#but I managed to in that time persuade my friend to listen to The Beach Boys love You (1977) and they don’t hate me!

[keelt9]

Chapter 13

Masterlist

It took Max’s manager and me around 10 minutes to get him into the jet, by the time we arrived at the airfield it was supposed they must be in Milton Keynes.

I lied to him, telling him I was fine, just maybe a little bit dizzy; he tried to insisted he wanted to wait for Mika or Thomas came to pick me but I calm him down saying <I will be fine.>

Mika and Thomas arrived 30 minutes later, found me with Caleb who insisted he didn’t want to leave alone until I was fine. 

Mika was calm until Caleb mentioned the part of leaving me alone, causing a dry laugh from her, asking if his own words didn’t taste like vinegar.

Max called me right away as they landed, I assured him I was fine, just I got dizzy for the long weeks and the moved weekend, but I was totally fine.

Mika and Thomas didn’t mention a word to anyone about when we met Caleb; but try to persuade me at least I should tell Max who is Caleb, not because he must know everything about my past, just because as Mika said, if that dude is someone who hurt you that much I like to know.

Still I can’t, not now.

Singapore was a success, even for Lewis who reached third place. 

Max called me that night to tell me all in the paddock started to tease him about us, and he was fighting for nor saying a word, but Checo’s facial expression didn’t help him at all.

“I also received a couple of messages.” Alexa texted me Thursday night about a couple of photos of me and “someone” who looked like Max in Newport beach. 

Max smiles as he’s finishing his breakfast. “Alexandra.” 

“How do you know?” I almost hit the table in the living room.

“Charles has been very curious too.” He said drinking what I bet is his first redbull of the day. “Are you alone already?”

My parents left early for an old friend's party in Ireland, leaving me with the confidence that I'll be alone one day, because Max will come from me Tuesday afternoon to travel to Japan.

“Yes, it’s been a long Monday.” I laid down on the couch. “I never imagine how many permissions you need.”

All these days I have been in endless reunions and paperwork for the shelter, knowing I’m not going to be around, I have to make a huge progress before going to Japan. 

“And this is starting to frustrate me.” I raise my arm with the cast. 

Max realizes something. “I haven’t signed it, first thing I’ll do tomorrow.”

I didn’t realize I have a sheepy face until Max mentioned it. “Go to sleep, I'll see you tomorrow, ok?”

I nod getting up the stairs. “Have a safe flight.”

“Sleep well.” He smiles while drinking his Red Bull, hanging out.

Mornings are officially cold, but the sun keeps you warm as the few sunlights touch your skin. I finished my first snack of the day, sending the last information for one of the companies who will work with us when I hear wheels on the gravel, Max is here.

I close my laptop running to the main door, excited to see him after one week, still one I opened the door, Max isn’t there.

One more time, my blood runs cold.

“Hanna was right.” Caleb is standing at the door with his hands on the pocket of his jacket smiling. 

I curse low, I hate to admit it but Hanna keeps knowing some things about me. 

“Can we talk?” I close the door behind me. “I guess your parents are inside, I get it.”

Caleb waits a couple of seconds but simply seeing him smiling looking so fresh is making my anger increase.

“I just want to come and make sure you’re alright, you seem quite impressed and…” 

“You never worry about me.” I grip the cast trying to contain me. “It’s stupid you pretend now.”

Caleb got down his head. “Listen Y/N, things kind of mess up, but…”

“Mess up?” I scoff. “You better get out of here.” The tears on my eyes make everything blurry.

“I don’t cause you so much damage. Jeez Y/N, you seem happy in a new relationship, that’s a good sign.”

I couldn’t hold back, the next thing I realized was that my hand was hitting his cheek. “Go.”

“I deserved that, I know, I came here for…” Like he stumbles with his own feets he goes backwards, it was until Max appeared behind him pulling him for the jacket I blink and my blurry vision became clear.

“She told you to go.” Caleb scoffs but I know he won’t take a step back.

“Don’t get involved in this, this is between her and me.” I see Max’s face switch as he caresses my face, the leath eyes on him. 

“Get fuck out of here.” I grip Max's arm seeing he's about to push him, he turns around grabbing my hand.

“She told you who I am?” I feel my stomach flipp and I hiss. Caleb saw my eyes and he knew it. “You don’t tell him.”

“Enough, go.” Max grabs him by the jacket pushing him to his car.

“Max!” I try to grip his arm back, Max is so angry that he didn't even listen to me.

“I WAS HER FIANCE, IDIOT!” Max shutter for a minute but he opens the door of his car, pushing him. 

I can’t move, I've been holding my breath but all I do is sit on the stairs. 

Max grip the door. “Go, before I call the police.” 

Caleb holds his serious face and bluffs from the last time. “You can thank me later.”

I hide my face between my legs and my arms, trembling, feeling my world is collapsing one more time. 

“Hey, hey, can you look at me?” When Max sees I don’t move he kneels in front of me and hugs me, that was all I needed to break in tears.

No matter if all the walls are crumbling down, there are some wounds behind them, and sometimes those wounds are so easy to bleed like the first time. 

I push him away, I stand pushing him, one more time. “Leave me alone.” I clean my face but tears are impossible to stop.

“Y/N.” He grips my hand on his chest. 

“You don’t hear me?” I take my hand off his chest. “Leave me alone.” I said between grip teeths. 

I ran back to the door opened by closing it with a big thud, unable to move. I slip until the ground, my chest hurts, my breath is fast and my body is trembling. 

“Can you please…” Max said. “Please don't shut me down.” 

I cover my mouth for he won’t hear me. “Y/N.”

I don’t know how much time has passed until I hear another voice behind the door, but my fear fades away when I recognize Thomas' voice.

“Y/N, it’s me, can you please open it?” Thomas knocked softly.

“Tell him… Tell him to go.” My voice broke in every word.

“Y/N..” Thomas said in a begging tone.

I clean my face. “He goes or both of you.” 

I don’t want to distinguish what they said, just a loud <Fuck> from Max before the loud sound of wheels on the gravel, let me know is ok come out.

Just in that moment I opened, throwing myself in Thomas' arms crying like I did years ago.

It took me  a lot of time to calm down, but when I got it, I called Lewis to explain it; want it or not, Max will ask him when they meet in Japan. He cursed low and I could hear the anger as he asked me if I would be fine being alone this weekend.

“I’ll go Mika’s house.” It’s late at night and Mika and Thomas are there helping me, in all. 

“Call Nicola in case…” I heard someone calling for him, he’s already in Japan and for them it’s early morning.

“Let’s talk when you come here, ok?” Lewis breathes out. “Ple…”

“I won’t say anything, don’t worry. Try to rest, I’ll see you as soon as I can.” I heard he asked for another minute. “Love you.”

“Bye Lew.” 

I hang out but my eyes are lost in the big trees. “Y/N, ready?” 

Mika is under the frame door with my purse as Thomas walks with my bags in his hand. 

They waited for days for me to speak about it. Mom and dad called me when they didn't see any show for me being in the paddock so I told them what happened, even when they tried to remain calm I know they were angry too.

The farm is gone now, a big land is in front of my eyes with machinery all over the place; anyone there, after all it is Saturday morning..

“I’m terrified.” Thomas lifts his eyes from the blueprints. 

All these days I isolate myself in Newport, my house is in the last touches and the shelter in the first phases. 

Thomas forgot the papers we’ll need this Monday, after leaving Mika in the hospital we drove here.

“Y/N.” Thomas whispered. “It’s not easy, it’s ok to…”

“No it is not, I hurt him, I know.” I clear my throat. “But, I’m trying to protect him from all the shit.”

“Y/N!” Thomas spat leaving the pen on the table. “Don’t say that.”

“Do you even imagine what would happen if someone saw Max Verstappen pulling a guy into his car as a girl is crying on the floor?” Thomas bluffs but he knows as me that would be a pretty big scandale. “I’m scared that he probably thinks I’m a playmaker.”

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times trying to put his word in order. “A guy like Max didn’t care that much, besides he never thought that of you. I talked with him and believed Y/N the only thing it was in his mind at that moment was to protect you.” 

Thomas grabs the papers and walks to the exit of the small tent where he works on the week. “He just want to make sure you’re safe.”

I see the leaves on the ground in brown, orange and yellow colors. “I know you’re not ready to tell him and like Mika said it’s not because he must know your past, it's just because if someone hurt you, I bet he would like to know.”

“I’ll drag too many people to this mess.” I feel a knot on my throat as I see my shoes playing with the ground.

“I’m going to correct you.” Thomas jostled me softly. “YOU have so many people you trust and know we care about you, and the same people you know you can lean on.” 

Imagines of my family, friends and new friends that appear in my life, giving me a hug when I need it, hearing me all the time, even just calling to ask if I already eat, flow my mind, as a smile appears on my face. 

“Is it bad that you lean on someone new?” I see Thomas and raise his shoulders. “After all, in these… whoa almost a year, that’s what you both been doing right?” 

I chuckle letting Max’s memories clear my mind. I see my phone, it’s not late.

“Give me a couple of minutes.” Thomas smiles and nods.

“I’ll wait in the car.” I waited until I heard the sound of the door to dial his number. 

I don’t wait too long until the third beep Max picks up, of course he won’t let me speak first.

“Are you ok?” I scrunch my nose trying to contain my tears. “Y/N…”

“Forgive me. I didn’t push you away, it's just, it was so much in that moment. I’ll tell you what you have to know, I swear but not now.” I moved side to side of the tent.

“Don’t bite your cheeks.” I giggle releasing I biting the inside of my cheeks. “You’ll hurt yourself.” 

“Max…” 

“All I care is that you are ok.” I heard the sound of him moving on the bed. 

“I am now, hearing you, I’m better now.” I closed my eyes like he could see me.

“Don’t do this to me schat, no when you’re far away.” Max complains. “And all I want to do is kiss you and hug you right now.”

I cover my face feeling a tear slip. “Let's find each other when the triple heads of Asia end, ok?” Max growls. “Is it so much your race thinking that is making me so happy?”

“I’ll do more than that, count with that.” I heard someone knock on his door. 

“I’ll leave you.” Max said goodbye but I added one last thing. “Max, I’m holding tight, really tight.”

“That’s all you have to do.”

The race was exceptional, Max won with a comfy difference of 2-3 seconds with Charles, but I never expected what would happen in the press conference.

Max posted photos of the race on the top of the podium, in the last slide was a photo we took when we were in Liverpool watching the sunrise. 

Not a simple photo of the sunrise; his face illuminated for the sun in orange colors as I’m hugging him but my face isn’t appearing in the frame, just my hair and my arm around his neck.

>Keeping her busy with winns.

In one of the many comments Max had about if there is a chance of tha girl in the picture could be me, I replay. 

> 👀

That unleashed an endless week of rumors and even a timeline of my relationship with Max started to spread. In the time line are photos that I didn't even know when or were taken.

Even Lewis helps to increase the rumors by posting a story of me laying on the couch of his house with the small description of…

>Keeping an eye on her. 

Which Mercedes complement with.

>Keeping a lot of eyes on her.

Red Bull can't stay behind, answering Mercedes.

>When you are busy we can keep an eye on her too. 😉

By the time the GP of China ends, Max was questioned about his position on the rumors.

“Max, what can you say about the things that are happening around you and Lewis' little sister?” Max keeps his face neutral.

“Y/N is an amazing person, but I'm afraid Lewis lost from his view a couple of times.” A big smile with pressed lips appeared on his face.

Lewis regrets he didn't have the chance to reply to something, but his tour with the reporters ended.

“We didn't want a soft lunch, right?” Max said as he arrived to apartment in Monaco.

“Not after a race!” I laugh rolling my eyes.

“Where are you? It's pretty dark. I can barely see you.” He said searching for his keys in his bag.

I opened his door jumping on him, causing him to act fast grabbing his phone and me at the same time. “In your house.”

Max curses but holds me tight against him.

“Oh my God.” He splits so he can see my face. “Hi.”

I scrunch my nose, jumping was a bad idea because my casted arm hurts.

“Reckless girl.” He observed my arm. “Are you ok? You shouldn't be jumping around, you know there is  a percentage of people who can aggravate a fracture even being with a cast.”

I roll my eyes. “So much blah blah blah.”

I pull him by his shirt for kissing him so slowly but passionately, with just one intention, leaving him breathless.

I get it because the lack of hair was the only thing that made us separate.

“I miss you.” I whisper stick to his lips. “I'm sorry, I know…”

We're so lost in the moment that he just pressed his lips against mine one more time.

“Welcome to your home.” I whisper following for a hug, both of his arms across my back.

“This couldn’t feel more like home.” He hid his face on my neck.

I smile but I remember what I have inside of his home. “Oh, let’s get inside.” 

I split as I pull him inside of his apartment but I stop him in his hallway. “No, no, no.” I put my right hand on his face. “Don’t see.”

Max has to walk with his knees a little bit folded and in an uncomfortable position, but still he smiles walking in a dark apartment.

We reached his living room, where on the small table a cheesecake with a little candle waits for him.

“Ta da!” I take my hand of his eyes, my eyes stuck on his face all the time. His face lights up too.

“Oh my god!” He blinks and sees me, all my words were cut for a kiss. “This is amazing, thank you so much.” 

“Blow it! Or you will have melted a candle on that.” Max giggles and blows the candle as I light on. 

After a detailed look he realized the shape of the candles. “This is Jimmy and Sassy. Amazing, totally amazing.” 

“Even though I like to take the credit for this, I can’t.” We sat down on his carpet. “I asked Alexa about a place for the cheesecake and the candles, Emma knows a place in London.”

“Can I?” Max points to the cheesecake for taking a piece. 

I giggle. “All yours.” I don’t have to tell him twice for he takes a small portion of melting at the first bite. “That good, huh?”

Max nods offering me a bite which I gladly take, yes, so good. 

Watching him enjoying the dessert makes my heart squeeze, just thinking how worried and mad he could be.

“I’m sorry.” I said playing with the carpet. “I promise I won’t do it again but I was scared.” 

Max grabs my hands and turns around facing me. “Don’t say that again. I’ll wait, if you think it is something you should tell me, I’ll wait until you’re ready.”

“You know, it is hard imagining a life without you.” It’s the only thing that I have clear on my mind, the only thing I have for certain right now lost in his eyes. 

Max blinks, I grab his face between my hands, smiling at him. “It's impossible for me too.” Max chuckles pulling me as I sit on his lap, both of my things at the side of his legs.  

I surrounded his neck with my arms. “You're one of a kind Verstappen.” Max laughs, kissing me. 

“Emilian for you, too many people call me that.” I laughed too nodding. “Thanks for be home.”

I hugged him tighter, he’s right, this couldn’t feel more like home.

[pebblezone]

beach boys lockdown returned rip other music 🫡

[cornishkat]

Everlong - Part 1

Bob Floyd x F!Reader

Warnings: Fluff, Smut coming in the next parts

Summary: You have fallen for Bob but after dropping hints he has remained oblivious, it is ok you re happy just being friends. Then you end up sharing a moment with him and Phoenix leads a hand.

A/N - First time writing for Bob, and the first work I have managed to finish and post in months. Hope you enjoy.

Leaning back, you took a pull of your beer as you stared into the dancing flames of the fire. it was a perfect end to a great day. You and the rest of the Daggers had spent the whole day at the beach and now as the sun was setting you gathered around the fire as Bob strummed gently on his guitar.  

“Y/N/N can I persuade you to join me, just like old times” “You used to sing with Bob, I don’t think I have ever heard you sing”.“I wasn’t a big deal we only did it every now and again as some light entertainment on ops”.

“Please Y/N/N, we need entertaining”.

“You guys were quite happy with Bob until about five minutes ago”.

“We were but then we found out you can sing, and we need to hear it”.

“Phoenix how about you sing instead”.

“Hell, no have you heard her sing”

You laughed as Rooster got a punch from Phoenix.

“How about you sing for us Rooster, I’m sure Bob can play Great Balls of Fire”.

“Don’t try and get out of this Y/N/N and everyone is probably fed up with listening to me” “Yes, we are chicken boy”.

“Please Y/N/N, we really want to hear you”.

“No pressure, I blame you for this Bob and there will be consequences”.

Bob grinned and started playing again and you couldn’t help but smile as you recognised the song and started to sing.

Hello I've waited here for you Everlong

Tonight, I throw myself into And out of the red Out of her head, she sang

Come down and waste away with me Down with me

As you sang you concentrated on Bob’s fingers on the guitar strings, your mind drifted back to the last time you had both done this.  You had been deployed together for the first time, to be honest it had taken a while for you to even notice the quiet WSO sat at the back of the room.  As you had left the briefing room your eyes had met and you had given him s small smile, watching as he returned the smile and his cheeks bloomed red.  Slowly as the detachment had gone on you had gotten to know Bob and one quiet night you had been walking back to your bunk when you had heard the soft music coming from his room.  You had stopped to listen and couldn’t help yourself from softly humming along as you recognised the song.  Leaning against the wall it took you a moment after the song stopped before you peeped your head around his door.

“You play really well”.

Bob had jumped as you caught him off guard and it had made you smile as you watched his cheeks blush red.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to disturb anyone, I thought I could hear someone singing”.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you I just couldn’t help myself I love that song”.

“Me too”

“Would you play something else for me”.

“I don’t usually play in front of people”.

“It’s only me, not people”.

Smiling shyly, he had started to play again.  That was how it started, you spent your free evenings tucked away with Bob playing and you quietly singing along with him.

Slow, how you wanted it to be I'm over my head Out of her head, she sang

And I wonder When I sing along with you

If everything could ever be this real forever If anything could ever be this good again The only thing I'll ever ask of you You've got to promise not to stop when I say when She sang

In the glow of the fire the rest of the Daggers listened in silence, everyone was used to Rooster on the piano, but this was so different.  Bob looked over at you, in the golden glow of the firelight you looked even more beautiful than ever.  He remembered the first time he had heard you sing.  He had just been playing one evening, just trying to pass time, he had thought he was on his own, he wasn’t a great player it just relaxed him, he didn’t want anyone to hear.  But it was you and in the short time he had known you he already realised he would be hard pushed to deny you anything.  So, he had played, and you had sung and by the end of the detachment he was no longer worried about playing in front of people.  As he continued to watch you, you lifted your head and looked across at him as you continued to sing.

Breathe out So I can breathe you in Hold you in And now I know you've always been Out of your head Out of my head, I sang.

And I wonder When I sing along with you.

If everything could ever feel this real forever If anything could ever be this good again The only thing, I'll ever ask of you You've got to promise not to stop when I say when She sang

As you gazed in Bob’s blue eyes it was like there was no one else there it was only the two of you and you realised how much you wanted him and not just as a friend.  You knew that your feelings had been growing for him, but you had tried to tamp them down, ignore them.  You had thought when you had been on detachment something was going to happen, you had made your feelings clear and he had not responded so you had left it, told yourself you were happy just to be his friend. But right now, singing to him made your heart ache for him.

And I wonder.

If everything could ever feel this real forever If anything could ever be this good again The only thing I'll ever ask of you You've got to promise not to stop when I say when

You dropped your head as you finished the song and after a moment of silence the rest of the team exploded into cheers and clapping.

“That was amazing, I can’t believe you to have been hiding that from us” “Making us listen to Rooster when we could have been listening to you”.

“Come on guys it wasn’t that good, anyone want another beer while I go and get one”?

Bob watched you walk away from the fire, he felt like you were singing just for him, that no one else was there.  Just for a moment he felt what it would be like to be with you, before he could submit to his feelings, he felt Phoenix sit down next to him.

“You know she likes you too”.

“I don’t know what you are talking about”.

“Y/N/N she likes you too”.

“Don’t be ridiculous of course she doesn’t, what on earth could a woman like her like about me”.

“Don’t do that Bob, you are amazing, and any woman would be lucky to have you.  I see the way you look at her and I can see how she looks at you.  But she is only going to put herself out so many times before she gives up”.

“What do you mean, put herself out there”.

“Bob how can you be so oblivious”.

“Phoenix, please don’t mess with me here, are you telling me that Y/N/N likes me” “Yes, I am, I just don’t understand how you couldn’t have realised”.

Standing up Bob looked around the fire, searching for you,

“Where is she?”

“She headed off to get some drinks”.

Bob headed off to find you, he knew Phoenix wouldn’t lie to him about this, had he really been that oblivious.  He could feel the nerves bubbling in the pit of his stomach as he scanned the beach for you. Even with the conversation he had just had he was still thinking that there is no way you could like him, but it was enough to make him need to find out.  He spotted you down by the water and headed in your direction.

You let the cool water wash over your feet as you stood and watched the sun setting, you just needed a moment to pull yourself together, singing that song you had felt every word as you looked across at Bob and it hurt to know that he didn’t reciprocate your feelings.  But you just had to get over it, at least you had him as a friend.  Letting out a deep breath you turned to head back to the others to see Bob walking towards you with a look of determination on this face.

“You ok Bob”

He slowed down and seemed unsure as he stood before you, hands on hips looking down at the sand.  

“Y/N/N I need to ask you something, but if you don’t want to its ok, we can just forget about it and go back to the others and never speak about it again”.

You felt your breath catch in your chest as you felt the nerves coming off him in waves.

“Ok”

“I need to know if I have got this really wrong, we will be ok”.

“Bob, you’re making me really nervous, but whatever it is I will always be your friend”.

You saw his shoulders sag slightly as he took a deep breath, still looking down at the sand,

“Do you like me”.

It came out almost as a whisper and you felt your heart beating faster in your chest, was he asking what you thought he was asking.

[blackbat05]

I need a break

Shangqi x Reader (Platonic) 

A/N: I feel like I’m loosing steam towards the end of my placement and wow I have never needed a break this badly before. Perhaps a short Shangqi x Reader imagine where they are both University students. Seriously at this rate I’ll just be solely a Shangqi writer HAHAHA. Doing this on my phone because I don’t want to open my work computer. Let’s see where this impromptu idea takes me to. Hope you enjoy it and as always like and comment if you wish!

Genre: PG-13

Warnings: None really, just friends supporting each other! I guess there’s an inaccurate timeline if you look at the MCU but hey this is an imagine plus if you look at some of the wiki pages, Shangqi is actually born in 1998/1999. So appreciate if you’re kind enough to go with the flow to read this comfort fic! 

‘Y/N!’ Shangqi rushes to catch up with you after class. You made an effort to conceal your tiredness but he saw it right through. ‘Gosh…you alright?’

You think to yourself. Were you really alright? The answer was pretty obvious. You were ten weeks into your placement and your emotions were a jumbled up mess. Having to deal with work responsibilities was one problem, school assignments were another issue all together. At this point, you felt like you were just getting through each week for the sake of it.

At first, you believed that what you were going through was simply a transition to becoming an adult. You thought that naturally, you would be able to persevere through the stressful periods by yourself. But of course, it has been hard.

You were a social work intern at a neighborhood youth centre, thirty minutes away if you took the train and bus. The work was fulfilling in it’s own ways, but recently there were self-doubts filling your brain, if you were really cut out for the job in the future. If you weren’t, what else could you do?

As you sat with Shangqi in the school’s student-ran cafe, you found yourself pouring out the exact same concerns to him. Credit to him, Shangqi never interrupted your monologue, he just simply listened. That’s what best friends were for. That’s what you did for him to when he ran into issues with his family.

Even then, he couldn’t deny that hearing you doubt yourself broke his heart. He had known you since high school. You mostly kept to yourself and one or two close friends. Despite joining the school’s athletic team where you were one of the main athletes, you preferred to stay in the shadows unlike some of your teammates. That didn’t stop you from going out of your way to help other students in need; like helping the girl who was in an arm cast to copy the social studies notes, even if it meant you had to do it twice. Or maybe just talking to a friend who was stressed out about their results.

Basically, you had studied your ass off to get a secured spot at this university who were only one of the few that offered the degree. He remembers you telling him the moment you got your offer, ‘I’m finally good at something. I don’t have to worry anymore!’

