#So i just write whatever I want XD

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2024

Day 18 - Hackneyed

With a curious expression A’viloh looked up to the giant statue of some saint in the middle of the plaza. It was beautifully crafted from a block of white stone and depitected a knight wearing cloak and armour. His face was hidden by a helmet.

“Don’t you think they all look the same somehow?”

“A bit. I assume this whole heroically fighting against the dragons story can get a little overused and repetitive in 1000 years…”, Rael offered and turned their attention to the statue in front of them too.

The Miqo’te furrowed his brows.

“But don’t you think each of them must have been a lot more individual than that with their own dreams and hopes? It doesn’t seem fair that they all look the same, their faces hidden by a mask…”

Somehow the idea of having all their stories reduced to almost identical, grey, expressionless faces of stone was a sad one. But Rael assumed that this was what time did to memories sometimes, once no one was left to remember their faces or how things had actuall happened.

“Maybe if our plan works, they one day built one of these for you or me too. The ears should be recognisable at least…”, Rael joked in an attempt to brighten the mood. “Saint A’viloh - he bravely fought against the dragon brood on the Steps of Faith and brought peace to Ishgard…”

But imagining that seemed to make A’viloh even more thoughtful. “I’m not sure I want to fight against the dragons. Vishap was already terrifying, can you imagine how horrible the great wyrms must be? Besides, don’t all saints die some horrible and painful death?”

“True…”, Rael mused. “But even though Iceheart may have a point, I don’t think this conflict can just be ended as easily as everybody seems to hope right now…”

“But aren’t they all tired of fighting by now? Isn’t all this talk of holy wars and heresy getting old?”, A’viloh asked and looked distressed, like he himself was already tired of it.

The Viera sighed and remembered their kins hatred for the Garleans. The conflict for Golmore was by far not that old yet as this war but had already produced so much bloodshed too.

“It’s not that easy, A’vi. A thousand years are a long time. One cruelty avenged by another and another and another. The Ishgardians? They were born and raised in this war, it’s everything they know. And the dragons? You heard Midgardsormr. They live long enough to remember all of this bloody war… It doesn’t matter anymore who was right in the first place. Neither of them are just going to give up and admit they were wrong. Both sides feel justified in their hate and this will make it difficult to find a peaceful solution…”

For a moment A’viloh was quiet, silently contemplating what Rael had said.

“But what can we do about this at all?”

“I don’t know. But you heard what Thordan said. And if the Ascians are involved behind the scenes, we can’t just ignore this. I have no perfect answer for solving this conflict but neither does Iceheart or Aymeric or anybody else… But we have to try anyway. Maybe together we can find a solution…”

[longagoitwastuesday]

Every day I am haunted by the fact JJK could be amazing but it will be just idk Bleach or something

[koka-mi]

I dunno why but I keep thinking abt the way I used to spend my nights two years ago

I remember around 6-7pm (in the autumn/winter) or 7-8pm (in the spring/summer), I'd lock my bedroom door, bring my tablet and headphones up with me onto the roof and play songs that I liked I watched the sun set. The songs were mostly either sapphic-coded (like sofia by clairo, strawberry blonde by chloe moriondo, etc.) or something ambient and soothing to me (like colorful interlude by sublime jupiter or rhubarb/#3 by aphex twin). I don't remember why though..I guess I just liked those types of songs back then xp

sometimes I'd bring my sketchbook with me too and sketch out random things like landscapes or characters from fandoms I was in at the time. Or I'd bring my journal and write about my completely nothing day. Most of the stuff I wrote was about the same but it's still nice to look back at them :3

Was it the safest for 14 year old me to just chill on the roof? Probably not. But tbh I didn't care at the time xD I honestly wouldn't have minded dying there.

I was at like.a reaaaaally low point in my life. Probably at my worst. Like I would cry everyday over little things and I found it extremely difficult to take care of myself. I guesss when I was out there on my roof watching the sun set with nice music in my headphones I actually felt..peace?? for once?? I dunno how to explain but it was suuuper nice I remember ^^ and it was nice to let out good cries up there.

I guess I can't help but remember this fondly and find it kinda nostalgic even though it was only two years ago and when I was not.doing great :'D I'm better nowadays luckily but hadhehdjwd makes me emotional sometimes.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Elastic Heart Ch 5 (Linked Universe story)

Summary: When Sky goes missing, the Chain scrambles to figure out where he is and what happened before it's too late.

AO3 link

First chapter

<<Previous // Next>>

Chapter 5: Arbiter's Grounds

Link’s patience was at its limit as he stared dully at the two soldiers in front of him. “Let. Me. Through.”

“We were specifically notified that the queen would be sending a Hero with her guards,” one of the soldiers said, though with less hostility than before as Link glared at him. “T-that’s the order.”

“I made my own way here,” Link explained curtly. He was far too exhausted for this nonsense. Just how idiotic were the knights in this land? It was no wonder Twilight held them in such low regard.

Thinking about Twilight made his stomach twist. Thinking about any of them made his stomach twist.

He had to hurry up.

As the soldier came up with some other feeble excuse, there was a screech from the sky, making all three of the men turn to see a monster flying through the air. Link watched it warily, wondering if the Shadow had sent a black blooded beast there or if it was common for the area. The petrified reaction from the guards was of little help or use - he figured they’d squeal over a critter let alone a monster.

It was fairly large, though.

Glancing at his surroundings, Link saw the flying creature, the pathway ahead beyond the sealed gate, and some cliffs. With a quick fortifying breath, he pulled out his clawshots and aimed for some ivy on the cliffside, giving himself a higher vantage point as the beast swept in to dive for the ground. The soldiers squealed, abandoning their post.

That could be his opportunity, honestly. But that would leave them to fend off the beast, which was unlikely to end well in their favor.

Goddesses above, he was growing tired of having to save everyone. Couldn’t they at least handle the small matters so he could focus on Demise?

Link shook his head. Focus. You know they can’t help it.

Well. The knights should be able to help it. The longer he watched them run around the more irritated he became. He shook his head, watching the beast instead. There was a way to handle both matters and get him to his destination faster.

Waiting for the right moment as the beast flew just beneath him, ready to climb and gain altitude, Link leapt off the cliffside, angling his body so he collided right into the monster. The winged creature cried out, dipping down a little and then flailing like an enraged loftwing. Link held on tightly, his stomach somersaulting from the thrill of it.

This wasn’t his first time taming a flying beast, after all. Some loftwings when their partners died would be enraged or go insane for a few days. They were a danger to themselves and others. Link had done this song and dance before.

He wrapped his arms around the beast’s neck, twisting his shoulders so his elbows could guide it at the wing joints. The creature shrieked in protest but obeyed to ease the pressure, climbing over the sealed gate and leaving the knights far behind. The land quickly shifted from greens and blues of the field and lake to the familiar terrain of Lanayru Desert.

Wait. No. Gerudo Desert. Whatever. A desert was a desert, anyway. What mattered more was what and who he would find within it.

The creature became further enraged and began to buck wildly, sending them both careening. It was time to get off.

Releasing his grip, Link felt gravity take hold as he free fell to the ground below. The beast twisted away to reorient itself, and he untied his sailcloth to soften his landing. Turning as he heard the monster scream again, he pulled out his bow and arrow, aiming for its eyes. The beast let out a choked cry before it finally crashed into the sand, sliding to a halt in front of him and kicking up a dust cloud.

Link watched it a moment longer, a strange melancholy pulling at his exhausted heart, and then he sighed, turning to face the desert. The sun was fairly high in the sky, but it was beginning to teeter downward for the afternoon. He shielded his gaze with his hand, looking into the wavy air and seeing structures in the distance.

Monster encampments, possibly. Either way, it was a landmark. He’d take it.

Steeling himself, Link marched forward. One way or another, this should be his final battle. Zelda had indicated as such. It was the last horde in the land, after all.

I’m coming for you, Demise.

XXX

The tranquility of Hyrule Field on an overcast afternoon was shredded with the sound of hooves and snarls as a wolf led a pack of heroes riding on horseback. They were all going at a full gallop, the wolf somehow managing to stay ahead of the rest despite bearing the smallest member of the group.

A few monsters littered the area, and the troupe quickly attracted their attention. Wild grabbed an arrow and let it loose, having pulled it back so taut that he nearly snapped the bowstring. It hit a monster in midair with ease, sending it to the ground. The pronounced thud that echoed across the field gave Wild little satisfaction, but at least it gave him some assurance that the others wouldn’t be bothered. 

Wild’s deft movements weren’t the only ones as other members of the group swiftly eliminated targets without batting an eye. Warriors decapitated a bokoblin as he passed, Four shot a few with his bow and arrows before Twilight trampled right over them with a snarl. Nothing was going to slow them down at this point.

After they’d eaten, Twilight had asked his Zelda for some steeds to expedite matters (and had to finagle his way around Zelda’s idea that he’d somehow sent Sky to defeat the monsters). Wild and Wind rode Epona together, Four was with Twilight, and the rest were provided horses from the royal stables. The mood of the group had become serious the instant they’d left the tavern; Twilight had headed for the castle while others had stocked up on what supplies they could get (Legend was still seething that potions weren’t available in the city, which meant they were limited to what they already had - Twilight pointed out that they could restock in Faron Woods or Kakariko, but no one was keen on backtracking at this point).

Thankfully, according to Twilight, Lake Hylia was just to the west of the city, so it wouldn’t take them long to reach it. Wild certainly hoped that was the case; once they began to ride no one had said a word, and though Wild wasn’t the most empathetic of the group even he could sense everyone was on edge just as much as he was. Wind’s death grip on him tightened as he encouraged Epona to move faster, and he could faintly see the glistening lake in the distance. 

When they finally arrived, Time tersely divided them into pairs so they could search the perimeter.

“We know he’s heading for the desert; this is a waste of time!” Legend argued.

“We just got here within less than half the time it would take him to go on foot,” Four fired back. “He has to be somewhere close. What if we blow right by him?”

“That’s enough,” Warriors snapped. “Pair up and move out.”

Wind and Wild quietly stayed together on Epona, trotting around the lakeshore with their eyes peeled. The Champion was just as eager to push ahead, but he also didn’t want to risk overtaking Sky. Still… it should be obvious fairly quickly if Sky wasn’t here.

His mind couldn’t help but wander in a million different directions, anxiety sealing his lips and opening his thoughts. None of it made sense, and it was making even less sense now. Wild’s main suspicion had been that Sky had been tracking the enemy and accidentally fallen through the gate. He would have to fight the horde at that point, and then he would probably head for the nearest landmark, namely Castle Town and Hyrule Castle. It would then logically make sense for him to be in the city, for Telma to possibly find him and help him until he could reunite with the group.

Except he didn’t wait.

Wild didn’t understand. He just didn’t understand . It was now obvious more than ever that Sky was actively avoiding them.

The champion shook his head. We don’t know that. He may not even know we’re here. But that Telma lady wrote to Rusl, which means she must have told Sky we were looking for him, right? Right?

Right?

Wild didn’t know what was happening anymore, but a panic was seizing at his throat, goading him to move faster and find him before it was too late.

Pulling out a telescope, Wind squinted through the lens with a sigh. “Where is he? Surely he can’t be moving that fast? There were knights escorting him, weren’t there?”

Wild shook his head, unable to reply. He didn’t know anything anymore, just that he had to find him.

By the time they had even begun their search, the sun was already dipping towards the horizon. Lake Hylia reflected its bright rays, the sky stained golden and rose, a painting that was reflected with the stretches and pulls of the water’s lapping. It prevented anyone from seeing under its depths, and it made Wild shield his eyes from the glare as he paused, staring at a gateway just ahead.

There were guards flanking it.

Furrowing his brow, he tapped lightly on Epona with his heels, goading her forward.

The guards immediately crossed their spears over each other to prevent his entry. “Only those with the Queen’s permission may pass into the Gerudo Desert.”

Wind huffed. “We’re on a mission for her! Have you seen the Hero she sent this way?”

Wild bit his lip as the guards looked at each other uneasily. He wasn’t entirely sure why they hadn’t just asked them in the first place, but as he turned, he saw everyone converging on their location.

He supposed that meant they hadn’t had any luck. His heart raced in his chest, his anxiety spiking.

Twilight, who had turned back to his Hylian form upon reaching the lake since there were people around, came to the front. “My name’s Link. I have something from Her Majesty. She sent me to aid the Hero of Legend on his quest.”

The guards blubbered a second longer, awestruck, and Warriors finally snapped, “Get to it, then! Tell us what you know! What sort of pathetic excuse for soldiers are you?”

Time laid a hand on the captain’s shoulder, and Warriors’ face, already curled in a snarl, immediately tightened and settled into a dull, cold glare.

Wild shriveled further into Epona’s harness as Wind squirmed irritably behind him.

“He didn’t pass through here,” one of the guards finally remarked. “We’ve, uh–we’ve been waiting for him.”

“He—what?” Legend stammered. “That’s—we didn’t actually pass him did we?”

“What if he’s still in Castle Town?” Wind worried.

“That place is huge,” Hyrule added.

Warriors took a step towards the guards. “You’re lying. I can tell.”

The guards immediately took a hesitant step away from the captain.

“Tell us where he is,” Time intoned, crossing his arms. His voice was certainly the most even of the group’s, but his withering glare was more terrifying than any of the yelling had been.

“Or we gut you like a fish!” Wind added, pointing accusingly at them.

“Sailor,” Warriors and Twilight immediately warned together.

“What, I wasn’t actually— ”

“It was a monster!” one of the guards finally burst out. “We–we didn’t know if he had access or not, so at first we–well… we… but a flying monster came and he–he climbed the wall and jumped on it and rode it over the gate!”

“Sky flew on a monster ?” Wind repeated. “That’s freaking amazing!”

“Maybe we should try it!” Hyrule intoned thoughtfully, looking around.

“Let us through,” Warriors ground out instead.

Twilight turned sharply and walked away as the others started frantically speaking over one another. Wild dismounted Epona to follow him.

“They’re going to let us through, right?” Wild asked, wondering why Twilight was giving up on the matter already. “I can get the gate open without their permission, the slate—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight interrupted as he stared at a wooden structure in the center of the lake. “I have a way that can get us in and maybe give us a head start.”

Wild watched him confusedly. “What is it?”

“Get the others,” Twilight said as he ran towards a boardwalk.

Meanwhile, over by the gate, the Hero of Warriors was steadily losing his patience. He and Time both were steadily feeling increasing dread over the situation; they could sense that time was running out to reach their friend and family, and these guards were one more obstacle and insult to everything Warriors stood for.

Despite the captain’s desire to verbally tear the pitiful excuses for knights apart, his rage was interrupted by both the objective and the champion’s frantic waving.

“What is it?” Hyrule asked before anyone else could. Time, who still had a hand on Warriors’ shoulder to keep him from completely losing it, turned to halfway face Wild.

“Rancher wants everyone,” Wild choked out, his eyes glittering with a familiar panic. Warriors had seen it on his face when Twilight had been hurt.

It wasn’t like Wild really knew how to hide it or process it, after all. The captain was waiting for the champion to finally snap and start disobeying orders like on the battlefield a month ago.

They were all beginning to fray at the seams. What had been a bizarre and unsettling search and rescue had turned into something far more involved and worrying. Sky should have been found easily, yet here they were.

At least Warriors knew he was still alive. But the true matter now was, why was he running so desperately? Was he running towards something or from it?

An old paranoia crept up from his gut into his skull, icy and chilling and terrifying, reigniting thoughts he had already dismissed yesterday.

No , he shook his head as he walked with the others to the boardwalk where Twilight awaited them. I know Sky. He wouldn’t. Something else is going on.

Originally the captain had thought Sky was simply being foolish, following his apparently-faulty intuition rather than his head. It would fit for a teenage hero to do so, even though in all their time together Sky had generally demonstrated more maturity than the others.

Well. On and off, at least. Sky’s seeming laziness had gotten Hyrule and Warriors hurt when he couldn’t keep up with them. He dozed off all the time, dragged his feet with chores… it had never particularly bothered the captain, except the one time they ran into a monster camp and could have used his help. He still held the slightest annoyance over that matter. But… none of that coalesced into a logical explanation for what was happening now. Sky was slow and steady, this panicked rush of his was completely against his nature as Warriors understood it.

Maybe you don’t understand him, then, the paranoid voice whispered.

“For Hylia’s sake,” he muttered under his breath. That’s enough. Sky isn’t a traitor, there is a rational explanation for this and I will figure it out.

At this rate he felt like he and Time were the only ones thinking rationally. Well, and perhaps Twilight.

Twilight watched their approach, arms crossed. He jerked his head behind him. “I found us a way in that’ll help us catch up quickly.”

Time raised a questioning eyebrow as he glanced beyond the Ordonian. “I’m assuming you’re going to explain, then?”

“It’s a, uh…” Twilight faltered and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Then he sighed. “It’s a cannon.”

Legend’s eyes widened. “What?”

“You want us to blast our way through the gate?” Warriors asked confusedly. Great Farore, he didn’t hate the guards that much.

“No. Over it.” Twilight explained. “This is how I always got to the Gerudo Desert.”

Wind gasped. “Oh! I’ve done that before! Let’s go!”

Hyrule watched Wind rush ahead, bewildered. “You… were blasted out of…what??”

“Am I the only one worrying about the landing part ?” Legend threw his hands up in the air.

“No, you’re not,” Warriors remarked, raising an eyebrow at Twilight. “How did you land?”

Twilight shrugged. “Fyer knows where to aim so you land in a soft space. I swear the sand there is like a pillow, it’s like the one place where you’ll be fine. Just, uh, be sure you roll.”

