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letaliabane · 3 years ago

Note

Okay first, Ur battinson fics are so perfect and each one leaves me wanting more!!!

So I had this thought why not bruce having a wife and she knows he is batman and worries about him all the time but she is the one healing him and taking care of his injuries and stuff, so to follow the timeline of the movie how about we see a worried Bruce/batman at the scene when the city floods? U know he pickes her up and makes sure she is in a safe place and they lock eyes when he decides to cut the elecricity wire and she thinks he is dying then they just reunite?

I had this idea since watching the movie and if u don’t like it I am totally okay with ut and can’t wait to read more of battinson fics. Stay safe and sending love🤍🤍

the assistant and the wife

bruce wayne x reader/batman x reader

spoilers for the movie!! (do yourselves a favour and go see it!)

warnings: near drowning, description of wounds, stitches

genre: married couple being a badass team, angst, soft!brucewayne

a/n: andddd I am back! Sorry for the break just needed to have some time to myself to regenerate. omg I love this idea so much thank you for sending in your request @pedrohoe04 !

‘Y/N where are you?!’

A small shriek left you, jumping as your earpiece crackled to life, trying to remain casual as you reached up to fix your hair.

You had been the wife of Bruce Wayne for many years, to the Batman you had been his “assistant” and “confidant” since the very beginning of his journey.

Well, nearly the beginning, you had caught Alfred taking a tray of medical tools and painkillers towards the elevator hurriedly one night. Letting some time passed you followed to find the old underground railroad turned into a facility, and in the corner opposite the elevator, is where the butler stood over the Batman, or as you found out, your husband who stared at you wide eyed.

It had been a hard pill to swallow at first, taking some time away from him before returning and accepting his new life.

The only condition? You had be apart of it; no more secrets between the two of you. And though he struggled with it at first, Bruce eventually accepted the terms.

Which is how you became his assistant! Helping with cases by doing more research, solving cyphers, and using your power as Mrs Wayne to sometimes disguise his sudden disappearances or even to gain favours or more information for his cases.

‘I’m at the Bella Reál’s First Speech! Why? How did the visit at Arkham go-’

‘You need to get somewhere safe! It’s about to be filled with thousands of Gotham’s citizens-’

Suddenly you saw the doors burst open, people rushing in hysterical, running down the staircases, those who were seated turning to them in confusion.

‘Bruce what the hell is going on-’

‘Nashton. He bombed the ravines across the city, wanted to see the people crawl, uproot the corruption from the hierarchy, wanted me right where he wanted-’

Your eyes widened at the revelation, getting to your feet and beginning to push your way through the growing crowds.

‘So you’re saying it may have been his plan all along for all this to happen?’

‘Yes I just-I didn’t see it! I can’t believe I didn’t see all the signs and missed the-’

‘Hey!’ You call to him, ‘You know now! Thats all that matters. You’ve gotta focus and do what you’ve got to do!‘

As his wife you knew Bruce tended to tumble into a rabbit hole with his thoughts and all you wanted to do was comfort him, to stop him from putting himself down. But you couldn’t.

This was the assistant in you talking. You couldn’t mollycoddle him. You never did in situations where it concerned the Batman. Not when people’s lives were at risk.

You heard him take a deep breath. ‘Your right, I know what to do. Be safe Y/N.’

‘You too Batsy.’

When the line went completely silent, you slowly made your way up the stairs and got to work.

Not wanting to raise any alarms or frighten anyone, you began to coax people towards the higher levels of the arena as a ‘recommendation.’ Many easily went up at the recognition of ‘Mrs Wayne’ before them, some others taking a little more convincing.

Only when the cops began to roll in did you finally make your way up higher. That was until suddenly gunshots went off high above, a shriek leaving you and many others, immediately sending people into a frenzy, even louder screams echoing across the cavernous space.

Glancing upwards you barely caught sight of the gunmen before multiple explosions went off, the entire glass ceiling caving in, a great black shadow falling over them sending them to their knees or to the stage below.

You couldn’t help but smirk before rushing up the stairs.

Amidst the chaos, the rattling metal and the shaking of the walls increased, water beginning to pour like waterfalls down the staircases into the lower levels. From what you could make out through the darkness was most people up at a relative level away from the oncoming danger.

The crying of a child caught your attention. A young girl now hip deep in the water, arms flailing, the water rising faster and faster around her. Glancing around, a deep anger burned in your stomach at the lack of help anyone was providing, looking between one another.

Without hesitation you dropped your things and jumped into the water, momentarily cursing as the coldness sweeping over you like pins and needles. You were quick to scoop the little one up into your arms, swimming over to the highest staircase where a man stood, handing over the child.

Reaching to climb out of the water suddenly you were pulled under into the cold depths, a tight grip on the back of your blouse dragging you back. Struggling, you kicked and threw your weight against the body on top of you.

Gasping as you came up from the water, you shoved them away; it was a man, his head wrapped in duct tape with cracked glasses that shone brightly in the lights; just like the Riddlers. He lunged at you with a growl, arms aimed perfectly for your head where he shoved you back down, holding you under the water by your shoulders.

Thrashing, you slammed your hands against him but began to feel your arms go limp until he was suddenly gone from above you. You scarcely know how you were pulled out of the water, only that you’re puking your guts out across the ground on all fours.

‘What did I say about being safe Y/N?!’

Blinking rapidly, looking up into the familiar face of Batman as he pushed away the wet hair out of your face. His eyes were wide, those familiar piercing blue eyes tainted with fear. You winced in sudden pain, looking down to see him gripping your forearm tight. Squeezing his hand, you weakly smiled up at him.

‘I’m fine Batman. You need to go!’

He hesitated for a moment but nodded, barely grazing your cheek with the tips of his gloved hand before releasing his grappling hook. He flew back towards the high ramparts where gunshots still chorused, disappearing within a cloud of smoke.

You weakly leant yourself against the railing, letting your eyes slide shut trying to regain your breath. It was the snapping of wires, the groan of metal and the crackle of electricity that had your eyes shooting open, watching the overheard screens begin to collapse, right into the crowd below.

A black mass in your peripheral made you flinch, glancing towards the Batman swinging towards the cord that barely held up the now electrified screens that swung precariously through the air. Watching in a trance your husband detaching the knife from his chest.

‘No .. no no!’ You cried, struggling to your feet, reaching towards him. His eyes flickered towards you briefly, holding your gaze before he let out a guttural cry, slashing at thick band of wires.

A wretched scream rang out; you didn’t realise it was coming from you as you watched your husband plummet, electrical sparks flying across his suit before he disappeared into the murky depths below.

Legs buckling beneath your weight you collapsed to the ground, sobs erupting from your chest. Your hand still lay outstretched towards the waters, the world spinning violently around you, nails digging into the railing painfully.

Suddenly a light shone within the darkness, so bright you had to cover your eyes. The flare dimmed slowly, looking down into the pit of debris to see Batman rising from the waters, flare held aloft amidst the darkness.

It was like an electric shock shot through you when the earpiece came to life once more, tears silently streaming down your face as your husband said, ‘Hold on Y/N, I’m coming to get you.’

Bruce tried to hold back a hiss of pain, gripping the edges of the steel medical table he lay on, but you felt him flinch against your touch, levitating the pressure.

‘Sorry,’ You said softly, continuing to gently dab at the bloodied wounds on his chest with a sponge, wanting to make sure they were clean before going in with the needle and thread.

After the people had been evacuated from the arena, Bruce navigated the skyscrapers safely back to Wayne Tower with you in his arms, collapsing on arrival from complete exhaustion and the wounds he had sustained.

With Alfred’s help you were able to get him into the bedroom where the butler had already prepared the medical table. Briefly changing, you started work on your unconscious husband, cleaning and sowing up the bullet wound on his leg.

It was hours later he blinked awake, finding you sitting beside him on the table attending to him.

Now he leant against the wall as you worked, very little being said between the two of you. He knew all you wanted was to solely focus on the task at hand, and only when you were ready you would talk.

With a final knot and flourish, you put the needle and thread aside, going over the wounds with a fresh cloth to wipe away any remaining blood or fluids.

Tracing the jagged scars that were imprinted on Bruce’s skin, it was then that the events of the night crashed upon you; how close Nashton had been to killing so many innocent people, how close you were to losing your husband.

You dropped your head against his chest with a heavy sigh, letting your hands run up and down his biceps. Bruce cradled the back of your head, his fingers slipping through your hair.

Quietly you spoke, voice trembling. ‘You really scared me tonight Bruce. When I saw you fall I thought ... I thought I’d lost you-’

You felt him go rigid beneath you, his grip tightening on the back of your neck. ‘And what about you?’

Confused, you raised your head. He was looking at you with an incredulous expression.

‘I told you to get to safety and yet where do I find my wife? Helping people to safety and risking her life for others as well and nearly drowning!’

Oh right! You’d completely forgotten about that in all honestly. You could’ve died tonight if it hadn’t been for Bruce’s quick thinking and keen eye.

‘Don’t-don’t ever think I’m undermining your work. Because I’m not! What you do is just as important as what the Batman does, even more. Protecting the people of Gotham in your way, putting your neck out to protect me constantly as my wife, nursing me back to health-'

'But Bruce-' He stopped you with a firm look, softening as he caressed your cheek.

'I just-I now know what it’s like to be in your shoes on the other side of all this. And I’ve never felt that afraid since-since ...’

Pain seized your heart in a tight grip at his words. Your eyes flickered downwards, unknowingly fiddling with your fingertips anxiously. Bruce gripped your hand, letting his thumb run over your knuckles.

‘Y/N,’ He called to you softly, gripping your chin gently and leaning his forehead against yours, looking into your eyes. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always come back to you. As long as you do the same like we promised.’

You nodded, the tears that had sprung to your eyes falling, nose nuzzling against his. Bruce gave you a small smile, pulling away to kiss your forehead lovingly.

Together you breathed deeply. In that moment with the sun rising over the horizon, it was a moment between Bruce Wayne and his wife Y/N, long were the Batman and the assistant gone.

Thoughts wandering back towards the hectic evening, you couldn’t help but chuckle under your breath. Bruce pulled away curiously.

‘What is it?’

‘I won’t lie it was ... delightful watching you in your element, how you took down all those men so easily.’

His cocked his eyebrow, bringing you closer by your hips with a firm grip. ‘Is that so?’

You giggled girlishly as he wrapped his arms around your waist, smiling down at you. Bruce kisses you, his lips are firm and controlling but also tender. Carefully you let your arms tangle around his neck, weaving your hand into his hair pulling him in close.

Sure being the assistant to the Batman was a gruelling task, sometimes you despised it, sometimes it sent fear flush through your veins. But the greatest reward was working with your husband to do better for the city and its people you both saw worth fighting for.

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throwingideasatthewall · 4 years ago

Text

Clone Wars Escape from Kadavo

Well this is certainly a scene change and one that doesn’t really make sense,

I mean I thought it was a Camp of Holding for slaves

Where they got transported to different places on the island to do slave labor, per hap -s

Now there’s apparently a lava pit under it,

How?

That

-doesn’t make any sense

Also wtf,

Coal, metal

Since when was refinery really this place’s MO (Like this is really starting to feel like they got the Mandalorian And This Set -ting s Switch ed,)

Not to say they can’t be a coal/mining industry,

Just, that the setting should reflect it,

From we saw there was nothing to indicate this was anything but an ar chai c Soc-either

With no flues Or fu -mes

To indicate that they were burn Ing combustibles,

Honestly some kind of stalactites mine,

Or someplace where they dig for “valuables,” -like prized st- one for Jew elery- Would make more sense- - Anyway, I’m getting. way too focus -ed on the se- tt - Ing- - Again Rex is just straight up chilling, This is n’t his first rodeo with abusers,

Ok, seriously what was up with the Wil -h el m,?

(Like I don’t honestly see anything steep enough to fall off)

You could say it was a whip but we haven’t seen any Of That, Ye t-

I don’t get the screaming-

Also that dude just attacked him out of nowhere,

Like could we have gone establishment of that?

Like,

What was even his ber-zerk butt- on there?

Dude was doing his job

Like if it was a faster thing you kind of have to establish that before hand - Also then the environment, the ma jor ity, Would be working at a breakneck speed, With a sense of anxiety, In the air,

Then, the whip,

He- was?

(Like that was just plain - pointless

Not even an emotional reaction

Like that told us absolutely nothing about the setting and character

The mate didn’t even have a reaction

It’s one random guy that just decided to hit someone else-

Like that’s not even calculated never mind systematic,

Also I like how Rex like yeah I wouldn’t know anything about that, feck’in Jedi -

Also “Effect?”

