#because rest assured logan isn’t going back so quick

[23fallencomets]

love me gently (or not at all) pt v

nico rosberg vs logan sargeant explained, this makes is sound worse than it is but it’s not, promise. Sort of a filler chapter with a smaller insight of the Power-Dixon pack and Seb’s here! also we’re ignoring the fact that i said these chapters will be short, this one is 1k words

Nico has always been a complicated person, always doing things first before thinking of the consequences. Him claiming Lando back when the Brit was younger had been instinct, their souls long having been intertwined by higher powers. When he and Jenson finally mated, his partner had claimed Lando as his without a second thought.

And then Logan, with his wide blue eyes and nervous demeanor, always half-hiding behind the nearest person had entered the picture. Nico hadn’t been there when Jenson claimed the American, having been off solidifying pack ties with another pack.

Something in him broke when he came back and the young omega had been curled up against Jenson, fast asleep and for the first time since Nico had seen him, his scent smelled clean, devoid of the sour undertones of stress and nerves.

It rankled Nico; the American was nothing extraordinary, at least not until Jenson left for his own duties. The pups, the ones under eighteen, had taken to Logan like ducks to water, trailing after him in either form. Kimi liked being carried and Logan had no issue hauling him up, Ollie always insisted being on his right while Franco took his left with the others following.

Logan never lost his patience with them, stopping arguments and scuffles with a single glance. Nico didn’t understand what it was, feeling his instinct go haywire whenever Logan trailed after him almost instinctively. Even he looked a little confused, stopping in his tracks and turning away before eventually finding his way back just a few steps behind Nico.

Seb, at the end, in Lewis’s office hours after Logan left tells him it was his own jealousy fighting with his instincts.

“He doesn’t have a Dame,” Seb explains, still standing by Lewis’s desk. Their pack alpha is looking at Seb with wide eyes, clearly no longer paying attention now that his mate was here. It makes Nico glance at Jenson; his alpha looks distraught, legs shaking with his scent muted, tucked away where Nico can’t reach.

“Imagine this, his original pack, the Will-Dixon pack, love and cherish him, but none of them were his in the same way you and Jenson are Lando’s,” Seb says, “He comes here and within days, Jenson claims him, do you know what happens next? He starts seeing you as his Dame wether officially or not.”

“Logan went twenty years without being claimed, do you know how he must of felt at the possibility of having two pack parents, at the feeling of being wanted?” Sebastian stresses, “If we ignore the logistics of his own parents, you would fit the bill of a Dame, at least for him. Logan wanting you there for his heat is his omega seeking yours out for comfort and you denied him and yourself that right.”

Nico shifts uncomfortably, feeling Jenson’s gaze snap towards him, “Nico, I’m not asking you to accept Logan immediately, but put some thought into it and talk to Lando, from what the others are telling me, it’s not just you pushing Logan aside.” Seb turns to Jenson, “Until this gets resolved, I’ll be delegating your assignments, both of yours actually, to the older pack members.”

He turns to Lewis, glaring at him, “And why would you let Logan walk out? He’s still ours.” Lewis opens his mouth to defend himself but thinks better of it, his mouth clicking shut with a clack, “Now I have to get in contact with either Will or Scott and fix this mess.” Seb shook his head, waving Jenson and Nico out while kicking Lewis out of his chair.

☆☆☆

Oscar leaves when the sun dips behind the mountains, a water color painting of blues, pinks, and purples smattering across the sky. He had been invited in for dinner and was able to meet everyone all over again. Pato and Rossi hovered over Logan in the same way Esteban and Lance tend to do, the partners keeping an eagle eye on Oscar. David was more agreeable, launching into a conversation about whatever as Nolan, the newly-presented Alpha leans heavily into him.

The heads of the pack, Will and Scott watch them with a fondness that makes Oscar squirm a little, the clear love and devotion for their pack obvious. It’s not that Lewis or Seb didn’t look at them like that, but everything was more muted back at home. Here, everyone is everywhere, sprawled around each other in the living room nest—there are various nests throughout the house—or in the kitchen, or outside running around.

It makes something in Oscar’s chest ache, the clear divide in his own pack now crystal clear. Logan usually stuck to the edges, further away from the rest of them no matter how much Oscar tried to pull him in. Lance had been the one to crawl over Fernando and curl around Logan, then Esteban and Yuki followed while some scents soured. Oscar had slipped out from in between Charles and Lando and laid in between Logan’s legs, his omega the omega giggling.

“Thank you.” Logan whispers to him as Oscar gets ready to leave. His duffle bag is filled with some things Logan had scented to take back to the pack. It feels odd, getting into the car knowing Logan will be staying here and not in the passenger seat.

Oscar looks over his shoulder where Rossi had been switched out by a guy who called himself StingRay Rob—which okay?—and David had taken Pato’s spot, arms crossed against his chest.

“You sure you don’t want to come back?” Oscar asks even though it’s useless because he had helped arrange Logan’s new room with a heavy heart, sticking the photos on the wall and helping him build a new nest. Something crosses Logan’s face, uncertainty and reluctance.

Logan sinks into a hug, his scent soft and soothing, “After my heat we can talk about it.” It sounds like a promise and Oscar takes it with both hands, greedy with the idea of Logan coming back home to him them.

Now, on the drive back home, he wonders about his own pack, a knot in his stomach as the road stretches out in front of him.

☆☆☆

Seb sits at the desk, Lewis sitting on the side as he dials Will Power’s number, glaring at his mate as the phone rings.

“I can’t believe you, Lewis Hamilton, I really can’t.” Seb mutters, shaking his head, “I leave for two days and we’re down two pack members.”

The call connects, a familiar Australian accent greeting him, “Never thought I would see the day Sebastian Vettel would be calling little old me.”

Seb rolls his eyes, “Well you’re certainly right about the old part,” Will snorts as Seb continues, “I hear you have my pup.”

“He was mine first, Vettel.” Will reminds, “He still has our insignia.” Sebastian’s eyes snap to Lewis, a guilty look on his face. Of course the one thing Lewis had to do to all of them, Logan doesn’t have.

“Jenson claimed him.”

“And Nico rejected him.” Will shoots back, “Our boy told us all about it, but your other boy, Oscar just left after dropping some things off for Lo’s heat, he’s a good kid, strong alpha and clearly cares for his mate.”

Seb had forgotten about that, “When can we see him?” He has to relent, at least for now and until he gets all the information necessary to fix this mess. He shoots Lewis an unforgiving glare.

“After his heat in a week, maybe two while he gets settled,” There’s a beat, “At least more than he already is, made a nest and everything already, and my boys aren’t going to let him go so easily.”

Seb snarls, “He’s not staying.”

Will chuckles, “Well, Vettel, that’s completely up to him; he’ll always have a home with us, but you guys? That’s a whole different story.”

The line goes dead.

[ellewriteswrongs]

layers of love - prinxiety

1.8k words

ao3 / ko-fi / previous work

summary: self-indulgent fluffy prinxiety, very domestic, some shrek references, y'all know the drill

cw: mild swearing, slight innuendo/suggestive dialogue

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Virgil asked from where he laid against his boyfriend’s chest. Roman’s hand stilled as he played with Virgil’s hair.

“Hmm?” He hummed, continuing to rock them with one leg hanging out of their shared hammock. “‘Course you can.”

Virgil made something akin to a purr as he laid in the sun, his hoodie discarded for once.

“When you first said you loved me…was it scary?”

Roman’s brow furrowed at the question, leaning back to try and see the other man’s face.

“Scary? I…I guess I don’t know. I think, in the moment, it just felt right,” he spoke with a soft smile, pausing only to plant a kiss on the other man’s forehead. “But ever since I realized it…every time I thought about saying it, I was terrified.”

When Virgil only shifted, tightening his grip around Roman’s waist, the latter continued.

“I was so worried you’d be freaked out and think I was moving too fast and the last thing I ever wanted was to scare you off, but I…” he trailed off, letting out an amused chuckle. “I was only ever afraid of losing you. Loving you has never scared me.”

Virgil hummed, leaning up to steal a lazy kiss from the corner of Roman’s lips.

“But what about all those stupid stories you like?” He smirked, folding his arms over Roman’s chest as he rested his chin on them. “Quite a bit of pressure there, Princey.”

Roman chuckled, twirling a particular strand of hair around his finger.

“Ahh yes, those stupid fairytales that you make me read to you all the time,” he teased, earning a playful slap on his shoulder. “I’ll have you know, I have more than enough understanding of when dramatic proclamations of my undying love are unwanted.”

Virgil just exhaled a short chuckle, reaching to pull Roman’s hand out of his hair and over to hold it against his cheek, first pressing a kiss into the palm.

“Isn’t that why it’s such a big deal though?” He mused, his eyes half-focused on the beach around them. “Like, isn’t the whole point of falling in love so that something changes once you say it? And…and nothing changed when we said it.”

Roman stiffed a little bit from under him. “Did you…want something to change?”

No. No, of course he didn’t. That was the best part about it.

He told Roman as such.

“I guess I just…always thought something would change, even if we didn’t really want it to,” he explained, closing his eyes as Roman started playing with his hair again. “But I like how we are. How we’ve always been.”

“How we’ve always been? I don’t know about you, stormcloud, but I think things have definitely changed for the better.”

Virgil huffed with a small smile.

“Alright, fine,” he said, his cheeks hot. “I’m glad we changed even if it was just a little.”

Roman chuckled, his chest vibrating comfortingly against Virgil’s head.

“Yeah, I think I like you a little bit more these days, sunshine.”

Virgil scoffed, jabbing Roman’s side with his elbow.

“Thanks, babe," he spoke teasingly. “What glowing praise."

Roman only wrapped both arms around him and squeezed tight, one hand cradling the back of his head and the other holding him by the waist.

"My darling dark and stormy knight,” Roman cooed dramatically, peppering kisses all over his face until the other started laughing. "The angel from my nightmares, oh how I adore you with everything I am."

Virgil smiled, his gaze soft and fond as he looked up at the man he loved.

"Mhm, that's more like it," he smirked, stealing a kiss. "I love you, dork."

Roman bent down to lean their foreheads together.

“What's with all the introspection, my love?"

"Good word, babe."

“Shut up, I'm just worried about you," Roman grumbled, tucking Virgil's head back under his chin.

"You're worried about me? Because I’m talking about being in love with you?" Virgil asked, taking one of Roman's hands to fiddle with his fingers.

"Well, you just don't...talk about it. We both don’t,” Roman explained, his voice vibrating through his chest. "And I'm glad we are, it's just...not what we do."

Virgil smiled, sighing contentedly.

"Nothing's wrong, I promise,” he assured him. "I guess I've just been thinking a lot lately."

"Oh wow, congrats," Roman teased with sarcastic claps.

“Shut up, oh my god,” Virgil complained, not even trying to hide his laughter. "I'm trying to be serious here."

"Alright, alright, I concede," Roman smiled, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

"I just kind of realized that I've been feeling different lately,” he started, causing Roman to immediately stiffen and lean back to see Virgil's face. Virgil smirked, rolling his eyes fondly. “I just told you nothing's wrong, chill babe."

"You telling me to chill out is quite ironic, methinks," Roman teased, relaxing back into the hammock. “It's not my fault you're rubbing off on me, Frank Fear-o.”

Virgil snorted a laugh at the nickname before he continued.

"Ever since we said it, I've just felt... better," he spoke, a soft smile on his face. "I don't even know how to explain it, it's just...better. I get headaches less, when I get anxious, it turns into panic attacks like half as much."

He paused as Roman's lips met his temple.

"And I think the strangest thing is," he spoke, propping himself up on his forearm to look down at his boyfriend

below him. “When you told me you loved me, I didn't doubt it for a second."

Roman gave a short, watery chuckle; his eyes tearing up just a little.

"Even just a year ago, I wouldn't've believed anybody who said that to me but you," he paused, reaching to squish Roman's cheeks with one hand until they both laughed. "I knew you'd never lie to me, but more than anything, I felt it."

He leaned in, intending to only steal a quick kiss before it swiftly escalated.

“Who knew you were such a sap?" Roman teased, breathing heavily as they eventually broke apart.

“Says you, Romeo."

“Oh, I wear that badge with pride, darling," he beamed. "According to Thomas' Twitter, I'm his 'simp' side."

Virgil snorted, laying back down as he leaned into Roman's shoulder.

"Okay, they're definitely right about that one,” he mumbled, ruffling the other’s curly hair affectionately. “I’ve got you wrapped around my finger and you can’t even deny it.”

Roman grabbed one of said fingers and brought it to his lips, planting a dramatic, drawn-out kiss with the most exaggerated noise he could.

“But of course!” He bellowed, earning a fond eye roll from his boyfriend. “For it is my only duty to bestow upon you all of the love one can possibly muster.”

Virgil quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m pretty sure you’ve got a few other duties, babe,” he challenged with a smirk. “Like maybe the concept pitch for the next scripted video that you haven’t done, or the notes for the editors, or the fact that Thomas hasn’t even picked up his ukulele since last year, or—��

“Okay! Okay, fine, I can’t devote my whole life to smothering you forever,” he agreed exasperatedly. “But if I could, I would.”

Virgil chuckled, folding his arms over Roman’s chest and resting his chin on top.

“Hmm, yeah I think I’d hate that.”

Roman gave an almost comical pout, pulling out the puppy dog eyes.

“Nope, absolutely not, you’re not getting me with that shit,” Virgil asserted, trying to maintain a firm tone as he came dangerously close to breaking into a smile. “Smother me twenty-four seven and I’ll dump you on the spot.”

Roman pulled a disbelieving face.

“You really think I’m buying that?” He smirked. “That you’d dump me for spoiling you absolutely rotten with my sweetness.”

He knew full well what he was doing.

“I need my space, princess,” he spoke, putting on a suave tone that he knew he wasn’t pulling off by the giggles that came from his boyfriend. “I gotta’ keep up the aesthetic.”

Roman brought Virgil’s hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles.

“Alright, alright, I respect the commitment,” he spoke, punctuated by kisses from Virgil’s hand up to his shoulder. “It’s so tragic that Mr. Misery Business would rather brood than swoon.”

“Who says I can’t have both?” He grinned. “I’m multi-faceted these days, babe. I have layers.”

Roman snorted a laugh, ducking his head right by Virgil’s ear.

“Layers,” he spoke with a heavy Scottish accent, his hands squeezing Virgil’s sides. “Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. We both have layers.”

“Oh my god,” Virgil cackled with laughter. “I hate it. I hate you, never speak to me again.”

Roman smirked, unfazed.

“But Virgil, that’s what friends do, they forgive each other.”

“One more word and you’re not getting any kisses for the rest of the week.”

“It’s already Friday.”

“Well, I don’t exactly want to punish myself in the process.”

Roman flushed a little at the rare admittance of affection.

“You think you couldn’t go a full week without any kisses?”

“I mean,” Virgil spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly want to find out.”

He answered with a chaste kiss to the other man’s temple. “I guess the world may never know.”

“If Logan were here right now, he’d probably try to get us to find out.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing I never listen to the ol’ poindexter anyways,” Roman grinned, quirking an eyebrow.

“Ahh, yes, my favorite thing about you,” Virgil teased with a sly smirk. “How you’d rather be eternally petty than have an ounce of rational thought in that pretty little head of yours.”

Roman gave an offended scoff.

“You know what, I’m just going to ignore everything you just said in favor of the fact that you called me pretty,” he defended with a humph.

“Oh, you like that?” Virgil continued teasing. “As if you don’t already know you're pretty.”

Roman feigned his innocence.

“I’m afraid I haven’t the slightest idea, darling. Perhaps you’ll have to enlighten me on what you find so appealing,” he drawled, his voice syrupy sweet in a way that would’ve made Virgil weak in the knees if they weren’t currently lying on top of each other. “My cute button nose? Thick, wavy locks? Maybe my taut, round buttocks?”

Virgil barked out a laugh, rolling his eyes with fond exasperation.

“Pull another Shrek quote out of that ass and I’ll see to it that you won’t be able to sit for a week—a full week.”

Roman froze, his eyes widening in surprise.

“Is…is that a threat or a promise?”

Virgil just groaned, shoving him until the hammock teetered and he panicked, clinging back onto the other man. “You’ve been spending too much time with your brother.”

“You may be right, but this is certainly more fun, I must admit,” he sighed happily.

“Just shut up and take a nap, princess.”

“As you wish, my love.”

[just-some-gt-trash]

8. “There’s nothing like your smile, sort of subtle and perfect and real.” (Dear Evan Hansen) maybe with Loceit?

Wuuu, guess who’s back! Ima just drop this here, it turned out waaay longer than I expected, and I didn’t even include the prompt lol, anyways part two is on the way!

Enjoy!

_______________________________________________

Janus was tired, it had been a stressful week for Thomas and he was finally having a break, so all the sides could rest that day.

Roman, Remus and Patton had dragged Virgil and Logan for a picnic or something at the imagination, but Janus was able to slip out of it, between everyone going up and down and from here to there for the last couple of days, he hadn’t been able to shed properly, and he really needed to, his scales were bothering him, and they were really scratchy, but he had been suppressing it since he didn’t want the others to see him like that.

So there he was, alone on his room and letting all his snake features show, his arms, his eyes and his fangs, he could hide them most of the time, unlike the scales on his face, but since there was no one around there was no need to.

And now he was getting hungry, he groaned, not really wanting to go out since he was considerably weaker and he looked gross, but again, there was no one home, so a quick little trip to the kitchen wouldn’t hurt right? Janus forced himself to stand up and walk out of his room, he was walking slow with a blanket covering him, using it kind of as a cape, he wasn’t wearing his usual outfit, he was shirtless and only had pants on, he got down the stairs and walked to the kitchen.

The deceiving side opened the fridge and shivered, pulling the blanket closer to himself, how could he be cold and hot at the same time? He honestly didn’t question it anymore, it just happened, anyways, he grabbed some fruit and some juice, thinking that would do it for now, he was about to go when “Ah, Janus, I wasn’t aware there was still someone on the house”

A bit scared and surprised, Janus turned to look at where the voice was coming from, Logan, so he too had slipped out of the “family trip”, he used his extra hands to cover himself with the blanket, and looked away to hide his shedding scales “o-oh Logan, I most certainly knew you were here as well”

Logan walked to the pantry to get some bread “I’m just taking a brief snack break as well” he mentioned noticing the thing on Janus’ hands “Thomas may not be doing anything at the moment, but there’s still a lot of things I have to look trough” he appeared not to have noticed the other side’s current state.

“Y-yeah of course, go ahead, I won’t be at my room” Janus said just to start walking out of the kitchen quickly, or at least as fast as he could like this.

Logan noticed his slow pace and turned to look at him “Is something bothering you? You appear unwell, or at least out of you characteristic personality”

Janus didn’t stop walking “I’m fine“ he hissed slightly, feeling the lie going out of his lips.

The logical side hummed “I know you’re lying” he left his half-made jam and peanut butter sandwich on the counter and walked to stand in front of Janus “Your current appearance makes it clear that you do not appear in fact, fine, as you put it”

“It’s not of your business” Janus went to walk around Logan to be able to get out of the kitchen, but was surprised when he felt the other grabbing his arm “Logan, let me go”

He shook his head “I can assure you Janus, though it’s hard to tell sometimes, I am your friend, or at least I consider you my friend, and I’m only trying to help you, I’m concerned about you”

Janus blinked, he wasn’t expecting that coming from the logical side “I’m not shedding, okay? It’s not that big of a deal, can I g to my room now?”

“Shedding?” Logan asked curiously, raising an eyebrow “I was not aware that was something you needed to go trough”

Janus rolled his eyes pulled his arm back, being able to get out of Logan’s grip “That’s not because I’ve been hiding it at all” he then continued his way, not really wanting to go on with this conversation.

Logan didn’t do anything to stop him “Do you require any assistance?”

“I’m fine“ Janus insisted, once again noticing he was lying, but not really being bothered by it, he was able to go up the stairs and to his room, glad Logan left him alone.

After an hour or so, there was a knock on his door, Janus groaned, knowing it was probably Logan since the others were going to take longer on their little trip, he stood up and opened the door “What?”

“I didn’t mean to bother you, it’s just that I’ve been investigating for the past hour and I came to the conclusion that your current environment is not ideal for your shedding process” Logan spoke as he gestured to Janus’ room.

Janus raised an eyebrow and looked around “And according to you, what would ideal be?”

Logan took out a small notebook and started reading from it “First of, you need a place that’s around 70% humidity, and your room surely wouldn’t be able to get to that, secondly, we’ve all been under a considerable amount of stress during this last week, and it’s most likely that your shedding will be affected by that, a warm bath could help you get rid of the old skin easier and snakes tend to be timid about this and shed better when alone, so I’ll leave after making sure everything’s right”

Janus was actually surprised, he crossed his arms “Why do you care so much whether I shed correctly or not?”

“Ah, well, as I mentioned earlier, I consider you a good friend and have certain attachment towards you” Logan adjusted his glasses as he spoke “if you want a not feelings related reason, I’m just looking out for you to make sure every part of Thomas’ mind is functioning as it should and in perfect state”

Janus sighed “Fine, I’ll let you help, but my room is /definitely/ able to have those conditions”

Logan nodded “I am aware, and knowing all the places around the mindpalace, I would say the imagination is the ideal place since it’s easier to change at will”

“No” Janus replied “We wouldn’t need Roman or Remus for that and I can assure you I want them to see me like this” he thought for a bit “There isn’t a place, it’s not on the subconscious, where I used to shed before, you know”

“Alright...” Logan seemed a bit unsure about this “I suppose it wouldn’t be ideal to go there on your own, I would be more than pleased to go with you if you let me”

Janus shrugged “That’s kind of not the whole point” he grabbed Logan’s hand, not noticing the other’s slight blush “Ready?” Logan just nodded, still surprised about Janus’ move, at the positive reaction, he took a deep breath and sunk down with Logan.

[ruined-my-dramatic-entrance]

Hat’s Off to You

Platonic fluff, a bit silly or OOC but not a crackfic lol, 1659 words TW: S!Janus

“What’s going on here?” Patton asked as he popped up.

 After rolling his eyes and a moment of hesitation, Virgil replied, “Princey brought up some dumb idea about Janus having some weird secret hidden under his hat and now he and Logan are debating it.”

 “Well, what’s all hat about?” the moral side inquired further with a grin.

 Though Patton had expected Virgil to at least smirk at this, the latter instead protested, “Please, just get them to stop for now or something…”

 “Okay, kiddo. Sorry about Pat — uh, I mean that,” Patton corrected himself quickly before turning his attention to the other two.

 “I still think it’s probably something weird and evil, like some devil’s horns or — or pointed ears,” Roman insisted, gesturing to the vague areas that those body parts would be placed on himself.

 “If Janus were to be hiding something underneath his hat — which I still have very significant doubts about — then it would probably be a result of his half-snake composition, such as a lack of hair on that side of his head, covered by scales,” Logan chimed in with an even tone.

 “Well, yeah, maybe, but it still could be something… much more sinister that reveals how Thomas truly visualizes Deceit in his mind,” the prince suggested with a deep curiosity.

 “Wouldn’t that be you, Roman?” Patton asked with an innocent smile.

 “Wha—? No, I’m not a liar! I’m an actor but I am not Deceit,” Roman dismissed, clearly offended.

 “No, that’s not what I meant, and I was talking about Janus, not evil,” Patton said, subtly reminding Roman to be kinder about the side in question. “I meant that the way Thomas views Deceit as a concept would be your creativity, kiddo,” he explained.

 Roman paused for a moment. “I… suppose you’re right,” he agreed.

 “That would make sense, though it would still have the influence of how Thomas feels about the concept of Deceit in genera—” Logan tried to elaborate, but was cut off by Roman.

 “By Artemis’s beautiful bow, I think I know!” the creative side exclaimed with a wide gesture.

 “You’ve… decided on a guess?” Logan prompted, frowning slightly in curiosity and pushing his glasses backwards as he scanned Roman with his eyes.

 “Oh, brother, what is it now?” Virgil groaned, pulling his hood up over his head.

 “That’s the spirit! What do you think, Roman?” Patton encouraged excitedly.

 “Wolf ears,” Roman answered simply, as if the answer was obvious.

 “Uh… might’ve misheard you there, Kiddo,” Patton fretted, leaning in a bit closer in hopes of understanding Roman’s words better.

 “That… is an interesting guess. I suppose I could see some reasoning for this,” Logan mused, placing his knuckle against his lips in thought.

 “Please tell me you’re not actually considering this, dude,” Virgil pleaded, pulling his sleeves over his hands.

 “No, no, I’m serious!” Roman persisted, holding out his hands in a “wait” gesture. “From my best understanding of how Thomas views deception, he gets consistently stuck on the phrase ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ and sometimes he imagines liars as having certain wolf traits,” he finally explained. “Though, he usually only does that past 3am,” he added with a slight shrug before looking towards the rest of the group for approval.

 “In addition to that, Janus does seem to... work alone, if you will, with his varying goals for Thomas — a lone wolf, perhaps,” Logan elaborated, “Wolves are also regarded for their intelligence and have very complicated social dynamics, maybe tying into Janus’s ability to use charisma to his advantage. Symbolically, wolves are also regarded as confident, which he definitely exhibits.”

 “Come on, you don’t actually think Janus would have something as… as stupid as that,” Virgil disagreed, rubbing the back of his neck. Logan narrowed his eyes at the way he stumbled over his words.

 “Virgil, I expected you to be less… concerned about this matter — furthermore, to mock him for it,” the logical side deduced, tilting his head slightly in confusion. “So… either you’re embarrassed about something similar or something is wrong here,” he declared, causing the room to fall silent for a few seconds.

 “What’s wrong with Virge, Logan? Don’t just leave it all… ominous like that! It’s scary,” Patton fretted, looking at the side in question with worry.

 At that moment, Virgil showed up, shoving aside the “Virgil” that had been there before, who was pushed into the wall and reverted back into his true form.

 “Did someone say ‘scary?’” Virgil asked nonchalantly, giving Patton a quick glance before returning to glaring at Janus.

 “Deceit!!” Logan yelled, pointing at Janus.

 “Yes, yes, we’ve noticed, Logan, no need to sound the alarm, especially not so loudly,” Janus remarked.

 “Virgil!” Patton and Roman exclaimed in unison with smiles.

 “What was he doing here? What did he say?” Virgil asked, voice serious and impatient.

 “Nothing much! Since I got here, he was just denying some of Roman and Logan’s theories about what’s under his hat,” Patton recounted.

 “Yes, padre is right; that’s all the snake has done, nothing particularly evil or sinister,” Roman confirmed with a slight nod as if his valiant watch had kept Janus in check, whereas in reality he hadn’t really noticed.

