#all he's getting through the training bond is muted pain and upset

[5ush1w0rm]

THIS IS SUCH AN AMAZING OBIMAUL FIC 😩😩😩😩

Chat writes the plot! Time for more 👑🐲🐟 KotD!

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@obimaulartfire @savageopressbignaturals @icequeen8043 @moonsickvampire

~King of the Dragonfish: Chapter 7~

Obi-Wan uses a faint tendril of force to brush over his kyber, sending the animus of it his affection. It murmurs back at him, ill at ease to be handled by the energy signature it knows as Maul.

With a sigh, the jedi holds the hilt out. “Kneeling wasn't in the agreement.”

The other man sways closer, tense and watchful.

“It would please me to see you on your knees,” the sith says, reaching out and lifting the unlit saber from his palm.

Obi-Wan leans back on a hip, and crosses his arms. “I'm sure it would. Beat me up some more if you must, but I won't kneel to a sith lord willingly.”

Maul squints at him, calculating, and he has the uncomfortable realization that the other man may have simply taken that as a challenge.

“Hmmm…” The half dragonfish hums, twirling Obi-Wan's saber between his fingers, then igniting it.

He can feel the kyber song shudder. It does not want to be wielded in darkness.

Maul makes a swift strike, stopping a matter of inches from his hips. “Perhaps I should take your legs as you took mine… would that not be fair?” The man sneers, “Surely you jedi care about fairness.”

“No,” Obi-Wan counters, not giving an inch despite the sputtering heat of his own blade too close to his side, crackling as it resists this use. “The jedi code isn't concerned with being fair, only just.”

Maul grins. The defiance only seems to please him.

The dragonfish sith extinguishes the blade and sways backward on his tail, retreating to the water's edge. “I will return, and then I will take you to a different cave. Be prepared to go, jedi. I will drag you under either way.”

“Wonderful,” Obi-Wan drawls as Maul backflips into the water, hardly making a splash, “It's a date.”

Alone again, unarmed again, the jedi prisoner scowls and goes to lurk beside the magma ball. It's only mildly warm now, the cooled shell being too good of an insulator. The center of it is likely still fluid, but it's thermal radiance is diminished. Obi-Wan still leans back against it, plotting.

He had been too stressed on that first day to pay much attention to the pathway Maul had taken from open sea to this particular cave as he kidnapped Obi-Wan to it. An oversight on his part. They would be going to a new one though, and as much as he isn't looking forward to the blasted cold, it would provide an opportunity to learn some of the area.

He could pay attention to the path between here and there, and then, maybe in a day or two, find a way to make Maul consider the new cave to also be an unacceptable cell. The sith would move him again. Another opportunity.

It would take time, cunning, and no small amount of manipulation, but if he could map out enough of these caves, he may be able to learn a way out.

The next problem would be getting all the way to the surface, slowly enough to not die of drowning or diver’s sickness.

One problem at a time.

Obi-Wan flips where he's leaning on the magma rock, attempting to warm his front side in advance of this next trip. That's how Maul finds him, practically hugging the misshapen ball of it.

“Jjjedi,” the sith calls to him from the water. “Come.”

Rather than waste energy being difficult when he wants to be focused and aware for the trip to the next cave, Obi-Wan opts to approach the water himself, and -with a grimace- take a deep breath and hop in. He manages to not gasp from the immense chill by a small margin of success. The temperature is bitterly cold, shocking even when he'd prepared.

Regardless of the chill, it's beautiful and alive down here. The seaweed drifts like tall, ribbon grass. The moss glows white and blue. Little fingerling fish with translucent bodies school around pink coral and porous stone.

Amid the beauty, the sith swims over to him, black and red and incongruous with it all… yet a part of it. A monster from above with dual citizenship on the ocean floor.

Maul swishes up to him, fast and graceful, and grabs his tunics before taking off.

‘Well,’ Obi-Wan thinks as he relaxes into the hold, ‘at least he isn't coiling around me like a vice this time.’

Maul glides them through the water, into a small tunnel that opens up into a larger one after only a few feet. Obi-Wan can see it going off to the left and right, lit by the moss. The sith takes them left, around a curve in the tunnel. The path splits into a dark corridor. They go left again, then right.

He hopes they arrive quickly, he'd like to breathe soon.

They go up, across the open sands of a massive cave the size of the senate chamber. The space is brightly lit by orange crystals and purple fish that glow in neon stripes.

He's running out of breath.

Their path leads though a hole in the wall. Obi-Wan looks upward, hoping to see an air pocket…

There isn't one.

Alarmed, he wacks Maul in the chest and gestures at his mouth. Where in the blazes are they going? He needs air! Even with the lungs of a swordfighter and the aid of the force, he has to-

Maul presses their mouths together, and breathes into him.

‘What,’ he thinks dumbly. The jedi master feels six different things at once. His thoughts are mangled by the chaos.

Now his lungs are overful, but the edge is taken off from his need to inhale. Obi-Wan lets some of the air escape him, making a cascade of silvery bubbles erupt around their faces. Maul does it again. A second stale breath fills him.

Oh. Right, yes, okay, the sith has made himself into a rebreather.

Obi-Wan breathes out again…

…and the Dragonfish sith gives him air once more.

… and again.

… and again.

They breach a water surface and Obi-Wan opens his eyes, blinking owlishly.

When had he closed them??

'Drat,' he thinks, dismayed.

… he'd lost track of their path.

Maul lifts him onto shore, and he feels heat at his back. Obi-Wan rolls towards it before he's even got his bearings, shivering and disoriented.

Mmmmm. Warm.

“This shall serve. A gorogoro cannot pass the threshold to enter unless it is juvenile, the door is too small,” Maul declares, sounding pleased with himself.

“That's nice,” Obi-Wan tells him, trying to get as close to the fresh magma ball as possible without burning himself. He shrimps around it with a sigh.

“You will drink. There is fruit. I shall hunt, while the magma is still hot enough to cook on. Speak your preference, Kenobi, or I will simply bring you crab.”

“I love crab,” he tells the wonderful black stone before him, “but I've no seafood cracker.”

The sith snorts, “You are an idiot,” the man tells him.

With a small splash, he's gone.

Obi-Wan's desire to be warmer fights with his desperate need to hydrate, until finally he gets up and at least looks for the supposed fruit.

There, not five feet away, is a massive pile of coconuts and laundry. He squints at it, making sure he's seeing it right. Did the oxygen deprivation do something to him…?

No, indeed, it's a pile of coconuts and laundry. There's even a laundry line and clothespins mixed up in it.

“Why-” he starts, then shakes his head, “No, nevermind. Let's see if I can split a coconut with the force.”

He can, but it spills the majority of the milk everywhere. Obi-Wan screws up enough coconut crackings to get his clothes covered in it, but who cares? The swim here might've cleaned off most of the octopus viscera, but he is still wet anyway. What's a little more?

The trick, it turns out, is drilling a hole in the top with a sharp rock, and drinking from that.

🔥🔥🔥 don't forget to reblog tysm! 🔥🔥🔥

New? Start from Chapter 1! 👇🏽

[fruitcoops]

I think it would be really interesting for leo and sirius to talk ab how they both didn’t go to college and how they both joined the nhl at 18 but had v different upbringings

Ooo, I like this one! I’m always down for some Cap and Knutty bonding. SW credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW for mentioned bad parenting

“Kinda weird, isn’t it?” Leo said, breaking the nighttime silence after many long minutes of just their breathing. Sirius hummed in question. “Starting all this so young.”

Sirius made a noncommittal noise and Leo shifted, never taking his eyes off the sky. There was too much light pollution to see the stars properly in Gryffindor, but the roof of the rink didn’t have a bad view; the planes flying overhead brought pinpricks of brightness to the indigo blur.

“Was it hard for you?”

He heard Sirius’ coat move. “Was what hard?”

“Starting the NHL at eighteen.”

There was a long beat of silence. “Sometimes.”

“I didn’t know if I would make it,” Leo confessed, still barely above a murmur. Nobody else was around, but it didn’t feel right to talk in normal voices. The whole world was muted, save for the noise of the city below them. “There was just so much to do.”

Sirius laughed softly. “I hate to break it to you, rookie, but that doesn’t change.”

“How do you deal with it?”

“Before, or now?”

Leo thought for a moment. “Both.”

“Before, I would go home and shoot pucks until I was too tired to stand up. Sometimes I would read.” It wasn’t a secret, but it still made Leo’s heart hurt to remember. Nobody as kind and hardworking as Sirius deserved that. “Now, I make myself some food, take a shower, and steal Re’s softest hoodie.”

Leo could hear his smile in the dark—it echoed his own. “Nothing better, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Finn’s fit me best,” he mused. “But Lo’s smell better.”

“Ah, he finally discovered deodorant?”

“Shut up,” Leo teased, elbowing his ribs. Sirius laughed a little louder; in the light of the streetlamps and the absence of his granite-hard focus, it was easy to remember that he was only 26. Leo had worshipped him as a kid, but now he just saw Sirius for what he was. His captain, who guided him through the playoffs even when his personal life was crumbling apart. His older brother, though Sirius certainly wouldn’t think of him that way. His friend.

“Really, though, it’s important to have those connections,” Sirius said when they both calmed down. “Being alone is good, but only if you know you have people to talk to when you need them.”

“Was it easier when you weren’t living with someone?”

“No.” The answer was immediate.

“Sometimes I want the apartment to myself.” Leo lowered his voice unconsciously, then sighed. “It’s not because I don’t want them there. I just need to be alone. Wash the dishes. Clean my room. Call my mom.”

“You should tell them.”

He turned his head slightly; Sirius was still scanning the sky. “Is that what you did?”

“It took a couple hiccups, but yeah. If one of us needs some alone time, the other will go to the grocery store or take a walk, maybe hang out with friends. You just have to make sure your boys know that it’s not personal.”

“You’re freakishly good at sage advice.”

Sirius snorted. “Merci, rookie.”

“I’m not a rookie anymore.”

“Yeah, you are.” He raised his hands, as if outlining a marquee. “The Eternal Rookie, starring Leo Knut.”

Leo stuck his tongue out, feeling rather petulant about the whole thing. “Watch it, Cap, I’m gonna sic Dumo on you.”

“My own father?” Sirius gasped dramatically. “How could you?”

“Did you ever get homesick?”

The question was out of the blue—he didn’t blame Sirius for faltering. Honestly, Leo was kicking himself for asking in the first place, though he had been keeping it in for ages. Unspoken rule of the Lions #1: Don’t ask Cap about his childhood.

“I…” Sirius fell silent once more.

“I’m sorry,” Leo apologized, and he meant it. “That came out of nowhere.”

“I missed Regulus,” Sirius continued carefully without acknowledging him. “But no, I didn’t get homesick. I didn’t have time, or a real reason.”

Alone in a new city, finally out of a horrible living situation, but desperately missing the little brother he left behind… Leo couldn’t even begin to imagine going through it when the NHL by itself was already overwhelming to his teenage brain. He scooted an inch closer until their shoulders touched. “I get homesick every couple of months.”

“You have a kind family.”

“Have you even met them?”

“At the party.” Sirius’ smile was practically audible. “Your mother was very excited to see me.”

“Oh, god,” Leo groaned. “What happened?”

“She—“ He broke off with a laugh. “She was very nice, I promise, but I think I surprised her because she squeaked when I said ‘hello’.”

Leo shook his head. “Did you sneak up on her?”

“I’m six two, I can’t sneak up on anyone!”

“You walk like a fucking ghost, dude! It’s creepy!”

“Okay, rude.”

“I swear, you and Loops need to be belled like cats,” Leo huffed.

They lapsed back into comfortable quiet for a few more minutes as a train rattled past on one side and the metro busses rolled down Main Street on the other. It had taken Leo a long time to figure out Gryff’s layout, and even longer to get used to the sounds of the city.

“What does it feel like?”

Leo blinked, unsure if he had heard correctly. “What?”

“Being homesick.” Sirius shifted again and folded his hands over his stomach. “I didn’t notice much of a difference in practices when I started the NHL, and going back to my parents’ house wasn’t my exactly a highlight of my year.”

Curiosity overrode his tact and reasoning skills. “You never asked Logan?”

“Non. It was different, with him. He had already left to go to college before I knew him, and spent four years away from his family.”

“Right.” Leo forgot about that on occasion. That Finn and Logan might be five years older than him, but they had only been rookies a year or two prior. Not everyone went straight from their city select team to an official draft. “It’s hard to describe.”

Sirius made an understanding noise, but he couldn’t entirely mask his disappointment. Leo licked his lips and tried again.

“It’s like a piece of you isn’t where it’s supposed to be. And it keeps tugging on your chest, but you never know when it’s going to start and stop so you just… deal with it. You ignore it some days and you think about it other days.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “The hard days are when you remember you can’t go back to the way things were before. I don’t even call my mom sometimes, ‘cause I know it’ll make me sadder.”

“The way things were before?”

“Yeah, like—like all my classmates are in college, and I’m laying on a roof with one of the most famous hockey players in the history of forever.” That drew a light laugh from them both. “I’m gonna go back to my reunion in a couple years and have literally nothing in common with the people I used to be friends with.”

“Sometimes I wish I went to college,” Sirius said. “But I would have missed so much if I did. I don’t think I would have been happy there.”

“Finn and Logan get weird about college.” Maybe he shouldn’t be talking about it, but Leo had the feeling none of their conversation would leave the rooftop. “It was hard for them, with all their shit.”

“Re does, too.” He recognized the sad edge in Sirius’ voice; it was the same as his own. “For a different reason. It started good, and ended bad.”

“I’m glad I missed out on that,” Leo said, biting down the urge to scream at the universe for putting their significant others through so much hardship at an already-difficult time. None of them deserved the pain they went through. “Besides, it’s not like we need degrees to play hockey, and we’ll have plenty of money afterward.”

“I never thought about my life after hockey until my ankle.”

“My parents always pushed me to make sure I wanted to do the NHL instead of more school.”

“You’re lucky to have them.”

“I wish you did.”

The words hung suspended between them before Leo could swallow them back down, somehow dangerous and calming at the same time. It wasn’t like he had never thought about it before; he just hadn’t said it out loud. The first time he had seen Sirius’ parents across the rink had given him a case of the heebie-jeebies so strong he had to shower twice. All the times after that just made him angry.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Sirius’ voice was quiet, but not upset. “You’re not the first person to say it. I’m glad you feel like you can be honest with me.”

Leo frowned. “Well, yeah. Obviously.”

“I try really hard to not be an asshole captain, so it actually does mean a lot.”

“I don’t think you could be an asshole if you tried.”

The barking laugh that split the night startled Leo so bad he nearly jumped out of his skin; Sirius clapped a hand over his mouth, though he was still snickering. “Sorry, sorry, I just—holy shit, I forgot you didn’t know me before. Mon dieu.”

“You weren’t that bad,” Leo protested. “Pots said you used to be grumpier, but that’s it.”

Sirius shook his head, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “I was such a dick. There’s not a single picture of the whole team where I’m smiling for about two years and I was such a stickler for the rules.”

Leo gaped at him. “You followed rules?”

“To the fucking letter. It was awful.”

“What happened?”

Sirius shrugged. “I got friends. Idiot friends who did things like showing me the easiest way onto the roof. Pots used to drag me up here every Friday.”

“Really?”

“Ouais.” Mischief flitted over his face. “He skipped date night with Lily once on accident, and she tracked us up here like a bloodhound. It was terrifying.”

“What did you do?” Lily was one of the nicest people Leo knew, but he knew better than to get on her bad side.

“Lied to her face while James hid behind that strobe light.”

“Did it work?”

“Are you kidding?” he snorted. “She called me a liar and suggested getting a better best friend. That was after she told James he’s better have something nice planned for their next date if he ever wanted to get in her pants again.”

“And yet you didn’t listen to her.” Leo tsked. “Of all the people on the team, you chose the hot mess.”

“Trust me, rookie, James had his whole life figured out compared to me.”

“Did you…” Leo trailed off and but his lip. He had pushed his luck a lot already; who knew if one more question would be the tipping point? “Did you ever think about coming out? Even just to Pots.”

Sirius didn’t hesitate. “After every single game.”

“For seven years?”

“Up until the day those pictures were leaked. Even more after Re and I were together.”

“How old were you when you knew?”

“13. You?”

Leo exhaled slowly. “I’m not sure. I think I had an idea of it as a kid, but didn’t really get it until I was in high school. My parents were even more worried about the NHL after I told them.”

“They worry a lot about you.”

“Only child, and I was going for a wildly unstable career path with no guarantee that I would ever see the ice.”

“They’re proud of you. More than you know.” Sirius’ watch beeped. “It’s ten o’clock. Are you supposed to be home?”

“I should probably make sure my boys haven’t burned down the apartment.” Neither of them made an attempt to move. “Can we do this again sometime?”

“Of course.”

You’re like a brother to me, he wanted to say. I don’t know who else I can talk to like this. “Thank you.”

“Any time. We don’t have to do extra practice beforehand, either.”

Leo nudged him gently. “You’re the best captain ever.”

“You’re the best rookie, rookie.”

“I’m not a rookie.”

“Yeah, you are.”

Yeah, I am, he thought as they laid side-by-side in silence once more with the past behind them and the future ahead. And if I end up like you, it means I did something right.

