#and lily found shortly after that she was pregnant

[maluceh]

mini matilda au that @daiziesssart planted on my head

[artssslut2]

Girl Dad x2

Art x Reader x Lily

Summary: You and Lily accidentally find out the gender of your baby and have to tell Art.

Note: Picture Lily around the ages 5-7 in this! (It doesn’t totally work with the timeline but just go with it)

You and Lily headed out the door for your ultrasound in the morning. Art was gonna be gone all day with the Donaldson foundation and was so bummed he had to miss the appointment. If he could have missed his meetings he would have, he hasn’t missed a single thing baby related since you got pregnant. No matter how small it was he was there. When Tashi was pregnant with Lily Art didn’t get to be as involved as he wanted to be, Tashi often didn’t want him at appointments for whatever reason, and it broke his heart. When you asked him to come he was surprised that you actually wanted him there.

“Of course I want you there, you’re the baby’s dad and my husband.” You told him holding his face in your he smiled leaning into your touch

“I love you more than anything.” He whispered pulling you in.

You and Lily were best friends, she was your little side kick and she wanted to go wherever you were. So today she was taking Arts place at the appointment. She was thrilled to be a big sister, she wanted to be one for as long as Art can remember. After he divorced Tashi he didn’t think he would ever give that to her, he was so happy that he found you and could make his dreams a reality.

“Y/n are we gonna find out if the baby is a boy or a girl today?” Lily asked sitting next to you to the table at the doctor’s office.

“Not today baby, we want to wait until they are born remember?” You smiled, Lily’s face scrunched in disappointment the same way her father’s does and you giggled. Before she could answer the nurse came in

“Hey guys! Who do we have here?” She asked enthusiastically motioning towards Lily,

“We have a big sister!” You said shaking Lily’s arm making her laugh “this is Lily.”

“Well you are very lucky to have such a wonderful mom Lily.” You laughed awkwardly, you saw Lily’s smile fade. You got those comments a lot but you tried to shrug them off for Lily’s sake.

The nurse left shortly after and the doctor came in. It was a new doctor because your normal one was on vacation, you greeted the doctor and introduced her to Lily and did the usual check up things before the doctor got the wand out. She squirted gel on your stomach and you flinched

“Is it cold?” Lily asked

“Very cold Lily pad” you said exaggerating a shiver

Shortly after you heard the heartbeat of your six month old baby,

“She looks great, strong heartbeat, 10 fingers and 10 toes.” The doctor said looking at the screen. Your mouth dropped open, did she just say she? The doctor noticed your face and realized what happened

“She… did you say she?” You asked sitting up a little bit,

“O-oh no, were you waiting was I not supposed to say. There wasn’t a note I’m so sorry.” You and Lily looked at each other in shock

“No no it’s ok. We’re having a little girl?” You asked again with teary eyes. The doctor gave a slight smile and nodded. Your heart fluttered

“Lily! You’re gonna have a little sister!” You yelled hugging her tightly. Lily was cheering and laughing

“I’m gonna have a sister!” She squeezed you so tightly. You couldn’t believe you were having a girl, secretly it’s what you wanted but you would have been fine with either.

“Thank you oh my god!” You told the doctor and she laughed with you both.

Later on when you got back to the car you noticed Lily was being really quiet, not her normal giggly self.

“You okay kiddo?” You asked her looking at her through the mirror,

“Yeah.” She answered blandly, you didn’t want to pry so you just nodded. A minute had passed and she hadn’t said anything

“Y/N?” She asked timidly from the back

“Yeah Lily?”

“I’m kind of sad.”

“Why what’s going on babe?” You asked, was she upset that the baby was a girl?

“When the lady called you my mom… I just sometimes get upset that the baby gets you as her mom and I don’t. I wish you were also my mom.” Lily said looking at the floor, you felt your heart melt with sadness and pride. She wanted you as her mom, that was such a compliment but you also didn’t want her to feel left out, she was your little girl too. You pulled into the mall parking lot and turned to look at her

“Oh Lily pad,I know I’m not your biological mom but that doesn’t mean I love you any less.” You told her reaching back and putting a hand on her knee. You saw her chin start to quiver

“But Max from school said that you won’t like me anymore when the baby is born because she’s your real baby.” She blurted out with a small sob. You physically felt your heart shatter, you worried this would happen

“Aw baby come up here.” You told her, she crawled into the front seat and hid her face in her knees, “just because I didn’t give birth to you doesn’t mean you aren’t my baby. I will love you just as much as your sister I promise. You are every bit as much of my child as this baby is Lily, don’t ever forget that, okay?” You told her, you felt tears poke at your eyes too but held them back, Lily looked up at you with wet eyes and nodded, you held her face with both hands “okay?” You smiled asking again,

“Okay.” She answers letting a smile grow on her face

“You know if anything you are even more lucky than your sister because you have two moms, you have your mother who is wonderful and loves you so much and you have me as like a bonus mom who also loves you so much.” You told her, Tashi was a great mom to Lily, and you and Tashi got along well. “I don’t know this Max kid but he sounds kind of dumb huh?” You joked and Lily giggled and agreed with you. Then Lily got quiet again and had a serious look

“Y/n since the baby will get too call you mom is it ok if… maybe I call you that too sometimes?” She asked timidly, your heart swelled and now tears did come to your eyes

“Oh Lily of course you can sweetheart.” You replied stroking her cheek and she smiled and hugged you the best she could over the armrests

“I love you.” She told you

“I love you too baby.” You kissed her cheek and pulled your hormonal self together “Now Lily we have a problem on our hands.” You said dramatically she giggled and listened “your daddy doesn’t know the baby is a girl. We have to find a perfect way to tell him that he’s gonna have another little princess running around!” You told her like it was a mission

“Do you think he will be mad that we found out?” Lily asked

“Not if we can find a good way to tell him. Let’s go look for ideas.” You laughed opening your car door and heading into Target with Lily in tow.

You and Lily had a very fun girls afternoon, you got a few too many outfits for your baby girl, including matching ones for Lily. You also got Lily a few new toys just to show how much you loved her, of course you both had to stop at Starbucks then you were on your way. Lily picked out a shirt for Art that said “Girl dad” she thought it would be a fun way to tell him and you agreed. Once you were home you both wrapped the shirt and put a note on it that said “x2” Lily was beyond excited that she found out before he did and that made you laugh. Finally Art got home from his meetings, he came through the door putting his bag down

“Where are my girls?” He called out like he always did

“Daddy!” Lily popped out from behind the door trying to scare him, she did this every night and Art always acted scared. He let out his dramatic scream that always cracked Lily up. He picked Lily up and threw her over his shoulder hurrying in to find you

“Did you hear what this little girl did to me!?” He said in a playful tone shaking Lily and putting her on your kitchen island as she laughed uncontrollably, then art saw the gift bag on the counter “well what’s this?” He asked coming over to kiss you

“We got you something daddy!” Lily answered quickly art looked surprised

“Did you?” He asked

“Yes we did” you smiled putting your arms around his waist

“Open it!” Lily shouted making you both laugh

Art took out the tissue paper, your stomach fluttered with nerves. What if he was mad that you found out without him

“Ooo what’s this… I love it Lily! Thank you guys!” He said holding up the t shirt clearly oblivious to what the shirt meant, you laughed to yourself at how cute your husband was

“Art look inside the bag, baby” you pushed the bag towards him, he looked in the bag and pulled out the note card. You couldn’t read his face yet. It felt like a lifetime had went on before he looked up at you. Tears were in his eyes, you were nervously looking at him

“Are we… are we having a girl?” He whispered as a stray tear fell from his eye

“Yes. I’m so sorry we didn’t mean to find out then the doctor-“ for a second you thought he was really upset but he interrupted you

“This is amazing y/n.” He cried pulling you into a hug with his face in your neck, you breathed out in relief

“You’re not mad?” You asked, he pulled away

“How could I be mad?” He smiled “Lily you’re gonna have a little sister!” He cheered pulling Lily into the hug. Your eyes welled up as you laughed with joy.

“You’re a girl dad, daddy” Lily told him

“I’m a girl dad Lily pad!” He yelled picking her up. He was thrilled to be having another girl he couldn’t wait to give Lily a sister.

Later on you Art and Lily were settling down and watching a movie on the couch. Lily sat between you and Art with her hand on your belly along with Arts hand. Lily loved feeling the baby move around inside of you, she also loved talking to your bump she would tell the baby all about her day. Art would do the same, like father like daughter. Art noticed Lily yawn

“Time for bed Lily girl” he said also yawning

“Mommy can you tuck me in please?” She asked sleepily Art looked at you with a surprised look, with all the excitement you forgot to tell him about your conversation with Lily, you gave him a look telling him that you would fill him in later and he smiled at you. You knew that it made Arts heart melt

“Of course I can Lily pad.” You said reaching out for her hand.

You were in love with your growing family.

[squadxx4392]

Okay, imagine

So, I was reading a oneshot book that included Harry and Ginny going to a bar together as best friends where Ginny's bf was working and paid for them to be VIP for the night and I suddenly thought, at 11:31 pm, what if Luna was a bartender??

Just think, Ginny, the twins, Fred and George, Ron and Blaise go out to the bar and she meets Luna Lovegood working on the drinks and falls head over heels for her.

After confessing her love in an intoxicated state, Luna decides to drive her to her own apartment after she told her brothers and brother-in-law when she does to be a respectable woman.

As she's making breakfast at 11 am, Ginny wakes up on the couch in comfortable clothes and a blanket and Luna pops her head out of the kitchen to check on her.

They have breakfast together and go on a date together the same day, exchange numbers and Ginny goes home to her brothers to tell them about what happened.

Not long after, Luna is introduced to the rest of Ginny's friends, Draco, Harry, Pansy and Hermione as well as the Weasley twins, once again because they were too intoxicated to remember her and Blaise and Ron are the only two of them to remember her.

For the next two months, on Luna's off days, her and Ginny are going out or staying in and watching Netflix and when she's at work, Ginny's at the bar to keep her company.

After around 3 months of that, Ginny asks Luna to be her girlfriend and they get together, she found out Harry's adoptive dad is her mum's best friend, Regulus.

Harry's parents had divorced when he was a year old and his dad, James got with Regulus, while Lily got with Luna's mum, Pandora! Xeno had died in a car accident shortly before Luna was born and Harry and her were step siblings that's never met because Harry often stayed with James because Lily and Pandora moved off to Brighton rather than London where James lived.

Since then, they'd all been really close, and a couple years later, Luna and Ginny get married!

Within the next two years, Draco and Harry got married and so did Pansy and Hermione. Luna and Ginny went off to Brighton to meet Pandora and Lily in Brighton to stay for a while.

They welcome Ginny with open arms and Lily tears up, because, just like her mom, Luna fell for a ginger! Eventually, Ginny and Luna convinced their parents to come back up to London for a while to catch up with old friends.

They all go off together to the bar one night to surprise Luna when they find her and Ginny making out in a broom closet because someone took over Luna's shift for her.

After another year, they go to a sperm bank and Luna gets pregnant and they're on their way to a family!

They had a set of triplets named Ruby, Nova and Stella. They all had bright strawberry blonde hair and they all got Luna's eyes, bright gray.

Fast forward a few years later, we have a scene where Linny, Drarry, Pansmione and Blairon are all met up at the park with their toddler kids and they're all content and happy.

Joking around, and all that, before they make plans to go out to a bar like the good old days. And that's when it all ends on a happy note with Hermione revealing another pregnancy.

In the end, Ginny reflected on how she got there and told herself "I would never have changed any of this for the world".

And then it all ends. This is what happens to me, I'd been working on this for over 20 minutes last night.

Anyway, please write this. I'd do it myself but I've got like- 10 other stories I'm working on rn-

If someone already has, PLEASE tell me what it is.

[i-turn-characters-2-warrior-cats]

Mrs Afton as a warrior cat

Of course! WC William will be a much longer post, so instead of making this a double post like I originally planned when I saw this, I will give him his own.

Mrs Afton...I know what your headcanons are and what the clusterfrick (not sure how I feel about swearing on this account) of canon might be, but to me her name is Caroline in fnaf.

But for the warrior name, we have....Lilyvalley! This may seem unusual, but look up the words "lily valley flower", then look up "lilly valley flower language", and then you'll see why I chose it.

For the backstory, I'm unsure why she and her mate were cast out. Knowing William, it may have been murder, but wouldn't it be fun if she did the murder? WC William believes it's fake and she's innocent, (but tbh he doesn't care about murder), and leaves with her! Now I know.

After that, Lilyvalley found out that she was pregnant! I'm switching around the order of the siblings as we usually think of them, so WC Michael and Graypulse were born as part of the same litter, and Lilyvalley died during the birth of WC Elizabeth. Ooh, mayhaps the other two in the litter were stillborn, or died shortly after birth? I think yes.

She doesn't have that large of an influence on the story after that (WC Elizabeth is gonna get to be a girlboss), but she does go to StarClan, because one murder isn't usually enough to get StarClan to condemn you. You need to be a really boring or just a little bit worse than that to go to hell.

If you want any more elaboration or would like another character, do let me know!

I hope you have a wonderful day/night/insert time zone appropriate word here, and I hope to see you again in my inbox! Thank you!

[infraaa]

『in reference to the long awaited Red Velvet Cookie project… we know the drill, just like SNOWY DRIVE.』

Red Velvet Cookie — family headcanons

mild tw // mentions of the dark flour war, disfigurement, child neglect, forced separation, bodily harm

【cw!】 the project hangs off of canon, however, some headcanons present here may not align with what actually happens in CRK.

Red Velvet is the oldest brother of two. However, as Red Velvet was birthed to White Lily, Madeline, his younger brother, was birthed to Grand Madeline Cookie, making them half brothers by the same father, Pure Vanilla.

Both of them are mixed, with one showing more traits of one ethnicity than the other. Red Velvet and Madeline are both blasian, (Korean mix but shows more features from the other side,) and Madeline shows more Korean features than the other.

During RV’s younger years, he was extremely close to his younger brother. He was the rock that Madeline had to stop him from getting too hyper or rambunctious.

They did everything together. But something was off… Red Velvet didn’t look much like White Lily or Pure Vanilla. The only thing he seemed to have are his father’s eyes— that perfect sky blue. Madeline didn’t mind this though— he sometimes thought it was really cool standing next to him.

White Lily was pregnant with Red Velvet during her transformation into Dark Enchantress. As her DNA was being rewritten, his would follow hers, which is the reason why RV looked the way he did.

When the war broke out, Dark Enchantress, (formally white lily,) revolted, and took Red Velvet with her by force, and taking him to where the Sweet Tower of Chaos was to be located. Some time after this, Red Velvet often disobeyed his mother, trying to leave, wanting to be with his brother again… at one cost.

