#am i so wrong to want to worry about what's on earth while I'm here and to worry about death after death??

[fluffableraccoon]

i hate that Religious Folks™️ always have to try to convert me under the pretense that "it's just 'cause I Care about You So Much"

I'm agnostic I'm not a damn swing state

[flamingpudding]

I love your writing so much but I'm here with a crack idea just imagine deage Dan is Klarion.

Dan was able to find out who he is outside of Danny then he was able to change his name Klarion Jackson Fenton/Nightingale he is still a little villain boy also now a mom boy.

Ghost King Danny is his mom young justice was so confused when Klarion you're the best gifts get your mom after not talking to him for a while to also begging them to pretend to be his friend . Justice League dark is panicking in the background about the electric being that just shows up.

Danny in full ghost king attire standing there with a plate of cookies ready to meet his son's new friends.

Thanks so much! I am glad you enjoy my writing!

Also thanks because I absolutely love this Idea/Prompt! Sooooo please enjoy this piece inspired by it! Also I haven't consumed a lot of DC material lately so i am basing this all on my memories. In other words.... I went with Tim's little team here.

Hope that's okay and that this won't disappoint.

-------------------

Dan, who was going by Klarion for some years now, had a massive problem. It was the huge kind of problem build on small bubbles of lies that then turned into this one giant bubble that was about to pop just because of one little question asked by his mom when his sister decided to throw him under the bus to deflect from herself and the fact that she was dating a demon. Don't get him wrong he still loves her, but man did he want to strangle Danielle right now.

"So Klarion, Ellie is right. When will I get to meet your friends you told me so much about?"

It was such an innocent question from his mom. And while his moms titles don't scare him, cause at some point in time they could have been his too, the happy dopey smile like nothing was wrong in the dimensions with little expectations directed at him was the scariest thing his mom could ever direct at him when he had asked THAT question.

So now Klarion was in need of a quick solution. When his mom had asked he had mumbled out a quick: "Next week maybe. We won't be busy with hero stuff then." He had started to form a plan. First of all, he needed to remember what all he had told his mom about his new and redeemed life on Earth 43 he had build for himself with the name Klarion Jackson Fenton-Nightingale.

Which fuck. There was a lot he had told his mom just so he wouldn't worry.

Cause now he also remembers that whenever he had gone out to cause some chaos he had made it seem to his mom like he was going out to bond with his new friend or help them with their hero duty. Well, in a way maybe his chaos causing could be seen as bonding. The ghostly kind, that is. And as for helping with the hero duty... he did give them work, something to do with their hero status. Anyway Klarion tried to remember all possible names he had dropped. Shit why did he also mention to his mom that he was working with heroes to make her proud? He should have name dropped some villains instead but nearly all of them were adults. He knew his mom would have frowned if he had only adult friends and no one around his age.

He was pacing his room in their castle. He need a plan, a good one at that. He knows he name dropped Robin, now Red Robin, Superboy and Impulse on a whim once. Superboy more so cause his mom had been interested in the Alien Heros of the Earth of the dimension he was partially living on now. He had mentioned Robin for the joke of knowing that there is a Dinner in an other Dimension with the same name. And because his Grandfather didn't like the Flash-clan which meant his mom didn't like them too much because of their messing with timelines either, he had mentioned being friends with Impulse on pure spite because of a punishment one day and to see their reactions. So he had to get these three on board anyway, and because for the heck of it he would get Wonder Girl involved too. It was never bad to have a girl in a friends group.

Klarion stopped his pacing. Turning towards his demonic ghost cat companion, kind of what Cujo was to his mom now. "Teekl, I think I have a plan. I will convince these Idiots, that shouldn't be a huge problem. Most of them are normale little flesh sacks." Teekl and him stared for some time at each other and after a moment Klarion huffed turning away with crossed arms. "It's a good plan don't be so sceptical, they are heroes right? They will not refuse my request!"

Well maybe Klarion should have planned this a bit better.

The next day Red Robin blinked at the witch boy up from the ground in the living room of what looked like to be an normal apartment. He had just been in Gotham, working on a case and now he was here? Looking to the left he also noticed that Superboy (the older), Impulse and Wonder Girl were also with him. They all looked stunned he observed and partially disoriented. Additionally they hadn't heard from Klarion since the last time they had foiled his plans on raging chaos upon the earth, that had been weeks ago.

"Kla-"

"I have summoned you heroes here. For the moment it is fruitless to try to leave because of the magic barrier." Okay rude to be cut of but that explained why he suddenly wasn't where he remembered to be last anymore. It was now Superboy who opened his mouth first but before he could even make a sound Klarion decided to speak over them again. "I have presents."

Four young heroes collectively blinked, confused, stunned and weirded out. As the which boy before them waved over to wards a table filled with boxes and packages. "I come in peace today, to proof that I brought these are presents, filled with various goods from different dimensions that should be to the liking of you all. Technologie, accessories, snacks, weapons, as well as clothing styles."

Red Robin shared a glance with his friends, a silent communication but before he once again could say anything Impulse was already by the table going through the stuff. They could here his 'oh's and 'ah's, which inevitably made them curious and they wandered over too. Klarion was not acting hostile at all yet but Red Robin did not trust that so he kept the which boy in clear view the entire time.

"Rob! You gotta see this! That actual futuristic Tech!"

"Look at these snacks."

"These accessories don't look to bad..."

His eye twitched when he noticed Klarion was sporting a smug look. Red Robin had to ask now, because this was not normal for the other. "Okay usually you would have started some big shot chaos plan by now. I don't buy this peace offering act and your way to formal talking. So what is going on?"

The other three, thankfully in Red Robins opinion, finally looked away from the tempting gifts and also turned their attention fully on Klarion. Who's smug smile falter as he let out a sigh and stared at them with what they could only describe as a frustrated look.

"My mom is planning to visit me."

"And?" Impulse asked between munching on three different bags of chips that where on the table.

"And he believes I am friends with you idiots."

They stared slack jawed. Impulse was pinching himself like he couldn't believe what they had just heard. Did one of their Villains, just informed them that their mom believes they were friends? Red Robin was starting to think he might be in a sleep deprived Hallucination.

"Why would she?" Wonder Girl questioned next to which Klarion glared at her with fire in his eyes.

"First of, my mom uses the pronouns he/Him. Be rude to my mom and I will find a way to make your life a permanent hell on earth." Wonder Girl blinked lifting her hands as in a sign of peace. "Second, my mom is under the believe that i work with heroes not against them. I do not have the heart to disappoint him after everything that happened in the past. So I embellished the truth a little."

"A little?" Superboy retorted sarcastically, to which they caught a light blush dusting the which boy's cheeks.

"Look my sister threw me under the bus and my mom wants to meet my friends now! So I need you idiots to play nice with me for when he visits!"

"And we will do that because?" Red Robin crossed his arms, watching their villain sceptically still not really buying this entire act. This was to strange of an behaviour change. Something was up, and he was going to get behind it.

Klarion on the other hand was starting to panic internally. His plan was not as he had hoped. The presents he had specifically gotten from other dimensions with what he believed was their interests did not work to make them simply accept his request. This was the last time he would listen to old man Vlad on how to bribe humans, he wasted his entire week on getting all that stuff. His mom was going to show up soon enough he need to have them act as his friends by then so he could remove the magic barrier. Or else his mom would notices he faked everything.

They left him no choice. He would have to throw his pride away for the sole reason to not disappoint his mom.

All four Young Justice Heroes blinked as Klarion suddenly threw himself on the ground before them into a pleading position.

"Please! I beg you, just for the time my mom is here. Please act like my friends!"

"I didn't think Klarion was a mama's boy...." Impulse whispered to the rest of them in pure disbelief as they stared stunned at the kneeling witch boy.

Cut to the heroes that noticed their teens were missing.....

"Where is he?" Batman growled at the Constantine who was sighing tiredly.

"Look mate, the way you and the other Spandex wearing friends explained it, made it sound like they got summoned by a being of the Infinit Realms." The blond man sighed lighting another cigarette eying the four heroes, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash. Zatanna was behind him pouring over a book about the realms and trying to find a tracking spell to trace it back and to where they could have been summoned.

"Don't you have something like a tracker on your boy?" Batman only growled something under his breath to which the Brite couldn't help to arch and eyebrow. Constantine was going to say something sarcasting as Deadman suddenly appeared a panicked look on him. "The Ghost King has chosen to come to our dimension."

"Say bloody what now?" All attention that had been on the heroes and their problem of missing teenage heroes turned now to Deadman and the news he brought with him. "The ghost, shades and spirits talked, for the king has decided to visit our Dimension. They are in an uproar, no one knows of why our King is on his way."

"Bloody fucking hell!" Constantine cursed. "We are fucking screwed! Isn't that guy a fucking tyrannical eldrich war maniac?!"

Deadman nodded solemnly and Constantine uttered another hearty and colourful 'fuck'. While the heroes present exchanged worried glances, not only were their kids missing but now a, by the sounds of it, highly dangerous being decided to appear in their dimension? Batman couldn't help but think that there had to be a connection to the missing teens and this.

Meanwhile in the Infinite Realms the Ghost King Castle...

Danny smoothed out his fur trimmed cape and adjusted his crown so it was floating nicely and evenly on his head. Today was the day he would get to meet his sons friends. He needed to make a good first impression. That was why he had chosen to take on his Ghost King form for this. With the wave of his hand he made an ice mirror appear before him, checking how he was looking once again. Once satisfied he nodded to himself looking over towards Fright Knight who was holding the plate of cookies he had baked himself. It was the fifth batch, and the only one that didn't turn out burned. He had needed Jazz help for this one to turn out well. It was only proper if he brought some cookies for the kids. Also he would have loved to bring his families fudge but... the last time he had tried making them had turned into a disaster.

"Thanks Frighty. Do you think Klarion's friends will like these? Wait don't answer! If they don't like them I will just get something else to thank them for taking care of my boy." Danny rambled on as he glanced at the plate of cookies in his hands. Why was he so nervous? He was just going to get to meet his little boy's friends. Sure his boy had dropped some stories about them and his adventures with them here and there. But hearing stories and meeting the kids were two different things.

Shaking his head Danny put on his best smile as he summoned a portal to Klarions apartment in the 43th Dimension of Earth. It was time to visit his boy in the place he had made his second home and thank the people that looked after his kid.

[faeryarchives]

savanaclaw with a furina - like female reader!

the "regina of all waters, kindreds, peoples and laws" is deeply loved by all. under her flamboyant and imprudent facade, lies a girl holding an unbearable weight and guilt on her shoulders to save her people. note: as requested and i love furina sm hihi i will also write for other dorms warning: major spoilers for genshin archon quest other fics: heartslabyul with a furina-like reader & i'm not jealous !! & to my beloved & more than words

-‘๑’- leona kingscholar

"huh? what is the esteemed dorm leader of savanaclaw doing in front of my house?" "... why do you look like you didn't sleep for days? nevermind, take back your pets - they've been following me the whole day and poking me with water." "oh my archons, they like you!"

leona knew different kinds of people, faes and beastmen but never a god! not that you broadcasted it to the world - of course he heard it while grim was chatting away from the garden

so this lion observed your moves and to be honest, you were just like an ordinary person

"what are you doing hiding behind me?" "ahem! you know, i don't really know the forest that much so i would appreciate if i would put myself behind yo- ahhh! what is that?!" "it's just a branch, herbivore. i never knew you are scared of branches."

he actually gained another chess player buddy - he discovered it at the cost of being drenched in water from your water familiars

never he would imagine how on earth did you not go crazy standing in for your archon and acting for so so long? and despite belittling you and your friend group, he couldn't believe his ears when you stood up for him against the other dorms

"what leona did was wrong but how would you feel if all the trainings and efforts were all in naught and overlooked by the people you considered as family? imagine if your fate has already been sealed before you were even born?"

oh, he didn't expect you of all people to do that honestly + not so bad at all so expect a lot of sweets everyday curtesy of this lion

don't tell anyone but with you acting just as yourself and discovering your passions with him as a witness - leona feels proud like a lion watching his cub succeed

extra: you and cheka really go along well to the point that leona thinks cheka might replace him with you someday

-‘๑’- ruggie bucchi

ruggie trusts his skills in sneaking around and swiping things if needed and he will bet that no one could ever discover him immediately

"after pulling a prank on grim and my salon members, you must think that i am much of a gullible fool?"

now you both did really met at a rough start - the hyena thought you would be more snobbish and not to mingle with people below his level especially after hearing you being a god

but seeing you shielding him during leona's overblot and regularly visiting him during his recovery at the clinic made him questioned his thoughts about you

"why are you always visiting me? i thought you hated me?" "...? where did you get that nonsense? if i do hate you, i would go out of my way to buy these doughnuts for you."

well look at you two now! close like two peas in a pod - you really enjoyed spending time with ruggie because you were seeing the world in a different perspective

having hard time picking your new macaroni menu for the day? no worries, ruggie will make sure you will be able to cook other meals than this. not good with bargaining with sam? hold his groceries, he have this in the bag.

"more interesting trinkets for me~!" "oh you collect trinkets? why didn't you say so?"

omg new trinket collector buddy 🥺 whenever you give him something such as a bracelet or even a hairclip he will wear it like a badge of honor

it's alright to help other students but he is worried that being to kind in nrc might backfire on you

"you shouldn't be too trusting here. i know you just want to help but like your friends said - you should also help yourself at times."

while he might not look like it but ruggie can sense your mood change accurately especially when it involves the topic of your past

this one whole year on nrc might not be comparable to your 500 years of living but ruggie will make sure that it will be the best one

-‘๑’- jack howl

other than the adeuce and grim team - jack is the person you actually vibe with!

maybe its because his sense of justice and responsibility reminds you of a dear friend back home and it actually comforts you to see it + makes you feel less homesick

this man is very used to his little siblings so expect him to come off as a brotherly vibes + probably makes you an exemption to touching his ears and letting your salon members put some design in his hair

"... do you think these three would be great teammates during magift competitions?"

"hmmm, i must say they do make a great team. what if we bring it up to leona, i think these three will enjoy it very much."

well the dorm leader liked the idea but seeing how they acted during the practice - it's safe to say it is very risky because they only listen to you, jack and leona

ANYWAYS jack sometimes come to the ramshackle dorm just to wake you up knowing you probably stayed up late reading your novels

he tried inviting you to his morning run only to see you the next day already tired and carrying you on his back after one run

"you can't blame me okay! i was born to drama and directing not in running!"

speaking of carrying you on his back he sometimes do it just because he wants to especially when jack knows too well how much you overwork yourself

while he can read you very well, you can also read this guy by the book through his ears and tail movement

"... jack what are you doing here so late?" "…what? it’s not like i was waiting for you or anything." "i never said that though?" "hmp." while he look away, his tail would impatiently wag and hit the wall behind him making you laugh "uhuh, whatever you say. let's go back to our dorms now big guy."

it turns out that while spending the whole afternoon up to evening, jack wanted to accompany you back to the dorm safely - worried that someone is bullying you because you were down for days.

he is not that expressive with words - but just know that jack will always be your friend despite your upbringings or not being open to tell your past, he understands it pretty well

[andy-wm]

i'm wondering how your thesis of "idols will come out when they want" fits into your insane shadow analysis attempting to prove jimin and jungkook fucked in the middle of their travel show (amongst other things)? like do you get joy out or trying to drag someone out of a closet they might not be in? or is it something else? just curious! 😀

Hey wdcmaxy

Since you have the guts to use your name I'll respond :)

So, you read my thesis?

*Sips whisky*

Cool. And you read my insane shadow analysis too?

Hmmm... do you come here often?

Let me answer your question then.

I think we both know the shadows analysis isn't really insane - it's based on very basic earth science. Shadows grow longer as the day progresses because of the rotation of the earth on its axis. You sound reasonably literate so i assume you know this already.

I guess your description of my shadow analysis ( I think I'll name my next racehorse 'Shadow Analysis') as insane is an attempt to discredit the idea that a fair bit of time passed while Tae was out of the house? But that was kinda silly on your part. Even children know that shadows change as the day passes.

Nothing insane about it.

He was gone for hours, no debate.

Now let's move on to the fucking part, and when and how idols choose to come out.

This is actually worth discussing.

As flattered as i am that you think my tiny insignificant blog could be a game changer for anyone, let's be real.

How many people, besides yourself, do you think read my blog?

Serious question.

I'm estimating maybe 100. Double that on a good day. Maybe 300 if i write something REALLY profound which doesn't happen often.

I am way less excited about my impact on the world than you are, because I'm a realist.

BUT if by some strange twist of fate my blog came to the attention of someone whose opinion mattered (I'm not counting you, don't worry) do you think they would take it seriously? Do you REALLY imagine a random tumblr post about shadows could make someone believe that an idol was gay if they didn't already believe it?

Here's a great example of how that wouldn't happen:

You, dear reader.

You're my example.

You came here to tell me I'm speaking shit and that I should pull my head in, correct? My insane shadow analysis hasn't changed your beliefs at all. You're here, throwing a tantrum on my page, because you don't agree with what I'm saying, not because you suddenly believe it.

Or ...

Perhaps you suspect it's true and that scares you. Maybe you can't be absolutely sure I'm wrong and that's why you need to yell at me? Could that be it? Time for a bit of self reflection?

Either way, it's not going to make an iota of difference in the grand scheme of things.

We are all just dust motes floating through time and space, my friend. You dont need to worry so much. The universe is unfolding exactly as intended.

However... There are a couple of things we should agree on:

The fact is that the shadows grew long and therefore, time passed. And Tae was out for several hours. Maybe he went out for a bit of afternoon delight himself? Maybe Jimin and Jungkook played Pokemon Go all afternoon, or prayed, or practiced their English, or braided each other's hair.

Regardless of whether they did or didn't fuck, or how many times, or on what surfaces, the time still passed.

And whether I write my blog or not, people will believe what they believe. And they will be gay or they won't be gay.

And even though I never mentioned anything about them fucking in that post, whether you like it or not Jimin and Jungkook might be fucking right now, as you read this.

One last thing...

Please bear in mind, through all of this, that fucking is not the be all and end all of life. Sure its a lot of fun if you do it right but the notion that it's more meaningful than sharing your innermost thoughts and feelings, or giving someone your time and energy, is bullshit.

You can have a roots-deep love for someone and never even think of fucking them. Or you can meet someone in a public toilet and have at it, and leave without even knowing their name.

Sex does not equal love. Fucking is not that big of a big deal.

Unless...

Unless you're fucking someone the patriarchy doesn't want you to fuck. Then its a major issue.

Hear me out.

The need to control who we fuck is based a patriarchal need to control material wealth.

To control material wealth, the patriarchy needs to control reproduction (so they can be sure their wealth stays with their bloodline, because wealth is built over many generations) and to do THAT they need to control womens' bodies.... and to do that, of course they need to control who women fuck. And who men fuck too!

Do you know what the ACTUAL issue is with men who like dick? They don't automatically buy into the patriarchal way of life. (where's the solidarity, lads?)

Why don't they?

Because lifelong monogamy and marriage and nuclear families don't matter as much when you're not equating love with sex, and sex with reproduction. When your goal isn't to accumulate wealth and pass it down to your children.

Same thing applies to women who love women. They aren't focused on being demure and pleasing the men in power. They aren't focused on making themselves wife material. They will challenge the status quo and maybe even (shock! horror!) decide not to have children. How the heck do you make sure your money and power stays in the family, how do you build an empire, when the women are perfectly happy having sex with each other and don't want to love, honour and obey??

And whose fault is all this?

Its got to be the damned queers, right? They're making people think there might be other ways to share your life with those you care about! That's why its important to squash down gayness whenever you can, right, wdcmaxy?

Look at them destroying the fabric of society!

If Jimin and Jungkook ARE fucking every chance they get, good for them. I hope they're balls deep and breathless, hitting all those sweet spots for each other having a really good time.

And if they're not fucking, it actually doesn't matter to me because the way they support each other and share their hearts is beautiful. (I do think they are fucking though)

Truthfully, whatever they're doing, as long as they're happy I'm happy.

Can you say the same, wdcmaxy?

Peace.

[girlgenius1111]

you aren't a chore...

mapi x ingrid x reader

r tears her ACL. her girlfriends struggle to help her heal. angst + fluff. mapi didn't tear her meniscus in this because i said so <3

Tearing your ACL while on national duty was less than ideal; not just because it was a months long, intense injury that you knew would be hell to go through. It happened while you were in England, and your girlfriends were in Norway and Spain, respectively. You were dreading having call them with this news, news you knew would hurt them almost as much as it hurt you, but there was no avoiding it.

