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quazartranslates · 4 years ago

Text

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH43

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

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Chapter 43: Star Death Reality Show (XXVI)

Just like watching a poor lamb trapped in a hunter's snare, wailing would not arouse the compassion of a seasoned hunter. On the contrary, the hunter would only be excited about the delicious food dying.

Looking at Qi Leren who had been struck by lightning, Su He said faintly, "I know many ways to avoid contracts, but it’s not easy to do. Most of the methods are one-off skills or items, or there is an extremely long cooldown time. Even if you don't have one… It’s best to be careful."

Qi Leren gawked at Su He, as if he had been drained of all his strength. He didn't say a word for a long time, and his lowered head did not show anger. Only his eyelashes were shaking, as if he was almost unable to bear such a failure, and he was crying.

This long silence was not ridiculous, but sad.

It was like watching a gambler at the end of his rope, piling up all the chips on the gambling table and then losing everything.

Everything that followed seemed to be a mechanical repetition. Qi Leren once again signed his name on the parchment with no facial expression, and the signed letters were distorted by his shaking. At the moment when he put down his pen, his spine seemed to be knocked out section by section, slumping on his chair and silently watching the sunrise.

A rising sun that would never rise.

"Can I leave now?" Qi Leren asked softly, looking deeply tired.

"Anytime, but I suggest you stay a little longer or even get some sleep. Anyway, I have adjusted the time flow rate in this area for you, so you won’t be delayed too long." Su He, like a considerate friend who fully thought of him, gave him friendly advice.

But Qi Leren didn't want to stay any longer. He was willing to face the monster in the institute, and didn't want to face Su He. So he stood up, and the chair rudely dragged a harsh sound across the ground.

"I'm leaving," Qi Leren said stubbornly, his tone carrying the anger of being deceived.

"If you insist, go ahead." Su He wasn’t reluctant, anyway. His purpose had been achieved.

The Witch of Lust looked at Qi Leren curiously, because his attitude was disrespectful. As a native devil accustomed to the hierarchical atmosphere of the underworld, she didn't quite understand the relationships between human beings. Sometimes a worm could say "no" to an elephant, which was really interesting in her eyes.

To be fair, Su He was not a strict leader. If the object of comparison was the Devil of Power who had a strong desire to control, then he was an easygoing boss. If you wanted to compare him with the Devil of Slaughter, then he was a perfect boss—at least he wouldn't go crazy and dare to kill anyone, leaving him in his current state of lying half-dead under lava. The Devil of Fraud was quite tolerant of his subordinates, sometimes even almost deliberately indulgent towards them. He seldom pointed out your mistakes, but every time you made a mistake, he would remember it, but he would not show it. This attitude made people feel that he didn't care about them. This slightly malicious indulgence contributed to the weakness and self-deception in human nature, and he watched and waited with great interest until you finally crossed the boundaries he set for you...

Then you would find that you had lost everything. Even if you knelt at his feet and kissed the tips of his shoes and begged him to give you another chance, he wouldn't look at you again.

This extreme gentleness and extreme coldness combined to form a contradictory and complicated person. The witches favored him and feared him. Even the Witch of Lust, who was famous for her debauchery, was much more disciplined in front of him. At least when she appeared in front of Su He, she would pick clothes from her closet that didn’t show her off. When Su He told her to dress properly to entertain guests, she would always find a dress that wrapped her from head to foot. However, in order to express her dissatisfaction, she didn't mind expressing her protest in a small way by means of excessive obedience. Her boss didn't care about this level of protest.

He was really unpredictable sometimes.

She had thought that trying to deceive the Devil of Fraud would make people lose his favor and even irritate him, but Su He's reaction was just the opposite. It seemed that he had added ten points in his heart to this audacious human being.

The Witch of Lust yawned a little and watched the poor man hesitate by the chair. She looked at Su He's face and asked politely, "Shall I take you out, baby?"

"Thank you," Qi Leren, who was worried about how to leave, said quickly.

Su He’s left hand on the armrest of the chair supported his cheek. He asked without warning, "Who gave you the necklace around your neck?"

Qi Leren's cold sweat came back again. In these past few minutes in the field, he had experienced great ups and downs, and his nerves were over-stressed. He had become a frightened bird. He was just glad that he had successfully crossed the border, and he was ready to keep this state and leave quickly. Who knew that Su He would come out with something else?

Fortunately, Su He hadn't found it.

He hadn't found that when he signed his name for the first time, he hadn't used any skill cards at all.

No, he hadn't.

He had made a wonderful deduction—he had successfully deceived Su He once, using an item of unknown origin as the laptop. So this time, under almost the same precondition, would Su He still fall for it? Would he believe that he had honestly signed the contract and was ready to fulfill it? He was not an obedient man in Su He’s eyes.

The best way to dispel Su He's doubts was to make him feel that he had seen through him, expose him personally, watch him suffer, despair, and collapse, and then watch him give in.

So he had had a bold plan, and he had decided to take a gamble. Then he had succeeded.

He was so ecstatic that he had to lower his head to hide his inner secret and fanatical joy and let that passion explode as fireworks in his heart.

However, he also had to consider that this decision would bring him great risks in the future—when he was really raised to a half-field, how should he explain it to Su He?

This concern slightly diluted the excited mood, and even the last resort was shattered by Su He’s sudden question, which made Qi Leren tremble with fear.

"This aura... It’s the Prophet’s?" Su He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Qi Leren did not say yes, nor did he say no. He asked, "Do you know the Prophet?"　　

As if they could never talk well, Su He also threw out a rhetorical question: "Don't you think that the Village of Dawn is too similar to the Village of Dusk?"

Qi Leren was stupefied. So, it turned out that this field was not a "field that imitates the scenery of the Village of Dawn" as Su He had once said, but was the real Village of Dawn.

But if the Village of Dawn was a field, then the Village of Dusk...

Qi Leren suddenly understood. The Prophet who slept beneath the Courthouse and spent most of his time in the cold ice pool, it turned out that he had been silently supporting the Village of Dawn that sheltered mankind. As a player, he did not know how to escape the sanctions of time. He had even spent more than 20 years completing compulsory tasks, and had survived to this day.

"A naive idealist inherited Maria's will, created a box of time with the belief of protecting, and fixed the newly established refuge under dusk forever. His original force was 'time'. Originally, he was the one most likely to evade mission sanctions, if he had not lost to the box." Su He's expression was full of compassion and tenderness.

The Prophet’s original force? Qi Leren seemed to understand. He knew that some of the higher demons had original forces, such as jealousy, lust, despair... They were getting stronger and stronger while approaching the original force. At the level of the three Devil Kings, they had almost merged with the original force.

But did the Prophet, a field-level human being, also have his own original force?

His force, was it time?

Qi Leren's heart was full of curiosity and doubt, but Su He had no intention to solve his doubts: "Go, don't challenge your limits with your life, you’ll never know what kind of miracle you will create. Although 99.9% of people end up dead through this process, I sincerely hope that you are the exception, because I have some expectations for you.

"Qi Leren, today's adventure is only the first step. I am waiting for the day when you complete the transformation," Su He said.

The beautiful Village of Dawn began to become blurred, and even Su He's voice gradually drifted away, as if separated by a dream.