[bumbershots]

A CERTAIN ROMANCE

CHAPTER FOUR: SILENCE COMES AND GOES

Author’s note: Hello! We continue with this, I would like to thank everyone once again for all the likes and reblogs the story has gotten so far, couldn’t be happier! Enjoy (:

Story masterlist ** Word count: 2.9K **

It is possible that Harry is ignoring the big elephant in the room, as he spreads some jam in his crumpet, well aware of Fernando and Jack exchanging knowing looks. He takes a bite of the savoury treat and hopes none of them dare to confront him, at the same time he wants to be questioned about why he hasn't called Alma yet.

Harry spent the last two weeks grumpy and frustrated.

He's called his therapist way too many times. He has no idea where he went wrong in his healing process. They were back to square one, whispered his tired heart.

Jack is surprised too, his friend got on so well with Alma at the party and apparently even went the extra mile asking for her number then he spent the following fourteen days acting as if she didn’t exist. Didn't even text her like Gemma suggested. He sips his coffee and sighs for the millionth time that day.

The musician is infuriated at himself and desperate that he wants to have Fernando demand an explanation for his behaviour towards his sister. Harry's not a confrontational guy, but he's going mad. Might be losing it. He wanted to scream at the two men before him that he did plan on calling Alma, but then he got so sad. Now he's afraid it's too late.

"Do you want another one?" Fernando holds the plate with crumpets in front of Harry who takes one more and thanks him before grabbing the jam. "Do you reckon you'll be man enough to call my sister within the next couple of days?" Harry chokes on his food while Jack's laughter booms through their home.

Nobody has ever called him out like that. Harry's still unsure whether to be grateful or scared. Maybe a bit of both he thinks after composing himself again from the fit of coughs, he knows Fernando is still waiting for an answer.

"Is she upset about it?" A hint of relief and pride linger on Harry's voice. Jack shakes his head, knowing that he's avoiding the question. Something he's very good at.

"That's not what I asked." Fernando's clipped tone leaves no room for the musician to beat around the bush anymore.

"I was really nervous about calling her, kept putting it off until days turned into weeks... I'm not sure how to go about it," he plays with his rings and looks away from the inquisitive gaze of his companions.

"How did you get Taylor to go out with you?"

"What?" Harry and Jack ask at the same time.

"You must've asked her I guess," Fernando shrugs. "What is so scary about Alma that puts you off? Are you interested in just a shag and you're worried she'll decline or tell the media about it?" Harry is shaking his head vigorously and the dark haired architect leans a bit closer towards him, "you're so full of sh-”

"Alright let's take a break," Jack's soothing tone brings his house mate back from the rage path he was following. But Harry knew that he was right.

It had been a year already, he moved to a new house, one where his ex never set foot into and still her ghost was everywhere. He has this crazy need to destroy everything that can relate to her. Her favourite cardigan is kept away in a box full of Polaroids and books that are all her.

The real reason why he didn't dare to call Alma is because whatever he felt at the beginning of his previous relationship, or any other one, was at least ten times less intense, than what he was feeling now. Seeing the menace before them, his heart and mind decided to leave him courage-less towards the situation. It's less painful to think what could've been than to know it and see it being taken away from you. Again.

But he deserves to be happy, that's what Gemma reminded him the other day.

"I gotta go," Fernando announces before rising from his seat, walking inside the house and upstairs to his room. Jack tries to tidy up the table a bit, not daring to look at his apparently mute friend. When Fernando comes back down he steps outside to the patio where they had brunch, one last glance to a very ashamed Harry and he sighs. "Brigit's Bakery Classic Afternoon Tea Bus. Alma’s been dying to get tickets but never has the time to actually book it," he explains adjusting his jacket's collar. "It's not too late." With that he turns on his heel and leaves the house.

Harry takes their mugs and places them in the sink, he notices Jack is going around the kitchen putting away the butter and milk in the fridge.

"What are you waiting for Romeo?" The blue eyed man asks, stopping in front of a blushing Harry.

They're both quiet for a minute. Harry's heart is racing and can feel his hands get clammy. He hasn't felt someone's faith in a long time, and he's not sure if he's happy or pressured that Fernando and Jack are pushing him to call Alma, he doesn’t even know if she will give him a chance. Harry's wishing to be the kind of guy to take out his mobile and make the call, maybe even crack a witty joke that will have Alma laughing in that loud way he remembers and not be awkward with asking her out on a date. As if he wasn't completely mortified by being rejected.

Harry was sure he would ruin it, not just the call but the date and everything else that was actually going to happen between them without even trying first.

"Hello?" She answers after the third ring, confused at the unknown number calling her.

"Yeah it's me," Harry nods to Jack who urges him to finish whatever sentence he's trying to form, "I believe I owe you some coffee."

"Harry?" Alma tries to fight back a laugh. A wide smile splitting her face after recognising who is the mystery caller.

"Yes! Sorry I forgot you didn't have my number." Jack is red with second hand embarrassment for his friend and decides to start the dishwasher just to keep his eyes from the train wreck happening in his kitchen. "I'm sorry for not calling sooner."

"You're calling now, 's all that matters... I'd love to get that coffee. Next Thursday works for you?" He nods feverishly and remembers he's on the phone.

"Of course, I'll pick you up at five if that's alright."

"Make it half past five please, that's when my shift ends. I'll text you the address." She throws the latter smoothly as an excuse to initiate conversation until they meet again and Harry is oblivious about it.

"Sure great, perfect I'm... really looking forward to seeing you," he plays with the tea towel on the counter, his back turned to Jack, a million butterflies fluttering in his stomach when he hears the coy chuckle his confession got out of her. "Have a good day, see you later."

"See you later, Harry" Alma's goodbye is full of hope and endearment, just like the one he got before she walked away from him that morning after Freddie’s birthday party.

After ending the call, he mentally scolds himself for dreading it so much. It went so much better than expected, even got a laugh out of her. Perhaps Harry needed to stop making decisions based upon his fears and more taking in consideration the other person. He always thought he knew best, it's what he's been told for so many years and although he needs to be making big choices most of the time, perhaps now he could share that responsibility. Felt dead nice for a change.

"That wasn't so bad." He admits to Jack before drying the now clean dishes with a towel.

"I'm proud of you, now tell me, where are you guys going for that coffee?" Jack's eyes are full of curiosity and excitement, it's impossible for Harry not to feel a chill go down his spine at the prospect of planning the date. He thinks about what Fernando suggested, but it would be too obvious that it wasn't his idea entirely.

Alma deserves something exclusively planned by him.

"Don't know yet, perhaps somewhere nice and quiet" he ponders and his friend agrees.

Last time Harry had a proper first date was about two years ago or so. He cooked aubergine parmigiana following Jamie Oliver's recipe and baked some biscuits for dessert that he enjoyed with his companion overlooking the Pacific Ocean from his home's balcony. Back then it seemed to be the right choice to keep it low-key, a simple dinner at his, no risk at all to be bothered or watched. But Harry knew that at some point it got old, being overly discreet was easily mistaken for being ashamed of the relationship. That kind of thing can do a lot to someone's confidence, little by little until it's all too much to bear.

If he could only learn not to care about the world's prying eyes.

Harry doesn't want to drag anyone into the scrutiny of the media until he knows it's an incorruptible bond. The inevitable thought of forever, something he believes might not exist for him, at times. He did think Taylor was it, even Kendall for a while, which is why he dated more publicly back then, until she came along and the love Harry felt was so grand it made him overly protective of them. Countless times he tried to explain that this was the first time something was working in spite of all the circumstances that came with his life and he was trying to cherish it, keep it to himself. Nurture it until it was as tough as old boots.

That night was spent writing down ideas for that first date. Number one was The river café, near Putney Bridge, a place free of paparazzi. Number two, Rail house café, lovely spot to share dinner. Number three The sanctuary café, located in a beautiful building with a quirky environment. Number four and his personal favourite Lola's bakery, their service was so warm and intimate, he remembers the cinnamon Chelsea bun and his mouth waters instantly. So, drawing a big circle around the fourth option he smiles before going to bed that night.

Saturday morning finds Harry at his grandparents’ old home, carrying a bag full of ingredients for a vegetarian lasagna he is planning to cook for his grandfather and his mum. He immediately banishes Anne from helping in the kitchen. She observed him follow the recipe, cooking for no longer than ten minutes the garlic, thyme and aubergine, and then crumble over the chilli carefully. He lets her grate the Parmesan when the sauce isn’t thickening and reducing like it was supposed to. With a bump of her hip, she nodded towards a couple of tomatoes, Harry smiled before tipping them in, breaking them with a spoon and five minutes later, the sauce was ready.

His mother is a marvellous woman, like the good son he is, Harry doesn't want to make her sad, ever. The last time he visited her, recently broken hearted, they spent it baking, cooking, eating sweets and drinking hot chocolate at the rear terrace. Once he had enough of moping around, he decided to make it up to her and create good memories from that visit. They explored the local parklands as if it was the first time, shared ice cream, got tipsy on cheap red wine and chatted from dusk till dawn.

A few hours later, after eating the delicious meal and tidying up the kitchen afterwards, Harry watches his mum talking to his grandad, holding his shaky hand in hers and caressing it in a soothing way. The elder man’s Parkinson is getting worse with time, he feels so useless, specially because it affects his favourite people. He wants to know what his mother is thinking when she joins him back in the kitchen. There is some anguish dancing in her kind eyes, but Harry knows better than to push her to share something she is not ready to.

"I have a date next Thursday," he chokes out, in hopes of distracting her, and it works. Anne's head whips towards her youngest child, evidently shocked and yet proud. It's been years since Harry shared that kind of information with her.

"A proper date?"

"Yes," he wants to add how nervous it makes him. "I dunno how serious it'll get... just met her once, properly I mean, we saw each other on the tube's carriage three times prior to it. Coincidentally of course, Gem said it is something straight out of a film."

"Who is she?" His mother is giving him that look, the one that says how giddy she is to know absolutely everything about the person that got her son so skittish, that he started to rearrange the containing of the cupboards entirely.

"Her name is Alma," he doesn't know where to start, if he spills all the ways in which he thinks she is wonderful, they'll end up pulling an all-nighter.

"And she's a...?"

"Cashier during the week, Spanish teacher on the weekends and occasional interviewer for her Youtube channel." Anne raises her eyebrows, impressed and wondering why such a busy girl agreed to go on a date. Must like him a lot of course, she thinks watching her son pour hot water on a mug, and dunking a tea bag in it afterwards.

"Where did you meet her if not on the tube?'' She is curious and weary. This wouldn't be the first time her youngest spawn overlooked certain things from strangers. Very little things in Harry's life were coincidences nowadays.

"Remember Jack Robinson?" his mum nodded, how could she forget the cheeky chap that helped Harry escape almost every night from his dad's house in the summer, just to go skate in Southbank's center until midnight. Anne admitted to not liking the bloke for a while, but gave him another chance after watching him grow into a responsible adult. "He's in charge of my home renovation, extension whatever it is called. Invited me to Freddie's birthday party and she was there." The dreamy look on his eyes when reminiscing the moment brought out a wide smile on his mum's face followed by her loud laughter.

"Oh Harry, you've got that look." it was the truth. He looked completely gobsmacked by his mother's reaction, but he couldn’t deny the peace he felt when knowing that she was already fond of the girl that he couldn’t get out of his mind.

"It’s too soon to tell!” He doesn’t want to dive into it, not yet. 

"How did you really meet? I want all the details." Anne asked, taking a seat at the coffee table and Harry told her everything.

From the first glance he stole her way to the last phone call he had yesterday at Jack and Fernando's house, his hands flew several times to tussle his hair and the dimple on his left cheek was exquisite, when telling his mother, how she asked him to dance with her. He spared no detail, from her intoxicating Moschino perfume to her raspy accented voice. By the time he finished, his mum's mug was empty but her heart was full. For so long she wondered if she would ever witness the beauty of Harry in love again and enjoy first-hand the way he spoke about that person in the sweetest manner, the high-pitched tone of his voice when finally admitting how nervous he actually was about this first date.

"Right, well in that case, stop thinking about how everything is going to go wrong." Easier said than done, Harry thinks but nods. "I'm sure whatever you planned will sweep her off her feet." Anne knew how much of a romantic her boy was, he went all out in that department. His best quality and Achilles heel.

"If the cupcakes from that place don't... I could literally do it." Harry plucks a banana from the fruit bowl before them and narrows his eyes when his mum rolls her eyes at him playfully.

His mother's reassurance made him feel less hopeless, the next day when they went to Sheffield's city center, she even picked out a couple of new mugs. 'Just in case we have new visitors at home.' Harry groaned but failed to hide the dreamy look in his eyes, he even crossed his fingers behind his back as he watched her pay for the cups. The thought of Alma meeting his mother in the near future —and the rest of his loved ones— excited him to an unfamiliar degree, like the first time he saw the seaside with his own eyes at a very young age, like that time he sang in front of a considerable amount of people, like a warm hug of his late grandmother. The idea that she may like him enough to agree to a second date is stuck on his brain, despite that they haven't even survived the first one.

Anne saw him enjoy himself the rest of that afternoon and the next morning before he had to go back to London. She sighed and watched him drive away, standing in her front door for a few more minutes, rejoicing on the memory of Harry's toothy grin. Usually she was careful and waiting for the other shoe to drop, but not this time. There was a bit of certainty in the unfamiliar situation, something she couldn't quite put her finger on, she decided to patiently wait and see. She hummed a familiar tune while putting away the new additions to her crockery. The same song her son decided to play on his journey back home.

Qué será, será. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Qué será, será.

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Next chapter

[lacrossepapi]

It’s Too Much

Here’s 5.6k of empath!stiles, adopted!saac, abusive!sheriff, and sweet loving angst! 

Warnings for Gerard Argent and Parent Abuse.

Ao3: Link

It was easier on Stiles when he was a kid surrounded by other kids. Children are loud, wild little creatures, but they are also generally happy, excited, or at the very least usually content. Stiles tried to avoid physical contact with everyone except his calm but happy friend Scott for those reasons. It was hard enough to contain his own racing thoughts and emotions, but when bounced around the other children, all bursting at the seams with energy and undiluted emotions, it became almost impossible to control his thoughts, words, or actions. 

Some would think ADHD came with being an empath, but no. It was all just brain chemistry and Stiles’ horrible luck that gifted him with the ability to feel others emotions, but not the ability to sort and keep track of his own thoughts and emotions. Scott was a calm balm to that chaos in his mind, a happy anchor to ground himself when the excitement in the classroom grew so much Stiles could taste it despite not touching anyone. 

But things change, kids grow up, and learn new emotions. Some unfortunately learn dark emotions before everyone else. Isaac discovered fear at an age that everyone else around him only experienced spooked or startled. Nine year olds weren’t supposed to know that type of terror. Stiles had audibly gasped the day he’d smacked into Isaac on the playground, the visceral horror lingering in Isaac was a tidal wave. The only thing that kept Stiles from releasing the scream that had bubbled up in his throat was Scott’s joy, humor, excitement that had enveloped him as the other boy crashed into the two of them. He’d yelled that Stiles was now It, but Stiles only had eyes for the blonde boy now looking at them with a guarded expression and paranoia, wearines, suspicion, hope warring in his emotions.  

Scott and Stiles became Scott, Stiles, and Isaac after that. Isaac became a Stilinski a year later. Stiles soon had four buffers against the emotions of the world, Isaac giving him a soft type of content that he usually only felt on rainy days surrounded by his parents. The problem with relying on buffers was that one day they’d all eventually change so much that they no longer offered the haven they once had and Stiles would be left bereft in a chaotic world of other peoples’ emotions. 

The first to change was his mom. He started to feel emotions from her that didn’t make sense, but the most common one was confusion. His mom would suddenly stop in the middle of doing something and a burst of it would engulf the room so strongly he’d scrunch his face up in a mirror image of hers. Stiles was scared to tell his dad something was wrong, until Isaac had ran up from behind him and hugged him tightly trepidation, worry, fear fill Stiles’ senses instead of the warm  love that usually enveloped him when Isaac hugged him. He turned to ask the boy what was wrong, but a wave of confusion hit him as he locked eyes with his mother. She smiled and rubbed a hand down his arm, pleasant surprise this time filling him as she asked who the boy behind him was. She told Stiles he needed permission before bringing a new friend over, despite the fact that Isaac had been living with them for six months at that point. After that things had progressed too quickly. His mother was a less powerful empath than him, but at the height of her illness Stiles couldn’t be in the hospital wing she stayed in due to the emotions she couldn’t control, only project at full volume. Nurses quit or requested a different patient every few weeks, not understanding why they were so upset all the time, but knowing it had something to do with the screaming woman in 203. 

It was on one of those days that his mother’s unending terror had been too much, that Stiles had stumbled into a room and immediately screamed a feral, angry thing as pain, hatred, loss, wrath slammed into him without warning. Isaac and Scott hadn’t been far behind him as he ran away from his mother’s screams and pain, but at the sound of his anguished scream they’d burst through the door and did the only thing they knew would calm their friend. They hugged him with every ounce of strength they shared in their small bodies, unaware that the love, fondness, sympathy surrounding him was what actually calmed him down. It also helped that the wall of emotion had receded at the sound of his scream, and even muted itself. Curiosity, hope, and wariness flowed between the dark emotions as Stiles took in the bleak room around him. A man was laying on the hospital bed in the corner of the room, his body eerily still for the emotions Stiles could still feel coming off him. He wanted to ask if the man was okay, but that was a stupid question. Better questions flooded his mind, but his friends were feeling more and more worry by the minute in that dark, barren room. He blanketed the room in calm and peace, the boys on either side of him relaxed instantly, and the emotions filling the room eased instead of the muted feeling they had been after his scream. He asked Scott and Isaac to get him an apple juice, the boys reluctant to leave Stiles in a room alone with a comatose stranger, but ultimately giving in to his puppy eyes. 

