#and i got a small electric shock when lightning struck

[nat-stimmy]

ITS SUPPOSED TO BE AOMETHING… ive been going wuh woh for a little bit. THAT SOUNDS SO SCARY…. ty sm i hope youre safe aswell if sirens go off i think ill become the this is fine dog

LKJFDKSLJDFSL it was pretty nerve-wracking but its ok it seems to be over now and the power is STILL ON so i get to keep making stim gifs

[sharksandjays]

Once again rambling about Jay and his awesome power. One thing I've noticed about him, especially with his power, is that it seems to tax him a lot more than the others' does. Probably because of the power and intensity of lightning. I've seen so many posts about how Jay uses a very small voltage when he fights because he doesn't want to hurt people, but what seems to be supported by the canon is that it also hurts him. Every time he deals with pure lightning bolts (rather than just shocks), he seems to hurt himself in the process. This is proven in season 14 when he is literally sparking after recharging the ship.

And judging by his expressions, it's affecting him. It hurts and exhausts him.

And in season 6 and season 8 we see how dealing with direct bolts of lightning affects him. In season 6, he screams when it hits him.

And in season 8, he gets physically exhausted for a moment after redirecting.

At least from what I have seen, this is very different from the other ninja, who seem to be able to control their elements-for the most part-at different intensities without it affecting them. (Aside from Lloyd.)

Which just brings me to the point that I personally believe that Jay's power is the most powerful of the creation elements. He doesn't use it to its full potential (and KO enemies, like he could) because, while he can handle like 900 million volts (in season 6 he's struck by like 3 direct bolts of lightning, and survives), that doesn't mean he will be combat ready after that.

This might also be why Wu brought him into the team early (with Cole). He probably needed a lot more training on pain tolerance, keeping the mind and body calm, and probably lots of other endurance training. (Which is indirectly canon with how well he was able to handle Nadakhan's mental and physical torture vs the other ninja.) His power is so unpredictable, and so his training must have been very rough when he first got his powers, which is once again supported by the canon as both Nya and Lloyd talk about how he destroyed the South(?) Wing of the Monastery with an electrical fire while practicing his powers. Wu probably had to focus on his control a lot more than with the other ninja (probably like how he had to with Nya, if you think about it. Lightning and Water are both hard to control, so concentration would be key to learn for both of them, which is ironic with Jay's fanon ADHD).

Point is, Jay is super cool and so underrated sometimes. I really think it'd be cool if the show went more into how their powers affected them! Though speculation is also fun.

Anyways. Jay with the lightning chicken because they would be (are) besties.

[missr3n3]

Augusnippets Day 31

snowed in/secret alien/twitter arguments

prompt generator used fandoms: all of them CW: surprising amount of major character death, minimal proofreading word count: 850 (i'm so sorry) @augusnippets

On a cold night in Hoelbrak, Hazel accompanied Willow’s quest to find more stray cats, because the ten that already roamed the Grove were obviously not enough. During their journey, they found a cave beneath a waterfall. Venturing into the cave, they found two humans, one scared shitless, and the other taking a nap.

The awake human introduced herself as Sophie, and her unconscious companion as Ben. They somehow ended up in the alcove after something called a “cruise ship" crashed into it. As Hazel asked Sophie a million questions about what a cruise ship was and how it worked, Willow left to continue her search for a cat. She found what she was looking for out in the forest: a small, gray tabby.  But when Willow attempted to coax the “cat" her way, a wormhole opened up and the cat jumped through.

The “cat" was not a cat at all, but an ageless interdimensional being. He grew tired of roaming Tyria and sought a different land to explore: one he visited before. He crept from under his minion, Peter's, bed.

“There you are!” The man with a missing eye cooed as he spotted the furry critter. “I've been looking all over for you, Mittens!”

Mittens quickly gathered why Peter was eager to find him, and why Sarah was staying with her former abuser. She originally intended to simply visit him, see how he was recovering from the Easter Incident. Then a huge blizzard hit Ohio and they all got stuck inside.

Just great, more cold.

Meanwhile in Detroit, another ill-tempered group was snowed in: not in a rickety farmhouse, but an elaborate mansion.

“Norman was supposed to be back with firewood half an hour ago,” Officer Wong grumbled through chattering teeth.

“Well, you know how traffic around here is on a good day,” Steve countered.

“I knew we should've found a better way to dispose of the bodies,” Isabelle whined. “I don't think Kenny or Manny would burn all that well, but it'd at least be something!”

Just as Manny's name left Isabelle's mouth, five bolts of lightning struck the mansion at once, killing everyone inside and leaving Norman, who was waiting in line at Whole Foods the entire time, homeless.

Many years later, paranormal enthusiasts Aaron, Joshua, and Selena were investigating the burnt remnants of the Murder Mansion. They needed to do something to unwind – especially Selena, who had to singlehandedly kick Azrael and Melani's monster asses.

As Aaron entered the remains of what he guessed was the living room, a loud crackling boom echoed right behind him

Oh God, what’s Selena doing this time!?

To Aaron's surprise, Selena was not fighting more monsters behind him. He'd never seen the two people standing behind him in his life. One was an older man with reddish-brown hair and scars around his eye. The other was a microscopic little guy dressed in black denim with bandaged hands.

“Well shit, this isn't the void,” Mark noted.

“See, I told you that wouldn't work,” he chided the kinda sorta saint.

With another boom, the two soft grunge boys vanished.

A few months later, Cain was down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. He was researching the case of the Vanishing Duo while he had Llywelyn's laptop precariously perched on the side of the bathtub.

Just as he was about to see if anyone else was talking about the case on MySpace. Llywelyn was thrown through the bathroom window by the Fisherman, who was still salty about him taunting the dumbness of trying to waterboard a fish. Jumping from sheer shock, Cain dropped the laptop into the bathtub, which started an electrical fire that blew up the whole house.

Years later, YouTuber Elijah Hardy made a video about the Exploding Fish Boy Incident, which got him cancelled on Twitter for the fifth time in a row. His sixth cancellation, however, was the one that finally stuck. It was cause by him making his first True Crime Video – covering the case of Roderick, Kevin, Sam, Jeremy, and Rachel mere hours after it went down. The Red Dragon Productions crew – Leah, Joshua, and Isaac – also got cancelled for defending Elijah. They didn't know about the plot of “pull your hands away!” by missr3n3 yet. Madeline also got cancelled for defending RDP.

This feud drew Cairyx's attention to Twitter. He figured out he could get into people's houses through their Twitter accounts, told all of his electric spider alien buddies about this, and they all banded together to murder every Twitter user.

This basically caused an apocalypse, with only a few people who didn't have Twitter accounts surviving. One was Jessie Simmons, who never made a social media profile beyond her Facebook. This same strategy is what saved Ida and Proto. Arthur was too young to be allowed on the internet unsupervised. Wes exclusively used Pinterest. Brandon's abusive parents wouldn't let him go on the internet period, lest he figure out they were also involved in the Peace Cult. And the incredibly lucky Dr. North deleted her account a week before the world ended.

[fantasyconcrete]

"Runestone bullets?" Kiran repeated, looking incredulous.

"That's right!" the gunshop owner confirmed with a nod. "A new invention, from the U.S, of course. Each round has a tiny, single-use runestone inside that activates when it's fired."

"Uh huh." Kiran picked up one of the rounds on display. A pictogram of fire was carved into the back of it, clearly indicating it contained a fire rune.

"...Runestones aren't disposable." She stated. Jeffrey nodded again.

"Yes, that's generally true. But these stones are too small and cheaply made to be used more than once."

"Okay. You mind if I test them out?"

"Not at all, go right ahead. I promise you won't be disappointed."

Though still skeptical, Kiran took a few prepared magazines to the firing range. First up was the fire bullets. She aimed her gun, squinted down the sights, and BLAM

The target was immediately engulfed in flames spreading out from the bullet hole. Kiran stared in surprise as it burned. "Wow."

"Good stuff, yeah?"

"...There's no way this stuff is legal."

"Since when have you cared about legality?"

Kiran laughed in response - he was so right - and fired off more rounds, quickly reducing the target paper to a blackened mass. Once the magazine was depleted, she replaced the target and loaded up the ice rounds. This time, the paper was frozen solid in a block of ice.

The lightning rounds were a bit more dangerous; electricity shot out from the impact point and struck the gun, shocking Kiran and making her drop it.

Acid rounds quickly reduced the target to a bubbling mess on the floor.

Kiran stopped to examine the last magazine before loading it in. "Explosive rounds? Are they safe to use here?"

"Uh, probably. Can't make that big a boom, right?"

"Mmm."

As it turned out, the boom was, at the very least, big enough to damage the walls of the firing range, send the target to oblivion, and knock Kiran and Jeffrey to the floor.

"Ow, fuck."

"Ugh, okay, that one requires some care, yeah?" Jeff groaned as the two of them got up.

"I'll take a thousand of each flavor."

"Even the boom rounds?"

"Even the boom rounds."

[sparkerinparadise]

ALRIGHT GAMERS!! HERE’S YOUR EXPLANATIONS!! (from top to bottom, true statements are in green and the false statement is in red. contains spoilers up to the most recent update as of writing this post, “bob sparker and the static addicts”)

protagonist attempts murder on live television and gets away with it: TRUE. after finding out that the game show killer’s true identity is samuel gale, bob sparker tries to kill him on the live edition of his game show, shock til you drop. bob wasn't convicted due to a claim of insanity by his lawyers, but his show was cancelled as a result. this is TECHNICALLY a punishment, but not one with any long-lasting power as percy king immediately plans to get bob back on the air after his "probation" is over.

self-electrocution is a metaphor/allegory for recreational drug use: TRUE. not only does bob have an extremely high tolerance to electric shocks, he sometimes "overdoses" when shocking himself, resulting in hospitalization. he does it both for his game show and for personal gain, even shocking himself to cope with stress (see "voice on the radio"). needless to say, he's pretty dependent on the stuff.

one of the villains blackmails the protagonist on the radio: TRUE. miss information hosts a radio show where she spreads the latest rumors, drama and..... misinformation. in one particular incident, she gets ahold of a lost/banned episode of shock til you drop where one of the contestants nearly dies, and twists this information around to make it seem like the crew got rid of her.

there is at least one canon lgbtq+ character: TRUE. in order of initial appearance there’s bob sparker (mlm, also written in a way where he can be interpreted as transmasc), kelly kim (mlm), miss information (wlw, ex-girlfriend is hinted to be paulina sweet), maxie midnight (nonbinary, uses they/he pronouns), and paulina sweet (implied wlw, see miss info).

there are no animals (except for one exclusive area): TRUE. there is a single aquarium in paradise hotel, but other than that (and like. farms that are inaccessible to most people) there are no other animals in the public eye. there are technically horses in "kim meets cottonmouth", but that story's from an in-universe radio show so i don't think those should count.

the catalyst for the entire series is someone trying to get into art school: TRUE. her name is alice lang and she gets hospitalized after going on shock til you drop trying to get the grand prize of 1 million dollars. after that…. um. Well.

protagonist dies and gets revived a-la frankenstein’s monster: FALSE. surprise!!!!! bob sparker hasn’t died yet! i was originally gonna make this one about the non-existent cameo of a certain small white dog, but i felt it would be too obvious.... specil thanks to @birthclod for suggesting this one, i just embellished it a little to help it fit in <3

setting is completely isolated from the rest of the world: TRUE. this is established as early as s1ep1, where it’s explained that no one really leaves (or enters) electricopolis bc of how isolated the city is. besides, who would ever WANT to?

protagonist willingly climbs a building to get struck by lightning: TRUE. this is literally just the plot of “thunder dance”.

one of the stories involves the protagonist’s car getting wrecked: TRUE. the story in question is “speed demon”, where bob and his friends get chased down by….. the speed demon…. who is basically a rich kid in a racecar. lol

if you’ve read the series, try not to spoil the answer for anyone else!! i’ll reveal the answer + explanations after the poll ends :^)

also shoutout to my girlfriend @birthclod for helping me make this list, couldn’t have done it without them <3

[bunny-rambles]

congrats on 200 followers!! you just got another one!! meeee!! (im going to binge read all your work hehe) 😁😁🥳 may i request 21, angst to fluff with scara?? and could you include the quote “pretty little liar”

also can i be boba tea anon??🧋stay safe!

21 - “Some things just aren’t meant to be.”

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

characters; Scaramouche, gn reader

cw/tw; Nightmares, surrealism, hurt/comfort, Scara attacks you (but not really), let me know if I missed anything

word count; 1.1k

notes; Hello !! Yes of course you can be added to the anon list, you’ve been there for a while and I hope you’re still hanging around !! Your request has been added, I hope you like it even though it’s been so long since you’ve sent this in. As always, going through my writers block so I’m sorry if it’s not that great

Please reblog if you like this!!

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The heavy doors slammed shut as you were thrown to the ground, the guards behind you laughing as you let out a quiet groan. Your head raised slowly to face the back of your now-ex lover, your breath catching in your throat.

“Scara, I never-“

He raises his hand in warning, and you fall silent. He motions for the troops behind you to leave, and when the door closes again, the two of you were the only people left inside the room.

“I trusted you.” His voice is quiet, his words blunt.

“And you can still trust m-“

“Stop lying to me!” He whips around to face you, the tips of his fingers crackling with violet electricity, matching his iridescent eyes. “When were you going to tell me you betrayed the Fatui?!”

The world shifted around you as you took a step back, small cracks forming behind the man you loved. Dark purple outlined his figure, sparks flying almost uncontrollably out of his hand. You had never seen him so… You couldn’t quite name it. He was angry, yes, but there was something much more. Your eyes moved up to his face - only then did you catch the glimpse of a lone tear sliding down his cheek, dripping down the edge of his jaw and landing on the floor.

Ah. Hurt. That’s what he was feeling. Betrayed and abandoned; it had a funny little way of squeezing its way in his life.

You wanted to reach your arms out, hold him close, comfort him like you’ve done countless times. Unfortunately, you were the cause of this. Well, you would’ve been if the rumour he heard had been true. No, you didn’t agree with the Fatui, or the Tsaritsa for that matter, but you would never think of betraying Scaramouche. Not for one second. “Please just listen to me! Don’t you trust me?!”

You heard a quiet scoff, and that was all the warning he gave you before his catalyst rose in the air.

At first, you were too in shock to realise you had been struck by his merciless lightning. Then, the searing pain that started in your chest and made its way slithering through the veins in the rest of your body. You couldn’t move. Even though you desperately tried to cry out, verbalise your pain, you were immobilised. All that you could manage was a weak, warbling mumble of his name. The sound of his thunderous footsteps followed next, too slow for your liking. He was taking his time, or more so, stalling what was about to come - perhaps out of some scraps of love left for you.

“Pretty little liar, but a liar nonetheless. Clearly, some things just weren’t meant to be, like you…”His hand raised once again, casting a shadow over your helpless figure on the ground.

“And me.”

Frantic screaming echoed through the room as it fragmented, dissipating into nothing, and the next time you opened your eyes, Scaramouche was still looming over you. Wait… Something’s different. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was moving, but there was nothing coming out. Confused, you tilted your head at him and your lips moved to mouth his name. When your eyes began to focus, your vision blurred by tears, everything began to make sense.

There was no purple glow anymore, no catalyst by his side, no harbinger number six. It was just your Scara, panic painted on his face even though he tried to conceal it.

“What… What happened?” Your words slurred when you attempted to speak, confirming your theory further.

“I don’t know, you tell me. You were the one who started screaming out of nowhere, dumbass.” Scara’s voice held none of its usual bite to it, his soft voice laced thick with sleep as he slowly moved away from where he was looking down at you.

A nightmare.

“Sorry…” You saw him shake his head as you began to prop yourself up on your trembling arms, only for them to slip from underneath you. His hands caught you before you could back on the bed, helping you sit up properly. Before you could apologise again for waking him up, he pulled you to lean against his chest, one of his hands stiffly moving up and down your back. Even in the state you were in now, you couldn’t help the upward curl of your lip at the small action. The harbinger wasn’t the best at comfort, and you could tell he was only copying you when you comforted him with his own nightmares, but he was still trying - for you.

“What happened?” He asked after a moment, his hand moving more fluidly against your back once he found a rhythm he was satisfied with.

When you blinked, flashes of vibrant purple eyes staring down at you plagued your memories, and you shook your head to rid yourself of them. From your silence, and the tears beginning to stream down your face, he could tell this was no ordinary run-of-the-mill dream about a fantastical scenario.

“… You don’t have to-“

“It was about you.” The two of you spoke at the same time, and both of you stared back at the other with owlish expressions. Your partner nodded at you to continue, and you took a deep breath to compose yourself.

“I’m not too sure about the details. But you thought I’d betrayed the fatui. And…” You let out a shaky breath, trying to push yourself through. “You… You…”

“Enough.” His voice silenced you, making you look in his direction.

“… Betray the Fatui all you want. Hell, join the traveller for all I care,” He scoffed, raising a hand to carefully wipe away your tears. “But I would never hurt you. I promise.”

“You wouldn’t?” You whimpered quietly, and the sound broke his non-existent heart.

“Never. I don’t care what side you’re on, nothing could make me do that.”

You heaved a heavy sigh of relief and slumped against the man you loved, snuggling your head against his shoulder. “Okay…” Hesitantly, he pressed his lips against the crown of your head and slid his arm around your shoulders, holding you closer.

Eventually, he noticed that your breathing had softened and evened out, bringing him to the conclusion that you had fallen asleep. The puppet drew you in closer, a rare smile spreading across his lips. No. Nothing in the universe could ever make him think of putting you in harm's way. Not the fatui, not the gods… Not Celestia itself. He’d rather die than let anything happen to you. And as he pressed his lips against your forehead before laying you back down, he hoped it would never have to come to that.

You and him, this was something that was meant to be.

[pwarkluv]

❝ electric love ❞ - pjs

park jisung x reader | fluff | 2k words

WARNINGS | lowercase is intended, too fluffy because it’s my fav genre to write about, kinda strangers to lovers au, idol au, idol!jisung, itzysixthmember!reader, I’M SO SORRY TO MY CURVY AND THOSE TALLER THAN JISUNG READERS y/n is called small and tiny in this fic (i still love you though), mentions hair color but just pretend it’s dyed like lisa’s hair in the hylt era, shy!jisung and shy!reader because y’all are babies who don’t know how to approach someone who you like

SUMMARY | when itzy and nct dream meet on weekly idol, one member of itzy catches a certain maknae’s eye.

AUTHOR’S NOTE | inspired by “electric love” by borns :P yes it’s a tiktok song but it’s a good tiktok song so bite me >:( i disappeared for a bit so enjoy this trash imagine because i lost the will to write for a bit. also not edited really well i’m sorry for mistakes :(

your palms become sweaty as you nervously sit in the chair, the makeup artist diligently working on your face. wannabe came out about a month ago and the overwhelming popularity and support came flowing through, especially with ryujin’s shoulder part in the beginning. 

itzy’s fandom grew and so did the group as a whole, the six of you continuing to learn more about being an idol. 

but the one thing you were lacking in was interacting with other idols. 

itzy debuted in early 2019 giving you guys a little interaction with others like your brother group, stray kids. but when the whole pandemic hit, causing you all to isolate in quarantine to protect each other, talking to others outside of your company became rare. 

you were extremely awkward when it came to other idols. sure, you could talk to fans. you knew how to act and talk to them since that was a part of your training. but talking to idols, another person who wasn’t a fan, was different. 

unfortunately for you, on the episode of weekly idol you are about to appear on, another group was going to be present. and of course they just had to be one of your favorite boy groups of all time: nct dream.

you’ve always looked up to nct as a whole, but nct dream has always been your favorite because they were young when the six, originally seven, first debuted. you were twelve when you saw their debut stage. dancing has always been a passion of yours. it made you feel free and alive. music has always been a part of you as well. you taught yourself how to write songs and produce them, even releasing music on soundcloud under an alias. 

so ever since you saw nct dream debut, you decided you wanted to be an idol too. three years later and you’re in itzy, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. but now that you were going to be in close proximity to the people you’ve looked up to for so long, even talking to them made your head hurt. 

ryujin bumped your hip teasingly as the six of you prepared to go on screen, knowing how you felt about nct dream. she was casted during a got7 fansign so when she first met them after her debut, that girl was a statue (though she would never admit it). 

“don’t worry y/nnie, i won’t mention your crush on park jisung.” ryujin slyly said before moving to escape your wrath. 

“ryu!” you whined, trying to smack her moving body. your face flushed, the heat rushing to your cheeks at the mention of the older boy. though you’ve never said it outloud, you’ve always had a thing for the maknae of nct. how could you not? he’s tall, polite, has a really good voice, and is the main dancer just like you. his style and the way he moved was beyond impressive, causing you to fall for him even more. 

the girls found out about your so-called “crush” (quotation marks to make you feel better even though you’re head over heels for him) when you saw nct dream in an award show. yuna saw the way you blushed and how your eyes strayed to the tall then pink haired boy a couple tables away from the six of you. since then they’ve all teased you about it whenever they can, making you whine in embarrassment every time. 

you shakily wipe your hands on your outfit, a stylist making a sound of disapproval before you turn to give her a small smile. moving towards a small mirror, you examine how you look with a worried face. your pale blue paper bag jeans were slightly baggy and you cringed knowing you were gonna perform wannabe in those. you adored the flowery top you had on though. it was white with tiny black flowers printed all over, the puff sleeves adding to the look. your hair was slightly curled, the blonde highlights peeking through from your jet black hair. 

you let out a worried breath as the management ushered you to hurry. showtime, you thought to yourself as you anticipated for the words “action”. 

in the middle of the room was the iconic white stage where weekly idol have always held their episodes. on one side was itzy waiting to enter and on the other was nct dream. 

“today is a very special episode for we have two awesome groups joining us today!” one of the hosts exclaimed excitingly, adding on to your nerves. lia sensed your distress and reached to give your hand a reassuring squeeze. 

“give it up for the hottest girl group of their generation, itzy!” the other host yelled before the six of you partied onto the stage. each of you had an excited expression on your face as the two hosts continued on before introducing nct dream.

“let’s warmly welcome one of our favorite teams to have on this show, nct dream!”

your heart raced as you saw the six of them walk on stage goofily, trying not to laugh at how awkward jisung looked. as if he sensed your eyes, jisung’s gaze met yours causing you to look away in shock. suddenly the floor became more interesting than the boy you’ve been crushing on for almost a year. 

“all in us! hello, we are itzy!” the six of you greeted towards the screen. unknowingly to you, the boy you were caught staring at was looking at you too. 

❝ baby you’re like lightning in a bottle ❞

jisung likes to think he’s a simple boy. he doesn’t like breaking the rules and is mostly a good kid. but gosh from the moment you two made eye contact, the brown haired boy was ready to run away then and there. you were pretty. like beyond pretty, and he’s never felt this way before.

sure it was a little creepy and slightly concerning for his image seeing as he currently has heart eyes for you while the cameras are rolling, but jisung couldn’t help himself. that flowery top of yours made you look soft and small, as if he could scoop you up in his arms like a child. jisung knew he was tall but dang, seeing you from afar made him think he was extra tall. the boy chuckled under his breath seeing you wear boots, knowing that gave you an extra boost.

she’s so small, he thought, smiling a bit.

renjun nudged him, noticing the younger was spacing off before following his eyes to a certain member of itzy. the elder smirked a bit as they all did their introductions.

“to the world here is, nct.” 

the boy smugly looked at their maknae who was currently blushing at being caught by his hyung for looking at you.

young love, renjun thought before turning his attention back to the hosts. 

❝ i can’t let you go now that i got it ❞

“so you guys have two main dancers in itzy right?” one of the hosts asks as the 12 idols sit together on chairs. yeji nodded and spoke up.

“yes it’s me and y/nnie but y/n’s a better dancer than me.” she replied, pointing a shoulder to you. you quickly rebutted and waved your hands in disagreement.

“no way~” you denied, turning red. “yeji unnie is the best.” you replied shyly, an awkward thumbs up to try and back up your claim. 

everyone cooed at your shy face. although you were the second youngest in itzy, 4 months older than your maknae, yuna’s much taller than you which made you look like the youngest. because of this everyone, including yuna, tended to child you because you were just so baby. 

“weren’t you a part of a highlight reel?” the other host asks you, once again embarrassing you. the girls laughed, the other six boys looked at the host in confusion.

