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roanofarcc · 14 days ago

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PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE → BUT SHE’S A CHEERLEADER!

summary: steve harrington x oc

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 3.7k || masterlist

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Tagged: @sattlersquarry, @leptitlu, @two-sides-samecoin, @adaydreamaway30

Steve hauled another stack of VHS tapes into his arms as Robin paced back and forth, not helping him reshelve the movies but instead ranting about her latest date with Tamera.

“All I’m saying is, this one felt different! It was less ‘we’re just hooking up’ and more ‘this could be an actual relationship,” she said. Steve listened intently as he slotted a collection of horror movies back onto the shelf. He didn’t understand why anyone would willingly watch those kinds of movies, but he supposed most people in Hawkins hadn’t lived their own real-life version of a horror movie like he had. Maybe they needed the thrill; Steve did not.

He turned around to grab more tapes but stopped at the look twisted up on Robin’s face, something mixed between unsure and worried. “Isn’t that a good thing? You guys could date for real instead of whatever weird back and forth thing you’ve got going on.”

Steve knew it was more complicated for Robin and Tamera, especially in Hawkins but they could at least admit their feelings for each other. Robin clearly liked Tamera and wanted something more real than whatever causal situation they found themselves in. Granted, Robin had never been in a relationship before and she had confided in Steve that the idea of dating someone was nerve wracking to her. But she deserved to be happy, and Tamera clearly made her happy. Steve wished she just went for it, all in.

“Yeah,” Robin said with a sigh, stopping her pacing and resorting to picking at the nail polish Steve had just painted on her nails two days ago. “But even if we do date for real, it’s not like I can take her to the prom without being a headline in the Hawkins Post. If any asshole caught a whiff of us being together, they’d start a witch hunt or some shit.” There was a shield of humor in her voice, but Steve knew Robin well enough to hear the fear that sat behind it. It pissed him off.

He knew that Hawkins was riddled with assholes of every kind, but the thought of someone coming after his best friend just because she wanted to date happily made him furious. Monsters and evil scientists once inhabited Hawkins but people wanted to draw pitchforks at two girls holding hands.

“That’s not happening on my watch, Buckley,” he said with a cheeky smile, bumping his shoulder against hers as he collected another arm full of tapes.

Robin cracked a small smile before parting her lips like she was going to say something, but something behind Steve caught her eye. She squinted and stepped around him, rushing toward the front counter.

“What’re you doing?” Steve asked.

Robin turned the volume up on the TV, causing a familiar Hawkins newscaster’s voice to fill the quiet Family Video store.

“No names of possible suspects are being released at this time. Chief Powell is yet to make an official statement, but as said he will address the town later this afternoon once he knows more. All we know at this time is that it seems to be an isolated incident.” The scene on the TV shifted away from the newscaster and onto a gurney being wheeled down a dirt and gravel road swarmed by officers and paramedics. There weren’t many places in Hawkins that were unfamiliar to Steve. It only took a moment to recognize where the scene took place as trailer homes appeared in the background of the gurney being lifted in the back of an ambulance.

“Someone died?” Robin questioned with furrowed brows.

“The name of the victim will also not be released at this time, but it has been confirmed to be a Hawkins High student. We…” the reporter’s voice droned on, but it became fuzzy on Steve’s ears.

A Hawkins High student. The trailer park. Steve knew it wasn’t rational to jump to the worst possible case scenario. There were a handful of students who lived in the trailer park, but he only knew one for certain. Max. Out of everyone in Hawkins, the worst things tended to happen to their little group. And maybe it was simply unreasonable paranoia, but he couldn’t help that his mind fell there first.

Panic swelled in his chest as he turned to Robin. “Max,” he muttered, ready to run right out the door and make sure the redhead he somewhat begrudgingly saw as a little sister was okay. Robin sensed his worry, her own face suddenly as pale as her white knuckles that gripped the remote.

Steve reached for his keys he left in a space under the counter, but as he did so, the bell on the door chimed and Robin let out a loud breath as she grasped his shoulder and pointed to the people who had just entered.

Dustin and Max rushed toward the counter, both looking a little winded but otherwise fine. Steve let out his own sigh of relief, running a hand through his hair. How he didn’t have gray hairs already was a mystery to him. It felt like the universe was determined to see how much it could stress him out.

“How many phones do you have?” Dustin asked.

Unbelievable, Steve thought. “Someone was murdered-” he started to say, but Dustin, in his usual Dustin fashion, cut him off and repeated the question louder than he had the first time. Steve answered, “Two.”

“Technically three, if you count Keith’s,” Robin added.

Max glanced at Dustin, nodding her head almost frantically as she said, “Three works.”

Without another word, Dustin threw his backpack at Steve a bit too forcefully. He then jumped up on the counter ungracefully, knocking over everything setup to the floor as he slid to the other side and hopped down. Steve threw the kid’s backpack to the ground with a huff and Robin started picking up the scattered papers, tapes, and other items Dustin had sent toppling.

Max, like a normal person, walked around the counter to get behind it and rolled her eyes.

“What are you doing?” Steve groaned in a familiar frustration.

“Setting up a base of operations.” He moved in front of the computer and began clicking around.

Listen, Steve disliked his job, but he didn’t want to get fired. The pay wasn’t great, but he got to work with Robin. Keith was a grade-A asshole, but he spent most of his time either not in the store or tucked away in the backroom playing video games brought from home. If Steve wanted to save enough money to escape Hawkins, he needed to keep his job, but the kids liked to make that a lot harder than it should have been.

“Get off,” Steve snapped. “You guys aren’t even allowed to be back here.” He didn’t know why he tried; it wasn’t like they were going to listen to him.

Dustin replied, “I need it!”

“For what?” Robin asked, shuffling the fallen papers back into a neat pile.

“Eddie’s friends’ numbers.”

If it was possible to roll your eyes so hard they fall out, Steve would have done just that. The mere mention of Eddie pricked his skin, no matter how stupid he knew he was being. “Oh, you mean your new best friend who you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?”

Dustin dramatically swung his head to look in Steve’s direction and threw his hands up. “I never said that!” He definitely did, Steve was almost positive.

“Seriously, guys? Maybe on Monday you can play around here but it’s Saturday. It’s our busiest day,” Robin said. The Family Video store was set to get busy in an hour or two as the weekend rush filled in, looking for movies to watch for date night, sleepovers, and to cure loneliness.

Dustin returned his attention to the computer, scrolling through a list of customers that had rented from the store before. “I empathize with you, Robin,” he said. “But this can’t wait.”

“Oh my god,” Steve muttered. What he needed was Sunshine to come home and make the kids actually listen. They only seemed to care about what she had to say or told them to do, but she was still in Indy, much to his disappointment. And now there was a murderer in Hawkins, which made him feel even better.

“Calling Eddie’s friends is an emergency?” Robin questioned.

“Correct.”

Steve moved beside Robin and helped her reorganize the tapes into their correct piles. He asked her, “Do you want me to strangle him, or do you want to?”

“We could take turns?”

With an annoyed huff, Dustin asked Max, “Can you fill them in while I do this?”

Steve and Robin exchanged a confused look before the latter said, “Fill us in on what?”

→←

The car ride back to Hawkins was tense and quiet, nothing the radio softly playing as the world whirled by. Sunshine fingers had played with the neckline of her shirt, where her necklace should have been, so much that the stitching started to come loose.

She, Kali, and Calum had changed clothes at some lonely gas station just outside of Indy. Their bloodstained clothes were tossed in a dumpster and forgotten.

As they rolled past the ‘Welcome to Hawkins’ sign, a headache bloomed behind Sunshine’s eyes. She winced and grasped her head, pressing her fingers into the skin in an attempt to ease the pain just slightly by applying pressure.

“Where are we going now?” Kali asked, looking for directions as she eyed the road with a hard-set gaze. Her knuckles were white as she held onto the steering wheel.

Checking the time on her watch, Sunshine knew where Steve and Robin would be for certain.

She should have arrived home sooner, but it took them more time to escape Indy than she thought. They had to stop once to change their clothes, a second time to eat something, and a third because no one could keep their eyes open long enough to drive safely. After a quick nap, they hit the road in the morning, but Kali avoided the interstate and opted for backroads just in case someone was on their tail. By that time, Sunshine was more than ready to be home.

“Steve and Robin will be at work. We’ll stop there first before we try to tack down Nancy,” she answered. “Stay on this road until you hit the next stop sign, then make a right.”

Kali nodded and continued on through her clear discomfort for being back in Hawkins.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Sunshine saw Calum, who hadn’t uttered a word since their confrontation in the alley. He sat with his head turned and eyes fixed out the window, lost somewhere inside his head. There was a lot they needed to figure out, both in the grand scheme of things and between the three of them. Sunshine sure the best place to do that was in Hawkins.

For the longest time, she had felt the need to carry everything on her own shoulders, but since relearning what a normal life was, she had learned to lean on others inside of drowning. They only solved things together, not alone. They defeated monsters together, not by themselves. As long as everyone worked together, she was sure they could put a final end to the Lab and everything else that had occurred as a result of it.

Sunshine took a deep breath before she turned around and spoke to Calum. “Are you coming with us?” Her voice was careful but not too kind.

He didn’t look away from the window as he said, “If we find my dad, can I at least talk to him?” His voice, on the other hand, sounded of a hurt child, abandoned and spirit broken.

Sunshine glanced at Kali, who sighed in response before saying, “I can’t make any promises.” Calum’s figure slumped. “But I won’t say no.”

It wasn’t much, but in Sunshine knew anything about Calum, if you gave him an inch, he’d try to take a mile. “Okay,” he said, flatly, in agreement to tag along.

The car fell back into silence, aside from Sunshine’s directions. The sky was bright blue, the kind of color that brought hope after a long and gray winter. Maybe it was a warm welcome home. Her heart was happy to be back with those who she shared it with, but her head arched uncomfortably. She blamed it on a lack of restful sleep and her bout of angry emotions clouding her being.

“Um, guys?” Calum piped up, leaning between the two front seats with an odd sense of urgency and he squinted out the windshield. He pointed ahead at a helicopter that appeared overhead, a blemish in the pretty sky. The helicopter hovered for a moment, not too far away, just beyond a cluster of trees. They watched for a moment before it started to descend. “That’s a military copter.”

“How do you know that?” Kali asked.

“They’re not exactly subtle.”

Sunshine furrowed her brows. She had only seen a military helicopter once, after Starcourt. Owens and his “backup” had arrived in helicopters. After relocating the Byers-Hopper clan, Owens fell off the map. If he was back in Hawkins, Sunshine felt like she would know about it. Or she had missed something major in the twenty-four hours she had been gone. And with Hawkins' track recorded, that wasn’t impossible.

Still, she asked the question all three of them were thinking, “Why would the military be in Hawkins?”

Calum shook his head. “Because this place fucking sucks.”

Sunshine all but sprinted through the doors of the Family Video store. The bell dinged, signaling a customer's arrival. The usual monotone drone of Steve or Robin’s greeting before they realized it was her and not a regular customer didn’t sound. Instead, a collection of voices filled her ears, and she was welcomed by the sight of Max, Robin, and Dustin all talking on phones.

It was Max who noticed her first, as she hung up her phone. “Oh, thank God,” the redhead said.

Steve’s head popped up from behind one of the shelves he seemed to be restocking, and a grin filled his face before he made his way over to Sunshine. Without a word, she hugged him tightly, relief flooding her veins after her troublesome twenty-four hours. He was warm and smelled like a mix of candy, dust, and cologne. Though it had only been a day, she realized how intertwined he and the rest of the group had come in her day-to-day life.

A low chuckle sounded from Steve before he pressed his lips to the crown of her head. “Miss me that much, Sunshine?”

She really didn’t want to let go of him, and she wanted to pretend that two people weren’t dead and it was more or less partly her fault. The more she had thought about it, they were probably followed, leading whoever was killing the people from Lab right to the two men. They were playing the same game of revenge as Kali, but Sunshine hadn’t agreed to play. She just wanted answers and to understand the memories she had somehow forgotten. Was it another kid from the Lab like Kali? Was it someone who had worked at the Lab themselves? There were so many unanswered questions it made Sunshine dizzy.

Leaning back just slightly from her boyfriend, he caught sight of the frown on her lips, which gave her away almost instantly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

A lot of things, she wanted to answer, but she refrained as Robin hung up her phone with a loud ‘clang’ and said, “Calum?”

The boy stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets, leaving a good distance between himself and Kali. “Hey…”

“Guys! We need to focus!” Dustin shouted. He shot a small smile at Sunshine. “We’re glad you're back, but we’ve got a problem on your hands that we gotta take care of.”

Sunshine tried to shake off her own issues for a moment, turning her focus on what Dustin had just said. “Problem? What problem?” A pit had been stuck in her stomach since yesterday, but she hoped it would lessen once she arrived home, not get worse. But any issue in Hawkins was almost never small.

Slinging an arm around Sunshine’s shoulder, pulling her into his side. Between him and Robin, they explained how there had been a murder that morning and Max was almost certain the victim was Chrissy Cunningham, a polite cheerleader who Sunshine had passed by in the halls of Hawkins High. The last person the cheerleader had been seen with, according to Max, was Eddie Munson. Despite that, Dustin was certain Eddie didn’t kill Chrissy.

“Yeah, there’s no way,” Calum added. “I’ve been in the Hellfire Club with Eddie since freshman year. He’s not a murderer. An asshole sometimes, sure, but not a murderer.”

Max piped up and said, “But we don’t know that for sure. Which is why we’re trying to find him and figure out exactly what happened last night.”

Kali, who had been quiet, looked at Sunshine. “So, there’s a murderer on the loose?”

Of course there was. She begged Kali to come to a place that held the worst years of her life with a promise that it was safer now, only to drag her back into a possibly dangerous situation. She wanted to curse the universe for its awful timing.

“Not exactly…” Dustin looked hesitant, like he didn’t want to say whatever he was about it.

“Then what, exactly?” Kali asked.

He looked between her and Sunshine. “I’m sorry, who is she?”

“Oh, right,” Sunshine said with a shake of her head. “Everyone meet Kali. Kali, meet everyone.” It was a less than enthusiastic introduction given the circumstances.

“Kali? Like the Kali who Luke and Leia used to live with?” Max asked, eyes wide. Sunshine nodded in response.

“Is she up to speed?” asked Dustin.

It was Sunshine’s turn to be confused. “On what?”

“We think, maybe, it wasn’t someone who killed Chrissy,” Max started to explain. “We think it might have been…something…”

Max’s words were heavy, hitting Sunshine with an unknown force she hadn’t been expecting. The headache behind her eyes pulsed, as if it had a heartbeat. Steve’s arm around her shoulder shifted as he said, “Hey.” He brought his hand up to her face, running his thumb under his nose with a face full of pinched concern. When he pulled it away, blood stained the pad of his finger. “Your nose is bleeding?”

Muttering under her breath, she broke away from Steve and reached for a tissue on the counter. Eyes fell onto her, but none more than Max, who stared at Sunshine with her wide blue eyes almost uncomfortably intense.

Sunshine tried to shake off any concern. “It was a long night,” she said, blaming her less than ideal trip to Indy as the reason for her nosebleed. They started happening randomly after Starcourt, following the overuse of her abilities. Dr. Owens had blamed it on stress, and Sunshine didn’t have any reason to think otherwise.

The blood stopped flowing after a moment and she returned her attention to the group. Level headed. She needed to stay level headed. She couldn’t lose it when one of her peers was head and the kids were already ready to get involved. She had promised Kali that Hawkins was different now, and she foolishly tricked herself into believing the same, that maybe that time, the monsters were really gone for good.

“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions yet,” Sunshine said, looking between Max and Dustin.

The latter countered. “We don’t exactly have a great track record of something weird not being…you know, almost the end of the world. Something could still be happening here.”

Robin shook her head. “Even with the gate-thingy closed?”

Dustin shrugged his shoulders. “The rules we play by are D&D rules, right? But we don’t really know the rules the Upside Down plays by.”

The mere mention of the Upside Down made her sick to her stomach. Her muscles constricted, remembering the pain of what she felt last summer, holding off the Mind Flayer.

“I still think we could be jumping the gun here,” Steve said. “We don’t know anything yet.”

“That’s why we need to find Eddie,” said Max.

“I know where he probably is,” Calum sighed. “Trust me, there’s only one place he could be.”

Everyone rushed to gather their belongings to set out in their search for Eddie. Sunshine shoved a handful of tissues in her pocket as Kali approached her.

“I’m sorry,” were the first words out of Sunshine’s mouth. Her shoulders slumped with tiredness and defeat. “I didn’t know this is what we’d come back to. If you want to leave, I get it.”

Kali still looked indifferent with her arms crossed over her chest and her black makeup smudged under her dark eyes. “I will never understand your and Jane’s loyalty to this place,” she started. “The Lab is responsible for the messes here. The monsters Jane had told me about, the Upside Down. Yet, you’re still here, cleaning up after them. Why waste your time?”

Sunshine looked past Kali, looking at Dustin and Max who shouldered their backpacks with steeled determination fixed on their young faces that had seen too much. She looked at Steve, who smiled when he realized she caught him looking at her. And she looked at Robin, who mumbled to herself as she quickly worked to close down the store so they all could leave and look for Eddie, risking her employment for the second time in less than a year to help them out.

“We’re not loyal to Hawkins,” Sunshine said. “It’s about the people. Our friends. Our family. And because…” she trailed off with a sigh, wearing a sad smile. “Because no one else will.”

The group all headed for the door, ready to go. Kali shifted in her boots, thinking. “Your friends are leaving,” she said. “We should get going.”

Sunshine blinked, confused. “You’re coming with us?”

“For now.”

That was good enough for Sunshine.

#stranger things #steve harrington #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington x original character #max mayfield #dustin henderson #robin buckley #kali prasad #chrissy cunningham #eddie munson #steve harrington slow burn #stranger things fanfiction #st fic #st4 #stranger things 4

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aealzx · 6 months ago

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I have way too many charas, so I ended up just settling with one of the ones that’s been around for awhile and given me a ton of brain rot to work with over the years XD Old art ahoy~

This is Azre Shelar (aaz-rey), and he’s my very first Drow oc that also has nothing to do with DnD or any other official/published works. I made him as a secondary character in a role play group on DeviantArt and at the time I thought Drow was just another generic fantasy race like dwarf, elf, gnome, etc. Then I found out that Drow are actually a pretty hardcore DnD race, and eventually came to calling my version of Drow “softcore” because they’re a lot less chaotic evil/murder hobo X’D

So a bit of Azre’s info is that he’s the 2nd son of an arranged marriage couple, Andara and Falven, who are only married because his mother’s family blackmailed his father’s family into it for resource security, and his father volunteered for the marriage in place of his brother. Andara is not the greatest person, and was way too strict and emotionally distant while raising Azre, to the point Azre ended up turning into an emotionless doll of sorts because he couldn’t figure out how to make his mom happy and therefore just shut down completely. By the time Azre was 11, his dad finally ignored his wife’s wishes and contacted his brother to ask for help with Azre, which is a big deal because they’re a matriarcal society and the wife is the one that runs the household. This led to Azre being taken in by his uncle, Basim, who was slowly able to crack Azre out of his shutdown shell mode.

Present day Azre is now a good boy to his family, but struggles with emotions ‘cause he’s way behind in being able to recognize what he’s feeling and how to manage it. He still lives with his uncle, aunt, and cousin. But while he’s extremely attached to his uncle he struggles to truly bond with his aunt and cousin because he’s unable to recognize that a mother figure doesn’t have to be the one that birthed the person, and because he feels like he’s invaded their family. Especially since he was a handful kid to deal with, and once the Basim got the barrier on his emotions to break Azre turned into a big crybaby who also had a huge amount of untrained natural shadow magic that easily went haywire. Lately he tries to make it up to them by being useful and putting his love of magic to work making them convenient charms and scripts like an anti dust barrier for his aunt;s textiles and such. And presently he works with Basim in a tiny group of people called Specter, who are the under the radar agents that report to the nation’s head intelligence general.

Other random facts:

Azre has such a high affinity to the shadow element that he almost registers as an elemental being instead of a humanoid creature. This is partly a result of him having an abnormal amount of inborn shadow magic. The downside is that light and holy element things affect him a lot more than other drow. Ma boy squints like a 90 yo human grandpa without glasses when he’s in the afternoon sun, and gets headaches from light easily.

He has negative stats when it comes to weapon combat, which only served to increase his mother’s frustration with him. He doesn’t want to be handicapped by relying on magic exclusively though, so picked up quite a bit of training in hand to hand combat.

His favorite food is pineapple

As part of his job he’s learned how to disguise himself as a woman, and will sometimes stand in for one of a set of twin drow performers at a brothel. He only covers open room performance type jobs, so doesn’t deal with any customers in the bedroom. Just dances on stage in revealing clothes as eye candy.

He has a really hard time with uneducated people, which leads him to behaving like a snarky bitchy child when he has to interact with them too long.

After the world war his aunt and uncle have a baby girl named Reha, and she instantly stole Azre's heart and he easily gets distracted by her.

More random pics of him, his uncle, and baby cousin:

OC PROPAGANDA!!! I WANT OC PROPAGANDA RIGHT NOW! Everyone show me the oc blorbo!!! I gotta know everyone's OCS tell me why you're spinning them around in your head!!! I want propaganda!!!

Please and thank you 🙏

#my art #azre #drow #soft drow #oc #original character #TL #Trinity Log #this is only like a 10thof his info #but I got tired of typing X'D

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troubatrain · 4 years ago

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want you to want me - m. tkachuk

a/n: i’m awful at intros but this fic is my whole ass child. i started it months ago and i picked it up back and then i just couldn’t stop writing. now we’re at a whopping 10k words and i’m really happy with the way this one came out. i hope you guys like it as much as i loved writing it.

big thanks to @hookingminor @igor-shestyorkin & @tkafuckit for reading this as i wrote it and gassing me up ily all sm

warnings: smut

You were Matthew’s dream girl, and you didn’t have a fucking clue. You were leaning against the cold metal bleachers of your former high school, chatting with whatever teacher probably wanted to hear all about that shiny NWSL contract you signed right out of college with the Chicago Red Stars. It was well deserved, a few national titles in college put you in the position in the first place, and Matthew respected the hell out of you. You wouldn’t know, by the way he never seems like he actually wants to speak to you and the few snide remarks about your sport in general. That started forever ago, when Matthew royally fucked up any chance he had with you later in life because he was a competitive asshole.