Shangqi wasn’t stupid. The pandemic had done some crazy things. And by crazy, it affected the self-esteem that you had been working so hard on by participating in various projects and events, with you being in charge of a drama production that was promoting on mental health. That was a big deal considering that you were a major introvert.

Online engagement was never easy. In fact he has heard some of your struggles that you’ve shared with him regarding this and it only makes him admire you even more. For someone who preferred to keep to themselves, stepping out of one’s comfort zone, to take on a role that wasn’t just simply about helping people - that took guts.

‘I’m sorry I’m just loading you with all this. I just feel…’ You trailed off, suddenly becoming emotional again. Again, Shangqi does not pry. ‘That I can’t do anything right.’ You emphasize that you had ended the statement for you were unsure that you could keep your cool if you had tried to continue on.

‘If I hear you saying sorry another time,’ he chides, ‘you’re paying for our meal later.’ Your lips curved upwards slightly before returning to its somber position. Shangqi decides that a meal won’t cut it. He needs to deploy ‘Operation Y/N’. Standing up with your buzzer to collect the food, Shangqi whips out his phone. There will be a few changes for today.

Food was definitely a cure in this situation, but it was only a part of the solution. After inhaling your ramen at light speed, Shangqi tells you that today will be a different Friday. ‘And you can’t complain! It’ll be a weekend tmr,’ he tells you. So why not? You figured that even if you went back home early, your head wouldn’t be in the right place to complete the essay for your English module.

‘Hold up! The VR studio that Katy was talking about?’ You look at the tickets inside the taxi that was taking you and Shangqi to the location. ‘How did you even, it was so hard to get these tickets!’ From the time Shangqi met you outside the classroom, he had yet to see you so ecstatic. Until now.

‘Well,’ Shangqi gives his best shrug. ‘I called in a favor from a friend. Said that it was for emergency purposes.’ He raised his fingers to make connotations in the air much to your amusement.

‘Wow… just how much do I not know about you Mr Popular?’ You teased. Shangqi decides to leave the fact on him having to persuade the Wakandan Princess in giving him free tickets.

‘Please! I swear whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it! It’s for Y/N!’

‘Ey well why didn’t you say so? If it’s for that nice friend, of course!’ Shuri leaves the entrance of the compound, an exasperated Shangqi trailing behind.

Yeah, the VR studio that Katy told them about was also funded by King T’Challa himself. With stunning life like visuals thanks to Wakandan technology, the VR studio was located in a middle class neighborhood. T’Challa believed that no matter where kids came from, they should have the right to enjoy and to explore the world. For now, he wasn’t ready to share that he was on the way on becoming a full-fledged Avenger yet - you just had too much on your plate. He’ll just have to settle with this white lie.

‘Is Katy coming?’ You were on the verge of vibrating off your seat. ‘She would love this place!’ Even when you were struggling, Y/N still manages to think about other people. Today, Y/N will put her needs first.

As if to answer your previous question, you can see an equally excited Katy waiting for the two of you at the roundabout. ‘HEL-LO EVERYONE! LET’S GET OUR FRIDAY STARTED IN PROPER SHALL WE?’ Her loud voice had attracted stares, some very displeased looks too but at this point in time, you didn’t give a damn. Katy was right, it was time to enjoy!

You wished that you could slow down time, or even replay it continuously when you needed cheering up because the only thing you felt was pure happiness - euphoria even. Your stomach was in knots for laughing hysterically together with Katy when Shangqi jumped in shock from a surprise scare from a zombie. ‘I’m keeping that for leverage,’ she tells you, quietly slipping her phone into her fanny pack. 

The Wakandans had really outdone themselves this time. Your favorite VR was the paradise VR. Slipping the headgear, you say goodbye to the smiles of Katy and Shangqi, whisking away to a beach that oddly reminded you of your dream destination - Hawaii. From where you were standing, you were surrounded by green and majestic islands. Despite their sheer size, you weren’t intimidated. In fact, you were healing. 

Your mind was no longer in the room of the VR studio. How could it when the sun kissed your skin, giving you the much needed energy that you were lacking for so long? In the room, the two sees you kick your shoes to the side, going barefoot. It may have seem strange, but with the monitor beside you, your actions were perfectly logical. 

As a kid, you used to despise the prickly feeling of sand in between your toes. But now, you grew to love the sensation that each grain of sand had on your skin. It made you feel grounded, that everything was going to be ok. You raise your virtual hand to touch your face - were you crying? 

‘She must have been really stressed huh?’ Katy whispers to Shangqi who nods in return. How he hated the fact that you were giving so much to your work but still felt underappreciated. Forget the Avengers with superhuman abilities, you were the true MVP. The VR ends and you remove your headgear. ‘I’m ok,’ you automatically reassure them despite the dry tears left on both cheeks. You step down the platform slowly, trying to regain sense of the real world. 

What you didn’t expect was the two embracing you in a hug, squishing you in between them. Maybe that had set off the waterworks. For someone like Katy, she had sage advice.

‘Life can be pretty shitty right? But I’m so proud of you fighting it Y/N. Just remember that it’s ok to be weak. I mean, I’ve seen worse from Shangqi,’ she jabs her finger towards his direction, earning a glare from him. That’s Katy, always trying to add a bit of humor to this grey world. Calming down, you let go of the both of them. ‘Thanks guys, for everything.’ 

‘Hey,’ Shangqi responds, slinging his arm over your shoulder. ‘We’re friends, so we don’t leave each other behind.’ Phone beeping, he retrieves it to check the message. ‘And look at that, nice timing. Who wants Korean BBQ?’ 

Trailing behind them, you get an amusing view of Shangqi bickering with Katy on how many Soju bottles she’s allowed to order later. As San Francisco welcomed the night, you were just thankful that you had the two of them to walk through this crazy maze called life. 

‘Last one to the shop is paying!’ 

‘Oh you’re on Mister!’  

A/N: I really just think that this was also an imagine for me to cope too. So I can only hope to finish my placement/assignments/exams well! To anyone who does studies and work simultaneously, I fucking respect you (allow me to use expletives for now, these people deserve the respect). If you’re going through a stressful time, I hope this brings the slightest comfort for you and remember… YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Again, thank you for reading! 

[hiccanna-tidbits]

okay, okay but hear me out!

Hiccanna, Moanida and Jackunzel (and maybe someone else if u want) going on a holiday trip together (it could be sea or lake or just swimming pool).

And that three couples playing "chicken fight game"~ When u have to sit on partner shoulder or ridding piggy-back and knock down or separate the other couple!

sksksks just imagine the fun and the chaos!! hahaha

Okay SO I recently watched Palm Springs so I’m just imagining The Gang going to like…a fancy pool resort in like Arizona??? SURE LET’S GO WITH THAT

I’m imagining the only resort the gang could afford to stay at is someplace out in the middle of Arizona or something

It takes a LOT of persuading to get Jack to go, because he haaaaates deserts. Rapunzel basically has to beg. Moana finally managed to bribe him with really good homemade ice slushies. (She’s used to making smoothies for Merida, so how hard can slushies be??? Just throw in some ice!)

Rapunzel offers to help Moana with the slushies, since she gave Jack SO many puppy dog eyes to get him to come. Since they’ve got two people working on them, they’re REALLY good slushies. Jack approves.

Anna also tries to convince Elsa to go, but the perpetually-single Elsa is just like “Um, deserts? Sunburns? Being indefinitely stuck with gross couples doing gross couple stuff?!? Yeah no thank you”

Hiccup tries to wake everyone up at like 6 am to go hiking because "that's when the desert iguanas are out guys!!! C'mon, we have to go!!!" Anna is only persuaded to go after Hiccup makes her coffee--she really wants to make her bf happy, but also mornings can suck her dick. Rapunzel is more than happy to go, because she loves mornings anyways!!! And oh my god, IGUANAS!!! Jack, Merida, and Moana are like "oh FUCK no" and put the pillow back over their head, shoo Hiccup away, and go back to sleep.

On their hike, Hiccup just goes "!!!!!!!" about every reptile he sees. Snake, lizard, horny toad, literally anything with scales will send the boy into an excited frenzy. Rapunzel has similar reactions. Anna could not love both of them more.

At one point, they stumble across a gila monster sunbathing, and Rapunzel is overtaken with the unwavering desire to adopt him. She gets Hiccup on board, and he tries to lure the lizard over with a dusty piece of a snake carcass he found (Anna tried to tell him he really shouldn't touch that, but he was not to be swayed and Anna ended up figuring he could just wash his hands really well when they got back). Anna finds herself in the unusual position of having to be the Voice of Reason, having to be like “hey uh I think this might be illegal and stuff??? Also aren't they poisonous???”

(I know what you're thinking. Bold of you to assume Anna knows the difference between poisonous and venomous.)

Rapunzel literally CANNOT stop gushing to Jack about all the wildlife she saw when she gets back! Jackrabbits! Kangaroo rats! Roadrunners! Peccaries! Centipedes! Jack has only mild to moderate interest in desert ecology, but loves hearing his gf gush so he listens attentively anyways. 

Anna and Rapunzel definitely hit up the gift shops in the resort town at some point, and go ABSOLUTELY BATSHIT HOGWILD buying gifts for everyone. They probably max out their credit cards. It's embarrassing, really. But Anna gets Hiccup an absolute shitton of those little wall lizard things and he nearly cries tears of joy when he sees them, so it's all worth it, really.

Moana will not leave the pool like. The entire time. The girl is just obsessed with being in the water, honestly. She gets restless, though, and can't just stand in the pool and vibe--she needs to constantly be moving and swimming around or she'll explode. Merida is more than happy to indulge her by hanging out in the poor with her, but Merida is also constantly challenging her to swim races--a very dumb idea, considering Moana is on the high school swim team and water polo team. Merida, naturally, is an extremely sore loser and is not above excessive pouting, splashing, yelling in angry Scottish, and dunking her girlfriend in revenge. It's at least entertaining for all of their friends to watch.

Jack keeps fucking taking huge buckets of ice from the ice machine and dumping them in the pool. At first he only does this because he keeps griping about the pool not being cold enough (this boy will accept nothing less than sitting in the goddamn arctic ocean), but after her figures out that it pisses off his friends, he takes to pouring said ice directly over their heads. Merida has threatened to murder him several times for this.

Hiccup and Anna's main pool activity is just lazing around on their pool floaties (Anna has a duck one, Hicccup has a dragon one because obviously), sipping cocktails, and just generally vibing. Through some ungodly mixture of pure charisma and a fake ID that Rapunzel helped photoshop, Jack manages to talk his way into getting the whole group access to alcohol. Hiccup is a sangria or Moscow Mule kinda guy while Anna usually gets a Pina Colada or a Sex on the Beach (she's aspec, so she literally will not stop joking about the irony of this). Merida makes a game out of attempting to tip over their floaties and dunk them. Jack, chaos gremlin that he is, puts aside his usual rivalry with Merida to join in. They have a surprisingly strong dunking alliance.

Hiccup and Anna try to form a syndicate of their own, and try to lounge on the same floatie so that they can protect each other while fighting off Jack and Merida together. Unfortunately neither of their floaties were made to hold 2 peoples' weight, so the one they're on ends up tipping over, spilling their cocktails everywhere and dunking them anyways. Jack and Merida consider this a Win By Default.

Moana of course loops everyone into playing water polo at some point. Unfortunately some idiot decided it would be a good idea to let Merida of all people pick the teams, which means of course that they are incredibly rigged. It's Moana, Merida and Anna vs. Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup, so basically The Jocks vs. The Nerds (although admittedly Anna is more of a softcore jock--she's nowhere near on Moana or Merida's level, but she's still more naturally athletic than Hiccup, Rapunzel, or Jack). Naturally, Jock Team absolutely whoops Nerd Team's ass. Jack gets salty and demands a rematch. ...Jock Team kicks Nerd Team's ass again.

Throughout all of this, no one thinks to just...rearrange the teams a little. Merida was counting on this. All according to plan.

In the titular chicken game (yes, I remembered, don't worry!), it's Merida on Moana's shoulders (Moana swims and has a lot of upper body strength, what can I say?), Hiccup on Anna's shoulders (I mean...Hiccup's a twig, and Anna HAS to have a fair amount of upper body strength from throwing busts around and punching men off boats and such), and Punz on Jack's shoulders (Jack's pretty lithe and good at keeping his balance while jumping around, so he's their best candidate for not just falling over).

Jack and Rapunzel actually manage to stay in the game longer than anyone expects--their primary strategy is “be good at dodging and staying out of the way while Merida and Hiccup duke it out.” And it works! As limber as Hiccup is, Anna's not nearly as coordinated as Jack and is no match for Moana's sturdy footing. Also, neither Anna nor Hiccup are prepared for how goddamn ruthless and determined to win Merida is. Even though they really, really should have been. I mean...have you met Merida???

When it comes down to Merida-Moana and Rapunzel-Jack, Mer feels a little bad for having to go up against Pure Sweet Punzie. Unfortunately, Rapunzel turns out to be a very hardcore fighter when she puts her mind to it, and Merida is much more evenly matched than she initially thought and realizes she must use her Full Power. It definitely helps her snap out of Going Soft when Jack starts brutally roasting Merida in particular (as per usual). Merida gets a rage-fueled Second Wave, and finally manages to knock Rapunzel over in one foul swoop. Merida and Moana are victorious!

Moana and Merida basically always shower together after a day at the pool. They claim it's because they both know how to handle curly hair in chlorine, and just like to wash each other's hair, but the rest of the gang is pretty sure that's not all that's going on in there.

One day, Anna hits up the resort town alone to buy some kind of secret gifts for her friends with what little money she has left (this girl seriously has no chill when it comes to buying presents).  She goes past this huge, fancy ice cream shop and she's like “!!!! OMG!!! I'm gonna surprise all my buddies with pints of their faves!!!” She just gets super hyped and buys everyone ice cream, getting so caught up in the thrill of it that she forgets that she'll have to like. Drive all this back all the way back to the resort in the rental car. In like. You know. 110+ degree weather.

By the time she gets back to the resort, the ice cream is, of course, goop. Poor Anna, feeling incredibly dumb and like an utter failure of a friend, just kind of bursts into tears. Like damn. This is too much. She was gonna make all her pals so happy, and all for naught! Jack just kinda shrugs and throws all the melted ice cream cartons in the freezer anyways. Once they're (partially) re-frozen, Rapunzel and Moana make slushies with them. They actually come out pretty decent. Anna is substantially cheered up.

Moana prepares some tropical fruit platters for everyone to snack on. Rapunzel tries to “improve” them by adding chocolate sauce and nutella to half of them. Sometimes it works (I mean...bananas and strawberries with chocolate and/or nutella is pretty solid). Other times it just tastes...very weird. Merida gest frustrated and yells at Rapunzel for “ruining all of her girlfriend's good mangoes.”

Jack just thinks this whole thing is so funny, and decides to swap the chocolate sauce with barbecue sauce to cause further chaos. Absolute mayhem ensures. Everyone has a bad time. Except for Anna, who apparently is just a freak who enjoys eating pineapple slices dipped in barbecue sauce.

At some point, Merida gets really drunk on appletinis or some shit and signs the entire group up for a local archery competition. Much to everyone's chagrin, it's no refunds. Naturally, basically everyone sans Merida does terrible. Rapunzel and Hiccup very nearly shoot themselves, while Jack and Anna come very close to  accidentally shooting a group of referees (although Jack might have done this on purpose). Moana gets the farthest, if only because Merida's taught her how to shoot a bow at some point. Merida actually ends up winning--although unfortunately, the prize is $20 and a very cheap plastic trophy (which Merida STILL manages to find a way to break before the trip is even over).

The rest of the group is much more amicable to the concept of going on hikes when said hikes are in the evening. Hiccup and Rapunzel are still excitedly chattering about the local ecosystems the entire time, and Jack and Anna are just kind of looking at their nerdy SOs like “<3 <3 <3″ Moana and Merida, meanwhile, are just kinda vibing in the back, passively listening in and watching the desert sunset.

Rapunzel manages to capture Mer and Mo's interest and gets them to participate more with geology, of all things. Merida just thinks rocks are cool (especially when they can be thrown at people bothering her!), while Moana likes learning about the physical history of places--how water can carve out landscapes, and all that. Hiccup and Jack just kind of exchange a look like “I had no idea that they were into rocks, but...the more you know, I guess???”

Jack makes fun of every reptile they see, mainly to piss Hiccup off. Unfortunately it has the opposite effect, and Hiccup can't help but be entertained--mainly because Jack's insults are so weirdly specific and over-the-top that they loop around to being hilarious. Seriously, he keeps saying shit like “Those are the lamest scales I've ever seen. Absolutely drab, and not nearly shiny enough to prove that nature is beautiful. 0/10.” and “Ohhhh, this fucking rattlesnake think's he's so scary, with his dumb percussion instrument tail!!! I could be more intimidating with a mean look and a large pair of maracas!”

At some point, a bunch of tourists riding donkeys pass them. Anna, Rapunzel, and Merida just absolutely lose their shit fangirling over how cute the donkeys are, thus exposing all three of them as the unabashed Horse Girls they are. Hiccup, Jack, and Moana find this extremely amusing, and definitely aren't above teasing their girlfriends about it. Hiccup asks if next time they take a couples' vacation, the Horse Gang (as Moana insists on nicknaming them) would like to go to a ranch instead.

Anna gets like. Obsessed with palm trees. Like they're just so pretty and exotic and tropical!!! OMG!!! And they definitely don't have them wherever the gang is from in this AU. (Also if griping about Elsa not having "tropical powers" is anything to go by, she DOES canonically like the tropics!) She has to take a picture of like...every palm tree on her phone. And considering the gang is in Arizona, that means Anna is stopping to take a picture like...every 2 minutes. Rapunzel catches onto the fact that Anna likes them, and paints her a picture with some when Punz has the time. Anna definitely cries when she sees it. Hiccup can't do nearly that good, but he does buy her some little plastic figurine ones in a gift shop that she can put in her room. Anna also cries about this. She just cries whenever any of her friends indulge her random fixation on palm trees. Surely she doesn't deserve such niceties!!!

Rapunzel is just. In love with the desert landscape tbh. Like the huge funky cacti!!! The shrubs!!! The desert wildflowers!!! The mesas!!! All of it!!! So of course she needs to pull out her easel and paint it. Jack walks by one day and sees her working on it and, partly just to troll her, he's like “put some snow in it!” As he walks away, Rapunzel just stops like “wait...that'd actually be such a great idea for a surrealist-type fantasy piece!!!” After she finishes the main landscape, she adds an overcoat of little puffs of snow on top of everything, and has some clumps falling off of the cacti. When she shows Jack, he just about cries tears of joy, but frantically tries to hide it. She gives the painting to him as a present at the end of the trip. He hangs that shit front-in-center in his room and cherishes it forever and ever.

At some point, Jack gets the ingenious idea that he's going to prank Merida by catching a tarantula and leaving it in her room. It's one of the harmless ones--Jack fact-checks this by offhandedly asking Hiccup and framing it as a casual interest in local etymology. Still, Merida screams far louder than is at all dignified, and also probably loud enough to wake a neighboring country. Rapunzel later has to physically hold Merida back to keep her from absolutely beating Jack into a pulp. Rapunzel also manages to get the World's Largest Sheet of Cardboard and the World's Largest Cup and somehow manages to get the damn thing back outside.

[electrictoes]

Light the Dark

For @dailysvu‘s Sonny Carisi Appreciation Week

Prompt: Day 6: Nightmare

When Sonny is eight he starts getting a recurring nightmare. It’s an awful, twisted memory of the summer just gone by. 

The dream starts just like his memory. They’re at the beach. Mama left Teresa in charge while she went back to their rented beach house to start cooking dinner; Daddy - Dad, Sonny corrects himself in his memory, he’s not a baby anymore - has gone into town to get their fourth of July fireworks; Sonny had asked to go with him but Dad said he had to look after your sisters, Junior.

Teresa isn’t doing a very good job of being in charge; she’s sunbathing with one eye open so she can check if the lifeguard is watching her. The lifeguard isn’t watching Teresa because he’s watching two older girls sunbathing up the beach, but since Teresa’s about to start high school she doesn’t much listen to anything Sonny has to say. She calls him Dominick like Sonny is a baby name and tells him to go away.

Gina’s made friends with some other kids. She does that everywhere they go; she's playing volleyball and ignoring her brother and sisters. And so it’s just Sonny and Bella.

The problem is Bella can’t swim. She thinks she can but she’s no good at it. Dad says she’s gonna have to learn because they live on an island, but Mama says it doesn’t really count. In Sonny’s real memory when Bella runs into the sea and gets caught in a wave he’s quick - he swims right out after her because the lifeguard is still not watching the ocean, and he swallows so much water he’s still coughing it up hours later, but he manages to grab hold of Bella before she goes under the water - and the bigger kids Gina's been playing with see them, and they swim out to help them back to shore. Teresa yells at Sonny and Bella, and then Mama yells at Teresa, and then Dad yells at everyone.

In his real memory he wakes up in the middle of the night and his chest still feels tight from all the coughing, but when he opens his eyes and looks across the little room he’s sharing with Bella, she’s fast asleep with her bunny rabbit tucked up under her head and he knows she’s okay.

That’s not what happens in the nightmare.

In the nightmare when the wave gets Bella he’s not quick enough. There aren’t any bigger kids nearby and he sees Bella slip under the water before he can reach her. In the nightmare he tries to get to her but everything goes black, and cold, and he can feel hands on his legs dragging him down, down, down into the water.

When he wakes up he screams. Screams loud enough to wake the whole house up and the first time it happens Dad comes running in with a baseball bat like he’s going to beat Sonny’s nightmare with it. Mama’s right behind him, and when Dad drops the bat she pushes past him, sitting on Sonny’s bed and brushing his sweat soaked hair back from his forehead. She kisses him and asks him what happened while Dad sends the girls back to bed.

He doesn’t stop getting the nightmare for almost a full year - a year of his parents whispering things like therapy when they think he’s not listening, of Mama soothing his tears and kissing his hair, of Dad telling him it’s time to grow up a little, and Gina saying he’s too old to be this dumb. Dad only lets him get in their bed the first couple of times - after that he says Sonny’s got to learn to manage. Sometimes when he wakes up from the nightmare he sneaks across the hall to remind himself that Bella’s okay, and if she spies him she’ll creep past Gina’s bed to give him a hug. She tells him he’s the best big brother in the world and he swells with pride every time, even though Bella only has one big brother so she wouldn’t know any different.

He gets the nightmare occasionally for the next couple of years, but as the memory of that day at the beach fades, so do the dreams; by the time he’s in middle school he’s stopped getting nightmares altogether. At least until Bobby Bianchi decides to use his head as a wrecking ball.

The cuts and bruises heal much faster than the rest of him. He has nightmares about Bobby Bianchi for far longer than he ever had nightmares about that day at the beach. Sometimes the two nightmares combine and the hands that are dragging Sonny down to the ocean floor belong to Bobby; the cruel way he’d laughed as Sonny fell to the ground echoing in his ears.

His father had been so disappointed in the aftermath of the window incident that Sonny doesn’t dare tell him about the nightmares. He doesn’t tell his mom either, because she was already so worried about him, had struggled to hold back tears as she helped clean his blood away. He doesn’t tell anyone - not even Bella - because the first time he’s ripped from sleep by the nightmare he can hear his parents talking quietly downstairs - he tiptoes down carefully, just wanting the comfort of seeing his mom even though he’s too old to ask for a hug, for her to tuck him back into bed.

He stops three steps from the bottom of the stairs when he hears his name, and he listens with his fists clenched, his bottom lip between his teeth. “He’s too sensitive,” Dad is saying, “That’s why these kids pick on him.”

