like a reasonable amount of blood", but there are other things in life.

4:23 PM: I think I finally figured out something. The kid likes fire and (again, is that normal for human children??) and I'm exploding things at a safe distance. He's entertained, I'm getting rid of my spare Molotov cocktails, this is fine.

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

Techno put the notebook aside and lit another fuse.

He looked up to the window, where Steve was curled up around Tommy, stopping him from going anywhere.

He casually got out of the way of the explosion, let it happen, and ran back to the window nook in the house. Tommy was still grinning and staring at the crater in wonder.

I'm not completely failing at this.

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

Techno wasn't planning on answering it, but a certain guardian demon walked unsteadily into the house anyway.

Wilbur looked somewhat dazed, like he'd been through hell and back in the last three hours. One of his hands was hidden in his coat, but Technoblade was pretty sure he was covering a wound.

Tommy looked even more excited about seeing him than he was about the explosions, and he ran over, clinging on to Wilbur.

Despite the state he was in, he smiled down at the toddler.

Techno waited to the side for an explanation, not sure of the right way to ask someone if they'd been in an alleyway shootout recently.

Eventually, Wilbur looked up.

"If you see a man in a sonic onesie, kill him on sight."

"Heh?"

"Just some advice. Anyway, thank you so much for taking care of Tommy for these couple of hours, but I'm back."

"Wilbur, from what I can see you're going to pass out in five minutes. You're not going to look after a toddler."

"Excuse me, I haven't slept since the 19th century and I'm not starting now."

"What?"

"Ignore that. I sleep as much as humans do. The point is, I'm here to relieve you from your post.".

Technoblade thought about it.

On the one hand, the chaos gremlin would be removed from my house.

On the other hand, it's just my luck that someone only shows up once I figured out how to kind of deal with the situation.

Also, that guy's at least on Death's lawn if not his doorstep.

"I don't need you to swoop in and take the credit, but thanks. I've been handling this just fine on my own.". A puzzled expression flickered on Wilbur's face, but he eventually nodded.

"Fine. I guess."

"When you pass out in three minutes, try not to do it in the potato garden or the bush."

"Not going to do that, but sure thing.". With that, Wilbur slowly got Tommy to let go of him and left into the evening. Technoblade turned to the child.

"Alright, let's explode something else."

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

A little later that night, a voicemail was sent to Phil.

"If you're still looking for Wilbur, you can stop. He's back, and he's not dead. I mean, he's not exactly dead.

Apparently, he got into a gunfight with Sonic the Hedgehog. He's in", and there was a muffled crash, followed by a long sigh from Techno as he stared at the wall in disappointment.

"He's in the bush. Please collect him. Also, please collect your actual child, he's tried to chew on a skull. Thanks.".

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

Since the first time looking after Tommy hadn't been a complete disaster, Techno didn't object when he was needed again.

After all, the more he learned, the more he theoretically grew closer to bringing their lives back to normalcy.

So, he was like 8% of Tommy's childhood. He was no Wilbur, but the kid was still part of his life.

Little traces of Tommy were everywhere in his house, except for the basement, which remained under lock and key.

The walls were scribbled on, the fridge raided too many times to count, and action figures hidden in every corner.

Whenever he got the chance, he'd find a way to test the kid for some kind of supernatural ability.

So far, Tommy was able to leave salt circles, touch iron and silver, didn't care when he cooked eggshells, and could absolutely enter places without being invited (in fact, that seemed like his favorite thing to do).

Technoblade was certain that Tommy wasn't human, but he had to admit that the likelihood of him being a spy was slim.

He seemed like a perfectly regular child, or as regular as the circumstances allowed.

Techno had met his share of liars and actors in his day (hell, his neighbors fit the criteria), but he'd never come across anything that could tell a lie that convincing.

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

One would expect the years to fly by for someone like Technoblade, since he'd seen so many of them.

However, time had never sped or slowed for him. The years always felt like the exact same length of time.

Still, it was odd how fast Tommy grew up.

The years still felt like plain old years, no faster or slower, but it was a surprise when Technoblade realized that the kid was seven already.

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

Tommy liked comic books where the heroes won, so Techno hadn't expected him to like Greek myths.

He'd only read them to him because he'd been demanding a story, and it was either the book of mythology or Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Seeing as Tommy was a second-grader, military tactics went a bit over his head.

"So, Hades decided to let Orpheus leave the underworld with Eurydice under one condition: He couldn't look back to see if she was following him. If he doubted the gods and looked behind him before they both reached the sun, he would lose her forever."

"That's dumb."

"The gods don't like being doubted."

"If he goes into the underworld to get her back, they should be able to leave without some trick!"

"Yeah, the gods are also jerks sometimes.". Tommy curled up on the couch, trying to turn the page to find out what would happen next.

Techno had hoped that a story would calm him down, but his energy seemed even higher than before, since he was invested in the plot.

"Do they make it?"

"We're getting there. Orpheus walked back through Hades-"

"He walked through Hades?"

"Hades the place, not Hades the god. He named his kingdom after himself."

"That's not a good way to name a kingdom. I wouldn't want to live in a place named Tommyland, even if I did have a country. I should have a country."

“Tommy, you don’t want to run a government.”

"It isn't a government if it's all me!"

"That-That's absolute monarchy. That's worse."

"If you could, would you clone yourself? I would. I'd have a clone country."

"Do you want to find out what happens next in the story or not?". Tommy quickly nodded, and let Techno continue.

"Orpheus walked back through Hades, not knowing if Eurydice was behind him or not. He walked through the Elysian Fields, and the pits of Tartarus, and the endless wasteland of the shades of Asphodel."

"What's Asphodel?"

"Asphodel is where they put souls who weren't good or bad, but just kind of there. It's like the ancient Greek version of purgatory. They just stand in a meadow for all of eternity there."

"Sounds boring."

"It is. Anyway, Orpheus walked through all of Hades's kingdom. He could only hear his own footsteps and his breathing, and had no way of telling if Eurydice had followed.

When he crossed the river Styx, he asked the ferryman if there was anyone behind him, but Charon refused to answer him.

He got to the other side of the river, and all he had to do was walk through the tunnel to the surface."

"So he makes it?"

"We're getting there. Orpheus was almost to the surface, when things started to go badly for him in a special way. See, most Greek heroes are stopped by their hubris, but-"

"What's hubris?"

"Overconfidence. Arrogance. The type of person who'd try to take things from the gods instead of asking."

"Like Wilbur!"

"Exactly like Wilbur. But Orpheus was just built different.

Instead of being overconfident, his fatal flaw was doubting too much. He trusted no one, especially not himself.

So, just as he was about to step into the sun, he turned around to check if Eurydice was behind him.

And she was. She'd been behind him the whole time, but when he gave in to his doubts and turned to look, she disappeared forever.". Technoblade closed the book. Tommy was quiet, picking at a loose thread on a cushion.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, that's basically the story."

"That's not fair. He goes down into the scariest place in the cosmos to get back the person he loves, and then loses because he turns around a couple feet from the finish line?"

"He gave into his fatal flaw. That's how most of these work."

"Hades probably knew that was his fatal flaw. And he chose that test to make him lose.". Techno blinked. He'd never thought about it that way.

"I mean, that's probably true. Like I said, the gods are jerks.". Tommy seemed disappointed by that, slumping and burying his face in Steve's fur.

"Do any of these have happy endings?".

Technoblade looked through the table of contents.

Achilles dies. Jason dies. Bellerophon dies. Atalanta got turned into a lion. Heracles and Icarus and Meleager all die. Even Theseus dies in disgrace. Seems like everyone dies, except-

"Perseus turns out okay.". Tommy brightened up a bit at that.

"Can you tell me about him?".

Technoblade found the right page and began telling the story of the man who got to go on a quest and survive.

The whole time, Tommy had his head on his shoulder, staring at the illustrations. Techno's arm fell asleep after a few minutes, but he neither noticed nor minded.

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

If anyone asked Techno if he cared about Tommy, he'd laugh in their face.

Of course he didn't! There was still a plan to get rid of him, it was just....delayed.

Once he grew up and went to college, he'd technically be out of the house. Which meant that the plan would still have paid off. Still a partial victory on his part.

Anyway, he'd say in very clear terms that he didn't care about Tommy. He was just some kid.

A kid that spent a lot of time at his house. A kid that he'd seen grow up. A kid that obviously cared about him.

The same kid that he taught how to throw a punch when he got into a fight at school, and which heroes corresponded to which constellations, and to call him whenever he needed help.

He'd say that he didn't care about that kid. But, out of the many liars he'd met over his long life, he was one of the worst.

And when Phil called him with a plan to make sure that Tommy stayed safe, he agreed, even though it would inconvenience him a fair bit.

Because above all else, Technoblade looked after his family.

#dream smp #dsmp #good omens au #c!technoblade #c!tommy #technoblade #bedrock bros #tommyinnit #writing #beware the drafts of march

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1000roughdrafts · 5 years ago

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Never Have I Ever (1)

Square Filled: Mutual Pining Pairing: Dean Winchester X Fem!reader, Sam x Jess, Cas x ? 😉(only mentioned) Warnings: slight angst, language, kissing, implied smut (kinda, since part 2 is all the smut) OOC Dean, Summary: College!AU - Dean gets jealous of the attention he thinks you’re receiving from Cas during a small party at your house and doesn’t know what to do with it, so he leaves the room to keep drinking. A/N: originally starting writing this for my jackhammer square for kink bingo, but when I reached nearly 4K before getting to the beginning of the smut I realized I should split into 2 parts. Also on mobile and having issues. AND A HUGE THANK YOU TO @deanwanddamons for being my beta!!! <3 Word Count: 3.7k

Written for @spndeanbingo

With laughter echoing in the small quarters of your living room, your roommate and best friend, Jess, dances on the coffee table to the music playing from cheap television speakers. Standing behind the couch as you watch her, you throw back the last of your drink. Setting the glass on the kitchen counter, you mutter an ‘oops’ when it clunks against the tile.

After scanning the room, hoping to see Dean, you wave a hand at Jess, “okay, okay, get down from there before you break something,” you giggle. Walking around the couch, you point at Sam, “help her down, will ya? Cas, you see where Dean ran off to?”

Lifting his eyes only long enough to look from one side to the other, he goes back to his phone, “probably making another drink? You know how he loves his whiskey,” he shrugs, leaning back into the chair.

Rolling your eyes, you raise your voice, “okay, no one start any games until I find him.” You point at Jess, “and stay off the table, please.”

Straightening out her back to mock salute at you, she breaks into laughter before turning back to Sam.

Leaning forward, you check the dining room once more. Nothing. Turning on your heels, you head down the hallway to check the bedrooms, even knocking on the bathroom door. You frown when you realize that maybe he left without saying goodbye.

Sighing, you turn the corner to see the door of your office shut. With your palm pressed against the door, you turn the knob. It creaks loudly as you push it open.

Dean sits in the chair at your desk, twisting the cap of the whiskey as he glances over at you, an annoyed breath heaving through his nose. Turning his head back to the bottle, he pours himself a glass. He leans back in the chair as he brings it to his lips.

“Dean-o,” you sing, taking slow and cautious steps over to him. “Whatcha doin’ in here all by your lonesome?” You bend to kneel next to him, placing a hand on the desk to keep your balance.

“Ah, just thought I’d check over my stupid English paper a few more times,” he responds looking down at you with a cramped smile. “Don’t wanna fail that class again, even if the teach is hot,” he says through a chuckle.

“Mrs. Rose is pretty hot, isn’t she?” you smile, making him smirk. “Too bad she’s married.” Nodding he takes a sip of whiskey, “But I call bullshit,” you chuckle, “I know you a lot better than that, Winchester.” Pausing for a moment, you stand, propping your hands on your hips before speaking again, “seriously, what’s up with you?”

“It’s nothing, Y/N, honestly,” he says, “you should be out there having fun with Cas, and everyone else,” he sighs, and you notice the bitterness in his tone as he says the name. “Not in here with me.”

“But I love spending time with you,” you say, keeping your thoughts to yourself for a moment.

You walk behind him, going over to the other side of the desk, and grab a cup that’s been there for who knows how long. Giving it a quick once over, you shrug, deciding empty is clean enough. With a mischievous grin, you slow and exaggerate your movements, hoping to entice Dean into watching you before you slowly begin to fill the cup with whiskey.

When the liquid nearly reaches the brim, he sets his own glass down and jerks forward, “woah, woah, woah,” he says, holding an open hand up at you. Hiding your smile, you set the bottle on the table and carefully bring the nearly overflowing cup to your lips. “Jesus, Y/N, you’re only supposed to fill it a quarter way, half at most,” he says, leaning back. “You’re gonna spill it everywhere,” he vexatiously adds, looking up at you.

Tilting his head slightly, he spots the playful glimmer in your eyes. He quickly wets his lips before clicking his tongue, shifting his weight in the chair. With an elbow resting on the desk, he points a finger at you, “did you do that just to get a reaction outta me?” His words are hot and tempered, as though he’s annoyed you would do such a thing. The smile in his eyes, however, says otherwise.

You set the glass on the desk next to his, “no, of course not!” you lie, holding a hand to your chest. “I’m just thirsty,” you say, turning to sit on his lap. With his hand instinctively resting on your back, you lean into it like the many times you’d done in the past.

Looking into his eyes, you bring the drink to your lips, hoping that would numb the reaction you have to his smile. Clearing his throat, he takes his hand off of you.

“What’re you doing, Y/N?” he asks in a soft voice.

“We’re about to play Never Have I Ever, and I don’t want you feeling left out,” you slur.

His eyes shift down your torso, “I meant right now,” he says.

Looking down into your lap, you tilt your head back up, your eyes meeting his, “does this make you uncomfortable now?” you ask, genuinely curious, but with liquor coursing through your veins, it doesn’t quite come off that way.

“Yeah,” he says softly, “well, I mean, no. Kind of,” he says, head tilted slightly. “But not for the reasons you might think,” he confesses.

“Why then?” you ask, intrigued.

“Because, Y/N,” he breathes, pinching the bridge of his nose. You can see by the way his eyes distractedly jump around the room that he is choosing his words carefully. Letting out a long breath, he shifts both of you in the chair, his hand finding its way onto your back again. “Because I see the way Cas looks at you, and the way you’ve been looking at him, and this-” he wags a finger between the two of you, “doesn’t sit right with me knowing how he feels about you.”

Rocking your torso away from him, you squint down at him. “You think Cas and I have a thing?” you scoff as you take a gulp of your whiskey. Your face twists as it goes down, and you swallow again to get the taste from your mouth, nodding to help it. “You couldn’t get any further from the truth if you tried. We barely know him! Plus, I’m fairly certain that I’m not even his type, if you know what I mean,” you say, your face scrunching up in thought.

Ignoring the latter half of your statement, Dean reiterates his own point, “well, he’s my friend and it’s obvious to me that he likes you, so,” he waves his hand at you, shooing you away.

“But I’m your friend, too, Dean,” you say, “and for way longer, might I add.”

He sighs, “I know that, Y/N, I do. I’m just saying that-”

“What? His imaginary feelings matter more because ‘bro code’ or something?” you say accusingly.

“Not at all,” he shakes his head.

“So, he’s told you that he has some sort of feelings?”

“Not exactly-”

“He either did, or he didn’t, Dean,” you interrupt. “Which is it?” He sighs, hanging his head, “so you don’t know anything for sure, but you’re saying that because... why? What’s really goin’ on?”

For the first time since you met, the silence between you is nearly unbearable. Dropping your feet to the floor, you scoot off of him.

“Y/N-” he starts, wrapping his hand around your wrist.

You pull away and turn to face him, “whatever, Dean, let’s just drop it,” you nod your head to the door. “You gonna come hang out with us, or what?”

He lets out a long breath, looking into his lap. The moment for him to tell the truth has passed, leaving him unsure of when, or if, he’d ever get to, and he curses himself for not being straight with you from the get go. Standing, he motions for you to lead the way.

You walk out to see Jess on the coffee table again, Sam sitting on the edge of the couch, egging her on with dollar bills. Cas sits in the same position you left him in, eyes still planted on his phone.

“Jess!” you scold, “I seriously don’t feel like taking you to the hospital tonight. For the love of my sanity, please get the fuck down,” you say before switching your attention to Sam, “quit being a bad influence or you’re grounded,” you laugh. They both mutter ‘sorry’ through a giggle, and Sam holds his hands out to help her into his lap.

“I tried to warn them,” Cas says in a monotone voice.

“Doubtful,” you sass, grabbing the remote to lower the volume. “Maybe if you were paying attention to anything besides that damn phone, they’d have listened,” you jest.

“I’m sorry,” he says quickly, scooting forward in the recliner, pulling the phone down to meet your eyes, he points at it. “I met this guy... Gabe,” his eyes roll back for a short moment as he moans lightly, “oh, he’s amazing. We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks, but I really think he’s the one,” he smiles, going back to his phone.

You chuckle, turning to give Dean your best ‘I told you so’ eyes. He shrugs, and you accept it as a for-now apology.

“Invite him over,” you suggest, “but either way, we’re about to play more games, so please put it away. Just for a little while.”

Taking a few steps forward, you lean to set the remote back onto the coffee table. Walking backwards, you misjudge the distance and accidentally bump into Dean. You quickly turn around to apologize, but when your eyes meet his, you feel like you’ve been hit by an asteroid.

You’re unsure if it’s from the alcohol, or the fact that he’s never looked at you with such fervor before, but your head spins. Is it the beat of the music pounding in your chest or are you really having an ever consuming response to Dean’s slightly curled lips and squinted eye?

“Really? Ohh, I don’t know if he would come,” Cas says, waving a hand, and reminding you that you are not, in fact, alone with Dean. Absentmindedly biting his lower lip, Cas contemplates the idea. “You know what? I’m gonna do it. Can’t hurt to try, right?” He finishes up the text and claps his hands, rubbing them together with a smile. “Oookay, what game we playin’?”

You clear your throat, ripping your eyes from Dean’s to plop onto the couch next to Jess. “Never Have I Ever; play it before?” you ask.

“I have,” he says.

Glancing at Dean, you pat the cushion next to you, “come on, sit,” you urge.

He playfully rolls his eyes before sitting down, his hand brushing against your arm as he rests it at his side.

“I’ll start,” Cas smiles, leaning forward. His eyes zone in on Dean, “never have I ever slept with a professor in hopes of passing a class,” he smirks.

“Son of a bitch,” Dean laughs, shaking his head. He reaches in front of him for his drink, the knuckles of his fingers sweeping across your arm as he does. Something inside of you screams that it was intentional, especially since that doesn’t happen twice in a row for no reason, but maybe you’re just reading too deep into it, you think. “You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?” he laughs, taking a drink.

“Did that even work?” Jess asks.

As the liquid glides down his throat, Dean can only shake his head.

Sam laughs, “don’t get any crazy ideas now,” he jokes.

“No, Jess, cause if it did, my GPA would be a helluva lot better than a three oh. Okay, my turn,” Dean says, clapping his hands together and scooting a bit forward. Now that it’s like that, he thinks, the game is on. “Never have I ever been arrested for public indecency,” he says, craning his neck to look at you expectantly.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” you laugh, rotating to face him as you hold a finger in the air. “You dared me to do it,” you say, turning to face the rest of your friends, “you don’t say no to a dare,” you add in a quieter voice as you shrug.

Everyone nods, humming in agreement. Cas laughs before asking what ‘indecency’ entailed.

You and Dean both speak out to tell the story, sharing a look before he apologized through laughter.

“It’s your embarrassing story, you tell it.”

Rolling your eyes, you turn to Cas, “it’s nothing, really. We snuck out to hang at the lake by our high school, and Dean struck up truth or dare. The first dare this asshole gave me was to skinny dip. I was more concerned about the cold water than I was about getting caught, and well,” you say.

“Wait, where was I?” Sam asks, leaning forward.

“Probably out with one of your geek friends,” Dean teases.

“Whatever, jerks.”

Dean laughs, “bitch,” turning to see you rubbing the outside of your glass, “drink,” he says, nudging your arm with his elbow.

“Oh, right,” you grin, pulling yourself from your thoughts.

After a few more rounds, your turn rolls around again. “Uh, okay, never have I ever,” you look over at the way Jess and Sam ogle over each other and smile. “Never have I ever broken a bone,” you say, struggling to keep a straight face.

Sam’s eyes shoot right at you, his lips pursed together into a glower. Dean’s laughter fills your ears, causing you to break. You know the story, you were there, but you weren’t sure if he’d told Jess and it was absolutely something she ought to know about him.

“Go on, Sammy. Drink up,” Dean taunts, holding the glass in the air in a mock toast.

Sam rolled his eyes before telling Cas and Jess about the time you and Dean were able to convince him he was Batman. Poor kid thought he could fly, jumped off the room of their shed and broke his arm.

You weren’t expecting it. Dean did it and was just fine. Of course, as a kid, when your friend’s little brother breaks their arm, you panic, but Dean... he knew exactly what to do. He propped little Sammy onto the handlebars of his bike and rode all the way to the emergency room, instructing you to follow behind on yours. Dean kept a straight, yet comforting face the entire time, never once showing Sam how scared and guilty it really made him feel.

Little did he know how cool that made him in Sam’s eyes; his protective brother, saving the day once again. Dean didn’t forgive himself for a long time, not even after Sam told him that he was okay. As you look back on the way he spoke about himself that night, you realize just how badly it messed him up.

After sitting in the waiting room for what felt like hours, Sam was brought out by a nurse, cradling his casted up arm. Dean ran to his brother, dropping to his knees in front of him, pleading for his forgiveness, while trying to bribe him out of telling their parents.

You chuckle when the memory of your words come to mind, “they’re gonna know something happened the minute he walks through the door with that cast on his arm, dufus.”

“Shut up, Y/L/N,” Dean had grumbled, bringing himself to his feet. Wrapping an arm around his little brother, the three of you walked your bikes home as the sky darkened.

“Y/N,” a voice calls you out of your thoughts, “earth to Y/N,” Jess sings, rocking her shoulder into yours.

“Hm,” you hum, “yep, I’m listening,” you say, straightening out your back as they laugh.

“I guess we should call it a night, then, huh?” Cas suggests, pulling out his phone. “At least I should. Gabe wants to meet at that bar across from my place,” he says, waggling his eyebrows.

“Go get him,” Sam encourages with a laugh.

After a glance at the two love birds sitting next to you, Jess giggles and speaks up, “we’re gonna go to bed, too,” she smiles, standing up and reaching down for Sam’s hands.

As Cas says his goodbye and walks out of the door, Dean gasps out, but holds his tongue until Cas leaves. Turning to you, he says, “he was my ride home.”

“Oh, you can crash on the couch if you want. I know it’s not much, but...” you say, letting your words trail off.

Sam and Jess call out a goodnight as they walk down the hall and into her room.

“I appreciate that. Thing is, I’m not exactly tired,” he says.

“Me neither. Want another drink?” you offer, motioning to his empty cup.

He nods, leaning back into the couch as you reach for the bottle, “you sure you’re not tired? You zoned out for a bit there.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” you say in a breath as you hand him the cup. “I was just thinking back on that day.”

“When Sam broke his arm? What about it?” he asks, sucking air in through his teeth after taking a sip.

“You were really mean to yourself, De.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugs, “you know, I’m a big brother. I was supposed to be taking care of him, not breaking his arm,” he says in a self-deprecating laugh.

“You didn’t break his arm,” you correct.

He scoffs, “I may as well have.”

“I had a hand in that too, you know. The convincing that lead to it.”

“You were a kid,” he starts.

“So were you!” you shout in a hush tone.

He chuckles, shaking his head as he looks between his legs and into his drink.

“You turned out alright, you know that?” he says, nudging your shoulder with his.

Rocking into him, you laugh and look over at him, “so did you, Dean.” Pausing, you shift your weight so that you’re facing him, “you wanna tell me what was actually going on with you earlier?”

