#as far as i can tell he's the only one who's targeted kris for their [[heart-shaped object]]

[lipstickchainsaw]

Kris...?

I finished Deltarune chapter 2 a couple of days ago, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since, so now you all get to share in some of those musings!

Spoilers for Deltarune chapter 2, naturally.

The situation surrounding Kris is a little complicated, because we, as the player, as explicitly possessing them against their will, which means most of the actions they take are not theirs, they are ours.

This dichotomy is present in each of the protagonists of this series, but Kris is most clearly unhappy with our presence. Frisk seems to have very little of an opinion on our actions (to the point where them not being us is a reveal), and Chara’s relationship with the player is too complicated to really delve into here, but there’s some mutual egging on happening in that relationship. (I doubt I will be able to avoid Chara as a subject entirely, given the similarities between them and Kris, but this isn’t primarily about them.)

But our control over Kris is not absolute. Kris is able to assert themselves in various ways, most prominently by literally ripping the player out of themselves, by ripping out the SOUL, but this is where the interesting things start:

For one, the battered birdcage suggests that Kris has ripped their SOUL many times already, which means they’ve done so before the player turned up to take possession of them. This would imply that someone else has take possession of Kris before. The first save we override when playing Chapter 1 is Kris’, which means that they resisted that possession and took control over themselves back before we showed up.

Secondly, Kris willingly puts the SOUL back in in chapter 2. This is either because Kris recognises that they need that SOUL, even if it comes with possession, or because it offers some other advantages that make the possession worth it in some sense, but we’ll get into that later.

 Who is Kris?

So, we know Kris does not like the possession (his response to the Spamton fight makes this exceedingly clear), but beyond that, there are a lot of details we can fill in about who they are.

For one, Kris has really grown to like Susie. They protect her entirely of their own volition when fighting the King, and the Susie Tea heals Kris the most (Ralsei Tea notably does not, but we’ll get to that). Maybe it’s because Susie gets to be as rebellious as she wants, and Kris appreciates having someone around to call out the bullshit they see around them that our control doesn’t let them comment on, maybe it’s something else. It’s hard to tell, because Kris’ relationship is filtered almost entirely through us, but their other relationships aren’t.

Berdly acknowledges that Kris is the third-smartest person in class (which means Kris is the second-smartest, depending on how much help they’ve received from Toriel), and we know from basically everyone that Kris has been a little creepy, unsettling and quiet for a good long while now. They used to do a lot of mean pranks (especially targeting Noelle). One could argue that these pranks went a little too far, but Noelle doesn’t seem to be that upset about those pranks anymore.

This is made more interesting when looking at that moment in chapter 2, where you, as the player, can prank Noelle on the forcefield puzzle, but then, when Noelle pranks Kris back, Kris looks very upset about this. This either means that Kris has gotten over their pranking days, or it’s the unfairness involved that makes this specific instance unpleasant.

We also know that Kris really, really loves Asriel, and wanted to hang out with Asriel and his friends a lot as a kid, even if that meant people like Catty and Bratty taking advantage of them, and we know Kris studied the occult with Catti at some point. Kris also likes to play the piano, and is very frustrated that we don’t know how to.

Oh, and there’s that weird (bomb?) shelter to the south of town that Kris apparently has a history with.

 What’s up with that?

The sound coming from that shelter is plenty ominous already, but Monster Kid and Snowy’s conversation in chapter 2 makes it very clear that Kris has gone in there, and the minor interaction with Susie afterwards indicates that this is not something that Kris likes to talk about.

Now, that shelter is pretty clearly associated with Gaster, and Gaster has been known to experiment with souls, so I do not think it’s much of a stretch to suggest that this is where Kris was first possessed, and things turned for the worse for them.

Kris and Noelle have also gone through something pretty traumatic, possibly involving Noelle’s sister Dess (likely short for December), and the location mentioned for this event makes it very likely that these are the same thing.

So Kris explored that shelter (with Noelle and December, perhaps), stumbled across something bad, and likely got possessed, which they struggled with for a while (turning quiet and strange in the meantime, and alienating the people around them), before fighting the possession off and being left depressed and exhausted, almost perpetually.

But then, there’s another side to Kris.

 The Knight

In chapter 2, we learn that Kris is the Knight, who has created at least two dark worlds, and creates a third at the end of chapter 2. Kris either cannot do this, or does not want to do this, while we’re possessing them, but what’s left of Kris after they rip their SOUL out is a shambling mess of a person, which goes some way to explaining why they accept the SOUL back after they’ve done their thing.

Now, we don’t know Kris also created the original dark world in the supply closet (and we know that one existed before the one in the abandoned classroom), since Ralsei never mentions the Knight creating that one, but, well, Ralsei has been keeping his information close to his chest.

It is interesting, however, that Kris created the dark world in the abandoned classroom before we showed up to possess them, so clearly we are not the (only) reason they’re doing this, but if we aren’t, then what is?

 Ralsei

Ralsei is always incredibly supportive of Kris, to the point of seemingly crushing on them over the course of the games, but Kris does not seem to quite return those affections (given the lukewarm response to the Ralsei Tea compared to the Susie Tea), regardless of whether we do.

Ralsei is also very mysterious, and has, so far, not shared everything he knows about what’s going on. There’s also some hints in the Snowgrave route that Ralsei knows the player and Kris are not the same person, and that he’s using our ability to switch perspectives to actually talk to Kris, which means he isn’t necessarily hiding things from Kris as he is hiding things from us. Just look at how quickly he tells Kris not to think about the Spamton fight, after Kris has their outburst (if you choose to let them say ‘no’).

So, I think Ralsei may be making plans with Kris behind our backs, which makes it very possible that Ralsei knows Kris is the Knight, and is creating these new dark worlds, which would seemingly contradict his desire not to blanket the world in darkness, but, well, there could be a lot he’s hiding from us still.

Does that mean we’re the bad guys? Does it mean Kris and Ralsei are the bad guys? Either is possible, I suppose, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable of Kris and Ralsei to keep information hidden from the powerful entity possessing Kris. We could be nice, sure, but at any point we have the power to do something awful (a fear the Snowgrave route proves to be very real), so I can hardly blame the two of them for not telling us everything immediately.

So maybe Ralsei’s relentless encouragement and pushing for pacifism is meant for us? To make sure our possession of Kris is as easy on them as possible? And on those occasions where our possession gets to be too much for Kris, they can rip their SOUL out and deal with all the bubbling anger and frustration by unleashing it on some tires, and creating a dark world, before putting the SOUL back and go on with whatever plan Kris and Ralsei have going on?

Do their choices matter, in the end? Do ours?

 I have another thing I want to write about that theme, but it’s not entirely related to this one, and this is long and rambling enough already, so let me know if that’s something you’re interested in and I might put it together.

[samingtonwilson]

Apartment 8C - Chapter 1

Telling the Kids About Your Separation

SERIES MASTERLIST

Summary: college au. you and bucky are the closest of friends, the most functional of roommates, and… exes. but just because it didn’t work out romantically doesn’t mean he has to move out! it’s not like he’s so deeply in love that he can barely breathe. totally not in love. at all. not even a little. maybe. 

Pairing: bucky x reader

Warnings: language

A/N: SHE’S BACK, LADIES. the only tag list i’m using is the permanent one, nothing specifically for this series sorry!

“You guys said it wouldn’t last…” 

Natasha looks between the two of you. Steve’s beer is at his lips but he doesn’t take a sip. Wanda’s fingers pause in the bowl of popcorn she’s placed in her lap. Only Sam has a visibly emotional reaction. 

He’s on the verge of bursting— maybe in frustration as the two of you are blocking the television, maybe in laughter. 

It doesn’t help that you’ve hidden your hands behind your back. Nor does it help that you and Bucky are both grinning like giddy idiots while you stare at your friends who now sit with pin-straight postures on the sectional in your living room.

“And you were right!” you shout once several awkward beats have passed. 

There is a loud POP! when you bring your hands forward to twist the bottom of a party popper, iridescent confetti falling over the coffee table and tangling itself in Natasha’s hair, and a triple air horn sound effect cuts through the silence when Bucky opens the app on his phone. 

The two of you are laughing and high-fiving one another, but the four before you continue staring. 

That is, until longsuffering Sam— fingers pressed into his temples— speaks. “You called us over here to tell us you broke up?” 

Bucky shrugs and takes the empty party popper from you. He turns it over and shakes it, disappointed when more confetti doesn’t fall out. After all, he’d purchased the ones from Target just for the extra confetti. “We have consciously uncoupled.”

“That term refers to divorce,” Wanda says as she picks the confetti out of the popcorn and lets it fall to the floor. When she looks up, her expression is equal parts exasperation and amusement. “And, as far as I know, you two were never married.” 

Natasha, fingers combing through her hair, frowns. “I actually forgot you were even dating.”

“Yeah, so did she,” Bucky says as he jabs his elbow into your ribs with a snort. “We didn’t want you guys finding out from somewhere else.” 

“Like where?” Sam asks. He scoots over to let you sit beside him, eyes narrowed at Bucky who falls into his usual spot— the worn barcalounger you’d begged him not to bring when he moved in. “You think they’d send out a campus-wide alert that you two broke up? Or that E! News would be reporting it after they talk about whichever Kardashian is having another baby?” 

That steals Wanda’s attention from the popcorn bowl. “Speaking of, how is one of them always pregnant?” 

There’s a fair amount of indistinct chatter to answer Wanda’s question, but it is all loudly interrupted with a simple: “Does this mean Bucky is moving out?” 

It seems that everyone turns to look at Steve simultaneously. Squeaks of leather as you all shift around, the click of a bowl being placed on the wooden table. 

He understands the question in all of your gazes, and shrugs with a sigh of defeat. “They’re probably just genetically very fertile— Kris has had, like, eighteen children herself. Now, does Bucky have to find a place?” 

Then all eyes slide to you. Your eyebrows furrow and your nose wrinkles. The absolute picture of disbelief. It has Bucky fighting a smile. “Why would he need to do that?” 

“Living with an ex is hard,” Sam replies. He sets his hand on yours and gives your fingers a light squeeze. It’s meant to be comforting, but it isn’t necessary. “It’d make sense if you couldn’t—”

“Bucky moved in a while before we started dating,” you tell them, each word said in an imploring tone. “He still has his bedroom, I still have mine. Besides, we didn’t break-up because we can’t stand being around each other.” 

“Then why did you break-up?” 

The inquiry is directed at Bucky, who everyone shifts to face. The piercing attention draws a light blush over the bridge of his nose and at the highpoints of his cheeks. You hold back a soft laugh. “We’re just better as friends. The romantic compatibility wasn’t there.” 

“Romantic compatibility, conscious uncoupling,” Natasha repeats with a surprised laugh. “Does this man have a Goop membership, or something?” 

Despite your own laughter, you nod at Bucky. “He’s right, though. It just— Something was missing.” 

As inarticulate as it is, it’s the truth. There was nothing wrong with your relationship, at least at first glance. You kissed each other hello— when you remembered— and you kissed each other goodbye— when you remembered. 

But you often forgot— you usually forgot. Which might be explanation enough as to why the two of you didn’t last. 

— 

“Was the sex bad?” 

You nearly choke on the sip of wine you’d taken. Glancing at the boys in the living room to confirm they were blissfully unaware of Wanda in the kitchen, you set your glass onto the counter and narrow your eyes at her. “You should increase your volume the next time you ask something like that.” 

“It couldn’t have been too bad,” Natasha says from the barstool beside Wanda’s, still frowning. She’d managed to remove every piece of confetti from her hair and it now sits in a small pile next to her glass. “You two weren’t exactly virgins when you met.” 

Your answering smile is sarcastic. “Hilarious. The sex wasn’t bad. He’s— He’s good at it.” 

“Yeah, that was convincing,” Natasha snorts into her glass as she takes a sip. “For his sake, I hope none of us let it slip that Barnes’ dick is trash.” 

“It isn’t trash! Okay.” You wiggle a finger at Wanda. “You. Imagine having sex with Steve.”

Her nose immediately wrinkles, her scowl instantaneous. “Understood. But then why date in the first place?” 

“Remember the night my ‘friends’ from high school were in the city?” 

The smile Natasha wore due to your finger quotes gives way to a deep grimace. “The night that girl with the bad bleach job pranced around here showing her ring off? I wish I could forget.” 

You nod. “All night, she kept telling me someone might be out there for me. That I probably won’t be too late, that some people end up alone and it’s okay. Like I’m tofu and she’s apple pie.” 

“You lost me with that one.”

“Like I’m an acquired taste and she’s universally appealing.” 

You smile when they laugh to themselves, but shake your head seconds later. “I don’t care if I end up alone. I’ll be fine either way. It’s just the insinuation that I’ll fail if I try to find someone. Like it’s prom all over again.” 

“D’you punch her teeth in? Can I punch her teeth in?”

You roll your eyes at Natasha. “I drank my weight in whatever bullshit wine she’s stupid enough to pay for, texted Bucky to pick me up, and fucked him on the couch to make myself feel better.” 

Her features twist in disgust. “The couch we all sit on?”

— 

While Sam yells at the television as if the New York Giants can hear his admonishments and advice, Steve sits back against the sofa cushions. His sigh is heavy and pointed, meant to draw attention, but it fails. 

So he places his feet on the coffee table. He crosses his legs at the ankle. And he glares. 

An unsuccessful moment later, he speaks. “I’m not gonna let you crash on my couch.” 

Unable to stop himself, Bucky smiles but otherwise focuses on the game. “That’s a fun psychic premonition. Do you read palms, too?” 

Steve attempts to look more threatening and narrows his eyes to slits. The blue is icy, menacing. 

However the elephant cushion he’s clutching to his chest? Not helping his cause. “So she dumped you because you’re a pain in the ass? Is that it?”

“She dumped me because I’m too good in bed and it was starting to become too much for her.” 

Sam pauses the game just to join Steve in looking at Bucky skeptically. 

He just rolls his eyes. “No one dumped anyone. We both decided we’re better as friends.” 

“S’usually a lie when people say that,” Steve remarks. He sticks his tongue out when Bucky narrows his eyes in offense. 

“It isn’t this time.” 

Sam, wearing a sly smile as he turns his attention back to the game, asks the next question: “Were there tears?” 

“She was stone cold.” Grinning as he holds his bottle of beer to his lips, he adds jokingly, “I cried like a baby, though.” 

Sam hums. “Not surprised. You fuckin’ sobbed at Inside Out.”

“Oh, so you didn’t cry when Bing Bong said ‘Take her to the moon for me’?” Bucky cocks an eyebrow. “What, are you a fuckin’ monster, Wilson?” 

The grinding of Steve’s teeth is almost audible, his irritation painfully evident when he tosses the cushion aside. 

Yet he still straightens it to make sure the elephant is sitting up straight, trunk pointed to the ceiling. 

“I’m being serious, Buck. Living with an ex... It’s touchy and awkward. How are you gonna feel when she’s got some guy over?” 

“The same way she’ll feel when I’ve got some girl over,” the answer is said with ease. “Hell, I’ll give her a condom if she needs one.” 

“And your feelings just turned themselves off?” 

His shrug is a bit reluctant, the smile he offers Steve hesitant. “Hers did.”

—

Hours pass before it’s just you and Bucky in the apartment. 

Natasha and Wanda leave first to get enough sleep before their eight-AM class, and Steve only manages to coax Sam off the couch once he has watched the game highlights and coverage twice over. You think you might scream if you ever hear the SportsCenter theme again.

Leaning against the door after it shuts behind Steve and Sam, you offer Bucky a sleepy smile as he rummages through the refrigerator. Judging by his sour expression, there’s nothing good to eat. “That was easier than I thought.” 

“Yeah, I’m real glad I read that ‘Telling the Children about the Divorce’ article for it.” He slams the fridge shut. There is desperation in his voice when he asks, “Are you hungry, too?” 

Dish rag tossed in his direction, you flip the faucet on to wet each glass. “When am I not hungry, Bucky?” 

“Are you more willing to pay for pizza or Thai?” 

“S’too late for Thai.” You set a washed glass atop the counter and get started on soaping up the next one. “We’ll get Thai when it’s your turn to pay.”

Three glasses sit on the counter before Bucky sets his phone down and begins drying them. He peers over at you with attempted tact.

But, to his dismay, you smile and meet his blue eyes with a playful glare. “What?” 

“Steve’s dead-set on me moving out.” 

Your frown is immediate. You stop scrubbing the popcorn bowl for a moment. “Do you want to move out?” 

His reply is instant. He stops drying a glass for a moment. “No. Do you want me to move out?” 

“No.” You resume scrubbing. “I can’t live here with anyone else.” 

Chewing on the inside of his cheek to avoid a grin, Bucky nods. He decides to change the subject and bumps his hip against yours. “Sam thought we were gonna tell everyone we got engaged.”

Startled laughter and you hand Bucky the washed bowl, switching the tap off and leaning your hip against the counter’s edge. “After, like, four months of dating? No wonder he looked so terrified.” 

“Should’ve played it off that way just to see what they’d say,” he muses as you help him put the dishes away. “Tasha would’ve hosted an intervention for you.” 

You hum in agreement. “Steve would’ve definitely called your mother.” 

“Would Wanda faint or is that too dramatic?” 

“She was ready to faint when I told her we had sex on the couch.” 

Eyebrows raised, he watches as you walk to the living room and fall into that exact couch with exaggerated relief. “You told her that?” 

Another hum. “Nat almost threw up.” 

“At the thought of us having sex in our own home?” he snorts, adding in a deadpan tone, “Oh, the horror.” 

Bucky collapses onto the couch beside you and smiles when you drop your head onto his shoulder. He toys with the stray pieces of confetti littered over the cushions. “Went all the way to Target for the more expensive poppers and they had even less confetti than the Party City ones.”

“Just because something costs more doesn’t mean it’s better.” 

He gasps playfully. “We have a genius in our midst. Someone please embroider everything she says onto pillows.” 

“Yeah and I’ll use those pillows to smother you in your sleep.” You lift your head and set your chin on his shoulder instead. You try to glare, but his smile is contagious. “I know where you live, Barnes.” 

“You won’t for long if Steve has it his way.” 

“If the world operated according to Steve’s wishes, we’d all be required, by law, to eat Pop-Tarts for breakfast and wear shirts two sizes too small.” 

--

CHAPTER 2: FINDING YOUR INDEPENDENCE 

[marshmallow-phd]

The Anormic

Part of The Experiments Universe

Genre: Lucky One/Obsession AU

Pairing: Kris x Reader

Summary: You were everything he needed to feel human. But not even your presence could keep the nightmares away. The years had gone by and it seemed his dreams were all that was left of his trauma. When his past comes back and snatches you away, the human mask he’d worked so hard to create will be ripped away and he’ll stop at nothing to get you back.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3

**

You stumbled back, tripping over your feet and barely catching your balance before you could meet the floor. You felt like you’d been tossed in front of an eighteen-wheeler. To keep you steady, you placed your palm against the cold cinderblock wall. No. It couldn’t be the same Kris that he spoke about, not your Kris. Sure, he had a mysterious past, but you took it as easily explainable; a bad childhood or dysfunctional family he was trying to outrun, maybe even a criminal record that he deeply regretted. This was something else entirely.

You racked through your memory, trying to find any sort of sign or clue that this man was telling the truth. Kris couldn’t have any powers or extraordinary gifts. He was an average person who worked a laborious job, who came home to you in the evening, and lived an ordinary life. But the dots were there to connect: the ambiguous past that he rarely spoke of, the quick reflexes, and lifting of objects that should have taken more struggle. This Dr. Brandt had said he was like a dragon – a possible hint as to what else Kris was hiding from you?

“Quite a shock, isn’t it?” Dr. Brandt said, amused.

The words to snipe back were far out of reach. Part of you wanted to jump him like an overprotective cheetah, clawing his face with your fingernails until you drew blood. But the meeker part of you couldn’t find the strength to attack, barely able to keep your knees from buckling under.

“He was one of the subjects that progressed quickly. A shining example for the other eleven.”

Other eleven? Tao. Did that mean Kris’ friend Tao was among them? Were the other men you saw leave part of that group as well? Dr. Brandt’s smirk deepened, if that was possible. He seemingly enjoyed your confusion.

“So… you want to cage them all up again?” It was the only question you could push out onto the surface. There many more – more details of the experiments, what he meant by Kris jumping sides. A deep labyrinth lied before you. While you had no idea what sort of Minotaur waited in the middle and you were left without a string, you knew you would have to move forward to get to the truth.

“Actually, we’ve made progress without the original subjects,” he said. “Much more than could have ever hoped from the first trials. However, we’ve hit a bit of a wall. If we are to keep forging a new way, we need to glance back. We need Kris’ cooperation to do so.”

You swallowed thickly. At least he wasn’t trying to be the mysterious mad scientist in the tower. He came right down and had no issues explaining to you his evil plans. “So what do you need me for then? To make him help you?”

“Unfortunate collateral. We know that getting Kris here would be more trouble than it's worth. You were the easier target, so we brought you here. Eventually, Kris will come to us and be more than cooperative. Then, when we have all that we need, the two of you can go on your way.”

Great. You were bait. Like a worm on a hook. The tension in your jaw made the muscles under the skin ache. Even your teeth were whining from the pain. “So, I’m guessing you left him a little map on how to get here?”

“Oh, no!” Dr. Brandt laughed. “That’s not nearly as fun. But we did leave behind a clue to get him started. He’s an intelligent being. He’ll find us… eventually. Until then, enjoy the hospitality.” Like a dancer, he whirled on the balls of his feet and exited the room. The door slid closed behind him, the click finalizing the idea that this would be your prison for the foreseeable future.

You were battling yourself. You wanted Kris to come rescue you, but him getting pulled back into this mess of a place was horrifying image. It was hard to wrap around the thought of Kris living a life of experimentation, of tests and needles and torture. And for what? What was the purpose behind all of this? You almost shouted for the mad doctor to come to answer the questions, but you held your tongue. Now wasn’t the time to draw attention to yourself. While the doctors and guards might be aware of your presence, you needed to fade into the background of their minds. If you were going to get out of here, you needed to become almost invisible. So, instead of screaming into the abyss where your words would fall on uninterested ears, you lied down on the bed, eyes focused on the slick white ceiling. Kris would come for you, but in the meantime, you would create your plan. Because you would get out of here and you refused to let Kris be caged ever again. In order to that, you would have to find your own way.

**

It was hot. It was the kind of memorable hot where beads of sweat dotted the hairline in a way that was never ending and the sun shined up in the sky without any mercy from the clouds that had been dotting the sky for the past few days. Overnight they had either drifted off to another landscape or dissipated back into their individual water droplets. Despite the heat, it was still a beautiful day. The park was full of families and couples enjoying the fresh air, but it wasn’t overcrowded to the point of being suffocating. You took in the sights with a smile as you sat at one of the picnic tables by your lonesome. Textbook and pen at the ready, you were killing two birds with one stone by finally leaving the confining walls of your studio apartment while still getting plenty of studying done before your test next week.

After a few hours, your eyes were tiring from the glare the glossy paper gave off. The words were beginning to blur. You were no longer able to recite the previous sentence that you’d read. A break was certainly earned.

As your gaze wandered around the park it settled on a small food truck across the bike path. The signs all over the metal sides said their specialty was ice cream. Well, you’d worked hard for a treat, hadn’t you? Packing up your things, you threw your bag over your shoulder and made way to the truck expertly dodging children playing tag in the process. The line moved at a tolerable pace, giving you enough time to pick out a treat before approaching the front window. The woman inside the truck was friendly. She wrote down your order with a smile and, after handing your card back, pointed you off to the side where you could pick up your sundae. You were practically bouncing with anticipation as you watched from the opened back door; the employee scooped up the vanilla ice cream and torched the marshmallows until they were a perfect golden brown. The grin on your face was wide to the point of making your cheeks ache as you thanked the young man who handed the Styrofoam bowl to you. Not wasting time to find a spot to sit down, you walked down the bike path as you attempted to eat at a pace that was acceptable for the public.

All afternoon you had been hearing the typical noises of the park, most not bothering you in the slightest. You weren’t so easily distracted, but the blissful air you were currently in must have made you more susceptible. The chime of a bike bell caught your attention. You glanced over your shoulder to see a teenage boy peddling fast and laughing as he left his friends in the dust. But he wasn’t paying attention to where his bike was going, thinking that his bell was enough to clear the way as he stared behind him. Before he could collide with you, an arm wrapped around your shoulders. It pulled you out of the way in time but at the expense of your ice cream.

The bowl was cracked nearly in half. Chocolate syrup and melted mush covered both your shirt and the shirt of the wannabe hero.

“Well, that was nice while it lasted,” you murmured in disappointment.

“I’m so sorry,” a deep voice apologized.

You looked up and – as much as you hated to admit it – your irritation dissolved away, all because of the very handsome face that you were getting lost in. You waved his sorry away. “It’s okay. Better than being a bug squished on the cement.”

That made him laugh. “Let me replace it.”

“Oh, no, that’s alright. Thank you, though.”

“No, I insist.”

“Really, its-” You were completely ignored. The man – the very tall, handsome man – was already walking towards the food truck, wallet in hand. Nerves and butterflies took over your body as you stood there on the edge of the path, unable to walk away when you would have in any other situation. But there was something intriguing about this man. Not to mention, you were a sucker for chivalry.

The man came back with a new s’mores bowl balanced in one hand. Balanced wasn’t really the right word as what took two hands for you to carry rested nicely in his single palm. His other held onto a stack of napkins. The latter was handed out to you first.

“Thank you.” You took a few napkins shyly. Once you were cleaned up, you took the sundae. “Thanks.” You already said that. Clearing your throat, you tucked the used napkins under your arm and held out a free hand. “I’m (/y).”

He smiled broadly. “Kris.”

**

The building looked different. For over a year, the sight of the lit-up windows and the silhouette outline against the setting sun was a welcoming one – it loosened his tense shoulders, opened up his lungs. He felt stronger, even more so than he already was. A deep rest couldn’t do for him what seeing this place had. He always felt like he could live forever. Invincible, like Superman.

Now, though? Now it was simply a monument to his faults. Bricks and mortar that stood for nothing but loss. If he’d known that meeting you that day in the park would lead to this, he would have left the second he pulled you out of the way of the bike. He wouldn’t have smiled as you enjoyed the ice cream or even given you his name. Or, at least, he hoped that he would have gone the other way. As he walked up the stairs of the apartment building, he was bombarded with memories. The happy ones, most of all. But even the fights came pushing through. In those moments he’d been angry and frustrated, wanting to never have another scene like that again once you’d both calmed down and said sorry. In the present, though, he would give anything to have another fight with you. Back and forth he bounced, from wishing he’d never met you to praying he’d be able to hold you in his arms again. With unstable fingers he unlocked the front door and went inside.

The place was still a disaster. He hadn’t bothered cleaning up or even attempting to right any of the overturned furniture before he’d left. Dust was already starting to settle on every surface – something that would have driven you crazy. You couldn’t stand a dirty home. You wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else until it was spotless, just the way you liked it. Although, Kris had always thought that you simply used that as an excuse to procrastinate your studying. If it was you who had made the mess with your homework, then it wasn’t a dire situation. He’d always laughed at your pitiful argument against his statement. The lights suddenly flickered on.

“Kris?”

Turning around, Kris felt immediate relief.

Standing in the doorway were four of his brothers. He hadn’t seen them in quite a while. The exact amount of time was lost to him. Years, maybe? They all lived on the military base that kept them safe. It had crossed his mind once or twice to take you there to live. It might have helped drive the worry and the nightmares away. But that would have meant telling you everything. That inevitability haunted him even more.

“Chanyeol.” He tried to swallow down the shakiness in his voice. Thankfully, the younger hybrid took the first step, not even acknowledging the way Kris was barely holding it together. He closed the space between them with long strides and hugged Kris for the first time in years. Kris sighed into the embrace, even patting Chanyeol on the back. When they parted, Kris said, “Thank you for coming. I know this is probably the last thing you want to get involved in.”

“Hence why there’s only four of us,” Baekhyun huffed. The haughty air was clearly fake given the smirk dancing in the corner of his mouth.

“Nice to see you, too, Baekhyun.”

“So, Chanyeol said that your… friend was taken.” Minseok crossed his arms and leaned up against the door after shutting it behind him.

“My girlfriend,” Kris correct.