 Virgil snickered. “You mean ‘cause he’s insecure about this?” he asked with a mischievous smile as he managed to snatch Janus’s hat, revealing a pair of… dark wolf ears.

 “Hah! I knew it! I called it! That was me, I was right. Got it before Logan,” Roman announced proudly before clearing his throat awkwardly and growing quiet to listen.

 “Only because it was your interpretation of symbolism,” Logan muttered under his breath, petty.

 “Aww, you’re like a teddy bear!” Patton commented with a gasp, “Or a puppy! Why would you hide this? We wouldn’t make fun of you for something so cute and nonthreatening!” He paused suddenly, realizing that he had just spoken the exact reason. “Ohh…” He grimaced slightly in guilt.

 “Yes, well, isn’t this lovely. This is exactly what I wanted, Virgil, thank you,” Janus complained in annoyance, shooting the man in question a pointed look. “It’s obvious that this is totally a part of myself that I like and wanted to share with the group.”

 “Janus, we won’t make fun of you for it, especially if you’re so insecure about it,” Patton reassured, looking around the room for agreement and receiving nods from everyone… as well as muffled snickers from Roman and Virgil.

 “Grandma, what big ears you have,” Roman murmured quietly under his breath, unable to resist the temptation.

 “What does it matter anyway? It’s clear I’m viewed as but a beast or a — a monstrous creature. Why would words make that any different?” Janus retorted to Patton, both his eyes and his phrasing giving away his hidden sadness.

 “Well, Janus, you of all sides should understand the power that words can hold,” Logan reminded tersely.

 “Regardless, Thomas could have at least chosen something scarier rather than just… an amalgamation of different animal symbols out of confusion,” Janus griped, gesturing into the air in frustration.

 “Weird is better than scary if it’s constant. Trust me on this one,” Virgil insisted, though his expression turned to one of slight… sympathy?

 “Trust isn’t exactly my strong suit,” Deceit responded, casting an unpleasant glance across the rest of the room. “I wonder why?” he added sarcastically.

 “It’s not my department either but…” Virgil trailed off, sighing. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this to you of all people,” he muttered. “But… I know what it’s like to feel different and unnecessary and — and like you’re built to just be weird, to just be the outcast,” he admitted, avoiding looking into the half-snake’s eyes. “I know what it’s like but… it’s not like that here, not with them. Not with us,” he assured, fiddling with his sleeves.

 “I think we all owe Janus an apology,” Patton pointed out. “I’m sorry for not respecting your privacy,” he said, looking at the aforementioned man with empathy.

 “I apologize for my earlier behavior. I was curious but not considerate,” Logan chimed in concisely.

 “I… suppose I’m sorry too,” Roman agreed, though he opened his mouth to say something else and closed it a moment later.

 “I guess I shouldn’t have… done that,” Virgil mumbled, handing Janus his hat back. “But you shouldn’t have impersonated me either.”

 “Very well, very well… I’m sorry for taking your place and deceiving you,” Janus replied, “though it did take them quite a while to catch on…”

 “It is indeed odd that Janus’s impersonation of you is much more accurate than of me or Patton,” Logan commented, frowning again in contemplation.

 “And that Virgil already knew about Janus’s ears,” Roman added, looking at Virgil in confusion.

 “Well, I —” Virgil began nervously.

 “— The little brat has done this before, you see,” Janus excused as he interrupted the anxious side. “It was terribly irritating,” he recalled about the false event, examining his nails through his gloves. “And yes, I’m afraid that the emo is the simplest to mimic -- it’s dreadfully easy,” he mocked, though said emo looked up at him when he realized that Janus had just… covered for him and his past as a dark side. That was not anywhere near what Virgil had expected.

 “Ah, that would make sense,” Logan accepted with a slight nod.

 “I, for one, still can’t decide whether his fluffy little ears are scary or, uh, adorable,” Roman admitted.

 Janus scoffed and examined his nails through his glove. “If you’re disturbed by this, wait until you find out what Remus hides under his mustache,” he pointed out.

 After a beat of silence, every other side in the room turned to him in a mixture of surprise, fear, and disgust, all exclaiming some variation of “hold up,” “wait,” or “what?!” Except for Patton, who simply remarked, “Well, I suppose we must-ask him later” with a chuckle.

[raleighcarrera]

cliché

ride or die | colt kaneko x mc (ellie wheeler)

an au where everyone is college friends and logan is getting married and the best friend of his ellie always hated is going to be logan’s best man. as the maid of honor, she’s probably expected to be at least a little nice to him. 

for @rodappreciationweek, of course! day 7/wild card

(spoiler alert: i bent the rules of weddings for plot reasons so go easy)

tags: @choicesarehard, @lovehugsandcandy, @pixeljazzy, @troublemakerinspace, @dancingboba, @yaushie, @brightpinkpeppercorn, @tempesrature, @zigtheeortega, @beccadavenport, @theeccentricbibliophile 

~15.5k words | M (18+)

she squealed, clapping her hands excitedly in view of the laptop’s webcam. “i’m so happy for you guys! seriously, this is amazing.”

from across the country, ingrid beamed, still holding her left hand aloft so ellie could see her ring. “did you know?”

ellie shook her head. “i knew he’d bought a ring but i didn’t know he was proposing now.” her attention turned to logan, “i thought you were waiting until your anniversary?”

he shrugged, looking just as excited as ingrid did. “i couldn’t wait anymore, it was driving me crazy.”

ingrid leaned her head on logan’s shoulder. “ellie, say you’ll be my maid of honor.”

“oh my god, of course i will!” ellie gushed, blinking away a sudden wave of emotion. “please, you guys know i’d do anything for you.”

the two of them exchanged a glance. “glad to hear you say that,” logan said slowly, “because i already asked colt to be my best man.”

the smile dropped off her face. “are you kidding me?”

“come on, it won’t be that bad,” ingrid rushed to assure her, “you’ll hardly have to deal with him. but -- while we’re breaking bad news to you...” she pursed her lips, and then shrugged. “we already set a date, too.”

“it’s in three months,” logan interjected helpfully.

ellie felt her eyes bug out. “three months?”

“el, we got our dream venue,” ingrid sighed wistfully, “you’re going to die when you see it. it was the only saturday they had available for, like, the next five years. it’s in santa monica overlooking the water and it’s just -- it’s perfect.”

“that’s really soon,” she said dumbly, “we have a lot to do.”

“totally.” ellie watched as ingrid shifted from blushing bride in love to ruthless, no-nonsense delegator. “we’re going to cram as much of it in as we can when you’re home for spring break. i already made us appointments to go look at dresses and tuxes and then -- we’ll figure everything else out when you’re here.”

the thought of spending her spring break shopping with colt kaneko was already making a headache start to throb behind her eyes. but ingrid and logan were her best friends. and they deserved the wedding of their dreams.

she pasted the biggest, most extreme smile she could muster on her face. “sounds great, you guys.”

*

ellie relished the long flight home from new york to los angeles, well aware that it was probably going to be the last moment she had to relax until the end of the summer. 

there had to be some irony in the fact that she was midway through pursuing her ph.d and more stressed out about her college friends’ wedding than anything else. 

but her coursework was going well. everything in her life was falling into place perfectly, exactly how she’d always envisioned it. 

this was the wrench in the plan. how she was supposed to make time to come back home for ingrid and logan’s wedding when she’d already committed to spending her summer in miami doing field work was a problem she didn’t need.

so she spent the flight napping, enjoying the five hours in the air as the only chance she’d get to kick back during her spring break. if she knew ingrid at all, she was going to be barking orders from the moment ellie’s feet touched orange county soil until the second they left. 

still, there were at least a few hours she could spend delaying the inevitable.

riya picked her up at the airport and ellie threw herself into her arms eagerly for a giant hug. “oh my god, i am so glad to see you. thank you for picking me up -- i pretty much have bridal boot camp all week.”

“ingrid’s got it all planned out, huh?” riya asked, helping her get her suitcase in the car with a grin. “look, it probably won’t be that bad. you’re you -- when darius and i got married you were the reason we didn’t even need a wedding planner!”

“that was different,” ellie explained, as riya started driving them back to the city, “you and darius are normal. maid of honor doesn’t mean the same thing to ingrid that it meant to you, trust me.”

“well, i believe in you,” her oldest friend declared, “and even if it’s awful, just come over afterwards and we can drown ourselves in wine.”

“done and done,” she sighed. “i’m sorry i probably won’t be around much this week otherwise. i know it’s been forever since we caught up.”

“please, i can’t even imagine how busy you are,” riya said, waving her apology off, “you’re getting close to the home stretch, eh?”

ellie shrugged. “i still have two more years of study, but -- yeah, pretty much. it’s crazy.”

“so crazy,” riya agreed, “but you will absolutely see me and dare in miami as soon as you get set up there.”

the thought of it, with everything she knew was ahead of her this week, sounded like nothing short of paradise. “can’t wait,” she said genuinely, sighing as the car slowed to a stop in front of the house she’d grown up in. “wanna come in and say hi to my dad?”

“uh uh,” riya chided, “i’m done being the buffer between you two. sooner or later, you’re going to have to have that long overdue heart-to-heart.”

“okay, dr. phil,” ellie groaned, “thanks a lot.” her phone lit up with a text from ingrid as soon as she closed the car door. 

be at your house in 5 it said, pulling a sigh of relief from deep within her. 

saved by the bell.

*

ellie only had a moment to drop her bags and shout a quick hello to her dad before she heard a car horn honk and rushed back outside, leaning over the car’s center console to give ingrid a big hug hello. 

“boy, am i ever glad to see you,” her friend said. “everything is already such a disaster. the venue is giving me such an attitude about moving our ceremony outside and my sister is an out of control diva who is, like, demanding to be allowed to read a poem before we say our vows and -- i swear i’ve almost killed logan at least twice.”

“wow. okay, well -- all of that sounds fixable.” though already she knew the next three months were going to be nothing like the ramp up to riya and darius’ wedding. ellie stifled a sigh. 

“oh, it will be,” ingrid threatened darkly, “we’re doing everything at once today. dresses -- tuxes -- groomsmen, bridesmaids. i tried being nice about it, but do you know what i realized? some people don’t deserve to be allowed to make their own decisions. so i changed our appointment and i’m going to supervise and everyone who acts normal will be allowed to come help me pick out my dress at our new appointment on wednesday.”

ellie blinked. “whatever you want,” she said finally, her brain still working to process what the hell she was talking about, “it’s your day.”

“yes it is,” ingrid agreed viciously, “i’m glad you’re on board. come on.”

ellie followed behind her into the boutique they’d arrived at, immediately catching sight of eight or so of their closest friends from college, plus logan’s cousin and ingrid’s sister, the latter who was staring at a long, pink dress with her arms crossed petulantly over her chest. “i’m not trying that on,” she said, as ellie stepped closer, “it’s going to accentuate my shoulders.”

“look, brat,” ingrid started, lowering her voice to the dangerous timbre ellie had come to associate with group project members who weren’t pulling their own weight, “get in that dressing room and put this on right now or so help me god --”

“ellie!” 

she turned around and saw logan, the distressed look on her face instantly melting into one of relief. “oh my god, hi,” she laughed, rushing over for a hug, “it’s so good to see you!”

“hey, back at you,” he grinned, “seriously, i know this probably isn’t how you wanted to spend your spring break, but -- thank god you’re here. ingrid needs all the help she can get.”

ellie pulled out of his arms and saw that he was wearing an elegant black tuxedo, the lines of which settled nicely on his shoulders and seemed to suit him perfectly. “okay, but -- this is a great tux.” she called out to ingrid over her shoulder. “come look at this one.”

ingrid walked over and gave logan a cursory glance. “i hate it. get changed.”

logan shot her an amused glance, but dipped back into the dressing room without a word. bless him, ellie thought, before drawing in a deep breath and asking, “okay, where do you want me?”

as if on cue, a harried shop attendant immediately dropped a pile of gowns into ellie’s arms. “follow me.”

*

the first dress she tried on was bright pink and heavily ruffled -- so ugly she honestly didn’t even want to show everyone. 

but she hitched up the skirt and stepped out of the dressing room obligingly, standing in front of the mirrors and the rest of the bridal party for ingrid’s judgment.

you have the ideal body type, ingrid had explained nonsensically to her as they herded her off with the gowns, so you’ll try on all of them and then once we find one we like everyone else will try it on, too. 

ugh. “it’s not... that bad,” ellie said delicately, once she was situated on the platform in front of the group.

“not if you’re little bo peep.” 

god. she’d know that smug, arrogant, self-centered, self-obsessed, narcissistic egomaniac voice anywhere.

“hi, colt,” ellie said pointedly, without turning her head, “nice to see you, too.”

he stepped closer, directly into her field of vision. there was no avoiding looking at him, then. 

colt was just as handsome as he’d been the last time she’d seen him, over a year ago at logan’s twenty-fifth birthday party, but this time, he was in a navy blue tux that had no business looking as good as it did. 

he smirked at her. “as if anyone could miss you in that thing.”

ellie sighed, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling. formalwear could only go so far when it came to making him appear tolerable, it seemed. “do you always have to be the most insufferable person in every room you’re in?”

“not always, no. but i like to win.”

“it’s disgusting,” ingrid declared abruptly, before ellie could snap back at him, “please take it off. can you try on the purple one next?”

she ducked back into the dressing room, thunking her head softly against the wall once the door swung shut behind her. why me, ellie thought miserably, i’m a good person. this isn’t fair.

it took two and a half hours, but eventually, she’d tried on what felt like every single dress at the store. finally, once she’d wiggled into a gown that was a soft, sky blue, figure-hugging with thin straps and delicate lace accents over tasteful cut-outs, ingrid gasped, “that’s it! that’s the one.”

every bridesmaid, including ellie, sagged with relief. “great,” she smiled, “i’ll just get out of the way so everyone else can try theirs on, too.”

just before she stepped back inside the dressing room to get changed, she caught sight of colt, who was still standing around on their side of the shop for some reason. he was staring at her, face carefully blank -- though there was something in his eyes she couldn’t quite place.

as soon as he noticed she’d caught him looking, he stormed off.

once ellie was back in her street clothes, ingrid said, “i’ll finish up over here. can you please go make sure the guys are on the right track?”

ellie winced as she approached the men’s side of the store. half of logan’s groomsmen were dressed in navy, the other half in black -- logan had a white jacket on and one of their friends from college, brent, was inexplicably wearing pants that were powder blue.

“oh my god, ingrid’s going to kill you,” she said to logan. “i can see why she sent me over here to babysit.”

“hey, i’ve got it sort of under control,” logan said defensively, “she said she wanted slate grey. look at this.”

ellie cringed again as he held a jacket on a hanger aloft in front of her eyes. “that’s charcoal grey.”

the determined look on logan’s face crumpled immediately. “fuck. can you help me?”

she was already nodding before he finished his question. “just -- get in there and get that off before anyone sees. i’ll pull tuxes for everyone.”

it was only a few minutes before she was passing out new outfits, herding each of logan’s groomsmen into their respective dressing rooms one by one. 

only one of them gave her any trouble about it. as soon as she passed him his tux, colt scowled, asking, “what is this?”

“a tuxedo,” she answered tersely, “presumably you’ve seen one before? like, an hour ago? those are all called tuxedos. maybe you never learned the word?”

he merely rolled his eyes at her. “why are you giving it to me?”

“because i want you to put it on. now. like, immediately.” 

still, he just stood there. “i already tried on forty of them.”

“then one more shouldn’t make much of a difference.” she shoved his shoulder expectantly. “go.”

ingrid wandered over just as they all started to emerge. as they stood in a line outside the dressing room, she laid a hand to her heart and gasped. “oh my god, they’re perfect. baby, you did such a good job!”

“actually --” logan started, though he stopped abruptly as soon as he caught sight of the way ellie was frantically shaking her head from behind ingrid’s back, “uh, thanks. i want everything to be perfect for you.”

“oh my god, you guys can do something right,” ingrid sniffed, “i’m so happy. okay -- fuck it, let’s go get drinks. i’ll get the first round.”

*

a few of their friends cornered her as soon as she got her first drink. it was the same every time she came home; everyone wanted to know how new york was, how school was going, what the dating pool was like on the east coast and if she’d met anyone. they asked the same questions every time ellie was able to make it out so they could catch up, and she gave the same answers.

it was exhausting. she gulped down her glass of wine as quickly as humanly possible, just so she could have an excuse to escape back to the bar. 

the bartender slid her a shot when he passed her refilled wine glass back to her. his smile was sympathetic. “you look like you need this.”

ellie grimaced at him, but immediately lifted the shot to her lips and knocked it back. “that obvious?”

“oh, yeah.” he placed his palms on the bar top and leaned in close, grinning brightly at her. “let me guess. family reunion?”

“worse,” she sighed, “two of my best friends from college are getting married. in three months.”

he whistled, slowly shaking his head. “brutal. i don’t think we have enough alcohol in the bar to help you with that.”

“tell me about it,” ellie laughed, taking a sip from her wine glass to chase away the burn of the shot she’d done, “you don’t even know the half of it.”

“well...” he smiled charmingly at her again. “my shift is over in twenty minutes. i’ll gladly listen to you complain, if you want.”

she blinked. “oh, i --”

“hey, don’t look now, but that guy over there has the angriest eyebrows i’ve ever seen.” the bartender leaned in a little closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “boyfriend?”

“what?” ellie turned around and followed the line of his gaze. 

sure enough, colt was glaring at them from the booth with the rest of their friends, his eyebrows drawn together thunderously. 

“oh my god, no,” she said, turning back around as quickly as possible, “never. we don’t even like each other.”

“right. well -- listen. if you do wanna pick this up some other time, here’s my number, okay? no pressure.” 

she watched, dumbfounded, as he wrote it down on a cocktail napkin, printing his name evenly below it. ben. 

all the girls cheered for her when she got back to the table.

“is that a phone number?” julia demanded, her grin wide and wickedly sharp. she reached over and plucked the napkin out of her hand. “jesus, ellie. you’ve been back in the city for, what, an afternoon?”

“give it,” she said, stepping forward as the rest of the girls passed it around the table, out of her reach, “oh my god, he was just being nice.”

“no, please,” gemma laughed, holding the napkin up over her head, “tell us again how you’re too busy to date.”

“i am too busy to date.” she bounced up on her toes and snatched the cocktail napkin out of her friend’s hand, folding it up and tucking it into the pocket of her jeans. “and i live across the country, remember?”

“hey, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun while you’re home this week, right?” brent asked, making her aware, all at once, that the guys were officially clued into their conversation, too. “speaking of, ryan moore keeps asking me about you.”

beyond brent’s shoulder, colt was still staring at her. he looked tense, his grip firm on the glass in his hand. his jaw was clenched tight.

“can we talk about something else?” ellie asked finally, lifting her wine glass to her flushed cheek. “my love life can’t be that interesting to you guys.”

logan reached out and ruffled her hair. “hey, you’re our last single friend. you can’t blame us for being invested.”

“colt’s single,” she reminded him, before she could bite her tongue. ellie risked another glance his way and found him scowling at her.

“colt doesn’t count,” ingrid interjected, “he doesn’t have any social skills. you are a catch. you just need to put yourself out there.”

“and i promise, once i have my ph.d, you can set me up with anyone you want.” a discussion they’d had at least a thousand times before. ingrid looked as pleased about it as she’d ever been, which was to say not very much at all. before she could respond, ellie continued, “hey, will someone please play pool with me? i haven’t shot in forever.”

to her surprise, colt offered, “i will.” ellie slowly turned towards him and found him smirking at her again. “who knows what’d happen to your virtue if you went over there alone?”

fucker. he’d probably volunteered to go with her on purpose -- now there was no way for her to get out of it. and if she stayed at the table for one minute longer she was going to scream.

her eyes narrowed at him. “thanks.”

colt set up the table like she wasn’t glaring at him bitterly, humming to himself while he racked the balls and then passed her a cue.

“you’re awful,” she said, as she snatched it out of his hands.

he just grinned at her. “thank you. break?”

ellie leaned over the table to line up her shot, knocking the cue into the balls. two of the solids slid into the corner pockets. her hip leaned against the table as she watched him survey the setup critically, and she took advantage of the fact that his eyes were elsewhere to study him in turn, making note of what was different about him since the last time they’d seen each other.

he’d recently gotten a haircut, but was otherwise unchanged -- he wore the same leather jacket, had the same smug smile, was still so insufferably arrogant she found talking to him pretty much impossible.

“so, what’s your deal?” he asked suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts and knocking the striped number eleven ball smoothly into one of the side pockets, “you a rocket scientist or whatever yet?”

ellie rolled her eyes, trying not to flush when he lifted his head and looked directly at her. despite his many, many flaws, she’d always found him unnervingly hot. “my degree is in chemistry. so -- no. i still have two more years in the program.”

“yeah, but what are you going to do with it? once you’re a doctor.” even the way he said the word sounding mocking. 

she ignored him in favor of focusing on the table, and knocked one of her balls in. once it was his turn to shoot, she answered, “if you need to know, my specialization is in environmental science. one day i’ll hopefully work alongside some of the best in the world to ensure environmental hazards are at an all time low.”

“so whaddya moving to miami for?” he asked, effortlessly sinking two balls into the pocket at once, “their environment is already pretty sweet.”

“the department is sending me to collect data from the water and air outside of the city,” she answered, her eyes on the table as she tried to locate her next best shot, “it’s for my dissertation. it’s only for the summer.”

“shame,” colt murmured, laughing under his breath when her next shot went wide, missing her target completely, “i’ll be stuck dealing with this mess on my own.”

“somehow i doubt that,” ellie said, “it’s only a timezone change. there’s still phones and video calls and plenty of ways for all of you to bother me.”

“only if you pick up.” smoothly, he sunk the last three striped balls, one after another. she scowled at him. “the way the rest of them talk about how hard you are to pin down you’d think you were the president or something.”

“i have a demanding course load,” she huffed out defensively, “so we should get started on planning their bachelor and bachelorette party before my flight back on sunday. that should be the only thing that’s still up in the air after all our appointments this week.”

“don’t even get me started on the concept of a joint bachelor party,” colt sighed, leaning over in front of the eight ball, “it’s going to be the lamest trip of all time. side pocket.”

“i don’t know,” ellie murmured, resting on her cue as the eight ball sailed effortlessly into the side pocket as indicated, “i think it’ll be fun.”

he straightened up and smirked at her, spreading his hands out wide as if to say look at me. what an asshole. “you would.” colt nodded at the table. his smirk lengthened. “looks like you still suck.”

ellie shoved her pool cue back into his open hand. “one thing you’ll never know,” she promised, spinning on her heel and striding back to the table as quickly as possible.

*

“thanks for all your help today,” ingrid said sweetly on the drive home. “i know it wasn’t easy -- dealing with my idiot sister and all of those guys.”

“colt was as terrible as ever,” she mused, officially thinking too much about it. “i don’t know how he never gets tired of himself. he is such a prick.”

“totally,” ingrid agreed, even though ellie knew she’d softened to him, lately -- though she wasn’t sure she’d ever understand why or how. “but he just picks on you because he likes you.”

ellie lifted her head from where it’d been leaning against the passenger side window and turned towards ingrid with a look of confusion contorting her expression. “what? no.”

“yes,” she insisted, “he’s wanted to bang you since freshman year.”

“okay -- you’re too drunk to be driving,” ellie laughed, though even she could hear the undercurrent of nerves in the tone of her voice, “he’s an asshole to everyone. it doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

“well, he sure doesn’t talk to me like he talks to you.”

ellie waved her hand dismissively. “because you and logan have been dating for, like, a hundred years. i’m positive he’s just as big a dick to gemma and julia and christie.”

“okay,” ingrid mouthed, arching her eyebrows at the road. 

she furrowed her brow. “he is.”

“forget i said anything,” ingrid said breezily as the car slowed to a stop in front of her dad’s house. “i’ll pick you up tomorrow at nine, okay? seriously, thanks again for all your help.”

“anytime.” 

dread filled her stomach as ellie dragged her feet up the path to the house. all the lights were on inside, which meant her dad was still awake. “hey pumpkin,” he greeted her, as soon as she toed off her shoes and dropped her bag, “long day?”

“you have no idea.” ellie walked straight to the sofa and flung herself down onto it face-first, groaning into the cushions. for a moment, it felt like she was back in high school, without a care in the world other than coursework and group projects and prom. she drew in a deep breath. “planning this wedding is going to be a headache.”

“you’ll pull through,” her dad assured her, “you always do.”

ellie pressed her forehead to the fabric of the couch and scowled, the freedom of her hair covering her face allowing her to express how she really felt. that was what everyone always said: she’d be fine. she’d figure it out. she’d make it happen.

part of her was so tired of always bending over backwards, always finding a way to make things work -- always being perfect. 

some first day back it was shaping up to be.

“i guess,” she mumbled, letting herself sulk for one more long moment before finally lifting her head and sitting up straight. “are you working tonight?”

“yep -- on my way out now. glad i caught you, though. i feel like i haven’t seen you in forever.” 

she winced, turning away from the disappointment in his eyes. “ingrid has a pretty full schedule for us this week, but maybe we can have dinner tomorrow.”

“sure thing,” her dad said brightly, pausing by the couch on his way out the door to gently grasp her shoulder. “i’ll see you in the morning, then. hang in there, kid.”

ellie slumped back into the couch, watching him go blankly. half of her was so exhausted she couldn’t imagine doing anything other than collapsing into bed for as long as humanly possible, but the other half of her still felt anxious and unsettled, the way she always did whenever she had to come home. 

being back in los angeles always felt like losing control of her life. there was something about being around her old friends and her dad and other people’s expectations that made her feel not like herself -- like some kind of persona she was putting on so everyone would perceive her a certain way.

so she could look like she had everything figured out, so everyone would keep saying you’ll pull through. you’ll figure it out. you’ll make it happen.

the thought of keeping it all up for an entire week of wedding activity with ingrid and their college friends was daunting. worse still was ingrid and logan’s engagement party on friday night, hanging over her head as the last obstacle between her and her flight home to the solace of her silent new york apartment, where she’d be able to analyze soil samples in peace until her mind was quiet again.

*

the week passed by in a blur. true to form, ingrid kept her busy for a majority of her waking moments with dress shopping, fittings, a trip to the venue, the florist and the bakery and, finally, last-minute preparations for friday’s engagement party, which left ellie tying ribbons around party favors late into the night on thursday.

“i could kill logan,” she complained to riya in the middle of the one free hour she’d been able to steal away for a mani-pedi, “i swear to god i’ve been playing the part of the fiance since i got back.”

“it’ll all be over soon,” riya hummed sympathetically, “the wedding will be here before you know it.”

as she dressed for the engagement party, she repeated the words to herself over and over again in the mirror. it’ll all be over soon.

she arrived at the venue early. the first person she saw after she stepped out of her rideshare was colt, who was loitering by the entrance to the restaurant, smoking. 

