#anyway lab safety rant over | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dontcallmecarrie · 3 years

Text

tfw the plot bunny strikes and refuses to let go, here, continuation of this:

Loki was torn between chagrin and vague amusement, as he observed everyone else’s reactions to the two Justin Hammers in between herding everyone to one of the safehouses Victor von Doom had somehow managed to get ahold of in this strange world.

At first glance, Victor seemed to be the most unperturbed— but Loki knew him well enough to note the way his eyes had widened when he’d seen the two side by side, couldn’t help but catch the tiniest shift in the way he held himself and Loki would bet anything that if he were any sort of telepath, he’d be hearing nothing but an infernal screeching coming from his corner of the room.

Ivan Vanko wasn’t much better, but at least he’d elected to hyperfixate on cleaning up the loose ends they’d left in relation to their original mission: from his mutters, some of the security cameras’ footage had been trickier to access than not, and required even more effort to scrub. Loki gave it another five minutes before he was forced to look away from his computer and acknowledge the reality of the situation.

Meanwhile, the Winter Soldiers were an interesting study in contrasts; while Winter was extremely apologetic about the situation and had already apologized no less than five times, Soldat seemed to be content to look on in bemusement as the situation unraveled from there.

...which wasn’t very different from what Loki’s own counterpart was doing, actually, but at least Soldat wasn’t enjoying the chaos. Visibly, anyway, and Loki was getting a new appreciation for just how irritating that particular smirk looked on his own face. If they all weren’t so focused on calming the jumpier, more visibly frazzled-version of their leader, someone would’ve punched it off his face by now. As it was, though...

“Who the hell are you people?!” Justin Hammer whisper-shrieked, in between sharp gasps for air and eyes wide as he cowered away from his kidnappers. “And wh— wh—”

“He’s more high-strung than you are.” Someone muttered to the terrifying figure who had his face—

“Of course he is, he has no idea what’s going on and you guys kidnapped him,” his mirror image replied with a flat look, before turning to face him looking vaguely embarrassed. “Look, Hammer— can I call you Hammer? Wait, no, you can be Justin, I’ll go by Hammer and man this is weird— I can explain. Just. Sit down and take a breather, because it’s, uh, a bit of a long story.”

Justin would’ve thought an explanation would leave him with more answers than questions.

He was sorely mistaken.

The headache he had now wasn’t much of an improvement from before.

“So, let me get this straight: you,” Justin jabbed a finger at the dude with the dark grey mask which was just about the only thing differentiating him from his twin, “grabbed me because you mistook me for him—”

“Sorry about that, by the w—”

“—and you’re all from some other dimension and pissed off goodness knows how many organizations trying to figure out how to get home,” Justin steamrollered on, closing his eyes in an effort to take things one step at a time because he was trying not to feel overwhelmed but these guys weren’t making it easy, “is that right?”

“Well...”

“I mean...”

“Yeah.” Ivan— not the bastard responsible for his being in Seagate, another version of him who apparently didn’t actively try and screw people over— replied, and Justin opened his eyes just in time to catch the tail end of his shrug. “That about sums it up.”

“Okay.” Justin nodded to himself. “Why?”

“Why what? You’re going to need to be more specific, here, I’m not a mind reader.”

“How’d you even get here? Or do you weirdos just go dimension-hopping for fun on a Friday night?”

“You’re not the only one wondering that.” The alien god said airily, toying with a— that was a knife, okay, Justin already knew he was in way over his head, he didn’t need the reminder, thanks. Where did it even come from, anyway? “I would really like to know that as well, Ivan.”

“Oh, nah, this was a freak accident.” Ivan snorted, then gave them all a smirk that gave Justin goosebumps for a second. “As for why...look at it this way: this was weird and stressful for us, and from the start you guys knew what was going on and have me to figure out how to get us back. Now imagine if it’d been the Avengers.”

The silent, broody one— Victor, was it?— made a noise of realization. “That is diabolical. I love it.”

“I know, I was trying to figure out how to temper it when this happened. The ray gun was supposed to be temporary, I’m not sure what happened but the end goal’s a duration of twenty-four hours. Sorry you guys got caught up in the beta, by the way.”

“We are going to be having words about proper lab safety protocols when we get home, Ivan.” Victor said darkly, and something in his voice that had six out of the seven other people in the room freezing for a second.

Justin couldn’t help but notice his...twin was not part of that number.

But first, because this was something he’d been wondering ever since he’d heard of how this ‘Cabal’ operated—

“Why are you going to this effort?”Justin asked.

“Oh, boy, here we go again,” the guy calling himself ‘Winter’ muttered, but before he do more than start to turn to him in confusion, Ivan spoke.

“Because death is too simple.” He said, not looking away from the computer he’d pulled out. “Because any rando with a gun could do that, if they wanted. No, if I’ve got a beef with someone, I want them to suffer. I want them to regret ever having pissed me off, to curse my name every time they step on a Lego and realize who put it there, to—”

“Yes, I know, we get it.” One of the alien gods cut in. The one who didn’t look like shit, and had a long-suffering look on his face partway into Ivan’s spiel. “If I had a penny for every time you go on that rant...”

“Says the guy who uses my ideas to become the official nemesis of the Avengers.” Ivan shot back, unamused, and the way Winter sighed and Victor pinched the bridge of his nose told him this was a recurring argument.

“Guys,” Justin’s...twin cut in, and Justin couldn’t help but feel something in the pit of his stomach clench as he noticed the way everyone from his dimension came to attention. “If we could focus on getting home?”

“I know, I know, I’m on it.” Ivan muttered, turning back to his computer. “Trying to throw SHIELD off our trail’s easier here, but it’s still not exactly a cakewalk.”

“Okay. What can we do in the meantime?”

The more Justin saw of this ‘Cabal’, of Hammer and the others, the more uncomfortable he felt.

Because the more time passed, the more it felt like...he was seeing a better version of himself.

How long had he tried to get people to respect him? How many classes on public speaking and marketing had he taken, how many books had he read in an effort to build his charisma, to be remembered as something other than the cheap knockoff of Tony Stark?

And now...

Justin watched as someone wearing his face walked around, and he was quiet, and fairly introverted, but something about him demanded respect, commanded all the attention in the room when he talked, and... Justin wanted that.

Of course, Justin’s...twin noticed.

For some reason, the look of sympathy he got felt even worse than the first time he’d donned prisoner’s uniform in Seagate.

Not to mention the conversation they had, when Justin was ushered into a quiet corner near the safehouse’s kitchen as they had tea.

It was. A talk.

Not a great one.

Not that there really could’ve been, considering, but.

“I am not you, you are not me, and that’s a good thing.”

Justin didn’t know what he was expecting, really.

Another version of himself, forcing him to acknowledge things he’d thought he’d gotten over— how was he supposed to handle it?

“You were set up for failure from the start, you know. No child should ever have to carry some of the burdens you grew up with.”

Just.

Someone who understood, and how was he supposed to deal?

“You cannot change the past, but you can control your own actions in the future. What do you want to do, who do you want to become? What makes you, you?”

Justin had thought he’d felt tired when he’d finally been brought into the mess these guys were part of, but now his exhaustion felt soul-deep and he didn’t know when he’d started crying but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t stop—

Mercifully, the others left him alone for the rest of the day.

He... needed to think.

Justin wasn’t the only one having a hard time, he knew: he’d noticed the way Soldat followed Winter around, trying to mimic his self-confidence, and the Loki of this world looked at the easy camaraderie his counterpart had with a hunger that would’ve made Justin very nervous if that expression were aimed at him.

Something dark and feral, all jagged edges and brittle smiles and it shouldn’t have resonated nearly as much as it did but—

It made for a good conversation starter, if nothing else. Something relatable to bond over tea, because Victor was a monster who had an irrational disdain for coffee and Justin needed his caffeine fix if he wanted to keep what was left of his sanity.

Justin didn’t know what he brought to the table. Not compared to whatever his twin did, anyway, and he didn’t want to go that route either because he wanted to be himself.

Even if he wasn’t certain what that looked like, anyway, not after decades of chasing after Tony Stark’s shadow, but...

He’d find out. Somehow.

“Hey! Guys, I figured it out!” Ivan’s excited cheer woke everyone up early one morning. “Just gotta get my hands on some materials, but we can go home soon!”

#No Hero [Downward Descending]#schrodinger's canon #My writing

31 notes · View notes

buried-in-autumn-leaves · 4 years

Text

You know he loves you, right?

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017) Relationship: Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gyro Gearloose (Mentioned) Characters: Gyro Gearloose, Louie Duck, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera (mentioned), Boyd Gearloose Words:1135

Also Available on A03

It wasn’t often the lab was quiet anymore. After everything had happened, most of the kids had gotten somewhat anxious to go out in the city, so they commonly found themselves exploring the private buildings. The mansion had been searched for new and exciting things, the money bin cleared of all supernatural mysteries. The only place left they had to search was the lab, which hadn't been cleared out after the fight against FOWL. In fact, it had since gained a large sum of new scrap materials, rare chemicals, and half broken robots in need of repair. The kids loved it, constantly messing with old models of weapons and badly drawn treasure maps.

But now, just for a moment, it was silent. And despite how much growing Gyro had done over the past few months, learning to socialize with the others, it was nice. Even the most social people must appreciate a minute to themselves, just to think.

So, taking advantage of the silence, Gyro was found in the back of the lab, analyzing a chemical found in FOWL HQ. A low sound warned him that someone was in the elevator, and expecting it to be a child, he hid the bottles away under his desk. He didn’t need another incident like last time.

He called out to whoever was there as the door open, making sure they knew someone else was in the lab. It was purely a safety measure, those kids carry around the weirdest things and don’t often think before they attack.

“Just a minute, please don’t touch the robots today, I’ve been working on them and they’re a bit defective.”

“Um, Dr. Gearloose?”

That voice was off. It wasn’t the loud, energetic yell of a child that he was used to. There wasn’t a sudden crash as one of them used magic, even though it was explicitly banned from this area for good reason. It was quiet, and there was only one, instead of the chorus of responses that usually came when the group came down.

Upon taking off his gloves and turning towards the elevator door, he saw he was correct. It wasn’t all of them. Standing awkwardly near the door was Louie, one hand hidden in his hoodie while the other pressed buttons on a small cube in his hand.

“Ah, Green Nephew, where are the others? You guys don’t normally travel alone anymore.”

“They’re up in the mansion, but Fenton drove me over, said he was supposed to head here soon anyway.”

“Here? He was here until 3AM last night, I told him to stay home. I even hid his car keys. God why is he so stubborn?”

“Uh, Gyro? I don’t mean to interrupt, but I have to get back to the others soon before they get worried.” The triplet looked up from his phone.

“Of course, my apologies. Now, how can I help you? I’m afraid I can’t give you anymore chemicals until I’m sure how they’ll affect Lena and Violet’s magic fields. Stupid magic, I don’t understand what’s so special. Science is sure, uniform, certain. Magic is too risky.”

He trailed off, having walked over to Fenton’s desk to check on the progress he’s made on one of the robots.

“That’s fine, I actually just wanted to ask you a question.”

“No, I am not doing your homework. Della got mad enough last time, and I don’t want to hear it again-”

“Why do you think you’re a bad parent?” He hadn’t meant to ask that way, and when he did he froze, his hands fidgeting with the cube again.

“What did you just say?” What does that even mean? Where did he get that from?

“I see how you act around BOYD. You look like Mom after she got back. Like you’re scared or something.” He said simply, watching the chicken’s expression closely to see if he’d gone too far. Instead of anger, his expression was just blank, and he stayed quiet for a minute before answering.

“I do my best with BOYD. And yes, sometimes I feel as if I’m not doing enough. However, that is none of your concern. You’re a child, go have fun, please.” Gyro’s tone was short, as if trying not to get angry. His hands had stilled on the machinery he was holding.

Of course he was scared. Scared and confused as to why BOYD tolerated him, let alone trusted him enough to take care of him after what happened. Gyro had abandoned him. That was a fact. He left him in a desperate attempt to get away. Away from the city, away from Akita... away from BOYD. Some stupid plan to save his own reputation, willing to sacrifice someone he’d sworn to protect. And even after all that, BOYD forgave him? It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t logical, and it definitely wasn’t deserved.

“Listen, I’m not good with stuff like this. Honestly I think any of the others would’ve been better suited for this, but I’m here, so you’ll have to-” He stopped, shaking his head to regain his thoughts. “Sorry, rambling. What I’m trying to say if that you’re a good Dad, Dr. Gearloose, whether you like it or not.”

“And how could you possibly know that?” Gyro questioned, hands starting to shake. It was a serious question. He wanted to know. He needed to.

“The way he talks about you.” It was the truth, so he didn’t understand why the scientist looked so surprised.

“BOYD... talks about me?” He asked quietly, voice shaking. In return, the child laughed.

“Of course he does! He’s always telling us about how you teach him how to interact with others, even though you’re not the best at it yourself. I couldn’t tell you how many times he’s told us about his first flight test with you back in Tokyolk. All his favourite stories are with you. He really loves you.”

In the midst of his rant, Louie had made his way over to Gyro, who was now staring intently at the floor. At that distance it was visible that, for the first time since coming out to him, Gyro Gearloose was crying.

“Gyro... you okay?”

He cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice steady. “I’m alright, Louie. Thank you, really.”

“Of course. BOYD is your child, but not because you built him. He’s your child because he wants to be. He chose you. I think you just need to remember that sometimes.”

BOYD chose him...

“You’re right, Louie. And I can’t promise that I won’t forget that again, but I’m going to try. For him.”

“Hey, don’t even worry. If you do forget, I’ll remind you. But talks like actually make me super uncomfortable so maybe I’ll just hit you next time or something.”

“Yeah, that’d be preferable.”

#ducktales 2017 #ducktales #dt17 #gyro gearloose #dad gyro #louie duck #trans louie #fenro #fenton crackshell cabrera #boyd gearloose

101 notes · View notes

collecting-stories · 4 years

Text

Sirens - John B. Routledge

Request: Could you write something where the reader and John B were really close when they were younger, but then the reader's mom married a kook, so she got transferred to the academy and started hanging out with Sarah, Topper, and Rafe, and on several occasions John B has seen her and accused her of being just as bad as the Kooks, but as he's trying to escape the Island she helps and they have a moment

A/N: Sorry this took me so long to get around to! You guys have the patience of saints and deserve a better fanfic writer than me lol.

Outer Banks Masterlist

☽ ☽ ❍ ☾ ☾

Memphis’ bark was the first thing that alerted you to an intruder in your parents’ home. At first you thought the TV was too loud for him but when you turned to quiet him down you realized your black lab was standing at the closed bedroom door, pawing at it and barking.

“Seriously,” you whispered, grabbing your phone and turning the flashlight on as you opened the door. The house was dark except for a single hall light and your phone as you walked toward the stairs, praying that whatever had caught Memphis’ attention was just a creak from the water heater and not an actual intruder. You padded down the stairs and peeked around the wall into the kitchen, noticing a figure by the counter. They had their back to you, looking out the window as more cop cars sped passed. Your dad had gone out to try and help but your mom had put earplugs in and gone to sleep. You squinted in the dim light, tucking your phone into your pocket as the stranger moved and you realized they weren’t a stranger at all.

“John B?” You whispered, flicking the kitchen light on.

The boy in question, the one all the cops were searching the island for, turned to face you. He looked freaked and you had to sympathize with him. You had heard from your dad and Topper what they said had happened but you knew Rafe...you had been part of the kook world ever since your mom had remarried and you knew what he was capable of.

“John B, what are you doing here? How did you get in my house?” You asked, moving further into the kitchen. Memphis abandoned you to nudge his head against John B’s side.

“Hey Memph, long time no see buddy. You remember me?” He asked, crouching down to pet your dog. It was the first time all day he’d smiled.

“Touching reunion...now what are you doing in my house?”

“The back door was open. I just need to lay low for a little while, please. I didn’t kill-”

“I know.” You grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the stairs as a cruiser pulled into your driveway. You pushed Memphis toward him and John B grabbed the dog’s collar, holding him on the stairs as he ducked out of sight.

You went to the door, opening it just as Shoupe walked up the stone path from the driveway, concern etched on his face. “Hey, kid, you the only one up?” He asked in what you imagined was his ‘talking to teens’ voice.

“My dad’s out with you guys.” You replied, “Mom’s sleeping.”

“Look I know you used to run with some of those kids on the Cut...you haven’t seen John B around have you?” He asked, looking passed you into the house.

“No, I don’t really talk to John B anymore. We aren’t friends.”

“Just wanted to check in, saw the light on.” He explained.

“Yeah...well I haven’t seen him. If I do though, I’ll let you know.” You promised.

“Alright,” he backed up, already headed back to the car because why would you, pogue turned kook, polite as could be, kid from the Eight, lie to the police. “You keep that door locked and head back up to bed alright.”