“And you both lived here?” Yixing asked.

Kris nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how they found us. The apartment is under her name.”

“Does she know about you?” Chanyeol ran a hand through his messy black hair. “Does she now about us?”

“No,” Kris admitted. “Well, at least she didn’t before. Now- now there’s no telling what she does and doesn’t know.”

Yixing walked deeper into the apartment until he reached the living room. Crouching down, he examined the shards of glass sprinkled all over the rug. He scooped up a hand full, not bothered at all by the tiny cuts the edges made on his fingers and palms; they healed just as quickly as they were formed. “How long ago did they take her?”

“Day and a half ago. Why?”

“Just wondering. I wasn’t sure if they tried to come back and get you as well. Or if this was caused by them coming back.”

“Nothing’s changed since I left.”

“Did you find anything on your original search?”

Kris cleared his throat. Yixing and he… well, they never really had the closest of relationships, even back before they were separated. As thankful as he was that the latter had volunteered to help, Kris still couldn’t help against feeling the slightest bit awkward. “I didn’t do a thorough search, but I did find this.” He walked over to where his duffel bag was sitting on the floor and unzipped the pocket that held the frayed badge.

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the symbol. “What is it?”

“It’s the symbol for Regeneration Science, camouflaged unit for EXO. Wang told me about it. She considerate it their back up plan. I never put too much thought into it. The way she talked about RS made it sound like that’s where they would move everything in case something were to happen.”

Minseok took the patch, examining it closer. “Is it possible that they had a copy of the files that you didn’t know about?”

Kris shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought so. Wang was protective of her research. She didn’t like the idea of copies floating around. While I was still undercover, I tried to find all the copies that I could. They didn’t exist.”

“They obviously still have something on us,” Baekhyun chimed in. “Why else try to come after us again after all these years?”

“That’s a good point,” Yixing said as he straightened himself back up. “If you found that,” he pointed to the patch, “without looking, then maybe there’s something else here. I think we should dig a bit deeper, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

So, the four of them started searching around the apartment, checking under the couch and in the different rooms for any other clue the enemy might have left behind. Kris headed towards the bedroom, but found himself frozen in the doorway. His brain, adding to the cruel torture he was already in, imagined you sitting on the bed, covers draped over your legs, smiling at him as if he’d just come back from a long day at work.

“You alright?” Minseok asked. His sudden appearance made Kris jump.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Behind Minseok, he watched as Chanyeol picked up the bookcase and set it against the wall. On the floor were scattered papers and folders, creased from the pressure of the wood that had lied on top of them. “Excuse me.” Kris passed by Minseok to get to the living room.

“Is this yours?” Chanyeol asked.

Kris shook his head. “No, it was (y/n)’s. For one of her classes.”

Frowning, Yixing picked up several of the papers and skimmed their contents. “Are you sure about that?”

“Of course.” Why would you lie about something like that?

Yixing held up one of the papers for Kris to see. “I think this might have been how they found you.”

In a flash, Kris snatched the paper. His eyes flew over the words. Slowly, their meanings sank in. It was a list off all the previous places he’d lived, including the different aliases and variations he’d gone by. Only after meeting you had he gotten weak and used his real name. How did you find any of this? But more importantly….

Why were you looking for it in the first place?

[black-streak]

Waiting for the Worms - Mother

Part 9

So uh... Marinette's part kind of became too long and I'm going to have to extend it into part 10. Plus the tone of this to the rest is just so different that it seemed necessary to split it. Very Damian centric here. Warning all still apply.

Closed! List (Do y'all mind that I've hit you up four days in a row now?) : @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Before the week ended, the boy approached her once more. This time it was after she had just finished up her Arabic lessons, the first time she'd seen him outside of that room.

"Why did she choose you?"

Marinette lifted her shoulders in a shrug and watched the frustrated twist of his lips as he attempted to stare her down. Her eyes occasionally jumped around the corridor, ensuring their privacy, but still refraining from answering.

"Are you mute?" The child demanded of her, "is that why you're with the language masters all the time? To learn to speak?"

Amusement coursed through her, shining from behind her eyes as she lifted a solitary finger to her lips, letting Damian determine her meaning. He didn't disappoint as an excited look came about him and he pressed further, hushing hus voice and moving in closer as though sharing a secret, which wasn't far off from the truth.

"The others aren't aware you can talk, are they? Of course not, dimwitted as they are," he took a condescending tone.

Letting an airy chuckle pass and offering a small smirk to let the other know he hit the nail on the head, she watched as the kid tried to appear composed while also preening under her obvious agreement with his insight. She couldn't help but wonder if this was his first experience with a willing audience. He couldn't be more than seven years old and yet already so cautious about allowing her to see how he enjoyed her attention.

"Well no matter, if they can't figure it out on their own, I see no need to inform them," Damian reassured her, hiding it as another jab at their peers. And after taking note of her appreciative nod, he disappeared the way he came.

...

Over the next few weeks, he showed up at random, venting out his annoyance with the trainers and masters, always under the guise that she couldn't tell anyone anyways without giving herself away, to which she only offered her quiet affirmations and acceptance.

Sometimes he asked questions, only to cut off and respond to himself that of course his companion couldn't answer, returning to his own conversation. It seemed to ease him that he never need worry over what she might say to him. Once in a blue moon he asked something she could answer without opening her mouth.

"Do you have a life outside of here?"

She tilted her head back and forty in contemplation before shaking a decided no. He seemed pleased with this. No competition for her attention, she supposed.

"How many languages do you actually speak then? Or are learning at least."

She contemplated if league dialect counted and decided it had to and also threw in guardian speak since she had been learning it beforehand, lifting up eight fingers. Damian's surprised look and appreciative hum lasted only a moment before his next barrage of insults to those who thought her mute started up once more. 

While their talks only lasted about ten minutes tops and only every few days, the progress was enough to earn her Talia's praise in private, excited that the boy took to her so quickly. She also inquired as to Marinette's tactics but only received a shrug of her own and the quiet explanation that she simply listened.

…

After a particularly grueling training session where the two ended up switching targets midway through their own battles, taking both trainers off guard and downing them in record time, Talia decided to send them out for an extended mission together. Her reasoning that Jason obviously felt protective over the heir and the two worked well enough in tandem that it offered the perfect environment for furthering Damian's training, having only ever tagged along for small time missions in the past.

Later in the evening, she explained how the joint missions extended their trust and allowed more freedom for bonding to occur. How they could further plan for their escape if they knew how to work together outside of the city limits. Marinette meditated every second she could before the start of their new assignment.

The morning of, she collected Damian from the meeting point Talia gave them and led him into the larger group to make their way out of the caves. The mission went on for five days before they finally tracked down their targets. It took all of one night to end the mission, Marinette taking extra precautions to cover Damian's back at all times, landing killing blows to any that threatened the young life entrusted to her. By the end, the little one only took one life. A young woman who landed a lucky shot on Marinette. The boy's eyes widened in fear and struck blindly, slashing his katana across her torso, opening her up to the world before giving another wild slash to her neck. The second the woman dropped, he ran to her side, pressing on the wound and helping her back towards their hideout as the others cleaned out the last of the building. 

As the sun rose, he helped to patch her up, yammering on about how stupid she was to allow herself to be hit like that. How ashamed she should be. How she should be better. Marinette saw the fear and worry and horror waring in his eyes, in the tense way he held his shoulders and shake in his hands. The guilty glances he tossed her, knowing she was distracted by protecting him. She ruffled his hair and offered a crooked grin at his huff of indignation. Neither slept that night, ready to return in the morning.

Damian refused missions without her after that.

…

After their return from their seventh successful mission, over two months later, Talia stopped showing up in the training room. No longer informed Damian where to meet up for missions, allowing the information to flow from the trainers down instead. She still told Marinette inner details in her rooms, but she could tell the woman cut off the child almost entirely. Knew they only saw one another during meetings with Ras.

Within another two weeks, Talia began to distance herself from Marinette in public even further. She was no longer seen as the pet project, but as a full fledged member who happened to run in this squadron. She stayed quiet on the manner, not willing to question her mentor on what she thought best when seen amongst the League. And with Marinette now understanding and speaking both arabic and league dialect fluently, she could spy on the others and gather information much easier without the silencing presence of their leader, all speaking more freely amongst themselves, still under the impression that she was not only mute but one of them now.

Damian seemed to grow more irritable by the day, sticking to her side like glue, quieter and on edge. Separation anxiety most likely. Talia had always retained a distant aloof relationship with her own kid, but he likely never expected her to quit checking up on him entirely, to no longer keep up with his progress and watch his training. She always let him know she hadn't forgotten him entirely, in her own way. Now, she hardly glanced his direction if they happened to enter the same room.

He lasted three weeks without Talia's watchful eye, before he broke down in his own manner.

Marinette heard a soft knock on her door before it creaked open, one green eye peeking in at her, in a silent question. 

Sitting up in her bed, she tilted her head in consideration before nodding her acceptance. She observed as he slid into the room and shut the door behind him, hesitating only a moment in the doorway before marching over towards her and taking a seat, starting in on his usual tirade of random facts and observations. By now, she recognized this as a coping mechanism, his way of excusing his coming to her without outright stating that he just craved the company. A growing suspicion in the back of her mind told her that once he assured himself she wouldn't leave nor dismiss him, he might take to more quiet quality time. For now, he rambled endlessly. Eventually he tired himself out and left her alone once more.

Every other day, he made a reappearance to rant once more until he couldn't find anymore excuses to stay and left, tail practically tucked between his legs.

…

Two months more passed and Talia showed no sign of returning to Damian's life, Marinette finally decided to confront the woman.

"Oh Jason, surely you know I can't escape with you, right?"

Her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion at the question, before realizing her own stupidity. Why in the world would she train Marinette to take away Damian if she could do so, herself? As shock overtook her, arms wrapped gently around her shoulders, drawing her into the woman's embrace.

"It would put both of you at too high a risk. I need to stay here and throw them off your trail. To control the situation until you're both too far out of my father's reach. He can't know I have any attachment to either of you for this to work. You need to blend in, mean nothing to me so that everyone overlooks you. It doesn't matter if Damian clings to you, as long as no one else looks at you twice, you're still nobody. You'll slip out and everyone will just assume you died on a mission if they even think of you."

"Can't you meet with him in private? Like you do with me?" She pleaded with Talia, heart heavy knowing she would have to eventually leave another mentor behind. Knowing how Damian hurt for his mother.

"No Jason. He's too young. He won't understand. It's best if he comes to the decision to disown me. To no longer care about me, ao it hurts less in the long run. If he barely ever knew me and I simply disappeared, if he never truly knew my love to begin with, there's less to miss. Less of him to hurt in my absence. I know it's terrible and he feels abandoned, but think how much worse it would be if I showed him love now only to kick him out of the league to never be seen again? I can't add on to that pain."

She hated how much sense that made. Whether Damian knew it or not, his mother loved him so much and was willingly sacrificing her right as his mother so he could have a better life without her. That would never make the years of neglect and abuse okay, but at least she was setting him up to move on to something hopefully better. Marinette would do everything in her power to ensure that hope became a reality.

…

Three months into Talia's disappearing act, six since Damian first came to her in the training room all those months ago, he entered her room and sat without a word on the bed next to her, staring down at the floor. She waited patiently for him to find his words, but tensed upon seeing the tears well up in the corner of the child's eyes. She desperately wished to reach out to comfort him, but restrained herself, not sure how he'd take the action. Eventually, he spoke in a trembling lilt.

"Why am I never good enough?"

Sucking in a breath, she swallowed down the last of her reserve and murmured back, voice a gentle lull, if a little deep and gruff around the edges, "You are plenty enough."

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, wide and clear, "You…"

"You are so much more than you know and anyone who can't see that doesn't deserve you."

He hesitated a moment, "Even mother?"

"No one who pays so little attention and offers so little love deserves the title of mother," she stated, hating herself for the words, knowing how much Talia truly did love and care, but aiming to break his connection to her at the woman's own command.

"You've never spoken to me before," he accused.

"You seemed like you needed someone to listen. And you said it yourself, I couldn't very well pose as mute if I answered all of your questions," she eased.

"And when I came here?"

"You hardly gave an opportunity to speak up in the midst of all your ranting. You don't strike me as the type to appreciate being cut off either," she teased, earning a soft blush in return.

He sobered up after a moment, looking back down towards his feet, "So if she doesn't deserve the title of Mother, I have no one."

"How do you mean?"

"Well Ras hardly deserves the title of grandfather by your definition and it's not like I have a father. So I have no one."

"And what am I then, chopped liver?"

He startled up, shooting her a bewildered look, "What?"

"You've become my personal little leech, attending all of my missions, sharing my training with me, coming into my rooms at your leisure, and yet you have no one? That hurts me deep," she attempted a saddened look, not sure how it turned out with her older, masculine features and white lined scars scattering her skin. It startled a tiny laugh out of him, so she'd take it.

"You… you want me? You actually care?"

"Of course I do, Dami. You're the closest thing to family I've got."

"Family," his inquired, tone guarded, a slight twitch in his nose and uptilt in his chin, giving away his hopeful excitement at the word.

"Yours, if you'd have me."

"That would be," he cut himself off here, trying to control himself, to not appear too eager, "acceptable," he settled on.

"Good. You're well spoken for an eight year old."

"I'm seven," he corrected with a smug smile.

"Even more impressive then," she lilted, watching as he took that to be the end of that conversation, moving to leave, only to stop with a hand on the door.

"Jason?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you're my family."

[dessarious]

Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt68

Inspired by @ozmav Maribat AU

AO3   Beginning   Previous   Next

Discorde waited impatiently for the light filtering through the vent in front of her to go out. Her body and even the air around her felt tense with anticipation… and something else she did quite know how to describe. It only increased her unease since Plagg told her that the more in tune she became with the Miraculous, the more she would be able to sense shifts in luck. The real problem was that she had no idea how it was shifting even if that’s what she felt.

As soon as the light went out she moved to the vent silently. She could hear Hawkmoth below her cursing and banging on the door. It loosened some of her anxiety since any small noises she made while removing the cover would go unnoticed. She stuck her head through the opening and found him exactly where she expected him. She dropped to the floor and called for her power as she approached her target. The man was still trying to find somewhere he could grab the sealed door to try and force it open.

As soon as she was close enough she brushed her hand over his cane, before immediately moving to his non dominant side. As she expected he turned as soon as he felt the cane give in his hand. She reached around the other side to take his Miraculous but he grabbed her arm and threw her over his shoulder back into the middle of the room.

“Red, now.” As soon as she spoke soft lights turned on and Ladybug dropped through the vent with Raphael following as soon as she was clear. Viperion apparently decided to stay in the ductwork. One more surprise should things go wrong. A shield surrounded them and she felt her hackles rise at how calm the man in front of her was.

“It’s over Hawkmoth. Give up your Miraculous, there’s no need for more violence.” As much as she appreciated her girlfriend’s belief in people’s ability to change she mentally rolled her eyes. If it were that easy they would have taken him down on the first try.

“Stupid child, you don’t even know the power you possess. If you did this would all be over.” Ladybug frowned at him, but not in annoyance. Discorde knew that look all too well. She was actually going to try and reason with the bastard.

“I know that I could easily have used my and my partner’s Miraculous to wish for yours, or even to wish that none of this had happened. I know exactly how much power I have and unlike you I know the consequences of my actions. Making a wish, any wish, throws off the natural balance of things and whether you realize it or not it sets a chain of events into motion that could have devastating results. Chances are high that whatever it is you plan to wish for will only bring you more pain and suffering. If you tell me what it is you want the Miraculous for perhaps we can help you without it.”

The man’s stoic facade broke as he burst out laughing. She saw Raphael tense at the sound that held more madness and disdain than humor. She wouldn’t say that the man was ever stable, but this was a new level of crazy she hadn’t expected. She felt a pressure in her mind and knew Plagg was trying to warn her of something. She also realized that her ring hadn’t beeped so he was forcing her transformation to hold longer. That couldn’t be a good sign.

“Do you honestly think you can do what all my money, power, and connections could not? I don’t care who you are under that mask, there is nothing you can do. Not to mention now that the Wayne brat and his father have decided to ruin me, the only way to fix things is to make my wish. I will have your Miraculous.” He seemed far too confident and Plagg was pushing at her mind again. That air of luck shifting was getting stronger and she could only wait to see what it brought. Too late, she saw the hand behind Gabriel’s back twitch and noticed he held something.

Discorde dove for Ladybug as soon as the motion penetrated but she could only watch as some sort of throwing knife entered her midsection and she fell to the floor. She was vaguely aware of Raphael moving to attack and shielding them. The only thing she could concentrate on was the blood until Ladybug forced her to look her in the eye.

“This needs to end now. Get his Miraculous.” The pain and determination in her words caused something inside Discorde to snap. Suddenly she didn’t have to find that deep dark well of energy that Plagg had taught her to tap into. It was all around her, begging her to unleash the chaos and destruction that was always waiting just out of sight. She had just enough reason left to know that if she let it take over she’d become something far worse than Hawkmoth could ever hope to be.

She turned to see the man taunting his opponent. It was obvious he expected it to be just another teenager who had no training and no idea what they were getting into so he wasn’t taking the fight seriously. She was channeling her rage and power into a specific point though she had no idea what it would bring until a crossbow appeared in her hand pulsing with energy. She felt the luck shift again as she took aim and this time knew exactly what it meant.

She loosed the bolt and watched as it went through his left palm only to embed itself in his right. He let out a howl of rage and pain but she ignored it as she lined up another shot. That one embedded itself in his thigh and she actually heard his bone crack as the full force of it hit. He fell to the floor, crippled and bleeding, as she walked over calmly to stand over him. She saw real fear in his eyes as she stood over him and the only thought she could manage was ‘it’s about time’. She kept the crossbow trained on his head before addressing Raphael.

“Take his Miraculous so Ladybug can cast her cure and end this.” She didn’t even recognize her voice and all she could focus on was how easy it would be to just end the worthless person in front of her. The darkness around her urged her to remove him from the world so he couldn’t upset the balance further. It wasn’t until a familiar figure stepped in front of her that she even realized he was no longer transformed.

“Discorde, I need you to breathe with me. You can’t let it take over or you’ll lose yourself. I’ll lose you.” She could only blink at Ladybug in confusion for a moment as the power slowly receded. She heard her tell the others to take Gabriel to his office to wait for the police. She said something about a safe and a book too, but Discorde was too busy staring at her girlfriend’s abdomen, making sure there was no more blood, to really pay attention.

“Chloe, I need you to take me somewhere.” It was only when she used her real name that she even realized her transformation had finally given out. Plagg was silently shoving cheese down his throat to recharge and Ladybug’s face held both worry and resignation. “The cure didn’t work completely and I need you to take me to someone who might be able to help.” Chloe watched in horror as her transformation dropped and she fell to the floor.

“Mari!” This couldn’t be happening. She searched for a wound but couldn’t find one. “What happened? What do you mean the cure didn’t work?” She was frantic as she tried to find something to explain what she meant. It was Tikki that answered.

“You and Hawkmoth both used pure energy. For you it was pure chaos, for him pure spite. I couldn’t heal all the internal damage and the knife made it all the way to Marinette’s spine. While transformed I can make up for the deficiency, but I can’t fix it.” The Kwami sounded so devastated but Chloe still didn’t understand.

“I’m paralyzed Chloe. The knife severed part of my spine. I need you to transform and take me to Master Fu because it will take Tikki hours to recover from trying to heal me.”

AO3   Beginning   Previous    Next

Ko-Fi

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[silverwhiteraven]

Borne of the Stars - Chapter 11 - An MLB Kryptonian AU

Tag List:  @eve-valution @weird-pale-blonde-person @kris-pines04 @soulmate-game @abrx2002 @amayakans @vixen-uchiha @heldtogetherbysafetypins @raisuke06 @dorkus-minimus @mopester-is-here @moonlightstar64 @annabellabrookes @toodaloo-kangaroo @the-navistar-carol @elspethshadow @chocolatecatstheron​ @ivymala07

Not Working Tags:  @captainartsypants, @daminett4life (older tags suggest a change to @maribat-is-lifeblood, do correct me if I’m wrong, though!!)

[ Summary: We check in on Kara and the free-range amateur journalist she followed. ]

[ A/N: Hi, I’m back with another chapter!! Also doing Krypto-Mari AUs, check that out!! ]

[ Posted on Ao3 ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Chapter 10 ] [ Chapter 12 ]

Kara took off after Alya in the best controlled sprint she could muster. Pulling attention to herself with inhuman speeds would likely prove to be one of her worst decisions yet, for various reasons, if it happened, especially considering she wasn’t dressed as Supergirl.

Not that she even had it in the first place. No, Kal-El just had to confiscate her suit, to prevent temptation, he had claimed, and hidden it somewhere in the Fortress of Solitude where she couldn’t find it. So she kept it slow, yet quick enough to catch up to the amateur reporter by the end of the first block.

She also made sure to send a text to the group chat she had with Karen and Barbara as she ran. ‘With Alya, a classmate, she’s pulling a Lois Lane. Just keeping her out of trouble, so don’t yell at me if you were thinking about it! Check on Adrien Agreste, Lila Rossi, Geode and DJ, before you try any investigation of what’s goin on. Told them you would make sure they're somewhere safe. Also heard DJ and Geode were headin to check on their families when I followed our new stray reporter. That's it, I’ll tell you if I figure anything out while I’m with Als, see ya guys from the ground if you show up’

“Ya know, Als,” she says in an exasperated drawl as she pulls up alongside Alya, phone now put away, “you really shouldn't be running head first into things like this. Maybe consider not making this a habit, yeah?”

Alya scoffs, the verbal reprimand not doing anything against the excitement on her face, or budging the currently recording phone into being put away. “You're here too, aren't you?”

Kara blinks at that, then grins herself. “True, but I’m not a reporter, and yet here I am, already knowing this vital information.”

“Too late now,” Alya clips back, but her tone is still full of glee and adrenaline that Kara suspects won't go away until the situation is either over, or something bad happens. She hopes for Alya’s sake nothing bad will happen; it would suck if her spark was put out too soon.

“Have any other tips for me, Metropolis Girl?” Alya continues, her phone’s camera now pointed at Kara. The other rolls her eyes, but decides she might as well entertain the request.

“Sure,” she replies, pointedly glancing forward with a tip of her head before stepping closer to scoop the other up. Alya secure in her arms, she jumps the glowing half-metre rise in the ground that Alya had been about to run into. “Keep your eyes where you're going. And two,” she adds, setting the still-learning journalist down, “always have back-up, a partner; someone to keep you from doing exactly what I just kept you from doing.”

“Woah,” Alya breathes out, a bit breathless from a mix of having just been carried and having also just learned a lesson. She really didn't want to end up face-planting anything any time soon. “I guess I have a lot to learn. You get that from your cousin?”

“Uh, yeah, you could say that,” Kara shrugs, looking back the way they came, awkwardly rubbing at her arm. Her hand drops and she looks back to Alya, a brow now raised. “So, I'm guessing I won't convince you to turn back, will I?”

“Nope!” Alya practically cheers her denial of the request. The costumeless hero holds back a sigh as she tacks on, “Say, since you seem to be here to keep an eye on me, care to help me in learning lesson number two and being by partner-in-crime?”

“Crime? No, but a temporary partner in making sure you don't get knocked on your tush while you wave your phone around and aimlessly hope you catch sight of what’s causing all of this? Sure, why not; we’re already this far, no point in turning back. We’ll be safer keeping an eye out for places to hide than fully turning back, anyways. Let's go,” Kara finishes, grabbing hold of Alya’s wrist and getting them both started on running again. 

They continued to run together down the streets. Kara kept her gaze between looking ahead, to the path of their feet, and then above them for what she felt would be an inevitable collapsing building or two. Alya proved herself steady on her feat through the quakes, and a fast learner as she guided them both around more rises in the ground after hopping their third one. 

“This seems weird,” the blogger notes, brows furrowed together. “There’s no center to this, nothing to indicate where it all started. Look, News says it’s city-wide, too,” she tilted her screen towards Kara, who glanced over enough to notice the camera feature was still recording, but she was split-screening it to look at a live-feed from a News’ helicopter.

Kara pulled Alya under the awning of a building as they continued to watch the feed. There was no audio for the recording besides the reporter's voice-over, which was muted, replaced by subtitles. As she concentrated between the screen and their surroundings, Kara listened, and listened hard.

Sounds from all over the city came to her, and she focused on bits and pieces, one at a time while everything else became white noise. Most of it was generally the same: road-rage from the new physical barriers getting in the way; people calling out to their loved ones to get somewhere safe; frantic questions of what was happening. A particularly loud person kept repeating, “Where are they, where is it,” over and over, and it seemed particularly pronounced compared to everything else, almost making it hard to tune out. 

A certain voice caught her ear; gentle, full of comprehension. 

“A map…”

Marinette, Kara recognized. She wondered why Marinette had said that, why her voice had been clear, as though she had been outside. Isn’t she with her family? Then she remembered the balcony, and it hit Kara that she must have been up there, looking over what she can see of the city from there. The images from the helicopter feed only solidified her thought.

The Kryptonian snapped her fingers, dropping her concentration and letting her hearing return to normal. “We need to get up higher, any ideas?” She asked as she grabbed Alya’s attention with her sudden new spur for the task at hand.

“There’s the Eiffel Tower, might take a bit to get to, though,” the amateur reporter mused.

“No,” the suitless hero automatically shot the suggestion down. “Takes too long to climb and a huge safety hazard to be around, not to mention be on. Villains always target tall and important locations, so keep away and at a safe distance at all costs, got that? Good, and don't forget it; consider it a tip from my cousin if it helps it stick,” Kara stresses the point as the other nodded her confirmation, then looked around for any other options.

“What about-” the suggestion is interrupted by the honk of a horn, and both girls share twin frowns as they both recognize in displeasure the form of their interruption.

A sleek, short, black limo pulls up beside the pair, bearing the crest of the mayor’s office. The window rolls down to reveal Chloé Bourgeois, and the two girls outside it only continue to frown, to which the girl inside returns with an even greater scowl and tut.

“Get in, Danvers,” the aloof blonde tries to command, “I don’t want any negative PR for me, the hotel, or daddy from you getting caught causing trouble during some incident if I can help it.”

Kara scowls back, about to retort a no with heavy sarcasm, when an alternative idea presents itself, and her expression morphs into a big smile with. “Sure thing, Clo, the hotel is exactly where we need to be anyways! Come on, Als, let’s go for a ride!”

“What?” Echoes one cry in surprise, the other in outrage.

“No way am I letting Césaire into my car!”

“Seconded, no way am I getting in a car with Chloé.”

“Why not?” Kara asks innocently, popping open the side door, Chloé jumping back from it like it had bitten her. “The choice is either lose me as your back-up, Miss Journalist, and have to stay out of the field, or, come with me, suffer a little bit of stuck-up,” she ignored the offended protesting cry of “Hey!”, “and in reward, get a safe and high enough vantage point on everything going on around us. 

“And you,” she turns to Chloé, sliding into the black leather seat, further prompting the other girl to back up against the opposite door, “Either put up with one extra passenger for a few minutes and be graced with us staying out of your manicured hair for the rest of the day, or, find an article tomorrow that calls you and your precious daddykins out on being terrible hosts that are horrible at keeping even your private guests safe from the ‘terrors‘ that currently plagues the city your dad is currently the Mayor of. What do ya think of that, princesse?”

Kara’s smile was strong as ever, only sickly-sweet as it was aimed at the minor heiress. Chloé looked caught between looking worried for having just been threatened with a PR problem, and looking offended for having been threatened at all. It quickly turned to only being offended, the fear of threat brushed aside as she crossed her arms with a loud huff, and bodily tuned away.

“Fine, she can come! As long as you both stay away like you promised, and she doesn't touch anything that is clearly more expensive than her mother’s monthly salary!”

“Cool! Come on, Als, let’s go!” Kara noticed, as she made room for Alya on the seat and she climbed in, that the journalist looked stunned at having heard someone resist Chloé’s demands. 

“Girl,” the blogger hissed out in an awed whisper as she shut the door and the car drove off. “That was such a smooth comeback! You either have experience or you're just as done with ‘Chloé being Chloé’ as much I had been when I first met her, if not more.”