When Qi Leren came to his senses, he still stood in the corridor on the lowest level of the institute, and only a few seconds had passed.

It was the fourth day of the game... No, the zero hour had passed, and it was the fifth day. He didn't know if the army’s ship could arrive. He had reason to suspect that it wouldn't come too quickly. After all, the rescue was always late after all the problems were solved.

Su He said that he had released the octopus in the underground glacier, which was definitely more difficult than the ones he had encountered before. He needed to upgrade his equipment, such as finding a rocket launcher like what Mark had used against him.

This was in the institute’s armoury, but Qi Leren hadn’t taken it since he hadn’t expected to use it. He decided to double back and look for it. In addition, we should find a NPC that was still alive, and take them to the instrument that could detect whether they had become a host, and he hoped to meet Dr. Lu and Du Yue along the way...

Qi Leren returned to the stairs and began to go up. When he passed the power room, he went in again, restarted the power supply, and restored power to the whole underground research institute.

With the light, he was feeling much better. Qi Leren finally recovered from the frightening meeting just now, stopped thinking about Su He, and absorbed himself in preparing for the next challenge. According to game logic, there must be a restock of supplies before the war. Unfortunately, the copy world did not necessarily come according to game logic, so he had to rely on himself. He didn't want to rush unprepared into that horrible boss battle.

Suddenly there was a noise in the corner of the power distribution room. Qi Leren suddenly looked towards it and raised the gun in his hand, shouting, "Who?"

"...It's me." He Yi stood up. His condition looked worse than before. He was emaciated and almost withered. "Mark came in, I met him!"

Qi Leren was taken aback and realized that what he said was in reference to when Qi Leren had wanted to leave the institute through the laser corridor before, but He Yi, who had made an agreement with him to cut off the power supply, did not cut off the power in time—because at that time, Mark had moved the debris in Annie's basement and had entered the institute to attack He Yi.

"I’ve taken care of him, and Annie, Xue Jiahui, and Francis; all four of them were parasitized," Qi Leren said calmly.

He Yi looked at him in astonishment: "How did you do it?"

If it weren't for the enemy at present, Qi Leren would still use the rhetoric of "an apostle of God" to fool him. Unfortunately, now that his Prophet's Heart skill was cooling down, he didn't need to continue acting. He simply said: "It's a long story. Let's talk about it when we have time. Right now we’re in danger..."

"I know." He Yi leaned wearily against the wall and smiled bitterly. "It’s come out."

"What?" Qi Leren became nervous.

"That monster..." He Yi looked desperately at the ceiling above his head, as if he were an outlaw being chased by troops behind the cliff ahead, and murmured in a low voice, "We can't escape."

"Do you... Do you know something?" Qi Leren finally asked the question that lingered in his mind.

For a long time, He Yi's attitude had been a bit strange. Qi Leren hadn't thought much at first, but with the discovery of the plot, he had to face up to this problem—He Yi, he was an insider.

"Why is there an amphioctopus here? Why did I happen to find a basement when I was kidnapped by Mark? Why am I able to blow up the access to the research institute accurately but I am safe and sound? Why can this institute’s power supply, which has been off for many years, still be used? Why do I know where there are weapons and how to use the equipment? Have you thought about these questions?" He Yi asked, one question after another.

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Editor’s Notes: To clarify, the “forces” mentioned in this chapter are along the line of forces of nature but on a more human scale, ie. the “forces” the witches and demons have as their titles. A closer translation would have been to use “power”, but I wanted to make sure it was distinct since “power” is already used in several other contexts in this novel.

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clonewarslover55 · 4 years ago

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I'm back again! I was hoping we could see some soft Rose talking to Vau about his past and comforting him, please? ❤

Of course!!

Verda Tal Rose comforting Walon Vau about his past

Notes: Read Walon Vau’s early life story, and the thing I did on his homeworld before reading this. Both are on my AO3 and Masterlist

Also! If you have no clue what Memories is check out my AO3 and Masterlist!

Warnings: Angst, slight fluff, Mird helps, Nightmares, mentions of a bad past, past abuse, abuse scars, mentions of past suicide attempts, Walon’s father is a fucking pyshcopath, oh no Walon Vau has F E E L I N G S

“Your father will not be happy about this Walon!” The teacher yelled, dragging the young boy down the hallway. His hand was wrapped around his arm in a tight fist, it would leave a nasty bruise that would last for weeks.

Walon could do nothing but follow. He hated when the teachers brought him directly to his father for punishment instead of doing it themselves.

He stopped at his father, who was leaving some meeting room. The teacher huffed, dropping the boy's arm. Walon looked up at the tall man, his soulless grey blue eyes staring into Walon’s golden ones.

“Did he fail again?” The teacher only nodded, Pa Vau’s face curling into a sneer.

“Father, it was only by one question! I-” He was cut off by a harsh slap, “Did I give you permission to speak boy?!” His father roared, slapping him again.

Walon shot awake, sitting up quickly and panting like Mird after a hunt. He buried his face in his hands, his body shaking. He hated how he dreamed about his father almost every night, the old scars on his body and soul burning with each dream.

Rose sat up quickly, looking at her lover. He scared her and Mird both awake. She looked at his naked form, his body shaking harshly. She knew it wasn’t the cold sweat that was making him shake. Rose reached a hand out, softly putting it on his shoulder. He flinched aggressively from her touch before allowing it.

Rose didn’t know much about his past, but she’s seen his scars. She also knew he came from a royal background and money, but that was really it. Rose frowned, rubbing his back to help him relax.

She looked at his naked back, the pale scars running along his back like rivers. Whip scars. Lots of them.

He was covered in scars of all kinds, the worse on his back and his chest. No old scars were on his face, neck, or arms, at least not below his elbows. “Walon.” Rose spoke softly, gently grasping his chin and turning his face towards her.

His golden eyes were bright, the whites of his eyes red from tears and a restless sleep. She could see the anger and pain in his eyes, burning behind them like a huge fire. He was breathing heavily, his body quivering. He was always rigid with his posture, and just a tense man in general. But she had never seen his muscles so tight, it was like he was a wild animal.

She gently wiped some sweat from his brow, and Vau's muscles relaxed slightly. “Was it about your old home?” He nodded, his eyes flicking away from hers. He hated when she looked at him with pity, it made him feel weaker than he already did around her.

Mird whined, laying its head in Walon’s lap. He stroked its head, looking at it instead of Rose. She sighed and traced a scar that raised the skin on his collar bone. It seemed like a blade caught him there, as a warning perhaps.

They had only been staying the night with one another for a short while now. They used to part ways after sex, but things seemed to be getting more and more intimate lately. Every night he slept in the same bed as her, and he’d have nightmares like he always did. Some so bad that he’d wake her up by accident. Sometimes he didn’t and she’d wake up to find him pacing or exercising. She could always tell when he didn’t sleep, something in his past keeping him awake night after night. Leaving him restless.

Once he had stopped shaking she spoke up, “We need to talk about your past. I want to help you, darling, but I can’t when you won’t talk to me.” Vau sighed loudly, looking at Rose, his eyes now dull and sad.

He was silent for a moment, Rose’s warm and calloused fingers tracing the lines along his back.