“Will do.” You backed into the house, shutting the door behind you and turning the lock, watching as Shoupe backed out of the driveway and headed down the road, lights flashing.

You flicked the light off before grabbing some water bottles from the refrigerator and walking over to where John B was hiding with Memphis. He stepped down off the stairs and took one of the bottles of water from you.

“Thanks.” John B said, “for not telling Shoupe.”

“We might not be friends anymore JB but we were at one point...and you were my best friend. The least I can do is cover for you.” You replied.

“I swear to god, I would never shoot Peterkin. It was Rafe-”

“I know,” you stressed. “I know. Top told me Rafe was there and...I know he’s been going off the deep end lately.”

John B nodded, exhaling and scrubbing at his eyes. You stepped back when he moved over to the kitchen sink to splash water on his face. You bit your lip, watching him. The two of you had been friends once upon a time. Not for a long time now but you still felt that same hammering in your chest when you saw him.

“Heard you don’t hate all kooks...must just be me then.” You mentioned, leaning against the counter beside him.

“It’s not like that.” John B replied, looking away from you. He ducked when another series of flashing lights ran passed the window.

“Come on,” you grabbed his arm, “we should go upstairs.”

“If any one finds me here-”

“No one will find you here.” You promised, continuing to pull him up the stairs toward your bedroom. “Just like old times...the house is just a little bigger.” You joked.

“A little?”

“I didn’t choose it JB, my mom got married.” You replied. Memphis hopped up on the end of your bed as you closed the door. “Anyway, you need to sleep.”

“I can’t...I need to meet the pogues at the dock tomorrow...JJ’s getting the Phantom. People are looking for me-” He started to rant.

“John B,” you grabbed his arms, stopping him from pacing. “Hey, come on...look at me.” Your hands moved up from his arms to his face, forcing him to look at you. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked scared, even in the safety of your bedroom. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out in the morning but right now you need to sleep. If you stay up like this, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”

“I need to-”

“You need to sleep. Please JB. Just let me help you.”

“Okay.” He nodded. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, pulling him in for a hug and kissing his cheek. He put his arms around your waist and laid his forehead against your shoulder, his muscles relaxing.

“It’s gonna be okay.” You promised. “Nothing’s gonna happen to you.”

taglist: @maplelattes22 @poguesrforlife @freckled-and-daydreaming @chasefreakinstokes @millie-753 @fangirlwithme @alex12948 @katherine097 @tangledinsparkles @carbonated-beverage @mariofgreengables @damonsalvawhore27 @dopedoodes @dolanfivsosxox @belledutchess @poguelifeeee @faded-blue @parkerpetertingle @thebookwormlife @summer-clouds-and-long-days @jellyfishbeansontoast @minigranger @hoewkeye @love-someone-special @tiredfeels @strangerthanfanfiction713 @the-only-nana @tomzfrog @mozz-are-lla @vindictive-hearts @poguestyleskye @ssprayberrythings @jenahbell @beautyandthebleh @gothackedalready @teenwaywardasgardian @sarahcxmeron @haha-fuck-you-thot @stillbelieve398-5 @rewindlr @queenniccimicci @kissessforharryyy @thedarkqueenofavalon @alytavzla @bqmblebee @linniep @nerdypartytrashpsychic @xxchxrryxx @spencer-reid-is-a-cutie @danielladreaming @obx-saltlife @youngestxhearts @spnobsessedmemes @wowitswondergurl @celestialmaybank @mybnkjj @pineappleandcherries @mysterious-adventurer @justawilddreamerchild @rhyetaylor62 @calm-rejects @balletandyuzu @oh-annaa @aiifandomsunite @x-lulu @ceruleanjj @wicked-laugh @obxwriterfan @allie-mcginn @pcterparxer @literarycharleton @khiaraaa-in-spacee @crushe-s @teamnick @daydreamlilys @collectiveuniverses @activist-af @mdgrdians @buckys-sunflower @vindictive-hearts @copper-boom @talksoprettyjjx @5am-cigarette @smiithys @dontjinx-it @outerbanksbro @mysticsthinking @heavenlymama @rudy-pankow-needs-an-oscar @babymatilda @raekenliar @lemur46 @haute-shawn @calums-betch @pogue-h

179 notes · View notes

vs-redemption · 4 years

Text

Crime is Common. Logic is Rare (Ch.27)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Tension (HawksxGN!Reader)

Plot summary: As a quirk geneticist, you never really imagined yourself getting involved in hero work. Of course, you never imagined catching the eye of a pro hero either. What starts as a great career opportunity turns into a relationship built upon mutual secrets and trust.

Warnings:

⚠️This story contains spoilers from the manga.

⚠️Some events and plot points have been altered from the original manga

Tag List: @gayforkeigo @marshmallow-witch @redflannel @toyo-shiro @elsasshole @astronomyturtle @iambashfulperson @omiwashere

Next Chapter : Chapter Guide

Considering everything you and Hawks had to cope with as a new couple, the relationship itself had gone quite smoothly as far as you were concerned. There was a lot of pressure due to the secretive and dangerous nature of your jobs at present, but disagreements were few and far between, and you were both flexible enough to resolve issues quickly without much heartache. However, the time had finally come for you to butt heads in earnest, and as far as first fights went, you had to believe you both deserved awards for the amount of self-control exercised from both parties.

Neither one of you were allowed to raise your voice, not even on accident in the heat of the moment. Actually, neither of you were allowed to speak at all. You could only scribble back and forth aggressively to convey your feelings because the subject you were arguing over was something neither one of you should have a reason to be discussing in the first place.

That unfortunate topic was Dabi.

You had refused to accept the fire villain’s request for you to spy on your boyfriend, and Hawks was quite adamant that doing so had been the wrong decision. Obviously you understood his concerns about crossing someone as dangerous as Dabi, but as long as Shigaraki’s wellbeing was in your hands, you were fairly certain the villains would leave you basically unharmed. Besides, Hawks was the one who had been against you getting involved any deeper with the League in the first place.

‘He threatened you,’ Hawks scratches down on the paper you were using to have the conversation. This method of communication was becoming frustrating for the both of you, especially since finding time to be together was hard enough as it was without having to waste precious moments of it writing everything you needed to tell each other by hand.

Your eyes slide across the words and the tension that you’d being fighting back ever since the encounter with Dabi began nagging you more persistently in the back of your mind. You do your best to lock the feelings back down and then meet Hawks’ eyes while shrugging off his concern. Certainly, Dabi had threatened you, but your life had already been in danger from the moment Dr. Garaki showed you that he could synthesize Nomu DNA. It wasn’t easy living with that fear, but as long as you had the knowledge inside your brain of what the villains were doing, there would be the chance of them deciding to silence you by taking your life. Adding Dabi into the equation didn’t make that any more or less true.

‘Tell the doctor you’ve reconsidered the offer,’ Hawks aggressively adds a period at the end as if it would turn his words into more of a demand than a suggestion.

It didn’t matter whether he wanted you to do this for your own safety or because he really thought it was the best course of action. You still shake your head even though you hated to see the look of disappointment in his eyes over your answer. You just couldn’t bring yourself to risk it. The villains were already suspicious of your relationship with Hawks. Both Shigaraki and Dabi had brought up the strangeness of dating a hero while helping out the villains. They’d be stupid not to even consider the possibility that you knew about Hawks’ involvement with the league or that one, if not both, of you were playing the role of double agent.

‘Changing my mind now will only make things more complicated.’ You write down the words despite knowing Hawks was smart enough to have already thought of them himself. It was just like the times when you’d mysteriously passed out in Garaki’s lab and encountered Shigaraki for the very first time. Backing out or changing your mind at the wrong moment would send a message to the doctor and the villains. They would wonder who you’d been talking to, or what had transpired after the fact that had made you think twice and go back on things you’d said in the past. It was better to stick to your guns and continue playing the role of morally ambiguous scientist.

‘Not if the information you give them is valuable,’ Hawks counters with a serious look on his handsome face. He looks over at the news reporter rambling from your TV, probably jealous that they were able to talk so freely while he was reduced to passing notes with someone he cared about. He looks back down at the paper and adds, ‘You can give them my real name.’

Upon reading the words, something inside you suddenly snapped, and you fight off the urge to ball up the paper and chuck it at your boyfriend’s head. When you’d first asked him about his name, he’d insisted that ‘Hawks’ was his real name. He’d never explicitly told you that he’d lied back then, but he’d dropped plenty of not-so-subtle hints for you to figure it out on your own. So, it wasn’t so much the reveal that rubbed you the wrong way as it was the timing of it. You pull the paper towards you and pick up the pen.

‘Absolutely not!’ You write and then underline it twice before throwing the pen back down. Hawks looked shocked at your little outburst and slides the paper closer to himself to simply draw a question mark.

A sigh escapes your lips as you study the confusion in his golden eyes. Perhaps it had been a bit of an overreaction. Both you and Hawks had been so careful and logical about everything for so long that there was a certain intimacy missing in the relationship. You had been trying to cope with that fact as best you can, but something about learning his name this way hit you a little differently.

‘Sorry.’ You write the words slowly. ‘I don’t like the idea of finally learning your name just so that I can hand it over to Dabi.’ It made you feel vulnerable to make such a confession because it wasn’t like you to let your personal feelings affect your behavior so strongly. You wanted to be honest with him though, so that the lines of communication between you could be as open as possible.

Hawks reads over your words, features morphing from surprise into sadness as comprehension dawns on him. He meets your gaze before reaching out and pulling you firmly against him. You weren’t sure what to make of the reaction but you wrap your arms around him and bury your face into his chest.

“I never thought of it that way,” Hawks mumbles awkwardly and refuses to let you go for a moment. “You’re right though. It’s not fair.”

You push away from him to look at his face, feeling surprised that he’d even risk saying that out loud. It could probably be passed off as a comment about whatever the news reporter was still ranting about, but you put a finger to his lips to silence him anyway.

“Sorry,” he whispers against your skin.

“Shh!” You reprimand him before taking your finger away and replacing it with your lips, pressing a kiss to his mouth to show him everything was all right and that you weren’t upset with him. He relaxes right away and warps his arms more tightly around you to hold you closer. You had to pull away after a moment though because your time together was limited, and you’d yet to agree on a solution to your problem.

“I love you,” he tells you with a longing in his eyes that told you he hated the current situation just as much as you did.

“I love you too, bird-kun.” You smile while taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. He glances back down at the paper on the table and picks up the pen begrudgingly.

‘I’ll think of something else for you to tell him.’ He meets your eyes to see how you’d respond and is once again disappointed when you shake your head.

‘I won’t be the one to give him anything he can use against you.’ You write your reply.

“I appreciate the sentiment,” he smiles sadly before jotting down his response.

‘If you don’t cooperate, your life will be in danger once Shigaraki wakes up.’

Seeing the truth once again so plainly spelled out gave you pause, but you were determined to stick to the original plan the two of you had agreed to along with the Hero Commission.

‘That’s why we’re going to make sure to end this before that even happens.’ You scribble down the reply before clicking the pen closed. Hawks understood then that you weren’t going to be changing your mind. He sighs quietly and puts his hands up in surrender.

“Ok,” he tells you while glancing at the TV again to check the time. “I have to get back to my patrol soon.”

“I know,” you lean in and kiss him again on the cheek. “I wish we had more time.”

“Can I stop by after you get back from the lab?” he asks although he already knew your schedule.

“Sorry,” you frown. “I’ll be there late tonight. It would be better if you stop by in the morning.”

Hawks grimaced at the thought of you spending so many hours watching over Shigaraki’s unconscious body, but it was at least a little better than being involved with a fully awake Dabi. It was going to be so important for the Heroes to find a way to stop the villains before Shigaraki woke up. More lives than just your own would be in danger if they failed. You trusted Hawks though, and knew he and the commission would do everything they could to prevent the worst case scenario.

“You bet,” Hawks stands up from the couch and stretches his arms and wings as much as he could to prepare himself for his patrol. “Send me a text when you’re awake and I’ll bring coffee.”

“That would be much appreciated,” you smile as you watch him go to the door and pull on his boots and flight jacket. He gives you another quick peck on the lips, says his goodbyes, and before you know it he’s taking off into the sky.

#Hawks x Reader #Keigo Takami x Reader #Bnha x reader #mha x reader #hawks #keigo takami #bnha #mha #Cindy's Writing

25 notes · View notes

anxiouslyfred · 4 years

Text

Mold on Me

for @dukexietyweek‘s prompt High School, I have no clue how american schools work so I’m just going with what I know.

Summary: Virgil had only heard about Remus as a kid who annoyed his friends in their classes but after finally seeing what the other student looks like and meeting him is torn between hiding away or trying to get to know Remus better. Remus is already decided on meeting the snarky student again, if only to learn his name.

Warnings: Knife mentions, Food mentions?, unsafe science lab practices mentioned,

/\/\/\/\/\

Virgil had been bullied badly when he was younger. It was why he hated being around the more populated areas of the school and now basically lived in the Library as much as he could. That didn’t mean he was against making friends, just that they’d usually be the ones deciding to make friends and he just wouldn’t question it at all.

“He almost blew up the lab today. Why did I have to get partnered with someone who clearly has no regard for any form of safety? Even when I stopped him and tried to correct the experiment from where he’d mixed all the chemicals up he was literally taking the ones I was trying to return to mix together again!” Logan had been ranting for most of their breaktime by this point. Virgil didn’t really mind, and actually was kind of curious about the student in question.

He hadn’t had a class with Remus King before but already knew plenty of views about him, just because his 2 friends shared different classes with him. Logan’s complaints were always regarding some form of danger or safety protocol but Patton’s were where his interest came from.

The food technology class that Patton shared with Remus did have a lot of interesting assignments getting set at various times, including making savoury ice creams near the time of the open evenings so they could, essentially, prank the children wondering if this would be a good school for them to come to next. Patton had somehow managed to make one that tasted delicious but Virgil still couldn’t work out if the flavour combination he’d been told Remus made only sounded disgusting or actually tasted horrible too.

“Dude, surely the teach would have stopped him if it was that dangerous.” Virgil just couldn’t be bothered to add something more to his list of reasons not to trust the teachers. It was already too long for his comfort and Logan was never one to help.

Patton at least caught onto that and came up with a subject to divert their conversation onto for the rest of their break.

/\/\

The next time Virgil thought about Remus was a few days later as their lunch break ended and he was heading into the science block for his physics class. Patton hadn’t made it out to lunch that day since his food technology class was either side of it so they’d have more time for the practical lessons.

It at least made the corridor Virgil was passing down smell delightfully of chocolate but he was far more interested in, and slightly terrified by, the boy kicking the door of the food tech classroom open, storming down the classroom, yelling “It’s knife work! What about that can’t be turned into uses for a weapon? What planet are you from that blades and any work from them isn’t two steps from a use to attack or torture another!”

One last thought Virgil had about Remus was that his friends were disasters at describing what any human looked like. According to Logan, the boy had obviously dyed his hair and ignored any attempt his parents or brother made to teach him personal hygiene. Patton was a little kinder, saying Remus had a lovely wide grin and energetic eyes, although Virgil was still trying to figure out just what that meant.

His mental image so far had been of some slightly crossed-eyed younger version of the Joker from Batman, but the boy fitting all the stories he’d heard of Remus looked nothing less than gorgeous.

“They’re from the Health and Safety state, Dude. We’re meant to have forgotten the threatening uses of knives we use in cooking unless we are the ones being threatened by them.” Virgil muttered his reply, to anxious about being noticed to say it any louder.

He still got noticed and the boy halting in front of him. “Someone in this damn school gets it! Come join us in class!” Virgil didn’t have much of a choice to disagree as his arm was grabbed and he got dragged into the classroom, sheepishly waving to Patton when the other students turned to look at the rapid return.

“Mr King, I’ve told you before that you cannot drag your friends into here even on a lunch break.” the teacher sighed, confirming Virgil’s assumption over who it was.

“I actually was heading to class anyway. There’s only like 2 minutes left before...” Virgil began explaining, tugging on his arm to get it released just as the bell went off to officially end the lunch period. “Yeah. I guess I’ll have to properly meet you some other time, Remus.”

He ducked out of the classroom before anything else could be said, letting the flow of other students heading to class calm the spiralling emotions and only just hearing “No fair, I’ll learn your name next time, Stachybotrys.” yelled after him.

If only the insane boy wasn’t proving to be exactly Virgil’s type perhaps he’d have learnt something about physics that day.

/\/\

Logan was not amused when he reached their table today. “Do either of you know if Remus means a person or the mold when he mentions Stachbotrys? I have had to argue constantly to get any progress on our study for the entirity of our class.”

“I met him for like two minutes. That should not be enough time for him to have anything to say about me.” Virgil growled, hunching back into his hoodie.

