#and the fact that is a gambling expression! Oh my poor girl has heard that a lot

[supemaeve]

"We don't need you for the reality shoot. Got everything we need, check it out!"

[realcube]

ARCADE

summary ★ she needs to get the action figure that's in the claw machine for her sister’s birthday, so saiki does her the favour of using his a telekinesis to win it...along with a few other favours.

trigger warning ★ gambling, god, swearing, fem!reader & reader has a younger sister

construction on the new arcade near pk academy had finally come to an end. the grand opening was today after school so of course, nendou suggested that they attend as a squad. usually, saiki tried to avoid getting roped into outings like this but for a change, he actually agreed without the need for any further prying. that's because the arcade was attached to a small cinema where they'd be premiering the latest action movie — based on the TV show adaptation of the game — 'Olfana's Story X-2'. as it turns out, a few months after saiki gave the game a shot, it became a craze and a massive hit among speed-runners. so from it's new-found popularity, they developed a TV show series which inevitably flopped so now they have created a movie. only the most elite people among the gaming community were allow to see it before the official release date and they all said it was incredible; but there was not a doubt in saiki's mind that they were being paid to sing it's praise. a crappy game turned into a crappy show, now adapted into a movie was sure to be crappy. so you may be wondering why he even wanted to view the movie if he was set on it being awful. Well, there are two simple answers; curiosity and the mystery. since it was so exclusive, he had yet to overhear spoilers through his telekinesis and he now had a germanium ring in his possession so he could watch the movie in peace. also, having played the game but not seen the show, he was curious to see how bad the movie is going to be and perhaps he'd be able to get a good laugh out of it. but he made the mistake of mentioning his plan to see the movie which screened a few hours after the opening of the arcade, as now kuboyasu, nendou and kaidou were all going to see the movie along with him. In theory, it shouldn't be a problem since he'll have his germanium ring on but in practise, the world seems to be against saiki so one of his friends will probably end up stealing his popcorn or chatting throughout the entire movie. he'll just have to wait and see. kaidou and nendou did not even stop to take breaths as they raced on about how excited they were while they were all walking to the arcade. "i'm sure the movie is going to be sick!" kaidou exclaimed, followed by rapid head nods from nendou as he replied, "yup! And i can't wait to see what sort of games they have!" saiki was a bit excited himself but he didn't care to show it like the others did. but when he saw the vaporwave building covered with bright neon lights come into view, his lips curled into a small smile. though it was short-lived as he noticed the massive queue to get in; it appeared as though they weren't the only ones who had the idea to visit the arcade after school as he noticed many familiar faces standing in line, amongst crowds of others. all of their cheery auras dissipated for a few moments until kuboyasu perked up, approaching the doors to the arcade with a smug smirk, cutting in front of everyone in the line and gesturing for the boys to follow him, "don't worry about the queue, guys. follow me." nendou followed without any further questions but saiki and kaidou were a bit apprehensive. all three of them watched as kuboyasu stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the guard by one of the doors, muttering something in the man's ear, causing him to sweatdrop and hesitantly open the door with a shaky smile; allowing all four of them inside. "woah, that was awesome, aren!" kaidou yelled, not only out of awe but so he could be heard over all the cheering, laughing and game noises from inside the arcade. "yeah, that was so cool! but what did you say to that guy? he looked freaked out!" nendou inquired, surprising saiki with his actually intelligent observation. kuboyasu's hand found it's way behind his neck, rubbing it awkwardly as he chuckled, "oh, nothing! it's not important-- hey! how about you guys start playing your games and i'll go get the tickets we reserved, yeah?" "yeah!" kaidou and nendou cheered in unison, high-fiving the purple-haired boy before the all ran off in different directions, leaving saiki standing alone at the entrance. he fidgeted with his germanium ring, contemplating taking it off as he stared at kuboyasu; he really wanted to know what the teen boy could've said that'd incite such fear into a grown man, but he decided against it — merrily making his way towards the claw machines, leaving kuboyasu's secrets alone. ★★★★★★★★★★ "shit." he cursed under his breath as he watched the cyborg cider man plushie that he's been trying to win — for yuuta — for half an hour straight slip out of his grasp once again. 'these things are rigged. and what's the point in having psychic superpowers if i can't use them.' he thought to himself but had to quickly shake off the idea, as there was no way he could risk using his powers in such a crowded place, especially for a plush that wasn't even for himself but rather for an annoying kid. he sighed, slipping another coin into the slot and about to find the right state of mind until he heard a loud "fuck!"  from in front of him. his head jerked up, scanning the area for the source of the noise until his eyes landed on you. the claw machines were lined up, back-to-back, and playing on the machine diagonal from him was a girl with enchanting (e/c) eyes which contrasted greatly with her disheartened expression as she stared at the box. the only emotion she wore was sadness as she stared at the machine, so out of curiosity, saiki slipped off his ring in order to read her thoughts; feeling no guilt in listening to the affairs of a complete stranger. 'c'mon, stupid claw machine, i need this!' your silky yet whiny voice rung through his mind, 'what's she gonna think about me tomorrow when i tell her that i couldn't get her the gift she's wanted? she's gonna hate me- even more than she already does. and now i've spent all my money on this silly game so i can't even try get her a crappy gift with the little money i had. Wow, (y/n), you're the worst big sister in existence.' saiki cocked his head to the side, peering through the glass of the machines to see the contents of the claw machine you were standing in front of and when he saw the limited edition, silver cyborg cider man action figure sitting on a pedestal — almost as if it was taunting the poor girl — he finally connected the dots. your hand dug through your pockets until you found the smooth metal surface of your final coin, 'just once more try. if i win her this action figure, maybe she'll finally respect me as her big sister! and this toy will surely make her more happy than any gift mom could've possibly thought of. i'll make her sixth birthday one to remember!' the dejected look on your face slow lifted into a determined one, but it wasn't very convincing as saiki — and anyone else — could see the worry and shame in your eyes as you dropped your last coin into the slot of the machine, giving you one more chance to redeem yourself and claim the title of 'best big sister in the world'. saiki watched you maneuver the claw of the machine with bated breath, admiring how your pretty nose crinkled and your tongue poked out from the corners of your perfectly glossed lips in concentration — 'ew, stop being a simp, kusuo.' he mentally rebuked himself before engaging with your scene one again. your fist slammed down against the big red button, followed by the claw opening and lowering over the box of the cyborg cider man action figure, slowly closing it's jaws around the box and grasping it perfectly, resulting in a slight gasp to escape your throat as your lips pulled into a grin. the claw kept it's grip in the toy as it lifted up, slowly making it's way over the hole where it would drop the action figure, straight into your possession.  that is, if the grip didn't falter hence allowing the toy to fall down, off it's pedestal and onto the bottom of the compartment to join the rest of the more average action figures. "fuck!" you screamed in an almost identical way to which you did earlier, expect this one held more pain. 'this can't be happening; is this the third year in a row that i'm going to show up to my little sister's birthday party empty-handed?' you thought, your bottom lips quivering so you quickly bit down on it, staring at the damned toy before turning on your heels, shuffling away from the game with your head hung low, the thoughts which cried in your head about how much you budgeted and how hard you worked made saiki's heart sink. 'maybe i could take out a mortga--' your thoughts were abruptly cut off when you heard the noise of something falling behind you. whipping your head around to see what happened, you exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary. however, you caught a glimpse of inside the machine which you had been cursing at and realised that the toy wasn't with the packaging peanuts where you left it, as if it magically disappeared in the few seconds you had averted your gaze. creeping up to it, your gaze darted around in search of anyone who might've won it in less than 5 seconds but that was unlikely. now that you were closer, you peered through the glass once more to confirm that the toy was in fact missing and you were right. recalling the noise of falling you heard just before you turned around, you dropped to your knees and lifted the flap to the compartment which held the good that people would win from the machine. you almost screamed with delight and shock when you laid eyes on the limited edition, cyborg cider man action figure that was tucked snugly inside. yanking it out, you pressed it to your chest and the tears you were choking back finally came running down your cheeks, but now they were from joy. "thank you, god." you whispered to yourself, making saiki chuckle from his spot at the claw machine which he hadn't moved from. he wasn't god — nor was he friends with god — but he didn't mind not being able to take the credit for his kind actions of using his psychokinesis to drop the box into the hole for you. honestly, he found that seeing you happy, sitting on the floor with brightest beam gracing your features along with your now cheerful thoughts in his head, was enough of a reward for him anyway. also, he appreciated how you didn't question how the box ended up in the hole and instead you just deemed it a miracle as you were too overjoyed to use logic; that sort of thinking saved saiki a lot of trouble. 'i should probably go home and wrap this.' your internal monologue had now calmed down slightly as you were now able to produce a thought that wasn't just a squeal of delight, 'hm, maybe once i am done i could come back and see the new movie that's premiering-- but i've not got much money left so i guess i shouldn't get ahead of myself.' you hummed, picking up the box along with yourself, dusting yourself off before heading towards the exit. saiki must've been staring for a tad too long though as you caught his gaze while brushing off your clothes. he cringed, instinctively darting his eyes away so you didn't think he was an ogling creep but the fact he appeared defensive probably didn't help. so he fully expected you to frown or cast him a dirty look, judging him for his actions but to his surprise, you simply chuckled. waving at the pink-haired boy before strolling off with the box under your arm. 'he seems cool. where i can get clips like those?' why were you thoughts making him blush like an idiot? time to put the germanium ring back on. ★★★★★★★★★★ as it turns out, nendou is surprisingly good at poker. he figured this out after he stumbled across the casino section of the arcade, and since he looks way older than seventeen, nobody questions it when he took a seat at one of the slot machines, under the impression that it was a fancy, old-timey arcade game. he was then offered a round of poker with some old dude with way too many gold teeth and nendou ended up taking the poor, stubborn guy's entire fortune. god-knows how many games with how-many people later, nendou was sitting on stacks of cash at a round table with a tired dealer, and two grown men — one crying into the shoulder of his arm-candy and the other weeping into the sleeve of his suit — while the three boys who had came to give him his ticket stood by, all wearing matching confused expressions. "uh, nendou." kuboyasu tapped his friend on the shoulder, waving the ticket in front of his face, "the movie is gonna start soon, we should start heading over there right now so we can buy snacks and get good seats." nendou raised an eyebrow, puzzled until he recalled that he was supposed to watch a movie today, "oh, that sounds cool and all but i'm having a lot of fun right here." he smiled, motioning to the large casino area. kuboyasu chuckled awkwardly, backing away from nendou slightly as he turned on his heels, ushering the two other boys away, "alright, well, have fun, nendou! don't stay out too late!" nendou sung an okay in response, sliding a kaidou some cash for the extortionate theatre snacks before he was rushed away by kuboyasu, the purple-haried boy not wanting to spend anymore time in the casino than needed. "if nendou isn't joining us for the movie then we have a spare ticket. here, saiki, you should have it!" "why me?" "uh, because you said you saw reita earlier. so if you see him again maybe you could offer him the spare ticket." 'absolutely not.' was vocalised as "sure." by saiki as he took the ticket from kuboyasu's outstretched hand, fiddling with it before stuffing it into his pocket along with his own ticket. "what i said to nendou was kinda an exaggeration" aren mused, glancing at his watch before looking up at his two pals, "we still have some time left before the movie starts. i'm gonna go handle some business — you two have fun, and try find reita!" kuboyasu said before pivoting on his heels in the direction of the staff only closet. the only thing saiki could think to do during this free-time was escape kaidou's pestering to play dance dance revolution — since saiki didn't want to dance, dance or revolute, he darted outside as soon as kuboyasu left, leaving kaidou alone and confused in the middle of the arcade. 'finally, fresh air.' saiki inhaled, filling his lungs with the cool air rather than the stuffy, arcade oxygen. scanning the surrounding area, his eyes caught a glimpse of a figure standing by the ATM, which he immediately recognised to be that of the girl he had helped earlier. so naturally, he flicked of his ring to figure out the reasoning behind the awkward look on her face. 'do i really want to withdraw money to see some stupid movie? i mean, i could leave that money to accumulate and buy something nicer later.' without thinking, saiki hummed in agreement with your thoughts as he had been in your position many times before. 'but then again, i should treat myself! when was the last time i saw a movie that wasn't pirated? hmm..' your indecisive thoughts matched perfectly with your conflicted expression as you stared through furrowed brows at the screen of the ATM. a soft breeze passed, followed by something light smacking against you face. you winced slightly, your hand snapping your cheek and grabbing at whatever it was; just by the texture, you could tell it was paper. holding it in front of you, upon further inspection you realised that the mysterious sheet that had flew into your possession was in fact a ticket to tonight's showing of 'Olfana's Story X-2'  row G, seat 9. you double, triple checked it out of fear that this may be a cruel prank but no, this was completely real! you cheered, bouncing up and down and away from the ATM since you no longer needed it's services as god had blew the desired item straight into your hands — or your face, rather. either way though, you were over the moon, clutching the ticket to your chest and basking in your second miracle of the day. unbeknownst to you, saiki's smile was almost as wide as your own. you thanked god for your relief and saiki had no problem with that; seeing your little happy dance and squeals with your free ticket was enough for him. but actually, perhaps he might benefit himself after all, since the ticket he had given you previous belonged to nendou. meaning that saiki was seated at row G, seat 10; right beside you. ★★★★★★★★★★ saiki forgot to send a few notes flying your way in the wind, so you walked into the theatre and took your seat, completely snackless since you couldn't afford the exorbitant prices that they sold food for at the cinema. but perhaps that wasn't all bad as it revealed the possibility for saiki to offer you some of his popcorn as a conversation-starter, as he's usually not too good at socialising with new people — forget starting a conversation. however, he didn't need to work up any sort of courage to talk to you as the first thing you did when you plopped down in your seat beside him was turn to him and chirp, "oh, you're the guy i saw at the claw machines earlier! i love your clip thingies." your buoyant-adrenaline allowing your to be more bold than usual. the movie had yet to start, low murmurs of chatter coming from across the theatre as the trailers played in the background, "yes. and thanks." 'good grief, curse myself for not being more talkative. she probably thinks i'm dull now. perhaps i should channel my inner nendou..if i have one.' instead of ending the conversation right there like he assumed you would, you continued talking and saiki was..glad? why did he want to interact with you so much? he spends most of his days trying to avoid interacting with people; why were you any different? "no problem- also, did you get what you were playing for?" you inquired, tapping your lip in genuine curiosity. his ring remained on his finger, despite the fact he wanted to know what you thought about him, he didn't want to invade your privacy any more than he already has. "no. did you?" "yeah, i did, actually!" you chirped, not noticing the smirk creeping onto saiki's lips as you were too engulfed in your memories, "i thought those games were rigged but maybe they're not 'cause i managed to win this super special action figure that my sister has been on the top of my sister's wishlist for like- forever! and her birthday is tomorrow so i'll be a--" you cut yourself off, crinkling your nose in embarrassment, "sorry, i'm over-sharing, aren't i?" your enthusiasm made his heart flutter in a way he wasn't used to, if you didn't know any better, he would have thought he was having a medical emergency. his eyes widened slightly as you halted in your speech, "no, you're fine." he said, the uncharacteristic softness in his voice catching the attention of his two pals sitting on the other side of him. you shook off his comment, "i mean, i'm telling you my life story and i don't even know your name." you said, laughing sheepishly at the reality of the reality of the situation. 

“saiki kusuo.” he blurted out without a second thought.

you blinked a few times, shocked that he’d give his details away so easily as you somewhat expected him to be more of a reserved type of guy but evidently, you were wrong. “uh, i’m (l/n) (y/n).” you choked, biting down on your bottom lip slightly before continuing you story as he seemed to wait expectantly, “as i was saying, today’s just been the best day ever! everything has been going so well, i’m a bit scared as to what is going to happen when it hits midnight.” 

saiki nodded along, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth before remembering his plan, “oh- would you like some?” he asked, offering you some popcorn from his bucket. unfortunately, the plan was a last-minute thing so he had only bought a small, but he still wasn’t opposed to sharing. 

you shook your head, trying to grin foolishly wide at his kind offer, “no thank you.” 

saiki nodded, about to open his mouth to reply until the blaring music from the beginning of the movie started, putting a swift end to your conversation — despite the fact saiki would much rather talk to you than watch the crappy movie — out of theatre etiquette. 