After a heavy sigh, he scoots forward a bit, cradling his drink with both hands. He fidgets with his thumbs for a moment before opening his mouth, closing it when he doesn't grasp the right words.

“You know how I dropped out of college last year?” he finally starts, only continuing when you nod, “well, I convinced myself I was gonna fail anyway, so I took the chance away completely, before I could let myself or anyone else down,” he says, eyes swimming in his drink, “it’s kind of like that.” You nod even though you’re not sure where he’s heading. “When I want something, I can do a damn good job convincing myself I don’t deserve it, or that I’ll mess it up, or I’ll - I’ll look for reasons that it can’t work out.” He finally looks over at you, “so, when I saw you and Cas earlier, I guess my mind just did the rest,” he trails off.

Though your heart pounds at what you think he’s trying to say, you play dumb, tilting your head to the side. Real Moments with Dean Winchester are rare.

He shakes out his shoulders and clears his throat. He takes a drink of his whiskey before setting the glass on the coffee table and turning to face you. With a hand on your knee, he softens his voice, “we have been friends for a long time, Y/N. Pretty much our entire lives, and the way that I feel about you could jeopardize tha-”

With so much to say, you decide to say nothing at all. Instead, you jump at the chance to kiss him like you’d wanted to for years. He rocks back against the arm of the sofa from the force of your kiss, but quickly wraps his hands around your waist, pulling you into his lap.

A soft moan escapes your lips that sounds more like a squeak and he pulls away, scanning your face for any discontent.

You smile, kissing him softly as you lower onto him, one leg on either side of his. You grind into him, soaking in his soft, nearly voiceless, moans against your lips.

Using your teeth, you pull his lower lip into your mouth, sucking gently. Bringing your hands to his sides, you push into him as you slide them up to the sides of his face. You rock your hips from one side to the other before grinding into him again.

His hands rest on your ass, squeezing you as he pulls your hips into him, and loosening his grip just slightly as you lift up for another thrust. Baring your teeth, you bite down enough on his lip to drive him crazy. His hands race up your back and onto your face, ripping his lip from your mouth while pulling your face closer to his. Turning his head, he deepens the kiss, keeping a tight grip on your face.

Until the music hits your ears, you hadn’t realized you were rocking your hips to the tempo. The song hits a short pause, and so do you, but when the music picks up again, you grind into him harder than before.

Dean’s head falls back against the couch, and you drop your lips to his neck. Starting at his collarbone, you let your tongue slip out of your mouth to lick his neck, wrapping your lips around his skin in a kiss.

Your hands work through hair as you continue your sloppy kisses up to the underneath of his jaw, licking behind his ear before taking the lobe into your mouth. Timing your hips to the music, you add the melody of your hums against his neck.

Bringing his head back up, he growls before grabbing you by the hips and rotating you to drop you onto the couch next to him. Placing his hand on your forehead, he brushes the hair out of your face and leans down to kiss you. His lips feel hot against yours until his cold hands slip underneath your shirt. Your back arches as he squeezes one breast. He takes his time in massaging it before moving onto the next, pinching your nipple through your bra.

You weakly suggest taking it to your room before anything escalates, and Jess or Sam walk in on you. Laughing at the image of that, he agrees, holding your hand as you walk him down the hallway and into your room.

To be continued...

PermaTags<3: @waywardblueshun @81mysteriouslyme @drakelover78 @soab1967 @shutupandfeedmethings @pollywantacracker666 @sonnierae26 @obsessed5sosfreak @tlovescoffee @hobby27

Dean Queens <3: @flamencodiva @akshi8278 @squirrelnotsam @laxe-from-outer-space

#spndeanbingo #dean winchester #dean winchester x you #college!au supernatural #mutual pining #angst #dean winchester x y/n #dean x you #dean x reader #Dean x female reader #dean x y/n #Supernatural Dean Winchester #Dean winchester x you mutual pining

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taehyungsgrowl · 5 years ago

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I’m proud of Nate for being a good friend 🥺 we’re back to a good boy ~~ Y/N couldn’t help but think back to that day in the bathroom, it only took one conversation with Nate for her to let him back in, even after all the trouble he’d caused. Why couldn’t it ever be that simple with Duncan? Probably because we’ve never had a conversation about our feelings or problems without it ending up like this. Hearing the door close behind her, she was once again alone with him. He hadn’t said a word since he basically ended it, whatever “it” was. She looked back up to his face hoping, no, praying, that he’d take it back. That he’d understand even with all of their issues she didn’t want to leave him or what they had behind. But all she saw is his eyes was apathy, even the tears that were present just moments ago were gone. “I’m sorry,” was also she could say, as Duncan shrugged and turned away, before walking out the door where Nate waited ready to comfort her. — Nate couldn’t bring himself to celebrate the end of her and Shepherd. She needed a friend, someone who would be there for her, not someone trying to force her into a relationship. She was in a bad place right now, at least over the summer she had a shred of hope for her and Duncan to be even friends. He hated seeing her cry, he hated that Shepherd would treat her like this without a shred of remorse. “Hey,” Nate sat beside her rubbing her back trying to give her something to ground herself, “I think you should go home. I know it hurts, but you can’t cry on his doorstep.” Y/N’s breathing slowed down enough for her to take a moment to look at Nate, he took the opportunity to wipe her face with his good hand, not caring about the mucus running down. “Do you want to call someone or should I?” He asked, all he wanted was to make sure she would be safe and staying here would only bring her down more. She chuckled dryly as she pulled the shattered remains of her phone from her pocket, “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that anytime soon.” — Even with only one working arm, once they reached her house Nate did everything he could to make it easy for her to settle down. Even though she wasn’t hungry, he ordered her some soup, ran her a bath, and made sure she had her favorite bear before she went to bed. “Can you stay? I just… I don’t think I trust myself to be alone right now.” She asked as Nate readied himself to go. He agreed, settling himself on the other side of her bed over the covers. Y/N turned to hold Nate around the waist, she wanted something to keep her grounded, because she felt like everything else was drifting away. — Days turned into weeks, which turned into months, Duncan refused to even look in her direction unless it was required. She hid how much it hurt pretty well, but didn’t know if she would, if she could ever let go of what she had with Duncan. Nate was the only one she could really talk to about all of this and he didn’t mind being there for her again. They knew better than to go any further than friends even with Duncan out of the picture. — Nate worried about her, she didn’t seem to be getting over Duncan. The fact that Shepherd seemed to made it a point to make sure she knew he wanted nothing to do with her only made it worse. Y/N tried to reach out in the beginning, to at least make seeing each other in class every day less painful, but he ignored every message. Nate knew he had to do something before he graduated, he couldn’t leave her to deal with this alone for another year. — Duncan wasn’t over her, not in the slightest. The only way he could manage how he felt was to shut her out completely. He made his way home after another day of seeing her in nearly every class, it was only getting harder for him to keep up the charade. At least he only had a couple of months left before the end of the year, maybe this time they would actually switch her out of his cohort. He could get away from all of this again, untangle himself from the mess. As he pulled into the driveway he saw a someone standing on his porch. “Nate?” Of all people to appear at his house Nate was second only to Y/N in those he didn’t want to see. He always saw them together on campus, which only made him bitter. “Get off my porch before I kick your ass again.” “Can you relax and listen to me,“ Nate kept his distance, he didn’t want to fight Duncan, he was here for her benefit, “You need to talk to Y/N.” Duncan scoffed as he walked past Nate to open his door. “She already showed me that she doesn’t want what I do, she wants you, it’s over. I’m not going to torture myself trying to love someone who refuses to love me back anymore.” “God, you are so fucking stupid. Of course she still loves you, but she can’t tell you that. You won’t even give her a chance to talk and it hurts her more than she’ll let on.” Nate headed to his car, “we’re just friends, man. Everyone knows how much I love her, but she loves you. Just give her a chance.”

Bro... Nate’s character development?? CHEF’S KISS

Duncan stared back at Nate. There had to be something in it for him; Why the hell would be here to help him?

“What are you gaining from this?” Duncan accused him.

Nate shook his head in disbelief of Duncan’s stubbornness. “Sometimes love means letting go.” he sighed, “She can’t seem to let you go, but,” he paused and looked up at Duncan, “I love her and I want her to be happy - even if it’s not with me.”

Nate stood there in silence before he began to turn around. He had done his due diligence. He tried; for her.

Duncan thought he was having a fever dream. In what world did Nate try to help him get Y/N back? When the other man began to walk away Duncan snapped out of it.

“Wait,” Shepherd’s voice made him turn around. “Come in,”

It was... strange. Nate felt too large in Duncan’s space. Out of place, like he didn’t belong.

He did have to admit they both had similar taste in the way they decorated... in the way they dressed... and the same taste when it came to women. He almost found it comical.

Nate sat awkwardly in Duncan’s breakfast table as Duncan grabbed them a couple of beers.

“Listen, man,” Nate began to try and excuse himself.

Duncan let out a tired laugh. He really was tired. Tired of the drama, the heartbreak, the confusion. He just needed to talk it out with someone. Never in a million years would he have thought Nate would be his someone.

He opened his bottle and tapped his with Nate’s, “Cheers,” he took a long swing of his drink.

“She still loves me?” Duncan looked down at the wooden table, too embarrassed to meet Nate’s eyes.

“She does,” Nate answered taking a chug of his own beverage.

“How badly did I fuck up?” Duncan wondered out loud. He knew he’d lost sleep over this - he hated to think that Y/N was kept in the same state of distress.

“Pretty fucking bad,” Nate scoffed, earning a dirty look from Duncan.

“Sorry, I know it’s not what you want to hear,” he followed up. “But you don’t know how hard it’s been to see her hurt over you. I’ve done it twice now.” he doesn’t fail to remind Duncan.

It was again, strange. The bond they were experiencing in Duncan’s kitchen. Both men still had a distaste for one another, but there was something linking them. Something that made them understand each other despite the rivalry.

As the night came, the beer they shared turned into a couple more, leaving them both buzzed and slumped on the couch.

Duncan looked over at Nate, “Look at us,” he laughed, punching Nate’s now healed arm.

“Look at us,” Nate repeated smiling over at Duncan. “Look what she’s done to us,”

“You really love her,” Duncan observed the obvious, drowning the last of his drink down.

“I do,” Nate got up to stretch. His shirt rode up when he lifted his arms above his head, “But I have to do what’s best. Not always gonna be able to pick up the pieces you break, Shepherd,”

Duncan looked up at him. feeling sincerely for Nate, “I’m sorry.”

“The minute you start apologizing for your feelings it’s over,” Nate sat across from Duncan. Duncan tried not to be annoyed at him for sitting on his coffee table, “Just promise you’ll talk to her.”

#i love date #duncan x nate #duncan shepherd #duncan x dumb!reader #duncan x dumb!reader x nate #dumb!reader #theyre cute bro friends and i would die for them RIGHT NOW #submission

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unfortunate-stranger-losers · 5 years ago

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It’s the Hard-Knock Life - an ATWQ Modern AU [tumblr] [ao3]

TWO - EVERYONE HAS STORIES (or, how Drumstick joins a Gang)

“You’re gonna hate school.” Kit assured the new kids, skipping along the sidewalk and pulling her braid onto her shoulder.

“Always did.” Ellington shrugged, staring down at her shoes.

Drumstick nervously clung to Jacques’s arm as he showed him the way, and said, “Is it that bad?”

“Everyone sucks and the teachers are stupid.” Lemony said, not looking up from his phone.

“Lemony just means the teachers won’t let him mouth off.” Jacques said. Lemony, still without looking up, flipped him off.

“Well…” Drumstick stuttered. “At least you have friends, right?”

“All our cool friends are homeschooled.” Lemony sighed.

“Shut up, Lem. You chill with Ornette and Kellar all day.” Kit sighed. “Be a dear and make Drum hang out with them, too.”

“Make him hang out with your- actually, shit, bad idea, Olaf’ll be a bad influence.”

“Excuse you,” Ellington said, “I’m the worst influence.”

“No, Lemony’s right.” Jacques said. “Kit, if you don’t stop hanging out with him, I’m telling Theodora.”

“Theodora can’t nor won’t do shit, brother dear.”

Lemony sighed. “Kit, listen to me. You can do whatever you want-”

“And I do,” Kit said, “But also I feel like you’re about to say something that’ll make me slap you.”

“If he gets you pregnant, I am not accepting my responsibilities as uncle.”

Kit immediately slapped him, as did Jacques. And Ellington, who wasn’t offended but thought it might be fun.

Drumstick was bored throughout most of school. He sat beside Lemony, awkwardly introduced himself to the class, and then let the teacher drone on about the lesson, taking hasty notes. Lemony usually tossed looks towards a girl in a backwards baseball cap, rapidly folding paper, or a boy with spiky hair. If neither of them was in a class, Lemony would be on his phone under the desk. Drumstick kept getting nervous that the teachers would notice, but none of them ever did. He wondered if he could slip a few extra books in his bag; he had a phone, sure, but he’d gotten used to not using it, his Dad used to dislike it when he was distracted by a screen…

When school finally ended, Drumstick waited outside the building of Stain’d Secondary, waiting for Kit and Jacques to get out. Lemony was chatting with Ornette and Kellar, waving some books around and laughing, and Drumstick was a bit nervous about inserting himself into the friend group. Ellington wasn’t out yet, and honestly, Drumstick expected that she’d probably ditched class by second period and made her way to the train station. Course, she’d probably be brought back soon, but it meant they probably didn’t have to wait up for her.

He wandered over to a bench, sitting on the edge and kicking his feet, reaching in his bag to see if he could get a head start on homework.

Then he heard a door slam open, and a girl yell, “Go, go, go!”

Drumstick’s head shot up, as he saw two kids, about his age, race out from the side of the building, each holding a large, covered container in their arms. The girl raced past the bench, but the boy stopped a second, smiled at Drumstick, and said, “Hey, new kid! We’re fugitives!” And took off again.

Drumstick froze, mouth agape, watching the kids run off. Then, without thinking, he slung his bag over his shoulder, shot a glance at Lemony, and ran off after them.

He wasn’t entirely sure why, he just knew that he wanted to know what the hell was going on. And if they were running from someone, presumably an authority, he’d rather not be questioned. Besides, he knew good places to hide if these kids needed it.

The two kids ducked between two buildings, and Drumstick hurried in, saying, “Hey, wha-”

“Shh!” the girl slapped a hand over his mouth, her other arm still holding the container that seemed to be moving a bit. She pulled him against the wall, which the boy was pressed against as well. “Stay here. They won’t spot us.”

Drumstick glanced around the alley, and then shook his head. He pulled the girl’s hand from his mouth and said, “Too dangerous. That window’s ajar. Looks like it can be pulled open. Go in.”

“Someone could be in there.” the boy said.

“Well, the building’s a shop,” Drumstick said, gesturing to a hanging sign, “So if there were people in there we’d hear noises from the open window. Just get in.”

The boy and girl shared an impressed look, and then nodded. The boy ran to the window, pulled it open, and gestured. The girl leapt in without looking, and the boy said, “Come on, new kid.”

Drumstick followed quickly, as he started to hear footsteps follow. Once he jumped in, he glanced around quickly to see they were in a back storage room. He opened his mouth to say something, only to see that the boy and girl were already pushing boxes under the window so they’d be able to climb back out again.

“Nice move, kid.” the girl said, before nodding at their handiwork and picking up her container again. “Kev, wait by the window to see when they pass by. Then we’ll head to the river.”

“The river?” Drumstick asked.

The girl glanced at him, as if sizing him up. “You just moved here, right?”

Drumstick felt his face go a bit red. “Um, sort of. I- um- my-”

“He’s the Snickets’ new foster bro, Flo.” the boy said, scrambling up the boxes.

“Ah.” the girl nodded. “Wish I was in foster care. My mom sucks.”

Drumstick stared at her, half-shocked, half-unsure whether or not he should be offended. “What?”

“Yeah.” the girl said, leaning against the boxes that her friend was perched on, uncaring if they jostled or not. She hugged the container to her, and said, “My sisters say I’m overreacting, but they’re just little bitches who get to be in College and not around this bumfuck town.”

“Oh.” Drumstick said, still confused.

“Two just passed by.” the boy muttered, glancing down at them. “There should be a third in a second, considering what happened last time.”

“Last time?” Drumstick asked, concerned.

“Yeah, last time we kicked Stew Mitchum down the stairs.”

“You kicked someone down the stairs?”

“Well, not today.”

“Third just passed. We’re free to run.” the boy said, before hoisting himself back up out the window.

“Come on.” the girl gestured, before racing up the creaky boxes.

Drumstick looked cautiously at the pile, before saying, “I dunno. Is it safe.”

“Sure. We got up.” the boy said.

Drumstick still paused, and the boy sighed, before holding out his hand. “Come on, I’ll catch you if they topple. You trust me?”

Drumstick really didn’t know, there were very few people he trusted. Ellington, for starters, and… shit, that was it. Just her. But even though this boy was apparently a fugitive, he seemed… nice. And quite honest. Honest people were generally trustworthy, he found.

“Sure.” he muttered, before jumping onto a box. It creaked, and he could feel piles of something small inside- books, likely, which made for unstable standing. So he jumped to the next one, and the next, until he reached the window. Though he didn’t need help, the boy grabbed his hands and helped him back out onto the ground.

“Thanks for the tip. That’ll be much more useful than hoping they don’t use peripheral vision.” the girl said. She grinned, hugged the container to her chest, and then said, “Now! Onwards! We must abscond from this shitshow and make our way to the rivers of the free!”

“What the fuck did you just say?” the boy said.

“I said we’re absconding out of here. Come on, before they catch us and take the captives!”

“The what?” Drumstick asked.

Without responding, the girl took off, and the boy followed. He still had a hold on one of Drumstick’s hands, though it was loose enough that Drumstick could probably escape his grip if he wanted. But instead, Drumstick just shrugged off his confusion and followed the two.

The girl seemed to know her path quite well, leaping over bushes and ducking under branches, skidding across sidewalks and stopping just before a green light flickered on for the cars. The boy followed her lead, grinning a little and occasionally flashing a smile at Drumstick. She finally led them behind a group of small houses and over a grassy lawn, where there was a stream. It was much bluer than Drumstick expected- city rivers usually were quite polluted, but this one looked nice- and there was a small wooden bridge going over it. The girl settled to a stop underneath a tree overlooking the river, and she slid down its trunk, sitting and putting the container in her lap. The boy stopped beside her, sitting down as well, so Drumstick joined them.

“So… what’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh, shit, we didn’t tell him!” the girl slapped her forehead. “We’re so fucking dumb.”

“It’s just the ADHD, Flo.”

“You’re the one with ADHD. Autism’s got attention problems, too, but that’s not the issue, the issue is we’re idiots. We don’t even know who this is!”

“Uh, yeah, we do! He’s the Snickets’ foster brother.”

“I’m Drumstick.” he introduced.

“Well, I’m Florence Smith.” the girl said, grinning.

“Kevin Old.” the boy waved. “You’re in some of our classes.”

Drumstick blushed. He sucked at remembering faces. “Oh?”

“Yeah. We’ll throw you notes.” Kevin said. “But right now, Flo, let’s set the prisoners free.”

“Right.” Florence set the container down, and then pulled off the lid and carefully titled it to its side. “Be free, you little shits!”

Drumstick watched, wide-eyed, as out of the box hopped a frog. And then another, and another, and soon several frogs were hopping around in the grass. Florence pulled the box back up after a minute, sighed, and reached in, lifting the final frog in her hands. “Come on, sir, ‘twas not your destiny to die today.” She set it down on the grass and waved as it hopped off, before flapping her hands to get a bit of mucus off, and then flapping them a bit more for good measure.

Drumstick watched the frogs go- most heading to the water, though some poked around the grass and rocks, and one hopped onto the roots of a tree. “Frogs?”

“Frogs held prisoner by Doctor Flammarion the Science Teacher.” Kevin scoffed. “To be experimented on and ripped apart.”

“You mean,” Drumstick said, understanding finally, “Those were the frogs we were supposed to dissect tomorrow.”

“And now they’re free.” Florence nodded. “To live and die and- is it mating season? Cause they could go off and have an overjoyed orgy.”

“Ew, gross.” Kevin punched her shoulder. “Shut up.”

“All animals do it, Kev.”

“Doesn’t mean you have to talk about it in front of the new kid.”

“Drumstick.” Drumstick reminded them.

“That’s your actual name, huh?” Florence said. “Can see why you’re in foster care.”

“Flo.”

“It’s fine.” Drumstick sighed. “Ellington’s about as blunt.”

“So, what’s your story, then?” Florence leaned over.

“Flo, seriously-”

“Everyone’s got a story, Kev. And sometimes it’s fun to talk about it.”

“Not really.” Drumstick said.

“I like talking about stories.” Florence said. “Especially in books. I want to be a writer. My mom wants me to go into the flower business but she’s just a-”

“Drumstick fucking Read!”

Drumstick jumped and turned, to see Kit racing across the lawn to him, waving with one hand and gripping Ellington’s forearm with the other; Ellington looked glum, and Drumstick guessed she’d made an attempt to bolt and gotten caught quite quickly. Behind them were Jacques and Lemony; once Lemony saw Kevin and Florence, he stopped, threw his head back, and let out a groan.

“Bro, what the fuck?” Kit slid next to them, as Drumstick jumped to his feet, and Kevin and Florence carefully clambored to theirs. “If Lemony hadn’t seen which direction you bolted- we already had to catch- where did you go, Theodora woulda killed us, almost losing two of you in one day!”

“Sorry.” Drumstick suddenly felt a rush of guilt and anxiety. “I was-”

“It’s our fault, Kitkat.” Kevin said, throwing an arm around Drumstick. “We were showing him the bridge.”

“The kissing bridge? Come on, Kev, he’s only been in town one day.”

“Not in that way.”

Jacques and Lemony caught up, and Lemony said, “You freed the frogs, didn’t you?”

“Viva la revolución.” Florence nodded.

“Goddamnit.” Jacques facepalmed.

“Well, we better get going anyway.” Kit sighed. “Come on, Drum, we don’t wanna be late home.”

“Uh, yeah.” Drumstick nodded. He turned to Florence and Kevin, and said, “I’ll see you-”

“Real quick.” Kevin held up a hand. “Zodiac sign?”

Drumstick paused. “What?”

Kit and Lemony groaned, and Ellington said, “Drumstick, you’re a Libra. I’m Scorpio.”

Kevin and Florence exchanged a look, and then Kevin pointed at Drumstick. “Good.” He pointed to Ellington and said. “You’re under watch.”

Ellington shared an incredulous look with Kit, and then said, “Fair.”

“See ya later, kid.” Kevin said, giving him a gentle punch on the shoulder, and then he immediately ran to the tree they’d been sitting under and grabbed a branch with both hands, swinging himself up into the leaves.

“Hey, wait up, jackass!” Florence called, racing after him.

“Those two are trouble, Drumstick, how did you run into them first?” Jacques said.

“Trouble?” Drumstick asked.

“They called themselves the Big Bad Brick Gang last year,” Lemony explained, “Because I caught them tossing bricks through shop windows to steal swords.”

“Cool.” Ellington smirked, and then held out a hand for Drumstick to high-five. “Nice work.”

“That’s it. Home, now.” Jacques said. He moved to the back of the group and pushed them to get them to start walking.

Drumstick glanced over his shoulder and saw Kevin and Florence, resting on a tree branch and waving at him. He smiled and waved back.

“First Ellington tries to climb out a window, then Drumstick runs off with two juvenile delinquents-” Jacques began.

“Juvenile delinquents?” Lemony giggled.

“-and on top of that, Kit and her stupid fucking friends-”

“Do I make fun of your friends?”

“Your friends tried to set the dumpster on fire.”

“Yeah, that’s why they rock.”

“So, we’ve all got shit friends.” Ellington muttered to Drumstick, and then she smiled. “Good to know we’re all gonna have some fun while we’re stuck here.”

