#and when i got to class my backpack was just completely drenche at the bottom

[voltrixz]

Suffering from the most comical unluckiness ever thanks to the rain

[violetnotez]

HC: The Boys Taste Their S/o’s Chapstick

Anonymous:  could I request headcannons for shinso, mirio, denki, sero, and bakugo kissing their s/o and tasting their chapstick ? Or if you want or when they realize their s/o takes care of them in really subtle ways that they didn’t really notice it at first ? i love your blog so much 🥺❤️

Hey babe omg Im so happy you like my blog!!!! Also this ask OMG I have been wanting to write it for so long!!!! Im a sucker for these super cute and fluffy headcanons, so thank you so much for the idea!

Pairings: Shinso x reader, Mirio x reader, Denki x reader, Sero x reader, Bakugo x reader

Warnings: some might get suggestive, but none of these are full blown NSFW! Just a sprinkle of spiciness, thats all!

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

S H I N SO U

Flavor: Cherry Vanilla

Your currently trying to get ready for bed with Shinsou, his purple hair cascading against the pillow as he’s scrolling through Insta

defintely looking at cat vids

Youre just BEAT from the day- work, school, practice, whatever your life entails it just felt so incredibly tiring today

Of course, Shinsou seems to have other plans

Once he sees you come out of the bathroom, your hair wet, your skin dewy from washing, your body only wearing one of his oversized shirts and some small shorts....

man is gonna wanna be allllll over you

“Damn, kitten who allowed you to look that hot,” he’d purr, his eyes drinking you in as he propped his body on his elbows to get a better look

You’d roll your eyes, a smile on your lips-

Lowkey a perv for his s/o fight me on this

Once you sit down on the bed, its over

Shinso’s hands are all over you, his palms trailing under your shirt as he leaved lazy kisses on your neck

“Cmon, baby, lets have a little fun before we sleep....”

Just tell him your tired, and he’ll comply, turning super fluffy and cuddly in a matter of minutes

Reluctantly tho this boi is horny when hes horny

“Ahh my kitten’s tired? Fine then, you need your rest.”

He’ll lean in to give a sweet kiss, unknowingly of how flavorful you taste now with your chapstick

And OHOHOHO after that its OVER

The taste of vanilla bursts in his mouth, the scent of cherry becoming more prominent-

When did you start tasting so good?

He honestly wont know how to react- he’ll shake his head and blink a few times, “The hell-?” spilling out of his lips

He grabs you buy the chin, his thumb swiping against your lips gently

Once he sees the faint red sheen on his digit, it kinda dawns on him whats going on

You catch on to his confusion, a small giggle spilling out of you as you tell him its just chapstick you bought since your lips felt dry

He’ll just give you a lazy smirk, his lilac eyes a royal purple as he eyes you

This man cant HELP HIMSELF

He’ll lean in for another kiss, this one lasting much longer and more passionate as he tried to capture that taste again

“Do me a favor and keep wearing that kitten,”

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

M I R I O 

Flavor: Birthday Cake

Im so proud of fidning this picture im sorry it just matches so well

Anywaysssssssss

You had just gotten out of the locker room, your UA uniform a little wrinkled from being balled up while you were training

You walked out the metal doors, your lips feeling much softer than usual- you were in desperate need of chapstick after that particular lesson

Thanks UA for having training grounds that blow up every 5 seconds and spray dust everywhere

But thankfully Neijire is the best person ever and hooked you up with some super cute chapstick

Since it was new and just sitting in her book bag, she just told you to keep it

NEIJIRE WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO SWEET?

You had to admit though, you really liked it- the packaging was pretty cute, it was nice on your skin, but the SMELL

OMG

You felt like a bakery was near you every step you took

And everytime you licked your lips it tasted like sweets, which was an amazing addition

Makes ya wonder how safe it is to consume makeup 👀

Mirio is the cutest boyfirend though-wherever your class is, he waits for you outside and walks with you until you have to go your seperate ways

So, as usual, he’s waiting for you outside the locker room, a wide grin plastered on his face

Once he sees you walk out of the doors, he’s already bounding over, his arms swinging cause hes always just so happy to see you 

“Hey sunshine!” he greets you like any other day, his voice just radiating happiness

Some days though, Mirio will kiss the top of your head as he grabs your hand and walks you to his class

Other days, he’s a little more bold, instead leaning down to give you a kiss on your lips as he snakes his hand around your waist

TODAY BABE 

IS THAT DAY

You can tell he’s feeling a little more *frisky cause he’s got this mischievous glint in his eyes

ehhhh why not indulge him?

So you get on your tippie toes, leaning in to him and planting a quick kiss on his lips

But thats when Mirio gets confused- did you eat something?Is it cake? CInnamon roll? Cookie? But whatever it is, it tastes GOOD

“Sweetie, did you buy something from the vending machine?” he asks, a confused grin on his face as he eyes you

You laugh, not realizing that Mirio would be affected by your new chapstick too, 

“Oh no, its just a chapstick Niejire gave me, I think its cake batter flavored- do you like it?”

Mirio licked his lips , savoring the lingering flavor on his skin

“You batter belive it!”

*cue the groaning

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

D E N K I

Flavor: Pina Colada

So Mina, bless her little music crazed heart, somehow won a pack of tickets from a radio station to a new water park opening up not too far from UA

It was superrrrr expensive to get in, but the music station hooked all you guys up with VIP tickers, a private cabana, food, THE WORKS

You had been running around with the group all day

(except Bakugo- he either went to the lazy river or the surfing simulator thignie cause Kaminari said he would wipe out and wanted to prove him wrong)

Everybody else wanted to do everythingggg, from ride the craziest rides to trying all the food the park had

By the end of the day, you were completely beat and just wanted to rest

Mina was sitting beside you in  the cabana (again, thank you radio station for hooking some teens up!), just searching it for snacks the boys hadnt eaten

“Aww cmon, really?! We have chapstick but no food?!”

Your head instantly perked up at the sound- chapstick? God, you could deifnitely use some right now from all that chlorine and sun...

You asked Mina to toss you one, the pink skinned girl throwing you a tube as she grumbled about how “piggy” boys were

You checked the flavor on the tube, the fruits on the side label instantly telling you it was something tropical

As you were putting it on, the boys of Bakusquad were bounding up the steps, their feets covered in sand-

“Guess what?! We got Bakugo to go in the wave pool! Isnt that crazy! It had sand on the bottom, like a real beach-”

Kirishima was just gushing and super excited, Bakugo looking like a pissed off wet cat next to him

You sat up quickly, happy to see your boyfriend, his spiky hair all wet from the day and his boxers dripping

As Kirishima and Sero were messing with an extremely annoyed Bakugo, you went and grabbed the boys some towels, giving the last one to your boyfriend

“Aww thanks babe,” he gushed out, his hands grabbing the towel gingerly as he leaned to kiss you

But wait- you tasted- really sweet?

Kaminari pulled back slightly, a small smirk on his lips, cause damn, that tasted really good

“Did you eat some fruit or something? Cause you taste super yummy babe-”

You  pointed to your lips as you told him how Mina found some free chapstick lying around in the cabana

Kaminari just gave you this really blissed out stare as he sneaked one more peck from you- he was kinda wishing his friends weren't here, cause hed totally be making out with you with that yummy stuff on your lips...

“Do me a favor and dont take that stuff off, okay? Until we get back to the dorms,”

He sent you a small wink, weaving behind you inconspicously, and giving your bottom a playful pinch

WHY YOU GOTTA BE A FLIRT KAMINARI

(Also before you left Kamianri most definitely dumped the whole jar of chapsticks into his backpack)

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ 

S E R O

Flavor: Peppermint

You and Sero had just gotten coffee from a little cafe when it starts to rain

Like alottttttttttt

And of course it happens when your right outside, waiting for your ride to take you back home

So you two are just standing there like weirdos with the rain POURING, Sero holding up his jacket over both of your heads

But honestly, it’s not doing much to block out the rain, so honestly-why not have some fun?

You run out of the fabric, instantly feeling your whole body get drenched as you start twirling and laughing

“He-hey wait, babe!”

Sero’s gonna be laughing, and now y’all playing a wierd game of tag

Aghhhhhh so cute tho 🥺🥺

He catches you pretty quickly, his tape grabbing your waist and pulling you to him,,,

You instantly collide with his chest, your cheeks rosy from running around so much and your hands resting on his chest

Sero gives you the biggest grin, his finger under your chin and raising it to look at him

“You know your the biggest tease I know?”

“Yup!”

He laughs, placing a kiss on your lips-and omg why are you minty? and it feels soooo good to him, cause honestly mint isn’t a bad flavor-

“Hey babe whatcha got on your lips? Did you eat-gum or something?”

You just laugh and tell him it’s some chapstick you got (imagine the mint eos U KNOW THE ONE)

He asks if it’s the egg chapstick OML 💀

Yes Sero the egg chapstick

His lips are parted a little, his eyes wider than usual cause he’s lowkey confused on how he liked that so much

But he send you another huge grin before he kisses you again-

“I think your gonna need to wear that more for me, yeah?”

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

B A K U G O

Flavor: Cinnamon

Bakugo has ben practically forcing you to wake up at ungodly hours with him to train

He says its cause “youre getting weak” but really he’s a total simp for having such close contact with you

Also he’s a little brat and put his all into it  so you cant ever beat him, which boosts his ego for some reason?

“Hah, that really the best you got?” he scoffs down at you, his calloused hands pinning you to the ground as his body cages you in for the umpteenth time

Honestly, its hard to fight when your 1) annoyed about loosing and 2) have your hot as hell boyfriend pining you to the ground

But thankfully

THANKFULLY

He was starting to overheat, his breathe coming out in low pants as  strands  of hair began sticking to his forehead

You felt one of his palms begin to slip ever so slightly near you, and on instinct you knew you had to do something, you finally had an opening-

so you caused a distraction 

Your hands quickly flew to the nape of his neck, pressing his head down to your so you could kiss him square on the lips

Bakugo was completely confused in the best way possible- he didnt expect that to happen, but hell, hes not complaining-

until his lips start to tingle

“-the hell?!” he sputters out, his mind trying to figure out what was going on just before you successfuly flip him over, with you now on top

You stared down triumphantly at your boyfriend, not knowing how well that worked- until you noticed how shiny Bakugo lips look

He begins mashing his lips together, trying to rub it off since you had his hands pinned down

“The hell is on my lips? Agh, dont tell me its that weird ass lip stuff that supposed to make your lips bigger or something-’’

Ummmmm how does he know about lip plumping lip gloss? Question for a another day-

“Its chapstick silly,” you giggle, “-cinnamon”

Honestly, he’s gonna like it-this boy likes spicy things and the fact that “spicy” sensation came from his s/o....shoooottttt he is in love

But

Of course

He’s gonna act like it’s wierd or something, cause HES wierd

“Cinnamon? You couldn’t get something normal like cherry or grape?”

You scrunch up your nose, cause yeah your not for those flavors AT ALL, and Bakugo finds his chance

He quickly flips you over, your back now against the floor and his body on top of yours

“Cmon, baka don’t tell me thats seriosuly all you got-“

Don’t remind him that you were able to flip him over tho he’ll turn red and tell you to shut it

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

[its-nebula]

Snowstorm

Pregame Shuichi x Fem!Reader

Warning: NSFW, Stalking

You rested your chin on your hand as you looked out of the window. It was the last class of the day, and you couldn’t wait to leave. A thick layer of snow covered the sidewalks, and you could guess that you wouldn’t have school the next day based on how heavy it seemed to be coming down. It would be a chance to catch up on homework, that was for sure. Tiredly, you looked back to where the teacher was standing, and you were surprised to see how she was reading out names.

“Well, Mr. Saihara, it looks like you’ll be paired with S/O for this project.” Wait, what?! The teacher was talking about the Health project that she was going to assign. That much you knew about, but you didn’t know that it was going to be a partnered project. You looked over to Shuichi, who just nodded without emotion. Sighing, you sat back in your seat. She could’ve paired you with someone much worse, so you weren’t going to complain, but you’d never really talked to Shuichi before. “Please remember we’ll be sharing out next time we have class, so be prepared to share out on Monday!” Great. So much for spending the day relaxing.

The teacher sat down at her desk, and everyone got up to talk to their partners about their plans. You saw Shuichi get up and walk your way, and you sighed. He gave you a small smile.

“Is it okay with you if we do this project today? I’m a little worried about getting snowed in tomorrow, and I kind of have to use the weekend to catch up on homework.” You nodded, and smiled at him. “Can we go to your house? My house is kind of far, and yours is closer...I’m sure.”

“Sure.” You shrugged. It didn’t really matter to you, as long as you got it done at this point. The bell for school to let out rang, and everyone quickly filed out the classroom. He offered you his hand, and you took it, using his support to stand up. As you got near him, you noticed his scent. It was a scent that you loved! It made you smile as you gently sniffed near him. “Wow, you smell really good!” 

“Heh, thanks. We should get going, though. It’s starting to look pretty bad out there.”

The two of you started walking to your house. The blizzard was only getting worse, so much so that you could barely see Shuichi’s face while he was walking right next to you. Thankfully, it wasn’t a very long way to your house, and you were there in no time. Unfortunately, something was missing. 

“I forgot my keys! Oh my gosh, how are we going to get inside?!” You started to panic. Trapped outside in a snowstorm, nobody else in sight? It looked like you two were stranded.

“Um, may I try something?” Shuichi asked. 

“Anything helps.”

You followed Shuichi as he travelled to the back of your house, and watched as he walked up to the window. He reached up, blocking your view, but soon enough he got the window open. Smiling triumphantly, he motioned to the window. “After you.”

He helped you climb into the window, and you fell on the floor with a thud. You recognized it as your room, and you sat up, dusting yourself off. Shuichi quickly followed, landing on the ground almost perfectly. 

“Where’d you learn to do that?” You asked, amazed at both his skills and the fact he seemed to get in so effortlessly. 

“Ah, just some things I’ve picked up here and there.” He chuckled, closing the window. He sighed. “This is a really nice room you have here. Is anyone else home?”

“No, I’m usually the first one back. I hope everyone else doesn’t get stuck in the storm...” You turned on the TV to fill some of the silence, and sat on your bed. “Anyways, let’s get started so we can get you home, yeah?”

Working on the project together was relatively alright. You did most of the talking as Shuichi asked questions about you. He barely talked about himself, and you felt like all you knew about him was his first and last name. Once the project was nearly done, you said you would finish it off so that he could get home on time. However, as he tried to open the door, he was met with a wall of snow. He quickly closed it, as to not let any in.

“W-Well! I guess... we’re stuck here for the night!” He turned back to you, and you could see a wide grin on his face. “I’m sorry for intruding, but at least you won’t be alone in this blizzard, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right...” He followed you back to your room, where you sat on your bed. He sat down next to you. “I’m sorry, I wish I had some clothes or something for you.”

“That’s alright! I have some clothes in my backpack.” He pulled his backpack over, showing you his clothes.

“Shuichi, you sure do seem to be prepared for today, don’t you?” You wondered, and he nodded. As he was shoving the clothes back into his bag, a photo fluttered out by your feet. His eyes widened, but it was too late for him to try and grab it, as you already bent down and picked it up. “This...is a picture of me! And...I’m sleeping? What the hell?” You squinted your eyes. He sighed, taking off his hat. He ruffled his hair, taking a deep breath.

“You sure do look beautiful in that picture, don’t you? It’s one of my favorites.” He took another picture out of his backpack, giving it to you. “And this one I took just a couple days ago.. isn’t it lovely?” It’s a picture of you walking home in the snow, humming happily as you listened to music. “I always did admire you... I guess you know that now, huh? Well, I can’t say that I haven’t been waiting for an opportunity like this...”

He leaned forward, and before you knew what was happening, his lips were resting on yours. You wanted to pull away, but that enticing scent of his...

He pulled you closer, and you melted into the kiss, closing your eyes. He pulled away, smiling. 

“I’ve always wanted to do that, you know.” He whispered, your faces barely an inch apart.

“Is...there anything else you’ve always wanted to do?”

He responded by pulling you in for another kiss, silently willing you to lay on your back. His hand crawled underneath your shirt, causing you to giggle at how delicately he used his fingers to feel on your body, practically tickling you. He knew that this was a moment he needed to savor. He’d been waiting for this, and he finally had it, but he couldn’t get too greedy. Every moment of this is something he would cherish.

He stuck his tongue into your mouth, moaning lightly as he reached his hands up higher to place his hands on top of your bra. He undid the clasps, allowing him full exposure to touch as he pleased. He broke away to take off your shirt and allow your bra to fall off, and he excitedly started to massage your breasts. He took great pleasure in hearing you moan, trying to lower your volume by biting your lip. Fuck, you just looked so pretty like that.

He took his own shirt off, then placed his hand back on your breast, his thumb lightly brushing against your nipples, causing you to shiver, barely able to contain your moans. 

“Shuichi...” You moaned quietly, closing your eyes and enjoying the feeling of his touch. Licking his lips, he felt himself hardening. 

Not yet, Shuichi.

He lowered his head down and began to suck on your sensitive nubs. Everything was even more perfect than he imagined as he watched you throw your head back, filling the room with your sounds of ecstasy. And to think, he wasn’t even at the main event. 

As he was doing that, his free hand snuck into your lower region, rubbing you through your underwear. Already, you were so wet, and all from his touch. Again, he felt his pants getting tighter, but he showed restraint.

He took your bottoms off, then slowly started to make his way down to your thighs, dragging his tongue all the way down. He traced circles in your inner thigh with his finger, causing you to again shiver. He kissed the inside of your thighs, leaving a trail of wet, sloppy kisses to the middle of your undies. He kissed the area over and over again, and you practically yelled out.

“Shuichi, I-I want it...I want it. Please...”

Oh, now you were begging for him? This day just kept getting better for the raven-haired boy. In an instant, he slid your undies off and shoved his tongue into you, causing you to arch your back, waling out a very lewd noise.

Your taste was even better than he anticipated previously. He was beginning to get drunk on your scent, completely entranced with your wet little pussy. The fact that you were enjoying it was everything to him. He shoved his tongue in and out of you, essentially fucking the hell out of you with his hot, wet tongue. He salivated as he felt you throb, encouraging him to go faster.

“A-A-Ah~ D-Don’t stop!” Your words were slurred as your hands found a way into Shuichi’s hair. You tugged on his hair as your legs started shaking.

He mouth found a way onto your clit, harshly sucking on it as he enjoyed the sounds of your squirming and struggling to keep your composure. 

“I’m gonna- I’m gonna-!”

You squirted all over his face, drenching him in your juices. Shuichi didn’t stop sucking, though, and simply looked up at you with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. You could feel your whole body getting hot and bothered, sensitive from your recent orgasm.