It started when you were twelve, and middle school was nothing short of a mess. Matthew was growing into his own, adding a near foot to his height over one summer while his father and coaches doted on the fact that he was getting bigger. Getting bigger meant getting better, and for a few years winning was the most important thing in the world. But, becoming a hormonal preteen came with something else, feelings about the girl who sat three rows behind him in almost all of his classes.

Then third period gym class came around, and Matthew was a competitive monster. The kind of kid who took that way too seriously, and you accidentally became public enemy number one. You were the only person in his class who could even come close to beating him at anything, because you were just as much of an athlete as he was. Soccer had become your craft, and much like Matthew, you declared you’d go pro one day. So, Matthew did what any other insecure twelve year old boy would, he teased you relentlessly. It was awful, but by the time Matthew had gone off to play for the National team you had forgotten about his bullshit.

Apparently, you’d done something in a past life to warrant dealing with Matthew for longer than you ever anticipated. Jamie was your little sister, and Taryn’s best friend. Best friend was probably understatement, the pair were inseparable on and off the field. They trained together, they played on the same teams and that meant way too much time with the rest of the Tkachuk’s. You learned quickly, that the rest of their family was wonderful and Matthew seemed to be too thick headed to fall in line.

You tolerated Matthew, brushing his silly remarks off just like you did when you were younger. The thing was, Matthew didn’t want you to just tolerate him, but he didn’t know how to get you to stop hating him. You make your way over to Matthew who’d been standing next to his brother since the start of your sister’s game.

“Hi Brady,” You greet, tapping Brady on the shoulder who pulled you into a bone crushing hug. That annoyed Matthew the most, the way you seemed to love his siblings and despise him. In your defense, nobody was more supportive of your professional career than Brady, who’d made a promise to catch a game the second he could, “Hi Matthew.”

You were waiting for something from Matthew, an acknowledgement for finally achieving a dream of yours. You’d gotten the congratulations from the rest of his family, a massive celebration because Keith thought you deserved it. Matthew probably didn’t think you did. You could practically hear his smug little voice about how much his recently inked contract was compared to yours, because you’d heard it since you were kids. He used to rip on your athletic abilities every chance he could, something about how it didn’t matter how hard you could kick a ball you couldn’t hold a hockey stick so he was just better.

“You’re here!” You hear the chipper voice of your little sister approach, Jamie’s sweaty postgame arms wrapped around your waist. You’d been in Chicago, signing some paperwork and looking into finding a place to stay when you had to go for camp. You promised you’d make it back in time, and your flight landed less than five hours ago but you made it.

Matthew bit the inside of his cheek to keep his smile to himself, watching his own sister push past him to see you. Taryn loved you, because sometimes she just needed a big sister and her brothers were in another country most

of the time. It was the part that killed him the most, seeing you with his family. You fit right in, a fierce athlete with drive that rivaled his own. Brady side-eyed his own brother, watching him instead of the scene unfolding in front of him. He was frustrated with his own brother for not just telling you the truth, that he teased you because he was an idiot who didn’t know how to handle having a crush on you.

But Brady was going to do it himself if his brother didn’t.

***

Matt, you don’t have a girlfriend right?

Matthew knew damn well he should not have answered his sister’s question, but when he realized her best friend had been sitting right next to her in the kitchen, his curiosity got the best of him. So he did, telling his sister he was single and sparing her details of any of the girls he’d gone on dates with the past year. That was his life is Calgary, a constant revolving door so no one would see what was underneath layers of sarcasm and angst. But every summer, he’d come home and wonder when he’d start to build a life for himself, and if he’d ever find that person to do it with. That was when his brain would start to wander, fantasies of a future that always seemed to involve you. He loved to imagine it, the years that you’d both spend supporting the other’s dream. Matthew would do anything to make sure you achieved yours, and he thought you’d do the same. Then you’d both settle down, the big house with the white picket fence and a shiny ring on your finger Matthew put there himself and years of arguing about what sport your future children would play - he’d even consider letting you have just one.

Unfortunately, none of that could be real until he figured out how to get you to hate him less. Taryn apparently had the same idea, and had been scheming with your sister for months. The two girls were looking at Matthew with devilish grins on their faces, like whatever they came up with would totally work.

“Y/N doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Your sister hums, sipping the smoothie they forced Matthew to drive them to go get, “It’s sad actually-”

“We think you should date,” Taryn explains, Matthew’s eyes went wide. His sister didn’t know the whole story, or just how far back this stupid fued went. Taryn always loved you, so Matthew just kept his remarks to himself.

“I know you know Y/N doesn’t like me very much,” Matthew explains, “So tell me how that’s going to work.”

“Apologize to her, if she can forgive me for anything she’ll forgive you,” Jamie sighs, thinking of all the times you’d shown her mercy when she didn’t deserve it.

“You’ve got to be sorry,” Brady interrupts, mouth full of food while he goes to go look for more in the fridge. He turns around, Matthew’s eyes giving him daggers, “What? You were a dick to her for years, you’ve got to fix that first.”

It didn’t take much convincing after that, Taryn had already planned out what Matthew should say to you. Matthew wasn’t going to repeat those words, because he knew exactly what he’d say to you if he ever got the chance. He was trying to fix his past, because the way he acted towards you was the one thing he regrets.

So with the help of your little sister and the Find my Friends app, Matthew was pulling up to a soccer field he’d been to plenty of times. He used to run through the park nearby, catching a glimpse of your practices when you were in high school and Matthew was an afterthought. He hops out of his car, smiling when he could see you running drills alone. You were dribbling the ball, counting to yourself while you were weaving through cones you set up.

“I’ve never been good at those,” Matthew calls out, walking over to you while you stopped and caught your breath, “I kick the cones with my skate every single time.”

“Maybe you’re not as good as you think you are,” You tease, grabbing your water and guzzling it down, “What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, I came to apologize?” Matthew admits, knowing his face was probably bright red. He was nervous, the good kind like he got before a big game, “I was just an insecure kid then, and you didn’t deserve what I did just because I was afraid you’d beat in something.”

Matthew left out the part where he felt like he was still that kid all the time. All of those insecurities about himself seemed to be picked up by every reporter in Canada when he was there. You bit your lip, pretending like you were trying to debate whether or not you should forgive Matthew at all. In reality, you would have forgiven him ages ago if he’d just apologized sooner. It was so long ago, and sometimes you thought Matthew’s constant taunting made you better. He was pleading, baby blue eyes staring at you sadly while he waited for your answer. He looked like he didn’t think he deserved to be forgiven, shoulders slumped while he tried to read your body language. It was something you noticed about Matthew forever ago, he could have everything in the world but when he looked at you he seemed almost sad.

“I mean I could forgive you, but only if you beat me,” You cross your arms, raising an eyebrow at Matthew, “If I win, I don’t have to and if you win all is forgiven.”

“Really? Isn’t that why we were in this situation to begin with?” Matthew points out, crossing his arms at you.

“I thought you weren’t that kid anymore,” You remind of his own words, testing him to see if he’d put his money where his mouth was. Matthew smirks, chuckling to himself, “C’mon Tkachuk let’s see what you got.”

Matthew shook his head, laughing and lining up next to you. You both counted to three, sprinting down the field at full force. Matthew knew his height was the only thing working to his advantage while he tried to keep up with you. You were nearing your finish line, and Matthew didn’t think he was going to win. You were going to forgive him regardless, but Matthew didn’t know that. His arms stretched out, grabbing your waist and pulling you into his chest. Matthew turned his body around, stepping over the line before you did.

“God, you’re such a fucking cheater Matthew,” You hit his chest, Matthew’s hands still firmly placed on your hips.

“I didn’t want to lose,” Matthew admits, all of his smug attitude diminishing immediately, “Just want you to forgive me.”

“I’ll forgive you if you never pull that shit on me again,” You poke his chest, slipping out of his grip and running to your stuff before he could notice how nervous he was making you.

No. Absolutely not. You told yourself while you checked your phone, rolling your eyes at the warning text from Jamie that Matthew was on his way, you couldn’t have anything but indifference to Matthew Tkachuk. It got harder everytime you saw him, the past few years had been nothing short of kind to him, he was growing from a dumb immature boy to a man more and more every summer. You turn around, peeking at Matthew who was sitting down and catching his breath, a winning smile on his face, the same kind he had the very first time he schooled everyone at floor hockey in middle school.

Maybe you could be friends.

***

Matthew liked having you as a friend, mostly because as of right now that was all he was going to get. You definitely didn’t trust him, which was valid considering Matthew had been a dick to you for years, but he was working on it. He had to, that uncontrollable feeling that he cared about you was getting harder to shove back down with every year that passed.

“You’re friends now, you don’t need to stare at her like a creep anymore,” Brady scoffs, watching his brother gawk at you from afar. Matthew couldn’t help it, you just had a glow about you, you always did, but somehow in the summer you were golden. Tonight you looked even better, maybe it’s because you smiled at him when he walked instead of scowling like you usually did.

“He’s in love with you,” Steph giggles, sipping her drink and giving Matthew a side eye, “He’s been staring at you all night.”

“He apologized to me,” You confess, holding in that little secret about Matthew’s visit to the field even from your best friend. You had the same friends, the same group of people who’d been pushing the two of you to work it out for years. It wasn’t that you didn’t want them to know that they no longer had to worry about one of you blowing up because the other was there, you just wanted everyone to let it go too. Matthew deserved a little forgiveness, you could only imagine the pressure he felt on himself back then, and while he didn’t totally deserve your protection - you were going to give it to him, “Don’t-”

“Oh wonder why, I know it’s because he looooves you,” Steph teases, “Did you forgive him?”

“Yeah I mean we’re both older and I’d like to think he’s wiser, and besides our parents are way too close,” You knew this was going to be your excuse for a while. It was better for everyone that you forgave him, Jamie and Taryn spent more time together than you’d spend with anyone and you're just as close with the rest of their family. It wasn’t untrue that it was in fact for the best, but that didn’t mean Matthew’s stupid dimples didn’t persuade you before you could think about anyone else, “Can we stop talking about this?”

Matthew’s eyes didn’t leave you once that night, especially after the way Steph downed tequila shots and convinced you to join her. You deserved to celebrate, you’d accomplished something Matthew knew was your biggest dream because it was the same as his. He was proud of you, not that he’d gotten a chance to show it.

“If you’re going to go pro Y/N, you’ve got to start keeping up,” Brady chirps, watching you stumble over your own feet to walk over to him and Matthew. Matthew had seen this once before, a level of drunkenness where you turned into bambi but that was so long ago he never thought he’d see it again.

“I’ll go pro in beating your ass Brady,” You snap back, shooting daggers over Brady who was already cracking up, “Hi Matthew.”

“Hi,” Matthew’s voice was small, a weird sound considering he was usually the loudest in the room. Brady scoffs, walking away from the two of you before he snaps at how hopelessly in love his brother was. You turn your head in confusion, your mind far too hazy to realize why Brady was so annoyed in the first place, causing Matthew to chuckle, “Want to play? Might be best if we’re on the same team.”

Matthew’s thumb shot over to the beer pong set up on the other side of the room, a mischievous smirk on face, “I mean if it’s for the best.”

Matthew’s arm wrapped around your shoulders holding you close to his chest while you both played pong was definitely not for the best, and it wasn’t helping that stupid crush you had on him. You could feel Steph’s stare from the corner of the room, and you look at her to mouth a don’t at her. It was nice having Matthew on your team, finally a moment where instead of arguing with each other about who’s elbow was clearly over the table - you got to do the same thing to Brady.

“Brady you’re cheating,” You call out, Matthew’s head thrown back in laughter at your seriousness.

“You heard her Brady, elbows over the table,” Matthew breathes out, his body still rumbling with laughter at his little brother’s expense.

“Oh look at you two, you’re just gonna raise some winners one day aren’t you?” Brady chirps back, both happy to see you getting along and annoyed once he realizes that means he was going to get roasted by both of you now. You felt heat rush to your cheeks, tucking your face into Matthew’s arm in hopes no one saw the way you shrunk at that stupid joke.

“We’re winners right now,” Matthew calls out, his last ball landing in the cup and sealing the game for the two of you. Matthew would raise winners with you, it was something he thought about from time to time, but those thoughts were never going to see the light of day, “Alright drunky I think it’s time to get you home.”

“You can stay, I’ll just catch a ride with someone,” You waive Matthew off, who shook his head no at you before you even started speaking.

“One, my dad would kick my ass if he knew I left you,” Matthew starts with, holding up one finger with another on the way, “Two, we’re friends now and I’d like to make sure you don’t die before you see a pro game.”

Matthew had seen you this drunk before, but what he didn’t know was that getting you home would be more difficult than he thought. You started in the direction of your house, but apparently you were a runner and a speedy one at that. Now you were barely two blocks away from Matthew’s parents place and if he could at least get you there he’d be able to call it a night - which wasn’t fucking easy.

“Alright I’ve had enough,” Matthew huffs, jogging to catch up with you and scooping you into his arms. You were hanging over his shoulder, Matthew making his way down the street with the house in his sightline. You could have cared less, laughing your ass off while Matthew walked up the stairs and finally placed you back down on your feet, “Be quiet, go up to my room and get some clothes and go sleep in the guest room.”

You weren’t quiet, not at all and Matthew was amazed not one of his parents came down to see what all the chaos was about. After Matthew had to walk you up the stairs, running back down for some water and hoping you weren’t a disaster by the time he got back - he found you in his bed. You were curled up right in the middle, an old London Knights shirt on your body, Matthew’s favorite. Matthew grabs his comforter, throwing it over your body. He sighs, leaning against his door frame and smiling to himself at how comfortable you looked, flicking off the light and retreating to the guest room.

Matthew hated the guest room. He hated how hard the mattress was and after a few hours of no sleep and tossing and turning - he gave up. Matthew hoped no one else was up, but not to his surprise his mother was already in the kitchen, and judging by the look on her face, she knew who was upstairs.

“Care to explain?” Chantal smirks, raising her eyebrows at her son. Matthew’s face got red, his landing on the back of his neck to cover the blush.

“She fell asleep before I could even get her to the guest room,” Matthew shrugs, hoping his mom wouldn’t push it any further, “I, uh, apologized the other day.”

“Good,” Chantal hums, a knowing look on her face. She didn’t like to push Matthew, her one kid who seemed to be a little rougher around the edges than the others, but that silly feud never sat right with her, “Here, bring her a coffee, I’m sure she needs it.”

Matthew nods, grabbing the mug his mother was holding out and starting to make his way up the stairs. He heard the tell her you made it from his mother and shook his head. He knew what she was thinking, especially with the way Chantal seemed to talk about you. His mother thought you were nothing short of perfect, and Matthew would be a liar if he didn’t think the same thing.

“Did I fall asleep here?” You’d woken up confused, your question only answered by the jerseys hanging on the walls, you were in Matthew’s room. You rub your eyes, the door creaking open way too loudly for how dead you felt.

“Only after you almost fell down the stairs and ran three blocks in the wrong direction,” Matthew chuckles, sitting on the edge of the bed and handing you the mug, “You know you’re fast right?”

“Yeah,” You muse, smirking to yourself and taking a sip of coffee, “I’m sorry I did that to you, and stole your bed - I can go.”

Matthew stopped you, telling to finish your coffee and relax and he’d drive you home after. You fell into a comfortable conversation, something Matthew never thought would happen.

And watching you walk up to your steps in his shirt still wasn’t something he thought he’d see, but it was better than he imagined.

***

“Hey it’s Jamie, can’t get to the phone right now…”

You groan, tossing your phone onto your bed and continuing your pace around the room. It was well after midnight, and your sister had been out all night, and past her curfew. Usually you’d cover for her, definitely taking the prize home for the cool older sister who picks her siblings and their friends up from parties. That’s what had you so worried. Sure, Jamie was a teenager and she snuck in a few little white lies with your parents just like you’d done, but Jamie always told you the truth. She’d check in with you more than her parents, letting you know that she’s going to be out late but she’s safe and if she needed anything she knew who to call. You texted sometime around ten, just checking in since it was Saturday and you were sure she had a more riveting social life than yourself. No answer. Then eleven rolled around and you didn’t hear anything, so naturally you double texted and now it’s twelve thirty and you still haven’t heard anything. You cross your arms, looking at your phone as if you could will an answer into existence. You grab it, dialing a number you weren’t even sure would work.

“Hello?” Matthew’s voice appeared on the other side of the line, clear confusion in his voice. You let out a sigh of relief, hoping Matthew would have the answer you wanted to hear so desperately.

“Is my sister at your house?” You ask, biting your lip and throwing on a pair of sweats so you could pick her up and murder her for scaring you like that. You were sure it was innocent, Jamie slept over at Taryn’s all the time, staying up way too late watching movies or when Jamie would hide going to a party from your much stricter parents.

Matthew tells you to give him a minute, and you can hear him walking through the house. By the time you heard a door open and a small fuck under his breath, your stomach dropped, “She was supposed to be home by midnight.”

“Alright, thanks anyways,” You sigh, “Do you know where they might have gone? It’s just, Jamie hasn’t answered me in hours and she usually does even if she’s out past curfew and I’m just-”

“I’ll be at your house in ten,” Matthew says, his keys alright in his hand and his foot halfway out the door. He was more mad than worried, sure his sister was out a party past curfew. Matthew was her biggest brother, and he was far more protective over her than Brady ever could be. He hated when she did this, and Matthew was pissed. You waited on your steps, Matthew car coming into view while you sprung up and practically sprinted into his car.

“You look mad,” You observe, as if it wasn’t completely obvious. You knew why, trying countless times to remind Taryn that her brother loves her and that’s why he’s like that. You thought he could go a little easier on her, but you wouldn’t dare get in the middle of that.

“I am mad,” Matthew grits out, knuckles white on his steering wheel while he drives slowly down the street. You just drove, in hopes you’d find what was obviously a house party and hopes your sisters were inside. You squint, hoping your eyes weren’t fooling you.

“Wait, pull over I think I see my neighbor,” You yell, Matthew’s foot flying on the break and you hop out. You were right, the bright orange tuft of hair you saw was like a miracle, “Hey Henry have you seen my sister?”

“Oh yeah I think she’s still inside,” Henry points to the house behind him, music blasting and a party in full swing, “I think she’s with Taryn.”

Matthew hops out of the car, grabbing your hand and pulling you into the house with him. Matthew’s fingers were laced with yours with every step he took, weaving through the crowd in hopes you’d see them. It took three bedrooms and a laundry room until you finally saw Taryn standing in the doorway. Her eyes went wide, and you pushed past them both to see Jamie with her head in the toilet. She was fine, well she was definitely in deep shit, but it wasn’t the worst thing to stumble upon. You throw her hair up, your attention moving to Matthew yelling at his sister in the hallway.

“Why didn’t you call someone,” Matthew yells, trying so damn hard to not completely snap on his baby sister. Taryn yells that her phone had died and then Jamie got sick and she didn’t know what to do. Of course they didn’t. You were probably more sympathetic, and you knew just how pissed off Matthew could get. You get up, pushing Taryn back into the bathroom and telling her to watch your sister.

“Calm down before you talk to her, please,” You plead, grabbing Matthew’s shoulders, “Besides, I sort of need some help right now.”

There it was. The very moment Matthew realized all along you could’ve been helping him. Your hands were wrapped around his biceps, a finger gently rubbing the skin right under the sleeve of his shirt. Every bit of anger disappeared from his body, a calm feeling replacing it. He knew you were right, and he’d be thankful for it later. Matthew knew he had to do the right thing by you, and he nodded, willing to follow any directions you gave him.

Matthew carried Jamie out of the house, getting both of your sisters in the car and finally heading back to your house. You knew he was still pissed off, a present frown on his face so you just took the chance. Just like he’d done before for you, you grabbed one of his hands from his steering wheel, lacing your fingers together. You caught the smile on his face, your thumb rubbing over his hand while his shoulders seemed to just relax. Once

Matthew finally helped you get Jamie inside, a night of laying on her floor to make sure she was okay ahead of you stood in the doorway with Matthew across from you.

“Thank you, I know we’re working on this friendship thing but you really didn’t have to do that,” You were eternally grateful, wrapping your arms around Matthew’s waist and tucking your head into his chest.

“You’d do the same thing for Taryn,” Matthew hums, knowing full well he definitely owed you for being Taryn’s replacement sibling with him and Brady in Canada for most of the year, “Get some rest okay?”

“Wait,” You stop Matthew, grabbing his hand one more time, “Don’t kill your sister, please she’s just a kid-”

“You’re way too easy on them,” Matthew chuckles, shaking his head at you. He knew Taryn was probably scared, and after he calmed a bit he understood where you were coming from. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to tell her that if she ever pulls that shit again - he was going to rat her out to their parents.

And when Matthew finally got back in the car, he could see his sister’s grin in the backseat, “Don’t say it.”

She held your hand, are you sure you’re not going to malfunction now?

***

Maybe you were spiraling.

You’d been waiting for this moment your entire life, now you had a few more weeks until camp started and you were afraid. You knew you were good enough, you had to be. But what if you weren’t? You could feel the anxiety settling in, a feeling you hadn’t felt since Matthew told you soccer wasn’t a real sport in fourth grace. It’d been eating at you for weeks, deteriorating any confidence you had left in yourself. So you started pushing yourself even harder. The harder you worked the less like you were to fuck it all up. Your muscles were sore, your body was tired and it was just all becoming too much.

And Matthew noticed.

You were pushing yourself too hard, even the time you were supposed to relax with your families before your seasons started was being spent training. He understood it, the term first round exit lived rent free in his head every single time his skate hit the ice over the summer, but that didn’t make it okay. You looked tired, sluggish while you moved because you were running twice a day and training in between. And he was pissed everyone seemed to be fine with it. You should start working harder then Matthew. If it bothers you so much maybe you could join her. It wasn’t that he was jealous of your work ethic, he was worried. Matthew’s eyes followed you as you ran past his house again. The third time in one day, he’d finally decided he had enough.