Not really more like

“ Dave’s having a real rough day and I really don’t want to talk to (In that state)

Like they didn’t wince.

There was no antici pation-

No anxiety,

Like no signs of this is had a permanent psychologically damaging affect

(Note all toxic behavior is harmful, The difference here is Between The intensity of the in-dentation,

It can get pretty bad

And enabling tox can have serious effects (Pretty bad)

(Requiring a lot more time to undo)

From; Dave is really an asshole,

To I am really an asshole,

To The world is really an asshole (And Dave is the savior-)

(Apologies to anyone who’s chosen name is Dave or similar vernacular, It’s not out of any Mala- cian- Just the first identi fication I could think of,

And tox- ic logic is really not something you wanna enable,

Again what the Frick?

(This is really not an or-ganic way to introduce your rules

Like, “oh yeah speech is for-bidden, Have a nice day,”

Like you think dude-

Like you were pretty damn path -etic abu ser- (s) - (Sla vers) Wow,

There was no emotions or anything -be cause the set up was so poor,

W- h -a t

Again the emotion is non existence,

Also what the fuck happened to Rex over there? -

When did he go down?

(Like don’t get me wrong I saw a flash in the corner?)

But why him?

[also did the scenery just completely changed because he was on the far end of Ken- Obi with something in between

Some thing they were shoveling the stuff on?

That’s just gone in this shot]

[Also, From a narra- tive, standpoint wouldn’t it have made more sense and been a more engaging concept, If the guy had threat -ene d- The clone in Obi- wan’s stead, Seeing as of the republic’s version of slavery,

Rex pos s- ib ly

Reflec- ting on the (Other Species?)

And contrasted with them,

On how much Obi-Wan views him as a possession,

(Or his reaction to the people under him getting hot ,and why)

Allo- wing for more heart,

“I’m sorry,”

“No Wors e- Than The Kamino -ins,”

Rex’s Sub Cat;

Seeing the people he was trained (and order-ed) to protect Harm -ed - Much like the people (under him) were harmed during the Kamooin. s-

Groom -ing, ?]

Any -way,

Again, and what was the emotion? - M-aster

Rex must be like, Kar- ma

If he’s not,

[Never mind he isn’t asleep just one frame made it look weird?]

Ai- gh -t

Oh yeah seriously check up on that one guy instead of you know the person under the command,

Also;

What The fuck?

IS THAT GOOGLY EYES?

What the feck,

What is with that expression-

What is with that facial-

(Seriously someone tell me what emotions this is supposed to por- tray!

What?

Also yeah

they completely waltz. -ed past the ab- us -er. Be- Ing - Con- fron ted- by the Con- Seq- Uen Ce (s) Of their actions,

It’s not pointed out that Obi-Wan totally caused this by (not)- listen-ing, To dude’s initiative to stay out of it

(Or, what he did to Cody Rex, and basically all the clones,)

(And what could’ve been a good moral about negative effects of “Pos- itive over- invo lv e- Ment- )

so I am slightly big mad

Not com- -pletely

But I’m get-ting th-ere

Drinking my slightly bitter ju-ice-

Gett -ing pr-etty salty

Which is odd since I normally don’t criticize aesthetic differences

Like This- -

The problem is it isn’t the aesthetic that I have a problem with, (You want to have a Obi-Wan show more compassion to the slave of similar generation then to Rex?

(That’s per-fect-ly fine and could even show how he values his job and Mission over someone he is actually wound- ed-)

However that’s not it-

(It doesn’t even do that)

My problem with it is that it shows no emotion

No emphasis

No moral

It’s - empty - Watching this scene, there is absolutely nothing I get out of it,

Also wow that was a quick turnaround,

Like seriously it generally takes longer for that kind of behavior to be indented,

This is literally the only Jedi he’s seen be there

One time

This is barely scraping logic, And even then, not really requiring- pre-knowledge of the emotions and general plot (before hand)

I know that I should feel bad for the slave because slav-ery is a bad thing And any real person would be pretty upset it/ Suffer for the toxic environment,

Note; it’s not from the medium

I didn’t gain that knowledge from the medium

(In which the chara- cters actions and emotions, Make me conclude, “oh wow, slavery is a real bad thing!”

No the characters are wooden puppets with no emotion,

Going from; Point a to point B

Nothing to connect them (No preamble)

No emotions

No motive(s)

‘why is Obi-Wan doing what he’s doing?’

‘I don’t know’

(And I honestly don’t think the wr- iters did either)

And no damn interest

Barely scraping logic..

‘Why is Obi-wan doing what he’s doing,’

‘Because he has the rescue the slaves,’

‘ why does he have to rescue the slaves,?’

‘ because you have to rescue slaves,’

It’s literally circular

Rely- ing completely on the cookie cu- tter,

Resulting in it being as flat as a cookie when rolled over by a rolling pin,

Where It should; Be;

“ why does Obi-Wan want to rescue the slaves?”

“Because of his dedication to his moral compass/ because of his dedication to his generation/ non- clone- ena blers,/ (Whatever you want to put there)

(Hey that was almost emotion from ,Rex)

(We’re 2:29 Min Ut es In, And I’m already salty about the episode refusal to be fun,

That’s nice exposition *Palpatine*. Sidious,

Tra- dition (S);

Mill-

That’s literally all I -heard-

-(I assume they’re saying “millions,”)

Which would actually be neat if we got to see some you know human soldiers on the Darkside to counterbalance the whole do you know clone troopers, contrasting the dark side’ s more ethical but none the less toxic practices,

To the light side’s- Gen Break-

De- fiance?

(I think you mean that other Zygerian’s death because we have literally not seen the queen act even remotely rebellious,

Yeah she con- templates possibly free- ing them,

But we haven’t seen her openly communicate with either of these 2 to inform them

And she still wants to keep Anakin,

So she at least has one Jedi,

With the others possibly be blamed on a -prison break-

And literally nothing that we’ve seen com-municating the concept of open - rebel- lion

Or any of the connection between her and the separatist,

Again seriously how am I supposed to feel about that (Also the one person that gives even the slightest bit of emotion and it’s the villain,)

Like I’m surprise’d Dooku’s surprised by that

(Er-)

O-k

Whe-lp

(Also, now there are flues). (Don’t recall seeing them last time,)

Or just sticks with gold on them

(I am very con- fused,)

This seems pretty different

And totally safe

(Also wasn’t the castle blue?)

But I’m not against it because it could work with the symbolism of wild, Or just. Wor -k (I know I’m being way too hop- - eful but I try,

Re- hash-

Easy-

So why is there no other emotion

And why do you look like a caveman,

(Eyebrows constantly furr- Ow- ed)

Also what was with the pro-nunciation and emotion?

Bare,

Also literally no one else is paying attention to that guy? ?

‘ he also doesn’t cause me to have any emotions’

Like seriously I know that it’s a cat person but you still have to show some sentient emotion here

If there’s no emotion, there’s no risk,

(Part of sent- ience)

Att- end,

Again that’s not the cha- llenge I think they were trying to make it out to be; (Un-accountabili- ty) Aka What it would work best as;

Remix;

“ I’ll would never turn away from a challenge,” Anakin said snarkily,

The queen se- duct iv el- y

Taking his light saber, - that works better;

- Ser-iously - Um- No,

(Last time someone fall from a height that high, they died,)

(You have to play by your own rules, )

Wha-

Also again wh -at-

Sky -walker

When ?-

Would be nice if you ever feckin showed it,

(Seriously the concept of Obi-Wan having to come to terms at least temporary that his Over-involvement has hurt people is an interesting concept,”

Also bullshit that you know that

(Pretty)

(You’re all enabled and you haven’t spent any time around Obi-Wan)

(That’s a stupid plan and the animation really doesn’t help,)

Zy-ger

Perm - R- i-,

Oh yeah so no reserves, about using the term, “master” After this schism ? - Y-eah - How? - W-at

[The emotions are off the roof and I have no idea

with the scale of escalation

W-at]

Lesh - Li- fe

You did- n’t? - Emo tion-

Wh-at?

Who called- the guards?

Seriously if this is such a constantly abusive (tox) relationship than how do they not know,

(Unless the previous guards got killed and these are the newbies,)

Because you don’t act like it all don’t have any of the characteristics generally associated with constantly rein-forc -ed toxicity, Show- ed no emotion including (anxiety and anticipation) In that previous fight,

As well as no negative con- seq- uen ce s for your behavior - Even now your voice is just “ oh I’m dyi-ng- -,’. .

Meep,

[Something happened

not a Tumblr refresh,

Gist;

There’s absolutely no emotion in the scene and the fact that she just dies after that being the threat is just kind of cheap,

[and the fact that she had absolutely no expression (Or emotion) during that entire fight Not showing any of the general signs - Just no)

And that expression is a weird way way to end

The scene. not the movie that still going, (Un-fortunate- ly)

Uh, why Off to you obviously evil factory, land,”

Kick,

Hey isn’t it that minor antagonist that hasn’t showed up since the last episode? . . . Why? . . . And he included the clone why?

(Oh yeah I want the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, And especially the to my knowledge (default) clone.

And Rex who is honestly a lot more intimidating,

K-i

[Again this is supposed really be about. Ken-obi but I’m really focusing on Rex,]

Wh- at- -

How?!

They were on a bug?

I-

Ok-

Sorry my memory gave out for a moment at the whole Anakin durp face thing - -

W-h

W-

Wood

Again, how is he supposed to do that?

- Ter- - I-l

Sl-av es

So Ahsoka goes to rescue the slaves while An-a kin, stays here and carves a hole,

En-ough

No emotion!

Oh, I thought he meant Ah -soka - Oh so yeah let’s bring a warship into what seems to have been intended as a stealth mission,

Screw Fitt Ing Re Action-

And-

W-

How did that change the fact that they have the button that can kill all the slaves,

(It didn’t)

Obi-won just apparently stopped giving a fr-ick -

Ray-

Well then they were impossible to take out,

F-a - S-l

But only the Tyger-ian (Apologies for any misspelling I mean Ahsoka’s kind,)

“He -at,”

“Cut,”

Ge-n-

Rex did more than Obi-wan,

Also yeah completely forgot about that,

Also he said kill,

[Not further im-prison,” ]

Rex had some rage-

Also you’d think that be Obi-Wan considering how much he’s gotten ,screwed with This entire ,time - Wh,at

Wh -y -

Wh -y - H-ere - How is Rex still fighting guys? - Also thanks a lot Obi-Wan you useless piece of shit,

[Again, would n’t it make sense? .)

W-ell

- You just came into a door just hop them - over- - Lan d-

Wait, How did you just get in, there though,

. Co- vert - ?

O-Kay, new character,

W-h

(Also oh no they gave plo another fleet

Great )

Ser-iously, what where are these guys coming from? , You’ve literally been allowed this dude to heck around the entire time while Rex did all the hard work

La-me,

Also seriously where was all that - ,coming from- - Wh at-

Where was the emotion? - Hey that had no meaning, symbolism or emotion behind it - whatsoever,

A-i

- W-h - - - Whelp, was completely boring

Covenants of a good, fun story;

- Set; Excessive in instances that don’t directly affect the story’s up, cohesivity

-Tone; Is appropriate

-Emotions; And appropriate, and consistent and manage to keep a consistent tone,

(Un-nessary, Typically switch-ed for a more logical tone, In works of non-fiction,

Though may be in both, So long as note is given,)

This film (Movie - Gets absolutely none of it right except the basics for a good story

It’s co - hesive- But damn boring and empty,

Story - Re-write. - (I needed something fun after watching that boring documentary,)

So let’s get into it, - (May feature episode -overlap)

Obi-Wan emerges from the carrier, With R -ex,

(Obi-Wan possibly sub- con-ciously mov -ing In Fron -t Of Rex-)

[Or Cody]

The minor antagonist welcome(s) them; Obi-wan trading some banter with him - It being part of a plan to get captured,

Unfortunately somethings went ar-ray and instead of Cody being the back up plan; he got taken with him

The minor antagonist - quickly cuts the chatter - By having the guard (S- bring Cody forward, introducing him as Obi-Wan’s Slave

Giving a veiled threat of “ would be a shame if something happened to such a ,pretty specimen,”

Obi-Wan getting def-ensive,

The atag, Com menting, “ Pretty protective, Of your toy, Aren’t You,”

Before having them thrown somewhere,

Next time, we see them they’re getting e- scor- ted- for gem Min- Ing,

(Possibly some black humor from the vil -ains- about how people will pay, “An arm or leg

*Pos-sibly yours,

For the stuff,’

On the way there one of the guards notices Rex (Cody)’s ey-ing the place. warning him That, ‘He’s not the only one under ob -servation)

Possibly causing a wincing or anxious reaction from them . (I would generally encourage flashbacks to be able to - show the emotion em- ot ion,)

(Under-stand what is going inside their head,)

But for now I’ll stick with the example given by the show which is no flashbacks, The guard making it clear what will happen

Shock- -Ing-

The clone (Eith er) Ha-ving a bad reaction to this,

Knee jerkingly reaching out,

The guard grabbing him and holding him back - - Forced into a distressing circumstance of fa il -in g- The Miss- -ion -

Those two are pretty much out of the action for the rest of the episode being stuck

Obi-Wan can’t do anything without hurting Cody Cody can’t do anything without hurting the slaves - Most of their part is contrasting the condition,

Most of the action is with Ahsoka, Who talks down that dweeb (Maybe someone near-er to her age) And they go break Obi-Wan out so he can back up, Anakin

In the Dooku fight,

The most consistent and clear char- -acter Being Q -ueen, Being a slaver-

If it’s Ana- Kin,

Anakin having to begrudgingly put up with this slaver’s nonsense

Be-grudgingly

- Her talking about how life is slavery and him just not...

