#and I screamed and told him not to make fanfics of my art right in front of me

[haebai-png]

I liked todays daily enough that I'm going to keep working on it

[mah-t-wordblog]

Can we get a lee Marc ler Nath fiction where Nath uses Marc as a canvas <3

There it is, I hope u like 💛

You are a work of art

Ler: Nathaniel Kurtzberg

Lee: Marc Anciel

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡

Ships: Marc x Nathaniel

Warnings: This is a tickle fic, if you don’t like it, just scroll down

This fanfic is originally in Portuguese, my English is translated using an automatic translator, if there are any big errors you can tell me so I can fix them

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡

“Marc~ you promised, right?”

Marc sighed

“Okay”

He took off his shirt and offered his body to Nathaniel

“I asked you to be my canvas to show you how beautiful your body is!”

Marc had some problems with his own body, he was a little too thin due to food issues and Nathaniel knew his difficulties

“What do you think I should draw?” Nathaniel asked affectionately

“I don’t understand art, only writing”

“Then let me think”

Nathaniel analyzed Marc’s body

The redhead asked Marc to turn his back, it was better to paint on his back

Nathaniel took one of his brushes and measured what he could draw

“How about a landscape? I know you like the moon”

“It’s okay”

“This is my softest brush, let me know if it hurts, okay?”

Marc nodded. The artist began, the paint was cold on the other boy's back, but it wasn't a bad feeling, and Nathaniel was taking great care not to hurt his boyfriend.

The up and down movement made Marc shiver, it itched a little, but it was when the artist painted a little lower on Marc's spine that he let out a soft laugh.

"Did it hurt?"

"No... it's okay."

Nathaniel continued, another laugh.

"Marc?"

"I told you it's okay."

Nath noticed that as he passed the brush over Marc's body, the boy trembled a little and then tried not to squirm.

Marc let out a louder laugh when Nathaniel went down his entire spine.

"Marc~"

"Okay! Okay! It's just that it- it-"

"Does it tickles?"

“That’s it” Marc covered his red face

“I’m sorry, Mr. Ticklish, but a brush on your skin sure tickles, I think you’ll have to put up with it”

Marc squirmed when Nathaniel lightly squeezed his belly, since it was a place that wasn’t covered in paint

“Nahahahath”

“I’m just painting, okay? It’ll be done soon”

The redhead grabbed another brush with his other hand and began to paint Marc’s arms without paint until he reached his neck, making the boy turn around and laugh out loud

“Nahahathaniel!”

“What’s wrong?” Nathaniel smiled

He continued to use that brush to brush Marc's body, who didn't want to move too much so as not to smudge his boyfriend's art, but he couldn't help but laugh when the brush was even brushed over his belly

"Let me continue"

Nathaniel continued with those two brushes, his ability to move both at the same time was impressive

"Nahahath, pleheheasehehe"

"Ah Marc, I'm sure you can handle a few tickles, or are you just too sensitive for that?"

That was Marc's final point, he blushed so much that even if he covered his cheeks with his hands, Nathaniel could see his ears turn pink, it was so cute

Minutes passed with Marc like that, laughing softly and sometimes letting out little screams so that Nathaniel could paint and when Nath wanted, he would accidentally slip the brush to Marc's belly button so that he would laugh louder

"And...... done!"

Nathaniel gave Marc a mirror so he could somehow see the image on his back.

It was a landscape of the sky, with a moon and several stars.

“It’s … so… beautiful…” Marc said, looking a little hypnotized “You are simply so talented, Nath.”

Nathaniel laughed and got close to Marc.

“Thank you, but did you see it? See how you are as beautiful as the moon, and I love you more than the number of stars in the sky?”

Marc smiled. Nathaniel laid his head on the boy’s neck and blew air to make him laugh.

“Nahahahath!”

“You held up very well to the tickling.”

Nathaniel blew a series of raspberries at Marc.

The boy laughed and tried to push his boyfriend away.

“I love you, Marc.”

“Ihihi lohohovehe yohohou too.” He said while laughing.

“You are a work of art.”

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡

Thanks for reading 💛💛

[coco-is-writing]

Tarot Card art for Dealbreaker, one of my Hazbin Hotel fanfics. Tagging some peeps (if I forget you, forgive me, I just got back on my ADHD meds: @kewwrites @asheve @onth3cuspcusp

Reader-insert, but make it acidic and poetic.

Title: Dealbreaker

Relationships: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Reader

Summary:

Most people don't need an ancient Sumerian ritual to summon their estranged husband, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The residents of the Hazbin Hotel will need archaic forbidden magic to protect all of Hell from destruction. These pompous modern overlords have forgotten the ways of the elder ones, but they'll learn the hard way from the woman who won her freedom from an ancient demon and got him to put a ring on it. Amicable separations are for mature adults—and nobody is more mature than the woman who was once offered as a human virgin sacrifice, thank you very much. You just need the Radio Demon to stop sticking his nosy antlers where they don't belong. He is burnt sugar and bad intentions, and baby, you've seen it all before.

Some of my favorite excerpts under Keep Reading

Some teasers:

One hopes the Lich won’t miss his wife too much when Alastor takes her from him.

“You’ve learned to live with an unfamiliar man before,” he says, his voice a velvet blade. “You’ll learn again.”

“Are you ready to worship, little lamb?” Alastor asks. His voice curls through the air, low and resonant, wrapping around your throat.

Reader & Alastor - Ch. 12

“Do the words domestic abuse mean nothing to you?” Alastor asks, staring down at the shallow grave you’ve dug, with an expression caught somewhere between amusement and distaste.

“Real power requires dedication, like I keep telling you,” you reply, wiping sweat from your forehead with your handkerchief. “Now, get in the grave like a good student.”

“He buried you?” His voice sharpens as his crimson eyes narrow, flicking back to you. “You let your husband bury you alive? Had he no sense of artistry? No inclination to devise something less pedestrian than having you roll around in the dirt?”

You perch on a nearby downed log, fixing him with a merciless stare. How amusing the Radio Demon is—reveling in broadcasting the screams of the damned, yet balking at the idea of a man burying his wife. He has no clue how many terrible things you’ve endured or how much worse this could have been.

“Ancient magic,” you tell him bluntly. “You want it, get in. The Lich’s magic comes from the deepest parts of the world—below the surface, where everything rots and renews. To connect to it, you need to experience that stillness, that power. Buried, surrounded by nature, until there’s nothing left but the earth and your focus.”

He steps forward, leaning over the grave with skepticism etched into every line of his grin. His cane taps against the ground in a slow, rhythmic beat. “This is the great ritual?” he says, voice dripping with mockery. “This shabby little hole in the dirt? How quaint.”

He’d shown no interest in helping you dig, but you’d hardly expected him to. Truth be told, you’d had plenty of inspiration while digging his grave.

“I did this, and I was fine,” you remind him.

“Were you wearing a bespoke suit?” he sneers.

Alastor - Ch. 10:

He understands. It clicks when he watches her, brow furrowed, drawing out her evil symbols.

A wife is a business partner that doubles the chance of survival if you make the right choice. The correct decision may amplify power. The Lich must’ve seen possibility in her, he reasons, must’ve figured she would make a calculating bride when he agreed to her deal.

And indeed she has. Hard-won years of craft and study. She worships him in her dedication to his magic. How carefully she draws the lines, how precious she keeps the pages of her husband’s wickedness away from prying eyes. What shrewd attention she pays to this ritual as if it is a living breathing thing–a child she hopes to mold and raise.

Worship.

[chr0macide]

Break In 2: The Novelette (Fanfic)

PART 1

got damn I finally finished this. Writers block was wilding on my ass so I hope this didn't turn out like shit lol. I drew a lil bit of art for this fanfic (I say "drew" but a lot of it is just textures from google edited together into a picture lmao). Just 3 pics but yeah I got bored and wanted to draw. Might make a separate post for them sometime so people who don't wanna read or scroll through this can see them.

I recommend reading part 1, there are some references and callbacks that you might not get if you haven't read it already.

Again if you see any grammar/spelling errors please tell me. don't let me just leave that shit in because that's hella embarrassing 🙃

oh also for those who don’t know, the premise of this fanfic is basically just me turning the game into a short story

TW implied sexual violence (not involving any main characters, relatively short section, but its there)

This one is about 16,000 words, alright lets do this

Chapter I – Unsafe Haven

A fork of lightning illuminated the woods as Prince drove down the trail at a snail’s pace. The deluge was so heavy that it was almost impossible to see through the windshield, even with the wipers on. He brought the car to a standstill and let the engine idle.

“We’re gonna have to wait the storm out,” Prince told the kids. “Can’t keep driving like this.”

Stephanie kicked the back of Prince’s seat. “Worst camping trip ever,” she grumbled with her tiny voice.

“Relax. We’ll get there,” the elder brother said, but the truth was that he may or may not have taken a wrong turn through the thick fog.

It had been almost a year since the four kids had butted heads with their not-so-friendly neighborhood mafia. Well, three kids and one adult; Prince had turned 18 a few months ago. They’d been holed up in their house for too long, paranoid that Larry and his mobsters might show up for a little payback. It didn’t help that there had been a string of missing person reports in the area. To their dismay, their own uncle had disappeared, not to mention that the mob boss himself had vanished soon after they’d deactivated him. He hadn’t been sighted since, though, so Prince and Monica thought an outing would help take their minds off of everything.

They had everything they needed. The weather report had been favorable, yet rain was battering their windows. Prince folded his arms as he heard another clash of thunder. His boredom was replaced with panic as the subsequent flash of lightning struck the tree closest to them.

“Everyone out! Now!” he yelled as the trunk splintered and started to topple towards them. The kids tumbled out of the car and ran off as the tree smashed into the hood. The car alarm screamed.

“Could this trip get any worse?” Monica huffed as she walked around their totaled coupé. She popped the trunk and rummaged around inside.

Prince reached out and pulled her away. “Monica, wait, the engine-”

He was cut off as the crushed engine spat out a plume of smoke and exploded.

The kids stared at their flaming car.

“Shit,” said Hadrian.

Prince sighed. “Yeah.”

They looked around. They thought they’d reach the campsite early in the evening, but the storm had stalled them for so long that night had already come. Prince could hardly see the path ahead of them. “You didn’t happen to pull a flashlight out of there before it blew up, right?” he asked Monica.

Monica looked at the first aid kit she’d rescued. “No.”

“Damn. Well… we shouldn’t just stand around, I guess. Come on,” Prince said to the others. They climbed over the fallen tree and set off down the trail on foot.

The muddy path squelched under their shoes and thorns snagged their clothes as they trudged forward. Prince knew they should hurry, but shrubs and tree roots obscured by the shadows threatened to trip them up and send them face first into the dirt if they walked too fast.

Prince pulled out his cellphone as they moved, grumbling in frustration as the rain impaired the touchscreen. He tried to dial emergency services. No signal. He almost bumped into a traffic barricade in front of him while he was shoving the phone back into his damp pocket. “The hell? What is this doing here?”

He felt Monica tug on his sleeve.

“Do you see that?” Monica asked, pointing into the trees. It took Prince a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about, but he spied a yellow light blinking in the distance.

“What is it?” he wondered.

“I don’t know… but look.” Monica gestured downwards. There was a gravel path leading away from the barricaded trail. It looked like they’d be taking a detour.

“Let’s see if there’s a building there,” Monica suggested. Prince was apprehensive about veering off the main path, but he had no clue how far the campground was, if they were even going in the right direction. Maybe this was a better option. He and the other kids followed her.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the origin of the light. Steel walls stretched into the trees. The faint beams of moonlight that made it through the leaves glinted on the razor wire resting atop the fortifications.

A control panel was affixed to the wall next to the heavy-duty vertical lift door. There was the light source: a yellow diode, flashing on and off in the dark.

Prince peered through the doorway. It was already open. “What is this? A military base?”

Monica knitted her brow. “Maybe, but why would they leave the door like this?”

“I don’t see anyone.” The place gave him an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach, but it was freezing, and his clothes were soaked all the way through. He stepped inside.

The dwelling had evidently been abandoned for a long time. One ceiling light persevered, shining weakly in the darkness. The floor was littered with trash and a sticky layer of dust coated the tiles. Corroded storage lockers lined one of the walls. The other was plastered with crappy graffiti.

Prince didn’t see anyone else. He beckoned the others inside. However, right as the last kid stepped through, there was another flash of lightning. The panel next to the door sparked and short circuited. Everyone flinched as the door slammed down with a loud bang.

“What the hell!” Prince exclaimed as he turned around. He gave the door a kick. It didn’t budge. The unlocking mechanism had failed. He tried tinkering with the control panel, but all he got was an electric shock. “Ow.”

Prince knew he wasn’t about to break through solid metal. The kids glanced around the room nervously. “Look for another way out,” Prince told everyone.

There was only one other door on the opposite wall. Monica made her way over and gently pushed it open, but it was just a stairwell leading even deeper down into the building. She shook her head at Prince. “Nothing here.”

Hadrian started to open the old lockers, searching for something that might be useful. He grimaced as he came upon one that wasn’t empty.

“Guys. Look,” Hadrian called out. The others crowded around. It was an all too familiar comedy mask that they’d hoped they would never have to see again. “I don’t think we’re in a military base.”

Prince’s stomach churned at the thought of running into Larry a second time. If he was uneasy before, he was on high alert now. In fact, he was so anxious that he nearly leapt out of his skin when something prodded the back of his leg.

The dog whined and sprang away as well before it ran away and cowered beneath a rotting wooden table. Its fur was patchy and matted. Muddy water was still dripping from it, but it looked like it might have been white underneath all that grime. It must have taken refuge here from the torrential downpour too before they arrived.

“A doggie!” Stephanie squealed in delight. She ran to pet it, but it growled and barked at her when she got close. “Mean doggie,” she pouted.

Prince paid no more attention to the dog. If there was a chance that there were gangsters prowling, he and the kids had to arm themselves. He didn’t see anything of use except a broken rack with a few rusty crowbars on it. He picked one up.

“Guess these will have to do.”

He tossed a couple to Monica and Hadrian.

“Hold up, you want us to go further inside?” Hadrian questioned as he caught the weapon.

“You got a better idea?”

Hadrian looked at the metal door, locked tight. “No,” he mumbled.

The group stood at the stairs. It was pitch black. A sense of déjà vu crept over Prince; it reminded him of the creepy basement back in his house. He dug through his pocket for his lighter and flicked it on, casting enough light down the steps for them to descend. The dog padded after them, though it still recoiled as Stephanie tried to touch it again.

They reached the base of the stairwell. Iron bars lined the walls on either side of them. It was some sort of jail. Prince thought the cells were all empty until someone stood up in the one right next to him.

Everyone yelped in alarm at the figure. Prince held his crowbar up defensively, even though the man was caged, but he looked familiar. He held his lighter up to illuminate his face.

“Uncle Pete?” Prince said, bewildered.

Pete waved. He grabbed the whiteboard attached to his belt. Hi Prince! Open the cell? he wrote.

“But I don’t have the key… oh, wait,” Prince said as he remembered that he was holding a crowbar. He jammed it in between the lock and the doorframe and broke the gate open. “But how did you get here?”

Mafia wanted some of my properties. Locked me up here alone when I wouldn’t transfer ownership, Pete scrawled as he stepped out of the cell.

“Oh, man. We were really worried,” Prince said as everyone wrapped Pete up in a group hug. “Wait a second. Does that mean there are mobsters nearby?”

No. Upper levels of the base are abandoned. Everyone is in lower levels.

Prince’s brow furrowed. Pete looked at him quizzically.

“The entrance malfunctioned. We can’t get out the way we came in,” Prince explained. Pete looked pensive now.

Only other way out is elevator on lowest level. Leads to south exit. Don’t know exactly where it is, but we would have to keep going down. Pete pointed at the other end of the jailhouse. More stairs. They were going to be seeing a lot of those.

The last thing Prince wanted to do was to delve into a criminal hideout, but they didn’t have any other choice. “How deep before we start running into mobsters?” he asked Pete as they walked to the staircase and descended further.

Pretty deep. Not sure about the exact level. I don’t th

Pete stopped writing as they reached the next area and looked around warily. It was some kind of common area, just as derelict as the previous rooms, but something felt off. Prince squinted through the dim lighting. The coffee table was caked with dust, but one handprint-shaped patch was clean.

Someone was in there with them.

Chapter II – Hackerman

Monica guarded herself with her first aid kit as a masked mafioso stood up from behind the couch and swung his crowbar at her. The plastic case cracked, but she retaliated with a jab to his gut with her own weapon. He clutched his abdomen in pain as Monica brought her weapon down on his head, knocking him out.

The guy wasn’t alone. Four of his buddies emerged from hiding while Monica was fending off the first, and they rushed the kids all at once. Pete hastily grabbed the crowbar that the downed mobster had dropped. He attacked one who was coming up on Prince’s side. He and Hadrian were kept busy by a couple of other mafiosos from the front. There was a brief scuffle before Pete managed to land a headshot and knock him unconscious as well.

Hadrian tried to lunge at one of his attackers, but the mobster hooked his crowbar around Hadrian’s own weapon and yanked it out of his hands. With nothing to defend himself, all he could do was shield his face with his arms. There was a crunch as the mobster’s crowbar met his forearm. He cried out in pain. “Fuck! Not again!”

The group withdrew further into the room as the remaining mobsters closed in on them. As their aggressors engaged them again, Prince fumbled and dropped his still-burning lighter amidst the chaos. The dust on the plush carpet ignited instantly. A blockade of smoke and fire materialized surprisingly quickly between him and the mafiosos.

“Come on!” urged Prince retreated through the next door. The dog darted ahead of him, spooked by the flames. Pete and the kids followed, but the mobsters had to fall back to the jailhouse to escape the inferno. It had been a quick fight, but Prince was shaking from the adrenaline. He turned to Pete.

“You said the upper levels were abandoned!”

Pete shrugged his shoulders and shook his head cluelessly. They are! I don’t know what they’re doing here, he wrote.

The blaze cast a flickering orange glow into the hallway they’d ended up in. At least this place looked empty. Monica made Hadrian sit on the ground and started fixing a splint to his arm. He sighed in defeat. They’d only just got here, and he was already out of the fight.

Prince cautiously opened the door next to them. A janitorial closet. He’d lost his lighter in the last room. They weren’t going to be able to see a thing once they left the fire behind, so he went inside and investigated the shelves.

He picked up a flashlight and brushed the dust off. “Lucky us.”

“See if it turns on first,” said Monica skeptically.

Prince flipped the switch. He smacked the flashlight into the palm of his hand a few times when it didn’t turn on. Nothing happened. “Damn it.”

He shoved the flashlight under his coat. Maybe they would come across some batteries later. As Monica finished patching up Hadrian’s arm, the group continued to the elevator on the other end of the hallway. Prince pushed the call button. “I don’t suppose this thing will take us out of here?”

Pete shook his head as the doors slid open. The control panel only contained deeper floors. His finger hovered over the button that would take them the lowest. They didn’t know precisely how far down the inhabited levels were, and he didn’t want to be jumped again as soon as the elevator reopened. He decided to select one of the higher ones. Better safe than sorry, Prince thought.

They said nothing as the elevator closed and took them downwards. They couldn’t see anything except the red LED display above the door. The floor number ticked into the negatives until it ground to a halt unexpectedly.

“Hold up. That’s not the level I chose,” Prince whispered. He could hear everyone shifting around in the dark as they prepared for the worst.

The doors opened. The person outside the elevator screamed and fumbled with his phone, almost dropping it. He clearly hadn’t been expecting to see anyone. Prince had his crowbar at the ready, but the guy was clad in a hoodie and jeans instead of one of the tailored suits that the mob usually wore.

“Uh… hi,” said Prince.

“Hey? You guys don’t look like mobsters,” the young man replied as he straightened his sunglasses.

“You don’t, either.”

“’Cause I’m not. What are you doing here if you aren’t one of them?” the stranger asked shiftily.

Prince shrugged. “We ran in here during a thunderstorm. Door malfunctioned. Now we’re trapped.”

The stranger buried his hands in his dark hair. “Are you fucking kidding me? The north exit is jammed? I snuck all the way up here for nothing!”

“You’re sneaking out? Were you a prisoner?” Monica probed.

“Ugh. Yeah, yeah, I was,” mumbled the man, who was now pacing around outside the elevator. “Name’s Helios-”

Hadrian snickered. Helios shot him a look.

“What? It’s a code name! I work for the government. I’m not supposed to tell people my real one.”

Hadrian rolled his eyes. “Sure, dude. Whatever.”

“OK, Helios… why were they keeping you down here?” asked Prince.

“I got abducted during the killing purge last year. They’ve been making me work for them. I’m a hacker,” Helios explained. “I managed to slip away from my station a while ago. They went batshit looking for me. It was a nightmare getting up here, and now I have to go all the way back down,” he groaned.

“Really? So you know where the south exit is,” Prince surmised.

Helios held up his phone. “Yeah. I got a blueprint of this place.” He stepped into the elevator with them, but he pursed his lips when he saw which level they had been heading towards. “Nah. That’s the first populated level. The guards would’ve rocked your shit. Get outta this thing,” he urged, gesturing for them to follow him into the floor they were at: a computer room. Most of the computers were powered off and missing keyboards, save for one, which had been plugged into one of the power outlets. Helios must have been using it.

“Any chance you can fix the door upstairs? I think it short circuited,” Monica inquired.

“No shot. I’m a hacker. Not an electrician. But like I said, I know exactly where the south exit is,” Helios responded. The group looked at his phone as he pulled up his map of the base. He marked the spot where the exit was. This place had a lot more floors than Prince had expected.

“This is going to suck,” he murmured.

“Tell me about it. We gotta go on foot, too, ‘cause this elevator won’t take us to the right place,” said Helios as he beckoned them out of the computer lab.

The corridors here were tight and winding. Their footsteps echoed through the metal walls, rough with oxidization and lined with rusty pipes. Stagnant water still dripped from some of them.

Prince grew anxious as he followed Helios. They’d been walking for a while without reaching any stairs or elevators. “Helios, where are you taking us? We’re still on the same floor,” he questioned.

“Relax. We’re making a pit stop,” Helios replied, waving Prince’s concern away.

“Dude, we don’t have time-“

Helios shushed him. They were in front of a door with a round window. Prince peered over Helios’s shoulder to see inside. He’d taken them to a kitchen, and Prince realized that they did, in fact, need to eat.

“How do you know there’s still food in here?” he asked the hacker.

Helios shushed him again. “I came here while I was on the way to the top level. Lower your damn voice. There’s someone inside,” he hissed.

Prince took a closer look through the round window. The oven was on. There was a mobster leaning against the countertop, facing away from them. Only one. “What is that guy doing all the way up here?” he whispered.

“No idea, but he’s alone. Just go bonk him,” Helios encouraged.

Prince moved forward Helios stepped out of the way. He put a hand on the door and gradually eased it open. Thankfully, the hinges didn’t squeak, so he crept inside until he was right behind the mafioso. Prince raised his crowbar.

The door clicked shut. The mobster whirled around at the noise. Prince faltered. His mouth hung open slightly in disbelief as he recognized the mafioso.

“Isaiah?”

Isaiah was scrambling for his own crowbar, but he paused when he heard his name. “Prince?”

Prince let his arm fall to his side. “What the actual shit? You’re still working for the mob?” he exclaimed.

“Why the hell are you in the base?” Isaiah blurted out in an equally baffled tone.

The door creaked as Helios edged it open. “Prince? You good?”

Hadrian pushed him out of the way with his good arm. “Nice to see a familiar face,” he said.

Isaiah looked even more confounded as Pete and the kids emerged. “Seriously, what are you doing here?”

Prince was beginning to get tired of recounting that. “There’s a storm outside. Ran in here. North entrance short circuited. Stuck. Explain why you’re here,” he demanded.

“Because I work here, dumbass,” Isaiah snapped. “You can’t just leave the mafia. They hunt deserters down… not to mention that I got fired from Builder Brothers. The owner found out I had ties to the mob, and now this is the only job I can get,” he muttered bitterly.

Prince scowled, but he supposed Isaiah had a point. “OK, I get it, but why is Larry still letting you work here? You helped us deactivate him.”

“He’s not in charge anymore. Haven’t seen him since that sewer brawl, actually. Someone else took over his duties,” Isaiah revealed.

Prince’s eyebrows shot up. “But a bunch of mobsters ran off with his body. It was on the news. They must have reactivated him, right?”

“Nope. He didn’t show up here, as far as I know. No idea what happened to him.”

The kids glanced at each other uneasily. “Who’s in charge now, then?” said Prince.

“Never met her, but her name is Mary Gearwise.”

“Gearwise? Let me guess, another automaton? Where are all these killer robots coming from?”

Isaiah shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m just a grunt… wait, aren’t you the hacker that escaped a while ago?” he realized, pointing at Helios.

The hacker looked at him warily. “Maybe. Your friend isn’t gonna turn me in, right?” he asked Prince.

“I ain’t no snitch,” laughed Isaiah.

“Then will you help us get out of the base?” Prince implored.

Isaiah’s smile faded. “Man, do you have any idea what they’ll do to me if I get caught with you guys?”

“Come on, at least help us until we start running into goons. You can wear your mask. They won’t know who you are.”

The mobster picked up his mask from the counter. He mulled Prince’s words over as he looked at it. “I guess so.”

The oven dinged. “On a lighter note… pizza’s done.” Isaiah grabbed an old mitt and pulled the serving board out and placed it on the countertop.

Prince had forgotten about the oven. “Why the hell are you making a pizza all the way up here?” Helios questioned incredulously, gesturing around at the soiled kitchen.

Isiah scratched his neck. “I got hungry, and I didn’t wanna share it with the other guys, OK? So I took a frozen pizza up here.”

“You were gonna eat a whole pizza?”

“Shut up. You guys can have some if you want. You probably aren’t gonna get your hands on food again until you make it out of here,” Isaiah told everyone.

As they ate, the dog nudged the door open with his nose and squeezed through. He’d stayed outside, but it seemed that the smell of cooking had enticed him. Stephanie held out a slice of pizza and tried to coax him closer. The dog gingerly took the slice in his mouth and devoured it ravenously.

Stephanie giggled. The dog let her pet him this time. She read the name tag on his collar. “Twado!” she squeaked. Twado wagged his tail.

The dog chewed on the empty pizza box as Isaiah looked at his watch. He pulled a flashlight out from under his jacket. “We gotta go. I better get you guys out of here while most of the base is asleep,” he said as he motioned for the group to follow him.

They reached a crossroad after a while. “Dude, the map says the closest stairwell is that way,” Helios contested, jabbing a thumb at the right passageway as Isaiah turned left.

“Your map is old. We never update those things. I know a short-”

Isaiah stopped talking mid-sentence as a rusty pipe on the ceiling ruptured in front of him. Scalding hot water hissed as it splashed against the cold metal floor and turned to steam. He didn’t fancy third-degree burns. “Damn. Guess we’re taking the long way around.”

They trailed through the narrow corridors behind the mobster in silence until Prince’s soles started to get sore. Too many stairs, but they eventually ran into a door.

Isaiah reached for the handle. “I think—SHIT!”

He jerked his hand back as the pipe next to the door burst as well, but it wasn’t water that erupted. Isaiah ripped his glove off and threw it to the ground as the substance ate through it.

“What the hell is that?” Price exclaimed.

“It’s the stuff we poured into the sewers last purge. Thought we shut off all the valves already. I need to quit coming up here,” muttered the mafioso. “Nevermind. There’s another way in this room.” He turned to the door on the opposite wall and pushed it open.

They were in an old dormitory. The entrance to the stairwell was on the other side of the room. “As I was saying, I think the next level down is… uh…”

Isaiah stopped in the middle of the room and went silent. He looked up at the entresol. More than a few doors were slightly ajar.