Matthew took the walk to your house, charming the pants off your mother for her to tell him you were upstairs because you just got back in. He knocks twice, hearing a come in from the other side.

“What are you doing here?” You question, rolling one of your ankles that just seemed to be getting more swollen every time you started to practice. Matthew noticed it, your hands freezing one you caught his gaze.

“You’re overworking yourself,” Matthew stands his ground, he knew you could have told him to fuck off because no one hates advice they didn’t ask for quite like him, “Don’t tell me I’m wrong.”

“That’s rich coming from the kid who’s played with more broken bones than anyone I know,” You remind him of a few mistakes Matthew’s made playing through injuries he really shouldn’t, “I’m not fucking frail.”

“That’s not what this is about,” Matthew scoffs, it never once crossed his mind that he thought he was tough enough to play through injuries but you weren’t, “It’s about taking a break so you don’t get hurt.”

“I’m fine,” You huff, getting up and trying your best to hide the pain in your ankle when you stood on it. You fell forward, Matthew catching you in his arms and putting you back down the edge of your bed.

“Tell me what’s wrong?” Matthew asks with soft eyes, he bent down to take your ankle in his hand and inspect it the best he could. It was swelling, probably from the amount of pressure you’d been putting on your body with no breaks.

“What if I never score a goal?” You whisper, teary eyes finally meeting Matthew’s. His brows shot up, alarmed at how one of the best athletes he’s ever seen could feel the same way he felt right before his first NHL game. Matthew sits down next to you, hand on your thigh while you let out a cry, “What if I’m just a bust? Like I get there and nothing works and I suck.”

“You’ll score eventually,” Matthew scoffs, understanding how ridiculous you sounded but just how you felt at the same time, “Everyone does.”

“You scored like four games into your fucking career Matt,” You remind him, Matthew smiling a bit that you knew that to begin with. It would have been impossible not to know, or pretend like you didn’t keep a few tabs on his career. Matthew Tkachuk was a legend in the making, and whether or not you could feel butterflies in your stomach every time he dropped the gloves was a secret you’d take to the grave.

“I got suspended my first season too,” Matthew jokes, a teary eyed laugh escaping your lips, “I’d put down money you score in your first game.”

“Well good thing you have money to lose,” You sigh dramatically, the fear of fucking up still on your mind.

“You’ll find your groove, all legends do,” Matthew promises, throwing his arm around your shoulders. You snuggled into his side, a realization that he was becoming a comforting presence in your life with each passing day, “And if you don’t, you can always hide out in Canada with me.”

“Matty!” The same silly nickname Matthew introduced himself to you on your very first day of kindergarten slipped through your lips without realizing it. Matthew hadn’t been called that in ages, but it was welcome from you. You push his chest, “That’s not making me feel any better.”

“What if I told you the only reason I was so mean to you was because I was intimidated by how talented you were?” Matthew confesses, scratching your head with his fingers, “If I win a cup one day I think I owe you one.”

Matthew didn’t mention that in his wildest fantasies of raising that cup over his head, you were there. He’d owe you one and he hoped it was because you were there for him until he got there. Matthew saw it the same way every time, you’d tell him to go see his parents first but he’d fly right past them to get to you - the person who accidentally pushed him to be his best. He had plenty of daydreams about you winning too, remembering times you used to brag you’d go to the Olympics one day, and he hoped you were right. He wanted to see you succeed, more than anything, and he thought it would work.

“Legally you have to let me drink out of it,” You muse, shutting your eyes and letting yourself just rest against Matthew.

“It has to be Bud Light,” Matthew teases while watching you fake a gag. You grab his outstretched hand, letting him pull you up. His hands rested on the side of your face, eyes flickering to your lips for just a second. He wanted to kiss you, but he knew he had to wait. Wait for you to be ready. Wait for you to settle down. Or even just wait until he thought he had a real shot at forever.

Forever with you.

***

Matthew was kind of pissed off.

The press didn’t bother him, none of that mattered and at the end of the day Matthew was able to sleep at night knowing he was a good teammate and a decent person most of the time. This one got him though, some writer criticizing the A on his jersey, and how someone who plays like he does didn’t deserve a letter.

A letter he earned.

You could tell something was off, the way Matthew had been running alongside you was aggressive to say the least. He insisted he came with you, something about forcing you to take breaks. He was being your friend, even though your sisters seemed to disagree. Taryn’s words were replaying in your head, Matt doesn’t even care if I get hurt. That didn’t mean anything, those two had no idea what love was and Matthew caring about you a little bit didn’t mean he loved you. Besides, the way he was acting right now told a completely different story.

“Are you mad at me?” You finally slow down, sitting on a rock that was next to the hiking trail you were on.

“No?” Matthew stops dead in his tracks, his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach that he fucked this up too, “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

“No, tell me what’s wrong,” You push, crossing your arms and narrowing your eyes at Matthew. You could tell he was pressed about something, his neck covered in a red flush the same way it used to.

“Some stupid article about my letter, don’t worry about it,” Matthew grits, repeating his words again. His defense was up, even after you confessed to him that you were scared of not being enough.

“Get the fuck out of here with the tough guy act Matthew,” You challenge him, poking him right in the chest, “If we’re going to be friends you need to cut that shit out.”

“You really want to hear it?” Matthew barks back, fully yelling at you, “I’m tired of people thinking I don’t deserve things because I threw a few bad hits. Do you know how it feels to have everyone think you’re shitty? No you don’t, because you’re so fucking perfect that my own parents like you more than me.”

You stood there, silent while you tried to figure out how to tell him that simply wasn’t true. His entire body was shaking, the anger coursing through his veins like you’d seen many times before that. Matthew looked like he did the first time you hit a homerun in gym class, except this time it was because that same pressure never got released. You couldn’t come close to understanding the way he probably felt. You didn’t have the comparables in your own family, the constant reminders of Brady’s points tally compared to his, let alone the career his father had.

“Matty,” You whisper, grabbing his hand and running your fingers over the scars on his knuckles, “Why is this bothering you so much?”

You were sure this wasn’t the first time someone’s said he was a pest, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be the last. Matthew sighed, the better part of his brain screaming at him to stop before he lost you too.

“I’ve felt like this forever,” Matthew whispers, eyes fixated on your hand in his, “From the moment I started getting bigger, there’s just been this pressure to play a certain way and act a certain way. I was a fucking kid, and while all of my friends got to go wherever they wanted all I ever did was practice. Then I finally get to where I wanted and I’m still getting shit on.”

“Except no one thinks you don’t deserve to be where you are,” You whisper, quiet words as if you were going to startle him, “And I know it doesn’t make up for things people say, but the people who love you think you deserve it.”

Matthew nods, pulling you into his arms and holding you close. Your arms wrapped around his waist, his words mumbled against your forehead, “I needed that.”

“I know,” You nod, smiling wide up at him, “And we need to practice more because you’re too slow, soooo catch me if you can!”

You slipped out of his arms, running away with a giggle and a smile. Matthew stopped for a second, his Neanderthal brain checking out your ass while you jogged away and his more logical one trying to process what just happened.

But what mattered most was that whatever you did worked and that meant something to Matthew.

***

Just admit you think he’s hot.

You wanted to kill your sister for making this weekend harder than it had to be. You were doing a good job at just friends with Matthew until Jamie was curled up in your bed while you packed for a lake trip with your friends. She pushed it for hours, rambling on about Matthew is actually your type and Taryn swears he’d be a good boyfriend if someone just understood him. The problem was, you were starting to see her point. Matthew had a glow up a few years ago, like one summer he’d gotten home and you were infatuated with him. It used to annoy you, because he’d been such an ass to you that you hated how attractive he was. Then things changed, and now looking at him was just frustrating you. You were terrified about the way he made you feel, like everything would be okay with one look of those blue eyes and a smirk. You felt like he had your back, a vast change from how you used to feel and it was just getting hard to hide it anymore.

Especially when Matthew looked like he did right now. He was holding himself up on the dock, shoulders broad and glistening in the moonlight above you. All your friends were inside, moving their party away from the water as the night lingered on. You wanted to run your fingers through his wet curls, the temptation was almost too much.

“I’ll be in Chicago a few times you know,” Matthew hums, enjoying the time alone he was getting with you. Anytime without Brady teasing him about what the Tkachuk’s had been referring to as the hand holding incident. He didn’t want them to think he didn’t want you, because he did, but he just needed to move at his own pace.

“You want to come see me play?” You ask, leaning back on the palms of your hands. You were surprised by the kind of man Matthew had become, it was a completely different person that he used to be. He cared so much about his loved ones, and you were starting to feel like maybe you had a place there.

“Actually thinking you could come see me play,” Matthew teases, sarcasm dripping from his words. You lifted your foot up, kicking some of the water below you to splash him, but he’d caught your ankle before you could. He stopped for a moment, running a thumb over your skin, “This looks better.”

“Don’t make you admit you were right,” You whine, Matthew swiftly pulling you into the water with him. You yelp, the water way too cold for any normal person, “It’s freezing.”

“C’mere then,” Matthew grabs your waist, pulling your body against his. His hands were splayed across your back, heat radiating off of them. One of your hands was on his shoulder, your other on his chest. You could feel his heart beating quickly, his eyes locked on yours, “Middle school Matthew would be so jealous of me right now.”

“Why’s that?” You hum, running your fingers along Matthew to play connect the dots with the beauty marks on his skin.

“Because he had the biggest crush on you,” Matthew confesses, his grip on you a little tighter, as if he was afraid you’d slip right through his fingers again, “But he was too thick headed to do anything about it.”

“What about grown up Matthew?” You ask, biting your lip. Matthew was practically holding you both up in the water, pressed so close together you could hear the hitch in his breath at your question, “Is he too thick headed to do something too?”

You wrapped your legs around Matthew’s waist, pressing your lips to his and tugging on the curls at the base of his neck. He pushed you up against the dock, helping you back up and pulling himself up next to you. You grabbed the back of his neck, latching your lips back on his. His hand was on your back, fingers toying with the back of your bathing suit, “Think we can get upstairs without anyone noticing?”

Matthew was cool most of the time. He never faltered under the pressure from his career, most of the time, and he definitely didn’t fold when it came to a pretty girl. You had him in the palm of your hand, every part of his brain malfunctioning in response to your words. You bit your lip, wondering if you’d read this entire situation. Matthew rubs a thumb along your lip, “When are you going to realize I’d do whatever you asked me to?”

The two of you snuck up the stairs, giggles and stolen kisses left in your wake. You open the door, Matthew’s hands still toying your bathing suit top, “Just take it off already Matty.”

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Matthew breathes, his lips pressed against your neck while the garment falls to the floor, “So fucking beautiful.”

You back hit the mattress, Matthew’s hands running up your body slowly. Slow wasn’t in Matthew’s vocabulary, but he was taking his time just in case he never got this opportunity again. His fingers hooked under your bathing suit bottoms, sliding the wet fabric down your legs. You looked so beautiful, spread out just for Matthew like he’d dreamed about numerous times. His lips moved down to your breasts, teeth grazing against your skin while his tongue swirled against your nipple. You let out a breathy moan, Matthew’s ego boosting from the sound. You plucked at his curls while his mouth moved down to where you were craving him most, a gentle kiss to your clit, “Matty, please.”

“I didn’t peg you for the type to beg,” Matthew hums, pressing feather light kisses around your core. He stopped, gripping your thighs and looking up at you, “You sure about this?”

“Yes, please,” You whine, pussy dripping from Matthew’s hot breath fanning over it. Matthew chuckles darkly, fingers digging into your thighs when he flicked his tongue over your clit. You moan, completely unbothered by the blaring music a floor below you. Matthew didn’t seem to be bothered either, his tongue teasing your entrance while his nose rubbed against your clit, living for the way you were whimpering above him, “Matty-”

“Close baby?” Matthew groans, slipping a finger inside of you and curling it. You back arched, his name falling through your lips was enough to answer his question. Your legs shook, pleasure washing over your body from Matthew and all of it just felt so right. Matthew’s lips were latched to your skin until he finally met your eyes again. He smiles softly, nudging his nose with yours while you caught your breath, “So good for me.”

“Should’ve known you were that good with your mouth with the way you run it,” You tease smiling against his lips.

“Not with you, not anymore,” Matthew promises, soft blue eyes looking into yours, he meant it. He didn’t know how else to make it clearer, he wanted you. You kissed him slowly, hands trailing down his abs and stopping where his shorts hit his waist. Matthew kicks off his swim trunks, cock springing free. You grab the back of his neck, pulling your lips to his and rolling over top of him and straddling his waist. It was criminal how good you looked on top of him, “Gonna ride me babe?”

You nod, lining his dick up your core and lowering yourself on top of him. You let out a whine, Matthew’s smug smile on full display once he realized it was because of how big he was, “We don’t have to if my dick’s too big.”

“Oh shut up,” You roll your hips, watching the way Matthew’s head fell back, smirking because he really thought he had control here. Matthew’s hands gripped your waist, moving your hips faster. His finger flicked over your clit, causing you to lunge forward on top of him. Matthew flipped you over, wrapping a leg around his waist so he could hit your g-spot. Your hands gripped his shoulders, nails leaving scratches Matthew was going to wear pride later. You were seeing stars, noises leaving your throat you’d never even heard yourself make, “Fuck, Matty, I’m gonna cum again.”

“Look at me,” Matthew grabs your chin, pressing his forehead against yours and watching while your eyes roll back with pleasure. Your pussy clenched around him, his own cum spilling into you from the sensation, a loud groan following. Matthew pressed a kiss to your forehead, his cock still buried inside of you, “I wasn’t bullshitting you, I mean every word Y/N.”

“Matthew,” You whisper, running a finger along his back, “The distance…”

You didn’t mention everything, the way that if this was real it meant it would end up ripping you both apart. You were set to live in a different city, Matthew all the way in another country. The way your dreams included a spot on the U.S. National team, and the idea that wanting to be with Matthew would hold you back was terrifying. The way his dreams probably meant staying in Calgary forever, a C on his jersey and a cup over his head. It wasn’t going to be easy, you weren’t ever going to be the doting girlfriend he probably needed. There would be years of travel schedules and games that overlapped, and a part of you thought that maybe Matthew wouldn’t be able to do it. You’d get a year in and he’d find someone who would be there more and finally you’d end it.

“We can make it work, baby I want you, I always have and I probably always will,” Matthew starts, baring his soul to another person for the first time in his goddamn life, “I want to support your dreams and have you be there for mine. I’m all in here, I don’t know how else to tell you.”

“Can I have some time?” You plead, holding onto Matthew’s shoulders because you knew he could leave and tell you to never speak to him again. Matthew sighs, understanding the way you were shitting yourself about starting your own professional career, remembering the way rookie Matthew would have died before he considered settling down that first year, “Please don’t leave me-”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Matthew promises, rolling over and letting your rest on his chest, “I’ll wait for you.”

You smile, snuggling closer to him. Matthew didn’t sleep a minute that night, running every single scenario that could possibly happen with the two of you. Matthew was sure it would work out, it had to, because if it didn’t he wasn’t sure he’d be able to recover.

So now all he could was wait.

***

You know this is creepy right?

Matthew stares at Sam, punching his teammate in the arm lightly and telling him to shut up. He had a night off in Chicago, and after four straight hours of staring at your contact in his phone, Matthew finally just bought the tickets. He’d been good at keeping his distance, you needed space and he respected you enough to try and give it to you. He wasn’t doing so hot, Matthew consuming more soccer games than hockey games at this point. It started with your first game, because how was he supposed to just pretend like it wasn’t happening? You scored too, and it took everything in his power not to call you to tell you that not only was he right, he was insanely proud of you.

And he’d been hearing it from everyone. Your sister thought it was bullshit, Taryn and Jamie almost had Matthew on a flight to Chicago ready to show up like a terrible Lifetime movie. Brady thought it was hilarious the way Matthew was simping like this for one girl. Now, his teammates were on him, wondering why on Earth their friend who historically ran through women faster than he did mouthguards could be this hung up on someone he had a crush on in middle school.

“What number is she?” Sam asks, sipping the beer he forced Matthew to buy after making him go along with this.

“Nineteen,” Matthew smiles, pointing down at you on the field. You looked so happy, warming up with one of your teammates and a bright smile on your face. It seemed like a good fit, your team and your new city, and it made Matthew’s heart grow four sizes.

“Did she choose your number?” Sam jokes and Matthew mumbles something under his breath, “What?”

“It was her number first,” Matthew admits, not wanting to ever confess to another soul that you crossed his mind when he kept that camp number. Sam howled next to him, leaning over his seat and cracking up at his teammate.

You looked out in the crowd about halfway through the game, rubbing your eyes to make sure you weren’t seeing things. That tuft of curls was hard to miss, not to mention you knew just how big Matthew was. He was far too into the game to realize you caught him, up in arms about a call against your team that was valid but he’d argue it wasn’t. You asked for space, and it was getting harder to stick to your guns. Especially when he was making it so clear that he wanted this.

And whether or not you went to his game the next night, was a secret you’d take to the grave.

***

You were so close you could have tasted it.

While the final seconds of your season came to a close, all you could do was hold your head in your hands and hope no one caught the tears. A semi-final loss was devastating, but a semi-final loss where there wasn’t anything you could have done differently was even worse. Every athlete had off nights, a point Keith pushed right before you left to start your season, and he was right. Unfortunately, that was this game. Your biggest fear had come true and there was nothing you could do about it now. The game was over and you weren’t moving on.

And Matthew watched it.

Matthew promised you space, and he swore he’d give you the time you needed to settle down. But, this was something he couldn’t ignore. He could tell you were off, your entire rookie season was almost perfect and watching the way you folded during this game was gut wrenching. Matthew knew better than anyone, losing sucked. So he took the chance, grabbing his phone and shooting you a text he’d been waiting to send.

Doors open in Calgary.

and I’m so fucking proud of you.

It was the very last text you saw before you went to bed that night, tossing and turning for a few hours thinking about that loss. You couldn’t stop, every bone in your body was aching and you didn’t know what to do. So you bought a flight, packed your shit and was walking down the hallway to Matthew’s apartment without a second thought. You’d left him on read, calling Brady in the middle of the night and asking for his address, who gave it to you reluctantly with a reminder that if you needed to see him this badly you should rethink the needing time thing.

Matthew let out a groan when he had a bang at his door at three in the morning. Noah definitely was trying to walk into the wrong apartment again, and Matthew was grouchy when he whipped his door open. Except it wasn’t Noah after he’d had too many. It was you, teary eyed with your shit in a suitcase and a broken heart.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” You admit, whispering something you never thought you’d say to anyone, “I just didn’t do enough-”

Matthew didn’t say a word, pulling you into a bone crushing hug and holding you as tightly as he could. You didn’t need to hear it from him, about how things were out of your control and you did your best. You didn’t want that right now, you wanted him, “Baby…”

“Everything hurts,” You whimper, finally just letting it all out. You were bruised and battered from the season, the physical pain alone was enough to upset you, let alone the loss you just took. Matthew carded his fingers through your hair, letting you soak his bare chest with your tears because he wouldn’t have it any other way. You came back to him. You came back to him when things got too tough because you trusted him to bring you some peace, and he was happy about it.

You passed out sometime after that, your tears finally running dry and the exchaustion taking over your body. Matthew woke up early the next day, grateful for the optional morning skate so he could stay with you for just a little bit longer. The sun was just starting to peek through the curtains in his room, a calm snowy morning in Calgary so the city was just a bit quieter.

Matthew settled on breakfast, working away in his kitchen with the only thing he knew how to make. Tell her you made it, his mom’s words from just a few months prior in his head while he cooked. You padded out his bedroom, one of Matthew’s god awful beer shirts hanging from your frame while you wrapped your arms around his waist and pressed a kiss into his back, “It’s cold here.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Matthew hums, internally pumping his fist when he felt your lips form a smile against his skin. You turned your head, pressing your cheek against his against and letting out a laugh, “What’s so funny?”

“You framed my jersey?” You ask, your eye catching a jersey that was way too familiar. It was hung up beside Matthew’s from his first all star game, both number nineteens staring back at you.

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my favorite player,” Matthew hums, a blush covering his cheeks, “I’m so proud of you.”

“You keep saying that,” Matthew finally turns around, pressing a quick peck to your lips.

“I’ll keep saying it long after we both retire,” Matthew speaks, words clear and sure because he’s had plenty of time to practice this one, “I’ll say it when you win a World Cup gold, I’ll say it when we have kids, I’ll say when you play at the Olympics. I’m going to say it over and over again.”

“But…” You trail off, all of those same demons you’d been fighting when it came to your whatever this was with Matthew, “What I’m not around enough for you?”

Matthew knew what you were thinking about, he’d thought about it plenty too. There were countless sleepless nights where all he did was wonder if you’d find someone in Chicago who could support you better than he could. He’d do his best, he swore he would, but in order for you to be happy, your passion came first. There was always going to be times when he couldn’t be there and it killed him.

“You’re more than enough,” Matthew promises, his lips ghosting over yours, “I want you to seize every opportunity in the world, I just want to be there to tell you that I love you and use the goat emoji on Instagram when you do.”

You let out a laugh, Matthew’s smile wide enough to see his dimples you loved so much, “I think I want to stay a little while.”

“I think you should,” Matthew agrees, capturing your lips in his, “Besides I’m playing tonight and I think I need to show off now.”

“You’re a cocky asshole.”

“But now I’m your cocky asshole.”

***

One year Later

You had a good reason to be late.

You swore Matthew couldn’t possibly be mad at you for this one. You’d missed your flight to Calgary, a few days post a second loss in the semi finals that you’d been taking much better this time around. Mainly because Matthew wasn’t there, but his stupid smile and words of encouragement where there on facetime hours later. That wasn’t the reason you were late, the reason you were late was because you’d received the most insane news of your life and it was an important phone or that flight. You’d caught the next one, legs shaking not to just call him and share the news, but you needed to tell him in person.