Then Dooku Shows Up,

(The whole transition between the mine scene and the Anakin- slaver scene, Being a cut from the sparks in a mine To the jewel on her finger With extra focus being put on the jewels,

Possibly all done with all of them Zy- gar-ian (Or of all the planets that she’s taking people from-

Zygarian Heir loom)

A black stone (in the middle of her chest) By a pendant (Generally implied to be by Count Dooku)

Toxic court-ing implied,

Count Dooku announces a surprise visit,

The Queen is pleased but nervous (Hands behind -back)

“I-”

Putting a wine glass down behind it,

Dooku is immediately aggressive

The queen offering Anakin as a consolation prize

As the youngest and newest to the-ir possible rank,

Dook-u snark Ing,

Dooku threaten -ing to kill

The queen having issue with that whole main characterization being the collector of rare things

(Possibly a reflect- Ion about the no speaking rule)

More likely Dooku dismissing her con- cerns just saying that he can always get her a new one,

“The Queen possibly wincing at a raised hand - if we want to go for indications of physical tox-’

Poss-ibly a conversation about why she put up with him

“He treats me well”

Focus on the necklace and pendent to - contrast with the choking necklace-

Possibly a poison Sub-line

- If you want to go there, - But focusing on Ahsoka, they broke those guys out,

Ahsoka finding a heartbroken Jedi, Explaining that their res -pect ive clone friend, Has given up on them

Ahsoka finding that person,

Who manages to explain that he can’t move either-

To be cut off by the guards who has really had enough of every- thing-

Decided - screw it if pain isn’t going to make you stop and then might as well put them in a life or death situation,

Add-ing time on the clock (Or at least a new var- iable-)

Ahsoka possibly does a whole speech thing (Since seriously we’ve seen none of her involvement or even care about her own spe-cies) Via dem on- Strat Ion-

(Very likely leading to a riot situation,)

As they didn’t plan on the Tagroatians (?) Rebell ing due to crush -ed spirits,

That happens - Those two re- unite and go to fi-ght Dooku

(I never. really cared for the Zy- ger- Ian queen,)

If she lives in then, she’s grateful for them driving off Dooku, Allows them to get off with the slaves,

(Necklace might have information might not,)

*Honestly I felt it made more sense for Anakin to be the one in the mine; The Zy- garian queen, and Obi -Wan hav- ing boomer ban -ter, With Obi-Wan a lot more aware of that stuff, (Show-ing worldliness by identifying the stones) While Anakin compares the circumstance to the one that he used to live in, And the one he enabled Rex living in, While Ahsoka, could team up with a Zy-ger-Ian round her age, Possibly some conversations about enabling- May-be Ahsoka talking about getting a clone command of her own- (If we want the clone commanders to be a constantly featured theme here) Boomer Bait, Busting Anakin out of the mine, Obi-Wan getting hidden behind a cur-tain, And going to heck over Dooku, (Slaves recovered-)

Both the Zy- Gar- Ian- (And a flirtatious promise to return By Obi-wan, ) [contrast Mandalorian] Gets Free- Dom- - End- -

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can-youimagine · 5 years ago

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Worry (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

Request: I love your writing! How about a buck x reader where the reader is hurt after getting mugged but she doesn’t tell him? I’m a sucker for protective buck

TW: mugging, violence, blood (but not graphic bc I don't do blood), swearing, mildly suggestive content, light drinking, female reader

Word Count: 1,114

A/N: kinda based on my journey through Tennessee backroads. It...it was rough (no mugging or anything. Just panic attack)

Masterlist

If it hadn’t been for your foul mood and inability to tell directions, you would be home by now. Work was rough. The road was closed. You were running out of gas. Your phone was near death, keeping you from putting in directions. You wanted nothing more than to curl up next to Bucky and take a nice long nap. That is, if you ever were able to get home.

You breathe a sigh of relief as you near a gas station. Not only would you be able to stop worrying about being stranded here, but you would be able to ask for directions back to the interstate. Things were finally looking up.

As soon as your tank is filled, you rush into the building. The kid at the counter gives you a confused look as you lean over the counter. “How do I get to the interstate?”

He recites the directions, which he must have given a thousand times before telling you to be careful.

“Thank you. Thank you.” You buy a phone charger to ensure this never happens again and as a form of thank you to the owners of the station for being so helpful and return to your car.

Just as you reach to open the door, a man appears behind you. “Hello, sweetheart.”

You roll your eyes and ignore him, hoping that he will give up if you don’t seem like an easy target.

He grabs your arm, gently pressing a blade to your neck as he pushes you into the car. “I’m talking to you. Look, sweetheart. Just hand over the purse, and I’ll let you go.”

Too tired to fight and scared of what he will do if you don’t, you drop your purse.

“That’s a good girl.” He drags the blade down your arm, drawing blood. “Don’t tell anyone about this, or I’ll do worse.”

You whimper and nod. Taking your silence as a sign you understood him, he lets you go before leaving. You slide into your car and lock the door. You close your eyes as you try to steady your breathing. Once you are as calm as you think you will be, you look at your arm. The fabric of your shirt sticks to the blood, making it difficult to pull away and look at the wound. It isn’t too deep, and it should stop bleeding soon, so you don’t bother with it. Your side is a bit tender; you know it will bruise, but there’s nothing you can do about that. You just want to get home.

The entire drive home is spent trying to figure out a way to tell Bucky what happened. As much as you love him and want to tell him everything about your life, you don’t want him to worry about you. Bucky has always been a bit too protective, and you don’t want to give him any reason to worry more.

Taking a deep breath, you walk into the house. “Bucky?” you gently call. Hearing no response, you assume that he’s still out. You don’t know how long until he will be back, so you decide to get started cleaning yourself up as soon as you can.

You take a long shower, watching the blood mix with the water as it swirls down the drain. You wait until the rusty color becomes a faint red before stepping out. You wrap your arm in the gauze you have in case Bucky gets hurt before changing into one of his long-sleeved shirts and a pair of shorts.

You begin making dinner, hoping it will distract Bucky enough that he won’t notice you’re hurt.

Just as you put the tray in the oven, Bucky comes in the door. He makes his way to the kitchen to see you.

“Hey, doll,” he greets, wrapping an arm around you. You wince as he presses against the bruises. “How was your day?”

“Shit,” you answer, untangling yourself from his grasp. “But, it’s over.”

He frowns. “I’m so sorry, doll.” He pauses for a moment. “You look great in my shirt.” His fingers trail over the hem. “You look great in anything.” He presses his lips against your neck. “Or nothing.”

As much as you want to give in, you push him off. You can’t let him see what happened. “Dinner should be ready soon.”

He frowns. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Of course,” you answer. “Can you get some wine?”

He nods and leaves to pour your glass. When he comes back, dinner is ready and on the table. He sets the glass at your spot at the table before pulling out the chair for you. The action makes your heat swell.

Dinner is awkward and quiet, to say the least. The only thing on your mind is the incident at the gas station, and the only thing on Bucky’s mind is how to make you feel better.

As you stand to clear the table, he gently grabs your wrist. “Talk to me, doll. What happened?”

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to get mad.”

“Why would I get mad?”

You close your eyes. “I was mugged.”

“What?”

You sit back down. “I got lost, and I ran out of gas, and then this man came up, and I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t hurt me. At least, not much.”

“He hurt you?” Bucky asks. “Who was he?”

You shake your head. “Buck, it’s not that big a deal. I’ll be fine in a few weeks.”

“Let me see. Please.”

With shaky hands, you pull the shirt over your head. The bruises from the car are already a bright blue, and the gauze on your arm has a slight stain from the blood soaking through.

“Oh my God,” he says, moving over to you. He picks up the edge of the gauze, with a look in his eyes that asks if he can take it off. With a slight nod, you give him permission to unwrap your arm. He sucks in a breath when he sees your arm. His fingers hover over the cut. “I am so sorry. I should have been there. I could have- Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.”

“I worry about you. All the time, doll. I’m always terrified that you’re going to get hurt, and now that you have...I should have stopped it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Can we just cuddle?”

“Of course, doll. I’ll clean all this. You find something to watch.”

You tug on his arm, stopping him from leaving. “We can get it in the morning. I just need you.”

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hopeless-starry-kingdom · 6 years ago

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Birthday Boy | Peter Parker

Summary:August 10th.One of the most important days of the year

a/n:I had this idea and couldn’t wait to till August to publish :)

Your alarm only beeped once before you were up and out of bed with a wide smile on your face.It was 5:30 in the morning,you began your journey around your room to quickly get dressed and leave for today.It was Peters birthday today,and you’ve been planning this day for two months now.

Not only was he turning eighteen and it was pretty big experience but he deserved it.That boy deserved the whole world and space and if you could give it to him,you absolutely would.Once you were finished getting dressed,you grabbed the shoe box filled with letter and Polaroid pictures of the two of you.You then went into the hall closet and grabbed eighteen red and blue balloons.You swung your backpack over your shoulder,since today was a school day,and balanced your car keys,the shoe box,the balloons,and his gift in your two hands.

You practically stumbled into your car and let out a sigh as you didn’t drop anything.The car drive was only about ten minutes.And you basically ran into his apartment building.You sent May a text telling her you were here,and with a couple seconds she was opening the door“Thank you for helping me”You whispered as she grabbed onto the shoe box and balloons “It’s my pleasure,Y/N.Thank you for doing something like this for him”She smiled gratefully at you

“Ok so there’s a lot of pictures,so I’ll do that part.Here’s the letters”You handed May the six letters and the tape and she began taping them to the balloons.You started to sort through the pictures you had to try and find the perfect ones.Your smile grew wider with each picture you saw

When you finally taped the last one,a picture Ned took of you sitting on Peters lap and kissing his cheek on the Fourth of July,May smiled at you. “You sure you don’t need help”She handed you the happy birthday banner and he shook your head“I’ll be fine.So he doesn’t wake up”She nodded and you slowly opened the door.Your heart skipped a bear when you saw him sleeping so peacefully.You wanted to climb into bed with him and cuddle him and forget the whole plan.

But you didn’t instead you began arranging the balloons all over his room in no particular order.You grabbed the banners and carefully climbed onto his desk to hang it.It creaked and you froze in place,tape stuck to your finger and the sign falling down slowly.Peter mumbled something incoherent and waited for a second.Before continuing with hanging up the sign.You carefully climbed down and grabbed the birthday card and placed it on the bed side table.You picked up the gift and placed it on the desk.And with one final look at the sleeping boy you loved,you quietly exited the room

“May,I’m leaving now.Im going to the bakery he likes and getting him something for school”May nodded and hugged you tightly “He’ll love it”You both smiled before bidding you a goodbye

You parked into the student parking.You figured Peter would be waking up any second now,so you sent him a text

“Good morning,birthday boy!I can’t wait to see your pretty face.I love you x”

You quickly walked into school,coffee tray holding two coffees and the chocolate muffin he adores,and a happy birthday balloon.You stopped at his locker and twisted the lock and entered the four digit code.It opened with ease and you placed the balloon neatly in the locker and carefully shut it.Now you wait

When Peter woke up,he wasn’t expecting balloons to be scattered across the room.He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.When his feet hit the floor,he saw a card waiting for him.