“Isaiah? Something wrong?” Prince whispered.

“The doors were shut last time I was here,” he whispered back.

It was another ambush. The mafiosos threw the dormitory doors open and jumped down from the entresol. Prince cried out as one of them landed on him. He lost his weapon as he wrestled on the floor with the aggressor and grunted in pain when he felt something sharp pierce his side. Twado ran over and clamped his fangs around the mafioso’s leg.

Isaiah hurriedly pulled his mask over his face as more mobsters jumped down and confronted him.

“Is that you, Isa-”

He silenced his colleague with a crowbar to the face before he could get his name out. The other two elected to simply charge at him and Helios without any pleasantries. He dropped his flashlight as they clashed.

Prince felt around for his crowbar in the dark as Twado dragged his attacker away. He heard a yelp Monica clocked the mobster on the head.

Pete stood in front of Hadrian and Stephanie as two more advanced on them. They laughed as they brandished their weapons. “Why don’t you put that crowbar down before you hurt yourself, old man?” one of them snickered. Hadrian covered his sister’s eyes.

Prince found his weapon as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He looked over at his uncle as one mobster seized his crowbar while the other delivered a strike to his head, but they turned around as he and Monica came up behind them. Prince tore the blade out of his side and drove it into one of the unsuspecting mobsters’ eyes. She screamed and reeled as Monica aimed a blow at the other mafioso, who sidestepped the hit, but now Prince was coming at him as well.

The mobster made a dash for the stairs, only to run into Isaiah. The two mobsters who’d been accosting him lay in a pile. Isaiah promptly sliced his associate’s throat open using a switchblade of his own. He clutched at the wound and gasped for air, but he could only cough and choke on his blood.

Isaiah scowled beneath his mask at all the noise his victim was making and shut him up with a sharp blow to the skull. He crumpled to the ground, still wheezing and spluttering while unconscious.

That was the last of them. Hadrian picked up Pete’s fallen sunglasses for him. He put them back on as Monica pulled Prince’s bloodied coat off.

“How bad is it?” Prince asked.

Monica grabbed the flashlight from the ground at held it up to inspect Prince’s wound. “Well, since you’re still standing, it’s probably not that deep. I’d put you on bed rest, but…”

She didn’t bother finishing. There was no time for bed rest in this place, of course. There was nothing she could do except clean it and stitch it up.

“They were waiting for us. How did they know you were here?” Isaiah wondered.

Prince shrugged. “We were attacked earlier as well on one of the top levels. I don’t suppose you have security cameras around here?”

“No. Not since…” Isaiah gestured at Helios.

“I knocked them offline while I was trying to escape,” the hacker said. “I know for a fact they’re still down. They couldn’t have seen you.”

Isaiah paced around the dormitory wordlessly as Monica sutured Prince’s wound shut, deep in thought. He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on. We have to-”

He stopped talking as the mobster next to him stirred. There was a crunch as Isaiah stomped on his neck, killing him. Everyone else winced.

“What the hell, Isaiah? That’s not necessary,” Prince admonished.

“Yes, it was. He saw my face earlier. I told you I’m fucked if one of these assholes reports me.”

“He was already unconscious!”

Isaiah got up in Prince’s face, but Helios interrupted their spat before he could say anything. “You two better start getting along, ‘cause we need to make a plan,” he said as he nudged Isaiah away and planted himself between them. He gestured all around at the fallen mafiosos. “We’re gonna be running into plenty of these guys when we reach the bottom of those stairs.”

“Oh. Right. That’s what I was trying to tell you guys earlier. It’s a good thing we ended up in here, actually,” Isaiah said as he disappeared into one of the dorms. They heard him rooting around inside until he came out with a bunch of suits and masks slung over his shoulder, a little faded with age, but still wearable. He dumped them in a pile on the ground. “Ol’ reliable. Everyone put one of these things on.”

Prince pulled a duffel bag out of the pile while he was looking for something his size. “What’s this for?”

“That’s for Twado,” said Isaiah.

Twado gave him the side-eye.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. The boss doesn’t allow dogs in here. You’ll blow our cover if anyone sees you.”

The dog allowed Isaiah to lower him into the bag, but then the group encountered the same problem as last time. Stephanie was sticking out like a sore thumb.

“Maybe we can hide her in the middle of the group again?” Prince suggested.

Isaiah shook his head. “It’s not gonna work. The hallways aren’t wide enough.”

The mafioso drummed his fingers on the strap of the duffel bag. Nobody else was offering up any ideas.

“I know what we can do,” he spoke hesitantly. Everyone looked at him.

Prince blinked. “Well? Spit it out.”

Isaiah held up a hand. “Don’t get mad at me for it.”

Prince’s eyes narrowed.

“First of all, this base is part of a sex trafficking ring,” said Isaiah.

“You better not be about to say any dumb shit.”

Isaiah held up both hands now. “Just listen! We pretend,” he continued, enunciating the ‘pretend’ very clearly, “that Stephanie is one of the girls we abducted—”

“You guys take little girls for that?” Hadrian admonished.

“Look, man, I just work in the canteen. This place didn’t even have a human trafficking branch when I got here. As I was saying, we pretend she’s a…”

Isaiah trailed off as Prince stared daggers.

“Prisoner,” the mobster said slowly. When the elder brother didn’t throttle him, he kept talking. “The shortest path to the exit involves one of the, uh, filming areas, so that’ll be her excuse to be there.”

Helios looked at his blueprint. “He’s right. There’s gonna be another elevator at the end of the filming area’s hallway.” He zoomed in on the location.

Isaiah leaned over to inspect the map as well. “We can ride it to that detention level and act like we’re taking her to a holding cell,” he said as he pointed out a floor below the filming area, “but we can veer away towards the west edge of the base. That place is as deserted as the upper levels. We’ll make our way through there until we reach the lowest level. After that… it gets more difficult.”

“No kidding,” Helios agreed. “That’s where the boss lives. The whole floor is teeming with goons, but the ventilation shafts that far underground are so big that we can fit through them. So, we sneak over to where the elevator is. Get out of the vents while nobody’s looking. Ride it all the way up to the south exit. No sweat,” he schemed as he drew a path with his finger from their location to the exit.

Prince still looked vaguely pissed off, but he nodded. “OK. Fine. Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter III – Incident Report

Prince squinted as his troupe reached the bottom of the stairwell. The fluorescent lights were harsh on his eyes after they’d wandered around in the dark for hours. He scrunched up his face in revulsion as the smell hit him. The filming area reeked of stale sweat and perhaps other fluids that he preferred not to think about.

“There,” Isaiah whispered to Prince, pointing at the elevator on the other end of the corridor. “Hold onto Stephanie and walk in front of us.”

Prince took Stephanie gently by the hand and followed Isaiah down the corridor.

They were alone at first, but Prince was startled as a door next to them opened. A pair of mobsters shoved a girl into the hall with nothing but a worn-out blanket around her shoulders. She stared through Prince with dead eyes as the mafiosos forced her onwards.

The two groups didn’t speak as they passed each other, but one of the mafiosos brushed a lock of dark hair out of Stephanie’s face and leered at her with yellowed teeth as he strolled by. Prince’s hand tightened around his crowbar until his knuckles were white.

Time felt like it was passing agonizingly slowly as they walked. Prince’s face darkened as they passed another door. He could hear the sounds of a struggle inside. A scream pierced the air. He came to a halt as he unwillingly recalled the purge he’d endured. He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced back at Isaiah. His face was concealed, but Prince could tell the mobster was stone-faced from his eyes. So was his family, staring back at him through their masks. The sight was unnerving, even though he knew it was only them.

“Keep going. There’s nothing you can do for her now,” whispered Isaiah.

Prince turned stiffly and continued on their path.

There were no more disturbances. They made it to the elevator without any resistance. Isaiah punched in the access code and pressed the button for the detention level.

Helios sighed deeply as the doors closed. “That was unpleasant.”

Nobody was in the mood to respond.

Isaiah spoke up as they neared their destination floor. “We have to get the Warden to open the entrance for us. There’s a one-way exit in the holding area that leads to the west edge. No one is allowed to use it, but the cams are off, so who cares. Just let me do the talking. And one more thing: the audio feed is still running, so keep quiet until we get out of there,” he told everyone as the elevator reopened. The mafioso took the lead this time.

The Warden was resting his elbow on the desk with his face in his palm. He’d been looking at his reflection in his dimmed computer screen as he styled his fiery orange mohawk with a free hand, but his lidded eyes followed Isaiah as he approached. He stared at the newcomers, uninterested in initiating a conversation with them.

“Markus. New inmate,” Isaiah said.

Markus turned his eyes to the computer on his table. “The boss didn’t tell me of any new arrivals today,” he replied flatly.

“We haven’t notified her about this one yet. You’re the first to know. Good for you. Open up,” demanded Isaiah.

The Warden lifted his head from his hand. He narrowed his eyes again, now in skepticism instead of tiredness. Prince put himself in front of Hadrian, hopefully obscuring the boy’s splint. “Why did a little girl need five people escorting her here?”

“What the hell am I being interrogated for? This is the rest of my patrol group. We just got back. Quit wasting my time and open the fucking door,” Isaiah snapped.

Markus sighed. “Whatever. Cell 047,” he told the mobster as he stood up. The guy was even taller than Isaiah, Prince realized, and he was wide enough that he had to leave his too-small tuxedo jacket unbuttoned. He entered a string of numbers into the keypad next to the entrance. The blast door screeched open. “Get out of my face,” said the Warden as he waved them inside.

Prince looked straight ahead. Whatever was behind all the steel doors lining the passageway, he didn’t want to see. Markus closed the entrance behind them as they walked away.

Everyone did as Isaiah had said and kept silent until they reached the exit. A lone spider was busy spinning a web on the doorframe. Tough luck for him. The door squealed as Isaiah opened it and beckoned everyone through.

“Alright, we’re in the clear,” he said after he shut the exit.

The concrete corridor ahead looked strangely sterile at first, but a thin film of dust had settled on the ground upon closer inspection. Nobody had been here in a while.

“Where are we?” Prince asked.

Isaiah took off his mask and looked back at him as they made their way through the hall. “It used to be the chem sector when Larry was in charge. Miss Gearwise decommissioned it after she took over. She’s more interested in biotech and cybernetics, apparently. Most of her stuff is on the bottom floor, though.”

Prince peered through the windowpanes in the doors as Isaiah let Twado out of the duffel bag. Glassware and machinery were set up on the tables as if the users had left in a hurry. Binders full of notes and documents were still open on the desks. Even the lights were still on.

“Looks like she couldn’t wait to shut this place down,” Prince remarked.

Isaiah didn’t look at him now. He just shrugged.

Prince wished the mafioso would talk a little more, because the silence here was even more eerie than it had been in the derelict upper levels. The laboratory looked too clean and orderly. It felt wrong for it to be deserted. He was almost glad when the blindingly white walls gave way to rough stone and steel floors as they moved yet deeper into the base.

They were surrounded by a mess of tubing and shafts as they walked. There were no walls here at all to hide the plumbing and ventilation systems.

“Where are we now?” Prince wondered out loud.

“Still in the chem lab. Larry wasn’t one for frills. He didn’t bother with dressing the place up when he expanded it downwards,” Isaiah answered.

“You know a lot about that guy. Didn’t you only know him for a few days before we took him out?” Hadrian remarked. Isaiah shot him a glare over his shoulder, but not before Monica elbowed her little brother. The last thing they needed was to piss their guide off, even if he might be keeping secrets.

The mobster’s dark irises looked black in the low lighting. “You know I hate it when people ask too many questions, right? I hear the other mafiosos talking about him sometimes, is all,” he claimed as he turned away.

Maybe it was for the best that he and the rest of the group didn’t talk much. The sound of dripping water and air flowing through the vents suited Prince just fine now, but after a while, his ears picked up something that was neither of those. Thumping? It wasn’t quite loud enough for him to tell.

“Do you guys hear that?”

Isaiah paused. “Hear what?”

They all listened, but whatever noise Prince heard had stopped now. “Nevermind. It’s gone.”

Isaiah pursed his lips in annoyance at the interruption and continued forward. Prince didn’t notice any more strange sounds, and he’d started to think he’d been imagining it until he heard it again, much louder this time. Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked up. The rusted ventilation panel above them was starting to buckle. “Get back!” Isaiah whispered harshly.

The old screws snapped apart and the vent gave way. Out tumbled a stout man in a trench coat. He grunted in discomfort as he landed in a heap in front of the group. He scrambled to his feet after he glanced up and realized he wasn’t alone, but his panic was short-lived as he beheld the bizarre caravan in front of him. They stared back, equally perplexed. The guy looked like he’d been ripped straight out of a generic mystery film.

Isaiah had pulled his mask over his face once more, but he cautiously removed it again when he saw that it wasn’t one of his own associates who had shown up. “Who the hell are you?”

The man hesitated, seemingly reluctant to reveal that, but Pete pushed his way to the front of the gathering. The stranger’s face lit up.

“Peter! It’s been too long!” he exclaimed as he slapped his hand on Pete’s shoulder. “But what are you doing here?”

Pete scribbled a few sentences on his whiteboard. Kidnapped. My nieces and nephews are trapped here as well. North exit broke down. Looking for the other one.

“The north exit malfunctioned? How odd,” the stranger pondered.

Pete turned back towards the group and wrote again.

“Detective Bradley Beans,” Prince read out loud.

Bradley snapped out of his musings. “Hm? Oh, yes, that’s me. I was assigned to spy on the mob’s activities here. I’ve been using the ventilation system to stay out of sight, but…”

He eyed the broken vent.

“Perhaps I ought to lose a few pounds. Very fortunate that I was in the west edge.” Bradley picked his fallen umbrella up from the ground. “Anyway, Pete here was a coworker of mine before he retired. Good to see you again, old man,” said the Detective, patting the old man on the back.

“Wow. How long have you been hiding here?” Prince asked.

“Almost a year. I arrived soon after the last purge. I heard all about your battle with Mr. Clockturn. Very remarkable, though I wish the national guard would have moved in a bit quicker… kids shouldn’t have to wrangle crime lords,” grumbled Bradley, shaking his head. His gaze shifted to Isaiah. “Who is your, er, companion?”

“This is Isaiah. He helped us during the purge. And now he’s helping us find our way out of here,” Prince explained.

“I see. Well, there’s no use in dallying here, then. I was actually on my way out as well. Care to lead the way, Isaiah?” Bradley invited, motioning for the mobster to go on ahead of him. He did.

Maybe he shouldn’t pry, but Prince was curious. “So… you’ve been investigating the mob? What did you see?” he asked as they walked.

The Detective’s face grew serious. “One of the reasons I was sent here was to find out what happened to Mr. Clockturn after his body was taken. I already had a hunch that Miss Gearwise had a hand in his disappearance. The evidence I’ve compiled confirmed it. He’s in here somewhere.”

Trepidation rippled through the group.

“I haven’t seen him, but I overheard the personnel in the cybernetics sector speaking of him. The papers I managed to nick suggest Miss Gearwise has been performing experiments on him, and it doesn’t seem that he’s a willing participant.”

“What kind of experiments?” Prince questioned.

Bradley’s brow was crumpled in worry. “The documents didn’t detail their nature or purpose, I’m afraid. I went looking for some that did, but I came up empty handed… Miss Gearwise has put a lot of effort into keeping her activities secret. I suspect he’s being held in the bottommost level, but it was too risky to go poking around there.”

Hadrian rolled his eyes. “Sucks to be him, but what is he? Who is making these freaks?”

Bradley opened his mouth to answer, but then he frowned, stopping himself. “It’s classified info. I assure you that law enforcement has it handled.”

There was a door in their way, but it refused to open when Isaiah put his hand on the push bar. Prince looked at the keypad next to it. “Please tell me you know the code.”

“No need for that.” Isaiah dug through his pocket for his keycard and inserted it into the side of the pad. The door unlocked with a click, and he shoved it open with unneeded force. The mobster had been quiet, but Prince observed that he was becoming more and more vexed as Bradley recounted his findings. Cops and gangsters weren’t exactly friends, of course, but he thought Isaiah’s reactions were still a little over the top.

Isaiah went ahead, but everyone else was reluctant to enter the new area. A metal bridge was suspended over a wide pool of roiling red liquid.

Prince stepped onto the crossing uncertainly. The fumes stung his eyes. “Isaiah? What is that?”

The mafioso turned around. “This is where we made the chemical we emptied into the sewers.” His shoes clanked softly against the bridge’s metal lattices as he continued across. “We’ll be fine. Just don’t fall in,” he reminded Prince. He seemed pretty sure of himself, so everybody followed.

They heard heavy footsteps approaching long before they could reach the other side. Isaiah redonned his mask. “This is the worst possible time.” He looked back at the door they’d entered from.

The Warden’s huge shadow approached. He kicked the entrance open and stepped onto the bridge, followed closely by four of his pals. “I knew you guys were up to some bullshit,” he muttered as he motioned for the other mafiosos to charge.

Markus looked like he could drop all of them on his own, but Prince knew they wouldn’t make it to the exit before their assailants reached them. His fist clenched around his weapon. He might be able to shove the big guy off the bridge if he was deft enough…

Isaiah had different plans. He jammed his crowbar through a joint in the bridge and gritted his teeth as he strained to pry the two sections apart. Realizing what the mobster was doing, Prince knelt down to help out. They jumped back as soon as they heard the rusty screws break.

Markus held out his arm to stop his cronies from going any further. The bridge section in front of him slanted dangerously towards the corrosive liquid far below.

The Warden shook his head. “Back up. I have a better idea,” he said as he ushered the other mobsters back into the hallway.

Isaiah’s eyes widened. “MOVE!” he shouted as he bolted towards the exit.

Too slow. The lock engaged right before he touched the door. He punched it in frustration. “Damn it!” he roared as an alarm bell rang through the chamber.

“Isaiah? What does that mean?” Prince asked as the hazard lights on the walls blinked on. He looked at Monica as she tapped his shoulder and saw that she was staring at the red liquid under them. It was rising. He looked up at Isaiah again.

“The doors seal automatically when someone brings the liquid level up.” Isaiah pointed at the console attached to the wall. “We have to reactivate the drawdown system, but I don’t know the passcode,” he explained hastily.

Prince’s gaze darted between Isaiah and the keypad. “Won’t your keycard work?”

“Fucking look, man! There’s no slot for the keycard here!”

Helios pushed him out of the way. “Let me see what I can do,” he said as he fished a USB drive out of his sling bag and inserted it into one of the console’s ports. Prince heard him typing as fast as he could while the caustic chemicals hissed and simmered against the bridge’s supports.

“Uh, Isaiah? Aren’t the beams corrosion resistant?” Hadrian asked, his voice quivering.

Isaiah kept his eyes on the framework beneath them as it sizzled. “Yeah…? But we were never allowed to bring the liquid level this high back when the chem lab was-”

He stopped speaking abruptly as the scaffolds creaked and the bridge started to tilt. Everyone shuffled around anxiously, inching towards the locked door. Twado ran back and forth across the bridge frenetically, but there was nowhere to go.

“Quit bunching up like sardines! You guys are gonna collapse this thing faster,” Monica warned. “Helios? How much longer?”

“Chill. I almost got it,” the hacker replied as the bridge continued to waver.

Prince heard something snap below them as the console beeped and the alarms shut off. They all let out a collective sigh of relief as the liquid began receding, but the support beams were already done for. Helios was nearly flattened as everyone barreled through the exit. They heard the bridge splash into the chemicals behind them.

Markus had been watching them through the window on the other door. He slammed his fist against the wall as he saw the intruders escape before moving out of sight.

“That was a bit too close for comfort,” Bradley breathed.

Isaiah glared at him. “Yeah. It was. The vent you guys are looking for is right at the end of the tunnel.” He said, jabbing a thumb behind him. “Find the elevator yourselves. I’m outta here.”

“What? Come on, man,” Prince implored, reaching out to stop him. “At least point out the right shaft-“

The mobster shrugged him off. “No! You guys have dragged me too far into your shit,” he spat. “And Markus saw your faces, you know. He’s probably on his way to tell Miss Gearwise all about you, so get going,” he finished, waving them off. Isaiah turned away into a connecting corridor and left them alone.

Chapter IV – Interlude

The apertures of Larry’s optical sensors contracted in discomfort as the lights switched on. He heard Mary’s high heels clicking softly against the floor as she stepped into his view, a lab coat thrown over her viridian dress. The disgraced crime boss struggled in his restraints, but that hadn’t worked before, and it wasn’t working now. Mary tittered at his efforts as Larry sighed and went limp on the operating table.

“Good evening, Larry. Or morning, rather. I think it’s past midnight,” she laughed, her tone maddeningly cavalier in contrast to what she was about to do. A glower was Larry’s only response.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that.” Mary walked out of his field of vision and opened one of the cabinets in the operating room. Larry could only listen to her preparing the necessary apparatus, her tools clinking against the steel tray. “All I’ve done is try to help you, and all I get in return is insults and vitriol.”

A few wisps of steam seeped from the ventilation slits on Larry’s face. He’d heard Mary voice her false concern for him too many times. “Who do you think you’re fooling?” he growled.

Larry heard the flames roar indignantly in Mary’s firebox. The tools on her tray rattled as she set it down on the stand next to the surgical table forcefully. She wasn’t smiling any more as she walked to the head of the table. She placed her hands on either side of him and leaned in.

“Stop behaving as if you don’t understand me, Larry. You were deactivated by a pack of children and allowed the purge to end early. You are worthless to this organization as you are. You were weak and I fixed you, whether you and your overblown ego can admit it or not,” she hissed, her breath blisteringly hot against his metallic skin. It would have been painful back when he’d still had flesh to melt… but that was a long time ago.

Larry clenched his fists at her words. His claws grated against the palms of his hands. “Overblown ego? You’re the one who painted your casing,” he spat, sneering at the Mary’s conceit.

Mary smirked, her moodiness fading as abruptly as it had appeared. “Ha! Am I vain for taking care of myself? You look like you haven’t been polished in years,” she taunted. The bright lights glinted on her pearly white coating as she stood up straight and returned to her tray of implements. “But I think that’s enough small talk.”

She reached out and loosened the buttons on his shirt. Larry snapped his metal jaws at her hand, but she pulled away before he could catch her fingers in his teeth.

He heard Mary pick up one of her tools. A mechanical buzzing filled the operating theater. He strained against his fetters again. This was the moment he’d been dreading for so long.

Mary loomed over him, the ghost of a smile on her lime green lips. The surgical lamp formed a halo of harsh fluorescent light around her as she brought the metal cutter to his chest.

Chapter V – Judgement Hall

Prince let his arm fall limply to his side as he watched Isaiah disappear around the bend. Helios patted him on the shoulder once the mobster was out of earshot. “We’ll be fine without him. I told you I know where the elevator is. Let’s go,” he said, gently urging Prince to start down the other hallway.

Helios led them now, and he walked fast. There was no telling how long they had before Markus tipped the boss off to their whereabouts. They didn’t have any trouble finding the vent, but Helios didn’t have anything to open it with. “Anyone got a screwdriver handy? I, uh, left mine in my hoodie when we got changed,” he admitted.

Bradley searched his overcoat for his screwdriver, but he gave Helios an odd look as he did. “Agent Helios? Is that you?”

The hacker’s jaw tightened. “Just get the vent open, old man.”

Prince cocked an eyebrow. “You guys know each other?”

Helios looked at Bradley disdainfully as the Detective knelt down and unscrewed the panel. “This asshole was one of the guys who arrested me a few years back. I used to be a part of Anonymous.”

Bradley’s face grew sour at the hacker’s enmity, but he ignored him.

Oblivious to the tension, Hadrian’s eyes lit up. “Whoa! You were in Anonymous? That’s cool as fuck!”

“But you work for the government now,” Prince pointed out. “How did that happen?”

“They gave me a choice when they brought me in. Work for them or go to the slammer. I think it’s pretty obvious which one I chose.”

The last screw clinked to the ground. Bradley moved the vent cover aside and gestured wordlessly for Helios to enter first.

Stephanie faltered in front of the opening, her face blank. She’d been growing quieter and quieter as they ventured further into the base, retreating into herself, but Prince didn’t know what he could do except keep her close. He crouched down to her level and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Monica and I will go in front of you, OK? Just follow us. We’ll be…”

He stopped himself. He didn’t know when they were going to be home.

“We’ll be out of here soon. I promise.”

She nodded silently. The eldest siblings went first. Stephanie slowly clambered into the duct after them.

The passage was wide enough that they didn’t have to crawl, but they were almost bent double as they wormed through the cramped shaft. Prince almost thought he could discern distant screams, but maybe it was only the air rustling in his ears as it rushed through the tunnel around them.

He followed close behind Helios, whose nose was buried in his phone, examining the map as he walked. Prince could see the rooms they were passing through the narrow slots in the vent panels. Dorms. Armories. Warehouses. Computer labs. Workshops and laboratories. He paused as they passed an office.

Monica nearly bumped into him. “Prince? What’s the hold up?” she whispered. Helios halted and glanced back to look at him quizzically as well when he heard him stop walking.

Prince peered through the ventilation slits. “It’s an office. I see Markus.”

Helios and Monica crowded in next to Prince to take a look for themselves. Markus wasn’t alone. They couldn’t make out the conversation, but the Warden was speaking to a woman noticeably taller than him. Her hair, tied into a bun, was unnaturally reflective, and so was her pale opaline skin.

“It’s the boss,” Helios murmured.

Bradley piped up from the back of the lineup, careful to keep his voice low. “We don’t have time to dawdle here, then. We’ve got to get to the elevator before they figure out where we are.”

Prince lingered for a moment longer. Mary didn’t look too pleased with whatever the Warden was telling her. She glanced towards the vent. Her emerald LED eyes met with his for a instant. Prince’s blood froze in his veins.

Mary’s eyes flitted back to Markus before he could react, though, and there was no change in her hard visage. Maybe he was mistaken. She hadn’t seen him. He told himself so, at least.

“Dude? You okay?”

Prince was brought out of his thoughts by Helios’s voice. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Uh, Bradley is right. Let’s hurry up,” he stammered, suddenly very eager to get moving again.

Helios didn’t delay. They weren’t far from their target now, and it wasn’t long before he spied their exit elevator from behind a vent.

“There!” he whispered, but he hesitated. “I don’t see anyone, though. Is this place always so empty?”

The hall was dark and devoid of mobsters. Nobody could answer Helios’s question, of course. Prince wished Isaiah was here to tell them whether it was shady or not. Either way, this simplified things. They didn’t have to figure out how to get out of the ventilation system without looking suspicious.

They couldn’t reach the screws from the inside of the vent, so Helios stuck his crowbar in between the wall and the panel and pried until the cover snapped open. Everyone squeezed out, but when they stood before the elevator, they saw that none of the buttons or indicators were lit. Prince pushed one. Nothing happened.

There was a shrill bout of audio feedback as the intercoms in the hall switched on. The corridor reverberated with a woman’s bitter, derisive laughter. “Don’t bother. I already disabled it. You won’t be going anywhere, boy. You and your friends have broken into my base and caused me a lot of trouble.”

Prince was too cowed to respond. Monica spoke instead.

“We didn’t break in! Your shitty door malfunctioned and trapped us inside. We don’t even want to be here. Let us leave,” Monica demanded.

“I don’t think so. After all, how many of my guards have you massacred?” Mary reminded them.

“Oh, please. You talk like these kids were the instigators,” Bradley rebuked.

“Detective Beans! I knew there was an informant in here. And now I don’t even need to hunt you down,” Mary gloated. “You came here looking for Larry, didn’t you? You can forget about that. I doubt you’ll be living long enough to see him.”