★★★★★★★★★★

it was worse than you or saiki could’ve ever imagined.

it was painfully trying not to burst out laughing right in middle of it or lean over and giggle in each other’s ear at the silly dialog but out of respect for the other people in the cinema, you both stayed silent and just cast each other occasional knowing glances whenever something cringey happened on screen. 

you both let out audible sighs of relief with the credits began to roll, accompanied by a slow indie song. “that was..something.” you mumbled, grabbing your purse and jumping to your feet, wanting to exit the building as soon as possible and hopefully leave your memories of the movie behind you. 

“definitely.” he snickered, absently flicking the side of his empty popcorn bucket, “i stopped paying attention once i finished my popcorn.” it felt weird to vocalise — or rather, telepathically communicate — the comments he’d usually keep to himself; why did he feel so comfortable speaking to someone he only just met?

he began gathering his things, stuffing all of his rubbish in the bucket so he could dispose of it all at once. his mind was fixated on crappiness of the movie and how a five-year-old could’ve shot a much better film, until you grabbed his attention by calling out his name, followed by a question which made him blood run cold.

“before i go, it gotta ask’ how’d you do it? or more importantly, why’d you do it?”

he blinked several times before putting on his best bewildered expression, with the idea that maybe if he played dumb, he could gaslight you into thinking that it never happened or that he had nothing to do with it. “what?”

“oh, don’t give me that!” you scoffed, narrowing your eyes at the boy, “i’m not stupid. every time something good happened to me, you were nearby. i’ve connected the dots so fess up. why did you do all those nice things for me? was it out of pity or are you that nice to everyone?”

“i’m that nice to everyone.”

“i don’t believe you.” you snapped, fixing your tone when you remembered that even though he was lying to you, he still helped you get the present for you sister and gave you his spare ticket. “i don’t care if you’re not gonna give me a straight answer, but at least let me make it up to you.”

he huffed, an unimpressed look covering his features before you even proposed your idea. there was really nothing he could possibly need from you. what were you going to give him that he wasn’t capable of obtaining on his own? so he frowned, ready to decline your offer. 

“i saw that you bought one of those jelly pots from the snack stand and i actually work at a little café in the town, so i might be able to get you few things for free or discounted?”

“yes.” wait, that wasn’t refusal. 

“great!” you chirped, glad that you wouldn’t have to pry further, “does later this week sounds good? we could meet up here then i can walk you to the café- or i could give you my number and we can arrange a date later?” 

“sure.” saiki said without thinking once again.

but it wasn’t as though he regretted it when you slipped the piece of paper you had scribbled your number onto, into the front pocket of his shirt, tapping it with a smile. “alright! i’ll see you later then- unless you want to walk home with me?” you fidgeted with your fingers slightly, instantly regretting what you just came out with. not because you didn’t want to walk with him, but due to the fact you highly doubted he was going so say accept so you mentally prepared for the impact of his harsh rejection.

“sure.”

★★★★★★★★★★

BONUS 

saiki ended up walking home with some girl he met at the theatre so that left kuboyasu and kaidou to fetch nendou once the film finished. they both searched the casino area for almost half an hour but neither of them had any luck finding nendou. that was, until kuboyasu had to take a step outside to escape the casino as he noticed an old friend of his playing on the slot machines, and he found nendou crouched by the garbage cans, on his phone. 

“nendou! we’ve been looking all over for you- why are you out here by the trash? and what happened to all your money?!”

nendou chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with his spare hand, “fun story actually. i was doing so well and i was on my way to becoming a millionaire until these schoolgirls came marching in and absolutely slaughtered me! it was so embarrassing and the only way i could escape them was by running away so i hid back here.”

kuboyasu’s aura just screamed ‘disappointed but not surprised’, “so you’re telling me that you lost millions to highschool girls?”

“they might’ve been middle-schoolers, i’m not too sure. i didn’t get a very good look at ‘em but they were all wearing creepy red uniforms.”

all kuboyasu could do was massage his temples to ease his headache at the stupidity of his friends, “so you lost all your money to school girls in creepy red uniforms?” he repeated aloud, just to make sure he was hearing things correctly.

“yes. but not all my money.” he said, pulling out his wallet and grandly opening it to reveal a few notes and a button, “i’ve still got enough to spend on ramen with my bros!”

[fallin-4-ya]

The Follies and Vices of You

cedric diggory x reader- part iv of series 

based off the novel and film ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen

summary: Being the beloved sister of the incredibly wealthy Mr. Potter, you felt no need to rush into marriage. But one day, when you come to meet a new acquaintance, the proud Mr. Diggory, your views of love and follies change.

warnings: a bit of angst & tension! (gif is not mine, credit to owner!)

part i, part ii, part iii, part iv, part v

‘Maybe it’s that I find it hard to forgive the follies and vices of others, or their offenses against me. My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.’ -Jane Austen 

The month of January passed dreadfully slow, as you waited for something interesting to happen. As the snow fell softly onto the ground, thoughts wondered through your head rapidly, most of them involving Mr. Diggory. In fact, he occupied your mind most days. How dreadfully awkward that poor man is, you pondered, and yet how confident. His character never made sense to you, as awfully as he appeared on the outside, you could tell there was much beneath his many layers. But your thoughts were soon interrupted by a knock on the door, it was the post.

‘From Miss Ginerva, Miss Y/N.’ You smiled and nodded thankfully. Excited, you ripped the letter open and the inside read,

My Dearest Miss Y/N, I hope my letter find you very well. How dreadful these past few days have been, for all of this snow has made me think of nothing besides summer time. I was invited to stay at my brother Bill’s until the end February; Miss Hermione Granger will be attending alongside me, to encourage sisterly bonding. I am sorry to hear that Mr. Malfoy has resided back to his home up north, but I do hope that he continues to write you such pretty verses. I shall be home before the flowers bloom. Be well.

Much love, Ginerva

You sighed thinking of how even more boring the next few months would be without the company of a most dear friend. 

Now that Mr. Malfoy was sent back home, the house was quieter than ever. Between Harry managing the estate, Sirius writing business proposals and Mr. Lupin locked up in the library; you felt most unentertained and gittery. Letters began being sent to you the day after he left, expressing a fondness for you, which kept your boredom to a minimum. You thought long about the letters exchanged between you and Mr. Malfoy; Ginny was certainly right in saying the verses were beautiful. She also urged you that there would soon be a proposal on the line if he kept with the letters, though you secretly hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon.

The next evening, to much of your excitement, you were joined by Mr. Fred and George Weasley for dinner, who were in the company of nobody other than Mr. Diggory. Reaching a hand out for each of the Weasley men, they took it graciously planting a kiss upon it. Extending out to Mr. Diggory as well, he ignored your gesture and simply bowed in your direction. After the questionable gesture from the latter of the men, you lead them to the dining room, where the rest of your family awaited.

The evening was going splendidly, much laughter and wide smiles reigned. That was, until a letter arrived addressed to you from Mr. Malfoy. You excused yourself from the table, to retire to the parlor to read it.

Blushing profusely and smiling at the beautiful verses addressed to you, unaware of the floorboards that creaked viciously behind; you sat on the armchair nearest the window of the parlor. You heard a throat clear at the doorway and shot your head up.

 ‘Mr. Diggory! I am so sorry, I mustn’t have heard of your following.’ Humming to yourself, you gazed out the window, ‘I do love this time of the year, Mr. Diggory. The snow is nothing short of lovely.’

‘Yes, Miss Potter, I do agree that the snow is very beautiful but I must interject and beckon you about some-‘

‘He’s thought to propose, you know. Mr. Malfoy that is. Quite strange, isn’t it; how young girls go to young women with only a proposal.’ You unknowingly interrupted in your dream state.

‘Miss Potter, I truly cannot help but to interject; however, there is a matter of urgency I’d like to discuss.’ Mr. Diggory huffed. Being pulled out of your trance, patience grew thin, you turned your head and snapped, ‘What is it, Mr. Diggory, that you feel so inclined to interrupt me for?’

‘Its addressing Mr. Malfoy. You see I am afraid I must interject on a most sensitive discussion topic.’

‘If you have anything negative to say about Mr. Malfoy, I must urge you that I'm the last person who would be inclined to hear it! And if you have some here to ruin my evening, I am afraid I won’t allow it.’ 

With that you grabbed your coat and trekked out into the falling snow. Footsteps not far behind you, you sped up; unwilling, or rather unwanting of hearing what anybody had to say. The crunching of snow only following you farther, as you followed the angelic pathway to the stone pavilion in the graden. You threw your back against the wall, sighing out deeply. Without a moment of peace Mr. Diggory entered your presence.

‘You cannot marry him’

You were taken aback by his sudden bluntness. Exasperated by his cultivated occurrence of strange actions you cocked your head at him.

‘May I ask you why, Mr. Diggory?’

‘The Malfoy family is least cordial, completely unattached and deranged from society. They are completely unsuitable for a family such as yours.’

‘A family such as mine?! Have you come here to separate an engagement or to insult my family, Mr. Diggory? Or rather, does your sudden interest in my affairs have anything to do with your dislike towards Mr. Malfoy; because believe me, Mr. Diggory, I know well of your disputes with the poor gentleman and will not stop an engagement from happening due to your pride and arrogance.’

‘No, Miss Potter! You know perfectly well that I find your family most respectable. I just find their family uncommony stiff for your reckless behavior.’

‘Reckless behavior! How dare you insult not only my upkeeping but a personality of another. Have you forgotten the follies and vices of you, Mr. Diggory? For who are you to judge another?’

‘Miss Y/N, has it ever occurred to you that you may be too harsh on me or perhaps my light on you may have been caused by the misjudgment of one’s character? I beg of you to enlighten me on why you find me the most disagreeable man.’

‘Well then, I beg you, Mr. Diggory, why you wish to separate a young couple who have grown quite fond of each other?’

‘Because I love you.’

There was a lull and Mr. Diggory halted. ‘I love you most ardently and I could not have you go another day more without you knowing of the likeness I have for you.’

You stood in silence, snow falling ever so godly on you both, speechless. Words clouded your mind, and you wanted to scream, and cry, and love, and erupt all at the same time. But rather than doing any of them, you looked back on him with a haze in your eyes.

‘I would not marry you if you were the last man in the world.’ You said walking away, allowing a tear slip silently from your face.

The next day there was a knock on your bedroom door early in the morning. Mr. Diggory walked in humbled and shy, ‘Miss Y/N, I’ve come to leave this for you. I hope you do me the honor to read it. Thank you much for your time.’

You had not even reached his gaze, for he spoke for too quickly and you were far too angry. Staring at the enveloped with a tear stained face for nearly an hour, you decided to open it.

Dear Miss Potter,

I hope my letter finds you in good health. I do not wish to impose on you again what I have said last night; for I am writing to you today not to remind you of said words, but rather converse upon the accusations you have brought upon me. I urge you that everything in this letter is the truth and have many to testify upon it.

Mr. Draco Malfoy and I had been connected since infancy, for his father, Lucius, and mine worked exceptionally close together. However, as Mr. Malfoy grew he became reckless; he gambled a large portion of his father’s money away and took no responsibilities seriously. Soon thereafter, his father wrote him out of his will, leaving nothing to his son. Mr. Malfoy became desperate for an inheritance; my father later offered him a job which he begrudgingly took. However, not more than seven months of work, he confessed a most passionate love to my sister. It did not take long for us to realize that he was only after her fortune for she was to inherit seven thousand pound a year. She was thirteen at the time and utterly heartbroken.

When my sister had gotten sick mere months later, my mother and I moved to London alongside her to get the best medical help. Unable to access our money without my father present, Mr. Lucius graciously lent us the sum of the bills. Unfortunately, my sister passed with just two months of treatment; she was truly a remarkable young woman. After the mourning, we paid what was due back to the Malfoy family; but for Mr. Draco Malfoy it was not enough. He hounded me for more money; knowing his dispositions I had given him the sum of his ask in hopes that he would become something of himself. He gambled the money away in two weeks. After that, I refused to give him anymore money, cutting him off for good.

Miss Y/N, I am terribly sorry to force the burden of the truth onto you, but I just felt that you ought to know. Please do keep the affairs containing my sister private, as I believe it be a disgrace to her memory to attach her name to one like his. Thank you for the time we have shared.

Yours, Mr. Cedric Diggory

(author’s note: oh my goodness! end of part 4!!! ending on a bit of a cliff hanger... i can't wait for you all to read the final chapter, which will be out soon! as always, let me know if you’d like to be part of this tag list! thank you as always for reading!)

tag list: @freddieweasleyswife @truly-insatiable @annasdani @mullthingsoverinthehotwater

[goldencatchflies]

Plum Sauce

Read on AO3

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid

Warnings: spoilers for 7x13

Word Count: 1525

A/N: Credits to @rcllthecredits for being an a m a z i n g co-author! Ilysm babey!!! ♡♡♡ Set during, and after 7x13

Spencer is leaving the gambling house when he gets a call from their technical analyst.

“Hey Garcia, did you find anyth—“ He started, but she cut him off before he could even finish his sentence.

“No, no, I’m calling you, because this has been nagging at me all day, and I don’t know how to tell you, and I’m so sor—“

“Wait, hold on, slow down!” He tells her, “What’s this about?”

“Derek!” She answers, and she can practically see the skeptical look on his face.

“Wha-“ he looks around, slowly separating himself from the group. “What about him?” He crosses his free arm round his torso, and furrows his eyebrows.

“I... I, um... I think, I’m not sure, I haven’t talked-“

“Garcia?!” He cuts her off.

“Right, sorry! I think that, last night... I- I don’t know what happened! I woke up, and he was in my shower, and-“

“IM SORRY, WHAT?!” He screams at her. “Tell me you’re joking!”

“I really wish I was, boy wonder, I’m sorry, I had a little bit too much wine, and I don’t know what happened...” she tries to excuse, but if she doesn’t even believe herself, how would Spencer?

“GARCIA, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? YOU KNOW I LIKE HIM!” He whisper-yelled, leaning in to phone. He looked around when he heard a whistle—Emily, waving him over, while getting in one of the SUVs and rolling down the window.

“Look, I gotta go, I’ll talk to you when I get back!” He hung up, not giving enough time for her to respond, and made his way over, standing outside the driver’s door of the SUV occupied by Emily.

“Hotch said you and Morgan are going to his house, maybe he went back there.” She told him, and drove off once he nodded and stepped away. He walked toward the other black vehicle, where Derek stood leaning against the driver’s door. They looked at each other, nodding, and got in the car.

———

“Yeah, Hotch, there’s nobody here. There’s a foreclosure sign on the front lawn!” Derek said, as they re-entered the SUV.

“Ok, you and Reid stay there in case he comes back!” Their boss’s voice rang through the other side, as he hung up moments later.

“Alright, spit it out!” Derek said, propositioning himself on the driver’s seat, so he had his left knee up to his chest, slightly turned to face the younger agent on the seat next to his.

“Huh?” Spencer asked, lifting his head to meet Morgan’s gaze.

“You’ve been quiet the entire ride, no facts, no statistics, it’s like you’re not even here! Something’s clearly bothering you, pretty boy!” He explained.

“Why don’t ask Penelope?” He mumbled under his breath, dropping his hands to his lap, and looking down once more.

“What was that?” Derek asked, leaning forward just a little, to see if he could catch the other man’s words.

“Nothing... Just... nothing to say I guess...” Spencer shrugged, and Derek put a hand on his, which Spencer took hesitantly. “I just... I didn’t think you were the kind of person to do something like that...” he removed his hand from under Morgan’s, and crossed his arms around his chest. Morgan furrowed his brows, and removed his hands from Spencer’s knee.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” He said, a very skeptical tone creeping at his voice.

“I- nothing, forget I said anything...” Spencer said, and drowning out Derek’s complaints by turning on the radio. After a while, he gave up trying to get Spencer’s attention, and focused on the scenery around them, looking for anything suspicious, as BANNER’s Someone To You filled the awkward silence of the black SUV.

___

“Ok, what happened between us was popcorn, and a movie on tv... which you fell asleep in the middle of, by the way!” Derek told Penelope as they sat in her layer, once the the team got back from the case.

“So you sleept on the—“ she said while gasping.