You were at the hospital, and the doctor had just left the room, confirming what you'd known since you'd gone down on the pitch a few hours ago. You were finally alone, and you couldn't put off calling Ingrid and Mapi any longer.

You started a group face time, wincing when you noticed in the camera how red your eyes were from crying. It only rang a couple times before both girls clicked on, almost simultaneously.

"What's happened?" Ingrid asked frantically, not needing to see more than your tearstained face to know that something was wrong. Mapi's excited smile dropped into a frown, too, and you took a deep breath.

"It's my ACL." You told them, swallowing the lump in your throat.

"No, amor," Mapi said in disbelief.

"It's completely torn. I need surgery." You continued, gripping the sheets under you in your hand, not wanting to cry.

"Are you sure?" Ingrid asked.

"Yeah, I just got the scans back and the doctor confirmed."

"How did it happen?" Mapi's questioned, voice shaking as she spoke.

"I planted my foot and twisted I guess, and it just. Really hurt. I heard it pop."

"Amor, I am so sorry. I'll come to you, I'll fly tomorrow," Mapi said, shuffling around, clearly looking for her computer to book a flight.

"No, no, it's okay. They're flying me back tomorrow to Spain tomorrow. They offered to do the surgery here but I wanted to be home. With you guys."

"Love," Ingrid began, and you could tell from the desperate look on her face what she was thinking.

"No, Ingrid. You'll stay with your team, and win for me. Mapi will take good care of me." You insisted. Ingrid's teeth bit at her lip, an anguished expression etched across her features.

"Love, I want to be with you," She said, and you could tell she was fighting back tears.

"I know, I want that too. It's only a few more days, though. The team needs you, Ingrid, you have to stay."

"Y/n's right. You have to stay with the team. She'll be a handful, but I can handle our girl." Mapi joked, face falling when you only cracked a small smile. She wanted to reach through the phone, to call up one of the English girls and tell them to give you a hug, anything to make you feel better. Glancing at Ingrid's face, the Spaniard could tell she felt the same.

"Can we do anything?" Ingrid asked, thinking that she would move heaven and earth to get rid of the sad frown on your face.

"No, I'm fine, I promise." You said, although your voice and expression told a completely different story.

"Cariño, neither of us expect you to be fine." Mapi said softly.

You forced a smile onto your lips, hoping it was convincing. "Really, I'm fine. I have to go though, they're about to discharge me. I love you guys." You hung up, rolling onto your good side, muffling your sobs in the pillow.

Ingrid and Mapi hung up with each other soon after, both agreeing that they needed to keep a close eye on you. You'd never handled injuries well, but the state you were in on the phone was worse than they'd ever seen. This was a worse injury than you'd ever had, so it made sense, but they were still incredibly worried.

-----

Mapi had wanted to pick you up from the airport, but Barca had insisted on you going to meet with the surgeon right away, sending a car to grab you and take you there. Mapi promised to meet you at the hospital for your consultation, and arrived there in the parking lot a full 10 minutes before you did. She wanted to prepare herself for whatever you were feeling. Honestly, she had no idea how to best help you; neither her nor Ingrid had ever had an injury of this magnitude, they couldn't know what you were feeling. The defender had never felt more helpless in her life, watching you slowly get out of the car, grabbing your crutches, and making your way towards the door, where she waited.

"Mi amor," she said as you neared her, moving forward to carefully wrap you in a hug. You were stiff in her arms, jaw set stiffly, as you murmured a greeting into your ear. It became clear to your girlfriend that you had completely shut down, not allowing yourself to feel the intense emotions she knew must be tugging at you. Not wanting to challenge that unhealthy coping mechanism at the hospital, she simply kissed your cheek lightly, before leading you into the building.

You were quieter than Mapi thought you'd ever been in your life as you made your way into the surgeon's office, face pinched in pain as you settled into a chair next to her, moving your crutches to rest next to you with a disdainful look at them.

You waited for the surgeon, turning to the team doctor that had accompanied you and speaking, voice raspy from lack of use.

"When do you think they'll do the surgery?"

"Depends. Some doctors like to do it sooner rather than later, to preserve muscle strength, while others think the more time taken to reduce swelling, the better. This guy did Alexia's, and he only had her wait a week."

You nodded absentmindedly, reaching one hand over to grip onto Mapi's. She squeezed your hand comfortingly, pulling out her phone to update Ingrid.

Your meeting with the surgeon may as well have been 2 seconds, for all the information you absorbed. Once he told you that he'd operate in a week, you couldn't force yourself to focus on everything he said about the recovery process. If you didn't take this one step at a time, you were sure that you would fail. Mapi could tell you weren't all there, and she allowed you the time to process on the way home, not bothering to speak to you until she asked if you wanted to call Ingrid and update her.

"Can you just tell her?"

"Of course, amor. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Thanks Maps."

If this was a hint to how you'd be for the next week, Mapi felt like she'd almost rather have torn her own ACL. She could tell that you were hurting, not just physically, but deep within you. You wouldn't speak about it though, repeating the words "I'm fine" until they no longer sounded like words. You weren't overly upset, nor were you overly happy. Instead, Mapi got used to the version of you that was quiet, giving her only small smiles and chuckles when she tried to joke around, instead of the full laughs that had been part of the reason she'd fallen in love with you.

As the days passed, and your surgery grew closer, Mapi noticed you become more irritable, frustrated more easily. She talked to Ingrid often about it, completely at a loss for how to help you, as nothing she was doing seemed to work. Her and Ingrid agreed that this period of waiting was especially hard for you; you couldn't do any rehab work, nothing at all could be done until after the surgery. The hoped that being able to focus your mind and body on recovering would bring you back to yourself.

Ingrid, for her part, made up her mind to leave the national team and come home to you at least 10 different times, but you and Mapi always talked her out of it. She was due home the day of your surgery, and you both were adamant that this injury not affect Ingrid's playing time with the team. Ingrid was packing one day, after a particularly rough night where Mapi confided that she wasn't sure you'd slept at all, and Mapi was clearly failing at convincing her to stay. You'd grabbed the phone from Mapi's hand, expressing the most emotion that they'd seen from you since your injury.

"Ingrid, please don't do this for me. I love you, and I miss you, but I want you to stay. Coming home now will only make me feel guilty. Besides, watching you play is one of the only things I'm looking forward to right now."

Mapi practically froze when you spoke, waiting to hear Ingrid's response.

"Okay, elskling. If that's what you want." Ingrid sighed, dropping her clothes back into her drawer. She wasn't happy about it, but she trusted that if you really did need her, you'd ask for her.

"Mapi is taking good care of me, anyway. Not as good of a job as you could, but it'll do." You joked, shooting Mapi a smirk. She feigned being supremely insulted, but really, she was just happy to see you smile again, even if it was at her own expense.

"Alright, you can shower by yourself tonight." She teased, and you glared at her.

"I might as well be showering by myself, for all the help you are."

"I shaved your legs for you yesterday!" Mapi gasped.

"That's not the kind of help I'm talking about."

"If I had sex with you while you were injured, in the shower, while Ingrid was in another country, I think she'd kill me." Mapi defended.

"I absolutely would. You'll just have to be patient and wait for me. And till after your surgery. Think of it as a fun challenge." Ingrid smiled, enjoying the glimpse of the you she was used to seeing, not the empty version that you'd been for the past few days.

"What is fun about that, Ingrid, be serious."

"What's fun is that we're all waiting, and we will all have a very good time together once I'm back, and it's safe for you. I promise, you can be a pillow princess the way you like, and Mapi and I will do whatever you want." Ingrid said sweetly, and you tried to ignore the way you felt suddenly warm at her words.

You gave a dramatic sigh. "Whatever I want?"

"Whatever you want." Both girls promised together. Mapi saw the most excitement she'd seen in you all week, and couldn't help but leaning in and leaving a gentle kiss on your temple. You softened at her loving action, growing slightly more serious.

"I'm sorry I've been so awful this past week. I know I haven't been very much fun to be around."

"You have every right to be grumpy, mi amor. You're doing your best, we don't expect any more than that." Mapi promised.

"I can't imagine what you're feeling, elskling. You can act any way you feel like acting." Ingrid assured you. "It'll get easier post surgery, yeah?"

You nodded like you agreed, but you weren't exactly sure about that. You hoped Ingrid was right, you really did. Mapi caught your reluctance.

"No matter what, we've got you, mi amor." She said, tilting your chin to look into your eyes as she spoke.

"Always, kjære." Ingrid echoed, and this time, you felt more confident when you nodded. You weren't sure that you trusted your body anymore, not when it had betrayed you so grievously. You did, however, trust your girls with everything. Everything.

-----

Mapi hated being in hospitals. When she had gone to your initial appointment with you, it was just the surgeons office you were visiting, which was tolerable. But a hospital, with patients and sick people, and doctors and nurses in scrubs, she hated. She always had, and the night before your surgery, you could tell she was getting nervous. You were nervous too, but magically, your stress evaporated when you realized that Mapi was anxious, and all you cared about was making her feel better.

Ingrid was set to touch down in Barcelona after you went back, and she would probably arrive at the hospital right as you were coming out of recovery, which wouldn't be very much help to your other girlfriend who wouldn't hear a word about leaving the hospital while you were in surgery.

You were debating on making Mapi talk about it, when she started bouncing her knee rapidly, and picking at her cuticles; 2 things she only did when she was really nervous. You knew if she continued like this, she'd get no sleep. More than that, she looked miserable, although she tried to hide it, and you hated seeing her upset.

"María," you called softly, getting her attention. She turned to you, and you watched her literally change her face from one of slight panic, to one of reassuring confidence. If you didn't know her so well, you would have bought the second face with no questions asked.

"Come here," you said, gesturing for her to move closer. She must have thought you were seeking comfort, because otherwise there was no way she would have accepted your comfort, and she moved closer, resting her head on your shoulder.

"Are you nervous?" She asked.

"A bit. You seem really anxious though, baby. Are you okay?" At your question, she sat up, leaning away from you.

"I am fine, amor. Nothing to worry about." She said. "I am going to go shower, and then I'll help you to bed, alright?"

"Okay." You agreed, letting it go for now. She smiled at you, pressing a kiss to your forehead, before leaving the room.

You sighed once she was out of earshot. You'd let Ingrid know that Mapi seemed more anxious than normal, but you didn't want to overly stress out the Norwegian, not when you knew she was already kind of freaking out at the thought that you were having surgery before she arrived home. You pulled your phone out, hitting the contact of the one person you knew Mapi trusted almost as much as she trusted you and Ingrid.

"Alexia? I need your help with something."

-----

Worrying about Mapi turned out to be a wonderful distraction for you, as you both woke early and headed to the hospital. You were nervous, but your attention was on your girlfriend, who had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel with one hand, and yours wrapped tight in the other.

"Maps?"

"Sí?" She said, looking at you out of the corner of her eye, her worry evident in her slightly shaky voice.

"Ale is going to meet us at the hospital."

Mapi blinked. "That is nice of her to come for you." She said, although she was slightly confused. You hadn't wanted to see anyone recently, and although you'd been talking to Alexia, as someone who had, and was currently, having issues with her knee, Mapi was surprised that you'd agreed to her being at the hospital, and seeing you in such a vulnerable state.

"She's not coming for me, she's coming for you. I don't want you sitting alone around the hospital for hours, not when you're already nervous." You stated plainly, never having planned on hiding the real reason Alexia was invited.

"Amor, you should not be worrying about me," Mapi complained, although her grip slackened slightly on the wheel.

"Well, I am. So is Ingrid. And with Alexia there, we won't worry as much. Really, you'll be doing both of us a favor."

"You will be unconscious, but worrying about me?" Mapi rolled her eyes.

"I always dream of you, baby. Even when I'm under general." You winked at her.

Mapi snorted, but you were delighted to see a faint blush on her cheeks. She was quiet for a moment.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." She spoke softly, and you could just barely hear her over the sound of the engine.

You pull her hand over, still laced with yours, kissing the back of it. She smiled at you, eyes crinkling the way they did when she smiled really genuinely. You returned the smile, feeling incredibly glad that you weren't really freaking out.

-----

You sat in the hospital bed, all dressed in the stupid gown, feeling significantly less calm and collected. Mapi had settled after learning that Alexia would be around, and her decrease in stress had allowed you to focus back on your own.

You were visibly nervous, hands shaking, teeth chattering, holding rather tightly to Mapi's hand. They put the IV in, and you noticed Alexia mumble something to one of the nurses, who took one look at you, nodded, and disappeared from the room.

"What did you tell her?" You wondered.

"Nothing, just a question." Alexia replied calmly, but the her eyes flicked away from your eyes; Alexia could lie, but she couldn't meet your eyes while doing it. The nurse returned before you could press your captain.

"Something to help you relax, alright?" The nurse said with a kind smile, injecting something into the IV. You didn't know what it was, but the effect was almost instantaneous. Your neck went limp, and your head dropped onto the pillow. Your body drained of tension, and you loosened your painfully tight grip on your girlfriends hand.

"I feel better," you said, fighting back a yawn. The nurse left the room, telling you that they would be ready to take you back in a couple minutes. Mapi was looking at you, amused by the sudden relaxed version of you in front of her.

"Alexia, you really are a great blonde." You said, squinting at her.

"Thank you chica," she said with a laugh. "They gave you the good stuff, huh?

You turned to look at Mapi, raising a clumsy hand to boop her nose. "You're so pretty. Like so, so, pretty."

"They really did give you the good stuff," Mapi laughed. You returned her grin, eyes beginning to flutter shut. You were lightly snuffling against the oxygen tubes not seconds later, out cold, still clinging to your girlfriend's hand.

"What did you tell them to give her?" Mapi asked, turning her attention to her best friend.

"I just asked if they could start her early on the stuff to relax her. My mom had them do it for me when I had my surgery, because she thought I was going to break my sister's hand, I was holding it so tight." Alexia commented.

The nurse entered again, followed by several others, and Mapi knew it was time. She leaned down, placing a light kiss on your cheek.

"Good luck, mi amor. I love you." She whispered the words into your ear, squeezing your hand once more, before allowing them to roll your bed away. She watched as they wheeled you down the hall, feeling a flutter of worry in her chest. They better be careful with you.

Alexia stood next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"She'll be fine, amiga." Alexia reassured, and Mapi nodded, trying to convince herself.

"Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it." Mapi mumbled.

"Of course." Alexia replied. "You better text Ingrid and tell her y/n went back. You know she bought plane wifi, and if you don't update her, I wouldn't want to be you when she arrives later."

-----

Ingrid hated plane wifi, potentially more than she'd ever hated anything in her entire life. All she wanted was to hear that you'd gone back for surgery okay, and also that Mapi was alright, but the wifi was hardly functioning, and Ingrid felt like chucking her phone across the plane. Her texts began to load, finally, as the plane was landing. Perfect timing. She had a text from Mapi, and a text from Alexia.

"They just took her back. She was nervous but they gave her something and she was... no longer nervous. Waiting with Ale now. Fly safe, princesa. Te amo."

"Mapi's alright. Definitely anxious but I'm distracting her by asking her to tell me what her favorite goal she's ever scored is. She's been talking for 20 minutes."

Ingrid relaxed, even cracking a smile at Alexia's text. Her and Mapi's relationship was so entertaining to watch. They spent most of their time together giggling, making fun of each other, but if one of them needed the other, she would be there. No matter what.

Ingrid made her way off the plane, resisting the urge to shove everyone out of her way. She made record time getting to baggage claim, and was just pulling out her phone to call and uber when she felt someone land squarely on her back.

"La princesa! Your taxi service has arrived!" Ingrid tried to be annoyed, she really did, but when Pina climbed off her back, and Ingrid turned around to find her and Patri smiling goofily at her, she couldn't manage it.

-----

Ingrid arrived at the hospital, leaving her bag with Pina and Patri, who had promised to get it home for her, before heading inside. She'd gotten a text from Mapi a couple of minutes ago, one that had worried her.

"Taking longer than they expected. Not sure why. We're in room 402 when you get here."

Ingrid hauled ass to room 402, her stiff legs from playing a full 90 the day before, and then getting on a plane making it rather difficult. She made it at the same time, apparently, as the surgeon, and she felt slightly nauseous as she walked into the room. There were plenty of reasons why a surgery would take longer, but Ingrid could not, for the life of her, think of one that wasn't negative.

She walked right into the room, just before the doctor, quickly hugging Alexia before pulling Mapi into her side. They all looked at the doctor expectantly. He looked frazzled, which didn't make anyone feel better, and he scrolled through your chart for what felt like minutes before finally speaking.

"The surgery was successful, and y/n is in recovery. There was, however, a slight, unforeseen complication."

-----

You woke up slowly, and you could hear before you could open your eyes. You weren't sure where you were, or what was happening. You heard rhythmic beeping, and it sped up as you grew more aware. You shifted lightly in the bed, unable to get your eyes to open. The beeping sped up faster, but someone laid a hand on your cheek, and a soft voice filled your ears.

"You're alright, cariño, we're here with you." You settled instantly when you heard Mapi speak, the beeping that you now realized was measuring your heart rate slowing down again. It took a few more minutes before you got your eyes to open, and, by that point, you remembered where you were, and why you were there.

It was bright when you looked around. Mapi was in a chair next to you, hand holding yours. You looked around, realizing Ingrid was supposed to be there, as was Alexia. Even just waking up from surgery, you wanted to see your girlfriend, more than anything.

"Ingrid?" You croaked out, directing the question to Mapi. She smiled when she heard your voice, and helped you take a few sips of the water on the table in front of you.

"She's just talking to the doctor, she'll be back in a bit," Mapi informed you. There was something off, though, a tightness to her smile that shouldn't be there. It could have been her general discontent being in the hospital, but something in your gut told you that it wasn't that.

"What's wrong?" You asked, forcing your eyes back open when the slid shut again.

"Nothing," Mapi lied, looking at the door almost pleadingly.

"María, what is going on," you said. Before she could lie again, Ingrid and Alexia appeared in the doorway, the doctor behind them. Ingrid smiled softly when she saw you awake, moving forward to sit next to the bed, and kiss your temple. You returned her smile, but focused back on the doctor. He looked... not troubled, but like he was about to deliver bad news.

"What went wrong?" You asked him, feeling suddenly much more awake.

He smiled sympathetically. "Nothing went wrong, the surgery was successful. There was more damage to your surrounding muscles than we expected, so we had to go to the hamstring instead of the patellar tendon for replacement tissue. It means a slightly harder recovery, as you also need to strengthen the area where the graft came from."

You were quiet for a moment. You'd thought so hard about the surgery, considered every aspect, but didn't think that this was a possibility. You weren't quite sure what to think.

"How much longer will recovery be?" You asked.

"The time shouldn't be affected, but you'll be in more pain at the beginning." He explained. You let out a sigh of relief. You could handle more pain, what you couldn't handle was being off the pitch any longer than you already were going to have to be. The doctor informed you that you were free to go once you were more awake, confirming that you'd made a follow up appointment to remove the sutures, before leaving the room.

You looked down then, seeing your leg wrapped up in heavy white gauze, encased in a black brace. Your knee had been swollen before, yes, but it hadn't really looked like anything was wrong with it. Now, though, it was glaringly obvious, a stark reminder of the long months ahead.

"Hey, what are you thinking?" Ingrid asked, tearing you from your thoughts. It took you a minute to gather your thoughts, but when you did, you addressed everyone in the room, trying to put their obvious nerves at ease.

"It's fine. As long as I can get back to playing in the same amount of time, I don't care what they use. I can deal with the pain." You smiled at your girlfriends, and at Alexia. They all returned the gesture, glad to see that you weren't too upset.

-----

You were feeling less confident the next day. The initial drugs wore off, leaving you in considerably more pain than before. Your knee felt hot and swollen, and it throbbed painfully anytime you got up. You were in the extra bedroom, having insisted that Ingrid and Mapi sleep in your bedroom together, so no one would worry about accidentally bumping you. They were reluctant, and Mapi checked on you at least 10 times the first night.

Ingrid had finally managed to get a enough sleep, though, after struggling the whole time she was gone. She was exhausted, and slept for 14 hours. When she woke up, she was furious that you and Mapi hadn't woken her, seeing as though both of you had been up for hours. You, because your knee felt like it had been run over by a snow plow, and Mapi, also because your knee felt like it had been run over by a snow plow. She hated seeing you in pain, and she had hovered over you all morning.

Ingrid shuffled into the extra room a few minutes after finally waking up, curling up next to you in the bed.

"How are you?" She mumbled, looking up at you, face still scrunched with sleep. You smiled down at her, running your finger over the sleep lines etched into her skin.