“He met Virgil while trying to storm out of food tech yesterday. Apparently our anxious bean muttered something in agreement of what he was yelling about knives.” Patton added what more he could at Logan’s raised eyebrow.

At least amusement was replacing Logan’s frustration now, a smile clearly being held back. “At least I didn’t try suggesting he locates the mold on rice then. Remus does seem rather insistent that and I’m paraphrasing here, he’s going to find and make his the Stachbotrys that is all he could think of last night.”

There aren’t quite words for everything Virgil wanted to say to that, so in the attempt he let out a rather strangled noise, burying his head in his arms. He could take having a crush on a complete whirlwind maniac who seemed to drive both his friends up the wall but having even the merest suggestion the affections could be returned was too much to understand.

“If he brings it up next time we share class I’ll suggest visiting the library to look up the subject, shall I?” Logan offered. Virgil made a mental note that there had now been 3 instances of teasing pushed too much by the boy who insisted he only ever acted logically.

/\/\

“I don’t need to read about mold but my science partner has decided if I’m going to talk about my Stachybotrys so much our experiments can easily be adjusted to focus on mold.” Remus’s voice was loud as he marched over to the helpdesk in the library and Virgil was just grateful he had decided to read at one of the tables hidden among the shelves while waiting for his lift to arrive. “Apparently that means I do need books to source the information I already know so which shelves am I looking for?”

Definitely not the area Virgil was in. The shelves near him included cultures of the world, and how to books for various creative hobbies. The only thing that seemed even remotely likely to interest Remus were the history of war books near the end of the isle but they didn’t connect to mold at all.

Virgil’s reasoning and frantic checking that he could hopefully avoid the other boy distracted him enough that he didn’t realise Remus looking through the shelves opposite him. “Stachybotrys! I found you again!” He couldn’t miss the exclamation though.

“Didn’t realise we were playing hide and seek. I thought I was writing an essay for English Lit.” Virgil hissed back, really not wanting to give the librarian any cause to kick him out.

“Ooh, what’s it on? And what’s your name? You’ve been on my mind like a mold and it would be nice to have the right name for the newest mold I’ve encountered.” Remus clearly didn’t care about making some noise although he did quiet down dramatically when he saw how uncomfortable the noise was making Virgil.

“I’m Virgil though I’m fairly sure you’ve already got my friends convinced Stachybotrys should just be a nickname for me now.” He was actually annoyed at that.

Patton always butchered the word, and would only try to use it when mentioning how besotted he thought Remus was since the only diversion of subject in their food tech class recently had been how the molds of different foods could make people sick or kill them.

Logan on the other hand would just randomly use the name for Virgil in the hopes Remus would be somewhere close by to hear him. That had never worked since Virgil was either in class, outside to eat or in the library.

Remus peered at him a little. “Still fits though. You definitely appear like a threat but ultimately leaving the world undecided over how dangerous you are. So assuming Logan’s one of your friends, who is the other I’ve got calling you it? And do they think I have a chance at dating you?”

“Patton and are you seriously asking me if my friends think you should ask me out? Dude, if you want to date me just ask me if I want to go on a date. Or is being ridiculously convoluted a game of yours?” Virgil scolded, shaking his head, trying to decide if there was some kind of mind game happening in the moment or not.

“Okay then, Date me, Emo kid! We can go ravage a farm search for signs of mold and decay among all their crops and end with a picnic of snacks I invented recipes for in class!” Remus just shrugged at the tone, moving on to what was requested of him,

That was even further from Virgil’s expectations of the response than Logan saying Remus was set on finding him had been. Most people were at least a little put off by how harshly he reacted whe uncertain of situations. “Can we start with the food? My brain will just panic over how I could die from being close to mold and then eating if we do it your way round.”

“Of course we can. Let’s meet at Gorse Hill farm at like 2pm on Saturday for our date then!” Remus jumped up from his spot then, a wild grin on his face as he waved, heading off. “Can’t wait for it, Stachbotrys.”

#dukexietyweek2020 #dukexiety #remus sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #high school au

82 notes · View notes

another-stark-sub · 5 years

Text

Interruption - Tony Stark Imagine

Summary: You interrupt your fiance’s research, and Tony loves you for it. Natasha just had to call him in the middle of it all.

Warnings: no actual sex, more fluff than smut really, mentions of bondage, little bit of exhibitionism

Word Count: 2044

Being Tony’s fiancee came with weird moments. First off, he was the Iron Man, one of the legendary Avengers who saved the world, and sometimes the universe, on a weekly or monthly basis. So, you had your fair share of poisonous experiments locked in the house or random robots appearing. And you wish you were lying when you said one time you found a rock alien Tony forgot to tell you he was housing in the kitchen.

However, what was before you was still weird. Not superhero weird, just weird, and very out of character.

Your fiance had been holed up in the lab for more than many hours. You let the first ten hours slide, but when sunrise was approaching, you had decided it was time for some sleep.

And when you were at the lab’s doorway, you saw Tony talking to one of his suits. Not too weird. That was a common thing to see in the Stark household. But, what was odd was that Tony was on his knees, on one of the throw pillows that had gone missing months ago, and his hands were tied in an intricate knot.

“Ok, now pull that,” Tony instructed.

The suit pulled.

“Harder.”

It pulled Tony forward enough that if he moved a little bit, he’d definitely fall, face flat on the ground. Tony hummed and said, “Now, wipe the knot’s instructions from memory and try to untie it. Friday, time it, please.”

“Yes, boss.”

Baffled, you called out, “Tony?”

He turned to you and smiled. “Hey, honey. Just lemme get out of this, and I’ll be in bed soon.”

You scoffed. “You can’t kick me out of here, not when I’ve seen that.” You crossed your arms and sighed. “Uh, what is this, anyway?”

Tony opened his mouth just as Friday interrupted, “Twenty-three and a fourth.”

Tony inhaled through his teeth. “Ok, considering human error, twenty-eight, nine-ish seconds. Add it to the list, Friday. I’ll work on it later. Note that scissors might need to be used.”

You blinked a few times. “Would it be dumb of me to ask what you’re working on?”

His attention was back on you, and with a warm smile, he approached you and held your hands. “Never dumb.” He kissed your forehead and caressed your cheek before explaining, “I’ve been trying to see what knots we could use next time, but I don’t think I like any of the ones I’ve found.”

“Knots?” You laughed a little. “Like during sex, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“And what are you testing?” You didn’t really have a preference, honestly. You were just fond of bondage. Did Tony just prefer some ways to tie you up?

“Different things. Oh!” Tony let go of your hands and held them up above his head. “Friday, take a picture and record it under effects.”

“Done and filed away.”

“Thank you.”

You gasped and took his hands in yours again. Examining his wrists, yellow-ish purple bruises were already forming from the rope. “Your wrists.” You sighed. “Shouldn’t you be keeping these things safe, for superhero-ing and inventing? Not for BDSM trials?”

“Well, I need to make sure it doesn’t cause you too much pain.”

Just like that, your heart swelled. “You’re testing different knots for, well, for me?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Gotta make sure that my girl’s gonna be ok when I fuck her senseless, right?” With a swipe of his hand, the other still holding yours, a hologram popped up in front of you two. It resembled an excel spreadsheet. A name, a picture of the knot, description, time to tie, time to untie, both adjusted for human error, a picture of Tony’s various bruises from it. “See, I need to make sure I can tie it, that I can untie it if we don’t like it, see how much it hurts you or not.”

He kept babbling on, saying how it was important for him to know how it feels and to make sure you were safe, but you only heard part of it. You heard enough of it, because damn, your fiance was never more sexy in your eyes. And not only was he doing this for your safety and pleasure, but he was also doing it because your safety made him happy.

How were you so lucky? A wonderful man, a genius, a hero was your fiance. He shared your kinks, respected the rules you two agreed upon, and went out of his way to make sure that the things that restrained you in the bedroom were things that wouldn’t hurt you when you didn’t want it to.

So, in the middle of his rant, something about the technicalities of it all, you grabbed his face and kissed him.

Tony pulled away from you, his forehead still resting on yours. “Not that I’m objecting, but what?”

You laughed. “Cause you’re too good for me, and I think” -you bit your lip- “you deserve some sort of gift for that.” Before he could object or argue or say you were too good for him, you pulled him closer to you and kissed him, softer and sweeter, and when his hands finally held your hips, you hummed and asked, “Bedroom?” Plus, after some laborious exercise, he might sleep at a semi-appropriate hour.

“What’s wrong with here, sweetheart?” He mumbled against your lips. He kissed you again, his hands roaming down to squeeze your ass before lifting you up and wrapping your thighs around his waist.

Just as he set you down on one of the lab tables, Friday’s voice pierced the air, “Ms. Romanoff is-”

“Put her on hold,” he told him. Tony moved to kiss your neck, and you moaned. You tangled your fingers in his hair, already drowning in the feeling of his lips on your skin and his body between your legs.

“She insists that it’s urgent.”

Tony didn’t say anything. He just smiled at you and kissed you.

Natasha was calling him, insisting it was urgent. It must’ve been important. “Tony,” you mumbled.

“Yeah?” He went back to litter kisses on your neck and collarbone. Your button-up shirt was already being undone, and the part of you wanted to push him away so he could take that call was silenced. His lips were insistent and that nonchalant attitude was intoxicating. Plus there was a heat building in you, and if you stopped now you’d be dissatisfied. You didn’t want that.

“Ms. Romanoff says she has Vision with her, and she will disable me if you don’t patch her through.”

Tony paused. He gazed up at you, in awe of how flushed you were just from a few of his kisses.

You had to blink a few times, too focused on Tony’s chest moving up and down, so out of breath from kissing you and touching you. His hair was messy from your tugging and gripping, a few strands falling onto his forehead. Subtly, his hips went from lightly touching you to pressing up against you.

Shaking your head and closing your eyes, you said, “Take the call.” You took a deep breath and reached for your shirt, but Tony stopped you. He smiled and leaned in close before pressing a kiss against your lips. “Stay.”

“Tony-”

He shook his head. “Stay.” He kissed you again and continued to unbutton your shirt until it was all undone. “Friday,” he said between kisses, “patch her through, videochat.”

Shocked, you pushed him away from you, just enough so his lips weren’t sealed against yours. “Tony, what-”

He silenced you with another kiss. His hand went to your thigh, caressing it and hooking it around his waist so he could grind his hard-on into you.

“Tony.” Natasha’s voice came through, void of any emotion.

Tony pulled away from you. With a smile, he swiped thumb past your bottom lip, admiring how swollen they were.

You heard Natasha’s voice, you did, but with Tony in front of you with that damn smirk of his and his thumb gently grazing over your lip, you had no intention of listening to her. It was too hard to listen to her. Too drunk on him and his touch and too tired of holding yourself back, once his touch left your lips, you surged forward, aiming for a kiss.

Tony gave him, kissing you once before telling his teammate, “A bit busy here, Red.” Your fiance pressed his lips against yours and moaned loudly. Whether it was because he was that pleased by you or because he wanted to piss Natasha off, you didn’t care. You just pulled him closer, desperate to keep kissing him.

“You need to come in. We’re in need of your expertise, and Shuri’s out on another assignment.”

“Banner,” Tony mumbled against you.

“Off planet.”

As he moved to kiss your neck again, he said, “Kid’s smart.”

“On vacation.”

“Keener.” Finally, his hand came up to squeeze your tits over your bra.

“Tony!” you moaned.

Natasha rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had to witness the two of you like this. “Harley’s currently taking a three-hour exam.”

He growled. More frustrated at his fellow geniuses than you. Because, god, you looked divine. He pulled your bra down and latched his lips onto your nipple and sucked.

You threw your head back, trying to catch your breath, and whined.

“Tony, you think I’d interrupt the two of you if it wasn’t important? Riri and Shuri and both out on missions, and Vision hasn’t been able to do it.” Natasha groaned. Her eye twitched, and she pulled a card she rarely pulled. “So, has your fiancee seen the previous versions of her ring yet?”

You squinted at the screen, half your attention still on the pleasure Tony was giving you. “What, ah, previous versions?” You smiled, dazed.

Tony groaned against your chest. “Baby,” he whined. He nipped at your nipple, and although he got a gasp from you, you still were thinking about your ring. The one he proposed with was your dream, not too gaudy, not too simple either, and crafted and designed by Tony, but there were previous versions?

You smiled at Tony and, even though you still craved his touch and the heat of his love, your daydreams of Tony working his ass off to build a perfect ring turned to reason, and reason won out. With a soft giggle, you reached out for your fiance. The poor thing had rested his chin on your chest, pouting.

“You’ve got a job, Tone.”

“So?”

You buttoned up your shirt.

“What? No, please,” he whined, reaching for your hands.

You slapped him away and finished the last button. “Don’t worry.” You jumped off the lab table and kissed his cheek. “We will resume later. I need to thank you for being so good to me after all.” You nodded to the suit in the corner. “Go.”

Tony sighed. He readjusted his pants and kissed you quickly. “Love you.” He turned to the monitor. “Hate you.” And just like that, he was suiting up.

Natasha laughed. “Ah, my life’s complete. Sending you coordinates.”

“Will do.” He stopped his mask from covering his face to say to you, “Wait for me?”

“No promises.”

He smiled. “Good.” With a wink, his mask came on, the exit from the lab to the outside opened, and he was off.

You turned to the monitor and crossed your arms. “I expect to see whatever previous designs he showed you.”

“Will do.” The agent sighed. “Would it be too much to ask to have you two act professionally sometimes?”

You shrugged. “Me, not much at all.” You laughed. “It’s Tony you gotta convince.”

Natasha tilted her head. “I’m pretty sure you’d be hard to convince, too.”

You shrugged. “What can I say? I am Tony’s girl after all.” You flashed her a smile before hanging up. With a thoughtful hum, you said, “Friday, send a message to Tony for me, please. Tell him” -that familiar heat you ignored was steadily coming back- “that I’m starting without him.”

“He wouldn’t like that.”

You were practically bounding up the stairs to your bedroom, some toys you could use already in mind. “Planning on it.”

“Ah, I see. Message sent.”

“Thank you, Friday!”

641 notes · View notes

charmmycolour · 4 years

Text

About Jumba

I was encouraged to talk about my thing even if people gets a little annoyed. I’m just very passionate about this topic right now.

So, can we talk a little (more) about Jumba and Pleakley?

I have tons of rants on my head, but now I would like to talk specifically about the episode Spike, which is canonically the last episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series (Link being the only one that could be argued happens later, but that’s for another day). Spike have two very interesting moments regarding Jumba’s development, and both are connected to Pleakley.

Its also the episode where Pleakley have to take spikes from Jumba’s ass and doesn’t even flinch, so make what you want of that.

So anyway, why Spike? Because in Spike, we have this interaction:

Which doesn’t seem to have anything particularly exciting going on, except this is the FIRST and ONLY time Jumba takes the time to clarify he’s kidding on his own. Jumba likes to tease people and being very ambiguous about it. He does not care how others react to his jokes: you either get his dark humor or you get offended, and he’s fine with both. Jumba is a mad genius scientist after all, he doesn’t care about social etiquette.

But here, he knows Pleakley could take him seriously because he’s sensitive and, for the first time, Jumba cares. He makes the correction by himself when Pleakley looks annoyed, even when in the past Jumba had said far worse things to him and never apologized. He know Pleakley is used to his comments and knows he’s kidding, and yet still makes the effort to care.

Jumba’s evolution during the series had been remarkable at this point. It’s very subtle and very slow, specially compared to the other characters, but it’s there. From the man that in Stitch! The Movie insisted he didn’t had a family, to a caring father figure that is constantly protecting his family, even at his own risk. Jumba puts Pleakley behind him when facing a new experiment, carries Lilo around to protect her with his body and tries to improve the security for his ohana over and over again.

But he didn’t use to be like that in the first movie, not even most of the first season. Jumba was mostly just enjoying the chaos his experiments were doing. He slowly gets attached to his family and starts worrying for them.

However, with Pleakley, it goes a step further. Even much later in Leroy & Stitch whe Jumba doesn’t accept the key to his old lab because Lilo is sad, he’s the one with more doubts and almost changes his opinion a couple times. Jumba doesn’t care much for feelings, it’s such a strange world for him, he struggles to be considerate with other’s emotions.

And yet, he let’s Pleakley know (and only Pleakley) that he’s joking to not hurt his feelings.

Jumba have banter with everyone, but it’s only Pleakley he makes a genuine effort to understand and control his comments with.

And this brings me to the second interesting part on Spike. After Stitch becomes stupid thanks to the experiment, Jumba comments he would take a while to recover and this happens:

He scolds himself for laughing. And that it’s big on itself, because Jumba doesn’t really think laughing at evil things is bad. A recurring joke on the series is Jumba giggling at the doings of his evil experiments, only for others (almost always Lilo) to make him correct himself. Jumba usually fix his words after a glare of a comment, and often it’s a half-baked apology. He doesn’t stop by himself.