The blast door at the other end of the hallway opened up. The lights blinked on. The group realized that they weren’t as alone as they thought. They could see the silhouettes of mobsters through the windows lining the corridor, glaring at them through their uncanny purge masks.

“This should be fun,” quipped Mary. The intercom switched off with a thunk.

With no other choice, the group hesitantly made their way to the door. Heat radiated from the adjoining room, though it turned out that calling it a room was an understatement. The cavern was gigantesque. The walls on either side were thick metal. The jagged granite on the opposite side of the entrance was left unrefined, save for the wall of the control room and the mezzanine that Mary was standing upon, glowering down at them from high above. Molten lava churned below the metal platform ahead of them, linked to their door by nothing except a rickety rope bridge. Prince was reluctant to walk across. The thing didn’t look like it would hold their combined weight.

There were footsteps from their rear. The mafiosos were skulking towards them now, brandishing their weapons, compelling them forward.

They were boxed in, so Prince took a tentative step onto the bridge. The boards creaked as he walked onto the platform. The bridge gave way and fell into the lava after everyone had crossed—one of the mobsters had severed the ropes with his knife behind them. Prince looked up at Mary, wondering what her plan was. He couldn’t see much more than her glowing eyes in the darkness overhead.

“Ah, we meet at last… though it seems that some of your allies have deserted you,” Mary laughed. Her voice was shrill and tinny compared to Larry’s baritone, but it echoed through the cave all the same.

They glanced around at each other. She was right. Prince hadn’t been paying attention, but Helios and Uncle Pete had not followed them in.

“No matter. My subordinates will deal with them,” she continued. With that out of the way, Mary looked the gathering up and down as she leaned on her crowbar. “You’re aware there were firearms in the supply depots, right? I know you passed a few of those on your way here,” she told them, quirking an eyebrow.

Prince wasn’t too sad that they’d missed the guns—the rounds would probably ricochet right off Mary’s casing anyway—but Mary’s jeering was making him more annoyed than afraid. “Did you bring us in here for a fight or to talk shit at us?”

Mary narrowed her eyes at his provocation. She beckoned one of the operatives inside the control room. Markus came out and handed her violin to her. She placed it beneath her chin and drew her crowbar across the strings, producing a poignant melody, and Prince immediately heard burbling from the pipeline at the edge of the platform. There was a thin scraping noise as the valve’s handwheel turned on its own.

Everyone retreated towards the other end of the platform as lava spilled out of the pipe, but it streamed until they were backed up to the very edge. Any closer and the heat would start to sear them.

However, as they teetered on the edge, the valve screeched shut and the lava flow spluttered out. The group glanced around at each other, both relieved and confused.

There was a discordant twang Mary’s music faltered. Bewilderment crossed her sharp features. It appeared that she didn’t know what was happening, either. She started to play again after a moment, but the valve made a stubborn scraping noise, refusing to reopen.

Mary scowled deeply. She played a different tune this time. The lava started to drain, but their respite was short-lived as she thrust her violin back into Markus’s hands and jumped down from the mezzanine. There was a resounding bang as her high heels met steel, sending a tremor across the platform.

“Let’s dance.”

Chapter VI – Gearwise

Clang. Whirr. Prince had heard that once before, but now he was ready for it as Mary bolted at him, buzzsaws unsheathed. The blades whined in his ear as he rolled out of the way. He managed to keep all his blood inside him this time, at least for the moment.

Prince didn’t waste time in retaliating, lunging at Mary with his crowbar as she retracted her saws. She didn’t look as tough as Larry. He thought he might be able to take her down the old-fashioned way, but he was quickly disillusioned as his weapon bounced off of her casing harmlessly, barely even chipping her paint.

Mary responded in kind, and her blow sent him off the edge of the platform, but he managed to grab onto the rim, narrowly avoiding a fiery death. Winded, he wheezed and gasp for air as he gingerly dragged himself back to safety… well, relative safety. His ribs were aching like hell.

Hadrian started towards the automaton, but Bradley held an arm out to stop him. “Don’t be reckless. Your arm is injured. Stay out of this and keep your sister safe,” the Detective told him, nodding at Stephanie. The girl held onto her brother’s leg tightly.

Twado rushed at Mary instead, gnashing his teeth, evidently furious at her for striking Prince. She must not have wanted her gilded crowbar to touch the mangy thing, because her lip curled in disgust as she delivered a swift kick to his side. A few of the kids winced as they heard a crack. The dog yelped as he slid across the platform and lay still. Bradley hurried over to check on him.

The dog had diverted Mary’s attention. Maybe Monica had the chance to turn her wind-up key. She tried to edge around the automaton while she was occupied with Twado and reached up to grab it, but she’d barely touched her fingertip to the key before Mary turned abruptly and snatched Monica by the wrist in a crushing grip. She flung the girl at Prince as if she were as light as a ragdoll, and Prince had only just climbed back onto the platform when Monica collided with him, sending both of them off the edge again.

Prince caught the rim of the stage again. Monica could only grab hold of the cuff of Prince’s jeans. He tried to pull himself up, but it was impossible this time with the added weight.

Bradley stood up from where Twado was—the dog seemed fine now—and ran towards them as they dangled from the rim, but Mary sauntered into his path.

Mary opened her mouth, probably to expound another snide remark, but she was cut off before she got so much as a word out. Bradley wasted no time in striking out with his umbrella. Prince thought the guy was about to get knocked out cold, but he must have been even stronger than he looked, because Mary staggered marginally as she blocked the hit with her crowbar.

“That’s another charge of resisting arrest, Miss Gearwise,” said Bradley through gritted teeth. She just laughed wryly.

While Bradley engaged the automaton, Twado bounded to the edge of the platform and grabbed Prince’s sleeve with his teeth, slowly and steadily towing him and Monica up.

Bradley tried to bring his umbrella down onto Mary’s head, but she caught it in her hand. The Detective tried to yank it out of her grasp. She held on.

He recognized too late that he had no way to parry her crowbar now. Mary swung for Bradley’s skull. He reacted quick and tried to evade the blow, but it still clipped the side of his head, knocking his hat askew. He stumbled backwards and clutched his temple, dazed.

Mary grinned viciously and raised her weapon to finish him off, but the look was wiped off her face as someone wrenched her wind-up key. She hissed in displeasure and froze up for a moment as her gears seized, but her disorientation didn’t last long.

The automaton spun around with her smirk replaced with a look of acute loathing. She lashed out and raked Prince across the face with her sharp fingernails before he could respond, leaving several long, bloody gashes behind. A guttural snarl escaped from Mary’s lips as she did, as if it was gravely insulting that the boy would even try to lay his filthy fingers on her key.

She didn’t have time to assault Prince any further, though. Bradley had already come to his senses. He adjusted his hat. Mary glanced over her shoulder as she heard the Detective’s footsteps on the steel stage. She saw movement from the corner of her mechanical eye. Monica and Twado were flanking her from both sides. Even the injured Hadrian had grown tired of being sidelined and was now advancing towards Mary as well.

The automaton whirled around and feinted at Bradley, just to keep him away. She must have realized that at least one of them would get their hands on her wind-up key if she tried to fight them all at once. The mechanisms in Mary’s legs clicked as they engaged. She leapt onto one of the tall stone pillars surrounding the platform, perching on it gracefully.

The group stared up at her. Prince spread his arms in a challenge. “Get the fuck back down here, you bitch!” he roared, his face still bleeding. Mary said nothing. She simply smirked and licked a few drops of blood off her manicured nails.

Monica pulled some gauze out of her first aid kit. Prince irritably tried to shrug her off—“I’m fine”—but she managed to press it onto his face and stem the flow of blood.

Bradley pointed at Mary with his umbrella. “Mary Gearwise, I have reason to believe that you were involved in the disappearance of Larry Clockturn. I demand you reveal his whereabouts at once!”

Mary threw her head back and cackled. “You want to know what happened to Larry? Fine. I’ll show you.” She looked over at the control room and nodded at Markus. He pulled a lever on one of the panels.

There was a harsh grinding sound as the wall to their left slowly parted. They hadn’t noticed it when they came in here, but it was actually an enormous sliding gate.

Everyone backed away as it opened. It might have been some sort of depot, though it was hard to tell though the darkness. The light from a pair of LED eyes pierced through the shadows.

Big ones.

Raucous metallic scraping filled the air as the goliath activated and hauled itself from the ground, exposed gears and levers ticking loudly. Its rugged plating caught the orange glow of the lava beneath.

“What the Hell is that?” cried Prince as the clockwork behemoth took a step forward, making the entire cavern quake.

“It’s the new and improved Larry Clockturn, of course,” Mary declared. Markus emerged from the control room and tossed her violin to her. She started to play again. At the sound of her music, the aperture of the machine’s eye dilated and blazed brightly. Its gaze zeroed in on Prince.

Bradley understood what was happening first. “Prince! Get out of the way!” he hollered.

Crimson light flooded the room as Larry discharged his laser. Prince dived out of the way just in time, but he could still feel the scorching heat against his back as the beam passed him by.

It melted through the steel flooring like butter. The scaffolds holding it up groaned as they started to bend. Prince scrambled to his feet and stared up at Larry as his laser fizzled out. The automaton’s optical receptors contracted to the size of pinpricks and darted around frantically. He seemed almost afraid, but the look vanished almost as soon as it had shown up.

Prince didn’t have time to think about what that meant. The two halves of the stage were dipping away from each other.

The group was separated. Twado leapt across the gap before it became too wide and grabbed the back of Stephanie’s shirt in his mouth, who was slipping down the incline, and lugged her over to Prince and Hadrian. The eldest brother pulled Stephanie into his arms as their half of the platform swayed dangerously above the lava.

Bradley and Monica were trapped on the other side. They looked across at them helplessly. The columns holding them up had thankfully stopped buckling, but there was nowhere to run.

Mary grinned in morbid anticipation as Larry prepared to bisect the platform a second time. His eye dilated again. However, the LED flickered as his laser failed to charge up all the way. Bradley retreated as the beam struck the ground in front of him, but it wasn’t hot enough to melt through the metal.

Mary’s smile faded slightly. “My apologies… I thought I had already disabled his free will. He appears to be resisting my commands. How cute,” she crooned as she drew her crowbar over the strings of her instrument once more.

Larry’s components creaked and juddered as he tried to move, but his gears had locked up. His eye flashed on and off, refusing to even begin charging this time.

Now Mary was scowling. She glared into the control room. Markus shrugged and shook his head at her. She turned towards Larry again just in time to see a masked mafioso clamber onto his shoulder. Mary’s eyes widened in outrage as he thrust his crowbar through a gap in the giant automaton’s casing and triggered his emergency shutdown mechanism.

Chapter VII – AWOL

“Helios.”

Helios frowned. He looked around, but there was no one else in the hallway with him and his troupe. Just the mobsters staring at them through the windows.

“Helios!” the voice hissed again. Oh. It was coming from behind him. Helios slowed his pace and glanced back discreetly, lagging behind the rest of the group. Isaiah was peeking out of the vent they’d come in here from. He beckoned the hacker over.

Helios peered around again. The mobsters seemed to be fixated on the others. He slipped away and reentered the vent before anyone noticed.

“Isaiah? I thought you were done with us,” Helios whispered.

“I changed my mind. We have to move,” Isaiah replied. Helios trailed him cautiously.

“Why? Where are we going?”

“Mary called almost everyone in the base to the primary control room. Her lab is pretty much unguarded, so I decided to snoop around a little bit. I found Larry. Deactivated. Chassis ripped wide open,” Isaiah recounted, knitting his brow as he recalled the scene. “I found the blueprints for his new body.”

“New body? What are you saying?”

“I’m getting to that part! Mary cut his heart out. She made him a new body that she could control. The thing is giant. She’s using his heart as the energy source, and the heart is him, so his original body isn’t gonna wake up without it. She’s going to use the new one on your pals. They have no chance.”

“And we’re just letting them walk into the trap?”

“I need them to stall her, and she was going to lock the base down and have her lackeys kill them anyway if they didn’t show up. I have a plan. Larry’s new body has computerized parts, not just clockwork ones. It helps her control him, but it also means he can be hacked. I’m taking you to the lab. There’s a console there that she used to test him out. It’s got the blueprints in it and everything. I think you can use it to access his network, but you have to deactivate the lava pipeline system first… we don’t want your buddies getting their legs burnt to a crisp before they even see the big guy. I need you to get him to stay still long enough for me to reach him and trip his e-stop. Got it?”

“Yeah, I think I can do that.”

“Good.” Isaiah stopped in front of the spot where a ventilation panel used to be, but he must have broken it open already while he’d been sneaking around. He climbed out and showed Helios the console. “This is the place. Try to do this quietly. There are still a couple guards outside the door,” he whispered to Helios. The mobster thrust a two-way radio into his hands. “Use that to tell me when Larry is immobilized.”

Helios nodded, but Isaiah was already reentering the vent, leaving him on his own. The hacker cracked his knuckles and got to work.

Chapter VIII – System Reboot

Prince watched as Larry shut down and toppled backwards. It reminded the boy of when he’d beaten the automaton in the sewers, but the ensuing impact was much, much louder this time when he hit the ground.

Mary threw her violin at Markus. “Deal with that traitor!” she thundered at him. The Warden reentered the control room and sent some of the operators away. They ran through the door, heading for Larry’s depot. The masked mobster was standing on Larry’s chest now, trying to pry one of the plates open. It had to be Isaiah.

“What are you doing, man? Mind getting us off of this platform?” Prince called out.

Isaiah glanced up at him and held up a finger. Wait.

Prince turned around as a mechanical hum filled the cave. He’d expected Mary to jump down and confront the group, but she was still glowering down at them from the stone pillar. The noise had to be coming from her.

The temperature in the formerly stifling cavern was dropping fast. Prince looked up as a raindrop hit his face. Were those clouds?

“She’s got a weather machine built into her!” Bradley realized as lightning struck the ground right in front of him. An indoor tempest was brewing.

Isaiah got Larry’s chassis open and heaved the metal plate away until the gap was large enough for him to fit inside. His gaze scanned the internal hardware until he spotted the automaton’s clockwork heart. It was strangely amusing how such a comparatively small gadget had been powering a giant robot. He lowered himself through the gears and circuitry until it was within reach and gingerly disconnected the tubes and cables holding it in place. The ticking of the mechanism’s gears slowed down as he removed it. An iridescent mystery liquid sloshed around inside the heart’s windowed ventricles as Isaiah climbed back out of the chassis.

The lava sizzled as rain pattered against it. Prince could feel the electricity in the air before lightning hit the spot where he’d been standing moments before. “Dude! What’s the situation?” he yelled at Isaiah.

Isaiah was too absorbed in his task to respond. He’d already dragged Larry’s real body into the depot before he’d gone to fetch Helios, but he didn’t have a lot of time. He was screwed if the other mafiosos made it here before he had Larry operational. Isaiah sprinted to the corner where he’d left the automaton with the heart in his hands and stooped down to set it back in Larry’s chest cavity. It clicked into place.

The mobster stuck his hand under his suit and felt around for the brazing torch and rod he’d brought with him. He fumbled with the hose for a second before he inserted it into the fuel cylinders on the ground and lit the torch, carefully soldering Larry’s tubes and pipes back onto his heart.

A gale was beginning to pick up. Bradley rolled out of the way as a fork of lightning targeted him again. The wind buffeted him, but perhaps that was a good thing.

The Detective opened his umbrella. The motor inside it began to rumble. He held it up and let a gust carry him towards Mary. She took a swipe at him with her crowbar as he neared, but he veered out of the way and landed behind her. He grabbed her key and twisted it counterclockwise a second time before Mary could do anything about it.

Mary winced as she turned and swung her crowbar wide, striking Bradley in the side. He grunted in discomfort and tumbled from the pillar as the vent cover above Mary popped off and smacked against her head. Pete jumped through and landed on her, casting her down from the pillar as well before he reentered the ventilation shaft and vanished again.

Bradley drifted to the floor with his umbrella and gently touched his feet to the ground next to Monica. Mary hit the ground on the other end of the platform with a crash. She groaned in discomfort as she heaved herself to her feet, but her grousing quickly became a snarl as she stalked towards the Detective.

Pete soon emerged from a vent in the depot. He hastily scrawled something across his whiteboard as he rushed to Isaiah: HURRY THEY ARE ALMOST HERE

Larry’s golden eyes blinked on as Isaiah made the last connection. He sat up immediately and wrapped his huge hand around the mobster’s throat. Isaiah dropped his brazing torch to pry the automaton’s fingers away.

“Get your hands off of me, you asshole! I’m trying to help you!” Isaiah snapped.

Larry’s eyes widened slightly, as if he was surprised to hear Isaiah’s voice coming from behind that mask. The automaton glanced down at his chassis, still wide open. He reluctantly released Isaiah and lay down again. “Get on with it, then,” he spat, still glaring.

Isaiah picked up the sheet of metal that Mary had cleaved away from Larry’s casing and placed it over his chest. He picked up the torch again and slowly ran it along the seams. The automaton tensed up at the searing heat, but he held still.

Isaiah had barely finished when Larry shoved the mobster away and got to his feet. He’d secured the plate just in time, too, because the mafiosos that Markus had sent came charging through the depot doors as Larry buttoned up his shirt and picked up his crowbar.

The mafiosos skidded to a standstill when they saw the reactivated Larry standing before them, tall and terrible. He swung his crowbar into the closest one’s abdomen with quite a bit more strength than necessary, burying the curved end in his innards. There was a nauseating squelch and a strangled yelp from the mobster. A section of his viscera came out with Larry’s crowbar as the automaton pulled it free. The others turned tail and ran back the way they’d came as their comrade collapsed into a convulsing heap, too afraid to even try to fight him.

Isaiah made a disgusted noise. “Ugh. That was overkill,” he mumbled as he kicked the whimpering mafioso into the lava. Larry paid him no mind. He turned to the platform. Mary wasn’t the only one who could leap high. He cleared the gap easily and landed right behind her.

The platform shook as his shoes met the steel platform. The scaffolds finally buckled, sending his end of the stage plunging. He was prepared for that. Mary wasn’t. She lost her balance as the platform sank slowly into the molten rock.

Larry grabbed his tormentor with both hands and hurled her into the lava.

Chapter IX – Exit Path

The mafiosos could only watch as Mary disappeared into the molten rock. Markus stared in disbelief until there was a stir in the control room. The mobsters began quarrelling… then they drew weapons on each other. A brawl broke out.

They were fighting amongst themselves. Prince realized as a splatter of blood hit the windowpane that Larry’s old goons must have wanted him back in charge.

Bradley unfurled his umbrella again before the gale storm died down completely. He took Monica’s hand. They both glided into the depot.

The Detective grabbed hold of the metal plate that Isaiah had removed from the behemoth earlier. “Help me move this thing,” he called out to the others.

They lugged the plate towards the edge of the pit and pushed it outwards until it met Prince’s half of the platform. It wobbled precariously, but they held it down as Prince crossed the improvised bridge with Stephanie in his arms. Hadrian and Twado followed from behind. Larry jumped back into the depot as well, landing disconcertingly close to the group. The kids shrank away as Bradley stepped in front of them protectively and pointed at the automaton. Larry raised an artificial eyebrow.

“Larry Clockturn, you are under arrest for-”

Pete bonked the Detective on the head with his whiteboard.

“Ow. What? He’s wanted for hundreds of felonies.”

The elevator is still disabled. We need his help finding our way out, Pete wrote.

“Yeah, I know a different exit,” Larry muttered, but he nonetheless looked mildly annoyed when the group started following him.

They trailed behind the crime boss—well, ex-crime boss—hesitantly. “We still need to get Helios,” Isaiah mentioned. Before they reached the door, however, they heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. Larry turned back towards the platform.

Mary was clawing her way back up, her pearlescent façade burnt away by the lava, revealing her brassy gold casing. Patches of paint still clung to her, scorched black. She glanced back at Larry warily as she climbed high enough to jump back onto the pillar, then onto the mezzanine. The mobsters had already fled the control room, but she ran inside and disappeared from sight. Fury flared in Larry’s golden eyes as he barreled through the depot doors to pursue her.

Everyone ran out the doorway after him. They were back in the corridor with the disabled elevator, but Larry ran in a different direction.

“Where are you going?” Prince yelled. The automaton didn’t reply.

“There’s an old mineshaft leading to the surface in this direction,” Isaiah answered instead. “It’s always been sealed, but Mary must’ve opened it to escape. There’s no other way.”

They came upon the control room where Isaiah had left Helios, but Larry didn’t wait up as they pushed the doors open to find him.

“Helios, we have to…”

Isaiah trailed off. The room was empty.

“Helios?” the mobster called out. There was no reply. He tried contacting him with his radio, but the hacker didn’t respond to that either.

“We have to move before we lose Larry. Maybe Helios escaped already. Come on,” Bradley said as he ran back outside.

They caught up with Larry as he arrived at the gate to the mine. The blast doors were already open. Mary was on the other side of the decaying tunnel, hovering over Helios, watching him as he knelt in front of the keypad next to the elevator and desperately tried to crack the activation code. She seized the hacker in a chokehold and turned towards the group as she heard Larry’s heavy footsteps approaching.

“Come any closer and he dies!” Mary screeched at them. Larry didn’t seem too worried about that, but Bradley grabbed his arm to stop him from advancing.

“Let him go, Miss Gearwise. We just want to leave this place,” Bradley tried to reason.

Mary laughed, her eyes wide and manic. “Leave? You’re the ones who intruded upon my base in the first place. Slaughtered dozens of my agents. Do you know how much time I spent working on Larry? You brats have ruined everything,” she hissed as she tightened her grip around Helios’s throat. He scrabbled uselessly as her arm, eyes bulging as Mary crushed his windpipe.

Prince gritted his teeth. Mary’s words sent his thoughts racing. The gang of mobsters they’d encountered in the upper levels, even though there was no surveillance there. The door that had malfunctioned and trapped them. The lightning storm outside that had driven them here in the first place, even though the weather forecast had predicted clear skies. Mary’s weather machine…

“No. You lured us in here,” Prince murmured.

Mary narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?” she snapped.

“That’s why you knew we were here when the cameras were offline. You caused that storm outside. You took that tree down with your lightning. You had that barricade set up on the trail, so we’d come here for shelter,” Prince spoke louder. “You made the door short circuit with your lightning instead of shutting it remotely so we wouldn’t get suspicious…  and rigged those pipes to blow and cut us off in the upper levels, so we’d walk right into those mobsters. You knew we were here the whole time. You set us up!” he finished, jabbing an accusing finger at Mary.

Mary’s lips slowly curved into a smirk as Prince spoke. “Clever boy.”

“Why?” he demanded.

“I needed someone to test my creation on, and you are the ones who deactivated Larry. I couldn’t leave you alive,” Mary stated. Helios wheezed for breath as she loosened her grip ever so slightly.

Bradley shook his head. “Rubbish. I know for a fact you never cared for Larry. It was the Headmaster who ordered their deaths, wasn’t it?”

Mary’s eyelid twitched at the mention of her superior. She ignored the Detective. “Larry, tell me the elevator’s code and I’ll let Helios go,” she said as she nodded at the dilapidated cage elevator and tightened her stranglehold on the young man.

Larry sneered and tried to press forward. Bradley held him back. The automaton’s gears clanked in frustration as he lifted his crowbar to beat the Detective away, but Isaiah elbowed his way to the forefront of the group before a fight could break out. “How about you think about someone other than your fucking self for once?” the mobster whispered harshly as he shook Larry’s shoulder. The automaton griped inaudibly and hardly budged as Isaiah jostled him, but he got the point.

“0625,” he begrudgingly told Mary.

Helios gasped for air as Mary finally removed one arm from his neck and punched the code into the keypad. The rusty elevator doors squealed as they parted. He tried to break away from her grasp, but he yelped as she grabbed the collar of his jacket and yanked him into the elevator after her. “Oh, no, you’re coming with me,” Mary muttered venomously.

“Hey! You said you’d let him go!” Prince yelled angrily from the other side of the tunnel.

Mary just flashed a grin at him and waved at him as the doors shut. The elevator creaked and rumbled up the mineshaft.

She was gone.

Epilogue

There was nothing to do except wait in morose silence for the elevator to return underground. Prince kept starting at the entrance to the mine, worried that some of Mary’s loyalists might show up, but none did.

The mood relaxed a little bit as Twado stood on his hindquarters and pawed Larry’s legs, whining for attention. He’d been too preoccupied to pay attention earlier, but now the automaton reached down and ruffled the fur on the dog’s head. “Glad to see you too, Twado.”

“He knows you?” Prince asked, surprised.

“He was my guard dog when I ran this place. But he looks like Mary had him thrown outside,” he muttered, shaking his head at Twado’s grubby coat.

The elevator doors squeaked open as the carriage arrived. Prince picked up Helios’s sunglasses from the floor. One of the lenses was cracked. He slipped them in his pocket as the elevator closed and started to carry everyone to the surface. Maybe he’d get to return them eventually if the hacker was still alive.

Isaiah went to sit on an old crate, but Larry pushed him aside. “Is that coal? Finally,” said the automaton as he ripped the lid off and shoved a handful of the stuff into his jaws. The kids watched with profound bewilderment.

“What? You didn’t think I was actually spring powered, did you?” he chuckled. The wind-up key on his back rotated ever so slightly. “This is just a kill switch. I have a steam engine.”

I thought your heart was your energy supply? wrote Pete.

There was a whoosh as the fuel caught aflame in Larry’s firebox. “It’s for emergencies. When I run out of real fuel.”

“It seemed like it was working fine before,” Prince remarked.

“You people ask too many damn questions.”

“No kidding,” Isaiah muttered.

Bradley answered instead. “The heart works too well. It will grind his gears to dust if he relies on it forever.” Larry scowled at him, but the Detective didn’t seem phased. “What are you going to do now?”

Larry was caught off guard by the question. “What do you mean?”

“I thought you’d retake control of the base. Why didn’t you?” Bradley added.

The automaton laughed bitterly. “Give me a break. Do you have any idea what they’ve been doing to me down here? They can fuck themselves.”

“You’re just now realizing that? You were just fine with their shit before you were the one getting tortured,” Isaiah scoffed, but his temper dissolved into a sulk as soon as Larry shot him a look.

“OK, time for you guys to tell us what your problem is. You said you joined the mafia during the last purge,” Prince cut in, pointing a finger at Isaiah, “but you keep acting like you’ve been here a lot longer than that. What’s the deal?”

Neither Larry nor Isaiah answered, but Bradley looked back and forth between the two of them a few times. “Isaiah is your son?” he surmised.

Isaiah grimaced as the Detective said it. Larry punched the wall next to Bradley’s head, rocking the entire carriage and leaving a dent in the metal. Stephanie clung to Prince. Twado barked and scurried around as the lonely light bulb flickered and swayed on its wire above them. Bradley was looking pissed, but he didn’t retaliate—this was neither the time nor place for a fight, and Isaiah surely felt the same, because he walked between them and stared Larry down until he backed off.

“Guess that was a yes,” said Hadrian. Monica thumped him on the side of the head.

The mood was somehow even more sullen now. Larry had withdrawn to the corner of the elevator. He looked lost in his thoughts, but they couldn’t stay silent forever.

“What do we do?” Prince asked.

“I would call in a raid on this base right now, but we’d have to find some cell signal for that,” Bradley said.

“It’s not a good time,” Larry argued. “The next purge is in eight days.”

Hadrian groaned. “The next purge? You guys do that every year?”

“Shut it. I’m not finished. We need to get somewhere safe. You’re all in even more danger than last time if the Headmaster put a hit on you.”

That name again. “Who the hell is the Headmaster?” Prince questioned.

“He’s the one pulling the strings in all this. It was him who turned Larry and Mary into these,” Bradley responded, motioning to the automaton. “And those two aren’t the only ones who have been subjected to the procedure. I don’t suppose you were privy to his ultimate plans, were you?” he asked Larry.

