#anyway one time my brother gave me a donut and told me it was a moon rock but its edible and i bit it so so SO carefully. HSJDJVJB

[kamil-a]

never want to be the annoying exception on a legitimately funny and cute post but its funny to remember how much you absolutely could not do this kind of thing to me as a kid

[tsunderedoctor]

If it's not too much trouble, could I ask for an emergency request? My grandparents passed away two and some years ago. I know people say time is supposed to lessen the pain, but today is my birthday and I still hurt. They would always call me on my birthday, first thing in the morning to sing happy birthday to me, and it still breaks my heart that I didn't wake up to that today. I just... They were among the few who I believed actually loved me, ya know? And this is the one thing that hits hardest. Anyways, I'm sorry to ramble at you, could I maybe request Law, Katakuri, Benn or Marco just comforting someone crying? But not romantically? I just want to feel small and loved again.

I will do my very best on this!! So, I kind of made it to where the reader was maybe a sibling figure to these characters. I hope that’s okay!! I love you so much!!💜💜

Seeing your crying face reminds him of Lami, a dark part of his past he always tries to push down. Staring at your shaking figure, the brunet glares at the floor, uncertainty finding it’s way in his blood. 

Patting your shoulder softly, the man sat next to you as you turned to face  him. Your eyes puffy and red from crying. “You can talk about it, if you want I mean.”

His voice held a shaky grasp, but his eyes shown that he was serious, he was here for you and would listen to whatever you needed to say. Reaching out to the older man, you gave him a hug. His body already going stiff as you cried on his shoulder, damn this brought back memories.

Letting out a sigh, the man only patted your back once more as you got comfortable by his side. Even if he hated to admit it, you were still family and for that he would be there.

It wasn’t something new to the man, his younger siblings always came to him for advice or some form of protection and comfort, usually from their mother. So seeing your crying face, he accepted it whole heartedly and let you in his room. 

Expressing yourself to the large man, you told him your past, how your family was gone but you wanted them to be near again. Part of him could understand that, with everything happening in the world and the fall of his mother, it seemed like his own family was falling apart. 

Handing you a donut, he let out a sigh as he took a bite of his own. “There isn’t much we can do to change the past, but let’s try to make a better future together.”

Using the rest of his break time to sit with you, he smiled softly as you told him stories of your family and how they made you the person you are today. 

Always the patient one in the group of pirates, he didn’t raise a brow as you came to him with wet eyes and a disheveled face. Believe it or not, he was used to this, Shanks sometimes coming to him drunk, moping about the past and how he was getting old. 

Putting out the cigarette, he only hummed in thought as he listened to you speak. Unfortunately, he couldn’t relate, family wasn’t something he was fond of, but you always managed to be his soft spot. 

Leaning against the railing of the deck, he spoke softly. “I might not be able to fix this, but know we all care for you and are here for you, we are your family now too.”

Comforting people was never his strong suit, but he would do his best for you. Ruffling your hair, he grabbed two beers, handing one to you as you toasted to new family. 

Ah, those tears reminded him of his freckled crewmember and friend, a younger brother he came to love, just as he loves you. Giving you a patient smile, he waited for you to speak up about the problems clouding your mind as he nodded in understanding. 

“Ace was the same way, while Pops was able to help him, he isn’t here for you. But as acting captain, I suppose I’ll take you under my wing.” Cracking a wry smile, the man walked ahead as you followed after him. 

Smiling once more as you two were side by side, he stared out at the ocean. Listening to you ask questions about the old commander, someone you hadn’t gotten a chance to meet yet. 

Spending the rest of the afternoon together, you both spoke about your loved ones and how you treasured them. Marco found himself smiling more as you began to look more energetic and alive, maybe being captain wasn’t so hard after all.

[animefankotaro]

Trans Phineas and Isabella

Phineas and Isabella become friends as soon as they met. Phineas was a smart kid. He was always building things in his backyard with his brother Ferb. Isabella would always give them a helping hand being a Fireside Girl and all. But before they were Phineas and Isabella they had different names that they'd like to forget. When they were little Phineas was a girl and Isabella was a boy. Or least they that's how everyone saw them. Phineas usually preferred pants or shorts. He didn't hate dresses or shorts he just didn't care for them. He kept his hair short for a girl. Linda just saw it as a phase like those emo kids. Isabella could be pretty girly loving dresses. More than anything did she want to be a Fireside Girl. Of course they were called that for a reason and she was a boy so she couldn't join. By spending time with each other they soon found out they were similar.

“Can you hand me the screwdriver next?” Phineas asked Isabella. She gave it to him.

“Hammer.” Isabella gave him the hammer.

“Donut.”

“Donut?” Isabella questioned.

“A kids gotta eat.” Phineas took a bite out of it. Isabella giggled.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Isabella asked.

“If it's where Perry goes I don't know actually.” “No. It's different. You know how you prefer to have your hair short and wear pants?” Phineas nodded. “Well. Me too. Though rather than have short hair I want mine to be long. I also wanna wear dresses. I- I think I'm a girl.” Isabella said. Phineas looked at her.

“Really? Because, well, I think I'm a boy.” This surprised Isabella. “How long have you felt this way?” Phineas asked.

“A while. I think I realized it when I wanted to join the Fireside Girls but was told I couldn't.”

“I think I've felt like this since meeting Ferb. I always wanted a brother. Now I realize I also wanna be one too.”

“So you feel like you're a boy?” Isabella asked. Phineas nodded

“Yeah. I haven't old anyone yet. Not even Ferb. Though it wouldn't surprise me if he does know. Only you do. It's actually nice to know another person like me.”

“I know. For a long time I felt scared to tell anyone. Now that I know that we're alike we can talk and support teach other. We only have each other after all.” Isabella said the last part with a smile. She's had a crush on him for a while. He was smart, funny, and of course handsome. Though he didn't seem to notice.

“You're right!!”

“I am?” Isabella blushed.

“We do only have each other. Now that we're out to one another we can support each other by telling everyone we know!”

“What do you mean.” Isabella felt a little down knowing he didn't seem to have the same feelings.

“You feel like a girl. I feel like a boy. I'll help you come out and you help me. Than we won't be alone anymore!” Phineas said with glee.

“Tell everyone? I don't know... What if they hate me.”

“Then you'll still have me. I promise. I also know they won't hate you too. Let's do it together!” Phineas held out his hand. Isabella smiled and took it.

“By the way.” Phineas asked. “What's your girl name?”

“Oh.. it's uh... Isabella.” Her heart skipped.

“That's a beautiful name. It fits you.” Isabella blushed. “You can call me Phineas.”

“Phineas?” Isabella giggled. “What kind of name is that?”

“I named myself after Phileas Fogg. For the longest time I though it was “Phineas” rather than Phileas.” Isabella laughed again.

“All right then Phineas it is.”

So the two friends decided to do just that. They decided on Ferb first. They were already practically brothers anyway. They could then tell Candace, the other kids they spend time with, and then their parents. While working on a project Phineas and Isabella told Ferb.

“Hey, Ferb. There's something I need to tell you.” Phineas said. “Ferb looked at him blankless. “I'm a boy. I wanna be your brother for now on. I've always thought of us as brothers rather than brother and sister. My real name is Phineas. I hope we can still be partners.”

“I'm trans too. Except I'm a girl. My name is Isabella” Isabella said.

“You're okay with that, right.” Phineas asked. Ferb was quiet a moment before talking.

“Is that all? I thought you were going to say something crazy like you don't want to build anymore.”

“So you are okay with it.” Phineas was glad. Ferb nodded. Phineas was happy to have Ferb. Next was Candace.

“Hey Candace. Can I make a confession.” Phineas said. Candace got from her seat and walked to Phineas.

“What kind of confession?”

“It's something I've been hiding from you and mom and dad for a long time.” Candace started jumping in place like crazy. She took out a tape recorder and put it to Phineas face.

“Confess up so I can finally bust you!” Candace smiled.

“I'm a boy. My name is Phineas. I wanna be your brother for now on.”

“YES. BUSTED BUSTED BUSTED... wait what.”

“And I'm a girl. My name is Isabella.”

“You don't hate me do you?” Phineas asked.

“Of course not. It's not much that I do this but come here.” Candace hugged her new brother. Next they told the other kids. They all took it rather well. The FireSide Girls said they would help get Isabella in the group. Now it was their parents. Lawernce, Linda, and Vivian. They were all in the back drinking some iced tea and talking. Both Phineas and Isabella walked up to them.

“Mom. There's something I need to tell you.” Phineas said.

“If it's where Perry is I don't know where he ran off to, sweetie.”

“No. It's something else. You know how I like to wear boys clothes and have short hair? Linda took a sip of the tea.

“It's all right. Your dad and I talked it over. We know you want to be a boy.”

“You do?” Phinieas looked surprised.

“Yes. And we support you. We've known for a while. We were just waiting for when you were ready.” Lawrence said.

“I don't know what to say but thank you.” Phineas smiled. Vivian looked over to Isabella

“Is there something you want to say, kiddo.”

“Yes, mom. I'm a girl. My real name is a Isabella. I've always felt like a girl and will do anything to be your daughter.” Vivian nodded.

“I know. I've also known for a while now. I can tell you've been in my closet. You're Isabella my beautiful daughter.” She and Isabella hugged.

“Oh, mom.”

“And I think it's time I sighed you up for the Fireside Girls.” The family all had tea together and talked when a platypus walked up to them.

“Oh. There you are Perry.” Phineas said.

[everysongineverykey]

I'M DONE. HERE. TAKE THESE CHAPTER 2 THOUGHTS AND RUN, BABY.

so i'll try to go in order here. uhhhh... there's a LOT i have to say. first: toriel giggling sprite my beloved

on that note, ALL THE NEW SUSIE SPRITES MY BELOVEDS

NOELLE YOU'RE SO GAY. I THINK THIS IS PROBABLY JUST BECAUSE I TOLD HER TO IN CHAPTER ONE BUT SHE GAVE SUSIE THE LUNCHBOX FULL OF CHALK!! I LOVE ITTTT

ralsei's, uh... kinda sus. the whole "recruiting" thing REALLY sketches me out. and he looks kinda... smug, all the time, like he knows what's going on.

LANCER JOINED! ROUXLS JOINED EVEN THOUGH NO ONE WANTED THAT! STARWALKER JOINED, TO EVERYONE'S JOY!

LIBRARY PORTALLLL

so before i entered the city there was that pre-city area? that looked very much like the city? except it had different music? and i thought they'd cut welcome to the city and i was SEVERELY disappointed. but then they didn't! just something i wanted to mention

NOELLE!!

throughout this game i went from despising berdly to feeling bad for him to not really liking him again, but not hating him as much as before. he'd better stay the fuck away from susie though

the queen is the best villain. she's the kind you love to hate! she's literally so funny AND her boss battle is actually tough (rip to the king but he just. wasn't a formidable enemy at all lol)

THE GANG CHARLIE BROWN DANCING TO WIN A FIGHT! SUSIE GAINING THE POWER TO ACT THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF WILL! SUSIE FORCING RALSEI TO LEARN TO ACT EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN'T WANT TO! THAT ENTIRE BATTLE WAS AMAZING! THE "BATTLE WON" END DANCING SEQUENCE! GOING INSANE GOING INSANE

the puzzles in this chapter were genuinely really impressive! i especially loved the word search puzzles and the ice-ee undertale word search reference💙

that being said. the mouse puzzles were SO fucking infuriating. i caused poor noelle a LOT of grief with those and i feel bad.

SPEAKING OF NOELLE!! the scene where she and kris are walking through the puzzle, the one that spells "december", and she's talking about when they were kids, how she loved sneaking out? beautiful. the cinnamon tography <3 also i guessed dess's full name was december a while ago and while i guess it was obvious, it's nice to have that confirmed!

also, i love that susie and ralsei are real friends in this chapter! he taught her a healing spell!!

ugh. fucking berdly. so smug and pretentious. i love queen's desire to be as far away from him as possible though

i also like his backstory. it gives his behavior, even if it's still annoying, at least some context. i get the feeling of feeling like if you're not smart, people will forget about you, and that's scary.

ALSO ALSO. GAMER BERDLY. LITERALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT IS PERFECT. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GAMER!" "i only play mobile games, berdly." "NOOOOOO!" like i ADORE that

anyways. time for me to talk about the only thing that matters in this world: suselle. i mean, did the gays win in this chapter or DID THE GAYS WIN IN THIS CHAPTER?? THEY RODE A HEART-COVERED FERRIS WHEEL AND HAD A HEARTFELT, TENSION-FILLED CONVERSATION!

"did you ever wonder why the real susie never picked on you? well, maybe it's because... when you were both new to class, you lent her one of your pencils, like... maybe a dumb one with candy canes on it or something, and... even though it didn't actually taste like candy, she... remembered your smile." okay god thanks toby it's not like i needed my heart or anything

SERIOUSLY. TOBY "i'm gonna give the gays everything they want" FOX IS BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGER LADS

QUEEN'S BOSS BATTLE! ACTUALLY TOUGH, UNLIKE KING'S! AND GIGA QUEEN! I'M GOING INSANE THAT WAS SO SICK AND SO HARD

the way my heart BROKE when lancer turned to stone good god thank GOD our boy's okay

AND ROUXLS KAARD IN HIS PIRATE DUCK!! WITH HIS LITTLE HAT! DEMANDING THE QUEEN MAKE HIM BUTLER SUPREMETH! I LOVE HIM MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF

also!! kris and ralsei's little moment on the swan boat💙 i wasn't a kralsei shipper before but uh... that may be starting to change

it's hard because ralsei's still suspicious but at the same time i love him and want him to be happy. i don't know how to feel

also, if darkners outside of their dark worlds turn to stone after a while, why didn't ralsei? that's, uhhh... VERY sus. very weird. mr fox i need ANSWERS

WE FINALLY HAVE A WAY TO SAVE AFTER WE'VE FINISHED MOST OF THE EPILOGUE LADS. REJOICE!!

seriously the thing that peeved me about ch1 was that the last save point was on the battle stage and if i wanted to play the epilogue again, i had to. do that entire battle all over. BUT NOW THAT'S BEEN FIXED!!

UNDYNE AND ALPHYS HAVE MET UNDYNE AND ALPHYS HAVE MET THIS IS NOT A DRILL UNDYNE GAVE HER A BOX OF CANDIES EVERYBODY SHUT UP THEY'RE IN LOVE ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD

ALSO! NEAR THE BEGINNING! I FORGOT TO MENTION THE LITTLE WHITE DOG DOING DONUTS IN A TOY RACE CAR AND BACKING UP TRAFFIC! THANK YOU LITTLE WHITE DOG!

on that note: "looks like a car. this one has a man in it. he waves at you happily." AND THEN THE MAN'S GONE??? HEY TOBY???

ALSO. THE SEGMENT WHERE THE ANNOYING DOG HELPS US FIND THE KEY THROUGH THE POWER OF WANTON DESTRUCTION. THE BEST PLOT DEVICE!

TORIEL TEACHING SUSIE TO MAKE PIE STOP ITTTTT

and yes yes i KNOW kris slashed toriel's tires. that was extremely troubling. but THEY MADE PIE TOGETHER!!

"leave the chalk alone, kris" TORIEL!!

sans and toriel making egg puns and asgore running in and going "don't forget me, your eggs-husband!" is the FUNNIEST sitcom moment type thing ever. GOD.

on the other hand sans let me meet your brother god dammit i'll kill you

METTATONNNNNNN

RUDY... "who got you these flowers?" "is it weird for a married man to get flowers?" "so your wife did?" "oh, no! kris's dad did!" "...not even gonna try to understand this..." TOBY STOP ITTTT YOU'RE GIVING THE ASGORUDY SHIPPERS FALSE HOPE. YOU KNOW YOU'RE JUST GONNA KILL RUDY. YOU'RE JUST RUBBING SALT IN THE WOUND!

NUBERT! MY MAN!

seeing kris repeatedly they-themmed by multiple characters makes me so happy <3 poor kid... "college summer vacation when" "you opened the door with your eyes closed. you saw nothing" kris....

KRIS...

fucking. BLACK FOG STORM IN THE LIVING ROOM KRIS STOP IT. HOW'RE THEY GONNA REVEAL THIS WAS INNOCENT? THE KNIFE IN CHAPTER ONE WAS EASY BUT HOW WILL THEY EXPLAIN THIS

the staticy tv appearing in the dark and a toothy smile slowly fading into view in the center and lingering there ominously for far too long >>>>>>> every hollywood horror movie ever god. GOD

snowy and monster kid checking out the red door. implying there's something in there. something that kris knows about. knowing we won't get any more deltarune content for 5+ years does NOT fill me with determination

also. gaster's symbolic theme being mus_smile. and the final image in the game being a smile. god. gaster's COMING lads.

onionsan hears a song at night... a familiar song... memory, perhaps? or maybe a certain... four-note arpeggio that's hidden in a sound test room in undertale? who knows? guess we'll just have to wait for chapters 3/4/5.

this concludes my ramblings for now, but don't get it twisted- this is FAR from the last post i'll make about ch2. this whole chapter was absolutely amazing! brilliant! showstopping!! i'm genuinely soooo super impressed and excited for the chapter 3/4/5 bundle!!!

[datleggy]

Totally random thought I had right as I am going to bed but ya know that show "I didn't know I was pregnant"? Buck would be on that show lol the boy is oblivious when it comes to his own body, so like I can perfectly picture him collapsing on the job one day wracked with pain, and then Hen is poking around his stomach where it hurts, her, Buck and Eddie packed into the back of the ambulance as Chim and Bobby drive to the hospital, and she gets out the stethoscope to try and listen for internal bleeding or anything but instead finds an infant heartrate and she's like "Buck, you're pregnant?" And he's like "uh, no? What the hell?" And then his water breaks and he tries to convince hen and Eddie that he had an accident bc even that would be a better alternative to suddenly figuring out he's about to have a baby???? What the fuck???? But Eddie holds his hand all the way through it and by the time they get to the hospital, Buck has a healthy newborn cradled against his chest, Eddie knelt beside him and alternating between kissing buck and the baby on the head, and observing the baby in disbelief. I can also picture Buck like, sobbing his sorry's to Eddie the entire time he's pushing, like "Eddie I swear I had no idea, if I had known, I would have told you!" And Eddie is just reassuring him the entire time like "don't worry about that now, Buck, just concentrate. No one is mad, okay? But you gotta focus on the- on the baby" and buck just sobs and nods and focuses on the delivery again. But for a good while Buck is in denial that any of this is happening and it takes a lot of convincing and encouragement from both hen and Eddie for him to start actively participating in his baby's birth. Anyways, random half asleep thought is finished sorry for the long ask hdshsjjsjdbsjsj

WELL SHIT ok so i actually love that show and i could see buck doing this lmao so i wrote a thing. also ignore all medical inaccuracies, this is my distraction from monday lmao let me have this wildly inept fic pls. 

also just in case, it’s pretty brief, i think, but TW for talk of weight and weight gain

It's nearing the end of their shift now and Buck can almost hear his feet howling at him in pain. Today hadn't even really been all that busy, he thinks, annoyed at his own body's betrayal. He's not even thirty yet, but in the last couple of months he's felt as though he's aged about ten years.

He's put on a few pounds, which isn't too uncommon, sometimes Buck goes through stretches of time where he eats more carbs than he needs and works out less than he'd like and so a little tummy fat is to be expected.

It normally doesn't bother him, except that in the last maybe three months he hasn't felt like exercising much outside of work but he's eaten nearly everything in sight every night. He's up about fifteen pounds, which he wouldn't have even noticed, seeing that he does fluctuate at times anywhere between five to eight pounds over or under what he usually weighs, if it hadn't been for Chimney teasing him about putting down his third Krispy Kreme donut of the day and picking up a barbell earlier this morning.

Chim and Buck poke fun at each other all the time--it's a staple in their friendship and brother ship, in fact--and Buck had flipped him the bird, nothing new there. What had been new was the fact that he'd excused himself to the bathroom right after that and locked himself in a stall and bawled his eyes out as quietly as humanly possible.