“Dominick, that’s not fair,” Mom says back in a hushed whisper, “We raised him to be a good kid, a sweet, kind child. That doesn’t mean that-” he hears his mother choke on her words, can tell that she’s crying, and he takes a guilty step back up the stairs, shuffling away but staying in earshot as his father comforts her.

“He’s gonna be just fine,” his dad says, “But we’ve gotta toughen him up a bit. It’s my fault, three sisters, I should’ve seen this coming. I’ll speak with him.”

Sonny slips back into his own bed and holds his anxieties in, keeps his nightmares to himself.

Two days later his dad sits him down - man to man - and talks to him about toughening up a little, growing a thicker skin. He asks again who pushed Sonny through the window and Sonny knows he’s disappointed when he doesn’t get an answer. He swallows down his fear, his discomfort, and tells his father he’ll handle it. It’s years before they’re back on the same page again.

When the nightmares come he holds back screams, buries his tears in his pillow as he cries himself to sleep. His mother frets - thinks he’s not sleeping enough, staying up too late - he’s not eating properly, she says, shuffling him into the kitchen, making him stand by her side as she prepares spaghetti sauce and meatballs and a dozen other recipes he commits to memory watching her hands move, waiting for her to shove a plate in front of him to reassure herself she’s doing something to help.

After a time, much like before, the nightmares trickle away. Never entirely, though. It’s long after middle school that he stops dreaming about Bobby Bianchi - though the nightmares don’t bite at his adult self in the same way, he’s still thrown awake well into his college years, that laughter ringing in his ears.

Becoming a police officer, then a detective, he sees things. Sometimes he sees the worst of humanity and it can leave him fraught, on edge. He’s worked hard at setting his emotions aside at the end of the day, but there are some sights you can’t unsee, and some images that won’t leave his head. When he closes his eyes at night there are cases that haunt him, that have him waking up in a cold sweat and struggling to catch his breath.

Early on he gets a domestic disturbance call that he’ll remember for the rest of his life - Ellen Carter’s face lingers in his mind, the way he had tried to persuade her to get out of that house, leave her husband. The way she looked, blooded and beaten, her skull smashed in and her body slumped over by the wall. He wakes up every night for a week with the image of her eyes in his head and he has to shake himself, roll over and try and get back to sleep. His sergeant tells him he looks like hell, that whatever’s going on in his personal life he can’t bring it to work with him. It’s like he’s desensitised, and Sonny will take the dark nights over that any day.

He makes detective and he works homicide. It’s worse. There’s not just one Ellen Carter, there’s dozens. It gets harder and harder and though he doesn’t have any one recurring nightmare, he never goes long between episodes of waking up and remembering their faces.

So he moves to SVU - he wants to make a difference before it’s too late. But SVU brings its own dark cases, it’s own haunting images. It’s at SVU that he starts to pick up real nightmares again, not just flickering images. The cases and the heartbreak, they still get him, but it’s his own experiences that follow him into his dreams.

He takes Mike Dodds’ death hard and it’s the first time in years that he’s had the kind of nightmares that dig deep into his consciousness. He replays his imagined memory of the scene in his head - the way Mike got shot, how he faded from life; and some nights it isn’t Mike - some nights Sonny’s the one who got shot and he’s lying bleeding on the ground and plunged into darkness, unseen hands grasping at him. Those nightmares are hard - but the kind that leave him biting back a scream are the nightmares where Mike is replaced with someone else - with Fin, or Olivia, or Amanda, and those dreams having him clawing at his bedsheets, grabbing at his phone on the nightstand, his thumb inches away from calling to check in - to reassure himself that they’re okay.

He only make a call once, and only because he has a text from Amanda sent thirty minutes before - Jesse’s cutting a new tooth and it’s keeping both her and Amanda awake. He’s breathless when he greets her, enough that she catches it even over the phone.

“Carisi? Where are you?”

“In bed,” he says, sitting upright, a hand in his damp hair, heart still hammering in his chest.

Amanda’s suspicious, and he’d laugh if he wasn’t already so off-kilter, “Why are you calling me from your bed?”

“I- I can’t sleep,” he admits.

“Are you okay?”

There’s something about the way her tone shifts - something about Amanda Rollins in general - that makes it easy for him to tell her. Maybe in person he would hold back a little more, but she can’t see his face and he’s still shaking, “I- not really. I’ve been havin’-”

“Nightmares?” she finishes, her voice soft down the line. It’s the first time since he was nine years old that he’s let someone else into this part of his life. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Nah,” he says, and he means it - just knowing he’s told her is soothing in itself, “I just- wanted to know you an’ Jesse were okay.”

She hums down the phone, offers to distract him, and he falls asleep sometime later to the sound of Amanda settling Jesse. He sleeps through the rest of the night. The dreams don’t go away altogether, but they fade with time.

When Tom Cole puts a gun to Sonny’s head it ends with him dead on the floor, Sonny spattered with his blood, and he keeps it together. In the dark of his bedroom hours later he awakes choking with fear. He had thought his number was up, and that feeling doesn’t go away, not for months.

There are other incidents, too - when Tom Williams falls to his death before Sonny can pull him back over the railings, when Jules Hunter is killed in a deliberate car crash - case after case, victim after victim. Things that happen to his friends and colleagues too - when Barba gets death threats, when Noah is kidnapped, when Liv is held hostage, and when Bucci takes Amanda. He puts so much energy into moving on, focusing on other things, that it’s only natural the thoughts he doesn’t process creep into his dreams.

He handles it though - the dreams never become what they were when he was a child, never take over his sleep every night. He doesn’t need to be comforted, has learned to shrug them off and go back to sleep. He almost always only gets those kind of dreams when he is alone, and on the rare occasions there is another body beside him in his bed when he sits bolt upright, shaking with terror, he always downplays it - a bad dream, something that happened on a case once. Nothing to worry about.

It’s almost cruel that his old dream comes back to haunt him just as his waking life becomes everything he’s wanted it to be for so long. The first time he startles awake in Amanda’s bed he hopes it’s a fluke - just one of those days something in his subconscious has triggered this old memory. When Amanda blinks up at him, he tells her he’s fine - says he woke up with heartburn though he knows she doesn’t believe him. He doesn’t want to tell her what happened in his dream - the way it wasn’t Bella being swept under the waves, but Jesse. The way it wasn’t him being dragged down but Amanda.

After the third night in a row of the old nightmare twisting - this time it’s Billie being caught in the waves, Sonny unable to catch her in time - the third night of Amanda catching him awake, a new excuse on his tongue each time - a distraction in the form of his mouth on hers, his hands sliding beneath the blankets; losing himself in her at the same time he steers her away from what had woken him - Sonny decides to sleep alone, to go back to his own apartment and hope this string of nightmares run their course.

It doesn’t help. Two nights without Amanda and he’s had even less sleep than the three previous.

She frowns at him over his office desk as she hands him a coffee, and she takes the seat opposite without him offering. “Alright, Counsellor, what’s going on?”

“What? Nothing.”

“Are you gonna come home with me tonight?” she asks, leading him into the conversation.

He shrugs, “I don’t know, I- I got a lot to catch up on.”

“I’d say you were avoiding me,” she says, leaning forward on his desk, “But I don’t think that’s it.”

He shakes his head, “Never.”

“So if it’s not me, then what? The girls?”

“No,” he insists, surprised she’d even suggest it, “I thought you might want some space.”

“And instead of asking me you go home alone and what - lie awake all night? Because you look like you haven’t slept in a minute,” she reaches across the table, curling her fingers around his, “Carisi, what is it?”

“I’ve just been- I didn’t wanna keep wakin’ you up.”

“You know,” she says, her thumb rubbing back and forth across his hand, “I get nightmares too.”

He sighs, hesitating before telling her the whole story, starting with his original nightmare and talking her through his recent dreams - the conversation takes far longer than either of their lunch breaks should have, but once he starts talking he can’t seem to stop, after holding all of this in for as long as he has.

The nightmares don’t just stop. Being in love with Amanda Rollins makes almost all of Sonny’s life a little brighter, brings a little more light into his days and his nights, but love isn’t a cure all and childhood night terrors don’t go away just because your days are filled with happiness - with sleepy morning kisses, children giggling over breakfast, and sneaking coffee breaks together - with Amanda’s head against his chest on the couch, the way Jesse has started to copy the things he says while they cook, and the times Billie falls asleep on his knee before he’s even halfway through her bedtime story - the nights still grow dark.

The difference now - the difference from every nightmare he’s had since he was nine years old - is that when he wakes gasping into the night, unwanted images assaulting his dreams and corrupting his memories, there’s a soft voice in his ear, and arms curled around him; there are reassurances and promises and hands holding his.

His nightmares slip away after a few weeks - not gone forever, but they become less frequent, less draining. Amanda gets nightmares too - he soothes her through them just as tenderly as she does for him. They’ve both seen things. They both have memories they wish they didn’t. But they have each other.

[allie1804-fan]

Kerensa

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 , Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8

Chapter 9

The Griefcast Record

Keanu got out of the taxi at Whistledown Studios and headed in. Cariad and the recoding team greeted him and they got set up with teas, biscuits and a box of tissues on the table

“God, it’s just like a therapist’s room!” he joked

“Best to be prepared! They might be for me anyhow” she laughed.

Before we start though, can I just spend a moment being a fangirl and just say how amazing it is for me to meet you. There are so many films of yours I love – and my kids adore Duke Caboom!”

“ahh yes, Canada’s Greatest Stuntman” he boomed - “that was a fun role”

“and so perfectly cast right?”

“Yeah yeah I guess. I’m glad they picked me from the roster of Canadians they had lined up!”

“Ok, so thanks for letting me just gush for a moment! Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be!”

“First tell me the story of how we managed to get you as a guest.”

“Ok so right, so errm my friend Kerry is the link. I was filming in Cornwall this past year and uh, after we wrapped I was so charmed by the place that I decided to stay and rent a place for a couple of months down there. Kerry was my landlady and one day I came across her walking along the beach, tears streaming down her face and she was listening to your show which she highly recommended to me. I admit it took a bit of persuading to listen, given the crying thing!, but she told me it was more reassuring and uplifting than upsetting. Anyway, so sorry, this is turning into a shaggy dog tale!, so I did give it a go, really loved it

“Oh thank you”

“So then one day we were discussing an episode about baby loss, something we had in common and had talked about before and she said I should do the show. Now THAT took a lot more thought and persuasion, but she said it would do me good and there would be the angle of the man’s perspective and being someone with a public profile going through loss and you know yada, yada yada so here I am, finally!

“That’s amazing and thank you so much to Kerry for listening to the show and for your persuasive talents in getting this lovely man here today. So Keanu, as you know we always start with this question. Who are we remembering today?”

“Today we’re remembering my daughter Ava who was stillborn 23 years ago this year.”

“Ok so would you mind telling me a little bit about what happened.”

“So, ahh, it was in the spring of 1999. The Matrix had just come out and my life was pretty full on. My girlfriend Jennifer became pregnant around that time. It was unplanned and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t super happy about it at first, but she wanted to keep the baby and I said I’d support her, you know, and as time went on I was more excited than worried about becoming a dad.”

“And how was the pregnancy? How far along was Jennifer when Ava died?”

“Everything seemed fine, she, Ava was growing and developing normally. Jen was healthy. Then I was away filming, a god awful project as well! And, Um, ahh, give me a minute” Keanu cleared his throat and took a drink of water.

“I swore I wouldn’t do this” he said gesturing at himself tearing up, his voice cracking slightly “but sometimes, the memories can be, uhhh, very powerful, very vivid”

“Yes you can be taken right back like it just happened can’t you, however long ago - you know I’m 20 plus years out now and still very occasionally I can be catapulted back there. So, everything looked good but you were away, filming - and I’m sure it can’t have been an awful film”

Keanu snorted

“I assure you it was!, yes anyway, Jen went for a last check up at a little over 8 months and uh, there was no heartbeat. Ava had died and so I flew home and she had to, you know, give birth in a maternity unit, hearing all the other babies being born - I mean they have to do it there because you still might need, you know, that expertise and they tried to keep us private but those places they get busy and she had to go through all that with those sounds sometimes breaking through”

“Yes I hear that that is a common experience here in the UK too and one that SANDS, the still birth charity is trying to address. It’s interesting your choice of words: “she went through that”, presumably you were there so didn’t you go through it too?”

“Yeah, yeah - I guess, I just meant that it was worse, more traumatic mentally for her and obviously physically too”

“Sure sure, but awful for both of you nonetheless”

“Indeed, it was” Keanu paused a moment as though something important had just occurred to him “and she was beautiful too you know”

“awwwww” Cariad moaned sympathetically

“she was beautiful, perfect and warm, just silent, still”

Keanu looked up at Cariad, his eyes filled with tears once more and they both just sat for a moment, taking in the pain of his loss. Eventually, Cariad started the conversation again.

“And did you both hold her? Did the hospital staff help you, you know, to say goodbye to her?”

Yeah yeah, we did hold her. They left us be for a good amount of time, they took prints of her hands and feet and a photograph. You know they were supportive in that way, especially as we knew already, you know, that she had died, they were prepared. I don’t think we were, I mean I don’t think you can prepare for that, right? Your brain won’t let you, not really.”

“Yeah yeah, we talk about that a lot on the show, there are people who say it’s better when someone dies of an illness so you know it’s coming whereas with a sudden death you suffer more shock but I still think there’s a degree of shock you experience even when you have some warning.

“Yeah yeah and it’s so stupid, we’re all just so dumb because death is coming man, to us all but we just don’t want to think about it!” He chuckled

“So are you someone who thinks about death a lot?”

“Yeah yeah it’s always there in the back of my mind, spurring me on to do things, make that film, write that script, build that bike!”

“And do you think that’s because of losing Ava?”

“I don’t know, no not really, well maybe a little but that’s come more with getting older I think - I didn’t really have that reaction at the time”

“So what was your reaction, how did you grieve for Ava?”

Another chuckle came from Keanu.

“A more appropriate question might be how didn’t I grieve for her, at the time I mean!”

“Oh?”

“Hee hee you’re like a therapist, leaving the gaps for me to fill!”

“Some of my critics say I interrupt too much and start talking about me so…..”

“We’ll that’s not very nice is it? And also not true!”

“Thanks - Comes with the territory I guess, so please, go on, fill the gap”

“What was the question again?”

“It was about how you did or didn’t grieve for Ava after her birth?”

“Mmmm well we buried her, in the new year, she was born on Christmas Eve, which is uhhh, another tricky thing about it”

“Oh that’s awful, death on high days and holidays just adds another layer right?”

“Yeah yeah. They do - so um after that I went to Georgia to shoot a movie!”

“So you threw yourself into work then?”

“Yup, my trusty friend in times of crisis. In fact I did, let me see, 1, 2, 3, yes 3 movies in the next year and then started training for the Matrix 2 and 3 so I guess the answer is I put my feelings in a tightly locked metaphorical box and didn’t open it for quite some time!”

“And was there intrusion from the press , I guess this is pre the days of the internet being so developed and social media but how was that side of it?”

“Yeah there was some, you know photographers with long lenses at the cemetery”

“God! I can’t imagine”

“Yeah pretty low, right but in a way because of the taboo of stillbirth, people, you know interviewers and stuff, didn’t ask me about it. I mean I would sometimes say “no personal questions” but at other times that hasn’t stopped people.”

“Oh like what?”

“I’m thinking of when River, River Phoenix died, even if I said I wouldn’t answer anything personal they would still ask how I felt, did I miss him. I mean, fuck! Oh sorry I can swear right?”

“Swear away, sure, and god, fuck yeah, that deserved it. I mean obviously that’s a bit of a contradiction coming from me given we’re here and I’m making you talk about private things but”

“But I agreed, that’s the deal here, it’s not the deal to segue from “how was it jumping onto a moving bus to “how do you feel about your best friend dying!”

“Absolutely. So you said you dealt with it, but much later? What about Jennifer, how did she cope?”

“Umm, I don’t know - I mean what’s normal in that situation? She cried, she wailed like a wounded animal. Her mum moved in. I was away and not there to support her like I should have been. We weren’t really a couple either by then. We were going to co-parent but not as a romantic couple you know so it was complicated. To be honest I think a little bit of her died right then - and then she died herself the following April so you know, what you see before you is the last man standing of that family unit that might have been.”

“Woo that’s tough. You’ve really been through the mill as it were.”

“Yeah, yeah but you know I AM still standing. I’m lucky.”

“And how did Jennifer die?”

“Car wreck”

“I’m so sorry”

“Thanks, me too”

“So how is that, being the only one left? Some people talk about losing key people as losing their witness.”

“Yes! That’s it, exactly. Now it’s just me here to remember Ava, to remember her coming in and out of this world”

Yeah yeah that’s hard. So you said you dealt with it later? How did that come about?”

“Midlife crisis I guess - when I turned 40, I had a bit of a meltdown, you know, wondering about my goals, what I had or hadn’t achieved. I basically “ran away” alone to Paris on my 40th birthday, to escape any awful surprise party! And you know, I quietly fell apart in a vat of wine! When I went home my friend Janey was just like “Keanu, it’s time, time for therapy!”

“Ahhh it’s great isn’t it, big fans of that on the show!”

“Yeah I guess, I mean, ahhh I wasn’t that comfortable taking the lid off but yeah it did me a favour and helped sort my shit out. And a lot of the guilt and pain of losing Ava was gone through belatedly during that process”

“And why did you feel guilty?”

“Mmmm well I think I started to think I was a curse - my sister had been sick with leukemia, Ava had died, Jen had died, River, others as well and I felt guilty for that stupid film I was working on when it happened! So yeah, there were lots of rocks to lift up, inspect what lay beneath and deal with my emotions.”

“Well you seem like you have your shit sorted now”

“I’m a work in progress!”

“So now you’re, 23 years on, how do you remember Ava and Jen now.”

“Well it’s hard to forget the day for Ava what with it being Christmas Eve. I sometimes visit their graves - after dark if I can to avoid being hounded”

“What has the world come to when a person can’t be left in peace to visit a loved one’s resting place”

“Yeah it’s fucked up right?”

“Precisely.”

“And what else? , well I do have one little thing that my friend Alex who’s an artist, made for me. It was because of something she said she did to remember her lost loved ones. She would get a Christmas ornament that in some way represented the person and hang it on her tree at Christmas. So she made this beautiful little stained glass bird to hang up on my tree or in the house if I don’t have a tree which sometimes happens. So, uh, Ava’s name in Latin would mean bird or bird like so that’s why she did that, yes so I always think of her then and you know I would think about where she would be at a given point like when my friends kids have started school again after summer break I would think “oh Ava would be starting you know kindergarten or elementary school etc.”

“And do your family share in that?”

“Yeah, yeah - especially my mom. She has no grandchildren so yeah she remembers and we’ll have a moment sometimes yeah but it can be lonely, not having the other parent there who shares the same loss.”

“Yes I’m sure it is. Grief can be very lonely sometimes. Well, Keanu I really can’t thank you enough for coming on my little podcast and sharing your experience of baby loss and loss in the public spotlight with us today. Thank you so much for telling us about your beautiful baby girl Ava and her mum Jen.”

“Thanks for having me - I know this might sound weird, but it’s been a pleasure talking with you and remembering them today so, thank you and thanks to Kerry who suggested it. She said it would be good for my soul and she, as always, was right!”

@fortheloveoffanfic @omg-imagine @iworshipkeanureeves @toomanystoriessolittletime @ladyreapermc @paperplanesandwallflowers @patric9

[themanicmagician]

Shipwrecked [2/4]

[AO3]

Summary: When Redd’s boat crashes upon the shore of Bastion Island, Tom reluctantly takes him in while he recovers. Tom despises Redd for his past deceit, but when he has no choice but to spend time with him, Tom is reminded why he fell in love with the wily fox in the first place.

Tom felt a knot loosen in his chest. Relief washed over him. Redd was awake and lucid, and feeling well enough to quip.

But then Redd kept talking.

“This is your bedroom?” Redd shifted, leaning his back against the mattress. He scanned the Spartan room, and his nose scrunched up in distaste. “It’s so....basic. Not your style at all.”

Tom hated the small speck of him that still yearned for Redd’s approval. He crossed his arms. “You’re hardly the expert on what I like.”

Tom’s words landed—he saw Redd wince—but the fox brushed it off, and changed tack.

“Where’d you sleep, then? Futon?”

“Couch.”

Redd patted the bed, and leered. “Could’ve shared with me. It’s plenty big enough. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Enough, Redd. You’re only here in my home because I possess common decency. Nothing more. As soon as your arm is healed, you’re gone.”

Redd clutched at his chest with his good arm, in mock agony.

“Oh babe, you can be so cold!”

Tom ignored him. “What possessed you to attempt to sail a ship, of all things? You don’t have any experience.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was simple enough to figure out.”

“Obviously it wasn’t.”

“Hey, the storm wasn’t my fault.”

“You could have died—and for what? Another stupid scheme of yours, no doubt.”

“I resent that remark. Scheme! Scheme, he says. I’m out here because I’ve developed a new business venture. The art on my boat is real.” Brief alarm skirted across his face. “Wait, what happened to my things?”

“They’re in Blathers’ custody.”

“That featherbrain can’t keep them. They’re real, you know. I had this whole plan. I was going to go island to island. Animals are so suspicious these days. They actually want to inspect the merchandise before they buy, can you believe it?”

“I don’t want to hear about this.”

Redd plowed on, as if Tom hadn’t spoken. “—and once they placed an order, I’d say oh, you can’t take it right away. I have to ship it to you.”

“And you’d mail them a fake.”

“I’d mail them a replica. The copies that I paint myself are flawless,” Redd bragged. Greed and delight glinted in his eyes. “You’d never be able to tell the difference. I’ll wager you 5,000 bells your pal Blathers wouldn’t, either.”

“I can’t believe you,” Tom snapped. “You haven’t changed one bit.”

“Why tamper with perfection?”

“You—ugh!”

Tom stomped out of the room.

Timmy and Tommy were right outside, evidently listening in. They jumped guiltily as Tom caught sight of them, and tried to look busy; Tommy folded a blanket and draped it over the back of the couch, as Timmy collected up used cups to put in the kitchen sink.

“I’m going out for a bit.” Tom told them, as he pulled on a jacket. “Stay here, and make sure he does too.”

The Nooklings chirped an affirmative.

May was cold and rainy this year, and today proved no different. Tom zipped up his jacket to ward off the worst of the chill. It was misting out, but not badly enough to justify an umbrella.

Tom didn’t have a destination in mind, exactly. He wasn’t going to Resident Services today. Isabelle was certainly capable of taking the reins for a day or two. Tom just needed fresh air, just needed to clear his head.

Redd hadn’t changed at all. He hadn’t grown, he hadn’t learned anything. He was still the same as he ever was—greedy, selfish, conniving. And utterly, absolutely, insufferable.

There had been moments, before, when he had lived on the mainland, when Redd frequented his town. He’d considered reaching out. But he’d never scraped up the nerve to do so. It wasn’t his responsibility either, he’d reasoned at the time. Tom was the wronged party. Redd should have been the one to approach, not him.

And now the decade-long silence between them was shattered at last, and Redd acted as if there had never been a massive fracture in their relationship, as if nothing at all had changed. No apologies, no remorse, not even a thank you for the rescue.  

“Mr. Nook!” Flurry trotted up to him. “I’ve heard the news. How is your friend doing today?”

He supposed there was no hope of keeping it quiet. Any speck of news spread through Bastion like wildfire. Isabelle, bless her heart, was an incorrigible gossip.

“Redd is doing much better today, thank you.”

“I wanted you to give him something from me. Just to borrow, powderpuff!” She took out a book from her pockets and handed it over. It was an old leather-bound book, a collection of fairy tales. It was worn with age, but evidently well cared for. “I don’t know if it’s to his taste or not, but I always read it when I’m sick and it cheers me right up!”

“Thank you, Flurry. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” Redd wouldn’t, but Tom would never let the sweet hamster know that.