 Larry scowled at the question, but there was a hint of melancholy on his metallic features. “No, I wasn’t. But that’s not important right now. I know where a safehouse is,” he said as the elevator finally reached the surface. Everyone stepped out as the sun peeked over the horizon. The storm had died out into a light sprinkling of rain.

A couple of miscreants crouched in the dense trees and vegetation, concealed from view. One of them observed the new arrivals through his binoculars as they exited the carriage.

“Well, what do ya know?” said one of them.

“What? Luke, what do you see?”

“Mr. Clockturn made it out… but he looks to be defecting. What a shame, what a shame,” replied Luke, though he didn’t sound very saddened with that.

Brooke laughed. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. Are we gonna take him down or what?”

“Don’t be rash, Brooke. He’s not alone. The meddlers are with him, and there’s gonna be a better opportunity soon. The next purge is coming right up.” the boy said as he stood up. Brooke snatched his binoculars and took a look at the group for herself.

“Come on. Those shrimps have nothing! We can take them,” she protested.

Luke shook his head and started walking away. “No. Last thing we need is to blow our first major assignment.”

Brooke grumbled in discontent, but she acquiesced and followed her brother deeper into the woods.

“Fine. Let them think they’re safe… for now.”

[pr-wlrrr42]

Alright so as far as introductions go, I guess I should probably make one before I get too far into this.

HERES MY ABOUT ME POST!

My name's Leonardo, and you can call me any version of that that you want (Leo, Leon, Leonard, Nardo[my favorite], either way, it's all the same to me.) My pronouns are He/Him. I am an artist, author, animator, and a DEDICATED CLAWCODE ENTHUSIST (Hence the name)

I am also VERY autistic and don't get tone a lot, so tone tags are very important to me, especially when there's joking or sarcasm involved.

Ahem.

I know the Spiderverse Fandom isn't particularly alive (SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP) but I will try to post often, even if it's just a shitpost here and there. I really want to help feed into the ClawCode brain rot since the content for these two is SEVERELY FUCKING LACKING. So. If you have requests for things, I will probably end up doing them! My asks are always open, and I'd love to hear from anybody. I don't have any friends that love them the way that I do 😔😔

I have not had Tumblr before! Which is a little insane, so I'm new to all of this and learning how everything works. Please forgive me if I don't know the proper etiquette on this app lmao. My friend has been guiding me through all of this and told me to make an About Me post, so that's what I'm doing.

Here are some tags that will frequent my posts!

Yapping Hour - Will either be used for headcanons, or short stories/ideas/other ClawCode related crap. It's just going to be a general tag that will probably go on most of my posts from here on out.

Slur Gallery - Will be of the art I post of them, be it ship art or other :3 because everybody deserves a gallery of slurs to look at. AND JUST LOOK AT THEM!

Earworm - Is the tag I'll use when there's music involved, like songs that remind me of them (and the heavy analysis that goes with it **COMING SOON**), or animatics that I'm working on, or just anything that has to do with a song. Edits, artworks, the whole shebang.

Talkaholic - This will ALSO be used for mini stories/facfics, but more often than the yapping hour. So if you wanna read my writing of them that's what you can find it under.

Offline - will be under posts like these, where it isn't directly related to anything, just random blocks of text or other art that I feel like posting.

Oil And Water - THIS tag will be about the fanfic I am currently (excruciatingly slowly) writing! It doesn't have a happy ending and is meant to be a HEAVY angst story, like hurt/no comfort or very little comfort. I have one chapter out currently but will be working on more soon (and will make a separate post about it! But I will link it here as well. MOTIVATE ME TO WRITE IT /HJ)

Prowler Party - Is what I'll put on ALL of my posts as an extra way to help find me if one so desires d=(^o^)=b

OOC - On the chance that I might make something intentionally out of character, I will put this beneath it. I know a lot of people don't like mischaracterization, or incorrect portrayal of a character, but sometimes it's really fun to write, so I will be including that was well.

I think that's all that I can think of right now (I'm running off of an hour and 40 minutes sleep), but things may change or be edited in the future. But for now, I'll be signing off.

Shipwrecked - THIS WILL BE ABOUT MY SELKIE/SIREN AU BECAUSE IM ACTUALLY NOT OKAY ABOUT IT AND NEED TO SHARE MY INSANITY

HELLO AND THANK YOU TO THE WARM WELCOME I'VE RECIEVED!!

MORE COMIGN SOON

[thesnailkiwi]

1, 2, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, and 25 for traffic life?

1. The character everyone gets wrong

Okay, see, I know people have different ideas and opinions and headcannons, but OH. MY. GOSH. DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED.

The MCYT fandom makes me want to scream half the time. I'm gonna say it. Everyone gets BadBoyHalo wrong. Skeppy, Tommyinnit, JSchlatt, Stressmonster, Niki, and a bunch more, too. Half the time I want to explode in this fandom, so I stick with fanart, unless it's flower husbands. Because most FH shippers can read the characters well.

Musical theatre. People always (well, okay, not *always*) get Heather McNamara wrong when acting. I've seen so many awful versions. And Jenna Rolan from Be More Chill, especially when writing fanfic. Though, lemme tell you, all the characters in Be Less Single (BMC dating sim fan game) were spot on. Perfect, I tell you.

2. Compelling argument why my fave would never top or bottom

OKAY SO LISTEN UP, FUCKERS. MICHAEL MELL IS A SWITCH AND I STAND BY THAT.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

8. Common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about

I'm overthinking. This could either mean opinions ABOUT fandom or fandom discourse. I'm assuming the latter.

I dunno man. I don't pay attention much to other people's opinions. I mean, if they badmouth my blorbos, I will have a compelling argument why the are the best being to exist. Headcannon-wise? I mean, okay, I really don't want this taken the wrong way *at all*. But I don't like it when people include [insert character] is trans/queer/pronouns/mental disability if it doesnt have anything to do with the fafic/story that's being told. I understand if you project or write a vent fic or whatever, because those are things to get out of your brain, or if you headcannon this or that, I get it. But if it has no relevance at all to the story, *if it isn't even mentioned*, DONT PUT IT IN THE GODDAMN TAGS.

It's not really a heated opinion, but I needed that out there.

I don't really like to shit on other people's headcannons. But if the opinion is "glup shitto is a bad character", OR FUKIGN WHATEVER THE FUCK THE MCYT SPACE DID TO NIKI, then I will fight you.

WAIT WAIT DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON TOMMYINNIT X HERMITCRAFT. OR TOMMYINNIT X EMPIRES. UGH. I HATE IT SO MUCH.

12. The unpopular character I like and everyone else hates

Okay. Listen. Purpled. Barely anyone paid attention to that guy because he wasn't a "main character" (there were none in the DSMP, people.) And everyone doesn't like his character after what he did to Slime. But I feel like he's a super deep character that gets overlooked. Quackity literally blew up his house and forced him to go live in Las Nevadas. Quackity also took a lot more from him, too. And when he killed/kidnapped Slime, he was projecting and let all of his grief out on the thing that Quackity cared about, since everything Purpled loved was taken from him.

17. There should be more of this type of fic/art

Okay okay okay. But like, guys. Coffee shop au's. It's simple, right? It's one of the most well known. BUT JESUS, BMC FANDOM, THERE ARE LIKE 5 TOTAL ON AO3. SOULMATE ONES, TOO.

Speaking of soulmates, the Hermitcraft/Life series doesn't have that many non-canon function ones. Like, I want to see timers. Or strings. Or the characters see color for the first time. Or the place their soulmate touches them first changes colors. There's not many.

18. It's absolutely criminal the fandom has been sleeping on...

The MCYT fandom has been sleeping on a bunch of damned bricks, don't even get me started.

There's too much to put for the MCYT fandom.

The BMC fandom has been sleeping on the wholeass line of "If Christine likes me in the end, will I be able to pretend I didn't fail my one real friend?" And all of the hidden stuff in the music. Like how in the broadway version, in The Play, the backtrack plays LGW when Jeremy gives Christine the Mtn Dew Red.

19. I'm mad/ashamed/horrified that I like...

I'm not answering this one. I apologize, but these heinous words do not need to be said to the entire world.

22. The favorite part of Canon everyone ignores

MCYT: everyone ignores smaller creators and literally the entire Canon. So all of it.

BMC: okay, listen, the silver hair the squip has is an absolute banger, okay??? And let's talk about that entire couch scene where Christine rejects Jeremy.

23. The ship I'm unwillingly coming around to

Majorwood. Kill me. I hate it so much omg but like, it slaps.

25. Annoying common fandom complaint

Uh, guys, it's okay to like the Era when ranboo and tubbo were friends. It's not taboo. I still go back and watch vods.

Sorry that one genuinely pisses me off whenever I see people like, "I wish that never happened". Like, guys, don't ignore important parts of what got ranboo to who he is and where he is today. Educate the young boobers. It's not wrong to like when two people are friends.

Then I hate it when people complain about shipping convex and are like "they're brothers!" No, they're not. That's your headcannon, not mine. Same with Grian and Jimmy. They aren't brothers. You can ship them if you want, just don't make it weird.

Anyway, thank you as per usual for sending me the ask, trash the beloved

[neptunetiger33366]

Not sure if screaming into the void will help my social anxiety or make it worse, but suppose it doesn't hurt to try. Not expecting anyone to read this, but want to put something out. So I'm just going to type and let what happens happen.

Y'all can call me Neptune (not my real name ofc), and I'm a just a queer furry nerd that can't help hyper fixating on stuff. I've actually had this account for a few years (I think, not good with time) but never used it. Got brought here by the one and only P.M. Seymour, but because I was never able to get the app, never really used it. Now I'm older, getting into fandoms on here, and am actually taking the effort to learn how Tumblr works. From what I know, I think I'll like it here, and one of the big rules I've been told is to never have an empty blog, makes you look like a bot. Normally I'm a lurker online, but I suppose that'll have to change here. Hence this post.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, my fursona is a tiger (actually what I call a tiggon) named Neptune. Tiggon is my way of denoting a tiger dragon hybrid. I know a tigon is a thing (tiger lion hybrid), so that's why there's two G's. Neptune was actually a name I considered while choosing for myself (I'm trans masc), but decided it worked better for my water powered fursona. Once I figure out how to use Krita properly and get some art done of him, plan on posting here about him. Plan on eventually making him my avatar, but until then, it's Wild from Linked Universe because he's my FAVORITE bean.

What else? I'm a writer (sorta, don't write much, just a small hobby) and love making OCs. Debating writing publicly about them, but for right now I'm not publishing anything. May change in the future once I finally work up the nerve. It's funny really. I'm a very "it's okay to be cringe, let people like what they like" person until it comes to my own work. Then it's all cringe and I'll be put to death for coming up with it. Ah, social anxiety and general self-esteem issues, my beloved. Right now I'm working on two fan-fics, one involving a TotK/AoC AU of mine and the other an AU of my TotK AU. The AU of the AU is inspired by an AU from a fic I've been reading, which is in and of itself an AU of a different comic series I've been reading. So... A fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic involving three or four separate AUs? Huh, that's a lot of of's. Either way, neither of those is ever getting published, lol. Hell, they're barely getting written as is. Curse my inability to focus.

Anything else of note to share? Yes actually, but I think that's best saved for posts of their own. I'm done with that kind of sharing for now. My point in making this post, besides not looking like a bot, is to tell the void I'm new to it. I'm learning how things work. Etiquette around tags and reblogging (which stresses me the fuck out for no reason. I have this weird part to my anxiety where I absolutely DREAD being late. This is the worst in its "oh, I took too long to respond to that text, now I have to wait for them to text me again" form. This never works and ruins all my friendships. Despite repeated assurances that that's not an issue with reblogs, they still trigger that anxiety.) I make mistakes and don't talk a lot, even online, but I'm willing to learn. Will try to make it a habit to post things, but no promises. Might get better once I get more used to being on here. We'll see. Anyway, it late/early at the same time and I really need to get back to the real world. My favorite Link is waiting for me. We just 100%ed TotK (quests, Koroks, compendium, monster medals, and map) and I'm helping him create a full recipe book as celebration. My man loves food, gonna have to feed him big time after collecting 1001 pieces of shit. Goodnight Tumblr. We'll talk again.

[hostess-of-horror]

Kiss of Blood 🥀

A Vampire!Snatcher x Reader Fanfic

@tiramegtoons @darkmedolie @hotpinkboots @trashdork @thereaderinsertlady @lulu-baked-beans @lemonbaloni @minnesotamedic186 @medys-space

This is very, very, VERY self-indulgent – but I assume you knew that already once you read the title. Every day is a day closer to Halloween.

Content Includes: Suggestiveness and Blood Drinking

---

The Snatcher could not help but stare.

There before him was his latest victim – a young, unsuspecting maiden, asleep in her bed. His eyes wandered the more he looked upon her. What should have been an easy task, just like the hundreds – thousands – before her, became a moment of pause. Her bosom rose and fell softly with every breath. The sheets cradled her curves; a sight waiting to be revealed. He felt his fingers twitch with anticipation, wanting to tear away the cover from the bed. As hungry as he was, his contemplation became desire.

He wanted to tear away at her.

The sound of her heartbeat grew louder. Each pulse made him salivate, swallowing and licking his lips in order to quench his thirst. He could not take it anymore. His claws reached over and around the maiden, clutching the sheets as he began to crawl. Her warmth drew him in even closer, her scent invading his senses. Whether it was her blood or her perfume did not matter – she was perfect. Addicting, even. He did the best he could not to give in and immediately feed on her. This mortal was a delicacy to savor, a work of art to admire for all time. Who said that you could not eat your cake and have it too?

And there it was. The maiden's elegant, swan-like neck.

The Snatcher could feel the blood rushing through her veins, just beneath the skin. Her soft, unbroken skin. Just inches away, his mouth held agape out of instinct, ready for the kill. His fangs ached. He was so close, so very close. He slipped his hand into her fingers and tightly grasped her hand. His cold breath – the shiver of hunger – suddenly woke the maiden from her slumber.

---

You sprang from your bed. You had felt a creeping sensation and, once you laid your eyes on the creature before you, your instincts were correct. Its hand clasped over your lips before you even had a chance to scream. As you prepare to fight back, the creature wrapped his arm around your waist, sending an almost paralyzing chill down your spine. It hushed in your ear, like how a mother would quiet her weeping child. Your body quivered in fear, unable to struggle from its strangely soothing embrace. You felt its hand caress down to your lower back, the other releasing your mouth to trace your hair back. Its lips was so close to your throat.

“Shhhhh...” the creature shushed, “Quiet now... No need to fear. I am not going to kill you, my sweet.” Confusion flooded your mind. You opened your mouth to speak, but the delicate, tender touch rendered you speechless. A spell had been cast upon you, plunging you into a wave of calmness. You began to melt in its arms. “That's right. Relax, darling... Let me...” its voice trailed off as it buried its face into your neck, breathing in the scent of your hair. It let out a rumbling purr, exhaling in satisfaction. It continued, “You are so... Mesmerizing. You know that? I don't know if anyone has told you that. But that doesn't matter. What truly matters is that this king will finally have his queen.” Your eyes widen at its proposal. The creature then wrapped its snake-like lower body around yours, shifting itself and you into the bed. It finally lifted itself from your neck to gaze into your eyes. Its eyes shone bright gold, illuminating the darkness of your bedroom. You could not help but gaze back.

“You will make a perfect queen.” the creature wooed, “Such beauty must not go to waste. And your innocence... Oh, your innocence. I cannot wait to taint it, to strip it from your very soul. From this night forth, you will know luxuries and pleasures no other mortal has ever possessed. Our passion will be zealous as it will be terrifying. You will be a ruler among the darkness, and none shall dare defy you. From this moment on, you are my bride... My paramour... My equal.”

With every word it spoke, you became fainter and fainter. The spell had become stronger, making your head spin and float with ecstasy. This blissful feeling was surprisingly nice. The fear you had before dissipated into a warm sensation. Your heart fluttered as the words of affection echoed inside your mind. Within seconds, the idea of being the bride of a living shadow sounded lovely to you. Your head fell back into your pillow, unable to hold itself up anymore. The creature hummed as it delicately traced your bare neck and down to your chest. Your heart jumped at the touch. Its hands guided yours, gently motioning you to grab the back of his hair and spine. It buried itself into your neck back again, this time making the embrace more comfortable and intimate. “Good girl...” the creature purred softly.

The bite, at first, was painful, but only for a few seconds. You felt its body tighten its grip as it began to drink. Its tongue lapped your blood at such an excruciating pace, taking its time clasping its lips on the wound. Your breathing hitched, holding on to your newfound lover. This signaled the creature to go even further. With one rough sip, it releases its fangs from your neck, leaving you panting for more. You looked up to see its mouth oozing with crimson. If you had your sane consciousness, you would have screamed in terror. But instead, in your feverish rapture, you rose from your fainting spell and kissed him. You could taste your own blood on your tongue, but you didn't care. You wanted more. You craved more.

And, that night, your wish was granted.

[eungii]

#.𝑊𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 ¡!

ᴛᴡ: 🚧MANGA SPOILER🚧 Kisaki Tetta¿ (How far do we get that we have to put Kisaki's name in TW 💀), kinda of Takemichi x reader. PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE TO THIS FANFIC ¡! She/her pronouns. Reader's Last Name is Nakamura.

ɴᴏᴛᴇ: I have a love-hate relationship with Kisaki, BUT I respect and understand the people who hate him <3. Also reader is as smart as Kisaki (light vs L 2.0) lol. Please ignore any "L/N" at last moment I thought to put reader a Last name 🏃‍♀️. It is in Takemichi's pov, but in a moment is Y/N's POV. Song I listed while making this: Black Out Days (Slowed and Reverb) - tastool

"Takemichi, One last thing" The black eyes start talking before they run out of time " Kisaki is going behind you, but he will not kill you, Y/n will"

"What?! How do you know that?" " Kisaki told me, he have Y/n in his finger, he just use y/n and mikey for his disgusting plans. So you need to leave and never come back ok?" As Draken start to leave both males, the blue eye one was scared, his dearest friend Y/n Nakamura and Kisaki Tetta together? No no no He need to stop that!

•••

Bloody Halloween have already passed, Baji unfortunately die and Kazutora was sent to prison but mikey forgive him. Toman was now with Valhalla and Kisaki's next target was the brain of Toman, Y/n Nakamura.

Emma's birthday was a little party, where only real friends where invited, including Hina and Takemichi. But today wasn't time for focusing on that, he need to stop Kisaki. But when will it happen? Where will it happen? How could he stop it? Did Kisaki's dogs will be there? He couldn't bet them, but he also couldn't say anything.

"Takemichi-kun? Are you ok? Need anything?" His cute girlfriend start talking and taking care of him, as always but he didnt come for that. "Yeah I'm fine, thanks Hina. But have you seen Nakamura-san?" "Y/N? Actually I think she is with Mikey, something happen?" "Oh no, its that I need to ask her something real quick. Don't move"

As he start to run, he find Mitsuya, Draken, Mikey, everyone except Y/n so he went and ask Emma "Hello Emma! Happy birthday" "Huh? Ah! The chicken! Hiya, thanks for coming" "Yeah, umm I have a question, did you invite Nakamura-san to your party?" He ask scare that maybe she didnt invite her because they were mad at each other or something.

"Yeah I did, but she just told me that she was going to visit Kazutora in jail and Chifuyu in his house I think. She look like she's normal but I know that she is hurt because of what everything happened" she said with sadness in her voice, Emma met Y/n when Baji and Mikey used to have martial arts classes with Mikey's grandfather. It was when she was practicing alone.

"One! Two! Ahh! I can't!" The cute blond hair girl scream, she want to be like Manj- Mikey. So she start again and again. She was thinking so hard that didnt knew that a cute h/c girl sat and watched her while eating a chocolate bar.

She couldn't move after 16 minutes of practicing so the other girl started talking "You are doing the kick thing wrong you know?" Emma just watched her with her cheeks red, sweat on her face, and with the little ponytail messy "The leg always go straight". As the girl let her chocolate bar in her pocket she showed Emma how to do it "If you do it wrong you can't hurt yourself when you use it" she start walking where Emma was.

"Y/n Nakamura, and you?" She extended her hand for the blond girl "Emma, Emma Sano" "Oh do you are Manjiro's sister or something? Also, you are foreign right? You name is not usual here" She start taking her chocolate bar out and eating it again "Yeah, But I am not relative to them in blood things, so that why my name is like that" Emma wasn't happy to talk about her name. She was scared that Y/n start to make fun of her, and she wait and wait and wait but nothing happen.

"You are not gonna make fun of my name?" "What?... No, it is a name, I don't care if you are from United States, Africa, Mexico or other country. You are still a human and will always be one" and that when both girls hear the door open so fast "Emma!! Where in my chocolate bar?? I am hungry!" As mikey enter he start to complain with a cute mad face. Baji was also there, with his favorite candy in hand laughing at Mikey, because early he step on a dog's poop.

"Mikey! I don't know what you are talking about but I present to you my new friend, Y/N Nakamura oh wait... ʷᵉ ᵃʳᵉ ᶠʳⁱᵉⁿᵈˢ ʳⁱᵍʰᵗ?" She spoke with a little fear in her words. "Yeah we are friends." As Y/n spoke she take the last piece of chocolate and put it in Emma's mouth "oh... So hi! My name is Manjiro Sano, but call me Mikey OK? My new name is Mikey!" He spoke with a hand in his chest and then Baji start to talk too " And I am Baji Keisuke, but call me Edward"

"Edward? I have told you Baji that is a dumb name" Mikey start laughing at Baji "Shut up! You have a animated mouse name!" And they were fighting again and while Emma was ready to leave she felt a hand on her shoulder "I am gonna think about a name too." And the the h/c girl leave. Emma's first female friend was Nakamura."

Takemichi was used to hear Y/n's name everyday in Toman. Of course, she was pretty, intelligent, carrying, kind and the brain of Toman, she didnt used to fight and that was because she was a girl and Toman HATE when girls are hurt.

So he knew why Kisaki was behind her, with her by his side was easy to have Mikey and Toman. But when did he was going to meet her? Maybe the have already met? Oh no no.

As he was starting to get scared he felt his phone ring, a new message? It was from Nakamura- san,

A message? That was weird because Draken was usually the one that used to give Mikey messages. So he was about to send the message to Chifuyu, until he hears Hina's voice "Takemichi-kun! Nice seeing you here!" And with only those words Takemichi was with Hina around Tokyo, forgetting to send the message to his friend.

It was until the night arrived, and Takemichi remembered the important thing he have to send, so without caring the hour he send it.

All he could do now is trying to sleep and tomorrow follow Y/N all the day and stop Kisaki.

•••

It was 7:23a.m great hour to wake up and start to get ready to save Y/N. And as he arrived to where he was send he waits for his two friends.

Chifuyu was the second to arrived, and after 5 minutes both of them see Y/N with her little brother Kenji Nakamura. And when she went close to them she give them a piece of paper "Open them, and inside you will find a number" as both males open the paper they find the number "And do we keep it or what?" Go where Mitsuya is and give him those numbers, he will give you some clothes go and give Mikey the clothes. Fast and easy, please" and her little brother start walking where Y/N was both of them nodded and start walking.

'I am forgetting something' Takemichi start thinking,and after going with Mitsuya he remember "Nakamura-san!!" He shouted, and start running. Ignoring mitsuya and Chifuyu's screamings. How can he be so dumb? That was the reason he went back in the future.

No no, it was already 6:00 p.m he need to find her NOW!! If he fail, Hina will die again, Kisaki will be the leader, Akkun and all of his friends will be gone!! Draken, Naoto, guys I'm so sorry! I couldn't save them! I'm useless it will repeat again and again and again!! His tears were mixing with the rain drops, his legs were already feeling tired, he was getting tired but he need to find her! He can't let the future messed up again! No! Where could she be? Where are you Nakamura-san?! Where are you?! I won't let you suffer again! Please god show me where she is!

As he listen to a kid scream he run where that scream came from, and he find Kenji on the floor, with some blood in his knee . "Kenji! Are you ok? Who did this to you?" "Huh? I did it myself, my sister was suppose to get here minutes ago" wait.. Wasn't he the one screaming or he is hearing things now? "You didnt shout?" "No, my sister told me that screaming is when I was in problems." Shit shit, then who it was? Wait... His sister was suppose to get there "wait here, I'm gonna get your sister back!"

And he start to run again, fun until he finally fin her, she was a little tired and with some blood out of her nose. But 2 guys where on the floor all beaten up and Kisaki was in front of her with a smile, a real creepy smile. He just find a spot and start hearing without being seen .

"Come on Nakamura-sama. You know that we could help Mikey with his plans and dreams. Just take my hand and everything will be by our side." "What did you say? I couldn't hear you little bitch" she was mad, how could he talk about Mikey's dreams like if he knew him " You can't say anything like that without knowing".

Kisaki knew she was hard to manipulate, but he was smart too and he have his secret card.

"What about... Letting Kazutora and Pa-chin out of jail? Hmm? Sounds interesting right?" He knew that she cared about Kazutora and Pa, and more after Baji's death, she always have one day of the weekend free and visit Kazutora alone, meanwhile with Pa (who is a simp for Nakamura in a good way lol) used to talk by letters, and she tell them everything. In this case Kazutora was the one that saw her tearing up, but never crying.

That was one of her three weak points.

"And probably when we both help Mikey to make his dreams come true, Baji will be happy and will forgive you after what you did"

Her other weak point. That day, august 13th. Shinichiro's death. She remember it perfectly, the feeling of leaving both males because she was scared.

That day Kazutora explain the plan, everything was going well, until she saw that shadow, the shadow of the person who took care of her, Baji and Mikey, The shadow of the person who help her in everything, the shadow of the person she used to love as if he was her big brother and family, the shadow of Shinichiro Sano.

And before she knew it, Shinichiro was already on the floor, with a pool of blood above him, already death.

"Call a goddamn ambulance! Shinichiro! Please breath! Dont go! Please please!! Baji, Shinichiro is not breathing! Kazutora hel-" she shutted up when she saw Kazutora shaking and with tears in his eyes. "Hey Kazutora is not your fault, please look at me, look at me" Baji start talking but before he could continue, the siren of the cops where already there.

And she just murmur "I'm sorry, please I'm sorry..." And she run away from them. Away from the dark memory she lived all her life, with the memory she kept herself while still next to Mikey. She was feeling awful, disgusting.

"Oh my! And what about your cute brother. Does he know that his wonderful, amazing and perfect big sister was there? What will Mikey will think about that? Oh and Draken, Mitsuya and all of Toman?" She didnt say anything she was already at tears.

She knew that Toman used the word "perfect" to describe her, but she hate it. She hate it, she was there in Shinichiro's death, she was feeling guilty because of Baji's death, she hate that she was part of her other "family's" death. She lie to Mikey and everyone else.

"So, what do you say Nakamura-sama? Can we team up and have everything we want ?" He said with a big smile, he was almost having it all.

Takemichi, who heard everything was having enough, he is still on time to save everyone. So when Nakamura and Kisaki's hands were almost together, he run and grabbed her and threw Nakamura to the ground while screaming "Nakamura-san STOP! DON'T DO IT"

"What?- Takemichi what the hell are you doing here? Stay away from me please" her voice was broken but still friendly "No! Listen to me Nakamura Y/N" he grabbed her head and make her see his shining blue eyes with her beautiful e/c eyes "Don't hear what he say! Do you think Kazutora and Pa will be happy about that?!" He was mad and sad at the same time, hearing everything just make his heart start talking and moving his body by itself. "Why Takemichi? Why are you doing this? You don't know me-" as she start talking, he scream in her face

"Because I care about you! I will not let you suffer again! I want to save you! As he shout, she fell the blond's tears in her cheeks. Save her? Did he really said that?but before he could continue thinking, he saw her face. Her face wasn't of fear, or sadness, was now covered in happiness. What was the last time he feel happy after the day Naoto saved him?