On one of his escape attempts, Red Velvet was attacked by a wolf. This attack left him with a very heavy gash right around his rotator cuff, and it left his arm hanging for dear life. He tried to escape the wolf shortly after the attack, but it didn’t help that he was limping and that he was out of breath, tired, and jam was everywhere. The smell of the jam lured the wolf back to Red Velvet where the wolf would eventually take his arm.

Dark Enchantress found him the morning after, and that day was the day he received his prosthetic.

Despite being away from his oldest son, he made no attempt to try and look for him out of fear that it may put Red in an even more dangerous position.

Because of this, because PV lost one of his most greatest creations, his child, he started his whole purity conquest thing.

Madeline would stay back at the palace and receive training— formal etiquette and guardsmen ship.

Red Velvet on the other hand, Dark Enchantress continued to care for her son until he turned thirteen years old, where she deemed him self sufficient. She slowly drew herself away from Red Velvet, causing him to grow up the rest of his adolescent years nearly without a parental figure. He is self trained in combat, self taught when it came to his education… he did mostly everything by himself for himself.

Only some odd 10-15 years later do they see each other again, and that’s because Red Velvet finally ventures out to look for them… after so long.

Stay tuned for Red Velvet’s Upcoming Project…

KIN

[cheshire-silent-cat]

Levi x y/n

“What is love without a little danger”

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x fem!reader

Prompting: “what’s love without a little danger”

Warning: blood, weaponry, violence, triggering to verbal learners, another fixed up draft

***************{story begins here}***************

How did it get this bad, cradling her wounded husband in her arms as he desperately clung unto his life, in the midst of rivalling soldiers from different lands ready to take out their frustrations at any time and a traitor that greatly helped the escalation of this God forsaken war. It was funny, how things changed so quickly, it seemed like only yesterday when her wedding was taking place, and the titan attacks weren’t so bad then

(Flash back to Levi & y/n’s wedding)

Y/n was such a perfectionist, but not as much as Levi was being, they had 2 years prior to this day and at the time y/n was working as a waitress in the day and a bar tender at night, Levi frequently visited this bar to see her, he enjoyed their conversation and more importantly enjoyed her company, he found it fascinating that she did not drink but worked around free drinks, when she finally did drink it was on their first date and Levi had lightly pressured her into doing so, her getting drunk and him taking care of her opened the doors for their relationship. Levi wasn’t perfect but he loved her and his biggest fear was leaving y/n. Y/n wasn’t a basket of angel lilies either she was formally a scout but was laid off based on the accusations of her being too impulsive and suicidal, basically they were calling her too crazy to control. During their vows they both vowed to love in safety and in danger, and at the time y/n thought it was just a stupid lover’s joke they made when all their friends were alive.

(Flash back to when the titan war began)

Being married to Humanities strongest soldier had its perks, Levi had given her a cosy lifestyle, a definite upgrade from a waitress he made a point to fulfill all his promises to her. However, when the armoured titan broke into the wall, levi immediately moved y/n within wall sina, placing her in a house that neighbours nobles men which meant safety for you, he had instructed y/n not to speak of their marriage, and just like that she barely saw her husband she received letters most of them were repetitive news that someone close to the couple had died but y/n found joy in the safety of her husband. And when it seemed like the war was over and the couple were finally ready to build a family, shortly after y/n realised that she was pregnant Levi was gone again but this time his letter’s stopped abruptly.

(Flashback to the outbreak of war caused by yelena, zeke and Eren)

Weeks had passed and y/n had received no letter, she had fallen into a deep depression and after the rumours spread of the death of her husband she lost the baby. While lying on the floor in the dark study room her husband once roamed, a maid ran in with a gun, Levi had let y/n have one trusted maid to support her in his absence and quite frankly she was more of a friend than a maid. The maid had come with news that the yeagerists had tracked down the letters and were coming for y/n with the intentions of publicly executing her, the maid threw to y/n, but before she could catch it a total of 3 bullet went through the head, heart and stomach of the maid instantly landing her on the floor, y/n randomly shot anything that moved, until she was out of bullets, most of the men were on the ground but about 3 remained standing and began closing in on her, and just her luck that a titan with no interest in eating humans had fallen on the house causing a large chunk of it to fall off and leave an open space, the yeagerists slowly began closing in on y/n and one of the men spoke up “pity really.. if only you hadn’t fallen in love with someone so dangerous” y/n backed up to the edge of the open space “well like I always say, what’s love without a little danger” saying that she leaped off the edge of the building into the dust, the 3 men hastily ran to the edge of the building to check and as the dust settled down, her body, like Levi’s was no where to be found.

For a While she laid low and hid but when the walls were gone and the titans began migrating, y/n left the walls by horse, upon getting to the woods, y/n dragged the horse and walked by foot, on her path the smell of smoke from a camp fire, she tied her horse to a nearby branch and ran towards it certain that it would lead her to Levi, upon reaching the camp site gun were pointed at her she gazed at the weird mix of people eagerly looking for Levi, upon seeing him in bandages, her heart sank to her stomach, she moved closer to him slowly, “Levi?” Hange raised her head from her cooking “hey, you guys that’s no way to welcome, mrs. Ackerman!!, hey y/n it’s good to see you again” the rest of the pack seemed awestruck from the news that Levi had a significant other. Gazing at the faces of the soldiers her eyes unfortunately landed on yelena, neither women knew how to react it’s not like one could properly admit that she tried to kill the others husband, y/n tried to be the bigger person but seeing her husband lay lifeless at the verge of death, the memories of her miscarriage began flooding back to her, without thinking she jumped on yelena and strangled her, contrary to Helena’s normal reaction of fearlessness while maintaining a calm composure, she was scared this time and couldn’t hide it, yelena knew she had nothing to offer y/n, she knew she had caused pain to y/n and the eyes that y/n used to gazed at yelena didn’t seem like a threat it was certain death for yelena, the rest of the soldiers found it hard to move or stop what was going on, and for the first time yelena felt like prey “I’m sorry” that was all yelena could say before Levi spoke loudly “y/n! Stop it! I’m sure whatever is wrong we can talk about it”. Y/n got up to hug him dragging her feet against the floor like a disappointed child and the second her head later on Levi’s legs she fell into deep sleep. Hange spoke up “count yourself lucky that this asshole decide to get up and say something, y/n usually much more vicious I guess shorty here has made her soft or that would have ended much quicker, say did you know she used to be in the scouts but got laid off for being out of control and very impulsive, Yh she was a killing machine the issue was that back then there wasn’t much to kill and y/n was known for overkilling, it was totally disgusting, but I liked her cus she was sweet just angry like a misunderstood titan”. While stroking her hair Levi once again spoke “shut it four-eyes you are such a pain”. Once she woke up she was sat up in a horse barrow with Levi resting on her thigh and her arms supporting him in a cradle like manner, travelling to who knows where, for the purpose of stopping Eren. But looking back at the life she has had with Levi Ackerman, she realised she had no regrets and she would still choose him again.

The end

[st4rgrlsims]

ares sister calypso also found family in ani and lina. constantly spending weekends at the ranch. ani specifically has found a bestfriend in cal. she finds her to be welcoming and warm and fun to be around. months after settling in calypso called ares begging to let her come stay with him indefinitely. he talked with the girls and they said yes without a second thought. calypso is family. ares felt grateful to have part of his family closer and ani felt excited to have her around so often. cal is a relatively dependent person in comparison to her siblings, yet still feels alone a lot of the time. nothing was really wrong at home, but still, in her head there were problems with her parents she could not deal with. both iris and connor were engaged to be married and knew their lifelong passions by cal's age and she just feels so much pressure to live up to that for them, so she ran away, taking solace in the acceptance of her new roommates and solitary of ranch life. in no time, she adopted the lifestyle even better than both ares and lina.

back home... with only her sister gaia home, and her childhood bestfriend suddenly ghosting her, orion suddenly had less family time and wayyyy more time for her girlfriend liliana.

within months, they found out they were pregnant at the age of 15. orion was excited to become a parent. with her history, being given up by her own birth parents, and the fact she never thought she would have children of her own she was immediately ready to step up even at her young age. liliana's life had just fallen apart at home, her mothers midlife crisis shortly after giving birth to another baby girl named juliet led her to cheat on her father, leave, get pregnant with twins and abandon liliana. her father hasnt recovered since and shortly later her great-grandfather passed away. that being said, when iris and connor welcomed her into their home to help her raise the baby, lily could not have felt more loved.

[aurorabayrpg]

we have 4 new wanted connections!

[LAYLA BOYAJIAN (ANGELA SARAFYAN)] is looking for their [EX FLING].

[STERLING LEVIN (MADELYN CLINE] is looking for their [FRIEND FROM HIGHSCHOOL]

[JULIET HARKNESS (INBAR LAVI)] is looking for their [EX-HUSBAND].

[SAFIE CARRIGAN (ADRIA ARJONA)] is looking for their [BIOLOGICAL FATHER TO HER SON]

[LAYLA BOYAJIAN (ANGELA SARAFYAN)] is looking for their [EX FLING]. They are [35-37], and look an awful lot like [FC UTP]. Muns [DO NOT] have to contact mun before applying. They met when Layla was working in small town bars in Texas around 3 years ago. Essentially this person was known to be a heartbreaker, and Layla saw right through their attempts of flirting at first. For a little while they played a little mutual game of cat and mouse, before Layla caved and slept with them after getting to know them better. Both starting to experience stronger feelings than usual. However, when they were absent from her bed the next morning, Layla did her very best to avoid them if they approached after trying to get back in her good graces. Their efforts didn't work. It's up to the mun on why this person is in Aurora Bay, and their current reaction towards Layla. She came to Aurora Bay shortly after this. Essentially this person was the final straw leading Layla to give up on romantic attachments in life, so fun times all-round!

[STERLING LEVIN (MADELYN CLINE] is looking for their [FRIEND FROM HIGHSCHOOL]. They are [22-23], and look an awful lot like [ELLE FANNING, KATHERYN NEWTON, DIANA SILVERS, LILI REINHART, UTP]. Muns [DO] have to contact mun before applying. tw: pregnancy: Sterling got pregnant at 18, and when she'd decided to keep the baby, everyone kind of left her hanging, even the baby daddy. This wc was the only person to stay and support her through it all, along with Sterling's sister, Liza. These two are best friends and have been since high school.

[JULIET HARKNESS (INBAR LAVI)] is looking for their [EX-HUSBAND]. They are [35+], and look an awful lot like [TOM ELLIS, Aaron taylor-johnson. Donald Glover, utp ]. Muns [DO NOT] have to contact mun before applying. tw: divorce They both grew up in Aurora Bay, their parents were best friends so, they spent a lot of time together, going to fancy parties where they had to dress up and she had to be on her best behavior, they started to date when she was 16 and at 18 they were married, it was an okay marriage, she did what she was supposed to do, a stay home wife, making dinner, going to tea parties and trying to get pregnant. Juliet was miserable because that wasn't who she wanted to be, but she didn't feel she could be honest with him or her parents, after 8 years of being the perfect wife, she just exploded, packed her things, and left divorce papers on top of the table for him to find while she was already long gone. Is been 7 years since she left and now she's back in Aurora bay and they will undoubtedly bump into each other sooner or later.

[SAFIE CARRIGAN (ADRIA ARJONA)] is looking for their [BIOLOGICAL FATHER TO HER SON]. They are [32-ish], and look an awful lot like [JEREMY ALLEN WHITE (!!!), DYLAN O'BRIEN, UTP but at least a little bit resembling Sam Claflin because that's who everyone thought was the kid's bio dad]. Muns [DO] have to contact mun before applying. tw: pregnancy, divorce WC is the proverbial boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Saf's parents didn't approve of him in the least, but being his friend was her one form of rebellion. As they reached puberty, emotions became involved, but whether or not they ever acted on it, it was clear there was no way a serious relationship would work with them — their lives were just too different. Eventually Safie began dating the man that would become her husband, but after a fight, she met up with WC and... things got out of hand. A month later, she found out she was pregnant, and decided through sheer force of will that the baby was her boyfriend's and not WC's. Spoiler alert: she was wrong. She is now in the process of getting divorced and fighting for custody, and battling with whether or not to reach out to WC so he has the opportunity to know his son. There are several ways we can up the angst factor depending on what speaks to you: Did he ever find out she was pregnant? Did he try to make a bid for her and the baby before she got married? Or my personal fave: did her father paid him off to say he wanted nothing to do with her? There are truly so many different ways we can go with it...

[sorcerymuses]

Cinderella, Kindness Above All (OUAT)

Height: 5'7" Hair: Shoulder length blonde Eyes: Dark blue FC: Lily James Birthday: March 4

The night of a grand ball, Ella was forced to stay home by her stepfamily, who had destroyed all suitable attire but their own. Her hopes were nearly dashed when the fairy godmother that appeared to help her was abruptly destroyed by the legendary Dark One. However, the dark sorcerer conjured a contract for her and gave her a means to attend the ball. Foolishly, she accepted without asking his price for his assistance, signing the contract.

Months after the ball, she wed the prince she'd met at the ball. The Dark One appeared at the reception and gave her his price: her first born child. When the new princess found herself pregnant, she became desperate to keep her child. Certain parties saw an opportunity and persuaded her to assist in imprisoning the Dark One by offering a change in her contract. Despite the success in preventing him taking her child, the Dark Curse struck the land shortly before the baby was due to be born, sending her to Storybrooke, Maine under the cursed identity of Ashley Boyd.

[gathersroses]

HEATHER NILL.

* my heather is based in the 1930s, however i do still have a canon verse for her that you can see below! heavily affiliated with @soldwrecked

GENERAL.

NAME.   heather lynn nill

ALIASES.   n/a

AGE.   eighteen+

BIRTHDATE.   september 15

GENDER.   female 

SEXUALITY.   heteroflexible

STATUS.   verse dependent/dating/married/engaged in an affair

ETHNICITY.   white

NATIONALITY.   american

BIRTHPLACE.   carp, new york

RESIDENCE.   moves around often

OCCUPATION.   verse dependent/bank robber/farmhand/housewife/reporter

PHYSICAL.

HEIGHT.   5’10”

WEIGHT.   130 lbs

BODY TYPE.   mesomorph

SKIN TONE.   fair

HAIRSTYLE.   straight

HAIR COLOR.   blonde

EYE COLOR.   blue

SCARS.   several

FACECLAIM.   olivia scott welch

PERSONALITY.

TRAITS.    direct, strong-willed, responsible, practical, creative, can enforce order, stubborn, insensitive, always by the book, judgmental, blames herself for everything

HABITS.   overthinks

HOBBIES.   writing

FEARS   tba

FAMILY.

FATHER.   patrick thomas (deceased)

MOTHER.   sherri nill (alive; estranged)

SISTER.   lily nill (younger half sister)

BROTHER.  

SIGNIFICANT OTHER.   verse dependent/dodge mason/ray hall/bishop moore

SON.   anson andrew mason

DAUGHTER.   lily dayna mason

EXTRA.

MBTI.   istj

ENNEAGRAM.   tba.

