#Poly?Morph! Here We Go Again | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cloudteawrites · 4 years ago

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chapter: seven ( 12.3k ) rating: mature (death, past abuse, eventual smut) genre: mystery | romance | hurt/comfort tags: bts x reader | ot7 x reader | hybrid | poly summary: when an estranged uncle leaves you his massive fortune you wonder if the universe is playing a joke on you. when that fortune comes with seven hybrids, you know for sure that it is. << first < previous | next > last >>

The sound of your phone ringing rips you from sleep. You sit bolt upright, confusion and panic dousing you like twin buckets of ice water. You’d been having a nightmare about something, but you can’t remember what. The tattered ends of it are already slipping away, just out of reach. You don’t chase after them.

You fumble for your phone in the dark, fingers groping uselessly at your blankets until they close around it. The bright white light from your screen blinds you as you flip it over and you blink blearily, rubbing at your eyes with one hand and trying to answer with the other.

“Hello?” you rasp, mashing the speaker button. “Who is this?”

“Apologies for disturbing your sleep, ma’am.” A woman’s voice crackles over the other end of the line. You can hear exhaustion dripping off every word. “This is Officer Kwon from the Namhyeon-dong precinct of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Force.”

You squint into the dark expanse of your bedroom, a little frown on your face as you struggle to process what she’s saying. “....okay?”

“I’m calling because we’ve got two of your hybrids in custody.”

You blink slowly. “Hmmmm, I don’t think so...” you mumble through a yawn. “They’re all in bed.”

“We ran their numbers through the registry and you were pinged as the owner of both.” You hear papers shuffling and her voice get distant as she transfers the receiver to her shoulder to free up a hand. “We’ve got a rabbit calling himself Jeongguk and a Seokjin who the rabbit says is a deer-” She sighs. “Listen, I’m at the end of my rope here. They won’t tell me where they came from and the phone number of the business they were registered to before you is out of service. They’re hurt pretty bad, worse than what we can take care of here at the station. We can’t get them any sort of medical care without their guardian’s permission, so-”

Your eyes glaze over as you groggily connect the dots.

A deer and a rabbit.

Not canine, not feline.

Other.

You shove the covers down your legs and kick them over the side of the bed. “I’m on the way,” you tell her, already adding up the distance between your building and Namhyeon-dong. It’d take an hour to get all the bus transfers you needed- your eyes narrow as you squint at the time on your phone. 3:27 AM. You’d have to get a cab. Your stomach twists at the thought of the fare, but you shove the feeling down. This was no time to be thrifty. “Do whatever you need to.”

The officer exhales in relief. You can practically hear the tension leave her shoulders. “There’s a little hybrid clinic in the neighborhood. I’ll see if I can get the vet up and convince them to go.”

“Thank you,” you breathe. She gives you the address and you type it into your notes app, reading it back to her twice to make sure you got it right. She hangs up with a promise to see you soon and your phone locks, leaving you alone in the blue-black gloom of an early morning.

This wasn’t great. This wasn’t great any way you sliced it. You’d thought you’d have an extra two weeks to get the canines settled and all five hybrids to at least not want to kill each other. That’d been the plan, at least, when you’d sequestered yourself in your bedroom without telling Jimin and Taehyung goodnight or doing any introductions. Now the others were coming and you were on borrowed time. You drag your hands down over your face. “What are we gonna do?” Nothing but silence answers you.

When you were a kid and you’d had anything big before you- a massive school project you’d waited til the last moment to start, having to walk yourself to the market because your mom was too sick to go, a hard conversation with a friend- your mom had always told you to break it down into smaller pieces. Make the big thing small; do what you can for now. So, that’s what you do.

You shove your phone into the pocket of your sweatpants, tug your backpack out from under your bed and grab a pair of socks. You slide them on as quickly as you can and head for the door. You tug it open and try to rush through, already on the way to your next small thing- but you stumble over a shoulder and go down.

You let out a yelp of surprise that quickly morphs into one of pain as your forehead knocks against the other person’s. Your hands slam down on either side of their head and their own fly up to your waist to steady you. You blink down at them, willing your eyes to adjust to the dark.

Hoseok is beneath you. He’s squinting up at you, his hair in disarray and his cheeks puffy with sleep. “Ow,” he croaks.

You wince. “I’m sorry,” you whisper, rubbing the spot on his forehead your own knocked against on autopilot. He seems to wake up a little at that, eyebrows inching up his forehead. You snatch your hand back. “Ah, sorry. I was worried I hurt you-”

“I’m okay,” he rasps, his voice still thick with sleep. “You didn’t hurt me.”

“Okay.” You disentangle yourself from him and rise back to your feet. He struggles to get up too, mirroring you. The blankets pooled around his hips fall to his feet. You frown at the picture he makes, his shoulders slumped from exhaustion and indents on his cheek from the hardwood. “Did you...did you sleep out here?”

His ears fall and he lowers his head a bit between his shoulders. “Yeah,” he admits, rubbing the back of his neck. “I did…”

You wrote off a lot of the behavior the boys exhibited that you didn’t understand as just a part of them being hybrids. When Taehyung affectionately headbutted you, or Jimin always hopped up on counters or Yoongi lapped from glasses instead of sipping, you just accepted it and stashed it away to google later- but this was a little more concerning. Did he not feel safe in his room? You’d tried to put him and Namjoon as far away from the felines as you could, but you also knew the cats weren’t thrilled about sharing their space. You hoped they hadn’t made him feel too unwelcome after you’d collapsed into bed.

“Is everything okay?” His ears twitch as the smell of your worry fills his nose. He leans forward and for a moment you think he’s gonna close the distance between you- but he pulls back.

“No,” he answers. You feel your heart sink. “I just...your room is closest to the front door.” You blink at him slowly, not following. You don’t know how his sight is in the dark, but he must see the confusion furrowing your brow,because he continues. “Your room is the only one on the first floor and it’s close to the living room and front door. We all sleep upstairs. If someone broke in, they’d get you first.” He tosses a finger down at the blankets. “I was sleeping here so that wouldn’t happen.”

“Nobody’s gonna get me, Hoseok,” You soothe, trying to assuage his fears. “I’m nobody-”

“You don’t know that,” he argues back. “And you’re not ‘nobody’ to me. I waited my whole life for you. I’ve gotta keep you safe.”

You don’t know what to make of that. You’d known Hoseok had been trained specifically to protect the person he’d eventually be sent to, but you hadn’t expected him to be so adamant about it. After all Namjoon grew up in the same place- No. Your expression sours as the thought stops you. No he didn’t. The wolfdog hybrid had been locked away for most of his life and interaction with others had come only in the form of meal delivery. He wouldn’t have had the director’s lessons drilled into his head everyday in the same way Hope had.

Still, no one has expressed this level of care for you since your mom died. You’re not entirely sure you deserve it.

“I was gonna wake up before you did and go back to my room,” he mumbles, kicking gently at the blanket and not meeting your eyes. “I promise, I was. I didn’t expect you to be up this early.” He fiddles with the hem of his shirt, his ears drooping more and more the longer you look at him. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable…”

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Hoseok,” You tell him and his ears perk up a little. It was true, he hadn’t. His actions were sweet, if a bit misguided but you were more worried about him than anything. “I don’t know what the director told you or what you’ve heard, but I promise there’s no one after me.” He frowns at that, lips twisting into a little pout. He goes to interject, but you speak again before he can. “If you’re worried about anything, just tell me okay? If there’s anything you need to do to make yourself feel more at ease here, just tell me.” You implore him softly.

Hoseok nods slowly and you see his tail give one small wag. You nod back, and turn to go, but his voice stops you. “I think it would help a lot if I could sleep down here.” Your brow furrows at that.

“This is the only bedroom on this floor, though?”

He whines and looks like he’s about to explain- but a soft voice purring in your ear cuts him off. “He could sleep on the couch,” Jimin supplies, his arms entwining around your middle as he rests his chin on your shoulder. “It’s quite comfortable...Y/N-ah, do you mind dogs on the furniture?” His tone is light, free of the haze of sleep and a little teasing. From the way Hoseok’s ears droop and the way his shoulders curve in, you could tell Jimin hadn’t crept down here for a bit of good-natured ribbing. Your scent sours as your expression does, irritation with the leopard hybrid pricking at you. He lets out a little disgruntled murr in protest as he noses at your neck, trying to get you to soften for him. You tilt your head away from him and disentangle yourself from his arms. It’s three in the morning, you have to cross the city to deal with the fallout from God only knows what, and your neck still aches from the bruise Yoongi had left on it. You have too much on your plate to deal with Jimin needling his new housemate.

“Leave him alone, Jimin,” You exhale, side-stepping the leopard hybrid and heading down the corridor for the door. “Hoseok, you can sleep where you want. I’ve gotta go.”

The doberman takes a step forward. “I’ll come with you-” the icy look Jimin shoots him has him slowing but it’s not until the leopard hybrid bares his teeth at him that he stalls entirely. The sound of his whimper has you whirling around, but when you do, you find Jimin looking at you, blasé and Hoseok eyeing him with uncertainty

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise,” you toss back over your shoulder as you slide your feet into a pair of shoes. “Please, just...if you can’t be friendly, just do your own thing ‘til I get back.” You lace up your sneakers as quickly as you can and duck out the door. “Text me if you need anything; I’ll call on the way back.” And you’re gone, leaving the leopard and the doberman in the dark.

You are not at all confident in their ability to maintain a truce while you’re gone. You’re almost certain that if you hadn’t shoved your way between Namjoon and Yoongi last night, they’d have come to blows right there in the lobby last night. You punch the button for the ground floor and slump back against the railing of the elevator, exhaustion settling heavy on you now that you were alone again. You’d known Yoongi, Jimin and Taehyung weren’t thrilled about sharing their space, but you hadn’t expected this kind of fallout from bringing new hybrids home. You don’t know if there’s anything you can do to make things a little easier, but you want to. Sighing, you resign yourself to more research. You pull out your phone and start typing.

why are my hybrids freaking the fuck out

You backspace. Venting at google wasn’t going to help you figure out what the sharp looks Jimin kept throwing Hoseok while he thought your back was turned meant or why Yoongi had been so furious the other hybrids’ scent was on you.

why don’t my hybrids like each other

Just like all your other searches, this one turns up millions of results. You thumb over the links but none of them are helpful. They’re dealing with puppy hybrids bickering and cat hybrids hissing at each other. None of them cover cross-species beef. None of them deal with exotics. You sigh, lock your phone and tilt your head back to stare at the soft yellow lights in the elevator’s ceiling. You were out of your depth. You’d known that from the moment Mr. Seo turned you into an heiress with a wave of his fountain pen. You get the urge to run, that old niggling feeling that settled like a stone in your mind and made your palms itch.

It’s been years since you last felt the need to pull a disappearing act. You don’t think you’ve done it since the one year anniversary of your mom’s death. The foster home you’d been sent to was a shit show. You found out the woman in charge had been pocketing the money you gave her every month for your mother’s columbarium fees and her urn was in danger of being thrown out. You’d shoved everything you owned into your school bag and walked across the city to get her. When the police found you, you were striding down the side of the highway, her urn clutched to your chest, determined to go anywhere but there.

You hadn’t known where you were going then; you still didn’t now. All you’d had was the urge to flee and fire under your feet. All you’d had was a singular focus on the road ahead.

The elevator reaches the ground floor with a soft ding, the automated voice letting you know you’ve reached the lobby. You step out and shuffle across it with your head down, careful to avoid eye contact with the receptionist watching you warily from behind her desk.

It’s a cold night. A blast of frigid air hits your face the second you’re out the door. You curse under your and fold your arms around yourself in a futile effort to keep warm. You should go back upstairs and get the coat Yoongi made you buy. You shift from one foot to the other, weighing your options- and decide against it. If the conversation you’d had with Hoseok was enough to wake Jimin and send him slinking toward you, you running in and out of the penthouse would almost certainly wake Yoongi up. Memories flash in your mind: his hands gripping your hips tight, his rough tongue laving over your neck, that self-satisfied smirk he’d let spread over his mouth. You pinch yourself, trying to stem the heat you can feel crawling out the neck of your sweatshirt. It had upset you, there was no denying that. The warm feeling that’d bubbled up in your stomach at being touched didn’t wash away the fact that him marking you had nothing to do with your friendship and everything to do with warding off the canine hybrids.

Yeah, you decide, quickening your pace down the ice-slicked sidewalk. You’d much rather face the cold than him.

You make quick work of the walk from Haneul Tower to the streets of the club district. It’s only two blocks up and one over, but by the time you get there, you feel like a giant icicle. You’re out of place in a sweatshirt and scuffed up sneakers among the glitz and glamor of the club-goers, but you don’t have time to deal with your imposter syndrome. You duck into the first taxi you find, pass the old man the address Officer Kwon had given you and settle back.

He complains nearly the entire time about how far out of the way you’re making him go. You apologize as much as you’re able and promise him return fair back to Gangnam if he waits for you. He huffs and puffs, but he still takes you. Forty minutes later, you’re standing on the sidewalk outside of Happy Tails Hybrid Clinic, rapping urgently at the glass. After two minutes that feel like twenty, someone finally answers you.

You think she’s in her late twenties but the dark circles under her eyes she keeps rubbing at make her look older. She’s dressed in the typical winter police uniform, minus her jacket. The pale blue sleeves of her dress shirt are rolled up above her elbows and are blotchy with pale red marks she’d tried to scrub out. Blood. You swallow, your throat suddenly dry.

She unlocks the door and pokes her headout. “Y/N L/N?” She asks, eyes narrowed against the glare of the street lamps.

“Yeah,” you answer, giving one short nod. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Officer Kwon; we spoke on the phone.” She opens the door for you fully, stepping back and ushering you in urgently. “I’ll be honest,” she says once you’re safely inside and the door is locked back tight again. “I wasn’t sure you were gonna show.”

You frown at that. “Why wouldn’t I have shown?”

“Most of the time when hybrids run, it’s an abuse case.” She drops into one of the plastic chairs lining the waiting room. Her head falls back with a thunk against the yellow plaster. If it hurts, she shows no signs of it, just stares up at the fluorescent lights. You settle on the lip of the chair next to her, feeling awkward and anxious. “The rabbit broke into an Olive Young to steal antiseptic and bandages,” she supplies without you having to ask. “He said he did it for the deer. When he showed me he was…” Officer Kwon exhales sharply and tips forward to rest her head in her hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much blood.”

“I wouldn’t hurt them,” you insist softly. “It wasn’t me.”

“I know,” she answers, voice muffled against her palms. “I pulled your name and ID picture from the national database and the rabbit didn’t recognize you. Even if you didn’t do it, I didn’t think you’d wanna deal with it.”

Your anxiety spikes at her words. What had happened to the hybrids before she found them? Who’d want to hurt them that badly? Your mouth feels dry, but you force it to move. “Do you know who they were running from?”

Officer Kwon shakes her head and drags her hands down her face. She lets her arms fall to her knees as she hunches over in her chair, back bowed with exhaustion. “Whatever the rabbit knows, he’s not sharing,” she exhales. “-And the deer’s in no position to speak up. He’s been unconscious since I found him.” As if sensing you tense, she adds, “He’s on the table now. I think Dr. Cheon put him under sedation.”

You don’t know what to say. You’re not sure if there’s anything you even can. You have a million questions buzzing around in your mind, but so heavy is the weight of them on your tongue that you can’t find the strength to ask a single one. You’re saved by the doctor coming out from the back.

The door right next to the counter that reads STAFF + PATIENTS ONLY swings open and a middle aged woman in cat print scrubs comes out, shoulders hunched in like she’s got the weight of the world on her back. You can’t blame her; she looks every bit as tired as you feel. She stops just short of you and Officer Kwon, peels off a pair of blue medical gloves, dyed sticky red, and tosses them into the garbage can behind the reception desk. “Well,” she huffs, dragging her fingers through the greying wisps of hair that’d escaped from her braid. “It’s done.”

“How is he?” The police officer asks before you can. Dr. Cheon grimaces and leans against the counter.

“If you hadn’t found him in time, it could’ve been much worse.” You think she’s trying to put you at ease, but you don’t want compromising optimism. You want the truth. “An hour or two later and we’d be dealing with a very different situation, medically.”

You swallow and force yourself to speak. “Do you have any idea how this could’ve happened?”

Dr. Cheon turns her attention to you and blinks slowly, like she’d just noticed you were there. “...this is the guardian?” The police officer nods. The doctor takes you in, eyes roving from the mess of your hair twisted into a bun atop your head, to the scuffed rubber toes of your sneakers. She’s judging you, you know, trying to find something that’d mark you as the reason for the pain and suffering of the hybrids she’d helped. She finds none. “It didn’t happen to them,” she sighs. “Someone did this to them on purpose, likely over the course of several hours.” She tugs the office chair out from behind the desk and sinks into it, her limbs going to jelly the second she’s seated.

“Jeongguk won’t tell me what happened, but I know the signs. Puncture wounds around the entirety of Seokjin’s ankle, remnants of both sedatives and epinephrine in both of their blood, what looks like a bullet graze wound on Jeongguk’s side and he’s got a broken arm,” she rattles off symptom after symptom, each of them making the knot in your belly wind tighter and tighter. “The worst of it is Seokjin’s head. Hairline fractures all along the top of his skull and lacerations on his pedicles. They took his antlers from him.”

