#also drawing dragons sitting in chairs is a little bit weird

[cinnamon-flame]

Spill the tea!

It feels so good to finally draw the girls again after such a long break, they're gossiping over rainwing tea.

[goodlucktai]

What about some hurt/comfort for Natsume & Natori? (Not slash tho)

Natori doesn't seem like he has anyone in his life to take care of him except his shikigami :(

x

"You need to sleep," Hiiragi says. Her tone is unchanging, an unhurried monotone, but somehow it manages to carry a thread of concern.

Shuuichi waves her off, sifting through papers. "In a minute. I just have to finish this."

A group of exorcists in over their heads sent these reports earlier today. Yesterday, now, Shuuichi amends inwardly with a bleary glance at the clock in the kitchen, which reads an inappropriately cheerful 6:07 AM. And they'll arrive to collect them, along with Shuuichi's notes, in just a few hours.

"They are presumptuous," Hiiragi says, "to assume you had this time to spare them, and on such short notice. You're busy."

"Not with anything that matters," Shuuichi laughs. It comes out not sounding like a laugh at all. Hiiragi tips her head incrementally to the side, no doubt staring at him behind her mask.

"Your work does matter."

"This work does," Shuuichi says, laying a hand on the papers scattered across the desk. "The other stuff-- "

"The 'stuff' that pays your bills," Hiiragi says. "The 'stuff' that keeps you fed, and gives you reason to leave your house and interact with people who won't make you think about ghosts."

It's Shuuichi's turn to stare. "I didn't realize you were such a firm believer in my acting career."

"I don't understand it," she says frankly. "But you enjoy it. It may not be.... 'vanquishing evil,'" she goes on, quoting the report the exorcists sent as if it's something slimy she's peeling off her shoe, "but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter."

It might be the lack of sleep talking, but Shuuichi feels strangely touched. He has to swallow before he can reply, something that happens rarely, if at all.

"I'll make sure to sign an autograph for you," he teases, grinning. "But only after I've finished this."

"Hm," Hiiragi says. She doesn't call him an idiot, at least. A few minutes after that she leaves from the living room window, ostensibly to patrol the neighborhood.

Shuuichi will just finish his notes, and then set an alarm for-- he checks the clock again, and winces-- and hour and a half. He'll get that much sleep, at least. He's worked with less.

At some point, the front door opens. That's odd. Only a few people have a key to his apartment, and none of them who do live anywhere near here. His shiki certainly don't use the door.

A familiar voice says, "Hi, Natori-san."

Shuuichi lifts his head, so fast his vision swims. There's Natsume, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the sitting room, hands full with a cardboard drink tray and a brown paper bag bearing the distinctive golden arches. He looks decidedly windblown, as if he flew the whole way here. He probably did.

His brow is wrinkled, mouth tucked into a frown. It's the way Shuuichi imagines Hiiragi's face looks behind her mask at least ninety-percent of the time.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Shuuichi says, pushing himself upright. He has to lean on the desk to get there. Natsume clocks it with a flick of his eyes but doesn't comment. "Don't you have school today?" Shuuichi goes on, desperately trying to remember what day it is. Friday, right?

"No school," Natsume says, putting the drinks and the bag on the counter. "Teacher's institute."

"Are you in trouble?" Shuuichi asks carefully.

"I have to be in trouble to come visit you?"

Natsume wanders into the sitting room and sets his messenger bag and his ugly cat down on the sofa. He actually points a stern finger at the cat in clear warning that it needs to behave itself, as if it isn't actually a giant monster capable of leveling buildings should it so choose. Something about that manages to be hilarious, where it isn't slightly horrifying.

Shuuichi smiles a bit. This weird kid means the world to him.

"Did you bring me breakfast?" he asks lightly. "I hope that's coffee."

Natsume is so receptive to any manner of kindness, even after the life he's lived, that he smiles back like a knee-jerk reaction. It still feels like an accomplishment when he does.

"Tea," he corrects. "And some egg sandwiches. The sausage ones are for sensei. Can you eat with me, or-- if you're too busy-- "

"I can take a break," Shuuichi says, and slings his arm around Natsume's shoulders, steering him back into the kitchen. "Let's talk about what dragged you all the way out here in the early hours of the morning, shall we? Does your mother know where you are?"

"Of course she does," Natsume insists. "She even sent some leftovers with me. I put them in the fridge already."

Shuuichi is in a vulnerable state, and that just about undoes him. He clears his throat and takes a big, scalding gulp of tea instead of saying or doing anything embarrassing. "Tell her I said thank you," he manages.

"Or you could just call her," Natsume points out dryly.

"Or I could just call her," Shuuichi agrees.

In his defense, Shuuichi truly didn’t stand a chance. The combination of heavy food and a hot drink… the pale fingers of dawn creeping through the shades at the kitchen window… the steady back-and-forth of comfortable, friendly conversation… no one asking anything of him, expecting anything from him, except his company…

He dozes off in his chair at the counter, face buried in his folded arms. He feels someone draw a blanket around his shoulders, their cold fingers lingering protectively near his nape, and Hiiragi’s voice says, “Thank you. He’s very stupid.”

“No he isn’t,” Natsume replies loyally. “Well, not all the time.”

It’s ridiculous how well Shuuichi sleeps after that.

He wakes up a solid ten hours later, the blanket slipping to the floor. The TV is on in the next room. Hiiragi is perched on the counter beside him. Her mask somehow manages to appear both smug and judgemental without actually changing at all.

“Sleep well?” she asks with no inflection.

“What-- time is it?” Shuuichi asks blearily, looking around for the clock.

“A little after four,” Hiiragi says. “Those exorcists have come and gone.”

“What?”

“They didn’t come inside. Natsume dealt with them at the door.”

“Sorry, Natori-san,” Natsume pipes up in the doorway. He shuffles a bit, self-conscious until Hiiragi seems to catch his eye. Then he lifts his chin a little and says, “You seemed tired, so I handled it. Hiiragi and Sasago both said it was okay.”

Betrayal, Shuuichi thinks, glaring hard at Hiiragi. She gazes serenely back, entirely unmoved. He’s firing her.

“Natsume, I appreciate it,” because there’s very little in this life that Natsume could do that Shuuichi wouldn’t back him up on, “but don’t talk to strangers. Even though they’re exorcists, that doesn’t automatically make them trustworthy.”

“I don’t trust most exorcists,” Natsume says plainly. “You’re one of, like, two exceptions.”

And there’s a lot to unpack there, but for some reason the first thing Shuuichi thinks of to ask is, “One of two? Who’s the other one?”

After a beat, in which Natsume looks as though he doesn’t want to answer, he admits, “Hakozaki-san.”

“Hak-- the recluse with the dragon shiki? The owner of that mansion we watched burn?” Shuuichi laughs, unable to help himself. It unwinds tension in his body he hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Natsume, you never even met him!”

“I still liked him!” Natsume says hotly, embarrassed. “He was friends with yokai!”

“And I’m sure if he’d had the chance to know you, he would have spirited you away as his son and heir within two business days.” Shuuichi chuckles, leaning back in his chair. “Lucky for me he didn’t have the chance, I suppose.”

Natsume huffs, but he still climbs into the seat next to Shuuichi. After a beat, Nyanko-sensei hops up into his lap.

“I might have gotten you in trouble with those exorcists,” the boy admits. “I told them to do their own homework from now on. That if they kept taking advantage of your kindness, you wouldn’t help them anymore.” He glances at Shuuichi sidelong from beneath his fringe, and adds, “They got mad, so I sicced sensei on them. I, um, think they thought he was my shiki. I also think they thought I’m from your clan. I couldn’t tell ‘cause they were all, um-- screaming, at the same time.”

And-- okay. There is a right and a wrong way to react to this, clearly. A teenage boy using his terrifying yokai friend to menace people within Shuuichi’s network? Not good! Very bad, even!

But Shuuichi has to lean forward against the counter, face buried in his hands, because he’s absolutely howling with laughter. Natsume is stammering, trying to explain himself, but he doesn’t say sorry. He isn’t sorry for sticking up for Shuuichi. He showed up at Shuuichi’s apartment at seven AM with McDonald’s on his day off from school, and chased a bunch of exorcists out of the building, because his friend needed a break and that’s just the kind of person Natsume is.

The kind of person who deserves something fancy for dinner tonight, Shuuichi decides, and he’s still smiling as he reaches for his phone.

Hiiragi places it neatly in his hand.

“I don’t want your autograph,” she says. She doesn't call him an idiot out loud, but she's probably thinking it.

Hell, he’ll order something fancy for her, too.

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

You Marked More Than Just My Skin - Supercorp

Read it on AO3

Kara’s first instinct was to blame Alex because, if she was going to be honest, Alex was the one to blame for many of her stupid decisions. Sisters' competitive nature or something like that. That's what their mother would say when they were teenagers and they randomly started a fight. A just adopted Kara who had just lost her parents was not letting an overly cocky Alex win without fighting back.

So, naturally, she was going to blame Alex for this. However, Alex had nothing to do with Kara walking down the street from her job one day and entering the tattoo shop she walked past by every day on her way home. No, it had started with Winn, her best friend, saying that Kara wasn’t the type of person to do things out of impulse. Which he wasn’t exactly wrong, although he hit a sore spot because "I can be very spontaneous!" had been Kara’s answer and everyone around them gave her that look that made it pretty clear no one believed her.

Then, just about a week after that, Nia was walking home with her after a stop at Noonan's for their killer milkshake and saw the tattoo shop still open even if it was past 10 pm. There was no one inside that they could see, but the sign read "open" in neon letters and Nia did a double-take when she saw the walls covered in drawings.

"Oh, my God! Look at that thing!" she had screamed. And that thing was a fairly beautiful drawing of a girl lying in bed with a cloud above her head as though she was dreaming about a myriad of things.

Nia grabbed her arm, dragged her inside and, ten minutes later, she was sitting on a chair while a young man that couldn't be older than Kara permanently marked the skin on her forearm with the same drawing.

"Did you draw it?" Nia asked and Kara could tell she was just a little bit in pain because she was clutching the arm of the chair and hadn’t stopped babbling for two seconds. Not that Nia ever stopped talking, actually.

"No," the man replied in an excited voice. Like he was happy to be doing a tattoo on a girl that had just ten minutes prior decided she wanted one. But Kara held back her tongue, took some pictures while Nia made her goofy faces and sat on a stool at the corner like the good friend she was. "My boss did. She does most of the drawings we have available."

"Well, she has a hell of a talent!" Nia exclaimed, bit her lip when the needle hit a soft spot and flashed another smile once it was gone. "You should tell her she's amazing!"

Jack, that was his name, Kara reminded herself, laughed like that was a big joke that only he was aware of, but nodded all the same. "She's in the office right now, maybe she will stop by to hear you say that. She loves when people pick her drawings, but she will never say it out loud."

The woman, whoever she was, didn’t leave her office, not even when they left, way past midnight, listening to Jack's careful instructions on how to take care of Nia's arm for the next week. In the end, Kara had to admit Jack was a nice guy. And he did an excellent job. Nia's tattoo was perfect. Perfect for her and perfectly done, and her friend had no problem showing it off the next day.

"Holy crap!" Winn screamed when he saw it on game night on Friday. "I didn't know you were into tattoos. It looks awesome!"

"Thank you! And I just decided to do it," Nia shrugged, as though deciding to do a tattoo on a Wednesday night at 10 pm after getting a milkshake was a normal thing. "Thank Goddess Kara was with me so she could keep me company."

"Wait," Winn eyed Kara with the same incredulous expression from a week before and she immediately felt defensive. "Kara was there and didn't try to stop you?"

"She did say I might regret it," Nia conceded with a smile. "About ten times, but she stayed with me."

Kara rolled her eyes, picked up the pizza box and sulked on the couch while her friends made fun of her lack of spontaneous nature. Kara was a planner. And she had learned her lesson when she decided to walk to the park instead of going home one day after school and returned to the Danvers' household to find out three police cars parked at the street and a frantic Eliza giving them a photo of her and saying she had disappeared. So, yes, Kara wasn't one to do things out of the blue anymore, but that was hardly a bad thing.

She tried to tell that to herself for the next week while everyone still awed and cooed at Nia's tattoo. She tried to remind herself of Eliza's panicked face while James, with his impressive looking dragon tattoo on his back, said Kara would never be one to make a tattoo because she would keep changing her mind. She tried to picture Alex's disapproving stare while Nia's boyfriend, Querl, made comments on how he loved Nia's carefree and spontaneous nature.

In the end, what pushed her to do it was her boss and Kara couldn’t even blame her, or Alex, or any of her friends. But she would, anyway.

"Kiera, the reason why people hardly remember your name-" she wanted to point out that Cat was the only one who had a hard time remembering her name but bit her tongue instead "-is because you are so... blank."

"Blank?" Kara had asked, trying and failing not to look so offended.

And Cat nodded because she knew how to get to her. "Nothing remarkable. You use terrible sweaters and write articles that everyone could write. Did you ever do something, I don’t know, remotely spontaneous in your life?"

Kara was sure - or almost sure because you can never know with Cat Grant - that her boss was trying to push her to fly to Midvale to write about the scandal surrounding some tech company there even though Snapper had decided William would cover that for CatCo. It was either that or to make her wear something that wasn’t in pastel color.

Well, all it did was send Kara straight to a tattoo shop where she hoped to find Jack and demand he did something as spectacular as Nia's tattoo. And she went on a mission, marching down the ten blocks from CatCo to the tattoo shop - that only that day she stopped to read the name of and what weird name they chose, Le Vintage Ink - her feet hitting the ground with a purpose, her hand pushing the door open with a vengeance, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses with one goal in mind.

It wasn't Jack she saw, however. She didn't see anyone at first, actually. The shop was empty like it was a week before and very silent, with the air conditioner doing a soft hum and nothing else.

The anti climax moment was enough to make all her determination wave off. Her shoulders dropped, her eyes rounded, her feet started to stamp and her determination, well, she didn’t quite remember it anymore. Nobody needed to know, Kara told to herself. Nobody knew she was going to do it, so she could just turn around, leave, go back to her apartment and try to do some online shopping. Maybe buy a red dress for once. None of her friends would ever believe she went back to the tattoo shop, so there would be no problem...

No. That was exactly the problem. They wouldn’t even believe her if she told them. They would laugh, call it a bluff, and keep teasing Kara for not being adventurous like they were. Alex does this long motorbike drives all over the state sometimes, and James goes hiking and jumps from planes from time to time. Winn would point out that the last thing Kara did without meticulous planning was to change pizza night for potstickers and that was only because the pizza place she always orders from was out of pineapples.

However, Kara reasoned with herself, instead of doing a tattoo, she could just go with Alex on her next trip. Maybe she could ask James to teach her how to hike. Querl adopted a cat he found behind his building, so maybe that could be Kara’s unplanned moment too. And what did Winn do so adventurous or spontaneous that he had the right to make fun of Kara? She couldn’t remember.

Yes, any of those things would be more reasonable. She could even do an impromptu visit to her mother. It would count for something. She knew Eliza would be happy and she loved making her mom happy. She could even pick Alex's old helmet so her sister could use it to ride with her girlfriend, Kelly, and Eliza makes a killer chocolate pecan pie too.

Already dreaming with the taste of the pie crust in her mouth Kara turned around. She must have been inside the tattoo shop for less than ten seconds and Jack hadn’t shown up yet, so that was a plus and a sign, even if she wanted to greet him and tell how nice Nia's tattoo looked after a week.

The second her back was turned to the counter, though, she heard a door opening and then a voice filled the silence. "Can I help you?"

That wasn’t Jack's voice. That much she knew. What she didn’t know was that someone could sound so... husky and still be so clear on the words. What she also didn’t know was why her body froze like she had been hit with lightning. Or why she ever decided to leave when a voice like that was inside the shop.

It would be rude to just keep walking, Kara told herself and even she knew it was a lame excuse for wanting to see the owner of that voice. But she still turned around, eyes blinking fast as she tried not to miss a second of what she was about to see, and then immediately felt her soul leave her body. That was the only explanation on why her mouth fell open and why her brain's function slowed down at least 30%.

Because the voice's owner was... for the lack of a better word, striking. It was a woman, looking a few years younger than Kara, with dark as coal wavy hair falling down her shoulders, green piercing eyes framed by some heavy eyeliner and plump lips painted with red lipstick. The woman was wearing a black t-shirt from a band Kara had never heard of, the v-cut being deep enough that she could see a black bra under it. The shirt looked like she had been cut at home - maybe she wasn't designed to have such a deep v-neck, maybe she had sleeves at some point and maybe the deep cuts by each side also weren't a part of the initial product. But, damn, it looked great on her. Since she had no sleeves and the shirt moved as she walked and showed a great expanse of her sides, Kara could see that the woman’s body was covered in tattoos.

Her arms, from shoulder to wrist, were almost totally covered. Her left arm almost looked like a flower shop, with dozens of flowers in different colors drawn all over it. Her right arm had tattoos from her shoulder to her elbow, and they were a mix of chemical elements and computer parts that, somehow, worked together in all black and white. Kara got just a few glimpses of the tattoos on her side - something that looked like a cartoon character, another one that assembled a lake, a few words that Kara couldn’t read from that far - but that was enough to make her lick her lips and try to picture what else was there. There were no tattoos on her chest area, that Kara could see, but there was a small musical chord on the left side of her neck, and Kara wondered if she had any tattoos on her legs. She couldn't see them from where the woman was standing behind the counter, and something dragged her feet forward before she could stop herself.

"H-hi," she choked out and her face immediately heated up with embarrassment. Her sister would call it 'gay panic' and make fun of her for three days, and Kara was suddenly very thankful for being alone. "I, uh..." The woman blinked, Kara mimicked her, and lost every coherent thought inside her head. "Jack."

The woman arched one perfect eyebrow, resting her hands flat against the counter, and Kara’s blue eyes were suddenly very interested in the long fingers spread over some papers. The papers, she noticed as a second thought, were unfinished drawings, but she could hardly tell what they were. Feeling her face get even hotter, Kara demanded that her eyes moved up and she was almost proud of herself when they paused for only a second at the woman’s cleavage. Of course, as soon as her eyes met the woman’s face again, she had a tiny smirk like she knew Kara was having a hard time being in the same space as her.

"I'm sorry, love," she said and Kara noticed an accent behind the last word, like she had spent years trying to get rid of it but still couldn't brush it off some words. "Jack doesn't work here on Tuesdays."

Oh. Well, that's a bit of a relief, Kara wasn't going to lie. No Jack, no tattoo, and she still could say she tried. She still wanted to say ‘hi’ but...

"Can I help you instead?"

Oh, boy. Kara almost turned around and ran away right then and there because the things she was thinking this stranger could help her with were kind of mortifying. Instead, Kara bit her bottom lip so hard that it went numb instantly, and leaned forward until she was resting her hands in front of the woman's fingers. She dared to glance down really quick, just to find out the woman was wearing black jeans and boots, before she looked up again - with a quick stop at the cleavage because good lord.

"I don't know, I..." Kara couldn’t even say her own name if the woman asked at that moment, let alone remember what she was doing there and where there even was.

The woman chuckled then. A deep, husky sound from the back of her throat that brought a small smile to her lips, and then she ducked her head - as though she had no idea that was the most blinding smile Kara had ever seen in her twenty-six years of living. Neither the chuckle nor the smile was mockingly, and her green eyes were just a little bit amused when she looked back at Kara.

"Don't get me wrong but... you don't look like the type of person that would get a tattoo."

Okay, what is it with people just assuming Kara is too boring to do something? Kara took a look at her own clothes. She wasn't even wearing a sweater that day! Sure, beige trousers and a blue button up hardly screamed "living on the edge" but come on! Was it the glasses? Alex always said she should use contact lenses, but she liked the glassed!

Feeling a new wave of determination, Kara set up her jaw and crossed her arms. "Well, that's exactly what I came here to do."

The woman raised both eyebrows now, clearly amused. "To get a tattoo?" She asked like there was any other reason for Kara to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

So Kara nodded, her blonde hair wiggling from side to side on her ponytail, and straightened up her back like she was about to enter a fight. Not that she ever fought before, not even when the cruel kids at her new school would call her weird and push her inside her locker. Alex would beat them up for her, so she didn’t have to, it was fine.

"Yes," she said and her voice only trembled for a second. "To get a tattoo," she confirmed like there was any other reason for her to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

"Okay," the woman said, clicking her tongue once before she picked up a pen from the desk, a smirk permanently spread on her lips. "Do you have any idea of what you want?"

Shit. Kara hadn’t gone that far. Maybe not even her own brain thought she would do it because she had neglected the most important part of the entire process. She had no idea what she wanted permanently marked on her skin.

(Permanently marked also sent a thousand of red lights inside her head because, you know, it was permanent)

It must have shown on her face because the woman’s smirk became more of a smile, not exactly gentle but not mockery either. "What's your name?"

"Kara." She was so glad her brain hadn’t come up with something ridiculous to say. She could remember when she met her cousin's sister-in-law and answered the same question with "mashed potatoes" for some reason she would never be able to grasp. Lucy never let her forget that embarassing moment.

"Well, Kara," and Holy Goddess of all the universe and beyond, how could her name roll out of her lips like that? "why don’t you take a look at the drawings we have here, see if you like one. If you don't, we can always come up with something for you."

She then pushed some heavy black portfolio across the counter towards Kara and opened the leather front cover to show her the first drawing. They were all separated by plastic, and she started the task of turning the pages while trying very hard to look at the drawings and not at the woman in front of her. She wasn't sure because she wouldn’t dare to look up, but she could feel green eyes staring at her and her blush returned full force.

"So..." she heard after a couple of minutes in silence. "What kind of dare you lost?"

Kara took full offense on that, glaring at her for a moment before going back to the portfolio. She had gotten on the dragon section and decided to skip it all together. "There was no dare."

The woman hummed, watched her for another minute, and then leaned over with her forearms touching the counter. She reached out, taking the plastic from Kara's fingers, and started skipping the pages until they reached the flowers. Kara looked up, catching a glimpse of the woman's arm, before meeting green eyes with a light glare.

The woman shrugged. "You look like a flower kind of girl."

"What else do I look like to you?" Kara mumbled back and stubbornly went back to the drawing she was seeing before - the ships and anchors section - even though she left a finger marking the flowers page.

The brunette seemed even more amused now, barely able to hide her smile, and she chuckled once when Kara turned the page to see another ship. "Like you randomly decided to get a tattoo because someone pissed you off."

Kara tried not to give her the satisfaction of being right, deciding to focus on studying every ship and every anchor. She heard another chuckle, but the woman wisely didn’t push the subject.

"You could save us a lot of time by just going to the flowers."

Fine, maybe she was right about that too. Kara would never pick a ship, or a dragon, or a coffee cup, or any other drawing she saw before. Although Kara never thought what type of drawing she would get tattooed. With a sigh, she went back to the flowers, throwing the woman a dirty look when she huffed a laugh.

"Hey," she said, raising her hands in playful defense, "if I'm going to do something that you will regret tomorrow, at least let me help."

"Aren't you going to try to talk me out of this?" Kara asked, remembering when Jack asked Nia five times if she was sure before touching her skin with the needle.

"No," another shrug. "I will get my money and you will get the regret. Works fine by me."

Kara scoffed and shook her head, but finally spotted something she liked. It was a rose, not larger than a paper ball, black and white with a few leafs to the side. She was almost pointing that one out when she heard a deep sigh and looked up. The brunette was staring down at the drawing with enough judgment that Kara changed her mind in a blink.

"What?" She still asked because it was a beautiful flower.

"Nothing, it's just... does that even mean something to you?"

Kara looked back at the rose and frowned. "I like roses," she defended herself.

"I like kale, but I won’t tattoo that."