Warriors cocked his head to the side as he scrutinized the Ordonian hero. “So you just got launched in the air and prayed you didn’t die.”

“Yeah, basically.”

Mentally, Warriors scratched Twilight off his still a rational member of the group list.

The captain groaned, pinching his nose. “How did anyone ever assume you were the responsible one?”

Four and Wind rushed ahead as if this were a normal occurrence, making the captain debate if Four was still rational as well. Wild was already anxiously waiting by the entrance, where a strangely dressed man was eying the group warily.

“Fyer,” Twilight greeted as he approached the man. “We need a lift to Gerudo Desert.”

“All of you?” the fellow questioned. “That’ll cost you extra, you know.”

Warriors unclasped his wallet and dropped it into the man’s hands. “Hope this suffices. Let us pass.”

Fyer stared at the pouch with surprise, stammering a response and opening the door for them. Wind easily swiped some rupees back as he passed. When Warriors raised an eyebrow in the sailor’s direction, the kid shrugged. “He doesn’t need all of them.”

“How do you keep getting so much money, anyway?” Four asked, squinting at him. “I remember when we were at that inn you couldn’t buy anything because you’d paid for our room and board.”

“The room full of pots, of course,” Warriors answered easily.

Wind gasped. “Yours had rupees?!”

“What did yours have?”

“...More arrows. A lot of them didn’t even have anything! It was so disappointing!”

“Mine had a frog in it.”

“Oh, one of mine—”

“Focus.” Time interrupted.

“Does this hurt?” Legend asked uneasily. “It usually hurts on the receiving end.”

“Protect your neck,” Twilight advised. “The whiplash isn’t fun. Beyond that… as long as you land well, it’s fine.”

“As long as you—”

The doors slammed shut, drowning them in darkness. Warriors instinctively huddled closer to his brothers, bumping shoulders with Time.

“This wasn’t exactly how I was expecting this day to go,” he said quietly.

“At this rate, is there even a point to having an expectation for any given day?” Time countered, his usual gentle mischief absent in his tone.

The captain sighed, and the cannon fired.

XXX

Four really wished he had Ezlo. It would make landings much easier.

At least, he figured that’s why he missed Ezlo. Strangely he didn’t remember landing, but he was lying in the sand nonetheless.

What…?

“Well maybe you should’ve mentioned that!” some voice over him hissed as he was slightly propped up by arms.

“I don’t think he’s ever fired that many people together…”

“That’s enough! Cut it out, all of you!”

“Hey, he’s waking up!”

Four groaned as orange light pierced into his vision when he fluttered his eyelids open. Legend was directly over him, holding him gently, eyes filled with worry. Twilight was across from him, also supporting him, and Wild was peeking over his shoulder. Wind was at his feet, expressive face pinched in concern as Time stood behind him with Hyrule. Warriors was directly over him, seemingly kneeling behind his head.

“Hey, Smithy, you with us?” Twilight asked gently.

“Mm,” Four replied, trying to figure out what in the world happened.

“Here,” Legend offered, holding a bottle to his lips. “It’ll at least make sure nothing’s broken while you get your head on straight.”

Four sipped the potion reluctantly, coughing a little at the bitterness as it went down. His world came into better clarity, aches he hadn’t noticed dissipating entirely.

“What happened?” he asked blearily, sitting up of his own volition as the other heroes hovered over him.

“A few of us crashed into each other before the landing,” Warriors noted, and Four saw that the captain was sporting a small cut by his left temple. “Nothing too terrible, but it threw you off balance and you got knocked out on impact.”

Oh. That was probably why Ezlo had come to mind. Maybe he should have shrunk down for the launch, it might have at least reduced his speed and made him less likely to hit anyone.

“How long was I out?” he continued, slowly standing and testing out his body.

“A few minutes, nothing major,” the captain answered dismissively.

“He could have died!” Legend snapped.

Another argument broke out between Legend and Warriors, with Twilight trying and failing to play mediator, garnering Wind’s ire while Wild and Hyrule watched hesitantly. Four rubbed his temples at the oncoming headache, growing steadily more irritated.

“Boys!” Time finally yelled, silencing everyone. When they all stared at him, he crossed his arms, holding their gaze. “Get yourselves together. Every second we stand here arguing, Sky gets farther away. No more talking for a while unless a pertinent question is being addressed.” Directing his attention to Four, he asked, “Smithy, are you able to walk now?”

Four nodded, grateful for the silence.

“Good. Ranch hand, you lead.”

Twilight, sufficiently schooled and looking very small under his elder’s gaze, slowly got to his feet. Four felt a little bad for his friend, who clearly felt guilty over what had happened. He would reassure him if he wasn’t convinced Time would incinerate him right there with his glare the instant he uttered a sound.

Shifting into his beast form, Twilight led the group carefully, sniffing the ground every few paces. Four could see Legend, Wild, and Hyrule all growing impatient, with Legend stiffening while Wild and Hyrule grew fidgety. Eventually, the traveler pointed ahead. “Look!”

Everyone whirled on him, ready to hiss for his silence before Time could get a hold of him. The traveler was unperturbed, huffing, “I see a trail!”

“A trail?” Four repeated, following Hyrule’s finger. Trail was a strong word for what he saw - there were divots in the sand, like a little stream had carved a path, but its lingering imprint was being quickly overrun by wind pushing sand into the crevices.

“You think Sky’s wind item could make such a trail?” Time asked the group as a whole.

“Probably,” Legend answered. “Which means he had to be here recently - the sand will cover it up soon enough.”

Four perked up. That meant Sky was very close!

The group picked up their pace, Twilight still at the lead to confirm Sky had indeed passed through. The silence gave Four time to think and center himself, which he appreciated since his mind had been whirling since this entire ordeal had started.

After all, none of it made sense. Initially, Four had assumed Sky was captured. It was what made the most sense - everyone knew that if they were on watch they were supposed to awaken the group if there were monsters. There had to be some kind of miscalculation on Sky’s part, and somehow he’d ended up in danger and unable to alert them. He’d probably gone to investigate a noise and only discovered too late that the horde was unnervingly close to camp.

At least, that had been the initial assumption. Four had seemed to be the only one thinking it, which was frustrating, but he’d kept his mouth shut. Hearing in that letter that Sky was safe and resting at that tavern had reassured him greatly, but it had also made him start to question things.

Did Sky get himself out of trouble? Was he never in trouble in the first place? If so, what in the world would compel him to do what he had done? Four still had an inkling that his dear friend was hurt somehow, maybe was addled from his experience and trying to find his way back to the others.

What if the Shadow had managed to corrupt him somehow? What if he’d tortured him during his capture? What if Sky was part of the horde now?

Four shook his head, trying to shove the terrifying thoughts out of his mind. It didn’t quite fit the objective details, at least.

That still didn’t stay the worries in his heart that Sky had been captured, though. That somehow Sky had escaped and was trying to find them as desperately as they were trying to find him. That the longer it took them to get to him the more likely he was going to get captured again.

Though the blacksmith was on the quieter side in the group, he wished they’d taken some time to discuss this issue. Outside of the initial concern when they’d found the gate, the group had been treating this situation like a regular mission when it was, in fact, so much more.

Their brother was missing.

Frustrated tears stung in his eyes, and he balled his fists tight enough to dig his nails into skin and distract himself. He absentmindedly followed his brothers, praying that Sky would be fine when they found him. Because they would find him. They were close, as Legend pointed out.

Four nearly crashed into Wolfie, yelping a little as he stopped abruptly. The shadows that encased the wolf were nearly imperceptible in the oncoming darkness as the sun finally hid its shining face behind the dunes. When Twilight emerged from the darkness, he was stiff and very closed off. Four was about to ask what was wrong when he noticed they had ended up at a structure of some sort.

“What is this place?” Wind asked quietly.

Twilight didn’t speak.

“He’s asking you, wolf brain,” Legend grumbled as he stepped forward to investigate the area. “We don’t know this land, remember?”

“Is it a Gerudo fortress?” Warriors questioned.

“N-no,” Twilight finally answered, his voice barely a whisper in the wind. “He… he’s inside.”

“Sky?” Time confirmed.

“Yeah.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Hyrule piped up, catching everyone off guard. “Let’s go.”

The sailor and the traveler moved ahead quickly with Wild on their heels. Warriors paused for a moment and then followed alongside Four.

Twilight stood still, the long shadows of the building consuming him.

Time approached his pup slowly. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Twilight sighed, shaking his head. “We shouldn’t let them get too far ahead, there’s a dungeon in there.”

“I figured, just based on the appearance. Where are we?”

“This… this place is called Arbiter’s Grounds,” Twilight explained as the pair walked together to catch up. “It was once a… well, I guess a prison for Hyrule. It’s been abandoned for a long time.”

Time glanced back at the building thoughtfully. A Hyrule prison in Gerudo territory? Had they formed some kind of alliance? “I suppose the Gerudo are farther into the desert.”

Twilight glanced at Time from the side of his eyes, saying nothing.

That… didn’t make the eldest Link feel pacified on the matter.

When the two reached the rest of the group at the entrance to the dilapidated building, Time glanced around at the surroundings. The architecture looked… vaguely familiar. And not in a Hylian way.

Wonderful. As if his unease at Sky’s situation wasn’t bad enough at this point.

“Be on your guard,” he advised everyone as a slight breeze blew in their faces. “This place will likely have infected beasts.”

“And Sky’s swimming in them,” Legend added worriedly. “So let’s go.”

The veteran hero was right. The longer they lingered, the more likely they were to lose him again. Time wasn’t repeating that error. Whatever was wrong with the young knight, they had to find him before it got worse.

At this point that was what he was convincing himself. Nothing else really made sense. Sky had interacted with the people of Castle Town, even the queen , and instead of hunkering down to wait for them, or even trying to return to where the dark portal had been (was it still there? Time didn’t recall seeing it when they’d passed through the field again), Sky had continued on to hunt more beasts. 

For whatever reason, the seemingly sweet and gentle knight had gone rogue.

Given Time’s understanding of the Skyloftian, it made little sense, but at this point nothing else made any sense. He knew all his boys were capable of being reckless; Sky was simply a late bloomer.

And of all the ways to bloom… Time was going to have grey hair by the time this was over. He was certainly going to demand an explanation out of the boy when he found him.

That was that. Sky was being a reckless teenager. There was no possibility that he’d decided to leave the group, to leave all of them, to leave—

Time shook his head. Projecting his old wounds onto this situation was not going to do him any favors. The longer Sky was missing, the worse it got. He felt angry at himself for even making this about himself in the first place, and it was certainly decreasing his tolerance for the others’ outbursts. They needed to find the boy. Time was growing more concerned by the moment. If his main theory was true, after all, then Sky was likely to get himself killed. 

Well, honestly, no matter the theory, Sky was likely to get himself killed. They needed to move.

“Stay together,” he advised the group as he led them into the dungeon.

The instant they walked into the entranceway, Time knew this was going to be an unpleasant dungeon. The stifling air held a stench to it that was pungent and uncomfortably familiar. Time was instantly reminded of the well in Kakariko and the Shadow Temple, the smell of brittle old bones and flesh turned to dust. Back home it had been punctuated with a moldy, earthy scent, moisture and soil trapped in a manner that made him feel like he was going through more graves. The dryness of the air here sped the rotting process, making the actual scent of decay lesser while also making the entire place far more stifling.

He couldn’t imagine any of this was pleasant on Twilight’s heightened senses.

He also could quickly figure out what might have happened here. Warriors’ grim, knowing expression implied the captain knew as well. 

Time scanned the room and quickly saw a purchase for his hookshot. Leading the group, he held on to Wind as the pair let the item pull them to nearby sturdy ground, avoiding the quick sand that was consuming flesh and bone alike. Once they passed a whirlpool of sand, they were left with what looked like the remains of a cell to the left and a sealed gate that blocked their progress.

Warriors glared at the door. “There has to be another way in. If Sky came through here it wouldn’t still be locked, unless it’s a facade. Or there’s a way to get overtop it.”

“It probably is locked,” Wind surmised, jiggling the large bars. “Just means it had time to reset. But I swear we were catching up to Sky. We’re sure he’s in here?”

“Reset?” Warriors repeated. “What are you talking about?”

“We need to find the dungeon map,” Legend interrupted. “We’ll waste less time that way.”

Four glanced at Twilight. “Where do we find it?”

The young man shifted awkwardly, rubbing his sweaty palms on his tunic. “I… don’t remember.”

Wind’s eyes widened. “How could you not remember where the map is? You’ve been through this dungeon!”

Wild looked between the pair confusedly. “There are maps?”

Warriors glanced at Time questioningly, equally lost.

The champion then turned to Legend. “Is that why you’re always so insistent on having a map?”

Hyrule shrugged, eyes trained on the floor. “I don’t get the fuss, I get by without them.”

“The point is ,” Time interrupted before this deteriorated further. “We need to find it.”

Hyrule looked at the hero, brow furrowing in frustration. “But—”

“No , we’re not proceeding without a map. It’ll waste too much time,” their leader insisted, agreeing with the veteran.

“Can’t you just follow his scent, though?” Warriors asked, looking at Twilight.

Twilight ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “I wish it was that simple, but these places require a certain order of events to progress. If I just follow Sky’s scent, we’ll end up in front of locked doors with no way through, like this. We have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

“I still can’t believe you don’t remember where the map is ,” Legend grumbled.

“It’s been a while, okay? A lot has happened since then, I can’t possibly remember all the details of every dungeon!” Twilight finally snapped, losing his patience.

“The good news is that the closer we get to Sky, the less likely it’ll be a problem,” Wind thought aloud, staring at the locked door. “Because if we catch up to him, he’ll still be solving things and we’ll get through them before they can reset.”

“How long is that?” the captain questioned.

“Don’t know. Never timed it.”

“Usually if you get knocked out it resets,” Time offered.

“Look, I may not be as experienced as you all,” Hyrule interrupted. “But I can still follow clues. The key to this door is over there.”

Everyone followed the traveler as he pointed towards a chain coming out of the wall with a handle attached.

Twilight blinked. “Ah. Right.”

Legend gestured dramatically towards the chain. “This is literally the only thing in this room and you didn’t even remember that?!”

“I didn’t see you noticing it, Vet!”

Wind rolled his eyes, rolling through the quicksand to get to the chain as another argument started. Just as he hit solid ground, the ground shifted, and two gibdos dragged their bony bodies out of the earth, spears at the ready. Wind yelped briefly before quickly slashing through them.

“Great,” the sailor said with a quivering tone. “This is one of those dungeons.”

Time looked back at the traveler, who still hadn’t taken his eyes off the ground aside from pointing out the pulley. When he traced the teenager’s stare, he saw what had tipped Hyrule off in the first place.

Specks of blood trailed intermittently from the gate to the pulley that Wind was desperately yanking.

There was still a touch of moisture to them, their innermost circle sitting atop the stone rather than having crusted into it.

Sky was close, but they could lose him if they stalled any longer.

Twilight quickly joined Wind and grabbed the handle, pulling the chain with a sharp jerk, and the gate split and opened, granting them access. Time didn’t comment on the blood, but it was evident who had and hadn’t noticed. Hyrule was already filling up empty bottles with lantern oil and shoving them into people’s hands, face set in determination. Twilight was a shade paler than usual, Four looked terrified, eyes frantically scouring the earth for more signs of Sky’s injuries.

Wild immediately went for the solitary treasure chest in the other corner, pulling out a key. No one needed to comment on it as there was only one locked door in the room. 

Time glanced at Twilight questioningly. This dungeon was unusually simple.

Then again, it could be because Sky was already clearing it.

Legend froze in mid-step, making Four yelp as he crashed into him. The veteran didn’t seem to notice, crouching down with his lantern in the darkness of the next room. Twilight stiffened, clearly on edge, and Time detected movement in the room.

“Vet, watch it!” Wind chided as he squinted into the darkness.

“There’s blood on the floor ,” Legend said, his voice worriedly rising in pitch. “Sky’s hurt! What if he’s dying, what if–”

Twilight and Time swung their swords in unison as otherworldly shrieks filled the air, their blades chopping through a wave of gibdos that had emerged from the quicksand. The rest of the group jumped as Warriors pulled out his borrowed fire rod, and Time and Twilight hastily ducked out of the way as he dispatched the rest and simultaneously lit the torches on the other side of the room.

The bars over the door on the far side of the room opened, and everyone tore ahead wordlessly. Legend reached the next place first, pausing in the center of the large room. Time took in the sights, seeing four stone stands around a large staircase. There were several entrances, he could tell from a swift glance and from changes in air pressure moving throughout the room. The stairs led to a closed door, and two out of the four posts had blue fires lit on them.

In the center of the room was a large cloak and hood, and a broken lantern.

“A poe,” Time surmised aloud. Larger than one he’d ever seen, but it seemed a fair guess.

“Yeah,” Twilight said slowly, looking ahead. “Of course they took the flames again.”

Time was reminded abruptly of the Forest Temple in the Lost Woods, and he looked at the two flames again.

Two flames. For four posts.

“Sky’s halfway solved it,” he whispered.

Wild, with his sharp hearing, turned to look at him. “Solved what?”

“You need the flames to open the gates,” Twilight explained. “And the poes steal the flames. If there are two lit, then he’s defeated two poes.”

Legend toed the tunic hesitantly, sword at the ready. “Uh, yeah. I can tell. But where are the others? This place just got a lot bigger.”

“I remember where the map is,” Twilight said flatly, catching everyone’s attention.

Time glanced at him, confused by his tone. “Where?”

Twilight pointed to an already open chest. Its contents had already been taken.

“Sky has it!” Wind realized.