You feel sick to your stomach. You knew there were people who hurt hybrids, just like there were people that hurt animals and other people. You just hadn’t expected to ever have to deal with the fallout of one such incident. “Will he be okay?”

“He’ll survive, if that’s what you’re asking,” Dr. Cheon allows. “But he’ll need to be monitored closely during these next few weeks. They were hunted. If they decide to come with you instead of going to the shelter with Officer Kwon, you’ll need to be cognisant of the fact that the trauma from that could manifest in unexpected ways.”

Hunted. They’d been hunted.

You knew hunting was illegal in South Korea, you had that little tidbit tucked away in the recesses of your grade school memory along with the list of provinces and their capitals and the names of all the sailor scouts. It’d been outlawed in the fifties with the rash of hybrid centered legislation after a hunter up in Chungcheongbuk-do had shot a black bear hybrid he’d mistaken for a real bear. It was determined that since humans couldn’t distinguish between regular animals and hybrids shifted down into animal form, hunting had to be outlawed to prevent any accidental killings.

“Were they shifted down?” You ask. “Did someone not realize-”

“No.” Dr. Cheon’s answer is swift and final. “They knew. This was a choice.” The disgust in her voice is palpable.

“There are places that...Some centers cater to people that want to hunt.” Officer Kwon cuts in. “They have hybrids as employees and they let people rent airsoft or paintball guns to come hunt them. It’s supposed to be more ethical than actual hunting. No matter how distasteful I might personally find it, if they have a permit, there’s not really much the police can do unless a law has been broken. ”

“And without any information on where they came from, we can’t prove that one has,” Dr. Cheon finishes. “The most I can do as a vet is submit a report to the police about a possible abuse case and hope it makes its way to the hybrid crimes unit.” You hear the words she doesn’t speak, the meaning behind them. There’s nothing more we can do. They’ll get away with it. This is the end of the line.

Dr. Cheon drops her palms against her knees and forces herself to stand “Jeongguk’s injuries should heal just fine outside of the clinic,” She sighs. “But Seokjin-” she clicks her tongue against her teeth and gives a single shake of her head. “Cervine hybrids don’t shed their antlers like real deer do. There’s no telling if his will grow back or what they’ll look like when they do. All we can do is keep the wounds clean and pray.”

You nod numbly. She gestures for you to follow her and you do, making your way around the reception desk and through the staff door with her.

It’s dim in the back. The overhead lights are off and your path ahead is illuminated only by what light spills over from the reception room and an exam room up ahead. There’s only four of them, but the door to this one is slightly ajar. “Wait here for a second,” Dr. Cheon instructs, slipping through the door and leaving you alone in the corridor. You can hear her speaking softly to someone inside and them answering in even quieter tones. You have to strain to pick up the edge of their voice and even then, you can’t understand what they’re saying. “Would you like her to come in here, or would you like her to stay outside?” You hear her ask. The response is too soft for you to catch but a second later the door swings open.

Dr. Cheon steps out and gestures for the shadowy figure behind her to follow. “It’s alright,” she assures them. “No one here is going to hurt you.” Slowly, they shuffle out from the back.

It’s Jeongguk. There’s no denying what he is, not with the black velvet ears you see poking up out of his mop of wavy, dark hair. They’re alert; they prick toward you when your breath hitches. His eyes are dark and wide and the tip of his nose twitches when he looks at you. You muster up a smile you hope is reassuring and this right foot taps once against the linoleum. Yes, he’s a rabbit- but he’s also fucking huge.

What little research you’d managed to do in between apologizing to your taxi driver and keeping an eye on the fare had been straightforward: rabbit hybrids were naturally timid, needed a lot of attention and were small. Most sources you’d checked seemed to concur that they very rarely cleared 5’5. Jeongguk is pushing 6 feet and he’s built like a professional athlete. You suppose that’s what happens when you’ve spent your whole life running for it.

He’s wearing a teeshirt that’s too tight on his chest, the logo of the Seoul police force stretched thin, and a pair of grey sweatpants that are too short for him, both obviously on loan from Officer Kwon. His feet are bare, but there are bandages wrapped around both of them. True to what Dr. Cheon told you, his arms in a cast and wrapped in a sling. There’s scrapes on his knuckles and bruises blooming on the right side of his face. He looks like he’s been through the wringer. Still, he doesn’t slouch or shrink before you.

“Jeongguk, this is the woman we talked about,” Dr. Cheon tells him. He nods, but doesn’t move his gaze from your face once. “You’ll be going home with her-”

“Only if he wants,” You interject and she nods in agreement, quickly adding that caveat in.

“-only if you want.” He nods again and swallows, his bare foot giving another little tap against the floor.

“What about Seokjin?” He asks you.

“If he wants to come too, he’s welcome to, but neither of you have to if you don’t want to.” There’s a little frown on his face as you answer and he finally looks away. You can’t help but think that’s a bad sign, that he thinks he and his friend would be safer in a shelter that they ever could be with you- but then he asks another question.

“Do you have a husband or a boyfriend?” You frown at that. Why was it that every hybrid in the city was suddenly so concerned with your marital status? Hoseok had asked you in the car last night and now Jeongguk seemed worried about it as well. Sensing your confusion, he clarifies. “Do you live with any men?”

You wince. “Oh! Yeah, I live with five.” You see his expression darken as his ears sag. “They’re mostly predator-”

“If they’re hybrids, it’s fine.” He interjects, a little tension leaving his shoulders. “I can live with them.”

You relax too. From what you’d seen, most shelters weren’t nice places. They were overcrowded and underfunded. If the news was any indication, some of the worse ones got treated like grab bags by fighting rings, who’d shell out a couple thousand won for a canine hybrid and turn him into a prize fighter. You didn’t want that for them, not if you could provide an alternative.

But was it one though? He said he could live with them, but could they live with him? You think back to Yoongi and Namjoon snarling at each other last night, about Jimin’s little jabs at Hoseok. Yeah, you’d need to have another house meeting when you got home if this was ever going to work. Jeongguk had just been through hell and back; the last thing he needed was a territorial bobcat trying him.

“You can change your mind any time,” You tell him softly. “If you get there and feel like it’s not a good fit for you and Seokjin, you can go, okay?”

He dips his head. “Okay.”

“I think Seokjin can decide for himself.”

Your eyes rocket just over Jeongguk’s shoulder. There’s a man leaning heavily against the doorframe of the room the rabbit hybrid had come out of. He’s in a blue exam gown, his feet bare except for a plain white cast on his left leg. Every part of his head from his eyebrows up is bandaged, but you see soft tufts of red-brown hair poking out from between the layers. He looks human. You’d almost think he was if it weren’t for the oblong pupils in his hazel eyes and supple ears you see twitching as he observes you.

“What are you doing up?!” The alarm in Dr. Cheon’s voice is palpable. “Those sedatives should’ve kept you out ‘til morning.” She takes a step like she’s going to rush to his side- but stops short when he tenses and tilts his chin to his chest. Just for a second, it looked like he was preparing himself to square off against her- like he was brandishing something that wasn’t really there. His antlers, you think. He was trying to protect himself with his antlers.

Seokjin forces himself upright, his knees wobbling as he tries to stand on his own. He looks off-balance, and it’s not just because of the cast. He looks like he’s trying to figure out how to stand now that a piece of him is missing. His legs are trembling. “What can I say?” He huffs, sounding like he just ran a marathon. “I like to surprise people.” And then his legs buckle underneath him.

He hits the floor with a heavy thud. Jeongguk and Dr. Cheon rush to his side but he waves them off, eyes closed and brow knit in frustration. “I’m fine,” he insists, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to struggle back to his feet. “I’m fine, I just…I just need a moment-”

“You need bed rest.” Dr. Cheon goes to latch on to his arm to help him stand but Jeongguk catches her wrist, gives a single shake of his head and she drops it back to her side.

Seokjin manages to get himself back standing, but he sways precariously. “If this were a hunt, I’d already be dead.” He swallows and inhales shakily through his nose, doing his best not to gulp down air. “You should have left me, Jeongguk. You know the rules. One falls, but the herd rises-”

“The herd is gone, Seokjin.” The bitterness in the younger hybrid’s voice takes you aback. It’s a black wave, threatening to drown all four of you right there in the corridor. Seokjin stares at him, his jaw slack and pretty brown eyes wide.

“What do you-”

“They’re gone.” The rabbit hybrid’s bruised fingers clench into a fist and he fixes his glare on the tile. “All of them.”

Silence rings in the corridor. Dr. Cheon’s mouth is pressed into a thin line, but she doesn’t press for details and neither do you. She’d been right. They’d been hunted. The thought of it turns your stomach. Seokjin closes his eyes, long lashes fanning out over his cheeks as a muscle tenses in his jaw. He’s thinking. When he opens his eyes again, his gaze is settled on you. Your heart jumps as your nerves get the better of you, and one of his ears flicks back.

“You’re taking us?” He asks. You swallow.

“Only if you want me to.” An unreadable look passes between him and Jeongguk, the younger’s nose twitching.

“Speaking strictly as your doctor,” Dr. Cheon speaks up, interrupting the hybrids’ telepathy. “You need time to rest and recuperate-”

“Is there any special reason I have to rest and recuperate here?” He asks. You can’t help but notice the slight challenge in his voice. The corner of the doctor’s mouth twitches.

“No, I suppose not,” she acquiesces. She doesn’t look particularly pleased about the prospect of letting her patient go when he was still in the danger zone, but if the look of determination in Seokjin’s eyes is any indication, she doesn’t have much choice.

“Then, we’ll go.” The tone of his voice is final, letting everyone present know that he’s done talking about it.

That's the last that’s said to you or anyone else about it. Jeongguk falls in line with his orders easily and so doesDr. Cheon after she manages to get him to accept a pair of crutches she’d foisted upon him and passes off a prescription for pain meds and both of their check up schedules to you.

“It’s important that they don’t miss these dates,” she tells you at the reception counter, tapping the sheath of papers with one clean, blunted nail. “A single one of them. And make sure they don’t shift ‘til I’ve given them the all clear. Hybrid injuries are tricky, but they’re aggravated by the shift.” You nod, hanging onto every word she says, forcing your tired brain to take mental notes. “And-” she cuts her eyes at Jeongguk and Jin, both of whom are lingering in various extremes in the room, the deer hybrid sitting ramrod straight in a chair in the far right corner and the rabbit pretending to browse informational pamphlets. Once Dr. Cheon’s deemed it safe, she leans closer to you across the counter and gestures for you to come closer as well. You blink in confusion but acquiesce. “It’s important that your current hybrids be made to feel secure with the new additions coming.” She tells you, voice gravely serious. “Do you know about scenting order?”

After a beat, you nod. “Yeah. I mean, I read about it online but-”

Dr. Cheon tuts her tongue against the back of her teeth. “Online sources are shaky at best, wildly inaccurate at worst- particularly forums.” Your stomach flips. Had all your research been for nothing? “What did they tell you?”

“Um…” your brain boots up slowly as you try to recall the hours of research you’d done. “Uh, dominant hybrid first, then in age order?”

The corner of Dr. Cheon’s mouth quirks in an odd way. “That’s certainly a simplified way of looking at it.”

You wince.

“Hybrid group dynamics can be…” She searches for the right word. “Messy to start out with, especially with hybrids who don’t know each other who find themselves with an inexperienced handler. They’re all going to be trying to figure out where they fit in the pecking order as well as how their relationship with you works. There’s likely to be a lot of posturing, not just in order to impress you, but to solidify their place as well.” Dr. Cheon drags a hand down over her face. “Seven male hybrids under one roof...It’d be a miracle if no one’s missing fingers by the time the week’s out.”

“Is there any way I can stop them from being mean to each other?”

“I’m not a behaviorist,” The doctor sighs. “But I’d suggest you start with a conversation.”

You slide into the back of the taxi a little after 5:30 AM and pull out your phone. You’d promised to call on the way back and you don’t want a repeat of what’d happened the last time you’d forgotten. You scroll down your contacts, thumb hovering over Yoongi’s name and you hesitate. You remember warm lips, a rough tongue. You remember hands gripping your hips tight and a possessive growl in your ear. You press Taehyung’s name instead.

The tiger hybrid picks up on the third ring. “Hello?” His voice is slow and scratchy, still thick with sleep.

“Hey, it’s Y/N-” Almost immediately a happy rumbling starts from his end of the line. You can hear the sleepy joy in it and it makes your face warm.”A-and I just wanted to let you guys know I’m on the way home.”

Taehyung hums in acknowledgement, a low, musical sound. “Where’d you go?”

You bite your lip as nerves spark up in you. Well, all things considered, it was probably better for him to find out now rather than later. “The last two hybrids my uncle got…they were hurt and I had to come get them.”

The line is quiet for a moment and you gnaw at the bottom of your lip. Finally, Taehyung speaks. “Ah.” That’s all he says. Somehow, that’s worse than whatever Yoongi growling at the new hybrids or Jimin icing them out.

“I’ll be home in about another forty-five minutes, okay? Could you have everyone get together in the living room for me? We need to have a conversation.”

“Yeah, I can.”

You wince. There’s an almost imperceptible change in his voice. You swallow. “Taehyung, are you upset?”

He hums again like he’s considering it. “No,” he answers after a moment. “I don’t think i am. At least, not with you.”

That does little to allay your fears, but you force yourself to sound upbeat when you tell him, “I’ll see you when I get home, okay?”

“Okay. I’ll see you when you get home.”

The line clicks off and you drop your head against the headrest. A conversation. It should be a simple thing, but you spend the entirety of your taxi ride back to Gangnam with your stomach in knots. If the thought of introducing your two (very injured, very vulnerable) new hybrids to a house full of predators wasn’t enough, you have to try to allay Jeongguk’s inexplicable fear of the taxi driver. The middle aged man isn’t thrilled about ferrying hybrids across the city anyway, but between Seokjin swooning and Jeongguk thumping his foot so hard the whole car rattles whenever the man so much as looks in his rearview mirror, he’s almost ready to put all three of you out on the side of the highway. You have to promise him a 50,000 won tip just to get him to relent. He rolls up the partition, but even that doesn’t put Jeongguk at ease.

The rabbit hybrid is curled up in the corner of the backseat, his back against the door, his injured arm cradled close and his knees pulled up to his chin. His ears are on high alert, twitching at every passing car or stray siren. His whole body is tensed up like there’s a current running through it, like if he lets himself relax for a second, he’ll disperse into nothing. He’s glaring daggers at the partition, but you know he can’t see the driver. The car rolls over a speed bump a bit too fast and he flinches, hand shooting out for the door handle.

You watch him, concern coloring your scent. It’s not your place to ask, you know, and you feel almost stupid doing it, but the words slip out of their own accord. “Are you okay?” It’s a ridiculous question. You can still see the bruises blooming on his cheekbone, see the angry red of his split lip in the stray light of street lamps. His dark eyes flick toward you, round nose twitching.

“How do you know he’s taking us somewhere safe?” His gaze shifts from you, to the partition, to Seokjin, dozing fitfully on your otherside. The deer hybrid had finally surrendered to his pain meds not a second after you’d helped buckle him in. He’d been out cold before the driver had pulled away from the curb.

“Because that’s what I paid him to do,” you tell him, truthfully. You’d never given much thought to how much trust you placed in taxi and bus drivers to not kidnap you before. You certainly had to now, especially when Jeongguk seemed hyperaware of the fact that you’d entrusted all of your lives to a stranger. The rabbit hybrid swallows, his adam’s apple bobbing in the long column of his throat. He gives a little shake of his head.

“He could take your money and still take us somewhere bad. He could take us up into the mountains and Seokjin and I wouldn’t be able to do anything because we’re hurt and-”

“That’s not going to happen, Jeongguk,” you say in as soothing a voice as you can manage to muster up. “It’s really unlikely that that’ll happen, but even if it did, I’d do my best to protect you.”

He snorts, ears tilting back. They brush the roof of the car as they do and he shrinks himself, shoulders hunching forward. “What can you do?” His tone is derisive. “You’re only human. You’re not as fast as us or as strong-”

“I’d try,” you insist, some strong, unnameable emotion tightening your chest at the thought of them in danger. “If if came down to it, I’d still try to protect the pair of you-”

“You don’t even know me.” Jeongguk’s voice is edging somewhere between disgust and disbelief. You look away from him then and at your hands, gripping your knees.

“I don’t,” you agree easily. “But I’d like to. Even if I don’t- even if I didn’t, people should still help each other when they can. We owe each other that much.” The taxi is quiet for a moment, only the sound of tires rushing over the slick pavement and other cars zooming by filling the empty air between the two of you. Finally, the rabbit hybrid exhales shakily.