"You like kale?" Kara didn’t mean to sound so disgusted by it but it was stronger than her. Her face twisted in a grimace, shocked more than anything.

The other woman laughed a real laugh this time, and Kara felt the sound into her xcvery core. "Please, don't ask me to tattoo a burger on you. You're too pretty for that."

It was like she knew exactly what those words would do to Kara because she winked right after, making her blush ten times more. "What do you suggest, then?"

The tattooed brunette smiled and tapped her finger on top of the rose. "If you liked this one, it's fine, but I would go with..." She let her voice die as she started turning the pages until she found what she was looking for. "This one."

Kara looked at the drawing and was immediately sold to the idea. It wasn't just any flower. It was a plumeria. Well, two plumerias side by side, with a few leafs to the sides and a mandala carefully placed behind them like it was the third flower. She knew she wanted that one the second her eyes landed on it.

"It would look good on you," she kept talking. "I wouldn’t add any color, though." Kara kept nodding although she was only half paying attention now that she had found the right one. Her silence must have sent twisted signals because the woman’s voice became softer. "I know I said I wouldn’t try to talk you out of this but... are you sure?"

Kara’s eyes moved up then, metting slightly concerned green eyes, and she smiled. "Yes. I'm sure."

The woman studied her face for a few seconds before she nodded once. "Okay, then. Where do you want it?"

Shit.

The panic on her face told her out again and the woman’s laugh filled the space around them like a melody. "Come on, we can figure it out inside."

‘Inside’ being a closed room very similar to the one Nia had gotten her tattoo, albeit it was clear that that one wasn't Jack's. First, it lacked the smell of cigars and heavy cologne that Kara smelled last time and made her nose itch. But it also held a more personal touch like more drawings and a few words scribbled on the black walls. Kara didn’t feel nervous while the woman turned the sign from open to close, explaining that she was the only one who worked on Tuesdays' nights. She also didn’t feel nervous when she entered the room and spotted the comfortable chair she would be sitting on. What made her nervous again was taking her shirt off so she could decide where she wanted the plumerias to be.

She placed the printed drawing on several parts of both of her arms, her shoulders and asked the brunette to hold it at some spots on her back as well. But Kara was only satisfied when she put the paper against the right side of her ribs, a few centimeters below her bra. The woman gave her a knowing look and arched one eyebrow when she said that was the place she wanted her tattoo.

"Are you sure? It can be quite a painful area to get a tattoo, especially if it's your first one."

Again, she wasn't making fun of Kara and she appreciated it, but she also wasn't going to change her mind. "I'm sure."

"Okay. I will put the outlines, then."

It was only when the brunette had her hands against her side and her face a few inches from her chest that Kara realized she didn’t even know who she was. "Hey, I, uh, I didn't catch your name before."

Green eyes glanced up, bright and slightly amused, before they returned to the task of perfectly positioning the flowers on her ribs. "Lena."

"Lena," Kara found herself echoing the name in a whisper before she could stop herself. Lena looked up again, even more amused than before, and Kara felt herself blushing. "It... it suits you."

She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Lena smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Thanks." She pushed back the stool she was sitting on. "Take a look at the mirror and see if that's what you want."

Kara took a step closer to see her reflection and tried very hard to ignore the fact that she was standing in front of a stranger in her bra. The plumerias were exactly what she wanted and exactly where she wanted them, and she said that to Lena, who told her to lay down after turning the chair into an improvised bed. While Kara tried to find a comfortable place to lay, she heard Lena slipping on rubber gloves and moving a few things around before approaching her again. She was half expecting her to ask one more time if she was sure, but Lena said nothing when she touched her skin with the black gloves, and raised the needle to her eyes level to make sure it was ready to go.

Kara wasn’t sure if the shivers were from nervousness, the chill air of the room, or the fact that this very attractive woman was touching her just below her breast, but she did her best to ignore it. Lena had pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, Kara realized, and she could see her sharp jawline more easily now. She also spotted five different piercings on the woman’s right ear. For a second, she wondered if Lena could feel her heart beating under her skin or if she could maybe even hear it.

"Be ready for some pain, but try not to move," Lena said while she lowered the needle to her skin. "It will take longer if you keep moving. You also don't want me to fuck this up," she offered Kara a smile to let her know she was joking - at least that's what the blonde hoped for. "Tell me if you need a break."

So, Lena wasn't lying when she said it would hurt. Nia neglected to tell her about the painful part and Kara would make her pay for it by typing down her next article, but, holy crap, it hurt. The first touch of the needle made her jump and hiss, and Lena pulled it away like she knew it was going to happen, giving her a few seconds to recover.

"Sorry," Kara whispered once her body relaxed again.

"It's fine," the brunette mumbled back, totally concentrated on her job now.

It went like that for a few minutes - Kara squeezing her eyes shut, biting her lips, clutching the sides of the chair slash bed, and hissing under her breath whenever she couldn’t hold it back anymore. Until she started to get used to the pain and allowed herself to focus on other things. Her eyes trailed to the few drawings hanging on the walls, taking in the delicate traces and the lack of colors from all of them. She decided that talking would help her with the pain.

"Jack said his boss makes those drawings," she commented lightly.

There was a brief pause before Lena answered her. "That would be me."

"Oh," the blonde breathed out in shock. "So, you..."

"I'm the owner, yes." There was another pause while Lena cleaned her skin with a soft paper. "I used to work for a tattoo artist back in Metropolis before I decided to open my own business. Jack followed me."

"Well, you certainly have talent. Your drawings are beautiful."

"On paper," Lena teased and Kara didn’t need to look at her to know she was smirking. "Let's see how it translate to your skin."

Kara wanted to play along and tell her to ‘please, don't make something awful that would be permanently marked on my skin’, but she found herself saying something entirely different. "Plumerias were my mom's favorite flowers. My dad would bring them to her every Saturday after work because those were the first flowers he ever gave her." She could still remember her father getting back home on Saturdays right before lunch with a bouquet in his hand to her mom and a box of chocolate for her, all smiles and offering hugs. If she tried hard enough, Kara could still remember the smell of her mom's stew mixed with the flowers' smell, could still taste the chocolate. "They died almost fifteen years ago."

Kara had no idea why she was sharing those things with this stranger wearing black rubber gloves and breathing too close to her ribs, but she also couldn't stop. Maybe it was a tattoo thing, like sharing too much about your relationships while cutting your hair.

Lena didn’t shy away, though. She made sure their eyes were locked before saying, "Let's make sure those are perfect, then," and went back to work.

Kara felt herself relaxing more after that, although she didn’t say anything else for a few minutes. "I work as a reporter to a magazine," she found herself saying. "My boss is... both of them are impossible to deal with. I dream about throwing them into space sometimes, but... I love my job. One of them is the reason I'm here today."

"Who should I be thanking?"

Kara blushed one more time, even if she wasn't sure it was said to be flirtatious or if she was just imagining it. "Cat means well, she just... push some buttons sometimes."

"Well," Lena stopped her movements to look at Kara again, this time with a soft smile. "I will be sending this Cat some flowers anyway."

The blonde chuckled at that. "Go back to work. I don't want to end up with a dragon on my ribs."

Lena hummed, eyes dropping back to the outlines of the flowers and needle touching skin again. "I wouldn’t draw a dragon on you," she contemplated. "You're more of an iguana kind of girl."

Kara gasped in faked offense and turned her head to fully stare at Lena with narrowed eyes. "How dare you? You know nothing about me!"

The tattoo artist shrugged, not bothered by her explosion. "Maybe a kitty." Kara huffed and puffed, letting her body fall back on the chair, and did her best to keep frowning. "Definitely a kitty," she heard Lena whispering under her breath, playfully and amused, and Kara was soon smiling. "So... will your boyfriend approve this?"

"Are you fishing for information about me?" Kara teased.

"Huh," Lena sighed. "You didn’t sound this confident when you were stumbling over your words when you first saw me."

She was sure her entire body turned pink with that and she mumbled weakly that: "I was nervous about getting a tattoo."

"Yes, of course," Lena replied and Kara blushed again.

"No boyfriend," she ended up replying because the other alternative was to dig a bigger hole to herself. "Or a girlfriend."

She was ready for another teasing from the other woman, but Lena pulled back instead and eyed her tattoo with her head tilted to the side. "I need you to hold your breath for a few seconds, okay? I'm getting to a delicate part and it would be better if you hold it for, like, ten seconds."

Kara nodded and got ready to pull in a breath to hold it while Lena got her needle ready to go again. When the other woman said so, Kara took in a large intake of breath but, as soon as the needle touched her again, she exhaled in surprise when the pain shot to every nerve in her body.

"I know," Lena said. "It's the hardest part. I promise to be done with it as fast as possible. Can we try again?"

There weren't many options since Kara was already in the middle of getting her tattoo done, so she nodded and waited for the new signal. Kara grabbed the chair with both of her hands, pressed her eyes tightly shut, bit her bottom lip and held her breath for the longest ten seconds of her life before Lena tapped her skin and pulled away with a smile.

"There," she declared in her husky tone. "Good girl."

It was embarrassing how those two words made Kara react. She gasped, the breath still stuck in her lungs almost causing her to choke, and her entire body went stiff when a shiver left goosebumps all over her skin on its way down her spine. She couldn't see Lena and that was a blessing because she could feel the pause that her reaction gave the brunette. So, maybe that was a weird way to find out a praise kink, Kara decided while praying that Lena would brush it as a perfectly normal reaction to have.

"That was interesting," Lena whispered and, this time, the blonde knew she wasn't supposed to have heard that.

The blonde bit her bottom lip so hard that she could feel the taste of blood and she was totally sure that Lena could hear how fast her heart was beating. She could probably feel it, and, God, that was so embarrassing. Kara had half a piece of mind to just pull back her shirt, leave and never go back there, but the other woman didn’t give her time to react before she was once more piercing her skin with the needle. It was still painful, although the mortification she felt numbed it a little bit.

Lena didn’t sound so cocky when she spoke again and she even had to clear her throat so the words would come out less hoarse and more audible. “Just a while longer and we will be done. Can you handle it or should we finish it another day?”

Kara didn’t trust herself to ever come back – and not just because of what had just happened but also because she didn’t think she would be brave enough to get any tattoo needle to ever touch her again. So, she exhaled slowly and nodded. Lena went back to the draw immediately after that and they fell in a half comfortable silence until the trickiest part was over. Or, at least, that’s what Kara thought the trickiest part was because it hurt like hell and Lena had this crinkle between her brows when she glanced back that made her look... cute. Even with the tattoos and the five different piercing sets on her ears, the black clothes, the black room and her undeniable confidence.

It wasn’t until Lena leaned away to get more ink that she spoke again. “Plumerias were very common where I lived.”

Kara thought back on their conversation and wondered aloud, “Metropolis?”

“Ireland,” she corrected gently.

“Oh,” Kara breathed out and then hissed when the needle was back to her ribs.

“Not many people know I’m Irish, so I’m trusting you with this secret, Kara.”

She could hear the joke in the woman’s voice and Lena even poked her side playfully, and Kara heard herself giggling like a schoolgirl. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“That’s not how it works,” Lena declared with a huff. “Now you need to tell me a secret of yours.”

“What?”

“Yes, so we’re even and I can make sure you will never tell anyone what I just told you.”

“It’s not like you just confessed a murder,” Kara argued with an eye roll that was quite too fond to be directed to someone who she had met only two or three hours before.

Lena looked up for a second and their eyes met, making Kara’s face flush red. She was pulling a very uncomfortable position to keep her head raised and turned to the side so she could watch the other woman, and she had just been caught doing that one more time. “No? Well, you shouldn’t go to my office then.”

Kara hummed, trying to sound unimpressed by the joke while fighting back a laugh, and shrugged. “I knew it was weird I didn’t see Jack.”

The brunette let out a breathy chuckle, her hot breath hitting Kara’s side and making her shiver again, before she pursed her lips. “I see you’re too fond of Jack already.”

“Jealous?”

Lena quirked one dark eyebrow and gave her a look – the type of look that Kara tried to pull out her entire life while trying to look all sexy and misterious and was never able to do it – that made the blonde’s entire body warm up. “I’m the one poking your skin with a needle right now, so I think he should be the jealous one.”

Yes, Kara couldn’t keep up with that. She was weird, she rambled, she stuttered more times than not, and just, overall, was terrible at the whole flirting thing. Lena, on the other hand, seemed to be a master on it. Kara didn’t really stand a chance against it, not even for a second. She could try, pull out a word or a phrase here and there, but, in the end, Lena would find a way to leave her blushing and flustered so easily that made her head spin.

(She couldn’t be sure if Lena was just that good or if Kara was just super gay, but, whatever it was, it was working wonderfully)

“Now, come on, spill a secret,” Lena said after a long silence that stretched between them while they just stared at each other’s eyes.

Kara felt hypnotized by the green eyes and that was so unfair. So, damn, unfair. “I get my boss’ coffee order wrong every day.”

Lena stopped with the tattoo again to blink at her a couple of times in what seemed to be confusion. Then, she tilted her head to the side, glanced to the ceiling and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something. No sound came out, she closed her mouth again, and she looked so adorable that Kara felt her rambling coming to the surface again.

“Cat has this really complicated order at Starbucks that makes my head hurt just to think about. 3% fat, quarter milk, a spoon and a half of organic sugar, or whatever that is. It’s my job to get her coffee every morning and there’s no Starbucks close to my apartment, so I stop at another place called Noonan’s and get an order from there.” Lena still hadn’t said anything and Kara couldn’t bring herself to stop talking. “I used to work there, so I have a discount. I can buy a coffee for myself too with the same amount of money I would spend at Starbucks. And she never noticed it!”

There was a pause where Kara tried to come up with more things to say before a loud laugh cut the space around her. She looked at Lena with wide eyes and only slightly offended by her reaction, but the other woman was too busy laughing at her expense to notice it. The brunette used the back of her hand to cover her mouth while she shook her head and kept laughing freely.

“I’m sorry,” Lena said, waving her hand, before being interrupted by her own laugh. “It’s just... Fuck! That’s the worse thing you ever did in your life?” The tattoo artist looked at her again with her eyes crinkling at the sides and Kara felt her anger melting away.

“What? Did you expect a murder?”

“I was hoping that you would say you spit on her coffee, at least.”

Kara gasped. “I would never do that!”

Lena narrowed her eyes at her, a tiny smirk adorning her lips. “But you think about it, don’t you?”

“Every day,” she admitted with a groan, letting her head fall back against the chair.

The brunette laughed again and a cold hand came to rest against her thigh, making Kara’s body vibrate from head to toe. “I won’t tell your secret if you don’t tell mine.” Lena winked – winked – at her and Kara felt her throat too dry all of sudden. The woman chuckled again when the blonde gulped before she gently tapped the hard muscle of Kara’s thigh. “We’re done here.”

“Oh.” Kara blinked in surprise and her eyes immediately fell to her ribs. The skin was red and swollen, but she could see the delicate lines of the flowers and the leaves, and she was hit by the urge to cry all at once. She felt like a little girl again, being six or seven, and running to the door to meet her father, seeing the plumerias in his left hand and the chocolate on his right.

“Hey,” Lena called her gently, ducking her head to be able to catch the blue eyes again. “You're fine over there? I had people regretting tattoos before, but not so fast.”

Kara laughed and shook her head, trying to discreetly brush a tear from the corner of her eyes. “Everything is fine. It’s really beautiful.”

“Well, don’t say that before you take a better look,” Lena pushed her stool away and got up with a refreshed excitement. “Come on, stand up so you can look at it in the mirror.”

That’s what Kara did, sliding off the chair and walking with slightly trembling legs to the full body mirror that she had seen before. The fact that she still didn’t have her shirt on was in the back of her mind while her eyes traced the ink. It looked even better on her ribs than it looked on the paper and she made sure to tell the other woman that, earning a smile that she doubted she would ever be able to forget.

"Here." She turned around to see Lena's hand reaching out a piece of white chalk between her long fingers and sporting a kind of smile that Kara hadn’t seen on her yet - satisfied, the type of smile you give after accomplishing a task that meant something to you. "All of my clients have to write something on the walls. It's tradition," Lena shrugged in the end.

Kara’s eyes swept through the room again, taking in the black walls and words written in almost every inch available under a new light. There were small praises, thanks, some jokes and even a few doodles, and Kara wondered what she could write that could sum up her entire experience inside Lena's tattoo shop. She took the chalk more out of instinct, her brain still working on finding the right words, and Kara took a few steps around the room until she found the right place to write.

It was just below one of Lena's drawings that were hanging from a string, between a Scooby-Doo doodle and the message of someone saying they loved their new rose tattoo. Kara’s handwriting wasn't the best one - sloppy and crooked - and it looked even worse when she was trying to write on a wall, but she managed to write her first and last name to make it look readable. Then, she added her phone number under it and put the chalk inside the small box she found just beside her. Kara turned around making sure her body would cover what she had just written, suddenly feeling too nervous about it, and accepted the plastic foil paper Lena handed her.

"Remember to put on the ointment I told you about and keep it covered so it heals. It should be all healed in a week, tops. You're free to call if you have any doubts."

Lena led the way out of the room and they found themselves once again at the reception desk. Lena picked up the pen she had played with before and scribbled something on a piece of paper beside the computer while Kara reached out for her wallet in the pocket of her trousers. Their fingers brushed when she handed Lena the money and her face flushed red for the millionth time that night. Lena gave her a knowing smile before putting the money away and just like that they realized that they would part ways soon. A small part of Kara, primal and shameless, tried to come up with any reason that would make her stay for a while longer. Anything would do, really.

Even so, there was no reason for her to stay and Kara tried to mask her unjustified sadness by joining her hands in front of her body and forcing a smile to look real. “Thank you again.”

Lena waved a hand dismissively, the pen still hanging between two fingers, before her hand came to rest on top of the other one on the desk. “It was my pleasure.”

“If I regret it in the morning, I will come back with a vengeance,” Kara joked, swaying on her heels, and the laugh that came from the other woman was worth any type of regret she might end up having in the near future.

“As much as I would like to see you again, I would hate for that to be the reason you came back.”

Lena winked at her and Kara’s mouth hang open before she could stop herself. That made the brunette laugh in delight, made a deep blush rise from her neck to her cheeks, and Kara started taking steps back before she could embarrass herself anymore. Alex, Nia and all of their friends were right: she’s a gay disaster. None of them would be able to judge her if they just saw Lena though, of that she was sure.

Stumbling over one of the chairs, Kara let out a nervous laugh and, to her utter terror, she pointed finger guns at Lena. “Have, ah, have a good night, ma’am.”

She missed the door handle twice before she was able to open the door and, by the time she looked at Lena again, the other woman was smiling broadly at her. Ducking her head, Kara walked out the door and let it close behind her. Once the slightly chill air of the night hit her face, she closed her eyes and resisted the urge to hit herself for some very stupid decisions made inside that shop. She wondered if she would ever be able to live it down if any of her friends ever found out she just did finger guns at a beautiful woman as a way to say goodbye.

Well, to be fair, she wasn’t sure any of her friends would let her live it down when they found out about her very spontaneous tattoo.

God, Alex was going to kill her. Not for getting a tattoo, but for doing so without giving it enough thought. And, for Christ’s sake, Alex could be a real pain in the ass when she decided to lecture her for whatever reason it was. She was so not ready to deal with that.

It was only when she opened her eyes again that she realized she was still standing outside the tattoo shop – and that Lena could still very easily see her from her place behind the counter – and, with another blush, Kara pushed herself to start walking. Her apartment was only five more blocks down the street and she took that time to clear her mind from anything negative she was thinking about.

If her crazy and very unusual night taught her anything was that she had the thing inside her that could make her do some very adventurous things. She was capable of doing those things. Maybe randomly getting a tattoo wasn’t the ideal way to prove that to herself, but, damn, she had just renewed faith in herself.

Her poor attempts at flirting were the last thing on her mind when she pushed the door to her studio apartment open and stepped inside, making a beeline to where she had left her laptop earlier that day on the small kitchen table. She pulled a chair after turning the computer on and, reaching out for an apple inside the fruit bowl, she waited for the laptop to come to life so she could open a new file to start typing. She had an article to write, and a trip to plan.

 XxxxxxxX

 It was two days later – after Alex had scolded her for making decisions in a rush, after Nia took pictures of their tattoos side by side to post on her Instagram, after Querl had awkwardly given her a thumbs up, after James raised his eyebrows, after Winn yelped in shock – that something changed.

Kara was lazily reading something Nia had written so she could suggest some corrections before the girl submitted it to Snapper’s approval, when her phone buzzed from its place beside her mousepad – her rainbow mousepad, thanks to Winn. She picked it up, thinking it was Alex inviting her for lunch so she could yell at her a few more times, but the number who had texted her was an unsaved one. She frowned, but didn’t give it much thought before unlocking her screen to read it.

“Since you didn’t barge inside my shop to kill me, I take it that you didn’t regret it?”

The smile that curled her lips up came from within her and it was apparently too obvious because Nia, who was sitting across from her, gave her a weird look and arched one eyebrow in question. Kara shook her head, biting her bottom lip, and turned her chair around so the girl couldn’t see her anymore before typing a reply.

“I never said I was going to kill you.”

“The threat was clear to me,” came the next text just a few seconds later and Kara chuckled to herself.

“Please, don’t tell me you were scared.”

“Why do you think it took me two days to reach out?”

Kara paused at that. She had spent the last two days being sure that, despite their easy flirt with each other, Lena didn’t actually want to talk or see her again. So, to have her texting her now was really... reawakening something inside her.

“Who are you texting?”

Kara jumped on her chair, startled by Nia’s voice so close to her ear all of sudden, her phone almost slipping from her fingers and crashing on the floor. Thankfully, her reflexes were still working and she was able to grab it, but not without throwing a glare at Nia for scaring her like that. The girl gave her a sheepish smile, although she shrugged and didn’t back away from where she had perched on the corner of Kara’s desk to look over her shoulder.

“No one,” came the childish, and not at all convincing, reply and Kara didn’t need to look at her friend again to know she was busted. Now Nia was not going to let it down.

“Really? Because you have been smiling to your phone for five minutes and you just smile like that when Alex says she’s bringing extra potstickers for game night.” Nia smirked and leaned over, trying to read the texts again, but Kara quickly pressed the phone against her chest to block her view.

“Alex just invited me for lunch,” Kara attempted to throw her off.

However, Nia arched her eyebrows. “Really? Because I just texted Kelly asking her to go to that vegan place with me and she said she already has plans.” A pause. “With Alex.” Another pause. “For lunch.”

Kara groaned and turned her chair so she was facing her computer again, slipping her phone screen down on the table. “Fine, it wasn’t Alex, but I’m not going to say anything.”

“Okay.” Her friend gave up way too faster than usual and Kara watched her with narrowed eyes as the girl jumped from her desk to turn the corner back to her own cubicle. Nia was about to sit down when she tried to snatch Kara’s phone away with one surprisingly fast move, but the blonde was even faster, taking it out of her reach in the last second. “Damn.”

Kara rolled her eyes and pushed her chair back. She grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair, throwing it over her shoulders and slipping her phone inside one of the pockets, and threw an overly sweet, clearly fake, smile at Nia. “Now you will have to eat alone because I won’t have lunch with you either.”

Nia stuck her tongue out at her. “I will call Querl!”

Kara waited until she was safely inside the elevator before opening her texts again. There were three more texts since the last time she looked and a smile immediately spread over her face when she read them.

“Okay, I confess, I was a little nervous.”

“You still there? You didn’t change your mind, did you?”

“About the tattoo, not the... leaving your name and number on my wall thing.”

She barely noticed when someone entered the elevator a few floors below, too focused on replying to the texts.

“You? Nervous? You don’t look like the type of girl that gets nervous. And no, I didn’t change my mind about any of those things, actually.”