He finally stopped, then started taking his pants off, as they’d gotten too uncomfortable for him to bare. He couldn’t resist his thoughts anymore, he just had to do it.

You saw what he was getting ready to do, and you couldn’t only mutter an incoherent string of words as he lined himself up with your entrance. He intertwined his hand with yours, and whispered into your ear. 

“You look so goddamn sexy when you’re a mess for me.”

He slid himself into you, seeing you wince as it went in. Once you were comfortable, he went deeper, but very slowly and meticulously. This was what he’d been waiting for all this time. He surpassed Cloud 9, and was on Cloud 12 by now. It was like the two of you fit together perfectly. When he started with his strokes, he could feel you tightening around him, clearly enjoying yourself. 

“Shu-Shuichi, go harder, go faster!”

As you wish, my love.

He got himself into a rhythm, and started to lose himself in the pleasure of it all. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, trying to keep himself from cumming too quickly. You didn’t make it any easier, that was for sure. Every thrust, your volume fluctuated, but you were calling out his name. His name. Nobody else’s, the way it was always meant to be.

No picture he ever took could compare to the moment his breathing started to get uneven. He knew that the safest thing to do would be to probably pull himself out, but how else could he mark his territory that you were his now? Besides, he just so happened to know you were on birth control, so..

“S/O!” He yelled out your name as he came inside you, causing you to yelp. He breathed heavily, collapsing on top of you. Your hair was absolutely a mess, and you looked completely exhausted, but you were still the prettiest girl in the world to him. After regaining his composure, he sat up on the bed, yawning. 

“Now then, after we clean ourselves up, would... you care for some hot chocolate? I think I know just how you like it.”

You grinned lazily at him. “I would love that.”

[actuallybarb]

The Aftermath ~ Part 2

Summary: y/n gets knocked around by a water monster, has secret-sharing time with peter, and decides mj is more important than her pride. sleep deprivation and caffeine consumption are definitely involved. 

Pairing: peter parker x reader

Warnings: swearing, angst, fluff, mysterio being a dick, trauma, it’s marvel what did you expect

Word Count: 3978 give or take

A/N: endgame is canon, *vomits*, but we’ve all got a thing for broken peter parker, even if all i want is his never ending happiness

                                                         ///////////

“I can’t believe you punched Flash.” Brad, of course, decided to sit next to me on the gondola ride to the hotel. Figures.

“You better believe it, ‘cuz it actually happened.” I tried to pay as little attention to him as possible and just take pictures on my phone, but he kept talking.

“Why don’t you like me?”

I groaned. “Because, Brad, you ask stupid questions like that.”

We pulled up to the hotel and were all sufficiently underwhelmed.

“It’s flooded!”

“The hotel is sinking?”

I considered helping the hotel out, at least while we stayed at it, but there wasn’t much hope left for it. I took my room key and thanked my lucky stars I didn’t have a room on the ground level. In fact, I was sharing with MJ. I waited patiently behind her as she jiggled the door open.

“Is it safe to assume the building will crumble any second now?”

MJ burst out laughing. “I think that’s an understatement.”

“If I get TB, I’m suing.”

“The hotel?”

“Harrington.”

She smiled. “C’mon, let’s get outside before we drown.”

We walked along the water and let the sun happily reflect on our exhausted faces. Everyone was enjoying themselves, but I was starting to feel queasy. It was almost imperceptible, but I could feel the city moving with the water, and it was making me sick. I started lagging back and tried to find my “sea legs,” but Peter noticed and stuck back too. “You alright?”

I plastered on a weak smile. “That long flight is catching up with me. I’m just going to grab an espresso, I’ll meet up with you guys soon.” He looked at me one more time before nodding and meeting the rest of the group.

I didn’t completely lie — I was getting an espresso. But I wasn’t going to catch up with them, at least, not for a while. I needed to get away from the water, even just for a little bit.

I can’t fly, per se. I can control the air currents around me and change them how I want them too, like I did on the airplane with the turbulence. I can do that with most elements, (except wood, I hate wood) and that gives me a heightened awareness of them. I’m basically the Avatar and the characters from Percy Jackson. All I have to do is shave my head and tattoo blue arrows on my body. (And, yes, I did watch all seven seasons of the two series and read all ten Percy Jackson books to actually figure out what the hell it was that I could do. It helped. Clearly.)

I just lifted myself to the top of the coffee shop. I’m a sucker for espresso, I like to be close to it. The distance helped. I felt grounded enough to walk on the normal streets of Venice again, but when I touched down, I suddenly lurched to the right.

“What the hell,” I muttered. I got my answer soon enough. A huge river monster was crashing its giant water arms on anything it could see. And I was directly in its path. “Oh, shit.”

I shouldn’t have been as terrified as I was. I mean, come on, I can control water. Dissipate the water man, Y/N, I can almost hear you yelling at me. Shut up, I was scared. This thing was twice as tall as any of the buildings, and it had a direct path to anywhere in the city. Me, a seventeen year old girl, against that? Not a good idea.

So, like any logical human being, I ran. And I still got clobbered with water and ended up actually falling into the water. Let me just tell you, Italy needs to get a Brita, ‘cause their river is nasty.

But, once I was actually in the water, the river monster looked a lot less intimidating. Sure, the water was churning around and sucking everything into its path, but I was in my element — literally. I got close to it, like, really close. I pushed against the flow of the water and tried to stop the monster from forming, and it worked, for a little bit. It slowed down, and I got some newfound momentum, when all of the sudden, it all stopped, and tons of water crashed to the surface. That was my cue to leave, but then something caught my eye. A flash of metal was in the water. Luck would have it, though, that I could bend water and metal (shout out to Toph Beifong). I latched onto the metal and pulled it close to me, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Didn’t mean I would trash it though, this water was disgusting enough. I tucked it in my pocket and started swimming to the surface.

I got out of the water actually pretty close to the rest of the class, but I was the only one completely drenched.

“Oh, Y/N, good! We’re all here,” Mr. Harrington celebrated. “Let’s get back to the hotel, your families will want to know you’re all fine.”

“You’re soaked.”

I shivered, even though it wasn’t cold. The temperature difference between the water and the air was enough to make me shake. “Astute observation, Brad.”

“Here, you can have my jacket.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want it.” I kept walking and managed to bump into Peter. “You got wet too?”

“Just splashed. Did you get thrown in?”

“Yeah, the bastard caught me by surprise. I’m okay, just cold.”

“Here.” Peter slung his backpack around and took out a mostly dry sweatshirt. He gestured it my way, but I didn’t take it. “It’s just a jacket, Y/N. You’ll get a cold with your hair dripping all around you.”

I knew that wasn’t how colds worked, but I took it anyway and let it soak in the water from my hair. It helped, surprisingly, at least making me not shiver. We made it back to the hotel with no other complications, aside from Flash tripping over his own shoelace because he was too busy recording for his Instagram followers to pay attention to where he was going. I quickly went upstairs and changed out of my clothes, putting on a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt that used to belong to Jessica. The room had a tiny balcony, and I took advantage of it and laid out all of my clothes and Peter’s sweatshirt. The last thing MJ or I needed was a puddle of water to slip in.

I went back downstairs and sat close to the top of the stairs, not wanting to get anywhere near the water at the bottom. MJ was a few steps below me, and Peter was leaning against the stairs, talking to someone on the phone. He hung up, and I slipped past MJ and wrapped around to the phone. I was about to dial, when I remembered something. “Hey, Peter.”

“What’s up?”

I pulled him away from the stairs and whispered, “Is the plan still working?”

“The—oh, that plan. Uh, yeah, I think so. I got her this necklace of a black dahlia from a glass shop, and I want to give it to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

I smiled. “That’s adorable. I’m going to use the phone, do you mind?”

“Oh, sorry, I’ll get out of your way.” We smiled at each other, then I grabbed the receiver and dialed.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mom, it’s Y/N.”

“Oh my—John, it’s her. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Harrington wanted all of us to call our parents, so this is me, doing my due diligence. We’re still set for Paris tomorrow, so I’ll call you then, okay? Love you.” I didn’t even really wait for them to respond before I hung up. Truth was, I didn’t want to talk to them. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone, but I had to make one more phone call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Jess, it’s Y/N. You watch the news nonstop, so I figured I’d call, let you know I’m okay.”

“Thank god, I was so worried about you. What happened?”

“This water monster literally came out of nowhere and knocked me straight into the murky junk, it was disgusting.”

“Were you able to help at all?” Jess was one of two other people in the world who knew about what I could do. She was the one who bought me the tv shows and books, of course she knew.

“I slowed it down at some point, but then all of a sudden it just dissipated, it was weird. I did find this weird metal thing in the water, I picked it up. I’ll send you a picture of it when I get the chance.”

“Okay. Call me soon, got it?”

“Count on it. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore, so I walked up the stairs, ready to succumb to the moldy mattress in my room. Unfortunately, I had to collect my clothes.

Everything was nearly dry, and Peter’s sweatshirt was definitely dry, so I brought them inside. I almost didn’t want to give Peter his sweatshirt back, just because it was so soft, but knowing him, it was probably the only one he brought, so I walked the ten feet to his front door and knocked. I wasn’t told not to enter, so I turned the knob and walked in. “Hey, Pete, I—“ I stopped with my hand by my face, terrified. A small dart was less than an inch away from my palm. I turned to the man in the corner who was holding the gun. “Did you just try to shoot me?”

“You’re the one who came barging in.” The scary looking guy with the eyepatch leaned forward. “What’s your name?”

I laughed heartlessly. “Ha, yeah, like I’m going to tell the man who just pulled a gun on me.” I looked at Peter and threw his jacket at him. “I brought this back.” Then I turned to the man in the chair. I crunched the dart, letting it fold on top of itself before his eyes, then I let it fall to the floor. “You can keep that.” I looked at Peter one more time, then slammed the door on my way out.

MJ was laying on her bed when I walked back in, but she could tell something was up. She had impeccable observational skills. “You good?”

I was pacing, a bad habit I picked up after The Snap first happened. “I just need to look something up.”

“Well, the hotel might be sinking, but they’ve at least got good wifi.”

I finally sat and opened my laptop, then turned on my VPN and put the whole device on ‘incognito mode.’ I had some serious investigations to conduct, I didn’t need the government to see what I was doing. Okay, I only had one serious investigation, but that could possibly have lead to more, so I kept my guard up.

First search: scary-looking black man with an eyepatch. The guy’s face was the first image that popped up. Nick Fury. Ex-director of SHIELD before all of that went to shit. Now he’s running some ‘underground’ SHIELD, I guess. Now I know the guy’s name.

But why was he talking to Peter? And why did he shoot me?

I was up all night doing research. Not just on Nick Fury, but on the metal piece I had found in the water, the Avengers, and as much as I could find on Peter Parker himself. Sooner than I thought, the sun peeked between the curtains at the window and MJ’s alarm came blaring through the speakers on her phone.

“Morning,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and finally taking a break from my computer screen.

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Are you going to yell at me if I say no?” MJ just pursed her lips. I knew she wouldn’t.

It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve pulled an all nighter. At least this one was productive.

“What’s on your bed?” She picked up a small spring and looked it over before putting it back beside the rest of the pieces of the metal thing. “Did you take apart your toothbrush?”

I chuckled. “No, I found this thing in the river when I got knocked in. I didn’t know what it was, so I took it apart.”

“Have you figured it out?”

“Not yet.” I rubbed my eyes again and groaned. “We’re going to Paris today, right?”

“Yeah.” MJ stood and stretched and I caught the smallest smile on her face when she replied. I smiled too and packed up my project. Something for another late night.

We were escorted outside with our luggage in tow, but Mr. Harrington happily informed us we would be taking a bus to Prague instead of a train to Paris. You’ve got to be kidding.

Peter was walking to the bus in front of me, but I grabbed his arm and dragged him away. “What the hell, Peter?”

“You can control metal?” He was in awe. His admiration would’ve been flattering if I wasn’t so pissed.

“You had Nick Fury in your room last night. I almost got shot last night. What the hell is going on?”

“It was only a tranquilizer, you would’ve been fine—“

“That’s not the point, Parker!” I basically hissed at him. He looked a little surprised that I was so upset. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down enough to not start shouting. “We were attacked by a water monster, I almost got shot, I didn’t sleep, and now four people in the world know what I can do, so give me some damn answers, because I sure as hell deserve them.”

Peter looked around, like he was looking for an escape, but I was ready. I might not have slept in almost 48 hours, but I wasn’t going to let him get away so easily.

Then Harrington was calling us over to the bus. Perfect timing.

“Can we talk on the bus?”

I nodded and let him lead the way to the back. Surprisingly we were the only ones that occupied those seats and the ones surrounding, but that’s what happens when you get a bunch of nerds in the same vehicle—they all sit in the front. He sat low in his seat, and I did the same, and I let him start the conversation. Prying it out of him wouldn’t be too successful, I figured, not with something like this.

We got fifteen minutes out of the city before he started talking. “Fury wanted me to go with him to meet this guy who defeated the Elemental yesterday.”

“Why you? And what’s an Elemental?”

“The water monster, it’s called an Elemental. And he asked me because I’m—I’m,” his voice dropped to an even lower whisper, “I’m Spider-Man.”

I almost didn’t believe him.

I almost burst out laughing at the hilarity of it all. Peter Parker, Spider-Man? Ridiculous.

But, remember, I learned from Toph Beifong. I can tell when people are lying.

And Peter?

Peter wasn’t lying.

Well, shit.

How do I even respond to something like that?

“Okay.” Good one. “Who was the other guy you met with?”

“You—you’re not surprised?”

Oh, young Parker, I was dumbfounded. But I had learned two years earlier how to control my heart rate, so he would never know how freaked out I actually was.

“You saw me stop a dart mid-air, Peter, you being Spider-Man is hardly out of the ordinary.”

He looked relieved, but he still hadn’t answered my question.

“Who was the other guy?”

“Oh. His name is Quentin Beck. He’s—“ another low whisper, “he’s from an alternate universe. He fought the Elementals before, and he and them got sucked into our universe when Tha—Hulk brought everyone back.” He didn’t look me in the eye when he talked about the snaps. I wouldn’t either, but I felt the little blip his heart made at the mention of Thanos’s name, so I didn’t push. Even though Quentin Beck and his story sounded like bullshit.

“Do you have a picture of him?” Peter looked at me skeptically, but hooked up his mask to his phone. A somewhat blurry picture of Quentin Beck popped up, and he sent it to me, but he didn’t seem happy about it. “I just want to know who to look out for. If I start chucking rocks at people, I don’t want to hit the wrong one.” The lie seemed to relax him a little bit. It wasn’t a complete lie, I did want to know who to look out for, but I also wanted to find this guy in our universe. “What’s the plan now?”

“They think another one will pop up in Prague—“

“Peter, we’re driving toward Prague. Shouldn’t we be going away from it?”

“I have to help fight this thing—“

“Let the Beck guy do it!” My voice had risen above a whisper and Peter quickly shushed me. “He’s done it before, he can do it again.”

“They need my help, I can—“

“Peter.” He kept muttering, convincing himself he needed to help, but I wasn’t having it. “You don’t have to save the world, Peter.”

That got him to shut up.

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t. You don’t owe the world a goddamn thing.”

“Help me.” That got me to shut up. “Help me fight the Elemental.”

“Why the hell would I do that?”

“Because you’re one of the only people who can! The next one that’s coming, they’re pretty sure it’s the fire elemental, and any time it absorbs metal it can get stronger. You can help us beat it by keeping the metal away from it!”

Oh. He didn’t know I could do more than that.

“Peter, I — ”

“Please.” Peter Parker had the best puppy-dog eyes I had ever seen in my life. But I wasn’t convinced.

“I’m here for a school trip, Pete, not to save the world.”

It’s like I sucker punched him. He deflated immediately and looked away, and I got up and moved a few rows ahead.

I wasn’t opposed to helping, but I didn’t want to get near Quentin Beck until I had a full story on him. And that would take a lot of research and caffeine.

“Hey, Eugene.” We had stopped for a bathroom break and he was still using his phone to update his Instagram followers on all of the happenings on our way to Prague.

“Are you here to break my jaw again, Y/L/N?”

I looked at his face and didn’t see any swelling, barely any discoloration. “Nope, you’re healing nicely, I’m impressed. Do you have a hotspot?”

“Why do you think I have a hotspot?”

“Because you’ve been on your phone the entire trip.”

“What will you do for me if I let you on it?”

I rolled my eyes and groaned. Of course he would ask for a favor. “Anything. Within reason.”

“Can I cash in on the favor later?”

Goddamnit. “Sure, whatever.”

He laughed maniacally. “Okay, Flash Hotspot is the user, and spidermanrocks is the password, no spaces, no caps.”

“Really, Eugene, you went with that password?” I almost had to laugh. He would have an aneurysm if he knew who was really Spider-Man.

“What?”

“It’s a bit obvious, don’t you think?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. What were you doing with Parker?”

“Plotting the downfall of the European Union.” I let out a laugh. “We were talking about the water monster, and how there’s a light festival in Prague that’d be cool to go to.”

“Gonna go on a date with Penis Parker?”

“I was actually thinking about asking Brad.” That made Flash laugh, and I smiled myself. “But seriously, stop calling him that.”

“Whatever.”

Peter looked flustered as he got back on the bus, but I didn’t pry. But Brad looked awfully smug as he sat beside MJ. Focus, Y/N, you have to find Quentin Beck. I hunkered down in my seat and slipped my headphones over my ears, then logged onto Flash’s hotspot and got to work.

The number of illegal websites I went on was not something I’m willing to admit out loud, but I couldn’t find anything. Not a single facial-recognition scan showed any results for Quentin Beck, and I tried as many as I could get my hands on. But the more I looked at his face, the more I felt like I’d seen him before. And honestly, it was pissing me off.

I stared at the image on my phone, and I had a gut feeling it had to do with Tony Stark. This Beck guy was somehow connected to Stark. It’s like the answer was on the tip of my tongue. I rubbed my temples in frustration, wishing I could just reach into my memory and pull out the information when it hit me. “Memory, you’re so stupid, Y/N.”

Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, affectionately called B.A.R.F. was presented by Tony Stark at a lecture he did at MIT almost seven years ago. But this guy had released a paper about it six months before—a guy named Quentin Beck. I remembered reading about it for a school project, and the picture of the guy was the same person Peter met.

“There’s no way.”

I looked up the article, and sure enough, I was right. Quentin Beck was the scientist behind the technology, and he was an employee for Stark Industries when the article was published.

Great, now I had to break into Stark Industries and access their archives while on a hotspot provided by Eugene Thompson. Lucky for me, we pulled into the parking lot for our much improved hotel, which meant free wifi. Unlucky for me, Mr. Harrington now felt he needed to start bossing us around, considering he was the teacher. Which meant I had to put my investigations to the side. For now.