“Couch!” He finished for her.

“Yes, you did!” She got up to hug him. “Oh, thank you! Oh, thank you god for maintaining the integrity of my most beloved of friendships,” she cupped the back of his neck, while shaking her head side to side, “and from now on I promise only mostly,” she kept going while tiling her head at the ceiling. Derek looked at her with furrowed brows, and a confused expression as she continued. “The purest of mineral water will cross these lips!” She finished.

“Hey, plum sauce, you coming?” Kevin bagged in the door, making them both look.

“Yeah! I’ll be right there!” She answered, and you could hear the smile on her face.

“Hey Derek!” Kelvin said, closing the door slowly, giving time for the other man to answer.

“Hey, what’s up man?” He responded.

“Since the fight we have decided to have a standing date every Tuesday night.” She told him, with the widest smile on her face.

“Good luck with that, with this job.” He said, and she hummed. “You got a great guy out there. You know that, right?” he asked, pointing at the door.

“I know” she nodded. “What does a girl do when she has two great guys?!” She placed a hand on his shoulder.

“She doesn’t pour herself that extra glass of wine!”

“Oh, yeah!” She rolled her eyes mockingly, and gave him a hug.

“Ok, love you, bye!” She bouncy-walked towards the exit, as Morgan sat down at her desk.

“Plum Sauce?” He asked himself, and gave a light chuckle.

“Plum Sauce?” He looked up to see Spencer walking into to the room, his bag around his shoulders, as per usual.

“Kevin! He just called Penelope ‘Plum Sauce’!” He informed him.

“Right... So-“ he started, but was interrupted by the older agent.

“You-“ they cut each other off, and chuckled.

“You first!” The young doctor waved one of his hands in the air aimlessly, signaling the other man to go.

“She-...” he ponders a way to phrase his thoughts. “Garcia, she thought...” he trailed off once he realized Spencer already knew what he was about to say. He looked up at Spencer, “but you already knew that...” he got off the desk, and took a step towards him. Spencer looked down, fiddling with the strap of his sachet. “Is that why you’ve been so quiet?” Spencer didn’t answer for a second, thinking of the right words while Derek walked towards him until he was but inches away.

“I- it’s... um.. it’s not like that... I-“ Spencer stutters.

"C'mon pretty boy, spit it out." Derek said in a soft but firm way. His eyes holding a gleam of hope.

The young genius stuttered, should I take the risk? It’ll be better between us when he says no, right? Spencer reid had never been one for risks, but at the words of many greats, he'd say what was on his mind.

"I-um i like you" he forced out like bile pouring out of an upset stomach. Fear present his eyes, his body was scrunched up as close as can be. Derek however was beyond elated, feeling as if he was on cloud nine. Ultimately, he took a step closer to the younger man, placing his hand on his waist, the other cupping his cheek. Spencer was... surprised, to say the very least, where was the rejection?

"May i?" the older agent asked, voice barely above a whisper.

"Y-yes." the doctor choked out. "Yes please!" he felt as if he was dreaming and any second the pain of reality would hit him. It never did... and at those words, Derek closed the gap between them, taking chapped lips into a chaste kiss. They separated moments later, Spencer’s lips a dark peach, his pupils blown wide, as his head spun.

“Why don’t I take you home?” The older man asked with a shit-eating grin, removing Spencer’s bag from over his head, to rest it on his own-bulky-shoulder. He took Spencer’s hand in his own, the poor boy practically melting under the soft touch, as he followed Derek out of Garcia’s office.

As they made theire way to Derek’s car, Spencer thought if this was really what he wanted. Was he willing to let him self be even more vulnerable around the man he’d been pining after for years? What if he leaves? What will you do with yourself then, Spencer? He heard his mother’s voice in his head. Learn to live without him... but for now, I’ll appreciate any moment spent with him. He smiled. He felt as if there was a weight lifted off his shoulders. No more worries. No more unrequited feelings. It’s just us now, Spencer thought, taking Derek’s hand in his own. And I’m perfectly fine with that.

[duker42]

💜Age Matters💜

💜Age Matters💜

Nervously tugging on the straps across her chest, Y/N takes one more look in the mirror. Confident her uniform is pristine, her gaze falls to the insignia on her jacket. The Wings of Freedom look very different from the Garrison Roses that she had worn for the past 15 years.

Leaving her new quarters in the Survey Corps Headquarters, she prepares herself for a barrage of questions, doubts and mistrust. While the Garrison might support the Scouts on expeditions, it’s practically unheard of for someone to transfer in like she has. Especially for someone who has been the Garrison as long as she had.

Reaching the Mess Hall, she observes the soldiers around her. There is clearly two age groups, very young and her age. The number of people she sees that are around her age is lower that she had expected. Then again, when 30% of the force is lost every expedition, did she really think there would be vast numbers of veterans?

Grabbing her tray, she chooses a spot seemingly out of the way, not knowing that she was about to be overrun with young, curious new Scouts. Suddenly, several trays dropped down on the table around her as bodies flopped onto the benches.

“God,” a two toned haired boy groaned. “I thought we would have a little break in training after we joined the Regiment. I feel like we are back in the Training Corps.”

A delicate looking blonde boy answered him. “Well, we have to learn our squad’s movements. The expedition is only 30 days out.”

She listen as the conversation passes back and forth between the group. They are kids, energetic, idealistic kids. Musing over their differences in personality, but obvious close relationships, she don’t realize that she was being spoken to until the tiny angelic blonde touches my arm.

“Are you okay?” Her small voice is easy to hear as everyone else has stopped talking and turned to me.

“Oh, sorry. I was wool gathering. I’m fine, thank you.”

“My name is Christa. What’s yours?”

“Y/N”

The rest of the table goes around and introduces themselves. Reiner, Berthold, Ymir, Connie, Sasha, Jean, Armin are unfamiliar to her. Y/N had heard of Mikasa for her impressive display of skills during the Battle of Trost. And of course everyone has heard of the emerald eyed Titan shifter, Eren Yeager.

The two toned haired boy, Jean, leans over Eren with what she could only assume he believes is a charming smile. “I could have sworn I had met all the beautiful girls in our class, but I haven’t seen your gorgeous face before. Why is that?”

Eren pushes the boy off of him and they glare at it each other a moment before turning back to her for the answer.

“I just transferred in from the Garrison.” She braces herself for the follow up question.

“Why on earth would you do that??” Comes a surprised question from Jean.

“I was tired of it. All most seemed interested in doing was getting drunk and fighting. If I’m going to fight, I would rather it be for humanity rather than against some poor slob in a bar.” Y/N explains.

The kids stiffen up and return to their food quietly as she feels a presence behind her. Turning, Y/N sees the infamous Captain Levi. Shorter than most men, he still commands respect and attention. His stormy blue eyes miss nothing as he openly scrutinizes the young looking woman. Never having been this close to the enigmatic soldier, she was surprised at how attractive he was. She knew him to be around her age, but like her, he looked younger than his years. Pale, clear skin and jet black hair framed his sharp face nicely. His neutral expression did not seem to put the kids at ease, but Y/N could tell that it was just the way his face rested.

Levi meanwhile was appraising Y/N. Having read her file, he had originally been wary of the transfer. He didn’t trust the intentions of a soldier who suddenly gave up the position of Squad Leader to transfer over to the Scouts. While there were no reasons given beyond her explanation to the brats, he was going to keep his eye on her. Especially since she had immediately ended up at the same table as the Titan shifter.

It did catch him off guard with how young she looked. She could have passed for a new recruit if he was unaware of her time in the Garrison. He internally rolled his eyes in annoyance at the prospect of all the hormonal brats getting to know her. It was going to distract them from their training, and in turn, piss him off.

“When you’re done, you’re with me, Garrison. Time to see what you’ve forgotten sitting on your ass, safely behind the walls.” His word comes across sharp and dry.

Standing, she picks up her tray and silently follows the Captain. Disposing of the tray, she walks behind him, observing his quick purposeful strides out of the castle and down to the training grounds.

Without breaking his stride, he questions her. “What’s missing from your file? The real reason you transferred?”

“Captain, I transferred because I was tired of the antics of the Garrison. Most are just as bad as the MPs.”

Stopping, he turns and stares at her, reading her for dishonesty. “That’s all?”

“If you read my file, you know I was a Squad Leader. I had a soldier under me that had acted inappropriately towards other soldiers several times. Starting vicious fights, stealing, generally causing problems. When I took action against him, I was censured. He was drinking and gambling buddies with our superiors. I want nothing to do with filth like that. So I asked to transfer.” Her confidence bespoke of her honesty.

Finding no reason to doubt her words, Levi merely nodded and started walking towards the ODM course. Quickly grabbing gear for her, he appraises her as she equips.

“When was the last time you wore the gear?” He asks, noticing her fumbling with a few of the connections.

“Retaking Trost, sir.”

“Did you stand on the roof like all the other idiots, or did you run?” She grits her teeth at the abrasive question. She rationally knows he’s trying to push her buttons, but to imply she was a coward pissed her off.

Her eyes flashed with anger as she spit out, “5 solo kills, 4 assists. I DID NOT run.”

Folding his arms across his chest, he quirks an eyebrow, surprised at her kills. While his numbers were unimportant in his mind, he was impressed that someone who doesn’t encounter Titans regularly kept her composure during the surprise attack on the town.

Running her through the course several times, he noted that while her movements weren’t quite fluid, that seemed to be from lack of practice rather than lack of skill. Taking into account the fact that the Garrison got less ODM time than Scouts, her skills were still above the fresh recruits from the 104th. Satisfied with her performance, he signaled her to come back.

**Time Skip**

In the several weeks since transferring, Y/N had started to settle in. Making friends with several of the veterans, she was able to talk with them about events that had occurred, sharing her perspective from the Garrison. The 104th soldiers were endearing to her, she almost viewed them as younger siblings. Still having not revealed her age, she was enduring daily advances by most of the boys, Jean especially.

Levi sat at the superiors table observing Y/N interact with the kids. His jaw tightened as he watched Jean throw another flirty grin at the alluring woman. He had come to like Y/N, quickly taking advantage of her former position as a Squad Leader to pull her into his office every evening to assist with the mountains of paperwork he never seemed to finish. In between the scratching of pen against paper, they had begun to talk, first about non-consequential things. As the hours past in the candle light, the conversation had turned personal, more so on her part. While he still held himself back from revealing all of his past, he was surprised to realize that in a few short weeks, she knew as much about him as his closest friends Erwin and Hange.

Jean grabs Y/N’s hand, rubbing his fingers across her knuckles, causing Levi to set his cup down and get up, intent on going over to the table to put the kid in his place. He doesn’t understand the feelings he’s having, but he knows that he hates it. Walking quietly towards them, he stops as he hears the conversation.

“Y/N, you have to go on a date with me! Your face is haunting my dreams.” Jean smiles, thinking that his admission is suave.

“I’ve told you before Jean, you’re too young for me.” She gently pulls her hand from his, annoyed that he just doesn’t seem to get the hint.

“Babe, you can’t be too much older than me. I promise I’ll satisfy you.” Wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, he moves in closer.

Levi is ready to tear the boy apart physically, but Y/N beats him to it, verbally.

“Okay, kid, I’m done being nice. Let me put this a way you will understand. I am old enough to have pushed you out of my vagina. Why the FUCK would I let you in it?” Her words filet him neatly.

Levi almost laughs at how quickly Jean pales. The horrified expression on his face grows as Y/N continues.

“Or do you have mommy issues? I’m not into that kind of kink, thanks though.”

The table explodes with laughter and someone throws out the question that is on all of their minds. How old is Y/N?

“I’m 31. I was in the Garrison for 15 years, not 1 like you all assumed.” She grins.

The conversation moves on, the kids amazed at Y/N’s age and asking questions about events past. Levi walks away, satisfied that the brats will no longer be hitting on the woman he secretly has come to think of as his.

**Time Skip**

Knocking on the door to his office, Y/N waits for Levi to open the door. She had noticed her grumpy superior walking towards the table at dinner, his posture stiff from anger. When he changed his course after watching her putting Jean in his place, she knew that she had not imagined the growing relationship between them.

When the door opens, her pulse speeds up like every other time she comes face to face with the sullen man. His posture relaxed, he stood back and let her enter. Walking towards the desk in the absurdly tidy office, Y/N realized there were no stacks of paper to pour over. The convenient cover for spending hours trying to get to know Levi was not going to work tonight. Facing him, she watched him close the door quietly, staring at her as he walked slowly towards her.

“You distract me. I don’t like it.” Levi comments.

“I’m sorry?” Tilting her head in confusion, Y/N tries to understand where the conversation is headed.

“I didn’t like that brat thinking he had a chance of touching you. It pissed me off.”

“Ahhhhhh, you were jealous.” A small smile curved her lips as she begins to see.

He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, stopping an arm length from her. “I don’t get jealous.”

Now she rolls her eyes, “Maybe not before. But you shouldn’t be.”

Invading her senses, he steps closer, the space in between them non existent. His observant grey orbs darken as her breathing quickens. She lifts her hand to his chest, slowly feeling the hard muscle beneath his shirt. Bringing a hand to her waist, he questions. “Why is that?”

Wetting her lips, she leans forward, breathing into him as she honestly replies. “I don’t do younger. Age matters to me.”

“Thank fuck I’m older.”

Mobile MasterList

[the-digimon-tamer]

Chapter 32 - Monsters and Sovereigns is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

The air was heavy and breathing was hard. Megidramon hovered over them, leering down with his fiery red eyes. As if to make the digimon more ominous, the sky darkened with storm clouds every passing second. The Digital World itself seemed to be protesting this monstrosity’s very existence and looked to be doing all it could to drive him away. If only a little inclement weather would be enough to drive it away. It would save them from the worse fight of their lives.

“I’m suddenly having second thoughts about this,” Rapidmon said. Megidramon roared at the top of his lungs and spewed hot ash at them, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

The ash came at their too fast for them to try to get away. But worse was the fact that the attack was coming right at them. Rika shouted, “What the hell goggle head!? Are you trying to kill us!?”

“No, I’m trying to kill Beelzemon. You guys just won’t get out of the way,” Tamerkato snapped.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Taomon drew her brush through the air and along the ground, “Talisman Spell!”

A green yin-yang symbol appeared beneath them, encompassing them in a green light that split the ash apart and protected them from the burning heat. But the heat still had them sweating just from the proximity. If this much heat was able to get through...how much hotter was it outside the protective field?

When the ash subsided, Megidramon brought his massive fist down upon the protective barrier. The first blow made a loud thunderous boom and they heard Taomon grunt “This won’t survive a second hit.” 

“Guardromon! You were Tamer’s friend before. How do we stop this?” Kazu asked. His partner scratched his head, “Last time this happened, the digidestined talked sense into him.”

“Oh great. The one thing he doesn’t want to do,” Kazu groaned. Taomon called out, “We’ll figure this out later. Everyone, get ready to run. On my mark! Ready?”

Everyone readied to take off, setting themselves up to run. Rika went to Juri, hoping to help the poor girl away since she was still too shell shocked to do anything. 

“Now!” Taomon cried out. She dispelled the shield as soon as Megidramon wound up a second attack, and everyone scattered away to avoid the massive claw digging into the ground. That was their chance and everyone scattered away in different directions, hoping to get away before things got worse. Rika drag Juri along, the poor girl still staring at the spot where Leomon fell just moments ago. 

Rapidmon carried Beelzemon away while Cyberdramon charged forward to block the attack. He uppercut Megidramon, stunning the monster for a moment while Guardromon and Taomon set up for a combined attack. As soon as they were safely away, Ryo, Kazu, and Rika acted quickly to support their partners, “Digimodify!”

“Speed boost Activate!”

“Strength Boost Activate!”

“Machinedramon’s Cannon Activate!”

Taomon attacked first, clasping her hands together and summoning an array of red talismans to fly at Taomon, “Thousand Spells!”

The attacks hit their mark, but only served to bring Megidramon’s attention onto Taomon. At least until Guardromon fired the cannon’s on his back and struck Megidramon in the chest. It flashed like light as the digimon was pushed back, until he opened its mouth again to spew out hot ash, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

Once again, the hot ash came and followed Guardromon as he rushed towards the water. Before the hot ash and smoke could harm him, Cyberdramon flew in and decked the mega from above, slamming his jaw shut. But that left him open and Megidramon grabbed him off his head and slammed him onto the ground, “RARGH!”

