#but I knew this could possibly occur so I decided to make fun pictures to go with these to keep it interesting :>

[mewkwota]

Sonic the Hedgehog!!!!!!!!!!! (No one is surprised I asked him)

Hmm this one may be tricky, my history with him is a brief one! (As in, I'm not a Sonic fan, I just know him. If that makes sense.)

Send Me a Character

And I will tell you my:

First impression Recognizable. I know a lot of people like him, he's like a "friendly rival".

Impression now From what I've seen, I can tell he has a big heart. But if I have to be honest, I am afraid to talk about him or his series.

I will, however, share a funny story. Once when I was a wee teen, I somehow decided that Sonic was my "game partner", even though we had no huge connection or history. So during my middle school years he would help grant me his speed and I would pick him in games that we happened to play where he was included.

Then it weaned away over time and it's just pleasant to see him from time to time. I'm still not sure how that came about, but I still remember it. Thank you, Sonic. :)

Favorite moment I haven't really checked out enough games to pick one?

Idea for a story Hmm, I can't recall if I had any specific stories where he's involved.

Unpopular opinion This isn't specifically pertaining to Sonic himself, but I have an unironic soft spot for Sonia and Manic. They exist in my heart.

Favorite relationship I don't have any specific one?

Favorite headcanon My grasp on the character or his series is not enough to pick one. ;;

I'm so sorry if this ended up sounding like I had no answers, I am answering very honestly about this. L(///L )

[hot-take-tournament]

ngl kind of breaks my heart to see you used one of those ai bot things after the entire vocaloid debate. i really don't like that you did that and i'm a little disappointed. can you please not do that again?

I know - I do need to address this before anything else, because I fucked up

Please read the whole thing

If any of you don't know the context of this ask;

Basically, a while back I used the program AI Dungeon to generate a hot take for fun;

That's the program they use for those chaotic AI videos you find on youtube, like the ai ace attorney clown case and the sonic destruction scripts, which has some absolutely wild moments like these

I just put in a couple one-sentence questions to see what it would give me, not really expecting anything. But the take it did finally give me was not only completely depraved, but also felt like such a weirdly personal attack on me specifically that it left me genuinely speechless.

So, even though I didn't originally intend to do this, I decided to secretly make a poll for it claiming it was a submission, because I thought it might be fun to see if you guys could guess which one of the polls was the fake one, Blade Runner style.

I generated the take on the same day that submissions originally closed, but I only came clean about it last night because I started to feel super guilty about it after reading the vocaloid discourse - but the way I did it was vague, shitty and insincere.

I know it was 4 in the morning and I said I was going to get some sleep when I made the post last night, but after I saw the asks I immediately got about that post - like this one - I instead deleted it after like 2 minutes and spent the next 4-5 hours scouring the internet for as much information about this as I could find so I could get the full picture. This isn't the first time I fucked up on this blog because I didn't do my research, so I think I massively overcompensated - I really didn't want a repeat of that time the master post accidentally triggered multiple people's OCD; I still feel awful about that.

And as a result, I ended up passing out on my bathroom floor, which is why you haven't heard from me in a while.

I did genuinely read all the vocaloid discourse (asks, replies, notes, all of it) - but since I pulled this stunt ages ago, and the secret poll is already up, it was already too late. And it was because of that vocaloid discourse that I felt like it would just make me a hypocrite if I just swept it under the rug and kept quiet while everyone else was talking about the exact same subject, so I decided to just tell you guys as soon as possible because I'd feel shitty if I didn't - but I still phrased that post in a more light-hearted way because that was what I originally intended this whole thing to be, which was definitely a mistake, and I can't apologise enough for that.

And I know I didn't clarify this in that original post, but like I said, the program I used was AI Dungeon, which was something I remembered having fun with back in 2019/2020, spending hours generating unhinged Ace Attorney cases; and I remembered I still had an account from back then when it was still free to play, even though I hadn't touched it in 4 years - and I realised I would still be able to bypass the paywall using it.

I'd also just watched those snapcube Sonic Destruction videos that I linked above and it reminded me of that. And I dug up those old AI Dungeon Ace Attorney cases that I had generated and then recreated in objection i.o. back when I was 17/18, and had been sitting on my old computer's hard drive for ever since - and they still made me smile a little. So that's how I got the impulse to do this.

And that's also why, even though I knew about the writer's strike and do fully support it, it just didn't occur to me that the AI that gave us that same insane Sonic Destruction script that I'd just watched would be one of the programs the writers were striking over - I just assumed that it was only programs like ChatGPT, that can produce coherent scripts based on the accumulated information users feed into it; because those are programs that could definitely potentially be used to replace human writers. That's something AI Dungeon can't do, because it doesn't retain user input after you shut it down.

So I just saw AI Dungeon as that goofy ass confused AI that I loved as a kid, the one that provides insanely weird responses out of the blue as it desperately tries to cobble together a narrative, and it was used in videos that I still really like. And I thought it would be fine.

That was how I justified it at the time - but in hindsight, given how much I hate other GPT programs like ChatGPT, as well as AI art and all other generated content overall, it just makes me even more of a stupid hypocrite for making an exception for this one simply because I was blinded by nostalgia, and not bothering to look it up back then like I should've done. Because at the end of the day, a GPT program is a GPT program.

SO - Here's what I found online while reading up on it last night:

Because of the outdated GPT model AI Dungeon runs on, it isn't possible from a technical standpoint for it to learn like ChatGPT does. Even though it still uses a dataset, as far as I can tell it genuinely can't add to that dataset from user input except for when it explicitly asks for feedback (rarely, it will generate two responses instead of one, and ask you to pick the best one so it can learn - but you can turn that feature off.) And while it does try to learn while you're using it, it can't carry that information over between sessions. So even if you reload the same page again, it won't retain what it learned last time.

(Here's some information I found while combing ancient reddit threads that explains this better than I can)

But even if all of that is true, it doesn't matter.

Latitude, the developers of AI Dungeon, are super fucking scummy, and you shouldn't support them.

If you want to look up all of the many, many controversies surrounding AI Dungeon, you can - but I won't link them here, because serious content warnings apply.

Do not use this program.

I really hope the anon who sent this ask - and everyone else who called me out on this - stuck around, because I am so, so grateful that you all sent these, otherwise I probably would never have known.

I deleted the post almost instantly (because like I said, it was too light-hearted), and I'm really glad I did. And I swear I won't pull this shit again.

I know a lot of you hate the fact that I did this - that original post genuinely got me blocked by more of you guys than every single one of the polls combined - which is totally fair, and I wouldn't blame any of you for doing the same now.

I really just want to move on from this - but I can't just pretend that it didn't happen.

Support the writer's strike, don't use any AI programs.

I'm really sorry about this, and the fact that I didn't take it seriously enough - like I said, I promise it won't happen again.

</3

[beewolfwrites]

The Oar in the Sand - Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Seventh Day of Nostos

Here, have another chapter! Literally can’t wait for the reunion, but I also couldn’t help myself and decided to add some angst. Because it’s fun, and why not.

Enjoy :)

I honestly just keep forgetting to include these, but the AO3 link is here. 

____________________________________________

There was something beautiful about stepping into the pink and blue dusk of the evening. The sun had almost set, the sky streaked with vibrant pinks, lavenders and greys. There was a screech of metal above, and I looked up at the sleek hotel before me. The King of Hearts blimp billowed in a gust of heat, tilted, and drifted to the ground like a burning star. It collided into one of the neighbouring buildings, the explosion sending a shockwave of hot air blasting through the streets. 

I shielded my face with my forearm as a piece of paper whipped through the air and landed on my shoe. Picking it up, I realised it was a leaflet. The photograph on the cover was almost identical to the glossy skyscraper before me. The only thing absent was the busy influx of pedestrians and traffic outside. 

‘The Tokyo Horizon Hotel.’ 

I flipped it over, looking at the pictures one by one. Everything about the staff seemed artificial to me, from the pristine red blazers to their immaculate hairlines. Despite this, I instantly recognised that glint in her eye, a slyness disguised beneath a professional smile. She was sitting at the very reception desk I had been leaning against just hours before, posing for the camera.   

‘Izanami,’ I whispered, deep in thought. ‘She was the receptionist.’ 

A receptionist turned King. There was something unexpectedly funny about it, probably because it made absolute sense to me. She was the face of the hotel, having encountered every possible type of customer under the sun. She knew the ins and outs of the industry, was privy to the drama that occurred behind closed doors, and even the drama that filtered through the grapevine. Of course she was the King of Hearts; she knew exactly what made people tick.  

And now she was gone. It was a shame. If not for the circumstances, I could have become friends with someone so carefree and easy as she was. 

But I can still remember her. 

I could still carry her memory with me, like a token or a good luck charm. In a way, she had died so that I could live. I just had to make it count somehow. For now though, I needed to find my way back home. 

Back to Chishiya, to Kuina…

And back to my older brother, who was still out there, somewhere, waiting for me. 

I wandered deeper into the city using only the familiarity of the streets to guide me. Thick swathes of tall grass covered the pavements and roads, and it was difficult recognising store fronts through the vines and foliage. Scattered around in the grass, the bodies of players had been reduced to bones, each one a victim of the King of Spades. They were still carrying their weapons, their clothes now rags against their hollow white skeletons. It wasn’t right that a human body should decompose so quickly. It meant that my suspicions had been correct all along; time was altered here. The city was a jungle, and as I waded through the overgrowth, Izanami’s words haunted my mind. 

‘Life isn’t a race, it’s a labyrinth. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up going round and round in circles.’ 

Her dying words were uncanny. In her game, if I had simply carried on guessing answers at random, my points would have hovered around a neutral 25. I would have been trapped forever in that room, going round and round in circles. 

It really was like a labyrinth… 

How many times had I made a similar comparison with the city? Too many to count. It was as if she had read my thoughts, knew the ins and outs of my heart, as strange as it sounded. 

And now as I roamed the streets, deftly avoiding stepping on bony fingers and spines, I realised that Tokyo was opening up, welcoming me back inside its web. Even as the darkness of the evening skulked along the corners and alleyways, I followed my gut instinct, tracing a mental map until I turned onto a smaller side-street, coming to a stop before the small building opposite me.

The furniture store. 

There were no candles lit in the windows. No signs of life. I opened the door and slipped inside, tasting the dank mustiness of the air. It was cold, but everything was as it had been before we left. Our makeshift living room was still in place, the armchairs turned on each other in a circle, a flimsy coffee table between them. 

Inside the small kitchen, I found a can of Kuina’s favourite corn soup in one of the cupboards. And so, lighting a few candles on the windowsill, I prepared the portable stove we had used to fashion meals with so many times. It was on the kitchen surface, a little dusty but still usable. I poured the can of soup into a pan and left it to warm up as I explored upstairs. 

The staircase was dark, and the room upstairs even more so. But even in the darkness, I would have recognised that bed from anywhere. It was still as a photograph, a moment in time captured. The way the covers were thrown back, an indentation in each pillow, mine and Chishiya’s. It was only days ago, but it already felt like a fragment of our history. 

I ran my palm along the bedside table, searching for the one thing I had left behind. 

My ring should be here somewhere.

I wasn’t there. I searched the floors and under the bed, but my ring was nowhere to be seen. I raked my hand along every nook and cranny, feeling for its familiar shape, and only growing more and more frustrated when I couldn’t find it. This couldn’t be happening. It meant too much to me. 

I can’t lose it again!

The only explanation I could think of was that somebody had been here after us and they had taken it. Or, it had rolled away into a corner where I couldn’t see it. As impatient as I was, it was too dark to look properly, and so I begrudgingly resigned myself to waiting. 

I’ll have to look again tomorrow when it’s lighter. But still, my ring… 

Sighing, I headed back downstairs to my simmering corn soup. A warm bowlful later, and I was curled up in my old armchair, trying to fall asleep in the ambient candlelight but unable to shake off the fear that the King of Spades would turn up when I least expected it, and I would become one of those many skeletons.

I tried instead to turn my thoughts toward Chishiya. Finding him was my first priority right now. Now that I was clear-headed, I could understand his perspective a little more. The detachment, the alienation. He had never truly told me about the full extent of his isolation. Only that his parents had ignored him, and he had been mostly raised by the house staff. When he first told me, in the lingering quiet after we explored each other’s bodies, I hadn’t appreciated the full weight of that moment.

And the way he’d fired his pistol at Banda, and sat waiting outside after I’d barricaded myself in one of the cells. Even our conversation in the hospital, his adamance that he wouldn’t take part in a game with me. I had been adamant too. I was willing to play together, even if only one of us survived. 

‘Are you really willing to risk an outcome like that? How selfish?’

Back then, his words had thrown me off. They came across as strange and uncharacteristic, but in actuality, I was just blind.  

I understand now. 

I would feel it too. If Chishiya died in a game, where would that leave me? Wandering around Tokyo alone without a shred of hope. That kind of existence wasn’t worth living for. 

God, he was right. I’m really am that selfish… we both are. 

It was time to change things.  

But right now, my eyes were heavy, so heavy, and it was becoming impossible to keep my mind from slipping away into a velvety slumber. Curled up in my armchair, I watched the light of the candle flames flickering on the wall like shadow puppets, until I fell into a heady, dreamless sleep. 

________________________________________________

My eyes flew open. 

I was still curled in my armchair, my neck stiff. However, the cold room was bathed in darkness.  The candles on the window ledge had blown out, and only faint slant of moonlight filtered through the window, illuminating the armchair across from me. 

A shiver brushed the back of my neck.

Someone’s here. 

I gently unfurled myself, listening carefully for any indication of footsteps or breathing. There was nothing. Everything in the room was exactly where it was supposed to be. It was just the candles. I got up and walked towards the window, inspecting them. The wax around the wick was still warm and liquid. It could only mean they had been blown out recently. 

Raising my head to the window pane, I saw my tired reflection staring back at me. And then I froze. A dark, familiar face grinned from behind me, hovering just over my shoulder. There was a click, and I felt the barrel of a gun press into my back.

‘Don’t even fucking think of moving.’

I should have known Niragi would find me eventually. It was only a matter of time. Although it was actually rather impressive that he was still clinging to the revenge he craved for his burn scars. It was an act of self defence, and most people would have moved on by now. 

He’s not most people, clearly. 

‘You’re the same as ever,’ I said, stifling a yawn. ‘Always trying to show off your guns. It must be tiring.’ 

‘I could say the same thing. Not going to show off that terrible foreigner’s accent?’ 

‘I don’t need to.’ I stuck to my native tongue, looking him straight in the eye through our reflections in the glass. ‘I know you can understand me.’ 

Niragi pulled a face of disinterest, but beneath the facade I could see his curiosity. 

‘Back at the Beach, when you first confronted me about Chishiya’s plans, you seemed to be able to understand me even when I wasn’t speaking in Japanese. It was the same when I was at the bar, right before…’ His mouth quirked in self-satisfaction, and I dropped the sentence altogether. ‘And on the rooftop. You understood everything.’ 

He scoffed, jerking the gun harder against my spine. ‘What, did you think I’m an idiot or something? I went to school, obviously.’

‘You could have fooled me.’ 

It was only a mutter, but Niragi had heard it all the same. Grabbing my shoulder, he dragged me away from the window and forced me to sit in the armchair. I leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. He sat in the chair across from me, the handgun still pointed at my chest. 

‘You clearly have something planned,’ I said. ‘Otherwise I’d be dead by now.’ 

‘Well done, genius. Even though I’d love to put a bullet in your brain, there’s something else I’d like to do. Something more fun.’ 

Niragi looked terrible. There was a strange gleam in his eye, and the charred remains of his hair were an unruly against the scarred rivers running along his skin. Even his clothes were in tatters. It was a wonder, after everything he had done, that he was even still alive. 

‘We’re going to wait here for a while,’ he continued, ‘and then you and I are going to go for a little walk.’ 

I can see where this is going. 

A walk was never just a walk when Niragi was involved. I sighed deeply, knowing that I was at least safe for now. At this point, Niragi was too predictable for his own good. No doubt, he was going to take me to wherever Chishiya was just so he could have the satisfaction of killing one of us in front of the other. But if he led me to Chishiya, I would happily go along with his plan for now. 

Niragi hummed with fascination, the sound breaking through my thoughts. ‘You seem awfully compliant. What happened to the feisty little zebra who clawed at me?’ 

‘You have a gun and I don’t,’ I replied, nodding towards the handgun resting on his knee. ‘And I have no intention of dying just yet. My brother’s waiting for me.’ 

His mouth curling into a jagged smile. ‘Your brother, hm? What makes you think he’s still alive? He could be one of those skeletons out there, you know.’ 

The thought gave me pause for a moment, but I held my ground. I knew better. ‘He’s not dead. He’s in the other world. The real world, I mean.’ 

‘The real world.’ Something flashed in Niragi’s eyes, as if I had touched on his favourite subject. ‘Which world is the real world? You can live freely here. There are none of those man-made laws to hold you back from giving into your human instincts. You can kill or rape as many people as you want, take whatever drugs you what, there’s nobody to stop you. You can die freely too.’ 

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. ‘Well, since you’re here in this place, I’d much rather go back.’ 

Niragi didn’t seem fazed by the mild insult. If anything, there was a smugness about him, as though everything was vaguely funny. ‘You know, I’m surprised you’re here all alone,’ he said. ‘I assumed Chishiya would have come back, but clearly not.’ 

Now that was unexpected. 

‘You’ve seen him?’   

‘Perhaps.’ 

‘And you didn’t kill him.’  

Niragi shrugged. ‘Why would I, when I can kill both of you at once?’ 

I couldn’t hold back a snicker. ‘What, are you going to line us both up and try to do it with one bullet?’ 

His smile disappeared. The gun was against my forehead faster than I could blink. Niragi’s fingers were in my hair, against my scalp, pulling my head back until my face was mere inches from his. I let out an involuntary gasp, but tried to meet his gaze squarely. I couldn’t show him any fear. Not now. 

‘Don’t you fucking dare laugh at me,’ he snarled. I could smell blood on his breath, could feel the cold barrel of the gun against my temple. ‘I could easily kill you right now and spare myself the trouble.’ 

‘I’m sure you could,’ I murmured. ‘But we both know it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying.’ 

He released my head violently, throwing me against the back of the armchair as he sat back down in his own. Through the window, the first streaks of a red dawn had finally appeared across the hazy concrete skyline. 

Niragi was quiet for a few minutes. He checked the bullets in his gun before sliding the mechanism back into place. ‘Get up,’ he ordered. ‘We’re leaving.’ 

I stood and looked over my shoulder at the stairs. Now that dawn was here, I would be able to see everything better. ‘Can I at least go to the bathroom before we go?’ 

He narrowed his eyes. ‘Where is it?’

‘It’s just at the top of the stairs.’ I waved a hand at the staircase. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be quick.’ 

He stood up, gesturing to the stairs with his gun. ‘You’ve got two minutes. If you try anything, I’ll shoot you in the foot and you’ll have to walk on it.’ 

‘Fine. Two minutes is all I need.’ 

I sprung up the stairs and made a beeline for the bed I shared with Chishiya. His familiar scent still lingered on the linen, and it sent a sharp ache running through my chest. I would have given anything to go back to that time. It was turbulent, yes, but there were moments of sanctuary. 

I pushed thought away.  

Don’t get distracted! You don’t have long. 

That’s right. I now had less than two minutes to find this ring. I got to my knees, searching the gap behind the bedside table in case it had rolled off the edge. There was no sign of it. Growing more and more desperate, I pressed my face to the floor as I peered under the bed. No matter how hard I looked, the ring was nowhere to be seen. I was busy checking under the neighbouring bed when in the slant of light beneath the frame, I saw Niragi’s feet appear in the doorway. 

‘Oi! Get out of there before I drag you out.’ 

I crawled out from under the bed. Frustratingly, my ring was still missing. It must have rolled away into a dark corner somewhere in the crannies of the room. I hated being without it, but there really was nothing I could do. 

‘I lost something up here last night,’ I tried to explain myself. ‘While I was here I thought I’d check before we left.’ 

Niragi marched around the bed and grasped the back of my clothes, hauling me towards the doorway. 

‘Move!’ When I was too slow, he jabbed the gun firmly against my spine and pushed me forward. ‘Hurry the fuck up!’ 

Pff, you’re not going to shoot me. Not right now anyway. 

With the gun between my shoulder blades once more, I silently allowed Niragi to lead me down the stairs and out of the store. Dawn had broken, and to my surprise, the overgrown jungle was softened by birdsong. I hadn’t expected to hear birds singing in the middle of Tokyo. Only the flap of pigeons roaming around for scraps of food. But on second thought, nature had taken back the city. The birds had every right to flock here. 

Niragi didn’t tell me where we were heading, and I didn’t dare ask. I knew better than to goad him on further. I would keep walking and walking until Niragi gestured towards a new direction with his gun. It was a mystery to me, how he knew where he was going. I could only imagine that he had spied on Chishiya and worked out where he was staying. 

The sun was high in the sky, reaching a mid morning simmer when faint voices sounded from somewhere nearby. Niragi paused behind me, then pushed me forward in a vague direction. 

‘Keep moving,’ he hissed. 

I felt his breath against the shell of my ear and flinched away. He chuckled lightly at my reaction, but I refused to show him how it affected me. He wouldn’t take my dignity from me. 

Not again. Never again. 

The voices grew increasingly louder, and as we rounded a corner, I began to recognise the structures, the familiar crosswalks. 

Shibuya crossing?

I had visited this place with my brother on the day after we landed in Tokyo. In fact, his friend’s apartment was only a couple of minutes away. It was so different now that it was swamped in foliage. 

There were two figures in the distance, standing between abandoned cars on what would have been the iconic crosswalk. My heart pounded when I saw a shock of white, that familiar hoodie, his blond hair. It was Chishiya. But despite seeing him only a day ago, he looked so different. His face was darker, more mature, and his expression was strange. There was apathy there as usual, but lurking beneath that thin surface, there was something troubled about him. He was talking to Arisu, who appeared to be holding a rifle in both hands. Neither of them had noticed us standing there. 

I opened my mouth to call out to them, only for a hand on my shoulder to shove me back. Niragi pushed in front of me, raising his gun. 

No! 

Everything slowed, blurring into a haze as I launched myself at Niragi, wrapping my arms around him and clawing at his hands in a furious attempt to grab his gun. He buckled under my assault, letting out a guttural growl as he shoved his palm into my face, trying to push me away. I saw my opportunity, sinking my teeth into the dirty skin of his hand. 

‘Fuck! Get off, you rat!’ 

I bit down harder, ignoring the taste of dirt and blood on my tongue. However, Niragi twisted his entire body, throwing me to the ground before storming forward. 

Winded and wheezing, I scrabbled to my feet. ‘Niragi, don’t!’ 

‘Watch me,’ He grinned and pointed the gun once more at the pair. At him. 

Please, don’t!

I moved forward, my eyes on the one person I wanted by my side. I was too far to reach him and push him out of the way, and there was no way I could get to the gun in time. 

But I can still shout… 

‘Chi—’

My voice was silenced by the gunshot that ricochetted across Shibuya. Chishiya’s body twisted, the force of the impact knocking him to the ground. Blood splattered across his chest, tainting the white of his hoodie. 

[jadew-08]

Chapter One: Training and Daycare

Sneak Peek

PS: Some lines will be recited from Dragon Ball Super: Superhero

At Piccolo's Place

Next to the pond, Piccolo was watching Pan jump from boulders to trees to strengthen her attacks. As she built up enough, she dashed towards Piccolo. He dodged the first attack but was caught off guard by her next attack. He was shocked and reacted to her attack, which flung her towards a boulder. She said, "Owie." Piccolo asked Pan, "Are you okay?" Pan said happily, "Yeah, I'm fine." Piccolo said, "Alright, let's stop for today." As both sat down on some rocks, Pan took out two bottles of water. Pan handed on to Piccolo and said, "Here." As she smiled, Piccolo grinned at her and accepted the water. As they drank their water, Piccolo says, "You're getting better than Gohan...I mean your dad was about as strong as you at this age." Pan finished her water and asked, "So, will we work on the Ki blasts later on as you promised?"

Piccolo said, "We sure should, now that you have gotten control over your flying." Pan jumped up in happiness. As they were talking, Piccolo sensed Gohan's Ki and thought, "Speaking of Gohan." Pan looked up and saw Gohan. Pan says, "Papa!" As he landed, Pan ran to him and jumped up to hug him. Gohan embraced his daughter and asked her, "How was training today? Did you and Piccolo have fun?" Pan said, "Mm-hm, Piccolo says when I come back from Preschool, we are going to work on Ki blasts like Uncle Goten." Gohan says, "That's good, so why don't you head to preschool?" Pan said, "Okay! Bye Papa, Bye Piccolo, see you after preschool!" As she ran towards town, Gohan and Piccolo waved her off. Piccolo asked Gohan, "So, what are you doing here? I thought you had work to do?" Gohan laughed and started to scratch the back of his head in nervousness. Piccolo noticed Gohan's nervousness and asked, "What is it?" Gohan says, "Well, I wanted to get back into training before I have to get back to work." Piccolo was shocked smirked and said, "Oh really? So, you decide to pick up the slack, huh?"

Gohan says, "Of course! After that battle with the Gammas and Cell Max, I need to stay ready for any threat, but I may not have time to train like I used to when I was a kid. Oh, and before we start this, I was wondering if after this...is it possible you can pick up Pan from Preschool, I kinda have a meeting in five to six hours from now." Gohan laughs nervously. Piccolo growls and thinks, "I knew there'd be a catch to it." Gohan hears the growl and says, "Hey, this helps you too." Piccolo questions him and says, "What do you mean?" Gohan nudges him and wiggles his eyebrows, saying, "Videl tells me everything, especially about how you've got a certain crush on Pan's teacher." Piccolo blushes and shouts at Gohan, "That's ridiculous! Videl and you have such child-like imaginations." Gohan says, "Oh, come on, Piccolo. You can't fool me after the Halloween party thing, I know 100% you've got a certain feeling about Mrs. Janet."

Piccolo thinks about how Videl and Pan first introduced him to Janet. Pan said, "If you know him better, I'm sure you'll want to marry him." Piccolo thinks, "If anyone makes her say things like that, I fear what is said in their home." Then, as we leave, Videl and her speculations about a human being being attracted to me are ludicrous!" But Piccolo ponders his mind about it. He is reminded about what was said and occurred on Halloween night.

Flashback

"In the booth, the photographer says, "That's a wonderful picture. Now, could you do one more where it looks like you are about to bite her wrist?" Janet blushes and then is shocked by Piccolo's action and does the pose. The photographer said, "Perfect! You two make a beautiful couple." Both stare at each other, shocked, and then look away from each other." After the flashback ends, Piccolo starts feeling warm all over. He blushes and growls. Unknown to Piccolo, Gohan keeps calling his name, "Piccolo? Piccolo!" Piccolo shook himself and said, "You and your wife are foolish. Besides, what makes you think she feels the same?"

Gohan says, "Huh, you make a good point. How about this, if I win three sparring fights out of 5, you have to ask Janet how she feels about you and if she agrees she likes you, you have to take her on a date. If I lose, I will leave you alone on the subject, indefinitely. Deal?" Piccolo smirks then shakes Gohan's hand and says, "You'll regret that deal." Gohan says, 'We'll see."

At Preschool

Janet waits outside of her classroom for her students. She was in a very good mood, especially since her class consisted of such sweet children. Janet called attendance for all twelve of her students, which consisted of Kaito, Ryo, Akon, Meena, Rin, London, the twins; Tora and Jinora, Nala, Markle, Shima, and Pan. But as all the kids ran up to Miss Janet, Pan flew towards the class and said, "Hi, Miss Janet. Coming in for a landing!" Janet waves up to her and says, "Be careful, dear." As she landed, Pan ran towards her friends and said, "I'm here." Janet smiles and thinks, "Always a ball of sunshine." Janet says, "Alright, since we all are here and accounted for, who wants to start painting for the last day of school for summer?" All the kids started to shout, "Me!! Oh, me!! No, me!" Janet giggles and says as she ushers the kids in, "Well, put on your aprons and select a canvas, and let's start painting, but before we start, what do we do first?" Everyone says, "Wash our hands and put on goggles!" Janet says, "That's right. Let's go, everyone.

Meanwhile, during training

Piccolo has won most of the battles, while Gohan has only won two. Piccolo says out of breath a little, "You might as well give, Gohan. You're not in the same shape you used to be in when you were a kid." As Piccolo floats in the air with his arms crossed, Gohan emerges from a boulder and floats up. Gohan breathes out heavily and says, "Oh no, I'm not done yet. If I can handle training like this, how am I going to take on more threats? Come on, Piccolo. Give me all you've got." Gohan thinks to himself, "Even if I wanted to stop, I promised Videl I'd get Piccolo to talk to Janet again. Another thing is, if I were to give up now, I'd probably prove Piccolo right that I've gotten weaker. I have to think, what attack should I use? Piccolo says to be crafty but forceful as well.... but wait! I think I have an idea, but Piccolo's going to kill me if this works. Well...here goes nothing."

Gohan says, "Alright, Piccolo, I'm ready!" Piccolo smirks then disappears. As Gohan stays calm and tries to feel out his energy, he thinks, "Piccolo tends to use my blind spot as my weakness, so he would be.....here!" As Gohan dashes towards a cloud and kicks up, he comes close to grazing Piccolo's face. Piccolo smirks then wipes to scratch from his cheek and says, "Not bad, but not good enough!" He hits Gohan with a ki blast into a boulder. As Gohan tries to get back up, he sees a barrage of blasts come his way. He freaks out and starts running from the blasts. Gohan thinks, "He is kicking up the training more today. Either he's training me harder because of how I acted during the battle with the Gammas, or he is nervous about Janet. Well, either way, I have to do this for his sake and Videl's. Forgive me after this, Piccolo." As Gohan heads back into the air, He looks around for Piccolo. Gohan says, "Where did he go?" Piccolo appears behind him and says, "You're still too soft!" As he tries to punch Gohan, he punches Gohan's afterimage. Piccolo says, "What!" He looks around for Gohan. Before he can react, Gohan says, "Take this! SOLAR FLARE!" As Piccolo looks towards Gohan, his vision gets caught up in the Flare.

As Gohan flies away to get a bit of distance, he turns into his beast transformation. As Piccolo's vision slightly comes back, Gohan zooms towards him and shoots him with a special beam cannon. Piccolo is hit by the blast and is pushed back through several boulders, landing him on the ground. Piccolo groans and tries to get up. Gohan says, hovering over him in the sky, "Oh! Would you look at that? I've got to get to that meeting. Oh, also, you have to go and pick up Pan from Preschool. Bye, Piccolo!!" As he flew off in a hurry, Piccolo shouted out, "Gohan!!!!!!" Piccolo grumbles and breathes out and heads over to his house. He goes inside, gets a Senzu bean, and eats it. Piccolo growls and says, "What a cheap shot! When I see him again, I'm going to beat him within an inch of his life!" As Piccolo floats up to his throne room, he sits down on his throne, takes on his phone, and looks at a picture of him, Pan, and Janet on Easter. (Which can be seen when you start the story)

Piccolo sighed and said, "Well, I lost. Hopefully, I can ask her, and why I feel like this about her. Maybe Videl is right, but I've never felt this way. For a long time, I have always felt abandoned or alone ever since I've lived on earth. Until, I was shown kindness by my former enemy, Goku, and then was shown friendship by his son, Gohan. As a Namekian, I've never felt this, but humans can have this feeling all the time." Piccolo sits on his throne and groans. Piccolo's body starts to warm up, so he decides to submerge himself in the water. As he swims, all he can imagine is Janet's blushing face and her remark when it was his first time picking up Pan from Preschool. Remembering Janet saying, "Not to worry! My students are very dear to me! I wouldn't leave her alone; I'd have waited until you arrived." At that moment, Piccolo remembered how lonely he was as a kid waiting for his family to come back and take him back to their home planet. As he gets out of the pond, he thinks, "What could she find attractive about me?"

In the afternoon

Preschool was over for the summer. As most students left with their parents, Pan and Janet waited for Pan's parents. Pan puts her head down, Janet says, "Cheer up, Pan. I'm sure they are on their way." As Janet says that, they both look up and see a person come towards the school. Pan gets happy and says, "Look, it's Piccolo." Janet smiles. As he lands in front of them, Pan jumps into Piccolo's arms. Janet walks over to them and says, "Hello, Mr. Piccolo. Thank you for coming. Now, Pan, you have a great summer vacation, okay?" Pan said, "Yes ma'am!" As Janet is about to walk away, Piccolo clears his throat and says, "Um, Janet? There is something I need to ask you." Janet turns to him and says, "What is it that you need to ask me, Piccolo?" Piccolo starts to sweat and says, "I was wondering if...maybe...you would like to go on a date with me? Just to get to know each other well."

Janet was taken aback by his words. Pan starts to smile. Janet says, "Of course, just text me where we will go. I'm sure we will enjoy each other's company." Piccolo blushes and says, "Oh look, a plane passing by." As Janet looks up, he takes off. Pan says as they fly off, "Sorry, Miss Janet. Piccolo is still too shy." Piccolo says, "Pan!" Janet says, "It's okay! Be careful, you two!" Janet waved them off with a smile while on the inside she was excited about what Piccolo said.

Once Piccolo got to Gohan's home, he told Gohan and Videl everything. Videl passed out while Gohan smiled like a cat. Pan says, "So, does that mean Miss Janet is going to be Piccolo's girlfriend?"

Only time will tell.......

Credit to art and some moments in the story goes to:

@dbzsenpai @amartbee @yashie.world (Via Instagram)

PS: If you don't like this ship, please don't bring negativity into the comments.

[kazorashi]

New Year

Summary: The holiday is called “Happy New Year!” but for 14 year old Mirabel, it’s just another year.

.

She looks on with longing and an ache that seems to have settled itself in her heart at a young age. Everyone is at their house, in their Casita, having fun, sharing laughs, just being in the moment. Mirabel wishes that was her.