“some dress,” he smirked at her as soon as she got close enough to hear him, not even bothering to pretend like he wasn’t looking her up and down, “you trying to get laid tonight?”

“you know, ‘hello’ works just fine, too,” she said, pushing past him without a backwards glance. her face felt hot as she considered the comment, looking down at herself self-consciously. fuck him. i look nice.

fortunately, the party itself was less exhausting than she’d expected it to be. it was actually sort of nice to catch up with people she hadn’t seen since they’d graduated, and though she had to run through the familiar talk track she was getting sick of over and over again -- how’s school? how’s new york? what are your plans for after your thesis? -- the open bar made her hate it all a little less. 

eventually things started to wind down, until it was late and only the wedding party was left. ellie teetered in her heels as she pretended to help ingrid clean up, shuffling around as inconspicuously as she could manage, given the drinks she’d had.

“are you drunk?” 

she jumped, startled by the question. ellie’s lips pulled down into a frown as she noticed the out-and-out delighted expression on colt’s smug face from where he was suddenly standing next to her.

“no,” she lied, “and shhh. someone will hear you.”

“god forbid.” the shit eating grin on his face stretched further. “you want a ride home?”

ellie blinked. “from you?”

colt wasn’t at all deterred by the high arch of her eyebrows. he shrugged. “if we get out of here now we can probably avoid carrying presents to the car.”

that was all it took to convince her. she followed him out to the parking lot with a laugh, drawing up short when he stopped her in front of his motorcycle. she propped a hand on her hip and asked, “you still ride this thing?”

“it’s part of my image,” he answered, and as he came closer ellie found herself staring at the gentle slope of the smirk on his face. maybe it was the low lighting of the parking lot, but he looked a little softer than he had all week -- almost like when she’d first met him, in college, before he opened his mouth to say something rude and their relationship devolved into exchanged barbs and sidelong glares. 

colt cleared his throat, looking down at the helmet in his hands. “here.”

she flushed, pulling it on as quickly as possible in the hopes that it’d cover her face before he noticed. 

in all the years she’d known him she’d never actually gotten on the back of this thing. she’d seen him pull up to parties and speed away from them with plenty of girls holding onto his stomach, but she’d never actually thought she’d be one of them herself.

the bottle of wine she’d had was making it seem like no big deal, though, so she pressed up snugly behind him and rested her cheek on his shoulder like they’d done this enough times to form a habit.

and then they were back at her dad’s house, so quickly that ellie was almost sad about it. colt was actually mostly alright when he was quiet -- the speed of the bike hardly facilitated conversation -- and he was warm and solid against her while he drove, comforting her to the point that she was half asleep when they finally stopped.

she slid off the bike with a yawn, clumsily yanking the helmet off and handing it back to him. “thanks,” she murmured, glancing at the house and cringing once she realized all the lights were still on, meaning her dad was waiting up for her again. ellie lingered silently beside him, fidgeting. 

colt hesitated. after a moment, he killed the engine. he pulled his own helmet off so she could see his face. “you okay?”

“yeah.” she pursed her lips, then exhaled, blowing a messy lock of hair out of her eyes. “i guess i am a little drunk.”

his lips pulled back into that stupid, familiar smirk. “i know. i saw you guzzling chardonnays back there.” 

ellie leaned in over the handlebars. “stalk me much?”

“you wish.” 

movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye and ellie sighed as she saw the curtains shift. colt followed her gaze to the house, then turned back towards her with an eyebrow quirked.

“is there a reason you’re still standing here?”

she rolled her eyes at him. “it’s complicated.”

he laughed. it was after midnight, and the sleepy street she’d grown up on was completely silent and dark, save for that sound. “don’t tell me little miss perfect has daddy issues.”

“what, you thought you had the monopoly on them?” she shot back, too drunk to stop herself.

surprise flashed across his expression for a split second before he laughed again. “touché,” he murmured, “i probably deserved that.” 

ellie still didn’t move, standing at the front of the bike. they stared at each other, silence hanging in the air between them. it had to be the longest amount of time they’d gone without arguing since their freshman year. 

that felt like a lifetime ago, but she still remembered what she’d thought when they first met at orientation. 

cute, and then, once she found out that he was in the honors college like her, and smart, and eventually, once he opened his mouth, but a jerk. 

“what are you staring at?” he asked finally, and though he was difficult to read on even her best day, when she had one-hundred percent of her faculties intact, she was pretty sure there was no malice in his voice -- just genuine curiosity.

“nothing. you’re being weird.”

he laughed again. it took her a moment to realize why it sounded so different than it usually did; most of the time he was laughing at her. but not tonight. “no i’m not.”

“yes you are.”

“okay -- you’re trashed. do you need me to walk you inside?” 

all the lights were still on. yeah, that was just what she needed. the thought of colt and her father coming face-to-face made her own mouth curve into a grin. “no. but thanks for driving me home. that was almost decent of you.”

“well, i’d hate to be fully decent.” even his smile was different when he wasn’t making fun of her. 

ellie forced herself to take a step away, though it was difficult -- some strange magnetic pull seemed to want to keep her in his orbit, to see if she could maybe make him laugh softly at her again. 

as soon as she stepped back, the bike roared to life, though he didn’t pull out of the street until she’d wobbled all the way up the path to the front door and turned back to wave at him.

huh, she thought to herself as she ducked inside, wine-drunk acid swirling in her stomach with something else unidentifiable along for the ride, weird.

it wasn’t until she was tucked in bed that she privately acknowledged to herself, nice, though, too.

*

as expected, ingrid filled the weeks after her spring break with questions and complaining and dozens of skype calls.

ellie did her best to balance it all with school, which was ramping up as they got closer to the end of term, and packing for her move to miami, though on any given day she felt torn in at least ten different directions while she struggled to get everything together. 

the sound of another incoming facetime call was going to haunt her nightmares. with a groan, ellie fumbled for her phone blindly, not taking her eyes off the instant noodles slowly spinning in her microwave. 

“what now?”

“hello to you, too,” said a voice that definitely wasn’t ingrid’s, and ellie turned her head to see colt staring at her expectantly from the screen of her phone, jolting both from the surprise of seeing him and the sound of the microwave going off. 

“colt?” she blinked, suddenly aware that she was in her pajamas and tugging self-consciously at the cropped tank top she was wearing. “what do you want?”

“we have to go over some things for the bachelor party,” he sighed, and when he shifted she saw that he was reclining in bed. her face flushed.

“bachelor and bachelorette party,” she corrected.

“whatever. is now a good time?”

ellie cast a glance around her apartment, which looked like a tornado had recently swept through it. her kitchen table was covered in textbooks and pages of notes, though the living room had half-packed boxes covering every available surface. “i guess. one second.”

she set her phone down to retrieve her instant noodles and then leaned it up against her toaster, standing in front of the counter to both stay in her phone’s field of view and shovel noodles into her mouth as quickly as possible.

“seriously?” colt said, “isn’t it ten p.m. where you are?”

“i’ve been busy,” ellie answered defensively, between bites, “some of us have lives.”

he rolled his eyes. “did you book your flight yet?”

she paused, fork halfway to her lips. had she booked her flight yet? “i think so.” ellie pursed her lips, and then remembered, “yes! it gets in at seven. i’ll meet you guys at the hotel.”

“okay. the rest of us are driving down together, god help us all.” he scowled.

“relax. it’s only, like, four hours to vegas, anyway.” she was the one who was going to lose two entire days to travel and timezone changes. 

“do you want to sit in a car for four hours with everyone?” he smirked at the look that crossed her face. “i didn’t think so. how are the dinner reservations coming along?”

“good,” she nodded. at least she’d remembered to do that. “we’re all set for friday and saturday night. we can walk to both restaurants from the hotel.”

colt had been adamant about planning everything else, and she’d been all too happy to let him take the reigns. the last thing she needed to worry about was getting them into nightclubs and securing bottle service and busting her ass only for him to ultimately turn his nose up at it and declare the whole thing lame. 

“that should be everything, then.” she just barely saw the way he narrowed his eyes at her when she tipped her head back to get the last of the styrofoam cup of noodles down her throat. “except for whatever girly shit you have planned.”

“hey, you’re going to have to be the one to tell logan that your bad attitude is what got all of you excluded from mani-pedis and facials,” she shrugged, resting her elbows on the counter and leaning in toward the screen. “just so you can do what on saturday? smoke cigars and play darts?”

“someone has to draw the line somewhere,” he said, revisiting the argument they’d had at least four or five times since she was home the month before. 

“you’re impossible,” she sighed, her mouth stretching with a wide yawn. ellie pulled a face at herself, shaking her head. she had at least another two hours of coursework to do once they hung up. 

“you’re the one who looks about ten seconds away from combusting,” he smirked. “you can say no to things, you know.”

“i’m fine,” she insisted, “and i do say ‘no’ to things. when i have to.”

“right. it’s not like we haven’t known each other for eight years or anything.” 

ellie rolled her eyes at him, her cheeks still flushed red. like he’d paid attention to anyone other than himself and whatever girl he was fucking when they were in college. “everything’ll calm down after the wedding.”

“whatever you say,” he shrugged, “just don’t miss your flight to vegas, okay? i’m going to need someone to talk to who doesn’t make me want to blow my brains out.”

what? colt hung up just as she opened her mouth to respond, leaving ellie staring at her phone background in confusion. 

she took one last glance around her apartment, slowly trailing her eyes over the dishes in the sink, the schoolwork on her kitchen table, the piles of shoes that had to be bubble-wrapped and boxed up in her living room.

then ellie turned on her heel and headed off to bed. for once, it felt pretty fucking good to do the wrong thing. 

*

when her flight got in she sent logan a long, detailed text with all the information he could possibly need -- what time her rideshare was going to get to the hotel and how much time she was going to need to get up to the room and get changed -- and asked where she should meet everyone when she was done. 

his response was two short words. casino. craps. typical.

she rushed to get into her dress and get some makeup on and found everyone standing around the same table when she got downstairs. of course, the only available space was just to colt’s left. ellie squeezed in with a grin. “hi!”

“hey, you made it!” eager cheers from around the table greeted her and the tight hugs she was forced into let her know that she had a backlog a few drinks deep to catch up on. 

when she turned back around, colt shoved his hand in her face. there was a pair of dice sitting in his palm. “blow,” he said, staring at her expectantly. 

“excuse me?”

“blow,” he repeated, smirking at her, “it’s for luck.”

“i’m not going to --”

“come on, ellie,” logan grinned, “he’s up, like, two thousand dollars. you have to!”

“this is so demeaning,” she grumbled, but pursed her lips and blew on the dice as requested. colt stared at her the entire time, not even breaking eye contact to roll.

it was only when the croupier said, “another easy eight,” and the table broke out into cheers that he looked away, directing his gaze down at the stack of chips that was pushed over to him. 

“okay, what’s the next one?” he asked, taking the dice into his hand again.

“huh?”

“what am i rolling?”

“oh.” ellie glanced around the table and found everyone looking at her expectantly. “seven.”

“okay, any seven.” colt shook the dice in his hand, then held them out to her again. “come on.”

she leaned in a little closer. “you know, i’d love a drink at some point.”

“if we get this one i’ll find you a whole bottle of dom,” he promised. “blow.”

ellie blew on the dice. she grabbed colt’s arm anxiously as they waited for them to land.

they did, a moment later. she craned her neck and saw them facing up, over the line -- five and two.

all the noise they were making was starting to draw a crowd. ellie found herself sharing a grin with colt when he looked back at her again.

“another seven,” she instructed, head already bowed towards his hand.

he rolled a three and a four. the people gathering around the table were enraptured.

she blew on the dice again. a one and a six.

the forearm of his jacket had indents where her hand kept grabbing at it frantically, but colt never showed any outward signs of nervousness. if anything, he seemed to get more and more excited as ellie called out the numbers and he rolled them, one after another -- an eight. a six. a ten. another seven.

“holy shit, that’s twenty thousand dollars,” ingrid breathed finally, her mouth open in shock.

colt picked the stack of chips up, nodding at the roulette table behind them. “come on.”

“where are we going?” ellie asked, but followed him to the table anyway, her heart racing. all of their friends fell in line around them, hushed. 

“we’re gonna double it,” he smirked. “red or black?”

“you’re going to bet it all?” her eyes went comically wide.

“ellie, red or black?”

everyone within hearing distance, including the attendant, was staring at her. she looked down at the table, and then at the screen, which was displaying the outcome of the last few rounds. her mind raced as she tried to calculate all the ways it could become more complex than just a fifty-fifty probability.

colt noticed her staring and shook his head at her. “just pick.”

“black,” she blurted out, and watched in horror as he dropped the entire stack of chips down onto her choice. “oh my god, i’m going to throw up.”

his arm wound around her waist as the ball dropped into the table and started to roll around. instead of recoiling, ellie held onto him in return, digging her nails into the fabric of his suit as she stared.

there was dead silence at the table when the ball dropped neatly into the slot.

“twenty-nine,” the dealer announced, smiling at the both of them. “black.”

sound exploded all around them. their friends were jumping all over colt and the table, clapping him on the back, cheering and screaming. the spectators who’d been watching them joined in, and ellie couldn’t stop a deliriously joyful laugh from escaping as she looked, beaming, from the stack of chips on the table to colt’s face.

he was already grinning at her, and reached out to shove her shoulder excitedly before pulling the chips off the board and towards their end of the table -- four stacks of ten.

logan pushed between them, a beer bottle dangling from his fingers. “jesus christ. that was insane. way to make an entrance, el.”

“me?” she demanded incredulously, “what kind of person puts twenty thousand dollars on black?”

“what can i say,” colt shrugged, eyes still bright when they settled on her again, “i’m reckless.”

well, that was the understatement of the century. she slowly shook her head as the rest of the players at the table moved on to the next round. “i can’t believe that just happened.” 

colt reached out and grabbed her wrist, then unceremoniously dropped five chips into her palm. “here. your cut.”

ellie blinked down at her hand like she’d never seen a casino chip before. “five thousand dollars?”

“hey, all you did was blow on some dice.”

“no, i --” she shook her head, trying to shove the chips back onto his pile with a laugh, “you don’t need to do that. it was fun.”

he shrugged. ellie watched in surprise as colt smiled at her, fixated on the upturned corners of his mouth. “whatever. remember i did the next time you’re pissed at me.” 

colt walked off before she could try giving the money back to him again. she stared down at the chips in her hand for a moment, staring at all the zeroes that looked back up at her.

if what had just happened was any indication, it was probably going to be a strange weekend.

*

after dinner they went to a nightclub. her buzz was kicking in, so the lights and the music hardly bothered her as much as they might have on a normal night, and though she was loathe to admit it, colt had actually done a pretty nice job setting everything up. they had a booth to themselves and bottle service with sparklers, themed shots and props for both logan and ingrid -- sashes and buttons and crowns for the both of them.

seeing how happy everyone was made all the aggravation of the last six weeks worth it. before she knew it, she’d had more shots than was probably wise and her feet were killing her from dancing, leaving her flushed and sweaty when she stumbled back to the table.

as soon as she sat down, ingrid rushed over and grabbed her arm. “come on! i want to introduce you to a hot guy!”

“no,” ellie moaned, digging her heels into the booth while ingrid tried to drag her out of it, “stop, we’ve been dancing for hours. i need five minutes.”

“okay, but he’s so hot,” ingrid insisted, “and you could get laid tonight!”

“or we could just enjoy your bachelorette party!” she screamed back, over the music, “that’d be so fun, too.”

“oh my god, you’re impossible,” ingrid sighed, dropping down dramatically into the booth beside her. "look, he’s right over there.” 

ellie followed the line of her eyes and saw an admittedly very hot guy standing with a few of their friends. she lifted her hand and waved at him, and he smiled charmingly back at her, waving in return.

from behind her hand, when she pulled it in to cover her mouth, ellie said to ingrid, “he looks kind of stupid.”

“oh my god,” ingrid groaned again, “forget it. i’m done trying to set you up.”

before she could argue further, logan ran over to refill his drink and pulled ingrid back up to her feet, dragging her away from the booth and back onto the dance floor.

ellie watched them go, then turned her eyes to the half-full bottle of vodka in the ice bucket on the table. she was in the middle of trying to decide whether or not she was one drink away from puking when colt walked up to her.

“hey, loser. you wanna dance?” he asked, just as she made up her mind and reached for the bottle. he wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the music, but ellie could see the shape of his mouth make each word clearly, mostly because she tilted her head up to stare at him in complete confusion as soon as he got close. 

“with you?” 

“i thought you were supposed to be smart,” he said, and she recognized the easy grin on his face from dozens of late nights out with all their friends in college; he was drunk. “come on.”

she stumbled to her feet and followed him without thinking too much about it, even though there was no way their friends weren’t looking at them as they found a spot on the dance floor together. 

“you know how to dance?” ellie asked, blinking down at colt’s hands, which settled confidently on her waist, in absolute, total surprise, “since when?”

“since always,” he answered, lowering his mouth to her ear, “you just repress all my positive traits.”

“you don’t have any positive traits,” she shot back, though she gave in and wound her arms around his neck a moment later, letting him pull her in close.

“ouch,” colt murmured softly into her ear, and ellie sunk her teeth into her bottom lip at the low tone of his voice and its proximity. “that really hurts.”

her head tipped back to stare up at the flashing lights in the ceiling. colt didn’t say anything -- of course, he loved to get the last word -- and after a moment she forgot how utterly strange it was to be close to him at all and let herself enjoy the dance, smoothly moving her hips against his.

it was unnatural how natural it felt. she was dancing with colt kaneko -- it should have felt insane. they didn’t dance together. they didn’t get along. 

except that evidently they did, and she kind of liked it, too. 

when he dragged everyone out of the nightclub at three o’clock in the morning he wouldn’t tell them where they were going. even ellie was surprised to hear about a planned part two of the evening, though the way he seamlessly swiped a bottle of dom perignon from a table they passed on their way to the door and presented it to her as soon as they stepped back into the lobby of the hotel made her laugh with her whole body.

“you didn’t even pay for it,” she grinned, cradling it in her arms like a baby. 

he looked around, then started leading everyone down a side hallway. “i never said i would. hang on.”

logan caught on as soon as they all stopped in front of the fancy glass doors marked pool, and ellie kept watch at the end of the hallway while the two of them worked to get the door open. one by one, their friends filed quietly inside to the hotel’s closed indoor pool, giggling while they stripped out of their clothes.

“this feels illegal,” ellie said, while ingrid helpfully lowered the zip on her dress for her, “no?”

“it’s only a crime if you get caught,” logan answered, running past and jumping in the pool directly in front of where they were standing at its edge, splashing them both.

“oh, you’re in for it,” ingrid promised, jumping off after him. 

ellie self-consciously pulled her dress off the rest of the way, walking over to the steps and wading into the shallow end carefully. she swam out to join the rest of the group, head spinning from the drinks she’d had.

“hey.”

she turned around and came face-to-face with colt again, staring at what she could see of his bare chest, sticking out of the dark water before averting her eyes with a flush. “we’re totally all going to jail,” she said, apropos of nothing.

“that’s the plan,” colt returned, still smiling that easy, open smile. but he’d always been a lot more fun to hang out with when he was drunk. 

“why’re you being so nice to me?” ellie asked abruptly, reaching out to hold onto the pool wall and treading water to stay afloat in front of him. “it’s weird.”

colt laughed. his own arm braced on the side of the pool beside hers, and she looked over at the way the water slid of his muscles, her mouth suddenly dry. 

“guess i like the reactions i get,” he answered, effortlessly short-circuiting her brain as she tried to figure out what the fuck that was supposed to mean. “plus, it looks like you’re my good luck charm.”

“that was pretty crazy,” she acknowledged with a soft smile of her own, “i’ve never done anything like that before.” in fact, it’d been almost more excitement than she could handle.

“there’s so much i could show you.” 

the look in his eyes was intense -- searching. she wasn’t sure what to say, but fortunately the noise from the rest of their friends splashing around covered the too-loud pounding of her heartbeat as he stood there staring down at her.

it was the most alive she’d felt in months. before tonight, she hadn’t even thought she’d want a break from her routine -- from school, from her work, from everything that made her her.

wading in the pool now, with colt, all she wanted was more.

before she could find something to say, logan and brent swam by, kicking up water with a splash. “come on!” logan called out as a wave of chlorinated water hit her smack dab in the face, “we’re doing back flips.”

she forced her eyes down and swam off after them, hurrying to put some space between them. 

drunk as she was, it was a struggle to even stay afloat.

*

the semester wrapped up quickly; before she knew it, it was time to start shipping her things down to miami. ellie saw and heard from everyone less and less as she finished her coursework and switched into summer mode, even as the date of logan’s wedding grew closer.

finally it was time to hand her keys over to the girl who’d be subletting her apartment for the summer and catch her flight; when she stepped off the plane she forgot, for a moment, that she wasn’t home in los angeles -- it was humid and sunny and everyone around her looked happy, a far cry from the scene she’d left behind at jfk.

ellie went straight to her summer housing and checked in, a little astonished by how nice the apartment was. there was a pool in the back of the building and the beach was only a short walk away; there were floor-to-ceiling windows exposing the view to her and illuminating every last one of the boxes she’d have to unpack where they were cluttering her new living room floor.

her eyes landed on one marked kitchen stuff and ellie tore into it, using her keys to rip the tape. the still-sealed bottle of dom perignon from the bachelorette party was sitting on top of everything else, wrapped in bubble wrap.

the trip or the heat had probably made it go flat but she pulled it out anyway, sitting on the floor and popping the cork. ellie took a sip from the bottle and grimaced -- all expensive alcohol was disgusting.

she set it on the floor and took a photo for her pictagram story anyway, the boxes and the view in the background. it was only up for a few seconds before her phone screen lit up with an incoming message.

it was colt. dork was all he’d written, when she opened her direct messages. the little animation beneath his words indicated he was typing something else. how is it?

pretty bad she wrote back honestly.

guess i’ll have to work harder to impress you

she stared down at her phone, rereading the words twice before she huffed out a genuine laugh. ellie had been avoiding checking in with most of her friends while she focused on moving, but it felt pretty nice to talk to colt again. the new peace that had settled between them had admittedly been a welcome respite, distracting her from every stressor in her life. 

with a shake of her head, she gave in and wrote back guess so.

*

everyone in the wedding was spending the entire weekend in santa monica, and ellie was grateful for the opportunity to avoid awkward conversation with her dad, heading straight to the hotel when she flew in on the morning of the rehearsal dinner.

things were already in full swing even though it was early in the day when she arrived; though she was exhausted from her flight and the work she’d left behind on the east coast ellie still let ingrid pull her up to her suite to start getting ready together.

one by one the rest of their friends started to trickle in, chatting excitedly about the wedding the next day, and eventually, after they’d gone over saturday’s schedule at least a thousand times, it was late enough in the afternoon that she had to go back to her own hotel room to get dressed for dinner.

ellie was the first of the girls to finish getting ready and logan and the rest of the guys were already downstairs at the lobby bar when she came out of the elevator. logan pulled her into a hug as soon as she got close, kissing her cheek hello.

“are you so excited?” she asked, squeezing his arms, “big day tomorrow.”

“i can’t wait. i know we did this fast but it still feels like we’ve been waiting for forever.” he looked adorably eager. “you look nice, by the way.”

“thank you,” ellie said primly, stepping out of his arms to spin in a circle, the skirt of her dress swishing around the tops of her thighs, “not half bad for an all-nighter and a cross-country flight, eh?”

“thanks for flying out so early. i’m so glad you’re here.” logan called the bartender over as she moved down the line to say hi to the rest of the groomsmen, and when she came back around to his other side to accept the drink he held out to her she noticed there was one person missing from the group.

“where’s colt?”

logan arched an eyebrow at her. her face flushed pink, and then worsened when that voice she could pick out of a crowd said from behind her, “miss me?”

the smart remark that was waiting on the tip of her tongue died when she turned around and saw him. he always wore formalwear well, but something about how he was dressed tonight captured her attention in a way that was impossible to ignore. she swallowed.

“just wondering if tonight might actually be peaceful or not,” she said finally, lifting her eyes from the few buttons that were open on his shirt at the front of his throat to look him in the eyes. “i guess it won’t be.”

he shrugged, leaning around her to signal the bartender for a drink of his own. “i promised i’d behave this weekend.” 

“yeah, and you’d better follow through or ingrid’s going to come after us both,” logan grinned, waiting until colt had his glass in his hand before sticking his own in between the three of them. “cheers.”

“cheers,” ellie smiled, clinking her champagne flute delicately against the two rocks glasses in their hands, “congratulations. i’m so happy for you guys.”

“you can back out at any time,” colt said, and then, as ingrid finally walked over and hit him on the shoulder, “ow. what? you can back out, too.”

she linked her arm through logan’s, tilting her face up for a kiss. “no one’s backing out. come on.”

they filed into the restaurant, where everyone’s families were already waiting at one end of the long table. ellie sat down on ingrid’s right and came face-to-face with colt, who was sitting directly across from her at logan’s left. he smirked at her from the other side of the table, bumping his foot into hers underneath the tablecloth. 

she kicked him back, turning her cheek to stifle a smile when she saw him wince as soon as her high heel collided with his shin. 

dinner was surprisingly pleasant, making her cautiously optimistic for the way the rest of the weekend was going to go. tomorrow was sure to be exhausting, with a full day of primping and photos before the ceremony and reception, and the after party following late into the night, if she knew their group of friends at all.

but it’d probably be pretty fun, too. at least she could start drinking heavily as soon as her toast was over.

though she was woefully sober after the cake had been cut and the night started to wind down, certain that a hangover would be a wrench in tomorrow morning she just didn’t need, with the day ahead of her. 

they all took their time saying goodbye and slowly started to head to the elevator. just outside the restaurant door, colt caught her elbow and asked, “wanna go for a walk?”

she stared back at him dumbly. why? “huh?”

“come on, the beach is right there.” his hand slid down her bare arm to curl around her wrist, and he tugged her towards the french doors that would lead them outside onto the hotel’s back patio before she could protest.

ellie slipped off her shoes as they moved down the steps and out into the sand, silent when they both walked off down the beach together. the stretch owned by the hotel was private and closed for the night, so they were the only two people making their way down to the ocean, though she still wasn’t exactly sure for what. 

“how’ve you been?” she asked finally, when it felt like it’d been quiet for too long.

“fine. how are your... water samples?” 

her eyebrows arched. part of her was amazed he’d remembered, and a little warmed by his thoughtfulness. “um, good,” she answered slowly, “well -- not good, they’re contaminated, but... good for me? to have something to study?”

out of the corner of her eye, ellie saw his lips twitch. it was good to know he still found her embarrassment amusing. “that’s good.”