“I’m not a person.” He sounds resigned to that fact, like he’s accepted a burden far too heavy for him. “I’m not even an animal. I’m a-”

“Just because you aren’t human…” you start off hesitantly, very much aware that you might be crossing several invisible lines. “...doesn’t mean you’re not a person. You have your own thoughts and feelings and emotions. You deserve to have them heard. I know I’m not as fast as you or as strong, but the least I can do is listen to you, right?” The car is silent again. You’re too nervous to look at Jeongguk, worried that you’d gone too far- but then there’s a warm weight against your side. It starts slow at first, just your shoulders brushing against each other, but before you know it, Jeongguk’s leaning his whole body against yours. He’s slumped over with his head tucked beneath your chin like he doesn’t have the strength to hold himself up anymore. You swallow, your throat suddenly dry. “Jeongguk-”

“I’m afraid.” He admits in a whisper, like it’s the worst thing in the world. “Everything in me tells me to run all the time, but I can’t anymore.” His ears droop and his pretty dark eyes slip shut. This close, you can hear his heart beating at breakneck speed in his chest, feel how he shudders with every shaky inhale. “I’m so tired of running.” He’s terrified. You wouldn’t have guessed from his posture. Maybe the reason he held himself so tight was to stop himself from shaking apart.

You watch in surprise as the rabbit hybrid links his fingers with yours and drops your hand on top of his head, right between his velvety ears. “Help me like this.” You’re frozen, unsure what to do with a six foot tall man practically crawling into your sweatshirt with you. Was this really okay? He’d just been through something traumatic, the details of which you know nothing about. You hadn’t thought he’d want anyone to touch him, much less you, a virtual stranger. You don’t know what to do. The car jerks to a quick stop and the taxi driver leans on his horn, curses jaywalkers. Jeongguk’s grip on you tightens and he flinches so hard you’re surprised he didn’t knock his head into your teeth. He exhales shakily, tilts his head up and brushes his nose along the underside of your jaw. “Please,” he asks in a voice so small you know it’s killing him. “Just ‘til we get there, please just let me be weak.”

That breaks something inside you. Despite how awkward you might feel, he’s sure to be feeling worse. You wrap your arms fully around him, hesitant until you feel him go lax in your arms. You slowly stroke the back of his head and he buries his face in your clavicle, his eyes squeezed shut. “We’re almost there,” you assure him gently as he fists his good hand in the fabric of your sweatshirt. “You’re almost home.”

By the time the three of you arrive back at Haneul tower, the sky is lightening in the east and the first wave of office workers are making their way from your building into the streets of Gangnam. It’s not even 6 AM yet, but the city is stirring.

It takes you a good ten minutes to rouse both the boys and get them out of the taxi. After you’d let Jeongguk cling to you, the rabbit hybrid had fallen asleep quickly, the exhaustion from his turbulent day finally catching up to him. Even in sleep he was latched on to you, a small crease between his brows and his nose wrinkled up. Seokjin hadn’t fared much better. The cocktail of meds Dr. Cheon had given him had rendered him dead to the world for the entirety of the drive back. Even now you were having trouble rousing him.

“Seokjin…” You shake the sleeping stag’s shoulders but the only response you get is a slight hitch in his snoring. “Seokjin, please wake up, we have to go…” You can practically feel the glare the taxi driver is giving you in his rearview mirror. Yeah, the meter is still running, but you’ve taken up enough of his time as it is. “Seokjin, come on…” Jeongguk is standing behind you, staring bleary-eyed up at the apartment building, his free hand fisted in the fabric of your sweatshirt. If he’s cold in his thin tee-shirt and bare feet, he makes no mention of it.

Without warning, the taxi driver leans on the horn. Seokjin’s eyes fly open and he sits bolt upright, fear making his body tight. Jeongguk jerks so violently you think he’s going to rip a hole in your sweatshirt. You stumble back a few paces, trying to steady the rabbit and stop the pair of you from tumbling into the street. When you manage to right yourself, you slam a palm against the roof of the car and glare in the window at the driver. “Yo, what the fuck?”

The man glares back at you and waves you off. “I don’t have all day!” He shouts. “Get your animal and get out!”

You want to argue with him, you want to make him apologize- but the sight of Seokjin disoriented and afraid stops you. He’s looking at you with hazy eyes, his whole body stiff and his chest heaving. It’s for his sake alone that you hold your tongue. You reach a hand out to him. “Come on, buddy.” You say. “I got you.” He looks from your face to your hand and finally, slowly, places his own in it. His fingers are long and elegant and his hand dwarfs your’s. You tug him from the backseat and he leans heavily on you, hopping awkwardly to avoid walking on his broken foot. You pass him his crutches and he takes them, wobbling awkwardly as he tries to set himself to rights. “Can you stand?” You ask him. He nods and starts limping for the glass doors of Haneul Tower. He’s doing his best to look strong. His back is straight and his head is high, but you don’t miss the tremble in his fingers or the way he winces whenever the wind blows over the top of his head. You shove some bills at the taxi driver with a final, disapproving look, usher Jeongguk up onto the sidewalk and head inside after Seokjin.

The moment the three of you breach the double doors, Jeongguk drops his hand from your sweatshirt. His eyes rove over the glass and granite, round nose twitching at all the scents and his ears standing at attention on top of his head. He pauses, a little furrow between his brows. You’re halfway to the elevators, hovering a foot behind Seokjin in case he falls, before you notice the rabbit hybrid isn’t following you.

You cast a look back over his shoulder and find him gawking up at the hanging lights, mouth slightly ajar and starry-eyed. The corner of your mouth twitches. He’s cute, you decide. The thought leaves you almost instantly when you see Mr. Park powerwalking over to him, a sunny smile on his face. Jeongguk takes notice of him only a split second after you do and his eyes wide. You see him tense up, watch the fingers on his uninjured hand curl into a ball.

“You need to get him,” Seokjin says, sounding like he’s out of breath. You turn your attention back to the deer hybrid. He’s leaning heavily on his crutches and his face is pale. “You need to get him,” he repeats, nodding at Jeongguk. “That man gets any closer and Jeongguk will kick him.”

You whip back around. Mr. Park is closing the distance between them, seemingly unconcerned by the look of distress on the rabbit hybrids face or how his foot seems to be tapping a mile a minute.

“Excuse me!” The older man says, reaching out to put a hand on the rabbit hybrid’s shoulder. “Where’s your-”

“Mr. Park!” You practically sprint over as fast as you can, sliding between the receptionist and the hybrid just as he’d started winding his leg back. Mr. Park blinks, surprised to find you so suddenly in front of him. You offer him a tight smile. “He’s with me.”

“Oh! Ms. L/N, I apologize. He didn’t have a collar, so I assumed he was a stray.” The statement pricks at you, but you know he means nothing by it, so you try to stamp down your irritation. “It’s rare but we do occasionally have them come in in the hope someone will take them in.” He clucks his tongue against his teeth. “Such a shame really.”

You feel Jeongguk’s hand fist in the fabric of your sweatshirt. He wants to go. You nod emphatically at what Mr. Park says, already heading back to the elevators. “Yeah, totally,” you agree, shuffling the rabbit hybrid in front of you and putting some distance between him and the elderly man. “Well, have a good morning! I’ll see you later!”

“Ms. L/N, I actually need to speak with you-”

You wave him off and duck into the elevator Seokjin had called in your brief absence. “We’ll talk later!” You tell him, pressing the close door buttons as quickly as you can and willing them to shut before he can catch up.

“But it’s about your-!”

The doors click shut and you’re blessed with silence. You exhale in a short puff, press the button for the penthouse and slump against the cool metal wall, finally letting yourself relax for a moment. The elevator starts rolling and Jeongguk flinches beside you. He duck his head like he’s going to crouch down- but he stops himself, grips the railing instead.

“It’s okay,” You soothe. “It’s just-”

“I’m fine,” he insists, forcing himself to stand up straight and release the death grip he has on your sweatshirt. “I’m fine; my time’s up.”

It’s just like he’d said in the car. Just ‘til we get there, let me be weak.

The rest of the elevator ride passes in silence outside of the automated bell dinging as you pass each new floor and Seokjin panting quietly. He’s in a bad way. He’ll need another dose of pain meds soon. You arrive on the top floor, punching in the key code and pull the door open. “Let me get Seokjin settled, Jeongguk and I-” You run directly into someone.

Their arms wrap around you, covered in a brown cable knit sweater. It’s soft and they smell of vanilla. They press their cheek against the top of your head and exhale, a little rumble kicking up in their chest. “You’re back.” Taehyung.

“Hey, buddy.” You pat him on the back gently and peer around him. Yoongi and Jimin are both sprawled on the couch, legs kicked out so there isn’t room for anyone else to join them. Namjoon is sitting on the stairs shooting daggers at the back of Yoongi’s head and his arms crossed over his chest.Hoseok is lingering in the no man’s land between the living room and kitchen looking like he’d much rather be anywhere else. The atmosphere is tense to say the least.

Taehyung dips his head down. “I got them, like you said,” he whispers, lips brushing against the tip of your ear and his breath warm. You have fight off a little shiver, but if he notices it, he doesn’t react. “I don’t think Hyung and Jiminie like the others very much.”

You give a little nod of acknowledgement. “That’s okay,” you tell him. “We all just need to get to know each other a little better.”

Seokjin hobbles through the door, past the tiger hybrid and drops himself onto a stool on the kitchen with a heavy exhale. “Well, I’ve got maybe fifteen minutes at most before these meds catch a second wind, so let’s get this over with.” He’s doing his best to sound cavalier but he’s pallid. You don’t miss the thin sheen of cold sweat on his face and neck. “Seokjin. Twenty-eight. Red stag.”

All the other hybrids are staring at him in a mix of confusion, irritation and, in some cases, open dislike. It seems like they don’t know what to make of him. It’s Yoongi who speaks first. “If you’re a stag,” he drawls and you already feel dread welling up in you at what you know is going to follow. “Where are your antlers?”

Seokjin fixes him with a tight-lipped smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I only put them on for special occasions.”

“Okay!” You clap your hands together trying to diffuse the tension you can feel building. “New house rule: let’s not ask each other about injuries past or present unless we’re asking how to help.” Yoongi looks miffed, but he settles. It’s weird. Normally, you’d have expected him to say something snarky back to you. He’s trying not to push his luck after last night, you think. “Yoongi, why don’t you go next?”

His ears flick in annoyance, but he does as you ask. “I’m Yoongi, I’m twenty-seven and I’m a bobcat-”

“I’m Jimin,” his junior pipes up before he’s hardly had time to finish. “I’m an amur leopard and I came here with Yoongi-hyung and Tae. We’ve been with Y/N the longest.” He says it like it’s an important piece of information for everyone to know.

Beside you, Taehyung lifts one hand, palm up. “Hi,” he says calmly. “I’m Taehyung. I like the color purple.” Everyone watches him to see what else he’s going to say, but the tiger hybrid is finished. You give him a little nudge with your shoulder.

“Tell them how old you are and what your hybrid is,” you suggest.

“Oh,” he lifts his eyebrows like the thought genuinely hadn’t occurred to him. “I’m twenty-four and I’m a tiger.” Suddenly remembering something, he tilts his head forward in a little bow. “It’s nice to meet you all.” A sour look takes over Yoongi’s face and Jimin rolls his eyes, gestures for the youngest of their group to come sit beside him.

Hoseok is the next one to pipe up. “I’m Hoseok!” He seems to perk up a little when you turn your eyes to him, his docked tail giving as much of a wag as it’s able. “I’m a Doberman, I’m twenty-six and Joonie and I came from the same pla-”

“My name is Namjoon.” The wolfdog cuts off the other canine with a growl. All the wind goes out of Hoseok’s sails and you don’t miss the way Seokjin freezes up at the dark sound, suddenly alert. You weren’t sure if prey hybrids still avoided predator hybrids like their animal counterparts did, but you’d need to learn and fast. Namjoon leans back on the stairs, his jaw clenched. “I’m the same age as him-” he jerks his head at the Doberman hybrid. “-so I guess I’m twenty-six too.” He makes no mention of his hybrid and you don’t press. You don’t know how sensitive a subject it is for him yet, but you don’t want to find out the hard way.

Hoseok looks back at you and cocks his head to the side, his gaze fixed on a spot just over your shoulder. “Who’s he?”

Five pairs of eyes follow his. You turn around. Outside the apartment, still in the corridor, is Jeongguk, his back pressed against the wall and his eyes wide as he surveys the mixed bag of hybrids spread out in front of you. Your eyebrows furrow in concern.

“Do you wanna come in?”

His gaze flicks from you, to the cats, then to Hoseok and finally to Namjoon. It’s only when he sees the wolfdog hybrid that he moves from the wall. He takes halting, jittery steps one after the other until he’s planted by your side, his eyes on his bare feet. Every move he makes makes it look like he’s fighting against his own body, forcing himself to tamp down his instinct and move.

“Can you introduce yourself?” You ask him softly. “Or do you want me to?”

His good hand clenches into a fist and forces himself to look up. He meets each of the other hybrid’s eyes evenly. “My name is Jeongguk.” When he speaks, there’s no shake in his voice. “I’m twenty-three years old. I came from the same place as Seokjin but we don’t know each other that well. I’m a Flemish Giant Rabbit.” So that was why he was so big. You’d never seen a Flemish Giant in real life, but you’d happened across the odd youtube video of them once or twice in your suggestions. They were huge.

With introductions out of the way, you feel a little tension melt out of your shoulders. That was the biggest hurdle. Maybe now that they all at least knew each other, they’d be a little more open to being around each other. You let out a little exhale. “And I’m Y/N. I’m also twenty-three and this is my uncle’s apartment. He’s the only that bought all of you but I only found out you were coming a little over a week ago, so please forgive me for being unprepared.” You rub your palms against your eyes, trying to combat the exhaustion you can feel crawling over you. “I don’t know that much about hybrids, but I’m trying to learn. A lot of things you’re gonna have to help me with. I’m not expecting you guys to be pets or best friends or anything, but if we could all try to get along I’d appreciate it.” You offer all seven them a weary smile. “Thanks for getting up early to do this, guys, I appreciate it. If there’s anything you need, literally anything, please don’t be scared to ask-”

“Um, Y/N?” Hoseok is looking at you like he’s been dying to say something for the past five minutes. You turn your attention to him and squint as you try to focus on what he’s saying. “I did a sweep of the apartment earlier-” That was concerning. You make a mental note to tell him he doesn’t have to do security sweeps anymore. “-and there’s only four bedrooms.”

You blink at him in confusion.

“There’s eight of us.”

Oh. Oh. You drag your hands down over your face. You hadn’t accounted for lack of space being an issue. When you first moved in, Oliver’s penthouse seemed like it went on forever. “Okay,” you start, crunching some quick numbers. “Some of us are gonna have to double up.” There’s a disgruntled mrow from the couch and without looking, you know it’s Jimin. “Yoongi, Jimin and Taehyung are already sharing so they’re exempt, but Seokjin needs his own room- at least until he recovers.”

“That’s fine by me,” the stag chimes in. “But that leaves Jeongguk without a-”

“Hyung, can I stay with you?” The room goes quiet.

“Seokjin really needs his own room-” You pull your face out of your hands to address the rabbit hybrid, but he isn’t looking at the stag. His eyes are fixed on Namjoon who’s looking at him in a mix of confusion and alarm. The wolfdog looks from the rabbit to you.

“I saw a camp bed out in the greenhouse while you were showing us around last night.” He says, standing to go. “I’ll sleep out there.”

“Namjoon, you don’t have to sleep outside-”

“I like it out there.” He calls back over his shoulder as he climbs the stairs. “I can see the sky.” Then he’s gone and the six of you are left.

“Well,” Jimin purrs, rising and crossing the living room to you. “Best of luck.” He rubs his cheek against yours, folding you into a loose hug. You think he’s about to pull away, but he whispers in your ear, “If you want to share with us, you know where we sleep.” And then he’s gone, sauntering up the stairs with Taehyung and Yoongi in tow. The bobcat tosses a look at you, but you look away quickly, missing the way his ears sage when you do.

Now, the only ones left are you, Jeongguk, Hoseok and Seokjin who’s rapidly fading. “I’ll take the couch,” you volunteer. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing in the world, but right now, the stark white cushions look like heaven to your sleep-deprived mind. “Seokjin can have my room-”

“He can have mine,” Hoseok interjects. “And, if it’s okay, could I stay with you?” There’s a light whine on the end of his words and you don’t miss the way his ears prick up in anticipation of your answer. “It’s what I wanted to ask you earlier.”

Oh. When Jimin interrupted him, that’s what he’d been trying to say: he wanted to sleep in your room to be closer to you. To protect you.

“Yeah,” you agree easily. “Yeah, that’s fine.” Sharing beds wasn’t a big deal for you. You’d grown up in a flat with your mom and had shared a bed with her til she’d been taken from you. Then in foster homes with too many kids and not enough resources, you’d had to double- and sometimes even triple- up. It was a matter of convenience and space.

Hoseok’s tail gives a little wag and he nods, happy with your decision.

“Great!” Seokjin cheers weakly. “Now can someone please help me lie down.”

It’s Hoseok that helps the stag hybrid up the stairs and into bed. He’s stronger than you and taller, so it only makes sense. You show Jeongguk to his new room and stay with him for a few minutes while he feels it out, making sure it’s safe. It’s only once he’s sequestered himself under the covers and dismissed you that you leave, closing the door quietly behind you as the rabbit hybrid settles down for some much needed sleep. You turn to head back for the stairs- but you find Yoongi at the other end of the corridor, staring you down. You stare back. He swallows.

“Can we talk?” He asks, his voice quieter than you ever remember hearing it.

You give a little nod. “Yeah,” you assent. “We need to.”