Hi,Petey.Youre obviously awake if you’re reading this.Happy birthday my love.I could go on and on about how much I love you...so I did.My love couldn’t fit on this card so go ahead and read the letters ;) xx

His heart felt so heavy.But in the best way possible.You did this all for him?He seen the red and blue balloons and laughed.He picked up the red one closest to him and seen a picture from your sophomore year.He remembers when it was taken.You,Ned,and him had went to the Valentines Day dance.You weren’t dating then but the next day it was official.You were both looking at each other and laughing,his hands were on your waist and yours was around his neck.He had said something ridiculous and you burst out laughing,causing him to laugh.

He smiled because he loved that day,he kissed you when he dropped you off at home.Then realized he should probably ask you to be his girlfriend.Peter looked around the room and seen so many more Polaroid pictures taped to balloons,and letters.He opened the one that was by the foot of the bed

Dear Petey,

It’s June 15 and you just left for a mission in California.Youve always wanted to go to California,see the beaches,experience the heat,see famous people.I hope you’re having fun.But I won’t know that until you come back next week,which seems like a life time away.Because I hate being without you.I love you but sometimes it’s the way I love you that makes me hate you.Sounds weird,doesn’t it?But I love you with all my heart Peter Benjamin Parker.And as I’m writing this I realize,I want to spend the rest of my life with you.No one else but you.Now that might seem super cliche and even freak you out a bit,but it’s true.Its 1000% true.Because I love the shit out if you.And I can’t imagine my life without you.

I love your cute little nerdy science shirts

I love the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh really hard

I love the way you’re not selfish.At all.

I love when you refuse to do you’re hair because then it’s a mess and I love it that way

I love that you’re the biggest nerd in the world

I love your crooked nose

I love your eyes

I love that you’re a genius

I love how you live by some moral duty

I love how you insist that we watch Star Wars every weekend

I love that you’re Spider-Man,even if it does scare me when you leave to fight

I love you,Peter Parker.I love all of you.Every single damn thing.And I thank heaven above that you were made.Because I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here

-Happy Birthday,Pete x

By the end,Peter didn’t realize a tear had fell down his cheek.Until it hit the note.He sniffles and wiped it away.He smiled and stood to out the letter in his desk,he then realized there was a gift on his desk.He carefully opened up the large gift bag and tore out the tissue paper.At the top was a large box,he reached in and pulled ut out.He laughed when he saw the Spider-Man wrapping paper.Just as he was about to rip open the paper his phone chimed,alerting him of a text.He reached onto his night stand and smiled when he saw it was from you.He quickly double tapped the message,liking it,before quickly rushing around his room to get ready once he seen the time.

He didn’t want to be late.He didn’t want to keep you waiting.He finished getting ready in fifteen minutes.Before sitting down and tearing open the wrapping paper.Inside was one of the newest Star Wars LEGO set.He knew the set wasn’t cheap,which led him to the sticky note in it

“Ned and I went halfsies.Dont worry your pretty little head about it ;)”

He smiled before going back into the bag and pulling out a picture frame.It was of an old picture,something you probably got from May.Something he hasn’t seen before.It was of him from the day he was born.His mom held him in his arms as his dad,Uncle,and Aunt all smiled down at him.He wondered why he had never seen this before,but figured that didn’t matter.He had it now and that’s all that mattered.He carefully placed it down on his dresser and wiped his ready eyes before walking out,backpack in his hands

“Morning birthday boy”May kissed his head as she put her coffee down “Thank you,May”He smiled down at her.She stood and held his shoulders

“I can’t believe your eighteen already.You’ve grown up before my eyes a-and”There were tears in her eyes and Peter sighed.She didn’t want May to cry,he felt she did too much of that. “May,no tears please.I love you but if you start crying I’ll start crying”She nodded and grabbed her keys off the table

“I’ll take you.I have a surprise for you actually.They’re in my car.Lets go”Peter nodded. as soon as they sat in the car,she handed him a box.She started driving and told him to open it.Inside there was a watch and a set of cuff links.He recognized the cuff links as Uncle Bens but not the watch“It was your fathers.I promised to give that to you when you were old enough.And now you are.They’d all be so proud of the man you become,Pete”

He looked down at the watch and slid it on his wrist.It felt right “Thanks May”She parked on the side and touched his arm“No,problem.Now go see your girl”He smiled at her and kissed her cheek before quickly getting out and practically ran inside.Once he saw you his whole face lit up.

“Hey,babe.Happy—”You were cut off by his lips and it was short and sweet.You pulled away and giggled, “Wow,I’m guessing you liked my surprise”His smiled brightened as you handed him coffee and the muffin “I loved it.It was perfect.God,You’re perfect”He leaned in and kissed you again “I love you.So much”You smiled up at him

“I love you too,Pete”You looked down at his wrist that held cupped your cheek “This from May?”You questioned as you placed your hand over the watch“Yeah,it’s my dads”You smiled up at him “He’d be so proud of you,Peter.I know he would”He kissed you again before wrapping an arm around your shoulder “Thank you”

“You can still come right?Mr.Stark really wants to see you again,he said it’s been awhile since he seen you.But I think he just wants to embarrass me”You laughed and nodded “Of course.I wouldn’t miss your birthday dinner for the world”

#peter parker x y/n #peter parker blurb #peter parker x reader #peter parker #peter parker imagine #birthday #spiderman: hoco #spiderman #spider man: homecoming

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justjessame · 4 years ago

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A Little Ass and A Lotta Sass Chapter 18: When Did the Last Brothel Close Shop...Or What Jobs Did the Wives Have Before?

I’d managed, through sheer force of will, to push the unpleasant truths of my new living arrangement far far back in my mind. With the slate I cleared, I was able to fall into the book I’d grabbed from the shelves. I fell so deeply into the story that I almost didn’t hear Negan’s return. Almost, but who could drown out that whistling as it grew closer? Especially knowing intimately what else the lips doing the whistling could do…

I kept my nose in the book, planning on making Negan work for my attention. Bargaining power only worked if he knew he wouldn’t get everything with me so easily. My attention was going to have to be earned. Even if I knew he was a dirty fighter.

“Ah, there’s my girl,” his grin could be heard in that fucking voice of his.

Certain, I was sure, that I’d launch myself into his arms and make him feel like a 50s husband who just got home after a hard day of bread-winning for the little woman all day. I had to stop myself from snorting at the thought. Sure, he’s a 50s husband who happens to bear more resemblance to the Fonz than to Darren Stevens. Good luck with that, sweetie, I thought, keeping my attention on the page in front of me.

I felt him sit at the end of the couch that I was reclining on with the throw he’d tossed over me the day before. He shifted my legs, lifting them so he could move closer, so my legs would be draped over his lap, from knees down. The throw was still over top of my body, and his hands were running underneath along my leggings covered legs. I kept ‘reading’ even remembering to turn the page here and there.

“Callie,” Negan’s voice had gone to that low, deep, dark place that made everything on me tingle, but I refused to acknowledge it, or him. His fingertips were touching my bare ankle, light but with the callouses my nerves were coming alive. “Sweetheart, what are you reading?” Fucker, I thought, you KNOW that if I speak, and it comes out the least bit breathless, then you’ve won this round.

I took a beat, keeping my eyes on the page of God fucking knew what fucking chapter, and tried to remember what the story had been that kept me so engrossed before I heard him whistling. Shit, what the fuck? Clearing my throat, I lifted up the book so he could see the title for himself. Then I put it down and continued ‘reading’. I felt him shift, moving his hands to my waist, and lifting me so he was at the end where I’d been laying, and now my ass was cradled in his lap. Damn it, I swallowed, feeling how very much he missed me while at ‘work’.

“It looks good,” his voice in my ear. “Why don’t you read it to me?” Oh, he really really didn’t play fair. I felt his lips touch the shell of my ear and my eyes closed. “Callie? Princess? Don’t you want to share with me?”

Another swallow for me, and I forced open my eyes. Sure, why the fuck not? I started from where I’d turned the page absently to while playing with fire. As I read, Negan tempted me to completely lose my damn mind. He’d touch my hand holding the book, running his fingers along my wrist, his head on my shoulder. He’d turn his head and run his nose down the curve of my jaw, listening for any signs that he’d truly won a hitch in my throat, a sigh, but I kept reading. Bringing in the big guns, his lips started exploring my neck, kissing and nipping at every spot that he knew would drive me insane. Until I forgot to read, closed my eyes and just enjoyed the attention he was lavishing on my skin.

His chuckle against my pulse point made me bite my lip. “Finished already?” His hand took the book from mine and tossed it at the table in front of the couch. “Thank fucking God.” And then our lips met and I moaned. As our tongues touched, I forgot why I’d wanted to refuse to give in to his presence, why I’d been playing hard to get. I forgot everything except him and me, and what we could do to one another.

When we were finally satisfied, which took less time than I thought possible, we lay on the couch together. I had to admit, giving in was always worth it with Negan. I was laying over top of him, my head tucked under his chin, my hand over his slowing heart with his arms wrapped around me to keep me in place. As our breathing regained control, our hearts stopped racing, we relaxed settling in to just being together.

“How was your day?” I finally asked, wanting to hear his voice rumble through my cheek.

His chuckle sounded tired, we had just exercised pretty hard after all. Then he sighed. “The usual,” then as though realizing that I would have no idea what the usual entailed, he kept going. “I always have people pushing for more or taking more than they’ve earned. And with the-” He stopped, and I waited for him to gather his thoughts. “Now that I’m monogamous,” ah, I thought ‘the wives’. “I have a new round of people having to relearn their places.” I started to shift, feeling uncomfortable that I’ve caused him problems, but his arms were like steel holding me to him. “It was bound to happen, Callie.” I felt his lips touch my hair. “You’re more than worth it. It’s just the fucking learning curve.” I felt him groan at the thought. “And finding something they can do, for fuck’s sake, you teased me about them being just pretty fucking faces, well I’m learning that for the most goddamn part, you’re fucking right.”

I propped my chin up on his chest so I could look up at him. “They did nothing except sit here-” his eyes narrowed, and I corrected myself. “They sat wherever they were given space and just waited for you?” The judgement was heavy in my voice. I couldn’t imagine doing that, that anyone could hope to fucking survive in this world without learning to be useful. And sex, while amazingly fun, wasn’t exactly a marketable skill when surrounded by dead biters. “Did they all come from brothels?” That last one was meant to be an internal dialogue, but of course it fell out of my lips.

Negan laughed, no longer sounding tired, and I shook my head. “I’m startin’ to wonder about that myself, Callie.” He shook his own head. “I swear to fucking God, I have no fucking clue what they did prior to latching onto me. None. And now I really fucking wonder.” He studied me, and his smile grew. “Then there’s you.” Ut oh. “Itching to get the fuck out of these rooms to be useful. Fighting to have control over ANYTHING. Jesus, why didn’t I find your ass sooner?”

I let my head fall back to lay on his chest. “You weren’t ready for me.” I shrugged, not knowing how, but knowing it was the truth. “Are we still going to do interviews for my ‘guard’?” I could feel the irritation growing at the thought. I’d negotiated for it, the power to choose, but it grated on me to have to have security. Then again, if what Dwight had said was true, and I had to trust at least that much, then I might need them.

“Yeah,” he said, running a hand up my bare back and into my hair. “I told Dwight to have a few I think you’ll like to come up after dinner.” His hand was tugging the band from my hair, letting it fall in curls down my shoulders. Once free, his fingers began brushing through the silky strands. “They’re people I trust, with my life, Callie.” I knew that he wouldn’t say that about just anyone, but then again he trusts Dwight. I nodded, relaxing at the feeling of his hand running through my hair. “Your hair is fucking gorgeous, baby girl.” I could feel his body coming alive under mine. “Why don’t you wear it down more?”

Propping my head up again so I could meet his eyes, I smiled. “Ever tried getting gore out of long hair? Or undead leavings? And God fucking damn it, imagine one of them grabbing it?” My smile turned to a smirk. “Practicality keeps it up. Even in Alexandria, just because anything can fucking happen. No matter how safe you think you are.”

He considered my words, his hand still running through the curls, letting them twist around his fingers. “Practical?” He squinted, and kept thinking. He licked his lower lip and I waited. “You’re really not at all like them, are you?” And I was fairly certain that wasn’t a question he needed me to answer.