“y/n unnie was apart of bts sunbaenim’s love yourself highlight reel!” yuna exclaimed. although she too was in the highlight reel, yuna always thought you were much cooler because you got selected for your dancing skills. 

everyone gasped in surprise (the hosts a bit more fake since they already knew that) at the revelation. 

“i was able to dance with j-hope sunbaenim and jimin sunbaenim for that highlight reel.” you responded, smiling a bit at the memory. the boys were beyond shocked knowing this must meant you were good. 

“how was it?” a host asks.

you marveled at the thought. “they were such good dancers and really really nice!” you said with a happy expression. “i would definitely love to dance with them again if i were given the opportunity.” the look on your face was clear you loved dancing and loved working with the pair. 

“can you show us the dance?” the host asks and just like that you immediately become a shy mess.

“o-oh um i mean yeah i could do that.” you stuttered as chaeryoung softly pushed you off your chair and into the middle of the room. she smirked a bit at your timid form, knowing what she’s doing. from the moment you walked in, the maknae of nct seemed to be head over heels for you and she knew he was the main dancer just like you.

i swear if they don’t end up together after this i’m suing, chaeryoung thought as she looked at the starstruck boy watching you expectantly. 

❝ and all i need is to be struck ❞

jisung wasn’t surprised to hear that you were one of the main dancers in itzy but to hear that you worked with bts’s j-hope and jimin? he was beyond impressed and (though he would never admit it) was lowkey really excited to see you dance. 

he watched as you timidly walked towards the middle of the stage, calming down your nerves. jisung watched with a faint smile until the music started playing, and just like that he was a goner. 

❝ by your electric love ❞

the way you moved, your technique, your facial expressions. everything was mesmerizing. the whole room watched in awe as you danced to the routine you burned into your mind as a trainee, knowing that this was one of your biggest projects ever. in that moment jisung completely fell for you, and everyone in the room except for you knew that. 

“and that’s the end of today’s episode of weekly idol!” you all cheered with the hosts, jisung’s heart beating fast knowing he wanted to talk to you after this episode but not knowing how to. 

“cut!” the director yelled out, a little excited to know what was to come. they of course noticed jisung’s lovestruck expression and the way your eyes lingered on the boy, and of course they didn’t catch it on camera. knowing you two were young and idols, they didn’t want to ruin what you two might have since they were all rooting for you two. 

“if you don’t talk to her i swear i’ll tell her embarrassing stories of you.” donghyuck threatened. just like the others, he too noticed jisung’s attraction to you throughout this whole episode. the boy’s eyes widened in shock, yelping as chenle pushed him towards your way with a small smirk. 

“unnie no.” you cried out, beyond terrified as you watched jisung walk towards you. as soon as the episode ended you were pulled away by the girls who quickly explained to you that jisung “had the hots'' for you (ryujin’s words, not yours). 

your mind was going at a million miles per hour, heart racing as jisung came closer and cleared his throat.

“h-hi.” he said, his voice never not taking you by surprise. jisung was towering over you, looking down at you nervously.

“h-hello.” you smiled and jisung could’ve sworn he melted just a little. 

“get together already!” lia and jaemin yelled out together, making the two of you blush and unconsciously lean closer. 

❝ electric love ❞

“wanna hang out sometime soon?” jisung asked, his sudden confidence taking you and him off guard. you bit back a smile before holding your hand out. 

“give me your number.” you replied, jisung’s smile he let out making you fall even more for him. 

[bffhreprise]

Best Friend For Hire Reprise, 382

 “Slow down!” exclaimed Iris.  “Turn left just up ahead.”

 I nodded and complied.  She knew where her boss lived better than any of us, having never visited this suburb befored.  I probably would have missed the break in the endless fence had she not warned me, especially when I was trying to guess the cost of having a large amount of land next to a park in a pricey suburb.  To my surprise, the gate opened for us immediately.

 “He doesn’t care much for security, does he?” I teased, looking around to see if there was some sort of guard who would have opened the gate for us.

 “Mila watches everything, so there’s no need.  There are sensors and cameras all over the yard that let her know if anything is disturbed.” explained Iris matter-of-factly.

 I nodded, but my eyes were locked on our destination in the distance, barely visible through all of the rain.  I had considerably underestimated the size of this place.  I very much doubted that I could even afford to maintain the yard for very many years and could only guess that the property tax had to be immense.

 As my sons grew excited about the bushes, I looked over and stared for several seconds.  Every single bush along the long driveway had been carefully sculpted into characters that I recognized from video games my kids enjoyed.  I could only imagine the amount of time and number of people involved in such artwork, leading me to believe James spent even more on his yard annually than I originally had guessed.  Even the fountain—an immense, two-story affair that was very elaborately sculpted—was immaculate, showing no signs of wear or neglect.  James certainly knew how to make an impression.

 When we stepped inside, passing past two sets of double doors that opened for us, James was descending down one of the staircases which curved up to a balcony on the second floor.  “James!  Thank you for having us.  This is quite a place you’ve got here.  Sorry if we brought the storm.” I told him, gesturing to the weather outside.

 “There’s plenty to see.” he politely agreed.  “Thank you for accepting the invitation.  I thought you might be interested in seeing a little more about my company than most, since you seemed curious during the game.  Mick was supposed to stop by a while ago but apparently didn’t get the time.”

 “This place is awesome!” exclaimed Matt.

 “Sorry, James.” muttered Mick.

 “No need to apologize.  We’ll just review with your family today what I wanted to tell you before.” replied James, smiling at us.

 I suddenly found myself floating as a soft breeze blew at me from inside the mansion.  Looking to my sides, I saw that my family, save for my daughter, were also floating.

 Before I could do more than exclaim in surprise, James spoke up, telling us, “Magic is real, and your family can use it.”

 I stared at them, my mind trying to figure out how he was doing this.  Was this some elaborate prank using a new technology?  “Wh-What…” was all I managed to say before we were gently lowered to the ground.

 “You wanted to know what I was feeding my employees.  I train them physically, mentally, and in magical arts.  We didn’t use spells at the baseball game, but we have numerous advantages that are completely unfair.” explained James.  “For example, I can physically lift your family’s van, though using spells is easier to ensure I don’t compromise the frame.”

 I swore, feeling like I had been had, before my better judgement kicked in.  My family was currently at this boy’s mercy.

 James’ smile broadened as he said, “If you don’t mind coming out back, I’ll ask the wonderful gardener to demonstrate something people tend to grasp more easily.”  Not hearing any argument from us, he motioned for us to follow him and started telling us  “Mirabella and Mike can’t create the electrical discharges like the rest of you.  She has a different heritage, and Mike took after his mother.”

 “How could you possibly know that?” asked Mike in surprise.

 “My secretary ran a background check on Iris prior to her being hired, and she’s so thorough that I feel like she knows everything.  You wouldn’t believe how long she takes to brief me on things.” explained James as he glanced back at my son.  “My concern with Mick is that he and Iris tended to play games with their ability, which caught enough notice for my secretary to file it in the report.  There are some out there who prey on those with abilities such as yours, so being a little more cautious tends to be wise.”

 That sounded far too believable.  I probably should have chewed those two out more often, but I had never believed anyone would have noticed their antics.  “You claim you can lift cars, and you can obviously lift us.  What else can you do, James?” I asked, wanting a firmer handle on whom I was dealing with.

 “So many things, Dad.  James is like a wizard combined with an overly strong fighter from some fantasy novel.” insisted Iris from behind me.

 I glanced back at her, surprised at how serious she looked.

 “I’ve also learned to make a great cup of tea.  My wife can be picky.” insisted James.

 “What’s that smell..?” questioned Mike longingly.

 Now that he mentioned it, I didn’t recognize the smell either, though I was certain it was food.  My mouth was already watering.

 “We’re almost to the kitchen, and Marco’s making you quite the treat.  I’m sure he won’t mind us passing through.  Just be prepared for a few samples.” encouraged James.

 The kitchen was as large as was fitting a house this size, and even there the fanciful engravings didn’t yield.  Every cabinet was beautifully carved, as were the very large table and chairs.

 Marco, the chef, was extraordinarily eager for us to sample “a few things” before we moved onward, despite assuring us that dinner would be ready soon.  Only when James pointed out there was more for us to see before dinner did Marco give way, giving us permission to pass through his kitchen into the garden beyond.

 The rain didn’t reach us as we followed James outside, hitting some invisible barrier and sliding away.

 “I don’t suppose you worry about getting struck by lightning.” I commented as I watched the sky.

 “Worried, no, but I didn’t find that to be pleasant either.” he told me sincerely.

 I stared at him, my eyes searching for any sign that he had ever been struck, but I found nothing, save for how confident he seemed.  

 “If your magic were stronger, you’d actually be able to guide a lightning bolt around you.  Iris has practiced enough that she could knock an assailant down with just the shock.” he commented, making me glance back at my daughter.

 “You can?” questioned Mick excitedly.

 She nodded, grinned, and said, “Yep, though I could take you in a fight without one.”  

 “All trained up now, are you?” questioned Mark, my eldest son.

 Iris laughed, shaking her head.  “You wouldn’t believe the standards here.”

 “I take it that James is the strongest, being the boss.” suggested Mike.

 James shook his head and said, “Not even close.”  Then he pointed to a fortress in the distance and asked “Do you see the keep over there?”

 I nodded along with a couple of my sons.

 “The strongest best friend created that with a stray thought.” claimed James.

 “What!?  No way!” exclaimed Mike.

 Nodding, James said, “She showed up in my office to tell me that she ‘oopsed’ a second after.  She’s been training recently to avoid that type of mistake.  I imagine she’ll be capable of creating a large city in a day on a whim within a few years.  I’d probably spend at least a week on a small town, and that’s if I collected the resources ahead of time.”

 I found the idea mind-boggling.  James seemed humble as he claimed that he could create a small town in a week.

 “You’d take at least a month, man-sla-... er… boss?” announced Emma, turning the statement into a question at the end.  “You get too distracted.  I could handle a village in an hour!”  She was soaked, but grinning.

 Before my eyes, the water soaking her clothes drifted away to join the rain outside.

 “Emma, I’m sure you remember Iris’ father, Grayson.  This is her mother, Mirabella.  From oldest to youngest, her brothers are Mark, Mick, Mike, and Matt.  Everyone, this is my gardener, Emma.”

 “Shouldn’t I be your favorite gardener?” she asked teasingly.

 ��Sure.” he conceded.

 “Hear that?  I’m his favorite!” she exclaimed proudly.

 “Do you create villages with a stray thought?” questioned Mike.

 “Nah.  I do this.” she replied, watching us all.  After a couple seconds, wooden buildings rose out of the ground between the garden and the keep.

 “Mine would have functional electricity, plumbing, and the other luxuries people expect these days.” argued James with a smile.

 She stuck her tongue out at him.  Then she said, “My plumbing would work if I created a water tower.  Plants can be very good at guiding water.  As for electricity, I’ve been talking with Jarod about ways to generate a current with plants.  We have plans and stuff!”

 “You mean he had a crazy idea and chatted your ear off.” suggested James.

 “I thought the idea was cool and agreed to try eventually!” she insisted.

 “The idea was actually Maxine’s.  She has some experience with bioengineering from when she considered creating a cyborg army.” corrected Mila, who had discretely joined us without me noticing.

 “You can create cyborgs!?’ questioned Matt excitedly.

 “There has been some tech created here which could be used toward that end, but we’re not experimenting on people.” explained James.

 “I didn’t know you were in the tech industry.” commented my wife.

 James smiled at her and diplomatically told her “My company dabbles in many things to help prepare our best friends for a very large variety of jobs.”

 Grinning, Emma said, “He means to say ‘Yes.  Yes, we are.’  Mua ha ha ha ha!”  She drummed her fingers together while obviously attempting to look like some comic book villain.

James sighed and said, “Emma, mind getting rid of your starter village and showing the Storms how you help the kitchen?”

 “Fiiiine,” she begrudgingly told him, “but I might use some buildings to compliment the topiary when I change things up again.”

 “Sounds fun.” he agreed.

 From there, she started demonstrating how she could make the plants grow, revert to seeds, or provide as much food as she wanted.  She could also force plants to grow beyond their normal proportions and control them as easily as she controlled her own limbs, which led her into demonstrating how she had produced the bats her team had used for our baseball game.  Before she seemed remotely ready to quit demonstrating her abilities, Mila announced that food was ready.

 Instead of eating at the long table in the kitchen, we were taken to a large dining hall with an even more elaborate table.  There were already carts of food waiting nearby, and Mila urged us to help ourselves, since no one here would hesitate when they arrived.

 As we ate, we were entertained with more demonstrations of magic from those who had joined us.  James’ wife, Alma, created elaborate displays of fire and ice.  Ai and Mai created a sort of play with tiny figures made of water acting out their parts just above the table.  Jemal fetched more food for the particularly hungry using nothing but his magic, causing whatever was requested to float through the air.  James himself demonstrated illusions, making us see whatever he wanted while assuring us the magic the others had used was real.  Whether because I had felt myself being lifted earlier or because he had no reason to lie, I believed him.  Iris’ boss was the most interesting, and perhaps the most dangerous, man I had ever met.

[thecandywrites]

Monster March 2024 Day 25 Harpy /Moura Part 6

Now it's time for some back stabby stabby.

As always, thanks to the wonderful @borealwrites for thier Monster March 2024 Prompt List

Moonlight Moura

Part 6

Axera woke you up right at sunrise so you could go and get the sunrise sunshine, which was supposed to be some of the best sunshine as you got up and flew up to the roof of the dragon barn and spread your wings to get the sunshine. 

“There you are!” Your cousin Tristan said as he flew in from the horizon and practically tackled you to the roof as he hugged you tight as you welcomed him into your arms and cried in relief, as he peppered your face in kisses because his last flight was your first and incidentally, the one where he met his new wife who just had a baby as you were visiting him and his family for your last solstice flight. 

“Come on, we gotta go!” Tristan encouraged you as he tried to pull you into the air. 

“I can’t leave.” You stopped him as you pulled back. 

“Shit, what did they do to your collar? is this why you can't leave? Are you sick? Did these people do this to you?!” He asked in horror to see it changed. 

“They didn’t do anything to it! Lightning did.” You revealed. 

“You got struck by lightning?” He asked in surprise and shock.

“Yeah, I did. And now I’m glowing like the damn moon. Everything metal I touch, turns into electrum or white gold instead of yellow gold. I was as bright as the sun at first and would have blinded people for miles if I wasn’t magnetized to an island with an electromagnetic core surrounded by fog as thick as pumpkin soup!” You explained. 

“Now thankfully there are moura dragons here and they are taking care of me. But it’s the people here who are helping me drain excess power from me so hopefully I don’t glow like the moon and don’t electrocute everything and everyone I touch. Once I get better, I’ll come back. But I can’t do that yet. I would fry every electrical grid anywhere and everywhere else. The moura dragons here helped me find some really good people who are helping me, feeding me and sheltering me and hiding me in plain sight from any other who would mean me harm. But right now, I have to rely on the dragons to translate everything I say. I know our taunston relatives made translation books for all the peoples who converged onto this supersphere. Please, I need a translation book if not from marinai to the language of the Neveahans, then from tauni to the language spoken here. For you know I can speak and read and write tauni. I want to be able to talk to my hosts and not have the dragons tell or show more than I want them to or more than they should." You begged.

"There is something dangerous here. And with as protective as the moura dragons are, and with as protective as my host family is. Means that me being here is dangerous and that there is something bigger than them that is a threat to me. And I need to know what that threat is, because otherwise the Neveahan dragons would not have told every moura who would listen to stay clear of this place. Please. I can’t leave this place because I’ll be stuck to the outer islands again like a magnet stuck to another one.  Because it was only a dragon’s flying strength that I was able to be pulled from the outer ring like an anchor from the watery depths. Please. Tristan, go to the closest Taunston fortress, ask them for help. I’m the granddaughter of a taunston, surely they would help me. And if not for family, then for a price. Surely electrum is valuable to them right?” You urged him before you put the electrum that you had made into a small stick and gathered into a small ball from the bath and made one larger palm sized piece of it and gave it to him. 

“Now please fly away from here and only approach me when I’m alone. One moura is one thing, I don’t want two to turn into more than that because with moura math is the same as chicken math, that’ll pull at least a dozen more here and they'll think we're the ones invading. Please. For Isolade’s sake and for little Trillinia, I can’t chance you being stuck here with me, please fly away.” You pleaded with him. 

“For Isolade and Trillinia, but I’m coming back with that book for you, and an explanation of what’s happened to you and how to fix you that doesn’t involve you being in the belly of the greatest beast of all on this supershere.” Tristan agreed as he took it.

“What do you mean by that?” You asked as you grabbed his arms to keep him from leaving as you couldn’t help but narrow your eyes at the words he chose to use. 

“I can’t say much more than that, I feel the dragons around  hearing our conversation. It would not surprise me if they are already alerting everyone here about my presence.” He said. 

“Then fly. Fly now.” You urged him as he flew away before anyone else could see him. You looked down into the skylight and saw that Jenya and Daer were- at least by appearances, fast asleep. So you could do little but watch Tristan fly north wishing you could fly back with him. But you didn’t trust the outer ring of islands to not pull you harder than you could fly and you couldn’t trust that you wouldn’t bring serious harm to anyone or anything if you were able to go home in this state. Dragon magic exceeded a mouras. And if Thyla was adamant that Nahlo, and his family and his talents with electricity could help, you had little choice but to trust her and take her word for it since Isla had apparently done all she could do. So you could only sit down and cry, feeling like you were watching the last of your kind leave you for you didn’t know how long, or if Tristan would ever be able to come back. With what you asked from him or not.  You watched him turn into a speck of nothingness in the beautiful sunrise that was not healing you or fortifying you the way you had grown used to it doing. 

But you didn’t get too much time to think about it before Nahlo, in a panic, came out of the house, calling for you with Thyla hot on his heels. Ah, that’s what Tristan was referring to. He could feel Thyla’s mind with his own and of course she would alert Nahlo. You could not find fault with her for it though. You leaving wasn’t in your own best interest, nor anyone else’s for that matter. 

“I’m here Nahlo, I’m here. What’s wrong?” You asked as you flitted down to the ground. 

“Oh thank God, you’re still here.” Nahlo said as he hugged you tight when you did. 

“Of course I’m still here. Where else would I go?” You asked as you hugged him back. 

“Home?” Nahlo offered. 

“It’s not safe for me to go home yet, remember? Right now those outer islands are like sharks circling a drowning land walker. I’m here until you say I’m no longer a danger to anyone else or anything else, or until you ask me to leave, or perhaps, when I’ve outstayed my welcome at least.” You reassured him with a reassuring smile. 

“You will never outstay your welcome. And I would never ask you to leave. But I will let you know the moment it is safe for you to go home.” Nahlo nodded in agreement and understanding before he finally and rather reluctantly let go. 

“Are you ok?” You asked him as you reached up to cup his face with your hand as you noticed it was hot and flushed. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Are you ok?” He asked as he either consciously or subconsciously put his own hand over yours as he looked deeply into your eyes, searching for how you were really doing. 

“Yeah, I’ll be ok. I have the dragons and I have you and your wonderful family. What else do I need?” You asked. 

“Your health?” Nahlo supplied. 

“Well, that’s why I’m here. Because like your dragon says, that if she can trust anyone to help, it’s you. And I was raised to always trust the dragons. So if Thyla trusts you, I trust you too.” You smiled. 

“Wait here, I must collect morning dew for the kids.” You offered before you swiped your thumb across his cheek before you used your wings to pull you up into the trees as you flitted to the various fruit trees around the farm and created morning dew from all of them, making little edible coru clouds from each one before you returned to him, carrying a pack of them that were as big as yourself. 

“How many did you get?” He asked. 

“As many as I could. I figured the whole family would want one of each kind I could get.” You said. 

“Here, you try and tell me what they will think.” You offered him an assortment that you had made just for him which made him happy to take from you before he ate the first. 

“Orange tree.” He noted when he took a bite of the first. 

“Very good.” You grinned. 

“How do you manage to get the taste and the scent to be in all one sensation?” He asked. 

“It’s all just particles in the air, that most can’t really see with their eyes, but that their other senses can pick up on. I just pick up enough of it for you to both taste and smell it at the same time and that it is the same intensity that most find appetizing and appealing.” You shrugged before you walked with him back into the house with the others as you put a bundle on each place setting at the table while the other members of Nahlo’s family got up while Axera got out of your room and left the house to eat his own breakfast from the barn with Thyla, who was still angry with him about something as you watched as Thyla was quick to snip and snap at him. 

“Did I pick the one dragon on Neveah that Thyla can’t stand?” You asked Nahlo as he noticed you watch them walk from the house into the barn. 

“No. There are many more she hates much worse than him.” Nahlo grinned as you could tell that Jenya was up and doing the translating for you while the sub adults came to the barn to eat with her and Daer. 

“Why does Thyla hate Axera?” You asked. 

“You’d have to ask her because I don’t know.” Nahlo shook his head. 

“Jenya?” You called out to her. 

‘Thyla was just trying to be obedient to my mother, that’s all. Isla wanted to keep you close.’ Jenya answered. 

‘Because not all Neveahans are good Neveahans who mean me- no harm?’ You questioned mentally. 

‘Yes.’ Jenya admitted. 

‘Which ones should I look out for?’ You asked. 

‘Anyone in a uniform.’ Jenya warned. 

‘Ok. Anything else?’ You asked. 

‘No.’ Jenya answered. 

‘Understood. Will you please tell Thyla that my visitor this morning was just a concerned family member, and should be the only one I should have, hopefully until I can leave under my own power?’ You asked her as you showed her the exchange you had with Tristan that morning. 

‘Of course, I’ll let her know.’ Jenya reassured you. 

“Thank you.” You thanked her as you did your best to help prepare breakfast for the family as you were surprised when most of the family came in, each carrying a dish they had made for breakfast and soon the table was filled with dishes as it had been the day before for dinner as it seemed everyone pitched in which you really liked and appreciated as the whole family was delighted with the edible coru clouds on their plates as Manidore was the last one up but the first to devour the coru clouds. 

“Best dish for breakfast.” Manidore praised with a charming smile and a wink. 

“Not exactly filling though.” You offered as you happily got to eat to your heart’s content out of the vast array of dishes that were made and passed around the table, this time, not worrying about turning anything into electrum because the same serving spoons were used both for dinner and for breakfast and were already electrum. 

“But leaving us all hungry for more.” Manidore praised. 

“Then eat some real solid food to satisfy your hunger. The sun is burning off all the dew so it would be hard to make more right now.” You urged him as you pushed the dish that was between you closer to him since it was not hard to discern his true intentions, which you could not be any more disinterested in. 

“When you’re done eating Aurava, we should get going to the plant to drain more excess from you.” Nahlo insisted as he sat beside you. 

“Of course, I promise not to shred my clothes today.” You tried to offer with a meaningful grin. 

“I wouldn’t mind.” Manidore muttered under his breath as you could practically feel Nahlo’s hard glare at his younger brother as you flushed with Manidore’s implications. 

“Then you won’t mind mending them will you?” Nahlo insisted. 

“Nope, although I’d want to get more measurements.” Manidore offered before your moura cloak became a harness of tape measures over the clothes you were currently wearing before you pulled it off of you and handed it to him. 

“You better write down the numbers before that becomes what it really is.” You instructed him as Manidore raced to try to write them all down as you grinned, rather smugly as you mentally let the lone feather slowly revert back to its natural state the moment he had written down the measurement before he was left with only a feather but before he could marvel at the feather itself, you called it back to yourself. 

“Excuse me, I need to get ready.” You excused yourself from the table once you finished all the food on your plate and walked back to your room to get changed into the Neveahan clothes. 

“What is wrong with you? Why didn’t you just ask her to strip right here at the table.” Nahlo sneered rather hatefully as he grabbed his plate as well as your own from the table as Safahti took the paper from her son’s hand. 

“And that will be the only piece of her you will touch. You shame us by being so forward with her. She is sick. Have some decency.” Sefahti insisted before she smacked him upside the head. 

“Get dressed and ready for work.” Undilla urged his sons. 

“Yes Papa.” They answered before the family slowly began to clean up after breakfast as you were already outside somehow and with Thyla. 

“Ready?” You asked Nahlo when you saw him leave his house and with his gear. 

“Yes.” He answered before you got into Axera’s saddle while Nahlo got into Thyla’s while Manidore got onto something else. 

“What is that?” You asked Nahlo from Axera’s back. 

“A car. For when people do not wish to fly.” Nahlo answered. 

“Why does he not fly?” You asked him you were happy to take to the air with Axera and himself as you saw dragons from all over take to the skies. 