Buck grimaces, embarrassed still, by the outburst, even if no one had been there to witness it. He still has no idea what the hell that had been about this morning.

Eddie notices the sour mood and pulls him in close. "Hey, you ok?"

Buck nods. "Yeah, just tired. Ready to go home--shit." Buck feels a shooting pain so intense his knees buckle and Eddie has to hold him upright to keep him from hitting the floor. 

“Woah!” Eddie calls Bobby over, who’s closest, for help, “Buck? Buck, you with me? What’s wrong? What hurts?” 

Buck just shakes his head and grits his teeth, the pain so debilitating he can hardly breathe much less speak. 

The Captain is on his other side in an instant and together Eddie and Bobby help Buck towards the couch, where he collapses in a heap, throwing his head back and letting out an agonized whine. “What’s going on? Did he get hurt during one of the calls?” Bobby asks Eddie, frantic to help put a stop to this. 

Eddie’s helpless, “Bobby I don’t know, one second we were talking about going home and the next he practically fell to the floor in pain.” he turns to face his husband, “Baby, I’m here, look at me, what’s the matter? What hurts?” 

Buck’s face scrunches up and he finally exhales sharply, his grip on the couch cushions loosening, and he opens his eyes, wide like saucers, and says, “What the fuck was that?” 

At this point Hen and Chim, as well as half the crew, have gathered around and Hen is quick to put on her doctors hat and try to sus out the problem. She makes Bobby step aside and Chimney hands her a stethoscope. “Buck, is it your stomach?” she asks, noticing the stiff way he’s holding himself around his midriff. 

“I don’t--kinda? I don’t know. It was just like, this crazy wave of pain, almost like a cramp, but way worse.” he struggles to describe the feeling now that it’s more or less passed for the time being.  

Hen had seen Buck wince when he’d been in the harness on the last call of the day, but he hadn’t said anything and she hadn’t thought too much about it until now. “Did you hurt yourself in the harness earlier? Maybe pulled something when we reeled you back up?” she asks, palpitating his stomach with her fingers, watching him almost retract from her touch. 

“Maybe?” Buck shrugs uncomfortably, wincing when she hits a particularly sore spot. 

Something about this feels familiar and strangely obvious, but Hen doesn’t understand why until she puts her stethoscope up to his belly to check for lack of bowel sounds, indicating maybe some internal bleeding or sorts. 

Hen gasps out loud and sits up like she’s been smacked. 

Eddie frowns. “What? What’s wrong? Is he gonna be ok?” He almost wants to snatch the damn stethoscope out of her ears and check for himself, his eyes darting between Hen and Buck nervously. 

“Buck, you’re pregnant. And in labor, by the sounds of it.” Hen blurts out in disbelief. 

“What.” Buck blinks at her, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This has to be a joke. 

“I heard a heartbeat in there...” Hen informs them, still awed. “Buck, that was a contraction you just experienced.” 

Eddie gapes at Hen and then at Buck. “You’re pregnant?” 

Buck gapes right back at him. “No!” he denies, shaking his head incredulously. “That’s insane, I can’t be pregn--ah--” Buck leans forward in pain as another contraction begins. “Fuck.” 

“Jesus, yeah, no you’re definitely pregnant,” Chim announces, “Your water just broke all over my favorite couch, bud. I’m getting the ambulance ready asap.” he says, before running to do just that, head reeling. He thinks about Maddie and when she gave birth to their daughter and how scared out of his mind he’d been and he sympathizes for Buck and Eddie, who up until now apparently hadn’t even realizes they were expecting... 

Back at the lounge Buck continues to deny any of this is even happening. He whines into Eddie’s chest, “That’s pee, it has to be, because I’m not pregnant. There’s no way.” he lets out a pitiful whimper as another contraction begins and buries his face against his husband to hide the tears springing up in his eyes. 

“Buck, son, we gotta get you to a hospital right now.” Bobby tries, running a soothing hand over the top of his head. 

But Buck shakes his head no, shuddering out a sob. “M’not going.” 

Eddie, overwhelmed, looks to Hen and Bobby for help. 

“Buck, ambulance is ready to go, we need to move unless you wanna have this kid at the firehouse.” Hen grimaces. “I know you’re in pain and I know you’re confused and hurting, but we need to get you into that ambulance and now.” 

Buck cries out when another contraction hits him and Hen gulps. “Your contractions are getting way too close together, we need to move.” she nods at her Captain and Eddie to help get Buck up and together the three of them manage to get Buck onto a gurney and into the waiting ambulance.

Bobby rides up front with Chimney, leaving Hen and Eddie to work in the back with Buck. 

“Buck, you need to start getting ready to push, this baby’s coming.” Hen warns him, but Buck refuses. 

“I can’t.” he sobs. “I didn’t--” he throws his head back, the pain lighting his nerves on fire. “I swear Eddie, I didn’t know. You gotta believe me.”

Eddie takes Bucks hand into his and brings it up to his lips. “I know baby, I know, you don’t have to worry about that. I promise. Nobody is mad at you, ok? I’m not. But right now you need to focus on pushing, you need to listen to Hen, ok? We’re ok, and you’re gonna be ok, but I need you to push, baby. I love you so much, you know that, right?” 

Buck lets Eddie wipe away his tears, leans into the comforting touch, and nods shakily, exhaling. “O-ok, I’m--I’m ready.” 

.

.

.

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

.

.

.

The baby is so very tiny in Eddie’s arms. 

Olive Buckley-Diaz is born weighing exactly six pounds and two ounces. 

Christopher, who’s curled up against Bucks side on the hospital bed after a very exhausting day, looks up at his Buck, his little brow still knitted in confusion. “So she was a surprise baby? And that’s how come you guys didn’t tell me about her?” 

Buck tries not to laugh. “Yeah bud, it was a huge surprise to us, too.” 

Eddie nods along, smiling fondly down at the bundle he’s holding. Her blotchy red face is slack in sleep and there’s already tufts of brown hair sticking up funnily on her head under her hat. “I still can’t believe you only gained like fifteen pounds during the whole pregnancy.” Eddie chuckles, “Or that you worked through the nine months, God Buck, when I think of the stunts you pulled during calls in the last few months alone I’m--” he shudders. “Actually I’d rather not think about it.” he sighs, “I’m just happy you’re both healthy at the end of the day.” 

Really, it’s a miracle. The doctor had said as much after the delivery. 

“To be fair I never got any of the other symptoms,” Buck shrugs. “I wasn’t nauseous, my feet never swelled, I don’t remember any weird cravings? And you said it yourself, I didn’t really gain all that much weight.” 

Eddie leans down to kiss Buck’s forehead. “You should be on that show.” he grins. 

Buck tilts his head. 

“You know the one, the one Hen made us watch when work was slow that one time. ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant’.” he teases. 

Buck groans. “I regret all the jokes I made at the time. I totally get those people now. Pregnancy is weird.” 

Christopher rests his head more comfortably against Bucks chest and smiles softly. “Yeah, but now our family’s even bigger.” 

.

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

En Tennyson Anything

Pairing: Pre-Established; Ben Tennyson x Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2.5k words

Summary: Ever wonder how Ben Tennyson’s kid got it’s name?

A/N: Did anyone ask for it? No. Should this have remained in my head? Yes. Should I have not wasted my time when I’m supposed to be studying for my mock chemistry Final? Probably. Did I do it anyway? Absolutely. Is anyone’s opinion going to change my mind? Absolutely NOT.

“No! Forget about it! I refuse to name our child En Anything!” You said firmly, walking away from your husband to the living room. Just like you knew he would but wished he wouldn’t, he followed you, all while whining pitifully.

“Babe, please! Ren or Jen Tennyson? How adorable is that?”

“Look, you already named our dog Sphen Tennyson, that’s all you get!”

“Are you comparing our child to a dog right now?”

You snorted and rolled your eyes, pointing to the TV remote. It was second nature for him to grab the remote for you and you proceeded to ignore him in favour of your favourite series.

“Babe, come on, Kevin got to name his son Devlin!”

“That’s only cuz Gwen bet that it was going to be a girl! I on the other hand am refusing to name our child, boy or girl, En Tennyson!”

“It’s a family tradition babe!”

“No way! That name brings enough trouble as it is!”

“And yet you took it!”

“Because if I hadn’t your mother would’ve killed me. But I asked her and she said it was totally my decision to name our child whatever. And I choose anything other than En Anything.”

He threw himself on the couch with a huff, leaning against your belly and placing a hand on it, “Your mom is mean.”

You flicked his ear, “Don’t say that to our child!”

He chuckled, pressing a few kisses to your bump, “You want to be named Ren or Jen, right? Kick if you agree.”

You waited a couple of seconds in silence and when you felt nothing you couldn’t help but laugh at the betrayed look on Ben’s face. Usually whenever Ben talked to the baby, it was all too happy to kick around in response.

But it seemed like even the baby hated the name.

“Traitor.”

***

“I really wish I didn’t have to go.” Ben murmured, pulling you into his arms. You sighed, relishing in his warmth and leaning against his frame. A hand came to cradle your head as he tilted your face towards his and captured your lips in a kiss.

“It’s okay, the universe needs you.”

“Yeah, but you need me more than them.” He mumbled, kissing you again and you chuckled, “I’m sure I can survive a few days.”

“But you’re near your due date.”

You knew he was anxious to leave you alone so close to your due date. The grip he had on your hands was an indication to just how hard this was for him. He was worried about leaving the two of you home alone.

“It’s going to be okay, love. Besides, it’s not like I’m alone, I have your parents and Grandpa Max to look after me.”

“And my brother promised to check in on her a couple of times too.” Gwen spoke up from behind you and you nodded.

“Call me when you’re done.” You said, wrapping your arms around his neck. He peppered kisses along your shoulder as a goodbye.

“Call me if anything happens, okay?” He asked and you nodded, smiling when he bent down to say goodbye to your child.

“Don’t trouble your mom too much, okay? And don’t be born until I get back. Okay?” He asked and just like you knew it would, the baby kicked hearing Ben’s voice and the two of you laughed.

“We’ll be just fine.” You reassured, kissing him one final time before sending him off with a smile, “Be safe, I love you.”

***

It wasn’t long after Ben left when it started to snow heavily. The roads were quickly covered with sleet and snow decorated the window. So, you curled up with a warm hot chocolate, bundled up in Ben’s jacket by the window and had the radio playing.

Retro, but it was just what you needed to stop worrying about Ben.

You were nearly done with your cup when you heard the doorbell ring and wondered if you absolutely had to get up. Your feet were already kind of sore and you didn’t feel like moving. The doorbell rang again and you groaned, shuffling off the bed and grumbled all the way to the doorway.

When you opened it, Gwen’s brother was standing there with a small smile and a box of donuts.

“Hey, I got you those donuts you like.”

You have him a smile, inviting him inside, “Thank you, Ken. You really didn’t have to.”

“I promised Gwen and Ben that I would look after you.”

“Well, it looks like you’re stuck here,” You said, looking out the window and noticing how the police where shutting them down for everyone’s safety, “The roads are closed.”

He looked at the scene over your shoulder and released a breath, “I’m kind of relieved. I just parallel parked the car between 2 giant vans and I really didn’t want to have to bring it out of there.”

You giggled, “Lucky you then.”

The two of you didn’t waste any time, opening the box of donuts and digging in.

“So, any names for the newest Tennyson?” Ken asked, finishing his Jelly-filled one as you bit into the one with chocolate sprinkles.

“Well, Ben wants to name it either Ren or Jen but I hate the idea.”

Ken laughed, “What about you?”

“Well, I wanted to name it Max if he was boy,” You started, a hand unconsciously coming to rub your belly when you felt your baby move slightly. Almost as if he knew you were talking about it, “But Grandpa Max thinks that we shouldn’t.”

“Why not? I mean, I’d be pretty honoured if someone wanted to name their child after me.”

“Right? But Max thinks that his name would bring about bad luck. As if the last name isn’t bad luck enough.” You sighed and grabbed the last donut just as Ken was reaching for it. He raised a judgmental brow and you scoffed.

“I’m pregnant, what’s your excuse?”

***

Ken stayed the rest of the night, sleeping in one of the guest rooms and when the two of you woke up, you realized that it had snowed the whole night. The roads were covered in snow that was feet deep and you watched from the top of Tennyson Tower as a team of pyronites tried to clear them away.

It seemed in vain however, because it looked like the drainage system was frozen over and it would be difficult to get all the snow out without causing a flood.

You found yourself missing your husband more than you expected. With the snow and the cold, you wanted someone to cuddle up to. Someone to hold.

The baby had definitely noticed Ben’s absence. You couldn’t really tell how but something in your soul told you that it missed its father. Just as you did.

But the baby didn’t know that Ben was off world for a mission and light years away from the two of you. The baby had no idea that kicking and being fussy wouldn’t get him here faster even though it showed you just how uncomfortable it was.

Maybe that’s why it decided to come out and check for itself.

You weren’t sure what you felt at first. It was just a little discomfort for you but the spell quickly passed without much notice.

The second contraction made sure to let you know that it was there.

You held onto Ken’s arm in surprise and he took his eyes off the screen to look at you. You were staring blankly at the screen and he shifted in his seat to grab your hand.

“Everything okay?”

“I think I just had a contraction.” You whispered, feeling slightly panicked. A lot of emotions were rushing through your head; how you didn’t want to do this without Ben, how you didn’t want to do this, how you couldn’t do this with the roads blocked, and wondering whether this was actually labour.

“What? Oh, shit, okay, just relax. Has your water broken?” Ken was surprisingly calm even though you just told him you might be having your baby. He merely patted your hand reassuringly and grabbed his phone.

“I—I don’t think so.”

“Okay then we got some time, just relax.”

You knew all this. You went to the classes. You read the books. But as soon as you felt the first contraction, your mind went blank. All you did was nod as Ken dialled in your mother-in-law’s number and told her what was going on.

“How are we gonna get to the hospital?” You whispered, feeling panic rise and Ken brought you in for a comforting hug, “Don’t worry about it, we got some time. I’ll call Grandpa Max and ask him if he can dispatch a couple of hover cars or at least get some Heatblast’s to clear the road. Everything will be just fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep, worst comes to worst, we’ll have to get a doctor up here. It’ll be okay. Just watch some TV for now.”

“How do you know so much about this? You seem oddly calm.”

Ken blushed, “I read up on it a lot when Gwen was pregnant to make sure that if I was with her when it happened then I wouldn’t be floundering.”

You gave him a smile, “That’s sweet.”

***

“Okay, just breathe. Breathe. You’re doing great!” Ken whispered, letting you grip his hands as he talked you through another contraction. After he called up Grandpa Max, it didn’t take long before they managed to bring you to the hospital. Your water broke soon after that and the contractions got more painful.

“Where’s Ben!” You cried out, clenching your teeth. Ken began wiping your tears and sweat away.

“We haven’t been able to reach him yet, he’s still in battle. He’ll get the message soon enough and come home, (Y/N), don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t have this baby without him, Ken. I can’t. Can you tell the doctors to keep it in?” You sobbed and he chuckled lightly, pecking your temple, “We can’t keep it in, honey, but Aunt Sandra and Uncle Carl are on their way. So is Grandpa Max.”

“Why is this taking so long!!” You whimpered. Ken was carefully wiping away all your tears, “I thought the miracle of birth was supposed to be beautiful! Why is it so slow and so painful!”

He laughed and you sent him a glare but he knew it was harmless, “Well that’s the human race for you.”

“What a bunch of bastards.”

***

“I’m here! I’m here!” Ben shouted, bolting through the hallways, running into multiple people until he finally made it outside your delivery room. He was running too fast and ended up crashing into his father’s arms, panting heavily.

“Can I go in?” He asked, unsure if he was allowed and hesitated even when his parents nodded. His son or daughter was being born. Now. The love of his life was giving birth in the other room. All of it felt too real. Too domestic. Too normal.

He’d been through so much till now, never getting anything in return. He’d saved planets and risked his life over and over again, always coming near death and he never asked for anything in return.

Now it finally felt like he was getting something back.

His heart honestly couldn’t handle it.

So, he hesitated, he was scared he’d get robbed of something again. That he’d once again have to give up something in his life.

Kevin placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly and he nodded before giving him a slight nudge towards the door. When Ben stepped in, he immediately rushed to your side, pressing a kiss to your sweaty forehead.

“I’m here. I’m here. I love you. I’m here.” You spared him a smile and he brought a hand up to wipe away some tears. You were breathing hard, a hand wrapped around his arm and the other was still clasped between both of Ken’s.

It was only then Ben noticed that his cousin was also in the room.

“Hey, man.”

“Sup.”

“WHY DON’T I LAY DOWN SOME TEA AND CRACKERS SO YOU CAN CATCH UP WHILE I TRY AND GIVE BIRTH!”

Even the doctor couldn’t help but laugh as your nails dug into their skin and you cried out, back hitting the bed in relief as your baby was born. An innocent cry filled the room and you couldn’t help the tears of joy that began streaming down your cheeks.

That was your baby.

“Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Tennyson, it’s a boy.”

Ben let out a teary laugh, kissing you briefly and squeezing your hand reassuringly as you leaned against him, exhausted. He was finally here; his baby boy was finally here.

The doctors cleaned him up a little before handing the baby to you, initiating skin-to-skin. You felt fresh tears looking at his precious face. That was your baby.

Ben’s hand came to support your son, his other arm wrapping around your figure as he brought you into a hug. A family hug.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

***

“Do we have a name yet?” Gwen asked from beside you, looking over the newest addition to the family. Your son was comfortable, even though people kept passing him around like a hot potato. It’s what happens when there are so many people in your family.

“No, not yet.” Ben told and you were almost impressed. A part of you was completely expecting him to hijack the name and outright tell everyone that you were naming your son Ren Tennyson.

“Actually,” You spoke up, bringing everyone’s attention to you just as Sandra handed her grandson back to you. You fondly looked at your baby boy before looking up at your husband with a shy smile, “I was thinking Kenny.”

A bright smile grew on his face, “Really? I thought you said you didn’t want an En Tennyson.”

“I didn’t, but I want our baby to be named after someone special,” You spoke, turning your head to meet the gaze of Ken, who had been standing behind everyone for the time being. You sent him a meaningful look, “I couldn’t have done it without you today. Thank you, for everything.”

He blushed, “I didn’t really.”

You didn’t bother arguing with him, knowing it was just his humility that held him back from accepting your gratitude. Instead, you turned back to the baby in your arms, leaning your head against Ben’s shoulder, “Your name is Kenny Tennyson, baby.”

The room erupted into cheers and you grinned, looking up to see your family around you.

Perhaps a family name wasn’t a bad idea.

It meant your child would be named after the people you love.

Forever Taglist: @simonsbluee​

[fiveisnumber1]

Timeless - Five Hargreeves x Reader

Word Count: 3135

Warnings: none

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

_________________________

Pt 7 - Welcome To The Family

After your dance, you and Five continued to talk and hang out enjoying the slightly staler donuts and the lukewarm pizza. It was not until you looked out the window and saw the stars in the sky that you realized how late it was. As much as you didn't want to leave you knew that you had to go home since you hadn't told your parents you were sleeping over at a friend's house nor did they even know you had left. Reluctantly you said,

"This has been wonderful but I think I need to be getting back home."

"Do you have to?" Five pleaded

"Yes, I don't want my parents to report me missing in the morning" You reply

"Fine, but can I at least escort you back to your house?" Five asks

"Why of course." You reply

Holding your flowers and teddy bear with one arm you grabbed Five's hand with the other. Barely a second after the two of you jumped from his room to yours. You placed the flowers down on your desk and the teddy bear on your bed before turning to Five. Giving him another tight hug you quietly say,

"Thank you for everything Five. You pushing me to the ground was the best thing to ever happen to me."