"But, What about Baji? He could only forgive me if I help Mikey with Kis-" "No! Before Baji died he told me 'Please Takemichi, talk with Y/n and tell her this. Kazutora and I never felt betrayed by her, we didn't even named her in the incident so she doesn't start blaming herself, and was Kazutora's idea, and maybe it was because he do it for the girl he fell in love with. So please, save her and Toman' and I make a promise to him, so he would never blame at you! So don't listen to Kisaki! And be by my side!"

As Takemichi start to stand up and help her, she only saw Kisaki few seconds and then " Kisaki, leave I want to be with Takemichi" "What?! Are you gonna her what a dumb brain say? Instead of me! A whole genius! Come one we could have everything in our hands! Tokyo! The world! Love! Everything!! I need you and you need me Y/N Nakamura! Just accept it!" As Kisaki start to get near her Takemichi, took Nakamura's hand and put her behind him, protecting her. "She said leave Kisaki, you lost".

Takemichi knew that she was more stronger than him, but he felt the need to protect her now.

After Kisaki leave, Takemichi call Chifuyu for going to eat something and bring some clothes for both of them. And while he was talking to Chifuyu, Y/N went to bring his brother and thank Takemichi. So when both were in front of the blond, both do a reverence of 90° and exclaim "Thank you" and after Takemichi saying it was nothing and went to buy something to drink, Chifuyu was already there playing with Kenji. Leaving Takemichi and Y/N alone.

Everything was silent, until she start speaking. "Takemichi, what are you? Early you say you don't want to let me suffer again, but this is the first time we talk" Oh no "Did... Did you came from another reality or from the future?" He is fucked up.

"I-"

© this belong to @/eungii. Do not repost or modify my work .

ʰⁱ ᶜʰᵃᵉ ʰᵉʳᵉ ఌ︎ ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿ ʰᵉˡᵖ ᵐᵉ ᵇʸ ʳᵉᵇˡᵒᵍⁱⁿᵍ ᵗʰⁱˢ,ˡⁱᵏⁱⁿᵍ ⁱᵗ ᵒʳ ᶠᵒˡˡᵒʷⁱⁿᵍ ᵐᵉ. ⁱ ᵖʳᵒᵐⁱˢᵉ ⁱ ᵃᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵃ ᵇᵃᵈ ᵖᵉʳˢᵒⁿ ♡︎

English is not my fist language so please, forgive me is there any misspelled or something wrong.

[lvlyhao]

『you’re dating him but he’s not your bias』

reaction fic; NCT Dream

A/N: this is nct dream’s reaction to realizing your bias is not him (and you’re a couple). gender neutral, got way too deep at some points and was NOT meant to be this long. enjoy.

note that english is my second language and i speak mixing slang, accents and spellings from 3283928 places so i did notice there’s practice written with both s and c down there so

just dont mind it pls

also, today’s photo theme is dream looking cute in low quality shots.

𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓻𝓮𝓼: fluff (♡), angst (❆), comedy (☼), crack (⍢).

𝓦𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼: lots of swearing, my tough love for the neos, one mention of cheating that doesn’t actually happen, a couple of mentions of alcohol and drinking, some violence hidden in metaphors, me being chaotic, it got a bit more angsty and darker than i intended, but we do have all happy endings.

word count: 6.8K

pairing: nct dream members x reader ( includes mark, renjun, jeno, haechan, jaemin, chenle, jisung)

disclaimer: the characters in the story below do not reflect real people or present real facts. this is purely fictional, and you may not copy, change, translate or repost my work in any way. all rights reserved © cherry-hyejin 2021.

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

Mark

oh, poor baby

i feel like he would be a little heartbroken 

just a little

not so much if it’s someone from dream, because they’re his little brothers, but if it’s one of his hyungs from 127 or wayv,,,,,

boy might cry

he’s not super dramatic about it or anything but i don’t see him as being super confident about himself

so he might think like

“do they think he’s cooler than me?”

and it’s silly, yes, he knows

but it’s just something that pops up in his mind sometimes when you bring him up

so for the sake of this fanfic let’s pretend you’re johnny biased

because gods know i am

at least when it comes to 127

mark would be divided into fanboying with you and being like “YO, HE’S THE COOLEST GUY ON EARTH OH MY GOD I’M SO GLAD YOU AGREE”

and

“a h”

<gives you a little tiny smile to cover up the sound of his heart breaking>

would constantly try to get closer to you when johnny is around, and just

showing off in little (kinda dumb) ways

complimenting you

being even more whipped than usual

like yes he’ll give you all of his watermelon slices just please don’t look at johnny like that again

i think johnny would kind of play into it with the whole “imma steal your s/o” thing

and he doesn’t do it to make mark jealous or hurt

we know he’d rather get hit by a train than ever actually upsetting his son on purpose

but we also know he’s johnny

cue “OH DUDE HE’S FLIRTING”

so yeah he might call you lil pet names (beautiful, cutie, you get it)

just to see you giggle 

(and see your soul leave your body)

might say he’s taking you out for dinner when he’s just driving you to get more ice cream for a movie night with the gang lol

and winks

expect a lot of winks

anywhere and anytime

which makes mark sometimes feel like he’s intruding???

and that you appreciate johnny more than him???

he genuinely doesn’t understand how you can date him and still not have him as your bias

don’t you like, love him above everyone else or smth lol

his “showing off” phase eventually fades tho

now every time you hang you with the boys and johnny is around, he’ll be a bit more distant 

he thinks he’s giving you space to interact with his friends but he’s just shying away from competing with one of his favourite people ever

and it’s a competition that Does Not Exist™

but he’s not 100% aware of that

and you’re not that dense 

so ofc you notice

and you wait till you two are alone to talk to him, and he BEGRUDGINGLY admits that you being johnny biased makes him feel kinda small and unimportant

he’d never try to make you change your bias or anything

he just needs reminders that he’s your #1 boy sometimes

which is fine by you

and by him

cus now it’s you calling him pet names all the time

and hugging him

and kissing his cheek

and praising his work

and blowing kisses from across the room

and just telling him straight up that no matter what, you’ll always go to him

(not that you ever had any chance with johnny lmao)

THIS GOES TO SHOW COMMUNICATING IS KEY, CHILDREN

COMMUNICATE

Renjun

wym donghyuck is your bias lol

literally are you fucking kidding him

don’t get me wrong ok

everyone knows renjun loves haechan

they’re bffs and could not live without each other

but at the same time,,,

what is wrong with you

who did he choose as his s/o gods help him

if it was jeno, or mark, or jaehyun, or winwin, or kun, or lucas, or yuta, or taeyong, or ten, or,,,,

literally ANY of his other members

he’d understand your point and be like “ok fine”

but haechan???? hmmm bestie no

he’s not gonna throw a fit

not after the first time you told him anyways

HE WAS SURPRISED OKAY

and he just whined very loudly after having laughed for 5 minutes thinking it was a joke

<flashbacks of that one time he had to sing the ottoke song with haechan on weekly idol>

if you don’t know that iconic scene, renjun had a whole ass meltdown in 3 seconds while yelling “aAAAAAH JINJJAAAAA” and getting ready to punch the living shit out of hyuck

for no reason other than the fact that it’s haechan we’re talking about and injun’s little body is filled with rage

BACK ON TRACK

would probably try to act all cool about it and be like “i don’t mind” but bruh does he mind

and it doesn’t help that haechan is such a little shit about it

he doesn’t even flirt with you

he just

constantly reminds renjun that he’s your bias—not him—and then constantly praises himself over you

“ah, y/n~ did you choose me as your bias because i’m the best vocalist? or was it because i’m the best dancer? mAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE OF MY OH SO BROAD SHOULDERS—”

(pause for injun to punch him)

(unpaused)

and ok in the beginning it was funny seeing him all worked up but now it’s just annoying to be in the same room as these two

haechan won’t let either of you live

and renjun just wants to

fight

so it eventually gets to the point where you’ll talk to renjun and jeno will talk to hyuck cus even the other dreamies are tired of it

except maybe for chenle, he always laughs his ass off when they start bickering

ANYWAY

your conversation goes something like “oh my god renjun i’m literally dating you, i don’t like haechan better or anything you little pile of fury”

while jeno sits hyuck down in front of him and jaemin and just

“bro why are you like this”

“bro”

no but renjun would apologize for going overboard with his protectiveness and jealous energy because he’s not generally like that

he’s angry all the time but never about something involving you, you know

he tries his best to treat you like the royalty you are

but something about hyuck being your bias makes him feel a bit like a castaway???

he’s very creative and as an artsy kid myself i know we’re very prone to feeling left out because we’re just different from the others

so he’d think maybe haechan really has a better voice

or better dancing skills

or he looks better

he is taller than injun after all, and has broader shoulders, and his hair is all fluffy and—

the whole thing just made him insecure about things he had settled with himself long ago

he was fine with being him

but not so much when it came to that

i don’t think you two would fight over it cus tbh i think renjun would really only get with someone who can be very understanding of him

and i think hyuck would actually apologize to renjun too

not when everyone’s around but like, maybe after dinner or something and he just needs to feel like they’re besties again

hyuck never meant for things to get out of control

he just really likes both injun and you as his friends, and aside from skinship his most prominent love language is,,,

teasing

he was really just trying (very poorly) to grow closer to the person his best friend loves so much—you—because renjun is SUCH a big part of his life it would just feel wrong to not be good friends with you as well

don’t tell them i said this but they hug it out

injun strikes me as someone that could take a bit of time to bounce back from something that hurt his pride or his sense of belonging

and his way of healing and bonding is just,,,

art

sure, keep being haechan biased, but also please read with him

and talk about his fantastic animal creations

and watch those buzzfeed unsolved alien theory videos because he really wants to discuss it and maybe even draw what he thinks the aliens look like

hyuck tones it down, you make sure renjun knows you like him for him, renjun starts to (secretly) appreciate hyuck’s talent along with you...

and now let’s take a moment to imagine the minute you watch their latest mv with injun by your side

and yes okay the first thing you see is CLEARLY how good renjun looks because holy fucking shit he’s an angel (and i’m clearly not renjun biased)

but then,,,,,,

wAS THAT A HAECHAN HIGH NOTE

(there’s always a haechan high note, just look for it)

and ok maybe he did scream a bit with you because of how good it all sounded

and you know what, it works out perfectly bc you two are my new otp and you were meant for each other

but we do have to mention the eventual happening of chenle saying like “oOoOoOoH y/N wErE yOu dRoOliNg oVeR hAeChAn AgAiN” after a special stage

and then you, injun and hyuck all attempt to choke him

i’m kidding

or not

Jeno

ah, lee jeno

aka samoyed boi

yes i do call him that no i will not stop

everyone is always writing jeno as being super protective and literally about to burst a lung if someone else ever does as much as look at you

but i just 

don’t see him that way

he’s a taurus and from what i know about taurus they can be v v jealous, yes, but they mainly seek comfort

so he’s fine with you biasing jaemin

as long as you’re not ditching him or anything lol

and ok, imma be 100% honest here even if it sounds like literal no fun (jenojaem wink wonk)

jaemin doesn’t flirt with you

not any more than he flirts with

every other breathing creature

ever

he’s really only platonically interested in you, never remotely romantic or anything lol

on the other side, he is in love with jeno

basically, if jaemin is your bias, jeno is his

so nothing really changes

we know how nomin are, okay

they hold hands, they stare deeply into each other eyes, they nearly kiss at least once every time they go live

it's just them

you gotta respect it bruh

i know this is the most boring reaction ever so let’s create the one (1) instance where jeno would actually dislike that you bias someone else

i think he would feel a bit hurt if you seemed to be more supportive of jaemin’s work than his

and it’s not something big or on purpose

it’s just something like going with him to a recording session but not going with jeno because you have homework

or after a very busy practise day going to praise jaemin first

even if it’s just three words

“you did good”

and then you’re going towards him, he’s gonna feel like maybe he doesn’t deserve your praise as much as nana????

i actually feel like, among the dreamies, jeno is the least confident one when it comes to his performance

he knows he’s not an awful rapper or anything but i think it can be a bit too much, being around such bright and huge presences like the others while his nickname literally means “no fun”

his members are just so loud and full of energy most of the time

and sometimes he just really needs to be quiet and observe in silence 

(yes i do know he’s chaotic and a crackhead, i’m just saying as we know he can be a bit introspective)

so what if you just

stopped seeing him?

did he become invisible to you?

did you finally fall for jaemin’s beautiful smile and stupid pick-up lines?

he’s not gonna let it show that he’s affected, though

earth signs are nearly always the ones to “stay strong” because we have this image that people are relying on us???

so we do what we do

bottle everything up and overwork ourselves bc we only got two modes

1. chill, super balanced and down to earth (ay for the pun)

2. please make us take a break we’re literally about to cry if we work for one more minute but we can’t allow ourselves to fucking take it easy

so yes you’ve guessed correctly, we’re going with 2

jeno is going to go so, SO hard on everything he does 

literally every single activity you can think of from dance practice to photoshoots to cooking for the dreamies

he stays up later than usual to get that one tricky move in the choreo just right

he works out more because he thinks he has to look absolutely perfect for when they shoot the mv

jisung asked for ramen? he’s making it but you bet your ass he’s spending over 40 minutes just chopping so

many

vegetables

AND STUFF THAT JISUNG WON’T EVEN EAT

but he’s doing it anyway for the reason being that it just has to be the Best™

and it’s not like he’s competing with anyone else to be diligent

this is just about being better than he was and showing himself—and maybe you—how painstakingly hardworking and driven he can be

maybe then you’re gonna acknowledge him as much as you acknowledge nana :((

:(((((

writing this is making me downright sad, jeno is so underrated and unaware of his power UGH

and i need to point out this is NOT about making you change your bias from jaemin to him, this is solely about having you recognize his efforts, even if you already do

if you just thought jeno was like going off in work because it was asked of him to, jaemin would DEF notice and talk to you about it

turns out it’s a habit of jeno to go extra hard sometimes and he needs someone to make him take a break

so it goes down like you breaking into the practice room when jeno and jisung were practising

the first reaction is confusion

the second is oh hey babe how are you

third is

a-are you dragging jeno and his bag out of the door while screeching at jisung to order pizza and doughnuts for everyone??

yes you are and i’m proud of you

so jeno is still confused and making those cute “hUh” noises he does omg i love him so much

and you’re just rambling about how much of an amazing artist he is, and you love his voice, and he’s a fantastic dancer, and his expressions and gestures are on point, and he takes such good care of the dreamies and

he’s perfect

and he knows jaemin must have talked to you, and he feels so vulnerable to have you know how on edge he’s been

baby boy just needs some rest

and that’s exactly what you give him, with a bath full of those fancy bath bombs and flower petals and candles at your house/apt

then a quick sheet mask while you massage his shoulders and keep saying how much you genuinely admire him

the mask might be ruined cus he started crying out of exhaustion

after that’s been done and you’ve hugged for at least like 5 min nonstop, you head over to the dorms, where hyuck was in charge of setting up a blanket fort while mork and nana gather board games, jisung gets the food and chenle

well chenle just had to make sure jisung doesn’t forget to order for someone and doesn’t break like 10 plates trying to set the table lol

this is way longer than the others so imma wrap it up

make it obvious and loud that you see and respect jeno’s hard work and he’ll be alright again

and maybe make those game nights a weekly thing when possible, it would make him very happy

he’ll never again feel sad when you praise jaemin cus now he’s sure he does enough, and above all, he is enough

Haechan

haechan = full sun

why would you ever bias someone when you’re dating the goddamned sun

does not understand

but also does not care that much

actually, one out of two really depending on who your bias is

if it’s one of the members he has that tom/jerry relationship with, prepare for so

much

complaining

and clinging

AND HE’D BE SO LOUD OH MY FUCKING GOD

donghyuck please stop screaming about doyoung not deserving to be your baby’s bias, it’s 2 am

on the other hand, if it’s one of the (few) members he,,,

adores with all of his heart and is not afraid to show it

ex: sungchan, jaehyun, taeil and yang2x

then you can bet he’s going to be right beside you whenever you feel like throwing a fit because he’s just so handsome and talented

IF IT’S MARK OSHDISJD

i’m going to write you as being mark biased ok? ok

i honestly don’t know if he’d feel more jealous of mark or of you

he loves you both

a lot,,,,

and he really doesn’t like it when mark blushes when you compliment him

and he doesn’t like it when mark literally just walks past you and you trip over your feet because bro tf u doing, that’s some embarrassing shit

lowkey done with you two

but also PAY HIM SOME ATTENTION

or don’t, he’s fine either way (cue crossed arms and staring at you from across the room until you come give him a kiss)

“he’s pretty cute but i’m cuter right baby”

pouty pouty pouty if he ever feels neglected

will be so fucking annoying lmao i can’t write haechan, i love him but i do understand why renjun is always trying to beat him up

he’d be a show-off in a different way than mark because he can be so petty

will take every chance he gets to pull a one-liner

will sing everything he has to say just so you know he can hit those high notes

what do you mean dream doesn’t have a schedule today

oh man, he could swear they did

because that is the sole reason why he’s wearing his most expensive clothes and shoes + makeup to walk around the dorms, yes

no he doesn’t want to impress you

shut up

will text you like every single fancam he sees on twitter

every

single 

one

and are they mark’s?

lol no, they’re his

he is so genuinely trying to make you a member of his sunflower cult 

<whispers> “tell me i’m your bias” 

“donghyuck what the actual hell why are you standing at the end of my bed in the middle of the night like a fucking demon child”

he really wants to act all cool and composed but he wants to be your bias so fucking bad

he’s a bad bitch all around and just does whatever

cus haechan privilege

and he tends to not care about what people say and think???

bc he knows he’s lee donghyuck

he’s fully aware of the effect he has on people

but you

not biasing him

naw, he can’t take it

will do anything and everything he can to make you say, JUST ONE TIME, he’s your bias

then you can go back to loving (his) mark

so for your sake, for his sake, for mark’s sake

just give donghyuck what he wants

i can promise he’ll keep being an ass no matter what you do

like yeah did you just buy him coffee and his favourite cake? well that’s sweet but iS HE YOUR BIAS YET

“aw babe thanks so much for taking a bullet for me but now please say i’m your bias”

if you still don’t do it, it’s time to be extra petty

will actually drop you for mark

his logic is something like: he can’t be your bias? pity, so he’s just gonna date him instead

and mark is mark so he has no idea what’s going on

everyone in 127 and dream finds this absolutely hilarious cus suddenly donghyuck seems to be doing his best to win over mark’s heart and i mean more than usual???? and he’s treating you like his bro????

<you leaving the dorms to go to uni or smth so you go to hyuck for a goodbye kiss> “no can do, i’m committed”

“i’m your partner”

“no that’s mark”

it’s not 100% a joke when i say i can see him getting down in one knee to propose to mark while making eye contact with you to

assert his dominance

and mark is just

“dude

what HAHAHA”

and you are so done, i’m so sorry you have to go through that bby

i don’t think there’s another way to fix haechan other than just admitting he was your bias for an era, or a comeback or something

like yeah with the other dreamies before him it’s bonding + healing time bc i wrote it all kinda angsty (lol sorry) but with donghyuck

no

“will you stop this if i say you were my bias during reload era”

“mark wasn’t in dream that era tho”

“yes i know”

i say he’s gonna take what he can get and now things can finally go back to normal

with the exception that something else comes along with hyuck being satisfied with you biasing him

he just has a full pass to fanboy over mark now too

what am i talking about?

new 127 mv is out

you: watching it beside haechan and going off about how pretty mark looks

him: going off even harder bc he’s whipped too

this is what a happy couple looks like 

but now i pity mark because he has you two idiots fanboying over him irl

savemork2021

Jaemin

nana is just such a chill and fun guy

i can’t see him being actually jealous or anything if he finds out you bias someone else

and so the two of you become insufferable together

bitch, i’m telling you

he (ur bias) is not gonna have one peaceful day ever again in his entire life

cus you know the thing jaemin does where he just looks at someone doing some random shit and goes “oOoOoH sExY”

yes that thing

he’s doing it to your bias 

and you’re doing it too

and your bias probably wants to run away to some very far away land

PLEASE IF IT’S JISUNG

i’m not gonna write this whole thing as if you bias him but let’s just imagine

two fully grown people

pilling on top of poor, poor park jisung playing games on his phone

“URI JISUNGIEEEEEE

MWOYA, MWOYAAAA~"

i genuinely think he would avoid being around you two at the same time

cus individually he can handle it

like yes y/n please let me go this hug has lasted for about 4 minutes now

or oh hi jaemin hyung my cheeks hurt when you pinch them that hard

but when you two are together

bruh

a power couple not bc you two are v confident or some shit but bc you can and will be extremely affectionate towards anyone that comes too close

and now let’s talk about how it would be if you biased jaehyun

jaemin loves jaehyun

they’re 2jae

2jae are soulmates

therefore,,,, it’s also kinda hellish but in a different way???

bc 2jae are on the end of that spectrum about the neos that know how in love the entire world is with them

they’re too powerful

they’re aware of their charm and they do everything they can to rub it in our faces

so the flirting between 2jae and you would be insane

and i mean insane

insane as in even johnny is kinda disgusted tbh bc

they’re doing a photo shoot with the 23 of them for some shit, idk don’t ask me

and of course, you had to tag along

but oh my god you three, please stop calling each other sexy/hot in weird voices now, the staff is staring

there are def rumours the 3 of you are a poly couple lmao

jaehyun denies everything on social media (throwback to saying “no way lol” when we asked if he REALLY slept in the same bed as jungwoo)

but every piece of content there is of you and jaemin or you and jaehyun or just them is so ridiculously flirty

you can bet there are compilations on youtube like 

“y/n being in love with 2jae for 8 minutes heterosexual”

ok i was having way too much fun with that, moving on

i don’t think he’d ever be actually upset about you biasing someone else

he trusts you and treasures you a lot so he doesn’t see the problem in you also appreciating another one of his members

bc gods know he does

he’s a bit in love with everyone so why shouldn’t you be too lol

one time he would feel a bit blue because of it???

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i think it’s possible he’d turn pouty or whiny or just kinda needy (not in a bad way, he just misses you) when he’s like

done with people

and needs some time away from everything

we know he’s an introvert, even if he acts very, very loud around the boys and it’s honestly just a matter of time until an introvert grows tired of being around humans

it depends on each person, of course, but there’s a 99% chance every once in a while he’ll start to feel too drained

and he’ll need a break to get his energy back

jaemin would probably want you around even when he feels like that, though

i see you being such a big source of comfort for him in a relationship

he enjoys taking care of people so please take care of him too

and for just this one day don’t talk about your bias that much, or don’t leave nana to go over to him to chat

and just cuddle him a lot

that will make him a smiley baby again

and then things are back to how they normally are

and by that i mean most neos hiding from you because they’re scared 

i don’t have a lot to say aside from that so let’s think about the neos that would be the most intimidated by your shared thot aura

dotae would be confused in different ways lol

taeyong would be just ????????????blush/awkward smile/hahaha??????

and doyoung might actually ask what is wrong with you

<points to jeno and his s/o> “why can’t you be like them”

mark would laugh-scream and slap his knee into oblivion whenever you two are cornering him

but then go super shy and be like “dUDE DON’T DO THAT”

resident confident gay jungwoo would rejoice in the attention and make so many goddamned jokes

a literal comedian i love him

i think sicheng and renjun would be on the same wavelength of repugnance towards you lol

chenle would deadass call you weird and tell you to leave him alone

shotaro and kun might faint (or kun will panic-scold you)

taeil is as confused by affection as usual (have you seen the face he makes when haechan kisses him LMFAO he’s smiling but like wondering wtf happened on the inside)

ten is not very amused but might play into it

yangyang: that’s disgusting, man (cue flashbacks to that live with renjun after the from home stage where renjun pretended to lick his hand and slick his hair back,,, catboy injun,,, you know the one)

xiaojun and hendery are such panicked gays they just turn to stare at whoever else is around and make that “help” expression like they’re on the office

haechan is haechan, kinda doesn’t mind it

jeno is used to dealing with this at this point

lucas and yuta love the attention but while yuta will flirt right back lucas is just gonna smile and try to jop his way out of there while screaming

sungchan will go hide behind haechan and say “hyung they’re being dumbasses again”

this turned into ‘how would nct react to you and jaemin being super flirty together’ and i’m not sorry

Chenle

chenle is so fun to write i love him lmao

okay so

he doesn’t strike me as the possessive type with anyone other than jisung (bc i swear he can be a bit jelly towards his bestie but i think it comes with sungie being the sweetest bean ever, he’s just protective)

he’s such a ray of sunshine and witty jokes and dolphin laughter i love him

back to the plot

he literally couldn’t care less about you biasing someone else

b u t

i will say there’s an exception

this exception is tall, kinda lanky, very awkward and born on the 5th of february

you’ve guessed it, it’s jisung

i think most of the time he’d tease THE SHIT out of you for it because c’mon

you had 22 chances not to mess up

and you still somehow ended up biasing jisung? lol do better next time

and this is not me and chenle hating on jisung, please—

he’d just find it funny that your bias is his best friend and

hold the fuck up

your bias is his best friend

oH NO NO NO NO NO

i think after realizing that he would lowkey try to keep you two apart because he’s somehow jealous of both????

and if he can’t help it then you can bet your ass he will be screaming all along

it’s his sweet, dummy jisung

with his sweeter and dummier y/n

what is he going to do

probably has a mini-breakdown with kun because like he’s always wanted you two to get along bUT NOT LIKE THAT

kun will just sigh like the tired father he is and pet his back while saying “there, there”

and a genius idea is going to come to chenle’s mind

you know the teasing thing?

well it’s upgrade time

he’s gonna turn into such a try-hard with tmi and embarrassing shit you two have done

and he’s not trying to stop you from being friends

he just wants you to like

know who you’re befriending

bc i think since he’s really really close to jisung, he doesn’t want you getting closer to him bc you like his idol side alone

and he doesn’t want jisung getting close to you just because you’re his partner either

if you had high hopes for each other and ended up kinda falling face-first into the ground bc it was nothing like you had imagined—

he’d be so broken

because he loves you so much :((((

so like, if you can get past the teasing and annoying barrier he’s putting up, he’ll be more than happy to have two of the most important people in his life being buddies

so get ready for it

if you’re the type of person to go batshit crazy when you drink, oh boy, oh boy

so you and the dreamies are just having dinner when lele feels like it’s the perfect time to disclose some of your drunken adventures

“hey y/n”

“yeah babe?”

“remember that time you got really really drunk on vodka and candy and wanted to call your mom”

“chenle the hell don’t talk ab—”

“but then you tried using the microwave as a phone”

“...”

“...”