“Great,” Legend groaned. “That just gives him the advantage.”

“Are we going to talk about why Sky’s actively going through this dungeon instead of trying to find us?” Four piped up, crossing his arms and looking ready to start another fight.

Wind whirled on him. “You want to do this now ? You think we haven’t been wondering that too? Something obviously has to be wrong!”

“Or maybe he’s on to something,” Hyrule offered. “Could be trying to puzzle something out.”

“Only you would assume it’s reasonable to just abandon the group to solve a puzzle.” Four sighed heavily.

“Look, what matters right now is that Sky’s actively hunting the poes,” Twilight said, waving his arm to get them to pay attention. “Which means all we have to do is track them . We can find him!”

“How do we track the poes?” Warriors questioned as he stared at the tattered remains of the fallen ghost.

Twilight shifted into his wolf form wordlessly, sniffing the large robe.

“Okay, but if they’re ghosts how do they even have a scent?” Wild wondered.

“The cloth should,” Four surmised with a shrug, a little put out over how quickly his discussion had been terminated.

“Do ghosts all wear the same cloth, though?”

“Is there a guide to poe fashion we need to know about?” Warriors muttered absentmindedly.

“Bet it smells like crap, though,” Wind said with a shudder. “Yuck.”

Time watched his pup sniff in circles a moment before charging through a door to the side, and everyone followed hastily.

Legend froze yet again just as he looked up at the platform ahead. Time was about to finally get on the veteran hero’s case when Legend’s entire body went rigid before he drew in a deep breath. “SKY!!”

The entire group whirled , and, sure enough, their brother-in-arms was on the platform, sword drawn and stained in black blood, ready to head to the next room. He barely moved, standing in profile to them as if he’d been in the motion of leaving when Legend had yelled at him.

Time felt the steadily growing suffocating knot in his chest loosen, though it didn’t release entirely. Sky was there, alive and within such close reach, and Time felt like he’d never had so much solace seeing one of his wayward boys.

“Sky! You’re okay!” Twilight exclaimed, relieved.

Sky swallowed thickly, his face pale and worn thin. In the lighting he looked almost gaunt, like one of the beasts crawling through this dungeon. Based on the amount of blood on his blade, it seemed Sky was the reason the others had met such little resistance so far, as Time had unfortunately suspected.

The young knight shook his head at the group, seemingly unable to speak, and just as Warriors was about to ask something, he rushed through the door.

“Wait! Sky, what are you doing?” Four called after him.

Legend was the closest and immediately pulled out his hookshot, looking for a perch since there wasn’t a clear path between the stairwell to the platform and the other side of the fallen chandelier that blocked the walkway to where Sky was. When neither the veteran nor Time could find a place for their respective hookshots to latch on, Wild ran ahead, clambering up the rock itself, though he slid quite a bit in his attempt to climb it. Legend sprang forward, using Wild as a step off to jump up to the platform, and Wild groaned, falling to the ground level just as Twilight reached out to catch him.

“Thanks, Vet!” Wild grumbled as he started to climb again.

Legend’s voice echoed from the next room. “Sky, get your sorry ass back heeeaaaaaAAAAYYYYY GIBDOS GIBDOS SHIT SHIT SHIT—”

“Come on!” Twilight called, already pulling a lever attached to yet another chain. “Let’s go!”

The group waited as Twilight hoisted the chandelier into the air, and the instant there was enough clearance they started to tear through. Wind was first, eyes fierce, and Time brought up the rear alongside Twilight. Despite their haste, the large wooden beams with spikes on them didn’t escape Time’s notice.

This place was like the Shadow Temple, then.

Pushing the thought aside, he focused on getting to Sky, and Legend’s yells were easy enough to follow. By the time they reached the veteran, the gibdos were disintegrating into ash and dust.

Legend didn’t spare them a glance, running ahead when a scream tore through the air, chilling them to their cores and making them freeze .

It wasn’t as if fear had stopped them in place. It was… well, it was fear, but a different kind, one that sank into one’s very soul and shook it with dark magic.

ReDeads.

Wind let out a whimper, stumbling backwards when he could use his legs once more, and Warriors reached out to catch him. Twilight immediately transformed again and tore ahead on all fours, teeth bared as he leapt cleanly into the air and slammed one of the beasts (were they always that short? Or was it just that Time was taller now? They still were easily a head higher than him, but…) into the ground. Its claymore clattered on the stone and Legend sank his tempered sword into the beast’s head.

Time quickly dispatched the other ReDead with fire blessed arrows, leaving an uneasy silence in the air.

“Where the hell did he go?!” Legend snapped. “Damn it!”

“Why is he doing this? He just—did he just run through the monsters and leave them to us?” Four asked the room, eyes filled with hurt.

“I don’t understand,” Wind muttered, huddled near Warriors, who had his hands on the sailor’s shoulders. “He—this doesn’t—did he—?”

Warriors’ grip tightened on the youngest Link, knuckles white. He was looking down at the ground, his eyes dark, face stony.

The entire group felt lost, standing in a haze of confusion and pain, and Twilight looked at Time helplessly.

Time tried to organize his thoughts as best as possible. They would all be looking to him for guidance.

He didn’t have any to give.

But what he did know was that he needed answers . Sky’s behavior had gone from erratic to downright dangerous. Time tried to parse it out as best he could, but the more he examined it the more he recognized that he really didn’t understand that boy. Termina had taught him to recognize that everyone had a story of their own that guided their actions, but he was only just realizing that he truly didn’t know Sky’s story at all.

Did any of them know Sky’s story? Wild was like an open book with his wounds, Warriors’ stories and remarks were always carefully interwoven with key details missing, Twilight and Hyrule’s dismissal of the importance of their adventures often left more questions than answers, Wind’s exuberance was shadowed by his very apt ability with the sword for such a young man, Legend’s knowledge spoke for itself most of the time, Four’s face spoke more than his words yet—

Time knew so little about all his boys, but he still knew something about each of them. He had slowly become the secret keeper of the group, sharp enough to catch little hints and private matters they tried to keep to themselves, understanding enough to keep his mouth shut. Some trusted him with secrets, such as Twilight and Four, others danced around the issue but didn’t deny what he might or might not have seen and heard. A silent understanding lingered between him and his boys, an understanding that he knew more than he let on but wouldn’t approach the subject until they were ready to do so.

Well. That understanding was with almost all his boys. He’d never quite had such an understanding with Sky.

The Skyloftian knight had always been warm and welcoming, kind and empathetic. Everyone went to him with their hurts, and he always seemed to know when he was needed. He was among the first to defend those who were injured, he was the first to speak up to soothe tears and anger alike.

But Time knew next to nothing about him, except that he had made that cursed blade, he was blessed to have never dealt with Ganon, and that he was in love with his Zelda. He had made those aspects of his story known.

But that was it. A person’s story was far more than three facts.

So what was Sky hiding?

A door slammed somewhere in the far distance, echoing with a haunting reverberation around the room.

“We need to keep moving,” Time finally said.

Slowly, the group came alive again, following Time with a somberness that hung heavily in the air. Twilight quietly trotted ahead, sniffing hesitantly, when he froze and started growling.

“What is it?” Wild asked, stepping forward before yelping and ducking as a blade came out of the darkness to try and take his head off his shoulders.

A bokoblin, clearly from Wind’s world based on its attire, came screaming out of the darkness alongside a lizalfos and a wolfos. Warriors quickly went to the lizalfos while the champion began to fight the ‘blin. Twilight went toe to toe with the wolfos, both snarling at each other. Time assisted his pup, helping him corner the beast while others jumped in to assist their brothers. The beasts fell quickly enough, and Time’s trained eyes noticed more signs of battle, as if these were stragglers from another fight.

“Sky’s not in league with them,” Warriors muttered with what seemed to almost be a sigh of relief .

Legend turned slowly, eyes alight with fire and bewilderment, aghast at the implications of such a statement. Twilight barked loudly just as the veteran opened his mouth, and Wind stomped his foot.

“This is stupid!” the sailor pronounced. “This is so stupid ! Why is this happening?! What’s Sky thinking?!”

Hyrule ran ahead without a word, making everyone yell after him and hastily follow. Time felt his own control of the situation quickly slipping, and it was making him extremely agitated. One of his boys was already in danger; he didn’t need the rest of them putting themselves in perilous situations.

This group was slowly falling apart, and Time felt powerless to stop it. The soothing, quiet, constant, and gentle seam that weaved between all of them and bound them together was fraying apart and rushing ahead into danger, making the rest of them unravel.

They reentered the large chamber that held the torches and sealed gate only to find that the gate was now open, with all the torches lit brightly.

“How did he—?!”

Hyrule’s question was interrupted as enemies pulled themselves out of the quicksand flanking the staircase, and before Time knew it, they were surrounded.

Wild stared ahead at the stairs and the open gate, eyes desperate.

“Champion, no!” Time called, but it was too late. The scarred hero rushed ahead, though his progress was halted by a large moblin bringing its weapon down to bear on him. Warriors helped block the attack, knocking him off balance enough that an arrow grazed his leg. He hissed and Legend froze the moblin in place with his ice rod just as Wild shattered a blade against its legs, crippling it. Time was too preoccupied with the two lizalfos in front of him, gritting his teeth as they moved with more speed than should have been possible.

Hyrule sent a sword beam flying towards one of the lizalfos, knocking down the beast when the blow really should have gutted it.

Wind let out a battle cry as he leapt off the stone railing of the stairs, getting an aerial advantage and sinking his blade into one of the lizalfos’ heads with deadly accuracy. The beast fell, and the sailor bashed the other away with his shield. Behind him, Time heard Twilight yelp, and he whirled to see the wolf get cut deeply into his right shoulder by a stalfos. He quickly pulled out his bow and fired an arrow between the creature’s humeral head and elbow joint, temporarily pausing its attack and preventing its arm from moving, giving Twilight time to limp backwards and regroup with his ancestor. Time swept his large blade up diagonally, shattering bones and armor alike, and the stalfos clattered to the ground in pieces, giving him a moment to appraise the situation.

The group was chaotic and uncoordinated, anger evident on some faces while others continued to be distracted by the obvious path Sky had taken. Four rolled between two bokoblins to avoid an attack, slicing one of the ‘blins while doing so. Warriors had managed to get a few more cuts but was fighting well enough, back-to-back with Wild, who now seemed to be fixated on protecting the captain after getting him hurt. Though Wild’s expertise with the blade was more than proficient, archery was his main specialty, and being so close to the captain in the center of the action was wearing him down quickly. Hyrule was halfway up the stairs, watching the situation while holding his blade tightly in his hands, face focused, making Time uneasy. Legend had swapped weapons and was instead fighting with his blade once more, yelling a curse at the lizalfos that was slowly cornering him as keese began to fly over everyone. Wind was—

Wind was about to get hit .

“Sailor!” Time shouted in warning as he rushed to the boy’s aid. Wind was too busy eliminating a flock of keese to notice the bokoblin behind him, ready to strike—

Warriors yelled as Wind turned, but it was too late. The blow made contact, and Wind went flying across the room, out cold.

The room broke into pandemonium now. Hyrule cried out, his blade set ablaze with magic, and he easily felled the swarms of keese, making fire and small burnt bodies shower down on everyone. Time raised his shield to block the grisly precipitation while Legend swatted them away instead, distracted and getting punched clearly in the gut with a bokoblin club. Warriors killed the beast in retaliation, turning to run towards Wind as Wild covered the veteran while he regained his breath. Twilight was also tearing towards their youngest, his limp slowing him considerably, and Time turned to face the last large foe alongside Four, who was patting flames on his tunic and hissing.

Four dove ahead before Time, attracting the enemy moblin’s attention and giving Time an opportunity to dive in. The beast had bent downward to reach its small opponent, exposing its neck to Time’s blade. As the two leapt out of the way of the beast’s crumbling form after the blow, they saw that the others were picking off the remainders of the horde with a fair amount of ease.

Time rushed to where Twilight was guarding Wind, bending over Warriors, who was tending to the sailor. Wind’s hair and half his face were stained with blood, and despite the captain’s gentle nudges, he remained motionless. More blood stained his cheek as Warriors tapped it lightly, and Time saw that their captain had a not only acquired more injuries, some were deep enough to break his armor. He held his shield arm to his chest protectively.

“Captain—”

“He needs a fairy,” Warriors interrupted. “We don’t have time sit around and wait for him to recover.”

“Or you,” Time added as he pulled out the last of his fairies. “Rancher, help me sit him up.”

Twilight shifted back into Hylian form, kneeling beside Wind and propping him up. The Ordonian’s own shoulder wound was far more evident now, staining his tunic red. Time uncorked the bottle with the precious healing gift, and the fairy hovered between Twilight, Warriors, and Wind before the elder heroes motioned towards the sailor. The pink light brightened around the fairy as it worked its magic around Wind’s head, and the sailor stirred.

Legend walked over, his feet shuffling as he downed half a potion and took a deep breath, the first Time had seen him take since the hit to his chest and gut. Then the veteran held out the remainder to Warriors. He gave a sharp command before the captain could even get a word in, and Time’s stern look was enough impetus to push him into compliance.

Wind groaned, rubbing his head wearily as he opened his eyes. “What happened…?”

Warriors quickly went to the boy’s side as Time replaced Twilight in supporting him. “You took a bit of a hit there, kid.”

Wind soured at the nickname, but was apparently too woozy to argue. Time gave him a reassuring smile before glancing at his descendant. “You should—”

“We need to preserve what potions we have left,” Twilight interrupted immediately, having predicted what Time was going to say. “We were already running low on supplies—”

“We just stocked up in Ordon Village,” Time reminded him.

“We stocked up on some supplies in the village,” Twilight fired back. “We don’t have potions in Ordon.”

“There’s milk.”

Twilight bit the inside of his cheek, clearly trying to come up with an argument before sighing in defeat. “Fine. I’ll drink some milk.”

“Does anybody wonder if that stuff ever goes bad…?” Four asked in the background as the Ordonian downed half a bottle.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Time said with a half smile.

“You drink poes. Your opinion is invalid on the matter.”

Wind giggled, still a little addled. “Why couldn’t you drink the big poes here?”

“Maybe next time,” the eldest Link replied, brushing sweaty hair out of the boy's face. “Think you can stand?”

Wind huffed proudly. “Of course I can stand! I’ve had much worse!”

To prove his point, the sailor leapt to his feet with gusto, and then hastily stumbled backwards into the wall.

“We have to go!” Legend called. “Some of us aren’t waiting!”

Time turned and saw Hyrule and Wild already running up the stairs, and he bit back a groan. There was no stopping them at this point. Warriors steadied Wind and the rest of the heroes rushed after their impatient friends.

“I remember this part,” Twilight muttered. “If Sky didn’t get too far ahead, we can—”

“Sky, wait!!” Wild cried up ahead. “Guys, help!”

Everyone doubled their speed only to find themselves caught in a new horde of monsters, with Sky in the center, bathed in black and red blood alike. The room was filled with stalfos, gibdos, keese, bokoblins, skulltullas, and lizalfos. A few were slain on the ground, but most were converging on Sky, while Wild immediately brought out three bomb arrows at once.

Time held out a hand, alarmed. “Champion—!”

Wild aimed straight for a large skulltulla, loosing the arrows. Time immediately dove for Sky, knocking the young knight to the ground just as the arrows made impact. The blast temporarily blew out his hearing, making the world seem vaguely distant while a high pitch ringing drove him insane. Time groaned, coughing and gasping when Hyrule’s boot slammed into his vision as the traveler blocked a monster attack that would have likely crippled him. Sky squirmed under him, clamoring for an escape route. Time pushed himself up, hastily moving aside as Sky shot out from underneath him. He managed to snag the boy by his sailcloth just as his hearing returned, sending him crashing back into reality.

Everyone was in the room now, fighting and pushing monsters away from the center where Time and Sky stood. Worried glances were thrown their way, but now that they had all regrouped and Sky was seemingly alive and okay, everyone was finally on their game once more.

Well, except for Sky himself.

The teenager twirled, turning himself around to face Time, knocking his hand off his sailcloth, but Time grabbed him by the wrists.

“Please,” Sky wheezed a frantic, tear filled plea. “Please, you have to leave.”

Time furrowed his brow. Of all the different scenarios running through his head, the boy begging them to get away was not the first one that had come to mind upon their reunion.

The sharp interrogation that had been brewing inside of him fizzed out like water escaping a dam, and instead his heart filled with worry. Sky’s eyes were wild, his face sweaty, his body trembling with exhaustion. Time had never seen the boy this frantic and unwell. “Sky… what’s wrong ? Let us help you.”

“You can’t help!” Sky replied, twisting his wrist so much he was likely hurting himself to get out of Time’s grip. “Please, I—”

Wind suddenly used his wind waker to blast a flock of keese into the wall, and the force of the air sent Time and Sky flying right into a half crumbled wall. The stones gave way when they slammed their shoulders into it, and Time felt pain shoot from his shoulder blade all the way into his fingertips.

It’s a good thing I wear armor , he thought dully as he groaned. His mind reoriented quickly, a frantic sense of urgency pushing him to look for Sky, who had fallen entirely into the room beyond the wall. It was a large circular area, covered in sand except for a platform in the center.

The monsters slowly seemed to be pushing the others towards the room as well, and Time hastily sprang to his feet to stop a lizalfos strike from tearing into his already injured shoulder. His body was not happy with the overhead maneuver. When he glanced back, Sky was finally pushing himself into a standing position once more.

Something dark materialized between Time and Sky, and the eldest Link felt his blood run cold.