She has always felt off with her family, her friends, her community. She’s always felt like an outsider who, despite all the time she’s spent around everyone, could never fully grasp that meaningful existence in their lives. In someone else’s life. In her own. How was it possible to know everyone so well, only for them to not know you in return? To not make the effort to try to? Always keeping her around but at an arm’s length.

From up above on the 2nd floor, Mirabel turns her attention to her abuela. She’s near the entry way to their kitchen, laughing with most of her other grandchildren so freely and open with them. The sight of them really stung the tiny, fragile heart Mirabel has worked so hard to protect all these years alone. She can’t remember a time when her abuela last showed her that expression.

Ache.

‘It doesn’t hurt.’ Mirabel tells herself, sucking in a deep breath, pushing pass the resistance her throat makes with how tight it feels inside. She tries to smile, but it turns wobbly at best. From the ceiling, Isabela twirls and spins on her vines, scattering different kinds of flowers onto everyone. A sweet scent fills the whole house and the crowd below erupts into cheer.

“Our angel! Our angel!” Félix, her favorite uncle, repeats the mantra with an energetic clap. Pepa’s not far behind Isabela, who decides to add a little rainbows above the children’s heads. Mirabel smiles at their efforts before looking down at her hands.

Small, pudgy, not worth as much.

Closing them, Mirabel lets out a long breath and walks to the closest pillar that supports their house. “Hola Casita.” Mirabel smiles warmly at the house. “I want to see the stars, can you let me up, please?” She asks, sure to mask the little void in her heart that just grows the longer she looks at everyone. Tiles dance around her feet in a worried tone. “I’m fine, just tired. That’s all.” She assures the house.

Casita is silent for a moment before shifting itself a staircase from its walls, allowing Mirabel the safety to reach the top of their roof. It’s like this every year. They’re about to start the fireworks soon and Mirabel always climbs up top to watch it by herself.

The last time she tried to watch the fireworks with everyone, she was 9 years old and was pushed into the background. The only proof of her being there was in the black curl that stuck out in a funny way that day when the family picture came out. The humiliation from back then burned her even now.

Hoisting herself up, Mirabel makes herself comfortable on the tiles, dusting off her skirt. It was quieter up here, definitely less busy and the sounds of people toned down to just a murmur. For the first time, Mirabel felt like she was able to breathe properly. 

It hadn’t occurred to her that she had difficulty breathing before now. The tightening feeling in her throat disappeared and Mirabel’s heart felt lighter. She didn’t like it. Didn’t want to acknowledge that she got so used to being alone with a crowded room that it became normal to her.

‘It shouldn’t be like that, right?’ Thinks Mirabel to herself, as she looks up to the moon, waiting. ‘I shouldn’t feel like this around everyone?’ Even at 14 years old, even she knew that much. But how to go about it?

She wasn’t sure. It’s been that way almost her whole life.

“FIVE!”

Someone must have started a countdown because the sound startles Mirabel. 

“FOUR!”

Straightening herself, Mirabel sees that her vision is blurry. Her glasses must be dirty.

“THREE!”

She takes them off and uses her skirt to wipe them before putting them back on.

“TWO!”

To her wonderment, they’re still blurry. She takes them off and notices her vision is the same. It’s not the glasses.

“ONE!”

It’s her.

“ZERO!”

She’s crying.

“HAPPY NEW YEARS!” Everyone from below shouts happily. Their cheering and laughter reaching all the way up to Mirabel’s ears, as if she was down there with them, part of them. The difference is that she’s not with them.

She’s by herself.

Her throat tightens, as does the ache in her heart. Tears spill from her eyes and Mirabel brings her knees close to her chest, laying her head in her skirt. The difference is that she’s on the outside looking in, always has been. The difference is that being with everyone else makes her heart shake. The difference is that while it’s a Happy New Year for all of them...

“...sniffs... Ueee.... Haaa...” Mirabel wipes at her eyes. “Bwahh...!”

It’s just another year for her.

[therandomavenger]

Congratulations I'm Sorry

As the year ends, I find myself in a time of transition.

Some things are good. Great, even. On December 5th, which was the first anniversary of our first date, my boyfriend, Jimmy, and I had brunch at the same place we’d first met a year ago. He’d invited my mom and dad to join us. And after we’d eaten, he asked me to marry him. I said yes, of course. He was crying. I was crying. My mom was crying. It was a whole thing. So, now we’re planning a wedding, which we are thinking will be next fall.

It's been a long road to get here. Before a couple of years ago, I had never pictured myself in an actual relationship with a man, much less marrying one. It’s a complicated issue. I’ve been gay my entire life, but that was just physical, I thought. Also, I didn’t have a lot of examples either in media or my own life of happy gay couples. It never even occurred to me that it was possible. Over the course of the last couple of years, and especially since my previous marriage ended, I did imagine it. Dreamed of it, even. I spent four years on the dating apps, and let me tell you that was rough. I got ghosted so many times you wouldn’t even believe it. If not outright rejected. Also catfished, which was fun.

But I don’t regret any of that because it was how I ultimately found Jimmy. From the beginning, I knew that he was different. He texted back, for one thing. We took our relationship slow (although I did introduce him to my family after two weeks, which I have to admit was not slow). We got to know each other over time, neither of us pushing the other into anything we weren’t ready for. On March 3rd, I realized that I’d fallen in love with him. I didn’t tell him that for another couple of months because it was, frankly, none of his business. In April he moved in with me and we made plans to buy my house together. He gave me a promise ring in June. And we’ve been low-key planning our ‘hypothetical’ wedding ever since. So, when he asked me to marry him, I had only one response. ‘It would be the greatest honor of my life.’ And I mean that. I love him and I’m thrilled to be his, and that he is mine. I never thought I could have this. The fact that it’s happening at 50 is another surprise, but I’ll take it.

My parents and my kids love him, as do my grandkids, so that makes things easier. We’re not young, by any means, but we have a lot of good years in front of us, and it makes me happy knowing that I’m going to be spending them with him. I’m excited to get married, yes, but I’m more excited about the person I get to marry. I think that’s a good sign.

Also this month, I decided to go back to school. Our local community college offers a digital art and design certificate that can be completed in two semesters. It entails a great many things, including graphic design, and I would like to be able to do my own formatting and design work, as well as design my own book covers. If I get good at it, maybe I can even do it for other people. We’ll see how far my talents take me. So, next semester I will be taking between 11 and 14 units, depending on how some things shake out. This led me to a realization about some other things.

I have worked at the Cottonwood Community Library as a volunteer since 2009. It gave me a safe place to put myself black together after my former career fell apart, and I will always be grateful for that. Now, volunteering at the library is not like volunteering at other organizations. Volunteers are the staff. The only one who gets paid is the director. I’m not really certain that’s a good business model, but it is a community library, receiving no state or county money. So, really, it’s the only way they can run.

But I’ve long started to feel like my time at the library was coming to a close. I’m not interested in the same type of books our patrons are interested in, which is fine, but it made me feel like I just really wasn’t in sync with the people I was serving. Also, the library isn’t used by very many people. We would consider ourselves very busy if we had 12 people in a three-hour shift. So, I l had the sense I wasn’t really providing a vital community service. And while it is true that I will not be in school on Saturdays, and could conceivably still work my weekly shift, I feel that I’m going to need Saturday as a writing day. So, I told the director I needed a leave of absence while I was in school.

This was not well received. It got ugly. So, I quit effective immediately. They even called the police to make sure I returned my keys. It would have been nice if the people I had been working with would have thanked me for my fourteen years of service and wished me well in my new endeavor, but I guess that was too much to ask for.

I’m a little sad about the way things ended, but I am not sad that they ended. I was ready to do something else. I put a lot of time and energy into that place over the years. I thought it was appreciated, but I guess it really wasn’t, which is a little hard to deal with. But that’s just how things are sometimes. I’m not sure how much longer the library will keep going. Fundraising has been a problem as has recruiting and retaining volunteers. I wonder why. I think the community could be doing a lot more to support it if they really value it, but it is no longer any of my concern. I do wish them well, however. They’ll have to find someone else to call when the network goes down.

So, as 2023 winds down and I get ready for 2024, I’m looking forward to new challenges. I still plan on writing 30,000 words a month and I have my schedule set to do this. I don’t want to fall behind on my books. But another friend has cautioned me that I shouldn’t be too hard on myself if I find my transition back into being a full-time student a more difficult one than I am imagining. We’ll see. I should be done with the program next December if all goes well. I’m really looking forward to learning a new set of skills.

So right now, I’m happy about the future and a little sad about the way some things have ended. I think that adequately describes life. Congratulations I’m sorry. It’s better than a lot of the alternatives.

[husbandohunter]

A Small Predicament [Baby Genshin x Reader]

Characters: Scaramouche, Diluc, Kaeya, Childe, Xiao, Zhongli, Albedo

Synopsis: Cursed for a week, the boys either have to live with it or find a cure as soon as possible. You on the otherhand hoped otherwise.

(A/n): It only takes ONE glance for me to start having ideas. It was twelve in the morning yall, enjoy~

Oh here's part 2

--------

Scaramouche

• "Oh you shrank? I couldn't tell-"

• Threatens that he will murder you to pieces and burn your remains but his voice was so squeaky and high pitched (voice crack) that you couldn't help but burst into a tearful laughter. 

• Its payback time  Bully him, take his hat and hover it above his head. Truthfully, without his hat Scaramouche looks like a little schoolboy. Overall less intimidating.

• Tries glaring. Cute. He's really bratty as a kid, sitting on a high chair (which you had to help him get on) and demanding his servants to do his bidding. In reality, his personality never changed. You realized that even as a grown up he still acts like this (bratty kid in a grown man body).

• The curse made his week a living hell. Signora had the audacity to pull his ear when he misbehaves. Childe constantly messes with his hair while giving head pats and the WORST of all, pinching his cheeks. Scaramouche never wanted to commit arson so bad in his life.

• Eventually finds a cure so he doesn't have to deal with it anymore and orders everyone to never speak of it again. Though, he's plotting how he'll get revenge on everyone who made fun of him using the very same curse (You better run).

~~x~~

Diluc

• "Oh…Oh my! Diluc you're just so cute!" 

• Diluc grimaces as you glomp him in this state. How can you help it? With his head so small it makes his hair all the more fluffier! His coat no longer fits him to the point the sleeves had made past his fingertips. He tried wielding his claymore again, only to lose balance and fall flat onto his bum

• (insert kid voice "Retribution!") Did I mention the babyface?

• Diluc tries to act as if everything was normal, acting like the Darknight hero and Mondstadt's Tycoon but fun-sized. He couldn't. There was no way people would take him seriously in business meetings. Same with fighting abyss mages, his smaller form was too much of a disadvantage. Thus you ended up doing most of his paperwork.

• One time you caught him sitting on the floor couldn't reach his office desk  while reading away the various books for a cure. It was three in the morning. You told him it was way past his bedtime and he argues saying when did he ever have a curfew schedule. In the end you managed to convince him and he begrudgingly obliges.

�� The type to NOT ask for help even when it's obvious that he really needs it. Before he was the one who helped you reach things from the top shelves, oh how the tables have turned. He avoids Kaeya like a plague unless he was in it for another round of funny remarks. When he wanted to go out and get some fresh air, you insisted on accompanying him. Worst mistake in his life. A travelling merchant bumps into you and commented that you had a very cute son. Diluc was mortified.

• The day ended up with him sulking in his room. Although it was tempting, you resisted from cooing over his adorable form after days of treating him like a child. It wasn't because you were teasing him, Diluc just works so hard that you wanted to spoil him a bit. At least he could still play a game of chess with you.

• When things went back to normal, Diluc ensures that you will NOT see him as your son.

~~x~~

Kaeya

• "Well look who it is, my little Prince Kaeya~"

• Tries really hard not be bothered by it at all. Kaeya still maintains his suave facade, throwing in a couple of flirting lines here and there (and forcing his voice to go a few octaves too low in which puberty has yet to occur HA). Though no matter what approach, he couldn't ignore the sparkling mischievious glint in your eye. You were obviously not taking him seriously.

• Things couldn't get any worse. He lost his masculine physique and boob window, he wasn't able to go to certain places without supervision. But the worst thing of all was that he was underaged. Kaeya hated the fact he couldn't drink anymore, he even insisted you to sneak him a few bottles (which you refused) and had to settle with plain beverages such as fruit juice (what an insult). He was never really grounded since his childhood days but he certainly felt like he was grounded now. 

• Kaeya still kisses you on the lips whether you like it or not. If you ask him to sit on your lap, he will find a way to turn the position into his favour such as resting his face between your breasts. You're not gonna treat him like a kid, nuh-uh, he actively avoids it.

• Since his personality still remains, Kaeya is a naughty child. He will use his innocent appearance to sway people (even you) to get what he wants. That was how he was able to take a sip of the wine he stole somewhere (he wouldn't tell you). Diluc scolded him heavily and threatened to ban him from drinking from his Tavern for a week (they ended up arguing, Kaeya being the passive aggressive little shit he is).

• He was extremely relieved to return back to his normal form again. He has so much to catch up (specifically his bedtime activities with you *wink wonk*)

~~x~~

Child(e)

• "Hmmm to be honest, this actually suits you very much."

• Unlike the other boys, Childe was completely okay with it. Turns out that YOU were the one who was not going to be okay. If you thought taking care of Teucer was energy-draining then expect Childe to take that tenfold and beyond.

• You've officially became his full-time babysitter who is in desperate need of a raise (and rest). You can't take your eyes off of him and archons forbid that he will ever meet Klee. One point he'll be running ahead by your side and the next you'll find him getting himself in a 1vs7 situation with some shady looking treasure hoarders. Childe genuinely thinks he could take them on but the curse downgraded his abilities. You carried him and barely made out of it alive. (This made you ponder whether the best solution would be to strap him against a chair for the time being…)

• Childe being a child will eat all the candies and ice cream he pleases. You wonder if the curse also turned him a few years back or was it that he acts like this simply because he wanted to (it was the latter). He loves being spoiled, spoiled by you! Childe demands your full attention, spoon-feeding his meals, back rubs and head pats. Yep, he's definitely doing this on purpose.

• Did he just call you 'mommy'? (Childe has mommy kink confirmed).  He has so much energy that it was exhausting, you literally had to drag him away from what ever he was doing in order to get him to bed. "No Childe, your sleeping time is 9p.m stop whining." He bargained that he'll sleep if you sleep beside him (you didn't get any sleep. You knew what he was planning. In the end, you tried to make sure he didn't sneak out behind your back.)

• Finally you were able to get out of that hell-hole. Childe promised to make it up to you, you deserve it after all~

~~x~~

Small (aka Xiao)

• "Did you know in the Liyuean language, Xiao translates to small?" You didn't say that out loud. Not when he's this angry (this angy)

• He just stands there, crossing his arms and grumbling. You were hesitant to touch him in case he might hiss at you. Xiao has always been short, maybe an inch taller than you, but seeing him like this made you think 'my almighty yaksha can't be this cute♡'

• He gets mad when you no longer call his name for help. How could you? He's just so precious~ Xiao makes it clear that no matter what form he takes, it doesn't make him weak ("Adepti and you mortals are nothing alike." Or so he says but you could tell he wasn't running as fast as he used to because…small legs). You may not comment on it aloud but he can tell just by the look on your face and it irritates him.

• Also the type to not ask for help but worse. Xiao is an agressive little kid, he seems as if he'll be willing to bite someone's finger off if they try to pet him (He gives strong cat vibes, so thats understandable). His spear was too big for him to wield so he often has to put it away or else he might knock someone over with it. Xiao hates being short so you'll be hearing him complain alot.

• Since he was an adepti, he didn't need to sleep however, the curse must have brought down his power by a significant amount to the point you DID catch him napping. You almost swooned out loud just by taking a glance upon his face. For once he didn't wear his signature grumpy look. Xiao appears like a normal child, one full of innocence. His snoring was soft and breathly but that just meant he was deep asleep. (You wished to take a picture). 

• Of course, everything had to come to an end (much to your disappointment), he still complains about the incident to this day.

~~x~~

Zhongli

• How is it possible for a baby to still look so handsome? (Must be his godly abilities)

• Zhongli is unfazed by this 'curse' since his past lives have already taken many forms. Though for some reason whenever he walks down the streets of Liyue, young girls, mothers, ladies all come him was and start complimenting him and gushing over him (he was suffocating). They'd squeeze him tight or squish his cheeks, it only takes once glance before the little girls start blushing and hiding behind their moms.

• Needless to say, despite what form he is in, Zhongli is still able to get free stuff. He got some free candies and some free kites to play with. You had to help him carry his items. Zhongli ends up tripping too much because his tailcoat reached his feet (he decided to just take it off. You had to hold that too). Seems like he can have anyone do things for him in the end HA.

• He still got that drippy voice and you're just like ???? "What on Teyvat Zhongli, you're a kid." This is why you can't see him as one, its nearly impossible.

• Actively avoids Hu Tao and Childe. Once Hu Tao caught sight of him and chased him for hours, he couldn't stay in one spot knowing that she might just pop out of no where. Childe still spoils him, however Zhongli feels irritated by the fact the only things Childe buys him toys (its different when other people do it.)

• Everytime you guys go back strolling through Liyue, you had to hold his hand in case more women come swarming hin again. You swear that at this rate he might get kidnapped because hes just such a beautiful baby.

• Zhongli learned an important lesson after his curse was lifted: no matter how many years he lives throughout  never take a form of a child.

~~x~~

Albedo

• You find him buried beneath a pile of books and had to dig him out before he suffocates.

• Albedo has the cutest eyes, they're big and round full of curiosity and they sparkle too (he has the prettiest eyes out of everyone tbh). He is the only person who is fascinated by this outcome and immediately goes in the wild to test out his new physique. 

• He was always curious why Klee T-poses when she runs so he decided to try it out himself. She was thrilled to find out that she now has a little brother to play with. In the end, Albedo indulges in the games she always wanted to play but couldn't because he was too old: princess dress up tea parties.

• You felt many things when you saw Albedo wearing a frilly gown and a plastic tiara tucked on his head. Deep down you knew regardless of what gender Albedo was still pretty. Klee even had the guts to redo his hair and hardly anyone was able to recognize it was him at all. He has pigtails, PIGTAILS! You made sure to burn that image into the very depths of your mind forever.

• The only advantage was the he was ablw to fit through small spaces, other than that, being small was way too inconvenient. He knocked down a few of his potion bottles which damaged the floor (thankfully not him) because they were lethal (he wonders how Klee was able to not injure herself when using bombs). You carried him and lifted him to alot of places such as trudging through the snow because Albedo would surely fall on his face due to his small form.

• Enough was enough, he only lasted a day with this and decided to just make a potion and put an end to the curse once and for all. 

[bratbutcute]

hi bestie!!!! can you do 1 with ler!jake and lee!marc?? i feel like that might be kinda hard tho, so if it is could you do 8 or 11 with ler!jake and lee!steven??? thank you SO much i love you!!!! mwah

I’m gonna do the first one ‘cause, as you know, I’m a sucker for Lee!Marc 😈 (and I also gave you a bit of ler!Steven cause, why not?)

Ily too soooooooo much, and everybody should check their account bc *chefs kisses* they are amazing 😘😘😘

This is much longer than I intended and I don’t think the other prompts are going to be so long because I’m slowly realising it takes me a TREMENDOUS amount of time to write and I’d like all your requests to be filled as soon as possible.

Also, Marc and the concept of winning is slowly becoming a trend in these requests 😅

Warning: very very intense tickling.

1. “I’d like to see you try.”

Marc liked winning. Actually, Marc was used to winning. Having spent so much time with Steven he had the physical but also strategical advantage and he was never one to shy away from using them to get whatever he wanted or to prove his superiority.

Steven was used to this but still tried to assert himself the way he could. In fact, even if he looked very insecure, Steven knew how smart he was and liked bragging about it. He both loved seeking Marc’s approval and correcting him all the time, especially in front of Layla and, for obvious reasons, Marc hated when this occurred.

So it wasn’t unusual to see the two of them bickering, but in the end they knew Marc would be the winner since, even if he was wrong, all it took was a pinch on Steven’s sides to make him squeal and admit defeat.

That was until Jake entered the picture.

To be honest nobody was used to this new dynamic; the three of them were still a bit unfamiliar with each other and Jake was visibly uncomfortable with sentimental talks and communication in general. But they were starting to loose a bit, and very soon they all realised how stubborn and proud the man was, even more than Marc, but for some reason he decided to use this to help Steven, rather than joining forces with Marc.

Steven soon found out that there could be something more satisfying than seeing Marc struggling in front of Layla, and that was seeing him embarrassed in front of Jake.

He really felt like the youngest sibling of the three. And, Gods, he knew how to play his role.

«Marc I have no clue what you’re talking about.» he faked innocence, hiding his grin by turning around the dining table, walking towards the couch.

He actually knew what he had done. He told Marc a bunch of incorrect facts about a book he promised Layla he would read, but didn’t. Layla let him speak all the way through barely hiding her amusement until Marc started talking about aliens and she burst out laughing so loud that the entire restaurant stopped talking. Marc was so embarrassed that blush could still be seen on his cheeks when he came back home.

«You fucking know what you did man.» he knew that Steven was just having some fun and no harm was really done, but he still made him look bad in front of Layla and that was something he couldn’t stand, and so Steven needed to be taught a lesson.

«If you really wanted your facts straight than you should have read the book.» grinned him matter of factly, sitting on the couch and crossing his feet on the coffee table.

«You little shit.» when Steven opened his eyes Marc was standing right in front of him, a murderous expression on his face. «You better run man, ‘cause when I catch you you’re gonna pay for this.»

Steven was already on his feet when a low voice startled both of them.

«I don’t think so.» Jake materialised from the hall, staring Marc with a straight face.

«This doesn’t concern you, this is between me and Steven.»

«You are wrong.» when Marc turned Jake was much closer than before, standing just a few inches away from him. He winced, not expecting the proximity.

«He made me look like an idiot in front of Layla, and he was full aware of that.» facing Steven he could now see his satisfied smile.

«From what I hear.» he circled the man, watching him like a hunter would if they were standing in front of their prey. Marc suddenly felt nervous, as his heart pounded a bit faster in his chest. «You’re the one who messed up. If Steven outsmarted you, that’s your fault.»

«Ah! You hear him Marc? I outsmarted you! How does it feel to be outsmarted?» Steven gloated, thrilled with the way things were going. Jake glanced at him reproachfully.

«Don’t push it.»

«Sorry.»

«He didn’t outsmart me. He just enjoys it when Layla makes fun of me.»

Steven widely grinned, hiding behind Jake while a small giggle left his mouth.

Marc tensed. «That’s it! I’m gonna kill you.» but before he could attack, Jake tackled him on the floor, face on the carpet and hands trapped under his knees. From what he could see Steven was beaming with amusement.

«Now now.» Marc squirmed, starting to realise what was going to happen «Is that how we talk to Steven?» said man crouched in front of them and tilted his head.

«Is it?» he asked with his innocent accent that was making Marc boil with anger.

«The instant you let me go you’re a dead man.» Jake grinned at the threat, his idea of going “easy” - as easy as he could go with someone - fading in front of his face.

«I’d like to see you try» he positioned his hands on Marc’s ribs, causing him to jump, and leaned next to his ear. His whispering words made the man shiver «Are you going to apologise?»

Marc pondered his choice but, as previously said, he wasn’t used to lose a fight, so instead of backing off he spitted: «Fuck off.»

«Mejor así.»

And Jake attacked.

Marc was tough, it wasn’t as easy as Steven to break, you really had to work your way to extort laughter out of him. But Jake loved a challenge. This wasn’t the first time he tickled Marc, but it usually were just the two of them in a weird and not well defined moment between midnight and the sunrise. A secret moment of bonding where words - something so hard for both of them - felt useless and the two of them sat silently together. But when words did occur, they poured out of their mouth as quickly as alcohol poured in. That’s when tickling would happen, usually as a form of relaxation after realising how much they had shared and wanted to lose tension. Or to be more precise, when Jake could see Marc uncomfortable and did not know any other way to distract him.

Marc’s ribs were very ticklish, they were one of his worst spots and Jake was full aware of that, that’s why they were his first target.

He pinched every rib from the bottom to the top, feeling the muscles tremble under his skin as a grin graced the man’s lips. But Marc was stubborn and he would probably pass out rather than start laughing.

Unless.

«Steven. Tease him.»

Steven blushed at the straightforward question. He knew that Jake did not like to go around and asked exactly what he wanted, but still he didn’t expect it.

«What?»

«You want him to apologise? You have to break him. You want to break him? Tease him.»

«Man what t- the fu-» he gasped as Jake pressed his highest rib, squeezing his eyes and focusing all his attention on his self control.

Steven grinned, accepting Jake’s assignment.

«You don’t look so tough now Mark uh? You’re looking pretty tickled pink» Jake rolled his eyes at the terrible pun and massaged Marc’s top ribs more fiercely now, sure that he would break soon. They all knew that he couldn’t handle Steven’s teases, since they were much more wholesome than Jake could ever think of.

Marc’s smile trembled. He wanted to tell Steven how stupid it was, but he was sure laughter would pour out of his mouth as soon as he opened it so opted for a stern look.

«Oh do not look at me like that. You liked it. Juuuust as much as you like all of this.»

«S-shuh-» he gasped feeling Jake’s hands on his lowest ribs now.

«What do you mean Steve?»

«What I mean is» Steven giggled and sat cross legger in front of Marc’s head, fluttering his fingers on his ears, making him finally break in a fit of loud and boisterous laughter «that Marc enjoys all this love and attention he’s receiving.»

«SHUHUHUT UHUHUHUP DOHOHOHOHONT SAAHHAHAHAHY IHIHIHIHIHIT»

Jake grinned. Now that Marc was laughing he could be a little gentler, so not to get him tired right away and torment him longer.

He readjusted his position on Marc and raised his arms, asking Steven to keep them still.

«I’d like to hear more about this.»

«Nohohoho yohohohu dohohohon’t I sweehehehahahahr Stehehehveehehehn» but Steven was safe - for now - and loved embarrass him.

«Marc loooves when being tickled. Aww look at you soo blushy and cutey.» he cooed strengthening his hold on Marc’s wrists when he felt him struggle more.

«Nohohot trueheheeh»

Jake stared at his victim, analysing his next move. Than he put his hands on Marc’s forearms, happy he was wearing a t-shirt so his skin was very well exposed.

He let his nails scratch the tender skin of his arms, travelling slowly towards his underarms.

Marc exploded in a fit of giggles, drumming his feet on the floor, the sensation of helplessness making him going crazy. Tingles ran across his arms making him shiver.

When Jake reached his elbows he squealed «OHOHOHOH MYHYHYYY GOHOHOHOD» he hiccuped squeezing his eyes. The worst part was that he really was loving this. He wasn’t even trying hard to escape, he was just letting the feeling of Jake’s finger sink in his skin. He knew that soon he would reach his underarms and he could already feel him there.

«Ohoho my Gohohod Marc are you okay?» Steven checked him with a loving expression on his face.

«You look like a red balloon ready to pop.»

«SUHUHUUUT UHUHUHUHUP» he yelled in embarrassment.

Jake sighed at Marc’s bad behaviour and decided to hit his worst spot right away, bored by the building up.

When his fingers touched Marc’s underarms he screamed, startling Steven who lost his grip. It took Marc a minute to realise he could lower his arms, but when he tried to, Steven’s hands were again on his wrists, now struggling to keep him still.

«LEHEHEHEHEHEHT MEHEHEHEHEH GOHOHOHO» he snorted and pulled his hands again, making Steven huff.

«Stop moving so much we’re truing to tickle you here.» Marc bursted out laughing again, stronger, squirming under them both.

Jake got an idea. He gestured at Steven to let him go and gave him more space to move.

Marc immediately curled up in a fetal position giggling and hiding himself, gasping air very similarly to Gus in his fish tank.

«Now, you can choose to apologise to Steven. Or we can keep going. The choice is on you.»

Jake despite what it might look like was a very calm person, almost meticulous in everything he did. He had strategies forming in his head every second of his life and knew his opponent’s weaknesses. And Marc was a proud man.

«Nehehehvehehehehr.» a proud man who was actually enjoying this. He made a note in his head to use this newfound information.

«Well Marc, than I think you’re leaving us no choice other than continue tickling you.» he grabbed his sides and, while squeezing them, he made Marc sit between his legs.

«Nohoho»

«Aww, but you like it so much!» Marc tried launching himself towards Steven, but was quickly stopped by Jakes hands that travelled from his sides to his underarms.

«Please behave. You don’t want to know what happens if you don’t.» even Steven shivered at his words.

«Now, Steven could you please have the honour?»

Marc shook his head and tried curling himself, but Steven sat on his legs, exposing his upper body in a very vulnerable way. Jake caught his hands and held them behind Marc’s back, making him completely helpless.

«Stehehevehehehn. Dohohont dohohoho thihis.» Steven tilted his head and grinned.

«You could have read that stupid book.» and he scribbled his fingers on his belly, making Marc giggle so softly that even Jake’s heart melted a bit.

Only a bit though. He still had a mission. «Steven you have to do more than that if you want him to learn his lesson.»

Steven thought about it and then he lit up, making Marc nervous. «I know what to do!»

He grinned and pulled Marc’s body a little closer, so that he was leaning a bit and his belly was stretched. His t-shirt rose up a bit and Marc realised what was about to happen.

«DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE STEVEN IHIHIHIHIHIHI-» Jake scribbled his ribs with one hand.

«Steven show me please.»

Steven exposed Marc’s stomach removing the fabric from his skin and grinned. «You alway do this to me. I wonder how it will work against you.»

And he blew a raspberry on his navel, making Marc laugh again, loud and freely. The feeling so strong he was loosing his breath.

After a couple of raspberries Jake could feel Marc ‘s laughter tired, but he knew he needed just something else to finally make him admit defeat.

«You know what Steven? I think Marc does this to you because your belly is very ticklish.» Steven blushed and squirmed a bit in his place.

«But I think Marc is more ticklish somewhere else.»

«Nohohoho guhuhuys.» he chuckled low, his voice a bit hoarse by all the laughing.

«I’m gonna take it from here.» he raised one of Marc’s hands, letting go of the other: he knew Marc couldn’t escape him anyway. He then made him lean a bit more on one side, exposing the other.

While raising his shirt to expose his ribs Marc started shouting incoherent words between fits of laughter.

«NONONO IHIHI- LEHEHET MEHEHE GOHO.»

«Are you apologising?» Marc only stared at him. Jake could see his eyes watery and shining. He guessed this would be the moment he’d apologise, but Steven was right, this was something he liked and enjoyed.

Well better give him what he wanted then.

«Okay»

Steven screamed under his hold, as he blew a massive raspberry on his ribs, right on his highest one, very close to his underarm. He squirmed and tried to push him away with his other arm but he could not escape. So he threw his head back and let a steam of tired and happy laugh leave his body.

Jake blew another one and then nibbled at the place - something he had never done but soon realised he was very good at since Marc started snorting. And not just once. Every few seconds a snort would escape Marc’s control making him blush even harder.

Marc lost all his strength and collapsed on Jake’s body, letting himself be tickled without trying to stop it. Jake soon realised that he was finally exhausted and retreated, leaving only one hand on his exposed side. The touch made Marc jerk.

«Are you sorry?»

Marc nodded «Yehehehes» he whispered between giggles.

«Now tell us who the winner of this argument is.»

«Yohoh-youhu, yohou ahahareheh thehe winnehehr.»

«Wrong answer. I wasn’t part of your argument amigo.» he scribbled on the exposed underarm and Marc was now sure he was going mad. He snorted again.

«WhahahAHAHAHAT.»

«He’s talking about me mate.» Steven sweetly said, a bit concernedabout Marc’s state as Jake’s fingers scratched at his armpit without relenting.

«OHOHOHMYHY GOHOAHAHAD PLEHEHEHAHAHAHSEHEHE IM SOHOHORRYHYHYHY STEHEHEHEEHEVEHEHEHEN YOHOHOHU WHEHEHEHRHEHEHE RIGHT YOHOHOUHUHU WIHIHIHIN JUHUHUHUST STOHOHOPSTOHOHP.»

Jake grinned and let Marc go. The man curled up again and wheezed, trying to shake away the feeling, so overwhelmed that when Steven caressed his head he squealed.

«Mate that was brutal.»

Jake raised his eyebrows «You think so?»

Steven decided that it was better to shut up and to take care of Marc, whose condition were very poor.

«Ihihihim nehehehev ahahaskihihihing yohohou ahahanything ahahagahahaihin.»

Both Jake and Steven laughed at that.

«Next time read.» Steven declared chortling.

«And don’t be a sore loser.» Jake intimidatingly said, wiggling his fingers in the air.

Marc could not stop giggling for the next fifteen minutes.

[parkersroses]

1:32 AM | harry styles.

summary: a series of moments in yours and Harry’s life together that seemed to occur around 1:32 AM.

pairing: harry styles x fem!reader

word count: 3.6k words

warning(s): nothing but fluff with a bit of husband!/dad!harry

a/n: (disclaimer: gif is not mine and belongs to @harryisart) hope y’all like this! i thought it was a cute concept. reblogs/feedbacks are very much appreciated <3

It was half past midnight.

You couldn’t sleep and it was practically driving you insane. You blame yourself for having a last minute coffee before bed. So stupid, you thought.

You tossed and turned in bed, drank some water, even tried counting sheeps; but to no avail, you could not get a wink of sleep. You sighed, thinking of ways to get yourself to sleep; you were lucky that tomorrow - well, today - was Saturday. 

You grabbed your phone from your nightstand, groaning as the bright light from the screen hurt your eyes. You scrolled through your contacts to find the number you were looking for. Harry.

You stared at the contact photo he personally set, your thumb hovering on the call button. You remembered the day you took the picture. It was the both of you lying on the hammock he had at his house. You were all cuddled up and he thought it would make a great picture. So, he snapped a few pictures, some of them which you both pretended to be asleep for the joke of it. 