ALIGNMENT.   9w1

HISTORY.

raised in a very unhappy home. her biological father killed himself shortly after she was born. her mother attached herself to any man who was willing to take care of them. most of them weren't good people. from one of these relationships, her younger sister, lily, was born. she married ray hall as a way to get out of her homelife, hoping to take lily with her later on. ray never warmed up to the idea.

met dodge mason when she was attempting to rob her house. they began an affair.

later leaves ray after he found out about them. she and dodge get lily and go on the run as bank robbers. they make sure to donate a good amount of what they steal to families who are suffering greatly from the depression.

CANON VERSE.

heather's mother got pregnant with her in high school. she got pregnant with heather's younger sister, lily a few years later. while she did get to go to beauty school after running away from home, she's barely living a life. usually, she's some mix of high or drunk or trying to get into someone's pants. heather raised lily more than their mother did. their relationship is more complicated than the standard abuse parent and abused child, her mother does care about her daughter's. she just doesn't know how to snap out of her lifestyle to really be their mom.

heather is a hard worker. she got a job the moment she could at st. mary's community soup kitchen. when that closed, she went to mainstreet wireless. her mom spent a good amount of the money she earns on drugs and alcohol. having her own income means saving up money to go to college and escape carp and prevent lily from going to bed hungry.

she's a writer. they're mostly short stories or little things she tells to lily as a bedtime story. her dream is to publish her own book, but she has very little reason to believe that'll happen.- heather had no interest in joining panic, but after her mom stole her money for college (over $5,000) and her boyfriend broke up with her, she decided to do the jump and enter the game.

nothing happens with ray. he tormented her throughout middle and high school. she does have a crush on bishop and develops a relationship with him.

[chcsinghcppiness]

______________________________________________________________

name:  Lily Grey

age: 21

occupation: musician

sexuality: bi

status: taken

current location: Los Angeles

shipping status: closed, exclusive with @thestarryeyesx​​

Lily was born and raised in New York City. Her mother had moved shortly before her birth into the big city, living in a small apartment with her. Lily is the only daughter to the musician Ian James who she never met in her younger years. Lily comes after her mother with a more rebellious nature. Never afraid to speak what she thought or tell people that she didn’t like anything. She was raised by alone by her mother until she was six. That’s when her mother met her stepfather Michael who later on adopted her. her uncle Alaric was stopping by and visiting them as much as he could because of his job and Lily was always looking forward to see him as she saw a sort of father figure in him until Michael took that spot. It didn’t take long, maybe a year later when Sanna was pregnant again and Lily was given a little sister called Emmy. With two children, the small family moved outside the big city and to New Jersey where Michael’s sister Harley was living with her family. She started going to school there with her best friend and Cousin Skylar who was the same age as her. 

With 16 years, Lily finally found out who her real father is by accident. By going through old boxes from her mother, she found a diary she wrote back in the day on her journey after she left home. Ian James, a rock musician who was still making music to that day, was now a producer for future talents and had a record label called James’ Records. Along with Skylar, she went to his label to meet him. Confronting him with the truth was rather a rough start for them as Ian recognized his daughter immediately but felt scared the moment she stepped into his life. Lily felt upset that her father didn’t greet her the way she liked to be and went home. Later that night, Ian found out where she lived and went to see her as he was now curious of how his only daughter had turned out to be. After a while, the two started spending a bit more time with each other and she did like the way he was. Nevertheless, she saw Michael as her father and not Ian. 

As Lily found her passion in music as well, she started hanging out more at Ian’s record label and that’s where she met Asher who was part of a rising boyband. The two took a while to get together but ended up completely in love with each other. Lily had the same spirit as her mother and when it was announced that Asher and the band was moving to LA to record their first album, Lily decided to go with him. she had just finished school and decided to study music at a college in LA. Her mother had been scared she would make the same mistake as her but Lily didn’t. She was a mature young woman who wouldn’t give up her life for a man. And she was very proud of that. 

Lily is now living in LA, working on her own music and trying to get to success without Ian’s help. She’s playing at bars and clubs every now and then, building up a fanbase.

[twotapbuz]

Some more stuff for Waterworks au

August gets adopted by one of the remaining psychic six members and lives at the motherlobe after the fight with Maligula

Augustus develops an aversion to large bodies of water

Ford’s brain still gets shattered and Lucrecia and Helmut’s brains end up in the Heptadome(I'm still not sure how though) 

After nearly getting kidnapped, Augustus changes his last name to avoid anyone finding his relation to Maligula

Truman and the Psychic 6 are the only other ones that know they’re related

Augustus doesn’t know about the astralathe and instead blames hydrokinesis for what happened to Lucrecia

At 15, Augustus leaves to restart the Aquato circus and meets Donna at the circus he joins

Their act involves a combination of pyrokinesis and acrobatics which helps him and Donna quickly rise in the ranks and they become one of the most popular acts

The duo returns to the motherlode when Donna gets pregnant with Dion. Augustus begins working in the mailroom. A year later Frazie is born. 

After a couple of years, the four leave to start their own circus.

Despite a rough start, the circus grew to be far more successful than the cannon counterpart with around 50 employees consisting of performers, roustabouts, and booth staff.

Augustus wears a recreation of his father’s ringmaster outfit.

Psychonauts 1:

Instead of the conflict being that Raz is psychic, it's because Augustus and everyone else in the family share the belief that hydrokinesis corrupts the mind and is an evil psychic ability. This is a problem because it's Raz’s specialty and he has no control over it.  

Raz doesn’t believe that hydrokinesis is evil and after getting into an argument with his dad, he runs away to Whispering Rock so he can learn how to control his hydrokinesis. (whenever Raz gets too close to water, a hand will grab him and throw him around before tossing him onto land)

This ends just as well as in canon, except he already knows/is friends with Sasha, Milla, Dogen, and Lily.

Aside from that, everything except the ending and meat circus is the same.

Zombie Augustus is replaced by Fire Augustus(pyrokinesis is Augustus’ specialty in this au). Fire Augustus wears a red ringmaster’s outfit with black pants and shoes. The only visible parts of his body are his head and hands which are made of fire.

His speech towards Raz is basically how Raz is evil and wants to hurt his family because he wants to learn Hydrokinesis. He then sets the tent on fire and to avoid being burned alive, Raz scales the tent.

When Real Augustus sees Fire Augustus, Augustus realizes that it's how the ability is used and maybe Lucy simply chose to be a bad person.

Random tidbits:

The Aquatos visit the mother lobe 2-3 times a year

Augustus regularly sends letters to Compton, Otto, and Truman. Mostly to Truman.

Raz and Lili are already dating before Psychonauts 1 in this au. Shortly afterward, she tried to run away with Raz’s circus but they were found out around a day later.

Frazie is currently working as an intern at the motherlode

Augustus doesn’t hate the Psychonauts but is paranoid about anyone making connections between his family and Maligula

Both Frazie and Raz spent a week at Whispering Rock when they were younger.

[mrs-strong]

james potter headcanons

* is jewish.

* had a quidditch themed bar mitzvah, that all of the marauders went to.



* introduced sirius to muggle music.

* was the first person to discover remus’ “furry little problem”.

* was childhood friends with peter and marlene.

* was the mom friend. always making sure the dorm was clean, everyone slept well, ate enough and did their homework.

* potions and transfiguration are his best classes.

* was the definition of an “early riser”. it caused SO MANY arguments between him and sirius.

* always got effortlessly good grades, which enraged remus.

* was EXTREMELY protective of peter. (he was the brunt of a lot of bullying, because people saw him as the “tag along”).

* tried out for quidditch in second year, as a seeker— but ended up playing as a chaser.

* made sirius and marlene try out as well. (sirius was a beater, and marlene played seeker).

* was always the person coming up with prank ideas, and always roping frank longbottom into covering for them. (james came up with the ideas, remus was the mastermind— don’t mess it up).

* out of all the girls, he was always closest to marlene.

* didn’t REALLY notice lily until third year, after he saw remus and her studying together.

* later on in third year, became extremely confused because he started to crush on frank longbottom— but also liked lily.

* in fourth year, came out as pansexual (thanks to many long conversations with lily and mary). shortly helped sirius to gain the confidence to come out as gay.

* at the end of year four, started asking lily out— but didn’t ask her out a lot. (once a month rather than once a week)

* was a terrible drawer, but was always doodling— especially on sirius and peter’s arms.

* when offered the position quidditch captain, went and offered it to marlene because she had worked so hard. (and because people were low-key sexist about her being on the team).

* always gave sirius and remus the TALK about cigarettes, and their dangers (he called them “hell sticks”) and opened the window when they smoked in the dorm— but would smoke in secret, because it relaxed him.

* when his father was admitted to st. mungos after a nasty order mission— he had a really bad manic episode, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

* convinced his parents to legally take custody of sirius. (‘potter’ is listed as ONE of sirius’ last names on legal documents— he just never uses it).

* in the middle of sixth year, started secretly, going out with regulus. (in seventh year, he was angry after lily confessed her feelings for him, but regulus encouraged him to be with her instead).

* after the prank, he realized how far he was willing to go for sirius, and it scared him.

* was offered a professional quidditch contract, but turned it down to join the auror training program. (even though he actually wanted to be a healer)

* was offered a place in the order just before he graduated.

* was always paired up with sirius and marlene during missions.

* blamed himself for regulus’ death.

* regulus left him the black family ring, in his will— that’s how sirius found out about them. (on october thirty-first, after james died, sirius took the ring back to remember both james and his brother— but later threw it away).

* was so scared (even left to go to remus’ and rant about how scared he was) when lily told him she was pregnant.

* punched sirius when he told him he thought remus was the traitor.

* his last thought wasn’t that he had been betrayed by peter. it was, ‘is peter okay?’

* And that Lily and Harry had safely apperated away.

EXTRAS :

* loves taking cold showers.

* hates mayo and ketchup with a burning passion.

* is terrible at ice skating, but does it anyway.

* cannot win a game of “rock, paper, scissors” to save his life.

* always adds an extra “s” when trying to spell “mississippi”.

* every year, does a gingerbread house decorating competition with sirius, that his parents judge. but always tells them to pick sirius, because sirius always lights up over it.

* became a vegetarian after he became an animagus.

* is a cat person, which greatly offends sirius.

* only wears patterned socks.

* is the reason first years aren’t allowed to bring brooms.

* is a feminist, and would fight ANYONE who make sexist comments.

* literally says “end the patriarchy” on a daily basis.

* loves painting his nails and wearing eyeliner.

* has an obsession with rubik’s cubes.

* loves to embarrass his friends and make them blush.

* terrified of bugs. all of them.

* little spoon ™️

[billsbae]

today is Harry’s birthday (Im sobbing my boy is 41 now 😭)

So there’s some of my headcanons about the life after the war/harry and ginny’s children/next generation/all this shit

- Petunia and Dudley came to Harry and Ginny’s wedding (without Vernon)

- Only Harry calls James Sirius „Jim”

- Charlie Weasley remainded single for the rest of his life, he has his dragons and his favourite niece: Lily Luna

- Lily has Ginny’s face, red hair, and all about looks, but she has definitely Harry’s character

- None of the potters are straight

- The name „Luna” is not after Luna Lovegood (even if everyone thinks so) Luna is after Remus.

moony=moon=luna

- the Potter and Longbottom family are very close

- Andromeda died when Teddy was 3 and Harry adopted him

- Lily Luna dated both of Scamander twins but finally she end up with Scorpius Malfoy (Scorily!)

- Albus thought that he liked Scorpius after a while he realised that they had a realationship like Harry and Ron (but more sensitive) also he was happy that his sister and best friend were dating

- After Lily and Scorpius started dating Malfoys and Potters started eating dinner together every month (*cough* drama *cough*)

- Teddy Lupin - Potter 😭

- Teddy named his first son after two most important people in his life, his son’s name is Remus Harry Lupin-Potter

- Teddy and Lily were very close

- Teddy was a YouTuber, he did a lot of vlogs and also some videos with Harry: dad tag 🥺

- James is the only child who need to wear glasses

- Teddy’s first world was „daddy” to Harry

- When Teddy called Harry first time „dad” (when he was older) he got scared, Harry just smiled and replied „it’s okay son”

- Dudley got married with Cho Chang, their children: Daisy and Dennis get sorted into Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff

- So yes, Dudley doesn’t hate magic anymore

- Actually after war Harry and Dudley has a kinda good relationship

- Lily Luna get sorted into Hufflepuff

- Narcissa was very happy for Lily and Scorpius but she died shortly after their wedding

- In honour of her grandmother, their daughter’s name is Narcissa Fleur Potter

- Fleur is Lily’s favourite aunt

- Harry is actually a very good father

- Albus is gay af

- The first person in family that Albus come out is his father

- Harry confessed to Albus that he liked Cedric when he was on his fourth year

- Ginny found that she was pregnant at her 44th birthday

- Their third son name is Cedric Collin Potter

- The Potters love animals, they had 4 dogs and 5 cats, Lily also had a dragon named “Florida” but she lives in Romania with Charlie

- Hagrid give Harry the same pink birthdays cake every year

- Hagird and Lily Luna are good friends

- James is the best in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Albus in Potions and Lily in Transfiguration

- James married a red-hair girl

- Lily hate potions

- Harry was “the protective dad” to his children, most for Lily

- Albus came to Harry with every nightmare, even when he was older, his dad was just his comfort zone

- Lily came to Fleur with every “love” advice

- The Potters speaks good in french (thank to Fleur)

- Charlie often came to the Potters on wedding anniversary, to do “the fun babysitter”

- Teddy was scared that after James was born Harry would forget about him

- Harry told him "Teddy, I can have three hundred other children, but you will always be my son and I will always love you the same."

Teddy: you promise?

Harry: I promise

- Harry and Ginny get maching tattoos

- Lily reads fanfics about her dad (James do it to)

- Actually she read also fanfics about her brothers (and herself)

- She found out “Drarry” on Wattpad, one day she showed it to Harry, his face was so precious

- Albus is a bookworm

- James loved that his father is popular, Albus hated it

- Albus dated Frank Longbottom II

- James is very protective to Albus

- When Albus and Frank started dating James gave to Frank “the big bro talk”

- Albus has a crush on Dylan O’Brien

- Harry is the cook in the family

- The children like to do cookies with their dad

- Albus patronus is a hippogriff

- Professor Mcgonagall wanted Harry to teach DADA at Hogwarts, he refused because he didn't want his children to feel uncomfortable at school

- Harry has a nickname for every Wotter child

- Albus was a Percy Jackson fan when he was younger [his favourite book was The Lighting Thief and House of Hades]

- Albus persuaded Lily for six months to read PJO, after she had read all the books, both of them would convince James to read it

- Lily, James, Teddy and Albus were huge fans of Teen Wolf

- When Teddy and Albus had a crush on Stiles, James and Lily had a crush on Lydia

- James is close to his mother

okay it’s enough for now, and yeah my favourites are Lily and Teddy, maybe should I do more headcanons later??