"And you are the best thing to ever happen to me." He quietly replied

The two of you stood there in the silence not wanting to let go of each other but knowing at some point you had to. Slowly the two of you let go of the embrace. Five gave you a smile before flashing back over to his room. Tired from the events of the day you got into your bed, held your teddy bear tight, and fell asleep to the thoughts of the dance you shared that night.

Once Five had returned back to his room he flopped back on his bed, a wide smile across his face. He was tired but he couldn't sleep because the memory of you calling him mon cherí replayed over and over again in his mind. It wasn't just the words that made him so overwhelmingly happy it was the fact that the words came from you. He didn't understand why or how you were able to overwhelm him so much but one thing he knew is he never wanted you to stop. Five stayed awake for a while just replaying the night in his head but soon enough he had succumbed to his exhaustion and fallen asleep. One thing for sure is that even while he slept he was excited for what the next day would bring.

His siblings had a different plan in mind though. Luther taking on the leadership role woke the rest of his siblings up and brought them to the parlor. Diego and Allison were ready to find out what was going on while Klaus, Ben, and Vanya were more apathetic accomplices. Did they want to know? Of course, but not enough to wake up early on one of the only days they'd probably get to sleep in because their father wasn't around.

"Did you have to get us up so early Luther? This is earlier than our typical schedule." Klaus complains

"Yes. We all need to be present so we can question him. We're stronger together." Luther replies

Klaus lets out a defeated sigh. Luther, Allison, and Diego stood up and waited for Five to wake up and come downstairs. It took a while, so long that the other three had fallen back asleep on one of the couches. When the children heard their brother coming down the stairs though they all got ready to strike. Strike with their questions that is. Diego smacked Klaus' head so that he would wake up.

"Ow!" Klaus exclaims jolting up waking Ben and Vanya in the process

When Five walked into the parlor and saw all of his siblings there he said,

"Morning. Why are you all just sitting down here?"

"Five, why don't you take a seat," Luther says gesturing to a spot on the couch

"Uh, alright." Five replies

He slowly walks over to the open space on the couch and sits down. He looks at his siblings confused and asks,

"What's going on?"

"We just have a few questions for you." Diego replies

"Okay? Go on." Five says

"Well, given recent circumstances..." Allison starts

"We were just wondering..." Luther continues

"What's your girlfriend's name?!" Klaus interjects

"What? (Y/N) isn't my girlfriend." Five retorts

He then realizes what he had just said. He not only admitted your existence but he told them your name.

"Shit!" Five yells jumping up from his seat "None of you better say anything or I'll slit your throats one by one."

"Calm down Five, we're not going to tell anyone," Allison says

"How can I trust that you guys won't hold this over my head as some type of blackmail, huh?" Five retorts

"We're siblings, we wouldn't do that," Vanya adds

"Why are you getting so worked up about this anyway? She's just some girl." Diego asks

"(Y/N) IS NOT JUST SOME GIRL. SHE IS MY BEST FRIEND AND I LOVE HER." Five yells

The room goes silent but the volume of the words Five had just said was louder than anything. Five stood there in a moment of realization. He loved her. He loved (Y/N). The silence hangs in the air for a bit but then is cut by Klaus exclaiming,

"Awwwww our angry little munchkin is in love! How sweet!"

"At least he found someone outside the family," Diego whispers to the three siblings on the couch

The four of them start to chuckle to themselves. Allison then turn to them and asks,

"What are you guys laughing about?"

"Oh, nothing," Klaus replies

"Whatever," Allison says with a shake of her head

"Can we meet her?" Ben asks

Five snaps out of his trance and looks towards Ben. Soon all his siblings were begging to meet you. They wanted to know all about you and see what made their sarcastic grump of a sibling so happy. Their incessant chatter became so overwhelming that Five burst and said,

"Fine! Just stop asking me."

While the rest of his siblings celebrated, Five went to the kitchen to grab his breakfast from Grace and then immediately flashed up to his room. He really wasn't excited to introduce you to the rest of his siblings. Especially after he had just admitted he had feelings for you. What if they embarrassed him? What if they ended up not liking you? What if they told you how he felt and you didn't feel the same and you didn't want to be around him anymore? All these thoughts flew through his head as he chomped down on his breakfast anxiously waiting for your arrival later that day.

His siblings downstairs though were excitedly prepping for you to come over. Not only were they excited to meet the person that their brother was in love with but you would be the first outsider of their own age that they got to meet. They were prepared to ask you so many questions because they wanted to know every little detail about you. They even asked Grace to make snacks for the occasion without mentioning what the occasion was for (although Grace had an idea of what it might be).

As the day went by it became close to the time in which you typically arrived. Five became more and more anxious as the minutes ticked down because he was hesitant to introduce you to the rest of his family. Pacing back and forth he tried to think of a way out of introducing you but it was too late because when he turned to pace in the other direction you were already sitting on his window sill.

"What's wrong?" You asked him

With a deep sigh, he replied,

"I don't know how but my siblings found out about you and they really want to meet you."

"Well then let me meet them." You respond "but let's do it my way."

Five looks at you intrigued. You wave your hand to call him over and then whisper your plan in his ear. Five looks at you with a devilish smirk and nods in agreement. Five heads downstairs with you invisibly trailing behind him. When he enters the parlor he addresses his siblings with a smile saying,

"Well, here she is."

"Where?" Vanya asks

"Right here!" you say as you phase your head through Five's chest

The six other siblings start to scream in panic at what you had done. You phase back out of Five and stand to his side. The two of you fall to the ground and bust out laughing at the fear you had caused his siblings. Five stands up and extends a hand to help you off the ground. Then when the six other Hargreeves siblings calm down and stop screaming you try to introduce yourself but before you can respond Grace and Pogo run into the room.

"Children, what is with all the commotion?" Pogo asks

"Are all of you okay?" Grace questions

The children nod their heads but then turn to you causing Grace and Pogo to look your way.

"Uh hi. I'm (Y/N)." You say nervously

"Oh, you must be Five's new friend!" Grace says cheerfully "The kids have been so excited to meet you! Let me go get the snacks I prepared!"

When Grace exits the room Pogo looks you up and down before saying,

"So you're the child from across the street with unexplained powers."

"Well yes, but uh...I wouldn't quite say they're unexplained." You reply

You avoid the gaze of everyone nervous about how they might react to you. You can feel the intense stares of everyone in the room waiting for you to explain how you can do the things you do. You then feel a familiar hand grab yours. Turning your head Five gives you a reassuring nod. Taking a deep breath you turn your attention back to the crowd in front of you before stating,

"I was born on October 1st, 1989 at 12pm."

Some of the kids' jaws drop while others eyes go wide. You try to calm your nerves as you can feel yourself shaking

"Go on." Pogo requests

"My mother was not pregnant when the day began but yet she had me anyway. Ever since I was a child I've had these unnatural and unexplained abilities." You continue

"What are your abilities?" Ben asks

"Well, simply I can manipulate molecules. Through practice I've taught myself to do some things but since molecules make up everything I know I can probably do more, or at least improve upon what I can already do."

"So what can you do then?" A stern voice comes from the parlor entrance

"Master Hargreeves, I did not expect you to be back so early," Pogo says shocked

The kids look over to see their father standing there. Five grabs your hand tighter and pulls you slightly behind him as if to be a wall in between you and his father.

"Well go on then, if you aren't fooling my family then you will show us these abilities you claim to have."

Fear struck your heart after hearing the stories from Five of how he treated him and his siblings but you knew you were stronger than him. You had powers beyond belief and he did not. Gaining your courage you step forward and look at the old man sternly before stating,

"Oh, it would be my pleasure."

You feel a rush of power and adrenaline course through your veins as you show off what you can do. Turning invisible you make your way over to paperweight lying on a desk. Making yourself visible again you raise the paperweight into the air and turn it into a liquid and then into a gas. Walking forward you phase through everything in your path from chairs, to tables, to statues. When you arrive closer to the other kids you make the paperweight reappear and ask,

"Which one of you is the strongest?"

Luther stands up and steps forward.

"Put your hands out."

Luther does as he's told and once he is ready with his hands out your drop the paperweight that is immensely denser than it typically would be. Just as Five had with the quarter, Luther immediately drops to the ground hard enough that it actually dents the floor.

"I- I can't lift it! It's too heavy! I can't get it off me." He yells

As you continue to make the paperweight denser than it should be you then disappear. Disassembling yourself from in front of the children and reassembling yourself right behind Mr. Hargreeves. You then ask sternly,

"Was my demonstration to your satisfaction, sir?"

Reginald turns around visible shock in his eyes. You did have abilities just like you said and somehow they were more developed than any of his children thus far. You could be a good asset to assist his children in becoming stronger and more developed. Reginald regains his composure and comments,

"Your powers are impressive, although your attitude is not."

"It's not attitude, it's called freedom of expression." You retort "It's something you acquire when your parents actually love you."

Such a sharp tongue for such a small girl. Although Reginald wouldn't show it he was almost impressed. He didn't quite like your ability to stand up to him but the more he saw of you the more he figured he could use you to improve his own children's skills. If they could become efficient in combat with someone who had the ability to control molecules then they would be able to take on anything. The two of you stared each other down before you said,

"I am going to depart earlier than I typically do so you can spend some quality time with your family. I will be back tomorrow though whether you like it or not."

And with that, you were gone. Everyone watched as you left in shock and awe of not only of your abilities but the true power you had of putting Reginald Hargreeves, the cruelest man these kids have ever known, in check. And from that day forward you became a key part of the Hargreeves family even though you weren't their sibling. You brought a different dynamic to the group that they hadn't had before.

To Grace, you were another child to take care of. She adored you in the same way she adored all of the other children in the household. Although you were not there all the time you still mattered a great deal to her and she enjoyed hearing about your time at school or something you did back at your home. She tried to encourage you in the same way she encouraged all the children to do their best and when you struggled she was there to support you.

To Reginald and Pogo, you were a key part of the development of the Umbrella Academy. Each day when you came over you agreed to train with the children on the condition that you and they were able to play and hang out afterward. Reginald despised the lack of structure but he despised not using you as a combat training mechanism more. With you around the kids learned new strategies to take down threats that were unseen and controlled parts of nature that they could not. You also improved upon your abilities by being able to do them naturally and not have to concentrate all the time. You were also able to learn new skills such as self-defense and offensive fighting maneuvers and the ability to use the molecules around you to create things such as fire, water, or smoke. With each practice session, you, Five, and all his siblings grew stronger.

But to the children, you had the greatest impact. You became a comfort to them. First of all, the fact that you were able to get them legitimate free time where they could just play was a miracle and they were forever grateful for that. Second of all, you gave them a connection that they had never experience. You became a friend, one that they greatly needed and never had before. You and Vanya bonded over your love of classical instruments. You played the piano and she played the violin. To her, it was nice to have someone who shared her passion but also someone who saw her as more than just ordinary. You made her feel special and like she was important in a house that had thrown her to the side. For Allison, you were the girl bestie she could never find. The two of you would talk about anything from pop culture to make up to boys. You even snuck her some magazines every once in a while. The two of you looked out for each other, she kept your secrets and you kept hers. To Ben, you were just a nice addition. Compared to all his siblings who were constantly ready for battle and always ready to use their powers you were just normal. He was shy but he felt like he could open up and talk to you and that's all he really needed. As for Klaus you gave him an outlet to get all his energy and need to be entertaining out. You were his perfect audience and he took great comfort in knowing that you accepted him as is more so than his family. To Luther and Diego, you were a fierce opponent in training but more so you made them feel strong. They both felt a strong desire to protect you because you protected them. For Luther, you helped to reassure him that he was a good leader and he was worthy of being Number One. And for Diego, you helped him with his stutter without judgment and listened to the feelings he was keeping inside.

And then there was Five. You were already his best friend and even though you branched out to the rest of the family you always reassured him that he was your number one pick out of the Hargreeves siblings. Every moment with Five was better than the last and each time you were with him you found more and more things to love about him. You didn't know it but Five felt the same about you. Although neither of you saw it everyone else could see how much the two of you meant to each other. In combat, you two would always work together and look out for each other. At the end of the day no matter who you had spent time with earlier you always went back to five and he always went back to you. You were each other's best friend and confidants. Closer than close, you two were inseparable. Every day was spent with each other and your shared upcoming birthday was no exception.

tag list: @xplrreylo @joebob15274 @insatiable-ivy @fruitsaladtree @angelpeachamber @academy-umbrella @lizziel1410 @ir3neeee @faith-quake @aliens-with-colas @eddiomyspaghettio @lady-celeste25

[justmypartner]

Make it Work: Chapter 2

Summary: When offered a permanent position with the FBI, Hailey agrees to take it under one condition: Jay comes too. As their personal lives and work lives begin to change, the two partners find it increasingly difficult to navigate their complex relationship and manage their feelings for one another.

Writer’s Note: The goodbye chapter! I’m adding an endnote to this chapter, so look out for that! This is my first chapter with a tag list, so feel free to reach out if you would like to be added!

Tagging: @angelsjedi​

Read on AO3 or below

Jay sat on the bench in the locker room playing with the zipper on his bag. He bit the inside of his cheek, distracted by the pulsing drip of the faucet in the corner. A few days ago, he had a video conference with the agent in charge of the task-force. They were able to build a rapport, and he officially accepted the offer. The meeting went well and the two hit it off immediately, bonding over their backgrounds in the military. That part went over easy, but they still needed to break the news to the team. He thought over all of his time with Intelligence and the many memories he had made over the years. Telling their family they were leaving was going to be difficult. He had been so lost in thought he didn’t even notice Hailey walk in.

“Nervous?” She asked, as she poked her head around the corner of the lockers, startling Jay slightly.

“Eh not nervous.. nostalgic maybe. Just thinking a lot about the different memories I’ve made here,” he said, looking up at Hailey with a half-smile.

“End of an era,” she replied, shooting him a sympathetic grin. “C’mon, let’s catch him before he heads home,” she told him, nodding her head towards the door.

When the two knocked on the door frame of Voight’s office, he immediately ushered them in with a small wave. He stood to his feet as they both entered the space, shutting the door behind them. He sent them both a puzzled look as silence filled the room like something they could reach out and touch.

“Okay, what’s going on you two?” He questioned, urging them to explain the unplanned meeting.

“Sarge, we have some news for you,” Hailey told him, pausing briefly as she mentally prepared her next words. “I know I haven’t said much about my time with the FBI, but it was actually much more beneficial than I could have ever imagined. Since I’ve been back in Chicago, they have been reaching out to me about maybe making it a permanent thing. It all started out as hypothetical conversations, but last week I got an official offer to work on a joint-level task-force. It’s in New York, and I’ve decided to accept it,” she said, her eyes meeting his then immediately finding their way to the floor. Jay took the silence as an opportunity to further the news.

“They also extended the offer to me, and I’m going to be taking it as well,” he admitted, his gaze holding steady with Voight’s.

He was silent for a moment. They noticed his tongue poking around in his cheek as his stare fell to the floor. They gave each other a small glance before looking back at their Sergeant, desperately waiting for his reaction.

“When do you leave?” He asked them, a familiar levelness in his voice.

“Two weeks, sir,” Jay responded back.

“You’re going to be working on the task-force together?” He asked, pacing the floor behind his desk, looking up as he listened for their response.

“Yes, Sarge,” Hailey told him.

“Sounds like a great opportunity. I’m happy for you both,” he said with a slight nod. The partners cut their eyes at one another, silently questioning their boss’s response.

“Uh, that’s all?” Jay questioned, expecting a bigger reaction out of the Sergeant.

“Look, I’m not going to stop you from an opportunity like this. The feds do great work and you both are talented at what you do. I’ve watched your partnership develop over the years, and it’s undeniable the connection you two have. You work well together, plain and simple,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “This unit has endured a lot of loss and a lot of pain these past few years. Losing you both, my only detectives, it’s going to leave a pretty significant scar on this unit, but we’ll figure it out like we always do. You both have carried your positions well and you’ve even helped me learn a few things along the way. I like to think that the learning went both ways, and I hope you’re able to apply your time here out there. It won’t be the same without you two, but I am grateful to have watched you both grow into what you are today,” he finished, shifting his focus between the two detectives.

Jay noticed tears in Hailey’s eyes as he felt a sting in his own, fighting back emotion. Hailey walked forward, embracing the Sergeant tightly as she whispered her thanks to him. As they pulled away, Jay reached his hand out. Voight grabbed his hand, wrapping his other arm around Jay’s back in an embrace.

“Thank you, Sarge.. for everything,” he said softly as the man nodded his head.

“Look out for each other,” he told them on their way out of his office. They looked at each other, a silent affirmation being sent between them before nodding and walking towards the stairs.

The next day they went in to work early. They stopped to pick up coffee and donuts for everyone, hoping it would soften the blow as they delivered the news to the rest of the team. Hailey had brought in donuts on her first day, so she saw it fitting to bring them again as she said goodbye.

It was quiet in the bullpen that early in the morning. Hailey’s eyes darted across her computer screen as she checked her email. Jay was sat on the corner of her desk, looking over at her focused frown, an expression of hers he had grown endeared by. He noticed her index finger nervously tapping the table top, the sound seeming much louder in the quiet room.

“Uh, can you not do that?” Jay asked teasingly, brows furrowing together as he squinted over at her ticking finger.

“Uh, can you get your own desk?” She challenged back.

“Your desk and my butt have developed a very close relationship over the years. I’m only spending my last days preserving that relationship,” he replied smugly.

“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” she said through laughs, crumpling a piece of paper from her desk and throwing it at him.

Just as he was about to throw it back at her, muffled voices and laughter filled the stairwell. The two of them stood, making their way to Kevin’s desk where they had put the coffee and donuts. They also put the case board beside the desk, with the words “Courtesy of the FBI” written across it.

“Good Mo- What’s this about?” Adam asked with a look of confusion, stopping in his tracks on the stairs. Kim and Kevin stopped alongside him, sharing similar expressions. The two partners just stood there, weakly smiling at their colleagues. The three of them remained on the stairs, silently trying to piece together what was going on. As they hesitantly continued their way up into the bullpen, the smiles on Hailey and Jay’s faces faded as they prepared to give their friends the news.

“We have to tell you something,” Hailey said quietly. She looked over at Jay who looked back with a nod before taking over.

“We have both been offered positions with the FBI. The positions are in New York, and we’ve decided to take them,” he said, flinching slightly as if the words were going to come back and hit him in the face.

They were all silent a moment, letting the information process.

“Wait, so you’re going together?” Adam asked, raising a brow. They nodded in response. The 3 officers locked eyes, sharing a guileful look between one another.

“How dare you leave me with these two,” Kim finally said, pointing at Adam and Kevin. The two shot her offended looks. “I’m just kidding. Congrats you guys, that’s such a great opportunity. We’re really going to miss you, though,” she told them, wrapping an arm around Hailey and Jay’s necks to bring them into a group hug.

“Man, I didn’t know the FBI did package deals. We better keep ourselves open,” Kevin said looking over at Adam with a laugh before hugging the two detectives.

“When are you guys leaving?” Adam asked as he hugged the two.

“Two weeks,” Hailey told him.

“Okay, well we’re throwing a party at Molly’s before you go,” he insisted, Kim and Kevin nodding in agreement.

- - - -

Despite incessant protests from Jay and Hailey, their friends demanded there be a going away party. So two weeks later, the day before their flights, what seemed like half of Chicago met at Molly’s to send them off. The night was long as they made their rounds saying goodbye to all of their friends from Med, 51, and the 21st. As the night went on and many headed home, Jay finally got a moment to himself at a table in the back. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a familiar red-head making his way over towards him.

“So, Agent Halstead, how ya feeling?” Will questioned, sliding himself onto the chair across from Jay.

“Stop it,” Jay replied starkly, bringing the beer he had been nursing for the past hour to his lips.

“What? That is what they’re going to call you right?” Will questioned with a chuckle.

“You know what I’m going to miss the least about Chicago?” He asked his brother with a raised brow.

“What’s that?”

“Your ugly mug,” Jay teased.

“Oh, yeah right. You wish you got my looks.”