“Little of both,” Kara shrugged, smiling both smugly and sheepishly. “It’s a trick you learn as a reporter I guess, and from being around stuck-up people. Learn what they want so you can use it to your advantage. But also be willing to do things the hard way, because they won’t give you even an inch if they're not convinced you really will let yourself lose a lead purely to spite them and make them lose something of value, too.”

“With everything you know and who your cousin is, you plan to be a reporter, too?”

Kara only considered it for a second before shaking her head. “No way. Maybe as a side gig or a hobby, but that’s not really my cup o’ joe. Photojournalism is a maybe,” she amends, “but journalism still not really my thing. 

“Besides, I’m stuck in Clark’s shadow enough, I prefer making my own path to going down all of his,” she states, feeling and looking a mix between determined, annoyed, and forlorn.

Alya didn't have much time to consider a followup response before the limo came to a stop and all three of the girls in the car perked up.

“We’re here! Now get out and stay out of my hair! Don't you dare go running off anywhere, either, or I’ll have you moved into an old broom closet until you leave Paris!” Chloé was gone before either of them could respond, and they only shrugged to each other, grinning because it was really Chloé out of their hair, and left the car, heading inside.

“You’re a slowpoke,” Alya jabbed as she ran ahead, her phone reappearing in her hands. “I’m heading up to the roof on my own, I should be fine, right?”

Kara waved her off, “Yeah, yeah, go, I’ll see you up there! I should call Clark anyways; he wanted to know if anything interesting happens, and, well.”

“Guess this counts?” Alya teased as she slid into the waiting elevator.

Kara snorted, “Yeah, basically. Have fun, don't go falling in the pool or anything!” Alya laughing at the final ‘warning’ is what the elevator closes on.

Kara heads to the stairs, and a simple peek up the stairwell to see it clear has her running up the flights in a matter of a split second. She had to do something to take the edge of the energy jitters she was getting from forcing herself to sit still among all the chaos, and using her powers where no one would see it was the best she could do for now.

As she walked down the hallway and slipped into the suite she would be calling home for a while, she pulled her phone back out to check the chat between herself, Barbara, and Karen.

First reply was from Babs. ‘Tracked all their phones. Marinette is at the bakery, Nino at his brother’s school in one of their safe rooms, Lila is in one of ours, and so is Adrien. I think, anyways, his phone must have died after he got there, but I’m sure he’s fine without it for now, must be with others if he isn't bothering to charge it now.’

Karen replied next. ‘Doing scouting now, I won’t engage without back-up, though, but I'll let you know if I find anything!’

No other messages than that, and the grounded hero sent a quick ‘thanks, girls’ in response. Her contacts were then opened, looking for Clark’s.

It was then that she noticed the black box sitting on the vanity, small and painted with red details. 

Curious, and ever the one to ‘ruin surprises’, she used her X-Ray vision on it, only for her brow to furrow when she realized that while the box was clearly only wood, the object inside wasn’t having it, only appearing as a solid silhouette to her eyes.

“What the-” 

She slid her phone away and snatched up the box, opening it up to a black ring and a flash of white and acid green light.

[sudoscience]

New In Town Ch 1: New In Town

Originally posted on AO3, but I’m posting it here now in case that helps more people read it. I think you should still read it on AO3, though, because there’s additional formatting, as well as my notes. (If you’re one of the people who already read this on AO3, there’s nothing new here, except a reminder that the story is on indefinite hiatus until I become sufficiently motivated to resume writing.)

Summary: A human moves to Hometown and is offered a job by Asgore despite never having worked for a florist before.

Stepping off the bus was bittersweet. I was leaving many friends behind, but also a lot of stress. Basically, it was better for everyone if I got as far away from my hometown as possible. Ironically, I ended up in a town literally named Hometown. They say monsters used to be able to use magic, but I guess that was at the cost of being able to come up with creative names. Well, that's not entirely fair: humans can't use magic, either, and most of our cities are named after the first person to move there or a nearby geographic feature. Case in point: my hometown of Twin Falls, named for a pair of waterfalls to the south.

Anyway, I'm hopeful things will work out. Remkis has a cousin who lives here, but she'll be staying with him until he gets better. Meanwhile, I guess I'm apartment-sitting for her. God, poor Remkis. He really isn't doing well, but the last thing he needs in his condition is a surprise visit from the MEU, and every minute I spend with him feels like it increases the chances of that happening exponentially.

The funny thing is, I'm staying in his cousin's apartment even though I've never actually met her. She must have decided any friend of Remkis was a friend of hers, but I have to imagine she must think I'm a terrible friend, abandoning him at a time like this. Hell, I can't even remember her name. I guess we'll have to formally introduce ourselves whenever she gets back.

Remkis's cousin (I'll just call her RC until her name comes to me) has a fairly minimalist style. The apartment walls are all but bare, and there's not much furniture. It's so empty, it feels almost like a prison cell. I hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries, but I'm going to need something to look at if I'm going to be living here. I can see a flower shop from the balcony of the apartment; maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and send some flowers to Remkis while I'm there. I know I said I wanted to get as far away as possible, but Hometown isn't really that far from Twin Falls, maybe about a day's drive, so shipping some flowers there hopefully won't be out of the question.

---

The monster that runs the flower shop is intimidatingly huge, yet it's hard to be frightened as he hums a little tune while watering his flowers. Assuring me he has almost finished, he shakes the watering can slightly before turning around to say, "Howdy! How can I..." He seems startled when he sees me. I suppose I can't blame him; Hometown is a rarity, a settlement populated entirely by monsters. When humans do come by, it's almost never a good sign.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't know there was another human in town. How can I help you?"

His voice is deep and rich, inflected with a Southern drawl, and his clothes are plain and caked in potting soil. Despite his attire, there's something about his manner, or perhaps merely his stature, that gives him an almost regal air. Maybe I just think that because the shop is called "Flower King", but I feel like that's not the only reason.

"Yes," I reply, "I was hoping to buy..." My voice trails off while my brain suddenly realizes what he has just said. "I'm sorry, did you just say another human?"

"That's right. It's mostly monsters here, but my wife, er, my ex-wife and I have adopted a human child. I guess you haven't met them yet. They usually keep to themselves, anyway, but they're a good kid. A little on the quiet side, but...

"Oh, how rude of me! I've been talking to you all this time, and I haven't even offered you a cup of tea. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No, thanks," I say, noting that my refusal almost seems to break his heart. "Not right now," I quickly add, "but maybe later." He looks a little happier at that. "Actually, I just moved here from Twin Falls. I was hoping to spruce up my apartment a little, and maybe send some flowers to my friends back home."

"I think I can help you with that. With the flowers, at least. I'm afraid I don't sell any evergreens," he replies, chuckling. What is it with monsters and puns? He turns back to the wall and produces a beautiful arrangement of flowers of all colors with a single golden flower at the center, raised slightly above the others. "Here we are! These are for your apartment. My treat!"

"Really?" I say incredulously.

"It's my pleasure! Now, as for shipping the flowers to Twin Falls... I'll need some time to think about that. I can go ahead and make the arrangement for you, but I'm not really sure about the transportation. I suppose I could just take them there myself when I get the chance..."

"Oh, no! Please, you don't have to do that," I tell him. I try to make it sound like I simply don't want to impose on him, but I think he picks up on the fear in my voice. Monsters, especially this florist, may look tough, but they're all terribly fragile; even someone of his size could likely be taken down by a child wielding a stick.

"Young man, I can take care of myself."

"When was the last time you went to Twin Falls, Mister... you know, I don't think I caught your name."

"Asgore Dreemurr, at your service!" he says with a slight flourish. "And to answer your question..." He gestures towards me, prompting me to give him my own name.

"Rudy. Rudy Tonofreni."

"Oh, ho! I won't have any trouble remembering that! My best man was also named Rudy. Well, to answer your question, Rudy, the last time I visited Twin Falls was... Let's see here..." He begins to mumble to himself as he tries to remember. "Oh. Oh my, it really has been a while. I haven't been to Twin Falls since a little after we adopted Kris."

"They've always had more than their share of MEU fanatics, but things have really gotten worse since that scumbag Ullman got elected mayor. He's all but encouraging them."

"MEU?" Asgore asks.

"Oh, sorry. I guess not everyone calls them that. They're really called the Arcane Enforcement Unit, but my friends and I call them the Monster Execution Unit because that's really their goal, even though they're all too cowardly to admit it. They all think they're doing the world some big favor, assaulting monsters who are just trying to get by like everyone else. It's sickening."

"Ah. Believe me, I'm familiar with the AEU, Rudy. I understand your concern, but--"

"No, I don't think you do understand," I say, my voice rising. "It's bad there. Really bad. They're not just going after monsters anymore. They're going after humans they think are "monster sympathizers". They're targeting monsters that are known to interact with humans, and the police, they're just letting it happen. Some of them are in on it, I think. I had to leave so they wouldn't hurt my friends, but it's probably already too late. The last thing I want is for someone else, someone I've just met, to get hurt because of me. I can't let that happen, okay? So, please... Just forget I even asked." My voice begins to break.

"Ah. I'm sorry, Rudy. I can see this is very upsetting to you. Perhaps we can work something else out. In fact, I just remembered I have a friend in Twin Falls who owes me a favor. I'm sure Arsenia would be more than happy to help us out."

Arsenia. Why does that name sound so familiar?

"Now," Asgore continued, "is there anything else I can help you with?"

Still trying to place that name while settling down from my outburst, I manage to say, "I think I'll take that tea now." Really, though, where have I heard that name before?

"Really?" He sounds positively delighted. "I'll be right back!"

I begin to ponder the fact that the whole time I've been here, I haven't seen any other customers. Well, it's a small town, after all; there can't be that much demand for flowers. Suddenly, the realization dawns on me, just as Asgore returns with the tea: Arsenia is Remkis's cousin!

"Here we are!" Asgore says as he sets down two cups of golden flower tea. "This is my absolute favorite tea. It's very soothing, but, ah, it's also very hot. Please be careful."

"Thank you," I say. "I just realized something, Asgore."

"What is it?"

"You can't ask Arsenia to get the flowers for me."

"Rudy, I appreciate how concerned you are, but, really, Arsenia is quite capable of defending herself."

"It's not that. Arsenia and her cousin were the ones I wanted to send the flowers to."

"Oh, I see. Well, that certainly won't do, then. I suppose you were right after all. I should just forget about it, but I'll be quite disappointed knowing there's someone out there not getting the flowers they need. Well, you can't please everybody. That's a lesson I've learned the hard way.

"Anyway, why don't you tell me more about yourself, Rudy?"

"I'm not sure there's much left to be said." I know I shouldn't be nervous, but I've never really liked opening up about myself, and I've already told him a lot about my personal life that I was hoping to keep, well, personal.

"What do you do for a living?"

Oh my god. I know I couldn't stay in Twin Falls, but I really should have at least arranged for employment before leaving everything behind. I laugh nervously as I reply, "Funny story about that, actually. I, uh, I don't... I'm un-... I have no idea. I mean, I used to work in a convenience store, but I didn't even think about looking for a new job before I moved here. Say, you don't know anyone that's hiring, do you?"

"How would you like to work here?" Asgore says with a big grin.

Oh, man. It's basically a fact of life that monsters make friends almost too easily, but it's still a little weird to be offered a job from someone I just met. Hesitantly, I start to tell him I don't know the first thing about flowers, but we're interrupted when the door opens. A young child in a green and yellow sweater comes in, a mop of shaggy brown hair covering their eyes.

"Kris!" Asgore exclaims, picking the child off the ground in a big hug. Setting him back down, Asgore says, "Kris, I want you to meet my new employee, Rudy! They'll be helping out around the store." Kris might have glanced in my direction, but it's hard to tell with their eyes obscured; they otherwise don't seem to react.

I notice that Asgore has apparently already hired me, even though I haven't yet accepted his offer. "H-hold on, Asgore. I'm going to need some time to think about this. I'm not really sure yet if this is what I want to do."

"Oh, of course..." Asgore says sheepishly. "Take as much time as you need." I think I catch a telltale smirk on Kris's face. I get the impression this might not be the first time Asgore has hired somebody on the spot.

Kris turns to leave, but Asgore stops them to give them a bouquet of flowers. "Here, Kris. For your mother." The youth takes the flowers and leaves wordlessly. I suppose that was the only reason they came by.

"Real chatterbox, huh?" I say to Asgore.

"They weren't always that way. I think they're still getting used to their big brother being off at college. If you get the chance, maybe you could talk to them. I think they could really benefit from knowing they're not the only human in town anymore. Well, I suppose you're a good bit older than them, but still..."

"Sure. It'd probably be good for me, too. Well, I guess it's time I get out of your fur. Thank you again for the flowers. And the tea." Quietly, I add, "And the job."

"The pleasure's all mine," Asgore says. "You're welcome to come back any time."

"Oh, I just might," I say as I walk out the door.

---

If everyone in Hometown is as friendly as Asgore, I don't think I'll have much trouble adjusting. Part of me still can't stop thinking about Remkis, though. I think about giving him a call, but there's a nagging feeling that it would be better if I didn't. It might end up making things even harder for him.

Remkis would probably get a kick out of the idea of me working at a florist, though. I'm definitely not the artistic type. The flowers Asgore gave me are a welcome addition to my still otherwise empty apartment; anything I made would probably make me wish it was still barren. Of course, my wallet is almost as empty as this apartment. I'm going to need a paying job pretty soon. Maybe I could be Asgore's delivery driver or something instead.

On the other hand, that grocery store also seemed to have a pretty barebones staff. Heh, I'll have to remember to tell that to the skeleton working there. I'd probably be a better fit there, but I almost feel like I owe it to Asgore to work for him. If he wants me to help Kris, it would almost certainly be easier to do so if I worked at his store. Besides, Sans seems friendly enough, but I can't help feeling there's something... off about him. Maybe it's just that he doesn't seem as trusting as the other monsters, which is probably a smart move on his part, but it definitely sets him apart. Plus, I get the sense that I'd be doing his job on top of mine.

Seems like Flower King is my best choice for now. I think I'll sleep on it before calling up Asgore, though.

[If you enjoyed reading this, please consider reblogging.]

[thighhighsanti]

sweet but psycho XIV

< previous chapter   masterlist >

summary: After that little mistake with GOT7 you realise that you need to do everything to get EXO to trust you, and that means everything ;)

word count: 5.2k

pairing: multiple members of EXO x fem!reader

tags/warnings: (these will mostly be the same for the entire series) Mafia AU, any kind of weapon, mayor character death, mention of blood, angst, mention of loss, descriptive death and fighting, smut, kidnapping, stealing, hacking, Stockholm syndrome. mention of BTS , NCT and GOT7

read on archive 

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‘DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE?’ Junmyeon’s asked the moment he had come walking through the door leading into Yixing’s office. Without actually given me the option to talk he continued, ‘now they know what you are to me, so now the moment they decide to rebel against everyone you are their first target!’ he exclaimed angrily as he walked over towards us.

Yixing was still treating my arm as Junmyeon stopped in front of us. ‘I know, I’m sorry’ I muttered under my breath causing Yixing to look at me in surprise. Junmyeon continued yelling at me before coming to an abrupt stop, ‘wait what?’.

‘I’m sorry for putting you in that position’ I apologized to him as I moved my eyes up to look at him. Junmyeon seemed surprised by my apology before shaking his head, ‘Sorry isn’t going to cut it this time’ he spoke softly as he used his hand to cup my cheek and look into my eyes. ‘I need you to know that I would never hurt you, you mean to much to me’ Junmyeon assured before letting my cheek go and moving his hand to move a few strands of hair out of my face.

‘I know’ I nodded as Junmyeon let out a sigh. Suddenly the door opened and Kris stepped inside. ‘Luhan and Tao are on their way back, do you still want Y/N in her room?’ he asked as he stuffed his phone in his pocket and looked at me. His gaze was cold, but I could tell he didn’t want to hear Junmyeon say “yes”.

‘No it’s fine’ Junmyeon answered after placing a small kiss to my temple. He gave my hair another pet before turning around to face Kris. ‘Tell Jongdae to pick Luhan and Tao up from the airport and let Kyungsoo go with him, just in case’ he ordered him, and as Kris nodded Junmyeon looked back at me. ‘As for you, you can decide where you sleep tonight. You don’t have to sleep in Minseok’s room’, I was sure he only told me that in the hopes I’d stay with him, but without answering him I gave him a small nod.

Junmyeon looked at the bruise on my arm for a moment before turning back to the door and walking out with Kris.

It wasn’t long before Yixing was done with my arm and he let me leave. As I stood outside his office I paced around for a moment, where would I go now? Do I go back to my own room, or should I go to Minseok? I thought about it for another moment before walking towards Minseok’s room, we had to talk about this eventually.

And if Jackson really was going to help me get out of here I had to get back to him as soon as possible, without being suspicious of course.

I knocked on the door to his room as I waited for him to open it, it wasn’t too long as I heard some shuffling before the door opened. Minseok’s eyes met mine as he raised an eyebrow at me, ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked as I scoffed a little. ‘Am I not allowed to be here anymore?’ I asked causing him to shake his head.

‘I’m just surprised to see you here that’s all’ he admitted before stepping aside and letting me enter. Minseok was wearing a blouse, which he had unbuttoned a little allowing me to see a little of his skin. Before he had it buttoned up more so now I could see a few of the marks I had left on his neck a few nights back. It made me snicker a little as I walked in his room before sitting myself down on his bed.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ he asked as he simply watched me from the door. ‘I’d much rather forget, but I think it would be smarter to talk about it’ I mumbled as he nodded and walked over to me. He sat down on his knees in front of me before grabbing my hands and cupping them with his own.

‘I know we’ve never really talked about this to begin with and I think we kinda just went with it from the start. But I.. care for you, always have. Even back when you weren’t here yet. Back then I also saw us as something more and I think you felt the same’ as the words started pouring out of him I remained silent, intrigued by what he was saying. Until now I didn’t know how he actually felt about the two of us.

‘I’d like to continue that as my feelings haven’t changed. What I said in there was all a lie and I would never use you for sex, if that was all I wanted I would go to NCT for a whore instead. I’m not able to say those words you want to hear, not yet at least’ he whispered those last words as he looked away from me to avoid my eyes.

I nodded at his words, which he wouldn’t be able to see anyway, before cupping his face in my hands. I turned his face back to mine and pressed my lips against his. ‘It’s ok’ I whispered after removing myself from him before allowing him to pull be back. His lips slowly moved against mine as he sat up a bit, his left hand trailed up my arm to my neck as he palmed the back of my neck. His other hand stayed on my thigh as he used this position to pull me closer.

It wasn’t long before I felt his teeth on my lower lip and I allowed him to deepen the kiss. This wasn’t like our usual kisses, he seemed more.. Caring and sensual this time. He pulled away to catch a breath as I felt his hand move up my thigh a bit. His forehead was pressed against mine as I removed my hand from his neck and wrapped it around his wrist, stopping his movement there.

‘What’s wrong?’ he breathed against my lips before pulling away a bit further, making sure to look into my eyes. ‘I can’t, not yet. I need a while to-’ I started as he nodded, cutting my sentence off, without intending to do so. ‘It’s alright, I understand. Take as much time as you need. You might then want to find another room to sleep in though’ he stated before letting out a short laugh, ‘to prevent you from getting my morning wood in your back’.

I snickered at his comment before nodding and standing up, pulling him along with me. I had only taken a good two steps to the door before I heard him say “hey” and felt him wrap his fingers around me wrist. As I turned around he pressed his lips against mine again.

He didn’t try to deepen the kiss before slowly releasing my lips and allowing me to leave the room. With an aching feeling in my stomach, which was telling me to go back, I started walking in the general direction of my own room. This meant I had to go down a floor, considering Minseok’s room was at the top floor.

Just as I reached the hallway leading to my room I saw Chanyeol open his room and walk inside. ‘Don’t follow him, don’t follow him’ I whispered to myself under my breath as I kept walking through the hallway. When I was in front of his door I stopped for a moment to look at it, ‘don’t follow him’ I spoke again as I looked ahead to my own door.

I stood still for a few moments before cursing under my breath and knocking on his door, I didn’t allow him to open it as I opened it myself and walked in. Chanyeol wasn’t in his bedroom, but the moment I looked towards the bathroom door I heard the water running. Was he showering? I looked back at the door as I thought about leaving, at least now I still could.

Just as I was about to do so I heard the water shut off and the bathroom door opened. Chanyeol, who was holding a wet shirt in his hand, hadn’t noticed me yet as he looked down. The shirt he was using was the one he had been wearing and doing so I was only able to see half his face.

Chanyeol stopped walking when he saw my feet and was quick to look up from the ground to meet my eyes. ‘What happened to you?’ I asked while tilting my head a little. ‘Why do you care?’ he snarled causing me to let out a sigh, ‘what happened you being nice to me earlier?’ I tried again as he let out a sarcastic laugh before replying.

‘You tried running away again, that’s what happened’ he spoke before turning away from me and walking to his closet. His bare back was to me as he dropped the shirt and looked around his closet for a new one. ‘But I’m still here now aren’t I?’ I stated while walking towards him.

‘Only because Jackson rejected you, you wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t’ Chanyeol huffed as I stopped behind him. ‘Chanyeol stop being like this and show me what happened to your face’ I placed my hand on his shoulder as he stopped looking around his closet and slowly turned to face me.

There was a new bruise forming on his face, it was just above his left eye and touching the end of his eyebrow. ‘Jesus Christ, what happened?’ I asked before leaning down to grab his shirt from the floor and press the cold fabric to his face. He flinched as I touched his skin but was quick to let me care for his bruise as he looked down at me. ‘You’ he groaned, reaching his hand up to softly wrap his fingers around my wrist, guiding my hand around the bruise.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked surprised, I didn’t punch him? ‘I assume Junmyeon also saw this mark on your arm, so after he went to see you he came back and punched me for it’ Chanyeol muttered out the words as he used his other hand to softly trail his fingers across my red skin. I still had my sleeve up from Yixing putting a balm on it, so I hadn’t bothered pulling it down just to let it dry.

A shiver send its way down my spine at the feeling of his hands on my skin, but I ignored it as I continued nurturing his face. ‘I can go get an ice pack from Yixing, that will work much better’ I assured him before moving my hand away from his face to turn around. I didn’t get far though, because as soon as Chanyeol felt me move he wrapped his fingers tighter around my wrist to keep me from moving.

He made sure not to leave a bruise again, but just in case I tried not to pull away and let him keep me there. ‘I’ll go to Yixing later, just stay like this for a while’ his words came out as a whisper. I stayed still and nodded at him, letting him know I’d do just that. His left eye was hidden behind the fabric but his other eye remained firmly on me as he simply watched my face.

‘Have you seen Minseok yet?’ he suddenly asked after a moment of silence. After nodding he let out a short sigh, ‘so I guess you’re back to sleeping in his bed?’.

‘Isn’t that what you intended for when you gave me that speech in the hallway earlier?’ I asked, referring to him telling me Minseok loved me and so on. ‘Don’t you already know the answer to that?’ he asked back as I shrugged.

‘Maybe I just want to hear you say it instead’ my words came out as nothing but a whisper as Chanyeol looked down at me, it took him a few moments before he removed my hand from his face and made me drop the fabric. His hand cupped my cheek to prevent me from looking away as he softly spoke back to me.

‘I don’t like you sleeping in his bed, I don’t like you sleeping in anyone else’s bed for that matter. I know we agreed to forget about what happened between us and move on, but I can’t help it’ I felt the shiver move down my spine as he trailed his hand down to my neck. ‘I need to have you’ were his final words before leaning down slowly.

He gave me more than enough time to move away, or even push him away, but I decided against it as I let him press his lips to mine. The kiss started off slowly, like he was still testing the waters, making sure I wouldn’t change my mind and leave him there.

I moved my hands up to his shoulders before slowly letting them run over his chest. As my fingers traced his skin I could feel goose bumps start to form, it wasn’t long before I felt him shiver and I started trailing my hands down. I made sure to touch every inch of his stomach before pulling my fingers through the loops of his jeans and pull him closer.

This allowed Chanyeol to grow more impatient and he was quick to deepen the kiss as he let his hands cups my cheek and pull me further in. My fingers traced over his belt before undoing the buckle and removing it completely. As I popped the button open he took a moment to remove himself from me, he kicked his pants to the side before his hands found the end of my shirt. He pulled the fabric over my head before throwing it somewhere behind me.

Chanyeol turned the both of us around as he pressed me back against the now shut closet. He attached his lips to my neck and I could feel him suck marks on my skin as he slowly moved his way down. I arched my back into his touch and reached my hands around my back, after undoing the bra clip I slid the straps down my arms and threw it to the side.

Chanyeol, who felt me remove the straps, took a deep breath as he took a small step back to look at me. ‘Fuck baby-’ he groaned while bringing his big hands up to cup my breasts. ‘-you have no idea how much I’ve been dying to see you like this’ he continued as he quickly latched himself onto my neck again. 'Then hurry up or I'll go somewhere else' my threat meant nothing but it did seem to do the job as he wrapped his hands around my thighs and lifted me off the ground. 'Good luck with that' he hissed before dropping me on the bed and hovering over me. His lips remained on my neck as his hands started wandering downwards. I felt his fingers wrap around the waistband of my jeans before tugging them down. He pulled my underwear along with them before throwing both of them away. His fingers felt warm on my skin as he slowly moved them up my legs. He slowly pulled my knees apart before taking a deep breath and looking at every inch of me. I could've sworn I saw his eyes darken a bit as he leaned in closer to me. As I felt his breath fan over my core I automatically tried to scoot in closer. 'Chanyeol, please just-' I started my sentence but was cut off by the feeling of him flattening his tongue against my clit. A moan escaped my lips as he wrapped my legs around his shoulders and moved in closer. He practically assaulted my core with his mouth as I laid back annd let my hands grasp the sheets beneath me. As the minutes passed by I felt my orgasm come closer with each move he made. When I however was close to reaching my end I felt Chanyeol remove himself from me. I whined my complaint before pushing my shoulders off the bed. There was no room for me to speak as Chanyeol had also leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. My legs had slid back down to the bed as I felt his hand on the inside of my knee. His other hand moved up my body before cupping my cheek and pulling me closer into the kiss. The other hand had already started moving up from my knee, and I could feel myself growing more anxious with each second. When it was just about to become to much he pressed his fingers flat against my core. 'Fuck you're so wet, can you hear how wet you are?' The question was rhetorical and he knew he wouldn't get an answer anyway, but that didn't stop his smirk from growing as he slowly pushed one finger in. Of course he was right, I could hear how wet I was. His finger moved in and out of me at an agonizing pace before he leaned down to my ear. 'I going to make you cum on my fingers-' he started while pushing another finger inside me. As my body sank back down into the mattress Chanyeol moved along with me, making sure to stay close to me and hear all the sounds that were leaving my lips. '-and you're going to moan my name when you cum' his voice was softer this time. And I knew he'd make his promise come true as he pressed a third finger inside me. 'Ah, Chan please, don't stop' my voice sounded broken as he pressed his lips to my cheek before hovering above me. 'That's it baby, who's making you feel this good?' His smug smile wanted to make me groan but I was sushed as he pushed his fingers deeper inside me. 'C'mon baby, you got to tell me, if you don't answer me you won't be cumming tonight' with his whisper came a promise causing me to turn my head away from him, not wanting to answer him. Chanyeol let out a short laugh before sitting up and grabbing my chin with his other hand. 'Answer. Me' between each word was a pause as he held my face in his firm hands. 'Fuck y-', I stopped myself as Chanyeol started pulling his fingers out of me. '-fuck fine, you. You make me feel so goddamn good Chanyeol. Please don't stop' as my whimper came out his smirk only grew and he pressed his fingers back inside me. 'Good girl' the name made my walls tighten around his fingers and unfortunately for me, he felt it too. 'Oh, you like that? I'll be sure to remember that' he grinned at me before leaning down and pressing his lips to my clit again. His name and a few profanities came out as I could feel myself come closer and closer to my high. As Chanyeol flattened his tongue against my slit I removed my hands from the sheets and fisted them into his hair instead. His chuckle vibrated against my core, causing me to buckle my hips up into him. 'Fuck Chan, I'm coming' I squirmed under his touch as Chanyeol moved his other hand up to press down against my stomach, keeping me to the bed. 'Ahh, Chanyeol' his name was a mantra on my tongue and it only allowed him to pleasure me more. My fingers gripped his hair tighter before bucking my hips up once more, and then finally.. I let go. My hands fell flat against the bed as my body shook into his touch. Chanyeol stayed in between my legs for a moment as he allowed me to let it all go. He made sure to clean up everything I gave him before moaning at the taste. 'God, you taste amazing' he spoke as he crawled up my body and pressed his lips against mine. I could taste myself on his lips as he pulled me close for the final time before getting up from the bed. My eyes followed him as he grabbed his pants from the floor and walked over to the bathroom. 'What are you doing?' You could hear my surprise as I watched him pick up my clothes and drop them next to me on the bed. 'I'm going to shower' he shrugged while walking over to the bed and pressing a quick kiss to my forehead. 'you will be going to your room and maybe we could do this again sometime' his smile made my mouth fall open. I watched him walk into the bathroom and close the door behind him. The sound of a lock was heard and not much later the sound of the shower turning on. I cursed him out in my thoughts as I got up from the bed and started pulling on my clothes. After a few more mumbles I finished putting on my remaining clothing and walked out of his room, back to my own.