Stiles approached the man in the bed, noting the burn scars traveling up his neck and face. 

“Something horrible happened to you. I’m sorry for the pain you have felt. The screams that fill this wing are my mom’s. She doesn’t remember me anymore and it hurts, it hurts like you hurt. I’m not ready to lose my momma, but neither is daddy. I’ve got to look out for Scott and Isaac so I can’t let them see me cry. I’m gonna cry now. I’m sorry.” Stiles apologized.

He truly was deeply sorry in his very being that anyone had to go through something that made them feel the way this man did. He was sorry that the man didn’t ask for three grieving boys to stumble into his room and couldn’t even tell them to leave. He was sorry that the man had to hear his mother’s screams. He was sorry that the man had to feel his mother’s fear when she had an episode and couldn’t stop herself from projecting. But mostly he was sorry all he could do for the man was fill the room with peace and cry at his bedside. He let himself cry for just a moment before grabbing the man’s hand and covering him head to toe in calm, content, peace. He hoped it lingered on the man for as long as possible. Scott and Isaac returned with his apple juice and more hugs as they left the room with the comatose man. 

In the wake of his mother’s death Stiles also lost his father. Not in the literal sense, but something was broken inside the man. He didn’t see the boys anymore. Didn’t greet them with smiles and hugs like he once had. Didn’t smile or hug at all. Isaac backed away, fear rising in him each day the newly appointed sheriff got closer and closer to the man he’d once saved Isaac from. His grip harshed on the back of Stiles’ neck, no longer the warm comfort it’d once been. Now a means to bodily move his son or reprimand him. It was in those moments that Stiles was struck still and silent by the overwhelming grief, pain, loss, hopelessness, devastation that was consuming his father. His father’s pain was not an excuse to treat his sons like the were ghosts in his home, one of whom looked too much like the woman he loved to stomach even looking at. He hurt Stiles sometimes on accident, but he didn’t even acknowledge Isaac’s presence in their home. The boys formed a bond in those months that would never break. 

Stiles spent his days sneaking out of the house while Isaac and Scott played video games and Melissa slept. He would sneak down to the police station and project love, hope, forgiveness, peace in alternating patterns and at varying degrees. In the end he wasn’t sure if his projecting helped his father or if the breaking point had finally changed things. The breaking point had been Isaac flinching away from Stiles’ father when the man had tried to ruffle his curls like the past few months he hadn’t been leaving bruises on his other son’s neck. Isaac had flinched, a whimper escaping him and fear bursting out of him so strong Stiles had pushed his father away from his brother and snarled at him. Melissa had come running down the stairs, sleep mussed hair and bleary eyed, Scott peeking out from behind her legs. She’d shouted his father’s name just as the man had wrenched Stiles away from Isaac by the neck. She gathered the three boys behind her and released a torrent of angry, scornful words that had hit his father like a train. Stiles had focused on his father’s emotions, reading them as they came to him in a flurry: anger, indignation, shock, pain, grief, fear, self-loathing, regret, remorse, devastation, guilt. 

“I know you’re in pain. I know you miss momma. I miss her too, but I don’t like you right now dad. And you scare Isaac, and that makes me mad. You’re not allowed to scare him anymore, okay?” Stiles stared at his father, the secret of how adeptly Stiles actually did know his father’s pain bare and raw between them. 

“And you can’t be mean to Stiles anymore!” Isaac demanded, though it came out much weaker than he had probably intended. 

“Yeah! No more hurting him!” Scott yelled, his twelve year old fists clenched by his sides. 

Stiles’ father dropped to his knees and sobbed. The sound earth shattering in Stiles’ ears when accompanied by the tidal wave of sorrow, grief, guilt, regret. 

“I’m going to keep the boys at my house until you get sober and get counseling.” Melissa said, her resolve strong in the face of his tears. 

While they stayed with the McCalls Stiles still sneaked out to project positive feelings to his father. 

The boys moved back in with their father after his three month stint in rehab with a grief counselor. Isaac was more wary than Stiles to return, but Stiles could feel the cleanse his father’s emotional state went through. They had bunk beds, but Isaac slept with Stiles most nights when they first returned. Stiles would wake up every time the other boy had a nightmare and he would project safe emotions to his brother until he settled. He would check in on his father’s emotions through the night too. Melissa called every night before bed for the first month to make sure the boys were truly settled back home and safe. Stiles was happy to be home and happy to see his father healing and healthy again, he would never be the safe haven he’d once been. Stiles still thought that one day, maybe even one day soon, they’d be a family again. 

Three years later, Stiles had his family whole again, but lost his last two buffers, Scott and Isaac. Together. All at once Stiles was alone in the ocean of emotions around him. The problem with both of your adopted brothers being werewolves when you’re an empath is that they get more tactile when you can no longer handle the emotions whirling through their minds at any given time. Supernatural creatures were louder than humans. Stiles had grown stronger over the years, but there was nothing he could do to stop the events of their sophomore year. Well perhaps he could’ve stopped the events if he hadn’t been the one to drag his sweet loyal brothers out of their beds in the middle of the night to go find the source of the overwhelming emotions coming from the preserve. They’d been heading towards the area Stiles had felt the spike of sorrow so sharp it’d brought tears to his eyes when he’d picked up on more emotions. 

Pain, hatred, loss, wrath, grief was approaching fast. Too fast to even warn his brothers to run before a massive angry alpha werewolf had tackled Scott, biting his side immediately. Stiles vomited as Scott’s pain and fear throbbed through him at the same time Isaac’s horror slammed into him from behind, all mixed with the creatures emotions. It was too much. He couldn’t shut out Isaac and Scott’s emotions like he could strangers’ emotions, they were as apart of him as his own. He couldn’t fight against the strength of the alpha’s emotions either. 

Stiles tried to breathe, tried to shake off everyone else’s emotions so he could focus. But the alpha reared back and snatched Isaac off the ground, its teeth sinking into his ribs. Isaac screamed. Scott cried out, too weak to scream. The alpha howled. And Stiles gathered every ounce of terror filling his brothers and himself and ROARED. 

The alpha dropped Isaac, his body bounced once on the ground before laying too still for Stiles’ heart, and passed out. Stiles took a moment to breathe and gather his strength again. He blanketed his brothers in safe, love, calm, peace before calling his father. 

“Stiles? Why are you calling me? We’re both home?” His father listened to his panicked, exhausted breaths for a moment before finishing, “Unless we’re not. Okay. Where are you? Why aren’t Isaac and Scott there to calm you? I’m putting on pants and coming to you kiddo, but I need you to find a way to tell me what happened and where I’m going.” 

“Alpha. Bit. Boys. Preserve. Hale House close?” Stiles was hyperventilating, the adrenaline morphing into panic as he realized the ramifications of the night. 

Stiles heard his father stop shuffling and gasp and was glad he couldn’t feel his father’s emotions from this far unless he tuned into them on purpose. 

“Okay. Okay kiddo. We’ll deal with it. I’m coming. I need you to put pressure on the wounds and tell me if you see any black goo seeping out of them. You don’t have to speak other than that so try to focus on your breathing and on stopping the bleeding.” His father was much better in a crisis than he ever would be. 

Stiles forced his wooden legs to carry him to his brothers. Isaac had rolled relatively close to Scott, which made checking them both over much easier. He dropped to his knees between their limp bodies and, putting his father on speaker first, shined his phone’s flashlight onto Isaac’s unconscious body. 

“Oh god dad. His body bounced. It fucking bounced off the ground like a ball. What if he’s bleeding internally? How do I fix that? How do I save him?” He shined the light onto Scott and almost vomited again. 

He whimpered his oldest and closest friend’s name as he took in the sight of his torn side. 

“It bit them so violently dad. There’s more wound area than I have hand area. I can’t do anything. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t protect them. I can’t save them. Daddy please hurry. I can’t do this alone and I can’t lose them. I can’t.” Stiles muted his end of the phone and let out a sob so violent his entire body shook. 

He had long ago stopped letting anyone see him cry for fear that he’d project it and make someone else sad. He couldn’t stop the torrent of tears spilling out of him. He threw his head back and screamed through his grief and sorrow. He’d always felt better after being able to release the emotions inside him that way, even if it was a rather violent coping mechanism. 

He could hear his father saying his name and asking him to turn off the mute, and mechanically did so, the last of his scream still echoing around them. Then he heard a sound, a whimper he hadn’t expected to hear. His head whipped to the limp bodies of his brothers but neither stirred, and it was then that Stiles remembered he had turned his back on an unconscious alpha werewolf. The same alpha that had just violently attacked his family unprovoked. He stood as he spun around to face the creature, but there was nothing in the spot it had collapsed in. The alpha got away. 

-

High school was hell after that night. His brothers didn’t understand why he flinched when nothing was happening, why he would dodge their touch when he used to run headlong into it, why he no longer wanted to share a room with Isaac. Stiles could’ve told them about being an empath, but things were so complicated and he didn’t want them looking guilty every time they had a strong emotion. It wasn’t their fault supernatural creatures were loud, and it wasn’t their fault Kate Argent lured Laura Hale into the preserve that night and killed her. Peter Hale had been comatose until the moment the alpha spark slammed into him full force. He followed the scent of blood to the sight of his nieces’ murder and attacked the first foreign thing he came across. It was Peter’s grief Stiles had felt so sharply he’d bolted out of bed and raced to Scott’s house, Isaac in tow, so that they could go hiking through the woods to find the source. 

Scott and Isaac were the least to blame for their new found werewolf status, and the only thing Stiles felt as they had to deal with Peter Hale’s rampage and Derek Hale trying to force them under his rule was guilt. 

Peter had asked him if he wanted the bite that night in the garage, but Stiles had been too busy being relaxed by his muted emotions to be properly scared of his threats. Stiles could feel the fondness, intrigue, humor rolling off the man when they interacted, but every time he saw anger flash in those sapphire eyes he didn’t feel it as strongly as he suspected. Something about Peter seemed familiar and despite everything Stiles found himself fond of the man as well. Then he tried to attack Scott, Isaac, and Allison and Stiles had to stop him. No matter how much Stiles found the man curious and charismatic he had to pay for what he did to Scott and Isaac, and Stiles would not let him lay a single claw on an innocent again. He would overwhelm the man with whatever emotion it would take to stop him. As Jackson threw the molotov cocktail Stiles felt a blast of terror so strong he stumbled, but knew it had come from the man that had already burned once. Stiles granted him the only mercy he could in that moment. Numb. Sleep. Peace. Each emotion as strong as he could project them, and Peter’s eyes snapped to his just before the cocktail exploded and Peter’s eyes closed as he passed out. Peter would not live through this sleep, but he would not have to be aware of burning alive again. 

After Peter’s death, Derek became alpha and bit Erica Reyes and Vernon Boyd. Gerard Argent became principal and made sure he threatened the fledgeling pack at every opportunity. Jackson somehow became a kanima just from Derek’s nail stuck in his neck, which: ew. The whole time Scott and Isaac were caught up in running and fighting, Stiles was distancing himself so that he could learn to mute their emotions. He could mute human emotions unless they were touching him, but supernatural emotions were more projected and harder to mute. 

Stiles found himself going on runs through the preserve more than was probably safe, but it was the only place in Beacon Hills that there was rarely people. And he’d sense a supernatural creature before it got close enough to attack, he’d grown in power since the night Peter had bitten his brothers. He had never thought he’d have to use his empathy as a weapon, but here he was with a blunt sword he had to sharpen as fast and as safely as possible. Out in the preserve he could practise putting animals to sleep or easing their fear of him enough to pet them without worrying about anyone seeing. 

He’d went for a run after Scott and Isaac’s lacrosse game, which was probably a bad idea since Jackson may or may not have died that night. There’d been so much fear and worry in the stands that Stiles had to escape to the peace of the preserve. Which is how he found himself surrounded by fifteen grown men armed to the teeth. 

“Woah! What do you need all those for? Mr.Jones killed the mountain lion a while back now, so there’s nothing out here nearly dangerous enough for you to need all that for!” 

They only stepped closer, silent in their menacing, and Stiles could feel the violence in their emotions. 

“Right? Cause if you guys think there is something dangerous out here I need to get the hell out of here!” Stiles was trying to keep his panic at bay. 

They were here for him, but none of them had the right combination of emotions to make him feel like they were going to kill him here. They were going to take him. Probably to Gerard. 

Why would Gerard want him? He was just a human as far as anyone knew. It didn’t matter at that moment, what did matter was soothing the itch for violence in these men. 

Stiles started projecting little tendrils of friendly at each man as they closed in on him. He was knocked unconscious, not by a pistol whip to the top of his head, but a punch to his temple. The last thing he thought was ‘At least my empathy softened the blow somewhat.’

Stiles didn’t stay unconscious long, the amount of hands on him as they carried him into a house and down the stairs into a basement torture chamber was enough to jolt him awake the moment they lifted him. They threw him down in a way that sent his body skidding across the harsh concrete ground and landing under two sets of bare feet. Stiles groaned as he felt not only his pain, but also the two above him’s pain and fear. 

He lifted his gaze away from the men assembled in front of him and to the teenagers hanging from the ceiling above him. Erica cried out when she saw him, Boyd thrashed against his restraints in an attempt to free himself. Stiles had to mute their emotions as best he could, though it was incredibly hard when those emotions were about him. Their fear was for him. He had felt the resignation on them when he’d been thrown at them. They were ready to die, but wanted to fight for Stiles to live. Stiles hadn’t even truly considered them friends until that revelation. He’d be damned if they were going to die on his watch. 

Gerard finally made his appearance, spouting racist bullshit and throwing surprisingly strong punches. Stiles could take it, would take it. He had to if he was going to get the ‘wolves behind him out of here. There was too many people and he didn’t even know where they were, but Stiles would figure it out. As Gerard picked him up by the collar of his track jersey and punched him back down onto the ground Stiles sent tendrils of wariness into the men behind Gerard. As the geriatric bastard stomped on Stiles’ ribs, Stiles sent a wave of guilt into the men. He noticed one slip out the back while Gerard was distracted by Stiles hacking up blood. 

Moments later Chris Argent came striding in and Stiles felt guilt, regret, worry as he looked at the brutalized teenagers. Good. Stiles couldn’t hear what son said to father, but Gerard spit on Stiles and followed his son upstairs. Stiles had leaned so heavily into Erica and Boyd’s emotions so as to avoid feeling even an ounce of Gerard’s that he gasped when he could pull his senses off of them. Stiles sent tired at the men watching them wearily and all but one left. Stiles simply projected sleep at the three other people in the basement and waited for them to sag. Once he knew everyone in his vicinity was sleeping he cast his awareness through the house, relieved to feel nothing. They’d trusted one man to watch a beat up human and two restrained werewolves, but they didn’t know who Stiles was. 

Getting Erica and Boyd down and into the car was the most physically painful hour of his life. When they woke Stiles told them the hunter left to guard them told him to take the other two and get out before he changed his mind. It was a lie, but they didn’t need to know that. What they needed at that moment was somewhere safe and somewhere comforting. Stiles could do that for them. He blanketed the car in safe, calm, peace, contentment, love and soon he could hear Erica singing along to the radio quietly from the back seat. Sometimes he really wished he could project onto himself. 

After that Stiles had more people’s touch to dodge. Erica and Boyd claimed Stiles with the brand of fierce loyalty he’d claimed them. With every dodge Stiles sent love back to make sure they didn’t feel rejected, his four puppies always smiled back at him like it was a game. Perhaps it was a game, one that Stiles wouldn’t handle losing very well. 

A plan was hatched to dispose of Gerard Argent, Stiles knew what Scott was like when he was planning something. After a little bit of snooping Stiles decided he needed to step in and help Scott with Not Doing That. 

“But I think it’s clever.” Scott defended, his brows furrowed. 

“It is clever. I’m honestly shocked you thought of something this devious, I’m usually the devious one.” Stiles laughed, his hand casually coming up to rest on Scott’s arm despite the overwhelming  flow of his emotions. 

Sometimes he really missed touching and being touched. Scott was his first buffer against the outside world, maybe Stiles could just take an aspirin after they touched and it’d be okay. Even if he did want to smile like an idiot and scrunch up his face in confusion, offended and cry from heartbreak and fight something. 

Werewolves were a tsunami of emotions and Stiles only had a raft made of touch starvation and devotion. 

Scott had to repeat his question twice before Stiles could focus on it, “So why cant I do it?” 

“Well buddy the thing is you don’t know a lot about werewolf culture yet, right?” 

Scott nodded. 

“And you know I’ve been researching the hell out of it at lightning speed? Well something I learned was that an alpha’s bite is precious and a gift. You and Isaac are different because Peter was drowning in lost pack bonds and need new ones immediately. But think about Erica and Boyd.” 

“Derek scouted them.” 

“Okay meat head. I would’ve said looked for them, but sure.” 

“Shut up, man. I’m telling you I understand.” 

“Fuck yeah! Okay so now that we’re on the same page of ‘Operation: Force Derek to Bite Gerard to Kill Him’ being not good, let’s brainstorm what to do next.” Stiles fist bumped Scott and they fell back onto his bed together. 

Isaac joined them soon after offering his own insights. Stiles called Erica and Boyd when the three of them came to another impasse about what to do. 

Soon Stiles’ bedroom was full of teenage werewolves, and he was starting to freak out. He opened the window for fresh air, but Derek launched himself onto his roof at the exact moment it opened. 

“Sweet Baby Yoda, you scared the hell out of me!” Stiles gasped, clutching his chest while Erica snickered. 