Jay glowered at him, his eyes catching the attention of a familiar blonde at the bar. She was sitting with Trudy who had her locked in what looked like a pretty deep conversation. He noticed the way Hailey’s hand rested under her chin and the way her dimple would appear every now and then as she’d flash a grin. He snapped out of this gaze when Will called his name from across the table.

“Earth to Jay?” Will questioned with a smirk.

“Yeah- sorry, what?” Jay asked, bringing his attention back to his brother.

“I was just- when did that happen between you two anyway?” He asked, turning his attention over his shoulder to look at Hailey.

“What? You got it wrong, man. Nothing happened. We’re friends.. partners,” Jay said, taking a sip of his drink.

“Yeah, right. I know you, and I know how much you could care less about New York. I mean how many times did you visit me when I was there?” He asked, holding up his hand to count on his fingers. “Oh, that’s right. None. Now you’re willingly moving there for a job with the feds? You’re not doing this for you, you’re doing it for her. Not that I blame you because I see the way you two look at each other, but c’mon at least admit it to yourself,” Will said straightly, causing Jay to shift slightly in his chair.

“Shut up,” Jay scowled, earning a light head shake from his brother.

“Whatever. I’ll leave you with this, don’t wait too long to figure out whatever it is that’s going on there. I haven’t had much luck in the dating game, but I do know that nobody has ever looked at me the way that girl looks at you. There was a time when you once told me to get it together. Now I’m telling you to take your own advice. Don’t screw that one up, dummy,” Will told him. Jay just shook his head at him, standing to hug his brother.

“I am going to miss you,” Jay told him as he wrapped his arms around him.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll miss you too, brother,” Will said, pounding a light fist against the man’s back. “I love you, little bro,” Will told him as he grabbed his jacket to head out.

“Yeah, yeah love you too,” Jay responded back as he stood, finishing off the last sip of his beer. As Will made his way out of the bar, Jay prepared to head out as well. He made his way over to Hailey before stepping out.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt-“ he got out before Trudy cut him off.

“If you were really sorry, you wouldn’t have interrupted. I know leaving me is breaking your heart, but you’re going to have to get over it eventually,” Trudy teased in her typical sarcastic tone. Jay flashed her a toothy smile.

“Aw Trudy Platt, I’m going to miss you the most of all,” he told her, leaning forward to place a brief kiss on her cheek.

“Jay Halstead, my husband is right over there, you’d better watch yourself,” she replied, pushing on his chest. He threw his hands up jokingly and backed away slightly.

“Anyway, Hailey, do you need a ride home? I’m heading out,” he asked her.

“No, I’m okay. Kept the drinking pretty tame tonight, thanks though,” she responded.

“Didn’t offer me a ride home,” Trudy said, raising her brows at him. He shook his head with a laugh, part of him already missing her antics.

“I’m not even touching that one,” he said with a smirk. “Anyway, goodnight ladies. Sarge, I really am going to miss you,” he told her leaning in for one last hug.

“Yeah, yeah, you too Romeo,” she replied, hugging him back. Hailey giggled lightly throughout the interaction, telling him goodnight back as he made his way towards the door.

As he reached the door, he turned back to see the two in deep conversation once again. He couldn’t help but wonder what had them so engaged, but he continued outside to head home. As he walked to his car, he thought back on Will’s advice. He knew he had a point, but he also knew it wasn’t the right time to figure that out just yet. Regardless, he drove home that night with a million what ifs bouncing around in his head.

Endnote: For starters, let’s take a moment to mourn deskstead rip lol. I just wanted to add this as a reminder that I’m writing in third-person limited, so we’re going to be somewhat left in the dark when it comes to Hailey’s perspective unless she outwardly expresses it. For that reason, I want to highlight that conversation between Hailey and Trudy. What could they have been discussing hmm.. Keep that in the back of your mind for now as it may just prove important later on ;) Anyway, thank you so much for reading!!

[osakaso5]

La Danse Macabre Rabbit TV Part 3: The Third Intermission

Part 4

Riku Nanase: .......

Iori Izumi: .......

Toma Inumaru: ...W-what's with the heavy atmosphere..?

Toma Inumaru: H-hey, Kujo. Aren't you Riku's big bro? You could at least talk to him a little...

Tenn Kujo: ...Sigh... They're probably just moping over their roles.

Tenn Kujo: Leave them be. Otherwise, they'll get you involved, too.

Toma Inumaru: Get me involved how..?

Riku Nanase: Um, Toma-san!

Toma Inumaru: Uaagh!?

Riku Nanase: This tea, Iori... I mean, Kabane... no, wait...

Riku Nanase: Please give this to Iori, who plays the role of Kabane!

Toma Inumaru: Huh!? W-why me!?

Riku Nanase: Well, you're Konoe, aren't you!?

Toma Inumaru: Yeah, so!?

Iori Izumi: Ugh...

Iori Izumi: Nanase-san, how long are you going to keep doing this?

Riku Nanase: ...D-doing what..?

Tenn Kujo: I was wondering about that, too. I know it's important to get in character, but you're taking it too far, Riku.

Riku Nanase: Tenn-nii...

Iori Izumi: For once, I agree with you, Kujo-san.

Tenn Kujo: Weird. I was just about to say the same thing to you.

Toma Inumaru: W-wait, what? Do these two not get along..?

Riku Nanase: ...Mmh... But it's so hard to get in and out of character...

Riku Nanase: There's so much I want to talk to Iori about! But...

Riku Nanase: Since my character needs to ignore him all the time, it's really tough.

Iori Izumi: I-I see. Well... I suppose I understand how you feel, considering how different this drama is from the others we've done...

Toma Inumaru: Right... At least I've got an easy role. Kujo, isn't it tough for you to play Vida?

Iori Izumi: I'd like to know, as well.

Tenn Kujo: ...I've never had a hard time with a role.

Toma Inumaru: ...Seriously..?

Tenn Kujo: Though there have been times when I've needed to put in more work than usual.

Tenn Kujo: Projects like this usually have a huge crew behind them. I don't want any of their hard work to go to waste because of me.

Tenn Kujo: And, I need to understand exactly why I was given the role of Vida in the first place.

Riku Nanase: Why you were given that role...

Tenn Kujo: Your roles come with their own hardships.

Toma Inumaru: Haha. Yeah, because of the whole immortality thing...

Riku Nanase: The first thing I thought about was how it'd feel to be a former Celestial, who's had to live for a really long time.

Riku Nanase: I kind of wished I couldn't die, either...

Iori, Tenn, & Toma: .......

Riku Nanase: But that would  mean that all the sad parts of life  would always stay with me, too. And that would probably be really painful...

Iori Izumi: ...I think so, too. You could only watch as the world changes around you...

Iori Izumi: If we didn't have Konoe, our spirits would have been completely broken down.

Toma Inumaru: Haha, he's a pretty nice dude, after all!

Tenn Kujo: I'd go so far as to call him the friendliest guy in the entire La Danse Macabre cast.

Toma Inumaru: Y-you would!?

Tenn Kujo: Heh. He's the only one who doesn't have some negative quirk or another.

Iori Izumi: ...Qual was very intense... That shoot from the other day gave me goosebumps.

Tenn Kujo: Ryu's looks are usually what catches people's attention, so his acting skills get ignored a lot of the time.

Tenn Kujo: He can put on quite the performance.

Riku Nanase: So could you, Tenn-nii! I've never heard you laugh so creepily before...

Tenn Kujo: Thank you. I think there's something really appealing about the tone you speak in while in character, too.

Tenn Kujo: You should be more confident in your performance.

Riku Nanase: ......! Okay..!

Toma Inumaru: You got a compliment from your bro, Riku. Good for you.

Riku Nanase: Ehehe.

Tenn Kujo: Hey, can you stop calling me his "bro" already?  

Iori Izumi: Exactly. And just so you know, the fixation he has on his brother is NOT a good thing.

Tenn Kujo: And why is that?

Iori Izumi: You know why.

Toma Inumaru: You're arguing again!?

Riku Nanase: Sorry, Iori! You must be feeling left out, since nobody said anything nice about your performance.

Iori Izumi: Excuse me!?

Riku Nanase: I thought you were really cool! Your hooded appearance and the monotone voice you used made you seem super shady!

Iori Izumi: You think it's cool to act shady..?

Toma Inumaru: Yeah, plus Kabane's a literal king! You're always such a polite kid, it's nice to see how differently you act as him!

Riku Nanase: The way Konoe talks fit you really well, Toma-san! It was so informal!

Toma Inumaru: Haha, thanks!

Riku Nanase: ...Ah, I went and said something nice about someone else's performance again, Iori. Sorry...

Iori Izumi: Why do you think I care!?

Tenn Kujo: Heh. You can be pretty cute sometimes, Iori Izumi.

Iori Izumi: Huh..?

Toma Inumaru: Uh, anyway..! All that moving around sure gave me a craving for something sweet!

Toma Inumaru: You guys like sweets, right? Maybe you could introduce me to a place where I could get some.

Riku Nanase: Oh, that's a great idea! What kind of sweets do you like, Toma-san!?

Toma Inumaru: ...Uh... I'm actually not one for sugary stuff, I just happened to be in the mood for sweets today...

Toma Inumaru: That's why I need help from you guys!

Tenn Kujo: ...Who told you that we like sweets?

Toma Inumaru: Huh? A-are you saying you don't!? I read in a magazine that you like donuts, Kujo, and Izumi's family owns a bakery, so I just assumed...

Iori Izumi: ...I didn't know you paid so much attention to us.

Toma Inumaru: ...Of course I did. We're work buddies, aren't we?

Tenn Kujo: Are we, now?

Riku Nanase: Ah..! We should all go visit Iori's family's shop!

Riku Nanase: Right, Iori!?

Iori Izumi: ...Fine. We'll cause less trouble if we go someplace familiar, instead of wandering around town, where everyone can see us.

Riku Nanase: Will you come with us, Tenn-nii?

Tenn Kujo: I guess I will. This sort of stuff isn't too bad, in moderation.

Riku Nanase: Yay!

Riku Nanase: Toma-san, Iori's family makes the yummiest cakes ever! And not all of them are really sugary, either!

Toma Inumaru: S-sure..! Thanks for having me, Izumi.

Iori Izumi: You're welcome. I'll let them know ahead of time.

Iori Izumi: ...But before that, we need to take our behind-the-scenes photo.

Riku Nanase: Our behind-the-scenes photo?

Toma Inumaru: Ah... Come to think of it, Tora and Mina took those, too.

Tenn Kujo: I was just about to bring that up, myself.

Riku Nanase: Really? I feel like you don't usually take pictures like this! Your fans will be so happy.

Tenn Kujo: Yeah. And I want to make this project even a little bit easier for them to watch.

Iori Izumi: How should we pose?

Riku Nanase: Pose... Toma-san, you seem like you're good at coming up with this stuff!

Toma Inumaru: As in, coming up with poses..? Hmm... Maybe like this?

Tenn Kujo: Very rock 'n' roll.

Iori Izumi: TOO rock 'n' roll. Rejected.

Toma Inumaru: Wow, you guys are really strict...

Tenn Kujo: Let's just act natural. Everyone do a pose you feel comfortable in.

Iori Izumi: Right. It'll make the picture look strange if we try too hard.

Toma Inumaru: So why'd you make me suggest anything in the first place..?

Riku Nanase: Alright! Let's do this!

All: Peace!

End of Part 3.

[futurewriter2000]

Hearless - pt. 11

A/N: I know I’m late to post this but I’ve been so exhausted from my morning shifts. I genuenly hate morning shifts because I am not a morning person and days pass so quickly. One minute I’m asleep, the next I’m awake at work. Anyways, this is a bit “normal” part- it’s like an intro to a good ass part. Hope you like it. 

*Legilimency is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings. A person who practises this art is known as a Legilimens. *

XX

You couldn’t decide which shirt to put on for breakfast. If you came down in a T-shirt, then they will ask questions but wearing a sweater in summer isn’t the brightest cover up to come up with. 

“I can just say I’m cold... or something...” you mumbled to yourself as you tugged the sleeves down your hands and bit your lower lip. 

‘I just won’t tell them.’ you told yourself. ‘Just remember what he said to you. Mum and dad already know, so they won’t be a problem but James? He can be such a prick when it comes to my private things.’

---

You walked down the stairs and found Sirius chewing his sandwich toast as he kept reading on the newspapers. “Morning.” he said as he chewed, keeping his eyes on the paper. 

“Morning, Sirius.” you smiled, walking into the kitchen and grabbing yourself a cup to make some coffee. 

It was a simple process every morning; boil water, add sugar, add coffee, pour into the cup, add milk. - And when you have done all of those things, you smiled to yourself at the scent of the wonderful home-made coffee and sat behind the table.

You looked up and saw him staring with one of his eyebrows quirked up. “What?”

“Are you in a sweater?” 

“And here comes yet another marvelous observation, Sherlock Holmes.” you leaned forward, teasing as he rolled back his eyes far back to his head. “Oh yummy.” you reached for his other half of sandwich as he slapped your hand away.

“AH-OI!” he looked at you, all considering serious. “Excuse me, get your own sandwich, lady.”

“Lady?” you scoffed with a laugh. “You owe me, prick. You ate my donuts last time!” you reached again but he took a hold of your wrist and narrowed his eyes at you. “You. Owe. Me.” you narrowed your eyes as well, challenging him into a silent battle of the glares. 

He looked away and let go off your wrist. “Fine.” he threw your wrist away and you gave him a triumphant smirk as your hand reached for the sandwich. “I would have given it to you if you asked nicely, though.” he shrugged, taking another bite.

“Since when do we do nice, Sirius?” you smiled, taking in the bit as he laughed.

“That is awfully sad but true.” he said, letting his smile fade as he swallowed the last peace of food in his mouth. He brushed off his palms and leaned back- then back forward to lean on his elbows as he fumbled with his thumbs. He looked at you.... concern this time. “You should have used my sweater to hide the scars, (y/n). The one I gave you that night with the frog sock. It’s nicely thin, breathable for your skin.” he stood up and grabbed his plate to the sink, grabbing a sponge and opening the water. 

You sat there, stopped to chew and continue to eat. That last bite was hard to swallow when somebody like Sirius told you something like this. You turned your head over your shoulder and looked at him with wide eyes, almost wanting to scream what had happened to you. 

Odd.. this feeling of wanting to confide into somebody about all the things you told yourself you would never in life confide to anybody. 

You stood up and grabbed your coffee mug to the sink, leaning on the counter next to him. 

He stopped washing the dishes, his heartbeat raising as he slowly looked up at you. You crossed your arms over your chest and let your hand travel to his cheek. Your thumb brushed across his cheek as his eyes sent you a flash of desire. 

He blinked a few times, to bring himself back from your touch, shaking his head and scrubbing the plate. “Uh... your boyfriend came over a few nights ago. He gave James a letter to give it to you.” 

You let your hand fall back to your chest, hugging your arms. “Yeah.” you smiled, walking back to the table. “I got it.” you pulled your heels on the edge of your chair and hugged them both. “He was going back to France. Said he would be back after graduation- the last summer before he packs up his things and moves there.” you trailed off, staring at the morning sun. 

“Moves there?” Sirius came back to the table, wiping off his hands with his cloth. 

“Yeah. He decided to live in France, since he was in school most of his life.”

“And you?” he asked, leaning on the chair and staring  at you with intense blazing eyes. 

“What about me?” you gave him a soft smile.

“Will you move in with him?” 

“No.” you laughed. “He wanted me to but I told him we already broke up, so it was useless going back together and moving across the world to France. I don’t even know the language, though I do know some words.” you let out a soft giggle that made Sirius stiffen up. 

He shook himself off jealousy. “You two broke up?” he sat back down. 

“Yeah. That “first date”- was me telling him we kissed and he was so pissed at me from cheating on him that he broke up with me before storming away.” 

“Why would you tell him?” 

You shot your head to him in wonder. “Why wouldn’t I?” 

“I mean, the two of you would still be together. I wouldn’t tell.”

“I didn’t want to be together with somebody when I kissed you, Sirius.” you furrowed your eyebrows at him as he continued to stare with no expression. “Relationship is about trust and loyalty... and truth. I told him because he deserved to know.”

“But it was just a kiss.” 

You let out a soft laugh, standing up and walking to the sink. You grabbed a glass from the cabinet and turned on the pipe. “It wasn’t just a kiss to me.” you mumbled, knowing fair well he had heard you clearer than ever. 

Your whole chest was burning from the fire your heart caused. It was painfully quiet and it was that same pain that made your eyes focus on the cold water flowing from the pipe.

“I’M COMING IN SO IF YOU TWO ARE SNOGGING PLEASE STOP!” James shouted as he covered his eyes with his hands and walked blindly into the kitchen and peeping through his fingers to see if it was safely innocent for his eyes. “Oh, thank God. Morning.”

“Really, James.” you smiled, walking past him to sit back to the table. 

“Might as well make the two of you suffer for that.” he grabbed himself a cup and a teapot, bringing it to the table. “Why are you wearing a sweater? It’s boiling here.”

“Cuz I enjoy sweaters. It’s Britain, James. It’ll get cold sooner or later.” you hugged yourself and continued to watch him sit down and take a sip of his tea. “Plus, mum and dad went on some errands. Said they’d be back soon.” 

“Yeah, I know. Dad left me a note on the desk- oh that reminds me.” he turned to Sirius. “He also said we’d have to go get something into town tonight before five. Said it’s urgent and well, who else to trust with urgent things then his eldest son.” James puffed out his chest and winked. 

“Pompous brother?” you rolled your eyes as he continued to play his child-like smile on his lips.

“That I am not afraid to admit.”

“Good thing-”

“Blimey!” your father apparated into the room with a few bags in his hands and looked up at his three children.”Morning, you three.” he said as he trotted to the kitchen and placed down some of the bags. “Your dear old mother will never let me come home in less than two bags.” he started to unpack the groceries.

“Hey dad, you’re early.” you said as your father looked over his shoulder and smiled at you.

“I know. Got things done earlier. Your mother, however, ran into that- what’s her name again- Mina?” 

“Nina?”

“Yes, her. Her mother and obviously they hopped their way into the tea land.”

“I bet they’re talking about sexy men from Cuba.” James started to tease, making both of you and Sirius laugh. “Nina’s mum is probably telling mum about the man who would be perfect for her.”

“Oh, James, my dear boy.” he walked back to him, tapping his shoulder. “If you ever want that new broom of yours, you’ll be smart enough to shut your mouth.” 

“Gee dad. It’s only jokes.” James lifted his hands in defeat and sent Sirius a wink. 

“This is for you, deary. Just like you said.” your father trotted to you and placed down two large books. “These two were the most recommended.”

“Thanks dad, you took the books and opened the first one.”

Sirius and James exchanged glances, both furrowing their eyebrows like two identical set of twins. “What is this?”

“Books.”

“Bravo, Sherlock.”  Sirius looked at you, giving you an amusing smile before you sent him a smile of your own. He reached for one book in your hands and tore it away as James grabbed the second one and started flipping through it. 

“Legilimency”” Sirius felt more confused then ever.

“Dreams interpretation?”  James was right behind him.

“Haven’t you told them yet?” your father said from the kitchen.

“Told us what?” James asked.

“I had the weirdest dreams last night.” you rubbed your eyes and looked at both of them. “Like there was Remus in them-”

“Oh, Pads, watch out-” James started to tease meanwhile both you and Sirius rolled your eyes in sync.

“Shut up, James.” you cut in. “It was so odd though- like I was a deer and I had a mouse on my head- like a massive fat mouse.” you started to show with your hands the size of your hands as Sirius and James started to process your words, growing more nervous than ever. “And then there was a big black dog in front of me- really ugly looking.”

“Excuse me?!” Sirius exclaimed, widening his eyes before feeling a slap of James’ hand on top of his mouth. He sent James a glare and James gave him back an apologetic look. 

You drew your eyebrows together and gave them a suspicious look. They were acting odder than usual. “Anyhow...” you trailed off, trying to go back to your dreams. “That dog turned into you-” you gestured to Sirius, giving him a teasing smile. “Which explains the ugliness.”