We were dressed by the time dinner arrived. Negan had gone into the bedroom to do who knew what, so I answered the door. The same delivery boy stood on the other side, and he seemed braced for my kindness this time. He even managed to smile as I handed him the tray from lunch. When I thanked him, he remembered to say “you’re welcome”. Progress. Thank goodness.

I set the table, finally able to do SOMETHING without Negan taking over. When he came out, I’d put the identical plates in our regular spots and had taken my seat. I heard another chuckle leave him as he came closer to join me. “Feeling better?” He asked, and I shot him a look. “It really fucking irritates you that I want to pamper you, doesn’t it?” He took his seat and stared across the table at me.

I stabbed a bite of the potatoes that were growing cold on my plate. “Why would you think that?” I asked, biting my fork with more force than necessary.

His laughter told me that my poker face may need to be relearned for him. “It’s a theory.” He picked up his own fork and we returned to the ‘getting to know you’ portion of our day. “If I would let you do any job here,” he gestured around him, as though I needed help understanding, “what would you prefer to do?”

I considered what he was asking, eating carefully through more of my dinner. “What I did for our group, I guess.” I shrugged, thinking it was most logical.

His brows furrowed, and he took a drink from his glass. “Laundry?” I snorted, shit, that’s right. He’d only witnessed the household chores of Alexandria. Poor man.

“Negan,” I shook my head. “Laundry, taking care of Judith? Those were just family chores.” I giggled at the mere idea that I’d only been a housewife with no husband. “Dad, he understood my little talent, the one you saw me work in that video. That’s what I did. I was his human lie detector.”

I watched him digest this, as he absently ate. Did he honestly think that Dad would let me run off if I didn’t have SOME idea of how to take care of myself here? And that I’d rush off with Satan’s favorite offshoot without some inner understanding that I had a pretty decent understanding of human behavior and that I felt safe with him? Jesus, living with those multiples must have made him assume that sex overrode every brain synapse in a woman’s head. Not that he didn’t manage to short circuit me now and again, but so far it wasn’t permanent.

“How?” He asked, and I smiled.

“You saw how Deanne chose to greet new people? The videos, the questions? They’re fucking useless if you don’t understand human behavior. She convinced herself that being a former politician made her see more than a regular person on the street.” I took another bite, chewing and swallowing before continuing. “It may have worked, but she failed to add in the stress and uncertainty that comes with surviving this bullshit. It changes people, and so sitting down with a layperson and ‘telling all’, has to be reran through a sieve that filters what’s being said, shown, and known with what that person has experienced.”

As I shrugged, he studied me with interest. Learning more about me was apparently making Negan appreciate me more. “And you can do that?” He’d leaned back, food forgotten.

“I told you, I can’t read minds, but behavior? That’s simple.” I looked down at my own plate and was shocked that it was almost empty again. Seriously, how did he fucking do it? “Deanne was different in so many ways. She hadn’t fought, not really. Her people stumbled into Alexandria, and she realized it was a boon. Yet, when her people started scouting for people to join, they didn’t know and she didn’t know how the world changed people. Why would they?” I thought of Aaron, and hoped he was doing well. “She asked questions that didn’t matter. She listened to words, but didn’t pay attention to the thousand yard stare that some people get when they’ve seen too much and are more dangerous because of their quiet and calm. She didn’t use the knowledge she was so fucking smug about to actually comb through the people better.” It had been her downfall. That and refusing for the people to learn useful skills, and learn to kill “She had no idea she had a domestic abuse situation under her nose. She didn’t think learning to survive ‘in case’ was worth the effort. And so, she died. Because, from what I’ve experienced, ‘in case’ or ‘worst case scenario’ has a pretty high fucking likelihood of happening.”

Negan was watching me as I explained. “You’d be able to tell what exactly?” I liked his curiosity. That he wasn’t blowing it off or pretending it was a parlor trick.

I sighed, and took a drink from my own glass. “If a person fidgets, when meeting a new group, it means different things. Fear, discomfort, uncertainty, those are normal, especially now. Couple the fidgets with another tell, shifty eyes with the inability to make eye contact, tugging at any part of their clothing at waist level and then you have to look closer. Eye contact isn’t something we have to fear against walkers, some dickhead humans sure, but walkers aren’t all that interested in staring deeply into your eyes. And the tugging? Concealed weapon, or some type of mark or branding are both possibilities.” I leaned back in my own chair, pleasantly full now. “I can’t tell you that they’re dangerous, but I can tell you where to look to find out.”

He let out a long breath. “Fuck, no wonder Rick kept you out of the first fight.” I was about to object, but he kept going. “You’re too fucking valuable.” Or my mouth overrules my ass, I thought, but yours sounds more complimentary, so do go on. “What do you need to be able to do it?”

I laughed. “A person? A neutral spot?” I shrugged. I’d been gauging people for my entire life. I didn’t really know what I’d need. “I do it without thinking most of the time, Negan.”

“You don’t like Dwight.” It wasn’t a question, but I knew he wanted to know how and why.

I shook my head. “I don’t trust Dwight, there’s a difference.” I stood up, needing to move to explain. “There’s a lot going into it. The way he gave up everything that was taken from Daryl that he took for his own. The fact that you could punish him in such a permanent way.” Negan was nodding with my words. “And there’s a way he stares, at you, that makes my blood run cold.”

Negan’s eyes were furrowed. “He got Sherri back. He’s one of my best warriors.” I could tell this wasn’t to me, it was him trying to see what he’d missed.

“And yet,” I said, making him refocus on me. “There’s something there that even you aren’t sure about.” I knew that too, watching the two of them interact. Negan always seemed to be testing him, and Dwight always seemed to know it. “Maybe he doesn’t trust that he’ll get to keep her, or maybe he’s still fucking angry that you got to have her for so long? I don’t know, I just know that I don’t trust him.”

“What would your suggestion be?” He asked, and I knew I might shock him with my answer, but it was the truth.

“Keep him close. Don’t let him have an inch, but don’t let him know you suspect.” I offered, moving to his side. “There’s a saying, ‘keep your friends close-’”

“‘And your enemies closer.” He finished, pulling me onto his lap.

#negan x ofc #the walking dead #Smut #alternate universe

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thecompassgirl · 4 years ago

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I have no idea how many Australians follow me but for anyone who hasn’t seen, Amnesty has a collated list of its information and petitions which concern Indigenous justice.

This includes petitions:

calling on the NT to stop putting children in caged ute trays

calling for the release of children who are awaiting trial from prisons (which is happening right now even with COVID-19)

demanding that we raise the age of kids who are imprisoned (children as young as 10 are being locked up, and this disproportionately affects Indigenous-Australian kids)

supporting the development and implementation of an anti-racism strategy for Australia

Take a moment to check it out and sign if you haven’t already.

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bannerhouse-printing123 · 1 year ago

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banner123 · 22 days ago

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hannahmcne · 5 years ago

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Tag, You’re It - A Descendants Fic

He hears about it long before he actually gets to see it.

The rumor mill starts turning, people start passing notes and whispers and then Fairy Godmother is coming over with a tight-lipped expression to confirm what everyone is saying, what 'That Girl' has done to their school lockers. By the time he's led to the site of the problem, he's heard the descriptions in so much detail that the only surprise he feels upon seeing the graffiti on the wall is in relation to the one detail everyone conveniently forgot to mention.

It is amazing. The details are smooth and crisp. He has no idea how the daughter of Maleficent is so unbelievably talented with a spray can, but boy, is she ever! Fairy Godmother leads him right up to Mal's locker and then stands to wring her hands as he takes in the image of her mother with the motto 'Long Live Evil' engraved into the design. He runs his hand over the paint and discovers it's all in one sheet – it'll probably just pull right off. He hums as he examines the clean ut of Maleficent's horns and then turns back to the Fairy Godmother, who is looking irate and stressed.

"We ought to get her into Art Classes, and then we could actually compete with Corona's Art Department," He decides.

Fairy Godmother stands in shock for a few seconds and then relaxes a little as she considers this. "Well, there's talent, no denying that, but… on our school lockers?" She frowns in disapproval.

"It looks like it'll peel right off," Ben hums, furrowing his brow. He could go and talk to Mal, ask her if she'd be willing to not spray paint the lockers, but he doubts she'll listen to him. If they have someone clean it off, then there's a chance she might just… expand her canvas. At least like this, it's contained. Ben runs his fingertips down his chin and a little smile crosses his face. "Fairy Godmother, I know this isn't the solution you want to hear, but is there any chance we can just… leave it up?"

Fairy Godmother's face twists up and her eyes water in pain at the idea of having graffiti depicting Maleficent up in the school. Ben hurries to back himself up. "Just temporarily! I'm going to try and get into her graces. Maybe I can convince her to take it into Art Class, or at least see if she'll depict something other than 'Long Live Evil'." He runs his hand down the locker door. "Besides, I don't think it's that much of a problem, to be honest. If I can't convince her to take it down, we can leave it up for a few months and clean it off before we leave for summer break. I'll pay for any damage that the paint causes, if any."

Fairy Godmother is still regretful, but Ben implores her and with the assurance that the palace will make sure the locker is restored by the end of the year, she agrees to let the matter slide. So, Ben moves on to phase 2 of both his Isle Transferee plan and his Get-Mal-Into-Art-Class plan. He has to talk to the mini dragon and convince her to take it down.

He sees his chance when he's walking out of class with Chad and Audrey one day. Audrey is mid-sigh, laughing at one of Chad's jokes, when Chad hits Ben's arm lightly and a scowl darkens his expression. He points down the hall, past the passing students, to the defaced locker that is currently open with a pair of spray-paint covered leggings poking out underneath the door. Behind Mal, Evie's locker is open, and she's checking her eyebrows, which are immaculate as usual. "Those kids are trouble," Chad hisses.

Ben pulls his pen out from behind his ear and puts it into his pocket, looking down the hall as Evie shuts her door and bids Mal farewell. In his pocket is a black permanent marker, which he must have put there earlier and forgot about. "Come on, Chad," He implores. "Give them a chance."

Audrey lets out a little sigh and steps forward to give him a lecture, but he is barely listening because Mal glances past her locker door and down the hall, which is starting to clear, and he knows as sure as he knows his name that she can hear them, somehow.

"I think you're wrong about them," He declares when he hears Audrey fall silent. She sighs in exasperation and then turns and walks away. Chad casts another distrustful look towards the girl down the hall, and then he turns to follow her off down the hall. Ben heads in the opposite direction – towards the purple-haired fairy hiding behind her locker. She closes it when she hears him approaching and turns as if she's going to walk past him. He leans into the lockers, blocking her path, and smiles. "Hey," He greets.

Mal blinks a little as if she's surprised that he's dared to speak to her. "Hey," She returns.

"How was your first day?" He wants to know, glancing at the books she's clutching in her arms. One of them, unfortunately, looks like her mother's spellbook. She can't be the only villain kid to receive a gift from their parent. Maybe he should have paid a little more attention to the cracked mirror Evie was using to examine herself earlier.

"Super," Mal hums, pressing her lips together in a way that makes the pink tones grow a little lighter for a few seconds.

Pleasantries aside, now is the time to strike. Ben nods his head towards her paint-covered locker. "You should really think about taking this talent off the locker and into Art Class. I could, uh, sign you up?"

Mal examines his gaze with a little squint and keeps her lips pressed together. "Hmm," She hums as if she's considering it. "Way to take all the fun out of it." Then she squints her eyes at him a little more, turns in a smooth motion, and walks away without another word.

"Huh," He hums, leaning back into the locker next to hers and then staring at the graffiti as student pass by in front of him. He shoves his hands into his pockets and feels the cap of the sharpie that had somehow ended up there.

And immediately, an idea comes to mind.

He pulls the sharpie out of his pocket – it's black, he should invest in a set of purple or blue – and then turns to examine Mal's artwork. He knows he can't draw for crap, but his handwriting is pretty and elegant and… kinglike. It'll do nicely. Ben locates an area on the right side of Maleficent's wing and, on top of the green, scribbles: Art Club meets after school, in room 36. Go check it out. Then he caps the sharpie and walks off in the other direction. There isn't much fault in putting graffiti over someone else's graffiti, he thinks.

______________________________________________________________

Mal, it would seem, does not agree with his reasoning.