He continued his walk, and soon found himself on the beach. He followed the shoreline around the island until he reached the outcropping of rocks by Del’s and Lucha’s houses.

Tom knew what to expect, but the sight was still jarring. The hull of the boat was gouged on the rocks. Half of the vessel gaped open. The mast was snapped off at its base, and the sail, long lost to the tides. Tom stepped on the rocks to get a closer look. The remains of the boat had been secured to the rock by rope; Alex and the others, presumably, had been the ones to anchor it.

Tom peered inside the exposed hull. The boat was tilted at an angle. Barrels had rolled to one end of the ship. Several had smashed apart in the impact. Tom winced. How badly had Redd been thrown in the crash? Had he been above deck, or below?

There didn’t appear to be anything of value left inside the ship. The villagers had done well removing all the fragile artwork.

Enough of the boat remained that they wouldn’t have to build Redd a new boat from scratch, at least. The boat would have to be patched up for Redd to travel. The seaplanes weren’t built to transport someone from Bastion all the way out to the mainland.

Tom swept a critical eye over to the wreckage. Yes, they could rebuild it in several weeks, once the necessary supplies were gathered. He resolved to speak with Alex about it. If she could gather the needed materials, he’d reduce the price for her attic expansion as compensation.

He returned home with the intention to cook breakfast for the Nooklings and their guest. But as he removed his shoes in the entryway, he overheard Redd’s drawling voice. And the twins were conspicuously absent from the living room. He padded quietly over to the threshold of his bedroom.

The first thing Tom noticed was that Redd was now wearing one of his spare shirts. The floral patterned green and white flattered the fox’s fur. It was a size or two too large on him, and not his usual type of outfit. Something warm and possessive tightened in his stomach at the sight of Redd wearing his clothes.

Redd was back in bed, propped upright with the support of pillows. Timmy and Tommy were sitting on the bed as well, listening raptly to their guest. Redd was in his element as entertainer, gesturing enthusiastically with his unbroken arm as he spoke.

“...it was our third pitch of the day. Tom had persuaded me to paint wallpapers for high-end clientele, so the meeting was at this real swanky place. Very stylized lobby we waited in, minimalistic in style but in an expensive way, you know? Your Uncle Nook was sweating so much his fur looked a shade darker than normal. We were sitting there, waiting for half an hour after our appointed meeting time. And finally, finally, someone shows up. It wasn’t even the investor! It was some scrub, some assistant of an assistant. Tom was so nervous, he promptly bent over and spewed his lunch all over her expensive shoes.” Redd laughed.

Tom flushed. It hadn’t been his finest moment.

“But then, do you know what your uncle did?” Redd whispered, conspiratorially.

“What, Mr. Redd?”

“...Redd?”

The boys leaned in closer, eager not to miss a single syllable.

“Tom still managed to salvage the situation. He went right from wiping off her shoes to pitching her a new concept—scented wallpaper. Smells like lemon, pine. So if something like this happened again, at least no one would smell it!”

“Wow! Did they invest?”

“...vest?”

“Even better—they bought the concept and patent from us. All the reward, with none of the work!”

“Boys, wash up for breakfast.” Tom broke in.

The twins broke into beaming smiles at the sight of him. They sprang off the bed to crowd Tom, both talking a mile a minute.

“Uncle Nook, is it true that you won a manufacturing contract by arm wrestling the CEO of Cozy Couches?”

“—did you really start a new city fashion trend wearing your scarf as a belt?”

“—have three drinks named after you?”

“Redd likes to embellish.” Tom explained, exasperated. “Don’t believe a word he says.”

Redd pouted.

Once the boys reluctantly filed out of the room, Tom shut the door. He crossed over to Redd and offered him the book of fairytales.

“For me? You shouldn’t have.” Redd inspected the book. He grimaced at the faint mug stain on one of the pages. “Not a first edition. Far from excellent condition. You  really  shouldn’t have.”

Tom grit his teeth. “It’s not from me. A villager has loaned it to you. If it goes back to her with so much as a dog-eared page…”

“Alright, sheesh. Just messing around.” Redd set the book on the bedside table, evidently uninterested.

“Listen to me, Redd.” Redd looked up in surprise at Tom’s low, serious tone. “You cheated me. You deceived Lyle. But if you think—”

“Hey, Lyle wasn’t—”

“If you think,” Tom spoke over him. “For one second, that I’ll allow you to manipulate Timmy and Tommy, you’ve got another thing coming. I have resources now. More bells in the bank than you’ll ever see. If you ever hurt them, I’ll make you regret it. Are we clear?”

The boys were guileless, innocent. He would not stand for Redd swindling them.

Redd deflated, his previous energy visibly dimmed. His ears flattened back on his head. He looked away from Tom, and nodded.

~*~

“Where are we going?”

“Like I told you the last twelve times you asked, it’s a surprise.”

“I’m going to trip on the sidewalk and break my nose.” Tom grumbled.

“You won’t.” Redd promised, with a rumbling laugh. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

It had been six months since their first meeting, in that sketchy motel. Ever since, they’d hardly left each others’ company. Tom’s ambition was to build a furniture and home goods store. It would be unique in its approach, in that stock would be limited, and rotate daily, so animals would feel compelled to go to the store every day, just in case there was something they needed. Redd, an entrepreneur himself, was on board. But before they could begin such an enterprise, they needed bells, and loads of them. They’d taken the past half a year to build up their finances together. They’d done so not through conventional jobs, but through countless pitch meetings, patent sales, and even art commissions. They’d amassed enough now that their dream was looking more achievable by the day.

Tonight Redd had tied a black bandana around Tom’s eyes and led him from their apartment. Tom’s heart was doing somersaults in his chest throughout their entire walk. Redd had been furtive, secretive the entire past week. He’d been planning something, and Tom had a big hunch on what it could be.

“We’re here.” Redd announced, at long last. He unknotted the bandana. The cloth fell away from Tom’s eyes, and he gasped.

It was an older two-story building, wedged in between a pair of larger, newer ones. It was built of ruddy red brick, with floor to ceiling windows for display purposes. Tom glanced around. They were in a nicer part of town. Not the wealthiest neighborhood by any means, but one fairly busy, that had animals with bells burning holes in their pockets.

“It’s ours.” Redd withdrew a keyring from his pocket. “If you like it.”

“You—how?”

Redd winked. “I have my ways.” He held out the keys and gave them a shake. “Why don’t you do the honors?”

Tom took the keys with reverence. He felt as if he were drifting through the clouds as he glided to the door. The front door key was newly cut, firm in his palm. Tom unlocked the door, and stepped inside.

“The register could go here.” Tom circled around the corner of the back wall, nearest the door. He paced around the cavernous empty room, imagining as he went. “Heavier furniture in the back as well. Some eye-catching, lighter things near the front that can be rotated daily. Things like wreaths, tapestries—oh, and what if we hang strings of lights from the ceiling? It’d create a real welcoming, homey look.”

He turned back to Redd for his input. His face was flushed with enthusiasm.

Redd had been watching him from the doorway with a complicated, unreadable expression.

Tom’s grin faltered. “Redd?”

The strange look fell away from Redd’s face, replaced by his customary smirk. He sauntered closer.

“Your instincts are excellent as always, Tom. I was thinking of a mural, too, for the back wall.”

“Oh, that’d be great! What are you thinking? A city skyline? Or something more nature-inspired?”

Redd’s arm slid around Tom’s waist with easy familiarity. His paw squeezed Tom’s side. Tom barely muffled his squeak. They’d been together for five months of the six, and Redd’s casual displays of affection still flustered him. Back home, no one had ever looked twice at the plain, chubby raccoon.

Redd’s muzzle brushed his ear. “We can hash out the details later. This calls for a celebration, don’t you think?”

~*~

The doorbell jingled overhead as Tom stepped inside the Able Sisters’ store. Sable took a single look at Tom before she was bustling him into the back room of the shop.

“Keep an eye out for customers, Mabes.” She called over her shoulder.

Mabel mock-saluted her eldest sister.

“Sit.” Sable all but pushed him into a rocking chair. He remembered this old thing from the sisters’ first home. The quilt draped over the back of the chair was familiar too, if a bit more threadbare than he remembered. Tom was struck by a wave of gratefulness that all of his dearest friends had been so amenable to picking up their lives and moving to Bastion with him.

Sable placed a gray kettle on the stove, and retrieved two mugs from a cabinet. The mugs were lumpy things, rather sloppily painted. Mabel had made them by hand when she was young. Tom had his own original Mabel creation stored in a cabinet back at his home.

“I wanted to speak with you as soon as I heard, but I had too many shirts to sew, I couldn’t get away. I know that’s not much of an excuse, though.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m handling everything just fine.”

Sable raised one eyebrow.

“I am.” He insisted. Redd had been subdued after Tom had warned him off about the twins. He ate the food Tom cooked without complaint, allowed Tom to check his injured arm without any protest, save the quiet hisses of pain he couldn’t quiet. They’d lived together in uneasy harmony for a week, now. Redd spent most of the day in front of the TV, or idly flipping through the book Flurry had lent him.

“How have you been?”

“Fine. Redd hasn’t been putting up too much of a fuss.” She was staring at him, too keenly. “What?”

She took a moment to muster up the words, paws twisting in her lap. “Tom...I don’t want to see you like that again.”

Tom waved his hand, as if to banish the ghost of that awful moment. “You won’t. He can never hurt me again.”

Sable’s doubt was palpable.

“I don’t care about him anymore. I don’t. And I...I used to hate him, I admit it. I used to loathe him. But I’ve moved on. I don’t trust him, and I pity him, but I don’t feel anything strong for him, hate or love, anymore.”

“You don’t sound as convincing as you’d like to be.” Sable said.

He was saved from having to respond as the kettle whistled. Sable rose to fetch their tea. She added the sachets, a drizzle of honey to her cup, three lumps of sugar to Tom’s—after all this time, she hadn’t forgotten how he liked it—and carried the mugs over.

Tom held his mug between his paws, waiting for it to cool enough to be drinkable. The pleasant scent of Earl Grey wafted up to his nose. He inhaled.

“If Redd tries anything, I’ll punch him in the nose.”

Sable, gentle, demure Sable, spoke with such a steely assuredness that Tom started. She smiled shyly at him.

“I mean it.”

“You’ll have to get in line. I have first dibs.”

Sable giggled.

~*~

Tom headed back home, feeling lighter than he had since this entire thing started. He and Sable swiftly left the topic of Redd behind them, and spent the better part of an hour catching up.

The boys saw him through the front window of the Cranny, and waved enthusiastically. He returned the gesture, albeit with less energy.

Tom then climbed the stairs and let himself into his home. Redd was no longer where Tom had left him that morning, slouched on the couch. The TV was shut off, the house almost eerily silent.

“Redd?” Tom eased open the door to his bedroom. The fox was absent, but the bed was neatly made. He checked the twins’ room, the bathroom—both empty.

Redd was gone.

[leejeongz]

first date with cravity

🔅i hope you enjoy! thanks for requesting hehe🔅

serim: going on a run

When he first asked you, you weren’t really a fan of the idea. Arun for a first date? Has he lost his mind? But he somehow managed to convince you and you’re glad he did. He showed up at your house at dusk, he was wearing shorts and a plain white t-shirt, it was so simple but you couldn’t help but think about how good he looked. his hair was messy, he didn’t bother styling it because he knew it would just get sweaty and become messy anyway. You stepped outside, it was cold so you already had to complain.

“I’m freezing, can't we just stay in and get pizza?” you pleaded, a pout present on your face hoping your cuteness would persuade him.

“No, that’s not a good idea for a first date,” he started running before he’d even finished his sentence so you chased after him. You caught up to him and he lowered the pace a little.

“It’s so freeing to run. You can talk, but you can also stay silent. You can listen to music or you can just think about things. It's something that makes me happy” he confessed. Suddenly, you were glad to be sharing this time with him.

Soon enough you reached a park, where you stopped jogging for a bit to sit on a bench and rest a little. you’d forgotten to bring out water so serim offered you some of his. You wiped the top of the bottle that he had drank out of which earned a little laugh from Serim, “I don’t have any germs, it’s okay” He teased.

You drank a little and handed it back to him, not wanting to drink all of his water even though you could have drank a whole ocean at the time. He stood up in front of you and held his hand out, “We can walk back if you want? And when we get to your place we can get a pizza of your choice as a thank you for coming out with me!” he smiled at you when you took his hand, agreeing to his plan.

allen: the zoo

You’d been planning to go to the zoo as friends for a while but you wanted to wait for a sunny day (that he had off,) which was clearly not going to happen any time soon. When the day finally came, you opened the door with a smile, and grabbed your bag as quickly as possible, not wanting to waste any time.

“Ready for our date?” he asked, knowing what your reaction would be.

“Date?” you looked in his direction, trying to not seem as eager as you actually were. You did both like each other, it was no secret, but he’d never labelled an outing as “a date” before.

“Yes” he replied, “do you not want it to be a date?” he asked, looking back at you making you avert your eyes. You shook your head and laughed, obviously this is what you wanted.

He drove you both there and opened the door for you to get out. He paid for your ticket to get into the zoo and walked over to the map, dragging you with him. You didn’t know at the time that he wasn’t going to let go of your hand all day, but you didn’t complain at any point so it’s okay.

“Where first, babe?” he asked, eyes darting all over the map to see if he could find the zebras.

“The zebras” you responded, they were your favourites so of course you were gonna say them. Unlike him, you had found them straight away and pointed them out to him as you said it.

“The penguins it is” he teased, heading in the direction of the zebras anyway.

You spent the whole day laughing with him and joking, teasing each other nonstop. The first serious moment you shared was when you bought his favourite sandwich from the cafe, he was so honoured that you remembered. From that moment on, he knew he wanted to ask you to be his as soon as possible, even if it was only the first date.

jungmo: watching fireworks

Since it was november, it was the perfect time to take Jungmo to a bonfire, he said he’d never been before. Unfortunately, he had caught a cold and so going out in the cold weather wasn’t an opinion. He told you to go with your other friends if you wanted to go so badly but you wanted to go with him, especially since you’d both recently confessed you had feelings for each other. A few hours before the intended bonfire, he sent you a text asking if you wanted to come to his house that night instead of going to the bonfire, how could you say no to that?

That evening, you went to his house, taking a bunch of usual “bonfire snacks” so you wouldn’t feel left out. He invited you in and you both went straight to his room. Although this was your first time at his house, you felt so at home. He plonked himself in his window seat and patted the empty space next to him. You were kinda confused but he quickly clarified why you were sitting there.

“I was doing some investigating” he started, shuffling closer to you, wrapping one arm around you while the other pointed outside, “we should be able to see the fireworks from here, in that direction.” You smiled to yourself, he really thought this through.

The fireworks started and Jungmo hadn’t moved a muscle, only to let out a few gasps. Your head was now resting on his shoulder, you occasionally looked up at him, he was smiling at the fireworks in awe every time you did so. The fireworks stopped after around 45 minutes and you were both pretty hungry.

“Want a marshmallow?” you got up to grab your bag of goodies “we can’t toast them but marshmallows taste good as they are anyway” you offered him the bag.

“Better idea, how about we make some hot chocolate and eat some with that?” he asked, knowing you would never say no to that.

The next morning you woke up with a cold, you’d definitely caught it from Jungmo but oh well, it was worth it, you thought.

woobin: ferris wheel

“That ferris wheel down by the beach looks so fun, can we go?” you asked him over text. He read the message and his face lit up, he was quick to reply with an “of course”.

The following afternoon/evening you met up on the front, about half a mile from the wheel itself. you walked together, his hand brushing against yours, he was still too nervous to hold it but you didn’t want to make the first move either. You finally reached the wheel and you stood in line, the sun was just setting and so the queue was quite long but you both knew it would be worth the wait. Not once did you run out of things to talk about, not until you got onto the wheel. you sat beside him and you both kept your hands in your laps, you were both too nervous to rock the little pod you were sitting in so neither of you moved. The views really did render you speechless, you’d never seen the city like this before, always talking about how bad it was, when really, it was beautiful. All Woobin could focus on was you, the sun hadn’t quite set yet and what was left of its light was shining on you, you looked so effortlessly beautiful that he had to capture the moment.

“Let me take a picture” he said, you thought he meant of the view but his camera pointed directly at you. “Have i ever told you how beautiful you are?” he whispered with a shy smile on his face.

“My turn” you exclaimed, taking out your phone to take a picture of him, one you knew you’d set as your background when you got home. “I want this moment to last forever, I love it up here” you said while putting your phone back in your bag.

“Me too” he smiled at you, drawing your attention away from your bag. He looked away from you at that moment, adoring the view that he hadn’t really paid attention to before now, absentmindedly taking your hand in his for the first time and resting it in your lap.

wonjin: ice skating

he REALLY couldn’t skate. He was embarrassed to say it but he wasn’t going to let it stop you two from going on your first date right this second.

“Can we go ice skating?!” you asked enthusiastically. your friends all shook their heads in unison, saying they had to go home now or making up other excuses, all except one.

“Sure, I'll come” Wonjin put up his hand, scooting you friend over to stand by your side. There had always been a little chemistry between you two, and so your friends whooped a little. They didn’t know you’d already confessed to each other so it was quite ironic really. The group dispersed as you and wonjin made your way over to the rink. You paid and got your skates from the man at the booth before sitting and putting them on. You stood up and helped wonjin up too, it was understandable that he couldn’t walk on the carpet in them, especially since it was his first time, you gathered.

You stepped onto the ice and grabbed hold of the side, getting your balance before turning to see a struggling wonjin at the gate. You guided his hand to the side and grabbed his free hand. He looked so cute, struggling to even get onto the ice. His nose was red and it made you giggle a little.

“Hey, don’t laugh, it’s my first time” he pouted.

“I'm not laughing at you” you said, clapping slightly to see him finally on the ice before realising his hand was still yours. “You have a bright red nose, you look so dumb, Rudolph” you giggled with him.

He looked up from the ice for the first time in the past 5 minutes “I would laugh if I was you, yours is exactly the same” he laughed back, his feet slowly moving over the ice.

You both went around like this for a while, he had one hand on the rail and the other in your hand. That was until he felt confident.

“Let me see if i can do it without assistance” he gulped, only realising what he had just subjected himself to by saying that after he said it. You released his hand from yours and he reluctantly removed his hand from the side of the rink. You must admit, he was a little shaky, but a lot better than you could have anticipated when you first saw him getting onto the ice. You smiled in his direction as he skated away from you. He turned around and smiled back, he hoped you were proud of him, but that was an understatement on how you actually felt.

“Thanks for coming with me,” you said once you were off the ice, onto the safety of carpet in your own shoes.

“It’s okay, anytime. Spending time with you out there was real fun.” he held your hand and started swinging it as you walked away from the rink.

minhee: painting pottery (for each other)

Although it was your idea, minhee wished it was his, he’d been thinking of the perfect date in his head for a while now. He wanted your first date to be special and was thinking about it since he confessed, but when you presented him with a leaflet for pottery painting, it was hard to say no. He thought about the date for the whole day before, imaging how cute it would be.

You arrived at the pottery place mid morning and had a tour of the factory, the whole while your arm was linked with his comfortably. You were both as interested as each other and any nerves you had for the date had disappeared.

“Time to paint!” the lady giving the tour announced. She showed you to a table for 4 and so you sat beside each other thinking another couple would join you but no one ever did. Since the pottery had already been made (neither of you trusted yourselves enough to throw it, even if it would have been fun) you got straight to painting. It finally gave you and minhee some time to talk, and that you did. Although you wanted to make this the best art work you’d ever done since you were giving it to minhee, you couldn’t stop looking at him while he spoke to you, his good looks were so distracting. He felt the same way about you too, he wanted to concentrate on his painting but he wanted to listen to you even more. The conversations you had were a little silly, things like “if you were a stuffed animal, what animal would it be?” but you felt so much more connected to him and you were both comfortable, despite all his teasing about your strange responses.

“This is for you,” he said at the end of your date, extending his arms out towards you to present to you his pot cutely. On it, he had painted something you briefly remember talking about.

“Minhee, you’re the best” you said, wrapping your arms around his neck with his pot now in your hands. You pulled back and grabbed the pot you’d painted for him from the table next to you, you really hoped he liked it now.

hyeongjun: cat cafe

You weren’t exactly the biggest fan of cats, but you were the biggest fan of hyeongjun so any date he invited you to, you said yes. Recently, a cat cafe had opened in town and he really wanted to go and who better to take with him than you, the person he’d liked for years who had recently confessed their feelings for him.

You waited for him by the door, he could see you fidgeting and so when he greeted you, he did so with a hug to calm you down. “You smell nice” he bubbled “shall we go in?”

He pushed open the door and let you go in before he did. The waitress by the door showed you to an empty table and placed two menus on it. Admittedly, the cats nearby really intimidated you, you were scared of cats but for some reason you felt really off.

“We don’t have to stay,” Hyeongjun said, starting to get up, noticing your apprehension to stroke any cat that came close to you.

“It's fine, let’s just order, I think I'm going to have the chocolate cake and a strawberry smoothie,” you said with a fake smile on your face.

After a while, you started to get more comfortable. Hyeongjun admired how well you were playing with the cats and how you were keeping them entertained, even if at the beginning you were a little nervous. He took plenty of pictures and made sure to post a lot about your date on social media, he really wanted to show you off to his friends.

You finished your food and drink and left the cafe, thanking the waitress on your way out. You stood outside the cafe’s window, his hands were in yours and you were both staring lovingly into each other’s eyes, giggling a little, “I had a great date” you confessed “but next time can we please do something with less… felines?” you giggled.

“So we can’t go to Tashirojima island?” he joked, faking a cute little pout.

taeyoung: waterpark

Even though you were going with other friends, Taeyoung still insisted on calling it “our date” whenever he spoke to you about it. The day of the date, he came to your house bright and early, sporting an excessively large gym bag. “I got us matching swimwear so people know it’s a date” he announced while welcoming himself into your house. He pulled a long sleeved swim shirt out from his bag along with a pair of swim shorts. “Go change! I'll change in your bathroom!” he said excitedly. You did as he instructed and put your clothes on top, ready to take off once you got there to save time.

You met up with your friends outside the indoor waterpark and went in together. After getting out of your clothes, you went out of the changing rooms and found taeyoung who was ready way before you.

“Rapids?” he asked with an excited look on his face. You nodded with the same level of excitement before departing from your group. The rapids were always your favourite part of waterparks, this specific one you could just swim around, no need for a ring. Taeyoung went in first, grabbing your hand to pull you into the rapids with him. You were having so much fun, his conversation with you made you want to never leave, but just while thinking about it he’d already pulled you out, heading towards a slide.

“This is um quite high,” you faltered while standing at the top, looking down at the large pool that you were to land in. The guy at the top told you to sit down next to taeyoung, ready to race each other, but of course, taeyoung being the best boy he is, he grabbed your hand so you could slide down together.

Although you didn’t really get to know him much more than you already did throughout the day, you couldn’t have asked for a better first date and you felt even more comfortable around him than ever before, you couldn’t wait for the next day you spent together.

(i feel like i use these gif for everything i write i’m so sorryyy)

seongmin: pedalo

The lake nearby always had swan shaped pedalo boats in, but you never had any intention of going on them, not until seongmin wanted to anyway.

“Pleaseeeee” he pleaded down the phone, not taking no for an answer “we can get ice cream after.”

“Fine” you agreed finally “but you had better not splash me, that lake is dirty.” From the moment he put the phone down, you started planning your outfit for the following day, actually excited to ride the swan boats for the first time ever.

That morning you put on your planned outfit and checked yourself out one last time before heading to the lake. Seongmin was already there waiting for you to arrive, somehow you’d matched outfits without even knowing, a bit spooky, you thought.