Walon snorted, suddenly trying to act cold and detached, “Jango never told you where I came from? I-” Rose cut him off with a glare. “He told me you used to be a rich aristocratic bastard. Now don’t try to act all heartless, you know it only will make you hurt more.” Vau closed his eyes and sighed at that, Mird licking his fingers encouragingly.

“Well….The planet I come from is some oceanic shit hole.” He spat out the words like they were poison. “Old fashioned and run by religious leaders who controlled the nobles and military like puppets.” Rose continued to stroke his back, letting him rant. She had never seen him so emotionally exposed.

“My father was like….a lead puppet you know? He’s the Count of Gesl, and a religious fanatic. A man with far too much power.” How he spoke his voice had this harshness to it, sadness underlining every word. “That title was to be mine, since I was his only child, his only son. So from day one he taught me how to take his place.”

Walon still wouldn’t make eye contact with Rose, “Every day I had multiple lessons. The teachers were cruel, I was not allowed to mess up. I had to be perfect with everything, writing, talking, dancing, sailing, riding, fighting, and so much more.” He sucked in a breath, Rose frowning even more.

“My education was stupidly expensive, but still…...Every time I messed up I was beaten.” He snapped, Rose nearly flinching at his tone. “I was beaten over nothing sometimes. Whenever I was not my fathers version of perfect I was beaten.” Vau clenched his jaw tightly, tears causing his golden eyes to shine. He was a man that rarely showed emotion, especially ones as raw as anger and sadness.

“My father said I was not supposed to show emotion, ever. I was supposed to be a leader, and leaders don’t show weakness. They are harsh and ruthless.” He shook his head, snorting at his own words. He was using dramatic finger quotes as he repeated his fathers words.

“To prove this, to everyone, my family killed servants who messed up. It was some fucked up tradition. So He made me kill servants that made minor mistakes. I slaughtered my first servant at twelve.” Rose put a hand to her mouth.

“I still remember the poor woman…...A mother. I remember he cries and pleads. I….I didn’t want to kill her….I-” Rose shook her head and stroked his knuckles, letting him know he didn’t have to continue.

Walon was silent for a moment, his breathing heavy from the terrible memories. He changed the subject to his mother quickly.

“I never saw my mother besides at night when she’d clean my wounds. My mother made me emotional, I suppose, so father rarely let me see her. She was just as crazy, but she didn’t hit me nearly as hard as him. Father even beat her as well, so she was even worse about the religion they follow. Being a religious fanatic kept her alive in her book I suppose. It made her…….odd and paranoid.”

He let out a sad and dry chuckle, “She would only talk about the bible. Nothing else. I don’t think she was allowed to talk to me about anything else anyways.” Rose sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

Rose spoke up while he caught his breath, his chest heaving with emotion. “So your scars aren’t-” Vau cut her off, “I was never hit anywhere people could see. I had to keep up my reputation of being attractive and a member of a ‘peaceful’ family. Along with some other osik.” Rose frowned, holding his hand in hers.

“I was never perfect enough for him. I wasn’t him, and he hated it. I wasn’t fully emotionless and psychopathic.” He sucked in a breath, Mird whining low in its throat. “He was a great military leader as well, one of the head leaders of my planet's Navy.”

He shifted, “He didn’t even let me join the Navy. Not even as a cutthroat. Not even after training for it or my whole entire life.” Vau shook his head, aggressively wiping the tears from his eyes. Rose shifted so she could look at his face again, wiping his tears.

“I was never good enough for anything. Ever.” He looked at Rose, a frown on her beautiful face. “I tried so hard to be perfect. When I succeeded I never even got praise. I think he just enjoyed beating me, seeing how much skin he could rip away from my back before I passed out.”

Rose shifted so she was almost in his lap, “Oh Walon.” She cupped his cheeks, staring into his golden eyes. “I’m so sorry.” He shook his head, looking away from her eyes. She pressed a soft kiss to the scar she gave him across his nose so long ago, his lips twitching a bit at the soft kiss.

“He’s turned me into a monster. I-” Rose cut him off quickly, “No no no…..Walon you’re not a good man, at all….” He blinked quickly in surprise at that, “But you are no monster. You can feel emotion and pain no matter how hard you fucking try.”

Vau made eye contact with her once again, quickly changing the subject again. “I tried to kill myself mutiple times…. The first time was after I wasn’t allowed into the Navy.” Vau shifted from under the sheets, motioning at the nasty jagged scar on his thigh. “I tried to cut the artery, and I did. I was so close to death.”

He shook his head, “I was found almost immediately, blade still cutting my skin, and somehow didn’t die. It was the cruelest punishment yet, my father not letting me die.” He sucked in a breath, Rose wiping his eyes. “He told me that I couldn’t even kill myself correctly.”

Vau harshly chuckled, but it sounded more like a desperate and sad gasp. “I was fourteen.” Rose frowned and kissed away his tears, “Well I’m glad you couldn’t kill yourself correctly.” She laughed a little, tears in her eyes as well.

He laughed a little too, pulling her into his arms. Walon buried his face into her neck, sighing. He felt better now, like a weight had been lifted.

Many weights and chains still held his soul down, but having one less was a huge relief.

“Thank you…” He muttered. Rose could only nod, gently running her fingers through his black hair. Mird sat up, licking both of their faces as it whined. Mird always made them feel better, no matter what.

She’d ask about his exile some other time.

Walon Vau’s past would haunt him forever, his fathers stern lessons never leaving his brain. He’d remain ice cold, calm, and utterly detached. Afraid of emotion and afraid of failure.

He’d always remain a man with a shattered soul.

Tags: @valkyrieofthehighfae @leias-left-hair-bun @colorfulloverbatturkey @ahsokatano-thetogruta @peacefulwizardfox @hounding-around @julyzaa @feathersforclones @chr0nicbackpain @fyrepen33 @ct7567329 @mistflyer1102 @darmanfi @just-some-girl-92 @majorshiraharu @ravenpuff01@lightning-wolffe

#walon vau #walon vau x original characters #verda tal rose #walon vau x verda tal rose #lord mirdalan #Mird #mird'ika #Walon Vau and Mird #republic commando novels #Republic Commando

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dc41896 · 5 years ago

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And The Award Goes To...

After seeing this suit AND this walk, I had to come up with something lol

Pairing: Chris Evans x Black Reader

Warnings: None

“Well thank you for speaking with us and good luck tonight!,” the interviewer, Zuri, smiled, opening her arms to give you a hug which you gladly accepted.

The way your nerves were right about now, you felt like you could use a million of them and would take one from anyone offering.

Being escorted down the red carpet, your emerald green, satin dress seemed to reflect the sun rays the way it shined with every step you took in your gold, strappy stilettos. With simple spaghetti straps and a v-neck, the material clung to you from your chest to mid thigh where the left side split open down to just above your polished toes to show your leg, equally shining thanks to Rihanna’s Fenty Body Lava and you’re hydrated melanin. Photographers call out for you to stop for pictures as the sounds of cameras clicking and flashing lights seem to come in waves.

“I don’t think I’d ever get used to this,” your best friend, Hazel, whispers to you as you both pose for a few pictures.

“I’m not used to it either, this is just my first award show,” you answer as you resume your walk down the remainder of the carpet to the inside of the building.

“First of many though! Trust me, you just getting started girl.”