He knows the moment she enters the room because the temperature drops and kids fall silent. Chad takes a deep breath of frustration, and he turns nonchalantly over his left shoulder to watch the Core Four enter the room. It's not at all surprising that they're here, but it should

definitely be noted that they look like they're walking into battle. Each one stands with a stance of iron, frigid gazes sweeping over the crowd and hands clenched into fists. Mal's eyes are bright green and she looks so, so pissed. Evie spots him first and puts a hand on Mal's shoulder. Quickly, everyone else's gazes drift to Ben, who looks at them for a few seconds with mounting amusement as their jaws all set into place and then turns around to return to his lunch.

There's heavy footsteps echoing off the walls and all in perfect synchrony, just like the standing army of Auradon. He listens to them get closer and closer and fiddles with the marker in his pocket before someone slams something down into the table in front of her. He glances up briefly at the maths book before Mal plants her hands on the table and glares down at him. He pulls the marker from his pocket and does his absolute best not to laugh, picturing every undesirable thing he can conjure up on the spot to aid him, as he puts the permanent marker behind his ear.

"Yes?" He askes in a conversational tone.

"You defaced my locker," Mal sneers.

Ben snorts, loudly, and a sound that has all the Auradon kids around him exchanging looks. "You defaced your own locker," He reminds her. "It was a note, princess, so you might as well put the battle squad away." He gestures to the way Evie, Jay, and Carlos are all braced behind her in perfect, solid formation, clearly ready to jump him and beat him into a pulp. Still, he doesn't back down. Mal is Isle, and the Isle respects strength. He has a feeling that if he stands his ground, she'll back off before she orders her gang to attack the future King of Auradon. This way, he shows strength and, hopefully, earns the Auradon kids some respect.

"Princess?" Mal repeats, looking disgusted. She sneers and Ben swears he sees lightning flash inside her eyes, like there's a tiny storm brewing in her pupils. It's absolutely amazing.

"Royalty of the Isle of the Lost?" Ben asks, spooning a bit of fruit salad as he looks back down at his tray. "Or, well, I guess Princess would be Evie. And I know that this is weird coming from the King of Auradon, but does the title 'Queen' do you a bit more justice?"

He raises the spoon to his mouth and Mal slaps it out of his grasp. Little bits of colorful cottage cheese go splattering across his suit and the table. He sticks out a lower lip. "That's mean. I was going to eat that," He sighs and reaches for a napkin. "Perhaps you'd like to be referred to as 'Dragon', instead?"

"Don't touch my locker again," Mal hisses, pointing a finger in his face. He looks down and notices pencil lead stains on the tips of her fingertips. Paint is underneath her nails. How interesting.

Ben doesn't say anything. He just calmly finishes mopping up the last of his lost fruit salad. An idea pops into her head. "Mal," He has to pause to keep from laughing. "Go eat. You're not yourself when you're hungry."

Chad starts coughing beside him at the reference to the popular online meme. A look of confusion passes over Evie, Jay, and Carlos's faces. Mal's lip curls, and then she abruptly shoves herself back up and takes her book off the table. She heads off with her associates following her. Ben gets up, finds his spoon, and sits back down again. Lonnie leans over the table with a little smile spreading across her face. "You're not going to quit, are you?" She asks in a whisper, tracking the four villain kids with her eyes as they head over to the lunchline.

"No," Ben shakes his head with a snort. "She's asking for it now. Game on."

______________________________________________________________

Mal fixed his last message and unintentionally left him a wide, blank canvas. He fishes his marker out of his pocket and uncaps it. On Maleficent's left side, he makes a little row of four stick figures, all holding hands, above Mal's Mom's arm. Then, he adds little lines, like the group is casting a glow, and sets about to decorate the stick figures as best as he can. Mal, the shortest stick person, gets three wavy lines for hair and a deep frowny face. Evie gets a skirt and a jacket, and lots of pretty squiggles for hair. Jay gets a hat and a vest with no sleeves, and Carlos gets some curly hair and headphones. On the right side, he writes: 'Let me know if you want help signing up for Art Classes. Art Club is still available after school.'

The stick figures are a little wobbly and Mal's frown is bigger than her face, but the additions look overall pretty neat. He puts his marker in a pocket with a satisfied expression and walks off.

Later in the day, he walks into class and Doug, Chad, and Audrey immediately flag him down. Doug plants his hands on his desk and leans forward as Ben puts his backpack in his chair.

"Did you tag Mal's locker?" Doug demands as Audrey puts a photo down of the scribbles.

"Yeah," Ben affirms with a smile crossing his face. None of the VK's have come to glare at him, so he assumes they haven't heard yet or they're planning. Well, plotting, as they prefer to call it.

"Dude, she's pissed," Doug gapes, staring at him in shock. "She stormed past me in the halls with Evie – her hair was steaming!"

Ben frowns. "Oh," He mourns. "I wish I'd gotten a photo of it."

Chad begins to laugh. "Nerves of steel, Ben, way to go! Show those Villain Kids who's boss!"

Ben shakes his head. "I'm just trying to convince Mal to join Art Classes. She's talented."

"Talented?" Audrey repeats, lips curling into a sneer that reminds Ben of Mal. "She made graffiti of her mother, and you're calling it talent?"

"Yeah," Ben agrees. "Did you see the detailing? She did that with a spray can. Can you do that with a spray can?"

Audrey stays silent because, of course, she cannot do that with a spray can. Ben shrugs and pulls his books out of his bag. "She won't be mad, anyways," He shrugs. "It's not like she can do much to get back at me."

______________________________________________________________

"Oh my goodness," Audrey gasps as they walk up to his locker. Ben stays silent as he examines the long, ugly word splattered across his locker door. 'No', she has written, in black eerie paint. Part of it is still fresh, and the air smells like aerosol. He brings a hand up to his chin as he examines her work – all contained to his locker, thankfully. He glances down the hall to her locker and discovers that it's been stripped clean. There's not even any paint left in the hinge. No way she could have done that that quickly. She must have a spell for it, he realizes with amusement.

"This is… vandalism!" Audrey shrieks. "Ben, look at it, it's hideous!"

"It'll come off," Ben rolls his eyes. He opens his locker and puts his books carefully before he feels in his pocket for his permanent marker. He locks his door, heads over to Mal's locker, and then in big, bold letters writes: "Please?" Then, because he feels like the question merits a drawing, he begins another shaky stick figure of Mal with crossed arms and a frown dropping off her face like an overgrown mustache. Audrey watches him, shaking her head.

"She's just going to keep going!" She warns him with narrowed eyes.

Ben nods in agreement. "Probably," He affirms. "It's nice to know I've got her goose though."

As he puts the marker away, he spots a flash of orange leather out of the corner of his eye. He turns and sees Jay stop in the entrance to the hallway, cross his arms, and examine Ben's new handiwork. Then, Ben watches Mal's friend raise a hand to cover his mouth as he tries his hardest to stop a laugh.

Ben raises a patronizing hand. "Don't laugh," He demands with as straight of a face as he can procure. "Not all of us are blessed with art skills."

Jay says nothing as Ben and Audrey walk away from the scene of the attack. Ben is pretty sure he hears Jay start to laugh as soon as they're a fair distance away.

______________________________________________________________

Ben bumps into Jay the next day – literally – because the hallway is crowded and doesn't think anything of it until he reaches his locker and discovers his trusty permanent marker is gone. Jay must have snatched it from him when they slammed into each other, Ben realizes with a sigh. And it's a shame, too, because Mal has defaced her locker again, but this time with a black design that resembles her and her squad. Ben traces the outlines in Carlos's curly hair and smiles to see Evie's mirror in hand and Jay's beanie expertly slouched on his forehead.

Then, he glances down the hall at his locker and finds that the large, ugly word has been cleaned off. Instead, a mockery of the royal crest is atop his locker door. The beast in the crest is sticking his tongue out and one eye is slashed through. It's in the proper golden colors, and what amuses Ben the most about it is the fact she knows how to draw the royal crest.

He doesn't have a marker on hand, but he does know where to get one. There are several options: borrow from someone else, borrow from the art room, or…

During lunch that day, Ben makes a point of walking in late with a grocery bag slung over his arm. Mal and her friends are already sitting down at their table when he comes up behind Chad and Audrey and puts a hand on Audrey's shoulder as he puts the grocery sack on the table. "Sorry, I'm late!" He announces, loud enough for his voice to carry. "I, uh, had to go pick up some things."

He glances over to Mal's table and watches Jay and Carlos turn around at his proclamation. His permanent marker is behind Jay's ear, but it doesn't matter as he reaches into his bag and pulls out a new pack of sharpie markers. He displays them in his arms as if he's just showing Chad and Audrey, but they're in clear sight for the villain kids to see as well. Jay, Evie, and Carlos's mouths all fall open and they turn to stare dumbfounded at Mal as the angry dragoness curls her nails into the lunchroom table.

Chad and Audrey take in the sight of the markers and then turn to look over at the villain kids, who have effectively been duped. A snap comes as Mal accidentally breaks one of her long nails off her finger. Evie gasps in concern as Ben and Mal lock eyes from twenty feet away; her in barely-contained rage and him in scarcely-suppressed amusement. Because this is a declaration of war.

In his hands, he holds a full set of pretty purple markers, just a few shades off of her hair.

He spikes an eyebrow at Mal as a bright, gleeful smile spreads across his mouth. Evie starts to laugh, and Jay doesn't look like he's far behind as Mal's hands shake. He puts the markers away and sits down at his table, feeling very successful as Chad and Audrey exchange bewildered looks.

In retaliation for his stunt in the lunchroom, Mal wipes his locker clean of the crest and leaves it blank and white. He guesses it's because she doesn't think he deserves her artwork. Of course, that won't do, so he covers his locker himself.

Which is a mistake.

Because, if you'd forgotten…

Ben can't draw.

His locker is covered with an unintelligible mess that Ben is honestly embarrassed about. He tried to draw his family crest himself, and it looks about as much like the beast as a fly looks like a dragon. He tried to do a tree because he figured something like that was a good place to start, but now there's a jumble of squiggly lines that he can't even admit was supposed to be a tree for fear of bringing shame and dishonor on him, his family, and his cow. Lastly, he tried to do a heart because he figured that was simple enough, but his arm slipped on the second side and now he has a very odd cane shape. He can't even remember how he managed to do the stick figures at this point.

Ben gives up on his own locker and, feeling a little disheartened, heads over to Mal's locker, where she and her friends still stare down at everyone who passes. He scribbles underneath the portraits: 'Art Club is still after school. Have you checked it out yet?'

He's just barely put the marker back into his pocket when Mal and Evie appear in the hallway and stop upon seeing him there. Evie bites her lip and looks to the ground while Mal's face goes white upon seeing his message. Ben smiles and waves to the two. "Hey!" He greets. "How are you guys today?"

"I'd be a whole lot better if you'd quit messing with my art!" Mal snaps, stomping up to him.

Ben nods, pinching his lips together in amusement. "I see how that would be frustrating," He hums. "I, too, am suffering from minor annoyances. There's a certain girl who should be displaying her talents on canvases in hallways everywhere and proving to everyone she's the best artist around, yet she lowers herself to defacing my locker with cream paint." He sticks a thumb out to his locker and watches Mal's eyes flick towards it once, then back to him. Suddenly, she processes what she just saw and leans to the far right, mouth falling open, to stare at his locker.

Ben remembers too late the awful squiggles covering his locker door.

"What did you do?" Mal wails, covering her mouth in absolute horror at the awful atrocities covering his door.

"I'm… making your artwork look even better than it did before," Ben declares, trying to fight the pink tones as they surface in his cheeks. And he's not wrong. With his abominable locker being just down the hall from Mal's masterpiece, it looks way more impressive than before.

"What even is this mess?" Mal whimpers, looking like she's in physical pain as she examines Ben's failed heart attempt. And it is a mess.

"Well, see, this right here is a… well, a," He falters, trying to come up with a good cover story. "It's a drawing of some of… Bigfoot's hair?" He chokes. "And this is a cracked candy cane and this right here is a mythical creature you hope to never meet outside your worst nightmares." He turns to watch Mal shrink into despair at his horrific artwork plus dazzling cover story.

"You're horrible!" She declares, looking and sounding like someone had just fed her entire soul through a grinder.

"Is that a compliment from the Isle of the Lost?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

Evie laughs as Mal braces her hands at her sides. She shakes her head. "I'm not touching that atrocity," She tells him. "You created it, so you can stare at it." She forces herself to turn and walk back to her locker, and a brilliant idea strikes Ben. If she's so embarrassed by his drawings when it has nothing to do with her, then…

Later that day, the words 'The artist who did this also did the locker down the hall' appears underneath Ben's invitation to Mal on her Locker door. Then, on his locker, he puts 'By the Daughter of Maleficent – Don't Mess With Her!'.