He did it again and again until the digimon was limp in Megidramon’s hands. Megidramon hissed and threw Cyberdramon aside. Ryo gasped and raced to where his partner landed along the sand. Tamerkato proceeded towards them, calmly saying, “Guys. Fighting each other isn’t going to do any good. We really ought to work together to destroy Beelzemon.”

“You’re the one attacking!” Kazu shouted angrily.

“No, Megidramon’s attacking Beelzemon. You guys are attacking him. Big difference,” Tamerkato said, just as his partner roared again angrily. This thing, this monstrosity, was not the sweet and kind Guilmon they remembered. Now all they could see in it was malice. Anger. Bloodlust. Henry jumped in front of Tamerkato, grabbing a hold of him by the collar, “Takato! Get a hold of yourself!”

He just looked at him indifferently, “My name isn’t Takato.”

Henry groaned, “Fine! Digimon Tamer! Whatever! Will you come to your senses!?”

“I am at my senses! He killed Leomon! That needs to be punished. Therefore, he needs to die. You don’t get more sensible than that,” Tamerkato explained calmly. The fact that he said it so calmly was the most terrifying. It was then that Rapidmon finally dashed in with his cannons aimed at Tamerkato’s head. Tamerkato looked from the Ultimate to Henry, his eyes more cold and analytical than they’d ever been before. Henry remembered the stories from Takeru, the things Rika had warned about, the grumblings of the digidestined. For the first time since he’d met Tamerkato, he was sure all of it was true. Then he chuckled, “What is this? Your gamble to stop me? Going to pull the trigger? Shoot me in the face? Why are you all trying so hard to protect Beelzemon?”

“I’m just trying to protect my partner!” Rapidmon said, keeping the gun trained on Tamerkato. He looked back from Rapidmon to Henry, “You two are acting just like Beelzemon.”

That accusation struck Henry. And he hated. It made him mad. Mad in a way he didn’t know he could be. He pulled Tamerkato closer and shouted, “WE’RE ACTING LIKE BEELZEMON!? YOU’RE THE ONE GOING ON A RAMPAGE!” 

“No, I’m being deliberate. I’m just trying to get to Beelzemon. You’re the ones going on the attack,” Tamerkato answered back quietly. It took all the self restraint Henry had to not punch him right there. He took a moment to catch his breath and think for a moment but had nothing to say to that. Tamerkato brushed his hands off him and remarked, “If you’re done, I think I said I was going to murder that piece of crap. And I intend to follow through.”

He adjusted his clothes and proceeded towards Beelzemon, getting far enough to be just beside the digimon when Rapidmon fired a shot into the air. The shot went so close that it managed to blow past his hair. Megidramon roared and Tamerkato spun in his tracks to look at the Ultimate. Henry’s eyes widened as  he looked at his partner, “Are you crazy?”

“Maybe I am. Maybe I’ve gone stupid too! I mean, he’s not the only one able to lose his mind and start doing very stupid things at the drop of a hat!” Rapidmon blurted out angrily. Tamerkato looked at him quietly, staring for the longest time before remarking, “Stupid? Is that what you think this is? Stupidity? It’s not. This isn’t stupidity. It’s clarity. I mean...I tried to be kind. I tried to be merciful. I tried talking things out. And it doesn’t work! Well today, I’m not going for mercy. I’m not being kind.  Because it doesn’t work - the Dark Masters, Myotismon, Armageddomon, Apocalymon, the traitors! Kindness just means they’ll come back worse later on. Today, I’m honoring everyone who’s ever died because I tried to be kind. Because I tried to be merciful. Right now, only one person is going to die. And he’s right there!”

He pointed at the injured and dying Beelzemon, still shooting a defiant look at Tamerkato. It was hard to deny that Henry wanted to take revenge for Leomon. But this...this wasn’t right. He shook his head, “If you do this Tamer, you’re going to be just like him. And we can’t be like him. You can’t...if you really are the Digimon Tamer, you need to be better than him!”

There was a pause. Tamerkato looked back sullenly like he was weighing Henry’s words. But then he sighed and answered, “That’s where you’re wrong Henry. I’m not better. I never have been. I’m The Digimon Tamer. Ryo is right to hate me. Rika’s mom is right to scorn me. Because I am so much worse.”

He’d made up his mind. Henry looked over to Rapidmon, knowing what his partner had to do and afraid of actually doing it. 

...

Juri watched silently as Tamerkato continued on towards Beelzemon. Rapidmon trained his gun but was whipped away by Megidramon’s tail. Guardromon and Taomon jumped in front of the digimon in a last ditch effort to protect the injured mega and were batted aside by Megidramon’s massive arms. Beelzemon drew his shotgun one more time to get off one last minute shot. Tamerkato didn’t even try to get out of the way.

They were going to kill each other. Juri couldn’t take it any more. She wanted to scream. To shout. To let out all the pain and guilt building up inside her, “STOP!”

Tamerkato and Beelzemon paused to look at her. She must’ve looked absolutely pathetic, kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down her eyes. Between pauses her breath, she pleaded, “No more. Please...don’t...there’s been enough death. I don’t want anyone else to die. So please...don’t.”

Tamerkato looked at her mournfully, his expression breaking out of his impassive state for the first time since the island. Without looking away from her, he snatched the shotgun out of Beelzemon’s hand and threw it aside. Then he kneeled down at the digimon’s side, “Juri’s right. There’s been enough death. But that doesn’t make what you did right.”

He raised up his hand and touched Beelzemon on the forehead, “You need to be punished.”

It was hard to understand what happened next. All he did was press a finger to Beelzemon’s forehead, but the mega started screaming at the top of his lungs. Screaming. Pleading. Pushing Tamerkato away and crawling away on the dirt, “NO! MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP! WHY?”

He stopped screaming only to violently vomit on the ground, before screaming again, trying to crawl away as fast as he could. Henry and Ryo were on Tamerkato again, pulling him back and away from Beelzemon as the digimon continued to drag himself away. Ryo snapped, “What the hell did you do to him?”

“I put a memory in his head,” Tamerkato answered quietly. Henry looked from the boy to Beelzemon, “What the hell kind of memory did that?”

That was the question wasn’t it. Ignoring how he did it and assuming it was just some kind of Ancient thing, what memory did he put in Beelzemon’s head to reduce him to a scared and frightened digimon crawling away for his life. And the answer Tamerkato gave was probably one of the least reassuring answers he could’ve given, “A really bad one.”

It was strange how four little words could be the scariest thing any of them heard - four words they’d probably heard a million times on their own. But in this time at that order, they were scarier than anything else Tamerkato had done. Juri’s eyes lingered on Beelzemon, finding him pitiable now despite the senseless violence he’d unleashed upon Leomon. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But Leomon’s death kept her from feeling more than pity for him. It was a hollow feeling, because no amount of suffering inflicted on him would ever bring Leomon back to her. 

And then she remembered that a digimon’s memories became a part of the digimon who absorbed them and she was compelled to wonder if some part of Leomon was still alive. Did he linger on in Beelzemon, somewhere? Or were his memories part of Beelzemon now, just another thing to be angry about. She hated everything about that - how powerless she was to do anything about it. The fact that someone else had been taken from her life unfairly. And all of it was Tamerkato’s fault. If he hadn’t egged Beelzemon on...

She looked his way, seeing him watch Beelzemon crawl along the sand screaming and begging for mercy. He was like a monster. No,  The Digimon Tamer was a monster. Rika was right. They’d all been right. He was horrible. 

“So...are you okay now or should we be worried?” Kenta asked nervously, looking back at Megidramon growling at them. Tamer seemed calm but that didn’t explain Megidramon...or why the digimon was still there. Kenta added, “Because Guilmon’s not turning back and he’s still terrifying to look at. He isn’t going to eat us, right? Right? Takato? Right?”

The Digimon Tamer didn’t answer, looking back at the massive mega digimon hovering over them. He ran a hand through his hair to swipe it back and adjusted his goggles up over his head. A moment of silence followed as he drew a deep breath, seemingly to calm himself but that did nothing to regress Megidramon back to his rookie form. He was still angry. Of course he was. It made her wonder...

...if Leomon were still alive, what would her anger turn him into? Would he be strong enough to make even Megidramon tremble in terror? If only she had been stronger...braver...she would have been able to save Leomon.

...

Henry wasn’t sure the situation could get any worse and was glad it hadn’t. But he was sure something was going to set either Tamerkato or Megidramon off at any moment. His attempts to reason with Tamerkato hadn’t quite gone anywhere. And now he was silent, staring at his partner calmly as his partner leered back. 

Then the clouds parted and a blinding pillar of light descended from above to strike Megidramon. The mega let out a howl of pain as it crashed into the ground, gnashing its teeth and thrashing its arms angrily. The massive monster turned its head skyward, opening its mouth to reveal rows upon rows of teeth, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

Hot ash spewed out of his mouth towards the sky, only to disappear into the light. His backlash seemed to empower the pillar of light and it grew in size until the digimon was consumed completely by the light. All they could make out was his silhouette for a split second and even that disappeared eventually.

For a moment, it seemed they’d lost two digimon in the span of a few minutes: Leomon and Guilmon. Then the light faded to reveal the little red dinosaur resting unconscious on the ground. Tamerkato gasped and ran to his partner’s side, cradling the unconscious rookie in his arms - or at least as much as he could cradle the adult sized rookie, “Guilmon! GUILMON!”

The fear was back, this time for whatever was able to single handedly take out the monster Megidramon so easily. The clouds parted to reveal a light blue serpent made of clouds and wrapped in long chains, bathed in a glow of light that made the world around them seem dark. As the serpent came into view, so did its long wispy beard that reached so far down that it almost touched the ground and waved in a nonexistent wind. The digimon looked down on them, “What the hell is going on?”

The voice was not quite what he expected from such a large digimon. He expected it to be booming and commanding but instead it spoke softly like a parent. Still, Henry knew this digimon from the show and was more than excited by the fact that he actually got to see it in real life. He was sure everyone knew this digimon’s name too.

“Who’s asking!?” Rapidmon shouted back at it. Well, almost everyone should’ve known who this digimon was. Guardromon slapped Rapidmon across the back of the head and explained, “That’s Azulongmon! A Sovereign Digimon!”

“Hey! Rapidmon! Maybe don’t anger the giant digimon in the sky that just took out Megidramon!” Rika added. Rapidmon threw up his arms in frustration, “Does it matter? This makes three crazy digimon trying to attack us just today. Why break the streak? Let’s see how many we can get! Let’s aim for four! Five! Sky’s the limit today.”

“I really hope you’re kidding,” Henry slapped his forehead and called out to Azulongmon, “Azulongmon!”

It was very daunting to be this digimon’s center of attention. Even more daunting when it leaned in closer to look with his four eyes. He put on the bravest face he could as the dragon asked, “Humans? Wait! Are you the digidestined!? It’s been so long! It’s good that you’re here! We don’t have time to lose! Is the Digimon Tamer with you? Please say-”

“He’s not,” Tamerkato answered quickly, keeping his attention focused on Guilmon. He lied. He wasn’t sure why but decided against calling it out right now. He wasn’t sure adding more to his bad mood would do any of them any good right now. Azulongmon glanced down at Tamer and Guilmon briefly, “Was that your partner?”

Tamerkato nodded quietly and Azulongmon rolled his eyes, “Work on your anger issues. Seriously, we’ve got enough things on our hands without having to deal with a human who can’t keep his emotions in check. Which digidestined are you, by the way? I don’t recognize any of you. You’re not that one who wore the fire jacket were you? Your fashion sense has barely gotten better.”

“I think he runs a noodle cart now, actually,” Kenta added quietly. 

“We’re not the digidestined!” Rika answered the digimon above them. The flying dragon examined them carefully, “Are you sure? You have digimon partners. And what look like digivices. Just not any digivice I’ve seen before.”

“We’re sure,” Taomon assured the flying dragon. Azulongmon mumbled something under his breath before asking, “Well if you’re not the digidestined, then who are you and...wait, Tamer?”

He looked directly at Ryo when he said that and the boy groaned, “For the love of...why does everyone think I’m Tamer? I’m Ryo. I’m human too. The Digimon Tamer is-”

Tamerkato shot him another dirty look and Ryo paused, considering what he should say and settling on, “Not here. And certainly not me.”

Azulongmon stared down at them quietly before sighing, “It doesn’t matter. Since you’re here, there’s...the Catalyst! Why do you have the Catalyst!?”

Calumon cowered at the sound of being called the Catalyst and retreated to safety behind Juri. Tamerkato’s attention was back on his partner and he hardly noticed that the subject was now about the little digimon. Or maybe he did notice and was feigning ignorance. Henry hater the uncertainty that accompanied Tamer’s actions, “Calumon is actually why we’re here.”

He paused as he considered what he was going to say next. Admitting to a Sovereign that he had been the one stopping the Devas seems like a bad idea. Then again maybe he would be understanding? Azulongmon seemed like an understanding digimon. On the other hand, he had knocked Megidramon back to Guilmon with one attack. So what chance did they have if they made him angry? He swallowed the growing lump in his throat and again, “The Devas came to our world. And they were looking for this little guy. So we decided to come to your world and ask why. We know your world’s in trouble. We gathered that much from the Devas when they fought us. But what exactly is it?”

The sovereign gazed down on them from on high, and Henry wasn’t sure which unnerved him more: the monstrosity Tamerkato had released or the sovereign staring down at them. He was sure they were about to be attacked, when Azulongmon spoke, “Come with me and I’ll explain everything to you. But not here. Time is a factor and we can’t afford to waste it.”

The dragon descended upon them so fast that they weren’t prepared for the flash of light that followed his descent, or the sudden rush of wind as he encircled them. He coiled around them, moving in a serpentine spin at such speed that the whole world seemed to go crazy as he spun around until they felt their stomachs turn and the world spin.

When he finally stopped spinning around them and uncoiled, they found the sandy beaches of Gekomon Village replaced by miles of endless desert. And worst of all was a blinding light just a short distance away that they needed their hands to shield themselves from. Rika groaned, “What happened? Where are we?”

“The Tier of the Sovereigns,” Azulongmon answered proudly, hovering just before the light to shield them from it. Now that they were better able to see, they could make out the silhouettes of several other digimon present - a tortoise, a giant bird, what looked like a rabbit, an overgrown dog, a pig, and a mouse in a metal ball. Rika rubbed her eyes, trying to get them to focus but wasn’t able to concentrate properly. It didn’t help that Beelzemon was still screaming bloody murder and she cried out, “Will someone shut him up!?”

Taomon leapt over to Beelzemon and apologized, “I’m sorry. This is for your own good.”

She hit him across the back of his head as hard as he could, finally rendering the mega level digimon unconscious on the ground. 

“AZULONGMON! WHY DID YOU BRING INTERLOPERS HERE!?” a voice cried out, prompting Calumon to shriek, “That’s him! That’s the mean and scary voice the monkey took me to!”

His screaming panic sent him burying his face into Juri out of fear, as if looking away from the silhouettes would make whatever digimon they were about to meet leave him. The voice added, “Oh, it’s the catalyst. Where are Makuramon and the dragon digimon?”

Azulongmon flew straight into the light, apologizing as he went to confer with the silhouette, “Will you stop with the light show, already? It’s not impressing anyone - you’re just making it hard to see anything!”

Silence followed before the light began to fade, revealing the silhouetted digimon along side six new massive digimon they had never seen before. Although it wasn’t hard to figure who they were: the Sovereigns and whatever remained of the Devas. The large crimson bird swept its way towards them, “Hmph...why are there humans here? Are these the digidestined?”

“I’m afraid not, although I wish they were,” Azulongmon answered dryly. If it was possible at all to feel any more unwelcome in the Digital World, Henry was sure they were feeling it. Azulongmon added, “However, they have digivices that can affect digimon partnered with them. So perhaps they are.”

“I see. Wait, isn’t that the little imp that I rewarded some power to? What’s he doing here?” The large crimson bird asked loudly, gesturing towards the unconscious Beelzemon with his beak. Then it occurred to Henry that this must’ve been the digimon that Impmon had given Calumon to. The bird gazed down upon them expectantly, its eyes moving from one to another until it finally rested on Henry, “You! Explain!”