“He is waiting to get married first.” Nahlo answered as you frowned in confusion. 

“Why?” You asked. 

“Some dragons find their riders before their riders have to ever find them. And some wait to find a dragon to ride, until the dragons return from their rite flight and choose to pair up with another on Neveah, and usually most young adults will also wait to choose a marriage mate after that process too.” Nahlo explained. 

“So he is waiting for his future bride to pick her dragon and that dragon to pick a mate before he choses one and when he does, he not only gets a wife, he also gets a pair of dragons.” You concluded. 

“Something like that.” Nahlo nodded. 

“But not you?” You asked. 

“No. Thyla’s always been my dragon since the egg, isn’t that right girl?” Nahlo asked as he patted her neck. 

“So what will you do if she choses a moura dragon after her rite flight, go wherever she will settle down?” You asked curiously. 

“We’ll see.” Nahlo answered with a hopeful smile. 

‘Or more like he’ll have to decide between who owns any dragon who wants to be my mate.’ Thyla informed you. 

“I see Thyla, so Axera is definitely out of the running. Good thing I chose Axera to ride for the time being huh?” You grinned. 

“No she didn’t mean it like that.” Nahlo was quick to correct. 

“No, Thyla was quite clear, there is no misunderstanding her.” You grinned as you waived him off before you landed at the site where others were already waiting in line with many vehicles filled with batteries. 

‘Here are the children of the people that take care of my parents.’ Axera introduced you to a small group of people. 

“Sali.” You greeted them from behind your scarf and hood so you hoped that you didn’t glow too much to scare them off. 

“Sali Miss Moonchild. We understand from Grand Dragon Isla that you are a friend of hers, that you are here because you are sick and are needing healing?” Axera’s usual rider Haluma asked from her glittering and sparkling dragon armored clothes only meant to show off her lithe body. She had less body fat than you did. And barely any breasts, but what she did have seemed to be padded and puffed up to accentuate them.

“Yes.” You nodded. 

“Then why aren’t you in a hospital?” Alidore, Haluma’s brother asked. 

“Because I’m not Neveahan. And I don’t know if the doctors who are used to treating Neveahan patients will be able to help someone with different biology. But thankfully Nahlo understands what afflicts me and is helping heal me. Because even I don’t fully understand it.” You admitted lowly. 

“Oh, right, of course. That and you may not have any official documentation or identification. Other than what Grand Dragon Isla can vouch for. It’s probably best if you get the help you need as quietly and as discreetly as possible, so you can hopefully go home soon.” Haluma offered as there was something in her voice that you caught and a sense about her that didn’t quite sit right with you. 

“Yes, for now, thank you so much for allowing Axera to fly me around. Although if you’re needing him back for anything. He should go home if he’s missed or needed.” You offered as you tried to offer the bridal to Axera back to Haluma before Alidore was quick to offer you the bridle to his own dragon instead. 

“Only if you will take mine in his place. Surely you should not be left without a mode of transportation and we can’t expect Thyla to fly both of you all around.” Alidore offered as he exchanged the bridals as he was dipping his head to catch and keep your gaze as you gave him a small, polite smile. 

“But I don’t know if your dragon speaks my language that well. Since Axera’s been my main means of communication as my translator, but obviously, there are others who have followed me that speak my language very well and can be my means of translation and transportation. And they all assure me that they are happy and willing to take Axera’s place and give him a break if he wants or needs it. And I do not wish to inconvenience you or leave you a way of not having the means of transportation around your truly marvelous country.” You tried to graciously excuse as two more dragons eagerly put their heads over your shoulders and were eager to try to both claim you as their riders which you couldn’t help but laugh at their playful overeagerness. 

“It’s not an inconvenience at all. It’s been a privilege and an honor to have you ride one of our dragons. Might we invite you over for either lunch or dinner? Supper? Evening meal? Whatever you may call it?” Alidore asked hopefully. 

“I will defer to Nahlo’s opinion. For I know we will have a lot of work to continue to work out how to cure me of my ailment and affliction.” You excused. 

“Of course, Nahlo, you and your family are more than welcome to come as well, really, the whole family.” Haluma was quick to offer. 

“Axera told Miss Moonchild that his father is a friend of hers. And I know he will wish to see her the most. So, dinner would be nice. Thank you.” Nahlo caved with a polite smile. 

“Oh of course! Of course, yes he hasn’t stopped talking our mother’s ears off about it.” Alidore insisted. 

“Just, make sure that none of the utensils are metal. Her ailment means she is very reactive to metal. So ceramic or wood would be best.” Nahlo suggested. 

“Of course, we will make sure that nothing metal is even on the table.” Haluma offered with a charming smile and doe eyes as you realized, that’s what she was upset about. She wanted Nahlo. And she did not want you to be any kind of obstacle in that endeavor, which you thought was interesting. Perhaps it was that reason that Thyla didn’t like Axera, because what Thyla really didn’t like was Axera’s true rider and Nahlo didn't share Haluna's attraction.

‘Bingo.’ Thyla told you telepathically. 

“Axera, please don’t go telling all my secrets to people who are strangers to me. If I want them to know anything, I want to tell them myself.” You asked Axera. 

‘Wouldn’t dream of it my friend.’ Axera reassured you.

“He’s been a very good dragon. Please, feed and treat him extra well.” You requested sweetly of Haluma and Alidore and their other brothers and sisters as you shook their hands. 

“Of course, of course.” Alidore assured you. 

“We should get in and see what we can cure today.” Nahlo urged you to come inside. 

“Axera, I will let you hunt whatever you want if you will tell me everything.” Alidore said once you and Nahlo had set foot inside with the other dragons following in around you. 

“And what I want to know is- is she really an angel from heaven?” Haluma asked Axera. 

‘No. Far from. She is flesh and blood and quite a bit more. Enough to make gaining her as a friend worth your while.’ Axera grinned back. 

“Good, now let’s go to the market and find you a proper breakfast.” Haluma beamed before she hopped onto her saddle and flew over to the market to get Axera some good ol fashioned bribery to get him to tell them anything and everything they wanted to know about Nahlo’s new guest. 

Thankfully the other people Nahlo and Manidore worked with were actually very kind and very helpful and were relieved that you had stayed and would continue to work with them to drain your excess power from you as they all had brought in extra battery chargers with them, all of them leading to a plug for an outlet that you would hold before they connected every kind of battery they could. And then, like waves of the sea. It was just you holding the plug for only a few moments before the other batteries almost instantly regained their full charge and had to be changed out for others. And changing out the batteries took longer than charging them did. 

Thankfully, today, Nahlo and the others had a steady supply of food, delivered from every restaurant that would deliver food there. All so that you could just simply eat with one hand and charge with the other while you made sure they took breaks to eat and drink and refresh themselves too.

But after 8 hours of this, the line was empty, but you still glowed, like a full moon through a layer of clouds at night as you could only blow out another breath of relief yet subtle disappointment that while it had continued to help, it still wasn’t enough as others made calls all around both the large nation and the surrounding smaller ones to see who had need of electricity to store but Nahlo insisted that the magnetism of the outer rings was still too great of a threat, and that they find solutions here on the mainland that didn’t involve too much supervision by anyone who would ask any questions that would endanger you being here illegally. 

“Illegally?” You repeated to Thyla. 

‘By Neveahan governmental standards, you are an illegal alien in every sense. You came here without legal permission by any other country that Neveah recognizes. You have no identification paperwork or cards. According to the official Neveahan government, you aren’t even here. Isla is keeping your presence a secret from them. And right now, Nahlo is afraid that when you go to Axera’s family’s farm your safety will be threatened because Axera is likely not to keep your confidence. In fact it wouldn't surprise if he's sold you out in exchange for a chance to hunt and kill his own lunch.’ Thyla explained. 

“So he is afraid they will find out I'm here illegally?” You asked worriedly. 

‘Yes. Nahlo and Manidore are afraid that if Nahlo doesn’t take Haluma’s flirtatious advances and that if you do not accept Alidore’s that either of them would turn you over just to spite Nahlo and his family. You saw Axera, he’s very handsome. Axera and all the other dragons at that farm are jewel dragons, their scales are meant for jewelry and more luxurious coats of armor. Which you've already seen because Haluma refuses to wear nothing but the stuff, even as uncomfortable as it to her sometimes.' Thyla explained. 

“Ah, entitled and used to always getting what they want.” You surmised. 

‘Yes.' She confirmed.

"Why does Haluma like Nahlo though? Is it the tattoos?" You asked her softly.

'Yeah. Tattoos are forbidden in Haluma's family but to Haluma, Nahlo is some kind of irresistable bad boy. And yes, that tattoos only add to that image. Otherwise she has almost every other guy on the island drooling over her and her rich family. But not Nahlo. He sees it all for what it really is and while they may be rich in house, estate and money, they are piss poor in ethics, honesty, and decency.' Thyla revealed.

"Ah, so she is poor in all the ways I'm rich and I'm poor in all the ways she's rich. So she is threatened by me." You surmised.

"Exactly. But Haluma has always wanted what she can't have. And because Nahlo has gently and politely refused her advances in the past, instead of going elsewhere, she's become obsessed. Like stalker obsessed. Which is why Nahlo works one of the more humble jobs that is quite dirty and hard work. Things that Haluma and her family wouldn't be caught dead doing. They rely on thier machines to make their jewelry and pluck the scales before they're even ready to be fully shed, all to make deadlines, to the harm of thier own dragons until they bleed from the plucking." Thyla shuddered.

"Like a bird having it's pretty feathers plucked." You surmised.

"Exactly. And if they come to know that you make electrum. They would be the first to have turn every speck of metal on that estate into more electrum. And try to marry you as soon as possible to keep you there like your foremothers.’ Thyla warned. 

“Then why did Nahlo agree?” You asked. 

‘For Axera’s father’s sake. But if you show his father the pain you’ve endured being in this state- maybe he will dissuade them.’ Thyla offered. 

“I see.” You nodded in understanding before Nahlo approached wiping the sweat of his brow after getting the last of the batteries back up to the people waiting outside.

“We should get home and get cleaned up for dinner.” Nahlo came over as Manidore had already left to go home to do just that. 

“If you felt uncomfortable about going to Axera's farm, you could have declined.” You offered. 

“I didn’t want to deny you seeing old friends.” Nahlo tried to excuse.

“Not if it will cost you- your peace of mind and the peace of your heart.” You countered. 

“Then perhaps, in the future, lunch visits will be best, short and sweet and an excuse to leave to go back to work when things even venture into being uncomfortable and more dragon orientated.” Nahlo offered. 

“Yes, that would probably be best. I trust you to keep me safe and sound Nahlo. And I trust Thyla to do the same and I trust Grandma Isla. Thyla told me I’m illegally here. And it would be best if I stayed off of sonar.” You supplied. 

“Radar.” Nahlo corrected with a grin. 

“Radar, yes.” You agreed as you mirrored his smile. 

“So do you think going to Axera’s family’s farm will expose me and threaten my safety?” You asked as you lowered your voice and took a step closer to him. 

“It should be ok, as long as Axera’s father sees and feels your painful truth. That you are here by accident and it is only by Isla’s protection that you are here on the mainland.” Nahlo answered as you nodded in understanding. 

“Then lead the way. I will follow wherever you will go.” You offered as you took his arm and hugged it as he was happy to have you there as he was happy to put his hand over yours and lead you out of there with Thyla and Sephat and the others, who had taken Axera’s place with you, who Thyla liked much better than Axera. For one thing, Sephat wasn’t nearly as boastful and egotistical because he was more drab and more meek and mild. And 2- because he was drab and to other Neveahans, ugly, he was seen as undesireable and practically unrideable by Neveahan standards. But he was getting the hang of taking you as a rider and learning to translate your meanings instead of pure word for word translation. And for all of these things, you really liked and appreciated about him too. There was a quietness and a gentleness about him that you found soothing too. 

You flew Sephat beside Thyla back home where everyone was hurriedly trying to get ready. 

“Thank you all so much for helping me visit the other moura dragons around Neveah. I really appreciate it.” You thanked them as you were quick to try to help them. 

“I’m just happy that you aren’t going alone and that all of us can come with you to keep an eye on things and keep you safe.” Sefahti smiled gratefully.

“You are glowing much dimmer today. I take it, today was much more successful as far as curing you is concerned?” Cadi offered. 

“Yes.” You smiled happily. 

“Good.” She and Sefahti both smiled happily before they finished and tried to help you get ready by doing your hair at least, while your moura cloak provided a beautiful dress, which they claimed was perfect, simple and elegent and sophisticated for the dinner party as they simply let you borrow a cloak to wear over your clothes to conceal your state until you could get into the house.

“Ok, we will drive, you fly. Keep the dragon as close as you can.” They offered. 

“I will.” You reassured them before you got back onto Sephat to fly with Nahlo who actually looked quite dashing and regal in his more dressy clothes. 

“You lead, I follow.” You urged him. 

“Ok.” He smiled as he took to the air and flew with you to Axera’s family’s farm which wasn’t actually too far away. Thankfully.

But the moment you landed, and got off of Sephat, it was clear that Axera’s family’s caretakers had pulled out all the stops so to speak. Their houses were practically all mansions, all connected by elaborate walkways and hallways until it looked more like one huge palace complex. Their barn was also palatial. And you were taken on one side by Alidore and his mother on the other as they were quick to usher you inside and down to a meal that only equaled that of Dorierra's. There were more pieces of cutlery than you could ever think was needed for a meal. And servants, lots and lost of servants. And dinner was actually a 30 course meal. Each plate only having a few mouthfuls worth of food on it. But beautifully and artfully plated delicacies. Thankfully Alidore's mother was right there beside you to walk you through what to eat what course with and what to do when and made several comments about how you ate all the food off of every plate put in front of you. You were quick to point out that you were actually sick and the more food you ate, the sooner you would recover. Which was the only reason she allowed it. The men of the family of course were "allowed" to finish all the food off of their plates, the ladies, barely ate half of what was there.

All while Nahlo was sat down all the way on the other end of the table with Haluma practically glued herself to his side and in a dragon scale dress that left very little to the imagination. You could tell that Undilla and Sefhati weren't exactly thrilled to simply sit and listen to her talk on and on and on about herself and only herself and never really engaging them in coversation and interrupted them every time they tried to cut in. Which, mouras could be chatty too. But they at least had the decency to not interrupt other people. You could sense Nahlo only tolerated her presence as he too didn’t appreciate or like her own forwardness.

But seemed all of Alidore’s brothers were seated around you with Alidore's grandfather sitting at the head of the very long table. You barely could keep up with their questions about you and your family and where you were from as you could see Thyla wasn’t happy about Axera’s attentions either as she tried her best to keep up with helping you and your hosts communicate serving as your translator since Sephat was still learning but making an excellent effort nonetheless.  

And while you enjoyed the food, it was the company that was overwhelming you with their "charms", flattery, fishing for compliments in turn, and attentions as you noticed that all of them were eating with pure gold silverware while you were grateful for your wooden handled utensils.

You tried so hard not to touch anything metallic. Everywhere you looked was gold, platinum, crystal, marble, ostentatious and over the top. The family was eager to talk about how great and prosperous their business was as their farm didn’t even bother with herds, simply bought what their dragons wanted to eat from the market every day so that they could dedicate more of their lands to buildings and lavish gardens. Even the children were expected to be little adults. No loud voices, no outbursts, no misbehavior, and wholly unnatural.

Which was a sharp contrast to Nahlo and his family’s farm that was much more of a homestead style and geared towards self sufficiency which you liked and appreciated much more whereas his own family was similar to your own, where kids were passed around and everyone loved everyone and between giving each other a hard time and teasing, it was always in good fun and never malicious.

But not here. There were undercutting remarks and inside jokes that weren’t funny and didn’t make sense and you could tell Alidore’s grandfather was the patriarch of the family. As even he was trying to be ‘a warm father type’ but his true nature could be clearly sensed. He practically ruled his family with an iron fist. His grandchildren were practically all kissing his ass while his other children, while showing reverence, there was so much resentment there too. 

But once you finished dinner and tried all the desserts, you simply asked to see Axera’s father, wanting to hurry up and meet him and sing to his clutch of eggs and get going and leave before they asked you the same intrusive questions masked by pretty words and flattery, asked at least six different ways, wanting to get either different answers or get to the core truths about yourself that you weren’t comfortable sharing with them.

You could only glance at Nahlo out of the corner of your eye and he looked just as uncomfortable as you felt but he was obviously trying to be polite and dip and dodge all of Haluma’s advances as you were trying to do the same from her brothers. Especially since every single one in Alidore’s family stared more at your moura collar than even your breasts or eyes. Which to you betrayed what they were really after.

Electrum.

Figured. 

The family reluctantly let you into the barn where Axera’s father Aeleo was as he practically was wagging his tail in excitement to see you as were happy to go up to him and hug his face for several long moments. 

‘Hello my friend.’ You greeted happily as you hugged his face tight and fought not to cry again. 

‘Hello my friend. It’s so wonderful to have you here, finally. Axera has told and shown me all that you showed him already. I’m so sorry you’ve had to endure that great pain and then to be here is both thrilling yet dangerous for you.’ He said. 

‘Because I’m an illegal alien?’ You guessed. 

‘Among other things.’ He agreed before he picked you up so you could sit on his snout high up in the air as you straddled his snout to talk to him, wordlessly, wanting to keep this conversation secret between just the two of you as Alidore and his family simply sat and watched on curiously. 

‘So what are the other things? No one will say. And it’s the fear of the unknown that scares me the most.’ You asked.

‘Well immediately? It’s this family that likes to tell themselves they’re my owners. You should be weary of them the most. I have forbidden Axera from telling them about the electrum. Whether he has obeyed me, I’m not sure. With all the airs they are putting on. I doubt it. I’m sorry I raised a dishonorable dragon that can not even keep your confidence when you are already injured and scared and vulnerable.’ He offered. 

‘So what will your caretaker family want from me?’ You asked. 

‘Every scrap of electrum you could ever turn. Both for their jewelry and to sell to everyone else. They would want your benar as jewels to sell the the royalty here. They would want to keep you in the same comfortable cage they practically keep me in.’ He admitted. 

‘And if I don’t give them that?’ You asked. 

‘It would not surprise me if they will turn you over to the authorities for a reward, which if they did that, I can leave this clutch with Halina, I will fly you back home myself before they could do that.’ He offered you. 

‘But I don’t want anyone here to think I only came to get the moura dragons and take them by force. And I do not want to make trouble for you, or your mate or any other child you have. Children are the future. You know that as well as I do.’ You urged him. 

‘Yes, that is true.’ He had to admit. 

‘Then can I trade blessings with you? A moura lullaby to help your clutch connect with you and your mate the way they connect us with our families?’ You offered. 

‘I would love that. But what can I bless you with in return? Please, tell me how I can help.’ He requested. 

‘Help me put a guard around my mind so that no dragon will be able to see or tell anything I don’t want them to see so they can’t tell anyone else.’ You requested. 

‘Of course. All that and more.’ He readily offered before he gently let you down back onto the barn floor before blowing a special cloud of smoke around you as you felt more safe and secure in your own skin and in your own abilities to get out of here if need be. 

“Thank you my friend.” You thanked him as you kissed his snout sweetly as he nuzzled you gently before he hugged you with his wing which got you to giggle as you finally let your wings out to fully hug him back before you pulled them back in and turned to his eggs and reached under the very pretty and extravagant nest quilt to touch them and sang the same lullaby, this time, making sure the tendrils stayed under the quilt and didn’t lift it but still wrapped around both Halina and Aeleo and their eggs to help them feel closer as a family. 

You let Halina see what you were showing the rest of her family. Halina was brought to tears to see that while you came from a very humble family, you were rich in every way that her own caretaker’s family was poor. Which was in their interpersonal relationships which always seemed to be transactional and not really that genuine, which was why she loved Aeleo. Who loved her, not for her pretty scales. Or her rich caretakers. But just for her and would be happy with her here or anywhere else in the world as she readily agreed that if her caretakers turned on you, she was moving to the colonies with this entire clutch once they hatched. Because she too understood what it was like to be seen as property and not a person in her own right, even though she previously was afraid to leave because she doubted she would get the same support anywhere else than where she was. But now, she understood it. There was more to life than big fancy barns and all the food you could ever want to eat. There was family, there was a sense of belonging and there was not a sense of obligation but a sense of actually wanting to help one another because you really, genuinely loved them. No ulterior motives. No veiled threats or punishments. No timelines and deadlines. No ‘do this or else’. Just pure acceptance as perfectly imperfect as you were and moving at your own pace with very little being planned but taking life as you wanted it. With as many days ‘off’ as you wanted. 

The song ended and you withdrew your moura mark tendrils, happy that the dragonets were happily sleeping in their nest before Halina pulled you close into her chest and hugged you as tight as she dared. 

‘Thank you so much for that precious and priceless gift. I too will help you get home if it’s the last thing I do. Even if I have to call your home mine too.’ She offered. 

‘You and your family would always be welecome.’ You offered her, appreciating the new gift of having truly private conversations with her and only her. 

‘I know it. That’s why we would come, as soon as they could learn to fly.’ She offered. 

‘Then don’t say anything, I doubt they’d be happy to let you go. You are investment to them. And I doubt your caretakers are used to seeing anything they’ve invested in- not make a return.’ You offered as you pet her pretty scales. 

‘We are here by choice. Not by force. And they haven’t learned the one thing all dragon owners should know.’ She insisted. 

‘Which is what?’ You asked. 

‘Never build with non fire resistant materials.’ She beamed. 

‘Well whatever you decide to do. Please don’t give them a reason to come after you and your family or me and mine.’ You pleaded.

‘No, I’d take lead them to Dorierra. Let those smug bastards spend the next millenia in ‘negotiations’.’ She chuckled as you snickered a laugh. 

“What so funny?” Nahlo asked. 

“Private joke between mouras and dragons, it would take longer to explain why it’s funny than it’s worth.” You waived off. 

“It was a pleasure to meet all of you. But I’m afraid I’m getting very, very tired and I wish to sleep in the bed that Nahlo’s family has prepared for me in their home.” You insisted to your hosts for the evening and got out of there before they could put up too much of a protest as Nahlo and his family were so happy and grateful you gave them a reason to leave as you even agreed to ride in a vehicle to keep from “falling off” Sephat on the flight home. 

“Ok, if all of them are going to be like that. I don’t want to do any more.” You admitted once you were in the safe confines of the car with Undilla and Sefahti which got them to giggle. 

“Us either.” Sefahti admitted before they drove home and you had Sephat take to the skies with Thyla so he would get back to the house so he wouldn’t have to run alongside the vehicle or fly over it as it traversed the many streets between the two. 

Once back at the house though. It was a delight to "dress down" and play a game before it was really bed time, something with cards and chips, like it was gambling but not actually gambling. But it was really fun.

“Thank you for giving me the worst cards of the deck. Truly I’m honored to have them.” You offered to Nahlo as he dealt the first hand after doing a "practice" game where everyone showed their cards and what to look for and what to avoid before you seemed to try to catch on before you played "for real" this time. But your comment prompted him to try to switch hands with himself before he would even see them. 

“I’m kidding. No, keep your cards, there is nothing wrong with trying to play the hand you’re dealt. No matter how awful it is.” You reassured him. 

“Well no one would be more of an expert on that than you.” He returned, although his tone was gentle in it’s teasing nature. 

“Thanks.” You laughed. 

“That’s the nicest sympathy without pity I’ve gotten for my unlucky streak that’s been hounding me for the last two years straight. Thanks. I really appreciate it.” You grinned as you organized the cards in your and by the symbols on the cards, thanks to Thyla helping you get them organized by what they were and how to do so. 

“What do you mean - unlucky streak? You’re here, you’re alive, you’re as safe and sound as you could be.” Undilla tried to comfort you. 

“True.” You had to nod in agreement. 

“But for curiosity’s sake, how do you see yourself as unlucky?” He asked. 

“Oh gee, where do I start?” You began with a laugh. 

“Wherever you want to.” He started. 

“Well to start off with. My first solstice flight was spent doing every flying trick and aerial acrobatic stunt I knew of. To the point I tired myself out so bad during my first flight, I lost weight just trying to get back to the host colony and I had to sleep in the sun for three days just to recuperate and then once I woke up, I had to practically eat my own body weight in food. And I barely had time to get back home and get ready for the equinox flight. Which took a little longer than an hour for me because I was anxious to get through so I was the first to try to fly through, before everything was fully into alignment and I nearly collided with the core which is molten magma and I got very close to losing my life over it." You began which earned several grimaces and winces.