And then he waits.

______________________________________________________________

His purple markers start disappearing whenever he's near Jay or Carlos. He kind of just lets them go; it means Mal is still invested in this battle.

His declaration that Mal had done the lines on his locker had produced the desired effect of Mal freaking out over her artist reputation being ruined. She'd cleaned his locker – and hers – clean before covering his with angry scaled beasts in dark shadows with hideous limbs and features. Meanwhile, on her locker, she creates a mighty dragon breathing fire down onto a tiny person.

The rumor mill is churning. Most people think that the person the dragon is burning is Ben, but Ben personally agrees with Audrey when his girlfriend proclaims that it looks a little like her. He has to figure out a way to get Mal to remove or change the new graffiti before something bad happens.

Fortunately, he knows a fairly easy way to do that.

He uses his third-to-last purple permanent marker to doodle a little dog in the fire with tiny Audrey-lookalike. He doesn't have to try to make it bad. The dog's belly is deformed, one eye covers a third of the face, one leg is about three times the length of another, and the tail is a floppy squiggle line. Then, he makes a broken mirror around the dragon's fiery breath and adds tiny flecks falling as if the dragon had broken through the mirror. He needs something for Mal, so he does a rough drawing of her mother's spellbook on the bottom of the locker before announcing in capital letters across the top of her locker: Tourney Game on Saturday – Look for Number 8, Scoring the Winning Goal.

And then, underneath, in smaller letters: 'Art Club after school and Art Classes still open for enrollment.'

During third hour, the entire school hears a shriek of rage that echoes off the walls and makes a windowpane in Fairy Godmother's office break. "Ben!" Mal can be heard cursing his name across the entire school.

Ben's class all turns around to stare at him. "Is that Mal?" Lonnie demands as the teacher pauses class with wide eyes.

Ben shrugs. "Probably," He affirms.

"What did you do?" Audrey asks with a deep frown. "She sounds pissed."

"She probably is," Ben laughs. "I drew over her new artwork on her locker."

One of the other kids in the class sighs dramatically, sinking back into their chair. "Dude, can you just ask her out the normal way?" He demands. "Isn't the paint a little excessive?"

Ben's mouth goes a little dry as Audrey's mouth drops indignantly. "I, erm, am not trying to ask her out. I'm trying to get her to sign up for art. And, before anyone else asks, it's going pretty well. Her friends all think it's hilarious and I think she's growing more attached to the idea than she realizes."

"She's going to kill you," Jane gasps in horror.

"Are you sure you're not trying to ask her out?" Someone else asks suspiciously.

Ben presents Audrey at his side. "Girlfriend," He introduces sarcastically. "I'm not asking Mal out."

One of their classmates blinks in surprise. "You're still together?" They ask. "I thought you broke up ages ago!" Audrey's face contorts in hurt.

Huh. The rumor mill has been a lot more active than he realized.

______________________________________________________________

Mal changes her art to a detailed exhibition of some wicked green flames, but Ben's nasty depictions of brutal beasts stay up. Ben uses his last purple marker to scribble Mal and her friends with him a little ways away, all in stick-figure perspective. Above Mal', he puts a downwards-facing arrow and makes her at least an inch shorter than all her peers.

Mal responds with a cutting portrait of his corpse in a coffin, which she takes down the next day without any prompting from him or Fairy Godmother at all. Even the daughter of Maleficent has her reservations and depicting the dead crown prince is one of them. Ben is touched, even though the locker art turns back into dragons in the wake of his body.

His locker art hasn't been touched in some time, so he scribbles over it with a new golden permanent marker, from a pack of five-hundred that he'd opened in front of Mal and her friends, and the next day there's a picture of his dad with Auradon behind him, standing on the dirty Isle of the Lost.

It is one of the most stunning things he's ever seen.

Of course, it is grotesque, as is Mal's usual style, but it's also intense and impressive. The lines and shadows in his dad's face are detailed and structured, and the Isle is hideous and demeaning in a way that only a citizen could express. Meanwhile, Auradon is bright and flashy and a completely different sort of repulsive to Ben. It's prideful and antagonizing.

It's done with actual paint and brushes, not just spray cans. A different sort of art that she really put her heart into.

He's staring at it after class one day when Audrey walks by and her face twists into a sneer of rage so powerful that Ben doubts Mal and her friends – 'his villain kids', as people have been calling them – could rival it if they tried.

"You need to stop this!" She demands, dropping her purse on the floor and sticking out her lower lip to show how serious she is.

Ben blinks in surprise as he tears his eyes off of the painting and stares at his girlfriend. "Stop what?" He asks.

"This!" She yells, gesturing furiously to the portrait. "With the VK's and the spray paint and Mal!"

"It's Acrylic paint, this time." Ben corrects, brushing his fingers along the details. "See the brush strokes?"

"Ben!" Audrey snaps, glaring at him even more now.

"I don't see the problem, Audrey," Ben huffs. "It's not hurting anything."

"It's hurting us!" Audrey disagrees with her eyes filling up with tears. She waves her finger back and forth between him and her. "You and I! You've been focusing all your time on what's the next big thing that Mal's going to draw and every single date has been about 'I'm going to do this to see Mal's reaction' and 'Mal is going to hate me for this'. I'm sick of it, Ben! You need to stop this right now!" She balls her fists up into tiny balls that probably couldn't even snap a pencil if they tried.

"Audrey, it's just a joke. We have our little jokes between you, Chad, Lonnie and I. It's just something I'm doing for fun. What's so bad about that?" Ben crosses his arms in defense.

"What's wrong with it is that you're going off in the deep end for a villain kid instead of me, and I don't know if you've forgotten this, but I'm the one you're dating, not Mal!" Audrey snaps, with angry, stressed tears streaming down her face. She must have been thinking about this for a while.

"Audrey, you need to calm down!" Ben holds up his hands. "Listen, I'm sorry if I've been neglecting you or anything. I'm just trying to make them feel more welcome and help them start more friendships. If you want, you and I can do something special later this week. Would that make you feel better?"

Audrey wipes her eyes a little and picks up her purse. The argument seems almost over. Ben hadn't even realized when he'd stopped paying attention to Audrey – it just sort of happened. He glances back to the stunning portrait and that's when Audrey snaps.

"If you don't quit this painting nonsense, I'm breaking up with you, Ben," Audrey tells him with clenched fists. Ben's mouth drops open. Over a joke? For real?

Well, there was one thing Ben knows, and it was that he was not going to let Audrey's temper outburst break up the lead he had with the VK's. "Well, then maybe we should take a break," He frowns. "I don't like you trying to manipulate me with our relationship. That's not the kind of person I want to be with."

Audrey's mouth drops open. "You're breaking up with me?" She asks.

"I think you're breaking up with me," Ben corrects. "You said that if I didn't quit the painting stuff, we were done, and I'm not quitting the painting stuff. So, we're done." He turns back to the portrait, away from Audrey, opens his locker, and takes out a white permanent marker. Audrey stands still, in shock, as Ben goes over to Mal's locker and writes, in the bottom right-hand corner, 'Thank You'. He listens to Audrey breathing hard in rage and then hears her spin around and walk away. Ben continues his little note. 'The portrait is exquisite, and I love it so much. Do you have a name for it?'

"You could just ask me that in real life," A voice comes from behind him.

Ben looks over his shoulder and spots the purple-haired girl standing over his shoulder, examining the note as he writes it. She shakes her head. "How can someone with such beautiful handwriting be so bad at drawing?" She asks.

"How can someone who spent all her time learning to be a villain have so much talent?" He replies. "Your drawings are just… flawless."

Mal makes a sound of acknowledgment in the back of her throat and twiddles her thumbs a little as she gazes at the dragons on her locker. "Are you, uh, okay about Audrey?"

"Oh yeah, fine," Ben nods, examining the dragon on her locker and then reaching up to write her name in his most beautiful cursive. "As I said, I don't want to be in a relationship with someone who uses that relationship against me. And besides, Audrey hasn't been acting like someone I would want to make a queen since she got here."

Mal hums, quietly watching her name appear in the beautiful, official-looking font on her locker, and then turns and walks away.

______________________________________________________________

Ben wakes up a little late and doesn't have time to run to his locker before breakfast. When he walks in, the room goes a little quiet, and the Fairy Godmother appears, gesturing to him frantically. As a precaution, he seeks out the villain kids to make sure that he isn't being summoned for Jay stealing something or for Mal destroying someone's property, but they're all present and don't look like they're into more trouble than usual. Jay is wearing his tourney shirt and Evie is fixing her makeup while Mal watches him over the pages of her spellbook.

He grabs a raspberry Danish and then the Fairy Godmother leads him through the halls to where his and Mal's lockers are. Ben gasps when he sees what the new development is. Stretching across Mal's locker in place of the dragon is a very realistic painting of Gaston, his father's attempted murderer, shaking hands with Audrey, his ex-girlfriend. As always, it was very detailed and immaculate, but the sinister tones implied in the painting make Ben shiver.

"This is going a bit far, Ben," Fairy Godmother tells him. "We didn't say anything when she depicted you dead, but this is just… too much. If Audrey complains to her parents, we'll have to stop this whole escapade, no matter how funny it has been for the whole school.

"I'll ask Mal to change it," Ben nods, pulling his phone out of his pocket and backing up a few steps to photograph the painting. "Look at this detail! How does she put so much into such a small space?"

"It is amazing," The Fairy Godmother agrees. She folds her hands. "So, is the rumor mill true? Are you planning on asking the daughter of Maleficent out?"

"Since when are you one to get involved in student relationships?" Ben asks, raising an eyebrow. "And no, I'm not. I'm just trying to convince her to sign up for art."

"Ah," Fairy Godmother nods. "I was asking because Carlos and my Jane will be going to a movie on Friday evening, and Doug and Evie are doing an 'independent study group'. Jay, of course, has tourney, and Mal has an ongoing art war with the Crown Prince of Auradon."

"War is a strong word," Ben hums, even though it had been him to first declare war with the markers. "It's more like… an argument. Or a strongly-pictured discussion with depictions of my dad and ex-girlfriend involved."

"A war," Fairy Godmother nods. "Well, I hope you know what you're doing."

"I do," Ben nods, going to his locker, opening it, and pulling out a blue permanent marker. Jay and Carlos are still stealing his markers. He's running out of good colors and has a feeling Mal will return to being a little annoyed if he writes on her locker in hot pink. Under Fairy Godmother's watchful eye, he scribbles on her locker door, right beside the lock: 'Who else can you do? Suggestions: Evie, Jay, Carlos, Yourself. Art Club after school, will you be there?'

"You should just ask her out," Fairy Godmother hums. "You would be cute together."

Ben rolls his eyes. "I'm just going to stick to getting her into art class." He laughs.

The next morning, Jay and Carlos stand outside of his door when he unlocks it. He supposes that at this point he should just assume the villain kids will never become predictable to him and he should just expect them to pop up, but their dramatic appearance still shocks him.

"Sup!" Jay exclaims, crossing his arms and nodding sharply to the ceiling.

"Have you seen Mal's locker yet?" Carlos asks.

"I just barely woke up," Ben laughs. "But let's walk down and see it."

"Well, it's your locker, and her locker," Jay corrects. "And, um, you may want to wait till later. There's a crowd outside of the area."

"A crowd?" Ben frowns.

"Admirers," Carlos nods. "Students and Fairy Godmother and some people from the National Art Association. But when you do get the chance to see it, just know she stayed up till the sunrise finishing everything."

"Sunrise?" Ben's eyebrows shoot up. "Does she even sleep?"

"Not anymore," Jay shakes his head. "She's been staying up to finish these portraits because you like them so much."

"Huh," Ben furrowed his brow. He hasn't even considered when Mal is making all her masterpieces, and now he feels rather guilty. "Where is she now?"

"I think she told Evie she was missing her first class and then she'd go to the rest," Jay explains. "But anyway, we came to warn you about your locker, and also to return a few things." He pulled a fistful of markers out of his pockets, and Carlos did the same. Ben laughed and held out his hands to take them back. His smile faded slightly as he examined them. There was the sparkly gold and the dark blue and all of the purples and the white one, but not all of the colors had been returned.

"Why are you only returning a couple?" Ben asks with a frown.