“are you nervous for your speech tomorrow?” she asked, because she was certainly nervous about hers. his smile spread.

“no.” he’d long since let go of her arm, but colt still only shoved the hand on the other side of his body into his pocket, letting his other arm dangle near hers. “i’m just gonna wing it.”

“you’re going to -- i’m sorry, what?” she demanded, completely horrified. “you cannot just wing it.”

“well, i’m going to,” he shrugged, “so don’t lose sleep over it.”

“oh my god,” ellie groaned, “i feel sick just thinking about it. please tell me you’re joking.”

“you know i’m not,” he laughed, that same soft sound from the night of logan and ingrid’s engagement party, when he’d given her a ride home. her cheeks flushed just thinking about it. “don’t you ever get tired of being so self-righteous?”

“no,” she sniffed, “don’t you ever get tired of being so...”

ellie trailed off as she searched for the right word. colt stopped suddenly and turned in the sand to face her, grinning widely when their eyes locked. “so what?”

arrogant. smug. obnoxious. insufferable. reckless. “so...” she paused, tongue darting out to lick her lips, “well --”

colt leaned in and kissed her before she could decide which word she wanted to settle on. the hand that’d been in his pocket landed on her waist, and he lifted the other to her jaw, cradling her cheek in his palm when he pulled her closer to meet his lips.

she froze. part of her had been expecting this, though it still felt so unbelievably beyond imagining -- colt kaneko was kissing her after they’d spent the last eight years at each other’s throats, and tenderly, too, his lips soft and gentle when they brushed against hers.

ellie sighed quietly into his mouth, then looped her arm around him and kissed him back, sliding her fingers into his hair at the back of his head. 

he was a good kisser. not that she’d thought about it, or anything, outside of one or two times --

fine, a few times... 

colt snaked his arm fully around her waist and pressed his body in against hers as close as they could get; there was only the sound of the waves on the shore while they kissed for what felt like an eternity, with all the familiarity of two people who’d done this dozens of times before.

there was something about being alone with him that eased the tension being home always brought with it. something about the new calmness in their relationship reminded her of her apartment and new york and the places she’d always felt most like herself, almost like colt understood her and the things she wanted to say but wouldn’t without her even having to say them. 

finally, his thumb pressed into the hinge of her jaw and he broke them apart, tipping his forehead against hers to stare into her eyes.

in the dark, with the moon behind him, the depths of his gaze consumed her entirely. ellie worked to catch her breath while staring back at him seriously, though there was surely some shock on her expression.

“um,” she said finally. “i --”

he swept her into another kiss and she was grateful for the chance to collect her thoughts before being expected to say something, though every last one she had left her abruptly when their lips met again. all she could focus on was how good the kiss was -- how it felt like giving into something she’d been holding off on allowing for far too long. 

this time, when he pushed her away, he spoke up. “do you want me to apologize?”

ellie realized her fingers were still curled into his hair and forced them to relax. she dropped her hand onto his shoulder. “no.” her eyes lingered on the minute upturn at the corners of his mouth. “an explanation would be helpful, though.”

the hand colt had on the small of her back dipped lower. she raised her eyebrows at him again. “i want to spend the night with you,” he said bluntly, “if you want.”

she pretended to think about it, even though she already knew what her answer would be. judging by the look on colt’s face, he knew she was only acting, too, though he stayed quiet for once and let her go through the motions of looking back at the hotel in thoughtful consideration. “yeah,” she said finally, with a nod, “let’s go to your room.”

*

colt’s room was on the other side of the hotel, and he’d forgotten to pull the heavy-duty shades shut the night before, so the sun filtered in through the gauzy curtains and hit her in the face early, waking her up before she was ready.

ellie rubbed at her eyes and took in the sight before her: the muscled arm slung across her waist was attached to a set of broad shoulders and a sculpted torso, though colt was sleeping on his stomach so she could only see his back, the sheet draped low over his hips. 

his face was squished into the pillow and he was still peacefully asleep, his breathing even and quiet beside her.

she stared at him for a few seconds before a deep sense of dread started to set in, filling her with slowly dawning horror.

you slept with colt kaneko! her brain screamed unhelpfully at her, like she didn’t already know. what the fuck were you thinking?

okay. this was fixable. all she had to do was get to her clothes and get out of his room before he woke up. she could make it back to her suite before anyone noticed she was gone, right? 

his body stirred beside her as soon as she shifted to the edge of the mattress. ellie watched colt’s arm slip off her waist and stared as his eyes slowly blinked open, his jaw cracking with a yawn. “hey,” he murmured, voice thick with sleep and perfectly cozy-sounding, halting her progress out of the bed and almost enough to make her turn right back around. “what time is it?”

“seven,” she returned just as quietly, and he flopped back against the pillow with a groan, scrubbing a hand down his face.

“the fuck are you doing up?” he grumbled. “christ.”

ellie shifted another inch to the edge of the bed. “we need to all start getting ready soon. pictures are at two.”

“it’s seven,” he sighed, “she can’t possibly expect you to --”

“she does.”

colt groaned again, louder this time. he rolled onto his back and pressed both palms against his face, then pushed his hands through his hair. “we’ll get up in ten minutes,” he declared decisively, dropping his cheek into the side of the pillow. his eyes were half-lidded when they landed on her. “come here.”

ellie hesitated at the edge of the bed, biting her lip. 

that was probably a mistake. 

she cleared her throat, averting her eyes. maybe all of this had been a mistake. it was so unlike her -- flirting with him, kissing him on the beach, having a one night stand. he’d never even liked her before she started doing all of these things that felt so wildly out of character for her. in fact, he’d always hated her. 

what the fuck did he think they were doing, anyway? 

panic was starting to set in, hot and desperate. “i should really get going,” she said, then stood and snatched her dress up off the floor before she could be sucked in by the curve of him against the mattress. “ingrid’s going to wonder where i am.”

there was complete and total silence as she pulled her clothes back on quickly, piece by piece. finally, colt said, “okay. i’ll see you later.”

his voice was slow -- carefully measured. ellie didn’t look at him before double checking to make sure she had her phone and room key and nodding blindly in the direction of the bed, doing her best to keep her voice faux-chipper. “totally,” she called out mindlessly, rushing out the door.

her chest squeezed tight with anxiety and refused to relent for the entirety of the morning. ellie found herself fighting off a meltdown through hair and makeup, through hours of gushing over ingrid and how beautiful she looked, through a session with the photographer in the bridal suite. 

her thoughts were elsewhere during the group photos with everyone. it took every effort not to look colt’s way when they all got together before the ceremony to take so many pictures her face was hurting from maintaining her fake smile.

still, her mind drifted. the part of her that was adamant she’d made the right decision couldn’t seem to quiet the little voice beneath it wondering what if, her curiosity needling her brain incessantly. 

now she’d never know what he might’ve been about to say or do. she wouldn’t have to deal with the reality of having two pieces of her life that didn’t fit together -- new york and school and los angeles and colt -- because there was no knowing if anything would’ve even come from it.

maybe that’s for the best, said the larger, more rational part of her brain. 

all the excuses she’d used a thousand times before came back to her at once. she was too busy to date, probably, and ill-equipped to have a boyfriend. guys she’d dated in the past had complained about her being hot and cold, either clingy or distant depending on where she was with school or in her professional life. the only parts of herself she could actually tolerate most of the time seemed to be the biggest turn-offs: she was too driven, too focused on her passion projects. 

each word felt hollow, now. maybe she hadn’t done the right thing.

ellie’s pulse raced dangerously as everyone lined up at the edge of the cliff for the outdoor ceremony. she and colt stood just behind logan, side-by-side. 

he wasn’t looking at her. her stomach twisted unhappily. 

she gently reached out to touch his arm. her voice was barely a murmur when she leaned in close and said, “hey, can i talk to you?”

colt looked down at her like she was insane. in front of them, logan started down the aisle. “now’s not really a good time.”

fuck. she was almost definitely going to lose her nerve, but he was right. she pursed her lips, looping her arm through his. her free hand clutched her flowers tightly.

colt felt stiff beside her, at odds with the easy way he’d held her last night. she used all her focus not to trip as they walked down the aisle together and then separated on either side of the altar, the both of them looking anywhere else but at each other.

fortunately, the ceremony provided a welcome distraction from her swirling thoughts. logan and ingrid had written their own vows, and she cried the entire time they spoke to each other, tears silently dripping down her cheeks as she watched two of her oldest friends profess their love.

even the poem ingrid’s sister read made her heart skip a beat, her bottom lip wobbling through the ceremony until the officiant finally pronounced them husband and wife.

ellie was still smiling through tears after they’d kissed and started back down the aisle together. she forgot to be nervous about walking with colt until he took her arm in his and said, “seriously?”

then everything that had happened rushed back to her at once, and she was uneasy and miserable again.

“come on,” ellie sniffed, dabbing delicately at her eyes, “that was beautiful.”

“it was something,” he mumbled, so quietly the excited din of the crowd nearly drowned him out. “i’ll catch up with you later.”

he dropped her arm as soon as he possibly could, disappearing into the venue. ellie watched everyone through the glass windows for a moment before following him inside with a sigh.

bathroom, then bar. even if the first thing she needed was a large glass of wine, the absolute last thing she needed was smudged mascara. everything else could wait.

*

it was almost the end of the cocktail hour when logan found her at the bar. ellie grinned at him wholeheartedly and passed him the champagne flute she’d taken for herself, signaling for another.

“thanks,” he said, reaching out to squeeze her arm, “like, a thousand people have already tried talking to me. you never told me this was going to be so exhausting.”

“getting married is a huge deal,” ellie laughed, “of course every single person here wants to talk to you. you’re going to be making the rounds all night.”

“just -- keep me occupied for a few more minutes,” he said, gaze darting around the room, “make it look like we’re having a really serious talk. start with whatever put that look on your face.”

“i don’t have a look on my face,” she argued, though she knew it was futile.

logan arched his eyebrows at her. “ellie.”

“what?” she asked. she shuffled her feet anxiously and then continued, “look, i’m sure colt already told you we slept together last night, so --”

logan started coughing, spitting champagne back into his glass. he set it down on the bar with wide eyes. “oh my god, you what?”

ellie felt her own eyes bug out to match. “he didn’t tell you?”

“no,” logan hissed, then coughed again. “what do you mean you slept together last night?”

“um,” ellie started, her voice high as she swiveled her eyes to the ceiling, “well...”

“jesus, i can’t believe he finally went for it.”

she slowly lowered her gaze back to his. her brow furrowed in confusion. “what?”

“oh, man. he’s liked you for forever. i didn’t think he was ever going to...” logan trailed off as he caught sight of the expression on her face, which cycled from confusion to realization to horror so quickly it made her head spin. “wait, how’d you guys leave it?”

“um,” she said again, cringing, “well...”

“yikes.” logan matched her look with a wince. “you should probably talk to him.”

she wandered into the ballroom as if in a daze. ellie found her seat at the table with the bridal party and breathed a sigh of relief once she noticed colt was far away from her at the other end -- at least ingrid had done her one favor. 

after the toast, she told herself with a nod, i’ll talk to him. 

after the toast she could have the hard drink she’d need to get through the conversation. they could take a few minutes to themselves.

but first she had to actually get through the toast, and that meant sitting politely while colt gave the best man speech, which he did unflappably well, of course, even though he hadn’t prepared for it at all.

ellie was reminded all at once what’d made her hate him in the first place: colt was good at everything without having to worry about it. in college, he’d effortlessly pulled perfect grades in even the most impossible classes; tonight was no different. he made jokes that landed perfectly with the crowd, getting the appropriate amount of laughs, and finished with something surprisingly sentimental that garnered lots of applause -- both ingrid and logan beamed at him when he sat down again.

and she had to go next.

she pointedly ignored him as she stood with her glass. “hey, everyone. i’m ellie. for those of you who don’t know me, ingrid and i met on the very first day of college -- eight years ago. i’d just turned eighteen and i was away from home for the first time. i actually bumped into ingrid in the parking lot...”

ellie hit all the marks, too: what she loved about her friends, what made them perfect for each other. “-- and i knew he was the one just from the way she’d talk about him. she always got so giddy, it was like there was a whole other side of her i’d never seen before. every day she’d have something new to say about him: ‘oh, logan said this,’ and, ‘oh, logan showed me that’ --”

everyone was crying by the time she wrapped up. ingrid blew her a kiss as she lifted her glass into the air, and ellie grinned brightly back at her and logan before the band came back on and she could finally sit down again.

the girls around her were gushing about how good her toast had been, but ellie leaned around them to catch colt’s eye at the other end of the table.

her eyebrows lifted meaningfully. she nodded at the dance floor.

colt rolled his eyes. she watched him shake his head.

ellie thrust her bottom lip out into a pout. 

he looked sort of close to smiling, setting a swarm of butterflies loose in her stomach. it was both better and more dangerous than the thought of him being angry at her had been. later, he mouthed, turning away before she could frown at him any harder.

that was fine. it’d give her a little more time to work up her nerve -- hopefully.

she grabbed ingrid on her way back to the bar.

“oh my god, i can’t believe you,” ingrid sighed, squeezing her tight in a huge hug, “that was only the most beautiful toast of all time. you ruined my makeup, you bitch!”

“okay, you still look perfect,” ellie argued, squeezing her hand, “you’re the most beautiful bride ever. don’t even start.”

ingrid sighed wistfully, looking off towards the sweetheart table at the front of the ballroom. “i am pretty beautiful, huh?”

“are you kidding?” ellie demanded, “the whole thing was gorgeous.”

ingrid’s grin sharpened. out of nowhere, she said, “logan told me you totally fucked colt last night.”

“shhhh!” ellie cast a glance around desperately, but they were blessedly alone at the bar. “oh my god, i didn’t --”

“yeah, right. why didn’t you tell me?!”

“it’s your wedding day,” she laughed, “i wanted to -- i don’t know. it just happened, it was weird.”

“what’s he like?” she asked, passing ellie a glass of champagne.

“can we not do this?” ellie ducked her head behind the glass, trying to hide her flushed face. “isn’t it time for your first dance?”

ingrid waved her hand dismissively. “in a minute. so? spill!”

“oh my god, it was obviously incredible,” she mumbled into her champagne, “now get out of my face, this is exactly why i didn’t tell you.”

“fine, but we are so not done talking about this.” she reached out and tugged on one of the neat curls of her hair before linking her arm through ellie’s to walk back to the front of the ballroom together. “and you’d better save me a dance.”

*

she didn’t get her moment alone with colt until after the entrees. ellie had given up on trying to catch his eye, so she was surprised when he walked over and said, “i’ll take that dance, now, if you can stop crying long enough to make it happen.”

“people with souls cry at weddings,” she huffed, standing and taking his hand in hers, “i’m sorry you can’t relate.”

“you’re forgiven,” he smirked, so that she could almost pretend there was absolutely nothing weird going on between them as they walked out onto the dance floor.

but his expression shifted when the song changed and her hands laced together behind his neck, absolving her of that illusion near-immediately. she cleared her throat as his hands settled on her hips and they started to sway together.

“i’m sorry,” she said again, more seriously this time. 

he pursed his lips, then shrugged. “for what?”

“for being weird this morning. i don’t know what you were going to say -- um, if you were going to say anything, but i totally freaked out and i obviously didn’t even give you a chance to get to it, so. that was uncool. sorry.”

colt’s gaze was calculating on hers. she wondered what he was thinking. “don’t worry about it,” he said finally. “it’s nothing.”

she drew in a deep breath. well, if he wasn’t going to give her an inch... “logan said you’ve always liked me.”

ellie watched as his eyes narrowed. “logan’s lucky today’s his wedding day,” colt murmured darkly. his hands tightened on her hips briefly, then released. he turned his head and leveled his glare on her. “so?”

“so -- i thought you hated me,” she laughed, that thread of nervousness back again. “you never -- i mean, why didn’t you ever say anything?”

he rolled his eyes at her. “okay, you’re always, like -- smiling and happy and constantly surrounded by people. when we were in school you were in, like, student government and on debate team and running a thousand clubs or doing extra lab hours and everyone always liked you -- so you wanted me to, what, exactly? just walk right up to you and be like, hey, do you want to see a movie?”

ellie gaped at him, her mouth open in shock. “i -- yes! you could have just asked me out.”

“right,” colt snorted, “that would’ve gone over well. you thought i was a total asshole.”

“colt, you were a total asshole,” she reminded him.

he shifted back and forth on his feet. ellie stared in fascination as the tips of his ears went red when he dipped his head to avert his eyes. “i didn’t want you think i had a crush on you or anything.”

it felt a lot like she was having an out-of-body experience. “well... did you have a crush on me?”

colt cleared his throat. “you weren’t like everyone else,” he said, in lieu of an answer, “you’re still not. but i get that you’re busy. this doesn’t have to be, like, a thing.”

“hang on, i’m still processing.” whatever this was, it was officially bizarre. 

it seemed impossible to wrap her head around what he’d just admitted: that he’d always liked her, even at her most neurotic, at the most school-obsessed, five-year-plan focused she’d ever been. 

so she didn’t have to change.

for once, it didn’t feel like she needed to put up some front that was, frankly, exhausting to maintain.

everything just felt -- nice.

“done yet?” he demanded, “the song’s almost over.” 

ellie leaned in and kissed him, uncaring of anyone who might see. his hands were warm over the cutouts in the dress at her sides and she was breathless when they finally broke apart, long after the song had changed.

the look on colt’s face was a mixture of self-satisfied and surprised when he pulled her off the dance floor and out onto the terrace. “i am busy,” ellie said, once they were alone.

colt nodded, looking out at the view of the beach below them. “i know.”

“but -- if you really don’t mind that i have to split my focus with school... and the distance... and the time difference...”

“are you trying to talk me out of it?” he asked, sounding amused.

“...then obviously i’d love to date you or whatever.”

“huh.” colt was smiling as he stared at the ocean. “i guess i probably should have just asked out you five years ago, then.”

“it might’ve been easier,” ellie allowed, shifting to lean her shoulder against his. she reached for his hand and laced their fingers together. “but that’s not really our style.”

colt turned and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “true,” he hummed, and then, “you smell like you have a whole can of hairspray in your hair.”

“i probably do.” she hesitated, looking down at their joined hands. “are you sure you want to do this?”

“yeah.” ellie looked back up at him and found colt’s eyes still stuck thoughtfully on the view. “i’ve wanted to for a really long time.”

“that’s so crazy to me.”

“why?” he finally turned and looked at her, his gaze no less intense than it had been last night by the ocean. “ingrid’s right. you are a catch. it’s crazy to me that you’ve stayed single all this time.”

“well, i was --” she bit the inside of her cheek to avoid again using the word busy, and then pivoted to a more uncomfortably honest answer, “-- never interested in compromising. before now.”

his lips spread into a smile. she felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of it, soft and genuine and open on his face. “figures i’d be the one to break your streak,” colt said, in that same overconfident way she always used to hate.

“oh my god, do not start,” she huffed, using their joined hands to push his side until he stumbled a step away.

colt retaliated by spinning her around and pulling her in close, trapping her against the ledge of the balcony before she could move. “why?” he challenged, “what are you going to do about it?”

she was going to kiss that stupid smirk right off his face, for one.

and he was going to spend the night dancing with her and later hold back her hair when she had too much to drink.

then they’d both spend most of sunday in bed, skipping brunch with the rest of their friends to put the hours before her flight to better use.

colt would drive her to the airport. they would say their goodbyes on the curb.

and she would be too excited to sleep on the trip back to miami.

“just wait,” she threatened, though her voice was sweet; she tilted her chin up to brush their noses together. “you’ll see. i have it all planned out.”

the look in his eyes made her feel like she was doing something dangerous; colt looked both fond and delighted, content and sweet and sure. his free hand lifted to thumb at her cheekbone, like part of him was still surprised to find the both of them out here, wrapped up together like they were. 

“i’ll bet,” he returned, his voice low and full of promise. “that work ethic is one of the things i like most about you.”

“you’ll have to give me a list of the rest,” ellie laughed, eager to hear his take on it all from what was arguably the most unique perspective in their friend group. 

“eh, you can wait,” colt shrugged, gently pressing her in along the stone ledge behind her back on the balcony, leaning over her with another grin, “there’s a few other things we have to catch up on first.”

fair point, she thought, though she’d be damned if she ever actually agreed with him out loud. she had a lot to fill him in on, too. 

he’d probably waited long enough, though, so ellie folded first and gave him that kiss she’d planned, colt’s smirk dissolving as expected when his mouth pressed against hers. 

when they finally broke apart and turned to head back inside, they drew up short outside the doors to the balcony. every last one of their friends was standing in front of the glass facade, staring at them, their eyes wide and their mouths open. ingrid and logan in particular looked unreasonably overjoyed. 

“christ,” colt sighed, as ellie instantly flushed bright red beside him, “is this what this is going to be like all the time?”

“no take backs,” she said, squeezing his hand. she turned to look up at him just in time to catch his eye roll, and the subsequent glare that made the group watching them from behind the door scatter with raucous laughter.

“fine,” he answered, sounding put-upon, but she hadn’t looked away yet and so she still caught the private smile that tugged his lips up against his will.

perfect, ellie thought to herself, and then, for the first time in as long as she could remember, nothing else -- no self-doubt, no exhaustion, no pretending. 

colt was probably going to have to help her get used to how it felt to have everything she wanted.

[oh-theatre]

Objection!: Chapter 30

Chapter title: Everything Will Be Alright

A/n: Ahahahaah IM SO SORRY im so sorry that its been months im so sorry that this chapter is awful im so sorry im so sorry that i call this awful piece of work anything im so sorry im sorry im sorry bad chapters short chapter ohmygod how dare i call this anything im so sorry im sorry

First | Previous | Next

words: 2142

summary: They must act quickly when the tiny hospital room tenses up

pairings: Eventual logicality, prinxiety, platonic demus, romantic remile

warnings: Murder mention, child murder, Law and Courtroom, swearing, blood, hospital, crime scene,  murder, gun mention, guns, swearing abuse, graphic descriptions, alcohol, shooting, crying

Ao3 Link  

Logan begs, nay he prays Patton would remain blissfully asleep. Through the past few months the poor father had been thrown into obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. Constantly finding himself in trouble, and danger. He knows how hopeless Patton felt, how broken. He just wanted to help his partner find the pieces and put them back together, not lose more vital ones.

“You're not really about to kill a man, in a hospital, surrounded by witnesses, are you?” Roman proposes. To give the judge props, he was handling this with much more patience than expected after finding out your boyfriend was a conspiring murderer trying to rid the world of you and your best friend.

Eh, Virgil was a better option anyway.

Not the time Roman. He should be devastated but of course he isn't. Of course...he's relieved.

Because he's in love with Virgil.

“Don't shoot, be rational James” Logan tries, he knows his efforts are meaningless. The man had been hot on Patton's trails for months. He wasn't Jeff Winger, one charmed speech wasn't going to make this all better. “You wont be leaving the hospital without your hands in cuffs”

“Yeah well at least i'll be leaving with one man…” He eyes Roman and Logan “Or however many dead”

“Mm hydrangeas” Patton mumbles, Logan squeezes his temples so hard hoping his partner stays sleeping. “Log..an” He mutters, tossing over, pulling the blanket closer but remains gentle and soothingly asleep.

“Aw look, he calls for you” James mocks.

“Dude, that's so low” Roman huffs. He looks to Logan but the man's eyes remain planted on his fiancee. Stall, that's all he remembers from Virgil's ramblings. “James...please dont do this” He pulls out his tears, it felt off faking his feelings but James was a murderer so eh. “I thought...was it all a lie?” He questions, fighting back a smirk as the gun lowers slightly. James falters, he looks back with soft eyes to Roman, suddenly in the blink of an eye someone pushes past Roman, grabs James and tackles him to the ground. His gun slides across the room crashing into metal.

“Roman the gun” He hears an exasperated Virgil request. Roman moves in unison with Logan who rushes to a newly awakened Patton.

“What's going on?” He yawns, gladly accepting Logan's embrace. James pops up into his view with Virgil behind him. “James?” He wonders, Roman hands Virgil the gun and the pieces fall into place. His “Oh” was ever so small. Logan only held tighter as their eyes trailed Virgil and James walking away, listening to the detective read off James’s rights. Logan remains right where he stands, glaring out the door. “Lo?”

“Hm?” He snaps looking at his partner.

“Hi, I'm here” Patton comforts, he takes Logan's cheek bringing him in for a gentle kiss. “Alive, and well, and no extra gunshot wounds” He teases, Logan snorts feeling embarrassed as the nose escapes his mouth. “Oh my god, adorable” Patton giggles pulling Logan on to his bed. The lawyers arm drape over him and they hold one another close.

“Please quit scaring me” Logan begs, whispering affectionately into Patton's ears. Patton interlaces his fingers with Logans, kissing his hand lightly.

“Pinky promise”

“Dont make promises you cant fucking keep” Remy storms in. The lawyers sit up, a protective Logan stands, still upset at the detectives for what they had done. Patton fiddles uncomfortably with the blanket. “God are you ok? What the hell happened?” He rushes

“I don't think you're entitled to that information anymore Remy” Logan sighs, his arms folded. “You see that is reserved for Patton's friends” Logan scowls, Patton gasps and wants to speak but a mis-directed glare from Logan quiets him quickly.

“Fuck you Logan” Are the last angered words from the caffeinated detective before he slams the door. The sound shaking Patton. As soon as Logan looks to him he breaks. His tears fall faster than Logan could realize what he had done.

“Patton” He goes, but a sobbing Patton shakes his head begging for a moment alone. “I love you” He says before taking his exit.

Why, why did he leave?

Patton knew what panic attacks felt like, he had plenty. But everytime the shock hit him and it hurt, it scared him with a fear mightier than death. He wanted to call out for Logan but he couldn't speak. A pathetic squeak was all he managed. He pounded at the bedside but couldn't breathe, he clutched hard but couldn't remember any of his usual tricks. When the door opened he had hoped for Logan to be his usual stubborn self.

“Pat I jus-” Virgil begins but sees the pure fear in his friends eyes. He rushes to his side, instantly taking his friends hands. “Stop hitting yourself” he commands, the stern but safe voice sent something over Patton. “I'm going to hold you now” he warns, Patton nods through his shakes. He holds his friend, tightly applying pressure to Pattons nervous system. After a few minutes of pure silence and gentle touch, Patton can breathe steadily once more. “Roman had the goofiest smile while we walked back” Virgil tells, Pattons ears perk up and listen. Something to focus on. “He said he was almost glad he had an excuse to get out of a relationship with James... he said he missed me” Virgil shouldn't have blushed

“H-he does” Patton manages.

“I missed him to…” After a hesitation Virgil looks to Patton who had now cozied himself into Virgil's embrace. “I miss you” He whispers. Like a small child Patton tugs the opening of the detective's jacket.