Derek frowned at him, “Why are you having a pack meeting without me?”

“We aren’t voting you off the island, alpha mine!” Erica chirped. 

“Yet.” Boyd followed gravely. 

“Well that’s reassuring.” Derek deadpanned back as he approached his four betas. He scent marked each of them before reaching out and placing his hand on Stiles’ head. 

Grief, self-loathing, guilt, worry, fear, pain 

It slammed threw him so hard Stiles could only stumble backwards as tears welled up in his eyes. Derek’s emotions were always muted unless they were strong, but this was the first time they’d touched when Stiles was too sensitive by everyone else to dilute what he took in. 

He hit the ground and dropped his head, Derek following suit to check on him.

“Stiles? What just-” 

“Stiles darling, come now. Up you get.” He didn’t know where Peter came from or how he was able to lift him by his shoulders without sending a single emotion to Stiles, but Stiles didn’t care. 

He let Peter guide him out of the room. He hadn’t felt anything from Peter except content, humor, interest, curiosity since the man had returned to the world of the living, but now he truly felt nothing from the man. He tried to slump back into Peter’s chest, but the man stopped him. 

“Not yet, pet. I haven’t perfected the full body charms yet.” 

Stiles hummed an inquisitive sound as Peter sat him on the couch. 

Peter sat beside him, close but not touching more than the hand on his leg. 

“It took me longer than I would’ve liked, but yes I did indeed say charm. I’m going to make full body mute charms and you’re going to gift them to the pack and your father, so that they will actually wear them. You don’t have to tell them what you are, love, but if you keep up like this you’re going to burn yourself out. I am not quite ready to say goodbye to the little boy that screamed when I could not.” Peter caressed Stiles’ cheek as he spoke, his thumb wiping away dried tears. 

“You know? How? They make mute charms? Will you show me how to make them?” Stiles’ mind was starting to whirl with the possibilities, “If there are mute charms, could I make singular emotion charms? So does that mean you only have a hand mute charm on? Is it the ring? That’s new right? I don’t want to tell them what I am. They’ll feel guilty for every emotion they have if they know it impacts me. Can the charm be any material or does it have to be silver? That is silver right? I wouldn’t burn myself out. I totally got this. But the charms are so cool!” Stiles took a big breath as his rapid fire inquires petered out. 

He smiled sheepishly at Peter’s calm, but amused expression. 

“Sorry they got excited and I was already excited, so a feedback loop kicked up. Add in the ADHD and it’s rough. You said I screamed when you couldn’t? When?” 

Peter brought his hand around and placed it on the back of Stiles’ neck, a warm comforting weight, before answering, “We’ll unpack all your charm questions later, okay? As for how I know and when you were able to express my emotions when I couldn’t, the answers are the same but slightly different.”

Stiles nodded, leaning back into Peter’s palm.

“You stumbled into my hospital room and screamed the minute the door was shut, I didn’t understand why this eleven year old was in my room or why his scream sounded like he felt every single thing I was feeling. I wasn’t very aware at that point, but the visceral emotion in that scream sounded like my own. And then you filled my room with such nice feelings I thought for a long time it was a dream.”

Stiles’ eyes are wet again as the memory of that day finally floods back in. 

“And then I felt Laura die and the spark pass to me. I was blind in my fury and grief. I found her body and howled with every ounce of grief within my tattered soul. I was searching the area to figure out who did it when you three stumbled into my path. I felt your sorrow for your brothers as if it were my own and I ran.”

Stiles remembers the whimper and squeezes the hand on his thigh with his own. 

“And then, my sweet sweet boy, I died. I was burned alive for the second time, but you saved me the trauma of experiencing it. I don’t know how I knew it was you who granted me the numbness that took over my body, but when I looked at you trying not to show anyone the emotion I saw in your eyes, I knew. I knew you were the little boy. I knew that once again you were here to save me from pain.” 

Stiles wiped his watery eyes viciously, mad at himself for tearing up in front of Peter. 

“I vowed that if I could make it back I’d repay you. And these charms are how I plan to do that, pet.” Peter moved Stiles hand away from his eyes before slowly moving in and kissing each sensitive eyelid. 

“Where do we go from here, Peter?” Stiles whispered, his throat too full of emotion, for once it was his own. 

“Wherever we want, sweetheart.”

[greatfay]

The fosters 😏

Ohhhhhh my godddddddd I’m gonna diiiiiie. Ok let the memories resurface, this may take a minute.

my all-time ultimate fave character:

Stef. I just really liked her arcs, how straight forward she is, etc. Classic ISTJ tbh... cautious, reserved, protective, methodical, quietly affectionate. Like at the end of the day, I think she’s my fave. The kids go through so much ups and downs and Dumbass Moments that none of them can be my fave, and Lena is a close second but the writers only gave her one strong arc, and that’s when she tried to have a baby and that was so painful.

For several seasons I used to say my fave was Mike because he was Prime Dad Material. Like in the very first episode, he comes off as this douchey, entitled, deadbeat asshole who oversteps boundaries, right? Classic switcheroo. You find out this man is a saint, this man oozes emotional sensitivity and communication and affection, this man is also a dilf with eyelashes longer than should be legal. When he fostered AJ (I’m crying right now). Getting Ana through rehab??? Fighting his own alcohol addiction and not breaking once. Like the only time he ever let me down was his reaction to Dani MOLESTING Brandon, but he realized like whoa wait a minute... Brandon’s been taken advantage of and if Brandon were a girl he would see it different... Like all of Mike’s mistakes were temporary mistakes, he recovered quick and tried to do the right thing. If only his son was as quick on the uptake 😒

a character I didn’t used to like but now do:

Brandon. It took five seasons for me to like Brandon. You know how many seasons this show had? Five. And it’s because he’s pulled through the ringer of Suffering™ and it’s almost ALL his fault so that by the end when he’s doing the right thing again and again for the first time ever... and meets that super sweet girl... and then she DIES 

a character I used to like but now don’t:

Jude. He was such an intuitive, intense child, with wisdom earned from awful trauma, and watching him slowly assert himself was a wonder to watch. I do think the writers got lost with him, because his second love interest was a bore, his pothead thing was awful to watch, and when he became a twitch streamer with Taylor—WHAAACK. By the time of Good Trouble (which takes place years after The Fosters, so Jude is a sophomore/junior in college) Jude is drinking a LOT, partying a LOT, and fucking!!! a LOT!! Makes me concerned. Idk, it just felt like he lost his intuition halfway through the show and kept doing dumb stuff.

a character I’m indifferent about:

Every ex of the family lmao, idr them and I was not too fired up about any of them except maybe Emma. Like all of Jesus’ and Brandon’s exes I can’t remember.

a character who deserved better:

I’m just gonna make a list

AJ. Literally just him and Mike are just the cutest because of how earnestly the actor plays AJ, you know I love found family tropes and stuff.

 Mat. Such a sweetheart, the most accommodating and supportive boyfriend. So talented. Gorgeous hair. Mariana didn’t deserve him.

Cole. This boy fought SO HARD to be recognized for his gender, organized an LGBTQA prom for all his classmates who were rejected from their school’s prom, had to get hormones off the black market, and was so intuitive and loyal... honestly I loved Cole.

Aaron. SUCH a confusing end. Out of all the love interests, he and Callie popped with the most chemistry. The shared quest, the rides on the motorcycle, pictures at the beach, his great college advice. Their fight at her prom was so left-field and upsetting, and we know it’s because they wanted Callie to be single when the series ended so she could be free to date in Good Trouble. If I’m not mistaken, theirs is the first trans/cis relationship portrayed on network television... ever? And I mean a relationship, not a hook up.

Wyatt. Another sweetheart, what happened between him and Callie wasn’t really about him, it was about her and it was definitely about legal issues, and she was right to set her boundaries, but ouch that hurt. Gorgeous hair.

Notice how most of this list either dated Callie or crushed on her lmao except for Mat. Also

Rita. The woman lives and breathes childcare and youth advocacy. Let her win.

DAPHNE KEENE. She had her daughter with her in the series finale but I haven’t heard mention of her yet in Good Trouble, she’d better have custody and a job salary over 70k for what this show put her through.

EMMA. This poor girl was practically torn in two between the twins, from Jesus’ messy/horny ass to Mariana’s bossy controlling ass. She should be president.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into:

Most of Jesus’ relationships. He’s a fuck up so all of them are basically waiting for a train wreck. His most healthy one was with Emma, who was too good for him, and the one with most chemistry was with Lexi, but she was messy af too so that wasn’t going to work.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over:

Jude/Connor. It sailed and sunk in two minutes. So apparently, Jude/Connor have the youngest LGBT kiss shown on television. This show really made history, huh. They were adorable, they literally struggled to be a couple (since Connor’s dad is homophobic) and then after being a couple for like 2 episodes, Connor’s dad walking in on them kissing and basically blowing up was so traumatizing for the kid that he moved in with his mom in LA to get away from him. They try to do the long distance thing but they're middle schoolers... and it’s their first relationship each... and both of them are just now figuring out that they’re gay. it doesn’t work out. Would love for Connor to come back in Good Trouble and try to woo Jude or something (cuz Jude...???? he’s just FUCKING... ALL the time. Like one second he’s the adorable 12-year-old you just want to shield from the world, and then it’s like TIME SKIP, he’s a college frat boy now and he fucks “straight” boys every weekend).

a cute, low-key ship:

Lol this show didn’t do low-key ships, everything was loud.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it:

Stef/Lena; because they’re the main couple on the show and yet we as the audience forget that they’re even an option as an OTP. These two are marriage goals. They fight, they argue, they have conflicting viewpoints, but they always sit down and talk at the end of the day, and they pull it together because of their love for the kids and each other. I live for them, I seriously wanted them to adopt me. I’d cook for the family so they would be an ounce less stressed. They’re such great moms and they try SO hard to be there for the kids, who each come with truckloads of baggage and problems all befitting network TV teen drama protagonists.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened:

BRALLIE. They’re SIBLINGSSSS AHHHH. “But they’re foster siblings” I DON’T CARE. This is not a damn Victorian novel, it’s gross. Maybe in season 1 it wasn’t as bad since Callie had zero intentions of staying with the Adams-Fosters family and was used to being bounced around in foster care, but after bonding with them all and truly believing they wanted her, season 2 onward Brallie disgusts me.

Mariana/Nick. Let’s talk about his actor for a second. Louis Hunter played a teenager in The Secret Circle back in 2011 (don’t @ me but I loved that show) and guess what, friends, he was TOO FUCKING OLD to play a teenager THEN. That opinion stands 7 years later. An absolute creep who traumatized Mariana, the girl had to go to THERAPY. She went to THERAPY because of him.

Lena/Monte. UGHHHHHHHHh this made me so mad. Monte was being so gross and inappropriate, like not only is Lena her employee/subordinate... but Lena is a WOMAN. She’s grown as hell and confident in her identity and has a whole ass wife (a WIFE) and a family to take care of, and here comes Monte with her weird ass flirtations and stuff. She could NEVER. Lena is a goddess and Monte but an ant crawling on the sidewalk outside her temple.

my favourite storyline/moment:

When Stef confronted her internalized homophobia and misogyny during his breast cancer scare and she cut her hair to symbolize her ownership of her femininity. That was POWERFUL. Stef actually had so many great emotional arcs throughout the show; losing her father (who never really “got” her “lesbianism”), her mother’s breast cancer scare, HER breast cancer scare, her fight to become a detective, maybe it’s Teri Polo but Stef is such a stand-up, rigid character with such a strong moral center that watching her trudge through emotional trauma every gd episode was riveting.

Jude’s selective mutism. I remember this out of nowhere, but Jude went mute?? And he had to see a therapist, who deduced his problem and attributed it to an anxiety disorder and advised the family not to stress him out or pressure him to talk, and he went like this for a couple episodes. Like this boy went through so much trauma that it took like one thing, one little thing, to make him shut down. And Callie like patiently waiting for him to speak, and then her seeing her rapist and the only person she wanted to talk to about it was her little brother and he still wouldn’t talk, he just sits there playing video games, and she sends him a message on Xbox Live saying ‘Please talk to me’ and he ignores it then she sends another message “I saw Liam today” and he just looks at her as tears are falling down her face and places his hand on her arm in support. I. CRIED. Even after that moment, like in the next episode he’s still mute and Callie reminds him again that he’s been so strong compared to her that he’s “due for a breakdown” and not to feel any pressure to talk before he’s ready, and they fucking plant flowers together for Lena (I’m covering my mouth with one hand to keep from crying, I’m getting old feels. Remember when we used to say ‘feels’?). Ok I’m done.

Ok the storyline where Brandon is caught cheating for people on the SATs and won’t be able to go to Juilliard was POWERFUL. I loved that Brandon and Lena had a lot of bonding moments, and Lena was honest with Brandon in a way no one else was, she was like these are the consequences of your actions. You had decisions to make and you made the bad decisions every time, and now you’re here. Remember when you selling fake IDs for that dealer ended with your hand getting smashed so you can’t play classical music any more? Did you learn from that? Clearly not. POWERFUL. Lena scalped me on that day.

a storyline that never should have been written:

Most of Brandon’s storylines lmao. Him selling the fake IDs, him taking SATs for other students, him dating that 21+ woman with a kid and deciding he has to drop out of school and get a full time job to take care of her??? I love how Stef had to pull him aside and tell him “You’re Captain Save-A-Ho! And I know this because you got your Save-A-Ho gene from me!!” Brandon was MESSY. Despite being the typically “boring” of the kids in that he didn’t party or drink, he had interest in typical teen stuff, he was also impulsive in the worst way with his relationships and would get tunnel vision. Remember when Stef and Lena had to pull a restraining on Brandon for Callie??? My godddddd, a MESS. We’re not going to talk about how he finally fell in love with the right girl and she fucking dies.

BRALLIE. That bit where Callie didn’t think she was getting adopted so she FUCKS BRANDON, I’M NOT OVER IT. AHHHH.

Jude becoming a pothead. It was really dumb. I’d have been happier if the focus was on his anxiety and how it helped him.

Everything Monte related.

The time Jude downloaded Grindr and met up with a guy in his motel room?? And the guy was a grown man?? And of course he freaks out because Jude is a kid and tells him to gtfo??? That made me SOOOOO uncomfortable, which is why I hated it. BUT, I liked how the moms handled it, because obviously he’s a boy who’s curious and he’s surrounded by other kids—especially his four siblings with their tumultuous whirlwind of relationships—who are constantly making out with this person and hooking up with that person, and because he’s gay... and has this limited dating pool... and his first love moved to another fucking city to escape his homophobic dad... how does he get to explore his sexuality? who does he get to kiss at a party? This was so relatable, so many lgbtqa youth deal with this everyday, this sort of social pressure and FOMO as the cis straight kids around us are hitting all these romantic and sexual milestones while we’re sitting on an island. And obviously Stef and Lena sympathize, but then empathize how incredibly dangerous it was because Jude could’ve gotten hurt, there are guys out there who could do terrible things to him and he has to think these things through, not to mention the guy in question could’ve been just a normal dude trying to get it on and that he was put in danger—and this was the same season that explores how Jesus and Mariana’s birth father ended up on the sex offenders’ registry. It was handled well but remembering this storyline gives me anxiety.

The Jack storyline. I forgot this kid’s name and what happened to him so I had to peruse the wiki and I fell down a rabbit hole. Basically, this is a kid who was in a privatized group home, during a season in which Callie does volunteer work with a woman, Justina Marks, who is trying to pass a bill to reform child social services—only to discover that she wants to privatized the foster system to make money off of them, which of course makes Callie like do a BUNCH of risky stupid shit to take her down. So Jack gets temporarily moved into the Adams-Fosters home, proving to be a very quirky, quiet, sensitive boy, he kisses Jude after Jude’s breakup with Connor? Then reveals he’s not actually gay, he just wanted Jude to be happy? And it’s really fucking sad because he has this bleeding heart and this need to make everyone around him happy because he sees himself as this burden. Then he gets placed into a new foster home, despite Stef and Lena wanting to keep him around... and he gets put in the same foster home with the same man who abused Jude in the show’s pilot—and like the inciting incident for the show itself (Callie destroying his car to distract him from beating her brother > her going to juvie > her getting beat up in juvie > Lena seeing this poor bruised up girl and thinking “she’s my daughter now”). So Jack ends up being fostered by the horrible, abusive man who should never have been allowed to be within feet of a child again, and Stef just so happens to be one of the officers nearby when a domestic disturbance is called in, and when she arrives at the house with her partner she’s like “bruh I know this house” and when she goes into the kitchen she steps on something: a pair of glasses. Whose glasses???

JACK’S. And she quietly lays a sheet over his dead body. His foster father, who’d already been arrested once for beating Jude, shot him in a drunken rage. And CALLIE LATER FINDS OUT JuSTINA MARKS SET IT UP TO USE AS HER FACE CASE IN SUPPORT OF HER BILL.

my first thoughts on the show:

Literally the first time I heard the theme song when I randomly decided to watch it on Netflix in like 2014 (2015? I can’t remember, I don’t think season 3 was out at that point so it might’ve been 2014) I was like oh this is going to be the crying show.

my thoughts now:

I was right. I would not rewatch this show lmao, but I’m fond of it. I did randomly decide to start watching Good Trouble and surprisingly I like it and I missed the characters. I can look back and appreciate how this show handled a lot of tender topics as tastefully as they could, and examine them from a lot of different angles.

Ask me about a tv show/movie/franchise/book!