Well, except two times.

One is the above example. In Spike, his scolding is playful, and Jumba doesn’t stop smiling when he mentions he shouldn’t laugh. He’s not worried.

The other is this one:

It’s different, and a lot earlier. This scene belongs to Poxy, and Jumba is explaining to Lilo that Pleakley have an experiment inside and will be terribly sick and in danger of Gantu attacking him. His first evil genius instinct is laugh, of course, and he’s delighted with the prospect. But Jumba corrects himself almost immediately, alone.

And it’s interesting Jumba doesn’t keep smiling. Instead he shows regret, confusion, he looks even a little embarrassed; and its hard to say its because he laughed or because he stopped laughing. Either way, he clearly is not accustomed to care, and it takes him by surprise.

The first set of images belong to the first time Jumba openly cares about the feelings of another person, who turns to be Pleakley. In this last one, is the first time Jumba openly cares about the safety of another person, who turns to be Pleakley.

During the series and the movies, Jumba is slowly opening his heart, and I think it’s pretty clear whose fault is that.

#Lilo and Stitch #Lilo and Stitch series #lilo and stitch rant #lilo and stitch opinion #jumba jookiba #wendy pleakley #jumba and pleakley #thoughts

84 notes · View notes

ladylynse · 5 years

Text

Hey, folks, not sure if writing a bonus chapter of my Star-centric reveal fic Helpless counts for DP Side Hoes Week since it’s not a new fic, but I’m going to pretend it does. (This can be read on its own if you go off the starting point of Star already knowing Danny’s secret.)

Gathering for a training session was supposed to be a good thing. A simple thing. Straightforward. Except nothing’s really straightforward anymore, and Star’s not sure why she ever thought it would be. [FF | AO3]

-|-

“Why are they here?” Danny hissed to her, unable to hide his nervousness as he peered around the corner of the school at Paulina, Dash, Kwan, and Valerie. Valerie was the only one prepared—she was already doing stretches, while Paulina was just using a compact to touch up her makeup and Dash and Kwan were arm-wrestling on the bleachers—but that wasn’t the point.

The point was that Star had invited them all to the football field, to meet on one of the rare Thursday nights when Valerie didn’t have to work, and they had all come. That already spoke volumes, whatever Fenton thought.

Star crossed her arms. “Because I asked them to come. Because they all need a training session, too. And because you brought enough weapons with you, anyway, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but only because you said you wanted to try different stuff, and….” Danny trailed off and set the box he was carrying on the ground. The others would know Danny was here if they looked over and saw her standing where she was, but he was mostly hidden by the corner of the school. If he decided to bolt, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. He wasn’t afraid to use his powers in front of her now, providing he thought no one else would notice. “Seriously, Valerie does not need to be here. She has better aim than most people.”

“Which you know how, from watching her toss stuff into the garbage can from halfway across the room?”

Danny didn’t answer, but that was fine. Star didn’t really want an answer. She hadn’t pushed Valerie on that front, and she hadn’t really pushed Danny, either, aside from a bit of pointed needling. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to know the truth yet.

The fact that Danny was Phantom, that Paulina had a crush on the kid she routinely called a loser, that Dash idolized the guy he shoved into a locker almost every day, that Valerie had dated Danny despite ranting about Phantom at every opportunity, was more than enough to take in.

If Danny didn’t want to tell them his secret, fine. Whatever. She wouldn’t tell them either. But letting himself be bullied to this extent for the sake of invisibility was just stupid. Maybe it was being a halfa, maybe it was being a teenager, but he did not have the sense of self-preservation he claimed to have. Star had seen social suicide more than once, and this was definitely it.

You could still not draw attention to yourself without being the school punching bag.

Frankly, she’d argue that Danny would draw less attention to himself if he wasn’t always being picked on and showing no physical signs of it. Really, if he could be slammed into the street so hard that it formed a crater and he didn’t even bruise, being shoved into a locker wasn’t going to leave any marks. And it didn’t. Nothing she’d seen did, at least not for any length of time. Eventually, someone else would notice, and that would be the attention he claimed to not want.

Of course, when she tried telling that to him, he didn’t listen.

“Look,” Danny said quietly, “I’m fine with showing you some stuff, but they’ll…. They’ll have questions. And Dash will shoot me with something. You know he will. I’ll just pretend to get sick and—”

“Stuff it, Fenton, you’re doing this.” He blinked at her, and Star rolled her eyes. “Seriously. It’s not going to blow your secret. Trust me, no one is going to put that together without more clues than the fact that you know how to use the stuff your parents invent. Which is totally normal, seeing as they’re your parents. Besides, if you were this freaked out by the very idea of anyone seeing you as a semi-competent ghost hunter, you’d have never led us all when we fought to get our parents back. You even said yourself that you know how to work all their gear. It’s not like that’s going to be a new revelation.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it.

She smirked. “Let me carry that box for you, and you can go back to pretending to be a weakling. Want me to tell them Jazz dropped you off?”

“They’re not going to ask,” Danny muttered, but he helped her pick up the box of weaponry—which was good, because it was heavier than it looked. She grunted and shifted its weight, trying to get a better grip. The last thing she wanted to do was drop this and set something off.

Even knowing what she did, it was hard to remember that Fenton was really strong—especially compared to what she’d seen him do in gym class, which was practically pathetic by anyone’s standards. Sure, she didn’t expect everyone to be able to climb a rope, but he couldn’t run for thirty seconds before gasping for air. For someone who fought a lot, he was really unfit.

Of course, that might be because he spent most of his time flying and phasing and not running and dodging like the rest of them. Or at least not dodging as much as the rest of them, since she’d seen him dodge, and his quick reflexes spoke for themselves. Granted, they all had the chance to hide, and he didn’t.

But all too often, hiding meant being cornered, and being cornered meant being helpless, and she wasn’t doing that again.

Which was why they were doing this.

Besides, Danny owed her for keeping this a secret. Well, technically, either they were even or she owed him for saving her life more than once, but he thought he owed her, and she wasn’t going to correct that assumption.

“Fenton’s here, you guys,” Star called as they got closer. Danny was doing a remarkable job of trying to hide behind her, keeping well out of Dash’s reach without making it overly obvious that that’s exactly what he was doing. Really, she’d never realized how good he was at that kind of thing.

Star dumped the box unceremoniously on the bleachers, unable to hold it any longer, and winced at the clink and clatter of the weapons inside. Luckily, nothing exploded. She glanced over her shoulder at Danny. “What’d you bring?”

“Just a variety of stuff,” he mumbled, edging around her towards the box.

Dash beat him to it. “Outta my way, Fenturd,” he said. He tossed a couple of ecto-guns towards Kwan and kept rummaging. “I don’t see that bazooka thing in here.”

“It’s not a beginner’s weapon.”

Dash rounded on Danny. “You think I can’t handle it?”

Danny’s eye twitched. “It’s best for everyone to start off small.”

“I told him to bring more compact stuff,” Star put in before Dash could get out the retort that had to be on the tip of his tongue. She peeked into the box, spotting a small cylinder which had rolled into the back corner. “Seriously, Fenton? I told you the lipstick laser thing was a bad idea.”

“Ooh, I want that one,” Paulina said, finally putting her compact away and coming over. “Make up is the best weapon a girl can have!”

Star bit her tongue and handed the weapon to Paulina. She couldn’t contradict her in front of everyone and expect to remain friends. Besides, she was pretty sure the whole point of the Fenton Lipstick thing was to make a weapon that was easy to carry around and to hide. In Paulina’s case—and even in her own, if she trusted herself a bit more—it would work perfectly.

Danny claimed these weapons didn’t actually harm humans, but she was pretty sure he was a halfa because of some lab accident—can’t just have been contaminated food if he was the only one out of the whole family affected—so she didn’t put too much stock in any of the so-called safety features of these things.

Still.

There were enough ghosts around that she was willing to take the risk.

Of course, Dash and Kwan were already shooting at each other with ecto-guns and trying to dodge the blasts, so she should find out soon enough how detrimental it was for a human to be hit.

“Is that a whip?” Valerie asked, raising an eyebrow at Danny as she looked up from the box.

“Jack-o’-nine-tails. You’ve probably seen my dad using it. It’s, um, a little more advanced than some of the other stuff. Not really point and shoot, I mean, but if you can get a ghost—”

“I’ll play around with it,” she said, scooping it out of the box and heading to the far corner of the football field, well away from Paulina and Dash and Kwan.

“You thought I’d be good with a whip?” Star asked, not bothering to hide her smirk.

“You’re a cheerleader,” Danny muttered. “You have to have a good arm. Here,” he said, abruptly changing the subject by pulling a baton-like weapon out of the box and handing it to her. “This is Mom’s latest version of the Fenton Utility Weapon. It’s similar to the version you used on the pirate ship, but it can do a lot more stuff. If you don’t like that, try the wrist ray. That’s Sam’s favourite.”

Star pressed a button on the side, and a green light shot out of the top like a light saber. Danny jerked back, narrowly avoiding the beam. “Sorry,” Star said. “I didn’t know it was going to do that.”

“Press that button again,” he said. She did, and the light vanished. “Now grab it at the top and twist. Just, like, half a turn. Point it away from me and press the button.”

This time, something like a cattle prod shot out of the end and crackled with electricity.

“You can experiment with it; there are a bunch of different settings, but the button is always the main on/off activation. Press and hold it to activate the safety when you’re done. I’ll, uh, I guess I’ll set up some targets and see if I can convince the others to actually use them.”

“I didn’t invite everyone just to mess with you. You know that, right?” Danny avoided looking at her, so Star added, “I figured you’d say no if I asked.”

“So you did it anyway? I told you, I don’t want to stand out in a crowd.”

“That’s not what this is about. It’s…. Danny, you’ll always be able to fight back against ghosts. You’re a weapon; the only extra stuff you need to carry with you is a thermos. Do you even remember what it’s like to feel helpless?”

He snorted. “Of course I do. Being the kid no one pays attention to is great, since it’s easier for me to sneak away, but sometimes I can’t use my powers. Case and point, the last time you used something like that.”

Star frowned. “You practically equipped the entire class. How exactly were you helpless?”

“Fine, so maybe that’s not the best example. But even when we were stuck in detention together, I couldn’t really fight back until you were out of the room.” He hesitated. “And, I mean, yeah, in hindsight, pushing you through the floor might not have been the smartest idea, especially when I didn’t know what you were going to fall onto, but I’m still not great at clones. The point is, my hands are tied if someone who doesn’t know my secret is right there, watching me, and all the ghosts know it. Including some of the ones I haven’t run into before, apparently.”

There was a yelp from the middle of the field, followed by Paulina’s indignant, “Watch where you’re pointing those! You almost messed up my hair.”

Star wasn’t entirely surprised that Dash’s response was more laughter than apology.

“Yeah, okay, but believe it or not, these guys? And me, obviously? Always helpless in a ghost attack. No defense. It’s basically run, hide, hunker down, and hope someone—you, the Red Huntress, even your parents—comes along and saves us. And it sucks. A lesson in how to use your parents’ stuff might not stop Dash from whaling on you, but if he decides to buy something—”

“He’s just going to keep that ecto-gun. You know that, right?”

“—then he’ll have a way to fight back and defend himself. That assurance is invaluable.”

“He took the net-gun, too. Neither of those is invaluable.”

Star growled. “Fine. You’re not happy. I get it. I’m sorry for thinking I could help my friends.” Sarcasm wasn’t a good point to end this conversation on, not when he was helping her, so she added, “Thanks for not backing out when you saw them.” She couldn’t keep her annoyance and exasperation out of her tone, but it was marginally better than saying nothing.

“I promised you a weapon. And they would’ve found out you had one sooner rather than later.” He shrugged. “It might be better this way.”

Great, now she felt horrible for overreacting. Star took a deep breath, let it out, and then said, “Yeah. But I’m sorry. Really. I should’ve run it by you.”

“Trust me, this is not the worst surprise I’ve gotten in my life.” He grinned at her. “See if you can find all the weapons in that. My last count is twelve, but I don’t know if I’ve found them all, either.”

Danny ran off to try to convince Dash and Kwan not to shoot at each other—or maybe to tell Paulina not to try to use the laser to scorch a picture into the grass—and Star couldn’t help but laugh. It was just….

Even with all he put up with as Fenton, even with all he did as Phantom, he was still nice enough to take the time out of his night to make good on a promise to her. She knew Dash’s opinion wasn’t going to change overnight and that he’d have Danny in a locker tomorrow, given the opportunity. She knew Paulina would sneer at him and call him a loser even if she never relinquished the lipstick weapon. She knew Kwan wasn’t going to see this as anything but a bit of fun—bonus points if a lot of it came at Danny’s expense, most likely.

But she also knew it could be a start, and he couldn’t even see that.

Star jogged closer to Valerie—not near enough to be within range of the whip, which Val seemed to be getting the hang of very quickly, but near enough that she was sufficiently far enough away from the other three. Danny was right; Valerie was good, even with a weapon she hadn’t used before, and the others…. Well, not so much. But that might just be because they lacked focus.

That and Valerie’s black belt training, since that probably helped somehow, albeit not necessarily when it came to using a new weapon.

Star tried multiple combinations of movement on the puzzle box that was the Fenton Utility Weapon. She’d found five more weapons—pole extension, machete-like blade, mini grappling hook, electrified whip, and what was presumably a phase-proof weighted net—when she heard Dash and Kwan cheering, followed by Paulina’s trilling laugh.

Somehow, it didn’t come as a surprise to see Danny entangled in the net-gun’s phase-proof net.

It certainly couldn’t be the first time he’d been caught in one, but he could hardly get out of it using his ghost powers, and the fact that Dash was beginning to jog around and drag him meant he couldn’t get out the way anyone else might, either.

Star ran over. “Cut it out, you guys. Fenton’s helping us.”

“It’s fine,” Kwan said. “We’re training.”

Dash grinned as he ran past her. “Yeah, Fentoenail’s the ghost, and we need to wear him down.”

Right now, all they were doing was covering Danny’s clothes with grass stains as he tried and failed to wrestle free. If he wasn’t so resilient, he’d end up with a bad friction burn, but as it was….

“Don’t worry about it,” Paulina said as Dash passed Danny to Kwan. “They’re just having some fun.”

Danny was right. She shouldn’t have invited them. She didn’t even know how to make them stop. They weren’t going to listen to her, especially if Paulina was on their side.

She still had to try, though. “C’mon,” Star yelled at them, “Fenton’s doing us a favour! Don’t you wanna be able to do something the next time a ghost attacks instead of just running away?”

She could see that Danny had set up targets at the far end of the field. She could also see that they hadn’t been used. At least, she was guessing that the scorch marks in the grass were from when the weapons had been aimed at him, not at the targets, since they were similar to the ones left earlier and, well, since they led away from the actual targets. Dash and Kwan should have decent aim, and even Paulina….

“This was a stupid idea, wasn’t it?” Star said to Paulina when no one answered. “The only one who’s getting anything out of this is me. And Valerie, I guess.” Star glanced over her shoulder to see what Valerie was doing—surely she’d try to step up to help Fenton? They were still friends—only to realize that Valerie was no longer there.

“What are you talking about?” Paulina said. “I’ve got this cool new lipstick weapon. I can’t wait to show the ghost boy. I’m going to ask him to teach me to use it, and we’ll spend so much time together, and—”

A high-pitched scream cut Paulina off. Dash. He and Kwan had stopped dragging Danny and were instead running back towards her and Paulina, and behind them—

“Yes, you should run, whelps,” Skulker said, levelling a pair of missile launchers at them. “I am the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter. My reputation should precede me.”

He’s baiting Danny. Star didn’t know why it surprised her. He was ignoring Danny for now, focusing on them to force Danny into action. Taking him while he was strapped in the net would be cheating, not just easy prey. But as long as they were there, Danny couldn’t—

“C’mon, Star, move,” Paulina grabbed her hand and pulled, and Star obediently started running.

She was always running.

She hated running.

“I…I can’t….” How could she say this and not completely lose her social standing in Paulina’s eyes? “It’s my fault Fenton’s here. I’ve gotta help him. You guys hide.”

“It’s just Fenton,” Paulina hissed, tugging her harder as Star tried to slow. “He’ll be fine. He always is. Besides, he brought all those weapons. He has to know how to use them.”

“He needs to get out of the net first.” She jerked her hand free. “Just hide. I’ll find you as soon as I cut him free.”

“The ghost boy can help him.”

The ghost boy was him. Danny might be able to get free easily enough once the others were gone, but if something slowed him down—

“It’s my fault he’s here,” Star said again, and then she turned and started running the other way. Paulina shouted after her, but when Star finally looked back, Paulina was rounding the corner of the school.