“And then I’m the rude one- really James? You call me the rudest out of here?” Sirius gave James another glare as James laughed nervously. 

“And you looked at me and said if we throw Worm into the lake and let him change in mid air so he can do a canon ball... or something???” you laughed, burying your head into your palms and looking back up at their crooked smiles. 

“Hahahaha!” James forced a laugh. “Worm... Why would- why would- uh, we- uh call a rat worm? Hahahha!” 

“I think... she said mouse, James.” Sirius corrected him.

“MOUSE! Yeah... mouse... that. Not rat... mouse on a stag...”

“I said deer.”

“Well they’re both the same thing..” James started to get a bit offended. 

“Then if I would be a deer, I’d be a doe, not a stag.”

James pursed his lips together and breathed hard through the nose. “Alright... doe then. It still doesn’t explain the books.”

“Doesn’t it though?” you stood up to get the books from both of their grasp, which was lot easier despite they were...well, James and Sirius.  “I’m looking for a meaning.”

“The dog might be an omen?” your father sat beside you, wiping his hands with a cloth. “Like a ghost, perhaps. I mean, don’t you call Sirius Padfoot, James?” he looked at James as James and Sirius looked at each other with wide eyes. “ In Lancashire they call the black dog many things. From Grim to Padfoot and since Sirius was the one who turned into-”

“WOW DAD!” James boomed throughout the room, clapping his hands and standing up. “That’s a great history lecture but me and Paddy here will go to get ourselves ready for that...uh.... urgent thing you gave us.” he sent both of you finger guns and pulled Sirius to his feet. “Let’s go... Sirius.” he pushed him forward, out of the room, up the stairs and into their room. He locked the door behind him.

James turned to Sirius, who was running his hands through his hair nervously. James waved his hands at him, as if he was screaming at Sirius but in reality only came out in loud whispers. “HOW DOES SHE-”

“DID YOU TELL HER?”

“OF COURSE I DID NOT TELL HER! DID YOU TELL HER?!”

“NO I DID NOT TELL HER!”

“You sure?!”

“Why would I tell her!?!”

“I don’t know, maybe because you fancy her!”

“Prongs, will you stop mentioning that! I didn’t tell her!”

“Then who did-”

“It’s your memory, Prongs! You told her!”

“...” James stood there quiet, like a linden statue, staring at his best friend as his brain tried to process it. His eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. “OH MY GOD-” he started to punch Sirius from the realiasation. “WHAT IF IT’S A TWIN THING! OH MY- DO YOU THINK WE’RE TELEPATHIC!”

“James...”

“MATE! Mate.. mate..” James smiled broadly at his best friend. “How cool would it be if we are actually those twins that can telepathically communicate-”

“James...”

James slapped his hand on his mouth. “Oh- what if she’s listening to me right now.”

“JAMES!” Sirius took James’ shoulders and shook him. “Calm down, for crying out loud. You’re not telepathic. I think she is- sort of.” he shrugged as James kept watching him. “I think she’s a Legilimen.”

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Welcome to Backwater ch.15 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Stretch is still dealing with the fallout of the last chapter. Like he needs anything else to happen right now?

~~*~~

Read ‘First Step’ on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

As hot as the days were, these last, lingering sticky days of summer, the nights in Backwater tended to cool off as soon as the sun began to dip below the horizon.

It made for a good time to sit out on the back porch for a quick smoke. Usually only tobacco, Stretch didn’t have Red’s resilience when it came to getting up the next day after smoking his atom bomb version of weed. The last thing he wanted was to give the local kids their first view of an ugly hangover, he’d leave that sort of education for their parents to dole out.

Most of the time, Stretch kept it to one cigarette. His first paycheck was better than he’d expected but it was still wiser to be frugal, so he stuck with his one cig and tried not to think about how that would have pleased his brother. Blue’d been trying to get him to quit for years now and in the past months whenever his bro brought it up, his ex always chimed in with a similar opinion on it, both of them citing statistics as if they were practicing for a damned public service announcement.

Quitting his smokes was something Stretch resisted for no damn good reason other than he didn’t want to quit, thanks, sorry for him trying to adult a little around here. All the nagging did was take the joy out of it and left him smoking out of resentment rather than recreation. Cutting down to one a day was milestone he’d never managed to get to back in Ebott. Not even when the Docs told him it might help with—well.

Anyway, tonight he’d decided to indulge himself; after the day he’d had, he figured he deserved to go through a whole damn pack.

The porch light was a stark, sodium-yellow and the furniture cast strange shadows in it, bones of the true darkness that lay beyond. Stretch sprawled out on the dusty old sofa, blowing lazy smoke rings up at the overhang covering the porch and occasionally tapping ash into the rusty old Maxwell coffee can that Red kept around as an ashtray. The other skeleton had already gone inside, and the living room windows were dark, a pretty big clue that he’d probably already headed off to bed. Early for him, but, eh, Stretch figured he’d had a hell of a day, too, and his guilt over his own involvement in that sat in his chest like a lead brick.

At his feet, the dog curled up in a tight little donut of fluff and Stretch absently pet him with his bare foot, wincing as strands of hair caught in his bony joints. The dog didn’t seem to care about the little yanks and tugs, only huffed out a contented sigh, pushing demandingly into the touch.

“dunno if you deserve pats,” Stretch told him absently. He tried for something resembling stern, though he didn’t stop petting, “you weren’t being too friendly out at edge’s place.”

The dog only snorted and rolled to his side, giving Stretch access to his belly for more rubs.

Stretch hadn’t even realized Red brought the dog along at first. Not until he hauled his bike over to truck bed, still flustered over the almost-could be-kinda-a-something that his boss/landlord’s timely arrival interrupted. Before he could even start heaving the bike in, the dog popped up like a slobbery jack in the box and began attacking Stretch’s face with kisses.

“wha—stop, you shit!” Stretch sputtered, laughing and trying to fend off the dog’s eager advances. The bike was heavier than a normal one and awkward to hold, and between that and the doggy love attack, Stretch lost his grip. The handbars swung into the side of the truck and shrieked their way down in a scrape of metal against metal as it fell, the rest of it finishing off with a loud clang. Not that it did any damage; Red’s truck probably only qualified as one by a technicality, held together by vague hopes, rust, and the liberal use of miles of duct tape.

Behind Stretch, Edge spoke up, “Here, let me help.” But the moment he stepped forward, the dog’s excited wriggling screeched to a halt and morphed into stillness couched with a sudden, unexpected growl.

“woah, hey, boy,” Stretch said with surprised caution. The dog hadn’t even growled when those guys in town were trying to use him as a pinata, too scared, maybe, but Edge wasn’t a threat so why the hell—

A low, deep throated snarl came from behind Stretch and the dog yelped, ducking down into the truck bed, cowering. Stretch whipped around to stare at Edge in disbelief, okay, yeah, that one wasn’t on his bingo card for weird happenings. "did you just growl at my dog?"

Edge only looked back steadily, "You have to assert dominance."

Well, uh, that was…it did seem to work, sort of. The dog chose that moment to abandon ship, scrambling up and wriggling through the little back window that led into the cab to curl up against Red. The moment he was safe, he looked at Stretch and Edge with wounded betrayal, like he hadn’t started it, the little shit.

Good thing the dog didn’t know what the memory of that growl was doing to the inside of Stretch’s pants, (fucking rawr). The pooch would never forgive him.

“quit traumatizing mutt," Red snorted. He ruffled the dog’s ears soothingly and the pup settled, resting his chin on Red’s femur as he looked up with a mournful ‘the big kids are pickin’ on me’ expression. "c'mon, armstrong, let’s hit the road, s’getting dark."

That woke Stretch up from his dual versions of shock and unf!shock. He grunted with the effort of heaving the bike into the truck bed, mumbling a grateful ‘thank you’ when a second pair of strong hands helped out, and he really, really tried not to feel the way Edge was pressed up against his back, a line of warm moving against him as both of them settling the bike securely in. It was only when Edge stepped back and took his fatal distraction with him that something clicked.

Wait. Not the mutt, but—

Stretch stuck his head in through the open window, looking at the skeleton and his dog, who pointedly weren’t looking back. “you named the dog mutt?”

“didn’t name it anything,” Red scoffed. He scruffed the dog, whose name was totally Mutt, gently.

“technicalities won’t save you,” Stretch told him gleefully, “there was a list on the counter, you had options, and you still named the dog…dog.”

That got finally got him a look, or more precisely, a glare. “could always let you walk home.”

That was true. Stretch abandoned ribbing without even getting to pun about it and climbed hastily into the truck. The door hinge squalled when he pulled open the door, flakes of rust falling in a shower as he slammed it shut. No wonder Red didn’t drive around much if this was his primary vehicle, but in the interest of not getting kicked out, Stretch decided it would be for the best to not bring up the rubber banded pile of newspapers Red was sitting on. He definitely wasn’t gonna ask how Red was reaching the pedals.

Edge rounded the truck to Red’s side, briefly outlined in the glare of the headlights. With the remains of the sun at his back, his eye lights were stark in the growing darkness. Bright crimson glaring in at his brother as he stood next to the truck, his arms crossed over his chest. “You could always come in for coffee.”

It wasn’t a question and Red didn’t answer it. “tell the kid i said hi.”

Edge replied tartly. “Tell them yourself.”

“heh.” A strange laugh, humorless and somehow still tinged with amusement. “see ya around, bro.”

Yeah, there was some kind of story there, all right, and Stretch was the guy who waited too long at the concession stand and came into the play during Act 3.

There was only one person who might give him any answers, since two-thirds of the people involved already turned him down and it was the same guy who didn’t even give Edge a chance to say goodbye, only threw the truck into reverse and with a clumsy three-point turn that barely avoided any of the flowerbeds, they were headed back down path that led to town, out of the woods.

The ride back wasn’t exactly quiet, the bumpy road and rattling complaints of the truck took care of that. But it was wordless, for a while. Until they got closer to the main road and the bumps smoothed out a little, droning hum of tires on asphalt an invitation.

“red—” Stretch started, slowly. He wasn’t even sure what he was gonna say yet, uncertain if he really wanted any other revelations tonight. He was feeling a little epiphanied out.

Red only sighed deeply, “pretty sure you, the kid, and my bro had a helluva chat, you sure you really wanna talk to me about it now?”

No. Yes. “maybe?”

The newspapers under him made a dry shuffling sound as Red shifted his weight to change gears. “one question, kid, that’s all i got answers for. choose wisely.”

Great, now he was on an impromptu grail quest.

Stretch hesitated over his options; there were so many, how could he pick only one? Like, why didn’t Red live with Edge and Frisk, why had he refused to even go into the house, and what the hell was up with Edge being so salty about it? Hell, there were deeper question than that, if he wanted to dig. How had they gotten out of their Underground to here, what happened to Red’s leg, so many whats and wheres and whys.

A look at Red showed he was grinding his teeth, his crimson eye lights focused solely on the road and at the end of the day, there was only one question Stretch really needed an answer to tonight, for reasons he desperately didn’t want to talk about.

He ran his tongue over his teeth nervously, looking down at his hands in his lap rather than the passing blur of road in the headlights out the windshield. “you knew who i was when you first saw me here, didn’t you. edge said you watched the tv when we first came to the surface.”

The joints in his hands creaked as they went tight on the steering wheel and Red exhaled with weary slowness. “yeah, i knew.” He slanted a brief glance at Stretch, eye lights flicking between him and the road. “gave me a hell of a start, don’t mind tellin’ ya. you were busy chasin’ beer cans and didn’t notice me almost fallin’ on my ass.”

“that’s why you helped me, isn’t it, when i first came to town?” The accusation that Red was ‘adopted’ him because he looked like Edge stung, but it was true enough, wasn’t it. Someone with his kid brother’s face, someone to feed and clothe and take care of, like he couldn’t with his own bro for whatever their secret reasons were. Like he was a fucking pet, another dog, woof woof, and the care that seemed so genuine that morning felt suddenly tainted, as stifling as his own brother’s.

“heh,” Red’s mouth twisted into a sneering smile, “kid, come on.”

Stretch said nothing. He could see the neon sign from ‘The Whistling Cow’ slowly approaching, looming closer, blurring in his vision and there was no subtle way to wipe at his sockets, he could only do it quickly and hope it wasn’t noticed.

A failed hope, like most. Red made an impatient sound, loud enough that the dog sleeping his lap stirred, then he said roughly. “yeah, okay, you reminded me some of my little brother, but that ain’t why i let you stay.”

Let it go, let it go, Elsa, you don’t have anywhere else to go. “then why?”

“‘cause i like ya, that’s why!” Red snarled. His ever-present grin curled into a grimace, tight and strained, each word as sharp as one of his jagged teeth. “been rattling around alone in this old shop for awhile now. been kinda nice to have someone underfoot, since i ain’t got goddamn feet. good enough?”

“yes,” Stretch admitted, a threadbare little word. It was, helped ease some of the pained tightness surrounding his soul to know that Red wasn’t simply another person who wanted to be around him not out of friendship, but mere circumstance. He’d had plenty of that in his life and all it left him with was an empty contact list on his phone and an emptier ache in his soul.

He startled at a hand awkwardly touching his own, bony fingers briefly squeezing before they withdrew. “stretch? you and my bro ain’t nothin’ alike. c’n trust me on that much.”

“is that good or bad,” Stretch couldn’t help asking. He thought of the little borrowed room he was sleeping in at night, his part time job hawking groceries, of Edge’s home in the woods with its beautiful gardens and delicious meals.

Red shrugged. He turned the wheel, guiding the truck into a parking spot that was nearly hidden on the other side of the shop. “beats the fuck out of me, just is, and it don’t matter, anyway. don’t care what the charts and graphs and shit say, ain’t no reason to compare ya. ya ain’t the same person. you’re you and bein’ you should be good enough for anyone.”

The engine ticked slowly as it cooled and Stretch thought of the way their landlord back in Ebott kept mistaking him for Papyrus, of getting bitched at once for a window he hadn’t broken or thanked for muffins he hadn’t brought. Not anybody or nobody, only himself, at least here in Backwater. “thanks.”

“s’fine,” Red grunted. “just don’t forget i ain’t your bro.”

“oh, fuck, no,” Stretch blurted out. He winced as he realized how that sounded. “i mean, you’re more like a mom, anyway.”

“heh,” That laugh was more a little more genuine, not much, but it was something. “fuck you.”

“nah, that wasn’t in the rental agreement.”

“and thank the fucking angel for that.” With a groan of hinges and a slam of the door, Red got out of the truck, the dog at his heels. He didn’t turn back to see if Stretch was with him, only went as fast as he could, cane swishing at his side as he practically ran into the house, the screen door banging shut behind him.

Stretch followed more slowly, stopping off at the porch and that was where he stayed, thinking about having a cigarette and not at all about giving Red some time to himself after having the asshole he was trying to help question his motives, exactly like an asshole would.

Mutt hesitated, debating for a minute over choosing between them before finally decided that Stretch was the victor, and whether or not that was because he thought Stretch needed watching over more didn’t matter. Stretch appreciated the company, anyway.

That left him here, smoking and watching moths flutter suicidally close around the porch light.

Stretch dropped a used butt into the coffee can and debated lighting another. On one hand, he was starting to feel a little nauseous from so much smoking, on the other, he sort of wanted to feel nauseous. Wanted to feel something that he could name.

What was the proper term for how to feel when you were living in a weird town with alternate version of yourself and your bro, which, by the way, one out of the two has been crawling up your top ten list of spank bank partners? If there was a definition for it, it was gonna take more than a quick google search to ferret it out.

He still hadn’t decided whether or not to light another when at his feet, the dog suddenly lifted his head, ears perking up.

“what is it, boy?” Stretch leaned up on his elbow, squinting out into the darkness outside the protective ring of porch light. “if this is about a kid in a well, you can tell timmy he’ll have to wait, this is not a good time—hey!”

A threatening line of fur rose up on the dog’s back as he let out a low, deep woof, nothing like the little growl at Edge earlier. Before Stretch could grab for him, Mutt was scrambling to his feet. He leapt off the porch and ran off into the night, fuck, in the direction of the forest.

“hey, wait! no, no, no, damn it!” Stretch shoved his feet into his shoes, wincing at the friction and almost immediately tripping over the laces. “not that way!”

There was barely time to hope he didn’t break his damn leg as he chased after the dog, following the little puff of whiteness through the dark as he tried not to go facefirst into anything. It was sheer luck there weren’t many obstacles in the path; town was in the opposite direction and there was nothing much behind the shop but parched earth and dead grass. Right up until the edge of the woods where saplings rose up in clusters, little ponds of greenery that led to the ocean of trees and that was where Stretch skidded to a halt, watching helplessly as that patch of white disappeared into the darkness.

Yeah, okay, he wasn’t about to go in the woods, ignoring warnings around this place was bad for life expectancy and Stretch wasn’t the kind of guy who’d feed weird critters after midnight.

“fuck, fuck,” Stretch muttered under his breath, pacing right outside the treeline and slapping away any sapling that tried to get in his way as he wracked his brain for what the hell he could do now.

Maybe if he stood outside and shouted at the damn mutt, he’d at least have something to follow back out. He wasn’t sure there was much else he could do, the townsfolk were nice, but he didn’t think asking them out for a midnight search party for a dog would go over very well.

Overhead, the bloated circle of the moon faded in and out from behind the clouds. He didn’t even have his phone, it was still in his bag on the porch, safely beneath that splash of light that seemed so far away now. Stretch dug into his pocket for his lighter, the rasp loud over the faint rustling of leaves overhead. It flared to life and the tiny flame barely illuminating the space around him, but it was better than nothing.

“mutt?” Stretch called tentatively, then more coaxingly, “c’mon boy, come back out!” He tried a few iterations of that with increasingly sappy endearments, feeling as stupid as he had when he’d tried them on his ex. The dog responded about as well, stubbornly refusing to bow to any version of baby, sweetums, or snooky that Stretch tried.

“damn it all to hell,” Stretch cursed softly. First, he’d gotten caught nearly macking on Red’s little brother when he’d said he wouldn’t, not a broken promise but still, then he’d blunder into giving Red’s traumas a quick poke, and now he’d lost the dog that he’d only just gotten for Red. He was obviously already pretty attached to the so-named Mutt and after hearing him vague about how he’d been lonely, it wasn’t much of a surprise.

But going into the woods after him felt a hell of a lot like making a bad situation worse.

Stretch sighed heavily. Nope, better not to chance it. Maybe if he brought out a bowl of food, the dumb mutt would smell it and head for home and—wait.

…what was that? Stretch tipped his head to the side, straining to listen.

He hadn’t really even notice that soft sound at its beginning, the soft lilt of a melody winding its way through branches and leaves out of the woods, a song he almost but didn’t quite know. It was the seductive peal of a silver laugh of delight, it was the delicate caress of the wind, the chuckling burble of a cool stream pouring invitingly over smooth rocks, and the intangible caress of unearthly desires

It was the alluring sweetness of a siren, the song of a temptress calling one who was no sailor into a dry sea and doom.

His vision was cast into paleness like the bloom of the moonlight, filling him to the brim until nothing was left within but that endless song. Without a single thought of his own left crowded in amongst the tangled notes in his head taking mastery over him, Stretch took his first dazed step into the woods.

tbc

[moonlit-imagines]

My Only Friend

Vanya Hargreeves x reader

warnings:

a/n: no spoilers for tua 2 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

prompt: anonymous: “for the five words event, could i get vanya hargreeves (romantic relationship) with childhood, beautiful, shy, music, and happy? thx”

She didn’t have many friends, not even her sibling gave her the time of day. They were unfortunate circumstances, truth be told, but she always had one escape. Griddy’s.

It was the only thing she was included in during her childhood, a couple of siblings would sneak out late at night to eat as many donuts as they could before the sun came up. One late night, you happened to meet.

The barstools were quickly filled by each of the seven Hargreeves children, by the time little Number Seven had arrived, there was only one seat left between Ben and a young stranger.