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Grief

Mysterious Tower feels like a cage. Aqua paces around the small rounded room (a cell, if she is honest with herself) she has been placed in, longing for Terra, wide-open space where she can roam free, and darkness. She and Ventus had been brought to this place by the light keyblade wielders, after they had ‘rescued’ them days before. Since then, she has chosen to remain in the room they allotted her, refusing to venture out and talk to the wielders. Why should she mingle with the enemy, after all?

Terra… gods, her heart aches for him, though she is loath to admit it, and is filled with a deep terror over what they could be doing to him. She misses him every day—the comfort and familiarity she felt in his presence, the joy and carnal pleasure he brought her. She would give anything to have him with her here now—maybe then she would feel less alone and afraid. At the same time, though, she is angry at him for leaving her like this and would gladly kill him if he were here.

She is painfully aware that she could just leave this place, as she is so powerful that no one could stop her if she chose to do so, but she cannot hurt Ventus like that. It is strange—usually she would not care about anyone else’s feelings, but it makes her uncomfortable to think of him being in pain in any way.  

She knows that she shares a strong bond with Ventus. She felt it when she first saw him when Terra was taken from her. A strange, beautiful pain and joy, as if she were coming face-to-face with something she had not realised she had been missing for all of this time. She does not know what to make of it. Part of her lights up with recognition; another part of her is dismissive of it; and yet another part of her just wants to forget it all and revel in the darkness.  

oOoOo

‘Aqua?’

It is Ventus, come to see her. She looks up as he edges into the bedroom with wide eyes, as if he thinks she will do him harm. Her? It is unbelievable. She would never hurt Ventus. Or would she?

Yes, she would, if it means getting out of this prison and finding Terra again. Nothing is more important than that. Right? Besides, Ventus is scared of her. That is enough to make the anger and hurt rise through her again. Why should he be afraid? What has she done to make him feel that way?  

She fights back the confusion and pain that stabs her heart and says coldly, ‘Yes? What do you want?’

He falters, his face falling as he sees the anger in her eyes. ‘I—Master Yen Sid wants to see you. He wants to talk about what’s been happening. He—’

He stops at the furious look on her face. Thankfully it is not directed at him, but rather at the old retired master. Master Yen Sid had been the one who had forbade Mickey from rescuing her before it was too late. She knows that now, thanks to Ventus. Why should she take the time to talk with someone who had betrayed her so badly? (And besides, she suspects that if she does go and talk with him, she will do something drastic—such as murdering him with the darkness she has at her disposal or throwing him into the Realm of Darkness so that he can see how he likes being stuck there for over twelve years.)      

‘I do not want to speak with him,’ she says without turning around. ‘You may tell him that.’

‘But—'  

‘Go and tell him that and leave me alone.’ Please… She tries to ignore the part of her that urges her to turn and beg him to stay. That part of her is weak. That part of her will only bring pain and loss down on her again. Still, a stray tear streaks down her cheek as Ventus silently leaves her alone.  

oOoOo

She does not know what she is feeling or why. She knows that she loves Ventus like a brother, and longs to mend their relationship to how it was when they were both living in the Land of Departure with Terra and Master Eraqus. But at the same time, part of her is determined to push him away. She is dangerous and filled with darkness—what if she hurts him? She could not bear that. And she also could not bear to see the condemnation on his face when he realises the things she has done—which he would quickly discover just from seeing the truth in her eyes.

She has other visitors aside from Ventus. Almost none of them are welcome. The Mouse comes once, his eyes filled with guilt and sorrow. He tries to explain himself and ask for forgiveness for his role in her corruption, but she is not having any of that. She knows that she will never forgive him for his inaction and abruptly tells him so. It cost her everything and she cannot forget about it so quickly.

Mickey is saddened by her angry admission (for they had been good friends once), but he accepts it and leaves her alone. He does not come to visit her again, much to her relief.    

Sometimes the boy Riku visits her, along with Kairi, the Princess of Heart she met once years ago in Radiant Garden. Kairi is now a keyblade wielder herself, much to her surprise, and is currently training with Merlin and another boy named Lea in Radiant Garden. Riku is now a Keyblade Master, having passed his Mark of Mastery Exam shortly before she joined the Organization. They both hover at her bedside (Riku carefully placing himself slightly in front of Kairi) and look incredibly nervous, as if she could suddenly snap and attack them both.

They are all very wary around her, something which sets her on edge. At least in the Organization it could be used to her advantage. Here they just tip-toe around her as if she could burn them and do not let her behaviour truly affect them.

Sora (the boy with the spiky brown hair) is the only one who does not visit her. Not that she cares. It is because he is too busy travelling with Donald and Goofy in their Gummi Ship, protecting the worlds. Ventus speaks very fondly of Sora, who was after all the person who gave his heart refuge when it needed it most, and also healed it when it was shattered by Master Xehanort long ago. She would be lying if it did not upset her somewhat. Ventus used to act that way toward her, but now all he does is act wary and afraid.

She wonders if it is her fault. She has become something dark, like Vanitas and she does not hate it. She likes the darkness—she likes how it makes her feel powerful and in control. When she had first been brought into the Organization, she had felt so helpless and broken. Then when she had embraced the darkness, it had gone away and she had felt more powerful than she had ever felt before. 

Terra would understand, she knows. He would tell her that she is beautiful, that the darkness in her is beautiful. He would not fear her. He would accept her.

Deep down, she wants to have that same acceptance from Ventus. But she has seen the way Ventus acts around her, and she does not think it likely that he will love her the same way as he did before.

Weeks pass like this, and she begins to wonder why she does not go already. Because of Ventus, she tells herself. But if Ventus will not accept her, why should she stay for him?      

oOoOo

One day, she has had enough. It is time for her to leave this place and these enemies and go and find Terra again. Then they can continue doing what they’d been doing before this mess occurred. She would like to bring Ventus with her, but she knows that is not possible. Ventus fears her. It is clear enough by the way he has been avoiding her. He must hate her for handing him over to Master Xehanort. Why would he want to go anywhere with her? 

He certainly will not want her to stay. And no one else will be upset if she goes away. They must surely think that she is a monster, and that she will destroy them all eventually. Yes, leaving is the best course of action, for everyone involved.  

Unfortunately, when she walks to the end of the staircase, she finds two keyblade wielders waiting there. There to stop her from leaving, she assumes. She crosses her arms in anger as they face her with grim faces.

‘You cannot keep me here against my will,’ she snaps at them. ‘It is not your way.’

‘That’s true.’ Riku steps forward. ‘But it’s also not right to let you go when we know what you’re going to do. We can’t let you cause chaos in the worlds.’

‘What makes you think that I will do that?’

‘The look on your face,’ he says. ‘I know that look. I’ve seen it in the Heartless. You crave darkness and won’t stop yourself from bringing it into the worlds.’    

‘Master Aqua, please listen to us,’ Kairi begs. ‘You’re sick. You need help. You can’t just leave!’  

‘You do not know anything about me, or what I have been through,’ she snarls. ‘Nothing at all. You cannot tell me what to do!’

(Truthfully, she is not sure that she knows anything about herself anymore, either. All she knows is that she has become something dark and dangerous. Something they would not understand or tolerate.)  

‘Trust us,’ Riku says. ‘Let us help you.’

‘I do not trust any of you,’ she says coldly. ‘You abandoned me in the Realm of Darkness; when I called for aid you ignored me and let me be tortured by Xemnas. I would rather go back to the Organization than spend another minute longer here.’

She turns to leave. No one stops her. Except—

‘Aqua, wait! Don’t go!’

She turns her head to see Ventus—or someone who appears to be Ventus—coming to a halt in front of her. His hand reaches out pleadingly to her.

Foolish boy. Does he truly think he has a chance of stopping her?

She scoffs at him. ‘Why? There is nothing for me here. What do you think—’

‘Because…’ He takes a deep breath. ‘I want you to stay.’

To her surprise, he grips her wrist with his hand and places a trinket in her palm, before backing away from her. It’s made of green glass and shaped like a star. No—a wayfinder.

‘See this?’ he says. ‘You made one for each of us, as a symbol of our friendship. You said that they represented an unbreakable connection and if we had one of these we would never be torn apart.’

An unbreakable connection…

‘You promised us we’d always be together. Don’t you remember?’

She stares at the trinket mutely, and all she can see is the jagged pieces of her own falling into the sand. It makes her want to weep. Before she knows it, she is clutching it to her chest, feeling as minuscule and worthless as she did in the Dark Margin. 

Her entire body trembles with emotion. Ventus takes a careful step toward her, and then another. She does not try to stop him, can only stand frozen as he comes to a halt inches away from her.

‘Listen,’ he says desperately. ‘I don’t care if you’re like this now. I don’t care if Terra is like this. I’ve missed you so much--I--I just want my friends back.’

That’s when the dam breaks.

‘Oh, Ven…’ 

Suddenly she is crying deep, wracking sobs that reverberate through her entire body.

The other keyblade wielders quietly leave the room to give the two friends some privacy as they cling to each other with thirteen years of grief spilling down their faces.  

She does not know how long they stand like that, clinging to one another. Minutes? Hours? She only knows that time fades away around them until they can only sense each other and nothing else. She can hear herself crying as she clutches Ventus to her chest with her entire being. Strange… It feels so strange. She has not cried in a very long time. Not since Xemnas had found her at the Dark Margin and turned her into a creature of the darkness. It… feels good. Like something has been released inside of herself.

Ventus does not react badly to her strong grip; in fact, he burrows his head into her chest.

Finally, the sobs die down, and they both draw away, though they do not let go of one another. They just gaze at one another silently, daring the other to speak first.    

‘I—I know you’re hurting,’ Ventus finally says. ‘I’m hurting too. But—don’t shut us out. Riku and the rest—they’re not our enemies. They don’t want to hurt us. They want to help us. Please give them a chance.’

She cannot believe that, even now. No matter what she does, she will never forget the worst moment of her life, which only occurred because they did not help her. For so long, it has been drilled into her that they are the enemy; she will not change her opinion of them so quickly. But she can see that it means a lot to Ventus, as she sees the desperate look in his eyes, and so she reluctantly gives in.

‘I… All right.’

Ventus’ face lights up at her words; he hugs her tightly, not noticing her flinch at the gesture.

‘But I still do not trust them,’ she tells him. ‘What if they stab us in the back?’

‘Don’t worry,’ he tells her. ‘They can help us get Terra back. They won’t hurt us. They need us.’

‘I have no interest in their war,’ she retorts coldly. She just wants Terra, and Ventus. Nothing else matters to her but them. She has had enough of being used by other people for their own gain and wants nothing more than to pursue her own goals, wherever it may lead her.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ventus says. ‘They’ll help us anyway, even if we don’t fight. It’s the best chance we have.’

He is right about that, unfortunately. They cannot rescue Terra by themselves, however much she wants to. Reluctantly, she nods at him. He smiles again in relief and hugs her. ‘Thanks, Aqua. I swear you won’t regret it.’

She hopes she will not—or else she does not know what she will do.      

[bluboothalassophile]

Hello Blu!!! Blu, I'd like to ask you, what if exist a flashpoint like in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (in your mind/your point of view), for ex: What if Jason had been saved by Bruce, what would have change in this flashpoint paradox? What other things/people would have changed? What do you think of this? Sorry just a random question that came to me ^^ and i'd like to know your opinion! ^^

Hello,

In a flashpoint where Jason lives instead of dying… Alright, well, I’ve thought a lot about this. I even have a story on the parameters of if Jason had lived rather than dying, but that’s a bit closer to the Arkham Knight AU for what happened to Jay.

Anyways, B would save Jason, he wasn’t late, but Jason’s still in critical. I HC that B managed to save Jason but couldn’t save Shelia so that bitch dies in the very explosion she was meant to die in (a moment of silence as we mourn the bitch… okay back to business).

Jason is rushed into a hospital, coma, rehab, years of work to come back; because he’s not magic. Dick is now growing the fuck up and pulling his head out of his ass and trying to be a big brother to Jason as Jason struggles through PT. Alfred forces the family to see a shrink (JL or other), traumas are addressed rather than manifesting unhealthily. Alfred finally just had enough of this shit and said they would see a shrink; all because Jason’s brush with death scared decades off him, and B, and they both see the value now in maybe growing up and addressing the traumas. Also, B doesn’t blame Jay, especially not after he finds out about Sheila. 

They address Jason’s trust issues, inferiority feelings, how he felt when they isolated him and were going to take Robin away from him. Dick gets to talk about his needs to grow up, spread his wings, be himself, and address his anger issues and maybe they’ll also talk about his relationship with and his feelings about Jason and how Jason IS NOT his replacement. B never develops his god complex, because God Knows That Man Is Merely A Man! It’s fucking annoying too, B feels that.

I think that Dick and Jay work on becoming brothers through Jay’s PT, movie nights, Titans actually properly meet Jay, books, books, more books, and Jay might even get to go to that school dance he wanted to go to. Even if he’s pushed into the dance in a wheelchair. Dick’s Titans, Garth, Roy, Donna, Lilith, and Wally completely support Jason’s role as Robin now. Yes, Jason still is crushing on Donna, but she’s out of his league and she finds it sweet.

In that time, I think Tim finds the Waynes, and I think Tim and Jay bond; tight and fast, Dick’s actually stepping up to be a big brother. Tim becomes Robin, Jason focuses on PT; resentments about that situation are addressed and Jason doesn’t have that festering wound of being replaced. 

Tim is now the baby brother, and Dick and Jay adore him. They like teasing Tim, and drawing Tim out of his shell, maybe even doing normal brother shit, like beating up Tim’s bullies, rough housing with him, and even possibly formally telling Jack Drake to fuck off, Tim’s their baby brother. I think with that in mind, B legally goes about adopting Tim, and Tim is shocked at this news. They have a huge family dinner to make the announcement, and Tim cries like a baby in joy (No one will ever say anything about that, because Tim’s family).

Stephanie comes barrelling into the family (Jay’s starting to go back into the field; possibly under a different name, Red Bird, or Bluejay or something). Dick and Jason torture Tim about his crush on Stephanie, and they adore Stephanie. B tolerates her still, and maybe tries hard. Stephanie never becomes Robin, staying Spoiler, and she practically lives at the mansion. She trains with the boys, plays with them, and is never adopted because of Tim’s feelings for her, also B might like her but she’s so not his kid. Babs takes a real liking to Stephanie, and takes Steph under her wing, even presenting Batgirl to Stephanie when she’s older.

Yes, we still find Cass, or better Cass finds them, and she’s adopted by them. Babs is still Oracle. The Batfamily; whilst dysfunctional in different ways, is functioning, and they are recovering. B adores her; obviously and she’s his favorite child; the boys all know this and they adore her. The boys are also painfully aware that Cass can do no wrong in B’s eyes, and could probably get away with murder, they can never get away with anything.

Jason never clashes with Joker; and Joker is a quadriplegic, blind and mute after B is done with him. [I Know There are ways to incapacitate Joker without killing the fucker, so B can stay on his ‘No Kill’ rule and Joker is fucking gone from the depths of nightmares and on a painful trip to Hell]. Joker dwindles into nothing more than a nightmarish memory on Gotham’s psyche. 

Jay and Roy become BFFs during his PT and Roy’s recovery, and get into a shit ton of antics still. Jason never makes that first kill, but is still reckless, he even acquires the All-Blades; though no one knows how he accomplished that. Alfred is the one who teaches Jay to shoot, it’s a coping mechanism to make Jay feel some form of control and safety. No, he does not use guns on his patrols, opting to stick to B’s methods and the swords.

Jason becomes a Titan, on a team with Raven, Eddie Bloomberg, Conner Hawk, Kyle Rayner and Koriand’r on his team. Jason torments Dick about this when Kori crashes here and Dick’s tripping over his tongue and feet around her. Tim just finds it hilarious too.

Dick and Babs never work out, but they stay friends, and Dick eventually marries Kori. Babs and Kori are great friends, and have a girls weekend once a month (Babs is Mar’i and Jake’s aunt, Raven’s still their godmother and Wally their godfather).

B and Talia never get back together, instead their fall out is of epic proportions when B finds out about Damian. The Bats take Dami in without questions.

Damian still clashes violently with Tim, Jason beats Damian up though and Dick comforts Damian. Damian still bonds closest to Dick, while Tim and Jay both leave the demon spawn to Dick. Tim will never admit this but he totally slept in Jason’s room for the first year after Damian moved in; after that first night and he was violently woken up by Damian’s attempt to murder him. Jason is Tim’s favorite brother at that point.

They adopt Duke a year after Damian, Dick and Jason actually insist on this; with Cass’ help, and Duke is dragged into the lunacy of the Bats.

Cass and Stephanie are BFFs, and they work closely with Oracle, they are Orphan and Batgirl, and together all of Gotham’s criminals fear purple glitter bombs, and ass-kickings. The girls are the ones who stumble over Harper Row and her brother, Cullen, and they quickly accumulate Harper and Cullen into their little group. B has no idea what to think about this, but everyone knows he’ll never say no to Cass.

Tim becomes a Titan, on a team with Kon, Bart, Cassandra Sandsmark, Zachary Zatara, Tanya Spears.

Kate joins their ranks, but is not permitted her firearms, in fact, she is the biggest clashing force in the Bats with B. But B, and the family are firm on their No Killing policy and their No Fire Arms. In fact, this is almost a fall out for Kate and B until the Bats have to save Kate, and they kind of make it clear that if she’s in she’s all in exactly how they want. If not, she’s no Bat.