“Sky!” he cried out in warning, garnering everyone’s attention, but the one person who needed to hear him was distracted, and the dark shadow rammed into the teenager, who stumbled right into the center platform. 

As soon as Sky fell backwards onto it, the Shadow coalesced into a figure, walking towards him slowly as the platform rose into the air.

“No!” Time yelled alongside Twilight, who tore ahead, pulling out a bizarre looking device and slamming it into some grooves in the wall. He hopped onto it, and the strange spinning top started to ascend the wall alongside a cut out path. There was the remains of a stairway jutting out in the wall, and Twilight seemed to be heading for it so he could leap off and get to the centerpiece, but skulltullas were crawling to that point as well. Time felt his heart in his throat, terrified at both what the Shadow could do to Sky and that Twilight might get injured again. He pulled out his bow and arrows to assist the rancher when a lizalfos from behind drew his attention instead. One of Wild’s bomb arrows blew by him to eliminate the skulltulla, and Twilight yelped, leaping off the spinner just as the arrows killed the skulltulla… and the platform Twilight had been heading for.

Time turned to yell at Wild (mainly for almost blowing Twilight up… a selfish part of Time was thankful his descendant couldn’t reach the Shadow alone now), but the champion was already watching sheepishly in realization. He held up an appeasing hand as he put his bomb arrows away.

“We have to find a way to get up there,” Time said loudly over the din as the champion examined the room. “The Shadow has Sky pinned down.”

“The Shadow?!” Wild repeated.

“Damn it, Champ!” Twilight swore uncharacteristically, face pale with worry. “Sky’s up there!”

“What?! Sky’s up there?” Four yelled as he leapt off a wall to give himself some extra speed and height, driving his blade through a moblin’s heart.

Legend rushed over, an unfamiliar cane in his hands. “Get me up there. I’ll protect him.”

“That’s just it , I can’t get up there with if Champion keeps blowing up the platforms— ”

“Solutions now, blaming later!” Warriors barked from the other side of the room.

The monsters all stopped fighting. Everyone froze in mid parry or attack, confused.

What were they…?

There was a harsh, dark laugh that echoed around the area, making everyone look up at the platform. Sky was barely visible, staring at something they couldn’t see.

“What’s happening?” Wind asked slowly.

Legend groaned. “Oh, no. He’s about to monologue, isn’t he?”

“Let him,” Warriors muttered. “It gives us time to find a way up there.”

“Not so loudly, though!” Wind hissed. “What if he can hear us?”

“There’s no way he can hear us all the way down here,” Wild pointed out.

“I can hear you,” a voice echoed down to them.

“WELL THAT’S GREAT BECAUSE YOU’RE A COWARD!” Wind suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. “GET YOUR SORRY SHADOWY BUTT DOWN HERE AND FIGHT US LIKE AN ACTUAL WARRIOR!”

Twilight and Warriors were both eying the path that his spinner had climbed. The two slowly crept towards the wall.

Footsteps bounced around the area, building a strange dread in Time’s chest as he looked up and felt his heart stop.

His own face was looking back at him, eyes red and skin grey, as if he had been rotting away in the Water Temple for years.

The Water Temple.

This shadow… was his?!

“You…” he muttered.

His Shadow smiled. “Me? Don’t make too many assumptions yet. Now excuse me. I have someone to talk to, and your noise was far too deafening for a civil conversation.”

“Just get out of here!” Sky suddenly yelled, rushing to the edge of the platform. “I’ve got this!”

“Try anything foolish and my beasts will finish you off,” the Shadow advised before swiping at Sky with his blade, making the knight disappear as he jumped back to dodge it. Time snapped back into focus, stepping forward with alarm, as the Shadow walked away.

“So, uh… should we just kill the monsters while they’re not attacking?” Wild offered.

“That doesn’t seem right…” Hyrule noted uneasily. Lowering his tone, he said, “Besides, if he thinks we’re just stuck down here, then we can sneak up. If we attack them they’ll just start fighting back, and then it’ll take longer to get to Sky.”

“He definitely can’t hear us saying that, right?” Wind whispered.

The group waited. There was silence.

Time glanced upward. At least that meant the pair wasn’t fighting yet. He didn’t know how that shadow version of himself from decades ago had managed to grow so powerful, but…

Goddesses above. It had almost killed Twilight. It was going to kill Sky.

“Whatever we’re figuring out, we need to do so quickly,” he said softly.

Hang in there, Sky. We’re coming.

[the-cookie-of-doom]

When Chay and Kim get back together in the 24/7 AU, Chay expects things to go back to how they were before, and is surprised when they don't. The whole point is that Kim wanted a lover, but didn't want to let anyone close. So he maintained this distance between them, using the D/S dynamic to do it. But now he doesn't need to, anymore. Chay can be on equal footing with him in this relationship. And sure, a little bit of that shone through towards the end, because Kim couldn't help himself, he was falling in love, and that distance became harder and harder to maintain (which made it easier to convince himself to cut Chay off entirely after the RevealTM).

Chay is not at all prepared for a completely, unrestrictedly in love Kim

[juniperhillpatient]

I wrote this fic for @hello-nichya-here because of our Wizards of Waverly Place re-watch. It's set directly after the episode "Alex in the Middle." Kelbo catches on that there's more to Alex's plans then a simple prank & does his best to help his niece & nephew along (in his own chaotic way). Enjoy!

“So, how’d the prank go with your brother?”

“Huh?” Alex asked, distracted. “What prank?”

In Alex’s defense, it was hard to focus on the conversation when there was horde of zombies chasing them. Uncle Kelbo had taken her to Fear Land, which was a wizard world haunted attraction with real ghosts, goblins, ghouls and zombies. They had just escaped the room with the shrieking banshee, who was very annoying and whiney and also loud. Now they were running across a field while an army of the undead moaned and followed them with outstretched arms, hungry for their flesh.

Alex slowed down and tilted her head as she realized something. “Hey, they’re all just walking. We don’t have to run.”

“Yeah, but it’s more fun if we run,” Kelbo said, doubling over and panting.

Alex groaned, clutching a stitch in her side. “You and I have very different ideas of fun, apparently.”

They hurried past the exit gate where an attendance with short dark hair and a rather vacant expression was waiting. She spoke in a tired, bored monotone voice. “Thank you for coming to Fear Land. Please remember that you signed a waver and Fear Land cannot be held legally responsible for any bodily or mental harm that you might have befallen while in the attraction.”

“I don’t remember signing a waiver,” Alex said, as she followed Kelbo over to a food stand. There were a lot of stands selling fried food and soda and a few rides including a Ferris wheel that levitated in the air with no support beams. Wizards as well as some vampires, werewolves, centaurs, elves and other wizard world folks were wandering around, chatting.

“Yeah,” Kelbo said. “That’s ‘cause I signed for you. Technically, you have to be eighteen to get into Fear Land, and they make you sign the contract in your blood on a charmed piece of paper that can tell your age by your blood. So, I may have helped you fib a little. Don’t tell your parents.”

Alex grinned. “You are so cool.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting at a picnic table, chowing down on fried unicorn horns. Alex was enjoying the evening. She could acknowledge that Uncle Kelbo was not the greatest magic teacher. She needed her dad to help slow her down and make her think, as much as she hated to admit it. Also, obviously, knowing that Dad won the wizard competition changed everything. He was the superior wizard after all, and thus exactly who she needed as a teacher. She still loved spending time with Uncle Kelbo in the wizard world. He treated her like an adult, not a kid, and let her be herself.

“So, what’s next?” Kelbo asked.

“Hm?” Alex said, swallowing a bite of her fried unicorn horn. “I didn’t know we were doing anything else tonight. Ooh, while we’re faking my age, will you take me to that cool wizard dance club, Zero Gravity? I heard everything floats in there!”

“No,” Kelbo said. Then he considered. “Well, maybe. Dancing with no gravity does sound pretty awesome.” Then his expression hardened. “No! Stop trying to distract me with awesome sounding clubs. Listen, I meant what’s next with the prank on your brother. You sent him all those love notes. Now what? Are you going to stink bomb his locker and put a note saying it’s from the secret admirer? Convince him it’s from some really hot girl he likes and then humiliate him by doing a spell to make him talk in a really deep voice like a cave man? Ooh! Or you could give him a really high voice like a little girl!”

Alex laughed. “Oh, that? Well, Justin kinda found out the notes were from me. You should’ve seen his face when he confronted me about it. He got so red, and his nose did that cute thing where it scrunches up and his eyes got all big.” She giggled, remembering, and spoke in an imitation of Justin. “Alex, I know it was you putting those notes in my locker! It wasn’t funny. I hid in a trash can!”

“Riiight,” Kelbo said. For some reason, he looked skeptical. “So, you just, put flirty notes in your brother’s locker everyday for a week and then it never really led to anything, and he just got kinda mad and now it’s forgotten?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Alex said with a smile and a shrug. “So, anyway, about Zero Gravity, I hear-”

“I mean, I always noticed you guys were close,” Kelbo interrupted.

Alex snorted. “Ew? Close? Me and Justin. Please. He’s close with his science teacher.”

“Alex,” Kelbo said with an exasperated sigh. “Who do you talk to basically every night before you go to bed?”

“Well, obviously Justin, but-”

“Who can make you laugh even if you’re having a terrible day.”

“Sometimes Max, but usually not intentionally,” Alex said. Kelbo gave her a pointed look, and she rolled her eyes. “Fine, Justin can usually cheer me up if I’m upset, but-”

“And who do you go to anytime you’re in real trouble, the kind you don’t know how to get out of?”

“I mean, Justin, but-”

“Not even your parents!” Kelbo said. “Kid, you’re in denial.”

“In denial of what?” Alex asked. “Fine, I’ll admit it, Justin is a pretty great big brother. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Look, kid, I got you another present,” Kelbo said. He waved his wand, and a wrapped box appeared on the picnic table.

“Ooh, for me?” Alex asked. She clapped her hands. “Yay!” She hurried to open the box, and then frowned. Inside was a plastic mood ring. It was just like many she had purchased for cheap at the mall before. They tended to turn her fingers green. Alex tried to hide her disappointment. Unfortunately, she had never been very good at masking her feelings. “Oh, wow,” she said. “A mood ring…. Neat.”

Kelbo chuckled. “This is a special mood ring, okay? Give it to Justin. It’s a great uh,” he cleared his throat dramatically. The reason behind the fanfare was a mystery to Alex. “Prank.” He cleared his throat again. Then he winked.

Alex narrowed her eyes. “Why’d you say it like that? And why’d you wink?”

“I’m not winking,” Kelbo said, winking again.

“Okay then…” Alex said, giving him a discerning look. He was grinning, and not giving much away with his expression. After a moment, she got bored of trying to figure him out and gave up. “Well, whatever. I always like pranking Justin, so I’m in.”

“It definitely does not involve the Banana Song by Harry Belafonte,” Kelbo said.

Alex laughed. “Okayyy. Sure, Uncle Kelbo. Whatever you say.”

* * “I’m glad you had fun with Uncle Kelbo,” Justin said. He glared. “Be nice if he took me to some of these places.”

“Yeah, or me!” Max said.

Alex rolled her eyes. “Max, the last time Uncle Kelbo took you to a wizard world amusement park you had nightmares for a week. And not even because of anything scary.”

“I didn’t like the looks of that fairy princess, okay?” Max said. “Too pink.” He shuddered. “And her breath smelled like perfume. It was creepy.”

“And Justin, are you seriously telling me you would be willing to lie about your age on a blood contract?” Alex continued. “Uncle Kelbo took me because he knew I could handle it.”

“You lied about your age on a blood contract?” Justin asked, his eyes bugging.

“See?” Alex said. “This is why you don’t get invited to these things.”

“Kids, it’s getting time to get ready for bed,” Theresa said, walking out from behind the counter in the kitchen where she had been cleaning some dishes. “I’m just going to pretend I didn’t overhear anything about any blood contracts because honestly, I’m tired and I don’t have the patience for any weird wizard drama right now.”

Alex made a face. She had kind of forgotten Mom was back there, honestly. “Probably for the best.”

“Alright, the restaurant is all shut down,” Jerry said, entering the apartment. “What are you kids still doing up? Alex, I take it everything went well with your uncle?”

“Yep,” Alex said brightly. She could sense Justin itching to blurt out about the blood contract, and hurried to say something that would distract him. “Uncle Kelbo was talking about taking Justin with us to Fear Land next.”

“You went to Fear Land?” Jerry asked. “I remember he and I going there when we were teenagers. Back then it was eighteen and up. Guess it’s changed. We had to find some older wizards to help us fake sign these waivers in blood because we weren’t old enough.” He chuckled. “Man, those were some fun times. We used to get into so many crazy situations. There was this one time with a succubus that-” he stopped, seeing Theresa’s face, and cleared his throat. “That was very bad.” Then he frowned. “Wait a minute. Alex, please tell me that my brother did not sneak you into a haunted attraction illegally by faking a blood contract?”

“Okay,” Alex said. “Uncle Kelbo definitely did not do any of that stuff you just said.”

Jerry sighed and rubbed his forehead. “We are going to have a serious conversation about what you get up to with your uncle. For now, get ready for bed.”

A while later, Alex couldn’t sleep. She was lying in bed in her pajamas, tossing and turning. She wasn’t too freaked out by the Fear Land attractions. Sure, the guy carrying his own severed head was a little icky. But it was the conversation with Kelbo that was bugging her. She hadn’t found an opportunity to give Justin the ring yet, and she wasn’t totally sure she even wanted to. Kelbo was just acting so weird about the whole thing, like there was a joke Alex wasn’t in on. She liked to be the one scheming and pulling pranks, not having pranks pulled on her.

After a while, Alex snuck downstairs to get a glass of water. Also, to see if Justin was still up. She had heard him in he hallway walking around not too long ago, and she never heard him come back upstairs. She had the mood ring from Kelbo in her pocket just in case she decided to give it to him after all.

Alex hesitated on the stairs. Justin was sitting on the sofa under a throw blanket, watching a DVR recording of the channel five news. Alex recognized the news anchor’s perky expression and thick brunette hair, and her stupid fake breasts right away. It was the one Justin was obsessed with. He had cutouts of her in his room. Alex had once stolen one to use for her fake ID when she tried to sneak into Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster Two.

Justin made a soft sound that made something deep in Alex’s core shift. His hand was moving under the blanket. Oh, gross. Alex figured out a beat too late what was happening. She was frozen though, staring. She knew she should hurry back upstairs, but then she would get caught. She was just standing there, halfway down the stairs, unable to tear her eyes away from the back of Justin’s head. The annoying news anchor was going on about the weather. Justin serious got off to THAT? Alex was affronted with the ridiculousness of that. She could be way hotter than some girl talking about the weather without even trying. Not that she wanted Justin to get off to her instead. It was just the principal of the thing.

Alex stayed there watching for a long time. She kept wanting to bolt upstairs, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She told herself it was because the stairs would creak, and Justin would hear her. After a while, Justin sighed and slumped further into the pillows. Alex decided that now it would be safe to get her glass of water. She just had to pretend she was only just now coming down the stairs. She took several loud steps.

Justin sat bolt upright and spun around. “ALEX! What are you doing?”

“Getting a glass of water,” Alex said, walking to the kitchen. “What are you doing?” She looked at the TV, pretending to just now notice it as she got a glass of water. “Jerking off to the news anchor?” “What?” Justin said. His face was bright red. “No.”

Alex laughed. She couldn’t help herself. The way Justin was holding the throw blanket up to his chin like some kind of scandalized maiden was just too good. “Calm down, I’m just teasing,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep. Maybe that Fear Land place got to me more than I’d like to admit.”

“Well, I was getting ready to go up, but I could watch an episode of some dumb sit com with you, if you want,” Justin said.

“Sure,” Alex said, plopping down on the sofa beside him. She yawned and leaned back. “Give me some of that blanket.”

“Get your own.”

“No, the closet where Mom keeps the throw blankets is all the way upstairs,” Alex whined. “C’mon, share.”

“You’re so annoying,” Justin said, but he allowed her to pull some of the blanket over herself as she got comfy.

A few minutes later, Justin’s arm was on the back of the sofa, behind Alex’s head. They both had their feet up, sharing the coffee table as a footrest, and the throw blanket was pulled over them both. Some show about a comically dysfunctional family played over a laugh track was on TV. Alex found herself drifting off. Something about being in Justin’s presence and the sound of the TV helped her relax.

Alex had just faded away into comfy oblivion when Justin shifted and woke her up. She had drifted to sleep with her head resting against his shoulder. She yawned, to sleepy to sit up. “Mm, guess I should go up to bed.”

When Justin spoke, his voice was soft, and tired, but also there was something different about it than earlier. Something almost hesitant, or maybe hopeful. “This is ok.”

Alex sat up, laughing. “You want to explain to Mom and Dad why we fell asleep cuddling on the sofa?”

Justin frowned. “What? It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. We both just couldn’t sleep. I don’t think they’d be too mad.”

Obviously, he was right. But something about the idea of waking up here made Alex nervous. She imagined she would see that look in her eyes that Mom sometimes got, like she was a little worried for some reason, or the rare quietness from Dad that sometimes happened, like when Alex jokingly tried to sit in Justin’s lap last family movie night and Dad said he wanted to sit by Alex and shut down any further jokes like that for the evening.

“Hey, I have a present for you,” Alex said. She dug in her pocket and got out the ring. “It’s from Uncle Kelbo. He wanted me to give it to you. I almost forgot.”

By now, the sit com was over and channel five was back on. Justin must’ve changed it while Alex was asleep. The news anchor he liked so much was talking about possible rain. Justin yawned and stretched. Alex definitely did not find the way his face scrunched up after a sleepy yawn adorable. That was just something dumb she wrote in one of those stupid prank letters to make fun of him.