He meets you halfway, his hands shoved into the pockets of his joggers and his gaze anywhere but on your face. The seconds stretch out and you exhale, closing your eyes. “Yoongi, about last night-”

“I’m sorry,” he interjects. “About what happened in the elevator. It was disrespectful and immature. I won’t do it again.”

You balk at him. You’d honestly expected him to tell you you were being childish for reacting so strongly to it when you’d told him he could mark you whenever he was ready. But he hadn’t. He shuffles back a few steps, his head still low.

“Well, that was all I wanted to say to you, so-”

“Do you understand?” You ask him. He stops short. “Do you understand why I was upset?”

His tongue darts out to wet his lips and you see a little furrow between his gray eyebrows. “Because I marked you.”

“No,” you insist, emphatically. “I was upset because it didn’t feel like you were doing it for me.” He does look up at you then, yellow eyes unreadable. “It didn’t feel like you were marking me because we’re friends or you wanted me to be a part of your group. It felt like you were doing it to show off in front of Namjoon and Hoseok.” You swallow. “And that hurt my feelings.” It feels good to say. It feels good to talk about.

He lets out a little chirp of distress. “I don’t wanna hurt you,” he rasps. “I just-” He rakes a hand back through his hair and shakes his head. “Fuck, I just felt like if I didn’t do something right then you’d get bored of me and send me away. I thought you’d replace me with them.”

Your heart twists. You know the feeling more intimately than you’d like to admit. You reach out, hesitantly and squeeze Yoongi’s arm. “Yoongi, I’m not gonna send you away. Ever. It’s important to me that you know that. Unless you wanna go, you can stay. There’s room enough for all of you.”

“No there’s not, that’s why we’re sharing rooms,” he drawls.

You roll your eyes and let out a little chuckle. “Okay, smart-ass.”

The corner of his mouth curls up at the playful insult. After a moment, he speaks. “I don’t, for the record,” he says. “Wanna go, I mean.” He stares down into your face, yellow eyes intense. The seconds drag on and something between the two of you grows tight. He leans down, face nuzzling the soft spot between your ear and your jaw. He huffs. “Bunny scented you,” he mutters, tail flicking in annoyance, but there’s no heat behind it. You’re relieved.

“He was afraid in the car,” you answer softly. “I think it helped.” Your hands slip from his arms around his back and he purrs. It’s the first time you’ve heard him make that sound. It sends warm vibrations through your whole body and you giggle. Yoongi smiles against your skin and your heart leaps. He’s never smiled around you before. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. You know it’s there. “Do you want to try again?”

Yoongi exhales, his breath warm on your neck. “Can I?”

“Yeah,” you say, tilting your head to the side for him. “You can.”

This time is different, you can feel that from the onset. His fingers wrap gently around your hips and he nuzzles into your skin. He nips lightly at the skin below your ear, the corner of your jaw, all down the column of your neck until he reaches the spot where it joins your shoulder. He hums, wraps his arms around you fully and pulls you flush against the hard line of his body. Your breath hatches and you can practically hear your heart thudding traitorously in your chest.

It’s not a big deal, you tell yourself as he laves his rough tongue against your feverish skin. It’s not a big deal; marking isn’t sexual. This isn’t a big deal, there’s no need to be nervous or get- the points of his teeth scrape over the mark before he laps at again and you have to bite back a whimper. Your knees feel a little weak- that is, until Yoongi slots his thigh between them, keeping you up while he finishes his work. Your hands ball up into fists in the fabric of his t shirt and you grit your teeth together with the effort of keeping quiet. He pulls off your neck with a wet pop and you swear you’re imagining it when he presses a final kiss to his mark. He noses your ear, still purring and you think he’s gonna mark you more- but then his warmth is gone and his standing before you, eyes a little hazier but no worse for wear.

He reaches up and flicks you in the forehead. You grumble at him, covering the spot up with your hands before he can do it again. A lazy smirk spreads out on his face. “Welcome to the family,” he drawls. Then he’s turning on his heel and heading back to his shared bedroom. “Don’t wipe this one off this time, okay?”

You nod mutely after him as he disappears, your hand cupping your mark. “What was that?” You wonder. You descend the stairs in a daze, your mind whirling. None of your research had told you creating a mark would be like that. You’d thought it was a quick thing and Yoongi had just been showboating for the canines. Even in the videos you watched, the hybrid had leaned in close to the human, given then a few quick swipes with their tongue and moved on. Then again, those hybrids had all been domesticated dog or cat breeds. “Are exotics different?” You muse, turning the handle to your bedroom- and promptly tripping over someone.

This time, you don’t go all the way down. You make it halfway before Hoseok catches you. “Ah, I’m sorry, Y/N!” The dog hybrid whines, fussing over you as he sets you back to rights. “I’ll do better about staying out of your way, I promise-”

“It’s okay,” you soothe, trying to stop him from fretting. “It’s okay, I’m okay.” You survey the floor of your bedroom. It seemed like in his security sweep earlier, Hoseok had found the linen cabinet and made use of the spare blankets. His pillow and a comforter are set up in a little pallet on the floor in front of your door. It seems he’d been putting the final touches on it when you’d stumbled over him. “Hoseok…” you start slowly. The Doberman looks at you, ears pricked up. “Hoseok, I wasn’t expecting you to sleep on the floor.”

He cocks his head to the side, doglike even in his confusion. “Then where…?”

“The bed is big enough,” you say, gesturing to the queen sized bed dominating the center of the room. “I don’t mind sharing if you’re comfortable with it.”

His adam’s apple bob’s in his throat as he swallows, suddenly serious. “Yeah,” he says with a nod. “Yeah, I’m comfortable with it.”

You nod and pat him on the shoulder, passing him as you head to bed. “Come on, then.” You collapse onto your bed face-first and slip back under the covers with a groan. “I’m just gonna take a quick nap before I’ve gotta get up and deal with stuff…”

The room is quiet, but somewhere in it, you can hear Hoseok shuffling around. “Maybe I should check to make sure everything is safe one more time?”

You exhale, your eyes slipping shut. “Hoseok…”

“Did you lock the front door after you came in? I think the rabbit...Jeongguk was the last one in? I don’t remember him locking-”

“Hope, bed. Now.” He doesn’t say anything else, but a few seconds later, you feel the far side of the bed dip with his weight. You sigh as he shifts to get under the blankets and you snuggle down further into your pillow. “Sleep well, Hobi.”

He mumbles something under his breath about security being a serious issue, but you don’t catch it. You’re already halfway to dreamland.

#thebtswritersclub #hybridbtsnetwork #bts fic #bts x reader #bts x y/n #hybrid!bts #ot7 x reader #seokjin x reader #namjoon x reader #jhope x reader #yoongi x reader #jungkook x reader #jimin x reader #taehyung x reader

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lostbetweenvampiresandmusic · 4 years ago

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Can you do a poly lost boys x fem!reader where maybe they’ve been together for a while but for some reason they refuse to turn her yet, and she just doesn’t understand why they chose to choose Star. So she gives them an ultimatum... either turn her or give her a baby? I think the boys faces would be hysterical and I’m eager to see how they would react and which option they would choose... if you feel up to doing it that is!

I hope you like it!💜

-----------

You didn't mean to feel jealous. Honestly, you knew they loved you. You knew they didn't care for her like that - and yet. For some reason they decided to change her - the girl they had only known for four months - before even offering you the option. That while you'd been dating them for well over a year!

Needless to say - you were pissed. You didn't really hate Star for it, the poor thing had definitely no say in this matter seeing her responses. No, your boys were the ones to blame here. You'd been stuck inside your apartment all day, and knew that if you were stuck inside any longer you'd probably go insane. You needed to talk - yell - at the boys, needing to get some sort of explanation as to why they chose this random girl to change instead of someone they claimed to love.

You drove to the cave, slamming your car door shut loudly. Stomping down the stairs - they were allowed to know you were mad at them - you entered the cave, glaring at the four boys.

"Star, please go somewhere else."

Your voice sounded cold in a way that it even surprised you. It did the trick however, since Star got up, hurrying past you.

"What's going on, Y/N?" David hadn't moved from his wheelchair. He still sat with one leg resting on the armrest, as if everything was fine.

"What's going on?" you raised your eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"You're pissed, I don't know why. So yeah - What's. Going. On?"

You shook your head, glaring at the leader of the group. "What am I to you?" you turned to the others. "To all of you, hm? Because I'd really like to know."

"Babe, you know I love-" Paul started, but shut up immediately as he saw your glare. Dwayne just looked at you, a puzzled expression on his face. He had a huge this was about Star - he just didn't quite know why. Marko just looked at you, not moving to do anything.

"You are our mate," David spoke finally. You nodded, an empty laugh leaving your mouth.

"So, I'm your mate? Good. You know -" you were walking around, not sure what to do really but just throw out all the thoughts youd been cooking inside, "you told me this before. All of you did. And I fucking believed it. Your crappy stories about how I would never grow old? Never die? That I would stay with you all forever? What was all that - just some bullshit to get a good fuck?!"

"It wasn't a lie," Dwayne finally opened his mouth. "And you know that too. You're just passed because of Star-"

"Damn right I am!" you yelled - feeling a tiny but of guilt towards Dwayne because he seemed to understand. "You fucking idiots change her into a vampire, while I - the girl you claim to love, the girl you've been with for over a year - have not once been asked if I wanted to turn. Not once been given the possibility of even considering it! And she - some random fucking stray you picked up can change?"

"You want to be a fucking vampire?" David growled, his face morphing, his eyes yellow, sharp fangs almost shining in the dim light of the cave. "Cause that can be arranged."

"What I don't get," you continued, ignoring David completely as you spoke normally again, "is why you would even keep me around if you don't intend to turn me - because, let's be honest-" there was the empty laugh again -" if you would want to change me, you would have done so already. So there must be another reason you keep me human."

"Don't be ridiculous. All this because you're jealous of Star? You know we don't like her!" Paul looked at you.

"You don't get it, do you? For over a year I hear all of you tell stories, about how great things will be once I am one of you. How amazing our sex would be, how much more fun we could have. And after a year, not once have u been given the opportunity to change. And then she comes along and she can?" You looked at Paul, shaking your head. "You would feel jealous too."

"Let me make it clear," you looked at the boys, and then returned your full attention to David. "Either you change me, or you get me pregnant."

The four boys looked in silence, frozen in place.

"What?" Marko spoke up.

"Well clearly you don't want me to change, so you'll have another purpose for me in mind. The only one I can think kpof that would have any meaning for any of you would be to get me pregnant with a kid you could call your own. So -" you turned to look at them. "What's it going to be, boys? Change or pregnancy?"

"Babe, you can't just expect us to pick like this!"

"I can, Paul."

"It's unfair," Dwayne spoke, looking at you.

"So is promising to turn me, and then turning another."

The boys were quiet.

"Vampires can't get humans pregnant," Marko said quietly.

"Do you want us to get rid of Star?" David looked at you.

"And cause her to become an even bigger victim? No thanks."

"We can change you," Paul said, "if you still want."

"Of course I want to," you said, stepping away from your four boys. "I do. You just - I always trusted that you would turn me at some point in the future and when she came along that trust was broken. It may be unfair, but it's the way it is."

"What are you saying?" Dwayne said, a hunt of worry in his eyes.

"That if you still see me as your mate, you have to re-earn my trust, and this time around you bloody give me the option of changing."

They were quiet again, realising how it must have felt to think you were theirs and then seeing some random vampire girl with them.

David signed, lighting a cigarette. He sighed, shaking his head. "Deal."

#the lost boys #the lost boys x reader #marko #david #paul #dwayne #star #the lost boys 1987 #tlb #tlb 1987

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somebodyhelpthenotdeadfreds · 3 years ago

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Fragments of an Exploded Star

Happy birthday @agentmarymargaretskitz !!!! My podcast co-host, my co-author, my dear friend, we built this friendship on an AU we never finished, so why not start another? I present, the first in a series of assorted one-shots, the LOT/Star Wars AU. Where I have taken all the bits of canon from both universes, put them in my Nutribullet, and blended it into pure brain rot.

I thought this was going to be Constangreen, then morphed into a class Legends poly fic, where they're all dating in some way.

And yes, angst. More angst for the angst queen. Happy birthday, you beautiful tropical fish.

******

Cassie could do flips now.

She’d practiced by jumping off the furniture in the den, then off the table in the eating area, off the back of a Shaak, and Behrad had caught her about to tumble from the roof on more than one occasion. She’d always sigh and say she would be careful, but then he’d catch her at it a week later. Even after scolding her for almost getting hurt again, Behrad couldn’t hide a smile.

He watched her walk out to the field, climb to the top of the hill, and roll down. Every few moments, she’d pop back to the top of the hill and climb down. He could hear her screeching laugh as she tumbled down, like the first time he’d shown her how to do that.

“Did my mom show you how to do that, Uncle Behrad?”

“Yeah, Cass,” he smiled at her, wiping the dirt from her face. “She did, when she was your age.”

It took hours for the tears to subside enough to start to breathe again, when Behrad could look at Gary again without feeling the pain come back to his chest. Ever since he showed up with the little squirming bundle in his arms, and Behrad had just known what had happened.

“I understand if you can’t,” Gary told him, gently rocking Cassie, who cooed now that she had a little wooden spoon in her tiny hand to play with.

Behrad shook his head, scrubbed his face again, and let out another shuddering breath. He reached out, and Gary carefully placed the baby in his arms. Behrad looked down at Cassie (a cute name, Zari had liked that name, told him that it was on the list of potential names, that John had joked the baby should just be named Starboard, that’s what Zari had said he’d said, one of the last things she’d said) and wiped a little drool off her chin.

He looked up at Gary. “She’ll be safe here.”

“Are you-”

“Please, Gary. I - I need to do this. For her.”

Behrad turned around when he heard a rustle behind him. “Getting sloppy, Gare.”

Gary smiled, not much to that bright grin these days. “Can be sloppy, around you.” He looked toward the hill, watching Cassie climb up it again, and throw herself down, squealing the whole time. His smile started to fade again. “Is that-”

“She’s safe. Just a hill, and it rained again. Worst thing that’ll happen is that she stained her clothes again.”

Gary nodded, sighed when Behrad put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. “Right. Sorry.” He smoothed out his beard, pulling himself back together. “I should come back here more.”

“You said it wasn’t safe for you to be here,” Behrad reminded him.

“In the Empire, nowhere is safe for us anymore. At least I can be near you both.”

“What about your search?”

“There are rumors,” Gary told him, gazing off at a stray cloud in the sky. “Rumors I don’t want to believe. And after Stein, after Leonard, after Carter and Kendra… I don’t know if I can keep looking. It feels like we lose more each day.”

The stray cloud above finally merged with the others in their little patch of sky. Behrad squeezed Gary’s shoulder again.

“Sometimes we just have to look at what we have, and hold onto that.”

Cassie’s squeals echoed off the walls of the house.

“Does she know?” Gary asked that question every time he visited. Behrad shook his head.

“Zari’s holos are in my room. I’ll show her when she’s ten. I promised her that, Gary. She can’t not know forever. She just knows her mom was my sister.”

“And her father?”

“When she’s ten.”

“John!”

John let the door shut, already a hand over Gary’s mouth, “Shhh, shhh, this is urgent.”

“Darhk’s been captured?"

“Okay, not that urgent.”

“What’s so important, John?”

John took a deep breath, glancing at the closed door. “It’s about Zari, and me. We’re - she’s-”

The words tangled in his throat and they couldn’t get out, but Gary picked up what he meant, from bouncing on his heels to his hands clenching and unclenching. “She’s pregnant.”

John looked had an almost nervous smile on his face. “Y-yeah.”

Gary lit up, hugging him close. “That’s - that’s amazing.”

“It’s kriffing scary, what it is.”

“Yeah, but exciting. I mean - oh, the council -”

“Don’t have to know,” John reassured him, hand on his jaw. “I’ll tell them.”

“John, you’ll be-”

“I know.” That smile was back on his face, nervous as it was, but a spark of hope burning rare and bright in his eyes. “But it’s okay. I - I can give this place up.”

Gary’s smile went away for a moment. John kissed his cheek. “Not you, love. Of course not you. I just - I think I can step away now. Thought about it enough.”

Gary knew he had. Since Astra had walked away, the thought had been in John’s mind since. He’d been in the Order since he was scooped off the streets of Coruscant as a child, and this had been all he had. But his heart was never in it the way Gary’s was. It was always looking towards a new horizon.

Gary’s smile returned, kissing John quickly and softly. “As long as you come back to me.”

The sound of a child’s laughter shook Gary from his thoughts, and he stepped back in the shadows of the house as Cassie waved to Behrad from the top of the hill. Behrad waved back, only turning when Cassie tossed herself down the hill again. “You know you have to meet her someday. You can’t only show up, see me, adn then take off.”

Gary sighed, his hand braced against his temple, watching as Behrad disappeared into the house. “Not until I have the answers she deserves. She’s eight now, B. I have less answers now than I did then. She’ll have so many questions when the time comes, and I have no answers for her.”

Behrad emerged a few moments later, a wrapped loaf of five-blossom bread in his hands, passing it to Gary. This meeting was about to end, and who knows when he’d see Gary again? It had only been three months this time, but before that, almost an entire year had passed. Gary seemed to know this, picking off a few crumbs from the top of the loaf, avoiding a reason to leave.