He wasted no time getting on the pedalo, he sat on the left leaving you the space on the right, he knew you would feel the most comfortable on that side. For the most part, he let you steer, he put himself in charge of the conversation and led it while you both peddled at a steady pace. You talked about the unimaginable, the date exceeded your expectations and you started to fall for him more than ever. He really was the sweetest boy you’d ever met. He also stuck to his promise of getting you ice cream after, he chose your favourite flavour and let you choose a flavour for him just for fun.

“I had a really good day today” he spoke while wiping his mouth on the small napkin. You had to agree, your cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. “You look really pretty here and our outfits fit in with the surroundings, I’m gonna ask that lady to take a picture of us, if that’s okay?” he asked, hoping you’d say yes, which you did.

After the picture was taken, he sent it straight over to you (which is when you noticed you were called “y/n❤️” on his phone) before setting it as his lock screen.

gifs aren’t mine

[snarkybluechristian]

Villainous: Reform School Chapter 34

Not too long afterwards, Flug, 505, Demencia, and Melanie made it to the beach. It was getting closer to evening, but the sun was still bright in the sky for all the beachgoers on the surprisingly clean, glistening sand.

“Grace a Dieu!” Melanie exclaimed. “I thought I’d never see the beach again! Come on, 505!”

Melanie then dashed onto the beach ahead of everyone else. 505 handed the leash to Flug and ran after her. Flug walked down behind them with Demencia on her leash.

Once Melanie set down the basket, 505 set down three beach towels for the three of them to sit on since Demencia would be running around the beach anyways. He then set out three water bottles for them to drink from.

When 505 was done with that, Melanie set down her knapsack, took off her shirt and shorts, and started spraying herself down with the sunscreen. Before she had even finished spraying everything she could reach, 505 took the sunscreen and finished spraying Melanie down himself.

“Thanks, 505,” Melanie said. “But I think you need to worry more about spraying down your dad…”

“I’m fine,” Flug yelled from his towel on the left as he wiped sunscreen on his bare arms and neck. “You two can go ahead and have fun.”

“What about Demencia?” Melanie asked.

Demencia just then dashed past them like a bat out of Hell, for no reason that anyone could discern.

“It’s not worth the effort,” Flug said. “Believe me. I’ve tried. You two focus on enjoying yourselves. Okay?”

For a rare moment, Flug set his coat down under him and let himself relax some, sitting on his towel in the sand. He multitasked, vigilantly watching Melanie to make sure no escape attempts would come Demencia to make sure that she didn’t try to eat any of the other beachgoers.

Meanwhile, Melanie dug took off her sandals allowing her toes to sink into the sand, put on her sunglasses, and took in the sight of the horizon.

Melanie wondered what her parents and her sisters were up to and wished she could see. Her face fell and she shed a few tears.

Noticing her sadness, 505 walked up beside her and wrapped a hand around her shoulder.

Not knowing how to respond, Flug turned his attention to Demencia who required his attention since she was harassing an elderly couple. He immediately sprung to his feet to intervene.

Melanie walked over to where the water was lapping against the shore, let the water touch her feet, and let herself feel miserable.

“Why did the Lord let me get sent here, 505?” Melanie asked sadly, holding her arms tightly. “I hate this place. I was so stupid. I can’t fight off Black Hat by myself. I can’t even face Demencia. How will I ever get out of here? I just want to go home.”

505 felt sad for a moment as he wondered what to say. Then he had an idea. He picked up a stick and walked over to Melanie, grunting to get her attention.

Melanie looked over to see 505 drawing pictures in the sand, so she walked over to get a closer look.

Melanie looked closely and saw a doodle of the villains being happy with Melanie. Then she saw one of her outside the gates of the manor with 505.

“Oh, I get it,” Melanie said, perking up from her gloom. “Earn their favor, gain some freedom, and then come up with a plan.”

505 shook his head vigorously and gestured to the happy villains and her outside the manor again.

Melanie gave out a sigh that slowly turned into a smile as she said, “505, I don’t actually want to get along with them. I just need them to think I do. Oh, 505, you’ve given me an amazing idea! I just have to do well enough in my studies that they trust me. Then, when I get the chance, I’ll run away back to my Nunja sisters.”

Knowing that he had given her more mischievous ideas, 505 sighed. But upon seeing Melanie smile, 505 smiled, too.

“You’ll help me, right?” Melanie asked excitedly. “I know you couldn’t do anything with your dad watching before, but you could help me this time. I could get you out of here, too. I could help you find people who truly love you as you are and don’t see you as a failure or as a disappointment. Doesn’t that sound much better than here?”

505 visibly hesitated and looked away.

“505, are you okay?” Melanie asked.

505 picked up his stick and started doodling again. Melanie watched as 505 made a drawing of Flug hugging him and she understood.

“That’s right,” Melanie said. “No wonder you don’t want to leave. Flug is your dad. I don’t know how I keep forgetting that.”

Melanie looked in the distance where Flug had just managed to pull Demencia away from the elderly couple she was harassing and was yelling at her to go do something else.

After watching for a moment, Melanie said thoughtfully, “You know, at first, I thought that Flug was nothing more than an evil, sadistic flunky. At least, that’s what I got from all the videos. But now, I’m not sure what to think. Yeah, his lecture was boring, he knocked me out against my will, he drugged me into spilling the beans on Lucy, he implanted a chip in me, he threatened to dissect me, he bullied me with Black Hat, and he’s a stickler for the rules. But on the other hand, in a weird way, Flug seems to care about me and my well-being. He warned me about Black Hat to make me behave. He tore down Demencia’s mean drawings and let us come out here to help me feel better. He even saved my life. There’s some good in Flug, just a little bit. So, I don’t hate him completely. But on the other hand, Flug has rejected every inclination to be good and still follows Black Hat’s directive to abuse me into being evil, so I’m not that fond of the guy either. It’s so confusing. I guess I can love him where he is as a fellow creation of God. I also feel sorry for him and wish I could help him in a way, but there’s no way I could ever trust him or expect him to be on my side. It’s such a strange feeling. You know what I’m saying?”

505 looked at Melanie thoughtfully and drew some more pictures in the sand. She watched as he drew pictures of Demencia and Black Hat being cruel to him while Flug was kind to him.

“So, Flug has always been your only friend here, just like you are mine,” Melanie said thoughtfully. “I wish there was a way to appeal to that side somehow.”

Sunlight reflecting off the waves caught Melanie’s eye and she instantly turned her attention to the beautiful waves beckoning her with their coolness on that hot summer day. She could not resist sticking one foot into the water and then another.

The feeling of cool water on her feet made Melanie smile. She buried her toes in the wet sand to soak up that feeling even more.

“Hey, 505?” Melanie asked. “Do you want to wade in with me?”

505 looked over at Melanie confused for a moment about her sudden whiplash in mood before he smiled and nodded his head.

Melanie stepped further into the waves, enjoying the feeling of the cool water on her legs.

“Hey!” Flug yelled suddenly from the shore with Demencia sulking in the sand behind him. “Don’t go out too deep! Do you know how to swim?!”

“BS!” Melanie protested. “You just don’t want me to damage your stupid tracker again!”

“Your tracker is waterproof!” Flug yelled while Demencia spotted something down the beach that made her wicked smile gleam and took her chance to run for it. “I’m just making sure you don’t drown!”

“Calm your tits!” Melanie retorted. “I can swim okay. I’m just not great at it.”

“Then no going too far from shore!” Flug yelled annoyedly before turning to 505. “505, make sure she doesn’t get past where she can’t stand!”

“Dios Mio,” Melanie said with a facepalm as she and 505 turned around and headed into deeper waters. “You’re worse than my dad!”

Flug sighed and returned to his spot on the beach towel to try to make himself relax some more while wondering why Melanie never seemed to appreciate his concern. All he did was try to look out for her, but she never appreciated that or the precariousness of her position.

Flug lied down on the beach towel and shut his eyes to try to relax. He let his thoughts wonder and thought about Melanie.

Hopefully, this little outing would calm Melanie down into being more compliant and persuade her to listen to the doctor without having to use her modified tracker. Otherwise, Flug would have to rely on the tracker and Black Hat would push…crueler…methods of behavior modification, if not complete brainwashing. It would be unfortunate to have to crush a spirit like Melanie’s. But oh, well. If it was necessary, it was necessary.

Unfortunately, that was the moment he realized Demencia was missing.

“Oh, my God,” Flug whispered in terror as he jumped to his feet and looked around from one side of the beach to the other.

That was when Flug spotted Demencia about 50 feet away harassing a pregnant woman and her husband. She wanted to touch the woman’s belly and her husband was trying to hold her back with a beach umbrella.

Flug sighed and dashed down the beach after Demencia. There was never any rest for the weary.

[cle1024]

beyond the silver horizon | lfl

member: lee felix 

genre: angst 

summary: everything you told me, the words you whispered into that stinging winter atmosphere, was spoken far too late.  mafia!au 

warnings: violence, death 

a/n: an anon requested mafia angst with felix, i hope this lives up to expectations <3 i got inspiration for this story after listening to seventeen from the heathers and watching a quiet place, i didn’t think a horror movie could make me that sad but i’m also a notorious crier! also i’m very sorry i disappear for such long periods of time i’m in my final year of school and suck at time management anyway love you 

The sky pooled with the blue of faded jeans and snowcloud grey, the abysmal winter taking the common popularity far from the sandy miles and crashing tides. It was at its peak in winter, despite being a beach. It flawlessly transformed from a bustling getaway to a tranquil sanctuary, one you had come to share with another. Felix’s silver hair often matched that of the beyond skyline, the sun’s muted rays being overpowered by cool-toned clouds. Words often went unexchanged in such moments, as the two of you preferred to bask in all the peace and serenity. In those moments, you would feel free—no longer looking over your shoulder with caution, watching your friends walk out of doors they may never walk through again. Instead, it was just waves. Crashing water flowing back and forth, back and forth. They never went away. Felix had never spoken many words while you found yourselves sat on the cold sand together, though the few he aired always stuck in your mind. They were words you’d unknowingly yearned to hear, words that allowed you to escape to a fantasy each night as your eyes closed until the morning. 

“Someday, we’ll go far beyond that silver horizon,” he had promised you, “we’ll leave it all behind for a new beginning.” 

“You really think so?” 

He smiled at you reassuringly as he nodded gently, “I know we will.” 

The day Felix met you wasn’t unusual, nor was it anything special at the time. He couldn’t remember how he found himself caught up in the world of drug lords and shady business, but he remembered exactly when he laid eyes on you — four in the afternoon he witnessed Minho leading you to Chan’s office, neither of you with pleasant facial expressions. Minho looked bored, you looked irritated, he didn’t want to know how Chan looked. As much as he expected to watch you disappear into the confines of his boss’ office and never reappear, at five o’clock he observed you leaving the office with Chan, the man smiling with satisfaction, victorious. Felix could remember watching you navigate your way around the base for a few days before Changbin grew tired of the male’s intense observation, said he looked like he was “trying to turn the damn kid into ice!” 

From what he understood, though never confirmed, you were down on your luck, broke, and made the mistake of robbing Minho—successfully, much to the dismay of the male’s ego. It didn’t take the bright haired male long to track you down and drag you back to base, not with the expectation of grievous punishment, but with the intention of acquiring you a job. Minho was frequently forgiving, unlike most, and considered you lucky to have chosen him instead of someone else—someone much more ruthless, bloodthirsty. Chan wasn’t hesitant in persuading you to join, Minho was one of the most perceptive people he’d ever met; he was observant, strong-minded, soft-spoken and thought in ways he had never once considered. And he was usually right, but Chan didn’t want to inflate his ego too much. 

Three months into the job, as unconventional as it was, you spoke your first words to Felix. They were words he’d heard in countless variations prior, yet something about your voice resonated deep within him, almost as if a ray of moonlight had struck his soul and encased it. 

“Chan said we have business together, can I trust you?” 

“Always.” 

Felix didn’t question you back, despite tradition. Somehow, he knew you’d give the same answer. It was laced in the gentle smile you futilely suppressed. 

Trickling down the glass windows, beads of perspiration and rain water scattered across the window pane. Your eyes watched the droplets slide from their original position on the glass to the bottom, replaced by another splash of crystal liquid. Felix glanced at you momentarily; it was bizarre how things had changed so swiftly. Three months since the first time you spoke — the same amount of time it took the two of you to verbally communicate for the first time — yet it felt as if you were engaged in a three year long friendship. The two of you had found freedom, paradise, in the sandy shores of an unpatrolled beach, no matter how abysmal in appearance. The two of you were yet to experience a beach in nice weather, together at least, instead sticking to the depressing atmosphere of chilled winter days, the scenery a colour scheme suitable to Felix’s ash blonde, white, or silver strands of hair. It was coincidental to begin with, then it became an innocent rendezvous requested in moments of loneliness and exhaustion. The freckled male wished he could take credit for the organisation of such ‘bonding’, so to speak, but it was your proposal, spoken as poetically as ever — “perhaps we should make this our own utopia, hey? Watch the oscillation of murky water plunge into abysmal depths.” Felix wasn’t sure how to respond the first time around, the eloquence of your words stunning him momentarily. All his brain could think was: “yeah, whatever that means.” He had simply nodded instead. Though, truthfully, he didn’t really care what it meant. If it granted him time with you, he would be willing to make it a tradition. 

That beach became your utopia, a hideaway from the consequences of the lifestyle the two of you found yourselves entangled in. Whether you sat under the shelter of Felix’s clunky black buick or amongst the scattered sand grains, the soothing sound of crashing waves washing the shoreline put the two of you at ease. It was escapism at its finest. Even when the topic of your line of work—if it could even be considered a form of employment—was brought up, it felt as if it were a hypothetical scenario. “If you were a part of the mafia, would you want to escape?” rather than “do you think we could ever escape being in the mafia?” You always answered no while Felix maintained hope, but you both seldomly pondered how you could escape a lifestyle that was so omnipresent. 

The pair of you found yourselves sat within the same clean car three weeks later, travelling down a long stretch of smoothly paved highway with obscured chatter being emitted from the silver radio. It wasn’t for a blissful escape this time. Rather, a job—or mission, you still didn’t know how to appropriately refer to the actions you were sent out to perform. Felix knew more of the situation than you knew, mainly because you zoned out halfway through Changbin’s explanation of the whole situation. Then again, you didn’t really care to know the extensive reasoning Changbin had for why certain things had to be done, as long as you got the job done and weren’t fucking murdered for not doing so, you didn’t really care. You’d spent the majority of the four hour car ride staring out the window, watching cars wizz past at illegal speeds, even for a highway, and trees blur into green masses of indistinct leaves and skinny branches. It only became evident that you had reached some form of civilisation when the pine trees evolved into small convenience stores and quaint homes, then towering skyscrapers and elegant apartments. The buzz of the radio, a sound you’d become accustomed to over the hours, was intercepted by Felix’s deep voice, “we’ll have to leave for the museum at six tomorrow evening. I’ll explain the situation on the way, I know you weren’t listening,” he teased cheekily. 

You smiled mildly with a roll of your eyes, “you’re the boss—oh, wait.” 

Felix scoffed and smacked your shoulder lightly, “get out of my car before I throw you out and leave.” 

“Shut it, Lix’. You love me.” 

A shit-eating grin was spread across your face as you took your gym bag from the boot, turning on your foot to enter the luxurious hotel. Felix smiled fondly at you—shit. Perhaps he did. 

The hotel room was what Changbin would describe as ‘comfortable’, but that chandelier-swinging prick was born into a lengthy ancestry of money—and criminal activity, though you supposed that was irrelevant. It wasn’t really, but it was a four-hour presentation you didn’t want to mentally sit through. Instead, you took in the opulent hotel room with awe and appreciation. White marble tiles spread along the floor, a light gold chandelier adorned with rhinestones dangled over the large dining table. The room was overboard in every possible way, though Chan had brushed it off as “getting into character”. You supposed that it would be more covert to retreat into a hotel equally lavish to the gala the two of you planned to intrude on. That part had almost slipped your mind—the whole criminal part of it. He’d subconsciously experienced the trip as a getaway. It wasn’t a work expense, it was a sumptuous getaway to escape that lifestyle, ignoring the stress of money, drugs, and being tailed by the police. It was freedom—except it wasn’t. It was nothing more than business; everything was just business. Felix, on the other hand, was painfully aware of the situation, in a way that you didn’t know or understand—not yet, at least. The male didn’t hold contempt towards the situation for being ‘just business’, he held contempt for what it should have been. It wasn’t the kind of goodbye he’d wanted to give you, sitting in an over-the-top hotel room preparing for a mission before leaving, for good. He had it all planned out, people who would help him—even Chan knew about the whole plot, for goodness sake, he’d sworn to cover it up as an untimely death. Though, as it drew closer, Felix couldn’t help reject the original plan. It was a solid plan, but it didn’t include you. How could he ever leave without you? 

Felix, foolish as it was, didn’t sleep that night. Tossing and turning around in the silky blue sheets, feeling them twist around his bare torso, felt much more comforting than sleeping—despite the fact he would escape from the thoughts he felt tormented by. At one point he’d left the room entirely, standing on the balcony as the cold air pricked at his exposed skin. It was winter, how fitting. He’d watched you lay peacefully in the sheets for a few moments, the steady rising of your chest putting him at ease momentarily, until those thoughts came creeping in again. In all honesty, he hadn’t even planned on telling you—or anyone. He would just slip away into the night, run as if his life depended on it—it did, he supposed. With a sigh, the male slipped back into the warmth of the hotel room, sliding the glass door closed to forbid the frosty air from plaguing the room and ruining your peaceful slumber. Fuck, he really couldn’t leave you behind. The frosty bathroom tiled stung the soles of his feet as he splashed water on his face, patting the freckled skin dry with the lightest touch possible, as if he would break if too much force was used. Felix had never felt so close to the edge — the edge of what, he wasn’t certain yet, but something told him he’d understand soon enough. 

The sun was steadily disappearing behind the uneven horizon, and you were taking advantage of the last pungent rays of sunlight to prepare for the gala night—you supposed it was better to be early hours before you had to leave instead of minutes. Plus, Felix had encouraged you to do so and he had far more experience than you. He also had ulterior motives in the form of telling you heavy news and a proposal he prayed you wouldn’t reject. Truthfully, he hadn’t even considered how to approach the topic. Did he just spit it out: “I’m leaving”, or was that too harsh? Why did it even matter? It’s not like he would be around to watch the fall out—that didn’t make it any better, though. 

“What time do we leave?” Felix’s thoughts were intruded by your querying voice. His head turned in your direction and, fuck, you looked beautiful. 

“Uh- seven. Weren’t you listening to Chan?” The slight teasing edge of his voice prompted a playful smile to stretch across your face as you raised an eyebrow. 

“When have I ever listened to Chan?” A deep chuckle vibrated in Felix’s chest as he shook his head gently. Of course you hadn’t, you remained as independent as ever, “besides,” you sigh gently as you move to sit next to him on the unmade bed, “the stuff he says just reminds me of the shitty situation I’m in.” 

“What do you mean?” The freckled male raised an eyebrow in question. You laughed bitterly. 

“The fact I’m a dimestore criminal and always will be. The only time it will end is when I’m thrown in prison—and I’d still be bloody miserable,” your words hung heavy in the air as Felix chewed on his plush lower lip. Fuck it. 

“We could leave, together. You know. Start a new life, be happy.” 

A sigh passed your lips, a mix of exasperation and misery, “Felix, you know this isn’t the kind of life you can just run away from.” 

“It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? Don’t you want to be free?” 

“Living in fear isn’t living freely!” with slumped shoulders, a posture of defeat, the exasperation dissipated from your face, “you should know that by now.” 

Mustering up the necessary courage, Felix allowed his deep voice to break through the tense atmosphere, “well—I’m leaving.” 

You visibly froze, shoulders rigid and jaw tense as the news simmered in the air. The silence was thick, Felix could feel it melting through his skin and coating his bones, “I’m leaving tomorrow night,” it was the affirmation you didn’t want to hear. The news that, no, this wasn’t some sick joke, this was real fucking life and Felix was leaving you, “I know some people that can help me out, but—” he sighed with hesitance, “I’ll stay if I’m what you choose.” 

Felix failed to realise it at the time, but from this distance, painfully aware of the emptiness of the grey grains of sand, Felix knew that the sandy shores were never his idea of paradise. It was the person who sat beside him, enduring the cold weather in a comfortable silence. 

It was easier to put on a happy face than either of you had expected. Though, thinking about it, you weren’t sure why you had such little faith in your acting skills—you’d managed to hide your criminal occupation under a law-abiding facade, after all. Felix had briefly run through the plan, meaning he had told you to keep a low profile and follow his lead. You had assumed it was an ordinary job—steal their stash, take out anyone who got in your way, get the fuck out of there. Suffice it to say, you found yourself in awe at the beauty surrounding you. The museum was painted in tones of gold and white, with lush velvet lounges and curtains showcasing the large pristine glass windows. All exhibits were on display, allowing the museum to brag its gorgeous vintage paintings and unique bone collections — you were pretty sure you’d heard Minho brag the same thing, and you were absolutely certain you didn’t let him explain it any further than that. Feeling Felix’s hand brush gently against your arm, you turned your attention to the silver-haired male, suppressing the attraction blooming in your eyes. He looked marvelous. Hair swept back effortlessly with a crisp suit adorning his slim frame. To say he didn’t look intimidating would be a blatant lie, and to act as if you weren’t already immensely attracted to him would be pointless. With an internal reprimand, you raised an eyebrow at Felix, inviting him to proceed with his words. 

“Just mingle for a little bit. Go through that door,” he discretely gestured his head towards a set of large dark oak doors, “about ten minutes after I do. Wait in the hall, and if anyone asks, you needed a break from socialising.” 

Nodding with understanding, you watched as Felix sent a reassuring smile your way before sauntering across the large room, smiling and greeting other primly dressed men he probably didn’t know. An unpleasant thought plagued your mind, one you desperately wanted to push away from contemplation: as soon as this mission was over and you returned to the base you called home, you would have to watch as he walked away once again, a stride towards freedom. It was something he so desperately craved, you couldn’t bring yourself to take that away from him—no matter how much you wanted to. The sound of the ebony wooden grandfather clock was lost in the sound of absent-minded chatter and fake laughter, yet the hands still moved as each second, minute, passed by. Five minutes had passed. What was Felix doing? Six minutes had passed. Why did you have to wait so long? Seven minutes had passed. Was he in danger? Eight minutes had passed. Would you see him again? Nine minutes had passed. Why didn’t you agree to leave with him? Ten minutes had passed. You were tired of this life. The thought struck you as you clandestinely stride towards the large doors Felix had disappeared behind, pacing a few strides down the hall before leaning against the wall, waiting. 

How much time had passed? You weren’t certain, it felt as if time had stopped moving since you leaned against the wallpaper-covered surface. Footsteps alerted you to another’s presence, your head turning in the direction to scope out a potential threat — though your shoulders relaxed as the familiar chocolate eyes of Felix met your own. Fixing your posture, you waited until he was standing beside you, “we happy?” 

Felix smiled gently at your Pulp Fiction reference, “yeah, we’re happy. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.” 

Placing his hand on the small of your back, he prepared to escort you from the grand location, all the while you pondered why Felix needed a partner when he did everything alone. Though, your questions were answered. 

“Not so fast, pal,” you had often feared being murdered by Changbin for not completing a mission, yet for some reason you didn’t fear the potential of being shot in the head by a rival gang. 

“Ah, Mr. Hyunsuk, what a pleasure it is,” the freckled male’s response was short yet polite, a false smile stretched upon his face. How did he still look so angelic in the face of death? 

“Yongbok,” Felix’s smile faltered, “let’s not pretend. Just return whatever you’ve taken from us and everyone will leave here safely.” 