Dash and Kwan would be able to keep her safe. They still had an ecto-gun, maybe two, between them. And Paulina still had the lipstick weapon. Valerie…. Star didn’t even know where Valerie was. Somewhere safe, probably, having spotted the ghost and run in a different direction? Except, if she’d seen the ghost, wouldn’t she have said something? Or, more accurately, screamed something?

Star tried to remember what combination would yield the knife on the Fenton Utility Weapon. When she wound up on something that looked like garden shears, she deemed it good enough and kept running, holding the weapon out to one side in case she tripped.

She was not exactly inconspicuous, and it wasn’t long before she was back to wondering if she was even sane. Skulker was pointing the weapons at her now, and she was still running towards them, and Danny—

Why wasn’t Danny freezing or blasting his way out of the net?

Why hadn’t he transformed?

Why was he just sitting there?

What the heck was he waiting f—?

A blast of pink energy hit Skulker’s form. Star ducked on instinct, despite still being over ten feet away, and only looked up again when she heard the Red Huntress speak. “Hey, ghost scum, scram or see what it’s like to face a real hunter!”

Star scrambled forward, closing the distance between her and Danny while the Red Huntress distracted the ghost. “Why the heck didn’t you transform or try to get away?” she hissed as she made a clumsy attempt to cut him free. “We’re lucky the Red Huntress showed up when she did!”

“Lucky,” Danny said flatly. “Yeah. That’s one way of putting it.” He took the Fenton Utility Weapon from her shaking hands and cut himself free. That was just as well; she could see at a glance that there was no way either of them could untangle the knot by hand, not when it was pulled that tight, and she couldn’t blame him for not wanting to use his ice powers in front of the Red Huntress.

He collapsed the weapon, handed it back to her, and crawled free. “Keep low,” he said, as if she planned to do anything else while Skulker and the Red Huntress traded blows practically on top of them.

She followed him to the bleachers. As cover went, it was barely better than nothing. “Why aren’t you going to help?” she whispered. “Even if you don’t want to transform here, you can run off and—”

“She can handle this one,” Danny said, nodding in the direction of the Red Huntress. “She’s a good shot, and I don’t want to push my luck.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I don’t want her to realize that there are two ghosts here. It’s not exactly a secret that she hates Phantom.”

Star frowned. “Why didn’t…?” Maybe she shouldn’t ask. Maybe she shouldn’t press him. But, given what she knew, his inaction seemed at odds with the way he usually went about trying to save them all. “I don’t get it. This is a ghost. I know the Red Huntress is here now, but you couldn’t have known she was coming. Why not just free yourself once we were all running away? You know no one’s going to look back until after they hope they’re out of sight.”

Danny shrugged. “Cameras?” He didn’t even try to sound particularly convinced.

“Fenton, c’mon. Remember how I said I wasn’t stupid?”

He sighed, looking utterly unconcerned by the firefight going on in the air barely twenty feet away. “Look, the Red Huntress has a way to detect ghosts. It’s, like, a smaller, way more inconspicuous version of Mom and Dad’s Fenton Finder. And it’s accurate. And when it goes off, if she can get away to help, she does. So I wasn’t surprised to see her turn up.”

Star stared at him. “You can’t know that she wasn’t busy. That she was close. You just…. You can’t. Which makes you not trying to save our butts kinda dangerous, don’t you think? Just because you handed us all weapons ten minutes ago, doesn’t mean we have a clue how to use them effectively. I couldn’t even….” She waved the Fenton Utility Weapon around vaguely. “This kind of thing takes practice. More practice than five seconds.”

He had the nerve to smile at her. “Glad you recognize that. Do you think you want to stick with that weapon or try a different one? Like I said, Sam—”

“Danny. I’m serious. I don’t…. Even if you weren’t really hurt by Skulker’s weapons, we could’ve been. The Red Huntress….” Star trailed off, watching as the hunter in question pulled out a thermos of her own—not a Fenton Thermos, despite the obvious similarities—and captured Skulker. “She’s not always going to be there. And neither are you. Which is why I want to learn something. But I can’t…. If you planned this, if you talked to Skulker and the Red Huntress and—”

“Wait, hold on, you seriously think I planned this?” Danny looked incredulous. “Star, I don’t plan ghost attacks. I don’t stage anything to look like the good guy, whatever my parents think. And even if, for some obscure reason, I decided to try, you really think the Red Huntress would agree to help? No. Just, no. Even if I asked her as Fenton, she doesn’t trust ghosts. She’d never agree to a crazy plan like that.”

“Well, then how else can you explain being so…so nonchalant about all of this? You didn’t even look particularly worried when I came to help you out of the net!”

Danny let out a slow breath, glanced over in time to watch the Red Huntress speed away on her jet sled, and turned back to Star. “Okay. Look. I didn’t know Skulker was going to show up until a few seconds before he actually did. That’s usually all the warning I get. But I knew the Red Huntress was close. I saw her. And I know how sensitive her watch is. I knew she was going to hear it beep and then find a way to run off and come back to fight Skulker. I…I know who she is. And how dedicated she is. Even if she’d rather have a crack at Phantom, she’s not going to just let a ghost go when they’re threatening her friends—or anyone else in town.”

Star frowned. He wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying, was he? That was ridiculous. Just because he wasn’t the only classmate she had who ran off when a ghost attacked—

“Is everyone okay?”

That was Valerie’s voice.

A few seconds later, she was running around the corner of the school.

Her eyes barely scanned the football field before they zeroed in on Danny and Star, despite the fact that they were still crouched in shadow beneath the bleachers.

“Star? Danny? Are you all right?” Valerie ran closer, circling around the bleachers to meet them from the back. “Did Paulina and Dash and Kwan get away okay?”

Valerie never had liked Phantom.

“We’re fine,” Danny said. “Glad you got away safely, too.”

“You two were cutting it close,” Val said. “Star’s right; we really needed this training session. I…. Thanks for showing us your parents’ stuff, Danny.”

Danny hadn’t really shown her anything. He’d confirmed that the weapon Valerie had chosen was a whip, and she’d figured the rest out for herself. Without nearly decapitating anyone or, as far as Star had seen, even shocking herself with its electricity feature.

Like she was familiar with the weaponry, if not the weapon.

“We’re going to have to do it again,” Star murmured. She had to be wrong. This…. No. This was Valerie. Her best friend, aside from Paulina. “Might not bother to invite the others if they won’t take it seriously, though.”

Valerie rolled her eyes. “I know what you mean. They never listen to me. I was thrilled you listened to me and asked Danny to do this. I should’ve thought of that ages ago. But if we can at least get you to be able to defend yourself, we can work on the others.”

Was she pretending her extensive martial arts training was enough to give her an edge to using ghost hunting weapons, to the point that it didn’t matter that she should be completely unfamiliar with the technology?

“I, uh, vote that they don’t come if I do this again,” Danny said.

He was pretending this was normal.

He was always pretending.

So was Valerie. And, now, so was she. Even with them. Even with each other. Even….

Oh, man, should she tell Valerie her suspicions? Even if she never mentioned anything about Danny? Would that be enough to get Val to open up to her if she was right, or would it just make her brush it all off? Danny had tried to throw her off the scent, but his secret was different, and she and Valerie had always told each other everything. Which boys they kinda sorta liked, what they actually dreamed of doing when they were adults, as opposed to what they thought they’d end up doing, what they really thought about—

“I’m off Monday night,” Valerie offered. “I wouldn’t mind trying a few more of your parents’ weapons, Danny, if you’re up for this again. Just the three of us. We don’t have to tell the others, and Lancer usually doesn’t give us an awful amount of homework right away.” She glanced at Star but said to Danny, “Sam and Tucker can come instead. I mean, you’ve probably shown them this stuff already, but Star and I can use the extra help.”

Maybe this wasn’t really happening. Maybe she was just dreaming this, and she’d wake up and she’d have to live through another Thursday and then they’d get to the real training session that night, where none of this had happened.

Except Star’s heart was still thundering in her chest, and she already had a cramp in her leg from crouching in this position, and she didn’t even need to raise a hand to know that she was shaking.

“That works for me, unless I get detention or something.”

Valerie snorted. “Try not to sleep in class or miss it entirely.”

“I mean, I always try.”

“Guys.” Star didn’t realize she’d actually spoken aloud until they were both looking at her. “Another training session sounds great, really. I could definitely use it. Just…. I don’t want to plan it right this minute. I’ve got…stuff to think about.”

“Like what you’re going to say to Paulina if she broke a nail and blames you?” Valerie asked. Star shot her a look, and she relented. “Okay, okay, I might still be a little bit bitter over the way she cut me out. But, really, I’m glad you’re finally taking the initiative and doing this. You need to be able to protect yourself.”

“We all do,” Star said, but they already could. She was the only one of the three who couldn’t. They were willing to help her, and that was great, but….

Seriously.

How had she not noticed this before?

Especially after she’d figured out what was up with Fenton?

Not that she’d known exactly until she’d tricked him into confessing, but still. She’d known something was up. And with Valerie, she…hadn’t.

But something was very clearly up, and now Star was almost certain she knew what it was, and she just….

“Why don’t we head to the Nasty Burger? The others are probably there anyway, and you can catch up with them. It’ll calm you down. You still look pretty freaked out, Star.”

Was that Danny telling her that he knew that she’d figured it out? The thing he’d hinted at but never explicitly told her?

“You wanna bring your parents’ stuff to the Nasty Burger?” Valerie asked. “And you want me to walk in there with you? You think I want to lose my job?”

“Well, you guys can go ahead. I’ll just stash the stuff in my locker or something and meet up with you after.”

“The school’s locked.”

“Then I can take it home. Or phone Jazz. Or just skip it entirely. I mean, Sam and Tucker—”

“We’ll help you pack up,” Star interrupted, “and you can phone Jazz to pick you up again while I text Paulina. Valerie’s right; she’ll be with the boys. We’ll, um, meet up with you another time, unless Jazz is okay with running the stuff home on her own and you can catch up with us later.”

Star knew she wasn’t mistaking the look of relief that crossed Danny’s face. “Sounds good.”

It was what he’d asked her to do: cover for him when the others couldn’t.

She just…hadn’t imagined it would be like this.

Of course, she’d never imagined any of this. How could Danny and Valerie—

“C’mon, Star.” Valerie pulled her up to her feet, and Star couldn’t find the energy to resist. Danny was ignoring them, talking on the phone to Jazz—or Sam or Tucker pretending to be Jazz, for all she knew. “You’ll feel better with a small, low-fat chocolate shake in you. My treat.”

“Thanks,” Star murmured.

“Trust me,” Valerie said as she let Star collapse onto the front bench of the bleachers and began to pack what was left of the FentonWorks weaponry back into the box, “some training days are rougher than others. You can’t let one bad experience turn you off. The key is to stick to it.”

“Right.” Star wasn’t going to disagree. This had been her idea. She’d asked Danny to do this, and she’d asked everyone to come here. Including Valerie, who obviously didn’t need it nearly as much as the rest of them but had been happy to come anyway.

But maybe that was okay. Maybe she didn’t have to confront Valerie on this. She was still coping with finding out about Danny; she could broach the subject with Valerie later. Much later. Or maybe she could wait for Valerie to feel comfortable with telling her on her own. That was possible, right? She was already keeping Danny’s secret. She could keep Valerie’s, too.

She didn’t have to mention that it was odd that Valerie knew exactly how to disengage a tangled, torn net from a net-gun that she had supposedly never used before.

She didn’t have to ask how Valerie knew to collapse and then activate the safety on the Fenton Utility Weapon.

She could just…turn a blind eye to it for now. Like Danny was, and probably Sam and Tucker, too.

She could let a couple of the best ghost hunters in town teach her how to defend herself against ghosts, even though neither of them would admit to being nearly as good as they were in front of the other.

Yeah.

She could do that.

And if the opportunity ever came up to try to subtly convince Valerie that Phantom wasn’t the evil piece of ghost scum she thought he was, well, Star could take it. She owed Danny that much, since this clearly hadn’t worked out as she’d hoped. Valerie already knew Star supported Phantom, so it wouldn’t be strange. And if Star had to hint that she knew Valerie’s secret to get her to listen, well, she could cross that bridge when she came to it.

Some things really needed to be taken one day at a time, and Star was good at that.

-|-

see more fics | tip me for a snippet of your choice

#danny phantom #dp side hoes week #dp star #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #dp snippet #snippets #hopefully this counts?#I did it anyway