"Did you sleep well?" You asked, ignoring her question. She yawned, snuggling into your good leg, laying her head on your thigh.

"Slept good. Would have slept better with you there, though." She said, voice muffled against your skin. "You didn't answer my question."

"It hurts." You said simply. You didn't want to talk about it, so you changed the subject. "I missed you." You said. You'd been so out of it yesterday, you didn't really feel like you had enjoyed having Ingrid back home.

"I missed you too, elskling. I'm sorry I wasn't home sooner."

"Don't be. You were where you needed to be. You're home now, that's all that matters." Ingrid smiled at you, eyes fluttering shut again. Sleepy Ingrid was your favorite, and you began to run your fingers through her thick hair, avoiding the tangles. She hummed with pleasure, relaxing further into you.

"How are you feeling, amor?" Mapi asked from the doorway, looking anxiously at you. The smile fell from your lips. Was this what the next 9 months would be like? Every nice moment interrupted by your stupid injury?

"I'm fine, Mapi." You said, voice slightly harsher than it needed to be.

-----

This began a new pattern to your behavior. When you were distracted, you were fine, happy to be with your girls. When you weren't distracted, though, you were miserable. In pain, mostly helpless, and in a foul mood. It only worsened when you girlfriend's asked you questions about how you were feeling; you knew you were being ridiculous, but you felt like the only think you guys talked about was your knee.

Your newfound grumpiness did not, however, mean that you were expressing your emotions. On the contrary, they had never been more inaccessible. Your anger never faltered into sadness; frustration, sure, but neither of your girls could get you to acknowledge that you were upset.

As the weeks passed, and the recovery felt like it was going too slow, you grew more resistant to the help your girlfriend's were anxious to provide. Things were tense around the house, your girlfriends felt like they were walking on eggshells around you, waiting for your frosty exterior to crack, which it eventually did.

-----

You were in the Barcelona gym, 3 weeks post op. You were doing simple exercises, walking from one end of the room to the other, bending and flexing your knee, raising up on your toes. Things that should be easy, but weren't any longer. Alexia was on the other side of the gym, doing a much more complicated exercise. Ingrid and Mapi were out on the pitch, presumably. There was just one physio with you guys today, watching carefully as you did the world's lamest and smallest squats, barely bending your knee, leaning against a table. There was soft music playing throughout the gym, and it was rather peaceful.

That is, until Alexia dropped the barbell she was lifting with a loud clatter. You startled at the sound, twisting without thinking to look towards the noise. As soon as you did, you realized your bad leg was still planted when you turned. It didn't turn much, but it was enough for your knee to erupt in pain.

"Fuck!" You shouted, and Alexia was at your side in a second, as was the physio. "Fuck, something's wrong, jesus," you said, leaning back on the table and taking the weight off your knee.

"Alright, relax, let me look," the physio said, guiding you to lay back on the table. Alexia moved to stand by your head, laying a hand on your shoulder.

"Something is wrong," you said again, even though the pain was rapidly fading. The physio looked at your knee, poking and prodding at it gently, before looking at you.

"How much does it hurt?" He asked calmly.

Tears were stinging your eyes, and your voice trembled as you responded. "Not-not much, it's fading."

"No pain?" He asked again after a minute, applying pressure to each side of your knee.

"No, not anymore," you choked out.

"I don't think anything is wrong. If it was, the pain wouldn't be fading. The incisions look fine. You're okay, you just tweaked it."

"No, no, no. Something is wrong, it doesn't feel right, Ale it doesn't feel right." You cried, turning your attention to Alexia over you, her hand moving up and down your arm. You were fully panicking now, tears falling freely down your face, hands gripping at your shirt as if to tether you to the present. Alexia exchanged a look with the physio.

"Chica, you're okay, this is normal, nothing is wrong." She assured you, but you just shook your head frantically in response.

"No, I messed something up," you gasp. You sat up suddenly, almost smacking your head into Alexia's face. "I need scans, I need to do something," you say, moving to get off the table. Your knee didn't hurt anymore, but you couldn't shake the feeling that you had messed something up, horribly so. Alexia stopped you, resting her hands on your shoulders, holding you down on the table.

"Y/n, you need to calm down. You haven't messed anything up, everything is okay." She soothed. It clearly wasn't working to calm you, so she turned to the physio. "Get Mapi and Ingrid," she murmured before turning her attention back to you.

"Come on, amiga, you need to calm down," Alexia said. You could only shake your head, broken sobs falling past your lips. You hid your face in your hands, completely disconnecting from the world around you. Your ears were ringing, the only thing you could hear was blood pumping in your ears. You didn't know how much time had passed before different set of hands were cradling your face, urging you to look up. You do, and find the worried faces of your girlfriends in front of you. Ingrid has her hands on your face, and Mapi has taken one of your hands in hers, squeezing gently.

"Somethings... wr-wrong, help," you get out, looking between them frantically.

"No kjære, it's okay, nothing is wrong." Ingrid promised. For some reason, you believed her when you hadn't believed the others.

"Are you- are you sure?" You asked.

"Yes, cariño, the physio said you just tweaked it. You are completely fine." Mapi said softly.

"I didn't mess it up?"

"No, darling, you didn't mess anything up."

You nodded jerkily, leaning forward to rest your head on Ingrid's sternum, tugging on Mapi's hand until she moves closer.

"Y/n, I'm so sorry about the barbell, it slipped out of my hands," Alexia begins from the other side of the table, and you can hear the guilt in her voice.

"It's okay, Ale, it's not your fault." You mumbled into Ingrid's chest, reaching a hand out to the side. Alexia grabs it sighing in relief, squeezing once, before pulling away, giving you and your girlfriends some privacy. You stayed hidden away, leaning against Ingrid. You're clearly still emotional, but you don't seem interested in speaking, or moving again. It's quiet for a few moments, before you finally pulling away, wiping at your eyes.

"Can we go home?" You asked.

"Yeah, let's go home." Mapi agreed easily. You stood, taking a tentative step. Your face burns with embarrassment when you don't feel anything out of the ordinary in your knee. You'd freaked out for nothing. Absolutely nothing.

-----

You'd been sitting in silence on the couch since you'd arrived home 20 minutes ago, staring blankly at the dark TV. Your knee was propped up in Ingrid's lap, an icepack wrapped snuggly around the swollen appendage. Mapi was on your other side, resisting the urge to take you by the shoulders, shake you, and beg you to talk to them. Her and Ingrid had agreed to let you come to them, though. There was no use pushing you. Their patience is finally rewarded.

"Sorry I freaked out and you both had to leave training early." You said, raw voice startling your girlfriend's out of their thoughts.

"Don't be so-"

"-Please don't tell me not to be sorry. I've been such a burden for weeks, and you keep telling me not to be sorry about it. I am sorry about it, and I don't understand why you aren't annoyed with me." You cut in, spitting the words with an intensity neither of women was expecting.

"You are not a burden, y/n," Ingrid said, hurt bleeding into her tone.

"Yes I am," you dismiss. "You've had to do everything for me these past few weeks, and all I've done is act like the world has ended. It's just a knee injury, I don't know why I'm acting like this."

"Amor, it is okay if you feel like the world has ended. This is a big thing, and you are allowed to feel things. You don't have to push everything down, it's not healthy."

You shifted uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact. "You already have to take care of me. You shouldn't have to deal with the mess inside my head too."

"You could not be burden, darling, not to us. We don't mind taking care of you, not at all. And we want to know what's going on inside your head. It's been driving us crazy, not knowing what you're feeling. We want to know, y/n, we want to know it all." Ingrid's voice has a clear undertone of determination in it.

"You guys are so busy," you argue weakly. They were; the past weeks juggling you and the team had been draining. It was obvious to you. They hadn't realized how much you'd noticed it.

"We are never too busy for you, amor, and I'm so sorry if we've made you feel like we are." Mapi said gently. "You are our priority."

You finally looked up at them, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "It's just been hard. You guys get to go play, and I stay here, or go to the gym. And you spend all this time together at training. All the time you spend with me is you guys making sure my knee is okay."

Both of your girlfriend's faces are ones of horror at your confession. They hadn't realized you'd been feeling like this, not at all.

Mapi places a hard kiss on your temple, resting her chin on your head. "If I could switch places with you, cariño, I would. Watching you go through this, be in so much pain, has been killing me. I want to fix it, but I can't. All I can do is try to help, try to make you feel better. I didn't mean to make you feel like you were just a task for us, just a chore to be taken care of. You are our girl, nuestra niña bonita, and we love you, more than anything."

There are silent tears falling from your eyes when Mapi is done talking. She's said everything you've needed to hear this whole time, but were too nervous, too worried about being a burden to them to ask for their reassurance. Ingrid's hand lifts, carefully wiping a tear off your cheek, prompting you to look at her.

"No more of this, okay? When you need us, whether it's attention, or our help with something, or just a distraction, you tell us. You tell us, and we'll do it, whatever you need. You're not alone in this, darling. We're here for anything, really. Just like you would be for us if the roles were reversed."

You feel slightly silly when she reminds you of that. Obviously, you would do everything within your power to help one of your girlfriend's if they were going through this. Why you expected them to not really want to do the same was beyond you.

"Okay." You murmur, eyes on Ingrid as she scoots closer, pressing into your other side. You've been reminded of something, something Ingrid had promised you over the phone. Whatever you want, she'd said. You knew what you wanted, and you knew you needed to ask for it.

"Could I ask for something now?" You wonder quietly, and you hear Mapi laugh above you, clearly anticipating what you're about to ask for. Ingrid has the decency to pretend she doesn't know.

"What would that be?" She asks, placing her hand on your upper thigh.

"You promised me something about you and Mapi doing whatever I wanted?" You grin.

"Hmm, do you think you're ready for that, elskling?"

"God, yes. I'm ready, I promise." Your voice is already needy, already desperate.

"Mapi, go get things ready." Ingrid instructed, and you feel Mapi rise from next to you, and walk away into the bedroom.

"How do you know what to get ready if I haven't said what I want?" You questioned, looking up into the Norwegian's dark eyes.

Ingrid leaned forward, pressing light kisses in a trail up your jaw, stopping just by your ear. "I know what you want better than you do, pretty girl. I thought you knew that by now."

You shivered with excitement. "Don't be too careful with me, okay?"

"We'll be as careful as we need to be," Ingrid promised. Ingrid's lips meet yours, pressing harder than she has in weeks. It's the most she's touched you since your surgery, really, and you wrap your arms around her neck, pulling her closer. The wait will have been worth it, you're sure of that.

-----

[minervas-hand]

Right to fear, wrong to believe

Just had a horrible realization and needed to meta it out.

How different they were before Edinburgh, when Crowley was sucked down into Hell.

Look at this flirty babygirl in the Bastille:

I mean could he climb that tree any faster?

(This is why I really like fics that place a more physical relationship here, pre-Bastille or just post-Bastille, because c'mon look at them. )

In S1 the next thing is 1862 and Crowley asking for insurance (with a cane ffs). And Aziraphale freaking out with his "fraternizing" BS. It's jarring, until we get 1827 filled in for us in S2.

@takeme-totheworld notes in this post:

Crowley sure went from "our respective head offices don't actually care how things get done" and "nobody ever has to know" to "walls have ears" FAST after Edinburgh. And Aziraphale went from looking at Crowley with hearts in his eyes to "I've been FrAtErNiZiNg" just as quickly. I'm more convinced than ever that Edinburgh was the first time Crowley ever actually got caught and punished for fucking around with Aziraphale/doing good deeds/whatever it was they yanked him back down to Hell for, and it scared the absolute shit out of both of them and changed the whole tone of their relationship after that.

Yes! - it's clear to me as well that the Edinburgh graveyard was a very bad turning point, where they both saw that Hell was listening and would intervene. And it did change their relationship drastically, for over a century and a half (really, until looming Armageddon loosened up the stakes for them).

But what about Heaven?

See the thing is, we know Azi's been worried about Heaven watching him for the past 6000 years.

But they haven't.

[GIFs posted by starrose17]

All this time, and Heaven had not seen them together. Hadn't noticed. Had not even LOOKED.

I want to mention what @starrose17 says about this here in this post:

What I love about this is her choice of words, “went back through the Earth Observation files.” This implies that these photos were already filed somewhere meaning somebody had to have been watching them which meant somewhere in the depths of the bureaucratic heaven there’s an underpaid angel clerk tasked with watching angels on Earth, and he’s been hording photos of his favourite Angel/Demon couple not reporting them to Michael because he wants to see what happens.

And that's exactly what this fic covers!: Spying Omens by @ednav

(Give this a read, it's fabulous.)

While I am here for this being exactly how that happens, the other scenario is colder and worse - there's no one watching, at all. It's just filing automatically and never seen until some Scrivener is called to pull a file.

From @fuckyeahisawthatat's comment here :

I found this scene to be quite chilling, actually. Not only is the idea of Heaven as a surveillance state brilliant (way to make “God is always watching” sound way more ominous) but this is exactly how modern surveillance states work. They don’t actively watch everybody all the time. That’s not physically possible for humans, and even if it is metaphysically possible for Heaven, it’s not a very efficient use of resources. Surveillance states watch people they deem “suspicious.” And once you’ve been put in the category of “suspicious,” they have massive amounts of data that they can comb through to collect a lot of information about you–to retroactively build a case justifying why you’re suspicious, to collect information about where you go and who you associate with, etc.

Yes.

So we either have secret collusion in the rank and file, or we have a surveillance state that is constantly reinforced to its subjects for fear's sake, for control.

(Well, it obviously could be both.)

BUT my point is… Up until Edinburgh, Hell has not been watching (or caring at least). And up until near the end of Armageddon't, neither has Heaven.

Oh, my poor Angel. Thousands of years, of denying yourself, of pushing Crowley away, of carrying around a tension that is it's own constellation.

After 1827 you might have reason, but for the 5000+ years before that?

Thousands of years and Heaven was not watching nor cared.

You were right to fear. And you were wrong to believe.

And that just breaks my heart.

[teardropsonmypaper]

Guided Kisses~Steve Harrington X Reader

Masterlist Requests Request-Guidelines Summary:Reader has never been kissed before, and Steve happens to find out. What will happen once Steve offers his help? A/N: My brain literally died writing the summary, it is so vague but I promise it's good(i think) and kind of short! PLEASE SEND IN SOME REQUESTS!! I have it linked at the top of this post and it is always going to be linked on my pinned navigation post Not proofread Word Count: 681 Warnings: Kissing, use of Y/N, nothing else really lmk if I am

.....

You were everything that consisted of awkwardness and anxiety, here you were sitting on your best friend’s couch listening to him ramble about his last hook-up while you were trying to not to get caught up in your own thoughts. You graduated high school a year ago and you never ever had been kissed, you thought it was silly, truthfully. Steve keeps rambling on about how his hook-ups mother nearly walked in, you try everything in your power not to eye roll, every hook-up story he ever told almost always consisted of someone walking in. 

“Earth to Y/N!”, he calls waving his hand in front of your face, trying to get your attention. You jump slightly,”Yeah?”

“You were zoning there for a minute”, he said,”Something wrong?” 

You don’t know why but all of sudden your mouth moved faster than your brain,”Whatsitliketokisssomeone?”

Steve seems to be taken back a bit but laughs shortly after before answering shortly,”Kissing someone is nice. It can be soft and gentle but also rough and passionate. It all depends on the person you want to kiss or the time and place”, he pauses,”Why? Have you never kissed anyone?”

Your throat suddenly felt dry and you shifted your weight, you knew your face was red. A brilliant shade of red to be exact, red enough to make a tomato jealous. You were at a loss for words so you just shook your head no. Steve’s eyes widened,”You seriously never kissed anyone?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“No, not at all”, Steve says reassuringly,”It’s just that you’re a beautiful girl….I kind of thought you had a line of guys waiting outside your door", he chuckled nervously, running a hand through his light brown locks.

You point to the front door, "Door's right there and there's no line behind it", you try to joke. Dumb humor was your coping mechanism. Steve lets out a small laugh.

"'Y'know", he began,"I can help you..with y'know kissing."

You swear any breath or air that was in your lungs, suddenly got caught, your eyes were bulging out of your head at his offer,"y-you would?"

Steve smirks, suddenly feeling cocky now, he nods. You open your mouth again,"OK..you can..but be warned I have no idea what I'm doing.."

Steve moves closer to you,"Don't worry about it, just follow my lead". He cups this sides of your face, you shut yours, scared and nervous for what is about to happen. Your best friend, Steve 'The Hair' Harrington is about to kiss you. "Ready?", he whispers, you can already feel his breath on your lips. You nod.

Steve closes the gap between you and gently presses his lips against yours. The kiss is soft and slow, his lips moving against yours gently. You are tense, you try to ease into but Steve pulls away slightly. "You're during good", he reassures, his voice soft,"Just keep going, don't think too much into it." You nod.

This time as he presses his lips to yours, he moves his hands to your lower back, bringing you closer to him. He deepens the kiss, and your hands wrap around his neck to meet his criteria. He gently begins to nibble on your bottom lip as an attempt to get you to open your mouth slightly which you comply to. He slips his tongue into your open mouth and begins to explore. You move a hand to his hair and begin to tug at his hair. He groans at your hand in his hair, he tries to pull you closer to him as he kisses you passionately.

You eventually pull away, to catch your breath. "That was amazing", you breathe.

Steve nods, smirking a bit."Yeah, we should do that again sometime", he says casually,"Maybe on a date?"

You swore your heart just leapt out of your body and is on a one-way ticket to loony-town. You nearly have to pinch yourself before realizing that this is reality. "Deadass?"

Steve laughs and nods,"Deadass."

......

A/N: That's all for this guys, I feel like I rushed at the end. I got writer's block towards the end but I like it. I wanted to add more banter between the pair but I like the awkwardness in this current one. As always leave me some feedback and REQUEST PLEASE!!

[on-a-lucky-tide]

I just read through your "what are Nik's sore spots" ideas and I love them! I have a really horrible one for you if you like. Due to the sensitive subject matter though, feel free to completely ignore this entire thing: Nik values his intelligence, yes? He gets the news his father has Alzheimer's and while there is no love lost between them, Nik knows there are hereditary elements to this. He gets older, and he worries. Worries what it might mean for him. What it might mean for Price, who is statistically more likely to survive him. I'm sorry this got so dark. I uh had thoughts. Sorry.

Cylin I am... Ahhh. This is so heartbreaking and so good.

cw: Alzheimer's discussion.

My headcanon for Nik's early life is of an austere, really harsh father, but a very loving group of women (which is why I think he surrounds himself with strong, intelligent women, to be honest; Laswell, Syd, Farah, Iskra). They're the ones that turned him into this charming, affable bloke, but his father is the one that gave him everything that's not so great; the ruthlessness and the complex about being worth something to others, to name two.

I can absolutely see him losing the plot when he realises. He would fixate on it. Stew on it while he's up there in the skies until it's all that's going around his head. He doesn't want to bother John with it so he keeps it all on the inside until it starts affecting their relationship because he becomes distant, standoffish - "you won't love me like this when I'm useless to you, so I'm just cutting out the waiting period" kinda schtick.

I reckon it would end in a stand up row, because John doesn't like being taken for a mug; he knows there's something wrong and Nik better fuckin tell him and stop treating him like shit, or John's gonna lamp him one. It would come flooding out in an emotional tirade that makes Nik's usually calm voice crack. How he's terrified of losing his mind, how he "knows" one day he'll look at John's face and not know who he is, how he will forget how to fly, how he'll be a liability, a dead weight. How John will look at him with impatience and disgust.

It would take a lot. A lot. To talk him down. I think it's so ingrained in Nik that he has to be useful to deserve life that the idea of a very real and inevitable end to his utility that isn't simply death would be earth shattering. Nik tries not to be needy because that's being a liability so he always ends up swallowing these feelings down until they're eating him like heartburn. John realises that he needs to do the legwork here, but that's ok because he committed to a man, not a superhero stereotype, and Nik needs professional help as well. They can work through it together.

[ghost-proofbaby]

if it were anyone else (e.m.)

warnings: strong allusions to depression, disordered eating/rough relationship with food, mentions of smoking, description of a sort of panic attack. very sad. hurt/comfort? not edited.

wc: 1.6k+

a/n: this is literally entirely self indulgent and written entirely after i sat and cried and thought "i wish i had eddie here right now to hold me". maybe in like thirty minutes tops. this is for me and only me. go figure lol. sorry. yeah. anyways.

if you relate, my askbox is always open, and i'm very sorry you've felt this way as well. i hope you all take care of yourselves. drink some water, call a friend. be kind to yourself.

“I’m worried about you.” 