"Well, about that…" Jay trails off, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We've grown rather fond of some of the colors," Carlos declares, turning his head a little so Ben could see the headset around his neck and the sharpie design that now cover the side of the earpiece.

"Wow!" Ben's mouth drops open as he leans forward and examines the design. "Did Mal do that one too?" It features two crossed bones and several different shades of red, grey, and black.

"She did," Carlos affirms. "But anyway, we're keeping the colors we like and returning Mal's favorites."

Ben frowns again. "Why would you return Mal's favorite colors? I mean, if she wants to use them, them-"

"No, not her favorites to use," Jay shakes his head. "Because we're keeping all the greens and some purple too. But these are the favorite ones that she likes to see on her locker. She says if you start using hot pink then she'll paint someone she hates naked on your locker in retaliation. Just a warning."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ben shudders. "I doubt anyone would enjoy that very much."

"Yeah, she'd probably get annoyed with it and take it down herself after a while," Carlos agrees. "That's what happened with that one where you were dead. She got herself all upset painting it and then couldn't keep it up after that. She got really into this whole thing. It's like, the most important thing to her now."

"I love it," Ben confesses. "I didn't mean for it to go in this direction, but I think the whole school is enjoying it at this point."

"Everyone is saying you're going to ask her out," Jay reminds Ben, sticking his hands into the front of his athletic jacket. "That true?"

Ben shakes his head. "I'm not planning on it," He explains. "Though lots of people have been asking me lately."

"Oh," Carlos's face furrows up. "Okay, cool. Hey, if you ever do, you, me, her, and Jane should all see about doing a double thing."

"Oh yeah, I heard you and Jane were going around," Ben nods. "Jane is super nice. We grew up together."

"Yeah, she's great," Carlos smiles. He glances at his watch. "Hey, Jay, we've got to get to class. It was great talking to you, Ben."

"Nice talking to you too! Thanks for tipping me off about everything," Ben raises his hand to wave to the two boys as they salute him and start walking away. He can't believe that Mal has people from NAA looking at her artwork, much less that she's stayed up all night working on a project. He wonders what she'd drawn this time.

______________________________________________________________

A figure in purple is slumped over at a picnic table in the shade. Ben has to keep from laughing as he walks over, examining her hair, slung forward onto the table, and her fallen backpack beside her. He sets his gift down in front of her and carefully announces his presence. "Hey, Mal!"

Mal stirs and opens an eye. She flips her hair back into place over her head and Ben stifles a chuckle at the way half of her hair settles back into place on her head and the other hair remains spoofed from the angle she was lying at. She blinks several times and then yawns as she raises a hand towards him. "Hey, Ben," She mumbles, leaning against her hand.

"Jay and Carlos told me you were up late," Ben begins, then pauses as Mal begins to nod as her eyes drift closed. "So, I brought you some Iced Black Coffee with no milk and no sweetener and also I know it's not as good as anything you can do, but I asked the barista to draw a little dragon on the side of the cup." Ben turns the cup around to show off the dragon as Mal's eyes fly open and she examines the drink suspiciously.

"That's my order," She frowns. "How did you know that?"

"I'm in charge of you guys while you're in Auradon. I know everything about your lives." Ben explains as he took a seat.

"Did Evie tell you?" Mal asks through a yawn as she reaches for the cup and examines the dragon. A little smile spreads across her mouth.

"Evie did tell me," Ben affirms with a nod. "You'd better try it and make sure I got everything right, though, otherwise I'll have to run back and get a second."

Mal snorts and takes a sip, closing her eyes as she does. Ben drums his fingers a little and watches her sigh in relief. "I'm tempted to say it's wrong so you can run and get me another, but it's perfect. Thanks."

"No problem," Ben laughs. "I'm sorry it didn't occur to me that you were staying up to paint."

Mal nods. "It's the detailing that takes the longest. My locker was being the troublesome one last night. I couldn't get my eyes to look right."

"Your eyes?" Ben asks, perking up a little. Had she drawn herself?

"Have you seen it yet?" Mal asked with a frown.

Ben shook his head. "Jay and Carlos tipped me off that you had National Art Associates at our lockers today, so I've been avoiding the area while it clears out."

Mal furrows her brow a little in disappointment. She reaches down and picks up her backpack before she gets to her feet. "Come on," She invites him, nodding her head to the school.

They walk through the halls in silence, shoulder to shoulder as Mal sips her coffee. She leads him to the hall with their lockers. It is still relatively crowded with people who are gaping in amazement at the paintings. Mal steps through everyone and the area clears for the creator. Ben's breath catches as he looks over Mal's locker. On it are the portraits of her, Evie, Jay, and Carlos. Their hair is sleek, shiny and lifelike. Mal is holding a sword and staring straight ahead with a dark purple leather suit covering her. Evie is turned slightly to the side, looking over her shoulder, and Jay and Carlos pose with their shoulders back in firm positions. If not for the size comparisons, Ben would swear he was looking at the actual Core Four.

"This is amazing!" He sputters, waving his hands a little in a complete inability to express his meaning. "This is… this is! How do you do all of this in one night?" He leans in, searching for the tiny brushstrokes covering the locker. "Do you use magic?" He gasps.

"No," Mal shakes her head. "Using magic would take the fun out of painting. And to be honest, I like yours a lot better." She points down the hall to where Ben's locker is. Ben tears his gaze away to look towards his own space and his entire expression falls slack at what he saw. He leaves Mal's locker and walks down the hall to brush his fingertips down his very own portrait. It is completely unlike any portrait he's ever seen of himself. He has his hands clasped underneath his chin and is wearing a simple yellow button-up shirt. In this, he appears to be sitting at one of the outdoor lunch tables, and he's looking up at the sky and to the right a little bit as he laughs. She's caught him mid-laugh. It's so natural and lifelike that he almost expects to catch himself breathing. Even the grass behind him looks real. Bordering the painting is a solid gold frame with the beast crest – the proper one, this time – set in the center of the painting. The shading behind the frame is so realistic that you can only tell it's a painting if you're looking at it from the side.

"How are you so talented?" He gasps. "I haven't met palace personnel or anyone who can draw as well as you can. This is such raw talent…" He turns to stare at her in utter amazement. A little blush creeps across her cheeks.

"This is amazing," He tells her. "It's like I'm looking through a window. Just absolutely crazy." Ben stares at Mal, eyes tracing her jawline and eyes. "Why won't you sign up with the art department?" He asks.

Mal wrinkles up her nose a little and her shoulders slump a bit. "I, um…" She trails off. "I don't want to waste my time having people tell me things I already know."

"But think of all the people you could help!" Ben protests. "And just imagine all the things you could learn about the business. This would be so good for you!" He puts a hand on her shoulder and looks straight into that electric-green gaze of hers. "Mal, you should do it."

"Well…" Mal trails off, looking a bit confused. "It's not that easy," She sighs.

"Why not?" Ben asks. "What have you got to lose? You could make so many friends and have lots of art supplies and get to make tons of new friends! Plus, I'd stop pestering you to join."

Mal moves away from his grip with a downcast expression. "I don't want to join," She sighs. "I just… I'll talk to you later." She turns around with another sigh and a shake of her head, and Ben watches her part the crowd like the red sea before she's gone.

______________________________________________________________

The artwork stays for two more days, and then it's all gone. Back to clean lockers and no paint. Ben can't understand where he went wrong. He feels like he almost had her. She had been so close to agreeing and then… something had happened. He lays awake at night, thinking about the downcast, almost regretful manner in which she'd said 'I don't want to join." Clearly, she thought it would be cool. Clearly, she had talent. What was holding her back?

During lunch, as he sits with Chad, Doug, and Lonnie, watching the villain kids from a distance, he notices Mal picking at her plate and mumbling to Evie, Jay, and Carlos. Something is wrong. Something that is starting to feel a lot like it's his fault.

Doug leans across the table. "Did Fairy Godmother shut down you and Mal?" He asks.

Ben shakes his head. "She approved of the whole thing. Mal just told me she didn't want to join and now the locker art has just… died." He sighs, slumping back into his chair. "I'm really… disappointed, but I don't know what went wrong."

Doug pulls out his phone with a sigh. "How about I text Evie and ask if she has any clues?" He offers, unlocking the screen and going straight into the messaging system. Ben sighs and doesn't say anything as Doug types out a lengthy message and then sends it to Evie. The group turns as one to glance at the VK table as Evie reaches into her purse, pulls out her phone, and glances at them. As one, they all return their attentions to their plates while Evie answers Doug.

After about a minute, Doug's phone dings. He holds up the screen to read the text's contents and then clears his throat. "Tell Ben to meet Jay, Carlos and I by the tourney field at two." He relays and then shuts off the screen.

Ben sighs and nods. This is something that requires a face-to-face discussion. He only hopes he's prepared for it.

______________________________________________________________

Evie, Jay, and Carlos are all sitting in the lower section of the bleachers when he walks up. They watch him approach with forlorn expressions. Ben swallows as he took a seat facing them and Evie twisted a black book in her hands. It's filled with loose leaflets. She puts it down on the bleachers and gestures at him to pick it up. Ben does as she commands and pops the seal off on the book.

"Mal's been having a rough last few days," Evie whispers. "She's pretty bummed about the locker stuff."

"I am too," Ben sighs. He opens the book and is greeted to a welcome, familiar sight. It's the original 'Long Live Evil' graffiti he first noticed on her locker. A smile spreads across his face at the memory. He flips the page and discovers the other artworks she's done. Demons and dragons and everything she's put on their lockers. His dead body is missing, but that was okay because he isn't been particularly attached to it. He reaches the end with the portraits of them and then keeps going. There are things from the Isle and from Auradon Prep and from a land he assumes is entirely Mal's creation.

Near the back of the booklet, he starts seeing himself more and more predominately. In class, in the halls, standing by his locker, and everywhere in-between.

"She got really into this," Carlos mumbles from behind Ben. "We think it's because she got really into you."

"She only kept up with the locker thing because she saw and heard how impressed you were," Jay explains.

"And then she realized that if she started taking Art Classes, it'd stop. All the little notes and you asking her things and her getting to tag your locker with graffiti… and then she couldn't even though she started to kind of want to." Evie sighs, running her hands through her hair. "Now, she's just kind of in a 'blah' phase. She doesn't want to work on anything because she's sad."

Ben traces one of his portraits with his fingertips and a quiet smile. Then he swallows. "I think I might have an idea," he announces slowly. "Can you send Mal to our lockers? Just send her a text and I'll meet her there."

______________________________________________________________

He can hear Mal's boots hitting the floor as she walks closer and closer to him, so he turns and begins to doodle a tiny crown on her locker. He hears her stop in the doorway of the hall and mentally prepares himself for Mini-Maleficent before he heard boots stepping towards him and turns to watch her forlorn, blank expression as she walks towards him.

"Your drawing is still horrible," She mumbles. "You're defiling my locker."

"Another Isle compliment?" He asks, and then drops the white sharpie and recaps it. "It was supposed to be a crown."

"It looks more like a chewed-up sunflower seed." Mal laughs.

"Yeah, I can't draw," Ben agrees with a chuckle. "I can write, but I can't draw. Maybe I could, though, if I had a good teacher." He glances over at her and their gazes lock in something in something incredibly powerful that he can't quite fathom yet.

"A teacher?" She clarifies. "Is there a question in there?"

Ben jerks his head back to where his locker is. He turns and together, they walk down to his locker. Ben's locker is open, hiding the backplate from view. Ben shuts it with a flick and then stands back as Mal examines the locker. On it is a letter, written first in gold and then in white. A tiny, enchanted smile crosses Mal's face as she reads it.

'Mal,' it reads, 'Art Club is still after school and Art Classes are in need of a leader. My class schedule is full, but I still need a tutor to help me with my drawing skills. Why don't we sign up together and call it a date?'

"I thought Jay and Carlos said you weren't planning on asking me out?" Mal asks with a tiny, breathless gasp.

"Well, I changed my mind," Ben smiles. "The truth is, I missed much more than just your artwork. I missed the conversation and the connection. I need someone like you, artistic and funny and beautiful, in my life. So, what do you say, should we sign up together?"

Mal smiles with a little nod and then chuckles. "Lead the way to the registry, Beast Boy."

Ben laughs as he puts an arm around her, and they head off to the Art Room to announce the two latest members of the after-school club.

#mal #mal bertha #ben #ben florian #ben and mal #descendants #descendants 2 #descendants 3 #disney #disney descendants #cute #fanfic #art #graffittiart #graffiti

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