#atwq #all the wrong questions #asoue #a series of unfortunate events #drumstick read #hard knock life fic #hard knock life au #mine #my fanfic

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katlyn1948 · 5 years ago

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On My Way: For the Gendrya Gift Exchange

@thereluctantbadger this is for you! I enjoyed doing this for the @gendrya-gift-exchange

I hope you enjoy!!

Also I wanted to add, I left the story quite open ended, so don’t hate me if you don’t like open ended stories!!!

On My Way

Katlyn1948

Summary:

Based off of the prompt: Gendry is trying to get to the hospital before Arya gives birth.

Notes:

For TheReluctantBadger.

So...this is my submission for Gendrya Gift Exchange. I am not going to lie, I had a hard time with this prompt and this story is REALLY dialogue heavy. I had a lot of different ideas of what I wanted to do, but they all just seemed meh. I finally came up with this alternating POV's idea and what Arya and Gendry are doing individually. I didn't have time to edit this as well, I've been really busy at work (it is always like this at the end of the year) and have hardly any time to write any of my WIPs. The deadline for this was tomorrow and I wanted to post it today because I know I wouldn't have time to do it tomorrow. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!!

Work Text:

ARYA

Arya was uncomfortable.

She was more than that; she was miserable.

It was two weeks well past her due date and she was sure that her child would never come into the world. Why she even agreed to have a child was beside her. Sure, Gendry had begged and pleaded and gave her the cutest, stupidest puppy dog eyes known to man. However, the fact that she actually caved still astounded her. She never considered herself the motherly type, yet as her pregnancy progressed, she found herself falling in love with the being growing inside her.

She was ready, that she was sure of; she just needed to get it out of her womb.

Restless nights began the beginning of her third trimester and eventually kicking Gendry out of the bed was the only sure way she could get a moderate good night’s rest, but when the end of her pregnancy (or so she thought) approached, sleep was the last thing she could get. Her swollen stomach and the constant somersaults her baby insisted on doing kept her up most of the night. Not even the kind presence of her husband could soothe her insomnia.

“Maybe we should walk the neighborhood. I heard it could help induce labor.” Gendry stated three days after her due date.

Arya was sitting on the couch opposite him, fiddling with crochet needles and yarn. She taken up the hobby the moment her OBGYN put her on strict bed rest because of her petite frame and sheer size of her over grown belly. She wanted to make a simple hat of the baby, but it was turning more into a sock, despite her constant efforts.

“Gendry, I’m fine. The doctor said that these things are normal. I’m sure the baby will come in a few days’ time.” She said as she struggled with the current row of stiches.

Gendry snorted, “Watch it come so unexpectedly, not even you nor I will be prepared.”

Arya’s eyes snapped up to meet his, a very distinctive glare pooling from her irises, “Don’t you dare jinx me. I have been prepared since the doctor put me on bed rest. I am ready for this baby, are you?”

“Of course I am! I just finished setting up the crib and the walls of the nursery are pained that soft pale yellow you wanted.” Gendry pretended to be insulted by Arya’s words, gasping with feigned innocence.

Arya scoffed, “It’s more to it than that.”

She shook her head at him, returning her attention to the pile of yarn sitting on her lap. It really was futile effort, for she was never one for such crafts. She knew how to sew a button on shirt of course, but crocheting was an entirely different feat.

Arya struggled with the last few stiches before finally throwing the needles across the living room with a resounding clank.

“Is everything alright?” Gendry asked as he moved by her side.

“No.” Arya whimpered. “I really want this baby out of me.”

Gendry sighed, pulling Arya into his arms so she could rest on his chest. “The baby will come and she will be perfect just like her mother.”

“She?”

“I feel like it’s a girl, don’t you?”

Arya groaned, “I don’t know, maybe it should make its way into the world so I can find out!”

She poked at her belly, trying to get a ruse out of the babe within her. A few moments passed before a noticeable kick protruded, causing Arya to grunt in discomfort.

“I don’t think she liked that.” Gendry teased.

Arya turned in his arms, punching his gut a little more forcefully than she intended, “Shut up, stupid.”

GENDRY

He had fallen asleep on the couch with Arya nestled in his arms.

She has been so uncomfortable as of late, that he tried to do anything he could to help with her ever growing stomach, even if it meant giving up his bed.

The first time he was kicked out of their room, he was sure that he had done something stupid. There were plenty of times where Gendry would do something without thinking, causing Arya to completely ghost him, even if he was two feet away.

But that night he knew that there was nothing that he had done that day that could have caused her to be upset with him, so instead of marching off to the couch without question, he huffed and barged into their room, with the lights on full blast.

“What in the bloody seven hells is wrong with you!” She barked from their bed.

“Why are you kicking me out of our bed. I know I didn’t do anything.” Gendry countered, his lips pursing in annoyance.

He could hear Arya’s muffled groan from under her pillow as she threw their duvet off her body, “I know you didn’t do anything, you stupid bull! I kicked you out because you’re uncomfortable.”

Gendry looked at with confusion, “I’m…uncomfortable?”

“Yes! With this growing baby and your sheer size, I cannot find a comfortable position to sleep in, so I kicked you out. Surely, you don’t want your pregnant wife sleeping on the couch.” She questioned.

Gendry’s cheeks went red, “No?”

“Good answer. Now, if you please, shut of the damn light and let me sleep!” Before Gendry could understand what was going on, a white pillow came flying towards his face. He dodged it easily but complied with his wife’s wishes and made himself comfortable on the couch.

Three months had gone by and he was still confided to the couch, unable to get a decent rest since. He didn’t complain, but his back sure was screaming from the lack of a proper bed. He knew how miserable Arya had been, considering she was nearing two weeks past her due date, and anything he could to help appease her uncomfortableness, he would gladly do.

This night, however, she had fallen asleep right with him, and he was sure that this was the first night she truly had a good rest since kicking him out of their room.

He groaned a bit as he shifted from under her, being mindful not wake her. He reached to the couch side table and clicked his phone, watching as the screen illuminated to read the time. It was nearing 7 am and he was surprised that he already had four missed calls and six text messages from Clegane.

“Shit!” he whispered as he read one of the messages sent.

Two of their mechanics had rang sick and the shop was behind on appointments.

Although Gendry was out for the rest of year, considering Arya was about to pop, he knew that Clegane would need the extra hands. He may have been co-owner, but he still had a responsibility to their clients. So, with a defeated sigh, he gently shook Arya to wake her from her slumber.

“Arya, love, I need to get up.”

He watched as she crinkled her face in annoyance, letting a yawn escape her lips, “Why? You don’t have to go to work.”

“But I do.”

That got her attention. She sprang up from his chest and gave him a glare.

“Don’t look at me like that. Clegane called and two of our mechanics rang sick, I have to go.” He countered.

“Gendry, Sandor can call any of your other mechanics; let one of them come in.”

Gendry shook his head, “I can’t do that. Lem is out on holiday; I doubt he is even in the country, and Anguy his with Beric on a supply run. It will only be for a few hours and I’ll be back before you notice I’m gone.”

“It’s three days before Christmas, Gen. It is one of the busiest days of the year for travel. Everyone is trying to get their car maintenance before they leave on gods know what kind of road trip. Imagine the traffic out there now; you won’t be home until late.”

“Isn’t Sansa supposed to stop by today and have tea? Spend some time with her, I’m sure there is lots you two need to catch up on.” He smiled.

“I’m not some gossiping house wife, but it would be nice to spend time with her.” She said with a defeated sigh.

Gendry smiled, “Great! Now I have to get ready.” He placed a quick kiss on her lips before shuffling out from under her.

“You tell Sandor that if you’re not home by seven, I’ll castrate him!” Gendry heard her yell as he ran off into their bedroom.

He chuckled under his breath before yelling back, “As you wish, milady.”

ARYA

It was nearing 10 AM and Arya was bored out of her mind.

Gendry had left her to do the right thing and Sansa was 45 minutes late due to the ridiculous amounts of traffic that had transpired, leaving Arya alone and miserable. She had given up on her crochet hat, unable to take the painstakingly precision it required to make such a thing. She opted out on buying a light-yellow knitted hat on Amazon three minutes after she threw the yarn and crocheting needles in the garbage bin.

There were so many Nintendo Switch games she could play and the stupid computer players on Super Smash Bros. were not taking it easy on her.

Being bed rest, or as she liked to call it, ‘House Arrest’, was becoming more an issue for Arya than she thought it would be.

For three months straight she had to ‘take it easy’ and ‘be mindful’ so that she didn’t put her baby or herself as risk. Arya understood that she had to be careful, but she wasn’t expecting bed rest to be so restraining. Sure, she could get up and walk about her house or even make her way to the back yard for some fresh air, but anything else seemed like a big no-no.

Her OB-GYN gave her the go ahead to do some light exercises, but not at the gym and certainly nothing that she used to do before getting pregnant.

It was suffocating, and she was beginning to hate being pregnant.

She wanted her freedom, or a least a trip to the grocery store without having to get permission. She couldn’t wait for the baby to be here and in her arms, for at least she would be able to get out of her house when it did finally arrive, even if it is a trip to the hospital.

She grumbled in frustration for a few more minutes before her doorbell rang, indicating that Sansa had finally made it through the traffic.

Arya struggled a bit to lift herself from the couch, huffing for a breath as she finally got her bearings. She waddled over to the door and swiftly pulled it open, immediately pulling her sister into an awkward hug.

“Oh, look at you! You’re so-”

“If you say big, I will punch you.” She deadpanned.

“Radiating. You’re so radiating.” Sansa quickly recovered.

Arya stepped aside from the entryway and allowed her sister to enter the house.

“So, where is Gendry?” Sansa said as she shrugged off her coat and draped it across a dining chair.

“At work. Apparently two of his mechanics rang sick and he had to go and cover the shift.”

“But he is supposed to be out until the new year. What was Sandor thinking?”

Arya shrugged, “I tried to convince him to stay, but you know how Gendry is. He wouldn’t be able to leave the shop like that.”

“He is such a good man; you really did get lucky with him.” Sansa sighed.

“I did, didn’t I?” Arya chuckled.

The two sisters enjoyed the comfortable silence as Arya made her way into the kitchen, pouring two mugs of hot tea. She shuffled her way back to the dining table and gently placed the mug on the table for Sansa to grab.

“So, how have you been?” Sansa asked as she took a sip of her tea.

“Tired, irritable, cranky…I mean the list goes on.”

“Well, you look like you’re about to pop.”

Arya scoffed, “I wish! The baby is nearly two weeks late and it won’t stop kicking me to death!”

Sansa’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she hears her sister’s words, “Two weeks! Arya, have you told your doctor?”

“Of course, I have!”

“And?”

“They will induce on Christmas Eve, if the baby doesn’t come before then.” She admitted.

Sansa sighed, “Okay, does Gendry know? And that is just in two days, It won’t be long until you have your baby in your arms.”

Arya groaned in frustration, “No, he doesn’t know and that’s not the point, Sansa.”

“Then what is it?”

Arya took a breath in order to gather her bearings, “I don’t want to be induced. I want this baby to come when it’s ready, not because some doctor had to make it so. I want to do this the right way.”

Sansa looked at her sister. For the first time in her life, she saw Arya vulnerable and afraid and all she could do was sweep her little sister in her arms and hug her.

“It will be alright. You have two days, right. That gives this baby plenty of time to come on its own volition.”

Arya embraced her sister tightly and was thankful for her visit.

She hadn’t seen her Sansa since last Christmas, and she was sorely missing sister constant advice. They may not have gotten along when they were younger, but now as adults she was grateful for Sansa.

“I hope you’re right.” Arya whispered as they pulled away from their hug.

She hadn’t realized that Sansa’s tea mug was sitting on the edge of the table when she knocked it over with her elbow, causing it to shatter on the hardwood floor.

“Shit!” She cursed as she bent down to pick up the mess.

Arya was no more than halfway over when she felt an immediate pressure in lower back, along with the steady stream of liquid running down her legs. She gasped and pulled herself straight before placing a hand over her protruding stomach.

“What is it?” Sansa asked as she rose from her dining chair to aid her sister.

“I think…I think my water just broke.”

GENDRY

The normal fifteen-minute drive it took to get from his house to the shop turned into a 45-minute obstacle from hell. To Gendry, it seemed as if everyone on the face of the planet was trying to get out of King’s Landing, making it near impossible to get to the shop any sooner.

He could already hear Clegane’s mouth and would have to brace himself for a whole slew of profanities that was sure to come his way as soon as he entered the shop.

Why he went into business with the famed boxer, Sandon ‘The Hound’ Clegane, was beyond Gendry. He knew he had a soft spot for Arya, considering he trained her for nearly decade in competitive boxing, but Gendry never believed that he would agree to open a mechanic shop with him.

It was a desperate move on Gendry’s end, that turned out to be rewarding. Sure, he had to suffer constant verbal abuse from the man, but it could have been worse, or at least that’s what Gendry tells himself.

For three and half years they’ve been in business. One would think that after spending all that time with one another, they would grow to become friends, but that was far from what happened. If anything, their constant bickering has only gotten worse, making for interesting work days.

Gendry rounded the corner, seeing his shop come into view.

It was modest; no where near some of the other mechanic shops that were around King’ Landing, but it had a welcoming feel that invited all types of people from around the area. In the short time they’ve been open, the shop has grown quite the clientele. Everything from high politicians to working class citizens; they all came for the services that Gendry and Clegane had to offer.

“Gendry? What are you doing here?” A familiar voice stopped him on the way to the back of the shop.

He turned as was greeted by the same blue eyes that he possessed. His sister, Mya, was seated at the receptionist desk with a large cup of coffee and a half-eaten cheese Danish. She looked exhausted and hadn’t expected her brother to walk in.

“Clegane called me in, considering we are two men down.” He said with a shrug.

“Fucking Clegane! I told him not to call you. He knows that Arya can pop at any moment, besides you are on holiday for another three weeks!” She scolded him.

Gendry rose his hands in defense, “Hey, don’t take it out on me, tell the other boss man.”

“I’m going to kill him.” She huffed.

Gendry chuckled before realizing that she shouldn’t have been there.

“Wait, what are you doing here? Don’t you have today off? Where is Bella?” He threw questions at her.

Mya sighed, “Bella had an audition today, so she asked me to cover her shift. She should be here in a couple of minutes to relieve me. I must get back home to the girls.”

“How long have you been here?” He asked as he wandered over to the desk, placing his elbows on the desk.

“Since one in the morning. You know, you should really re-consider this whole 24-hour thing.” She said with a yawn.

“And who is with the girls?”

“Edric.”

Gendry scoffed, “You left Edric alone with children? I’d say you have a better chance at keeping them alive here at the shop.”

“Oh, I’m sure he will be hiding away in a corner when I get home.” She chuckled.

Gendry smiled before turning back to head to the back of the shop.

“Oh wait! Before I forget…Edric told me that father wants to spend Christmas with us. I really don’t want to and I’m sure you and Arya want to take it slow, with the baby and everything.”

“Actually, the Starks are coming for Christmas, so Arya and I will be spending the holiday with them.”

“In your tiny house?”

“Gods no! The Starks have a manor here in King’s Landing, we will be there. You’re welcome to join. I’m sure the girls would love it and Robb’s boys are going to be there.” He admitted.

Mya nodded, “I think I’ll take you up on that offer. The girls loved spending time with them at Sansa’s wedding last summer. They will be glad to see them again.”

“Good then it’s settled. Now, I have to hurry to the back before Clegane rips my head off.”

Mya chuckled and waved her brother off, “Go.”

Gendry smiled and jogged off towards the back, preparing himself for the worst.

He managed to slip into the break room without Clegane seeing him and pulled on his work overalls. Every inch of the grey-blue suit was covered in grease spots. There was a whole in the front left breast area and the seem of one of his sleeves was coming apart. The overalls had been with since his first days as a mechanic and Mott’s and he wasn’t willing to part with them just yet. The zipper still worked, and for the most part, it was in one piece. Clegane had called is a piece of shit, and Gendry couldn’t argue with his sentiments, but they were nostalgic for Gendry and so long as they still did their job, the overalls were staying on his body.

He pulled on his steel-toe work boots (he learned from his past mistakes) and laced them tight to keep them in place. Slamming the locker closed, he made his way to the work floor where three of his workers were working on two different cars.

“Oi! If it doesn’t need two people, then one you lot get our arse working on that back car.” He yelled, pointing to the mini van across the shop floor.

One of the newer mechanics, Oliver, scurried over to the minivan and began assessing what needed to be done.

“Well its about fucking time you showed up!” Clegane staggered over to Gendry with a very distinguished glare.

“Sorry, Clegane, the traffic was horrible.” Gendry tried to reason.

“Cry me a fucking river, Baratheon. We have appointments back up to fucking Winterfell and not enough men to cover it. I’ve already got bitched on by some snooty politician’s wife and a butcher nearly severed my head. I don’t have time for your sob stories. Oh, and turn off that fucking phone of yours, yeah? I don’t need you distracted.”

“But, Clegane, I can’t do that. Arya is-”

“I know the she wolf is about to pop, but if she hasn’t given birth now, she ain’t going to in the next couple of hours. Now, turn it off before I break the fucking thing.” He turned on his heel and stomped off towards the other mechanics on the floor, barking out commands as he did so.

Gendry cursed under his breath, praying to the gods above that nothing happened while he was working.

ARYA

The pressure in her back began to increase as Sansa weaved her way through the horrible traffic that had descended upon King’s Landing. She could feel the throbbing pains hit her every five minutes and she was sure they would never make it to the hospital on time.

She tried to focus on her breathing and not the buzzing world around her, but Sansa’s constant screaming at people who couldn’t even hear her made it near impossible.

“Have you tried calling him again?” Arya asked through gritted teeth. Sansa had been trying to ring Gendry for the last hour, but the call would go to voicemail every time. It was becoming annoying and Arya swore that if Gendry missed the birth of their child, she would string him up by his testicles and never sleep with him again.

“There is no answer-move out of the fucking way!” She yelled once more.

“Well did you try the shop?”

“The line is busy. Probably all the last-minute people trying to get their cars fixed before the new year.”

Arya groaned as another wave of pain hit. “Uh…try Mya. I think she has a shift today-ahh.”

Sansa nodded and began dialing the number on her phone and placing it to her ear.

“Uh, Mya?...Hi! this is Sansa Stark-yes, Arya’s sister. Are you at the shop?....Oh, well is there a way to reach them?....Well the line is busy…..Arya is in labor….yes, and we’ve tried his cell, but it goes straight to voicemail….he what?!....My sister is going to kill him…..will you?.....that would be great!....see you then, bye!”

“Wha-what did she say?” Arya huffed.

“Well, she’s not at the shop. She left about fifteen minutes ago, but she doesn’t live far and is headed back over there. It seems Sandor made Gendry shut off his phone.”

Arya groaned and she clutched her stomach, “WHAT! I’m going to murder them both! Oh my gods! Are we there yet?!”

Sweat was dripping down her face and the pain was becoming increasingly unbearable. She wasn’t sure how long it would be until the baby finally did come, but she hoped it wasn’t until its father made his appearance.

“We should be there in about two minutes, maybe five.”

Arya grimaced, “For your sake, I hope its two.”

GENDRY

Work came easily for Gendry and he could easily find himself distracted with it. He enjoyed the pastime and found a real comfort in doing what he did. Since he was a teenager, he had been working in shops across King’s Landing, picking up skills from other mechanics along the way.

It wasn’t until he reached Mott’s shop that he realized he could do this for a living.

Mott taught him almost everything he needed to know how to do the trade and when it was time for him to leave and try to make is own way, he took all that knowledge and made it into what his shop is today.

There was something about working with steel and metal and all the intricate little parts of car that intrigued Gendry. It was like a puzzle that he couldn’t wait to piece together.

He was working on a very expensive car with a very expensive engine problem.

Tyrion Lannister had used it for street racing…again and ruined the engine by doing so. It wasn’t an easy fix and it sure wasn’t a fast one, but Gendry new what the problem was and could easily have it done before the end of the day.

He had quoted the play boy for two days work, but if he managed to stay on schedule, then he could be a full day ahead.

He was under the car, so anything going on around him he could hardly hear. He was trying to patch through some wires when he was dragged out from under the car with Sandor Clegane looming over him.

“What the fuck, Clegane! I was working!”

“Not anymore.”

“What are you talking about?”

Clegane threw his thumb over his shoulder, pointing to a person behind him.

Gendry groaned as he lifted himself up, wiping his dirty hands on his overalls. He thought he was about to meet with another client, not his older sister who he last seen just two hours prior.

Her expression looked grim and her face pale. It looked like she had received bad news. Gendry swiftly made his way over to where his stood, gently placing his hands on her shoulders, “Mya, what’s wrong? Are the girls okay?”

Mya nodded, “The girls are fine, but you’re not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Arya is in labor and she nor Sansa have been able to get ahold of you! Why in the seven hells would you turn off your phone!”

“Well Clegane made me-wait, what? Arya is in labor!”

Mya scoffed, “Yes, you daft buffoon! Now come on, we have to go!”

Gendry nodded and scurried after his sister, leaving the shop and Sandon Clegane behind.

ARYA

The steady beep of machines echoed around the hospital room.

As soon as Sansa pulled up to the ER, the nurses were able to get Arya situated into a room, with everything she needed to be settled.

The epidural was less than pleasant, but the effects the medicine was giving was like heaven to Arya.

Sansa had been making phone calls to all the necessary people, letting them know that she was due to give birth at any hour. Of course, she may have been over exaggerating, considering Arya’s OB-GYN put her at seven centimeters dilated.

“Well, Arya, it’s a good thing you came in when you did. You very well may have had this baby in the car if it wasn’t for your sister’s driving.” Her doctor, Margaery Tyrell, explained.

“I didn’t realize she has such road rage until today.” She laughed.

“Yes, well you were-are in labor.” Sansa countered.

“Let’s hope your husband is able to make it through that unruly traffic.” Dr. Tyrell assured.

Sansa nodded, “Yes, let’s hope.”

Dr. Tyrell gave a small smile before exiting the room, leaving the two sisters.

They had tried to call Gendry four more times since settling in, yet there was still no answer. Arya was beginning to worry and hoped that he would make it. His lack of communication was not comforting, and the last thing Arya needed was the added stress of not knowing where her husband was.

Gendry was never late…for anything, yet he decides that today would be a good day to be.

GENDRY

Gendry was a timid man, for the most part, but now he was keeping true to the nickname Arya had given him. Like a bull, he was forcing his way through the traffic, trying to reach the hospital before his child entered the world. His hand was on the horn more than it was on the steering wheel, and his anger flared anytime someone decided to cut him off.

“Gendry, brother, maybe you should slow down? The last thing you need a speeding ticket.” Mya tried to reason with him, but he was unstoppable.

“Mya, I have to get to the hospital. Arya could be giving birth as we speak!”

“Okay, she’s not. I just texted Sansa, and the doctor puts her at about eight centimeters. I’d say we have an hour or two tops before she ready to push, that is if she is progressing normally. But if she’s progressing faster than normal then…”

“Then what?”

“Then maybe ten or fifteen minutes.”

“Shit!”

ARYA

“Where is he!” Arya exclaimed. She was becoming increasingly paranoid, and it did little to help her current situation.

“I told you he is on his way. Mya said they should be here in ten minutes.” Sansa said calmly from across the hospital room.

“Sansa, I’m not sure I have ten minutes. I am eight centimeters, probably nearing nine. I can feel the pressure and I’m sure I will have to push here soon.” The tears began to stream down her face, and she was sure she looked like a blubbering idiot. This shouldn’t have made her emotional, but between her missing husband and the impending birth of her child, she couldn’t help but let them flow.

“Arya, he will be here, and if not, then I am right by your side.” Sansa crossed the room and bent down to give her sister a hug.