"Yeah, and any reasonable person would think that after that brush with death it would have taught me to be a little wiser with my actions. But did it? No, instead it filled me with overconfidence. And for the summer solstice flight I spent the first half doing the same gods damn things I did in the first, which was to fly like a chicken with my head cut off, just doing every stunt I knew of and had learned and I learned quite a few from the new ones who came onto that flight with me, and they were just as immature as I was. I spent the entire time in Doreirra, not resting but expending even more energy in a fighting championship." You continued.

"Did you win anything?" Undilla asked hopefully.

"I did. I won my entire class and then I won the division championship. I got a trophy for it, and a special gift and everything." You answered.

"So how is that a bad thing?" Undilla posed.

"Because winning that championship- cost me everything. It cost me every chance I had at finding a mate. It cost me friends. It cost me the respect and bonds of friendship from my peers. To the point that the only ones who would even just fly with me were related to me by blood. And they in turn, lost prospects of their own for choosing to stay friends and family with me than embrace any new family they might have had if they hadn’t. So when I got back, once again, it was another three days of sleeping and eating and resting because I lost even more weight on that flight than I did the first which only made me look even younger and more immature than I already was.” You explained with an irritated scowl.

“And then on the fall equinox flight, I was the one who actually helped the newbies not collide with the core. By flying just above it in my mega phoenix form, my wings being the only barrier many of the other younger mouras had between themselves and being burned up in the core. So I spent most of that flight just guarding the others on the flight. And you would have thought others would have appreciated it. But instead I was looked at like I was an old maid and I was treated as if I was my mother’s age and once again- every chance I had of finding a mate was obliterated because I wasn’t the “young and fun” type, but the “old mother hen” type.” You continued. 

“And then of course the last and most disastrous of all, the final winter solstice flight, I spent all alone. On the edge of a V. Still never approached, never befriended. Nothing. So I’m either too stupid and immature for the wise, too old and matronly for the young, too strong for any other male who just happens to be weaker in physical strength than myself, too skinny to be healthy, too busy showing off to be discreet. Too panicky to be calm. Too everything wrong to ever be right about anything or right for anyone else.” You waved off with a heavy sigh. 

“And then I have my non moura family telling me that I just must be a late bloomer and should probably wait until I’m at least 30 before trying this again. But the problem is, is by then, most of my peers will have been parents and have 10 year olds of their own by then and I’m not exactly too keen on picking through any newly divorced. Nor any old bachelor who has yet to fly his own mother’s coop to go and strike out on his own and have some sense, any sense of independence or self sufficiency or self reliance or whose own sense of masculinity is too threatened by my own sense of self.” You explained as you simply followed what Nahlo was doing as far as betting went. 

Then you exchanged a card that Thyla told you to before you seemed to get another and she insisted that you needed to keep what you had and not take any more cards or give any away because with just that one card, everything came together but not to let on that you got a good hand. 

“Well that means that your mate must be extra special.” Undilla soothed. 

“And that is what every single person in my family has told me every single day since the fall equinox. Every. Single. One. But they add a huge helping of pity and patronizing with it. But thanks. That many people saying so means it should be true.” You smiled before Undilla simply set down his hand to show his cards before, like dominoes, everyone did, calling out what they had before you turned to Thyla to make sure you would say this correctly. 

“Something about a flush? Flush or blush?” You mentioned as you put the cards down and everyone all groaned, cheered and crooned. Nahlo doing the majority of the cheering though as he gave you a high five.

“It’s a flush. You got a flush.” Nahlo specified as he helped shoved the chips into your area as you began to pick them up and stack them up. 

“Flush. Like a toilet?” You asked. 

“Yeah, same word, different meaning though.” Nahlo countered. 

“Well it looks like it means the same, it flushed everyone chips into my area.” You noted with a barely contained shit eating grin which got everyone to burst out laughing. 

“And flush like blush, because now all of you are doing that too. So flush.” You pointed out which only got them to laugh even harder. 

“Yeah, I think she’s figured how to fit in just fine around here.” Undilla beamed proudly as he reached out and pat your back. 

“Aww, thank you Papa.” You thanked him sweetly before he cupped your cheek then pinched your nose which got you to laugh. 

“Now you get to flush.” Undilla said as you blushed prettily before you passed gas. 

“No, I’m good.” You as they all practically fell out of their chairs while Undilla started laughing so hard he farted too which his farts smelled downright awful before everyone started to evacuate the area. 

“You guys are nasty.” Manidore waived off as he tried not to gag again and just walked off.

“This was fun. Thank you for showing me the game.” You offered as everyone was in the process of leaving the table and ending the game to go to bed. 

But now, as much as you wanted sleep, your body was still quite hungry for sunshine before some moon beams came in through the window and your wings automatically moved to try to catch them. 

“Really? Moonbeams?” You muttered to your wings before you grabbed the pillow and the blanket and slipped out of the window to fly up the roof to the dragon barn where you could lay on your stomach and fully stretch out your wings to capture every moonbeam as that hunger finally seemed to get filled. But honestly, you were too tired to care as to why your body now craved moonlight. You were just happy to finally get that hunger sated as you laid out over the actual skylight which was made out of a particular substance that was clear like glass, but wasn’t, actually glass. 

‘They call it plastic or plexi glass, clear like glass, but much more durable and less prone to break.’ Jenya supplied seepily under you. 

“Thank you. Goodnight Jenya.” You thanked her as you were happy to wrap the blanket around you, leaving only your head and wings open as your wings naturally laid over the whole skylight so that as the moon traveled over the night sky, it would catch it all night long and feed you while you slept before Sephat and then all the others flew to the roof to take up a side all around you so that you wouldn't fall off of the barn in your sleep. As you felt much better, being surrounded by dragons, with your wings over them like large solar pannels. And with all of them so close, it was the skinship your body craved and the warmth your soul needed to finally get some good and truly restive sleep.

[sierraraeck]

Struck by Lightning

Derek x Fem!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: After breaking up with your boyfriend, you go out for a girls night. Unfortunately, he follows you to the club to try and win you back. To show him just how over him you are, you kiss the first stranger you see walking through the door. Luckily for you, that man is a sculpted god of chocolate thunder.

Category: Spicy fluff

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol. Age gap between adults (maybe like 10ish years) but I never actually mention it lol. Some cussing.

Word Count: 2.2k

A/N: This was inspired by the song “Guys My Age” by Hey Violet. If you wanna give that a quick listen, go for it, if not, that’s chill too. This is also for @fortheloveofcriminalminds 600 follower celebration! The prompt “in the likely event that this all goes pear shaped, just remember I told you so” is in bold!

“I finally did it,” you told your friend over the phone.

“You did!” she squealed. “You dumped Brody? I’m so proud of you!”

You laughed, “Thanks, Jess. God, I was just so tired of his bullshit. He never wanted to do anything but hang around his house with his friends, ya know?”

“Yeah, I do know,” Jess responded very dramatically. “I’m so glad you’re done with him! This calls for celebration!”

“Oh god,” you mumbled, knowing exactly what that entailed. Jess was always a bit excited when it came to celebrating. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“Yes! Girls night!” The high frequency of her voice nearly blew your eardrums out. “There’s this new bar and club downtown that I’ve been dying to check out. I’m going to call the girls!”

Without getting another word in, she hung up, leaving you no choice but to start getting ready for what you were sure would be a wild night.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

Wild would not be the word you’d use to describe the night so far. Irritating would be more accurate.

Not even ten minutes after you’d arrived, Brody and his asshat friends showed up too. Of course, they couldn’t just keep their distance like any normal person who’d just been dumped would, maybe a normal person would even leave to go to a different club, but no. The first thing Brody did was approach you, sliding into the barstool next to you.

You could smell the alcohol and weed on his breath when he said, “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Go away, Brody,” you deadpanned. You’d finally gotten away from your immature, never-wants-to-do-anything boyfriend who never put you first, who now all the sudden that you’re gone, decides to start making an effort. And of course it had to be on the night that you were celebrating the single life again that he just had to show up.

“Don’t be like that, babe,” he said, reaching out to touch you.

You scooted out of reach of him, “Don’t touch me.”

“Come on, baby, we used to have a lot of fun. Let me remind you of that,” he said, leaning in to kiss you.

You put your hand in the way and pushed his face away from yours. “I would literally rather kiss anyone other than you,” you spat.

“You don’t mean that,” Brody tried to schmooze.

“Yes I do.”

“Oh really? Prove it,” he challenged.

“Come on, Y/N, let’s just go. He’s not worth it,” Jess told you, your two other friends at her sides.

But you were too competitive for that. Plus, this was your girls night out, at the club that Jess had been dying to see for ages now, and you weren’t going to let your stupid ex ruin that. So you accepted by saying, “I will. Next person who walks through that door.”

Brody shrugged, a smug smile on his face. “Fine. Let’s see it.”

You eyed the door as Jess leaned in and whispered, “In the likely event that this all goes pear shaped, just remember I told you so.”

You rolled your eyes, still facing the door. Then you saw movement behind the glass, the door swinging open to reveal the person you’d fated yourself to kiss.

And holy shit. You don’t think you’ve ever been so lucky in your life. The honest to god hottest man you’d ever seen walked through the door. He was tall, broad shoulders accompanying his strong build, and when you saw him turn and smile at the rest of what you assumed were his friends walking through the door, you thought you might pass out. He had to have been sculpted by Zeus himself.

You were staring in shock, as if you’d been struck by lightning, almost forgetting you had a small wager on the line. Jess gave you a small nudge, springing your feet into action.

You couldn’t believe you were about to do this. But, you strutted up to the man still partially in the doorway with confidence like you’d never had before, the group of people facing your way tracking your movements. The man himself had barely enough time to turn around and register you walking toward him before you reached up behind his neck and pulled him just slightly down to you. You smashed your lips to his with a bit more force than you intended, and could feel the shock coming from everyone around you.

They weren’t the only ones to be surprised, though. In only a matter of seconds, without pulling back to ask any questions, he started kissing you back. It caught you a little off guard, to be honest, thinking you were just going to kiss him and awkwardly walk away. But he kissed you back. Like really kissed you back. His lips were soft and smooth, and before you could fully register it, your tongues were exploring each other’s mouths, pushing and pulling in a way you’d never felt before. One of his hands rested on your jaw and the other snaked around your back, spurring on your confidence enough to place your other hand on his very firm, and very muscular chest.

You weren’t sure how long the kiss lasted, but you felt like you had to pull back when one of his friends cleared their throat. You looked into his dark, cocoa eyes now that you could really admire his face close up, and he was looking at you with a mix of confusion and wonder.

You bit your lip and turned to quickly glance at the brunette who’d cleared her throat. She was pressing her lips together to suppress a smile, but wasn’t failing dreadfully at it.

You turned your attention back to the man in front of you, still looking at you in awe. Running on pure adrenaline and confidence, you slowly looked him up and down, then let out a satisfied sigh. “Not bad,” you muttered to yourself, barely loud enough for him to hear it. You ran both your hands down his chest and flirtatiously continued, “Not bad at all.”

You easily slid out of his grasp and winked over your shoulder as you strutted away.

You heard the woman who’d cleared her throat say, “I know you’re Derek Morgan, and I know you’re a catch, but has that ever happened to you?”

You peered over your shoulder and saw him staring at you. Derek, you now knew his name to be, shook his head just slightly and mumbled, “Never.”

You quickly turned away, not wanting any of them to see your grin as you practically bounced back to your seat at the bar. Brody was nowhere to be found.

Jess was slack jawed, eyebrows almost lost in her hairline. You teased, “What was that you were saying about things going wrong? Something about telling me so or..?”

Jess pulled herself together and feigned annoyance, “Oh shut up. You know you got hella lucky.”

“Oh,” you nodded, “I know.”

“Seriously, Y/N, what the hell was that?”

You shook your head, feeling as in awe as the man you’d kissed only moments ago had looked. “I have no idea.”

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

You eyed each other for the next hour or so, neither of you being too inconspicuous about. You’d been on the dance floor while him and his group were at a bar table. He finally approached you when you’d taken a break to get another drink.

He walked up to you and leaned against the side of the bar you’d just order from. He hadn’t said anything yet, so, without looking at him, you filled the airspace. “You know it’s considered rude.”

“Excuse me?” he questioned. It was the first time you’d really heard his voice, and it was a deep velvety sound you wanted to remember.

“It’s considered rude to stare,” you started, turning to face him, “Especially if you’re not going to buy the next drink.”

He swiped his tongue across his bottom lip, “Is that so?”

You simply nodded as the bartender brought you your drink. He had already fished out a twenty, holding it up between two of his fingers. He never took his eyes off you as the bartender took the cash and you sipped at the liquid in your glass.

“That’s a little better,” you teased.

You stood there leaning against the bar shamelessly looking each other over for another moment before he spoke up again, “I’m Derek Morgan.”

“I know,” you stated, flashing him a smile. He looked at you expectantly, but you weren’t about to give anything up.

He sighed a little, but gave you a small smile when he asked, “Well, if you won’t tell me your name, would you at least like to dance with me?”

You opened your mouth in fake surprise, “Ooh, so you’re a trade off kinda guy.”

He quickly backtracked, “No, that’s not-”

You laughed, cutting him off. “It’s okay, I like a little trade off. How about I dance with you, and if I’m any good, you put your number in my phone. If I’m not, I’ll tell you my name.”

He smirked, “Deal.”

Derek offered his hand and you gave him a small smirk as you took it, letting him lead you to the dance floor.

You both started rhythmically moving to the deafening beat, sharing glances and mimicking movements. The two of you owned the dance floor, people from all across the bar looking your way, but neither of you bothered to notice. You were way too caught up in each other, slowing moving closer and closer as you danced.

Being around him was electric, and each time your skin touched his it sent shock waves through your body, as if the man himself was made from lightning. You were becoming more and more convinced that he was handcrafted by the gods themselves.

You couldn’t remember how long you’d been on the dance floor, but when Derek dragged you off, it seemed like you could have wasted endless time in your own world out there. He was a great dancer, and you loved that he was more than willing to dance with you. Not enough men were interested in dancing like he seemed to be.

He pulled you off to the side in a low traffic, dark hallway. His whole figure seemed to glow despite the dim lighting, and the only real sound was your labored breathing above the muffled bass.

Derek’s eyes raked from your eyes down to your lips, so it was no surprise when his actions followed his gaze. His lips were on yours, and your back was in contact with the wall in a flash. He kissed you with more passion and vigour than the first time, completely dominating the kiss. You didn’t mind, wrapping your arms around his neck to get as close to him as you possibly could and then some. Your heart was racing as you tried to cling to the feeling, ignoring your lung’s cry for air.

Derek was the one who pulled away, but only to trail kisses down your neck, giving you enough time to catch your breath. “Hey, hey,” you whispered. He looked up at you with curious eyes, “Does this mean I won our little trade off?”

A hearty chuckle escaped his chest making your knees weak and he beamed at you as he answered, “I guess it does.”

You grabbed a wad of his shirt and pulled his lips to yours again, then released it to take his hand. You led him from the hallway and back to the bar where you’d left your phone, handing it to him. After he’d typed in his number, one of his friends from earlier, the same brunette, approached the two of you. Derek gave her a defeated look and she nodded her head. He sighed, an entire conversation you couldn’t follow happening in front of you. She shrugged and walked away.

When Derek’s attention was back on you, he said, “It looks like I have to go. But is there really nothing I can do to convince you to give me your name?”

You shook your head with a cheeky smile, “I guess you’ll just have to wait for a phone call.”

“You know,” he started with a joking tone, “I work for the FBI and could probably get your name if I wanted to.”

You laughed, “Is that where you’re off to?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” he answered with dry humor.

“Interesting.” He gave you a look but you shrugged. “Makes sense, though, I’d pegged you as more of a SWAT guy.” He laughed and you couldn’t help but join him.

“Morgan, let’s go!” a blonde this time yelled to him.

He rolled his eyes, completely ignoring her and said, “I hope I hear from you soon.”

“Hang in there, Agent Derek Morgan,” you teased.

He flashed you that award-winning smile before turning to leave. You watched him all the way out the door, and once he got there, turned back to look at you. He smiled to himself again and left, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

Something about the energy in the room changed when he was gone, like all the electricity had followed him out. You were sure, then, that he wasn’t just created by Zeus, but had to have been Zeus himself. And you couldn’t wait to be struck by the lightning of his presence again.

Taglist

@90spumkin

[cryptid-killjoy]

Scout and Dale would first be chitter chattering away like long lost pals side-by-side walking through the twists, turns, heaps, and piles at the scrap yard waiting for it to get dark. Piper had long since left them because she saw this was a brother/sister moment and really she wasn’t into the junk yard. She said she’d come back at night, but was going to explore the city on her own until then. 

They talked about camp. They talked about Ellie and the bakery and her ass kickery. They talked about his experience on Pleasure Island. They talked about Babyface, Megabyte, and the rest of the Beagle Boys. They’d talk about their nearest and dearest like Zeke, Brigitte, and Elsa. 

They’d talk about their own projects and hobbies, games, scores, goals, interests, new ambitions. They’d talk about River and Summer. They’d talk about Thomas and Valerie and all things they haven’t really been able to privately like they used up close. They’d talk about going to Peru with Piper. That was a big move, a brave move. 

They’d end up on top of the ant at night still talking about Peru. They really went into detail about this. They had a strong connection here. Scout came New Zealand. That was a big move too. The hometown or shall they say campside pride was deep-rooted in them all. These were big steps for them, big emotions came with them. But, this was a good day for Scout and Dale. It was full of sibling bagging, ragging, and much needed connecting again that both of them needed after everything. 

When they finally decided it was time and they were ready to go for making this ant go robo they both got into position like they were ready to ride it like an ant rodeo. Then those outside the box thinking Laveaus had a brainstorm yet again. 

Scout said, “Dale wait. If we really want to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids this. We need to feel like we’re small enough to get stepped on. I think this ant is way bigger than the ant in the move. That aint Anty.” She started to smirk something awful. 

Dale looked back at her and started to see where her mind was going. 

“That aint Anty.” He repeated.

“No.” She shook her head. “That aint Anty.” 

“Then we better run.” Dale warned her. 

Scout’s eyes shot wide with thrill and they both took off as the sound of creaking metal creaked and clanged as this still sculpture suddenly started to move on it’s own without gears or pulleys. Dale was simply forcing the alloys to bend to his will and it would charge right at them. He was in complete control. But, it was a game they’d played since they were small. He couldn’t do structures quite this size as children, but he sure could now. They still had those same vivid imaginations that like to play though. 

They were ducking and diving and running from this terror of a metal insect digging and tossing through piles of scrap metal like it weighed nothing rearranging all the heaps. 

It would rear up like a wild stallion over them and they’d fall back screaming as this thing was about stamp down and trample them. Dale was holding onto Scout for dear life. She held her held up right before their dooms and struck it with a volt of electricity and the ant went flying backwards. 

Dale sat up suddenly and looked surprised. “What the heck? You telling me you could have zapped him all along? Why didn’t you tell me you had powers?” 

Scout would pretend to looked shocked. “I-I-I didn’t know? It just shot out of me? Like lightning.” 

Then they both burst out laughing rolling around wresting each other, real wrestling, trying to truly pin each other, rough and tumble. Scout would give him the slip and count him down to 3 really fast and claim the win. 

“Hey, cheater. I demand a rematch with thumb wrestling.” 

“Fine. But, we should probably but the fake Anty back before someone notices.” 

“Yeah, probably.” 

They’d sit up laughing. This was straight up exactly the kind of night Dale needed, Scout too. 

[innocentbi-stander]

Did anyone say ‘more immortal jaskier content’?

Doesn’t matter, because needless to say I’m back and with even more ridiculous ideas

So I’ve written headcanons up to my eyeballs about non human jaskier, but I think it’s high time to start accepting the sheer stupidity jaskier is capable of and just embrace it

Jaskier is born human, he’s got no elf or fae blood

But what jaskier does do is one day, desperate for inspiration and feeling just a little bit dramatic and moody, wanders into the middle of a thunderstorm

He’s sitting out under a tree, pondering life in a torrential downpour when he hears a great boom and

He’s struck by lightning

The last thing jaskier remembers before passing out is of course this had to happen two weeks before he was due to meet up again with geralt and then there’s a bright flash and it feels like his body is being ripped apart into a thousand pieces

The bard is passed out for almost a full day and wakes up with the sun shining on his face and the tree he was sitting under charred to cinders

He doesn’t know it yet, but the lightning strike has managed to alter his very being, and he won’t age a day past that night of the storm

Jaskier also, in a very fun way (read: during one of his escapades with a local noble lady) discovers that he also apparently has lightning powers

The cuckolded husband had stormed into the bedroom, charging at jaskier with a rather sharp looking knife, the bard had raised his hands in front of him in a shoddy show of self defense and the next thing he knew there was a loud ‘crack’ the smell of ozone, a burst of blue light, and the man was lying prone on the ground, chest smoking

Jaskier was out the window and on the road out of town before he saw if the man got up again

That incident seemed to mark the “awakening” of his new powers because they surfaced at any inconsistent occasion

Jaskier’s mood heavily affects his powers, getting too happy, too excited, angry, or sad usually resulted in an electric current running down his arms and pooling into his hands

Sometimes things near him would simply burst into flame

Jaskier knew he needed to get back to geralt as soon as possible, the witcher would know what to do

He didn’t necessarily learn to control his powers more than to turn them down so he wouldn’t accidentally shock anyone or set unsuspecting taverns aflame

As he was walking down the path, somewhere near Toussaint, he heard a commotion

A troupe of bandits surrounded a tall figure and a horse situated on the center of the path

A very familiar figure and horse

A quick inspection found geralt looking relatively okay and uninjured, but the bandits were great in numbers and jaskier could tell geralt wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer

The last straw was when one of the bandit’s blows landed, not mortally wounding geralt, but making enough contact with his arm to draw blood

And jaskier saw red

Nobody, nobody was allowed to touch his witcher and live to tell the tale

He felt the familiar buzz of an electric current running through his body and let go

The bandits all lay on the ground, the blue glow began to ebb away from jaskier’s eyes, and geralt was frozen in shock staring at his bard

“Jaskier?”

The bard winced at the low growling tone of geralt’s voice, present under the layer of shock. That voice never meant good things for him. That was the “jaskier what the fuck have you done now and what am I about to get ridiculously fussy over you about” tone

Jaskier raised his hand in the air and gave a small wave, forcing a grin on his face

“Hello, Geralt. So….. some things have happened.”

Geralt ran a hand through the bloody mess of his hair and sighed a sound of a long suffering man, and the bard wondered if this was it, the moment geralt finally declared he was sick of him for good

But then the witcher reached out to him, and jaskier knew everything would be okay

part 2?

[snaileer]

Chips & Salsa - Chapter 9

“-remember-?”

Who was that?

“Do you-”

What are they saying?

Why does my head hurt?

Light burst into Lance’s eyes with the pain in his chest.

He jolted forward, stuck, hurt-

Haggar.

He could see her glowing eyes now. Staring at him from just under the darkness of her hood. Even without pupils, he could tell that she was focused solely on him. As if he would tell her anything.

Lance jerked against his restraints. Restraints? “What do you want from me, you hag?!” He shouted, pulling against the metal cuffs again. Though they already felt bruised. His head pulsed with similar aching.

“I said, What..” She creeped forward, clamping her hand around his chin, “Do you remember?” Her voice crawled out of her throat like slime coating his skin.

What do I know? He tried to pull away from her again, “What the hell are you talking about, you freak!?” She was asking about his team, his family… Voltron. “I won't tell you anything. You’ll never get your hands on Voltron!” He struggled for lucidity against another flash of pain in his ever-growing headache.

An odd mix of satisfaction and anger flitted across her face, curving it into a sneer. “We will see about that yet, Paladin.”

He had no idea where the satisfaction came from. The anger, he understood. He’d seen plenty of his math teachers with the same expression; but satisfaction? She had nothing to be satisfied about. Not if she thought she could get anything from him.

“You’re not going to be able to break me, not in this lifetime or the next. I’ll never betray my team!”

A strange hissing growl came from her as she pulled her hand back and turned to the other druids. Other druids? Why hadn’t he seen them? He should have noticed them. Was he really that focused on just Haggar?

“Take him to the cell,” She glanced back at him out of the corner of her eye, “Leave him there for a while. We’ll see how he responds when I come back with further improvements from this information.”