“With all due respect, I believe you’re wrong,” you spoke up — that was your job — “we’ll be keeping our new possessions and leave safely,” to jump in recklessly when things began going sideways. Then, guns were drawn. You can’t recall who drew first, who shot first, but you knew you and Felix had split up to take different vantage points. Peeking from behind the cabinet you crouched behind, you fired a shot towards the muscular bald man shooting in Felix’s direction, who narrowly avoided a bullet between his eyes. How many people had come? You weren’t sure, you weren’t counting. It was pure adrenaline, shooting almost blindly at those who threatened the success of your job. The sound of a gun jamming snapped you out of your daze, forcing you to watch as Felix struggled to identify the problem with his gun. Ah shit, you supposed it was time to do your job. Leaping from behind the bullet-riddled cabinet, you fired towards the moving human targets in rapid succession. One down, two down, a bullet fired into Hyunsuk’s knee, another into his hip. Another gun joined you, Felix’s pistol shooting at the men attempting to pull their boss from the fray. 

The pain shot through you before you could process what was happening. It was searing, a deep burning sensation that had you clutching the spot in agony, struggling to stay on your feet. Vaguely, as if rooms away, you heard Felix’s gunfire halt as a thud echoed from the other side of the hall, then you heard footsteps against the polished floor. Rapid, either rushing to help someone or rushing to take their last breath. A pair of arms snaked around your waist and supported your back as you swayed, disoriented. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Felix’s gentle hold on you prevented further stumbling on your behalf. The words couldn’t form upon your lips, your eyes glancing around haphazardly, as if blinking more would help you process the situation you were in. His eyes trailed downwards, widening as he finally noticed the hand haphazardly clutching your abdomen. 

“No. No, no, no, no, no,” his speech was rapid, his gravelly voice coming out in a corybantic manner as he struggled to find the right action to take. There was a short period where he struggled, laying you down as he attempted to assess the bloody patch hiding beneath your stained hand. Weakened, you found yourself unable to fight off Felix’s movements as he peeled your hand away delicately, breath quickening at the extent of your wound. If he didn’t get you help in the next minute, he knew you wouldn’t make it, “ah, okay—shit. Just—keep your hand on there, pressure, yeah?” 

There was no effort to move on your behalf, thus Felix’s hand found its way pressing atop your bleeding injury. Though, your fingers wrapped around his wrist as you smiled gently towards him, “don’t.” 

Confusion laced his eyes, “don’t? Y/N, I’m not going to let you bleed out here. I’m not going to let you die!” 

You only nodded slightly, “you are. You have to.” 

His eyesight grew blurry, his stomach twisted in knots, the croaks of sobs were climbing up his throat as he mulled over your words. His voice quivered, “b-but, I can’t let you die. I need you.” 

There were no words to respond to his statement, just a weak and gentle hand caressing his cheek. He could hear footsteps approaching, but he couldn’t find it in him to look away from you—he didn’t care if it was a fatal mistake or not. A deep breath filled your lungs, a stray tear leaking from your eye and sliding down your temple as you mustered up the strength to breathe out the confession you’d been suppressing for years. 

It was gentle, angelic in the other’s ears, the words the both of you wished you’d said earlier, “you’re the one I choose.” 

Not every story has a happy ending, but at least they have an ending. Even if it tore the soul from someone and stomped on it, that sense of finality was necessary. Felix had seen a lot of pain in his life, far too much loss, yet the final chapter of a story involving him—your story—had never felt so… wrong. Out of place, missing. It wasn’t the ending he wanted for you, though who was he to change fate? There was nothing Felix could do to go back to that time, to redo anything and everything to fix the ending. All he could do was think of how much he loved and lost in a matter of moments. 

Sighing as he watched the waves carry your ashes past the skyline, Felix’s voice broke into the crisp air, “one day, I’ll meet you beyond that silver horizon,” he sniffled slightly as the autumn breeze caressed his face, “I know I will.” 

[daddysfangirls-marvel]

Shinso’s bestfriend

Request 

Summary:  Hi can a request a Shinso x reader, where she has a quirk that allows her to fly and she control natural wind (can’t create her own). Maybe she’s reckless and sees good in everyone. She’s with class 1-a and takes interest in him after the sports festival. Maybe Shinso teams up with the squad to help get her back during the Bakugo Rescue. He can see her try to reason with Shigaraki that he can be good and get hurt as result, maybe when she’s safe a fluff filled confession? Thank you babe XO

Warning: fluff, angst, language

"That was amazing," she said as she watched him exit the infirmary she was leaning against the wall. He scoffed at her and turned his back towards her walking away. "Really with a quirk like that... Don't tell Midoriya, but you should have won." He stopped turning around. She began to speak again, but he used his quirk.

"Tell me what you really think of me."

"I like you're quirk and think you're amazing. Although you lack physical strength, one day, you will be an amazing hero."

Shinso didn't know what to say or do he was speechless. No one really believed in him, but this girl knew nothing about him besides what she saw today and that one time in the hall. And she thought he could do it and he for the first time ever actually believed someone. He believed her.

When she finally snapped out of it, he was long gone. It was when her fight was announced that he learned her name. (Y/n) (L/n).

After the sports festival, Shinso continued to see (Y/n), and the two became friends, although Shinso would never say that out loud. They spent more time together outside of school away from everyone else. The two eventually became best friends. Shinso genuinely enjoyed his time with her giving any time that wasn't in training or focused on school to her.

"Hey," (Y/n) said, pulling Shinso from his thoughts, she handed him his ice cream, "where did you go?"

"Got lost," he said as she sat next to him on the beach with her ice cream.

"I'm happy to have found you." she giggled.

The two sat in silence. Usually, the silence made him uncomfortable as it often came when people were scared of him and his quirk. But with (Y/n) it was comfortable and content, her simple present always put him in a state of peace.

As the sun began to set, Shinso turned to her, knowing she'd like some sappy stuff like this but found her sleeping peacefully next to him. She had managed to curl herself into him without realizing it.

Sitting back on his elbows looking down at her, he couldn't help but reach forward gently touch her cheek, almost like he was afraid of touching her like she was so fragile and could fall apart with a simple touch as if she wasn't real. He held his breath as she moved in her sleep, pushing her face into his hand. Opening her eyes slightly, she rolled over on to his shoulder, hesitantly he lays back and wraps his arms around her waist.

He couldn't explain this feeling. It felt so good to have her in his arms brought a blissful pleasure he could not describe.

A couple nearby walked passed the two and whispered, "Aw, they look so cute together. Young love."

Love. He was in love. My god, he was in love with his best friend. -

He didn't tell her about his newfound feelings, and he continued to act normal even though he was viewing her in a new light now. Or at least he thought he was.

"Hey, are you okay?" He looked at her confused, "You've been looking at me weird. What is it?"

"That's the dress. It looks good on you. But do you think you'll need one for training camp."

"No, but I thought it looked cute. Can't I buy something cute?"

"You can. Sorry, I just assumed we were shopping for your summer training camp."

"Are you still upset with me? I can't blow off training camp; I need it." (Y/n) said, "And you need to train too. We should use our time apart to get stronger."

"I'm just worried is all. Bad feelings."

"Don't stress, you'll get lines" she said, smoothing out the lines on his forehead until he relaxes. She leaned down foreheads touching "I'll change back and buy this, and then we'll go get lunch. How does that sound?" he leaned forward, their lips barely touching. He pulled away.

"That sounds good." - Now looking back, he wishes he'd taken that kiss then and there. Now looking at the tv, he wished she had stayed home, but she went camping, and she didn't come back. The villains took her snatched up in the dark without anyone noticing. It wasn't until they tried to account for everyone afterward that they noticed she too was gone with Bakugo.

How could they be so blinded? How could they leave her? How could they not see?

- (Y/n) was a good person. Everyone knew this. Everyone saw this. She saw the good in everyone she thought of everyone as a good person, even those who weren't, and she always tried to help everyone and pull the good out of everyone. And with him, she did manage to pull the good out of him, and she did with most people. But not with this guy never with this guy.

Bakugo yelled out as Shigaraki reached forward to (y/n) she was smiling happily at him tilting her head in the cute she always did when she was sad and tired to hide it. He placed four fingers on her cheek and tilted her head down. Shigaraki chuckled "so naive" his four fingers slide down her neck and on to her chest "to think you could change me "He placed all five fingers on her chest and pushed.

(Y/n) watched as her shirt fell to ash, and her skin began to crack and peel. She gasped, trying to step back, but he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in between his legs pressing his palm flat on her chest as more of her skin fell away. In her moment of panic, she couldn't even scream just gasping and trying to pull away.

"now, now, where are you going? I thought you wanted to help me?" he teased as more skin started to peel and fall apart half her chest gone and her shirt becoming more of a jacket than anything else.

Bakugo screamed and thrashed as he watched (Y/n) fall limp in his arms and fell to the floor unconscious. He pulled at the chains trying to break free, but nothing happened. Even the others standing to the side found the scene distasteful the boys screams also pulled at their hearts strings as the girl's words managed to touch even them. She was trying to help. - "I'm coming with you" Everyone turned to find Shinso.

They didn't know about him besides the fact that he was in general education, had a brainwashing quirk, and was (Y/n) 's best friends. He had come to the hospital asking questions about (Y/n) asking who was with her before she disappeared, what happened, who took her. Unfortunately, no one had answers because no one was with her last she was alone, and no one noticed she was gone until someone did a headcount. Her missing had gone unnoticed. And that angered him.

"you're going to save them. I'm coming with you."

"Listen-"

"No. You shit heads didn't even notice she was gone. What's to say you won't do it again, take up the blonde dick and leave her behind?"

"We would never..." Midoriya went still as Shinso's quirk took over

"Shut up. I'm going to save her with or without. We can work together or not, and it would be more beneficial together. But I'm going either way." Shinso released Midoriya and turned to walk away from the others soon after followed him.

They stood shaking in complete terror fear coming over them—the shear power they didn't know what to do. There was nothing they could do. They were so helpless, helpless children in the middle of an epic battle. A blood battle that had just begun and already had many casualties how fortunate for them to survive. Even if they did survive at that moment, they all imagined their death.

Shinso was brought back to reality when hear Bakugo shouting (Y/n) 's name—looking through a hole in the barely standing wall. And he saw. Bakugo was standing in the middle of the wreckage holding (Y/n) 's limp body to his chest. As Shinso went to move, Iida grabbed the front of his shirt along with Midoriya's holding them back and stopped them from making any risky decisions.

"We have to do something. We have to save (y/n)," Shinso said, trying to pull away from Iida, but he pushed him harder.

"Stop, there is nothing we can do."

"wait," Midoriya said, "I have a plan." - The rescue was successful. The plan had worked amazingly. Bakugo flew out of the wreckage with (Y/n) in his arms. Of course, with the amount of explosive Bakugo released, she received a bit of ear damage, but she was alive, and that's all that mattered. Now she was in the hospital recovering.

Shinso knocked on the door frame.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Can't I come to see my best friend?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry I didn't expect anyone today. The nurse said no visitors today."

"You can say I persuaded her"

She smiled, shaking her head. She pulls the blankets up to her chest. "Um...a lot happened. I heard you helped save me. Thank you"

"Always"

(Y/n) tried to small her bottom lip quivering. Shinso reached forward, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "Why? Why are you always here? Always by my side, I knew it must get annoying, frustrating. This cheerful stupid girl always by your side."

"No, I like it. It's a change of pace from my gloomy life. You bring color to everything."

"Yeah right-"

"I love you, I love you and... "He got up and began to leave.

"No, please don't go" He turned around to see her trying to get out of bed. He quickly rushed to her side and pushed her back on to the bed. "Please stay."

"You don't have to say anything back. I'm not expecting anything from you."

"I love you too. Have for quite a while. I liked you since we first met, and it grew from there."

"I don't know when I fell in love with you." Shinso said, "But I remember when I realized it. It was that day on the beach when You fell asleep in my chest. The weird feelings started, and I was looking down at you, and I thought you looked so beautiful and ... I just... I could imagine my entire future with you... Is that weird?"

(Y/n) giggled "no, it's not. It's beautiful. Thank you"

"Why are you thanking me?"

"For putting up with me?"

"I mean, you are a hand full. Don't worry. You can just use the rest of your life to make it up to me."

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[somedayonbroadway]

Could you do “The Little Mermaid (Sprace)”?

I am so stoked for this one!!!!!

The Little Mermaid (Sprace) AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins (Tylilleprins) — Ariel

Spot Conlon — Prince Eric

Jack Kelly (Jaqeleder) — Sebastian

Alberd DaSilva (Alberdybhav) — Flounder

Bryan Denton (Brydenbeskyttelse) — King Triton

William Snyder (Snydehavheks) — Ursula

Medda Larkin — Carlotta

The Delancey Brothers (Osvraggods and Mostrandingsgods) — Flotsam and Jetsam

Mermaid colors:

Race has a blue tail.

Jack’s tail is green.

Al’s is an orange-red

Denton’s is like navy blue

Oscar’s tail is dark dark green, almost black

Morris’s is dark red

Snyder’s is a cecaelia (half human, half octopus) but his color is purple. Obviously.

Okay, so this AU actually takes place in modern day. Spot is the son of a very rich man who is practically royalty in Manhattan and basically lives the life of a prince.

Anyways,

Race, a fifteen year old merman with the birth name of Tylilleprins, is a prince of Atlantica in the Atlantic Ocean. He is the youngest prince, second only to his big brother Jaqeleder who he calls Jack. They speak their own mermadian language (in my head it is made up of small clicking sounds, almost sounding like purrs mixed with dolphin sounding noises and sometimes and some actual vocal words). His father, Brydenbeskyttelse, is the king (yes he has a very long name. It’s shorter in mermaidian).

Race is fascinated by the human world. Him and his best friend Alberdybhav (Albie) often go off to explore sunken ships and swim as far up to the surface as they can before Jack catches them.

Jack catches them a lot.

Al doesn’t always go with Race willingly. Race often drags him along on adventures even though it is forbidden by the king to go to the surface.

The king and the older prince of the sea have their reasons to hate the human world, but Race does not, so he has this curiosity that Jack warns him time and time again is very dangerous. He doesn’t heed Jack’s warnings.

One day, Race and Al eventually make it to the surface and hide behind seaweed and small rocks of the ocean while they get closer and closer to shore, gazing at the beach. He catches sight of a boy, about his age, maybe a little older, getting ready to go surfing with some friends. Of course, Race and Al have no idea what the boys are doing.

Eventually, Al says something that makes Race remember something.

They were supposed to be at a party in which Jack was being presented as the kingdom’s next leader. When they get back, Jack’s already mad at him, but is even more worried about him. When he finds out where Race was, he swims away and shuts Race out for a little while so their father can lecture Race about going to the surface, grounding him as he’s yelling at his youngest son.

Race and Jack had always been close, despite being at odds a lot of the time. Jack is extremely protective of Race, often shooing off potential suitresses and suitors who are after the crown. He tells Race he’s too naive to be in a relationship because there will be a lot of merpeople out there who are after him for status and power.

Race doesn’t mind that Jack is protective of him, though sometimes it breaks his heart that so many people he finds himself interested in are using him.

He doesn’t like that Jack won’t let him up to the surface.

What Race doesn’t know is that Jack hates the human world because he witnessed the humans murder their mother when Race was only a baby. Jack and her had been playing up near the surface at sunset and a group of fishermen spotted them. To protect her son, their mother pushed Jack behind a buoy and tried to swim away, drawing attention to herself and away from Jack. He watched them shoot her with something to slow her down and drag her up onto their boat with a net. She screamed for him to swim away so Jack did. They tried to shoot him too but they only grazed his chin. It’s how Jack got the scar that’s there.

After Race misses Jack’s party, their father persuades Jack to keep an even closer eye on the kid, trying to get Jack to forgive his little brother and somehow Jack ends up following Race and Al to the surface where he tries to literally drag the boys back down to the castle. But he hides behind a large stone when he finds that Race is watching some surfers.

Jack starts to get a little bit more frantic when he realizes how close they are to the shore. But they can’t swim away without someone seeing them.

Eventually, Jack finds that Race is infatuated with one of the boys in particular. They watch him for a long time until the boy is out there alone, riding waves until he wipes out, hitting his head on his board and falling under water.

Race’s reaction is immediate as he dives to save the boy from drowning. Jack screams at him to come back, forcing Al to swim away as he chases Race who doesn’t listen to him at all.

Race swims the stranger back to shore, taking in the sight of him and falling in love with him immediately. He talks to the boy, but to humans their language sounds like song above the water, while below the water it just sounds like ticking and dolphin noises (In some myths I believe Sirens, not mermaids but still, sound like song above the water and screeching under the water).

But when the boy starts to wake up, Jack grabs Race and panics, dragging him back under the sea before the boy can fully see the person who saved his life.

Spot Conlon is the son of a rich business owner. His father is rarely around, leaving him with a lot of butlers and maids to keep him company in his mansion that he practically lives in alone. He has a few friends from school, Hot Shot, Kid Blink and Rafaela. He loves to spend most of his time with them at the beach.

His mother used to tell him that he’d live in the ocean one day. That is, before she left them for another man. Regardless, Spot loves the ocean.

He has a tattoo on his arm of a mermaids tail along with a seashell on the back of his shoulder. His father technically paid for them, but he doesn’t know that. Spot gets them out of spite. He knew he was supposed to be a perfect child, but he hated that.

Anyway, he goes out surfing with his friends on his birthday. They all leave by sunset, but he stays a little longer, not wanting to go home to an empty house.

He loses his footing on his board and hits his head, going under.

He wakes up for a moment, hearing someone singing sweetly. He can see bright blue eyes above him before he goes unconscious again.

When he wakes up later, he’s in his bed with a doctor hovering over him as Miss Medda, the head of staff at his mansion, worrying over him like she always does.

Spot begs to know who saved him but Medda tells him he got washed to shore by the tide. Spot tries to explain that there was a boy that saved him and sang to him, but Medda tells him he must’ve been dreaming.

Spot promises himself he’ll find the boy who saved him.

Meanwhile, Jack is scolding Race for making contact with a human before Brydenbeskyttelse finds them and scares Jack by asking them where they were. Jack gets skittish and eventually manages to cover for Race, not wanting to get in trouble himself. But he quickly finds that Race is still curious about the boy he saved and the human world in general. Before he can try to talk to Race about it, his brother is gone, off being completely lovestruck.

Al teases Race and tries to figure out who made such an impression on his friend before realizing it was the human he’d saved. He gets a little nervous and Jack tries to talk Race down, eventually following Race to a small grotto filled with things from the human world. Race doesn’t seem to mind at first that Jack is there. In fact, he seems happy that his brother finally gets to see his collection.

Jack is horrified.

He doesn’t want to, but he tells their father.

The King is furious, scolding Jack before finding the grotto and frightening his youngest son. Race tries to explain to him that these things won’t hurt anybody, but Brydenbeskyttelse destroys everything within his sight with his trident. Jack is horrified by this too, trying to calm his father down, but only getting screamed at in response.

In case anyone was wondering: Race calls Brydenbeskyttelse “Daddy” because he literally is Ariel and he’s the baby and he loves that and his father had never gotten this angry at him before.

Their father leaves and Jack tries to apologize, trying to tell Race he was only trying to keep him safe, but Race would yell at him to go away, scaring Jack and Al who had unintentionally watched the entire exchange. Race ends up breaking down on the floor of his grotto, feeling alone and betrayed by his brother who he trusted more than anyone else in the world.

What he didn’t know is that he’d been watched.

Osvraggods and Mostrandingsgods have been watching Tylilleprins since the beginning of the story, in fact, they’ve been watching him for years, waiting for him to be at a vulnerable place where they could sneak in and try and comfort him.

Os and Mo circle around Race at first, creeping him out when he sees them. They coo at him and wipe at his tears. He’s scared and almost cries for Jack before they tell him there’s someone they know that can fix all of his problems. A sea witch named Snydehavheks. Race is skeptical, knowing that witch was dangerous, at least according to his father.

But the mermen promise Race that he will be able to be with the man he loves and away from those who destroyed everything he adored. So Race goes with them.

He is unknowingly followed by Jack who was trying to go back to check on him and Al follows him closely behind.

Together they watch the whole exchange. Snydehavheks is a strange but powerful man. No one knows much about him, but he reveals himself to be Race and Jack’s uncle who was banished from the kingdom after a few spells gone wrong. Race tries to retreat after hearing this, but with eight arms, the guy grabs him easily and holds him back, explaining that he’d turned over a new leaf and wanted to help.

Jack tries to go in and help his brother, but is stopped by Os and Mo who hold a “knife” to his throat (its sharp fish bones fashioned as a weapon).

Race still doesn’t know he was followed.

Snydehavheks offers Race a deal, one he describes as very good and well worth the cost. In exchange for two weeks on land with human legs and the ability to understand English, the witch will take his voice. The only catch is that Race has to get Spot to kiss him by the final sunset on the last day to remain human permanently or else his soul would belong to Snydehavheks. See, mermaids' tails can turn to legs when they’re on land, but walking on them is painful and horrible for them. So this offer is to take the pain away and make sure his legs stay no matter what for two weeks.

Race tries to argue, not understanding how he’d get Spot to kiss him if he couldn’t speak, but Snydehavheks would tell him that he still had everything he needed to make it happen and he’d offer Race a contract.

Jack would finally get the weapon away from the brothers in front of him and cry out for Race not to do it, but Race would just get even more angry and sign the thing.

His voice would be gone immediately and his legs would start growing. His fangs would turn into regular human teeth and his claws would shrink and flatten out.

He’d quickly find that he could no longer breathe.

Jack would act fast, Al right behind him. They’d swim Race up to the surface so he could breathe and Jack would be screaming at Race the whole time until Race was too stunned to listen. He’d be human and he’d be terrified.

Jack would tell him that they could fix this. That he’d go back and talk to the sea witch, but Race wouldn’t let him. He’d grab Jack’s arm and try to hold him still. Jack can see how shaken Race is and Al doesn’t know what to do so he can’t just leave the two of them up there.

Eventually, Jack tells Race he needs to go get some sort of clothing. While Jack doesn’t understand humans, he used to observe them too and knows they don’t just walk around naked.

Race would steal someone’s clothes that were left on the beach, realizing how difficult it was to walk when he’d never tried it before. Jack would panic and try to tell him to come back to the water, but Race wouldn’t and Al would tell Jack that even if he did make a deal with Snydehavheks, Race would still be human for a little bit and someone was bound to find him sooner or later.

Jack would try to get their father but before he could, humans would catch sight of Race. Jack would try to drag him into the sea by his ankle, but Al would force him under the water and away from the shore.

Race, who is now on the ground, would be approached by the very boy who he’d gone up there to see. It’s early in the morning at this point. And the boy who introduces himself as Spot was going out for a morning surf.

Spot asks Race if he’s alright and Race goes to respond, realizing again that his voice is gone. He starts to panic and Spot asks him where he can take him or who he can call. Race just shrugs and shakes his head which Spot takes to mean as he’s alone.

Jack and Al watch as Spot leads Race away from the ocean and Jack has no idea what to do.

Taking Race to Miss Medda, Spot tries to communicate with him, finding that this mysterious boy can’t read or write, but seems to understand him just fine. Spot finds that something about this boy reminds him of someone but he knows he can’t be the boy that saved him because the boy that saved him had hummed and sang to him.

Miss Medda gets Race cleaned up and washed up and redressed in modern clothing that fits Race perfectly. Spot offers to show him around since Race agrees that he doesn’t know where he is really and doesn’t have anyone he knows there.

Race is nervous and anxious about everything but gets excited about little things anyways. When he sees Spot’s tattoo, he grabs the other boy’s arm and studies it for a long time. So Spot asks him if he liked Mermaids and Race immediately smiles and nods his head.

Spot decides to then take Race to the local aquarium where they meet a scientist named Mr. Weisel, who Race immediately finds he doesn’t like. Weisel tells them about a mermaid they caught years and years ago (Race’s mother) who they unfortunately killed a little bit too soon. A lot of people don’t believe there was ever a mermaid, as mermaids are myths, but Race puts the pieces together easily. He shows them a necklace made of shells that Race recognizes immediately as his mother’s.