Arya smiled and returned the embrace, hoping that Gendry made his appearance soon.

A ding from Sansa’s phone interrupted their sisterly hug.

Sansa grabbed the phone from the small table and huffed in frustration.

“What? What is it?” Arya asked.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Well, where are you going? Sansa? What’s happening?”

GENDRY

He wasn’t sure how he made it to the hospital in under twenty minutes, but he did. His truck was parked haphazardly and his paces to the front desk were large. Mya was struggling to keep up with him, but he didn’t care. His main goal was to find Arya’s room and be there for his wife and child.

“Excuse me?” He said to the receptionist at the front desk.

She was chatting with several nurses, completely unaware of his presence.

He cleared his throat and said once more, “Excuse me?”

“Yes?” The receptionist asked with a very snooty voice.

“I am looking for Arya Stark’s room number.”

“Name?”

“I just said it was ‘Arya Stark’.” He deadpanned.

The receptionist sighed, “Your name.”

“It’s Gendry Baratheon, I’m her husband.”

“Then why isn’t she under Arya Baratheon?” the receptionist stalled.

“Because she kept her maiden name…look that is besides the point. I need to know what room number she is in. She is about to give birth to our child, and I need to be there.” He said a little frantically.

“Sir, there is no need for hostility. Please be patient while I look her up in my systems.”

Gendry gave a curt laugh, “Hostility? I am not being hostile. If anything, you are the one being hostile! I just need to know my wife’s room number!”

“Sir, please calm down before I call security. Now we have to verify who you say you are, that could take a couple of minutes. So please be pati-”

“Fucking hells!” Gendry yelled as he slammed his fists against the desk.

He grumbled in frustration as he fished his forgotten phone out of his overall pocket. He quickly turned it on and typed frantically on the keyboard, waiting for a reply. A few seconds later and his phone dinged with a response.

“Sir, we need your ID.” The receptionist cooed from the desk.

“Look, I forgot my wallet in the car, but my sister-in-law is coming down and I’ll go up with her.” He assured.

“We cannot allow th-”

“Is there a problem?”

Gendry’s lips curled into a smile as he saw the familiar red flame of hair make her way to the desk.

“Ma’am, please give me a moment.”

“No, you see, this is Gendry Baratheon. Maybe you’ve heard of his father, Robert Baratheon? The famed political power house that nearly became Prime Minster? Or perhaps you’ve heard of my father, Eddard Stark? Councilman of the north? How do you think they would react if I told them that Gendry here had to miss the birth of his child because of silly nonsense?” She smirked.

“I-I, well…”

“Exactly what I thought. Now, please excuse us.”

Gendry smirked and followed Sansa up to the maternity ward, where Arya’s room was now filled with doctors and nurses alike.

“Just in time, Mr. Baratheon. Mrs. Stark here is about ready to push.” Dr. Tyrell smiled.

Gendry smiled and pushed his way through the nurses in order to get in Arya’s side.

“I thought you weren’t going to make it.” She huffed.

“And miss this? You’re crazy.” He gave her a small kiss and prepared to meet his child.

#arya/gendry #Arya Stark #Gendry Baratheon #pregnant arya #gendry gift echange #thereluctantbadger #for you #gift exchagne #this was kinda thrown together #hope it makes sense #enjoyeverymoment

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freckled-words · 5 years ago

Text

Repost: Smoke and Blood

I’ve renamed this fic, which was originally “Monster Mash”...I think? It was a title that didn’t work for the story anyways XD

Edited by @the-wild-ego

‘This makes the fourth victim this month. Police are advising everyone to refrain from traveling alone at night until a culprit is caught. If you must travel at night please stay to populated areas. Now to the weather, Jim?’

You clicked off the TV frowning. You’d been keeping close tabs on the recent attacks. So far, no one had died, but people were going to the hospital comatose. More concerning was the reported blood loss, which had been mentioned in a leaked post online.

It was times like these that you wished you didn’t have the night shift at the gas station. And you definitely wished you were able to drive. Instead, you had to walk to work, sure it was only 20 minutes down the street, but it was still 20 minutes out in the open alone.

You glanced at the clock, it was near 8:30 pm. You had to leave for your shift that started at 9.

The nights had grown colder as it went on October. Bundled up with a scarf and lightweight coat against the slight wind you set to a brisk pace. The sun had set already, and the streetlights were on. With it being a Sunday night you took more notice of how quiet it was. The trees alongside the sidewalk rustled with their drying leaves from the slight wind. Someone opened and closed their car door, the slam as they closed making you jump.

Your own shadow stretched this way and that with each lamp you walked under.

Each step closer towards the gas station was another step further from home. If something happened you’d rather be able to reach home. You didn’t have any unknown variables to worry about at home.

The gas station doors would be locked by the time you reached it, your co-worker had to let you in. This wouldn’t be an issue if your co-worker wasn’t prone to taking personal phone calls behind the snack shelves. If a customer didn’t run over the bell line, they could take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes on the phone!

You were halfway there now. You just had to cross the street, pass the abandoned house, and the scary ass garage, then a couple more blocks and you were there.

You shifted from foot-to-foot at the crosswalk. You felt a tiny bit safer here since the traffic camera would have visual of you. For once, Big Brother was serving a purpose you appreciated and wanted to count on.

As soon as the crosswalk changed you dashed across the street. You kept some of that speed as you continued on. You could see the gas station up ahead as one of the few buildings illuminated.

You kept it in sight, your head lowered and your legs pumping. It was your end goal, the finish line of safety.

‘Squee!’

Your steps faltered, looking to the right you found yourself in front of the abandoned house and it's creepy garage. For as long as you’ve lived here the place has never had a tenant, and every year it got more run down and weather-beaten.

‘Squee!’

You weren’t an expert, but that definitely sounded like an animal in distress. Glancing at your phone you saw you’d been making a good time. ‘If it's hurt and could be saved it might be worth the look.’ You had a bleeding heart when it came to animals. You’d go out of your way more than once in the past to take in a stray cat or dog. You’d saved a bird’s nest, relocated a snake, and sheltered a mouse at one point.

‘Squee! Squee!’

You couldn’t turn your back on an animal in distress. You gave the gas station one more glance then turned for the garage. The animal’s cry was echoing a bit, and you could see that the door was open on the side of the building.

You didn’t want to startle the animal, making you step lightly towards the doorway. There was a streetlight just in front of the garage. It’s yellowish light reached into the doorway and illuminated some of the concrete floors. Getting closer you could see a tiny struggling body just on the edge of the light. It was a common little brown bat.

It was laying belly down on the floor, its right wing curled into its side with its left wing extended. You’d never seen a bat this close up before, only in videos. You crouched down low and approached the bat cautiously, “Hey little guy, what’s going on with you?”

Its ears wiggled, it shifted its body trying to push itself away.

Your attention narrowed in on the distressed animal you’d walked clear of the doorway. You took another crouched step closer to the bat.

The door slam closed, cutting off your exit and the light into the garage. Spinning around you scanned the darkness, “Who’s there?!”

You heard a flutter of wings, the bat that had been prone on the floor was apparently able to fly just fine. ‘A trap?’

Although you were blind without the light, he wasn’t.

He’d remained tucked in the shadows just next to the door when you came in. He hadn’t been entirely sure his plan would work, yet it seemed it was his lucky night. It was cruel of him to startle you so, but the sound of your heart racing was positively beautiful. Each frantic pulse was more blood coursing through those veins.

Prowling around you in a circle he stationed himself behind you, “Sorry for the crude tactics, I just couldn’t resist.”

You spin, your eyes frantically searched for the voice’s owner. Hugging yourself you took hesitant steps back to where you hoped the door was. If not you could at least get your back against the wall. “If this is some sort of prank, you’re a jerk. Let me out, or I’ll call the police.”

“How do you plan to do that without your phone?” He’d swiped it in passing. Now he held it up and turned on the screen, the sudden light making you close your eyes and turn your head.

His steps were without sound as he advanced.

You didn’t need to see him, you felt him when he stopped just in front of you. His hand took hold of your chin, tilting it up and to the side to expose your throat.

This closes your eyes adjusted just enough to make out his outline. Tall, lean, long bangs and hair that hung straight near down to his shoulders.

Even in the dark, his gaze was effective. Smirking as he held your eyes and keeping your body locked against your will. His free hand brushed a knuckle over your cheek, “I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised such a kind-hearted mortal came this way so late. I've been growing bored with the drug users. They have a funny aftertaste. Like diet soda. I wonder, what will you taste like? I'm hoping bacon and eggs. All that iron with a touch of sodium.” Thinking about it made him hum with want. He licked his lips as he worked up his own appetite.

‘Why can't I move?!’ You felt your mind connecting to your body, but nothing budged. The only result was a sniffled whimper from your throat.

“Shhh, you won't feel it. I promise. When I'm done you'll take a nice long nap, and when you wake up in a month...or a year...You won't remember this happened at all.” His voice lowered to an intimate whisper as he lowered his lips to your throat.

He opened his mouth, his fangs extended towards your main artery.

The door exploded clear of the frame. A stream of smoke collided with the man holding you, sending him sliding across the room.

His gaze broken from you your body sagged to the floor. Light flooded into the garage once more.

“Hey Rip Off, I've got a bone to pick with you.”

As your eyes adjusted you had to wonder what kind of whacked out world you lived in.

On the far side of the room, who you had to assume was your assailant was a young man in black dress pants, a white collared button shirt, and a black leather jacket that had seen many years of use. In the light, his irises were a startling shade of ruby red. His mouth was slanted in a smug smile.

Standing directly in front of you was your assailant’s twin. Same exact face, his hair was cut short on the sides with a fringe of bangs swept back. Dressed in jeans, and a t-shirt he was almost normal in comparison. Except his eyes had grey smoke floating out of them, obscuring his irises. His expression clearly read, “Pissed.”

Leather Jacket relaxed back on his heels, “If it isn't my baby bro. Nate-something or another right? Sorry for not dropping by to introduce myself, it was on my to-do list.”

“Cut the crap! You’re making hits in my territory, and it's bringing the heat on my ass.” The skin along his arms was building up a red glow. The inside of the garage began to feel muggy.

“Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you wouldn't mind if I thinned out your herd a bit.” He nodded towards you, instinctively you looked away to avoid eye contact.

You needed to get out of there! You didn't need to know who they were, they were clearly NOT human and shit was about to hit the paranormal fan.

The smoke guy advanced forward, “That's it, I'm melting your ass. I'll deform you so no one can mistake me for you again.” He lunged forward and Leather Jacket slid out of reach. As the battle engaged you took the opening. On your hands and knees, you hastily crawled for the open doorway.

There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh. The wall just behind you was destroyed as the smoke guy was sent through the drywall, support beam and aluminum tiles on the outside.

“Now really, NateMare, if you're going to pick a fight with your big brother, you better make it entertaining at least.” Leather Jacket chuckled and followed after the other man through the hole in the wall.

Reaching the doorway you peered around the frame and watched as the smoke guy turned into a literal cloud of smoke. It swarmed around Leather Jacket, and he just continued to laugh.

You got to your feet and took off running for the gas station. Behind you, you thought you could still hear swearing, laughter and something colliding with the ground.

You nearly ran straight through the glass door of the gas station, your body pressed flush against it you pounded on the door, “Let me in!”

Your co-worker jerked to attention off their phone and hurried over to let you in, “You're not that late for your shift.”

You scurried inside and slammed the door closed, relocking it you braced yourself against the cash counter.

“You okay? Did something happen?”

Before you could respond you felt the ground shake. A massive fireball went up in the air from the direction of the old house. Car alarms screamed. “Holy shit! What was that?!”

“There….there was a…..” you wanted to say ‘super-powered twins fighting’, but you weren't feeling inclined towards disbelieving looks. “There was a guy with a jerry can and a lighter hanging out by that old garage. He scared the crap out of me. I didn't think he was going to do that.”

Fire trucks and police cars came shrieking with their alarms down the street.

Your co-worker helped you over to the small stool in the corner, “You're lucky you ran when you did.”

“I know.”

#fanfiction #NateMare #Mercer #Halloween #vampire #reader insert

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digimonadventuretimelines · 5 years ago

Text

[10- Emergencial Reunion!!]

“You said it was an emergency so you have to be straight and tell us what’s going on.”

Iori didn’t want to sound rude, but considering everyone at this point is full of work to do, like Joe having many appointments with hurt or sick digimon as example.

“It’s about him” Ken said with a serious tone.

Everyone stopped talking or complaining, creating a heavy and uncomfortable atmosphere in the room. It wasn’t like they had given up on Daisuke, and yes that they had no clues to solve that issue. Taichi had gotten no time to search for him, and had given a lot of excuses to the media to keep everything under control. If not… How would’ve Taichi explain that without revealing that Daisuke is one of the DigiChosen?

“What did you get?” Miyako broke the silence, yet her voice was cold. They were talking about her husband after all.

“We never learned what happened to him” Ken began, “Two years ago, we got a message on our digivices about a mysterious S.O.S. signal. Daisuke and I went to check it out, but we had been ambushed by a digimon.”

“That we know, Ichijouji” Takeru vaguely commented.

“The jogress was an option for us but, we got separated in combat. When we found each other, Daisuke shoved me into the gate to save me from being captured.”

“Then, what have you discovered about the case?” Taichi acted as the good and old leader once again “You said on the phone that it is connected to the Roar of Freedom, am I wrong?”

“It’s an assumption” Ken explained “This group had been spotted on the same area Daisuke got caught, and they know who we are. Because after someone executed the Strikedramon brothers… We found that they left a message addressed to us.”

“Are they threatening us…?” Yamato clenched his fist, but Takeru calmed him down.

“We didn’t give up on finding Daisuke, and this may be the very first clue we got since two years ago.”

“... What you want us to do?” Koushiro asked him, and that was everyone’s question as well.

Ken hated to feel pressured by glares, somehow it brings him bad memories from his childhood. However, he was on Daisuke’s position in the group -- While Taichi is the first and Yamato the second… Daisuke is somehow the third. And Ken does not like to be the lead despite being the head of the Special Digimon Cases Unit.

“Nothing for now” he answered a few moments later, trying to formulate words in his mind.

“You want to go there and investigate, am I wrong?” Taichi said, then looked at the others.

“If Ken goes, I’m going” Miyako raised from her seat “Daisuke is not only our friend, it’s my husband. And I have to protect my family.”

“I’d like to go too but… I’m busy” Iori mused.

“I have a lot to do too” Hikari, Mimi and Sora replied, some frowns were visible.

“The hospital needs me, I’m sorry” Joe was honest as ever, deep down he wanted to do more for the group but he was the most busiest of the them right now.

“I could go, but” Takeru spoke “I have a book release to attend. After that, I can lend you a hand Ken.”

“The next mission is settled to the next week” Yamato was pouty “I will help giving support here. Could go investigating those cases in the meanwhile” then he glanced at Taichi.

“Sorry, I can’t go” and he answered “I had been a target, while I can still fight… Handling with the role as a Chosen Child and as the digimon’s Ambassador wouldn’t be good. I trust you two though. If you need help, I will do my best to send backup.”

“Taichi, our identities are a secret!” Yamato argued “You can’t simply ruin all of our efforts to keep our families safe!”

“I won’t, I prefer to call Ken’s unit to give him and Miyako support.”

Daichi was sleeping when someone had entered in his room. Luckily, Ulforce and Natsu were still spending the night at the old Daisuke’s office room so no one suspected about them.

A very quiet voice was what made Daichi wake up, seeing a blurred human holding a pink ball.

Wait.

“Daichi, please wake up and help” Kiyoko was the one he saw now that his vision went back to normal “This lil’ guy is needing some help!”

“Lil… W-wait, that’s a digimon!?”

“No, it’s a plush. Duh, of course he is!”

“What happened?!” he got up from the bed “Where did he come from!? Where did you find him!?”

“Uhh, long story short… He was running away from some baddie and de-evolved back to this form. Is it a… Poromon right?”

“Hm yes” he examined the borb-like baby “I think it is.”

“Why don’t you use that shining thing on your desk?”

“Shiny thing--” he looked back and realized he didn’t hide the D-TimeRune before going to sleep!! “Aa- Um, that thing!? It’s a phone! A normal phone!! Old phone I meant…!”

She smirked, “I know you’re hiding something from me dear brother. Because after getting your message, I phoned Mitsuki and he said you weren’t at his home. I also phoned your other friends and they said the same!”

He gasped.

“You can’t hide it from me, Daichi. I’m sly as a fox, faster like a cheetah and your sister.”

“A… Uh… Please, don’t tell anyone about this” Daichi sighed “I’ve got a digivice and a digimon partner.”

“YOU WHAT!?”

“Y-you’re going to wake mom up!!” he whispered to her “Please don’t tell mom or anyone else.”

“Fine fine!” Kiyoko muttered and pouted “Now please help me with this digimon, he seems hurt!”

Daichi grabbed the digivice and told Kiyoko to follow him to the room no one ever had opened since Daisuke’s disappearance. When they stood in front of the door, Daichi muttered:

“This is also a secret, don’t let anyone else know,” and he opened the door. They walked in and he closed the door, turned the lights on and made the sleepy digi-duo wake up.

“Aww, they’re cute!!” she was looking at them and almost squishing the hurt Poromon “What are they? Digimon too? That’s a Chibimon and… I never had heard of a pink bun!”

“Daichi isn’t your identity supposed to be a secret?” Natsu squinted her eyes but her expression changed to concern “Uh-oh, you have an injured digimon here! Let me heal it…!” and she switched forms in front of them, took the Poromon from Kiyoko’s hands and put it on the couch by Ulforce’s side. she send an energy from her hands to the bird-like digimon, healing him slowly.

“A secret?” Kiyoko glanced at Daichi “I thought you wouldn’t hide something from me…!”

“Natsu said to me to not tell anyone else, there’s some things you cannot know--”

“And there’s more!? And you can’t trust me!?”

“I think y’all should tell her” Ulforce interrupted the heated discussion. Both Daichi and Natsu looked at him “Sorry guys, the girl needs to know now that she’s aware of us here.”

“Fine, Daichi tell her I’m busy to give details. But you must keep quiet about it, Kiyoko.”

“I… I will, don’t worry!” the girl nodded “Not even mom and dad must know right…?”

“Especially them, or else they will lock me in the depths of the Digital World.”

“Ok…?” Kiyoko wasn’t able to understand that, but she promised to not tell anyone about whatever it was Daichi’s secret.

“... Mom and dad are legendary heroes” Daichi began “Remember of those stories about the Digital World’s warriors? They were real… And our dad is a brainwashed enemy right now.”

She stared at him for a while. Then she snorted and laughed but not too much loud.

“Seriously? Have you been talking with Junya lately? Our parents are heroes!? How funny!”

“Kiyoko I’m deadly serious here! They are, I just saw--”

“Wait, How can a digimon researcher and a worldwide famous chef be secret heroes? It makes no sense, big bro. You’re talking like Junya about the conspiracy theory of ambassador Yagami hiding the truth from everyone about the legends.”

“... He is right. But not for something evil, actually it’s about our safety.”

“Daichi, I don’t know what happened to you to jump from ‘our dad is dead’ to ‘our dad is alive, and our parents are part of the legendary Chosen Children’ but I know dad is on a business trip and our parents aren’t heroes.”

“He’s telling the truth” Natsu turned back and stared at Kiyoko “Daisuke, Miyako and Taichi are DigiChosen. Most of their friends are.”

“I… It’s strange knowing that our babysitter is a digimon but...”

“Kiyoko, my sweetie… I’ve been with your parents from a long time ago that I’m basically an honored digimon partner. Believe me, I tell no lies.”

“Why would dad be an enemy? He’s a good person!! Makes no sense!”

“He had been captured, but Daichi knows how to fix it… You have to stay here and not tell anyone about it--”

“Urk…” the Poromon woke up, his vision being pretty blurred but slowly coming back. His noise called the kids, Natsu and Ulforce’s attention though “I need to find the… C-Chosen Children.”

“Don’t talk, you’re badly injured!” Kiyoko said, worried with the poor bird “You’re safe, please rest.”

“Why is he looking for them?” Ulforce tilted his head.

“What happened to him, Kiyoko?” Daichi asked calmly.

“I don’t know, I was coming back from school and…”

… It fell from the skies devolved in front of me.

“Hey little one, are you okay?!” I approached from, super duper concerned with him. I took from the ground and examined him for a few seconds. Then he talked to me:

“... Human kid-- W-watch out…!!” He said and then he shove me to the ground. A light hit this poor Poromon and he fell again on the floor.

“Ugh, h-hey why did you-- Huh!?” I looked behind me and saw a shadow. It was trying to catch the Poromon so I grabbed the bird orb from the floor and ran away.

Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu looked at Kiyoko, then to each other. To Daichi, that sounded like the plot of one of the old games he and his father had played together.

“So, someone’s looking for him” the boy mused “And, probably is going after you now.”

“Yeah, I think so…”

“Do you think it chased her at home?” Ulforce looked around “I mean-- Not like I care of someone trying to invade your home...”

“The house is safe” Daichi said “There’s alarms and mx. Hawkmon lives here. He’s mom’s partner after all.”

“Uh… About that…” The three looked at Kiyoko “... Mom and mx. Hawk are not here, they went to an important meeting.”

“So we’re all alone!?” Ulforce babbled in panic, then he started to verify every corner of the room “Are we safe!?”

“Are you scared…?” Natsu smirked “Aren’t you the grand hero Ulforce?”

“Me!? Scared!?” the tiny-mon took the bait “I gonna show ya how great I am! Daichi kid, evolve me and I will protect everyone for the night!”

“Uh, no need to--” suddenly a noise was heard from outside. Kiyoko grabbed the Poromon and hid behind Natsu, while Daichi took the D-TimeRune to see if it was a digimon signal.

“Wha-what was that!?” the girl asked “It sounded like someone crashing the restaurant’s entrance door…!”

“Stay here” Daichi whispered, “Ulforce come with me.”

“F-fine…??” he nodded, then jumped to the boy’s arms. The duo left the room, leaving Natsu and Kiyoko to protect the injured Poromon.

“... Mom’s going to not like if they damage the restaurant” Kiyoko mused “Natsu, can you see if there’s someone inside?”

“I don’t feel anything from here, and Poromon is injured we can’t--”

Kiyoko left the room and Natsu sighed. No matter how much she worked to keep the siblings safe for the sake of their lives… Those two always find a way to get into trouble. Quite like their parents.

When the girls arrived at the restaurant floor, they saw Ulforce on child level already and chasing a shadow, with Daichi going after the blue digimon.

“It’s… It’s that one who was chasing me!!” Kiyoko shouted, Daichi glanced at her but turned back to the battle “P-please don’t damage the restaurant, dad wouldn’t like it…!!”

“I won’t!” He assured her “Ulforce, Kiyoko, Natsu, try to lure it to the outside!”

“Wait will you put YOUR SISTER in danger!?” Natsu babbled.

“She’s fine, she’s with us!”

“Yes, but do you forgot she’s a not a tamer!?”

“Oh screw that!” Kiyoko yelled “With or without a digimon, I’ve raised to fight! I’m made of fire!” then she ran towards the mysterious silhouette, with the Poromon in her hands “Hey, dummy dumbo thing! Come catch me, leave this place alone and come after me!” She left the restaurant by the main entrance, forcing the shadow to chase her.

“Good job, Kiyoko!” Daichi nodded, then looked at Ulforce and Natsu “Let’s go, we need to prevent that thing from hurting Kiyoko and the Poromon.”

“Ok” they nodded and with this the three left after the shadow.

#datl text chapter #daichi arc phase 1

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yhs-silly · 5 years ago

Text

Hang on there buddy #5

Trigger warnings: suicide mentions, self harm, ghost, character death, murder mention

After a few weeks, Grian was cleared to leave. He moved in with Taurtis and Sam, who had already set up his belongings on shelves. He was so glad to be out of the hospital, happily sitting with Taurtis and Sam- he watched them play smash bros quietly. He loved to watch them just interact like this, casually and friendly without worry. He felt so relaxed, leaning against Taurtis with a yawn- he blushed when Taurtis instinctively put his arm around the blonde.