Luke joins into the Bats too, though that’s completely accidental as he’s only interested in saving his father at the time. But he kind of falls hard for Babs, and sticks around. He’s also the buffer for Tim when it comes to keeping his secret as Red Robin from Tammy, though Luke vastly disapproves of tihs. But neither of them want Tammy in the Batfamily world; it’s dangerous. Luke and Tim also save Tammy from Bane’s venom, with the aid of Stephanie when that rolls around.

B marries Cat. No heartache or heart break there, they are married, almost a year after what happened to Jason because they realize: Life Is Too Fucking Short.

Jason gets into Princeton, he’s always at the top of his class and involved with athletics and vigilant life. He’s not a lady’s man like Dick was before Kori, but he’s good with the ladies, and has a lot of girls who are his friends. He’s not Mr. Popular but the world has finally stopped comparing him to Dick. Jason’s time in Princeton is huge! The family is extremely proud of Jay and they are vocal in their pride, even being the dorky family cheering at his graduation. Jason did punch Dick for that, and caught Tim in a headlock as Stephanie glitter bombed them both for having a banner there. Cass has the photographic evidence of this. Damian just clicked his tongue in disapproval before Dick glitter  bombed him too. Duke was Cass’s perch for the glitter bombing so, he was safe from all glitter bombs. Over all though, it’s good times.

Jason later goes to Harvard to study medicine, which he’s really excelling at. He wants to be an ER doc, to help people shortly after their trauma, knowing the importance of quick actions after extensive damage.

Tim and Tammy get engaged. Tammy is furious when she finds out she engaged a Bat, but she’s mostly upset he didn’t trust her enough to say something.

Cass does become a ballerina, and still takes acting classes from Clayface.

Babs and Luke eloped; a weekend in Atlantic City neither of them really remember.

Tim and Tammy break up though when Tim moves to San Francisco to be with the Titans more.

Duke goes to Princeton after Jay, and meets Claire, they start dating.

Damian becomes a Titan, he’s on a team with Kaldur’ahm, Garfield, Wallace West, Jon Kent (for whom he is falling for almost painfully), Djinn and Emiko Queen.

Helena was born at some point, she’s adored and the center of the family’s eyes, even Damian fell for her. He’s also a sucker for Mar’i and Jake (though he’d soon eat glass than say that). 

Jason finds Terry and Matt, by accident after they lost their parents in a wreck and were at the hospital Jay. The DNA testing showed Terry and Matt were B’s kids, so he kind of brings them home. B goes off on Waller for this violation, and the using of his DNA to create the boys. 

Babs and Luke adopt Carrie Kelley and Nell Little, bringing them into the Bats when they can’t keep Carrie out of it.

Life continues on though, and they keep going. They are a family. They aren’t perfect, the Bats are far from perfect, they still have epic blow outs, and fights, also huge feuds but they are a family. They banned together after Jay’s near brush with death and didn’t travel down that morbid rabbit hole of self destruction and god complexes of inadequacy.

[sugarless-suki-writes]

You are the Moon

Fandom: Inuyasha Pairing: KouKag Rating: M Word Count: 4,329 Chapters: 14 of ?

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Chapter Fourteen: Confessions

Kagome let out a huff as she reached the top of the stairs of Sanko Shrine. There had been a lot on her mind the rest of that week, and she was actually looking forward to the weekend. She was eager to let out some of her pent-up emotions. She wasn’t sure what to make of her feelings for Kouga. Her possible feelings, she had to remind herself. She ran a hand over her face, trying to clear the thoughts from her mind. She was here to work on her reiki. She didn’t need to think about this right now. With that, Kagome made her way towards the back of the shrine where Kikyo was waiting. Their greeting was silent, as always; a small bow from Kagome, a nod from Kikyo, and then they were getting down to business.

They were continuing to work on controlling just how much reiki she put out in an attack. Kikyo was constantly scolding her about how she was releasing too much, but it was difficult for Kagome to control. She wasn’t sure why she had such huge bursts of reiki, that’s just how it had been for her entire life. They worked on archery for roughly 3 hours before Kagome requested a break. Kikyo relented and Kagome let out a sigh as she walked over to her things, picking up her water bottle and chugging.

She turned to sit down, but was surprised when she saw Kikyo still standing there, eyeing Kagome. Usually, Kikyo went off to do something else while Kagome took her break. She raised her eyebrow at the miko. Kikyo let out a soft sigh and walked closer to Kagome.

“There’s something on your mind. There was last weekend as well. What is it that you want to tell me?” she asked.

Ah.. that… Kagome took another sip of her drink to stall. She almost forgot there was something else on her mind, what with her and Sango’s conversation earlier in the week. She capped her water bottle and lightly tapped her thumb on the cap. “Well.. I was curious as to where Inuyasha is. I mean, he’s not been here once, so I was just wondering if you send him off before I get here or something.”

Kikyo’s demeanor changed then. Her face became emotionless and there was a coldness in her eyes that Kagome couldn’t quite place. “Why would he be here?” she asked, her voice icy.

Kagome resisted the urge to shudder. “Well I mean.. he’s back in Japan after all and I figured.. he’d be.. here…?” Suddenly, Kagome wasn’t so sure of herself as the miko in front of her continued to show no emotions.

“I didn’t know he was back.”

Kagome’s eyes widened, and her grip loosened on the bottle in her hands. “Wait, what?” she asked. “I.. I thought he would’ve come here first.” she added, clearly confused.

“He has no reason to.”

That just confused her more. “What do you mean by that?”

Kikyo raised an eyebrow at her question. “You don’t know?” When Kagome shook her head, the miko let out a sigh. Some emotion finally came back to her face and Kagome was shocked to see just how tired Kikyo looked. Tired and hurt. “We never officially got back together. I learned he was keeping you a secret as well and I was upset with him. We got into a huge argument, and the next day he was on a plane and leaving to go “find himself” or whatever it was he said.” she replied, waving her hand in clear frustration.

Kagome stood there in shock for several moments before rage consumed her. He put her through all of that pain and suffering, only to do the same to Kikyo and then not even be with her?! “I swear to the gods I’m going to rip him apart.” Kagome growled, her grip tightening on her water bottle to the point her knuckles were white.

Kikyo let out a chuckle and gave Kagome a wry smile. “If you do, you better invite me as well.”

The banter was a surprise to Kagome, but she quickly accepted it, a grin spreading on her face. “Well of course!”

From there, the two opened up to each other about their interactions with Inuyasha, both agreeing at how ridiculous this all was. The conversation carried on for a little over an hour, and Kagome had never felt closer to Kikyo than in that moment. She had always pictured Kikyo as this cold, unfeeling woman because who could just take someone while they were still in a relationship? But now that she knew the truth, she realized how unfair it was of her to judge Kikyo before she really got to know her. And from what the miko could tell, it seems as if Kikyo had made rash judgments about her as well, seeing how open she was now being with her now that everything was out in the open.

They continued with the training then, and the air around them was light. Kagome would toss in a few jokes every now and then, and Kikyo would actually laugh, she even threw in a couple of her own. Once the day was over, Kagome was sad to see it go. They shared their usual goodbye and Kagome left Sanko Shrine feeling surprisingly light. She could feel a bond forming between her and Kikyo, and it excited her! Feeling giddy, Kagome pulled out her phone and called Sango, who was on her speed dial.

It took a couple rings before Sango picked up, and the miko was so excited that she spoke as soon as she heard the phone pick up. “You will not believe what just happened!”

..::YatM::..

Kagome had been on the phone with Sango until she reached the station. She hadn’t been able to get everything out there, but she had mentioned the gist of everything and suggested they get together one day to discuss further, and as more developed. The train ride back home gave her some time to think over things. She thought about what Kikyo had told her, and slowly connected the dots. She was able to put together the missing pieces, and it just made her even angrier at the hanyou.  She nipped her lower lip as her fists clenched in her lap. Kagome sat there, stewing for several moments before she pulled out her phone and tapped out a quick message to the inu.

Hey, let me know if you’re free Monday. We need to have a talk.

She let out a soft sigh and locked her phone, putting it back into her purse as she got ready to get off the train. Once it came to a stop, she got up and left. As she left the station, she pulled out her phone to see if Inuyasha had texted her, and he had. She sucked in a breath, bracing herself, and unlocked her phone to read it.

We can talk NOW.

Kagome groaned and quickly replied.

No, wait until Monday.

He started to call her then and Kagome jumped, fumbling with her phone and almost dropping it. She grumbled to herself before answering the call.

“What?” she asked.

“Why can’t we just discuss whatever this is now?” he snapped.

“Because, I’m on my way home and I’m tired. I think you can wait, Inuyasha.” She could hear him grumble, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she waited for him to say something coherent. When he didn’t, she let out a frustrated groan. “Look, I’ll talk to you later, alright. Monday. No sooner than that.” And with that, she hung up the phone.

Kagome grumbled and moved to put her phone back in her purse, but it started ringing again. She glared at Inuyasha’s name and ignored the call, then muted her phone before putting it away. She didn’t have the energy to deal with this right now. Running a hand through her hair, she made her way home, grumbling to herself. She would have to pick out a time and place to have this talk with Inuyasha. It needed to be a calm, neutral environment, as it wouldn’t be calm for very long. Somewhere public, too. She continued to plan it out, and it helped pass the time it took to get to the apartment.

Kouga watched her approach from the outside walkway, a small frown on his face. He could tell that Kagome was deep in thought from the way she was walking, but he wasn’t sure what would be bothering her. A part of him was scared to ask, especially as she came up the stairs and all he could smell was a forest fire coming off of her. “Hey Kagome, how’d it go today?” he asked, moving to open the door. His voice seemed to pull her out of her thoughts and she flashed him a tired smile. The raging fire in her scent started to die down as well.

“It was alright. Kikyo and I talked about some things today… I um… I’ll tell you about them later. I just.. wanna get this sorted first.” she said.

His eyebrows furrowed at that, but he let it go. “Alright.. Well, I’ve got some dinner ready for you.”

“Thank you, Kouga.” she said, beaming up at him. He returned her smile with a grin of his own and locked the door behind them, following her into the living area.

..::YatM::..

Kagome let out a sigh and locked her phone. It was Monday and she was anxiously waiting for Inuyasha inside the café. Over the last two days, she and Kikyo had discussed their relationship with Inuyasha in greater detail with each other as she trained. Kagome had been absolutely seething, and a part of her still was, it was just being hidden by her anxiety for now. She knew a fight was going to come, she could feel it deep down in her soul. She wasn’t sure how much of it she could handle though, or how bad it would get. She grumbled a bit to herself and took a sip of her coffee and tapped her fingers against the tabletop.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait much longer, as she heard the bell above the door chime and, looking up, there was Inuyasha. She moved her hand to wave the hanyou over, but he was already walking towards her before she had the chance to. He looked angry and Kagome immediately put up her walls. Oh yes, this conversation was going to be bad. The inu sat down across from her with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest. They sat in silence for a few moments before Kagome took in a deep breath.

“Well.. would you like to order any-”

“No. Let’s talk.” he spat, venom dripping from his voice. Kagome resisted the urge to wince at his tone.

“Alright.. fine.” she replied, calmly. Her demeanor seemed to piss Inuyasha off even more. She tried her best to ignore it. “A while ago I started training to improve my skills with my reiki. Take a guess as to who my mentor is.”

“How the fuck would I know?” he snarled, rolling his eyes.

“It’s Kikyo.” Inuyasha immediately stiffened and all traces of anger left him.

“K-Kikyo?” he asked in disbelief, his voice a whisper.

“Yup.” she answered. She folded her hands on the table then, leaning back against her seat. “I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but she’s the closest miko and she was willing to take me on, so I figured, why not?” She shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly at that. “She seemed to be exactly how I imagined her: cold, stuck up, emotionless… but recently we actually started talking and getting to know each other and, wouldn’t you know it, it seems like I was wrong about her.” she said.

Now more than ever, Inuyasha wished he could just disappear. He could smell the flames starting to consume Kagome’s scent, but her expression was neutral, aside from her eyes. Her eyes were cold, colder than he had ever seen them. “W-Whatever she told you is a lie, Kagome!” he snapped.

The miko simply raised an eyebrow at this. “Really? That’s where you’re going to go with this?” she asked. Kagome wished she could be surprised. “And honestly, how do you expect me to believe you after you lied to me?” she added, anger lacing into her voice and expression now. It made a chill run down Inuyasha’s spine. It didn’t help that her reiki was now spiking and pushing against his youki.

“Kagome I-”

“She told me everything. How you lied to her just like you lied to me. You told her you hadn’t seen anyone after you broke up. You told her she was the only one that mattered to you, just like you told me.” Tears began to spring in her eyes as years of pent-up pain came out. Reiki crackled at her fingertips and sparked against his youki. Inuyasha paled, unable to say or do anything. “You put us both through so much, and for what? You just left! You didn’t even stay with her? After all you put me through?! You just left Kikyo behind after everything you did!”

Inuyasha flinched, his ears pressing flat against his head as he averted his eyes from her harsh glare. “You did everything you could to get back with her. You lied to me, you lied to her, and for what?! You abandon the both of us. You run away like a coward. Why? You have no one to blame but yourself for all of this.” she snapped. Inuyasha’s nose was burning from the intensity of her scent. All he could smell was a burning forest, even any traces of wolf that had been lingering on her were engulfed by her rage. He felt like he was suffocating.

“Kagome, it’s not like that..” he tried.

“Oh really? Then what is it, then?”

Inuyasha fumbled for a few moments, trying to find the words, willing to do anything to salvage this. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought I loved Kikyo.. I thought she was the one for me but.. I just felt so guilty and every time I looked at you it hurt. I was confused I….” He ran his claws through his hair and Kagome eyed him skeptically. He appeared to be genuine, but Kagome knew she couldn’t trust that.

Once he found his words, he began to defend himself once more. “Being away from everything helped me clear my mind. It really sorted things out for me. I know that what I did was wrong, and there’s nothing I can do to fix the pain I caused but I realized something..” He looked up at Kagome then, searching for something in her expression. She gave nothing away, simply quirking an eyebrow at him. He took in a deep breath. “I realized that.. I…” His cheeks burned pink. “I love you, Kagome!”

Her heart twisted in pain as several emotions slammed into her at once. As her scent became muddied, Inuyasha continued. “I never should’ve tried to get back with Kikyo. It was a mistake, one I’ll regret forever. But I know now that I only want you, Kagome. I love you.”

Kagome looked him over, searching his expression. She just… she couldn’t tell. Was he being genuine? Was he just trying to trick her again? She clenched her fists, her reiki crackling once more as anger consumed her. There was only one thing she knew for sure.. she wasn’t going to take this anymore. Inuyasha flinched as the miko in front of him became enraged. Kagome stood up abruptly then and his ears flattened against his head as she glared down at him.

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that sooner.” she growled, voice low and full of venom. Then, she was storming out of the café and making her way back home.

Inuyasha sat there, dumbstruck. He couldn’t have been more confused. Isn’t this what she wanted? Didn’t she want him to choose her and only her? Wasn’t that what she had screamed at him before she broke up with him? Where had he gone wrong? The hanyou sat there for several more moments before finally getting up and leaving the café, shuffling his way home as he tried to figure out where he went wrong.

..::YatM::..

Kagome arrived at the apartment, completely drained. Her anger had subsided for now, and all that remained were the muddied emotions she felt from his confession. Could she even call it that? Should she? She had no idea if he was lying to her or not, and she really didn’t want to find out, if she were being honest. This certainly wasn’t what she had expected, and it most definitely wasn’t what she needed. Though, all in all, she couldn’t really say she was surprised. If Inuyasha was telling the truth, it’d be just like him to blurt it out when he felt like he was losing her, and this was especially true if he was lying. Despite his intentions, whatever they may be, she felt manipulated and used.

She unlocked the door to the apartment with a huff and stepped inside, closing the door behind her and locking it once more. She took her time taking off her shoes, her mind racing with a million thoughts. She felt like she needed a nap. Out of habit, she announced that she was home, even though she knew the apartment would be empty for a short while; Kouga had taken Shippou out to the park shortly after she left.

Letting out another sigh, Kagome walked into the living area and plopped down on the couch. She let out a small whine as she curled up into herself, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. She was exhausted, and she didn’t want to deal with this, not at all. But, it seemed like she would have to. She groaned once more and shifted on the couch, falling onto her side. She laid there silently for several moments before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. She clicked the button on the side and frowned at what lit up on her screen. She had several texts and a missed called from Inuyasha and she was grateful she had muted her phone. Just as she was about to put it away, however, a new notification popped up. A text from Kouga. She tapped on the notification and then unlocked her phone, the device taking her directly to his message.

We’re on our way home. Everything alright?

She considered her response for a few moments. She could try to lie, but she had a feeling that he would see right through her, just as he always did. He knew something was up with her anyway, so what was the point in trying to hide it from him? She frowned slightly and tapped out a reply. Read it a couple times. Delete. Rewrite. Delete. Rewrite. Pause… Send.

Okay, and… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ll explain when you get here I guess.

It was really the best she could come up with, and she hoped her response didn’t worry him at all. She stared at the conversation for a few more moments before tapping out of her messages with a sigh. She then took her phone off of silent before locking it and letting it slip out of her hand, the device landing next to her face. Her mind continued to swirl with thoughts and she wished that they could just… stop. She was sick of all this drama. She just wanted to rest, just once, just for one day. Was that too much to ask? She scoffed as she rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Apparently it was.

She continued to lay there on the couch for a couple moments, just taking some time to herself, dissociating mostly. She eventually snapped back into herself and sat up. Running a hand through her hair, she let out a small huff and swung her legs over the side of the couch before getting up and making her way to the kitchen. She should get started on some food for them. She picked up her phone and slipped it into her pocket before making her way into the kitchen. She walked to the fridge and opened it, looking to see what they had. She chewed on her cheek as she considered her options, and eventually pulled out some chicken thighs.