He barely had time to panic before a druid had placed a purple hand on his arm and he felt magic course through him. It wasn’t electricity, thankfully, but it tensed every muscle in his body, paralyzing him in place.

God, the cramps he would get from this. He needed a massage. With coconut oil. And music. Hell, at the very least, a hot bath and copious amounts of bubbles.

When the other druid reinforced the magic to carry him out of the room, he came to the unfortunate realization that he would be getting neither any time soon.

The hallways faded past him in a blur. A tingling feeling niggled at the back of his neck, You should remember this. Pay attention. Listen! It screamed. This has happened before! SOMETHING’S WRONG! It whispered.

It sounded familiar.

Lance tried to pay attention to his surroundings, he really did. He knew it would be important if he wanted to escape. To know where he was going. But every time he tried to focus, the directions and pathways slipped from his mind like sand through a net.

What felt like seconds later, Lance was thrown into the darkness of a cell. And suddenly, feeling rushed back to him in a tsunami. Pain, pins-and-needles, sharpness, bruising, the sting of wounds rubbed raw at his wrists.

The druids moved away, uncaring at the shout he gave in shock when he hit the floor. The door closed behind them unceremoniously.

Lance groaned from his place crumpled on the ground, “Nothing like little torture and paralysis to get ya’ kickin’ in the morning, amiright?” He sighed to himself.

Displeasure sunk into him as the grime crawled its way into his pores.

Reluctantly, Lance pulled his hands and arms under his body, pushing up from the floor. At least he could lean against the wall, presumably less dirty than the ground. God, his head hurt. And his arms. Everything was sore, the thick manacles on his wrists feeling heavier by the second.

With a series of grunts, Lance finally settled himself into a corner of the cell. There was very little light, and most of it seeped in from the space under the door or the half dead purple-lightbulb-in-a-cage right above it.

Still, when he rolled his head to the side in exhaustion, there was enough light to catch on something written- no, carved into the wall next to him.

He raised his shaking fingers up to it, trying to feel what marks he couldn’t see.

D-n--or--g-t

-o--for--

No, there was a space in between there.

Do-t- fo--q-t

He squinted at it, leaning closer. The light caught on the curves of some of the letters. The ones he couldn’t accurately feel. It was an ‘N’, a ‘G’, an ‘R’ and maybe.. an ‘e’?

Oh.

Don't Forget.

Lance dropped his shackled wrists to his lap and huffed a laugh at his efforts. At himself. And then he spoke to the darkness.

“Oh don't you worry, creepy wall carving, I think it’d be pretty hard to forget this.”

-x-x-x-

Lance sat in the darkness for hours, days, however mind-numbingly long it was that allowed him to actually recite his entire family tree through 4 and a half generations. Extended family included. He even started including hypothetical nieces and nephews based on what he thought his sisters would name their kids.

He absentmindedly wondered if all of them were still hypothetical. How long had he been gone? What had he missed?

What had changed without him there to see it?

Something rumbled in the back of his head. It felt hidden behind his absolute monster of a headache now coming back.

Except… wait. No. He recognized that rumble…

Blue?

Blue! It was the Blue Lion! His Lion!

Something broke free in his mind, a small section of fog lifting.

Her presence and his own pressed against each other in his mind. A piece he hadn’t quite noticed was missing.

How could he ever have forgotten Blue?

Her presence purred, the vibrations automatically soothing him, comfort pushing through his bond. Something still felt… off. The bond felt farther, more strained, even though he could feel Blue on the other side. Feel her desire to come closer, feel the worry tinging the edges. Something still kept a distance between them.

He didn’t know what it was but something in his own mind told him to leave it be. It was important. It had to be like this.

Whatever this was.

Lance wasn’t able to figure it out soon enough, their mental conversation interrupted by the harsh grinding opening his cell door.

“Get up,” a discourteous voice commanded.

He looked at them with hooded eyes and a forced smirk, “Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt somebody?” Not that they knew he was having a conversation, but still… point stands.

Their glowing eyes narrowed, “Get up, or suffer, Paladin.”

“Didn’t anyone teach you manners? I didn’t even hear a please. Honestly, people these days have no- AAH!” Lance’s scream cut off his own words as purple lightning struck his body.

The druid barely even moved their hand and pain ran through his muscles. When the lightning stopped, Lance was left heaving for breath on his side.

He felt like the Extra Crispy option on a fried chicken menu. Was God trying to make him go vegetarian through sheer number of shared experiences? Screw that. In fact..

Lance glared back up at them and forced out the words, “Screw. You,” from between clenched teeth and struggling breaths.

He wished he could see the fury he knew was behind those masks.

The druid lifted their hand again and though Lance tried to fight the flinch, he wasn't sure if he succeeded. Instead of lightning, he felt the tight restraints of their magic envelope him and lift him up. He couldn’t even struggle out of it.

“Bite your tongue, child, or Haggar may decide to teach you some manners,” The druid growled and turned around, making their cloak swirl dramatically. Lance wished he could scoff at them, but the paralyzation made that difficult.

“And she will not be as merciful as I was.”

He settled for a particularly scathing, derisive glare. Lance thought they got the message anyways.

He was so focused on trying to burn a hole through their back that he almost missed where they were going. Almost. He hadn’t thought any of the directions stuck through his headache, but now… they were going back to the same room as before.

To Haggar.

He knew he was right when he spotted the Lady Hunchback herself leaning over a table. Seriously, when was the last time that woman stood up straight all the way? When she finished sharing tips and tricks with Satan and Hitler?

“I’d hate to be your chiropractor, lady. I bet it’s costly to find someone even able to tolerate your presence.” He was hoping for at least a twitch as the Druids forced the manacles into place on the table.

Instead, it was his heart that skipped a few paces upon realizing it must have been the same table he’d woken up on.

“I can’t imagine anyone would willingly come near you, despite being paid,” He sneered. It worked as a good enough distraction from what he knew was gonna happen. At least, it worked until she turned around.

“Quite the contrary, little Paladin,” Haggar reached her hands out to his head, clawed fingernails keeping him from leaning away, “I think you and I are going to get very close.”

Lance screamed again as pain shot through his skill. It felt like needles being shoved through his eye, he couldn't even-

It burned. It burned. It burned!

Please! Please Somebody! Help!

I can't-!

“Show me your team, Paladin,” A voice whispered, “SHoW ME Voltron!”

Pain surged again in time with his screams. Idly, some part of him wondered if he could burst his own eardrums.

His thoughts were crushed beneath crashing waves of searing, hot, burning, hot, it’s too hot, it hurts, it hurts it hurts, please please I can't do this I don't want-, somebody please!

Sharp claws cut a path through his mind. These ones didn't hurt.

No.

These claws came from soft padded paws. Metal and yet somehow gentle. Cold and soothing. He walked towards them, down the path they had laid for him, desperate for whatever small relief they could provide. Some distant piece of his soul recognized his bond between lion and paladin. But she was so far away. He could see the doors opened for him, welcoming him home, home to the water. But the path was so long and so dark.

He glanced down.

Dark?

No. It wasn't meant to be dark.

Burning tingled at his fingertips when he looked harder. His lion was blue. A gorgeous sky blue, ocean blue, ice blue. Then why….

Why was there purple leaching its way across it?

He looked behind him.

The heat worsened, pain closer than he remembered it.

His footsteps were clear behind him, each one oozing sickly, purple slime that curled its way around the light. Covering every inch of the gentle blue.

This wasn’t right. Something wasn't-

Sharpness spiked across his skull, snapping his head forward.

“Focus. Focus! Closer. Get closer! You cannot resist me! Not weak like you are!”

Something forced him forward and he stumbled on the path, falling to one knee. He reached to steady himself on the path; and different worlds flowed through his mind.

You’ve done this before, Cub. You can do it again.

They were his words. And they were Blue’s.

But he knew what they meant. He remembered it now. How Haggar was trying to get to his team, to Voltron, to Blue.

What she wanted from them. From him.

no. No. No!

“You cannot have her, Haggar! Not ever!” Lance turned around and moved away from the doors. The bond. Away from Blue.

Fresh agony layered on his skin. Heavier and thicker and stronger with each step.

He could hear Blue behind him now, calling out for him in mewls and cries. She wanted them to do this together. But he couldn’t, they couldn't do it together without endangering her. Endangering everybody. So he kept running. Pushing through what felt like thick slime until he was struggling to keep moving.

The smog pressed itself down his throat, burning, scalding and tearing him up on the inside.

Haggar was shouting out behind him too. She could only go so far, only get so close to her goal with him.

“I will take control, Paladin! You cannot stop me!” Claws grabbed his upper arms and pulled him back. They left deep gashes on his biceps and shoulders, but he pushed against their leverage.

“You don’t think I can stop you Haggar!?” He glanced over his shoulder at her glowing yellow eyes, “Watch Me!”

He turned around and reached into the darkness of her body without form, clutching onto the thickness he felt inside of it. Even as its essence burned like hot acid on his skin.

And then he threw his body backwards, taking her with him.

Away from the doors and through the barrier of Haggar’s magic. Away from Blue and through the pain.

Off of the path.

Almost immediately he felt Haggar get thrown from his mind.

He gathered what little peace he could find. The crashing waves came to a standstill for just one moment. It was enough.

It had to be.

He wanted to cry. Tears welled up in his eyes. He knew this was the best chance he would get to do so, but he couldn't. Not until it was over. Then he could break, could cry, or do whatever the hell it is that is supposed to come after this.

He looked back to stare through the thick, writhing purple of Haggar’s magic. He could see the glimmer of his bond with Blue. Of the ‘path’ they had laid that first day together.

It was dimmed now. Not just by the smoke obscuring his view, but by the purple sludge seeping into its bricks.

She’d gotten farther this time. Closer. More so than Lance had ever wanted Haggar to get. He knew he was struggling, struggling to keep the distance between his bond and her corruption.

It was weird. To be able to look back and remember himself forgetting something. Forgetting how many times they’d had this battle. This push and pull in his own mind.

He still didn't know just how long he’d been fighting back to keep her away. Just that he had. And that he’d keep doing it.

But he was losing.

A traitorous part of his heart told him this couldn’t go on forever. Something had to give, and as it was, Lance was not liking his odds. Something would have to break eventually.

But not yet.

He couldn't let go of her yet. He couldn't. Even if that made him weak, he couldn’t.

Not yet.

He just wanted to stay here a little longer. Stay with her a little longer.

The corrupted magic clearly disagreed with this prospect. Its char-colored surface rippled back to life. Waves were heard in a distance that did not exist.

They were not the bright, colorful waves of his home, nor the cold but fierce waves of his lion, these were riptide waves. Powered by the undertow and ready to pull him under. Drowning and suffocating him, farther, farther down.

He lost sight of the glow at some point, and the darkness snatched him under instantly.

-x-x-x-

The druids stared at the body of their mistress over the Voltron Paladin. So many times before, it had been the same. The same resistance and weakness from him. The same ignorant stubbornness as he protected what their Emperor deserved. He would fall to their magic eventually. As the one before him, and the countless subjects before that. He would fall.

But there were doubts.

They watched as Lady Haggar was flung back from the Paladin as she had been so many times before.

The doubts stood still. Ever wavering, faltering but not falling.

Lady Haggar lifted herself up and neither druid so much as twitched to help her. They knew better.

“He thinks himself strong, thinks himself righteous,” She crowed in that tone that said he so clearly wasn’t, “But his naivety costs him. I grow closer by the day.”

They saw barely a flash of white when Lady Haggar bared her teeth, “But that Lion keeps reminding him, keeps undoing my spells. He needs to be broken; and soon.”

The Druid refrained from mentioning that the spells for the invasion of his mind could only be broken by the strength of ones own quintessence. Reminded of strength, yes; but not given it or shared.

He was a Paladin of Voltron for a reason, though flawed that reason may be.

Lady Haggar finally turned attention to her druids, to fulfill their purpose under her command.

“Rid him of his weaknesses. No weaknesses, and nothing to chance.” She growled as low as a female galra could, “I will get that Lion from him, one way or another.”

As Lady Haggar stepped back, the druids stepped forward, up to the helpless paladin. His face was clear, unburdened and untense. That would change soon. They reached out with their arms and their magic, delving into the surface mind of this Paladin. Only the surface, Lady Haggar would do the rest.

The druids looked to each other, then to their mistress. He was ready, the spell prepared once again.

And from the front of the table, magic shot forward from her fingertips, into the mind, body and quintessence of the Child Paladin.

Their druid magic was nothing to the level of Lady Haggar, the Dark Witch of the Galra; and yet, it was their magic that ripped into his mind and made it possible for her to latch onto his memories.

They laid him bare, and she took what she needed.

The Paladin could do nothing. Would continue to do nothing. Not in the face of the empire’s power.

Then why must we keep repeating this process. The doubts whispered.

The druid ignored the words, focusing instead on the drawing of their power for the spell. When it was finished, the Druids stepped back once more, and Lady Haggar drew forward.

How would the Paladin awake this time?

His face began twitching. Slow, just as the last time.

“What do you remember?”

Nothing.

“Do you remember?”

Why did she ask him this? Their spell would only fail at the interference of the Voltron Lion. It was infallible to tricks of the mind.

The Paladin’s consciousness came closer to the surface. Still too slow. Always slow, this paladin. Magic was infallible and uncompromising, but Lady Haggar was not as patient.

She threw a spark of her magic onto the boy’s chest and instantly, he awoke. He jolted forward against the cuffs, no doubt hitting bruising from the pain of his struggles during Lady Haggar’s procedure.

Recognition flashed across his face. Focus drawn only to their Mistress, just as he was meant to. This was important, his mind still laid open for her to search, she drew her eyes onto his as her magic probed for information. Voltron could not hide forever.

The Paladin jerked forward once again, as if he had not learned the first time, “What do you want, witch?!” He shouted, pulling against his restraints. They would hold, this child was weak. Too weak.

“I said, What..” Lady Haggar creeped forward, clamping her hand around his chin, “Do you remember?” Her magic crawled forward, coating the recesses of his mind as she worked to pull forward his thoughts, his knowledge on Voltron.

His efforts to pull away were futile, though expected, “What the hell are you talking about, you freak!?” Voltron. Voltron. The Other Paladins. Tell us. Tell us of Voltron, the magic chanted.

“You won't get anything from me, I won’t betray Voltron!-” Lady Haggar pushed deeper and pain flashed beneath his eyes, “You won't find my team, not through me!” The trench opened in his mind began to close, Lady Haggar’s magic pulling back.

Accomplishment flitted across her face in pairing with irritation. He was still resisting then… surprising but not irreparable. “We shall see if that is true, Paladin.”

The Paladin seemed confused, but then again, he always did. He was weak and feeble-minded after all, nothing more could be expected.

“I’ll never betray my team and you'll never be able to make me! That will never change!” He shouted. So loud, so foolish.

Lady Haggar pulled back her hand as the last of the Druid’s spell closed, they would have to try again. She looked to the druids, and drew the Paladin’s eyes to them as well. He had not noticed them. Poor awareness, weak yet again. This is why the spell worked so well on young, unguided minds. It led them to purpose. The Empire’s purpose.

“Take him to the cell,” She looked back at him slightly, “Leave him there until I summon for you again. We shall see his results after I have viewed the information gained. Succession is at hand.”

“Vrepit Sa,” Both Druids nodded and turned to the Paladin, their hands coated in magic. A paralytic, they were too close to risk escape with this prisoner.

But you have been ‘close’ for a while now, haven’t you?

The paladin’s eyes widened, his heart jumped pace and his quintessence fluctuated before being frozen by the spell. As if the body could fight it, the spell was instantaneous with contact. Simple and complete.

The Druid’s magic worked in concession to lift the Paladin and disconnect his restraints without removing them. Silently, they began the walk to the cell.

They could see the panic and confusion in the child’s eyes as they turned each corner. It was pitiful that the magic coating his mind would leave him helpless for hours. Still, the effort was commendable. A sign of potential perhaps.

His eyes started to glaze over dim, perhaps not then, if he lost presence that fast. He held little use past his title as Paladin.

It was with this thought that they tossed his unpresence into the cell. Without a fight, this Paladin was nothing more than knowledge to be collected and tested.

The Druids moved away, uncaring at the shout when the Paladin came back to himself as he hit the ground. They closed the door without mind.

Then stepped to the side.

Magic made one weak if you allowed it to. Weakness made one vulnerable and vulnerability was to be exploited. So, they waited; to see if the Paladin had changed in the hours under Lady Haggar’s influence.

His groan echoed quietly through the metal door. After much hesitance, and many pauses, the Paladin began moving. His shuffles were quiet, but his vocalizations of his pain were not.

Lady Haggar had left marks on him this time, his upper arms and shoulders were marked with scratches like a wild Krelshi.

They listened to him rest again, presumably sitting rather than laying now. As he always was when they came back.

The metal of his cuff clinked softly against the cell walls. The druids looked to each other, a wonder if the Paladin would remain the same in his patterns.

Indeed, not a minute passed until they heard the unsure sounds of his untranslated, broken language whisper through the air.

Neither of them understood it. These were not words. They could not be translated. They were just sounds. Gripped by craziness or something else, they were still just sounds.

Then, a small laugh. A chuffing. Even in a place like this for the prisoner. Always the same.

“Oh don't you worry, creepy wall carving, I think it’d be pretty hard to forget this.”

Always the same, the paladin. Always the same.

-x-x-x-

In some other world, Lance might have wondered why the words carved into the wall were written in English.

He may have even noticed that the handwriting looked scarily similar to his own despite the pitch black darkness.

This was not one of those worlds.

And he did not notice.

First Chapter: https://snaileer.tumblr.com/post/613092735756402688/chips-and-salsa-chp-1

Next Chapter: Not Out Yet! But Soon!

Also double-posted on fanfiction.net and Ao3 under the same name!

[cardiophileanonymous]

Short Thorquill Drabble: Clear!

AU where the guardians take one Electro, someone with electric powers similar to Thor. He is an alien race considered gods like asgardians. I know he’s a goofy Spider-Man villain but I couldn’t find many other electric villains in the marvel universe lol so just roll with it.

...

“Ha,” Electro quietly laughed. “A GOD of thunder? You’re barely even a child, let alone a deity!”

Thor was backed up to a corner, well, more of a cliff. Quill looked up, frantically waving his arms to get the attention of the men above him.

“Thor!” His shouts fell on deaf ears as the blonde man was too busy focusing on his opponent to notice. He glanced at a broken statue before him. “Rocket, what are these statues made of?”

Rocket shrugged.

“I dunno, silver maybe? But that doesn’t matter right now!”

Without explaining himself, Quill grabbed a long stick like piece that had broken off.

“Hey asshole!” The villain looked down. “Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you! If you really have such amazing lightning powers, why’ve I never seen you use em?!” He lifted up the long rod as if it was a sword.

Rocket’s jaw dropped in fear. He was pretty sure he had a good idea of what he was planning, and Peter had done far more stupid things in the past. He still whispered to him, determined to say his piece and not let his friend at least know what a suicide mission this was.

“Quill, are you crazy?! Silver is the most conductive metal in existence!”

Instead of backing down, the man stood up straighter.

“At least Thor shows his ‘pathetic’ powers! You haven’t! That’s cuz’ you’re not nearly as good as him!”

Thor shook his head.

“Quill-”

The villain finished his sentence.

“I have no need to prove myself to you or any other mortal!”

Quill shrugged and began to speak in a condescending, taunting manner.

“Then, go ahead! Strike me down, Zeus!” The villain turned his attention back to Thor, but he still looked down in the corner of his eye. The human smiled, a nervous smile from fear. He had to get his attention back quick, else Thor would be toast. “YOU DON’T HAVE THE BALL-”

With that, the villain turned, throwing a full speed lightning bolt at Quill. He jumped up from the electrocution immediately.

“QUILL!”

The call came from both Rocket and Thor. Rocket was almost frozen with fear. Meanwhile, Thor has the opposite reaction, taking his large battle axe and swiping along Electro’s feet with the long handle, causing him to fall on his side.

...

Rocket wasn’t sure what he should be doing, but dammit, he was gonna do his best. He had been trying chest compressions for the past few minutes, but with his smaller size he wasn’t sure if he was getting it done properly. Thor ran up to them.

“Rabbit! Is Quill-”

“I am Groot!”

Rocket lifted his head.

“I’m tryin, alright?! Listen, there’s still a pulse!”

Thor perked up.

“There is?!”

“Yeah but it’s way too slow and irregular! I’m trying to get it back to normal, but…”

Thor suddenly got an idea. He nudged Groot out of the way and kneeled down next to Rocket, in front of Quill.

“I have an idea. I saw something back on Earth. I think I can help.”

He shooed him away and opened up Peter’s jacket before ripping off his shirt. He put his hands on his chest. Rocket couldn’t help but keep butting in through the whole thing.

“Wait, what what? What are you doing?”

Thor gave a clear warning.

“Stand back, Rabbit.”

He didn’t know how much was too much. Or too little for that matter. He focused, putting a small electric surge through Peter’s body. His chest convulsed up involuntarily before lying still again. Rocket jumped up, yapping uncontrollably.

“What are you doing, trying to kill him faster?!”

“What is his pulse now?”

Rocket brought his paw up to Quill’s neck to check. He gave Thor an odd look.

“...better than before.” He quickly started chest compressions again. “But still not good enough. His heart’s all outta whack.”

Thor looked to the side. After a few more moments of chest compressions, he brought his hands back down again.

“Stand back, Rabbit.”

He did a similar shock this time. He tried to amp it up a little bit more, just enough so he wouldn’t hurt him and return his heart to his normal rhythm. The body jumped up before falling again. Rocket monitored Peter’s pulse again before returning to chest compressions.

“Better, but it’s still, irregular, dammit!”

Thor put a hand to Peter’s wrist while Rocket continued on with his attempt at cpr. He wasn’t kidding when he said it was irregular. The odd thumping sent a chill up his spine. Still, it seemed to get slightly better with Rocket continuing to do what he was doing.

“Stand back, Rabbit.”

Thor sent another surge of electricity, raising the power up again this time. But this would be the most powerful he was willing to do. Any more, and he was positive he’d be hurting him far more than helping.

Rocket continued with chest compressions. His heart rate was better, but not by much. Thor was beginning to get worried.

“Stand back, Rabbit.”

Another surge. Quill’s whole body convulsed. Rocket shook his head, frantically pushing his chest at a consistent rate.

“A big lightning bolt did this, why can’t a big lightning bolt put it back?!”

“It doesn’t work like that!”

“I know it doesn’t work like that! But…” Rocket began to get tired. He looked down, scared that Quill would never come to. “...but I wish it did.” He slowed down, and slowly came to a stop, before kneeling down. He looked like he was genuinely going to cry. Thor sighed, recalling all the previous friends he’d seen die in battle. He didn’t want this to be another one of those memories.

“Stand back, Rabbit. I’m going to try this one more time.”

He sent one more surge of electricity, hopeful that this time, Quill would open his eyes. After his body stiffened then returned to a relaxed state, Thor took a keen look at his face. He didn’t move an inch. The god finally looked down in defeat. His eyes turned to Rocket and Groot, who were already partially mourning. They would no doubt carry him back to the ship, and subsequently to a hospital, but the ship wouldn’t be there for another fifteen minutes. By then it’d likely be far too late.

Suddenly, Peter stirred. He groaned a little before sitting up. He looked at everyone.

“What… happened…?”

Rocket started laughing hysterically, something he was doing to stop himself from crying. It was a very sad laugh as a result.

“YOU GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, YOU IDIOT!”

Suddenly, Quill’s memories started coming back to him. That’s right! He had pissed Electro off enough into zapping him. But that was strange, because the shock he got from him seemed like it happened ages ago. And he could’ve sworn he came to a couple times from a different kind of electricity.

“But… I thought I just felt zapping.” He looked down and noticed his clothes. “And what happened to my shirt? Was this all from the electric shock?”

Thor lifted his head up in pride.

“I just used my powers to send a large electric current through your heart!”

Quill looked at him with a confused smile before frowning with an open mouth.

“You WHAT?”

“It’s like a technology they have on Earth. A ‘defibrillator’. It puts your heart back to a ‘normal rhythm’.”

Rocket shrugged.

“I mean, it did do that. Your heart rate was waaay worse before Thor started zappin’ ya.”

Quill was speechless. Of course, the first thing going through his mind was holy shit this idiot could’ve just fried me a million times over right now and I could’ve been long dead, did he even know what he was doing?! But then he looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. He wasn’t dead. Yeah, he was more than worse for wear, but that’s to be expected of someone who just got struck by powerful electricity. In fact, if Thor hadn’t gotten the idea to use his own hands to revive him, was it possible he could’ve died?