You smiled at the memory but remembered why you wanted to call him. You hit the call button and waited for his response. 

You heard the line being picked up. “Hello?” you heard Harry say, his voice hoarse and deep from the sleep he had woken up to. 

“Hi, Harry,” you said softly, a sheepish grin on your face appeared. Harry chuckled on the phone. “‘Ello, love. Any reason you woke me up at nearly one in the morning?”

You buried your face in your pillow in embarrassment, grateful how he couldn’t see you right now. “Couldn’t sleep. Was wondering if you could help tired me out or somethin’,” you said sheepishly. 

Harry laughed at this. His girlfriend, his silly, lovely, and beautiful girlfriend, waking him up just to ask for sleeping advice. If he was being honest, he actually liked the fact that she called him. It gave him the excuse to go visit and cuddle with her. At this point, he should’ve just asked her to move in with him. 

“Hmm,” he hummed as he got up to grab a shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

“Hmm?” He heard you copied back. 

“I can think of ways to tire you out, love,” he said teasingly, and he could imagine the blush on your face. “Harry,” you whined, prolonging the ‘Y’. He chuckled at her. “What? I’m just saying I got a lot of options,” he said innocently as he grabbed the keys. 

Your eyebrows furrowed at the sound of keys being picked up. “Wait, what are you doing, H?” you asked as you sat up on the bed. “On my way to tire you out, love,” he said casually as he locked his door. 

“Harry, no. You don’t have to come over. Just stay at home, and I don’t know, talk me to sleep or something?” you said questionably. You didn’t actually think he would get up and walk out the door just to visit you because you couldn’t sleep. “Where’s the fun in not visiting my girlfriend in the middle of the night? Besides, I might stopped by somewhere to buy some snacks,”

“Harry, I don’t think-,” You’re cut off by the sound of his car starting.

“Sorry, love. Engine’s too loud. See you in a bit. Bye!” he said quickly, prolonging his ‘bye’ as he hung up. You stared at your phone in disbelief, scoffing at Harry’s childish behaviour as you put your phone on the nightstand. 

You might as well wait for your loving boyfriend to come help you sleep. 

“You know you didn’t have to come over,” you said as you sat by the island, watching Harry put away the bags of snacks he managed to buy. He scoffed in response. “And what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t attend to my girlfriend’s call for help?” he said dramatically. 

He walked over and gave you a gentle kiss on the forehead as he hugged you. You sighed happily into his chest as you breathed in his faint cologne. “So, what are we going to do?” You asked, your voice muffled against his shirt. 

He unwrapped his arms and proceeded to pull you with him to your room. “We’re going to watch The Notebook because you tend to fall asleep halfway through the film, nearly every time,” he said sarcastically. You were about to object that statement but realised that he did have a point. “Hmm, fair point,” you said, sitting on your bed as he set up the movie. 

“Scoot over, bubs,” he said as he walked over to the other side of your bed. You cuddle on his side as the movie started to play. 

“Harry,” you said, looking up to his face. “Hmm?” he hummed as he looked at you. 

“I love you,” you said, feeling a little blush forming on your cheeks. It was the first time you said those words to him, nevertheless, you couldn’t be more sure of loving him. Harry smiled at you, his dimple making an appearance. “I love you, too,” he said, leaning down to give you a gentle kiss. 

And he was right. Nearly halfway through the movie, you already sound asleep. He paused the movie and switched off the television as he adjusted your position on the bed. 

It was 1:32 AM when you both fell asleep together. 

❊

You were sitting on the kitchen floor with Harry. Boxes of plates, cups and other kitchen appliances surrounded you. Some were filled with porcelain and China dishes that you might not even use and instead just put them on display.

You both finally did it. You finally moved in together. It did take a lot of Harry convincing you about it, but with his impossibly good way of charming you, you managed to give in. 

You found a moderate-sized house, nothing too big and fancy but nothing too small either. The thing that sold you the most was the amazing backyard, complete with a pool and large space for outdoor activities. It was perfect to the both of you. 

You were still in the process of putting everything in place. The bedroom was the first to get done, mainly because Harry was excited to make love to you as many times in your new home. It felt really good to call it that.

It was already late, nearly one. You were tired to say the least but you wanted to put things in their places as much as possible because you couldn’t stand to bump into another box. Harry let out a big yawn as he put away the last dishes of the current box. 

“Close your mouth, bubs,” you said, not looking up at him as you started to open another box. “Y/N, maybe we should take a break,” he said as he attempted to pull the box away from you. You pouted at him. “There’s still so many things to put away, though,” you whined a bit.

Harry chuckled as he cupped your face in his large hands, the coolness of his rings sending shivers up your spine. “And we can do them in the morning or the afternoon. We just moved here 3 days ago. We got time, there’s no rush,” he said softly. 

You sighed but you knew he was right. You were beginning to feel tired too and sleeping sounded heavenly at the moment. You glanced outside the glass sliding door and an idea popped into your head. 

“Hey, wanna go swimming?” you asked excitedly. Harry’s eyes widened at this and let out a small laugh. “Love, it’s nearly one. We should get some sleep, don’t ya think?” 

“Yeah, but I really wanna go swimming. In our pool,” you said and Harry knew he would never get tired of hearing that. Their pool, their bed, their couch; their home. 

He sighed, knowing he couldn’t just deny this innocent request of yours and smiled at you. “Fine, let’s go change,” he said. 

You smiled cheekily and stood up. “Who said anything about changing?” 

You quickly rushed out the back door, taking Harry by surprise as he hurried after you. You could imagine his shock as he saw you stripping out of your clothes, down into nothing. 

Fuck, he thought as he was entranced by your beautiful body. 

“Are you coming?” you called out to him and smirked as you jumped into the cool water. Harry broke out of his trance and quickly undressed so he could get in the pool with you. 

He quickly got in the pool and cursed as he was submerged into the freezing cold water. You giggled at him and swam gently towards him. “Feels nice, doesn’t it?” You smirked at your boyfriend. 

“Yeah, great! It’s not like my balls are freezing in ‘ere,” he said sarcastically. You hummed as you wrapped your arms around his neck, your legs around his hips. He was quick to hold you in place by your thighs. 

“You’re mean. Stripping off naked in front of me just to get me in this bloody pool. Mean, I tell ya,” he said as he pouted at you. You giggled at his silliness and pressed your forehead on his. 

“You love me, anyway,” you said teasingly. “Yeah, I might just reconsider that,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at you. You gasped dramatically and began to pull away but he kept you stuck to him. “No, don’t go! You’re very warm, lovie,” he whined as he buried his face in your neck. 

“I do love you, darlin’” Harry said lovingly as he kissed the base of your neck, making you smile at the gesture. 

You both continued to swim around until you decided to get out of the freezing water before you turned pruny. You carefully made your way to your now shared bedroom, leaving a wet trail behind because you didn’t bother to bring out towels. 

It was 1:32 AM when you finally fell asleep in your shared bed; your shared home. 

❊

Harry slowly parked his car in the garage, shutting off the engine. He turned to you, smiling as he saw you sleeping in the passenger seat even though you insisted on staying up to keep him company.

You had gotten back from an event that Harry had attended. It was nice to feel the glitz and glam sometimes but even Harry would agree that it would become too tiring to handle. They ended staying back quite a bit until they realised how late it was and decided to go home then.

Harry gently shook your shoulder as he tried to wake you up. “Lovie, wake up. We’re home,” he said softly. You groaned a bit as you were disturbed from your slumber. Your mind was hazy and your vision was blurry as you looked around. 

You sighed and closed your eyes for a bit. “I fell asleep, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, felt a bit lonely actually,” Harry joked. You were always the one to think that you should be awake to keep him company as he drove, that and making sure he didn’t crash. 

You smiled sleepily at him, “Sorry, bubs.” You said, kissing his knuckles.

“No worries, darlin’. Let’s go to bed now, yea?” He said, already unbuckling his seatbelt, you doing the same. 

Your mind was still hazy from your sleep so Harry had to help guide you upstairs to make sure you didn’t trip and fall. You fell on your bed on your stomach, sighing into the soft comfortable mattress. Harry chuckled at this but knew if he didn’t help you out of your dress and clean off your makeup before bed, he’d be in big trouble.

“Lovie, c’mere. Gotta clean you up,” he said gently, slowly lifting you off the bed and guided you to the bathroom. You whined in exhaustion but followed him anyway. He began removing makeup gently and making sure you washed your hands and feet. Both of you were lucky to have showered earlier before leaving. 

You sometimes felt like Harry was too good for you. But you loved how it showed how much he loved to take care of you. The simple things he did truly warmed your heart.

“Can I wear your shirt?” You asked, sitting on the bed in just your underwear. Harry was already ahead of you by lending you his white shirt. “You forgot that I know you too well,” he smirked at you as you sheepishly put on his shirt. You’ve always had a habit of sleeping in his clothes so tonight was no surprise to him.

After putting on his sweatpants, he began to tuck you in bed. He gave you a gentle kiss on the forehead before pulling away. “No, come back,” you whined as you reached out for him.

Harry chuckled as he kissed your palm. “Just gonna get some water for us, lovie. Be back soon,” he said assuredly. When he came back, he turned off the lights and quickly got in beside you. 

You cuddled with Harry, burying your nose in his neck as you soaked in as much warmth as you could. “I love you, Harry,” you said with your eyes closed already. 

Harry’s eyes wandered on your features as you began to drift off to Dreamland. He brushed off the hair that was covering your face because he loved seeing your face before drifting off to sleep. Your head leaned in a bit to his palm that was resting on your cheek. 

Harry was truly in love with you, he realised that a long while ago. And he knew you felt the same. One year down into your relationship and he had never been more sure of spending the rest of his lifetime with you. 

He closed his eyes and sighed into his pillow. “Y/N,” he whispered in the dark. He heard you hummed in response. “Will you marry me?” He asked softly. He kept his eyes closed, feeling afraid of your answer.

Harry felt your hand on his cheek and he sighed at the feeling. “Harry, look at me,” he heard you whispered. He opened his eyes, seeing you looking at him with watery eyes. “Of course I will,” you said tearfully, smiling at him.

Harry let out a breath of relief. He leaned in to give you a kiss which you quickly gave in. Breaking away, he wiped off your tears that you didn’t realise were running down your cheeks. 

“Let me get your ring, yea?” Harry said happily as he got off the bed to search for the ring he bought for you weeks ago. You giggled at him, feeling an overwhelming sense of happiness and warmth.

It was 1:32AM when you slept with a ring of your finger, right next to your fiancé.

❊

It was cold but the fireplace filled the room with a lot of warmth. Some Christmas music was playing softly in the background. 

“You look very cute, darlin’,” you heard Harry say as he sat down next to you on the couch, handing you a mug of hot chocolate. Both of you were repping your Christmas sweaters in honour of the holiday. 

“Hmm, thank you, bubs,” you said as you carefully sipped on your hot chocolate. 

Both of you had a small Christmas eve dinner together with your families. When they said it was the most magical time of the year, you couldn’t deny that statement. It was because your home was filled with joy and laughter, drinking up on some warm milk and glasses of wine.

It was already past midnight, which meant it was already Christmas morning. While you agreed to wait until the morning for opening presents, you still were tempted to give Harry one gift that you’ve been saving. 

“Hey,” you said as you looked up to him. Harry hummed in response, sipping his drink out from his pink mug. “Got a present to give ya,” you said smiling at him. You kissed his cheek and put your mint green mug down on the coffee table as you got up to get your gift for him. 

Harry whined as you left your spot from beside him. “Babe, let’s do this in the morning. Just want to cuddle with my wife,” he called out to you in a whiny voice. You giggled as you rummaged through your drawer. Grabbing the red box, you hurried down to your husband, nerves building up as you approached near him. 

You sat down again next to him and handed him the box. Harry shook the box a bit to get a hint of what was inside. “If it’s something you’re gonna wear f’me later, then I don’t want it,” he said as he wiggled his eyebrows in a teasing manner. 

You rolled your eyes at him. “Just open the damn box,” you said as you sip on your drink again. He hummed in response as he took off the lid of the box, rummaging through the paper tissues inside. 

“I’m just saying, love. If it’s lingerie, might as well put it on-,”

Harry paused on his words. His eyes were fixated on the sonogram that sat in the middle of the box. Shakingly, he lifted it up to his face, rubbing his eyes as if to see if they were tricking him. But it was there. 

Harry looked at you with wide eyes and you could see the tears starting to form in them. You smiled nervously, not knowing if his reaction was a good one. “Y-You’re pregnant?” he asked, his voice wavering as he spoke. You nodded at him, tears escaping your eyes as you put a hand on your growing stomach. “I’m pregnant,” you confirmed with your voice cracking.

It was the most heartwarming reaction you thought as Harry broke down in front of you, wrapping his arms around you as he laid his head on your stomach. You laughed tearfully at him as you held at his shaking body tightly against you. You felt him pressing kisses on your clothed stomach and you could feel your heart bursting at the gesture. 

“We’re having a baby,” he cried out.

“We’re having a baby, bubs,” you repeated his words as you rubbed his back.

Harry pulled away and cupped your face, kissing you passionately in which you returned. You could feel the tears on your faces as you kissed, giggling at how much of a mess you both were. 

“I love you,” he mumbled out into the kiss. To him, no other Christmas present would ever top this. And it truly was a merry Christmas.

“I love you, too,” you said lovingly. 

It was 1:32 AM when you both slept in each other’s arms, Harry’s hand on your stomach, where your little love was growing. 

❊

Harry was awakened from his sleep when he heard loud crying. Sighing, he turned to see you still sleeping and huddled up in the blankets. He got out of bed, stretched his muscles a bit, and put on some sweatpants before attending the crying child. 

Parenthood was indeed a challenge to the both of you and you couldn’t deny that. It was hard at first adjusting to the new chapter of your lives, with all the sleepless nights and cleaning up baby puke, but you managed to pull through. Though it seemed like maybe this was another one of your sleepless nights. 

Harry opened the nursery door, the crying of his baby appearing louder than before. “Hi, sunflower,” he cooed as he walked over to the crib where his baby girl was writhing against the blankets. Little baby Rosie’s cries seemed to tone down after seeing her father. She lifted her chubby arms to him, implying that she wanted to be held. 

And who was Harry to deny this request to his daughter as he lifted her out of the crib. He grabbed the little pink blanket that he sewed for her - fatherhood really changed him. Harry cooed at his daughter who was staring at him with big wide eyes, the green eyes reflecting his. It was a notable inheritance, look-wise. Rosie babbled a bit to him and Harry nodded at her to make it seem like he understood. 

Rosie was gripping one the little blanket Harry gave her when he felt a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. He smiled as he felt you putting your head on his shoulder, sighing tiredly as you looked at them. He pressed a kiss on your forehead, turning his body a bit so you could see your daughter. 

“Bed’s cold,” you pouted as you stroke Rosie’s head gently. Rosie cooed at the gesture before nuzzling her head against Harry’s chest. “Sorry, lovie. Our little sunflower here wanted some company,” he said chuckling at the little baby in his arms.

You smiled as Rosie’s eyes were threatening to close. You sighed deeply as you pressed a kiss on Harry’s bare shoulder, which sent some shivers throughout his body. Harry could never get over with your every kiss and touch you laid upon him. He realised now how lucky he was to have come so far with you, despite the fights or arguments you had before. 

“C’mon. She can lay with us,” you chose to say because nothing would warm your heart more than sleeping with your husband and daughter. Harry nodded and carefully carried the nearly sleeping baby into your bedroom. He laid Rosie in the center of your bed, putting her blanket over her little body. 

As you got in your bed, Harry grabbed your arm. “Kissy?” He asked, pouting his lips at you. You giggled at your husband’s silliness and leaned forward to give him a kiss, humming at the feeling. “I love you,” you mumbled softly as you tucked yourself in next to him and Rosie.

“I love you, darlin’,” he said in return. 

And it was 1:32 AM when Harry fell asleep next to his beautiful little family, feeling grateful for everything that has happened in your life together.

[yellowocaballero]

Percy Jackson meets a Landlord, a Tax Accountant, and a Tree Growing in Brooklyn

“Golduck, use hydro pump!” Percy whispered. He moved Golduck so he hit Batman on the chest, and then hit Batman a few more times for good measure. “Die, landlord!”

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing with toys?”

Percy almost fell out of his chair. 

He twisted his torso around, looking behind him with wide eyes. But the only person there was a white girl, no older than him. She was wearing a really severe expression to match her tight little blonde ponytail, and she was carrying a clipboard in both hands. There was a piece of string tacked to the clipboard, with a pen tied around one end. She looked like she asked the school librarian if she could help shelve books. 

Percy decided instantly that she hated him, so he decided to hate her back. 

“Aren’t you a little young to be doing your taxes?” Percy sneered. “Buzz off.”

That made her mad. The girl’s angelic little chubby face twisted in rage, and her grip on the clipboard turned threatening. “I’m accounting the chores! And I could do taxes if I wanted!”

“Yeah?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Name one tax.”

“Sales tax,” the girl said instantly. 

Damn. She got that one.  

Short fic that I am considering extending into a much, much longer fic. Thank you Ami for the translation of the card (I would definitely translate it yourself, it’s important). The entire backstory and premise of the AU isn’t immediately apparent, but if I extend the fic it’ll be more explained (spoiler: Luke Castellan, age 14, said fuck Olympus and moved all of Camp Half-Blood into Brooklyn to live in a child-run utopia). I haven’t reread Percy Jackson since I was 10, I barely remember anything that happens or any of the characters, so don’t expect much - but aren’t the best children’s novels the children’s novels that live in our head, anyway?

Rest under the cut. 

2005

180 Olive Apartments was a dump. Batman said so.

Batman felt very strongly about this, and as a result Percy did too. It was not Percy’s own, private, personal opinion. Batman informed Percy that the apartment complex was shabby, gross, not in Staten island, and smelled weird. Batman made a very convincing argument that they should live in Staten Island instead, which Percy had done his best to relay to Mom. Mom hadn’t been impressed. 

“This is the best place for us, Percy,” Mom had said, with that pinched look on her face. It was the ‘Percy’s Making My Life Really Hard’ face. Percy had been seeing that face a lot lately. “Let’s just try to make this work, please?”

There was no ‘best place’ for them, and Percy and Batman knew that. But that was another thing Mom didn’t want to hear. 

So Percy had suffered in stoic silence as Mom dragged him out of the motel, made him miss the new episode of Pokemon, and forced him to ride the subway forty minutes into smelly Brooklyn so he could sit in this smelly chair outside of some smelly office in a smelly apartment. From inside the office, Percy could hear the faint rise and fall of voices: Mom’s, light and lyrical and very polite to people who were not Percy; and some landlord guy. His voice was really light and high too, but he was probably a real jerk.

Percy was so bored he could die. He sat up on his knees, turning around so he could prop his elbows against the dusty windowsill with grimy frosted glass. He plopped Batman down on the dirty windowsill, smearing his chipped feet through the tracks of dust. Parkour. He unzipped his pocket and grabbed his slightly dusty Golduck rubber toy, putting it in front of Batman. Golduck was from McDonald’s, so it had a bad attitude. 

Percy waggled Batman. You have a bad attitude, Golduck. You can’t live in my house anymore, because you get water all over the tile and you make the wood go bad. 

Golduck jiggled when Percy shook him. It wasn’t Golduck’s fault that the water went everywhere! Water just goes places sometimes. Golduck was a water type, so water followed him around and got into wood and made the wood go bad and made other people mad at him. It’s not Golduck’s fault, so don’t make him move!

I don’t want to hear it, Batman said. I’m going to make you live in a crummy motel and make your Mom go on a lot of boring websites looking for new places to live. The motel’s bananas are going to taste weird. Mom’s going to cry a lot. And it’ll be all your fault because you’re a bad kid. 

“Golduck, use hydro pump!” Percy whispered. He moved Golduck so he hit Batman on the chest, and then hit Batman a few more times for good measure. “Die, landlord!”

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing with toys?”

Percy almost fell out of his chair. 

He twisted his torso around, looking behind him with wide eyes. But the only person there was a white girl, no older than him. She was wearing a really severe expression to match her tight little blonde ponytail, and she was carrying a clipboard in both hands. There was a piece of string tacked to the clipboard, with a pen tied around one end. She looked like she asked the school librarian if she could help shelve books. 

Percy decided instantly that she hated him, so he decided to hate her back. 

“Aren’t you a little young to be doing your taxes?” Percy sneered. “Buzz off.”

That made her mad. The girl’s angelic little chubby face twisted in rage, and her grip on the clipboard turned threatening. “I’m accounting the chores! And I could do taxes if I wanted!”

“Yeah?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Name one tax.”

“Sales tax,” the girl said instantly. 

Damn. She got that one. Percy just rolled his eyes instead, sitting back down on his seat and stuffing his toys in his cargo pocket. He couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed, even if he knew that he wasn’t too old to play with Batman and Golduck. What did tax accountants know, anyway. 

The girl sniffed, and made a show of inspecting the grimy windowsill and carefully making a note on her clipboard. Her pen had a pom-pom at the end. Percy bet she made hearts over the top of her ‘i’s. 

“Nick’s been slacking,” the girl muttered threateningly. “I’m surrounded by incompetents.”

“Why is it Nick’s job to clean the leasing office?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Don’t you have a janitor for that?” Was Nick the janitor? If this pinched-face little girl was harassing cleaning staff then Percy was going to file a complaint.

But the girl just looked surprised, as if the idea of having a janitor was foreign and strange. “No janitor would even make it through the doors.” But then her eyes narrowed, as if a thought just occurred to her. “Wait. How did you…”

However Percy did what, he would never know. The door to the leasing office cracked open, and Percy scrambled off his seat in excitement. The girl stood stiffly at attention, clipboard on her hip, as Mom stepped out of the office. She looked very tired, but weirdly relieved.

There was a man right behind her, just as white and blonde as the girl. Percy wasn’t surprised: he could pick out a real ‘daughter-of-the-manager’ type right away. The man didn’t look like every other landlord Percy had ever seen - no moustache, for one - and he didn’t look old enough for the part anyway. He wasn’t old, but he definitely wasn’t an elementary schooler. He had a broad, honest face, but he was too muscular and strong looking and landlordey to be trustworthy. 

 Percy decided the weird landlord, with a mop of yellow hair like golden thread and a scary eyebrow with one long scar cutting straight through, was twenty five years old. Clearly the result of nepotism in the landlord industry.

Mom smiled when she saw Percy, who quickly pasted on his most innocent expression. Her eyes caught on the girl, who was glaring daggers at him. The landlord’s eyes caught on Percy’s own wrinkled nose. “Percy, good! Are you making friends?”

It was not an innocent question. It was a ‘please don’t ruin this for me too, Percy’ question. It was a ‘I’m very tired and I need you not to make things hard’ question. Percy was well acquainted with them. But maybe the girl was too, because when the landlord looked at the girl she also abruptly quailed. “I hope you’re being a good host, Annabeth.”

The unfortunately named Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other in silent and instant understanding. 

“Yeah, Annabeth’s really fun!” Percy said instantly. He was not going to ruin this for Mom again. Or, at least, he would try to hold off ruining it for her as long as possible. Even if this stupid apartment wasn’t in Staten island. “She was telling me about -”

“Taxes!” Annabeth said smoothly, a much better liar than Percy. “And Percy was telling me about Batman.”

They both looked very cute and very low matinence on command, the perfect picture of children who did not make their moms live in motels. 

Percy was rewarded when Mom smiled in relief. She put a hand on Percy’s shoulder, squeezing tightly. “I’m so glad. Percy, this is Mr. Castellan. Why don’t you say hi?”

“Hi Mr. Castellan,” Percy said obediently. “My name’s Percy Jackson, I’m in third grade.”

The landlord smiled at him with closed and tight lips, but it was Annabeth who spoke in interest. “Percy like Percival, King Arthur’s knight who searched for the Holy Grail?”

Uh, whatever? “Percy like the Greek hero Perseus,” Percy said shortly. “But I’m not Greek. My Grandma was from Guadalajara.”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. She glanced at the landlord, whose expression was impossible to read. “Are you sure?”

“I know where my own grandmother is from!”

“She didn’t say that you didn’t, sweetie,” Mom said, and Percy guiltily shut up. “Percy, why don’t you and Mr. Castellan talk in his office for a little while? I have to fill out some paperwork, and I think you two have a lot to talk about.”

Percy looked up at her with wide eyes. Mom never left him alone with strangers. And paperwork already? “Are we moving in today?”

“You two talk for a bit,” Mom said firmly. “I’ll be right back.”

When Percy was pushed into Mr. Castellan’s office it felt more like he was a Roman Christian being tossed into the lion’s den in punishment for heresy. And when Mom settled him into an uncomfortable and weird-smelling chair in front of the teetering desk and kissed him on the temple before leaving the office, he abruptly felt like he had jumped into Grandma’s book of Bible Stories. 

Mr. Landlord’s office was as dirty and run-down as the rest of the complex. The big box AC rattled with clinks and whirrs as it shuddered against the sticky summer heat, and the landlord’s desk was covered in thick stacks of paper and chewed-up pencils. When he sat back down behind the stained wood, the chair seemed just a little too big for him. He sunk strangely in it, the vinyl flaking off and floating into the ground. There were a lot of crayon drawings taped to the wall, and there was a light dusting of crumpled post-it notes on the ground. 

Mr. Landlord tried to smile at Percy. Tried being the operative word: when he smiled it was too thin and without teeth, more pained than reassuring. It didn’t reach his watery blue eyes. 

Percy hunched on the rickety chair. This guy set off every alarm bell he had, which was plenty. And no, it wasn’t just because he was a guy, Ms. Brown. For added security and self defense, Percy casually slid a capped ballpoint pen on the old desk in front of him into his sleeve. Batman was always prepared, and Percy was too. He can hack up any creepy guy and protect Mom any day of the week. 

The landlord smiled wider, even worse. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Luke Castellan, and I’m the supervisor here. Running into Annabeth first thing’s pretty bad luck, huh?” At Percy’s unimpressed eyebrow, he quickly added, “Annabeth keeps the whole place running, really. She’s...pretty convinced that this complex rests on her eight year old back, so she’s a little stressed out all the time. If she gets frustrated at you, don’t take it personally, okay?”

So she does help shelve books. Percy was a keen judge of character. “Why does she do it? You can’t make her be the superintendent. That’s child labor.”

Luke Castellan stared at Percy unblinkingly. He blinked about as often as a snake, but five times as quickly: as if he didn’t want to let you out of his sight for even a second. Finally, he said, “I’m fifteen.”

Percy gave Mr. Luke the stink-eye, clearly communicating that he did not trust even fifteen year olds (who were high schoolers, and even less trustworthy than adult-adults) as far as he could throw them. Especially fifteen year olds like Luke: who were too tall, with too-mature eyes and a particularly unhappy expression. Percy communicated perfectly that there was nothing trustworthy about this family of juvenile landlords, but he was just too polite to say so. 

But that just made Mr. Luke sigh, as if he was tired instead of angry. “Annabeth’s my...ward, I guess. I just look after her. But she doesn’t like being looked after, so she makes up for it by looking after everyone else. I’m not saying I do a good job.”

He’s a landlord and he has a ward? Percy finally perked up. “So you’re like Batman?”

Mr. Luke stared at him unblinkingly, before finally saying, “Yes, except Batman doesn’t have superpowers.”

Percy had the sense he was being made fun of. “You don’t have super powers,” he accused, crossing his arms. “Nobody has super powers.”

Mr. Luke smiled, wan and weak. “Not even you, Percy?”

Percy froze. 

Five seconds too late, Percy made himself laugh stupidly. People were quick to believe that Percy was stupid, and sometimes Percy helped them think that. It got him out of trouble sometimes - not always, but enough that it was useful. “If I had superpowers, I’d run super fast everywhere just like the Flash!”

But Mr. Luke just hummed, and flipped through some of the papers in a folder in front of him. Percy abruptly began sweating. Mom had given him those papers. They were records. This was like every time a principal had drawn up ‘proof’ against him in a court of law. “Your mom said that you both had to move out of your Queens apartment because it flooded.”

“I didn’t unscrew the taps,” Percy said reflexively. “They just came loose! I didn’t even touch them! I didn’t touch the boiler either!”

“The boiler?” Mr. Luke flipped back a few pages. “Oh, right. Your school.”

Percy slouched in his seat and folded his arms across his chest, stewing. He always sounded guiltiest when he denied it. He should go back to playing dumb. Pretend that he had no idea what water was. He had gotten away with it when he was six during that one birthday party at the aquarium, but something about being a third grader meant that people expected that you have basic observational skills. 

It was stupid. There was no way to win. If he said that he didn’t do it then he sounded guilty. If he tried to point out how it was impossible for him to break the boiler and destroy the gym or whatever, using facts and logic and a rhetorical argument like the Youtube videos taught him, then they just told him he was making excuses. Sometimes Percy had the impression that everybody just wanted him to supervillain cackle like the Joker and brag about how terrible he was. Maybe he’d give that a shot once he entered middle school. It seemed like an evil teenage thing to do. 

Percy Jackson was a liar, a thief, a cheat, a menace, and a bad kid. There was nothing more to be: not for someone like Percy. 

But Mr. Luke didn’t threaten him, or give him ‘one last chance’ or anything. He just leaned forward, hands folded on the desk. His thumb was worrying at a small starburst scar on his hand, betraying a strange nervousness. 

“Percy, can I talk to you man-to-man?”

Percy, who did not like men, squinted at Mr. Luke suspiciously. “Why.”

“Because this isn’t a topic for a kid. It’s a topic that...kills children, and turns them into little adults. I wish I didn’t have to broach it with you. But I think that you haven’t been a kid for a long time, Percy, and I don’t want to insult you by pretending otherwise.” Mr. Luke frowned, and Percy found himself involuntarily straightening. What was he talking about? “You were right. There was no way for you to have flooded your apartment, much less twice. There was no way for you to ruin your gym, or damage that aquarium. Much less...everything else in your file. No kid is that much of a miniature hurricane when he isn’t even trying. It sucks. It’s not your fault. And now your Mom’s credit score is so bad that she can’t afford another apartment. If it wasn’t for the fact that she saw our really generous listing in the paper, she would have had to move you two away from her home.”

She was thinking of moving them both to New Jersey. Percy’s lips tightened, and he knew that Mr. Luke saw it. 

“This is an apartment building that provides shelter to a lot of special cases, just like you. It’s...full of kids who break things when they don’t mean to. Kids with a parent couldn’t handle them, or who couldn’t protect them. We have a lot of ways to keep families like yours safe, and to give you a home.”

Percy stared at Mr. Luke. He seemed deadly serious, as serious as anybody had ever been to Percy, despite the crazy stuff he was saying. Safe? Safe from what?

Safe from those weird, giant dogs that chased Percy and tore off half his jeans? Safe from that old lady in the deli with the slobbering bag and beady eyes? Safe from broken water pipes, from ruined floors and busted walls, from Percy himself? 

Finally, all Percy could think to ask was, “How do you know that I’m a special case?”

“Because not just anyone could see that listing,” Mr. Luke said. “And - uh, no offense - but you are one of the most obviously inhuman children I’ve met in my life.”

Percy’s jaw dropped in complete, unadulterated rage, and without even stopping to think through his actions he withdrew the ballpoint pen from his pocket. He uncapped it, fully intending on doing something dramatically yet harmlessly violent with it, but he didn’t get the chance. 

The ballpoint pen turned into a gleaming bronze and silver sword. Percy screamed. Percy fell out of his chair. Percy did not get the opportunity to look cool and dangerous at all.

****

And now Percy had Greek god stuff to worry about!

Didn’t Percy have enough problems? He couldn’t stay in a school, they couldn’t keep an apartment, their new landlord didn’t blink enough, and now he was the kid of a Greek god? Apparently he had been spending his entire life running from monsters and he just hadn’t noticed? That explained the stupid scary dog!

Percy knew much more about Greek gods than the average kid, since Mom was a huge fan. Yeah, Mom! Apparently you were a big fan! Jesus, Mom!

What’s this dumb stuff about Poseidon! That had freaked out Mr. Luke, and made him ask a lot of questions like ‘are you sure’ and ‘there’s a lot of minor gods who like to pass themself off as someone more impressive to mortals’. Then Annabeth, who had been listening at the door like a sneak and who ran in all heroically when he almost accidentally stabbed Mr. Luke, freaked out and called his mom a liar. His mom!

Then Percy tried to stab her with his new sword. Mom made Percy apologize for trying to stab Annabeth. Mr. Luke made Annabeth apologize for insulting Percy’s mother. Percy was beginning to worry that he and Annabeth may be mortal enemies. 

Mr. Luke had tried explaining a bunch of stuff about monsters and ‘the Sight’ and why Percy’s life was terrible to him, but Percy already knew his life was terrible and he wasn’t interested. Percy ended up furiously swinging his new sword at a tree outside as Mom signed a bunch of forms and talked with Mr. Luke some more, but she hustled him home pretty quickly afterwards. 

Percy didn’t give the sword back. Mr. Luke, wisely, did not ask for it back.

Mom kept on making a face on the subway back to the motel like she had been waiting her entire life for Percy to ask all of these questions, and she was preparing herself for it. She kept on glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, watching Percy kick his feet against the hard plastic seat. It was obvious. But Percy didn’t have anything to say to her. They spent the rest of the day in silence, just focusing on packing up and getting everything ready to move. Jacksons were practical, Mom said. 

Jacksons were practical. Percy was practical, too. It was only in the deep pits of night, as Percy lay in bed holding up his sword and watching it reflect the soft lamplight above the creaky wooden table where Mom was doing work, that he asked. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

The sword was really cool. It was pure bronze, with the middle gleaming pure silver. There was some Greek writing inscribed down the center that Percy had no idea how to read, although he had spent an hour scouring the internet looking for a translation. The handle was tough white cord, stiff and starchy but fraying a little at the edges. 