~ time skip ~

'When you've finished eating please come meet me in my office' Junmyeon had said to me before retreating back upstairs. Two days had passed since my.. thing with Chanyeol and luckily for me he hadn't changed his behaviour much. Which meant that sometimes he'd be fine with me, while at other times he was annoyed by my mere presence. Luhan and Tao had also returned from their trip to China and they looked extremely tired and stressed. Junmyeon still wasn't sure what to do with me, but atleast I wasn't locked in my room for the time being. After I finished my breakfast I put my plate in the sink and walked towards the stairs. I found my mind wandering as I walked the short journey to Junmyeon's office. What did he want to talk about? Did I mess up again? Or maybe I'd finally be hearing some good news. Before entering Junmyeon's office I passed Minseok’s room. Minseok and I hadn't really talked after those few days ago, but I really wanted to get back in there. Then however it would again be me that first came back. The thoughts were shaken out of my head when the doors to the office opened. Kris stood in the doorway as he held the doors open for me. 'He's not in there' Kris spoke when I was only a few feet away from him. 'Oh, but I wasn't going to-' I started as Kris cut me off with a short nod. 'I know', the smile he gave me was anything but genuine, but I decided to ignore it as I walked past him. 'Also, some advice. You could always look somewhere else to get what he's giving you, there are plenty here that would treat you better' he announced his thoughts as I walked past him but the moment I was, he closed the door behind me, leaving me unable to respond. A deep sigh left my lips as I walked past the paintings and into the actual office. The final painting, the one with the golden frame, was still empty and I couldn't help but wonder what Junmyeon wanted to do with that thing. As I walked around the corner to the desk in the middle of the room I saw Junmyeon sitting at it. He seemed to be alone as he looked over some files at his desk. I went unnoticed by him as I continued walking to the desk. He was frowning at the papers, but as soon as I knocked on his desk and he looked up his face seemed to light up. 'Hey, sorry I didn't hear you come in' he mumbled before running a hand over his face and putting all the papers away in a single map. 'It's alright, you look tired though' I couldn't hide my worrying as I walked over to his side of the desk and sat down on it. Just as Junmyeon was about to scold me I ran my hand through his hair and used my other hand to lift his face up a bit. His eyes were wide when they met mine as they waited for me to continue. I offered him a soft smile before continuously rubbing my fingers over his scalp. He seemed to enjoy me doing so as he leaned into my touch and allowed me to keep on going. As Junmyeon placed one hand on my leg, a thought ran through my mind. I had to keep this up, if I kept him close like this he'd begin to trust me. All I had to do was allow him to have me, to own me and after some time I'd be able to leave. Junmyeon and I stayed like this for a moment before he let put a deep sigh and sat back up. 'I can't stay here all day, I actually have to do some work today' he admitted to himself as he moved back from me. I gave him another soft smile before hoping of his desk, 'you have to go to sleep early though, I could've sworn I heard you snore a bit' I laughed causing him to nod and smile back at me. 'You and Yixing are right, work had been draining me' Junmyeon rubbed his forehead once more before straightening up and sitting back in his chair. I took the seat opposite him as I watched him open a drawer and grab something from it before placing it in front of me. It was my phone. My original phone and not this thing they had given me to contact them if needed. My hand moved towards my phone before coming to a quick stop. I lifted my gaze to look at the man in front of me and as he gave me a short nod I grabbed my phone off the desk and brought it back with me. 'You're not just given me my phone back, so what's up?' Junmyeon smiled at my question before leaning forward a bit. 'Your friends are smart and they're getting suspicious, they keep asking when you're coming back and I can't delay it for much longer-' the thought of both the girls bothering Junmyeon, while thinking it was me, made me smile a bit as I sat back in my chair again. '-So for as far as they know you're back and now they want to throw a welcome back party. So I suppose I'm asking for your help' I could tell Junmyeon was at a loss as he let out a deep sigh at the end. 'Ok I'm going to be honest with you, without any tricks. You've got to let me go to this party-' I started my offer, but Junmyeon was quick to cut me off, 'You know I can't do th-'. I raised my hand, causing Junmyeon to stop mid sentence before bringing my finger to my lips and making a "shush" sound. 'As you said before, my friends are smart and they will continue asking questions. But that's fine, you just got to keep them entertained for the time being. I won't have to go to that party alone, hell I'll take all my bodyguards with me if that makes you feel better. I'll wear any tracking wear Sehun has-' I paused to laugh at my own words as I saw Junmyeon smirk a little. 'But if you let me go to this party I promise you I won't try to run and come back with the boys. I don't know how much my promise means to you but I'll be sure to keep the girls entertained for a while', as I finished my speech Junmyeon thought about it for a moment before nodding. 'Ok, I'll have to talk to the boys about it for a bit but I'll let you go. Please, don't do anything I don't recommend' Junmyeon got up from his chair as he grabbed the map with files from the desk and walked over to me. He held his hand out for me to take as I placed my hand in his. He helped me out of the chair and pulled me along with him. When we reached his office door he let go of my hand to open it. The door fell shut behind us as he walked to Sehun's room and knocked on the door. He didn't leave him anytime to respond as he opened the door and called out to Sehun, 'we're having a meeting, tell everyone to get downstairs'. I saw Sehun nod before Junmyeon closed the door and continued walking down the hall. I hopped after him as I tried to keep up when suddenly he stopped and turned around. 'Text your friends tell them to come meet up here and we will bring you to the party' he spoke while looking back over his shoulder at me. 'Wait what.. now??' I exclaimed causing Junmyeon to smile and nod. 'Unless you want to wait?' His question made me shake my head before nodding and saying it was fine. Junmyeon pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head before walking towards the stairs, 'go get changed too' he called out before he was gone from my sight. I stood in the hallway as I grabbed my phone from my pocket and unlocked it. After doing so I went to the designated group chat and send a simple message to the girls: "AYY LET'S GET WASTED!" Within a matter of seconds I got my response from both of them proclaiming their happiness. I dropped my location to the girls and after they send their ok's, I put my phone back in my pocket and started walking towards the stairs. 'I assume this meeting has something to do with why you are smiling?' A voice asked from behind me, I quickly turned around to be met with Kris standing next to me. 'Why do you walk so silently? What it wrong with you?' I asked. 'It's my job' Kris shrugged as he walked down the stairs with me. 'But yes, the meeting has something to do with me' I grinned at him causing him to raise an eyebrow, 'why?'. 'You'll see' my words made him sigh before pulling his eyes back to the stairs in front of us. As he took a left to the meeting room I walked straight to my room, I assume Junmyeon didn't need me there right? I threw my phone on my bed before walking to the closet, now what would I wear?

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Black Eagles (Edelgard) Liveblogging

Chapters 15-16. The plot, among other things, explodes.

I was wondering where all the Eagles character paralogues were, and all of sudden come Chapter 15 three of them get dumped on you. Edelgard’s is a fight on the border against Nader and the Almyran remnant. Wyvern riders are unusually overpowered in this game, even as enemies. They’re not a unit type one expects to be so fast. Hubert goes back to the Sealed Forest to save Those Who Slither from their own failed creations. Both of these paralogues play up Hubert’s own talent for slithering in the dark: the first because it’s heavily implied that he poisoned Hilda’s brother so he’d have to rely on the Empire to push back the Almyrans, and the second because he’s been investigating Those Who Slither on the side all the while your army is being strong-armed into doing their bidding.

Petra and Bernadetta’s paralogue meanwhile has been the first map on this route that I haven’t seen before, a heavily forested section of Brigid. Bernadetta’s role there is almost completely random, but it comes together in the end in a way that feels satisfying. The chapter itself on the other hand features a cheap fakeout win condition, thankfully avoidable via Divine Pulse, and another appearance by the OP Catherine.

Playable kills: Flayn and Seteth from the church, Felix and Ingrid from the Lions. Now that the Alliance portion of the story is done I notice that Raphael and Lorenz skipped out on showing up this time, along with Marianne who doesn’t appear in the Lions’ Part 2 either. Actually, I’ve read that she’s the only playable character who doesn’t appear in Part 2 at all unless she’s in your army, with the implication that her depression and/or the dark story surrounding her Crest killed her or drove her to suicide in the timeskip. That’s...something.

I’ve also read that if you don’t recruit Shamir and Alois they show up in Chapter 15 to be killed...and that Manuela and Hanneman only do so on the Lions route in Dimitri’s paralogue for some reason. Weird.

I can confirm that the dark merchant does not sell Dark Seals. He’s only available in the second to last exploration month of Edelgard’s route, so you can’t get much use out of him anyway. Sucks for Hubert, but if I’m understanding correctly how you can buy classes with Renown the next time I use him I can just certify him for dark mage that way and get one seal for dark bishop. 

The brevity of this route sticks out more and more the closer I get to the end. Not so much for the story which is moving along at a brisk pace to match Edelgard’s resolve and concrete goal in contrast to Dimitri throwing everyone off with his unresolved personal issues, but for the gameplay. A bunch of my units aren’t going to make it master classes at this rate, and I’m tempted to not even touch Edelgard’s emperor class when it randomly becomes available after Chapter 15 (seriously, her armor just arrives from the capital? Are we timing lord promotions by the speed of parcel delivery now?) because there’s no timing and making her armored is kind of awful.

Story/Character observations

Chapter 15 opens with a bizarre interlude of Byleth coming upon Edelgard in her room at night, and an attempt at humanizing her by...telling us that she draws pictures of Byleth. That’s not even organic Avatar worship, come on. From what I remember her A support is more of the same, so I’m not holding out much hope for her big bi S rank.

Thankfully her two dorky subordinates salvage the character-based charm of this route. Ferdinand pokes a hole in the fourth wall and asks Byleth if they’ve thought about a world in which they chose another house or chose to side with the church, and while I can see the similarities with Conquest constantly dumping on Corrin’s choice this incident is isolated enough that I’m not feeling condescended to. Ferdinand’s A support with Byleth reveals that the first king of Faerghus - you know, the one with the very close *nudge nudge wink wink* friend akin to Felix - had a second very close friend who was just as indispensible but didn’t desire notoriety and so didn’t make it into many history books. Ferdinand compares this to what both he and Byleth are to Edelgard (I imagine this support is phrased very differently if gotten on any other route), but my mind went right to Kris, the shadow Avatar at Marth’s side who got left out of the original game historical accounts. While I believe that Byleth’s ending on Edelgard’s route actually is fairly out of the public eye, in other routes they’re either the archbishop or the ruler of the united continent. Byleth is very much not that type of Avatar who can just disappear at the end because how else could they sleep with the whole cast?

I can’t forget about Hubert either. Apparently he’s the one who gives Those Who Slither their infamously unwieldy name - thanks a lot, Hubie - during his investigations on how to out-evil them. When he’s not doing that he’s engaging in absurdly cute support conversations with Ferdinand where they’re both blushing and exchanging gifts with romantic music in the background. I also noted that they’re one of the couples who get special meal dialogue that evolves along with their supports. See, this is what I mean when I say that M/M and F/F subtext are on completely different playing fields. Dorothea will just come out and ask Manuela if they can live together and forget about finding men, or give Ingrid a ring and joke about owning her, etc. For the guys it’s watching them sputteringly make friendly gestures toward one another while blushing, or make promises to die together, or insist on the other using their given name (but in private!) to indicate that there’s going to be dick touching.

Nader dies during Edelgard’s paralogue. In combination with Judith’s death in Chapter 13 I think this is meant to indicate that this is the one non-Deer route that does not feature a large Almyran invasion after the credits roll. Even if you choose not to kill Claude as I did, without any of his close allies (who are also his parents, in the case of those two?) the implication is that he won’t have the strength to pursue his own dreams of continental conquest. Good on him to outright admit that he has them to Edelgard, though.

Speaking of the game admitting things that otherwise only go implied, let’s talk about those explosions. The Black Eagle Strike Force feints toward Fhirdiad but moves instead to conquer Arianrhod, with Edelgard and Hubert’s target being specifically Cornelia. Cornelia in this route hasn’t betrayed Faerghus to the Empire yet, but according to Arundel she was planning to as a member of Those Who Slither despite lacking their characteristic pallor. Arundel responds by using “pillars of light” - more likely those anachronistic ballistic missiles seen in a church route cutscene - to blast the fortress into oblivion and kill a bunch of people inside.I’m ignoring how petty it seems of Arundel/Thales to nuke a valuable military installation just to get revenge on Edelgard for killing a minion who was going to help Edelgard do what she’s about to do in the last two chapters anyway. No, what fascinates me about this situation is how Edelgard and Hubert immediately spin this for the rest of their army, saying it was Rhea’s doing and using it to motivate the Strike Force to conquer Fhirdiad as quickly as possible. Ever since I got her C support I’ve been curious as to why Edelgard harbors so much personal hatred for the church when Those Who Slither were the ones responsible for torturing her and her siblings for Crest research. Here she’s deliberately making that misdirection, which....doesn’t answer my question at all but does at least demonstrate that the writers are aware of it. How it will all play out, or if this is something that only makes sense when considering information learned from the church and/or Deer routes is yet to be determined.

Looking at this from the perspective of the Strike Force though I can see why they’d need some additional pushing to get invested in how evil Rhea is. She’s done very little so far to follow up on her creepy authoritarian vibes from Part 1, and the scene of her grieving Seteth and Flayn’s deaths only makes her regain some sympathy because of how personally she takes their loss. They have to be saving it all up for the finale. There will have to something to the antagonists we’re about to fight, because so far DImitri in this route has been even more of a non-entity. Of course I know that Chapter 17 brings not one but two flavors of gay tragedy, but in-universe I doubt anyone on the Strike force is squeeing over the Tempest King and his very devoted vassal.

[not-a-space-alien]

Into the Unknown, Part 3:  Search Party

Prologue | Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2

Series masterpost

On AO3

Noah rubbed his temples.  On some days the crown felt heavier than others, and today was a heavy day.  He tented his hands, examining the human soul supplicating before him on the red carpet.  “Okay.  Go ahead, again.  You want to…?”

“Go up to Heaven.”

“You know as well as everyone in Hell that human souls are not allowed to leave Hell for any purpose.”

The dead human’s lip quavered, and he didn’t meet the king’s eyes.  “I know, my lord, but I was hoping you could make an exception.  You see, my…my wife died recently, and—”

“Have you filed a report with the Infernal Office of Family Location? It’s on the second layer.”

“Yes, Lord.  They informed me she was not down here.  I really need to see her.  I need to apologise…”

The dead human absolutely refused to leave until he was physically dragged out by one of the attendants.  Noah removed himself from the throne to confer with the court.

“I understand I said we needed to hear grievances,” he said in a low voice to Dagon, “but we can’t keep doing this with dead humans.  They all want the same thing, regardless of how much we’ve improved Hell.”

Dagon’s throat pouch expanded and contracted with an amphibian breath. “You know better than all of us humans are fickle creatures.  They get restless, sire, even in the absence of torture.”

From Noah’s other side, Beelzebub buzzed, “It’z only natural for them to get rezztlezz in Hell.  You can provide them with comfort, but it’z ztill a dingy cave.  They are inclined to be unhappy with it, though perzonally I cannot fathom why.”

“Right, you’re right,” said Noah.  “All right.  Something’s got to change.  We already decided human souls can’t go back up to Earth because that would upset things up there; I’m not going to change that.  But is there any reason why we couldn’t let them go up to Heaven?”

Behind Noah, Jezebel began to flip through some sheets she had on a clipboard.  “The sheer amount of work it would take to organise screening every human and approving their transportation, not to mention transporting them through the ethereal plane on Earth to reach the celestial plane…”

Noah frowned.

“Perhaps we could arrange to have free movement between Heaven and Hell?” croaked Dagon.  “We would only need to establish a tunnel of some sort.”

“I hardly think the Metatron would be amenable to zuch a zuggestion,” Beelzebub said.

Dagon’s eyes retracted back into his head and re-emerged with a blink. “The Metatron seems to take little interest in what is and isn’t allowed nowadays.  Victoria and Raphael seem to be more interested in such matters in the current standing, though it’s hardly proper.”

“Doesn’t have to be proper,” said Noah.  “Nothing we really do is proper.  My concern is that we have such a mixture down here in Hell.  We would want to allow humans such as our guest today, who was only here for adultery, to go apologise to his wife.  But we also have serial killers and rapists and things down here.  We shouldn’t treat them all the same.”

“Perhaps we could arrange them based on crime, and have certain restrictions for each group,” suggested Jezebel.

Noah massaged his temples again.  “Bloody Hell, that’s what the nine layers were for…We need to think of a way to do this without just making Hell exactly like it used to be.”

Jezebel, Dagon, and Beelzebub looked at each other among wringing hands, flipping paperwork, and lost mumbles of half-formed ideas.  Their new master was much kinder than their old, but he was hard to please in entirely new and different ways, and sometimes demanded creativity in their thinking they simply did not possess.  

“With all due respect, sire,” said Dagon, “Without the inherent cruelty this place used to have, under your rule Hell would never go back to the way it used to be.”

Noah smiled.  “You have no idea how reassuring that is.”  He sighed again.  “But I don’t know if anyone kept track of why everyone was down here, anyway…And some of them have been here so long they hardly remember what they were like when they were alive.  They might not even remember…  We need to have another meeting with the full court to discuss this.”

Dagon and Beelzebub looked at each other crestfallen.  Jezebel voiced their thoughts:  “Even Aziraphale and Crowley?”

“Yes, even Aziraphale and Crowley,” said Noah.  Aziraphale and Crowley were technically members of the advisory court, but they were in positions Noah had only been able to convince them to accept by promising their responsibilities would be absolutely minimal to the point of non-existence.  “I know getting them down here for anything other than a party is always an ordeal, but we need their expertise.”

Jezebel looked disheartened.  “I’ll start sending out the letters.  It always takes at least three before they start responding.”

“Send one to Beth first,” said Noah.  “She’ll make sure Maltha sees it, and Maltha will pressure Crowley to check his infernal mail for once.”

Jezebel bowed her head.  “Yes, sire.”

Noah sighed.  Things down in Hell would be a lot easier if the crew that stayed topside on Earth were here to help him run things on a regular basis, but it wouldn’t be right to expect that of them.  So he was stuck with the ones who wanted to hang out in Hell, which required…a certain personality.

….Still, the topside crew could be a little more cooperative about helping out when called upon.

Noah slouched in the throne, running his ring-laden hands up his face.  Full court sessions were a nightmare to coordinate. It was like wrangling cats.  No one behaved unless it was an emergency. But they were the only way things actually got done around here.

Noah was so deep in thought he didn’t even notice an imp scuttling up to the throne until he was bending down to whisper in the King’s ear.

Noah’s frown deepened upon hearing the message.  “I thought we were done with open invites.”

“You are, Lord, but Mammon insists this one was urgent.”

“All, right, then, bring them in.”

Noah sighed and arranged his crown and lordly regalements so he would look proper, and waited to see who could have convinced Mammon they were important enough to rearrange the king’s schedule.

The doors at the far end of the audience chamber boomed open, and a small demon sprinted in at top speed, looking absolutely panicked.  Noah stood in alarm.

Crowley skidded to a stop just in front of the throne, hands on his knees, panting.  Then, he seemed to catch himself and knelt briefly, then stood back up and looked Noah in the eyes.  “We have a problem.”

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

The first thing Gabriel did upon finding himself inexplicably blessed once again with life and sentience was go to his office.  It was in complete disarray, exactly as he suspected it would be. It looked like nobody had been here in years.  A layer of dust had accumulated over all his important documents.

Muttering with disgust, he set about organising the contents of his desk, shaking out the occasional folder that was too heavily laden with dust to continue.  He found his list of targets he had been in the process of telling Kris to execute when the fighting had broken out.  That was the last thing he remembered.

Who knew how long ago that had been.  Upon taking back his position, Gabriel would first have to order an investigation into how exactly he was here.

Not that he was complaining.  But it might be prudent to make sure it, whatever it was, was permanent, lest he suddenly keel over when it wore off.  The Antichrist was the only one he could think of who might do something like this; Death very rarely made exceptions, and almost never for anyone other than humans.  But he found it hard to believe any antichrist would want him alive.

“Sir?”

He looked up to see Kris standing in the doorway, hand on his sword, looking just as confused as Gabriel felt.

“Good to see you,” said Gabriel.  “Do you know how you’re here?  You were dead, right?”

Kris gave a vague shrug.

“That’s what I thought,” said Gabriel.  “We’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough.  Where is the Metatron?”

“I don’t know, sir, I tried to find you first thing.”

“Good work.  We’ll find them…just as soon as I finish putting this in order.”

Kris sat in the chair opposite Gabriel’s desk for a solid half an hour, waiting patiently while the archangel fussed about everything within reach, organising it until it met whatever invisible rules of satisfaction he kept in his head.  “All right. You stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Metatron would be in the inner sanctum of Heaven, Gabriel knew.  You could build a house on the foundation that Uriel and Metatron both refused to leave the innermost layers of Heaven unless necessary.  Not even the sudden absence of God could change that.

He checked the Judgement Hall first—that’s where Uriel usually was, since that’s where the Book of Life was kept.  But it was empty.  Even the Book itself was gone, which was alarming.

He backtracked and made his way into the Hall of the Throne.

The antechamber also empty, but it looked like it had been torn apart in a great fight and never put back together.  Dust faintly layered broken decorations littering the floor, and the red carpet leading to the door was torn up.  Huge claw marks now adorned the walls.  Gabriel shuddered, having a very good guess at exactly what creature had left them.  The claws were the same ones that had torn him limb from limb on the steps of Heaven’s clerical division.

Gabriel tread carefully through the antechamber, approaching the Throne Room. It was open, revealing the Throne was painfully, obviously empty, and Gabriel’s heart sank.  The other archangels hadn’t been able to keep the secret about God’s absence while he was away?

Well, given the raiding party he had seen just before his death—it looked like they had made it much further than he expected—who knows what could have happened.

Gabriel heard a voice faintly echoing out from the Throne room and drew closer.

“I’ll throw you into the Pit, Metatron,” chimed the voice, and Gabriel recognised it as the voice of the Metatron itself.  “You’d better obey!  Are you sitting?  Sitting?  More hot irons!  This is better than Hell somehow, remember that!”

Gabriel peeked his head into the room and saw the Metatron sitting on the Throne, barely taking up even a portion of its huge, empty surface.  They were gesturing and shouting grandly, as though mimicking the Almighty.  

“Metatron,” said Gabriel.

Metatron was so startled that they slipped and fell off the Throne, tumbling to land gracelessly at the foot.  “Wh—Gabriel?!”

“Yes,” said Gabriel.  “I’m back. Somehow.”

Metatron dusted themselves off and peered at Gabriel disapprovingly. “Hmmmm.”

“Do you know how this is possible?”

“No, but I don’t like it one bit.  Is this what a nightmare is?”

Gabriel laughed.  Metatron smacked Gabriel with as much strength as they could muster, which was not a lot, really.

Gabriel took a step back.  “Get out of here!” said Metatron.  “I can’t stand your face!”

“What has gotten into you?” said Gabriel.  “What were you doing in here, on the Throne?  He may be gone, but that does not mean we can desecrate His holy—”

Gabriel broke off under a fresh assault of mildly threatening slaps from Metatron.  “We can do whatever we please, thank you very much!  We’ve been doing just fine without you around to boss everyone about!”

Gabriel tried to either extract information from, or talk some sense into the Metatron, but neither venture was successful.  He eventually settled on the idea of fleeing Metatron before they remembered how to actually inflict injuries, and finding Uriel instead.  Surely she would take his side in all this.

He investigated Heaven like a bloodhound and found that everything was in total disarray.  The human souls were wandering freely wherever they pleased.   Hardly any angels were around.  Those who recognised him were not happy to see him.

The most egregious breach of protocol was when he found a demon in one of the choir rooms, strumming a harp.  Gabriel managed to discorporate it, but it was able to get away before he could fully smite it.  The angel accompanying it seemed extremely distressed by this, but Gabriel wrung her out for allowing such a creature into the Heavenly Kingdom.  He got quite a lot of back-talk, which was absolutely unprecedented.*  He made note of the angel’s name and resolved to discipline her properly later, once order was restored again.

*Except for Aziraphale, but he didn’t count.

And he eventually discovered a surprising fact: Uriel was not in Heaven.  It seemed unlikely, but Gabriel could not avoid the conclusion for much longer.

Well, no matter.  After six-thousand years, the archangels had ways of finding each other, even in a place as big as Earth.  He was going to get to the bottom of this.

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

“I wish we had gone with a search party instead.”

Maltha stopped scanning the horizon of St. James’ to look at Beth. “Hm?”

Beth kicked a pillar of the pavilion.  “This sucks.  I’m so worried about Aziraphale.  Anything could have happened to him.”

“We needn’t panic yet,�� said Maltha.  She counted on her fingers.  “There’s only two resurrections we know about, Hastur and Kabata.  We don’t know that there are more.”

“There could be more.”

Maltha privately thought there probably were more, but she was trying her hand at being optimistic and was unfortunately finding herself not very good at it.  “With so many people looking, I’m sure we’ll find Aziraphale in no time.”

A figure with black wings rapidly increased in size in the sky. Victoria, and she had donned her armor. She folded her wings and trotted back towards Maltha, standing on a bench near where the party had been set up, the catering and decorations abandoned.

“Any word?” said Maltha.

“We’ve just finished a cursory sweep of London,” Victoria reported.  “No sign of him.  Crowley’s gone down to Hell to ask Noah for help.  The field agents are going to do a more thorough search of Great Britain, starting with the shop and working outwards.  He couldn’t have gotten too far.”

Beth wrung her hands.  “And can we—”

“I still think it’s best you and Maltha stay here in case Aziraphale shows up again.  Botis and Kyleth are at the shop.  We don’t know what’s happening, and with Mykas on his way down to Hell, it’s a good idea to keep an archdemon in London in case we need to deal with someone.”

Maltha lowered herself onto the bench, sitting on her hands.  “Right…”

“You really should get a cell phone,” said Beth.  “Angelo has one.”

Victoria gave her a dirty look.  “Sending a letter is perfectly fine and timely.”

“Sorry.”

“I’ll be in contact,” said Victoria, spreading her wings and taking off.

Maltha watched the archangel disappear into the city.  Beth sprawled out on the bench next to her.  “I feel so useless.”

Maltha was quiet.

“Everything okay?  You seem weird.”

“I haven’t fought in a long time,” said Maltha.  “It’s been years.”

“You afraid you forgot how?”

Maltha twiddled her thumbs.  “No. I’m just not very happy about the prospect of having to again.”

Beth squinted at another approaching figure beating its wings in the sky to approach.  “Better get ready, though.  Who’s that?”

“Seems to be an archangel,” said Maltha.  She stood and materialised her staff, giving it a few swings to loosen up.

Beth got her cell phone out in case she needed to call someone.

“Oh, it’s just Uriel,” said Maltha.

Uriel touched down and walked up the park trail.  She came over and sat down on the bench next to Beth without a word, shuffling her shoulder bag onto her lap.

“Any news?” said Beth.

Uriel’s hands disappeared into her bag and reappeared with her knitting needles a moment later.  “I heard something happened, so I wanted to come help.”

“Ah,” said Beth.  “I’m not really sure how you can help.  Maybe we should call Angelo?  He’s good at that kind of stuff.”

Maltha didn’t respond, doing some practice staff work in the air.