“I missed you so much” He sighs with a yawn

“Get some rest you dork” He strokes gently watching Patton feel safe as he let himself join the world of rest. Virgil remained comfortable with Patton, he watched the TV on mute with subtitles. After about an hour the door opened, Logan's face morphed through a million emotions as he examined the scene before him.

“Get out” He whispers viciously.

“Logan, specs, i love you but you're being an idiot” He rolls his eyes. “I'm not moving, Patton had a panic attack so i'm staying until he tells me he's ok, not because you're an angry calculator” Virgil stands his ground, he doesn't wait for Logan's reaction he looks back to the tv. Of course this causes him to miss Logan's shoulders falling, and his face softening.

“A panic attack” he breathes, he moves to Pattons other side, serving him a glass of water for when he awakens. “Sleep well sunshine” He delivers a gentle kiss to Pattons forehead before leaving. Virgil smiles at the couple once Logans out of sight.

“God hes so whipped” Virgil laughs to himself.  

~~~

“You take yours and Ill take mine” Logan jokes as he and Roman quietly enter the room. Virgil and Patton lay fast asleep cuddled with one another.

“Hes not mine...I mean” Roman sighs, he strokes away the faded purple streaks of Virgil's hair while he situates him into his arms. He looks with a gentle smile as Virgil cuddles into his arms. Roman cant help but place a quick kiss on his forehead.

“Mm?” Patton hums once the comfortable warmth had been left cold and empty. “V?” He manages

“I'm here, Virgils, gonna go home and rest” Logan whispers, cuddling up as he waves Roman goodbye. Patton giggles turning around and kissing Logan as he readjusts his position. “I love you so much, i'm sorry I wasn't here”

“You're here now, and thats all that matters..all thats ever gonna matter” Patton replies, he kisses him once more, Logan feels his face flush with heat so halting. “How are the twins?” He wonders fiddling with Logans fingers.

“Good, Emile is having plenty of fun with them”  Logan assures, a breathy sigh on Pattons neck sending a tickle down his spine. “They miss you though,” Logan adds, knowing Patton misses them just the same.

“Well shucks!” Patton grumbles, he sits up allowing himself to still embrace Logan. “Im all rested up!” He laughs, Logan smiles watching the man he loves flood through. “Will you get me my wheelchair! I wanna get out of this bed!” He jumps, Logan chuckles wearily but nods. He takes his stand helping Patton into the chair.

“Where to?” He asks, holding to the chair.

“Anywhere!” Patton giggles pointing forward. “Oo! Let's head to the cafeteria for some food, i'm starving” Patton jumps, Logan leans down giving him a soft kiss on his forehead.

“Anything you for you” He whispers, the serious tone was not missed and Patton took his hand quickly. He squeezed it gently promising he would do anything for Logan. The walk out the rolling of the wheels was smooth across the minted floor. They passed by many rooms, Pattons excitement faltered listening to the sounds of pain, loss...but then…

“Oh Logan stop wait” Patton halts the wheels as they pass the nursery. “Oh look! Twins” He recognizes instantly, they lay next to each other, both girls, both beautiful. “Oh they are gorgeous” He swoons

“Not as gorgeous as your twins” Logan reminds Patton, blushes as he did watching Logan grow with his kids. He didn't have to do it alone anymore. “I love you”

“I love you more than anything Logan” He replies.

“I scared you earlier, didn't I?” He blurts, kneeling in front of his fiancee. “I saw the look, the fear behind your eyes...I reminded you of...him” Logan laments. Patton fiddles with his hospital gown, averting any gaze from Logan.

“I want to make up my own mind, i want to set my own boundaries, and i want to talk to my friends” Patton rushes

“I'm so sorry, i got too defensive and didnt think about you, just about protecting you. I just want you to be safe” Logan defends, still Patton fiddles apprehensive. “I'm not him, and i'm so sorry. There are no excuses for what I did and it will never happen again.” He takes Patton's cheek ever so gently. “Your words and thoughts...they matter Patton. They always will my love.”

“You needn't be so sorry, I know you're not Liam. You never have been. I'm just cautious and…” He looks back to the children, parents fawning over them. “I want this to work” He takes Logans hands kissing them sweetly.  “I want this to work more than I have wanted anything in my entire life” Logan lets out a quiet breath. “I love you Logan Tolentino”

“And i love you Patton Hart”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife!” Emile giggles holding Valerie and Remus' hands. They bounce before charging towards the couple hugging them happily.

“Can I be the flower girl?” Valerie questions sitting on Patton's lap. Remus struggles in logan's hold wanting to examine his father's wheelchair.

“I wanna be the flower girl!” Remus argues, Logan takes the back of the boys head gently. “Hi” He smiles happily. He wraps his pudgy arms around Logans neck hugging him. “Im hungry” He ponders instantly pulling away “Dada-” he pauses “Mister Lolo can I still call you that?” He asks. Logans heart tugs just a tad. With no words available in his vernacular he simply nods. “Food time please” Valerie nods in agreement still snuggled up to Patton.

“What the twins want-” Patton begins meeting Logans eyes across the way. Logan returns a gentle smile.

“The twins shall get” He finishes standing up with Remus tight and safe in his hold. Valerie claps in excitement while Remus practically falls over himself laughing. “Im going to put you both into your fathers lap now so i can push his chair” He informs, the kids oblige only thinking of the chair as a new fun toy.

After goodbyes to Emile and gratitude of course for looking after them, they set off to the cafeteria. Though they know that most of the food wouldnt appetize them the children were able to ravish the entirety of their meals.

Ive got to teach these children what taste it, Logan thinks sighing. He looks to Patton whos hand was held in his the entire time, watching as his fiance's eyes grow droopy in the cold saddened room of the hospital. It had been a lot today, the adrenaline had dissipated and the exhausted would set in. But even so tired Patton looked elated, staring and listening intently as the twins rambled away.  Even in these dark hours where nothing was certain, there was light. Logan never understood that, he thought that no person could ever bring this type of joy or emotion out of him. Love never made sense, and it didn't have to for him, but right now..it made all the sense...and he loved nothing more.

[deadanddeactivated]

A Wolf in the Woods

Fandom: Sanders Sides Pairing: Dukceit, Princxiety Characters: Thomas, Logan, Remus, Deceit, Roman, Virgil, Patton Notes: Day 16 for @tsshipmonth2020​ - dukceit.  Yes I know this is super late.  It also took like 3 attempts and now isn’t even super dukceit-y but i’m proud of it. Summary:  Don’t go into the woods.  Parents whisper the plea to their children late at night when wondering eyes looking for adventure stray to a clear path through the trees.  There’s a wolf in the woods, and he holds a grudge.  They warn.

AO3

--

Don’t go into the woods.  Parents whisper the plea to their children late at night when wondering eyes looking for adventure stray to a clear path through the trees.  There’s a wolf in the woods, and he holds a grudge.  They warn.

This town played a terrible game and lost.  The town librarian tells the curious children, the ones who find frustration in their parents insistence in brushing off questions.  But it is not the wolf that holds a grudge, it is the witch in the red riding hood.

“There isn’t a witch in a red coat!”  A boy claims, unaware how lucky he is that he alone has come to the man today.  “Only a witch in a green riding hood.”

“There is a witch in a green riding hood.”  The man agrees, humming.  “The town tried to hurt him dearly, but it is not him that holds the grudge.”  He doesn’t continue and the boy can only huff in frustration as he leaves.  He’s never seen a witch in a red coat but he is curious and he is unafraid.  He’s seen the wolf and the witch, they don’t scare him.  The witch has even said hi to him!

The other kids always whisper when he says things like that.  They turn away from him and they’d tell their parents if they didn’t know they’d also get in trouble for talking about the woods.  But that’s fine.  He doesn’t need them to like him, and this way no one tries to stop him when he sneaks onto the forest path.

The path has always led somewhere different.  Today it leads to a clearing with a glass case resting in it’s center.  The case looks as though someone has slept in it and the boy thinks that would be nice, because the top is a glass dome that would let you stare up into the stars as you drifted off.  

“Perhaps it would have been nice,” the librarian hums when the boy reports back the next day, “in better circumstances.”

What do you mean?  The boy asks, frowning.  

“The person who slept in that glass case could not wake of his own free will, that would quite distract from the view of the stars.”  The man explains.  He shelved two more books as the boy took in his words.

“Was it the red witch?”  The boy asks.  “Is that why he holds a grudge?”

“It was indeed the red witch.”  The librarian confirms, a proud tilt to his lips that the boy had figured it out.  “But that’s not why he holds a grudge, he knows it was an accident.”

“How could it be an accident?”  The boy sighs.  The librarian hums a moment more before taking a book from the shelf, a book the boy has never seen.  A book he doesn’t think his parents would like to see.

“Perhaps this will help.  Though I would suggest you keep it hidden.” 

The boy reads the book through the night, tucked away under his blankets.  The book is on witchcraft, on the nature of spells and of breaking them.  Intent, it says, intent is the most important part of casting a spell.  But breaking a spell is not so easy.  

When morning comes the boy has a lot of pieces but no idea how they fit together.  He returns to the library with a frown, book hidden in his bag.

“Did that help?”  The librarian asks.

“Is there a history book?  An old one, about the town?”  The boy returns, not answering the question.  The librarian is surprised a moment before turning to look over his shelves.  Eventually, with an ‘aha’ he pulls a book out.  It doesn’t look like a history.

“There is.”  He says.  “Not an honest one.  But maybe this will help.”

“What is it?”  The boy asks as he takes the book.  If it even had a title it has long since been worn away by time.

“It’s about the wolf.”  The librarian answers.  

Not wanting to wait until night to read, certainly not wanting to get caught reading, the boy once more follows the path into the forest.  This time it leads to a river, at which he sits and reads all day.

The book is indeed about a wolf, but not a real wolf.  He’s something else that’s been cursed with bloodlust that rises like the moon.  The story tugs at his memory until the boy refers back to the first book the librarian gave him.  There’s a creature in there, a powerful magical creature, that can be bound.  

The town couldn’t’ve bound a creature, at least the boy doesn’t think so.  But it could have made the creature bloodthristy.

“Was it the green witch?”  He asks nervously the next town, clutching the books like a lifeline.  “Did he help the town curse the wolf?  And the red witch?”

“Not at all.”  The librarian assures, face softening a little when the boys shoulders slump with release.  “The wolf’s binding was an accident by a third witch, the town took advantage of that.  The third witch was trying to help but ultimately it was the green witch that broke the curse.”

“Did he break the red witch’s curse too?”  The boy hopes.

“Not at all.”  The librarian shook his head.  “There’s only one way to broke curses like those, and the green witch could only do that for the wolf.”

“What way?”  The boy presses.

“Well, you’ve read plenty of books.  You should know.”  The boy frowns at the answer.  He didn’t see anything about breaking those curses in the books the librarian had given him.  But then, he had read plenty of books that had curses and they were all broken the same way.

“True love’s kiss?”  He guesses.

“Precisely.”  The librarian nods.  “The green witch was the wolf's true love.  His brother, the red witch, had his own true love, who woke him.”  

“So it all worked out?”  The boy says.

“It did.”  The librarian confirms.

“Then why does the red witch hold a grudge?”  The boy asks.  “If the sleeping spell was an accident and everything worked out…”

“There’s still something you’re missing.”  The librarian says then, after a pause, he continues.  “Why was the green witch in the forest in the first place?”  The boy opens his mouth to answer and then stops.

Why was the green witch in the forest?  All the growns up only talk about the wolf, it’s just the librarian that mentions the witches.  The librarian’s always said that’s because the wolf has been around longer.  So why would the green witch enter the forest, before the wolf’s blood lust had been cured.  Wouldn’t he be risking death?

“Why is there a wolf in the woods?”  The boy asks his parents that night, still puzzling over the librarian’s words.  His parents share a gaze, the one they often share.  They think their child is too curious, too dangerous.  They think he hasn’t noticed these gazes.  Eventually his mother sighs and speaks.

“The wolf used to protect the town from witches and demons.”  She says.  “But only if the town stayed out of it’s woods.  Now there aren’t any more witches or demons for the wolf to eat, and so it eats children instead.”  She claims.

“When was the last time it ate a child?”  The boy asks, frowning slightly.  The wolf’s bloodlust had been cured, why would it still be hurting people?  His parents share another look.

“That’s enough questions.”  His father huffs.  “Finish your dinner and then straight to bed with you.”  So he hasn’t eaten any children, the boy presumes.  He doesn’t say that, he knows better. 

The next day he tries to find the librarian but the man isn’t in his library.  Walking around town, the boy eventually finds him sitting on the edge of the forest, reading a book.

“Hello.”  He greets, not looking up as the boy approaches.  No one else is around.

“The town wanted the wolf to kill the green witch, didn’t they?”  He says.  “They made him go into the forest.  The red witch holds a grudge because the town tried to kill his brother.”

“Almost.”  The librarian smiles.  He pats the spot next to him and the boy sat down, looking at the book as the librarian moves it to share.  There’s a crude drawing of two boys, one in a red riding hood and the other a green hood with a white streak through his hair.  “The town wanted to kill the red witch.”  The librarian explains.  “But the green witch took his place.”  The next page has the same boys but this time their hoods have been switched.

“He made the red witch sleep so he won’t get in the way.”  The boy guesses.

“The spell was too powerful.”  The librarian says, turning the next page to show the brother without a streak laying in his bed.  “The green witch had figured it was his last spell, his magic reacted and cast a serious curse.  It would only be broken with the green witch’s death, or true loves kiss.”

“But the green witch didn’t die.”  The boy says.  

“No, the wolf did everything he could to lead the green witch to the safe house.”  The librarian says.  The next page had the green witch sitting in front of a nice cabin surrounded by trees.  In those trees the wolf was hiding.  “They became friends rather quick.”

“And that’s when the green witch broke the spell?”

“No, it would be quite some time before that.”  The librarian smiles.  He turns the page to show the red witch laying in the glass coffin.  “The town thought he was under a spell but by his evil brother, and they thought he was bad luck, so they dragged him to the forest.  Of course the wolf found him.”

“When did his true love show up?”  

“I’m getting there.”  The librarian assures.  “The red witch and the wolf had been friends for years, unbeknownst to the green witch, so the wolf already knew the red witch’s true love.  But he was away with another witch, saving a young boy who was trapped in a tower.  They would have to wait for the true love to get back.”  The next page shows the green witch sitting beside the red witch’s case, clutching the red cloak tight.  The wolf sits with him.

“Over the weeks the green witch and wolf grew closer and the green witch started to truly learn his powers, and he started to learn of the wolf’s curse.”  He turns the page, showing the green witch sitting in the cabin surrounded by books.  “But the wolf said nothing could be done, and he didn’t want to talk about it.”  The next page shows the wolf and green witch, appearing as though they’d been arguing.

“Finally the true love returned, with the tower boy and the first witch in tow.”  The page shows the three knew arrivals, drawn in purple, dark blue, and light blue respectively.  “He took one look at the green witch and knew something was wrong.  It took some time to convince him he was the red witch’s true love, but when he finally kissed the red witch, the curse was broken.”  The next page shows the red witch sitting up in the case with the true love close by.

“What about the wolf?”  The boy presses.

“You’re rather impatient all of a sudden.”  The librarian sighs.  “The green witch and the first witch spent every moment trying to find a way to break the wolf’s curse.”  The two of them were surrounded by books in the main room, with the tower boy sitting nearby also reading.  “The only cure they could find was true love's kiss, and the tower boy immediately told the green witch to kiss the wolf then, because they were obviously in love.”  

“The green witch didn’t need anymore convincing, he immediately marched up to the wolf and before the wolf could say hello, they were kissing.”  The page shows the two together and the next page shows the wolf, only without his eyes.  The boy cheers.

“But why did they stay?”  He asks.  “If the wolf wasn’t bound to the forest anymore, wouldn’t he want to explore?”

“The wolf never minded being bound to the forest, they’re his home.  So he and the green witch settled here, and the first witch settled in his cabin.  The red witch and his true love travel often, but always come to visit.”  The librarian explains.

“And the tower boy?”  

“He comes and goes, but he never goes far.”  The librarian assures.  “He tries to ensure people don’t fear his family.”

“A little bit of fear seems to be okay.”  The boy says.  “That way no one bothers them.”

“I suppose.”  The librarian agrees.  

“I wish I could find a cabin in the woods like they did.  Minus all the curses, I guess.  It sounds much better than this town.”  The boy sighs.  

“For people like us, a cabin in the woods is a much nicer life indeed.”  The librarian hums.  “Perhaps,” he starts, “you’d like to meet them?”

“Really?”  The boy jumps up instantly and the librarian can’t help a chuckle.  They walk into the forest, falling the path that today leads to a homely cabin.

“You’re home!  Finally!”  A man in purple says, pushing the door open.  “I have been worried sick!”  

“The true love.”  The boy whispers, staring eyes wide.  

“I found someone who wanted to meet you all.”  The librarian smiles.

“Oh a young witch!”  A new voice smiles, this man dressed in blue.  “Come in, come in.  My name is Patton.”  He greets.

“Patton!”  The True Love scolds.

“Oh stop being such a worry wart.  If he’s to stay with us, he should know our names.”  The witch in red steps into view from the side of the house.  “I’m Roman.”

“Stay?”  The boy repeats, confused.  

“Only if you’d like.”  The librarian says.  “I assure you, you’ll find much more love here than in town.  And you can leave whenever you’d like.  Take as long as you need to decide.”

“I’d like to stay!”  The boy decides instantly, grinning.

“In that case, you may call me Logan.”  The librarian smiles.

“Fine, fine.”  The true love gives in.  “My name is Virgil, welcome to the family kid.”  He says, the hint of a smile on his face.

“New family?!”  Someone calls and then, before the boy can realize what’s happening, he’s scooped into a hug by someone in a green riding hood.  “It’s the little witch!  Hello kiddo!  I’m Remus, I’m going to be your new uncle, it’ll be great!”  The man announces, making the boy laugh.

“Put him down Remus.”  A final voice calls, the voice of the wolf.  Remus doesn’t put him down, but he doesn’t stop swaying so that the boy can see the final person.  “Hello little one, you can call me Dante.”  He greets.

“Hi!”  The boy says, looking to everyone and smiling wide.  “I’m Thomas!” 

Don’t go into the woods.  Parents will whisper the plea to their children late at night when wondering eyes looking for adventure stray to a clear path through the trees.  There’s a wolf in the woods, and he holds a grudge.  He stole the Thomas boy just last week. That’s what they’ll say, unaware of a growing witch whose finally found the place he belongs.

[domesticatedantelope]

proximity

a self-indulgent next door neighbors au for rodaw: best boy’s day

Pairing: Logan x MC

Rating: T

Word Count: 3k

i. 

Logan moves in on the first hot day of summer.

It takes him three long hours in the sun and several trips back up and down the chipped paint staircase at the end of the hall. By the time he maneuvers his beaten old futon mattress through the front door, his arms ache and his t-shirt sticks with sweat between his shoulder blades. 

There’s never much to move: whatever clothes fit in the back of the Devore, and just enough junk furniture to rest his feet on. At the end of the day, his footsteps echo a little too loudly against all the empty wall space, but the place is safe and quiet. And it’s something to call his own. 

He’s hunting through the boxes strewn in landmine fashion across the floor for a clean shirt when a few timid knocks break the silence. He pauses with his arms half-pushed through the sleeves, listening intently, and he thinks he hears a sigh from beyond the door as he approaches.

A quick look through the peephole offers him a fisheye glimpse of freckles and dark curls. The girl outside his door bites down on her bottom lip and fidgets where she stands, finally daring a glance up into the tiny glass lens, where her wide eyes unknowingly meet his own.

The notion sinks in slowly, unfamiliar. 

Logan has relocated more times than he cares to remember — lifted his life by the roots and left the rest behind — but this, he realizes, is a first. 

Because he’s fairly certain people just don’t do this anymore. 

Or at least he was, until his neighbor showed up with a plate of cookies in her hands. 

She startles when he opens the door, the hint of a blush coloring the freckles on her cheeks as she blinks up at him and offers a shy smile. “Hi. Sorry to bother you,” she starts, and the sound of her voice brings the beach to mind, the soft way the waves sigh against the sand. “I know you just got done moving in, but I, um… thought I should introduce myself. I’m Mercy. I live in 104.” She shifts the plate to one hand and holds the other out for him to shake. 

Logan finds himself smiling as he takes it, especially when it makes the blush deepen on her face. “Logan.” He leans against the doorframe with a grin, nodding toward the plate in her hands. “Those for me?”

Her smile widens to match his, more certain. “Only if you like snickerdoodles. Otherwise I will have to insist you let me bake you something else.”

The plate is still warm when she passes it over, a heap of golden cookies piled neatly beneath a shiny slip of plastic wrap. It might be the most wholesome thing he’s ever seen. “Thank you. Really. You didn’t have to do that.”

She averts her gaze then, toying with the tail end of a curl. “Well, my mother would be disappointed if I didn’t do the neighborly thing and welcome you with fresh-baked cookies.” She breathes a nervous laugh, and when she speaks again her words all tumble together in a rush. “Also, I teach piano lessons every other day, and the walls here can be really thin, and I just wanted to say sorry ahead of time, and I promise it’ll only be during business hours, and if we’re ever too loud, you can totally come over and let me know, and—!”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Logan cuts in gently, holding a hand out as if he might stem the tide of her apologies. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. I’m hardly ever home anyways. I can promise it won’t bother me.”

She tugs her lip between her teeth again. “You say that now, but wait until you’re hearing off-key Für Elise for the fifth time in a row. You’ll be begging the landlord to evict me.”

He laughs. “Trust me, Mercy. I wouldn’t do that to you.” He feels a smirk tilt at the corner of his mouth, and drops his voice conspiratorially low. “Besides, I’ve already taken the bribe. No walking back on it now.”

The last of the anxious energy seems to ease from her shoulders when she giggles, and the smile she beams up at him is sweeter even than the smell of cinnamon and sugar. He wonders absently if kissing her would taste like cookies, too. “In that case… I guess we have a deal. The snickerdoodles in exchange for your silence.”

“I’ve had worse deals.”

Her gaze lingers a moment longer on the shape of his smirk before she blinks and glances down the hall toward her own door. “I, um… have some studying I need to get back to, but... it was really nice meeting you, Logan.”

“Not as nice as meeting you,” he assures her smoothly, rewarded by the delicate pink flush that warms her cheeks again. It’s far too easy, summoning that blush; he thinks he could get dangerously used to it. “Thanks again. I’ll bring the plate back as soon as I’m done with it.”

“No rush. You know where to find me.” She arcs a small, cheery wave at him, and he watches the waves of her hair bounce as she walks the short distance back to her apartment. There’s an eager sort of warmth that sits in his chest when he kicks the front door shut behind him. His steps still echo when he walks, but if he’s quiet he can just make out the sound of Mercy moving in the next apartment over, and the noise of nearby life softens the empty feeling in the room. He takes a bite of cookie that melts perfectly on his tongue, and smiles as he settles in to unpack.

ii. 

Logan wasn’t kidding about never being home.

Mercy doesn’t see him for another couple weeks, aside from the short interlude when he drops by to bring her plate back — when the firm broad of his shoulders fill her doorway, and he shoots her that same tempting smile, and it feels like tilting her face up into the sun. The image of it floats across her thoughts, firmly imprinted in the fleeting daydreams between essays and lessons and exams. 

The summer starts to sink its teeth in, bleeding hazy heat waves well into the dark of night. Her shoddy AC unit struggles helplessly against the swelter, and she finds her only solace curled up in a chair below her open window, begging any semblance of a breeze to whisper through. She’s on her third night in a row of letting ice cubes slowly melt against her neck when she hears the unmistakable sound of a window scraping open. The crash of boots on metal quickly follows, and she cranes her neck to peer over the sill and see the familiar shape of dark hair and wide shoulders on the fire escape. 

“Logan?”

He turns at the sound of his name, a grin stretching across his face when he spots her through the window. “Hey, Mercy. You trying to escape the heat, too?”

“Trying,” she confirms, and reaches for the tray of ice at her side, holding it out toward him in lethargic invitation. “Ice cube?”

With a pleasant, rumbly laugh, he plucks a slightly melted ice cube loose and folds his fingers in around it. “Thanks. You know, it’s a lot better out here. Feel like joining me?”

His smile leaves a flutter in her stomach; her daydreams haven’t done it justice. It’s been a while since she clambered through her window, but she manages to climb over the sill with little difficulty. Logan offers her a hand to help her through, his fingers still cold from the ice, only letting her go once her feet are firmly planted on the fire escape. 

And oh, he was so right.

She can’t help a blissful sigh as a breeze lifts at the curled ends of her hair, cooling the flush of heat from her skin. “Oh, my god.”

Logan chuckles knowingly beside her. “Better?”

“The best.” Mercy joins him at the railing, where he rests his elbows and peers out over the darkness of the alley below. An easy quiet settles in the space between them while she revels in the first glimpse of relief she’s felt all night, soothed by the busy melodies of city life around them, voices and laughter and traffic on the distant highway. He’s rolled the short sleeves of his t-shirt up his shoulders, leaving the bronze skin of his arms uninterrupted, and she finds herself almost grateful for the heat when a blush starts to rise in her cheeks. 

He seems to notice her staring, because he arches a brow and tilts his head to smirk down at her. “Come here often?”

Despite her mortification, Mercy laughs. His expression softens at the sound, something tender in the angle of his smile. “Sometimes,” she admits, her finger tracing idle patterns at the metal of the railing. “On clear nights mostly, when I want to see the stars.”

His gaze flickers from her face up to the sliver of night sky barely visible between apartment buildings. “Kinda hard to see the stars from here, isn’t it?”

“It’s not the best view,” she agrees with a quiet laugh. “Just enough to remind me that they’re up there, I guess.”

Abruptly, Logan steps away from the railing, a look of determination forming in the dark of his eyes as he turns to face her. “I want to show you something.”

She blinks, thoughts scattered by the eager way he grins at her. “What is it?”

“A surprise,” he insists teasingly, and holds his hand out to her once more. “Do you trust me?”

Mercy touches his palm, and her heart skips when he folds their hands together. “I do.”

The stairs tremble beneath their feet as they climb steadily higher. Logan glances back at every landing, his grip comfortingly certain around her own. It’s another five flights to the roof, and he slows to a stop at the last ladder to let her ascend first.

The breeze is stronger here, whipping at the loose strands of her hair as she steps out onto the open rooftop. Dark blue sky stretches unobstructed above her, and she tips her head back to drink in the faint sparkle of stars that manage to break out over the city lights. She feels Logan step up beside her, and when she finally tears her eyes away from the stars to meet his gaze, the wonder in his features steals her breath.