You’d finally gotten by the doors to the locker room entrance, out of breath from spriting there from your cab. There was Matthew, tapping his phone and staring at the clock on his phone with furrowed eyebrows. He was still in his suit, tie pulled a little looser, a nervous habit you realized he had some time ago, “Matty-”

“Don’t call me that just because you know you’re late,” Matthew huffs, already ready for the pout that would have followed so he’d forget all about the fact that you promised you’d make it on time. He holds his hand out, waiting for the handshake he made up in the car on the way to the first game you went to after he finally locked it down. You laugh, slapping your hand against his and letting him pull you closer for a kiss.

“They want me on the National Team,” You mumble against his lips, the words spilling out of your mouth when you pull away with an excited smile. Matthew stood there stunned, while you shuffled your feet in the little dance you did when you were really happy. He grabs your cheeks, pressing kisses to your lips again and again.

“We’re celebrating after this, holy shit,” Matthew cheers, still stunned by your news, “I love you so much.”

“I love you too, now go score a few goals so we have even more to celebrate,” You kiss him one more time, pushing him before the door before he was late.

“Anything I do seems unimportant now!” Matthew calls out, a light laugh to his voice as he watched you walk away to go sit in the stands.

And that’s how Matthew thought it should be.

#matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagine #my writing #nhl imagine #nhl imagines

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raewritez · 3 years ago

Text

For the Want of the Sun | Chapter Two

pairing: zuko x reader

I am twelve when I meet the Fire Lord.

I have caught glimpses of him before: a face like a hawk, flame-like eyes cruel and calculating. He is tall and broad, and cloaked in red. Zuko tells me he wants to be like him, and I cringe.

Zuko has grown and is still the same boy I knew, but shadowed. He has a desperation for his father’s attention, and wants to be the Crown Prince that a King would be proud to have take up his stead. I always tell him that he already is all these things, but he would rather hear it from him. Azula is the favorite, to no fault of Zuko’s, but he doesn’t see it that way. I have accepted that she is gone now, no longer the little girl whose hair I brushed and whose hand I held, though it hurts. She is like her father: a leader, by means of terror and cruelty. Even her own friends seem to fear her, as her country does.

I like her friends very much. When she is not preoccupied with courtrooms and training, she spends her time with two girls: Mai and Ty Lee. They come from nobility, as a companion of a royal child should. Sometimes, when Azula is called away, and Zuko chooses to train instead of play, I talk to them. Zuko seems to like them, too, maybe one more than the other. Mai always seems to light up when Zuko is around, breaking her stony facade for a moment. Her cheeks, usually pale and unsmiling, are tinted with a flush of pink.

I like Mai, but I find myself drawn to Ty Lee. She is all pink and laughter and warm hugs, and she teaches me gymnastics. She holds my hand in hers, and I don’t really want to let go, not even when Azula glares, not really ever. She tells me I am pretty and I turn away, smiling. I think she is pretty, too. She is with me when Zuko is not, and although I miss him, her company is a welcome one. He has been around less and less lately, preoccupied with work and princely duties. But Ty Lee finds me, and I am glad. I let her braid my hair, and we pretend we are princesses, but not the Fire Nation kind. We never speak of princes, only of each other, and how we would come to each other’s rescue, slaying the dragon and braving the castle. I live in our pretendings, and I feel myself on fire.

One day when I am twelve, Zuko comes to me, and he is grinning. He comes to my room, shaded in the light of the late afternoon. I raise my eyebrows at his brightness, and the corners of my lips raise in amusement.

“What’s got you so happy?” I ask. He smiles wider and stands straight, his head raised proudly.

“I’m going to fight a general in an Agni Kai.”

The smile falls from my face instantly, and I stand up. “What?”

Zuko nods, and his eyes glow with child-like excitement. “Uh-huh! I was at Father's meeting and I…kind of spoke out of turn, but it’s ok! I’m fighting the general tomorrow!”

My brows are furrowed, and my chest is tight. “Zuko…” I say, and I don’t want to rob him of his enthusiasm. “Just…are you sure you’re ready for this? I mean, a general is a big deal-” “Of course I’m ready, Y/n! I’m the prince! I’ve had the best firebending training there is.”

His face is glowing and his eyes are eager, and his smile has grown more foriegn to me over the last year, so I allow it. “Ok, then,” I say, and I reach for his hand, which he gladly slots against mine. I pull him, and we both fall atop my bed, which is pushed fully against the wall. The mattress is soft under our backs, and it dips with our weight. It is a while before we move or speak, simply existing next to each other in silence. Every once in a while, I feel his thumb move against the back of my hand, or my knuckles. His breathing is soft, and he turns to me.

“I missed this,” he says, and he sighs and looks away again. “I’m sorry I’ve been gone so much, we used to see each other everyday. I…I hope we can again, and maybe after the fight we could…spend some time together.”

My face feels warm, and I nod. “I missed you, too,” I tell him, and he smiles. He squeezes my hand, and we talk until the sun is set. When he leaves, I promise to find him after the fight, and that I will be there to watch him. Our hands leave each other only as he walks away, and he disappears down the hall with a skip in his step. I did not know what was to come, and I slept through peaceful dreams.

—

The room is wide and vast, with audience rows of dark wood, and an arena lit by the sun. I am sitting in the crowd, my leg bouncing anxiously. Next to me is Zuko’s uncle, Iroh, who I have come to like very much. I know him relatively well, as I was rarely absent from any place that Zuko was, and I had grown fond of his stories, and of his tea. I had turned to him, expecting a gleam of optimism and a smile on his face, but had found only stone-like worry. So I had reserved myself to my own anxieties, but I convinced myself they were baseless. Zuko knows what he’s doing. He’s way better than some general. He’ll be ok, and I’ll be cheering for him.

When he walks out from the shadows, there is silence. It is expected: an Agni Kai is a solemn affair, and not one for applause or welcome. He is sturdy in his gait, and I see his fingers twitch at his sides. Stage fright, I think. He appears as every bit the prince he is: although smaller than the men who line the walls, he brings with him an air of command. Not one that any general could compete with.

He waits in the arena, and another figure emerges. He is tall, and broad-shouldered, and the shadows cling to him like a veil, concealing him from my view. It is when he steps into the light that my heart stops, and my breath is halted in my throat. It is him: black hair and pale skin, an unforgiving gaze. There is fire in his eyes, and Zuko falters.

I do not hear exactly what he is saying, just snippets of pleads and fear and crying. I feel hot tears on my face, and I am not sure when they started. It is when Ozai raises his hand that everything seems to blur, and I hear Zuko’s screams. The audience is cold, unaffected. Their faces are blank as they stare at the scene: the burning of a thirteen-year-old boy by his father. I feel Iroh’s hand on my shoulder.

The moments following blend together, and I find myself outside. I hear words and sentences, but I cannot register their meaning. Zuko is banished? No, no, he’s the prince. That’s not possible. I told Zuko I would meet him outside, but I cannot find him. I see Azula from across the room, and she is smiling. I am left alone, standing outside of the room where the Agni Kai has just occurred. The hours pass, and I am left confused as to what has just happened. Then, when the sun is low on the horizon, Iroh comes into my view. His old face is weary and blotchy, and his eyes are sad. He holds a hand out to me.

“Come, Y/n,” he says. “I’m sure Zuko would like to see you before he goes.”

He leads me to the hospital wing, where Zuko is sitting on a bed. His back is facing me, and he freezes when his Uncle speaks.

“Zuko,” Iroh says. “Y/n is here to see you.”

He stiffens. “I don’t want her here,” he spits, and his voice is hoarse.

Iroh grimaces. “Zuko-”

“No!” He yells, and he finally turns. The left side of his face is clad in bandages and his head is shaved, spare for a black ponytail that sits atop his head. He is almost unrecognizable, not from the injury, but from the unadulterated rage that burns in his eyes. His gaze fell on me, then, and I almost stepped back. I think for a moment that his stare softens, but it only hardens into a glare. “Get her out of here, Uncle. I don’t need any distractions before I leave.”

I can’t help the whisper that falls from my lips. “Leave?”

Zuko scoffs harshly, and turns away again. Iroh speaks quietly. “Yes,” he says, “Zuko has been assigned the task of searching for the Avatar, wherever he may be.”

The Avatar? The one who hasn’t been seen for a hundred years? How will Zuko ever find him? The chances of that are so low, there’s almost no way he can-

“Let me come with you.”

Zuko stills, but does not turn. I stare at him, imploring, while Iroh turns to his nephew. He does not seem entirely opposed to the idea.

Zuko speaks after a moment. “No,” he says. “You’re not coming.”

I step forward, challenging him. He’s never been able to say no to me before, a fact I have gleefully exploited for gain of fruit tarts and candies. Maybe Zuko, even this new Zuko, still has that same weak point. “Yes I am,” I say.

He spins around, and his eye is fierce. It glows a scorching orange, so different from the soft amber that I have grown so fond of. He looks angry, but he cannot seem to speak. Iroh does, however. “I think that is a wonderful idea,” he says. “It will do well for you to have a friend. Prince Zuko.” He is silent for a moment, a bitter look on his face. “Fine,” Zuko says. “She can come. She’s a servant though. Not…not my friend.”

I don’t know if I’ve ever since felt as lonely as I did at that moment. Iroh’s eyes flash to me - an urgent, pitying look - but I do not indulge in it. He’s not serious, I tell myself. He’s just upset. But in that moment, I don’t know if I believe it.

We leave early the next day, before the sun has even risen from its slumber. I pack lightly: a few tunics and a few robes, some shoes and some memories. I wish I could’ve said goodbye - to Mai and Ty Lee, to the Zuko that left me. But I walk alone until I see the ship, and I am escorted aboard. Zuko stands at the starboard, and I hope he will look my way. But his hands are preoccupied with a map, messed with scribbles and coordinates. He stares only at the sea, and when he does regard me, later, it is with disdain. I find myself longing for his company, for his hand in mine.

That night, after hours at sea and a course set for the Western Air Temple, I leave the deck for my room. The air is cold and dark, and the moon is a kiss against the waves. When I turn and head down the stairs, Zuko is behind me, leaning against the ship’s edge. I think I hear him say my name, and I turn around, but I find him walking away. Perhaps it was only an echo.

i hope you guys are enjoying FTWOTS so far! things are about to get juicy. let me know if you have any suggestions, requests, or questions!

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introvert--weeb · 3 years ago

Text

Haikyuu!! Boys taking their children to work

TW: mentions of fishing, friendly competition, not entirely proofread

A/N: I seem to really enjoy writing characters as parents. And people seem to enjoy imagining themselves with a family with characters. And so, this scenario came to existence while I was chatting with @ohnolily who encouraged I write it a while ago. So here is some Haikyuu!! on my blog! ❤️ I will also admit that it isn't like my usual scenarios/headcanons as it is quite short. But I hope you all enjoy it anyway 💕

Shoyo Hinata

You had been called into work at the last minute. Something about an emergency meeting that you couldn't miss, no matter how much you wanted to spend the day with your 3 year old daughter. So you only had one choice. Ask Shoyo to take Hana to practice with him.

Shoyo, your beloved husband, was excited over the idea of taking the little girl with him. Especially since he had been gushing about his beautiful baby girl to the other players at MSBY Black Jackals. So when you told him that he would have to look after Hana for the day, he agreed wholeheartedly.

After making sure he knew exactly what to take, you quickly left to your work. Not that you wanted to but the sooner you were there and had the meeting, the sooner you would be back to spoil your little girl. And so Hana's day with the Black Jackals began.

Everyone was surprised to see their short Outside Hitter enter the gym with a small child in his arms. It was undeniable that the child was his. Other than the eyes in which she had got from you, Hana was the perfect clone of her father. Something that had made you very happy, especially when your husband would be gone for away games. Even her bubbly personality was like her father's.

Sakusa kept at a distant, not wanting to get sick and since he was unable to wear his mask while on court, it would be likely. However, Atsumu and Bokuto didn't seem to have an issue cooing over the sweet girl. The other members of MSBY all cooed over how cute she was and awed when she took an instant interest in the volleyballs within the cart.

Atsumu and Bokuto would seem to be in competition with each other in terms of getting Hana's affections. It seemed that whoever won would officially be the best uncle, trying to impress the 3 year old with their spikes and sets. However, Hana seemed to gravitate more towards Sakusa much to everyone's dismay. However, deep down, Sakusa couldn't help but feel some pride in the knowledge that he was the little Hinata's favourite.

Hinata would just watch his daughter with a proud smile on his face. He had helped to make and raise this gorgeous little girl and nothing could make him happier than to see her laughing and smiling at his teammates. Maybe he would convince you to let him take her to practices more?

Tetsuro Kuroo

Tetsuro couldn't believe his ears when you told him that he would have to look after the boys today. Surely you knew he was in the office today? But the man knew better than to argue with you. And so, due to you having to go to work to sort some incident out, Kuroo was left with the twins.

He couldn't help but dread the rest of the day. Your boys were...well the best way to put it was a handful. They were at the age where they were getting inquisitive and asking questions about everything. Sometimes it was endearing, but after the 50th 'why' in a row, you couldn't help but want to shut them up.

So Kuroo entered the offices of the Japan National Volleyball Association with a 4 year old on each hand. Atsushi and Haru were identical, looking like a perfect mix between you and your beloved. Black hair and nose shape from your husband, and their eyes and lips from you. This made them the cutest children.

Thankfully, your children were behaving as good as gold while in the offices with their father. They were just happy to spend time with their dad since it had been a while since they were able to. Being a part of the JNVA really did leave Kuroo with little time to spend with his adorable sons.

The office workers couldn't help but coo over how cute the twins were. And the two boys ate it up! They could have gotten away with anything due to how cute they were. Tetsuro couldn't be happier that they were actually behaving though.

Once the work at the office was completed, Kuroo decided he would take Atsushi and Haru along to meet up with their uncle Kenma as the man had some business to go over with the blond. Upon hearing this, their little faces lit up like Christmas lights. The boys adored their uncle Kenma and would often ask their dad to take them to visit. So today was becoming the best day of their lives (so far). Maybe taking the boys to work wasn't so bad.

Tobio Kageyama

No-one knew about Tobio Kageyama having a child. It was only recent knowledge that he was married. Tobio just didn't feel the need to let everyone know about his personal life. It was personal for a reason after all. It would have stayed personal knowledge if it wasn't you having to travel to your parents' home due to an emergency. Something that required your beloved husband to look after your gorgeous son.

Schweiden Adlers were not prepared for their Setter to enter the gym for practice with a 2 year old resting on his hip. Tobio paid little mind to the shocked expressions of his teammates and instead went to get ready for practice. His bag was filled with milk cartons, for his son of course.

Hikaru looked a lot like his father in his facial structure but had been blessed with your eyes and hair colour. In basic terms, he looked constantly grumpy but wasn't a clone of his father. However, Hikaru had taken after his father in terms of his love for milk.

Ushijima was the first to bring the boy up, having gotten over the shock the quickest. This was the cue for Tobio to explain how you had to go to your parents' house as an emergency had come up. And due to that, Hikaru had to come along to practice.

Everyone would want to spend time with the 2 year old! Ushijima would happily tell the small toddler about volleyball and how he was going to end up like his father, Romero would throw the small Hikaru into the air and catch him again, causing the toddler to laugh happily. However, Hoshiumi was the most energetic in entertaining the youngest Kageyama. A full lap of the gym while playing airplane was definitely something Hikaru seemed to enjoy most.

Overall, Hikaru was welcomed warmly by the team, even seeming to like volleyball in Tobio's mind. However, this stemmed from Hikaru seeming to like drooling over one of the spare balls which one of the teammates had given him (Ushijima, I'm looking at you). Maybe bringing the small boy will solidify his love for the sport like it had for the setter?

Yuu Nishinoya

Travelling the world with his small family was an experience that Yuu seemed to really enjoy. After all, he had a gorgeous wife and two beautiful children that he loved with all his heart. So when you had fallen ill and couldn't look after the little ones, Nishi was the first to offer to take them with him.

That day, Yuu was planning on going fishing and so, the two children would also go fishing with him. A once in a lifetime experience! Well, that's what he had told the two that were accompanying him today.

Aiko was the youngest, a 3 year old girl who was the spitting image of Yuu, and yet had your personality so far. While Kano, a 6 year old boy, was the spitting image of you but had his father's personality. Both were the cutest children and lived a happy life travelling the globe with their parents.

Getting onto the boat, the day's events began. Aiko was enjoying the experience, especially seeing the fish that her father caught and showed her. Kano, however, started off being bored with how much patience it required. Although, as the day went on, both children were happily spending time with their father fishing.

Yuu enjoyed his time with his children but damn, was it stressful at times. Trying to make sure Aiko didn't get ahold of the sharp objects found on the boat was an all day activity. Kano did help look after his sister but a child's attention span was only so long.

Yuu noted how great it was to spend time with his children. It was unfortunate that you were ill but once you were better again, you could join them. However, maybe he would choose a more child-friendly and less stressful activity.

#haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! x reader #anime drabble #shoyo hinata #tetsuro kuroo #tobio kageyama #yuu nishinoya #laura writes for haikyuu!!#implied fem reader #fluffiness overload #cuteness overdose

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mohluskiepedard · 4 years ago

Text

Rating ATLA Characters literally only from what I’ve seen in fandom

or: posts that probably shouldn’t be on my writeblr except I don’t have a sideblog

the context here is it’s half midnight and I have never seen ATLA except I have opinions now apparently so here we go whoop de do-

I’m also not actually rating them like numerically that’s too much work i’m just stating opinions I know I’m a fraud

AANG

- A child? - A son? - he is Baby. but also. he has had It Rough - would make the updog joke - has unspeakable power or smth and everyone says he’s better than the Korra girl who comes after him but honestly tastes like sexism to me - doesn’t kill people because he’s like twelve, right? he’s like twelve so he refuses to kill people - I stan honestly - less twelve year olds should kill people - Some people say his name WRONG and they are BAD but i don’t actually know what the right way or the wrong way is so. have fun w that yall - lived in peace unTIL THE FIRE NATION ATTACKED

KATARA

- She is also like twelve??? - Is everyone here twelve - Cortana?? Katana?? Catbug?? - She has good hair, - Her mother is dead??? her mother is dead n she has a brother but she cares about her mother being dead WAY more than him (or apparently the entire fandom??) - Badass - She seems soft. good. sweet - she’s a water breather or whatever??? her brother is NOT but he is a meme - I love her

SOKKA

- NGL looks like a fuckboy - The meme brother! does not do the water things, but he has an aXe??? - dates BAMF lady - ngl until I talked to my ATLA watching friend I thought he canonically dated Zuko - kinda mad he doesn’t - I haven’t actually seen anything about him except like. in zuko ship posts and also Suki appreciation posts - joined the white lotus not-a-cult by accident??? - dark ATLA tumblr show me more Sokka posts - is his name prounounced the same way as Soccer or isn’t it I need to know - HIS FIRST GIRLFRIEND TURNED INTO THE MOON - (AND THAT’S ROUGH, BUDDY) - He and Suki are a good ship, but also, Sokka Has Two Hands

SUKI

- the BAMF herself - she says STOP in that photo but also to sexism - Rlly all I see of her in fanon is abt her teaching Sokka to drink his respect women juice and I appreciate her doing that but also it’s sad she never gets talked about outside of what she did for a man - I hope she has other badass moments w/o him it would suck if she didn’t - she is NOT the girlfriend who turned into the moon, she is the one who didn’t - I don’t know much else about her ATLA Fandom y’all should appreciate her more

ZUKO

- Look at him... my son... - He has a good redemption arc - he and his sister are evil lesbian and redeemed gay guy??? - has a straight canon ship but should’ve been with Sokka this boy is gay - I Want To Protect Him - That’s literally it - he has a cool uncle and his dad sucks - people ship him with Katara and I Do Not Get It that’s his sister in law except not really - “We don’t trust Zuko’s change of heart” [the next day] “so Zuko is my closest friend now,” - His dad was like “fuck up the avatar to prove your worth to me” and Aang was like “counter argument you already have worth and we should fuck up your dad” and I think that’s beautiful - he becomes the fire man and he’s very good at it - Zuko for President 2020 - in the words of myself, half an hour ago: “ I was like "that kid with the burn on his face seems like a sad but then happy mlm who needs found family" and I was RIGHT” - took too long to find a happy picture of him :( Zuko rights NOW please - His mother’s story got compared to an OC of mine and all I can say is oh no and they deserve better based on that alone - I have had Zuko for five minutes but if anything else happens to him I will kill everyone in this throne room and then myself

TOPH

- She is badass but like also will murder you while laughing maniacally? - for some reason reminds me of Nott from Critical Role, another show I Have Not Seen - Is blind but gets more out of making jokes abt being blind than she would from being able to see - “Sight is just a cheap tactic to make weak benders stronger!!!” - Literally the opposite of Aang and has killed many people?? - She Can Tell When You’re Lying. But I do not know how and Am simply mildly threatened by this - Therapist: Toph’s ability to know if you’re lying isn’t real and can’t hurt you. Toph’s ability to know if I’m lying: - She and Zuko.... buddies??? - if not they should be - tiny sad boy needs friends like toph

AZULA

- Evil Lesbian Culture - [BDG Voice] You committed a war crime! Oopsie! - took be gay do crime too literally - her and Zuko have accurate sibling writin except instead of “you ever want to murder your sibling for breathing in the same space as you,” being a Joke Azula took it seriously - okay but with a name like azula she should be the blue bender this ANNOYS me she should NOT be red bender - AZULa - AZUL - IT MEANS BLUE - She was half of y’alls gay awakenings and it SHOWS - Should have maybe been redeemed too??? Jury is out no one knows - Was she gay for Ty Lee or wasn’t she I can’t tell how much of that Audio is a joke - IS SHE ALSO TWELVE??? IS EVERYONE HERE TWELVE?? IS THIS TWELVE YEAR OLD COMITTING ATROCITIES?