“Um...well, he attacked us because he was looking for a strong opponent,” Henry answered quietly, trying not to avoid the large digimon’s ire. The bird grunted its disapproval, “Hmph. He did strike me as weak willed. Even with a fraction of my power, he was weak. Very well, I am Zhuqiaomon - crimson bird of the south quadrant of the Digital World! Tell me who you are, humans, and why you are intruding in our domain!”

“Um...I’m Henry, that’s my partner Rapidmon. That’s Rika, her partner Taomon, Ryo, his partner Cyberdramon, Kazu, his partner Guardromon, that’s Kenta, Juri, Tam...Takato, and his partner Guilmon,” he answered quietly, “And you already know Calumon...the catalyst as you call him. We’re here because we’re trying to figure out why he was in our world and why the digimon were crossing over into our world to get him back. We got the basics down, there’s trouble in your world but what exactly is going on?”

“I see, I see. And how exactly did you get to our world?” Zhuqiaomon asked next, “Travel between worlds should only be possible for the digidestined and the Digimon Tamer. And you are neither.”

Henry paused, moving his gaze over to Tamerkato as he struggle to come up with an answer. Tamerkato just shook his head at him, as if he were begging him to not answer the question. He really wished he’d snap out of whatever was eating at him because he was not the quickest thinker in this kind of situation. Thankfully, Guardromon answered, “I helped them. I went to their world in search of the Digimon Tamer. I found them.”

He breathed a sigh of cautious relief. At least he hadn’t lied. After all, it was technically the truth. There was just one thing he didn’t understand. Why was Takato or Tamer choosing now to have his mental breakdown? Why now was he regressing back to using secrets. 

“He’s been down there a long time. Maybe we should go down to help?” The turtle said, looking away from them. Now that they could get better a look at it, the realized the turtle was massive, with a large oak growing from his back and a second head protruding from the side of his neck. The second head, “Quit worrying about the little prat for five minutes. He’s fine! We haven’t even introduced ourselves. Humans! We’re Ebonwumon, Sovereign Lord and Black Tortoise of the Northern Quadrant!”

“I’m just saying that maybe we should go down there and help him,” the first head countered, still ignoring them, “It’s not like he can take care of it by himself. We couldn’t take care of it together. Maybe we should’ve sent him some back up? Some of us definitely should’ve gone down with him.”

“Focus!” The second head countered. As soon as he said that, a giant pillar of red fire shot out of ground from behind the Sovereign digimon. It was followed by several large blasts of white lightning and the ground shaking beneath their feet. Once the shaking subsided, the first head said, “I was right to worry. Something is going horribly wrong down there!”

“So what exactly is going down there?” Ryo asked. Azulongmon glided past them towards a large and growing crevice that was just behind the gathered digimon. Azulongmon answered, “We Sovereign digimon serve as the guardians of this world and the last line of defense against danger. One day, we sensed...something...wrong and came to investigate. We found this crevice that tunnels far below the surface of the our world. And we found...a thing. We don’t know what it is. We’re not entirely sure if it’s even alive. But it attacked us, and it was unfazed by anything we did to stop it. That was when we realized a horrible truth about whatever this...thing is. It’s not digimon...or human. But it is Digital. And it seems to only want to destroy. We fled from it. And then WarGreymon came to help. He saw the danger and sacrificed himself to buy us time - collapsing the very earth on top of himself to bury it. But the time he bought wasn’t enough. The thing beneath us started to escape. Now, one of our own, Baihumon has gone down to battle.”

There was another flash of lightning from deep within the crevice, followed by a pillar of red fire. Kazu walked over to the pillar of fire and commented, “Wow, he must be a really brave digimon to go down there.”

“More like he was the only one small enough to actually venture down into the new crevice,” Ebonwumon’s second head pointed out, “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the rest of us are too big to actually get down there.”

“But then what about the rest of you?” Taomon asked, gesturing towards the rest of the digimon - the dog, the pig, rabbit, and the mouse. Kazu readily agreed, “Yeah! The rest of you have got to be small enough to fit inside! Well, except for you big guy.”

He readily gestured at the pig. Kenta adjusted his glasses, “That’s why they needed Calumon. They’re not strong enough. If the Sovereigns ran scared, what chance would these guys have?”

“WE WERE NOT SCARED!” Zhuqiaomon roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the Digital World. Ebonwumon’s second head cleared its throat and clarified, “What he means is it was a tactical retreat.”

The first head countered, “They have a word for that. It’s called scared.”

Their inability to agree was amusing, made all the better when the fire on Zhuqiaomon’s body erupted into emboldened flame. It stopped being funny when Calumon yelped, prompting Rapidmon to point out, “As funny as it is to watch you guys argue, shouldn’t you be more worried about your friend?  You said he was down there by himself. And besides, you have Calumon now. What are you waiting for?”

A beat of silence followed as the digimon sovereigns looked amongst themselves until the rabbit groaned, “Oh for the love of...fine, I’ll tell them. We don’t really know how to use it. We were hoping to either find the Digimon Tamer or that Makuramon would find the information to use it first. But we haven’t seen either Makuramon or Majiramon since they left to get the Catalyst.”

“SILENCE ANTYLAMON! Until you learn to hold your tongue, go guard the Western Gate to our domain!” Zhuqiaomon roared, the fires on his wings growing ever brighter. Antylamon’s ears slunk down as the giant bunny shrank away, turning to leave with her shoulders slumped. Henry looked hard at Tamerkato now, who still sat on the ground beside his silent partner. He seemed to be saying something but it was too quiet to actually hear. Probably disturbed by what he’d done to his partner. And as for Juri, she’d also seemed to have shut down. It seemed both of them were out of the fight on this end now. 

...

Ryo wondered if the reason none of them had mentioned what happened to the other Devas was a fear of reprisal from the Sovereigns. He was about to explain when Rika opened her mouth, “If you’re waiting for the monkey and the dragon, don’t bother. They’re dead.”

“WHAT!?” Zhuqiaomon roared angrily, an apparent habit of his. Rika didn’t cow like Antylamon, actually appearing annoyed with Zhuqiaomon for exploding like a child, “Hey! They attacked us! Besides, it’s not like they were going to listen to us when we told them to stop.”

“You...YOU’RE THE ONES WHO KILLED THE OTHERS! MIHIRAMON! SINDURAMON! SANDIRAMON! PAJIRAMON! VAJRAMON! EVEN INDRAMON!”

Zhuqiaomon was mad now. As he roared, pillars of fire erupted from the sand around them and encircling them in a brilliant display. Ryo tried gesturing at Rika to knock it off, hoping she would stop antagonizing the giant fire bird in front of them. Especially since that worked so well for them last time. Instead she only seemed empowered by his rampage and she rolled her eyes, “That’s not impressing anyone. Take it from me: you’re just coming off as really childish.”

Zhuqiaomon paused to consider what she said and the fires died down, leaving only blackened scorch marks along the ground. The bird leaned in on Rika, and they were able to better appreciate his massive size. His head alone was probably the size of an SUV, “How can a human like you be so unintimidated?”

“Are you kidding? We’ve been fighting for our lives against crazy digimon since we got here. Why should you be any different?” she countered grumpily, “I mean, the last guy had eight heads. Then there was Megadramon who came out of the snow, Beelzemon over there actually showed up on a motorcycle and was trying to shoot us. At this point, I think we’re all tapped out for being surprised or scared.”

Zhuqiaomon examined her carefully, and he was sure she was about to get herself killed. He hurried ahead of her and pulled her behind him, “If you’re thinking of hurting her, you’re going to have go through me.”

He’d lost enough in his time here in the Digital World. Ryo wasn’t about to lose anymore, especially not to this overgrown bird. Zhuqiaomon shook his head, “I wasn’t planning on anything. I was just thinking on how much she reminds me of the The Digimon Tamer. For a moment, it seemed she was. But the look in her eyes is different. They’re younger, more optimistic. The Digimon Tamer had the eyes of a warrior. Eyes that already had a plan to stop you before they’d met yours.”

Ryo tried his hardest not to glance at Tamerkato, wondering how Zhuqiaomon would take the news that he was the Digimon Tamer. Whatever warrior fervor Zhuqiaomon thought he had was gone a long time ago, only coming out as spats of pure anger whenever he was provoked enough. Now he just seemed broken. He contemplated what to say or do now but was unsure for the first time since he’d come to the Digital World. All he wanted for now was to go home. 

“Well, what if we helped?” Kazu asked aloud, “I mean, since you don’t know how to use the Catalyst, how about we go down and take a look at...whatever it is that has you all spooked. Maybe we can do something about it!?”

Zhuqiaomon turned his attention to Kazu and growled, “And how do you propose to do that?”

Kazu gestured at their partners, “Between Guardromon, Cyberdramon, Taomon, and Rapidmon? We fly down there! It’d work since we could just squeeze into the gap. If we can’t stop it, we can definitely help Baihumon get out.”

The sovereigns and Devas looked between each other, silently communicating with their eyes until Azulongmon answered, “Why not? What’s the worse that could happen?”

[geminimoonbeamx]

I knew you were trouble: Part One

A/N: So I’m trying to figure out a way to realistically incorporate all of these characters lol. There’s going to be times when you don’t like them; because let’s be real, they did grow up in this pretty shifty world.

Also, I’m trying to find my bearings writing Carter and ughhhh, he’s hard lol

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: As with all of my stories there’s a permanent warning of cursing. I have a mouth like a sailor and express myself through the word fuck. Underage drinking.

Summary: Y/N Bass had always liked to think of herself as different- but when it comes to Carter Baizen she gets played just like the rest. Between a life changing mistake and the trials of first heartbreak, she has so much growing up to do, she wonders how she can possibly be expected to raise a child without it being just as fucked up as she is.

You don’t know why you choosing to go to Caroline’s party is such a big fucking deal.

But it is.

You receive shit from it on all ends. Adrian tries, weakly and in vain, to convince you that you should at least make an appearance at Blair’s to which you shrug and tell him “Nah, it’s the principle of the situation- fuck her”

And he groans and throws himself back on his bed because he knew you- knew just how stubborn you were.

When Saturday night rolls around, you stand in your vast closet, your body sucked into lacy shapewear that smooth’s over your rolls nd leaves your middle cinched in. You cant decide what exactly to wear and you gnaw on your lip as you toss clothes haphazardly in your wake. When your phone chirps from its place on the counter of one of your shoe racks, you’re expecting it to be Mika(who’s late, and who’s hair you were supposed to do). You grimace as you take in the caller I.D.

Mother fu-

“Hi Chuck” You force yourself to answer it.

“Cousin” Is all he gives you in greeting “Please tell me you’ve reevaluated your life choices and are coming to Blair’s tonight”

You’d always found the way he talked equally as annoying as it was interesting. That pretentious jerk.

“My life choices don’t need reevaluating, thanks. And no- I’m not going to that party so fuck off” You inform him, only half paying attention. You phone sandwiched between your ear and your shoulder as you fingered through the racks of clothes.

“Y/N” The way he says your name is serious, as though you’d committed a real crime and it makes you bark out a laugh.

“Charles” You reply, deepening your voice to tease him right back. There were a lot of people who didn’t have the balls to jest with your cousin, to proke and prod at him- you weren’t one of them. You listen to his almost convincing lulls, rolling you eyes more then once in the duration of the conversation. Blah, Blah, Bass’ stick together in social situations. Blair’s my girlfriend and she’s expecting you there, blah, blah.

“Welp, looks like you’re all just going to have to miss my presence tonight”

“You’re really skipping this to go to a Baizens party. I cant believe you” The way he spits out the name Baizen- the vehement hate is almost scary. You knew he hated Carter, if only because of the brief tryst he’d had with Blair, but jeeze. This was intense. See? Men are just as petty an jealous and grudge holding as anyone.

“Caroline’s nice”

“You don’t even know her”

“I do! She wrote a few papers for me last year. I graduated because of her”

He scoffs “You’re one of the smartest people I know, if you hadn’t been so god damn lazy last year you wouldn’t have needed people to do your homework for you”

You couldn’t argue that, so you didn’t.

“What ever. Fuck off, I’m still not going” You say instead, as you decide on a body con green skirt. You can hear the jingle of your door being opened and then Mika hollering

“Honey, I’m home”

“I’m taking this as a personal act of betrayal” Chuck digresses and it sets you off into another bout of laughter.

“You are such a drama queen, shut up”

Mika walks into your closet and you hold up a finger, silently telling her to wait a second.

‘Who is it?’ She mouths.

'Chuck’ You mouth back and she just grins and nods and makes her way out of the closet and into your apartment, as though she owns the place. as though she was a permenant resident. Which she pretty much was.

There’s a bit more of a argument, a back and forth like there always is between the two of you, before he can tell that you’re dead serious. He tells you to have fun with your new family, his voice voice not malicious though- and then that he’d save you a drink just incase you came to your senses.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Have fun tonight, loser. Be safe”

“You too”

And then there was the click of him hanging up. You know it didn’t seem affectionate, but it was. It was the way that you two had always communicated with eachother, you’re on personal language of sorts.

You find Mika sitting cross legged on your bed, a bong as big as her torso in her lap as she takes long drags from it. “Help me with my hair before I just decide to shave my head” She says around coughs as she offers you the bong, your own bong, as a token and you laugh and tell her to meet you in your bathroom. What would she do without you.

You’d always lived your life a little more then casually late, so its no surprise that you and your friends are over an hour late to Carolines party. Adrian, ever the snarker, says she’s lucky that you guys had decided to show at all. That earns him a hard elbow to the side from you. The hotel that she was throwing it in was nice, extravagant, and you’re struck once more by just how loaded the Baizens were. Old money, ancient money. And lots of it.

“Oh this is so sad” comes Mika’s quiet mutter as you enter the event room- it was decorated impeccably. Gorgeous and modern, the only lighting coming from pretty strings of fairy lights and neon fixtures set up around the room…but even in the dim lighting, you could see that there were no more then twenty people scattered around the large room.

“This shit is more then sad- this is tragic. It’s so dead in here, it looks like the hospital that guy wakes up in in 28 days later” Adrian whispers, his eyes wide with genuine shock at the state of this party.

Poor Caroline…

You’re just about to suggest you guys find the bar, and start to drain it when the girl herself comes up to you.

“Y/N” She sounds so happy, so astonished that you were actually there that you had to fight your face from turning into a frown. You don’t want her to think you’re pitying her. “Oh my gosh, you came!”

“Yeah, I RSVP’d last week” You reach over to give her a short hug “This place looks amazing! You have to give me the number to your decorator!”

Even Adrian, who does have a heart by the way, forces himself to smile and be cheery when the girl greets him. He doesn’t hug though- Adrian’s very picky on who he makes body contact and even though he’s trying to be nice, the most Carolines going to get is a pat on the shoulder. Mika’s still high as a kite from earlier and throws her arms around the younger girl overbearingly.

“Happy Birthday!” She cheers with a dopey grin.

“Oh, it um- isn’t my birthday” Caroline corrects her and Mika’s eyebrows pinch.

“Really? Then why is there a cake?” Mika points out as though it explained every in asked question in the universe.

“Let them eat cake, Meeks” You say cheekily and she gives you a sideways crook of her eye. She’s more then aware of your obsession with Marie Antionette. You’d always felt a spiritual connection to her, you explain. You also could put a country in debt with your shopping habits.

“Wise words to live by” Carter Baizen never made an easy entrance. Something about his…fucking being just tended to make his mere presence impactful. Big. Noticeable.

Well that and the fact that he was drop dead fucking gorgeous. You cant deny that. Even though you think he’s a piece of trash.

You give him a small, forced smile in response.

Of course he notices. He knows he’s not your favorite person- he remembered you having to help bail Nate out of that whole gambling thing he’d roped the younger man into…and he’d stolen from your brother…

No matter.

That didn’t mean the two of you couldn’t be friends, right?

For the rest of the night he seems to make that his personal mission; if only to get back at Chuck somehow in his mind.

You won’t have it though. Yes, you’d come for Caroline. You’d come to be a decent person, to have a clear conscious. But that was it. This wasn’t some white flag being waved. The Bass’ and Baizens had never gotten along and you were there to change that.