…

Later that night, Thor hung by the bar, laughing and joking with Drax and Rocket, as he usually did. This time, Peter joined them, and waited patiently for when Rocket and Drax decided to leave. He decided that after the other two were gone would finally be the time he’d swallow his pride. He knew he needed to say some sort of thank you. Not because of another crew mate telling him to or because his hand was forced. But out of genuine appreciation.

After Drax had left, Peter made a couple facial expressions at Rocket. The two had known each other well enough at this point that they were capable of having conversations without a single word. He indicated that he wanted to be alone with Thor and Rocket respectfully nodded and left the room. Once it was just the two of them sitting at the bar table, Peter finally cleared his throat.

“Thor.”

The god nodded.

“I guess… I just wanted to say… thank you.”

Thor seemed confused.

“Thank you?”

“Yes. For the whole shocking me, back to life, or whatever.”

“What? I should be thanking you!”

Peter turned his head to the side.

“Huh?”

“Yeah! If it weren’t for you distracting him, I’d have been finished!”

Quill’s confusion quickly turned into pride.

“Yeah…! You’re right!” He laughed, but his pride was shaky, and didn’t stay for long. After being face to face with death, again, now didn’t feel like the time to soak in praise unnecessarily. “...seriously though. Look, I know we don’t really get along, so the fact you saved me is just…” He couldn’t really convey the words, so he just reiterated his original point. “Thank you.”

Thor shrugged.

“Why shouldn’t I have? I feel I have been at your ire for no reason yet you risked your life for me in the first place.”

Quill felt like all his mental functions stopped for a moment as he registered what he was just told.

“Did I?”

“Well, what was that whole display?” Thor chuckled as he raised his bottle in the air, quoting Quill right before he got struck by lightning. “Come on, strike me down, Zeus!” He laughed at the previous sentence. “That line is actually pretty funny, since you turned out alive from this whole ordeal.”

Quill unconsciously started nodding.

“Yeah. I guess that is a funny line.”

He started to ponder, why did he do it? In his eyes, Thor was an annoying, rambunctious barbarian. He was always waiting for the day Thor would get off the ship, a day that never really came. Perhaps it was because he didn’t make a good first impression, maybe it was because he saw him as a rival for leadership. But despite all of that, there was no way in hell he deserved to die, so his heroism probably kicked in before any sort of jealousy or bitterness. Sure, literally asking to get struck by lightning was a less than eloquent way of going about saving him. But it was the best he could come up with in the heat of the moment. He snapped back to reality when Thor handed him a beer.

“How is your heart feeling?”

Peter grabbed the beer and looked him in the eyes, confused.

“Um, normal?”

“Well, what’s your heart rate?”

“Normal, I guess…? Like I don’t feel any different, so-”

Thor rolled his eyes, putting a hand on his wrist without question. After a few seconds, he nodded and smiled.

“It’s normal.”

Peter did his best not to move his hand back out of instinct. Was just randomly grabbing people’s wrists to check on their pulses a common thing among asgardians, or was this man just incredibly weird? Instead of saying anything, he tried his best to laugh it off.

“Well, that’s good.”

He swore he could still feel Thor’s fingers on his pulse long after he finally retracted his hand. It was a strange phantom touch that remained. It annoyed him a little bit, but at the same time, it was oddly… comforting? He took a few sips of his beer as Thor went to bed and he pondered when he ought to do the same.

[jaceyneedsabetterusername]

Gin and Paleta

Pairing: Javier Pena x Reader

Summary: When a storm knocks out the power, you ask Javier to spend the night with you to ease your fear of the dark. A few drinks later, you admit more than you ever meant to. 

Warnings: Drunk and emotional reader, a wee bit of angst at one part, anxiety because of the dark, Javier teasing you, mentions of prostitution

Word Count: 5400

A/N: This is my first time writing for Javier and I’m a little nervous about it. Hopefully it’s alright!

__________________

The wind outside howled with an intensity that you hadn’t experienced in a long time. You clutched your hot tea to your chest, allowing it to warm you in the nice cool Bogota night as you watched the rain fall hard and heavy outside your window. Every now and again there was a flash of lightning that crackled across the sky that was followed by a loud rumble. The storm was right over you and the lightning had gotten closer and closer to the apartments the embassy had put you up in when you moved to Columbia. 

It really was quite beautiful, this storm that raged across the city. It had been hot and muggy for days leading up to the storm but now the angry gray clouds that blocked out the stars and the pounding rain brought a blanket of coolness to offer refuge from the constant Columbian summer heat. Your favorite scented candle burned on the table, the smell mixing perfectly with the scent of wet earth, asphalt, and trees overtaking your apartment through the small crack in the window you’d left for exactly that purpose. The TV played mindlessly in the background to create further ambience.

Suddenly, there was a loud flash just outside your apartments that lit up the entire street, sparks flying everywhere out your window. You yelped in shock as the power surged and then cut out completely, leaving you in total darkness aside from the flame of your candle. At the same time, there was a deafening rumble and the whole apartment shook with thunder. 

Your heart raced and you panted as you walked towards the window to see that the power was across the next few blocks. There was a downed wire in the next street down that still sparked occasionally in the rain. Car alarms went off in the street. Lightning must have struck the wires. 

Then the darkness crept in. When you turned to face your apartment, the utter darkness and silence of every corner began to feel suffocating. You reached over to the table and held the candle up as your breathing struggled to stay level. On shaky legs, you made your way over to a set of drawers that held various boxes of matches and a few old lighters before searching the house for every candle and flashlight you could find. After about ten minutes, you had set up candles all across the main room of your apartment but it still wasn’t much light. Small halos of warm yellow light illuminated only a few feet in diameter around each small flame. 

For the final, and perhaps most paranoid move of all, you reached to grab your gun but stopped, fingers flexing and clenching into your palm as you tried to calm yourself down. “It’s just the dark,” you told yourself, breathing deeply, “Just the same things that are here in the day time. Stop being ridiculous.”

It was irrational to have your gun on you. What was gonna happen? The boogeyman was going to jump out of your closet and eat you? Maybe Escobar’s men would come and pick you, Steve, and Javier off now that it was dark. They did know where you all lived and they had already shown they had no problem flexing that fact when they killed Steve’s cat. That also was irrational and you knew it. They had better things to do and plot a whole assassination on three Americans during a power outage when God knows they had many other more menacing enemies. 

And even so, every little creak from the storm that had previously been endearing now became footsteps of intruders or monsters. Here you were, someone literally trained to take down drug lords, who had been in their fair share of gun fights and seen first hand the horrors that men can do to one another, cowered in the couch trying to stave off a full blown panic attack as you sat alone in the dark.

Maybe you could hang out with Steve and Connie for the night, at least until the power returned, you considered. No… they had Olivia now and you were sure they had their hands full without worrying about a whole grown ass woman who was just scared of the dark. You weren’t close with anyone else in the building except for Javier but that idea made you cringe. He would just make fun of you and you knew it. You already knew how dumb it sounded to be an adult who was scared of the dark. You really needed to just grow up and get over it. That was exactly what you’d resolved to do. 

Twenty minutes passed before you gave in. Twenty minutes full of startled gasps when the wind blew some leaves off the tree and into your window, the car alarms were silenced, or the wood floors creaked beneath your feet. Against your initial judgement, you pressed yourself off the couch, scooped up the candle that you’d had placed on the table and made your way downstairs to Javier’s apartment. 

You rubbed your arm nervously while you waited for him to answer the knocks, already foretelling all the shit he was about to give you. He opened the door and you noticed the single flashlight in his hand that seemed to be the only light in his entire abode. “Y/N, you alright?” He asked, noticing right away the way you kept peeking over your shoulder with an anxiety that radiated off of you. 

You nodded, “Uh, yeah. Your power’s out too?” The question was stupid and obvious and you both knew that. No shit the power was out. There wasn’t a single light on in the entire building. 

“Yeah.” He answered simply but there was little intonation in his voice that was certainly mocking you in his typical lowkey asshole way. He leaned against the doorway coolly and if you hadn’t been freaking out so badly, you would have stopped to admire. Maybe it was best that everything but his general outline was concealed in darkness. You’d been pushing down a crush on your friend and partner for months now, knowing it was unprofessional and knowing that he would probably never think of you the same way even if it wasn’t unprofessional. Coming to him like this made you feel like a damsel in distress and you weren’t sure if you liked that analogy, especially considering that you were convinced nothing would ever come of it. 

You rocked back and forth on your heels, “I was wondering if, um, maybe you’d be willing to hang out with me until the power comes back on?” 

A small smirk appeared on his face with a quirked eyebrow, “Are you scared of the dark, L/N?” He asked, using your last name as if to exaggerate the humor in the fact that a DEA agent who’s been shot at before is scared of something as little as the dark, “How old are you? Eight?” 

You rolled your eyes, cheeks burning red but playing it off with a chuckle. “Shut up,” you whined, “Look, I know it sounds stupid but I can offer beer or gin and a few paleta that I need to eat before they melt now.” 

Javier looked you up and down in the low glow of the candle that was held between your hands, almost as if you were using it to keep your hands warm. He couldn’t help the little endearing smile that crept on his lips. In all honesty, he didn’t care much that you were afraid of the dark. He just loved to see the way you got flustered when he made fun of you. His jokes were never meant maliciously, especially when directed towards you, and he was glad you could take the jabs and even throw them back. It was one of the things that made him crazy about you. 

After a moment, he nodded, “Yeah, I can come hang out for a few. Just let me grab my keys.” He disappeared back into his apartment, flashlight illuminating his couch and table as he grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter. Soon, he was following you down the hall and up the stairs to your apartment.

You hadn’t even locked the door in your hurried state to get down to Javier but you knew it wasn’t going to be a long trip. He noticed the various candles burning around your apartment, lowly illuminating the small space. 

“Beer or gin? I got water too if you want that though.” You offered, making your way to the kitchen to hold up your end of the bargain. 

“Uh, gin, please.” He walked in and made himself at home like he practically lived there. He had come over often to go over files sometimes over drinks and food late into the night. He was comfortable in your space and you were in his, with the exception of that hyperawareness of your every move when you’re around the person you like. There was a slightly electric feeling in the air for both of you but neither of you knew that the other felt it too. 

You brought two glasses of gin, probably a little fuller than they should have been, in and handed one to Javier and one for yourself. The pair of you sat on your tan sofa and you quickly inspected the packaged popsicles in your hand, “I have cajeta and chamoy.” 

“Don’t really care.” He shrugged, “sipping” his gin. You looked between the two and picked your favorite, giving him the other one. 

Two hours later, the pair of you were two paleta and three-quarters of a bottle of gin down (most of which you had drunk) and things had gotten personal. Topics had bounced from work stuff, to you teasing him about his well-known rendezvous with his informants, to childhood pets, and more. A silence had settled over the pair of you. Neither of you knew how late it was anymore, just that it was silent out save for the rain and the occasional gunshot. It had become evident early on that Javier held his alcohol better than you did but even he was slipping after this many glasses of hard liquor. 

“Do you ever get tired of being alone?” You asked out of the blue, staring up at the ceiling. 

Javier looked over at you, the way you tapped your nail against the side of the glass with too much focus. He couldn’t tell if you were trying to avoid his gaze after the question or if you really were just that interested in the sound it made in your drunken state. Your partner just shrugged though and deflected the question, “Get a dog or something.” 

Your face twisted in an over exaggerated look of thought. “I thought about it but it makes me sad to-,” you hiccuped, “to think about a puppy being stuck inside all day while we’re out chasing Escobar. No yard or anything for them to run around in.” 

Javier nodded in understanding, “Guess you’re right. Wouldn’t be a good life at all.” 

“See, though, Javi,” You pointed sloppily at him with a lifted finger from your fifth - no sixth - glass of gin, “You and I both know that’s not what I’m asking. But who am I kidding? You’ve always got all those little informants of yours hanging around. You’re probably not too lonely.” 

Your partner sighed, used to Steve giving him crap about it but you didn’t usually say much about it. “Yeah, well we all have ways of dealing with the loneliness.” Seeing the prostitutes in town wasn’t his proudest repeat offense and, if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t just see them for the information they had on Escobar. Even for people who had commitment issues, like himself, being alone got really damn hard sometimes. 

“It’s so unfair that they don’t have male prostitutes like they have women. What about all the lonely and frustrated women of Bogota?” You complained, taking a sip to punctuate your sentence. 

Javier couldn’t help but laugh a little, “You’re telling me you’d really go see a prostitute if there were men out there that did it?” Yeah, right, he thought. 

You shook your head and sighed in defeat, “No… I don’t think I would. I think I actually want someone to love, y’know?” You laughed at your own clicheness, “What about you, Javi? I know you have all your lady friends but have you ever loved someone?” 

If perhaps you’d been sober, maybe you would have noticed the way he sucked a guilty breath in and backstepped, maybe even might have apologized for prying into his personal life. In your drunk state, though, you had no qualms with your personal questions. 

“I, uh, I did. Once.” 

“Yeah? What happened?” 

He scratched his nose and hesitated. Another one of his less proud moments that he didn’t like to share. The only person he’d told that wasn’t family or a friend from back in Texas was Steve. Nevertheless, he swallowed hard and continued, the drinks even making him loose at this point, “We were supposed to get married but…”

“But?” You pressed, the intoxication making you obnoxiously impatient. 

He gave you a vaguely testing look before continuing, “But I never made it to the wedding.” 

You gasped, leaning forward and setting your drink on the table, “You left her at the altar?!” 

Javier flinched back at your sudden lurch towards him and looked at you with a slightly annoyed expression, “I know it was a shitty thing to do!” While he didn’t appreciate the judgement because he already felt shitty enough about the whole incident, he knew it was more the gin than you to blame for your outburst. He leaned forward and pulled your half-full glass of gin back towards him, not to drink for himself, just to get out of your grasp. “What about you? You ever been in love?” 

You bit your lip, “I don’t know. I’ve never really been in love before but there’s this one guy that I know that I think I could be pretty close to it.” 

Javier’s chest tightened at the thought of you loving another man. He knew he had no right to your heart but that didn’t stop the pang of jealousy at the thought. Part of him wanted to pry further, just so he could know you were safe (or maybe to fuel some twisted personal hatred for the man he didn’t know). In typical angsty Javier fashion, though, he opted for the aloof, detached, and slightly annoyed response, “Then why are you complaining about being so lonely? Sounds like you have someone.” 

You pulled your knees into your chest and threw the blanket that was draped over the couch over your now balled up form. You shrugged, glancing up at Javier with a look he might have noticed was longing if he hadn’t been looking anywhere but at you. “I don’t think he likes me the way I like him. I think maybe that’s why it feels so lonely. Knowing you could have someone but still being alone.” 

“If you could have him then get him.” Javier Pena, always the blunt one, especially when his own feelings were in the mix. 

You shook your head, “It’s not that simple.” 

Suddenly, Javier got a little nervous at your tone, “He better not be one of Escobar’s fucking men.” The thought of you loving someone else made him jealous and angry but the thought of you loving a sicario made him lividly angry. There was no way you could possibly love a monster like that but it didn’t stop the thought from crossing his mind. 

Your mouth dropped in offense, “Fuck, Javi, is that how low you think of me?” Your moods had been swinging all night thanks to the gin but you were pretty sure you still would have found the very suggestion just as offensive if you’d been sober. 

“What- wait - no. That’s not what I think of you, I ju-” 

“Well, clearly it is or you wouldn’t have suggested it.” You stood up off the couch, stepping away angrily but tripping over the low coffee table in the dark. Your slowed reflexes weren’t enough to catch you and crashed to the floor, “Shit…” You groaned, rolling over and trying to push yourself up to a sitting position. Your hair hung messily over your face when you looked down at where your hand met the floor. 

Javier jumped up and clumsily made his way to your side, “Shit, Y/N, you alright?” He knelt down and placed a hand on your arm, offering his other one to help you stand. Sparks flew where his skin met yours but you convinced yourself that you were just feeling because of the alcohol. 

You waved him off drunkenly and swiped your hair clumsily out of your face. Instead of sitting up, you leaned back and looked up at him, tears welling up in your eyes for who the hell knows why. Were you angry or offended or desperate or just a drunk mess? You couldn’t tell anymore but you weren’t used to losing your emotions like this and Javier wasn’t used to seeing it either. He halted, uncomfortable at the way your eyes shone in the candlelight with your tears. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even suggested that you’d be in love with a sicario. I really don’t think you’d do anything like that.” Javier apologized, a rare occurrence for the man but, gosh, would he say anything if it meant that your tears would dry. Drunk or not, he couldn’t stand knowing that made you cry. 

You sniffled, wiping a crocodile tear from your cheek, “Why the hell do we even sit here and make ourselves sad, Javi? Y’know? I mean I sit here every night and pine over a guy who I’ve convinced myself won’t love me. Isn’t that stupid? I convinced myself! How the hell would I even know? So instead of womaning up and actually finding out the truth, I just resign to the thought that there’s no way he could love me. Isn’t that pathetic? I should just learn to be like you. Confident. Women don’t say no to you because… well how could they?” 

Javier shook his head and looked down, “No,” He admitted quietly, “It’s not pathetic. It’s different when you’re talking about love versus lust. I pay for twenty minutes with a poor girl who has to do it to survive. If anything, that’s what’s pathetic. Honestly, I’m scared shitless when it comes to love.” 

He thought about your words and how much sense they actually made. The reason he hadn’t told you about his feelings for you were partly because he thought you’d never feel the same way. He was convinced that his reputation as a womanizer asshole, that he had rightly earned prior to you moving to Bogota, had turned you off entirely. Besides, wouldn’t he just mess it up? He thought he loved Lorraine but look how that turned out. The logical reason he told himself was the relationships amongst partners would be frowned upon but he knew that was a lie. Since when did Javier Pena follow the rules? The only thing holding him back really truly was himself. So why did it feel so impossible to come clean? 

Javier shook the thought from his head. You were drunk and rambling. Even if he were to man up and confess his love for you, this was not the time to do it. He’d be surprised if you remembered anything in the morning. Besides, you were on about some man you loved and he could only imagine who it was. He’d seen your gaze linger a little longer on Carillo than was usual for a colleague. Perhaps that was who it was, the mystery man that you couldn’t have. He was married, after all. It would be a logical road block. 

Part of Javier wanted to probe your brain and know the truth. He couldn’t tell if it was something that would make himself feel better or worse. It would put him out of his misery. Maybe if he heard it straight from your mouth that you didn’t love him, he could finally get over you. It would take a while, certainly many drunken nights and a few visits to Freckles, but he could do it. But if he did know, he also knew himself well enough to know he’d harbor some silent resentment for whoever the man was for taking the girl he loved. 

He shook his head at his thoughts when he saw the way you swayed a little, as if rocking on a boat despite being on solid ground, your eyes drifting shut while you struggled to stay sitting upright. You weren’t in your right state of mind and to ask you such a personal question would be a total breach of trust and respect. He’d be furious if he found out anybody else had done the same to you. 

“C’mon, let’s get you in bed.” Javier swallowed hard before shifting to help pull you up by your arm. 

Your body flopped loosely to your feet and you whined, “Noooo! We were just talking! Besides, you’re just gonna leave me in the dark and go back home.” You pouted, head lulling against his as the full blown weight of the alcohol hit you. Any composure you’d managed to maintain, which admittedly was very little, melted away into Javier’s chest as he hoisted you up and carried you bridal style to your bedroom. 

He glanced down at your made up bed and laid down your body as gently as he could, though you did roll on your own accord more clumsily than he had hoped. Javier flinched when your hands shot up to grab his shoulders, “Javi! Don’t leave me! It’s dark and scary still.” 

He sighed, his hands settling on his hips once he managed to pry your hands off his shoulders, “Just let me grab you some water and you’ll be fine.” 

“What if I wake up in the middle of the night and it’s still completely dark!” 

“I have a feeling you won’t be waking up for a while, hermosa.” He chuckled at the way your face was already half smashed into the pillow, your hair was laying over your cheek, and your eyes were closed shut, surely already halfway asleep. 

You reached up blindly for whatever you could grab, your fingers sliding down his forearm before they managed to hook onto a few of his fingers, “Please, Javi. I gave you popsicles and alcohol! The least you could do is stay the night and keep me company.” 

  Javier reached down and pulled the blanket that was folded at the end of your bed over your body. “I’ll be right back.” With that he left your room, feeling his way to the kitchen to get you a glass of ice water before returning to find you curled up in the blanket with your eyes closed. A small smile grew on his face, astounded by how you could still be so beautiful even when you looked like such a mess. A few strands of hair had fallen over your face and Javier reached down to gently brush them away from your mouth and behind your ear. 

You shifted a little, “You can sleep here.” Your hand stretched out to feel the other half of your queen sized bed. 

Finally, Javier decided to give in. “No, I’ll just make up a bed on the couch.” 

“There’s plenty o’ bed to share!” You giggled, thinking what you said was way funnier than it really was. 

Javier shook his head, “You're drunk, Y/N. I don’t want you waking up in the morning to see me in your bed and you go getting the wrong idea.” 

“You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to wake up to see you in my bed.” You snuggled further into the pillow, your words barely above a murmur. 

“What?” Javier’s whole body seized up and he couldn’t look anywhere but you. He shook the thought away. There was no way you meant that. It was the gin and nothing more. He couldn’t get his hopes up, “Nevermind. You just close your eyes. I’ll be on the couch if you need anything.” 

You shook your head, “This is why I’m in love with you, Javi. Always the perfect gentleman, even when you’re an asshole sometimes.” 

Javier’s breath caught in his throat. He couldn’t deny your words this time. This was different. There was a difference between this is why I love you and this is why I’m in love with you. “In love? With me?” He told himself he wouldn’t pry earlier but the question came out before he could stop it. 

“Oh yeah... I’ve had a big ol’ crush on you for a long time. I don’t know what the hell love is but I think I might have it for you.” The wall that kept back your deepest thoughts came crashing down and your sentiments came flooding out like a semi-coherent tidal wave of admittal. “This is why I didn’t want to say anything because I know you don���t like me like that. You got all these beautiful women at your beck and call and I’m just boring old me who’s scared of the dark, spends more time working than living, and couldn’t dream of looking as beautiful as those ladies do.” 

Javier struggled to figure out what to say that wouldn’t be crossing the line, “There’s nothing boring about you, hermosa, and you are so much more beautiful than any other woman out there.” 

“But you don’t love me.” You insisted, cutting him off. 

He chewed the inside of his cheek. This had to be the worst time to be talking about this. If he said he did now, you probably wouldn’t remember it in the morning. Maybe you’d even write off your feelings as just drunken blubbering and he’d have to play along as if nothing had been meant. If he didn’t say it now, would it lock it in your mind that he couldn’t love you? “That’s not true.” He mumbled the words quietly but sincerely. He looked down at your form that was halfway asleep by now and pat your shoulder comfortingly, “Go to sleep. We can finish talking about this when you’re sober.” 

By the time the words left his mouth, you were already snoring. With a heavy breath, he looked away from you and walked back into the living room. He kicked his shoes off by the table and laid down on the couch, getting comfortable beneath the blanket that you’d left there earlier. Your conversations ran through his head about a mile and minute and he couldn’t slow them down. You actually loved him- nay, were in love with him. His feelings weren’t one sided. He tossed and turned for a while, battling with himself on how to address this (or even if he wanted to). He wasn’t so drunk that he had no control over what he said but he was just drunk enough to fuel a confidence that made him devise a plan to admit his feelings for you in the morning, even if sober him would most likely back out. 

**

When morning rolled around, neither of you were in the mood for admitting feelings. It took several cups of stove brewed coffee before either you were even able to form any more than a groan. The sunlight killed your eyes, even through the grey clouds. Your head pounded and you felt nauseous for the first half of the day. Javier was just slow and a little grumpier than usual. The two of you ate some tortillas that you’d thrown on the stovetop for breakfast in relative silence. 

The power was still out, the constant drizzle outside making it too dangerous for the power lines to be worked on. Thankfully, the sun cast enough light for you to not be freaking out anymore. Around eleven in the morning, you were finally feeling a little better and you looked up at Javier, who still had yet to leave your apartment. “Thanks for staying last night. Sorry for getting wasted.” You laughed a little at your expense. 

He sipped his coffee and rubbed his eyes, “Of course. You’re a mess when you drink, you know that?” 