Being called the breakout star of the summer, you hoped that more roles and invitations to award shows were to come. Ever since you were young, you always dreamed of accepting an Oscar or a Golden Globe, and yes even practiced your speech in front of your parents, which they of course recorded and tended to bring out whenever they wanted to reminisce on your childhood.

In all honesty though, yea the accolades were amazing and you wanted them, but if they didn’t come you’d still be ok. You loved acting and to be able to do what you loved every day was all that mattered.

Waiting for everything to start, you sat at your table talking with your director and a couple of your other cast mates, as well as took selfies with Hazel. Looking at the picture, you see a blurry, yet familiar figure in the background prompting you to turn around to see if you were truly correct in your thinking.

Sure enough, you were and began quietly freaking out.

In what looked to be a chocolate brown, velvet suit with a white button down shirt and black bow tie, there stood Chris Evans looking as amazing as ever and currently walking pass your table to get to his. You never though you’d be hypnotized by a walk, but here you were openly gawking and wishing his table was across the room so he’d have to do the movement a bit longer.

“Dang Cap, bring that walk this way,” Hazel speaks, pulling out her phone to record him walking away.

“Put your phone down creeper,” you laugh lightly smacking her arm.

“Takes one to know one Miss let me openly stare at my celebrity crush and his booty.”

———

“Looks like your award is next!” Hazel softly squeals lightly shaking your arm. “I wonder who’s presenting for it?”

As if hearing her question, the announcer introduces Chris as he walks out smiling with card in hand.

“Whoaa that’s crazy!! You could receive your award from THE Chris Evans!,” she gasps. You managed to keep it together as the camera panned to you, softly smiling and being gently nudged by your director making you giggle.

On the inside though, you were a nervous wreck. You were already worried about falling if you had to walk to the stage, but now you had to worry about literally falling in front of Chris and never being able to show your face again due to embarrassment.

“And the winner for best actress in a comedic performance is...Y/F/N Y/L/N!,” he reveals causing everyone to applaud and your table to go crazy. Quickly hugging the rest of your friends seated next to you, you slightly lift the un-split side of your dress so it won’t potentially get caught on your heels as you walk.

“Welp here we go,” you thought to yourself, making your way up the stairs. Being the gentleman that he was, Chris met you halfway up the steps offering his hand to help you the rest of the way.

“Congratulations!,” he sweetly whispers handing you the figurine, which surprisingly had a good amount of weight to it.

“I’m really gonna try not to cry right now but chances are I will so I apologize in advanced for that,” you start, causing a small amount of soft laughs to erupt in the room.

“First off, I want to thank God because he blessed me with this opportunity, and I want to thank my parents who sadly aren’t here because of the flu but I know y’all are watching and I love you!”

“I also want to thank my friends both old and new, my director James, the cast and crew, and everyone else in my life that’s supported me and helped me in any way whether small or large. Ok I’m gonna go backstage now and cry and hope you all have a good night!,” you finish with a small wave as you turn away from the mic, applause behind you as you make your way off the stage followed by Chris.

“That was a really nice speech,” he says, now beside you.

“Really? Thanks! I feel like I sounded like a rambling mess.”

“You might’ve felt that way, but I assure you, that’s not how it sounded,” he replies.

“Y/N! Congrats on the award! We need you to come this way for another short interview with the press,” a tall, slender man with glasses interrupts smiling as bright as the camera flashes coming from the room where the interview was to take place.

“Well I um guess I’ll see you later. Congrats again!,” Chris smiles.

“Thanks and yea see you later!,” you reply smiling as he walks away to return to his seat.

“Yep this definitely will take some getting used to,” you thought, walking into what felt like a sea of cameras and questions.

———

“Tonight has been surreal!! Just being here in midst of everything, you winning, AND getting said award from Chris Evans!!! If I were you I’d be dead right now,” Hazel says grabbing a glass of champagne off one of the trays being carried by servers.

“I know!! I feel like none of this is real and I’m gonna wake up any moment.”

“Well it is real and I’ll even pinch you to show you if needed. Or better yet we can get your new bestie Mr. Evans to do it.”

“He is not my new bestie, and I definitely would not ask him or anyone to pinch me,” you laugh sipping from your glass.

“Whoa pinching? What kind of party is this?,” you hear from behind you causing both you and Hazel to choke on your drinks.

You from utter shock and disbelief he heard that, and her from laughing at your reaction.

“Chris! Hi! Um sorry about that I-,”

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s ok. Also if you did ask me, that’d certainly be a first,” he laughs.

“Um Chris this is my best friend Hazel,” you introduce as the two shake hands.

“Nice to meet you Hazel. And this is my brother Scott, Scott this is Hazel and Y/N,” he responds to which Scott shakes both of your hands and congratulates you on your award. “The answer is probably obvious, but how’s your night?”

“Amazing! I don’t want this night to end!,” Hazel excitedly answers causing you all to laugh.

“I agree it’s amazing, but I don’t think everything’s set in yet. And this probably will sound weird but I feel like Cinderella and as soon as the clock strikes 12, I go back to normal.”

“No it’s not weird at all, like you said everything is kinda unbelievable and it’s still a bit shocking. I totally understand,” Chris lightly nods before drinking from the beer bottle in his hand. “Also can I add that I love that movie.”

“Same! She’s not my favorite princess though, but I still love the movie.”

“Who’s your favorite then?,” he asks, leaning on the table with his elbow.

“I have two. Overall, it’s Tiana but for the songs it’s Ariel,” you answer.

“Can you believe? 2 grown adults going on about Disney movies like kids,” Scott whispers to Hazel, to which she nods agreeing with him.

“You should see her on the weekends. When she’s bored, she watches videos about all the rides, parades, and stuff in all the Disney parks,” she adds, lightly laughing along with Scott at you and Chris’ excited expressions as you guys continue on with your conversation.

“Hey you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we head to the bar and let the Disney fanatics enjoy their time together?,” Hazel answers as Scott links his arm with hers.

“Exactly!”

“I have the feeling this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” she smiles holding up her glass as he clinks his with hers.

“And hopefully a beautiful relationship between those two,” he adds as they reach the bar.

“Wait? How did you know Y/N likes Chris?”

“She does?! I didn’t know at all, Chris kept talking about her at our table during the show and when we saw you guys here I suggested he go talk to her.”

“If they end up getting married, I’m expecting a shout out for the both of us for getting them together,” Hazel replies making Scott laugh as they cheers once again.

———

“So Y/N, the people need to know, how was your conversation with America’s golden boy?!,�� Hazel asks joining you on the couch, plate full of waffles, eggs, and fruit in one hand as she holds out her fork pretending it’s a mic to your face.

“Girl you need to relax!,” you laugh lightly pushing her fork away. “But it was good, I mean he’s super friendly and we like a lot of the same things.”

“Yea Scott and I heard a bit of your conversation and let me say if there was a couples Disney jeopardy game, you guys would more than likely win.”

“Hey don’t judge us, it’s not our fault that’s something we like,” you laugh. “He said how he goes to Disneyland pretty much every year and said that I should come along-,”

“Umm say what now?!?! He invited you to Disneyland?!?!!!!,” she interrupts after momentarily choking on a piece of egg.

“I wouldn’t call it an invitation really. It’s like when you’re talking to someone about a nail place you go to and say how they should try it out sometime. Plus it was after I said I hadn’t gone since I was a teenager.”