Especially not after what he had done to Nate.

You were only human, and of course you not only heard, but partook in the gossip that ran among the maze of socialites over the years. You knew knew enough about him to want to keep him at arms length.

He was goregous, but he was pure trouble. And you were trying to be different.

So, even though Carter attempted to make small talk, offered you and your friends drinks, and acted like a funny, charming human being- you were far from convinced.

You let the conversation pass to Mika and Adrian, well mostly Adrian who was flirting with him openly.

You didn’t think Carter swung that way, but you also didn’t think Adrian cared. He was one hell of a flirt.

You’d been to better parties before, forsure, but this one wasn’t the worst you’d ever attended. You frequented luncheons for Christ sakes. At least this one wasn’t filled with snooty tooty old people who were just dying to kill your buzz.

Which was fluctuating pretty steadily. You’d been dancing, with a constant drink in your hand since a few hours ago. You’d had four vodka crans when you decided you needed to step outside, get a deep breath of fresh air to center yourself. You let your friends know as you slide past them. Adrian’s twerking on Caroline and Mikas doing something that looks similar to the hula.

The air is crisp and just on the right side of cool when you step out into one of the balconies. You inhale deeply and try to sort through your tipsy mind. Everything feels good, as you stare out at the lights you feel weightless. Even the ever present pinch of your heels is on the back burner.

And then…you feel eyes. The same cat like gaze you’d caught on you various times throughout the night.

“You’re a real creep, you know?” You state as you turn around and half glare at the culprit.

Carter just gives that devilish, crooked grin of his.

“I’ve been called worse” he shrugs as he joins you at the ledge your leaning on.

Hah, you bet.

“You feeling okay? I just came to check on you” at that you give him a disbelieving look.

Whatever.

Your eyes, so expressive and clear, portray what your thinking and it just makes him grin harder.

“Thanks” you don’t sound very thankful though.

“You hate me, right?” Carter wonders bluntly, figuring he might as well put it all out there on the table. He’s had a few drinks himself.

“No, Carter. I don’t hate you” he’s only pleasantly surprised for a second before you continue “I literally don’t have any energy to spend on you. That’s how little you mean to me”

Well damn.

He hadn’t been expecting that one.

You don’t even look at him as your ice cold words hit him, no, you just stare at the skyline. And he stares at the side of your face. At the way the shadows play tricks with your eyelashes.

“Well, no matter how you feel about me, I appreciate you coming tonight. I really do” Carter coughs before he starts , he felt the need to thank you. Even though he wondered why exactly you had come.

You just nod “I know what it’s like to have assholes in your family- it’s not fair to get the backlash for that” you mutter.

His eyes, peircing and gray, make you want to squirm. The intensity in them is palpable.

“Stop staring at me, Baizen” you tell him, shooting him a sideways look and in retrospect, he thinks that’s the exact moment he realized he wanted to know you better.

“So tell me about yourself, little Bass. It’s been a while”

You fight the urge to gag dramatically.

“Nothing to tell really”

“You graduated last year, right?”

“Yup”

“You’ve been up to anything interesting since?”

“Nope”

He can’t help but get a little frustrated. You’re really shutting him down, not even subtly. Carter didn’t respond well to being shrugged off.

He lets out a humorless chuckle.

“You always this difficult?”

“Yup” you pop the p, put give him a small, amused smile.

You then sigh, maybe it was the drinks, but that little but of disappointment in his face breaks you “I um- took over my moms cosmetic company”

Carter nods and chews on that, trying to figure out how to tread lightly with this topic “Yeah, I heard she passed last year, her and your uncle…my condolences”

You just give him a hollow “thanks” before quickly changing the subject, wanting to get as far away from discussions of dead mothers and family curses as you could.

That night you learned Carter had spend months living in Youth Hostels; from Egypt to Greece and everywhere in between. You’d learned that he’d helped build huts in villages and paraglided in Brazil. You discovered that the two of you shared a morbid, yet almost dorky sense of humor and that maybe, just maybe you didn’t understand why everyone seemed to hate him so much. You’d stayed out on that balcony with him for what felt like hours, until Mika came looking for you claiming that

“Adrian took one too many jäger shots, time to bounce before he gets really sick. You know him, his puking would probably end up all over Twitter again”

You’d detached yourself from the conversation, said your goodbyes and walked away. Thinking that was the end of it.

As you felt that gaze on your back, you should have known that it was just the beginning.

As you sit in bed later that night, the dawn on the horizon outside your window you scroll through your phone. Mika’s asleep on her stomach on one side of you, and Adrian’s arm is slung across your waist and his head pillowed on your breast, on the other. A usaul position for the three of you at the end of a wild night.

When you opened up your Instagram app you couldn’t help the way you tensed up, surprised…thrilled. Carter Baizen had added you as a friend and hearted five or more of your pictures. Selfies. Ones of you dolled up and hitting all of your angles. Your stomach twists and a treacherous smile spreads across your face.

After a couple seconds you force yourself to click off of your phone, to reach over and toss it onto the bedside table. To force all giddy, stupid thoughts of Carter out of your head.

Don’t be an idiot, you chide yourself.

You wish you would have listened.

@peacefulwriter88 @buchonians @beautifullybarnes @misrobyn81 @prettybubblesintheair @lostinthoughtsandfeelings @thatawkwardtinyperson @bucysforeverprincess @whenallssaidanddone @shayla-markele @brandybucky @toastmaster94 @tatathekissypotato @mellypuddinpop @geekyweed @iamwarrenspeace @4theluvofall @mashed-fandom-imagines @stellarsebastian @winterbuttmunch @lilac-meadows @mrs-stan-barnes @supernovasandcoronas

Okay so I’m going to be messing with the timeline of GG. I’ll be taking elements and events from the show, but kind of twisting them and making them my own. If that’s not your cup of tea, this ones probably not for you.

And okay, some back ground on this reader; Her mother was a Bass; Bart and Jacks sister. We’ll get more into her death later , and her father maybe, just might pop up in later chapters.

Also, keep in mind that if you want to be tagged in this story(and if so please ask in the comment section), I would very much appreciate it if you give me some kind of feedback. Comment! Reblog! Tell me what you want to see! Don’t ghost read on me y'all lol

[ontowanderlust]

If Only

Created: May 7, 2017 Edited: June 20, 2017

Note: This is way overdue but at least, I managed to finish this! Remember the story I was writing during senior year? I decided to create one shots concerning these girls, and their stories. I wanted to capture whatever it was that made them who they were in that story. Now how about Eloisa Nicole?

Prompt: "Should I let my heart keep listening?"

Disclaimer: I don’t own the song: If Only, sung by Dove Cameron from the movie: Descendants. I figured it is kinda fitting to the Lover’s story. It is cool since the face claim (actress) that I chose to portray is also Dove Cameron. (Such a talented actress, if you’d ask me)

Dedicated to: M. E. N. D.  Wow, your initials are cool.

“How dare you talk to me like that,”

Her voice had dropped in a low and dangerous point that even her companion, Jamie, had managed to give her undivided attention, her usual passive face had shown different emotions all at once.

“Eloisa,” the rebellious band member had now trying to catch her attention before she utters more words. “Back down, girl or we’ll greet the next morning with our faces plastered on the morning paper.”

But the blonde girl didn’t pay any attention to Jamie’s warning. Instead, her eyes flashing a dangerous shade as she turned to the shop keeper who had cowered the moment Eloisa had spoken up.

“Didn’t I tell you what I needed or do I have to repeat myself?” She snarled as the shopkeeper turned to Jamie helplessly.

He was overwhelmed by the fact that two members of the great girl band had decided to grace his shop with their presence and he was immensely relieved when the sweet girl is accompanied by the rebel, it meant that there is a mediator should the dangerous girl throw a fit. Oh goodness, had he gone somewhere else that he missed the switching between Eloisa and Jamie? Imagine his surprise when the sweet girl was the one who bared her fangs instead of who he had expected.

“I’m really sorry, miss but-” the poor shopkeeper should’ve kept silent for the girl looks like she’s going to erupt any minute now. He really wanted to give her what she wanted if only it’s available. He would’ve recommended other shops but something tells him that it isn’t up for discussion. Helplessly, he looked over Jamie who now had an unreadable expression on her face.

The shopkeeper gulped in fear and prayed that he hadn’t unleashed the famous wrath of the other girl.

“That’s enough, Nicole.”

Jamie’s voice is quiet yet there is an underlying stern tone hidden in it. Roughly, she marched towards the shopkeeper and threw a wad of bills as she gripped onto her companion’s forearm and dragged her out of the shop.

The keeper had barely heard the apology mumbled by the brunette as he stared in bewilderment, wondering what had just happened.

**

“What the heck was that?”

Eloisa ignored Jamie’s outburst as she made a beeline towards the kitchen, trying to ease her annoyance at what happened.

“Answer my question, Donovan.” the brunette gritted her teeth as she caught up with her. “You know very well that you’ve been creating scandals and rumors. The least you can do is explain yourself.”

The blonde scowled as she turned to the taller girl. “Oh lookie, Jamie here is concerned about scandals and rumors and keeping up with the band’s image. Somebody pinch me, I must be having a nightmare!” she scoffed, her sarcasm is evident in her tone.

Jamie’s features darkened, scoffing as her eyes took the sight of the girl in front of her as if it was her first time seeing the blonde. “Such pathetic, you’ve become. What’s-”

“-wrong with you?”

Her attention now shifted at the cute blonde boy in front of her, his face masked with concern for her unresponsiveness.

Her bright green eyes shone with unshed tears as she was surrounded by the bullies earlier. If it weren’t for this blonde boy, she might’ve broken down in tears in front of those bullies.

She huffed. “Nothing’s wrong with me.” she protested as she crossed her arms across her chest to which the blonde boy blinked in confusion before letting out a hearty laugh.

Did she miss anything? Why is this boy laughing at her? Did she do something stupid?

“Why are you laughing at me?” she asked curiously although all she ever wanted is to make him stop.

The boy let out a small smile at her. “You know, you could’ve shown those bullies how snappy you can be. They would’ve left you sooner.” he told her as he watch her fidget as if she was caught doing something bad.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to him. “It’s just...my mommy told me to be nice to people. I didn’t mean to be...mean.” she said, catching his full attention.

“Even the bullies?” he asked curiously.

“Especially to bullies.” she confirmed.

“Huh,” the boy looked at her as if he was trying to figure her out. “You must be a sweetheart then. Well, that settles it, nothing’s wrong with you.”

“That’s what I said earlier!”

The boy chuckled as he ruffled her head. “Never change, okay?”

“Hey so, I’m looking at the recent post and safe to say, that I will be posting the second piece of the story Ergin was talking about and since she did an introduction, it would be rude if I didn’t do one.”

“This is getting out of hand,” Archer mumbled as he peered above Alia’s shoulder as she scrolled over the article that was just published. “If this continues, Eloisa will get more hate than of usual.” he told her while the rest of the band-except for the said blonde girl- looked at them with worry in their eyes. “Which is kind of ironic if you’d think about it.” he muttered.

“But you’ll fix this, right?” Ira asked the two of them. “Just like everything else, you’re going to fix this.” she stated with firm belief on her voice.

Archer met Alia’s eyes and he knew just how hard it is to do whatever the band wanted to do this time. It’s not like they could just flick their wrists and everything will turn out sunshine-y again.

“I don’t think it’s that simple, popstar.” Alia spoke up as she met the faltering confidence in the bluenette’s eyes. “This is reputation we’re erasing here. Even if I were to erase the article, the damage has been done. There are many people who had interacted with Eloi already. It’s their words against ours.”

“Then why bother?” Jamie spoke up. “Just let her be. Teach her a lesson. That girl’s becoming a diva, I don’t like her attitude.”

“Come on, Jamie-”

“Speak for yourself.” A voice called, earning their attention. “You’re obnoxious and yet you don’t hear me complaining.” They all turned to see a stoic looking blondie leaning against the doorframe.

Ira looked horrified. “Eloi! How long-”

“That’s because everybody knew I’m fucked up,” Jamie replied, calmly, cutting Ira off earning a displeased glare from her. “You, on the other hand, were a sweetheart when you first started. Now you’re nothing but a diva which leads to people concluding that you’re getting all that fame wrap around that pretty head of yours.”

The rest of them looked uncomfortable as they all could sense a fight brewing between the two. Archer stood up as he needs to act as the mediator before anything drastic happens. “Okay, why don’t we all just get along-”

“People change, Jamie. Don’t act high and mighty just because people had gotten used to your bitchiness. Typical. Just because your parents don’t care-”

“Enough, Eloi.” Ira intervened before the blonde could ever say something she’d regret something in the morning. “What happened to you?” she asked as her friend ignored her and made her way back to her room where she spends most of her time now. “You’ve changed. I don’t-”

“-know you anymore.”

She tensed up as she curiously turned to her companion. “What…” her throat constricted and she knew that he noticed the telltale signs of her going on panic mode.

Immediately, Vince placed his arm around her, engulfing her into a side hug. “Deep breaths, come on E. Inhale, exhale. Don’t panic on me.”

She let him guide her back to breathing evenly and once she had recovered, she elbowed him in the ribs, earning a grunt from him.

“The hell with that, Vince?” she asked, playing everything cool even though she is still freaking out. Why would he want to break up with her now? Why would he want to leave her? “Do I get an explanation or do I have to gamble it out on you?”

“Oh let me be dramatic, just for once.” Vince grinned sadly. “You’ll hate me but I think you need to hear the harsh truth.” He started, not even once did he retracted his arm. “First and foremost, you became a bitch. I don’t know when but one day, you just transformed just like that, like some person I don’t know.” he told her to which she frowned at, he then gently placed his forehead onto hers.

“And second…” he trailed off. “You know I love you right?” he watched as her eyes glazed with confusion. “I love you so much, Eloisa but I don’t think you share the same sentiment.”

“What are you talking about, idiot-”

He held her tighter as if it pained to set her free. “Trust me, E. I know you, otherwise you wouldn’t bother changing yourself to be the person you abhorred. You wanted attention, and attention you’ll get. Even if it’s bad.”

“No, I’m not changing. I just-”

“You’re still finding yourself, I could tell.” he said as he held her gaze. For a moment, her demeanor shifted, the whole illusion she’s been creating had slightly crumbled, letting him see a glimpse of herself.

He let out a bittersweet smile. “I’m sorry, but I’m not the person who’ll bring you back.”

“My name is Eloisa Nicole Donovan and this is my song for you entitled If Only. I decided to forgo my usual upbeat songs for this one simply because there is too much to tell you guys but I really can’t keep this video a lengthy one or else Archer might have my head because of termination later on. So I decided to tell you the story through the song. Granted, there isn’t specifics, I really hope that you understand what I’m portraying here. Now, here goes nothing.”

“A million thoughts in my head-”

“-let my heart keep listening?”

Jerome looked up from the music sheet he was editing as he gave her a once over. “You don’t sound so sure about that,” he commented as he left his devices to look over whatever she is working on.

“Well, this sucks.” she mumbled. “Why am I the only one working on the song? Shouldn’t someone work on this?” she asked him to which he curiously arched an eyebrow at.

She immediately shut her mouth and looked apologetic. “Sorry,” she whispered to which Jerome shook his head at. “The rumors aren’t true okay? I’m not-”

“It’s not me you owe an explanation, sweetheart.” he might be smiling at her but she could tell at the way his tone hit her ears, that he is not happy with the way things are turning for her. “Although you may not know but the Management are much observant than what you think of us.” he murmured. “Keep that facade on, and you might not see yourself anymore.”

What does he mean?

Just before she could say anything, Jerome was pressing keys on the piano in a slow tempo just as what she was singing earlier. “I could find the way to who I’m meant to be...if only,”

The song sounded strange coming from him seeing as his voice is deeper than hers but surprisingly, it turned soother than what she had expected unlike how she had sung earlier. What cut her deep is how easily Jerome had figured a line fitting in her song very quickly.

“Jerome, I-”

The guitarist smiled at her even though his eyes dulled with sadness. “Everyone can see you’re changing, Nicole.” the sound of her name sent chills down her spine. She had never heard him call her Nicole before. Then again, neither does anyone else and yet, they had adapted into calling her Nicole rather than Eloi or Eloisa these past few days. “And even you can see it. You’re just afraid to acknowledge it.”