“You’re very good,” said Uriel, who had no idea how to use a staff and, consequently, to whom all staff work looked good.

“Thanks,” said Maltha.

“I’ll just stay here and help you with whatever you’re doing to help, Maltha,” said Uriel.  “What job did they assign you?”

“We’re supposed to wait in London in case we’re needed.  Everyone else is looking for Aziraphale.”

“Oh.”  Uriel arranged her knitting on her lap.  “I’ll help you wait, then.”  She propped open a book on how to knit against Beth’s thigh.

Beth sighed and put her phone away.  “What are you making now?”

“Another hat.”

“Oh.  How did the last turn out?”

“Not very good.”

“This one looks better, though.”

“Not really.”

“…Yeah.”  She leaned over to study the way Uriel’s fingers moved against the needles and cloth. “It seems like you’re getting a little better at the techniques, though.”

Uriel’s hands continued to work, and her tone was absolutely matter-of-fact. “I’m no better than I was when I started.”

Beth squinted at the knitting book, trying to superimpose the illustrations in the book over Uriel’s tools, determined to help somehow.  “It looks like you need to loop the left hook around the right one, here, like this.”

“That’s what I’m doing now.”

“Oh.”

Whoosh whoosh whoosh went Maltha’s staff.

“You’ll get better at it eventually, I’m sure.  You have all the time in the world.”

“I gave Crowley that last hat I made.”

“Yeah? What did he say?”

“He pretended to like it, which is more than I expected.  I hope I put him more at-ease.”

“I’m sure you did,” said Beth, patting Uriel’s hand.

Maltha’s hands froze mid-air.  Her eyes rolled up to look at the sky, where the Heavens had parted, indicating an arrival from the celestial sphere.

“Hmm,” said Maltha distastefully.

The archangel Gabriel fluttered down, landing on the pavilion and dislodging a few roof tiles.  The warrior angel Kris followed, drawing his sword.

Maltha pivoted to face them without changing her stance.

“Erm,” said Beth.  “Weren’t you dead?”  She turned to Maltha.  “That one was dead, right?”

“Uriel,” said Gabriel, beckoning with his hand.  “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Uriel furrowed her brow.  She did not even look up at Gabriel, still focussed on her knitting.  “Where are we going?”

Gabriel stared at her for a moment.  Maltha raised her staff up at him and shook it in a mildly threatening way.

“What are you doing?” said Gabriel.

“I’m knitting,” said Uriel.

Now Gabriel looked befuddled.  He spread his wings and leapt down, drifting to a stop in front of the bench where Uriel sat.  Kris followed, taking on a fighting stance and trying to menace Maltha, who turned to face him.

“Don’t think you can beat me,” said Maltha in a warning tone.

“Three against one?” said  Gabriel. “You’re fierce, Maltha, but I doubt you want to face down me, Uriel, and Kris just for the sake of keeping Uriel prisoner.”

Maltha’s gaze shifted from Kris to Gabriel then to Uriel.

“Now hold on a minute,” snapped Beth.  “Uriel’s not on your side.”

Gabriel scoffed at her.  “Humans. Uriel, come on, let’s get out of here while we can.”

Uriel finally stopped her knitting and looked at him.  “And go where?”

“Away from this archdemon.”

Maltha’s grip tightened on her staff.

“Where is it that’s so important to go right now, though?”

“What’s gotten into you?” said Gabriel.  “They’re holding you prisoner, aren’t they?  You want to go back to Heaven, don’t you?”

Uriel didn’t answer.

Gabriel leaned over Uriel, who shrunk back into the bench, and examined her needlework without comment.  Uriel met his eyes, as though waiting for him to say something.

“They’re making you…sew garments?” said Gabriel, sounding completely lost.  “The Queen of Hell takes the Keeper of the Divine Aura hostage and she makes her do manual labor?”

Uriel looked down at her lap, as though Gabriel’s comment completely upended her worldview.

“She’s been free to leave whenever she wants,” said Beth, sounding like she wanted to throw a fit.  “You absolute asshole.  Leave us alone.”

“Where’s the Book of Life?” Gabriel demanded.  “What’s going on?  How long was I away?”

“I hid the Book of Life,” said Uriel.  “I didn’t want anyone to mess with it while I wasn’t around.  It’s safe.”

Gabriel’s eyes swept her up and down like a hawk.  “And you moved the most holy relic and abandoned your post why?  To come down here and—?”

Uriel’s needles clacked against each other.  “I could make you a hat, if you want one, Gabriel.”

Gabriel swiped his hand and knocked Uriel’s work out of her hands, spilling the yarn on the ground.  “Stop that,” he shouted.  “It’s unbecoming of the most holy servant of God!”

Uriel looked down at her yarn in the dirt, then back up to Gabriel.

“You’ll come back up to Heaven with me, and we’ll have a little talk about what exactly is going on,” said Gabriel.  “Kris, hold this archdemon off and meet us in Heaven later.”

With one fluid motion, Maltha pushed Beth back, knocking her flat on her arse, and simultaneously brought her staff up to block Kris’s sword.

“I really would prefer not to kill you,” said Maltha sourly.  “Come on now, we can have a nice chat instead.”

Gabriel looked at Uriel, as though expecting outrage and support that failed to materialise.  Uriel busily retrieved her things from the ground, her knees in the dirt.

Gabriel reached down and roughly hauled Uriel to her feet.  “Are you seeing this?  Let’s go!”

Maltha watched this out of the corner of her eye, worrying, and hissed when Kris landed a blow on her left shoulder, slicing it open.  “Fine, then.”

“I’m very busy, Gabriel,” said Uriel.  “Please leave me alone.”

“Who do you think you are,” Maltha snarled.  “We brought the Heavenly Kingdom to its knees, and you think you can just walk in here and win with only a power to help you?”

Kris scowled at her.

“Your name was Kris, wasn’t it?”

Their weapons clashed.  “Yes.”

“Dead then, weren’t you?”

“Seems I was brought back for the purpose of engaging you in co—”

“It was decapitation last time, wasn’t it?”

Maltha lobbed her staff like a baseball bat and knocked Kris’s head clean off his body.

For the first time in the encounter, Gabriel’s anger melted to fear.  He pulled Uriel by the arm away from Maltha.

“Let go of me,” Uriel said, digging her heels in.

Gabriel turned back, as though he hadn’t expected resistance, panicked eyes going from Uriel to Maltha and back again.  “Let’s go!”

“I’m busy!”

“Busy with what?”

“Knitting!”

“Forget the bloody yarn!”

Uriel’s face finally snapped into that expression of rage every angel in Creation had learned to fear.  “I chose this, Gabriel.  I may not be good at it, but I chose it, and you won’t take that away from me.”

“They’ve done something to you,” said Gabriel.  “We’ll find out exactly what once we get out of here.  Let’s go.”

“I said let go of me!” Uriel shrieked, finally breaking Gabriel’s grasp and shoving him backwards.  “You have the audacity to try and tell me what to do after I’ve finally decided for myself?”

Gabriel stumbled backwards, fear evident on his face as Uriel’s wings flared out in a display usually only reserved for demons incurring her wrath.

“You try to take my free will away just as I’ve finally learned to make use of it?”

Gabriel held his hands out, and his mouth tried to form words, but nothing came out.

“Things have changed, Gabriel, and you’ll not put them back to the way they were.  Get out of my sight.”

Gabriel did not move.

“Fine, then.”

Uriel lifted her hands and swiped them outwards over Gabriel’s body. Gabriel gasped as his wings ripped out of his back, seemingly without his consent.

Uriel clenched her fists, and Gabriel’s wings went stiff.  His eyes widened.

“U-Uriel, wait,” said Beth, while Maltha said, “You’re not going to—”

Uriel jerked her hands outwards in a ripping motion, and simultaneously Gabriel’s wings severed from his body, spraying blood on the pavilion behind him. Gabriel let out a pained shriek as a huge chunk of his aura came off with the wings.

Gabriel’s sandy-brown wings were engulfed in holy fire by the time they hit the ground.  Uriel stood over them with her hands still out, reflection of the flames dancing wickedly in her eyes.

Gabriel turned and staggered away, tripping over himself, trailing red pools over the grass from the huge bloody streaks on his back.

The holy fire sizzled out, leaving two piles of ashes on the ground surrounded by blackened grass. Uriel lowered her hands and clasped them in front of her.  Maltha and Beth stood where they were, looking at her with newfound fear.

Uriel watched until Gabriel had disappeared further into the park, out of sight.  Then, she knelt, picked her yarn up off the ground and brushed the dirt off it.  She took her seat on the bench and resumed.  The needles clacking against each other was the only sound other than the sizzling of the feathers on the ground.

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

“There!  There, I saw him!”

The image in the scrying ball collapsed into static.  Crowley crowded up against it desperately.  “I saw him.”

Lyra roughly pulled him away from the table littered with magic tools. “Please give me room to work.”

Crowley kneaded at the tablecloth.  “Hurry, I saw him.”

“Lyra is working as fast as she can,” said Noah magnanimously.  “Be patient.”

Crowley rubbed his hands together and paced.

“He is somewhere in the fourth layer of Hell,” said Lyra, rubbing her hands over the scrying ball.  “But there is something very powerful blocking my magic and making it difficult to tell exactly where.”

“We’ve received word that Mykas and Angelo are coming down,” said Noah. “With Mykas’s nose, we should be able to sniff Aziraphale out right quick.  Hm?”

He hmed as he was handed a letter by an imp.  He ripped it open and scanned it.

“Ah,” said King Noah.  “It appears as though Gabriel and Kris are both back as well.”

Crowley went absolutely ballistic.  “Does Gabriel have Aziraphale?  Did Gabriel come down to Hell?  Is Gabriel working with Kabata?”

Noah put up a hand.  “Crowley. Calm yourself.  I’m sorry, but I have no idea as of yet.  I didn’t bring Duke Hastur or Kabata back to life, and I certainly didn’t bring Gabriel back to life.  We’ll find out soon, though, one way or the other.”

Crowley turned back to Lyra, who had covered the table where she was working in incense smoke, which wafted in a ghostly way around her hands.  “If Gabriel is loose, we have to find Aziraphale right away.”

“Don’t worry about Gabriel, if the contents of Maltha’s letter are anything to judge by.”

Crowley shifted from foot to foot, antsy.  “I saw him.  You’re close.”

“Do you have any more of Aziraphale’s feathers?” said Lyra.  “That would help me increase the power of the spell.”

Crowley and Aziraphale had a big jar of each other’s feathers at home; they had arranged this a while back as gifts to each other.  Crowley snapped his fingers to summon Aziraphale’s to himself, then handed it to her.  She dumped about three-quarters of it into the cauldron in front of her, stirring it with one hand and waving the other over the scrying ball.

The crystal ball cracked, belching black smoke, and the image therein disappeared.

“Damn it!” Crowley shouted.

Lyra steadied herself with one hand on either end of the table.

“What’s the verdict, Lyra?” said Noah.

“He is somewhere in the fourth layer,” she reported.  “That is all the information I can gather through the interference.”

“Then we’ll send out search parties to sweep the fourth layer,” said Noah.

The words had hardly left his mouth before Crowley dashed from the room.

“Crowley, wait here until Mykas arrives!” Noah called.

But Crowley did not listen.  He had no gods or masters any longer, and he did what he wanted without thought now.

Mammon, lounging in the antechamber of the ninth layer, gave a piggish low and trundled to follow him up and out.

“We should wait and go as a group,” said Mammon.

“We have no time to lose,” said Crowley, clambering out into the eighth layer.

A group of familiar demons which had been lounging around recognised his eagerness and followed him up to the fourth layer.

Crowley led the pack, his gaggle of followers fanning out behind him, half trying to convince him to wait, half poking in cracks and crevices to look for Aziraphale themselves.

Crowley kept the ring-box in his pocket, caressing it worriedly.  In the span of a few minutes it had turned from a gift into a desperate good luck charm.  He white-knuckled it like a rosary and scoured the fourth layer, straining his senses to the max for any sign of that familiar aura.

Crowley proceeded with the greatest speed and enthusiasm out of anyone in the group.  It was no great surprise, then, that Crowley was the first one to find Aziraphale. Crowley sprinted towards the source of aura, faint but distinct, but stopped when he heard voices, indistinct. They sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place them.

They seemed to be coming from behind a rocky outcropping near the entrance to the fourth layer, and they grew louder as he approached.

“I do not know, my Lord, though it goes without saying I am…overjoyed at seeing you again.  I had intended on bringing this angel down to the ninth layer…”

He crouched onto all fours and crept forward.  

“Of course,” said the second voice.  “I would expect no less from you.  Good work.  This pathetic creature was the one responsible....Well, we’ll make an example out of him, won’t we?”

Primal fear prickled his neck as Crowley finally recognised the second voice. It was the voice of his long-dead tormenter.

Crowley managed to override his instincts to bolt, instead peeking around the rock.

Satan was there, looking just as he had on that fateful day he had tortured Crowley and met his end for it, down to the bloodied tools hanging off his belt. He was facing the rock where Crowley was; in front of him, facing away from Crowley, was a woman with green hair, and he finally recognised her too: Agares, the archdemon who most fiercely contended for Satan’s throne before Maltha swooped in and stole it.  In her right hand was an orb covered with pulsing sigils and emanating magic static; that would have been the device trying to mask their location.  That made sense in a way—Agares had been the one to uncover the angel dust spell; she had always been a bit more into spellwork than Satan.

And Aziraphale was there, all right.  He was facedown on the ground in between them, alive but looking quite worse for the wear.

Electric fear surged through Crowley.  Even all these years later, he still remembered in vivid detail what Satan had done to him, and to everyone he got his sadistic hands on.  The smart thing to do would be to go back and get help. But he bent with revulsion at the thought of leaving Aziraphale, his angel, his angel, in the clutches of Satan to be subjected to the same torment he had been through for even a single minute.  

But help was so close by.  There had been about a dozen demons tailing him.  Mykas was coming down.  Mammon wasn’t far behind.  Surely, surely if he left for just a moment…

Aziraphale, face bloodied, slowly raised his head and met Crowley’s eyes. His face mirrored a desperation he had never seen on Aziraphale before.

He couldn’t.  He couldn’t leave and risk coming back to find them gone.  Crowley hadn’t felt fear like this in decades.  The world was supposed to be gentler now.

Well, he’d be twice-damned if he let it go back to the way it had been before.

Crowley darted out from behind the rock, hoping to slither as quietly as he could.  But of course Satan saw him; Crowley was directly in his line of sight.  Satan’s eyes swiveled to follow him, and Agares, sensing his shift in attention, pivoted and also locked onto Crowley.

“What’s this?” said Satan, almost genially.

Aziraphale reached a hand up as Crowley drew near; Crowley took it and hefted Aziraphale up.

Satan circled around like a shark.  “You were the one I was torturing right before I died.  That was the last thing I remember.”

Crowley, trembling, started to drag Aziraphale away.  

“You sure have grown bold,” said Satan.  “How long was I away?”

Agares stepped in front of Crowley to block his path.  “I’ll take care of this, lord.”  She hooked the magical orb onto her belt and cracked her knuckles, sneering at them.  “This should be fun.”

Satan held out a hand.  “No, no, allow me.”

Crowley’s shaking redoubled as Satan drew near, towering over him.  Memories of the last time they had seen each other grew in Crowley’s mind, overwhelming his thoughts like static.

“Kneel,” said Satan.  His hand sprouted a set of wicked, dragon-like talons as he spoke.

Crowley slowly lowered Aziraphale to the ground, hunching over him protectively.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten exactly who your master is,” said Satan.

“I have no master,” said Crowley.

Satan’s eyes flared on him.  “Is that so?”

Crowley stood back up, knees weak, and materialised his healing staff.  Both Satan and Agares let out hearty laughs.

“You think you’re like Maltha?” said Agares.  “You’re pathetic.  You intend to face us down yourself?”

Satan locked eyes with Crowley and leaned in.  Crowley felt that force demanding obedience down to his very bones, burning into him with that gaze, the same gaze that had the power to command the very sun itself to rise.

Crowley’s legs buckled out from under him.  He went down, but he did not look away.  He held his staff out to shield Aziraphale.

“No one else will save you,” said Satan.  “The only one who cares about you is right here with you.”

Crowley glanced down at Aziraphale, then back up at Satan.  That taunt, which at one point would have been so successful in utterly breaking him, snapped Crowley back into reality. And he smiled.

“That’s what you think.”

And he took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs.  “Over here! I found him!”

Satan and Agares looked a little shocked and glanced at each other.

“Who do you think will come help you?” said Satan.  “You’re nobody.”

All the same, he waved Agares to go stand by the rocks from which Crowley had appeared.

Sweating, Crowley forced himself to his feet.  His hands shook on his staff, but he managed to keep the tremble out of his voice.  “Things have changed a lot since you’ve been gone.”

“Lord, I think someone’s coming,” said Agares, sounding a little alarmed.

Crowley smiled.  “And you’re in for a nasty shock if you think you can force it back to the way it was.”

Satan reached a hand out to grab Crowley, but Crowley forced his aura outwards, using his staff as a conduit, and struck like a scorpion.

Satan hissed in pain and drew his arm back, clutching it, looking outraged.

Agares assumed a fighting stance and materialised a sword.  “Lord!” she said, sounding on the verge of panic. When Crowley heard the clacking of clawed feet on stone, he understood why.

Mykas came barreling around the corner, snarling and growling.  Agares immediately realised she was massively outclassed, but not with enough reaction time to get out of the way.

“Is that—?” Satan gasped.  “No, it can’t be-”

Agares had been torn up and knocked to the floor in a matter of moments. Mykas raised his head to lock eyes with Satan, blood-soaked muzzle crunched in a snarl, still crushing Agares’s windpipe.

“Michael?” said Satan.

“Run,” Crowley whispered.  He didn’t know why he did so.  It probably wasn’t out of genuine compassion.

Satan stepped back from Mykas, then whirled around and fled.

That was why, Crowley decided.  He’d wanted to see Satan run from someone for a change.

Mykas bounded forward to give chase, but then he caught sight of Aziraphale lying injured on the ground and veered towards him instead.  “Are you both okay?”

“I’m all right,” said Aziraphale distantly into the dirt.

“You’re bloody not all right,” said Crowley, laughing tearfully.  “You look like shit.”

“Fortunately we have a healer close at hand, then,” said Mykas, prodding Crowley with his nose.

Crowley suddenly became aware of himself and turned Aziraphale over, resting his head on his lap.  He started pouring healing energy into the angel’s battered body.

“You bloody idiot,” said Crowley.

“You’re the one who sent me to the store to pick out wine for almost an hour,” said Aziraphale.

Neither of them said their words with any real malice.  They were both almost faint with relief.

Footsteps from behind the outcropping heralded the imminent arrival of the rest of the search party, and friendly faces poured in to crowd around them.

“Been a while since we’ve had to do this, hasn’t it, Crowley?” said Aziraphale, putting a hand on Crowley’s hand while it worked on Aziraphale’s injury.

“Yeah,” said Crowley.  The smile faded from his face.  “But it’s still too damn soon.”

But they were together, and they were safe.

[sugapop-rp]

*:･ﾟƜιѕнℓιѕтѕ Oƒ Ɯιѕнєѕ

              ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ hi, hi! tis bunny anna here and i thought i would decide to make a little wishlist for my muses! i figured this might be handy for in the future because who knows right? so read below to see what i have in mind for my muse beans and if you are interested, please like this post and/or send me a message so we can chit chat about them :) 

note:you do not have to be mutuals with me to do any of this (obviously lol), you can be a random peep passing by that is curious and that’s cool with me! you liking this means i shall be sending you a message instead thus make sure there is a way for me to do that (dm or ask). this will be also updated as time goes on depending on what new idea/muse i may have at the time

Choi Ha-joon, 26 and is an elementary school teacher

“muse a sings like an angel but is really shy so they only sing in the shower. everyday,muse b, who is their neighbor, listens to their singing and thinks muse a is actually a professional singer. one day they meet at the elevator of their building and muse b really wants to ask for muse a to sing a song for them, or just compliment them. but how will they do so without making things awkward? and to top this situation, muse a is also a lotattractive.“

give me that cliche old high school lovers see each other again after school by accident, the feels hit them once again and oof. make it angsty, make it fluffy, idc just give me some of that!

ha-joon is a book lover so what if ha-joon keeps coming to this book store that also involves your muse. they get to know each other for their enjoyment of books but the plot twist of this all is that ha-joon doens’t know your muse is not only an author but one of ha-joon’s favorite writers!

you left your USB flash drive in the library computer and i had to go through your files to figure out who you are and i ended up reading the entirety of this book you’re working on and wow you’re actually really good???? 

Kris Yamada, 26 and is an assassin

so lowkey when i made kris i got a bit inspired by the video game “assassin’s creed” so would be interested to do something loosely based around that. something like say your muse is working for the enemy organization that kris’s order doesn’t like. they meet and get closer (friendship or romantic, doesn’t matter) and go from there? very basic idea i know lol but can be fun i think!

give me assasin buddies, bro this is something that kris is in need of lol. sure he can be like a grouch sometimes but he knows how to have fun! he used to live the wild life so let’s do some wild friend antics lol

speaking of used too’s...why not bring something back from the past for kris?  say maybe an old friend from kirs’s childhood? they can maybe meet on the street one day and they may want to ask questions because of kris suddenly dropping all contact? or we could do the more cliche idea of said friend is now a target and oops, now kris is stuck in an oopsie :’)

Song "Hayes" Hyeok, 26 and is an indie music producer. 

hayes doesn’t have the best relationship with his parents (this can be read in his bio here) so maybe one day his parents may want to do a surprise visit because he does have good contact with his sister and she praised alot about him. his parents (specifically father) wants to see how “amazing hayes is doing”. cue hayes trying to make things not go south because his parents are not fans of the fact that hayes likes boys...so to see him having a boyfriend/fiance/husband may cause some problems to put it lightly. this could include hayes pretending not to be in a relationship with your muse or pretending they are just roommates. a bit of a heavy idea so far in this list, i know but it is something i would like to explore for hayes. 

rival music producers, just give me some of that drama lol

a mentor type friendship where hayes could take in your muse under his wing to help them out in the music scene

“🌟–– we had a really ugly break-up and didn’t talk for a long time but oh hey, you’re at this party too and we’ve had a few drinks and now we’re kissing and … oh, all that wasn’t supposed to happen tonight but we’re sort of on better terms now and yikes!!! i might be falling for you again …”

“muse a is in an accident which leaves them without memory, and muse b had been on their way to break things off with their beloved muse a. when they arrive at the hospital the only thing muse a remembers is how in love they were with muse b, and muse b is forced to keep coming back to positive. muse b is trying to move on, trying to find a way to tell muse b that they want to leave them, but find themselves falling back in love withmuse a. muse a of course, eventually get their memories back, even the ones up until the last moments before the accident where they remember the fights and tension and out of the silence ask ‘youre leaving me arent you?’ but by this time muse b is entirely in love with muse a again, and muse a just feels hurt and decieved“

Sarla Dunnavant, 26 and is a businesswomen (no longer active)

give me that cliche idea of the businesswomen falling for their secretary or something similar, i’m weak for cliche’s and this one would be just fun as fudgecakes lmao.

enemies to lovers;your muse is a rival to sarla’s company and they sort of can’t stand each other ??? but like ??? respect each other at the same time ??? it’s weird but they think they cannot stand each other but one day during some business event, they find out they actually like each other and can get along (can be romantic or platonic)

based of this iconic post

ok hear me out...a sugar baby plot? it doesn’t have to be a schmexy plot either! it can be something like out of kindness (and boredom becuase what else can she do with her money) she will give gifts to your muse. like you want that fancy make up collection? alright, your college? paid off at the moment as we speak. want a lifetime supply of donuts? she can do just that. all she asks is to spend time with her and just chill out. 

Angelica Heartorne, 25 and is a vampire huntress

legit anything vampire stuff related. i am not going to be flippen picky. 

just because she IS  a vampire huntress doesn’t mean it has to be ONLY to vampires. she is multiverse so she can be a hunter for anything supernatural really. this can be something discussed for sure but she is versatile, she doesn’t have to stick to only human like leeches lmao.

a bit of a weird but funny idea that jsut came to mind? but what happens if angelica was dating someone right? but what if that person she was dating...was a vampire and she had no idea about this until by accident or something? please this sounds hilarious to me and would love to rp this out.

“ muse a enters a coffee shop and was in such a rush that she forgot her wallet, as she explains what happened to the worker and ask for them to cancel her order, then suddenly there’s a hand that hoovers over her head and money is slapped on the counter incoming muse b paying for her. muse a is like wHAT THE FUCK ! I AM AN INDEPENDENT WOMEN I DONT NEED ANYONE TO PAY FOR ME, but she turns around and meets eyes with muse b who is beyond attractive. muse a then stumbles and ask how she could repay muse b and he tells her to sit down and enjoy her coffee with him “

“you said you’d call me in the morning but the voicemail you left had her voice in the background”

“ Humans start out at birth with milk white blood. The more crimes they commit, the darker their blood becomes. One day, you meet your soulmate. Skip a few years, and things are amazing… Until your soulmate trips, falls, and exposes black blood… “

based off this post

Jeong Jin-Gi, 25 and is an indie artist

“ Don’t give me one-sided unrequited love, give me two-sided unwanted love. Both sides are deeply in love with the other and both sides are like ‘fuck, really?? them??? really?’ “

“ ok so hear a sister out… i want an actual HEART WRENCHING  celebrity  &  non - celebrity thread. like muse a meeting muse b in the most random place and muse b KNOWS  muse a is famous but they’re not gonna say anything but on the inside they’re secretly freaking out. but they get to talking  &  muse b kinda forgets that they are because they’re just so normal and they have so much fun talking to them,  and muse ahas a rich lifestyle  &  is the most popular person in the world,  yet the only thing they wanna do is be with muse b. but dating the most famous person ever comes with the DISADVANTAGES.  i want the ugly stans drilling them over dating their favorite star,  i want the paparazzi making up stories about muse b  &  giving the constant break up  -  conspiracy’s,  i want the late night drama filled phone  -  calls about “ maybe this is just too much for me  “  &  muse b seeing muse a in a new picture released with ANOTHER  apparent love interest,  and i want new songs released by muse a that’s a little  T O O   emotional to just be a careless piece of work.  i just want the constant back  &  forth between them  & them wondering if their love is strong enough to overcome the difficulties or if all they are is a love that was never meant to last. “

jin ain’t no angel, he’s a bit of a person with an addiction to drgs so give me anything surrounding that. dealers or pals that find out about his addiction, anything really. just want to dive deeper into this side of jin

“i’m trying to start a celebrity gossip blog and you are an effing trainwreck so now i’m lowkey stalking you in hopes of getting a humiliating story” au

plot idea : muse a was a punk, and muse b did ballet. what more can i say? muse a wanted muse b, but muse b would never that secretly she wanted muse a as well. all of muse b’s friends stuck up their nose because they had a problem with muse a’s baggy clothes. five years from now, muse b sits at home. feeding the baby they’re all alone. b turns on tv, and guess who she sees? muse a rocking on mtv.

James Yeeun, 22 and is an art student in college

“im gonna claw myself apart. we watch netflix together and i keep a respectful and responsible distance; you lean against me to pause the screen. ask if i want cookies. i can’t stop staring at your lips. what? i say. i knew what you’d asked me even as you ask again, i just don’t want the moment to end. we’re just friends. we’re just friends.”

okay but how about an “i’m in my twenties and sick of still being a virgin, so one night when i’m drunk i think it’s a good idea to dm my old celebrity crush who is no longer really that famous anyway and ask them to take my virginity – wait why did they just dm me back?? giving me their number?? i don’t even remember doing this” au

“You kissed me on the playground the day before you moved away in the 4th grade and now your dorm is right across the hall from mine” AU

would love to do something where james could realize he DOES like boys as well. this is something he isn’t sure off himself so i would like to dive into this background of james.

so i was watching tiktoks last night and i’ve came across this story time and would love a plot for it… so muse a had a bad childhood for varies of reasons one thing lead to another and they were kicked out of the house, so they ended up couch surfing.. this enters their fear of the dark because they would wake up in the middle of the night not knowing where they are and everything is just dark and scary, so they begin sleeping with night lights or any sort of light that they have. well moving into college means roommates and muse a is too embarrassed to mention how they’re scared of the dark to their roommate. so first night, muse a wakes up screaming and enters muse b aka their roommate into their room and they’re like ?? are you good? finally muse a breaks and tells muse b what happened to them and then next night muse a finds a night light in their room, however, that night they still wake up screaming. muse b wakes up as well and just tell them that they’re ok and that they got them.. second year of college goes by and they’re not roommates anymore. first night moving in, it happens again.. muse a wakes up screaming only to find that muse b texted them that ‘they’re in their new apartment and that everything is going to be okay.’ it could turn into beautiful friendship or maybe something more?? i just want it pls

Rose Price, 23 and is a rebel along with school drop out

lowkey i legit got inspired by the video game character “chloe” from “life is strange” but i decided to do my take of chloe if that makes sense so...rachel amber inspired plot xD to those that are a bit confused, rachel amber the character is someone chloe befriends during her time when life is a bit downhill to put it lightly. they get close (some would say even romantic) and up until the final years of high school...rachel is gone. now in the games, rachel isn’t alive BUT i was thinking why not twist this around? make said missing friend (this would be your muse) show up out of the blue? with no answer as to why they just “left” and simply goes back to how things were. 