“A present from Kelbo?” Justin asked. “Nice, those are always great.”

“Here, hold out your hand,” Alex said. Justin did so, and she slid the ring over his pointer finger.

Immediately, Justin’s mouth opened, and a sound emitted from it that was not at all like his voice. It was a very familiar sound though. Alex stared in utter amusement. Where was that music coming from? This was TOO good.

‘Day-o, day-o Daylight come, and we want go home Day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day-o Daylight come, and we want go home Work all night on a drink of rum Daylight come, and we want go home…’

Justin got up and began to do a dance to go along with the music. This was exactly like that famous scene in the movie Beetlejuice, except that Justin was alone in his dancing. Alex was left sitting on the sofa, losing it laughing. This was the best prank Kelbo had ever come up with and that was including the time he helped Alex and Max make Justin’s action figures all come to life and make fun of him. “Alex, I don’t know what’s happening!” Justin yelled. He was still dancing. Then, he was back to singing, except not in his own voice, but with the vocals and backup music of Harry Belafonte.

‘Stack banana 'til the morning come (Daylight come and we want go home) Come Mister tally man, tally me banana (Daylight come and we want go home) Come Mister tally man, tally me banana (Daylight come and we want go home) Lift six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch (Daylight come and we want go home) Six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch Daylight come, and we want go home!’

There was never any chance of the family sleeping through all this racket. Within minutes, Jerry and Theresa were on the stairs, both rubbing their eyes and looking exhausted. Max was right behind them. He appeared to be enamored.

“Aw, sick,” Max said. “Justin, you never told me you could sing and dance like that. You gotta teach me for the talent show!”

Alex was wheezing with laughter. Justin was staring at her with desperate horror in his eyes, and she decided to at last take pity on him. “Oh my god. “Okay, okay,” she said, still chuckling. “Take the ring off.”

Justin ripped the ring off his finger, and immediately had free reign of his body. He did a whole-body shudder. Alex was doubled over, tears streaming down her face from laughing. She couldn’t breathe. This was just too good. Justin looked furious and embarrassed and that meant she had enjoyed a successful evening.

“Young lady, we are going to have a serious talk about pranking your brother in the morning,” Jerry said, glaring. “It’s the middle of the night. You have school tomorrow! You know what? You are grounded. No going to the mall with Harper tomorrow.”

“But Daddy, I didn’t know what the ring would do,” Alex whined. “Uncle Kelbo gave it to me and told me to give it to Justin.”

“Okay, fine,” Jerry snapped. “No hanging out with my brother until I have a serious talk with him.”

“But, Dad-” Alex started.

“NO BUTS,” Jerry said.

Theresa frowned. “Jerry, it was just an innocent kid’s prank. Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?”

“He took her to an eighteen plus amusement park,” Jerry said. “Now he’s helping her prank her brother like she needs any help in that department? He’s encouraging her to misuse magic, and I’m done with it.”

Alex was furious. She slammed the door to her bedroom and sat on her bed fuming for several minutes. This was so unfair. Maybe her dad won the wizard competition but that didn’t mean he understood magic so much better than Kelbo. Jerry and Justin both were always going on and on about the rules and following them to a T. At least Kelbo knew how to have fun.

A thought occurred to Alex, not for the first time, and she did her best to push it away. If she won the competition, she’d be just like Kelbo. Always using magic for her own gain whenever she wanted. But Justin was a lot more like their dad, who actually won. What if she didn’t always get to keep her powers?

This thought was always there, in the back of Alex’s mind, tainting her every interaction with Justin with the tension and jealousy of that insecurity. It didn’t so much get to her with Max, because he was so behind in the competition. On the outside, Alex never let these concerns show. She would rather die than let Justin know she was worried he would win and leave her in the dust. But it did get to her sometimes.

Anyway, right now Alex’s concern was about being cut off from her uncle. She grabbed her wand and dialed. “Beep, boop, beep, boop, beep.”

A minute later, Kelbo picked up. “Hey, Alex. I just got off the phone with your dad. It looks like you and I aren’t going to be able to hang out for a while. But listen, your dad will come around. We just need to give him some space and – oh, who am I kidding? I’ll sneak you out whenever you want.”

Alex laughed in relief. “Good to know. I was worried I would be totally cut off from you.”

“Never, kid,” Uncle Kelbo said.

“Hey, I did the prank on Justin,” Alex said. “Why did you act all mysterious anyway? All it did was make him sing that Banana Boat and dance. It was hilarious.”

“Listen, you gotta get Justin to wear that ring to school tomorrow,” Kelbo said. “I’m trying to prove a point here, and I need you to figure out what triggers the ring if we’re ever going to get there.”

“Huh?” Alex said. “Why are you acting all mysterious again?”

“Just get him to wear the ring to school.”

“Well, he’s never gonna do that,” Alex said. “He probably just threw it away.”

“No, no, no, that thing was so expensive,” Kelbo groaned. “I was saving it for a really good opportunity. Look, who will Justin listen to no matter what?”

Alex felt a sneaky idea form in her mind, and she grinned. “You know what? You just gave me a great idea.”

“It’s what I do best,” Kelbo said. “Now, call me tomorrow with an update.”

* *

“I’m sorry you can’t go, Alex, but it’s your own fault,” Harper said. “If you would just stop pulling pranks on Justin, maybe you wouldn’t be grounded so often.”

“Ugh, you are not being a very supportive best friend right now, Harper,” Alex grumbled. She was standing behind the counter at the substation, and Harper was sitting on a stool facing her.

“Look, I’ll try to get you that cute sweater you liked so much,” Harper said. “How’s that?”

Alex perked up and smiled. “Like maybe you’re a much better friend than I thought.”

The bell dinged as the door to the substation opened. Justin entered, whistling as he walked. Alex hadn’t seen him much at school. They passed each other in the hall, but that was it. So, she had no idea if her plan had worked.

This morning, there was a very special news report from the channel five anchor about how mood rings were SUPER popular right now and all the cute guys were wearing them. It only broadcast to one household in New York, but Justin didn’t have to know that. Thanks to the ‘manipulate screens’ spell from last week’s wizard lesson, Alex was able to make it look like the news lady was saying whatever she wanted her to say. This was a good trick, and Alex was going to have to remember it for future use.

“Oh, there’s Justin,” Harper said. She looked down at her dress, which was covered in plastic assortments of fruits. “How do I look?”

“Um….” Alex said, unsure how to respond to that.

“Hey Alex, hey, Harper,” Justin said as he approached.

Harper immediately screamed and dove under a nearby table. Since this was a normal reaction for her, Justin just shrugged, and walked behind the counter, getting himself a soda. He was still whistling a jaunty tune.

“Hey, Justin,” Alex said. “How was school?”

“Good,” Justin said. “I passed my algebra exam with flying colors, and-” he stopped and gave Alex a suspicious look. “You don’t care how my day at school was, do you?”

Alex scoffed. “What? I so care. I always ask you how your day was.”

“Especially when you have some scheme cooking,” Justin said, narrowing his eyes. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Alex said. “Um, out of curiosity, did you wear that mood ring?”

“Yeah, I did,” Justin said. “The news lady on channel five said – hey!” He glared. “You tricked me!”

“Well, it obviously didn’t do any good,” Alex said with a disappointed sigh. “I guess nothing happened.”

“No, it didn’t,” Justin said. “And you are so annoying for trying to prank me again! You know, Alex, sometimes it’s like your life revolves around tormenting me.”

Alex grinned. “And isn’t that just such a compliment?”

Justin glared. “You are the worst. I swear- DAY-OU!”

The music was back. Alex burst into laughter. Luckily for her, no one else except Harper was in the substation. Harper got out from under the table, looking very confused. Alex supposed that she should be trying to figure out a way to explain this to Harper. Right now, though, she was unable to do anything but crack up. With any luck, Justin would get nervous and do the explaining for her. The bell dinged and the substation door opened. A man entered. His eyes went wide, and he stared at Justin, who was now dancing to the music.

‘Daylight come and we want go home Day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day-o Daylight come, and we want go home!’

The potential customer backed away outside and let the door shut again. Alex saw him take off running down the street. Harper was pointing at Justin with a shaky hand. Her jaw was hanging open and she looked terrified. Alex was aware that she was possibly in trouble. However, all she could do was laugh because the sight of Justin singing and dancing was just too good.

Justin ripped the ring off his finger. “ALEX I’m going to KILL-” Justin stopped mid-sentence. He looked at Harper and forced himself to be composed. Oh, good. He was going to weasel out of this so Alex didn’t have to. God, Alex loved him. “I am going to KILL at the talent show,” Justin said. He forced a huge grin. “Isn’t that such a cool talent that I’ve developed all by myself with no magic, Harper?”

“Uh,” Harper said. “Yep.” She was back to her usual awkward, blushing self around Justin, looking shy and giggly. “Wow. You really learned how to make music come out of your mouth for the talent competition? You’re so talented.”

“Yep,” Justin said. “That’s right. Okay, now, I have to practice some more. So, goodbye.”

“But, the substation just opened for dinner. It’s only four o’clock.”

“Wow! How the time flies!” Justin said, ushering Harper out the door. “Great talking to you. See ya tomorrow.”

Alex was back to giggling. Justin turned around and glared at her, and she tried to look serious. “Justin, I’m really sorry.” She couldn’t maintain her composure and started laughing again. “But that was too good. Maybe you really should audition for the talent competition!”

A while later, Alex was lying on the sofa flipping through a teen magazine. She had just done a quiz on whether she was compatible with her crush for fun. She didn’t have a crush right now, because Riley was going out with Gigi, and she was grossed out by that. So, she answered all the questions inserting Justin as the hypothetical other person in each scenario. The answer she got was that she and her crush were sure to have a rocky and possibly doomed but very fun and exciting romance and that it was definitely worth giving it a shot even if there would be heartache and speedbumps along the way. Huh. Interesting. Alex supposed that did describe her and Justin’s dynamic pretty well. Minus the romance, obviously.

Alex jumped in alarm when she was joined by someone else in the room without warning. Uncle Kelbo had just flashed into the room with magic. He was coughing and waving smoke away as he got reacclimated from teleporting through space and town.

Alex sat up and tossed her magazine to the side. “Uncle Kelbo, what are you doing here?”

“I just got done talking to your dad,” Kelbo said. “Your mom calmed him down and we’re allowed to hang out again as long as I stop helping you prank your brother.”

“Great,” Alex said, beaming. She had known her dad would come around eventually, but it was relief that it happened so fast. Then she hesitated. “Wait, you’re not really going to stop helping me prank Justin, right?”

“Of course not,” Kelbo said, waving a dismissive hand. “Now, listen. I want to know everything about what happened today.”

Alex grinned. “Justin serenaded me and Harper with the Banana Boat song after school. It was great.”

“Yeah,” Kelbo said. “Now I think it’s time you knew what the ring really does. It casts a spell on the wearer so that whoever has it on sings the Banana Boat song whenever they experience strong romantic feelings.”

Alex stared at Kelbo. “Wait….”

“Yeah, take that in,” Kelbo said. “It’s a lot, I know. But now that I know it’s reciprocated, I can help you-”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Alex interrupted.

“Oh, okay, good,” Kelbo said, blinking in surprise. “I thought this was going to take way more convincing.”

“Wait, only the first time makes sense,” Alex said. “Justin was watching that channel five news anchor lady he like so much on TV.”

“Not her,” Kelbo groaned, smacking his forehead. “Alex, he was obviously experiencing feelings for-”

“HARPER?” Alex interrupted, aghast. She wasn’t sure why the idea upset her so much. After all, Harper had been into Justin forever. Shouldn’t Alex be happy for her as her best friend? “I can’t believe Justin has a crush on Harper,” she said. “Well, I guess now it’s up to me to get them together.”

* *

“Are you sure I can trust you about this?” Justin asked.

“For the last time, I’m telling you the truth,” Alex said. “I even let you do a truth spell on me to prove it.”

“That’s true,” Justin said. “But it’s just so strange. I never knew I had feelings for Harper.”

“Well, maybe you were burying them deep down,” Alex said.

“I guess,” Justin said, though he still looked uncertain. “And you really think the yogurt shop is a good place for us to go on a date? I’m leaving if she wears her yogurt themed outfit. Last time she followed me around in that thing for a day, I couldn’t get the smell of sour yogurt out of my nostrils for a week.”

Alex made a face. “Fair point. I’ll call her and make sure she doesn’t wear that.”

They were in the sub-car, after school. Alex was helping Justin get ready for the big date with Harper. No one else was in the sub-car. There were a few customers at tables in the substation. Luckily, Alex had put the serving wench charm on Max, so he was doing a great job. She would’ve felt a little bad, but he was making a killing in tips, so she figured he’d be alright.

“Alright,” Alex said, sitting at the table. “So, like we agreed, let’s practice.”

“I don’t know about this, Alex,” Justin said. “I mean, practicing for a date with Harper? She’s probably going to throw out some random fun facts about things she discovered while secretly watching me sleep or something.”

“Stop,” Alex said, getting serious. “Justin, I know she’s kind of weird, but she’s my best friend and if you hurt her I’ll have to hurt you. Look, I want you and Harper both to be happy. So please, just take this seriously.”

“Alright, alright,” Justin said. He sat down at the table and folded his hands in front of him. “Hi, Harper. Welcome to our date.”

Alex snorted. “Welcome to our date? What is this, a talk show? Just act natural. Why aren’t you wearing the ring?”

“Act natural?” Jutin repeated. “I don’t know how to act natural around Harper. I’m used to her screaming and running away when she sees me. Anyway, I’m pretty sure singing the Banana Boat song on our date isn’t considered natural.”

“Okay, true,” Alex said, laughing. “But it would be pretty funny.”

“Now I’m the one who needs to take this seriously?” Justin asked, snorting.

“Okay, okay,” Alex said. She cleared her throat and spoke in an imitation of Harper. “Hi, Justin.” She giggled and twirled her hair. “Thanks for coming.”

“You’re welcome,” Justin said. “I mean, uh, why don’t I come sit by you?”

A moment later, Justin was on the bench beside Alex in the sub-car. He put an arm around her, and sat very close, with his face near hers. “You look really pretty.”

Alex felt butterflies in her belly dance, and her cheeks were suddenly very warm. “Okay,” she said with a soft laugh. “Since when are you Mr. Charisma?”

“I can be romantic when I want to be,” Justin said. “You just never see that side of me.”

“I wonder why not,” Alex said, shooting him a mischievous smirk.

“I think it’s obvious why not,” Justin said, laughing.

Suddenly, they were joined by Kelbo and a lot of smoke. He waved his hand in front of his face, coughing up a storm. Alex and Justin both did the same.

“Uncle Kelbo, what are you doing here?” Justin asked.

“Okay, fine,” Kelbo said. “I did a spell so I could spy on you two after I found out Alex was trying to set you up with Harper.”

“What?” Alex said. “Why?”

“Because!” Kelbo said. “You’re both clearly never going to figure this out without my help. Look, Justin, just put on the ring right now.”

Justin frowned and dug in his jeans pocket. He put on the ring. Alex felt her jaw drop. No way. The gears in her brain whirred as she tried to process what exactly was happening and what it meant. It’s not like she hadn’t had inklings before. But she could never articulate it. Even now, she was afraid to put it into words in her own brain, what it meant that the ring was activated right now.

‘Day-o, day-o Daylight come, and we want go home Day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day-o Daylight come, and we want go home Work all night on a drink of rum Daylight come, and we want go home…’

Justin ripped the ring off his finger and threw it on the ground. His expression was intense, and horrified. Alex found herself tense. Every muscle in her body was like a live wire. She was afraid to breathe. Justin was still seated on the bench, very close to her.

“I can’t believe it,” Justin said.

“I know,” Alex said, surprised at how steady her voice came out. She had always been good at acting like she was okay even when she wasn’t. She met Justin’s eyes, her heart pounding. “I can’t either.”

“I have feelings for Uncle Kelbo?” Justin said.

Alex and Uncle Kelbo both groaned. Alex smacked Justin on the shoulder. “You do not have feelings for Uncle Kelbo, you big dummy!”

Justin laughed, looking a bit breathless and very relieved. “Okay, your reaction right now proves that you’re not exactly upset about – um – what this means.”

“And, with that, I’m gonna leave you two with these,” Kelbo said. He set two tickets on the table. “These will get you into Zero Gravity, the wizard world club. I heard there’s a romantic ballad tonight and a floating dance for all the couples out there. Anyway, I’m gonna go. And if either of you ever tell your parents I was involved with helping you figure this out, I’ll turn you both into worms.”

With that, Kelbo was gone in a puff of smoke. Alex was alone with Justin in the sub-car. She was surprised to hear Justin mutter a spell as he coughed away the smoke. He was usually so careful with magic and refused to do anything without Dad’s permission. Suddenly though, every window in the sub-car was blocked by black curtains.

“You just did a spell,” Alex said, staring at Justin with wide eyes. “A spell outside the lair. Without supervision.”

“I was actually, uh, thinking maybe we could use a minute without supervision,” Justin said. He looked very nervous. “Are you – are we okay? Seriously.”

“You know, Justin, I’ve never been very good with talking about these things,” Alex said. “So, let me answer that with action.”

Then she was kissing him. Alex had thought about this, in her deepest, darkest, most private fantasies. She had pictured what it would be like, but never admitted to herself what she was doing. She always waved it off as a random, errant dirty thought that meant nothing. Now Justin’s lips were pressed against hers, and his hands were tangled in her hair, and it was better than she could’ve ever imagined. This was worth every conflict and moment of heartache and possible disaster that was surely awaiting them if they pursued it. There was no doubt in Alex’s mind about that.