“Cause up ‘til now I’ve walked the line, nothing lost but something missing... I can’t decide what’s wrong, and what’s right...”

She’s going crazy. She had to get out of the penthouse before she explodes- or do anything she might regret later on and so as soon as everything had mellowed down, she snuck her way out of the house. Good thing Joshua had entrusted her with the second floor room, otherwise she won’t be able to pull it off.

Since when did everything became too much? Since when did everything became too complicated to her?

“Haven’t your parents told you it’s dangerous to be outside after the dark?”

She jumped as she hit the person in the forearm only for her to meet Wren’s warm brown eyes. Immediately, her face contorted into a half scowl. “Dude, you scared me!” she exclaimed to which Wren chuckled at only for him to be glared at.

He raised both of his hands, the universal sign of surrendering. Eloisa felt her resolve weakening at the sight of his innocent look so she decided to walk ahead, leaving him an opening to join her seeing as he is already there and she hated to admit, but he has a point: it’s dangerous to be outside after the dark.

Just as they were before, silence engulfed both of them as they matched each other’s pace. Despite what they were now, she was grateful he didn’t ask any questions and simply offered his presence to her-even if it’s going for a stroll at a ridiculous hour.

He didn’t press, he didn’t ask any questions, in which she was thankful for. It was times like this, she missed his presence- no, scratch that. She missed him.

“I didn’t want any of this you know,” she spoke up, breaking the silence that engulfed between them. “I never wanted to change.”

“But you did anyways,” his tone wasn’t accusatory, nor was it condescending. His tone was light, quiet, and most of all, curious.

Here she was, the girl whom he had known way back, the person who swore would never let anything change her perspective no matter what happens and yet, she changed anyway.

When he was met with silence, he stopped on his tracks and asked her that one question that has been bothering him ever since they had met again.

“Eloi,”

She sharply turned towards him. No one had bothered calling her that one name she had preferred above all else. No one had bothered since she had changed, they thought she isn’t deemed worthy of being called her nickname since it belonged to her other person- the sweetheart.

“Tell me honestly, are you really-”

“-happy?”

She turned only to see their publicist plopping herself rather ungracefully on the beanbag beside her. Since she had opted on staying in their music room so she could work on with her individual song, she hadn’t expected anyone to accompany her. Not when her attitude is spiraling downwards.

She raised an eyebrow at Alia’s question. “What are you talking about, Leighton?” she asked defensively, although one quick glance at her eyes, she could tell that she is merely asking out of curiosity rather than disdain just as how Jamie had asked her once before.

“You and I both know what I’m talking about, Eloi.”

Even though the atmosphere between them is serious, she couldn’t help but smile bitterly as the only person who isn’t afraid to call her by her nickname is the person sitting across her. Not even Ira had the audacity to call her fondly anymore.

“I’m… not.”

She didn’t know what compelled her to be honest but after acting the way she did for the past few days, she knew that she is almost reaching her breaking point.

And Eloisa didn’t like it in any bit.

“I don’t know what possessed me to change but one day, I woke up and then I just feel like it’s all too much. That I want to stop doing this anymore because everything is giving me pressure and I entered this band not to live up to someone’s expectations but to find myself.” she ranted on, not even giving Alia a chance to prompt her to.  “I don’t know what they want from me, I mean… Wren left me hanging and I thought so hard about what I did wrong, that maybe there’s something wrong with me and that is the reason why I’m so…unlovable.”

Silence sliced through the air as the only noise they could hear is her ragged breaths as she paused her rant for the publicist to take it all in.

“How ironic,” Alia muttered, letting her look up in surprise as she saw the softening look on her companion’s blue eyes (which is rare since her eyes had always had that spark of intensity inside.) “The Lover feels she’s unloved by people surrounding her, don’t you think?” she asked slowly, her rhetorical question hanging between them. “And it seems as if it’s reflected with the song you’re making.” she noted.

Eloisa shifted in her seat, unknowing of what to say.

“You know what I think you should do?” her companion asked her. “You should go out there and do whatever it is that you needed to do. Find that someone you are truly looking for. Then maybe, you’ll find your own happiness as well.”

“Which way should I go?”

“If only I knew what my heart was telling me, don’t know what I’m feeling, Is this just a dream?

If only I could read the signs in front of me, I could find a way to who I’m meant to be, if only…

If only…”

She heaved out a deep sigh as she looked at the camera. “It’s a sad song, I know and it doesn’t fit my personality considering with how I acted these past few days-weeks- no, months. And there is no excuse for that, really. But thanks to my friends, thanks to him, I did find whatever it was that I was looking for. It’s kinda ironic, but hey. That’s life.” She shrugged as she looked at the camera.

“Thank you for sticking by me and thank you for listening to this story. This is Eloisa Nicole, signing off.”

[astridthevalkyrie]

Dragon In the Precinct

“Guys, there’s a dragon in our precinct!” Or, what happens when the 99 meets the gang.

Personally, Jake thought that when Raymond Holt spoke, no one interrupted because they were all just quickly trying to memorize the way he sounded so they could perfectly imitate him later. He entertained this thought while watching Amy hanging onto Holt’s every word. That was why, after a full minute, when he snapped out of it, he only caught the last sentence.

“I hope you will make them feel welcome.”

“Wait wait wait wait - who are we making feel welcome?” Jake looked directly at Holt with a look of disbelief. After all that chaos with the 98, he was letting more people come here? Of course, they were dealing with a pregnant woman that time, but still.

“Someone clue in Peralta,” his mean dad said as he walked back to his office, Terry following close behind. Jake stuck his tongue out, but no one saw.

Rosa spoke up. “He said that these guys are coming from upstate with…well, the words he used were ‘modified highly intelligent winged fire breathing animals.’ But it’s obviously -”

“DRAGONS!” Jake shouted, jumping up in awe. “Amy, did you hear? DRAGONS!”

“I heard,” she said, not even sparing him a glance, “unlike you, I listen the first time.”

“Unlike you I listen the first time, title of our sex tape.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, Jake!”

“What do you think dragon trainers like to eat?” Charles mused, his head in his hand, deep in thought. “For that matter, what do dragons like to eat?”

“Fish, apparently,” Terry grumbled, coming out of the captain’s office. “Their captain, Stoick Haddock, said they eat a variety of food, but it’s mostly fish. His son Hiccup will explain more.”

The 99 burst into laughter, and Terry grinned. “But don’t you guys go making fun of him for his name. Stoick Haddock’s a big man, and his son is probably the same.”

“Ooh, daddy’s boy.” Gina stood up, smirking. “You guys know what that means, right?” She put her phone down (everyone in the room gasped) and sat down next to Charles. “He’ll probably be full of it.”

“Real bastard,” Rosa snarled, clenching her fist.

“Cocky jerk.”

“Lazy idiot.”

“Huge flirt.”

“Yogurt hater.”

“Really, Terry?” Jake threw his hands up in the air, shaking his head in mock disapproval. “We’re trying to be serious here, and you say yogurt hater?”

Terry shook his head. “Jake - never mind. Point is, be nice to him and his gang, we want to know how to train these animals.”

“Dragons, Terry. Call them dragons. And after today..” Jake turned his head dramatically. “Call me the Dragon Master.” He turned back to look at all of them. “I just came up with that now. Cool name, right?”

“Hiccup, would you please relax?” Astrid asked, burying her face in her hands.

“I can’t. This is a lot of -”

“Pressure, we get it,” Snotlout groaned, “it’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure, a lot of blah blah blah. We’ve been listening to this for one hour.”

“Well, excuse me for wanting to get the job done right!” Hiccup said, glaring at his cousin as they walked. “In fact -”

“In fact,” Astrid mimicked, “didn’t you know that some people might not like dragons?” She sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. “They’ll love them. Did you even read up on Jake Peralta, Hiccup?”

Hiccup turned to her in horror. “We were supposed to read up on them?”

“Oh, babe.”

Tuffnut slung an arm around his shoulders. “Yeah, babe. Don’t worry, though, if we have to escape, we can just fly out. We have dragons, remember?”

Hiccup gave him a dry look.

Astrid gave him a thumbs up and pretended to look serious when her boyfriend looked back at her. “Don’t be so immature, Tuffnut.”

“But you - but she -”

Astrid winked as they walked on, and Tuff turned to Fishlegs and Ruffnut who were behind the rest of them. “Did you guys see that? That little she-devil has him wrapped around her finger!”

“Bro,” Ruff said, jogging up and nudging his arm, “in New York, you have to have someone wrapped around your finger at all times.”

“That’s technically not true,” Fishlegs said, coming in between them, “don’t make it sound so bad.”

“Explain Astrid’s behavior, then.”

“Well, besides the fact that Hiccup is dying…”

“It’s gambling!” Snotlout shouted, frustrated, as they all went inside the building.

The elevator opened, and the first thing Toothless did was bound forward and jump on someone, despite all of Hiccup’s explanation to do precisely the opposite. The rest of the dragons followed suit, and suddenly it was chaos.

“Astrid!” he shouted, looking at her worriedly. Already, her expression was set and she ran into the room with a dragon call, beckoning Stormfly to stop running around and come to her. A man was in the middle of the room, looking around and grinning at everything. One of the women had gotten on her desk, and she was screaming at poor Meatlug to leave her alone.

The captain - Captain Holt - came out of his office and spoke loudly. “What is going on here? Where is Hiccup Haddock?”

Hiccup cringed, and then stepped forward, swiftly scratching Hookfang under his chin. “That’s - that’s me, sir.” At least the man wasn’t as humongous as his father.

“Get your animals under control!”

“Right away, sir,” he squeaked, and then ran over to Toothless. If Toothless stopped, they would all stop. He had jumped on a tall, muscular man who had been holding a basket of fish. “Bud!”

Toothless stopped, looking up with a guilty expression. This was enough of a distraction for the man underneath him, and he pulled out from the dragon’s gasp. Hiccup helped him up.

“I’m so sorry, sir, I thought they would behave.”

The man laughed, clapping him on the back. “I bet it’s not your fault. Where’s your jerk leader?”

“Jerk leader?” he questioned, already feeling bad about the answer.

“Terry!” someone shouted before he could respond. Hiccup turned - the man who had been grinning during the chaos was standing next to Barf and Belch, and they were nudging him gently. “Look at this! Two heads. I honestly don’t know whether to be scared or wonder about how many questions that raises.”

“Just be scared,” a woman next to him snapped. She was covered in dragon slobber, and Hiccup winced again. This was not going as planned.

“I’m so sorry, everyone,” he said loudly, pretty sure he was turning red as he spoke. Across the room, Astrid was looking at him consolingly. “I’m Hiccup. We’ll be happy to help you guys clean up.”

A shorter man gasped loudly, and the other all looked generally surprised. “You’re Hiccup? But…you’re so tiny!”

Snotlout snorted, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because they called him tiny or because his cousin knew that size was not a measure of strength. Hiccup wanted to believe it was the latter, but he knew better.

“Y-yeah. I’m Hiccup. And well…these are our dragons. They’re actually very..” With a meaningful look from his girlfriend, he hurriedly changed the topic. “And the humans. I mean, us. The others. That’s Astrid, over there are the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut - Ruff is the girl - and near that table are Fishlegs and Snotlout.” He winced for the hundredth time that day, and they had only been there for a minute. He was supposed to introduce the gang before saying anything about the dragons, as ordered by his father.

“Cool names,” the woman in dragon slobber said, glaring at him, “I’m Rosa Diaz. Now tell me this comes off, or I’ll maim you.”

Before Hiccup could answer, Astrid spoke coolly to the woman. “It comes off, just need a bit of pressure with your regular wash. Best if you do it hand washed. We did bring extra clothes in case someone got dirty.” She nodded to the twins, and they left the room to get the bag from the van they came in.

Thanks, General Hoff, Hiccup thought silently, shooting her a grateful smile. The woman had calmed down, and she sat down to wait. Meanwhile, the man in the middle stood on a chair.

“Spectacular entrance, riders.” He waved his arms as he spoke. “My name is Jake Peralta. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

Hiccup had the decency to look alarmed. He got the reference, but wasn’t sure how to react.

“Jake,” another woman said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

“Okay, okay. The maimer is Rosa, party pooper over there is Amy Santiago. Next to you, Hiccup, is Terry Jeffords, and this is Charles Boyle. You probably already know our captain, Raymond -”

“Hello!” the woman on her desk said, ignoring Jake. “My name is Gina Linetti and I’d very much appreciate if you got this…dragon away from me.”

Fishlegs jumped, and then raced to Meatlug, pulling her away. Hiccup sighed in relief, at least his team was more than competent.

“So,” he said awkwardly, as the twins came back in with clothes, “who’s ready to learn how to train your dragon?”

This has been sitting in my folder for a while. I’ll post it.  Thanks to @ashleybenlove for this idea!

[darth-salem-emperor-of-earth]

Enchanted By a Voice [Kyle x Olympia]

I finally, at long last, finished my last ockiss17 prompt! Took me long enough, sorry for the long wait, @nebularogue! 

So here we have for Day Six: Hesitant Kiss: my Kyle Shepard (again) and @nebularogue‘s Olympia King. I brainstormed some settings and decided to have this scene take place after ME1 and a little bit before ME2. I might one day to write a part 2 to this scene because Olympia is up to something but since this is from Kyle’s POV, he doesn’t know the inner workings of her mind. So hope I wrote her well, @nebularogue, and thank you for letting me use for this story. :)

While Kyle enjoyed a good drink every now and then, he was never fond of shady or sleazy bars that simply screamed out half their customers were criminals as well as the same message being extended to the owners and most of their staff. The more innocent or less nefarious employees were the ones that often got screwed over in terms of payment, benefits, and the types of customers they had to deal with. And as much as he wished to change their situation or uncover a way to bring the unsavory bars under more legal or fair ownership, he couldn’t save or help everyone. A fact his friends often had to remind him from time to time.

However, here he was, at another seedy club to find a thug who was extorting from a neighbor of his. While Ivy stayed with the Alliance as the first human Spectre after Sovereign's attack on  the Citadel, he, Izzy, and Ivan spilt up to work their own goals until Ivy would call upon them for support once more. Last he heard of Izzy she was in Omega with that mercenary named Nydo and Ivan was off doing God-knows-what. As for himself, Kyle travelled to Ilium and dedicated his skills set to help others. Ilium may be a luxurious, breathtaking place but there were often serpents lurking about in every nest of paradise.

One of these snakes was Billian Tulk, a batarian thug and loan shark who was known to prey on the desperate, the poor, and the needy. His rates were outrageous and his system was designed to eventually force his victims to concede and either offer up their services or someone else in their place for indentured servitude to work off the debt. It was Tulk’s way of receiving free labor for as long as he wanted. But compared to Kyle’s past experiences and meeting a Reaper, Tulk was small potatoes. Besides, he was use to dealing with low-lives like Billian Tulk.

As predicted, the said batarian was downing shots one right after the other, while making a pass at one of the bar’s singers and clearly failing. Unsurprisingly, he did not take ‘no’ for an answer. “C’mon, baby, is it the extra eyes?” he cajoled to the human singer, whose brown eyes flashed menacingly when he reached out to grab her.

“No, it’s because you’re a lout and won’t leave me and other girls alone when we tell you to!” She bent the batarian’s hand back, almost snapping his wrist if Tulk didn’t have the foresight to quickly draw his arm back in time, forcing the singer to releaser her grasp on him. “Excuse me, but I’m up next and I won’t let you make me late.” Tulk cut her a nasty glare and was about to try his luck one more time yet more aggressively when Kyle beheld the opportunity to step in and distract the thug.  

“Billian Tulk?” he voiced, making his presence known. “We have to talk.”

The said batarian whipped his head around, six four eyes boring murderously at him as he temporarily forgot about the human singer. “About what?” came the snarl.

“You know of a Miss Seveej? Received a loan from you and later paid you back, including interest. And yet, you claim she still missed a fourth of the payment?” There was no way Miss Seveej neglected to pay in full, she documented all her finances carefully and was known to be meticulous—if her small bonsai plants were any indications of her great attention to detail as well as patience.