[It’s the first time that I do headcanons in English, I wasn’t sure If I should do it in past or present or maybe in future?? so I did half a half present and past 🥲]

One more time. Happy Birthday to my bisexual boy!!!

[demonslayedher]

An Attempted Timeline: Kibutsuji, Tsugikuni, Ubuyashiki

Compiled as much as possible in chronological order from canon, Taisho Secrets, and fanbooks, which a few general facts thrown in for additional interpretation. Also, a little comparison of the amounts of humans consumed by different demons. Please feel free to let me know if I’m missing anything or made any mistakes. 

We begin with Muzan’s birth in the Heian Period...

It’s the Heian Period (794-1185), and since Muzan is side to be over a thousand years old, I’m placing him born around the year 900-ish.

Muzan is born into what would be the future Ubuyashiki Clan, likely in the Heian capital (modern day Kyoto). Assumed stillborn, he is barely rescued from cremation (a sign of being born very high class nobility).

Muzan grows up sickly and has never had much regard for other people, seeing them akin to bugs, and from around the time he was human to shortly after turning into a demon, five of his wives committed suicide due to his harsh tongue.

A doctor who lived around Mt. Kumotori in the Kanto region (modern day Tokyo area) uses the blue spider lilies that grow there to try to create a medicine to treat Muzan.

Muzan, thinking the medicine isn't working, kills the doctor partway through treatment. It works, but he is no longer able to go in the sun. No qualms about satisfying his cravings for blood, but he is really ticked out about the possibility of the sun killing him.

The Ubuyashiki clan's children keep getting ill. They are told their family carries a curse for Muzan having come from their bloodline, they swear to eliminate Muzan.

No one is safe when born into the Ubuyashiki name (which may have been chosen with origins in ancient Shinto mythology, perhaps with reference to no matter how many of them you kill, they will stubbornly keep birthing more). Girls must marry out and change their surname by age 13, or no matter how careful they are, they will die young by illness or accident. There is only ever one surviving boy per generation, the others all die. 

Heian period ends, the Genpei War (1180-1185) sweeps Kyoto and many other parts of Japan into violence, over the centuries thereafter the seat of power switches from Kyoto to Kanto (it’ll switch back later for a while). At some point Muzan has moved to Kanto (likely in search of the blue spider lilies, but possibly because Muzan likes being among those in power too). Swordsman in the Corp do not yet use Breaths and fight in whatever method they can, at some point they began using Nichirin blades because the ore soaks the sunlight. While their sword forms are already in reference to the basic Breath forms we’d know later, they are not yet using Breath techniques. The Pillar system is already in place.

(Rengoku family already practices Kankagari, hence the hair color.)

We get a little fuzzy here. Generally then Tanjiro and company make reference to Yoriichi’s era, they say “over 300 years ago” but according to Kokushibo’s recollection, he last met Yoriichi 400 years ago. That makes us a little too early for the Warring States/Sengoku period, defined as 1467~1615. It’s also possible Kokushibo was rough in his estimation, so I’m splitting the difference and putting them at early Sengoku, giving Kokushibo 370 years since last meeting Yoriichi.

The Onin War occurs 1467-1477, plunging Japan into the Warring States period as it is more technically defined, so we can assume a lot of the important events in the twins’ early life take place in this period of chaos. I’m assuming based on the demon attacks at Mt. Kumotori that they, Muzan, and the Ubuyashiki clan are already based in the Kanto (future Tokyo) region, but a lot of the early, heavy violence of this war took place in Kyoto.

Around the early 1460s, twins are born to the Tsugikuni Clan. Their father, worried about succession disputes, wants to have the second-born twin with a flame birthmark killed (in order to avoid some tragedy that may strike their clan before they are the age of 2), but their normally very quiet mother Akeno puts a stop to that. She names that baby Yoriichi so that he may value relationships, their father names the older one Michikatsu to value victory.

The boys are raised in separate conditions, the illness on Akeno's left side slowly progresses. Michikatsu feels bad for Yoriichi and brings him presents, including a handmade flute that doesn't work well. For years Yoriichi is quiet so as not to trouble his father, so he is assumed deaf. Akeno gives him the earrings when he is seven and prays to a sun god to open his ears, at which point he says his first words, informing her that he can hear. Michikatsu is beat by his father for going to play with Yoriichi, which Michikatsu insists he doesn’t mind, but this leads to severe arguments between their parents.

Still the age of 7, Yoriichi has been watching Michikatsu's sword lessons and is allowed a shot at one of their father's retainers, whom Yoriichi very swiftly defeats. Yoriichi has little interest in swordsmanship but because Michikatsu asked, he explains how he sees the see-through world. Michikatsu's jealously begins.

Because the retainer was so impressed, Yoriichi and Michikatsu's roles change completely, Michikatsu is then the one fated to be sent to a temple at the age of 10 to follow a monk's path. When they are 8 (1470, give or take), Akeno dies at the age of 24, Yoriichi says farewell to Michikatsu, and says he's going to the temple.

Their father loved Akeno very much and he becomes distraught, for he never knew of her illness. As it was her wish to have the boys raised as equals, he tries to amend his ways and goes to the temple to try to bring Yoriichi back, but Yoriichi is not there. (To Michikatsu, this looks like their father is desperate to bring back the more powerful heir.)

Instead of entering the temple, Yoriichi runs a very far distance and encounters an orphan named Uta. They soon become traveling companions, and it's thanks to Uta that Yoriichi learns his ability to see the see-through world is not normal.

10 years later, (roughly 1480, Yoriichi is age 18), Yoriichi and Uta wed and settle on Mt. Kumotori.

By or around this time, Michikatsu is also wed. Their father dies shortly afterward at age 35. Michikatsu goes on to have 2 children.

When Uta is soon to give birth, she is killed by a demon and when Yoriichi finds her, he stays by her corpse for about 10 days. He is found by a Rengoku ancestor, who invite him to join the Demon Slayer Corp. (By the Taisho period, blue spider lilies grow at the spot where Uta was buried. He never falls in love again.)

Yoriichi begins teaching Breath techniques to other Corp members, their demon fighting abilities rapidly get stronger. He gets along very well with the Pillars, who improve their swordsmanship rapidly. They cannot quite manage Sun Breathing, but make the five basic off-shoots: Rock, Water, Wind, Thunder, and Flame. Rengoku keeps many records of this time which are handed down throughout his family.

Yoriichi rescues Michikatsu from a demon. Michikatsu is so taken by Yoriichi's Sun Breathing that he abandons his family to enter the Corp and dedicate himself to learning that technique. He does not pick it up, but develops Moon Breathing. He attains a mark like Yoriichi's, and many other slayers have attained marks as well. Michikatsu is concerned about being the best and passing on his legacy, Yoriichi still doesn't care about these things.

It's very likely that Tamayo is a demon by this time.

Muzan lays low a while, but Michikatsu brings him the head of Oyakata-sama (it is unclear from Gotouge’s notes whether this was immediately upon his becoming a demon, or if it was a few years later and this is the head of the child who oversaw Yoriichi being exiled). The Corp henceforth enacts much stricter secrecy, and this is also around the time Kakushi are organized. 

The young Kamado newlyweds, Sumiyoshi and Suyako, come across Yoriichi's empty former home on Mt. Kumotori (early 1480′s-ish now). It’s a little run down, but they tend to rescue a lot of people who try to pay them back later. As they refuse the money, the people insist on fixing up the house for them. (More specifically, they rescued a Daimyo’s wife and her son who went into hiding in the mountains when they were under attack in a succession dispute.)

The young Kamado couple (including a very pregnant Suyako) is attacked by a demon, but Yoriichi, who happened to be passing through and wanting to stop by the place he lived with Uta, rescues them. Yoriichi is also the one who fetches a midwife (extremely quickly) for Suyako to give birth to Sumire. Shortly after Sumire is born the following day (in early spring), Sumiyoshi already insists that he’ll tell future generations about Yoriichi, but Yoriichi sternly tells Sumiyoshi that he hasn’t been able to save anyone, and not to see him as any kind of special person, and disappears. ***THIS MAY TAKE PLACE LATER.***

Those with marks begin to die off by the age of 25 (according to ancient practices for counting age, this may have put them around age 23 or 24 as we think of it today. This would also have made Yoriichi around age 6 when he beat the retainer and left home). Michikatsu is distraught, and Muzan approaches him, declaring that he is curious about what will happen if he makes a demon out of a Breath user, and giving him the choice to live on forever or die early because of his mark. Michikatsu choses to become a demon, and he maintains a loyal and open relationship under Muzan ever since. This is likely still around mid-1480s, or roughly two years after Yoriichi saves the Kamado family (if this indeed happened in advance).

Shortly after that, Yoriichi encounters Muzan, Muzan declares he no longer has any interest in Breath users (after all, he didn’t master the sun, dang it). Yoriichi feels he was born to defeat this man, delivers a stunning display of Sun Breathing, but the little pieces of Muzan that get away altogether form roughly the size of a head. Tamayo is freed from Muzan's curse and tells Yoriichi as much as she can about Muzan, including that he probably won’t appear again in Yoriichi’s life. Yoriichi lets her go.

Yoriichi is then informed by Corp members (including Rengoku) that Michikatsu has become a demon.

This, in addition to Yoriichi failing to kill Muzan (give him a break, guys) and letting Tamayo go, makes some Corp members demand Yoriichi's suicide to atone, but the 6-year-old Oyakata-sama (whose father is still alive, but likely incapacitated) puts a stop to this. Yoriichi is exiled from the Corp and told to kill his brother. Some members of the Corp (in particular, Rengoku) stay in touch with Yoriichi with Oyakata-sama's tacit permission.

After being kicked out of the Corp, Yoriichi visits Sumiyoshi one fall, wanting to tell someone about his life. After sharing his story, he receives flowers from Sumire, and at Suyako's request, he performs Sun Breathing. Sumiyoshi memorizes it by watching, and promises to pass it down. Yoriichi leaves him with the earrings his mother Akeno gave him, and keeps the toy flute from Michikatsu and a scrap of Uta's kimono.

***It’s also possible Yoriichi’s first visit back to Mt. Kumotori was after explusion from the Corp, and it was after two years of being out on his own that he sought out Sumiyoshi again.***

In 1545-ish, Yoriichi is over 80 years old and finally finds Michikatsu/Kokushibo. Yoriichi barely fails to kill him and Breaths his last. Kokushibo cut the flute in half when cutting Yoriichi's standing corpse, but keeps the pieces with him.

After Yoriichi’s death, Muzan goes on the offense again, eliminating anyone with knowledge of Yoriichi’s Sun Breathing techniques. The Corp is essentially erased for a time, and thereafter, they no longer find themselves as strong as they were in Yoriichi’s time. According the Rengoku records, this is because there was never any teacher as good as Yoriichi after that.

Over two hundred years pass of Muzan trying to find the blue spider lilies or create a demon that can master the sun, and swordsman polishing their Breathing techniques as they slay demons. By this time we can assume most of Muzan's activity is based around the Kanto area in the bustling Edo period. (Fun aside, lots of popular kabuki plays would be developed with themes of demon slayers.  Also, based on his tastes and fashion choices, Muzan likes to be among the affluent and influential people of society.)

Around the later decades of the Edo period, Muzan gets the idea to make the Twelve Moon Demons with a large amount of his blood. Hantengu might had been one of these first experiments, and Akaza, meh, I'm putting his formation any time between 1785 and 1800, put that’s really loose.

Douma's formation was after this (and he probably got busy eating lots and lots and lots of nutritious humans right away) and Gyutaro's still later. All of the Upper Moons were in place by no later than 1802, as they have not been called to the Infinity Fortress all together in 113 years. 

My assumption is that once Muzan got the idea, he went around and made the Upper Moons in a very short period of time, and Kokushibo likely already had a lot of Muzan's blood in his "Maybe a Breath user will master the sun" experiment. There isn’t much indication if the Lower Moons were also formed around this time, or if they came later on a second whim.

The following hundred years is full of a cycle of Pillars and the Twelve Moons pit against each other while the common riffraff fight the common riffraff. While the Pillars kill Lower Moons as a rite of passage and they are constantly changed out as openings occur, the unchanged Upper Moons routinely kill and eat Pillars. Even at the bottom rung, Daki has eaten 7 and Gyutaro has eaten 15. For each of those Pillars, at least one Lower Moon or fifty demons has died. 

As a point of comparison, the Hand Demon has been a demon for roughly the same amount of time, or a few years longer (he was locked away on Mt. Fujikasane around 1868). Although not granted any special amount of Muzan’s blood like the Lower Moons, it’s nursed a grudge and eaten 50 children (13 of which were Urokodaki’s), surviving and growing much, much powerful than most of the demons on the mountain who had only eaten 2 or 3 humans. On that note, former Lower Moon Kyogai seemed to find it difficult to consume any more humans, and wanted to consume Marechi (rare blood) to achieve the equivalent of eating 50 humans. While Akaza is allowed to be picky and focus on training, I have to wonder if it is generally a difficult part of many demons’ existence to have to consume human flesh. 

But I digress.

You know who doesn’t care about that? Muzan. 

If we take 1915 as the year Tanjiro’s Final Selection takes place and assumed modern age counting methods as opposed to the standard used until Meiji (which was still often used in Taisho), then Ubuyashiki Kagaya was born around 1892-ish. His father couldn’t take the sorrow of being in that position, so when he committed suicide at the age of 19, Kagaya assumed the role of the 97th generation Oyakata-sama at age 4 (his other siblings, all brothers, had died). He very soon married Himorogi Amane when he was age 13 and she was age 17. While this was her own volition, the Ubuyashiki family has long since married daughters of family closely associated with shrines as any means of trying to use this spiritual influence to lengthen the lives of their offspring. (We may assume Amane served the role of a miko, and she continues to perform daily spiritual ablution to pray for her family’s safety). Of the current Pillars, Kagaya first met Himejima in 1906 at the age of 14. The quintuplets, including Kagaya’s heir Kiriya, would had been born around 1907. 

It’s when he’s settled into a husband and (probably step-)father role that he is discovered by a member of the Demon Slayer Corp in 1915, possibly for the first time in roughly four centuries. He makes a clean getaway, but not without those hanafuda earrings freaking him out first. 

Muzan is busy being a Tokyo business man (among other things) with interests in foreign language and new contraptions. He is still motivated to discovered all he can about the blue spider lily, which is why he focuses his demons around the Tokyo area. In 1913 he takes a stroll to Mt. Kumotori and snacks on a family out there, tries making one of them into a demon for the heck of it (maybe or maybe not knowing anything about the Kamado lineage), assumes it didn’t work and she died so he forgets about her (giving Nezuko an opportunity to break free of his curse). He finds no blue spider lilies and goes back to Tokyo. 