“gimme muse a just finished their sentence in jail and they lost contact with most of the people in their former life. on the day of his release, the gate pulls back and their high school sweetheart who they lost contact with years ago muse b is in the parking lot. “

  “i drove two hours to the closest video rental store that’s still operating and you were checking out the only copy of the movie i was after“

“we both decided to take a [yoga/fencing/cooking etc] class and we’re the only two assholes not taking it seriously and everyone else is giving us dirty looks but we keep grinning over at each other“

jsut give me any fxf plot ideas man. i want rose to get some love :(

Daehwi Goe, 24 and is an indie video game creator/works at a cafe

" give me a plot where both muses are each other’s pen pals that end up falling in love through letters please. threads would be in letter format up until they finally meet each other. please. “

“ imagine that you’ve been stood up by your douche of a boyfriend on date night and the waitress keeps asking if you’re ready to order but you keep asking for more time hoping that he’s just late. people are starting to look at you with those apologetic looks like they know and you start to feel worse and worse about the whole situation but as you decide to just get up and leave, this boy you’ve never seen sits down explaining loudly “sorry i’m so late, babe, traffic is crazy right now.” and he quietly adds, “i’m Michael. just go with it, yeah? whoever didn’t bother to show up is a dick.” and so you do go with it because he’s being sweet and trying to save you (and plus he’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen) and as you’re leaving the restaurant after the best non-planned date ever, he asks you out for real this time. “

“ AFTER MONTHS YEARS OF REPORTING TO A JOB THAT ABSOLUTELY KILLS MY SOUL, I FINALLY QUIT! WITH NO BACKUP PLAN OR WAY TO PAY MY BILLS ONCE NEXT MONTH IS OVER, I WALKED DANCED OUT OF MY WORKPLACE WITH THE BIGGEST SMILE ON MY FACE.. BUT NOW REALITY IS SINKING IN, THAT I’VE JUST DONE SOMETHING CRAZY IMPULSIVE AND OMG YOU’RE WATCHING ME SPIRAL OVER WHAT A MISTAKE I’VE JUST MADE AND YOU’RE SO SWEET TO OFFER TO BUY ME A DRINK BECAUSE I SURE AF CANNOT AFFORD ONE. “

“we broke up right before a giant roadtrip our friends planned and we don’t want to bail on everyone and ruin the trip so yay, looks like we get to spend a five hour drive and a weekend in a cottage together.”

Adagio Seo, 20 and is a warlock

just give me that chilling adventure’s of sabrina plots man...it’s why adagio was even made lmao.

adagio while yes, i did made him specifically for that show universe, just like angelica he is mulitverse so he’s not off limits to that show only. if you want him to be in a harry potter au? cool with me. a normal college au? also cool with me. want to go full on twlight, even better lmao. just because he is mostly for the show, doesn’t mean he’s not expandable :)

“ does the “i slept with you the other day and i didnt know we had a mutual friend and now we’re sitting across each other for brunch and it’s awkward because i ran out when you were asleep” au exist bc i need that fic “

ok so adagio has an interest of necromancy but like the thing is he’s bad...like really bad at necromancy lmao (there’s a reason he skills in herbal) so like just give the whacky shiz that can happen when doing necromancy wrong. 

basically anything warlock/witch plots, throw them my way! want my wild warlock to have some love :(

Simone Hines, 22 and is a worker at the garden section of homdepot

the happy florist who delivers one flower to the boss of the hardcore law firm across the street everyday, just to make their day a little bit brighter

plot #001: in which muse a is really insecure and struggles with their self-esteem, so muse b, their best friend, starts secretly sending notes with all the reasons to love them.

plot #013: one day, muse a wakes up and finds themself to be in the future, seemingly married to their high school enemy, muse b.

any plot with a soft, sweet, submissive male that needs to be protected at all costs because he’s naive and doesn’t know how to speak up for himself with a girl that’s dominant, rough around the edges, not afraid of anything, and is ready to take on the world.

  tbh i just need a long distance relationship plot where they cry on skype bc they miss each other so much and they have passive aggressive texts bc of what’s on each others snapchat stories but then the fluffy moments when they see each other at the airport and all the desperate please don’t leave me again sex and i just need a long distance plot  

Levi Kim, 24 and owns his own cafe

highkey want a ‘someone wrote your phone number on the wall of a bathroom in my dorm with ‘call for a good time’ and i just texted you to let you know that i scribbled it out and oh wait you’re actually funny and easy to talk to and now we’re talking every day and i might have a tiny little crush on you even tho  i don’t even know your name’ plot

i got up at 2 am to get some snacks at the convenience store down the street and opened my door to find you trying to sleep on the floor of the hallway because your roommate has his fiancée over so i guess i’ll lend you my couch for the night AU

it’s 3 am and you’re blasting off classic rock at full volume and your music taste might be awesome but sOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO FUCKING SLEEP YOU SHITHEAD

utterly obsessed with the niche but incredibly romantic concept that is “late night radio show host falls hopelessly in love with and pines for recurring caller, oblivious to the fact that the person calling in whenever they’re on air is also in love with and pining for them after finding comfort in listening to their voice every night on their long commutes home”

Park Hades, 23 and is next in line for the Park corporations/modern day greek god hades

look i’m glad you have a healthy sex life and all but will you please try not to pierce a whole through my ceiling with your bed thanks

i have a policy of not giving my real name on dating apps and apparently you do the same. we have a good conversation so we decide to meet, but oh no … it turns out you’re my ex. yikes!!!

[philcphobic]

[ ONE / THREE ] hello ! it’s KRIS with my first of three muses, and she is known as ANGEL, an assassin for the most iconic gang, DRAGON EYES ! she is a FORMER MEMBER OF RED LIONS and lasted almost two years, before taking her leave about a two months ago because a dragon eyes member ( shout out to @bladehoney ) convinced her to ... so ... there’s that. if you’d like to plot, smash that heart & i’ll come to you as soon as i can either through tumblr im’s or through discord !

[ TRIGGER WARNING ; DEATH, PARENTAL LOSS, BULLYING, VIOLENCE, RUNNING AWAY, UNDERAGE DRINKING, DRUGS, MANIPULATION, MURDER ! ]

LIFE BEFORE GANG ACTIVITY !

born as kim jangmi on november 05, 1997 and she was born to two loving parents and the youngest of five children in total !

( DEATH, PARENTAL LOSS ) paradise doesn’t last forever, and she and her siblings lost their parents when she was 7 years old. she doesn’t know much about her parents, as she lost them to what police would call ‘ an unfortunate accident that should’ve never happened ’, but she knows that her father was a big time attorney & businessman.

he’s known to never have lost a case up until his death. let’s just say some people higher up on the ladder were NOT fond of him and wanted him GONE.

after their death, all five kids were sent to an orphanage. one by one, she would watch as her siblings were either all adopted or headed to live with a foster parent, and wondered if they were all ever going to see each other again. reassurance can only go a long way.

eventually it was just her and her oldest sister, and they were considered a package deal, which is why no one wanted to adopt them; everyone that came around always wanted one & one only.

they soon entered the foster care system but it turned out to be a lot more hellish than they’d presume. the first family was extremely promising, and could’ve been their best bet to a normal life again if jangmi just wasn’t so disobedient.

jangmi was confused and scared, and wanted to go home to what she was used to. she wanted her parents and these people were not them.

it was an endless cycle of going back and forth between new homes for a couple of years, and by the time jangmi was twelve, she and her older sister were finally separated, everyone believing they would be better apart like their brothers were.

all she had of her family now were unspoken goodbyes and one last family photo, taken on christmas day, a month before everything shattered.

luckily, a family chose to adopt her. they had other foster kids, troublemakers like her, and they wanted to test if adopting one would change them for the better before adopting the rest.

this … did not sit well with these other kids.

( BULLYING, VIOLENCE ) these older kids did not like her. they had a lot of reasons, but usually pinning it on her beauty at a young age. jangmi was used to rough housing with her own siblings before separation, but the way they ‘ played ’ with her was nothing like that.

she always had cuts and bruises, and told her ‘ parents ’, she was just really clumsy when they asked. her foster ‘ siblings ’ frequently told her that she wasn’t pretty, forcing her to look in the mirror with all of her injuries and tell her this is what she truly looks like.

( RUNNING AWAY ) there is only so much a young girl can actually take. she thinks it’s easier to run far away, where no one else could hurt her or make her cry. she takes whatever can fit into her backpack, and runs as far as she can physically handle.

an old couple end up finding her passed out on a bench in the park late in the night and take her home. they end up becoming her new parental figures, and they take care of her ( and hide her as she pleaded them to, ) as she is still considered a missing child.

the woman is an ex-professor and the man is war veteran, so she believed she had all she needs in order to live what’s considered a ‘ normal ’ life. she plays with the other kids in her neighbourhood leisurely, but is homeschooled for the fear of being found out, despite already having another identity as ANGEL. she’s taught everything she needs to know from them; everything from english & japanese to self-defence & how to use a gun.

life is perfect with them, and they’re the kindest, most understanding people she’s ever met. they give her a lot of freedom to be her own person, and they usually don’t discipline her, partially because they feel bad about her messy childhood and also because they thought she’d rebel if she was contained in a certain box …

despite their efforts, she turned out to become a rebel anyway.

( UNDERAGE DRINKING, DRUGS ) with so much freedom and little to no discipline, it was easy to push her boundaries away from her. they didn’t know about her getting involved with alcohol and drugs underage, her equally troublesome friends, nor did they know about her first boyfriend three years her senior, at the age of sixteen. they just believed she liked the freedom, and since she was obedient when around them, they didn’t feel the need to be suspicious.

( MANIPULATION, RUNNING AWAY ) it’s good up until she turns eighteen, when she’s about to attend university and meets … [redacted], and they hit it off quickly ! they convince her that she doesn’t need her parents anymore, and manipulating her into thinking she’s a burden for being so troublesome, and should leave them alone. this marks the second time she runs away from home, but this time hurts more than the first.

she left nothing but a letter and a necklace they gave her for her fourteenth birthday, and hasn’t seen them since. in her letter she apologizes for taking a gun from her father, and hopes they don’t try to find her.

[redacted is somehow connected to the gang red lions. she doesn’t understand why someone with so much money would be involved with a gang, but she doesn’t question them ... mostly for safety, in case this person was dangerous, but she’s always been curious.

( VIOLENCE, MURDER ) it takes a year for her to stop being naive with this person, who has isolated her for her ‘ safety ’ while being her biggest threat as they stay under the same roof. she realizes this one night when she looks in the mirror and sees a reflection of the same girl she was when she was thirteen, living with a bunch of foster kids who hated her. a fight ensues, and it’s clear who wins.

meticulous as ever, she erases her presence in their life to avoid trouble with the law, but realizes she’s alone again for the fourth time in her life.

LIFE WITH GANG ACTIVITY !

she slides her way into RED LIONS just days before her nineteenth birthday, already having connections on the inside. it’s the second ‘ unfortunate accident ’ in her life, but this time she’s involved and it’s anything but an accident.

she doesn’t know whether they genuinely thought she’d be a good addition to their growing empire or if they pitied her circumstance ( since she didn’t tell them the blood is on her hands ), but she finally found a stable family.

she is the story of [drake vc] started from the bottom now we here, as she went from having nothing for to her name to rising in the ranks as she proved her worth time and time again. she somehow rose high enough to be one of the trusted assassins in red lions, and was also taking money from outside sources ( coughs aka sugar daddies / mommies ) when she was really in need.

targets are mostly the wealthy, as it’s easier to maintain secrecy when they have reputations to live up to. she usually takes her sweet time with targets, ( no longer than a month ) just to know their schedules and … them as a person. sometimes there are hit & run opportunities but she doesn’t like doing spontaneous jobs like that too often … they get messy.

so she’s there for nearly two years, but during then she befriended sienna and she somehow managed to convince angel to leave red lions and join DRAGON EYES …

or is there more to the story? yes, but it’s not important tbh since it’s minor.

she left red lions at the beginning of september 2018, and joined dragon eyes at the beginning of october 2018. no one outside of dragon eyes knew this until recently … for obvious reasons. hopefully there’s no hard feelings because she still loves the members of red lions !! ( most of them, maybe? hopefully? )

still an assassin, that hasn’t changed ! — not sure what happened to their old assassin, but that’s not her problem — she’s still the same girl, who has tattoos for both gangs despite being only in one. she has been mostly independent in red lions ( except for those times she needed a warm body if ya’ get what i mean, ) and that hasn’t and won’t change. her allegiance is with one gang, but she usually works by herself unless specifically requested to do something other than kill.

red lipstick, pistols & pretty chrome daggers are part of her aesthetic.

ANGEL AS A PERSON !

she wasn’t always a strong person, but she’s stronger than she’d ever thought she’d be. there were nights when she didn’t think she’d see the sun the next day, so she’s proud of her growth. she’s not too in-touch with her negative emotions, so pride is what she feels.

this girl is always looking for improvement, and is constantly challenging her skills, her strength, her mind, & her perseverance when she has the chance. if you look at her desk, there are files of herself with records of her improvements. she’s extremely organized and careful, which helps for her job too.

she is a university student during the day, just to keep as a front if she’s to be acquainted with targets. she majors in criminology, ironically enough. she minors in chemistry, which is also useful if ya’ get what i mean.

she has a lot of money now, mostly because she has a bunch of unknown sugar daddies / mommies funding her every need. if you need anything just hit her up and she’ll get it … with a small price. it’s two way street, but she is more lenient.

she’s a social person, but she’s not extroverted … does that make sense? she doesn’t go out of her way to go out ( unless it’s a target ) and likes staying home a lot. she likes staying with her persian cat, sumi, and her cute lil rosy boa, nagini.

skills include self-defense, knowledge of & experience with most weaponry, lying, forgery, stealing, disguises … uh … driving? maybe one or two more but … whatever. she’ll do whatever the gang needs her to do, no doubt !

( DRINKING, DRUGS ) she drinks every week, but usually tones it down when she’s got a job. luckily, she doesn’t really do as many drugs anymore, but she smokes marijuana occasionally ( when someone offers it to her ) and smokes cigarettes when she’s really stressed, but also once biweekly if anything.

this girl is pretty much a clean slate. ever since she met [redacted], any life with the elderly couple is erased, and her life in and out of foster homes is so far gone that no one knows about it. her name was kim jangmi back then; NO ONE knows she’s kim jangmi unless she’s told them, or made the connection by themselves on their own time. as far as anyone is concerned, kim jangmi died as a missing child back in early 2010. she’s secretive about her past; don’t try digging into it unless you plan on digging your grave too !

she has a lot of repressed emotions, sadness being the biggest one, and isn’t the type to get angry very often, if at all. annoyed is the most she’d get, but she wouldn’t raise her voice. to be honest, she’s decent as long as people are as well? again, it’s a two way street. give respect & you get respect !

uh … these repressed emotions will eventually spill over : ) one day !

ummmm that’s it for now folks !!!!! pls plOT with Me !!!!!

[fairyscribbles]

Love at First Bite - Showdown (Kyungsoo, pt. 8) [Chronicles of the Wolf Series]

The beginning of this part can be a bit confusing, so bear with me! It starts off the night when Bora hurt herself! ♥

- 

Kyungsoo could feel you shivering in his arms, and he tightened them around you as he guided you back to his room. "Hey, it's okay..."

He sat you down on the edge of his bed, and knelt down, hands firm on your thighs. He needed you to breathe, to calm yourself. But more importantly, he needed you to banish the thoughts of mimicking the situation from your mind. Although he couldn't quite say he blamed Bora for her drastic actions - especially because he had no idea what was going on in her head - he also couldn't bear the idea od anything like that happening to you. Bora was a seasoned fighter, trained with pain. You... his innocent little mate, were not.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath, and this time, he held in any urges to call you by any affectionate name. "___?"

"Wh-why did he say that?"

Kyungsoo shook his head. Because the reason Bora was so riled in the first place was because of you being haunted by the witch. Because the same reason why Bora found it necessary to do such a drastic thing was the same thing haunting you.

And that was all he knew. So that's what he told you.

"He doesn't want you to feel like Bora did. That she had to hurt herself that way just to protect everyone, including herself, from the witch..."

You gave an empty sob, and Kyungsoo cupped your face, shaking his head. "Baby, don't worry..." He cursed himself for slipping again, but it seemed to comfort you, so he bypassed it. "I'm here. You don't need to do that. I'll protect you, okay?"

"Was it to keep her away?"

Kyungsoo sighed. "I can only guess. Bora's not crazy, ___. She's just had a lot to worry about with Tao already, and I can tell you without even knowing what the witch was doing that she didn't need another issue."

You nodded solemnly. "I hope... she's okay..."

"She'll be fine," he reassured you.

The rest of the night went by without much incidence. Kyungsoo prepared a small dinner just for the two of you, because everyone else seemed to have eaten while the you two were knocked out most of the day.

When you made it to bed, you were glad you didn't have to ask Kyungsoo to settle beside you. He made sure to keep his distance, much to your dismay, but his presence was comforting. Especially knowing that he was only an arm-length away.

And anyway, you knew you'd somehow find your way over to him during the night...

-

The next day was pleasantly slow, peacefully uneventful as far as witch fiascos went. When you went downstairs with Kyungsoo, you were able to share a meal with Minseok, the oldest of the wolves, and his kind mate, Haneul.

Even Bora made it down for a late breakfast, and although it was a bit awkward at first, you gathered up the guts to ask her if she was alright.

"I'm... I'm fine..." She gave you a small smile. "Thank you..."

You weren't sure why she seemed so surprised you'd asked, but you just smiled back.

The rest of the day you actually spent with Bora, helping her change her bandages and giggling at her apparent annoyance. "Because Tao won't leave me alone," she tsked.

You just smiled at her, trying not to let yourself get too caught up with how your chest tightened. "It's only because he worries about you..."

You helped Haneul and Chanyeol's mate, Jimin, put away more firewood and some food Jongin brought in from god-knows-where, and by the time Kyungsoo had cleaned himself up from cutting down trees, it was already dinnertime.

Even as you sat at the table, surrounded by the wolves and most of their mates, you felt completely at home.

So when you went to bed that night - still next to Kyungsoo, except without the pretenses of trying to stay away, because the two of you woke up tangled together regardless - you felt your heart breaking just a little bit more.

-

"Son of a bitch!"

You shot up off the bed, and you found Kyungsoo already poised on the edge, his arm thrown in front of you for protection.

"Wh-what's happening?!"

"I don't know. Stay here."

He nearly ripped the door off its hinges in his haste, and you spotted how his claws had lengthened as he ran out towards the noise. "Tao!" he growled.

Despite his direction, you followed, and you almost slammed into Bora on your way out.

"___!"

"What is it? What's wrong?!"

She pointed down the hall, running after Tao and Kyungsoo with quick strides. "He's gonna do something stupid. Zitao!"

Lost, you could only follow her, nearly stumbling down the entire flight of stairs as you saw Tao rip the back door open and snarl so loudly you could've sworn the foundations of the house shook.

"Tao, no!" Bora screamed.

"Fucking stay away from my mate!"

You heard the thunder of noise from the rest of the rooms, and there was a massive rush of wolves coming down the stairs, followed later by their disoriented mates. They all made it just in time to see Tao roar furiously before dashing out of the door, against the snarling protests of all his brothers.

You were shoved aside, and before you could even blink, Yixing and Kris had dashed out after the younger wolf, both howling.

There was a ringing coming from outside, and you felt your heart kick because then the screeching followed. Those who have heard it all cringed from the blood curdling noise, and you found yourself doubling over from paralyzing fear when you heard a distinguishable sound.

Of your name.

"Oh, ___-ie~"

All eyes flashed to you, including Kyungsoo's, which were shining a ruby red.

"Wolf, when I get my hands on her, I'm going to make sure she dies a slow, painful death~"

It was almost a singsong voice that delivered the threat, and all you saw was Kyungsoo snarling violently before he was following Tao outside.

"Stay the hell away from her!"

"Kyungsoo-yah!"

Jongdae and Chanyeol flew out immediately after him, and you didn't even realize what you were doing until you felt the breath get knocked out of you, your feet just barely flailing past the doorframe before you were being dragged back.

"___! ___!"

Someone was yelling your name, and you weren't sure why until you heard your own half-hysterical sobs. "Kyungsoo, no! No!"

You were herded back into the house, the door left wide open with Junmyeon standing right outside and Minseok standing right inside. The wolves remaining were posted on every opening to the house, poised for attack. Except one - Luhan, whose arm was still wrapped securely around you as he moved you into the living room.

You were shifted into Soomi's waiting arms, and she enveloped you in a tight embrace as the sobs poured uncontrollably from your mouth. Your hands squeezed at her shoulders, your body still fighting with little twitches as you tried to follow Kyungsoo.

"No!" you cried. "He'll get hurt!"

Someone was patting your back, trying to provide some comfort. "It's okay, ___..." You recognized Haneul's voice. "He'll be fine. He's not alone out there. He'll be alright..."

Why she sounded so sure, you didn't understand. But it wasn't like you could do anything different.

You turned, face soaked with your tears, and your eyes found Bora. She was silent, but she was turned towards the door as well, her arms crossed in front of her chest and drawn tightly against her body.

When Soomi's arms eased from around you, you slipped from her hold, walking straight towards Bora. Without a thought, you tossed your arms around her, catching the woman - and yourself, really - by surprise.

"He'll be alright too..."

Bora's breaths came in gasps, and she wasn't the only one. For some reason, everyone seemed to be holding their breaths, including you.

"I... I know..."

You blinked at her, your chest squeezing. Her face mirrored yours, noiseless tears streaming down your face.

"I know..."

Bora's already uncertain answer was interrupted by Junmyeon’s snarl. You knew what he was snarling at, and it had your legs shake in fear.

"Don't look her in the eyes." Minseok turned to look at the mates inside, and you knew his gaze was glued to his mate.

"She can get to control you with her eyes." It seemed quite childish, but effective as both Yijie and Haerin immediately plopped down, their hands over their eyes and they faced the house, not the clearing with the horribly swaying witch.

Bom cursed loudly when the witch slowly neared the hut and Junmyeon shifted, his clothes ripping off his form. You didn't know what you should watch first- Junmyeon’s slow stalk towards the witch, ignoring Minseok's disapproval, Bom as she disappeared into the kitchen or Bora, who pulled out a large suitcase from under the couch and retrieved a large bow and several arrows.

Painful howls ripped through the sky and your blood ran cold when you realized just whose voice it was.

"Do you hear that, Yijie-darling?" The witch turned its target elsewhere and the small chinese girl whimpered, clutching her hands over her ears.

"It's Yixing...you knew he already had a waist injury, right? It really helped me." A sob escaped her throat, as well as little pleas you didn't understand.

Before the witch could utter more, Luhan was by her side, his hands clamping over her head and bringing her close, eyes closed in concentration.

"It was really easy to break his back after that." Another pained whine resonated through the forest, but even when she said something so drastic, Yijie's sobs didn't become worse.

Luhan was able to block her words out.

And that's when an arrow swished through the air, and hit a meaty target, judging by the squelching sound it released as it dug into its target. The witch screeched in pain as the arrow buried in her eye and Bora snarled.

"Get the fuck away from my family." Another arrow was already prepared and she stepped over the threshold, arm pulled back with another loaded arrow.

Junmyeon understood and before the witch had time to react, Junmyeon jumped behind her, his fangs burying in her neck and holding you in place.

The witch shrieked, arms flying arounf blindly to let herself go, scratching on anything she could reach. She hit the target quite a few times, judging by the way Junmyeon flinched here and there from the way the nails buried in his skin.

"I'm going to kill you. I'll kill all of you and hang you by your pretty little feet from the ceiling!" The witch promised menacingly, completely ignoring the other two arrows hitting her stomach and chest.

"Bora." Bom's voice was calm, controlled.

"Duck." The captain of the Wolfguard did as she was told, dropping to the ground.

Bom lifted up the gun, aiming straight at her head. With a small flick of her head, Junmyeon released her and moved away.

"Good luck trying to get to them through me."

The gunshot echoed through the dark forest, accompanied by a shriek of pain. The bullet hit its target, worming through the witch's skull.

And her whole body fell apart to dust.

[marshmallow-phd]

What the Future Holds

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Supernatural, Wolf Au

Pairing: Luhan x Reader

A/N: The promised Bonus chapter. Just so you know, this takes roughly during chapters 13 & 14 of Midnight Hours. Enjoy! 

**

There was no way you were going to be able to keep this a secret much longer. Perhaps because it was your own body and you knew the details of yourself, but you would swear that you were already beginning to get that small rounded bump near the lower part of your abdomen though you didn’t think you were far enough along.

Lying there in bed, face towards the ceiling while Luhan slept soundly beside you, completely unaware of the third person who occupied the room, you wondered what the future held for you now.

You were going to be a mom.

In your days with the organization, that had never been in your plans. Sure, you figured someday you might find someone to settle down with and maybe start a family. But it was always just a maybe, an afterthought. You had more pressing matters. Other objectives took precedent.

Even after meeting Luhan and seeing the happy little family that Kris, Evie, and Mei had created, you still didn’t get those kinds of visions. Adjusting to life here among what used to be the enemy was emotional enough. Thinking of anything beyond becoming comfortable with your new family, let alone starting one of your own, was too much.

Letting out a sigh, you sat up and swung your legs off the bed. It took you another minute or two before you were able to actually stand up. There was nothing wrong with you; nothing but the burden of when to tell Luhan.

By now, you were sure that he would be happy, ecstatic even at this unexpected news. How could he be anything but? You’d seen him with Mei. There were times he’d get that look in his eyes, the far off kind that made it obvious what was on his mind. You knew he was imagining a child of his own, one that was made from the two of you.

But eventually he would shake his head, tossing the image away. There were even times where he joked about being too young to take on that kind of responsibility, disregarding the fact that he was older than and Evie both.

On the other hand, though, he would certainly be upset once he learned that you’d known for a while and waited to tell him until after the danger had passed. You weren’t going to do anything stupid or irresponsible, but you were never the kind who could just sit back and do nothing. You weren’t sure what help you could possibly be – then again, no one truly knew what would be coming when it did.

Needing space to clear your head, you finally landed on your feet, stretching your arms and back as you shuffled over to the closet to get dressed. You snatched up your favorite bow sitting in the corner of the room before going back over to the bed.

Luhan was still peacefully snoring away, his blonde hair ruffled from his constant tossing and turning. In the space you’d previously occupied, Luhan’s arm was outstretched as if he were reaching for you even in his sleep. You couldn’t help but smile. A sigh escaped and you leaned over to gently press a kiss to his cheek.

“Mmm,” he groaned satisfactory. In a flash he had your wrist in his grip in an attempt to keep you there. “More.”

It wasn’t that hard to free yourself. “When I get back. Maybe.”

One eyelid slowly opened. “Where are you going?” he asked.

You held up your bow. “To get some practice in.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Luhan mumbled. He was already falling back asleep, weakening his argument.

“I know,” you said, “but we’ve already had this talk. You’re still not going to win.” For good measure, you leaned down again and kissed his lips this time. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Get some more sleep.”

He murmured out something along the lines of “okay” and flipped over. The poor thing had worked last night and it was too early for him to be fully awake.