Kagome got to work then, getting the prep work started for their meal. Cooking was surprisingly soothing to her; it allowed her mind to drift off and she forgot about her worries, for the most part at least. She was most of the way through her prep when the sound of the door unlocking snapped her out of her rhythm. The door opened, and she heard Shippou announce their arrival and she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “Welcome home!” she responded. She made her way to the fridge, putting the bowl of chicken thighs in the fridge to marinate. It was a couple seconds before she heard Shippou barreling through the room, running up to her and jumping onto the counter beside her. The kit then started to rapid fire his adventures of the day. It overwhelmed Kagome at first, but she soon relaxed and listened intently to the kit’s stories. As he talked, she began to wash their rice.

Kouga soon entered the room and watched the two of them with a warm smile on his face. He stood there for a few seconds before walking into the kitchen. Shippou was finishing up his tale, and once he was done, Kouga ruffled his hair. “Hey, how about you go watch TV?” he offered. Shippou nodded enthusiastically and took off. Kouga laughed a bit, always amazed at how eager Shippou was. Once the TV was turned on and the kitsune was entranced by it, Kouga turned his attention to Kagome. The miko had a rhythm going, washing the rice almost absentmindedly. He hated to interrupt her, but he needed to know how she was doing. “So, what happened?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

She took in a deep breath before slowly releasing it. “Well, while training with Kikyo this weekend we actually got to talking. I heard her side of everything and, surprise, Inuyasha lied to her too.” Kouga honestly couldn’t say he was surprised. He didn’t have very many interactions with the inu, but he’s heard nothing but bad things. There was also the fact that his only two interactions with the hanyou were less than pleasant. “He told her that he hadn’t seen anyone else after they broke up and all this bullshit. They never even officially got back together. That’s what’s really killing me with all of this. He put the both of us through so much, and he doesn’t even stay with her? He goes off to “find himself” or some bullshit like that and I…” She sucked in a deep breath, trying her best to not let her anger consume her again. She took a couple seconds to calm herself before draining the water from the rice, filling the bowl again, and washing it some more.

“I saw him today, to confront him on it. He tried to tell me that Kikyo was lying, told me he made a mistake in leaving me. Then he told me he loved me and I…” Her movements stilled as tears brimmed in her eyes. Kouga stopped a snarl from ripping out of his chest, clenching his fists at his side instead. “I just feel so.. manipulated. I told him off and then left and he’s been blowing up my phone since. I’m just… I’m so tired, Kouga. I don’t want to deal with this.” Kagome began trembling then, tears slipping free and running down her cheeks. She had done her best to keep it in, but she just couldn’t anymore.

She set the bowl of rice down as she barely caught a sob, choking it down as her shaking worsened. Kouga frowned and pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her protectively. Kagome turned into him more and wrapped her arms around him, doing her best to keep her hands off of his shirt so she wouldn’t get it wet. He brought a hand up to her hair, smoothing it down and occasionally running his claws through it. It brought her some sort of comfort, but she just felt too torn up. There was so much going on and she just couldn’t handle it anymore.

After a few moments and seeing that the miko was just steadily getting worse, he frowned. “How about you go lay down for a bit? I’ll take care of the food. What were you making?” he asked.

She sniffled, and it took her a few moments before she was able to answer. “Karaage.”

He nodded and continued to soothe her for a few more moments until she began to pull away. He gave her a reassuring smile, cupping her cheek with his hand for a couple seconds. She tried to give him a smile as well, but it just wasn’t working out, so she settled for leaning into his touch for a moment before fully pulling away.

“I’ll get you when it’s done.”

She nodded and then left the kitchen, shuffling into her room. She closed the door behind herself and made a beeline for her bed, collapsing onto the mattress and wrapping herself up in the blankets. Hopefully a nap would help soothe her, at the very least for now.

[balshumetsbaragouin]

Beloved: Chapter Two

Summary:

D27 learns some ghost tricks, bonds with a reluctant Vlad, and plays a prank or two.

Making Progress

Vlad sat silently looking through the clear Plexiglas window. He was getting a wealth of data at the moment, but nothing truly unexpected. In fact, there was barely anything remarkable about it, the data looking almost completely human. He had been sure his experiment would have been doing better by now. After it started producing energy, when its core turned on, he expected it to be able to transform. However, it seemed that it either couldn't sustain the constant level of energy necessary to maintain a spectral form, or its core was only on intermittently. In either case, it meant the creature was behind on Vlad's time table, and that was unacceptable. He pushed away from the data console and walked directly into its line of sight. Maybe he had been premature in his assessment of its potential?

This was so hard, but he had to try. He had been at it for the last two hours, but nothing seemed to let him do what Daddy wanted. Daddy had asked him to…transform. To transform into a spectral something or other. D27 couldn't remember the exact phrase, but basically his Daddy wanted him to turn into a ghost. He panted as his second attempt in so many minutes failed. He felt something inside him ache as he pulled at the cold part inside of him his Daddy had said was his ghost half. Nothing worked, but he had to keep trying.

Vlad frowned over at the data on the screen. It seemed the clone's core wasn't developed enough to hold a spectral form. From what he was seeing, it was performing the right action, but its core wouldn't turn on all the way. At least not long enough to initiate a transformation. The older halfa scowled. There was nothing to compare this data too, so he didn't know whether or not this was normal development, slow development, or even if the brat just wasn't trying hard enough. Vlad started as the new ream of data flew into the computer. The clone's core was showing signs of extreme fatigue. I'd better tell that thing to stop before it hurts itself. Vlad concluded while heading to the lower part of the observation room he'd constructed.

The ache was growing stronger now, and the pain left him panting and shaking. Worse though, was the very bitter taste of failure. Daddy would be so upset with him for not transforming like he was told. D27 placed his hands on his knees and leaned over to catch his breath. Before he could stop himself from gasping, he heard the door to the room open. He looked over to find his Daddy walking towards him, a frown planted firmly on his face. I hope I'm not in trouble.

"Alright D27, that's enough." Vlad strode over to the winded clone. It was barely on the upper side of three at the moment, though it certainly didn't act it. Admittedly, he'd handed it a dictionary a few hours ago to keep it out of his hair while he set up the training room systems, and to give it practice reading while, hopefully, curing some of its verbal mishaps. But even assuming it was a fast study, that didn't account for some of the changes in behavior and ability. He was beginning to have particular thoughts about the clone strengthened. However, at the moment, he just needed the little creature to desist before it hurt itself.

"But Daddy, I didn't transform yet." He was confused. Daddy had been very clear when he left to go into the upstairs room. He had to turn into a ghost, but he hadn't done that yet. So why was he asking him to stop?

"Yes I'm well aware, but it seems your core isn't as developed as I supposed. You aren't going to be able to transform for a while yet, perhaps another day or two." Vlad paused and turned over the thought in his mind for a moment. Another day would make the clone around six years of age.

"Oh." D27 was very sad about that. He had wanted to turn into a ghost for more than one reason. Yes, he wanted to make Daddy happy, but being a ghost looked so very cool. He wanted to have powers and everything too.

Vlad watched with muted interest as the clone's face dropped into a frown. It was looking like it was going to cry again. He had to admit, while it cried plenty, it put up with a lot of non-attentiveness from him, and that was likely directly correlated to its crying. The only question was how to cheer it up before it started blubbering again. It was because he hated how much noise its crying made, not because he hated seeing it upset. He didn't care if it was upset; only if it was annoying. Ah. Vlad concluded after brief contemplation. This ought to help. "How about I demonstrate some ghost powers for you? Last time I only explained how to transform. In fact, even if you can't transform, you might be able to use some of these powers, as they are available even in human form." Vlad noted with triumph the way the clone's face lit back up.

Just as he was feeling upset enough to ask for something to draw with, Daddy said he would do the best thing ever. Having powers was exciting, and even if he couldn't transform yet, he was glad his Daddy was willing to teach him how to do something else. "Yes, I'd like that a lot." D27 smiled, sat back, and waited to see how more ghost powers worked.

Vlad look down at the clone's completely attentive face. It was wide eyed and bright, eager and ready to learn anything. A vast improvement of Daniel's typical temperament when interacting with me. "Now D27, the first power I'm going to show you is invisibility. Do you remember what invisible means?"

"Yes Daddy. That which cannot be seen. Out of sight; not apparent." D27 answered immediately. He had taken to reading the dictionary after Daddy taught him the basics of reading a few hours ago. Even after his Daddy had tried to get his attention on something Daddy said was "more suitable entertainment for a child your age." Whatever that meant, it ended up with him with a much smaller and more boring book in his hands.But at least it had pretty pictures. D27 concluded. In any case, it had certainly made it easier for him to talk to Daddy.

"Yes very good." Vlad responded to the dictionary perfect answer. "Among ghosts' many powers is the ability to become invisible to the naked eye. They do this by refracting visible light around their being. Creating a force field of energy that bends the light away from their person, and so removes the ability of the light to reflect off of their person and into the eye of the would be observer. Naturally, the force field of energy they use to do this is invisible to the human eye as well, resulting in complete invisibility." A day ago Vlad wouldn't have bothered with such an expansive and detailed explanation, but at the moment, he was testing a theory. Vlad raised an eyebrow waiting for the clone to paraphrase the concepts like he had instructed him to do earlier with others.

"Yes, the energy is invisible and bends the light, and therefore ghosts themselves are invisible." D27 had taken to repeating the concepts he learned back to his Daddy. That way if he didn't understand something, he'd get the confusion solved quickly, now instead of later. Though, Daddy has been laughing less, so maybe it's not so good.

"Correct D27. So now that you understand the mechanics of the process, I'm going to show you how to physically perform the trick." Vlad stepped forward and placed his hands, palms facing it, in front of the clone. "Now I'm going to start with something simple, just my hands. I want you to just watch me do it first, and then I'll show you what it feels like. Finally, I want you to give it a try unaided, are we clear?" Vlad paused and looked the little clone in the eye, to make sure it was still paying attention.

"Yes Daddy, I understand." He blinked as his father dropped down to his eye level and turned his hands invisible. It was really cool. One second they were there, and the next, they were completely see-through.

Vlad held his hands invisible for a few seconds before making them visible again. "Alright. Now place your hands against mine, and I'll show you what it feels like." He waited for the clone to comply, pondering over another interesting aspect about the creature. It could learn to use its powers by simply observing or, at other times, being in contact with another being using those same powers. That was how he taught it to transform, all he had to do was hold it while he transformed, and presto the little bugger knew how to do it too. It was like a sponge for some matters. The clone placed its starkly smaller hands against his own and tapped its feet in excitement. Vlad suppressed the urge to chuckle at its excited antics. He quickly turned his hands invisible and shifted the invisibility onto the clone's hands as well.

The cool tingle of ghost powers swept over his hands. Right after the feeling passed, his hands disappeared from sight. They were invisible all the way up to his wrists. D27 stared in wonder at the invisible section of his own arms before they suddenly reappeared when Daddy moved his hands back.

"Now, I want you to give invisibility a try. Try to remember what turning the power on and off felt like, and replicate that." Vlad paused before saying, "You do know what replicate means right?" Sometimes he forgot the clone was only two days old literally, and three and a half years in human terms from the accelerated growth.

"Yes Daddy. To fold; bend back. Or in this case, the act of repeating, duplicating, copying, or reproducing." D27 knit his eyebrows in concentration as he tried to repeat the feeling from the opposite direction. He had learned he had to push the feeling of his ghost powers from inside, near his chest, to where he wanted to go, and not the other way around like he felt Daddy do it. He had to…mirror, that was the word, and the actions he had felt and not exactly copy them. D27 fumbled around for the feeling he remembered, reaching for the cool pool in his chest and pushing it outward. He brought the tingling feeling to his finger tips, and then worked it back towards his wrist, just like Daddy had showed him.

Vlad watched the clone exercise an admirable level of spectral energy control. It had pulled a small amount of spectral energy to the end of its hands before trying to turn them invisible. He had expected the first attempt to be sloppy, haphazard, and most of all quick. The clone's first attempt was none of these things, and it solidified another piece of the puzzle surrounding the clone's abilities.

The cold feeling got stronger until he felt it suddenly stop all together. D27 had closed his eyes to concentrate, but now that the feeling of his ghost powers had abruptly ended, he curiously opened his eyes to peer down at his hands. He could see right through them! If he couldn't feel his own hands at the ends of his wrist, he'd be sure they were gone, or never there to begin with. In the few seconds it took to gap at his own invisible hands, D27 lost concentration, and the whole effect failed.

"Very good! You got it on the first try." Vlad quickly congratulated. "I knew you could do it. Why don't you practice holding it a little longer before we move onto something else?" He was secretly much more impressed than he let on. Even if the power of invisibility was basic, it had used it in a completely controlled manner, something that took him a few months to do. Perhaps being "born" with these powers makes using them more natural? Vlad considered while he watched the clone make a second attempt at controlling its invisibility powers.

D27 beamed at the encouragement and praise. He closed his eyes to focus once more and started the whole process over again, though this time it went a little faster. He felt the tingles work up from his fingers tips, but it didn't stop until it reached his elbows this time. When he opened his eyes, it looked like he had no lower arms; they were entirely invisible. D27 held it for a few seconds longer than the first time, before his chest started to hurt again, and his arms popped back into existence when the pain grew sharper. He rubbed the sore achy spot in his middle before looking back up at Daddy. "Why does it hurt?"

Vlad sighed before answering, "It's not supposed to, but your ghost core is probably tired from earlier when you were trying to transform. When you don't have the energy you use your ghost powers, it'll strain your core to make more, and that can be anywhere to uncomfortable to painful, depending on the level of stress you are putting on it." He frowned before continuing, "It doesn't hurt a lot does it?"

D27 shook his head. "Not anymore, but before it um…when I was trying to transform into… ghost." He answered distracted, wiggling his now visible fingers, before turning them invisible again. This is fun though. No wonder Ghost Skulker is always sneaking up on me while invisible.

"We should probably stop for the day; I don't want you over-stressing your ghost core." Or trying to melt on me either. Vlad added mentally. The clone had tried to melt just hours before in the early morning around 3am, and it seemed the worst melting mishaps were always well before his brain wanted to function at full capacity.

"What? No! We just got started." He whined. "Please please please! Just a little bit more, oh pl-"

"D27, do not whine. I hate that sound, and no, I don't want you hurting yourself." Vlad huffed and narrowed his eyes at the clone. Once again, so glad for that inserted acceleration button.

He didn't want to disobey his Daddy, but he really wanted to learn more about ghost powers. Maybe if I ask enough times, he'll say yes. "But Daddy…" He started in the whiniest voice he could muster, "I really really want to learn more ghost powers. Can't you super pretty please-"

"Stop it…"

"With a big heaping pile of sugar and-"

"D27 desist this instant."

"Hug and kisses and-"

"Enough!" Vlad screamed at the clone a few feet away. He only felt more frustrated when it stared up at him with big shining eyes, looking like it was about to burst into tears. Deep calming breaths…deep calming breaths. Do not let this thing get under your skin. He took one more shuttering breath before saying, "Listen D27, Daddy is sorry he yelled at you, but that infernal…" Vlad stopped when he saw the big sad looking tears rolling down the clone's cheeks. Ok, new rule, yelling at the clone only makes it upset. It is not like most things, where yelling makes them more effective. "Listen, I'll teach you onemore power today, and then that's it. Then you are going to stop for today alright?" Not that the thing really had a choice in the matter, but if he gave it the appearance of a choice, maybe it would behave.

D27 sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Rully?" He asked in a shaky stress filled voice.

"Yes really. Now," Vlad bent over and began wiping the remaining tears from its face, "how about I teach you how to use intangibility?"

He perked up completely at the offer. The only thing that would be better would be transforming into a ghost like Daddy. "Oh yes! Please!" D27 smiled widely before remembering he was supposed to be paying attention. With sudden seriousness and extreme effort, he schooled his face into the picture of attentiveness.

This time Vlad couldn't suppress a laugh at the clone's behavior. He held out a hand when its face melded into a small frown. "Oh no D27, I'm not laughing at you. I promise. Now the technicalities for how intangibility is possible are rather…" Involved? Difficult? Way over your little head? "Hard to grasp. So I'll skip it for the moment."

He had to stop himself from begging to hear it anyway. Even if he didn't understand something right away, he remembered everything, so he might later. But he wanted to learn how to use his ghost powers, and if he interrupted Daddy, he might not get a chance today, so it would have to wait. D27 realized his Daddy was waiting for him to show he was listening, so he nodded.

"So I'll demonstrate this power just like I did invisibility, but in this case, I'm going to need something solid for you to practice on, so follow me." Vlad turned on his heel and walked towards one of the training room's tables nearby. He stood to one side of it and waited for the clone to settle in next to him. When he was sure it was paying attention, he pressed his hand against the table top. "Now the power of intangibility lets ghosts move through solid objects. Do you remember the definition of intangible?" This time he was asking to test out a specific theory on the clone's memory and learning speed.

"Yes Daddy, that which cannot be touched, incorporeal, impalpable." He answered as if reading out off of a book page.