Later that night Grian was sat on the sofa, both of the boys were asleep. He looked around and realised just how small the apartment was, he wanted to give back to his friends for being so sweet and caring and his therapist did say he needed to improve his relationship with his parents...

Grian picked up the phone, he knew this number off by heart. He typed in each key and pressed the call button, he sat waiting for a response- his breath hitched when he heard the response.

"Hello? Who is this?"

He took a deep breath, it was now or never. "Is this Prudence Sian Xelqua?"

"it's LADY Prudence Sian RUSTIA dear, but yes. Who's this?"

He counted to three under his breath before answering, tapping his fingers on the side if the sofa. "Grian, it's Grian Xelqua..." He had to hold his phone at a distance due to the squeal that followed, he sighed and listened to his mother ramble on about how much she and his father had missed him. "Mother? I have a favour to ask..."

She went quiet. "I should have known...what do you need sweetie..?

Grian quickly realised how that sounded and back tracked. "Oh no, I do want to fix my relationship with you and father but I do really need a favour..." He smiled at hearing her assuring him that it was fine, she understood. "I need a house, I'm currently living on my friends sofa in a destroyed apartment- there are walls missing. Entire WALLS, mother."

She gasped and the clacking sound of credit cards was clearly heard. "Oh gosh! Hold on baby, mama's sending you a nice silver credit card and buying you a nice house, where do you live honey?"

"Academi, in japa-"

"Oh!" Lady Prudence squeaked, typing in the address in order to buy a little home for her son and his friends. "That's the little town Jane used to live! Is her ex still there? Does he still teach?" She gasped again as a little thought popped into her mind. "Is he your teacher?"

Silence from the other end of the phone as the sound of Grian sighing came from the other side of the phone. "No mother, Gareth's dead...he...he committed suicide..."

Prudence gasped, she felt faint. The sweet and gentle man she'd introduced her dear sister to all those years ago had hung himself from the rafters like a rat. She scoffed and fluffed up her hair. "Well he always was a coward, how outrageous! Suicide is a horrible thing to expose children to- how horrible of him! Suicide is a cowards way out and holds no honour whatsoever, such a horrible, shameful way to go!"

Silence from the other end of the phone and Prudence was about to ask if Grian was still there when a quiet, shaking voice was heard. "Mama..?"

"Yes baby?"

"...I tried to kill myself..."

The call ended, leaving Prudence sat in complete silence. Her baby, her perfect little boy, had tried to commit suicide. She felt sick, clasping a hand over her mouth to stop the bile that rose from escaping. She remember when Grian was little, he used to be the sweetest, move inquisitive kid around- hanging off her every word.

But she also remembered what the maids used to say, when she wasn't around Grian, he was quiet, subdued and sulky. But even inspite of that, Prudence had to worry what had happened in the ten years where he was on his own- on the street. Oh god she felt sick.

Meanwhile Grian was quietly cursing himself out for being so impulsive, he should have just listened to his mothers cruel comments about Gareth. Now he'd disgraced her, she was sure to call his father and then he'd know what a pathetic excuse for a son Grian really was.

He was right, Prudence did call her ex-husband but the man wasn't disspointed, he was sickened. He thought that Grian would've died on the streets so he was rather impressed but at the same time, suicide was a huge issue in all walks of life- his cousin was a physiologist and so he knew how important it was that Grian had failed. He was genuinely proud of him for reaching out of them, even if he was slightly put out that Grian had chosen to call Prudence and not him. He hated his ex-wife with a passion but they could agree enough to plan a trip to Japan to visit their son.

Neither of them had time for customs so they took a private jet, landing in the car park outside academi. It was a fairly nice plane as far as private jet's go so no wonder it drew a crowd. Prudence and Alfred stepped out of the plane to see a crowd of rowdy teens staring at them, they stepped out and looked over the group for their son.

Sam was so glad to see Grian smiling and laughing like that, back to almost-normal. He had grabbed his hand in order to drag him over to the shop and he was only just realizing that he still had Grian's hand in his grasp, a light blush dusting his cheeks as they turned the corner. Sam realised just how cute Grian looked, he really was blessed to own such cute friends- wait no, he doesn't own them, his therapist told him that was bad. Wow he really was messed up, Sam felt the empty pang of guilt hit him lightly as they approached the school.

Grian suddenly let go of his hand and Sam looked over in disappointment when he saw that the brit's face had paled, he looked to see what Grian had seen and saw the jet- with two fancy dressed people getting out. Sam couldn't help but notice how similar they both looked to Grian, they must be his parents. Sam didn't know Grian was rich, the kid had been homeless after all- and had no money what so ever.

It seemed that Taurtis also noticed as he tapped Grian on the shoulder. "Hey Grian? Are those your folks? They kinda look like you." He smiled, liking being right as Grian shamefully nodded. He watched as Grian's parents pushed through the crowd, lead by a PA, a butler and two bodyguards.

Grian felt his heart sink as his parents reached him, Prudence leaning down for a delicate huh. "It's ok baby, mummy's here now." She let go and smiled down at him, stepping back to stand beside Grian's father. Lord Xelqua nodded and gazed down at Grian with his usual dissapointed gaze, but his eyes sparkled with worry. Grian suddenly felt seven again, staring up at his parents and feeling like he's in trouble for something.

It was Yuki who came to his rescue, she jumped in as the girls diffused the crowds and curtsied to them. "It's a pleasure to meet you Sir, M'am, you must be Grian's parents. I'm Yuki Karu, my daddy runs the yakuza here- I'm Grian's friend." She chimes and smiles sweetly at them, causing Prudence to smile and nod approvingly.

"Oh it's lovely to see Grian's made some friends, he was never a very social child." She smiled sweetly and fluffed up her hair. "I'm Lady Prudence Sian Rustia and this," She gestured to Lord Xelqua. "Is my ex-hus-"

"I am Lord Alfred Xavier Robert Xelqua, patriarch of the Xelqua lineage and ceo of XelquaSweets." He cracked a neutral expression and flourished a bow before the little group, letting his personal assistant hold his cane as he did so. He came back up with a deep frown as he heard laughing.

Sam found this hilarious, Grian's parents were these over the top upper class hoity toities, the little aggressive kid Sam had met all those years ago was one raised by a nanny. He leant on Grian's shoulder as he cackled at this situation, he could feel the blonde tensining up but really didn't expect to be thrown to the floor like that as Grian took a few steps towards his parents.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" The pair looked at him in shock and confusion, Grian glared. "Why do you think it's ok for you to barge into my life again like this? I called you because my therapist said I should fix my damn relationship with you assholes." He laughed almost hysterically and a cold cruelness rang through his voice, causing at least Prudence- and the remaining teens, to take a step back. "I told you what I did only because I couldn't stand you throwing scorn on Gareth for the same thing! And you know what father? You might as well call up your little physiologist friend because I'm the cause of his death! I'm hysterical! I'm fucking crazy!" He gestures around wildly, tears forming in his eyes as he took some more steps towards his now very uncomfortable looking parents. Sam slowly got off the floor and took a careful step towards Grian as the blonde glared forward. "And I don't have time to play happy fucking families with you neglectfull pieces of shit!"

Before Grian could say anything more, Sam put his hand over the blondes mouth, holding him close and quietly hushing him. He know what it was like to lose his temper like that and he didn't want Grian to hurt himself so he held Grian back and calmly pet the blondes hair. Grian sighed and stopped struggling, relaxing his shoulders but tensing then again as his father walked slowly towards him with a scowl.

"Grian." His voice was cold and harsh, Sam felt Grian begin to shake. "We've done nothing but give you the best, the only reason you're like this is because you ran away, which was your own decision." Sam made sure his arms were tight around Grian as he held the smaller make protectively. Xelqua glared at Grian and raised a hand to strike him. "Your mother and I didn't raise you to be such an ungrateful brat!"

Before his hand could even make contact with Grian's face, the light that reflected of his ring triggered something in Sam. He let go of Grian, pushing him towards Taurtis then grabbed Lord Xelqua's wrist. "Don't you fucking dare." He threw the lord to the ground and jumped on him, pummeling him with punch after punch. Lady Rustia screamed, her long acrylic nails tapping on her purse in worry as she stepped back.

She backed into someone, someone with an angry glare and muscles to make her swoon. She turned and widened her eyes as the teens gasped quietly, standing there and glaring down at Sam- Was Rowan.

#yhs #yhs taurtis #yhs sam #yhs grian #yhs Rowan #tw suicide #suicedal #Tw child abuse #tw neglect

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purpleswans1 · 5 years ago

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Family Reunion

Another piece of my Villain!Izuku AU for villain month. The prompt this time is “Enemy of my Enemy,” and it actually takes place after my published outline ends. Sorry if things are confusing here, you should understand things more when you read Saturday’s fic.

Read also on FF and AO3

“Hey, Dabi? Can we talk for a sec?” Izuku asked.

Dabi turned to the de-facto leader of their little villain group. “Sure. What’s up?”

Izuku waited until the others had all gone upstairs before continuing. “I’ve been contacted by a potential new recruit. Because of who he is, I figured it would be best to talk to you before inviting him to move in.

A new recruit? Already? Still, Dabi wasn’t sure why Izuku wanted to talk to him about this. “What’s his name?”

“Shoto Todoroki.”

A baby sleeping in his mother’s arms. A toddler looking at his hands in terror, the right one covered in frost and the left one wreathed in flame. A child trembling in exhaustion and pain. A boy’s face covered in bandages and glaring up with hate-filled eyes.

Dabi took a deep breath. “Endeavour's son?”

Izuku nodded. “If you don’t want him around I’ll understand. I’ll just tell Shoto to stay at UA and act as a spy. But if you could bear with us… I think it would do Shoto a lot of good to get out of that place.”

“Does he know we’re the ones who attacked his father?”

Izuku smirked. “I suspect that was our main selling point.”

Huh. Looks like the kid hasn’t been brainwashed by the old man after all. “Okay, bring him in.”

Izuku looked skeptical. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. My issue is with Endeavour, not his kid. Besides, it sounds like little Shoto has some daddy issues.”

Izuku pursed his lips, seemingly not convinced. “Alright, if you say so. If nothing else, this will give Shoto a chance to explain himself.”

Dabi smiled -- genuinely enthusiastic for once -- and said, “I’m looking forward to that.”

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

Shoto Todorki felt like a sheep in the wolf’s den. Which did make sense; what was a child of the #1 hero doing around villains? What was he doing asking to join them? Well, that just proved how little they knew.

“Guys, this is Shoto Todoroki. He’s offered to join us,” Izuku said, introducing him to the waiting wolves.

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Izuku and the little girl playing on the floor, stared at Shoto like he was a freak.

Well, they weren’t wrong, but it was still uncomfortable.

“Izuku, wasn’t that guy at the UA sports festival?” one of the girls -- the brunette -- asked.

Izuku nodded. “Yes. Until today he was a hero student at UA, but please listen to what he has to say before you judge him.” Izuku turned to Shoto and motioned for him to speak.

Well, it's now or never.

“My father is Endeavour and I hate his guts.”

That got their attention, but now that Shoto had started he couldn’t stop. It was just like at the sports festival, when he poured his heart out to a stranger her now knew was a villain. Only now, this wasn’t a trickle of hate leaking through the damn; it was the flood he was determined to let loose and share with the world.

“He’s obsessed with beating All Might, and decided to have a successor that would be stronger than him. I don’t know if any of you have heard of quirk marriages, but my father married my mother for no other reason than her quirk. When my quirk came in, father started a brutal training regiment. I was only four years old. It was painful for me, but stressed out mom out even more. She was already cracking under the strain of living with a man she hated, but she finally broke one night when I found her talking on the phone. She screamed that my left side was unsightly and poured boiling water over it.” Shoto reached up to touch his scar, both to indicate that was when he got it and because he was remembering how much it had hurt.

Nobody else tried to speak.

“It hurt, what my mother had done to me, but I knew my father was the one to blame. He’d driven her to the breaking point, and once it was done he shipped her off to a mental hospital and swept it under the rug. At first I was determined to become a hero without using my flames, the quirk I’d gotten from my father, but I met Izuku and he showed me another way. The only reason my father was able to get away with all that he did was because society put him on a pedestal simply for being a strong hero. I want to help you change that aspect of society, and I definitely want to help you kill my father.”

Shoto finished his story, putting his hands in his pockets. Nobody spoke for a long time.

An oddly familiar voice broke the silence. “Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Welcome to the Quirk Revolutionaries.” The speaker was a young man covered in burn marks.

The lizard-like man looked at Shoto. “If Dabi thinks it’s fine, then I have no objections. My name is Spinner, by the way.”

The brunette girl came forward. “I’m Ochaco Uraraka. It’s good that you’re able to join us, Shoto.”

“I’m Toga!” the blond said. “Oh, Izuku, I’ve got to try his blood! Can I cut him?”

“Not right now Toga, we should let Shoto get settled in first.” Izuku leaned into Shoto’s ear and whispered, “I’ll explain later.”

Shoto nodded. There was probably a lot he’d need to get caught up on.

The little girl got up from the floor and ran to Izuku. She hid behind his leg, casting a cautious glance at Shoto.

Izuku noticed her and placed a comforting hand on her head. “Do you want to introduce yourself to Shoto?”

The girl was painfully nervous, so Shoto took the initiative. He kneeled down so he was eye level with her. “My name is Shoto. What’s yours?”

“I’m Eri,” she said shyly.

“Izuku found Eri in a bad situation,” the scarred man -- Dabi -- explained. “Since he’s such a sucker for sob stories, we’ve been looking after her.”

Oh. Shoto should have been surprised to find a child in a house full of villains, but for some reason it never crossed his mind.

Dabi clasped his hand on Shoto’s shoulder. “It’s getting late. How about you guys get Eri ready for bed while I talk to the new guy?”

Izuku frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Take care of the little princess,” Dabi insisted.

Shoto gave a small nod. He didn’t understand everything that was going on, but he didn’t want Izuku to worry about him any more.

“Well, if either of you need anything, just holler.” Izuku cast one last glance at Shoto before leading Eri up the stairs, with Uraraka, Toga, and Spinner trailing behind.

Once they were gone, Dabi stood in front of Shoto, sweeping his eyes over Shoto’s entire body. It made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you, Shoto.”

That was surprising. “Have we met before?”

“When your quirk first came in, you were so scared. Mom and I both told you to keep it hidden, but Dad noticed anyway and dragged you away to start training.”

Shoto sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Who… Who are you?”

“I’ll admit, I was a little relieved. With you as the old man’s perfect successor, I finally got a chance to have a childhood. For the first time I could remember, I got the chance to spend time with Natsuo and Fyumi and act like a real older brother to them.”

Shoto realized what he was saying. Tears blurred his vision. “Big bro Touya?”

Warm arms circled Shoto in a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry for leaving you behind, Shoto. I needed to get out of that house, but I should've… I knew it would make things harder for you, but I left anyway. Can you ever forgive me?”

Shoto’s arms came up to return his brother’s hug. “Big bro… I thought you were dead. I can’t believe…”

“Shhh. It’s my fault; it was the only way I could think of to get the old man off my back. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’m just so glad that you’re here now.”

Tears fell from Shoto’s eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, big bro. You were just doing what you needed to do. I found my own path, and now we’re together again.”

Dabi -- Touya -- squeezed harder. “Thank you, Shoto.”

The two brothers stayed like that, just holding each other, for a while. That is, until a new voice ruined the moment.

“So, you two are related I take it?” Izuku stood a few steps up, in full view of the brotherly embrace.

Dabi looked up. “Are you saying you expected this?”

“Well, your quirk works similarly to Endeavour's, so I always thought it was a possibility. I heard Shoto’s story long before we met, so I knew that his family had a good reason to hate him as much as you do. Not to mention, your hatred of Endeavour was awfully personal, so it made even more sense for you to know him or Shoto personally.” Izuku explained.

Dabi snorted. “You know Izuku, you’re pretty scary when you do stuff like that.”

“It’s just a part of my charm,” Izuku said. “By the way, there’s a spare bedroom for you Shoto. I should warn you, Eri tends to crawl into bed with whoever’s awake when she gets a nightmare, so don’t be surprised if she visits you in the night.”

“Come on, let’s get you settled in,” Dabi started to lead Shoto up the stairs.

“Thanks, big bro Touya,” Shoto said.

“Eh… I don’t mind if you call me that when we’re alone, but I’d rather you call me Dabi around the others, okay?” Dabi rubbed his neck. “I’ve put a lot of effort into reinventing myself after I got out of that place.”

Shoto considered this. “Maybe I should pick a new name for myself too.”

Dabi laughed. “Sure, kid. You might want to run it past Izuku; he’ll probably have a bunch of ideas for you.”

#villain month 2019 #mha villain au #dabi #touya todoroki #shoto todoroki #todoroki family #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #abuse tw #myfanfic

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writingguide003-blog · 6 years ago

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10 Years Later, Here's How The Writers Strike Indelibly Changed TV

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/10-years-later-heres-how-the-writers-strike-indelibly-changed-tv/

10 Years Later, Here's How The Writers Strike Indelibly Changed TV

In late 2007, “How I Met Your Mother” co-creator Craig Thomas faced an unusual situation. After penning the script for Episode 11 of the CBS comedy’s third season alongside fellow creator Carter Bays, he found himself handing off the pages they’d written. The scenes were to be filmed without his presence on set — or any of his writing staff, for that matter.

“We tried to get the script as tight and manageable as possible with the knowledge that there would be no writers on set to punch up any of the jokes or fix any of the words,” he explained. “At a certain time of the night, we just had to hit send and the script went to our producer and director and we said, ‘Have a great shoot week. We’ll be picketing outside of the lot.’”

Thomas and Bays were two of roughly 12,000 TV and film and television writers who were striking on behalf of the East and West unions of the Writers Guild of America, a walkout caused by stalled negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that all but ground scripted television like “HIMYM” to a halt in late 2007 and 2008. (Members of HuffPost’s union are represented by WGA East.)

The organizations were in the midst of negotiating a new three-year contract. But after the AMPTP, the trade association affiliated with corporations like CBS and NBCUniversal, failed to meet the demands of the guilds, writers embarked on a 100-day stalemate.

During that time, guild writers no longer took work. In terms of television, that meant there were no new scripted episodes available for the networks to air besides those commissioned before the strike. More than 60 TV shows shut down as a result, and ratings and ad sales plummeted. By December 2007, most scripted series were off the air and not set to return for months. The CW’s “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill” faced shortened seasons; NBC’s “Heroes” only completed 11 episodes of the 24 expected for Season 2, and was off the air for nine months; the third season of Fox’s “Bones” was cut short as the show went on a four-month hiatus. Late-night programming all but disappeared (until hosts like Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert fought to return without writers citing the financial struggles of their non-writing staff), and award shows like the Golden Globes were canceled.

In total, the strike cost the state of California over $2 billion and 37,700 jobs, according to nonprofit economic think tank the Milken Institute.

For a show like “HIMYM,” the prospect of a lengthy pause was daunting.

“Everyone had to stop [working] and that was scary, as the show was just gaining some momentum,” Thomas said.

CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images

Neil Patrick Harris playing Barney Stinson on a 2008 episode of “How I Met Your Mother.”

But there were larger interests at stake.

Audiences used to watching movies in theaters and TV at designated times in their homes were getting acquainted with a new kind of viewing experience: streaming video. Industry experts at the time predicted that so-called “new media” content ― shows and movies distributed online or viewed on computers, cell phones and other devices ― would eventually supplant DVDs in terms of profits. (Spoiler alert: They did.)

Initially, the big studios ― MGM, Sony, Warner Bros. and Disney, among others ― took home most, if not all, of the profits of this “new media” content; the WGA had no formal agreement with the companies on how to compensate writers for this kind of online or on-demand distribution. So when it came time to renegotiate a contract in November 2007, this issue was key.

According to the WGA, the AMPTP began negotiations by offering paltry residuals for new media and expressed a desire to deny the guilds future jurisdiction over scripts written for the internet. And the group felt as though it had no choice but to strike.

“It was one of the most important strikes of the new century to date,” Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East, told HuffPost. Although Peterson was not a part of the WGA East until after the strike ended, he was interviewing for the role of director during the walkout and was in communication with leadership throughout the entire process. He witnessed the picketing firsthand and considers the strike to be “the first major labor action of the digital age.”

“This was a bunch of employees confronting the impact of information technology and digital technology on their way of living, and that was something that resonated very deeply across the labor force and the labor movement,” he said.

The strike officially ended on Feb. 12, 2008. The guilds won a piece of digital revenues and established a percentage payment on the distributor’s gross, and shows like “HIMYM” resumed with their writing staff in tact.

“Our perception was that it was very successful,” Peterson explained. “That as a result of the strike, the guilds were able to win jurisdiction and residual payment terms that otherwise simply wouldn’t exist. It looked like a great victory.”

But, it wasn’t an easy road. Not only had writers been out of work, they’d returned to an industry indelibly changed by their fight.

Jeff Vespa via Getty Images

Entertainment news anchors Lara Spencer, Brooke Anderson, Jim Moret, Giuliana Rancic, Dayna Devon and Mary Hart at The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards Announcement at the Beverly Hilton on Jan. 13, 2008, in Beverly Hills, California.

The Rising Tide Of Reality TV

While scripted television series were forced to take a hiatus during the strike, this was not the case for reality TV shows.

Once pre-strike commissioned episodes ran out and fictional series were on lockdown, broadcast and cable networks clamored for any original content they could find to fill their schedules. As a result, some industry watchdogs connect the writers strike with the boom of reality television, considering more than 100 unscripted shows ― from competition shows to dating shows to life improvement series ― either debuted or returned during that 2007-2008 season.

However, Eli Holzman, the current CEO of The Intellectual Property Corporation and the creator/developer behind series like “Project Greenlight,” “Undercover Boss” and “Project Runway,” has a slightly different take on the strike’s impact on reality TV. He believes the explosion of unscripted television in 2008 was a long time in the making.

“Nonscripted TV was on the march really from the early 2000s, with the advent of ‘Survivor,’ ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ and ‘Big Brother,’�� Holzman explained. “The genre came into its own and it mirrored the trajectory and growth of cable, and commissioning increased each year. Yes, the strike was one important factor in that. But to me, slightly less important than the growth of cable and the audience’s embrace of the genre.”

As Holzman described it, scripted television was in the doldrums beginning in the mid-aughts. Viewers, he said, were bored with the slog of too-similar sitcoms, cop dramas and medical shows. From 2005 to 2007, for example, “American Idol” reigned supreme while the high-rated “Grey’s Anatomy,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “House” eventually slipped below “Dancing with the Stars.” According to Holzman, audiences craved a fresh start. Cue the rise in reality television projects, which hit their stride in the 2000s. They peaked in 2015, when 750 nonfiction programs (350 of them brand new) aired on cable.

“Suddenly, this genre — Oh my god, all these people are going to get left on an island with nothing and they have to vote each other off, and someone is going to win a million dollars? ― was new and different and we wanted new and different versus a copy of a copy of a copy,” Holzman said. “The strike is an easy moment to look at when suddenly we all became aware of a change that was going on that maybe we hadn’t noticed before. But that change was happening on its own.”

WGA East’s Peterson agrees with him.

“I would not say that reality TV was created by the writers strike. I would say that more people watched it because there was nothing else on,” he added, noting that reality TV was simply “the only alternative, other than reruns,” for networks to air in lieu of their regularly scheduled programming.