A new text only came after she was already walking down the street to Noonan’s, but she wrote a quick text to invite Winn for lunch before opening Lena’s text.

“I’m also not the type to text any of the numbers left on my walls. And good.”

“Do you get a lot of numbers on your walls?” Kara asked and she had to make a conscious effort to cross the street to Noonan’s instead of walking straight for a few more blocks to the tattoo shop. She could picture Lena leaning against the counter with her gorgeous smirk and her impressive tattoos – and even more impressive cleavage.

“Jack enjoys them more than I do.”

Kara was about to make a comment about Jack but another text came in before she could and she stopped in her tracks so suddenly that the man walking behind her shoved against her shoulder. She tripped over a few steps, but quickly held herself again to read the words over and over in disbelief. She hoped, of course, but that was... wow.

“I don’t want to be too straightforward here, or overly confident or something, but I have a client coming in five minutes, so I don’t have much time. This won’t sound romantic at all, but would you like to have dinner with me? Tomorrow?”

Kara didn’t have to think too much about her answer, of course. Alex would give her a piece of her mind for agreeing to go out with someone she barely knew – and ‘that’s the whole point of going out to meet people’ was not a good argument on her sister’s book – but Kara would deal with it later. Right now, she had a very gorgeous woman asking her out and she already knew what her answer would be.

“I would love to.”

“What? Really?” Kara chuckled at the rushed text she received back, but another one came just a second later. “Pretend you didn’t read that. I meant ‘okay, great!’.”

Chuckling again, Kara typed a new message. “I know you were the one who asked me out, but may I suggest a place? I don’t have a car and it’s close to both of our workplaces.”

“Whatever you want, just text me address. Let’s say, tomorrow at 7 pm?”

“Can’t wait.”

 XxxxxxxX

 “Hey, Kara?”

“Yes?” She asked, not taking her eyes away from her computer screen and typing away as fast as she could to be able to put all the ideas in her new article. She had never written like that before, but she wasn’t about to complain about small inspirations spikes.

“The front desk called and said there’s a pack for Cat downstairs. Can you pick it up?”

With a small sigh, not because she was mad at Winn for interrupting her but because she would have to go all out of the way to pick a pack she didn’t even know was going to come in, Kara saved her file and pushed her chair back. Nia glanced up and was about to remove her earphones, ready to follow Kara to whatever she was going to learn more about the journalism world, but the blonde made some gestures with her hand that she hoped meant ‘boring things, stay here’ before she started making her way to the elevator.

Jenny, the woman that stayed at the front desk, was kind, around Eliza’s age, and very chatty, which worked fine with Kara when she wanted to waste a few minutes talking along. “Good morning, Kara! How are you?”

“I’m great, Jenny. And you?”

“I’m fine. What happened? I recognize that smile.”

Kara tilted her head to the side, although she couldn’t stop smiling, doesn’t matter how hard she was trying. “What smile?”

Jenny narrowed her eyes and waved a finger at her playfully. “That’s the smile of someone who had a very good night.”

The blonde could feel her face heating up and a nervous chuckle escaped her lips before she could stop herself. She had been leaning against the counter, but she leaned her torso back and tapped her fingers against the hard surface nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right,” Jenny scoffed, rolled her eyes and started pulling out the packages that she would need to take upstairs with her. There was a yellow thing that was sent by one of the photographers of the last shooting they made, some letters and a few small boxes, which made Kara believe Jenny had been holding those things with her for at least a few days. Cat hadn’t asked for any of that, so it wasn’t a problem. “Don’t tell me then. You don’t have to. Is all over your face.”

Blushing even harder, Kara huffed an anxious laugh and looked down at the counter. She put one hand on her hip as the other one raised to push her glasses up her nose, but she kept her eyes down to avoid seeing the smirk on Jenny’s face. She would have to agree with her, if she did. Because she knew it was, in fact, written all over her face. She hadn’t been able to stop smiling since she woke up that morning – who was she kidding? It had been like that since dinner last night.

It had a reason – and the reason had a name – but she was not going to share any personal details about her life with Jenny. The old woman had the tendency to share everyone’s secrets – which was another reason Kara liked to talk with her so much, but she would never admit to being a gossip girl. She did tell Nia, mostly because her friend wouldn’t stop asking why Kara was fifteen minutes late that morning, though she had made the girl promise not to tell anyone.

It was still pretty new, she had argued.

“If you two slept together, it’s not that new,” Nia had teased back, making her face turn red so fast that James, that had been coming back from the bathroom, asked if she was feeling well.

Even if the whole ‘sleeping together on the first date’ thing was new to her, Kara hadn’t regretted it in the morning. Much like the tattoo. Although, it would be remarkably harder to regret sleeping with Lena when the said woman was spooning her from behind than it was to regret a tattoo that recquired a lot of afterward care. Either way, Kara was living the best morning in her life and it clearly showed on her face.

“Looks like you’re not the only one who’s having a great time.” Jenny’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and Kara looked up in time to see the woman pulling a big bouquet from under the counter.

The flowers looked cheap and scruffy, which made it seem like someone had just thrown them together without much care. They were yellow and pink daisies, the colors clashed and didn’t work well together, but the card hidden between the flowers was black and easy to see. She knew she shouldn’t because it had her boss’ name outside the card and it was clearly not for her to see, but curiosity took the best of her – that and the fact that the card had been clearly already open, and by Jenny’s face she knew who had done it.

“Thank you – L”

Well, that wasn’t helpful at all.

Sighing and feeling silly for stealing a look, she put the card back and started to try to find a way to pick everything she needed to take back with her. She knew there was a small cart some other companies in the building used to transport stocks and other products, but she was sure she could use her hands if she just pilled everything right. Kara had just come up with a plan when Jenny spoke again.

“There’s also this one. It doesn’t have a card, but it came with the bouquet. Same delivery. The guy couldn’t say anything about it, but I’m sure we can find something if we call the shop and...”

“I think there’s no need,” Kara interrupted gently, without looking up from the growing pile in one of her hands, but she raised her head eventually.

Only to lose track of every thought she was having.

Jenny had put a single plumeria on top of the counter. As the woman had said, there was no card or any type of identification – who it came from or who was supposed to receive it – but Kara connected the dots quite easily. Smiling, she reached over to grab the simple flower and brought it closer to her face to smell it.

“Oh, I see.”

“I have to go!” Kara said suddenly, knowing everyone in the building would know she had just randomly smelled a flower at the front desk that morning. “See you, Jen!”

The look on Cat’s face when Kara gave her the bouquet, not offering any other explanation othan than that there was a card attached to it, was worth every step on the stairs she had to walk up, holding the woman’s coffee every morning. As soon as she was back to her desk, Kara pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a text before Nia could start asking any questions.

“Thought you said that you’re not good with romance.”

The reply didn’t come right away, Kara ended up putting her phone to the side and went back to work. However, as soon as it rang beside her, she grabbed it.

“Guess we’re both learning new things about ourselves. Want to have lunch together?”

And, yes, she totally did.

[a-simple-imagine]

Day 6 - Down at The Lake

Synopsis: You’re staying at the burrow over Christmas break and Ginny decided to take you ice skating

Pairing: Ginny Weasley x fem!reader

Words: 2k+

A/N- Haven’t written for Ginny before but this was suggested to me so I combined it with an idea i already had. 

As rigorous shaking drags you kicking and screaming from your dreams, you open your eyes to see a freckled face staring back mere inches from your face. Ginger hair circling you, you push her back abruptly. When you agreed to come home with her for Christmas, this was definitely not what you were picturing. A little personal space would be nice. "Merlin's beard, Ginny!" You exclaim, dropping your hand from her chest. "are you trying to give a girl a heart attack?"

"Get up!" There's a certain degree of her eagerness behind her words as she stands upright. The room was shrouded in dim light, casting the youngest Weasley in a warm mid-morning glow. It was way too early for her to be so perky.

"What time is it?" You mumble into the pillow, rubbing your eye with the palm of your hand. Judging by the lighting, it was still pretty early.

"Like six," Six A.M? What could possibly justify waking you up at six am during the holidays. Why was she even up so early normally you're the one trying to get her out of bed. "So get up."

"No, it's too early," Rolling onto your side, you nuzzle against the pillow and close your eyes. To your surprise, you feel a weight slam ontop of you. Was she for real?

"I won't leave you alone," Her voice is but a whisper in your ear sending a chill down your spine.

"Fine," Shoving her off, you hear her fall off the bed. An amused smile as you turn the other way. "Just give me a minute." Snuggling into the duvet, you shuffle about trying to get comfortable again but then she pulls, pulls, pulls until you're basically fighting over a duvet.

"Stop being lazy," Releasing the covers, they zoom off you as the other girl stumbles backwards. You can't help but chuckle a little as you sit up, slapping both cheeks gently to try and wake yourself up. Jumping to her feet, Ginny displays a triumphant grin. "Mum is making breakfast," she announces before turning sharply and heading for the door. "Don't go back to sleep."

You did debate just going back to sleep but you decided it wasn't worth facing the wrath of Ginny Weasley. So you force yourself out of bed and get ready for the day. Descend the long staircase of the burrow as quietly as physically possible, you join Ginny who sat at the dinning table telling Mrs Weasley all about some quidditch game. The air smells like sizzling bacon and dewy morning air. Mr. Weasley is present too, reading a paper.

"Took you long enough," Ginny announces when she notices you.

"It's way too early,"

"Good morning," Mr. Weasley states a little too brightly for this early in the morning.

"Breakfast will be done in a jiffy, would you like a cup of tea, dear?" Molly offers, you nod a little as you take a seat opposite Ginny. Watching as Molly grabs the metal kettle and pours the hot water into a cup. "Ginny, go get your brothers up."

"Why do I have to do it?" She groans loudly. Molly hands you the cup that has little pictures  of dragons around the rim before shooting the ginger girl a look. You guessed the mug belonged to her brother Charlie. "Fine."

Pushing out the chair with a brash screech, Ginny charges up the stairs. The sound of her yelling her brother's names echo off the walls before she reappears again. You take a sip of your tea, burning your tongue in the process and quickly putting it back down.

"Since when were you here?" The youngest weasley son trudges over, taking up the seat next to you. He gives an almighty yawn before slumping down against the table.

"I invited her so shut up."

"It was just a question, shesh"

"I arrived yesterday," You explain politely, offering him a tiny smile to which he just shrugs. As plates are placed on the table, the rest of the family starts appearing one by one; each taking up a spot around the table. You hate to admit it because it wasn't like they were intentionally making you feel that way but it feels a little weird being sat among so many family members. You feel like an outcast, invading their breakfast.

"So what are everyone's plans today?" Mr Weasley questions and the boys all talk over each other so eager to tell their story.

"I'm going down to the lake," Ginny announces plainly, drawing the attention to her.

"The lake? Why?" Ron wonders

"Fancy a skate do you?" George inquires with a bit of a giggle.

"Skate?" Were you missing something here?

"In December the lake freezes over so you can ice skate on it,"

"Oh..." That was unexpected. You didn't have a clue how to ice skate nor did you bring any skates? This seemed like a very bad idea. "I don't know how to skate,"

"You'll be fine," Ginny asserts. "I'll teach you."

After being dragged through the frosty woods for what felt like forever, you arrive at a tremendous lake that was covered in shades of icy white and blue. You swallow hard, a pit beginning to form in your stomach as you watch ginny attach these wooden skates to her shoes.

"Don't look so scared, it's just ice," Her hand slaps against your back. "No shame in falling over."

"Are you sure this is safe?" Peering down at the edge of the ice, it's almost like you can picture the disaster waiting to happen.

"Don't be such a baby," Harmless teasing but enough for you to commit to attaching the skates to your own shows. With a deep breath to calm your nerves, you take a leap of faith and step very cautiously onto the ice with one foot. When you were assured it wasn't about to break, you bring the other foot over. Perhaps this would be fun after all. However, you still had no clue how to skate and frankly were too scared to move. Ginny on the other hand looked like she'd been doing this for years. Gliding across the ice in a way that looked both clumsy and graceful. Noticing you, she urges you over but you just shake your head rapidly. "Can't teach you if you won't even move," Making her way over to you, she takes you gloved hands in hers. The most gentle of smiles as she pulls you along just a little, helping you steady yourself. "Just put one foot in front of the other and glide."

"Easier said than done," The bit grew deeper as you shuffled along as best you could, following the other girl's lead.

"Just have a little faith in me," She gently squeezes your hand. "I won't let anything bad happen to you," Still easier said than done but you nod. "Watch my feet." Dropping your hands, Ginny propels forward starting with her right foot then her left in a steady rhythm before circling back. "See easy. You try,"  

"I'm not sure about this," Almost falling on the first step, you hold your arms out wide for balance before pushing forward on your right leg followed perhaps a little too quickly with left but still, you move forward across the ice.

"You got it, just keep doing that and take longer strides so you really slide." You try to follow her advice and it's all fun and games until you slip and fall smack against the ice.

"Are you okay?" The girl rushes over to you, reaching down to help you up. Nothing was really hurt except your pride and bottom for that matter. "Steady?"

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"Good," Her grin brightens as she takes one of your hands and pulls you along behind her. "Do you regret giving it a chance?"

"No it's fun,"

"Are you lying to me?" Ginny glancing back at you briefly. You were genuinely enjoying being out here; playing on the ice. Just the two of you. But it was also rather hard and every moment felt like you were gonna fall.

"I would never,"

"Liar," she chuckles. "Do you wanna race?"

"You'll obviously win," Wouldn't be much a race considering how much better she is.

"I'll go easy on you," You end up agreeing but only because she flashed her best puppy dog eyes. Lining up beside you, Ginny flashes a wicked grin. "Ready?"

You nod.

"Three... two... one... go,"

There was no point in trying because Ginny's idea of going easy on you was speeding off ahead. So you leisurely stroll a little faster than you previously had until you hear it and panic sets in.

Crack.

You come to an abrupt stop but the sound of crackling just triples and you suddenly plunge into the lake water's icy embrace. Struggling to the surface you call out her name but it's hard to stay afloat when your skin burns from the cold. Perching on the edge of the ice, it just crumbles away creating an even bigger hole. Every time you fall back under, you wonder if you'll be able to keep returning to the surface. Taking a deep breath each time as you yell out. You can make out Ginny's appearance behind the water's surface "Wait here," Where did she think you could go? Moments later that felt like hours, The ginger haired girl returns with a tree branch, "Grab on," she yells out as she lays down on the ice. "Push up with your elbows, okay? Ginny pulls with all her might yanks on the wood until you're finally on solid ground; the cold air setting in quickly. You spit out some water and your body begins to shake. Her voice drowned out but the heaving of your chest and the rest was a blur.

The next morning you wake up feeling rough to say the least. You swim in the icy water has definitely left you with some kind of cold or flu. Your head feels fuzzy, your eyes tired and there was a low but ever present burning in your throat. The sound of distant voices hit's your ears and it takes a minute to realise you're in the burrow.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. How you feeling?" Ginny enters the room with a blanket tucked under her arm and a bright smile on her lips.

"Shitty," Sinking further under the covers, you chase the warmth and comfort that they provide.

"Mum says you should stay in bed so I brought you an extra blanket in case you're cold."

"Thanks," Unfolding the blanket, she tosses it over the bed before taking a seat on the edge. Slapping her hand against your forehead; she immediately draws away.

"ew you're hot and sweaty," She wipes her hand on the blanket

"I don't feel it," You murmur softly and then nothing. Ginny just stares down at her hands as she fiddles with her fingers. "Something wrong?"

"I'm just sorry,"

"What for?" Your brows furrow in confusion.

"For you almost drowning,"

"That's not your fault," Well, not entirely. She was the one to encourage you to get on the ice but you don't blame her for the ice breaking.

"I should have warned you about the ice, it can be kinda thin in place."

"It's not a big deal, I only almost died," You tease, raising your shoulders in a playful shrug. .

"I don't know what I would have done if you died," Her voice is uncharacteristically quiet so you're not entirely sure, you're supposed to hear her.

"Well I'm not dead so you have nothing to worry about,"

"Do you want some soup?"

"soup?" That was abrupt.

"Mum made soup."

"Feels a little early for soup,"

"Never too early." She emphasises vividly before softening. "I really am sorry about what happened,"

Reaching up, you grab her arm and pull her towards you; wrapping her up in your arms as she giggles against your neck. "Stop apologising you dumbass, I'm fine."

"Get off me- you're all sweaty." Both palms against you she pushed back and you really don't have the strength to fight her. "I'm gonna get you some soup you need to eat."

[grimbeak]

Pt 2/the aftermath of Mistakes. 

Tws for this drabble- attemped suicide (sort of. no one actually gets hurt), discussions of suicide/self-harm attempts (neither suicide or self-harm are directly mentioned, but it’s obvious that that’s what the characters are talking about.), and descriptions of a panic attack/mental breakdown.

let’s continue.

Mistakes- pt 2 

Jay had lost his friends the other ninja somewhere in Ninjago city, dissipating his dragon halfway through the chase and hiding in an alley for a few minutes. 

After he got out of the city, he had flown to Stix- didn’t take too long when you were flying, surprisingly. 

And now he stands in front of Ronin’s shop, wondering if it would be rude to simply phase through the door. 

He looks down at the water slapping against the poles below him.

He could just jump in. 

Jay knocks, eventually, and it takes a few seconds for Ronin to answer. When he does, he’s holding a sword. For some reason. “If you’ve come about the stolen gold, I swear, I didn’t do anyth-” his eyes land on Jay. “Oh.” 

“Yeah. Hi.” Jay fidgets where he’s standing. “I’m assuming you already know about what happened on the island?”

Ronin nods, not setting down his sword, but lowering it. “Mhm. Few tribe members passed through here a couple weeks ago- I managed to drag the story out of ‘em.” 

“Great,” Jay says sarcastically, “so everyone knew what happened before I did.”

“Yeah, I guess- wait, knew?” Ronin narrows his eyes. “So you know.”

“That I went insane and tried to kill my fri- my team? Yes. Yes, I do. That they then killed me? I also know that.” 

“...Good for you,” Ronin says slowly, leaning his sword against a cabinet. The duo stand there in silence for a moment until Ronin sighs, stepping back inside and holding the door open. “It’s gonna rain soon,” he notes, glancing up at the thickening clouds. “You coming in or not?” 

Jay hesitates, looking up at the gray sky. 

It would be so easy to stay out here and just burn. 

The wind whips up around him as he finally steps into Ronin’s shop, the first few droplets of rain darkening the wood.

It’s... less messy than the last time Jay was here, but it’s still full of probably-stolen items. Ronin directs him towards a chair near his desk. “Here. Sit.” Jay obeys, plopping down onto the chair and drawing up his knees to his chest. Ronin wanders over to the door, locking it (probably so the police can’t get in.) before going back over to the counter, where he drags a chair out and sets it a few feet away from Jay’s. “So. What happened?” 

Jay takes a moment to look at an only mildly-broken clock hanging in the corner of Ronin’s shop. It took him about three hours to get here, considering he had to walk through most of Ninjago City. “I,” he starts, “overheard some... things. On purpose.” 

“Ah. Eavesdropping.” Ronin gives him an approving nod. “Well done.”  

Jay looks at him.

“Sorry. Go on.” 

So Jay tells him.

The Aeroblades are in the left corner of the room, around ten feet away from where he’s sitting. They’re lying on the second self from the floor. 

“Well,” Ronin says eventually, “that sucks.” He eyes Jay warily. “So why’d you come here, anyway? Seems kind of a weird place to run away to.” 

Jay shrugs. “Seemed like a good idea,” he lies. “They won’t... the others won’t think to look for me here. With all the water and all. I just need some time to think, anyway.”

Ronin eyes the singular window in his shop, looking at the rain pouring down onto the docks. “Well, you have plenty of that. And, if you want, I can just tell them you’re not if here if you come by.”

“You’d... you’d do that for me?”

“I mean I’m stuck with you until the rain lets, which, in this place, can take hours. Maybe even a day, if we’re lucky.” His tone is sarcastic, and Jay offers a weak smile. “‘course you can stay here, kid. Just don’t touch anything.” 

“...Thanks,” Jay whispers eventually, turning to stare out the window. 

Idly, he wonders if the rain would be so kind as to redirect itself through a hole in the roof and spray directly onto him.

The rain, being inanimate, doesn’t reply, and instead keeps doing what rain does best: falling. 

***

Ronin knows the kid didn’t just come out here to hide out. He could’ve done that anywhere- the mountains, someone’s house (he can turn invisible, right?), or even a crappy store somewhere in Ninjago City. 

But no.

He chose Stix. Specifically, Ronin’s shop in Stix.

And Ronin thinks he knows why. 

Jay is... definitely not in the right state of mind at the moment. And for a good reason- your friends indirectly telling you that they were forced to kill you in self-defense after you tried to kill them and raze your home has gotta mess you up. 

Ronin locked the door to his shop so Jay wouldn’t go outside to purposefully disintegrate himself (now that he thinks about it, the blue ghost can go through walls.... still, he tried). 

But Ronin has other items in his shop. Some of which, unfortunately, are used for taking out ghosts.

Which is why he’s not at all surprised to see Jay holding an Aeroblade as Ronin comes out from the back room. 

“Jay, put it down.” The blue ninja jumps, nearly dropping the weapon as it starts to phase through his fingers. He catches it, though, being careful not to touch the sharp bits. He turns, and Ronin can see his eyes.

Wide and wild.

Scared.

This isn’t going to be easy, is it.

“Jay, please put the Aeroblade down.” Ronin’s voice is calm, despite himself, and some part of him wonders why. 

“I don’t-” Jay’s voice is shaky and unstable, and Ronin mentally prepares himself for the worst in a few minutes. “I could just- I could-” His hands are shaking too, Ronin realizes. 

“You had a chance a few hours ago,” Ronin says slowly, “over the water. And even now it’s still raining. You can phase through walls, can’t you? So why this? Why now.”

“I- I’m-” Jay hesitates, for a second, breath still coming out in short, tiny little gasps. “It’s- I don’t- I don’t want to hurt them.” 

The other ninja. 

He’s scared that he’ll lose it again and try to hurt them.

“Well,” Ronin starts, “the first thing you did after finding out what you did was run here, right?” Jay nods, warily, and Ronin continues. “If you were going to hurt them, then wouldn’t you have done it back at the temple? You ran here to protect them from you. Or,” he adds after seeing Jay’s hesitate expression, “you came here to protect yourself from them.”  

“It was- I- it was both, I-I think,” Jay manages, breath calming slightly. His grip on the Aeroblade is still tight, though, and if his fingers weren’t a shade of green and see-through, Ronin thinks they would be white from squeezing the weapon so tightly. “I don’t- they killed me.” 

“I know,” Ronin whispers, stepping closer. Jay lets him, although he does pull the Aeroblade slightly closer to his chest- the spikes are pointing at various walls, though, not at the ghost boy, so that’s good for now. “I know they did, and they shouldn’t have, even if you tried to hurt them. They should’ve tried to contain you, not kill you.”

“I hurt them, too.” 

“It wasn’t your fault- you weren’t thinking straight.” Ronin hesitates, for a moment, thinking. “Didn’t the tribe pull some voodoo stuff on you? That would’ve messed anyone up, even me.”  

“Yeah,” Jay whispers, “messed up my head. But- but they had a lot to work with, I mean- the feelings that my team didn’t- doesn’t care about me, the feelings that I was abandoned by my parents, my real parents... I had those already. ‘s not like they put those thoughts in my head when they were messing with it.” 

“That’s still OK. Kid, from what I’ve seen, your friends treat you like crap. Even if they’ve been trying to make up for it, that still doesn’t excuse their actions. Doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong, though. But you weren’t in control of yourself for most of it, and... ‘sides. Power corrupts even the best of people unless it’s handled carefully.” 