“Hi,” she sheepishly mumbled, “would you mind if I sat here?” The shy girl asked you.

“No, you’re good!” You gave her a kind smile and sipped on your chocolate milk while she took her seat. You nodded your head along to the radio station played about the restaurant. After a while, you’d noticed that the girl next to you has been dead silent while the rest of her matching friends had been chatting up a storm. You nudged her with your elbow, snapping her out of a lonely trance. “I’m y/n, what’s your name?” She looked up at you with wide eyes and you cocked an eyebrow.

“V-Vanya.” The girl perked up a bit after you took some interest in her, it was obvious that she didn’t get much attention from the others.

“It’s nice to meet you.” You pushed your plate over to her. “Have you ever tried this donut before? It’s my favorite.”

—————

You and Vanya were close growing up, meeting whenever she could leave the Academy. She told you everything about her family, turns out all those kids she was with actually were her brothers and sister. Who knew?

Anyways, you were the only person she could count on for a long time, but not forever. When she turned eighteen, she cut ties with you and everyone else in her life. She had to get away, and you guess that you understood, it still hurt, though.

The day that her father died was the day you started thinking about her again, years and years later. As you suspected, she and you would be running into each other very soon. It happened to be on the street.

“Y/N? Is that you?” Vanya stopped on the sidewalk with her hands stuffed in her pockets, seeing your soft smile grow.

“Vanya...you looke beautiful.” You complimented, pulling her in for a hug.

“Well, look who’s talking!” She accepted and cherished this long overdue hug, it had been so long since she felt your embrace and she was happy to see you.

“I’m sorry to hear about your dad.” You told her as you backed away some, looking into her eyes that were once again filled with hope.

“No, you’re not!” Vanya gave you a light punch in the shoulder and the two of you broke into laughter.

“No, I’m not...” You shook your head. “He was so mean. To you and to me.”

“Hey, remember that time he said you could come over, but it was just to yell at you for ‘distracting me from my studies.’” She brought up the crazy old times you’d had.

“How could I forget!” You two shared a few more chuckles before they faded into sighs. “You know, I really missed you after all these years...but I’m glad to know that we can just click back together like this.”

“Yeah...yeah, it’s nice.” She nodded along. “You know, my family’s still pretty pissed about that book I wrote. It’s kind of awkward being there, to be honest.” Vanya told you.

“Let them be mad, who cares what they think!” You rolled your eyes, it was so typical of them to gang up on Vanya, even after all these years. “Hey, you know what would be fun? You should really come over to my place tonight! I mean, the old man’s not around to punish you for seeing me, right?”

“Let’s do it!” Her face lit up immediately and a calm feeling overtook you, like you’d resolved a bottled up problem. Only, there was one more thing to do.

“Uh, and I was just wondering...are you seeing anyone right now?” You cautiously asked, worried about how you’d feel after you heard her answer. She gave you a smirk just before replying.

“I am not.” She simply answered.

“Okay, follow up question:” you started, “would you be alright if tonight ended up being a date?” You patiently awaited her answer, worried that you may get your heart broken on the spot.

“It’d be a pleasure.”

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @cullens-stuff // @lotsoffandomrecs // @takethebladeawayfromme // @mychemicaltessa // @teenwaywardasgardian // @spidergirla5 // @sheridans-dynamos // @bonniesbabybunnie //

[smells-like-mettaton]

Rating: G

Summary:

“There is nothing I can do, then.” His voice fell somewhere between a statement and a question.

Her palms felt hot. She clenched her fists, snuffing out the fire before it could ignite.

“You can bring back my children.”

(Asgore and Toriel angst, post-pacifist route. Takes place the first night on the surface.)

Word Count: 1,878

XXX

Toriel expected sleeping on the surface to feel a little more comfortable.

Of course, laying sprawled in the grass couldn’t compare to her queen-sized bed.  And the breeze was new and old and restless, dancing in her fur and keeping her awake.  And somehow, despite not having lungs, Sans was snoring.  

Those were just excuses, she knew.  The real interruption to her sleep lay on the other side of the clearing, his hulking form too still to be unconscious.

Her ex-husband.

The murderer of her children.

She wasn’t afraid of him. But after all these years, her anger and disgust had fermented to something even more bitter.  If she had her way, he would never set foot near her child.

But Frisk was forgiving.  More forgiving than Toriel could be.

She sat up just a bit, trying not to make a sound, just so she could check on Frisk.  They were still bundled in Sans’ bony arms, seemingly oblivious to the thundering snores.  Toriel trusted Sans—despite everything, her friend had fulfilled his promise—but it still pricked a bit that Frisk had chosen him to protect them, rather than her.

It made sense. She’d learned that Sans was the only one who didn’t fight them.

She rolled over.  A pointy rock jutted into the fur between her shoulder blades.  The stars were too bright.

And Asgore was still too close for comfort.

With a muffled sigh, Toriel got to her feet and padded towards the edge of the clearing.  Sans and the others could protect Frisk for now.  She just needed a moment to clear her head, to be…

Alone.  How long had she been alone?  Perhaps that was the problem.  So many monsters—and one human—breathing in sync, filling the air with the sounds of life.

You missed that.  You missed them.  Do not pretend he has not caused your pain.

It was a short walk back to the cliff where they’d exited the underground.  The moon—the moon, oh, it was beautiful—hung bright and round as a butterscotch pie.  The whole world seemed to spread beneath her feet.  The wind caressed her face with the tenderness of a lover—

A lover who had seen her children destroyed.  Dead.  Stolen from their home, struck down when they set foot outside, rammed through with a trident meant to protect— 

“Could you not sleep, either?”

She jolted up at the voice, fire magic already flaring in her palms.  The voice’s identity didn’t give her much incentive to put it out.

“Dreemurr,” she said curtly, turning back towards the moon and reluctantly extinguishing her flames.  “Do you not have better places to be than bothering a tired old woman?”

“Um.”  He coughed.  Even after all these years, that cough felt so familiar.  “I thought, perhaps you would like some company… but it appears I was mistaken.”

Despite that, she didn’t hear his footsteps leave.  Insufferable man.

“You wanted the company.”

He chuckled sadly.  “You always could see right through me, Tori—Toriel.”

She pursed her lips at the nickname.  How could he still call her that, even by accident?  How could he think things could be the same, when he had her children’s blood on his hands?

Paige. Finn. Ceil. Ren. Malia. Dylan. And very nearly Frisk.

“Things will be difficult for us monsters on the surface,” Asgore murmured.  “I do not relish leading our people alone.”

Our people.  The words stung.  The monsters were still her people, but they weren’t her people.  She could no longer be their queen. Some wounds just went too deep.

“You will manage, I am sure.”  Look at the moon. Not at the man she once loved.  “You will have Undyne, and all of the Royal Guard.  Against my better judgement, you will have Frisk as your ambassador.  You will not be alone.”

The wind whistled between them, almost obscuring Asgore’s next words.

“But they will not be you.”

Toriel’s fur bristled.  “You should be grateful they are not.  You will find them much more willing to forgive you.”

He flinched.  She wasn’t sure when she’d started looking at him again.

“There is nothing I can do, then.” His voice fell somewhere between a statement and a question.

Her palms felt hot.  She clenched her fists, snuffing out the fire before it could ignite.

“You can bring back my children.”

Asgore closed his eyes.  The moonlight highlighted the creases in his fur, the centuries of pain carved there.

She would know. She’d collected those centuries like scars herself.

“If only I could, Toriel,” he whispered. “If only I could.”

He settled down on the ground a ways off. Just far enough to not technically be in the same space, yet still near enough to make her fur itch.

She should go back to the clearing. Her new friends and her child were there. Without Asgore nearby, she might even be able to sleep.

...No. She doubted she would get a wink now.

Sighing, she started down the path to the clearing—

“Would you tell me about them?”

She paused at his voice, her eyes narrowing.  “I suspect you will get to know Frisk well enough on your own.”

“No—them, plural. Your children. The ones I… no.” He shook his head, horns glinting in the moonlight. “I would not cause you more pain if I can help it.  I think of Asriel and Chara every day. I thought, perhaps, if you wished to share your fond memories… but I would only taint them.”

He wiped his face with one paw. “I am sorry. There truly is nothing I can do, though I wish with all my soul.”

She blinked at him.  His apology, his wishes, his sorrow—none of it could make a difference. None of it could bring her children back.

Paige. Finn. Ceil. Ren. Malia. Dylan.

(Asriel. Chara.)

But she’d saved one.  Well, Frisk had mostly saved themself.  According to Sans, they’d survived most of the Underground with very little interference. All Toriel had done was return in time to, as Sans put it, “dunk on the king.”

“Toriel…?”

Right. She had been staring.

With a heavy sigh, she settled down in the dirt. Not too close. But not too far, either.

She wouldn't sleep tonight anyway. There were worse things she could do than remember the children who had sacrificed their lives for her freedom.

“Paige,” she said quietly.

“Hmm?” Asgore straightened.

“Paige.  She was the first human who fell, after… after Chara.”  She swallowed.  Heavens, this would not be easy. Yet somehow, despite everything, it felt right.

“Your guards found her in the Ruins. Before I sealed the entrance.  She would have stayed with me forever, if it were not for that. I know it.”

She was only seven.  Smaller than Frisk, but louder—full of life, full of energy, and at most times, full of the monster candy Toriel left out for the Whimsuns and Froggits. A pink ribbon shimmered in her ponytail, catching the light of Toriel’s fire when they cooked together. Well, when Toriel cooked, and Paige pretended to slice vegetables with her toy knife.

Wherever human souls went to when they died, Toriel hoped she was happy.

“Finn was the next to fall,” she continued.  “He had come to Mount Ebott on purpose—I do not think Paige did. I never did figure out how she ended up there…” And Toriel never would, thanks to the man beside her.

Realistically, Paige would be dead by now anyway. Humans did not share the lifespan of boss monsters, and she had fallen hundreds of years ago, so soon after Toriel had lost Asriel and Chara.

And yet it was still an innocent life, ended too soon.

“Finn,” Asgore repeated quietly. Toriel had almost managed to ignore his presence until then.

“He was an odd one. Always surprised that I knew that he was a boy, as if I could not see his soul. Perhaps humans are less discerning in that regard. He loved to play catch in the front yard, and he never gained the taste for snail pie, though he single-handedly kept the spider bakery in business.”

She smiled at that memory. On the few occasions Muffet visited the ruins, she always gave Finn an extra cup of cider with his donuts.

Muffet had later delivered the horrible news herself, rather than leaving it to the spider gossip chain. Finn had been captured by a dog monster outside Snowdin. He’d never gotten to taste the Cinnamon Bunnies he’d snuck off to buy.

She said a prayer for him, though she was no longer sure anyone listened. If someone had, Finn and the other children would still be with her.

“He sounds like quite the sweetheart,” Asgore murmured. Present tense. As if his orders hadn’t been the cause for Finn’s demise.

“I… I can’t do this, Dreemurr.”  She squeezed her eyes shut, but all she could see was blood.  Blood and dust.

She was free. They were all free. With Frisk’s help, no monsters and humans would fight again.

Was she still too stuck in the past to appreciate just how bright their future could be?

“Toriel—I’m sorry.”  His arms fell back to his sides. He had been reaching out, as if to hug her. “I am so sorry…”

“Ceil was sorry,” she whispered. “She left me a note before she disappeared. Nabstablook told her of a cousin with a talent for dance, and she… she wanted nothing more than to perform for monsters, to show that humans were not to be feared…

“And Ren. Always exploring.  Reading. Learning. Soaking up whatever knowledge he could, and writing it in his little notebook. I wonder what happened to it when he… when he…”

Tears ran down her face, staining the front of her tunic. Embarrassment flushed her, but why should she care? This was the man who had killed her Ren. Why should she hide her grief?

“Tori—”

“Malia,” she cut him off, her voice shaking. “Always wanted to help. Tried to make my butterscotch pie… I’ll never forget the f-flour on her face…

“And Dylan. Malia’s older brother, searching when she never returned. I had to tell him… tell him I couldn’t protect her…”

She huddled her knees close to her chest, all pretense of dignity gone. It didn’t matter what Asgore thought of her. She knew what she thought of him.

He was a murderer. No matter his intentions, she could not, would not forgive that.

“I…” He held out a hand.

“Don’t touch me, Dreemurr,” she snapped, though her soul was hardly in it.

Her anger wouldn’t bring her children back, any more than Asgore’s regret would.

“I will not.” His voice was soft. The voice of a husband, not a murderer, but ears could deceived. The soul could not.

She had seen the extermination points shielding his soul. Strengthening his trident. He was not the man she remembered.

“Thank you,” he whispered, “for telling me of them.”

She looked up, meeting his tearful gaze with her own.

“You can thank me by removing yourself from my life,” she growled.

Then she stood, and made her way down the mountain.

Her child—the one she had left—would be waiting for her.

[willow-salix]

(Fluffember Prompt : Picnic)

Day 5 of Isolation on Tracy Island 2.0

“Are you going to eat all that yourself?” Gordon asked as he sidled up to me in the kitchen. I was making noodles, nice, simple, stir fried noodles, a little bit of chicken, some veg and a sweet and sour dippy sauce. Lush.

“No,”  I answered. There was clearly far too much for me to eat alone, I had a Space Hubby around here somewhere… or possibly up there somewhere, it was hard to tell.

“Oh, cool, can I ha-”

“No.”

Cue the pout, the epic Gordo pout. I am immune. I never thought I would ever be able to say that, but I’ve grown stronger, more able to resist the bottom lip of doom. Just about. I remember that I tried that once with John, and his exact words had been “Don’t even try, that won’t work on me, I’m immune, I have two younger brothers.” I’d thought his confident speech had been all bravado and false hope, but he might have actually been telling the truth, my pouts rarely worked on him and the ones that the terrible two dished out never did. Was my man secretly a god? I mean, I thought so, I’d seen him with his top off, but maybe, just maybe he had hidden talents. Hmmm…

“You’ve got that look on your face again.”

“What look?” I asked, needing to clarify his meaning so I could decide if I needed to be insulted or not.

“The one you get when you’re staring at John or that guy from that old TV show, the Scottish one with the time travel.”

“Jamie Fraser is the most perfect of men, he is the ultimate in husband goals, he is…” I trailed off and shrugged. “I obviously have a thing for hot redheaded men.” 

“Urghh,” he made a face similar to the one that Scott made when Alan shoved his shoe under his nose last week. Like he wanted to throw up but wasn’t sure which way to aim.

“Why are you in here anyway?” I asked. “Was it just so you could bug me and judge me? I’m busy here, I’m trying to cook.”

He snorted, a scoffing little noise that was quite rude.

“What now?” I sighed.

“Cooking isn’t that hard.”

“Oh really? Then why is it that barely anyone in this house seems to be capable of it? It’s not just a case of grabbing some random ingredients, tossing them in a pot with a prayer for luck and you’re good to go.”

He declined to comment and wandered off without another word. I should have been terrified, but my bean sprouts were trying to burn so I pushed it aside to worry about later. That was my first dumb move.

My second dumb move was to actually leave the comfort of the couch and John’s recently vacated warm spot.

“What the everloving crap was that?” I yelped when a loud crash sounded from the kitchen below us. I poked John gently when he failed to react. “Did you hear that?”

“Since I’m not deaf, it would have been impossible for me not to,” he casually swiped something away on his tablet and started reading again.

“What did they do?” 

“And since I do not, in fact, have the ability to see through walls, I don’t know.”

“Go and find out.”

You’d have thought I was asking him to go shopping with me again.

“I don’t think so, you go.”

“They’re your brothers.”

“You’re the one that cares.”

“They’re your brothers,” I repeated.

He gave me that look of his that promises retribution as I rolled sideways to let him get up, rolling back to steal his spot the second he moved. I dragged his blanket over my knees (I’m feeling chilly today) and stole his tablet to watch videos on as he walked away. 

I got so engrossed, having fallen down a hole of cute hamster videos, that I didn’t realise for a full twenty minutes that John had failed to return. I had sudden and very detailed visions of my poor boy hogtied and left baking in the sun or some such nonsense. I unwrapped myself from my blanket burrito and started my very slow and reluctant walk towards the kitchen. 

“What are you doing?” I yelled the second I rounded the corner, entered the room and saw the scene before me. They all froze guiltily, including John, who was at that very second groping blindly around in the pantry. And when I say blindly, I mean it literally, he was wearing a blindfold that by the looks of it, had been made by them tying my shawl around his head. I don’t know what they were thinking, if anything I’m a little surprised that I’ve never seen smoke coming out of their ears when their two remaining brain cells rub together to give them an idea.

The other idiots were all standing around in various places, standing guard over small piles of produce like dragons over their gold. 

“What the hell is going on in here? And how the hell have you roped him in?”

“Hang on, he’s got twenty more seconds yet,” Alan told me, clicking a button on his comm again. “Go!”

John resumed his digging around, knocking over two jars of mustard and an open packet of pasta which poured out like a carby waterfall. He ignored it.

“Gordon?” I turned to the likely culprit.

“Why are you picking on me?” he asked innocently. "Why do you always assume it's my doing?" 

“Are you honestly trying to tell me that you had nothing to do with this?  Whatever this actually is.”

“We’re having a picnic,” Virgil told me.

“It’s blindfolded kitchen shopping,” Kayo elaborated. I switched my glare to her, she was involved, I could tell, mostly because she still had one of her workout head wraps around her neck and had her own pile of goodies on the counter in front of her.

“It was Scott’s idea,” Alan piped up, throwing his brother under the bus. “Time!”

John dropped the item in his left hand, retaining the one in his right and backed out of the pantry. He pulled off his blindfold and gathered up his treasures, a bag of donuts, a can of whipped cream and in his hand a tin of spaghetti hoops.

“What was Scott’s idea?”

“Well, when you told me that cooking was easy-” 

“I said no such thing. I told you that it wasn’t as simple as just bunging some ingredients in a…” I trailed off, I could already see where this was going and I wasn’t impressed.

“Exactly, throw some ingredients together and make food. Easy.”

“Not easy,” I insisted.

“So I happened to mention it to Scott, who said that he agreed, you can make anything if you’re creative enough-”

“You should not be learning from the Grandma Tracy school of cookery!”

“The rules are simple,” Gordon continued as if I had never spoken. “One minute to select three ingredients, all of which must be used in the finished dish. You’re allowed to add two more ingredients to aid the construction but that’s all. You can do whatever you want with what you have, be as elaborate or as simple as you like. You must taste your own dish, as does everyone else when everything will be shared as a picnic.”

He looked so damned proud of himself, the little snot.

“How did the rest of you numpties get involved in this?” I sighed, knowing I was beaten. No one answered me. Giving up, my blanket nest calling me, I retreated towards the door.

“Do you want to join in?” Virgil asked innocently.

“No, I really don’t.”

“Do you not have as much faith in your cooking skills as we do in ours?” Alan teased. 

I paused in the doorway.

“Dare you, unless you’re scared,” Kayo threw in, just to stir the pot.

“Dammit!” She knew exactly what she was doing, I can NEVER resist a dare.

“Gimme a blindfold.”

Alan tossed me his, which I think was a football sock, but I didn’t want to look at it too closely, I just prayed it was clean. I tied it around my head and Scott checked to make sure I couldn’t see anything. I don’t know what he did, because obviously I couldn’t see anything, but it made a few of them snigger, so I’m obviously suspicious.

Alan started the timer and I groped my way around the table to the fridge.

“Forty-five seconds!”

Crap! This was actually pretty stressful. How did you pick something without seeing it? I decided to stick to one place and hope for the best, open the fridge, feel around, grab some bits, done! Right?

Easier said than done when you have recently gone shopping, the fridge is packed to bursting and you can’t tell what anything is.

“John! Grab this!” I demanded as Alan happily started counting down from twenty as my time ticked away. I grabbed something small and weird, no idea what it was and tossed it over my shoulder in what I guessed was his general direction, hoping he caught it.