“Okay, kids, grab your room keys, same roommates as before. Meet back in the lobby at five o’clock for the light festival!”

MJ and I dragged our cases up to the third floor. We each chose a bed, but she was moody, more than her usual angst. But I didn’t have time to play therapist. “Did we get a wifi password?”

“Uh, yeah.” She passed over the card after logging in herself and sat on her bed, glancing back at me every ten seconds.

I was typing away madly, but her stares were making me uncomfortable. “Why are you staring?”

She looked away quickly. “I’m not staring.”

“You were totally staring.” I kept clicking and typing. “What?”

“What are you looking for? I know you stayed up all last night on your computer.”

To tell or not to tell, that is the question. Not a very hard one, but it’s still the question. This secret isn’t mine to make public, though. “I’m trying to prove someone wrong.”

“Who?”

I hesitated. “Peter.”

“Why do you need to prove him wrong?”

“Because he’s gotten his idyllic little hopes up and I want to squash them like a bug.” I glanced at her and smirked. “I’m kidding. I just don’t think he’s right about something, and I’m proving it.”

She nodded, not entirely convinced. “You’re coming to the light festival, right?”

I looked at her. Really looked at her. She was pulling her long sleeves over her wrists and switching her weight from foot to foot—uncomfortable as hell. I gave her a genuine smile and closed my computer. “Wouldn’t miss it. Wanna help me figure out what to wear?”

Friends come before saving the world any day.

tags: @eridanuswave @vampirestrawberries​

[nimmy22]

A Mistake: Chapter 10

Rick was disposed of on Friday. He has been dead for three days.

Raccoon High school ~ 8:00 AM Monday

Heading to her locker, Cara found her friend already waiting for her. Claire stood leaning against the locker, bouncing a ball back and forth. She had a far-away look, chewing her bottom lip. she didn't notice Cara approach. Her mind occupied elsewhere.

Hiding behind a pillar, she spent a few minutes preparing herself for the act before the filming started. There were no second takes in real life. She had only one chance, and that was it. It was now or never. Blowing her bangs out of her face, she gripped her bag tighter and approached Claire.

Feeling cold sweat trickle down her neck, Cara tried to calm her breathing. she resisted the all-powerful urge to run in the opposite direction. She wondered if Claire figured out the truth about what her most trusted friend had done to Rick in the Arkley mountains. Claire looked bothered, and the likelihood of Rick being the reason was high.

"Hi," Cara called out with a smile that Claire matched with her own.

"I was starting to think you weren't gonna show your face around here." Cara's heart fell. She gripped her books tighter to keep them from slipping through her clammy hands. Alarms went off in her head. Did Claire know? Rick wasn't yet reported missing by his mom as she had eaten the lie up for now.

"What? Why wouldn't I?" Cara hid her grimacing face in her locker, pretending to look for something. She struggled to swallow the thickness at the back of her throat.

"Mr. Augustine is subbing in for the first period. That fucker is notorious. No one is setting foot in that class while he's in there." Claire growled, throwing her ball extra hard into the lockers across from them. The sound drew several sleep-deprived eyes for a few seconds.

The tension left Cara's shoulders, and she exhaled slowly. "I could use some normalcy in my life right now. Bad teachers are normal." Cara mumbled without thinking.

Giving her the side-eye, Claire stepped closer, caging her friend against the lockers. "Something you’re not telling me? Something definitely happened." Claire tilted her head, narrowing her eyes as she regarded her friend.

Cara's mouth went slack for a moment. She racked her brain for a way out of these questions. It was hard to think through the alarms blasting in her head.

"Is it bad for me wanting things to be back to the same dull routine? Routine is safe, but what's happening around here recently isn't. Bank robbers taking hostages. And before that, the kid who drove his car into a tree and burned to death. And lastly, my runaway almost-boyfriend. I would like a week where nothing bad happens."

Cara couldn't bring herself to mention her missing parents, getting assaulted in the woods, killing someone, and the endlessly piling bills. How could she possibly say anything without digging herself a depthless hole?

"Oh yeah, Rick. So weird what happened with him. No one just up and leaves like that. Apparently, he wrote this note about going to his dad's place and left. But his mom can't get in contact with her ex-husband either." just like that, Claire backed off, and Cara was thankful.

"Maybe he got fed up with this town."

"Or maybe you smashed his heart with a nasty rejection, and all he could think of was getting the hell outta here. Shame though, you could've gotten yourself a man."

"Hey! he didn't make a move while we were alone together. Maybe you just read all the signs wrong. he was not interested in me from the start."

'Lies. Lies. Lies.' Cara screamed in her head, but on the outside, she maintained a playful expression.

"Impossible! I'm good at reading people. Like, wasn't I right about that one guy who was sniffing around my bike? He was saying he was just checking it out, but I knew he would try to steal it. Guess who ends up sitting at the back of my brother's cruiser? the view he's got now doesn't include a sky."

"That was one time," Cara scoffed, making her way to her first class.

"Your point is?" Claire raised an eyebrow, hands resting on her hips.

"My point is, your ability doesn't seem to delve deeper than surface stuff because you missed some real shit about Rick," Cara said bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Claire watched her friend with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open.

"Oh, you forgot to mention how funny and adorable Rick was- is. When I saw him at the trails, I was immediately hit in the head with how handsome he was. Please, keep hooking me up with great guys like that, and I'll bleed them dry with my rocking charm. They'll never know what hit em."

"don't worry, I'll find you a nice hunk to make up for our runaway boy. I'll make sure you got a date for that fundraising party they're gonna have at the station. My brother got us invites."

"That's cool. I... can’t wait," Cara said as she stood in front of the classroom.

"Are you actually going in?" Claire grabbed her friend's arm.

"Yeah, why not? one bad teacher isn't the end of the world."

"Goddammit, fine, I'm coming with you. You’re such a bad influence on me,"

"Only the best." Cara giggled but remembered the problem at hand. One of many. She turned to her friend. "Hey, Claire,"

"Yeah," Claire answered as she dug into her backpack for a pencil.

"Do you think I could stay with you for a few days?" Cara said in a low voice, her finger fiddling with a hole in her jeans.

"Fuck yes! We haven't been able to hang out for a while. In fact, Chris will really appreciate somebody staying over with me. He's been gone a lot these days, especially at night. Work isn't as clear-cut anymore. what's up though?"

"My parents are out of town. I'm scared someone might break in while I'm alone." Cara lied, grimacing internally with every word. she hated lying to her friend. Still, there was no way she could tell Claire that she is being evicted.

The rent was already late. Late for months. The landlord was already fed up and refused to give her more time. She couldn't come up with even a quarter of what was owed, and an eviction notice was posted to her door last night. With her parents still MIA, she couldn't save her home. While it wasn't the happiest place on earth, she grew up there and had some fond memories amongst all the bad ones. The staircase was her favorite place to play as a child. She would meet up with the other kids there, and they would play for hours while their giggles and shouts echoed floors below. It was a time of innocence, moments of joy away from their abusive homes.

"Girl, I'll protect you. Come on over whenever. You don't even need to ask." Claire giggled, balancing the pencil on her nose and crossing her eyes. "Claire bear will take good care of you."

"Thanks, Claire, you the best," Cara meant every word. This was the only truthful thing she had said in this conversation.

----------------------------- 4 PM

On her way to the bus stop, Cara made a mental list of all the things she should pack from home. This was likely the last time she will be setting foot there. Obviously, she couldn't take any furniture, not that anything was worth more than curbside pickups.

Just as Cara reached the bus stop, a light drizzle of rain began. It reminded her of that night. The night she had the misfortune of meeting the infamous captain of the STARS. While she had seen and experienced some horrible things since meeting him, nothing was directly his doing. Those hitmen would have tried to kidnap Sherry, Rick would have tried to rape her, and her parents would have left whether or not she had met him. He helped her several times, and she had to acknowledge that he may be an ally she could trust. But he still had control over her life which frustrates her.

Stepping into the bus shelter, an advertisement caught her attention. Cara approached the poster, her eyes skimming over the print with increasing interest.

Participants wanted for clinical trials at Raccoon General Hospital to test the efficacy of a new drug. Each participant will be paid a starting amount of 900$ at the beginning of the study if selected. More details will be provided after the extensive selection process. All interested parties must complete an application and submit it to the secretary of Dr. Sandford on the third floor of Raccoon general hospital, room 312.

The money stood out to Cara, so much so that she walked out into the rain with a destination in mind. The money wasn't much, but it could help her get by for at least a month or so. she needed a little booster until she could sort out a job. She couldn't survive just on babysitting, especially since the Birkins hadn't called her at all this week. They've been too quiet, and she was starting to miss Sherry.

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

With dripping hair and drenched clothes sticking to her like a second skin, Cara finished filling in her details while the clipboard rested on her thighs. Using the number of the phone Wesker had given her, she filled out her contact information.

The rain had not let up, only coming down harder. It was soothing to hear the rain periodically hitting the windows. She was the only person in Dr. Sandford's waiting room until the secretary sauntered back in and rolled her caked eyes at Cara.

"Still here? Oh, take your time its not like I enjoy staying back past my shift. You must be something desperate. Why don't you visit one of them shelters, you know, the ones for troubled runaway teens." she said through loud, open-mouthed gum chewing. A generous amount of red lipstick coated her front teeth. It was a wonder how she did not taste it.

"All done!" Cara chirped, skipping to the secretary's desk. She slid the clipboard over the counter with a big smile earning her another eye-roll. she could almost feel the cash already in her hands, and nothing could dampen her mood. Making her way to the door, Cara hoped she would be selected for the study.

"Oh? so you do have a home. But on that side of town. It might as well be a cardboard box in a back alley." the secretary snickered as she looked over Cara's application, twirling her Coiffured hair. She held the form carelessly, pulling out the piece of gum in her mouth and sticking it on the corner of the paper.

All Cara wanted to do was walk up to the older woman's face and smack the smug look off her face while screaming every profanity she could think of. Instead, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and gave a generous squeeze. Water spilled all over the polished white floors. "Sorry, I can't afford to catch a cold."

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

Cara sat curled up on a couch next to Claire, a cozy blanket laid over them. The only light in the room was the flashing of the T.V as shots were fired. Half the popcorn in the bowl was on the floor as they kept tossing the kernels in each other's mouths and missing every single time.

"I gotta go pee, be right back," Claire declared before hopping over the back of the couch and jogging to the bathroom. Pausing the movie, Cara stood up to stretch.

As Cara started clearing the popcorn mess, her phone rang. She knew it could only be Wesker or Dr. Sandford calling. Without wasting time, she stumbled off the couch to grab her phone off the coffee table. in her hast, she ended up sending it sliding beneath the couch. "Fuck!" she hissed.

Peeking below, she couldn't see it. Using all her strength, she flipped the couch over to reveal her phone sitting in a pile of dust. She didn't recognize the caller's number and squealed. Taking a deep breath, she answered the call.

"Hello?" her voice shook, hands clammy. Short of breath, she had to remind herself to breathe.

"This is the FBI. We are calling regarding an arrest warrant made for you." A young boy spoke. He couldn't be older than her.

"Oh yeah?" Cara clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. These little fuckers chose the worst time to mess with her.

"Have no worries, Miss. We can have all the charges withdrawn from your record. But first, we need you to confirm your social insurance number for us."

"Oh, sure. It begins with....1234 go fuck yourself," hanging up, Cara covered her face with her hands. she felt stupid for worrying over something that turned out to be a prank call.

While she enjoyed hanging out with her best friend, the wait was slowly killing her. She wanted to do something about her situation ASAP but was stuck watching the rented movie Claire nagged about all day. What calmed her nerves a little was that Claire had agreed to go job hunting with her the next day.

Cara fixed the couch and threw herself on it with a sigh, tossing the phone beside her. Leaning back, Cara rested her head and closed her eyes.

Her eyes flew open as the phone rang again, with another unknown number. With an eye roll, Cara answered. "Listen, you little shits. Find someone else to-"

"I guess your mother was too busy snorting drugs to teach you any respect. I suppose you weren't desperate for the money after all," Cara recognized the secretary's haughty voice, her eyes widening like saucers. She mouthed a half dozen curses before collecting herself.

"I am so sorry, mam! someone was prank calling-"

"Did I ask? Despite you being such a low grad choice, you've been selected. I have no idea what low standards the doctor has that he will take just about anyone. Come to the same place Wednesday at 6 PM sharp and don't be late."

"Thank you. Thank you!" Cara cried, bouncing on the couch.

"It's only 900$," With a click of her tongue, the secretary hung up.

Claire came back from the bathroom and watched with raised brows as her friend bounced around. Not knowing what her friend was happy about, Claire joined her in jumping on the couch. Together they broke into a fit of hysterical giggling. She was glad to see her friend less troubled.

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

Cara sat in a small crowd of twelve selected participants around a meeting room at the hospital. She was the first to arrive, eager to remedy her situation as soon as possible with the soon-to-be easy cash in her hands.

"During the experiment, you will be required to stay in an assigned room. Contact with the outside is strictly prohibited. Until we state otherwise. Many competitors out there will do anything to steal our research. As such, actions will be taken to prevent any and all data leaks. My team of researchers will monitor all medication's administration, and You may not refuse any doses given." Cara and several others scoffed at the scientist, Dr. Stanford.

Grey-haired, tall, and plump with dark skin, this man was the definition of sketchy. His ambitious eyes were calculating as they hardly spent time on each individual. His clothes and lab coat were immaculate, crisply pressed.

"Hey, I am not trying to be a lab rat for big pharma here," A man yelled, spittle flying out of his mouth. His clothes were worn, hair disheveled and dirty.

"You will receive your initial payment of 900$ now and then $2000 at the conclusion of the study. Any questions?" No one else spoke up. No complaints. Everyone's eyes gleamed with the prospect of additional money in their pockets. Cara couldn't deny how lucrative the amount was despite the sketchy situation.

The study would last only three days. Three days of absolutely no contact with the outside. Three days and she would have $2900 in her hands. It was good to be true.

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

30 min earlier.

Wesker stood at the loading area behind the hospital, leaning against the wall. Behind his shades, he watched as the two men loaded his cruiser with boxes of donated medical supplies. Once they were finished, the men returned inside.

Under the guise of checking over the contents of the boxes, Wesker peered inside to locate the reason he was here in the first place, A yellow folder of classified information about the newest test subjects. The job was clear. He would wipe any traces left by the research project and prevent any future missing person cases from being fruitful. Without opening the folder, he placed it back in the box and closed the trunk. Trust Umbrella to begin the cleanup operation before the first injection was administered. They like to cover all their bases.

With his hand on the door handle, Wesker paused. Something felt wrong, but he couldn't figure it out. Taking cover behind the car, he took out his gun, surveying the rooftops for a sniper. He waited several minutes, yet nothing happened.

Seeing no danger to himself, he lowered his gun back to its holster. There was no visible threat, yet he couldn't shake off the sense of danger. Frowning, Wesker wondered if Umbrella's paranoia was getting to him.

Making his way into the hospital, he began a search but didn't know what he was looking for.

Something was very wrong.

[halliwellslegacy]

1.02 Dimensional Nightmare

Total Word Count: 10k

Episode Count: 2/22

Tag Warning: Blood Warning.

1.02 Dimension Nightmare

Feriae Monroe had bouncy strawberry blonde hair that flowed around her attractive face, her lips painted with a light color of pink to match the light makeup she hardly needed. She wore clothes that fit around her curves, with a formal floral shirt and a pair of skinny jeans, complete with high heel shoes.

The night was chilled and bit her exposed skin as her lips softly connected with her longtime boyfriend, Vensel Dalin, he was visiting from Sweden for summer break to spend some quality time with his girlfriend Feriae. It was soft, sweet, easily acceptable, satisfying in the least. Expect for the fact that there wasn’t a spark or passion in the soft kiss. 

Vensel had dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes, and the night’s darkness mainly covered his stable structural features. He pulled away slightly as he straightened up, he towered over her, the height difference was the cause of this. Feriae stood at five-three while Vensel stood just above six-two.

The night out was refreshing, and they were on their way back to Feriae’s apartment. The street lights shone on the freshly made puddles from rain as they started walking down the sidewalk. Even on a Saturday night, the city of San Francisco seemed so quiet.  

The night almost seemed perfect if it wasn’t the eerily feeling of something terrible going to happen that was fighting in Feriae’s stomach. Despite all of the stomach-turning and the warning signs in her gut, she ignored them. She was trying to enjoy the company of her boyfriend, even if it meant them taking a dark alleyway.

The wind picked up slightly as Feriae’s hazel eyes could faintly make out what was around her. Trash next to dumpsters, a feeling that you shouldn’t be down this alleyway and the sound of feet splashing on water. The weight of Vensel’s arm on her shoulder gave her comfort as they walked down. Until she stopped, feeling the wind play with her hair until it died down. She could hear something; it started as faint as a whisper, a low dangerous growl, it was hard to pinpoint precisely where the growling was coming from, her best guess was from everywhere.

The growl made Feriae’s stomach turn into a sinking feeling of something terrible was going to happen; she no longer wanted to be down this alleyway. Vensel stopped looking down at her, trying to figure out what was wrong. The alley had a turn to the right of what he could make out but, he moved to turn around to look at Feriae. He didn’t hear anything, no low growl, all he knew was his girlfriend seemed uneasy.

It happened so suddenly; a dark figured appeared behind Vensel, causing Feriae to step back lightly, which confused Vensel slightly. He was able to ready to say something when a claw went through Vensel’s chest, blood-shattering onto Feriae’s figure. Her face was dripping with blood, and her clothes drenched. Everything froze for her, as she watched Vensel disappearing with the dark figure, trying to reaching out with haunting screams as he disappeared.

Feriae blinked once looking at the location she saw last of her boyfriend and the dark figure, she swallowed, trying to get the screams out of her head and falling on both her knees looking at the wet concrete.

                                 **************************************

I slammed my hand on top of the beeping alarm clock, opening my eyes slightly, seeing the sun trying to shine through my window. The smell of lavender filled my nostrils, and I closed my eyes, flipping to the other side, pulling the fluffy pale blue pillow over my head to block out the sun even more. I felt the need to get more sleep than the hours I have been getting. I may have only gotten eight hours just alone this week. Between the Netherwraith, the other demons that attack and tests from college, it was easy to say that I needed more rest.

I put my hand on my face sliding it down, opening my eyes in the orange color under the pillowcase. Fully aware now as the events of last week entered my mind, moving the pillow off of my face and sitting up. The memories were a bit fuzzy; the harder I tried to remember more details, the hazier it gets. I remember seeing my brother, pretty sure I did a crossover to the other side, and his words were muffled to me now, and suddenly I woke up. The spell, of course, was a rewritten version of ‘To Call Upon Our Ancestors,’ that has vanquished many powerful demons.