The loan shark shrugged. “She made an error with her numbers so she still owes me 4000 credits. And that salarian is lucky I’m not ratcheting up the interest rate.” He gulped down another shot, continuing to keep a few eyes on him. Kyle then noticed the singer hadn’t let and was watching them both, curiosity etched on her fair, sharply structured features. “And what is all of this to you? The arrangement between me and Seveej is none of your damned business!”  

“First of all, Miss Seveej is my neighbor and a good friend of mine so when she became my client, your deal became my business too. Secondly, it’s common knowledge you’re involved in other illicit activities, which I am certain the Ilium authorities would love to hear about if they caught wind of your hidden behavior.” Tulk was a man of vices and besides alcohol, he was also fond of dealing with stolen property on the black marker and illegal gambling—mainly centering around two people duking it out on a fighting ring.

The lines in the batarian’s visage deepened as he scowled, a tic starting in his jaw. “Careful there, human. You’re treading on dangerous territory, threatening me like that. Who do you think you are, Commander Shepard?”

At the opening, Kyle had to grin amusingly. “Well, my last name is Shepard and I’m good terms with the Commander Shepard. Maybe I should have to stop by and see how everything is doing around in Ilium.” Out of the corner of his eye, the dark haired singer smirked, evidently pleased to watch Tulk be outplayed. She even shot a thumbs-up while mouthing ‘thank you’ to him. He smiled back in returned.

The enraged, crossed glower was immediately dropped and a more nervous, serious expression flashed on Tulk’s ridged visage, all four eyes a little bit wider than they previously were. “Wait, you actually know that Spectre? And you’re related to her too?”

Technically. He just so happened to share a last name with Ivy, Ivan, and Izzy but that was irrelevant at the moment. So Kyle continued to smile, unsettling the loan shark even more. He didn’t need to utter anything, the silence alone was enough to provoke Tulk to reconsider his offer. The batarian quickly rummaged for his datapad and once found, punched a few buttons before sliding the holographic pad over to Kyle for him to view.

“See, your friend Miss Seveej is off the hook now. Full payment to me, just like she claimed and you asked for.” Kyle would have been skeptical if he wasn’t witnessing the proof with his own two eyes and there was slight tremor in the thug’s voice when he spoke. Guess he didn’t have to go hard on the criminal after all.

“Good,” he replied, feigning indifference. “And if I hear you’re bothering Miss Seveej again, I’ll come back and next time, I won’t be so nice. Are we clear?” There was an edge in the last part, his dark eyes narrowing as a warning signal towards the rather anxious batarian.

“Crystal, as you humans say,” came the sullen reply. And without another world, Billian Tulk finished his remaining shot, paid his tab, and fled, not before shooting a lecherous fleer at the singer, who scowled in response.

“I’m so glad you chased him off,” she told Kyle promptly once Tulk was gone. “He has been an annoyance to me and all of the singers for about a week.”

“If he returns and continues to harass you or anyone else, let me know.” He handed her his business card and she took with an intrigued look, studying the glossy words imprinted on the front.

“Nice to see people doing good these days.” She ran her thumb over his card, brown eyes peering curiously up at him, as if searching for something. “So Kyle...Shepard, want to stay a little longer and watch my performance? I guaranty you haven’t heard a voice like mine.” The way she uttered his name seemed like there was a private jest between them but only she remembered it while he was in the dark. The corners of her lips tugging up into a playful, witty beam and despite his reservations, Kyle had to admit she had a lovely smile.

“Oh, you don’t have to do anything special and bes—”

She snapped her fingers at a server nearby and flagged him down. “Get this man a drink. It’s on the house. He scared Tulk shitless.” She then turned her attention back on Kyle. “What do you usually or prefer to drink?”

Rather reluctantly, Kyle sat down and answered. “Gin and tonic, please. Nothing too fancy.” The waiter departed briskly to fill out his order, rendering Kyle and the singer by themselves once more. “And I’m sorry but I didn’t catch your name, Ms.—”

“Olympia.” She gifted him another smile, this one completely charming and purely arresting. He wondered why she was spending so much time with him, a virtual stranger who just so happened to shoo a thug and loan shark away? Surely simple goodness or kindness weren’t rare in Ilium, of all places. Or maybe he was reading too much into her behavior and getting him a drink was her way of saying ‘thank you’.

Once his drink arrived, Olympia excused herself to get ready for her shift, all the while telling him to enjoy the shower. After about ten or so minutes later, Oympia appeared on the stage, dressed in a stunning purple and white sequin dress with a matching flower tucked behind her ear.  While her arrival brought on countless of cheers, puckish hollars, and woohooing, all chatter and noise ceased instantly when Olympia began to sing and weave her melodious spell on them all. The song was peppy and sassy, matching her lively, upbeat, and straightforward voice and words, fitting the tone of the song oh so well. She didn’t portray herself as ‘the girl next door’, a sultry temptress, a rowdy, spunky rebel, or a force of nature who destroy you and everything you hold dear should you cross her—simply a young woman who wasn’t perfect nor pretending to be. He liked her style so much to his surprise, he ended staying until her warbling act was over and she had a break. Almost immediately, she made a beeline for him.

“I see you decided to stay longer. Was it just my singing?” Olympia bantered, sitting down across the table from. She flagged down a waitress, muttering her drink to them before returning her sparkling gaze at him. “If so, I’m flattered.”

“I’ll admit, I’m not one for music but I didn’t want to leave while you were still singing. I guess your voice entranced me.” Kyle chuckled, swirling the liquid around his glass prior to taking another sip. “It’s been a long time since I enjoyed music like that.”

“Now I am even more flattered.” When her drink arrived, she thanked the waitress and took a huge gulp of champagne, a gasp of relief escaping her as she swallowed and savored the alcohol. “Nothing wets a dry throat better that this club’s champagne. You should try it.”  

“Maybe next time. I already had two drinks of gin and tonic and that’s my limit for today. Besides, I have to head back to Miss Seveej and deliver her the good news in person.” Olympia’s face softened when he mentioned his client’s name, an appreciative gleam in her chocolate brown eyes.

“Of course,” she agreed, nodding, “don’t let me stop you. I’m sure she’ll be happy to learn she’s no longer under that slimebag Tulk’s thumb.” She went back to drinking her champagne as he asked the server from earlier for his check, receiving the bill on his omni-tool. He paid promptly and started to rise from his seat when Olympia swiftly got up to sit down next to him, holding her arm out and halting his actions. Without explaining right away, she simply plucked the white and violet flower from her hair and secured it into his front jacket pocket, tucking the stem of the blossom firmly inside. “A little token to remember me and this club by, in  case you want to return for some fun instead of business.” Flirtation rang coyly in her tone but her winsome, genuine smile was what struck him more and seized him fully. And before he could even reply, she leaned in, hesitating at first, and brushed her lips against his cheek, the kiss light and soft like butterfly’s wings.

When she pulled back, there was a different impression flicking her unwavering gaze, one Kyle couldn’t place but decided not to dwell on the notion right now. The kiss was unexpected, but not unwelcomed. He was more surprised than anything else. “Well, thank you, for the flower and er, the kiss too,” he managed out, feeling his face flush for no reason at all. Why couldn’t he been smoother and in control, like he usually was? He never blushed at a kiss since he was a teenager. “And no worries, I’ll be back. Wouldn’t want to miss any more of your singing.”

Her assertive, amiable, and charming self reappeared, immensely pleased by his words. “I sing on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays and usually in the evening and nights until closing. I hope to see your face this Thursday.” She sent him a little wink and picked up her champagne flute, departing to converse with the singer who was proceeding her prior to waving him farewell as she sauntered away.

Shaking his head in amusement, Kyle exited the bar to find a sky car top head home and deliver the wonderful news to his salarian neighbor. Whoever Olympia was, she was an intriguing woman and probably the only reason he would step foot into that seedy bar again. He wasn’t even aware how much he was stroking or fixing the flower in his jacket pocket during the ride home, marveling at its softness and beauty. There the blossom remained until he finished his business for the night, placing the striking, vibrant flower on his nightstand, its faint fragrance filling the air and evoking memories of his jaunty encounter with Olympia, a singer from a shady club that didn’t deserve her talents. Thursday would come along soon enough.    

[pixieinatalespin]

The Sacrifice

Happy Birthday to the beautiful soul who helped bring this all to life. 

His father’s old rocking chair moved gently back and forth and the motion had put her to sleep. She was safe in his arms. She was safe in the dilapidated house they’d made their own. Safe from the outside world and the wicked people who walked it.

But the gentle rocking and the comforting arms could not keep her mind from finding danger.

Zena cried out and twitched in her sleep.

 “We have to go back.”

The two men reined in their horses and looked back down the road the way they had come, down beyond the wagons that remained and the people that still lived. Charles and Matthew had to lead their people to safety now; their father was among the dead. Everything had changed and it had changed so fast.

The two brothers had been fighting when the first arrows had whistled through the air. Had it not been for Matthew’s good hearing, an arrow might have ended up in Charles’s back. They had been trying to beat each other senseless, trying to hurt each other over a young woman whom they were both in love with.

A young woman who had been left behind. One life to save many. And she had been the one brave enough to make the sacrifice. She had been the one to urge them all to go, to save themselves. She had been crying but resolute as they rode away.

“We have to get our people to safety first. Our duty comes before our hearts.”

“How can you say that!” Matthew snarled at his brother, ready to restart the earlier fight. “She is back there and in danger.”

“And what of these people? What of the children? What of Louisa’s Grandmama? Would Louisa forgive us if we left them to fend for themselves and returned to her?”

Matthew opened his mouth to argue but then he saw the pain in his brother’s face. This was eating Charles up as much as it was him.

“But what if they…”

Charles gritted his teeth and looked at the ground. He could not answer his brother’s question. He could not bear the thought. But he knew what was required of them, and what Louisa had begged them to do. He would not dishonour her bravery by breaking their promises to her.

“We need to keep moving, the sooner we reach the city and safety, the sooner we can go back,” Charles replied after the silence had stretched out.

“But you said…” Matthew looked sideways at his brother.

“I said we have to do our duty first, I said we had to get our people to safety first.”

“Oh,” Matthew grinned at his brother and then spurred his horse on, a wild excitement taking him to be done with duty and rescue their girl. “Well, come on, brother. Get a move on.”

 **

 Louisa had never thought herself to be a very brave person. She screamed at spiders and needed to light a candle before she could move her feet out from under the covers at night. Today she had found a bravery that she had not known, she had stood up to outlaws and negotiated freedom for her people.

Just two hours ago she had been sitting in the back of a wagon loaded with fabric, negotiating with David and Lea for some maroon lace for a dress she wished to make before the next moon festival. She wanted a pretty dress to wear in hopes that someone might finally find enough courage to make his intentions clear.

Now David and Lea were dead, their wagon emptied of all the expensive fabric they had planned to sell. The wagon had left filled with people. Many of the horses remaining with the outlaws, as Louisa did.

The brothers had not wanted to ride away and leave her behind. She had not wanted to be left behind but she had made the bargain and made them promise. In tears, she had made the two men promise to ride to safety with their people and leave her to her fate.

Because of it Louisa had found out she was brave. She had found out that she could be a hero like in the stories. Without sword or shield, she had stood up and become a hero. People lived because of her courage.

She would have been proud of herself if she had not been so terrified.

There were at least a dozen men in this gang of criminals. They were not the outlaws of noble heart, robbing the rich to give to the poor. These were terrible men, scar covered and violent, and each looked at her in such a way that her skin crawled. There was violence in their hunger, and Louisa had heard stories…

She knew what was to come and her mind raced as to how she could avoid it, or at least buy time. Not for rescue, she had sent the two men that might do so away. She hoped to buy time for her escape. Hours had passed already and there had been no chance to escape. The men squabbled over the spoils of their attack. They seemed to fight over everything.

That gave Louisa an idea.

A hand rubbed over her back and Louisa jumped, turning she found a gap-toothed man leering at her.

“Are you the leader of these men?” Louisa asked.

“Ha! He wishes!” Another man laughed loudly.

“So,” Louisa said turning to the laughing man. He reminded her of a rat with his long, thin nose. “Does that mean you are?”

“There are no leaders, we are all equal,” another man said. He looked at the others with an expression that made Louisa think that he thought he should be the leader.

“But if there is no leader, then who will I give myself to.”

“All of us!” Another of the men yelled with great enthusiasm and made a lewd gesture. The others all laughed.

“Oh, that won’t work. I want to give myself to the strongest of you, the leader. Only to the strongest will I give myself to willingly and with great passion. So, which one of you is the strongest?” Louisa moved to a tree stump that was clearly often used as a seat by the gang; the wood was smooth. She crossed her leg up over the other, her torn dress flashing her legs.

“I am the strongest!”

“No, it’s me!”

All the men began to yell each other down. Louisa pretended to be unconvinced by their words. Maybe even a little bored. Inside she was terrified and it was all she could do not to shake in her seat.

The yelling turned to pushing and shoving. Punches were thrown.

Louisa watched the men descend into their darker nature. Knives came out and Louisa nearly screamed as one man stabbed another.

They were trying to kill each other, and it was over her! It was insanity. Louisa took no pleasure in the fact nor in the way they were hurting each other. It was awful. But fewer men meant her chance of survival, of escape, increased.

“Whoever is left standing gets me. And to find out what I can do with my tongue.” Louisa called out the words and smiled, gesturing for the men to keep fighting. She had no trick with her tongue but she had heard one of the women say similar in the last town they had visited. The woman had been trying to get Matthew or Charles to purchase her services. Louisa had thrown an apple at the back of Charles’s head, as he was turned away from her. It had served to ruin any moment that might have been happening.

It was that woman that Louisa now pretended herself to be as she waited for a chance to run.

And then the moment came. There were no eyes on her. Four men lay dead and still the others fought on. Louisa slipped from the tree stump and around the trees, she found a horse. One of her own people’s horse. It knew her and knelt for her to get on. She straddled the horse easily in her torn skirt.

The men did not take long to realise she was gone.

Louisa had been born to people that rode, she had been riding since she was tiny and this stallion was young and strong. He moved swiftly taking them back to the road and hopefully to safety. Louisa rode as hard as she could, never looking back.

Perhaps she should have, she heard a rider approach suddenly. How he had appeared so quickly beside her she did not know. She glanced at him and did not recognise his face from the camp and the fight. They must have had others still out on the road waiting for new travellers. Louisa had not thought about that possibility.

The rider leapt from his horse and knocked Louisa from hers. They fell hard to the ground and rolled. The rough ground damaged clothing and skin. Louisa hurt everywhere. She felt as though all the breath had been knocked from her body and she could not draw more. She rolled around on the hard ground clutching her knees up to her chest as she tried to breathe.

More horses approached and Louisa knew her gamble had failed. Now they would not fight over her. Now they would not leave her free to escape. At least Louisa had tried.

Louisa rolled to her knees and tried to crawl away. The man from the horse grabbed her by the hair and pulled her backwards. He tugged her back beside her before striking her in the face. Louisa scratched his face in retaliation and punched him in the throat. He let go of her.

“Leave her alone!”

Louisa looked up and was surprised to see that two of the horsemen bearing down on them were coming from the wrong direction. She was more surprised to recognise them both. It had been Charles that had yelled out. He was in front of Matthew and he leapt from his horse while it was still moving.

A sound behind Louise made her turn back to her attacker. She found a pistol aimed at her face. She had never seen one up close before. None of their people were allowed to carry one.

“Wench!”

The man pulled something back on the weapon that Louisa could not see and then fired. A figure moved and the figure hit Louisa instead of the bullet.

Charles was struck in the shoulder and he lay against Louisa on the ground, bleeding. Matthew yelled as he leapt from his horse, and his blade ended the other man’s life before he could reload.

Louisa cried out. She did not know what she was saying. She cried out over and over, her arms flailing around…

 “Zena, Zena, wake up, wake up. It was just a dream.”

She opened her eyes, she was back at their sanctuary, no horses, no bad men. Just them. Zena snuggled in against his chest and sighed. “Charles will find us again, Matthew. I know he will.”

Her best friend looked at her strangely. He shook his head and cuddled her tightly. “You’re safe now, Zena. You’re safe.”

And she felt safe. The dream was fading away and there was nothing else but the rocking chair, the sound of the rain and his arms around her. She was safe now, she was always safe with him.