89 notes · View notes

tonystarkbingo · 4 years

Text

Tony Stark Bingo Party Prompt Meme

http://generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=25057 -- we took tags from this random generator and then made up more detailed prompts from them. These prompts are open use, even if you’re not participating in the bingo, but please tag us if you write one, we’d LOVE to see what you did with it! nonsense + everyone is gay + denial : Tony+harem - Tony, while an incorrigible flirt, does not believe that anyone actually likes him, let alone as many as do. They come up with increasingly ridiculous ideas to ask him out or at least let him know they like him, while he innocently thinks they're all just such awesome friends superpowers + bodice-ripper + sad Stuckony - something set in the Regency(ish) era but with secret superpowers as an added bonus. Let’s of angst over trying to hide their secret powers, and wanting to save people without revealing themselves and also cause they’re gay. clones + nighttime + wishes Coulson/Strange (StrangeAgent? AgentStrange? DrAgent?) - Coulson ends up spending the night in the NY Sanctum. Some of the artifacts happen to be particularly sensitive to subconscious fantasies... and isn't it lucky that cloning himself happens to be one of Strange's powers? cruising + flashbacks + bad boys Winteriron possible future Stuckony - small warning for drinking mention - Tony is driving around to distract himself so he doesn't get drunk. He gets in an accident because he is not actually in a state to drive. The accident is comparatively harmless, the flashback to his convoy being attacked in Afghanistan is less so. When Tony wakes up in the hospital he learns that the person who dragged him from his car to safety is one James "Bucky" Barnes, resident motorbike riding bad boy heartthrob and friend/visitor of Steve "regular ER customer" Rogers, who's his hospital roommate. room service + lifeguards + sharing Tony is a lifeguard who takes his job very seriously. He's attending a convention-slash-training seminar at a posh uptown hotel, but then there's a knock at the door. He opens it to find two room service carts, both with order slips on them that indicate they're actually destined for another room. Rather than call the obviously harried and beleaguered bellboy back, he pushes them down the hall himself and knocks on the door... which is answered by none other than the hot beefcake fellow-lifeguard that's been distracting Tony all day. They end up sharing the enormous amount of food... and then maybe some more. :wink: overthinking + pity sex + customer service Tony just turned 40, he's been friends with Bucky and Nat for forever, and they'd been each other's marriage backups for the longest time, like, if they weren't married at 40, they'd marry whoever wasn't married either in their little trio. Only, two years prior, Buckynat became husband and wife and so he's having a little pity party on his floor at the Tower, drinking virgin mojitos and seriously consider a particular customer service to cheer himself up in one way or another - might as well get an orgasm, as shitty and sad as it may be, it's his birthday ffs - but then Bucky and Nat appear in his elevator, and they pull him off the couch he's been sprawled on for three hours, and Nat is the first to kiss him, and he's too stunned to react much but when he does question wtf is happening, Bucky shushes him and Tony lets him. The next morning he is evidently convinced it was all just pity sex, or a kink of theirs or whatever.... certainly nothing to do with the fact that they've been courting him forever and got tired of waiting for him to step out of ObliviousStarklandia. Of course not. wolves + romantic friendship + wigs Okay, so, someone has been doing an excellent job of hiding his baldness from someone else, with whom he's been in a long term best-friends-but-in-love not-quite-relationship. He's got an elaborate series of wigs, and over the years he's gradually been replacing them with slightly more grey ones so that someone else doesn't realise. Aaaand then someone gets bitten by a werewolf, and when he shifts for the first time he is completely bald and the secret is out. accidental relationship + butt dialing + warlocks Tony Stark is not happy with today's mission, not like there's an occasion to enjoy dealing with magic. But now he's in a relationship with Bucky, which is not bad, that man is gorgeous, but this is not the way. He's ranting about it to Jarvis and doesn't realize that he sat on his phone nor that he dialed the other supersoldier in the team until he hears a muffled laugh beneath him. He's going to kill that warlock smuggling + fear + road-trip okay, a Star Wars AU. Farmboy Peter is fleeing from stormtroopers who found out his parents were Jedi. He runs into smuggler Tony and they take off in Tony's ship for an extended road trip in space. possession + loving marriage + gardens & gardening Pepperony, Morgan insists there's a spirit possessing the garden because she's seen the plants dancing. Turns out they've accidentally created sentient plants and Tony is like nope, call somebody else, I do mechanical engineering and they call Dr. Cho to fix it. The marriage is in there somewhere I promise idiots in love + bonding + resurrection Ironhawk - Clint tries to get Lucky back after he goes over the rainbow bridge, but he can’t actually read latin and ends up bringing back Tony from the 18th century. And poor Tony gets Clint as his guide to the 21st. Shenanigans and eventual fluffy ending improv + cultural appropriation + shield maidens After the Battle of New York, Tony's interviewing Thor about Asguardian tech and learns that they have all kinds of shielding devices, and gets interested in trying to replicate what Thor describes just in case aliens decide to pay a call on Earth again. Thor, for his part, is kinda shocked that Earth doesn't have any such shields, though on the other hand it is Midguard, so. You know. Tony gives it a shot and a couple weeks later he's launching the satellites into orbit for a preliminary test of the shields. He intends to test them with SI tech developed from seized Chitauri tech, but before he can get the chance an alien army shows up, guns blazing and very mad about something. The shields hold, thankfully, and the aliens send a strongly worded letter informing him that he has infringed upon their religious and cultural traditions by putting the Stark logo on them. Their planet was visited centuries ago by time-travelers that greatly influenced their culture, religion, government, etc. These time travelers carried devices with that same Stark Logo on them. The Stark Logo has become a complex cultural symbol over the centuries, and they don't appreciate him using it on war tech, even if on shields. Eventually, they figure out that the time travelers' tech was Tony's tech, and agree to leave in peace, but only after Tony spends a terrifying couple of days trying to improvise his way through a diplomatic disaster with an alien power. vampire family + slapstick + loss WinterIronWidow: So, Natasha's been a vampire for a long time, and she's lonely, so she decides to take on some mates, enter established relationship WinterIron. She vampirises them, which leads to Tony having fits about GARLIC and my god, I'm ITALIAN, you horrible woman! And Bucky's like "I'm... CATHOLIC?? OM-- I can't even say G-- now??" awkwardness + chatting & messaging + shyness Tony doesn't understand why everytime Bucky comes into the lab, Dum-E tends to drop whatever he's holding and go hide in his charging station. Dum-E's always a bit clumsy and silly but this is more than usual and Tony's worried that Dum-E doesn't like Bucky or something like that. Anyway after much discussion, with JARVIS as translator and go-between, it turns out that Dum-E has developed a bit of a crush on Bucky's fancy robotic arm. Which ends up of course being a hilarious & awkward situation for all involved. candles + explosions + blind date tony gets bullied by pepper to go on a blind date to get out of his funk, she insists that this Matt Murdock character is the perfect date and Tony will like him. reluctantly tony goes to fancy restaurant and meets Matt Murdock and they hit it off instantly the little snarky assholes. they have a nice dinner by candle light and it's all going so well up until dessert when they order some kind of chocolate lava cake which was tragically not cooked properly and ends up exploding on both of them and bam they fall in love and live happily ever after skeleton puns + reincarnation + deus ex machina A snap, that was all it took to snuff out something so bright amidst the rubble of what was once New York City, and, with Tony gone for good, the living seem rather, well…dead. Until, one day, someone they all thought long dead returned to them, a blue cube glowing in his grip and a sweet promise of a new beginning dripping from his lips. But of course, no new beginning comes without a price laundry + tenderness + dialogue “I hate laundry,” Morgan declared after trying to refold her sweatshirt for the seventh time. “Me too kiddo,” Tony whispered back, sneaking a glance over his shoulder to Pepper who was putting clothes into the wash. “But that’s why we do it together. It gets done and we don't have to do it alone.” world domination + paranoia + everything hurts Tony knew what was coming, he knew. He’d seen the future and he knew. The Kree were coming - why would no one believe him? Not his husband, not the team, not even his own son. He kept convincing them they had to suit up and defend the planet and Steve and Peter kept telling him that a engineering professor from Cal Tech can’t do that, that this suit he talks about is only in his delusions. But he’s not paranoid. Or crazy. Or any of those other words. He is Iron Man. He just has to convince everyone else. feels + useless lesbians + Santa's workshop Toni doesn’t think anyone could accuse her of overflowing with Christmas spirit. That hasn’t stopped the rest of the Avengers from turning the “festive cheer” dial up to eleven, and Toni thinks she might just have to spend the whole next month hiding in her workshop. (Hey, she let DUM-E wear a Santa hat – that has to count for something.) Too bad Jamie Barnes – cyborg superassassin extraordinaire, Captain America’s best friend, and Toni’s big gay crush – has gotten the exact same idea. Now the rest of the team thinks they’ve got a “thing,” and Toni can’t decide which is worse: putting up with the Avengers’ not-so-subtle attempts at matchmaking, or spending all her time with the woman she loves and who she is absolutely, 100%, totally certain doesn’t reciprocate. Getting through this holiday season without having her heart broken might just take… a Christmas miracle. shapeshifting + secret organizations + nurses “C. Barton - Orderly.” That’s what his tag said. But only a very few people knew exactly what kind of hospital Saint Natalis actually was, and just how busy they could be during the full moon. kissing games + pirates + book stores Tony always thought that the shop had a mind of its own. The books were one thing, whispering their secrets to patrons who managed to find their way to it. Jarvis always did warn him not to touch any of the artifacts. The "DO NOT TOUCH" signs plastered all over the crates. So maybe it was his fault that he managed to summon 'Buccaneer Barnes' after touching the shiny pirate sword. "Let's play a game. If you win, I'll help you put all those runaway monsters that jumped out of the books. If I win, you owe me a kiss. Whatdaya say Stark?"

#TonyStarkBingo2020 #prompt meme #party games

16 notes · View notes

rovethings · 5 years

Text

It's me and I want to rant about Smallville again

So just before class I watched another episode ... 4x10 Scare and oh my God

Look. I'm trying to not be biased here, I'm trying to watch this series knowing Lex will become you know ... Lex Luthor the bald petty asshole loser we all know (and love). But it's getting way too difficult.

A few episodes ago (maybe the last one? I'm not keeping track anymore) I was already impressed that Lex basically said he wanted to be killed by one his night stands because he felt it was a suitable punishment. And Clark answer him with "Well, that's a start." when FOR FUCKS SAKE THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY TO A SUICIDAL PERSON AND ... FOR A WHOLE ASS STALKER ONE NIGHT STAND???? Why was everyone even shaming Lex all the time in that episode it's an one night stand ffs they shouldn't go around expecting Eternal Luthor Love over a casual fuck DON'T THEY EVEN KNOW HOW THIS WORKS? AM I THE WRONG DISGUSTING SLUT HERE BC I LIKE CASUAL SEX? WHATEVER MAN.

Anyways. 4x10. The episode where there's a lab explosion and the whole town is infected. And Lex is very angry at the military and worried about the safety of his employees. So here's the thing. Lex has to use the antidote in one of the sick people and let someone potentially die. And he just goes and uses it on himself. And you know, Smallville, if you want to paint him as a villain, then maybe you should stop with the heroic acts like that time where he used himself as human bait, or that time where he also used himself as human bait, or that time where he took the blame for his brother's death, or when he also took the blame from another crime.

Or maybe. Just a thought. MAYBE you shouldn't very specific show, in season fucking 4, that Lex's worst nightmare is the same future Cassandra saw in season 1. Because by now we know the character, and Lex doesn't do anything he doesn't want to, and I'll bet he doesn't want to you know... become his worst nightmare. So you kinda set it in a way that I can only think it's possible that this happens by either brainwashing him or making him be irrevocably changed by some kryptonite accident.

Because at this point you already showed plenty of times that he can be abused, lied to, tortured and betrayed by his best friend and he's capable of, if not letting go per se, then at very least not hitting back. So really. It's getting more and more unbelievable to me that his choice for going to the dark side does not happen because of brainwashing somehow.

BUT THEN AGAIN. There's more to watch. So let's see how this all goes.

#roves watches smallville #ramblings #lex luthor #me trying to figure out this series when all they do is try to advance the plot and then give up and go back to the status quo is funny #like there was at least three or four times #where i thought this was it #this is a pretty good reason to make lex give up and become a villain #make him go back to metropolis #put him away from one season or two u know #and then make him come back as a changed and manipulative motherfucker #but no #here's he is #trying his best to be good #and is ??? okay???#when are you going to do that then #because the more you give up #the more it seems like he'll never truly go there

18 notes · View notes

breachtopology · 5 years

Text

prompt: we’re secret friends with benefits and you accidentally wore my shirt to to the party so you’re pretending you came as me and it turns out your impression of me is on point and you know me better than you know myself are you sure you’re not in love with me?? \\ requested by @hermannsthumb

sorry this is so late (but it’s still halloween on the west coast? did I make it??) some shatterdome-era, halloween-themed com dram.

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

Newt cracks an eye open, waking from a nap he hadn’t realized he was taking. He lifts his head and looks where it had previously been resting—on Hermann’s bare chest. Newt’s eyes drag upward to Hermann’s face—eyes still closed, gently resting.

Reaching over to his nightstand without looking, Newt first mistakenly grabs his glasses, then his remote for the A/C setup he cobbled together from scrap jaeger metal (not officially approved, but no one has to know), Newt finally picks up his phone and checks the time. He bolts upright immediately. “Uh.” He glances down at Hermann. “Not to kick you out, but I’m gonna need to kick you out.”

Hermann props himself up on his elbows. “Oh?” He says coolly. “Plans this evening?”

“The Halloween party, dude!” Newt exclaims, leaping up out of bed, tossing the covers back so forcefully that they’re flung off Hermann as well. “It’s only like, my favorite holiday out of the whole year.”

With a yawn, Hermann reclines back onto Newt’s mattress and pulls the comforter back over himself. “In July you said Christmas was your favorite holiday,” he says up at the ceiling.

“It was in the heat of the moment,” Newt says, fishing through various piles of clothes—piles he insists are clean but just haven’t been put away yet. “We really do need some kind of mid-year holiday to break things up, you know? Why save all the good stuff for the last three months? Anyway.” Newt retrieves a white tank from one such pile and pulls it on. “I’d invite you to come,” he says as casually as possible. “But there’s a strict costume policy.”

“How gracious of you,” Hermann says, again in that cool tone. “I’m not interested in costumes.”

“Or socializing, or games, or fun. Yeah, I get it.” Newt hops into a pair of tan pants, belting them at record speed. “Now hurry up, will you?”

Hermann groans as he sits upright. His hair is mussed and sticking up at odd ends. Newt swallows down an impulse to run his hands through it one more time, to straighten it, to tuck it in place just the way Hermann likes it.

Instead, he tosses a discarded white shirt from the floor of his quarters, pelting Hermann squarely in the chest. “Here.” He follows up with a deep maroon sweater. “We’re burning daylight.”

---

They step out into the concrete hallway of the Shatterdome and start to walk toward the Mess Hall, the same direction as Hermann’s own quarters.

“You could have given me a bit more time,” Hermann grumbles, fussing with his hair, still sticking up a bit at odd ends. “I look...disheveled.”

“Hey, it’s working for you.” Newt steps in front of Hermann quickly, but continues to walk backward as he holds his arms out wide for display. “How do I look?”

Hermann looks him up and down. After a short pause, he says, “I can’t evaluate your costume until I know who or what you’re supposed to be.”

“John McClane!” Newt falls back to Hermann’s side. “You’ve seen /Die Hard/, right? Tell me you’ve seen Die Hard.”

“I’ve seen Die Hard,” Hermann says, deadpan.

“You’re lying. It’s okay. You’re forgiven. It’s unforgivable. But I forgive you.”

“Gracious of you,” Hermann murmurs with a small smile. He tugs at his sweater collar. “It’s bloody warm.”

“There’s an easy solution for that, Erdos,” Newt quips. “It’s what you get for wearing sub-zero-ready knitwear in a tropical climate.”

Hermann scowls and stops, handing Newt his cane as he proceeds to pull his sweater over his head. He looks down and lets out a groan. “Newton, this is—“

“Dr. Geiszler, Dr. Gottlieb!”

Mako approaches from the other end of the hallway, clad in a long black trench coat—clearly borrowed from someone who was at least a foot taller and broader than her—and thin sunglasses.

“Mako!” Newt waves. “Are you Neo? Dude, did you watch The Matrix? Amazing, right? That is so badass.”

She lifts her sunglasses and smiles broadly. “Keanu Reeves, he’s the best.” She lifts her sunglasses and considers Newt’s attire.

“Dr. Geiszler...Are you...someone whose clothes have been stolen?”

Newt twitches. “I’m John McClane. Die Hard? Don’t worry about it, it’s from before your time.”

Mako shrugs and smiles politely as she turns her attention to Hermann. “Dr. Gottlieb, you are a...Velvet Underground fan?”

“No, Newton is—“

Newt snaps his attention to his left and sees what Hermann had noticed—under his maroon sweater was Newt’s own Velvet Underground t-shirt, the iconic Andy Warhol banana print. Something that Hermann would never wear, on principle.

Hermann is wide-eyed in surprise. “Er, what I meant to say is...” He clears his throat. “That’s, er my costume,” he says simply. “Newton.”

“WHAT?” Newt exclaims reflexively, unable to stop himself. The corner of Hermann’s mouth twitch upwards. His expression is some bizarre distribution of mortified and smug. “I—...Yes.”

“That is cute.” Mako looks back at Newt, mildly disappointed. “I’m surprised you did not come as each other.” Before Newt can protest and explain, she lowers her sunglasses back down, strikes a pose of such genuine intensity that Newt feels momentarily frozen, before breaking out into a smile and gently leading the two of them, each with one hand, into the mess hall.

Tendo, leaning casually on the snack table, greets the two of them as they grab a couple of drinks—beer that had been snuck into the Shatterdome by some brave anonymous individual, he explains. “So,” he says to Newt. “What are you, a discount construction worker?”

Newt flips him off. Tendo laughs and turns to Hermann. “What’s your ‘stume, doc?”

Newt watches Hermann take another drink before responding, “I’m, er. Newt.” He laughs nervously. “It’s a shallow approximation—“

“Don’t sweat it, doc, no one’s got time to do anything detailed.” Tendo waves his plastic fangs. “You know. More important stuff going on. But—“ he pauses to put the fangs in. “You’ll also be amazed at how far an impression goes to sell it. I’m sure you’ve got some stories.”

"Well, yes, just the other day...” He glances quickly at Newt. Newt looks back at him and crosses his arms.

Hermann straightens up and starts speaking, more quickly and pitched than usual. “‘OSHA procedures are more guidelines than rules,’” he says, quoting—Newt realizes—something Newt had said the day before. A few near bystanders turn their heads to casually tune in. “‘So by extension, I’m the Captain Barbossa of lab safety.’”

A few scattered laughs. Hermann looks around, shocked, possibly by the getting any sort of reaction and possibly by his own delivery.

“Ha!” A nearby J-Tech officer exclaims. “That is legit.” He turns to someone on his left. “I heard the Marshall chew him out a couple weeks ago for—“

“Hey, asshole.” Newt shoots him a glare. “Shut up.” It’s not intelligent, Newt knows, but it’s enough to make a new officer wince.

Tendo lets out a laugh and claps Hermann on the shoulder. “Good one, doc.” He glances at Newt and smirks before taking a sip from his cup. Newt calls that glance and raises it with a death glare that fully transmits, Don’t you say a fucking word.

The initial bystanders disperse. Newt crosses his arms. “That’s not an impression. That’s just one single thing I said once. Taken way out of context, I might add.”

Hermann starts to silently fish through the candy bowl on the snack table.

Newt leans over to watch. “Lookin’ for something?”

At last, Hermann meticulously plucks a green Jolly Rancher from the bowl. “Green is the best flavor,” he says facetiously, delicately unwrapping it from the plastic. “Never mind that green isn’t a flavor but a color.” He pops it into his mouth and grimaces. “These are so sweet,” he says, returning to his usual tone. “Newton, how on earth do you eat these.

Newt rolls his eyes before taking a green Jolly Rancher out of the bowl for himself. “That green was wasted on you, dude” But when he looks back at Hermann he’s smiling slightly, albeit not looking in his direction.

---

For the next half hour, Newt tries to keep a safe distance from Hermann. He makes lap around the mess hall. One engineer, dressed as a pirate (basic, but effective) calls out, “John McClane!” And Newt makes a show cheering and giving her a high-five that is audible throughout the hall.

But the space is finite, and eventually his path leads him back to Hermann, who’s at the center of a small group of PPDC staff who are amused by his current monologuing. Newt slides up behind them and catches Hermann in mid-sentence.

“—and it’s an album from the point of view of a man who’s wretched, who is confronting his misdoings, his mistreatment of others, his skewed relationship with love, in this operatic way—“

In that moment, it strikes Newt that Hermann may have actually been listening. Through all the monologues, through all the rants. Newt flushes with equal parts embarrassment in the accuracy and another feeling he’s tried to push down for seven years.