“Either way you got invited by a guy who’s interested in you to Disneyland, which is a dream date of yours!!”

“Just because he was nice to me doesn’t mean he’s interested Hazel,” you reply taking a bite out of your omelette.

“Well let’s just say an EXTREMELY close source, aka his brother, confirmed that Mr. Evans was definitely into you and checking you out the whole award show,” she squealed.

Now was your turn to choke on your food.

“Really?,” you ask pulling yourself together. “He didn’t try to get my number or anything though so maybe it was just a ‘she’s pretty’ type like versus an ‘I really want to get to know her’ like.”

“I don’t think so, but we’ll see. Even still though he definitely invited you to Disney and you better take him up on that offer or I’ll smack you then go in your place!,” Hazel adds, picking up your now empty plates to put them in the sink.

“Noted,” you laugh now looking at the messages on my our phone. Of course there were the usual ‘congratulations!’ from family members, your team, and your other co stars who were unable to come to the show.

Although he was there, your director even messaged you telling you congratulations again on your award followed by one of the sweetest message you’d ever recieved saying how much he appreciated you on set and that you were surely about to change the acting game.

Y/N: Aww James, I was trying not to cry today lol!!! ❤️😭😭 that was so sweet and I thank you so much for giving me this chance that has surely changed my life forever!

😎Bond, James Bond🎥: You’re so welcome love and deserve it😘! Also I have some news...

Y/N: Ohh another project you want me to be in?? Wait I don’t have to give the award back do I👀?

😎 Bond, James Bond🎥: Lmao no not yet and no it’s yours🤣🤣. The news is a certain someone who you were talking to ALL night asked me for your number and I wanted to ask you first before I gave it out just to be sure

Y/N: 😳😳😳🤯

😎Bond, James Bond🎥: Mhmm 😏😏

Y/N: Lol yea it’s fine you can give it to him

😎Bond, James Bond🎥: Done! Have fun you two 😉😂!

You expected that he was probably busy and you’d more than likely hear from him later. However the running theme of your life recently seemed to be how nothing turned out how you expected.

???: Hey Y/N! It’s Chris

???: That is Chris from last night, in case you know another Chris lol

“Oh my gosh he’s such an adorable dork!,” Hazel gushes from over your shoulder, making you jump.

“Can I have some space ma’am?!”

“Oh sorry,” she innocently smiles going towards her bedroom. “If you need me, just call!”

Shaking your head as she exits, you turn your attention back to the screen in your hands and hoping that you don’t make a fool of yourself.

Y/N: Hey😊! And can honestly say I don’t know any other Chris’ lol

Chris: Lol ok good. I mean not that other Chris’ are bad or anything. Looking back at it, I should’ve just left it at “Chris from last night” my bad 🤦🏼‍♂️

Y/N: 🤣🤣 it’s ok. Exactly how many drinks did you have last night?

Chris:😶....lets just say I’m not totally hungover, but my head is hurting a bit 😂

Hearing you laugh to yourself from downstairs, Hazel contently sighs before turning on her laptop as she plops down on her bed.

“Yep, I can hear the wedding bells and thank you speech now,” she speaks to herself as she smiles.

A/N: So this turned out longer than I expected and not gonna lie, kinda didn’t know where I wanted to go with it by the time I got in the middle of it😓 lol but hopefully you guys like it!

Taglist: @crushed-pink-petals @honeychicana @lady-olive-oil @themyscxiras @fumbling-fanfics @melinda-january @lovelymari4 @felicity-x0 @ellixthea @jojolu @jnk-812 @brwn-sgr @captainsamwlsn @nina-sj @itshinothey @wildfirecracker

If you want to be added to the taglist, have asked to be added and don’t see your name, or only want to be tagged for certain people I write for just let me know 🤓!

#chris evans #chrisxblackreader #chrisxwoc #chrisxreader

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youarejesting · 5 years ago

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Quarantine.6

[Masterlist] Pairing: BTS x reader Friends2Lovers But as slow as you can go until the anticipation kills us all… Genres: friendship, drama, romance SLOWEST OF BURNS BUT IT WILL BE BURNING AN ETERNAL FLAME!!! Rating: PG-13 and above Summary: Your brother works with a few BigHit dance teams and whilst having permission to accompany him at work the city shuts down banning anyone from stepping outside for a whole WEEK while they disinfect the streets. If you step outside you might get arrested, shot or poisoned by the chemicals they are emitting through the city. Words: 3.2k Announcement: This chapter is dedicated to @moccahobi who left some really great comments on the chapters. You really made writing this chapter easy. Also, my town is officially in lockdown I can’t leave the house, everything is cancelled. Please send some love, otherwise, I might go crazy in these four walls.

[Part 1] [Part 5] [Part 7] [Tag Yourself Here]

With the room pitch black, the constant noise and the help of being intoxicated, the boys slept in a little later. It was like their bodies finally allowed them to relax. Of course, Hoseok still woke first as he was used to waking up early. Making his way through the dark, standing on both Jungkook and Seokjin before he made it even halfway to the door. He went on to the bathroom to wash up, glad he had stopped drinking when he did. The bathroom had a lingering acid smell that he knew was most likely from someone vomiting last night. He hoped it wasn’t you not liking the idea of seeing you in pain.

The sound of the water rushing through the pipes helped hold you in your sleep state. Dreaming, yet you could class it as a borderline nightmare. The quarantine had been lifted and the boys walked out of the building, not looking back at you no matter how loudly you called for them, they didn’t turn around. You watched them talk about the quarantine on a talk show. “Did you make any friends on quarantine? I heard you were stuck in the big hit building with some of the national dance teams who were working on a project for the festival later this year”

“No it was quiet and boring, we had to deal with a lot of awkward encounters people want to talk to us and we just had to smile and agree. You know stay civil for the days”

They each took turns in the shower and by this point, you were trying to cling onto the last piece of sleep you had trying to turn the dream around to something positive. “Don’t go you” Jimin's arm paused, still wrapped around you from the night, “I don’t want to wake up yet”

Softly laughing and nuzzling his nose into your hair he agreed. “Okay we can sleep a little more”

You were drifting in and out of consciousness when he slowly tried to slip away from you again. The cold air creeping in under the sleeping bag you were both using as a blanket. Rolling over you hugged his middle tightly the scent of citron, jasmine and teal wood, taking over your senses. It was familiar somehow. “Noooo, I don’t want to get up,” the boys had just met you again after the quarantine at a fan sign. But they didn’t seem to recognise you smiling and asking about your day calling you cute and holding your hand.

“You are so cute,” Laughing the boys watched, amused by your adorable antics, wanting nothing more than to lay in bed with you. They contemplated it. You were ever so tempting and looked so soft and tiny. The way your hair looked so fluffy falling into your eyes no matter how hard Jimin tried to brush it out of the way. It was yet another thing Jimin could add to the list of things he truly loved about you. And he didn’t use the word love lightly, but the way your hair cascaded like a waterfall over your face when you looked down. The way it felt so soft in his hands was so different from his own hair which felt super wiry and straw-like compared. What else could he call it except love, it made his heart all warm and his body melt.