It strikes me odd because there are a million spells in the Book of Shadows. I didn’t have time to talk about this to the family. What was there to talk about, I’ve died at least a few times, close death experience half a dozen. It’s normal, at least in this family, and they would probably struggle it off.

I fiddled with the ends of the quilt that was on top, the worst of it is that I haven’t been able to summon my brother to talk to him. I bit the bottom of my lip, which meant he wasn’t allowed to see me at this time. I pulled back the quilt, it was old; it was my Grams’ quilt when she was a kid. I think her mother made it for her, it’s the fabric made of faded different color squares, and I often used it when I needed extra comfort. It also didn’t help that I was already in trouble for attracting the attention of hunters.

Aunt Prue might have blown a fuse, and Grams was making sure to keep the peace, but since this wasn’t the first time this has happened. Especially with me, the scolding words from everyone made that clear. Breathing out the frustration of anxiety from my chest, pushing out all thoughts in my mind, I got dressed.

The house seemed still as if I was the only person here. With the final step down the stairs, the feeling of stillness went away as the smell of food coming from the kitchen. I walked towards the kitchen, towards the promise of food. Seeing my Grams set a plate of pancakes on the table, noticing me almost instantly.

  “Thought you would never come down,” Grams said happy smiling warmly, as I took a seat at the table, starting to fill up my plate with the food on the table. Bacon, fruit, orange juice, almost every breakfast food item was on this table, it seemed. “Everything okay? You have barely been out of your room for almost two weeks. Expect you know for classes,” Her tone of voice turned to concern as she sat down herself, looking at me as I placed a pancake on my plate.

Grandpa was as well sitting at the table in front of me, reading the newspaper, but I could see his blue eyes peeking up from it, interested as well. His caring nature still apart of him; he still hasn’t stopped being a voice of reason and a guiding person. A former whitelighter at his core,  and always caring about all of us.

  “Everything is fine,” I bushed off, as I took a bit of toast. It wasn’t the truth, and of course, my grandparents knew that. Of all the people that could figure things out if something was a mist, it was my grandparents. Grams put her hand on my forearm as a sign of telling me it was okay to talk about what’s on my mind.

  “You know you can talk to us,” Grams started, and I shifted tensing my muscles up and sitting up more straight before standing up.

  “I should go, don’t want to be late for school,” I mumbled before pulling away from my Grams, taking my backpack, and walking out of the Manor.

  “Just the witch I wanted to see,” A woman’s voice said, in front of the stone steps leading from the Manor to the street. She held a warm smile, had a pixie cut brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was holding a yellow folder with her hands, wearing dark clothes, and I could see the flash of her golden badge from her belt with a holster.

Constantia Halliwell, my younger third cousin, I believed it was, but in this family, everyone was close enough to be sisters or brothers. I smiled at her as well, feeling the weight of my backpack on my shoulder.

  “Connie, nice to see you,” I warmly said, as I stepped down to meet her. She handed me the folder, and I pressed my eyebrows together. I looked at her before looking at the folder, taking hold of it before opening, shutting it instantly as my willpower to keep the remaining of my food down.

  “Not for the faint of heart,” Constantia said jokingly with a playful smile on her face as she took the folder back. The flash of gruesome pictures of body parts and organs painted in an alleyway. Made every part of my stomach turn, after I regained the natural composer for myself, I looked at her once again.

  “You could have warned me,” I stated as I was trying to delete the images out of my head mentally. Constantia laughed before pulling me closer to her.

  “That’s the fun part,” She said, wrapping her arms around my shoulder and walking us towards her car. “Look, there’s a demon, by the looks of it a monster of one,” Constantia’s voice turned to a stern tone as we slowly walked to her car, which looked to be a 2005 Toyota Corolla.

 I sighed, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Never a break from these demons or the supernatural world. I crossed my arms, pressing my lips together and giving a slight twitch of my face.

  “And you think I can handle it?” I said and started putting the pieces together. After all, since my parents are out of town as well as nearly all of our elders. I was the most powerful. “Have you tried calling your mom?” I asked, simply not wishing to deal with something so messy.

That was the one thing I never understood about myself; gore just never sat right with me. I was lucky enough not to throw up in front of Sam when I first blew up the Netherwraith and tasted the demon’s freshly chucks. Shivers ran down my spine as I remembered that.

  “Mom’s out of town, so are most of us. But, I figured this demon is out of our league and should be left to the most powerful witch,” Constantia counterattacked my question, I moved my head to hang behind me as if I was defeated.

While there are two forms of elders, we call our older relatives such and then the younger ones, youngling. I raised my hands, pulling my index finger to which my cousin smiled.

  “Alright, tell me what you know,” I said, as we stopped at the car, and I leaned on the car.

  “Last night, a couple was walking home from a night out, the woman said her boyfriend was dragged through a portal, four blocks away in another alleyway, his remains were found. The case was dropped on my desk, and I figured this is magic related,” Constantia informed me as she opened the back door of her car, placing the folder inside and shutting the door looking at me.

  “I’ll have Ronnie look in the book of shadows and send Val over to check the crime scene, and I’ll talk to the witness,” I said, biting my lip lightly as my cousin nodded her head digging her keys out of her pocket. “Oh, one more thing. I was wondering if you could help me find someone,” I crossed my arms and sighed lightly. This piqued my cousin’s interest only by the rise of her eyebrow.

  “Since when do you have friends?” Constantia asked, interested in her voice. “You don’t have friends, all my life you’ve never even thought of having friends. Not after that attack,”

 My cousin wasn’t wrong, I only ever had one friend, and after a demon attacked, I was forced to stop our friendship. I looked to the side, trying to find the right words in telling her that I was helping Sam as he asked.

  “No,” She quickly said, putting a finger in the air to scold me. “This is about the hunters ran into a week ago. You are not dragging me into it,” Her voice stern and her eyes match. I hesitated for a second.

  “It’s just I feel as if I have to help them,” I simply put, and she gave a disappointed sigh. Besides the feeling of knowing them my entire life, I felt drawn to them. Of course, this could all be me denying the fact that I’m attracted to Dean. “Maybe it’s the good witch in me, or maybe it’s the whitelighter. But, I feel as if they are innocents still, and I need to protect them,”

Constantia chuckled as if a joke was made when she realized that I was serious about what I said she stopped.

  “Oh god, you’re serious,” She said out loud, almost trying to believe this was happening. She sighed, getting tensed and looked over the roof of her car. “V, they are hunters. They are the least ones you need to be protecting,” Her voice stern and dangerously fumed. She shifted as if she was uncomfortable with all of this, and I didn’t entirely blame her for it. After all, Constantia is the granddaughter of Prue, short-fused and easily dismissal of things.

  “I know that. Everyone knows that. But I can’t just deny the fact that apart of me feels the need to help them, whether I know they can handle it themselves or not,” I defended the thought, only to receive an unsatisfied sigh. “I wouldn’t be apart of their lives if I weren’t supposed to help them, it’s only one thing, and maybe that’s it,”

  “You already protected them. Call it off, you start helping them with one thing, and it turns into a million things.” Constantia defensively reminded me; I shifted lightly, finally looking back at her and sighing, she is my best bet of finding someone or something. I meet her eyes, and she tilted her head. “I’m not falling for it,” She quickly stated, pointing at me as I made my eyes innocent and puppy-like as possible.

  “It’s only one thing. I promise after this; one thing is over. I will never see them again or think about them,” I promised, and she sighed, shaking her head.

  “Fine, what’s the name?” Constantia defeated and continue shaking her head as disappointment riddled on her face.

  “You know I don’t recall being told their last name,” I froze, thinking back to the entire situation. Technically, Dean didn’t even introduce himself either to me, Sam did. “The brothers' names are Sam and Dean, Sam mentioned that they were looking for their father,” I blew out air as I tried to puzzle everything together.

  “Okay, that really narrows things down,” Constantia’s sass wasn’t appreciated but understandable. “I’ll check into it, just focus on this,” She indignantly as she moved over to the driver’s seat, I walked away as she turned on the engine to drive away.

I pressed my lips before pulling out my cell phone.

                                    *****************************************

  “I just don’t understand why she feels the need to help the two hunters. The last one nearly killed her, don’t you think she would have fear over them, right?” Constantia frustrated as she pulled the caution tape above Valeria’s head to let her go through. Valeria sighed detached as she looked around the scene, taking deep breathes.

  “They saved her twice. If it weren’t for them, Vanessa would be dead, we all would be dead,” Valeria honestly said as she kneed down at a pool of blood looking at it. “I trust them,”

  “Well, do you have leads? She doesn’t even know their last name,” Constantia sighed annoyed and looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone else but them if they got caught, Constantia would be in a lot of trouble.

  “I believed their last name is Winchester,” Valeria impartial as her hand hovered the pool of blood, flashes started playing in Valeria’s head, she closed her eyes, focusing on controlling the flashes to play a movie in her head.

Valeria could see the first part, the couple walking home and leading up to it. When the man in her vision, got dragged, her vision filled with darkness, she felt the pain of the victim. The light of the alleyway came into her mind. When Valeria reopened her eyes, sighing lightly and pressing her lips together, drawing her hand back to herself and standing up.

  “What did you see?” Constantia asked, concerned as she noticed her cousin tense up. Valeria sighed and looked at her cousin.

  “Nothing good,” She cautionary everything about this seemed off, she rubbed her fingers together, trying to think about what to do. Valeria didn’t see anything, just darkness, and when she tried to recall, nothing made sense. But she did feel the pain of the victim, which was taking some time to dissolve.

Nothing made sense to her, the demon with this type of power was vanquished a long time ago by the original Charmed Ones, and if not them, then her father and his siblings. The Netherwraith was the first powerful demon her and her sisters face, and while she believed in her sisters. She wasn’t all too sure about the future held in store of them. Even though she could foresee it, she guessed that this demon or whatever the hell it was wasn’t going to be in the Book of Shadows.

Valeria turned to walk back the way they came a sickly feeling sitting in her stomach. Everything was hastily becoming different, the world around them getting darker by the second. Admittedly, this scared her, and they were going to have to adopt a new system. For this reason alone was enough for Valeria to make her way to the local bookstore.

                                      ***************************************

The pages of the old Book of Shadows moved as Veronica was flipping through its pages. She was assuring herself that the demon they were facing was stuck to the pages of the Book. When she finally got to the end of the Book, she sighed, closing it shut. Why do they have to fight a demon that isn’t in the Book? She shook her head and thought carefully.

  “Genesis!” Veronica called as she moved away from the podium going to the center of the attic as orbs fell, forming into a figure.

The woman moved her long wavy red hair; her light brown eyes shined a compliant towards Veronica. She wore fluid clothing, a solid pastel pink blouse, with jeans. All to match the era she was currently living in. Genesis Parker is the sisters whitelighter and a guide to finding out answers if they needed help.

  “You rang?” Genesis asked, with a warm smile and looking around the room.

  “Why are we stuck with the impending doom of fighting demons a lot stronger than us?” Veronica questioned as she crossed her arms, standing in front of Genesis.

  “If you wouldn’t have been able to handle it, then you wouldn’t be facing it,” Genesis encouraging her charge with an assuring smile.

The sound of a stack of books being placed on the old coffee table, brought the attention of the two to see Valeria gesturing to the bag.

  “Then I suggest we find other means,” Valeria took a book out and threw it at Veronica, who caught it. Genesis moved over to the bag, taking a book out.

  “Gen in the meantime, can you talk to the Elders and see if they might know what this demon is,” Valeria politely asked to which Genesis smiled placing the book down and orbing away from view.

  “Are you seriously adopting the means of hunters?” Veronica questioned reading the back of the book her sister threw at her.

  “This is the second demon we have faced that isn’t in the Book of Shadows,” Valeria admitted to her sister. “They have better resources than we do. We can’t rely on the School either; we have to adapt,” She warned, taking a book out the bag as well. “There’s been plenty of supernatural creatures running around that the Book wasn’t involved in,”

  “Alright. But I’m not going to enjoy it,” Veronica disappointed and took a seat on the couch in the attic. Valeria took a seat next to her sister and opened her book to begin reading. It was a few seconds of silence before Veronica closed her book.

  “I’m worried about Nessa,” She was concerned, placing the book on her lap. Her sister has never been this distant before.

As a result of last week that caused Vanessa to seem more distant relating to anyone in her family, it was if she was trying to avoid them at all costs. Of course, Veronica didn’t blame her older sister, but there were many questions she had for her older sister. It took their father a long time to try and heal Vanessa, and even longer for them to find a solution to vanquish the Netherwraith.

  “She’s a big girl, Ronnie. She can handle it,” Valeria’s eyes were engulfed in the words on the pages of the book. Veronica looked at her younger sister and shifted lightly to put her leg up.

  “We are her sisters; we are supposed to handle it together,” Veronica reminded her, with the rogue attitude and suddenly causing an uproar with hunters. She was beginning to feel like she was losing her sister to a different world altogether.

  “Veronica, last week you got severely injured. I get it, I do, but when one of us gets severely injured, she goes rogue. She got hunters on her radar; she must be hard on herself even for that. And the only way we can support her is by letting her work through it. When she is ready, she’ll talk to us, but right now a lot happened last week. She just needs time,” Valeria insisted on her older sister, she was worried about Vanessa as well. But that wasn’t an excuse to force her into submission.

Each sister was different from each other, and each one dealt with things differently. Veronica dealt with her’s by talking about it until it stopped bothering her. Valeria dealt with it by asking for advice. As for Vanessa, she dealt with it by bottling everything up and shutting herself out from the world. It was debating knowing the fact that she was the oldest; without their brother, she felt the most responsible for everyone.

  “After our elders gave her heavy words, I can only imagine her being upset about her actions,” Valeria added, opening the book again. “But, I have to admit it was refreshing for her to have an interest other than Thaddaus,” She mumbled, Veronica wide her eyes open.

  “What exactly did I miss?” Veronica puzzled; she wasn’t there for most of it, as she and Valeria were trying to figure out ways to vanquish the Netherwraith. “Do you think there is something there?” She pushed her eyebrows together in disbelief.

  “Doubt it, he struggling with his own interest towards her, I could only imagine how Nessie must feel,” Valeria flipped a page, detached from the entire situation. “And there’s the fact that they are probably not going to see each other again. So, I don’t think we have to worry. But it was interesting. I haven’t seen her heart be that energetic for a while,”

  “Great, just great,” Veronica’s disapproving tone started shining in the line. “Why does she always have feelings for the ones that want to kill us?” She annoyingly opened her book this time, and she shook her head fuming. 

Valeria didn’t say anything as she looked above the brim of her book. She was raising an eyebrow to the oncoming knowledge she was receiving. Careful not to tip the balance, she smirked lightly and went back to the research she brought home.

                               *****************************************

The afternoon sun shone down on the ivory piece of paper in my book as I read some of the material. Chirping from birds played musically in my ears, as I closed the book. The innocent Feriae Monroe wasn’t here today, at least to my knowledge, and I checked everywhere. I wouldn’t blame her if I witnessed what my cousin told me, I would be laying low as well. Right now, I needed to focus on my classes as my cousin was trying to track her down.

I walked towards the last of the old buildings that were last to be renovated; the building housed the campus library—going down the stone steps that lead into the ancient pine doors and taking out my phone, flipping it open to shut it down.

The library had cherry wood bookshelves lined satisfyingly; the shelves housed the necessary books the students needed for a course. The tables were made of walnut wood, matched with wooden chairs, lamps with the green glass cover sitting on the tables to help students with their studies. I even believed that the floorboards were the original oak flooring. The walls were covered with bookshelves, and only a few windows were carved into the walls to let in some fresh light. A few lights hanged above, letting more light in, as a result of the lack of light that the sunlight couldn’t light the room.

A couple of students were already in their seats studying, and I went to the front of the desk. Return books were stacked up behind the dip of the top of the desk. I placed my textbook on top of the surface. A man in the back turned around at the sound of the book being place, walking up towards the desk.

  “Vanessa,” The man happily approached as he took the book in his hands. He was the same age as my father, perhaps a few years older. The man had a gentle face, and while he held librarian energy with the clothing to match. However, this man is my Uncle Owen; he was the husband of my Aunt Melinda.

  “Hi, Uncle,” I warmly responded with a smile on my face. Owen was the campus’ librarian and often helped with answering questions to certain situations I may need help with; however, in this case, I simply needed help returning a book I needed for class. I only had a few more months until graduation, and if I needed the book later, I can always come back and study within the library.

  “Trust you have all of the notes required,” He quietly put as he labeled the book returned and put it on a tray behind him with the many other returned books.

  “That’s the dream,” I quietly chirped and smiled, juggling my backpack to rest once again on my shoulder as it was slipping. “Hey, by any chance, have you’ve seen a girl named Feriae Monroe?” I hoped for a solid answer as I couldn’t find her anywhere, I did indeed believed she might have been absent from school, but it was worth asking.

There was a silence that formed as the facial features of my Uncle began to develop in debating or not he should tell me before deciding to point in the direction of where the section of horror stories would be. I looked over at the row he was pointing at confused as to why he wouldn’t just tell me before I saw a woman around my age with strawberry blonde hair, looking directly at me before moving deeper into the row after she spotted me.

I blinked, confused, and a bit creeped out. I shook my head, pushing away any thoughts that dared to stop me in following such a weird feeling. But, I’m a Charmed One, protector of the innocence, and right now, she’s the innocent I need to protect. I gripped the straps of my backpack, pulling it off of my body and setting it down on the surface of the desk, feeling my back thanking me for a moment as I prepared myself to follow the woman in the row of horror books.

I fiddled with my fingernail as I looked down the row, I didn’t have a plan other than to freeze the entire room. Before going down the row, it was board daylight; I had no reason to be nervous or scared. Furthermore, I shouldn’t be this uneasy going down a row of books that I have gone down numerous times.

The woman was shorter than me; I guessed her height to be around 5’3, maybe 5’4. As I was 5’8, it wasn’t a huge deal; I was average. Her hair was brought into a messy ponytail, and her clothes were neat and nice looking. To which the only source of clothing I wore was nothing but items to vanquish demons in jeans, shirts, and sometimes jackets. I needed to ask her about fashion advice after all of this was over, of course. She was staring at a book spine; it looked old, worn out by the people who read it previously, the creases of white caused me to believe that.

  “Feriae Monroe?” I asked softly as not to disturb the readers in the library and not to scare her. She was staring intently at the books in front of her. I glanced at the names of names printed on the spine of the book; the disappeared golden letters make it impossible to read. My eyebrow arched as it scanned my memory, I don’t recall seeing the book in this library.