Four words that always manage to strike a certain type of fear in your gut. You don’t know how to react as he says it, how he wants you to react. You can only stare blankly, you can only wish harder for the earth to swallow you whole.

“What do you mean?” you laugh nervously, following it with a hard swallow.

You’re playing dumb. You know it, he knows it. The tremor in your bones and your numb appendages know it, too. 

“You’re…” Eddie stalls, licking his lips, letting his eyes rake over you, “You’re getting bad again.” 

You’re quick to shake your head, forcing another hollow chuckle from your chest, “It’s not that bad. I’m fin-”

“You’re not fine.”

The look in his eyes could crack your spine if you stare too long. Wet eyes, a trembling bottom lip, worry lines etched into his forehead that you realize might be caused by you.

You’re causing him worry. The last thing you want to do, you’ve accomplished. You’re on a fast-track to becoming a burden – the first step is always acceptance. 

You’re still unsure of how he wants – no, needs you to react right now. This conversation is a landmine for both of you, and you hold every breath with every step as you try to navigate it. If you make one wrong step, it could cause an explosion that spares no survivors.

You don’t mind if it tears you apart limb by limb. You do mind if it hurts him. 

“How… How do you know that?” 

It’s not a sarcastic snipping or defensive deterrence. It’s an unfiltered response of genuineness – you want to know the signs, you want to know what has exposed the rot this time.

And then, maybe next time, you’ll be able to better shield it from him with this knowledge. 

“How could I not?” he takes a deep breath in through his nose, and you focus on the flare of his nostrils rather than any of the tears beginning to gather at his waterlines, “It’s been happening for a while now, though, hasn’t it?” 

Your throat is a cage, tight and restrictive and ringing with a bitter metallic taste in its tenseness. You can’t respond with words. You can only nod. 

He chooses to answer your question more properly now that you’ve admitted it, “You’re cold all the time again. You’re always sleeping too much or too little. You’re smoking again, running yourself into the ground. Picking up distractions like they’re going out of style.”

“Hey, they might be. We never know-” you cut yourself off when your eyes meet his. Now’s not the time for jokes, “Sorry. I… I know. I’m sorry.” 

He’s right. Fuck, he’s right. 

“I want to ask you something, and I need you to answer me honestly,” his own steps across these landmines are just as delicate, just as feathery light, as your own. You hear it in his tone, see it in his body language. You wish your body could sink into the mattress you’re sitting on the edge of as he crouches in front of you, warm palms connecting with your knees. Grounding you. Tethering you. Holding you back from that sinking you crave. “Are you… Sweetheart, are you okay?”

If anybody else had built up to such a stupid question, you would have laughed in their face. You would have shoved those warm palms right off of your skin and you would have thrown up those ice cold hands of your own, shouted obviously not. 

Obviously not. I’m not okay. I’m so far from okay, it’s a bit comical. I am drowning. I am treading in freezing cold waters and I am barely capable of keeping my head above the waves. My engine is fucked, my tank is empty. I don’t think I’d even know how to be ‘okay’ again if you did manage to pull this mangled body of mine from these depths and sat me down on safe, solid ground again. 

You can’t say any of this, though. Not because you don’t trust him, not because he would judge you. But because the moment he asks the question that should make you scoff, you let out a sob instead. Something like a muffled, broken wail that tears from deep within you. It had already been ready and poised, laying in wait for a perfect moment like this one to escape. 

His eyes aren’t the only glossy ones anymore. 

“I-” you start, breathing already stuttering and chest already constricting, “I- I-”

“Hey,” he palms smooth up your thighs, carrying their warmth with them, as if he were trying to spread it across you. As if he had heard your thoughts. As if he already knew all about those dark, treacherous, freezing waters you were stranded in. All you can do is spew out another cry, strangled as you tried to swallow it down before it entered the atmosphere between you two, “Hey.” 

You only notice the tears when you crumple forward and he meets you halfway. Those warm palms, those hands so capable of safety and promise, cup your cheeks and his thumbs make quick work of swiping away the salty streams. 

“Hey, baby, breathe for me,” his voice is tragically gentle, “Just one deep breath, okay?” 

To demonstrate, you watch his chest expand dramatically, his hands forcing you to keep your eyes on him. 

You can’t see through the bleariness. 

“C’mon, sweetness,” he encourages again, “One breath. Just one.” 

If it were anyone else, you’d turn into a fit of rage at the coddling. You’d break everything in sight. You’d scream until your already burning lungs finally collapsed as they’d been yearning to for so long. 

But it’s him. It’s just him, it’s just Eddie. 

His chest rises dramatically again, and this time, yours does as well, albeit through stifling hiccups. You’re dizzy from the lack of oxygen and the flood of emotion that was wrecking you. 

“There you go!” his voice rises ever so slightly, and when you flinch a bit at the sudden volume, he retracts, “Sorry, sorry. But that’s it, sweetheart. Another one, okay?” 

Another breath. Another sob. Another wave of all the pain you’ve been battling off. 

You’re cold all the time again. You’re always sleeping too much or too little. You’re smoking again, running yourself into the ground.

He was right and it fucking killed you. None of those are things you could ever shield him from. You didn’t have the heart to pull away those numb and icey fingertips every time he’d reach out for your hand, or try to cover the shivers that managed to rack your bones even in the middle of summer. The sleeping situation had been spiraling, a pendulum of sleepless nights that would end in a sleep so deep that you could have been mistaken for resting with the dead. Maybe the smoking you could have hid, especially when you’d been so boastful about quitting. 

You weren’t running yourself into the ground. You had already collapsed into the dirt, you had already joined the worms. You’d buried yourself alive, six feet under, and nothing could have stopped him from sniffing out that scent of decay on you. 

The death of a soul and mind. The death of the thing that had propelled you forward for so long. No amount of sweet perfume, or hour long scalding showers, or minty gum to occupy your mind rather than a proper meal, can erase that stench. 

You never could have shielded him. He always saw right through you. Always had, always would. 

“I’m sorry,” you end up crying out. 

You don’t know what you’re apologizing for, but you echo the words again. Over and over, on repeat, until he’s rising from the ground. Until he’s sat beside you. Until his arms are suddenly encasing you and you’re awarded a warmth you didn’t feel deserving of. 

He doesn’t smell like the decay you’d surrounded yourself with. He smells like slow waking in the morning, dreary and calm and at a reasonable time. He smells like warm baths that only relax your bones, and don’t have to blister your skin in the process. He smells like three meals a day, all comforting and all effortless and that never linger with a sense of regret.

He’s not decay, never even treading close to death. He’s home. He’s the promise that you could be okay. Even if it isn’t right now. 

“Don’t apologize,” he murmurs into the crown of your head, squeezing you tighter into his chest, not even blinking an eye at the patch of wetness you leave behind from where your cheeks bury against him, “Never apologize. Ever. Not with me, sweetheart. Keep the sorries. I don’t need them.” 

If it were anyone else, the holding would have suffocated you. But it’s him. It’s Eddie.

You don’t fight him when he pulls you fully into his lap, situating the two of you comfortably on that mattress. 

You don’t know how long you let him cradle you like that. How much of that time is spent filled with your cries, or how many breaths he gently urges you to take with him. He never once has to verbally say what you already know; he never once promises aloud that it’ll be okay. He doesn’t put that pressure on you, not yet. Not today. Not when he knows the journey to okay is still such a long one. 

“I’ve got you,” he whispers to you instead, “I’ve got you, now, sweetheart.” 

If it were anyone else, you wouldn’t believe them. 

But it’s him. It’s Eddie. 

And he’s got you, for now and for as long as you need.

[theconquerorwormhoard]

Hi, Could you give the idea of reader x twelfth doctor who has Bill as a companion and who in a few words is a bit of a jealous doctor? either because they met someone great on a trip or because the reader is very much involved in his life on earth.

Thanks!

(yessssssssssssss I need to write more 12)

Jealousy

Rating: G

Pairing(s): 12th Doctor x Reader

Tags/TW: 12 is a jealous lad

You were used to trips not quite going the way you'd planned. It was almost a guarantee. But needless to say, rejecting the marriage proposal of a cyborg queen was... Definitely unexpected.

You, the Doctor, and Bill ran through the mechanical castle. "I don't see why it couldn't work out," Bill said, "I mean, she seemed nice enough-"

"Before she sent her guards after us, you mean?" you replied, just before the hallway began to shift. The three of you were trapped in a dead end that hadn't been there before.

The Doctor hadn't stopped fidgeting with his sonic screwdriver the entire chase, and it seemed that he'd finally found what he was looking for. He pointed it at the wall with a flourish, giving you and Bill a tiny grin before grabbing your hand.

The TARDIS was somewhere in the royal gardens, but with the hallways changing, you had no idea where you were supposed to be going. "Doctor, how are we getting out of here?" you asked, panting.

"I've tuned into the queen's frequency, I can reverse all of her changes," he said, and you frowned.

"So she controls the castle?"

"No. She is the castle. She's integrated it all into her upgrades. Quite foolish actually, once we escape, she won't be able to follow," the Doctor explained, tugging you around a corner.

Bill chimed in, "But the guards will! Right? I mean, they're not a part of the castle, they're just movin' on their own."

The Doctor paused before giving a shrug, saying, "If I'm right, the TARDIS is through that door, and we won't have to worry about it."

So the three of you bolted to the door, which thankfully led out into the gardens. The TARDIS waited patiently in the center of the queen's prized flower bed, and as the sound of mechanical guards closed in, you knew you couldn't risk a look back. The three of you piled into the TARDIS and slammed the door behind you.

Bill immediately tossed her jacket over one of the rails, saying, "Well that was... All kinds of fun but I'm beat, I'll be in the rec room. Let me know when we get back, alright?"

You gave her a smile and a wave while the Doctor gave a soft grunt, circling the console. Bill disappeared down a hallway, and you stepped towards the Doctor.

He yanked a lever and the TARDIS made a tremendous noise; he then quickly pulled the lever back to its original position, grumbling under his breath.

You rested an elbow on the railing. "Doctor?" you asked.

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong, we're on our way, everything is fine!"

You crossed your arms. "Mhm."

He turned to face you, saying, "What? I answered your question."

You raised an eyebrow and said, "Barely. C'mon, what's wrong?" Taking a step closer, you added, "Can't have anything to do with the fact that I was proposed to today, can it?"

He rolled his eyes and waved a hand at you, turning back to the console. "What, that? Nonsense."

You smirked. "Didn't seem like nonsense when you rejected her for me."

He paused for a moment before flipping a row of switches, saying, "You were hesitating."

You held back a chuckle and said, "That's what you're upset about? The fact that I hesitated, upon hearing that the queen of some planet - that you dragged me to! - wanted to marry me?"

"Oh c'mon, I didn't drag you, you wanted to go on a trip."

"You're avoiding the question and you know it," you said, barely able to hold back a smile.

He halted what he was doing and turned to face you, saying, "And what if I am?"

You shrugged. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it, fine. But if it's bothering you, you can't just avoid it forever." You stepped a little closer and placed a hand on his shoulder, saying, "At the end of the day, I turned her down."

"You did."

"Mhm, 'cause why wouldn't I? I've got everything I want right here."

The Doctor betrayed a small smile.

[bangtanficsforyou]

They Reject You (maknae line)

Pairing: maknae line x reader (fuckboi! Jimin x Reader, Co-worker Taehyung x Reader, Idol Jungkook x Reader)

Warnings: swear words here and there.

Word count: 4.6K

Park Jimin

"Well if it isn't my favourite girl." A voice slurs slowly, right next to your ears which makes you flinch in surprise.

"Jimin, gosh, what's wrong with you?" You say in an annoyed manner, immediately recognising the person. "Also, maybe keep some distance?"

Jimin pouts exaggeratedly and puts extra effort into widening his eyes for special effects. "Don't you find me being this close to you, heart racing-ly desirable?"

"Heart racing-ly? That's a new one," you snort and roll your eyes. "But to answer your question; no. It is not heart racing-ly desirable." 

"Lie all you want but we all know the truth," Jimin smirks and you can't help but wonder how on earth he manages to remain this cocky even when drunk.

"Cut the crap and stop wasting my time." You turn around to leave, not wanting to give Jimin the time of your day. From your previous experiences, you know that Jimin only ever causes trouble.

"I'm not feeling good, Y/N," he whines, all cockiness suddenly gone from his tone as he pleads gently. "Don't leave me."

You contemplate for a split second before huffing in defeat. "What do you mean by you're not feeling good?" 

"I don't know," he shrugs with a sad frown. "I just don't feel good."

Instinctively, you place your palms on his forehead only to find his skin to be burning hot. 

"Jimin!" You exclaim, your feelings of indifference instantly turning into that of concern. "You have high fever."

"That might explain why I was feeling so hot," he nods. "But I thought that was because of how attractive I am."

Any other time, you would have retorted with a comeback but right now you pay no attention to his words. "Come with me, we need to get you back to your room. You need rest." 

Much to your surprise, Jimin doesn't throw a protest and lets you hold his hand as you make way for the both of you through the partying crowd. 

Thankfully his room is only upstairs (one of the many pros of being a frat boy living in a frat house) and you don't have much trouble getting there.

Making Jimin sit on the bed, you look for medicines that can help with his fever. "How long have you been feeling unwell?"

"For about an hour."

You have half a mind to lecture him on how drinking should be the last thing he should have done while feeling unwell, but you decide to keep it in. Maybe when he's sober and in a better health condition, you will give him an earful.

Right now, it's more important to understand the severity of the situation.

"Did you stay out for too long at night? Or stayed with wet clothes on? Or something that might have led to you having a fever?" 

Jimin's drunk mind feels perplexed by the series of questions you're throwing his way. "Does it matter?" 

"Yes, it does," you respond shortly.

As a nursing student, you know how important it is to know the source of any sickness. If his fever can be tracked down to any possible cause, you'd have this reassurance that there's most likely nothing to worry about. However, if the fever seems to have appeared out of nowhere, there are chances that it may be a symptom of some underlying infection.

Your response makes Jimin think. Has he done anything in recent days that could have led to this? At first, nothing comes to mind. But after a few moments of intense brainstorming, something clicks in his brain.

"Does having two hours of shower sex count?" He queries seriously.

Your hands momentarily falter on their journey of looking for the first aid box but you recover quickly. 

"Should have expected something like that from you," you grumble in annoyance.

"Don't be mean," he complains in a whine. "It's not my fault that the sex was so good. Plus, she kept asking for more and you know I can't say no to that."

You slam the drawer shut and aggressively open the box, having finally found it. You take out a tablet and hand it over to Jimin with a glass of water. 

Once Jimin has taken the medicine, you arrange the pillows for him and take a blanket out. "Go to sleep. Let your body have some rest."

"Are you leaving?" He asks in a quiet voice, reminding you of a small child asking a question they already know the answer to.

"I don't think I have any purpose being here. I'll ask Jungkook to stay with you in case you need something."

"Jungkook won't take care of me the way you do," Jimin replies with a huff, thoroughly displeased with the idea of you leaving him.

"That's not my issue," you shrug.

Jimin switches to his last option, one that works every time and on everyone; his famous, irresistible puppy eyes. "Do you not have any sympathy for me?"

You scoff, your patience running thin. You really don't want to have a fight or speak your mind while he's having a fever, but if he continues to prod you this way, he will be responsible for the inevitable outburst.

Jimin feels unhappy with your lack of response and he attempts once again. "Won't you do this much for me? Please?"

That's it. The way his soft voice pulls at your heartstrings does it for you.

"Can you, for once, not think only for yourself?" You snap.

Now that was not the reaction Jimin was expecting. "What do you mean?"

"Don't try to play dumb," you roll your eyes and cross your arms. "Don't tell me you have no idea how I feel about you."

Although drunk, Jimin's mind registers the seriousness of your words and he immediately looks sheepish. "I don't."

Well, that's a lie and both you and Jimin know it.

A sarcastic smile appears on your face. "I'll spell it out for you, again. I like you Jimin."

Jimin looks down and starts fiddling with the end of the bedsheets as he nods, having no other response. 

You sigh, wondering why you expected any other, perhaps a more thoughtful reaction from him. Feeling disappointed with yourself, you make your way out without another word.

On your way, however, you make sure to find Jungkook and ask him to look after Jimin. 

Once you're out of the frat house and have booked a cab to your rented apartment, you sit on a small bench and take a deep inhale to relax. Sadly and much to your frustration, the emotions that have come to the surface refuse to let you have your peace of mind.

You really should have stayed away from Jimin, from the very start.

Your brain chimes at you and it reminds you that perhaps there's no one else to be blamed but you. You are the one who has been entertaining Jimin all in the name of not entertaining him. 

It was a frat party much similar to that of today's when Jimin had first tried to add your name to the long list of girls he has had sex with. You were surprised, caught off guard and admittedly a little flattered by his flirtatious actions but irrespective of that, you weren't willing to be a part of his list.

You had asked him to fuck off and to leave you alone. Which he had done at the time but only to return later with much more determination to win you over. By then, you weren't feeling flattered by his repeated attempts, you were annoyed. Something, which Jimin found amusing.

The more he tried, the more your annoyance flared and so did Jimin's amusement. It went like this for a couple of weeks.

Things started to change when you stumbled upon a drunk Jimin sitting alone on the terrace. That was the first time the both of you had a proper conversation with each other. It made you realise that the whole fuckboy thing he has going on, is only a small part of him. You realised that there's much more to the guy than what meets the eye.

From then on you stopped treating him like a guy whose sole identity was that of the 'campus fuckboy'. 

That doesn't mean that his actions stopped annoying you. But you sure found it more tolerable.

However, exactly when your feelings for him turned romantic, remains debatable. Was it the night when he drunkenly kissed you? Or was it when he drunkenly confessed that he enjoys your company more than anyone else's? You don't know. 

But you do remember, exactly when you realised that your feelings for him don't fall under the category of platonic. It was when you saw Jimin making out with a petite blonde in a bar. The pain and jealousy that shot through your veins was an indication enough for you to see how your feelings have bloomed into something more.

You, upon realising, did not hesitate to confess. His response to your confession was simple. He does not do relationships and he sees you as a friend.

You could do with that. You weren't expecting Jimin to return your feelings or to commit to you. After all, you were well aware of his lifestyle and how he likes having lovers instead of a lover. 

The only reason you had confessed to him was in hopes that he would stop trying to bed you and realise that it isn't just fun and games for you anymore.

Unfortunately, Jimin didn't stop with his antics.

Annoyed and angry, you had decided to cut Jimin off. But of course, he wouldn't have that. He would, in some way or the other, sneak into your daily life and cause a ruckus as if it were his birthright. 

Truth be told, you weren't hurt by his rejection as much as you were by his total disregard for your feelings and how his actions and choices could affect you. 

The events from today serve as another example of the kind of emotional turmoil he stirs within you. The question is how long will you put up with this?

Your cab honks to announce its arrival and it causes you to break out of your thoughts. You give a small nod to the man in the driving seat and get up. As you walk towards the cab, you make up your mind. 

You're not going to entertain him any longer. 

Kim Taehyung

You: that's very mean of you 👿

You type with a wide grin plastered on your face.

Tae 🐻: mean? me? Never 🥺

You: putting that emoji won't help you 👿

Tae 🐻: ☹️

Tae 🐻: I sent you the snap of the chocolate because it reminded me of you 😔

You: that was NOT your intention 😤

You: you do this every time and then i start craving chocolates 😭

Tae 🐻: then have some 🙇

You: i have to complete the excel sheet by today :(:

You: which mean i can't go out

You: and if I opt for ordering online, I'll end up ordering a bunch of other stuff along with it and that won't be good for my wallet 

Tae 🐻: awwww

Tae 🐻: It's okay! I'll bring you chocolates tomorrow 

Tae 🐻: from your favourite brand 😉

You: you sweetheart 🥺

Tae 🐻: says the sweetest ❤️

A bashful giggle escapes from your lips when you read his text. He sure has a way with words.

You: now let me do my work

You: shoo

Tae: ☹️

Tae: I'm being chased away 

Tae: but okay xD

Tae: I'll let you get back to it. 

You bite on your lower lip to stop smiling like a fool and try to focus your attention on the computer screen. Keyword; try.

The butterflies in your stomach and the fluttering of your heart make it extremely difficult for you to think about anything else that's not Taehyung.

Gosh, he really is the greatest distraction of them all.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, you find a big pack of chocolate from your favourite brand, on your desk. Attached to it is a note that reads for my favourite girl ;). You smile involuntarily and wonder what you ever did to deserve someone like Taehyung in your life. 

You sit on your chair and while the computer boots, you take a small bite from the chocolate bar. As you relish the sweetness that spreads in your mouth, you can't help but think of Taehyung and how much he has come to mean to you, in the few months that you have known him. 