This time when her blush returns, she doesn’t look away. “Thank you, Logan. It’s perfect.”

He doesn’t look away either. “Anytime.”

iii. 

His eye still fucking hurts. Every time he blinks, the sting reminds him of wet streets beneath his cheek and the brutal pain of impact, Salazar’s face a snarl of gritted teeth and bleeding mouth and the crunch of his nose breaking under Logan’s fist. He clenches his hand at the memory, feeling the prickle of split skin across his knuckles. 

He doesn’t notice Mercy in the hallway until he’s nearly walking into her, the startled shock of her voice shaking him from his anger. 

“Logan! I’m sorry, I didn’t see — oh, my god, are you okay?” 

Wincing, he angles his injured eye away from her. “It’s nothing. Took an elbow in a pick-up game. It looks worse than it is.”

Something about the concern in her expression eats away at him, like battery acid in the chasm of his chest. Her gaze passes shrewdly from his black eye to his split lip to the busted knuckles in his hands before a frown settles on her mouth. She bites her lip, unconvinced. “Well… at least let me get you something to help with the swelling.” She reaches out to squeeze his fingers before disappearing into her apartment, and he stands frozen in the momentary silence, staring down at his palm, where his hand still feels warm from her touch.

Mercy returns shortly with a bag of frozen peas in her grasp. “Here. This should help with the pain a little, too.”

“You patch up many black eyes?” he teases, bending to let her press the bag gently over his eye. His body tenses at the pressure, teeth biting back a groan, and she murmurs soothingly under her breath, easing her touch until he feels only the cold. Her focus is fixed on his injury, and it leaves him free to admire the soft angles of her face, the beauty mark at the corner of her mouth, the freckles set like stars against her cheeks. A few curls threaten to spring loose from her braid, and his fingers itch to discover how soft they might feel in his hands. 

“Can’t say I do,” she answers finally, when the weight of his gaze makes her blush and look away. “But I was clumsy enough to get all sorts of injuries when I was little, and the frozen peas trick always works.” She checks her phone and mutters an adorably soft curse. “I have a final in half an hour, or I’d stay and—”

“I got it from here,” he reassures her, with a smile half-hidden by the hand keeping her makeshift compress in place. “But thanks for looking after me, Mercy. Honestly. With your help, it feels better already.”

She hesitates a moment longer, clearly torn, before she reaches up and strokes the smooth pad of her thumb over his cheek. “Take care of yourself, okay?” Her features are tight with concern, but she turns and hurries down the hall, the sound of her footsteps fading into a silence that weighs heavy on his shoulders.

iv. 

Mercy lets her fingers move mindlessly across the keys, coasting on a comfortable familiarity, the soft notes of a nocturne soothing out the stresses of her day. Her left hand sidles over broken chords, rising into an arpeggio that’s just about to reach its zenith when the power cuts in her apartment, plunging her into sudden darkness.

She blinks as her eyes struggle to adjust, groping blindly for her phone. The narrow beam of its flashlight guides her careful steps into the kitchen, where she rummages beneath the sink and emerges with a tin of tealight candles. 

It takes the whole container just to light her living room, but at least she can see her own feet. The faint flicker of candlelight is just enough to keep the darkness at bay, and it’s with a calmer heart that Mercy picks her way across the apartment to answer a hurried knock at her door.

Logan stands in the darkened hallway outside, the glow of his cell phone gripped between his fingers. “Hey, sorry, I know it’s late. I heard you playing, so I thought…”

“I was up,” she confirms, blushing as she pictures him in the apartment next door, listening to her practice. “Your power’s out too, I assume?”

“Pitch dark.” He spots the soft halos of light over her shoulder and heaves a sigh of recognition. “Candles. You’re a genius.”

She laughs. “It’s an old building, and definitely not the first time this has happened. I can spare a few, if you need some.”

Logan chuckles, and even through the darkness she can feel the warmth of his gaze on her. “Lucky me. Don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’ll pass soon enough. I feel better knowing you’re okay over here. Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

She’s not sure where she finds the courage. Maybe the darkness makes her bold, the sight of Logan turning back to leave clawing a sudden ache into her heart. “Wait!” 

He rocks back on his heels, and she can just make out the arch of surprise in his expression. 

“Maybe you could… stay? Until the power’s back? I hate the thought of you just sitting in the dark over there when you don’t have to.”

Logan takes a slow step closer, close enough to feel a trace of his body heat as he searches her face through the darkness. “Would you like that?” he asks softly. “If I stayed?”

She swallows, nodding even as her face burns with the force of her blush. “Very much.”

He smiles then, and with a gentle motion, lifts his hand to tuck an errant curl behind her ear. “Me too.”

It’s stranger than she thought it would be, having Logan in her apartment, even if she’s spent more and more of her time here thinking of him. They settle in the dim circle of candlelight that rings her living room, stretched out side by side across the floor. His leg shifts, bumping her foot with his own, and she breathes a laugh that shivers in the air between them. When she turns, she finds him watching her, his smile inches away as the light washes soft over his features. 

His dark eyes slowly roam her face, landing on the shape of her mouth with a look of immense purpose. He reaches out to trail rough fingertips along the frame of her jaw, his touch sending a shudder of warmth down her spine. He traces a thumb over her blushing cheekbone, her name a whisper on his breath before he leans in and softly kisses her.

Logan is almost unbearably tender, his lips gentle against her own as his fingers wind into the thick curls of her hair, drawing her into the circle of his arms. Past the rushing of her heartbeat, Mercy hears a faint groan at the back of his throat when she grips him by the shirt to tug him closer, parting her lips for the brief slide of his tongue. 

When they break reluctantly apart, he tilts his forehead against hers with a breathless laugh. “You don’t know how long I’ve been thinking about doing that.” 

She laughs with him, carefree, like her worries have all floated off and vanished somewhere in the dark. “Probably about as long as I have.”

His eyes flash with amusement, and a flicker of something else, an ardor close to hunger. “Then we’ve got some time to make up for.”

Mercy falls eagerly into his arms, where she feels his heartbeat racing in his chest, and he kisses her until the lights hum back to life around them — and then, even, a while longer. 

[logical-little-lies]

“We’re Proud of You, Little Prince.”- Little Vlogs (Chapter Nine)

A/N: I'm sorry I don't update this story enough I'm t r Y I NG y'all. Please leave comments/send asks with your thoughts on this chapter if you'd like too!

Chapter Summary: Patton and Roman regress together while filming a video. Roman accidentally upsets Patton by beating the boy in a coloring challenge, and he helps Patton as best as he can. When the video is over and done with, Virgil and Logan express how proud they are of him through praise and affection.

--

Logan stood behind the camera tripod, filming Patton and Roman. It seemed that over time, Patton's video-making process evolved to include the other three men more and more.

It also seemed that Roman and Virgil never wanted to leave Patton's house. They stayed there most of the week, and even began to adapt to helping Patton and Logan with things like chores and cooking around the house. Roman and Virgil both had clothes and hygiene items stored in the home, and they often had issues where they'd leave important things at Patton's house. Considering the fact that Virgil, Roman, and Logan all work together, them staying over during a work week was easily manageable.

Patton got sad whenever the three other boys left, but each of them would give him a quick kiss and tell him they'd see him later. If he was little, he'd get a kiss on the forehead, and a reminder from Logan to text him if he needed anything. Leaving Little Patton alone was easily one of Logan least favorite things about working, he knew he could trust Patton to remain in a partially big headspace to do things himself, but it was still worrying. Knowing Patton was simply thinking like a child, and he was left alone. But Patton always insisted that it was completely fine, that he could be his babyish self without extra help.

Patton huffed, throwing his crayon down on his coloring book and crossing his arms. Virgil seemed fairly shocked by this action. Patton and Roman sat in front of the couch on the carpet, coloring in coloring books for some challenge. They were being timed, both of them using the same coloring book. They'd agree on a page to do, and then start the round. Virgil and Logan were the judges, they'd talk and agree on a vote of who did the best, and they'd get the point for that round.

Patton was growing more and more frustrated as each round passed, Roman winning each time. Patton couldn't stay inside the lines, his crayons kept breaking, and on top of all that, Virgil suggested that they shortened the time limit so that the rounds went by quicker. It was like they were plotting against him or something.

Or maybe, he was falling into toddlerspace and his mind was perceiving the situation a million times more dramatically then it actually was.

Logan let out a small gasp, zooming the camera into Patton's face before talking. "Is the baby throwing a fit?" he was only teasing, but the boy pouted, uncrossing his arms. Patton immediately pulled his sweater sleeves over his hands, giving himself sweater paws (something he stole from Virgil). He continued on to use said sweater paws to cover his face shyly.

Virgil paused the timer on his phone, looking at Roman. Roman dropped his crayon, resting his hands on the table. "Oh, Patton. I'm sorry, I was only teasing," Logan apologized quickly, Patton looking up behind the camera and nodding. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" Logan spoke softly, in a comforting voice that made Patton feel a bit better. It was easy to tell that Patton was upset, mostly frustrated, with a game that seemed impossible to win.

Virgil scooted closer to Patton, so that he was behind him. He hesitantly reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, rubbing it a bit. Patton seemed started by the sudden touch, but he let go of the tenseness from his body. Virgil moved from the couch to the floor, sitting next to Patton instead. Patton uncovered his face, looking at Logan before replying.

"I'm losing, Daddy! M' bad at this and my crayons keep breaking and I can't color good and-" he stumbled over his words, taking just a second to catch his breath before continuing on with his rambling. "and I wanna give up, it's too much." he paused, pushing the coloring book away from him, "Don't like it."

"If you don't like losing challenges, maybe you shouldn't have us do them for videos." Roman commented, Virgil looking at Roman around Patton's head. Roman wasn't little, but Virgil still gave him a stern look.

"He's usually fine with challenges, but today he's obviously little and more emotional. That isn't his fault and you aren't gonna treat him like it is, Roman." Virgil was quick to reply, and Roman immediately looked down.

"Sorry, Vee. And Pat." He quickly muttered an apology before Logan spoke. "It's alright, Roman. I think Patton's just a bit overwhelmed." Logan assured, Roman nodding before Patton made grabby hands, reaching for affection from the man behind the camera. "Baby, I'm recording this video for you!" Logan reminded. Patton pouted, looking about ready to cry at this point.

"Patton, no! Look, look, look! I help you color!" Roman pulled the coloring book back so that it was closer to Patton, pushing his pile of crayons over so that  they mixed with Patton's pile. No one could care less about whether the crayons stayed separated or not. Patton was distracted, watching what Roman was doing.

Roman was talking openly in a sweet toddler-like voice, he probably felt bad for upsetting Patton so much and overwhelming him. Now, he just wanted to make it all better.

Logan and Virgil thought it was sweet, so they simply watched it play out. Roman felt bigger then Patton did, by far, but still little. Roman looked at the barely-colored page Patton had started, a page with a animated cupcake and lots of hearts on it. Patton had tried to color in a heart, and went a bit outside the lines, which is what lead him to throw his pastel-pink crayon down in frustration.

"what color do you want the hearts to be, Patton?" Roman asked softly, guiding him by separating the reds, oranges, and pinks from the rest of the crayons. Patton was distracted, no longer reaching for hugs from his caregiver, but following whatever Roman was saying. Virgil turned off his phone, it was obvious that they weren't gonna go back to the challenge now.

Patton softly pointed to a pink crayon, looking up at him. "Okay, you do pinks, and I'll do reds. We'll do the hearts first," Roman explained, picking out the shade of pink that Patton wanted, along with a few others (Logan got Patton the large pack, there were many shades of pink.) Then, Roman got himself the red crayons.

"Which hearts do you want me to do?" Roman asked, not wanting to take over to much. Patton shrugged, so Roman ended up making the choice anyways. "Okay! So the ones I put a dot on are the ones I'm doing, and the rest are yours, okay?" Patton seemed to understand, already grabbing a crayon and starting.

As they went, Roman reminded him that he didn't need to rush. He showed him his technique of outlining darkly and filling in the inside. Patton's wasn't quite as good, but he still did okay. Logan still filmed, not sure if Patton would scrap the video or not. Either way, it was cute and he wanted the video even if Patton didn't post it.

By the time they were done with the page, Patton was rubbing at his eyes sleepily. "We just gotta end the video sweetheart, then you can take a nap." Logan reminded. Patton didn't even attempt to say his outro, sleepily waving at the camera.

"Bye bye!" he giggled a bit, Logan shutting off the camera after his final adorable remark. Logan went off to put the sleepy little down for a nap, and Virgil busied himself by talking to Roman, who moved to sit on the couch.

"Hello, darling. How do you feel?" Virgil questioned, sitting next to him and lightly wrapping his arm around him.

"Small," Roman replied quickly, settling his head into his chest and curling up next to him.

"Yeah? Well you're very cute when your small." Virgil chuckled, before speaking again. "Y'know, jumping in and helping Patton color was very nice of you." he praised, and Roman smiled a bit.

"Really?" he asked, sitting up a bit to look at his purple-haired caregiver.

"Yeah, he was upset and you helped him calm down. It was really kind, Little One." Virgil smiled at him. Logan came down the stairs at that moment, and grinned at the sweet sight that was Roman cuddling with Virgil.

"He passed out the moment I tucked him into bed. He was asleep after a single forehead kiss." he chuckled, coming and sitting down on the other side of Roman. "And while the baby is asleep, we have a slight older kiddo to care for, isn't that right?" he looked over Roman's head with a knowing smile, Virgil returning it.

"Yeah, I was just telling that kiddo all about how proud I am of him for helping Patton." Virgil gave a slight nod, looking down with a smile at the boy cuddled up to him.

"Pwoud of me?" Roman mumbled happily, in a slightly littler voice than before.

"Of course, you did such a good job!" Virgil played into the fact that he was regressing younger, praising him. Roman squealed, burying his head into his carers chest once more.

"Awe, is the Little Prince feeling a bit tinier?" Logan teased a bit, reaching over and softly running his fingers through his hair. Virgil heard a light whine, and though he couldn't see his face, he knew he was pouting into his chest.

"He just being shy because we're telling him how good of baby he is, aren't you baby?" Virgil took over the job of running his fingers through Roman's hair once Logan pulled his hand away. Roman sat up, bringing his thumb to his mouth with a soft pout.

"No, no, no. That's not good for you, sweetheart." Logan corrected him by lightly pulling his hand away from his mouth. Roman seemed confused, a look of childlike innocence and wonder taking over his face. "Would you like to try one of the pacifiers you made? We said a while ago that you'd try it and you never did." Logan pointed out. He glanced at Virgil who nodded.

Roman hummed a bit, now leaning into Virgil's side, but not cuddling into him or burying his head into his chest. "Okay, I'll go get some stuff for you, alright? But I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I'm proud of you for helping Patton. You did a good job." Logan gave him a warm smile that made Roman feel so happy. He giggled lightly when Logan kissed his forehead.

Logan got up, going back up the stairs to retrieve the little gear he mentioned before. After a few moments, Virgil spoke real soft, continuing to play with Roman's hair as the boy seemingly enjoyed that form of affection.

"Did you hear that, baby boy? We're proud of you, Little Prince."

Logan and Virgil spent a little while after this babying Roman, until he eventually fell asleep. Patton woke up before Roman did, and sat down to watch a movie. Roman woke up too and joined in on the movies and cuddles.

Maybe the four of them were new to being in romantic situation with more than one partner, maybe the littles were adjusting to having multiple carers right there for them all the time. But even though it was new to them, they were adjusting well. Becoming closer and building their four way bond.

How much longer until they put a title on this relationship of theirs?

--

A/N: I will try and start updating this story more I promise! please give me feedback!!

Taglist: @stimmingsides @smollilsanderssides @novacloudcat @analogical-agere @fairyhuman2000 @aphandgflover@softastarlight @littlesapphygem @softflowerinmyheart @virgietheprincess @babeyalstar @b3an-spr0ut @babeyvoid @because-were-fam-ily @lonelysoul43-0 @lgbtqiaemo

[itsfrenchfornothankyou]

When Darkness Turns to Light - chapter 6

Description: Patton just wants to have one (1) nice dinner, is that too much to ask?

Relationships: platonic moceit mostly, platonic DLAMP, but like, half of them are still arguing ya know. 

Characters: Patton, Janus, Roman, Virgil, Logan. 

Warnings: negative self talk, arguing, lots of angst

let me know if anything needs tagging- or a better way of warning for stuff im still learning!

all characters in this fic are sympathetic, but they are not always paragons of good people! they are complicated and have complicated histories that are reflected in the way they treat each other

first chapter

previous chapter // next chapter

A band aid on a broken heart

 It’s been over a month since the wedding, and gradually things are returning to normal. Or… something like normal anyway.

They’ve fallen into new routines at meal times, and Patton finds comfort in them, even if it isn’t quite the same as it was before. He supposes though, that the same as before maybe shouldn’t be what he’s aiming for.

Virgil and Roman never come to breakfast anymore, and so it’s become a time for Patton, Logan and Janus to plan schedules. Not that Patton has much to contribute, but he enjoys the excuse to hang out with the two of them. he loves they way they light up while they debate, a fire igniting in their eyes that Patton has never really taken to time to appreciate before.

At lunch time Patton puts out a spread of sandwiches, and the other sides filter in and out of the kitchens, rarely stopping to talk. It’s the most familiar part of the day if he’s being honest. One time Logan walked in with his nose stuck in a book, didn’t look up, and Patton pushed a sandwich into his hand as Logan had grasped around the plate looking for one. He walked out again without saying anything, only a nod to even acknowledge that he had even noticed the other side’s presence. Patton’s heart had swelled. It was the most normal scene he had been in in a long time. after all of the awkward stumbling around each other and the stunted polite conversation, it was nice to just be comfortable existing in each other’s space.

Dinnertime has been… hit and miss. Two weeks ago he had gotten the courage to go around and knock on everyone’s doors and tell them he was making dinner and, well it could have gone worse. Roman came down, although he hadn’t spoken to them. Logan had sat with a Hanji book for the entire dinner, and Virgil had almost immediately fled the scene, barely even touching his food. As for the other two, well… Janus had assured Patton that Remus would not eat regular food, and he shouldn’t invite him, but he had still felt bad for not calling him to dinner. As for Janus himself, well he had said it was a “bad idea”. Patton hadn’t liked that answer, but Janus assured him he should be focusing on smaller goals first, rather than trying to repair Janus’ relationships with the other sides.

Since then, Patton had had varying levels of success. Some nights only Logan would show up, very rarely he would manage to get all of them into the kitchen, though it never lasted long.

One time Remus showed up and well… they had silently, and mutually, agreed not to talk about that night. The first time he had managed to coax Janus downstairs with promises of pasta and wine it had devolved into a hissing match between him and Virgil. So, better than Patton had expected.

Patton stirs the pot of pasta, wondering absentmindedly how many people will be coming for dinner. He always makes enough for seven, although he knows they’ll never have a full table. he opens the lid of the second pot, and gives the sauce a quick stir before turning it down to a simmer. Behind him someone makes a noise of deep contentment. Patton smiles. “Wow Jan, I would have never guessed you had such n-oodles of love for pasta. Tell me, is it the ravi-only way to your heart?” he sneaks a glance back at Janus to see he reaction, but the other side catches his eye with a smirk. Patton looks back at the pot too quickly to see the soft smile that crosses Janus’ face as he shrugs.

“I lived exclusively on microwave meals and chicken nuggets for the past thirty years. Can you blame me?” Janus sidles up to Patton, batting his eyes innocently as he sneaks some food out of the pot. Patton fixes him with an aghast look.

“Have you ever tried cooking with Remus?” Patton shudders at the thought. “As I said,” Janus continues. “the less chance for things to go wrong, the better.” Patton isn’t sure if he should smile or grimace at Janus, but before he can decide the door to the kitchen opens.

“Roman!” Patton cries excitedly. It’s been a couple of days since Roman last made it down to dinner. Patton wants to check in on him, see how he’s doing, talk about what he’s working on, but Roman hasn’t exactly been wanting to talk lately. “Food’s almost ready,” He says instead. “I’m making your favourite, tagliatelle!” He fixes Roman with his brightest and best dad smile, but Roman’s returning one is tight and artificial. Patton tries not to let it get to him, keeping up the happy attitude. He can feel Janus frowning at him.

Moments later, Logan comes into the room; latest read tucked under one arm. He tidies the table, but doesn’t set it. Seeing all of the empty setting had started getting to Patton, so now people just get their plates as they turn up.

Patton stars piling bowls, Roman first, then Logan, then Janus. As he’s about to fill his own he hears quiet movement, and a hush falls over the room. He forces himself not to freeze in place, instead smiling brightly at Virgil, careful not to be too loud.

“Virgil!” He beckons the side over. “Good to see you, pasta?”

Virgil hesitates, taking in the room. Janus smirks a him, and Patton spots the beginnings of what will rapidly become another petty and pointless argument. He shoots a look at the other side. Janus rolls his eyes, but takes his seat without another word.

Shoving his hands into his hoody pockets, Virgil quietly makes his way to Patton. “Sure. Sounds great.” Patton tried to keep his excitement on the inside; it’s the most that Virgil has said aloud in days.

Taking his bowl with a nod of thanks, Virgil takes a seat at the table as far away from Janus as possible, finding Logan levels of literalism in the phrase “on the edge of his seat”. Patton attempts to start a casual conversation around the table, asking Logan about the book he’s reading. As Logan lights up and begins mapping out the plot of the book, the mood lightens up a little. At one point Patton could swear he even sees Virgil smile. This all comes crashing down about halfway through dinner, when Logan asks Roman what he’s working on.

Patton sees Roman’s smile falter and slip off of his face, and it feels like a punch to the gut. Virgil tenses up across the table, but Roman just tries to dismiss the question with a wave of a hand.

“Oh you know, this and that,” he murmurs. “You’ll see it when it’s finished.” Logan frowns, but doesn’t push the matter further. Janus seems to have other ideas.

“If you’re having creative block, ignoring it is definitely going to help.” Patton winces, but Janus is making steady eye contact with Roman now, and it’s evident that he sees this as a battle worth fighting.

“What, me? Creative block?” Roman is louder now, pulling in some swagger that Patton has barely seen in weeks. “Foul fiend I- I am the embodiment of Creativity!” He sputters as he speaks. “Or course no such thing could happen to me!”

“Do you forget who I am?” Janus asks quietly. His voice barely a whisper in the wind, as though it were simply an exasperated afterthought. Before Roman can reply, he continues pushing. “Great, you definitely haven’t already had the talk about what a good idea it is to wait for an idea to be perfect before presenting it.”

“Hah! What would you know about creativity, Lie Mis?” Roman stands, waving his arms and shouting, before turning away from Janus, His voice cracks as he speaks, and Patton’s heart flutters nervously, unsure how to defuse the situation.

“Hey Kiddos,” he says. “How about we all just take a breather and stop for a moment-”

“No!” Roman shouts. “I can see that you clearly don’t need me here.” His voice hitches, and Patton feels frantic. “Since apparently he knows everything I’ll just, just-”

“Roman! That’s not true!” Patton stands at the table, and moves to reach for Roman, but the other side flinches away.

“Because everyone here is such an expert in what’s true,” he mutters.

“Roman,” Patton realises with some surprise that it’s Janus speaking, his voice softened as he lets out a gentle sigh. “I’m not-” they don’t get to hear the rest of the sentence, as Roman cuts him off with a harsh laugh.

“I don’t need any more of your lies, Deceit.” Then he sinks out. A silence echoes around the room, palpable enough to be deafening. Patton looks over at Janus, but whatever vulnerability he hard in his voice moments ago is gone, replaced with a cold hard nothing. His expression an unreadable marble.

“Well, I think that went well,” he says airily, continuing to eat. Across the room Virgil hisses at him, teeth bared. Janus simply raises an eyebrow at him. Patton isn’t sure if it’s a question or a challenge.

“Can you for once in your fucking miserable existence just fucking-” Virgil waves a hand in the air, unsure how to finish his sentence, or perhaps hoping to pull the words from the air. “Not be you!” he stands in place, shaking with anger.

“Oh?” Deceit says, smiling lazily. “And who would you like me to be?” He holds up a hand as though to snap his fingers.

“Don’t. You. Dare.” Virgil grinds out, his teeth gritted. Absently, Patton wonders if Virgil has fangs. He’s never notices them before. “You can’t just… lie, all the time, and expect people to trust you!”

Janus huffs out a breath, almost a laugh, almost… something else. “Because the truth has always gone so well for me in the past.” It’s quiet, quiet enough that Patton can hardly be sure Janus meant to say it at all.

In response Virgil simply bares his teeth again. “Like you’ve ever even tried it,” he hisses. Then he’s gone.

Patton stands, his eyes wide. He fights back tears, instead straightening up, trying to pull himself together.

“I’m, I’m going to go- go check on Virgil,” he says, fighting a wobble in his voice.

“You won’t be able to find him,” Janus replies. “Not if he doesn’t want to be found,”

“Well,” Patton clenches his fist, then relaxes. “I have to try anyway. If he does want me, I’ll be there,” just barely perceptible, he could swear he sees Janus flinch.

---

In the end Janus is right. Virgil is nowhere to be found. At one point he thinks he sees his door at the end of a hallway, but by the time he reaches it it’s gone. He lets out a cry of frustration. Normally he loves the mind palace, with it’s sprawling corridors and nonsensical patterns. If you aren’t paying attention you can walk for hours without running into anyone else.

Normally, this doesn’t work against him. when he’s looking for someone, he finds that his feet naturally take him where he needs to go. But Virgil seems to have mastered the shifting halls, and folded himself away in a corner that Patton isn’t sure how to access.

When he returns to the kitchen, he’s surprised to find Janus and Logan still there, in the middle of cleaning up after dinner.

“Oh, I was just about to get to-” but Janus interrupts him with a wave of his hand.

“It’s no trouble.”

“He thought you might need the break,” Logan adds. Janus glares at him, and Patton suppresses a smile.

“I did not say-”

“You implied, did you not?” Logan asks inquisitively. “I have been studying your dialogue, and you said-”

“There’s no need!” Janus shouts, with panic evident. The laugh that Patton has been squashing down bursts out, and Janus turns away; furiously scrubbing at the dishes in the sink.

“Fascinating,” Logan breathes. “Is only half of your face capable of blushing?” he asks, ducking his own head to get a better look at Janus’ face. “What exactly is your biology like? Are you in fact part snake, or is it appearance only? Thomas did imply…” Logan continues muttering to himself about biology, but Patton doesn’t understand any of it. He’s just happy to see that the other two sides are getting along.