“or that other time you were equally as drunk and watched the make a wish mv and cried because you noticed the height difference between xiaojun hyung and lucas hyung”

yeah so now’s the part you get up to chase him around the dorms and try to land a kick

BUT WORRY NOT, HE’LL MAKE SURE TO EMBARRASS JISUNG JUST AS MUCH

he likes doing that when it’s just the three of you though

so picture this

movie night the girls boys

chenle would 100% pick the most terrifying horror movie he can find so that he could see jisung clinging to whoever’s closest to him

and then right before a jumpscare, he’d whisper like

“jisung”

“w-what”

“why don’t you do that thing you were doing while you slept last night”

(honestly, i’d be mildly scared if i heard lele say this with no context at all)

and then the jumpscare happens and jisung is nearly fainting and crying at the same time

but chenle is laughing

and trying to get out what he wants to tell you between wheezes

“he-he” <dolphin wheeze> “hE WAS SINGING CHEER UP BY TWICE WHILE SLEEPING” <more wheezes>

and look this is just gonna go on for weeks until you and jisung are over it

and stop being weird and awkward around each other

lele needs you two to be bros ok

so be bros

once you do adapt to being pals with your bias i think chenle would take the teasing down a notch just to make you more comfortable

and like he’s so happy now the three of you can hang out and there’s just no tension

happy chenle is the thing i love the most i swear to gods

and if you don’t adapt to it?

well,,,

i honestly think he’d be pretty disappointed, cus it means to him one of you isn’t ready to fully embrace the weirdness within????

and like what u scared of

jisung is a weirdo, what about it, so are you

either that or he’d think you’re maybe being judgemental

so yeah please accept jisungie and your dumbass boyfriend

then everyone can be besties

i love thinking about the three of you as just this hellbound chaotic trio

because chenji already wreak havoc wherever they go as the two of them

but now that you’re coming along,,,,

no neo would escape from your pranks ever again (and even members of other groups lmfao watch out sehun, i’m talking to you)

and it’s so incredible infuriating in a good way that it just turns to be endearing

you’re cute as fuck so no one gets actually mad with the shit you pull????

which is dangerous, someone should really keep an eye out on the three of you 

we don’t need sm to be on fire

well we kinda do cus they’re pretty bad but not my point

i said somewhere above that chenle would tone the teasing down but i don’t mean he’d stop

bc c’mon guys

he’s chenle

no limits here

but sorry, i really cannot write jealous!chenle cus his heart is just too pure and filled with joy for him to be jealous for real

last scenario?

chenle after a comeback stage: ya y/n, i was gonna ask how was my performance today but you were probably more focused on jisung’s arms right

jisung is choking on water somewhere behind you

Jisung

it’s maknae time <plays i.n’s maknae on top>

i don’t mean to picture jisung as being like

ridiculously innocent or just downright naive because i really dislike it when people do that

he’s a literal 19 yo and jaemin himself has said he’s not as innocent as we think lol

however

i do see him as being quite new to all things love 

i think you’d probably be his first partner and with first relationships comes a lot of other firsts

first kiss maybe, first time holding hands, first time being jealous….

first time being jealous, yes, focus on that

i don’t think jisung would be aware that like

you not biasing him is even a possibility

cuz you’re dating

doesn’t that come along????

ah poor baby i love him

if you biased chenle i think he’d be just

disgusted and weirded out but okay?? you do you i guess???

he’s comfortable enough with lele to not feel intimidated

but if it’s another member

ESPECIALLY one of the oldest ones

i think it would be a blow straight to his confidence 

you biasing ten, kun, taeil, taeyong, doyoung or johnny and maybe yuta would make him feel a bit hesitant and concerned

his first thought would probably be that you don’t like being with someone as young as him

and who knows, maybe you’re even younger than him, maybe you’re the same age, but what if you actually like older guys??

what about him then???

and jisung doesn’t mean to feel so worried and insecure, ok, pls understand where i’m coming from

first relationships normally take like a very long time to build trust and acceptance of the other person’s feelings bc it’s literally a whole new world for you

and that goes extra hard for jisung because he is so fucking whipped for you it’s still hard to believe you like him as much

and it absolutely does not cross his mind that you’d cheat on him with your bias, GODS NO

he really respects you and his hyungs 

so no, never

that’s not a thing that can happen

but you realize you’re too good for him and maybe see he doesn’t fit your ideal type?

well, yes, that’s what he’s thinking

probably goes straight to chenle or renjun (he talks about renjun so much asjahj) to vent and ask for advice

i think they’d be surprised to see what’s going on inside his pretty little head because it’s so obvious for everyone that you just adore jisung

and they do tell him that

however, i don’t think it would completely calm his nerves, and again, this has nothing to do with not trusting you

it’s just that

his hyungs are so cool…

HE CAN’T HELP IT OK

would probably try to mirror your bias (i’m saying it’s taeyong for the sake of what i’ve imagined ok) and like

grasp onto some of his qualities?

so in his mind taeyong is: nice, sweet, caring, amazing, perfect, smart, perfect, sexy, mature and did i mention perfect

i can see him trying some new rap styles that mimic tyong’s a bit???

like would lowkey learn his raps from cherry bomb and superm’s one and listen to recordings frequently to pick up on how taeyong does it

i think he’d also just change the way he acts in general to dodge a bit from his maknae image

so now he tries to speak with a more formal-ish language and learns random facts about things you like to seem more intelligent???

“good morning y/n, you look as beautiful as one of voiello’s paintings today :]”

“wait i thought that was a pasta brand”

he’s just trying to show you he can be mature and serious if you want him to

long story short, he’s not acting like himself (not that he’s childish, he’s just out of it) and you don’t like it, so you ask about it and wait for him to feel comfortable with sharing

when he does talk about it breaks your heart so much :((

you’re going to need some patience to try and show him you’d choose him, and not your bias, even if you had the chance

they’re completely different people and you love him BECAUSE he’s jisung, not for any other reason

please reassure him so he can go back to acting like his authentic self, i think it would be such a relief for him too

your words and affection are obviously enough for him, but if it ever happens that he feels especially low and insecure again, it would help if your bias talks to him too

and taeyong wouldn’t have a problem with it

actually, scratch that, taeyong probably knew what was going on all along

he just has that motherly 7th sense (ay) that is even more acute with the dreamies cus like 

127 has him, wayv has kun, but dream has…

the dreamies

and that, my friend, is terrifying

anyway he’d come to talk to jisung asking like “what’s wrong buddy :(“ and sungie would be a bit ashamed because it sounds so silly when you say it out loud

of course tyong wouldn’t judge him, and he just really has to tell jisung what is it you and he are always talking about

it’s him

“when they come around to talk and hang out here it all goes back to you, jisungie. they can’t spend one second without mentioning your name

it’s so cute; it’s always like ‘oh jisung would love this’ or ‘jisung likes it that way’

so please be kinder to yourself and let yourself see that they’re in love with you, not with me and not with any other member they ever mention”

jisung would feel 10000000% better

and smiley

and giggly

and oh my god do you really talk about him that much

LOOK HE’S BLUSHING

would just go over to your house immediately and hug you, burying his face on your neck from behind you

and not let go

ever again

the whole situation just teaches him a lot about accepting your love for him and not questioning it 

shut up i’m not crying

---

final notes: this was my first work after the humanity series and it was so fun lol i think next up is probs gonna be an ideal type scenario for ot23 (but if i really write it i’m gonna post it by subunit and its gonna be way shorter than this, don’t expect 23K words at once lmao)

if you’ve enjoyed this fic please consider reading my humanity series, which is a zombie apocalypse au with kun <3

[lunarianillusion]

A change in fate

a maribat fanfic

Chapter 09

When the final school bell of the day finally rang Marinette and her pack practically bolted from the building, before the braindead could catch them. When outside she told the others to go on ahead without out her, telling them she would meet them back at the hotel, and that she had to quickly grab something from her room. Chloe was a bit hesitant since the toxic shepherd and her herd were still lurking, but Marinette reassured her as best as she could making her lead the other three away.

The omega made quick work of avoiding her parents, not caring for what they possibly could have said in her migraine induced morning, and up to her room. After slipping in through the trap door the hidden kwami’s all came out of hiding. All very happy to see that the young guardian had recovered from the past morning.

The omega smiled softly at the little gods that cared for her wellbeing. She was truly happy to have found away to release the kwami’s from the box confines. Giving them a small piece of freedom, they needed. She hoped to give them true freedom one day, but for now they needed to focus.

“It is time for step two,” The noirette said, gaining the complete attention from all the little gods. Then they turned to one and other a silent conversation among the concepts of the world and gave each other a firm nod of agreement. “We are all ready to proceed young guardian,” Longg spoke firmly with the slightest hint of longing. She could tell and could not blame him for wishing to meet with his possible soul bearer, but she could not trust the dragon’s soul bearer just yet.

The guardian’s blue eyes turned to onto the light turquoise kwami nearby. “Are you ready?” The snake gave her a small grin. “I am.” “You better take good care of her, understood,” Pollen buzzed while giving Sass a fireless glare. To which he chuckled in return and gave his fellow god words of assurance, as Marinette grabbed the small box holding his miraculous.

-

After procuring the miraculous of change, along a thick binder filled with Lie-la’s inconsistencies and fever dreams, the omega hero made her way over the grand hotel. Upon arrival Marinette encountered Chloe’s loyal butler. He informed her that monsieur Bourgeois was in search of his daughter and so advised the dark-haired girl to take the long route to the nest. As to not alert the dumb mayor that Chloe now has taking more of a residence in her secret room.

Over the time that Chloe has used opportunity to redeem herself to others, she had become aware of how toxic her family was and had been distancing from her parents whenever she needed room to breathe. The staff had been happy to provide her with a special place for the blond within the hotel. One of the rooms had been modeled into a one room apartment specially decorated for the young alpha and kept off the books so that her father would not find it. When they showed her the room Chloe had burst into a sea of overjoyed tears, having been giving confirmation that she was indeed became a better person in the eyes of others. That had been such a relief for the girl and a great boost to her confidence.

Giving the beta butler her thanks, the omega made the long round way to Chloe’s second room that gained the title of the nest over the past months. Upon arrival and entry, the blue-eyed omega was met with the homely interior of the apartment, that made it feel as though you just walked into a hunter’s cabin in the mountains. To the right was the sitting/living area with a large half circle couch and two armchairs standing around a round red wood coffee table. A large flat screen tv hung from the wall infront of the sitting area, with several drawers under it filled with the girls collection of DVDs and blue ray’s. To the left was the kitchen area with a wooden bar counter that separated the kitchen from the hall and living area, around it stood four wooden fashionably cushioned barstools. In the back, past the doors that led to the bathroom and workspace, was a window seat bed that had been transformed into a large nest. Made from a mismatch of blankets, pillows and some articles of close from the two female occupants. A large deep dark red canopy hung from the ceiling that gave the two a feeling of a save close offed space, for whenever the one of the two took shelter here for the rut or heat.

The smile on Marinette’s face came naturally as she past the rooms threshold. This was a place of safety for her, something that her old home could never again be. How she often wished she could live here but her ‘parents’ would kick up a fuss and she really did not need the extra headache’s.

Her eyes drifted around counting all of the current occupants in the den. Nathaniel and Marc sat snuggled together upon de couch, enthusiastically discussing their new comic idea, Chloe was in the back near the nest looking for something in one of the large bookcases lining the wall and Tim was in the kitchen making the holy elixir, COFFEE. “Can you make me a cup too, Tim,” the female omega called out gaining her packs attention. Though Chloe was the only one that gave a verbal response in the form of a pained groan and calling her an addict. She ignored her friend in favour of focussing on the steaming cup of coffee that the dark haired prepared for her. She gave him a grateful smile and a small thanks as she took a seat at the kitchen counter and dropped her thick binder with a thud onto the wooden surface.

She took a careful sip from her given ambrosia and then pulled on her business face. “So now that we have all gathered, shall we get started on the downfall of the delusional spider and her plague of insects.” The crystal blue eyes glanced around the room once more and taking in the malicious smiles of her pack. “Oh yes, let’s get started,” the blond female nearly cackled as she pulled out to binders of her own. Yes, they were ready for the hunt.

-

And so started of several hours of compiling all the tall tales that had past Rossi’s lips from the lady blog, their phones and school camera’s, curtesy of Tim’s hacking skills. But as people will agree after a certain amount of time one gets side-tracked, especially if you have a petty alpha female wanting revenge. Surprisingly the two male omegas’ were very much on board with the pettiness.

“But wouldn’t she simply blame Marinette,” Chloe interjected. She and the male omegas having a thorough discussion over how to trick Lie-la into spraying herself with skunk musk. They discussed it for over an hour.

“Not unless she believed it to be a gift for Marinette,” Marc began to supply, making Chloe pull a face. “She would say she was so thankful for the gift while just taking it,” The jade eyed male continued. “But either me or Tim or me would say it was for Mari,” Nathaniel took over, “She in a fit her supposed supremacy will spray herself and then come to the horrid realization of the disgusting odour. This will work in our favour two ways. One Lie-la will smell just as horrid as her soul is,” “And two, because they will think we ‘tried to do this on Mari’ we can get in the flies good graces and here about any possible plots to hurt our leader and prepare for that accordingly.” Marc finished, devious smiles on both his and boyfriend’s faces.

���You two are bloody devils,” The blond alpha started, eyes filled with wondered surprise before beginning to laugh gleefully. “And I love it!” she exclaimed as Marinette and Timothy were just finishing up all the processed evidence that they had gathered. Next time they were going to look into things Lie-la had done before she had come to Dupoit. But for now, it was pack bonding time.

-

“I AM DISCUSTED, I AM REVOLTED, I DEDICATED MY INTIRE LIFE TO THE ARTS AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET!!!!!!” Nathaniel roared as he hurled his sketchbook.

“Nath please cal-”

“NO Marc he is right. They gods have deceived us. COLOUR IS A LIE!!!” Marinette exclaimed as she threw her sketchbook across the room. Whirling around she grabbed the redhead and raised her hand to the window. “OPEN THE WINDOW WE MUST FLY!!!”

“NNNOOOOO!!!!!!!”

-

“Mari, Tim, put the mugs down,”

The two in question raised the offending cups to their lips.

“I swear to the powers from the beyond, don’t you two dare drink that! That is your fifth cup in the past thirty minutes.”

The alpha omega duo took exaggerated sips from their cups, the sound penetrating the air. Within seconds the blond was chasing around her two coffee addicted friends around the room in a made chase screaming profanities every so often. The two coffee worshippers always two steps ahead of the girl with surprising agility, not letting a single drop of the elixir of life spill from their containers. Whilst Nathaniel and Marc watched the chaos from the couch unfold, sharing a bowl of popcorn.

-

After a long chase, that resulted in Chloe’s loss, the pack had nestled themselves on the couch and chairs around the tv. They had some action movie playing and were making all sorts of critics, on the fight scenes mostly. It made for a rather peaceful atmosphere.

Marc and Nathaniel were snuggled together within a wool blanket on one of the large armchairs. Chloe and Marinette had claimed the couch, their heads on opposite ends and legs tangled in the middle.  Tim sat on the other chairs, his legs dangling over the side and hid eyes taking in more the people around him then the movie. Taking in every detail of the scene around him and committing it to memory as his senses were lulled by the peaceful atmosphere, making him feel safe.

-

As the late evening came Marc, Nathaniel and Tim went to their own homes, begrudgingly. Leaving Marinette and Chloe in the nest, for Mari had no interest in returning home for the night. And she also had a mission to fulfil.

The two having just finished the dishes, from the room served meal, sat curled up in the nest/bed area talking about the day events and other random thoughts. When, to Chloe’s surprise the noirette omega took on a far more serios exterior. Her blue eyes calculating and analysing the blond before her and her posture straight as an arrow and rigged. “What’s wrong Marinette?” the alpha asked, using her full first name instead of one of her nicknames.

Taking a small breath, to try and calm her nerves, Marinette spoke: “I need to ask a favor of you Chloe Bourgeois, something of great importance. But I need to know that I can fully trust you with what I am about to ask of you.” The mayor’s daughter opened her mouth to say that ofcourse she could trust her, but the darked haired held up her hand to stop her having not yet finished. “I know that I can trust you with anything that happens in our normal lives, but this is not something that can be considered normal and many things are at risk,” she took a moment to let the gravity of the situation sink in. “So, I need to know that I have your compete loyalty and that you will always have my back trough whatever may come. I need to know that you will not stab me in the back,” the last part had been whispered almost so quietly that Chloe might not have picked it up had she not given the omega her full attention.

The last words that were spoken stung the blond a bit, but she understood the meaning behind them more then anything. For those she had once considered her most trust pack members had turned their back on her for the stupid lies of a filthy leach that now trespassed on their territory. She understood the words very well. But Marinette asking this meant that she trusted Chloe so much that she was about to reveal possibly one of her most precious secrets to her friend. A swell of pride and determination flowed through the alpha as the implications of her request made itself clear in the former bully’s mind. And she swore not to let that trust in her go to waist. Chloe poised herself and stared straight into Marinette’s eyes conveying as much determination as the blond could muster through her gaze and scent.

“Marinette, you have given me so much even after all the years of torment I dragged you trough. You forgave me when I finally got my act together which was already more then I deserved, but you also let me join your pack and supported me as I tried to see what I needed to do to become a better person. You made me realize what I truly needed to be happy and because of that I have finally found who I want to be. I will never be able to fully for all that you have done for me. So, whatever secret you share with me I will take to the grave, whatever deed I must do no-one will lead it back to you. I will have your back in all the fights that are to come,” she took a deep breath, to keep her rage for those who did betray the omega at bay, but gaze filled with determination. “I swear I will never betray you for as long as I breath. That I assure you,” Chloe finished.

Marinette could feel her eyes tearing up, but she forced herself not to let any of the tears fall. No was not the time for tears. Even so, the words and emotion that the blond had expressed made Mari so happy and it took away all of her doubt. For no lie was uttered and the absolute devotion coming from her alpha friend sealed that fact.

Carefully she pulled out a dark octagon box with a red sigil painted on the lid. A box the omega knew Chloe recognised. She smiled at the wide eyes she got from her friend before dawning her hero persona. “Chloe Bourgeois this is the miraculous of the snake, that will grant you the power of change. I, Marinette Dupain-Cheng former hero known as Ladybug, current true holder of peafowl and guardian of the miraculous ask you to join me in the fight to end the terror of Hawkmoth. Will you accept?”

A long tense moment of silence followed after the proposition was finally spoken. Both party’s staring intently at the other, their minds whirling with uncoordinated thoughts and question, as fate awaited an answer.

Hesitantly Chloe broke the silence not with an answer to the question, but with a question of her own. “Am I worthy of a miraculous?” Her self-doubt shining through in the quiver of her voice.

Marinette’s demeaner softened at her friend a surge of reassurance washed over the omega, she made the right choice. “Yes Chloe, you are most definitely worthy of a miraculous,” Marinette assured, but could see that the blond was not fully convinced. “You said it yourself, you have taken the road to better yourself in both in your own eyes and the eyes of others. I and many others have been beside you watching you take that rocky road head on and witnessed the fruit it bore. From all the people you helped with charities and donations, from the kids in the hospital that smile so brightly every time you come to visit, form Trevor and Miranda who practically see you as their own daughter, from our friends that would come running at slightest of whispers of you being in danger. I assure you that you are worthy to wield a miraculous. So will you stand beside me as my partner and friend through the coming battles?”

As the finale words sunk in, Chloe felt her resolve strengthen. Whipping away the tears that had gathered in her eyes she gave her friend another look of determination, as she took the small box from Paris’s true hero hand. “I would be honoured,” the blond spoke receiving a grateful smile from the noirette in return.  

Opening the box, a turquoise glowing orb circled around the alpha, making her reminisce of her first meeting with Pollen, before the orb took on the form of a snake like being. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Chloe. I am Sass, the kwami of change,” the snake kwami spoke. “The feeling is mutual,” Chloe replied sincerely as she took the miraculous from its confines and placed it around her wrist. The band camouflaging the moment it was clipped on. The twisting turquoise band turning into a single rose gold band with two swirls circling a sapphire rose with a few clear diamonds. As the miraculous settled the new kwami and wielder pair turned to the young guardian with Duusu now floating beside the omega.

“I will have you know that I have many questions for Dupain-Cheng,” the female alpha said without any heat behind her glare. Making Marinette give a small at her friend. “I would not expect anything less from you,” Mari sighed light heartily, before she turned a bit more serious once more. “But let me first tell you the full extend of what has been going on.”

Author note: This chapter was honestly hard to write, with the heart to heart between Chloe and Marinette being an especially hard point, but I hope you could still enjoy the chapter it and please tell me what you think of the story so far.

[thelastspeecher]

Spirit Touched - Chapter 1: Little Prince

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6   AO3

Uhhhh so this is the first time I’ve written and posted something for ATLA, and of course it wound up being because of a fanart of a fanfic that I adore.  Basically, yesterday I saw this art drawn by my pal @agent-jaselin.  And that art appeared to apply one of my all-time favorite tropes (de-aging) to one of my all-time favorite fics (Salvage, by @muffinlance).  And dagnabit, I...got inspired.

So, without further ado, here is my interpretation of a theoretical Zuko being de-aged after Chapter 8 of Salvage.  Enjoy.

——————————————————————————————

              Praying to the spirits for guidance was a mistake.  Hakoda could see that now.  He pinched the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt to dispel the headache already forming.

              This is what I get for thinking the spirits might make things easier. Their actions are rarely convenient for us mortals.

              “Bring him to Kustaa,” Hakoda said after a moment.  Toklo nodded and hurried for the healer’s room, his friend in his arms, buried in a pile of furs.  Bato looked at Hakoda.  He raised an eyebrow silently.

              “That’s new,” he said.  The casual tone made Hakoda’s headache pound in full force.  Bato was treating this as just another matter of fact.  Like seeing the former Prince of the Fire Nation reduced to a toddler overnight was just as common as…

              Hakoda’s head hurt too much to even think of something that was common.

              “Yes,” Hakoda finally said.  “It is new.” He was struggling to align the grumpy teenager of yesterday with the toddler he’d just seen drooling in his sleep.

              “How could this have happened?” Bato asked quietly.

              “I asked the spirits for help last night.”  Hakoda scowled.  It was help he’d desperately needed, after Zuko had broken down in front of him and renounced his crown, maybe even renounced his own nation.  And it was help he was obviously not getting. “Apparently, they didn’t want to make things easier.”

              “The spirits work in mysterious ways,” Bato said.  “It’s best to trust in their judgement.  Eventually, you’ll understand why they’ve done…this.” Hakoda eyed his second-in-command.

              “Since when are you so spiritual?”

              “Since meeting the bridge between the spirit world and ours,” Bato said flatly.

              “Fair enough.”  Hakoda sighed.  “I should go speak with Kustaa.”

              “I might be best if you were there when the little prince woke up,” Bato agreed.  He thumped Hakoda on the back.  “At least you’re good with children!”

----- 

              Unlike every other day since he’d recovered from his illness, Zuko didn’t wake up with the sun.  If he didn’t remember how much his own children slept at this age, Hakoda would have been concerned.  He sat in the infirmary, having a hushed conversation with Kustaa while Zuko continued to snore.  The sight of a toddler swimming in furs was painfully cute and reminded Hakoda of when Sokka was young.

              “I’ll be able to get a better examination done once he’s awake,” Kustaa said in a low voice.  “But from what I can tell, he’s perfectly healthy.”

              “He’s a toddler,” Hakoda said.

              “A healthy one.”  Kustaa glanced at Zuko.  “By my estimation, about four years old.  So, almost out of the toddler years.”  Zuko rolled over in his sleep, mumbling something.  Kustaa and Hakoda held their breaths.  Zuko didn’t wake up.  “From what he’s told me, he didn’t get that scar until a few years ago, so I’m not completely sure why he still has it.”

              “The spirits are testing me,” Hakoda moaned.  Kustaa chuckled.

              “No, Chief.  The spirits are testing all of us with this stunt.”  He sighed and leaned back.  “Now would be a good time to have a waterbending healer, to examine his spirit and chi.  But the odds of finding one of those…”

              “Aren’t good unless we stumble across a Northern Tribe ship,” Hakoda said, finishing the healer’s sentence.  Kustaa nodded.  There was movement from Zuko’s pile of furs.  Hakoda and Kustaa looked over.  A small hand fought its way out, followed by a head.  Zuko’s regular scowl was replaced by confusion as he stared at Hakoda and Kustaa, who most likely seemed larger to him than they had yesterday.

              “You’re up,” Kustaa said calmly.  Zuko shoved away the furs he was buried in.  His eyes widened at the sight of his body.  Hakoda grimaced.

              There was a split second of dumbfounded silence before the screaming started.

----- 

              Kustaa wasn’t sure whether he preferred Zuko like this or not.  On the one hand, it would be difficult to run the ship with a literal toddler on board.  But on the other hand, it was much easier to handle Zuko.  He could literally be picked up and carried somewhere else if needed.

              “This doesn’t fit right!” Zuko whined.  Kustaa glanced over at his young charge.  Zuko had insisted on dressing himself in the smallest shirt they could find on the ship.  That smallest shirt came down to past his feet.

              Then again, so will everything else.  Kustaa beckoned Zuko to come.  Zuko scowled but walked over.  Kustaa fought back an amused grin at the firebender’s toddling gait.  While not as severe as it would be for someone younger, it was still evident.

              “Nothing is going to fit right until either we adjust clothes to fit you or purchase ones already in your size,” Kustaa said.  He adjusted the shirt as best he could by pinning it up and wrapping rope around Zuko’s waist to act as a belt.  “Now that you’re dressed, we need to go see the chief.” Zuko’s eyes went wide in horror.

              “No!  I’m not going outside like this.”

              “Everyone knows what’s happened to you,” Kustaa said, getting to his feet. He took Zuko’s hand.  It was small and warm.  “Most of them saw you already, and the rest were informed by either the chief or Bato.”

              “…Fine,” Zuko grumbled.  Kustaa led him out onto the deck.  The moment eyes landed on him, Zuko dropped Kustaa’s hand to hide behind his legs.

              “Wow, you’re barely older than the babes we left at the South Pole,” Panuk remarked.  Zuko didn’t move or speak.

              “I think he’s adorable,” Toklo said firmly, marching over.  He crouched down to Zuko’s eye-height.  “I always wanted a baby brother.”

              “I’m not a baby,” Zuko snapped.  At his high-pitched, youthful voice, Toklo beamed.  “I’m sixteen.”

              “Four,” Kustaa corrected.  Zuko scowled.

              “Either way, that’s not a baby.”

              “Aw, no need to pout,” Toklo cooed.  Zuko’s scowl deepened.  “It’ll be fun having a little kid on board.”

              “Will it?” rumbled Aake.  “We only let men join the crew for a reason.”  Zuko let out a small squeak as Toklo lifted him up and held him out for Aake to see.

              “Try saying ‘no’ to this face,” Toklo said.  Aake’s deadpan expression didn’t change.

              “No.”

              “Were you saying ‘no’ to Zuko or ‘no’ to saying ‘no’ to him?” Toklo asked. Aake shrugged and continued to sharpen his spear.  Zuko squirmed in Toklo’s hold.

              “Let me go!” he snarled.  He broke loose, falling to the deck with a soft thump.  Kustaa waited for the tears that would come from a toddler being dropped. But Zuko didn’t cry.  His eyes were glistening in a way that suggested he was holding back tears, but he remained otherwise stoic.  Kustaa filed this observation away for now.  He walked over to Zuko and pulled him up.

              “The chief needs to talk to you, remember?” he said.  Zuko nodded silently, allowing Kustaa to lead him to Hakoda’s cabin.

----- 

              The moment they set foot inside the cabin, Kustaa could tell Hakoda was going to struggle with not seeing Sokka every time he looked at Zuko.  At least Bato was there to help mediate things.

              “Take a seat,” Hakoda said.  Zuko toddled over to the chair he normally sat in.  After a moment, he climbed onto the seat with obvious difficulty.  Bato stifled a laugh.  “Zuko, we’re not sure why the spirits have done this to you.”

              “Probably because they hate me,” Zuko muttered, crossing his arms.

              “Well, no matter why you’ve been turned into a toddler, the fact of the matter is that it has happened to you.  Generally, we don’t allow children your age to be on our ships.”  Zuko paled and opened his mouth to make his case. Hakoda held up a hand.  “Given your…extenuating circumstances, we won’t be dropping you off at the next port or something like that.  Who knows, maybe you’ll wake up tomorrow sixteen again. Until we have a better understanding of your condition, including how long it might last, you’ll be staying on the Akhlut.  Do you understand?”