You buried your face in your hands, feeling your matted hair. Gosh, you needed a shower. “Yeah, I’ve been told that before. That’s why I don’t get that drunk very often.” You sipped your own coffee, reveling in the scent that a few hours ago made you feel sick to your stomach but now smelled like the best thing on this planet. “You can take a shower if you’d like.” 

Javier gestured towards the front door, “I’ll just take one when I get back to my place.” 

“Oh right, you live here,” You groaned and chuckled at your stupidity, “Sorry, my brain is still moving kinda slow.” 

He smiled down at his coffee, fingers playing with the handle of the orange mug. “I, uh, I wanted to ask you about something, actually.” He began, his confidence from the prior night failing him. Javier could be suave as hell when he was trying to pick someone up at a bar but with you, all he could get was radio static in his brain. 

Your face twisted nervously, “Oh gosh, did I say something totally stupid last night?” You were already mentally facepalming. There were about a million things that ran through your mind daily, even sober, that you would be humiliated if drunk you had let slip. Things that ranged from a stupid dream you’d had about strapping bombs to pigeons and flying them into Escobar’s fincas to your unrequited harbored love for Javier ran through your head and you desperately hoped you had dumbly mentioned the former of the two topics. You could handle being teased about pigeon bombs. You didn’t want to lose Javier forever because you had your crush on him slip. 

One of Javier’s hands moved to his thigh and ran up and down the rough fabric of his jeans. “No, it wasn’t stupid at all, actually.” His pause made you nervous, expecting only the worst. “You said that you were in love with me.” 

Oh gosh. This was it. The moment you feared most. 

“I did?” You asked like a deer caught in headlights. You could feel your face visibly pale as you stared at Javier with wide eyes. His eyes flicked from yours down to his coffee and you panicked, “I’m sorry. I didn’t-” 

“I love you too.” He interrupted quickly and bluntly, knowing that if he waited any longer either you’d say it wasn’t true or he’d back out and either way it resulted in him never getting the words out. This was his shot at happiness and he was going to take it. 

Your mouth moved with failed words before finally sputtering out, “I’m sorry, what?” 

“I love you, Y/N. And I’m sorry if you didn’t mean it and I just ruined everything but you said last night that we sit around and make ourselves miserable by convincing ourselves that it could never happen and I just- I just figured I’d try to find a way out of the misery.” Javier wasn’t one for grand gestures or sappy heartfelt speeches but the confidence he’d had last night had returned to him for only a second to give you the closest he’d ever gotten to either. 

His words seemed to snap you right out of your foggy hangover haze and you couldn’t seem to take your eyes off him and the way his brown eyes seemed to bore into yours with a depth that made you almost scared to look away. “I-I love you too, Javi.” 

His eyes lightened up and his mustaches quirked upwards with his lips in a cautious smile, “Really?” 

You nodded, your voice breathy when you whispered out, “Yeah. I just- I never thought you could love me.” 

“Hermosa, I don’t know how anyone couldn’t.” 

[a-vintage-snake]

Don’t Make Me Be The Bad Guy

Pairing(s): Pre-romantic Moceit

Warnings: Dystopian future, implied torture

Characters: Janus Sanders, Patton Sanders, Roman Sanders, Logan Sanders, Remus Sanders, Virgil Sanders

Summary: After seven years of fighting, Patton and his superhero team finally capture the super villain known as Deceit. But when Patton discovers evidence that sheds a new light on their nemesis he starts to wonder... Did he do the right thing?

Word Count: 9411

Author’s Note: For @dramaticsnakes, who’s a wonderful reader and writer. And special thanks to @rainbowbutterfrosting who helped me finish this when I almost wanted to give up. (Also, as always I upload and edit the mistakes out after, so bear with me)

Read on AO3

In the end, it had been Patton who had struck the final blow.

It had been mostly a matter of luck, really. One moment where Patton managed to break through the henchmen’s defences. One moment where he saw that their nemesis’ back was turned to him. One moment where he made a split decision.

One moment. And that moment had made all the difference.

He didn’t quite realize he had thrown one of his famous lightning bolts until it hit square between his enemy’s shoulder blades. He stood there, paralyzed, as Janus Lyre (alias Doctor Deceit) crumbled to the floor. The battle around them grounded to a halt as well, as the henchmen saw their leader unconscious at the feet of their enemies. His teammates froze as well, looking up at Patton in gaping disbelief.

When time finally seemed to start again, everything went by in a blur. The henchmen managed to escape, unfortunately with the super weapon Patton and his team had come to destroy. But it didn’t even seem to matter.

“By Odin’s beard, Padre!” Roman lifts him up in a hug. “You did it!!”

“I… I did?” Patton confusedly asks, still feeling a little dizzy.

“You got him! You actually got him!” Roman puts him back on his feet with a giant grin on his face. “We can finally put him away!” “But the weapon-!”

“Forget the weapon! We’ve got the bastard, Heart!” Virgil grins. “After seven years we finally got him! It’s over!”

“Well, not exactly,” Logan pipes in, although he can’t seem to stop grinning too. “There’s still the matter of rounding up the rest of his organization-”

“Technical details, my friend!” Roman dramatically waves Logan’s objections away. “We got their leader! Not a henchman, not some lackey, their actual leader! How long do you think until their little League of Losers falls apart?”

“Even so,” Logan says. “Better not celebrate until Doctor Deceit is safely behind bars. You three search the building. Who knows, maybe some of his henchmen are still hiding somewhere,” Logan throws a scornful look down at the unconscious Janus at their feet. “I will stay here and stand guard.”

“Ah yes, I was just about to suggest that!” Roman says as he flips his hair proudly. “Great intuition, Nerdy and the Brain!”

“Yes, sounds like a good plan!” Patton quickly squeaks as Logan gains a look that says he’s about a minute away from using his telekinesis to throw Roman across the room. “How about you call in our superiors, Logan? We need to put this villain behind bars!”

“Excellent idea, Heart Shock.” Logan says gratefully, while ignoring Roman’s protesting noises. Roman loved making the calls on jobs well done (which to be fair hadn’t occurred often lately).

“Great!” Patton grabs the hand of the still protesting Roman and pulls him along. “Come on Prince!”

Roman pouts and grumbles, but allows Patton to pull him further into the dark lair. He catches a glimpse of Virgil’s grin before he turns a corner.

“Bet you I can find something cool before you do!” Patton smiles up at Roman. His teammate’s grumpy face instantly brightens.

“Oh, you’re on Padre!”  

Dissolving into giggles Patton and Roman run down the halls. Roman could easily outfly him, yet he chooses to run alongside Patton for now. Giddily Patton runs towards a promising looking door at the end of the hallway.

Throwing it open he however sags in disappointment as the room they found only holds a couple cardboard boxes.

“Bah, nothing of importance,” Roman says as he kicks over the boxes and nothing but rusty spare mechanical parts fall out. “I suppose even villains need a trash cupboard. Come Heart!” Roman levitates from the ground. “Let us find something more dastardly!”

Before Patton can say anything Roman flies out of the room. Judging from the clanging sounds he’s already searching in a room further ahead. Patton casts one last glance around the room before he shrugs and turns to follow.

He pauses.

Uncertainly he turns around again. Something about the room doesn’t feel… Right. He knows it, yet he can’t put his finger on it why exactly. His powers crackle in his veins, sensing the off-ness in the air.

Cautiously Patton walks around the room, circling the walls slowly with one hand trailing amongst the bricks. The sense of wrongness only increases until…

In front of a seemingly bare wall he stops. There it is. He feels an unusual amount of electricity clustering behind the stone, yet the wall shows no outer signs of being anything else than… Well, a wall. Curiously Patton puts both his hands on the bricks and closes his eyes.

The world behind his eyelids lights up in bursts of electricity. His power hums in tune with the wires inside the walls, stringing all over the building and mapping out the lair in his mind’s eye in perfect detail. Patton only takes short notice of it before he calls his powers back and focuses it all on the wall before him. Yes, there it was. His powers outline a door in the wall, carefully hidden behind a buzzing security system.

Well, no match for him! Patton only needs to concentrate for a few seconds to have the electricity revert and change directions. Flexing his fingers and furrowing his brow he wills the electricity to move into the opposite direction, to change their route, until finally he hears a click. Patton opens his eyes. He pulls his hands back as the wall shifts and a door opens, so seamlessly hidden in the brick it was invisible to the bare eye. Patton allows himself a proud grin. Oh, he was on a roll today! Patton steps into the room, his footsteps echoing in the darkness. He searches for a light switch, but he can’t find one nearby. No matter! With a soft snap small lightning bolts dance on his fingers, revealing rich red walls which somehow complimented the flickering lightning in his hands.

The room is mostly bare, apart from a table in the centre of the room. It’s covered with various maps, some showing population size while others showing outlines of cities, roads and shops. There were some pencils and pens in the middle of the table, most sharp and pointed while a few were so dull that they couldn't be used anymore.

Patton noticed only one chair at the table. He only looked at it, remembering the times were Logan lectured him about not touching the crime scene unless absolutely necessary. Still, the chair seemed comfortable, the black leather clearly in great condition.

His eyes drift slightly downwards towards the cabinets under the table. They all looked the same to him, a spruce colour with a silver handle that could be pulled out. He crouches as he tries to pull open the drawer without ruining the possibility of getting fingerprints. What kind of horrors would he find in there? Knowing Janus it was probably something awful, like torture devices, or puppets of them with their eyes crossed out, or… Or…

Not able to take it any longer, Patton pulls open the drawer. He draws back, covering his face with his arms and waiting for poisonous darts or something to strike out and hit him. After a few seconds of nothing happening, Patton carefully peeks over his arms.

Inside the drawer... is just files. No cyanide, no razor-sharp knives, just... files. Patton lowers his arms and opens the one next to it, with more haste than the last one, only to find more files. Huh… That’s… Not what he was expecting? He honestly didn't know what he expected to find. It's not like the files were bad to find, it just didn't give him the rush of putting in the last piece to a puzzle. Capturing Janus almost felt like that. He knew he should have been more proud of himself, but this wasn't even close to the end of it. There still were all of Janus' accomplices and the propaganda he spread throughout several cities to take care of after all. Maybe the files had the names of his accomplices in them?

Forgetting Logan’s warning about contaminating the crime scene Patton grabs one of the files from the drawer and absentmindedly flips it open.

A scream echoes across the halls. Patton jerks up, forgetting the papers in his hand as the sound of struggle trail toward him. He jumps up, stuffs the files in his jacket before he runs back to where they left their enemy tied up.

It appears that backup had arrived, and in that same time their enemy had woken up. Several soldiers struggle with restraining a livid Janus, who trashes in their grip as they try to drag him into an awaiting prison van. They had managed to gag him before he woke, a muzzle strapped to his face to protect the soldiers from the venom of both his words and his fangs. He fights wildly, but in the end he is still one man against too many. As they finally wrestle him to the ground to clap him in handcuffs, he and Patton make eye contact.

Despite that he just knocked the man unconscious, despite that Janus is currently lying on the ground restrained by ten men, Patton instinctively takes a step back from the pure fury in those mismatched eyes.

Janus looks at him like he singlehandedly doomed the world.

One soldier pushes a taser onto his neck. Janus’ eyes roll back in his head as he convulses on the ground, muffled cries coming from behind the muzzle. When the taser withdraws Janus slumps to the ground, unconscious once more. Finally the soldiers can drag him into the prison van.

“Haha, yes!!” Roman yells. “You shall taste justice now, villain!”

Roman laughs, but it is only when the doors of the van close and they drive off that Patton feels like he can breathe again.

--

The press conferences were always Patton’s least favourite part. To stand next to their CEO, listening to a briefing of yet another failed mission while the people in the crowd shook their head in disapproval had always been torture. The longer the years went on the worse the pressure to actually defeat their villain became. To come back to the cameras every time Janus escaped became worse and worse as the years went on. The disappointment of not only the AEP, but of the people… That alone felt worse than any punch he had ever gotten in battle.

Now however Patton felt like he could just burst from all the excitement. He could barely stand still enough for his stylists to brush his hair into a tamer shape. He peeked behind the curtains to the gilded ballroom beyond. The AEP had chosen this specific ballroom to announce the big news on purpose. Just two years ago Janus and his horrid crew had crashed a fundraiser being held here and had stolen all the people’s so graciously donated funds for a new hotel. They hadn’t been able to capture him. It had been an awful night!

To be here again was to show that villain they were not afraid. That they could claim back the spaces he so rudely invaded. Seeing all the people in their beautiful evening gowns and best jewellery now made Patton want to burst out from behind the curtain to yell at them that they were safe!! He wanted to shout it from the rooftops, wanted to yell at the entire world!

You are safe! We rescued you! I defeated the villain, I did, I did-!!

“Here are our heroes of the day!”

Distracted Patton looks back to see their CEO has come backstage. Bentley Ceund is a man in his late fifties, with a bleach blond hair dye job that does not quite hide away his grey roots, as always dressed in a stylishly expensive suit. He was the one who had founded the AEP, or An Endless Peace organization, all those years ago. Yet outside of press conferences they did not see him often. And even when they did, it were often meetings filled with harsh words and bitter disappointment.  

“Have I wasted all my money on THIS?!” Their CEO had bellowed at them the last time they had seen him, when Janus had destroyed several important construction sites. “On FAILURES who can’t even capture ONE MEASLY MAN?!” Angry spit had hit Patton in the face as he struggled to hold back tears when Bentley had moved in close and screamed in their faces. “You’re a fucking EMBARRESEMENT to ME and the company who RAISED YOU FROM BIRTH!! UNGRATEFUL, WORTHLESS WASTES OF TIME!!”

Their TV and leisure time privileges had been taken away from them for quite some time back then.

That screaming man from last time was a far cry from the smiling one that approaches them now however. No, he in fact gives the others a joyful hug and praise. Roman and Logan beam, and even Virgil smiles hesitantly. When he turns to him Patton nervously fidgets for a moment, but Bentley gives him the possibly the grandest smile out of all of them.

“Heart Shock!” Bentley laughs as he draws Patton into a hug. He never uses their real names, even though he knew them by those well before their superhero names. “Well done, my boy!”

“T-Thank you sir!” Patton says excitedly, almost melting into the hug despite the overwhelming smell of body spray. He can’t help it. It wasn’t often he was the one who got most of the praise. That was usually either Logan or Roman. “I couldn’t have done it without the others though-!”

“No need to be so modest,” Bentley draws back from the hug, put keeps his hands on Patton’s shoulder. “I’ve read the report. You are the one shot down that son of a bitch!

“Oh, well,” Patton flusters. “Anyone could have done it-!”

But in the end it was you.” Their CEO chuckles, almost fondly. “Be proud of yourself, son. Thanks to you…” Bentley pats him on the shoulder. “The company is safe again.” “And the innocent civilians, sir!” Patton helpfully says.

“Hmm? Oh yes, those too I suppose.”

Patton frowns lightly, but before he can say anything Bentley’s PA interrupts.

“Mister Ceund? The program is about to begin.”

“Ah, yes! It’s time boys!” Bentley grins towards his superheroes. “Let’s tell the world what we have achieved today!” He gives Patton a pat on his cheek before he turns and walks to the curtains, waiting for the moment to make his grand entrance. Patton frowns, but he doesn’t have the time to think for long. Their CEO walks onto the stage where thunderous applause greets him. Eventually Patton just shrugs and stands with his teammates, dismissing the uncomfortable thoughts.

As the applause slowly grows to a halt, Bentley takes centre stage. “Today is a momentous occasion,” He says into the microphone. “After seven years of making our streets unsafe, the villain known as Doctor Deceit has finally been put behind bars!”

The crowd erupts into applause, filling the gilded ballroom with cheers and cameras flashing. Beside him Virgil flinches from the sudden noise. Patton discretely slips his hand into Virgil’s and squeezes. Virgil gives a grateful squeeze back.

“Today, history has been made. Today this organization has finally achieved that which we have promised you, all those years ago…” Their CEO pauses for a second, before proudly continuing. “An Endless Peace.”

The crowd applauds again, laughing politely at the reference of the company name.

“But of course, we did not do it alone!”

Patton and the others took a deep breath. Right. Time for the show!

“Please welcome your heroes! Here is Prince Charming!”

On that cue Roman flies up from behind the curtains and the crowd erupts into cheers. Roman flies his usual round over the crowd, occasionally sharing a high-five with an audience member and flashing his fans a million-dollar smile. Several men and women giggle and blush behind their hands as he flips his hair and blows kisses to the crowd.

“Show-off…” Virgil silently scoffs beside him.

“Come now, Virge,” Patton whispers back. “You know Roman loves the cameras! Let him have his fun.”

Virgil rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but still a fond smile curls up his lips.

“Next, give it up for Brain Teaser!”

Logan purses his lips and sighs, but makes his entrance from behind the curtains anyway. Virgil and Patton exchange a knowing look. They’d listened to plenty of Logan’s rants about how ‘utterly illogical’ the serious man thought his superhero name was. Unfortunately the public was by now too familiar with the name to even suggest renaming him.

“Let me hear you for Stormcloud!”

Virgil supresses a shudder yet he still reluctantly dematerializes, only to rematerialize on stage in a cloud of shadows. While the crowd only grows in volume Patton winces in sympathy. The EAP knows how much Virgil can’t stand loud sounds, but for the audience he has to bear it with a smile. It was a weakness their enemies had exploited frequently. Janus would often blast high-pitched noises at such a volume Virgil would crumble where he stood, allowing him to escape over and over.  

Well, Patton thinks with a tinge of pride, he won’t harm his friends ever again now.

“And of course, last but certainly not least… The man of the hour! The hero who struck the deciding blow! Put your hands together for HEART SHOCK!”

The curtains are drawn and Patton is momentarily blinded from the hundreds of cameras flashing and deafened by the crowd cheering. Squinting Patton stands in the spotlight, dizzily smiling at the onslaught of praise that is directed his way. He walks forward- Although it feels like stumbling is a better word- to the front of the stage to where the CEO waits for him with a smile. Journalists crowd the stage as they shout questions.

“Heart Shock!! Heart Shock, over here-!”

“Heart Shock, how do you feel-?”

“What was going through your head?”

“How did you take the villain down? We want all the juicy details-!”

“Everyone, everyone! Please!” Bentley laughs. “One question at a time, please!”

Patton yelps as Bentley puts an arm around his shoulders and pulls him into a side hug like he’s a proud father. The cameras around them go nuts as their CEO smiles and poses with Patton.

“How are you feeling, Heart Shock?” One journalist manages to yell over the cacophony of questions.

“W-Well…” Patton stammers into the microphone. “I-I feel quite proud-!”

“A well deserved pride, my boy!” Bentley says jovially as he squeezes his shoulder.

“Yeah… I suppose it is-!” Patton smiles.

“Heart Shock! How do you think the villain will react to his status as prisoner?” One journalist yells, a question that is met with gaudy giggles.

“I guess…” Patton says with hesitant excitement. “He’ll find it…” He snaps his fingers, lightning dancing over his hands as he finger guns at the audience. “Quite shocking?”

To Patton’s bewildered delight the entire audience erupts into laughs. Even Bentley next to him laughs, while he had always disapprovingly glared before when Patton made a pun. Patton can’t stop the grin that spreads on his face even if he had wanted to.

The rest of the evening goes by in a haze. As the press conference part of the evening ends and the superheroes must mingle with the guests, the praise just keeps on coming. Patton gets patted on the back, hugged and complimented. The sheer amount of attention is dizzying. Patton can’t stop smiling throughout all of it. It might just be the best evening in his life.

It isn’t until he’s in bed, still glowing with pride and from all the praise, that Patton remembers the files in his jacket.

His superhero jacket lays thrown into a corner, cast aside earlier as he quickly got into a clean, more sleek version of his hero outfit for the press conference. Giving it a glance from where he sits on his bed he’s almost tempted to leave it until next morning. His handlers had actually given him hot chocolate and two cookies before bed! Two!! That was a treat he didn’t often get! He just wants to enjoy them in peace.

Still… Perhaps he could hand them over tomorrow, announcing all the wicked plans that are undoubtedly in the files that he had also stopped when he captured Janus. Grinning at that mental image Patton gets up from and retreats back into his comfy bed with the files, munching on a cookie as he lazily starts skimming through the papers.

An hour later his hot chocolate has long run cold and the second cookie lies forgotten on its tray. Patton sits straight up in his bed, the files open on his knees and his gaze firmly locked on the wall in front of him. His first cookie feels like lead in his stomach.

It couldn’t be the truth… It couldn’t be, it couldn’t be!!

Abruptly coming back into motion Patton stuffs the files under his mattress and turns off the light to sleep, determined not to even consider or think about what is in them anymore. Yet it takes him until the first rays of dawn to finally fall asleep, and even when he does sleep his dreams are filled with mismatched eyes that look at him with a gaze that burns, burns, burns…

During the days of the week that follows he’s fine. He can smile and take the praise that he’s still showered with daily, with the files only a distant memory.

During the nights, however… Patton can’t seem to shake the image of those eyes. Furious, loathing mismatched eyes, looking at him like he singlehandedly doomed the world. The files underneath his mattress seem to burn a hole in his soft bedding, demanding his attention.

It is only a week later when he awakens from yet another nightmare plagued by those accusing eyes that Patton realizes this can’t go on. He has to know what it all means, or he might go mad with the questions that swarm his mind.

--

The next night Patton foregoes his bed in favour of slipping out of his room into the quiet halls of the facility, the files tucked away in his jacket. Sweat beads down his forehead, the familiar thrum of electricity inside the walls only a faint comfort. Although he only needs to make the barest effort to make the security cameras divert from him, the action still makes his hands shake. As he sneaks into the elevator at the end of the hall he inspects the buttons. You need a special pass to go to the very lowest level. But Patton only needs to send a pulse of electricity into the elevator to make the security system think he’s been granted access. As the doors close Patton swallows. No going back now.

The elevator ride feels both too long and too short. When finally the doors glide open to reveal a long hall Patton fastens his pace. He passes other closed cells, some of which he hears murmurs from behind their closed doors, but he does not slow down until he reaches the door at the very end of the hall. Door 409… Holding the highest level of security prison cell they have.

He glances backwards for a second, before he takes a deep breath and places his hands on the door. He feels the electricity answering as he redirects the flow. It’s hard. Harder than the vault in the lair, harder than tricking the elevator had been. Sweat starts to bead on his forehead, as he carefully has to divert his powers through layer upon layer of security, careful in case he triggers an alarm somewhere.

He isn’t quite sure how much time passes, but at long last the door finally, finally opens. Patton enters, and quickly slides the door closed again. His heart hammers in his throat as he presses his hands to the door and listens for the sound of the alarm going off.

It doesn’t come. He had done it. Exhaling a shaky breath Patton leans his forehead against the metal door, cooling his flushed skin.

“Well, well, well,” A smooth voice drawls behind him. “Look what the cat dragged in…”

Patton’s shoulders tense. He had hoped to never hear that voice again. A part of him is tempted to leave, but the files pressed against his chest still burn. So he gathers all his courage and slowly turns around.

The cell in the middle of the room is a monstrosity of glass and metal, bare apart from a simple bed. The security system surrounding it buzzes with the sheer amount of electricity it needs, making it dizzying even to Patton. It is only a small distraction however from the person all that electricity is holding prison, standing in the middle of that glass cell with his arms crossed at his back. Like he had been expecting him.

“My sincerest apologies for the mess. I wasn’t expecting such important company,” Janus grins. “Should I feel honoured that the famed Heart Shock is visiting little old me in my cell?”

Patton swallows. He had hoped that the villain would have been less frightening now, pulled away from his usual shadows and dragged into the light for once. He wasn’t. If anything the simple white prison grubs he wore instead of his usual black suits and the bright LED lightning only enhances how alien, how otherworldly he really is. The green scales trailing down his sharp face, the fangs glistening in that all too familiar mocking grin, the tall willowy frame that nonetheless packs a surprising amount of strength… The man in front of him is more monster than human. Patton wonders for a second if he ever was human to begin with.

“Oh, look at you,” Janus chuckles softly as the silence between them stretches on. “Like a frightened little mouse in the snake’s den… Whatever will he do now?”

Patton puffs out his chest indignantly. “I’m not afraid of you!” He says, ignoring how Janus raises an eyebrow with an amused smile. “I’m not! You have no power here! You’re our prisoner!”

“Really?” Janus mockingly drawls. “Well, pardon me for not believing you whilst you look like that.”

Patton belatedly realizes what kind of picture he paints. Pressed up against the door, as far away from the glass as he possibly can. Not exactly the fearless superhero everyone expected him to be.