It seemed too old to be in this library and fragile to be researched by students. I turned my body to let my arm length to grab the spine to see the cover of the ancient book. The woman’s hand wrapped around my forearm, grasping me, keeping me from touching the top of its worn spine. I pushed my eyebrows together and looked over at her.

  “Please, leave it be,” She spoke little and mousy as if the words were stuck in her throat. It was no doubt in my mind that this woman is who I was looking for; the fear in her voice was all I needed. I pulled my arm back as she let go and watched as she finally looked away from the book.

  “That depends. Will it help us?” I asked, bring my voice to a warm tone to try and convince her that she was safe. The only sounds breaking the newly formed silence were pages turning by studying students. Finally, she stepped back as to let me grab the book, to which I piqued my interest.

Pressing my lips together, I reached out again and took the book in my hands. A cold shiver went shooting through my body, the hair standing up on my neck. This book was different than all of the rest. It felt heavy; the pages were old, older than the Book of Shadows pages. Weird symbols were carved into the leather of the hardcover protecting the pages. I have never seen these before, well maybe one; it was a sharp curve star with an eye-shaped with a fire engulfed in the center.

I couldn’t remember where I saw this, but it felt familiar. The aura alone made me frighten; it held secrets, dark secrets to which I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I kept the book in my hands, not opening it due to the overwhelming feeling of something horrible was going to happen.

It wasn’t until I blinked that I regain my courage to open the book. When I went to open the cover, that’s when a hand slammed down. It was a sharp thump, and the forearm was covered in hair. The pages stopped turning, and a few shush sounded, I blinked, looking up to see a tall man standing next to me. He had short dark hair and matching stubble with piercing brown eyes. His features were sharp, and his upper body matched with muscles spent years of working out.

  “Thaddaus,” I softly stated, swallowing to dispel the dry throat I wasn’t aware I hard until I was back on Earth. Thaddaus Hayes, the tall, brooding type with secrets on top of secrets. A cliche type, but it was the only thing I had to say about him, that was nice anyway.  

  “Not here,” He sharply put as his piercing icy glare was focused onto Feriae. Thaddaus wasn’t one to sugarcoat a lot of things.

  “I believed I told you to get lost,” I coldly said, narrowing my eyes glaring towards him. “Why are you here?”

  “You know why,” He simply put it finally looking at me and removing his hand on the cover of the book. I shook my head and looked at Feriae before moving towards her; she looked up at me before realizing I meant to leave.

  “I can help you, but you have to trust me,” I said, ignoring Thaddaus and continue to work towards protecting an innocent. Feriae looked up towards the tall figured that was standing behind me, that was Thaddaus before back at me, nodding and moved the book into my backpack. I started to move away from the location I was at with Feriae before Thaddaus grabbed my arm.

  “Vanessa,” He said, I looked at the bookshelf in front of me not being able to move from the spot I was at, clenching my jaw and giving a sharp tug getting my arm out of his grip. I turned to face him before flickering my hands in front of me, causing the whole room to freeze.

  “I don’t have time for this,” I mumbled, making sure he wasn’t moving before I waved my hand in front of Feriae, unfreezing her. Now freely to leave the library.

The setting sun told me that it was soon to be night as I pulled into the driveway of the Manor. I clenched my jaw as I turned the car off and looked at Feriae.

  “A couple of ground rules,” I started looking up at the Manor. “We aren’t exactly normal, we are here to help, and things might get a little complicated too fast,” Her eyes looked at the dashboard trying to find words to say.

  “I just saw my former boyfriend get dragged into a dark portal,” Feriae softly put it as she looked at me. “I think I can handle anything,” She gave a weak small smile towards me. “But, to make sure what exactly are you?” She asked, this was a question I always got a hit or miss on, either people thought we were crazy and didn’t believe us until later on after the demon attacks. Or they run away in fear, and we have to watch and protect them in secret.

  “Well, we are witches. We kick evil’s butt every week and protect innocents like you,” I stated simply, it wasn’t a lie; it was the truth, and I was never one to lie to anyone. Unless they were evil and wanted to know all of the secrets, then that’s when they would have to torture me. “Right now, we want to make sure this happens to no one else,” I reassured her, and the thoughts were processing in her mind.

  “And the guy that we encountered at the library?” She asked, and I sighed looking ahead of me, I never knew how to answer that question. But, whenever he is involved, he always makes the people I need to protect so much harder, make them feel uneasy, and that was no doubt in my mind as of what is happening right now.

  “The least of our problems,” I gave a slight unhappy smile as I sighed once again. I finally looked at the woman next to me and opened my car door as I unbuckled myself. “Right now, protecting you is my main concern,”

I pointed my car key at Feriae before finally making our way into the Manor. Grams should be at the restaurant, and grandpa should be running the School. My parents were a different story, never knew where they were.

I led Feriae into the sitting room before gesturing for her to take a seat. I put my backpack on the coffee table, and we had a little small talk, I asked her if she wanted anything, things like that. I sighed, pulling my cell phone out of my pocket and flipping it open.

  “Vanessa,” I heard my sister Veronica’s voice call as the front door opened and slammed shut. I was just about ready to call her, and here she was.

  “In here,” I called back, and after a few seconds later she appeared, looking at Feriae and then back at me. Worried plastered on her face, causing me to arch my eyebrows together.

  “Something happened,” I said, concerned about what I was about ready to be told. Veronica shrugged lightly before taking a seat next to Feriae.

  “It can wait later,” She said, avoiding the topic, which made me feel more suspicious of what the matter was. I heard footsteps coming down the steps, and Valeria appeared sighing in defeat and talking a sit in one of the armchairs.

  “I can’t find anything in the book,” Valeria said, overlapping her legs together and shook her head.

  “Feriae, these are my sisters, Veronica and Valeria,” I introduced her to my matterless siblings, narrowing my eyes towards them both. “That’s reassuring,” I said, sighing and bending down, opening my backpack, pulling out the book I found at the library with Feriae.

Valeria was the first to arise from her seat, even though she looked comfortable in the position she formed. Her hands were rubbing her palms, telling me that she was nervous. I glanced up at my sister before looking at Veronica and straighten myself up.

  “Vanessa,” Valeria’s voice was soft and filled with warning. “Don’t open that,” She simply put, looking up at me in eyes.

  “You’re the psychic you tell me why,” I pressed my lips and tilted my head to the side. “Do you think the information we need is in this book?” I asked, and Valeria hesitated, I raised my eyebrow as the silence brought me to believe that it would.

  “I’m getting crystals, don’t open that book until I get back,” Valeria demanded as she left the room, making her way up the steps to the attic no doubt. I blinked, shrugging lightly before looking at the symbols.

The strange symbol that apart of me knows it’s seen but wouldn’t enlighten me on where pique my interest more than ever. I sat down in my armchair and traced my fingers over the symbol.

  “Where did you find that thing, anyway?” Veronica’s voice drew me out of the trace and took the book from my hands, looking at the cover as well. She moved the paper around in her hands as she examines the entire bok. “And what did you do to it?” She questioned once she saw the condition of the spine.

  “It was at the library,” Feriare chirped in gaining the attention of Veronica and then looked at me. “I’ve never seen it before in the library, and it radiates some ungodly energy,” She added to which I was given the book back from my sister. As if to tell me she didn’t want to hold such a thing.

  “It’s not going to bite,” I mumbled softly as I nearly dropped the book as it was pushed back into my hands. Able to rebalance my grip on the cover.

  “No offense in our line of work, things do normally bite,” Veronica defended the idea that it could attack at any moment. I sighed, placing the book onto my lap as I patiently waited for my youngest sister to rejoin us.

  “Feriae, what happened exactly?” I asked softly, turning my attention to uncovering any more information before looking into this book. Feriae looked down at the rug under the coffee table.

  “I’m not sure; it was a pretty standard night. We were walking home, Vensel decided to take a short cut. Then I heard some inhuman growling coming from all directions, then a whirlpool formed, and then blood appeared on my face,” Her voice dripped with fear and sadness as she did her best to recall the events. “Then the book, it was if something was drawing me to it,” She added, finally raising her eyes to look at the book.

  “Okay,” Valeria’s voice said as her foot landed the hardwood, and her arms were covered in white spiky crystals. I glanced up at my sister before looking at Feriae again.

  “Veronica why don’t you take her home,” I said, holding up my hand before she could protest. “Feriae should get some rest; you can protect her there,” I watched as Valeria move out of view and into the dining area.

  “What if we need the power of three?” Veronica asked, starting to argue with the thought.

  “Then you can orb,” I reminded her, and she crossed her arms. “Innocents come first,” I told her and to which she gave a defeated sigh.

Veronica looked at Feriae to which she stood up, and they both walked out of the Manor. I stared at the cover of the book once more before finally rising from my seat to join Valeria in the dining room.

In a perfect circle, the white spiky crystals were laid out in the center, and Valeria glanced at the book. The energy radiating from it was a different source of magic I have never felt before. I clenched my jaw slightly, took a deep breath, and placed it into the crystal circle. Whatever the contents of the book had in its pages the crystals didn’t like it, a stream of white lights appeared creating a containment field. The symbols on the cover began to glow this eerily dark golden light as if it was fighting our magic, causing the crystals to explode, I covered my eyes at the light and looked at Valeria as the book stopped glowing.

  “That can’t be good,” I sighed, moving my arm that was covering my eyes to see what had happened.

  “Something tells me that we aren’t going to find the information at the Magic School’s library,” Valeria added, and I sighed, crossing my arms, gesturing to the book.

  “Then what do we do? Do we even know if the Elders know what this is?” I asked, to which Valeria shrugged, not knowing what to answer me.

                               *****************************************

Nighttime always made Veronica nervous; she couldn’t see all that well, and shadows could be anything. Pulling in the underground garage underneath of Feriae’s apartment made Veronica even more nervous. The low music playing in the car was all that was keeping the dread silence from being unbearable. Throughout the drive, there were a few questions, once Veronica parked the car and turned off the engine.

  “There was this man at the library,” Feriae started, and Veronica looked at Feriae, piquing her interest. “I could tell he was making Vanessa uneasy,” She softly mentioned towards Veronica’s sister. Veronica’s eyes narrowed before looking out the window shield, sighing lightly.

  “He is a real piece of work,” Veronica mumbled before taking her car keys out of the ignition. Veronica never needed to guess who the person was mention is; every time he is in town, Vanessa makes the face of being uncomfortable and tended to be a bit more bossy than usual.

The smooth concrete perfectly laid as the base of the few cars parked underneath. Concrete pillars supported the tall building, and worn painted lines kept the vehicles parked in places. There were signs to lead the way of anyone that was in the garage. The stillness told Veronica that it was only her and Feriae in the garage.

Veronica glanced at Feriae as both of them closed their car doors. Veronica pushed her hair behind her ears before following Feriae to the location where the elevators would be. Until Feriae stopped, she glanced around the underground garage as if she heard something, causing Veronica to stop walking and looking at Feriae.

The low inhuman growl sounded all around the lot, causing the lights to surge, breaking the glass and darkness to fill the entire lot. Veronica turned sharply, trying to make out anything; for a second, the emergency lights kicked on Feriae grabbed Veronica’s forearm pulling her behind someone else’s car. Both of the girl's breath was caught in their chests, as silent footsteps cracking the smooth concrete floors.

The inhuman noise snarled as if it was looking for something, quiet sniffs as a terrible screeching noise sounded as it’s clawed a car’s door, and as soon as it happened, the noise was gone. However, Veronica didn’t feel as if it just left, and it was still in the lot, almost as if it was hunting. Her eyes scanned, trying to find a room that they could use to hide in until she saw a dark figure hunched on the ground as if it was a hound of some sort, it was too dark to make out in more significant features.

Even though Feriae still had a grasp on Veronica’s forearm, Veronica took hold of Feriae more tightly. The hound at first didn’t notice them until finally, it’s figure turned in their direction. Veronica suddenly stood up, pulling Feriae up with her as the figure with incredibly speed charged at them. In a second, white and blue lights appeared around both of them, and in that second, they disappeared, causing the beast to collide with the car they were hiding behind.

The blue and white lights formed in one of the hallways of the Manor and a sigh of relief was given out by Veronica. The familiar surroundings made her feel more at ease, but nothing could replace the fact of what she saw, or couldn’t see for that matter.

                               *****************************************

  “One more time,” I moved my finger in a circle, trying to wrap my head around what I have been told. Veronica sighed, sitting on the pink couch in the attic next to Feriae.

  “I told you, something that resembled a hound attacked us,” Veronica said, running her hand through her hair, she was pale like she saw a ghost. Feriae hadn’t said anything about the matter, which I didn’t blame her.

I sighed, starting to pace back and forth, trying to decide our next move, feeling the eyes of my sister following me. Valeria’s high heels sounded on the floorboards as she entered the room with the book we got from the library and looked at me.

  “You’re pacing, stop it, you are making me nervous,” Valeria said, putting her eyebrows together to which I shrugged with my hands.

   “If you have a better idea, please share with the class Val,” I offered as I sat on the armrest of the old pink couch we had. Valeria’s index finger raised to me and turned the book to face my way.

  “Remember when Dad used to read you Lovecraftian horror stories before bed?” She asked, and I put my eyebrows together in confusion.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, crossing my arms, still confused with this matter.

  “Look, Vanessa, the symbol on the cover closely is an Elder sign,” Valeria said, a little bit annoyed that I wasn’t gathering all of the facts as she handed me the book for me to reexamine the cover page.

Now that she mentioned it, the curvy star with the engulfed fire eye did restrike a resemblance to the Elder Sign. But, this couldn’t be the book from the stories, it was rare and apart of a fictional University, and it was beyond the competence of any mortals to read the book. It could drive anyone insane if they didn’t take it slowly.

  “You want me to believe that we have a copy of the Necronomicon, a fictional book from horror stories that either ends with insanity or death?” I questioned, placing the book on my lap and looking at Valeria. “The book where actual nightmares are said to exist,” I added, pressing my lips together.

  “We fight impossible enemies every day V,” Valeria reassured as she glanced at the book. It makes sense why our crystals were blown out of portion.

The Necronomicon was a book contenting all of the entities and creatures that Lovecraft ever wrote about, and it had it’s own protection the Elder Sign. I shook my head, looking back at the cover of the book.

  “You know the stories more than us,” Valeria added, and I clenched my jaw at the thought of what would happen to my mental stability just by reading this book. I sat straight up and tied my hair in a ponytail before rising from my seat.

  “Wait, you aren’t serious about opening the book, are you?” Veronica asked, concerned as I went to center myself in the center of the room.

  “We have to, strange book, strange demon, might hold answers,” I shrugged, looking at the cover still. “The worst that can happen is I go insane,” I reassured, giving a slight frown and shrugged towards my sisters. I could create light from my fingertips and set things on fire by just the wave of my hand. Going insane is the least of my concerns. I placed that book down and took some chalk from the old chest we held our supplies into.

  “What are you doing?” Valeria asked as I moved the circle rug to reveal the original hardwood floors and drew the symbol that was on the cover of the book on the ground.

  “If memory serves, the sign is for protection,” I recalled my eyebrows pinching together at the thought, and once I was down, I jumped out of the sign and looked at the others. Gesturing to the sign, they looked at before at me. “I doubt this thing can do damage to me, but you guys need this more,” I said, going back to the book.

Once my sisters and Feriae were standing in the chalk made symbol, I took a deep breath. Before snapping my fingers lightly and looking at the attic door, still had my grandparents to look out for, I moved over and shut it, drawing the same symbol on the door.

  “Are you offering us as bait?” Veronica asked, annoyed, and I turned to look at her. Narrowing my eyes at her and shaking my head at her remark.

  “Simply protecting,” I responded as I moved away from the attic door and moved to the side of the Elder Sign on the floorboards. I bite my nail on my thumb before taking the book and opening it.

Strange pictures, signs, and writing were hastily scribbled into the old cripple pages of the book. It was as if someone was in a heavy or was afraid to forget all of the events that occurred. There were commands, blinding, and summoning rituals of the different mythos that Lovecraft wrote about, however, there were two spells in this book that were too enchanted two things, a knife and pipes. But, it wasn’t everything, from what I could make out, none of these rituals were for the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu, for example, was one of them.

Which relieved me, meant we weren’t facing one of them, and no idiot was trying to awaken a deity from its slumber.

  “Well?” Valeria asked, and I chewed a bit inside my cheek as I moved the pages to read them. This book has been used, and it wasn’t dusty like I thought it might be.

  “It’s not the Necronomicon that’s for sure,” I reassured her, as my head started feeling pressurized, and pressed my lips tightly. I’m a witch; I do impossible things every day I should be able to keep my sanity in check.

  “How are you feeling?” Veronica asked, tilting her head to the side as she watches her sister read the book.

  “I’m Okie Doki,” I reassured her, my hand holding the book’s spine started grasping. The pressurization of the knowledge I was attaining was talking something in return until I finally stopped at a selection that had a single red string in the center of it.

My fingers went to rest on the back of my neck as I read the description at hand. My stomach turned; it wasn’t one of the Gods. No, it was one of its monsters. The words were rewritten with fresh ink telling me that whoever had this book before wanted to make sure they were summoning the right thing.

  “Dimensional Shambler,” I mumbled as I read the description in my head, it was a hunter that could dimension hop into other dimensions, hunting prey and taking them with it. It told me that someone had summoned it here; it doesn’t leave its prey never to be found again. The only problem with this is I’m not exactly sure how to defeat a dimensional hunter.

“What?” Veronica’s voice chirped in, and I closed the book, the remaining dust appearing out of its pages, and I looked up at her.

  “A Dimensional Shambler is a hunter that hunts in different dimensions,” I told her, sitting down on the couch as my head felt woozy and the world spun.

  “Okay, what do we do about it?” Valeria asked, and I sat the book next to me as I tried to recover what is left of my sanity and mind.

  “I think that’s in another volume,” I responded with a sigh and looking up at my sisters. “Most of the time, no one has gained the knowledge to kill any of these monsters, like I said, you either go mad or you die from them,” I repeated putting my hands on the sides of my forehead.

  “Then go mad enough to kill it,” Feriae answered, and I put my eyebrows together, looking at her. “What? You guys are witches, right? Science is basically on the fragile line of madness and intelligence; you sometimes I have to go insane to find the conclusion to the situation,” She added and crossed her arms.

  “Maybe not that,” Veronica said, trying to turn down the situation to the problem. I looked back at the book.

  “No, she’s right,” I backed Feriae’s idea up and picked the book back up. “Only one of us has to enchant a knife, or three,” I pressed my lips together, standing up from the couch, ignoring all sense of the rush of gravity to keep me down.