“Yeah.” Jay looks at the Aeroblade in his hands. “...Zane was being controlled in the Never-Realm, once. Evil staff. Evil henchperson. He froze a lot of people.”

“Ooookkkk.” Ronin’s gonna have to ask exactly why the heck these kids haven’t gotten therapy yet. “So, you and him have something in common, then. You’ve both been controlled by forces you couldn’t stop. Maybe you should try talking to him about it. When you’re ready, of course,” Ronin adds quickly. “I don’t think the rest of your guys have the brain cells to come looking here.” 

Jay doesn’t respond, but he does allow Ronin to step closer. Ronin reaches for the Aeroblade. Jay hesitates, drawing it worryingly closer to his chest, but eventually lets the other man take it, setting it down on a table beside him. 

Ronin takes a moment to look into the kid’s eyes, which are suddenly welling up with tears and oh there’s a child in his arms, isn’t that weird.

(He remembers why he was so calm, now. He’s done this before.

Maybe this time, the kid will live.) 

Jay’s arms are tight around him, and Ronin freezes before letting him bury himself in Ronin’s coat, muffled sobs cutting through the soft pitter-patter of rain outside. 

Do tears burn ghosts?

Maybe, but Ronin’s not entirely sure that Jay wants it to stop. 

Jay’s obviously not concentrating hard enough for Ronin to be able to touch him at the moment, so he settles for awkwardly patting the kid’s shoulder while trying to stop his hand from going through his body.

Maybe... maybe this time, things’ll be OK.

***

It’s nearly four A.M before the ninja come knocking on Ronin’s door.

Jay’s been asleep for almost six hours now, passed out on the couch in the back room. Ronin’s not sure how much longer he’ll sleep, but hey, at least he’s not having any nightmares.

Ronin, however, has been awake for nearly twenty-four hours now, and he wants to gouge his eyes out. Even thieves need a good nights rest. 

(He doesn’t want to admit that he’s staying awake in case Jay has another breakdown. Ronin just can’t sleep because of the rain. The rain that’s been lightly sprinkling for about an hour now. The rain that no one can hear from inside. That rain.) 

The rest of the ninja, presumably, are standing outside the door, exhausted and soaking wet. 

Ronin opens the door.

The rest of the ninja are standing outside the door, exhausted and soaking wet. 

“Hello,” Ronin says.

Kai, who has apparently no idea what manners are, asks immediately, “Is Jay here?” 

Ronin narrows his eyes, pulling the door slightly closed. “And what are you going to do if he is?”

Kai opens his mouth and gets nudged by Zane, who gives him a stern look like ‘remember what we talked about’. Kai, re-opening his mouth after a moment, says awkwardly, “We’re just going to talk to him. About... how we should have told him what happened on the island. And we’re gonna apologize, for, uh, killing him.” 

Ronin considers this, and eventually the door open the rest of the way. “It might be a while before you can apologize,” he says, and adds upon seeing Kai’s confused face, “don’t wake him up.” 

He leads them into the back room, where Cole immediately, for no reason other than seeing Jay asleep on the couch, goes ‘awwwww’. He is instantly shushed by Zane. Nya, however, studies her boyfriend (ex-boyfriend? Ronin’s not invested in all these relationships.) before going; “Is he using your coat as a blanket?”

Ronin, clearly not wearing his coat, glares at her. “No.” 

Lloyd studies the sleeping ghost for a moment. Finally, he says, “How long has he been here?” 

Ronin bites his lip, beginning to herd the team out the doorway so Jay doesn’t wake up. “Around... half a day now. Since yesterday, at least.” 

Kai thinks about this for a moment, like he always does when he has to think about things that are ridiculously easy to understand. “And what was he doing here, exactly?”

They’re all back in the main shop area, now, and instead of answering directly, Ronin walks over to the table and the shelf and hands Kai the two Aeroblades that remain in the shop. “I think you should take these.” 

Kai takes one as Cole takes the other, the fire ninja looking up in confusion. “What, is Jay gonna hurt us- did you hurt him?” 

“I didn’t.” 

“Then who-” Kai trails off as he thinks for a moment. His eyes widen. “Oh,” he whispers. “Did he- I mean, was he...”

“He tried to,” Ronin says simply. “He wanted to. I talked him out of it, though.”

“God,” Kai whispers, staring in horror at the weapon in his hand. “Thanks.” 

“There’s another thing I wanted you to talk about.” Ronin pulls out the chair Jay was sitting on earlier and sits down. The ninja have nowhere to sit. Ronin doesn’t care. “I have... a house. Up in the mountains.”

Cole narrows his eyes. “Is it your house or someone else’s house.”

“...You don’t need to know the answer to that right now. Anyway, even if Jay wants to talk to you guys, I doubt he’ll want to live with you for a while until he gets his head on straight. So, he can come to the mountains with me for a while- I need to stock up on some rare items only found up there, anyway. Plus, we’ll be away from all the... water.” 

“Isn’t snow made of water?”

Ronin looks at Cole. “Did snow affect you when you were a ghost?” Cole hesitates, then shakes his head. “That’s what I thought.” 

“Wait,” Kai interrupts, “Jay has parents. Can’t he stay with them instead of some thief in the mountains for a few months?”

“Have you told them about his situation?”

Kai hesitates. “We told them he was dead.” He goes quiet. “We, uh, forgot to tell them he was back as a ghost. I think he just assumed we told them at some point.” 

...This kids are all idiots. “You’re all idiots. Jay can stay with them if he wants to, of course. Just a suggestion since you guys won’t know where we live and won’t come to bother us every two days.” 

“Oh.” Kai considers this. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Ronin stands up (and pretends not to notice Cole immediately stealing his seat), sighing. “You guys can either come back in a few hours or sleep on the floor, I don’t care.” And with that, he walks off to the back room where Jay’s still fast asleep.

(Later, after they come back, the ninja will find him asleep on the opposite side of the couch. He’s sitting up fast asleep, sword having fallen to the floor a while ago.

He looks peaceful.

And Jay does too.) 

[haphazardlyparked]

cousin Billy

lol i have spent two days doing literally none of the things i need to be doing, but meg did suddenly get a cousin. :))) 

----------

“Hey, favorite cousin,” Meg said when I opened the door. “I need a favor.”

I opened it enough to get a good look at her. She was wearing some kind of crude brown coverall-trousers and a rough, threadbare shirt, totally filthy hair (and the Meg I saw off wore a gorgeous dark braid, and now all that thick woven glory was a short frizzy cut that had leaves in it, not even dead leaves, golden and red and orange).

She wasn’t even alone; her entourage included a square-faced man larping as a dirty knight, a tall sallow woman with subtly mis-matched eyes that I absolutely did not notice, holding a small blue dragon statue that did not close one eyelid and curl its tail a bit in. It didn’t, because that would have been insane, or worse, in the realm of fantasy, and that’s one place I generally prefer not to go.

I closed my eyes and shut the door.

Meg immediately started banging on it. “Don’t be like that, cuz, open up, please,” I could hear her say, very clearly, followed by the dirty knight who said, “Lady Meg, should we go somewhere else?”

And the tall woman asked, “What is a cuz?”

“Cuz, cousin, my mother’s sister’s daughter,” Meg explained, exasperated yet very thorough in her reply. Just for the record, she hadn’t stopped banging on my door either.

Then the tall woman, sounding very different and perhaps a bit taller than the first tall woman, which I also decided not to think about very hard, murmured, “You have family?”

There was just enough absurdity in that to make me pause. It was not the loneliness that got me, or the the wistful surprise, like the tall woman had only just remembered family was a thing people could have.

I opened the door and sidestepped Meg’s falling hand. “What in God’s name are you bringing down on me, cuz?” I demanded.

I’ve found that holy curses, the kind my grandparents use, are always safest. That took some trial and error, and a lot of hiding under my covers.

Meg beamed and pulled her arm back the second she realized I’d caved and opened the door. “Billy, these are my, uh, friends, Cal, Arina Firedancer, and—“

“Do you call me that in your own thoughts,” the (second) tall woman wondered, but more in statement form; cool and cutting, with none of that breakable loneliness now.

“Shut up, Arina Firedancer, what else am I supposed to call you?” Meg hissed, introductions derailed. But she paused before she took them up again, glanced at the dragon statue, and then decided to keep mum. If the dragon statue snorted, it might have meant that was exactly this Arina Firedancer’s purpose, but I didn’t see the dragon move at all.

“This is fun, Meg, really,” I told my wayward cousin in a way that emphatically declared the opposite. I crossed my arms and kept my eyes on her very normal, dirt-streaked face. “Disappear for a few years and show up on my doorstep like you haven’t bathed in any of that time, and you have leaves in your hair, by the way.”

“Billy, stop pretending you don’t know exactly where I went, please let us in, and no I don’t.” Meg was trying to smile at me when she said it, only she did not sound nearly as foolhardy and blithely optimistic as the last time I saw her.

Well, that wasn’t my problem. But she was family.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and then I stepped aside and let everyone come in. Meg knew it the minute my security went down, and she barged through the door with a cry of relief and went running for the bathroom.

Typical.

“Alright, dirty knight, tall woman, very inanimate dragon statue—please do not sit on or touch anything until you’ve washed. Actually, just stay here for a minute. Meg will show you the bathroom when she comes back out. Anyone want a glass of water?”

“Yes,” the dragon statue said.

“Anyone?” I repeated, pointedly, and then the dirty knight, who I presumed was Cal, said, “If you would be so kind,” and Arina Firedancer repeated him, word for word and inflection for inflection, neither cutting nor wistful now. She managed Cal’s earnestly obliging politeness so convincingly, I decided immediately not to trust her.  

I retreated to get them two glasses of water to sort out amongst themselves. When I returned, they stood huddled together by my door, Cal positioning himself closest towards me, hand not quite on his sword, while Arina Firedancer watched me with her strange, intent stare. The dragon statue drank water.

At the very least, they were good about not touching anything, though I’d long since moved most things from the small entrance hall. There was a coatrack, in the corner opposite two closed doors that filled one side of the hall, all its walls now bare of the photos that used to be there. The hall itself opened up into the living room behind me, with the kitchen hidden off to one side. My bedroom was one of the doors by the entrance, which you’d think was extremely unlucky and maybe unsafe, but then I’d say, let’s think about where my potentially unwanted visitors might be coming from.

The open living room, and the kitchen for that matter, had very big, spacious window-doors that led out onto a little terrace in the backyard. So sometimes it was better to be near the front door. And my bedroom does have two (locked) exits, so it wasn’t like I wasn’t also hedging my bets. If you were me, you’d be this paranoid too.

It wasn’t long before Meg came out of the bathroom and reappeared in the living room, shaking her hands out to dry, and before she could sit on anything I called out, “Same rules apply to you! No touching anything until you’ve showered.”

Meg jerked up from the beige chair she was about to plant her dirty pants all over, caught, and then straightened with a huff. “Okay, fine.”

“And even if I do let you shower, that doesn’t mean I’m helping you.”

“We only need a door, Billy,” Meg said immediately, abandoning the chair to rejoin us out in the little hall, which was starting to feel crowded. There was a strange purpose to her, no longer smiling to lighten the mood.

“You already know how to get back to your”—I waved vaguely in the direction of Meg’s friends, and didn’t look to see what the dragon statue was up to now—“place.”

Meg tried another smile. It seemed off, for some reason, like there really was something desperate to her. I guess a couple of years living in some weird fantasy land commune--yes, that is the story I'm going with--can do that to a person.

“Not back,” she corrected me, and this time her wheedling grin was just as obnoxious as ever. “Somewhere else. Somewhere like… Fairy?”

“Oh are we talking about that now?” someone said, and then gulped down another sip of water. “Can I talk now? Crouching to be this small is extremely stifling. ”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and counted back from ten. I didn’t care how stupid it made me look.

When I calmed down, I opened my eyes and breathed out. “Meg, you are hands-down my least favorite cousin."

She beamed at me. She knew what I sounded like when I gave in.  

••• ••• •••

You might ask why I am still with the thief who doomed me and her knight and their dragon. I could give you a very long and complicated answer about how she also saved me, in her own time, and how the knight and dragon have shown me kindness, and how these are debts that must be repaid. It would be believable. I know how to be believable.

But I record this to be honest. So instead I will think about that space between them, all the things they say, which outline its shape, enough that I can guess at the things they don’t say. They circle each other, some nearly-tangible connection between them, and it’s that thing that I need to see.

It reminds me what it is like to be human, and while I am being honest, I am doing my best to want that again.

Lady Meg’s cousin is… extremely human. Perhaps something humans can become only without the fear of fairy, I suppose, though this one has really been employing the human power of belief to maintain a strange atmosphere in her home. It feels strangely clean. Empty.

She reaches out to Lady Meg and starts plucking leaves out of her hair. I had thought I'd seen them, but they shimmer fully into view when Lady Meg's cousin draws them out, and Meg frowns, washing away the last light of her triumphant, relieved smiles.

"I don't even want to know how long those have been there."

The cousin Billy sniffs. "Me either. You can use the bathroom off my bedroom, and your friends can share the guest one.”

"And you--"

"Yes, yes," cousin Billy says, and her fistful of orange, red and yellow rustles. "I think these might help seeing as they're native to... your destination."

That makes Lord Cal look worried, and Lady Meg rolls her eyes, because that seems to frequently reassure him. Well, it did before the unicorn.

"Let me show you the wash room," Lady Meg announces, while her cousin unhappily examines the fairy leaves. She ushers us through to the next open room. Through there we turn a corner, where there is a door to one side and another room before us, one with high counters, many cabinets and a deep sink. Lady Meg opens the side door to reveal the bathroom.

It is an odd affair, like something between fairy and home. Lady Meg shows us how the taps work in the standing bath and the white chamberpot, and stresses that it's not magic but merely plumbing. She points to the towels folded on a rack, and I cede the first turn to Lord Cal.

Out the door together, we move to the kitchen, the room with the sink where Lady Meg refills the dragon's glass cup. I set the dragon on one of the counters.

"Hey," Lady Meg says, voice lowered in her version of polite. "Am I not supposed to call you Arina Firedancer?"

I look at her for a moment too long before I remember to blink and look away. I know why she’s asking. I shouldn’t be surprised by it anymore, by that directness. “You may call me what you want," I assure her. "I was just surprised… It is very kind of you. " I hadn't expected her to be so courteous.

"Why is..." Lady Meg trails off, then mutters, "Names. Is it that? I'll never understand them."

I shrug. I don't know that any human can, but it feels right to me, honorable, that we don't think in first names, showing how we don't presume to each other's true names. Is that a fairy or human kind of honesty?

When I don't say anything, Lady Meg recognizes my silence and says, "Alright. I'm going to get some clean clothes for you guys, then shower myself."

I wait until she's back with two piles of folded clothes to ask, "And then?"

"Then Billy will find us a door to fairy. Or something. She's really good at that stuff, once you get her to take the blinders off.”

“I didn’t hear that!” cousin Billy’s voice calls from some other room, loud and indignant and very, very human.

The miniature blue dragon's scales rippled. "Your cousin seems very bad at observation," she commented dubiously.

Lady Meg snorted.

[mocoat]

Ok, first actual post so if anything’s wrong or weird just tell me.

So this is my oc, Ellina Gold-Claw in a thing I’m writing. I’ve been writing random stuff in a google doc to try and keep to her character and I thought it be interesting to post.

Tiny Bosmer, itty bitty baby that will rip your tongue out and feed it to you if you ask if she knows any recipes for people.

She’s not that short tho, about 5 3’. Tall for a Bosmer. Gets it from her literal 7 foot tall Atmoran descent father.

Has bright blue eyes that turn gold when using the Thu’um.

Mums a Bosmer and dads a Nord. Both live in the Imperial city, mom is the head of the Penitus Oculatus and dad is the Archmage of the Arcane University. Writes them letters and maybe she’ll visit on Odah. Dads a softy, moms the badass.

Her dad, Eris Gold-Claw II, is 7 foot 1’ and hella intimidating. Towers over the tallest Altmer (6ft 5’- 6 ft 8 is my kinda canon for them.) and is best friends with Mead. He is a Master in Conjuration, Illusion, and Alteration. Gave Ellina her blue eyes (Martin Septims blue eyes) and her curly hair. His hair is curly, half braided back in a Nord ish style and dirty blond. Doesn’t carry a weapon but when fighting will conjure a daedric sword. Wears his dark blue Archmage robes with the little gold thing at his neck

Her mother, Lilith Gold-Claw, is 5 feet of pure muscle. Is fucken ripped from carrying a ebony bow a head taller than her. Wears ebony chainmail that has a plethora of enchantments to make it lighter and stronger. Literally makes arrows turn the other way when coming at her. Has bright red hair that is kept at shoulder level and is usually tied up. She is a woman of few words and is eternally patient, until she isn’t. If you cross this Bosmer you’re getting your throat ripped out. She quite literally makes people tremble with a look, the rest of the Penitus Oculatus have learned to fear her and also love her. Is very fair but loyal, will beat anyone who calls her husband a dumb Nord who only got his job because of his family name.

The Gold-Claws date back to the Nerevarine. Eresin Gold-Claw. He had a wife and 16 year old daughter, Willow Gold-Claw, the Hero of Kvatch. He was arrested for a bar fight and thrown in prison. Just like Willow would 7 years later. Ever since then the Gold-Claws have been close with the Empire and when Martin Septim died and left Willow alone and pregnant they became even closer. They helped the Meads rise to power and told them their secret. Titus knows who they are and always keeps it in mind that if they wanted to they could have his place as Emperor.

Their family’s are close as a result. Ellina basically grew up in the Imperial Palace, having every guard, maid, cook, prince wrapped around her little finger.

Has wild gold hair, big poofy curls that reach her mid back when dry and go past her butt when wet. Will only put it up when she’s relaxed enough around you. (Kinda backwards but I don’t care.)

Wears a green cloak flecked with gold, reaches the floor when she wears it. Wears Neloths robes, no armor plates. Later on she trades her green cloak for a red and gold one, matching Neloths colors when she goes to the Imperial city for a party

Likes dresses but only when she can. They’re a bit impractical for her line of work. Usually wears her cloak over dragonscale armor. Pretty badass

That’s when she’s traveling, when she’s just sitting around Lakeview she’s just in a shirt and leather pants or a plain dress.

Fucken loves Neloth’s robe that he lent her, and will never take them off now. They’re soft and have P O C K E T S. Yaaas

Once she spends some time around Neloth she starts to fall for him. She liked him from the start, she likes his no shit attitude and his unforgiving bluntness. After she sees him in the midst of a horrible nightmare about his mother using a cruel spell on him and after he wakes he curls up in her arms to cry. She's touched by him letting her comfort her. When he called her dear she just fucken melts. Sure he may be half asleep that first time but who cares.

When he kisses her for the firsts time she’s completely smitten and doesn’t bother trying to deny it to herself.

Also has piercings on her ears, two on the tip of her right ear and just the regulars ones on the other.

Can’t use a bow to save her life, uses Dawnbreaker and she usually has a dragon bone dagger in a sheathe on her lower back.

Used mostly alteration and illusion magic, is decent at healing and can throw a fireball if needed. Prefers her sword. Hates it when people comment on her not using a bow, Windhelm was particularly bad until she threw a guy across the city.

Is a stupidly brilliant artist, draws beautifully but rarely does it. If she finds the time to draw you, you’re special. Neloth keeps her drawing of him on his desk or in his pocket, specially enchanted to not rip or tear.

Likes to sit on Neloths desk and draw him. His expressions are always the best.

Also likes to sit in stupid places. will always choose a table over a chair, had scaled the tower and sat up there when Neloth needed space. Tops of bookshelves until Neloth finds her. Stuff like that

Is always humming, singing, tapping her fingers or feet. Always has a song going through her head.

Odahviing is her best friend, and so are the Companions. (Her and Farkas are close but not romantically.)

Can sing like an angel but can also destroy a tavern if she gets too into it so she doesn’t much.

Loved to hoard books. Until she goes to Moras place

Sucks ass at alchemy but tries her best, Neloth has (or will) banned her from using his alchemy table due to many explosions.

She specializes in Alteration and Illusion magic. Is decent with healing and knows like two fire spells. Hates shock magic, like fucken hates it. Can’t stand to see someone use it

Has three claw marks on her back from Alduin. They travel from the right to the left down her back. She almost died fighting him and if it wasn’t for the Greybeards she would be.

Also was tortured by the Thalmor when she was younger, 10 to be exact, has a lightning shaped scar down her right side that reaches her neck. Can be seen in regular clothing and armor.

Has horrible nightmares, has broken windows in her house in Falkreath from screaming. All of Alduin killing her family, the Companions, or the Greybeards. Neloth makes an entrance later on

Can change her appearance at will, takes concentration though and only lasts a few hours at most.

Hates the Blades with a seething passion, will never kill Paarthurnax. Ever. He’s amazing and he talks nice.

Didn’t take a side in the civil war, thinks Ulfric is hot but a dick. Hates him slightly less than Tullius. Rikke’s fucken funny tho. Hadvar is the best, so sweet. The way he says burns runs through my head constantly.

Is hella allergic to apples and will die if she eats them.

Also her sneezes will send her flying backwards and anything in front of her goes flying as well.

Loves Dunmer food and drink. Sujamma mostly. Flin is alright. Loves canis root tea as well. Is the only person who Neloth knows who actually likes the taste besides him.

True to Skyrim fashion, she loves cheese. Hoards cheese, will kill a room of druager for cheese.

Loves picking on the Thalmor, doesn’t kill them if she doesn’t have to, just likes to slip a Talos amulet into one’s pocket and watch the chaos.

Never calls Neloth anything but his name or when their alone “Dii brit onik fahliil.” Which means, “My beautiful wise elf.” Always makes sure to complement his mind and body.

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

We Care, But At What Price?

Summary: Sequel to "We Care Not". As Hiccup lies sick in bed, the other Riders reflect a little on the past they share with him and how overly protective they are of him now.

Rating: Teen and up

Words: 2 482

Author’s Notes: Sequel that was written quite a while ago, but never posted. Might take this idea to dabble with it in a different fic someday.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Enjoy!

We Care Not (The first fic)

Ao3

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"This is stupid. This is so, so stupid."

Astrid finds herself shushing Hiccup's shaky mumblings as she dabs his forehead with a soaked cloth. It is sweaty and she can feel the heat radiating through the layer separating her hand and his skin.

Hiccup is lying in bed before her on a stack of furs and blankets, all gathered from the other Riders. He wears only a single layer of clothing in spite of the cold Winter plaguing the Edge. His armor hangs forgotten on the back of a chair on the ground floor.

"I should be out there doing patrols or think of something to stop Viggo, not be stuck here in bed." There is a certain resentment in his tone that Astrid doesn't quite appreciate, she resists the urge to demand that he apologize to himself.

That kind of anger, she knows it is directed at only one man in this room and, besides her, the single other presence here is Toothless and Astrid is certain Hiccup can never be mad at him.

Her free hand is held in both of his own on his stomach.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's just a fever." She tries to tell him and Toothless rumbles in agreement. The Night Fury is taking up all the space on one side of the bed. Ever since his Rider has fallen ill, he hasn't left much. He worries.

"I shouldn't be having a fever. I'm not a kid anymore, I shouldn't be getting sick every Winter." Still Hiccup argues, his voice cracks. Even with the fire warming his hut, his woolen tunic, the dragon, and the covers, he shivers terribly.

He doesn't get sick as often as he used to when he was a growing boy, but when he does this always happens. The times Hiccup does fall ill, he falls hard.

Astrid sighs when she hears his comment. Indeed, the Winters here in the Archipelago are never kind to Hiccup. If he isn't sick, then the cold is taking its toll on his leg or some other old injury of his. And then there is also Devastating Winter.