Closing his eyes for a second, Patton takes a deep breath and steps forward. Cautiously he approaches the cell, his footsteps in sync with Janus’ until they both halt at the glass, right in front of each other. Patton stares up at his nemesis, more confident than he feels. Right into the mismatched eyes who have haunted his nightmares for almost a week now. He swallows, clenching his fist to hide that they’re shaking.

“While I’m definitely thrilled to have you here,” Janus smirks down at him. “I’m afraid I’m a very busy man, and don’t have time to have a staring contest with you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Patton opens his mouth to ask what the heck he would be busy with, he’s a prisoner, but stops himself. That’s a discussion that would lead him nowhere, and he came here with a purpose.

“I’m here to talk with you.” He says instead.

“Congratulations, you just did,” Janus yawns, a forked tongue lazily flicking out from between sharp fangs. “If that was all, darling-”

“No! I mean-” Patton zips open his jacket and pulls out the files. “I’m here to talk about these.”

Janus’ eyes narrow when he spots the files, the only outward reaction he shows. Yet the temperature between them seems to drop to freezing level.

“I’ve never seen those before in my life.” Janus says airily.

“I found them in your lair!” Patton counters. “In a hidden compartment in the wall!”

“Did you now? How interesting.” Janus lazily inspects his fingernails. Patton frowns as he spots Janus’ left arm is completely wrapped up in white bandages. He can’t recall that they gave him an arm injury. He opens his mouth to ask, but shakes his head. He had to focus on this.

“These are your plans!”

“No they’re not.”

“Oh yeah?” Patton flips open the files. “Then how do you explain your name on top of these papers?”

“Can I help it that ‘Janus’ is such a popular name?”

“These are all written in your handwriting!”

“Preposterous. My handwriting is much neater.”

“All your old plans are in this, and some future ones!” Patton shouts exasperatedly.

“Pure coincidence.”

“Stop,” Patton grits out through clenched teeth. “Stop denying! I know these are yours!”

“If you’re so sure, why ask me at all?” Janus disinterestedly brushes away some invisible dust from his shoulder. “Why haven’t you immediately shown them to your superiors, like the good obedient lackey that you are?”

“Who says that I haven’t?” Patton responds heatedly.

With a growl Janus suddenly throws a fist against the glass, his eyes flashing dangerously. Patton jumps backwards, his throat squeezing shut before a startled scream can escape him.

“Don’t. Lie. To me.” Janus spits. “If you had shown them, you wouldn’t be here chatting with me in the middle of the night. Admit it.”

“I… No.” Patton finally shakes his head, gripping the files tightly between his hands. “No, I didn’t…”

“There we go…” Janus draws his hand back and crosses his arms again behind his back, his easy smile back. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, Heart Shock. Have your masters never told you it’s bad to lie?”

Patton bites his lip. It was true that he’d be in so much trouble if his superiors ever found out that he lied. But surely they would understand him lying to their enemy, wouldn’t they?

“You’re one to talk!” Patton says instead. “You lie all the time!”

“Says who?” Janus drawls with a mocking smile.

“Says me! You lied every time we fought, you just lied multiple times to my face-!”

“No I didn’t.”

“-And you lie in these files!!” Patton shrieks, waving the files in front of the villain’s nose. Janus’ smile falls and his face darkens.

“Oh? Pray tell, Patton.” Janus sneers, and Patton snaps back in shock at hearing his actual name coming from the villain’s mouth.

“H-How did you-?”

“Why exactly would you think I lied in these files?” Janus tilts his head. “If I wrote them, that is.”

“Because... Because-!” Patton flips angrily through the files. “Because these files say you used the money you stole from the hotel fundraiser two years ago to finance black market medication research!”

The hero looks up triumphantly, expecting Janus to laugh and simper about how gullible he is for believing such an obvious decoy. Janus however doesn’t laugh. He shows not even a hint of his mockery as he silently listens. Patton’s triumph falters, and he flips once more through the files to avoid that calm gaze.

“A-And here!” Patton pulls another paper from the file. “In here you claim that you kidnapped the scientist Emile Picani because the AEP made him design weapons, not new mental health robots!”

Still no response. Patton scowls as he holds up another paper. “This says you destroyed a construction site for a new factory because the output would pollute the town’s only water resource!”

“They were also exploiting the builders,” Janus finally interrupts. “Forced them to work under horridly unsafe conditions for barely a quarter of the salary they needed to support their families.”

“Yes!!” Patton throws the files down with frustrated force, making the papers fly everywhere. “You… You… You keep lying in these files, making us appear like the bad guys! Is this what you tell the people? To brainwash them into joining your stupid little gang?”

“Me? Brainwashing? HA!” Janus shakes his head. “That’s a laugh and a half…”

“I’m onto you, Deceit!” Patton proudly puffs out his chest. “I see right through your tricks!”

“Oh, of course you do,” Janus smiles down at him like he’s a child who just badly solved a puzzle game. “Nothing gets past you. Truly, I’m so impressed.”

Patton’s certainty wanes. Villains who just got their plans exposed should look angry, not like they’re secretly laughing at you.

“Well, if you’re done spouting wild accusations, would you mind closing the door behind you?” Janus stretches his arms above him. “I want to get my eight hours of sleep in before I get thrown into the next torture session tomorrow, thank you very much.”

“Torture-? Oh, haha, very funny!”

“Not joking, unfortunately-”

“Why do you do this??” Patton has to resist to stomp his feet in frustration. “Why do you keep on lying?”

Janus lowers his arms, his smile falling away. “I don’t.” He says. The seriousness of his voice throws Patton off, but even so he scoffs.

“Yes, you do!”

“I really don’t. There’s not a single word in those files that isn’t the honest truth.”

“Yeah, right,” Patton crosses his arms. “Tell that to the people outside! Or to my superiors!”

“Oh, by all means, bring them in,” Janus says seriously. “Bring them all in! Your precious masters, all my supposed victims… I think you’ll find that they’ll all agree with my side of the story.”

Patton opens and closes his mouth a few times, uncertainly. The rigid seriousness of the other makes him more nervous than he hopes he lets on. He was so used to the dangerously charming smooth talking Janus that he had no idea what to do with this calm, somber Janus. Oh, why hadn’t he taken Logan with him? He would have known what to say!

“Oh really?” Patton eventually says, sounding more sure of himself than he actually was. “What exactly is ‘your side of the story’? Go ahead, I could use a laugh!”

“You want to know, little mouse?” Janus says, and just like that the dangerous smile was back. “You really want to know?”

Patton swallows, but tilts his chin up defiantly. “Yes.”

“Well, you asked for it…” Janus hums thoughtfully, gathering his thoughts for a second. “My side of the story is about how years ago a small company gained interest. Funded by the richest of the rich of the world this company created unwilling abominations. Children reared only to use as weapons to hold the world hostage. So that those richest of the rich could create a planet where the lowest of the low were forced to work for them. Leeching of the world’s natural resources like parasites, while the rest of us peasants suffer as a result. Of course, that was the system even before these children became their shiny new atom bombs, but now… Now they had safeguard. A safety net that ensured no one would ever dare to rebel against them. Well…” Janus smiles. “Almost no one…” Janus inspects his fingernails casually again. “Of course, to make sure they wouldn’t be bothered by such things as icky morals, they justify their actions by saying it was for the greater good! By saying this system created…” Janus raises an eyebrow at Patton. “An Endless Peace?”

A silence falls between them. Then Patton lets out a disbelieving laugh.

“Really? You think I’m going to believe that? I’m not dumb, you know!”

“Dumb, maybe not,” Janus shrugs. “Naïve, however…”

“I don’t believe you!” Patton says proudly.

“You were born and raised at AEP, weren’t you?” Janus asks. “Told from a young age you were born to be a superhero? To help people? Tell me Patton, have you ever been away from this building for anything else than superhero business? Or talked to anyone who isn’t approved by EAP first? Anyone at all?”

Patton tries to think of an answer, but comes up empty. “The people in this building protect me,” He answers instead. “Protect me from people like you, who would exploit my powers for evil!”

“Trust me honey, you’re not the one who needs protection out there…” Janus mutters.

“I don’t believe you.” Patton repeats, a bit more uncertain this time.

“Fine. Don’t then.” Janus shrugs. “I don’t need you to believe me for it to still be true.”

The absolute confidence in Janus’ voice infuriates Patton, anger bubbling up in his chest.

“EAP is a good company! We actually help people, unlike you!” Patton yells, now actually stomping his foot. “You stand there trying to tell me you’re so noble, when you have NO PROOF for anything you claim!!”

“Proof?” Janus growly lowly. “You want proof? Fine!” Angrily he grabs the edge of his bandages and starts unwrapping his arm. “I’ll give you proof!

Patton inhales a sharp breath as Janus unwraps the last bandages. His arm is completely raw and swollen, oozing with barely healed wounds. His stomach turns at the sight of angry deep black burns strewn over any flesh that got spared.

“They tore the scales off my arm,” His cool façade finally shows cracks as Janus’ voice shakes. “One by one they ripped them off my skin. Even when I finally talked they didn’t stop. They continued on until my arm was bare, and the iron they placed in the fire was white hot. That’s how I got these…” Hovering his fingers over one of the burns he swallows. “Obviously I told them old hiding places, long since abandoned. It will keep them busy for a while, but when they realize I’ve given them old information…” He rubs his jaw absentmindedly. “They said they would take my teeth next. Too bad... I’ve grown quite fond of my fangs.”

“They…” Patton shook his head, unable to tear his eyes away from Janus’ tortured arm. “They wouldn’t do this…”

Janus’ eyes turn cold, his collected mask back on. “Obviously, they did. Or do you think I would do this to myself to gain sympathy points with delusional so called ‘good guys’?”

“B-But-!! We are the good guys!! The people, they love us-!”

“Oh, please,” Janus rolls his eyes. “The only reason the ‘common’ folk sing your praises is because they’re too afraid that their ‘beloved rulers’ send you to destroy their homes next.”

“T-That-! That’s NOT true-!!”

“Do you know what they call your little ‘hero’ group outside of the little circle of rich assholes you protect?” Janus says with a nasty smile. “They call you ‘The Executioners’. Because the minute someone refuses to obey, to fall in line… They send you. To make sure the people know who’s in charge. To destroy any ounce of happiness they scraped up and make an example out of the corpses you and your friends leave behind in their wake!”

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!!” Patton shakes his head, covering his ears in a vain attempt to block out that damned smooth voice.

“Face it, kid. You’re no hero. No… You want to know what you are?” Janus continues on mercilessly. “You’re a tool. A sharpened axe the elite of the world hold over the necks of the common people, so they continue working as proper frightened little drones. Nothing like a good threat to keep their servants from revolting against them.”

“YOU’RE LYING!!” Patton screams as he throws his fists against the glass, the lights above them flickering in sync with his outcry. His powers bursts out of him with a force he hasn’t experienced since he was a kid. Electricity climbs over the glass cell in living lightning, framing the villain like a cursed portrait. But Janus barely blinks as the electricity crackles around him.

“If you are so sure that I’m lying… Why are you still here?” He asks thoughtfully. “Why come here at all if you truly think I lied in these files? Unless…” Janus says slowly, understanding dawning on his face. “Unless you’ve already seen the cracks in their pretty façade. Is that it?”

Just as quick as his power had acted up it retreats. “I… I… I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Patton stammers as he pulls his hands away from the glass, the bright glow of the electricity dying in his fingers. He steps back but Janus follows, like a shark that smells blood in the water.

“Oh, that’s it, isn’t it?” Janus breaths out a disbelieving laugh as he shakes his head. “When did you start to notice the holes in their logic? Started to taste the bitterness in their pretty lies? How long have the doubts been eating at you, Patton?”

“That’s not…” Patton starts weakly, but any other rebuttals wither and die before they can leave his mouth.

“You’ve seen glances of their true faces,” Janus continues. “And you hoped that I would what? Comfort you? Deny everything and let you wallow in your own self-denial? Be the so-called ‘villain’ you think I am so you can continue feeling good about yourself?” Janus chuckles, lowly, the sound wrapping around Patton’s throat like a noose. “Come now darling… Did you really think I was that kind of person?”

It distinctly feels like something inside him breaks. The pretty wall of his superhero persona crumbles and crashes down, leaving Patton with only the ugly truth that wall had kept hidden from him. The pride and praise of the past week now suddenly tastes like bitter ash in his mouth.

He hurt people. He hurt the world. He did he did he did he did he DID-!!

He can’t take any more. Patton’s legs give away beneath him as he crumbles in front of the glass, his chest heaving with sobs. Pulling his hands through his hair he buries his face in his knees, tears dripping down his cheeks. Janus says nothing while Patton’s sobs echo in the room. He only stares down at the shattered hero at his feet with a distant kind of satisfaction.

"What do I do...?" Patton eventually whispers when the tears finally slow. "What can I do to make this right…?"

Janus grins, kneeling down to look the hero straight in the eye.

"You could start," He purrs. "By getting me out of here."

--

Patton walks through the halls he’s walked through a thousand times. His heart hammers a mile a minute in his ears, almost deafening him. Yet it can’t keep him distracted from the person currently running after him, sticking out amongst the grey walls like a sore thumb in his bright white prison grubs. They halt at an intersection, pushing their backs against the wall and holding their breath as soldiers run past in the next hallway.

“I’m going to need your phone.” Janus suddenly whispers, making Patton bite back a yelp.

“I-I don’t have one-!” He stammers. Janus gives him a long-suffering look.

“I’m not surprised, yet somehow still disappointed.” Janus sighs as he impatiently moves past him. Just as Patton wants to ask what he’s planning, Janus darts out of the dark corridor, as quick and ruthless as the snake he is and grabs the last soldier in the platoon that passes them. He gives her no time to alert the others in front of her as Janus covers the soldier’s mouth, drags her back into their corridor and sinks his teeth into her neck.

“What are you doing?!” Patton hisses.

“Making sure we can get out of here!” Janus hisses back as he pulls his teeth from the soldier’s neck. The woman’s eyes are already drooping, despite her effort to raise her voice in alarm. By the time Janus lowers to the ground she has fully lost consciousness.

“You can’t do that!! She’s just doing her job!” Patton furiously whispers as Janus searches her pockets.

“Yeah, well, currently her job would be to shoot me on sight, so excuse me if I would rather not die!” Janus finally victoriously pulls a phone from the soldier’s pocket. Grabbing the soldier’s hand for a second to make her unlock the screen, he then furiously starts texting.

“What are you doing??” Patton repeats, just as frantic.

“Arranging our getaway ride, if all goes well,” Janus says as he finishes the text and hits send. “Now we just need to get out of here and keep hidden until they can come for us!”

“Right… Right!” Patton nods. Oh, why did he do this again?? “I know how we can get out of here! We’ll have to follow-!”

“Patton?”

Patton freezes at that familiar voice. Turning he comes face to face with Virgil, wrapped in his favourite hoodie and sleepily rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand. How could he have forgotten his teammate’s insomnia? Or his habit to wander around until he got sleepy??

“What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” Virgil yawns. “Do you want a lecture from Logan about proper sleep schedules? Because trust me, they’re not very-”

Virgil freezes as Janus rises to his feet behind Patton. His eyes dart between him and Janus, gasping as he finally spots the unconscious soldier on the ground.

“You…” Virgil’s voice turns dark, the shadows behind him moving on his unspoken command. “I don’t know how the FUCK you got out, but you will step away from my teammate RIGHT NOW and get back to your cell, or you’ll regret it!”

“No thank you,” Janus smirks. “While I thoroughly enjoyed your hospitality, the room service here is positivelyabominable. Not to mention the horrid excuse you call cuisine. I don’t think I’ll return here soon.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that!” Virgil growls, gathering his famous shadows in his hands.

“Virgil, NO!!” Patton screams and steps between the two before Virgil can throw his attack.

“Patton, get out of the way!”

Patton shakes his head. “No! You have to let us pass, Virge!”

“What do you mean-?” Virgil stops, furious disbelief etching across his face. “…It was you… You helped him escape-!”

“I…” Patton swallows and nods. “Yes, yes I did… But Virgil-! It’s not what you think! We’ve been lied to, Virge!”

“Yes, by HIM!!” Virgil points at Janus, who wiggles his fingers in a mocking wave. “You know, the enemy that we’ve tried to capture for literal years??”

“No, not him! The AEP! They’re the ones who lied to us! They’ve been using us, Virge! They used us to… To attack innocent people! We’ve hurt the world instead of saving it! We have to set this right!!”

“What the hell are you talking about-??”

“Virgil, please,” Grabbing Virgil’s hands in his Patton gives his teammate- No, his best friend- a pleading look. “Come with us! Help me take down the organization! They’re the bad guys, Virge! It was never him!” Patton gestures to Janus.

“Oh that’s fine, just talk about me like I’m not here.” Janus mutters.

“We can fix this, Virgil. You and I!” Patton says, fragile hope growing in his voice. “Please, trust me on this! Let’s run away together from this place and actually help!”

Virgil stares at him, the tense silence stretching on in the hallway like a wire slowly growing taut. Virgil’s eyes flicker between him and Janus indecisively. Patton hopes for a brief second that maybe, just maybe-

His stomach drops when Virgil’s gaze remains on Janus, and just like that the wire snaps.

“You…” Virgil snarls. “I don’t know what lies you fed him-”

“Virgil, please no-!!” Patton pleads, but Virgil shoves him aside.

“But I will not let you get away with it!” The shadows behind him move again, answering their master’s call as they gather around him. “I will take you down for this!!”

“Must we?” Janus sighs exaggeratedly before he straightens himself and grins his lengthening fangs bare. “I suppose I have time in my busy schedule to teach you some manners, Stormcloud.”

Virgil growls and aims his hands towards Janus, the shadows behind him brewing and moving in dark colours without hesitation. Patton doesn't think. Later on he wishes he had. He doesn’t remember moving, yet he sees his hand grab onto the back of Virgil's neck. He doesn't want to see the sparks fly out of his hand, making the Virgil’s body go rigid before promptly becoming weak in his grasp. But it doesn’t matter what Patton wants, as Virgil's body hits the floor with a thud quieter than it should've been.

Paralyzed Patton makes eye contact with Janus over Virgil’s unmoving form. The other man stares at him dumbfounded, uncertainty and shock fighting for the same place on his eyes. Patton looks down, trembling.

Oh god what had he done.

For the second time that evening Patton felt his knees give way beneath him as he fell next to his friend.

“Virge…” Patton whispers, pained regret shaking in his voice.

“Patton-!” Janus walks up to him, putting his hands on his shoulders but Patton barely feels it.

“I’m s-so sorry-!!” Patton sobs over his friend’s unconscious body.

“Patton.” Janus says, his voice so calm that Patton’s muddled mind readily clings to it. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

“I-I c-can’t j-just leave him h-here-!!”

“You must. The commotion must have alerted someone. This place might be crawling with guards soon. We have to go.”

Patton looks up in Janus’ eyes, their mismatched colours strangely grounding him and he nods. Janus helps him to his feet, and after one last look towards Virgil, Patton turns and they run.

Much later Patton would look back on this night and barely remember their escape. He leads Janus through the facility on automatic pilot, only managing to avoid capture because of Janus’ vigilance and sharp hearing. In the end Janus has to take out only one additional guard, who had been watching the emergency exit that Patton had lead them too. This soldier went down much easier than the first one. Patton supposed he hadn’t expected anyone to come to the quiet, halfway forgotten exit. But how could Patton forget it? He and Virgil had used this door as kids to escape from training once in a while.

Virgil…

Janus hastily runs through the emergency exit with Patton closely following behind. The cold night air finally shakes Patton's mind awake, away from the phantom feeling of Virgil's neck and how his hand tingles slightly. He almost wishes the tingle hurt.

They run loudly on the pavement, aiming for speed over secrecy. Patton’s breath comes in heavy pants and his lungs prickle, yet he dares not to stop or to look back. When they reach the high fence it takes Patton’s every bit of concentration to stop the electricity singing in the fence, guiding it away from Janus as they climb over it.

The sirens start as they safely land on the other side of the fence.

With the alarms blaring behind them Patton follows Janus to where the concrete leads into worn-in dirt, and where that leads to sticks, leaves, and not many traces of society. Patton's breath hurt in his chest, but knows he can't stop for a moment. He doesn't bother looking behind him either.

After what feels like hours but were more likely minutes, Janus skids to a halt, his breath forming clouds in the cold air as he leans heavily against a tree. Patton leans his hands on his knees, catching his breath. In the distance the alarms continue blaring.

“D-Do…” Patton gulps, exhales. “Do you think we’re safe…?”

Janus looks at him. “I don’t know…” He says, and Patton hates the raw honesty he hears in his voice. He suddenly much prefers the smooth lies his former enemy could spin at a drop of a hat. If they’re caught, he'll suffer Janus' previous fate or worse. Patton doesn't want to think about how it could get worse.

Just as he’s about to sit down, resigned to his new fate, a bright spotlight illuminates their spot in the forest. Patton can’t stop the startled scream as spots dance in his vision at the sudden brightness, the rumbling of an aircraft above them finally overpowering the sound of his wildly beating heart. They had found them already??? Or…

“Ahoy down there!” A nasally voice shouts down over the intercom as a rope is lowered from the aircraft. “Did some clown order a clown car??”

Patton puzzlingly frowns, but besides him Janus grins.

“Hold on, Heart Shock!” Janus grabs the rope with one hand and throws his other arm around Patton’s waist to hoist him up close. “Our ride is here!”

Before Patton can form some kind of protest the rope is hoisted up. A high-pitched shriek tears from his throat as the ground falls away beneath them. Patton never liked flying or heights in general. No matter how many times Roman took him for a flight he never got used to it. So he throws his arms and legs around Janus koala style and buries his face into the other man’s scaled neck. He dares not to peek as they dangle above the ground until he feels hands grab him and Janus. Excited voices ring in his ears as the hands drag them both into the aircraft. As they land on the metal floor with a heavy thud a blush creeps in on Patton’s cheeks when he untangles his arms and legs from Janus’ frame.

“Snake Daddy is in the nest!!” The same nasally voice shrieks over the roaring engines. “HIT THE GAS!! GO GO GO!!!”

The door behind them slams closed, and the aircraft flies off with a speed that throws Patton backwards, making an inelegant roll on the hard metal floor. Janus on the other hand sits up his knees, giving the man that runs up to them an exasperated look.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that?” Janus sighs. The man gives him a grin that makes his moustache curl up mischievously. Either Patton’s eyes are deceiving him, or the man resembles Roman to an uncanny degree.

“And I told you to get used to your new codename, Double-D!” The man joyfully says. “Deal with it!”

Janus rolls his eyes, but nonetheless grabs the hand stretched out to him. As he’s pulled to his feet Janus throws his arms around the other.

“Remus, you absolute insane wonderful man you,” Janus breathes shakily. “How the fuck did you get here so fast?”

“Are you kidding me??” Remus eagerly returns the embrace. “We’ve been hiding around here for five days now!”

“You what-” Janus reels back, grasping Remus by the shoulders “Why??”

“To rescue you, of course!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake- You promised that if I ever got captured you would continue where I left off! Not risk everything by trying to rescue me!”

“Yeah, well,” Remus shrugs. “You promised me that I would get to watch you use the president’s head as a football some day! And god fucking dammit, you are not getting out of that promise, no matter how hard you try!”

Patton flinches at the gruesome fantasy, but Janus only wetly laughs and draws Remus back into a hug. Over the whole aircraft relieved and excited voices ring, welcoming Janus back.

Amidst the excitement Remus halts as he finally spots Patton, who still sits quietly amongst the excited rebels.

“No fucking way…” Remus breathes. “You actually got us a hostage?”

Patton freezes. As all eyes turn to him, he suddenly remembers again that he’s surrounded by people he previously thought as his enemies. And to them, he still was the enemy.

"Double-D, you should've warned me you would bring a hostage! I would've brought the rougher rope with us!" Remus pulls away from the hug and quickly moves towards a container, which once opened Patton could see was full to the brim with rope of various colours, each appearing thick and rough enough as they were.

Janus dramatically sighed. "He’s not a hostage."

Remus stops rummaging through the container and quirks an eyebrow. "But Heart Attack or whatever is one of those stupid guys! Wait.” Remus squints suspiciously at Janus. “Don't tell me you're breaking up with me and joining his side."

“Not quite,” Janus says as he extends a hand to help Patton to his feet. As he stands Janus lightly places his arm over Patton's shoulders. A shield against the suspicious glares from the rebels around him. "You see, my darlings… He's joining ours."