“Come on let’s get breakfast, even Yoongi is up right now” Jimin tried his best to be happy. He threw you a smile and grabbed your hands.

“I will get up on one condition,” trying not to look disappointed by the way he smiled and held your hands the same way in your dream. Curious as to what the familiar smell was. Letting Jimin sit you up, he got up off the floor after detangling your limbs from around him. You watched him leave his thighs at eye level as he walked past.

“And what is that?” Namjoon asked looking over his phone, where he had been sending an important email and brainstorming lyrics. He saw you posing cutely with your arms out as if you were asking for a hug.

“After breakfast, it’s straight back to cuddles”

“We have dance practice,” Hoseok said bluntly regretting it immediately as he didn’t expect you to get so disappointed. Feeling like he just kicked a puppy. Your cute smile fell along with your arms, he watched the hope fade from your eyes.

“And songwriting,” Yoongi added, drying his hair walking in from his shower. You hated how soft he looked with his messy hair. You knew they had to be busy, they were international superstars but did they really not get the choice to just take a day off. Or maybe your dream was right and they didn’t want to take a day off with you.

“One day please” Pressing your hands together but they didn’t look like they would crack. And to be honest, the way they stared at you with their blank faces had you reliving how little you meant to them in your dream. Letting your hands drop onto your lap once more. Maybe you weren’t even a friend like you had thought. The only reason they were talking to you was because of the quarantine. It was time you let them go before you get too attached and give them the power to hurt you. “Okay, it’s fine. You guys are really busy it’s selfish for a random person you meet trying to stop you doing your job”

“Hey you're not random you're our friend,” Hoseok said but no one seemed to back him up so you guessed it was fan service, like when singers at their concerts say that every town they visit is the best town.

“Even so, I really shouldn’t stop you.” Standing and turning your back to them to search through the boxes of girls' clothes, it was an excuse to hide your tears.

“What happened to your dress?” Jimin asked, stepping back inside his face and hair damp from his quick shower.

“Tae vomited on me last night” Your voice was clipped not trusting yourself to elaborate further encase the emotion bled through. Appearing to be seriously comparing the colours and fabrics of two shirts they excused themselves. Knowing they didn’t like you like that. There was no one to impress.

“That’s what the smell in the bathroom was, we should go to get breakfast, do you want us to get you something while you get dressed?”

“No. That’s okay I won’t be too long” they filed out of the room and you let your shoulders sink. You hadn’t wanted to believe it was true but you knew this relationship was all in your head. You were just a fanatic pretending like you played an important role in their life.

Deciding on a black pair of sweatpants, and crop top with a built-in bra, you decided to wash your undergarments. Wearing your clean and folded underwear you washed the clothes you had been wearing including your brassier. You skipped breakfast. Travelling up the stairs hoping to go to the roof, where you could feel like you had some escape. The door, however, was unfortunately locked. So it was back to aimlessly wandering the building, you bumped into a young woman. She was wearing an awkward tracksuit like everyone else.

She looked stressed, the quarantine was getting to her. Arms filled with files and her hair dishevelled. You smiled introducing yourself. She told you her name was Areum. Helping carry the files. It didn’t take much to make friends, proper friends that talked to you and exchanged numbers after a while and clicked with you easily. Maybe the reason they are called the bulletproof Boy Scouts is that they have a ten-foot wall of bulletproof glass stopping anyone from getting close.

Helping out where you could around Areum’s office. Making coffee and collecting the printed documents, you even carried files and folders up to the fancy sixth floor. The men up there were a little handsy but you were able to dodge and deflect their questions and wandering eyes. Feeling useful again, but one hundred percent of you was keeping busy trying to forget about them. The keyword being trying. The day passed and you hadn’t seen the boys since that morning. Not wanting to risk seeing them at dinner you headed to bed early, opening the basement door they had moved their things back, the room seemed so empty.

Trying and failing to stop the tears running down your face. The pain of all those raw feelings and emotions, all those deep and meaningful conversations you had late at night. All the touches and hugs and smiles that were so very genuine for you but clearly meant nothing for them. The empty room was an accurate representation of how you will be left when they are gone. Telling yourself that there were only two more days. The space filled with the ghosts of them, you laid on the ground pretending Jimin’s arms were around you and Taehyung’s deep sighs filled the room. Two days and you could rebuild your life as if you had never met the idols. Or so you thought.

An alert the next morning announced the quarantine was being extended as the virus can sometimes take a few weeks to actually show symptoms. They extended quarantine for FOUR more weeks. Deciding to get comfortable in your space downstairs you spent the day entirely alone cleaning and sorting it top to bottom.

You emerged from the basement only to collect meals. Like some goblin in your cave. It had been two days since the morning you realised it was all a lie. You had given clothes to your new friend Areum. Walking to breakfast you saw everyone had gathered once more. They were making a list of supplies to receive from the Yongsan health centre. They saw you, beaming beckoning you over holding up the suit excited. Assuming this meant you were ‘volunteering’ once more, you used it as an excuse to leave the building and pretend to be free. Two whole days. Since you had seen the boys. Since you genuinely laughed since you ate in the cafeteria. Two days since you had become numb.

You suited up, contemplating just leaving for another building. Not noticing the boys or pretending they weren’t there, watching you from the back of the room. Scolding yourself for the bubbling of hope in your chest every time you saw them. You were doing your best. You heard Hoseok call your name but didn’t turn. Shuffling out the door and onto the street, you saw another biohazard suit returning with a wagon of supplies. You waved and they gave you a warning in broken English, something about bad men with guns. The warmth from the sun filtered through the visor of the suit was almost as good as the real thing warming your skin. How long could you avoid them? You were testing that theory.

Namjoon’s voice came over the Walkie Talkie and you almost tripped, catching yourself on a street sign. “Your brother will kill you if he finds out you have left again” His deep voice held slight amusement. You kept walking, wheeling the empty wagon behind you. You had been successfully refusing to see them because you knew the moment you did they would pull you back in with their smiles and fan service. You weren’t going to see them after the quarantine so it’s best to prepare yourself. You wondered if they started to notice. The way you took away your meals from the cafeteria, the way you hid when you saw them in the halls.

“Hey, you all good? Y/n please respond?” His voice was a little more concerned “y/n respond now or we will send someone out after you” “I will go out” Yoongi’s voice was far away and barely registered on the radio device but you caught it. He had a certain drawl you could recognise anywhere.

“Don’t send anyone” You tried to keep your voice even, you didn’t want to sound like you cared. Keep them at a distance. Don’t get attached. “Oh thank god, why didn’t you answer?” “I am busy”

You stepped into the health centre and pulled off your mask, smiling politely at the people and you started talking about the supplies. You asked for a few extra supplies. Hoping you could take them to your basement and make your own meals. Thus eliminating the need to leave. They were pretty firmly against it until you complained that your foreign palate needed something plain. They threw in some extra foodstuff and you slipped them on the inside the backpack you were wearing. You pulled the head of the suit back on securing it. Pulling the wagon along you navigated the foggy streets and saw the BigHit building insight.