As quietly as you could, you made your way through the basement, up the stairs, and out through the back kitchen door before bee lining for the trees.

It was still early morning, the sun barely shining in the hazy sky. Beams of light cut through the trees, giving the forest an almost fairytale-like quality. Ahead, though, clouds were growing and darkening. So a rain was coming. Looks like you wouldn’t be out here as long as you were hoping.

To get to your hidden practice range, it was at least a forty minute hike with twists and turns that anyone who followed you lost. The only way you remembered yourself were the small, insignificant notches you’d carved into the trees at interval heights. Luhan was the only one that knew to follow them, in case of emergencies. He tended to leave you alone – struggling against his instincts – when you came out here. Often times, you found yourself needing space.

Saying your world was flipped around when you joined the pack… it felt laughable, understated. Your parents always taught you to be prepared to deviate from the plan, to have other options open to you, and to accept that you can’t control every turn life takes. As a hunter, that was easy enough. Variables were always being thrown in. Wolves are chaotic by nature – just living in that house with twelve of them was proof enough. It wasn’t a bad kind of chaos. Not all being of mayhem and pandemonium were. They simply existed without real order. But you were used to that as an outsider. Now you were among them.

It was a lot to get used to – so different from your structured life before - but you thought you were doing an okay job at adapting. Sure, you still tended to cling to Luhan at times like a frightened child. And, okay, your only really good friends among the mates were your cousin Hae In, Lottie, and Nia. Family, the one who arrive around the same time you did, and the resident witch. Not too bad of a group, if anyone asked you. Who better to surround your baby with?

As the thought crossed your mind, your hand gently touched your stomach. Funny how before this, you were barely aware of that particular area of your body. Now that’s the only thing you seemed to think about. It was like an invisible protective bubble hovered around that area and whenever your mind drifted to your baby or if you accidentally ran into something, immediately you had to check that it was alright. Not that you could tell with just your palm, but it helped.

Finally arriving at your spot, you found the hole in the tree where you stored your practice arrows and stepped up to the mark. Months ago, Luhan had surprised you with a nice shooting target – cubed and stuffed with straw. The boys had been a bit nervous when he’d showed it off to you, but they were reassured it was simply to help your bored mind. You did not plan on shooting any of them with your arrows – again.

You still felt terrible about that. Jiyeon was only barely starting to treat you cordially and you suspected that was more at Evie’s insistence. Minseok, however… he was also nice to you. He never held a grudge about what you did. Part of you wondered if that was his plan all along because his kindness just made you feel worse about it.

Only an hour or so went by before you were tiring out from the constant motion of firing off the arrows. It must be the pregnancy or lack of consistency in your sessions because in your past you could do this all day without hardly any breaks. Heck, you had gone through a whole day of shooting practice with barely a lunch squeezed in there.

Finding a good stopping point, you gathered up the arrows and put them back in their little cubby in the base of the tree, covering the area with foliage and leaves. It made the boys feel better, you keeping the dangerous part of your favorite weapon out here and away from the house.

Slowly, you made your way back down to the house, already feeling better. Sore, but much better mentally. There was something about the continuing motion of docking the arrow, pulling it back, and letting it fly that was soothing to you.

To your surprise, Luhan was waiting for you when you broke through the trees. Usually he was inside when you returned, but today he was leaning up against the house, arms folded so tightly over his chest that you could see the tension from where you were. As soon as his eyes caught sight of you, he pushed off the siding and stormed towards you.

“Luhan, what’s- hey!”

He took you by the arm, not too hard to bruise, but certainly enough to pull you back into the woods. You roughly yanked your arm from his grasped, heated.

“What the hell!”

“When were you going to tell me!” His eyes shimmered bright amber, causing you to take a step back.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It was probably the worst lie you’d ever told, but in the moment it was the best your brain could come up with.

Luhan held up your phone, the reminder to take your prenatal medicine blinking on the screen. In the other hand, your medication from the doctor.

Crap.

You had completely forgotten to bring your phone with you. And how did he find your pills?

Luhan’s next question came out quiet and defeated. “How long have you known?”

You whispered back in an equally soft voice. “A few weeks.”

“A few weeks?” Water began to pool in his eyes, breaking your heart. You knew he would be upset that you didn’t tell him earlier, but… well, you’d hoped that it wouldn’t be like this. Luhan shook his head in an effort to fight back the tears. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“Of course!” you argued. “Of course I was going to tell you. I just wanted to wait until after everything had settled down. The last thing the pack needed was to be worrying about me.”

“Fine, but you still could have told me,” Luhan countered. “It’s my baby, too.”

You threw your hands in the air. “I didn’t want you locking me away in the basement like I can’t take care of myself!”

“I know you can take care of yourself.” Luhan’s eyes were settling back into their normal brown, which was a good sign. You hoped. “But what about the baby? They don’t get a choice of what happens around them. If this thing comes to some sort of fight, you don’t need to be in it. You can’t just think of yourself right now.”

You scoffed. “Oh, so you think I’m selfish? You think I don’t know that I can’t go charging in like I want to? I’m not a complete idiot, Luhan.”

“No, but you are reckless!”

That was it. Straw? Meet the camel’s back.

Snatching your pills and phone from Luhan, you shoved passed him back to the house.

“(y/n)! (y/n)!”

You ignored him. How dare he? How dare he question your ability to protect your baby, to think of it before yourself? Of course you would want to do your part in protecting the pack when the blood moon came along, but it wasn’t just you anymore. You understood that. So why did he think you would do anything different?

**

You were not going to cry. You were not going to cry.

Crap. You were going to cry. Stupid hormones.

It had been nearly a whole day since Luhan had confronted you about the pregnancy secret and you’d hardly spoken a word to him. You’d been fairly successful at avoiding him, even sleeping on the pull out couch to not be in the same room with him (that is, until halfway through the night, while you were still asleep, Luhan carried you back to bed). But when Kris called a full family meeting the next day, you were obligated to join. Luhan took his normal spot standing next to you, but you refused to look at him.

You were doing absolutely fine until Kris dropped the bomb that Nia was gone. Sehun looked like an absolute wreck as he stared out the kitchen window, watching the rain come down. You could tell he was hardly listening as Kris explained to the rest of you how he, Sehun, and Jinyoung had gone to search for her before the storm started last night. There had been a small bit of hope that she would come back due to the weather, but since she still hadn’t, a plan of action was needed.

Desperately searching for a distraction, you started pacing the floor, ideas and possible avenues popping into your brain.

“Sehun, are you listening?”

Sehun whirled around so he was now facing the rest of the kitchen. “What?”

Junmyeon sighed, letting the attitude slide given the circumstances. “I know you’re worried. We all are, but I need you-”

“Do you really think your worry is as great as mine?” Sehun growled. Silence filled the kitchen. Because everyone knew that, no matter how worried or concern you all were, it was like a mustard seed compared to the mountain of anguish Sehun was going through. Realizing that the pack knew just that, he pulled back. Letting his gaze fall to the hardwood floor, he murmured, “Sorry.”

“It’s understandable,” said the fairy witch, Soomi. Her voice was always soft and comforting and this time was no different despite the current situation. “And it’s scary, thinking that she’s out there, alone in this. But she’s a survivor. She’ll be okay.”

Sehun shook his head. “I can’t just leave her out there while I’m here safe from the storm.” 

“There’s no way to find her,” Chanyeol whined. Lanie reached over and consoled Chanyeol with a slight squeeze of his hand.  

“Would you leave Lanie out there by herself even if you couldn’t follow her scent?”

“Leave me out of this,” Lanie begged. She let go of Chanyeol’s hand and leaned forward, massaging her temples. 

You huffed. All this talk of just leaving your friend out there… you could feel the hormones buzzing inside. “I agree with Sehun that we should go look for her, weather be damned.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Luhan snarled at you. The only response you had was to roll your eyes and turn away from him.

“Is there any sort of shelter she might be able to find in the woods?” Lottie asked desperately.

“No,” Minseok answered with a shake of his head. “In these trees, there’s nothing but this house and the city.”

Suddenly, Sehun straightened up, the despair on his face gone and replaced with a look of realization. He was out the back door before anyone could even call out his name. For a moment, everyone just stared in shock as his rash decision. It only took a few blinks, however, before a majority of the pack was scramble to get through the door.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Luhan stopped you before you could aid in the chase. The mates that had stayed behind were looking at the two of you with curious eyes so Luhan tugged you out of the kitchen and through the living room until you were standing on the front porch, the rain giving enough cover for no one to be able to overhear.

“What is it now,” Luhan?” you barked.

He looked at you with narrowed eyes. “You were about to do it again.”

“Do what?” you challenged.

“Be reckless.”

“Oh,” you faked sudden realization. “So, going after your pack member who took off into a storm and could get hurt is now considered reckless. Good to know.” You tried to head back inside, but Luhan stopped you with a gentle hand in yours.

No, no, no. That was how he always got you. With his soft touches, his skin against yours. Now that your body wasn’t going about its functions as normal, it was almost worse.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said quietly. You didn’t say anything back. “I… shouldn’t have reacted like that. With everything going on… I’ll admit, I got scared.”

“And you think I’m not?” Seeing him before you like this, with his head bowed and breathing shallow, you did something that was a bit out of character for you. Taking your hand out of his, you stepped forward and wrapped your arms around his shoulders. “I worry every day,” you confessed. “I worry about what the blood moon means, I worry if I’m cut out to be a parent, I worry if this is even what you wanted-”

“Of course I want this,” he interrupted, pulling back so he could see your face. His hands were resting on your hips, his thumbs moving up in down in a way to try and calm you down. You usually didn’t get emotional like this, save for a very specific time or two.

“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” you asked. “We never talked about it before, the two of us. And you always joked about being too young to be a parent.”

Luhan shrugged. “I didn’t want to scare you off. You’d ran away before, remember?”

“That was a completely different scenario. I was trying to keep you safe.” 

He quieted you with a kiss. “It doesn’t matter now. If you thought you were stuck with me before….”

There were a million things you could blame for this sudden outburst of emotion: hormones, Nia’s disappearance, bottling up too much. Or maybe it was a combination of all three. Whatever it was, it caused you to hide your face in Luhan’s shoulder as you cried. He patted your back, obviously holding back laughs at seeing you like this.

“You’re going to be great, you know that?”

“Shut. Up.” You didn’t want another reason to start bawling while you just getting your emotions in check.

“I kind of want a boy,” he went on. “I think that’d be fun. Also, how big do you think you’ll get? Evie got pretty big. Kris had to carry her up the stairs for breakfast in the morning-”

You shoved back, playfully hitting him in the shoulder. “Luhan, if you don’t stop going on about how big the baby is going to make me, I’m tacking you to the wall with my knives.”

“Baby?”

Oh… great.

Cringing, you turned to find the pack – minus Junmyeon and Sehun – staring up at the two of you on the porch. So much for the rain being a cover for the conversation. Their faces were almost funny enough to send you into a laughing fit. The mortifying fact that they now all knew about your “delicate condition” was able to trump that urge.

“Luhan?” Kris raised an eyebrow. Your wolf nodded in confirmation.

“As if this month couldn’t get even more dramatic,” Jongdae rolled his eyes.

“Leave them alone,” Kris ordered. “Everyone just… get inside. We’ll deal with that later.” The alpha came up the steps and said, “Junmyeon’s out walking with Sehun right now to get him to calm down. When he gets back, you should update him. But don’t tell Sehun until after we find the witch. He’s a bit sensitive right now.”

“Sure thing,” Luhan promised. After a somewhat awkward half smile sent your way and a muttered “congratulations”, the alpha headed inside, sighing and shaking his head. The rest of the pack came up the porch as well, giving their own words of congratulations.

Baekhyun, who was behind the majority of them, shouted, “Is no one else worried that the highly trained assassin is now going to have mood swings?”

His point mostly went ignored by the others, though you had to admit, it was a little valid. You didn’t have the most controlled temper at the best of times.

“You know, this definitely means that you’re staying here until all this business is over, right?” Luhan said.

You nodded. “I know.” It went against your old instincts, but you had to protect your baby. Those were your new instincts.

A sigh fell out before you could stop it.

Luhan reached out and cupped your cheek. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh,” you smiled at him, “I just thought that now we have to do something almost equally as dangerous as whatever’s waiting on the blood moon.”

H frowned. “What’s that?”

“Telling Hae In.”

“(Y/n)!”

You flinched. “Too late.”

[moonprincess92]

A family can be 2 traumatised soldiers and their 30 kids (8)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  

Read on AO3 

Part 8 

If there was one thing her life was lacking, it was friends.

Jyn didn’t kid herself that she was exactly friend material though, and perhaps that was mostly the reason why. She just wasn’t hardwired for that kind of relationship. After spending so long supressing any kind of emotional attachment, getting herself to relax and open up to even one person had been trying enough, but it hit her one evening when the kids were all in bed and Cassian was in a meeting that she… literally had no one else. She didn’t have anyone to turn to, to ask about or to check in with. She had a professional relationship with the princess, but she definitely wouldn’t go so far as to call her a friend. Leia certainly had too many of her own issues to deal with at the moment anyway. She had Aden and Tavisha, but they were still kids to her and probably always would be. They understood a lot, they had a lot to offer, but there were just some things that you couldn’t talk to your kids about.

In the end, Jyn ended up comm-ing the only person she could think of.

“Hey, Shara?” 

“Jyn?” the pilot answered in a state of utter confusion. “Is everything ok? Is this something to do with Poe–?”

“No, no,” Jyn quickly assured, rubbing at the pressure that was building behind her forehead. This was a horrible idea. “I was just – I don’t know whether it’s too late – but um, I need someone to talk to. Did you want to buy some illegal whiskey and get hammered with me somewhere?”

There was some rustling down Shara’s end, a dull thud like she’d hit Kes out of her way or something. “It’s never too late for that,” she answered at once. “Where can I find you?”

The whiskey was bought from a particularly well-known source within the Intelligence-circles. While the agents themselves were the face of the operation, Jyn was almost fairly certain that it was actually one particular spotty-faced kid in human resources who was the one doing the actual smuggling. Either way, High Council had no idea and monthly bar nights continued even though the entire rebellion was two steps from death these days. Jyn met Shara in her classroom on the main frigate, figuring that no one would suspect anything illegal to be happening there. They slumped down onto the cushions that Jyn had managed to steal from the haul of an intercepted Imperial shuttle to decorate the room with and passed the bottle between them.

“I can’t even remember the last time I got drunk,” Shara almost choked on the whiskey. “Gotta be before Poe was born.”

“Sorry if–”

“Kriff, don’t be sorry!” Shara added, shoving her shoulder sluggishly. “I’ve never felt so alive!”

Jyn felt the giant knot of tension in her chest loosen slightly. “Thanks,” she said. “I… I realised that I basically have no friends. I have Cassian, but we’re apparently getting through this by carrying on like normal. There’s not even a lot left that we could say to each other because he gets it. But sometimes I think there’s still some stuff I want to get out and I don’t…”

“You literally change my son every time he soils himself, I am fuckin’ HERE FOR YOU,” Shara declared. 

“Actually, Cassian mostly handles that job. I only do it when all else fails.”

“STILL.”

“You really are a lightweight, huh?”

“This stuff is kriffin’ strooooong,” Shara glanced down at the bottle in her hands before shrugging and gulping down some more. “So talk to me, Jyn. How’re you goin’?”

“Honestly, not good, Shara.”

The other woman hiccupped slightly before saying, “I joined the rebellion after Scarif. I only ever heard about it from the rumours.”

“The rumours are mostly true.”

Shara took another shot. “Shiiiiit.”

“Although I didn’t get revenge on the man who killed my mother by gouging out his eyes, everyone always gets that part wrong,” Jyn pointed out, hastily. “Cassian stopped me before I could get that far.”

Shara looked like she might have been recovering slightly when she had to go and add that point on the end. She shook her head before handing the bottle over. “I always… sometimes I wondered,” she admitted as Jyn drank. “How you and Cassian had gone from blowing shit up to looking after kids.”

“There’s a lot of rumours about that too,” Jyn pointed out. “Unfortunately, the truth is I broke some guy’s arm and Mothma got pissed off.”

Shara nodded, lips twitching. “But I think I get it now… well maybe, I don’t know if I could ever really get it... but after everything you’ve been through, I can understand wanting to do less. Looking after those kids isn’t any easier, but at least you’re not getting shot at every other day, right?”

“I don’t know about that,” Jyn could recall several target practices where her kids’ shots had gone only slightly awry. “but… yeah.”

“I can’t imagine what you’re dealing with.”

Jyn closed her eyes, letting the alcohol swirl her brain. If she let it, she could so easily spiral out of control right now. She could let the panic sink in, let it crush her until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, could only scream and scream and scream, and maybe it’s what she felt like doing, but as always she didn’t have the time. The kids needed someone to assure them that the galaxy wasn’t ending, that it was all going to be ok, and she knew Cassian was on the verge of snapping as much as she was. If she lost it, he might too and they would be of no use to anyone in the Medbay… but as much as that was all true, it also meant that they hadn’t really dealt with it at all.

Her chest constricted as she fought to keep the waves crashing over her.

“Yeah, I apparently need a moment,” Jyn admitted. “I’ve done enough talking, I’ve done enough keeping it together… I just need to break down for a bit. It’s going to be ugly, Shara.”

“We all need a chance to be ugly, girl,” Shara told her.

“I’m serious–”

“And I’mmmmm drunk,” Shara added. “but serious too, yes. Jyn do whatever the hell you need to do. I’ll be here.”

And she was.

Jyn almost didn’t catch the symptoms.

“EMERGENCY DRILL,” she suddenly barked, hitting the app on her datapad. The siren blared, loud and deafening, and instead of the usual immediate flurry of movement, it only elicited a few stirrings and a lot of pained groans. Jyn smirked a little at her classroom full of sluggish teenagers, the lot of them having been moaning and complaining all day so far and now at last she seemed to have figured out exactly what was up with them all.

She cut the siren off. She wasn’t that cruel.

“All right, losers,” she said, cheerfully. “If that had been the Empire invading you’d all be dead, so do yourselves a favour and confess now: who provided the booze?”

The class froze. Rivi was slumped back in her chair with a spare pair of flight googles over her eyes and hadn’t moved for over an hour while she was fairly certain that Geron had slept through the entire drill, but she noticed a lot of panicked looks being exchanged across the classroom. They ultimately all came back to the same person however, and Jyn paced slowly until she was right in front of her chair.

“Lahrin?” she asked. “Care to explain?”

“It wasn’t MY idea,” she deflected at once.

Jyn was almost 1000% certain it had been. As much as she loved Lahrin, the girl had been manipulating situations to her advantage ever since she had arrived as a sweet, innocent-looking 15-year-old two years ago. “Look, I don’t care that apparently, a bunch of you all went and got black-out drunk last night,” Jyn sighed, glaring around at her roomful of what were clearly hungover teenagers. “what I do care about is still being able to protect yourselves. The Empire won’t give you a pass just because you drank too much.”

“Easy for you to say,” Lahrin pointed out. “You were totally hungover in class last week.”

Jyn pinched the bridge of her nose. Hungover hadn’t even been the start of her issues that day. Shara had eventually dragged her back to her room around 0500, passed out, her knuckles skinned and her throat burning. She hadn’t been in much of a state to do anything the few hours later when she needed to be awake…

“Don’t get snarky with me,” Jyn warned. “if you’ll remember, I still came to class. I still did my job.”

Lahrin at least looked a little chastised. Jyn sighed.

“Look, I know things haven’t been easy,” she told them all. “Wait – can someone wake up Geron for this?” She waited as Dan kicked Geron awake and Vance was forced to take away Rivi’s goggles to make her look up. “Guys – being honest, I’m not handling the news of the second Death Star well. But I’m still here and I’m still getting through it. You can drink yourselves stupid if you want, but you all have to keep going, ok? If I have to, you guys have to as well. And with that being said,” Jyn grimaced at what she was about to ask next. “tell me the gossip. Who passed out, who hooked up…?”

Thankfully, she got some laughs out of that. “I wouldn’t kiss any of these losers!” Lahrin practically choked.

“Way too close for that, eh?” Kris teased, poking her on the arm.

Rivi just snapped her goggles back on.

“Don’t worry, we were safe,” Vance felt the need to hastily add.

“Ok, I’ve heard enough,” Jyn held up a hand.

These days, she held Cassian a bit too tight. She kissed slightly too hard and pushed him around far too much, and he didn’t even mind. He never stopped her, never complained, but she didn’t want this to be their only way of connecting anymore. Every time she thought that enough time was passing that they could start to figure things out again, something else would happen and they would backslide once more. This time, it was hearing the rumours that a group of Bothan spies had come up with a plan to get more intel on the new Death Star, and it reeked too much of Scarif that she ended up fucking Cassian within an inch of his life on their refresher floor.

“I’m sorry…” she said in a hoarse whisper, once they had finally crawled into bed. He lay on his back in a kind of stupor. By this point, Jyn usually had a few hours before the usual tension and dread started settling in again, but she looked down at him and realised that it was already there, or maybe still there, stabbing at her heart and not letting her go. This wasn’t fixing things. Jyn reached out, curling an arm over his chest and curling herself into his side as much as she could, a leg hitching up over his hip.

“I’m a mess,” she whispered.

“My mess,” Cassian corrected. “Besides, me too.”

She clicked her tongue at the sentiment. “We should be talking, not fucking.”

Cassian made a non-committal sound. “We can do both.”

She attempted a laugh, but it got stuck in her throat somewhere and came out as a kind of gurgle. “Cassian…” she whispered, head firmly tucked under his so that there was no way she could accidentally meet his eyes. “It’s all just happening again. The Bothan’s are going on a suicide mission, the entire damn Death Star, we keep on trying, we keep on fighting and fighting but nothing ever makes a fucking difference.”

“I know.”

“You’re supposed to reassure me, that’s how comforting works.”

“I don’t know how to do it when I feel the same as you,” Cassian pointed out. His arms squeezed around her tighter, his hand sliding down to hold onto her thigh like an anchor. “About 99% of my time, I feel like I want to punch something and the only reason I don’t is the kids.”

They fall quiet for a few long moments at that. It was comforting to know that she wasn’t alone, that she wasn’t the only one feeling like she was, but then again it was jarring to realise that she didn’t have someone to talk actual sense into her. Shara let her cry and Leia let her work, but she needed someone to let her deal and she could practically feel Cassian starting to come to the same conclusions that she was.

“Shit,” he muttered. “We both really need to see someone, don’t we?”’

“You mean a professional someone,” It wasn’t a question. She sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

Unfortunately, the rebellion was severely lacking in well, basically everything. It couldn’t even provide basic nutritional food, let alone a functioning therapy system, but luckily they all apparently made do with the informal help of the medics. Jyn quite famously didn’t get along with any of them (probably from the amount of times she’d defied their ‘no visitors except for direct family’ rule) but she would make an exception if it could in anyway help stable her peace of mind. She at least owed it to the kids to try.

“In the morning,” she murmured, kissing his neck. “One of us will skip class and go ask about who to talk to. If it’s the batty old lady who tried to curse me for trying to visit Ann when she was sick, then I’ll just take my chances.”

Thankfully, he let out a bark of laughter.

“Tell me a random kid story?” Jyn asked then, keen for any kind of distraction. “How were they today, did they behave?”

Cassian chuckled. “Quite a few of them got married, actually.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

He pressed his lips to her hair. “I think they were kind of inspired by our wedding, but Arlo was the ringleader. I caught him trying to dress up in my jacket and when I asked what he was doing, he said he was getting ready for his wedding. He’d roped everyone into it apparently, set out all the chairs, made an aisle, got Danny to be the officiator and Bree and Charlee as the flower girls.”

“Who was he marrying?”

“Oh, multiple people,” Cassian chuckled. “First, he married Haley. Then he married Lyle. He was going to marry Fliss next, but Pero got possessive and I worried for a moment we would have a duel over her.”

“We might have to have a talk to him about that.”

“Thankfully, I managed to calm them all down,” Cassian agreed. “Honestly, it was hilarious watching. Arlo insisted on kissing all of them, too.”

“Isn’t he still six?”

“He was really into the authenticity of the thing.”

“It’s weird to think Arlo was once that little kid I had to take to the toilet every damn time he needed to poo.”

Cassian nodded against her head, but she felt the tension seeping back in just from the way she was wrapped around him. His muscles clenched and she rubbed her hands over his back, shoulders, in an attempt to keep it at bay, at least just for a little longer. No matter how much they distracted themselves for, their issues always came sneaking back in eventually. 

“Don’t think about it,” she murmured.

“I’m trying,” he whispered back. Then after clearing his throat, he spoke a little louder. “What did the teens get up to today?”

“Well, apparently they’ve all taken up partying recently, so honestly trying to get them to do anything in class is a nightmare…”

Medic Dhanya Hightower didn’t look like much. She was small, long hair always braided down her back and a smile perpetually on her face no matter what was happening within the Rebellion. She must have seen countless injuries, wounds too terrible to even describe, yet she was always willing to listen. She was always willing to make time, and that’s how after some asking around, Jyn found herself in Medbay storage, leaning against the shelves and talking while Dhanya ticked varying stock off her datapad.

“Jyn, babe,” Dhanya said without even looking up. “it’s not your fault.”

“I know… but my brain still thinks it is.”

“I guess that’s what we all do,” Dhanya nodded in understanding. The woman always understood, somehow. “Do you speak much to Captain Andor about all this?”

“A little… but we realised that while talking to each other was good, we were both too far into this to be able to help each other,” Jyn wished she could get away with only speaking to Cassian, but here she was. “I wouldn’t be here if it was helping.”

“You know that he’s come and spoken to me too, right?”

“We both decided it was for the best.”

“I’m glad you did,” Dhanya smiled at her warmly. “A lot of people come and talk to me, but even more don’t. I’ve known of Captain Andor ever since I first joined the rebellion ten standard years ago, and this is the first damn time I’ve ever been able to actually help him.”

“Yeah, he’s not exactly forthcoming.”

“But he is with you.”

“He married me,” Jyn shrugged. “He has to be.”

Dhanya laughed. “Jyn, can I ask you a question?”

She hesitated at first. It was a natural instinct to immediately protect herself from anything trying to force its way inside, but the last thing Dhanya would do is force. Jyn had sought out the informal therapist of her own free will, had spoken to her about things she hadn’t properly spoken of in years, she knew this was safe and confidential and ok… but it was hard to let go of natural instincts.

“Sure,” she shrugged.

“What’s your biggest fear?”

So many things could come to mind. There were the obvious things, things that Dhanya was probably expecting – that this new Death Star would kill them all, that she would die, that her father would be disappointed in her, that Cassian would die – but honestly, the first thing that came into her head was none of these things.

“I’m afraid that if I break down any more than I already have, then I won’t be able to do my job properly,” she admitted. “I’m afraid that I’ll hurt my kids.”

Her kids, her kids, her kids.

“Wow,” Dhanya rested her datapad on a shelf for a moment. “You… really love them, huh?”

“I would die for them,” Jyn said, trying to keep the ferociousness out of her voice.

“I didn’t realise.”

“No one really does,” she said. “I don’t think anyone ever actually did this job properly until Cassian and I came along.”

“What’s the most ridiculous thing a kid’s done?” Dhanya asked enthusiastically then.

Kriffing hell, where to start. “Erm,” Jyn shrugged. “a kid tried to strangle me once?”

Dhanya’s eyes went wide.

“Don’t worry,” Jyn added. “he’s gotten better over the years. Reno’s only mostly an asshole now.”

“I’m honestly in awe of you, sometimes.”

“Thank you,” Jyn said. “and honestly… thank you. For talking to me. And for listening.”

“Of course.”

“JYN! JYN!” Vance practically crashed into her as they were all leaving the mess hall. His hands grabbed at her arms, nearly shoving her to the ground thanks to the 16-year-old’s weight. Jyn staggered as she exclaimed,

“What the hell–?”

“DID YOU HEAR? YOU HAVEN’T HEARD – HAN’S BACK! THEY FOUND HAN!”

That changed everything.

Jyn had no choice but to be dragged behind Vance as the kid sprinted for the hangar. Specifically the West Hangar, which was where all outside ships usually docked and went through screening before being allowed in. Jyn knew that Leia had been out on yet another mission to try and recover him, but how Vance had figured out that she was successful this time was beyond her. He tugged on her hand, pulling her through the crowds that were slowly gathering, the rebels who wanted to see the esteemed captain return home, and Jyn called out,

“Wait, wait! How the hell do you know he’s back?”