When they parted for air, Justin’s hand was on her cheek. He looked breathless and anxious and excited. “Okay, good answer.”

“We’re gonna have to thank Uncle Kelbo later for helping me prank you,” Alex said, grinning. “This turned out to be a really good prank.”

[hirazuki]

how about "shiro + lotor 2" from your WIPs? (sorry for making you VLDpost in 2024)

Lmao it's my own damn fault for admitting to VLD WIPs in my folder in 2024 XD

So this is supposed to be another missing scene, along the same lines as my one VLD fic I do have published, this time between Shiro and Lotor when they're on their way to the Kral Zera.

Lotor shifted again, braced against the cool metal, careful not to let the back of his head bump against the edge of the dashboard he was leaning on.  Senses honed by almost ten thousand years of persecution insisted that he remain standing, behind the pilot, in case something -- anything -- were to go awry; smooth sailing after the turbulence of take-off did not by any means imply that safety was guaranteed. The prince, however, had forced his body into a sitting position. With wrists propped up on bent knees, he had chosen a spot to the right of the pilot’s chair. Not only could he use what respite he could get before they arrived at their destination, but the man that had expressly -- and covertly -- gone against the wishes of his team deserved that courtesy. Shiro was risking his very position within Voltron to aid him, and had been open-minded and supportive of him from the start; the very least Lotor could do as thanks, he reasoned, was not hover over the man’s shoulder, behind his back, suggesting not only a lack of trust but possibly sinister intentions. He looked up at the paladin. The man had his hands on the controls, occasionally making some adjustments on the screen in front of him. Probably skirting patrols.  The slight veering off-course of the mechanical lion had increased in frequency the longer they were in flight.  We must be getting close. Neither of them had said much, beyond going over the details of the plan, but it was not uncomfortable. The soft whirring of the Black Lion’s engine and beeping of her controls was pleasant enough that the half-Galra found himself thinking that flying like this for the rest of his life would not be so bad. Soothing. That was the word.  “I apologize,” Lotor said, eventually, breaking the silence. “For what?” “I am aware I have caused a rift between you and the rest of the paladins. That was never my intention.” “Oh,” Shiro replied. “Actually, I don’t think it was you, specifically. It’s… been a long time coming. You were just a convenient subject.” “Ah, convenience. It does always seem to come down to that, doesn’t it?”

[abrushwithdeath]

((Hey! Again, just wanted to say that I'm still alive ^^; As I said before, the interview went really well last week. Got my fingerprints done on Thursday morning. Had a call back yesterday morning. Tomorrow I have to go fill out some paperwork at 1, then, after that's finished, I could start working literally any time. It's going to be shorter shifts at the start, and it's only a temp / sub position (though it could turn to full time in the future) so, for now, I'll probably be working quite a bit / nearly full time until the person I'm covering for comes back. Then it's kind of... work whenever they need me. Which means probably having to get a second part time job just to be safe ^^; But hopefully that won't happen until well after Christmas.

Anyway- I can't make any promises about when I'll get to stuff, I've been trying to gather things up to put in my drafts to do when I have motivation. But for right now, between the move, unpacking, holidays, visiting family, babysitting (which has been, like, 3 times in the past week alone and the kids are great but they're 3 and 5 so... yeah, it can feel like a lot), and having been at least mildly sick for the last 3 weeks straight... I've just had a lot of brain fog and not a lot of motivation to write. However-! I'm trying to get back into READING, which always helps me get back into WRITING when I'm stuck! I just have to find a book that'll hook me enough that it gets my brain reeling again! (I'm also gonna try to sit down tonight and just WRITE a little, even if it's just short replies, so here's hoping that helps! Sometimes I just have to force myself to write some ^^;)

So, yeah! Book recs are always appreciated (though I can't promise I'll be able to read everything that's recommended because I have very limited $ right now), as are song recs (sometimes songs give me fun ideas~) Also, seriously, 1,000,000,000% always feel free to toss plot ideas / AU ideas / ship songs or playlists / whatever my way because they get my brain going sometimes! I know I've not been especially chatty lately, but I promise that I'm at least READING everything you send! So don't hold back! Sometimes all it takes is one fun little idea to get my mind running enough to start writing again xD

Love you guys! I hope your December is going well <3))

[fortune-maiden]

No no, don't spare me the 700 words of character rambling. I want to read it. Please?

IF YOU INSIST ANON =D

(admittedly it's closer to 600 words now after editing lol)

(this is partly cyrano au stuff, partly general character ramblings)

OK SO JING WEN.

In canon we don’t really know too much about his motives towards Ling Wen other than he wants to wear her down and destroy her reputation, and this stems from her showing him up in an essay contest. From the revision, we can also add plagiarism to his sins – he knows Ling Wen is more talented than him and despises her for it, especially because she’s a woman. (Although I think her lack of scholarly background also heavily plays into it. She isn't a woman from a family of scholarly officials. She's a shoeseller who writes letters on the side to make ends meet.)

For the Cyrano (but not really Cyrano) AU, I’ve added a layer of lust and entitlement towards his feelings for Ling Wen. He was the one who discovered her! He rescued her from a life in prison and made her a junior heavenly official! People remember her name and her story because of him! He’s her hero!

And he thinks that it’s about time she acts like it! Ling Wen wants to keep her head down and avoid him as much as possible. Do whatever job he wants from her and hope it keeps him in a good enough mood to leave her alone. Except Jing Wen wants to reduce her to the girl who was saved by him and devotes herself to him in return. It drives him crazy that she does not, and would even dare to get close to other men (PM & SWD) when she treats him (him!) with barely concealed contempt. He discovered her! She was no one before him and he is the only one who can have her! (and her talents!)

This is meant to contrast this AU’s Shi Wudu who also discovers her hidden talent when he exposes Jing Wen's plagiarism (mostly by accident) and immediately falls for her brain and wants to see what she can do with it when she isn’t tied down by Jing Wen and his ego. He finds her interesting, a match for himself (one of two people he’ll acknowledge as such), and rather than save her, he wants to give her the tools she needs to save herself because it’s much more fun for him that way. (This is also the real reason Bai Jing is not in this AU, because he treats Ling Wen with genuine kindness and doesn’t have any kind of pedestal or expectations in return and I think given everything she has been through at that point, that genuineness would be more attractive to Ling Wen over someone who wants to make a girlboss out of her. If there’s no BJ to compare against, I think LW would be a little more receptive to SWD’s feelings.) (Although both are interesting to think about.) (Also on a sidenote, even in AUs where he isn’t explicitly in love with her like this one, my SWD always ends up a bit of a dogged nice guy towards LW, ready to do anything she asks. This is partly because she helped him with the fate swap, and partly because he REALLY values her friendship. There’s a bit of a second-love aspect to their relationship from Ling Wen’s side because she knows SWD feelings towards her but it’s not the same love that BJ made her feel.)

And also because I just like talking about him, Jing Wen’s possessiveness and refusal to be shown up by a woman also kinda contrasts Pei Ming a bit, since he’s also a traditionalist and believes the guy should save the girl (and would be pushing SWD in that direction in his pseudo-cyrano role), but he’s also capable of acknowledging that if that doesn’t win her love, it doesn’t win her love (not that that’s ever been an issue for him personally) – and if a woman shows you up, the solution is to Do Better and show off properly to her later (this is him with the Rain Master. Anytime she gets the better of him, he sulks for a bit and then sets out to show her how cool he actually is. He wants her acknowledgment!)

[sakurarisen]

A quick heads up regarding Natlan for anything GI related on this blog: I won't be writing in Natlan settings until the end of the Archon Quest. We all know I take games quite slowly; I'm an explorer first and foremost, and I like to get as much out of an area in a game before I move on - And with Genshin, I heavily dislike speedrunning new content, as it means being without quests and the like for several weeks and left with very little to do. I'd rather explore, learn as much as I can about the new areas and such, enjoy it, and have quests on my list to do later than speedrun plot, even though I'm excited for it! <3

But Genshin is also a game where it's going to be several months until we get the full, primary storyline, and I'd much rather wait to do anything in a Natlan setting so that I have the full plot and can decide what I want to do on my own, with all the plot points laid out in front of me - Just like I did with Fontaine last year. This is only for the setting, though - I'll still happily write with Natlan based muses, just not in Natlan~!

As usual, I will be tagging any spoilers I might mention/reblog for the next two weeks with TW: Genshin Spoilers. <3

Hope y'all enjoy exploring the new content~!

~Pom

[giantkillerjack]

Me seeing art for a show I both hate and thoroughly love to roast: Someone worked really hard on this as an act of love, and I will not reblog their work just to trash the show in their tags. The artist can see the tags. I will not do it. I won't. They're not hurting anyone. I am not going to-- I'm not. I'm not, I'm not going to do it, I am genuinely not going to I'm not--not even if I want to because GODS I want to but I won't I'll just make a separate post about it or something, it's not like everything I love is so perfect anyway, and I sure wouldn't appreciate it, goodness knows so I'm not going to do it EVEN THOUGH MERLIN IS

A STUPID SHOW AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT

SHOULD FEEL BAD!!!!

(The people who like it don't have to feel bad. Both because it is genuinely a moral neutral, and also, well, they've already sat through all of BBC Merlin - they've suffered enough!)

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 5, day 29, *Cuff voice* We're getting closer!

Closer to what? To coloring in the tail and mug while they move! :D Just a few more!!! So close!!!!

[notsodailycake]

Part 3 for the fitclet I did for @keferon 's mecha pilot jazz au! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

For those who missed it:

Part 1 || Part 2

This is probably the longest out of all the 3 parts, dear god, I went all in. It came out bigger than I ever expected it to be. I was not expecting it to go this far honestly, but the parasites in me, they begged for more. So here we are! :D

Again tho, idk how in character they will be here, but I tried my best ＼(*T▽T*)／. Also, kinda bullshitted my way through in worldbuilding bc idk how things work exactly- and I had to come up with stuff on my own, even tho I'm not that good in mecha world stuff, so I'm sorry for any inaccuracies ^^;;

Now, to give credit to those who so desperately deserve it:

My sister @saltynsassy31 for helping me when I couldn't write out some of my ideas and doing it herself (so consider this as a bit of a frankenstein monster of both our writing styles, mainly during intense scenes. If there is any fancy words in this, it's cuz of her) and being my beta reader for this part. Seriously yall, this wouldn't have been as coherent and well written without her help!

Also huge thanks to my online sister @yayadrawsthingz for helping out when I hit a few road blocks during this!

And finally, a huge huge thanks to my honorary online uncle @hexyz09 for helping me finish off the final fight scene when I got stuck during some plot holes and road blocks, or generally just writing myself into a corner and having to help me leave it, despite not knowing jackshit about the au, let alone the ship and characters themselves, but was still willing to help me through in working on the plot, in this crazy obsession of mine XD

Yall have no idea how much help these guys were. Probably wouldn't be able to finish without either of their help ᕦ(òωóˇ)ᕤ

Oh and an honourable shoutout to the song "Headlock" by Imogen Heap! Kept listening to this on loop as it kept my drive up to write this.

Now onto the fic!

---

Prowl ignored Jazz's various attemps to push out his servo from the cockpit. Despite the mech being weak himself, the human was still no match against thousands of pounds of metal, especially in his own weakened state.

Which was a matter of its own at the moment. Prowl knew he had very little time to be able to run ahead before the other humans caught on to them, having noticed the alarm bells ringing through the facility.

So he ran towards the exit Jazz had initially pointed out, the only plan they had at the moment.

...

"Prowl! Prowler, hey! I know you can hear me! Prowl!" Jazz shouted as he slammed yet another fist in a failed attempt to nudge the bot's servo out of the way. He hasn't said a word since picking Jazz up, and he wasn't sure how long that was, maybe not that much, but it felt too long yet too little at the same time (what a headache).

Sliding down, he gently hit his forehead over the protective servo and let out a sigh of defeat. No way he could get him to move like this.

Why was he trying to anyways? Didn't he want to be with Prowl? He certainly did, but somehow, something in him made him feel like he shouldn't just be accepting this.

And maybe Prowl also knew this, which is why he took off and hasn’t said a word since. Both held conflicted feelings about the whole thing. If only things didn't feel so blurry right now!

Suddenly, a hard shift made Jazz stumble a bit, grasping at whatever he could so he didn't fall back, loud noises of metal scrapping metal could be heard as something got kicked open on the outside. Jazz scrambled over to the small crevice that opened between Prowl's digits, not enough for him to fit anything over other than his hand, but enough to get a glimpse of what was happening outside.

Prowl had kicked down the exit door to the lab ('not like he had the hands available to properly open the damn thing anyways' Jazz thought to himself). It was meant for mechas to exit the room after they finish off whatever it is they do in here, that Jazz knew, and if he was right, just down the hall there will be another exit leading to the backroom where they stockpiled the mech suits. No one but the technicians were usually supposed be there, it would be an easy fight to get to the big gate that lead to the outside training grounds, which is why Jazz had pointed for the mech to go down there in the first place.

There shouldn't have been a problem besides giving him time to leave unscathed. Which Jazz assumed would not be the case as he was currently inside Prowl and not buying him time to escape. But, to Jazz's surprise, nothing had come close to attacking them, yet.

The pilot did not have much time to contemplate it as suddenly he heard Prowl rumble an annoyed grunt.

"Don't move."

In shock, Jazz stumbled back as Prowl removed his hand and reached for the end of the overhead gate, seemingly alot harder to kick down than a two way door. The only thing it would really do would be to bend the metal a bit but it wouldn't give an open entrance. Jazz didn't dare leave, not like he could from this hight, but even if he could, Prowl would probably just pick him up again; it be a waste of energy really (just admit it, you don't want to leave him). But something about this felt wrong, so far they haven't had a single guard come down the hall, just this small pause would give them enough time to catch up to the two runaways, Jazz was sure that guards had been on his tail when he was under his rampage.

Unless...

Wait.

"Prowl! Wait don't open that gate!" But he was too late, the moment he uttered those words the mech had already been in motion and pushed the gate up with all his might and as quickly as he opened it a gun shot came through the otherside. They had been waiting for them, they knew where they were heading. The bastard he kicked down prior to this probably saw them and reported it, dammit.

Prowl let out a strangled cry of pain as the shot landed right on his left shoulder (like it wasn't damaged enough by the lack of arm), Jazz fell backwards with the harsh motions, hitting the back of the pilot's seat, the impact leaving his vision to go dark for a few seconds before he collected himself as quickly as he could. In an instant though, just as he tried to get back up to see what was outside, Prowl had put his hand back over the open cockpit.

No...he wouldn't be able to fight like this, protecting him as he is would only hinder the bot to more damage. And that's exactly what Jazz intended to express to the other. "Prowl! You won't be able to fight with your hand over me! Forget about holding me inside, I won't leave, I promise!"

"That's not the point!" Prowl growled, letting out another hiss of pain as more shots were loaded, someone shouting out for them to stand down.

Prowl couldn't risk leaving Jazz exposed. Unlike the human, Prowl could take a few shots, their weapons not being strong enough to inflict any serious damage to his plating (though perhaps a bit to his exposed protoform, though he could handle it for a little while longer). But it would take one lucky shot on Jazz to have him dead in an instant, and Prowl couldn't take that chance.

It seemed like Jazz got the message, not spitting back any sort of remark about Prowl's lack of explanation.

But the mech couldn't linger too much on those thoughts, he had to get out, and fast. He was losing too much energon, and his vision was starting to get blurry, which wasn't a good sign. It didn't help that his thoughts were a hazy mess, his usual ability to think logically overthrown by the panic of needing to get out of this place while ensuring Jazz's survival.

It's not like he had much to do, though. Any possible escape hindered by the fact he couldn't use his weapons unless he risks Jazz's life to one lucky shot. Perhaps he could make a run for it, knock through the mechas in front of him and let them tumble over as he reached the final exit; it wasn’t the best plan perhaps, with at least a 19% rate of success, given he isn't in the best physical state at the moment, he probably wouldn't be strong enough to knock them over. Added to the fact the exit wasn't shut by a gate he could simply knock over easily either, like the previous one. He'd have to push it open from the bottom, and there wasn’t enough time for him to act on it.

But he'd have his back turned to the shots, reassuring Jazz's own safety, so he could perhaps risk removing his servo to push the gate open once more.

With a quick warning from his HUD telling him his energon levels were getting dangerously low, Prowl decided to take the risk, with little time left, he took a step forward making a run for it.

The mechas seemed to ready themselves for his attack, quickly positioning their weapons to target him, closing any narrow space they had between each other.

What they didn't expect was for the mech to charge his whole body weight onto them. Despite not feeling any pain, they certainly could not fight against gravity itself. They all stumbled against each other as Prowl made a mad dash to the gate. He slid on his knees and made a quick reach for the bottom of the gate, anxiously removing his hand from over the cockpit, bending over protectively as to not have anything be able to aim inside.

He could feel his spark beating fast from anxiety, they were so close, they'll be able to leave soon enough. Jazz was most certainly having a good feel to Prowl's anxious beat, the loud thruming reaching the bot's own audials was most certainly deafening to the human sitting near it.

Then, a shot.

A pop.

A blinding light.

And the beat stops.

Jazz was curling in on himself as an instinct to protect himself from the sudden burst behind him. It only took a few seconds for him to realise what that was once he couldn't hear a single beat of a spark, or the burning sensation it left, feeling his own heart stop and drop to his gut.