“But the thing about Weezer,“ Hermann continues, emphasizing the band with an American emphasis on the -er, “Is that they created two perfect albums, so their next twelve mediocre ones are forgivable—“

“The White Album is not mediocre!” Newt finally exclaims from behind the small group, unable to stop himself. He pushes forward and softly grabs Hermann by the arm. Hermann looks up at him with a raised eyebrow, defiant. Newt turns around at the small group casually listening in. “Yeah, yeah, he’s great—excuse us for a sec, will ya?” Without waiting for a reply, he gently pulls his colleague by the arm to the hallway outside, promptly stepping in close, so Hermann is the only thing between Newt and the wall.

“What the hell, dude?” Newt hisses.

Hermann leans his head back against the concrete wall. “Being you is very easy,” he says scathingly.

With a short laugh, and Newt goes in for the kiss. Rough and agitated, how this sequence of events typically starts out. How things started hours prior in the lab, resulting in the change of location to Newt’s room to tear off one another’s clothes as quickly as possible. He slips a hand under Hermann’s/Newt’s own shirt and slides it up and beside Hermann’s ribcage, pulling him in closer.

“This is a new level of narcissism,” Hermann says breathlessly when Newt pulls away. “Even for you.”

“Says the guy who tastes like green.” Newt smirks. “You think you know me?”

“You are impossible not to know.” Hermann says, lifting his chin.

They lock eyes. Newt searches for some confirmation of something in Hermann’s gaze. There’s a hint, close, just behind his eyes, but it’s just out of reach. Despite his better judgement, Newt slips his hand out from under Hermann’s shirt, lifts it, hesitates momentarily, but proceeds to card it gently through Hermann’s hair, smoothing out the odd ends. From front to back, then around to rest on Hermann’s cheek. Hermann looks at him, wide-eyed.

“Newton,” he says softly.

Newt swallows. “Yeah?”

The faceless drone of the party on the other room extends the silence. They look at one another for a minute. And it strikes Newt that it’s longest either of them has gone in each other’s company without a word.

But as “Monster Mash” comes on the speakers, the mess hall erupts into cheers. The incongruity of it all breaks whatever was there, between them in the hallway. Hermann swallows. “I’ll be returning to my quarters, now,” he says, voice just above a whisper. Newt steps back, giving Hermann the space to collect his cane and step out. He gives Newt one last look, opens his mouth to speak, but closes it. He walks away without another word.

#i'm not funny enough to do this prompt true justice but...[ben wyatt voice] it's about the mutual pining #hermannsthumb #k sci

36 notes · View notes

welcometothelairofthebitchking · 5 years

Text

And when you drown (take your demons with you) Ch.1

a homeless peter fanfic AO3 link

summary: After two years of living in the streets, Peter Parker Sympathizes with thieves.Spiderman still stops them.(And yet, it's the sight of his unmasked self , the scrawny homeless kid in an oversized jacket, that sends gang members running.)

Go out Bruce, they said. It will be fun, they said. Nothing bad’s gonna happen, they said.Well, they got one thing right. Because this? This isn’t bad, this is a disaster.(It's a good kind of disaster though)

A/N so I got bored and decided to copy my story here. enjoy

Go out Bruce, they said. It will be fun, they said. Nothing bad’s gonna happen, they said.

Well, they got one thing right. Because this? This isn’t bad, this is a disaster.

Why? Well for starters, Bruce is running, which itself is an awful thing because Bruce isn’t much of the running type (He prefers sciencing, thank you very much.) But that’s not even the worst part, because not only is he forced to run, he is also being chased, and not in the fun ‘playing tag’ sense of the word either, but in the ‘we’re-a-group-of-villains with-questionable-senses-of-fashion-and-we-wanna-kill-you’ sort of way.

If this was a movie, now would be the time when the frame froze and the famous ‘Yep, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I got into this mess’ line came up. Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie, which means that Bruce doesn’t have the fortune of time freezing while he does a flashback and has to in fact do it all while running for dear life.

‘Yep, that’s me,’ Bruce thinks bitterly while he passes one of the security cameras on the street, glaring hard and hoping the avengers are watching this right now so they can feel the sheer loathing in his gaze. Very unlikely, but pretending makes him feel better. ‘Let me tell you how I got into this freaking mess.’

“Come on Bruce,” Tony says as he pushes the unwilling scientist toward the elevator, the doors already opening to let him in, “You can’t just lock yourself in your lab all the time! Go out and have some fun, feed the ducks or something, use your hours of freedom to escape this terrible ‘organic-food’ zone and buy some greasy snacks.” He leans down, whispering in his ear, “And then try to sneak some in for me without Cap noticing as well, would you? He keeps confiscating my junk food. Says I have to eat healthy,” He mutters, making an over-exaggerated disgusted face, “But he won’t think to search you. So just go to a supermarket or something and get me some snacks, Okay?”

“But Tony…” Bruce tries to protest, “What if…”

“Nothing’s gonna happen,” Tony says impatiently, rushing him forward, “you’re just going to supermarket and back, what are the chances of someone attacking you?”

Well, judging by the group of villain currently chasing Bruce, he’d say the chances are rather high.

“Oh my god,” he moans as he runs for- well, not his life, but the life of those around him. The men following him have already pulled out what he’s 99 percent sure are guns, and he’s still in the middle of a crowded street with people stupid enough to stand and gape at him instead of running for their lives, because, hello, Hulk here!

After this is over, Bruce is going to kill Tony, and he isn’t even going to Hulk out; Oh no, he’s going to chock him with his bare hands.

(Or maybe he’ll just sit on him and eat all the junk food by himself while Tony cries and begs on the floor. That seems like a good plan as well. )

The first shot snaps him out of his thoughts, and he has to fight down both panic and the green beast as he takes a sharp turn into one of the darker alleys around. Bruce is by no means a physical man –well, at least, his calmer, not-green self isn’t- and he knows better than to try and run from a bunch of obviously trained men with guns in a public place where not only can they easily shoot him and hit the target, but can also miss and hurt the innocents around. Besides, he’s already beginning to tire, his breath coming in short, quick pants and his knees shaking under his weight. He won’t be able to run for much longer.

So, the scientist does the reasonable thing and tries to get as far away from the public as he can before he’s cornered. There’s no hope of making it to the avengers before the men catch up to him since he panicked and ran in the opposite direction of the tower when he first spotted the group and is now pretty far from home; so the best he can hope for is losing his tails when he runs in the maze of the backstreets and narrow alleys of NY, and sinks deeper and deeper into the darker and more questionable parts of the city.

By the time he remembers that he’s an unfamiliar with this districts as the ones he’s trying to lose, it’s already too late to turn around, and he’s trapped in a dark and dirty dead-end with nowhere to go and footsteps that keep getting closer and closer.

He takes a step back, and flinches when his back his the wall. He takes a quick look around, desperately searching for an escape route. By the looks of things, he’s out of luck. The only things in the alley are a couple of torn trash bags and a half-blind street cat that screeches and runs away as soon as it sees Bruce; so unless he starts throwing rotten fruit and empty tin cans at his pursuers, there’s nothing of use. He’s officially cornered and there’s nowhere to go and nowhere to hide, and by this point his skin is more green than white, and he no longer can fight back the panic that’s spreadi-

Suddenly out of nowhere, a hand shots out and covers his mouth, another grabbing his arm and dragging him back. He struggles, trying to bite the hand, but his kidnapper just groans and shoves him in a tight spot before following himself. “Be quiet,” the kidnapper –is it a guy? Bruce isn’t sure. The voice is far too high to be a man’s, but the body pressing him into the wall clearly lacks the curves of a woman’s- hisses at him, still not removing the hand from his mouth, “Do you want them to find us?!”

The high pitched voice surprises Bruce, helps him fight down the green showing up on his skin and shocks him enough that he stops struggling. He takes a deep breath, leaning back on the wall and examining his surroundings as he hears the footsteps run past and then stop. He turns his head at the direction of the sound, keeping his breath as he peeks from the opening in the wall and sees the men searching for him.

Bruce notices that he’s still in the same dead-end, hidden in a small, narrow space between two of the walls. It’s a pretty good hiding place, if a little crowded. It’s only just big enough for him and his mysterious kidnapper to squeeze into and its entrance is hidden from sight due to the slightly tilted brick wall at the end of the alley and the way the trash bags are placed.

The men look around for a while, seemingly confused with his disappearance. Bruce notices his rescuer –because it’s probably rude to keep calling him a kidnaper when the guy has just saved his butt- crouch down and pick up a tin cane from the ground. He’s about to hiss at him to stay still before someone notices them when the guy lifts his arms and throws the tin so far it lands about twenty meters away from the wall. The men snap to attention at that, one of them shouting orders in a strange language as they go running back the way they came.

They stay still for a while, listening for the footsteps to fade, and then the mysterious guy jumps back, exiting the hiding place easily and then turning to give the scientist a hand (Who, to his embarrassment, has far more trouble getting past the tight gap). Bruce follows the guy out with a gasp, panic still clutching at every fiber of his being and skin still colored with a tinge of green, but much more under control than a moment ago. He puts his hands on the wall, catching his breath and focusing on calming himself. That was close. He’s never leaving the tower to get Tony snacks again.

“Dr. Banner!” The stranger exclaims, his voice snapping the other out of his thoughts, “You’re Dr. Banner, right? Sir I’m such a huge fan! Your work on Gamma radiations was truly fantastic! The theo-“

Bruce stops listening, staring in shock at the guy as he keeps ranting about his work and how amazing his last new paper on god-knows-what was. Any other time, he’d be pleased to see someone who appreciates his achievements more than his part-time job as a green beast; but right now he’s too busy staring at the kid who just saved his life.

He’s young. Certainly no older than fifteen and maybe even younger. He’s much too short and far too thin for it to be healthy, and is clad in dirty and baggy clothes. Bruce knows for a fact that he’s much stronger than his small figure suggests, considering he was being dragged around by the same tiny teenager only minutes ago, but he can’t help but notice how fragile and small he looks. It’s hard not to, especially when the kid is swimming in a jacket three sizes too big for him and has a deep, nasty bruise on his jaw.

The guy stops mid-sentence when he notices Bruce staring, a light blush covering his cheeks, “Oh my go- I didn’t hurt you, did I? I didn’t mean to push you around like that, I was- I was just trying to get you to safety and I didn’t stop to think it through! I’m glad that you didn’t hulk out on me though- Not that I don’t like hulk, I mean he’s cool, but I don’t like being smashed to death, you know? And anyway you seem so much nicer and smarter and- god I’m rambling again, aren’t I?“ He stops to take a deep breath, sticking out a hand with a shy smile, “It’s an honor to meet you Dr. Banner. I’m Peter.”

Bruce only stares some more, still too shocked after everything to react. The kid’s face falls when Bruce doesn’t say anything, and he snatches his hand back as if burned. “I’m such an idiot.” He mumbles to himself, trying to hide his dirty hand in his pocket, then louder he says “Sorry sir I just got excited and forgot about the-“ He shrugs, looking embarrassed as he plays with a lock of his long hair. “Just- just follow me. I’ll take you to the main street.”

He half turns to go, face red and eyes cast downward.

“Bruce Banner,” Bruce says automatically.

The kid blinks, “What?”

“That’s- Um, that’s my name,” the scientist stutters, pointing to himself. “Though you already know that… anyway, It’s- Um, It’s nice to meet you Peter. And- and I’m glad Hulk didn’t smash you too. ” He adds, holding out a hand.

Peter’s whole face lights up, his brown eyes widening with joy. He grabs the offered hand and shacks it enthusiastically, smiling all the while.

“Thank you Dr. Banner,” He says happily, “I’m so-“ a loud ‘clank’ from the other side of the wall cuts him off, and Peter freezes, stealing a glance at where the noise came from.

“Follow me Dr. Banner.” He whispers lowly, all traces of lightheartedness gone, “It’s dangerous to wander around here for long. Stay close to me and I’ll take you back to the avengers’ tower.”

With that, he turns to go, hesitating only a second before he grabs onto Bruce’s arm and drags him along.

Peter drags him through narrow streets and dim passages alike, passing dank alleys full of shady people who stare at them unnervingly as they pass. Bruce feels panic once again began to fill his chest when they pass a particularly dark path crowded by shadows hiding in the corner.

Bruce can say in a glance that this is much worse than the other places they passed in the way. The whole alley smells of alcohol and drugs, and the air is thick with the metallic scent of blood and the taste of vomit. He has to watch where he steps as to not put his put his foot inside the suspicious puddles on the ground, and also keep his mind away from trying to guess the contents the said puddles hold.

All around the place, there are men and women sprawled on the ground. They’re badly dressed and dirty, and all thin and pale; but there’s something different about them, something that sets off alarm bells in Bruce’s already frantic mind and warns him that these are not like the other homeless people they came across in the way, but something darker, something fouler.

These aren’t men looking for a place to stay the night, but thieves and dealers instead, and not the sort that gets involved with crime because they have to either. They are the kind that likes spreading fear and inflicting pain, the kind that takes pride in cruelty and enjoys being wicked.

Bruce knows he must seem like easy bait with his well-worn but expensive shoes –curtesy of Tony- and clearly new coat, and is expecting one of them to jump out with a knife and threaten him any second now. It almost does happen, with people who get close enough for him to see the flash of greed and hatred in their eyes, and Bruce has to bite his lip to keep calm and not let his other half come out.

But the weird thing is, it never gets to that stage because as soon as they catch sight of peter, they quickly scrambles back to the shadows, muttering things like ‘Thought this wasn’t his district’ or ‘What the fuck is the brat doing here?’ under their breath.

Peter doesn’t react in any unusual way, and only turns to give him a small apologetic smile before quickening their pace; but Bruce can’t help but stare as this small teenager with his oversized dirty clothes and kind brown eyes scares off thugs three time his size with nothing but a look.

He doesn’t get what about Peter scares them so. The teenager looks more non-threating than even Bruce and the scientist’s been told he looks like a soft giant teddy beer. Now, he knows all about not judging a book by its cover and all that, but it’s just… the kid is so small and thin, it’s ridiculous that anyone would see him as a threat, let alone be scared of him. He looks like a normal teenager, if dressed in old and torn clothes that are far too large for his skinny frame and with hair that is a little too long and disheveled. He’s clearly a homeless kid, running from CPS most likely, and it concerns Bruce greatly to see him find his way through the maze of the dark backstreets of NY like he knows it. Like its home. Yeah, the bruises on his skin and the thinness of his arms are worrisome, but perhaps the most heartbreaking thing is the kid is too young to have any business in such shady parts of the city, and he still walks like he belongs.

“We’re here!” Peter’s cheerful voice announces and Bruce looks up to see that they’ve reached the main street while he was lost in thoughts. “Well, it was an honor Dr. Banner, I mean really, how many people can say that they ran into the Bruce Banner while hiding from the co-“ He cuts himself off with a cough, looking away from the scientist, “anyway, we’re, Um, we’re here.” He repeats awkwardly.

“Oh, Um, ye-yeah,” Bruce stutters, feeling just as awkward, “Peter, I- I don’t know how to- how to thank you but you really- Um, here,” He reaches into his pocket and takes out his wallet clumsily, holding it out to the boy, “Here. Take it. It’s nearly empty because I didn’t think I’d need much for a snack run but- Here. Think of it as my way of- of saying thank you.”

The boy takes a step back, holding up his hands. “Dr. Banner, sir! I can’t accept that! That’s too much! And anyway, I didn’t do much other than to shove you into a gap in the wall and then drag you through one of the worst districts of NY so...” He shrugs, a light blush covering the tips of his ears as the he shuffles his feet in embarrassment.

“But-“

He shacks his head firmly, “I can’t accept your money Dr. Banner.”

“Then what about something else? like…” Bruce says desperately, looking around for anything he can give to the teen, when he notices the bag of snacks he’s still clutching in his hand. He blinks at it, as if not expecting something as normal as a bag of snacks to still be here after the surreal morning he’s just had. “Here,” He says blankly, holding up the bag of food. “It’s not very healthy but…” He shrugs helplessly.

The kid tiptoes toward him and slowly takes the bag, cautiously peeking inside. His face lights up when he sees the snacks and he quickly clutches it to his chest and takes a step back, as if afraid Bruce might try to snatch it back.

“Thank you sir,” He says with a hesitate smile, and Bruce finds himself smiling back.

“You're welcome.” He says to him, thankfully not tripping over the simple words and making a fool of himself again. Seriously, after this day he wouldn’t blame the kid if he decides that Bruce isn’t cool enough and finds a new scientist to geek over. “But are you sure that’s all you need? Maybe if you come with me to tower… Tony would be happy to reward you properly.”

But the kid is already walking away, going backwards as to not turn his back to the scientist and still hanging to the bag of food for dear life, but he smiles and this time his smile is brighter, livelier.

“There’s no need Sir!” He shouts, “Just if you end up with any extra food you didn’t need… well give me a call!”

Bruce is ninety percent sure the kid is joking, but that doesn’t stop the sudden ache in his heart as he thinks of the boy’s skinny arms and hollow cheeks. “But how do I find you?!” He shouts after the boy.