“She’s safe here,” Behrad told him, as he told him every time. “Go.”

Gary licked a few crumbs from his fingers, brushed them from his beard, before looking back to Behrad. “If you told me to stay, I would stay.”

“I know,” Behrad sighed, leaning against the window. “ But you have to find her answers. Just promise me you’ll come back to tell them to her yourself.”

Cassie laughed as she rolled to a stop at the hill, looking up at the sky, and watching a ship fly overhead. She pointed up, “Uncle Behrad, look!”

Behrad looked up at the ship as it slowly passed them, then zoomed off. “I see it, Cass. I see it.”

#legends of tomorrow #star wars #gary green #john constantine #behrad tarazi #there are many twists to come still!#I just wanted to get the first little taste out there #an amuse bouche if you will

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puppy-the-mask · 1 year ago

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What’s going on in Poly?Morph! (Because I wanna talk about it and ~World building~)

So the context is that basically the main house went through an anti-harem plot line. But it’s not exactly going well- It didn’t get a happy ending. The would be Mc (who I’ve named ‘Wren’ cause it’s gender neutral and sounds cool- also that means Slim can call them ‘songbird’ and I just think that’s cute) moved out and into an apartment with the CSF! Boys Razz and Slim. They’re dating Slim. At the same time Papyrus tried to amicably bring up the fact that their relationship is not at all healthy, which backfired and resulted in him getting sent away along with the other ‘outcasts’ aka- the guys that the would be antag (who is still unnamed) didnt like. This includes Chef, Bones, and Rant. Mutt wasn’t kicked out but he went with his brother. Later on Rus got away and moved in with the outcasts of his own accord as well, the situation being way too toxic for him as the others were just getting worse and sustaining a cycle of negativity.

Surprisingly Rus and Rant get along pretty well and got real close before the school year started. It’s some time mid first semester that they meet you! Who I will be calling Jack for now (which may change to either Bard or Druid). Y’all become fast friends and thus schenanigans ensue!

At some point the Fell brothers pay a visit, which goes splendidly - Jack and Edge get along just fine until things go horribly wrong~ Surprisingly Edge and Red are the coolest of the main house, they’re pretty done with all that shit- edge is ready to leave but red is still a little stuck so for now it’s just visits.

Which leads us to an AU (that may or may not become cannon) that I’m titleing ‘Here We Go Again’ where basically- about a year or 2 after ‘DND DAY’ Sans (who Jack only knows as ‘nilla’ from red talking about him- which I love) tried to isolate the soul signatures of those in the house and their brothers so he could keep them in the world and send the others away- whatever process utilized soul bonds to identify who to include but it didn’t exactly work out, so not only did it not work as intended but it flung them AND anyone bonded with a skeleton into another world. And won’t you look at that- it’s the very same world that the party escaped a year and a half(?) ago :3c what a coincidink! And my oh my they’re separated into groups!

Guess which group Jack ends up in- I bet you’ll never guess~! XD yeah you’re stuck with the main household- (Sans, Stretch, Blue, Black, and Red)who don’t even fuckinh know you. Thankfully Red does but that’s IT. And everything is ok at first but then dangers lurking around every corner AND HALF THE PARTY REFUSES TO LEARN HOW TO DEFEND THEMSELVES IN THIS WORLD CAUSE THEY JUST WANNA BE CIVILIANS BUT LIKE DUDE COME ON- I get it but work with me here. You don’t gotta kill shit just dont put the burden of keeping you alive all on one person and 2 people fighting a learning curve- even Blue wants to learn! He doesn’t wanna kill people- he’s just gonna knock the shit out of em! Take a page from his book! Jack is STRESSED sans and stretch’s CON’s are ABYSSMAL it’s so bad they’ll only take one hit and they’re freaking out cause they don’t have resurection scrolls yet and the body has to be functionable- and dust isn’t that! So yeah. But at least they get along! Until they don’t because shit goes DOWN and Jack may or may not maul some people as a bear

But in their defense they saw Rus get slashed and everything went red, nobody touches their man and lives to tell the tale.

#Poly?Morph!#Poly?Morph! Here We Go Again #worldbuilding #lore dump

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onyxiana-is-obsessed · 4 years ago

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Who Are You? | Katsuki Bakugou x Reader x Tamaki Amajiki

AN: This one’s... a roller coaster xD Pronouns used: She/her Length: 3.5k words

Summary: You see your husbands, Katsuki and Tamaki, die right in front of you but when you come home, you see them alive and well right there. Who are they?

Warnings: Poly (BakuTama) + You, blood, angst, light swearing

POST EDIT: No one said anything about the banner but I still deleted it <3 I don’t need it ^w^

Full Name: (y/f/n) Quirk: (y/q) (again there are examples of your quirk being used, but there's nothing specific so you can alter it to be yours) Age: 25 Hero Name: (h/n) Hero Rank: 5

"No!" (f/n) yelled as the villain repeatedly stabbed Katsuki's chest. The weakened blond only grunted in pain as the knife impaled his torso over and over again. The powerful villain smirked and threw Katsuki right at (f/n), who reached out and caught him, but fell to the ground with him, unable to continue standing. She turned him on his back, desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but there were just... so many stab wounds.

"Baby! N-no! K-keep your eyes open!" (f/n) cried, tears falling onto Katsuki's face. Her hero suit was now covered in his blood; some even getting onto her face as she pushed her hair out of the way. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably; she was shaking uncontrollably.

"(f-f/n)..." Katsuki breathed out, his bloody hand reaching up and weakly cupping her cheek. This wasn't happening. It wasn't real, it just wasn't.

"S-stay awake! FOR ME!" She yelled, watching as his eyes moved from hers and towards the dark ceiling. "Suki! B-baby! Stop! This isn't funny!" She yelled, sobs escaping her lips. She'd never felt so vulnerable before, except when she was watching her husband die in front of her eyes. Her eyes widened as she watched the light leave his beautiful ruby eyes. She wailed, hugging his body closer, finding any solace in the now cold body. Was he always so cold? No... his quirk... it made him warmer. "C-come back! D-don't leave me... I-I-"

"Don't forget this one." The villain called, holding up a weakened Tamaki by his hair. He grunted, blood spilling down his mouth. (f/n) placed Katsuki down and stood up, slowly inching closer to the two.

"P-please don't! H-He's my ev-everything... do-don't take him away too." She sobbed, making the tall, merciless villain smirk.

"Then beg!" He demanded and without hesitation, (f/n) fell to her knees.

"Please. I'm begging... don't do this." The villain laughed, but (f/n) didn't care, she needed Tamaki alive. He was everything she had left now and so it didn't matter what she did, it didn't matter who saw what, she just... needed Tamaki alive.

"Ah, you're cuter on your knees. But no can do." (f/n)'s eyes widened as the villain grabbed Tamaki's head and twisted it, a sickening crack ringing through the silence. (f/n)'s heart stopped, and she couldn't breathe.

"N-no..." She muttered, standing up to run to the villain, but he had other plans. He threw Tamaki's corpse at (f/n), causing him to collide with her and fall back onto the ground. He was heavy. Quickly scrambling up, (f/n) grabbed Tamaki's head, which limply laid in her arms. His eyes were open... with no sign of life. Anger burned in her chest and she could feel herself coming apart. They weren't gone, no they were just sleeping. They were tired and they needed rest. But (f/n) still needed to handle the villain... right?

Blood for blood.

No.

Tamaki and Katsuki would never approve of something like that. How dare she even think of that?! Tears rolled down (f/n)'s cheek as she hugged Tamaki's head, she was shaking again. Her face, suit, hands, everything was covered in blood. She begged every god out there to just let this be some nightmare. She'd wake up any second... because none of it was true.

Her quirk forced itself out, making her let out a loud scream she was holding back, shattering all the glass in the building and around the nearby buildings. Everyone felt the immense shock wave, as screams were heard outside, along with car alarms.

The burst was strong enough to push the villain back, slamming him into the wall, knocking him out immediately. (f/n) stood up, tiredly pulling Tamaki's corpse towards Katsuki's, where she sat down and just sobbed.

~**~

(f/n) stumbled into her house, shutting the door behind her and locking it. She leaned against the wood, slowly sliding down. She covered her mouth with her shaky, bloody hand as the realization hit her.

They were gone.

No more hugs, no more late-night cuddles, talks, no tickle fights, no competition to see who could make Tamaki blush the most, no more nights were the three cooked a meal together, no more giving Tamaki food and having him guess the mystery ingredients, none of that. Everything all taken one in one night... because she was too slow.

(f/n) failed to save them. They were supposed to have each other's backs, they were supposed to take care of each other... so how did this happen? They weren't... even supposed to be there tonight. Her eyes traveled to the picture frame on the wall and a sob left her lips.

It was a picture of Katsuki and Tamaki at the amusement park. The three had gone together and they took so many pictures that day, it was truly one of the best days of their lives. In the picture, Katsuki stood next to Tamaki with his arm around the dark-haired male, who was blushing with an ice cream in his hand. However, they both had bright smiles on their faces as (f/n) took the picture. She remembered that day vividly... realizing she'd never have another memory like that again.

Something snapped inside of the woman, anger flowed through her veins and her hands flew to her hair. Her eyes shut tight and she could feel her quirk starting to overload in her body. She began to hit her head, pulling at her hair and let out an ear-piercing scream. Her quirk was starting to build up pressure around her again and she was slowly losing her grip on it.

Both Tamaki and Katsuki awoke with a terrifying start. Instinctively, Katsuki pulled Tamaki into him, pointing his other hand towards the door. Since Tamaki's quirk wasn't very useful at the moment, he needed to rely on Katsuki. However, after a few seconds, they realized the screaming was coming from the living room.

"Th-that's Bunny!" Tamaki yelled, making both of them frantically get out of bed and run towards the source of the screams. Their eyes widened at the sight of their wife on the floor, crying, hitting her head, and covered in blood. Lots of blood.

"Baby!"

"Bunny!" Both of them ran to her, grabbing her hands in an attempt to stop her from hurting herself. They tried to shush and talk to her, but her screams were just so loud. Katsuki covered her mouth as Tamaki tried to get her attention.

"(f/n)! I-It's ok!" Tamaki was scared, he was shaking. He'd never seen (f/n) like this, never. Aside from her breakdown, she was covered in blood. All on a patrol?

"(f/n)!" Katsuki yelled. The two leaned in closer, holding her, having no other way to stop her. The second their scents filled her nose, she stopped screaming, or even struggling. She opened her eyes, fear laced in her stare, as she felt them whispering in her ear. She wasn't able to keep up, however, their words just seemed to blur, like everything around her.

This wasn't real. It was a trick. They died, Katsuki died in her arms, and she watched the villain snap Tamaki's neck.

The fear in her eyes morphed into anger. How dare anyone impersonate them? In front of her? Her hands moved, her fingers enclosed around their neck as panic crossed their faces as (f/n) used her quirk. She threw them both into the wall behind them and before they could recover, she was in front of them. Her hand was at their throats and she was starting to squeeze.

"Who are you?!" She demanded.

"Bunny!" Tamaki choked out, both he and Katsuki grabbed her hand in an attempt to loosen her grip from their throats.

"Don't call me that!" She spat. "Who are you?! How dare you impersonate them?! I'll kill you! I'll splatter your blood on these walls!" Katsuki had no choice, as much as he didn't want to, he quickly pressed his hand onto her chest, letting an explosion go off.

(f/n) screamed as she let go, giving Katsuki and Tamaki a chance to escape. However, the latter had frozen up, making the blond grab his hand and run with him. They both ran upstairs, running into the master bedroom and shutting the door, with Katsuki locking it.

"Wh-what's wrong with her?" Tamaki asked, falling to his knees. Katsuki ran to his side, wrapping his arms around his frightened husband. "Wh-why? Splatter... our blood on the walls."

"It'll be ok, something must've happened on her patrol tonight," Katsuki muttered. Tamaki's shaking hand reached up to touch Katsuki's arm. His grip tightened when they heard banging on the door. Both of their grips tightened as they flinched at the violent sounds.

"I'll tear you apart!" They heard. "You took them from me! You took away everything I had! Now I'm gonna take your lives!" They winced at the loud crash and banging on the door. "I'LL KILL YOU THE SAME WAY YOU KILLED MY GROUND ZERO AND SUNEATER!"

Their home was reinforced against most all quirks, so their doors and windows couldn't be destroyed easily. That's why (f/n) couldn't get in, especially for cases like this. Since the woman couldn't get in, all she could do was hit the door.

Both Katsuki and Tamaki were starting to piece things together. There must've been a villain attack during her patrol and she clearly thought something happened to them both.

"W-wait... sh-she thinks w-we're dead?" Tamaki stuttered.

"What? Babe! W-we didn't die! We're still alive!" Katsuki yelled through the door. For a moment, the clatter stopped, giving Tamaki a chance to speak.

"Bunny! We're r-right here... it's us." Silence. They heard a soft sob, but it was quickly followed by a growl.

"Shut up!" She kicked the door. "I-I saw them! I saw their dead bodies! I saw them die!"

"We're right here, dumbass!" Katsuki yelled, making her scream and slam her hands on the door again.

"Open the door, you bastards! I'll tear you apart! OPEN! THE! DOORS!" (f/n) yelled, punching the door, repeatedly. Tamaki covered his ears, feeling the world start closing in on him. She was scary! She was so fucking scary. Katsuki held him tighter, as he tried to comfort the male over the incoherent screaming.

"It'll be ok, Tama," The blond rubbed his arms, making Tamaki whimper as tears slipped out of his eyes. "Shh, don't cry baby." (f/n) was only making it worse, but there was nothing Katsuki could do. Except go out there and fight her. He'd lose, though. (f/n) was stronger than him, she'd worked so hard to strengthen and control her quirk, it was amazing, when she wasn't coming after you. With the rage and fury she had, she'd for sure kill him. Katsuki pressed his hands onto Tamaki's trying his best to muffle his own voice. "SHUT UP, (F/N)! YOU'RE MAKING TAMAKI CRY!"

"Come out here, cowards! I'll give you both something to cry about! OPEN THE DOOR!'"

"B-Bunny wants to k-kill us?"

"No," Katsuki said, "She's... she's just confused." The blond held his husband close while their wife banged on the door, repeatedly.

(f/n)'s vision blurred, her chest burned and her hands stung from all the attacks on the door. Her hands came to a slow stop as she let out a sob, weakly hitting the door.

"Why are you villains so cruel? Y-you took away my everything." Her voice cracked as she took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "Why?"

"We're right here, (n/n). It's us." Katsuki reassured, his arms still around Tamaki's shaking form.

"Kill me too, then." She could hear them gasp. "Kill me too and send me to them..."

"B-Bunny! D-don't say that!" There was another bang on the door at Tamaki's words.

"I said don't call me that!" She screamed. "I... watched them die. I watched the light drain from their beautiful eyes! No more cuddles, movie nights, no more laughing with them, no more tickle fights, no more saving the world with them. You took away two beautiful people! Two beautiful heroes, sons, husbands... they were... good people. They were my heroes dammit! They were my drive! My passion! My entire fucking world! How dare you impersonate them?! I'll spill your blood, I swear I will! I'm gonna grind you into dust!" Now it made sense, whatever villain she went up against must've done something to her with their quirk.

"(h/n)!" Katsuki called out, trying a different tactic. "What you saw wasn't real! We're fine! S-Suneater and Ground Zero are fine!" She scoffed.

"You're still going with that? Pathetic." (f/n)'s phone buzzed and she looked down. Knowing they wouldn't open the door, she stepped back for a second, quietly talking into the phone. "What?"

"(h/n)! They're fine! It was the villain's quirk!"

"What?"

"When the villain woke up, both Suneater and Ground Zero's body turned to dust, he confirmed they were both fakes. He can create illusions, pretty realistic ones. However, he escaped and he's headed your way!"

"What does he want with me?"

"I don't know, but do not fall for his tricks again-" (f/n) stopped paying attention when the door slammed open and she saw the same villain standing there with a smirk on his face.

"(h/n), we meet again." Beside him, both Suneater and Ground Zero appeared, smirks on their faces. Her eyes widened as she dropped her phone. They... they're real. (f/n) touched the door, slowly knocking on it.

"It's us! We swear!" Katsuki called out. They were fine, but she had no time to relax.

"Keep Suneater safe, Ground Zero." (f/n) said before she glared at the villain. "I'll kill you, you bastard!" Katsuki almost blushed at how perfect she sounded screaming his all-familiar line.

"Wow, sounding a lot like Ground Zero there!" The villain yelled, getting both Tamaki and Katsuki's attention. He followed her here?! What did he want with her?!

"DIE!" She screamed as she jumped over the railings and down to the villain. If... if they weren't in such a high-stress situation, Katsuki would've been so damn proud of her. Her quirk was in lethal mode as (f/n) quickly killed the two clones and attacked the villain.

(AN: Neither "lethal mode" nor "enraged mode" are a "setting" for your quirk, it's just another way to describe how angry you are)

He stood no chance against her enraged mode, she was just too damn fast and too strong. Her rage fueled her drive and she was unstoppable. Through her phone, her friend, (f/h/n), heard her and immediately sent the police to her home.