"It's okay to get sick, Hiccup. You wouldn't be giving us such a bad time if we were stuck in bed." That shuts him up, at least. He can't argue with her about that, he knows she is right.

Instead, Hiccup lets his eyes fall closed. He sniffs, his nose is clogged. His cheeks feel so unbearably hot.

Astrid will never admit it to him out loud, but she does find herself worrying during the coldest seasons on Berk. Devastating Winter especially. It wasn't given this name for no reason.

If there is a season cold enough to keep even the Hooligans of Berk indoors for days or weeks at a time, cold enough to keep even the dragons inside, it is certainly that. Before the Edge, whenever she was stuck inside, Astrid would often find herself guilty of sitting around and worrying about Hiccup.

She often wondered as she sat there sharpening her dagger at the fire, was he lying sick in bed? As she ate dinner with her family, was Stoick trying to get some food into his ill son in the meantime? As she checked up on Stormfly, was Toothless watching over his Rider day and night?

Every time Devastating Winter allowed Berk to set foot outside again, it was a relief to her to see him alive and well.

Oddly enough, it wasn't a concern she ever had for the other Riders. And not because she didn't care for them, because she did and a lot more than she let on.

Grabbing the pitcher standing on a stool next to her, Astrid notices that it is empty. Time to grab some more water.

"I'm going to get some more water. I'll be right back." She tells Hiccup, even though he probably isn't conscious anymore, judging by his calm breathing. He may have dozed off.

Which is a good thing, he needs his rest and his body demands it. She lets him sleep.

Astrid briefly scratches Toothless behind an ear fin and walks down from their loft with the pitcher in hand. Downstairs, she meets with the other Riders, who are all gathered in Hiccup's hut.

There is a snowfall going on outside and so it is warmer to stay inside. She knows even the Dragons are huddled together over at their stables. She also knows that there is only one reason why the others are here and it isn't quite because of the weather.

Fishlegs is reading at the table and so is Tuffnut, though the latter isn't as into it as the former is. His face is lying on it. Ruffnut and Snotlout are playing Maces and Talons in one corner, though neither of them are all that interested in their game either.

As Astrid comes down, Fishlegs looks up.

"Is he sleeping?" He asks, putting his book down.

"Yeah, he is." She answers and makes her way over to a barrel with water. Opening the top, she lowers the pitcher into it to bring back up with her.

Ever since Hiccup fell sick two days earlier, he's been drifting in and out of sleep. He is feverish, he is coughing almost continuously, but he is, at the very least, not delirious. So far, his mind remains untouched by the fever. A good sign, they all figure.

Silence returns, but as she ascends back up the stairs, Astrid can't help but notice that the pieces on the board game Ruff and Lout are playing with are no longer being moved.

Returning up to the loft, Toothless greets her with a purr and Astrid gives him a small smile. She replaces the pitcher on its original spot next to the empty mug and then grabs the cloth she'd left on Hiccup's forehead.

Dipping it into the bowl of water standing on that same stool, Astrid stops mid-action when she hears movement. Out of the corner of her eyes, she notices him rolling onto his side away from her. He lets out a deep sigh followed by more coughing. Hiccup nuzzles into his pillow and settles again for the time being.

Astrid relaxes, she isn't even aware she tensed up. Wetting the cloth again, she wrings it out a bit and places it on his temple instead.

"Toothless, I'm going downstairs. You'll watch over him, won't you?" Though she knows she doesn't even need to ask, Toothless still gives her a croon before placing his head down on the bed to fix his gaze on his Rider as Astrid joins the others again.

Ruffnut watches her descend, a frown present on her face. Snotlout doesn't seem to mind that he needs to wait on her next move.

The quiet continues until Astrid takes a seat at the table where Fishlegs and Tuffnut are already sitting at.

She waits. She knows there is something Ruffnut wants to talk about the moment she stops playing her game with Snotlout.

Astrid even sits down on the chair with her front facing the other and looks at her. It is her way of asking "what's up?"

"It's weird, right?" Ruffnut starts now that Astrid has taken a seat. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuff all look at her.

"We know Hiccup's gonna be just fine. He's pretty much indestructible at this point anyway. And yet..." Her voice trails off.

"We're still worried to death?" Snotlout finishes for her.

"Yeah, Fishlegs even says he's doing better than yesterday," Tuffnut speaks up as well and Fishlegs nods to confirm it. Hiccup is already on the mend.

"He should be back up on his feet soon."

"And yet..." Snotlout mutters. His eyes briefly travel up to the loft, though he can't see Hiccup.

Standing back up again, Astrid makes her way to the back of the hut, where most of Hiccup's stuff is kept. She can feel the eyes of the other Riders on her.

Toothless' several different prosthetic tailfins are hanging on that wall, but for as much of an eyecatcher as they are, Astrid's attention is only on one chest.

"What're you doing?" Snotlout asks, his chin resting on the table in front of him.

"Searching for something Hiccup can do? Something to lighten the mood." Astrid replies, crouching down in front of the chest and opening it up. She briefly rolls her eyes at how disorganized it is and begins to search through it. Within seconds she still finds what she is looking for, despite the mess inside.

It is a little book he uses for his sketches. Or rather, one of the many he uses that way. Hiccup went through a lot of them in just one year.

Flipping it open, she wants to see if this one hasn't been filled in yet. Something instantly strikes her as odd, however.

The drawings inside of this one were made by a kid.

They are still good. Very good. And the only conclusion Astrid can come to is that these are Hiccup's from when he was still very little and he kept them. So Hiccup is someone who can get a little nostalgic, who knew?

Struck by nostalgia herself, she keeps looking through them, sitting down on the wooden floor. She is engrossed. Many of them look vaguely familiar to her.

She halts when she comes upon one particular drawing in the book.

Astrid remembers having a dear friend once. She is reminded of her now, of little Unn that never got to grow up, as she stares at what appears to be a hand-drawn portrait of a little girl with baby blue eyes and shoulder-length black hair.

Though this had clearly been drawn by a very young individual, she can recognize these strokes from anywhere. This one had been drawn by Hiccup, too. A long, long time ago. Gods, she never knew he still had any of these. Let alone this one.

He drew this when they were... What? Four? Five years old? They are both eighteen now. How has he managed to keep these for so long?

Astrid stares quietly at the picture. A dull aching makes its way into her chest and there is a hitch in her breath, her eyes are wet. She hasn't thought of her childhood friend in a long while.

"Hey, I know her." Astrid didn't expect anyone to be standing behind her, but she doesn't jump when Snotlout speaks up out of the blue.

He kneels next to where she is sitting and Astrid allows him to take a look.

"She's-um... Ugh, what's her name."

"Unn. She was..." Astrid helps him remember, but she doesn't get much farther beyond that. It is strange, she didn't have any problem saying it before. Why is it suddenly so hard?

"One of the ones that didn't make it." Snotlout returns the favor and finishes that thought for her.

"Yeah." She takes the book back when he hands it to her. She can hear footsteps approaching.

"Oh man, talk about a blast to the past," Ruffnut mutters, her hands on her hips.

Taking a glance over her shoulder, Astrid sees that Tuffnut and Fishlegs are there as well.

"Are there any others?" Fishlegs asks hopefully. It is the timidest he has sounded in a long while.

Astrid briefly skims through the rest of this particular sketchbook and she shakes her head. There are no more.

"Should we check if any of Hiccup's other old notebooks are in there?" Snotlout asks and for once he isn't suggesting looking through someone else's stuff just for the fun of it.

"Guys, I was only looking in here to give Hiccup something to do next time he wakes up. You know how antsy he can get when he's stuck in bed for too long. I'm not randomly looking through his stuff." Is Astrid's reply when a simple "no" would've sufficed.

"Yeah, I know. I was just curious, you know." Snotlout shrugs in response. He is uncharacteristically muted today, as they all are.

It is quiet for another moment before Ruffnut speaks up again. Astrid almost feels compelled to look at the picture of her friend again.

"It brings you back, doesn't it?" She asks her friends, her tone solemn.

"So many of us didn't make it." Fishlegs happens to mention and saying it out loud somehow makes their mood even more dreary than it already is. If that is at all possible.

"I've never really thought about it before, but there are a lot of kids on Berk now. Compared to... You know." Tuffnut reminisces quietly.

"Before the war ended," Ruffnut adds and her brother nods.

It was such a change, one that happened so slow and yet so fast. With how lively Berk is now, it is sometimes hard to remember what it was like before the dragons had come to live with them, before the one responsible for so much heartbreak had been dethroned. And this change, they all know who was responsible for it.

The Riders are all quiet for another moment of reflection. They are all thinking of the same person.

It is odd. Sometimes they still have moments in which they just look at each other and ask "why did we ever dislike this guy?" as soon as Hiccup leaves the room.

"Why weren't we friends before?"

"Why did it take us so long?"

The past three years of friendship did muddle their memories just a tad bit, but this brings it all right back.

They used to dislike Hiccup because he was the weird one. They disliked him because the adults did. They disliked him because he was sure to be the next one to leave them.

And now look at them.

Hiccup is upstairs in bed suffering from an illness he has had before and would recover from again. He is doing fine. He is angry at himself, but otherwise, he is doing just fine.

And yet, they worry. They worry so much they spent most of the last two days here in his hut. The evening of the third day is drawing near.

Upstairs, Hiccup starts coughing and it doesn't let up for a good couple of seconds.

"I'm fine, Bud." The coughing fit wakes him up and the Riders hear Hiccup reassure his dragon, but still, Fishlegs is already running up the stairs just to make sure if there isn't any help that he may need.

"Fish-Fishlegs? Fishlegs, I'm fine! It was just a cough, I'm fine." The rest of them, still on the ground floor, relax again.

Look at how much has changed.

When they were kids, they were afraid to care and their effort not to had lead to them barely caring for him at all. Now that they finally do, they are too afraid to lose him.

[certainglitterhologram]

Lysander Scamander and Lily Potter II

I have a feeling that growing up, Lily and Lysander were best friends. Lorcan was super, super, SUPER close friends with Lily, and obviously Lysander, since they are twins, (trust me on this,), but Lily and Lysander just shared a bond the tiniest bit stronger. 

Lily being an adventure seeking, adrenaline junky, while was Lysander, also adventure loving, but with limits. He knew his boundries and where to draw the line, but struggled to show that line to Lily, who would just jumped into every tree, every river, wanting to ride the hippogriff that she found in the woods behind the Scamander’s house. 

Lysander putting his head into his hands each time, saying “Lily. It’s dangerous. It could bite you, you could fall off, it could have rabies, fleas or something even worse. “

Lily rolling her eyes and attempting to do it anyway, running up to the hippogriff and almost getting trampled to death. Like Scorpius’ dad, but actually life threatening. 

After getting her out of there, Lysander smirked at her and said, “Don’t really wanna say I told you so, but....... *Pause* Oh who am I kidding, of course I do. Never tell me I’m wrong Lily, and expect to succeed in whatever dumb thing you’re doing. Lily just scoffing and said “I’m Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s daughter. The only reason I almost got trampled was obviously because the hippogriff sensed you behind that tree.”

Lysander, used to these egotistical comments, says “Oh yes, how could  I be so stupid. It’s not like I’m the great-grandson of Newt Scamander, or anything. And the situation we are talking about involves a damn hippogriff. “

 On the Hogwarts Express, Lily, Hugo, Lysander and Lorcan in the same compartment and a tall, lanky dark haired boy comes in. He introduced himself as Matthew Corner, and Lysander, being the best with people, gets up and politely introduces himself, and introduced the others.

Matt is immediately liked by everyone in the compartment, and they form their own little quintet, bonding over candy and pranks in the compartment. 

When Albus and James come in to check on Lily, she just giggles and waves, before redirecting her attention to Lorcan, who had eaten one of those cool sweets that make you grow features of an animal, that Hugo had brought on the train.

The Sorting Ceremony went as expected, really.

Matthew, was one of the first, and had barely sat on the stool, before the hat shouted “RAVENCLAW”

Hugo went next. He was on the stool for a long time with that hat on his head. Not enough to be a hat stall, but just enough to be notably long, before the hat yelled “HU-GRYFFINDOR!”

When Lily was called, she sashayed up to the stool, with an overwhelming amount of confidence, and James yelled “YES, LILS! WHOO!”. The hat suprisingly sat there for a while, debating between Slytherin and Gryffindor, before ultimately deciding on Gryffindor. 

Lysander had a feeling of dread at that moment. He did have seperation anxiety from Lorcan, just a mild case, but enough to make him dread the thought of them being in different houses. He hadn’t thought of it until that moment, becuase Lorcan and him were so alike. He ruled out that thought, and focused on relaxing himself

Lorcan jumped on the stool and only had a couple seconds of deliberation, before  “HUFFLEPUFF!”

Lysander knew even before going up there, that there was no way he would be in Hufflepuff. He wasn’t exactly the definition of hardworking. Not that he wasn’t, no, he just had a tendency to quit things that no longer interested him, rather than working throught it.

When his name was called, he was immediately sorted into Ravenclaw. He knew he should feel proud, as he was taking after his mother, and had one of his closest friends with him, Matthew, but being away from his twin, best friend and other close friend, was paining him. But Lysander was known to almost always be happy, so shut these feelings down, sucked it up and got used to it. Eventually, he found that it wasn’t that bad, and that Lily and him were still best friends, and Lorcan was still his right hand man. And vice versa.

In their second year, Lily tried out for the Gryffindor quidditch team, and made it, as their Seeker. A few weeks into the season, it was Lily’s third match, Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff and literal miliseconds after Lily caught the snitch and secured the win for Gryffindor, in a rage, one of the Hufflepuff beaters bat a bludger straight at the back of her head, knocking her out. 

Lysander, Lorcan, Hugo and Matt sprinted down the stands, running over towards her. She was crumpled on the grass and being levitated onto a stretcher by Headmistress McGonagall. 

The culprit of the injury had jumped on his broom and flew towards the castle, and Lysander was trembling with rage. He snapped at the other boys (Hugo, Matt and Lorcan,) to follow him to see if they could find the boy. They found him trying to run into the castle without being seen, but Lysander jumped on him, and pinned him down, so he couldn’t get away, while Lorcan and Hugo sent red sparks to the teachers, letting them know the found him.

Then, of course, Lysander did the unexpected. Just when the teacher and the student were coming into view, he let go of the boy and punch him straight in the nose, breaking it, as soon as the first met the boy’s face. A single punch before Lysander pulled him close and whispered in a deadly calm tone 

“Never. NEVER touch my Lily, EVER again.” Dropping the boy on the ground, before walking over to a shocked twin and Matthew. Leaning against the wall behind them and wiping the blood from the boy’s broken nose in the white-blond hair, not even caring at the streak of red in his hair. 

Consequently, he recived three weeks of detention. Could have been worse, I suppose, was his attitude. For the next month, he recived fist bumps from James in the hallways and tiny smirks from Albus, telling him, they were proud. 

Three years later, in fifth year, Lysander was noticing that he was catching feelings for Lily, but then, Matt had shyly asked her out, and she replied with “Why not?”.

Everytime they held hands, hugged, kissed or did anything of the sort, Lysander felt a rage build up inside of him. But for Lily’s sake, he tried to be happy. For Lily. 

Lorcan noticed immediately, and after teasing that Albus owed him 12 Galleons, comforted him and said that he was sure that Lily felt the same way, but just hadn’t noticed it yet, and told Ly to just play along and calm down.

Hugo noticed it in History of Magic, his first class after breakfast, where after seeing Lily and Matthew snog right in front of him, Lysander had crushed a goblet with his hands. After giving him some kind of twin telepathic look that Hugo couldn’t interpret, Lorcan sighed and muttered “Reparo”.

Hugo thought it was weird, but thought not much of it until he realized in the middle of HOM. (He is Ron Weasley’s kid. Ofc he wouldn’t fucking notice.) 

Hugo sent a note to the table where Ly and Matt were sitting, across the room, in a oragami swan (^-^) that read on the outside

Matt, if you’re reading this, just give it straight to Ly. Nothing really that interesting here, 

In it, read 

Lysander, mate...I realized you like Lily. Or Matt. I’m not sure, mate, i’m not going to make any assumptions. If it is Matt though, good for you. If it’s Lily, It was kinda obvious, so maybe, don’t crush a goblet next time they snog... just trying to help, but just know, that if Lily doesn’t choose you or doesn’t feel the same way, (Which she does.) the whole Potter-Weasley-Granger-Johnson-Delacour clan is on your side. 

If you need anyone to talk to, I’m always here, mate. Just say the word.

-Hugo

and Hugo got a paper dragon back, saying

Well, I shouldn’t really suprised, but it’s Lily. I’m not fucking gay. But thanks for being supportive. Love you, bro.

~Ly

Lysander walked out of that class feeling a lot better,  while Hugo felt smug. Hugo ran up to Fred II saying how he was about to have won his little bet with Rose. But they walked into the middle of the hallway to see Lily and Matthew, both looking solemn, (which was a first for Lily, who was almost always happy.)

They were speaking in hushed tones, Matt nodded and hugged Lily in an almost friendly manner, before walking away, with a smile on his face.

“What happened?” Lysander asked Lily, plainly curious.

“Oh, Matt and I both agreed that this relationship wasn’t working. We did like eachother.. but we agreed that being friends was more benefical for both of us. 

Lysander tried very hard not to break out into a grin, while saying “Aw.. You two were cute together. “

Lily snorted and just walked into the Transfiguration classroom and plopped down in her chair.

During the passing period after the next class, Lysander quickly told Lorcan the news, who encouraged him to ask her out at dinner. And Lysander agreed

Lysander worked up his courage to ask her out and was about to walk over to the Gryffindor table, went she walked into the Great Hall, smirking. 

“YOU!” she yelled, pointing at Lysander. The hall went silent. 

“ME!” Lysander yelled back, sticking his toungue out at her. 

“GO ON A DATE WITH ME ON THE NEXT HOGSMEADE TRIP?” Lily shouted, across the hall and out of nowhere. 

“ANYTHING FOR YOU LILS!” The sentence slipped out of Lysander’s mouth before he could stop it, but he was glad he did. 

Lily ran over to them, while Lorcan and Matt nudged Lysander, but Lily ignored them, pulling Lysander into a kiss that lasted a good forty five seconds. 

The Great Hall cheered, and Lily whispered “I saw you crush that goblet at breakfast today, Ly. I didn’t even remember it until an hour ago. I knew you felt the same as me, so I did something so you wouldn’t have to ask me out. Carriages to Hogsmeade at 10 sound good?”

Lysander couldn’t say anything, so he nodded. 

“Perfect! “ And Lysander watched Lily walk to her awed girl friends and a particularly smug Hugo. 

Let’s just say a lot of money was exchanged that day.

[unabasheddinosaurkitten]

Rise Of Orthros

Chapter 6

Richard was seated in his office with Troy sitting in front of him, he was at bit of a stand still, his plan for Amelia to come alone, was ruined when she brought her two other friends. Richards office was huge. It had huge braziers attached to one side of each of the sixteen onyx columns light up most of his business study and blanket everything in a warm glow. The illustrations of gods on the layered ceiling dance in the flickering light while carved images look down upon the maple floor of this office.

A violet rug splits the entire room in half from the doors to the study while pennant banners with embellished quilting drape from the walls. Between each banner hangs a torch, almost all of them have been lit and in turn illuminate the murals of heroes and leaders below them. Extensive, stained glass windows depicting ancient legends are bordered by drapes colored the same violet as the banners. The curtains have been adorned with embellished borders and fancy tassels.

His imposing office chair of oak sits in front of a giant painting of the kingdom and is adjoined by three smaller and less elaborate seats for those who seek to speak with Richard.

The office chair carved with oak is covered in symmetric designs and fixed on each of the stubby legs is a crystal divine symbol. The soft pillows are a dark violet and these too have been adorned with burnished sigils.

"Father? how are we going to do this now?" Troy asked, they needed Amelia out the way. "Even mother is getting in the way now."

Richard sighed harshly as he ponded in thought of what to do next, he really hoped Teresa would stay out of this too, but he knew there was a risk with bringing Amelia back home

Richard scratched his head, "Maybe we can use three of them now, I think I may have a better idea."

Troy smirked in glee as he leant forward placing his elbow on his father's desk, wanting to know more of his father's plan. "So what is this plan of yours?"

Meanwhile Amelia, Hunter and Hanna were sitting in the tavern in town, they knew everyone would have to get used to them, they will be here until they are no longer needed. Amelia was waiting for Richard to ask her when she could meet up with him. She rose the glass of mead in her hand towards her mouth.

As always the mead was served warm; when she took a sip, she could smell a sweet aroma and the taste of honey and spices danced along her tongue. She sighed closing her eyes gently, wishing the taste would linger more.

"I wonder what the others are up too," Hanna wondered out loud, she had to admit it was a little weird being someone without the others.

She was used to travelling with all of them not just a certain few, it was a change she knew she had to get used too.

Amelia let out a little laugh, "Phillip is probably rejoicing because I'm not there."

"Why does he hate you?" Hanna asked as she finished her mead.

"Mostly everyone hates mages, it doesn't matter if they are good. Phillip also has a rough history with mages. Just like everyone has" Amelia replied with a dull tone, she cleared her throat as she heard the tavern door open.

Hunter sat up and was about to head towards the bar so he could order another round of mead for the three of them, when he bumped into someone.

"Oh my sir, I am so sorry about that. Are you alright?" The man asked Hunter as he dusted him off, placing something inside his jacket.

"Oh no worries, my fault," Hunter said as the two of them parted ways. The man going one way and Hunter going the other.

||||

It was a cold afternoon is Rishnag, mostly everyone was getting ready for a storm that was closing in from the shore. A man had popped off the boat, giving the sailor an extra 30 kirla pieces. The man known as Zachariah headed towards the palace in urgent news for the king.

Villagers watched as the man walked through the town, although they were custom for newcomers to come. They always wanted to know who and remember them just in case. Sam was on his way to the castle where Zachariah had bumped into him.

"Hey man! Watch it! I have urgent news for the king!" Zachariah shouted alerting almost every nearby who heard it.

Urgent news for the king? Was the king in danger or something? Sam picked up his pace quickly following behind Zachariah. He needed to alert Stephen and Phillip just in case but was their time? He had to think fast without Hunter here to give them direction, he knew he was next to give orders.

Instead he headed towards his fathers base near the castle to tell him what he had heard from the new traveller that had arrived. Should he also alert Hunter? He shook his head on that thought knowing he will be helping Amelia.

Lord Ragnar's castle had Nine slim, square towers that are both a defensive and also decorational. This elegant castle is also commuted by lower, wide walls made of dark brown stone

Small windows are scattered here and there around the walls in fairly symmetrical patterns, along with holes of various sizes for archers and artillery.

A great gate with wide wooden doors, a draw bridge and a moat gives a safe place to rest in this forest stronghold, but it's not the only way in, which fortunately only very few know.

Huge statues of heroes and kings decorate the bridge outside, memories of glories of the past. This castle shows signs of expansion as some parts are clearly build more recently than others, the inhabitants are already working on another part and hope to keep expanding.

Zachariah made it inside the castle, where he took a few deep breaths to catch his breath. He took a moment to look at the throne room he was standing in, being aware of his surroundings.

Humble braziers at the bottoms of each of the eight granite columns light up the entire throne hall and cover the hall in dancing shadows and a warm radiance. The angelic paintings on the slanted ceiling dance in the flickering light while statuettes look down upon the mosaic floor of this opulent hall.

An alabaster rug runs in a circle around the room, with two paths at the throne and the main entrance while rounded banners with ornate tassels hang from the walls. Between each banner hangs a torch, all but a few have been lit and in turn illuminate the paintings of other leaders of the world below them. Massive windows are shrouded by curtains colored the same alabaster as the banners. The curtains have been adorned with embellished borders and decorated tips.