UNCLE IROH

- A Good Man - Finally, Some Good Fucking [Adult Figures] - he has the tea. literally and figuratively - Ozai is like “and I will permanently disfigure my son and throw him out” and Iroh is like “What The Fuck, Ozai,” thus voicing the entire audience’s thoughts - Literally the only adult in this that I trust - I? I love him. this is all I have to say. my love for him is unending. Some1 protect this man from all harm - he’s Zuko’s uncle (and also Azula ig) but he does not seem related to Ozai. is it just a theme in this family that one sibling is chill and one sibling commits horrendous atrocities against your fellow human beings or - something happened to his son???? :((((( I Don’t Want Him To Have Suffered Like This

OZAI

- A BAD MAN - Uh Oh (stinky) - THE WORST OF THE MEN - I do not like him - Bastard man. nasty. committed war crimes and then went “but what if - get this - i also abused my son,” - I would like him to Not Be Like This - by Like This I mean present and alive - :/

TY LEE

- She’s NOT the There Is No War In Ba Sing Se lady and I don’t know why i thought she WAS but until I looked up her photo I thought that was her - She looks like a sweetheart tho - I hope nothing bad happens to her???? - talks about auras??? or smth??? let her vibe - She would talk animatedly to me about warrior cats if she was in my year seven class and I was sat alone and I would understand none of it but appreciate her anyway - if azula bullies her I’ll be :( at Azula and Azula will not care because she has Mommy Issues and therefore is slightly unhinged - She seems like that one kid with no trauma vibing at the edge of [every other kid having trauma] and not really getting it but trying her best - Is she also twelve?????? She maybe looks twelve

CABBAGE MAN

- HIS CABBAGES - fulfills my favourite trope: ordinary person repeatedly has life disrupted by the inconveniences of relying on actual children to save the world - probably has a campaign post canon for letting trained adults fix the worlds’ problems in the future - or sets up the Very First Cabbage Insurance Company - look at him. he loves his cabbages so much. you go you funky lil cabbage man

ALSO THE MOST IMPORTANT ONES MOMO

- LOOK AT HIM HE’S SO GOOD - small. fluffy. big ears - Lord Momo of the Momo Dynasty: his Momoness - a Good Boy...

APPA

- he looks so soft... - he can fly but he just does it by??? vibing through the air?? motionless??? iconic - I saw that one post about mishearing it as Abba and thinking he was Aang’s dad and he looks like he would be a good stand in dad ngl - he’s so LORGE - a chonky boy - love him

that is everyone I have heard of it and if I left someone out it’s a sign that y’all should talk about em more bc I have no clue they exist put more ATLA On my Dash ig I’ll do Legend of Korra ig maybe apparently that one has canon wlw and i love me some canon wlw

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dreamblasterharuka · 2 years ago

Note

This is the same one who request the Ciphixy family fic( amazing work by the way) and I have a another Cipihixy fic request if your interested. Cipher visit the grave of their parents on the anniversary of their deaths with Pixy tagging along and maybe Merlin

Thank you so much for the request! I wound up going with my version of Cipher, who was from Shilage and whose parents were killed in the revolution.

Also on AO3

Family Reunion

Out of all the impossible things they had seen over the years, Cipher never thought that would have seen an independent Shilage ever again. Much less be able to walk the streets with their family.

It felt almost dreamlike, the shade of the trees and the cool breeze protecting them from the bright summer sun. Pixy’s hand, enclosed around them, more than made up for the warmth. Merlin wandered around, sometimes in front, sometimes behind, asking seemingly whatever questions came to mind. Cipher answered them to the best of their ability, but the last time they had been younger than she was.

Lots of things had changed in the close to forty years since they left, but some things stayed the same. There was a clothing store where there used to be a bakery. CIpher wondered what happened to the baker who gave them stale bread instead of letting them starve on the street, despite the risk of getting caught by revolutionaries. The flower shop they stopped at was the same. The boy working the counter was the son of the girl who sold them flowers the day they graduated flight school. One last visit, before deserting and becoming a mercenary. Cipher requested the same bouquet. Carnations and bluebells. Not the traditional mourning bouquet, but bluebells were the flower on their family crest, and carnations were their mother’s favorite.

They should have done this sooner. They hid behind the excuse that it would have been a lot of work, planning a trip across the world just to visit a graveyard, but they had gone out of their way so Pixy could visit his parent’s memorial. The simple truth was that they felt guilty. Their parents were noble and proud pillars of the community. Cipher gave up everything out of spite. What would they say if they saw what their child had become?

Pixy squeezed their hand. “You okay?”

Right. They weren’t alone anymore. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

“We still have time. We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“I know, but I do want to. Leap of faith, right?” Besides, they were here for the anniversary. There wouldn’t be another time like this.

Pixy smiled and squeezed their hand again. They finally made their way to the cemetery, attached to a park where Cipher’s childhood home used to be. They had been unspeakably angry when it was first put in, offended that Erusia used the site of such a personal tragedy as a PR move. Now, most of the bitterness had faded. People came to relax and be happy, and Cipher knew their parents would have been content with it.

The graveyard itself was meticulously maintained, probably thanks to Mihaly. They would have to speak to him later. He was the real reason behind the trip anyway. Three Strikes and the King of the Skies were to publicly shake hands and make peace in order to help solidify the shaky alliance between Erusia and the newly independent nations. Cipher still wasn’t sure how they felt about their daughter being close friends with the Queen of Erusia, but Merlin turned out to be quite the peacemaker. No idea where she inherited that from.

Merlin had already spent a day with him at the hospital. Maybe if Cipher never left, Mihaly would have been her mentor. Then again, if they had never left Shilage, they probably would have never met Pixy, and Merlin might have never been born.

The gravestones they were looking for were tucked away in a far corner, away from prying eyes. Pure white limestone stood tall, engraved with the names of those underneath. Another bouquet of wilted white lilies lay at the base. Now they really owed Mihaly an apology. All through their childhood, they assumed that he only took them in because that was expected of him, but he cared enough about their parents to memorialize them. Maybe it was the betrayal that made him so distant.

Fire away, coward. Well, they knew something about that, didn’t they? They just had people to lean on.

Cipher laid the flowers at the base, and took a seat in the grass, still cool from the shade. “Hey. It’s been a while, huh? Sorry I didn’t come sooner. Life’s been a little crazy, and I didn’t exactly choose a peaceful lifestyle. I’m sorry for that, too. I know how much you guys wanted me to do something good with my life and help people, but things just didn’t work out.”

There was something that felt incredibly childish about the whole thing. Maybe it was sitting in the grass, talking to someone who couldn’t hear them, or maybe it was the nostalgia, or maybe they just missed their mom and dad. Tears started to burn in their eyes. They looked down, not wanting to let anyone see the moment of weakness.

An arm wrapped around their shoulder, and Cipher was pulled into Pixy’s warm embrace. He pressed a kiss to the top of their head, and rubbed their arm while they tried to compose themself. After a few moments of wiping their eyes, they hugged him back.

“This is my husband, Larry. He’s a good man, and I think you guys would’ve really liked him. And if you didn’t, I probably would have married him anyway.”

Pixy laughed, voice incredulous. “Are you sure about that?”

“You think you were the first person I’ve ever been stubborn to. I would’ve married you out of spite.”

He only laughed harder, and Merlin started to laugh, too. Cipher put a hand on her shoulder. “This is our daughter, Merlin. She’s the one who kicked Mihaly’s ass. I’m very proud of her.”

Merlin waved at the headstone, face red. “Hello.”

It felt nice, to finally be able to introduce their family like this. As their little family reminisced about the past, and discussed the uncertain future, it felt like a huge weight lifted from Cipher’s shoulders. Maybe their parents would have been proud of them. They stayed for a long time, only leaving because it was starting to get dark. As Cipher finally stood up, they decided they would come back next year.

#writing #request #ace combat #ace combat zero #ace combat 7 #cipher #solo wing pixy #trigger #ciphixy #pixy x cipher

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gettingovershame · 3 years ago

Text

Fire Nation Royal Academy/Fire Cousins Headcanons:

In no particular order…

The Fire Nation Royal Academy for Boys (and likewise the Academy for Girls) completes primary schooling at “Year 8”. After that, the young nobles either become scholars by pursuing specialized secondary schooling, or become apprentices to their H.O.H. to take over the family business.

Classes will often have a little age-range depending on when a child begins (some people hold out for their child being a super late-blooming bender… and sometimes children will have to try more than once on the entry exam) (the gate-keeping only really happens for less influential noble houses/nouveau-rich families).

Zuko - by a miracle of Agni - begins school at the “typical time appropriate for a Royal” (Age 6) and was known by the older students as “Prince Lu-Ten’s cousin” for the first five years… even though Lu-Ten had graduated 2 years prior.

Lu-Ten was popular for being second in line for the throne, of course, but he was also a charming kid and an extraordinary bender… teachers and peers alike loved him.

Azula, being prodigious, was sent off to school “a year earlier than usual” at age 5. (Which is why Ozai f*cks up her age in “The Search Part 2” — younger siblings/little kids are usually proud when people think that they’re older than they are but in hindsight Azula HAS to be like “WTF!?! He doesn’t know how old I am?!”)

Instead of a long Summer Vacation, they have a long Winter Vacation because the days are shorter (and less sunlight = less life-force for the bending students… bending supremacy is a systemic issue).

Cousin Lu-Ten was 10 years older than Zuko and 12 years older than Azula.

Winters used to be the best when Zuko was pre-K aged and Azula was a toddler and Lu-Ten was in school … because when he was home for Winter Vacation he’d play with them. Zuko would be especially happy because Iroh would come back from overseas to spend time with him too…

Also during the Winter Break, the Fire Nights Festival would happen the week leading up to the longest night of the year as a harbinger of lengthening daylight… so it was mostly good times all around.

Winters started to suck a little more after Lu-Ten graduated, he became a lot busier on the war effort with Iroh — less time to play and more time abroad. But they had some time together…

After Zuko struggled through his first year at the academy Ozai started to go more H.A.A.M. with Zuko & even 4yr old Azula’s training… especially in Winter time.

Little pre-K Azula would have to try hard to retain a decidedly grumpy demeanour and resist laughing at the way Lu-Ten would PERFECTLY IMITATE Li & Lo when she was tantrumy/experiencing “after-practice restraint collapse” — because those two miserable old bat-bears used to be his tutors, too. She’d threaten to tell on him. He’d always pretend to be scared and agree to “be her servant” for the rest of the day in exchange for her silence.

It gets harder and harder for Lu-Ten to connect with her after she starts school… she begins to sound more and more like creepy Uncle Ozai…

Prince Lu-Ten died at age 21 when Zuko was 11 and Azula 9… then Grandfather died… and Iroh abdicates and goes MIA for a little bit… and mother is banished… and though Azula had been a bit more prepared (as the designated sounding-board to her father’s murmurs and monologues/a sneaky rascal who eavesdrops) the changes happen overnight… Zuko and Azula wake up in a world where they are the next-two in line for the throne and they only have Ozai and each other left.

Zuko is burned and banished at 13 just before finishing his last year of school… he never got to graduate… he was - even by cultural standards - a child.

Azula - at 11 - must work extra hard to Save Face enough for 2 generations of shame. “Her Uncle retreated at Ba Sing Se… He wasn’t even injured!” “I heard that Iroh deserted but Lord Ozai forgave him.” “Her brother got exiled after losing an Agni Kai to the Fire Lord.” “I heard he flunked out of the Boys’ Academy” “But Azula’s still not Crown Princess, though.” “Her mother’s banished - not exiled - banished!” “It’s because she killed Fire Lord Azulon.” “The Princess will probably challenge her Dad to an Agni Kai, too… or maybe she’ll just kill the Fire Lord like her Mom did…” Azula has to be perfect.

The murmurs continue behind Azula’s back … but to her face everyone suddenly wants to suck up to the “second in line for the throne” even more than before… However, Azula only entertains the friends that she had BEFORE the power shift: the two non-benders Mai & Ty Lee. Yet the dynamics between them begin to change as Azula begins to change… and not for the better.

Azula graduates alongside her friends at 12. Then Mai moves away with her family and Ty Lee runs away from her family… Azula does not have the luxury of either option. Ozai is responsible for the former, but the latter… Azula convinces herself it’s because she allowed it. That she could have stopped it if she wanted to and that she could call Ty Lee back to her at any time. It’s how she copes, and it’s part of the reason she was such an arse when recruiting Ty Lee from the circus.

#lu ten atla #fire nation royal family #fire siblings #princess azula #prince lu ten #prince zuko #atla headcanons #fire nation siblings #fire nation #royal fire nation academy #dangerous ladies #azula analysis #let azula be happy.#cousin Lu Ten #azula character study

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fire-lady-ilah · 4 years ago

Note

I would be fascinated in any ideas you had about how the hunt for Aang would go with 'good parent Ozai' AU!

Ask and ye shall receive! (@tiktokonaclock, here’s that part two you asked about). This continues from where I left off in part 1.

At first, Ozai says no. He has good reason to do so, Zuko is the Crown Prince, should he and Azula die then he will be heirless— he doesn’t know if Ursa would be able to bear another child, nor does he wish for another. In a less logical way, his mind protests because that is his son. Sixteen, yes, but still very much a child. That isn’t even the age of conscription.

He knows that the Avatar is a child, Commander Zhao’s report said that he appeared to be twelve, travelling with two other children that were closer to Azula’s age. He knows that his children make a formidable pair, he has no doubt that, together, they could be able to take on entire battalions of soldiers.

They are his children and they are Ursa’s children. How could he just let them go out to face an enemy such as the Avatar?

Zuko has Ozai’s charisma and awkwardness (as they come together, though few remember the way the Fire Lord used to stumble over his words as a teenager). Zuko looks so much like his father that sometimes older servants even refer to him by his name. But Zuko is equal parts his mother. He has his mother’s kinder nature, and he has her drive. Ursa’s persistence is one of the only reasons the Fire Nation is flourishing as it is now. Ozai knows that it had been suffering near the end of his father’s rule, he knows that he is an amazing military leader, just as he knows that it is better to leave his wife in charge of the majority of domestic policies.

It is that persistence combined with Azula’s carefully crafted wording that she also got from her mother that makes both Ozai and Ursa cave and give permission for their children to hunt the Avatar. Sometimes, Ozai wonders if his life would be easier if he didn’t love his family so much.

Zuko and Azula leave the Fire Nation together. Zuko is sixteen and looks the very image of a Crown Prince, even if a few hairs escape his top knot and fall across his face. Azula is fourteen and looks every bit the Princess she is. A single hair escapes it’s place and she leaves it be. She would not dare call attention to imperfections, just as Ozai himself wouldn’t. He is full of pride as he watches his children board the ship (the second newest design, as advanced as possible while having already been tested. He would not let untested technology take his children from him permanently). Captain Jee stands on the deck, greeting them. Apparently he had been demoted from his position at some point for assaulting an Admiral.

(He remembers the day he discovered the Captain’s existence well. Zuko had been eleven and helping him look over military documentation that had been sent to him to approve. One of such documents had been Jee’s demotion to lieutenant.

“I remember him. He was Lu Ten’s friend.” He heard his son mumble as he touched the included portrait of Jee. Closer examination showed that it had been drawn by his nephew himself. His son had loved his cousin, and he was not against doing things to make him happy. If Jee was loyal to Lu Ten, it only meant he would be more likely to be loyal to Zuko.

“I will have him transferred to the palace guard.”)

He proved to be honourable in the guard and had quickly been promoted back to captain after Ozai heard the true reasoning of the assault through Zuko’s horrified voice. He himself cared little for the affairs of military officers, but if it made his son happy to sign the papers for the Admiral’s dishonourable discharge and imprisonment, so be it.

That action had only solidified Jee’s loyalty to his son (and by extension, his daughter).

Now, I’m conflicted on whether or not Iroh would go with them. I’m leaning toward yes. Neither of them have been hurt by their father, but Zuko is still the most naturally kindhearted person in the royal family and he is destined to be Fire Lord. Azula has more empathy than she does in canon (although that’s not saying much), I doubt Iroh would comment that she’s “crazy and needs to go down”. After all, Ozai loves both his children here. That means that he doesn’t intentionally harm their mental health, nor does he encourage competition between them. They both want to make both their parents proud. If nothing else, Iroh would go with them so that he could stop them.

Thus, shortly after the Crown Prince and Princess of the Fire Nation step onto the ship, the Dragon of the West follows. It is filled with the best of the Fire Nation to seek the only bender of all four elements.

A stark contrast to canon, no?

The hunt progresses somewhat like in canon, though not. Lo and Li instruct further Zuko and Azula in lightning bending.

(“Only a hair out of place, Princess Azula.”

“That means I shall achieve perfection soon.”)

Iroh takes over his nephew and niece’s firebending training, though Azula is a master in her own right and Zuko is nearly a master as well. He forces them back to their basics.

Zuko yells and stomps and Iroh is reminded of his brother at the same age, back before his brother became the monster he is now. The same brother he sees glimpses of when Ozai is alone with his wife and children, the same brother that he sees none of in the Fire Lord. Azula is silent and moves to do her basics without complaint. She unnerves him, but he still loves her.

He loves them both. And he loves what remains of his brother in Ozai, even if he would choose the balance of the world over the Fire Lord in an instant.

They visit Admiral Zhao first. He declares that he has already captured the Avatar and that he would be more than willing to transfer his prisoner onto the royal family’s better equipped ship.

The siblings visit the chained Avatar. Zhao speaks of what he plans to do.

That is the thing about Ozai loving his children. Loving them means protecting them from certain cruelties, at least more than he did in canon. Zuko and Azula both see the Avatar, only twelve, and Zhao’s words overlap with Azulon’s orders to their father when Lu Ten dies. After all, Zuko had been only a year younger then.

That night, the Blue Spirit and the Dragon Emperor break the Avatar out of the stronghold with dual dao and twin daggers as the Prince and Princess sleep in their luxurious cabins. If that isn’t completely the truth, no one says anything to suggest as such. The Blue Spirit is knocked out by an arrow to the forehead. The Dragon Emperor does not allow the Avatar to remove the mask.

(“How did you not see that coming, Zuzu?”

“In my defence, you were supposed to be watching my back while I pulled the Avatar away.”)

They meet the Avatar’s companions briefly before the Emperor gestures to the rising sun and they disappear.

It is only after the escape of the Avatar that Iroh begins to consider the siblings further.

They pen a letter to their father.

Ozai reads between the lines and wonders, just once, if perhaps he had sheltered his children from the reality of war too much. He does not wonder again because he knows the alternative would have been far worse.

Instead, Ozai speaks with his wife. Ursa is a complex woman, but the Avatar is the reincarnation of her grandfather and she has an actress’s mind (and thus she has a politician’s mind).

As their children chase the Avatar, the Fire Lord and Lady put their own plan into motion. Canon Ozai may be content to lay all responsibility on his children, but this Ozai is actually a decent dad.

The siblings are free to enter Fire Nation territory as they wish and have no reason to sneak into the temple, even still they do. They watch as a Fire Sage, one of the highest religious authorities in the Fire Nation, disobeys the Fire Lord to help the Avatar.

Zuko’s quick fingers undo the water tribe boy’s restraints as Azula’s undo the girl’s. They share playful smirks, after all, neither of them are in any danger. They are a powerful team and they have their father’s unwavering support.

(“Why did you just untie us?”

“Zhao’s a dick.”)

Avatar Roku emerges in place of Avatar Aang. He pauses in front of the children, the girl that has Rina’s smile, the boy that has her hair (his own hair), always trying to escape from its confines.

They do not waver. They do, however, run when the Avatar begins to destroy the temple.

The siblings believe the Fire Nation is the greatest in the world. They believe that it is their duty to spread their glory to the other nations. But, late at night, taking tea together, they consider that perhaps Fire Lord Sozin went about it in the wrong way.

(Great-grandfather says hi, Ursa reads aloud from their children’s letter. Not for the first time, Ozai regrets sending his children on such a dangerous mission. He knew that Avatar Roku had been spotted on Crescent Island, he knew that he had blown up the temple. How close had his children come to being blown up?)

The Avatar sets course for Omashu. The siblings make a stop in the Fire Nation while they’re nearby. They have a friend to pick up.

Parts: [1] [3] [4]

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lovee-infected · 4 years ago

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Husband!Leona x Housewife!Reader: Birthday surprise

As you have your birthday today, Leona has a plan to prepare a party for his one and only beloved wife; however, uncle Ruggie and your babies almost burn the house down to ashes when you're out...

Happy birthday @jessamine-rose !♡ Now suffer-

Warning(s): None, just a review on Leona's chaotic father experiment trying to babysit his neko babies.

Note: This work is the continuation of a personal au I wrote for @jessamine-rose s/o and Leona have 3 adorable kittens (babies) in this au; The elder two are twins , a girl named Kaede and a son named Haruki while the baby gremlin is a sweet but chaotic cinnamon roll girl named Lucy (Lulu).

At last, it's here: The big day. Not only Leona seems have been expecting this day to arrive for months, or perhaps, he's been waiting ever since you had your previous birthday last year.

Not that you thought previous birthday celebrations with them lacked anything specific or was incomplete in a recognizable way; but it didn't change the fact that you didn't seem to have enjoyed them either.

Leona is the prince of the afterglow Savannah, after all. As her wife your birthday was nothing less than a national holdiday and he always tented to prepare royal celebrations ever since you married him.

But for some reason, that formal and majestic aura seemed to bother you in a way; perhaps because you preferred to be actually spending time with Leona and your family instead of having to stay in the same spot for hours with your back straightened as you greet thousands of strangers and the rest of the royal family.

Not that you ever spoke of how uncomfortabe and annoying all of those birthday ceremonies were, but you almost let out a relived sigh when Leona tells he isn't going to put out another of those extravagant celebrations.

The night before your birthday, Leona comes to you and mentions hoe it's been a while since the last time you had some time for your own, and he's right: From the day you gave birth to lulu you've been awfully busy with housework and caressing your babies; not that your life could be any sweeter than it is now but you had to admit- You somehow missed the old days when you had more time to spend on your own...

Leona recommends you take a day off, as a birthday treat! You're free to go shopping, take a short vacation to the beach or simply go to your favorite cafe and enjoy your favorite drinks and beverages in peace, meanwhile Leona would take care of the house and kittens so you can have today for your own and all~

Of course you accept his offer, you give him a small kiss on cheek and thank him, the two of you head to your bedroom and you are given the opportunity to sleep on Leona's warm chest for the rest of the night.