He gets upset and even more scared so Spot would take him home.

Now it made sense why Jack, who seemed so fearless, was terrified of the human world.

From then on, Spot talks to Race about mermaids and how he was sure he’d seen some in the past (he’d seen Jack when Jack was little, playing with their mother).

Eventually, he takes Race back to the ocean where Race meets his friends who think he’s a bit odd, but Race doesn’t mind. They’re at the beach and Race can see Al. When he finds a way to get to where his friend is hiding, Al says that Jack is losing it. Race feels guilty, knowing it’s his fault his brother is so worried. Al tells him that Jack still hasn’t told their father what’s happened, explaining that Race was sick and wouldn’t leave his room and always finding an excuse for the king not to go see him.

When Spot finds him, Race shoves Al back beneath the water and pretends to just be watching the waves.

Spot and his friends teach Race how to surf.

Race is surprised at how much he likes it.

For the next few weeks, Spot and Race get very close. Spot starts to teach Race how to read and Race shows Spot how to appreciate the ocean in an entirely new way.

About a week in, Spot becomes infatuated with Race and starts to hold his hand. Race loves it.

At some point, they almost kiss in a lagoon, but are interrupted by Os and Mo who were sent by Snydehavheks to stop Race from succeeding.

Jack and Al, who were trying to help Race succeed, see the other two mermen and follow them back to their cave to figure out the sea witch’s actual plan where they learn that Snydehavheks is after the crown and plans to use Race as leverage to get it.

By the time they try to get back up to Race to warn him, it’s the end of the last day and he and Spot still haven’t kissed.

Weasel, who suspected there was something off about Race from the beginning, was watching him and Spot who were sitting at the edge of the water.

All in all, it’s a big mess.

Race begins to transform back into a merman and it causes him physical pain. He cries out, realizing his voice is back and tries to swim away before remembering that if he goes back, he belongs to the sea witch who gave him legs. So he hesitates just long enough for Weasel and a group of fishermen to throw a net over him and use long sticks with formed edges (not pitchforks but something similar) to pin Race to the shore. He tries to squirm away and cry out for help. Spot is confused and at a loss for words but tries to do something.

Race starts screaming for Jack who is hiding behind a buoy farther out in the ocean. Jack is paralyzed with fear and doesn’t know what to do so all he can do is watch them put his little brother in a large tank and pack him into the back of a truck and take off with him.

He dives back beneath the water and begs Snydehavheks to tell him where his brother is, reluctantly offering up his soul in exchange for information and help getting to Race.

The sea witch offers to help, but doesn’t grant Jack land legs. He simply tells Jack to swim up to shore and the rest would be made clear to him.

So Jack does what he says.

On the shore, there’s a uniform waiting for him. It’s a janitor’s uniform from the aquarium. He pulls himself from the water and puts it on, standing up on scaly legs and finding it extremely painful to walk on them, like thousands of needles piercing his skin. But he forces himself to walk and get to Race.

There’s an invisible trail leading Jack straight to his brother.

Race is being kept in a display tank for now in the aquarium. He’s been there for almost a full day by the time Jack finds him. He doesn’t like being in there. People tap on his glass and call him a freak. At first he’d hiss at them, showing off his sharp fangs and daring them to continue taunting him. Eventually he just gave up and turned away from the humans, curling up in a ball on the floor of the tank and trying to imagine his brother was there with him. Jack never let him be scared. Even when he’d wanted to shut down Race’s curiosity, he hadn’t wanted to scare him.

So he’s laying there with his tail pulled up to his chest and he’s crying, knowing he can’t do anything until he hears someone speaking his own language behind him and he turns around to find Jack standing outside his cage, looking like he was in pain, but still managing to look relieved that he’d found Race.

Race presses his hand up against the glass and Jack matches it crying at the relief of seeing his brother alive.

After a minute, he tries to break open the tank with anything he can find around him. He gets it to crack after a while, so Race starts hitting at it, trying to break it. Eventually, Jack manages to shatter the glass and Race gets pushed out onto the floor.

That's when a worker finds them, just as Race is regrowing his legs. Jack immediately sits down and pulls Race to him, hissing at her because he’s not a full human and has his fangs and claws still.

The woman, Katherine, Race reads off of her name tag, is shocked at first. He tries to speak English for the first time in his life, saying things like “please” and “ocean” and “daddy” because he knows that Jack is there but he still wants his dad.

Katherine would melt at the sight, finding some pants for Race to wear. That’s when Weasel would rush in. Jack was still holding on tightly to Race and Katherine would stand in front of them ready to defend them because she didn’t agree on keeping the merman from the beginning.

When Weasel tries to get to Race, Jack claws at his arm, deep enough to make him bleed.

That’s when Weasel figures out that Jack’s a merman too.

He grabs for his walkie talkie and calls for backup just as Spot breaks into the aquarium to try and break Race out. He finds Race and Jack on the ground behind Katherine and goes to get closer to Race. Jack tries to lash out at him, but Race stops him, though he still is a bit cautious of Spot because Spot didn’t save him while he was being captured.

Spot tries to ask Jack for his permission to help take Race back to the ocean. Race has to translate for him the best he can. Jack let’s go of Race, knowing that as long as Race made it home, he could be happy.

Eventually, he lets go of Race with one more kiss to his head and let’s Spot scoop him up as Katherine starts to fight with Weasel, tasing him with his own taser as more backup arrives.

She helps Jack stand and realizes walking must pain him, so she takes his weight and tries to get him back to the water.

They have a very hard time getting out of the building as Katherine has to hide them from Weasel’s men. Jack takes a reluctant liking to Katherine as she helps him through the building and back to the water. Even though they can’t understand each other’s language, Katherine manages to make Jack laugh and Jack finds himself intrigued by this woman.

Once they get back to the water, they find Spot on the shore panicking.

He tells Katherine that Race was there a second ago but the second he was fully in the water, some kind of octopus dragged him down.

Jack doesn’t understand, but he sees the panic on Spot’s face and immediately finds a place to dive into the water, going to find his brother only to be caught by two other mermen who drag him down beneath the water.

It’s Osvraggods and Mostrandingsgods. They tell him that Snydehavheks is there to collect him as he is now his property.

He finds Race struggling against Snydehavheks, who has his tentacles wrapped around the boy as they are forced to face their father who demands to know what on earth his half brother thinks he’s doing.

The sea witch shows Brydenbeskyttelse the contracts his sons signed.

The king knows what his brother wants. So he gives it to him.

With one final look at his sons who are begging him not to do what they know he’s about to do, he offers Snydehavheks the crown and his trident after making the other man promise that no harm would come to his boys. Snydehavheks agrees before making his half brother sign a contract and then taking the trident and turning Brydenbeskyttelse into stone.

Jack’s heart breaks as he watches his father fall but he demands that the sea witch release them as he made a deal. He rushes to grab Race before Race can go to the statue of their father and forces him to stay close, unsure of truly what to do.

Eventually, the younger prince fights his way out of Jack’s arms and tries to fight Snydehavheks who nearly kills him with the trident. After that, Race rushes up to the surface to get away from the man who’s now chasing him and Jack goes to help him.

At the surface, Spot and Katherine are still standing confused on the shore. But when they see Race struggling to get away from a giant half man, half octopus, Spot rushes to help him, managing to hurt the sea witch but eventually getting dragged beneath the surface.

Katherine tries to rush to help him, but Jack grabs her and helps her back to shore before Os and Mo can grab her.

Jack and Race then manage to get Spot to safety before Race finally takes his father’s trident and stabs Snydehavheks in the back, killing him. Jack then takes the thing to scare Os and Mo away. Once he does that, him and Race swim down to their father, freeing him.

Brydenbeskyttelse hugs them tightly before Race remembers Spot and rushes up to the surface again, hugging Spot immediately and trying to apologize.

Spot holds him back just as tightly before pulling away and kissing him.

Jack swims over to see Katherine and they have a cute little moment where Jack says in his own language that there was something about her he just wouldn’t be able to get out of his mind. She doesn’t know what he said, but she gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Their father watches the exchange, asking Race if he truly wanted to be with Spot. When he hesitantly nods, the king reluctantly gives Race the ability to walk on land without pain, even though he can still return to the ocean if he wants to.

Race doesn’t go without hugging his family again.

Eventually, Spot and Race do get married. But every time they get in a fight, Race goes back to find Jack and stay with him for a little while.

Spot gives the merpeople “human names”. He calls Race “Tyler”.

Jack visits his human friends and his brother once a week at least, learning how to speak English and finding that he was falling for Katherine who was just as quickly falling for him.

She finds herself fascinated by the life of the sea and eventually lets Jack take her down after he has his father’s permission. Brydenbeskyttelse turns her into a mermaid (her tail is yellow and orange). And her and Jack eventually become married and she gets to be a queen.

I know all of their names look like I was just typing random letters but I actually looked up the Danish translation for somethings (just on google, so I have no idea how accurate it is) because The Little Mermaid is a Danish story.

Tylilleprins — Lille prins means Little Prince

Jaqeleder — leder means leader

Brydenbeskyttelse — beskyttelse means protector

Alberdybhav — dyb hav means deep sea

Osvraggods — vraggods means flotsam

Mostrandingsgods — strandingsgods means jetsam

Snydehavheks — hav heks means sea witch

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! I really like this one! Writing mermaids is interesting.

Let me know if you guys wanna see any scenes written out!

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[jeserai]

honey-tongued (1/2)

i dreamed that you bewitched me into bed / and sung me moon-struck

She’s somehow even more beautiful up close, dark hair feathering out in delicate waves down her back. And her eyes, her eyes. As long as she lives, Adora doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to forget or even describe the exact shades of her eyes. The right, a clear, shining teal, like the perfect blue of a tropical beach, like a rare topaz gemstone, like a delicate petal of a forget-me-not. And the left, some strange golden honey color, something akin to the liquid gold of the whiskey glinting in the glass by Perfuma’s arm, to the sparks let up in a midnight bonfire, to that exact, fleeting moment when the sun rises on a summer morning.

Adora doesn’t drink. At least, not like this, not with too many bodies pulsing around her, not with a heavy bassline jarring her bones, not with too much sound and heat and smell and flashing light overwhelming every sense. Clubs are too much, and Adora would rather spend a Friday night at home with a pint of ice cream, a warm bath and a carefully chosen movie or two. Not this.

But it’s Glimmer’s birthday and Adora and Bow are bound by best friend law to make this day a good one, and they have. They’d taken her to a cute little café for breakfast, and then took her out shopping, and surprised her with a birthday party with family when they got home. And now they’re at a club (one of the fancy ones) and somehow, Bow has managed to persuade the bartender (whose name is apparently Perfuma) to give them free drinks for the night.

Glimmer’s downed two glasses of something fruity and sweet already before squeezing Adora’s shoulder, yelling in her ear something unintelligible and disappearing onto the dancefloor when Adora nods. Bow quickly follows her, leaving her to watch their drinks and watch helplessly as her friends are swallowed by the crowd.

She hears a faint wisp of laughter from behind her and turns to find Perfuma grinning wide, dimples on display. She nods to where Bow had whirled off to and shakes her head like she knows the feeling of having tornados of energy and light and life for best friends, and maybe she does.

Adora just shrugs and smiles in that helpless, fond way because yeah, Glimmer and Bow can be quite a handful. If it were quieter, she’d maybe strike up a conversation, because something about Perfuma makes her think that they’d get along quite well, but this is a club, and clubs aren’t for talking or getting to know people.

Clubs are for all the things that Adora’s Friday nights never entail: cheap alcohol, everything too loud, and casual, messy sex.

But then, Perfuma leans in, clearly meaning to speak. And Adora is prepared, for an innuendo or perhaps a more innocent line, but all Perfuma says is, “My best friend is just like that: when something comes up that she wants, that's all she gravitates towards.”

It’s so blessedly normal that Adora can’t help laughing, and that stupid ugly one too, the one Glimmer always teasingly tells her sounds like windshield wipers. When she can finally bring herself to speak, Perfuma is smiling, soft and pleased, one dimple winking out.

“It makes my life more enjoyable,” Adora half-shouts, “even if I’d rather be at home with some ice cream and a movie.”

Perfuma nods sagely, and she's still smiling that infectious smile when she says, “Between you and me, I'd much rather be home with a book or two and new music to listen to at an acceptable volume.”

And there are so many things Adora wants to say and ask, but before she can even figure out what to say, Perfuma straightens up, eyes on something behind them. “Are you expecting someone? That girl’s been staring at you for the past few minutes, and she’s coming over now.”

“What? No, it’s just me, Bow and Glimmer.” But when Adora turns around to see who it was (and possibly berate them for trying to sneak up on her), her brain short-circuits. Because it’s not anyone in their friend group, it’s not anyone she even knows: it’s the most beautiful person Adora has ever seen. As Perfuma had said, she’s making her way slow and steady towards them, eyed fixed on Adora’s with such a cool intensity that it makes her stomach roll.

She’s somehow even more beautiful up close, dark hair feathering out in delicate waves down her back. And her eyes, her eyes. As long as she lives, Adora doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to forget or even describe the exact shades of her eyes. The right, a clear, shining teal, like the perfect blue of a tropical beach, like a rare topaz gemstone, like a delicate petal of a forget-me-not. And the left, some strange golden honey color, something akin to the liquid gold of the whiskey glinting in the glass by Perfuma’s arm, to the sparks let up in a midnight bonfire, to that exact, fleeting moment when the sun rises on a summer morning.

She’s quite literally breathtaking all in all, and when she smiles, Adora chokes on the breath that she’d finally gotten back. The gorgeous girl appears not to notice, or care, because she fits himself right up against Adora like she belongs there. Usually, Adora would blanche at such close contact with a stranger, but with this...angel, it feels right. And almost familiar.

The word angel floats through Adora’s mind again as their gazes break and meet again, because how could this girl be anything but, all shades of warm caramel and honey gold? The thought comes back again though, that she looks almost familiar, but it slips away too easy with the smile that flirts with the girl’s lips.

“You look like an angel,” the girl says then. She doesn’t raise her voice, and Adora can hear her perfectly, but the words don’t register the way they should.

“What?”

“You look like an angel.” And it’s said so earnestly, so easily that Adora wants to believe it. If it were any other person, she wouldn’t, but those words said by this perfect stranger is. It’s something.

“You—I—I don’t—” Adora splutters, feeling her cheeks go pink as a patient, enamoured smile flirts with the corners of the girl’s lips, “thank you? Why did you…?”

“I like beautiful things.” She says it easily, so easily, and Adora is sure now that she’s blushing. The little voice in her head says, this is too easy, too genuine to be flirting, but Adora pushes that aside because no, no, this girl can’t be serious.

When it becomes clear that Adora isn’t going to say anything coherent, one of the girl’s hands falls to her waist like it belongs there. “Dance with me.”

All Adora can do is nod and let the girl (“What’s your name?” Pause, “Catra.” Again, almost familiar) lead her out and onto the floor. They’re in the center of the room, as far as Adora can tell, and Catra leads her easily, naturally. She’s always touching Adora somewhere, a hand on her hip or on her wrist, their hips brushing together and their bodies colliding as they’re jostled by the crowd.

Unlike Adora, Catra seems used to this, and she occasionally leans in too close to whisper words that have lost their meaning in his ear, voice impossibly smooth and raspy. When Catra’s voice curls around her name, Adora very nearly whimpers. And maybe she does, because Catra laughs into the curve of her neck, and she’s definitely smirking, definitely teasing.

Adora doesn’t mind.

She’s not drunk, but she feels it, drunk on the heat and the lights, on the warmth radiating off of Catra’s body and the pressure of her hips and hands, on the sultry tones of her voice and the smirk in her laugh. So it’s not long, all things considered, before she’s tipping her head back just a little, a clear invitation that Catra easily, eagerly, finally takes. Her lips are a pretty, glossed rosebud pink, and they’re soft on Adora’s even as she grips her waist tightly with both hands.

Part of Adora thrills at the idea that that’s how much Catra is holding back, and a bigger part of her doesn’t want her to. “Catra,” Adora manages to breathe out, pleading for what, she doesn’t quite know. Something, anything.

This time, it’s Catra that shivers, almost imperceptibly. “What do you want me to do to you?”

It’s cocky, and Adora would hate that but for how much she needs, how much she needs Catra’s hands and body and voice and mouth. “Kiss me,” is what she settles on, “please, Catra, need you.”

“Gorgeous,” Catra whispers, “you’re gorgeous.”

And then she kisses her again, really kisses her. Nails digging into Adora’s sides and lips insistent, and Adora feels reckless and drunk enough to press her hips back, to trail one of her free hands around to hold Catra by the waist when Catra’s grip tightens further. When Catra turns her around, the first thing Adora does is kiss her until they’re both breathless, Adora gasping into the curve of Catra’s neck as she’s held, as she shakes apart in her arms.

Catra’s lips are on her neck now, and Adora knows that there’s going to be a hickey or two—or hopefully ten—by the time she’s finished, knows there will be bruises from Catra’s fingers on her waist. “Want you to fuck me,” she confesses, biting her lip at the way Catra looks at her.

“Pretty,” Catra murmurs, “you’d look so good.” Praises are falling from her lips like summer rain and each brush of Catra’s lips against Adora’s skin feel like flower petals, light and teasing. They’re about the same height, but like this, Adora feels small, and almost on instinct, she looks up at Catra. Up, at how dark and wanting her eyes are, at how her rosebud lips are now strawberry red and swollen, at her hair disheveled from Adora’s own hands. And then it hits her, that she did this. She’s the one that made Catra come this undone—though Adora is sure she looks not that much better.

“So gorgeous,” Catra continues, “begging for me to fuck you senseless.” As she speaks, her hands trail fire from Adora’s waist to rest full on her ass, squeezing tight enough to make Adora gasp and arch away from the pain.

“Do that again, please.”

“Do what again?” The way she says it tells Adora that Catra knows, that she knows and she’s just teasing.

“Please, Catra, fuck—” Adora gives up, leaning up to give Catra another bruising kiss. Catra just laughs and nips Adora’s lower lip, trapping it between her teeth and leaning back, forcing Adora to follow.

“Good?” Catra asks when she pulls away, and her voice is somehow, impossibly even deeper, raspier. Adora feels like she’s melting.

“God, yes. So good, Catra, please.”

“Tell me what you want, Adora. Tell me.”

“Anything, Catra, just—please, I need you everywhere.” And that’s just it, Adora thinks. She needs Catra everywhere, her hands and her lips and her teeth and her tongue, needs to feel feel feel and be felt, touch and be touched, needs anything and everything that Catra is willing to give. She can’t figure out how to say what exactly she needs, how she needs Catra’s hands on her hips neck waist, how she needs Catra’s lips on her chest neck lips, how she needs to feel vulnerable and raw and open with Catra, for Catra.

But she can’t say that, so Adora settles for saying, “Need you, all of you.”

Catra just looks at her (through her, into her) for a long moment, and then she nods.

 The ride back to Adora’s house is burning quiet, with Catra’s hand on her knee (now on her thigh, now high up on her inner thigh), and Adora’s gaze constantly flicking between the road and Catra’s side profile. Her heart keeps stuttering and her breath freezes up in her throat each time Catra’s face lights up with each passing strip of moonlight and lamplight.

And then, just as Adora glances over again, she catches Catra staring. It’s blatant, unashamed at all, like Adora is some kind of master painting, some kind of flawless sonata, some kind of magnum opus.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Adora whispers, but there’s no bite in it, barely any breath to her voice at all.

“Like what? You’re beautiful, you know that, right? I want you to know that.” The hand on his thigh comes up, ghosts against Adora’s cheek, easy easy, and Adora shivers with it, with how earnestly Catra says it.

“You’re the one that’s…” Adora shakes her head, sighs out a long breath. Catra gives her this long look, like she wants to ask, but she doesn’t know how to. And Adora wants to be brave, brave like she was in the club, brave like she was with Catra’s honey sweet taste on her lips, brave like she was with Catra’s hands on her hips, lips on her throat, voice in her ears.

“You’re perfect, Catra.”

Catra laughs, a little breathless, and she leans over to kiss Adora’s cheek, lips lingering soft of her skin. “Thank you, dork.”

“Anything for you,” Adora finds herself saying, and despite the playful words, she genuinely means it. She pulls up in the driveway, turns off the car, glances over at Catra to see her smiling back, bright and bright and bright.

And then the smile twists, becomes dangerous, and it’s an uncomfortable position, yeah, but it’s so worth it to feel Catra’s hands and lips and teeth again. And the kiss isn’t perfect, nowhere near it, their lips missing on the first pass, the seat belt digging into Adora’s throat because who has time to worry about anything other than Catra.

When Catra pulls back, the beginning of a laugh is bubbling up on her lips. “Shouldn’t we go inside? Not that I don’t enjoy this, but…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Adora breathes in Catra’s laughter, follows her out of the car and to the door, unlocks it quick and lets Catra push her through, kissing her quiet against the door once it shuts behind them. Pushes Catra through the house, lets Catra shove her down on the bed, lets Catra get rid and rid and rid of their clothes. They’re left in just their undergarments now, and Catra looks gorgeous in a dark strappy bralette and panties to match. Compared to her, Adora wishes that she hadn’t worn her usual plain bra and boyshorts, but then, she hadn’t been expecting to go home with someone, much less Catra. But Catra doesn’t seem to mind; she tugs at the hem of Adora’s boyshorts and lets it snap back against her skin, a giggle bubbling up on her lips when Adora makes a startled noise.

“So, do you wanna…?” Catra asks then, breathless again, just as much as Adora feels. Her hand ghosts against the curve of Adora’s hip, clearly intentional, and yeah, Adora does wanna.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just…” Adora licks her lips (Catra’s eyes follow) and nods again. “There should be—stuff in the drawer.”

“Stuff,” Catra mimics, “you’re cute. Though that’s convenient.” Adora watches Catra lean over to rummage through the drawer, coming back with a mostly-full bottle of lube that she squints at, a slow, teasing grin spreading across her lips. “Toasted nut flavored lube, huh?”

“Oh my god, shut up, that was a gag gift. Bow said it’d—and I quote, give me the nuttiest nuts ever.”

“We won’t need that then. You’ve got me, I’ll make you have the nuttiest—”

“Catra, please shut up.”

Catra just beams, and that almost-familiar sensation comes back again, too strong for Adora to ignore this time. And maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s just Catra, but Adora can’t help blurting out, “Have we met before?”

Instead of denying it like Adora thought she would, Catra’s grin just sharpens, becomes more dangerous again. “Maybe we have.” And then, like it’s nothing, Catra sits back on her heels, the lube tossed away. This time, when she smiles, it’s genuine, open, honest. “It was just one time, briefly. We have mutual friends; your friend Bow is friends with my housemate—”

“Entrapta!” Now Adora remembers. Barely, faintly, but she does. It had been upwards of five months ago, but she remembers seeing a head of dark hair and a body curled up beneath a fleece blanket on the couch when she was dragged in to see Bow and Entrapta’s newest project. Catra had looked up at her through her lashes for only a moment, and Adora had hardly spared her a second glance, but— “It was you on the couch, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Catra sounds pleased, looks pleased, and something in Adora’s heart loosens.

“I didn’t really get a good look at you, but you seemed cute. Kind of dorky, but still cute,” Catra continues, “I wanted to talk to you since then, and after your Bow told me so much about you, I wanted—” and here, she breaks off, resting one warm hand on Adora’s bare stomach.

And oh, oh. “Yeah,” Adora whispers, “the moment I saw you tonight, I...me too.”

“I know.” As she speaks, Catra reaches out to ghost her fingers along Adora’s skin from her hips to the beauty mark just beneath her heart. She thumbs at it, eyes on Adora as the pads of her fingers dare to brush against first the undersides and then the swells of her breasts. Her touch is light enough that Adora shivers, and despite the embarrassment creeping up, she couldn’t look away from Catra’s gaze even if she tried.