Just as I thought, its learning speed is keeping pace with his accelerated physical growth. Vlad turned back to the table and phased his hand through the table surface. He slowly brought it back up, making sure the clone was focusing on how it looked. Not that I'd have to worry about that with how focused it's looking at the moment. He placed his now solid hand back on the top of the table. "Now D27, I want you to put your hand over mine, and I'm going to phase both of our hands through the table, so you can feel how it works." Vlad waited for the clone to follow the simple instructions, and spared a glance at his watch. Skulker was going to be here soon. He hadn't thought testing the clone's skills would take this long, so unfortunately, this training session was going to have to be cut short. Still, he needed to confirm a few things with the hunter before he could move forward with his newest plan. It had taken enough effort to get the Skeleton Key, so he had no intention of delaying for any reason except for a complete lack of information.

He had his hand over his Daddy's for a whole minute before it looked like he noticed. He was, what was the word…distracted?, by something else, though he couldn't guess what. Suddenly, his Daddy was focusing on him again, and he forgot all about Daddy not paying attention. Daddy said something about watching, so he looked down at his now, invisible-no it was still there, just kinda sparkly- hand. It went all the way through the table and then back up, a new tingly feeling coming from his hand as it did so.

"Alright, now I want you to try. Just do what I did, and you should be fine." Admittedly, Vlad wasn't fully engaged at the moment. He was busy calculating the rate of its growth against the increase in its vocabulary, reasoning skills, and other signs of intelligence. As far as he could tell, the clone's mental growth was keeping pace with or easily out pacing its physical growth. Some of it was expected, as its brain grew, so did its mental abilities, but the sponge like way its memory worked and its ability to synthesize new information was completely unusual. Perhaps it responds to mental environmental stimuli more strongly than physical ones? If that's the case, the more it's exposed to new information, the faster it will learn.The scientist in him had been so deeply involved, he hadn't noticed the clone struggling and failing to phase its hand through the table.

He'd been trying to get his hand through the lab table for the last several seconds, but nothing he tried seemed to work. He was about to ask for more help, when his Daddy spoke up.

"Having trouble are you? Ok, how about this. Instead of just pouring energy into your hand, try to concentrate on being untouchable. Objects can pass right through you. Try thinking about that when you use your ghost powers." Vlad guided before turning his thoughts back to another interesting gorgon's knot about the clone.

Untouchable. I'm not here, I'm not solid, um, nothing can touch me. He thought while focusing his spectral energy into the palm of his hand. His hand shimmered and started to slip through the table. Unfortunately, he got so excited that he lost concentration mid-way through, and his hand solidified inside the table. "Ah! No, don't!" D27 cried trying to tug his stuck hand from inside the table.

The clone's screaming brought him out of his reverie with a start. "Hm? Oh! Stop that, you're going to hurt yourself." Vlad reached over and grabbed the creature by the wrist. "If you get stuck inside something, just tugging won't get it out; you have to use intangibility again." He explained while using his own powers to extricate the clone's hand from the table. Though that's sometimes easier said than done. Vlad thought as memories of trying to get his own errant limbs from inside walls or furniture in the hospital came to mind.

"Well, well Plasmius. It has had ghost power all of eighteen hours, and it's already getting stuck in things. Maybe you should do a better job training the pup?" Skulker called from his place near the entrance to the training room. He'd watched as his employer barely taught the ghostling how to use its intangibility powers, mind apparently elsewhere.

"Oh Skulker, good," Vlad started while allowing the clone's now freed hand to solidify without the influence of his powers, "just the person I needed to talk to. D27, why don't you go upstairs to viewing area for the room and wait for me? I'll just be a second." He finished with a 'shooing' motion towards the exit of the room. One had to walk out the room to get to the stairs leading to the viewing portion of the training room with the data gathering computers. He didn't worry about the clone messing with the computer systems up there, they were all voice activated, and its voice wouldn't work the computers.

D27 frowned at being so quickly pushed away. He'd thought for sure, his Daddy would at least check to see he knew how to use the last power he'd tried to show him, but it looked like he didn't even care. "But-" He started before stopping short when he realized his Daddy wasn't even looking in his direction any more. It was pointless. He heaved a large sigh and started towards the door to the training room. He passed the stairs to the viewing room barely stopping to glance up them before deciding to walk around instead. He hadn't been very many place outside of the place where he slept or Daddy's, what was?-study, and he wanted to look around some more. He passed several doors. He quickly tried looking into them and found those rooms either full of boring looking furniture, or just plain empty. After the random searching didn't provide any fun, D27 decided to head back to his Daddy's study. He had some stuff to draw with in there. Something was pulling at his mind's eye to draw anyway. Last night, he'd seen the sun go down for the first time. It was so cool to look at, they sky had been red and orange and all kinds of other pretty colors. Naturally, he had rushed to find his sketching tools and made a rough picture of what the sky had looked like the night before.

At the moment he was sitting on the floor of his Daddy's study redrawing the efforts from last night. Now that he could sit still and think about it, D27 could remember all of the details, and the picture he'd quickly scribbled before didn't come close to how it looked in his head. So, there was no choice but to redo the entire thing, from memory this time, and without the distraction of watching it actually happening and the coolness of it all. I wonder how long it'll be before Daddy notices I'm not in the upstairs room. He thought with a small amount of anger. If the pattern was like he was used to, it would be hours. It doesn't matter though; I have a lots of sketch makers and hours before bed time. D27pondered before returning to his picture to pass the time.

He met his Daddy a little before the dining room opening. He'd come racing down the stairs after one of the maids had told him dinner was ready. She'd apparently checked every room before finding him in the study, somewhere she wasn't supposed to go without permission. I wonder why? D27 thought as he bounded down the stairs full of energy. If it was anything like yesterday, it meant it was the only time he'd have his Daddy's full attention. No Ghost Skulker to hold his attention, no big business stuff to take care of, just him and Daddy for an hour or so before bed. Even though dinner was later than it was the day before, and it felt like his tummy was going to start growling like one of those big cats on the TV, it would be worth the wait to have his Daddy all to himself.

"Ah D27, good. I thought I might have to send someone for you." Vlad said as he met up with the clone a little before the dining room entrance. He'd left the thing several hours back, wanting to finalize some plans for the Ghost Zone with Skulker before it got any later. Between his work with the ghost hunter and his own distracted perusal of the data from the clone over the last 24 hours, diner was starting well over an hour and a half late. Still, he was done for the most part for the moment, only waiting on a call from his secretary to confirm the merger/hostile take-over was under way. Vlad settled into his place at the head of the table in front of a delicious looking medium rare rib eye steak, thick and creamy mashed potatoes, and a pile of peas.

The food in front of him didn't look all the good, and his chest still hurt from earlier that day. I guess Daddy was right about using too much power. D27 thought as he began to distractedly push food around his plate. He swallowed down some peas, before starting in on what he'd wanted to talk about all day since he'd seen the sun go down the day before. "So Daddy-" His sentence was interrupted by a loud ringing sound.

Vlad picked up his cell phone before it got to the third ring. He had been expecting a call from the Dalvco branch office for the last hour. And of course they call right when I sit down for dinner. Vlad noted with a roll of his eyes. "Yes, I'm here Cynthia. Do you have the last of the merger documents prepared?"

He had been about to talk about his day after he'd left Daddy in the lab with Skulker, when the pocket phone rang. As usual, Daddy was ignoring him for something or someone he thought was more important. He tried not to get discouraged, but sometimes he'd like it if he was the center of attention. "Daddy?"

"Shush. I'm busy right now. What? No Cynthia I'm not talking to you. So you're faxing over the documents now? Alright I'll get to them immediately, no no; I hadn't started yet, so it's fine." Vlad stood up smoothly from the head of the dining room table and began striding for the exit. "Oh," he held his hand over the phone, "D27, I have something I need to take care of really fast. You go on and start without me, I'll be right back." Vlad said over his shoulder already half-way up the stairs.

D27 pouted and began pushing his food half-heartedly around his plate again. And Daddy promised to eat dinner with me too. There just had to be some way to get his attention. Five minutes passed with him turning his mashed potatoes into a miniature volcano, complete with gravy lava and peas for boulders. So boring. Maybe I can practice with my ghost powers. He decided before trying out invisibility again. D27 quickly started turning his food and silverware invisible, but when that also proved dull, he started in on the glasses on the table. Seeing water "float" in the air was cool for a little while longer, but all of it eventually lost appeal, so he moved onto intangibility. Now, his hands turned intangible and everything just slipped through them. No fun. D27 concluded before getting up from his seat at the table. He walked around the room to Daddy's position at the table, wanting to "borrow" some nice looking lettuce pieces from his salad to sculpt with. He reached over for the fork, only to accidentally use his intangibility powers.

The fork went sailing through his fingers, and still having some spectral energy left, went part-way through the tablecloth as well. It stuck out at an odd thirty-five degree angle from the dining room table itself, partially imbedded when the intangibility wore off.

Uh oh! D27 started trying to tug the fork out of its unnatural upright position. To no avail; it was stuck fast. He began to panic, the last thing he wanted was to get in trouble with his Daddy, and having the silverware coming out of the table would do it! When more pulling didn't seem to be getting him anywhere, the quickly growing child calmed down some and started thinking of his Daddy's words when his hand had gotten stuck earlier. Well if ghost powers got it in there, maybe it can get it out. He concentrated on the cool feeling inside his chest and pushed it out to his finger tips. Next he thought of being untouchable, like his Daddy had told him to. He watched as he fingers first drained of color, then turned invisible, and finally stopped feeling anything all together. D27 slowly reached out for the table in front of him, and was rewarded with his fingers passing cleanly through the solid wood.

He smiled at the soft tingle going through his fingers and reached for the fork stuck inside the table. The fork quickly turned intangible as well, slipping from inside the table and back out into D27's hand. Unfortunately, he was pulling so hard though, that he nearly fell over onto his rear. Fork now in hand, the young child almost wandered back to his place at the table when he got an idea. Daddy left me all alone again. I think I'll make it up to him for leaving me… He walked back over to the opposite side of the table; fork still in hand, before setting it back in its place by the rest of the silverware. D27 stole a quick glance towards the entrance to the dining room before enacting his hastily thought out plan. It barely took any concentration this time to call forth his intangibility powers, so he was able to do so with his eyes open. He reached a shimmering incorporeal hand towards the large diner plate in front of him determination clear on his face. With only a second hesitation, he touched a single finger to the edge of the plate.

At first, nothing happened, the plate remained solid. After a moment though, the edge closest to his finger began to lose its creamy color, changing into the distinctly opaque shade of something cast with spectral energy. The taint spread from the original edge, downward, to the base of the ceramic piece. Slowly, the opaqueness spread all around the base, and back up the other side, meeting with the rest of it that had skittered across the upward facing part of the surface.

D27 wrapped his little hand around the lip of the lip and carefully lowered it through the table cloth and into the table. He quickly stopped using his ghost powers when the plate had reached the wanted depth.

It was imbedded into the table cloth and table, but it still looked like it was sitting on top of it, only the raised bottom of the expensive ceramic plate stuck inside the dining room furniture.

He smiled at how well his trick had succeeded, before performing a matching set of tricks on the glass and the salt and pepper shakers. Suddenly, he heard someone coming back towards the dining room. With hurried footsteps, he pushed away from his Daddy's side of the table and raced back towards his own, settling into the seat just as he heard someone end a conversation.

"Alright, thank you Cynthia. I'll see you back in the office in a few days, no; no I'll be alright just some family matters to take care of. I'll call you back later wanting an update on the merger." Vlad clicked the cell phone shut and stuffed it back into his pants pocket. A side-long glance across the room was met with a very quiet clone, still sitting at the table. Other than some playful food sculpting, it looked like his plate hadn't been touched. "D27, did I not tell you to start without me. I know you must be hungry." You are practically eating enough for two grown men at the moment. God knows where you put it all.

He gave Daddy his brightest smile. "I didn't want to start without you." If he hadn't smiled, he'd be laughing thinking about the little…what was-joke that he was about to play on his Daddy. He was sure Daddy wouldn't think it was funny, but he sure did.

Vlad gave the clone a small smile back before settling back into his place at the head of the table. "That's very nice of you, but you didn't have to do that. I've been gone for nearly 15 minutes, and I'm sure you're starving." He picked up his fork and started in on his own meal.

"Maybe, but I wanted to talk to you." D27 kicked his feet under the table, excited for whenever Daddy figured out his trick. But I can't give it away by looking too wiggly! He thought before plunging into what he had wanted to say earlier. "I really like the croyans and pencils you got for me"

"Crayons." Vlad corrected gently.

"Yeah those thingies. I like them. I'm making a really pretty-um sketch of the sky when the sun went to sleep."

"Sunset."

"Yeah that! I'm not done with it yet, but I was thinking-"

"Yes that's very nice D27." Vlad said with a dismissive wave, spooning up some mashed potatoes. "Have you been practicing your ghost powers? I noticed you weren't in the viewing room like I told you to be earlier, so I assume you went somewhere to continue practicing with them."

He frowned at being interrupted, and at a time he shouldn't have to be. But suddenly, the trick with his ghost powers came back to mind, and he felt a slow mischief filled smile work across his lips. "Oh yes Daddy, I have been. In fact, I think I'm getting better." He watched with growing excitement as his Daddy reached for the water filled glass nearest to him.

"That's wonderful." Vlad praised absently, half way to his glass of water next to his diner plate. He began lifting it up…only to find it wouldn't budge! Another tug had the exact same result, only this time the table cloth moved slowly with it. "What in the…?" He quickly turned the glass intangible to extricate it from the table. "Well that's odd, I don't recall…" Well it's not like that's the first time something's ended up stuck in walls or furniture.

"Daddy, could you pass the pepper?" He was barely holding back giggles at this point. It was really too easy.

"The pepper?" Vlad questioned confused. Kids weren't known for having the most varied palettes and had even less tolerance for spice.

"Please? I just want to know what it tastes like…" He trailed off watching the hand snaked out and grabbed the pepper.

Just like the glass of water, the pepper was stuck fast. A few experimental tugs found it not just stuck in the table cloth, but through to the table as well. Vlad's head whipped around from the mysteriously steadfast pepper shaker to the giggling clone a few feet from him. He wasn't sure what surprised him more, the clone's level of control of powers it just learned hours before, or his lack of irritation at the trick it had just made him the unwitting victim of. "I see, so I suppose this," he said while gesturing to the rest of his side of the table, now sure it was also equally ensnared, "is your doing?"

D27 gripped his aching tummy, another fit of giggles escaping out of his mouth. It'd had taken a lot to hold them all back before. "Yup!" He stifled another set of giggles and pushed away from the table. "And for my final trick," he reached for the table cloth and focused. He felt the tingle of cool spectral energy travel from his core to his hands and into the cloth. With on hard yank, he pulled the now untouchable cloth off of the wooden piece revealing his earlier handiwork. "Tada!" He said with a wave of the cloth through the air, partially wrapped around his middle, somehow having gotten tangled during the removal process.

Vlad glanced down at the table noting with the growing warmth of approval the partially embedded salt and pepper shakers and his dinner plate. "Very good, very good indeed. I see you have improved. I suppose I do deserve a little of this for leaving you alone-"

"And igsnoring me for Ghost Skulker earlier."

"Ignoring, and yes for that too I suppose." Vlad said while slipping from his seat and walking towards the clone's side of the room. He watched as it sleepily rubbed at its eyes. The older hybrid leaned over and picked up the still giggling and wriggling clone, removing the wrapped table cloth with a bit of intangibility. "Come on its time for bed, it's already almost 8:30 since we started dinner so late." He felt the clone wrap his thin little arms around his neck and settle against his body. Vlad frowned at the still nearly full plate of food on its side of the table. "Did you eat anything?" He wondered into its dark locks, the clone's head currently trying to snuggle deeper under his chin.

"Nuh, I had some cow and the green round thingies." D27 answered in a slur, nearly asleep.

Vlad's frown deepened. The clone usually ate a lot more than that. In fact, whenever it decided it wasn't hungry, a few minutes to an hour later, it was trying to melt. The lack of eating wasn't really the best of signs; however, it might have just been emotionally based. I hope. He didn't feel like dealing with another melting emergency at the moment. The elder halfa started down the steps to his secret lab. The clone still slept in there, and probably would until the fastest part of his growing stage was finished. That meant another day or so in the lab; however, he already had a bedroom upstairs ready for it to move into after he was sure it was more stable. Vlad set the already nodding off clone onto its bed in the lab, moving away from the bedside almost immediately.

"Wait…" D27 reached blindly out towards where he'd last felt his Daddy. He didn't want to sleep alone in the, what did Daddy call it? The laboratory or something like that. Such a big word for the place he slept. It was cold and metally though, the monsters could be back from last night, and so he didn't want his Daddy to leave him just yet. "Can't stay here…with 'till sleep?" He knew that didn't make much sense, but he was so tired from using his powers all day that he couldn't manage much better.

Vlad eyed the comfy arm chair that was quickly becoming a favorite of his next to the work console in this part of the lab. His secretary wasn't going to be expecting a call until early tomorrow morning; Skulker was off collecting the last of the information on the Ancients he'd asked for, and he really had nothing to do at the moment. And it asked so nicely too. Vlad thought with a small mental sigh before heading over to scoot the armchair closer.

He heard the soft scuffing of movement for a few seconds before it stopped and he could feel someone close by. D27 opened a bleary sleep weighted eye and turned his head towards the noise. His Daddy was only a few feet away, in the big comfy chair and a big grown up book, the kind with the big words and small letters. He smiled before closing his barely opened eye and settling in for a good long sleep.

Vlad paused in reading through his book to glance down at the now sleeping clone. It looked to fragile, even more so than usual, when it slept, and with the threat of a melt-down looming, he didn't want to leave its side. He sighed and settled in for another few hours of sleep in the semi-upright position of the arm chair.