When he first joined the company he was shy, barely talking to anyone and having a hard time socialising with his co-workers. It took him about a couple of weeks to get comfortable and once he did, there was no going back. He somehow became everyone's favourite. 

However, the way you two became friends is a bit different. 

Four months ago, on a fortunate day, there was a huge mishap with the data files. Small groups were formed to work on the mistakes and correct them as necessary. As fate would have it, you and Taehyung were a team. And the amount of jokes you two made about your higher-ups, were perhaps the only source of energy for you both to carry on with the work and ultimately, finish it. 

And those three intense working days were enough for the two of you to become friends. 

It started with having small conversations via text, which then turned into full lengthy regular conversations. In the midst of all of that, when the flirting began, you have no clue. All you remember are those nights when you stayed up late, talking to him and smiling into your pillow, feeling like a teenager. 

He would sneak little compliments and warm affectionate words that would have you looking like a tomato in a matter of seconds.

Most importantly, he has become one of your closest friends. He has been there whenever you needed him and has confided in you whenever he faced challenges. The bond you two share is something you treasure deeply. He has become such an integral part of your life that there hardly goes by a day when the two of you don't talk to each other.

It's one of those 'more than friends' but 'not really dating' scenarios.

You had never given much thought about giving a label to what the two of you were. You were happy having him the way you do. But recently, you can't help but think of taking things to the next level. You find yourself wondering what it would be like to call him your boyfriend. 

As the all too familiar windows tune plays, notifying you of the booting process being completed, you decide to subtly ask him about it. 

----------------------------------------

"Did you like the chocolates?" That's the first thing Taehyung asks as you take the seat opposite to him.

"Do you think I would not like it?" You answer his question with a question of your own. Because honestly, that's a very silly question to ask. Anyone who knows you knows how much you love chocolates.

Taehyung grins, his boxy smile making an appearance. "I mean, it would still be nice to hear it from you."

"Well, then, I loved it." 

He nods, satisfied with your answer. Placing one of his hands on his chest, right above his heart, he bows. "I'm honoured to know that."

You chuckle softly, endeared at his actions. "How was your day so far?"

He rolls his eyes. "Eh, the usual. Mina got some files messed up and I had to do twice the work to fix that."

"That sucks," you grimace. "Work has been so tiring lately, I wish we could take a small break from all this shit."

"Oh, that reminds me–" Taehyung exclaims suddenly, startling you, "–I have got these free tickets to a movie, would you like to go with me?"

Excitement bubbles in your stomach. "Sure! I'd love to."

"Then it's set! I'll let you know of the date and time later, okay?" 

You nod, feeling giddy at the thought of watching a movie with him. It won't be the first time for sure, but it has been a while since the two of you last did something like this. Work hardly leaves any spare time for rest and fun.

However, the thought of spending some alone time with him, makes your mind go back to what you had decided while you were devouring the chocolate. You clear your throat before bringing the topic to the table. "Tae?"

"Hmm?"

"What are we doing?"

He looks up from his food, with a confused smile. "What do you mean by that? We are eating lunch." 

You shake your head softly, and make your question more obvious. "What are we?" 

You see as his confusion clears out and his smile fades. A look of discomfort appears on his face as he swallows the food. "Well, we are friends." 

"Are we just friends though?" You raise a brow in question, not willing to accept his answer. 

A soft sigh escapes his lips when he realises he can't really back out of this or push the conversation away for some time later. "You aren't just a friend to me. I like you. I like you a lot."

You stay quiet, sensing that there's a but coming. 

"But I don't think I'm ready to be in a relationship." He adds, figuring out that there's no way to put it subtly. 

That wasn't the answer you were expecting and naturally, you feel disheartened by his words.

Taehyung notices the way your face has dropped and he immediately feels guilty. "I know I should have told you this before. My intentions weren't to string you along, I genuinely do like you–"

"Then why?" You cut him off, confused and unable to understand what could be the issue if he really likes you the way he claims to.

"I am scared it will distract me from my career."

Your first instinct is to counter his statement and say, it doesn't work that way. That relationships are not a distraction. But you hold yourself back from saying so. 

If he believes that having a relationship will distract him, you cannot force or persuade him to believe otherwise. If anything, you understand where he might be coming from. He has only recently joined the company and you know he has experienced financial issues while growing up. You can see why he might be scared of something making him lose his focus. Having an established career is what he wants and what seems to be his priority.

Although you have been hoping and looking forward to putting a label, you know you can't expect that from him anymore. You could try and ask him to reconsider his choices but what good would that do? 

Even if he were to get into a relationship, he would most likely still have that thought in the back of his mind and will keep worrying about getting sidetracked. What's the point of committing to someone if you can't really enjoy it to the fullest? What is the point of calling someone yours, if you can't fully feel the beauty of it? You see none.

"Maybe, we can wait for each other?" He suggests meekly, too scared to see what your reaction to the question is.

Now, waiting for each other and whatnot sounds really romantic in movies and romcoms but you have to remind yourself that this is not a movie. In real life, irrespective of the intentions the individuals may hold, somewhere along the line, something usually happens that causes chaos and turns things sour. 

"How about we just let things flow and see where it takes us?" You suggest as that seems like the best possible choice at the moment.

Taehyung nods knowing he's in no place to bargain. He will take whatever you will give him. However, it bugs him to no end when you spend the rest of the lunch in silence and with a frown on your face.

Jeon Jungkook

"Can you sit still for a moment?"

The person in question, aka Jungkook, pays no attention to your words and hollers when something exciting occurs on the screen of his mobile phone. 

You sigh and place your palms on both of his cheeks and make him look up. However, the adorable sight of his squished cheeks, pouty lips and doe eyes wide in surprise, has you snorting. When you let go of your hold, he frowns, offended by your laughter.

"What's so funny about my face?" He grumbles.

You shake your head and apply blush on his cheeks. "You just looked like a real bunny for a second there, couldn't help but laugh at that."

He pouts. "That's supposed to be cute, not funny."

A fond smile appears on your face at his displeasure. "You're both cute and funny, I guess."

Jungkook grins at you, now satisfied. "Now make me cuter."

"I'll be able to do that if you stay still for a moment," you retort. 

Jungkook huffs and closes his eyes. "Fine! I'll stay still."

You hum in response and get to work. 

Being Jungkook's make-up artist was fairly easy. You just had to make his beautiful face appear flawless for the cameras. Nothing too difficult. Jungkook was friendly and so were the other BTS members. The pay was, of course, more than satisfactory.

Recently, however, being Jungkook's make-up artist hasn't been easy. It hasn't been easy being this close to him and keeping the fluttering of your heart under control. It hasn't been easy to see his eyes this up close and not let yourself get lost in them. It hasn't been easy to notice that small mole under his lips and resist the urge to kiss it. Oh no, it hasn't been easy at all. 

One might call you unprofessional and to be honest, you don't have much to defend yourself with. Rather, if someone questions your professionalism, you'd challenge them to take your job and not fall for the guy.

You think it's simply impossible.

But you see, that's the simple part. Falling. The consequences of falling, however, are where the complications begin. 

The very first question that comes to mind is; what are the chances that they might feel the same? Then one realises that there's no way to answer this for sure as it's only the other person who's aware of what they feel. Which leads to a major dilemma; to confess or not to confess. 

Confessing your feelings is a very vulnerable thing to do. It feels like exposing yourself at one's mercy. Like a delicate bud that you hand over and whether the flower will bloom or wilt, totally depends on the other person. 

It's beautiful yet scary.

For a long time, you haven't been willing to be that vulnerable with Jungkook.

All anxieties that come with confessing aside, you can't ignore the fact that he's a world-famous idol.

You are not worried about word getting out about you falling for him. You hardly think that it will cause a stir. If anything, the fans will probably make memes out of it and will agree with you on how impossible it is to not fall for the guy. The memes will be all over the internet for a few months and after that, they will be gone and will resurface every once in a while. That doesn't seem like much to you and you think you can handle it.

What does worry you is word getting out and you getting fired and not getting a job henceforth (you're pretty sure that the agencies won't take up on your 'don't fall for Jungkook' challenge). 

This particular fear is what has been holding you back from letting Jungkook know of your feelings. 

However, the thing with love is, you cannot bury it no matter how hard you try. It's like the sun that comes out to shine no matter what. Love blooms in the heart and it refuses to stay hidden for too long behind whatever fears the mind comes up with.

After all, in the battle of mind and heart, when has the former ever won? 

Once you're done with the finishing touches, you let Jungkook know that you're done.

Jungkook opens his eyes and they automatically land on yours. The sharp spike in your breathing rate and the loud thumping of your heartbeat, makes you look away immediately.

You clear your throat and take a slow deep inhale to calm your racing heart. "I'll put the lip balm and foundation in the kit. Just in case you need it."

"You say that every time before a performance as if you're not going to be backstage," he chuckles in amusement.

"Jungkook, the performance is in fifteen," Taehyung says loudly from the other side of the room.

It's like a switch being flipped on. Jungkook's eyes widen and he gets up from his seat instantly. Bidding you a quick goodbye, he exits the room in a hurry. 

You sigh in relief, finally feeling like you can breathe again. Taking a seat on the chair previously occupied by Jungkook, you stare at your reflection in the mirror. You notice the red hue on your cheeks and your lips part in awe at how flustered you look. Almost, as if you have run a mile. 

Something about this moment makes you come to a quick decision. For a long time, you have been toying with the idea of confessing but have always backed out every time you had a chance. But not anymore. 

You grab a small piece of paper and a pen and write down what you have been wanting to tell Jungkook.

You make it direct and simple and put it in Jungkook's handbag. 

The moment you zip the chain, you feel this urge to take the chit out and throw it in the dustbin but you somehow, withhold yourself from doing so. 

You are aware that he won't notice the chit until he's back in his dorms. The bag contains all the skin care products (handpicked by you) he uses before going to bed. Which also means you would have to wait until tomorrow when you're back to work to know Jungkook's answer. 

Seems like it's gonna be a sleepless night for you.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, you go to work with nervous excitement. While in the car, you couldn't wait for your destination to arrive yet at the same time dreaded it. It's this mixed feeling where you can't decide what you want but in the end, realise that it's better to just get over it.

However, while you're walking towards Jungkook's make-up room, Namjoon calls your name.

"Y/N," he shouts to get your attention. Once he notices he has it, he walks up to you. "My dressing room is the other way." 

"I know that," you say with a small frown, wondering why he is telling you this.

"Oh," Namjoon realises that you're unaware of the changes. "You don't know, do you?"

You shake your head, your confusion only increasing. "Know what?"

"Jungkook has requested a new make-up artist. So now, you're in charge of my make up," he replies. 

Namjoon's words ring in your ears and you feel the world around you fade. You knew that there was always the chance that he doesn't feel the same way. You knew if that were the case it'd hurt but you'd accept it. However, you didn't expect Jungkook to do this. 

It feels like the unbloomed flower has been stomped by someone and you're left to feel the crushing pain. 

A/N: if you wish to support me and want to have early access to all my works, consider visiting my patreon!

[wovenintosilk]

Hii, hope you're doing well!❤ I'm here to ask for a request (if they are open, if not, just ignore this) for Miles (both the spiderman and the prowler). Okay so, the reader (can be female or gn) is best friend with both Mileses(idk how to write names in English in plural, sorry) and in the Earth 42! Miles' (the prowler) she/they died (how optimistic) before he became prowler but, in Spiderman! Miles' universe she's/they're alive. 42!Miles is in love with her/them and very sad 'cause she's/they're dead. The Spiderman! Miles is not in love with them since he met Gwen and fell in love with her. Also, the reader is super - duper smart and she/they help(s) the Spider Society sometimes with technology and etc for money, but it's not a spider person themselves. So, when Miles Spiderman goes to the wrong universe , the reader also goes there and when Miles (spider) wakes up, she wakes up also tied to a beating thing(idk what's it's name) and she's like "Nah, idk, I can't do pretty much without my tech and you took it" and just chill and calm, not caring pretty much about the situation since she/they can't change it (and if u can, please insert a word fight between Miles the prowler and the other Miles, where the prowler is like "She's a very good person, they did so much for both us, and is alive in your universe and still you choose to fall in love with a person who you may not even see again tomorrow and weren't there for you in your worst time?" And the spidey just tries to convince the prowler to let him go to his universe to save his dad) Thanks and sorry for a request this long 😭(and sorry if u didn't understand something, English isn't my first language) ❤❤

CW: References to Death

F!Reader (Use of She/Her Pronouns)

Word Count: 1300

━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━

A haze hung heavily over your eyes, clouded your vision as you tried to wake up and ignore the harsh throbbing at the back of your skull. Had you hit your head on something? You couldn’t even remember what had happened…

You followed Miles home. What he wanted to do had been dangerous and risky and could destroy everything both of you knew.

But it was Miles. All the times he’d had your back, both in and out of this dimension… you couldn’t leave him to fight this kind of battle by himself. After stepping through the portal, you’d only had a short period when you could look around before something hit you.

You flexed your fingers, surprised to find your arms restrained.

Alright. Damage control then. You could feel the leather pressing against your back so that must mean you weren’t tied to a wall or anything like that. A little shuffling revealed that it was movable to maybe a punching bag?

Which meant you should be able to rotate a little if you just adjusted your weight and… there.

The punching bag swung around as you slowly came to see two expressions staring at you – one panicked and uncertain while the other appeared an uncertain mix of neutral and confident.

But both versions were the same person. Miles.

And they both seemed very surprised you’d woken up.

“I didn’t think I would see you here,” you said, forcing your voice to work so you could croak out something and break the silence. “Uh… either of you, I suppose.”

Quick thinking made you aware of a few small problems with your current predicament. Perhaps largest of which you could see in the purple lighting surrounding you. The lair of the prowler and given the clothing choices of the new Miles, one you might know better than you wanted to.

“She’s alive.”

It was said so simply. Without question or thought. Yet it hit like a punch into your stomach as the implications of the words dug much deeper than you expected.

“Am I not meant to be?”

The Miles you didn’t know, shrouded in darkness and purplish-green hues stepped forward to get a clearer look at you. Something unnatural hung in his expression – it worried you how blankly he watched you. “No,” he eventually said. “No, you’re not meant to be alive in this dimension.”

The twisting feeling in your gut got a thousand times worse as you stared at him. What was that supposed to mean. Had you died here?

“Well,” you said. “I don’t think I’m meant to be dead in my dimension so have no plans to change that.”

“Why did you follow me?”

This time, the question came from the Miles you knew. The one who you’d spent countless hours speaking to. Yet he looked at you as though you’d betrayed him by following him through the portal. Maybe he thought you had.

“Nobody else knows where I came,” you explained. “They… they’re too occupied with everything else to waste time on me.”

“You should have stayed where you were safe,” the new Miles said and you felt like a tennis ball with how much you were being spoken to by both. “This dimension isn’t where you’re meant to be.”

“I didn’t really know that,” you complained. “I don’t routinely look at every dimension and see if I’m alive or not in it. All I did was follow Miles.”

“Then he shouldn’t have let you follow.”

Miles looked rather offended at his counterpart’s comment. “I didn’t even know she was going to do that. How was I meant to stop her if I only found out she followed me a few seconds ago?”

“You should pay better attention.”

You couldn’t help but wince at that, feeling almost validated in your own insecurities regarding the lack of consideration provided by Miles most days. Ever since he learned about the other Spidermen, things had felt somewhat strained between the two of you. After all, you couldn’t swing through the city with him or relate to all the secrecy and experiences of the superheroes.

“I have to get home somehow,” your Miles finally said. “Both of us do, alright? If you let us go, we can help save our dad.”

“Your dad. How is she alive?”

“What?”

The new Miles gestured to you and slowly turned to face Miles. “Did you save her?”

“From what?”

“Then she must not have been with you when it happened. Why? What were you doing instead of spending time with her?”

You were starting to get very confused but something else caught your attention. The build-up of Miles’ electricity, flowing steadily from his touch against the chains. He had a plan to escape from this – if only the other him didn’t notice.

“When did it happen?” you asked. “Maybe I can tell you.”

The date he said meant little to nothing to you. It was fairly recent and if you remembered well enough, you didn’t even see Miles that day. You’d meant to but by the time you arrived, he’d already been long gone with –

“You were with Gwen,” you said and then hurried to add. “She’s another… friend of ours.”

“Another friend from a separate dimension.”

Okay, so there was no getting around that. You nodded slowly, trying not to show how sensitive the topic was. You liked Gwen well enough even though she rarely truly socialised with you.

The new Miles scoffed. “So, he abandoned you for somebody new but I don’t see her here. She didn’t follow him.”

The awkward silence he caused nearly made you wince. Gwen’s betrayal still ran deep in Miles and you knew this topic wasn’t a great choice for right now. Still, you needed to keep speaking to maintain the Prowler’s attention so he wouldn’t notice the escape plan.

“Gwen had other things to deal with,” you told him. “And I wasn’t abandoned.”

“Do you believe that?”

You didn’t. But you weren’t exactly going to turn the attention back onto your Miles right now so you gritted your teeth.

“I’m sorry I died here,” you said.

“Obviously. You weren’t meant to. I tried… I don’t understand how it’s fair that you get to be alive in the dimension where another version of me forgets that you exist. And then you’re sent here and he gets angry at you. Strange.”

A break in the façade of the Prowler. For a second, the emotionlessness changed and you saw an actual response to how you felt.

“I’m not angry,” Miles defended himself. “I just need to get home quickly, alright? This is more important –“

“No, it’s not.”

As though a cruel joke in your favour, you saw a flash of something in the new Miles that you’d always wanted from the one you knew. The look of a person who could have once returned your feelings.

And so, you hesitated in speaking and he turned back to your Miles just as an explosion of electricity sent chain links in every dimension.

For a second, you met his eyes and watched him mouth that he’d be back right before he bolted for one of the windows. Glass shattered everywhere as his counterpart shook his head and bolted after him.

You groaned and rested your head against the punching bag, left alone in a warehouse.

The chains loosened around you and you had only a second to react before you landed on the ground. You winced and rolled your shoulders, turned around to find the last person you ever expected to.

“Come on,” Aaron says. “Boy wouldn’t want you to stay here and wait for him.”

You didn’t know which one he was referring to but without many options, you followed him into a harshly different world to the one you grew up in.

[jamsmemes]

(     *     INTERSTELLAR PROMPTS   !    

a self indulgent meme based on interstellar (part 1). feel free to change pronouns / details as needed  !