Mr. Luke said it was named something, but Percy forgot what it was. He had been a bit busy almost impaling the guy. 

Mom’s fingers froze over the keyboard. Her back was turned to him, so he couldn’t see her face, but her spine was stiff and rigid. 

Finally, after a long silence, she said, “I didn’t want you to think that there was anything different about you.”

“So what?” Percy asked, his eyes pricking rebelliously. Stupid water. “You let me think that I was a bad person who ruined your life?”

“Percy, no!” Mom turned around, expression crumpled. The dim light showed the heavy bags under Mom’s eyes in sharp relief. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, baby. None of this is your fault, you understand? That’s what this business with your father means: that none of it was your fault. That’s all it means.”

If that was true, Percy thought, then why couldn’t she have told him before?

But Percy was afraid that if he said that, then he would start crying, and Percy was way too old to cry. Only weak little babies cried. 

“I’m sorry my dad’s a loser who ruined your life, Mom,” Percy said.

“Percy…”

But Percy refused to answer her, putting his sword down next to him and pretending to go to sleep. He kept it next to him in bed all night, gripping its hilt tight, and the firm and cool pressure of the steel in his hand soothed him when the thought of a father didn’t. 

***

They moved in the next day.

The next day! Percy was livid. He barely had any time to pack up his toys into his backpack, and Mom didn’t even have time to help him back up his blue Spider-man suitcase. He had to do it all by himself, and then Mom came in and told him he was folding everything up wrong and that he had to redo it. If she had so many problems with it, she should have helped him and gave him more than one day to move out of their dumb motel! 

When people moved on TV there were always moving vans and buff dudes in baseball caps. But Percy was much better at moving then any of those idiots: all it took was a suitcase (of clothes and toiletries and stuff) and a backpack (of toys and school supplies and stuff). 

Percy’s backpack had the Power Rangers on it, in glossy plastic. Its contents were always the same, through every move: Batman, Golduck, Bulbasaur, Blue Eyes White Dragon, Raphael, a stegosaurus with a missing tail named Hedward, and a little book full of pictures of him and his mom and some cards and stuff. There was a picture of him and Grandma in the apartment in Staten Island that he lived in until he was six, and a 5th birthday card she had given him six months before she died. Written inside, in her looping and faded script, was a sentence Percy had read over and over and over again. ‘Tu angel de la guarda trabaja horas extra por tí. Así que acuérdate de decirle gracias ¿Sí, mi niño?'’

Percy was inclined to agree with her. God should pay his guardian angel overtime. That, or pay one to go to Olympus and collect child support.

The image was funny to Percy - the idea of his angel with her wings and halos showing up at Poseidon’s door and tapping her watch as she held out her hat. It was so funny, it was the first thing he told Mr. Luke when they met him at the gates to the apartment complex. Mom was huffing behind him with her two suitcases, while Percy was busy juggling his own backpack, suitcase, and sword. 

Mr. Luke looked alarmed to see the both of them, although Mom had called ahead and arranged to meet him here. Worse, Annabeth was next to him, still holding a clipboard. She didn’t look alarmed, just mad. 

“Did you bring Riptide onto public transportation?” Annabeth squawked. “You have no sense of discretion!”

Was Riptide the name of the sword? Whatever. Percy would have named it Hurricane. “I know words you don’t know too, you don’t have to brag,” Percy said flatly. 

“Yeah, the gods are filthy little child support evaders,” Mr. Luke said easily, instantly endearing himself to Percy. Mom rolled her eyes as she put her suitcases down, but she was clearly fighting a smile. “Don’t worry, I dragged them to court. Sued them for all they’re worth.”

“How on earth did you do that?” Mom asked, interested. 

“Trickery and rhetoric,” Annabeth said proudly.

“Swords,” Mr. Luke said. 

“What did you squeeze them for?” Percy asked, excited. 

Mr. Luke winked. And he still didn’t ask for his sword back. Maybe he wasn’t all bad. 

The apartment complex itself wasn’t nearly as big as a lot of Brooklyn complexes, looking more like the little apartment complexes in Queens that Percy was used to. It was three separate three-story buildings arranged in a square, with one side holding the small leasing office and a parking lot. It was open-air, with the apartment doors opening directly outside. There was a really big courtyard in the center, and despite himself Percy got a little excited.

It was awesome. There was a huge, sprawling tree right in the center of the courtyard. It was gigantic, bigger than any tree Percy had ever seen in his life. It seemed like it didn’t even belong in New York, like it was a transplant from the California Redwoods or Canada or something. Its leaves were waving in a nonexistent breeze, and something about it just seemed so magical and otherworldly to Percy. 

But that was only half of the awesome things. The other awesome thing was that there were kids everywhere.

The tree provided shade to a couple scattered gangs of kids, sitting around and laughing. There was a rusty set of monkey bars, which some kids were playing on, and there was a big dirt rectangle where other kids were hitting each other on the head with wooden plastic swords. There were groups of girls eating lunch, and a gang of boys playing soccer in the corner that made Percy immediately want to jump in and play too. Percy dominated at soccer. 

“The East and South buildings are where we all live,” Annabeth informed Mom. “The West building is where the training rooms and storage rooms and administrative rooms - that’s my office - and everything is. It also has guest units for the local spirits that like to visit. We just had ten Bacchae stay for a week. They were backpacking to Woodstock. We have very good inter-community relationships here.”

“That’s amazing,” Mom said faintly. Mr. Luke was smiling faintly, eyes fixed on the big tree. Percy found himself staring at Mr. Luke, watching with interest the soft but firm pride in his eyes. “Luke said that this property’s safe from…” 

She glanced at Percy quickly, cutting herself off. But Annabeth just huffed. 

“I almost got eaten by monsters twenty times when I was seven,” Annabeth informed Mom imperiously. “We’re not babies. Connor Stoll says if you’re old enough to get eaten by monsters then you’re old enough to know that they exist.”

Percy decided immediately that he liked Connor Stoll, and maybe even Annabeth too. 

“The tree protects us,” Luke said. “Wherever the tree is, we’re safe. Not even the gods date step foot beyond the leasing office here.”

“Because of the tree?” Mom asked. 

Luke smiled - sharp, piercing, and strange. “Sure, let’s say that.”

But Mom just frowned. She looked over the courtyard of kids - some of whom were already starting to whisper and stare. Annabeth waved at a gaggle of identically blonde children, and for the first time Percy wondered who she was the daughter of. Probably the bossiest god. Maybe Athena. Or, like, Hephaestus. Definitely Hephaestus. 

“You said that there’s nobody over eighteen here,” Mom said to Luke. “Luke, there’s a six year old on those monkey bars.”

“If you’re under thirteen, you live with someone over thirteen,” Luke said to her. Annabeth was still frowning in disapproval at Percy’s sword. He stuck his tongue out at her. “Two people to a unit, we try to pair the oldest with the youngest. Lucy lives with Henrique, he’s seventeen. It’s the best we can do.”

“Surely there has to be someone…?”

“Adults have never helped us. They never will.” Luke looked away sharply. “We’ve been in Brooklyn a year. You’re the first adult who’s made her way here. Most other parents with a kid as powerful as Percy would have -”

He cut himself off sharply, glancing at Percy, and Percy scowled up at him. He thought that Luke was being honest. Maybe he was just another old guy afraid to say what everybody else knew. 

“I’ll help Ms. Jackson settle in,” Annabeth said suddenly. She held out her hands to Percy, who reflexively hugged his luggage to his chest. “You guys are in unit 5. It’s on the bottom floor. If you flood it, then we can fix it okay. Give me your luggage, I’ll put it in your unit.”

Percy stared at her, overwhelmed with that simple signal of care. No threats about if he flooded it, no warnings or sickly sweet faux-concern. Just understanding, and acceptance. 

He silently gave her his bags. 

She seemed surprised when she felt how light they were. Percy shrugged awkwardly at her face, crossing his arms tightly around her chest. “Don’t touch my stuff, okay?”

“Sure,” Annabeth said, before pausing a beat. “We have a TV in our place. #1. Do you want to come over tonight and watch Winx Club?”

“Yeah,” Percy said, overwhelmed. “Sure.”

Mr. Luke put a hand on Percy’s back as Annabeth guided Mom to a corner unit. Percy couldn’t help but notice that the door to the unit was already propped open. Wait - there were people going in and out!

There was a tall, buff teenager, carrying two chairs underneath each arm. There was another group of three teenage girls, carrying a table between them. Two other younger kids were carrying boxes and laughing. They were bringing everything into the unit, and other younger kids were running in and out with cleaning supplies. 

From a distance, Percy saw Mom stop in her tracks. Annabeth tugged at her shirt and got her to bend down, whispering something in her ear. A boy with sandy brown hair ran up, taking Mom’s suitcases from her and bringing them into the unit. 

“Your Mom mentioned that you were missing some furniture,” Mr. Luke said. “The Hermes and Aphrodite kids all pitched in to get your home looking like a home. I hope you’ll like it.”

Percy clutched his sword to his chest, speechless. 

Mr. Luke smiled down at him, that same wan and weak smile, and put a hand on his back. He gently pushed Percy forward, towards the tree. “Come with me for a minute?”

They silently approached the sprawling, ancient tree. As they came closer, Percy could see that its bark was gnarled and knotted, with perfect handholds for climbing and perfect boughs for resting in the summer sun. He could already see a few kids resting in high boughs, taking a nap in the humid and sticky sun. 

“Percy, I’d like to introduce you to someone.” Mr. Luke’s voice was quiet, like he was in church. He looked up at the tree, peering far into the leaves as if he was trying to find something hidden within them. “This is Thalia. Thalia, this is Percy. He’s the newest member of the family. He’s also your cousin.”

Cousin? Percy looked up at Mr. Luke, eyes wide. “I’m related to a tree?”

Tilted up at the tree, Percy couldn’t see Mr. Luke’s expression. Maybe that was on purpose. “Thalia’s a kid, just like us. Daughter of Zeus. I used to think that she was the closest thing to an adult I knew, but...I’m as old as she is, now. I guess one day soon I’ll be older than she ever got to be.” 

Oh. The tree was, like, from the ashes of some dead girl. Awkward. Percy stared at the thick and arching roots of the tree, feeling weird.

“Thalia, please protect Percy. I can already tell that he’s going to grow up to be very strong and brave. Please help us make sure that Percy never has to be strong. That he’s never brave. I can already tell he’s going to need a lot of your help.” He looked down at Percy for the first time, and for the first time Percy could see just a little warmth in those icy blue eyes. “You’re going to have to work overtime for him. So make sure to say thank you, Percy. Okay?”

“Thank you, Thalia,” Percy said obediently. He bowed awkwardly, uncertain what to do. The sword scraped awkwardly against his thigh. “Thanks for letting me into your home.”

“Welcome home, Percy,” Mr. Luke said, and for the first time Percy almost believed it. 

[songbirdsingingthings]

Family Dinner - Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, THEY BELONG TO KOHEI HORIKOSHI

DAY TWENTY-TWO OF 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS - 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS MASTERLIST - MAIN MASTERLIST

“We don’t have to do this…” You murmur.

“We’re right outside the door dumbass, you want to turn back now?” A scolding voice says from beside you. You look to your left to see your boyfriend, Katsuki Bakugou, give you an unamused expression. You sighed and looked at the ground and studied the cracks in the stones to try and keep your mind off of the event that would be occurring in less than 10 minutes. When your mother had originally called you to ask if you and Katsuki wanted to come over for a pre-Christmas dinner, you wanted to just say no and hang up. It’s not like you had a bad relationship with your parents, you actually had a pretty good one, it’s just that they could be a bit… much. Especially when it came to one of their children’s boyfriends or girlfriends. You had seen it with your older siblings and you wanted to prevent that from happening to your significant other, and when that person became Bakugou? You wanted to prevent it even further. You knew the blonde became annoyed easily and didn’t care much for social interaction so a dinner with your parents was seemingly the worst idea possible. However, your mind changed when everything with Class 1-A and the league of villains went down. You were away from your parents for most of the year due to the newly introduced dorm system, so you figured that you could make your parents happy with dinner.

“It’s just,” you begin to say as you use your boot to spread out some clumped up snow, “they aren’t really people that you like to hang out with.” You didn’t have to look at Katsuki to know that he was rolling his eyes.

“Well I’m gonna have to like them since it’s their idiot daughter I’m dating,” he scoffs, taking your hand and leading you all the way up to your front door. You took a deep breath and gave him a look while you raised your hand up towards the door, ready to knock on it.

“Fine, just… you know what you’re getting into, so don’t blame me.” You sigh. Finally you form a fist and knock on your door twice. It takes less than 10 seconds for your door to be swung open, revealing your beaming mother. You braced yourself for the usual bone-crushing hug she gave you, but it never arrived. Much to your horror, however, it was your blonde-haired boyfriend who was pulled into your mother’s arms.

“Bakugou, it is so nice to meet you! We’ve been trying to get our little Y/N to get you over here for ages and she finally gave in.” Mercifully she let Katsuki down within a few seconds but that didn’t stop your heart from beating out of your chest due to nerves and a hint of embarrassment.

“Nice to meet you too, Mrs L/N.” A talking cat couldn’t have evoked the same amount of shock that Katsuki’s interaction with your mom just did, your dropped jaw evidence of that fact. From around the corner your father appeared and extended a hand to him.

“Ah, Bakugou! Y/N has told us so much about you!” Your dad said with a jolly tone. Katsuki shook his hand with a firm but civil shake and smiled.

“Has she, Mr. L/N?” The blonde turned towards your mortified face, a blush creeping up onto your cheeks.

“Uhm, let’s go inside, you made katsudon for dinner right Mom?” You say quickly, desperate to change the subject.

“Oh, Y/N, we can’t go straight to dinner! We have some things to do beforehand - it’s like a tradition in the family now!” When those words left her lips, panic started to rise in you. Oh no, you thought, no no no. Your mother led you, Katsuki, and your father towards your living room and pulled out a huge binder and your worries were confirmed. The picture book. “Come sit here next to us, Bakugou,” your mom said as she padded the middle cushion of the couch.

“I’d love to Mrs. L/N,” Katsuki said, the humor in his voice only detectable by you. Your parents sat on either side of him as your mom opened the binder to the first page.

“Now, this is Y/N on her first day of preschool! Look at how she wore her hair, you know she insisted on wearing it like after she saw her favorite hero on television wear it like that!” You saw a smirk spread across Katsuki’s face as he looked at your younger face boasting an open mouth smile, with teeth missing no doubt.

“Oh and over here is where she first discovered her quirk! She was so scared she bursted out in tears!” Your father said, pointing to a five-year-old version of you. You spotted the light blue of your shirt and the mess that was your hair. You put your face in your hands and closed your eyes, unable to look any longer at the scene unfolding in front of you. It went on for a few more minutes before you heard Katsuki interrupt them.

“Excuse me, would you mind if Y/N and I head upstairs? She was mentioning to me how much she wanted to show me her home bedroom.” He says politely. You look up to see both of your parents and your boyfriend standing up.

“What a great idea! We’ll join you!” Your mother exclaimed. Great, even more chances to embarrass me in front of Katsuki, you thought.

“Oh I wouldn’t want to busy the two of you, please take some time for yourselves Mr. and Mrs. L/N. We’ll be back in a flash!” Katsuki says, a charming smile spreading across his face. You were stunned.

“Why thank you Bakugou! And please, it’s M/N and F/N!” Katsuki smiled and took your hand gently, letting you lead the way to your room. As soon as the two of you walked in, Katsuki shut the door behind the both of you. It was silent for a moment before you decided to speak up.

“You looked like you were having fun with them, which is kind of out of character for you.” You state, frowning a bit as you lean against your dresser. The blonde hums.

“You know I get a kick out of embarrassed Y/N. Plus those pictures of you were too funny to pass up on looking at. I mean have you seen your face when you developed your quirk priceless.” He says, giving you a devilish smirk. Now it’s your turn to scoff and roll your eyes.

“Well good thing that’s never happening again. Besides, why did you take me up here if you were having such a good time looking at mortifying pictures of me?” You ask flatly. Katsuki walks towards you and wraps an arm around your waist.

“Because you weren’t having a good time.” You opened your mouth and closed it a few times, unsure of what to say. “Stop doing that, you look like a damn fish.” He says.

“Thank you,” you murmur, leaning your head against his broad chest. You can feel the soft material of his shirt against his shirt and sigh, finally feeling relaxed for the first time this night. He presses a kiss to the top of your hand and hooks his thumb and forefinger under your chin, bringing it up so that you could meet his eyes.

“Whatever. I guess I love you or something,” he says, a joking tone in his voice. He brings your face to his and places a comforting, passionate kiss to your lips. You breath in and relish in the feeling of being held by him. He breaks away all too soon.

“Oh, and Y/N,” he says as you lay your head back against his chest.

“What.”

“Your mom is giving me extras of those photos.” You hum in response, not registering what he was saying. It only took a few moments, though

“WHAT?!”

[zeldas-cigarrette]

Illicit affairs. (1)

(not my gif:))

⎯ zelda spellman x reader

⎯ word count: 2,1k

⎯ warnings: slight mention of alcohol

⎯ summary: after a night out you wake up next to Zelda Spellman, later you find out you two met in a bar the night before.

⎯ ❥ author’s note: I don’t know how I got this idea but I thought it’d be fun to just write it down and see what happens, I’ll maybe do another two parts because I want to finish it with a happy ending:) ✨

⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯

A loud and penetrating noise tore you out of your sweet sleep, as soon as your eyes flung open you felt a sting in your head. The memories of last night were blurry and you had no idea how you ended up in your bed. Only the regularly set alarm on your phone stopped you from sleeping any longer. Usually, you weren’t someone who drinks but something about yesterday made you forget about it. You didn’t dare to move, everybody part seemed to hurt with the slightest of movements. It was just your white bedroom ceiling, that you saw. The sun had begun to rise and the morning sky was dipped in shades of pink. Without further thinking you started to get up, not wanting to be late for your job as a teacher in the academy of unseen arts. You were afraid of Zelda, the headmistress, the woman never seemed to like you. You never knew why.

Your head turned to the other side of the room to see if you had broken anything in your state last night. Unknowingly of what to expect next to you, your heart missed a beat for a second. On top of your fluffy white pillow Zelda Spellman was laying. Not even able to think clearly, you tried to put the pieces of last night in the place. In between some very clear scenes more and more occurred only black pictures. You had no clue how in hell the often resilient witch ended up next to you in bed. Curiously, you bent over her face to see if she was somewhat conscious. You waved your hand over her face, one time, two times; nothing.

Soft snores left her slightly opened mouth. This was bad; ‘when she wakes up you’re dead’ you thought. It took you a lot of courage to make the first step and poke her with your finger, not sure of what was about to happen. Her eyes quickly opened, her eyes met yours. A maybe unwanted cry escaped her mouth causing you to join out of surprise of the sudden noise. „Satan, why did you have to scream?” you asked massaging your ear in pain. „What am I doing here?” her voice still a bit raspy. You tried to play it cool, trying to hide the blush on your cheeks you turned away searching for any evidence of last nights events. Still nothing. „Did we…” „I don’t think so.”

It was awkward, none of you knew anything. Just now you realised how chill it was in your apartment. „Okay, don’t worry. We’ll figure this out, just get dressed, I’ll make coffee if you want some,” you declared hopping out of the bed and covering your body with a gown. You shot her a last glance before exiting your bedroom, though a bit shaky. How much alcohol did you consume to be in that state now? Passing the few paintings on your walls on the way to the kitchen, you switched on your coffee machine, hoping it wouldn’t be too awkward. Soon the smell of fresh coffee filled the air and also Zelda seemingly disappointed walked around the corner.

„What in Satan’s name happened last night?” the woman asked puzzled. You handed her a cup of coffee, noticing a silver ring tugging on her left hand. „Nice ring,” you smiled. „What ring? I don’t wear rings!” „Obviously you do now,” you replied pointing at it. The witch’ forehead laid in wrinkles before she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes. „Why you? Why am I in your house?” she suddenly snapped and harshly placed the cup on the table. „Calm down, I don’t know and I could’ve also imagined someone nicer than you.” Wrong you couldn’t, you craved her attention. Since the very first moment you laid eyes on the red-headed witch, you found it hard to avert your gaze. Only an eye roll signalised how annoyed she was. „Okay, I came into that bar and ordered something… I don’t remember what,” you whispered to yourself. You heard the older woman scoff in. „What? Do you know what happened?” your voice grew energetic way too fast. Silence. It was this gruelling silence where you feel so little you don’t even dare to break the ongoing nothingness. You glanced down at your fingers, finding a silver ring, looking similar to the one that Zelda was wearing. „Why do I have the same ring as you?” in your voice grew to panic. Her head jolted in your hand’s direction. The pupils of her green eyes grew wide in split seconds. „You don’t think we-“ „I don’t know? I’m not even sure how I ended up at home,” you stammered unsure of what words to choose next. Obviously, the situation was uncomfortable for both parties, Zelda couldn’t stop herself from pinching the bridge of her nose in disbelief of her memory loss.

That woman always seemed like the most put-together person you knew, there were hardly any encounters or incidents that let people see kind of emotion. „You go to the academy and do whatever you have to, and I will look for any evidence or signs that could verify our theory,” it was hard to stay calm. You weren’t ready for such thing as marriage and Zelda clearly seemed to dislike you and if you both really did it last night; you couldn’t even imagine what to do then. It didn’t take long until the witch disappeared from your kitchen. You let yourself fall on one of the chairs, head in your hands, covering your eyes with fingers in the hope to bring back the memories.

The constant sips of coffee that ran down your throat didn’t wipe out the dizzy feeling in you nor did they wake you as they used to. Watching the sun as it rose just made you sleepier. It didn’t get in your head how you had absolutely no proper memories from your night out. Yes, it’s been stressful and you just wanted to take a break from your negative thoughts and all the stuff that’s been weighing you down, but it was never your intention to get so drunk or to upset the mighty Zelda Spellman herself. You gulped audibly before you forced yourself up from the chair. It was time to dig a little deeper and to scour your apartment, next to the bar you went to.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

It was useless, there was no paper or anything that could tell you what happened the night before. The whole morning and parts of the afternoon, you spent searching. Under your bed, you also rummaged through the kitchen drawers. Nothing.

A knock on your door nearly startled you to death, so deeply concentrated were you on finding anything in the living room. You pushed yourself up from the ground, walking up to your front door. A look through the spy drowned your mood completely. You knew the woman would show up at least in the evening, but you did not think it’d be right after work.

„Anything found yet?” „Well, Hello to you too, and no- nothing,” you sighed and let her enter your small apartment. „The last option is, to head to the bar and ask some people who’ve been there with us yesterday,” you shrugged and stared at the silvery ring you placed on the kitchen counter earlier. „The whole day I’ve been asking myself what has happened, and I cannot puzzle the pieces together, and as much as I hate to admit; you’re right,” Zelda’s sudden thought sharing startled you. „Alright, then let’s go.” You stepped on the gas as much as possible, still, it felt like a ride on a snails back. The whole situation was too crazy and odd to be true, but it was.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

Arriving at the bar, a neon sign greeted you. You remembered entering the place and a weird smell embracing you, smelt like cigarettes mixed with Urin. The thought of spending time in there suddenly disgusted you. A huge glass door, meant as entrance, was pushed open by the fiery witch, stomping in the alcohol hole. She immediately rushed towards a young man behind the bar, who was mixing cocktails. „Tell me, what happened here,” while yelling her voice wandered between three different ranges. „What she meant was, Hello we need your help could you tell us what happened last night,” you intervened shooting her a warning glare. His shocked face softened, „You were the girls who got married last night,” a deep laugh followed. Zelda was just about to throw hands before you were able to pull her back to where she stood. „Oh so we did… get married,” you remarked confused, „Can you possibly tell us more?” „Yes sure, you two got drunk and started talking to each other.” „You don’t get married by just talking… Justin,” you read his tag. „Of course not, as the night went on the sparks flew,” Justin cackled. Idiot. „Mhh, the sparks flew, then?” it wasn’t easy to get the worst of you but this guy was on the best way. „Sorry, Sorry,” he defensively held up his hands, „There was a priest in the corner and when you two found out about him, you rather fast decided to get married,” the idiotic bartender explained. Zelda’s fox fur shook with her in anger. All your face muscles dropped, not knowing what’ll happen next. „Was it a catholic?” Zelda asked concerned. Oh god, if it was a Catholic priest, you two were fucked, dead, excommunicated, just all the bad stuff. „I suppose so,” he shrugged. Her face shot in your direction, the looks you two shared said more than words could. What made a catholic priest come to this filthy – you can’t call it a bar- hole. „We’re going,” she rapidly grabbed your wrist pulling you after her.

„Ouch, god what is it with you,” you freed your wrist from her grasp. „Do you know what happens if anybody finds out we got married, worse by a catholic priest from the false god?” she huffed crossing her arms in front of her chest. „It’s bad, but we can’t undo it,” you took a step back. „It is all your fault that this misery came upon us and you have nothing better to say than , we can’t undo it’,” she imitated you. You scoffed. „My fault?” ‘Never be so polite to forget to show power’ your grandma once said. The whole day you tried to be polite, to be understanding and to comfort the one who hated you from the very beginning you showed up at the academy. Now she was accusing you of planting the idea of getting married in her brain, to that agreement belongs two people. „Listen, I tried to be nice but right now you’re giving me a very hard time,” you hissed, „It needs two people to get married and obviously you agreed to it, so now Zelda Spellman I want to think about your next words or you can stay here and I’ll leave you alone with this drunk heads in there.”

Seconds passed before she spoke up again, „Alright I’m sorry.” „Good, let’s get in there and ask if there was maybe a certificate or anything that proves our marriage. I get that you do not want to be married to me, neither would I but we have to figure this out together.” The older woman nodded, realising that there was no other way out. Entering the bar for a second time you approached Justin again. „Do you -by chance- know where the certificate is?

„Yes you left it at the table and I kept it behind the bar,” he explained. „Okay, can I have it?” „And what do I get for that?” „What do you get for that? I’ll show you what you get,” Zelda hissed ready to lose it all. „Stop it.” You warned her and held her back. „What do you want smiley face?” the tone on your voice grew harsh. „A night… with you,” It left you speechless. A look at the woman next to you made it clear she wasn’t fond of it either. „Forget it,” you snapped trying not to put a hex on him. This was it, there was no way to sneak behind that stupid bar.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

„Don’t you dare to suggest I should sleep with that idiot,” you mumbled and closed the car door a bit too loud. „I wasn’t.” It relived you to know she wouldn’t go that far. „Okay, Okay, Okay,” you started to panic, „I’m freaking out, we are so fucked if anyone ever finds that out.”

You started the engine of the car, sighing. „Calm down, we’ll figure something out,” the usually emotional cold woman reassured you. You just nodded hiding a tiny smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad after all.

[melanielocke]

Lost in the Shadows - Chapter 6

AO3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Taglist @nott-the-best @foxglove-airmid @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @justanormaldemon @styxdrawings

It took less than ten minutes to discover the identity of the boy from the lake. As soon as they had arrived home, Lucie had started up her laptop and searched for missing children in the area. There was a boy called Steve Johnson, twelve years old. Lived in the village, just like the boy had told her. Had gone missing only a week ago. Lucie skimmed through the newspaper article. She’d thought the boy might have been dead for some time already, but he had been only dead for a week. She suspected he’d drowned the day of his disappearance. The article mentioned that the boy was a competitive swimmer, which explained why he hadn’t considered the danger in going swimming alone, but still, how likely was it that a competitive swimmer drowned in a lake that was perfectly safe for swimming? There were no dangerous currents, no weeds one could get trapped in. Drowning was always a risk, but in this lake, Lucie would only expect that to happen to people who couldn’t swim very well. Definitely not the case with this child. Exhaustion, then? But there was an island in the middle of the lake, and it wasn’t big. Anywhere he could have been, he should have been able to swim at least someplace he could stand in the water.

The boy had said something about how every time he tried to swim close to the shore, he’d appeared someplace else. Lucie wasn’t sure if she should believe that, ghosts tended to be confused about their deaths. Many didn’t remember dying at all until they realized what they were, and even then Lucie had heard some odd stories that couldn’t possibly be true. It was usually more believable that dying played tricks on the memory. But if that were true, if something had trapped the boy in the lake, then it would make sense why a competitive swimmer had drowned.

‘If he drowned and no one found out what happened, then his body must still be in the lake, right?’ Cordelia asked.

‘I think so. Someone should go looking for him. If the police know he’s in the lake, they should be able to find him. The problem is, how do we let them know where to look? I can’t exactly go to the police station and tell them I spoke to his ghost.’

‘We can send an anonymous tip,’ Cordelia said. ‘Maybe claim we saw him go into the lake around the time he disappeared.’

Lucie frowned. ‘Would they believe someone only called now a week later?’

Cordelia shrugged her shoulders. ‘Could be that we didn’t recognize him at first, we don’t know the child. But after looking at the missing posters, we realized this was the child we saw go into the lake to swim on the same day he disappeared.’

Lucie started rubbing her wrist, something she usually did when she was nervous. Then something occurred to her. ‘If he went swimming and never returned, then he must have left his belongings somewhere, right? A bag, some clothes, at the very least a towel. There was nothing at the beach.’

‘Lots of places where he could have entered the water,’ Cordelia said. ‘Most would be hidden from sight, so a bag or towel would not attract attention there. You mean to say someone might have taken his belongings to cover it up?’

‘Maybe. Or maybe he put the bag somewhere hidden from sight and no one has stumbled upon it yet. I’ll call with an anonymous tip, and claim I just saw a missing poster and realized I saw that boy go into the lake, that he might have drowned.’

Lucie was sick with nerves, staring at the phone. Princess Lucinda, a fictional and much braver version of Lucie, might never have heard of a phone, but she would not be scared to make a simple call if she knew how. But Lucie was terrified of making phone calls. She knew it was a stupid fear, but it was so unpredictable what might happen after someone picked up. What they’d say, what she was supposed to say, how loud someone else was going to sound through the phone. If she could even understand what they were saying, no matter how loud someone was, Lucie often struggled understanding speech through a phone.

‘Do you want me to make the call?’ Cordelia asked.

‘I can do this,’ Lucie said, more to herself than Cordelia, and she picked up the phone and called the police station.

She hung up as soon as she was done, she wanted to avoid questions she couldn’t answer. Police received anonymous tips all the time, right? Would they be looking already? Would they find him?

‘Can we take a walk?’ Lucie asked. ‘For distraction.’

‘That’s alright,’ Cordelia said. ‘Do you think Thomas and Alastair are still out there? Alastair used to take walks of several hours, he can probably spend an entire day there and not get tired of it.’

‘Funny. Thomas did the same thing. His attempt to get away from overprotective family members,’ Lucie said. ‘I’m sure they’re having fun.’

Lucie knew Thomas’ family worried for him because he used to be so sick, and his parents and sisters had never really left the pattern of Thomas being the small sick boy who needed to be cared for. Thomas greatly valued time alone because of that.

Lucie quickly went into her bedroom and changed into something more practical for a walk. When she returned downstairs she noticed a note her parents had left, she’d been so preoccupied with finding out who that boy was she hadn’t seen it at all. Her parents had gone grocery shopping and would be away for some time since the village didn’t offer much vegan food. A couple of months ago, Thomas had decided to go vegetarian because he liked animals and cared about the environment and Lucie had decided to surpass him by trying a vegan diet instead. Thomas couldn’t stay behind and had joined her, leaving two sets of exasperated parents desperately trying to figure out what they could still feed their kids. Both Lucie and Thomas were ridiculously stubborn, so any attempt to change their minds had been in vain. Fortunately, the UK was one of the easiest countries to find vegan food. Lucie was especially proud of Thomas, she knew he struggled with making choices for himself that inconvenienced others and this was something he’d chosen for himself.

Lucie and Cordelia walked into the woods, and Lucie made sure to take in the atmosphere. If this were a scene in her novel, how would she describe the trees? They were tall, for sure, thick, allowing little light to pass through. There was lichen growing over rocks and trees. There was a fog that was worst in the morning but never quite lifted. If this were a scene in her novel, Lucie definitely would mention the fog. It was both beautiful and eerie, the backdrop for a dark or scary scene. There were some birds in the trees, Lucie couldn’t see them, but she could hear them. If the scene became creepy enough, they would fall silent.

‘Is there always a fog here?’ Cordelia asked.

‘Usually,’ Lucie said. ‘I’m not sure why, weather science is not my expertise. It’s worst in the morning. Makes for a nice atmosphere though. Mysterious, eerie.’

‘Creepy,’ Cordelia added.

‘That too,’ Lucie said. ‘If I ever write a gothic or horror novel, this forest shall certainly serve as inspiration.’

‘Now I’m getting nervous,’ Cordelia admitted. ‘What kind of creatures do you think hide here?’

‘Oh, probably nothing,’ Lucie said.

‘Well, if something attacks us I’ll have cortana to fight it with,’ Cordelia said.

‘You brought your sword?’

Cordelia put her hand around her golden necklace. Lucie realized she always wore that necklace, but it had never occurred to her that it was cortana.

‘It changes shape?’

‘Exactly. I can’t exactly walk around carrying a sword, so it changes into a necklace I can wear daily,’ Cordelia said. ‘I’ve never really used it to fight something, but if we are attacked, I can defend us.’

‘Has it always changed into that necklace? Now I’m picturing your father or uncle Jem wearing it,’ Lucie said.

Uncle Jem could look well with it, she guessed, but she couldn’t picture Cordelia’s father wearing a necklace.

‘It changes into something different for each of us. For my father, it was a fancy golden watch. For uncle Jem, it was a jade pendant.’

‘Has Alastair ever carried cortana?’ Lucie asked, curious what it would change into for him.

‘No,’ Cordelia said. ‘He did want it when he was maybe fourteen, but the sword chose me over him. I think he later realized it wasn’t for him anyway. He has his daggers in case something really bad happens, but apart from that he’d rather stay away from the dangerous parts of the supernatural.’