A dignified throne of granite sits atop an elevated platform and is adjoined by five equally impressive seats for esteemed guests. The throne is covered in complicated designs and fixed on each of the wide armrests is a crystal moon. The broad pillows are a light alabaster and these too have been adorned with quilting.

Those wishing to witness their royal highness can do so on the few extravagant and comfortable marble benches, all of which are facing the throne. Those of higher standing can instead take seat in the extremely lavish balconies facing the throne.

"Your highness, I come for you with urgent news," Zachariah spoke.

"What is it?" A guard asked.

"I come from the town of Gandor," gasps filled the throne room as a few extra guards circle the king in protection.

"A mage? Here?" Another guard asked.

King Ragnar stepped aside from the guards, "What urgent news do you have for me?" He asked.

"There has been an attempt on your life, while I was in the tavern I overheard a few dragon riders speaking about how they plan to assignat you," Zachariah said, his voice laced with fake fear.

"What do you mean? Where is your proof of this?" King Ragnar knew that his most trusted allies would never turn on him, especially Amelia after everything he had done for her.

"I have proof, here my lord." Zachariah pulled out a scroll from his jacket pocket and handed it to his lord.

Lord Ragnar opened it and read it, seeing the seal of the dragon riders with Amelia's handwriting. Lord Ragnar was now filled with rage and scrunched the scroll in his hand as he turned to his guards. "Get Amelia, Hunter and Hanna here as soon as possible and lock them up in a dungeon where they will be questioned about their treachery."

"But my lord..." William was about to speak when he was silenced by Lord Ragnar.

"Do as I say!" He shouted before turning to Zachariah. "Thank you for bringing this to me. Now leave." He pointed to the door.

Zachariah nodded to his lord before heading out of the castle and towards the boats, he knew his master would be pleased of his efforts and what he had done.

||||

Back at the tavern, Amelia, Hunter and Hanna had gotten word from a source that the men that was after the money was about to come through the doors only for it to burst open and what they weren't expecting where the king guards. Without question Amelia, Hunter and Hanna were grabbed harshly.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hunter asked as he was shocked by their rough force.

"You are being arrested by the king himself over treachery," a guard explained as the three of them were escorted out.

Ethrinria let out a roar as she was being dragged by a few other guards with a metal chain, Amelia gasped. "No, no. Ethrinria let her go. She hasn't done anything nor have we."

The three of them were dragged away without any more questions by any of them, but they all began to wonder they this was happening. What has they done to the king that could be considered treachery? Doing missions requests weren't normal but they did receive them and not once did the king think that was treachery.

The guards walked Amelia, Hanna and Hunter to the dungeons of the northern side of Gandor below the mountain.

[tommynikkivincemick]

three way call — part 9

Summary: Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx find themselves in the frustrating predicament of being infatuated with the same woman. This calls for a competition.

Author’s note: What’s up fuckers, it’s been a minute! Sorry for the long hiatus, but shit’s been fucked! But now I’m back and will hopefully be writing more. This will probably be the last chapter of three way call, but I’ll totally write an epilogue if y’all would like one. Also sorry if I forgot anyone on the tag list, I haven’t been keeping up with requests very well. Sincerest apologies. Enjoy.

Warnings: Language, alcohol, mild violence, the usual.

Over the following weeks, Tommy, Y/N, and Nikki became inseparable and the Terror Twins became the Terror Triplets. The trio would constantly be touching, kissing, cuddling, sitting on top of each other, or excusing themselves to go have sex. They knew how each other member of the throuple liked their coffee and what kind of cigarettes they smoked, how they tossed and turned in bed, their preferred brands of beer, and what toppings they liked on their pizza. Y/N knew that Nikki didn’t think Crown Royal was worth the money as far as whiskeys went and that Tommy preferred sativa over indica because it didn’t make him feel as hazy. Nikki knew that Tommy didn’t like cheap vodka when doing shots because he’d thrown it up so many times before and he knew that when Y/N made the coffee, it somehow tasted better despite being made the exact same way by everybody. Tommy knew that Y/N only used Sally Hansen nail polish and owned every shade of red ever made, or so it seemed, and that Nikki only burned dragon’s blood incense, only from this weird little hole in the wall shop downtown.

To Vince and Mick, the closeness was nauseating. Vince was tired of fourth wheeling in his own home and tired of being kept up all night and some of the morning by “Oh Tommy, oh Nikki, oh Y/N,” and the pounding of the headboard on the wall. The most blissful times were when Y/N was at work or the trio decided to spend the night at her apartment instead. However, when Y/N was away, the boys had begun to play, testing boundaries romantically and in the bedroom at all hours of the day. Even band practice has changed; Nikki with his perfectionist tendencies harped on Vince and Mick as usual but suddenly everything Tommy did was perfect. In Tommy’s eyes everything should be dialed back a bit, unless it was his drumming or Nikki’s bass.

“I’m so sick to death of those three,” Mick said one day while the Twins were visiting their third at work.

“Oh, shut up, you don’t even live with them! They’re so far up each other’s asses, you can’t even tell where one ends and the others begin at this point,” Vince bitched.

“Don’t get me wrong, Y/N is great, and I’m glad they’re all happy, but when it affects the band is when I draw the line.”

“I know! Nikki and Tommy have been skipping practices and they’re god damned lucky all of our gigs have gone smoothly. I mean, hell; Sixx is supposed to be the leader of this band and who was it that had to call back that Zutaut guy about scheduling a meeting with those record exec guys? Fucking me! I mean, we call Nikki the leader, we call Y/N our manager, and Tommy’s the second in command, so they need to start fucking acting like it if we’re gonna score this record deal.”

“Should we break them up?” Mick asked, a devious sparkle in his eye.

“Absolutely not. Good material has been flowing from Nikki like fucking water; have you read the lyrics for new piece? ‘Looks That Kill’, or whatever? It’s bitchin’, and I don’t even care that it’s about Y/N. He told me what he wants for the instrumentals and it’s gonna be awesome, the whole next album will be.” Vince gushed.

“They’ll tire themselves out eventually,” Mick sighed, “Until then, we suffer, and also tell them to get their shit together.”

Meanwhile at the record store, Y/N swore she was about to throw her lovers out of the store.

“When’s your lunch break?”

“When does your shift end?”

“We miss you!”

“Just close the store for a little while, we won’t tell...”

“Yeah, come on, baby, live a little!”

She loved Tommy and Nikki— really she did— but today they were making her want to tear her fucking hair out. The Twins were especially needy today and it seemed like their whining and pleading wouldn’t ever stop.

“Guys, you’re gonna get me fired, stop it!” She hissed, slapping Tommy’s hand off of her ass.

“Your boss is never even here! Nine times out of ten, you’re the only one working in here,” Nikki reminded, taking another cherry sucker from the bowl on the counter, and watching as Tommy slid behind her again.

“Yeah, but there’s customers here and sometimes the owner’s son comes by to check in and... and...” Her eyelids fluttered and her train of thought went off the tracks as Tommy began kissing her neck and nibbling her earlobe to distract her, “Tommy! I’m gonna slap you in the face if you don’t stop it!”

“But don’t you like it?” He whispered.

“I love it, that’s the problem. You two go home and I’ll see you in an hour for lunch, yeah? I’ll even call in sick for the rest of the day and have what’s-her-name cover for me.”

“Fine,” Nikki pouted, “You promise?”

“I promise, lover,” She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him gently, “But I promise nothing if you two don’t get out and let me get some work done.”

“C’mon, Sixx,” Tommy huffed and leaned down to give Y/N a kiss on the cheek, “See ya later, sweet thing.”

“Later, babes,” She smiled and waved goodbye as they left at last.

She sighed a sigh of deep relief and sank into her chair that sat behind the register. Finally she could take a breather and get some work done. Then the phone rang.

“Mötley residence, Mick speaking, can I please speak to Y/N?”

“Black Cat Records, Y/N speaking, what’s up, man?” She greeted.

“Are the boys still there?”

“Nope, just left. Why, did you need something?”

“No, no. They’ll be home soon enough, I’m sure. We’re having a band meeting later, though, and you need to be there, too.”

“Yeah, got it. Good news or bad news?”

“Little of both. Well, little bad, lot of good.”

“Okay, I’ll be off in a little under two hours and I told the boys I’d call in for the rest of the afternoon. See ya later, Mars man.”

“See ya later, Terror Triplet.”

She chuckled at the name and hung up. As she stuck price labels on a new shipment of records, she wondered what the news could be. The rest of the morning drug on slowly with few customers and boring music on the radio. No Mötley Crüe, that’s for sure. Finally, it was time for the lunch break. Y/N made a quick call before she left.

“Hey, Sylvia? Can you cover me this afternoon? Yeah, yeah, band stuff, you know. Yeah, I’ll tell the boys you said hello. Thanks, hun, I owe you one.”

She was lucky her coworker picked up and was even luckier she agreed to cover her. Even though her boys annoyed her, she still couldn’t wait to go home to them. Y/N was also anxious about Mick’s news. There was so much on her mind that she couldn’t even pay attention to the Blondie song that was on the radio as she drove to the Mötley residence. She climbed through the window of the apartment to find all of the boys laying around the living room in various states of undress.

“Why are you all half naked?” She snickered.

“It’s hot as balls, babe. Our AC broke, I think,” Tommy whined.

“Did you hit it?”

“A little,” Vince sighed, “It didn’t help.”

Y/N hummed to herself and went to the other window, kicking the air conditioning unit as hard as she could, to no avail.

“Damn, that usually works. Oh well, is there cold drinks in the fridge?”

“Yeah, Vinnie went grocery shopping today. We got beer, Diet Coke, bitchy wine cooler things, and some other shit,” Nikki replied, fanning himself with a random piece of sheet music.

She kicked off her shoes and shirt and grabbed a Coke from the fridge, sitting on the floor between Nikki’s legs and leaning her head on his thigh.

“Why are you wearing these leather pants, babe? Aren’t they hot?”

“Fashion before function, sweetheart,” The bassist shrugged.

“So Mick,” Tommy piped up, “What’s your big news?”

The guitarist sat up in his chair, and cleared his throat.

“Good news first. Do you guys remember that Zutaut kid?”

“Dorky rugby shirt?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, that’s the one. He talked it over with Electra and called today saying they want to sign us as soon as possible.”

The boys and Y/N erupted in a chorus of whoops and hell-yeahs.

“So what’s the bad news? I don’t think anything can sting after that,” Nikki grinned.

Vince shifted uncomfortably before addressing the rhythm section and their lady love.

“Nikki, Tommy, Y/N, let me start by saying we love that you guys are happy together. But me and Mick feel that you’re letting this relationship consume you a little too much. Nikki, you’ve been letting Tommy get away with murder during practices. Tommy, you’re going soft with Sixx and Y/N, man. And Y/N, you’re our manager, but you’ve been devoting more of your time to the guys than the band as a whole. You should have been the one to talk to Electra and tell us we’re getting signed, you know? But we’ve been having to pick up the slack and that sucks.”

The trio nodded guiltily. They knew their priorities were a bit skewed as of late. Y/N had been meaning to call Electra for days, Tommy had been slacking and not taking his position as second in command seriously, and Nikki was too in love to whip Tommy into shape again. It wasn’t fair to Mick and Vince, and they knew that.

“Yeah, I mean us being together makes us happy, but maybe we should’ve considered if it would be good for the band,” Tommy sighed.

“Maybe taking a break would be the best thing for the band,” Y/N mused, words soaked in sorrow.

“Hey, no! You don’t have to take a break from each other, just even out your priorities a little more, you know?” Mick offered, “Tommy still acts like a ten year old but has more grown up moments since you guys started this. Nikki broods less and the creative juices really seem to be flowing. And you seem really content, and me and Vince don’t want to take that from you. You just needed to be straightened out. It’s cool, just focus on the band more, okay?”

The three nodded and sighed in relief. Y/N excused herself to go lie down because it had been a long day, and Nikki followed. Tommy would have, but insisted that Nikki’s bedroom was too stuffy for the Los Angeles heat with no air conditioner. The bassist opened the window in his bedroom to allow for some air flow as the manager removed her shirt and pants to lie down on the dark sheets.

“Were you serious when you talked about us taking a break?” Nikki asked, sitting on the floor beside the bed.

“Only half. If it would be better for the band, I think we could all agree on it. But it would kill me not to be with you and T-Bone anymore,” She whispered.

“Yeah, I get it. I don’t think I could go back to not being with you two dumbasses,” He cracked a smirk, “The bed’s too big without a couple extra warm bodies next to me.”

“I bet you’d write some killer breakup songs, though. Everybody loves a heartbreak,” She joked, fanning herself with a magazine from the table.

“I wouldn’t love this heartbreak,” Nikki sighed, leaning his head on the mattress, inches away from hers.

She took the memo and kissed him deeply before the sounds of chaos erupted from the living room.

“Damn it, Tommy! Don’t drink all the beer!” Vince whined, “Grab another one and I’ll... I’ll shoot you with a staple gun!”

“Did you leave your bag out there?” Nikki whispered.

“Mhm,” Y/N hummed.

“Is your staple gun from the store in it?”

“Mhm, wh—“

There was a metallic pop, followed by shouting.

“FUCK, BLONDIE! YOU MISSED MY EYE BY AN INCH!” Tommy shrieked.

“HALF AN INCH!” Vince yelled back.

“Oh, fuck,” The couple in the bedroom sighed in unison, before going out to join back in the chaos.

Tag list: @jayprettymuchomw @kayladurin @crazysaladchopshop @iamtiber-andtiberismusic @loveofmyloif @saints-of-the-universe @tommyfuckinlee @oh-well1 @cranberribread @princesadeltoro @prostidudes-for-justice @miriampraez @tarahell @n-osebleed @valentines-in-london @bohemian-war @cuntlord0606 @holding-on-to-my-youth @abbysdogcollar @deacontaylormercurymay @fuckyeah-motleycrue

[captaindwobbit]

An Unexpected Family - Chapter Two

Word count: about 2823

Warning: Talks about death, the military

Read the previous chapter here: https://captaindwobbit.tumblr.com/post/625828977843519488/an-unexpected-family-chapter-one or on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/7532368/chapters/59508406#workskin 

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Monday September 1st, 2014

It took ages for the first day of school to roll around. School was hell, everyone looked at her like she was a sick shelter puppy. Maybe she was, Ninnith wasn’t sure anymore. The prospect of seeing Uncle Thorin again helped her through it, but just barely. It  would’ve been nice to spend the first day of school without the pitying glances. At least she was in Kíli’s class. The new English teacher, Miss Baggins, also seemed very nice. She was also the only teacher who had treated her like a normal person, which Ninnith greatly appreciated. Miss Baggins was also going to be their form teacher for the year.

The rest school day had been uneventful, though, and she told Dís as much when the woman asked Ninnith how her day went. Kíli was more enthusiastic, though, so excited he started talking with his mouth full during dinner, much to his mother’s annoyance. “We have a new form teacher, Miss Boggins. She teaches English and wears vests like headmaster Gandalf sometimes does. It’s like she’s wearing a uniform, like us, which is considerate of her.”

Ninnith rolled her eyes and swallowed her food before speaking. “Baggins, Kíli, her last name is Baggins.” “Same difference”, the boy grumbled, and he stuck out his tongue. The obvious more mature one out of the two, Ninnith rolled her eyes once more and decided to flick a mushroom at him when Dís turned her back to them to start cleaning up. If the woman noticed, then she didn’t show it. “You’ve been awfully silent, Fíli, is something up?” she asked her son.

Fíli looked up from where he was frowning at his food as if it had personally offended him. “What?” Kíli and Ninnith shot each other a Look before turning to the blonde in unison. “Is it a girl?” Kíli asked, beaming. Fíli growled and bumped his elbow into Kíli’s ribs. “No!” he exclaimed, voice cracking a little. It had begun to do that a lot lately, now that Fíli was 15. “It’s not a girl. There’s this new kid in our class, Ori. I tried to talk to him, but he just turned red, sputtered and then ran away.” The teen scratched the back of his head, frown not leaving his face. “He skipped a year, or so I’ve heard, and I figured he could use a friend. Guess not.” “Hmm, Ori… Think I’ve heard that name before” Dís mused from where she was leaning against the kitchen counter. “I’m sure he’s just a bit socially awkward, it was nice of you to try to talk to him. Don’t just give up on him, okay? I’m sure he’d like a friend.” Fíli got up from his seat with a shrug and put his plate and utensils in the dishwasher. “I’ll try, but I won’t go chasing him if he runs off again.”

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After dinner, Kíli and Ninnith sat on the couch to look at the homework they’d gotten and check out their textbooks. At least, that was what Ninnith was doing, Kili was just doodling on the front page of the notebook. Ninnith peeked over from where she was working, and saw that he’d drawn himself fighting a dragon with the text “Kíli’s Math Notes” on top of it. The girl snorted at the drawing. “I like your pencil sword.” “Sharpened pencils are dangerous”, Kíli said sternly, “I still have a scar in my palm from when you stabbed me with one.” Rolling her eyes, Ninnith went back to look at the list of books Miss Baggins had given them. “I was 5, and I’ve already apologized for that so many times. Which book are you going to read for the upcoming assignment?” Her friend shrugged a little, looking over at the list in her hands. “The thinnest. Books and I don’t mix well.” Ninnith sighed and bumped his shoulder. “We used to read together all the time when we were kids.” She knew Kíli was dyslexic, but Ninnith wasn’t going to let it bring him down. “So what if you read a bit more slowly than the rest? Miss Baggins even put fun books on the list, too!” “I’ll see, we still have time.” Kíli mumbled, going back to drawing, and Ninnith knew the conversation was over. She didn’t plan on completely letting it go, though. Kíli just needed some motivation.

“Are you looking forward to Uncle Thorin coming over?” Ninnith asked, deciding to change the subject. The brunet sat up to look at her, face split into a wide grin. “You bet your ass I am! I haven’t seen him in nearly over a year. Well, physically. Hope nothing bad’s happened to him, though.” Ninnith took the brown strand of hair her friend was nearly eating and tucked it behind his ear. He’d started growing his hair after he’d stumbled of pictures of Uncle Thorin as a teenager. He’d looked like a different person, with his piercings and long hair. Still handsome, of course, Ninnith had to  admit, and a bit like a mix of Fíli and Kíli. Kíli had started talking about getting his eyebrow pierced, but his mother had protested at that. She’d told him they could talk about body modifications again when he was 16. Kíli had just shrugged and agreed. “Your Mum said he wasn’t injured, so there’s that. Maybe you can ask him to come with you to get a second hole pierced.” Then a conversation about weird body modifications followed, and they got lost in watching YouTube videos about them until Dís told them it was time for bed.

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Friday September 5th, 2014

Ninnith was nervous. She hadn’t seen Uncle Thorin in several years. The girl didn’t really know how he would react to seeing her in his sister’s house. She herself still felt like a bit of an intruder at times. It was one thing to be close to a family, and another to live with them. The sound of the doorbell ringing interrupted her train of thought, and Kíli shot up from where he was sitting next to her on the couch to go open the door. Fíli shook his head at how his brother jumped over the back of the couch – something their mother had told them not to do – and followed his brother at a calmer pace. Ninnith could hear the door opening and Dís greeting her brother. Then Fíli and Kíli’s voices filled the hallway. All right, she could do this. Taking several deep breaths, she got off the couch and walked over to the hallway. The blonde was just about to step into the hallway when Thorin nearly bumped into her, and she scolded herself for having waited too long to go. It had only felt like seconds!

“Oh, hello, I’m Thorin”, the man fumbled a bit awkwardly, and it honestly made Ninnith feel better to know she wasn’t the only socially challenged person in the room. “Uhh, not sure if you remember me, it’s been a long time.” "Yes, I remember you, " Ninnith took a smiled slightly, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss the tall man on the cheek. "uncle Thorin." The man's shoulders visibly relaxed, and his eyes glossed over. Oh no, he couldn't cry. If he started crying, then Ninnith would too. She'd always had issues with that sort of thing. Blue eyes focusing on Ninnith’s green ones, he put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed softly. “Who wants food?” Dís yelled from the kitchen, breaking the rather awkward silence. Thorin had looked like he wanted to say something, but Fíli and Kíli both ran to the kitchen, and the tension was broken. Dinner looked delicious, Dís’ lasagna had always been one of Ninnith’s favourites. The blonde girl filled her plate while Kíli bombarded his uncle with questions, talking so quickly it was amazing the man understood at all. If she was honest, she was zoning out while eating until she heard Kíli ask how long Thorin was staying. “I’ll start looking for apartment next week, but I’m going to stay here for a while”, their uncle replied before finishing the last bite of his garlic bread. Kíli positively beamed at that – the teen was looking forward to spending time with his uncle. “Uncle, why did you come back? You haven’t said, and Mum won’t tell us.” Thorin smiled and grabbed some more garlic bread. “I decided it was time for me to be with my family more often.” The dark-haired man met Dís’ equally blue eyes at those words, the smile not leaving his face. There was something sad in his eyes, though, Ninnith noticed. It was the same look Dís got sometimes, when she thought no one could see her. Ninnith finished up her food and patted her stomach. “Wow, I’m so full, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat for the next few days.” She got up and quickly put her plate in the dishwasher. “Hey Fíli, could you maybe come help Kíli and I with our maths homework? There’s this one question we just can’t solve.” Kíli frowned a bit, he hadn’t really talked with his friend about maths yet. He was used to Ninnith’s schemes, though, so he didn’t say anything. His brother just looked confused. “Really? We have all weekend, does it need to be- ow!” Fíli turned to glare at his brother, who’d just kicked him under the table. “Okay, if it’s that urgent…” “Great, thanks Fee. Dinner was absolutely delicious, Dís, thank you!” And with that, all three of the teens left the room and headed upstairs.

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“Okay, so what was all that about?” Fíli asked once they’d made it to the boys’ bedroom, arms crossed over his chest. “Uncle Thorin obviously has to talk to your Mum about something, so I’m giving them some time.” She ran a hand through her hair and sat down on Fíli’s desk chair, spinning around. “They could’ve done so after we all went to bed. You didn’t have to lie about homework.” The older teen grumbled and walked over to the chair, grabbing it to keep it from spinning. “And stop spinning my chair like that, you’ll break it.” Ninnith tilted her head back to look at him, smiling a little. “So grumpy! What happened to our fun-loving Fíli?”  The older teenager glared at her at first, but then her smirked. “I’ll show you fun-loving!” Fíli reached over and started tickling the girl’s sides. That would teach her not to antagonize someone who knew all her ticklish spots! Kíli cleared his throat from where he was sitting on his bed, and lifted up his maths notebook. “We actually do have maths homework. I don’t know about her, but I need help with this. You two can continue that-” The brunette waved a hand in Ninnith and Fíli’s general direction, “when you’re done helping me.” Fíli instantly took his hands off of Ninnith and she would’ve fallen off if he hadn’t reached out to steady her. Her face was red and her hair a mess, but she still sent a fierce glare his way. The taller teen just grinned at her and went over to Kíli to help him.

Ninnith decided to leave them to it and go to her own room to read reviews on the books on Miss Baggins’ reading list. It was quite the list, and it a lot of fiction novels, which delighted the girl. She was used to having stuffy English teachers who would only allow non-fiction or incredibly boring fiction (it’s not that she hated Jane Austen, but her books were just so tedious to read). She was, however, finding it difficult to decide between the numerous books, two of them being Great Expectations and Ninety Eighty Four. She hadn’t read either of them, despite them being classics. Schindler’s Ark/List had been briefly considered, but Ninnith had decided she wasn’t quite in the right headspace for that book right now. Maybe in the second term. Then there was of course The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which had been a pretty good book, but one she’d never written a report on. It would save her time, but she didn’t want to be a lazy student. Ninnith wanted to impress Miss Baggins. After about half an hour of reading reviews, she decided to slip on her pyjamas and get comfortable on the bed. Opening YouTube, she scrolled mindlessly through her feed and clicked on a random video. The girl didn’t really care what she watched, as long as it distracted her. After watching YouTube for what could’ve been twenty minutes or two hours, Ninnith drifted off to sleep.