❛ there's no ghost. ❜

❛ you know that's not scientific. ❜

❛ you say science is about admitting what we don't know. ❜

❛ start minding your business. ❜

❛ figure it out. i'm not always going to be here to help you. ❜

❛ murphy's law doesn't mean bad stuff will happen. it means whatever can happen, will happen. ❜

❛ almost got it. don't stop. ❜

❛ how long you think it's been up there? ❜

❛ what are you going to do with it? ❜

❛ couldn't we just let it go? it's not hurting anyone. ❜

❛ this thing has to adapt, just like the rest of us. ❜

❛ am i gonna be mad? ❜

❛ you don't believe we went to the moon? ❜

❛ our children need to learn about this planet, not tales of leaving it. ❜

❛ i, uh... got you suspended.❜

❛ you should come take a look, it's kinda weird. ❜

❛ been working on it, like you said. ❜

❛ we've forgotten who we are. explorers, pioneers. ❜

❛ this world isn't so bad. ❜

❛ you're the one who doesn't belong. born forty years too late, or forty years too early. ❜

❛ we used to look up and wonder at our place in the stars. now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt. ❜

❛ you were good at something and never got a chance to do anything with it. i'm sorry. ❜

❛ popcorn at a ball game is unnatural. i want a hot dog. ❜

❛ what's a hot dog? ❜

❛ i think that's great. ❜

❛ you think that's great? ❜

❛ what's important is how you feel about it. ❜

❛ i like what you do. ❜

❛ you wanna clean that up when you're finished praying to it? ❜

❛ you can't leave me behind! ❜

❛ you don't know what you're going to find. ❜

❛ that's why i can't take you. ❜

❛ you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. ❜

❛ fair enough. make yourself useful. ❜

❛ i think this is as far as we get. ❜

❛ you didn't bring the bolt cutters? ❜

❛ i like your spirit. ❜

❛ don't be afraid. ❜

❛ how did you find this place? ❜

❛ you had the coordinates for this facility marked on your map. where did you get them? ❜

❛ how did you find us? ❜

❛ you think you can flirt your way out of this mess? ❜

❛ i'll tell you anything you want to know. okay? ❜

❛ it's not that simple. ❜

❛ i don't know anything about you or this place. ❜

❛ you're sitting in the world's best kept secret — you don't stumble in. and you certainly don't stumble out. ❜

❛ please. cooperate with these people. ❜

❛ don't you know who we are? ❜

❛ we'll find a way. we always have. ❜

❛ tell me this is where you explain how you're going to save the world. ❜

❛ we're not meant to save the world... we're meant to leave it. ❜

❛ you're the best we ever had. ❜

❛ this is the mission you were trained for. ❜

❛ an hour ago, you didn't even know i was still alive. ❜

❛ we had no choice. ❜

❛ something brought you here. ❜

❛ they chose you. ❜

❛ how long would i be gone? ❜

❛ get out there and save them. ❜

❛ where does it lead? ❜

❛ someone placed it there. ❜

❛ whoever they are, they appear to be looking out for us. ❜

❛ it came along right as we needed it. ❜

❛ so if we find a new home, what then? ❜

❛ we just give up on the people here? ❜

❛ almost? you're asking me to hang everything on an almost? ❜

❛ i'm asking you to trust me. ❜

❛ all those years of training — you never told me. ❜

❛ we can't always be open about everything, even if we want to be. ❜

❛ find us a new home. ❜

❛ you have my word. ❜

❛ go! if you're leaving, just go! ❜

❛ this world was never enough for you, was it? ❜

❛ i'm not gonna lie to you — heading out there is what i feel i was born to do and it excites me. ❜

❛ don't trust the right thing done for the wrong reason. ❜

❛ the 'why' of a thing? that's the foundation. ❜

❛ next year ain't gonna save us. nor the one after. ❜

❛ this world's a treasure. but she's been telling us to leave for a while now. ❜

❛ mankind was born on earth. it was never meant to die here. ❜

❛ you have to talk to me. ❜

❛ i have to fix this before i go. ❜

❛ once we're parents, we're just the ghosts of our children's futures. ❜

❛ you said ghosts don't exist. ❜

❛ you don't believe me?! ❜

❛ i'm coming back. ❜

❛ one for you. one for me. ❜

❛ when i get back we'll compare. ❜

❛ you and me. imagine that... ❜

❛ you have no idea when you're coming back. ❜

❛ don't make me leave like this. ❜

❛ i love you. forever. and i'm coming back. ❜

❛ look after our place, you hear? ❜

❛ its hard. leaving everything. ❜

❛ we're going to spend a lot of time together... ❜

❛ we should learn to talk. ❜

❛ just trying to be honest. ❜

❛ maybe you don't need to be that honest. ❜

❛ absolute honesty isn't always the most diplomatic, or safe form of communication with emotional beings. ❜

❛ we'll be waiting when you get back. ❜

❛ do not go gentle into that good night. ❜

❛ rage, rage against the dying of the light. ❜

[george-weasleys-girl]

North Star Series

Chapter 51 - The Chapter That Shall Not Be Named

(i.e., I couldn't think of a decent title, and you wonderful people have been patiently waiting an insanely long time for this, so I'm posting it anyway)

Start here:

Summary: The weight of the war takes it toll.

Warnings: a couple of curse words, not the happiest of chapters, only did one quick proofread instead of the 97,438 proofs I usually do

~•~

Sunday nights were quiet at the Weasley twins' household. Except for the occasional explosion accompanied by an earth-shattering boom, followed by raucous yelling and laughter emanating from the boys' workroom.

It was, in other words, experimentation night. When most of the twins' inventions were created. And since the store was closed on Mondays, they usually didn't stumble into bed until the sun was cresting the horizon. A fact that George was quite happy about these days because it meant no nightmares. He'd found sleeping during the day so much easier. There was just something about the sunlight peeking through the closed curtains that held his damned fears at bay.

~•~

Fred stretched and gave a jaw-cracking yawn. "Looks like you and Y/N had fun last night."

"We have fun every night," George responded with a cheeky grin.

"Well, with those monumental suitcases under your eyes, I'd say you had extra fun." Fred waggled his eyebrows at his twin, then turned his attention back to the prototype in his hands.

The younger twin chewed on his bottom lip for a few seconds before speaking. His lack of sleep was a subject he'd not yet brought up to his twin. And he wasn't entirely sure it was worth the bother. They were just stupid dreams, after all.

"Sales have really gone up for the - " George blurted out.

"Nope." Fred interrupted and leaned back in his chair.

"Nope? What do you mean, nope?" The younger twin eyed his brother.

"Don't try to change the subject."

"Well, I'm certainly not regaling the details of my sex life to you."

"And thank Godric for that!" Fred chuckled. "Besides, I know this isn't about your sex life."

"Oh?" George crossed his arms. "So what's it about, then?"

Fred mirrored his twin's movement and added his trademark smirk to the effect. "Hell, if I know. But I do know that look. It means something's wrong. And I'm pretty damn certain it has nothing to do with dancing the horizontal mambo."

~•~

Fred flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Then he stared at the clock.

2:42 am.

So much for a decent night's sleep tonight.

He'd knocked off early, feigning tiredness in the hopes that George could catch up on his sleep.

It worried him. His twin's nightmares.

Despite all his bravado, Fred held no illusions to the realities of war. Though it wasn't himself he was worried about. Not really. Of course, the possibility of his own demise had crossed his mind a time or two and while he certainly didn't want to die, if it came down to the wire, he'd take the killing blow for those he loved any day of the week.

Except... how could he leave George?

The thought haunted him, always lingering there in the back of his mind. Ever since they were little, he'd taken care of his twin brother. It was his mission in life. And he knew, deep down, that Y/N would take up the mantle, should the worst happen. But still, he needed to hear her say the words.

Fred sighed and looked at the clock again.

3:07.

"Well," he muttered to himself. "There's only one thing for it."

Stretching, he rolled out of bed and plodded into the kitchen. Maybe some nibblies and a shot or two of firewhiskey would calm him. He needed a few hours of sleep, at least, before having a little chat with Y/N.

~•~

Y/N slouched back in her chair, her eyes scanning the array of dots and squiggles covering the parchment on her desk. She and Callie had been writing to each other in their own personal code since their third year at Ilvermorny. Over Christmas break of that year, Callie's older brother had swiped one of their letters, which revealed his little sister's crush on one of his friends which he then proceeded to read out loud in front of said friend.

Callie was mortified and barely left her bedroom for the rest of the holiday. That's when Y/N decided they needed a better way to communicate.

Neither of them had ever expected it would become a matter of life or death.

Y/N sighed and folded up the letter and slipped it into the envelope, placing a stamp neatly onto the top left corner. She missed the days of just dropping her mail off a few doors down at the International Floo to be whisked away across the Atlantic.

But now, with Deatheaters intercepting the mail, it was just too much of a risk. So, muggle mail it was.

Now for the hard part...

Y/N grabbed another piece of parchment.

Dear Gran, she began. Then, put down her pen and massaged her forehead. Writing to her grandma these days felt like one big extravagant lie. Thus far, Y/N'd managed to keep the war hidden from her, even managing to keep it secret during her visit to England for the wedding, thanks to her husband's last minute suggestion that they conveniently move the festivities to a secluded farmhouse in the north of Scotland.

"Sorry, we can't take you to visit the shop," Y/N had apologized.

"Oh nonsense," her Gran waved her off. "I'm here to see my only granchild marry the love of her life. That's the most important thing. I'll see everything next time."

And that was something else that worried her.

While Y/N certainly appreciated her Gran's easy-going attitude on the matter, she'd still expected a little push-back. Yet, her Gran's usual feistiness was noticeably absent. And as much as she wanted to agree with Callie and George's reassurances that her grandma had probably just been exhausted from the whole excursion, having just hopped off her millionth cruise and pretty much straight onto the plane, Y/N couldn't rid herself of the nagging thought that time and age were finally catching up with her beloved grandmother.

She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. Things would be so much easier if Gran just lived nearby. Maybe after the war, Y/N considered, she could convince her to move here. Perhaps set her up in a little cottage or something.

'If there's anything left after...'

The thought trickled through Y/N's mind unbidden and she shook it off with an irritated huff, picking up her pen again.

Things are going great... (her marriage was indeed going great, so that wasn't a total lie).

Business is booming... (also not a lie, just never mind that it was government contracts for magical Britain's war machine that was keeping it afloat).

My research... she started, then erased it.

Best leave her illegal activities out in case the letter fell into the wrong hands. After a long lull, things had picked back up again thanks to the recent acquisition of a couple vials of muggle blood, courtesy of her former mentor's muggle wife during their brief sojourn in London.

The weather's been nice...

With a groan, Y/N tossed down the pen again, oblivious to how it bounced across the table and onto the floor.

"Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Who gives a fuck about the weather?" She demanded of the empty room and let her eyes fall back down to the parchment, scanning the words. The whole damn thing read like a fucking form letter, and she hated it. But what else could she do? She couldn't tell her Gran the truth. The truth that they were at war. The truth that every day had become a strategic game of survival.

After a few quiet weeks, kidnappings and killings were on the rise again. And no one knew why.

Maybe her stupid magic 8-ball could give her some answers. Y/N had picked up the toy at muggle joke shop while on an outing with George shortly after her return to England.

"What is Voldemort planning?" She asked and shook it.

Reply hazy, try again later.

She sighed, rolling her eyes and absentmindedly reached for the pen that wasn't there, when a soft knock sounded on the lab door, followed by Fred's grinning face poking in. "Hey, Y/N, got a minute?"

"You're up early," she said, blinking in surprise. It was rare indeed for Fred to be up and about before George. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about George and... well... his nightmares."

~•~

"Ah, the nightmares," Y/N nodded, waving him in. She'd been expecting this conversation.

Fred pulled up the spare chair and jumped right to the point. "How bad are they? How often are they happening? Is there anything I can do?" He asked in rapid fire succession. "George tried to play them off like they're nothing. But I know better."

Y/N exhaled a long sigh. "Two or three times a week. They're always intense. He wakes up shaking and sweating." She leaned forward a little. "They're far from nothing, Fred. The thought of losing someone he loves terrifies him. Especially you."

Fred gave another nod. "And you." His eyes softened a little, and the corners of his lips quirked up. "I'm glad you found each other. You're so good for him. And to him. And I know you'll take care of him if something happens to me."

Y/N's breath caught in her throat. Fred wasn't one to wear his heart on his sleeve or anywhere else on his clothes, for that matter. He buried it deep within him, hidden under a maze of jokes and witty diversions. The fact that he'd even brought it up meant he'd been thinking about it, and it worried him. Maybe even scared him a little. But he'd never admit to that. Not even to himself.

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Y/N spoke slowly, enunciating every word, as if that would somehow make it so.

Fred shook his head, and his eyes shifted down and away from her gaze for the briefest of moments before darting back up with their usual mischievous glint. Then, he leaned forward, motioning her closer. "Ok, what I'm about to tell you is a big secret, so don't tell anybody," he said in a conspiratoral whisper. "But even the great and powerful Fred Weasley can be hurt."

Y/N opened her mouth to speak. But he continued on with a stare that bore straight into her soul. "And I just want to make sure that if something happens to me George is taken care of."

It wasn't a request.

"You know I'll take care of him," Y/N said. "I promise."

"Good," he stood and stretched, a crooked grin playing across his features. "I'll see what I can do to help with those pesky nightmares. We'll get Georgie dreaming sweet dreams again in no time.

"Okay... thanks, Fred," Y/N said, pasting on a smile.

He nodded, still grinning, and bounded out.

Y/N sat stone still, watching him go, a sinking weight settling deep in the pit of her stomach.

~•~

@milivanili99 @slytherclaw1978 @quackitysdrugdealer @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @fancy-pantaloons @samberriejams @totalwitch2 @aslanvez @mrsgweasley @morally-grey-obsessed @asuperconfusedgirl @hmisa11 @superduckmilkshake @junerprsh @wolfkill16 @kaysau2510 @planetkt @thankyouforanonymity @thatonepersonwhocantwrite

@Smallsweetvanillabean @hanne-montana @greenapplegrass @yoursarahg @marvelgirlstories @ceehance @whotfskai @sierraluvzz @now-that-we-dontalk @moonatician @lillisummers @niktwazny303 @bohemianrhapsody86

[goldenavenger02]

and i will try (to fix you)

"So, what are you asking, exactly?"

"You taught me everything I know about waterbending, not to mention you're the strongest waterbender I know," Aang explained, her cheeks filling with a flush as he reached over to tuck a stray hair behind her ear before asking, "so, will you teach me how to heal?"

OR: 5 times Aang tried to heal someone with waterbending and 1 time he did.

(This is so long only because I am neurodivergent and don't know when to stop yapping about random lore things, like water healing and yet I still get ages wrong in the fic. I'm not fixing it, Lin is now older then Tenzin and that just has to be okay with everybody because I am not changing it.

This is also my birthday fic to myself! My birthday isn't until Wednesday, but I will be starting my summer job then which will make me 90% offline and I will not have time to respond to comments like I usually do.

With that, I hope you all enjoy this very, VERY, long fic and now, on with the story!)

1. The Question

"Hey, you okay?" Katara asked softly, breaking Aang out of his thoughts as he sat on the balcony of the high-end inn that King Kuei insisted on putting the three of them in while they were in Ba Sing Se for the next week, his legs dangling in the air.

Aang didn't know how to answer that; the war had just ended a month ago but his gut was still tight with guilt even though he had ended things as peacefully as possible.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," he finally spoke, resulting in her taking a few steps forward and resting her hand on his shoulder; he couldn't deny how gorgeous she looked even in the dim light of the setting sun with the last rays shining in her ocean-blue eyes.

"You can ask me anything."

"Toph and Zuko want to continue teaching me earth and fire bending," he looked down at his hands and the intricate blue arrows marking the backs of them, "and I know that no matter how hard I try, even the most peaceful option can still ruin lives but if there's something I can do to make up for it-"

"Ozai needed to go down," Katara cut him off, moving her hand off of his shoulder and rubbing soft circles on his upper back, "you stopped him without killing him, which is a lot braver than what the rest of us would have done."

"I know, but… there are people in the Fire Nation, in the Earth Kingdom and the water tribes that have lost family and friends in this war because I wasn't here to stop them, and even after I got out of the ice, people still died."

He watched as her fingers trailed off to the pendant of her necklace for a few moments, like it always did when she was reminded of her mother, before her gaze returned to him.

"So, what are you asking, exactly?"

"You taught me everything I know about waterbending, not to mention you're the strongest waterbender I know," Aang explained, her cheeks filling with a flush as he reached over to tuck a stray hair behind her ear before asking, "so, will you teach me how to heal?"

"I didn't spend as much time with Yagoda as I should have to teach anyone and most of what I know is self-taught," Katara explained after a beat before raising her eyebrow, "you're sure that you want me to teach you?"

"You brought me back to life," Aang pointed out, trying not to think about the starburst of a scar on his back, "you also saved Zuko's life. I don't know about you, but that sounds at the very least like someone who can teach me the basics."

"Can I think about it? I just…" she let out a breath of air, finally taking her hand off of his back and folding her elbows over the balcony railing before resting her head on them, "it's not that I don't want to teach you, but I don't want anyone to start seeing me differently."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to just be seen as a healer, and I know that you would never see me that way, but…"

"You're worried about what others might think," Aang filled in the blank and watched as she nodded against her folded arms, "I understand. I don't want to pressure you, I just…it's stupid."

"No it's not," she reached one of her hands towards him and squeezed it in hers, the pressure reassuring him that the guilt tightening around his heart wasn't unfounded, "if you have to damage something, you want to be able to help fix it. That's not stupid, Aang."

"It's not?"

"No." She stood up straight for a moment, to press a kiss to his cheek, before resting again on her elbows with their hands firmly clasped around each other's until long after the sun went down and their eyes had the reflections of stars in them.

Despite all of the feelings swirling around Aang, the pure joy won out as Katara continued to squeeze his hand and the moon started to softly illuminate the balcony; at the end of the day, they had won the war, their closest friends were all alive and thriving in the beginnings of rebuilding.

And above it all, he had won Katara's heart and she had won his.

So when he felt the first of what would have evolved into many yawns if he continued to stand on the balcony build up, he maneuvered his hand out of hers, scooched over and planted his feet firmly on the ground, speaking as he turned toward the door.

"We should get some sleep."

"You're right, but Aang?"

"Yes?" He turned back around to see her grasping onto her upper arm as she spoke.

"I'll teach you, how to heal."

If it had been any other time of day, he would have thanked her over and over with uncontrollable excitement, but he was exhausted so he settled for pulling her into a hug, "thank you, Katara."

"You're welcome," she insisted, squeezing tightly for a moment before he pulled away to see a mischievous glint in her eyes, "and I know who you can practice on."

…

"Katara? You're sure about this?" Sokka's voice wavering hit Aang with a pang of doubt even as he overexplained his thought process, "not that I don't trust you or anything, of course I trust you, but my leg is almost back to a hundred percent and-"

"If it goes wrong, then I'll take over," Katara cut off his ramblings as she gathered her supplies from the other side of the room, "but unlike Zuko, you'll actually tell Aang and I if something feels off."

"Yeah, I guess I have him beat there," Sokka shrugged as he sat down in the wooden chair, propping his left leg on the ottoman, "have you heard anything about how he's doing?"

"As far as I know, he's back to usual activity."

"So he gets to go back to normal a month after getting his insides fried like fire flakes, but I still have to use a crutch when I'm nearly better?"

"Mai and the royal physician are keeping a very close eye on him and will alert me at the first sign of things going south, but he insisted on getting to work on repairing the Fire Nation," Katara elaborated, her hands expertly guiding the blade that was removing the old bandages around his leg, "also, he wasn't the one who refused to let me look at his injuries for five days."

That comment made Sokka go quiet, no longer a distraction to Aang's shaking hands as he knelt down beside Katara with full access to the injured limb decorated in the final stages of healing bruises.

"I'm not gonna hurt him if I do this wrong, right?"

"No," Katara insisted while bending the water out of her water-skin and holding it in between her palms, "the worst you could do is nothing, and like I said, Sokka will tell us if something feels wrong. Won't you, Sokka?"

"Yep."

"Okay."

"Are you ready?"

Aang nodded, and bent the small current out of her palms, holding it in between his own as he awaited her instructions.

"Healing wounds with water, it uses the water as a catalyst to redirect the energy paths in the body; by focusing more energy on the wounded area, it accelerates the healing process. That's why Sokka is actually able to put some of his weight on his leg instead of all on the crutch."

Aang nodded, absorbing her words as he bent the water over one of the yellowish-green bruises on Sokka's lower leg, his hands hovering over it as his tongue slipped out with concentration.

"Can you feel the energy in the bruises, how it's all tensed up under the skin?"

Aang shook his head, allowing Katara to gently guide his arms upwards toward Sokka's thigh, "what about now? The energy in his upper leg is loose and flowing because it was mostly uninjured, but…" she trailed off, guiding his palms back down towards the bruising, "because his leg was broken here, it's tighter and at a near stand-still."

Aang furrowed his brow; he had bent energy just last month when he had removed Ozai's bending, but all he could feel under his palms were the ends of the hair on Sokka's legs being pulled toward him in the water.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't feel anything." He finally stuttered as he slumped backwards and pulled his knees to his chest, allowing Katara to take the water from his palms and focus on the bruising.

"Yagoda said it can take months to learn how to feel the energy inside someone else's body, that it can be subtle if the wound isn't as severe."

"Seriously, Aang," Sokka spoke up, clearly trying his best to add to the reassurance that his sister was giving him, "my leg is almost completely healed. You'll get it with a fresher wound, I know it."

Aang still couldn't help but sigh, rest his head on his bent knees and wrap his arms around them while Katara worked miracles like it was the easiest thing in the world.

2. A Second Chance

The trip to Ba Sing Se ended up ending three days earlier than expected when a messenger hawk from the Fire Nation flew into Katara's window at the inn with a loud call that had Aang rubbing his eyes in confusion next door.

It took ten minutes for her to open his bedroom door, dressed for the day as she announced while adjusting her water-skin, "we need to get to the Fire Nation."

Katara had always been the one who kept Aang and Sokka on track throughout their travels and always remained serious when the situation required it, so he knew it was bad the moment her eyes met his and after pulling on his own clothes, went straight to Appa to get him ready for the trip.

By the time he had the saddle and reins tightened and his luggage in the saddle, Katara walked over with a determined stride, throwing her bag into the saddle with ease.

"Sokka is staying to finish the last of the discussions with King Kuei and Suki is on her way here to help out." Katara explained as she climbed into the saddle, her face set with a fixated worry that Aang knew all too well.