Thus you leave the house the next morning after, and now it's time for Leona's secret plan. He's already prepared anything, your favorite flowers, your favorite desserts and food, a very expensive perfume you had liked before, color-matching costumes for both him and the kittens, tiny cute accessories to decorate the house with and at last, tens of gifts from different things he sure knows that you'll love.

Ruggie is charge of cooking, so he gets to preparing muffins and cupcakes while Leona takes care of decorations: Designing the entire house with flower petals, baloons and colorful ribbons would've taken him hours if he were to do that by hand, but using his extraordinary magic skills, the whole house is perfectly decorated and prepared in a second *Chef's kiss.*

Just as Leona is about to let out a proud smirk and return to kitchen to see how Ruggie is doing with he cooking, he hears a sound. He turns his head to find no one but baby Lulu, chewing the decorations.

He runs to her and takes the ribbons out of her mouth, opening her mouth a second time and carefully look through it to see if she's eaten any of them or not. Oh God, he promised that he'd take care of everything when you're out, he just can't let you return home and find out that your baby has swallowed paper, what will you even think of him? Irresponsible partner? Unworthy father? No, he must make sure that baby lulu would be all same and sound until you return home.

He hugs Lulu and puts her on a corner with several baloons to play with, far from anything dangerous she could chew but then baby Lulu discovers a new hobby: popping balloons.

Her tiny fangs have just popped out and her gums often hurt, so she just wants to get her fangies on anything she could chew or bite and wow, this baby is not only totally unaffected by the loud sound of balloons popping right into her face but also finds it quite amusing. Baby begins to laugh loudly and chase after more balloons to chew as she has discovered a new hobby, and before Leona could've stopped her, she pops 5 more balloons with just one bite-

Leona picks her up immediately because if Lulu continued to chew balloons like this nothing of them would be left until you get home-

- But all of a sudden, he smells something rotten, followed by a trail of smoke coming from kitchen. He immediately puts Lulu down and runs back to the kitchen to see what in the great seven's name is happening there-

Leona jumps into the kitchen- just to find Kaede and Haruki screaming and crying as Ruggie's trying to take the black-rotten cupcakes out of the oven. Leona asks what the hell has happened and Ruggie explains he was too busy separating the twins because they couldn't stop arguing whether their mama would like caramel syrup as the topping or sprinkles, so Ruggie totally forgets about the overcooked muffins and cupcakes in the middle of their arguments.

Leona tells him to pull himself and start over- But Ruggie aruges that he won't be able to concentrate on both babysitting and cooking if that's how it's going to be. Leona growls and tell Ruggie to stop being such a wacky hyena and just get back to work without messing up again- And Ruggie explodes.

He starts shouting, Ruggie legit starts shouting in a rare, angry tune which terrified everyone even Leona. He roars that he won't be doing shit until Leona actually pays him for once, and the two start arguing. Just as the chaos is burning the kitchen down, Lulu decides uncle Ruggie's leg looks quite delicious to bite, and in a matter of second Ruggie is screaming as the baby lion's fangs literally pierced into his flesh.

The whole house is filled with smoke, Lulu has taken the entire decorations down and Leona's trying to seprate baby Lulu's fangs from Ruggie's leg. Twins are terrified, so the silently sneak out of the kitchen to call the right person to come for help...

It's past 10 pm when you're done with your day off. You've been giggling over how a day off was just what you needed after a long time, you had told Leona to call if anything went wrong, and thankfully, you didn't receive any calls from him while you were out. Leona really seems to have toughed it out as a father, huh?

You knock at the door, waiting for someone to open it. After a 3 minute delay you take a small look through the house and realize the lights are off. You just get in using your keys and suddenly, a loud "SURPRISE!" makes you jump back and the lights are back on, revealing Farena, Cheka, your kittens and very, very very tired-looking Leona and Ruggie standing in front of you. Leona gives you a weak smile as your confused gaze meets him, at last, they managed to clean the mess up before you got home.

Twins welcome you with a warm hug as they lock their tiny arms around your waist, digging their faces into soft fabrics of your clothes as if they hadn't met you in days, and of course, 12 hours of chaos without mama at home is enough to make them want to never be left alone in the house with uncle Ruggie and dad again-

Ruggie is trying his best not to be rude but he quickly approaches you, wishes you a very happy birthday and excuses himself saying he really needs to be home by this hour. You question the bandages wrapped around his leg, asking if he's alright? Ruggie just- Gulps nervously before turning his head back and stare at Leona who is holding Lulu... Ruggie nods quickly and leaves your house asap, poor boy... maybe you should call him sometime later and asking if he's doing fine?

Back to the party, Farena chuckles as he tells you how his younger brother has been DESPERATELY making plans for his beloved wife's birthday for nearly two months-! Farena explains that Leona even refused to accept Farena's help when he was firstly coming up with the plans, but Leona insisted that he wanted to manage everything on his own.

Aaaaaw Leona's face is a must-see now, his ears dropped down in mild embarrassment and frustration, feeling like a silly child in front of you. Damn- If it was on him he wouldn't have asked for Farena's help once in a thousand years even if if Ruggie and him had ended up burning the entire house; but he must admit, he's glad that twins asked for his help because- It would've been impossible to manange to do all the work on time without his help.

Aaah at least your birthday party didn't turn out to be a horrible mess, but at what cost? Great seven, he was supposed to be your one and only man tonight but right now he's nothing but a fuzzy cat wanting to pass put on his bed.

Yet he still manages to keep his eyes open, at least until you're done with the birthday party and Farena and Cheka are finally out; leaving him alone with you. Gosh, he looks so- you can't even find tje right adjective to describe this but all you can say for now is that you've never seen him this tired before.

You gently take Lulu, who has already fallen asleep in his arms and take her to her bed, asking Leona if babysitting her was difficult by any means. Leona tiredly shakes his head in a no, saying how much of a wonderful girl she was when you were away, and you can tell how much of an awful liar he is.

When the kids are asleep, you come to sit next to a lifeless Leona on couch, damn, just what happened to this household when you weren't around?

Leona's too tired to explain, he just sighs and apologizes for your birthday not being even *close to the best it could be, just to meet your laughter.

Oh lord, he is being quite desperate at the moment ha? Leona was always the dominative and demanding one, to have him serve ypu on your birthday... Oh dear, isn't that already the best birthday gift possible?

You excitedly start to tell him how this birthday was just the best you could've ever asked for: Freedom, A golden time to be spent for your own desires and not anyone else, and aside all of these, you return home just to face a secret party waiting for you!

But most importantly: He had gone through all of these... for you, to make you happy.

You tightly hug him, wrapping your arms around his neck and bringing his face closer to yours. Aaaa he looks so cute like this, just like a tired pouty can wanting you to spoil him and to be honest, he's going to need you spoil him for a week at least for him to recovers from that 12 hours of chaos.

It's been a long day, for both you and him. So he just kisses your forehead and bridal carries you to your bedroom afterwards; wrapping his strong arms and thighs around you and jailing you in his embrace. You gasp at the warmth, truth be told having your face burried in Leona's firm chest like this was something you never got used to even after being married to him for years. Damn lion knew how to leave a flushed mess out of you, huh? You chuckle as you struggle to release yourself but hell, the jerk simply pretends that he's already fallen asleep.

Just as Leona's arms are jailing you into his embrace he wonders, today probably didn't turn out to be as good as he'd planmed but well... at least you're happy. That's what he wanted when he whet out of his way planning for today, after all. But he can tell the experiment made him come to appreciate you even more, thinking that you've been caressing all three of your babies for years all on your own while Leona wouldn't have even made it for half a day if Farena hadn't saved him...

#twisted wonderland #twst #leona kingscholar #leona kingscholar x reader #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #ruggie bucchi #f/reader #headcanon #Meh I was too lazy to proofread www- Will edit this later

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roanofarcc · 5 months ago

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PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER FORTY SIX → HELP ME HOLD ON TO YOU

summary: steve harrington x oc

word count. 8.0k (whoops) || masterlist || oc moodboards

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

a/n: leia-😃🫶🏻👯‍♀️ vs. sunshine & luke-😣🩸🕰️☠️

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Max’s step-brother was weird. Leia knew he was a bad person, considering he nearly killed Steve and Sunshine the year before. But after she, El, and Max practically broke into the Holloway’s house to follow some hunch El had about Billy, and Leia officially met the notorious bully, something was clearly wrong with him. The way Max had described him fell flat against the boy Leia saw standing at Heather Holloway’s family dinner table, dressed nice but with an almost evil glint in his eyes. She didn’t know what to make of it; she supposed the outcome was the best they could have hoped for.

Heather Holloway was alive, despite El’s worries that Billy had done something to his lifeguard co-worker. The bloodied whistle and fanny pack they found in Billy’s bathroom weren’t great signs, but they saw the girl with their own eyes, baking cookies for her family. Max had concluded that she had some kind of accident and Billy had helped her. According to her, Billy was an asshole, but he was a little less of an asshole to girls he liked; maybe Heather had simply caught Billy’s eye.

El still thought something was up with Billy, but Max had tried to quell her worries the best that could, getting El to drop it at least for the rest of the night so that they could have fun at their sleepover.

Leia was ecstatic. Having a real sleepover with her friend and sister was even more fun than they made it out to be in the movies. Kali had tried to make sleeping in the van or in various warehouses fun by calling them sleepovers, but Leia knew it was different than the high school sleepovers she watched in the movies. But in Max’s bed, squished between Max and El, she was having a real sleepover like a normal high school girl. It was so exciting!

After they returned from Heather’s, they changed into warm PJs, ate pizza Max ordered with the money her mom left for them on the counter, and giggled about anything and everything. It eventually grew late, and their long day caught up to them. El fell asleep first, slumped against Max’s shoulder. Max was next, still holding onto a Wonder Woman comic book that she read to them with theatrical enthusiasm. That left Leia, still awake in the warm glow of Max’s bedside lamp. She was tired, but couldn’t get herself to fall asleep, still high on the fun events from the day.

She decided to use up the rest of her energy talking to her brother; that always made her sleepy.

“Luke? Are you there?” she called out inside her head.

It took a couple of moments for him to respond. “I’m here. Can’t talk long, though.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Getting Mike to apologize to Will,” Luke said.

Leia rolled her eyes. Mike. The bane of her existence. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little happy that El ‘dumped his ass.’ He was her friend, she supposed, but he got on her nerves.

“What’d he do to Will?”

Luke sighed inside her head, which was how she knew he was also irritated with the boy. “He and Will got into some fight earlier. He tried to call him, but Will wasn’t answering so we’re biking to his house now. I don’t think Will wants to see Mike right now, but Mike won’t listen to me or Lucas. We weren’t going to let him go alone, though.”

Mike and Will, now that was an interesting pair. From what Lucas had explained, the two of them had been best friends since kindergarten and they picked up Lucas and Dustin a little later. They were best friends, but with things back to normal, Mike had started spending all of his time with El and brushing off Will, who was still clearly recovering from the past two years of trauma he endured. She may have not been Mike’s biggest fan, but she certainly didn’t wish for his downfall. Friendship was too important; she hoped he fixed things with Will.

“Good luck,” she wished him, yawning into Max’s comforter.

“Thanks,” Luke sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Try to stay out of trouble.”

Leia smiled softly, feeling herself begin to drift off. “I’ll do my best.” As the rumble of thunder continued outside, she fell asleep, smushed in bed with her sister and friend. Despite her brother’s voice inside her head and weird day trying to get to the bottom of what was up with Billy, Leia felt beautifully normal; she could have stayed like that forever, right there in Hawkins with almost everyone she loved close and safe. It was almost as if life couldn’t get any better.

…

“Will! Come on, it’s us! Open up!” Mike Wheeler pounded his fists against the Byers’ front door, causing Luke to roll his eyes. He, Mike, and Lucas were soaked after biking in the middle of a thunderstorm from Mike’s to Will’s, hoping to get the latter to speak to them.

“Will, come on, man!” Lucas tried, peeking through the windows to see if anyone else was home to let them in, but the house was dark and there was no answer. That meant either Will was ignoring them or didn’t come home after he stormed out; both were not good, but Luke hoped for the first option. An angry Will they could manage, not a missing one.

Mike threw his hands up in frustration. “What’d we do now?”

Luke glared at Mike through his wet curls that hung down into his eyes. “Well, if you hadn’t acted like such an ass, we could be back at your house watching a movie or something. But nooo…”

“Seriously?” Mike scoffed.

“Yes, seriously, Mike!” Luke hated raising his voice, it didn’t suit him. He was typically quiet and kept most of his thoughts inside his head, but something about Mike made him want to scream. That, and the fact that he was cold from the rain and hadn’t slept properly in days due to his ambush of nightmares. All of his irritation was aimed at the raven-haired boy who didn’t exactly resemble the sweet-natured kid El had described to them a year ago.

“It’s like you don’t think before you talk!” Luke continued. “Did you ever, for one second, stop to think about why Will wants to spend more time playing D&D with just you guys and not the girls, like how you used to?” It didn’t take a genius to figure Will out, it didn’t even take someone with a formal education to see what was going on.

However, Mike and Lucas seemed rather clueless as to why their best friend was desperately trying to cling to the last shred of childhood before it was gone for good and succumbed to the encroaching sea of adulthood.

“I-I don’t know!” Mike sputtered, growing more frustrated with each passing moment. “How am I supposed to know if he won’t talk to us?!” He yelled at the door before knocking again, hoping that Will would hear him and let them inside.

Luke groaned. “Maybe if you thought about anyone other than yourself or El for two seconds, you wouldn’t need Will to tell you; you’d just know.”

Anger flashed in Mike’s dark brown eyes as he stepped closer to Luke, sizing the shorter boy up. “Oh, so you know him better than I do? Is that it?” Mike’s voice was laced with bitterness and filled with a certain kind of intense emotion that Luke couldn’t quite pinpoint. “Will is my best friend and he has been since kindergarten. You haven’t even known him for a year! You don’t know shit, okay? You don’t know him like I do.”

“Mike-” Lucas signed, placing a hand on Mike’s shoulder, but Mike shook him off.

Luke felt some of his own anger melt away with the rain. “You’re right. I haven’t known Will long, not as long as you have.” He and Leia were the new kids at the party, and there were a lot of things about the group that they didn’t know. But there also were a lot of things that they knew that the party, aside from El and Sunshine, didn’t understand either. “But I know what he’s going through; I know how he feels.”

“What’d you mean?” asked Lucas.

It wasn’t something easy to explain, but he knew he better before Mike tried to fight him on the porch.

“You guys don’t get it; you don’t know what it’s like to…to have time taken away from you, time that you know you can’t get back. Will went missing for a week, and then he spent the next year not knowing if the thoughts or voices inside his head were his own. All of that time is gone. Will doesn’t get it back. Will didn’t get to move on and grow up like you guys did.”

Mike’s anger held strong and he stepped even closer to Luke with his eyes narrowed. “You’re acting like we weren’t there, like we haven’t been there since the beginning of this. We were the ones who looked for Will when he went missing, you didn’t. We’ve been in the middle of this shit for years now! We do know what he’s going through. We know a hell of a lot more than you.”

Luke wanted to match Mike’s anger. Mike hadn't been in the Lab; he didn’t know what he and his siblings had experienced. They were the ones who had been there since the start, not the party. While they got to grow up in the warm homes of their parents, he, Sunshine, Leia, and El were being poked and prodded, almost completely forgotten about in the outside world. But at the same time, the longer he looked at Mike and the way his anger hid the fear deep in his eyes. His shaking hands at his sides weren’t from rage but from years of monsters and gruesome deaths that no kid should have witnessed. Mike and his friends had faced their own share of horrors; Luke understood what that could do to a kid. It was clear that no one was unaffected by the things that had happened in Hawkins. Luke didn’t want to accuse them of not being hurt by any of it.

“I know that,” Luke started, calmly. “But it’s different for Will than it is for you guys. He’s trying to hang on to the time he has left and it’s…it’s all leaving so quickly. I do understand him, Mike, because I know how it feels to not want to grow up yet. Leia knows how that feels. So does El and Sunshine. We all get it because we’re living it. We don’t get those years back from the Lab. Will doesn’t get back his time in the Upside Down or the time he was possessed by the Mind Flayer. It sucks growing up when it feels like you hardly got to be a kid in the first place. Will’s just…he’s trying to hang on to something that’s not even there anymore.”

That’s why it was so hard for Luke to connect with Hopper when he treated Luke like the child he was. Luke couldn’t recall the last time he felt like a child; he supposed he never really had. He felt aged beyond his years, cursed with knowledge of the future no one should be burdened with. All he had were broken memories of a childhood spent first within bleak white walls, then dirty, gratified ones.

In Hawkins, his new home, Luke tried to blend in with the party and pretend like he was just like them, but he wasn’t. The party was losing their grasp on their childhood as he spoke. None of them could keep it forever. Will was just feeling the effects of that more than Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were.

Mike shrank back, his anger slipping away slightly. “I just…” he groaned, dragging his hands down the length of his face. “It’s just easier to…to-”

“Pretend like nothing happened,” Lucas finished Mike’s sentence and rounded it off with a sigh.

“But it’s not really easier. And it sucks. Believe me, I know how much this all sucks. I’m not telling you guys to ditch your girlfriends and spend every second with Will until he’s ready to grow up. But maybe, instead of arguing with each other, you can just listen to him.” Mike was silent for a moment, thinking. “None of this is easy for anyone, but you have to understand that’s different for you guys than it is for Will.”

“And for you and your sisters,” Lucas added, placing a careful hand on Luke’s coat-clad shoulder, squeezing it affectionately. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s okay.” Luke smiled, tiredly. Being the bigger person, the adult in a fourteen-year-old's body was exhausting. He appreciated Hopper for trying to take that burden from him, but Luke didn’t know any other way to be.

Mike closed his eyes for a brief moment before he snapped back into his party-leader self and said, “I think I know where Will went.”

Mud clung to Luke’s new rainboots as he hiked behind Mike and Lucas through the woods behind Will’s house. The towering trees made frightening shadows along the ground and blocked out any stray rays of light from the moon that tried to peak out behind the heavy cloud cover. Broken limbs and twigs littered the ground and the grass was all wildly overgrown from the July heat and rainfall.

The three boys trudged deeper into the woods. Luke shivered in the all-encompassing darkness until they came upon a shadow outline of a figure that morphed into Will. He was surrounded by a broken structure. Planks of wood were collapsed into a pile on the ground and Will stood among the destruction. He wasn’t in a raincoat, but still dressed in the same clothes he felt Mike’s house in, and his hair hung down in wet strands against his pale face.

“Will, what happened? Are you okay?” Mike surged forward, grabbing a hold of Will’s shoulders and doing his best to look him over for any injuries in the darkness.

Will shrugged Mike off and staggered backward, thunder rumbling loudly in the distance. Lightening flashed across the sky, causing Luke to flinch. Will looked between the three as he grasped the back of his neck and said in a low, almost haunting voice, “He’s back.”

Back in Mike’s basement, four boys sat in fresh changes of clothes and damp hair, their skin still full of goosebumps. Will was wrapped in a blanket, shivering the worst out of all of them, as he sat on the couch beside Luke. They all watched as Mike paced back and forth across the room, biting his lip in thought.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Luke said, nervously drumming his fingers against his 009 tattoo.

Will gazed at him with sunken eyes and lips pulled in a pleading frown. “Please, Luke. If something is going to happen again, maybe we can get ahead of it.”

“Yeah,” Mike quickly agreed. “And we can figure out if He is even back in the first place.”

Luke was informed that He referred to the monster that possessed Will the year prior. Will was sure that the monster was back, somehow, because he could feel him. But neither Mike nor Lucas wanted to believe him; not because they thought Will was lying but because of what that meant for all of them. El had closed the Gate and that was supposed to mean all of their monster-related problems were solved.

However, all three boys were convinced that if Luke looked into Will’s future, they’d know for certain if their troubles had resurfaced or not. Luke, on the other hand, hated the idea.

“You know that I cannot control what I see, right? There’s a good chance that I won’t see anything about this Mind Flayer thing. A-And there’s always a chance that I could see something really bad.”

“But,” Lucas interjected. “You might not see anything bad either. I mean, you saw Max’s future and there wasn’t anything bad in hers, right?” Luke said nothing, chewing down hard on the inside of his cheek. Lucas sat up a little straighter in the armchair. “Luke, right?”

Luke sighed and replied, “The future is…tricky.”

“If you saw something bad in her future, or if you saw something bad in Will’s, you gotta tell us. That’s the deal.”

“Deal?” Luke questioned. “What deal?”

“You’re a party member,” Mike reminded him. “Friends don’t lie.” If there wasn’t the threat of a monster from another dimension that loomed in the near future, Luke would have made some snide comment about how Mike had lied to El about his nana being sick, but he refrained from starting another argument.

“Telling people what could happen in their future can drive them insane. And it could change their future, sometimes for the worse,” Luke explained, but he felt guilty at the look of concern pinched on Lucas’s face regarding Max. “But Max…as far as I have seen, seems to be okay in her future.”

Max’s future was tricky; it was always tricky when Luke accidentally touched someone and saw their future unintentionally. The contact was broken too fast and it left him floating in the strange place between their future and the emptiness of what El called the void. In that case, a good majority of the future he saw didn’t stick in his mind. Instead, they came back to him in the form of fragmented dreams. That was how he’d been deciphering Max’s future. He hadn’t made out much of anything that night she grabbed his hand, but the visions had come back to him in pieces over the past couple of months. He knew there was still more to uncover, but he hadn’t told her any of what he saw for the same reason he had just told Will; it was dangerous.

Lucas shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “That doesn’t really make me feel any better.”

“Guys, focus,” Mike snapped. “Will you do this or not?”

Luke didn’t want to. He hated his ability; it was a curse to know such things about the world. Being able to see the future with no guarantee that you could change it was not a “superpower.” He couldn’t fling objects across the room with a simple stare. He couldn’t snap his fingers and blow a fuse or cause a town-wide power outage. He couldn’t create an illusion and screw with people’s minds. And he couldn’t illuminate even the darkest of situations. All Luke could do was see what was often the inevitable.

Even with all of that in mind, Luke was a party member. The group of kids had let him and Leia join their little club and they had made a promise to look out for one another. A party member required assistance, and Luke felt like he couldn’t turn away.

“Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll do it, but I can’t promise that I’ll tell you everything I see.”

Will nodded in quick agreeance. “That’s fine. I rather not go insane.”

Luke held out his hand to Will. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

The second Will’s hand grabbed a hold of Luke’s, he felt himself get pulled away from his body. His mind absorbed him, shoving him into a free-floating blur of futures that buzzed in different frequencies. Holding onto Will allowed Luke to stay tethered to him and focus on the storm of futures that swarmed around him in a dizzying display.

It was similar to standing in the eye of a hurricane when Luke entered the space. He stood in the inky blackness of the void while scenes and figures danced around him, bleeding together. It was always a stab in the dark when he tried to pluck a scene to enter; he never knew what he was going to get. With Will, he let himself be guided towards a scene that stood out from the others. Once his focus was zeroed in on a particular scene, he was able to shift the entire storm around him into nothing but background noise and allowed his chosen scene to play out before his eyes.

Someone stood in front of Will, but Luke could only see the back of them. Will looked a little bit older, but not by much. His hair was cut a little shorter, less shaped in his usual bowl cut. There was a bloodstain on the collar of Will’s shirt and a cut across his cheek. Tears shined in his eyes as he spoke to the person in front of him, but Luke couldn’t make out the words; oftentimes, Luke was unable to hear conversations. All he could see was Will’s mouth move and his chin tremble.

Luke stepped around the two figures to see who Will was speaking to, and he was met with the distressed expression of Mike. He too looked a little older, more worn and beat up similar to Will. He held his hands in tight fists at his sides.

The vague setting behind the two boys looked to be a bedroom, but it was blurry and unstable as the vision started to break apart, fracturing like shattered glass. The vision pulled him, but Luke wasn’t sure why if it was only Mike and Will speaking. But just before the scene slipped away completely, Mike raised his shaking hands and hastily grabbed the sides of Will’s face, both of them leaning forward, and then it was gone.

He readied himself to be pulled toward another scene, but the storm of figures and futures bled together until it was impossible for him to latch onto one at random. He couldn’t see anything, which was highly unusual.

Panic struck him, quick and hot as he felt himself sink down, down, down. The void spun, colors and voices blinding and defeating. His body felt suspended in a free fall, terrifying weightlessness, until he crashed into the inky black ground, suddenly completely engrossed in the dark nothingness of the void.

Scrambling to his feet, Luke breathed heavily but air refused to fill his lungs as quickly as he needed it to. He squeezed his eyes closed and tried to connect himself back to his body and disconnect his physical hand from Will’s to break himself out, but he couldn’t. The tether he had to his body and to Will was somewhere far away, just beyond his grasp. Luke tried to scream in hopes that his voice would find its way back to his physical mouth, alerting the boys that something was wrong and getting them to separate him from Will, but his screams only bounced through nothingness, landing on no one's ears but his own.

He could not feel anything. His hands and feet tingled with an odd numbness; it felt as if he wasn’t there at all. The only feeling he possessed was an increasing pain that beat against his skull in thick waves. The pain grew, blowing up like a balloon as he tried screaming again but it all was useless.

The tingling spread until the void gave away, again, sending him into another awful free fall into nothingness. He had never lost his grip like that before; he had never been pulled so far away that he could not find his way back. His lungs burned and his head throbbed. It felt like someone had their hands wrapped tightly around his throat, squeezing, while another set of hands latched onto his ankles and dragged him under layers of darkness more intense than anything his eyes had ever borne witness to.

All perceptions of time were lost inside the void; Luke already knew that. But his free fall felt excruciating long until his body smacked against something hard and solid. With a strangled grasp of fresh air, he coughed violet and propped himself up on his elbows. He was no longer inside the void, but he wasn’t in Mike’s basement either.

Luke struggled to his feet before he dragged his eyes around his new surroundings. He was in some kind of shed, used for storage mostly. The building was small, covered in a layer of dust, and illuminated by a single lightbulb suspended by a single wire to the ceiling. Somewhere outside the shed, a dog barked and rapid footsteps approached. Luke backed up into the corner, watching and listening closely to what he was witnessing.

The door swung open with enough force to make Luke jump, and in rushed Will. But it was not the Will that Luke knew nor was it the Will that Luke would eventually know. No, that version of Will was impossible for him to see. That version of Will was younger. He stood short and skinny, zipped up in a vest, and cheeks flushed in the dim light. Yet, despite how small and youthful Will looked, he wasted no time grabbing a shotgun off the wall and loaded it almost rhythmically, despite his trembling hands.

Luke couldn’t understand what was happening; he had always been cursed with visions of the future. His ability was the reason for the tattoo on his wrist and the artwork that covered his bedroom. But standing there, inside the shed of a younger Will, Luke knew that something was wrong, very, very wrong.

Will was out of breath and his face streaked with tears. He aimed the shotgun at the closed door. Luke felt disoriented and impossibly dizzy; his brain spun trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Outside, a low, guttural sound caused the hair on the back of Luke’s neck to stand on end. The lightbulb burned brighter and brighter until it nearly obstructed Luke’s vision entirely. All he heard was a horrible, gut-wrenching scream break from Will’s lips.

Luke couldn’t help but mirror Will’s scream. His brain felt set ablaze and every nerve inside his body was pricked with a hot sensation of fear. He was brought to his knees, covering his ears as the lightbulb exploded.

Then, like a rubber band snapping back to its true form, Luke’s eyes flew open to see that he was back in Mike’s basement. A wheeze burst from his tight chest as he struggled to breathe in reality. Will, Mike, and Lucas all blurred together in front of him. Blood dripped down his nose and onto his borrowed shirt.

“What is it? What happened? What did you see?” Mike asked in a rushed, panicked breath.

Luke’s tongue was heavy in his mouth and little black spots dotted his vision. “I-I…” He couldn’t form the words before darkness took over his vision and his body, exhausted, gave out. All three boys shot out their hands and grabbed a hold of him by the fabric of his shirt before he hit the ground.

“Shit,” Lucas muttered.

“Careful,” Mike said, grabbing a pillow from the couch and placing it on the food behind Luke. They lowered him to the ground so that he lay on his back. Mike plucked a handful of tissues from the coffee table before he held him to Luke’s bleeding nose with a string of concerned curses.

…

White walls and floors boxed in Seven. She found herself in the middle of a hall that seemed to stretch for miles in either direction, impossible to escape no matter how long you ran. The hall grew endlessly, trapping her under its fluorescent lights and stench of bleach.

Peering down at herself, she was dressed in a paper gown and bare feet. She did not swim in the gown; it fit her figure more than she recalled. The fabric fell to her knees and the sleeves did not reach her elbows like they once did. Hair tickled her neck. She ran her hand along the top of her head, confused when she wasn’t met with a buzzed head or slightly outgrown, uneven locks. Her hair tumbled down just past her shoulders.

Seven turned slightly, meeting the glass panel on the wall that normally looked into an observation room, but she was met with a large mirror that forced her reflection to stare back at her. She expected to see a younger version of herself, who she had been while living trapped inside the Lab. But it wasn’t Seven who stood in the mirror, it was eighteen-year-old Sunshine, with outgrown hair and a sun-kissed complexion. Only she wore her Lab uniform, complete with a blood stain under her nose.

There was something deeply more horrifying about seeing herself all grown up, but still inside the Lab. No longer did she look like the fragile, hopeless version of herself. It was too real and caused bile to rise in her throat as sickness rocked her gut.

A scream erupted from down the stretch of the hall, somewhere around a corner she could hardly see due to the distance. It began as a high-pitched yell, one cemented into her mind that would sometimes ring, reminding her of what little she recalled from that night. But the scream morphed, changed shape as she found herself running toward it. The familiar howl of Ivy became one of another voice she recognized.

Sunshine’s heart beat heavily but quickly inside her chest as she sprinted down the corridor, her bare feet sticking to the floor. The stench of something foul pricked her nose. She was used to the smell of blood; the irony scent and taste were as normal to her as the taste of minted gum or sweet tea her mom made a pitcher of every week. But what she smelled was different; it was the metallic scent of fresh blood, but it was overwhelming, violently assaulting her senses.

She remembered the scream and the scent, but it had been long since she thought about it. The memory had stayed dormant in the back of her mind, doing her the favor of not springing forward.

As she reached the corner after what felt like hours of running, listening to the lower-pitched scream get closer and the smell of blood worse, the noise stopped. Sunshine’s heart stopped momentarily with it as she saw a little handprint on the sharp corner of the wall, but she had yet to peek around the other side. The handprint of a child, someone tiny, slid down the corner. Her stomach rolled but she didn’t allow herself to turn around. She needed to know the source of the scream that went from one she knew too well, to one she almost knew but couldn’t place.

Taking in a breath, gagging on the smell, Sunshine stepped forward and braced herself as she looked around the corner.

Her world stopped, similar to how she remembered, even in the foggy pool of her memories of the Lab that faded with the walls her mind built around her real-life nightmares in hopes of keeping her sane a little while longer.

It had once been Ivy she saw around the corner when Seven was a couple of feet shorter and groggy off of medication she had been given to fight a sickness that put her on bed rest. It had been Ivy’s image she couldn’t erase, even though everything else that occurred that day came up blank. Ivy on the ground, limbs twisted in a horrible fashion that made Seven’s bone ache under her skin. She had remembered Ivy, bloodied eyes and all. Sunshine had memorized the way her fingers twitched, and head lulled. A shuttered, struggling breath heaving in Ivy’s broken chest.

Back then, Seven had run to her, held her hand, and sobbed something terrible, rattling the walls of the Lab. Ivy had used her last breaths to speak to her. “Tried…Save…You…Can’t…Run.” The words were forever stained in Sunshine’s mind. Ivy tried to save her. Ivy always tried to save her. But Sunshine never got the chance to return the favor. She hadn’t even seen her to death. She tried. Sunshine clung to Ivy’s body, bloodied and broken in nearly every way possible, eyes blank as tears of blood seeped from them. But a set of hands wound their way around Seven’s torso, peeling her off the ground.

But there was no one around, and it wasn’t Ivy’s broken body on the ground; it was Steve’s. It wasn’t the pure agony of grief that she recalled when finding Ivy’s body, it was something else that washed over in a bloody, thick title wave that completely engulfed her. She was drowning, gasping for air that refused to enter her lungs.

Sunshine, grown up now but still in that godforsaken place, dressed in a hospital gown and staring at her best friend lying exactly like Ivy had. His eyes were blank, devoid of life already, and his pale skin streaked with tears of blood in horrible stripes down the length of his face. His arms and legs twisted, broken on the ground.

The pain that exploded in her chest was unbearable, hot and cold tremors ripped through with a violent force as her knees buckled and she hit the ground only a foot away from him. She didn’t know how, but her mind willed her body to move, to crawl forward until she was directly beside him. Her trembling fingers splayed out against his chest, but there was nothing to be felt underneath it; no heartbeat drummed inside his chest, and she felt her own heart shatter, fracture into a million little pieces along the red tiles of Hawkins Lab.

No one, ever again, was supposed to go back to that place; she always meant herself and her siblings when she thought that. Never, ever did she think she’d see one of the people she had grown to adore in Hawkins under the same fluorescent lights. That thought had never crossed her mind because it was too much to imagine; the possibility of that seemed impossible, even before the place was shut down. She knew Will, Mike, Hopper, and Joyce had visited the place after Dr. Owens took it over; Nancy and Jonathan had visited it as well when they threatened to leak what actually happened to Barb. But this was different. Sunshine wasn’t there when they visited. She wasn’t there when Leia and El returned to close the Gate. She wouldn’t allow her mind to imagine any of them there; to her, that didn’t happen because even though they all got out unscathed, it was unfathomable to her to picture them in the same halls she walked.

It was impossible to see Steve there, dead on the floor just as Ivy had been, but there he was. Sunshine sobbed, her whole body shaking violently.

There was blood on the walls, trailing down what looked like the entire length of the hall, but she couldn’t see far past her tears. A scream bubbled up in her throat but it got stuck, trapped in her mouth as she dug her fingernails into the fabric of his shirt. Then, it happened just as it had back then. Finally, a pair of hands appeared, attached to someone she couldn’t make out through her tears.

The person who appeared behind her hauled her up from the ground as if she had still been a little girl. She kicked and screamed, even though she had been expecting it.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” they kept repeating, but their words did nothing to soothe her.

“Steve! Steve, please!” Sunshine screamed into the quiet hall. The person never stopped. They turned corners and kept their gaze straight forward, not daring to meet her gaze. “Steve!” Her throat was sore, and her yells were hardly louder than a whisper.

“Wake up!” But he didn’t.

But she did, and with a violent start. She gasped for air as tears streamed down her face, tasty salty on her tongue.

Sunshine was in her bedroom, which was suddenly too dark. She fumbled for her bedside lamp, switching it on with shaking hands. For a long moment, she let herself cry silently until her eyes stung but the pain brought her back to reality. She was home; she was safe. Steve nor Ivy’s blood coated her fingers. But Ivy was still dead. She didn’t know about Steve.

The rational part of her brain told her he was alive, tucked away at home and sleeping off their spy craft. But her nightmare-induced fear overruled the rational part of her brain. The image of his body twisted on the ground was all she could think about, which caused her to fear that her dream had been more than that. She needed to know that his heart was still beating; she needed to know he was alive, or else she feared she’d lose her mind completely.

Sunshine hastily wiped her tears and clambered across her messy floor until she reached her desk, where her landline lived. She punched in Steve’s number, falling into her desk chair as her legs shook almost as badly as her hands. After a few agonizing moments, the shrill ringing stopped and was replaced by a voice that melted away only some of her fears.

“Hello?” Steve’s voice greeted her groggily. Sunshine let out a sigh of relief, but it came out as half a cry and half a hiccup.

“Steve,” she breathed out.

“Sunshine? Is everything okay?” He was okay. He was alive. He was right there on the other line. Yet, her chest was tight with anxiety. It made her nauseous and hot like she was running a fever.

She swallowed thickly, wincing at the rawness of her throat from crying. “Y-Yeah. Everything okay.” Glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she realized it was nearing three in the morning. “Sorry, did I wake you up?” Guilt seeped into her chest too, and she felt on the verge of crying again.

“No,” he rasped out, lying she bet. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

Softly closing her eyes and leaning her head back against her chair, she tried to even her voice out enough not to worry him. “I’m okay.”

Steve was quiet for a moment before he said, “But did something happen? You’re freaking me out, Sunshine. Is something going on?”

The sound of Ivy’s screams melting into his still buzzed in her ears. Her throat burned even worse as the urge to cry became stronger. “I just had a nightmare,” she admitted. “It’s stupid. I just…You’re okay, right?” She needed to hear him say it.

“That’s not stupid,” Steve said. “I’m okay. Promise.”

“Okay,” she whispered, exhaustion crashing over her, but she knew sleep was out of the picture. “Good. I’m sorry for calling so late.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah,” she lied. “Promise. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Before he could even bid her goodbye, she hung up and let a shuttered breath slip through her lips.

Nightmares always left her with an array of awful emotions tightly twisted up inside her chest, but that one was worse than what she had become used to. It had been a while since she had been that shaken up.

Sunshine thought back to the conversation with her parents; maybe she wasn’t as healed as she thought she was. Maybe she was lying to herself too. She had told them that the nightmares had gone away, and while that wasn’t true, up until that night they had been manageable. Out of every awful thing she had seen and relived inside her mind, that had to be one of the worst. Her past held her hostage in her dream, and now they were dragging in her present. That didn’t seem fair.

Wandering back to her bed, Sunshine lay down with the light still on. Minutes ticked by as she stared at her ceiling and the little glow-in-the-dark stars that her dad had helped make into constellations. She didn’t know exactly how long she lay there until her swimming thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock at her window. She startled upright, fear enclosing around her all over again.

Slowly, she crept toward the window and curled her fingers around her drawn curtains, pulling it back just enough to see what made that noise. Into view came a familiar face, and Sunshine’s whole body untensed before she quickly pulled open the window. The soft smiling face of Steve looked back at her as he climbed through the window as gracefully as he could.

“What are you doing here?” He was soaked from the rain, void of a coat, and dressed in pajamas. Sunshine grabbed a towel she had left hanging over the back of her desk chair and handed it to him.

He dried his hair and shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep, and I figured you couldn’t either.”

With a sigh, slumped back into her bed, feeling impossibly heavy and flushed with nearly every bad emotion in the book. He sat beside her, not too close but within arm's reach. “Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked.

She didn’t look at him and instead kept her gaze on a pile of clothing on the floor. “You didn’t need to come all the way here.”

He disagreed with a simple shake of his head. “I get it.” His voice was quieter than normal, but it still held a warmness to it. “I get nightmares sometimes too. They’re always…rough, to say the least. And it’s like I can’t function until I know everyone’s alright afterward.”

When she had nightmares of their monster encounters, she’d walkie the party first thing in the morning with some lame excuse to check up on them. She had a feeling they saw through her, but they always answered, no matter what, with little jokes or jabs, anything to allow her to hear their voices. She'd make an excuse to see Steve or Nancy or Jonathan too, ensuring that they were still there.

Another lump formed in her throat, or maybe it was the same one that just didn’t go away, knowing she’d cry again before the sun rose. “They’re usually memories. Making me relive…whatever happened,” she began to explain. “This one was like that too, but it was more than that.” Tears welled up in her eyes and closed them in hopes of willing them away, but when she did, there Steve was again, on the floor of the Lab. A sob broke through, against her will, and she buried her head in her hands.

“Hey,” Steve whispered as he placed a hand on her back. “It’s alright; it’s over now. You’re safe, Sunshine.”

She shook her head, feeling the knot inside her chest pull tighter and tighter. “No,” she cried. “I-It wasn’t me who…I-I…” Each word burned in her throat, making it hard to get out.

Steve rubbed soothing circles across her back. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” But she did. She needed to talk to someone before all of her fears and memories buried her alive.

“Ivy,” she managed to say, a strangled breath leaving her mouth after the girl’s name left her lips. Sunshine pulled her hands down from her face and wiped her wet palms on her blanket. She was sure her face was red and blotchy, eyes bloodshot and rimmed with dark circles. “Ivy. I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. I should have been there. She was all alone. It…It was terrible.”

Ivy who loved her. Ivy who promised to protect her. But when Ivy needed Sunshine when she needed someone to help her and protect her from what or whoever killed her that night, Sunshine was dizzy and bedridden. By the time she heard the scream, it was too late. Maybe if she had been faster and escaped the clutches of the infirmary a few seconds earlier, she could have saved Ivy from a broken fate.

A short burst of memories came to the forefront of Sunshine’s mind. She stood up, taken aback by them as they danced around her brain. “Everything was going wrong,” she recalled. “That night, everything was so…so wrong, everywhere. I don’t know why. I don’t remember anything. But she was right there; she was so close but I-I was too late. I found her…s-she was almost dead. She told me to run but I couldn’t leave her. Someone took me away. I tried to go back to her. I tried, I did.” She didn’t know what happened after Ivy died, right there in the hall, broken body and vacant eyes. The weeks, even months following she lived in a daze, floating outside her body and stuck in the infirmary until she could hardly remember what Ivy looked like that night.

“Sunshine…” Steve said, but his voice trailed off at a loss for words. He didn’t know what to say; there was nothing to say.

“She called me that first, you know.” Her tears grew heavier, making her room a blur of warm light. “She gave me that name.” And it meant the world to one little girl who thought she was alone in the world. Ivy called her Sunshine and taught her about the stars in the sky and the people waiting to rescue them from the Lab. She kissed Sunshine’s cheeks and held her hand when her fears kept her awake at night. “And she died alone. She died and I could save her.” Just as she couldn’t save Steve in her dream.

Whatever piece of thread that held her together that night fell alongside her words, tumbling to the ground and leaving her suspended by nothing, weightless in her grief. Her legs threatened to give out underneath her, but Steve jumped from his seat on her bed and engulfed her in his arms. She buried her head in his chest, sobbing into the fabric of his shirt. Her arms wrapped around him, holding onto him with the fear that he’d slip away as Ivy had.

Steve drew them back to the bed but didn’t let go of her. “You were just a kid,” he said, speaking gently into the crown of her head. “Nothing that happened to anyone there, nothing that happened period, was your fault. And I promise nothing like that is ever going to happen again.” He couldn’t promise that, though.

But he was alive right then, in her arms. He was breathing a speaking; she’d keep it that way. She wouldn’t let him meet the same fate as Ivy; Sunshine wouldn’t survive that a second time around. All of them- the party, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, Hopper, and her siblings- she would keep alive. Sunshine would meet her own fate before she let them meet theirs.

For a while, they stayed like that, on the edge of the bed holding onto each other tightly. It felt slightly reminiscent of the night last November when she sat outside the grassy yard of the Lab in a fit of tears and the overwhelming fear that her entire would disappear all over again. But Steve had been there, wiped her tears with a certain tenderness that had still been foreign to her.

After Ivy, it had been Sunshine’s responsibility to wipe away tears from her siblings and party members’ eyes when they were scared. It was her responsibility to be brave, but in her bedroom on that rainy night, she didn’t feel such a burden on her shoulders, because someone was making her feel safe again. Of course, she had her parents who would always try to protect her, but they couldn’t keep her safe from the things they didn’t know.

Steve came with a stark set of differences than anyone else in Sunshine’s life. He was her best friend and a boy who had long promised to stick by her side, even when he was scared.

Once her sobs had subsided and returned to swallowed breathing, she lifted her head just slightly, finally meeting his gaze. “Thank you,” she whispered, meaning it with every ounce of her heart. He smiled lightly, a little sadly.

“You’ve got my back and I’ve got yours, remember,” he replied. He stifled a yawn, blinking away a dreariness in his eyes.

“You can stay here tonight. If you want,” she offered, not wanting to let him go after her nightmare, scared something would happen.

He tilted his head slightly, pieces of his damp hair sticking to his forehead. “Do you want me to stay?”

“I really don’t want to be alone,” she admitted, her chest still aching.

He let go of her with only one hand before he brushed a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Then I’ll stay.” Stay for the night, for the rest of the summer, maybe even forever. Sunshine hoped he meant forever, however forever looked.