              “Yes,” Zuko said with a nod, visibly relieved.

              “Good.  Now, just because you’ll still be on board, don’t expect things to stay the same for you. You won’t be required to do any chores on the ship.  If you want to help, you can, but the crew has been instructed to stop you from overexerting yourself or doing something that might hurt you at your current age.” Zuko’s eyes boggled.  “Additionally, you’ll be sleeping in the infirmary with Kustaa for the foreseeable future.  It will be more comfortable for you.”

              “Understood,” Zuko mumbled.

              “Another change is that you will be expected to do what a child your age must in order to remain healthy,” Hakoda said.  Zuko tilted his head curiously.  “In particular, you will have to take naps.”

              “What?!” Zuko shrieked.

              “We can’t have a cranky, overtired firebender on our wooden ship,” Bato said.  Zuko crossed his arms, scowling.

              “Those are the major changes.  We will adjust things as we see fit,” Hakoda said.

              “Okay.”  Zuko fidgeted in his seat, an abrupt reminder to the men in the room of how hyperactive toddlers were.  “Um, about my clothes…”

              “Go see Panuk and Toklo.  They offered to try to cobble together something for you until we can make port,” Hakoda said.  Zuko ducked his head.

              “Thank you.”  He slipped off his chair and left the cabin, his head held high in an attempt to maintain any dignity.  Once the door closed, Kustaa looked at Hakoda and Bato.

              “He’s not going to act like a toddler if he can avoid it,” Kustaa said. “He’s almost certainly going to resist the reduced workload and naps.”  Hakoda nodded.

              “I agree,” he said solemnly.

              “This won’t end well,” Bato said, shaking his head.  “There’s a reason we wouldn’t normally have someone his age on board.”  There was a loud ruckus from the deck; clattering, heavy footsteps, and Toklo’s voice.

              “Come on, Zuko, it’ll look so cute!”

              “That,” Bato said, “is the reason.”

-----

              Hakoda begrudgingly agreed with Toklo’s assessment.  Zuko was cuter than he had any right looking, walking around the ship with a blanket draped over his shoulders like a cape.  According to Toklo, Zuko had begun shivering while he and Panuk were working on finding something for the new toddler to wear. Toddlers tended to get cold easier, and Hakoda supposed that being a firebender might make Zuko more vulnerable to cold as is.

              “Are you hungry yet, little prince?” Panuk asked.  Zuko looked up from his fumbling attempts at making a net.

              “Don’t call me that,” he snarled.  Panuk patted Zuko’s bald head.

              “All right.  You hungry yet, Zuko?” he asked.  Zuko’s stomach rumbled loudly.  “I’ll take that as a yes.”  Panuk got up. “Come on.  Let’s fill you up with sea prunes.”  Zuko got to his feet and eagerly followed Panuk.  Hakoda watched Zuko toddle across the deck and to the kitchen.

              “You’re getting soft, Chief, I can tell,” Aake, standing nearby, said quietly. Hakoda looked at him.  Aake sighed.  “But I’m getting soft, too.  We left when Sitka was about that age.”  A weary and wistful expression settled on Aake’s face.  “I miss my son.”

              “I miss mine as well,” Hakoda said quietly.  Suddenly, Zuko burst onto the deck, his arms full of sea prunes, running from Panuk.

              “Hey!  You don’t get all of them!” Panuk protested, coming onto the deck as well.  Zuko merely sped up.  Hakoda and Aake’s eyes widened as they realized the former Fire Nation Prince was giggling as Panuk chased him.  Zuko’s lighthearted, childish peals of laughter filled the air. He rushed belowdeck, his blanket still wrapped around his shoulders.  Panuk followed.  A silence fell.  After a moment, Tuluk, who was swabbing the deck, spoke.

              “Well, that was adorable.”

----- 

              Hakoda expected Zuko to hide belowdeck, embarrassed by behaving like a toddler.  But Zuko returned to the deck after a while, seemingly unaware of how childish he had acted. He walked up to various crewmen in an attempt to do some of his old chores.  Each time, he was turned away.  His regular scowl settled on his face, chubby with baby fat.

              “Can’t do anything,” Zuko muttered as he stalked around the deck, his blanket trailing behind him.  He finally sat down next to the mast, pouting.

              “It’s good that you can’t do anything,” Hakoda said, walking over. Zuko looked up.  “Leaving a task in the middle of doing it doesn’t usually produce good results.”

              “Why would I not complete a task?” Zuko asked.  He crossed his arms.  “I’m not really a child, I can focus.”

              “You’d need to take a break for your nap,” Hakoda informed him.  Zuko’s eyes widened.  “I saw you yawning just now.  You’re tired.”

              “No, I’m not!” Zuko said, jumping to his feet.  He shed his blanket cape.  “I won’t nap.”

              “You agreed to take naps.”

              “Only if I needed them.  I don’t. I’m not tired.”  Zuko’s argument sounded eerily like those Sokka made as a child.

              “There’s nothing for you to do anyways,” Hakoda pointed out.  He reached for Zuko’s hand.  Zuko darted away before he could be grabbed.  Unfortunately for his millionth escape attempt, Aake was nearby. Aake picked Zuko up as he ran past.

              “Let me go!” Zuko said, twisting in Aake’s grip.  “Let me go!”  A breath of flame escaped from his mouth.  He suddenly stilled.  Aake handed him over to Hakoda.  Zuko didn’t make a peep as Hakoda carried him across the deck and into the infirmary. Kustaa looked up from the book he was reading.

              “Is it time for my nephew’s nap?” he asked.  Hakoda nodded and set Zuko down.

              “Sleep,” he said firmly to Zuko.  “That’s an order.”  Zuko nodded, visibly cowed.

              “Yes, chief,” he mumbled.  Hakoda turned to leave.  “Sir, I apologize for firebending earlier,” Zuko said suddenly.  Hakoda looked over his shoulder at the toddler.

              “You firebending on accident wouldn’t have anything to do with agreeing to nap, would it?” he asked.

              “Uncle says that sleep works in concert with meditation to control your inner fire.  Children who are too young to know how to meditate only avoid burning down their house by taking…naps.”  Zuko scowled slightly.  “That’s the excuse he gives for being so lazy.”  Kustaa chuckled softly.

              “Judging by what happened on deck, your uncle might be right,” Hakoda said, feigning a casual tone.  Zuko nodded. “Sleep well, Zuko.”

              Hakoda poked his head into the infirmary after he had checked on the rest of the crewmen.  Some of the crew felt Zuko’s current size was an improvement.  Hakoda could see where they were coming from.  Zuko was yet again buried in a pile of furs, his minute arms wrapped around Scuttles.

              “He went down almost right after you left, chief,” Kustaa said quietly.  “I didn’t even need to make him any tea.”

              “Hopefully he won’t argue against naps in the future.”  Hakoda continued to watch Zuko sleep.  The toddler let out a soft snore.  “It’s foolish to expect that he’ll ask for a nap, though.”  Kustaa nodded.

              “I would agree with that.”  Zuko rolled over in his sleep with another snore.

              “Let me know if anything happens,” Hakoda said.

              “Of course,” Kustaa said.  He picked up another book, opened it, and began to read.  Hakoda left the infirmary, closing the door behind him as softly as he could.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #859: Meeting the WarioWare Gang (SSBU X WarioWare)

4:23 p.m. at WarioWare Inc.....

Ashley: (Fixes Up Lucas' Bow Tie) How are you feeling, Lucas?

Lucas: Nervous.....Shaky.... Maybe even a little terrified.....(Turns to Wario) I-Is there a word for all of this?

Wario: (Shrugs) I don't know. Fidgeted?

Lucas: Yeah. That's the one. Fidgeted. I am feeling definitely fidgeted right now.....(Turns to Ashley) Hey, how do I look by the way?

Ashley: (Smiles Softly) You look very handsome today. You really didn't have to wear the bow tie though.

Wario: Yeah. We're only having a picnic at the park.

Lucas: ('Sigh') I know. But Big Sis Ann insisted that I need to look my best for the occasion. This.... isn't too much, is it?

Ashley: It isn't. (Gently Grab Both of Lucas' Hands) And you have nothing to worry about here, Lucas. Everything is going to be just fine.

Wario: Ashley's right, squirt. I known these people for as long as I can remember. They're the most annoying and gullible- (Gets Startled Once He Notice Ashley's Dark Glare Is Pointing Directly at Him) I-I mean, they're the nicest people I know! A-And you don't need to worry about making a bad impression on them or anything. Just stay calm, be yourself, and everything will go good from there.

Ashley: (Genuinely Surprised) Wow, Wario. That's.... actually good advice.

Lucas: Yeah. (Smiles a Little) Thanks, Wario.

Wario: Eh. (Wave his Hand While Rolling his Eyes) It's whatever. I only did it to stop you from being a wuss. (Starts Picking his Nose)

Lucas: (Gets A Bit Grossed Out By Wario)

Ashley: (Gives Wario a Deadpinned Look on her Face) Stop picking your nose, Wario.

Wario: I do whatever I please. (Starts Wiping his Hand on the Side of his Pants)

Ashley: ('Ugh') (Starts Rolling her Eyes) Horridness aside, you think you're ready to do this, Lucas?

Lucas: (Sighs While Nodding) As I'll ever be. (Turns Towards the Office Door)......Y-You don't mind if I count to three before going in, do you?

Ashley: (Giggles Softly) Not at all, Lucas.

Lucas: Thanks! (Takes a Deep Breath) Okay. One......Two....T-

Wario: (Walk Past Lucas to Open the Door) One, two, three. We're going in. (Shoves Lucas Inside the Office) Move it already.

Lucas: Okay! Okay!

Wario: Wahahahaha!- (Gets Stomped on the Toe By Ashley Before Wincing in Pain) YEOOUUCH!!! (Starts Hopping on One Toe) You.... little....yauughh!

Lucas' eyes begins in widened in genuine surprise at the sight of everyone present in the office. Each of which are as colorful, energetic, and lively as Ashley described them to be.

Lucas: Are they really the employees of this company?

Wario: Yep. Each and everyone of them.

Ashley: Pretty lively, aren't they?

Lucas: Yeah..... They're so cool.....

Wario: (Already Getting Impatient) Hurry up and say something already!

Lucas: (Immediately Comes Back to Reality) R-Right!....U-Um!

Everyone in the office came into a complete halt at what they were respectively doing while turning their heads at the timid boy with a bowtie.

Lucas: I...u-um...(Smiles Nervously While Waving Hello to the Employees) H-Hi. I'm not sure if Ashley and Wario told you about me beforehand, but....my name is-

Everyone: LUCAS!!~

Without any hesitation, the employees excitedly rushes over to Lucas and pulls into a group hug/gathering.

Ashley: (Sighs While Having a Deadpinned Look on her Face) So much for toning the excitement.....

Wario: Yep.

Mona: (Giggles Awkwardly While Making her Way to the Duo Along with Penny) Sorry about that, guys.... They've been excited to see Lucas since we first heard about him.

Penny: (Smiles Sheepishly While Watching the Scene Play Out) It's kind of changeling for most of us to maintain our excitement for this long, ya know?

Ashley: It's fine. (Starts Smiling a Little at the Crowd) I'm glad they're taking a liking to him at least.

Mona: Us too.

5-Volt: (Makes her Way to the Trio While Holding a Megaphone in her Hands) Do you mind covering your ears for a second, dears? I got this covered. (Clears Her Throat Before Screaming her Heart Out on the Megaphone) QUIIIIIIEEEETTTTT!!!!!

Everyone stopped what they were doing and have their attention directly towards 5-Volt while letting Lucas go.

5-Volt: ('Sigh') Look, I'm happy to see our guest here as much as you guys are right now, but could you please start settling yourselves down before you give this poor boy a panic attack?

Everyone: Yes, ma'am......Sorry, Lucas.....

5-Volt: (Gives Lucas a Hand With a Soft Smile on her Face) We're sorry about all of that, sweetheart. Are you okay?

Lucas: (Smiles a Bit Sheepishly While Getting Back up on his Face) I'm okay, ma'am. A-And there's really no need apologize for all of that. You all just took me by surprise is all.

5-Volt: Well, as long as you're okay, allow me to properly introduce myself: My name is Mrs. 5-Volt.

Mona: (Smiles Brightly at Lucas) And I'm Mona!

Penny: (Happily Salutes to Lucas) Penny Crygor, at your service! Ashley here told us quite a lot about you as of late~

Ashley: (Eyes Widened While Blushing)

Lucas: She has?

Mona: (Happily Nodded) Mmhmm~ She told us about how much of a sweetheart you are, how much she admires you since day one....

Penny: Ooh! She even told us she has dreams of marrying you som-

Ashley: (Already Flustered in Bright Red) OKAY! How about we introduce everyone else in this room, yeah? (Gives Mona and Penny a Dark Glare) Before my patience starts to dwindle....

Mona: (Shivers in Fear by the Glare Before Giggling Awkwardly) Y-Yeah....That uh....seems to be a good idea right now, right Penny?

Penny: Yep! L-Let's Introduce everyone! (Turns to Lucas with a Bright Smile) Lucas, we want you to meet our whole gang!~ Jimmy T!

Jimmy T: Yo.

Penny: Young Cricket and Master Mantis!

Young Cricket: (Bows Towards Lucas in a Polite and Martial Arts Like Fashion Along with his Master) Please to meet you.

Penny: 9 and 18-Volt!

9-Volt: Hiya!

18-Volt: How's it going, little dude?

Penny: Dribble and Spitz!

Dribble: 'Sup, kiddo!

Spitz: Nice meet ya on this fine day, squirt!

Penny: Kat & Ana!

Kat/Ana: Kon'nichiwa!~

Penny: Our alien friend, Orbulon!

Orbulon: Greetings, young, timid youngling.

Penny: A little girl from Luxeville name Lulu!

Lulu: I'm the hero of my hometown!~

Penny: My grandpa, Dr. Crygor and his assistants, Mike and Doris 1!

Dr. Crygor: It is such a pleasure to finally meet Ashley's future hus- (Gets Startled Once He Noticed Ashley's Dark Glare) I-I-I MEAN boyfriend! Yes.... That's what I meant to say.

Mike: Greetings, Ashley's Boyfriend.

Doris 1: Hello.

Penny: And this is our new addition to the team: Pyoro!

Pyoro: (Happily Squeaks at Lucas)

Lucas: Aww~ Hi, little guy. (Pulls Out his Hand) Nice to meet- (Suddenly Felt Pyoro's Tongue Touching the Palm of his Hand For a Few Seconds Before Putting Back in his Mouth) You.....

Pyoro: (Claps his Arms Happily)

Penny: He can shoot his long tongue to any direction he wants! Neat, huh?

Lucas: (Smiles a Bit Sheepishly) Yeah. He...kind of reminds me of Yoshi in a way.

9-Volt: Hey Lucas! (,Shows Lucas a Tiny Yellow Figure Standing on the Palm of his Hands) I want you to meet my pet: Fronk!

Lucas: Oh uh. Hello, Fronk. (Pulls Out Finger as a Friendly Gesture) It's nice to meet you.

Fronk: (Uses Both of his Hands to Hold Lucas' Finger While Shaking Him Up in Down in the Mid Air Must to His Surprise) The pleasure is all mine, Master Lucas. (Finally Lowers Lucas Down) And I must say, that bowtie of yours looks magnificent on you.

Lucas: T-Thanks, Mr. Fronk....You look great too. (Turns to 9-Volt While Whispering to Him) How is he THIS strong?

9-Volt: (Smiles Sheepishly While Rubbing the Back of Head Back and Forth) I.... might've modified him to have superhuman strength.

Lucas: Woah......B-But anyways, it's really nice to finally meet you all today. My name is Lucas a-and after today......(Closes his Eyes and Shout) I-I HOPE CAN WE BE THE BESTEST OF FRIENDS!

Everyone: (Cheers in Rejoice) YEAH!!!

Ashley: (Sighs While Smiling Sheepishly at Lucas) My darling Lucas~

????: Awwwwwww~

Ashley quickly comes back to reality as her eyes begins to widened before turning around to see Mona and Penny smirking at Her In a teasing fashion.

Mona: Staring at him with that lovey-dovey eyes of yours already?~

Penny: Hmmmmmmmmm?~

Ashley: (Groans in Annoyance While Walking Away) Let's just get this picnic over with.....

An Hour and a Half Later at the Diamond City's Picnic.........

Lucas: Wait. So..... You're telling me that Wario set an entire stadium contest, mistakenly stole a portable potty, and almost cheated all of you out of your money....just to order pizza?

Penny: Yeah.....It was pretty chaotic in those a two and a half days. But at least we had good time regardless. Even after Wario tried to steal our share of the deal afterwards.

Wario: Hey! In my defense, that Gold Challenge was all my idea from the very beginning.

Mona: Yeah, but we still helped.

Everyone (Except For Lucas and Ashley) Yeah!

Lucas: I...gotta agree with them, Wario. That was a pretty jerkish move on your part.

Wario: (Crosses his While Looking Away in Annoyance) Ehh Whatever! I can always scam you losers anytime I want....

5-Volt: (Place her Hand on Wario's Shoulder While Giving him the Dark Glare Herself) What was that?

Wario: (Gets Startled) AHH! N-N-Nothing!! W-Wario didn't say anything! I swear!

5-Volt: (Sighs While Calming Herself Down) I sure hope not....

Everyone: (Giggles Softly at Wario's Dispense)

Lucas: If you don't mind me asking, when was the first all of you have met each other?

Mona: On the day we first started working with Wario. It was supposed to be one time thing, but.....oddly enough, the more we started working on the company together, the more we got more closer to one another than we ever thought we would.

Ashley: (Nodded in Agreement) It's true. While Red and I met them shortly after, our entire relationship with one another has gotten more close overtime. In fact.....(Starts Smiling Softly) Besides the Smash Family, everyone here is.... practically like a family to me. Even if they do get on my nerves sometimes.

Penny: (Heart Begins to Melt in Pure Happiness) Oh, Ashleyyyy~ (Pulls Ashley into a Loving Hug) Thank you!~

Everyone (except for Wario and Lucas) begins to join in on the group hug. Showing Ashley how much she means to each and everyone to them as well.

Ashley: ('Sigh') Thank you so much, everyone.....Now, get off.

Everyone: (Chuckles Lightly as They Pull Away From their Group Hug)

Lucas: (Chuckles Lightly) Even as co-workers, you guys managed to form a close bond with one another. You really are amazing.

9-Volt: (Smiles Brightly) Thanks, man. Ooh! Speaking of which, what's your family like back home? You know, besides the one back in the Smash World.

Wario: (Starts Choking Up on his Food a Little)

Ashley: (Eyes Widened in Horror) Oh no.....

Lucas: Oh. Well, umm....Back at my universe, I have a dad, grandfather, a really great dog named Boney, and a mom and twin brother......(Slowly Starts Frowning Sadly) Or.....at....least I used to have mother and brother.....

9-Volt: Wait. (Starts Frowning a Little in Worry) "Used to"?

Mona: (Frowns as Well) What do mean, Lucas?

Lucas: Well.....um....My mother and brother uh.... They're......gone.

Everyone: ('Gasps')

Penny: (Almost Speechless) G-Gone?

Lucas: Yeah...W-Well, I mean.... They weren't.... "gone" per say. They were....killed if anything.....

Everyone: ('GASPS')

5-Volt: (Covered her Mouth in Anguish) Oh my god.....

18-Volt: H-How!? What happened!?

Everyone: (Starts Rambling On About What is Happening Right Now)

Ashley: Everyone!

Everyone: (Stops at What They Were Doing and Turns to Ashley)

Ashley: ('Sigh') Look, I know all of you have questions in all of this, but... could you please not overwhelm Lucas here? He's been through a lot....

Lucas: (Gives Ashley a Sad Yet Reassuring Smile) It's okay, Ashley. I don't mind telling them what happened.

Ashley: Are you sure you wanna go through with this?

Mona: Yeah. You don't have to force yourself to tell us.

Lucas: (Simply Nodded) I'm sure. It's....not gonna be easy to tell, but... I'll do my best to stay strong throughout it all. (Takes a Deep Breath Before Speaking Again) Okay. So....it all started back in Tazmily Village, my hometown, it was morning time and.....

Regardless of how challenging it was in a few areas, Lucas continues to tell everyone almost everything that happened to him in the past. About Porky, the night that took his mother's live away, the disappearance of his twin brother and the sacrifice he took for Lucas in the later half of his tragedy adventure. As he told them each details, it wasn't long before tears begins to fall down on everyone's faces. Even Ashley started to shed a tear or two as she held Lucas' hand throughout the whole process. The explanation itself only lasted around fifteen minutes as Lucas mentally sighs in relief for lasting this long without breaking himself down.

Lucas: ......And that just about sums up everything that happened. It was.....a rough time for me back then. Losing love ones, getting out of a near death experience....It was a miracle dad and I managed to pull through till the very end without losing our minds. But....on the bright side....(Starts Smiling a Little) It....did taught me to be more brave and mindful over the years. And in a way, I'm kind of thankful for that, cause.... I don't think I would've become the person I am right now it weren't for that and all of the new friends and family I've made along the way. Kuma, Duster, Ness, Red, the Smash Family....(Smiles Down at Ashley) Even you, Ashley. I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me.

Ashley: (Smiles Softly at her Boyfriend) It's really no problem at all, Lucas. If anything, I should be thanking you for being my friend to begin with....(Starts Blushing Again) A-And for being my boyfriend afterwards~ I love you for that....

Lucas: (Smiles Brightly) I love you too, Ash-

Before Lucas could finish saying his girlfriend's name, him and Ashley suddenly gets pulled into a hug by Penny, while she's still in tears.

Lucas: P-Penny!?

Ashley: (Glares at the Gender Girl) What has gotten into you!?

Penny: Sorry! ('Sniff') Didn't mean to ruin the moment. ('Sniff') My emotions are already running all over the place. So....('Sniff') I thought maybe hugging it out....('Sniff') Would help it go down a little, you know? ('Sniff')

Ashley: (Sighs While Rolling her Eyes) Whatever helps you feel better, Penny....

Penny: Thank you! ('Sniff') And Lucas?

Lucas: Y-Yeah?

Penny: ('Sniff') I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that in past and I'm so happy you're doing a lot better now. ('Sniff') And I know what it feels like to lose someone who's close to you, so....('Sniff') If you ever need someone to talk you, I'll always be there to listen and help, okay?

Dr. Crygor: (Joins in on the Group Hug) That goes for me as well, young man.

Mike: And me.

Doris 1: And for I as well.

Young Cricket: We would be honored to help you anyway we can as well.

9/18-Volt: Don't forget about us!

Kat/Ana: And us!

Lulu: And me!!

Mona: And me as well. We'll always be there for whenever you need us, Lucas. Promise.

Ashley: You guys are too helpful....Can you believe them, Lucas?.....Lucas?

Lucas: (Already in Tears) I know we just met and everything, but.... ('Sniff') I'm so glad.....('Sniff') THAT WE'RE FINALLY FRIENDSSS!~

Penny: Oh buddy! Don't cry!~

9-Volt: Yeah! Of course we're friends!~

Ashley: (Sighs Once More as She Hears her Friends Rambling on About Their Newfound Friendship) (So this is where my life has gotten to at this moment.... Being surrounded by a bunch of hyperactive fools and a cute, emotional boyfriend.....) (Smiles Softly) (I love it already.)

5-Volt: (Smiles Tearfully at the Kids Getting Along) ('Sniff') This is do sweet.....

Mantis: (Happily Nodded in Agreement) Agreed. I believe this will be a start of a beautiful friendship together.

Dribble: (Noticed Wario is Sniffing Right Beside him) Hey man, you getting emotional there too?

Wario: N-No! ('Sniff') I-I'm not crying! ('Sniff') I just got something in eye!

Spitz: Yeah? Like what?

Wario: ('Sniff') (Finally Burst Out Crying) YAHHHHHHHAHHHH!!! WHY DOES THE TWERP HAS TO BE SO SADDDDDD!

Dribble: (Starts Snickering) So much for not caring.

Spitz: (Snickering as Well) Yeah. Guess you really do have after al- (Felt Wario's Snot Coming Out on his Sleeve Before Sighing) Nevermind.....

Bonus

Ness: So.... Lucas met these guys yesterday and you're saying that ALL OF THEM wants to join the squad as well?

Ashley: (Sitting Next With All of the WarioWare Crew While Giving Ness Simple Nodded) Yes. All of them.

Mona: (Smiles Softly at the Boy) I hope you don't mind.

Ness: N-Not at all! I was just.... surprised by how many of you are there, you know? But....(Sigh Slowly Turns to Wario) Are you sure letting him join is a good idea?

Wario: (Glares at Ness) HEY! I can be nice and trustworthy as much as any of you losers in this stupid mansion! (Starts Eating his Chips While Looking Away)

Mona: (Smiles Sheepishly) W-We'll make sure he's on his best behavior.

Ashley: Yeah. (Slowly Starts Moving Herself Over to Ness) We'll...make definite sure about that....(Whispers into Ness' Ears) Write his name in the Unofficial category. I don't trust him one bit.

Ness: (Whispers Back to Ashley) Neither do I. (Writes Down Wario Name Down his Clipboard Before Smiling Brightly at the Gang) Welcome aboard, guys!

Everyone: (Happily Cheers in Rejoice)

@26shann

@keyenuta

@caleb13frede

@cyber-wildcat

@ma-lemons

@albion-93

@illyrilex

[pannabethjesus]

A Small Gift: A Jercy Fanfic

Jason tapped his foot nervously, as he stood outside the café. His date was supposed to arrive in ten minutes, and it was all he could do to not glance at his reflection in the glass every ten seconds to fix his hair.

He thought back to an hour ago, when Piper, his best friend, had been fussing over his clothes.

"No, Jason," she'd said, "You can't wear a white jacket on a lunch date. You'll look like a pimp." And with those words, his jacket had been tossed away, and replaced with a baby blue blazer, which went well with his soft pink shirt and black jeans. He had to admit, he did look handsome, and the copious amounts of gel Piper had used to set his hair seemed to be working well, despite his aversion to hair products.

He glanced at his watch, and let his eyes wander over the sidewalk. Where is he? The sun was getting lower, and he was beginning to feel like an idiot but then his eyes met a pair of stunning sea green ones.

Percy Jackson had finally arrived.

Jason felt his chest tighten and loosen, as he struggled to breath. His heart was beating dangerously fast and he could feel the back of his neck break into a cold sweat.

He's here, he's here, he's here- his heart was beating with that rhythm.

Percy was looking amazing in a deep green jacket and a grey shirt, paired with normal blue jeans. His eyes seemed to glow. Jason noticed that he was holding a small bouquet of yellow poppies and his mussed hair and cheeky grin, as he walked over, made his heart skip several beats.

Dammit, I should have gotten something.

Mentally slapping himself, he turned his attention to his date. He took a deep breath and gave Percy a big smile, one he had been holding in since he spotted him. Praying to whatever god was listening, he hoped he didn't look like a fool.

Percy's cologne hit him first and then he registered the dark haired boy grinning in front of him. He must have been nervous too, Jason noticed, because his knuckles were almost white with how tightly he seemed to be holding the poppies.

"Hey, you ma-" Jason began and before he could say anything else, Percy thrust the bouquet into his hands, his face flushing.

"These are for you!" He said, his voice an octave higher than normal. Gone was the look of the cheekiness, replaced by utter shyness. Jason couldn't help his smile at this sudden transformation.

Or maybe you never noticed this side of him before.

'I'll be able to experience more of it, if things go well today. ' He thought.

"I- thank you. These are beautiful." He answered and Percy's face lit up again.

"Really? That's great, my mom picked the-" He stopped immediately, the rose coloured blush making it's way back on his face and Jason had to bite his lip to stop grinning uncontrollably.