Lucie wasn’t sure what she wanted, if given a choice. Sometimes ghosts could be unsettling, especially when she discovered they had passed recently or asked her if she could solve their murders. She wanted to be a writer, not a hero, but at the same time, she liked being able to see people when no one else could and she liked solving mysteries. She liked being able to help, to give the ghosts some power. Unfortunately, many ghosts needed things she could not give them and reading them parts from her stories didn’t typically help them move on. Some did give useful feedback though.

‘Are his daggers magic too?’ Lucie asked. ‘Like cortana?’

‘I don’t think they can kill anything like cortana does. We don’t know, some are old and have a rich history and for all we know they were magic. Neither of us have been willing to test that though, and Alastair keeps them because he likes collecting them, he doesn’t intend to fight with them if he doesn’t have to.’

Lucie didn’t know the particulars of killing supernatural creatures, and according to her father much of it was trial and error. Cortana was special in that regard, since it guaranteed to kill anything, but for others they would just have to hope whatever weapon they have does something.

‘Do you think they have started looking already?’ Lucie asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Cordelia said. ‘Missing children usually have a high priority, so I guess they would have started already. Searching a lake for a body might take some time, even a small lake like this one.’

‘What are you doing here?’

Lucie and Cordelia turned around to see Alastair and Thomas. Alastair really looked tiny next to Thomas despite being average height, she thought. They both looked like they’d been here for a while, a bit sweaty, Thomas’ face flushed. Alastair’s usually meticulously styled dark hair was a bit messy.

‘We went for a walk.’

‘I thought you wanted to go swimming,’ Alastair said.

‘We did go swimming, but after that we came here,’ Lucie said. ‘For distraction.’

She decided the boys had better know the truth too, and summarized her encounter with Steve’s ghost in the lake and the story he’d told about being unable to get out of the lake.

Thomas looked unusually nervous, was he alright? Alastair looked concerned at most, but as far as Lucie remembered he rarely showed emotion. She wondered if Thomas and Alastair had had any fun during their walk.

‘Trapped in the lake?’ Alastair frowned. ‘There are stories of people getting trapped in certain places by powerful beings. Of course, no one knows if those are true since people who become victims of such things usually don’t live to tell about it.’

‘Perhaps we better return to grandma’s house,’ Lucie suggested. ‘Then we can explain everything, figure out if anything needs to be done.’

On their way back, Lucie did most of the talking. She asked Thomas and Alastair if they had any fun, but neither of them spilled much. Thomas mentioned something about them seeing a hedgehog and that Alastair liked them, and at some point Lucie fell into telling them all about her latest story idea. Only when they were home it occurred to her that Alastair might not care for her stories at all. Lucie could never tell, and when people politely told her something along the lines of ‘that’s interesting’, she tended to take that as an invitation to talk about her projects for the next hours. British people tended to be very polite, so they never said what they meant and left Lucie to figure out what they were trying to say. It was very annoying.

Not long before grandma’s house came back in sight, something caught Lucie’s eye. She stopped, Alastair nearly bumping into her, but she ignored him. Instead, she stared in the direction where she thought she might have seen something. There was a boy there. Not the one from the lake, but another boy of around twelve. Dark hair, light eyes, Lucie realized she recognized him.

‘Lu, are you alright?’ Thomas asked. ‘You look like you’ve seen a- never mind.’

You look like you’ve seen a ghost, except with Lucie that was often the case and it rarely startled her this much.

She’d known about her ability already when Jesse died, had known about for as long as she could remember really. She’d searched for him, in the forest where he’d died, at school. She’d even gone by his mother’s house, who had refused to let her in. She’d never seen him, never even caught a glimpse. He must have moved on already, she’d thought and although she’d wished she’d had a chance to say goodbye, Lucie was fine with the idea of him moving on. It was better than remaining as a ghost.

But here he was, and he hadn’t changed a bit since he’d died over four years ago. Still a twelve year old boy, and it hit Lucie just how young he’d died.

‘Jesse!’ she called out.

Jesse looked up. He had a haunted look in his eyes ghosts sometimes had. He didn’t say anything, nor did he move any closer.

‘Jesse!’ she tried again. ‘It’s me, Lucie! I can see you!’

Jesse opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but then disappeared as if he’d never been there. There was no poof, no cloud of shadows or ray of light in which he disappeared. He was just gone, no evidence that he’d been there at all. But Lucie was sure of what she’d seen. Jesse Blackthorn had just appeared in front of her. But why here, so far from where he’d lived and what he knew? Why now, four years after his death?

‘What is he saying?’ Cordelia asked.

Lucie shook her head as she tried to get her breathing under control. ‘Nothing,’ she whimpered. ‘He’s gone. He disappeared. But he was right there, it was him.’

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Misery

Chapter One

Chapter Two:

Well.  That was… something.  Virgil ended up going back to his room after leaving Thomas to process the something that all of that was.

Thomas needed him.

It was something Janus had told both him and Remus countless times, usually referring to all three of them when he said so.  Thomas needs us.  He just doesn’t know it yet.

But after months of being shut down by the core sides and being told by Misery that he was the last side that deserved to be around Thomas, it was safe to say Virgil found that a little hard to believe.

And yet.

Virgil leaned back against the door that he would have to go out in just a minute to the dark side commons.  He tried to breathe and looked down at his stomach, which was the part of his body most in pain right now.  He lifted up his shirt slightly.  Yeah.  Pride had carved his name there.  Dickwad.

You make us better.

Virgil slid down against the door and squeezed his eyes shut.  That had definitely been one of the least expected parts of his day.  Patton he could have seen coming, and maybe even Logan after that whole “I don’t necessarily mind your company” thing.  But Roman had thrown such a curveball at him that Virgil hadn’t been sure how to direct the conversation back to the way he was supposed to be leaving forever.

And then even his attempts to think of one were cut off by the fact that all of these idiots had been in his room for too long.  So Virgil had decided to get them out before going back to the subconscious.

Which was when he realized that he couldn’t go back to the Subconscious.  Not after what had just happened.  What was he supposed to do now?  But before he even got a chance to really start panicking about that, they all continued to talk about the ways that Virgil could be helpful.  And suddenly he saw a possible way forward.

So he told them his name.  He couldn’t ask them for a show of trust, after all, if he didn’t first give them the same in return.  He had been planning on leaving it at that and going back, but then Roman, well-intentioned idiot that he is, had brought up the others.

Virgil had managed to shut it down fast enough that Janus would be proud, but now he was still here.

He couldn’t go back to the Subconscious again.  The universe had just drop kicked that fact at his head.  Meaning he had to come up with some other way to make this work.

He could maybe convince Malice to see reason, maybe.  Malice didn’t want anyone to stop him from his favorite pain-causing pastime, which might happen if he tried to lock Virgil up again.

Virgil took a shaky breath as a more likely possibility occurred to him.  It would probably be much easier to convince Janus to see reason.  Thomas was the most important thing to Janus, period.  If Virgil played the “keeping me in the Subconscious will hurt Thomas” card, it was pretty likely that Janus would lay down a rule against doing such a thing.  Trying to convince Janus not to lock him up and torture him wasn’t something Virgil thought he’d ever have to do, but here he was.

Virgil turned around and looked at his door.  Thomas needed him.  He couldn’t go back to the Subconscious.  And there were now eight sides standing in the way of him and that goal.

Okay.

Fight time, Virgil.

He clenched his left hand into a fist and took one last breath, then yanked open the door.

…And was met with the three sides he’d just rescued from his own room.

“Oh,” Patton said in surprise.  Roman blinked at him.  Virgil blinked back.

“Er, Virgil,” Logan said slowly.  “It seems like your room has moved up here now that Thomas has accepted you.  I was not aware that was going to happen.”

“I— wasn’t either,” Virgil stammered.

“Um, kiddo,” Patton said hesitantly.  “I know we just had a heartfelt moment and all, but if you don’t feel comfortable staying here you can go back—”

“No!” Virgil blurted, and all three of the core sides (was he supposed to be one of those now?) jerked backwards in surprise.  “I mean— uh— no, I can— I can stay here.  If— if that’s okay with you guys?”

Patton smiled reassuringly.  “Sure, kiddo.”

“It would not bother me in the slightest,” Logan said with a small nod.

“I would not object to such a thing,” Roman said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “Especially not when it seems we have quite a bit to make up to you.”

“Uh.  Okay, thanks,” Virgil said weakly, not sure how to communicate the way he was feeling.  Something in his chest that had been tense for a very, very long time seemed to have just snapped all of a sudden, and Virgil was a little struck by the whiplash of it.

There was another moment’s stretch of awkward silence, and Patton cleared his throat.  “Well, dinner will be in a couple hours, I suppose we’ll see you there?”

Virgil nodded, and reached for the doorknob behind him.  He really hoped none of them would see it as rude, but surely they would understand if he needed a minute to process.

He shut the door after him and thankfully heard some footsteps walking away, so at least he could be sure they wouldn’t be staring at his door for the next couple hours.

Virgil headed immediately to the bathroom and scrambled for his first aid kit.  Where was Misery, he should be coming here to tell Virgil all the things that were wrong with him soon, if he could just get his wounds bandaged before he got there—

Virgil stopped and set the first aid kit on the counter.  Misery couldn’t come upstairs.  None of the others could.  There was a reason they had been so irritated that Virgil was up here all the time to film videos, after all.

Virgil looked in the mirror for a minute, trying to process what he was feeling enough to look away.

He rubbed at the eyeshadow until it smeared and he could see the scars beneath.  Circumstances aside, he did kind of like the darker eyeshadow.  Maybe he’d keep it.  Wouldn’t that be a fun “Fuck you” to Malice.

The cuts under his eyes weren’t deep, and they’d already dried due to the gauze Malice had put there.  He could just cover them with the eyeshadow and it would be fine.

Virgil pulled his hoodie off and set it on the toilet.  No blood had stained it, but he’d definitely have to get rid of his shirt.  It’s not like he could wash it without the others noticing.

He pulled it off and looked at the wounds on his arms and stomach.  He grabbed the gauze and rewrapped them so they weren’t as sloppy, analyzing them as he did.  They’d heal fairly quickly.  They weren’t even that bad yet.  He imagined Malice had been planning something much worse before Virgil had escaped.

Oh, god.  He’d actually escaped.  He’d escaped from the others.

And— and from Remus, Remus and Janus who had wanted to—

Virgil pressed a hand to his mouth.  He leaned back against the wall opposite the sink and sank down to the ground.

It’s fine.

You’re fine.  Stop it, stop thinking about it.  You already knew they hated you, why is this a shock to you?  Besides, you’re gone, you’re not going to have to worry about it, you’re…

He was gone.  Virgil’s eyes widened.

He was gone.  Did that mean he would never have to worry about the others ever again?  Oh god, what would that even be like?  Was it as pathetic as he was thinking that he couldn’t even picture it?

Virgil banged his head back against the door and tried to breathe.  And tried, and tried, and tried, and—

He made it about ten seconds before he broke down sobbing.

It had been a long time since Virgil had seen anything like the others in his new family.  Logan could be prideful, yes, and Patton could have a little bit of toxic positivity sometimes and Roman could be a little mean, but they weren’t anything like the people Virgil had gotten away from.  They’d proved it to him and continued to prove it to him, after all.

Virgil hadn’t intended to ever tell them about anything, but life had a funny way of happening sometimes.  And really it was his own fault.  He was the one stuck in his past when he shouldn’t be, not when what was bothering him wasn’t happening anymore.

And the others did make him feel safer.  They honestly did.  Whenever he asked them if they could do something that would make him feel safer (not that he would ever phrase it that way), they did it without even asking the reason, which was… nice.  Really nice.  In a way Virgil wasn’t sure he would ever stop being grateful for.

He could also appreciate the feeling of being around people he could be sure loved him.  How could he not be sure, when Patton told him every day and Roman would follow it up with comments like “How could we have ever managed without our Dark and Stormy Nightmare?” and Logan would finish with begrudging comments about how he held Virgil in high regard.

Was there often a voice in the back of his head whispering that they were just lying?  Yes.  Was it becoming increasingly easy to whack the voice out of his head with a metaphorical sledgehammer?  Also yes.

Life was… good.  Virgil didn’t think he’d ever been able to say that before.

Which is why it was very annoying when his safe feeling was shattered one day.

He had a definitely bad habit of focusing too much on his scars sometimes.  Until he’d come here, he hadn’t realized just how many he had.  The others had really done an excellent job staying away from his face, until… well, until they hadn’t needed to anymore.

That day in particular, Virgil had been tracing Pride’s name carved into his stomach.  What if he really had done something wrong?  What if it hadn’t just been the fact that the others liked to cause pain?  What if he’d done something to deserve getting hated that much?  It definitely didn’t matter that he couldn’t think of a single thing it could be, it was still possible.  Oh god, what if it was all his fault?  What if he did something again without realizing and his new family started to hate him just as much and he couldn’t do anything about it because he had no idea what he’d done—

Virgil was just starting to spiral down these thoughts when his door suddenly opened with no warning.

“Virgil,” Logan said.  “I apologize for not knocking, and I do not want to worry you, but Roman has been injured on a quest.”

Virgil stood up in alarm and dropped his shirt before following Logan quickly from the room.  “What happened?” he asked as they ran for the steps, already feeling anxious.

“I believe he was fighting the Dragon Witch again and ended up getting a pretty nasty wound in his side,” Logan said.  “I didn’t want to worry you, but I figured you would want to be there.”

“You figured right,” Virgil muttered.  They headed down the steps to see Roman in the living room, and Patton kneeling next to him looking at what appeared to be a fairly large wound in his side.

“Okay,” Logan said.  “From what I know about first aid, we first should—”

“Give me that,” Virgil said, grabbing the first aid kit Logan had summoned and kneeling by Roman’s side.  “Patton, go find an old towel, would you?  Not one of the nice ones.  We’re going to need to put pressure on this.”

“Oh, um, okay,” Patton said, heading for the closet to get a towel.  Virgil looked at Roman’s wound, and ignored the look of surprise Roman was giving him.

“Okay, that’s not great, but it would be a lot worse if it was deeper,” Virgil muttered.  “Roman, are you able to move?”

“Um, yes,” Roman said.  “I got back here on my own, you all really don’t need to be fussing over me—”

“Shush.  Patton, where’s that towel?”

“Here you go,” Patton said, handing it to Virgil.  Virgil started pressing on the wound and made note of Roman’s wince.

“Logan, go get some painkillers, would you?”

“Alright,” Logan said, the only one who seemed to have gotten over his shock if the steadiness of his voice was anything to go by.  Virgil continued to press on the wound until Logan returned with painkillers and a glass of water.

“Roman, take those,” Virgil said.  “You’re going to need to wrap this for a while, but I don’t think it’s going to scar.  Patton, hand me the gauze and the medical tape.  Roman, sit up.  Logan, help him.”

Logan did just that.  “You are correct, it won’t scar,” he remarked.  “Wounds from the Imagination do not scar.”

Virgil thought for a second about how wounds in the Imagination weren’t supposed to exist, and he’d have to talk to Roman about that later, but for now he finished wrapping the wound, taped the gauze down, and checked Roman over for any other injuries.  When he didn’t find anything, he leaned back and took a breath to calm himself down.

“Woah, kiddo, that was… something,” Patton muttered.  “Where did you learn how to do all that?”

Virgil felt a spike of panic and took a minute to come up with something to say.  “I mean, I am the fight or flight instinct,” he settled on.  “Just because I don’t have to know how to treat wounds doesn’t mean it’s a terrible idea.  And you,” he turned to Roman in order to quickly change the subject.  “What the hell were you thinking?  Why would you let yourself get hurt on an adventure!”

“I obviously hadn’t intended to,” Roman said, sounding a little affronted.  “I didn’t expect the Dragon Witch to come out of nowhere like that!  Do you know how sharp her claws are?”

“Yeah, I just saw the evidence of how sharp her claws are,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes.  “Don’t be an idiot next time, okay?”

“Oh, of course, if I intend to get ambushed next time I go on an adventure, I’ll let you all know,” Roman said, throwing his hands up.

“Just be careful in the future, okay kiddo?  You worried us all,” Patton said.

“I…” Roman cleared his throat.  “Alright.  I’m sorry to have worried you.”

“Eh, don’t sweat it.  I can fix up your ass if I have to,” Virgil said, reaching out to help Roman move to the couch.  “Now you’re not going to move for a couple hours.  I’ll put on Disney.”

Virgil hadn’t really expected anything to come from that day, which is why he was surprised when he answered a knock on his door the next day to find Logan.

“Hey, Lo,” he said, pulling his headphones down to rest on his neck.  “What’s up?”

“I need to ask you about something that has deeply concerned me,” Logan said.

Virgil blinked.  “Well okay then Logan, tell me why you’re really here,” he muttered.

Logan tipped his head in confusion.  “I just did.  Do I need to repeat my—”

“No, no,” Virgil said, waving him off.  “Come on in.”

Logan followed Virgil into the room and Virgil shut the door behind them.  “So, what’s up?” he asked, turning to face Logan and leaning back against the door.

“I wanted to inquire about the markings I saw on your abdomen.”

One of Virgil’s hands flew to his stomach, and the other to the doorknob, as his heart flew to his throat.  “What?”

“Yesterday, when I came in.  They did not look good, Virgil, I just wanted to inquire if you were alright.”

“Well I’m fine,” Virgil said instantly.  “So you don’t need to inquire anymore.  Thanks.”  He pulled the door open and gestured for Logan to leave.

Logan didn’t, though.  “Virgil,” he said quietly.  “Are you hurt and not telling us?”

“I’m fine,” Virgil insisted.  “I’m fine now.  Why aren’t you interrogating Roman about the fact that you’re not supposed to be able to get hurt in the Imagination.”

“I was not aware that was a feature of the Imagination, but I will make a note to ask him about that later.  Right now, however, I am more worried about you.”

“Why?  I haven’t been hurt recently.”

“No, but you are being very defensive, and that makes me concerned that something might be wrong,” Logan said, crossing his arms with an indeed very concerned look on his face.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Does saying you haven’t been hurt recently mean that you were hurt on your abdomen?”

“Logan,” Virgil said desperately.  “Stop asking.”

Logan must have picked up on his distress, because he did stop, and folded his hands together in front of him.  “I apologize,” he said hesitantly.  “Is this distressing you?”

“Wow, nice deduction, Sherlock,” Virgil snapped, in a way that he definitely shouldn’t be doing, because Logan hadn’t really done anything wrong.  Virgil took a couple of shaky breaths and leaned against the side of the door.  He didn’t shut his eyes in case Logan was planning on coming any closer.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Logan took a moment to look at him, and he must have been convinced by something, because he nodded.  “Alright,” he said quietly.  “Please know that I am here if that changes, okay?”

Virgil nodded.  “Okay,” he croaked.  “Please leave.”  He opened the door and stepped out with it into the hallway until Logan walked past him, then caught one last glance of Logan’s concerned look before he slammed his door behind him and slid down against it.

Logan wasn’t going to hurt him.  He wasn’t looking for a weakness to exploit.  Nothing bad would happen if Virgil told him, but…

Logan would look at him differently.  He didn’t want pity, not from anyone.  If he told Logan, Logan would look at him like he was a sad little thing that had been through something unspeakable.  And Virgil still wasn’t quite sure he hadn’t been through exactly what he deserved.

But either way, he didn’t want to feel any of the shame that would come with telling someone else what had happened.

No, what he wanted was to go yell at Roman about how he shouldn’t be getting hurt in the Imagination so why was he.  That was far more important.

…

Roman had been surprised when they brought it up to him at dinner.  “What do you mean you can’t get hurt in the Imagination?  I’ve always been able to get hurt in the Imagination.”

“Not if you make it so you can’t,” Virgil said, crossing his arms.  “That’s what the Duke—” he stopped and cleared his throat, looking away.  “I know from experience.”

There was a moment of awkward silence around the table, and just as Virgil was about to say something else to save them from the awfulness of this conversation, Roman spoke up again.

“Well, I truly didn’t know that was something you could do,” he said.  Virgil glanced back over.  “I’ve always tried to make my quests as realistic as possible, that might have something to do with it?”

“That would make sense,” Logan said with a nod.  “You quite literally don’t know what you don’t know.  Though I would recommend adding that factor so we don’t have a repeat of yesterday.”

Roman shrugged.  “Yeah, alright.  That might be a good plan.  I don’t think I’d want a repeat of yesterday either.  You’re sure it won’t scar?”

“Imaginary wounds do not scar, logically speaking. I have yet to be hurt by a surprise attack from the Duke, on the rare occasion that I see him.”

Virgil flinched, and looked down to start picking at his food.  “How often do you see him though?” he muttered.

He had only half-intended for Logan to hear, but he responded a second later.  “It has happened enough times to draw a conclusion,” Logan said.  “And not only have I been able to heal the injury immediately, it has never left a mark on me.  Roman should be able to do the same if he—”

Virgil stood abruptly from the table and all but sprinted from the room.  He heard surprised calls from all three sides, but ignored them and ran up the stairs instead.  He headed for his bedroom and then into the bathroom, and sunk down against the sink.  He pulled his shirt up enough to start running his fingers over the scar that had taken up most of his attention lately.  Then he pulled his sleeves up and ran his hands along his arms.

Why were these here, then?  Why were they here if Logan had never been affected by Remus?  Why—

“Virgil?” A knock came on the bathroom door.

Virgil yelped and jerked upright, yanking his sleeves down and pressing himself further back against the sink.

“Virgil, can I come in?”

Virgil gripped the cabinet handles.  “Okay,” he whispered, making himself just loud enough for Logan to hear.

Logan pulled the door open and immediately knelt on the ground in front of Virgil like he’d expected him to be there.  “Are you alright?” he asked softly.

Virgil fisted his hand in the shirt right over his scar and shook his head.  “I am pathetic, Logan,” he whispered.  “I totally am pathetic.”

“I can assure you that you are no such thing,” Logan said.  “May I ask what is wrong?”

Virgil looked down at his hand.  He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his shirt up enough that Logan could see the scar there.

He could hear Logan’s sharp intake of breath, not sounding completely surprised.  There was a moment of silence and the sound of Logan shifting around.  When Virgil opened his eyes, Logan was sitting criss-cross in front of him.  “Okay,” Logan said quietly.  “Do you want to explain, or do you want reassuring physical contact?”

Virgil couldn’t help the choked-off laugh that escaped.  “Did you just say the words ‘reassuring physical contact’ out loud?” he asked, blinking a couple times very quickly.

“It is the most efficient way to ask if that is what you want, is it not?” Logan asked.  “I did not want to ask if you merely wanted a hug, you could have been unprepared for that kind of thing, or not want any contact at all right now.”

Virgil reached shakily for both of Logan’s hands and pulled them out in front of him, then set their joined hands on the floor.  Logan would have to rip his hands from Virgil’s if he wanted to hurt him now.

Logan didn’t do any such thing, though, and after a moment Virgil started talking.

“They, um.  Liked to hurt me,” he murmured.

“May I ask who ‘they’ is?” Logan asked gently.  “I’m assuming more than just Pride?”

Virgil was about to ask how Logan guessed that part and remember a second later that his name was carved into his fucking stomach.

He nodded.  “Um, Pride.  Cruelty.  Positivity.  Imprudence.  Malice.  Mi—”  Virgil took a shaky breath.  “Misery.”

Logan took a moment to absorb this. “Not Deceit or the Duke?”

Virgil’s breath caught.  “I don’t— um— they were— we were—”  He buried his head in his knees.  “I don’t know what we were, anymore,” he whispered.

Logan didn’t say anything to that.

“Can I tell you that part another time?” Virgil asked.

Logan nodded.  “Of course,” he murmured.

“I didn’t know you could… make the scars go away,” Virgil said.  “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Would you like to try?” Logan asked.

Virgil looked up.  “What?”

“I can help you try, if you’d like.”

“Um.”  Virgil looked down at where the scar under his shirt was.  “Okay.  Yeah.  Yeah, I want to try.  What do you do?”

“Well,” Logan said.  “It’s important to remember that we’re all imaginary aspects of Thomas’ personality, who can already shapeshift.  Logically speaking, if we want to change an aspect of our appearance, we can do so, and there is no reason that should not extend to scars if the side in particular wants it to.”

Virgil nodded slowly.  “Okay.  That makes sense,” he muttered.  He pulled up his shirt and looked at the scar there, thought about what Logan said for a minute, then watched as it faded away.

His eyes widened, and he ran his hand over the now smooth skin.  “It’s gone,” he whispered.

He looked back up at Logan to see him smiling a little bit.  “Good job,” he said with a nod.

“Can I do that to the rest of them too?” Virgil asked.  He was going to pretend he didn’t see the sad look that flashed across Logan’s face.

“Logically speaking, that should be possible,” he said, placing a hand on Virgil’s knee and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Virgil pulled his sleeve up over his arm and ran his fingers over the scars there, then watched as all of them faded.  He didn’t want to take his whole shirt off while Logan was there, so he could do that later, but it was the first time he’d seen his arm without scars in years.  Maybe he could actually wear some short sleeves this summer.

He leaned back against the sink and breathed for a moment.  He looked warily up at Logan.  “Are you…” he stopped.

“Yes?”

“Are you going to pity me now?”

Logan looked curiously at him.  “Pity you?  No, Virgil, I am actually quite proud of you.”

Virgil blinked.  “What?  Why?”

“You have been through something horrible and traumatic,” Logan said, leaning back against the other wall.  “And yet you are here.  You are here, and still kind and loving, in your own way that is.”  He ended the sentence with an amused smile.

“But—” Virgil started.

“Virgil, that takes a tremendous amount of strength,” Logan said, his smile becoming much more genuine.  “I am proud of you for surviving, and getting yourself out of that situation.”

“I didn’t get myself out,” Virgil muttered, ducking his head down into his knees.  “My room just got moved over here.  None of us knew that was going to happen.”

“We did not, that is true,” Logan said.  “But that does not mean it required any less strength for you to leave.  And that is something to be proud of.”

Virgil absorbed that for a minute, then pulled his knees up to his chest and tucked his arms over them.  “Oh,” he said.  “Yeah?  You think so?”

Logan nodded.  “I do.”

Virgil leaned his head back against the cabinets and breathed again.  Logan didn’t seem to expect him to say anything else, and for a while he didn’t.

Finally, he nodded.  “Okay.”

They’d told Patton and Roman, of course.  This wasn’t the kind of thing they could just not tell them.  Virgil had given Logan his permission to tell them himself, because he hadn’t wanted to be there for the conversation.  Logan must have also told them how much talking about the topic seemed to bother him the first time, because none of them brought it up to him after Logan let him know he’d told them.  Meaning that despite one or two times he noticed Patton hugging him a little tighter or Roman being a little bit kinder than he had previously been, things continued mostly as normal.

Virgil honestly couldn’t be totally sure how he felt about everyone knowing now.  It hadn’t changed what he thought it would have, which was nice, but he couldn’t say he loved the idea of everyone else knowing how hurt and alone he’d been.  Granted, they’d probably assumed something of the sort when they thought he’d ducked out.  Should he clarify about that?

The real point was, for the first time in a long time, Virgil was starting to feel safe.  And maybe a little valued.

And then…

Then Janus showed up.

Virgil might have been a little bit more… snappy, than he’d expected to be, after he’d been sure that Janus really was there.  But the second he’d realized what was going on he was suddenly… really angry, in a way he also hadn’t expected.

They’d kicked Janus out of the video, which in Virgil’s opinion couldn’t have happened soon enough, and then he’d headed straight back to his room to process both what had just happened and Logan’s terrible alteration of the already horrible phrase “break a leg.”

The others must have gotten that Virgil wanted some time alone after that, because no one bothered him for a while after the video ended.

And he did want alone time.  He definitely did.  He didn’t want anything else.  He definitely didn’t want any kind of comfort or distraction or anything.  He didn’t need that.  He didn’t want someone to show up and tell him that this didn’t change anything because he already knew it didn’t—

Virgil stopped when he realized what he was doing and who exactly he didn’t want to summon by doing it.  Janus had been revealed to Thomas, he could come up here.  And he was not in the place to deal with that right now.

Virgil got up and headed out towards Patton’s door, because if he wanted emotional support, Patton was probably his best bet.  “Patton?” he called, knocking.

There was a moment of silence before Patton pulled the door open, and smiled in slight surprise when he noticed Virgil.

“Hey, kiddo.  I thought you’d be Roman with my tupperware.  Did you need something?”

“Nothing’s going to change, right?” Virgil asked, sounding a little more desperate than he wanted to be.

Patton’s smile faded.  “Oh, kiddo.  Of course not.  Do you want to come in?”

Virgil nodded and followed Patton back into his room.  They both sat on his bed, and Patton reached for Virgil’s hands and gently squeezed them.  “Virgil,” he said gently.  “You know you’re not responsible for Deceit’s actions, right?  Him revealing himself to Thomas doesn’t say anything about you.”

“I… I know that,” Virgil muttered.  “I’m just… what if you guys were only okay with me having been one of them as long as they weren’t here, and it was just, like, an abstract concept?  What if everyone is suddenly realizing ‘oh, shit, Virgil was a terrible person before’ and—”

“Hey,” Patton said, squeezing Virgil’s hands again.  “First of all, you were not a terrible person, mister, so you can cut that out right now.  And second, how much we love you does not depend on where you come from, okay?  I can promise you that all of us understand that.  It’s okay, kiddo.  No one is going to think differently of you just because we may see Deceit every now and then.”

“Well, it sounds kinda silly when you put it that way,” Virgil mumbled.

“It’s not silly.  It’s okay to be worried, and I’m happy to give some reassurance if you want it.”

Virgil looked down at his and Patton’s still joined hands.  “Okay,” he said.  He paused and bit his lip as he thought something else over.  “…Hey Pat?”

“Yes?”

“I… I’m really angry at him.  I wasn’t expecting to be so angry.  Do you know why?  What’s going on?”

“Well,” Patton said slowly.  “I can’t always explain your feelings for you, kiddo.  So if that’s what you want me to do, you might be out of luck.  But no matter what, it’s okay to be angry.  Do you want to maybe explain what you were thinking when he showed up?”

“I— I don’t know,” Virgil stammered.  “I just— Patton, this place was like— like one of my only safe havens.”  He looked down at the blanket below him and started fidgeting with it.  He’d never talked about this with Patton before.  “When I was down there, seeing anyone was a bad thing, because it meant someone wanted to— to hurt me in some way.  But it wasn’t always like that with him, and then he just— he—” Virgil cut himself off.  “Why does he just get to show up here like everyone down there didn’t ruin my life?  Why does he get to pretend like everything is fine as if I wasn’t dealing with so much bullshit that I— I shouldn’t have had to deal with!”  He pulled his hands back and started tugging hard on his hoodie strings.  “I didn’t deserve what I went through, Patton,” he said.  “Why didn’t he do anything?”

Patton was quiet for a long moment.  “Okay,” he said, and Virgil tried to ignore the slight crack in his voice.  “So there’s some things to unpack there.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Virgil muttered, glaring down at the bedspread.

“Language,” Patton scolded lightly.  “Okay, first of all, it sounds like you’re angry because you don’t think you deserved what you went through, which is a good thing.  Because that’s true, Virgil.”

“It’s not…” Virgil trailed off.  “I… I don’t know.  It’s not really something I think… all the time.  I think it’s easier when there’s someone I can be angry at.”

“That makes sense,” Patton said with a small nod.  “And I think that’s okay for now.  But I don’t really think I could answer your second question.”  He gave a sad smile.  “I wasn’t there.  Are you sure Deceit knew?”

“He knew,” Virgil muttered.  “Right before I left at least, if not before.”

Patton nodded a little.  “Okay.  Well, I don’t know why he didn’t do anything then.  I don’t think I could answer that without it reflecting negatively on Deceit, and correct me if I’m wrong but it… doesn’t seem like that’s what you want.”

“I don’t know what I want,” Virgil admitted.  “I know what I want from him, but I don’t think I’m going to get it.”

Thankfully, Patton didn’t ask, because Virgil wasn’t sure how to tell him that what he really wanted was an apology and a promise to do better.  Patton didn’t like Janus, he probably wouldn’t like hearing that Virgil still cared under all the anger.  Why even did he care?  Janus didn’t care about him.  He should have returned the favor a long time ago.

“I guess…” he sighed.  “I guess I just want to not have to deal with my world falling apart again.”

“You’re not going to have to deal with that,” Patton said firmly.  “Kiddo, you have reason to believe that the future will be positive.  And if anyone tries to hurt you again…” Patton gave a tight-lipped smile.  “Well, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to say what I’d do.”

Virgil laughed a little.  “Dang.  Well they better watch out, then.”

“That’s right.  Nothing worse than an angry Dad facing people who hurt his kiddo.”

“Okay, enough cute talk,” Virgil said, nudging Patton backwards a little.  “Can we go find the others?  You think Roman could set up a picnic in the Imagination for dinner?”

“I think that’s a great idea.  It’ll give him an excuse to keep hunting for my tupperware.”

Virgil smirked.  “You think he lost it?”

“He definitely lost it,” Patton said with a firm nod.  “But a picnic sounds nice anyway.  I’ll find Logan, you find Roman?”

“Deal,” Virgil said, standing up and following Patton out of the room, and enjoying the more positive feeling that had either come from Patton, or his room, or most likely both.  Maybe things would be okay.  They’d been alright so far.

Ugh.  Nevermind.  He had definitely spent too long in Patton’s room if he was being optimistic.

Virgil shook his head and smiled a little anyway as he went to go find Roman.

Virgil wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to avoid Janus with how he was suddenly coming around now, but his luck had seemed to run out around Christmastime, because of course it did.  Wasn’t it just like Janus to ruin Christmas, and the fact that he ruined it when it was Halloween-themed just made the whole thing worse.