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When she awoke, her room was completely dark and her mouth felt like she hadn’t drank any water in about a year. Tiptoeing on bare feet, she made her way downstairs, cringing whenever the old stairs creaked. Perhaps the sound of the gentle rain tapping on the windows would mask the sound. Ninnith got to the kitchen, and was surprised to find it already occupied. “Oh, hi uncle Thorin”, the girl whispered to the dark-haired and tired looking man. “Just wanted to grab a cuppa before heading back to bed.” The man didn’t react much, he just nodded. In the harsh kitchen light, the bags under his eyes were more defined. The silence was deafening, yet was harshly interrupted when Ninnith opened the cabinet to grab the box of chamomile tea. “Want some?” She turned her head to look at her not-quite-Uncle, and he seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding. Ninnith prepared the two cups of tea, the only sounds in the kitchen the clanking of tea cups when she set both of them down on the kitchen table. She froze first at the scraping noise the kitchen chair made when she pulled it out, but sat down after a few seconds. The teen carefully picked up her cup and blew on it. At least she had something to do with her hands that way. Ninnith tapped on the cup to keep herself from saying anything. Her cup soon became half-empty, and not a word had been spoken. “Do you want to talk about it?” The teen asked softly after a few more moments of silence. Thorin’s head shot up from where he’d been staring at his own mug, as if he only just remembered someone else was in the room with him. “Talk about what?” No, Ninnith wasn’t having any of that. She was young, yes, but not oblivious. “The real reason you came back home. The reason you’re not in bed right now.” Blue eyes stared into Ninnith’s own green ones, but she didn’t budge. She’d had years of practice with Kíli and his moods. Thorin finally sighed and ran a hand over his face. “It’s not something someone your age should worry about.” The girl huffed and took a sip of tea before replying. “Someone my age shouldn’t have to worry about their parents dying, yet here I am.” The man’s eyes went a little wide at that, but Ninnith just shrugged and offered a sad smile. “Doctor Peredhel says talking about things helps you process them.” Thorin didn’t ask who Doctor Peredhel was, and she appreciated it. It was true, though. Talking to the therapist had helped a lot, he also never pushed her. “Being in the military, you see things. A lot of things no one – even adults – should see.” He grasped his cup with both hands but didn’t lift it. Instead he stared down at it. “I saw too many people die, and then I heard about Bel- about your parents.” Thorin’s voice was rough with emotion, but Ninnith didn’t dare move or interrupt. A lump was suddenly stuck in her throat. “I had to come home.” That seemed to be all he was willing to say. And that was okay, really, Ninnith wasn’t here to pry. She also didn’t quite want to know the details. The teen put her cup down and placed her hands on Thorin’s, which were now gripping his own cup too tightly. “Well, I for one am glad you’re here, Uncle. And I know everyone else is, too.” She squeezed the man’s hands and finished the rest of her tea in one gulp. “But if you do need someone to talk to, I could give you Doctor Peredhel’s card. He’s easy to talk to.” Thorin didn’t say anything, but she could tell he was thinking. Her ‘good night’ was answered distractedly and it made Ninnith frown. She hoped Thorin would accept her offer, or at least talk to someone. It would perhaps get rid of the haunted look in his eyes. Once in bed, she lay staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours before finally falling into a restless sleep.

Read the next chapter here:to be added

[i-ndil-cuimhne-ar-daniel]

(drawing by @mahanaimacallaris)

@mahanaimacallaris I hope you don’t mind me putting this in a new post, but I figured people would appreciate not seeing that long-ass post on their dash over and over again 😂 But I’ll put a link here to the first post with the other drawings/story: link

Well, this is my two-cents, including a couple of *cough* hints. 

Whatever happens in Munich, stays in Munich

The early morning light fell into the room through the half-open curtains, seducing the lingering darkness into a flirtatious shawdowplay, and Till watched as silhouettes danced across the wall in various shades of darkness – in the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more, and Ian Curtis offered him the words in that soothingly melodramatic voice, but,

no, not now, go away. The dark was as enticing as ever, but Till was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep himself out of the shadows. It was one of the few times they didn’t have any obligations and they got to spent a quiet morning sleeping-in, and, well, he wanted to be able to experience every moment in the light, not the dark.  

Till carefully wiggled his shoulders to find a more comfortable position, holding Flake tight as the slender man lay sprawled on top of him. His breathing warm against the skin of Till’s shoulder, his heartbeat a steady rhythm against his chest, and, Gott, I love you. Ja,

it was officially a thing, our thing, although Olli never missed a chance to remind them that,

without me your thing wouldn’t even be a thing, so theoretically speaking this is our thing,

and Till had no complaints about that. The more the merrier, right?

Though perhaps Flake would be a tad more difficult to persuade, especially after what I did… Because, ja, there was indeed the tiny thing Till had done. Nothing too serious, I hope, but he expected some trouble out of the keyboard player nonetheless.

Still, I can’t wait…. It wasn’t like it had been formally confirmed, but, they’re going to come through. Not just Olli, but, ja, them too, the mysterious person who had made the drawings of Till in the pink fluffy coat.

I’m not going to tell you, stop with the bribes, Till.

But they’re your favorite cookies. Look. I made them myself,

and Olli had shot him a look.

Fine. I bought them myself. But it was done with love – so much love!

I’m sure it was, and I appreciate it. I really do. But a secret is a secret. I crossed my heart and hoped to die.

You’re not going to die, Olli!

I’m not going to risk it either, Till!

Fine, but can you at least ask them to do another drawing? Please, for me, and Till had tried for the cutest puppy-eyes, and,

stop-would you just…fine, you got me. I’ll ask. Oh Gott, let me guess. This is about Munich, isn’t it?

apparently, it had worked. Olli had promised to ask for the drawing.

Flake is going to make a bit of a fuss, Till was absolutely certain. But most of it is in jest anyway. Spending years with the band, and specifically Paul, had left him more desensitized to outrageous jokes, nudeness, and things that should not be named, than he’d like to let on. He just likes the drama, that extra shiver of attention he got whenever he let out some screams and made a scene.

And he knows Munich was….epic, even for their standards.

It had been a quiet May evening. Tired from the concert and a meet-and-greet with fans, they had all retreated back to their own rooms, Flake following Till to his.

He’d just gotten out of the shower, and they were sitting on the bed with a glass of wine, chatting about things Till had by now forgotten about, when they’d heard a ruckus outside. Curious,

that sounds a bit like Paul,

Flake had gone to the window to have a look, and,

mein Gott, that is Paul! And Richard! And they’re….oh Gott…no!

What is it? And Till had gotten of the bed. Tell me.

No-no! We’re not doing this again, I refuse,

and Till had looked out the window, only to find Richard and Paul chasing Christoph through the hotel garden. The latter neatly in his shirt and sweatpants, but the other two, stark naked.

Oh, scheiße, look at them go, and Till had opened up the glass doors, walking onto the balcony. And of course, Flake had been right behind him.

Together they had stood at the banister watching as Richard and Paul were trying to corner Christoph, he’s actually pretty fast and agile for such a large man, and, thankfully, their efforts so far had been unfruitful.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying though. Throwing all regards for modesty out the window, Paul and Richard had run over the grass, sliding left and right as they tried to make quick turns. Hands waving, fingers grabbing, but Christoph had managed to outrun them every single time.

That’s quite a sight, isn’t it?

and Till had looked up to find Olli standing on the balcony next to his. It sure is. Mein Gott. Any idea what’s going on?

Shrugging his shoulders, Olli had chucked his fag over the railing, eyes still fixed on the spectacle unfolding in the garden below. You remember when they rebuild his drums at the bottom of the pool and left him to retrieve them by himself? Well, you’re looking at the payback. The start of a budding grin had carefully presented itself at the corners of Olli’s mouth. He took all their stuff while they were in the sauna.

The thunder of a hearty laugh had vibrated through Till’s chest. But, come on! Schneider isn’t stupid, he wouldn’t wait for them to get out.

Fully blossoming, the grin had spread itself across Olli’s entire face. Nope. But let’s just say someone still had a little bone to pick with our drummer about a missing container of cookies – and took his room key.

Till had laughed so loud he could have sworn he’d heard the sound echo, but,

Olli had simply smiled dryly. There are things I myself don’t need to see, but, uhm, you enjoy the show. Gentlemen, and on the beats of his farewell, he had disappeared back into his room, closing the doors behind him.  

Meanwhile, the manhunt downstairs had still been in full swing. But as the two firecrackers had decided to, finally, team up, Christoph had quickly found himself in a little trouble somewhere near the edge of the swimming pool. Caught between the covered obstacle and the two approaching fire breathing dragons, Christoph had yelled out at Till and Flake,

a little help here would be nice,

but Till had simply shrugged his shoulders, shouting back, you want to play with fire, you might get burned, while Flake had just stood there and waved.

I’M GOING TO REMEMBE–AHHH,

and both Paul and Richard had jumped him at the same time, cutting the sentence short as Christoph had let out a high-pitched scream.

With Richard’s arm around his neck and Paul’s full weight against his chest, it had only taken a few seconds to get him down to the ground. But Christoph was strong and lifting Paul up with one arm, he had easily plopped him onto the ground next to him.

Getting to Richard had been more difficult, as he was lying underneath Christoph, holding him in a firm choke hold. So, by the time he had finally managed to get a hand between his throat and Richards arm, Paul had climbed back on top of him, using his knees to try and help keep Christoph down.

Now, where up until that point it had only been a matter of some, things, dingling and dangling, now everyone was offered a full view of, everything, really, and,

MEIN GOTT, PAUL LANDERS, I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR NONSENSE!

Hands still firmly on Christoph’s chest, Paul had looked over his shoulder. THAT’S NOT FAIR, YOU NEVER YELL AT RICHARD.

THAT’S BECAUSE I’M NOT FORCED TO LOOK AT HIS, OH MEIN GOTT, ALJOSCHA WAS RIGHT! YOU ARE IMPOSSIBLE,

and with a dramatically grand twirl Flake had turned on his heels, marching back inside, although Till was quite sure he must have still caught the,

YEAH, WELL, HE ALSO SAID I HAD A CUTE BUM. SO, TAKE THAT!

It had sent Till straight into another laughing fit, slapping his hand on the balcony railing as he had looked on as with joint effort and a whole lot of gymnastics, Paul and Richard had managed to get Christoph out of his pants as well,

which had been about the time the hotel manager had come running into the garden, another employee with a stack of bathrobes in tow.

And maybe it had been the whole incident happening at all, or maybe it had been just the simple fact they weren’t even drunk when it did. And maybe, well, most likely, it had something to do with their stubborn refusal to cover up in the offered robes, making their way through the hotel buck naked….but regardless of which one it was, verdammt, that guy had been pissed, raving and ranting as he had scolded them like they were a bunch of naughty children.

Luckily some sweet talking from Christoph and a very sad looking Flake letting out a little snicker, it’s a good thing he can cry on command, had convinced the manager to let them stay. For one night. Thus, the next morning they had gotten another telling off from Tom from management, who had to find them another hotel.

It was worth it though, that evening was….epic, Till had no other way to describe it. And now he would have a memento to hang on his living room wall. Flake is going to kill me, having to look at Paul’s naked ass every ti

a quick knock on the door roughly yanked Till out of his thoughts. Who can that be? “Yes?” But there was no answer. That’s weird.

“Wazz tha?” Lazily Flake lifted his head, his chin scraping along Till’s chest as he turned his head to face him.

“I don’t know. There’s no response.” His fingers tenderly caressing the soft skin of Flake’s back, Till leaned up for a kiss. “If you let me go, I can go and check.”

“Nah,” Flake stole another kiss, “I’ll go,” and rolled himself off Till, and off the bed. He stood swaying on his feet for a second, “woo-right, okay,” smiling at Till as he exorbitantly blinked his eyes. “Yep, I’m here,” and he turned to grab his bathrobe off the chair.

As long as you come back to bed after, Till watched as Flake swung the fabric around his shoulders like a cape, walking towards the door, I’ve got plans for you.

“I don’t think we were even supposed to answer,” Flake sunk to his knees, “there’s a paper stuck underneath the door,”

Really? Oh, wait-scheiße, “wait!” Till shot up, clutching a tangle of blanket in his hands.

but Flake had already picked the white sheet off the floor. “What could this-ahhhh, oh no!” In a flash he got up, “Till Lindemann, what have you done,” making his way to the bed. “Whatever happens in Munich, stays in Munich, remember?”

“Easy, calm down,” his hands held up in a half protective/half apologizing motion, Till smiled his dearest smile, “don’t be mad.”

“I just-I, mein Gott, will you look at it?” Flake held the paper out so Till could see. “They’re naked! Again!”

“Now, now, come on. It’s not like you haven’t seen that a couple of times before.” Till let go of the blanket and took the paper out of Flake’s hand. “Look, this is amazing. That’s us again. Remember, that moment we heard the noise outside?”

The corners of Flake’s mouth slightly trembled and,

oh, I’m on to you, Till knew all too well the other was attempting to hold back a smile. All I need to do, is draw it out. “Look, this is-come here,”

with his other hand, Till grabbed onto Flake and pulled him onto the bed, waiting for him to settle himself against his side before he continued.

“Look,” pointing at the paper, “how cute are those bums?”

A gentle nudge against his shoulder,

“and would you look at Olli! Mein Gott, he’s pleased with himself. As he should be! They would have never been outside if it hadn’t been for him,”

and on a sharp exhale of breath, Flake let out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right – you’re right. The drawings are amazing.”

“But?”

“They’re amazing!”

“And?”

Flake let out a soft sigh. “It’s always shenanigans, all the weird shit we got ourselves into. Why not something, you know, sweet?”

Dropping the paper on the nightstand, Till turned towards Flake and took him in his arms. “Because I’ve already got you.”

“Oh, you,” a quick kiss on the nose, “I mean something sweet to put on the wall, next to those other drawings.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” a tender smile, “what about that night at Olli’s house, when you asked me to be yours?”

Oh Flake, that is sweet, it had taken Till a good four glassed of whiskey to amass enough courage to do so, but, such a fantastic night, sitting by the fire pit, looking at the stars. The whole damn lot of them standing watching from inside the house, although Till wasn’t quite sure if Flake had that in mind as well. Then again, seeing them scatter around when we looked their way was kind of cute., so I guess it counts

“Or that time when all of us went for a walk and Richard fell of that rock, and we all took turns supporting him until we made it back.”

Right, ja, that had been the previous year, during one of their gigs in England. Off course, Richard and Paul had climbed some rocks, but Richard had fallen off, hurting his ankle. It had taken them a good five hours to tackle a path that would have normally taken not even three, but they had made it. Together.

“Though the sweetest part was you giving him a piggyback ride for the last two miles.”

“My back was less impressed.”

“I know,” another petit kiss, “but you did it.”

Yes, I did. We did,

“or it could be something happy, like that doughnut eating contest – you know, when Christoph got mad at Olli for making him laugh, and he tried to shove three doughnuts into his mouth at the same time,”

nearly choking Olli, but, well, it actually had been kind of funny. Once Olli had stopped coughing and spitting out chunks of half-chewed dough.

“Oh-oh, or when that lady wouldn’t stop badgering Schneider about the god-awful way he treated his perfectly behaved pups!”

Resting his head against Flake’s shoulder, Till let out a thundering laugh. “Now that would be priceless! He got so annoyed. ‘Let me be, you’ve got no idea what they’re like.’ And Paul just kept sniffing her leg!”

“I still refuse to believe she didn’t notice.”

Another round of laughter. “Perhaps she liked it!”

Flake snorted. “Who knows. He sure did.”

“Stop it,” words carried out on a wave of exuberant laughter, “I can’t.” There’s always something going on with Paul….funnyman.

“Although I think we’ve ventured right back into weird again.”

“Are we ever anything but weird?” Till leaned back, looking Flake in the eye. “Seriously?”

“Nah,” Flake shook his head, “it’s just, some types of weird are definitely more enjoyable than others.”

Ah, “jokes and pranks are the good type of weird, naked bums are the bad kind?”

“Mmm,” a hint of tension built up in Flake’s face, focusing around the ever so lightly narrowing eyes, “that depends on whose bum it is.”

Ohhh, “I see,” tugging Flake closer, Till nuzzled his face into his neck, gently sucking the skin between his lips as he showered it with kisses. “I,” kiss, “like,” kiss, “where,” kiss, “this,” kiss, “is,” kiss, “going.” Till had a whole bunch of ideas that he was sure Flake would classify as, the good type of weird, and, I-

Putting a hand against his chest, Flake pushed Till away. “Are you sure?”

-what? “What do you mean?”

“Because as Olli would say, I still have a bone to pick with you over that Munich-thing, and I’m not sure you’re going to like what I’ve got in mind.”

“I’ll ask for another drawing, I promise!” Reaching back to a sure-fire favorite, Till faintly titled his head downward, looking up at Flake with slightly widened eyes, even pouting his lips to exploit the full potential of the endearing look. “Please be nice.”

“I’ll think about it. In the meantime,” Flake leaned closer, gently tapping Till on the nose, “go fetch the present I brought you. It’s in my suitcase.”

What did you do? “What is it?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

This should be good, it looked like the morning was going to turn out even better than Till had imagined. Cuddles with Flake, the amazing drawing, and now, what did you bring me? He pushed himself to the edge of the bed,

“And Till?”

turning to look over his shoulder.

“You better be good.”

Oh hell yes, it was going to be a very good morning.  

[laws-hat-headcanons]

10 + 10

I realised after I had posted this that I did it on a reblog that was already pretty long... so I have now done a separate post to try and make it smaller! Sorry! 

I was tagged twice to do this and was writing out my answers when Coop tagged me AGAIN!! So I am sorry to all of you, this is long and you're going to learn more about me than you probably wanted to!!

Answer 10 questions then add 10 of your own: 

@lucynnamonroll thank you for the first Tag flower!

1. A dream that you still remember?

I dreamt once that someone was chasing me and my dog and they bit me, took a big chunk out of my arm. And then my dog gave me this big blue fruit and my arm grew back. My dreams are always very strange.

2. What job did you want to do when you were younger?

I wanted to be a vet but I am way too emotional around poorly animals and also not smart enough to learn how to treat them haha!

3. And now? Did it has changed?

Yeah, I don't think I was ever cut out to be a vet. I'd like to work with animals though, maybe kennels or something? Zoo Keeper would be cool.

4. A favorite game?

I'm gonna take this as video game... There are a lot. I love Mass Effect and Dragon age, Gears of War... but Horizon Zero Dawn was amazing. I loved every single thing about it. Beautiful game, great story – just.. chefs kiss

5. Where did you have traveled? (Either it’s in your country or not)

I've been a few places- France, Spain, Somewhere else hot but I can't recall where... Ireland, Scotland. I was supposed to have gone to Bulgaria at the beginning of May but Coronavirus done fucked me over.

6. Did you have a totem animal/a favorite animal?

Ever since I was about 6 wolves have been my favourite animals. I originally started drawing so I could create a wolf fursona …. siiigghhh

7. Did you/Do you have a teddy bear to help you to sleep? How it was looking?

Yes, a little dog called Custard. He is a beige colour with brown ears but is still in pretty good condition. He sits on my desk chair when I'm not using it.

8. THE animated (or not) serie of your childhood/teenage years?

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – heroes in a half shell, turtle power!! I was also hella into Dragon Ball Z on Toonami when I was a kid. I remember we went to see some family up north and they didn't have Toonami and I cried because it was mid way through the Buu arc and I was gonna miss it.

9. Do you have anime/series/movie/whatever things merch?

I have a few bits. A Hatake Kakashi figure, one for Katakuri and Zoro. A heart Pirates hoodie. I think I have Kid's wanted poster somewhere...

10. How was your day?

Oh. It was a day. I slept through most of it. My energy/motivation levels are pretty low at the moment. But it was sunny, so that was nice.

@luffytarhoe thank you for my second tag!! 💙

1- What’s your favorite show/anime of the moment ?

I don't watch a huge amount of anime despite the focus of this blog. So probably One piece on that front. Otherwise I am watching Outlander atm, which is pretty good but there is sooooo much sex. An ungodly amount of sex.

2- What type of music are you into?

My music tastes are quite varied. I like stuff that you can listen to and put into a situation, so usually sad stuff where I can imagine I am the main character weeping over the bodies of my fallen comrades. Also Goo Goo Dolls!

3- If you could have one superpower , what would it be ?

Probability, or luck. Like Domino in Deadpool. That's always been such a cool concept to me.

4- What’s your favorite color ?

Blue and all it's hues. Maybe teal if I had to get specific.

5- Do you prefer animated or live action shows/series ?

I am happy with both. Though some animated shows should stay animated – looking at you ATLA...

6- Do you believe in ghosts ?

I believe that energy never disappears, only changes forms and I don't think that's any different for whatever happens to people energy once we die. I'm a big wimp though so it's easier for me not to believe in them!

7- Do you speak any foreign language(s) ? if yes which ones ?

No, sadly I never had a talent for languages. I'd love to speak Gaelic though.

8- Your n°1 fictional character ?

Probably Stone from the Raksura book series. He's just a fun grumpy old shapeshifting man.

9- Would you say you’re more of an extrovert or an introvert?

Definitely an introvert. I like me time. And all my hobbies are single person hobbies so that doesn't help haha.

10- What was the best vacation you ever took and why?

I haven't been on holiday in over 10 years but we went to a zoo in Spain once and a Monkey sat on my head. That was pretty rad.

@doctorgerth and finally, thank you for my 3rd tag!!

1. What are your zodiac signs (sun, moon, rising, if you know them) and do you think they fit you pretty well?

I am an Aries and that is pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject. Aries are meant to be pretty hot headed and outgoing and I can only really claim to be one of those thing and only when I need to be. So no, I'm not sure it fits me.

2. What is your favorite clothing item and/or accessory?

I don't reallllly care a lot about clothes and or stuff. So I guess either my glasses because I need them to see long distances (and to drive) or my phone if that counts as an accessory because that has all my crap on it.

3. Any future children or pet names?

Noooooooooooooo and no

4. If you could meet anyone (can be past, present, future, real, or fictional) who would it be?

I would have liked to have met Steve Irwin I think. He seemed pretty chill and I grew up watching Crocodile Hunter on TV so he was a big hero of mine for a long time. Also the Rock or Jason Mamoa because of reasons....

5. Brag on yourself! What’s something you love about yourself?

I am passably amusing and guess I write okay too haha

6. What is a movie or show that you could rewatch a million times and never get tired of?

The film Evolution is endlessly funny to me and it makes me laugh every time I watch it. I used to have it on VHS and I kept a video player in the house to watch it until my cousin got it for me on DVD (Yes I am old.)

7. What is your favorite album of all time?

I haven't listened to it in a long time but I really loved Maroon 5 – Songs about Jane.

8. Do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens? If you have stories to back up, plz share.

I want to belllieeveeeeee! Ghosts, yes, hesitantly but I think I answered that in a previous one. Aliens 100% because I refuse to believe that we are the only sentient life the universe. It's just... statistically impossible.

9. What do you do/who do you look to for inspiration?

I guess human being wise my mum is my inspiration for a lot of things? She's just a lovely person and she's very kind and sweet. I am very aware that we are not much alike, but I look to her as the sort of example of a good person. Creativity wise it's just a clusterfuck of books and badly organised pinterest boards.

10. What is your happiest memory?

Practically anything that has my nephews in it I guess. They're just... hilariously weird little dudes and I love them so much. They always make me laugh.

And here are my questions!!