Still, Holzman admits the strike did help to advance certain reality programs. “Project Runway,” for instance, aired its fourth season from November 2007 to March 2008 and earned pretty solid ratings for Bravo. The finale roped in 6.1 million viewers in the 18-49 demo when Christian Siriano won. Later in 2008, Lifetime took over the series and ratings increased by nearly 30 percent. Episodes of NBC’s “Biggest Loser” moved from a one-hour slot to two in order to fill primetime space. CBS aired its first, and last, “Big Brother” winter season. “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” began its reign on E! “American Idol” capped off a historic season in May 2008 with 31.7 million finale viewers, helping Fox become America’s most-watched network for the first time ever.

“As the strike wore on, the [reality] business was robust,” Holzman reiterated. “As a typical Hollywood producer, I thought I was just really talented [Laughs]. I didn’t realize I was potentially riding a wave. I thought, ‘I’m so good at this! This is so easy!’ That was genuinely my impression, and I didn’t realize we were in the midst of what was going to be a boom.”o

Indeed, when guild writers returned to work, reality TV was no longer just a cloying trend. Thomas admitted that, as a scripted TV showrunner, it wasn’t easy to watch reality programs top the ratings week after week from there on out.

“I remember being really stressed out in the first couple of years of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ because we were losing to a reality show all the sudden,” Thomas recalled. “That show ‘Deal or No Deal’ was this huge sensation and we were like, ‘Oh man, we’re losing to suitcases of money being opened up!’”

Brian To via Getty Images

Eli Holzman.

The ‘Death’ Of The Baby Writer

There were other long-term effects of the strike, though, not just for veteran writers, but aspiring ones, too.

About 20 years ago ― a decade before the writers strike ― a handful of these promising writers’ assistants, or “baby writers” as they were sometimes called, were working with Holzman at Miramax Television on a Kevin Williamson project called “Wasteland.” The show, about a group of post-college pals, aired only three episodes in 1999 before ABC canceled it. But out of that particular wasteland came a crucial opportunity. Since the studio heads were still required to fulfill the 13-episode order for foreign buyers but no longer felt pressure to deliver top-level content, aspiring young writers were given the chance to pen the remaining scripts for the series.

“We were in a blowout game where you take the kids off the bench and you put them in because it doesn’t matter,” Holzman told HuffPost. “One of those writers’ assistants was Damon Lindelof, who would go on to create ‘Lost’ and has obviously had an extraordinary career. Here’s a voice that, because of that flourishing ecosystem, was able to be identified, nurtured and grown, and his writing was then brought to all of us: the audience.”

Unfortunately, the months of foot-dragging from AMPTP negotiators in 2007-2008 messed with that flourishing ecosystem, Holzman says, dismantling a once healthy community that fostered creators of all ranks.

“As the strike and the decline in commissioning wore on, the people who maybe had previously been a rung or two up the ladder were willing to take a job and come back at a lower level, a lower rate. If you’re running a show and have to staff it, you have the ability to hire a kid who’s promising but never done it before or someone who’s really competent and is going to take a pay cut to work at that level. You’re almost crazy not to hire that more seasoned person. So, that baby writer pathway into the business went away,” he said, “and that was tragic.”

Then-“baby writer” Nick Bernardone, however, was one of the lucky ones. “I got my first job as an office production assistant on ’30 Rock’ [in 2008] by literally walking into the office at the exact right time and asking if they needed someone. It was one in a million timing,” he told HuffPost. “The answer was something like, ‘Usually, this would be insane … but can you start tomorrow?’”

After working alongside the likes of Tina Fey, Bernardone went on to become a member of the writers’ room on her Netflix series, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” He insists he wouldn’t have gotten the gig had he not worked similar jobs on shows like AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and Netflix’s “Bloodline” in the interim.

Thomas and Bays also entered the business relatively easily. They were hired as writers for David Letterman just a few months after graduating from Wesleyan University in 1997, well before the strike. And they opted to pay it forward.

“Through the run of ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ we promoted several of our writers’ assistants, mostly post-strike,” he said. “One of them was Matt Kuhn, who ended up being a writer on the show for the entire rest of the run after a couple of seasons as a writers’ assistant. We did the same thing with Craig Gerard and our personal assistant, Matt Zinman ― we promoted them to be full writers on the show for many years. And in the last couple seasons we promoted George Sloan.”

These days, Bernardone, who’s been nominated for four Emmy awards, believes breaking into the business is all about who’s willing to give you a slice of the pie.

“If someone likes an aspiring writer’s stuff, they’ll do their best to get them hired,” he said.

As unreliable as it might be, it’s a practice Holzman believes is necessary.

“It’s really important to nurture a new crop, a new generation of storytellers every year, because it takes a long time to get there and it takes a long time to learn your craft,” he said. “It’s like a bad year for grapes — in 10 years, we won’t have that vintage.”

Brent N. Clarke via Getty Images

Creators of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Carter Bays (L) and Craig Thomas attend the 12th Annual New York Television Festival held at Helen Mills Theater on October 24, 2016 in New York City.

The Streaming Pathway To Prestige TV

Beyond the birth of the reality television boom and the increase in obstacles for up-and-coming writers, the strike ushered in an era that the guilds and industry insiders always expected: the era of streaming TV.

In 2007, Netflix was on an upswing. The company had launched in 1998 as a mail-order competitor to the then-popular but ultimately terminal Blockbuster, which rented out VHS tapes, DVDs and video games to the masses largely via brick-and-mortar stores. By 2005, 35,000 different films were available through Netflix’s subscription service; they reportedly shipped out 1 million DVDs every day. But soon enough, Netflix went the way of the internet, allowing its subscribers to browse through and watch films and shows by streaming them straight to their devices. By 2008, it had already identified its video-on-demand platform as the future. By 2013, Netflix had 27.1 streaming customers in the U.S.

Today, the company has more than 100 million subscribers.

In Thomas’ eyes, the writers strike was a pivotal turning point for the digital revolution helmed by Netflix, Hulu and other platforms. When the WGA refused to negotiate a contract without new media residuals, it signaled to the AMPTP and the entertainment industry at large exactly how powerful streaming services could be.

“We had front-row seats to this huge change, and I credit ’How I Met Your Mother’s success a lot to the influence of Netflix,” Thomas said. “The popularity of Netflix started to get so much bigger and in those next couple of seasons, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ got onto Netflix and was very, very popular on there. [It] enabled all these new fans to binge the first few seasons and catch up and we saw ratings on live TV, on CBS, bump up because of this streaming service.

“That was part of what the strike was about: making sure writers were fairly compensated for work that wasn’t created for Netflix but got on Netflix,” Thomas continued. “Right away, we saw how important that side of things would become ― even with helping shows do better on network TV.”

And as platforms like Netflix grew and enhanced, so did original content, leading to, as Thomas put it, the rise of prestige TV. Sure, standout shows like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” predated the walkout, but he believes writers had “firmer ground” to work on following the strike and were able to experiment with a plethora of innovative scripted series in ways they weren’t able to before ― knowing that they have the option of pitching their shows to multiple networks, premium channels and streaming sites.

“It’s certainly true that for a while people were more worried that what we did was hand the industry over to reality TV, and that definitely has not happened,” Peterson added. “What we’ve seen since the strike is an enormous explosion of high-budget scripted television. Reality definitely supplanted scripted for a while but in the 10 years since the strike, scripted has just expanded beyond anyone’s dreams.”

Were writers brainstorming the next decade of prestige TV while on the picket line years ago? Although Holzman doesn’t know how many successful TV scripts were created during on-strike downtime, he believes there were ideas brewing.

“It’s not likely they were stockpiling scripts for things that weren’t commissioned, but were they writing for themselves and creating things? I’m sure. Just because Picasso goes out of fashion, I don’t think he stops painting. Similarly, if there isn’t a market for writers work, I don’t think that means that they cease to write. I wouldn’t be surprised if some great stuff originated during that time period.”

Thomas can vouch for that.

“Everyone had in the back of their head, ‘What if this goes on a really long time? What if our show goes away after this?’ You never relax. You have to prove yourself and fight for it, so you take nothing for granted,” Thomas said. “So I think everybody had a little panicked thought about what to do next. ‘Should I be thinking about possible alternative shows or features for after the strike?’ It was definitely a moment.”

Today, the effects of on-demand viewing are still a major concern for the WGA East and West.

“On-demand viewing seems to be supplanting virtually everything else, and that has changed the way our members do their work,” Peterson said. “It’s changed the nature of the shows. No one is constrained to, ‘It’s 8 o’clock on Wednesday, I’m going to watch CBS now.’ People watch what they want, when they want, and that’s given our members enormous opportunities.”

Handout via Getty Images

Bruce Miller accepts the award for Best Television Series, Drama for Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” in January.

In the spring of 2017, WGA and AMPTP negotiations once again hit a snag over issues of compensation related to new media.

According to Peterson, there were a few things that drove it, including the fact that average TV earnings were increasing, due in part to things like decreased costs as the average television season became shorter. Tens of billions of profits were not being shared with writers.

“We had this enormous ‘yes’ vote authorizing the committee to call a strike,” Person said of the 2017 negotiations. “I think it was 96.3 percent yes, which is really an affirmation that members were ready to take action.”

After threatening a walkout, the AMPTP agreed to some of the guilds’ demands, likely with knowledge of what another writers strike would do to its industry. The guilds made gains across the board, added funding to their health plan and increases in subscription TV residuals, high-budget SVOD residuals, and, for the first time ever, residuals for comedy-variety writers in Pay TV. Now, writers for late-night and shows like “SNL” could see payment for content that’s re-aired on subscription sites or the internet. The unions also pushed to restructure compensation terms for writers of shorter seasons, making sure creators saw a piece of the studios’ profits.

“The Writers Guilds East and West are committed to the possibility of striking if that’s what it takes to win gains for our members, and we make sure that’s clear to the AMPTP when we sit down with them,” Peterson said. “The studios and networks know that we mean it and will do it if necessary, and that’s a lesson from the 2007-2008 strike.”

Holzman, for one, is glad another strike didn’t happen.

“The macro feeling across the industry was a strike will be bad because if we’re looking at leisure activity and how people are spending their leisure time. Television has competitors in a way it never had before in the form of the internet and mobile,” Holzman said.

“We’ve seen, and continue to see, an enormous migration of advertising dollars out of proper television — cable, broadcast and otherwise — and onto the web,” he added. “There was a sense that a prolonged strike may result in the audience declining, which it has been anyway. Maybe if there wasn’t great TV being produced, maybe the audience wouldn’t come back. I think that was a collective fear shared by both the producers and the writers, which encouraged them to find common ground to avoid another strike.”

“It could’ve been quite bad,” he added.

Or good, if you consider the past.

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insanely-creative-things · 6 years ago

Text

Big Hero 7: The Series

Aunt Cass goes out

(Long post)

www.fanfiction.net

*Hiro and Cora are flying through the air faster than usual, determination in their faces.*

Baymax: Would you like to know the odds?

Hiro: Not right now!

Cora: Just keep going Baymax and don't stop til we get there!

*They zoom past the floating turbines just as a building appears in front of them.*

Hiro: Baymax! Building!

*Baymax uses his thrusters to make a sharp turn.*

Hiro: We're not gonna make it!

Cora: Oh yes we will!

Baymax: I will take a more efficient route.

*Baymax takes a head dive to the streets below. As of while the microwave beeps signaling that the popcorn is ready. Cass tentatively grabs the popcorn bag before opening it and across the living room, Mizuchi and Kaguya are setting their own chairs in front of the TV. Cass fills the bowl with popcorn and goes upstairs to check on Hiro and Cora.*

Cass: It's movie night kids! I rented us 'Kentucky Kaiju Vs. Zombie-sauras'!

Hiro: *Peeking his head out from behind the screen* Yeah uh...be right down! Just..putting on my..uh movie clothes!

Cass: Okay... where's Cora and Baymax?

Hiro: *As he pulls out Baymax's rocket fist so that the robot can greet Cass without exposing himself while Cora stay hidden and silent until the coast is clear.* Uhh.. C-cora is in the bathroom at the moment and should be out in just a few minutes. And as for Baymax, he's right here.

Baymax: *Waving from behind the screen* Hello.

Cass: Well okay, but you guys better hurry before Mizuchi and I eat all the popcorn.

*Hiro gives out a sigh of relief. They barely had time for them to get inside just in time. Cora gives a quick but comforting pat to Hiro's shoulder and than runs straight to the bathroom so she can change in private while Hiro and Baymax rushed to their room. This was a close call with Cass, especially since Cora's father and Grandmother are joining them for movie night too.*

Baymax: What are movie clothes?

*The next morning Hiro, Cora, Gogo, and Baymax are in line with Fred as they enter in line into Krei Tech.*

Fred: Thanks for coming guys! Dad's stuck at Chateau Fredrickson so I'm representing the family.

Hiro: Any idea what this thing's about?

Fred: No idea, the invitation just said 'Prepare to have your worries disappear!'

*While he was talking however his hand hit the head of the person in front of them.*

Baymax: That would be an impressive, therapeutic, break through.

Gogo: Looks like Krei invited every rich jerk in town... as I was saying...

*Just then Binky Mole, the woman Fred had feared at his Bro-Tillion, came walking past the line with her son... Richardson Mole, Fred's arch nemesis and the one who proclaims Gogo as his 'dream girl'.

Fred: Ugh, Richardson Mole.

*Mole spots Gogo and flips up his collar.*

Cora: *Whispers to Fred* So that's the 'creepy comic geek' you and Gogo mentioned before Fred...

Mole: Hey Gogo, were you just talking about me with your friend 'dream girl'? My ears were burning.

Cora: Uh...Not sure if you want Gogo to be your girl...*Quietly* Creep.

*Mole turns to Cora who looks at her briefly before speaking.*

Mole: Mmm. I have to admit, you're pretty cute too. But since I already have my dream girl in Gogo, might I recommend my cousin to you?

*Cora looks incredulous while Hiro frowns unamused as he puts his arm around his girlfriend as he addresses Mo.*

Hiro: *Annoyed* Uh, I believe she already has a boyfriend. And you're looking at him!

Mole: Hmmm...well your loss.

Baymax: Burning often indicates infection. There is no infection, however your ceruminous glands are overproducing earwax.

Mole: *Covers his ears in embarrassment at this revelation* Ah gross! Shut it about my glands.

*Mole runs away to catch up with his mother as Cora lets out a breath of relief while Hiro, who was now slightly amused at what Baymax did, was still slightly glaring in the direction Mole ran of in.*

Gogo: Nice save Baymax.

*Gogo lifts her hand to give Baymax a high five. Baymax lifts his hand and gives Gogo a high five, wondering what is the importance of it.*

Cora: Ugh! You and Gogo were right Fred, he is a total creep!

Fred: I know right?

Hiro: Hey, at least he's not interested in you babe.

*Cora smiles at Hiro as she wraps her own arm around him, while giving him a small kiss of thanks on his cheek.*

Cora: Yeah, thanks Hiro.

*Finally they got inside the building where a woman is handing out ID cards to the invited guests. Once the gang pin on their own IDs, it's Baymax's turn.*

Baymax: I am not wearing clothing.

*Baymax uses his scanner to scan the ID so that it will show up on his vinyl body instead. Baymax catches up with the gang as the door opens to let the guests inside, with two body guards on each side. But one guard happens to be someone they know.*

Cora: *Surprised* Papa?

Mizuchi: *Also surprised* Cora! I didn't know you were invited!

*Even though it's a surprise to see each other, Cora gives her father a big hug.*

Cora: I didn't know you work at Krei Tech! Is everything alright here?

Mizuchi: Long hours and the occasional files here and there, but the pay is decent.

*Then he turns to Hiro, who is giving a very nervous smile and small wave to the goliath-sized man. When he first met him, he almost wet himself seeing him. Mizuchi's gigantic stature with his well-developed muscles are defiantly intimidating, and his eyes could become dangerous if something were to upset him. But Cora only saw him as a gentle and caring father that reminded her of a teddy bear. His dark grey hair with his beard mustache combo added the intimidation factor to a whole new level though, even when he's smiling like any other father at his child.*

Mizuchi: I can see you brought Hiro along, *Sigh* Well at least you're not alone with him.

Cora: It's okay papa, we're fine.

Mizuchi: Well either way, I hope you enjoy the show.

*And so the gang enter the theater where they find seats while Hiro explains what happened last night. Mizuchi waves at Cora happily before focusing on his job when his face turns to surprise when he sees the next person enter, and that someone winks at him with a flirtatious smile.*

Hiro: Aunt Cass almost busted us again, it's becoming a problem!

Cora: Not to mention Papa and Grandmama we're there this time too. They asked me why I was in the bathroom for so long... But we're fine...for now anyways.

*Hiro recalls the other time where he and Cora was fixing up Baymax's armor and barely avoided getting caught when Cass passed by to work out.*

Gogo: Why don't you just tell them?

Fred: What?! No! You never reveal your secret identity! Other than to your manservant or your sidekick...obviously.

Hiro: And definitely not to your aunt! Who would never let you out of the house if she found out. And you most definitely do not tell your girlfriend's father! Who would very most like kill you, hide your body and any evidence of said killing if he ever found out of that his daughter's boyfriend, who he doesn't like anyway, recruited said daughter in a superhero team that fights highly dangerous criminals on a daily basis!

*Hiro was practically freaking out now and was trying to come himself down before he made a scene, but that wasn't an easy task as he dreaded the very concept of what Mizuchi would do to him should he ever find out what he got Cora involved with with BH7. Luckily for him though, Baymax could sense Hiro's slight anxiety attack and immediately pulled him into his arm and started comforting him and calming him down. The other three, who were watching as this scene unfolded, shared a quick but concerned glance at each other before look back to their young friend/boyfriend in some worry as they watched him still be comforted by Baymax. Fortunately, Cora decided to try adding in her two cents to their current conversation about revealing their superhero identities.

Cora:...Ahem... While I..do agree somewhat with your suggestion Gogo, since it would better to prepare them if they are ever targeted by a villain, you don't know my dad! And no, he woundn't kill Hiro if he found out...but he probably would forbid us from ever being together again... The point is, he's still just learning to let me go to school on my own, if he ever does finds out what I'm doing with you guys, he'll make me drop out of school, most likely forbid me and Hiro from being together or even seeing eachother again as I mentioned before and lock me in my room for the rest of my life with little to no chance of parole! *Sighs* But at least he and Grandmama are busy so often that they're barely home, but still...they'll find out if I'm not careful. And if I'm not careful... Then it's bye-bye BH7 and bye-bye Hiro and Cora...

*Now starting to calm down a little from his slight anxiety attack from before, lets Baymax know that he's all right now as he listens to Cora but slightly freezes at the idea of being forbidden from being with her or ever seeing her again. He looks at her as she says those last few words and meekly says to her.*

Hiro: *Now scared of losing her* I don't want us to be bye-bye...

Cora: *Turns to Hiro and smile a small comforting smile at him as she gently places a hand on his cheek.* Don't worry babe. Nothing like that is gonna happen to us alright? We've gone through tougher things than this and we will handle it together "if' it ever does happen. Okay?

Hiro: *Takes comfort from his girlfriend's words as he take a breath while he places his own hand on top of her that was still on his cheek and than smiles back at her.* Okay babe, whatever you say.

*Just then, they all look up to see Mole turning his head to make the phone hand gesture as to say 'call me' to Gogo.*

Cora: *Grossed out* Blegh.

Gogo: Give it up junior, I'm never gonna date you! Like ever.

*This springs an idea in Hiro's head.*

Hiro: Wait a minute! Maybe that's the answer for Aunt Cass!

Fred: Hmmm eh.. I don't think Richardson is right for Aunt Cass. He's clearly into Gogo, then there's that whole age issue thing, you know...even if the age of consent is 13... *Muttering* Still think that's a bit kinky and a little disturbing...

Cora: *Rubs her eyes in annoyance as she cuts Fred off* Fred, could you stop and just listen to Hiro before you make assumptions please.

Hiro: Thank you Cora. And as I was about to say, I'm not talking about Richardson! I'm talking about an actual man.

Gogo: You should stay out of her personal life.

Hiro: Come on Gogo, dating might be good for her.

Gogo: Or you.

Cora: *Deadpanned* Did you already forget about the time Aunt Cass and my Grandmama were in an underground cooking competition...And how that turned out for us?

*Hiro smiles at Gogo and Cora awkwardly before the lights turn off. The guest clap as the screen show pictures of Alistair Krei as his voice is heard through the speakers.*

Krei: What does it mean to..be rich? Having things? Lots of things? Expensive things?

*Just then Krei himself appears on stage.*

Krei: Things that other people want? It could all disappear in an instant, all of your precious things.

*Just then the gang see a group of ninjas climb down and surround Krei. The gang stand up as they prepare to suit up and off those sword wielding ninjas.*

Cora: Ugh! Not again...

Krei: If only I had someone looking out for me! If only I had...a buddy.

*Just then some unknown force knocks out one of the ninjas to the ground. Then nets came flying through the air and entangle the remaining ninjas, trapping them.*

Krei: Ladies and gentlemen it is my distinct honor to introduce Buddy Guard!

*Just then Krei pressed a button to reveal a pill shaped robot with electro mag arms and a green orb to act as an eye.*

Krei: It's more than protection it's the friend you can depend...on. The slogan's not final.

*The gang stand down as they realized that those ninjas were just actors for his demonstration, but they are defiantly confused.*

Hiro: *Whispers* Fred what are you doing?

Fred: *whispers *There's still one ninja!

Gogo: *Whispers* It's just an act.

Cora: *Whispers* They're paid for this!

Fred: Oh... Okay-okay... So we shouldn't save Krei?

Hiro, Cora, and Gogo: *Whispers* No!

Krei: Buddy Guard is a military-grade drone. Capable of countering any attack.

*The buddy drone spots the lone ninja and traps him in the net.*

Krei: But who wants that eyesore hovering over them while taking a stroll on your private island. So we gave ugly here the ability to turn invisible...But how?

*Krei pushes the button again to make the drone go invisible while Krei's assistance, Lois Carter, joins him onstage holding something resembling cloth.*

Krei: Great question! Flexible display technology!

*The drone returns to normal to display the coding.*

Krei: A high resolution miracle it can look like anything!

*Krei uses the cloth to wrap his head and activated it to change into Lois Carter. He looks at Lois before he unwraps the cloth and blocks out her face.*

Krei: Or nothing at all.

*The real Lois' face disappears as it only shows the background. The cloth then returns to normal as it displays the buddy guard and flashes like an advertisement.*

Krei: So be smart, buy your self a buddy! Pre-order's in the lobby! Get them before they disappear!

*The rest of the clapping crowd left as Hiro, Gogo, and Cora merely blinked over this marketing ploy while Fred is amazed.*

Krei: That seemed to go well.

*The gang arrive on stage once the whole stadium is empty.*

Hiro: Impressive tech.

Krei: Thank you Hiro, that means a lot coming from you.

Hiro: How are your uh...programming safeguards?

Krei: Safe guards?

Gogo: You know, so your 'Buddy' doesn't turn into your enemy?

Cora: Yeah, and is it strong enough to prevent someone from hacking it?

Krei: Oh that kind of programming safeguards well yeah! There are so many awesome, really safe...safe...guards.

*Krei rubs his hand on Hiro's head, messing up his already messy hair.*

Krei: Anyway thanks for coming.

*And with that Krei and Lois leave the stage to return to work. But Hiro is quick to grab Lois' attention.*

Hiro: Umm excuse me! Question uh.. Are there really any safeguards?

*Lois takes a moment before she turns to answer.*

Lois: Officially, there are many and they are awesome!

*She does the same thing to Hiro like Krei did before. Cora just pouts, disbelief in her eyes as Lois leaves. The gang think over this as Cora finally says it.*

Cora: *Deadpanned* Yeah...I'm thinking...they don't...

*Krei finally arrives at his office when his door opens to...nobody. Krei sits back at his desk when the thing reveals itself to be a person.*

Scientist pawn: Surprise!

Krei: *Startled* Ah!