He didn't hesitate to lift himself onto Appa, flicking the reins with a "yip yip" and waiting until they had passed over the lower ring of Ba Sing Se before finding it in himself to ask, "it's Zuko, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Katara's strained voice filled his gut with a nauseating worry, "you'll get to practice healing him after all."

That statement only filled Aang with even more dread as they streamlined towards Capitol City.

…

"Are you still having trouble breathing?"

"The royal physician really shouldn't have scared Tao and Mai like that, or you two-"

"Zuko, that is not what I asked," her snappy tone not only had Aang sitting straight up in the chair, but also stunned the newly crowned Fire Lord into silence, "you're lucky Tao sent for me and that I know how to redirect excess energy in the body."

"Wait, you do?" Aang spoke up, getting a quick smile from Katara as she continued to hold the water just above the scar tissue that matched his own to a T.

"It's part of healing; you can direct more energy to a injure to heal it, but an excess of tense, jumbled up energy can cause more harm than good so you may need to pull some away," she explained before making eye contact with Zuko who was raising a confused eyebrow, "I'm teaching him."

Aang stood up to get a closer look; they had arrived to a tense chaos that had resulted in Katara tell him to stay back while she took care of the pressing issue of Zuko struggling to breathe along with the muscle spasms, but now that the dust had settled, she silently took a step to the side so he could observe.

Despite happening a month ago and the healing that Katara had provided multiple times a day for the first week after it had happened, the lightning scar was still jagged and an angry red that started at the bottom of Zuko's chest, traveled up into his right shoulder before snaking around to his back.

It was all too reminiscent of blinking up at Katara before awakening weeks later with bandages covering a good chunk of his body and dark hair covering the top of his skull in a way that made his stomach churn.

"Alright, Aang," Katara's voice brought him back to reality, reminding him that he was not in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se, as she hovered a small stream of water in between her palms, "are you ready to give it a go?"

"Y-yeah," he stuttered before shaking his head and trying again, "yeah, I'm ready."

"Okay," she nodded, bending the water toward him slowly so he could take control, "Zuko, considering your internal organs are what we're working on, you really need to let us know if something doesn't feel right."

Aang could see Zuko fix his jaw and grip the edge of the blanket with a stiff nod that made him sweat, but he pulled in a long, deep breath and awaited instruction.

"Start at the shoulder and work your way down slowly. I worked out most of the energy in his chest, but there's still a lot at the entry point. It shouldn't overwhelm you if you don't rush."

Aang nodded, holding the small amount of water over the red markings on Zuko's shoulder; it wasn't like Sokka's leg, he could feel the energy Katara was talking about in the form of jumbled, irritated nerves under his fingers even if they felt impossible to get to.

He closed his eyes, trying to picture the energy twisting around itself that was causing his friend more pain than necessary and only starting to untwist it with his fingers once he was sure that he had a good hold on it.

"You're doing great, Aang," he heard her praise as he opened his eyes for a few minutes before her voice moved away from over his shoulder, "Zuko? Are you still with us?"

"Yes."

"Feel any different? Less tense?"

Zuko pulled in a breath that sounded a bit shaky, but when he nodded in agreement to Katara's question, Aang relaxed, closed his eyes again and continued to slowly move downward toward the base of the wound.

The twisting only grew under his fingertips as he moved downward as his forehead became sticky with exertion, but he pressed on.

"Aang?" Katara asked as he found himself biting the inside of his cheek while trying to untangle a particularly strong bunch of energy, "do you need a break?"

"N-no, I'm okay."

"Aang, I really think you need to take a break." She tried again, her voice still gentle but no longer asking, but Aang shook his head, using the water in his palms to pull at the twisting that was trying to knot itself inside of Zuko.

"I've almost got it, just let me-"

He rose in the air, eyes and arrows glowing in the reflection of the Dai Li armor, and focused his eyes for a brief moment on Katara as he continued to beam upwards.

Only for a shock to fill his entire body and send him falling to the ground as he lost consciousness.

Aang pulled away from the lightning wound with a large 'splash' as the water fell from his palms and onto Zuko, Katara and the bed but all he could focus on was the tightness in his throat and the pressure in his lungs.

"Aang-"

But before he could hear any of them out, he stood and ran out the doors even after hearing someone call out his name, trying desperately to catch his breath while it lodged in his throat.

"It's over," he tried to reassure himself as he slid down against the wall, pressing his eyes against his shaking hands, "y-you're not there any more. It's over."

He swallowed harshly to try and remove the lump in his throat and managed to pull his teary eyes from his hands before Katara walked into the room.

Even when she slid down beside him and told him "it's okay", he still found his chest rising and falling faster as he wiped tears off of his cheeks.

"You didn't hurt anyone, we're all okay," she insisted, gently pressing her palm against his upper back, "are you okay, Aang?"

"I s-should be past it now," Aang stuttered, leaning closer against her chest and taking in the sound of her calm, deep breaths to try and slow his own, "it was months ago."

"But you're not. Injuries like that, especially ones that are so fresh, can be really triggering. It happens to the best of us, okay?"

'You're not there. It's over.' His mental reassurances were doing nothing to calm the rapid 'thump' of his heartbeat as he finally managed to get himself to voice his concern to Katara.

"Can we take a break? From you teaching me about this?" He pleaded as he made eye contact with her, "I just…I think I need a bit longer to recover."

"Of course," Katara nodded instantly as she pressed a soft kiss to the back of one of his shaking hands, "we'll take as long as you need."

3. Beginning Again

It was supposed to be a simple trip to Omashu, for more discussions about rebuilding and bills and financial aid that would inevitably fall on Zuko's selfless shoulders.

But the uprising of Ozai supporters throughout the nations had only steadily grown in the two years after Zuko had taken the throne, so when it was revealed that all five of them needed to make the trip to Omashu, it didn't take long for them to settle on traveling together with the Kyoshi Warriors as part of the security force.

For the first couple of days, as they all crowded around a campfire while telling jokes and eating their dinners, Aang couldn't help but find himself longing for the days that they had all traveled as a group.

But it also reminded him that after they finished their business in Omashu, they would go back to being separated as they resumed their duties around the world; while Aang would be forever grateful for the financial support he had received from the other nations to preserve the Air Temples as historical landmarks, it also was a painful reminder that he was the last of his people.

On their third and final day of traveling towards Omashu, the skies opened up and poured relentlessly on himself, Katara, Sokka and Appa in the air and the Kyoshi Warriors walking alongside the caravan that held Zuko and Toph, which only continued to add to his growing sadness.

"I get why Zuko is in the caravan, he can barely breathe without someone trying to assassinate him," Sokka complained as he wiped what looked like a cup of water off of his head and onto Appa, who protested with a growl, "but Toph can stick it out with the rest of us."

"She does love the mud," Katara chuckled fondly, bending the rainwater out of her clothes to no avail, "but no matter how much she doesn't act like it, she's also got a target on her back due to her family."

"But Aang is still in the rain, and he's the Avatar!"

"I like the rain," Aang shrugged before reaching forward and scratching against Appa's wet head, "and Appa needs company."

He did not want to think about the storm that had transpired the night he left the Southern Air Temple, and he really didn't want to think about just how tightly he had held Appa's reins in his palms as they were pulled down by the relentless waves.

But before either of the siblings could add to his statement, the sound of an explosion rang out from under them, resulting in Aang gripping the reins so Appa would turn only to see the caravan turned over on its side while the perpetrators started to approach the smoke.

"Katara, Sokka, go get them out!" Aang shouted before grabbing his glider and joining the Kyoshi Warriors on the ground, sending a group of five to the ground with a blast of air before beginning to use his staff to propel them away.

They were severely outnumbered, no matter how many people were chi-blocked by the warriors, all while lightning seared the sky and the rumble of thunder overwhelmed their ears.

Aang hoped that he would be allowed to be involved in the interrogations of the attackers when all of this was over, because why anyone would go through with their plans as rain pounded on armor and had to be continuously wiped from their eyes was beyond him.

He winced at the smell of heavy smoke prevailing despite the downpour, because it meant that the caravan was more than likely rigged, that there was a double agent involved with the transport who could be taking down the Fire Nation from the inside.

But the most distressing part to Aang was that someone had seen the fourteen year old and the eighteen year old getting inside with smiles on their faces, with very long lives and long legacies ahead of them, and went through with an assassination anyway.

No one could see his tears through the rain as a part of him, maybe one of his past lives, demanded that he use the other elements and enter the Avatar state in order to end the ambush in that moment.

The slash of a sword ripping into his upper arm and coating his orange and yellow clothes in red would have been the turning point if a wave of fire hadn't erupted beside him and he was met with the bruised and soot-covered, but very alive, face that belonged to none other than Zuko.

Aang nearly cheered with relief until he saw the grave look on that same dirty face that he sent out another wave of fire.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He demanded, propelling the fire further with a blast of air.

"It's…it's Suki," Zuko stuttered while deflecting a swipe of a sword with his heavily armored wrist, "it's bad."

That's all it took for Aang to glide back into the sky and go to find the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors in the midst of the ambush; the aggressive rain drops did nothing to help him see in the crowd of green, gray, black and red as it dripped off of his skull and into his eyes.

But when he saw the green and yellow behind a rock wall and a flash of blue and white holding one of the warriors tightly in their arms, he knew he had found the right spot and descended inside of the wall.

"I'm gonna go find Katara." Toph insisted as soon as he landed and vaulted over the top of the rock wall, allowing Aang to crouch down beside Suki.

Zuko wasn't lying when he said it was bad; her armor across her stomach was badly slashed and along with it was a growing puddle of dark red that was starting to drip onto the muddy ground.

"I-I know you stopped learning, but is there anything you can do?" Sokka pleaded with a hand in her hair and the other clasped around her slack ones, the rain doing nothing to mask his tears.

It had been two years since he insisted that he needed a break, but his memory clasped tightly onto what he had learned in the month after defeating Ozai.

"I can try." Aang nodded and started to pull the rain out of the sky in order to form a small stream like the one Katara always kept by her side.

As he held it over the gaping wound, he could have sworn that he heard Sokka begging for Suki to "stay with him", the same way he imagined him saying it to Yue, but he did his best to block it out as he closed his eyes to focus.

The only way she was going to live was if he focused on the wound.

Not the fact that the first time he had done this, he had felt nothing. Not the fact that the second time he had done this, he had been left with a panic attack so intense that he had nearly given up on the practice.

'I cannot lose anyone else.'

And with that solemn thought, he pushed down and began to try his best to stabilize any of the veins and nerves that he could, pulling the tired energy away to bring in some that was more alert.

His forehead coated in a sheen coat of sweat when he heard two sets of footsteps run towards them, followed by the familiar shout of his girlfriend, "I'm here! I'm here!" before she settled in beside him.

When he heard the cork on the water-skin pop open, he expected to be pushed away.

"Aang, keep doing what you're doing." She demanded, which surprised Aang, but he did what he was told and kept his eyes closed as he continued to push and pull with the rain water in his palms.

"Her heartbeat is starting to steady."

"Stay with me…stay with me…"

"They…they got away…"

"I think she's almost stable."

That statement had Aang opening his eyes, bending with one palm and blowing into the bison whistle with the other before they started the precarious transport of Suki while her light, shallow breathing echoed against Sokka's chest.

…

Aang had stood on a similar balcony two years ago when he asked Katara to start teaching him how to heal, the two of them bathed in the final rays of the day.

As Aang stood in the first few rays of the morning, he wasn't surprised to be met by Katara looping her hand in his and standing by his side; he was starting to get taller than her, but she just had to reach across to grasp his hand.

"Suki's gonna be okay," she assured him, tucking her hand against his jaw so he was face to face with her ocean-blue eyes that were unable to mask the exhaustion from hours of healing, "you saved her life."

"I didn't save her," Aang pulled his gaze away, feeling Katara tense in her grip on his hand, "that was all you."

"You stabilized her before I got there. She…" Katara trailed off and never finished her sentence, but he knew what she meant.

In the heat of the ambush, Aang had been the only thing that stood between Suki and death's doorstep and in doing so, he had completed the goal that he wanted to accomplish when he first asked Katara to teach him.

"Thanks, Katara." Aang smiled, trying to ignore the throbbing in his upper arm from where the bandages hugged it too tightly.

She dropped his hand and turned towards the door, her gaze lingering on him for a few beats.

"Meet me inside, when you're done?"

"Yeah," Aang agreed, but he found it in himself to take a deep breath and ask, "Katara?"

"Yes?"

"If you're okay with it," Aang turned to meet her eyes, blinking with unfounded curiosity in a way that made his heart melt, "I want to get back to learning how to heal."

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive," he stopped to reach forward and grip her forearm gently before tacking on, "Sifu Katara."

Aang was nearly swept off of his feet when she pulled him forward against her lips; she tasted like the rainfall and the ocean, successfully taking his mind off of the angry pulse of his arm as the sun rays continued to dry out their clothes.

4. By Force

The diplomatic visit to Omashu continued with one of the other Kyoshi Warriors, who was named Reina, taking over Suki's duties.

Unfortunately for Aang, that meant having to try his best to stay awake while various dignitaries droned on and on about financial aid they still hadn't received from the Fire Nation, even though Zuko had made it abundantly clear that the money wasn't there due to Ozai tying their economy into their military, all while his arm throbbed painfully against his sleeve.

The long gash that had adored his clothes in red hadn't seemed important when he was faced with the gravity of Suki's wounds and Sokka's pleas, but two days past the ambush and the few futile attempts of using the river water to heal it had resulted in him looking at the world with tired, feverish eyes while the injury worsened.

The headache that was accompanying the pain wasn't helped as yet another person, he was pretty sure that he had been introduced as a general but Aang's mind was fuzzy, all but screamed at Zuko over some sort of funding that had been temporarily pushed back by a few months.

"-all these people are still suffering because you keep pushing us back to fund the Southern Water Tribe rebuilding efforts and the Air Temple restoration project!"

"I'm sure that you understand why their bills are getting priority, given their history with the Fire Nation despite you insisting that it's favoritism." Even in his feverish haze, Aang could hear the bite in Zuko's voice

"If the Earth Kingdom had lost all of our benders or if there was only one Earth Kingdom citizen left due to a hundred years of war that was caused by the Fire Nation, he would prioritize us higher," Toph added, her voice unusually calm, "and he has already given Omashu and Ba Sing Se hundreds of thousands to restore and rebuild."

He could have sworn that someone said his name, but he rubbed his eyes before looking up, only to see several sets of eyes on him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I was simply asking if you would be okay with the Fire Nation skipping a few months of financial help on the Air Temple Restoration project in order to even out the payments to the water tribes and the Earth Kingdom."

"I don't have a problem with that," Aang responded, his mouth growing dry with every word he spoke as his head started to spin, "I mean, all of the nations have been so generous with their donations that I can probably restore the entirety of the Southern and Northern Air Temples with the funds I have. The Eastern and Western ones suffered a significant amount of damage, but if I focus on the north after I finish the south, I shouldn't need more payments for at least the next six months."

"So, it's been decided by the Avatar himself," the general's smug face was enough to pull anger from Aang despite his hazy vision as it clicked that he had been used against Zuko, "the Fire Nation will pause their payments to the Air Temple Restoration project until after the Northern Air Temple has been preserved."

"Very well."

Aang winced as he was hit by a wave of nausea and rested his head against his hand, trying to will it away with closed eyes.

"Next order of business, I want to…is he okay?"

"Aang?"

"You okay, buddy?"

"Hey, I think he's going to…"

Aang could feel himself fall forward as his vision spotted into darkness and his hearing ceased.

…

When he finally blinked himself awake in the dim lighting, he wasn't surprised to see Katara's concerned face; he didn't know if it was the fever or the small shed of light in the room that made her eyes look like they were glittering.

"Hey, sweetie," she whispered, reaching over to the side before pressing something blissfully cool against his cheek, "welcome back."

"Did I…" he winced at the scratch in his throat that he tried to clear to zero avail, "did I go somewhere?"

It was only when Katara wiped her eyes on her forearm that he realized that the glitter was actually tears and that the tears were for him.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"That one guy was angry about funding and I felt really sick the whole time."

"You got injured in the ambush," she filled in, still gently pressing the cool cloth to his face, "were you taking care of the wound?"

"I tried to heal it, with the water in the river," Aang explained, only to get a soft shake of Katara's head as a response that made him flush with embarrassment, "not my wisest move."

"River and rain water can work in a pinch, like when you stabilized Suki," she started to explain as she pulled the cloth away before gently cutting through the clean, thick bandages around his bicep, "but for future reference, you really want to use clean water so it doesn't get infected."

He nodded, wincing at the bite of the sting that made its way through his left arm, before finding it in himself to fill the silence.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Katara. I'm sorry for scaring everyone, but especially you."

"It got us out of "let's scream at Zuko for five hours", so I doubt they'll hold it against you," she explained with a quick smirk before her brow furrowed in concentration, "as for me, try not to scare me like that. Okay, sweetie? I like you too much."

"Understood, Sifu Katara," he insisted, eliciting a small laugh out of her, "do you need to go back?"

She shook her head with unwavering determination, "I'm not leaving you until I know you're better, and that's final."

Aang couldn't help but smile with relief as she leaned in for a quick peck on her lips before returning her attention to his inflamed wound.

5. Refusal

Republic City always felt like a breath of fresh air to Aang.

While places like Ba Sing Se, Capitol City and Wolf Cove felt so isolated in their own traditions and practices, The United Republic was the best of all the nations all in one place.

It was the closest thing he had to a place he belonged in a world without airbenders.

It had taken several long years to bring the small city called Cranefish Town into the largely populated Republic City, but with the support and financial aid left over from the Air Temple Restoration project, it became a reality.

It certainly helped Aang's case by having the Kyoshi Warriors, the Fire Lord, the newly elected Chairman of the United Republic, the chief of police and most importantly, Katara, on his side.

But today, he and his wife weren't in the city on political business; with Sokka and Suki insisting that they take Bumi and Kya off of their hands, they were finally taking some time to enjoy themselves for the first time since Kya was born a month ago.

"I've missed this, you know," Aang insisted, his fingers wrapped tightly around Katara's in the midst of the bustling crowd outside one of the new Fire Nation restaurants, "just us."

However, he was met with a soft sigh, "you have work, don't you?"

"I just need to get some crime reports from Toph so I can discuss it with Zuko and Sokka next week," he insisted with a gentle squeeze on her shoulder, "it should only take five, ten minutes," another sigh that had his hand lingering back down to hers, "after that, I am all yours. I swear."

"I know, I know…" she sighed, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

"Hey, Katara," he spoke gently, the same way he did when he got out of their bed to soothe their daughter so she could continue to rest, "what's wrong? What did I do?"

"It's nothing, you didn't do anything, it's just stupid hormones."

Aang had a feeling that it was more then the lingering effects of postpartum hormones, but he had learned after Bumi that it was Katara's signal that she did not want to talk about it, so he pulled her in by the shoulder and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of her head, "five minutes and then it's just us, okay? No work, no bending, no stopping bad guys, just me and you."

"Okay," she nodded, her ocean-blue eyes still shiny with tears even as she tried to change her demeanor with a fake smile, "let's go see Toph."

The police station wasn't far from where they had wandered to after putting Appa in the care of the farmers who watched over the traveling animals while their owners toured Republic City.

However, when he held the door open for Katara before following closely behind her, he expected Toph to look up from her desk in the middle of the room and sense their presence, or to be met by one of the officers telling them that she was out on a case.

Aang did not expect to see Toph sitting in a chair in the middle of the room with a towel held to her forehead as a trickle of blood dripped down the right side of her face.

"Toph!" Katara shouted in shock, making Toph wince as her unseeing glance was tilted up at the ceiling.

"Hi to you too, Sugar Queen, Twinkletoes," she greeted, her voice strangled from the pain, "give me a minute and I'll get those reports to you."

"Are you- you're hurt, Toph," Aang sputtered as he walked over and set his hand on her bent knee, only growing more alarmed when she didn't shove him off with her free hand, "what happened?"

"Oh, the usual, ran off after a group of vandals, missed the curb and-" she cut herself to smack her hands together, only to grimace from both the noise and taking the towel off of her forehead which she promptly returned to the jagged gash.

"Did you get checked for a concussion?"

"It's not a concussion, Sweetness. All I did was eat shit in front of new recruits," Toph waved her free hand with dismissal, "since then, the new guys don't want to take their eyes off me or let me do my job, but I'm thinking about asking my councilman buddy if he can make some legislation about officers being barefoot because I cannot see jackshit in these stupid shoes."

Aang took a glance down at her metal boots, built just like the rest of her armor, before looking back up at her; before he could respond, however, Katara's water-skin was all but shoved into his palms.