Janus moves away hurriedly as he places the last dish on the drying rack, pulling off his gloves. Patton frowns.

“Janus,” he begins carefully. “Were you wearing those gloves… over your other gloves?”

“No.” Janus moves into the front room, sitting on the sofa with a thump to sulk. Patton suppresses another giggle.

Logan and Patton share a rare smile, before Logan clears his throat and announces his exit, already absorbed in his book once more before he’s even left the room.

Patton takes a seat next to Janus, and the two of them sit together in silence for a while. Janus has produces a crossword from somewhere in his cape, and is dutifully filling it in while Patton hums a tune to himself as he looks through his box of movies. It’s nice, and the quiet is only broken but Patton’s occasional suggestion of film, always swiftly followed by a sharp rejection.

The two sides have yet to actually watch a film together, though this has become something of a regular occurrence between the two of them. regular enough for Patton to know that Janus never actually solves the puzzles he brings. He does however find rather interesting solutions that definitely are not the intended answer. He always says that he simply has “his own interpretation of the rules”.

Patton finds himself knowing all sorts of little details about the other side, he realises. He knows that his favourite food is breakfast, whenever it isn’t supposed to be eaten. Pancakes at 2am, eggs and toast for lunch… and so on. He knows the other side is remarkably well read, and has a fondness for face masks, though he himself doesn’t use them. Patton’s skin has never felt clearer though. Janus is excellent at nail varnish, but terrible at applying makeup. However-

“27 dresses?” Patton tries.

“Ah yes, the love interest in that film isn’t creepy at all.” Janus rolls his eyes.

-He still hasn’t figured out what kind of TV the other side watches. Patton sighs in defeat, pushing the box away from himself for the evening. So far the chick flick category has turned out to be a total bust, and he’s ready to give up on it. he’s beginning to have strong suspicions that maybe Janus likes the types of movies that Patton doesn’t like at all, but he won’t be deterred.

“Hey, Janus,” he starts softly, but he can already see the other side tensing up. “About earlier-”

“I’m not apologising to Roman,” he replies shortly. Yeah, Patton pretty much saw that one coming.

“I wasn’t going to ask you to.” Janus looks over at him now, eyes narrow. “I just…” despite all of the time Patton has spent looking for the right way to go about the conversation, he still finds himself at a loss for words  “Wondered if… maybe you could talk? If you could get to know each other-”

“He doesn’t want to get to know me,” Janus sighs. “I’m not going to just keep on-” he cuts himself off with a sharp intake of breath. Patton wants to know, but he resolves not to push him.

“Maybe if-”

“If what?” Janus looks up, exasperated. “No matter what I do, Roman has already resolved to hate me. Same with Virgil. There is nothing I could possibly do to change their minds.” There’s a bitter sort of anger in his voice, that Patton hasn’t heard before. Not the biting sharpness of when he explodes at roman, not the playful tone he took in the courtroom. There’s a melancholy to it, but resigned. Patton isn’t really sure who it’s directed at.

“I mean, the arguing can’t help though.” Patton pushes.

“It’s better than the alternative.” Janus voice softens, almost sad. Hurt? Patton reaches out a hand to lay on Janus’ shoulder, but he shakes it off. Patton finds he’s thoroughly lost his footing in the conversation, unsure of what Janus is trying to say anymore, but not yet ready to make the final push to ask.

Janus doesn’t leave, but it’s clear that he’s done with the conversation. He picks up his book, turning a new page and beginning again. There are so  many questions bouncing around in Patton’s head. He doesn’t even know where to begin to unravel the mess he’s in. He wonders what happened between Virgil and Janus, he wants to know their history, as it becomes more and more evident that they have one. How did they get here? Whenever Janus talks about Virgil, it’s almost as though he’s talking about someone entirely different. Patton doesn’t know how to reconcile the two thoughts in his head.

He doesn’t ask though. instead, the two of them stay that way for the rest of the evening; silent in each other’s company. They’re both all too familiar with being alone to willingly submit to it again. not that either one of them would ever say it. maybe some things don’t need to be said, Patton thinks. Maybe that isn’t the point. Some days it can be enough just to exist near each other

---

sorrry, i meant to have this up yesterday, but then i slept in till like 4pm and then did baking sooooo

not really quite happy with this chapter yet? but this is as good as it gets for now, so hope you like it let me know what you thought! 

tags: @booklover223 @god0fspoons @cemmy @selenechris @sweet-hibiscus-tea-art

let me know if you want to be tagged! 

[captcas]

Thinks of Her

THINKS OF HER by capthamm

Deployment is easier when there isn’t anyone waiting for you at home.

I honestly have no idea where this came from. Maybe just some general 4am angst to start off the weekend? You know the stuff. 

One-shot; 1429 words; read on ao3

Emma squeezes him around the waist, as though suffocating him will somehow prevent the inevitable.

Flight 5680 to Washington, D.C.. now boarding at Gate C.

Killian feels her tense under the weight of the disembodied voice counting down their final moments together. He kisses the top of her head, desperate to comfort her in anyway he can.

Nine months abroad is much more doable when there isn’t anyone waiting for you at home.

The stares of passers by who notice the uniform and attempt to emphasize with their pain in the nano moments of a glance are almost as constricting as Emma’s increasingly tight hold. He knows he has to go, but this was much easier when Emma said goodbye the night before with the rest of their friends— when he was in love with her despite her not really being his.

He feels her shudder in an attempt to withhold a sob and knows he has to go before he says fuck the Navy— god how he wishes he could say fuck the Navy. Instead, he whispers softly into her hair, “Emma, love, the plane is boarding.”

She doesn’t speak, simply nods into his chest before pulling back to look him in the eye. When blue meet emerald, he feels the air escape his lungs— her water rimmed irises catching the light. His Swan is truly stunning, even in this state.

He briefly thinks back on the speed at which they arrived where they are today— slowly and then all at once, like some bloke sat on the fast forward button with ten minutes left in the movie. When he left for his last deployment, they had shared a kiss and nothing more. Each of them had been drinking, but not so much to fog the memory of their shared dalliance. As quick as it happened, it was over. Emma assuring him it was all sexual tension and emotions over him leaving again— a one time thing.

As you wish.

When he returned 18 months later, it was to a woman far more broken than the one he’d left. A ghost from her past resurfacing and disrupting the life of her and her son. He offered kindness and a shoulder to cry on as any friend would do and she accepted him willingly. The rest of it was inevitable really.

Killian had loved her since they were 15 years old and she punched Walsh in the face for calling Ruby a slut. If he’s honest with himself, it was probably a long time coming, but in that moment he knew there would be no one else. They spent years apart through deployments and college, but the small gang of friends they’d collected over the years always seemed to find themselves back in Storybrooke whether they wanted to be or not. It was the one constant in all their lives and Killian knew that acted like a magnet for each of the lost souls that found a bit of themselves in each other.

He found a lot of himself in Emma Swan.

Final call. Flight 5680 to Washington, D.C. now boarding at Gate C.

The urgent voice snaps him out of his nostalgia, and he sees Emma go from emotional to all business just as suddenly. “Ok, Jones, you’ve got your papers, your passport, your pillow, and your charger so you can text me when you land?”

Killian chuckles sadly at her ability to shove emotion aside in an instant— knowing full well they’ll both breakdown over the invisible weight of an empty bed later that night. Who knew two months with someone next to you would make a lifetime of sleeping alone feel foreign?

“Yes, love. I’ve got everything.”

“If you forget anything, I—“

“Will send it. I know, Swan. I really need to be on my way or Robin will kill me.” He chuckles at the mention of his commanding officer, but then Killian can feel the sadness sweep over his features, mirroring hers almost perfectly.

“I suppose so. Henry stuffed a few stowaways in your bag so make sure you bring those home safe.”

She’s deflecting and he doesn’t blame her. They haven’t even had time to explore what this is and he’s leaving. He won’t leave Emma, not permanently, not the way everyone else has, and she knows that, but he’s positive the residual pain is what’s controlling her actions now. Put your walls up and never get hurt.

“I will, love.” He knows he’s committing to more than returning the stuff crocodile Henry most likely stuck between his civies and uniforms, but Killian expects that to be the end of it when she speaks again.

“I honestly don’t care about the fucking crocodile— come home safe, Killian.”

A tear streams down her face and he can’t take it anymore, grabbing each cheek and pulling her in for a kiss. It’s messy and wet, the salt water from their tears mixing as their lips touch. They break for air and rest their foreheads together. He’s about to speak when she takes a deep breath, “I love you, Killian Jones.”

His heart does a backwards loop at the words he’s longed to hear for 16 years now. Killian somehow forms a coherent sentence— probably because it’s the most absolute truth he’s ever spoke, “And I you, Emma Swan.” He gives her one more kiss before pulling away, the loss of contact immediately jarring. She must feel it too as she wraps her arms around her own waist, tucking her hands into her sleeves.

He double checks he has everything before giving her one last glance. “Not a day will go by that I won’t think of you.”

There’s a twinkle in her eye followed by a simple, “Good.” before they both turn away, subconsciously agreeing there’s nothing left to say.

. . .

Killian is a lot of things but a liar is not one of them. He does think of Emma every single day. After D.C., he was shipped off to Japan, working on a Naval base with the crew he’s come to know as family over the last 13 years. He can’t tell Emma where he is, and being at sea makes it hard for correspondence anyway. His thoughts of her are the only thing keeping loneliness at bay.

He thinks of her as the constellation Cygnus rises over the ship late one night. He thinks of her as they dock at small islands which, for all intents and purposes, don’t exist in her world. He thinks of her as the sea breeze blows through his hair, reminiscent of her hands in the dark of his bedroom. He thinks of her as he meets new people, nameless and faceless to her, but real as the sea to him. He thinks of her, willing a closeness he knows will only be possible when his time is up.

He thinks of her as the boat is ambushed. He thinks of her as he dives into the water. He thinks of her as he uses the last of his energy to swim— a lifeboat just far enough away for the salt water to begin burning his lungs. He thinks of her as they send up flares into the sky. He thinks of her as the ladder is dropped from the helicopter. He thinks of her as he sits safely wrapped in a blanket.

He’s never had someone to think of before.

That’s why when Robin asks him if he wants to continue his deployment, the Naval higher-ups giving them they option after what happened, he thinks of her.

For the entire plane ride and seemingly endless walk through the terminal at Logan International, he thinks of her.

It’s the first time in five months of thinking of her, that she materializes in front of him. One arm around Henry who seems to be showing off a homemade “Welcome Home” sign, and the other held up to her mouth as she nervously bites at her nails. Henry spots him first and Killian is positive this looks like the scene out of some sappy Nicholas Sparks novel that Emma reads with Mary Margaret. He doesn’t care in the slightest.

Until this moment, the startling difference between thoughts of her and the real Emma Swan had only been conjecture. He is no longer content with simple thoughts. While he vowed long ago to think only of her everyday of his life, in that moment, squeezed by her and her son, he silently vows to do so right from her side.

[lordofthetrashbin]

Can you write about going to a corn maze and pumpkin patch with the Sides? -&

I’ve only been to a corn maze once in my life and have never been to a pumpkin patch but have a bunch of dorks playing in a maze

Anyway, it’s immediate chaos.

You get there and know somethings up, you don’t have three dark bois sharing looks and not immediately know they planned something.

Remus running off before anyone can stop him? Yeah, that’s normal.

Deceit grabbing Roman and dragging him through the stalks? pretty suspicious

Virgil grasping your hand with a smirk before dashing away from a very confused Patton and Logan. Yup, you’ve been kidnapped.

Virgil’s dragging you along, thankfully slow enough that you’re not tripping because lord knows Virgil could outrun anyone if he actually wanted to. He only slows down once you’re both significantly lost, letting you catch you’re breath and ask what the heckity is going on.

Turn’s out Virgil, Deceit and Remus planned a game of capture the flag.

You’re the flag.

“It’s simple,” Virgil explains. ”I guard you while they others try to capture you. If they can get you to the exit of the maze, they win. If I can keep you away from the gate until times up, I win.

“No cutting through the corn unless someone is chasing right behind you/In front of you.” Enforce this rule with Deceit, he will cheat if he thinks he can get away with it; Virgil warns you

Winner gets to some of their favorite candy from the losers Halloween haul and you get a generous donation from everyone playing for being the victim.

Of course, Virgil gives you a way out if you’re not down to play or just don’t want to be dragged around by a bunch of dudes. “Just say the word and I’ll go kidnap Logan.”

But assuming you’re down, it’s game on. Virgil sends a text to Deceit to let him know you're in and Deceit sends the rules to everyone else.

At first, it’s quiet, Virgil keeps you two moving although this time just at a walking pace all while keeping a hold of your hand.

You ask why Deceit took Roman if this isn’t a team game and Virgil explains that Roman could easily keep up with Virgil while he had you slowing him down “No offense” and the prince would immediately give chase once he saw Virgil stealing you away and that wouldn’t be very fair.

of course, this small interaction is enough of a distraction that Virgil doesn’t realize what's happening until you’re lifted right off the ground. “Catch me if you can, fart face!” Remus cackles as he dashes through the stalks with you in his arms, Virgil right on his trail.

by some miracle, the darker twin loses Virgil and comes to a stop on one of the paths. He twirls around for a moment, just to be sure you two are alone before he just beams. “I caught you~!” he absolutely delighted and happily paces down the paths at random. “I can’t wait to flush all Roman’s candy down the toilet- I mean I was going to do that anyway but now he has to willingly give it to me.” Remus rambles.

But speak of the devil, Roman comes charging down the way with Deceit following behind him. “Release them! It’s two against one, you will be winning nothing, fiend!” Deceit stands beside Roman, looks like the two formed a team.

You expect Remus to run again, as is the point of the game but instead you're rather carelessly dropped to the side as the twins decide they’d much rather fight for their victory.

You’re debating on just wondering off to find Virgil again when Deceit slinks his way around the fight and offers you a hand, helping you stand before tugging you away before the twins can notice he’s stolen you away.

So much for Roman’s team; Deceit only laughs if you point out his betrayal.

Deceit keeps a brisk pace and seems to know where he’s going, it takes you a moment or two to realize that he’s following a trail of small yellow stones “It’s not breaking any of the stated rules.”

Unfortunately, stones can be moved as Deceit found out, turning into a dead end that had a certain emo grinning as Deceit very obviously fell into his trap.

It’s a standoff, the lying sides glare meeting the anxious sides smug expression. Deceit weighs his options before releasing your hand. “Fine, you got me.” The snake crosses his arms. “But watch your back.” With that Deceit leaves, obviously huffy about being fooled so easily.

You’d bet Virgil has pretty good odds at winning, now that there was much less time but the emo looks sheepish as he leads you around a few corners. “Hope you weren’t ready to rest just yet.” He warns you as two blurs of blue rush past, one grabbing your sleeve and leading you through the stalks while giggling far too happily.

You can’t help but giggle with them.

one because of course Logan and Patton are working together and two, Virgil could very easily catch up with Patton’s speed but somehow get’s left behind.

Patton slows to a stop, panting slightly and grinning like he’s already won. Logan seems more composed and greets you with a smile before rushing you two along, urging that you all needed to get going before you were found again.

You ask Patton how he got Logan to play and Patton admits to bribing him with crofters since Logan isn’t a huge candy fan. Patton is much more open to talking while you both follow Logan

Until you’re snatched once more into Deceit's arms. “Well, look what I've got-”

“DECEIT”

cue Roman making his appearance “I trusted you! We were a team!” He shouts and you don’t doubt that every one of your ‘hunters’ heard it.

“Roman! I would never! I saw our dear sweet friend being dragged off by that dastardly emo and came to reclaim them for us!”

If you decide to call out Deceit, well, his flustered glare is very well worth the fact he may actually murder you.

Not that you have to worry for long because Patton and Logan yoink you and dash through the stalks with Patton yelling a quick “Sorry Roman!” This time there’s a chase, Roman won’t be beaten so easily even if it means taking down his darling puffball.

You guys can hear Roman right behind you, Patton’s taken the lead through the stalks and you’re pretty sure Roman’s about to get you when Logan grabs your hand and tugs you down to the side. You’re held against his chest as you both hide, Roman takes no notice as he still hears Patton running and chases after him.

It’s a few moments before Logan stands and helps you up, heading the opposite way Patton was running. 

Did Logan betray Patton?

“I... May have.”

Logan did a falsehood!

“I did not! I am still keeping my promise to let Patton claim my reward. He just won’t be the one who won it like I may have lead him to believe.”

Omitter! “That’s not even a word.”

With Patton leading a distraction, Logan has time to find a path of Deceit’s stones and from there just retraces his steps towards the exit all while you tease him for lying and he tries to justify his reasoning. Though it’s mostly just because he wants to beat Roman.

You guys are on the winning stretch, the exit in sight when Logan suddenly takes your hand and dashes forward. Just barely avoiding getting tackled by Remus who makes a quick recovery and immediately charges you both.

It’s far too close, Remus reaches out and grabs your arm just as Logan’s touches the entrance gate while still holding your hand and secures his victory.

Remus almost immediately goes limp on you, his head on your shoulder as he pretty much whines in your ear about how close he was. Logan takes moment to recompose himself, looking way too pleased with himself as he tells you he’s going to get water for everyone since they’ve been running around all night.

Remus falls next to you in the dirt and wallows in self pity.

Virgil shows up and double-checks on you to make sure you didn’t get hurt or anything since he arrived to you alone with Remus

Deceit comes through looking miffed as ever until you brag about Logan lying to win which he enjoys way too much.

Patton and Roman come back together which brightens Remus who now brags how much closer he was to winning than his brother and Patton pouting until Logan assures him that he’ll still have the candy reward.

----

as for the pumpkin patch, all I can imagine is Remus immediately trying to smash everything while Deceit encourages him and Virgil and Roman try to stop him.

Logan actually finds pumpkins while Patton declares you monarch of the Pumpkin patch which is instantly a mistake because Remus hears and tries to put a half smashed pumpkin on your head as a crown and drape the pumpkin’s ‘guts’ over you so that no rebellion starts among the squash folk.

[delimeful]

my virtues uncounted (3)

warnings: blood, injury, arguing, panic, remus mentions

continuation of the “Light Sides are tiny in the Subconscious” verse! Part one here, and part two here! Ao3 Link

-

Patton wandered over to the edge of the desk, away from where Roman and Logan were discussing approximately where they were in the Mindscape and how they could escape Anxiety’s room.

Anxiety himself had retreated to sit on the corner of his bed, leaving them on the desk. He looked awfully casual, but Patton could see the way he glanced over out of the corner of his eye every couple seconds. 

He sat on the edge of the desk, remembering how the other Side had fretted over Roman’s imaginary injury. He squinted at Anxiety. Had he treated the cut on his hand yet? Patton hadn’t seen him do anything of the sort, and his left hand was conspicuously tucked away into his pocket.

Well, if they were going to be staying there a while, it would be best to get to know their host better, wouldn’t it? 

Mind made up, Patton popped back up to his feet, and jogged over to the edge of a shelf. Carefully, he began to sidle along it, carefully not looking down as he got closer and closer to the bed. 

Just when he was almost over it- 

“Patton! What are you doing?” Roman yelled, and Patton jumped slightly, tilting forwards a bit. 

“Uhhhh,” Patton replied as he pinwheeled his arms, trying and failing to keep his balance.  “Woah!”

Only a blink after he toppled over, however, there was a dark presence at his side, a hand providing a soft landing point only inches below the shelf. 

“Oof,” he grunted, and then a gust of warm air rustled his hair from above. He craned his head back to look at Anxiety, who was sighing lowly in relief. 

“Unhand him, villain!” Roman cried from out of sight, and Patton felt the hand underneath him twitch slightly with tension before going lax again. He frowned, getting to his feet to stand and look over at his friend.

“Roman, don’t be rude!” he chided, struggling to stay upright on the surprisingly soft hand. He ended up sitting back down heavily, and craned his neck to look at the Dark Side. “Thank you, Anxiety.” 

He was treated to the sight of Anxiety’s eyes growing wide in a rare moment of unguarded surprise, and smiled happily. If he’d known that the Side wasn’t really that scary, he would have come to visit ages ago!

Maybe not while so small, though. It seemed to be stressing Anxiety out.

“Wha- Patton! It’s not rude when he’s holding you captive!” Roman said, anger obvious in his voice. “Let him go!” 

“Anxiety seems to have caught Patton to keep him from falling,” Logan chimed in, stepping a bit closer as though trying to peer up at where he was being held. “I don’t think Patton has been in his hand long enough to qualify as being ‘captive’, Roman.”

“Yeah, listen to Logic for once, Roman.” Anxiety’s voice rumbled through Patton, the larger Side rolling his eyes and placing his hand down on the desk. Patton grinned and waved at the other two, not moving from his spot settled firmly in the dip of Anxiety’s palm. 

“Logan, c’mere! Check this out, it’s so cool!” 

Logan took a moment to look unblinkingly at Anxiety, analyzing him in a way that surely would have made him bristle defensively if he wasn’t already busy staring at Patton with befuddlement. Roman’s head was whipping back and forth between all three of them, as though waiting for someone to return to their senses.

“Very well.” Logan began to walk up to where Anxiety’s hand was resting, and Roman followed along with a slack-jawed expression, less intentionally and more because of some half-formed sputtering about not wanting to leave both the other Light Sides closer to Anxiety than him. 

Anxiety’s hand twitched slightly under him as Logan got closer, and Patton crossed his legs to better balance. He wondered how it felt to have a whole person in one hand. Probably a little scary, going by the slight tremors Anxiety was trying to stifle.

“Interesting,” Logan said from where he’d reached out to touch Anxiety’s wrist. With his other hand, he held two fingers to his neck. “Your heart rate appears to be much higher than mine despite you not having recently endured significant exercise. Is this normal for you?” 

“Duh. I’m the embodiment of fear,” Anxiety grumped, tilting his hand surprisingly gently so that Patton slid off onto the desk. He clicked his tongue, shaking his hand a bit to dislodge Logan’s grip. “Now stop that. I’m not a science experiment.” 

“Awww,” Patton pouted at the loss of his seat as Logan looked up at Anxiety with a confused tilt to his eyebrows. 

“Of course not. I was simply making an observation out of a desire to learn more about you.” 

Anxiety’s face pinched inwards as though he’d bitten into a lemon of suspicion. “Well, checking my pulse isn’t going to help you figure out my weaknesses, so how about you keep your hands to yourself.” 

This got a bark of not-laughter from Roman. “That’s rich coming from you, Grab-ston!” 

“Grabston?” Patton frowned in consternation as he attempted to figure out the wordplay on that one, and Anxiety’s scowl deepened. 

“Oh, you’d prefer I just watch you fall to your death next time? ‘Cuz rest assured, from that height, you’re guaranteed to splatter,” Anxiety grit out as he loomed over them, hand fisted at his sides.

“Is that a threat?!”

“Weaknesses? Learning more about others is my role,” Logan said, though seeing as the other two had escalated to near-shouting, it was spoken more to himself.

“Oh!” Patton clapped his hands together once. “Like Gaston! I get it.” 

“No, it’s not a threat, are you an idiot-!” Anxiety turned away sharply in dismissal, making Roman’s hands twitch for a sword that wasn’t there, and Patton’s eyes caught on a drop of something dark falling from one clenched hand.

“Anxiety! You’re bleeding,” he called out, his voice cutting through the lingering tension.

Anxiety looked down at his injured hand like he’d never seen it before. “... Yes?” 

“Aren’t you going to heal it?” Logan asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “There doesn’t seem to be much sense in keeping an injury around.” 

Patton nodded in agreement, but Anxiety seemed to be further confused by his words. “Heal it? What, like a superpower? It’s just a cut, not much to do for it but slap a bandage on.” 

The three Light Sides exchanged questioning glances, and Roman ran a hand through his hair with a groan. “Most Dark Sides can’t heal injuries instantly like us. They don’t have the power to alter the mindscape like that. Except my... brother.” 

Anxiety recoiled slightly. “You mean you guys go around pulling your ears off and shit for fun, too?”

Patton paled slightly at the thought, and Roman growled low in his throat. “No! We’re just more connected to Thomas, so it’s obvious that we’d be more powerful. We don’t go using it all willy nilly like him.” 

“Huh.” Anxiety shoved his hands back in his pockets, much to Patton’s dismay. “Perks of being a core Side, I guess.” 

“Hey!” Patton cried, making Anxiety’s eyes snap to him eerily quick. “Come back over here! You shouldn’t ignore injuries like that, mister! I’ll heal it for you.” 

“Patton, he’s literally imprisoning us here,” Roman groused halfheartedly. He knew Patton well enough to know that the father figure would not be deterred. 

Anxiety, on the other hand, was a bit more reluctant to concede. Patton had to coax him over like a startled deer, and only Roman’s snort finally propelled him to set his hand on the desk again, grimacing. 

Patton set a gentle hand on Anxiety’s thumb and focused on fixing the cut so that it would match the soft palm he had been sitting on earlier. 

Nothing happened. 

Patton frowned and focused harder, but the tug of change that he normally felt in his chest seemed somehow… muted. “Something’s wrong…” 

Logan, who had been watching closely, made an attempt of his own, likely more out of curiosity than actual concern for Anxiety’s injury. He swiped a hand over the cut, a gesture that would normally seal the injury easily, but all he got for his trouble was a hand soaked in blood and a pained twitch from Anxiety. 

“Very helpful,” The Dark Side commented dryly. Logan shook his hand with mild disgust on his face, like a cat that had stepped in snow.

Patton frowned harder, reaching for that connection inside of him, seeing if maybe something Thomas was doing was hindering them. 

“Uh, guys?” This result was considerably more alarming. “Can you feel Thomas?”

Roman and Logan broke off from muttered bickering about whether or not Roman should try healing Anxiety to stare at him, and he could see the change that came over them when they tried for themselves. Anxiety picked up on the changed mood immediately.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking between them with a crumpled brow. 

“Why don’t you tell us?” Roman’s anger came with a distinctly panicked edge. “Why can’t we influence Thomas? Whatever you did, undo it!” 

Looking at Anxiety’s startled expression, however, Patton got the feeling that the situation wouldn’t be resolved so easily.

[5-falsehoods-phonated]

This story takes place during the Sanders Asides Are There Healthy Distractions Episodes, suggested by @heavy-metal-papillon . The idea comes from Logan voicing Deciets line when he pops up to grab his hat from Logan, so in this story Deciet and Logan switched places in the episode.

Switching Sides

Summary: Logan wants some time to himself and Janus wants to enjoy a movie with the other sides in peace. They support and respect eachothers wants and needs, agreeing to switch places for movie night. In doing so, they both gained a bit more than they bargained for.