Wanting to get close to business partners, he identifies a high society woman named Rei, kills her husband, and swoops in to be her new lover. At other times, he takes the form of some other power person when it’s convenient, or when he’s juggling multiple identities, like an adopted boy with access to medicinal research or a performer with who can boss humans around to search out the flowers in daytime, he may sometimes leave a piece of his flesh behind to assume his form when he’s busy elsewhere.

And the rest is basically as we see in canon. 

Of the Lower Moons, the former Lower Moon 2, Hairou, was a Shinsengumi member, and therefore became a demon sometime between 1863 and 1869. Than means he had been a demon roughly fifty years or less before Rengoku Kyojuro defeated him and became a Pillar. 

[lumosinlove]

Sweater Weather

WARNING: struggles with homophobia and past abuse.

part xv

Remus had his head in Lily’s lap, the TV on a commercial break from the All-Stars game, when there was a knock at the door. Remus’ head ached, but he raised it anyway at the delusional thought that it might be Sirius, despite knowing exactly where he was. He remembered a similar knock, one that had actually revealed Sirius, who had fallen straight into his arms. And Remus had been there for him.

“Do you want me to get it?” Lily asked gently, her hands in Remus’ hair.

“I will,” Remus sighed, and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry that’s probably not a comfortable position for you and the baby.”

James appeared from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “Do you want me to get it?”

“I’ll do it,” Remus smiled a little, standing. “Thanks for getting the dishes, Pots, really.”

“No problem,” James shrugged.

Another knock sounded and Remus called out that he was coming.

“Probably just one of those salespeople,” Remus sighed as he turned the lock. “Someone always falls for it and lets them in—”

Remus’ words died in his mouth in surprise.

Finn sent him a hesitant smile from the other side of the door, Leo mirroring it.

“Sup, Loops,” Finn said.

“I…Hi, boys.”

James poked his head around Remus to see.

“Cubs?” James questioned.

“Pots?” Leo said.

“And Lily!” Lily called from the living room.

Remus stared at them. “What are you doing here? Are you…”

And Remus realized. How could he have forgotten? Logan.

He didn’t know what was going on with these three, but maybe he was about to find out.

Finn held up a bag. “We brought tacos.”

“You just missed it, I made dinner,” James said.

“Oh,” Finn lowered the bag slowly. “Well…phew.”

James scoffed. “Thankless little rookie babies.”

“I’m not a rookie,” Finn pointed out. “More tacos for us.”

“Still.”

Remus blinked back to life. “Jeez, sorry, come in, guys.”

Finn walked past him only to receive a slug on the arm from James, and Leo put his hand on Remus’ shoulder as they followed James and Finn back into the living room.

“How are you?”

Remus looked up at him with a shaky smile and raised a shoulder. Leo nodded, understanding.

“We haven’t talked,” Remus found himself saying, throat closing a little at just the words. “I don’t really—Things are really just…busy right now.”

“I’m so sorry, Loops,” Leo said quietly.

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Finn said as he unpacked the take-out containers.

Lily spread her hands. “Thank you, O’Hara.”

“I’m not,” Remus said. “I didn’t expect smooth sailing, alright? Look, it’s…” Remus sat down. “It’s more complicated than that. Is there a point where I’m going to stop cutting him slack? Of course. But I need you guys to trust that I know when that point is. That point isn’t now, when he got brutally outed, which he was terrified of, and then had to go to one of the most public events in hockey in the same fucking breath.”

Remus stared around at them all. Finn was still holding the same take-out box.

“Okay?” Remus said.

“You got outed, too,” Leo said quietly.

“Yes,” Remus said over an exhale. “But I was ready. Not the way I would have chose, but I was. That’s the difference.”

The room got quiet again. Remus glanced at the television, but a commercial was still playing.

So,” Finn began slowly. “Is this a good time to say that me and Leo—”

Lily gasped, clapping her hands to her chest. “I knew it. Wait—”

“…are dating Logan?”

Lily’s gasp turned to one of surprise, slow and drawn out. She put her hand on her belly, eyes wide as she looked between them.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Yes.”

James put his towel on his head, pulling at it by his ears. “The cubs?”

Finn gave James a confused look. “Yes? What are you doing?”

“How did that happen?”

“Lots of misunderstanding,” Leo sighed. “And time.”

“Eight years in some cases,” Finn added.

Lily cooed. “Since college, aw, babies. Nut, are you wearing Logan’s hat? I’m going to cry. I’m pregnant so I’m allowed to cry at this.”

Everything Remus wanted to say felt lodged in his chest. He blinked and he saw Sirius’ haunted expression.

“Re?” Leo said hesitantly.

Remus snapped his head up. “Hm?”

“I know this is probably the last thing you’d want to hear,” Leo continued with a glance at Finn. Through the glass coffee table, Remus saw Finn put a hand on Leo’s thigh. “But we really have you to thank. Logan was sort of our missing link, you know? He was…” Scared, Remus knew Leo was about to say. Just like Sirius. But he shifted at the last second. “You really got through to him.”

What Remus couldn’t do for Sirius.

Remus smiled at them, knowing it was probably shadowed with everything bouncing around in his head and chest right now.

“I’m so happy you guys worked it out,” he said, and it was true. “Really, that’s…”

Sirius turning away, disappearing.

“That’s amazing.”

Sirius, the morning after.

Who I love has nothing to—

“Sorry,” Finn said. “Maybe that was…”

“No,” Remus said. “No, I’m glad you told us. I’m glad you’re comfortable, of course I am. I don’t want any of this making you feel like you can’t be yourself.”

“I think it did the opposite, Re,” Lily said gently.

Remus nodded. “Exactly.”

There was another knock on the door. Remus turned around.

“Um,” he said. “I’ll get it? Again, I guess?”

“What’s up, Fruit-loop,” Natalie said when Remus opened the door. Her blonde hair was pulled into a high, messy bun and she was wearing pajamas. “I brought face masks.”

“I brought alcohol,” Kasey said from behind her. He held up a bag. “And candy.”

Remus stared. “I…”

“We brought tacos!” Finn yelled from the living room.

Natalie clicked her tongue, smiling. “I knew I liked that red-head.”

“Sup, Nat,” Remus heard Finn say as he and Kasey watched Natalie walk into the living room from the door.

“You are a walking freckle, O’Hara, but you brought tacos, so it’s okay.”

Finn snorted, and Remus turned back to meet Kasey’s dark eyes.

“Hey, Bliz,” Remus said softly. “Uh, thanks for bringing—”

“He was selfish,” Kasey interrupted him. “And you’re allowed to think that and love him at the same time.”

Remus almost laughed. It seemed that everyone knew Remus loved Sirius except Sirius. Kasey’s words hit like stone, but they were soothing, too. The ache of pressing on a paper cut.

Kasey smiled a little, just a closed upturn of his lips.

“Come on,” he said, and nudged Remus inside the door, closing it behind him. “I make mean cocktails.”

Walking back into the living room, Remus stared around at them all. They were spread out, Kasey in the kitchen unloading what seemed like ten bottles, Natalie and Lily with their arms around each other on the couch. James and Finn seemed to be seeing who could build the biggest taco, Finn leaning back into Leo’s chest and feeding him chips.

Natalie pointed between them. “When?”

“A while,” Finn said. “Logan, too.”

Natalie’s smile was approving. “Hot.”

Leo pressed his finger over his lips, and Natalie pretended to zip her mouth closed.

Remus let out a breath. He had thought he would want to be alone, but this felt—better. The chatter, the laughter…it distracted him. Sirius wasn’t his entire world, no matter how big a part of it he occupied. Remus liked being reminded of that.

He took his place back on Lily’s other side and leaned into her.

“And welcome back to all our viewers,” the television said. “To our 2020 All-Star Weekend, where you can see your favorites present their best skills, and dream lines compete against each other.”

Remus sucked in a breath.

“You gonna be okay?” Lily said quietly. “Watching this?”

“Yes,” Remus said firmly. He wanted to see Sirius’ face.

It was true, Remus did have a point when he would stop cutting Sirius slack.

He would wait, but not forever. And not for the wrong reasons.

He had told Sirius that himself.

“Red carpet first, right?” Finn asked through a mouthful of chips.

“Yep,” Leo said.

“Okay,” James said, staring at Finn and Leo. “I love this. Where would Logan be sitting right now? Like, does it get crowded?”

“Imagine if you had two Lilys, James,” Finn said with a raised eyebrow.

James blinked for a moment, then flushed behind his glasses. “Fuck.”

Finn grinned. “Yeah.”

James took another bite of taco and chewed slowly. “That’s so much love.”

“Yeah,” Leo said softly, and pressed his cheek to the top of Finn’s head.

“What we’ll be doing tonight is welcoming all of our players, who were voted in by the fans, of course,” said the announcer. “And there is our nice red carpet. We’ll see who arrives first shortly, I’m sure.”

“I am so excited to see Crosby,” Lily sighed. “That man’s butt, my god.”

James made a disgruntled sound.

“Love you, Potter,” Lily smiled.

“It is a legendary ass,” Kasey said.

“Me and Kase rate asses every year,” Natalie said. “I think Crosby won.”

“He wins every year,” Kasey said. “Deservingly so.”

“That’s true.”

They watched the Stars arrive, then the Bruins. Zibanejad  and Panarin came from the Rangers.

Sirius and Logan were one of the last team members to show up and, ironically, they did so at the same time as the Snakes.

“Oh, Jesus fuck,” Finn breathed. They had finished their tacos and Finn was still sitting against Leo’s chest while Leo leant back against the couch, their hands laced on Finn’s stomach.

Remus watched, holding his breath, as Sirius and Logan got out of the car.

“Our boys,” Kasey said. “And…”

From just beside them, Snape and Regulus emerged, straightening their suit.

James and Finn hissed loudly.

“The snakes,” Leo finished.

Remus only half heard them, too focused on the camera flashing to a close up of Sirius’ face. His heart positively yearned.

Sirius looked exhausted. His eyes were a dull gray, hair curling agonizingly soft over his forehead. He was wearing a black suit, lapels velvet.

“Sirius Black with the fashion statement,” one of the announcers laughed. Remus couldn’t even tell them apart. “I guess we should expect that now.”

“Oh, fuck you!” Natalie yelled. “Fuck you, you stereotyping ass-hat.”

It rolled Remus’ stomach, but not as much as Sirius’ expression when he saw his brother and Snape. It was only on the screen for a second, his clenched jaw and unsteady eyes, before it switched to Logan.

“Oh, baby,” Finn sighed. “Look at that glare.”

It was true. Logan’s stare, aimed at Snape, was menacing.

“And there’s the League’s oldest and most famous rivalry right there,” the commentators said with a laugh. “Arriving at the same time. And, of course, Sirius Black who, as you all might know, has made a bit of a splash in the news recently when photos of him kissing another man were leaked to the media and turned out a major Twitter trend. That man is Remus Lupin.”

Remus’ stomach clenched. He had known they might bring him up, but he didn’t really think—

“Now, what do we know about Remus Lupin?” the announcer continued. “Not much. He’s on the Lions training staff, working, shall we say, closely with the players. And, well, the man was one heck of a hockey player himself. Let us play you the tapes we dredged up from Lupin’s college days at the University of Wisconsin.”

“What the hell,” Remus breathed, tucking his knees to his chest and hugging them. He felt Lily glance at him.

The screen faded away from the carpet and suddenly Remus was staring at an old memory. The footage was a little grainy, but he saw himself—could remember the feeling of himself—sprinting up the ice, skates cutting in. He took one player down, another, and scored. The tape cut and he won a Face-off, knocking it back to—

“Is that Greyback?” Finn leaned forward. “Fenrir Greyback?”

Remus swallowed. “Yes.”

“You played with—”

The announcers came back into view, grinning at each other.

“Pretty great. Unfortunately, Lupin was injured just before his draft eligibility, but, rumor has it, he was set for first. Would you look at that, Rob?”

“I know, John. Well, looks like he found another way to get some fame, eh?”

The two laughed. The living room was dead silent.

“Up next, we’ll get to talk to some of the stars. We’ll be right back after this break.”

“Excuse me,” Remus managed.

“Remus,” James called.

But Remus was already up, walking quickly out of the living room and into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Remus squeezed his eyes shut, then open. He fumbled for his phone, sinking down to the floor against the door with his knees against his chest. His thumb missed the call button twice, but finally the screen went dark with the call display.

It rang and rang. And rang. Remus rubbed his thumb along his neck. Of course, Sirius wouldn’t answer. Look what he was in the middle of.

“Hey.”

Remus closed his eyes.

“You’ve reached the Sirius Black,” James’ voice said on Sirius’ voicemail. “I can’t come to the phone because either girls are proposing marriage, or I’m scorning a hat trick. Maybe both! Leave a message!”

The beep was piercing, for the thirty-seventh time. He’d never left a message before.

“Sirius,” Remus whispered into the speaker. He pressed his forehead to his knees. “I know you’re—busy and I’m not going to beg you to talk to me, I…”

Remus took a breath.

“Just re-watch your arrival. I’m not going to beg, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for you to see. See if you really care what those sort of people think about you.”

Remus hung up.

“Remus?”

It was Leo’s voice through the door.

Remus let out a steadying breath, scrubbing his face before standing and opening the door.

“Sorry,” Remus said. “I’m good, I just—I haven’t seen those in a long time, and then the two guys… I just needed a second.”

Leo had his hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt, Logan’s hat backwards on his head, his blond hair fluffing out over the adjustment strap.

Leo nodded. “Do you want us all to clear out?”

Remus shook his head. “No.” He looked to the living room where the soft faces of his friends were peering at him. “No, I really don’t. C’mon let’s watch. I—Crosby does have a good ass and, you know…at least I can say that out loud now.”

Kasey laughed, pumping his fist in the air.

Remus settled himself on the couch again as they waited for the commercials to end.

“We’re cuddling too much,” Remus heard Finn whisper to Leo.

“No,” Remus said, hands out. “Please cuddle. Really, that’s not what’s wrong, I’m so happy for you guys.”

“It’s so cute,” James mumbled. “Lily, can we cuddle?”

“No, I’m cuddling Remus. We’ll cuddle later, baby.”

James nodded. “Kasey?”

Kasey raised an eyebrow from his chair. “You want to sit in this chair with me?”

James shrugged. “You can come on the floor.”

“I am a net minder,” Kasey said. “We do not sit on the floor.”

Natalie laughed, peeling a face mask out of its package. “Snob.”

Kasey winked at her.

Remus let out a breath, and smiled at Lily when she smiled at him. Things would happen, one way or another.

The ball was in Sirius’ court, the puck in his zone.

~

Sirius eyed the photographers and interviewers. His stomach churned. He had barely said two words to Logan, who had basically gotten right off the plane, into his suit, and into the car with Sirius, Minnie, and Logan’s agent, Clyde. They’d bumped fist, but the most Sirius had received from Logan was a hello and a serious of unreadable looks. It was those looks that disquieted Sirius more than the reporters. If Logan hated him—

“Hey,” Logan said as they were ushered forward onto the red carpet. Sirius was tense with Snape and his brother at their backs.