*Krei covers himself before he realizes who the intruder is.*

Krei: Doctor Myer?

Myer: When I sold you my flexible display technology, you gave me your word my invention will be used for fun things! Like hiding people at surprise parties!

Krei: The Buddy Guard is fun! What's more fun than a buddy?

Myer: You're using it to hurt people!

Krei: Hurt people no, I'm using it to defend people. Thanks for stopping by Mel, may I call you Mel? We should go for muffins sometime.

Mel: Going for muffins isn't a thing, you're just trying to get rid of me! I demand you give me my plans back!

*Mel spots his blue prints and is about to grab it but Krei got to it first.*

Krei: Sorry Mel, the Buddy Guard's going to be huge.

*Krei uses his ID card to lock the plans into a private file cabinet.*

Krei: Oh look, here's a few.

*Krei presses a button to reveal three buddy guards just behind Mel.*

Krei: See Dr. Myer out.

Mel: You haven't seen the last of me!

*Krei then throws the cloth on Mel to cover his face and become invisible as the buddy guards drag him out of his office.*

Krei: Pretty sure I have.

Mel: This is unacceptable and unpleasant and-

*The buddy guards take Mel out the door, leaving Krei in peace.*

*Meanwhile at SFIT, the entire gang are doing their usual business, but currently Hiro along with Fred, Wasabi, and Cora are looking over a dating website to look for someone to date Cass.*

Hiro: No.

*Herman Wexler is too nutty for Cass.*

Hiro: No.

*DJ 6ix Sk1llz Br0 is the definition of 'nice guy'.*

Hiro: No.

*Theo ''Healingtree'' Schwartz is too natural for Cass.*

Hiro: A big big no! No!

*This is of Felony Carl. Cora sees this and smiles warmly*

Cora: Aw, he's looking for someone special. Good luck Carl!

Wasabi: Really?

Cora: He's good friends with my Grandmama! Believe me, that alone says a lot.

Hiro: None of these guys seem good enough for Aunt Cass!

*Cora clicks the next page to scroll for more bachelors.*

Fred: Wait wait wait wait! That guy has a mustache! It's a proven fact that the coolest guys have mustaches!

Cora: What about guys with the beard and mustache combo?

Wasabi: Fred, Cora, be serious the mustache or beard doesn't make the man. Its what's inside...the mouth. I cannot stress enough the importance of dental hygiene.

Cora: I agree with you Wasabi...sort of...I mean look at my Dad! He may look like a giant wrestler, but he's the sweetest guy you've ever known. My Mom certainly saw it.

*Cora pulls out her phone and pulls up a picture of her deceased mother. The woman's warm smile matches with the sparkling sea blue eyes. Cora gives a sad smile at the picture, wondering how her mom and dad had fallen in love. She looks up and sees the guys staring at the photo, eyes wide in surprise.*

Fred: *Awestruck* Wow...um...she's..very… good looking...

Wasabi: *Also awestruck* I've never seen teeth sparkle like that!

Cora: Hehe...yeah...Dad says he wonders what Mom ever saw in him to love and eventually marry him... he still loves her...even after all these years after she died...

*The guys snap back into reality as the guys, sans Hiro, are surprised that Cora's mother is dead.*

Wasabi: *Now solemn at this new information* Oh...you have my condolences..

Fred: *Also solemn now* Woah... Sorry about that little dudette..didn't know...

Cora: *Still looking at her mother's picture with a sad smile* It's okay...as I mentioned before, it's been...years since then...

*Across the room, Honey Lemon and Gogo are working together on a chemical project.*

Honey Lemon: Hiro maybe your aunt should pick for herself.

Hiro: She needs a little push, I need a little space. Everybody wins!

Krei: Hey great work space!

*Hiro turns his chair around to see Krei and Lois arriving at their lab workspace.*

Krei: Is that a vending machine? Fun.

Cora: Mr. Krei, what are you doing here?

Krei: I've came to talk to you-

*Krei then spots the photo of Cora's mother on her phone.*

Krei: Say~...Cora, who is that woman on your phone? A friend of yours?

*Krei flashes his smile to which Cora caught on immediately. She deadpans as she locks her phone back up.*

Cora: That's my mom, and she's dead.

*Krei's eyes widened before he clears his throat.*

Krei: Oh! I..I'm sorry for your loss... As I was saying, I had my team check out those safeguards you were talking about and it turns out there was a slight...glitch.

*Lois pulls out a small video showing the scientists running for their lives while one of them informs Krei via camera.*

Lois: *Sigh* Krei Tech has a pretty spotty record of bringing products to launch too soon...

*Krei frowns at Lois.*

Lois: You know it's true.

*Krei grabs the buddy guard from Lois' hands and hands it to Hiro.*

Krei: I just want you to make sure it's safe...more or less.

Hiro: What's in it for us?

Krei: I won't tell the world that you're Big Hero 7.

Honey Lemon: *Gasp*!

Wasabi: Huh?

Hiro: *Gasp*

Fred: *Gasp*

Gogo: What's wrong with you?!

Cora: You gave us your word that you wouldt tell anyone after we saved you from Callaghan! The same one who wanted you DEAD!

*Wasabi checks around the lab to make sure they are completely alone.*

Wasabi: Yeah, be cool man!

Krei: Oh I can be cool... if you do what I want. Or I can be ice cold.

Hiro: This sounds like you're blackmailing us!

Krei: My attorney advises against using the word 'blackmail'.

*As Krei is about to exit through the door, Cass happens to be heading towards the lab holding papers. This causes the two adults to bump into each other, resulting in Krei falling and Cass catching him. Papers are sprawled on the ground but they are currently in the moment.*

Krei: Nice catch...

Cass: Thanks...Nice fall...

*Cora blinks incredulously as Hiro immediately steps in to save his aunt after he gives the buddy guard to Gogo.*

Hiro: Aunt Cass, hey wha-what-what are you doing here?

*Hiro separates Krei from Cass. The two adults seem lost in a haze before Cass remembers why she was here.*

Cass: Oh uh, you forgot your chemistry... homework.

Krei: I think I'm feeling a little chemistry right now.

Cass: *Giggling a little* Are you flirting with me? Wow this feels like flirting.

*There is moments of silence until Hiro sees Cora making gestures to signal him to break the silence. Just then Cora's phone beeps so she opens it.*

Hiro: OK! Thanks hehe.

*Hiro grabs his Aunt's arm to guide her to the exit.*

Hiro: You can go now Aunt Cass!

Krei: Aunt Cass...You wouldn't happen to be the same Aunt Cass from the Bro-tillion would you? And also...what an enchanting name.

Cass: Yeah I am! That was...hehe..quite a wild party. And thanks but, people who aren't my nephew or his girlfriend just call me Cass.

Hiro: Or! Maybe don't call her anything! At all!

Krei: How about dinner tonight, Cass? Say around seven?

Hiro: Uh she's busy! Forever!

Cass: Well, I am busy. I own my own business, I mean! Of course, you own your own business too! A bigger business!

Hiro: That's a good point! I bet he's even busier!

Cass: Oh heck if you can make time so can I! I'd be delighted Mr. Krei.

Krei: People who aren't your nephew or his girlfriend call me Alistair.

*Hiro opens his mouth to speak but finds no words to object.*

Gogo: Looks like you got what you wanted. Congratulations.

*After the two adults leave the room, the gang hear the sound of a phone dropping to the floor. Hiro turns around to see Cora in a state of shock, her hands still in place as if she's still holding her phone. She also appears to be sweating.*

Hiro: *Suddenly worried* Cora? What's wrong?

*Wasabi picks up Cora's phone to see if it's damaged.*

Wasabi: Oh!...um...

*Hiro grabs Cora's phone and sees a text from her father which read the following.*

'So Cora...as a heads up...I'm going out with an internet date tonight! I'll be home late so don't worry about Dinner. Wish me luck! Love, Papa.'

*His eyes widen as he hears Cora fall to the ground, fainting from the text. Being the good boyfriend that he is, he is instantly at his fallen girlfriend's side trying to bring her around.*

Honey Lemon: *Confused and concerned* Hiro, what happened?

*Hiro turns to the gang with a look a dread on his face.*

Hiro: *Really worried* Well, let's just say it looks like I'm not the only one who's family member is going out tonight.

*Later on that evening, Hiro is pacing around the cafe while Baymax watches him. Cora is sitting on a chair absently stroking Mochi as he purrs contently, her eyes still wide with shock.*

Baymax: I am detecting an abnormal walk pattern.

Hiro: It's not abnormal, its pacing! Something people do when they're not happy about their aunt dating!

Baymax: You said you wanted Aunt Cass to date.

Hiro: Yeah but not-

*Knocking is heard in front of the cafe door, signaling them that Cass' date is here. Hiro opens the to find none other than Krei himself, holding a bouquet of tulips.*

Hiro: Krei...

*Mochi yowled from Cora's lap when he sees Krei. Cora doesn't even move and can only blink.*

Krei: Hiro! Third time I've seen you today!

Hiro: Yeah! Third time, but it's not the charm.

Krei: HA! Funny, I think. Jokes aren't really my thing.

*Krei enters the cafe.*

Krei: Is your aunt ready?

Cass: She is!

*Cass appears by the doorway, dressed in a purpler sheath dress with black high heels. In other words, Cass looks stunning tonight.*

Baymax: Mr. Krei. Your heart rate is elevated. Are you feeling well?

Krei: Better than well. You look incredible.

*Krei walks over to Cass to hand her the tulips he brought.*

Krei: These are for you.

Cass: Oh these are beautiful.

Krei: They're the rarest tulips in the world, they bloom only once every 20 years they're very expensive. Shall we?

*The couple are heading out the door as Cass hands Hiro the flowers.*

Cass: Could you put these in water Hiro?

*Hiro takes one look at the bouquet and as soon as they left, he marches upstairs and places the flowers in the toilet. He goes back downstairs where he sees that his girlfriend is still in her frozen state.*

Hiro: *Approaching his frozen girlfriend carefully* Uh Cora? You feeling okay?

*Finally Cora looks up and speaks.*

Cora: *Somewhat monotoned* Yeah...just give me a moment. I gotta let out these feelings.

Baymax: It is important to not hold back your emotions to maintain emotional health.

Cora: *Still somewhat monotoned* What he said... now excuse me please.

*They are currently in the living room where Hiro is quietly sitting down on the hanging chair and Baymax sits on the floor chair next to him as they hear Cora letting out, or more like raging out, her thoughts in the bathroom.*

Cora: *Raging out* WHAT THE HECK IS PAPA THINKING?! HE JUST GOES ON WITH A TEXT SAYING 'HEY CORA DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME I'M JUST HEADING TO A HOT DATE WITH A STRANGER!' WHY IS HE DOING THIS?! HE'S NEVER GONE A DATE SINCE...FOREVER! WHY IS HE DOING THIS TO ME?! HOW COULD HE DO THIS TO MAMA?! AAAAAHHHHHH!

*A few moments of silence stay as Hiro and Baymax silently and awkwardly glance at the bathroom door and than at each other until Cora opens the bathroom door, taking deep breathes as she steps out. She then goes over to Hiro and sits on the hanging chair with him and sighs.*

Hiro: *Still concerned as he gently puts his arm around her.* Hey... You doing okay now?...

Cora: *Leans into Hiro's comfort as he puts his arm around her and replies in a quiet and somewhat exhausted voice.* Not completely okay, but I feel a little better than I did before I guess...

*Baymax turns his head to scan Cora.*

Baymax: You are upset because your Papa is going on a date.

Cora: *Looks up to him* What?

Baymax: Your scan indicates that you are feeling angry, betrayed, distressed, worried, and guilty over this date.

*Cora shakes her head before she turns her attention back to Hiro, who had now gotten up and resumed to pacing again.*

Cora: *Quiet and confused* Hiro?

Baymax: *Petting Mochi* More pacing.

Hiro: *Starting to freak out now* W-w-what if this date goes great? What if they really like each other?! They couldn't get married!? Could they?!

Baymax: *Still petting Mochi* They are of legal age for marriage. Mr. Krei would then be your uncle.

Cora: *Absolute denial while also freaking out at the concept that the same thing could happen to her Dad.* No! Nada! Na-ah! Nope! Can't happen! A thousand times no! And I'm saying this for my Papa's date too!

Hiro: Uncle Krei?! Not happening!

Cora: *Got up to follow Hiro as he started to walk away* But what are we gonna do Hiro? We don't even know where they're going!

Hiro: Aunt Cass told me they're heading uptown. If we can hurry we can catch up!

Cora: *Now becoming more determined* Okay! But first I gotta run back to my house. I may have something for this...

*While that was happening, the rest of the gang is at the lab reviewing over the buddy guard Krei blackmailed them to fix.*

Honey Lemon: It's actually kind of cute!

Gogo: Sure...for a lethal weapon.

Wasabi: You, Hiro and Cora were right! It wouldn't take much of a glitch to scramble this things programming, let alone someone to hack it.

Gogo: Where are Hiro and Cora anyway?

Honey Lemon: Oh Hiro texted me! He and Cora are busy following Krei and Cass on their date.

Gogo: Yeah, that's normal.

*The moment Fred comes in with take out bags of Noodle burger*

Fred: Who needs a Noodle Burger break?

Honey Lemon: Yes!

Gogo: Starving.

Wasabi: Did you bring napkins?

*Fred places the sodas nearby the buddy guard.*

Wasabi: Not a good place to do that!

*But it's too late as Fred reaches for some fries and his elbow hits the sodas, spilling them over the buddy guard. Just as Wasabi is about to scold Fred, the buddy guard floats up with its eye turning red, identifying the group as enemies.*

Gogo: That's why.

*The buddy guard turns invisible to avoid being tracked by the enemies before it.*

Fred: well cool. It want to play Hide and Seek ah-!

*A laser blast proves him other wise.*

Gogo: Yeah, not playing Hide and Seek.

*The buddy guard scans the enemies until it strikes again. The laser hits Gogo and then Honey Lemon. Fred pulls out his straw to use as a sword.*

Fred: Show yourself coward!

*The next laser zaps Fred again, knocking him to the floor. And then it hits Wasabi.*

Wasabi: How can we fight what we can't see?!

Fred: With Ketchup!

*Fred pulls out ketchup packets and sprays them all over the lab until it coats the invisible drone.*

Honey Lemon: Fred it worked!

*With that, Honey Lemon hits the drone with a book, which flies to Gogo who slams it with a fire extinguisher and it finally hits the wall. The cloaking technology wears off as the drone powers down from the damage. The gang walk hesitantly with their weapons at hand.*

Wasabi: Yeah! How'd you like us now Buddy!

*The drone zaps Wasabi one more time before it shuts down.*

*A Limousine stops by a rather popular and high class restaurant uptown. Krei and Cass step out of the car to which she notices the long line.*

Cass: Wow look at this line! I hope you have a reservation.

Krei: Reservation? I don't need one.

Server: It looks like we have an opening for two in... Six hours.

*Krei and Cass merely cut in line which concerns Cass.*

Server: Right this way Mr. Krei.

Cass: Sorry! You all have amazing shoes!

*Krei holds Cass' hand before he bumps into someone.*

Krei: Excuse me I-

*But Krei's words fail to come out as he sees a very tall and muscular man turn his head, his eyes focused on him. The tall man turns around to face Krei, to which the entrepreneur felt like he is going to die any minute for bumping into a man that could snap his body in half. Cass looks up and smiles up at him.*

Cass: Oh hi Mizuchi! I didn't expect to see you here!

Mizuchi: Hello Miss Cass. It's very nice to see you too.

*Krei looks back and forth at his date and the muscular man, wondering how and why do they know each other. Cass notices and clears her throat.*

Cass: Oh Alistair, this is my friend Mizuchi Mizichio. he's the father of my nephew's girlfriend Cora. He's really nice once you get to know him. *To Mizuchi* By the way, why are you here Mizuchi?

*Mizuchi rubs his head as he gives a small blush and his eyes look away.*

Mizuchi: I...I also have date..

*A slender woman with orange hair in a Qi Pao dark blue dress appears beside him, wearing gold and pearls as she gives a slender smile.*

Moira: Greetings, I am Moira Lacroix. I think I saw you Mr. Krei at the Buddy Guard demonstration? Impressive by the way.

Krei: *Pleased* Oh! Yes, I'm glad to hear it from you Madame Lacroix.

Moira: And your security guard here is also very impressive.

*She holds Mizuchi's arm close, which causes the tall man to blush even deeper.*

Moira: *Seductive* His muscle fibers are exceptional for his age...and well proportioned.

Krei: *A tad nervous* Yeah... I've noticed.

Cass: Me too.

*Cass' face gives a small blush until two separate servers come to escort them to their tables. Though Mizuchi is straining his smile as sweat forms on his forehead. While that is going on, Hiro is behind the building with Baymax.*

Hiro: Where's Cora? She said she'd be here already!

Cora: I'm here!

*Hiro turns his head to see Cora wearing a strapless red dress with black flats and a black hooded jacket. The hood is covering her hair and the upper part of her face at the moment. Hiro blinks before he shakes out of it.*

Hiro: What took you so long?

Cora: I thought if we are going to sneak inside we have to blend in! It's already enough that we're 14, the least we can do is be dressed up for the part!

Hiro: Yet you're wearing a jacket with your hood on?

Cora: Well what about you?

Hiro:...Touche. Either way, we have to go in the back!

*The three head into the alley where they see a door connected to the kitchen and garbage bags nearby. Hiro and Cora immediately whisper their plan to Baymax and head for action. Baymax presses a button next to the door where a chef answers.*

Baymax: *Holding a garbage bag* Hello. I am Baymax.

Chef: So what? Is that bag for me?

*While the chef is distracted Hiro and Cora slowly walk to the door behind them.*

Baymax: You may have the bag.

Chef: What's in it?

*Baymax scans for a moment before he answers the chef.*

Baymax: Garbage.

Chef: Why would I want garbage?

Baymax: *Blinks* I do not know.

Chef: Is this some kind of joke?!

Baymax: I do not understand jokes.

Chef: Yeah I'm gonna close the door now!

*The chef slams the door in front of Baymax's face.*

Baymax: Goodbye.

*Thankfully Hiro and Cora have successfully sneak inside the restaurant and are now treading through. Meanwhile Cass and Krei are looking over their menu.*

Cass: Hel~lo! Look at these prices!

Krei: I was hoping you noticed.

Cass: I serve chicken fingers at the Lucky Cat, that is not how much chicken cost.

Krei: Chicken have fingers? Do you mean like- the toes?

Cass: ...I'm gonna get the fish.

*Across from them is Mizuchi and Moira who are also ordering food. Mizuchi squints his eye to figure out the names of the food listed inside. He looks up to see Moira leaning forward, punctuating her bust which causes Mizuchi to nervously chuckle and wave an awkward hi.*

*Just outside the restaurant, Mel comes in disguised in his invisibility cloak.*

Mel: Well is he gonna be surprised.

*Back at the lab, Wasabi is observing the now broken buddy guard.*

Wasabi: When Fred spilled his drink, it shorted out the drone's threat assessment program.

Gogo: So it thought we were all bad guys.

*Fred picks up the drone.*

Fred: We are super heroes! We are the definition of good guys! Come on!

Honey Lemon: These Buddies are dangerous, Krei cannot sell them to the public.

*Back at the restaurant, Hiro and Cora are hiding underneath an ice sculpture of a bear dressed in dapper clothing. Hiro and Cora then spot Cass and Krei at their table.*

Cass: I never would have guessed that you're a fan of Origami too.

*Krei is indeed a fan of Origami, as he uses a 20 dollar bill to fold.*

Krei: Ah yes, we always had plenty laying around. Papa never let me fold anything bigger than a 50, but I made do.

*Krei then presented her a dollar paper crane.*

Cass: A crane! Amazing!

*Krei hands her the crane.*

Cass: Check this out!

*Cass uses the same dollar bill to turn the crane into a miniature version of Krei himself.*

Krei: It's me! And I'm literally made of money! Just like in my dreams. I'll treasure it always.

*Hiro goes out to sabotage the date and Cora is about to follow suit until she sees across Krei and Cass her father and his date. Cora's eyes widen before she stands up, her eyes frowning as she steps forward to confront her father, forgetting about their mission at hand. Hiro turns his head to see Cora heading to her father's table and immediately he whisper shouts in hopes she would listen to him.*

Hiro: *Whisper shouts* Cora wait! Not now!

*But Cora isn't even listening to Hiro anymore as her eyes slowly turn red. She is about to reach the table when a server gets in front of her.*

Server 2: What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be on stage in 30 seconds!

Cora: *Startled and confused* Wha-? Umm I-

Server: No time just go!

*The server pushes Cora to the small stage where a band is waiting and in the process removes her black jacket. Cora is put on stage where the lights blacked out, causing Hiro to loose sight of Krei and Cass, and the spotlight on her. Soon Cora is facing a crowd of people now looking at her, waiting for her to sing.*

Cora: *Starts getting nervous* Uh oh...

*The crowd is silent as Cora is holding onto the microphone as if her life depended on it. She looks at the band who are gesturing her to start singing, but she is frozen. She never sang in public before and now her mind is completely blank. But she knew if she doesn't sing soon the workers will realize she snuck inside. So Cora takes a very deep breath before she lets out the first song that pops into her head.*

Cora: You're in my arms...and all the world is calm~

*The pianist recognizes the song she's singing and so begins to play. The rest of the band catches on and starts to join in with the pianist.*

Cora: The music playing on for only two... So close together, and when I'm with you... So close to feeling alive~

*The crowd at this point is becoming mesmerized by the young girl's singing, a love song being sung by a voice so pure and beautiful. Hiro searches frantically for Cora until he notices the crowd is currently silent and all looking in the same direction. Hiro turns his head in the direction the crowd is looking in and finally see why everyone is so quiet, up on the stage is a young girl with short golden hair as she beautifully sings a song with her eyes closed. And for a moment his world stops as he couldn't help but listen to the girl's enchanting voice.*

Cora: A life goes by, romantic dreams will die... so I bid mine goodbye and never knew... So close was waiting, waiting here with you... And now forever I know... All that I wanted to hold you so close... So close to reaching that famous happy end~

*The mood throughout the restaurant becomes more slow and warm. Krei and Cass are finding themselves lost in each other's eyes, a new feeling creeping inside them that they invited. Mizuchi's heart is beating like crazy as he recalls the memories of Akemi, he's beloved wife and Mother to Cora. He sighs with happiness as he recalls the soft words of love they spoke long ago. Moira finds herself staring deep into his eyes, admiring the deep rich brown color that showed strength and gentleness at the same time.*

Cora: Almost believing this was not pretend... Now you're beside me and look how far we've come...So far...we are...so close~

*Cora opens her ocean-blue eyes eyes to which Hiro finally recognizes the girl with the angelic voice. As she looks just like her mother in the photos she showed him.*

Hiro: *Shocked and whisper shouts* Cora?!

*He then notices the rest of the patrons are either sighing blissfully, getting lost in each others eyes, and some of the waiters even cuddling together. Some of the dates even started slow dancing to the song with sighs of content. Hiro looks at his girlfriend and then at the crowd, wondering why they are all acting so weird with Cora singing, before they were just being normal! They were just chatting and having dinner while the servers worked! Now they were all in some blissful, lovey-dovey trance or something! But Hiro didn't think on this for long as he finally spots Krei and Cass, who are leaning over the table as they are slowly inching their faces closer as if they are about to-*

Hiro: *Starts panicking* Oh no!

*Hiro runs fast while Cora continues to sing, hoping to prevent Krei and Cass from kissing and therefore fall in love! For real!*

Cora: Oh how could I face the faceless days? If I should lose you now?... We're so close to reaching that famous happy end, almost believing that this was not pretend. Let's go on dreaming for we know we are~

*As Hiro was heading over to the table Krei and Cass are sitting he sees something for him to hide in when he got there. The waiter was passing through between Krei and Cass' table while pushing a rolling tablecloth-covered tray when Cora began singing. He hides on the other side of the table crouching. meanwhile, Mel finally found his way into the center where he is absentmindedly heading straight for the wires connecting to Cora's microphone.*

Cora: So close... so close...and still so fa-!