"Never mind that. I hope you didn't wait too long." Percy said and Jason shook his head. "Not at all. You're right on time."

He extended the arm that wasn't holding the flowers out to Percy. "Shall we?" He asked.

"Oh yes, absolutely." Percy answered and linked his arm with Jason's, eyes glinting all the way through, as both of them walked inside the café wordlessly.

It was a cozy place, nothing too flashy or gaudy. The interior had pastel coloured walls filled with canvases of paintings in different media, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted temptingly about.

Although it was late afternoon, the darker bits of the café were illuminated by a soft golden light that made Jason's hair glow. Percy caught himself staring at his date several times in the few minutes it took for Jason to find both of them a table.

It was located right next to the large glass windows, from which the street was visible, but also was towards the back, so the chatter of the rest of the crowd wasn't very audible.

Percy took a step forward to pull a chair for Jason, at the exact same moment that Jason did the same for him and they both stood there, watching each other for a few seconds with their hands on the chairs, before laughing.

"Why don't we-" Jason began and Percy nodded. "Yeah, that works." He answered and they both sat down at their respective places, across the small wooden table. He watched as Jason fiddled with the bouquet before realising that he didn't have something to keep the flowers.

"Excuse me, miss!" Percy called out and Jason shot him a confused look.

"Have you already decided your order?" he asked and Percy felt his face warm up.

"No, I was hoping to ask them to get you a vase to keep the flowers in." He said and it was Jason's turn to blush.

"Oh." was all he said before turning his attention to the flowers.

The waitress who came over managed to get them an old jug for the bouquet and Percy watched as Jason placed the flowers meticulously, careful to not let break or bend. The blond's hands moved skillfully and deftly, and Percy marvelled quietly at how good he was.

"Your hands are really good at that."

He blurted out and the full weight of what he said hit him a second later. Jason paused and looked up at him, his icy blue eyes wide and his cheeks flushed.

Jackson??? What the hell???? His brain screamed at him, but he managed to keep his composure.

"Um. That came out wrong." He added and Jason chuckled.

"Thank you, Percy." He said turning his attention to him.

"So.." He began and Percy relaxed. He's just as nervous as I am. But his fingers did a little tippy-tappy dance on the table.

"So..." He responded, staring into Jason's eyes. "This is nice."

Jason tilted his head, a small smile gracing his face. " Yeah. It really is." He paused, considering his next words. Percy's eyes were really distracting and the way he was staring- it was unhelpful for his train of thought to say the least. He shook his head slightly and focused on the table in front of him.

"So, Piper.." Jason began, looking at Percy but avoiding his eyes. "You guys know each other?" He asked. Percy smiled and nodded, seeming absolutely at ease with himself, unlike Jason who was feeling like a dork each passing second- and not in the good way.

"Piper and I met in the college art club in our first week there. I've been into abstract art since I was a kid, so.." Percy trailed off, his smile unwavering.

Jason recalled Piper telling him that. She'd shown him some of his artwork and it was mesmerising.

"I saw some of your work in the exhibition. Percy, it was amazing. You're such a great artist. Have you considered going professional?" Jason asked excitedly. Percy blushed profusely, the smile on his face suddenly falling away and giving way to an expression of an artist not accustomed to praise, which was surprising since he was one of the best.

Percy looked at him with a sincere expression. "Thanks Jason, it means a lot. I considered going pro, but my major is oceanology, so that's what I'm inclined to do." His voice sounded empty as if a little of his cheerfulness had drained out of it. Jason cursed at himself mentally. He'd touched a sensitive topic.

"Oh." He responded, unable to find the words to say. How could he comfort him? It wasn't his place to say. He opted for the softer way out of this.

"Well, Percy, I'm sure whatever it is you decide to do, I'm sure you'll be great at it. Life looks out for people like you, you know?" At that Percy grinned. "You are quite the philosopher, Jason." He rolled his eyes in faux annoyance, feeling nothing of it.

"I'm flattered." He smiled, and then passed a menu to Percy. "I'm also hungry. And I'm guessing so are you."

Percy gratefully took the menu and smiled at him.

"What's your favourite here?" Percy asked and Jason grinned. "Have you had the chicken Alfredo pasta? It is to die for." Percy put down the menu and looked at Jason, his eyes sparkling and his face shining as if withholding a secret.

"What?" Jason inquired, fiddling with his menu, as Percy's eyes bore into him, sending electricity down his spine.

"What are the odds?" Percy wondered out loud. "What are odds," he repeated, "that my date and I would have the same favourite food, especially on our first date?" Jason's heart thumped loudly.

"No way." He said quietly, failing to repress a giggle.

"I think I'm in love with you already."

He blurted out and Percy laughed.

"I can't blame you, Grace, I'd fall in love with someone who was a fan of chicken pasta too."

And with that, he winked at Jason, who suddenly felt like the air was being ripped from his lungs and in the best way possible.

They ordered the food, talking back and forth about college, about everything and about nothing at all. The hours slipped away, the sun went lower and lower and gave way to shimmering moonlight. And they kept talking.

When it was finally time to leave, Percy and Jason walked out the door, the former shivering because of the cold. Jason instinctively put his arm around him, and Percy blushed.

"Oh-" He began, but Jason pulled his arm back.

"I'm so sorry, oh god, I didn't mean to." He sputtered out, his face warming up uncomfortably. Even in the dark, Percy's eyes still unravelled something inside of him and he had to make an effort to keep himself pulled together.

But Percy just silently took his arm and wrapped it around his waist, holding it there.

"Thank you for the warmth." He said and Jason relaxed.

They walked to the university dorms, and in the midst of a comfortable silence, their hands touched and wordlessly, intertwined. The flowers Percy had given were awkwardly tucked under Jason's arm but they were there. There was no further awkwardness, nothing that felt wrong.

Percy's heart felt light, as if a burden had been lifted off of him. He felt at home with Jason. Those five hours with him gave Percy more happiness than he'd felt in a long time in his life.

He had been meaning to ask out Jason for a long, long time and when Piper told him that it was his birthday, he knew it was the time. So three days before Jason turned nineteen, Percy asked him out on the date. Jason didn't know that Percy knew, and the small box that Percy carried in his jacket pocket felt heavier as both of them approached closer to Jason's dorm room.

As they reached, Jason stopped in front of the door and took out his keys with one hand. The other one still held fast onto Percy's. He turned to face the brunet and in the dim golden light of the hallway, he could he the pink tip of Percy's nose. He really liked it.

"So, this is my stop." Jason said and Percy nodded.

"Yep."

"So, is Piper there?" He asked, trying to make conversation but Jason shook his head. "I don't think so, she might be with a classmate of ours. Annabeth? I don't know if you know her."

Percy shook his head. "Never heard of her."

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah."

Jason started to turn to face the door again but couldn't. Percy was watching him quietly and he didn't want to leave yet. They stared at each other, not wanting to leave, but having no idea what to tell the other. Then Jason steeled his nerves. He had been too much of a mess this evening.

"Percy, thank you for tonight. I loved it. And thank you for the flowers. I had a really great time."

Percy smiled brightly, his heart beating faster.

"Of course, Jason. I really enjoyed with you too, and I wish we had more time together but..." He trailed off. But Jason knew.

Life was hectic, university was stressful. But here they were, in their own moment of peace. That's what mattered right now.

Percy looked at Jason. He was beautiful. There was no other way to describe him. His icy blue eyes made his heart stop. And the tiny scar on his upper lip which almost vanished when he smiled made Percy want to kiss him and know how that scar felt. He was very much aware of how close they were and how his hand was held in Jason's. The scar on his lip was mere inches away, a tiny little shard of lightning.

Lightning! He thought and did a mental pat down to check if the box was still there. Sighing slowly, he let go of Jason's hand and pulled the tiny turquoise box out.

"I, um, got this for you.." He began and Jason gave him a surprised look.

"You didn't have to." He said but Percy shook his head.

"No, I did. Piper told me you liked charms so, here's one from me."

He said and lifted the lid.

Jason gasped when he saw what was in the box. It was a tiny, silver charm in the shape of a lightning bolt. Don't cry, Jason. Don't freaking cry. Do not. Nope.

He took the box quietly and turned the charm in his hand.

"This- Percy, I don't know what to say. This is beautiful..." He said and Percy bit his lip. "I'm glad you like it." He answered softly.

Jason looked up from the charm at Percy. His face was flushed.

Then he looked straight into his soul-melting green eyes, not caring how his heart suddenly was sprinting at twenty miles an hour and how his own face was probably redder than a strawberry.

"You're full of surprises." He half-whispered. To his surprise, Percy smirked and raised his eyebrow, leaning in closer. He whispered back.

"Do you have the heart for one more?"

Jason could have sworn he stopped breathing but he managed to answer any way.

"What do you have in mind?"

And that was it.

The wall came crashing down between them as they closed the distance between themselves. Percy finally knew what the scar felt like against his lips and it was nothing less than magical. The world was a blur, everything melted away and all that was important was that he was here, and Jason was here.

The kiss lasted mere seconds but Jason felt like an eternity had passed. When Percy pulled away, he struggled to breathe. He gasped and closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath. Percy didn't seem to be doing much better.

"I've been waiting a long time to do that." He said and those words made something bloom inside Jason's chest.

He somehow found the words to speak.

"Trust me, so have I."

Percy started laughing. And before he knew it, Jason was laughing too. Both of them were laughing quietly, marvelling at what had just happened and how there was nothing but pure joy behind it.

But once they stopped, Percy looked at him, his date, the golden haired boy, who had stolen his heart since the first time he had seen him. He knew it was getting late. "I'll see you around?" He asked hopefully and Jason nodded. "Absolutely. I'll see you tomorrow." He said and Percy's heart did a backflip. Tomorrow. Another day with him.

But for now, tonight was enough. Tomorrow would be dealt with when it came. Percy reached over and kissed Jason's cheek, who was still flushed from their kiss.

"Happy birthday, Jason." He said and turned around to go to his own dorm room, leaving behind a very perplexed and flustered blond.

***

"You're back! Did you guys kiss? Did he dance? Where did you eat? How was it?" Piper shot questions at Jason as soon as he entered his room.

His head was still spinning from all the amazing things that happened within a few hours.

"Weren't you supposed to be with Annabeth?" He asked, taking his jacket off, the charm still tucked inside his fist.

She waved him off and jumped up from the sofa. "Nah, I came back early."

"Oh." He said and collapsed onto the sofa, staring up at the ceiling.

Piper gazed at him. He looked like he was glowing and her heart softened. She sat back down next to him, and patted his leg. "So.." She began softly. "I take it, it went well?" She asked and Jason sighed happily. "It was more than well." He said and sat up, looking at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"You got something to say, Sparky?"

Jason's eyes glinted and he grinned.

"Oh, I have a lot to tell you."

...

Fin.

[emerywrites]

Fanfic: “Please don’t make a fuss”

So, I recently got back into Harry Potter and reread all of the books. Percy Weasley is one of my favorite characters and since its his birthday I wrote a fic. I hope that people enjoy it. :) 

 Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Percy hated anyone making a fuss about his birthday. For twenty years he got away with passing it by with little acknowledgement. One year his daughters decide to change that.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: survivors guilt, PTSD

Percy always did his best to ignore his birthday. During the time that he had been estranged from his family, he had seen little reason to make a fuss about his birthday and the habit had stuck with him. Soon after he and Oliver had reignited their relationship, he told him that he didn’t want any birthday celebrations. Oliver had respected that other than a small gift and a “Happy birthday, love” the morning of August 22nd every year.

When Molly and Lucy were old enough to understand birthdays, things had changed, of course. They insisted on making homemade cards and having a cake. Percy allowed it and ate a small piece of cake as he admired their artistic efforts.

He remembered some particularly interesting cards on his birthday after they’d turned five. “That’s you, Daddy, and that’s me and that’s a dragon!” Molly had explained as she pointed to barely discernable shapes she had drawn in crayon.

“Oh, a dragon, how unique, dear,” he said to his daughter before leaning over to mutter to Oliver, “She’s been spending too much time with Charlie.”

Lucy showed him her own art of their family playing quidditch and Percy had been just as encouraging. It was easy to enjoy a birthday with small children who were an easy distraction. When they were young, he could allow his birthday to be more about them than himself.

But as they got older, that changed. His daughters wanted to get him gifts with their pocket money. They asked why they had birthday celebrations at the Burrow for everyone else in the family and why they went to see Papa’s family on his birthday, but never did any of that for Daddy. It was difficult to explain the complicated emotions that went along with Percy’s desire to not think about his birthday. So, he never did. He only ever said that all he wanted for his birthday was peace and quiet with his husband and daughters.

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

Molly and Lucy were fifteen and August 22nd had come around yet again. They successfully avoided mentioning his birthday other than a kiss on his cheek that morning with a “Happy birthday, Dad”. The rest of the day was spent in Diagon Alley getting their school supplies and of course a special gift for Molly for being made prefect and Lucy for being made captain of the quidditch team. Percy was more than happy to make their successes the focus of the day.

After they got home, Molly ran upstairs to try on her new robes with her prefect’s badge. Moments later she came running back down. “I can’t find my badge!” Percy promised her that they would look until they found it.

Then Lucy piped up with, “I think you left it at the Burrow yesterday, when we went to show Grandmum and Granddad.”

Molly gasped. “You’re right! We have to go get it, right now.”

“Alright,” Percy agreed. “Ollie, you take Molly to get the badge. Lu and I can get started on dinner.”

“Dad, you know how Gran is, she’ll be disappointed if we don’t stay for dinner,” Molly told him. “We should all go.”

That was when Percy got suspicious. But he didn’t want to act paranoid and relented into going along. He side-long apparated with Lucy and Oliver with Molly. When they showed up outside of the Burrow, Percy immediately knew something was wrong. None of his nieces or nephews were outside running around. Usually there were at least a couple of them always underfoot no matter where you went around the Burrow.

He got a bad feeling that he knew what was about to happen. “Ollie, I’m not feeling too well. The three of you can stay. I’ll just go back…” But the three of them were already going up to the door. Percy followed, feeling his stomach twist into a knot as he desperately hoped that he was wrong in his prediction.

They entered the Burrow, just for the entire family to shout, “Surprise!” Every one of his siblings and their families were there, crammed inside his childhood home. It was overwhelming to see all of their smiling faces, there for him. Percy’s first instinct was to bolt and he would have if it had not been for him backing straight into his husband’s strong chest. He swallowed hard and plastered on a grin.

Percy kindly thanked them for such an amazing surprise. Everyone explained how it had all been Molly and Lucy planning the whole thing. Oliver hadn’t even known about it as the girls knew that he could never keep a secret from Percy.

Percy told himself, he would just get through the evening. He could do it. He’d often enough kept up a façade for politicians and department heads that he had to socialize with. He’d managed to trick Death Eaters into thinking that he wasn’t a threat to their take over of the ministry. It should be easy to pretend to his family that he was happy on his birthday.

They all sat outside at tables magically extended to their limit to hold the, what seemed to be, ever-growing number of Weasleys. Percy sat next to Oliver who was holding an enthusiastic conversation about quidditch with Ginny. His daughters were a bit further down the table talking animatedly with their cousins. He caught a few words of Molly bragging about her new status as prefect in the up-coming school year. Percy tried not to think about his twin brothers’ teasing about “perfect prefect Percy” and how he kind of wished he could reminisce with Fred and George about it. And, now he was thinking about Fred…

Percy hadn’t even noticed that his mother had gone inside. Then she was suddenly coming back out into the garden, floating a towering chocolate cake that had his name in icing. Freddie and Roxanne’s set of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes patented fireworks flashed and screamed through the sky. Percy thought he was going to throw up. He flinched and saw flashes of the walls of Hogwarts castle coming down… Fred’s lifeless eyes…

Percy stood abruptly, knocking his chair backwards. Everyone’s attention turned to him. Smiles faded from their faces when they saw the panicked expression he wore. “I have to go,” he said shakily.

He ran inside, knowing that there was no way he was steady enough to apparate. The intention was to take the floo home but the powder was not on the mantle where it usually was. He was about to try and summon it when Oliver came running in.

“Percy! Percy, what happened out there?” Oliver’s voice was so concerned and that just made Percy feel worse for making a scene.

“I can’t do this, Ollie,” he said hoarsely. There was a lump of emotion in his throat that made it difficult to get his words out. “I can’t be here.”

“Why not, love? I know you don’t like people to make a fuss about your birthday but the girls really wanted to do something special. They wanted to give you a proper birthday.”

“And they are lovely for wanting to do that. But you don’t understand!” How did he explain it? How could he, when saying it out loud would hurt more than anything?

Then Oliver was much closer. He put his hands on either side of Percy’s face and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears that Percy didn’t even realize he had shed. “Love, you’re scaring me. What is going on?”

Percy gently took his wrists and pushed the hands away. “I hate my birthday,” he said slowly. “After… after I left, I stopped caring about my birthday. I had my work and it just felt like another distraction.”

Oliver nodded. “So, you’re out of practice in celebrating. We can fix that. We’ll just start a bit smaller next time.” He laughed as if it was that easy.

“That’s not it!” he snapped. He was shouting. He didn’t mean to be but no one understood and they wouldn’t until he got it out. He couldn’t help but look away toward the fireplace. The words that sat on the tip of his tongue weren’t supposed to be out there. They were meant to stay there in his heart, slowly eating him alive. At least there, they couldn’t damage anyone else. “My birthday is just a reminder, Ollie! It’s a reminder that I get another year, year after year! I get to grow old and Fred doesn’t! It’s a reminder to my family that the wrong son survived! I can pretend… I can pretend that I’m okay if I just don’t let anyone make a fuss about celebrating. It feels wrong to make them celebrate it.”

Percy finally allowed himself to look at Oliver. His husband was staring at him, his mouth opening and closing like he didn’t know what to say, but was struggling to find the words. But just past Oliver, standing at the threshold of the kitchen, was his father looking at him with pain-filled eyes.

“Is that what you really believe?” Arthur asked as he approached. “That we think the wrong son survived?”

Percy really wished he had just pushed through and gotten to the end of the dinner. He should have found a way to keep the smile on his face and his bum in his chair. Now, he was hurting his father all over again. “No!” he tried to lie. “I…it’s…” Both his father and his husband looked at him with pity and that was humiliating. There was no point in lying when they could see through him like a ghost. “Yes, that’s… that’s always what I believed. How could I not? It felt like the cost of me returning to the family was Fred’s life. Like it was some sort of horrible exchange. And you lost, someone as well-loved as Fred to get me… the broken one who came back too late.”

“None of us have ever thought that,” Arthur said with an adamant shake of his head. “Losing Fred was a tragedy. That loss is always going to be there. But I also got a son back that day, Percy. And I apologize, that we obviously didn’t do enough to make you feel fully welcomed back and that you thought we wouldn’t want to celebrate having you.”

“Dad, you don’t need to-” But then his dad was hugging him. It was strange. He tried to remember the last time his dad had hugged him like that. It had been a while.

When he was eventually released, he realized that Oliver had slipped out of the room. His dad looked at him and cleared his throat. “If you need to go home, I can tell everyone that you weren’t feeling well. But I think everyone would really love for you to stay.”

“I’ll stay,” he said softly as he adjusted his glasses. “Molly and Lucy did put a lot of work into this.”

The reassurance had been needed but the fear of being unwanted still sat like a heavy stone on his chest. But then he followed his dad back outside to the garden. Everyone turned to look at him and in overlapping voices said how happy they were he came back out. George came out of nowhere to throw an arm around his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I told the little troublemakers to cool it with the fireworks,” George whispered into his ear. “They can set me off too sometimes.”

Then George was pulling him over to the cake, sitting on the table. The candles had been placed and were alight. A spell had been used to keep the wax from melting onto the icing. Molly and Lucy ran up beside him.

“Make a wish, Dad!” Lucy encouraged.

Percy let his eyes fall shut for a moment as he made his wish. Then he opened them again and blew out the candles. Everyone cheered and his mother gave him a kiss on the cheek before she went to serve the cake.

The overwhelming love he felt in that moment was almost too much. It had soothed his fear to the point that it had gone dormant. It would come back but he had a feeling its potency had been dulled.

“What’d you wish for?” Lucy asked softly.

“For every birthday to be as amazing as this one,” he replied.

[curious-shadow-cat]

Sleep

Made a Chuck/Papa G fanfic. Lemme know what you think. I don’t really like writing fanfics I mostly enjoy drawing comics. Oh well. Gotta get better at writing though somewhere I guess. I’m putting it under ‘Keep Reading’ ‘cause it’s a little long.

It's been a couple months for Chuck on this planet Earth. He's been living with George, or Papa G, in his house ever since he was thrown off his cowardly ex leader's ship. He thought it was a bad idea at first, especially since he caused them so much trouble, but George wouldn't take 'No' for an answer and immediately started fixing up that spare room he used to use as storage. He found some planets and hung them up from string on the ceiling over his bed. He painted the walls with other planets and some big stars. The nightstand and dresser were painted blue and black. There was a UFO lamp on his nightstand by his bed, it looked like it was abducting a cow. Chuck kinda likes it, he thinks it's a little silly. Where you'd walk in, you'd see the bed across the room by the oval shaped window. The floor was made of wood and there was an oval shaped rug that was black with two yellow rings on the outside and had Earth and the moon on the inside. He even had his own little T.V across from his bed on the dresser with some VHS tapes that Papa G found, or some that he bought from Jo. Most of them being about Action, some of them Horror, others were Romance. When Chuck first saw his new room he nearly cried. He never had his own room. Never looked as nice as this. Chuck wasn't sure how to thank him. He's a strange old man but he was kind and caring. But he later found out that George was struggling with money so he decided to get a job working at Mo's Oasis Cafe. It was a difficult week, new customers coming in, giving him some trouble but Tuna was kind enough to show them the Exit. Some were friendly. Some of them asked him quick questions like: Where he was from, how old was he, and his favorite: Was he single? But others would give him cold glares when he'd go back in the kitchen. He mostly cleaned the dishes but would sometimes take the customer's orders if Jo was running late or sick. Which was barely. After a little while, work got better. There were some problems here and there but not enough to wanna make him quit. Besides, coming home to see Kid running up to him excitedly to tell him everything he did today was nice. Or coming home to see George made him dinner and found something cool while him and Kid were exploring the desert, lookin' for treasure, and wanted to give it to him.

     When they all went out to explore with Jo, Rosa and Tuna to see if anything new popped up in the desert, Papa G decided to bring some paper and pencils and crayons this time. Later he Sat down by a rock and started drawing something. Rosa wasn't interested in art at the moment, she was busy playing Princess and dragons with Chuck, Kid and Jo. Kid was the dragon and Jo was the wizard protecting Knight Rosa and Princess Chuck. Papa G kept glancing up at them and smiling. Eventually Rosa got tired and started picking flowers for Chuck, Jo and Kid. Everyone was eating snacks except George. He was focused on his drawing. As Chuck was eating some ice cream he noticed that George was staring at him. When he looked at him he quickly looked back down at the paper and continued drawing. He blinked. He was he...? No-he thought; he's probably drawing something else. He continued eating.

The sun was setting and it was time to head home. Papa G was carrying sleeping Rosa with one arm while holding his drawings and pens in the other. Jo was carrying sleeping Kid on her back. Papa G helped Chuck get his wheel chair in the back of the truck and helped him in. They all went home. George brought Kid back to the little trailer and tucked him in bed. He gave him a kiss on his head and turned out the light.

Papa G:"Sweet dreams kiddo." He whispered and went to the house. Chuck was in his room lying on his bed and watching T.V. He was finishing up one of the action movies until George came in."Well, G'night Charles. I'm going to bed. If ya need anythin' wake me up."

Chuck:"Good-night George." When he shut the door something fell to the floor from his pocket. Chuck got down and picked it up. It was one of his drawings. He gasped silently when he saw that some of these sketches were him. So he was drawing him! There's one where he seems happy with flowers that Rosa picked on his head, one where he's eating ice cream and another....he's sleeping? He looked confused. He doesn't remember sleeping. He can't actually remember when the last he actually had a good-night sleep. He's always been wide awake when he was on gaurd on the ship. Anytime he'd get tired, he'd force himself awake. It's what you had to do. Either that or be punished. He heard the credits song playing. The movie had ended. He looked back at his bed. He shrugged. Well...he wasn't back on the ship anymore... what harm could sleeping do now? He turned off his lamp and covered up under the blankets. He looked out the window on his right and was watching the stars until sleep finally took over him.

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The alarms were going off.

Something was very wrong.

Chuck found himself wide awake in his old bed. He had his legs back and gun in hand. He jumped out and ran out the door.

Chuck:"W....why am I here? I thought I was--"

PEWWW!

He was nearly hit with a ray to the face. He dodged it and it hit another soldier. Killing them instantly. He started running as more shots were fired. Killing or injuring his team. Smoke and screams filled the air.

Chuck:"I need to get out of here!" His heart was beating against his chest. He was so confused and afraid. Was he kidnapped? Was any of this real?! Why was this happening? The walls blew up and he hit the ground with the wall landing on top of him. He struggled to break free. He called for help but the soldiers kept running. They were ignoring his cries for help. He felt something on top of him slowly begin to crush him. He looked up. Glaring down at him was a mechanical monster with large glowing red eyes. It opened it's mouth showing rows and rows of sharp teeth. He tried reaching for his gun across from him but he couldn't grab it. The creature came closer towards his head. He couldn't do anything. He screamed. It was all he could do.

"Chuck!"

He stopped screaming when he heard that familiar voice.

"George?"

"Chuck!"

The voice was coming from behind him. He looked at the monster. No longer did it seem all that terrifying. It was giving him a look of concern...?

"Chuck! Wake up, Chuck! It's all a nightmare!" It spoke in George's voice.

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Chuck opened his eyes finally and found himself on the floor by his bed with the blankets wrapped around him. George was over him with a worried look on his face. He was still in his pajamas and was wearing his glasses. Chuck sighed, he was relieved it was all a dream. George smiled.

George:"Haha....you gave me quite a scare there..." He helped him up back on the bed and fixed the blankets."Alright, no more ice cream and popcorn before bed." He said, he was joking kinda. He could see that Chuck was still shaking."I know, wanna come down stairs and watch T.V with me? I'll make some tea." He spoke softly. Chuck calmed himself down.

Chuck:"Uh, alright then." Instead of taking his wheel chair, Papa G carried him down stairs to the living room and placed him on the couch. He went in the kitchen and made them both tea. He sat back down next to Chuck and they both watched some T.V for a little while. George finally spoke up.

George:"So you finally went back to sleep."

Chuck:"Hm?" They looked at each other.

George:"I've seen you sleep before but it wasn't long 'till Kid woke you up when he and Jo started blasting music. You nearly hit me in the head with that glass cup. Do you remember that?" Chuck tried to remember but nothing came up. He shook his head no. He was frowning. "Anythin' you want to talk about?"

Chuck:"There's nothing really to talk about. I'm pretty sure I've told you about all my adventures in space." He took a drink of his tea.

George:"I can tell you left out some of the worst ones from Kid. You and I both know it's not all fun and games in Space." Chuck looked away from him. "If you don't wanna talk about it, it's fine. If you need someone I'm right here for ya Charles." He smiled and took a drink. Chuck looked back at him. He already knew he could put his trust in George. But hearing him say those words out loud made him feel better.

Chuck:"Thank you, George. That means a lot." He never noticed it until now but he was so tired. He never knew he was this tired. But he wanted to stay awake a little longer. They watched T.V all night with blankets wrapped around them. George was leaning on the arm of the couch and Chuck was starting to lean on George. He felt his arm around him, gently pulling him close and held his hand. Chuck squeezed it gently and laid his head on his shoulder. He closed his eyes. He felt his worries slowly disappear and soon fell asleep.