At least the interruption was mercifully short, even though it still put Virgil a little more on edge than he would have been otherwise, which was obviously Janus’ intention.  He still didn’t want to take out that energy on anyone he cared about though, so it was almost a good thing when Janus showed up to talk about the stupid callback.  Almost.

Roman was a little down in the dumps afterwards, and Virgil knew the idea of giving up the callback wasn’t fun for him.  Just because he didn’t see it as a priority in the same way didn’t mean that he couldn’t be disappointed for Roman.

There was another part to that though, and that was that Roman had finally stopped looking at Janus as the incredibly nice person who sometimes made good points.  That was definitely a plus side to this whole thing.  And as disappointed as Virgil was for Roman, if this kind of situation was what it took to keep Roman safe from Janus, Virgil couldn’t really object to it that much.

He still didn’t like Roman’s moping, though.  Which is why he was currently here.

Roman finished swiping at the beast he was fighting as Virgil watching from the sidelines with a roll of gauze in his pocket, even though he wouldn’t need it because Roman had set it so that he couldn’t get hurt here forever ago, and Virgil would have screamed his head off if he had changed that back for any reason.

Roman turned to face Virgil with a slightly-smaller-than-usual smile.  “Well!  That’s that I suppose.  Thank you for accompanying me, Virgil.”

“It doesn’t have to be the end if you don’t want it to be,” Virgil said, trying to come up with an excuse for Roman to keep them here for a little longer without making it obvious that’s what he was doing.  The whole point of this was to cheer Roman up, after all.

“Would you like to do something else?” Roman asked.

“Well, I mean… are you really going to kill the monster and not give everyone in the kingdom a chance to sing your praises?  Seems to me like you deserve it,” Virgil said with a shrug.

Roman gave him a larger smile.  “You know what Stormcloud, you are absolutely right!” he called.  “Come, let us mount our steeds, and we shall return to the kingdom!”

“Ah, and what adventure would be complete without the signature Egotistical Prince voice,” Virgil said with a smirk.

“It is critical to the experience!” Roman proclaimed, untying the imaginary horse he’d made from the imaginary tree he’d tied it to.  Virgil untied his own imaginary horse and climbed on top of it.

The ride back to the kingdom didn’t take long, and he wasn’t surprised by the cheerful voices of the subjects as they greeted and praised Roman for killing the monster that had been endangering them.

Virgil rather liked the way Roman used his Imagination.  The people stayed pretty much the same, and that meant he had managed to get attached to a couple of them.  Catherine the baker made excellent pastries, and Virgil could always appreciate them.  Maxwell the blacksmith always let him try out a couple of the weapons if he wanted to, and though most of the time it would take too long for Virgil a while to convince himself he wouldn’t get hurt, the few times he’d done target practice on a good anxiety day had been some of his favorite memories with Roman.

He wondered sometimes if Remus had started making people after he didn’t have to worry about Virgil’s “no one gets hurt” protocol anymore.  He’d definitely enjoy ripping some people to shreds.

Roman had made a large castle in the distance, but he still spent most of his time down in the village with his subjects when they ended up here.  Today, they ended up in Catherine’s bakery to eat one of her cherry pies.

Patton might end up irritated that they spoiled their dinner, but he’d definitely understand when they told him what they’d eaten instead.

Roman stood after they finished.  “Thank you, Virgil,” he said with a smile.  “This was a fantastic suggestion.  Shall we start heading back now?”

“What?  No, of course not!” Virgil called, jumping up too.  “We’re just getting started!”

Roman gave him a look.  “Okay, Knightmare, what’s going on?  You never want adventures to last this long.  They freak you out.”

“What?  No they don’t,” Virgil said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Roman gave him a look.

“Okay, maybe a little.  I just… really want to spend time with you is all!”

“We don’t have to go on an adventure to do that.”

“Well— uh—” Virgil sighed and sat back down.  “Okay, fine.  I was just… trying to cheer you up is all.  I mean, after the last video, I just…”

“Oh, is that all?” Roman said, pasting on an obviously fake smile.  “Well, there’s no need to do something like that!  I’m fine, Virgil!”

“Roman.”

“Why would a hero be disappointed after doing what’s right?  Honestly Virgil, this was all just silly on your part!  Come on, let’s go home—”

“So you can avoid me for the rest of the day by hiding in your room so I don’t see how upset you absolutely are?” Virgil said, rolling his eyes.

“What?  No, of course not, I—”

“Roman, come on.  You said yourself in the video that it wasn’t easy for you.  It’s okay if you’re disappointed.”

“I…” Roman must have seen that Virgil wasn’t going to let up, because he sighed and sat back down.  All of the other people in the bakery either went to the back or outside, so Roman must have wanted the feeling that they were completely alone, even if they technically already were.

“I meant what I said,” he continued.  “Thomas wouldn’t want to achieve his goals through deceptive means.  But it still feels…”  He sighed.  “I don’t know, Virgil.”

“That’s okay,” Virgil said.  He knew when he came in here that he wasn’t going to be as good at this as, say, Patton, but he’d still wanted to try.  “I think it’s okay to be disappointed even if you think you made the right choice.”

“I…” Roman ran a hand through his hair.  “I don’t know if I do think I made the right choice, Virgil.  I’m supposed to help Thomas achieve his goals.  Shouldn’t I be willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen?”

“No,” Virgil said firmly.  “No one should do whatever it takes to make their goals happen.  That’s why you made the choice you did.  If Thomas went to the callback and got the part he would feel guilty, Roman.  Is that really how you’d want to do this?”

Roman was silent for a minute.  “I’m not going to change my mind,” he said, glancing up.

Virgil blinked.  “Uh.  Good?  What does that have to do with this?”

“If that’s why you’re here—”

“It’s not,” Virgil said.  “Roman, I meant what I said.  I’m here because you seemed bummed and I wanted to cheer you up.”

“I don’t know if you can do that right now,” Roman sighed, leaning back in his chair.  “Not all the way.  But I appreciate the effort.”

Virgil stood up and offered a hand to Roman.  “You want to go somewhere else?”

Roman nodded.  He stood up and took Virgil’s hand, and the Imagination shifted around them until they were both high up in the air, in a hot air balloon, with the sunrise in the background.

“Roman, I swear to Thomas if this thing breaks,” Virgil said, moving closer to the middle of the balloon.

“It won’t.  And even if it does we can’t get hurt, remember?” Roman said, leaning over one of the edges.

Virgil took a breath to calm himself and sat down.  Roman joined him a second later.

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up,” Roman said.  “I just think I’m going to be upset about this for a while.”

Virgil nodded a little.  “That’s okay.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Even if I think I ultimately did the right thing?”

“Yes.”

Roman leaned back on his hands.  “Okay.”

They were both quiet after that, and after a while the feeling that the hot air balloon was going to tear on a ridiculously tall tree faded, and Virgil watched the sunrise and enjoyed the birds that were passing them.

“Next time have us flying through a storm,” Virgil said.

“You want me to bring the side that gets freaked out by adventuring into a storm while riding in a hot air balloon.”

“Absolutely.  I won’t get scared at all.  Besides, it matches my logo.”

Roman snorted and shook his head.  “You are in fact something else, Stormcloud.”

…

Roman at least seemed to be feeling a little better after that, if still disappointed.  But Virgil had meant it when he said that was okay.  He was the last side who was going to yell at Roman for being upset about something.  The things he normally got upset about were so inconsequential that it would just make him a hypocrite.

He hadn’t really expected Roman to want to talk about it again, if the way he usually dealt with being upset was any indication, but Roman showed up at his door the next day looking determined.

He marched into his room holding a notebook with some kind of list on it, which was when Virgil realized that his original assumption was still probably right, and he probably didn’t want to talk about the callback again.

“Uh, can I help you Princey?” Virgil asked, sitting down on his bed.

“Actually, I am trying to help you, if you’d like,” Roman said.

Virgil raised an eyebrow.  “Okay?”

“Can I ask you something that might end up being kind of personal?”

“Um…” Virgil tried to consider where he was mentally today.  He could probably handle a personal conversation.  He shrugged.  “Yeah, sure.”

“Why don’t you like adventures?”

Nope, nevermind.  Personal conversations were a nightmare.

Virgil swallowed.  “I don’t know if you’d want to hear about this.”

“Well, I…” Roman cleared his throat awkwardly.  “I very much enjoyed spending time with you yesterday the way we did.  I wondered if there was something I could do to help you enjoy adventures more, or ways to make ones where we could both have fun.  But if it’s just too much as a whole you’re not required to, of course,” he finished quickly, holding his hands up.

“No, I get what you mean,” Virgil said.  “It’s just… not a happy story.”

“Stories… are not always happy,” Roman said hesitantly.

Virgil gave a bitter chuckle.  “Ain’t that the truth,” he mumbled.  “Okay.  Um.  You know how I used to spend most of my time with Deceit and your brother?”

Roman nodded.

“Well, you also know there were a ton of other sides down there too, and they didn’t know our names, and we didn’t really like some of them, and I uh, well you know what they did to me.”

Roman nodded again, though he now looked like he was trying to suppress some anger.  Virgil looked away so he wouldn’t have to focus on that.

“So, we ended up spending most of our time in the Imagination.  And with the two of them being, uh, them, we did stuff like blowing things up, and fighting whole armies of monsters, and blowing more things up.  Uh, Remus really likes explosives.”

“I can imagine,” Roman said, rolling his eyes.

“Heh, yeah.  So, Remus used to make it so you couldn’t get hurt in the Imagination, because that let me actually have fun and not have to worry about me or someone else getting hurt and not being there to protect them.”

“He… really, he did that?” Roman asked curiously.  “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“I think I just annoyed him after one too many panic attacks when we were younger,” Virgil muttered.  “But he must have gotten fed up eventually, because one day—”

“He turned the filter off again?” Roman asked, eyes widening.

“Uh, not exactly, no.  I think… I think Imprudence might have found a way to do that.  Or something.  Or maybe Misery just ended up making me scared enough that I managed to shut it off on my own.  But I don’t think it was Remus’ fault.  He didn’t even really do anything at first.  At first it was just Imprudence dragging me along on a crazy risky adventure and not caring when I got hurt.”

Roman shook his head as he seemed to absorb that.  Then he glanced back up a second later.  “Wait, if Imprudence is the one that did this, why bring up my brother?  Just the fact that it was his Imagination?”

“Uh, no,” Virgil said.  He sighed and looked away.  “I think that was around the time that he got fed up again, because next time we went into the Imagination together, I got hurt again.”

Roman’s gaze darkened.  “And he didn’t care?”

“He… I don’t…” Virgil looked down, trying to puzzle out the conflicting memories in his head.  “I don’t know.  Maybe he would have then.  But he doesn’t now.”

“What?  Why not?  What changed?”

“I don’t know,” Virgil muttered.  “I…”  He sighed.  “Did I ever tell you guys what happened the day I ducked out?”

Roman shook his head.

Virgil took a deep breath.  “Okay.  Maybe that’s a story for another time.  It doesn’t really have anything to do with what you’re asking me anyway.  I just… I think that kind of got rid of the ‘Imagination is safe’ mindset that I had, so I can’t really have fun on adventures anymore.”

Roman shook his head.  “That’s awful,” he said.  “They just took that from you.”

“I’m okay, Roman.”

“No, I’m serious, I—” Roman gave a harsh sigh and shook his head.  “I would do unspeakably cruel things to them if I ever got my hands on any of them.”

“That’s not very princely of you,” Virgil said, raising an eyebrow.

“You don’t get princely behavior when you hurt my family,” Roman said firmly.  He sighed a second later.  “But if you do not wish for me to hurt anyone then I won’t.”

Virgil blinked, startled at the idea of that being left up to him.  He’d never once had that kind of power.  He didn’t really have any clue what he wanted to do with it.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Virgil muttered finally.  “And there’s way more of them.  And they have other ways to incapacitate you besides beating you in a fight.”  Just ask Misery.

Roman sighed and crossed his arms.  “Understood.  I still think I could take out a few of them and it would definitely be worth it.  They need to pay.”

“Well, I’m here now.  If nothing else, they probably don’t like that they lost their plaything.”

Roman looked back at him more quickly than Virgil expected.  “Virgil, that— that’s not how you see yourself, is it?”

Virgil shook his head.  “No.  But that’s how they saw me.  That’s probably still how they see me.  And I just… I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of hurting me ever again.  I’m not going to give them that satisfaction ever again.”

“Good, because they won’t.  If for no other reason then because I would never allow it.”

Virgil smiled a little.  “Thanks, Roman.  And for the record, I do get it.  I hate them too.”

Roman smiled back.  “Good,” he said again.  He walked over to sit on the bed.  “Now, anyway.  Back to the reason I came here,” he said, looking down at the notebook he’d brought with him.  “It sounds like what you’d need to enjoy an adventure would be an obvious safety net.  Something that you could look at that would reassure you that everything around you was safe.”

“That… does sound like it would help,” Virgil admitted.

“Okay,” Roman said.  He scribbled a couple things down, then flipped the page and started sketching something.  When he finished, he handed the notebook to Virgil.  On the page was what looked like a rather simple device, just a square box with a button on it.

“How about something like this?” Roman asked.  “I could make you a failsafe, that if you feel like the adventure is getting to be too much or you’re worried someone will get hurt, you can just hit the button and everything would freeze until you hit the button again, to unfreeze everything?”

Virgil considered that for a moment.  “That… that sounds nice, Princey,” he said, and his voice definitely didn’t crack in any way, that would be stupid.

Roman beamed.  “Wonderful!  I’ll get started on that today, and when you feel up for something, just come ask me!”

Roman seemed ready to jump up and get started, but Virgil stopped him by pulling him into a hug.  “Thanks, Roman,” he mumbled into his shoulder.

Roman returned the hug.  “Of course,” he said.  “Think nothing of it.  I’ll enjoy this very much too, after all.”

Eventually, Virgil pulled back and let Roman climb up, after which he clutched his notebook to his chest with a cheerful remark that he’d go get started.

Virgil laid back on his bed and smiled up at the ceiling.  This didn’t sound like a terrible idea at all.  Maybe if they could keep turning Janus’ actions into something like this, things would still turn out okay.

Remus, as always, threw a wrench into everything just by being himself.

His introduction video freaked Virgil out beyond belief, and he wasn’t even the one who ended up the worst off from it.  Patton had gone through a major existential revelation, Roman had been whacked in the head with a morningstar at the beginning of the video and Logan had gotten his teeth knocked out of his mouth and also been temporarily murdered.

They’d reached a better point by the end of the video, or at least, that had been what Virgil thought they’d reached, before he’d gone and fucked everything up by telling Thomas that he’d used to be a dark side.

He ended up in his room like he had when Janus first showed up, but unlike when that had happened, this time he was pretty sure he genuinely wanted to be alone.  He already knew that Patton, Roman, and Logan didn’t think any differently of him because he used to be a dark side, but Thomas?  Thomas hadn’t known until now.  There was no telling what his reaction would be.

Virgil took as deep a breath as he could currently manage.  It would probably be fine, probably.  Thomas had to know he didn’t want to go back, right?  He had to know he didn’t want to be anything like the people he’d left behind, the ones he knew about anyway.  He would probably be able to better explain himself if he also told Thomas about… the others others, but he’d had enough big emotional reveals for one day, and he didn’t know if he could take anything else.  Not with Thomas, anyway.

Virgil paused as he considered that.  There were other sides he could still talk to that would probably understand exactly why telling Thomas this would freak him out so much.  Maybe he could try and talk to Roman again.  The creative side had for some reason become the one he went to when he needed reassurance as of late.

He could probably use some cheering up too, as whatever amount Virgil had managed to cheer him up after the last video was probably thrown out the window when Remus showed up.

Virgil sighed and pushed himself off his bed, then headed through the hall towards Roman’s room.  When he knocked, however, the door swung open and the room was empty, which definitely wasn’t a good sign.

The door to the Imagination was open too, meaning Roman was probably in there.  Virgil had left his button back in his room, but if Roman was in a bad mood he probably wouldn’t need it anyway.  He took a couple steps in, and sure enough, it was a cloudy day with no sign of any kind of monster or beast to fight.

“Roman?” Virgil called, just in case he was nearby.  No one responded, and Virgil started for the castle in the distance, which was usually where Roman ended up if he wanted to mope.  He kept an eye on the clouds overhead as he did, but it didn’t look like they were in danger of pouring down on him, and even if they did, Roman could snap his fingers and dry him off instantly if Virgil showed up to the castle wet.

He started making his way through the forest between here and the kingdom, and trying to listen to the birds tweeting to calm himself down.  Just because he didn’t think he’d need the button didn’t mean that being in the Imagination alone wasn’t scary.  He didn’t think he’d have been able to deal with any kind of surprises, which was why the calm Imagination was exactly what he needed right now.

He couldn’t really say he was surprised when Remus didn’t get that memo.

“Virgey!”

Virgil shrieked as Remus slammed into him.  “Remus, get off me!” he cried, shoving the other side backwards and into the tree of the other side of the pathway he was walking on.

“Aww, but you haven’t given me a hug in far too long Virgil!  I have to compensate by tackling you!”

“You really don’t,” Virgil snapped, clenching his hands into fists to disguise and distract from his heart starting to race in his chest.  “In fact, how about instead you get the fuck out?”

“Ugh, what’s your problem?” Remus said, yanking one of the small tree branches off and starting to pick at his teeth with it, apparently missing the way that Virgil slid about three feet backwards the second that he did.

“My problem is I was busy.  I’m trying to go find the brother that you knocked out for most of the morning.”

“Ew, you spend time with Ro-bro voluntarily?  Gross.”

“At least he’s better company than you,” Virgil spat, hoping Remus would take the hint and go away.

Instead, he just smiled wider.  “Oh, Virgin, you know you love me.  Or at the very least you miss all my sex jokes.”

Virgil glared away and was going to pretend the first part of that sentence didn’t sting.  “Why are you even here?”

“Um, Thomas knows about me?  I’m allowed over here now.  And if you think I’m not going to take advantage of that by bugging Ro-bro, it really has been too long since you’ve seen me.”

“Get out,” Virgil snapped.  “Roman doesn’t need any more shit right now.”

“Well dang it, and here I was thinking he’d like this bucket of shit I was going to dump on his porch,” Remus called, summoning a bucket that definitely smelled less than awesome.

“You’re disgusting,” Virgil grumbled, turning his back as much as he dared and starting towards Roman’s castle again.

Remus just continued to follow, though, at least vanishing the bucket as he did.  “What’s with the crab walk?  Oh, are you actually trying to practice walking like a crab?  I could give you some real crab legs if that would be helpful.  That’s how I do it.”

Sure enough, a second later, Remus made two large red crab legs appear, coming out of the sides of his stomach.  “They hurt like a bitch!” he called.  “Want some?”

Virgil flinched backwards.  “No,” he hissed.  “Get away, asshole.”

“You want to help me mess with Roman?  We could blow up his kingdom, it could be like a blast from the past,” Remus said with a grin, nudging Virgil in the side with one of his crab legs.

“You’re not funny,” Virgil grumbled, shifting as far away from Remus as the path would allow.  It’s not like he was going to run through open woods with Remus on his tail.  He tried to focus on the fact that Roman had made it so he absolutely definitely couldn’t get hurt in here, and not the fact that it was becoming slightly harder to breathe.

“And you’re no fun anymore!” Remus called.  “You want to do something else instead?  We could burn the forest down,” Remus said, looking around with a wild look that Virgil did not like.  “Or we could go find some of those villagers that Roman makes for no damn reason.  You want to teach him a lesson by killing some of them?”

Before he could think it through in the way that he probably should have, Virgil took off through the forest, trying to run fast enough to calm his breathing and heart rate down— which was probably going to have the opposite effect of what he desired.

Especially when he heard Remus start laughing and chase after him.  “Hell yeah, chase sequence!” he called.

“Get out you dickwad!” Virgil screamed behind him, which also didn’t have much of the desired effect if the way that Remus’ started to gleefully cackle was anything to go by.

He eventually made it to the edge of the forest, which at least gave him more than one direction to run, and he turned and started to sprint for the nearby creek that flowed down from the cliff.  Absolutely no change he was going up it, but there were caves he could probably hide in if he got far enough ahead of Remus.

That didn’t seem to be terribly likely, though, because a second later Virgil looked back and saw Remus not three feet behind him.

Okay, new plan.  Virgil moved slightly to the side and stopped running, and sure enough, Remus kept running past him for a couple seconds, which gave Virgil time enough to spin around and start running in the other direction.

He made it to one of the caves and was debating whether to look back when Remus must have decided to jump or something, because a second later he was tackled again and they both ended up tumbling onto the ground.

“That was fun!” Remus called happily, apparently deciding to completely ignore the way that Virgil had thrown his hands over his face and was starting to shake.  Instead, he took Virgil’s arms and pulled them both to their feet, which was… confusing.  It had to have been easier for Remus to hurt him if he was crouched over him while also on top of him.  “I didn’t know you liked predator and prey roleplay!  What do you want to do now?” He started bouncing on the balls of his feet, and Virgil hesitantly pulled his hands down from his face to look at him.

He didn’t look particularly like he wanted to hurt him right now.  In fact, he’d just wasted his best opportunity to do so.  But maybe that would change if he wasn’t having fun.  Maybe Virgil should just go along with it?  That had worked a couple times in the past with sides like Imprudence.

He swallowed.  “Do you have a suggestion?”

Remus lit up.

…

“And when you pull the parachute string, the parachute should have a giant picture of my dick!” Remus screamed.  “Get it, that’s why the parachute is so big!”

“I hate you!” Virgil screamed, hoping his voice couldn’t be heard over the wind and knowing that even if it was Remus probably wouldn’t care.

“Okay, drop zone is coming up!” Remus called.

“Are you sure this a good idea?” Virgil yelled back.

“Virgey, you gotta get out of your head sometimes!  Things are more fun if you don’t think them through.  Now let’s go!”  He pointed towards the outside of the plane.

Virgil turned and jumped before Remus could shove him and tried to resist the urge to tuck himself into a small ball and scream his lungs out, as that would be dangerous in two ways from so high up in the air.  Remus, on the other hand, flew past him from the other side, having already made himself as small as possible in order to fall faster.

Virgil tried to take as deep a breath as possible and resist the urge to pull his chute right then and there.  Remus said pulling it too early meant they could miss the landing zone, and Virgil had no idea what Remus would do to him if that happened.  The alarm that Remus had installed on the backpack would apparently go off when it was time to pull the chute, since they were without any kind of jump instructor.

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut and tried to breathe.  It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay, it’s going to be okay, Virgil.

Alarm.  Virgil yanked the chute open, and opened his eyes just in case something went wrong and he had to prepare for his imminent—

Woah.

That was a view.

Remus must have pulled on his strings enough to maneuver him closer because he was suddenly just above Virgil.  “Hey, Emo, check this out!” he called.  He waved his hands towards the clouds above them, and suddenly thunder rumbled, soft enough that it sounded like it was distant, had Remus done that?  Raindrops started to fall, cool enough to be pleasant, and Virgil could breathe with far more ease than during freefall.  Birds flew a little ways below them.  Remus would probably try and kick one.

“I can manipulate the Imagination over here too!” Remus called happily, and Virgil glanced back up at him to find him starting to grin mischievously.  “I’m sure this will be useful later.”

“Oh, great,” Virgil muttered, looking back at the view around them.  The castle in the distance seemed much smaller from high up in the air like this, and with the weight of the parachute slowing his fall, Virgil found himself only half deeply terrified of crashing into the ground and dying without his failsafe button.

Remus did in fact seem to be aiming to kick one of the birds, but otherwise Virgil was surprised by how peaceful everything seemed.  What was Remus playing at?

Virgil wasn’t sure if it was Remus’ intention to get him to let his guard down, but he was a little embarrassed to admit it was kind of working, especially after Remus landed his kick on the bird and seemed to take such a delight in doing so that he didn’t stop grinning the rest of the way down.  The view was amazing, and the breeze and raindrops were both calm enough to cool him down without making him cold or interfering with his parachute.  The thunder tumbled above them while still sounding like it was coming from far away.  Virgil breathed in the rain smell and sighed on the exhale.

At first he almost thought they landed too soon.  And then a second later he was sure they did, because Remus was turning to face him and bouncing excitedly again.  “What now?” he asked, grinning way too wide for Virgil’s comfort.

“Uh— I don’t know,” Virgil stammered.  “What do you want to do?”  Maybe he just had to last until someone noticed his absence.  It was a couple hours until dinner, someone would pick up on something then, right?

“I just picked,” Remus said.  “Come on, it’s your turn.  I want to see how boring you’ve gotten without J-anus and I around.”

Oh, god, he was definitely supposed to pick the right thing, whatever Remus had in mind as such.  He was dealing with Remus, that could be anything.  Okay, okay, probably something Remus would want to do for fun.  Like… uh…

“Um… you still want to blow up Roman’s village?” Virgil asked weakly.

Somehow, Remus beamed even wider.  “Well, look who warmed up to the idea!  Come on, let’s go kill some of the villagers!”  He grabbed Virgil’s hand and started pulling them back towards the kingdom.

“What, no!” Virgil blurted.

Remus stopped and turned to give Virgil a curious look.  “Why not?”

“They— I— I don’t— please don’t hurt them,” Virgil squeaked, feeling like the most pathetic person on the face of the planet.

Remus seemed to think so too if his laugh was anything to go by.  “Virgey, they’re not real, dummy.  They can’t even feel pain.”

“Yeah but they— they—” Virgil didn’t know how to explain any of the thoughts running through his head in a way that wouldn’t piss Remus off, from the way that he didn’t think he’d be able to stomach watching Catherine or Maxwell die, to the way that watching Remus kill someone as a way to prevent himself from getting hurt felt scummy, and definitely wouldn’t do wonders for how anxious he already was, to the fact that the absolute last thing he wanted to do right now was go anywhere near explosives again with the likes of Remus.

Unfortunately, the longer it took him to get his thoughts in order, the more worried he got about pissing Remus off, which in turn just made it take longer to get his thoughts in order, and now Virgil was halfway to a panic attack and Remus was noticing.

“Oh wait, uh shit I’m so bad at this uh— Virgil?  Hey try and breathe, okay?”

Virgil had barely managed to process that sentence before Remus was moving towards him, and Virgil was scrambling backwards in the landing area that had nothing to hide behind, and he couldn’t focus long enough to tell if Remus was going to stop coming closer.  Before Virgil could scream anything at Remus about leaving, or try and focus enough to just sink out, he tripped over his own feet and landed hard on the ground, then threw his arms in front of his face on instinct.  He braced for the blow that was definitely coming, and flinched hard backwards when a hand touched his arms a second later.

But the hand just pulled his arm down from in front of his face and then started tapping on it.  Virgil wasn’t entirely sure what the tapping was for, but it was slow and calming enough that eventually his breathing started to slow down to match it, and when he finally managed to stop outright panicking, he opened his eyes to see Remus, kneeling down in front of him and looking… concerned?

“What are you doing?” Virgil croaked, pulling his hand away and scooting further backwards.

“Oh, well I was thinking that you probably couldn’t hear me talking over how loud your breathing was, so I was trying to tap a slower rhythm on your hand, which wasn’t that hard, you were breathing really fast—”

“Why haven’t you hurt me yet?”

Remus stopped talking and proceeded to blink at Virgil for a couple seconds.  “What are you talking about?  Why would I do that?”

“Wha— because I had a panic attack and now we don’t get to go do the thing you wanted to do?”

“Oh, yeah, because hurting you when you’re already panicking is definitely going to help,” Remus said, rolling his eyes.  “Is this you trying to be self deprecating?  I don’t care about the stupid village if you’re—”  He cut himself off and looked at Virgil in silence again.  Virgil tried not to feel like he was being stared at under a microscope.

“…You’re not.  You— do you actually think I’m going to hurt you?”

“Uh.”  Virgil didn’t know what Remus wanted him to say to that.  “Yeah?”

Well apparently he’d said the wrong thing, because Remus just kept staring at him, which was the opposite of helpful.

“Why would I do that?” Remus asked.

“What— you hurt people all the time!  You just murdered Logan while we were filming not two hours ago!”

“Yeah, but I don’t care about Logan.  And on that matter, why would I hurt you if you’re already freaking out?  Do you think I’m mad at you or something?”

“I— I don’t know,” Virgil stammered, pushing himself back a couple more feet and managing to stand by pushing himself up, ignoring the way his legs were still shaking.

Remus looked at Virgil again.  Virgil felt like Remus was having to try way too hard to process things that should really be obvious at this point.

“So, you think that because you left, I’m just now mad enough to want to hurt you all the time?” Remus asked, crossing his arms and suddenly looking a little angry.  “How am I not supposed to be offended by that?”

“It’s not just because I left,” Virgil said, starting to get a little angry himself.  “You… you expect me to trust you when you say you’re not going to hurt me?  How am I not supposed to be offended by that?  After what you were going to do?  God you— you’re both just the worst, you know that?  You and Janus.”

Remus narrowed his eyes, though he looked more confused again than angry.  “What do you mean after what I was going to do?”

Virgil sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.  “You know what, I don’t have to take this anymore.  If you do try and hurt me I’m kicking your ass, got it?  Now stay away from me.”

He sunk out before Remus could reply.

Janus could understand Remus’ desire to hang around with the core sides all the time, if he really thought about it.  That didn’t mean he liked it.

Remus had only had so many people to mess around with for most of his life.  Janus could easily understand how that could get boring for someone like him, even if he was more than willing to help out sometimes or just have some fun in the Imagination.  But even with that, when Remus was suddenly introduced to four new people to freak out, and one of them was his center, Janus understood why he would want to be around them more often.

But still.

That didn’t mean he liked it.

That morning he woke up alone to make breakfast for no one but himself for the third time that week.  He ended up at the table with a blender full of coffee, which was about what he was going to need today.

Wedding day.

Just because he knew that going to the wedding was a terrible idea didn’t make the fact that they were doing it any easier.  He was going to have to head in afterwards and pick up the pieces.  He probably stood a chance at actually getting through to Thomas if this wedding made him as miserable as Janus thought it would, but having to sit back and watch the pieces fall apart first was going to be difficult.

However, he still wasn’t technically alone even with Remus gone, which was something he was reminded of when Malice walked in the kitchen, looking significantly less tired than Janus did.

“Morning,” Janus mumbled with a little wave.

“Good morning Deceit,” Malice said, grabbing the eggs and milk from the fridge and grabbing a bowl to start whisking them together.  “Wow, I bet today’s not feeling that great for you, huh?  After you totally failed to get everyone to agree to go to the callback?”

“Yes, thank you Malice,” Janus grumbled, taking another drink from the blender.  He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised.  Malice did have a tendency to go for the low blow.

“And you lost the Duke too,” Malice said, pouring the eggs into the pan on the stove and starting to scramble them.  “You must be feeling pretty low right now.”

“Malice, I know this is an unreasonable request to ask of you, but do you think you could try not to be cruel today, just this once?”

“Hey, Cruelty isn’t my department,” Malice said with a shrug.  “There’s another side for that.  Besides, I’m trying to help.”

“How, exactly?” Janus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Misery and I had a plan we wanted to run by you, if you’re open to hearing it.”

Janus narrowed his eyes.  Malice wasn’t a helpful side.  If he and Misery had come up with a plan, it was just as likely to hurt Janus’ chances as help him.  “I have a plan of my own, thank you,” Janus said coolly, standing to go put the blender in the sink.

“Oh yes, because your plans have worked out brilliantly so far,” Malice said, smirking.

Janus narrowed his eyes further and turned to face Malice.  “I’m sorry Malice, but I’m late.  I have to watch over Thomas during the wedding.”

“Why?” Malice called after him.  “He won’t want to see you!”

Janus ignored him and sunk out to his room for good measure.  Malice was never a fun side to talk to.  Besides, if all went well, Thomas would want to see him soon.  He just had to get this right.

Janus appeared in the real world while making sure to keep himself hidden from Thomas and other sides that might show up.  It was hard to resist the effort to show himself to Thomas and tell him he could still change his mind if he really wanted to.  But this needed to happen at this point.  There wasn’t another way.  Not that it made it any easier to watch Thomas get ready for the wedding while looking miserable, and sit through the wedding looking miserable, and go home from the wedding looking miserable.

Janus was almost glad when they got into the moral debate part of this issue.  He singled out Logan as the side to impersonate when he showed up in the way that he did.  He figured out the way to do so when Roman hit the ‘Ignorance’ button later on, and then waited for Patton to start getting distressed before offering the ‘Skip All’ button.

Janus pulled Logan back into the mindscape and locked it off so no one else could interrupt.  He could apologize later.  He took a breath and looked back to wait for another moment to cut in.  Finally, Patton offered another good opportunity.  Show time.

…

Three hours since the video, Janus was enjoying the light feeling in his chest and yet still waiting for something to happen.  Remus wasn’t anywhere.  Malice seemed to have vanished, a change from how hard he’d been vying for Janus’ attention before the wedding started.  He would even take Logan coming to tell him off about something or other.

Finally, after far too long, Remus showed up.  But he looked more introspective than excited, which was not what Janus expected for a variety of reasons.

“Hey,” Janus said hesitantly.  “So I don’t know where you’ve been, but judging by the look on your face I’m guessing you’ve definitely heard about what happened today?”

Remus looked up, biting his lip and looking unsure about something, which was very unlike Remus.  What was going on?

“Are… are you alright?” Janus asked hesitantly.

“Do you know why Virgil’s scared of us?” Remus asked.

Janus blinked.  “What?”

“I… I went on an adventure with him a couple weeks ago and I thought he was having fun, but I… I don’t know anymore.  He definitely wasn’t at the end.  He said he was scared I was going to hurt him.  Why would I do that?”

Janus stared at him.  “I don’t know,” he said finally, trying to stamp out the irritation that had risen up.  “I kind of have other things than Virgil on my mind right now, Remus.”

“Oh.  Like what?”

“You have no idea what just happened, do you?”