He looked at Logan.

“We’re talking later, okay? If we get split up, text me when you’re back at the hotel.”

Sirius blinked. It was—harsh for Logan. It was the way he spoke on the ice.

“I—okay. Yeah, let’s talk.”

Dread pooled in Sirius’ gut. But Logan wouldn’t want to talk if he didn’t like who Sirius was anymore, right?

Logan clapped him on the shoulder. “I have your back, Cap,” he said, and then he was pulled away to do his own run of interviews before Sirius could respond. Minnie approached him while Sirius was still standing there, mouth open, expression still changing.

“Right,” she sighed. “Well, here we are.”

Sirius shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m sorry, Minnie. I’m such a headache.”

“Stop that nonsense, Sirius,” Minnie said, patting his arm. “You are the most real person I have ever met. Snapping at stupid questions instead of being a drone. It was unfair how the world thanked you for it, but I believe in you. You have a game plan, I’m assuming, although you refuse to tell me anything about it?”

Sirius sighed. “Sirius Black being gay is news. Sirius Black telling the media to go fuck themselves isn’t.”

“Excuse me,” an aid came up to them, headset on. “We’re ready for you on the carpet now.

“Thank you,” Sirius said, and he had just started forward when Minnie lay a gentle hand on his chest.

She pressed her lips together. “You remember what Alice said. This could be important to a lot of people. That includes yourself, my boy.”

Sirius swallowed hard. He nodded, quiet, and then followed the aid into the camera fray.

~

“Logan Tremblay, holding his fucking own,” Kasey slow clapped.

“You mean holding his fucking tongue,” Natalie said. “That’s kid’s a fire cracker.”

Finn, gestured to the television with his ice cream. “He was the perfect medium between civil and simmer. And now I can tell you all that I bought him that suit when we were eighteen. Well, I was eighteen. He was seventeen.”

“Does Tremz know we all know?” James questioned.

Leo nodded. “His plan was just to start making out in the locker room. I thought we should go for more of a verbal approach first.”

“I was okay with either,” Finn added, then looked at Remus. “I’m sorry I’m eating all your ice cream.”

Remus waved him off, heart still ringing with Logan’s words to the third interview he had.

You guys wouldn’t care if he had a girlfriend, Logan had said with a shrug. Why are you asking me that question with such a crazy look on your face? And then, finally. I support my Captain.

Sirius had been too far away to hear. He hoped Minnie played it for him later.

“But if that was one of Logan’s first interviews, that means…” Lily trailed off.

Sirius.

“I hope he knows what’s coming,” he said instead. By the looks of him, shoulders hunched, eyes guarded, he did.

All Remus wanted was for Sirius to talk to him about it. It was like a single, hooked claw dragging its way through him.

The screen flipped to Sirius, his gray eyes focused on the reporter’s grin. His own smile was small. The reporter threw him softball after softball, and Sirius answered them shortly. Remus waited, waited for it to happen, for the interview to take the turn they all expected.

But the reporter held out his hand. “Great to have you in the League, my friend. Have a great weekend, eh?”

Sirius stared at the hand, the camera zooming in a little.

“Ah, yes,” Sirius said haltingly, and took his hand. “Thank you.”

Remus sat forward.

“Well, that was okay,” Leo said, sounding out of breath.

“Yeah…” Remus said. He wasn’t ready to believe it was over yet, though.

“So, Sirius,” another reporter said. “You’ve been in the news lately, huh?”

“Oh, here we fucking go, eh?” Kasey gestured angrily at the screen.

“I’m in the news a lot,” Sirius said blankly. “More than I’d like.”

She laughed. “But first openly gay NHL player. That’s got to feel good?”

Sirius stared at her.

“He wasn’t,” Remus sat back again, cheeks hot as he stared at the microphone that was being held closer and closer to Sirius’ mouth. “You fucking lunatic, what is open about this to you?”

“Preach, Loops,” Natalie said, leaning over to pat his knee.

“I’m looking forward to a good weekend,” Sirius said. “Playing some good hockey.”

“I—”

But Sirius was already walking away, in fact, walking past all the cameras. The television camera caught some reporters staring at Minnie with alarmed eyes, angry at missing their interview with Sirius Black.

They could just see a glimpse of Minnie’s head following Sirius as the camera tracked his back all the way into the building.

Commercials filled the room.

“Wowza,” Finn said. “Okay.”

“I think it’s good he didn’t stick around for those guys,” Leo said. “I mean, he shouldn’t be made to talk about it like that, you know?”

“Yeah, maybe he should talk to me first,” Remus grumbled and took a long sip of his cocktail.

“Yes, Lupin,” Natalie clapped. “Bitch all you want, we know we all love him. It’s all good.”

Remus did want that, at least a little. It even made him smile, Natalie’s words. But most of him was longing for Sirius, for his phone to ring. He kept it close, even as the screen played another two hours of Sirius and all the other All-Stars signing puck after puck, doing stupid game after stupid game, preparing for the skills competitions tomorrow, and the three-on-three games the day after that.

~

Sirius was exhausted. The day had been camera after camera, signature after signature. He could have fallen asleep on his feet, but Logan’s promise kept his adrenaline up. Remus’ text, too.

Thankfully, he and Logan had shared a car back to the hotel.

“Your room,” Logan said simply, and pressed the elevator button.

They were mostly quiet on their way up, and Sirius’ hands fumbled a little with the keycard as he let Logan in. His suitcase was still zipped up where the bell-boy had left it, and Logan took his jacket off, tossing it onto the bed. Sirius heard the door shut behind them, and then it was quiet.

“Là,” Logan sighed, crossing the room and then turning around to face Sirius. “Straight to it, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Sirius breathed.

“I don’t want to sound like I know more than you. Because I don’t. I really, really don’t, but, this is just something I think you should know.”

Sirius looked at Logan carefully, wondering what he meant.

“Knowing about you, knowing that you’re…” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“Gay,” Sirius said.

“Gay,” Logan finished. “Cap, it,” he looked around, but they were alone. He took a step forward. “Sirius, it did more for me than I could ever tell you.”

Sirius felt the words sink in slowly. He looked at Logan. Really looked at him. Brighter. He stood straighter. He looked more focused.

“You mean you’re…”

“I get that you think you’re the only one, that you’re alone in all of this,” Logan said. “I thought that. I felt that. It nearly crushed me. But you aren’t. I’m not alone, either. Neither of us are alone, but…but you’re on one hell of a precipice.” 

Sirius knew what he meant.

“I ran from him.”

“Yeah,” Logan said. “What the fuck, Sirius?”

“I know,” Sirius felt like the air was leaving the room. “I’m horrible.”

“You aren’t,” Logan said, and looked up at Sirius. “But, that was. That was horrible. But you must have talked, I mean, it’s been…what? Two days?”

Shame burned Sirius through and through. “No,” he choked out. “We haven’t. He’s—he’s waiting for me—”

The words hurt. Remus seemed always to be waiting for Sirius, and Sirius always asking Remus to wait. It had seemed romantic, under the veil of Christmas and gifts. It didn’t feel that way now. Sirius felt selfish and cruel. He was.

“I left—” Logan reached up, as if to take off his hat that wasn’t there, and then smoothed his unruly hair instead. “I left Finn so many times.”

Sirius jerked his head up. Finn.

“And I was so scared and guilty because of that, that I left Leo, too.”

“Leo?” Sirius said, confused. “You…wait, I don’t—”

“Both of them,” Logan said simply. “Yeah, it’s…” despite everything, Logan smiled. “It’s…yeah. It’s us.”

Three, Sirius thought. On his own team, and he—he had thought—

“How could you do that?” Logan said softly. “How could you do that to him?”

Sirius stared at Logan, throat closed. He swallowed over the bile.

A mistake. He had made a mistake, of course he had made a mistake, he always made—

“Cap, I saw you,” Logan stepped forward. “I saw you every day and I didn’t know why, but you were happy. You were so fucking happy and I thought maybe you were just…I don’t know. I was jealous, to be honest,” Logan let out a short laugh. “I wanted to know how you did it. And now I see because I did it. I found my…” Logan took a breath, as if this was the first time he was saying it aloud. “I found my two.”

I lost my one, Sirius thought.

“You’re like my brother,” Logan said. “And, growing up with three sisters, I’ve always wanted a brother. I’ve looked up to you since I was, what, in high school? And you deserve that, Cap. You’re good, and you’re kind, and you’re a hell of a hockey player.” Logan shook his head. “But fuck what you did to Remus.”

“I don’t know what to say!” Sirius shouted, and Logan blinked at the suddenness. It had burst out of Sirius, the words hiding until he couldn’t, he couldn’t—

Sirius sat on the end of his bed. He was exhausted, and Logan hated him, and—

The bed dipped beside him and Logan’s arm wrapped around his shoulder. The sudden warmth at his side made Sirius close his eyes, dropping his head.

“Cap,” Logan’s voice was soft. “Merde, this is coming for someone who didn’t say a word about how they felt to the boy the loved for eight fucking years, but, yes, you do know what to say. I always knew what to say, I just couldn’t.”

“I can’t,” Sirius said.

“Sirius, fucking think for yourself,” Logan said, taking hold of Sirius’ shoulders and turning him to the side to face each other. “I said I couldn’t, that doesn’t mean you can’t. We can now. Who the fuck knows what your fucking family said to you all your life, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. All the shitty things Twitter said are wrong—everyone is allowed to be wrong but what the fuck are you doing if you can’t fix things?”

Logan was breathing hard by the end. He swallowed over a dry throat and Sirius watched, stunned. Logan shook his head, eyes bright.

“I saw what happened to you and I got angry and scared. You saw what happened to you and you got scared. You need to get angry. Drop the fucking gloves a little, Black, lose your temper. I’ve seen it before. It’s like a dead point streak mid-season. You fucking accept that you can’t score anymore? No.”

I don’t know how many times you’ve heard that you aren’t good enough. But I’m going to make you forget each one.

“I’m fucking mad at you,” Logan said. “But it’s because I love you. Not because you’re bad or because you’re hopeless, or because you made a mistake. You aren’t a bad person. And you’re allowed to make mistakes.”

Do not make any mistakes, his mother had said.

Logan let go of him, then, and the sat there shoulder to shoulder, quiet. Sirius felt—lighter. He’d never felt that after being yelled at before.

“Tremz,” he began shakily, then cleared his scratchy throat. “I’m…I’m proud of you, you know? If that means anything right now.”

Logan’s voice was thick, too. “Of course it does.”

“You’re right,” Sirius whispered. “You’re right, I…I made a horrible mistake. I had never been so terrified in my life. If I lost the team, I—I don’t know what…” Sirius pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. “You all are the only family I ever…”

Logan was quiet for a moment, and then his hand replaced itself on Sirius’ back.

“It’s not just about Remus, huh?”

Sirius let out a sob, let it tear through him, and shook his head.

“Cap,” Logan hushed, and Sirius felt him press his forehead to Sirius’ temple, like they did after a goal sometimes, in a scrimmage, only there was no helmet. No hockey. This was his friend. “You’re our Captain. We gave you that, and we keep you there. We want you there, you’re our leader. You’re our friend.”

“Have you talked to the boys?” Sirius wiped at his eyes, looking at Logan. “Have they said anything?”

“No one’s texted you because Leo thought we should all let you tell us in the way you wanted to,” Logan said. “Not because no one supports you. To be honest, we didn’t think you’d go radio silent for this long when we made that decision, but… And after you didn’t let James in…”

“I have a lot of people to talk to, huh?”

Logan smiled. “Not right now. Right now, you have one person to talk to.”

Sirius smiled, too. “Yeah.”

Fuck, he hadn’t looked at his phone all day.

Logan got up and stretched with a groan. “That media run was hell. Fuck this weekend. If I so much as pull a muscle tomorrow I’m going to murder someone.”

“That’s what we all say,” Sirius stood too. “Tremzy.”

Logan looked up at him.

“I’m really happy for you. You and Finn…and Leo,” Sirius laughed a little. “How did that work out?”

“So much drama,” Logan rolled his eyes. “And moping. And, what’s the word, destin?”

“Fate,” Sirius said.

“Right, fate,” Logan smiled. “See? Not so different from you.”

“Guess not, no.”

“I’m going to call my boys,” Logan said, and held up his phone, shaking it at Sirius. “You call yours.”

Sirius’ heart lurched with guilt, but he nodded. “I will. Really, though, I…I don’t know what I’d be doing now if you weren’t here.”

“Spiraling, like you did after that failed cup run?”

Sirius laughed. “Yes.”

Logan swung his jacket over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow, Cap. I’ll be ready to defend your honor.”

“No, you aren’t allowed to fight because of this.”

“D’accord, d’accord,” Logan waved him off and shut the door.

Sirius stood there, feeling strangely light, given everything. He blinked after Logan for a moment, and vowed to call James, too, who had pounded on his door for hours. He felt stupid and selfish still, but he wanted to apologize. Not hide. But only after. After Remus.

Sirius took his phone from his pocket.

He had a voicemail. Remus hadn’t left a voicemail before. Sirius thought of the cold, formal text. He didn’t know if he could bare to hear that in Remus’ voice, but he clicked listen anyway.

“Sirius,” Remus’ voice came after a second, and Sirius sat down heavily.

I know you’re—busy and I’m not going to beg you to talk to me, I… Just re-watch your arrival. I’m not going to beg, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for you to see. See if you really care what those sort of people think about you.

The phone went dead and Sirius scrambled for his remote.

~

Everyone had left for the night, but the apartment still felt warm from their presence. Remus decided to make himself a bowl of ice cream, but found himself eating straight from the carton instead. Finn really had made all-gone.

He was watching the melted part pool in his spoon when his phone rang. Everything, even the air, seemed to still and cool.

Sirius.

The name flashed at him. He hadn’t dared to put a contact photo, a picture of him that Remus had taken, bare in bed, sleepy eyed and smiling—

Now, maybe he could. One day. Soon. 

Remus pushed himself up to sit on his kitchen counter. He set his ice cream down, feet swinging nervously against the cupboards, and answered the call.

“Hi,” Remus’ voice was shot.

“I didn’t have my phone,” Sirius sounded desperate. Remus’ heart broke. “No, that’s not an excuse, I…Remus—”

“For the last thirty calls, or…”

“I know,” Sirius whispered. “I know, I know, Re, oh god, what they said about you—”

“I’ve been defending you to—to everyone,” Remus’ voice was thick. “Everyone, but I don’t…I can’t…”

“I’m coming home,” Sirius said. “Fuck these games, Remus, I’m coming home.”

Remus didn’t say anything for a long moment. He could picture Sirius there, alone in his hotel room. “I don’t know what to tell you right now, I’m… It hurt, Sirius. You left. You left and then you ignored me.”