It felt like the world around him suddenly stopped, everything going into slow motion, with no sounds to accompany the dread. Feeling as Prowl's body leaned foward to crash on the ground.

But just as quickly as the silance came, it left. Prowl catching himself from hitting the ground with a grunt, a slam could be heard as his arm and elbow made contact with the concrete floor. His spark beating, weakly, but beating nonetheless. What felt like hours of silance was only a quick few seconds of deafening dread.

"Prowl!" Jazz called out in desperation, reaching out to hold the edges of the cockpit, so not to fall out, but to also try and comfort his anxiousness as he tried to look up at the mech's face. The mech made a sound of acknowledgement, which came out more like broken static, but didn't make much effort to move, his face scrunched up in pain, optics shut. They shot him on his back, too close to where his spark would be, causing him to skip a beat, and busting a bit of his left doorwing, but it still seemed to function somewhat.

Suddenly, both of them picked up on the sound of something opening, giving no time for either to fully process what had just occurred. Prowl made a quick move to get his hand over the cockpit once more (with slight struggle as he stumbled and fell on his aft) as a thick metal slab emerged from above and beneath, right in front of the gate, shutting it close with a protective layer of metal. Guessing by the red alarm ringing around them, an emergency protocol to keep anyone from leaving. Slag.

The mechas surrounded them, guns all aimed to shoot at the alien mech if he didn't comply.

It was silent for a brief moment, in exception to Prowl's anxious beating spark (which wasn't a problem for Jazz at the moment, the burning warmth being somewhat comforting) and Jazz's own heart beating over his ears. Both catching their breaths.

"There's no point in fighting. So make this easy for all of us and surrender yourselves." A nobody pilot finally spoke out, weapon leaning a tad closer than the others.

The atmosphere felt heavy, they were pinned down. Really, the only thing they could do was surrender, but Jazz would sure as hell be reprimanded for his actions and Prowl.....he didn’t want to think about that. No, he wouldn't even allow that thought to become any sort of reality.

"Prowl" he whispered, knowing only the mech would hear him, leaning a gentle souch to his servo as if to beg, "I know you might not have alot of trust 'n me, but this might be our best shot." There was a tense shift, not too noticeble unless you could see the mechanisms from the inside, Prowl knew what he was about to suggest. "You need to let me pilot you." He cringed as he felt the other's servo stiffen, he wasn't pleased with the idea, and neither was Jazz, but he knew this place alot better than Prowl did, and knew how to properly defeat the mechas, knowing their weak spots. And Prowl was all too aware of that too, Jazz knew it. They both were very aware of it all.

"Please," he begged, leaning his forehead on the mech's servo yet again, "I can't lose you again." There was slight shift, Jazz looked up, though he obviously couldn't see the mech's face, the sigh he let out was loud and clear. The controls on the pilot's seat shifted, Jazz got the message:

'Alright'

He couldn't help but let a small smirk creep over his face, making way to sit down and start piloting.

"Under one condition though," Prowl suddenly whispered to him, though it was alot louder to Jazz on the inside.

"And what would that be, partner?" The title flew out too fast for Jazz to stop himself, feeling so natural to call Prowl partner once more. The mech didn't seem against it though.

"No removing my hand."

Jazz was left stunned for a quick second, though it felt like a minute for Prowl as he waited for a reply eagerly.

"I can work with that." Prowl let out a sigh of relief at that, allowing the human, his partner, to take control of him again.

It took a moment for Jazz to adjust himself, in the meantime, the people waited outside anxiously for the other to make a move. When Prowl finally started to shift around to stand up with a small grunt, everyone raised their guns and loaded them up, but didn't shoot just yet. The mech looked up at them with a deadly glare, but made no move to attack, his remaining arm not leaving the open cockpit for a second, he simply stood up with a slight slump to his posture, doorwings drooping down slightly. In all possible ways, he looked weak and defeated, no signs of fighting back.

One of the mechas walked closer, gun still aiming at Prowl, but it was lowered slightly. They reached a hand out expectantly.

"The pilot, hand him over." They demanded, no sympathy whatsoever.

Prowl clutched his chasis, anger pooling over in his spark, doorwings twitching up slightly, but he made no move to attack. Not yet. He heard Jazz speak to him in a low tone so only he could hear it, with a sigh, he relaxed. He slowly, very slowly, drew out his hand from the cockpit, the action in itself having the other mecha have their body relax slightly as they approached the mech, weapon being put down slightly enough, and so did the others around them. Jackpot.

Before he fully removed his servo, the mech made move to crouch down and in a swift motion swung a peed over to the mechas own, catching them off balance and knocking them down. Jazz let out a small hiss to the action, forgetting his own injured leg, but pushed on regardless.

Using the thrusters of his doorwings, they were able to balance themselves back up, Prowl's servo going back into fully protecting it's pilot once more. With most weapons being aimed up and not down, it took a delayed second to aim correctly, but it was enough time for the human and cybertronian duo to twist themselves out of harms way.

Before the fallen pilot could attempt to get up, Jazz made move to aim over the weak spot of their mecha's knee and stepped hard enough to break its mechanisms so they couldn't stand back up easily. But the glory was short lived as more shots were fired their way.

Jazz's hand twitched to move and use its weapons, but he resisted the urge with a slight huff, "Man, 's hard to fight without an arm!"

"This is none negotiable, Jazz." Prowl hissed as they made move to avoid more shots.

"I know, I know! Don't mean it makes it easier!" Jazz tried to analyse their surroundings, though it was made difficult with the many HUD warnings from all the injuries (the pilot couldn't help but mutter a broken "I'm so sorry" to his partner, whether the mech heard him or not he wasn't sure), but pushing through it, he took note of a few key details. There was a metal catwalk grate near above the mechas' heads, running with a few on ground troops, the bastard of a boss being one of the few amongst them. Near a corner stood an elevator to go up and down the area.

How that could help, Jazz wasn't sure yet.

A shot hit Prowl's arm, pain flowed through the mech as he moved out of the way once more. Jazz looked around in a frenzy to find a place to shield themselves....the mechas! Making a run for to the lifeless husks, he swivelled around between them and hid behind the many rows of mechas knowing full well that they would not risk such precious resource and money just to reach them. At least he hoped not, because he just needed a little bit of time to figure something out.

Hearing the big man call out to hold their fire was good enough indication that his idea worked.

"Ok, now we just need somethin' to distract them long enough for us to make a jump to the ceiling." Jazz explained

"The ceiling?" Prowl inquired, not so certain about his partner's ability to properly think at the moment.

Jazz rolled his eyes, but didn't make mention of the mech's tone. "It's the weakest point here, plus" he made way for Prowl to look up to where he remembered the area to be at, "there's a trap door for flying mechas and emergencies. One quick press of a button will open it up, even under "safety protocols."" Prowl let out a hum in thought, seeming to analyse the situation.

"Possible, but where is this said button?"

"Behind the elevator, by the catwalk grating on top. There's a control panel, and one big red button, can't miss it."

"Would smashing it still get it to work?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't have any complaints."

"Good, now," Jazz went back to scanning the area, "how to cause a distraction?"

"Would that broken pipe be of any use?" Prowl made an effort to twitch his head over to the direction of what he wanted Jazz to see. And just as the mech stated, there, by the first floor of the elevator, stood a broken pipe, steam coming out of it.

Jazz smirked "it would actually. If we can get somethin' to shoot at it, we might cause an explosion, giving us time to jump up without being the target anymore."

"Sounds like a plan." Prowl shrugged.

"Don't have anything to add?" Jazz asked a bit surprised.

"No, I don't." The pilot didn't push.

"Okay. Well, let's get these bastards shootin." In quick motion, they made way to the elevator, already hearing the commands to shoot fire, 'but watch for the machines!' Weapons were loaded from above as well, shooting down at the two runaways once again.

Jazz made sure to move swiftly behind the mechas, making sure they were shielded properly. Any gaps they had to cross was a small risk they needed to take, scrapes and scratches being left in its wake, but tried not to do it too often, just enough that they could follow them. They eventually reached where the pipes were, Jazz took a deep breath.

"Ready, big guy?"

"Ready."

They stepped foward, making sure to call the attention towards where they were, but quickly retrieting back behind the mechas suits as they shot directly where they wanted to hit. "Bingo."

Quickly, activating Prowl's thrusters, they leaped over to the metal grates that stood above them as the pipes behind them burst, causing a huge commotion as empty mechas fell down and whatever machine near the crossfire tumbled down. Prowl let out a gasp as he felt the world around him spin, the grating beneath them not being of any help as it shook with his weight. Jazz was quick to hold on, helping the mech stablise himself before aiming with his left foot to kick the big red button with their ticket out of here, the motion causing his vision to flash in pain, but he bit his toung until he could taste iron and pushed forward.

Hearing the metal door above them open up, Jazz readied himself, but hesitated with the warning he'd received from Prowl's HUD from his low energon levels. He didn’t even get the chance to fully check on it though, Prowl quickly pushing them out of the way himself.

"I'll live, just one more push." The mech hastily reassured the human. Jazz wasn't inclined to belive it though, feeling the other's spark beat anxiously (and for some reason that made him feel slightly dizzy. Though he chalked it up to it being his possible concussion).

It took one shot to slip an inch away from Prowl's face for them to finally snap out of it and jump. One more push from his thrusters as they flew up through the trap door and landed on top of the roof with a grunt, the mech's left wing finally giving out.

But they weren’t in the clear yet. Looking out, a wasteland of a forest awaited them, with dense trees at the bottom.

"We'll have to make a jump for it. If we're lucky enough the trees will be big enough to hide us." Jazz supplied.

"45% of that happening. But we don't have much of another option at the moment." Prowl added

With all that being said, Jazz moved into action. With so much at stake, he had to, he couldn't waste another second in debating. Hefting Prowl up, he used all remaining strength to jump where they needed to go, but as the training grounds began to get closer than anticipated, Prowl knew they didn’t make the jump and that made the mech almost freeze.

Though Jazz had other plans, because as their impending flat doom approached in rapid speed, Prowl's remaining thruster burst to life and gave that final impusle they needed to reach the slope. They both braced themselves as they were thrown up and over to their intended destination, Prowl having half a mind to tighten his hold over his chest so none of the debris and impact could reach the fragile human still in his care.

They rolled down the slope, Prowl just barely being able to shift himself so that he was sliding on his back instead. The aggresive motion of going down a not so smooth path causing bigger cuts and slashes against his already damaged frame. But the only thing he could think of at the moment was that they made it.

Jazz was quick to let go of his control over Prowl, who in turn made an effort to sit properly. Though the sudden slamming to his servo made him look down worriedly, moving it slightly to see Jazz leaning on it desperately.

"Prowl-" he heaved, "Prowl put me down I'm feeling sick."

The mech panicked and quickly made move to help the human down, gently placing him on the grass below. Jazz made no effort in being graceful as he hurled over and puked his guts out, luckily avoiding Prowl in all of this.

Clutching his stomach in pain, his heaving and coughs agitating the injuries on his abdomen. Everything around him felt blurry and muffled as his body made sure to get everything he had eaten in the past day out of him.

What made him panic was the sudden taste of iron in his mouth as he coughed up whatever he had left inside. That's not good. And that definitely didn't escape the giant mech's notice, who kept a hovering servo near him.

"Jazz! Is that blood?!" His voice sounded so broken, static lacing over his words.

"Uh- Yeah. Yeah it is." He wasn't sure how to deny that really, and he felt too light-headed to try. But his attention diverted to the sudden pink glow that landed at the side of his vision.

Energon.

Quickly looking up, he finally got a glance at his partner's battered condition. Energon leaked from many different parts of his body, but the main source being from his missing arm. Jazz couldn't help but cringe at that.

But what hurt him the most to see was the weak light from the mech's optics, which still held visible concern on them. Despite being close to going into offline, he still looked at Jazz as if he's about the crumble into dust and leave him. Which he honestly, maybe, felt like. But seeing Prowl's optics flicker as they fought to stay online, Jazz panicked

"What 'bout you?!" He called back, catching the bot off guard. "You're losing too much energon! You look like you're about to go offline!"

Prowl cringed a little, not having anything to counter that. "Well that's because I-"

"No! I'm only a little bit dizzy, but I'll live. We need to patch you up right now!"

"I can help with that."

The new voice catches the duo off guard, Prowl immediately reaching out to Jazz, hand shielding the human from whoever that might be. Jazz looked down from where he was looking at Prowl and turned to see who it was that the voice came from.

There standing in front of them was a human carrying a simple tool box and a huge backpack strapped over one shoulder, filled with questionable things.

---

BEFORE YOU LEAVE, a little something I would like to point out for the fic, that some of yall with either like or not, during the process of writing this, I've seen a few posts keferon made about the spark being radioactive and such, and it sorta made me think a bit while developing Jazz's condition. So well, take Jazz's health in this as you will with this info :)

But anyways, yippie!! That's all for today folks! I hope yall enjoyed this one bc I definitely had a heck of a time writing this one XD

It got alot bigger than I anticipated and took much longer to finish than I originally planned (was supposed to be done 2 days ago).

Now, I know I keep saying "not sure if I'll make another part to this" but then proceed to do so anyways. But I mainly do so because everytime I shared it someone said something that added to the story somehow and gave me ideas to continue foward.

So like, if yall liked this and wanna see more, don't be shy to suggest/add anything to this as it may help inspire me to add more onto this, cuz honestly idk what the fuck I'm doing rn, I'm just going with the flow ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Also, a bit of note for the doodle, holy shit I did not expect it to look this good!! Tho I suffered with Jazz's suit, plz ignore any inaccuracies tee-hee. Prowl's knee and hands were hell too, especially his knee, but i could like, hide most of it lmao. Actually mainly struggled to not have his hand cover Jazz too much bc it kept covering the parts I actually wanted to show off lmao.

Oh and the guy at the end? Yall can take a good guess as to who it is :)

But since he doesn't have any official design, I kinda went with whatever felt right lol.

I also really wanted to draw out more scenes to add to the fic, but then it would take me a lot more time to actually post the fic as I figure out how to draw robots :'). But maybe I can try and doodle them out another time if I can, no promises tho-

[kyri45]

Not me abusing the asks to both share my love for the bioparents AU AND rant about the panels because none of my friends are in the LMK fandom and I'm suffering here so TAKE MY LOVE AND APPRECIATION ABOUT YOUR ART I guess x)

So first of all

I am a SUCKER for that kind of leaning in frames I'm going to print that and plaster it on my wall THEY ARE EVERYTHING /hj

I almost jumped of my chair when this one popped up YOU FED US GOOD its so worth the angst train incoming. Of course the panels before and after were equally as amazing but if I start going about every single panel we're still here in three days AT THE VERY LEAST LOL

Of course this one made me laugh like please their little faces

Using that to point out how much I love ALLLLLLL the silly faces you put in your comics I'm munching on them every single time they're crushy like chips or something just. Nom nom. Yummy.

Poor Nesha (Nesha? Nezha? Neja? I have no idea on how to write his name I already forgor LMAO) needs to be payed more. He tries to save MK and ends up dealing with two lovesick teenagers demons who have no concept of time/place/occasion apparently. Poor him. He gets a pat on the head for his troubles

And of course just the "NOPE I'M KEEPING HIM" mode and honestly we should have seen it coming- Red son was planning to courtnap him and didn't sleep in the past 5 days so he's not having any bullshit YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIS NOODLE BOY AWAY-

Could bet he spent so long thinking about the cournapping in the 5 past days his brain just cannot process that yeah maybe you need to let him down you're just going to drag him in more troubles- Either that or he's just going full protective mode. Both options are good anyways sooooo :)

We stan a protective boyfriend in this house.

---

And finally I'm SOOOOO hyped about whatever is coming next like I know that technically we're supposed to suffer but please I climbed up the angst train so many times now I'm just enjoying it by that point lol. It'll just make the following fluff even more worth it

Also I cannot wait to see MK's plan about the contract I'm so curious I'm dying I love you boys but I really want the plot to progress you can go back to kissing later lol

Finally, thank you for creating this AU. It's stumbling randomly upon it on my tik tok fyp that dragged me into watching Lego Monkie Kid and really THANK YOU FOR THAT. It's such an amazing show I CANNOT BELIEVE I didn't discovered it sooner so really thank for having created this comic because else I could have missed LMK and that would be just saaaad

Fun fact: since I had never interacted with LMK the first time I read your comic, I for some reason thought Macaque was a female (and I probably would have thought the same of Wukong if he wasn't called... well, Wukong because I randomly stumbled upon the myth's Wikipedia page at some point in my life XD). The shock I felt when I heard Macaque for the first time in the show because his voice was soooooo not what I expected x) I'm still laughing at myself to this day

So yeah, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, and I can't wait to see what you're going to pull next :D Wish you allllll the best <3

(I can totally wait, of course, it's just a figure of speech. Take your time, I could wait forever for the next chapter)

ahaha thank you for such a lovely comment!! Glad the scene gived "MINE" vibes as I was planning ahah.

Youu're welcome! It's an honor to serve this fandom. *bows*

[cow-smells]

Worth your While | Opla! Sanji x reader

Request: I've read that you are in the need for some Sanji request or ideas so here's one for a fic :D

The crew gets into a fight ( it can be the Navy or anither pirate crew) and the reader gets badly hit and Sanji just loses his shit seeing the person that he cared for the most getting knocked out?? I just genuinely wanna see Sanji just go ape shit on people because of it XD and maybe hiw the others in the clue will react to seeing Sanji like that? @smolracoon25

Summary: You and Sanji have been playing the flirting game for way too long. When you get injured, Sanji shows a side of himself you had yet to see.