"Toph, where are the reports?"

"Second drawer of my desk, left side, at the top. Can't miss them."

"I'll go get them. Aang here is gonna take care of that gash." Katara insisted with a wink of encouragement before disappearing into Toph's office and leaving him in disbelief with the water-skin as the lingering recruits filed off into their own areas of the building.

"Do you know what the hell you're doing, twinkletoes? And don't think that I don't remember the ambush and the comet."

Aang wanted to retort that in the years since the ambush, he had become a pro at healing Bumi's skinned knees, but he knew that it would only raise Toph's doubt and result in some very clever retorts, so he just responded with a simple, "yes, I know what I'm doing."

"I'll just wait until Katara gets back, if that's okay. Besides, it's funny to get all these new recruits to squirm," despite the pain lines around her mouth and what looked like tears in her eyes, her grin was wide enough that Aang felt comfortable slinging his wife's water-skin around his shoulder, "Kaito told me two of them passed out once they saw the blood."

"Glad to see you're in good spirits, at least," Aang couldn't help but smile, but there was a flicker of doubt across Toph's face that left him asking, "unless there's something that you want to tell-"

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh, well, congratulat-"

"The father isn't staying," Toph rubbed her eyes with her free hand and if she hadn't been crying before, she definitely was now, "and I don't know if me falling hurt the baby, not to mention it wouldn't have even happened if I wasn't wearing these spirts-damned shoes-"

"Hey, hey, Toph," Aang cut her off, moving his hand off of her knee to her shoulder, "Katara and I are here for you, okay? We'll help you figure it out."

"Help her figure out what?" Katara questioned as she approached with the stack of papers in hand, "and I thought you were gonna heal her."

"I need to talk to you, in my office, alone," Toph explained as she stood before Aang could open his mouth, "don't worry, Twinkletoes, I'm not gonna arrest her."

Aang passed off the water-skin and took a seat outside of the office with the crime reports in hand.

He wasn't sure how long he sat in the near-silent police station and while he was glad that the crime rate was low, he was also growing antsy in dreading anticipation no matter how much he tried to fall back on his meditation lessons he had received as a young boy.

But with one creak of the door opening, he found himself on his feet as Katara walked out while still talking to Toph.

"-really need to take it easy, though. I'll talk to Sokka about the shoes when we pick up the kids."

"I'll be more careful, but I won't promise to take it easy. I do have an entire city to keep in check," Toph insisted with a small, red line marking the place where the jagged gash had once been, "but thank you, for everything."

"Of course," Katara insisted, pulling her into a hug that Aang watched from a few steps away until his wife grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the group hug with a "come on, sweetie."

In the warmth of the group hug, Aang couldn't help but feel twelve years old for a few peaceful but brief seconds.

6. Bittersweet

It had been a very long day in Republic City.

He no longer found himself getting involved with the police force unless he was dropping in to grab the reports for Sokka to look over at the monthly meeting between the two of them and Zuko.

Zuko hardly showed up to them any more, growing much more reserved like he had been as a tenager after the recent passing of Iroh, but they still left a spot for him that was more often than not taken by Mai in his place with yet another apology for his absence.

This time, however, the three of them had gone over the reports to find something chilling encased neatly in between the vandals that always seemed to rise every time Toph put the last ones away as well as the growing tensions between benders and non-benders.

The name "Yakone" had come up many times over the years; a man who had deep ties to the criminal underworld of Republic City, but Toph had never been able to get together a rock-solid case against him; Aang knew that no matter how desperate she got to put Yakone away, that what he was reading had to be reality and in that reality, his stomach clenched.

"At least a dozen witnesses to his bloodbending?" With the way Sokka's voice cracked like a teenager as he read it aloud and his face adopted a grayish tone, Aang knew that his thought process was similar to his own, "but it's been outlawed for years. The last known practicer died a long time ago."

"Aang, I hate to ask you this, but is there any way that-"

"No," Aang cut Mai off, unable to hide the snap in his tone despite her obvious reason for asking, "Katara would never be involved with something like this."

He did not mention the nights during the first few years of their marriage where he woke up to her lurching out of sleep in a cold sweat with blood dripping from her nose; neither of them needed to know how much her experience with Hama still haunted her.

Mai had nodded and moved on, but Aang still thought about it through the rest of the meeting and on the way home; he knew that Toph would be bringing a new charge and with it, a new arrest against Yakone, but he also knew that there was still a chance it wouldn't stick.

But he didn't have to think about that tonight.

The biggest thing he had to worry about on the safety of Air Temple Island was if Tenzin had gotten so caught up in toddling behind Kya that he had received yet another black eye from hitting it against the dining room table.

That only made him opening the door to Bumi cackling as he swung the sword that Sokka had gifted him a few months before on his birthday while Kya threw small but impressive snowballs at him that much more shocking.

"What?" He started, instantly gaining Kya's, who dropped a puddle of water around her feet, and Bumi's, who lowered the sword with a look of surprise and guilt in his eyes, attention, "is going on in here?"

It did not surprise him when the eleven and five year old instantly pointed at the other one with a simultaneous shout of "he/she started it!"

"Okay," Aang sighed, taking a deep breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose before redirecting his eyesight at his daughter first, "Kya, I want you to go get a couple of the towels and clean the water off of the floor," he waited until she walked to the laundry room before turning his attention on his eldest son, "Bumi, where are your mother and brother?"

"Mom's been really quiet since she got back from getting some groceries in the city, she's in her room and Tez is…he was just in here, I swear."

Aang took one look behind the large bookcase and was met with a bright set of gray eyes and two hands reaching up towards him in response.

"He's back here because swords and waterbending aren't exactly baby proof." He explained while reaching behind the bookcase to pull his youngest child out, who was thankfully unharmed in the latest show of sibling rivalry.

"Tenzin is nearly three, he's not a baby any more."

"Maybe not, but he was frightened enough to wedge himself between the wall and the bookcase."

"How do you know that he didn't do it because he was exploring?"

"Bumi, enough," Aang cut the back and forth before it grew out of hand, "you need to put that sword away in its case and when your mom is feeling up to it, all of us are going to have a long conversation about when to use our abilities, bending or not. Do you understand?"

"Yes, dad."

"Okay. Did you three get dinner?" He didn't know what kind of day Katara was having or what could have caused her sudden silence, but he could try and gauge it by if the kids had been fed before eight p.m.

"Mom made sea prune stew, but she let me help with the dumplings." Bumi's excitement, despite the trouble he was still very much in, was infectious and filled Aang with joy as he pictured the scene in his head, "did you want some, dad?"

"No, I'll find some food after I talk to your mom," Aang insisted, pressing a kiss to his head, "go get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay," Bumi agreed, hugging him with the sword free arm and he hugged back with the Tenzin free arm, "goodnight, dad."

"Goodnight, Bumi."

It didn't take long for Tenzin to get settled in the small bed next to Bumi's, eight was pushing it for his bedtime, and while Kya insisted that he read her two of her many, many books that covered her bedroom, she too was out like a light by the time he was halfway through the second one.

But now that all three of the kids were asleep, it left Aang with nothing to do but slowly make his way into their shared bedroom and get to the bottom of the tension that was filling the silence.

"Katara?" He whispered toward the lump in the bed with the blanket over their head, only getting a slight shift in response, "Katara, it's me."

"Aang?" No longer clouded by the shaking of sobs, but the crack in her voice made it clear that she had been in distress and he hadn't been here to hold her in his arms.

"Hey," he muttered, only seeing the reality of the situation when Katara lifted the blanket off of her head and met his gaze with red, puffy, watering eyes, "I'm so sorry, I should have been here-."

"It's not…" a shudder wracked her body as she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest which had Aang climbing on the bed and pulling her all too cold frame against his body, "it's not your fault."

"What happened?"

"Toph brought me in today."

"What?"

"She wanted to know how Yakone…Hama's been dead for years, so her next logical suspect was…but I swear, Aang, I didn't-"

"I know you didn't," Aang cut her off, pressing a kiss against the side of her head, "I know that you, who spent so many years getting it outlawed, would never do that."

"Thank you. For believing me."

"I would be a horrible husband if I didn't," Aang responded, getting a soft laugh as he interlaced his hand in Katara's, "I'm helping Toph bring him in tomorrow."

"Did she ask you to?"

"No, she doesn't even know I'm coming, but I need to make sure he ends up behind bars."

"You don't have to piss Toph off for me," Katara insisted, wiping her face on her wrist, "just knowing that she actually has enough evidence to get him put away is enough."

"Hey, I'm the Avatar, remember?" Aang questioned with a soft smile on his face, "I have to make the world safe and that includes my world." With that, he rested his hand on the back of her neck before gently pulling her in for a long, warm kiss.

At least, it would have been if he hadn't heard the small whimper of pain escape from her lips when his hand grazed her left shoulder so he could have a better hold on her.

"Your shoulder is hurting again?"

She had injured her left shoulder years ago while the two of them were in the Fire Nation to help with the birth of Zuko and Mai's daughter, Izumi, but she had ended up being one of the people holding off yet another assassin attempt that had resulted in her getting thrown against the wall.

Seeing her that injured had terrified Aang in a way that still haunted him even now, knowing that he could lose Katara to a few firebenders despite her own power and the very powerful people that she kept close.

Katara had delivered Izumi two days later and despite the joy filling the nations, the two of them didn't know that the injury to her left shoulder would result in a constant state of pain that varied in severity by the day.

"It's not that bad right now," she insisted, but Aang still got up and plucked her water-skin from the nightstand, "sweetie, we both know that doesn't work."

"It helps though," he pointed out, bending the water out of the water-skin and holding it over the permanently twisted nerves, feeling her slump in relief under his fingertips as he worked out the tension that would inevitably be back, "is that better?"

"Just…hold it there, for a bit longer."

"Whatever you say, Sifu Katara." That nickname always got her to smile, even on her bad days.

"I'm not sure you can still call me that," she said around her infectious grin, "you've been healing skinned knees for ten years now."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"I didn't say that."

Her shoulder was as relaxed as he could get it, so he bent the water away and back into the water-skin before climbing into their bed beside her, letting her rest her head against his arm.

"I'll call you whatever you want me to call you," Aang whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead as her eyes fluttered shut contently, "goodnight, sweetie."

He listened to her soft breaths in the darkness for a very long time that night as guilt clawed at his heart for never being able to take away her pain permanently, that her physical pain had limited her from using the majority of the training she had fought so hard to be included in back in the North Pole and that her mental anguish from being forced to manipulate his blood was still impacting her so negatively all these years later.

Aang could only hope that making sure that the last blood bender would remain behind bars for the rest of his life would bring just as much relief as the water had brought her that night; more importantly, he desperately hoped that Yakone's imprisonment would bring Katara permanent relief from the anxiety that was seemingly always holding her tightly in its grasp.

[kenny-the-ken]

Y O U + M E |Pt 3|

A LOT OF WARNINGS WITH THIS ONE!!!! ALL AGED UP CHARACTERS AND IN HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE!! Loosely based on the Netflix show YOU, if y'all have seen it,,, then you know what Kenny's gonna do. If you haven't seen it,,, strap yourselves in, it's a lot!! Yandre Kenny, strong language, sexual content, violence, mentions of blood, gore, stalking, obsession and narcissistic thinking, so please beware!! I warned y'all!!

ALSO!!! A lot of this fic is written as Kenny's internal monologue and from his perspective so bare that in mind!!

Spring break. The literal bane of my existence. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love parties, I've taken more drugs than most people I know, excluding my parents of course, but Spring Break in the US was known for crazy parties, girls half naked in bikinis, guys chugging 2% alcohol content beers thinking that they're the shit, and copious amounts of drugs.

I don't care about any of that though, no, not at all, which you may be extremely shocked to hear, the only thing I cared about was, what were you doing for spring break?

Were you going to any parties? Were you meeting any friends, old or new? Were you planning to show yourself off in a tiny bikini, not that I'm complaining, but I'd rather see you like that alone, without other men's wondering eyes glaring at you as if you're a piece of meat. I can promise you y/n, that would not end well for anyone involved.

I had texted you this morning, like we do every morning. We fucked but after that it felt like we drifted apart. Or rather, you drifted from me. So here I sit, in my bathroom, cock in hand with my face buried in your used panties that I'd stolen from a while back, I assumed you didn't miss them much, and anyway, they were currently in use.

I'd give anything for another taste, your lips were soft, plumped, and oh so red from how aggressive I can be, your h/c cascaded perfectly down your back, and your breasts.

"Fuck." I knew thinking about you like this would make me cum faster, and that's exactly what I wanted, for reasons you'll find out soon enough.

Your pierced nipples and how perfectly shaped they were, your ass was round and perfect for slapping when you needed taught a lesson. Your hips were perfect for gripping, and oh how I'd grip your hips and fuck myself deeper and deeper and shit.

And just like that, here I am, hand covered in my own jizz, cock twitching between my legs and your panties still in my hand.

I have a box, I keep it under lock and key behind my wardrobe, just some little souvenirs, your panties, some nude Polaroids I'd found of you in your bedroom. Oh yeah, and one of Clyde's teeth. Just to remember him by.

You see, although we weren't dating, that didn't mean that you weren't in need of protection, you see, I'd overheard Clyde chatting to Jimmy about how he was thinking of asking you on a date. Now, I've known Clyde for a long time, he uses women like they're nothing, fucks 'em, leaves 'em.

What did you expect me to do? I mean, I did this for you! He was going to take advantage of your kindness and use you for his own sexual gratification and desires and then throw you away like you're worthless, and you are far from worthless. I'd kiss your feet as you walked the earth if you'd let me, oh how I'd worship you, like you deserve to be.

It wasn't too hard to kill Clyde, you see, when you've been known as a fuck boy before, which I unfortunately have been, other fuck boys, they tend to trust you more. So Clyde was pretty easy to reel in. I told him the truth, how I was working on an English project with you and I fucked you in your bedroom, and Clyde was all over that shit like a dog on heat. He was so focussed on what he was planning to text to you, obviously with my keen eye proof reading it for him, he was too distracted to notice me coming behind him with a brick. He only realised just as it was too late, sorry dude, your skull's caved in.

We needn't worry about the details of where his body is, let's just say... I've taken care of it. And tonight was our date, and also the first night of spring break, I would ask you what you were up to, and of course I wouldn't demand to come, unless you chose to invite me, no, I would just hang out in background, you won't even notice that I'm there. And I dare anyone to try anything, they would be dead men walking.

It didn't take long for the time of our date to roll around, and I stood on your doorstep, politely knocking on your door a few times, before smiling as the door cracked open.

You were breathtaking. I'd worked my ass off at City Wok to be able to afford to take you out to dinner, and my god, no food could ever look as delicious as you looked right now. Your tits, your hips, your ass, your legs, your hair, your face, everything! We were destined to be together, and when you smiled back at me I swore my heart swole in my chest.

"Hey, Kenny. You ready to go?" You asked, pulling your leather jacket on over your short, black dress that was showing off way too much cleavage for me to control myself for the entire evening, god I'd take you right here right now if I could.

"I was born ready, baby. I got these for you." I replied, bowing to you and holding out a small bouquet of flowers, your hand clutching your chest, and a gasp leaving your red stained lips.

"They're beautiful, Ken! Oh you shouldn't have! I'll just go get these into a vase, please come in." You spoke like an angel, and who was I to say no to an invitation into your home?

"I wanted to. I really do mean what I said last time, I've had my eye on you from you moved here, y/n, and you're different than those other girls, you're special, I can tell." You cheeks were flushed which meant that my charm was working. You'd be mine soon, and as much as I wanted to show you off to the world, I also wanted to hide you from it, so no one would dare to try and steal what's rightfully mine, or they'd end up like Clyde. Buried in the middle of fuck knows where.

"Had your eye on me? Not a little stalker are you, McCormick?" You joked, and I hoped it was a joke, you were laughing and so was I, so that was a good sign.

"Not at all! I mean, how could my eyes not go to you when you walk past me? I mean, look at you!" And slinging my arms round your hips would surely make you see that I was nothing but a pure gentleman.

"You're such a flirt, Kenny." God the way you looked at me, it was no surprise that to me that you'd stolen my heart, god the things I would do to you, the things I would do for you, oh they were criminal, but in this moment as I stood staring into your perfect e/c eyes, I couldn't care if my crimes caught up with me, I mean, getting away with it would be easy, trust me, I'm not that stupid.

Around two hours had passed and so far, our date seemed to be going perfectly, you were laughing at my jokes, I flirted, and you flirted right back, you'd told me about a huge spring break party at Tolken's house, you'd asked me to be your plus one, of course I'd gratefully accept, I needed to keep you safe, you even took my hand within your own when we were leaving the restaurant, my plan was working a charm, and you'd invited me in to your house for a quick night cap, no doubt I'd be staying the night.

And when you led me to your bedroom wearing nothing but some skimpy lingerie, I knew that your panties that were in my safe would be getting a much needed night off from being pressed against my face.

You were on top of me, grinding on me, fuck you were so needy, and my cock was growing by the second, I couldn't help but groan and pull your hips down against my own.

I'd swapped the positions, and now you lay beneath me, I'd left dozens of hickeys all over your neck, your breasts, your stomach, thighs, and now I was going to taste your sweet cunt again, god I couldn't wait, it had been too long from I'd tasted you, had my tongue inside you, claiming your insides, god I was starved, and I couldn't wait any longer, and just as I pressed a closed mouth kiss against your parted lips, your fucking phone rang.

"Ignore it. Don't answer." I ordered, my tongue lapping up your wetness, a moan coming from your lips as your phone started ringing again, and of course, being the kind person that you are, you answered.

And this couldn't have been a worse time, your face was worried, and you moved my head from where I wanted desperately to be for the past week, it was your mother.

Drug overdose, she was in hospital and you had to be there to take care of her, not that she ever did the same for you. No, you'd told me previously that our lives were similar in a lot of ways, and that's where my need to protect you came from. You were like a delicate flower awaiting to bloom, but others put you in the dark, stopped you ever from doing so, from ever reaching your full potential, but I was here now. I was going to care for you, I'd put you in the sun and give you all the love and support I could, the perfect partner, a soul mate some may say.

And as you hurried to pull your sweatpants and T-shirt on to your small frame, tears welling in the corners of your eyes, you gave me a hug, whispering sweet apologies, and I offered to come with you, which you declined. And I understood why, I hated people meeting my parents, seeing my sorry excuse of a home, fitted with built in meth lab in the garden. You were embarrassed, ashamed of your drug addict mother, and I felt that pain, I knew it personally. I was strong enough to deal with it, but you darling, you're too fragile, far too good to be feeling that way, and by god would I protect you from anything.

I'm so sorry to say this baby, your mother will never get clean, she's never been clean your entire life, it truly is a miracle that she's lasted this long. I'd be doing you and everyone else a favour. You'd told me this wasn't the first overdose she'd had, and every one made you feel the same way, like you were the parent, like you were at fault, you didn't keep an attentive enough eye on her, the pain you were feeling was soul destroying, not just for you, but for me too! How dare that woman who brought you into this world make you feel so awful, how dare she cause you pain and misery, if she died it would mean she couldn't cause any more of that, sure you'd be sad, but you'd realise in time that life was better without having to worry every time you left the house if you would come back to your mother, her skin blue and covered in her own vomit, which she choked on in her drug idled state.

And I would care for you, I'd be your shoulder to cry on, your support network, your lover and your boyfriend all tied into one, the whole package, you'd fall straight into my lap and I swear, I'd never ever let you go.

I'm sorry hunny, but your mother needs to be dealt with, and it would be easier than you'd think, one bad batch could wipe out hundreds of drug addicts, and besides, it's not as if I'd never used this method before. My parents died of an 'overdose', well, at least that's what the coroner's report said on the matter, Karen was put into my care, and the home was given to us, and life had been so much happier from I did my whole family a favour and took them out of the equation, and I know you will feel the same, in time at least.

As I drove you to the hospital you told me about your childhood. How you'd been in foster care, then your mother cleaned her act up and for a long time she was stable and in recovery, till she met some douchebag when you were ten, and she was back to using again, and your life had never been the same since.

When we pulled up outside the hospital, you hugged me tightly and kissed me twice, telling me that you'd text me later, and thanking me for the lovely evening, I assured you that this was to be the first of many of these delightful evenings, and even in the deepest depths of your pain, you still smiled at me.

I watched you till your figure disappeared inside the hospital, and I knew there and then what had to be done. I'm sorry baby, but your mother isn't good for you, she's not good for you, not good for us!

She had to go, and I had to be the one to kill her.