There was a noise nearby it wasn’t the soundless breather this was a loud noise oxygen tank and a radio. Namjoon’s voice came through your radio, “what is your location?” You froze hearing the cock of a gun. You switched off your radio and quietly pulled your wagon moving fast as you could down the street. You were trying to see through the fog, looking behind you while going to step up onto the gutter. You were outside the building and you saw The boys looking out the glass beside your brother, Seokjin waved smiling. Your foot slipped. Falling forward and hitting the visor on the ground, there was a large chunk missing in the face of the suit. Taking a deep breath. You pulled the wagon dragging it to the door. Knocking your fist against it as they unlocked it. Eyes burning from the chemicals in the air. Rushing inside, the wagon in tow, you ripped off the head of the suit which had filled up with the poisons in the air. Gasping on your hands and knees.

“Water!” A bottle of water was thrust into view which you tipped over your face, washing out your eyes and the fumes off your skin. You laid on the floor. The man gave you a thumbs up which definitely would have been funny if this traumatic near-death experience hadn’t been so fresh in your mind. Brushing past everyone and beelining to the service elevator and heading to the basement. Stripping off your clothes in the bathroom your body feeling warm and itchy.

Sitting on the shower floor emotions spilling over like the water overhead. You had missed dinner. The idea that you could have died gave you a sense of lacking. What had you done with your life? You had only just recently decided to get back into dancing. But that meant nothing as of yet, you had no friends having lost them all well before the quarantine. The last man in your life was three years ago. Others were getting married and settling down with children or becoming managers or successful business owners and you were stuck free-loading in your brother’s workplace.

This wouldn’t do. It was time to take a stand and make something with your life. Dried and dressed you asked your brother for the key to the dance studio. He nodded handing it over the dance teams were done for the day. Setting up the camera and plugging in your headphones as it was not appropriate to play loud music this late at night. You danced with everything you had. You brought up old routines, famous routines, audition pieces everything from hip hop, break dancing, ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary. The fire didn’t dim from your eyes and you didn’t lose any momentum each move precise. You didn’t want to feel regret like you did today, you didn’t want to think back on your last moments and wish you had done something more.

There was no rest, you sharpened each kick and turn you hit every beat. There was something fulfilling about going one hundred percent. You felt the music pulse through you. Your brothers figure in the corner. It was then you noticed the sun was coming up your sweat became a visible sheen on your skin. You refused to finish before the music stopped taking every last moment to show how much you were worth and how determined you were. The last spin you planted your foot down holding yourself in position unwavering. No matter how much your muscles and lungs were screaming you held your position until the music faded. The Bangtan Boys at some point had stepped into the room ready for their practice. Standing near your brother watching you. Your clothes were drenched. Letting your hands slowly relax to your sides you turned off the music noticing your phone was dangerously low on battery.

Stopping the recording your brother seem horrified “Have you been practising all night, you know how bad that is for you right?” You grinned at him slapping his arm as you left.

“Annyong” Jimin smiled giving you a wave, you walked straight past refusing to acknowledge the boys. Now wasn’t the time to feel guilty, they weren’t your friends. Rounding the corner you were gasping for oxygen like a dancer holding all emotions, pain and suffering until the moment you could finally step off the stage. Your muscles were ready to give out. Grabbing the wall as you walked along everything was on fire. Hoseok walked out of the elevator he spotted you limping, asking if you were okay. You ignored him but he followed you down to the basement. You took a small rectangle plastic tub one might use to store clothes or shoes in and sat inside. The sides came up to your underarms and your legs hung over the end. Still clothed you turned the shower on straight cold and letting it hit your muscles. He left. releasing a sigh tilting your head back. For a second it seemed like he was concerned but his fame came first so he must have gone upstairs to dance practice. You would be lying if you said it didn’t hurt there was a burn in your throat and a stinging in your eyes. You laid your head back tears escaping.

Hoseok returned with a bag full of ice packs and he froze. Biting his lip and walking over he placed the icepacks into the water on your arms and legs he held them there numbing the pain. His hands started massaging your muscles pressing the ice packs into the skin. “Your brother said you were dancing all night, you are lucky I am friends with everyone on staff, I had to raid the infirmary and the kitchens for all these ice bricks”

“Shouldn’t you be dancing?” You shivered, starting to feel the numbness reach your aching joints. “I know how important your work is too you” Hoseok noticed the acid in your words and looked at you in disbelief. “Is this what this is all about because we had to work and couldn’t hang out with you”

“No, it’s about you guys pretending we are friends when we are not. You know for a fact if it wasn’t for this quarantine we would have never met, you would never talk to me or give a crap about how I feel”

“You really think that low of us” he laughed but it wasn’t the light-hearted playful giggle that made everyone feel at ease, this was scornful, almost mocking this was Hoseok’s version of the middle finger. He took your hand and slapped the icepack into your palm walking out. “I guess we weren’t friends after all”

[Part 1] [Part 5] [Part 7] [Tag Yourself Here]

Tags: @bubbletae7 @lovemusicandotps @taetaeb @seveniefive @w0lfqu33n @anaiss97 @moccahobi

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justanotherpersonsuniverse · 5 years ago

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Paladin Rose (An Other Magic AU Substory written by CartoonAddict564 from the comment section)

Part 1 (Faerie Arc)

(This is a hodgepodge of all of the story comments for the Paladin Rose Substory from the There’s More Magic Out There fic, the commenter gave me permission to post it on tumblr, but please do check the original comments out, there’s a lot of funny shit I left out)

Mr. Lavaillant: Rose, sit down. We have something very important to tell you. Mrs. Lavaillant: You know how we've been patrolling the city with our Detect Magic abilities to find evil monsters? We found one... and you know her. Rose: *pales* Mrs. Lavaillant: It's your classmate Sabrina. We've determined she's actually a fey spirit, brought by evil Sidhe--fairy lords--to replace the real Sabrina. Rose: *slightly relieved that they still don't know about Juleka* Oh! Uh, that sounds bad. Why don't you let me deal with her? *wondering if maybe they can hide her for a few days until her parents move on* Mr. Lavaillant: No, dear. You see, if it were just a matter of catching and killing this changeling, we're sure you could handle it. But this is a much more difficult job. Mrs. Lavaillant: It's not enough to kill the fake Sabrina. We need to rescue the real one. To do that, we'll have to force them to take the false Sabrina back. Rose: Uh... what do you mean? Mr. Lavaillant: Fey are incapable of taking a gift without giving something of equal value in exchange. That's why they leave one of their own behind when they abduct humans; they literally can't take a child without giving up a child of their own in order to make the trade equal. But it works both ways. If we compel them to accept our 'gift' of the changeling Sabrina, the fey will be forced to return the real one to us. Mrs. Lavaillant: There's a fey hill a few miles outside of town. We'll bring the false Sabrina there, summon the Sidhe lords, and fight them with our holy powers until they yield and agree to retake the changeling. Then they will be compelled to recover the human Sabrina from wherever she is and bring her here. Rose: And, um, how are you going to get Sabrina to the hill? Mr. Lavaillant: We talked with Roger Raincomprix--who was so excited that he might be getting his real, genuine daughter back that he almost cried on the phone--and he's going to help us. We gave him a special herb which he'll mix into her food; any fey that eats it will fall asleep for at least twelve hours. We'll just pick her up, meet with a few of our paladin friends, and then all head out to the fey hill. Mrs. Lavaillant: Just think, dear, in only a few hours that evil monster who stole the real Sabrina from us will be banished to the fey world, never again to threaten decent people like us! *beat* Anyways, that's where your father and I are going tonight. We'll see you in the morning. *The Lavaillant parents leave; 30 seconds pass* Rose: (Already putting on her armor and sword, and also calling Juleka on the phone): HEY JULES GET THE GANG TOGETHER WE HAVE TO STOP MY CRAZY PARENTS