I fumbled around and selected something round and cold, that I hoped might be a tomato and held that out too, then in desperation I yanked out a random box just as Alan called time.

I pulled off my blindfold and looked at the things John was holding for me, which turned out to be an apple and a tiny radish. I was holding a carton of eggs. Could have been worse.

“Let the food prep begin,” Gordon declared. “No helping each other.”

Sighing I got to work. Obviously, eggs would be my main ingredient, I cracked four into a bowl and whisked them together. 

“Do we have to use all of the ingredients we picked out?” I asked.

“Yes, every one.”

“No, I meant do I have to use the entire apple or the entire box of eggs,” I clarified.

“Oh, no you don’t, it just has to have them in there.”

“Cool, OK, and we get two extra ingredients of our choice?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” That was me sorted then. I grabbed a grater and shredded a quarter of the apple and less than an eighth of the tiny radish. I wasn’t a big fan of those spicy little buggers, I don’t like pepper and they definitely have a peppery quality to them, but I was hoping the sweetness of the apple would balance it out.

I opened the fridge again and selected some cheese which I shredded and some ham, chopping it up quite fine. That would do.

I set a pan on the stove top and waited for it to heat up.

“Do I get to use any kind of oil or something to stop my food sticking?” I asked.

The ringleaders, Gordon and Scott, looked at each other, obviously indulging in some kind of non-verbal conversation I wasn't privy to before making their decision.

“Yes you can,” Scott graciously allowed.

“Thank you.” I dumped in a generous knob of butter. Quickly I sloshed the eggs into the pan, and fluffed them up a little with a fork before I turned the heat down a bit and let them sizzle.

I glanced over at Alan who was constructing something with jam and a pile of cookies. Scott was wrestling with a can of tuna and Gordon was opening a carton of custard.

I sprinkled a little of the apple on top of the egg, then a tiny dusting of radish, followed by a large handful of cheese and ham. I eased the sides of my omelette away from the pan, making sure it wasn’t sticking and checking it was cooking.

John, I noticed, was doing something weird with a lettuce leaf that he had procured from somewhere, it was not one of his blindfolded items so he must have gotten it after. He had the leaf stretched over a small bowl and was spooning a tiny amount of the tinned spaghetti into it. Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to marry into this family. I must have been drunk.

I carefully folded my omelette in half and turned the heat off, letting it rest and continue cooking a little.

“I’m done,” I declared, turning around to survey the chaos that had become our kitchen. Oh the humanity. I would NOT be cleaning this up.

Alan, it transpired, had blindly chosen cookies, cheese slices and curry sauce left over from some McDonald’s nuggets I got a few weeks ago, bringing them and other goodies with me in the space elevator. His extras appeared to involve pilfering a few of the McVities digestive biscuits that I’d brought from home the day I arrived that Kayo had chosen in her blind scrabble around the snack cupboard. 

He’d proceeded to make a weird stacked thing he was calling a cookie burger which consisted of a cookie base, a layer of jam on top of that, the digestive and lastly a slice of cheese with a drizzle of curry sauce on top.

Gordon was constructing something very elaborate, involving a bowl and lots of layers. His random items appeared to be the custard, half a vanilla sponge cake and a tub of left over chili. My mind was boggling. 

Scott was hacking at a rather stale looking half loaf of bread that John said he found in the rarely used bread bin, I don't know how he'd managed to open the bread bin without seeing it, but apparently he had. He'd also blindly chosen a can of Tuna and a packet of fruit gummies. 

Virgil, the adorable chonk, had managed to choose a package of cocktail weenies, a tin of peaches and a few sticks of celery. He had stared at his bounty for a good few minutes, before giving up and wandering over to the pantry. He'd stared into that too, like he was looking into a black hole or contemplating the mysteries of the universe. 

Eventually he'd chosen a pie crust from the baking shelf and had begun to assemble his creation. He tipped the peaches into the pie dish, chopped up the celery and cocktail sausages and dropped them in on top. He'd looked around, rather desperately I thought, and reached over to steal John's can of whipped cream, squirting a generous amount on top of his frankenpie and called it good. 

Kayo appeared to have more sense than the others, she had been the one to find my stash of digestive biscuits and, after Alan had liberated a few, proceeded to crush them into crumbs which she lined the inside of a bowl with.

"What are you making?" I asked, because it didn't look too awful. 

She continued to construct her…whatever it was…adding some cake pilfered from Gordon, some grated carrot mixed into cream cheese that was one of her chosen extras and topping it all with strawberries. It kinda…vaguely…could be a cheesecake, if you tipped your head to the side and squinted. 

I turned to John, my man, the one that I was supposed to trust with all my heart and soul…he was…I don't know how to describe it. He'd taken the donut and hollowed out a little bit more from the middle hole, then he'd gathered up the sides of his lettuce leaf/ spaghetti hoops thing and had made it into a little parcel, twisting the end closed. He then popped that inside the hollowed out donut. I have no idea why. He'd finished by decorating the top with whipped cream and sprinkles. What was it with them all thinking that whipped cream was the answer to all their problems? Because three of them had done it so far. 

Gordon had sprinkled in a handful of peas, actual peas, on top of his custard layer, then added cream on top. I honestly don't know. 

Scott had moved on from his bread and taken some of John's lettuce, insisting it was his first, and put a leaf on the stale bread and topped that with Tuna and sweetcorn, which actually had the potential to taste OK. Time would tell. He'd used the fruit gummies to decorate the plate with, I'm not sure if that counted but since he and Gordon seemed to be in charge I assumed it was allowed. 

I slid my omelette onto a plate and vaguely wondered if I should grab a few sick bags before the picnic portion of this weird event started. 

They all looked incredibly proud of themselves, why I had no idea, no one should be proud of the mess they had made, this was not food, this was barely a step up from mud pies in the yard. 

They all took their food offerings and trooped outside, setting up camp on one of the picnic benches near the edge of the beach and settled in. 

One by one they presented their masterpieces. Here are the reactions.

SCOTT’S

“This bread’s hard, very hard,” Alan said.

“It’s very fishy,” Gordon said, although we don’t know if it was a bad thing or not.

“Not bad, I could eat it if I had to,” Virgil allowed.

“I don’t like the sweetcorn on it, it keeps rolling away,” John frowned. He was always a bit funny with tinned sweetcorn anyway, he prefers it on the cob.

“That isn’t just hard bread, that is rock bread,” Kayo complained.

“It’s edible, with fresh ingredients I’d eat it again,” I said, trying to be nice. Honestly it wasn’t that bad, I’d definitely eaten worse over the years.

“It’s almost exactly like the subs we made in college,” Scott said, popping the rest in his mouth and chewing happily. He’s weird, that one, he pretends he’s not, he offers the illusion of being the capable, responsible older brother, but it’s all an act.

ALAN’S

“Erm…” Scott hedged, spending at least a minute turning the thing in his hand looking for a way to attack it.  

“I don’t know what to do with this, Al…” Virgil was even less sure.

“Give it here!” I had less issues and snatched it away from Scott. I ripped off a bit of the curry sauce topped cheese slice, licked the sauce off the cheese, popped the cheese in my mouth then took a bite of the sweet stuff. It was hard to get my teeth through all the layers of biscuit, but I managed it. It was actually OK, separating it was the way to go. “That’s actually quite nice.”

John copied me exactly, because I’m the sensible one although he’d never admit to that. “You’re right, it’s not bad.”

 “Wimps,” Gordon bit straight through it, cheese, curry and all. Then he gagged.

Kayo took the cheese off her’s, ate the sweet stuff first then finished with the cheese, an unconventional method but it wasn’t like any of this was normal. She made a noise that could have been approval but could just as easily been a whimper of surrender.

Virgil took the whole thing apart and ate everything separately, one piece at a time, declaring it to be, “Not bad.”

Scott glanced at me with that look in his eye that said he was about to do something stupid… He reached for the curry sauce pot… 

“Scott, no!” I warned him.

He ignored me to tip the rest of the curry sauce on top of the cheese and threw it in his mouth. Immediately he let out a noise that sounded like a mixture between a gag and a burp. He chewed frantically then swallowed. We waited to see what would happen. “Not deadly,” was his verdict.

VIRGIL’S

“I’m sorry, no, I’m not eating that,” I told them, flat out refusing.  “I’m semi allergic to peaches, they give me migraine headaches and I’m not risking it. I’m out.”

“I’m excused because she can’t eat peaches and I won’t risk cross contamination,” John said, leaping on my statement as a way to get out of it.

“That’s a flimsy excuse!” Scott accused, he knew it, John knew it, we all knew it. John didn’t care.

“You’re just mad that you can’t use it,” John said, squeezing my leg under the table in thanks for my weird kinda-allergy. I patted his hand in solidarity.

“No one has to eat it, I did my best,” Virgil winced, knowing that his was likely to be the most disastrous yet.

“I’m in!” Gordon declared, picking out a cocktail weenie and dunking it in the cream before popping it in his mouth. He chewed frantically as he scooped up a spoonful of pie crust, peaches and a slice of celery and shoveled that in after the weenie. He kept chewing, his face registering at least six different emotions, none of them pleasant before he finally swallowed. “It could have been worse.”

Kayo copied Gordon and picked out a weenie which she ate first, on its own.  That’s where she got smart, washing it down with a mouthful of water before continuing. She spooned up some pie, peach, celery and cream concoction and tasted it. “Not bad like this, the celery is a slightly weird addition, but it can be ignored.”

“I feel sick,” Alan said, having shoved a large mouthful in. 

Scott, the brave boy that he is, shrugged and cut a whole slice, lifting it carefully to his mouth.

“He’s a madman…” Alan whispered in awe.

“A brave man…” Gordon added.

“A stupid man…” I sighed.

Scott bit into it, chewing slowly, rolling it around his mouth. “It’s fine.”

I stared at him in utter shock.

Virgil nibbled on a corner, made a face and pushed it away. “No.”

GORDON’S

“What the heck is this?” he of the iron stomach and nuclear powered taste buds asked.

“It’s that thing they did in that show,” Gordon answered, yet Scott still looked bemused, as did we all, blank faces all round.

“Which show, babe?” I felt the need to ask.

“The one with the friends in the coffee shop.”

“You mean ‘Friends’?”

“If that’s what it’s called,” he shrugged. “It’s a meat trifle.”

Cue horrified gasps all around.

“With a few modifications, obviously, since I had to use chili,” he hurried to explain, although it was anything but reassuring.

John pushed his fork into the center of the dish, looking more and more scared the deeper it sank.

“Don’t eat it and just say you did,” I side whispered to him, worried about his stomach since he usually lived on simple and non perishable food in Five.

“I heard that!” Gordon accused as he spoons up a big bite, determined to prove it was edible, and chowed down. “Huh…” he kept chewing, “not bad…”

“Not bad?” Scott goggled. “Are you serious?”

“The chili is good, the custard is good, the cream is nice, the peas are a bit weird but overall it's OK.”

Virgil was the next brave soul to scoop up a tiny forkful and I did the same getting the smallest amount I could onto my spoon, mostly trying to get just custard and cream, although I think I did spot a lurker pea in there.

Kayo and Alan both scooped up a spoonful and shoved it in their mouths, obviously figuring that getting it over with was the best way to tackle it. Kayo spat hers out instantly, Alan managed to chew and swallow his. Virgil got his down but there was a fair bit of gagging.

“It tastes like a foot,” Alan declared.

John took a small bite and reacted almost like a cat with a hairball, his body shuddering, neck stretching as he silently gagged. I handed him a tissue and he gratefully spat it out, sagging against me as if he was about to die.

I looked at Scott, who nodded in return and dug out his own small amount. “On three?”

Scott nodded and began the count. “One...two...three!” We both stuffed our spoons into our mouths. Scott made a face but managed to get it down, my plan had worked and, while the pea was indeed lurking and rather weird, it wasn't that bad a bite and I swallowed without issue, pleased to have survived.

MINE

“This doesn’t look too bad,” Scott said assessingly.

“How dare!” I gasped. “Cheek of it, it looks tasty.”

Virgil cut himself a small portion, being cautious, since everything else has been questionable at best, downright disgusting at worse. 

Gordon cut himself an actual slice, a godsdamned slice of my omelette and lifted it up like he would a piece of pizza then wondered why we were all staring at him like he’d lost his mind.

“What?” he asked, genuinely confused. John just shook his head in utter despair at his dingus brothers and cut a more sensible sized bite. 

“I’m sure it will be edible,” he says diplomatically, it’s never good to insult the wife’s cooking even when it is so obviously crap.

Alan, disaster child that he is, cut a bit with the side of his spoon like a damned savage and spooned it up.

Kayo helped herself to a small fork full and got ready.

I reached over and broke a piece off of Gordon’s mega slice. 

“OK, good luck my friends,” I offered as I popped the eggy weirdness in my mouth… it was interesting. Nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, the cheese and ham had mostly drowned out the spicy kick of the radish and the apple had added a weird sweetness to it, but at least it was edible if not to my tastes. I managed to chew it and swallow without choking.

“That’s oddly nice,” John said, chewing slowly, thoughtfully. 

“Well, you are the person that likes baked apple pieces on your pizza,” I shuddered in revulsion at the memory of his birthday meal.

“What a man chooses to put on his pizza is his own business,” he told me.

“Not when it’s that weird.”

“It’s no weirder than pineapple on pizza.”

“He’s right,” Scott interrupted, “this is strangely OK.” He took another bite to make sure.

“I don’t like it, it’s too sweet,” Alan said, making a face. “ I like sweet, but not mixed with savoury like this.”

“I agree,” Virgil said, setting his aside, “it’s too sweet, but you did your best.”

Gordon didn’t say anything, but he was steadily munching through his piece, I watched him, oddly fascinated.

“It’s edible, that’s all I can say about it,” Kayo told me, which for her was a compliment.

“Well? Verdict?” I asked Gordon when he eventually finished.

“I don’t know. I don’t like it or dislike it, it just is.”

“You’re being philosophical over a weird omelette?” Scott laughed.

“Had to happen some time.”

“How? How did it have to happen?” John asked, utterly bemused, looking like his brain was going into a meltdown. “Who says to themselves ‘one day I will have to say something deep and meaningful about a randomly concocted omelette’? How do you even assume that?”

“I never say never,” Gordon shrugged, not caring to explain any further. Personally I don’t think he knew what he meant either but was just brazening it out by that point.

JOHN’S

I picked up his donut creation a little gingerly, because I saw what he’d done to it and I was wary. He obviously saw my hesitation because he lent closer to help.

“Just be careful with it and follow my instructions,” he whispered in my ear under the guise of being romantic.

One eyebrow rose in response...I mean, what do you say to that?

He continued, still whispering. “Bite down gently and try to avoid the sack,” he dropped a kiss on my neck before sitting back in his seat. Smooth, boy, very smooth. My other eyebrow lifted to join its sibling.

“I’m just trying to help,” he assured me.

“You’ve said that before.”

“And you listened then and look how well it turned out,” he said as if that was all the proof I needed.

I heard a snigger from Gordon who was obviously eavesdropping. 

“I was referring to the fact that you often use the excuse of just trying to help,” I sniffed.

“Oh...well…” he tried to look innocent but failed, flashing me one of those devastating grins that just melted me on the spot. “Just taste my damn donut.”

I debated the wiseness of listening to him but decided that, as trust is supposed to be the cornerstone of any good relationship, I should probably pay attention.

“OK, here we go,” I bit down carefully, right at the edge, trying to measure the distance between where my teeth were and the no go zone. I think I brushed the edge of the lettuce leaf but managed to stick to just the donut which, though ever so slightly stale, was still good.

“That’s nice,” I allowed, trying to keep my cover as I passed the donut over to John who took a bite in exactly the same way and therefore stayed safe.

He passed it on to Kayo, who had been watching us intently, studying our moves with her usual mix of suspicion and calculated plotting.

 “You’ve got some cream on your lip,” I was told and sat still while he wiped it away with his thumb.

“What do you think, Kay?” Scott asked. 

Kayo, having executed a perfect bite from the other side of the donut nodded before passing judgement. “Edible.” She was now fully on board with our trickery and would never rat us out as she passed it innocently on to Alan.

Alan, trusting baby that he is, bit blindly into the donut, hitting the lettuce sack which exploded, squirting spaghetti hoop juice into his mouth.

“GAAAH what the…” he yelped, gasping in shock, dropping the demon donut with its hidden core of evil.

Scott picked up the donut, the spaghetti sauce now leaking out freely and soaking into the dough. Uncaring he takes a bite. “Not gonna lie,” he mumbles around his mouthful, “it's not great.” 

Virgil relieved him of the donut and studied it from all sides. The artist in him wants everything to look appetizing and pleasant the whole time, this did not. “This looks hideous.” He nibbled a corner. “Disgusting,” he declared, offering it to Gordon.

Gordon reluctantly accepted it and bit down carefully. He chewed, swallowed and shook his head. “Nope, gross.” 

KAYO'S 

Kayo pushed her bowl over quite proudly. “Dig in.”

It didn’t look that bad, and since I’d seen a lot of what she used I knew the ingredients wouldn’t be that bad when mixed. Hopefully it wouldn't be the obnoxious assault to the tastebuds that some of them had been. 

I slammed my spoon  confidently into it and scooped out a mouthful, popping it in my mouth before I could back out.

“Humm…” I chewed thoughtfully, what did I actually think of it? I couldn’t decide so I just spoke my thoughts as I so often do. “It's quite nice. I mean, biscuit, cake and cream cheese is nice, I don't really like the carrot mixed in but it doesn't ruin it to the point of being disgusting. I like the strawberries, so I guess it’s a win.” 

John followed my lead, digging his spoon in. “That's pretty good.” 

“I really like that,” Scott dipped his spoon in for some more. “The carrot is different enough to not bore me but the rest is normal enough to make it nice.”

“It's too sweet for me,” Virgil said, putting his spoon down after his first taste. 

“I'm not liking the carrot but the rest is good, I could eat it,” Alan said, his usual aversion to vegetables or anything healthy rearing its ugly head. 

“It's all good. I don't mind the carrot either,” Gordon said, agreeing with Scott. 

Kayo, obviously emboldened after using us as test subjects, risked tasting it herself. “Not bad.” 

Well, we've tasted everything,” I said, glugging down some of John’s water in an attempt to cleanse my tongue a little. “Was there an actual point to all of this?” 

Scott and Gordon both shrugged, not that I was that surprised, there is never much point to anything that any of these idiots do when bored.

“Not really,” Scott admitted. 

“I wanted to prove you wrong,” Gordon told me, “and I think we did.” 

“How? How did you? Some of this was disgusting, it clearly didn't work. How can you honestly think that you proved my wrong in any way, shape or form?” Seriously, the mind boggles with these guys. 

“It showed that it can be done,” Gordon insisted.  

“It shows nothing!”  

“Just let it go, love,” John soothed, obviously trying to save what little sanity I have left.

“You joined in!”

“So did you,” he countered.

“I give up!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in frustration. “It’s like talking to monkeys, you’re all mental.” I climbed awkwardly off the bench and headed back to the house.

“So, did I win?” I heard Kayo ask as I rounded the corner, leaving them alone. 

Stupid competitive Tracys! I should never have left the sofa, hell, I should never have left England. I knew this would be a mistake. I’d be insane by the end of it.

I stopped off in the kitchen to make myself a coffee, hoping it would take some of the taste away. I grabbed a few abandoned cookies and a non Johned donut and retreated to the sanctuary that was the couch and my blankets, which would be lonely without me.

I settled down, retrieved my book (I’m re-reading Outlander, which might be contributing to my Jamie Fraser love right now, all the best husbands have J names, fact) and got comfy, might as well make the most of what little peace I’d get before the chaos found me.

“Move over.”

I stayed where I was, maybe if I ignored him he would go away.

John, being John and refusing to be either insulted or put off by my rejection, simply lifted my legs and settled in their spot, dropping them back down over his lap.

I looked over my book at him as he reached for my coffee cup and gulped down half its contents. He offered me the mug and I put my book down to take it.