Word count: 2.1k

Warnings: none

A/n: I'm going purely off the live-action so pls have that in mind, also I'm just getting back in to the rhythm of writing after such a long time so sorry if this is poop/ooc/both, love ya :)

Read on AO3

“Don't you ever take a break?”

Zoro's voice coming from behind startled you, forcing you to break your longing gaze at Sanji who was fishing at the bow of the ship. “Huh?” came your wise response.

Zoro looked from you to Sanji. “You've been making moon eyes at him for months now. Don't you get tired? Or are you waiting for him to take his shift staring at you so that you can clock off?”

You felt heat rising to your cheeks. This was far from the first time crew members commented about you and Sanji's – whatever was going on between you two – but this was the first time Zoro called you out so blatantly.

When you didn't respond, Zoro went on. “I just came to tell you we should be docking soon. I'll leave you the pleasure of telling the cook.” with that, he left.

You closed the book on your lap. You really did have the intention of reading when you first head out to the deck, having some time to kill, but then... you noticed Sanji. At first you thought you'd go sit with him for a while, flirt and banter a little as you always do, but you found yourself absorbed in taking him in instead. He was different when he was alone. The way he looked so focused, so deep in thought when it was just him and the sea. Maybe even a little sad. So different from his usual sunny exterior that he put on when he was with people. Falling in to deep thoughts wondering what he might be thinking about – maybe about you? - you sat and stared, not reading as much as a word.

The book discarded, you felt a spring in your step as you made your way to the ship's chef.

The creaking floorboards alerted your arrival. Sanji turned to see who was creeping up on him, and when he saw you, he set his fishing rod aside as a wide smile grew on his lips, his dimples deepening and making your heart miss a beat. “There's my favourite girl. Come here, let me hear all about your day.” Sanji held his arms open, beckoning you to come sit on his lap.

The flirting was nothing new. When you first joined the Strawhats, Sanji was as flirty to you as he was to any other woman; he did not expect to meet his match in you. You were quick to play along, always one-upping him, dancing along the line that separated playfulness and seriousness, never quite picking a side.

The problem was, in reality, you had chosen a side long ago.

You would flirt and giggle and make him blush but never actually act upon anything. Neither would Sanji. He, however, took your playing along as though it was a battle to be won. Sanji would flirt, you'd reply with something raunchy, he would surprise you with something heartfelt. It was as though he knew exactly where to hit in order to get you a little closer to buckling, every time. As time went on he had become so devoted to your back and forth that you noticed he had gradually abandoned all other efforts flirting with other women, to focus entirely on you.

You had to remind yourself that this was a game to him. An instinct, almost. It hurt to think of your relationship that way, but you had to keep that thought at the forefront of your mind if you didn't want to fall even harder for him.

So you would continue to play along, even if that's all that you could have with him.

You chose not to indulge him completely – that was too dangerous for you – and so you opted to bend a knee over the armrest of his chair. Close, but no contact. “Come on, Sanji,” you bent your head in what felt like a bashful manner and said, “you know I spent all day thinking of you.”

You weren't sure if he was blushing or if that was just your wishful thinking. Composing himself, Sanji wrapped an arm around you to hold your waist, lightly tracing circles on your hip. “I beg of you, darling – next time, come find me instead of just thinking of me. I'll make it worth your while.”

You wanted to ask, how will you make it worth my while? Just to hear Sanji go in to detail of what you've been fantasizing about for months. But instead, you opted for a tamer response. “I came to tell you we're docking soon. Maybe I'll find you then and you could make it worth my while with a drink.”

Without missing a beat, Sanji took hold of your hand, bringing it to his lips. “There's nothing I'd enjoy more.” With that, he kissed your hand, his eyes never leaving yours.

Docking started out normal. Everyone knew what their usual chores were when you reached a town, restocking and fixing so that the ship would be in top condition for its next leg of the journey in your search for the One Piece. So while Sanji went in to town to restock on groceries (you didn't pay much attention to the others), you, Nami and Usopp stayed around the ship to fix up some of the damage it took when you last encountered a rival pirate ship. That also happened to be the reason it was just you three when the same rival pirates noticed your ship docked, ready to take their revenge.

The three of you had your individual talents, but you just weren't enough to hold up against an entire rival crew. They had attacked so suddenly and so fiercely – it didn't take long before you were on the sand, fighting to stay conscious. You lost that fight as you watched Usopp try his best to fight off three attackers at once.

You really thought that would be the end for you. You should have known better; it was Sanji's voice you heard as you regained consciousness, motivating you to open your eyes despite the pain that flooded your body.

The beach area all around you was covered with pirates who were taken down, just like you – only that they were your enemies. You first noticed Nami's orange hair – she seemed to be taking care of a bleeding Usopp, his condition worse than yours. Following Sanji's voice, you found him holding the last one of the rival crew by his shirt, throwing punches like you've never seen him before. It took you aback – thinking about it, you had never seen Sanji use his hands in combat. Too precious – need them for cooking, he'd once told you before adding, the only thing more precious to me is you. It had made you blush at the time before you had laughed him off. Now, you were questioning if it was a joke at all.

The man Sanji was holding wasn't putting up a fight – he was far too battered for that, but Sanji didn't stop. He was too far away for you to understand what he was saying to the guy, but focusing hard, you could just about make out half sentences – "to hit a woman" – "don't deserve to breath" – "finish you" – you searched for the strength to get up and stop him. You had never seen Sanji – your happy, cheerful Sanji – so angry, feral even. It scared you a little; but mostly, you knew Sanji would regret it if he were to kill a man who no longer posed a threat. So you grasped at the sand, forcing your aching bones to pick yourself up. But as you were regaining your balance, Sanji finally threw the man to the sand, a look of disgust painting his handsome features. "Finally made a date with her and you ruined it... You hurt her. You're lucky I don't kill you." The man groaned in pain.

In a sharp change, his features went from anger to concern as he finally left the man and turned to where he last saw you laying. His eyes were full of honest pain, until he saw you on your feet – then they read of hope. "Y/n!" Sanji called, rushing to you as he could see your struggle to stand upright. "You- I-" he scanned your body as he reached you, taking in all visible injuries. "Are you – are you okay? Can I help you?" he reached an arm around your waist, waiting for your approval before he held on to help you stay up, so afraid he might hurt you.

"Thanks." his arm around you really helped you to stay up. It was a practical measure, sure, any one of your crew mates would do the same – but when you look up and meet Sanji's eyes, you know that the tense feeling between you two wouldn't have been replicated with anyone else. "I mean it. You saved us. We'd... I'd be lost without you." at that, Sanji smiled that deep-dimpled smile of his at you, the playfulness not reaching his still-concerned eyes.

"Y/n," he started. "are you really flirting with me, at a time like this?"

It was strange how despite all your injuries, you felt less and less of the pain the longer you leaned in to Sanji, close enough to smell his fragrance. A half-smile reached your lips. You couldn't play this game any longer. "Did you really beat that guy up that bad because he ruined what should have been our... date?"

Sanji tensed, obviously not ready to have this conversation now. His gaze dropped momentarily before he wrapped his other arm around your waist, holding you tightly to him. "I had a hundred reasons to kill him," Sanji said, and you felt disappointment bubbling through you until he continued, "but the most pressing reason is that he ruined our date."

Sanji took the opportunity to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear and you couldn't help but smile so big you were embarrassed by it. "I really wanted that drink with you, away from the ship and everyone else. Just us."

You recomposed yourself. You needed clarity. "I'm not playing anymore, Sanji."

Sanji chuckled. "Fancy that. I was never playing at all."

You must have forgotten how to breath at all when he leaned down, his hand finding a rest on your neck as his thumb caressed your cheek. Nearly a whisper, he asked – "Can I kiss you?"

You leaning in served as the consent he searched for. After months of pining over each other, wondering what it would be like – his lips met yours, in a mixture of softness and passion like you'd never felt before. Forgetting you were injured at all you sneaked your arms around his neck, pulling him in, almost afraid of letting this anticipated moment of passion go. Sanji was more than happy to pull closer, a hand on your lower back holding you impossibly close to him.

The moment did, however, find its end as you heard your Captain whoop and holler from afar. "Yeah! Way to go, Sanji! About damn time!"

Breaking the kiss, Sanji nodded at Luffy, his smile lines prominent as he looked the proudest you'd ever seen him.

The crew was more than happy to make a quick exit that night, preferring to not stay around until the rival crew regained their strength. You were helping Nami untie the ropes anchoring the ship to the dock when she said, "I really thought he was going to kill him earlier." you didn't know how to respond. "I've never seen Sanji like that." Nami managed to untie a knot, and Zoro began pulling the rope up on to the ship. "He's really got it bad for you."

Despite that questionable context, you couldn't help but smile. In a burst of honesty you confessed; "I hope so, because I've got it real bad for him, too."

On cue, the ship's chef leaned over the ships railing, looking down to you. "Y/n, my love!" he called, as though the rest of the crew wasn't surrounding the both of you. "I hope you're finished down there, because I've got a candlelit dinner waiting for you up here. And drinks. You know, to make it worth your while," he finished with a wink.

From behind Sanji you could hear Luffy ask, "What about our dinner? Just because you're lovers now doesn't mean we don't need to eat..."

Sanji sighed and turned away from you, probably to go protect your dinner before Luffy demolished it.

"Right then, let's go," Nami said as you finished untying the last rope. "While there's still food to eat."

And for the first time, you boarded your ship not to find the One Piece or the All Blue – you were just happy to be there, with the man you loved.

[earthtooz]

earth i need to catch up on ur ratio fics (i read some of flower one and i ate that shit up omg) because now the thought of seething annoying veritas being all angry whenever you even look at someone else infests my mind like an annoying worm. i hope you know this is what those fics do to me

x : EQUILIBRIUM : *+ﾟ

in which: ratio navigates through the perplexities of pining after you.

warnings: fluff, 1.6k words, intelligentsia guild!gn!reader is kind of a social butterfly and talkative, ratio is so pathetic i love him T^T, alcohol, aventurine feature! my writing isn't the best for this one i apologise :,D

a/n: thank u for the ask mhie!! i wanted to say that you enabled me perfectly because ever since his release, i've only ever thought about this one scenario where he's staring at reader from afar and absolutely seething because he's not the one talking to them xD sorry for taking so long omfg and im sorry for turning this into a fic, i just saw my opportunity and lunged at it like an animal rawr

Jealousy and envy are not familiar concepts to Dr. Ratio.

He knows of them, understands the inner workings and philosophical aptitude of both, knowing that they lead man down irrational paths. Yet, for all his years, he has not felt the bitterness of jealousy and envy squeeze him, cannot fathom why one cannot control their feelings and maintain modesty. 

Perhaps, the root of it was whatever Ratio wanted, he received. The only thing he has ever craved is knowledge, and it is available for him with the flick of a page, absorbing even the most complex of theories with ease. Conceptual, mathematical, scientific- not a single school of thought has hidden itself from his vast mind, proven by the many PhDs he has with his name.

Everything fickle that anyone could ever crave has long been his. 

Envious over someone else’s wealth? Money comes and goes, and merely serves as a medium of exchange. As long as he has enough to live comfortably, then he is content. Having too much of one thing can often result in a bottomless pit of wanting more, and material good was perhaps the most evil of all.

Jealous over someone else’s beauty? Compliments and adoration are not an unfamiliar concept to him; one glance at what’s under that stone mask will have others fawning over him instantly. He claims the mask is to protect him from idiots, but perhaps it also serves to shield others from the walking sculpture that is the Veritas Ratio, sharp features and toned body, there is nothing undesirable about him.

In conclusion, jealousy and envy are not familiar concepts to Dr. Ratio. Until he met you.

A fellow member of the Intelligentsia Guild but in another department, you too are a favoured delegate of the IPC, frequently attending the same events and trips as him. Thus, it was only natural that you’d become acquainted and that he’d grow to respect you, hearing about your achievements and dedications as an academic. What was unnatural, however, was the palpitations of his heart, weakness in his knees, paired with an overwhelming excitement to see you.

He’s no fool. These sensations were all symptoms of romantic attraction, but you were a variable uncounted for in the distribution of his life, and he was not ready for an outlier so powerful that it completely ‘skewed’ him over.  

Now, he laments in the corner of champagne parties meant for socialites. He is no lover of mundane interaction but as his contract with the IPC, he comes as a representative of the Intelligentsia Guild. 

These formal events always drained the life out of him, needing him to discard his everyday, flowey, carefree attire for a constraining suit, conforming him into the regular majority. 

He raises the glass of champagne to his lips and takes a small sip, the liquor serves as lubricant to the throat. The smooth finish of the drink is exactly what he needs; talking about the same subject again and again becomes exhausting, and even though it is in his role criteria, Ratio cannot wait to leave.

But he won’t, because he hasn’t seen you yet. 

Glancing around the room for the upteemth time this evening, you still have not entered his line of sight, and he leans against the bar in disappointment.

“Oh, why the long face, Ratio?” A mischievous voice coos from beside him. “It’s not a good look on you.”

“Spare me your sentiments, gambler,” Ratio spits back.

“As you wish. Not enjoying the party?”

“If you have something you wish to say then please, spare me the pleasantries.”

Aventurine laughs, all boisterous and extravagant, gold jewelry clicking against each other, as if coming alive to match his jovialness. He really is a personified headache. “You’re looking for someone, aren’t you?”

The scholar tenses, muscles tugging at the stiff fabric of his blazer, but that micro action was enough of an answer for Aventurine.

A gloved hand points up to the mezzanine of the grand hall. Ratio spots you, leaning against the railing whilst conversing with another man, one briefly talked to earlier. If he didn’t like him before, then he certainly didn’t now.

Handsome face turning into a small scowl, it’s almost as if you feel the intensity of a certain, golden stare, causing you to turn around and find the source, eyes eventually landing on the figures of a coworker or two. A brief smile graces your face before you turn around again, turning your back on the two onlookers.

Ratio loathes what he sees, and something within him yearns to be the only man you look at, causing an ugly, green sensation to brew within him; a concoction that can only be labelled as ‘jealousy’.

He just cannot figure out what other men have that he doesn’t; what is making him secondary in your heart? Why do you give these... idiots the time of day when you could be with him- talking to him?

It's all too perplexing, you make him perplexed.

“Well, go on, doctor,” Aventurine prompts. “Place your bets before it’s too late.” 

The purple-haired sighs, pushing himself off the bar. His feet take him to you, up the velvet-carpeted stairs. His gaze never strays from you, ensuring you stay within his line of sight and eventually, he stops right behind you, acting as a looming shadow.

His gaze is cold, hoping to pierce through your conversation partner so he can finally cower away and make room for Ratio.

“Doctor!” You exclaim, surprised by his sudden appearance. “When did you get here?”

Taking a hint, the stranger finally begins to peel himself away. “It was lovely talking to you, Y/n. I hope this won’t be our last conversation.”

“Likewise, have a lovely evening,” you farewell him with a small smile as the other party turns and eventually disappears from sight.

Finally. Triumph and victory settles in Ratio’s chest when your attention is directed solely at him, but you look up at him with arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.

“I swore I saw you downstairs moments ago, how did you get up here so fast?”

“I simply walked a normal pace, is that so abnormal?”

“I suppose not,” you huff, rolling your eyes. Veritas allows himself a glance over of your outfit, admiring you. “Have you talked to anyone interesting?”

You are by far the most interesting part of the evening, he thinks.

“Hardly,” he murmurs. 

“My guess is that you’d prefer to be grading student papers?” You muse, leaning in closer.

His heartbeat spikes. “Well, that is hard to say. Which would you prefer?”

“As much as I love my students, I need a break from the same thesis statements regurgitated in different formats. I’d rather be here.”

“Then that is my answer too.”

You give him a look that says ‘really?’, clearly not believing his aloof statement. Truthfully, he would rather be here because here is where you are, and he’d like a few moments with you before returning to the gloominess of his office. The hour hand is only at 11, what’s the rush?

Then, your eyes flicker to his neckline and they widen briefly, as if finding an issue with his tuxedo. “Hold still,” you command, hands coming up to rest on his sturdy chest.

You’re fixing his tie, he realises, feeling the fabric tighten ever so slightly as you adjust it. When you’re done, you flatten out the material with a satisfied smile, running your hands casually over his chest, and he hopes you cannot feel his heart jump. How do you touch him so easily, as if it means nothing?

“It was crooked,” you explain, “now you are looking as sharp as ever, Doc.”

“Thank you,” is the best thing he can sputter out.

“No problem, we need to have our genius looking proper at all times!”

Ratio is too stunned to speak, he fears that if he tried, whatever leaves his mouth will result in a various garbles and attempts at sentences.

Thankfully, you haven’t run out of words to say. “Oh, I have yet to get a drink! Will you accompany me? I could go for some refreshments right now.”

He nods and extends an arm for you to hold, and you happily accept it, holding onto his bicep as you ramble on about a conversation exchanged earlier in the night. If you were anyone else, he would not have cared in the slightest, but instead, he listens intently, taking slow and measured steps downstairs so you are comfortable.

In this bubble, the esteemed scholar is content. With you so close, it feels as if everything has clicked into place, like the scales of fate have finally balanced and equilibrium has been achieved. He could listen to you forever.

Unfortunately, all good things don’t last, because a face Ratio doesn’t recognise approaches you, hand resting on your shoulder. Judging from the manner of which they address and talk to you, you are close, and you don’t shrug them off. Next thing he knows, you’re ripped away from him, dragged into the sea of people.

You spare him a glance over your shoulder, as if apologising for the sudden disruption.

Still, he sighs, left behind with nothing but fervent symptoms of love clinging to his being, squeezing him for all he is.

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