  “That’s a terrible plan,” Veronica argued as I walked over to the chest and pulled out the items I believed I need. “We need the Power of Three, there’s no Power of Two,” She continued as I moved the Book of Shadows onto a table and replaced it with the book in my hand.

  “Look, the Book of Shadows has a memory erase spell in it,” I began looking finally at my younger sister. “Worst case, I go insane, I blow up a couple of things, and I cowered in the corner of the attic which is protected by an Elder Sign. After we kill this thing, erase my memory, it’ll be like nothing happened. Or create a spell to regain my sanity, chef’s choice,” I smirked as I reopened the book.

Turning the pages nearly as fast as I can to at least try to avoid any more permanent damage to myself until I found what I was looking for, I frowned, looking at the requirements before closing the book. I will not be killing a small animal to enchant a knife; I am not that kind of witch, and on top of my duties as a good witch, I make sure all life, including small animals – are safe from harm.

  “That was a bust,” I mumbled, sighing and looking around the attic, trying to salvage my sanity once again.

 Before I could even think of another solution to this problem, the lights went out, and I couldn’t see anything in the attic. I raised my hand, causing blue and white lights to appear in my hand before sending it towards where I knew my sisters were, lighting the attic room up.

I didn’t hear anything, all I felt was a rush of air as I was throw across the room, my back hitting a beam and then boxes to break my fall. I quickly put my hands on the floor and pushed myself up.

  “Stay inside the protection,” I was gesturing to the others to stay put, no one knew what happened other than what I just experienced. I didn’t even have time to acknowledge the fact that warm sticky blood was falling down the side of my cheek or the fact that my arm felt like it had a gash in it.

My main focus was on the figure in front of me, it stood on two legs and had to hunch it’s neck slightly to; taller than I imagined and not at all of what my sister described. Its head had no facial features except for the slit that I was guessing belonged to its mouth. It moved down to create the illusion of a hound; it was staring directly at me, snarling, and I narrowed my eyes.

Before anyone of us could do anything about it, it charged with incredible speed; I couldn’t orb fast enough, and the next thing I knew, I was in what I assumed to be another dimension.

  “What the hell just happened?” Veronica asked, looking at the spot where her sister and the monster disappeared, the lights coming back on. “Where is our sister?” She questioned, looking at Valeria before back at the spot and stepping out of the sign.

  “Let’s just hope Vanessa can orb back to our dimension,” Valeria said, staring at the spot as well, sighing before moving to get the Book of Shadows.

                              *****************************************

 The grip form the monster made sure I wouldn’t move, and if I orbed, I’d be taking it with me. When we appeared finally, it kept ahold of me; the room was well-decorated, matching a luxury lifestyle. Light colors with gold highlights matching the décor, and the faint sound of a fountain sounded somewhere behind me. I could smell the smoke from a cigarette and two figures standing before me.

One sitting with his hair tied to reveal his strong features, and the other standing with his back turned, his black hair gel back perfectly. Their clothes didn’t match each other, the one with his back turned wore a sharp suit and the other casual dark garments. He had a single scar down his left eye, and he smiled, looking at my arrival.

  “Vanessa,” He warmly said, and the man with his back turned looked up to see the commotion. “I was beginning to think you’ll never show up,” The man who spoke stood, tall and muscular he looked at the suited man who was average and well-fit.

  “Peirson, I thought we vanquished your sorry ass a two years ago,” I coldly announced, my eyes narrowing into a glare as I clenched my jaw. The man smiled more at the formality of me recognizing him, the suited man I didn’t know.

  “It didn’t stick so well, please, all I want to do is talk,” Peirson said, gesturing to the thing standing behind me as it loosens it’s grip and stepped back, disappearing out of view. “Beautiful creatures. Don’t bother orbing, magically sealed in,” His voice brought my attention back to him.

Peirson stepped lightly, more happily. He wasn’t frightened at all, as if he caught the biggest fish in the ocean. His smile was peeking, and his happy hum brought a slight worry to me.

  “Now’s not the time to gloat, love,” Peirson said, stopping in front of me and placing his thumb on my chin to pull my eyes too look up at him. I punched him hard in the stomach, and he moved back, clenching it a bit. “You’ve been practicing,” He smiled even more.

  “What do you want?” I asked, trying to drag this extended reunion to a close.

  “Oh, you know, to kill the Halliwell line and finally be the ruler of the Underworld,” He said, crossing his arms, my punch didn’t do any damage. “But, that’s always out of reach,” Pierson said, sighing and moving back to his seat, sitting down. “I just wanted to tell you; I’m back and good luck vanquishing me this time,”

Before I could say anything in return, he waved his hand, and the next thing I knew, I was in my room smelling lavender and viewing the objects in my room. I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from blowing up one of my plants again or worst the wall, breathing out slowly. I can handle one ex-boyfriend coming back but not both of them. I rubbed my hands down my face before I finally fell to sit on the ground, the adrenaline wearing off, and the pain from the attack started shooting waves around the spots.

Even with how heavy my arm felt and how much it begged me to try and put it down, I hand my hands on my face to cover my mouth and nose. I wasn’t aware I was crying until I had to gasp for air, moving my hand on my forearm to let myself breathe. I didn’t know when it happened, but the yellow light underneath of hands formed above me, I didn’t even bother to look up. Someone wrapped a blanket around me and pulled me into a hug; it was comforting, and I realized it was my father comforting me.

                              *****************************************

The early morning started shining to create another day in San Francisco; I was sitting on the step outside of the Manor, watching the night sky shift into the blue sky. I finally stopped crying and have been like this all night. My fingers folded onto my cheek, and the sweater I was wearing kept me warm. My attention was brought when my cousin Constantia sat next to me; she never stops by this early with anything.

  “Are you okay?” She asked, rubbing my back, and I exhausted a deep sigh I didn’t know I was keeping.

  “Just another day at the office,” I transparently said, as I looked at my slippers and then back at my cousin.

She bites the bottom of her lip before looking at the yellow folder on her lap. Deciding what to do until she finally handed it to me.

  “I found out somethings about the Winchesters, open it when you feel is right,” Constantia said, trying not to overwhelm me.

  “Two of my exes are back in town, one of which has a Lovecraftian Mythos as a delivery agent. I doubt whatever this is; it’s not going to be at the worst thing I have heard this week,” I shook my head, doubting anything that could go wrong. I scratched the back of my neck, taking the yellow folder.

  “Be careful around them,” She warned, and I looked at her. “I’m just saying that if they are like us. I don’t want my cousin to disappear,” She stood up sighing before giving a weak smile telling me her goodbyes.

I stared at the folder for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it was just minutes—sighing as I pushed the current thoughts to the side of my head. Opening the folder, I arched my eyebrow reading what Constantia had found; all of this made sense to me, of course. They were hunters, and that life wasn’t easy, I huffed out some air as I read that apparently, Dean was a suspect in a murder case and then is presumed dead, the only information I got about their father was nothing, I doubt he wants to be found. I’ll just work on finding the demon their after.

I sighed, closing the folder and standing up from my seat to go back into the Manor to try and get some sleep. After all, I had demons to vanquish and innocents to save.

                              *****************************************

[justimajin]

His First Love ⟨Part 1⟩

➸ Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

➸ Genre: Angst, Fluff, Future Smut

↳ Vampire AU, Reincarnation AU

➸ Words: 2.3k 

➸ Warnings: none

➸ Summary: Each night, its the same dream; drenching tears, specks of blood and a heart torn in half. Each night, you wake up trembling and filled with the fear of how crystal-clear the nightmares were, more and more endless questions ready to spur from you. The biggest question however, was always left unanswered - who was the man that never ceased the opportunity to appear in them? 

➸ Moodboard Prologue Part 1 Part 2

Your feet stride along as you walk to class, but you don’t catch the simple sounds of buzzing conversation flowing between students nor the heavy thuds of them walking near you – being so absorbed in your own racing thoughts from the previous night.

“...come back to me...”

Tightening the grip on your bag, you can’t solely ignore the voice that spoke to you in the dream, the words continuing to echo inside of your mind on repeat. It had always been like this, these constant nightmares that would never leave you alone and you would always wake up wondering why.

Why was someone like you having these dreams like this in the first place and why was it that you couldn’t figure out the reason for the whole puzzle from the pieces being placed in front of you? The frustration just continues to grow inside you and you feel completely defeated because the answer seemed to be so so close to you and yet so far away.

In the midst of all this, the key question that remained implanted in your mind, ceasing to disappear because it had to do with him.

Who was the owner of the voice?

That voice. The voice that sounded so raw, deep and beautifully tuned, yet was laced with so much distress. The voice that never ceased the opportunity to make its way into your dreams repeatedly and was leading your own mind into overdrive from the emptiness of recognition which fueled your growing need to just know.

The thoughts in your mind continue to keep you wrapped around them and the sleep deprivation you were graciously suffering from wasn’t going to come to your aid when you collide straight into someone’s backpack.

“Oh my gosh are you oka-Y/N!” The voice exclaims, and you’re soon being hoisted to your feet to the morning greeting of your friend’s long ruffled grey hair and concerned eyes.

“Ow…” You wince at your sore back and attempt to kneel down to grasp your fallen bag, but he quickly beats you to it.

“Here,” He gently hands it back to you, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine Taehyung.” Throwing the bag over your shoulders, his wandering eyes don’t leave you when they take in your current gloomy state.

“Y/N why do you look like you just crawled out from the Underworld?” He questions, and you roll your eyes at the childish bluntness that would overflow easily from him.  

“I haven’t been getting any sleep.” You state, walking next to him to get to your class.

“Do you ever get sleep?” Taehyung questions and you sigh at his acknowledgement of your own terrible habits. It wasn’t like you had any way of controlling when or where you would get decent sleep, thankfully without a nightmare seeping through and leaving you restless once again. Walking into your history class, you scan the room and recognize the familiar black coconut hairstyle tucked away in a hoodie, his eyes down-casted on his phone.

“Getting sleep for me is equivalent to Jungkook being separated from his games.” You say, sitting down next to the gamer who doesn’t even flinch at your arrival. It’s only until Taehyung forcibly removes his phone that his attention turns towards the two of you.

“Hey give it back!” Jungkook yells and Taehyung sticks his tongue out at him.

“Hello to you too! We just came in case ya didn’t notice!” Taehyung peeks at Jungkook’s phone, who surprisingly glares at Taehyung and looks ready to knock him down.

“Jungkook did you join a cult and not tell us?” Taehyung questions, turning to you with confused eyes and you notice the odd writing on Jungkook’s phone before Taehyung is tackled to the ground.

“That’s none of your business!” Jungkook’s loud tone makes you wince. You already know from first hand experience that he didn’t like to be teased much but it’s the sudden aggression in his behaviour towards Taehyung that has your eyes widening in surprise. Tae and Jungkook were close, almost like brothers and their fights would usually ensue about video games if anything with the occasional bickering surrounding them.

So why the abrupt change now?

“Stop fighting! What’s wrong with you Jungkook?” You question, and he immediately greets you with a glare to your surprise that makes you blink twice, but it eventually softens down as he continues to gaze at you.

“Y/N you look really tired again…” He whispers, and you raise an eyebrow at the sudden turn he takes with the conversation.

“Treat Y/N like a princess while pinning me to the ground, what the hell was that Kook?!” Taehyung says, brushing off the dust from his jeans.

“I…sorry.” He quietly whispers while you and Taehyung give each other a strange look from his apology.

“It’s okay but why were you reading some weird scripture?” You can’t help but lean slightly forward at the sound of Taehyung’s question, wondering yourself as well.

“It’s for a history assignment.” Jungkook down casts his eyes, gnawing on his bottom lip while shifting in his chair. Taehyung gives you a ‘can you seriously believe this’ look and you know where he’s coming from since Jungkook was never really all that good at lying to the both of you. You decide its best to drop the topic, after all you were personally drained from your nightmares preceding the day before.

“By the way Y/N what’s going on with you?” Taehyung asks, grabbing a seat to sit with the two of you.

You let out a deep exhale, rubbing your tired eyes with your hands before looking up to see Taehyung’s as well as Jungkook’s eyes concentrated on you in concern.

“The dreams.” You simply state and Taehyung’s eyes widen.

“You’re still having those?” You nod, letting out a shaking breath.

“I just…keeping having them and it’s the same dream constantly.” You explain. “And I always see him.” You quietly whisper the last part.

“I thought by now they would stop…”

“Y/N I think you should see someone about this…” Taehyung suggests, and you ponder about it. You suppose it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but you had no knowledge surrounding something like this – completely clueless about the topic.

“But who?”

“There’s psychologists that specialize in it…they aren’t hard to find.” Jungkook whispers and you raise an eyebrow at his knowledge about the information. 

“I guess I could go see one, I haven’t slept in days.” You honestly say, the worst part about the dreams was that it was taking away all of the precious sleep you needed. You had tried countless of things – taking sleeping pills to help fall asleep, exhausting yourself out so you could properly sleep and even at one point attempting to stay up and sleep throughout the day. But the nightmares always happened without warning and just right when you think you might get the tiniest amount of sleep, you’re left being haunted by the repeating scenes with no escape.

Your professor eventually arrives and begins talking about the history lecture, but you had your mind occupied with more current events. Jungkook had given you a contact but you don’t question where he found it from or where he had discovered it, instead quietly accepting it from him. Deciding upon yourself to go see this person, you’re already prepared to find out the answers to the questions that would remain unanswered until this point.

Kim Sun.

The words are written in a bold, black colour at the top of the door in front of you, quite literally informing you of who exactly was at the other end of the door and you reach forward, hesitantly knocking a couple of times. You hear the faint sound of heels trampling against the floor from behind the door and soon you’re greeted to a gorgeous young lady, long brown hair framed around her delicate cheek bones and wrapping around the white coat she wears alongside a large set of glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Upon seeing you, she simply smiles.

“Hi, L/N Y/N right?” She asks, and you slowly nod, following her into the room.

“Please, take a seat.” She gestures towards you and you nervously sit down. Perhaps you had underestimated how intimidating this could be since after all, you hadn’t spoken to anyone about this aside from Jungkook and Taehyung and you do understand that it isn’t the most normal thing to actually talk to someone else about without sounding the slightest bit crazy.

“So,” Sun says, sitting down on the chair from across you, “What brings you here?”

Taking a deep breath, you lean forward, still feeling unsure of how to go about with this but then Sun gives you a reassuring smile to begin and you decide it was finally time you received the answers you were searching for.

“I’ve been having these dreams…where I die.” You inwardly sigh at how terrible it already sounds but continue to go on.

There was no turning back now.

“And I always see…this person, in every single one of them.” You take another deep breathe, “I always hear him crying in my dreams and I just don’t understand why I have these dreams, they just don’t want to leave, and I don’t remember the last time I got a decent amount of sleep without worrying about seeing him in my dreams and-“ Sun gestures for you to stop.

“Y/N, just breath in and out.” You do exactly as she tells you, not realizing how much you had repressed inside yourself, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you with this.”

Her words are comforting to you, encouraging rationality when you, yourself don’t quite understand how to explain what was going on with you anymore. She leans over her desk and grabs her clipboard, opening it up as she asks you questions.

“Do you recognize this man?” Sun asks, and you shake your head.

“I’ve never seen him before.”

“Does he look similar to someone you’ve encountered before?”

“No, he doesn’t.”

Sun continues to question you, asking you more about yourself and your own life. You tell her the basic story – how you were just a regular college student studying history, how you grew up as an orphan when your parents had unfortunately met with a car accident, how the dreams initially started off once in a while when you started college but slowly increased with intensity as time passed by. Laying out the whole entire book that was your life, you’re surprised to see Sun grow more and more deeper into thought.

“Describe your dreams more for me.” Sun simply asks, and you wonder if she’s trying to form some type of connection between your own life and the dreams you faced.

You explain to her how the setting almost never changes in your dreams, the same white forest always being the location you were facing the dreams in. You also go on to explain how there were different types of dreams, ranging from you hearing the sound of water or you just simply seeing flakes of snow, but the common factor was always seeing him.

And that was where everything would go wrong.

There was this continuous trend with a level of fear evoking from both him and you, shaking you to the core of your bones. Unconsciously, water would seep from your eyes through your encounters and images of blood would flash. You couldn’t accurately comprehend exactly what this all meant, only the fact that he would suddenly be dragged away from you as the dream vanishes and you were left with a desperate need to see him again, no matter how painful the dream had been previously.

It was so utterly terrifying because it felt so incredibly real, to the point where you could properly distinguish if you were inside a dream anymore or if you were actually facing a mixture of your own reality.

Oddly enough as you sprout any ounce of information you could possibly remember and pluck out from the dreams, Sun simply looks intrigued instead of revolted from your descriptions. You begin to wonder if she truely does believe you as she tries to listen and understand you.

However soon you finish explaining everything to her and you realize that Sun had stopped talking notes down on her clipboard all together in between your recollections. It occurs to you that she must of done that because there wasn’t anymore information she needed from you and you’re proven right when she requests for you to discuss it further on a later day, as she had remembered to make a phone call ironically once you had finished. You nod, feeling slightly defeated and wondering to yourself if it was even a good idea to come there in the first place as you gently close the door behind you in regret.

Sun on the other hand, contains an astound expression on her features when you exist, hastily grabbing her cellphone and scrolling down to the familiar name that appears. She presses on it and patiently waits as the phones rings, until she hears a groan, the sleepy voice of the owner sounding as if they were about to protest to being called in the first place.

“Yoongi.” Sun whispers, her eyes swirling with a dark colour, “We’ve found her.” 

[finderskeepersff]

26. Part 2

I am sat in this car with some random driver, Cassius is out there speaking to some random guy. I am nervous being here, I am nervous for Cassius. I deep down don’t want to be here, I don’t want him to be in Brooklyn doing a funeral but I can’t say no and I have to support him, I have to support my man but I am scared. These nasty men are after Cassius, They are after him and if they get to him and hurt him I will die inside, I will be honestly looking to keep an eye on him. I am going to watch what he does, where he goes. We are here and I don’t want to lose him. I want to go him with Cassius, I want to share our future together. I am feeling scared, I just pray we can get to do the funeral and go back home. Sighing out heavily, I want my man to be next to me annoying me. Cassius loves doing that or maybe I annoy him, I have no idea but I am not here for him putting us on first class just because I am pregnant, I know for a fact this baby about to be spoilt by him. Cassius doesn’t know it yet but I am going to let him name the baby, I know he wants to name the baby something with C and I am happy with that “speak soon bro” Cassius said as he opened the door, he is finally here. Leaving me here with some random man, he got into the car “The Plaza” Cassius closed the car door “the what sorry?” I spat, did I hear right “The Plaza” he repeated “why do you keep making me repeat things recently?” Cassius said “Cassius, The Plaza? Seriously? Oh my god, Cassius! Why?” I am shook “first class and now this?” Cassius laughed “I have money, I am spending it on you” holding my chest with my mouth hung open “you need your dick sucked, oh my god!” I shouted, I meant that “sorry, I laughed” the driver said “mind your business Ethan!” Cassius said “I mean feel free to suck my dear lady but it’s cool” god I love him, he is taking me to the fucking plaza.