Vance skidded to a halt at the edge of the crowd, neck craning over all the heads. “I might’ve gotten Jessa to hack ship communications,” he admitted a little sheepishly.

She wasn’t even surprised. “Wait – Jessa can hack?” she decided to focus on.

“Oh, yeah – she’s fucking good at it, too! Can slice her way into anything.”

“I’m going to be having words with that girl…” Jyn muttered. A good data analyst she would make one day, but only if she used her powers for good. Jyn had to wonder why she hadn’t thought of teaching the skill until now. Luckily, they didn’t get sent out of the hangar. They had to hastily pretend to be unloading a recent shipment to avoid the crowd getting moved along, but they were still there by the time the unmistakable Millennium Falcon was eventually docking.

Han Solo looked like shit, put bluntly, but he didn’t keel over when Vance hurtled up out of nowhere and flung his arms around his middle, so he at least had that going for him. Leia didn’t let go of his hand, her tired face suddenly with a lot more life to it. While Han gingerly patted Vance on the head, Jyn hastily apologised for being unable to keep her kid under control.

“It’s fine,” Leia told her. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You let the kids go to Salahar,” Leia reminded her. “Their intel allowed us to find him. Without you, he would still be lost… so thank you.”

Jyn shrugged it off, but it hit her a little to see Vance so ecstatic upon seeing his hero back safe and sound. She didn’t hug Han herself, but accepted him clapping a hand onto her shoulder in acknowledgement. His presence, it seemed, had also brought a sense of urgency since Leia parted ways with, “There will be a briefing soon. Main council chamber. You and Andor need to come.”

“You know we can’t fight anymore–”

“Just come,” Leia insisted. “You’ll want to hear this.”

“Is this another battle?!” Carina was yelling in a panic.

“I’LL FIGHT ‘EM!” Reno punched the wall in his enthusiasm.

“Are we gonna have to evacuate again?” Ava clung to her waist, fearfully.

“EVERYONE, CALM DOWN!” Cassian’s booming voice was apparently the only thing that could get the entire youth class back under control. Their classroom really wasn’t big enough to comfortably accommodate them all anymore, but they had squeezed them all in for this, which was probably the only plus to this mess. It meant that the kids were all together, hearing the news at the same time; they sat huddled together, small ones on bigger kids’ laps, and it was at least comforting to know that they had all come a long way from that first classroom she had ever walked into. But the news of the scattered rebel fleets all being called in from across the galaxy, of a major council meeting that for some reason Jyn and Cassian were having to attend, it was scaring them all.

Jyn didn’t blame them.

She sat next to Cassian on the one table that they had in the room, Poe held safely in her lap. He was being unusually clingy, refusing to be put down and holding onto her pants or shirt for dear life if he was. Cassian spoke to the kids in that calm, yet still commanding way of his, which helped at least a little in putting everyone at ease.

“Look,” he explained. “we honestly don’t know what this meeting is going to be about. Just know we’ll only be gone for one morning and will be back in the afternoon. One of the other usual training officers will watch you guys, it’s nothing to worry about.”

“But this isn’t a normal meeting, is it?” the ever perceptive Trina called out. That caused several others to pipe up and Jade to sign frantically at them.

Truth was no, it wasn’t a normal meeting. But if her sessions with Dhanya had taught her anything, it was that they needed to carry on as normal as possible, no matter how crazy it might seem. Honestly, if the kids weren’t prepared for what was about to happen then Jyn certainly wasn’t, and the only thing keeping her heart from slamming out of her chest was Cassian’s hand occasionally reaching out and brushing against her side.  But they could do this.

They had to.

She caught some anxious looks but the next morning they still left for the council meeting, making their way through the giant frigate only for it to eventually be confirmed that every Bothan who had gone after information about the new Death Star had died. After everything else they’d been through it was barely a blow at this point, but Jyn still felt her eyes close at it regardless. Cassian pressed his forehead subtly into her hair for a moment. This was it. It was all happening. They were attacking, and it was happening again, and someone actually had the audacity to ask whether Jyn and Cassian were going to be on the strike team sent down to Endor.

“We couldn’t,” Cassian insisted. “We can’t, you know that.”

But there were a lot of eye rolls at that. She heard someone mutter under their breath, “Who let the babysitters in?” Someone called down from the top of the tiered seating, “Why were they even allowed in here?” and Jyn was half ready to leap up there before Cassian could even get a hand on her shoulder.

Mothma hushed the chatter at once, but turned to Jyn and Cassian while General Akbar explained the logistics of the attack in the background. “While others might not think the same, I do not expect either of you to fight,” she told them without preamble. “You were asked here as it was thought you deserved to know what was happening.”

They’d been on this side of the pressure before. Jyn knew that look in Cassian’s eye. They were incapable of not helping whenever someone asked for it, but this was way bigger than anything else.

This was no Hoth evacuation, this was a carefully planned attack.

“We understand,” Jyn answered. “We can’t join the troops, but we thank you all the same.”

“You should do it.”

Goddamn kriffing hell –

She and Cassian both whirled around. She almost thought she might have a heart attack at seeing several of their kids lurking at the entrance to the hall, Rivi being the one to defiantly step forward and call out. At once, the other teens hissed frantically at Rivi to come back while several council members gave exasperated groans and looks that clearly said, can’t you keep these children under control?

Honestly, sometimes Jyn didn’t think it was at all possible.

“I am so sorry – ALL OF YOU!” she leapt at her feet at once. “OUTSIDE, NOW.”

She ended up practically frog-marching the kids down to a nearby control room to yell at them in peace, Cassian rounding them up at the back with an equally furious look. It took a couple moments for her to realise it was the same room that she had retreated to after hearing about the second Death Star for the first time. Cassian stood at her side once they had all filed sheepishly in, arms folded across his chest and glaring in that way he knew would make the kids cower.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE ALL DOING?” she stormed.

“Look what you did, Rivi, Jyn’s mad!” Geron hissed.

“YOU BET YOUR FUCKING ARSES I’M MAD,” Jyn said.

“Look, we just wanted to know what’s going on!” Rivi insisted. It was their group of eldest teens who had apparently snuck out – Jessa, Lahrin, Geron, Neera, Vance and Rivi – though Jyn had no doubt they would also be reporting back to everyone else. “Honest! You guys wouldn’t tell us, so what else were we supposed to do? Jessa tried slicing into the mainframe, but all the briefing notes were encrypted, so–”

“Bitch, way to throw me under the shuttlebus–” Jessa shoved Rivi hastily.

“I’M JUST SAYING,” Rivi threw up her hands. “We only wanted to know. We hate not knowing.”

Jyn rubbed her eyes. Shit, she had underestimated their kids in the worst way. Nothing was going to stop them from finding out. They were nearly adults, and they only wanted to know what was happening. She exchanged a look with Cassian and knew he was thinking the same thing.

“Look,” Cassian began. “you’re all in major trouble for sneaking out of class, let’s get that clear first. But…”

He gestured vaguely to a clear space in the middle of the control room, and they all sat down together. It felt like a moment to be sitting down for, at least. Jessa and Lahrin leaned against each other, Neera tucked underneath Jessa’s arm like a child still. Vance leaned back against a store cupboard, Geron resting against him with his legs over Rivi’s lap, despite all their frustration still at their ringleader. Ready to listen, because really that’s all they had wanted.

A chance to listen.

“How much of the meeting did you hear?” she asked.

“A bit,” Neera admitted.

“You all know already about the new Death Star,” Cassian explained. “We finally got intel. Where it’s located, its status, everything. It’s currently over a moon called Endor, so far non-operational and being overseen by Emperor Palpatine himself. A lot of people died to get that information.”

“Like you guys nearly died the first time,” Rivi said without hesitation.

Something stabbed her.

“Yes,” Cassian closed his eyes a moment. “The council is organising an attack on the Death Star. There are going to be two teams, fighter’s striking from space and another being sent to Endor to take out the shield that’s protecting the thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, we got that part. C’mon, guys! Don’t worry about us, you need to do it!” Rivi said, amidst more ‘yeah!’s and nods from the others. “The fucking EMPEROR is on that thing, if you guys manage to blow him up you could end the entire war!”

“It’s not that simple–”

“We don’t want you to hold back because of us,” Neera piped up.

“Yeah, we can take care of ourselves–”

“Hell, we could even help–”

“STOP, all of you,” Jyn snapped. They all fell silent. “You’re not helping, and we’re not going! Don’t even argue!”

“But don’t you want to?” Rivi, naturally, just ploughed on without a care. “You have a chance to end this, and we all know how much it would mean to you–”

“Rivi,” Jyn cut in. She stared around the confused faces of the teenagers and said in a slightly more gentle voice, “Look… yes, it would mean a lot. But the thing is, we have shit in our lives that mean more now. You, Rivi. And the rest of you insane kids,” she added, gesturing to the others. “You mean more to us than…” She trailed off helplessly, glancing over at Cassian.

“Anything,” he finished.

It was tempting. The knowledge that the Emperor was there, that there really was a good chance to get justice for her father and to seize a life she hadn’t realised how much she wanted until now… it was almost enough that the kids were giving them permission to go.

But they were children, and they were the adults, damn it. They had to make the hard decisions.

“I don’t get it,” Rivi threw up her hands.

“We don’t expect you to, Rivi.”

Just because the council was planning the end of a war didn’t mean that everything came to a screeching halt. It was Ava’s 11th birthday, which meant naturally they had to have a party for her. It at least seemed to lift some of the tension as they decked out the training gym in decorations and they all attempted to learn the traditional (and somehow hugely complicated) birthday folk dance that Ava apparently wouldn’t accept unless it was done perfectly. After some intense searching on the holonet, Jyn had managed at least to get the feet right and Ava shrieked with glee as they span around together.

“How the hell are you getting this?” Cassian didn’t exactly do out of breath, but she noted the exertion on his face at least as he pulled up alongside her. The man had no rhythm at all much to Ava’s severe disappointment and Jyn’s utter amusement. Hell, at least it gave her something to be amused about. She paused in the dance, letting Ava move on to a different partner and watching her grab onto Magda, swinging around with her instead.

“I pick things up quickly.”

He glanced at her as they took a break from dancing. The kids span and laughed underneath the coloured lights, and Jyn wished she could freeze it all. “Ava’s 11…” he said after a moment, shaking his head. “It can’t be real. She’s supposed to be a little eight-year-old who can’t go to bed without a goodnight hug.”

���To be fair, she still needs the hug.”

“True,” Cassian pointed out. “but she’s not allowed to get older.”

“I don’t know… I kind of want her to,” Jyn realised. She noticed Cassian’s questioning look and she carried on, “Just… this is a war. Malia will never be older than 18. I try not to imagine the kids getting older, because I know it will hurt more if they died… which I know probably isn’t very healthy of me to be thinking,” she added.

“I understand, though.”

She smiled as she watched Ava lean in and kiss Magda’s cheek, ever the cuddly, sweet one. “Thank the Force someone does. So when they do get older like this… it’s kind of a nice surprise.”

She wanted that life for them. She wanted them to have a life wholly different to hers, where it was actually a miracle if she reached her next birthday. She wanted these kids to actually grow up, get older. She wanted to see them hit the awkward puberty years, she wanted to see them slowly turn into adults, she wanted to still be there for them when they comm-ed her at 0200 asking how to wash sheets.

They wouldn’t get that chance unless they won this war.

Jyn sighed, reaching out and casually curling her fingers around Cassian’s.

“I’ve got to fight.”

He gripped her hand tight.

“I know.”

The rebellion moved in a hurry.

It seemed that no matter which way you turned, there was a shuttle heading in that direction. For as many squadrons that were coming in, there were enough also going out to distract the Empire from the fact that they were planning something in the first place. As non-combatants, Jyn got the message that the youth class was being shipped out to the nearest Alliance-friendly planet first thing in the morning, something none of the kids were all too happy about. Considering that up until this point they’d always managed to be in the thick of the action like during the Hoth evacuation, she wasn’t surprised that they weren’t taking too kindly to getting sent away.

“C’mon, we could help!” Azha was yelling, even as she was being carried sideways around the middle by Cassian like a smashball. She flailed her legs as she was hauled up the loading ramp. “I could kick some serious Imperial ass!”

“I know, you’ve only been complaining about it the last 24 hours,” Jyn rubbed her head, warily.

Cassian dumped the girl unceremoniously onto the shuttle, even as she continued to protest. The hangar was full of noise, the hustle and bustle of loading and unloading, people saying goodbye and officers trying to keep a semblance of order by frantically trying to keep track of how many were boarding. Jyn had been attempting to herd the kids onto their shuttle for the last half an hour, even with Ava clinging around her waist the entire time and refusing to let go. “Honestly,” she muttered under her breath. “You’re not making this easy.”

“I wanna stay!”

“You’re not staying, now get on the damn shuttle.”

“NO.”

“CASSIAN.”

Cassian thankfully strode over and scooped Ava up in one movement. By the time he made it back to the shuttle, both Azha and Reno had managed to jump out the doors and escape once again.

Kriffing hell.

“LOOK, look, come here guys,” Jyn hadn’t wanted to do a big goodbye. It felt too final, too much like she wasn’t coming back, but apparently nothing else was going to settle them. She sat down on the loading ramp (much to the exasperation of the officer overseeing their evacuation) and gestured for everyone to gather round her. Bree crawled into her lap while everyone thankfully listened to her this time. Cassian stayed standing, she noticed. He’d been on edge ever since they’d gotten the official evacuation notice, and the folded arms across his chest told her that he hadn’t lightened up at all since then.

“Look, I need you guys all to listen right now,” Jyn called out to the class. “This thing that is happening, it’s important. It could change everything, or it could change nothing, we honestly don’t know how it’s going to go, but we need you to listen. Get on the shuttle. Stay with Cassian. I’ll see you all again when it is safe.”

“You’re not gonna die though, are you?” Haley asked, her face crinkled in concern.

Jyn smiled through what was honestly a lie. “I’ll have Aden and Tavisha with me. I promise I won’t.”

Still, Jyn made sure to hug every single kid that then grudgingly walked onto that shuttle. She reminded Reno to keep his fists to himself and Warrin to keep squeezing his stress ball if he needed to. She had to deal with Bree crying as she handed her over to Cassian and held it together when she clapped a hand onto Talek’s shoulder, accepting his small nod as a warning to please be careful. She tried to avoid watching Carina, Caylen and Ann as their parents came over to say goodbye, much like all the other kids who had parents who hadn’t already left yet to take part in the attack.

“Honestly!” the officer overseeing them spluttered when even Aden and Tavisha came over to say goodbye. “How many more kids are coming on this flight? Because my manifest already says that we’re six seats short, there’s no way we can fit more on–”

“There’s another shuttle evacuating the medical and support staff,” Jyn just rolled her eyes. “Some of the older guys can just go on that one.”

While Jessa, Lahrin, Geron, Neera, Vance and Rivi got diverted to another shuttle (“Jessa, you are in charge, don’t let those hooligans out of your sight!”) Jyn finally got a chance to pull Cassian to the side. Fingers sliding in against his, she let out a breath as they stood together, blocking out anything that wasn’t the other’s breath.

“I still don’t like you going without me,” Cassian said, quietly.

“We both know one of us has to stay with the kids.”

“I know,” he sighed. “I’ll look after them.”

“You better. At this point they’re likely to stage a mutiny.”

He at least chuckled slightly. Jyn tilted her head up and his lips quickly met hers, melting together for a long a moment as they dared. She wished there was more time, time to slide her hands up his spine and for him to tangle his fingers into her hair, but the officer with the datapad was coughing pointedly behind them and she pulled back hastily to hug him.

“Destroy that thing, ok?” Cassian whispered, mouth pressed against her ear. “Destroy it and come home.”

“I will.”

She watched the shuttle take off with Aden and Tavisha’s arms around her.

Jyn slammed an elbow into a Stormtrooper’s chest plate, regretting it immediately at the pain that flared. Still, she carried on, slamming her boot into the joint of his thigh and he crumpled to the forest ground. She ran, trying to activate the comm in her ear at the same time. She’d been hearing Leia calling her the last fifteen minutes or ago, but had rather had her hands full. Tavisha was with another group, but Aden skidded to a halt when he realised that Jyn was pausing.

“Go on!” she yelled. They needed all the help they could get.

Aden simply pointed his blaster at her. Something gripped her throat for half a second, before she realised that the shot had gone somewhere over her shoulder and taken out a Stormtrooper who had been moments from blasting her brains out from behind her.

“Nah, I’ll stay here,” Aden called, cheerfully.

Jyn rolled her eyes before finally calling Leia back.

“Sergeant Erso!” Leia could barely be heard over the shots fired, Ewoks screaming in fury and the occasional explosion. “The bunker doors have been deadlocked and R2 is compromised, we need help.”

“I can call–”

“I’ve tried,” Leia cut in. “All the signals back to the fleet are going haywire, there’s just too much traffic–”

“I’ll get through,” Jyn insisted. “You concentrate on not dying.”

“Oh, Han has that covered.”

“I’ll bet,” Jyn muttered, before pulling the comm out of her ear and attempting to manually patch it through to any of their base ships up with the main rebel fleet. She just had to hope that she got lucky and for one moment she thought she had – but then she heard a bunch of voices all yelling over each other in amongst a lot of shaky static. She almost tried a different frequency…

Except.

“Shit, shit, someone’s trying to contact the ship!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“BACK UP CAN’T COME TO THE COMM RIGHT NOW.”

Why did that sound a hell of a lot like –

Oh.

Fuck no.

“Like you’re all going to be,” Jyn suddenly snarled down the comm. “Unless you all tell me where the hell you are right now.”

Silence down the comm. Aden stared at her weirdly, before slamming the butt of his blaster into a ‘trooper’s helmet.

“Oh fuck,” the unmistakable voice of Lahrin said.

“OH FUCK SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT,” Jyn yelled. “What the HELL are you all doing? Why aren’t you with Cassian – WHERE ARE YOU – you’re all being black-carded!”

“Shit, we really are in trouble now,” Neera’s trembling voice put out there.

“NEERA – HOW MANY OF YOU –?”

“There’s only the six of us!” Lahrin insisted.

“FOR THE RECORD,” there was a loud scraping noise before Rivi’s voice thundered in, like she’d just knocked something over in her haste to explain herself. “THIS WASN’T MY IDEA.”

“Yeah, you just encouraged it.”

“Vance, I’m breaking up with you.”

Jyn didn’t have the goddamn time for this. Her kids were apparently up there somewhere, not safe on a planet systems away, but right in the thick of the battle. They could be fucking shot out of the sky, what the HELL were they thinking –

“Look, we will handle how much trouble you are all in later!” Jyn barked. Much to her inconvenience, she noticed an AT-AT making its way closer to where she was, and even Aden couldn’t hold that off. They sprinted together through the underbrush as Jyn carried on, “I need to speak to whoever is in charge of whatever shuttle you’ve all apparently stolen!”

“We didn’t steal it!”

“We just – hitched a ride?”

“But anyway,” Geron called out, clearly a bit further away since his voice was more tinny than the others. “That’s gonna be a bit of a problem since our only pilot kind of just fell unconscious.”

Cassian was going to get an earful about this later.

“What the hell happened?”

“We only wanted to help,” Lahrin insisted. “So we fudged the numbers of the flight manifest so that we’d get put on a different shuttle and convince the pilot to come back.”

“And that worked?”

“When we stole his blaster, yeah.”

“You are all dead meat. Continue.”

“Well, we got back but we got hit,” Lahrin said. “The shuttle isn’t too compromised, but the pilot hit his head.”

“Wait, then who the hell is flying?”

“Vance.”

Honestly, these kids were going to be the death of her. They were naturally only doing what they had been taught, which was to always do the right thing and a part of her couldn’t help but even be a little impressed. Of course Vance could figure out how to fly an unknown shuttle with only an indecipherable instruction manual and his own limited knowledge learned on his own time. Of course Lahrin managed to fudge a ship manifest. Next, Jessa would be using her slicing skills to –

“Ok,” Jyn shook her head. “Ok, ok, ok. Hold on one moment, let me just–” She had to shoot her way across a clearing, Aden covering her back. She kicked at a Stormtrooper that was attempting to shake off the Ewok on its back and quickly dove into the brush on the other side. “I’m back,” she said down the shaky comm line once more. “Now listen to me, you little shits. I need Jessa, I’m assuming she got roped into this too?”

“I’m here,” the seventeen-year-old’s voice was quivering and she wasn’t surprised. This was the same girl who had broken down in her arms when Malia had died.

“Good,” Jyn said. “Jessa, we have to open the doors to the control centre that the shield is operated from, but they’ve been deadbolted. I need you to slice in remotely, I know you know how to do that–”

“Using this shuttle’s equipment?!” Jessa said in a panic. “Jyn, I can’t–”

“YES, YOU CAN, because this entire damn plan is counting on it!” Jyn said. “JESSA, listen to me, I know you’re scared. I know you probably only got dragged along on this hare-brained scheme because you’re the oldest and you felt like you had to protect the others, but you are strong. You are brave, and you can do this.”

For a long moment, she heard nothing but static that occasionally cut back into the frequency. She could hear the insisting beeping that told her that Leia was no doubt waiting on another line, but she already knew what she wanted. She had to believe that Jessa could do this. Her skills had already surpassed what Jyn had been capable of herself when she was younger –

“Ok, I’m gonna try,” Jessa said.

She did. And the second that Leia stopped trying to get through, Jyn knew that her kids had done it.

[mahouproject-one]

Nothing Left To Say | Miyu | Trial (re: all; ATTN: Genbu)

Miyu knew that the bitter words wouldn’t end simply because she was condemned and crying. There was still plenty of time to make sure she knew exactly how badly she had screwed up, and after she had preyed upon the class’s pity earlier to save herself, there was no reason for anyone to show her any sympathy.

Sympathy, or something akin to it, still poured in. Miyu didn’t really understand what Farah was trying to say, but she knew by the end that they were trying to wish her peace in death. (Ah, so they were the secret admirer all along.) Takako was… Takako. Ever the force of chaos, she had already forgiven Miyu, or more accurately had not been hurt by any of this to begin with. And only now was Miyu beginning to wonder if Takako cared about anyone. (At least if she really did stay behind as a ghost, she could always vent at her and not have to expect a heart-to-heart talk in return.)

Which left Mi-ke.

“We almost had it. I almost – I could’ve… Why did you…?”

But she knew why, of course. She was the true third wheel, the interloper who saw two lovers weakly huddled together and decided right then that the three of them needed to kill someone. And, really, it was still just as much Miyu’s fault as it was Mi-ke’s or Kris’s, no matter what they had to say about it. It had been her four words – “we can end this” – that had marked the beginning of this night.

She had meant to only be a guard and a saboteur (not realizing that it would have all been for naught and that the other two planned to confess), but she was still more than just an accessory to murder. She’d still brought this down on Mi-ke, so why would they ever keep protecting her once it was clear she was dragging their boyfriend down with her?

“You’d… You’d better take care of each other. That’s the least you two can do now, for yourselves. And for me.”

These were the exact wrong words to say, especially right after overhearing “we have to talk”. When was that ever a prelude to something good? But buried deep in her harsh words was some fragment of concern. She knew that Kris and Mi-ke were now the biggest targets in the class, and she knew that they were the only ones who could protect themselves.

…Miyu didn’t want to think of the near future and what it would bring for them. Ghost possibilities aside, she would be unable to see that future, anyway.

And finally, it was time to separate. Miyu Suzuki was destined to be alone in the end, anyway. She tried not to look at the reopened wounds on her hands, or at the smear of blood she had left behind on Kris’s jacket. Why would he protect someone who was minutes away from death, anyway?

(…Could she run? But, no, Ouryuu had chains. She’d dragged them around like animals for much less than this. The fireplace was so close, but… But the entire castle seemed to pulse with her malice. Miyu’s only hope would be to leap off the school grounds entirely and into the rocks that were surely below the layer of fog. Escape just wasn’t possible.)

The room still echoed with so many justifications and so many reproaches. The voices were beginning to blend into each other, people were saying things Miyu already knew and had known all this time, and – and she had enough.

“Stop.”

Gripping the sides of her pensieve, she forced herself back onto her feet, taking just a moment to wipe the last of her tears on her sleeve. She’d had her moment of weakness, and she was resolved not to spend all of her final moments sobbing on the floor.

“Just – stop it, Kris, Mi-ke-chan. I-I can defend myself.”

From the moment she collapsed after overexerting herself swinging the spade, this whole night had been all about them defending Miyu. The scalpel wounds were not her idea. The lies about improper use of leash spells and cat-ear spells were not her idea. Not even the story about a hitman blackmailing a poor naïve girl had been entirely her idea, even though she had taken to the role as well as she could.

A Suzuki needed to be able to take care of themself. As the heiress, as Kintaro’s successor, as the person who was meant to fix all of their problems, she needed to stand on her own and speak for herself.

Holy was the only person she wished to directly speak to. Holy, because he was completely right. He had put his trust in her, telling her about the scene he had witnessed (that she deliberately made sure people witnessed), telling her about his own deep fears and even the few personal details he had been willing to share.

She wanted to call him by his real name, to prove that she really had grown fond of him over these past weeks, but she couldn’t do that when everyone else was listening in. Besides, she had a hunch it wouldn’t be appreciated. She cleared her throat, trying to get rid of the last signs that she had been crying.

“I-I know I betrayed your trust, Holy-san. But you aren’t the stupid one here.”

Which implicitly meant Miyu was, not that she could ever directly say it.

“And of course it’s not an apology – why ask for forgiveness when I know I’ll never get it? It’s information. For you and the rest of Genbu.”

It seemed she remembered that she had procrastinated for weeks on contributing to the bulletin board.

“All this time, I’ve had access to the other half of the topic that Akiyama-san brought up the other day. I’ve had it since shortly before that Labyrinth trip, and I knew what was in that place. I think you can understand why I didn’t want to tell anyone right away – not that it matters anymore.”

“By the way, most of what I said about Hope’s Peak Academy is true, as far as I understand it. They did indeed offer my father a plea deal in which I would be protected as a student. All so that they wouldn't have to face the fallout of a former Art Dealer and a Pharmaceutist being investigated for fraud.

The only thing I don’t know is why they would send students with certain… occupations such as ours together on the same trip. Did they want to see if a hitman and a vigilante would hunt down a forger and a thief, all on their own, or maybe see if they would attack each other…? All I know for certain is that the academy cannot be trusted ever again. Anything they offer comes with strings attached. Remember that.

And remember… remember that someone started this by awakening Ouryuu. If you all want that badly to live? Find that person, and make them pay.”

She let her words hang in the air.

“…I’m not sure what else you all want me to say. Tell my family that I love them? Actually, no, tell my grandmother Chie that I hate her. I’ve hated her for years because she never accepted that I was myself, and I’ve wished that she was dead. There, tell her that. As for my father… Tell him thanks for nothing. Thanks for selling me to the academy just to prevent a prolonged trial.”

Miyu knew it was more complex than that – the board members had told her Kintaro did it out of love for her, to save her from the legal consequences of what she had done. Her mother told her everything he had done was for her, even when he questioned every one of her life’s decisions. Miyu had been expected to forgive her father because of all that.

Even now, as she was about to die, she couldn’t find it in herself to forgive Kintaro for dragging her into a life of fraud and forgery. She would never forgive him.

“…Goodbye. Maybe I really will become another lost soul here, like Agatsuma or Tenpō-san. But if I become an onryō like Ohara-sensei… I hope that you would have the sense to put me down one last time, for good.”

Because Miyu feared loss of identity in all aspects, like being laid to rest under a name that wasn’t hers. Or becoming like Seiji, a being of rage and anguish that was cursed to haunt the dungeons for the foreseeable future.

She gave the crowd one of those well-trained smiles, the falsehood that decorum had taught her. Fake it ‘till you make it – back then, right now, and always.

“…Thank you.”

To who? To Reiko, Joon-young, Outa, Hikaru, and Holy, all of whom she had betrayed and left behind nothing to prove her existence but a blood-smeared notebook? To Takako and Farah who had wished her peace in death and in the afterlife? To Mi-ke and Kris who had given up everything in the futile attempt to save her? Or just to some unseen force, for having given her life to begin with?

…But Miyu had never really believed in higher powers.