*Cora's microphone is suddenly pulled from her hand, causing the speaker to screech and therefore snap out the patrons out of their trance. With the waiter out of the trance, Hiro sticks out his foot and trips the waiter. The waiter drops the food onto Krei's suit just as Krei and Cass are about to kiss.*

Krei: Augh! I am so-!

Waiter: *Scared* Mister Krei!

*Krei is about to give the waiter a piece of his mind before he sees Cass just sitting in her chair awkwardly.*

Krei: Ah... Not going to have you fired. Cause just what kind of monster would get a guy fired for a simple mistake! Not me, not a monster!

*He hands the waiter a spare 20 dollar bill.*

Krei: Hey here's 20 bucks! Bye yourself some chicken toes...

Waiter: *Slightly shocked* O...kay?

*The waiter walks away confused over the whole situation*

Cass: That was sweet, but you got a little something from..yeah.. pretty much all over.

*Krei looks down at his suit to notice the food stains.*

Krei: Right!

*Krei walks away to the restroom as Hiro is still hiding underneath the rolling tablecloth-covered tray.*

Hiro: *Sly and smug* Sorry uncle Krei.

*Just then, Cora joins him under the rolling tablecloth-covered tray as well.*

Hiro: *Now back to being confused over what just a few moments ago* Hey! what happened out there?

Cora: I saw Papa here! And he's with that-that lady! I don't think she likes him for him!

Hiro: *Slightly annoyed* I already know that Cora! I was trying to call you out of it when I saw you starting to walk over to their table! But that's not what I meant! I mean, why were you singing up on stage? And second,*Now slightly in awe at finally seeing his girlfriend's natural hair and eye colors* you're an ocean-blue-eyed golden-blonde just like your Mom?

*Cora notices her hood is still down which causes her to blush under her boyfriend's awestruck gaze.*

Cora: *Kinda embarrassed* Some guy thought I was a performer, so I had to sing otherwise they would figure out I wasn't really suppose to be here and kick me out. Also, Aunt Cass would recognize me in an instant if she saw me! So I removed my blue hair-dye and purple eye-contacts just for this one time so she wouldn't! I have to admit though, I definitely did not expect to see my Papa here, so it might be a different story if he sees me...

Hiro: *Confused* But how did you remove the hair-dye so quickly?

Cora: It's a special hair-dye of my own invention. it washes out in hot water. So I always shower in cold water.

Hiro: *Impressed* Huh. That's pretty cool. *Now being in awe again and starting to feel as he did the night he first met Cora* I have to say though... seeing you blue-eyed and blonde-haired is...wow... I'm so used to seeing you with blue hair and purple eyes...but seeing you like this... And I know this is gonna sound really cheesy and stuff, but...I think...I'm falling for you all over again...

Cora: *Looking at her boyfriend in shock at his words as a heavy blush colors and warms her cheeks and she asks him in a small voice as looks deep into his eyes* R-really... Y-you're really serious?...

Hiro: *He looks back into her eyes just as deeply as he answers her* Yeah...I'm really serious...*But also feeling confused too* But there is one thing I don't understand, don't get me wrong, I still love the blue-hair, purple-eyes you that I've known and loved like crazy for long while now, But...if you don't mind me asking...why did you dye your hair and get color-contacts in the first place?

Cora: *Sighs before turning slightly away and breaking eye contact with Hiro.* Well...long story short, there were, and still are times when Papa and Grandmama would cry at Mama's shrine...and it didn't help that I looked a lot like her. One time when I was younger, Grandmama accidentally called me Akemi... So I made this hair dye and got color eye contacts and it's been my style ever since I started it. Papa and Grandmama were surprised at first but they accepted it.

Hiro: A little surprised* Oh wow... That...must not have been easy, for any of you... I mean, when I first saw you up on stage...I didn't recognize you at first, but...than you opened your eyes...and I was instantly reminded of those pictures of your Mom that you showed me before...and I just knew it had to be you... *Sighs dejectedly* I'm sorry Cora...

Cora: *Tries to cheer her boyfriend up* Hey, don't sweat it Hiro. If I were in your shoes I don't think I would've recognize me either. I'm so used to looking the way I usually am that even I don't quite recognize myself without the dye and contacts. But it's okay. I am flattered that you like the real me too. I've... been wanting to show you for awhile now... But I didn't know what you would think...

Hiro: *Smiles bright and sweetly to her as he cups her still warm cheeks in his hands* Hey, no matter what colors your hair and eyes are, whether you have blue hair and purple eyes, blond hair and blue eyes, or even blue hair with blue eye or blond hair with purple eyes*This causes both of them to laugh a little*. The point is, no matter what you look like, you're still Cora Mizichio, you're still, and always will be my girl.

*At this point, Cora's eyes started to get a little watery from the sweet, and somewhat funny, declaration of love Hiro just pronounced to her. And having no words to describe how it made her feel, she grabbed Hiro by his hoodie and crashed her lips to his in a deep, heartfelt kiss. Hiro was a but startled from the sudden moves his girlfriend made that it took him a few moments for it to all register before he finally started kissing her back. At the moment, they had temporarily forgotten that they were hiding under a tablecloth-covered rolling tray in an uptown restaurant with the intent of ruining Aunt Cass' date with Krei. But at the moment, they didn't seem to care or mind and just continue on with their special moment.

*Meanwhile in the restroom, Krei is cleaning up from the incident, but finds it a little difficult to remove.*

Mel: Surprise!

*Mel takes off his invisibility cloak behind Krei.*

Krei: *Badly startled* Augh! Stop doing that Mel!

Mel: I'll be needing your key card...Alistair.

*After that, Mel walks out the bathroom, dressed in a identical suit as Krei. He looks around before wrapping his head to make himself look like Krei.*

Cass: Alistair?

*Mel stops in his tracks when Cass sees him.*

Cass: Wow, you cleaned up nice.

Mel 'Krei': Oh uh... yeah uh... I'm sorry, something came up at the office and I have to go!

*Mizuchi, looking away from his date for a moment, spots Cass and 'Krei' together.*

Cass: Wait! Are you ditching me?!

'Krei': Well yeah I do have to leave now and alone!

*'Krei' walks away from Cass.*

Cass: *Annoyed and ticked off* You have to at least give me a ride home Buster! And what happened to your voice?

'Krei': What happened to your voice?

*Mizuchi watches as this scene goes on and his mind starts to race as he notices some things that seemed off with his boss. If he remembered correctly, Krei's shirt is made of silk. And stains on silk are impossible to remove, which means that either Krei had a spare shirt hidden carefully on his person for emergencies or... Mizuchi stands up and walks to follow them*

Moira: *Confused* Wait! Where are you going?

Mizuchi: *Quickly and awkwardly* ThankyouforthedatebutIdon'tthinkit'sgoingtoworkoutsorryfortroublingyougoodbye!

*The tall man slams his cash onto the nearest waiter as he quickly walks out of the restaurant while Hiro and Cora peek their heads out from under the tablecloth-covered rolling tray. Having stopped making out a few minutes ago so they could get back to work with ruining Aunt Cass' date. But now there seemed to be a change in plans as both teens had overheard the whole thing and thought there was something off about 'Krei' and how he suddenly blew Aunt Cass' off out of the blue like that.*

Hiro: *Contacting Baymax* Baymax! Krei and Aunt Cass are leaving but...Krei's acting weird.

*Outside, Baymax is scanning the two people.*

Baymax: Mr. Krei appears normal. But his DNA has changed.

Hiro: Hmmm...

*Hiro looks at the bathroom door where Krei had just exited out of a moment ago.

Hiro: Stay here.

Cora: Okay.

*Hiro walks into the bathroom, looking for anything suspicious until he hears a muffled voice. Hiro opens a bathroom stall to find Alistair Krei tied up and gagged. Hiro rips the duct tape from his mouth.*

Krei: He stole my ID! And my buy nine sandwiches get the tenth sandwich free card!

Hiro: But if you're here then who's- Aunt Cass!

*Hiro revs up his brother's moped with Cora and Krei sitting behind him, driving off to catch the stranger.*

Hiro: Gogo! A Krei impostor has Aunt Cass!

*That's when Cora notices someone behind the limo but in front of them. Mizuchi is following the car on his Black Harley Motorcycle wearing his black helmet.*

Cora: And not only that, My Papa is following right behind them! He must've notice something was off and decided to go after them to try and protect Aunt Cass!

Krei: *Trying to call out to Cass* Cass! He's not me! I'm me! And I'm paying for that Limo!

Hiro: Get the others and meet us at Krei Tech!

*Back in the Limo, Cass is currently chewing out 'Krei' for his sudden change in behavior.*

Cass: *Very annoyed* What is so important that you need to go to your office in the middle of our date!

'Krei': Uh it's uh... it's a surprise.

Cass: I'm not a fan of surprises.

'Krei': You know there's nothing like a surprise party. The bond shared by a group of people hiding and waiting together in the dark.

Cass: I guess...

'Krei': Wouldn't it be great if there was something that would make you invisible so you can have the ultimate surprise party?

Cass:*A bit unnerved now and slightly backs away from her 'date'*...Are you feeling okay?

'Krei': Yes sorry. I just get really excited about things sometimes.

Cass: Like surprise parties?

'Krei': Yeah uh it's uh...rich person thing you wouldn't understand.

Cass: *Muttering* Yeah you're right about that.

*The Limo finally reaches Krei Tech where 'Krei' goes inside.*

'Krei': Hi... I'm-

*The security guard stands up when he sees his 'boss'.*

Security Guard: Mr. Krei! Working late?

'Krei': Oh is..that something I would do? Then-then yes! Yes I am.

*the security guard lets out a sigh of relief until he sees another person come in, this time it's Mizuchi.*

Security Guard: Oh hey Mizuchi what's up? Working late too?

Mizuchi: You could say that.

*The tall man walks past the guard as he follows the 'boss' into his office. Mel uses Krei's ID to open the file and finally retrieve his blue prints.*

Mel: Check and mate-!

Big hero 7: Surprise!

*The rest of Big Hero 7, and Cora quickly dying her hair back to blue, had already arrived with the real Krei in hand. *

Baymax: Suprise.

Krei: Hand over the plans! Mel.

Mel: You win, but you should know that you're helping a man who's using my surprise party invention for something much less festive!

Krei: *Takes the plans back* It's called good business!

Gogo: Sure, call it what you want. You can't sell those drones.

Honey Lemon: If they get wet there programming scrambles and they attack everyone around them!

*Krei sees the dead serious looks everyone is giving him... And then Fred slightly burps out flames from his suit.

Krei: *Annoyed but relents* Fine! I'll delay shipping until they get fixed.

*Mel removes the cloth to show his real face.*

Mel: What a nice surprise.

Krei: Yeah? How's this for a surprise?

*Krei activates the buddy guards to escort Mel outside.*

Mel: *Runs and hides behind Fred while trying to also use him as shield* Oh keep those things away from me they give me nightmares!

*Just then the door opens behind them to reveal Mizuchi.*

Cora: *Surprised(And not in a good way)* What?!

Mizuchi: Alright, Just what is going on here?

Krei: It's already taken care of-

*But Mel's constantly trying to hide behind Fred inadvertently tickles him.*

Fred: *Laughs* Not cool man! Ticklish!

*And because of Fred being ticklish, he accidentally lets out his flames which causes the emergency sprinklers to activate.*

Wasabi: Oh...that's not good.

*With the water hitting the buddy guards, there programming goes on a fritz, identifying everyone as an enemy. And they immediately cloak themselves to plan their attack.*

Fred: What are we gonna do? Let me check... No I don't have ketchup guys!

Honey Lemon: I'm on it-

*But the laser blast hits Honey Lemon before she can pull out a chem ball and entangles her in a net.*

Gogo: Woman down.

*Gogo goes to help Honey Lemon but she also gets knocked out and tied up as well.*

Wasabi: Cora and I should be able to hack into the Buddy operating system and turn those things visible!

*Wasabi and Cora rush to Krei's computer and begin to hack into the program.*

Hiro: Guys!

*The rest of the team dodge out of the way leaving Mel exposed.*

Krei: Looks like you guys have it under control, so I'll jus-

*The laser blast hits Krei which causes the billionaire to also be entangled by the net.*

Fred: *Pleased at this outcome* Alright! Nice one drone-

*But Fred is blasted and trapped by the nets as well.*

Fred: *Not pleased anymore* Agh! Bad one drones, that was a bad one!

*The invisible drone ties Wasabi and Cora in its net, preventing them from hacking into the system. Wasabi leans forward to use his chin to type*

Wasabi: Typing with your chin isn't easy!

Cora: Hey guys! I think he did it!

*The drones turn into floating Krei heads.*

Wasabi: Ahh! I think I did something else!

Baymax: the Buddy Guards are now visible, but different.

*Baymax is soon joined by Mizuchi who starts to punch the drones straight into the walls as they explode. The Krei drones zaps Hiro down.*

Hiro: Ow!

Baymax: I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said ow- Oh no.

*The remaining Krei drones surround Baymax as they entangle the rest of him.*

Baymax: Oh no! I am unable to tend to your healthcare needs.

*The drones continue to throw nets at Baymax before Mizuchi grabs one of the drones and crushes it with his bare hands. The pressure causes the drone to glitch before bits and pieces fall down with oil oozing from its 'eyes' and mouth. The drone head then turns back into its real form as Mizuchi drops it, the drone officially dead. three of the drones are surrounding Mizuchi as the remaining ones follow Mel as he runs out the door.*

Mel: I'm outta here!

Hiro: No! He's leading them right to-

Mizuchi: Miss Cass!

*Mizuchi grabs two of them and swings them to hit the other drones and smash them to pieces. He snaps the bonds from Krei before he runs out to follow Mel...leaving the rest of the team alone.*

Wasabi: *Starts out calm, that finishes annoyed as he struggles to break free from the net* Cora. You know very well I don't mean any disrespect towards your dad, But the least he could do before he left was untie the rest of us!

*Back at the limo, Cass is showing pictures of Mochi to the driver.*

Cass: And that's Mochi sleeping on my bed. And that's Mochi sleeping on the couch. Aw and that's Mochi sleeping in a sun beam.

*Just then Mizuchi rushes to the limo and opens the door.*

Cass: *Surprised* Mizuchi? What are you-

*She then sees Mel running towards them with an army of Krei Drones.*

Cass: *Shocked and confused* What the!?

Mizuchi: No time to explain just run now!

*Mizuchi pulls Cass out and puts her over his shoulder and starts running off into the darkness as the limo drives off.*

Mel: Wait for me!

*And so the people are running for their lives from an army of Krei Drones zapping lasers at them.*

Cass: Who is he?! And why are we being chased by Alistair heads?!

Mel: *Shouting* It's a long story you're not going to like it!

Cass: and this is why I don't date.

*Mel trips and is about to be zapped before Mizuchi grabs him and puts him under his arm and continues running like hell.*

*Meanwhile, Krei is untying some of the gang while Wasabi uses his laser blade to start cutting through their nets.*

Hiro: Nice Wasabi!

*Hiro leans a little to set himself free from the bondage. After they are all finally free, Hiro and Cora get on Baymax to follow Mel and rescue their family.*

Baymax: Scanning for Aunt Cass and Papa. Scan complete.

*They fly in the direction of the people they're looking for while Mizuchi still runs with Cass and Mel in his arms.*

Mizuchi: Hold on tight Miss Cass and random stranger!

*Mizuchi picks up his pace as he takes a sharp turn to the left.*

Mel: I know things started off weird with me impersonating your date but something about being with you while we're both carried off by a giant just feels right-look out giant man!

*Mizuchi sees a car drive in front of him and so he quickly jumps up and walks over the car and back into the street.*

Cass: That's very sweet but could you not talk?

Mizuchi: Yes. Please stop talking.

*Just behind the drones are Hiro, Cora, and Baymax flying right behind them. Two of the drones fly up and zap at them, but Baymax dodges them and smashes their heads together. *

Hiro: Thank you Baymax!

*The drones soon reveal their true selves as Baymax flies in front of the drones and just behind Mizuchi. That's when Cass looks up and sees them.*

Cass: Hey! That's the big guy from Big Hero 7! Hi! Thanks for your help!

*Hiro and Cora duck behind Baymax to avoid being recognized by Cass or Mizuchi, which the tall man turns his head to see them.*

Baymax: *Waves to them* Hello.

Mel: Watch out!

*Mizuchi turns his attention as they are facing a steep slope of the street which he quickly jumps through the air before running again. The drones appear behind the three.*

Hiro: Cora look out!

*Hiro jumps at the drone and restrains it.

Baymax and Cora: Hiro!

*Baymax stops at his tracks to rescue Hiro with Cora. Hiro tries desperately to hold onto the drone without falling to the street below. The drone flies up and knocks Hiro off and sends him flying through the air before he lands back on the drone again and they zoom through the city. Soon they are heading towards the billboard of Krei, which Hiro lets go as the drone crashes but he is soon falling down fast until Cora grabs him and pulls him back onto Baymax.*

Cora: I gotcha Hiro.

Baymax: Hiro, you are safe.

Hiro: Come one, we gotta get Aunt Cass and Mizuchi.

*The three adults arrive deep in the woods where Mizuchi slows down and gently drops the two before he falls to his knees, gasping for air.*

Mizuchi: *Panting heavily* I...I think we lost them...

Cass: Yeah...Thank you Mizuchi.

*Then Mel spots the one remaining drone in front of them.*

Cass: Or not!

*Mel and Cass run to hide until she sees Mizuchi still on the ground, still trying to get some air while the drone approaches him. Cass pulls off the largest branch she could find and runs in front of Mizuchi. The drone flies through the air before it resumes its position, it leaves the drone disoriented but now more aggressive then before. Cass holds Mizuchi up but soon the three are cornered.*

Mel: If this is it, I just want you to know... My names Mel. Hi.

Cass: Yeah I don't really care.

*The drone is about zap them when Baymax's rocket fist slams the robot into a tree, destroying it for good. Cass looks up to find the drone destroyed and a lone rocket fist on the ground. Soon after the tall man stands up and looks around, wondering who saved them. Behind the trees Baymax, Cora, and Hiro are watching the whole thing. Mizuchi then grabs Mel roughly by the arms.*

Mel: Ow! Hey what did I do?

*Cora and Hiro hold Baymax down to prevent him from carrying out his coding.*

Mizuchi: Last I checked, it was you who caused those drones to go haywire and start attacking everyone and it was you who impersonated my boss. And not to mention that it was also you who put Miss Cass in danger. So until Authorities arrive, you're in my charge.

Mel: *Dejected* oh...

*Mizuchi looks at Cass as she stares to the side, frowning over this disastrous night. Mizuchi sighs before he talks.*

Mizuchi: *Second to feel dejected* I guess we both had crappy dates tonight huh?

Cass: *Third to feel dejected* Yeah... I thought this would go so well and maybe be something more...but now with all this... I just don't think so anymore...

Mizuchi: True..to be honest I never really wanted to go out with Moira in the first place.

Cass: *Confused* Then why did you?

*Cora cranes her neck to see what her Papa is going to say.*

Mizuchi: I only agreed because I wanted Cora to have a mother...someone to be there when Kaguya or I aren't around. But I couldn't stomach it...Akemi will always be the one and only woman I could ever truly give my heart to, She was truly the love and light of my life, along with my daughter.

Cass: *Feeling touched to the love and devotion Mizuchi still had for his late wife after all these years* That's very sweet Mizuchi, your wife must have been very happy to be with someone like you. Just as Cora is very lucky to have you as her father.

Mizuchi: *Smiles and laughs a little* Yeah... they're my whole world.

*Cora's eyes start to tear up but her smile shows that she is happy, for her father for trying his best and loving her mother through and through all these years. Hiro hugs his girlfriend, happy with how this resulted in the end. Finally the police arrive with Krei, running over to check on Cass while Mizuchi hands Mel to the police.*

Officer: You wanna press charges Mr. Krei?

Krei: Absolutely, throw the book at him.

Cass: Really Alistair? I mean sure he's a creepy surprise party weirdo but he told me why he did all this. You kind of used him.

Krei: Cass, Cass Cass Cass Cass Cass, you are a sweet person.. but I am still pressing charges.

Mizuchi: Hate to say it but he's kind of right. He did cause those drones to attack us and is responsible for basically committing Identity Theft.

Mel: *Trying to get away* Let me go! I don't wanna go to jail! I've heard the food is terrible!

*Mel pulls out his invisibility cloak and covers himself with it to disappear but his feet are still exposed.*

Mel: So long forever! You'll never find me! Do you hear me! Never!

Cass: We can still see your feet Mel.

Mel: How do you know they're my feet?

*Mizuchi walks over and rips the cloth off him and pushes him into the police car, where the officer slams the door.*

Mel:...W-will you come visit me in prison?

Cass: Probably not.

Mel: Can I write you?

Cass: Sure, why not.

Mel: Yes!

*The police car drives off as Mizuchi turns to the two.*

Mizuchi: And by that you mean never don't you?

Cass: Yep.

*After that night, Hiro is fixing up Baymax's arm while he puts his phone on speaker to listen to Cora with Baymax nearby.*

Cora: Looks like things went well for the both of us huh?

Hiro: Definitely, as far as I'm concerned, chances of them getting hitched are zero.

Cora: Mhmm...You know, when I heard Dad was out dating..you know...

Baymax: You felt like Papa was betraying your Mother and that you will not be in his focus anymore.

Cora: *Sighs* Yeah, what you said Baymax. I don't really need a new Mom, I have Papa and Grandmama with me...And I got the gang... Aunt Cass...you Baymax...and you Hiro. I know I've said this like a million times before, But I'm happy you're here with me babe.

Hiro: Don't worry Cora, I never get tired of hearing you say that. And... I'm happy you're with me too.

Baymax: *To Hiro* Will you find another date for Aunt Cass?

Hiro: No Way! Her personal life is her business! I don't know why I got involved in the first place!

*Just then a ladder appears with Cass climbing up nearby Hiro's window. Hiro hides the rocket fist. Which causes it to malfunction and fly up into the ceiling. Luckily Aunt Cass doesn't see it.*

Hiro: *Now remembering* Oh yeah...

Baymax: Hello Aunt Cass

Cass: Hey guys! Get your movie clothes ready, it's movie night and Cora's family is gonna join us!

*Cass continues to climb up just as the rocket fist comes falling back down and crashes right next to Hiro as Baymax pulls out a shirt that has a picture of a film reel and the words movie time.

Cora: ...I think the movie we're watching tonight is Disney's Coco. I saw it before and it's so amazing! I think you'll like it too Hiro, even if it has musical numbers.

Hiro: *Not totally believing her* Really?

Cora: *A little nervous*...If I sing one of the songs' verses for you...will you consider it?

Hiro: *Intrigued and a little excited at the idea of hearing his girlfriend sing again after listening to her last time* Alright, Go ahead, try me.

*He can hear Cora sigh as she begins to sing.*

Cora: Say that I'm crazy or call me a fool... But last night it seemed I dreamed about you~

*Hiro's eyes widen before he slowly smiles, lying down on his bed as he closes his eyes blissfully and listens to nothing but his girlfriend's beautiful singing, feeling like the luckiest man in the world.*

A.N: Cora does have a pretty voice. But if you’re wondering how it could have affected those people...well..lets say I added a special spice to this story. Love you~

#Big Hero 7 #Big Hero 6 fanfic #Hiro Hamada #Cora Mizichio #Hiro Hamada x OC #Aunt Cass #Mizuchi Mizichio #Kaguya #Grandmama #Gogo tomago #Honey Lemon #Wasabi #fred frederickson iv #alistair krei #Mel #OCs #Baymax

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