“I know I did,” Sirius whispered. “But—”

“You aren’t the only one who this happened to,” Remus said, hushed, and then, even surprising himself, let out a sudden sob. He tried to reign it back in, but he couldn’t. It burned now, hearing Sirius’ voice, being alone. It hurt more than it had. He didn’t know if he had been ignoring it, or pushing through it, or if it was just hearing Sirius know that he had been wrong.

“I know that,” Sirius said. “I do, Remus, I know that. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. The meeting. I should have taken a later flight, too, I should have talked to you. I shouldn’t have run out, that was—I’m—”

“I don’t want to do this over the phone,” Remus replied with a hitch in his words. He stirred the spoon in the melted ice cream, just for something to do, then gave up and fisted his sweatshirt by his neck. “I know I said call me, but I really—I really want it to be us together talking, okay?”

“You mean…after the games?”

Remus took a slow breath. “I’m not just going to say everything’s okay, Sirius. It fucking hurt. All of it. And I know you’re hurting, too. I hate that you’re hurting, too, but…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Sirius felt guilt like it was something crawling inside of him. “I’ll—let me wait for you now.”

Remus let out a breath, remembering the words.

“I…I understand why what happened happened,” Remus said. “I do. Of course, I understand. And all I want is for you to be okay. For us to be okay. I just need my own time, too.”

“I want that. Please, just—let me tell you one thing,” Sirius said. “Is it okay?”

“Yeah,” Remus said softly, curious. “Go for it.”

“I talked to Logan. Well—he also talked to me. Really gave it to me. I deserved it.”

“Don’t put yourself down to me right now,” Remus began, but Sirius cut him off.

“I’m not, no, I’m not,” there was a sound like Sirius sitting down on the bed. “I…I won’t explain it all to you now, but I just need you to know that things are clearer for me. I’m…I’m not alone.”

“You never were,” Remus managed.

Remus listened as Sirius’ breathing changed into cries. Remus wanted to hold him tight.

“It’s so good to hear your voice,” Remus said softly. “Be careful, okay? With everyone this weekend. Snape. Regulus.”

Your mother, Remus thought.

“Logan will be with me,” Sirius said, and then added, as if remembering, “and I’ll be with Logan.”

Remus nodded. So Logan had told him.

“Protect each other.”

Sirius nodded. “And everyone else who needs it.”

Remus sucked in a breath, and cradled the phone closer, eyes soft.

“Yeah,” Remus said. “Yeah, baby, everyone else, too.”

At the name, Sirius sounded all but torn apart. He let it out, lungs out racing his heart.

“I miss you,” he choked out. “Am I allowed to say that?”

“Yes,” Remus hushed him. “Sirius, I’m mad, yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you. Of course I want you, you’re mine. You’re my wish, okay? This happened because we’re each other’s. We can be—we can be something good that comes out of this, can’t we?”

“Oui, yes, yes,” Sirius said. “I’ll tell you everything, okay?” He sniffed, taking a moment to breathe. “It’s different, hearing these things from my friends. From you.”

“You haven’t had a lot of support, Sirius. I…I get that it’s going to take a second. And so…I’m here, okay? But I’m not here to run back to if you keep leaving me. That wasn’t good. That was…” Remus would never forget that feeling.

“I’ll be better,” Sirius said, and then sucked in a breath. “I mean…for myself. For you.”

Remus nodded, even though he knew Sirius couldn’t see him.

“I’m going to try and sleep,” Sirius said.

“I miss you,” Remus replied.

“I miss you, too,” Sirius said. “So much.”

~

Sirius stepped out of the tunnel and immediately his eyes were drawn by flashes of color near the glass. There were six teenagers standing there. Their cheeks were decked out in painted on rainbow flags, and they were wrapped in them, too, holding paper versions up to the glass with the words HERE FOR #12 on them.

All Sirius could think about was going over there and maybe crying. Instead, he picked up a few pucks to sign.

The locker room had been—intense. There was no way Sirius could have missed the way some guys had moved away from him, avoided him. But others came up and shook his hand. They didn’t say much, but Sirius didn’t really want to be congratulated. The support, even quiet, was enough to keep him on his feet and focused enough to feel like, sure, he could perform some hockey tricks today.

And Remus’ words. We’re each other’s.

“Sometimes I think hockey just isn’t colorful enough, you know?”

When the voice spoke, Sirius’ eyes found the stick that had come into his vision first. The tape wasn’t the usual white or black, but all colors, neatly wrapped and waxed off.

Sirius looked up to find Alex O’Hara grinning widely at him.

“What’s up, Lion?”

“Hi, Alex,” Sirius said faintly, as they tapped helmets.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he gestured to the tape.

Sirius, to his own surprise, let out a laugh. “Of course I don’t, I… I should have thought of it, maybe.”

“You want some?”

Sirius looked at the pucks he was holding, then back at the kids at the glass.

“Yeah,” he nodded, setting the pucks aside for a moment. “Yeah, I do.”

“Alex,” Logan stopped hard in front of them with a spray of ice. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

Alex laughed, and then leaned in close. “Oh, yeah? More than my brother?”

Logan flushed pink beneath his tan skin. Then, he grinned and punched his arm. “How long have you known?”

Alex scoffed. “Please.”

And so Sirius found himself, sitting beside Logan as they re-taped their sticks with rainbow tape, while millions of cameras and cell-phones watched.

It was terrifying. And wonderful. It was something that went along with the phrase never in a million years, in Sirius’ mind. Only, it was happening now.

“Could I get some of that maybe?”

It was Mika Zibanejad, his hair pulled back beneath his helmet, dark eyes kind and soft.

It was the flood gates.

Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang. Braden Holtby, Nate MacKinnon.

Not every player did it, not by far, but they did have to ask for another roll.

Sirius’ breathing was working against his pounding heart when he took to the ice again, throwing a puck down and watching it bounce darkly between the colors. He smiled, and looked up at the kids behind the glass again.

Silver sharpies were not in short supply, and he fired off six signatures before skating over with them balanced within his arms. They began to pound on the glass as he approached, and he nodded to them. They were hard to hear over the crowd and the announcer’s noise, but he smiled and mouthed thank you, and they seemed to understand. He flipped the pucks over the glass easily, and bumped his fisted glove to it.

They loved him for who he was.

And Logan had been right. His team would, too. The thought that they wouldn’t still chilled him, but there were two sides of the coin now.

It even made him forget about—

“Stop this,” Regulus was there, hissing at him and grabbing him by the arm as he skated back with Logan, who had wandered over to a little boy with a Tremblay sign and jersey.

Sirius stared at his brother, surprised that he’d even approached.

“What are you—” he began, but Logan cut him off.

“Back off,” Logan growled, and gave him a little push. Sirius cursed internally. He didn’t want to start a fight right now.

Regulus ignored him.

“Sirius—” Regulus said quietly. “Think about—”

“Don’t tell me to think about the family,” Sirius practically snarled. “I’m thinking about myself for once. What I want.”

“Think about what you’re doing,” Regulus said, glancing at Logan desperately, like he wanted him to leave. “This is it, if you really—”

Sirius shook his head, yanking out of his brother’s grip. “I tried to take you with me, Reg. I tried so hard. And what did you do?”

“Fuck you,” Logan spat in Regulus’ face. “You call yourself his brother? When was the last fucking time you acted like that? Oh, right, was it when you trashed talked him?”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Regulus growled. He had switched to French now.

“Rookie,” Snape said in English from the outskirts of their triad, eyes on Regulus. “Come on.”

“Daddy’s calling,” Logan snarled.“La marionnette.”

Sirius watched his brother swallow, pale eyes wide and fierce.

Puppet, Logan had said.

“Tremz,” Sirius said, and put a hand on his shoulder.

Regulus looked to Sirius, then.

“Microphone?” he asked.

Regulus was asking if he was mic’d up. Sirius shook his head, and Logan scoffed.

“Little late,” Logan said.

Regulus, once again, ignored him. “Maman est là.”

“Je l’ai deviné,” Sirius had guessed as much.

Logan was still standing between them, but he looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be now.

Regulus pushed forward one stride, and Logan’s glove pressed against his chest. Regulus glared down at him, then turned back to Sirius. He was nearly as tall as him now, but for a single moment, Regulus’ expression flickered. Sirius saw his brother again, his little brother, the boy who had snuck him a Lions hat and hugged him and told him he’d miss him more than anything, and please don’t leave me alone in this house, with them—

“Fais attention,” Regulus bit out.

Be careful.

Regulus shoved Logan with his stick and Logan cursed again, but Sirius barely heard. He watched Regulus skate away, back to Snape’s side. Sirius and Snape looked at each other, across the ice, for a brief moment.

Sirius didn’t think Regulus would ever forgive him for leaving. Especially not with Snape at his side.

Snape’s lip curled, and he turned away, over the boards.

~

“That’s my big brother!” Finn shouted.

Remus laughed, hand on his throat as he stared at the screen, at Sirius, sitting on the bench beside Logan and Alex O’Hara, Zibanejad, Panarin, Crosby, Letang, Holtby…

Sirius, camera honing in on his focused face as he scribbled the signature that Remus knew well. The camera had been showing the fans wrapped in rainbow flags off and on, and it showed them now, too, as Sirius skated over with a wide, if not a little shy, smile on his face. He sort of talked to them, mostly just nodding and bumping fists as he passed the pucks over.

The camera saw Regulus coming before Sirius did.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Finn sat up in Leo’s arms, pulling him with him. “Black brothers, Black brothers.”

“Fuck,” Remus said, and felt Lily grab his wrist nervously.

Regulus and Sirius were talking furiously at each other, at least until Logan got between them.

“I swear to god, someone’s gotta get that kid out of Slytherin,” Kasey grumbled. “He’s like the Captain was, but on steroids.”

Remus nodded slowly, eyes on Regulus’, or at least what sliver of his face the camera was able to get.

Kasey hit Remus’ couch with his fist when they showed a long shot of Snape and Sirius. They were practically staring each other down.

“Can I just,” Kasey gestured at the television. “Can I kill him? Or shave his head?”

“Fine with it,” James nodded.

Leo glanced at Kasey. “I like that that’s your next worst fate after death.”

The cameras moved on relatively quickly as the skill events began. Hardest shot, accuracy, puck handling…

“So, Cap is accuracy, and Lo’s hardest shot,” Leo said, staring at his phone as he scrolled through the website.

“I wanna see how hard Logan can shoot,” Finn mumbled, and Leo whacked him on the head. Natalie nearly cackled and gave Finn a pat on the head.

Remus couldn’t stop looking at the tape on Sirius’ stick.

“Quite a display of camaraderie, seemingly begun by Alex O’Hara, older brother of Finn O’Hara who is Black’s teammate,” one of the commentators began. He was a new voice from yesterday’s red carpet. “It’s good to see that, eh, Tom?”

Remus liked him.

“Sure is, Nate,” replied Tom. “Sure is.”

“Well, that’s more like it,” Remus sighed.

No matter how fun it was to watch Sirius execute a perfect score as he dangled a puck between tight cones and flipped it through tiny slots, Remus itched to talk to him. He itched to see him.

He loved seeing the sticks tap for him, see other boys knock helmets with him like nothing had changed, but still. Remus wanted him home. He wanted him away from Regulus and Snape, and here in Gryffindor, or anywhere where support was strong. Remus had spent hours last night after the team had left scrolling through articles and Twitter. His mind was filled with the messages telling Sirius that he’d changed their life.

He couldn’t believe he had to sit through another entire day of this, watching Sirius play three-on-three games—possibly against Snape.

“Hey, Leo, did they announce the lines for tomorrow yet?” Remus asked. “Would you look it up for me?”

“Sure,” Leo said, looking around Finn’s head to get at his phone.

“The boys aren’t going for fastest?” Lily said disappointedly.

James snorted. “Um, I think we know Remus wins that one, Lils.”

Finn shook his head. “I’m still like, at family skate…I fucking fell over. I haven’t fallen over since, like, I don’t even know.”

Remus smiled. “Sorry about that, Harzy.”

“You really tore Kasey up, Fruit-Loop,” Natalie laughed, reaching up to push her hand through Kasey’s hair.

“Look, he’s really good, I was surprised, and I hadn’t warmed up, okay? I was surprised.”

Remus laughed. “I did have that up on you, Bliz. I’ll admit it, and give you a free pass.”

“No,” Kasey huffed. “I don’t want a free pass, I want to play again and stop your shot.”

“Fuck,” Leo breathed, and Remus stopped laughing.

“What? Is it Snape? Did they put them on the same line?”

Remus knew they liked to do that at All-Stars, put rivals on the same line. Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux were frequent victims.

Leo looked back at him, then up at the television where Regulus was taking his mark for the fasted skater loop.

“Not Snape,” Leo said. “Regulus.”

As if on cue, the announcer spoke up.

“And here’s Regulus Black getting ready to skate. We’ll be getting a real treat tomorrow, Nate. We’ll be getting to see Sirius and Regulus Black, hockey’s most famous brothers right now, play on the same line with Mathew Barzal. That should be quite some hockey.”

“Oh my god,” Remus heard someone breathe.

Quite some hockey.

Remus wondered if Sirius knew.

On everyone’s way out, Lily squeezed him in a hug. “You seem better today. Did you guys…”

Remus nodded. “We talked. It was…you know, it’s hard. It was good.”

“Yeah…”

“But I said I want to talk about it mostly face to face and so…all I can really do is wait now. I’m probably going to call him again now. See if he wants to talk about Regulus.”

Remus was absolutely going to call him again now.

“Okay,” Lily sent him a smile. “See you tomorrow for three-on-three?”

“Hang out at Lupin’s,” Finn hollered in the hallway and was immediately shushed by Leo.

“Jesus, Harzy,” Kasey groaned as he hit the button on the elevator.

Remus was in the middle of doing dishes when his phone rang. He wiped his hands quickly and picked up, nearly fumbling his phone into the sink.

“Hi,” Remus sounded breathless even to himself.

“Hey,” Sirius said. “Do you want to FaceTime?”

“Yeah,” Remus said. “Yeah, yeah, one second.”

Remus more or less ran to the couch, socks sliding on the floor, and sat down just in time for his phone to light up. Sirius’ face filled the screen. His hair was wet from a shower, and Remus didn’t know if it was the light, but the bags under his eyes looked worse than Remus had thought.

“Hi,” Remus said softly, smiling. “God, I’ve been staring at your face all day on TV but I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

Sirius smiled, rubbing one of his eyes before stretching back on the bed. “Wish I could stare at your face all day.”

“You’ll be home soon,” Remus said. “Hey, I…today was pretty amazing.”

Sirius laughed and reached out of frame for something. His hand came back swinging a roll of rainbow tape around his finger. “A fan gave me this.”

Remus grinned. “I’m so proud of you.”

Sirius looked at him for a moment, like he wasn’t sure what to say. Then, he smiled again, but it was quieter this time, less at Remus and more at himself.