I just can’t stop smiling, Cassius is fucking treating me like a queen and I am so here for this. Wrapping my arm around Cassius as he spoke to the lady at the reception “so three nights?” she said to him, she better watch her eyes the bitch “yes, and here is a card to put down” he held out a black card, my mouth fell open once again. He has a black card and I didn’t know “thank you sir, you are on the twentieth floor” she gave him the key card “enjoy your stay, your butler will bring your things along” we need to have words, I need to ride his dick and use his card. Where the hell he even get that from, squinting my eyes at Cassius as he moved his arm away from me and picked up his backpack. Cassius grabbed my hand “you have a black card?” I said, I have to ask “I have many things Sofia” he smirked, he finds this funny but I don’t find any of it funny at all. I should have known this “but how did you get a black card?” I am intrigued by this, I need to know “we will speak after” I wonder what he has done, knowing him he’s probably done it in a fraudulent way.

I am shook, like I cannot speak right now “oh my god, this hotel has stairs!” I shouted “it’s a penthouse suite, baby mother gets the world” Cassius doesn’t seem fazed by this at all but me, I am just shook because I have never seen such luxury “but you have a black card?” I need to know how “the card is mine but the details behind it is not good, look it’s me. I know how to do fraud. Just don’t worry about it, the black card is mine somewhat but just needed to use someone else’s details behind it” now I am not happy “Cassius” tilting my head to the side “how else can I book things? I can’t do it on my name because the money is drug money, I have to be careful. I don’t want to use your card or your name all of the time so this way works” I guess it is what it is “I will go and see upstairs then” Cassius sat down on the couch in a huff, like he’s had a hard day “I am happy with you, like thank you for this” slowly climbing up the steps but there was a knock at the door before I could go up the steps “I’ll get that” walking down the steps I already walked and made my way to the door, dragging it open “your suitcase madam” the butler, we have a butler.

The bathroom is beautifully designed, beautiful mosaic floors and walls, separate shower and tub. This is what I designed for our own home, I love it. Like this is just beautiful. It also has a powder room, the bathroom is huge. I am in awe with this bedroom, I have changed my clothes and I am in a robe, naked in this robe. I don’t want Cassius up to no shit, if I ride him and continue to do this and he gets tired, he will stay with me but I don’t want him leaving my side. I have a plan but it depends on if Cassius plays with me like that, he is so temperamental, I can use this robe tie but we shall see. Walking towards the stairs “Cassius!” I shouted, no answer at all “Cass!!” I shouted again, if he has fallen asleep “Cassius!” I screamed out “what?” he finally answered “come upstairs please” hopefully he says ok and just comes upstairs “why?” rolling my eyes “you want sex? Come on!” I spat, can he just please “I am here!” Cassius didn’t wait then “you are so easy, come” waving him up, like a dog he comes running.

Cassius just smiled at me, staring at me waiting on me “so” he grinned “so” I repeated “get naked” Cassius didn’t need to be told twice, he proceeded to take his top off “also” pulling off of my tie on my robe which exposed my naked body, Cassius smiled biting on his bottom lip “I want to tie your arms” Cassius pulled his jeans down “erm no, I like my hands to be holding you thank you” see what I mean with him “please” I said nicely, Cassius exposed his dick “look at little limp there” I flicked his dick “seriously” Cassius said “look just please get on the bed and let me do it, I let you fuck me in the mirror did I not? Let me do this!” I shouted “I ain’t about that booty playing shit” rolling my eyes “I am not sticking my finger there so please” Cassius groaned out as he proceeded to walk towards the bed, he is listening to me.

Straddling his waist “Sofia…” Cassius groaned out, I leaned forward and began sucking on his bottom lip. He moaned when I reached behind me and grabbed his dick. My grip firm and tight, stroking his full length. Cassius attempting to move his arms, the headboard jerked when he yanked his left arm “you will break it” he pressed his eyes shut, he hates that he cannot be boss because I am boss bitch. I smiled smugly, I had him right where I wanted him. Letting go of his dick, I leaned forward and placed me hands on his shoulders “what is the matter Mr Pouty, you scared?” I teased, running my finger across his lips. Cassius paused and swallowed hard, staring deep into my lustful eyes “scared of what?” he finally spoke “Good” standing up and twirling my hips around, taking the robe off of my body and I positioned my core a few inches above his face “what you doing?” Running my hands between my thighs, I spread the lips of my sex open, his head immediately popped up, his tongue skirting across the edge of my opening.

My body shuddered and I gripped the headboard, grinding my clit against the tip of his tongue. Cassius was straining his neck under me, trying to push himself up so he could bury his tongue deeper into me “more” Cassius demanded, he was still pulling on the headboard, trying to free his arms. It was like he wanted to touch me, my legs buckled and I fell to my knees, screaming when Cassius took advantage of the opportunity and thrust his tongue deep inside of me, sucking down hard on my core. The sensation was electrifying to me, I was grinding my hips, riding his face at a rapid speed, deep moans filling the room. My eyes were shut close, bottom lip tucked beneath my teeth, my hands squeezing my breasts, twisting at my nipples. I took Cassius by surprise when I suddenly spun around and turned my back to him, not missing beat he maneuvered his neck around, his tongue still in place. Blowing lightly into my hole.

I whimpered, trying to remember the task at hand. I was on my hands and knees, my ass covering his face and I heard the sound of his tongue slurping me clean behind me as he continued to feast between my legs. I took his member in my hand, I arched my back and moaned loudly, wiggling my ass around on Cassius tongue. He continued to lick and eat me hungrily, like a mad man searching for gold. Reverting my attention back to his dick, I fisted his dick tightly, bringing him to my lips. My tongue catching squirts of his pre-cum before I took him into my mouth. Cassius jerked his hips up, moaning between my legs as I closed my eyes and took him in deep, humming out a moan as his salty taste filled my mouth. I released him from my mouth, running my tongue up and down his length. Blowing lightly on the head of his dick, I twirled my tongue around the base. Cassius body squirmed underneath me and I felt his tongue jerk inside of me, I continued to fist his full length. Licking him slowly and finally taking him back in my mouth, my head rapidly bobbing up and down, deep throating him. My hands massaging his balls, squeezing and playfully teasing them.

I felt Cassius body tense up, his tongue fell out of me with a loud grunt “ah! fuck” I heard Cassius complain “untie me” Cassius spat “Now” he begged, ignoring his pleads, I instead moved my body forward, dragging my sex across his chest leaving a wet trail behind me. Turning back to look at him, his face was drenched with my essence and my legs clenched together, a steady heartbeat was growing between my thighs. With my back to him, I placed two fingers in my mouth and rose my body up. Using my two wet fingers, I briefly played with my clit before spreading the lips of my sex and aligning my opening with the head of his dick. I was on my hands and knees and gripping the sheets in front of me, when I finally slid down only allowing the head of his length in. Cassius thrust his hips up in an attempt to get his full length inside of me, he groaned when I pulled up completely.

I was no longer teasing him, this had turned into full blown torture for him and I know it “Sofia!” Cassius voice is strained, his body shaking with need, with want. I smiled and curved my back, I spread my legs, placing my hands on my knees, still teasing the head of his dick with my opening, before sliding down. I slowly rose up and down, squeezing her muscles around Cassius dick as I danced up on down on his length. Cassius jerked his hips up angrily. Dropping her hands in front of her, I pressed forward and grasped the sheets. My knees pressing into the mattress as I bounced up and down on his dick, my walls gripped him tightly, my muscles pulsating and she let go of a long cry. Still on my knees I switch the position up and fell backwards, placing my hands on his chest, his hips continued to meet me thrust for thrust, sliding in and out of my tight, slick walls with ease “yes” I breathed repeatedly, reaching down between my legs, placing my fingers over my clit.

Seeing Cassius tattooed hand between my legs, he immediately pushed my fingers out of the way, his own fingers taking their place between my thighs, running across my clit in a circular motion “Cass” I gritted my teeth. Cassius gripped my waist and rammed into me. Rolling my head around I continued to moan loudly above Cassius before he hit me with a stroke that paralysed my vocal cords. My body clenched up, my hands flying to my breast and grasping them tightly as I came hard over Cassius hard “Sofia” Cassius grunted out my name follow my lead within minutes.

Collapsing backwards on top of him, I sighed deeply “how did you break free?” I eventually murmured “mhmmm magic” Cassius nuzzled his face into my neck “you ain’t no magician” I retorted “that is why I make you stop moaning, it’s like magic when you on my magic stick” I turned over and smiled, my hand caressing his chest “I asked to be let go and I just did it myself” Cassius rolled over on top of me “I don’t recall that you was” I reached out and pulled Cassius face closer to hers before he could respond, our foreheads touching when I leaned in and kissed him deeply, Cassius pulled back, breaking our kiss “you going to suck my dick?” he openly asked me “mhmmm you going to let me use the black card?” I asked “you going to swallow?” he retorted quickly “I’ll suck you dry, don’t test me” I said against his lips “prove it” Cassius pressed a kiss to my lips.

Sofia completely naked and kneeling at my feet, her mouth inches away from my leaking dick. Her saliva mixed in with my cum dripped down from the head of my length and I could feel her warm, rapid breath tickling my skin. Sofia stared up into my eyes as I towered over her. My right hand knotted in her hair and my left hand gripped my dick, stroking my full length. Besides the sound of our rapid breathing declining, the room was silent. Silent and mostly dark. Roughly tugging on Sofia hair, I jerked Sofia’ head back and ran the tip of my dick across her lips “open” I demanded her and watched Sofia stick her tongue out in anticipation before opening her mouth wide enough for him to slide the head of my dick back in. She hummed out a moan as my thick taste filled her mouth and used the smooth flat of her tongue to please me, lapping it around his head. I thrust my hips forward, slowly inching my dick deeper into her warm mouth. With my hand still tangled in her hair, I let out a load groan, and almost imploded when Sofia hummed out another moan against my shaft. The vibrations coming deep from the back of her throat and travelling to the centre of her mouth, tingling around my dick.

Our eyes were still locked together while Sofia completely worshipped my dick with her mouth. Her lips tugged on my shaft while her tongue flickered along the tip of my dick to the base. Sofia placed her tongue against the roof of her mouth before pushing it forward and gently sucking down on my shaft. Slowly pulling back she allowed my dick to slip from her lips and dangle in front of her, maneuvering her neck around she placed light kisses along my length until she reached the small area where my dick and my balls met. Her tongue briefly licked there before her mouth claimed my balls. My breathing was becoming ragged. MY heart was a beat away from exploding out of my chest, my blood was boiling at the nerve racking feeling that was Sofia’ tongue pressed up against my rugged skin. It truly amazed me what she could do with her mouth alone. Digging my toes into the rug I stood on, I groaned out her name again.

Sofia ran the tip of her curled tongue along the underside of my shaft until she reached the head of his dick and took him into her mouth again. Both of my hands cupped the side of her face, holding her head in place as I rocketed forward, thrusting my dick deeply into her mouth. Sofia focused her eyes on my face, my head dropped forward and my knees went weak as an electrifying sensation completely washed over me. My dick pulsating in her mouth and she stretched open her jaw wider, allowing him in deeper. Thrusting my dick towards the back of her throat at a faster speed “I am going to cum” I breathed out, moving my dick back “come back” Sofia gripped my dick and yanked me forward to her, my dick too sensitive to touch. She placed her mouth over my dick as I came into her mouth “oh fuck” I froze in position.

[jeremiah-and-jerome-valeska]

Learning to Smile (Chapter 2)

Part 1

Part 3

Pairing: Jeremiah x Ecco

Chapter title: Painful Pencil Marks

Fanfic summary: Ecco suffers from nightmares which forces her to acknowledge her past, surfacing old wounds. Jeremiah comforts her and does what he can to help in any way. They’ve always been there for one another, through thick and thin. They begin to realize feelings which they develop for one another, throughout the years.

The fanfic is in Ecco’s perspective.

______________________

A repeated slam echoed off the walls as my knuckles collided with the beaten punching bag. Sweat coated my skin in a thin layer. I wiped my moist forehead and let out a long breath. My black tank top clung to my skin as I continued to release my clouded frustration. A clinging from the chains snapped repeatedly, hanging to the slate ceiling. My eyebrows knit, growing weary with my exercise. I swung with a last effort, twisting my body with swift momentum. My arms burned with an ache. Soreness overwhelmed the nerves.

Water ran past my lips, drinking in greedy gulps. I discard the plastic bottle and unstrap my workout gloves. I toss the gloves aside as I tuck my loose blonde locks behind my ear. My hands rest on my hips, attempting to steady my heavy breaths. My eyes enter a calming darkness as air rushes through my nose. My body tries to relax. I embrace the silence and decide to listen to my exhausted body. I head out of the room and out into the vast complexity of hallways. Steps travel through sharp corners and elaborate paths of blank walls. My direction is locked on to the spare room.

My finger presses down on a small button, voicing into the box, “Ecco 496,”

The door slides open, greeting my arrival, “Welcome Miss Ecco,”

I step through the dim room as the door slides back and locks in place. Sweat-drenched clothes cover the floor, shedding my garments as I head to the bathroom. My bare toes curl, making contact with the cold tile. I close the door and approach the edge of the porcelain bath tub, twisting the nozzle. I move to the mirror and wait for the tub to fill. Light locks fall to my shoulders and brush my neck as I untie my loose bun. The pins release the hair and strains slowly fall to frame my face. The cold metallic makes contact, turning on the sink to splash my skin. Droplets cover my face and fall to the counter. I wipe away any access makeup and move to the tub. I swish my fingers through the water, satisfied with the temperature. My foot breaks the surface of the warm water, settling down to the bottom. I submerge my scarred body. My head tilts back to the porcelain edge. Heavy eyelids flickering, I rest my eyes to enjoy the soothing waters.

After a few minutes, I emerge from the tub. Clutching the towel laying on the tub’s side, I wrap it around myself. I step out of the bathroom, tiny droplets colliding to the floor, and find Jeremiah sitting on the edge of my bed.

He lifts his head, then quickly looks down, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,”

“It’s alright,” I respond in a slight whisper.

A silence hangs in the room.

Jeremiah opens his mouth, prepared to speak, but I interject, “Look. About earlier. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shut you out like that. You deserve to know,”

“Ecco, you shouldn’t be the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have asked about the drawing. It was improper of me push the subject. I know it’s hard for you to talk about,” Jeremiah reassured.

I sighed, knowing this wasn’t going to end soon so I moved to the closet. Jeremiah caught on, blushing while turning away to give me privacy. I pulled on my comfortable night clothes and stepped back into Jeremiah’s view, rubbing my hair with the towel.

Lifting my head to speak, my eyes meet his, “No. I promised to devote my life to you. So you should know the complete story,”

Jeremiah decided not to insist further. He knew I had already made up my mind. The bed creaked as I positioned myself, some space between us. An uneasy breath escapes my lips, telling Jeremiah the painful memories I tried to shut out for years.

___________________

*FLASHBACK*

A girl with loose blonde curls runs through the grim streets, rushing to get home to her mother. The crisp breeze pushed her on, giddy with excitement. It was the day she had finally passed her math test for this week. She clutched the paper which crinkled in the wind. A bright smile had painted her face, until she came to a halt. She spotted two boys in her class. They had made a habit of teasing her of her lower intellect on a weekly basis.

She slowly started to make her way away from the boys, until one shouted, “Hey, where you going little miss ignorance?”

The girl stoped in her tracks, turning wearily towards the boys as they approached. Eyes were glued to her ruby red sneakers, trying to avoid any further confrontation.

One of the boys had suddenly snatched the paper she held in her tight grasp, “What do you got here?”

The girl reached for her paper, “Give that back or I’ll-“

“Or you’ll what? Tell your mommy?” One of the boys taunted.

The girl made attempt to reach for her paper again, but the boy held it up in the air, out of her reach. She stood on the tips of her toes, struggling to take her paper back.

“What’s wrong shorty, is it too high for you to reach?” Teased the boy holding her paper.

“Give it back!”

“No way dummy,” said the other boy as he pushed her to the ground.

The girl lay on the sidewalk’s concrete, a stinging building in her eyes.

The boy holding the paper examined it, “I bet you cheated on this test. There’s no way you were able to pass this on your own,”

The girl protested, “I didn’t cheat!”

“Sure you didn’t,” he remarked sarcastically.

“Please, just give it back,” she pleaded.

“How bout I rip it up instead?”

Before the girl could protest, the boy violently tore the paper. He then tossed the remains to the crying girl on the floor.

The boy looked to his friend, “Come on, let’s leave this crybaby to run home to her mommy,”

Once they left, the girl began picking up the shreds, carefully placing them in her backpack. Tears stained the pieces of paper. When she picked up all the pieces which weren’t blown by the wind, she trudged home with heavy steps.

She knew her mother would notice her frown, so she did her best to put on a smile. She began to think of any other good news she could tell her mother, as the first option was scattered throughout her backpack. She had a small burst of excitement, realizing he had a drawing from last week which she had done in her free time. Mother always loved seeing her drawings, especially since this drawing was a portrait of her mother.

The girl rummaged through her diamond-studded backpack, retrieving the drawing. The girl came to the block’s corner, bringing her feet to the porch. She turned the nob and entered the threshold. Her steps had a small skip to them, eager to show her mother the drawing.

“Mom, I’m home!” she called out.

The girl dropped her backpack and searched for her mother.

She called out again, walking past the front rooms, “Mom! I have a surprise for you!”

The girl could hear the creaking of the wood floorboards which held her steps. She moved throughout the quiet house. Each moment brought her closer to worry. Her mother would always tell her if she were going somewhere and wouldn’t be home.

She had came to the closed door of her mother’s room. Desperate to find her mother, she pushed the door open. The girl was overcome with a painful and numbing shock. Blood pooled around the head of her motionless mother laying on the floor. Her heart shattered as the world had ended before her eyes.

The girl began to move to her mother’s lifeless body, taking no mind to the liquid crimson staining her shoes. Her grip loosened and the drawing drifted into the scarlet pool, soaking the paper’s edge. The girl crumpled to the floor, clutching onto her mother’s body, pleading for her to get up.

Her breath came to a whispering sob, “No, no, no. You have to get up. I need you. You can’t leave me alone. I love you,”

She repeated her pleading, resting her head on her mother’s stomach. Sobbing filled the empty room as the girl lay shaking. She spotted the stained drawing, stuffing it in her pocket as she continued to shed tears.