Tagged. @sattlersquarry , @leptitlu , @drunkengodsofslaughter

#stranger things #steve harrington #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington x original character #stranger things oc #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfiction #el hopper #max mayfield #project sunshine

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smellss · 4 years ago

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screaming match - zuko x reader

a/n

hi all

happy new years! i hope you all had a wonderful holidays and to start off the new year i thought a zuko fic would only be right! please send in requests i do still write them and would love to hear some suggestions of what work you guys would like to see from me this year. now enjoy the fic!

- smells x

yelling was something that zuko had grown up quite acustomed to especially, the dulcet tones of his father expressing his concerns for zuko and his honour as a child.

even acknowledging his own bad habit of perhaps letting off steam once or twice perhaps at the wrong time at the wrong person.

he didn’t however expect to hear it this morning as he discussed with aang and sokka some new plans for the outskirted villages

“i think looking into having some more funding for out lying villages is an excellent idea zuko” aang smiled proud at how far his friend had come since first becoming fire lord

“it’s really is buddy” sokka exclaimed clapping zuko on the shoulder causing the fire lord to wobble at bit at the sudden contact

“okay good i’m glad you two are behind it makes telling the council a whole less nerve wracking if you have the avatar on your side” the thought of presenting to the council making zuko feel more ill by the second

“honestly i would be scared presenting to that bunch no emotion what so ever i remember once-e” aang being cut off by suki and toph bursting through the door

“okay i said you could come in at anytime but i think their is still time to knock” zuko rolled his eyes at the girls and their quick pasted antics

“quickly you need to come now, y/n is having a shouting match with council man wu” toph smirked seeing all of the boys faces drop into shock

the group ran down the hallway to the court yard a group of maids and council members lingered but everyone’s jaw dropped once they saw the scene in front of them

y/n’s cheeks were flushed with anger, brows furrowed and hands usually gracefully placed by the girls side where balled in fists at her side

as zuko stood jaw slacked at the sight in front of him he quickly perked up once he heard toph speaking to one of the maids

“psst lilia, what did we miss?” toph whispered to the young maid by her side

“council man wu is being as difficult as usual making some rude comments about the fire lord and well lady y/n just-” the young girl was then interrupted by the cranky council mans voice beginning to rise even higher

“you are a young woman and wouldn’t know the first thing about how a country should be run, fire lord ozai will always be the superior ruler therefore i do not intend to agree with any of lord zuko’s proclaimations” the old man sneered a sly smirk appearing on his face

the courtyard appeared shocked at the response councilman wu had been know for his rude responses but none ever like this

zuko studied y/n’s face wondering what she would say next his heart begging to flutter nervously

“now beg my pardon council man but you however are nothing but an old crone! if you think for one second that fire lord zuko is nothing short of compassionate

and his proclamations show the care he has for the people of the fire nation unlike you who seems to be completely self centered! now if you will excuse me i have far better things to do than to stand here with someone who is nothing but a nasty old man, good day!” y/n finished and walked off to the front of the palace

everyone stood there gobsmacked until toph began to laugh until everyone started to chuckle, zuko however chased after y/n running down the palace steps

“y/n,y/n wait” zuko yelled out the girl hastily turning her head around smiling sheepishly

he stood face towards hers smiling as y/n began to ramble out apologies

“zuko im so sorry i don’t know what came over me it’s just that he was completely infuriating speaking of you like that it was just i don’t but hmpft” zuko grabbed y/n’s waist dipping her down

his lips smashing against hers slowly letting of the love he could muster transfer through their lips, tingles were sent through y/n’s body her lips felt on fire as she wrapped her arms around the fire lords neck

the couple broke apart heads resting against each other breathe blowing hard on each other’s hot red cheeks

“no one has ever stood up for me like that before, thank you y/n” the fire lord smiled chuckling at the girls evident blush

“well i have never yelled at anyone like that before but for you i might just do it again” the girl smiled before swiftly kissing zuko again before being interrupted by sokka’s booming voice

“hey y/n are you sure you aren’t a fire bender cause you ROASTED HIS ASS”.

#fire lord zuko #alta #avatar the last airbender #team avatar #zuko fluff #zuko imagine #zuko x reader #avatar: tla #zuko x you #aang x katara #iroh & zuko #zuko angst #zuko gif #prince zuko #zuko fanfic #zuko x y/n #avatar gaang

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marshmallow-phd · 4 years ago

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Healing Touch

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Yixing x Reader

Summary: Medical school abroad was the last line on your to-do list before starting the rest of your life. Everything was going according to plan. Everything, that is, until tragedy strikes your campus. In the wake of a professor’s untimely death, you’re partnered with the cute boy with a breathtaking smile in the newly combined labs. You find yourself unable to resist the dimples and shy glances, but his life is here with no plans of leaving. Will you continue on as planned or will you accept the hand that Fate had dealt you?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Final

The smell had not changed in all the years that you used to call this place home. Pinecone potpourri mixed with traditional cooking spices and a hint of citrus from the constant dusting. Your aunt had always been a bit eccentric, a bit off beat. It had made being raised by her both adventurous and anxiety-inducing.

In the privacy of your home, her random dance parties and unfiltered way of speaking made you laugh. But when you were in public and she was pretending to be a mannequin in a window display, you ran away to the food court to hide behind a cup of boba. The explanation was always the same no matter what antics she was pulling: she wanted to break you out of your shell. It seemed like a lost cause. You were comfortable in your shell. It protected you and kept you warm.

“I don’t see how you expect to go trialing off to a place you’ve never been before,” your aunt had complained when you first told her about applying to the far away college.

“They’re two entirely different situations,” you had argued. “I can go to class and go back home without any issues.” These days there was your phone if you ever got lost or in need of food but didn’t want to leave the comfort of your apartment. Modern conveniences only enabled your shut-in ways.

“But what about, you know, friends?” She looked at you over her stylish, cat-eye glasses that she had no use for with her perfect vision.

“I have those,” you insisted. So, you might not have had a best friend, but you had people that you occasionally hung out with and collaborated on. Then there was Victoria and Amber from high school. You still spoke to them regularly, despite them going to different colleges out of the area. Your aunt didn’t realize that not everyone needed multiple circles of friends to bounce between.

Pushing her glasses back up her nose, your aunt pouted. “I just worry about you, that’s all. You still don’t like getting into cars, especially by yourself, and if you happen to be studying late….”

“I don’t mind taking the bus.” A bit of a stretch. You did mind but would still take it if the situation were dire enough. Walking was good exercise. And better for the environment. Someone had to look out for the little bunnies.

“Alright,” your aunt huffed as she sipped on her now lukewarm tea. “It is your life. I’m just a spectator of it.”

“At least you have premium seating,” you teased.

That had made your aunt laugh. She was back to her more carefree self.

“Is that my favorite niece?”

“No, it’s your least favorite nephew.”

Your aunt poked her head out of the hallway, the edge of her pink fuzzy robe telling you that she was getting ready to go out.

That was the exchange the two of you always had when you came to visit. The first time around, you had rolled your eyes and given the sarcastic answer for the cliché greeting. As your mother and aunt were the only siblings in their family and your father was the single offspring from his parents, there were no other nieces or nephews to put above or below you.

Without prompt, your aunt passed through the living room and onto the kitchen. When she came back, she had two wine glasses filled with bubble pink liquid. After handing you the lesser filled glass, she sat down on the couch while you opted for the loveseat, letting your purse drop to the hardwood floor by your feet. Your aunt leaned back on the arm rest with one elbow as she sipped on the wine. “It’s watermelon,” she informed you when you hadn’t taken a drink. “Try it.”

Shaking your head, you did as she asked. Oh, no. It was delicious. That was dangerous. You took another, larger swig before putting the glass down on the coffee table.

Growing up, you’d felt bad for your aunt. Sometimes you still did, though not as much after her many lectures as to why you shouldn’t.

She’d always been the carefree one. As a marketing consultant, she was constantly flying all over the globe, having adventures in between work meetings and bringing those experiences back to you in the form of expensive souvenirs. When your parents volunteered to go help a poorer nation with their health crisis, your aunt was quick to lend her babysitting services. It was only supposed to be temporary, after all. Then tragedy struck

Your parents never came back and suddenly your aunt was now your permanent guardian. The carefree spirit took it in stride. She shifted her strategy to more web-based conferences until you were in high school and able to be on your own for longer periods of time. She never turned into your mother; she never wanted to. For that, you were even more thankful. She was still the spontaneous, forever young aunt that you had always known. That stability in her personality was exactly what you needed. Too much had changed in your world on a dime, the less that was altered the better.

“What prompted this little visit?” she asked, a curious half smile on her lips.

You shrugged. “I hadn’t seen you in a while, so I thought I’d stop by and say hi. It looks like you’re getting ready to go out, though.”

Your aunt waved her hand limply. “Not for a few hours. Besides, anything can wait for you.”

Shifting in your seat, you smiled at the affection she had for you. “I finally heard from the university,” you told her.

Her eyebrows shot up. “You did? They finally decided to stop dangling the carrot and just give it to you, did they?”

“Not exactly,” you cringed. “They said they wanted to see how this semester went and then they would let me know.”

Your aunts face fell into a scowl as if something awful smelling had made its way into her nose. “What sense does that make?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. But at least it’s not an outright no.”

Clicking her tongue, your aunt leaned forward so she was now balancing her elbows on her knees. “You know, there are still other options. Closer options.”

“I know,” you said with a monotone voice. “But Plan A is my focus. I’ll look to other options if that falls through.”

That knowing look you were all too familiar with formed on her face. A long, reminiscing sigh blew out from her lungs. “You are so much like your mother. It’s scary sometimes.”

You never knew how to respond when she said things like that. Should you be happy at the comparison? Sad because your mother wasn’t here to tell you herself? You were a child when your parents passed away. You remembered vague moments, birthday parties and movie nights. But when you’re that young, you don’t get a good idea of your parents’ personalities. You don’t learn what they like or don’t like, how they act in crowds versus a small group of people. You have to rely on the memories of those left behind.

You stayed at your aunt’s house for another hour or so, talking to her about her latest clients and nights out with the girls. You told her how your days were going and how you were adjusting to the new routine with the combined class. The news of Yixing sat on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t bring yourself to mention him. Her reaction would have been too predictable. She’d ask when the two of you were going to go out and when you explained that it wasn’t like that, she would ask why not. For that, you didn’t have an answer.

While you wanted to say that the two of you were just friends, it didn’t feel like the truth.

You saw more of Yixing than of anyone else, including Ran. He would walk you to class multiple times a day and the two of you would talk. Not about anything too deep. You weren’t at that level yet. He was funny and charming, never speaking a word that wasn’t kind. You learned that he lived in farmhouse in the woods with eight other people, all men. He swore it was never too crowded and that he actually enjoyed the company. He got lonely easily.

He also told you about how he took a few years off of college to figure out what he wanted to do. You’d asked him how he came to the path of becoming a doctor. He said he simply wanted to do something that would help people. He thought about opening a low-income clinic once he had his degree. Suddenly your heart was pumping under your sternum. When he asked why you went pre-med, you gave a shrug and said your parents and left it at that. These conversations were usually nice and lighthearted, you didn’t want to be the downer.

Yes, spending time with Yixing was nice, the highlight of your day, sometimes. But he also felt like a secret. One that you should keep to yourself for now. Good things didn’t always last. You wanted to see if this was a long-term investment for him before you invited anyone else in.

The next day, you needed some fresh air, so you decided to take a walk in the nature center on the edge of town. Although the woods would be a no-go area since they still hadn’t caught the animal terrorizing the area, the center would be full of people and should be quite safe. It couldn’t really be considered part of the woods given the infrastructure and the observation building, could it? Deciding to go anyway, you packed your bag with a few notes, snacks, and a water bottle. As your hand landed on the doorknob to leave, your eyes fell on the jacket lying on the back of the couch.

You hadn’t worn the comforting fabric since that day. The weather had been nice and putting it on would have seemed a bit obnoxious in your eyes. But this morning the weatherman had mentioned a chilly breeze. It wouldn’t hurt.

Arms through their designated holes, you left the apartment and started the walk to the outskirts of town. It wasn’t too far of a walk, maybe thirty, forty minutes at the most. You thanked yourself for wearing the jacket. A “chilly breeze” was an understatement. A few families and couples were dotted among the trails of the nature center that wound near and over the small creek. You passed by them all until you came to a spot that was deserted. Resting your legs, you sat on a bench with your back to the trees. The sun was shining up above. The only noise seemed to come from the rustling leaves and trickling creek. It was peaceful, just what you needed.

With your bag beside you, you took out a piece of paper with yesterday’s notes and started to review them. Some of the words were smudged and the edges were already crinkling, but you could make most of it out. The paper flopped in the wind. You thought you had a good enough grip on it, but a gust of air proved you wrong.

The paper went flying over your head and straight for the trees. Panic made you jump up, slinging your bag over your shoulder as you ran after it. The wind – now relentless – was enough to keep the paper continuously out of your reach.

It finally came to a stop when it caught on a tree root sticking out in the ground. You snatched the paper up and stuffed it into the bag to keep it from running away again. Straightening up again, your eyes settled on the horizon.

Then you screamed.

Yixing’s eyes snapped open.

He was no longer a wolf. He was human again. Sitting up, he brushed off the leaves from his arms. What time was it? Was it even the same day? He’d blacked out again. At this point, it was almost routine. His only consolation prize being the fact that he was alone. He still needed to figure out what was happening to him. He wasn’t ready to take this to his brothers. There was enough to worry about at the moment.

Getting on his feet, Yixing headed in the direction of where his things were stored. In order to avoid the others wanting to run with him, he’d entered the forest from a different area, storing his things in a bush to get back to later. He flicked his jeans to get the dirt off before pulling them on and then stuffing his feet in his shoes.

A piercing cry for cut through the air.

The hair on the back of Yixing’s neck stood up.

“Help! Somebody help!”

It was your voice.

He gasped. Then he took off. If anything happened to you-

Yixing skidded to a stop when he saw you kneeling in the grass. A body was laying in front of you, the clothes ripped and stained dark. It was lying face down, but Yixing could tell that it was a man and that he’d been attacked.

“(Y/n), what happened?”

You stared at him with wide, confused eyes. “Yixing? What are you doing here?”

He ignored your question, more worried about your own wellbeing. “What happened?” he repeated.

You shook your head as you dropped your eyes to the man lying on the ground. “I don’t know. I just found him like this. He’s still breathing but I’m not strong enough to move him.”

Yixing analyzed the situation. His car was only on the other side of the trees. The man was still alive. From Yixing’s point of view, he could make it, but they needed to act fast. Slipping his arms under the man while careful not to move him too much, he picked the man up and motioned with his head for you to follow.

He said nothing and you asked no questions as the tree line broke. Yixing scanned the parking lot of the nature center until he found his car. He rushed to the vehicle with a few glances over his shoulder to make sure you were keeping up with him.

“(y/n)?”

“Yeah?” You were huffing. Had he been running? He’d tried to go at a pace that you could keep up with.

“In my front right pocket are my keys. Can you fish them out and unlock the doors?”

You nodded. Yixing could feel your fingers trembling as they slipped into the denim opening. The shaking was even more obvious once the keys were free, the house and car keys clinking together as you searched for the fob to unlock the doors. Without prompt, you opened the back door to allow Yixing to slip the man into the bench seat. He told you to get in the front. You tossed him the keys and the two of you rushed to the hospital.

A pair of doctors rushed out of the automatic doors as soon as the car pulled into the emergency entrance.

“We found him in the woods,” Yixing explained. The doctors quickly examined the man as two more nurses came out with a stretcher.

“I think that animal attacked him,” you added.

Yixing’s eyes flickered over to you with worry. The doctors nodded in acknowledgement then helped the nurses move the man to the stretcher. The two of you followed closely but were forced to stay behind in the waiting room. Yixing sat next to you in the uncomfortable plastic chairs that were connected to the wall.

“You never answered the question.”

Yixing frowned. “What question?”

You turned to look at him with your eyebrows furrowed, making him want to reach out and smooth the creases they created. “What you were doing out in the woods.”

Yixing stiffened. He pressed his foot into the tile floor to keep it from bouncing. “I was… hiking.”

“Without a shirt?”

He looked down. Crap. He hadn’t even realized that he wasn’t finished getting dressed before he took off. “I get warm easily.”

Your eyes narrowed suspiciously. Yixing fought to keep his face neutral. It was a pathetic excuse, he knew it. But you didn’t call him out on it. Instead, you leaned forward, unzipping the polyester bomber that was easily recognizable as his own, taking it off, and holding it out to him.

“I’m fine,” Yixing said, ignoring the jacket.

“You really should put it on. I heard the front desk call the cops. They’ll be here soon, and it’ll look suspicious. What would you tell them the reason was for you not having a shirt?”

A cheeky answer came to mind. Yixing bit down to hold it back, even if it would have caused your face to heat up in an adorable fashion. The instinct of making sure his mate was okay was almost too great to ignore. You were the one who needed to stay warm, stay protected. But you had a valid point. And you were inside, out of the wind. So, he accepted the jacket and ran the zipper almost up to his neck to hide the lack of shirt underneath.

The police arrived about twenty minutes later. They separated you, making him anxious. Over the next hour or so, Yixing gave his side of the story to the officer. They took him at his word that he was strolling through the woods. The doctors had already informed the officers that the wounds were clearly animal made. While severe, they weren’t life threatening. That gave Yixing a small amount of relief.

“Would you two like to see him?” one of the nurses asked another hour later. You nodded eagerly. Yixing stayed a bit behind as the nurse led you through the halls to a large room that held several beds separated by plastic curtains.

The man was awake. Black stitches covered his arms. Three claw marks ran down the left cheek. From what Yixing knew of the other victims, this guy was lucky. He was talking to a nurse when he looked to see who his visitors were. As soon as his eyes landed on Yixing, the heart monitor spiked and his breathing quickened.

“Hey, it’s okay, these are the people who found you,” the nurse said to try and calm him down.

“Oh.” The man’s heart rate started to slow again. Each breath was deeper until they were back to normal. “I’m sorry.”

“How are you feeling?” you asked, taking a step forward. Yixing fought the urge to put himself between you and the man you’d rescued. He was probably harmless, but he had also been through a traumatic situation.

The man nodded. “I’m… alive, at least. Thank you.”

You gave a small smile. “I’m glad I came along when I did. Did you,” you bit your bottom lip nervously, “happen to see what attacked you?”

Yixing held his breath.

“It was a large gray wolf,” the man answered. “Huge. Like a mutated one you would see in the movies. He came from nowhere, knocked me down. I thought I was going to end up like the others as he clawed at me. Then he was gone.”

Yixing’s fist tightened at his side, his throat constricting. He forced down a swallow. He couldn’t panic. Not here.

You frowned. “I wonder what scared him off.”

“Maybe you did?” Yixing said with a slight tease. It was more to keep his own mental state calm than for the benefit of everyone else.

“I’m not that frightening.”

“Whatever it was,” the man shook his head, “I’m thankful.”

“He should really rest now,” the nurse said sternly. Yixing nodded in agreement and, after the goodbyes were given, led you away.

Once outside of the hospital, Yixing stopped you. “I can take you home.”

“That’s okay,” you countered, “I can walk.”

He didn’t like that one bit. Besides, he really needed you by his side right now. “Where do you live?”

“In an apartment near campus.”

No way. “That’s nearly halfway across the city. I can take you. It’s not a big deal.”

You shifted form foot to foot, refusing to meet his eye. “I don’t… really like cars.”

“You made it here alright.”

“That’s because I was too worried about him to think about it. The adrenaline blocked everything out.”

“I’m a safe driver, I promise.”

“I believe you. I just-” You blew air out between your lips, which ended in a growl. It was actually kind of cute. Yixing pushed back a grin. It wasn’t appropriate right now. “My parents were killed in a car crash, so they kind of freak me out.” You sucked in your lips as if you hadn’t meant to reveal that vital information.

Oh. That explained… a lot actually. At least, in terms of what you had been holding back from him. He never wanted to push, but he felt better knowing more about you.

“I understand,” he said sympathetically. “Can I walk you home then? I can come back for my car later.”

You shook your head. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe so. But I need to make sure that you get home safe.”

You weighed his alternative for a minute or so. Yixing kept his patience. He refused to push you farther than you were willing to go. He just needed to see you walk safely into your building and then he would be okay until he saw you again.

“Okay,” you sighed. “You can drive me home.” He could have leapt with joy.

Yixing waited for you to get in the car before sliding behind the wheel himself. The death grip you had on the side handle didn’t escape his notice. He made sure to slow down easily and to take each turn with care. The only words you spoke were to give him directions. It wasn’t until the car was in park outside of your building did you finally relax.

“Thank you,” you told him in a strained voice.

“Any time.”

“I’m sorry if I was a little dramatic. I—” the growl of your empty stomach interrupted your speech. You groaned from embarrassment. Yixing couldn’t help his laugh.

Knock, knock, knock.

Leaning over and looking through the passenger window of his car was a strange girl Yixing had never seen before. He rolled down the window barely enough to be able hear what she was saying.

“How the hell did you get (y/n) into a car?” the girl gasped. You visibly cringed in the seat, sinking down a few inches.

Yixing blinked, unsure of how to respond. “Um, I—”

“Yixing, this is my roommate, Ran,” you interrupted, saving him. “Ran, this is Yixing. We have class together.”

“Oh!” The inclination behind her exclamation was more than obvious. And Yixing didn’t object to it. “I just ordered pizza and I know (y/n) usually gets hungry around this time. Do you want to join us?”

You flashed your roommate a panicked look, but Yixing couldn’t resist the opportunity. “That sounds great.” He caught you flinching, so he added, “As long as (y/n)’s okay with it.”

“Yeah,” you relented. “It’s the least I could do. For the ride.” You flashed an annoyed glare at Ran before getting out of the vehicle.

Yixing shouldn’t be this elated as he nearly sprung from the driver’s seat. He walked around the car slowly and let you and Ran lead the way, in case you changed your mind. You didn’t, thankfully, and Yixing walked up to your door with anticipation so great that he almost was able to forget what the man had said back at the hospital.

Almost.

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