Warnings: none, but if you see any just say something!

Ships: platonic Lociet, past platonic Anciet

WC: 2, 305

Janus adjusted the his tie one final time, giving himself a once over in the mirror. His hair was combed back smartly, hat tucked away safely in his room for the time being. He had gotten the type right this time, and the white embroidered brain logo stood out against the plain black polo. The stiff dark Jean's were a little uncomfortable but the dress shoes fit nicely so he couldn't complain too much. This had to be perfect, even if it was a somewhat casual setting, he couldn't afford to-

"You know you could've just asked."

Yelping, he whirled around to face the real logical side currently sizing him up with a less than impressed expression. "We aren't discussing anything important today, why are you replacing me again?"

Janus sputtered. "I wasn't!"

Logan's eyebrow raised even more. "So my choice of clothing is just that comfortable, right down to the glasses?"

"...yes."

"Janus."

The deceitful side snapped his head up to glare at the other. "Not so loud! You dont know if one of the others would hear!"

Logan cleared his throat. "No one is left in the mind scape currently except us. Even Remus is currently hiding behind the couch. I assure you no one will overhear us, though of course I will call you Deciet if that would make you more comfortable."

Narrowing his eyes, Janus took a careful step back. "Why aren't you angry at me?"

Logan shrugged. "Why are you disguising yourself to simply watch a movie?"

"Because I-well in case...just in case something comes up that....hes using this to distract himself and that's sort of like lying to yourself so it stands to reason i would want to be there." Satisfied with jus excuse he glared at the other, daring him to argue.

But Logan simply nodded. "I've been meaning to get more work done anyway and would rather do that than watch Roman rig the vote multiple times only to complain about the plot of the movie he picked out. Straighten the tie and be careful."

"Just...just like that? You don't even care?"

"I require time to....gather my thoughts, after the more recent dilemmas Thomas seems insistant on making harder than they should be. Peace and quiet would be nice right now and if you're willing to take my place then I wont argue." Nodding more to himself, Logan reached out to hand him a thermos. "Caffiene helps stave off the inevitable headache. I highly recommend it."

Dumbfounded, Janjs could only clutch the thermos go his chest as he watched the logical trait walk back to his room and quietly shut the door behind him. Something he couldn't quite identify tugged in his chest but he brushed it off quickly and sunk down to the apartment below.

Patton was the first to notice him as he settled down stiffly on the couch, waving excitedly and almost spilling what looked like cocoa all over the floor in the process. Nodding he looked up as Roman began to speak.

"Finally! Now that we have our resident nerd here we can vote." Janus watched curiously as little slips of paper were passed around, narrowing his eyes at the clump that Roman hid in his sleeve but decided not to say anything. He looked over as Thomas cleared his throat, taking the paper offered to him with an excited smile which he quickly dropped in favor of Logans usual impassive expression. He didnt expect to win the vote, but maybe since it was movie night they'd watch all the suggested films to make it fair. He didnt really know how this was supposed to work, Remus and....well, nobody ever watched movies together in the part of the mind he resided in.

Quickly jotting down his selection he waited rather impatiently for the rest to finish, gripping the paper tightly as a hat was passed around.

Wait.

He could only stare as the collection hat got to him. How had they gotten his hat? When did they even get it?....How often did they sneak into his room without him knowing? He wanted so badly to yell, take his hat and sink out, but that wasnt who he was right now.

"Hey L, you good?"

His head snapped up so fast he felt his neck creak. Virgil had never....not for a long time....that tone of voice wasn't for him. Virgil stayed with the "light sides" now, he only showed concern for them. Swallowing around the lump in his throat he reluctantly handed the hat back to Thomas to give back to Roman.

"I'm adequate thank you."

His hand shook slightly as he raised the thermos of coffee to his lips, but if Virgil noticed he didn't say anything.

Swinging his attention back to the current conversation he caught Pattons response to whatever had been said. "...voted for Frozen Roman but I'm still rooting for-"

"Oh my gosh! One hundred percent of the votes went to Frozen!"

He scowled as Patton cheered. "No, fu - falsehood, I did not vote for Frozen!"

"You didn't get a vote because you didnt wear a onesie!"

Taking a preemptive swig of coffee, he mumbled out, "I don't wear those anymore, they're too childish."

"No onesie, no vote, like our founding fathers believed!"

Janus snorted quietly, covering it up with an exasperated sigh as he settled more into couch. While the movie was being set up he glared again at the stolen hat on the floor, bringing out his phone discreetly.

Dee: I know I don't have much right to ask you this, but might I request a favor?

Logan: I assure you it's fine. What do you need?

Surprised at the quick response he continued to type, glancing up every now and again to be sure no one noticed his silence.

Dee: Roman stole my hat somehow, I was wondering if it would be possible cor you to get it back? I know you don't like shifting but I'm not sure how discreet it would be for me to try and get it as you.

Logan: It isn't that I don't like it, I'm just not equipped to be good at it. It does not make logical sense to disguise oneself, therefore I am at a disadvantage when it comes to such things. However, I can replicate your scales if I may have permission to 'raid your wardrobe' so to speak. Only with your permission of course.

Dee: Thank you and it's fine. Just dont go snooping around. You may not like what you find.

Logan: I will not. I have no reason to do anything other than procur clothing and so that is all I will do.

Sighing in relief, Janus settled back somewhat comfortably to watch the movie, letting the other sides' idle chatter wash over him.

----

"Fear will be your enemy."

Janus snuck a glance at Virgil at this line, glancing back away quickly at the look of panic that flashed across the anxious sides face. He wondered if Virgil would ever open up about his true nature....though perhaps until things truly calmed down it was for the best he remained determined to be closed off.

----

He nearly jumped out of his skin as Remus popped up suddenly behind him, clapping his hands at the prospect of Anna and Elsa's parents dying at sea, seemingly completely naked and comfortable enough to showcase go the entire living room. Janus shot him a warning look as Remus peered at him curiously, thanking God that for once Remus seemed content to keep his mouth shut.

----

"Wait, Hans is tricking Anna making her believe hes in love with her, but shes not around...why make that face?" He had watched the movie before of course but now that he had people to discuss it with that weren't making sexual innuendos every other sentence he felt much more comfortable speaking out.

"Yeah your right...."

Janus promptly turned out the rest of Roman's sentence, discreetly entering the date into his phone that Roman had admitted he was right in something, even if he didnt know who he was speaking to.

----

"Do you think this place has a lavatory?"

"Ice toilet!" Patton giggled.

"Or a bed?" Roman countered.

"Ice bed!"

"This place sounds awful." His nature made his blood run colder than normal anyway and the thought of sleeping on a freezing cold bed on top of a mountain surrounded by walls of ice made him very much wish he had in fact worn his onesie.

----

Janus chugged another mouthful of coffee in irritation. "You meddled with the vote to ensure we would watch this and yet you're the one constantly making fun of it."

"Look, this is how I show my love!"

Janus rolled his eyes and settled back into the couch wondering if Roman showed his love this way with the others just as much as he did with his beloved disney films.

----

Janus watched as Virgil voiced his thoughts on the matter that had made them all plan this movie night in the first place. A familiar kind of second hand hurt tugged in his chest while the others' thoughts spiraled further and further, unconsciously blanketing the room with an ever more suffocating blanket of anxiety. He watched as Roman grimaced from across the room, Patton fidgeting in place and gripping his mug ever harder and Thomas dragging fingers through messy hair as Virgil only continued talking faster and faster, becoming more and more worked up as the literal word vomit consumed any rational thoughts left in the room.

"Thomas, Virgil?" He waited calmly as Thomas peeked out from his hands and Virgils panicked face snapped towards him. Pushing down the old familiarity he continued on. "Please do me a favor and name me five things that you can see."

"Staircase." Thomas sighed.

"Impending doom." Virgil quickly countered.

"Olaf."

"A future without friends."

"Lamp!"

"Blinds."

"Pants."

"Now four things you can feel."

"Pants."

"A bad feeling."

"The couch."

"Wall."

"Hair."

"Three you can hear." He smiled in relief as Virgil began to participate more, visibly calming as his mind was brought back to the present.

"Olaf."

"The fan."

"The ice machine for some reason."

Thomas really needed to fix his appliances. "Two things can smell."

"Clean shirt."

"The deodorant Thomas put on because....he was gonna go out tonight."

"And one thing you can taste."

"A sour taste in my mouth probably leftover from those reheated tai noodle leftovers."

Both variably more calm, Janus tried gently explaining the technique he had used, though he knew they both already knew it seemed like a good idea to remind them that they were allowed to use the technique whenever they needed it.

"Thank you, Logan." Thomas breathed out as he leaned forward tiredly.

Janus smiled, going to take another swig of his dwindling coffee when he caught site of a figure dressed in black and yellow on the stairs, nobody having noticed his presence yet.

Allowing himself a smirk behind the thermos, he responded. "No problem. Just your cool teacher being his cool self."

He smiled slightly wider as he heard a quiet scoff from the figure, just loud enough that he could hear it. He hoped Logan didn't think he was making fun of him, this was a rare day where he hadn't lied once around the others.

----

Logan settled quietly on the stairs til the end of the movie, seeming content to join them quietly until Roman brought Janus' hat back out.

After they had discussed the movie's ending, with Virgils anxious thoughts still persisting, he realized they needed to do something else that more actively distracted them all from the situation. As Roman brought out his hat to vote on another activity Logan stepped in quickly, Virgil hissing at him much to Janus' amusement while Logan snatched his hat back without a glance in his direction.

"I was looking for this! Don't touch my shit!" Janus bit his lip hard to keep from busting out laughing at the reality of Logan swearing at Roman for him, a warm feeling enveloping him as the others continued with whatever conversgion they had moved on to. His focus came back as the ending of some kind of Frozen fix it fanfiction was being discussed, making it very hard not to feel smug as his suggested was acted upon and Thomas definitely seemed happier than he had previously. Not being needed for whatever ridiculous story was sure go come out he sunk back down into the mind scape, startling slightly when he appeared right next to Logan who was currently fixing a spare tie as he left Janus' room.

"Ah, you're back. I left your hat on the bedside where I assume it was taken in the first place. I'm the future know that with a little concentration we are able to keep certain sides out of our rooms. I would suggest you utilize this to prevent future thievery."

Janus shook off his disguise and held out the stolen tie. "Thank you...for letting me, well you didn't have to allow me to ho in your stead. I....appreciate the trust."

"Keep it." Logan gestured to the tie before turning away. "Just in case."

Janjs watched in confusion as Logan returned to his room to lock himself away again, finally sighing and turning to his own. Smiling a little he laid the tie carefully in a drawer before plunking his hat back on his head, shoulders sagging in relief at the familiarity.

It was nice to pretend to be someone else and talk with fake friends. But maybe, in allowing himself vulnerability, he had found himself another real one.

This work is also available on AO3!

[song-fox]

Inspired by this post

AU where Thomas is a struggling not-so-popular YouTuber, recently out of school and looking for a better job and, since he’s apparently pretty good with kids according to his friends Joan and Talyn, decides to set up a small business babysitting.

It’s all fun and games and the occasional diaper change, until… (long post ahead) (I got a little carried away lol)

Thomas is, obviously, pretty good and experienced with kids. He’s been in the babysitting business for a couple of months now, and he wouldn’t call himself a professional, but he’s making his way through it

One day a woman asks him to babysit her kids

Naturally, Thomas agrees. It’s just a couple of kids, how bad could it be?

Then he realizes that the woman never specified how many kids

Alright, no biggie. Most people have maybe two kids, four at most

Then the woman shows up at his doorstep with six kids, all different ages

Oh god. Oh god. Six kids?! I can’t handle this. Fuuuuu-

“You sure you can take care of these guys by yourself?”

“Oh, of course! No worries!”

He’s in trouble

The oldest is Janus, at fourteen years old. He’s sarcastic, snarky, clever, and hates Thomas. “I don’t need a babysitter, I can take care of myself!”

Next is Logan, twelve. Reserved, cold, and smart. Prefers to be alone with his books.

Then come the twins at ten years old, Roman and Remus. Apparently they aren’t actually the woman’s kids, she’s their adopted them from an ex-friend who never gave them enough attention

As a result, these kids will do anything to get noticed. Anything. Set a couple trash cans on fire, scream from the top of the roof sometimes, whatever.

Then Patton, nine. Sweet, naïve and almost annoyingly empathetic, he keeps the twins in line with compliments and a ton of hugs. He’s probably Thomas’ favourite.

And lastly, baby Virgil. Surprisingly quiet for a baby, his personality is mostly just spite and a fear of loud noises

Thomas is astounded that this woman can even keep track of their names, let alone take care of them

The first day with them is horrific

Logan is arguing with the twins. Patton is desperately trying to get them to stop. Janus is holding Virgil and trying to get him to sleep. The house is absolute anarchy.

Things are seriously getting out of hand when Remus accidentally sets the microwave on fire

(Remus claims it was an accident, but Thomas could easily see the matches in his hand)

He picks up his phone and hastily dials Joan

“Hey, hey Joan? Joan?! Is Talyn there with you? Oh my god, I need you to come over, quick! Remus set the microwave on fire- one of the kids that I’m babysitting! The baby is crying, the older one is yelling at everyone, I think there’s a feral cat loose in the garden- jANUS WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?! PUT THAT DOWN! Oh god, the fire–”

“Huh. Have you tried making s'mores?”

“jOAN PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY–”

Eventually everything is under control. The fire is put out, the cat is back to its owner, Virgil has stopped crying and the twins are content to listen to Janus plan out exactly how he’s going to overthrow the government

Thomas is sure he should be more concerned about that, but as long as there’s no more fires

Joan and Talyn are there to support him too

It’s been a very long day, but eventually the kids go home to their mother

The trio flops onto the couch, absolutely exhausted

“Those kids were fun, but I never want to see them ever again.’

Surprise: it’s a weekly thing now

Haha… yeah

Their mom has a new job now, and with her shift requiring her to work for most of the day and their dad working every weekday, Thomas to look after the kids for five hours a week

Five

Hours

Thomas is sure he’s gonna die

The next time they meet goes just about as well as you’d think

There’s crude drawings on the wall, Logan has threatened to smack Janus with a book at least three times, and there’s a knife missing from the kitchen

Next week there’s a food fight

After that Patton shows up with a stray hedgehog

After that Virgil somehow manages to get stuck in the kitchen sink

After that Logan almost accidentally starts a pillow fight with Thomas’ couch cushions

Then suddenly, everything is chill

The twins are more energised than chaotic, Virgil is calm, the rest are content with simply chatting

Mostly they’re just bored and too tired to do anything

Thomas, Joan and Talyn get to talk more leisurely this time as the kids simply talk with one another

Well, until Patton pipes up

"I really like your eyebrows!” he whisper-shouts and points to Talyn, trying not to wake up Virgil

Talyn’s got bright scarlet and pink eyebrows to match their dyed red hair

They look at him for a second. “Oh- uh, thanks!”

“Can you do makeup?” Roman asks

Talyn shrugs. “Sure.”

“Can you do makeup on us?”

Talyn looks to Thomas. “Are we-?”

“Their mom said they can do just about anything as long as they don’t get hurt or break the law.”

The next two hours or so are full of just Talyn putting makeup on all the kids who want them. Full stage makeup for Roman, a moustache and purple eyeshadow for Remus, and a sheepish request for snake scales for Janus

“Hm, dunno what I can do for that one… oh! Thomas, do you have like, fishnets or something?”

“What? Why would I have those?”

Talyn raises a colourful eyebrow.

“…I’ll go get them.”

Half an hour later, Janus looks amazing

Patton can think of a million puns for his snake side

Virgil seems to find it cool

Logan is listing off snake facts for the whole half hour, pointing out mistakes in colouring or shape until Talyn has it perfect

The kids leave that week happier than last time and with bright faces of makeup

The weeks go on and on, and after a few months, Halloween comes up

Their mother is incredibly sorry that she has to work instead of being with her kids, but she has no choice and has to leave them with Thomas

She also leaves a giant bin bag full of costumes

“They like to go Trick-or-Treating,” she explains.

Thomas as actually kinda hyped this time

Outfits! Makeup! Candy! What’s there not to love?!

Apparently the kids share his enthusiasm

Janus asks Talyn if they can do his snake makeup again, to which they gladly agree. He’s going as a generic villain, with a black capelet and cane and everything

Remus is, to nobody’s surprise, Beetlejuice. He’s got temporary neon green hair dye and a cheap-looking striped tuxedo. Remus loves it

Roman is going as a prince. It looks crudely made and even a little tacky, but altogether the costume is pretty good

Logan is going as Dr. Frankenstein, and no he is not the monster, and no that isn’t accurate to the story, and nO GODDAMMNIT ROMAN I AM NOT GOING AS THE MONSTER

Patton is a werewolf, although he doesn’t really get the whole supernatural vibe of it

It’s okay though, his little floppy dog ears look very cute

Virgil is a pumpkin

That’s it

Nothing too special, just a pumpkin

He looks adorable though

The night starts off great, with all the kids chattering away and baby Virgil being the world’s cutest source of attention

The twins are loving all the compliments that come with their costumes

Logan is actually recognized as Dr. Frankenstein and isn’t able to shut up about it

Thomas doesn’t mind, though

After a couple months with the kids, it’s kind of endearing how chaotic they are

The night ends and the kids go back to Thomas’ place, waiting for their mom to come back

Thomas goes to get some DVDs to watch while they wait, and overhears their conversation

“I miss mom,” Patton sighs

“She’s at work. She’ll return soon,” Logan assures him.

“He doesn’t mean it like that.” Janus.

“Oh?”

“Our parents are never around anymore. Thomas has taken more care of us in a couple months than they have in years.”

“Because they’re always working to support us.”

“Well it wouldn’t kill them to stick around a little more,” Roman pipes up

“They’re not abandoning us.”

“I know that!” Roman snaps

Everyone knows the twins’ issues with negligence

There’s a pause, before Remus speaks. “She’s just never around. Dad, too. They don’t want us.”

“Remus, that’s not-”

“They don’t want us!”

There’s another silence as Virgil threatens to start crying again

Janus clears his throat. “We can take care of ourselves. We don’t need our parents any more than each other.”

Another silence.

“C'mon, let’s trade candy. I’ve got a KitKat bar–”

Thomas doesn’t listen to the rest of the conversation

He knows they have it hard

Their parents are always working, and they don’t always care enough to stick around for too long

So he’s determined to do the best he can with these kids

“Hey, guys! I’ve got Nightmare Before Christmas, yes Patton we can watch Elf afterwards if we’ve got time, and yes Roman you’re allowed to sing along. C'mon, let’s get on the couch-!”

[xlehukax]

Start of Something - Thread the Needle (Pt. 6)

 -Writing a little series on here as a warm up! In accordance to @orangelegs‘s Hogwarts AU! Updates won’t be on a set time, but they’ll come eventually-

Been a while, huh? Don’t worry, I have somethin else! And some inspiration for the future, woohoo! It’s short this round, but the next chapters comin quick. 

After the match, after Patton’s ‘surprisingly decent’ cheery commentary, after a few new drawings in Virgil’s sketchbook, after Roman is yet again the hero of the game, after Logan leaves to finish his essay for Transfigurations, Patton and Virgil meet up on the way back to the dorms. 

“Hey Virge! How was it? A totally fairytale?” Patton grins goofily, nudging him. 

“Well, I made him laugh and he promised me that if a dragon came after me he’d slay it with a katana, so a success, I guess? What about you, you seem ecstatic,” Virgil chuckles. Patton does look over the moon, a nice colouring to his cheeks. He giggles.

“That obvious?” 

“You really wear your heart on your sleeve, Pat,” Virgil shakes his head teasingly, “But come on, spill,” 

“Well, we talked!! For a few hours! And he taught me all the techniques!” 

“Uh… yay?” Is Virgil supposed to be excited about that? It just sounds dull. 

“Yeah!! We never talked in class! Actually, he’d kinda just be cold to me most of the time,” Patton laughs awkwardly. 

“You like the guy who was so cold to you? Like, it’s Logan and he’s actually nice, but seriously?” 

“Well, he helped me and stuff- hey, we don’t need to talk about how he used to be okay? Now he’s so nice! He smiled! Logan has a really pretty smile!! And I made him smile! How great is that??” 

Patton’s so excited about it that Virgil can’t help but be happy for him. The mans like a Cheering Charm personified. 

“That’s pretty awesome, Pat,” Virgil sighs happily. 

“Patton, fancy seeing you here,” a voice says, silky and with the slightest hint of an accent reminiscent of money. Virgil blinks: a slim figure in a bowler hat has appeared by Patton’s side. As he turns his face, Virgil can take account of the scaled side of his features. His muscles tense. 

Deceit. 

He’s about to tell him off, to stop pestering his friend when-

“Janus! Oh, it’s been too long!! I missed you!!” Patton squeals, wrapping his arms around Janus’s shoulders in an overexcited hug. 

“I as well, darling,” Janus returns the hug contently. 

Virgil’s face scrunches. Darling? 

“Wait, Janus do you know Virgil? He’s the one helping me with Logan- remember my letters?” Patton gestures towards him actively, Virgil shrinking in his hood like a turtle. 

“Oh?” Janus casts a teasing cocksure glance at Virgil. If it was just Janus and Virgil, Virgil would tell him off, tell him to leave him alone.

But it’s not. Patton is there, smiling brightly at the idea of his two friends meeting. 

“Hello, De- Janus. Nice to… uh, meet you,” 

“Ah, likewise. So you’re the little matchmaker setting up my Patton here?” 

“I… uh, yeah- well, it’s a mutual situation we’ve got going on-” Virgil stammers his way through the sentence. Where’s Remus, you wanker, where is he when is he going to throw a fanged frisbee at my head I know he’s here somewhere- jesus, what are you up to, Janus, just leave me alone I swear to god- please dear god just leave me the fuck alone-

“How quaint. Are you enjoying yourself, Patton? Logan and Virgil treating you the way you deserve to be treated, darling?” 

“Yup! All good on my side! What about you, Jan-Jan?” Patton’s face is so bright and joyous that Virgil momentarily ignores the face that he just called Deceit Jan-Jan. 

Should he be laughing or screaming or running? I am so confused. 

“Fine myself. I made seeker this year,” 

“It’s about time! You’re so good at Quidditch! You and Remus both. Tell him I say hello, by the way,” Patton cheerfully exclaims. 

“Certainly,” Janus assures him. Patton smiles brightly at him. 

“Are we still on to go to Three Broomsticks tomorrow?” 

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, darling Patton,” Janus brushes some hair out of his eyes, his one snake pupil dilating in the light. It’s terrifying to Virgil, but Patton doesn’t balk at all. “Do you mind if I speak with Virgil for a second? It will only take a moment,” 

“Don’t frighten him too much! I’ll see you later Virge! I had a great day,” Patton is completely clueless to the fact that Virgil does not want to be left alone, and trots off towards the Hufflepuff Dormitory. Virgil braces his hands on his hips and glares at Janus. 

Janus is a slight bit taller than Virgil, especially with his chronic slouching, and makes a pfft sound. 

“Oh, little stormcloud, not happy to see me? I see the raccoon eyes haven’t changed one bit. Nice to see that some things never change,” 

“What do you want, Deceit,” Virgil hisses. Janus clasps a hand to his chest in mock horror and scoffs. 

“How rude of you to use that hurtful nickname! You know my name, why not use it?” 

“Because you’re a bastard and I don’t want to talk to you,” Virgil bites. Janus smirks. 

“I just wanted a chat- Never suspected you were friends with Patton. Are you going to try and convince him to stop seeing me? That seems like the underhanded move you’d try, hmm?” 

“No, Pat can take care of himself. He’ll figure out that you’re too much to deal with on his own,” Virgil starts to walk away. Janus catches up to him easily, snake eye winking as he takes long strides serpentine.

“How quaint. You know, I never went out of my way to lie to you- it just happened that way. The way I see it, I was protecting you from my family,” Janus muses, running his gloved hands up Virgil’s arm. He shivers unpleasantly. 

“Well, I always thought that eye of yours fucked up your vision,” Virgil grumbles, shaking off the hand. Janus shrugs. 

“Either way, I’ve noticed something quite peculiar about you,” 

“Uh huh,” Virgil glances around: they’re in an open field: it doesn’t look like Remus is here at all. Janus isn’t good for him either: too many bad memories there, but it’s better than both of them for sure. 

“Does my little anxiety ridden plum have a crush on the charismatic Gryffindor chaser?” Janus purrs. Virgil stops in his tracks and looks at him with wide eyes. 

“Why the fuck would you say that?” 

“Multiple reasons. Mostly because I saw you and Patton at the party, I must admit,” Janus chuckles, taking his hat off to push his hair back.

“You asshole. You were spying on me??” Virgil grabs his forearm. 

“Haha, you wish. No, I was going to greet Patton. Even if I have no longer any ties with you, I still have friends, Virgil. You were not the end of me. Even if I was for you,” Janus raises his eyebrows and sighs, “And all I wanted to do was offer my assistance in doing something that will please Roman.” 

“Yeah- yeah right, like you would know what he likes, you- you scaly prick,” Virgil stutters. As always, Janus has been trained in how to filet his victims with only sharp words. And, he hit him where it hurt. 

The history they had. Virgil pushes it to the back of his mind: that belongs in his nightmares, not in the shining sun of Hogwarts. 

“No, no- consider this a peace offering. I heard from Remus, don’t worry he’s not here, that Roman loves muggle musicals and general music. He’s obsessed with the brand ‘Disney’. Are you familiar?” 

“Uh- yeah, watched a few movies, but… why are you telling me this? There’s got to be something you want from me,” Virgil narrows his eyes darkly. Janus taps his chin, mock thinking, and then shakes his head with a friendly smile. 

“Out of the kindness of my heart, I presume,” 

“You don’t have a heart,” Virgil grumbles. That’s a harsh insult, even for him, but Janus takes it in stride. Just like always, he’s heard worse. Probably from his own parents, even. 

“Ah, I knew there was something wrong with my chest. I am cold blooded and all that,” he laughs. They stop in front of the door to the inside of Hogwarts. “This is where I leave you, I’m afraid. Glorious chat as always, dear,” 

“Shut up,” Virgil snaps, going ahead to enter the door. His hand rests on the wood for a moment. “But… thanks. For telling me about Roman. You better not be lying and manipulating like fuckin usual, or I’ll…” Janus shrugs, scoffing.

“I can’t imagine you could do anything to hurt me at this point. Nothing to use as blackmail, sorry to disappoint-” 

“I’ll tell Patton. About… about everything that happened. The whole thing,” 

“You wouldn’t. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t need to know- he’s so innocent, you wouldn’t drag him into this. Even you are not that cruel,” Janus has sunk his hands into Virgil’s shoulder, his lighthearted words growing immensely serious. Virgil shrugs his hand off. 

“We’ll see,” and with that, Virgil stalks off inside to go wait to do his homework in the library with Logan, leaving Janus looking at him in what could be determination or hate. They seem to blend together for Janus. 

But in all honesty, Virgil thinks to himself, I’ll never tell anyone about the horrors I saw with that horrible boy. 

Death Eaters are more frightening than anything I’ve ever seen. 

~~~~~

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