___________________

I jolted up tears staining my cheeks, trying to catch my breath. I grasped the bedsheets, frantically looking around the blackened room. My palms covered my face, trying to calm myself with deep inhales. With a few seconds passing, I got up from my bed and shuffled to the bathroom.

I flicked on the switch and illuminated the area in a blinding light. I winced, sleepy eyes not yet used to the brightness. Blinking a few times, my view adjusted to the room’s illumination. I cooled my face with water and rested my hands on the counter. Staring at myself in the mirror, I reflect on the sudden traumatic outburst. With resurfaced memories, the nightmares had returned to torment me.

‘No more sleep for me tonight. Might as well start the day and get dressed.’

I approach my closet, choosing black jeans and a deep-red blouse with dark sequins. I tug at my black leather jacket hanging in the closet and pull it around my shoulders. Moving from the closet, I stop at my nightstand. I open the wood drawer, staring at the stained item it held. The only tie to my past which I had accepted. Reaching my hand into the compartment, I gently lift the drawing. My thumbs rub at the patches of dried scarlet. I stuff the paper into my jacket pocket, as I do every morning, and close the drawer.

“Black coffee, two sugars. Black coffee, two sugars. Black coffee, two sugars,” I repeated Jeremiah’s coffee preference as a soothing mantra.

I leave the room and head towards the kitchen designation.

______________________

I post my fanfics on my ao3 account first, so if you want immediate updates then here’s the link to the fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784771/chapters/34202334

Hope you all enjoyed!

[thewildheroine]

Fly Away |Two|

Warnings: None

Words: 1857

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

A/N: I’m so glad people are enjoying the story so far and I can’t wait to keep on writing it. This chapter we’ll get to see our main character really interacting with Peter. Enjoy!

 I’ll be posting part three super soon seeing that it’s already done.

|Masterlist|

|Prologue| |Part One| |Part Three|

My head tiredly leans into my hand. It takes so much energy to even keep my eyes open to understand what our Algebra two teacher is teaching us. Not that I even care at this point in terms of this class or in general. I’ll just look up online videos online. The rest of me, however, is seemingly in shambles.

This morning I was forced to put on a stained sweatshirt and loose jeans that smelt the way that all dirty clothes do when they lie around for too long. I had just sprayed the whole outfit with the most pungent perfume in my room. Not even waking up on time to catch the train I was forced to ride my bike most of the way which let the rain that I hadn’t even noticed until stepping outside drench me.

I can say pretty confidently that our main janitor hates me now after I walked into school dripping wet. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out to get me. Especially after I slipped and fell into one of the recently repainted walls, leaving a weird wet splatter.

“Y/N,” someone next to me whispers for my attention. I barely turn my head enough to see all of Peter’s face.

“Hmm,” I hum with an annoyed tone.

“Are you okay,” he asks me with a nervous and unfamiliar, worried smile. I cock an eyebrow at him. My head begins to nod unsurely and I glance back up to the board when I hear Mr. Tiller coughs loudly. I wait to see if he’s pointedly glaring me and Parker down before returning my attention back to the shy boy.

“Really,” Peter laughs and lifts his pencil a little to point at my still wet sweatshirt, “because you’re soaked and look like you haven’t slept in forever.” I stare numbly down at my clothing before shrugging.

“I had a tiring day yesterday, so I woke up really late and had to ride my bike in the rain.” I turn myself all the way back to the lessons. “No biggie.” Next to me Peter shuffles and twists in his chair the most awkward and distracting way possible. I sigh and turn my head towards him again since he’s obviously still seeking a conversation with me.

“Oh- uh- did you hear about that huge fight yesterday?” he asks while pushing back his hair. My eyes immediately narrow at him as I try and figure out what he’s doing. It makes sense that it would be on the news, but why is he bringing it up to me about it. Ned is right by him. Usually, they’re the ones who talk about all the crazy things that happen in New York. Maybe MJ, but other than that he doesn’t go up to anyone else.

I look past him and glare at Ned who seems to have been watching me for god knows how long. Suddenly. Peter plops his elbow down on his desk, leaning on it an ruining my view of his friend.

“Pretty- pretty wild huh?” Peter manages to even make me feel awkward from what he says, and it isn’t because of the topic. “I guess someone got a video of what went down and there’s this super cool girl who like save a kid and…,” his voice drops off for a second as his eyes concentrate on me completely. “Stopped the guys since Spider-Man wasn’t there yet.” Peter quickly shakes himself from whatever trance he was in and finishes his sentence.

“Yeah…” I murmur. “Wild.” The bell abruptly rings overhead, dismissing the class. As quickly as possible I grab my notebook, throw on my backpack, and rush outside of the classroom.

Someone got the fight on video? Does it show my face?

Hastily I yank my phone out of my sweatshirt’s front pocket and begin typing something into the search engine. Immediately, the video of me pops up over everything else. My body moves into the lockers so that people go around me. I tap on the play button and watch the fight like I’m seeing it for the very first time. Surprisingly enough, it really does feel like this is my first time.

The girl in the video moves around and flies off the ground like a graceful dancer. When she throws out the golden blades in her hands and controls them to fly towards each of the criminals it’s captivating. I gasp at the sight of her hovering like an angel in the air, controlling her magic perfectly. The only thing that isn’t in the video is a clear image of her face.

I don’t even remember this. Doing this. Of course I know that I had the fight and I know the basics of what I did, but I had no idea I did them so well.

“She’s pretty cool, don’t you think?” My head twists around, showing my shock, and I find myself nose to nose with Peter. A startled expression spreads across his face from the closeness of our bodies. Even feeling uncomfortable in the situation myself I back away a little bit.

“Yeah,” I mumble.

“Everyone’s trying to figure out who she is. There have even been rumors that the Avengers are trying to find her identity.” I have to look away from him and down at my water filled boots to hide the sudden fear in my eyes. “Her powers are amazing.” When I look up at him Peter’s eyes show an intensity I’ve never seen anyone ever look at me with. His dark brown irises are soft though.

“Do you-,” he stops as if he’s thinking if he’ll be wording this next phrase right. “Do you believe in magic Y/N?” My heart stalls for a second in my chest. The only time any person ever asked me that question was on the playground when I was young and my friends and I were playing stupid, pretend games with moms and dads and annoying teenage sisters that pretended to have a giant wad of gum in their mouth.

That was fun though. Just them purely being curious and not motivated to ask because of videos of sorcerers. I hope that for a second Peter may admit to being joking and just drop the topic. He’s not though. His eyes are glued to mine and he wants to hear my answer. An honest answer.

I swallow and look at the clock telling me we still have three minutes of passing period left. My father would tell me to keep it vague. To not let Peter know the truth about my magic and just say that maybe it is.

The thing is the world is changing though. I saw the sanctions falling on the news and felt the change when the Sorcerer Supreme passed away. Then Strange began fighting alongside the Avengers. People with enough sense should know by now that there is magic in this universe just as there is magic in others.

“Well, of course I believe in magic. Haven’t you seen the stuff that Doctor Strange does?” For a moment Peter smiles at me, but then it turns into a frown when I finish my thought. “Why are you asking me this stuff anyways? Aren’t you and Ned supposed to be best buds or something?” I begin walking down the hall again before I risk being late to another class like this morning. Peter automatically starts following.

“Yeah, but I don’t really talk to you much,” he replies, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“That’s exactly my point Peter,” I clutch my books to my chest. “You don’t socialize with me at all. The only time we ever talk ever is when we’re paired up for projects, and even then we are barely talking-talking to each other. I’m pretty sure you even rush to finish early so we don’t have to spend any time together after school.” The hallways have cleared up except for the few students who are jogging to their classes on the other side of the school. Peter grimaces a little.

“I have stuff I’m always doing after schools, that’s why,” he explains. I roll my eyes and step in front of our class’s door.

“Like what?” I retort. Peter lifts his hands defensively and moves closer.

“Like the Stark internship,” he answers after making an incomprehensible noise. I scoff and open the door. We both walk into chemistry together, ignoring how our peers glare at us. My body loosens a little when I see that our teacher hasn’t come in yet.

“I thought you lost the internship,” I scoff. I remember that day vividly. For the first time in weeks, he had actually been focused on school, but that didn’t change the fact that I could tell that he was devastated. He dedicated a ton of time to Stark.

“I- I got it back,” Peter stutters. “I just thought- you know- maybe we should spend more time together since we both have the same classes.” I twist my body around so that I can stare him down. That’s not the only reason he wants to hang out with me. I know it, but a part of me tells me just to go along with him.

Defeated, I sigh and rub my eyes. “Fine Peter,” I say begrudgingly. A wide smile spreads across his lips as Peter pulls his hands out of the pockets they were once hidden in. The whole class looks over at us as he claps them together excitedly. With a laugh, I roll my eyes.

“Peter, Y/N, can you please take your seats,” our teach asserts to us as she enters. I look back at Peter’s smiling face.

“Wanna hang out after school?” he wonders.

“I thought this was only going to be a during school thing?” I question curiously. Peter shrugs off his bag and throws it next to his stool.

“I only ever said I wanted to get to know you. I never said how.” Before I get the chance to turn down the offer or even ask how I’m going to know where to go he walks away from me and goes to his seat.

“Y/N,” the teacher shouts at me. I mutter a quiet apology and take a seat. Even though I somehow have regained my energy I can’t focus on the lesson. My eyes are still caught on Peter. Luckily he hasn’t noticed my confused staring.

I groan to myself and drop my head. My soft hair drops in front of my face, caging my eyes and keeping me from studying him anymore. The only time I look through the strands is when someone quickly places something on my desk.

A little rectangle piece of paper sits patiently by my calloused fingers. Hesitantly, I pick it up by the corner and inspect it. On the front is a phone number with Peter’s name messily written at the bottom. I glance back really quickly and catch him staring at me as he grabs a tissue from the box lazily before tossing it in the trash without using it. My hand goes up to my mouth to cover up the grin as I pocket the paper.

[moricatlibrary]

The Morning After Their First Time

Short Modern American High School AU Eremin blurb. What it says on the tin~ Eren and Armin experience the rush and anxiety that comes after having sex for the first time.

Just some fun fluff to break out of writer’s block. Enjoy if you can!^^

Armin opened the door to the busy hallway at school, with the sounds of clunky lockers and indiscernible chatter from the egocentric student body entering his ears. He smiled meekly to himself as he stepped forward to slip down the hall to class, after spending all morning wondering how it would feel to reenter the hell hole of school again… Would he feel confident for the first time? Would he feel self conscious? Would his face give it all away? Or something far more… protruding…? But rather, he merely smiled to himself with a gentle light blush over his cheeks, radiating only a sense of sweet, sweet contentment and happiness after a very special night: the night he and Eren made love for the first time…

Armin sighed, staring at the ground all the way to his locker wing until he arrived near it, his heart beating steadily and his body at complete ease, a feeling he’d never felt before in these halls until now. He looked up to see if Eren had arrived… and a sparkle came to his eye, finding the gorgeous raven haired boy indeed standing at his locker, exchanging his books from his backpack… looking somewhat tense…

Eren paused and turned with slight anxiousness to see Armin standing there smiling so meekly and dearly at him. His flushed cheeks found a rosy tint again, and he finally mirrored back a gentle smile of his own… And then the tardy bell rang.

Eren quickly shoved his books into his bag, slammed his locker shut, and bolted off to class, sending a fleeting wind through Armin’s hair as he simply stood there alone. He’d hoped to talk to Eren before class started but, understandably, Eren was in a hurry. The blond beamed to himself, “Hmm.”, and quickly took himself to class as well.

But surprisingly… Eren proved to be hard to catch for the rest of the school day too. He’d rush through the halls to his next class before Armin ever got the chance to spot him, he’d be nowhere to be found during the lulls when he’d usually be lounging around, he’d “miss” seeing Armin in passing, he’d be “too immersed” in conversations with other people to even acknowledge Armin behind him, and was even missing in action during lunch period. Armin was no fool. He’d gotten the message loud and clear at some point by the afternoon: Eren was avoiding him…

Now it was after bus call and Armin’s anxiety had caught back up to him… He sat alone on the bench by the empty courtyard in the orangey sunlight after the buses had all gone, finally letting the sad thoughts slowly swallow him up and drown him. Eren must’ve been ashamed… Too embarrassed to deal with the fact that he’d given his virginity to a lowly geek like him, he supposed. “Guess it was just a moment of weakness.” he muttered. “…A flicker of heat that got the better of him…” he clenched his fists, his knuckles going white for a few seconds, while tears welled up in his eyes. “…I’m so stupid. And here I thought… maybe… maybe he was…” the heat from his tightening throat let out whispering screams and nothing more. He couldn’t even bring himself to say it out loud. For one night, he believed someone might actually love him… better yet, that Eren Yeager might actually love him… But daylight proved it to be a silly schoolboy’s indulgent dream. Humiliating. The heartbroken little teen sobbed. “At least, I thought he was the one person who’d never make me cry…” he buried his face in his hands, blubbering quietly to himself, while the tears fell more than they’d ever fallen at the hands of mere bullies… And they fell even harder when he remembered the person he wanted to see for comfort was Eren himself.

He’d known Eren for just over a month now. He was a person like none Armin had ever encountered before. A person who would not only stand for justice but fight back with fire in his heart and fists in the air… but even better than that, Eren was caring, and compassionate… And he was so gentle with Armin. Armin never felt safer than when he was in Eren’s arms. He cherished every single hug they shared, knowing it was something special to treasure given that after only a month, they were already hugging like best friends. He’d never connected with anyone so strongly before nor smiled so often. He’d gotten so close to Eren by now he was beginning to dare supposing the forbidden question: Could Eren be the one? Could Eren actually love him?

Armin laughed noiselessly into his palms for the irony. He felt truly stupid, loathing how happy he’d felt last night when their hands interlaced, and their eyes locked, and slowly but surely their lips met until the next thing he knew, they were in his bed, riding on a rhythm of wonder, intimate pleasure, and what he’d pathetically thought was love. To think he’d actually thought there was someone who truly didn’t care what the system had to say about what soul belongs with whom. A geek is a geek and only a geek to anyone. And special people are reserved for other special people. People like Eren Yeager… He sobbed a little louder, as animals do when they feel hopeless and alone in defeat, and so didn’t hear the approaching footsteps behind him… A timid hand landed on his shoulder with a slight quiver and the frightened Armin jolted in his seat, turning his red, tear drenched face around urgently to see what scary person the cruel world might send to him now… It was Eren. Looking forlorn and sad himself. ‘Scary’ had many new meanings for Armin now, and they all fit this present moment to a T… “Eren…”

Eren looked on with knit eyebrows and parted frowning lips, that twitched like they had something to say but just couldn’t. “–Armin…”

“Can I help you?” the empty Armin asked with a sniffle and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“…”

‘Eren speechless? How strange…’ he wondered. “Eren…”

“…” Though silent and lips still quivering, Eren’s eyes stared intensely into Armin’s, like something urgent were burning inside him.

Armin sighed in defeat, heavy tears pouring once again of their own accord though he managed not to cry again. “Eren… It’s… okay… We don’t… have to be anything more than we are… Sorry for making it weird…”

Eren inhaled, like he was preparing to speak, and yet, still nothing. “…” His eyes grew more desperate.

Armin’s bottom lip couldn’t help pouting at this point, but he kept repeating to himself in his mind to hold on, that this was only a moment that would be over very shortly. “It’s okay. Really. I know how it is… Geeks don’t associate with heroes like you.” He smiled warmly. “And I’ll leave you to your place while I keep to mine. Last night was just a fluke. N-Never mind it.”

Eren gasped quietly…

After another second or so of silence, the blushing and smiling Armin finally turned to leave for home and held up a hand to wave politely. “Good bye…”

…Suddenly, before he could even take another step, Armin was in a tight grasp, with big warm arms wrapped around him, hugging him from behind into a warm, pulsing chest. Now Armin was speechless…

“Armin, you’re my world, my dream, and more! How can you say it all meant nothing?!” the taller boy sobbed into Armin’s nape, his breath “burning” Armin’s skin beneath his swamping hair line. “I love you!”

Armin’s eyes widened. He gently loosened Eren’s arms to turn around and face him, wiping away his tears until those soulful grey eyes opened again to look into his. “Eren…”

Eren wiped his nose and looked down at his best friend with woeful eyes beneath his mussy eyebrows. “…Did it really mean nothing to you?”

“Oh, Eren…” he whimpered. “It meant everything to me…”

Eren pulled Armin into a tight embrace without another thought, shutting his eyes again as he relished in the feeling of Armin’s arms around his neck and shoulders, hugging him back just as tight.

“I thought you were avoiding me all day because it meant nothing to you…” Armin mumbled into Eren’s shoulder.

Eren’s eyes shot back open and he pulled away to look at Armin again. “Why would you think that?”

”…Because I know I’m not the most desirable person you could be with. I thought the worst because–“

"You don’t believe in yourself.”

“…Exactly… I’m so sorry–”

“Don’t apologize… I’m sorry… I was avoiding you because I was scared.”

Armin’s lips parted curiously. “Hm? You?”

“Yeah! I had sex with you last night, and it was a lot of feelings at once, after keeping them bottled up for over a month… It was too real and wonderful and amazing– It was terrifying… And you came up to me looking so confident this morning while I was shaking, it was like– how can I live up to what that guy deserves?… I’m so sorry.  A coward is definitely not what you deserve… but I… I love you.”

Armin’s smile from that morning returned, and even brighter as the glorious joy of those 3 little words washed over him like the ocean waves used to do when he was 9 years old.

“My… only regret about last night is… that I didn’t say that first… But if– i-if you uh… don’t mind hearing it, I’ll say it again. And again and again and again, every morning, day, and night, as many times as you like. It’s what you deserve to hear, Armin Arlert…”

Tears gushed over the corners of Armin’s smiling lips, flowing this time with happiness. “Eren…”

“I may not deserve this, but… if I may be so bold… uhm… do you… love me?”

Deciding to take the “Eren Yeager” method of living, Armin chose to take action now and talk later. He pulled Eren’s face down to his, pulling himself in even closer, and gently crashed his lips against his. The chemical reactions in his mind tingled even more than they did when they kissed last night, and he decided that he was truly certain that there was nothing, nothing at all, he wanted to feel for the rest of his life more than this: Eren’s arms around him tight, Eren’s lips against his, Eren’s low hum as their tongues entangled, all while the words 'I love you’ permeated the air around them. He pulled away, watching as Eren’s dizzy head tilted, showcasing his warmest smile and his silvery half lidded eyes locking onto his own. “I love you.” Now he wished this moment would last forever…

With another embrace, the pair finally walked home into the sunset, with a fire in their hearts, and their arms wrapped around each other, wanting to never let go.