All of Catra’s words are coming to mind, her whispered praises and promises, and Adora bites her lip hard enough to keep from making a noise. Her hands come up on their own to rest against Catra’s waist; Catra’s whole body jolts when she presses her fingers down hard enough to bruise and she lets out the breathy beginnings of a laugh before nodding in approval and satisfaction.

“Gonna make you feel so good,” she croons. She straddles Adora’s lower thighs properly now, stealing Adora’s breath away with one simple movement. She still can’t say all the things that she wants to say, so she reaches up and tugs Catra down for another kiss, gasping when one of Catra’s hands plays at the hem of her boyshorts again before sneaking beneath.

She’s taking her time, fingers lightly brushing against Adora’s clit and slipping away when Adora’s hips come up to force more pressure. And all at once, Adora gets the game, forcing herself to lie pliant and still as two of Catra’s fingers idly stroke through her wetness. Catra’s free hand comes further up, snaking around to her back to clumsily unclasp Adora’s bra and then coming back around, the pads of her fingers ghosting against first one nipple and then the other. Catra laughs when Adora’s body jerks again, and she must be feeling merciful, because slowly, carefully, first one finger and then two slide inside of her. The stretch is steady, but it’s still sudden enough to make Adora gasp, tensing up all at once.

“Relax,” Catra murmurs, but she stills and resumes her absent rubbing against Adora’s nipples. It’s an oddly calming gesture, and though Catra hasn’t asked, Adora nods when she can finally breathe without feeling like she’s going to implode from the pure feeling. Catra bends down and kisses the corners of her mouth, staying close as she begins to finger Adora again, and Adora focuses on breathing in Catra’s breaths and the weight of her body to keep from tilting her hips into her fingers. She gets the feeling that if she does that, Catra will pull away completely, and that is just about the worst thing that could happen right now.

“Gonna go a little faster,” Catra mumbles against Adora’s lips; it feels like it’s been hours of this slow in-out-in-out, but it’s probably only been minutes, and Adora nods as best she can, fumbling behind her for her pillow and gripping it tightly to keep her hands up and away. She wants to beg, and she knows Catra will love that, but she bits her lower lip hard to keep quiet, and—

Catra eases a third finger inside of her and Adora’s whole body locks up at the stretch, a whine tearing its way from her throat as Catra laughs again. “You’re so easy,” she says over Adora’s gasping breaths, and the fondness in her voice makes Adora want to cry, “and so wet. And all for me, so gorgeous for me.”

Adora is sure she looks a mess, knows she’s sweating and that her hair is probably sticking to her forehead and mussed against the pillows, knows that her cheeks are a blotchy pink and that her lips are swollen from the kisses, knows that she can barely keep her eyes open and that she hasn’t even shaved in god knows how long, but—

But Catra still thinks she’s beautiful.

Adora forces her eyes open and opens her mouth to speak, and promptly gasps when Catra curls her fingers and grinds the base of her hand against her clit. It’s not even a lot, it hasn’t been long, but the suddenness of it and the way Catra’s gaze burns through her brings her close, and all Catra does is reach up with her free hand to wrap it around her throat and fuck her fingers again, and Adora comes, her orgasm washing over her in waves. Catra kisses the corners of her mouth, fingertips brushing soft against her clit to draw out the sensation as Adora trembles against her.

“Catra, I—”

Catra shushes her, stroking Adora’s cheek and wiping her sweaty hair from her face, a soft, gentle smile flirting with her lips. “Do you have a water bottle? Snacks?”

“Water in the fridge, and snacks in cupboard next to it, but I—” Adora reaches out with a trembling hand, fumbling for Catra’s hip to tug her closer, frowning when Catra laughs, light and pretty.

“Don’t worry about me, Adora. I’m going to get you something to eat and drink, and then we’re going to sleep.”

“But—”

Catra leans in and silences Adora with a kiss, slow and lingering, full of a promise that Adora doesn’t know quite how to name. “You can return the favor tomorrow,” Catra says, “in the morning.”

And—

Despite the faint disappointment in her gut, Adora feels a shiver of anticipation roll through her whole body. Tomorrow, in the morning, and maybe after, and—Catra doesn’t get up until Adora nods, defeated by just one kiss and nine words. When she comes back, she prods Adora to sit up, watching as Adora diligently sips from her water and eats a few orange slices. Catra playfully sucks her fingers clean of the juice (and Adora promptly smears her fingers against Catra’s cheek) and waits for Adora to settle down in bed to lie down beside her, fitting herself against Adora’s back like she belongs there.

The last thing Adora registers before she falls asleep is Catra’s fingertips tracing light circles against her stomach, and that this—Catra’s infectious warmth, her playful grin, the way she so easily took care of Adora—is something that she could definitely get used to.

(next)

[artificialqueens]

Mateo's Eight 1/8 (Branjie)--athena2

Summary: 

Con artist Vanessa Mateo has just been released from prison, and she’s planning one last heist to erase her debts and start a new life for herself.

But for this to succeed, she needs the help of the very person who ratted her out to the cops: her ex-girlfriend, Brooke Lynn Hytes.

(An Ocean’s Eight AU).

A/N: I’ve been planning this for a while, and I’m excited to start posting! You also don’t need to see the movie to read this. It follows the main points of the movie, but I did make some changes here and there. Thank you so, so much to Writ, for letting me throw this idea and all my plans for it at you, for always supporting this, and for beta-ing! I’ve never done a full-length movie adaptation like this before, so I would really appreciate any feedback you have!

—

The first thing Vanessa does when she gets out of prison is get a slice of pizza.

Standing on the sidewalk in the black shirt she’d been wearing six months ago, too thin now for the late-winter chill, Vanessa gratefully burns her mouth on the cheese and lets grease drip down her wrist. She never thought she’d miss grease so much. She gets another slice and eats it in a few bites, crunching on the crust as loud as she can, breathing in the oregano and oil like it’s oxygen as winter sun warms her shoulders.

She’s home. She’s free.

There’s enough money in the box of her just-returned things for a cab to her mother’s, where she’ll have to live now that going back to her old–their old–apartment isn’t an option. There’s a heart necklace in there too, but Vanessa doesn’t want to think about that. She shoves it in her pocket to sell later, because she might as well get some money out of the betrayal.

She knocks on the apartment door with still-greasy fingers, and the sight of her mother’s face, so much brighter without the Plexiglass barrier in between them, has her instantly sobbing in her mother’s arms. Vanessa hasn’t been able to touch her for six months, and finds her fingers moving down her mother’s skin, the same caramel color of her own, starting to wrinkle from stress more than age. Vanessa is hit with a surge of guilt that most of the stress is probably from her.

“I’ve missed you, Vanjie.” It’s her mother’s old nickname for her, and Vanessa breaks down further. It gives her some glimmer of hope that everything will be okay, despite the medical bills she knows are lying around somewhere. Those thin pieces of paper have been following them for a year now, weighing down on their shoulders like a ton of bricks.

“I’ve missed you too.”

It’s nice to just be Vanessa for a few minutes, to be her mother’s daughter, the girl who had Rihanna posters on her walls and acted out soap-opera storylines with her dolls and ran around the apartment dodging bedtime.

She lets her mother kiss her until her face is more sticky lip gloss than skin. A loud yipping sound rings out, and something furry launches itself at her legs. Vanessa steps back and scoops up her dog, Riley, his tongue slobbering all over her and tail wagging fast enough to take flight.

She’s home again. She’s normal again. Maybe she’s not returning home to anything exciting, but everything smells like the perfume her mom wears, and the couch cushions are broken in just right, and the walls are still a soothing cream color. It always felt like time stood still here when she was a kid, everything always the same, but now she appreciates the stability, the sense that nothing has changed even if she’s been missing from this world for six months.

Her mother heads to the store so they can have Vanessa’s favorite foods for dinner. Vanessa wants to go, wants to do something as normal as grocery shopping, but she walks outside and gasps, heart hammering.

She can’t do this. Everything seems too big after such a small cell. The massive gray-blue sky is large enough to swallow her up, the buildings like giants looming over her, the street as wide as the ocean. She resigns herself to the soft pink walls of her childhood bedroom. She resented this room as a child for being the size of a shoe-box, wanting the massive rooms kids always had on TV. She has never been more grateful for it than now, secure in its narrow walls. It’s like she can breathe again.

The room is incomplete, missing most of her clothes, her makeup stuff, the fluffy bathroom that usually hangs in her closet, the old silver jewelry box that was her mother’s. Those things were all in their apartment, the apartment Silky and A’keria were supposed to go to and get the stuff for her, because Vanessa knew as soon she was hauled into the cop car that she wasn’t going back to that apartment again.

She doesn’t want to do what she’s about to do, but she has to.

She plugs in her long-dead cell phone and calls Silky and A’keria, who barge through her apartment door 10 minutes later and sweep her into a suffocating group hug. Vanessa’s not surprised to see A’keria wiping her eyes after, and her body burns with love for her two best friends.

“You meet any hot lesbians like on Orange is the New Black?” Silky asks eagerly, and it’s just the thing to break the awkwardness of not knowing what to say, of the realization that Vanessa missed months of dinners and movies, that everyone’s lives moved on while hers was trapped in a cell.

“Not one,” Vanessa says around a laugh. “But this one guard was totally into me. I coulda won her over, I bet. Had a little reunion on the beach, Shawshank Redemption-style.”

“You got game even in prison,” A’keria says, smiling, and Vanessa is just grateful no one’s mentioning the person that landed her in prison.

“I miss anything good?” Vanessa asks.

“A’keria broke up with her bum-ass boyfriend,” Silky reports.

“Even threw his clothes out the window,” A’keria says.

“Damn.” Vanessa sighs.

“You didn’t miss much else, though. Oh, and I got your stuff at my place.” A’keria reassures her.

“Thanks.”

“It’s good to have you back, Vanj.” Her warm hand settles over Vanessa’s shoulder, and she’s not going to cry, she’s not–

“How’s it feel to be free again?” Silky asks.

“Good.” It’s all Vanessa can really manage, the fact that she can wake up and eat and even pee whenever she wants now something she’s still struggling to grasp. It only makes what she’s about to say even harder.

“I have something planned,” Vanessa begins, bracing herself for the reaction.

“Are you out your damn mind?” A’keria yells. “You’re on parole!”

“Say it louder, those people down the street missed it,” Vanessa bites out.

“Look, Van–” Silky says.

“No,” Vanessa cuts her off. “I need to do this. I spent six months on this. I know who the mark is gonna be, I know the people I need to scout and get involved, and I know this can work.” This plan is the only thing that got her through the past six months, working out the details and practicing the exact words needed to build her team while she choked down food that tasted like Styrofoam and wrecked her back on a sorry excuse for a bed. She needs to do this, because otherwise the past six months have really been a waste.

Vanessa plows on, laying down the words she knows will get them. “It’s even bigger than the last one. Money I need. Money you need. Enough to set us all for life.”

Silky crosses her arms and stays silent. It’s no secret Silky is constantly in danger of losing her teaching job with all the budget cuts the school faces. She’d taken up street scams and pickpocketing–skills she taught Vanessa–to pay off her student loans and buy supplies and snacks for her classroom, which have to come out of her own (or some unsuspecting person’s) pocket.

A’keria lowers the index finger she was about to wag in Vanessa’s face like some old schoolteacher, no doubt thinking of her home jewelry business that never took off, the dead-end jewelry store job that keeps her home with her overbearing mother and asshole stepfather. With the money Vanessa’s talking, A’keria can buy her own damn island.

“We’re listening,” Silky says finally.

Vanessa fights her grin as she runs through the basics, alive with the familiar buzz of laying down a plan, watching it come to life from her mind. She doesn’t mention the full price tag but tells them both all their financial problems will be solved in one night.

By the time she’s done, they’re both onboard, and the fun begins.

—

Vanessa has to take deep breaths, her nails digging into A’keria’s arm as they walk down the sidewalk to get her next member in.

“You good, V?” A’keria asks gently.

Vanessa just nods, because this breathless fear of being outside when it was all she dreamed of for six months isn’t something she expected, or knows how to deal with. All she can do is keep breathing, keep moving, keep focusing on her plan.

She’s chosen all the players carefully, people she knows herself or knows through others. They’re not all scammers, just people with enough to lose, who can be easily persuaded into her plan and can be trusted to carry out their end of the plan.

The storefront is outlined in red, flowy dresses in reds and pinks and golds filling the window, some brightness on this dreary street. A bell chimes as they open the door, welcoming them to Red Hot by Scarlet Envy.

Scarlet is perched behind the counter, twirling her bright red hair. Vanessa’s only met her once at a party, but she hasn’t changed, still happy with her up-and-coming celebrity design label despite the debt and shady loans she buried herself in to make it happen.

After a hug from Scarlet, Vanessa begins just as she planned. “How would you like to dress Plastique Tiara for the Met Ball?”

Scarlet’s eyes widen. “Are you kidding me? I’d love to! But she’s Plastique, and I’m, well…” she gestures to her small store with its water-damaged ceiling.

Vanessa smiles. “I can make it happen. I just need one small favor. One small favor for me, and you dress Plastique Tiara, you get a bigger store, and”–Vanessa lowers her voice– “all the money troubles you got yourself in are gone.”

Scarlet blinks, mouth falling open, not even bothering to deny Vanessa’s information.

“Okay,” she agrees.

Yvie takes mere seconds, despite being the only person Vanessa has no dirt on to coerce into it. She’s an old friend of Silky’s who does stuff with computers, so far beyond Vanessa’s basic social media stalking skills that she doesn’t even try to understand it. They meet at some internet cafe and Vanessa is only one sip into the overpriced coffee she missed so much when Yvie agrees, saying she’d love to stick it to the man and asking if there’ll be snacks at the meeting tomorrow. Vanessa makes a mental note to buy chips.

Nina is a little harder to convince. She has a nice house in the suburbs, working over-the-phone scams and hijacking deliveries from transport trucks–blenders, coffeemakers, designer suitcases, bikes, air hockey tables–that she keeps or sells for profit.

Aside from the scamming, she’s goodness personified, the last person you’d suspect of anything, perfect for what Vanessa needs from her.

“Well,” Nina says, “I could use a little excitement.”

Vanessa puts a check mark next to her name.

—

Vanessa scrapes her plate clean at dinner, her mother’s cooking the last thing that truly makes her at home, comforting and cozy like a warm blanket. The joy continues as she slides into bed, on a real mattress, ready to fall asleep with the hope of the freedom she’s getting herself, until she remembers the last name on her list. She doesn’t want to call this person. She can’t call this person, and instead she calls A’keria to see if there’s a way around it.

“Tell me the truth,” Vanessa begins. “Do I need to call her?”

“Who? You mean Br–”

“Don’t say her name to me,” Vanessa snaps.

“I know things didn’t end well with you two–”

“She ratted me out to the cops! I went to prison because of her!” The anger burns through her, fresh on the thought that she went to prison by not just anyone, but by someone she had slept with and kissed and even loved. Six months of itchy clothes and a freezing cell, of having to see her own mother through a screen, of feeling absolutely worthless, of missing family dinners and not seeing her friends, all because that bitch couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

“Hey,” A’keria says calmly. “I know that. I know. But you have to call her, Vanj. She’s your right-hand woman. We can’t pull this off without her. You know we can’t.”

A’keria is right, which only makes things worse. Vanessa needs to call her. No one can keep things organized like her, stick exactly to the schedule like a human clock. Vanessa can pretend all she wants that this plan will work as it stands, but she knows in her heart she needs to make that one last phone call.

—

Vanessa strides to the counter confidently, trying not to act like the coats in her arms are worth a whole month’s rent. Being calm is the key, like she buys coats with three zeros in the price tag all the time.

“Hello.” She keeps her voice soft and polite as she approaches the counter.

“Hi,” the cashier says. She’s around twenty and Vanessa has been watching for a few days to make sure she gets this specific cashier. One who’s new, but not new enough to need a manager.

“I’d like to return these.” Vanessa plunks the coats on the counter, rehearsing her answer for the next inevitable question.

“Do you have your receipt?”

“I don’t, but I never wore them. They still have the tags and everything.” She even grabs one and shows it to the cashier, who smiles sympathetically, having no idea Vanessa just grabbed it off the rack a few minutes ago.

“We really need a receipt to return them. Do you have an account with us? Or the credit card you bought them with?”

Now is the time. Vanessa has seen enough middle-aged white ladies with expired coupons in her own retail days to get this next part right. She purses her lips and straightens her posture. “I’ve been shopping here for years, this is ridiculous! I just bought these.” Just a touch of anger, not enough to attract attention.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. If you’d like to speak with customer service—“

Vanessa loosens her shoulders, putting a smile back on. “You know what, I’ll just keep them. Could I trouble you for a bag?”

Vanessa walks away from the counter with her coats neatly folded inside the bag, heart racing and giddy with joy. She did it. She can sell two and start working on her father’s medical bills, and maybe give the third to her mother; her worn coat can’t offer much warmth in this November chill. She’s so lost in her excitement that she doesn’t notice where she’s going and walks right into a wall.

“Shit.” She takes a step back. A very tall, very blonde, very green-eyed wall. “Oh, sorry, I…” she forgets every word in the English language, forgets even her own name, at the blonde’s shy smile.

“You were good. Really good,” the blonde says, and something in her reluctant tone suggests she doesn’t give compliments often, that this praise truly means something.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vanessa tries to stay cool, even as the blonde’s flashing green eyes set her whole body on fire. She had only prepared for getting caught at the register, not by strange blonde women.

“A cashier who wouldn’t need a manager. Waiting towards the end of a shift, when no one gives a shit anymore,” the blonde continues. “Even the coats. Expensive, but not enough to have security tags on them.”

She’s caught. Caught on her first real con, aside from the street scams she’s done. Vanessa swallows hard, considering her chances of outrunning the blonde’s mile-long legs in their slim red pants. Damn, Vanessa really needs to stop staring at those legs if this lady is about to bust her…

“Hey, I’m not gonna rat you out,” the blonde says, like she’s reading her mind. “I’m just saying you’re good, and if you ever want a partner…” She pulls a piece of paper from her glittery silver blazer and scribbles something down.

Vanessa reads a phone number in tiny, neat handwriting.

“I’ll consider it,” Vanessa says, though she’ll probably have to sit on her hands to keep herself from calling the second she gets home.

The blonde smiles. “I’m Brooke.”

“Vanessa.”

—

Vanessa holds out as long as she can, until it’s nearing 1am, moonlight arcing through her window. It’s almost like she’s purposely sabotaging herself, waiting and waiting to lower the chance that someone will answer.

Her thumb hovers over the phone. The contact name is still in there as it was before prison, with a bright red heart emoji after it. Vanessa remembers deliberating over putting it there, finally deciding it was okay after their second date.

Aside from her mother’s cell and the really good Thai place down the street from her old apartment, it’s the only phone number she has memorized. She could probably dial it in her sleep. She used to double- and triple-text that number, sending pictures of dogs she saw on the street, selfies in bed with the comforter revealing just enough skin, rants about how slow everyone in front of her was walking, goofy pictures of herself trying on enormous sunglasses bigger than her head.

And the replies used to come just as fast, Vanessa’s heart leaping with each one, her fingers flying to the phone to see what texts she’d gotten back.

She presses the call button, breath caught in her throat, half hoping there won’t be an answer and half-hoping there will be.

All she gets is a robotic monotone telling her this number is no longer in service, and Vanessa releases her air, unsure if she’s relieved or not. She really doesn’t want to hear that voice, but she’s going to need to if she wants this to work. Should she try to Google her? Or maybe…

The burner phone.

They had both discussed business through those old Nokias. The odds that she still has hers, and still has the thing on, are slim to none. But Vanessa thinks of how hard it will be to find a job now, how hard it will be to start over after prison. She thinks of her mother working too hard in her hospital shifts, the medical bills still unpaid. She thinks of all the people she had promised this would be a success, all the debts that would be repaid, all the freedoms won. She has to try.

Her fingers move without thought over the phone, like just another day, and she almost drops the phone when it rings. The rings trill in her ear for what feels like hours, her heart racing. She’s about to hang up when the line clicks.

There’s a pause, a sharp intake of breath on the other line. Vanessa remembers those gasps of air, had pulled them out of soft lips as her hands tangled in that blonde hair…

“Who is this?”

The nerve. Vanessa’s fist clenches in anger. If it wasn’t a Nokia, she probably would’ve bent her phone in half. The nerve for that voice to be so soft and hesitant, when it had caused her half a year behind bars. The nerve of asking who it is when she knows damn well it can’t be anyone else.

“You know who this is, Brooke. We need to talk.”

[manggojooz]

The Sea And The Gull

In celebration of 300 posts made by yours sincerely on this Tumblr, here’s a tiny angsty one shot. inspired by the dream of @betysotelo18 and a song that I was listening to this afternoon.

Taehyung x reader 

one shot; angst, cheating

song prompt:  海鷗不再眷戀大海　可以飛更遠 (the seagull no longer yearns for the sea, it can fly further)

dream prompt: “Tae told her he missed her, she turned around and said I used to miss you too, and left”

You were twenty, a little late, but you managed to fall in love. He was everything you ever wanted. Bright, funny, artistic, talented, sensitive, a tiny bit of smartass and every bit of suave.  

You thought your life was complete with him, every moment you spent with him was a moment in heaven, every memory, a blessing.  

You were twenty-three when you found him making out with someone else. He said the problem wasn’t you, it was him.  

In a single night you lost everything, your man, your love and your ability to trust. You must have lost your entire heart too, for it was cried out that night as you crouched on the pitch-black beach, ears-filled with the sound of waves crashing, head-filled your memories with him here and eyes-filled with wet sorrow. 

You were twenty-seven when you could finally do it again – love someone. The words he used and the way he spoke reminded you of him, your past him. And the sinister fate mocked you when you found out that they used to be friends.  

Perhaps he couldn’t stand the idea of you seeing his frenemy, perhaps he truly longed for you. He sought you out and told you “I miss you. For the past four years, I’ve always been missing you. And I’m sorry for hurting you”.

You replied “I used to miss you too, Taehyung”, but you turned around and left. 

Each time someone lies, a piercing is made in their soul. That is why you cried that night. You longed for him too, you missed him too. It wasn’t a past tense to you either. 

“I heard you met Taehyung yesterday”, he questioned, not even getting angry at you. 

“We just talked”, you were still nervous. 

“Did he not mention that he’s getting married?” 

You sat on the sandy beach throughout the night, and when the sun rose you watched the seagulls fly out to sea. 

Only one, there was only one that flew in the direction of the land instead. 

“I used to miss you, Kim Taehyung.” There comes a time when even a seagull stops longing for the sea. 

海鸥不再眷恋大海，可以飞得更远 | When a seagull no longer yearns for the sea, it can fly away further. 

You were twenty-nine, now with a dozen of men written into the books of your past 

None of them lasted long enough. Because his voice reminded you of the sea or his smile reminded you of the sea or his eyes reminded you of the sea. 

You were thirty when your aunt insisted on introducing you to her friend’s excellent son. 

“Just meet him once!”, she persuaded. 

He walked in through the door of the restaurant, carefully approaching you, well-mannered, mild-looking. 

“Hi, are you (Y/Aunt’s/Name)’s niece?”

“Yes, hi, you can call me Y/N”

“Nice to meet you Y/N, my name is Taehyung, Choi Taehyung”, his eyes smiled at you with an innocence that made you feel like you were both only twenty 

Tears forming, heart clenching, voice cracking, “Excuse me for a moment...”, you walked away. 

可是世界再大，海鸥飞再远，最后还是逃不开大海... 因为大海在它心里 | No matter how big the world is, no matter how far the gull flies, in the end, it can never escape the ocean... for the ocean is carried within its heart.