“Uh…”

Sighing, Janus ran over the events that had just transpired, and by the end of his explanation, Remus at least looked properly surprised and a little excited.

“And Thomas accepted you?” he asked, starting to grin.  “Does this mean you’re going to be around the core sides more often?”

“Um, I don’t know.  Probably,” Janus admitted.

“Oh, awesome!” Remus called.  “You can help me figure out what’s going on with Virgil!”

Janus took a step back.  “What— Remus, honestly, what part of I don’t care about Virgil right now did you not pick up on?”

“But something’s wrong with him,” Remus said, looking over his shoulder like Virgil would be waiting there.  “I just want to figure out why he thinks I’m going to hurt him so I can help.”

“And since when do you want to help anyone?” Janus asked, throwing his hands up.

“Well if it’s Virgil—”

“Why do you even care?”

“I—” Remus looked down.  “I miss him, Jan.”

“Well I don’t miss him at all, but I’m not going to think about him today.  I definitely didn’t think you’d be happy for me or something.  It’s not like this is a big deal.”

“Hey, I am happy for you,” Remus said, looking up.  “Can’t I be happy and worried at the same time?”

“As long as I can be happy and not worried at all,” Janus snapped, crossing his arms.

“We don’t have to do anything today,” Remus said.  “We can celebrate today.  Let’s go murder a bunch of chickens and use their corpses to make smoothies.  But tomorrow do you think you could help me figure this out?”

Janus scowled.  “I don’t know, Remus.  Give me time to decide if the things that are important to you are important to me too, and I’ll get back to you.”

He closed off his room and locked it, kicking Remus out without having to take a step towards him, which might have been a little more showy than he should have been, but he couldn’t imagine many people would blame him for being a little snippy after that.

Besides, who cared about Virgil being scared?  Virgil was scared all the time, that was his job.  The fact that he was scared of Remus and him when he had never been before wasn’t concerning in the slightest.  Why should Janus care if Virgil was scared of him?  Maybe he could even use something like that to his advantage.

…Not that he ever would.

Janus sat on his bed and looked up at the ceiling.  Why did Remus have to spoil his good mood?  Why should he have to care about anything besides the success he’d just had today?  Why… why on Earth would Virgil be scared of them?  Hate them, sure, Janus could see that easily.  Anger, yes, he’d certainly shown quite a bit.  And granted, he was Anxiety, but that one fact didn’t negate an entire lifetime of them never hurting him once.  What in the world had changed his mind on that front?

Janus sighed and stood up.  If he was already going to be worried about this he might as well ask Remus what he knew so they could start working on it like he wanted.  They’d just apparently have to move the celebration to another time.

He didn’t quite make it to Remus’ room, though, because the second he stepped out of his door Malice was waiting just down the hall, clearly waiting for him if the way he was looking right at his door was any indication.

“Deceit, hello,” he said, lifting his head enough to show a smile that definitely wasn’t good news.  “I have something I’d like to speak with you about.”

“I’m busy at the moment, Malice,” Janus said.  “I need to talk to the Duke about—”

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t considering moving with the Duke up to the core mindscape.  I think that could be a truly terrible idea.”

Janus sighed and started walking past him.  He didn’t have time to deal with this right now.  “Malice, whether I move to the core mindscape or not is none of your concern.”

“I just don’t think Anxiety would like it very much is all,” Malice said in an intentionally casual voice.

Janus looked up at the ceiling again as he came to a stop outside Remus’ door.  “Why should Anxiety be any concern of mine?  I definitely plan on taking him into account.  I don’t, after all, know the state of my relationship with Anxiety, and I—”

“Do you?”

Janus stopped with his hand on the doorknob.  He clenched his hand around it and turned to face Malice.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

Malice started to smile in a way that would have made a lesser man quake in his shoes.  “Nothing, I’m sure.  I’m just thinking of all the reasons Anxiety may not want you around that you don’t know about.”

“Are you implying that you do?” Janus asked, letting go of the doorknob and pulling himself up to a higher and hopefully more threatening stance.

“I might be,” Malice said, looking casually down at his fingernails.

Janus narrowed his eyes.  “Why would you tell me that?”

“Well, I want you to stay here, first of all,” Malice said, looking back up at him.  “Besides, I think it would be amusing to see your reaction.”

“My reaction to what?  What is that supposed to mean?”

“Do you have access to Logan’s memory hallways?  That might be the easiest way to do this.”

“Do what?  I am not opposed to sounding like a hypocrite, Malice.  Stop speaking in circles and tell me what you mean.”

Malice smiled just enough to barely show teeth, and crossed his arms over his chest in a way that somehow managed to make him look more arrogant.  “I mean that I didn’t think anything could be more fun than convincing Virgil you didn’t love him.  But watching you see me do so just might be better.”

Janus’ blood ran cold.  He wanted to call bullshit immediately, before he managed to remind himself that getting a reaction out of him was probably exactly what Malice wanted.  He took a deep breath and stepped away from Remus’ door.  “Please,” he said, amazed at how steady his voice came out.  “Enlighten me as to what the hell you are talking about.”

“Well, to the memory hallways we go then,” Malice said, gesturing beyond Janus.  “Lead the way.”

Janus took another breath and walked over to grab Malice by the arm, then sunk them both out to Logan’s bedroom.  Logan, thankfully, was not there, as Janus would not have wanted to explain to him why he and Malice were going inside his memory hallways.

They made their way to Virgil’s hallway, and headed inside to see Virgil’s memories floating around them.  Virgil’s hallway didn’t have any sort of order to it, in a similar way to Remus.’  Janus imagined if they were going in Logan’s hallway, it would be a very different story.

“Alright, we’re going to need memories from the time Virgil started going to see Thomas to just before he ducked out,” Malice said, clasping his hands together.  “You know how to pull those up, don’t you?”

Janus gave him a look before pulling forward the memories from the time Malice was talking about.  He took one last deep breath and decided that no matter what he was about to see, Malice was not going to have the satisfaction of getting any kind of reaction from him.

…It would take about thirty seconds before Janus came close to eating his words.  But somehow, he managed to seem silent and calculating the entire time he watched Virgil being ripped apart in more ways than one.  He would pin it down to his function as Deceit, as he didn’t think he would have been able to do so otherwise.

Janus didn’t say anything when Malice shooed away the last memory they’d been looking at.  Instead he just calmly took his arm again, sunk them both down to the other commons, and left Malice in the hallway before locking himself in his room.

He had never been quite so glad that the rooms were soundproof.

…

Janus wasn’t really sure what to do in the days following his revelation about Virgil via Malice.  Other than, of course, avoid everyone who had ever spent a single moment of time with him.  Remus in particular spent many hours knocking on his door, but Janus didn’t reply.  Thomas was definitely surprised to not see him around more often if the tentative summons Janus ignored were any indication.

He didn’t imagine he could ignore Thomas forever, though.  He was his center, after all, and one Janus had made a habit of being thrilled to see in the past.

That is to say that he was of course completely surprised when Remus knocked on his door one day and yelled at him that if he didn’t go see Thomas, Thomas was coming to see him.

Janus wasn’t quite ready for Thomas to see his room just yet.  So when he felt a summons a couple minutes later, he answered and appeared in Thomas’ living room.  Thankfully, they were alone.

Thomas let out a sigh of relief.  “Janus,” he said, and Janus had to take a minute to adapt to Thomas saying that.  “Where the hell have you been?  You— you look awful.  Are you okay?”

“I’m alright, Thomas,” Janus said.  His voice came out scratchy and weak.  He probably should have expected that.  He hadn’t used it in a couple weeks at this point.

He cleared his throat.  “I’m alright,” he repeated, and it sounded slightly better.  “I’m just… processing… a recent revelation is all.”

“Uh, not to be rude, bud, but you don’t look like you’re doing such a great job processing it.  You want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know what Virgil’s told you,” Janus muttered, half to himself.

Thomas raised an eyebrow.  “This is about Virgil?  I thought you two hated each other or something.”

Janus choked on something that might have been a laugh but was probably closer to a sob.  Thomas looked even more alarmed in the next second, and took a couple steps forward.

“Woah, hey, it’s okay,” he said gently, moving a hand forward slightly in what was probably supposed to be an attempt to comfort him, but instead ended up hanging awkwardly in the air between them.  “Do you, uh…” he trailed off.  “Is there something I can do?”

Janus took a minute to process the question.  He’d never been asked such by Thomas before.  He hadn’t ever expected to be.  He didn’t want to reveal anything Virgil hadn’t necessarily told him, but he was Deceit, dammit.  Asking questions without revealing anything was part of the job description.

“Can you answer a question?” he asked after a moment.

Thomas nodded.  “Of course.”

“Is Virgil… is he happy?”

Thomas blinked, clearly surprised.  “Um.”

“Please tell me he is,” Janus said quietly.

“I… I think so,” Thomas said, sounding a little uncomfortable now.  “I mean, I… I hope so.  I don’t want him to be unhappy.  He seems much happier than he used to be when everyone antagonized him, at least.”

Janus nodded slightly.  “Okay,” he said softly.  “Good.”

“Why the sudden concern for Virgil?” Thomas asked.

“Well, I have recently been hit in the face with a sledgehammer with the fact that I should be,” Janus admitted.  He lowered his voice.  “That I should have been.”

Thomas was quiet for a minute, and then, before Janus could say something to end the conversation and head back to his room, Thomas walked forward and pulled him into a hug.

Janus’ breath caught in his throat.

“Yeah,” Thomas whispered.  “We all should have been.  So don’t put that just on yourself, alright?”

“It’s not the same—”

“Alright?”

Janus swallowed.  “Alright,” he croaked.

“If you want to apologize to Virgil,” Thomas continued, as if that was a perfectly alright thing to say casually like that.  “I think that would be okay.  He’s Virgil, so I can’t say he would accept it, but I think he’d at least listen.”

“I don’t know where I would even start, Thomas,” Janus murmured.

“How about with you’re sorry and you care about him?”

Janus blinked quickly because he was not going to cry in front of his center, and no, what he’d done earlier didn’t count.  “Okay,” he whispered.  “I need— I need to go talk to Remus.”

“Okay,” Thomas said, gently squeezing the nape of Janus’ neck.  “I’ll be here after if you need to talk.  Any of you, all of you, whatever, okay?”

“You don’t need to—”

“Okay?”

Janus huffed out a small laugh.  “Okay.”

Thomas pulled back and smiled reassuringly, and Janus wondered if he did understand how important this was, even if he didn’t seem to know what exactly Janus was talking about.

Janus gave a little nod and sunk out to head straight to Remus’ room.

Remus was hanging upside down on his bed, looking at a painting with what appeared to be a deep concentration.  When he noticed Janus, he practically sprang upright and landed on his feet, already crossing his arms.  “Hey,” he said.  “Where the hell have you been?  Why do you look like shit?  Is anyone ever going to tell me what’s going on?”

“That’s actually exactly why I’m here,” Janus said.  Remus must have caught on to something in his voice that made him realize the gravity of the situation, because he dropped his hands to his sides and furrowed his brow.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.  “Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” Janus admitted.  “There’s some things I need to show you.  And then… then we need to go talk to Virgil.”

…

Remus confirmed the same conclusion Janus had pretty quickly come to— someone had impersonated him that day in the subconscious.  Likely Imprudence, since Malice had told him to go get Cruelty and neither of them were there.  Someone had likely been going to do the same thing to Janus if Thomas had not arrived in Virgil’s room first.  And while Remus had ended up having about the reaction Janus had expected— sharpening his morningstar and sizing the others up for slaughter— he had still agreed when Janus said talking to Virgil first was a good idea.

The first problem that arose with that came when they arrived in the core side commons and all four of them were sitting on a couch watching a Disney movie.  Therefore, their appearing resulted in four immediate and different reactions.  Patton smiled in a way that seemed much more genuine than it used to be, Roman started looking away and seeming very uncomfortable, Logan’s expression tightened just slightly enough to show he was irritated, and Virgil started scowling and glared away.

“What do you want?” he snapped, the first to speak.

Janus had no idea how to begin this conversation with all four of them here, but luckily Remus didn’t have nearly as much of an issue.

“Virgey!”

He threw himself on top of the couch and pulled Virgil into a hug, and before Janus could remark what a terrible idea that was, Virgil proved it himself by shoving Remus off of the couch.  “Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped.

Remus, ever persistent, climbed back on top of the couch and squeezed himself in between Virgil and Roman.  “Don’t hate you,” he mumbled into Virgil’s hoodie.  “Love you.  Love love love love you.”

“Wh—” Virgil looked like someone had just whacked him in the face with a frying pan.  “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Language,” Patton said, looking just as baffled as Virgil.

“Yes, I would also like an explanation,” Logan remarked from the other side of the couch raising an eyebrow.

Remus was still burying his face in Virgil’s shoulder, which meant everyone was staring at Janus, who had very much not expected to have to explain himself to three other people besides Virgil.  Did they know anything?  What could he say?

“We, um,” he started.  “I talked to Malice recently.  And he told me things that I hadn’t previously been aware of.”

From the way Virgil’s eyes widened, he seemed to understand what Janus meant.  And from the looks the others exchanged, they seemed to get it too.

Virgil leaned away from Remus slightly and pulled his hood over his head.  “Oh.”

“You know that wasn’t me, right?” Remus said, looking up at Virgil again.  “In the subconscious?  That wasn’t me.  I wasn’t there.”

Virgil looked down and started pulling on his hoodie strings.  “No,” he mumbled.  “How was I supposed to know that?”

Remus whined and pulled him closer.  “That wasn’t me,” he said again.  “I wouldn’t do that, Virgey.  Not ever ever ever.”

Virgil was quiet for a minute.  Janus couldn’t even begin to guess what he was thinking.

“Oh,” he said again, his voice cracking at the end of the word.

“What day in the Subconscious?” Roman asked, sitting up.  “What is he talking about?”

“Day I ducked out,” Virgil muttered.  “That’s not what actually happened.  I’ll tell you later.”

The three other core sides exchanged a surprised look.  Janus took a minute to try and deduce what any of them were thinking, but he wasn’t exactly at his best right now.

“Virgil?” Logan asked after a moment, and everyone’s gaze moved over to him.  “Would you like us to stay for this conversation, or would you like some space?”

Virgil hesitated for a moment.  “Um.  Space.  But come back,” he muttered, fidgeting with his hoodie strings again.

“Sure kiddo,” Patton said, smiling a little as all three of them stood and headed for the door.  “We’ll be back in half an hour, okay?”

Virgil nodded, and suddenly the three of them were alone.

“‘m sorry,” Remus said instantly.

“What happened?” Virgil asked.

“I think Malice was trying to get me to stay after what happened in the last video,” Janus said.

Virgil pulled his hood down, his brow furrowed.  “Malice doesn’t like Nico?”

Janus blinked.  “Who?”

“You missed a video, Jan,” Remus said.  “I’ll fill you in later.”

Janus absorbed that for a second.  “Ah.  Okay.  Well, after what happened after the wedding.  He didn’t want me to leave, so I think he was trying to get me to feel guilty enough to stay by showing me everything that happened.”

“Showing you…” Virgil muttered.  “You mean you didn’t know?”

Remus let out a wounded noise and threw himself against Virgil again, already shaking his head.  “Sorry, I’m sorry,” he said.  “We— we should’ve—”

“Remus,” Janus said, taking a step forward and putting a hand on his shoulder.  “No, we didn’t know,” he said, turning back to Virgil.  “I’m so sorry, Virgil.  If we’d known we would have left together, or we would have stopped it, or I would have protected you myself.  We would have figured something out.”

Virgil looked down in the way that meant he was probably trying to hide tears.  Janus wasn’t going to comment on that.

“But—” Virgil sniffed.  “But you hate me, you— you said so.”

Janus moved over and kneeled in front of Virgil, lifting his face enough so he could see his eyes.  “I said so because I thought it a lie so preposterous there was no chance you would believe me,” Janus murmured.  “I love you, Stormcloud, I love you so much.  I’m so sorry this happened.”

Virgil pulled in a shaky gasp, and then another, and before he could do so again Janus climbed up on the couch and on the other side of Virgil and wrapped his arms around him.  Virgil turned and buried his head in his chest and burst into tears.

Remus climbed on top of them both from the other side and burrowed against Virgil.  Janus wrapped his arms around them both and pulled them closer, and Virgil buried his head in his chest as Remus stretched his arms out to wrap them around both of them.  None of them said anything else, but something in the universe started to click back into place.

They would have so much to go through and explain later, and Janus was pretty sure there would be a million questions asked by the three of them, the core sides, and Thomas.  He should probably go talk to Thomas again, since it had been at least a couple hours since he’d offered to talk.  But for now, Janus wasn’t going to move from this spot, and Virgil and Remus both seemed to think the same.  They were going to stay right here until the universe fixed itself, and it didn’t seem like it was going to take nearly as long as any of them had thought.

Virgil couldn’t necessarily say life as a side was perfect, but there were parts that made it good.

“Dogpile!” screamed two voices.  Virgil had a half second to prepare before two creative sides threw themselves on top of him.  Remus pulled Virgil to his side and Roman splayed himself across his lap, and Virgil whacked them both on the head before accepting it and settling back into the couch.

“Out of the way,” Janus said, lifting Roman’s head up for long enough to slip underneath and against Virgil’s other side.

“I come baring popcorn,” Patton called, setting a couple of tubs down on the coffee table before sitting down on the other side of Janus.

“I have everyone’s onesies,” Logan said, coming out from around the corner.  He snapped his fingers and suddenly everyone was changed except for Remus.  “Remus, if you’re going to watch the movie naked again please go behind the couch again.”

“You’re no fun!” Remus called, sticking his tongue out at Logan before snapping his fingers and changing himself into a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

Virgil tucked himself closer to his side now that his sash wasn’t scratching him, and Roman grumbled before shifting on Virgil’s lap.

“Stop whining,” Virgil said, nudging Roman enough to move his head.  “We got to cuddle last movie night.”

“But you’re warm,” Roman said, tucking his head back against Virgil’s stomach.

“And you’re needy,” Virgil replied in the same tone.

Roman stuck his tongue out, and Virgil did the same back, before Patton finally nudged Roman in the side, and Roman sat up to cuddle with Patton and Logan.

Weekly movie nights had grown since Janus and Remus moved over to the core sides.  Sometimes they headed out of the mindscape to have movie nights with Thomas too, but tonight they were staying in the mindscape, and Virgil was taking a turn to tuck himself against his old family, who he’d missed so much, and who he was so glad was still here and still cared about him, all of which he wouldn’t admit on pain of death.

It was going back to being an understood thing.  He’d missed that too.

It had been Logan’s turn to pick the movie, so they were all settling in to watch a documentary about space.  Remus had brought a notebook for ideas of creatures that could live on the planets they were exploring.  This particular documentary was about Jupiter and its moons.

Virgil grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bucket on the table and shoved it in his mouth, smacking Janus’ hand away when he tried to grab some and then trying to grab some of his when he reached for a handful of his own.

Logan played the movie a second later, and they all settled in to watch.

“Hey,” Janus said quietly, at a slow part of the documentary.  Virgil glanced over.  “Have you given any thought to telling Thomas yet?”

Virgil ducked down further.  “Do you have to bring this up on movie night?”

“You find a way to run or distract me any other time that I ask,” Janus said, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” Virgil muttered, grabbing another handful of popcorn to give himself more time to think.  “Do you really think it’s necessary anymore?  We’re all here now, and none of them are a danger to us anymore.”

“I’m not going to force you to do anything, you know that,” Janus said, nudging Virgil in the side.  “But I think Thomas would want to know.”

“I… I know,” Virgil said finally.  “And I’ll tell him eventually.  But right now I want to hear about this giant storm on Jupiter, okay?”

Janus hummed in acknowledgement and leaned back against Virgil’s side again.  “Okay.”

Virgil grabbed Remus’ arm and tugged him so he moved closer, and Virgil settled into the arms of people who definitely loved him.  Things weren’t perfect, and they never would be, but Virgil could safely say that he was about as far from miserable as he could get.

[streets-in-paradise]

Royal Treatment

 Troy (2004) Reader Insert Fanfiction - Part 10 

Word Count:  + 9 K

Characters ( most mentioned) : Achilles, Mycenaean Princess!Reader, Helen, Patroclus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus. 

Pairings: Achilles x Mycenaean Princess!Reader.

Warnings:  Very light smutty undertones.

Summary: Since her last private encounter with Achilles left her with more doubts than certainties, the princess keeps trying to obtain a clear answer from him. During the celebrations, she comes up with an idea to test his interest. 

Disclaimers: This was inspired by a mix of greek music ,various drum solos and improvisations of greek folk that I found on youtube and some mediterranean, egyptian and turkish music I have been listening to. Also, I want to apologise if part of this sucks. i’m still learning how to write some stuff and I don't know if this is as good as it was in my head when i pictured it. 

Note: My use of the name Alexander here is only a reference. I know that’s how Paris was called in some versions of the myths and I’m only playing word games with that. 

Tags: @yerevasunclair @mother-dearest-loves-me 

The celebrations started with a short formal gathering in the throne room. The place was slowly getting crowder and the princess arrived later than usual but it wasn’t a concerning time range. Wordlessly, she returned to her spot alongside her father. She noticed the cup of wine he was holding and smiled to the pourer that remained close to him. The servant boy smiled back and the king looked at him like he was ready to order his execution. As a soft gesture of support against his bad mood, she holded his free hand. She knew that words of reassurance trying to explain herself or a convincing tale weren’t enough, so she tried something else. The sudden contact made him stare at her. He was still upset, she saw it in his eyes. Quickly, she changed the intention of her approach. Instead of acting like a caring daughter giving him reassurance, she showed the support of a loyal subdit. She kissed his knuckles and bowed her head in sign of respect, pretending to recognize his absolute authority over her. Agamemnon reacted positively, giving her a half smile that wasn’t exactly of approval but showed forgiveness. He was vainglorious about his self perceived but non existent mercy, appealing to that was more effective than trying to show affection.

The obsequious flatterers of the king started to gather around them, since that part of the festivities was nothing but an excuse to formally celebrate himself. Inevitably, some of the praise fell upon her and she kept her attitude towards it pleasing and passive, avoiding smart remarks or destacable commentary. She wished she could be left alone with her friends, but she had to keep performing for a bit longer. Helen was close to her and right next to her husband, but the distance that implied was a real bother. They shared some complicit glances despite being under the watch of the brothers.

Using their unexpected presence as an excuse to flatter their own egos, both kings started to show off some of the treasures of the conquest presented as gifts for the ladies. Argos wasn’t sacked, there was no need for excessive violence because Achilles speeded up their surrender. Still, as it did for other cities, their submission implied some concessions. Agamemnon got the military control of the land and demanded a share on the treasures of the city. Since he didn’t have a queen, his daughter had to occupy the passive role in his acts of ostentation. She had a collection of jewelry that was entirely based on stolen relics from every city he conquered, having at least one for every place. That wasn’t going to be the exception. The acquired riches were everything he had to brag about after Achilles took the symbolic glory. Knowing that most of the presents must have heard about what the warrior demanded of her, it was also a good way to reinforce her royal magnificence and the image of his control over her. On that occasion, the commemorative object of the victory she got was a necklace.

The young women were the centre of attention, as luxury objects whose value was being increased. Menelaus was acting like a loveful husband to Helen while he filled her with gifts from his share of the spoils, his older brother almost looked like a sweet, prideful father. The ceremonialize praise was hypocrisy, but it was fun for both girls to see their despicable owners pretending to be caring. Fortunately for their exhausted selves, the last and most expectant arrival stole all the attention.

As always, Achilles showed up very late. He tended to skip the pointless ceremonies that weren’t about him and he liked to leave his public hanging. Eudorus and Patroclus entered the room at his right and left side, wondering what he was going to do next. Without minding the context or any appearances of propriety, he walked right to the front of the crowd. Once he found his spot to stay, he blatantly stared at the ladies and saluted them from afar with a smile. Before his entrance, Agamemnon was in the middle of a self complacent speech that he interrupted. The sight of such a simple act creating more distraction irritated him even more. The king tried to save words with him, but Achilles robbed him of the speech before he could carry on.

“ My apologies to the ladies, I almost miss their honors.” He simply commented. “ Quite a charming pair, very sweet. I hope they enjoy what my effort got for them.”

The women stared at each other.

“ It’s not my wish to offend you, brave Achilles, but I don’t depreciate my husband’s courage.” Helen replied with extreme politeness.

“ Father knows my taste in jewelry.” was the princess’s defense.” And he is a smart strategist and clever politician. The brightest conductor of the army, of course.” She smiled to the king, trying to look like a sweet praiser. “ Your alliance is a treasure we must cherish because your accomplishments together are an honor to us all.”

” You honored me, I’m doing the same. “ the myrmidon replied.

“ It was no bother, the glory is yours. Nobody questions that.” The princess gave him the most formal answer that occurred to her in the moment.

Trying to keep with the ceremonial tone, she created an immediate distraction to relieve the tension of the moment.

“ Can we all thank this man as he deserves? This is an historical day for the city. He is the first fully consecrated hero in the times of my father.”

To her exhortation, claps and cheers filled the precinct. After that, Agamemnon decided to put an end to the formalities. There was no way of making it about himself again, so he concluded it. The festivities continued in the banquet hall.

Helen tried to reach her niece so they could do the short walk there together, but her very pleased husband stumbed in their way. Unlike his brother, he was radiant of pride because of the fervent defense that his wife did of him. If he didn’t love Helen, at least he loved how she made him feel.

Agamemnon grabbed his daughter by the wrist before she could escape to their side. Holding hands for the appearances, the started a whispered argument.

“ This is your second mistake in a row. What do i have to do with you?” He reprimanded her.

“ I got away from that shameful situation in the most elegant way, that’s what I’m supposed to do. If i were a man, I would have punched him.” She lied.

“ If you were a man, I wouldn't need him.”

“ Do you think that you would have had your own Hector of Troy if I would have been your baby boy? Quit dreaming, father. This is what you have, I do my best to serve you.“

“ You call this serving me??”

“ Who do you think I was serving when I agreed to bathe him ? Do you think that I enjoyed being degraded into servant work for him ? ” She fakely complained. ” I hate his petty audacious attitude as much as you do, but I stand him because it is what I have to do. You don’t know how hard I’m trying for you.”

She released herself from his grab.

The banquet involved less tension because the informal ambient demanded less interaction between them. She had to sit next to her father and keep with the good behaviour but the distractions kept him too busy to keep bothering her. She remained silent most of the time, but she didn't mind.

Achilles and Ajax were the centre of attention. They had a toast in their honor and people started doing them all sorts of questions. Ajax looked a bit upset because the myrmidon stole what he perceived as his chance to get major glory. He was doing a relatively good act pretending not to care about Achilles's decisive role in the victory and she felt a bit bad for him. One of her very short interventions on the talking was an attempt to validate him, but Agamemnon used her comment as a startpoint for malicious comparisons against Achilles. Using his massive amount of knowledge on heroic tales, Patroclus solved the situation. He did a magnificent defense of both heroes, talking about the complementary balance of their best traits with examples of some of their past feats. His eloquence was impressive for someone of his age, as it was his audacity to argue with the king.

Helen was having the time of her life just by witnessing how Menelaus's nervousness was growing at every instant. It was very strange for her to see him like that, fearing that anything could trigger a suspicious response from his brother. He was having a small sample of the life of lies he forced her into and she loved it. The funniest aspect about the situation was that Patroclus maintained a respectful tone the entire time. He was polite in his corrections and Agamemnon would have been the one looking bad if he would have reacted harshly.

While hearing their argument, Achilles glanced at the royal ladies for an instant. He noticed a slight change in his cousin's attitude, a rush of confidence that he wasn't expecting him to display at least there. He started suspecting their involvement and it's possible partial influence on him. The women glanced back innocently and the three shared their prideful approbation.

Patroclus's shift on the conversation frustrated the king's intentions of turning one hero against the other. Ajax got his well deserved acknowledgement and the curious boy took his chance to do all sorts of specific questions to him, giving him a moment to shine without entering in disputes with Achilles.

Since her comment started the argument,the young myrmidon tried to engage the princess in his rambling. She wasn't versed in the technical aspects of combat, but she tried to remain as a curious listener. Ajax's point, supported by the boy, was to affirm that he was the strongest man in Greece while Achilles was the fastest. He was trying to impress his listeners with less known anecdotes referring to that quality. Achilles didn't bother in refuting him and he barely paid attention because he was amusing himself by subtly ruining the girl's focus on whatever he was telling. Imperceptible gestures, smirks or just staring at her for longer than necessary were enough to achieve it. Staying concentrated in the talk was impossible for her, but she managed the situation adecuately.

When the meal concluded and the dancing started, Ajax offered her to join the festivities with him. She declined in favor of staying as Helen's companion. Ereny asked the princess's permission to be released from her daily duties and, once it was given to her, both handmaids got it. They knew that the young girl was going for the myrmidon captain and they wished her good luck.

The queen was left once more to witness how her husband chased the concubines. She didn't love him nor cared for what he did with them, but the blatant display was humiliating. She struggled to keep the appearances of love between them, but he made it harder everyday. The prideful public aspect of his cheating upsetted her because it was an insult to her pride as a woman. Her niece stayed with her, promising her that they would only have to wait until the brothers would leave the room with their respective companies.

She was feeling slightly disencouraged as well. That was a great time to lose herself in the dispersion of people, but there were too many stares following Achilles and she would never get there unnoticed. An insane amount of women were expectantly waiting to be chosen by him for the night. The ladies were competing for his attention, some being less subtle than others. She wasn't jealous, but she didn't want to engage in that game. She never tried to compete for attention and she wasn't sure of wanting to start there.

While she remained in her seat watching the crowd, her mind kept focused on one thought: Achilles seemed to fancy her in some way, but she still didn’t know how. She started fearing about the image he had of her. He described her as cute, he said that her face was adorable. Those were compliments fitting for a sweet girl, not an attractive woman.

She didn't have any certains but, if it was the case, she wished she could prove him wrong. He teased her for a very long while and she wanted revenge, but she was the princess and she couldn't allow herself such behaviour. She urged to show him how perfectly capable of displaying sensuality she was and the first thing that occurred to her was dancing.

She never showed off in public about the full capacity of her skills. Immediately as she got older enough to be allowed to stay late night in festivities, she got enraptured by the dancing of the concubines and she ended up learning to dance from them. She wanted to learn it only for herself, because she loved the graceful aesthetical aspects of the movements and she admired their performances. Her father didn’t allow her to do it but, like almost every other thing bringing joy to her life, she did it behind his back.

It was her secret talent. If she could disguise herself in the group of dancers to participate in their performance, it would be hard to difference her from the actual performers. With that in mind, she started imagining Achilles's reaction if he could see her dancing like that. She wondered if he would feel as teased as he made her feel, if he would acknowledge her womanhood and if he would want her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Helen.

" Do we have to stay like this the entire time?" She complained.

" We have to wait until they leave. It’s the best for now. " The girl replied. " I don't get it. Does he enjoy himself thinking that everyone is watching him cheat on you or what? Anyone would expect that after the devotion you faked he would think it twice and be more discrete but no, there he is... making you look like a fool. "

" I'm thankful to get him away from me. I only wish he could have some decency and keep it private.” The queen confessed. ” I don't deserve this humiliation. I'm a good wife, I do everything he demands of me. All I ask in return is to be respected, at least in public." Her voice was breaking a bit.

“ It’s never enough with them, they only think about themselves. “ the princess reminded. her.” I think we should do the same more often.”

“ What we did classifies as such.”

“ It wasn’t entirely selfish. We saved lifes … and their egos from an historical defeat. I mean a bit of real selfishness. A good payback. ”

“ I just want to be left alone. A lover wouldn’t repair the scars in my pride.”

“Many men would give everything they have for a night with you.” The princess commented to her. “ Do you never feel the need of being desired by a man that you want? “

“ Where did your good judgement go?” Helen mocked her.

“ You know everything about my sentimental life, but we never talk about yours.”

“ What most of those men have to offer is not what I would wish.” The queen explained. “ I have experienced desire. If we are talking about impossible aspirations, I want love.”

“ Why choose? You can have both.”

“ What did I do of you? Are you hearing yourself? Aren’t you the same girl whose goal was to have a nicely arranged marriage planned by herself using political strategy ? ”

“ You don’t want me to give up on love. Why should I let you do it ?

" You know better than anyone why I have to."

" That's not going to happen. My mother was alone, we have each other." the princess remarked. " Look at what we accomplished. We stopped a massacre, made a new friend and I got closer to the man I love, more than I ever thought I would be. "

" I told you, it is too late for me. "

" Helen,I used to think that my feelings for Achilles were a fantasy. I was ready to accept it as a comforting dream and carry on with my life. Thanks to you, I changed my mind. " the girl explained. "You have helped me so much. How can you think that I wouldn't do the same for you? "

" I doubt I would find love in a place like this, but I appreciate your concern. " the queen stated.

" Promise me that, if you do someday, you will let me help instead of giving up."

" We won a battle, dear. Not the war. " Helen clarified.

" We can win many more. " her niece reassured her. " You deserve to be loved and to own your desire."

"To be honest, I feel I’m more aware of what I don’t like in a man than of my actual preferences. I don't know what i like anymore. "

" Don't worry. We have time, i would love to help you to rediscover your taste. If it is not now, we will keep digging into figuring it out."

" It's not wise to get involved with someone that would never be mine. "

" You know what? I think I overcomed that. '' the princess declared. " I don't care anymore. Maybe Achilles will never be mine and so what? I want to be with him, I don't mind how. Perhaps he will never make me his wife and that's fine, I don't need to own him to love him. Love is not only about marriage. If marriage can exist without love, love can exist outside of marriage and you can find it. "

“ You have to tell me now what happened in that excuse of a bathing ceremony.” Helen teased her, encouraged and excited.

The princess tried to explain it to her carefully, watching over her expressions and paranoidly checking for the presence of unwanted listeners. Listening to her cheered Helen up.