1. What is your favourite book?

2. What is you most loved item and why?

3. If you got the chance to travel to another planet (knowing you would never see your friends or family again) would you do it?

4. One song that makes you cry?

5. Do you believe in supernatural stuff? Ghosts and Monsters and Fairies? Any experiences with it?

6. What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever witnessed or had happen to you?

7. What one thing would you buy if you had the money?

8. What is your worst habit/personality trait?

9. If you could alter your body with one cool feature, what would it be? (camera eyes, monkey tail, etc)

10. Do you have the patience to play a full game of Monopoly with no breaks?

I'll tag @pinkhatlizzy @nakunakunomi @lirulee @one-piece-dumpster-fire and anyone else who wants to answer my dumb questions!! Tag me because if you decide to do it so I can see your answers 💙

[fallen029]

Last Month: Ice Skates and Late Dates

There were a lot of things that Laxus didn't like about winter.

It was cold. Too cold. It snowed. Too much snow. Which was wet. And got everywhere. And it meant that he had to buy firewood, for the fireplace, and make sure that the front walk was shoveled and forbid it iced.

He hated when it iced.

Then there was the fact that everyone got a bit of cabin fever, when it snowed so much people were trapped inside too often and why was it, huh, that his wife's dorky siblings and his only friends all seemed to think that his house was the place to escape the frigid night air?

And don't forget the snowmen.

Those wretched, hell-bound beasts.

He thought he hated snowmen most of all.

Still, it seemed to be Lana, his little baby demon dragon, favorite time of the year, so he had to grin and bear it. She liked it even more as she aged out of just playing in the front yard or looking up in wonder at the lights hung from neighborhood houses. No. She was now old enough to be the like the big kids, she insisted to her father one day when she spied them at the park, over on the frozen pond, and wanted to ice skate too.

"Ice skatin', huh?" Bickslow hummed when Laxus approached him with this the next day.

Lana was spending the day with her Uncle Elf, but most the rest of their family was up at the hall. Laxus' wife, Mirajane, was very busy with her Master duties and her aunt Lisanna was filling in at the bar, hoping to pick up some easy, extra jewels for the upcoming Winter Festival. The others in their little group, the Thunder Legion, were sitting around their table, Freed commenting on a job before, but stopping when Laxus made Lana's new desires clear.

She was the only baby any of them had. Given the fact Ever and Elfman were frequently on the outs, Freed had little desire for small children, and Bickslow and Lisanna really shouldn't be allowed near any, ever, unsupervised, this made sense. And given that Mirajane and Laxus seemed content for the time being in her being their only child, this didn't seem as if it would be changing any time soon.

This meant, however, that she was, well, more than a bit spoiled. Not just because her father seemed to bow to each and every single one of her demands (which, yeah, this was a massive problem), but also because the others had very little experience to draw from, when dealing with children, and seemed to mostly wish to keep her appeased.

Or else.

And Laxus was the or else.

So if his hatchling wanted to go ice skating, damn it, they were going ice skating.

"I can't," Evergreen told him. When this got a dark look from the slayer though, she glanced up from filing her nails to insist, "Seriously, I can't. I never learned."

"I must confess," Freed added, "that it is a skill I am lacking as well."

"What's with you guys?" the slayer complained. "How do you not know?"

"We were a bit busy in our formative years," Freed offered simply. "Surviving."

As the slayer looked off them, perhaps feeling a bit of remorse for his harsh tone, Bickslow only took to snickering. His little wooden babies began to do much the same.

"Ah, boss!" He patted at his chest then, the seith did, as his tongue tumbled from his mouth and they all got a good look at his guild marking. "I would be happy to teach the baby boss how to ice skate."

"You weren't," the slayer went right back to griping, "asked."

"You don't know how to either though, huh?" the seith asked. "Else you wouldn't have come to us, yeah? So it sounds like you need me."

"I don't need anyone."

Other than his little tiny baby demon dragon hatchling.

And yeah, the actual demon too.

"Perhaps," Freed suggested then, glancing around the table at the others, "we can make it a family affair."

"Don't have affairs with your family, dude." Bickslow's tongue slurped right back up in his mouth. "Freak."

"Wha- That is not what I meant!"

"Keep it in your pants."

"Bickslow-"

"What do you actually mean, Freed?" Ever asked with a roll of her eyes, really just wanting this conversation to die already.

After sending his friend the darkest of glares, he looked to Laxus once more before explaining, "We all lack in this category and, well, I am certain Lana will hardly be an expert on her first venture. Certainly it will make her feel better, should we all learn along side her. Right?"

"I," Ever began after the others thought on it, "can't."

But she could.

And she would.

They all would. Laxus rose then, to go see the Master and inform her of this while Lisanna, seeing him dip into the back, used this to her advantage and came over to goof off with the others rather than work. Easy jewels could be so straining sometimes.

"It's me," Laxus called out after knocking his knuckles against the heavy door of his wife's office. "Demon."

"Oh, dragon, come in, but don't let anyone else in, alright? I'm really swamped."

"Just me," he assured the woman as, upon entering, he found her desk swarmed with papers and the woman with a pair of glasses on, looking over something rather official, it seemed. At his entrance though, she only pushed them up as she looked to her husband.

"What's up?"

He came over first to give her a kiss before falling into the chair on the other side of the desk.

"Can't come check on my woman?" he questioned, but she only continued to stare at him, waiting for a true explanation. Sighing some, he added, "Lana wants to go ice skating."

"Okay," she said slowly as she blinked. "Is that…. You're not going to be weird over something like this, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Dragon, you get weird over every new thing she does."

"Do not."

"Laxus, I'm really busy-"

"She's my only daughter," he griped. "Should I not think that each and every milestone is important and noteworthy?"

Mira only sighed at him though and, after sulking for a moment, he knew he had to continue.

"Well, I don't know to do it," he admitted to his wife then. "Ice skate. And neither does the Thunder Legion. Well, stupid Bickslow does, but who the fuck trusts him with anything?"

"Uh, I trust him with my sister."

"That's your bad judgment."

"You're talking to your master, you know."

Oh, he knew.

It had been more than a point of contention, when Mirajane captured his once attainable dream, becoming the guild master in Makarov's death, but time healed most things. That was so far behind them then. And, after seeing all the work that his fie put in, day in and out, for the guild to run smoothly, he figured he didn't even want the job.

It would eat too greatly into his dragon-hatchling time.

Plus…

He wanted Lana to see it. Her mother in that way. Not just as a barmaid, which was fine, yeah, but… Mirajane was one of the few female guild masters around, and of the top guild in all the land. He liked that. Even if he didn't always.

"Freed thinks we should all go out, together, and learn how to ice skate," he told the woman then. "With Lana. So she doesn't feel so bad, about not being great at it."

'That sounds nice."

"Yeah, I thought-"

"But I know how," his wife told him with a slight grin. "And so do Elf and Lisanna."

"Of course."

"I'm sorry. Does that ruin things for you?"

But he only shrugged a bit, Laxus did, as he said, "Better than only Bickslow. Besides, Lana will probably listen to you better."

But Mira gave him a sad look again as she said, "I'm serious about being swamped, Lax."

"It doesn't have to be today. Tomorrow-"

"I'm behind already, because people keep destroying every town they visit and I'm completely confused on how to handle what Natsu did in-"

"It's fine. Mira." He rose from his chair once more, leaning over the desk to give her one last kiss. "We'll do it without you."

"I'm sure Lana won't miss me much," she insisted to her husband and maybe not.

While the girl loved her mother, she seemed to find annoyance with her far more often than any other adult in her life. Mirajane seemed to be the disciplinarian and, while Lana respected her mother, she could find this a very annoying quality.

But Laxus had kinda wanted his wife to go. With them. Even before all the others were going to go. Especially now that they were. She'd been busy with the hall so much recently and he'd only just returned from an S-Class job and he just…

"See you at home," he offered over his shoulder, but she was already busy with her work once more.

Since the demon was out, he only had Lisanna find someone to cover for her and then they all set off, to locate Lana and Elfman. They were very busy in the park already, where Elfman was being directed by his niece (and some other random children she seemed to have made friends with) to roll them the biggest of bases for a prospective snowman. Laxus tried not to let the vain in his forehead pop right out.

It did throb though as he patted his daughter on her soft, white locks.

"C'mon," he said as the other kids seemed sad to see her (or at least her big, burly uncle who was at their whim). "We gotta go get you some ice skates, huh?"

Oh, yes. They did.

And the others as well.

It was the best trip to the market ever, Lana felt. Daddy bought her some new mittens too, as Uncle Bickslow explained she should never leave her fingers down on the pond for long, should she fall.

"Else someone might skate right over then," the acrobat warned. "And then..."

He just shook his head as he closed his hand tight, miming some severed fingers, maybe. As Lana recoiled in horror and Lisanna griped at her boyfriend, Freed only assured her that they would not allow this to happen.

"Are you gonna skate too, Daddy?" Lana asked as she held hands with him, on their walk back to the pond. "Is that how come you got skates?"

"Yep," he agreed as, the closer they got to the pond, the bigger the knot in his chest began to grow. It wasn't so much that Laxus didn't wanna skate with his daughter, but rather, it was that he'd never done it before and therefore didn't know if he'd be good at it or not.

And while he hated failure, he hated it much more when it occurred before the eyes of Lana.

As they all sat in the snow, ditching their boots for their new skates, Lisanna was quick to race Bickslow onto the ice, both finding ease in this. Lana was whining to Freed, who was lacing up her skates, to hurry because she wanted to get out there too!

"Speak," Ever sighed as she seemed rather lackluster in her effort, "for yourself."

Oh, she was.

"Here, Lana!" Bickslow, who'd been happily skating circle around those kids, those cats, out there on the big frozen pond, came rushing back over to the edge of it as he held out both hands, waiting for them to be filled with the little girl's. "I'll help ya, huh?"

Laxus very much so wanted to be the one to lead his daughter out onto the ice and help her out, but he found it to be a good thing, probably, that he wasn't as the first thing he did out on the ice was tumble back on his butt with a hard thump.

"Careful, Laxus," Elfman snickered as he skated by with the wobbly Evergreen holding tight, for once, to one of his hands. "You'll crack the ice!"

He thought he was so fucking funny. Idiot. Fucking idiot. As Laxus growled and shoved up, he looked for Freed, hoping, honestly, the other guy was having as hard a time as him. Then they could commiserate together. But somehow, even though he claimed to have never touched an ice skate in his entire life, the man was busy doing figure eights across the pond.

"It's amazing, Laxus," he called to the man as he came whizzing passed. "I must have repressed it, but yes, I recall now, my father and I, skating every winter, before I left home."

Oh, fucking great.

Laxus fell again and that was it, he was done, fuck this shit, but just as he was about to sulk away, Lisanna came skating up to him with a giggle and outstretched hands.

"Come on, big brother Laxus," she offered with a tilt of her head. "I'll help you."

"Don't need help," he grumbled, but her grin faltered then as she actually leaned down to take his hands in her own.

"Do it for Lana," she insisted as he got to his shaky feet once more. "If she ends up liking this, you'll have to do it all winter."

What horror.

And it would be fine, because Mirajane could join them, later, if he just learned (or at least became a bit more stable) now, but…

He'd just wanted the demon there.

That was all.

And it wasn't enough, her little sister being around. Her doofus brother. Their daughter, Lana. Each had a bit of the woman in them, but it just wasn't enough.

It was complicated. All of it. But he and the demon's relationship especially. Things had been a bit tense, recently, and he just kind of wanted them to do this. Together.

That was all.

But Lana only fell twice, when she tried letting go of Bickslow's hands and, as the sunset, she only let Uncle Elf carry her home, exhausted from her busy day. They were all probably going to go their separate ways, with Elfman shrugging Lana off on her father so he and Ever could go argue over where to get dinner while Bickslow and Lisanna just trailed behind the pair, hoping if they picked the right victor in the match (it was almost always the Lady of Stone), they could trick their way into a free meal. Freed was energized, however, by his discovery and was most keen to figure out what other repressed memories were lurking about.

Laxus felt like this was a bad idea (and questioned how he'd even go about that), but was too down to deal with it in that moment.

It was as they were leaving the park, however, that they ran into her. Mirajane. She seemed in a hurry too, but spotted them rather easily (they were sort of an unmistakable group) and rushed to their sides.

"Are you leaving already?" she asked with a bit of a frown.

"And never," Evergreen griped, who'd been fallen on, by Elfman, crushed, honestly, and they would be arguing over this one for weeks, "coming back!"

"It was," Elfman yelled, "an accident!"

"Men don't make accidents, I thought?" Lisanna mused. "Everything is on purpose."

"Your boyfriend fell on you on purpose, Ever," Bickslow whistled lowly. "And not even the good kind?"

Freed was not riding too high to miss that and found himself asking, and regretting while doing so, "What is the good kind?"

But as the seith opened his mouth to explain, Mirajane only shook her head.

"I rushed all the way here," she complained, just a bit, looking at her husband. "Through my paperwork. I tried really hard to… I just can't believe you guys are already-"

"Sun's going down," Bickslow said. "I can only hang around the kid during daylight."

"Why? What are you?" Freed asked, again, regretfully. "A vampire?"

"A man with a social life," the seith bristled. "Unlike some of us."

But Lisanna only hummed. "Here's an idea."

And she reached over to take Lana from Laxus then. The girl was too old to be carried, honestly, however, and was too heavy for the woman, but Lisanna just quickly pawned her right back off on Elfman.

"You and Laxus go skate. Together." Lisanna beamed at her older sister. "It's a really nice night out."

No.

No.

Laxus mood had run foul now, after falling and hurting himself, honestly, and the moment was ruined and...and…

"Someone," he muttered, "has to check on the dogs. No one's been home for hours and-"

"I'll do it," Freed offered up easily enough. "Perhaps caring for them will trigger even more memories."

And Mira had questions (a lot, actually), but Lisanna was only shooing the others along and she'd mostly wanted to skate with her daughter, honestly, but…

"It has been a long time," Mira remarked when she and the slayer found themselves alone. "Since we had a date. Lax."

She was smiling up at in, in a way she usually didn't anymore, and he could tell she was tired, he knew he was tired, but…

Well…

"Has it?" At her nod, he only let out a long sigh before saying, "Let's just walk, huh? Around the park? And maybe get something to eat after? I really don't wanna fall again. I think I bruised my-"

"The Thunder God is afraid of a little bruise?"

"It fucking hurts, Mira. And it's not like in a battle. You have no adrenaline or-"

"Then I'll just have to hold your hand." And she moved to do so then, gripping it tightly in her own. "And we'll go real slow. So you don't fall. Okay?"

"Demon-"

"Don't you trust me? Dragon?"

With his life.

Which is why he fell back into the snow, to put on his skates once more, while Mirajane only transformed into some and, when he took her hands, it felt so much warmer than with Lisanna.

So very much.

.

Full Series

[werewolferr]

game changer (pt 1) | stefan butler

* gif from @winterswake *

pairing: stefan butler x reader

plot: after months of strain and hard work, Stefan finally takes the completed Bandersnatch to Tuckersoft. when he gets there he finds that he still has a lot of work to do. luckily he has the best partner

word count: 1.7k words

warnings: nothing really. swearing that’s it tho

a/n: so this imagine is set after stefan finishes the game and he didn’t kill his dad, colin is good and so is his mental health (i spent so long trying to get a good ending, you don’t understand) Also apologies for how much the perspective changes, im hopeless. i ‘m going ti do a 2nd part, but would anyone be interested in a mini series ??

Stefan rubbed his clammy hands against his dark blue jeans and shifted slightly in the uncomfortable bus seat. His mind was on edge, he had finally finished his game (with some of his sanity still attached). He was now on his way to meet Mr Thakur at Tuckersoft to show him the final product.

“Just stay calm Stefan. Breathe in and out, everything is fine” He mumbled to himself, rubbing his hands down his jeans.

Stefan leant to his right side and opened his bag, pulling out his cassette player and headphones. He grabbed his Tears for Fears cassette and slipped it into the player, he threw his headphones over his ears and pressed play.

He sunk back into his chair, trying his best to relax and keep himself calm.

———————

You leant back in your office car, feet propped on your desk. You stared down at your worn, now off white converses and you bit down on your pen.

You were at a creative blockage and it was driving you crazy.

Mr Thakur had recently asked you to help with the product design of a new game he might be investing in. It was called Bandersnatch and from what Thakur had told you, it was a multichoice game based on a book by Jerome F. Davies.

From what you found out about him, he was a genius/psychopath. Driven insane by the book, Bandersnatch, which resulted in him cutting his wife’s head off. You hoped this game designer wasn’t like that, seeing as you had to work with him on the marketing, the cover design, the posters. And you didn’t particularly fancy your head getting chopped off.

You sat back up in your seat, dropping your feet on the floor with a thud. You ran your hands over some of the drafts you’d come up with. Your bracelets colliding with the wood of your desk, making a horrid sound. You didn’t particularly like them, they were all so bland and unappealing. You sighed at yourself, “What the fuck are these Y/N, you can do better than this! You’ve designed for Colin Ritman, iconic game designer”

“Why thank you” You heard from your right, you turned to see Colin Ritman. Looming by your desk, a fresh cigarette in between his lips.

You smiled at him lightly, “Alright love?” You ask.

“Yeah, I’m ok” Colin replied nonchalantly “Can see you’re at a creative stump” You furrowed your eyebrows at him and replied “Is it that obvious?” You laughed.

“No. But I’ve been there so many times it’s like I have a rader for it” He says, deadpan. You laughed at him, running your hands through your hair.

“Hey can I ask you somethin’?” You say, swinging your chair side to side.

“Sure, fire away” Colin said sitting down on the edge of your desk.

“Have you met the guy creating Bandersnatch?”

“Urmm, yeah” He nodded “I met him when he first came in and pitched the idea to Thakur”

“What was he like? Did he seem nice..... weird?” You pressed, leaning forward.

“Yeah, he seemed ok. He was young, kind of awkward. But nice enough.” Colin replied. You nodded at him as he lit is cigarette. “Why you asking?” He asked as he drew the cigarette from his mouth.

“Urgh, I don’t know Colin. It will seem stupid but after researching the author of the book, Bandersnatch and how the book drove him insane and he chopped his wife’s head off. It kind of just freaked me out” You replied tapping your pen on the desk. You looked back to Colin to see him laughing at you slightly

“Stop it!” You said, leaning over and hitting his leg.

“Ok, ok” Colin said, still laughing slightly “But the guy who wrote it, Jerome F. Davies, is actually such a genius-“

“He chopped his wife’s head off” You say putting emphasis on the words “chopped” and “head”

“Well apart from that. You should really read his book, it’s so fascinating and it will be good for working on this project” Colin said.

“Yeah... I suppose”

“Well, I’ll see you in a bit” Colin said getting up from his desk. “I got to get back to work, good luck with your new project.

“Thanks. Good luck with your work as well” You said, waving as he walked away.

You glanced over your drawings and intial notes again. Letting your mind wander about what you were going to do and what this guy might be like. You really hoped he was going to be nice or at least not a psychopath.

“Mrs L/N”

The voice of Mr Thakur snapped you out of your thoughts.

“Yes Mr Thakur” You looked to Mr Thakur.

“You want to come to my office now. Stefan, the programmer creating the new game, he should be here a few minutes. So, I’d like him to meet you straight away, so you can start working on the design.”

“Oh ok. I’ll pick my designs up now and bring them to your office” You said, getting up from your chair.

“Cool, see you in a sec” Mr Thakur said, clicking his fingers at you.

You scrambled your notes and drafts together and picked up your many pencil cases. Piling all of them in your little arms.

Carefully you begin your walk from your messy desk to Mr Thakur’s office.

———————

The lift stopped with an unnerving thud and the doors opened with a creak. Stefan walked out the lift, pulling his headphones off his ears and leaving them dangle around his neck. He vaguely remembered the way to Mr Thakur’s and started walking in that direction.

As he arrived into the Tuckersoft section, he spotted Colin at his desk still working on his new game.

“A-alright Colin?” Stefan said as walked past Colin’s desk.

“Yeah, I’m good. How’s the game going Stefan?” He asked, eyes still fixed on the screen.

“Well, I’ve finished it now and I think it’s gone well” Stefan said smiling slightly and tugging on his bag strap.

“Well done mate. I hope it goes well”

“I’ll see you soon then”

“Yeah..”

As Stefan came up to Mr Thakur’s office, he knocked on the door lightly. Hearing a booming voice inside respond with “Come in”

Stefan pushed down on the handle, feeling his hands already become clammy again and he opened the door.

“Hey kid, how you doing?” Mr Thakur spoke walking towards Stefan patting him on the back.

“I’m alright, thank yo-“ Stefan began to say before he noticed a young girl sitting on Mr Thakur’s desk. She was wearing a black knitted jumper with various phrases like “boom”, “pow”, “crash” paired with light denim jeans. Mr Thakur followed the direction of his eyes, to see he was looking at Y/N.

“Stefan, this is Y/N L/N, she’ll be working on the product design with you. Y’know all the posters, the game cover, everything. She’s great” Mr Thakur said as you got up from your place and moved towards the two men who towered over you “And Y/N, this is Stefan Butler.”

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you” You said, walking over to the tall dark haired boy.

“I-Urm-Hi...” Stephen said, cursing himself at his nervousness.

“I’m very excited to be working on Bandersnatch with you” You said, smiling at the boy.

“Miss Y/N has been apart of some incredible projects, particularly recently she’s been working with Colin Ritman and a lot of his projec-“

“You’ve worked on Colin’s games?” Stefan smiled, eager to ask you about it.

“Oh yeah. Metl Hedd, Demons + Dragons, Moonlight”

“Wow, i love those games. And the artwork on it is incredible” Stefan gushed slightly.

“Aw, thank you so much love” You grinned, a brush creeping up your cheeks.

Stefan pulled down firmly on his bag strap again. His hands were sweating and he was trying his hardest to not think about the heat rising to his face.

He had just met, possibly the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. Your long h/c framed your face perfectly, moving lightly with your every moment. You had the most beautiful smile that would light up your e/c eyes. It was sending Stefan crazy, butterflies were flapping frantically in his stomach.

“Stefan!”

“Stefan!” Mr Thakur said, clicking his finger.

“Hm” Stefan said still looking at you.

“Back in the room buddy?” Mr Thakur laughed

“Y-yes, sorry” Stefan said now moving his attention to him.

“Could we look at your game now, so then we can get started on production?”

“Yeah, of course” Stefan replied, beginning to search through his bag to find the game.

“Ok, just pop it in your here” Mr Thakur said turning his computer so everyone can see the screen and then switching it on. Also checking the console was on and working.

Stefan put the game in the cartridge and pressed play. “Ok this is how the game works”

After Stefan had walked you and Mr Thakur through the majority of the game. You were left speechless, the work he’d done was incredible, groundbreaking. You didn’t know what to say, you felt so excited to be able to slightly help with this project, and even more excited to play it when it was released.

“I’m investing!” Mr Thakur shouted. Raising from his set and scaring Stefan half to death. Mr Thakur often did this when he found a new project he liked so Y/N was use to it.

“Kid, this game is so good. The world needs Bandersnatch!” Mr Thakur continued to shout “Honestly, kid. When you came to me and asked for more time on the game, I was nervous. I thought you wouldn’t be able to do, but you proved me wrong” Mr Thakur said punching Stefan in the shoulder, a little harder than intend as Stefan rubbed his shoulder lightly.

“Y/N! Just double checking, are you still interested in this project? Because I need you to be completely on board ok if you’re going to do it, it needs all your efforts” Mr Thakur pressed.

“Definitely. I’m 100% on board, I really want to work on this project” You beamed, jumping up and down on the spot. “Only if you’ll have me Stefan”

“Yes, of course. Your work is incredible” Stefan blushed slightly.