(f/n)'s quirk was too much, she grabbed the villain's arm and pulled, slamming him into a wall, then onto the ground. She pressed her knee onto his back, pulling his arm behind him and pressing her hand on his head.

"MOVE AND I'LL KILL YOU!"

"That's... not very... heroic of you." The villain struggled.

"Do I look like I care?"

"You're so f-feisty! I like it!" He laughed, making her slap him.

"What do you want with me?"

"You... Missy, arrested a few buddies of mine a wh-while back," The villain's voice came out strained, due to all the pressure on him. "I-I'm just g-getting revenge."

"Pathetic." She growled. "You and your entire band of useless villains. Can't help anyone if you're dead."

"Wh-what kind of h-hero are you?" He laughed. "Are you even a hero?"

"Take away my Suneater and Ground Zero and then ask me that."

"I already did."

"Then no."

"S-Stain wou-would never app-approve of you."

"I don't care. Now shut up." She raised his head slightly and slammed it onto the floor, making him grunt. It'd only taken a couple of minutes before the police arrived.

"POLICE!"

"He's down!" (f/n) yelled back, which gave Katsuki and Tamaki the ok to open the door. They saw the police run into their home and arrest the man underneath (f/n). As he stood up, he looked at both men and gave them a smirk.

"It was fun killing you both." (f/n) kicked his leg, making two cops grab her and pull her away, while the others dragged the villain away.

"Let go of me. I'm fine." (f/n) demanded and they obeyed, once the villain was out of sight. They took her outside, getting her statement, which they'd failed to get earlier since she ran off. The entire time, Katsuki comforted Tamaki in their room, letting him know everything was ok. He was still shaking after everything.

After about thirty minutes, (f/n) was done. She shut the door and looked up towards the master bedroom, which was just barely visible from the front door. After locking up, she slowly made her way up to the room, where she heard both males talking. She stopped for a second, right by the door.

"She was... so scary." Tamaki muttered.

"Well... at least we know she cares for us." Katsuki added. "But yeah, she's pretty scary. I don't blame her... if something happened to both of you... I'd probably lose my shit just like that."

"Yeah... me too." The three had been friends since high school. Katsuki and Tamaki had met first, on the day Tamaki was introduced to class 1-A. Over time, they became friends, extremely close friends. They hadn't started dating officially, but were practically at that point. (f/n) had transferred in late and was placed in Class 1-A as well. Boy, did she take the school with surprise with her quirk, which was rather rare. Her quirk was (y/q) and she already showed great promise with it. Enough to where the Big 3 were interested in her.

(f/n) became great friends with Katsuki right away, who ended up introducing her to Tamaki. Sure, Katsuki and Tamaki both had powerful quirks, but they were really nothing compared to her, especially not the way she used it.

Soon, they began dating and eventually married each other. It was fair to see why (f/n) lost control the way she did. Anyone would've.

(f/n) sighed inaudibly as she stood in the door frame, both males looking up at her. Her eyes scanned their figures, but instead of running to them, she just stayed there, on guard.

"A-are you ok?" Katsuki asked.

"The... clones... they were so realistic." She murmured. They stood up and her eyes followed their figures, being careful.

"C-Can we come closer?" Tamaki asked, making her look up at him. They could see the desperation in her eyes.

"You're... real right? Not some figment of my imagination or something?"

"We're real, babe. As real as you." She moved towards them, slowly at first, but then picked up the pace. Her arms wrapped around both of them as they hugged back tightly.

"B-by the way, Bunny," Tamaki started as the three pulled apart. "Wh-who's blood is that?"

"Oh," She looked down, her entire suit was covered in blood, as well as her hands and she even had blood on her face. "Well... it was Katsuki's. Or at least his clone's. "I should shower."

"Why don't we help?" Katsuki smirked.

"Aren't you both tired?" (f/n) asked, making both of them shake their heads. Especially Tamaki.

"No, you chased away any need for sleep a while ago." He answered, his hand running through his hair. (f/n) looked away, shying away a bit.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. I... got so angry when I thought they killed you but then decided to pretend to be you."

"Scared the hell outta me," Katsuki muttered, making (f/n) giggle.

"Wow, the great and mighty Lord Explosion Murder scared of a little girl?" He gawked at her.

"L-Little girl?! You almost broke our door down with all that banging. Which, by the way, might I add, the way you screamed "DIE" almost made me blush. Looks like I'm rubbing off on you. Now we just have to wait for Tamaki to scream die before going into a fight and we'll be set." (f/n) only giggled as she started walking towards the bathroom, when Katsuki caught her arm. "No, come back." He pulled her back, placing a loving, passionate kiss on her lips. When they pulled apart, she blinked a few times, only to be surprised by Tamaki, who poured just as much passion and love into his kiss.

Yeah, it was them.

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monsterfuneral · 4 years ago

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the vampiric pros and cons | the lost boys

Relationship: Poly!Lost Boys x Fem!Reader

Summary: One year anniversaries were always important, it was a mark of a year long commitment to one someone or something but what happens when your four someone’s seem to forget?

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, the reader has a breakdown, the boys being dumb, fluff, swearing.

Words: 3.3k

Author’s Note: I hope you like this as much as I liked writing it, thank you very much anon for the request <3

Idk what is giving me this 3k word juice but I really enjoy it

REQUESTS OPEN

(please read my “I do NOT write” section before sending in anything <3)

---

There were pros and cons of being a human. One very important con being time perception, whether it be what time you had to be at work, what year it was, or even what special occasion fell on what day. Time was something your very undead boyfriends hadn’t had to deal with in decades, while they attempted to adjust to your much more human life it did come with difficulty, which today just proves how much. With your eyes flitting from the mirror to the clock on your nightstand and back to your reflection, you couldn’t help but let out a slow sigh. They were an hour late.

While at first you assumed at least one of them- Dwayne- would be able to keep track, that thought now seemed futile. You knew that as a vampire you didn’t have to stress over something as trivial as time management, especially since they quite literally had forever to do something. But you couldn’t deny it hurt every time you watched the clock tick by without any signs of revving engines outside your apartment complex. You couldn’t deny that it stung when they seemed to have forgotten your one year anniversary.

Your eyes locked back onto your reflection’s, looking over your outfit for probably the thirtieth time. While you weren’t wearing some fancy ball gown and your hair wasn’t perfectly styled, it was a lot more effort you put in your everyday appearance. You had switched out your worn leather jacket for a fancier, seemingly spotless one. You even put on your best pants, not a rip in sight, along with a pair of black combat boots that looked brand new. The effort probably wasn’t worth it knowing the boys would probably be dressed in their regular clothes, which you didn’t mind, but thinking about that now it made you feel slightly ridiculous for even caring so much.

With another glance at the clock on your nightstand you felt a harsh pang in your chest, 1:21am it read in big red blocky numbers, they were supposed to pick you up at twelve. You tried to keep the tears at bay but the more you stared at the clock the blurrier the numbers got. Was it stupid to have put hope in them in the first place? Could you really blame them? You knew what you were signing up for, so why were you getting so upset?

You brought your hands up to your face and sniffled, wiping the tears away rather harshly.

“Fuck.” More tears slipped from your eyes in retaliation and you let out a groan, realizing just what you had to do. You walked over to the chair in the corner of your room, one that served more as a laundry hamper rather than something to sit on, and plucked your bag from top of the pile searching for your keys.

If they weren’t going to come here then you were going to come to them, and you were not happy.

---

You white-knuckled your steering wheel the whole drive to the bluff, music playing low on your radio yet still feeling all too loud. Even though they had forgotten you couldn’t help but feel like it was your fault. But that was ridiculous right? You had reminded them almost every night and they had seemed to be listening, did you just not try hard enough or did they really just not care?

The tears were pooling again, blurring the lines on the road before they morphed into dirt and you were finally parked at the rickety wooden stairs leading down to the cave. You shut the car off and just sat for a few seconds trying to level your breathing. You glanced at your wristwatch and it read 1:53am, you couldn’t suppress the growl that crawled up your throat. After everything you did for them, after all the times you reminded them, they fucking forgot.

With that in mind you threw the rusty car door open and slammed it shut, your fists clenching beside your thighs before you drew your jacket closer to shield yourself from the ocean breeze. You stomp down the creaky stairs, angrily muttering to yourself before coming up to the gate entrance and slipping inside, careful not to snag your jacket like you’ve done many times before.

You walked through the tunnel leading towards the flickering light coming from the candles and metal barrels. It usually warms you from the inside out but in this moment all you felt was cold. There was no smile growing on your face, no hands guiding you carefully so you didn't bust your ass on the way down, no whooping vampires flying overhead. It was silent inside the cave. Nobody was here. They must have been out feeding. That thought only served to enrage you even more.

Of course they had time to remember their own needs but not yours when it was your anniversary? You hadn’t even asked for much either, all you wanted was to go down to the beach and have a cute little night-time picnic with them, a bonfire lit off to the side and all of you having a great time, that’s all you wanted.

You couldn’t help but once again feel like you were overreacting, was it really their fault for forgetting? While they certainly weren’t perfect when it came to remembering everything, at least they tried. But what stopped them from trying this time? Stop over thinking so much. Did they still care for you or did they lose interest? You’re being ridiculous. You felt tears begin to streak down your cheeks once again, the frustration building more and more.

When you plopped down onto the couch a small puff of dust followed, clouding around your hips as you cradled your head pathetically and cried into the palms of your hands, very certain the makeup you had put on earlier in the night had been fully cried off.

You weren’t sure how long you had been sitting on the couch after your last tear dropped, but it felt like hours. Your body felt vacant of all emotion, your eyes locking onto the flickering candle sat atop the fountain, it held all of your focus as it danced and swayed with the occasional breeze that would push itself inside the cave. The fluttering of wings sounded so much louder now too with it being so quiet, Marko’s pigeons flying back and forth every now and then. Your head didn’t even lift up when you heard the distant whoops of your vampiric partners. The anger was now completely washed away and was replaced with a cold nothingness, all emotions having been exhausted from your body when it had been racking with sobs.

The fluttering of clothes sounded overhead when they finally flew inside, circling the top of the cave before finally realizing there was an unmoving figure sat upon their couch. David was the first to touch down, cold blue eyes staring at you with concern as you just continued to stare ahead at the flickering candle. His heavy steps echoed off the cave walls as he drew closer saying your name gently as if it would break you to say it louder. If you were being completely honest with yourself, it probably would have.

David kneeled down in front of you and carefully placed a hand on your knee which you moved slowly away from. He raised a brow and looked back at the other three, Marko was chewing on his thumb nail, closely watching the scene in front of him unfold.

“Kitten?” David’s voice was probably the softest you ever heard, his eyes locking with yours once you were finally jolted from your daze “Hey are you okay?” You almost felt guilty, he looked so worried even with how little he showed it on his face, it was in his eyes.

“Babe what’s wrong? Did someone do somethin’ to you?” Paul chimed, stepping closer to the couch cautiously. You still didn’t speak, mind still in a thick fog. “Babe?” Paul sounded worried too and you couldn’t bring yourself to lift your head up to look at him.

“I think something’s wrong guys.” Marko said from where he stood behind David.

Paul let out a scoff “Yeah no shit, man.” You could practically hear him roll his eyes.

Finally your mouth opened, prying your chapped lips apart and muttered a raspy “You forgot.” It felt like the littlest bits of energy were finally sinking back into your skin, allowing you to lift your head and look at your four worried boyfriends. “You forgot about our anniversary.”

Their eyes widened almost comically after hearing you say that. A groan coming from Marko as he threw his head back, fingers knitting through his perfect curls “I told you guys there was something wrong tonight! I knew we forgot something!” Paul let out a long sigh and leaned back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Dwayne finally got closer and kneeled himself down next to David.

“Hey sweetheart…” He whispered, reaching out to gently take your hand in his colder one “We are so sorry. You gotta understand that we wouldn’t do this to you on purpose.” He squeezed your hand gently, looking back at the others. You knew that if you had any more tears left you would have probably started crying again. “We’re so sorry that we hurt you like this…” He brought his hand up to your chin and lifted your head up so he could look you in the eye standing up and bending over to bring his face closer to yours “Please let us make it up to you.” His hair was veiling over your face as he leaned in, almost shielding you from the outside world, his chilled lips met your cheek softly delivering the gentlest kiss you’ve probably ever received.

“Yeah babe please let us make it up to you.” Paul practically begged. You turned your head stiffly to look at him, seeing how frantic he almost looked.

“Would you like that?” Dwayne asked, voice soft as if he was telling you a secret. You couldn’t deny the tug on your heart when looking into his dazzling brown eyes, the desperation to earn your forgiveness all too evident.

“Okay…” You whispered back, afraid to speak any louder.

---

The bonfire in front of you danced with the ocean breeze, a breeze that softly weaved through your hair and would have made you shiver if it wasn’t for the blanket David wordlessly wrapped around your shoulders. He sat next to you staring into the amber flames too, the yellows and oranges lighting his face up beautifully. The hollowness from your breakdown was finally beginning to melt away, a small smile creasing your lips before bitterly falling again.

“I’m sorry.” You muttered quietly, but not quietly enough as the rest of the group raised their heads and voiced their curiosity of what the hell you were apologizing for. “I was being a drama queen.” You chuckled humorlessly “You guys have told me so many times how hard it is to manage time as a vampire and I still got so worked up over something so stupid.”

Marko was the first to shake his head and voice his opinion “Hell no, you’re not going to feel sorry for something that isn’t even your fault!” You looked at him from over the fire, his expression hardened “It’s us who should be sorry- who are sorry- not you. I’m not letting you blame yourself because you’re dating a set of dumbasses.” Paul nodded in agreement, not even trying to start some childish argument for being called a dumbass.

“And it’s not stupid either. We’ve been together for a whole year, which is a long time to commit yourself to one person, let alone four vampires.” Dwayne chimed, soothing your remaining guilt. You gave him a grateful smile while David pulled you closer to him, arm slung around your shoulder and letting you lean against him.

Silence had settled over the five of you again for a good ten seconds before you heard Paul yelp, making you jump. Marko had him pinned to the sand, their bodies both flailing as they wrestled. “Oh your ass is grass pipsqueak!” Paul threatened when Marko flew up into the air, Paul following closely, some sand falling back onto the ground below. David shook his head and chuckled as he watched the two rambunctious blondes play fight, growling and hissing at each other.

“Children...” He muttered playfully smirking at you when you giggled.

“Come on up guys!” Marko called a few feet above the fire, Paul pulling harshly on his hair making the shorter blonde let out a yelp of his own.

“Yeah, how does it feel asshole!?” They pushed each other, flying in opposite directions before colliding again.

“Paul I will fucking dunk you in the ocean!” Marko threatened.

David squeezed your side a little tighter “You wanna go for a ride princess?” He asked, eyes still locked on Paul and Marko.

You felt yourself start to smile “Yeah I want some front row seats to this.” You shrugged the blanket from your shoulders and handed it to Dwayne who took it without a word.

David gave you an encouraging squeeze before helping you stand up and kneeling down a little so you can jump onto his back. He tightened his grip on the backs of your thighs and told you to hold on tight, which you did. He slowly rose from the ground and you let out an excited giggle next to his ear, having gotten used to the heights of flying a long time ago. Marko and Paul’s petty argument got louder as you both got closer, they were punching and kicking and even clawing at each other like feral alley cats.

“I’ll tie you to a tree and leave you there, fucking test me.” Paul seethed, you would have thought he was serious if you hadn’t known them, plus the wide smile on his face was an immediate giveaway.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

You squeezed your arms tighter around David’s neck and muttered next to his ear “I bet you ten vinyls Marko completely wastes Paul.”

David let out a quiet snort and turned his eyes over to you “You’re on. If you lose you have to sleep over at the cave for a whole week.” You rolled your eyes at the counter before he continued “Let’s just say you won’t be getting much sleep if I win a kitten.” He winked at you and turned his head back just in time for Marko to grab a hold of Paul’s jacket harshly and began flying towards the ocean so fast you could barely see them.

Paul screamed before hitting the water, not being able to catch himself as he was catapulted into the waves. He came to the surface with a string of colorful curses being thrown at Marko who was cackling loudly just above him, curling in on himself as he shook, looking as if he was laying down in midair. When Paul rose from the water you could practically see the steam rolling off of him as he grabbed Marko and brought him underwater. You were glad they were dead because Paul was literally forcing Marko to stay underwater while he laughed, traunting the curly haired blonde, watching as he thrashed the water around frantically.

When Marko surfaced he let out a growl and was about to give Paul the same treatment but David calling out to them drew his attack short. “Come on boys! We don’t have time for your little drowning session, the sun’s gonna be up soon!”

“You owe me ten records.” You pat David’s chest triumphantly and he hummed in response.

“I guess I do.” He turned his head to the side and gave you a slow kiss, one that made your heart flutter in your chest and your cheeks heat up.

Paul and Marko flew up slowly, Dwayne joining the four of you as well with your blanket still in his arms. The two blondes looked like wet dogs as they tried to shake the water from their hair, effectively spraying all of you with water.

“Hey watch the jacket!” You half teased, wiping the droplets off onto David’s jacket which made him shake his head in slight annoyance. “You’ve had this jacket for years calm down.”