“ What are you doing sitting here? “ she reprimanded her.

“ If I’m going to do a move, it has to be safer than this. “ The girl clarified. “ I can’t risk being seen by my father or inspiring gossip.”

“ He could have kissed you right there. “

“ Reason in the form of Hesione stopped me from finding out if he would have .” The princess added. “ I don’t know if i can do it now. Have you seen all those women ready to step on each other's heads for him? I’m not going to do that.“

“ You don’t have to be part of that,you are one step ahead.” Helen stated “ If you want a moment to get things clear. This is it.”

With that, she dragged her up from her seat.

The young ladies mixed themselves in the crowd, trying to have fun on their own. The princess procured not to concentrate in trying to find Achilles and just enjoy herself in the company of her aunt. Helen’s mood improved from the brief downfall it had because she redirected her thoughts. Instead of thinking of the public humiliation brought to her by her husband’s behaviour, she focused on the victory over him that she got. She humiliated him indirectly, her actions caused a situation that made him feel like an idiot in front of his brother. Some justice was served that time and she was able to celebrate. It was a small triumph, but just thinking about that made her start laughing without an apparent reason. The sudden boost in her joyful mood started to manifest in her dancing.

The queen’s grace was famous, but Helen never looked prettier as she did when she was really happy. She irradiated her emotions and the ambient felt renewed around her. Bright of happiness, she started dancing right in front of the musicians and the magnetic effect of her approach made them play the same song for longer, just so she wouldn’t leave. The percussionist was jaw dropping with her and even the princess was impressed by how obvious he was.

He was bewitched, but not in a lustfull way. The handsome young man was worshipping Helen with his music and she started responding with her dancing straightly to him. Since she realized that her niece was right next to her evaluating the situation, she encouraged her to follow her moves instead of teasing them with stares. Then, both girls found themselves dancing for the musicians and letting themselves go to the beat of their music.

Unlike the queen, the princess tried to keep her moves as chaste and cheerful as possible. Still, forgetting all her concerns to the sound of the music almost ruined her intentions . The fastening of the beat betrayed her for an instant and some very inappropriate hip flicks she did under the influence of the stimulation around her impressed her dancing companion. She isolated the movement of her hips to the rhythm of the song with a great synchrony. Sharp hip flicks combined with contractions of the lower belly creating a single circled swing. Cheering from the crew of artists made her realize of how she let herself go completely and she calmed down, going back to her usual style.

It was too late, Helen was too curious to let it go. Once the song ended, she had to abandon her admiror. Then, she started questioning her.

“ What was that?? It was incredible! “ She complimented her.

“ Sorry. The beat was great and you were pushing me in the wrong direction.”

“ When were you going to tell me about this?” The queen recriminated her.

“ Our mystery is solved. I think you are into pretty boys worshipping you with respect. Sweet admiration, not those looks of when you know that the man is mentally undressing you.” The princess teased her to avoid the topic.

“ Don’t try to get away from this. “ Helen teased back. “ You have to teach me that.”

“ I lost control, I wasn’t supposed to do that here .” the princess excused herself.

“ You will explain to me later where that came from, now I want to learn how to move my hips like that.”

“ We all have our unique ways of expression. You have your makeup skills, I have this.” the girl joked. “ I didn’t mean to hide it from you, the occasion to show you never presented. “

“ It presented itself now.” Helen rectified. “ We have music and a proper space. “

She was reluctant, but agreed.

“ Only because it’s you who is asking. I owe you too much to say no.” She admitted. “ This is absolutely inappropriate so i will only show you hip moves. For a proper lesson, I need secrecy."

“ Forget protocols, we are having fun.” Helen encouraged her.

Her niece took the position of instructor and decomposed the otherwise integrated steps of the movement so Helen could learn it and copy it. Very slow like at first, the queen achieved it with great enthusiasm. The princess oriented her into repeating it a few times before trying to find a pace with the rhythm. She guided her into picking that pace and, soon, both were dancing at a matching tempo. Helen looked bright with happiness.

" I don't want to brag, but this makes me feel beautiful." she joked.

" It's not very lady-like, but it's fun." her niece replied.

They were being happy with themselves, not caring about anything else. The relegated corner of the place they picked as their fun zone wasn't the safest spot to feel some freedom, but it was the best they had. For once, they ignored the certain chances of attracting stares, the perceptions and everything that tied them. The princess showed the queen two more combinations of hip movements. They were trying hip locks to the sides when a sudden but partially expected intromision ruined their bubble of concentration.

" Watch out, princess. Those moves look so sharp that you could have cutted me with your hips." Achilles told the mycenaean as he passed by right next to her.

The sound of his voice was enough to make her jolt and she lost herself to it, immediately stopping what she was doing.

" I’m glad to see you having fun. I tought you weren't going to get up. " Patroclus cheerfully saluted them, appearing right after him.

Both ladies at once responded to his greetings.

" What are you doing over here?" Helen inquired. " We saw you dancing right in the center with some girls a while ago. You are doing great."

" To be fair, most only looked at me because I'm standing next to him." the boy admitted. " When we came nobody cared but now everyone does because they found out I'm the cousin of Achilles."

" I'm doomed to always being the daughter of Agamemnon, very few people care beyond that." the princess commented. " I treasure those and don't mind for the rest. "

" Don't worry. You will make a name for yourself soon and that will end." Helen added. " Younger noble girls from big cities can be like that but growing up makes them wiser. In a few years, you will start to be seen as yourself and they will adore you. "

Achilles was impressed by the soft naturality of their interactions. They were comforting him as close friends. He kept listening to their conversation.

" It's fine, It doesn't affect me that much. " Patroclus tried to explain himself better. " In fact, I'm hiding from your husband."

To the mention of him, Helen looked exasperated.

" What has he done now?"

" He was talking with Achilles and I was there with them. " the boy started telling them. " He must be too drunk to care about being too friendly. He started saying nice things about me and ended up offering me a woman. "

Helen got second hand embarrassment.

" I'm sorry, darling. Did he make you feel uncomfortable?"

" He said some stupid thing about how he had her before and she was perfect to make me a man. It was disgusting."

" That's the House of Atreus at it's best. Imagine them at their worst. " the princess added. " Ignore him, Pat. You may be too young, but are already a better man than him."

" I have faith in you." Helen emphasized. " I think you 'll be a great hero because your morals match your potential as a warrior. You will make us all proud."

" We love you. " the princess concluded. " Keep ignoring anything you hear from him or my father. They think they know better than everyone else but they are the worst combination of cruel and stupid. "

" I leave him with you just once and you are already pampering and overprotecting him?” Achilles commented, his mocking hiding a shade of happiness. " He knows that Menelaus is not a good example of what truly means to be a man. "

" He has you. " the queen complimented him. " You aren't perfect, but you are guiding him right. It doesn't matter how many battles you win. To me, he reflects the best of you. "

Patroclus smiled at her. Helen's praise impacted him in a positive way.

" She wasn't a strong supporter of you." The princess clarified. " Her opinion changed after meeting him."

" Spending so much time with people who love you changes the perspective. " The queen hinted, indirectly including her niece in the affirmation." I used to think you were a cold, emotionless man with no care for anything. Your bond with Patroclus is only one of many proofs of how wrong I was. I commited with you the same mistake everyone does with me: I judged you by what you appear to be. "

" Good, It's mutual." Achilles simply replied. " You are stronger than what I thought you could be. I started to see it in all the stories that your niece has told me about your shenanigans. I like you a lot more thanks to her."

" It's the first time ever when somebody likes me first. In Sparta, you will be addressed as Patroclus's cousin." the boy added, mocking him with pride.

" Seeing you again in my lands would bring me great joy. '' Helen stated." I hope that this shameful experience with Menelaus didn't scare you away."

" Don't worry, queen. " Achilles reassured her. "If you are guilty of anything, is of cherishing so much that he doesn't want to leave your side."

" I have new friends that like me for me. Get over it. " his little cousin kept joking.

" I celebrate it. They are a good influence for you. " Achilles replicated." Today you humiliated a king for the first time and you did it so cleverly that he couldn't find a way to argue. Agamemnon, of all kings. I can't be more proud. "

" He deserved it. He was trying to create spite between you and Ajax. That's low, even for someone like him. '' Patroclus explained.

" Thanks for helping me there. If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't have stopped until offending one using the other." The princess told him." Not so long before he used to say that Ajax was a brute fool from an insignificant kingdom, now he wants to make him the next Hercules. He is desperate, he wants so badly to get rid of your cousin that he is willing to accept any other who would obey him.``

" I feel bad for any contestant in the army aspiring to get the same glorification he has." the boy affirmed. " Achilles has you, that's a great advantage. They will never make it."

The princess laughed softly, glancing at the warrior.

Achilles's gaze followed hers, in complicity.

" You are the queen's favourite, you will run with the same advantage. "

" The bright daughter of the highest commander designs political strategies for you… All the rest are doomed."

" You are so sweet!" the princess thanked him.

" I don't see why not pointing it out. "

" Agamemnon is too foolish to see it, but you think like a politician." Helen told her.

" What's greatly convenient, because having to stand polítical tangles is what Achilles hates the most about his work. " Patroclus insisted.

" Odysseus had helped him with that countless times. " the young lady reminded him.

" He is a king, his polítical work is for his own benefit." Helen remarked. " I know they are good friends, but the goal of Odysseus's work is not to raise him up above all the heroes."

" His competence has no chance because now he has you aligned with him and working with his interests. Honestly? I think that's a bit unfair." Patroclus concluded.

" They must have their own tricks." Achilles defended himself. " I guess she is mine now."

" We shouldn't be discussing this here. " the princess warned them. " Can we bring up something else ? This is a party, we are supposed to talk trivial things. "

" Where did you learn to dance? " Helen asked, pretending to be innocently curious.

" Seriously??"

" It is a trivial topic. " the queen remarked before explaining herself to the recently arrived men. " What you just saw was me attempting to learn some incredible moves I saw her doing. I had no idea, it was a total surprise and I'm very curious."

" The story behind it is not as interesting as you think it is." the princess clarified.

" When she says that, assume the opposite." Achilles mocked her.

" I have been secretly involved in dance practices of the palace's concubines for years. I don't like to show it at parties because it is something I learned for my own gratification and my father is not supposed to find out. " She confessed " Helen looks so happy, she inspired me to relax and I forgot were I was."

" Wait, are you a dancer? That explains a lot of things. " Patroclus commented, impressed. " I wrecked you when we were trying to teach you self defense but I noticed that you have some flexibility. "

" It's nothing compared with what it requires to be a fighter. '' the princess corrected him. " Being more specific, I'm not a dancer because it's not my occupation. I learned from actual dancers and I practice for fun. It's very liberating for me, a great pastime during the absences of my father. "

" How is it that we keep discovering secrets of yours? " Achilles asked.

" You are one of the few who know me as i am. " she tried to explain herself. " I discovered my fascination with dancing right after I started being allowed to stay all the way during parties. I saw a performance and I knew then that I wanted to do that. I wasn't paying attention to the lustful men around the dancers, I loved their movements. Men may see it only as their entertainment, but the dance looks like a celebration of femminity. I wanted that."

" How did you do it?" Helen insisted.

" It took some time. " She started telling. " When Agamemnon saw me following the girls at a gathering because I was trying to learn from them he was scandalized. He forbade it to me, he said that dancers were whores and no daughter of his was going to humiliate him behaving like a whore. He tried to make it up for me by sending me to the temple of Artemis to dance with the priestesses."

" Of course, you had to learn from the virgins. How would you dare to question his expectations? " Helen joked, sarcastically following the line of the reasonament.

" It wasn’t my wish, I did it because he said it. Dancing like a priestess was not what I wanted.” the princess kept explaining “ I went to the temple, behaved well, learned what they wanted to teach me and worshipped the goddess in the ritual dances. The priestesses liked me and my father started bragging about how his girl was so pure that the temple of the virgin goddess wanted her."

" He didn't let them have you because he needs grandchildren if he wants his bloodline to continue. " Patroclus guessed.

" I wouldn't have joined them. I honor the gods and sometimes i pray, but i never felt loved by any of them. I respect the dedication of their priestesses, they find fullfilment in serving them. It's not for me, I never felt the mistic call. " She commented. “I did what I was sent to do, I was respectful and that was the end of it. It didn't erase my original interest for the profane dances as Agamemnon thought it would."

Helen laughed briefly. It was always funny to hear examples of the complete ignorance about the sensibilities of women that the Atrides had.

" I waited until his next absence and I went to learn with the concubines of the palace. " The princess kept explaining. " They are not used to being respected by ladies. When I told them that I admired their dancing and I wanted to learn from them they didn't know what to say. It must have impacted them, because they agreed to instruct me in secret. That's how I learned. I keep joining their practices when I can. It helps me to relieve tension and it is my secret way of self expression."

" You managed to make yourself be equally liked by temple maidens and palace dancers? You are a true politician, even outside of politics." Achilles pointed out.

His comment made her smile.

��� Now that I think about it, It is the first time I see you dancing. I didn’t have the pleasure at the wedding party.” He reminded her.

“ I didn’t dance much that time and, certainly, not as i like to when I’m not being watched.” She replied.” This was an accident, Helen was flirting with one of the musicians and the ambient inspired me to lose control.”

“ I wasn’t flirting, I was dancing to his interpretation.” The queen defended herself.

“ You don’t need excuses with us. If you want me to kill your husband, just make a sign.” Achilles joked.

Helen laughed more than what she should have.

“ She is thinking about it!” Patroclus added, cracking of laughter.

“ It is not worthy to ruin your reputation for it, but thanks for the offer.”

“ It can be an accident in the middle of a battle. We can say that he got in the way of my spear.”

The princess laughed harder then.

“ See? She gets me.” The warrior commented.

“ It’s the same kind of grim joke I would have made.” She explained, still laughing. 

They shared glances, looking deeply into each other’s eyes for an instant. 

“ Do you want to dance with me?” Achilles offered her. “ We couldn’t last time and you are making me curious..” 

She took his hand as a sign of approval, smiling with delight. 

“ You can dance with me, Helen.” Patroclus playfully added, remarking how they seemed to have forgotten of them. 

Helen grabbed his hand and both were laughing, 

They walked following the intensity of the music’s sound with the intention of finding the group of musicians again. When they resumed dancing the princess stopped caring about anything else but her partner. It was reciprocal, because Achilles couldn’t take his eyes off her. Remembering some of the wild thoughts she have had before, she unveiled her sensuality for him within her dancing. Her movements were like a soft tease implying that there was so much more that she could be showing to him if the show would have been private. Her hips, waist and chest were the areas of her body that the moves highlighted. Combined with the graceful gesticulation of her hands and arms, it was a very appealing sight. 

She knew that he wasn't able to touch her more than what would look necessary because of the context and she was using it at her advantage. Still, since he wasn't able to express himself with actions, he did it with words. 

In a particular moment, when he ended up behind her while she was doing torso undulations, he got a chance to grab her hips and whisper close to her ear. 

" You should have done this in Phthia, behind closed gates." 

They were so close that he was able to smell the scent of her hair. 

" It wasn't the right time, but if you invite me back i can take my dancer suit for a private performance." Was her tempting reply. " I have one, you know? My friends helped me to make it." 

" I don't think I would let you go after that." 

She was melting, her heart was throbbing and her head racing with thoughts of him. However, she did her best to keep going as before because she needed to feel sure of being a woman in his eyes.

While his hands were still on her hips, she changed the move and started doing internal hip circles. The sharp motion, first of her right hip and then the left, incited him to pull away one hand at the time, following the rhythm of her every action. The roundness of the hip rotation made her push her butt slightly against him in a movement that looked accidental but didn't feel as such. 

She put some distance between them, enough to spin around and face him again. The song ended shortly afterwards. 

" Sorry, It was the music. I almost forgot that you were there. " She apologised, faking innocence. 

" Some people may be staring ... Don't you care for discretion anymore?" He teased her. 

“ Most people here are drunk. They couldn’t care less, I couldn't care less.” She answered. “ Besides, this was pretty discrete compared to what I can actually do.” 

“ Why are you doing this? ” 

“ Because I want.” She simply admitted. “ You are the only man I ever wanted to dance for, the first one who has me like this.”

 It was a strange confession of feelings. Metaphorically disguised, but it was there. 

Achilles didn’t answer. Not because he didn’t wish to, he couldn’t do that at the moment. First, because of the context surrounding them but mostly, because it wasn’t a good time to be open with her. He didn’t want her to confound his own growing feelings for her with a rush of lust. He cared deeply for her, it started fast and it took him by surprise. He felt good having her in his life, even when it was at moments. After each of their reunions he felt a bit more infatuated. 

Right there, she was making his body crave for hers, but he didn’t want that to be his first response to her affections. He guessed that she was acting so sensually because she wanted to confess herself but didn’t know how. He thought that she must have heard that was the way in which he prefered to be approached, that she had to make herself be wanted for him. He would have lied if he would have denied that he was enjoying it, but he was trying to avoid thinking with his crotch. 

She had given him plenty of subtle signs about her feelings before and he never gave her a direct answer, mostly because he didn't find a good moment for it and part of him felt like he couldn't allow himself to do it. He didn’t want her to assume that he only reacted then because he was horny. 

He was trying to do better for her, but she didn’t understand it like that at first.

 The princess interpreted his silence as rejection. For the sake of her own pride, she pretended not care. She kissed his cheek,smiled at him and went back to Helen’s side. For the rest of the night,she tried to carry on as it never happened. Internally, she felt stupid, but it was the only way she found to overcome it.

She focused again on helping Helen. Acting carelessly, the first thing she did afterwards was to take advantage of a short pause of the music to talk to the man she was sharing glances with as a way to stimulate her to get closer. The princess started by praising his playing and asking his name in front of her and Patroclus. Smiling proudly, he told them to address him as Alexander. The princess didn’t hesitate in starting calling him Alex. He was very respectful, especially of the queen. He expressed his admiration for her in a kind way and didn't attempt anything on her, clearly seeing her as unreachable. Helen seemed to enjoy his harmless attention. In the conversation, they also found out that Patroclus had musical inclinations. Alexander was a percussionist playing Toubeleki and Patroclus made his contribution to the small talk speaking about his experiences learning to play the khitara. Helen was grateful for the care of her friends, both trying to make efforts for her just because they saw her getting along with him. For obvious reasons, the talk was short, but it was a good start. 

They lost sight of Achilles and the princess was secretly relieved for it. She was mortified thinking that her attempt of pursuing him ruined everything between them. Over the course of the party, the three stayed together because they were already comfortable enough with each other.

They got involved in trivial talks with many different people. At one moment, they crossed paths again with Ajax while they were waiting for servants to bring them something to drink. The salaminian hero was doing the same and he greeted their encounter. He was a bit tipsy, but he was good company because he was funnier to be around than what most people assumed. The four fooled around together for a while. They were drinking and joking and the princess almost forgot how bad she was feeling, until he reminded her that she still owed him a dance because he was the first one trying to get her away from the table. He was just joking and It wasn’t his fault, so she tried to keep being sweet to him. Her polite reply explained her refusal linking it to his circumstantial state. Avoiding to sound mean, harsh or sarcastic, she promised him that she was going to dance with him the next time she would find him sober. Fortunately, It made him laugh. 

He resumed their previous conversation in an infinitely less formal way, saying that he was perfectly fine because he was the strongest man in Greece and the effect of a few drinks weren’t an impediment for him. He told them that he could show them on the spot how he was able to lift both women from the ground at the same time and Helen considered the discussion about his state over, fearing that he would actually try it. She felt relatively comfortable with him and it was a grateful surprise. For such an intimidant looking man, he was very nice and likeable. After sharing some more laughs, she ended up dancing with him.

Their brief encounter cheered the princess up a bit, simply because it was very hard not to laugh with the amount of funny insanity that they came up with. Still, she kept feeling out of place, like if nobody really needed her there. Helen was probably waiting until the end so she could have a longer conversation with the percussionist and Patroclus deserved some time to have fun on his own if he wanted that. She couldn’t help to think that she was ruining the party for them . Openly expressing her wish of not being followed, she excused herself saying that she had enough fun, was too tired and prefered to rest. She hugged her friends, thanking them for their company and wishing them goodnight.

In her walk to her bedroom,the princess speeded up her pace to avoid being disturbed. She didn’t want to be approached by anyone else, wishing to forget about her feelings of shame. She almost reached her destination, but the hold of Achilles's strong arms deviated her in an empty hall. 

“I can't deal with this now. " she admitted. " Would you let me go? I will talk to you in the morning"

 " If we wait any longer, we will never do it. " He stated, embracing her waist. 

" What are you talking about??" She complained. 

“ Don’t play the fool now. You can’t try to hide anymore.” 

" I know that I ruined everything. " 

While hearing her, he seemed slightly confused. 

" By now, you must know how I feel for you. '' She explained herself. " I may be good at reading the feelings of others, but I get easily overwhelmed by mines... I have spent my lifetime training myself to suppress them, I don't understand myself sometimes... I wanted you to see me as the woman I am because only then I could make you understand how I feel."

 Her explanation made him chuckle for an instant. 

" What's so funny ??." She tried to pull away from his contact, but he was obviously stronger than her. 

" I see you as a woman, I have always done it. " He replied. 

" I know how you act around the women that you like. It is not how you acted with me. " 

" Do you think that I don't want you?" A light chuckle escaped from his lips again. " You are so lovely." 

" That's it. I'm always the sweet innocent lamb, I can't escape from that. " She complained. " I'm a living, breathing woman with feelings and desires. "

 " I'm aware of that. " He reassured her. " That was a very interesting reminder of it, but I know it." 

" Then why do you keep ignoring me? " Her voice showed frustration. 

" Things between us are not so easy. " 

" You know, before you start thinking about it, I have to say that stepping into helping you was a choice I made based on my convictions. " She clarified. " I believe in you, I didn't do it looking for any retributions. Even if you don't correspond my feelings, that wouldn't change anything. I'm still commited to our pact."

" Calm down." He caressed her hair. " Can you stop assuming that I think the worst of you? I don't." 

" I don't know what else to do to get a concrete answer from you.” She insisted. “I just want that. I don't mind the outcome. If you don't feel the same, I will respect it. " 

Then, he crashed his lips against hers. It was a sweet kiss, intended to serve as a response confessing his affections, but it was charged with the passion of the long craving for it that he also had. She was in such bliss that he felt her body trembling. 

He smiled against her lips. 

" Are you alright?" 

" It’s the longing. " was all she could answer. 

“ You didn't have to do anything else to get me. " He clarified. “ I liked you in Sparta, now i think it’s something more than that.” 

" I haven't stopped thinking about you since the day we met." She confessed. " I didn't know then that it was going to get that far, but here i am." 

.” Odysseus spent half of the way back telling me to stay away from you like a father scaring away a suitor that he dislikes. “ He confessed. “ I did it for a good long while, but you came to me on your own and you dazzled me."

 " He doesn't dislike you, you are his friend. " She clarified " He knows of somebody who hates you and he tries to protect me from him. " 

" I will never allow that old drunk to hurt you. " He said, in what sounded like a promise. 

" Would you steal me from him?" She playfully joked. 

" If it's what I have to do to keep you safe, I would." 

She kissed him, clinging onto him and refusing to pull away until being breathless. In that act, she condensed years of hidden adoration for him and all her hopes. 

Achilles felt it, and he couldn’t help to love her for it. 

“ My room is close. “ She offered. “ It’s safer to continue there.” 

She giggled and headed first. It wasn't wise of them to be seen getting inside there together, so they had to do it in turns.

The princess arrived first, leaving the door unlocked. Her heart was racing with expectancy. The warrior appeared shortly afterwards, closing the door behind them. Immediately after seeing him, she kissed him again. 

" Slow down, lioness." He teased her after she finally pulled away. 

" I wish I could." she joked in reply. 

" This is what I mean when I say that you are adorable, not that I see you as a cute little girl. " He commented." You are so tender, it gets me."

 " Really?" She asked, impressed. 

" I love it. " He answered, honestly. " I also loved what you did for me tonight. " 

" It didn't look like that. " She pointed out. 

" It didn't have to look like that. It was dangerous. " He reminded her. " I like some risk, but you took a pointless one." 

" I wanted you to want me and I think it worked." 

" You need to know that I don't want you because you did that.” He confessed. “ I want you for you and I want all of you, not just this." 

" Then take me." Her proposition sounded like a beg. " I'm ready." She was talking against his lips, holding his hands and pushing them against her body. 

" Not tonight, princess." He was teasing her, his cheeky tone got on her nerves. 

" Why?? " She complained, her frustration almost made her raise the tone of her voice. “ I want to be with you, I don’t care for anything else. Father will end up selling me for power anyways, It will be the buyer’s problem. ” 

" You didn't let me finish." He corrected her. " I'm not going to take you for myself tonight. " He explained as he started to leave a trail of kisses from her jaw in direction to her neck. " But I have many other ways to show you how good you make me feel. " 

She gasped and he smiled against her skin.

 " The massage was amazing. " He added as he kept descending. " And that dance? You are spoiling me, that’s royal treatment." 

" There is nothing I wouldn't do for you." 

He stopped for an instant just so he could look at her in the eye, feel the intensity of her love, and kiss her lips once more.

[multifandhoem]

water.

Ok so remember when I said to celebrate 200 followers I would make small drabbles or imagines based on fluids that continue the story fluids? Wellllll I did that (i did one) but now I already have 300 followers!!! Thank you so much for your support (and you can request if you want :)) But anyways, here is water, i have thoughts about syrup but it will probably take a bit :)

A/N: this is the second part to fluids.  

Genre: smut (?) maybe fluff 

Warnings: usage of water enema, humiliation, reader cries, anal stuff, spanking, hints of anal sex but no real anal sex, swearing, dom!Makki, dom!Mattsun, sub!reader, some MxM

Word count: 1759 

When you felt yourself slowly drifting away you tried squinting your eyes harder, a desperate attempt to stay in the peaceful slumber. Unfortunately, your bladder decided now would be a good time to act up, so you knew there was no going back from here. Your best hope would be going to the bathroom now and trying to continue sleeping right afterwards. Very begrudgingly you shimmied yourself out of the blankets and the arms of the boys around you, to sleepily tap into the bathroom, the slight burn between your legs constantly reminding you of the events that had occurred the evening before.

“Morning, princess.” Issei’s voice was even deeper in the morning. “No. Wanna sleep.” You were already nestled back in his arms, ready to close your eyes again, stomach warming up at his chuckle. “Sure thing, baby. Hiro’s going to be out for a while more, anyways.”

You hummed in content at the feeling of him slightly scratching your head, encouraging him to continue.

“You sore?” You let out a huff that could be understood as an affirmation and luckily, he got it, chuckling smugly.

“Issei- no. I’m sore!” Apparently, he didn’t get it, as his hand moved down, to cup your core through the boxers they had to lend you in his big hand.

“I’m not doing anything, princess, don’t worry. Just holding. It’ll be better I promise.” Maybe it was your imagination, but the sting really seemed to lessen a bit under the heat of his fingers, and contently you drifted off in a light snooze.

When you woke up again, much more willingly this time, Issei had disappeared from your side, leaving you and Hiro in bed. The strawberry blonde was still passed out cold and not against a bit more time in bed, you snuggled up closer to him and shut your eyes again, once you felt the warmth of his body.

You were absently tracing soft patterns on Hiro’s chest, when you heard someone, presumably Issei, reentering the room and sighing at the picture presented to him.

“Hey, I made breakfast for you.”

The bed dipped and you slowly blinked up at him. “What time is it?”

“Nearly noon.” Issei chuckled a bit, leaning down to press a soft kiss to your forehead before leaning over you to Hiro, shaking him slightly. Said man grumbled and tried turning around, away from the disturbance but was hindered by you clinging onto his arm.

“What time is it?” He still sounded incredibly tired, his voice deeper than usual and very raspy. “Nearly noon,” Issei repeated and also pressed a kiss on Hiro’s shoulder.

“Morning, Hiro.” You giggled at his sleepy expression, heaving yourself on top of him to press small kisses to his chest. “Morning, princess. You alright?” He stretched a bit, grabbing Issei’s hand while doing so to pull him towards you two.

“Yeah. Issei made breakfast.” He hummed at your answer, eyes closed again, with Issei tucked under one arm. “Well, we should stand up then.”

Nobody moved, making you all chuckle. It really was something you could get used to. Something about laying in their arms made you feel so soft and safe and secure.

“I love laying here, but I really need to pee. Princess…” You got the hint and rolled down, so Hiro could stretch one last time, press a kiss to both yours and Issei’s lips, and then scurry off to the bathroom.

“Let’s go eat.” Issei nudged you with his nose, snaking his arms around you to pull you up with him. He really went all out with breakfast, different kinds of bread, cereal, and fruits adorning the table. “Do you want some coffee?” He was already standing at the machine, but you were quick to push him to the side. “I’ll make one myself. You already did so much! Just sit down.” He smiled at you and followed your command, soon being accompanied by Hiro.

“You never made breakfast like this for me,” the latter complained jokingly, throwing you a thankful smile when you placed a cup of coffee in front of him and Issei.

“You never took two dicks at the same time.” Issei threw him a cheeky grin, before starting breakfast by taking two pancakes of the stack in the middle of the table.

It was later when you were lounging in Hiro’s bed and his hand softly caressed your upper thigh, that you realized what you had done. The pizza last evening and the extensive breakfast today, paired with a cup of coffee. It was bad. It wasn’t like you never took a dump at their place before, but it felt weird, knowing that presumably later they would put something up your ass again.

“What do you wanna do today, hm?” Issei had tucked himself under your arm and now pressed a small kiss to your collarbone with his words. You stiffened up a bit at that, emitting a chuckle from them.

“Still sore?” Hiro’s hand moved a bit up on your thigh.

“No- I- It’s not that. Just... like, I had to poop like an hour after breakfast, I don’t want it to be dirty!” You were speaking faster towards the end, but according to the grins they sported, they still understood you.

“We gotta clean you then, don’t we?” Mattsun sat up, letting your arm fall down onto your stomach, while he went rummaging in Hiro’s closet. “Come on, princess, up to the bathroom.” Hiro pushed you slightly, animating you to move.

What were they planning? They weren’t going to clean you with their fingers, right? That would be weird, wouldn’t it?

“Well, princess, this is a water enema. You fill it with water, and you can press here, and then the water will come out and flow into your butt. It’s a bit of a strange feeling, but it’s not hurtful in any way.” Issei threw you a reassuring smile during his explanation when he entered the bathroom with the small toy.

“In the best case you move around a bit with the water inside you, so it coats everything, but then you can go sit on the toilet or like kneel in the bathtub or whatever you’re comfortable with and then, well, I guess you know what happens then.” He grinned at you at the last part. You couldn’t stop the heat that slowly coated your cheeks at the thought of being in such a humiliating position in front of them. And when Hiro took a seat on the edge of the bathtub, patting his lap, you could not withhold your whimper.

“Go on princess.” Issei pushed you in his direction but you had felt the air shifting. They weren’t just helping you anymore. You were sure that this whole process would bring in more than just cleanliness.

“Dirty girl. You need to be cleaned by us, don’t you?” Another slap echoed through the bathroom. You whimpered again.

“Shh, princess, you’re gonna be good for us, aren’t you?” You nodded helplessly, looking up at Issei, who held your cheeks squished in one hand. After the next slap Hiro’s hand-dipped between your cheeks, carefully prodding at your puckered hole.

You hated yourself and your kinks at that moment. Who were you, getting turned on in that moment, bent over Hiro’s lap, waiting for him to pump water into your ass.

Hiro slightly lubed up your hole, before slowly pushing the water enema in. You moaned at the new feeling of fullness. It wasn’t comparable with the fullness yesterday, with fingers or toys, but a different kind. You felt the slight push at your stomach, felt that there was something moving in your ass.

“Good girl.” The praises went straight to your core.

“Think she can take more?” With wide eyes, you stared at Issei, who only threw you a wicked grin in response.

“Hmm, a bit, sure.” Hiro hummed thoughtfully, filling the enema up again, to push it inside your asshole the second time.

After the second enema, you really felt full. Nearly bursting. The push of Hiro’s legs against your stomach did nothing to help the situation and with small whimpers you tried to get away, to ease the pressure.

He let you stand up on wobbly feet, and you tried to hurry towards the toilet, but a hand stopped you. “Nuh uh, princess. Remember when you said you liked humiliation?” They grinned at the way your eyes went even wider.

Issei pushed you back towards the bathtub, pressing against your stomach slightly. It was nearly painful holding everything in, especially when you moved to climb over the edge of the tub.

“Can you leave the room, please?” You knew the possibilities were small, but this was already embarrassing enough. You were kneeling in their bathtub, ass filled with water, while they were towering over you, smirking at your misery.

“I think I can see your stomach bulging out.” They ignored your request completely.

“Come on, princess. Aren’t you excited about the fun we will have afterwards? You will be so clean. You just have to let go.” Tears were prickling in your eyes.

You wanted to let go as Issei said, you really did. But something, one last ounce of pride was holding you back, was refusing to let you squirt out water from your ass in front of the two attractive males.

It was when Issei leaned down, to press against your stomach when you had to let loose with a cry. You felt the water flowing out of your ass, not daring to look. You didn’t want to know what it looked like, it would make everything even more humiliating.

The tears were by now falling freely down your face, while water kept spraying out of you, slightly coating your knees before disappearing into the drain.

“Such a good girl for us. Getting so clean. You did great, princess.” After the flow had stopped, they took the showerhead, spraying the remaining water around until everything was gone, cleaning your legs and ass as well.

“It’s time for a reward, don’t you think?” You were wrapped in a fluffy towel, pressed against Issei, who softly wiped your tears.

“What do you think about a dick in your ass?” Hiro caressed your sides, planting a small kiss on your head. You nodded, not trusting yourself to answer. You never had one of them in your ass. Wasn’t that the goal you wanted to achieve when you asked them for help?

“Yeah? You like that? Then let’s go, princess.”