This time, there’s a laugh before the answer comes, “Just get lost in the backstreets again, I’ll find you!”

And with that, Peter is gone.

#and when you drown take your demons with you #aewea #homeless peter parker #peter parker #bruce banner #tony stark #spiderman fanfiction #spiderman homecoming #avengers endgame #avengers 4 #avengers fanfiction #avengers family

25 notes · View notes

pastel-kinana · 4 years

Text

heart out || barry allen [ix]

// chapter ix: a lesson on trust //

PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER || MASTERLIST

Barry sped along in his new speedster suit towards downtown Central City. After his victory in stopping Clyde Mardon, he decided that he continue his crusade as the heroic speedster.

“Barry,” Cisco called through the comms but Barry kept running along. “Barry!”

The speedster stopped in his tracks. “What? Did I miss it?” he asked.

“You overshot by about six blocks,” answered Cisco.

“My bad,” said Barry as he turned around and sped to the location of the fire.

When he reached the burning building, a woman was shouting for her daughter. Barry ran just in time to find more people trapped in the burning building.

“You there yet?” Cisco asked through the comms.

“What are you doing?” Caitlin’s voice startled him that he turned off all the computers and turned to her.

“Nothing,” answered Cisco.

“Who are you talking to?” Caitlin pressed.

“No one.”

“Are you talking to Barry?”

“Who?” asked Cisco, who then wanted to slap himself afterwards for the stupid question.

“Barry Allen?” answered Caitlin as she began to walk towards Cisco slowly. “Struck by lightning? In a coma for nine months? Woke up being able to run faster than the speed of sound? Ring a bell?”

“Nope, haven’t talked to him,” Cisco lied.

“Cisco, there’s fire everywhere!” Barry’s voice called through the comms.

Dammit... Cisco thought.

At the burning building, Barry was trying to protect himself while trying to find the people still trapped inside.

“Mom?” a little girl’s voice called. “Mommy?”

Barry ran towards the voice that belonged to a little girl holding onto her doll for dear life. He carried her to safety and her mother found her. Then, Barry proceeded to bring out the last two of the trapped and ran from the scene.

He let out a big breath and said to Cisco in his earpieces, “Everybody’s out. What else you got for me, Cisco?”

“Barry, it’s Caitlin,” said Caitlin through the comms like a mother scolding her child.

Barry went silent for a moment. “Hey, Caitlin,” he greeted her in a somewhat high pitched voice, trying to lighten the mood. “How’s your day?”

“Get back to S.T.A.R Labs now,” Caitlin demanded.

“On my way,” said Barry, defeated. He was definitely in trouble.

As he was about to run, he suddenly felt dizzy and his ears were ringing, making him stumble and he tried to hold on to the trash bin to stabilize himself. Once he finally got a hold himself, he ran to S.T.A.R Labs.

He reached the Cortex swiftly and was met by an upset Caitlin. “Have you both lost your minds? Who do you think you are?” she scolded both Barry and Cisco.

“Well, I'm the eyes and ears,” said Cisco as he pointed to himself and then to Barry. “And he's the feet.”

“This isn't funny. You could have gotten yourself killed,” said Caitlin. “You can't be running around the city like some supersonic fireman.”

“Why not?” Barry tried to reason. “This is what we talked about. Me using my speed to do good.”

“We talked about you helping contain people who have been affected by the particle accelerator explosion. Meta-humans. And aside from Clyde Mardon, we haven't found any.”

“People in the city still need help and I can help them.”

“We can help them,” Cisco added.

Caitlin rolled her eyes and then she saw Wells wheeling into the Cortex. “Will you please say something?” she desperately asked him, everyone’s attention turning to him.

“I think what Caitlin is saying in her own spectacularly angry way is we're just beginning to understand what your body is capable of. Not to sound like a broken record, Mr. Allen, I do caution restraint,” said Wells.

“Dr. Wells, I doubt restraint is how you got to be the man you are today,” Barry commented.

“In a wheelchair and a pariah,” Wells said back. “Lack of restraint is what made me these things. Know your limits.”

“Don't expect me to patch you up every time you break something,” Caitlin said angrily to Barry before walking away, the latter confused at her tone.

Cisco went towards him. “Hey, uh, anything happen out there today?” he asked. “The sensors in the suit were kicking back weird telemetry. Your vitals spiked for a few seconds.”

“Never felt better,” said Barry with a shake of his head. “Where’s Alex, by the way?”

“Why?” Cisco asked with a knowing smile. “You miss her?”

“It’s not like that,” Barry denied while his cheeks heated up. “Well, you know, she’s been working here since I got struck by lightning but now she’s not going to S.T.A.R Labs anymore.”

“Alex was just hired as your nurse during your coma and when you woke up, you wouldn’t need her anymore,” answered Cisco. “That was the contract she had with us and now she’s working as a full-time nurse again, sad to say. I liked having her here.”

“Yeah... sad,” Barry said under his breath and Cisco gave him his phone.

Joe was calling him so he answered it. “Hey, Joe, everything all right?” he asked.

“Great,” Joe answered sarcastically. “I got a fresh crime scene, a dead body, detectives interviewing witnesses, yellow tape stretched over everything. I'm missing one thing. Can you guess what that is?”

Barry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll be right there,” he said before hanging up.

“My day job beckons,” he said to himself before speeding away to the crime scene.

“When do you think he'll realize he didn't take his clothes?” Wells asked Cisco and Caitlin as he looked at the spot were Barry was.

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

Alex was finally back in her mundane life as a nurse in Central City. However, her life wouldn’t be as normal as before since she met Barry. What was impossible before was now possible after the particle accelerator explosion and Barry’s newfound powers. Alex knew that it’s better to stay where she is and do her job in helping people as a nurse. It was going to be the last time she would ever delve into the affairs at S.T.A.R Labs.

However, she still keeps in contact with Caitlin and especially Cisco, who was giggling like a little girl in their recent phone call. Alex just finished lunch and she took out her phone to see that Cisco was calling her.

“Good morning, Ms. Alexandra Lee,” he greeted her.

“I’ve told you for nine months what I prefer to be called, which is just ‘Alex,’“ she said with a laugh. “But whatever floats your boat. So what’s up? Any cool stories you wanna share?”

“Barry’s doing pretty well,” answered Cisco. “He just saved people from a burning building downtown.”

“What a hero,” Alex commented. “Well, he fits the job.”

“He definitely does,” said Cisco. “After his mission this morning, he’s been asking where you are?”

“You guys didn’t tell him?”

“Caitlin and I thought you’d tell him but apparently, you didn’t. So we told him and he looked like a sad little puppy when we did.”

Alex was surprised. “What do you mean he was sad?” she asked Cisco.

“Duh, he misses you,” said Cisco.

“Why would he miss me?” Alex mumbled.

“Because he likes you!”

“We’re just friends, Cisco. If he likes anyone, it’s Iris. I mean, they’ve known each other for a long time.”

“He may like Iris but you were the one he was looking for,” Cisco retorted. “You were the one taking care of him most of the time when he was in a coma and you were the one that motivated him to be a hero. You’re basically his knight in shining scrubs.”

Alex laughed at the term. “Keep dreaming, Cisco,” she said. “It’s not gonna happen. I’m gonna go back to work now.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t hang up on me just yet, Alex--” Cisco said through the phone but Alex hung up before letting him continue.

As she was walking to her next set of rounds, her mind was preoccupied with Barry. He hasn’t contacted her much and she thought he might be busy especially since he’s working as a CSI and also starting to become a hero. She guessed that this is how it’s just meant to be. He was the hero of the city and she is just a nurse helping the rest of the citizens.

After finishing her rounds at the emergency ward, which was the last part of her shift, she received another phone call from Cisco. “What’s up?” she asked. “More fangirling about Barry?”

“Not fangirling but it’s about Barry and we need your help,” said Cisco urgently.

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

“You lied to us,” said Caitlin angrily. “How could you not tell us you're experiencing dizzy spells? We're your doctors. God knows what's going on inside your body.”

Barry was sitting on the bed and just looked down, letting Caitlin ramble on until he heard a voice call from the hallway to the Cortex.

“What’s going on?” it asked.

Barry looked up and he sat up straighter when he saw Alex enter the room. He thought she was not going to work in S.T.A.R Labs anymore now that he was awake.

“Alex?” Barry asked. “I thought you’re not working here anymore?”

“I’m not,” Alex answered. “But Cisco called me and told me you guys need help and that it’s urgent.”

Everyone then looked at Cisco. “We could use an extra pair of hands?” he said sheepishly, almost sounding like a question.

Alex rolled her eyes. This situation is Cisco’s way of trying to set her and Barry up. However, judging by Caitlin’s rambling that she heard from the hallway, something was definitely going on with Barry.

“Anyway,” Caitlin started again and ranted to Barry. “ Your cells are in a constant state of flux. You could be experiencing cardiopulmonary failure, or a transient ischemic attack.”

Barry looked at Caitlin with a confused expression and then turned to Alex for help. “Mini-stroke,” she clarified for him. “But it’s not the only reason for a dizzy spell. There are plenty of other reasons.”

“You, of all people, should know that in science, we share. We do not keep secrets,” Caitlin continued before walking away to calm down.

Alex had never seen Caitlin so angry before and it sent a chill down her spine. She just went towards Barry and put her hand on his shoulder to calm his nerves after being put on the spot by Caitlin. Barry seemed to be relaxed under her touch and he looked up to smile at her. Alex smiled back and then Barry pats her hand that was on his shoulder.

“Wow, I haven't seen anyone make her that angry since Ronnie,” Cisco commented before going somewhere else.

“Ronnie was Caitlin's fiance?” asked Barry. “The one that died the night of the accelerator explosion?”

“Yeah,” answered Wells. “He is missed...”

Barry, Wells, and Alex went silent for a moment, processing the fact that Caitlin was angry because Barry’s situation made her worry like how she worried about Ronnie at the night of the explosion.

“Now, let's figure out why this is happening to you,” said Wells as he moved his wheelchair to lead Barry and Alex.

“Need any help getting up?” asked Alex.

“No, I’m fine,” Barry answered as he hopped out of the hospital bed. “Thank you.”

They walked together to where Wells was leading them. He lead them to a room and inside was some sort of treadmill with piles of boxes behind it. Barry then changed to a S.T.A.R Labs sweater, sweatpants, and trainers.

“We’re all set,” Cisco said and Barry was quizzically staring at the boxes. “A little padding, just in case.”

“Yeah,” said Barry and Cisco went to the observation room where Wells, Caitlin, and Alex were.

Barry stepped onto the treadmill. “You sure about this, Cisco?“ he asked.

“Most home treadmills have a maximum speed of about 12 miles per hour,” answered Cisco from the observation room. “This one has been Cisco'ed. Trust me, it can handle your speed.”

“Okay,” said Barry. He started to jog when the treadmill started moving. Then, he started running as how he actually would. Alex observed his blurry figure running before looking at his vitals on Caitlin’s computer.

“Heart rate, blood pressure, nerve conduction all normal,” Caitlin reported.

“For Barry,” Wells added.

“Brainwave function within standard limits,” said Caitlin.

“Told you the treadmill could take it,” said Cisco with a giggle.

Alex, who was reading the vitals on Caitlin’s computer, found the problem. “Caitlin,” she called, making the mentioned look behind her. “Look at his glucose levels.”

Caitlin then checked Barry’s glucose levels on her computer and said, “Oh my God, of course.”

“Right?” said Alex.

“It’s so obvious,” said Caitlin.

Wells then talked to Barry through the microphone. “Barry, we think we know why you keep--” he said until Barry lost control and ended up flying backwards to the boxes behind him, surprising everyone.

“Passing out,” Wells continued.

Immediately, Alex opened the door leading to the treadmill room and pushed away the boxes that were on top of Barry. When they got the boxes off of him, Cisco and Caitlin helped Alex carry the unconscious speedster to the bed. Barry may be slim, but he was heavy.

Like what she did when he was in a coma, she checked his vitals and then she sat next to him afterwards. It was already dusk and Barry was awake again. Alex helped him sit up on the bed.

“I passed out again,” Barry groaned.

“Total metabolic failure brought on by acute hypoglycemia,” said Caitlin.

“I'm not eating enough,” said Barry as he got off the bed with Alex’s assistance. “So an l.V. bag and I'm good to go.”

Alex just laughed and showed Barry the forty I.V. bags waiting for him. “Try forty,” she said.

“Guess you were thirsty,” Wells commented.

“Given your speed and your metabolism, the regular ‘three meals a day with some snacks’ will just burn right through your system,” said Alex.

“We're gonna need to fashion you a diet based on your metabolic changes,” said Caitlin.

“You need to consume an amount equal to roughly 850 tacos,” said Cisco but then realized something. “Unless we're talking cheese and guac, which is like a whole other set of equations.”

“For Mexican, I recommend Tito's on Bruckner Avenue,” an unknown voice said and a familiar man entered the Cortex. “Best burrito in the city.”

It was Joe West, Barry’s adoptive father. “Detective West, what brings you to S.T.A.R. Labs?” asked Wells. “When I couldn't find you at your lab, I started doing a little research,” Joe said to Barry in particular. “Turns out, there's been reports of a red streak around the city,” he continued. “Stopping muggers, rescuing people from burning buildings.” Caitlin gave Barry a knowing look but the latter just ignored it. Wells tried to break the silence. “You... didn't tell him we were working together?” he asked Barry. “Joe, I can explain--” Barry tried to reason but was interrupted by Joe. “You already have a job in law enforcement, Barry. I suggest you get back to it,” he said.

“Mm-hm,” Caitlin quipped, earning a look from Joe.

“Don't look at me. I'm on your side,” she said. “Detective, we all want what's best for Barry,” said Wells. “If you wanted what was best for Barry, you'd talk him out of this instead of encouraging him going out there risking his life,” said Joe angrily. “You saw a man control the weather,” said Barry. “What are the police gonna do against someone like that?” “Since the accelerator explosion, we suspect there may more like him,” he continued. “And you're gonna do what?” asked Joe with crossed arms “Catch them? Are you insane? You think because you can run real fast that you're invincible? You're not. You're just a kid. My kid.”

With that last statement, Joe looked at Wells. The next thing Barry said shocked Alex. “I'm not your kid, Joe,” he said to his adoptive father, whose eyes are glistening. “And you're not my father.” Barry hopped off the table he was sitting on and continued, “My father is sitting in Iron Heights, wrongfully convicted. You were wrong about him and you're wrong about this. Now, I may not be able to help him but if I can save someone from a burning building or stop some armed thieves, I'm gonna do it. And you can't stop me. So don't try.”

Barry’s words felt heavy for Alex. At least he’s lucky to still have his real father and that he has another father figure, she thought. She then looked at Joe, who was trying to stop his tears and put up his pride. “You think you're so smart... All of you,” he said. “But you don't know what you don't know.” He turned to Wells and said, “And I hope that you're clever enough to figure it out before somebody gets killed.”

With one sorrowful look at Barry, Joe turned away and left the Cortex. Alex looked at the detective and she felt the amount of disrespect and sorrow that he felt from Barry’s words. It hit home for her and she couldn’t help but be angry towards Barry for disregarding whom he’s blessed to have.

“You’re so disrespectful,” Alex seethed.

“Disrespectful?” Barry asked, who is also still angry from what just happened. “He’s not my father, Alex. My father is in prison, wrongfully convicted for my mother’s murder. Joe was the one being disrespectful by making himself my father when I already have one.”

“At least you have someone, Barry!” Alex yelled and Barry fell silent as he just witnessed an angry Alex. Her usually calming eyes suddenly became terrifying and it almost scared him.

“I lost both of my parents when I was fourteen and I had no one,” she continued. “I was alone, jumping from foster home to foster home because no one wanted me. I had to rely on myself and it served me well after I graduated. The only family I have is myself and eventually, the friends I made.”

Alex went towards Barry, looking into his eyes. The latter noticed her eyes changed. Before, they were angry as if there was fire in them. Now, they began to soften and her voice became gentle again.

“Family isn’t just about blood, Barry,” she said. “It’s also about being there for each other, caring for each other, trusting each other. It’s also a choice... and Joe chose to love you and care for you when your real dad wasn’t there. He has every right to be concerned for you. And now that you have this whole team behind you, they also have that right.”

Alex didn’t say anymore words and silence enveloped the room. She just grabbed her bag and coat and then left the building. Cisco watched her figure disappear into the hallway. His little attempt in getting her and Barry to interact again was a complete failure. Meanwhile, Barry was stung by Alex’s words but his recklessness reigned and he kept his pride up.

#the flash #fanfic #barry allen #iris west #cisco ramon #caitlin snow #joe west #harrison wells #eobard thawne #original character #series #cw series #arrowverse

1 note · View note