---

The fly back to the cave wasn’t a long one, five minutes or less, but David knew you didn’t feel like walking all the way back and honestly neither did he. So the wind blew your hair from your face as he and the boys weaved playfully past each other, laughing and calling out into the night sky. You finally felt like yourself again, all the previous emotional exhaustion now replaced with a simmering happiness in your chest. You were still harboring a little anger at being so easily forgotten but that was a conversation for another night, right now you just wanted to enjoy yourself, flying through the sky without a care in the world before finally touching down on the cave floor next to the fountain. Most of the candles that were still lit before you all left had been blown out while you were gone. You looked around and watched as the boys all settled down, Marko lighting the barrels again and setting the torch inside to burn too.

You settled yourself back down on the couch between Dwayne’s legs, his back against the arm of the sofa. He threw an arm over your chest and held you against him, settling a few soft kisses on your cheek. “You feeling like sleeping here tonight sweetheart?” noticing as you attempted to stifle a yawn.

“Oh are we having a sleepover.” Paul teased with a wiggle of his brows. He leaned over the back of the sofa and tried to kiss you but a strand of his still wet hair smacked you in the face making you groan.

“How are you still wet.” You chuckled, peeling the wet strand from your right cheek moving it behind his ear.

“Blame it on that douchebag chihuahua.” He sent a playful glare in Marko’s direction who yelled out a defensive “Hey!” in response.

You looked down at your watch and muttered a quiet ‘jesus christ’ at the time, 4:39am. You hadn’t even realized how late it had gotten, the night seemingly passing by in a haze while they were gone.

Dwayne moved your hair over to your right shoulder “You can go ahead and sleep sweetheart.” His voice was soft in your ear, lips brushing against your neck as he kissed your neck softly. “I can take you to your nest, tuck you in and shit.” He chuckled, the sound vibrating against your back. You turned over on your side and snuggled closer to the tall vampire, your face buried in his neck.

The night may have had a much more than rocky start but in the end you were happy. You couldn’t stay mad at them, especially when they didn’t truly mean to hurt you. It was a mistake and they made up for it and will probably continue to do so for weeks. You knew what you were getting yourself into when they told you what they were, and you loved them even when the cons sometimes outweigh the pros, you were willing to go to the ends of the world for them and they were more than willing to do the same.

---

Paul getting absolutely fucking dunked was inspired by the amazing @tweedracer

Links to their stories here, please read them they’re amazing:

POLY! LOST BOYS x HIPPIE VIBES READER by Tweetracer

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just-patchy · 4 years ago

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Please Don’t Leave | Octavinelle Poly (Jade x Azul x Floyd)

Based on that one part in Ch 4 where Azul and Floyd explain the relationship between the Octavinelle trio

MC’s name here is Yuu btw

In case anyone needed to know, there is no incest in this lol, the twins are just two bros sharing a cute crybaby octopus

Set some time after Ch 4

writing’s a bit bad, hope y’all don’t mind

‘Sorry Azul, we got bored, so we’re leaving.’

‘The time we spent together was amusing, but you’re no longer interesting to us. Goodbye, Azul.’

Azul’s eyes shot open and he sat up in his bed, wheezing as he checked the time on his alarm clock. 3:21 am. He sighed, before getting up and exiting his dorm room, heading towards Mostro Lounge where he could sit for a while and stew in his own thoughts.

Whenever he had nightmares, it was mostly of his childhood, of faceless bullies who would tease him and taunt him. Somewhere along the road, their faces morphed into two particular ones that looked alike, but never the exact same; familiar heterochromatic eyes and two neat rows of sharp teeth. What he and Floyd had told Jamil, Grim and Yuu back in Scarabia may have applied to their relationship when it first started, but it had long evolved into something more. Over the past few years, the twins had slithered their way into his heart, coiled around it and held it in a vice. He hated the way he’d jump when Jade discreetly whispered information into his ear, and the way his light fleeting touches left him pining uselessly for hours on end. He abhorred the way Floyd would nibble on him from time to time, and that his random comments of “Azul looks pretty delicious~” would plant unnecessary (but not unwelcome) ideas into his head. He had never been good at swimming, always slower than the other mermaids and mermen, but he foolishly dived into the fast currents and let them drag him under, leaving him gasping for breath.

(He was perfectly capable of breathing underwater, but they would always knock his breath out of his lungs in one way or another)

Azul couldn’t deny that he was scared, terrified even, at the prospect of the twins leaving him. They were the first friends he ever made, the closest any stranger had ever been to his heart. They were convenient when he needed them to be, yes, but they were also accepting of who he was when they had the choice to leave him be. Hell, they stayed with him even after his overblot, even after seeing the ugly side of him that he put on display for everyone to look at and judge him for it. It scared him how much he cared for them, and yet he didn’t have a complete confirmation of how they felt about him. They found him interesting, but sooner or later he’d become dull and boring, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle being tossed aside by the closest friends he ever had. He didn’t know if he could handle being the slow, clumsy, unwanted octopus again.

He didn’t know how long he spent sitting there, but he snapped out of his daze as he looked at the mirroring worried looks on the twins’ faces, albeit Floyd looked more curious than worried.

“What are you doing up late, Azul? Are you unwell?” Jade inquired, placing his cool hand against Azul’s forehead and making him blush from the contact, though he fervently denied it in his mind. He most certainly didn’t blush. (Not that it escaped Jade and Floyd’s attention).“You should get some rest, especially since Mostro Lounge seems to be more hectic recently.”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I’ll get some rest in between classes,” Azul replied, gently batting away Jade’s hand as he stood up and prepared to return to his dorm room. All three knew that Jade and Floyd could see through Azul and his intentions, and while he didn’t mind under normal circumstances, he just wanted to avoid their company for now. At the very least, he wanted to protect what little he could of his heart, before his...crush(es), for the lack of a better word, would be inevitably exposed to the twins.

Azul almost let out a shriek when he felt Floyd wrap his arms around him and rest his chin on his head, and he could feel his cheeks growing hotter in embarrassment. Jade and Floyd definitely saw it as well, if the little giggle Floyd let out was any indication. He could almost hear them grinning simultaneously, showing off rows of neat, sharp teeth, and he knew that he was screwed.

Floyd hoisted him up onto his shoulder, much to Azul’s chagrin, and he found himself face-to-face with Jade, who had a mischievous smile on his face that mirrored his twin’s. Azul was carried all the way to his dorm room, where Floyd set him down on his bed rather roughly, and he landed with a soft ‘oomf’ onto the mattress. Any thoughts that he wanted to voice got stuck in his throat as he watched Jade make himself comfortable on his bed. Floyd was gone, though if he was correct, he was presumably on his way to fetch pillows from their rooms. This proved to be correct when he returned holding their pillows, along with a purple and grey octopus plushie that suspiciously reminded Azul of his younger self.

He probably passed out at some point, but when he came to, he was sandwiched in between the two of them, hugging Jade while being spooned by Floyd. He tightened his grip on Jade’s shirt, burying his face into his chest while reaching down to cover Floyd’s hands with his own, free one.

“Please don’t leave me,” he whispered to no one, and he felt Jade and Floyd tighten their hold on him.

“We won’t.”

#twisted wonderland #twst #fanfic #octavinelle #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #floyd leech #idoazu #more shippy fics uwu

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askbloatedbellyblog · 5 years ago

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Cloud’s Gamble, Reno’s Treat

“So all I have to do is eat everything in the kitchen…” Cloud Strife said looking around the well stocked kitchen and placed his gloved hand over the armor around his middle as he was judging on if he could accomplish the upcoming task.

“And I’ll let the girl go, yes. You two ‘lovebirds’ can be on your merry way,” Reno scoffed and rolled his eyes. Cloud looked away apprehensively because he didn’t want the chance to be rid of Reno to be gone but he also didn’t want to describe his relationship with Aerith like that. Instead he focused on the handsome redhead that was in front of him and what felt like an impossible challenge.

“Fine, whatever,” Cloud said mentally preparing himself and stripping himself of his protective armor so he'd be able to have the room to expand for his upcoming required eating. He looked around feeling intimidated already, but his stomach growled at being able to attempt such an extraordinary feat. The mako infusion given to all SOLDIERS left them all with increased appetites that they rarely got a chance to indulge in. Reno seemed to be familiar with the change and having some familiarity with said indulgences himself. Still, eating this much was...a lot.

Not wasting any time, Reno already had a platter of an entire turkey complete with fixings all around the large bird and slid it in front of Cloud as he sat down at the table in the kitchen. Cloud gave him a strong side eye of suspicion because it now became very clear just how much Reno had prepared in advance.

“Eat up, big boy,” Reno replied while giving Cloud utensils than sat back to watch. Cloud dug in reluctantly but then with a bit more gusto once he tasted how well prepared the food was and his stomach accepted it as a gift. Reno smiled as he went off and prepared the next plate before Cloud could finish the large turkey.

Soon Reno returned with what looked like a dozen pizzas, multiple buckets of Midgar Fried Chocobo and what seemed like the rest of an entire chocobo, impossible bowls of spaghetti, and more as he made good on his threat that Cloud would have to finish off the entire kitchen. With everything prepared, Reno came over and took the now cleaned out platter of turkey that was now just bones and garnish left. “Oh my, looks like someone was hungrier than they let on,” Reno said as he took that chance to give a pat to Cloud’s barely distended belly. “We’ll fix that right up.” Grabbing a few pizza slices, he folded them over and brought them to Cloud’s lips. “Say awwww…”

Cloud glared at Reno with a murderous intent in his eyes though in reality was closer to just overt annoyance thanks to Cloud still unsure how to properly express all his emotions. Begrudgingly, he opened his mouth and let Reno feed him a huge bite of the pizza as the redheaded Turk forced a massive bite into his mouth, practically forcing Cloud to puff out his cheeks like a chipmunk as he tried to chew messily.

The process repeated over and over again, with small breaks to let Cloud burp and moan. Sometimes it was a burp between his chipmunk cheeks as he looked for any kind of room. Frequently, Reno would help Cloud was down a good chunk of food with various sips of soda, wine, and other alcohols to help him feel better and let Reno enjoy those moments extra gas from the ex-Soldiers burps. While Reno fed him, Cloud rubbed his rounding belly. He tried to unbutton his pants but Reno batted his hand away and said he had to earn it, eliciting another moan from the Chocobo-haired man.

Time passed in delirium for Cloud as his belly grew and the kitchen emptied. Bite after bite of food was shoved into his face by Reno and his belly rounded out and swelled out in his lap, even forcing his legs wide. Each swallow slowly grew him out as proof of his gorge swelled his gut out to the size of a beach ball.

“I know I called you big boy before, but damn if you ain’t huge now. Like a roly poly ball right here in front of me,” Reno said as he watched Cloud swallow the last bite of the entire kitchen, Cloud’s face covered in food remnants and grease. Cloud groaned and burped softly trying to get used to finally being done and still being able to breathe. Reno grinned and came up to Cloud and drummed against Cloud’s swollen beach ball sized organ, enjoying the sounds of solid thumping from the engorged middle. The bloat sounded like a ripe melon that unleashed a minute long belch from Cloud that morphed into an exhausted and sickly groan. He looked green for a second and then swallowed whatever was making him sick back down and tried to rub his belly calm down from Reno’s rough belly play. “So you’ll leave us alone now UURRRPPPPP?”

Reno laughed. "Well a deal is a deal. You went big so I'll go home. That is after you have some dessert and we have some fun. Now stop being a whiny bitch and open up for some dessert. Then you'll get your own special treat," he added licking his own lips and then used his tongue in the side of his cheek to intimate what that future act would be.

I answered a call of @dumdumdrawstumtums from twitter without them knowing. Still not sure how good it is but at least I actually wrote something. Also why is there no line break anymore?

#stuffing #male stuffing #belly kink #Final Fantasy 7 #Cloud Strife #Reno #Because this desire was put out there by someone #I wonder who

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whaleiumsharkspeare · 5 years ago

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Today’s Variantology theme is snow day, so here’s another fic for you!

Some angst, with a healthy dose of fluff. I think I wrote this before Angry and Catalina got adopted, so just keep that in mind. Hope you enjoy!

Snow Day

It was a chilly winter afternoon in Old Corona. Snow fell lightly from the overcast sky and the breeze was light but strong enough to whip the snowflakes around to dance in the sky and float all around. Only a few people were out and about, and most of the homes in the village had smoke rising from the chimneys and drifting off into the air. But it was not completely empty outside, as Angry and Catalina walked through the village in their winter wear, giggling amongst themselves and walking through the snow. When they reached Varian’s house, they climbed up the steps and knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened and Quirin looked down at the two girls in surprise and then smiled.

“Oh, hello, girls,” he greeted warmly.

“Hey there, mister!” said Angry.

“What can I do for you?” Quirin asked.

“Is Varian home?” asked Catalina. “We wanted to see if he’d come play with us.”

“Yes, Varian’s home,” he replied. “He’s in his lab. You can come on inside and I’ll show you and you can ask him.”

“Thank you!” the girls said brightly in unison. Quirin held the door open and let them come inside. He led them through the house to Varian’s lab and opened the door for them to go inside.

“Just watch your step,” he warned. “My son’s lab can be a mess sometimes. I keep telling him to clean it up. Be careful not to trip over anything.”

The girls nodded in response and then walked into the lab, being careful to watch their step like they’d been told. They looked around at all of Varian’s test tubes and vials of alchemy of many different colors in awe. There was a whirring sound coming from the back of the lab and they followed it to find Varian kneeling on the floor, drilling something and wearing his welder’s mask on his face.

“Hey, V!” Angry greeted cheerfully. Varian jumped up in surprise, nearly sending his drill flying, but he managed to catch it at the last second.

“Ah! Whoa!”

He set the drill down and lifted his welder’s mask so he could see better.

“Oh, hey,” he said when he recognized them, his voice a bit breathy from surprise. “You surprised me.”

“Scared, V?” Angry teased.

“Scared? No,” he replied, rubbing the back of his head. “I was just surprised.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Anyway, what are you doing here? Not that I don’t enjoy the company, but I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“We wanted to see if you would come play with us,” said Catalina.

“Play?” said Varian. He looked around at his work. “I don’t know, I’m pretty busy with this invention, and my poly-alchemical substration tests will be in soon so I’ll have to write those results down and the spectrometric press has been a little finicky since I repaired it, so-“

“Ah, come on, V!” Angry interrupted. “You can take a little break, can’t you? There’s hardly any other kids in this village right now and we wanna play with someone, even if we have to settle for a dork like you.”

“Well-“ he looked at his work again.

“Please?” they begged, staring at him with little puppy dog eyes.

“Oh, alright,” he relented with a smile. “I’ll come play with you.”

The girls cheered and hurried out of the lab and Varian followed them, amused by their enthusiasm. When they got to the door, they raced outside, but Varian stopped short. He looked up at the sky, watching the snow falling. He felt a shudder in his bones, but it wasn’t from the cold. He didn’t move beyond the doorframe and his eyes were trained on the sky, staring at the swirling flakes and shivering as the wind rustled his hair. Angry and Catalina stopped in the yard and turned to see Varian unmoving in the open doorway.

“Hey! What are you waiting for? Come on out!” Angry called.

Varian swallowed and kept looking up.

“I, uh, I didn’t know it was snowing,” he said softly.

“Well, yeah! That’s why we wanted to play with you!” Angry replied. “Snow is fun! There’s lots of stuff to do in it.”

“Yeah, you can go sledding or build snowmen or make snow angels,” said Catalina. “Or, our personal favorite-“

“Snowball fights!” they said in unison.

“Y-yeah, I know,” Varian replied.

The girls took notice of his hesitation.

“Hey, what’s the problem, V?” asked Angry.

“Yeah, is something wrong?” Catalina added.

As Varian watched the sky, a snowflake landed on his nose and he looked at it for a moment before it melted. He shivered again and took a step back from the opening of the door.

“You know, I...I don’t really feel like playing today. I really am quite busy. Maybe...maybe some other time,” he said, starting to close the door.

“Wait! Varian, you said you’d play with us,” Catalina protested, her voice disappointed.

“I-I’m sorry, guys,” Varian replied. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

“V!” yelled Angry. But Varian closed the door and the two girls were left standing by themselves in the cold. After a moment of silent confusion, Catalina spoke.

“What was that about?”

“I don’t know. He seemed like he really was gonna play with us. I wonder why he changed his mind all the sudden.”

“He did say he was busy with work,” Catalina pointed out.

“Eh, he’s always busy with work!” said Angry. “That’s why he needs to get out of the lab more often. He had a real reason to turn us down.”

“You’re right. Something’s definitely wrong.”

“Yeah. Let’s go find out what it is.”

With that, Angry and Catalina marched back up the steps of Varian’s house and through the door, walking across to his lab. They came back inside expecting him to already be tinkering away on his work, but instead he was pulling blinds across all the windows in his lab in a somewhat distracted manner. They glanced at each other confusedly and then addressed him.

“What happened back there, V?” asked Angry. Varian turned around to face them, having not heard them enter.

“Oh, hey again. Look, I’m sorry guys, but I really am busy with work and I can’t play with you right now.”

“You don’t seem busy to me,” said Angry, crossing her arms. “You’re not even working on anything, you’re just messing with the curtains.”

Varian sighed.

“What’s going on?” Catalina asked.