“Thanks,” I said because what else could I do? I sipped the coffee then put the mug down on the little table next to the couch and picked up my book again.

John took that as a sign that he was welcome to stay and started making himself at home, stealing some of the blanket and shifting to stretch out beside me. I moved over to make room, letting him settle his head on my chest as he found his tablet among the cushions.

OK, maybe there were a few good reasons to be here instead of alone at home, but I’ll never admit it outloud.

[dadsbongos]

A Notice

Movie/Game/Show: Umbrella Academy Dynamic: Klaus Hargreeves/Reader Warnings: dead Reggie Summary: How did Klaus and his wife get together? ~~~

A note came back with her dog at noon on a fittingly sunny Sunday in late June.

(Y/n) held up the note to her face as she gently pat her plump dog’s side, sending Scratch off to the kitchen where he could pester her mother for lunch scraps. Her brows furrowed at how odd it seemed - words scribbled in a multitude of colorful markers ranging from bright red to murky brown.

“‘Your dog’s pretty fat, I’ll walk him for you if you want! For like two dollars anyway. Oh, this is your neighbor, Klaus, by the way!’”

She turned to the living room, where her little brother and father were watching television together, “Do we have a neighbor named Klaus?”

Her father hummed, squinting at the bright screen, “Those Hargreeves’ kids have wild names. Probably one of them,” he looked to the squirming four-year-old beside him with a wide grin, “Do you know, Owen?”

The small boy shook his head quickly, leaning his head into the man’s chest, eyes still stuck on the television. (Y/n) nodded, walking into the kitchen where her mother was cooking, “Do you know the Hargreeves? The kids’ names, I mean.”

“I believe there’s an Allison in there,” the woman murmured, still facing the stove, “Maybe a Ben… but I know one of them goes by Five. A little weird if you ask me but…” she trailed off.

“Oh,” (Y/n) pressed her lips into a thin line, “I’m gonna go over there and just check it out.”

“Why?”

There was no response, not when the tween was already at the front door shoving her shoes on. The woman shook her head with a light giggle, “Henry, your daughter’s going over to the neighbors!”

“Your daughter too, Miriam!”

That was all (Y/n) heard before she was rushing down the sidewalk towards the biggest house on the block. The biggest house in town, more likely. She pushed the gate open, cringing at how it creaked under her palm before coming up to the door. Clanging the heavy door knocker against the wood, she waited with the note in hand for someone to answer.

After a few seconds, a boy no older than she had answered. He quirked a brow at her before moving to slam the door, “We’re not buying anything.”

“Oh no, I’m not selling,” she instantly blurting, bringing the paper to his attention, “Does anyone named Klaus live here? He left this attached to my dog’s collar.”

He huffed, clearly disinterested in conversation as a whole, however, he gave her a tight-lipped smile and held up his index finger, “Just a moment.”

And promptly slammed the door shut in her face, she flinched at the rude move. (Y/n) blinked up at the manor, taking quick notice to how eerie it seemed from the outside - she wondered how the interior looked as well. A few seconds later, the comically large door opened, a new brunette boy peeking through.

“Hey, you got my note!” he pointed at the paper in her hands, “I’m glad it was you and not some weird old guy.”

“You… you didn’t know who it would be going to?”

Klaus looked to the sky, as if in thought, before shaking his head, “Not really.”

“Wow,” (Y/n) breathed out, placing a hand over her stomach, “I think that just took a few years off my lifespan.”

“Five says I have that effect on people,” he leaned on the wedged-open door, “So, do you need a dog walker or sitter or both?”

A note came back with her little brother at three in the afternoon on a rainy Tuesday in mid-March.

“Sissy?” Owen’s quiet voice called from the hallway, one hand clutching a crinkled piece of paper by his side while the other fiddled with pieces of his hair. 

(Y/n) looked over from her textbooks, no longer as invested in the Russian Empire of the seventeen hundreds as before. She spun around in her desk chair, giving her baby brother a sweet smile as he stepped into her room. Owen held up the paper, placing his rather sticky hands on his sister’s thighs, trying to hoist himself into her lap by himself.

She quietly chuckled before setting the parchment aside and picking the first-grader into her lap, cringing when she felt at his hands, “Oh, you mister, are going to have to wash those mitts.”

He whined, burying his face into the material of her nightshirt in protest to the mere idea of getting up and washing his hands.

“Fine, fine, not now,” she rubbed his small back, picking up the paper.

“‘You should come to our hangout spot, not the shack the other one. The secret one around midnight. This is your friend, Klaus, by the way.’”

Of course, it had to be the rickety old treehouse in the field by their neighborhood - at midnight. Let’s not forget midnight. (Y/n) huffed, pulling herself up by the splintering wooden planks acting as a ladder, though what worried her was the lack of Klaus-like noises. Usually, he would be eager to make his presence known to her whether it be by offering a hand or his loud, shrill giggles at whatever the ghosts were saying now.

Eventually, she managed her way up, finding Klaus sitting oddly still and silent. She reached for his shoulder, finding no pleasure in the way he flinched before whipping around to meet her. However, rather than a pale, cold corpse positioned to look like her friend, she was met with crooked, off-white teeth on full display. 

Klaus turned around, taking the girl’s hands in his, “I know I’m not the guy your parents would dream of you dating but- “

“Woah, woah,” she felt winded, looking to the side briefly, “Are you- are we?”

“(Y/n),” he breathed out, getting onto his knees in a mockery of a proposal, “will you do me the honors of taking you out on a date?”

A tiny giggle escaped from her, she pulled him down into a hug, “Yes, I’d love to.”

A note came back with her father at five in the afternoon on a cloudy Friday in early December.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Owen muttered, leaning against the fridge as his sister whisked eggs.

(Y/n) paused to glare at her little brother, “How does someone whisk eggs wrong?”

He gestured to her hands, “The way you’re doing it.”

The front door to her childhood home opened, the woman sighed, shaking her head, “Dad, I told you to let me know when you’re going out for a run! Scared me half to death when I couldn’t find you this morning.”

“Sorry, little lady,” Henry grinned down at his daughter, ruffling her hair before taking the bowl of raw eggs with one hand, “Your boyfriend asked me to give this to you.”

Another note. She took it with a quiet mumble of her gratitude, not understanding why her boyfriend of almost a decade - starting around fifteen years of age and still going strong into twenty-five - had to use a note rather than his phone to contact her. Though, she supposed the nostalgia was appreciated while they visited their home neighborhood.

“‘You should come by Griddy’s in like half an hour! You know, for old time’s sake. This is your boyfriend, Klaus, just so you know.’”

Klaus was a lot of things, spontaneous only scratching at the surface of that word bank. Of course, it was in the back of her mind that he’d invite his siblings, but she didn’t really expect it to happen. (Y/n) gave the four other Hargreeves a small wave before joining her beau at the smooth beige counter.

“I thought you guys only saw each other for funerals and weddings?” she murmured, tacking on a small laugh when it felt strange not to.

“Well,” Klaus reached into his coat pocket, “I suppose they make an exception for proposals now.”

“For what?” she gasped, watching, completely stunned, as he stood and took her hands in his own.

Klaus thrived off of attention, so it shouldn’t have baffled her that the eyes on them only encouraged his actions. He grinned wildly, not too unlike a maniac, “I always thought you were the foxiest little thing on the street ever since I saw you. Then, you became the sweetest little thing but now…” he let go of her only to open the velvet box and show off the ring inside, “I want you to be my every-little-thing.”

“Oh, sweetie,” (Y/n) cupped his cheeks, nodding, “Of course!”

The peeping adults, and some children who followed their parents’ example, gave over a round of applause. Agnes smiled at the newly engaged couple, making an announcement about a round of free donuts for the patrons. As it died down, Ben gave Klaus a pat on the back - well, the sentiment was appreciated even though his hand just went through the living man’s body.

He giggled, not willing to admit how nervous he truly was, “I didn’t think that’d work as well as it did.”

(Y/n) pulled his head closer to her lips, kissing his forehead before releasing him, “If there’s anyone I’d want to marry, it’d be you.”

Klaus brought up a hand to fiddle with the sleeve of his fiance’s shirt, a bad habit he partook in during occasional nervous fits, “Even if that anyone was an ex-junkie?”

“If I wanted to marry anyone,” she repeated, tone much firmer than before, “it’s you. Ex-junkie and all, babe.”

“That was just adorable,” Klaus snorted, leaving her sleeve in favor of watching Agnes come toward the family with plates of donuts in hand.

A note came back with her husband at eight at night on a rainy Saturday in late March.

(Y/n) was nestled into the couch of her and her husband’s home, with the heater broken there was little to nothing keeping out the creeping cold of March’s spring-winter amalgamation. The front door slammed open, alerting the woman until Klaus ran into the living room. He was holding up a torn-out article from the day’s newspaper, winded from rushing over to the house.

She stood, taking the paper before leading her poor, exhausted husband to the couch. Sitting beside Klaus, (Y/n) looked over the article while rubbing his back, “Oh my God…”

“I know!” Klaus wheezed, though despite the usually horrifying news he was smiling as if he’d just been told something uncontrollably amazing.

As awful as it was to say, (Y/n) didn’t feel bad about her upcoming disregard for her father-in-law’s life, “Do you think he left you anything?”

“‘SIR REGINALD HARGREEVES: DEAD!’”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” the woman murmured, stopping her husband from entering the manor, “I know he was an awful person and I just don’t want you to feel forced to come here.”

“I want to be here,” Klaus whispered, turning to his wife, eyes wide, “Gotta make sure the old man’s really dead!”

She chuckled, pushing the door open, “Wouldn’t you be able to see him?”

“Not sure,” he shook his head, looking around the main hall, “I think hell has delayed seance service, sweetheart.”

Just as (Y/n) went to make her own joke, a voice called out to them from the staircase, “Klaus, (Y/n), what a lovely surprise.”

Diego, of course, the little optimist that he was. (Y/n) gave her brother-in-law a tiny wave, “Good to see you as well, Diego.”

A warning came with her time-traveling brother-in-law.

“What- what- what do you mean?” (Y/n) shook her head, her hand intertwined with her husband’s, “The world can’t just end like that! Shouldn’t there be signs, like all the animals acting weird or extreme weather?”

Five paused, narrowing his eyes at his sister-in-law, “You know, it’s funny. I’m from the future, I can remember the tiniest details of my life before getting stuck, and I’m smarter than all of you combined but still…” he walked towards the woman, “I have no clue who you are or what you’re doing here.”

“Woah,” Klaus intervened, “don’t be so rude to your sister-in-law, little Five. She’s just trying to help.”

Of course, he knew that. Five remembered meeting her. He saw her. In the past, obviously, but in the future as well. He saw her there, in the rubble of the Umbrella Academy with her husband - dead. Eyes peeled open in horror, it was haunting to look at. To look at all of them, really.

Walking corpses stained into the individual wrinkles of his brain.

“Whatever,” Five huffed, turning to leave the room, “I don’t have time for this.”

Klaus came closer to his wife, brushing a thumb over her cheekbone, “I’m sorry about him.”

“Don’t be,” (Y/n) took his hand from her face, intertwining their fingers, “Assuming your brother isn’t coo-coo, he’s under a lot of stress.”

But there was no way he wasn’t crazy. The world couldn’t just end so abruptly, right?

Right? 

[alvacchi]

Phantom Thief Hanako-kun AU Story: Chapter 11- Blood

Guess what got continued 👀

I'm feeling pretty rusty after not writing for a month and a half aha. Thank you all for waiting 😂. It takes pretty long to write.

Warning ⚠️: Dark themes ahead (in the tags)

Anyways, here's another chapter uwu~ Enjoy!

---

-Previously in Chapter 10...

-Yashiro got sick yet continued to persist on investigating with a broken heart

-She was personally invited to the heist by Hanako

-Tagging along with police detective Shijima Mei, they encountered Hanako during the heist

-And a sudden gunshot occurred after a striking revelation

-In that moment

-Yashiro's mind went blank

-Blood was shed right afterwards

-Screams and bloody horror erupted

-And Yashiro suddenly found herself on the ground

-What just happened?

-Yashiro's sight was blurry, perhaps from the tears she shed out of shock

-There was an irritating ringing in her ears so she couldn't hear much

-But all she could think of right now was if Hanako was okay

-She tried to look for him in her vision

-Adrenaline rushing through her

-She couldn't find the energy to get up for some reason

-And then she was lifted up by someone

-Hanako, who showed a horrified face that keeps getting paler by the second

-was now crying while holding Yashiro in his arms

-Breaking his promise to not touch her

-He appears to be yelling at her too but Yashiro's hearing was impaired

-After a sense of relief came to Yashiro seeing Hanako was alive, a sharp pain also came along with it

-Yashiro gasped, clutching the spot where it hurts

-The stickiness of the area dawned upon her

-She somehow took the shot in that split second

-and the bullet landed in a vital area

-Shijima was frozen in her spot in the midst of the chaos

-In disbelief that she shot Yashiro like she did with Hanako

-she couldn't help but stare at the scene unfolding before her.

-Deep in Yashiro's thoughts

-and recalling the promise she made to stick by Hanako's side

-She felt sorry that she couldn't keep it as her eyelids grew heavy

-Hanako stopped yelling when he saw her eyes closed

-He paused and appeared to be thinking

-Then, he gently laid Yashiro down and pulled up his sleeves

-What was he up to??

-He grabbed the knife he'd been keeping on him

-Hanako: "This is gonna hurt"

-But no matter, Yashiro had fallen unconscious and her pulse was getting weaker

-Hanako gently lift Yashiro up again with one hand, the knife in his other

-Shijima snapped out of her trance when she saw what he was doing

-She ran to where the two were, grabbing Hanako

-Shijima: "What are you doing?! You're going to kill her!"

-Hanako: [cold] "Get out of my way. I know how to save her."

-Shijima: "You're going to cause more blood loss! Why can't we just go to the hospital!"

-At the word "hospital", Hanako flinched

-Hanako: "Damn it woman! We don't have much time! She's already dying!"

-And Shijima just shut up right there

-Hanako proceeded to carefully dig out the bullet

-Luckily it didn't go too deep and he managed to get it out

-If Yashiro was awake, she would have been screaming bloody murder

-Immediately right after, Hanako took the knife and made a small slash at his wrist, grunting a bit

-Sucking up the blood that appeared, Hanako then placed his mouth over Yashiro's

-If Shijima didn't know any better, it would have looked like he's taking advantage of Yashiro

-In the next few moments, Yashiro's bullet wound was slowly closing itself

-Color was returning back to her face

-And Shijima couldn't understand what was happening

-This was the most bizarre thing she has ever seen

-The sounds of sirens were coming closer

-They were still in the middle of the heist

-Hanako had to get out of there

-He bandaged up his wrist and pulled back down his sleeves

-Listening to Yashiro's breathing, he reassured to himself that she was okay now

-Hanako then turned over to face Shijima

-Hanako: "You take care of her. She should be fine now."

-Shijima: "Huh? Wait!"

-But Hanako disappeared behind his cape into the night and Shijima was left with an unconscious but alive Yashiro

-Sirens continued to echo throughout the night

---

-The next day

-Yashiro slowly opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room

-Shijima: "You're awake now?"

-Shijima was sitting next to the bed with a sketchbook and files in hand

-Yashiro's eyes took some adjusting before she realized

-Yashiro: "Shijima-san?...Where am I?"

-Shijima: "You're in my room. You fainted during the heist. Since I couldn't wake you up, I just took you to my apartment."

-Yashiro: "Oh."

-After a moment, Yashiro jolted up with a start

-Yashiro: "Wait I fainted?!"

-Shijima laid Yashiro back down

-Shijima: "You've just recovered so please rest for a bit."

-Yashiro: "Huh? But I'm actually feeling fine. My cold is gone and I don't feel any pain. Strange...this almost feels like a dream. I....I thought I died."

-Shijima's hands gripped the papers on her lap at Yashiro's remark

Shijima: "I honestly thought you were going to die as well. It was a miracle. Truly."

-Yashiro: "...Wait, what happened to Hanako-ku--san?"

-Slip of the tongue. Whoops

-Shijima noticed the slip

-She had a feeling something was going on between Hanako and Yashiro since the moment Hanako was yelling in desperation at Yashiro last night

-But mentioning it now may not be the right time

-Now, she wasn't even sure what to think of Hanako

-Whatever he did was not normal

-Shijima: "He got away....Yashiro-san, I'm truly sorry for what happened last night. I was careless and got you involved in my mess..."

-Yashiro: "It's...alright."

-Was it really? Someone could have died that night

-After a moment of silence, Yashiro spoke up about what was bothering her

-Yashiro: "Shijima-san. There's still one more question I have."

-Shijima: "Yes?"

-Yashiro: "How did I survive?"

-Shijima froze for a second. Vivid images flashed before her eyes

-Shijima: "I'm...not exactly sure. Hanako performed some miracle on you. I was only able to watch"

-Yashiro: "I see..."

-Shijima: "I know I've said we would talk about the missing Misaki case after the heist but I think after yesterday's incident, you should rest a little longer. It must have been frightening. I already let Tsuchigomori-san know that you're taking the day off so you don't have to go to the agency."

-Yashiro: "Ah. Thank you."

-Shijima: "I'll be off to do more investigating."

-Shijima showed off her sketchbook and smiled

-Shijima: "Besides being a police detective, I'm also a sketch artist! Someone reported that they need a drawing of a criminal on the loose. And who knows if it might be related to our case~"

-Yashiro: "Heh"

Shijima: "I'll see you later, Yashiro-san. Please have some pancakes for breakfast on the table!"

-Yashiro waved her goodbye

-She got up to go eat a moment later

-As she ate, she realized she could have asked Shijima about the past heist since she was a part of the team

-It might be an uncomfortable topic though

-Shijima didn't seem like she wanted to talk more about what happened

-At the same time, Yashiro was being patient for Hanako so she decided it was for the best

-Yashiro later on left to go to her own apartment

-When Yashiro arrived, she found a pink Mokke at her window

-The pink Mokke gave her a letter and she opened it to read:

-"There's something I should tell you. You deserve to know. Please wait for me tonight. - Hanako"

---

-Later that night

-Hanako showed up at Yashiro's apartment window

-Yashiro was waiting for him

-It was almost like they were back to their usual hangouts

-But they knew otherwise that it was different tonight

-Hanako: "Care for some donuts?"

-He held up a bag of donuts in his hands

-Yashiro couldn't help but smile

-It relaxed the mood around them as Hanako went to sit down at a small table in the room

-Yashiro sat next to him

-The room was silent for a while

-It seemed like Hanako was trying to gather his words

-Yashiro put her hand over Hanako's

-Hanako looked at her, an expression mixed with worry and fright

-Yashiro: "You don't have to avoid touching me. I never agreed to that promise anyways so relax"

-Hanako slightly relaxed as Yashiro told him to

-He spoke softly

-Hanako: "It's a long story"

-Yashiro softened her eyes

-Yashiro: "I'm listening"

-As she waited, Hanako started

-Hanako: "Hanako isn't my real name, obviously. If a thief uses his real name, he would have been caught sooner or later....everything began from this cursed bloodline"

-Hanako's hands clenched while Yashiro clenched his to comfort him

-Hanako: "I was born into a reputable household by the name of Yugi. My mother from that household had a duty to produce an heir to succeed the family. So, she was set up in an arranged marriage with two husbands. That was the tradition withheld for women in the family for generations. Great way to keep a family going, right? Laughable even."

-Yashiro: "..."

-Hanako: "I couldn't laugh though because we were born like that."

-Yashiro: "'We'"?

-Hanako: "You've met Tsukasa before at that place...He was also born with me as part of the Yugi household. We have the same mother."

-Yashiro: "So Tsukasa is your twin brother?"

-Hanako: "It was a rare case of heteropaternal superfecundation, with the odds of one out of four hundred. We are twins born from separate fathers"

-Yashiro: "Born from separate fathers?"

-Hanako: "Yeah. And right after we were born, one of the fathers was discovered to be a criminal. In other words, one of us is born as the son of a criminal."