“Me too. Today was—good. I mean…you probably saw Reg, but…”

Remus nodded. “Did you see your lines for tomorrow?”

Sirius shook his head. “Not yet. Why, are they up?”

Remus took a breath. “Yeah. They’re up.”

~

The All-Stars management seemed to enjoy the idea of putting Sirius and his brother together as much as possible, even going so far as moving their lockers beside each other. It felt like there was always a camera trained on the two of them, and Sirius had never been more on edge. The only good take away from this, it seemed, was that people weren’t asking him about his sexuality anymore.

“You’re welcome,” Minnie had said when Sirius had mentioned it to her in the car over to the arena that morning with Logan and Clyde.

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“I had to give them something, Sirius,” Minnie said. “They need their publicity. I hate it as much as you, but I thought this would be better.”

Sirius had to give Minnie some credit for that PR move, actually. At least with his brother, Sirius was used to dealing with the hounding.

“As Harzy would say,” Logan said from his seat, headphones on one ear and making his hair stick up. He raised his sickly-sweet coffee at her. “Bitch-ass move, Minnie.”

“Why, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Tremblay.” 

Sirius was just as thankful for Remus’ heads up about the game lines, even though he would have found out this morning anyway.

He only wished he had had one about Greyback. Sirius’ line, consisting of himself, Regulus, and Barzal, were set to face off against Greyback, Tom Wilson from the Washington Capitals, and Tony DeAngelo from the New York Rangers.

There was no fighting in All-Stars, which was a shame.

Cameras had followed him all the way into the locker room, where Regulus had cleared his throat awkwardly as he sat down beside Sirius and started dressing. Sirius felt a strong pang in his heart. They had done this with each other a million times. He hated that it felt so strange.

“Maman—”

“I don’t give a damn,” Sirius whispered lowly, using French so there were at least fewer people around them who could keep up. “And you shouldn’t either.”

Regulus laughed, and he made it look mirthful for the sake of the cameras. So, he was learning. There was no humor in his eyes.

“Do I have a choice?” he said.

“I did.”

“Yeah, well, I think we all know how you chose.”

“Regulus,” Sirius sighed.

“Drop it,” his brother bit back.

But this was the longest they had been and would be together in probably months. Maybe years, if Sirius counted his family. He didn’t want to drop it.

Sirius pulled him aside in the locker room while the cameras had to follow the stream of players leaving for the tunnel. It was a brief moment of privacy.

“I would have done anything to get you out with me,” Sirius whispered intently, and pressed his glove to his little brother’s helmet, keeping them close. “Anything. But I couldn’t help you if I was trapped there with you. Maman’s, the Snakes, either one. I had to get out. And then—”

“You don’t know what it was like,” Regulus’ voice came out shaky, and Sirius realized he had tears in his eyes. Regulus closed them quickly, head bowed so that their helmets tapped together. “You left, they lost you, and so they doubled down. I couldn’t—I couldn’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

Sirius stared at him. In some ways, this hurt more than anything that had happened in the past few days. This hurt more, his little brother, his to protect.

“Reg…” Sirius began.

“You don’t know what he’s like,” Regulus whispered, and then, like he was afraid to say the words aloud. “Snape. Malfoy.” He swallowed, and added, even quieter so that Sirius could barely hear. “Riddle.”

“Mon étoile…” Sirius said. He hadn’t said the old nickname since they were little, and Regulus jolted to look at him. Stars, the two of them. “I’m sorry. Please, let me help you.”

“They made me hate you,” Regulus said. “But I never did.”

They both looked up when the locker room was beginning to empty out. Their moment was over.

“Let’s play,” Sirius said. “Let’s play, and then let’s talk, d’accord?”

“They made me delete your number, but I memorized it,” Regulus said. “Is it the same?”

Sirius closed his eyes, then nodded. “Oui.”

“D’accord,” Regulus said, then jerked his head towards the tunnel.

Sirius tapped Regulus’ chest with his glove. “Allez.”

Sirius followed him towards the tunnel, going out last. People would play it off as a strange superstition, but Sirius knew there would be pictures of him and Regulus talking anyway. He felt different this weekend. For obvious reasons, and not.

His life had always had a path, and that path had always been set. If it changed, the breaks had been slow. A trade deal. A contract. Longing for Remus. Everything had happened with time.

Not this. He was out. He was proud. It was an earthquake, a fault slipping. Regulus needed him, he didn’t hate him, after so long believing otherwise. An aftershock.

He was half way to the tunnel when he saw her.

Another slip.

His mother stood against the wall, her too thin body all in black, hair inky. She spared a short look to Regulus, but followed Sirius with her eyes. Minnie was standing beside her.

Sirius stopped walking.

Regulus, seeming to sense that Sirius wasn’t behind him anymore, stopped, too. Sirius held out his stick, telling him to stay put, and made his way over to the two women.

Sirius’ mother’s lip curled in what maybe appeared to be a smile. “Sirius,” she held out her arms. “I have so much to say to my son—”

Sirius turned at the last minute, minutely. It was a classic play, a fake out right in front of the net. He watched his mother realize his side-step at the last moment when it was too late.

Sirius hugged Minnie close to his chest.

“Regulus,” he whispered, and let go.

“Sirius?” Walburga’s laugh was high. “I beg your pardon?”

“You can’t have it,” Sirius said, and looked her straight in the eye. He towered over her. He didn’t know how he hadn’t realized that before. He looked to Regulus, then at Minnie, and then back at the dark woman.

“Never contact us again,” he said, and then turned towards the tunnel and into the bright lights, eyes on his brightly colored stick tape, and on his brother walking ahead of him.

~

“Welcome back to the 2020 All-Star weekend, everyone! As you can see, the players are out on the ice and this news has just reached us. It seems that Sirius Black has just thrown his own mother out of the arena.”

“Say what?” Natalie yelled.

The commentator laughed. “I know, Nate, this is very…well, there have been rumors about the Black family. I really thought they were, you know, classic hockey parents. Sirius seems to have taken matters into his own hands. He deserves to, honestly, after what he’s been through these past days. What a kid, I—oh, man, hold on everyone, we’ve got a fight!”

Remus and Lily both yelped when the camera cut away quickly from where Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin had been joking around, and to Sirius—beside Fenrir Greyback, to Remus’ horror—throwing a punch.

~

“Sirius Black,” a voice said, and Sirius took a long breath through his nose, and turned.

Fenrir Greyback, American, had perfectly straight, light brown hair, cropped short and sticking up in the front. His face was scruffy, and when he smiled, his thin lips revealed sharp canine teeth. The teeth beside his jolly laugh made for an eerie sight. Knowing he was the same age as Remus unsettled Sirius. He didn’t look it. He had the timeless look of a corpse, skin waxy and smooth safe for a bad scar, a skate cut, raking over his left cheek. Greyback leaned against his stick, smile in place.

“We have a game soon, don’t we? You and your cubs will be coming to Vegas.”

“Looks like.”

“Ready to lose?”

Sirius smiled wryly. “What sort of question is that?”

Fenrir shrugged. “How is Lupin these days? He was quite a player.”

Sirius could feel the cameras on them, but decided he didn’t care if they were mic’d. The crowd was roaring, he had seen Vegas fans taking pictures with Fenrir. They deserved to know who they were supporting.

“Before you destroyed his career, you mean?” Sirius said evenly.

Logan looked up, eyes wide, from where he had been re-lacing his skate.

Fenrir laughed. “Still pushing that story, huh? Look, man, if you watch the tape it was a clean hit.”

“How the fuck could it have been clean? You ruined his shoulder.”

“Oh, his shoulder. Well, that’s a different story,” Fenrir nodded, as if remembering, and then looked at Sirius, his sick grin still in place. “And there’s no video of that.”

Sirius’ entire bloodstream went cold. He thought of Remus. His panicked expression whenever any conversation got close to his hockey career, his mom’s worried one. But Remus had said, a bad hit, Fenrir…

“No proof,” Fenrir shrugged, and then gripped Sirius’ shoulder, fingers digging into his pads. Louder, so that the other players around them could hear, he said, “Really sorry that he had to stop playing, though. I heard it was one hell of a car accident.”

A fourth shock-wave, rocking his Earth.

~

“Holy fuck,” Finn said loudly. “What is happening? What is happening?”

Remus couldn’t look away from the screen, from where Sirius basically had Fenrir in a choke hold, the momentum of their swings propelling them in a slow, oblong circle as the other players backed away from the sudden fight.

“Jesus, what do you think he said?” Finn asked.

Kuny, who had decided to join them today, shook his head. “Shit-head player, doesn’t matter. Go Cap. I punch him also, when we play Vegas.”

“Remus, you said you played together?” Leo questioned. “Was he a shit-head in college, too?”

“I…” Remus began, and the whistles blew on screens, refs skating forward to pull the two players off of each other.

“Well, man-oh-man, Rob,” one of the commentators said. “I wonder what he said.”

“One could guess,” replied Rob.

Remus felt dread swirling in his stomach. They couldn’t guess, but Remus could. Remus was the only one who knew aside from Greyback.

Remus could still taste the bile from the biting pain of Greyback’s fingers, ripping into the muscle between his neck and shoulder. His hand covered it instinctively.

You hurt it in the game and didn’t tell anyone, Greyback had spat at him. That’s your lie. Remember, I know about you.

He hadn’t, of course. Remus knew that now. It was a bluff, an easy sentence that could mean anything to anyone. Everyone had secrets. Greyback had simply put faith in just how powerfully Remus’ secret would hold him.

Enough for Remus to tell his training staff that he had been hiding a very serious shoulder  injury. Festering muscle tears, dislocated, would heal wrong for sure, not a worthy investment, not anymore—

“Remus?” Kasey said.

Well. Remus’ secret was out now. Fenrir’s could be, too.

“He’s the reason I don’t play anymore,” Remus said quietly.

Lily sat forward, hand on her belly. “What do you mean, Re?”

“He was your bad hit?” Finn asked in a hushed voice. “Was it—on purpose?”

Remus pressed his lips together, trying to steady his breath. “It wasn’t even on the ice. He cornered me in one of the recovery rooms. My routine used to be long, I would stay after the other guys, cool down, stretch, you guys know.” Remus kept his gaze steady on the television where they were zoomed in on Logan and Sirius speaking with their heads close together. Sirius would no doubt have a black eye in a few hours.

“Ripped my shoulder apart,” Remus said softly. “Told me if I told anyone he’d tell my secret.”

“He knew?” Leo said. He sounded horrified. “And that’s what he did?”

Remus shook his head. “He didn’t know. I was too careful. But everyone has secrets, don’t they? I guess he just put his bets in the right place. Some people do.”

“And you never said anything,” Kasey said. “Jesus, Loops.”

“Well, now everyone knows my secret, eh? And I didn’t want to be that guy, blaming the end of their career on someone, some other player. No one would have believed me. And now, it’s so long ago, what does it matter?”

“It matters,” James said urgently. “It does. We can—we should do something.”

“Maybe,” Remus said. “But not now. Not with all of this.”

“And Sirius? He know?” Kuny asked.

Remus looked at the television. ““I think he just found out.”

Which was stupid of Greyback, really. What did he expect Sirius to do? Laugh along?

The game had resumed. Greyback, Wilson, and DeAngelo were lined against Sirius, Regulus, and Barzal. Sirius and Regulus were talking. They bumped fists before taking position. Remus blinked. That was new.

“What the fuck, are we friends now?” Kasey mumbled, intent on the screen.

Sirius scored easily, like a fire was at his heels. Remus loved that look he got in his eyes. The camera zoomed in on their celebration. Sirius wasn’t smiling, but he clutched Regulus and Barzal to him. Barzal looked a little hesitant, like he could sense he was in the middle of something that he knew nothing about.

As Sirius skated towards the bench for glove taps, he found a camera and stopped. The camera held, of course. Sirius Black was looking right at it. Sirius wedge his glove under his arm and reached for his neck.

“What’s happening,” Finn whispered again. He had his hands in his hair, like everything was too suspenseful.

Meanwhile, Remus’ heart was clattering down his ribs.

Sirius withdrew the silver and gold number twelve necklace, gray eyes steely.

He pressed the numbers to his lips.

“Oh…” Remus whispered, hand over his neck.

Sirius’ eyes grew soft as he tucked the necklace, Remus’ gift, safely back into his jersey. Like he knew Remus was gazing at him, too. Remus felt his entire world zero in on this moment. That was for him. Sirius was defending him.

An animal sound came from James.

“Necklace,” James shouted. “Fuck me!”

“Yeah, you’re the only one who was still working on that, sweetheart,” Natalie said.

Lily laughed. “But we love you.”

“We do.”

Remus gripped his watch, thumb rubbing over the face.

I love you. I love you IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou.

He would be home tomorrow.

Remus’ chest was a scrap of feeling. His heart was warm, his blood cool, his neck hot, his hands shaky.

Home tomorrow.

~

The cameras that had swarmed Sirius a moment ago now swarmed Regulus’ stall. Regulus had a towel around his neck, sweat dripping into his eyes. They were lighter though. He kept looking at Sirius, and Sirius remained seated in his stall, showing him that he was staying right where he was. He wasn’t leaving him.

“Regulus, do you have any…” the reporter glanced at Sirius and seemed smart enough to make his question vague. “…thoughts on your brother? Or, what was it like playing with him today? How long has it been?”

Regulus was slow in answering. He wiped his face, adjusted the hat he had on backwards. They look so much alike it’s scary, Sirius heard a reporter whisper to her friend. Finally, Regulus cleared his throat, and looked up from where he had been picking at the label of his water bottle.

“I’m very proud of my brother,” Regulus’ voice was steady and deep. He was unblinking. “It was very brave what he did, especially given the—the intrusive situation. No one deserves that. I wish him all the best, and Lupin, too. I look forward to spending time with him this summer in Gryffindor.”

Sirius’ smiled. And he knew the cameras caught it.

Sirius was sitting in Regulus’ stall this time when his brother got out of the showers. He stayed seated, the two of them silent among the other changing players, while Regulus got dressed. Sirius slipped his phone out of his pocket.

Call you in twenty, he shot a text to Remus.

“Hey, Cap,” Logan said from the doorway. “I’m going out with some of the guys. You’re…” he glanced at Regulus.

“See you on the plane,” Sirius said, and Logan nodded, understanding.

Regulus sat in Sirius’ stall. He had a Snakes sweatshirt on, and the sleeves were picked practically to pieces, fraying and ratty. It hurt to look at them.

They were alone.

“Alors,” Regulus said hesitantly.

Sirius turned to him. “Come back to Gryffindor with me. Minnie got you a seat with me and Logan. Tomorrow.”

An expression of relief so pure crossed Regulus’ face, that Sirius watched him ache with it. Sirius stood and pulled his brother into a hug. The first in a long, long time.

“Okay,” Regulus said into Sirius’ neck, voice thick. “Okay."