“It’s...it’s nothing. But I really am busy, so-“

“Come on, Varian,” said Angry, exasperated. “We may not be as smart as a big nerd like you, but we can tell when something’s wrong. You were fine to play with us until you started to come outside. What’s up?”

Varian stood quietly for a moment, not intending to get into the details of how he was feeling. How was he supposed to explain that something as seemingly innocent as a gentle snowfall sent his mind reeling with images of himself stumbling around in a blizzard, cold and alone, and bursting through the door to find his father trapped inside a crystal of amber, a crystal of his own creation? How on nights when the snow was falling outside his window and the wind was howling and shaking the house he would find himself curled up on his bed, unable to fall asleep because every time he closed his eyes all he could see was his frozen father and all he could hear was his father’s voice desperately shouting his name. He looked at the two girls’ curious faces, waiting for him to give them an answer, but he just couldn’t come up with one that he thought they’d understand. He started to open his mouth to talk, and then one of the shutters blew open from the wind. Varian gasped and ran to close it. The curtain he’d pulled in front of the window danced around in the wind and some snowflakes blew in. Varian pushed the window closed, panting for breath as he watched the curtain settle and the snowflakes melting on the floor. Then he sighed with relief and turned around, stopping suddenly when he saw Angry and Catalina staring at him.

“Are you...are you afraid of snow?” asked Angry.

“N-no, that’s not it..,” he started, his hands twitching awkwardly and his eyes dancing from side to side.

“Because you wouldn’t even come outside in it and now you’re rushing like a chicken with its head cut off to get the window closed so snowflakes won’t blow in,” Angry continued.

“Snow isn’t going to hurt you,” said Catalina. “It’s just water.”

“I am not afraid of snow,” Varian insisted, his voice stronger and face determined.

“Then why are you reacting like that?” Catalina asked.

Varian sighed and his expression softened. He looked away and rubbed his arm.

“It’s not just snow that bothers me. It’s the wind and the cold and the howling and the...everything.”

He became quiet, not meeting either of their gazes. Angry and Catalina exchanged a look and then approached him softly.

“Hey, it’s okay,” said Catalina in a gentle voice. “You know, everyone’s afraid of something.”

“Yeah,” Angry agreed. “There’s no need to be ashamed of it. But it might help if you talk about it.”

Varian glanced down at her.

“Look, the way I feel about it is really complicated. I don’t know if you’d really understand.”

“Maybe not,” Angry said with a shrug. “But if you explained it, maybe we could.”

Varian looked at both of their gently concerned and genuinely interested expressions and sighed. There was no getting around it. He’d kept his feelings hidden for a while, and he was afraid that once he got going, he’d just keep on going, letting it all tumble out like a waterfall after a dam had been removed. But keeping himself bottled up wasn’t healthy either, and maybe it was time to let someone know about it. He turned his head in the direction of the window where he could hear the wind whistling softly behind it.

“Well, I wasn’t always bothered by weather like this. Truth be told, I used to love it. I would watch the first snowfall of the season with a lot of excitement and I would drag my dad outside with me to play in it. It was always a lot of fun.” He smiled as he talked, but then he paused and his expression morphed into a frown and his eyes became dark. “But then the storm came,” he continued, his voice deeper than before. “I ran all the way to the castle through the blizzard alone, with the wind howling and snow blowing all around. It was freezing and blinding and I was all by myself. I could’ve gotten really hurt. And then I made it to the castle and I tried to get help from the princess, but she couldn’t help me. The whole kingdom was in danger from the storm, but my dad was in danger too. She couldn’t help me, and the guards dragged me out and tossed me back into the snow. And then I had to run all the way back home through it and the storm was even worse than before. I don’t know how I made it, but somehow I did. But then I got back to my house, and...” Varian trailed off, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around himself as the memory flooded back. It was a sight he would never forget, as much as he would really like to. He turned away from the girls so they wouldn’t see his face become red as he fought back tears. When he continued speaking again, his voice was very soft. “And then I found my father, stuck in the amber.”

Angry and Catalina were silent as Varian recounted his story. They couldn’t see his face, but they knew that he must have surely been trying to fight off becoming emotional. They waited for him to keep going. After a moment, he straightened up and he turned around to face them again. When he did, his eyes were very serious and his voice was clear and strong.

“That was the start of a very dark path,” he said. “That snowstorm was the day I totally lost my cool. I became filled with this deep anger and nothing seemed to satisfy it except watching other people be as miserable as me, and even that didn’t last long. It didn’t fill up the hollow place inside me. I felt so betrayed by nobody helping me when I needed it, I just snapped. And I did some really, really terrible things. Things that I am deeply ashamed of. I never should’ve gone that far. I just wasn’t thinking. I hate the person that I became during that time. And seeing that snow, it just sends me right back to that day. The day I lost everything.”

With his story done, Varian turned his head slightly and avoided meeting their eyes. Angry and Catalina looked at each other for a moment and then back at him.

“Wow, V,” said Angry softly. “That was-“

“Heavy,” Catalina finished. She sighed. “I didn’t know you had that kind of association with the snow. I’m sorry.”

Varian shrugged.

“It’s okay. It’s not like it’s your fault.”

He turned and went back to tinkering away at his work, apparently not minding Angry and Catalina’s company as they stood quietly beside each other. Suddenly, Catalina’s eyes went wide and she whispered something in Angry’s ear. A smile spread across Angry’s face and she nodded excitedly.

“That’s a great idea!” she whispered back. The two of them turned and walked back over to where Varian was working.

“You know, V,” said Angry as she stood near him. “Just because you had one bad experience with snow doesn’t mean you should let it ruin how you feel about it.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, giving her a confused glance from underneath his goggles.

“You said yourself that you used to love snow, right? But now you hate it. You won’t let yourself enjoy it anymore. You lost all the fun and the joy it once brought you,” she explained.

“But it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Catalina. “You shouldn’t just throw away something that once made you happy. Maybe you can’t rid of that bad memory, I understand. But what you need is to make some new memories. Some happier memories.”

“What?” said Varian. But he didn’t get an answer. Instead, the girls each took hold of one of his gloved hands and started to pull him towards the door.

“Wait, wait! What are you doing?”

“We’re gonna show you that snow isn’t all bad. We’re gonna help you have fun again,” said Angry.

“That way you won’t have to be so upset by it anymore,” Catalina added.

They reached the door and hopped outside, but Varian once again stopped himself before he could go out, gently pulling his hands free from their grip.

“Wait, I can’t do this. I...” he paused and looked up at the snowflakes falling again. “I don’t even have a coat on.”

The girls exchanged a glance again, feeling somewhat encouraged. He hadn’t exactly said no, right? Varian took a step back.

“Just...give me a minute.”

He closed the door softly with a gentle click and the girls stood out in the snow, watching the door. After a minute, it opened again and Varian stood in the doorway wearing his dark grey coat and his little cape with the fur-lined hood and a red scarf that moved a little bit in the breeze. Grinning widely, the girls walked over to him and took his hands again.

“Yay, V! You did it!” Angry said, encouraged.

“Yeah!” agreed Catalina with a smile.

Varian looked a little nervous, but he let them pull him out into the snow with them. In the middle of his yard, they stood on either side of him, each holding a hand, and they all looked up at the sky watching the snowflakes fall. It was a gentle breeze, no strong, howling wind, and the snowfall was light, not blinding and dizzying. As Varian stood, the snowflakes gently drifted down and landed on his nose and his long eyelashes, staying there even when he blinked his eyes in surprise.

“Wow, it...it’s really pretty,” he said softly. He looked down and laughed slightly when he saw Catalina sticking her tongue out and trying to catch the flakes. Angry smiled up at him.

“You ever try to catch snowflakes on your tongue, V?”

“Sure, I’ve done it,” he shrugged.

“Why not try now?” she suggested, sticking her own tongue out and letting go of his hand so she could move around to have better luck at catching them. Varian watched her moving around but made no effort to copy her.

“Come on, Vari,” said Catalina, playfully nudging him with her elbow. “Have a little fun.” She let go of his hand too and joined Angry in running around to catch flakes. Varian watched them, feeling a little unsure of himself but unable to stop the little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he watched them play. If he was really honest with himself, he did kind of miss just being a kid. He’d been through so much, it was almost like he had forgotten how to just have fun. But now his dad was free, and he had more friends than he’d ever had. He was on the kingdom’s good side again, and Catalina was right; snow is just water. He knew he’d never really be over everything he went through, it was hard to let go. But maybe it was time to make some new memories and have some new experiences. Some good experiences. With a glance at the sky, he stuck his own tongue out to catch the snowflakes, just like he did when he was little.

“There you go! That’s the spirit!” Catalina cheered when she saw him.

“Whaddya think?” asked Angry.

“Mmm, frozen water, my favorite,” he replied teasingly, but with a little smile.

“Okay, nerd,” Angry also jokingly teased. “Let’s find something more fun to do. Wanna make snow angels?”

“I’ve actually never been very good at those,” Varian admitted shyly.

“What? How can a person not be good at making snow angels?” said Catalina.

“I don’t know, they just always turn out to be a weird shape. Here, I’ll show you,” said Varian as he sat down in the snow to get started.

“Oh, this I’ve gotta see,” smirked Angry. She and Catalina sat down on either side of Varian and the three of them started moving their arms and legs to form the shape. When they were done, Varian stood up and then offered his hands out to help pull the girls up. They took a few steps back to admire their work. There were two little, perfectly shaped snow angels and one bigger one in the middle that looked a little...off.

“See?” said Varian, brushing the snow off his legs. “They always come out weird.”

“Yeah, you weren’t kidding, V,” Angry said, tilting her head at it.

Catalina tried stifling a laugh, but it found its way out anyway.

“Look at its skinny little legs!” she snorted, pointing. Angry burst into laughter alongside her. Varian watched them for a moment before starting to laugh himself.

“Yeah, you’re right. They are skinny. I don’t know how this happens.”

They continued laughing together for a moment before Angry managed to calm herself down.

“Well, I know something you are good at, and that’s building things. Time to make a snowman!”

“Oooh, yeah!” Catalina agreed excitedly.

“Alright. Let’s get started,” said Varian. Angry and Catalina smiled at his apparent enthusiasm at building a snowman. Maybe he was starting to warm up to this. Angry made a snowball and started rolling it around, and Catalina did the same. When Angry’s snowball became too big and heavy to push on her own, Varian and Catalina helped her. Once they were satisfied with how big the bottom one was, Varian helped the girls lift the second snowball on top of it. Varian made the last snowball, the one for the head. Angry and Catalina couldn’t quite reach the top with how big they’d made the first two snowballs, so they watched as the taller boy put the last one on top. He took handfuls of snow and packed it into the gaps, explaining that it would help strengthen the structure so it wouldn’t topple over under its own weight.

“There, I think that’ll hold,” he said, stepping back.

“Time to decorate it!” Catalina announced.

“You guys get the stuff for the arms and the eyes and stuff. I’ll be right back,” said Varian as he turned to start walking towards his house. Angry and Catalina raced around Varian’s yard, looking for things to use. Angry found some sticks to use as arms while Catalina gathered an armful of small rocks by the frozen creek running under the bridge in front of Varian’s house to use as eyes, a mouth, and buttons. After a little bit, they could hear the creak of a door opening and turned to see Varian returning with an extra winter hat and a scarf he’d taken from a closet in his house.

“Think these’ll work?” he asked.

“Yeah!” they replied.

Angry stuck the sticks into the sides of the snowman and Catalina put on the buttons and stood on her tiptoes to tie the scarf around it. Varian put on the hat and finished up the eyes and the smiling mouth.

“Oh, wait, we forgot the nose,” said Angry.

“No, we didn’t,” Varian corrected. He pulled a carrot out from a pocket in his coat. “My dad was planning to put this in some chicken noodle soup for dinner, but, uh, we just won’t tell him, yeah?”

Angry and Catalina giggled and Varian stuck the carrot in the middle of the snowman’s face. The three of them stood back and looked at it proudly.

“I think it came out really nice,” said Angry.

“Yeah, thanks, Vari,” said Catalina.

“You’re welcome,” Varian replied. “That was fun.”

“But not as much fun as this!” Angry exclaimed, throwing a snowball at Catalina and hitting her square in the face. Catalina looked shocked for a moment before she burst into laughter.

“Hey! No fair, I wasn’t ready!”

“All’s fair in love and...snowball fights!” Angry retorted.

“Then I guess you won’t mind this!” Catalina quickly retaliated, throwing a snowball at Angry. The shorter girl started laughing and then the two of them began running around, beaning each other with snowballs. Varian smiled as he watched them play. He turned around, watching the sky and listening to the sound of the girls’ laughter. It really was quite a beautiful day, with the lightly falling flakes of snow that dusted the landscape in a sparkling blanket of white. It was cold but not miserable, and instead of his own nervous heartbeat in his ears, Varian could hear laughter and the occasional whump of a snowball hitting one of the girls. He’d had a pretty bad experience with snow once, but that was one time. Maybe winter and snow wasn’t all bad. Maybe it really could be fun, if he just found ways to enjoy it. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a cold, slushy ball of snow hitting the back of his head. He startled for a moment, his shoulders tensing up in surprise. Angry and Catalina gasped and covered their mouths with their hands.

“Oh, Varian, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you. I was aiming for Catalina but I missed and I...I’m sorry, I-“ Angry stuttered nervously. Varian brushed the snow off the back of his head and turned around to face them, wearing a mischievous smile on his face.

“Oh, it’s on!”

The girls beamed widely at him, a look that was interrupted by both of them getting hit with snowballs that he threw. And just like that, the battle was on. All three kids ran around collecting snowballs, throwing them at each other and trying their best to dodge the ones that came their way. The air echoed with the sounds of their laughter as they played their little game. Footprints covered the yard and snowballs were flying everywhere. Quirin stood by the window, looking out and smiling at the scene before him. He was happy that his son was finally getting to be a kid again. Just having a good time, playing with his friends and laughing. It was good to see him warming up again. The three of them played together for a long time until the sun started to set and Quirin opened the door and leaned out.

“Alright, everyone! It’s starting to get dark. Everybody inside.”

The kids dusted themselves off and walked back towards Varian’s house. When they got inside, Quirin had the table set.

“Angry, Catalina, would you like to stay for dinner?” he offered.

“Oooh, yeah!” said Catalina.

“I’m starving!” Angry replied.

“Maybe they should call you Hungry,” Varian joked.

“Good one, nerd,” Angry said, giving Varian a playful shove.

The kids sat down at the table while Quirin served up the food.

“Chicken and vegetable soup,” he said, placing a bowl in front of everyone. “Perfect for a chilly day. One of the vegetables was supposed to be a chopped carrot but I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere.”

“Hmm, weird,” said Varian, blowing on his spoonful. Angry and Catalina giggled. By the time they finished their meal, it was dark out, and Quirin wasn’t too sure about letting the girls go back to their treehouse alone after dark.

“If you want, girls, you can spend the night here. It might be better to go back home during daylight, and it gets colder at night anyway.”

“Oooh, sleepover!” the girls cheered. Quirin went and pulled some spare blankets and pillows out of a closet and poked at the fire burning in the fireplace a little to keep it strong. The girls and Varian sat in front of the fire.

“Do you want some hot chocolate?” Varian offered. “It’s my favorite, and Ruddiger’s great at making it.”

“That sounds great,” Catalina replied.

“Yeah, thanks, V,” said Angry.

Varian left to go to his lab to assist Ruddiger in making the hot chocolate (someone had to turn on the burner, right?) and when he came back, he was carrying two beakers full of hot chocolate while Ruddiger followed behind with another one. Varian was also trying to walk normally while awkwardly carrying two beakers of hot chocolate and pressing a book to his chest.

“Here you go,” he said, handing one to each girl and then taking the remaining one from Ruddiger. He sat down beside them.

“Beakers, V? Don’t you have any mugs?” Angry teased.

“That’s how I always make it,” Varian replied sheepishly.

“Well, as long as it’s sanitary,” said Angry.

“It is!” Varian said defensively, but with a smile.

“Hey, what’s that?” Catalina pointed at the book.

“Oh, I just thought, if you wanted, I mean we don’t have to, but if you wanted, we could read one of my Flynn Rider books.”

“Good idea, Vari!” said Catalina.

The three of them found themselves snuggled up in blankets, sitting by the fire together with their hot chocolate and one girl on either side of Varian so they could see the book. Ruddiger hopped onto Varian’s shoulders so he could see too.

“Okay, then,” said Varian, opening the book. He began to read. “The Tales of Flynnigan Rider, number five. Flynn Rider versus the Earl of Camembert...”

***

When Quirin came down later in the evening to check on the fire, he found all three kids sitting together, sleeping peacefully. Angry and Catalina were each leaning their heads on one of Varian’s shoulders and Ruddiger was curled up in his lap, sleeping soundly as well. He smiled at the sight and adjusted the blankets so everyone was covered in one. With a silent goodnight, Quirin climbed the stairs and went up to his room. And even though the wind was howling outside, Varian slept soundly, no longer quite as afraid of the elements as long as he had friends to help him find the fun and show him that he had nothing to fear.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked!

#tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure #tts varian #varian the alchemist #variantology #projectobsidian #project obsidian #red and angry #kiera and catalina #tangled quirin

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