---

Juleka: ...so that's what's happening. Luka did a scrying spell and found that Sabrina's already missing from her home, so we need to get to the fairy hill first and stop the paladins. We can meet up with Rose at this rest stop and-- Alya: Um. Do we actually know Rose will help us? Juleka: Of course. She helped us sabotage all those other things her parents did. Alya: Yeah, she helped us with some pranks. That doesn't mean she'll help us fight her parents. I mean, if Chloe wolfs-out and tries to bite them, do you really think Rose will just let it happen? Alix: Alya has a point. Rose was raised her whole life to think Sabrina and the rest of us are evil. She might have been willing to rebel when the stakes were low, but actually fighting for 'evil' in front of her parents and everyone? Publicly betraying them? I don't know if she'll do that. For all we know this whole thing is a set up from her parents. Maybe they got her to lure us out of town, away from anyone they don't want watching a paladin vs monster fight, and get us to a place where they have lots of backup from their crazy zealot friends to help them kill us? Chloe: Or worse. What if Rose was a plant from the beginning? They figured out there was magic around because of all the Miraculous stuff and Hawkmoth, so they send in their daughter, have her act nice so we tell her all about us, and then use that knowledge to kill us? Juleka: But... she said she'd help us. She promised! I mean, she swore she loved me even though I'm a vampire, and... Juleka, thinking to herself: What if I was just a little side fling for her? What if I was just her opportunity to be a rebel, or what if she really was a plant from the beginning? Now that the chips are down, what if she fight for what she really believes, which is that I'm a monster and so are my friends? Juleka: ...well, either way, we have to rescue Sabrina. So let's go and hope Rose is loyal to us. Juleka, thinking to herself: And if she's not, maybe I'll just let the paladins cut off my head

——

Then commotion came to a halt as the bushes rustled. The changeling girl looked up with fear as she saw a familiar green.

The figure quietly exited out of the woods. Her hair was longer, untamed, but despite the roots and dirt curling around her skin, and the dark green coat fluttering around her shoulders. She still had a feeling of humanness.

Sabrina met her own face.

The fey adopted child looked at Sabrina, then her eyes moved to an ecstatic Roger, then the Lavillants, and the finally she sees the Mystery gang.

However she says nothing, only continuing to slowly move forward. The grass followed after her trail, and the large group saw eyes from the forest, staring curiously at them.

“Come and take the true fey child home and bring me back my daughter!” Roger commanded, but was met with silence. Only the quiet brushing of wind against the tall grass, the city bumbling quietly so far away,

Sabrina held her breath- and after what felt like years.. the Human girl spoke-

“Wow, this is really fucked” She said evenly, she gave a Sabrina a soft pat on the back.

They all blinked with surprise at her bluntness as she looked to the rest of them

“I’ve lived with the fey for more than fifteen years, I give not even two shits about the human world or my human family.” She said “I am more fae than human, and there is no benefit for me nor this Sabrina that is worth trading.”

Roger and the lavillant’s jaws dropped- and a look of disbelief, shock, and elation slowly grew on Sabrina’s face. The stolen child smiled softly at her, teeth too sharp, eyes too bright, and hair too red. Their species didn’t match but they knew who was human and who was not.

The Once Huma Sabrina slowly walked backwards into the woods, giving a small curt bow “You all owe me for stealing my time” She says, a mischievous smile curling on her lips as wild magic rushed by them, a chill going down each of their spines. She gave Roger a quiet look before shrugging his heart broken expression off. “Bye fuckers” she said-

-And then disapeared into the darkness.

For a moment, complete and utter silence filled the hillside.

Then Chloe leaned in very close to the others and begin to whisper. "Listen up," she hissed. "I've seen most of these assholes at my father's political rallies--these guys are from half the prominent families in Paris--and I know how they think. They--"

"How can you tell?" hissed Alya. "They're all wearing armor!"

"The heraldry," Chloe growled. She gestured at the paladins, whose armor was emblazoned with various crests and sigils. "I've seen those pictures on the rings, the lapel pins, the shitty handkerchiefs in their pockets. No reason the knights would have them if they weren't the same people. Now shut up and let me talk." She took a breath. "One possibility is they realize how much of an idiot they've been and they slink off home. But that almost never happens."

"So what's the other possibility?" whispered Juleka.

"They blame whoever's nearby and isn't them for screwing things up. Then they double down and attack us, so they can try again once they get rid of 'the problem.'" Chloe's face was tight. "And if they do that, we have to be ready."

Then Roger seemed to shake himself. He looked around wildly before his eyes settled on the mystery gang. "There!" he yelled. "They messed this up! We would have been able to get my daughter back if not for them!"

"Get them!" roared Mr. Lavaillant. "For God and the Light!"

"And restrain her!" Mrs. Lavaillant swept her sword at the still-woozy changeling Sabrina. The redhead squeaked and tried to take a step, but the magic herb was still in her system and she couldn't do much more than shuffle a few paces before staggering to a halt. Mrs. Lavaillant went on: "We have to keep her here, and we have to keep her alive! We'll kill the other monsters, summon the Sidhe again, and this time we forcethem--with cold steel, if necessary--to take the changeling and leave the real Sabrina here!"

Roger looked pained. "But if my daughter doesn't want to come home--"

"Of course she wants to come home," said Mrs. Lavaillant in the stern, unyielding voice of a fanatic who would rather die than consider the possibility of being wrong. "In her heart, that's the only things she wants. You can't trust what she's saying now, because the fey confused her. But I assure you, it's nothing we can't handle."

"We have, after all, done this before," added Mr. Lavaillant as two other paladins dragged the unsteady Sabrina down with chains and staked her to ground previously cleared of all grass and shrubs in order to stop her from drawing on her powers to escape. "Your daughter won't be the first human we rescue from the fey. Nor the first one whom the fey brainwashed into wanting to stay among them."

"But you don't have to worry," said Mrs. Lavaillant, her tone now something that would have been compassionate if it hadn't had the bright, sharp edge of bloodlust to it. "We will see that your daughter has the best of care. Therapy for as many months as she needs it, and if necessary, something more extreme. We do have facilities just for that purpose."

Roger's face had somehow gone even paler. "You mean that room in the Catacombs you showed me. The one with the manacles."

"Yes, that one, if necessary," said Mr. Lavaillant in an almost gentle tone. "I won't lie to you; your daughter may require strenuous, ah, correction. The fey are masters at ensnaring humans; no doubt they have spent her life teaching her unholy powers, cultivating her cruelty and teaching her to apply it towards humans and animals who aren't strong enough to resist her, doing all they could to ensure she would never want to return to the Light and the human world. As a result it may take several months to break through this cold shell the fey formed around your daughter's soul and make her understand once more that the human world is the right and proper place for her--and within that world, the sturdy home built by her loving father. It may take techniques which others, who do not know the whole story, would find brutal. But rest assured. She will come back to you, in both body and soul, in the end."

Mrs. Lavaillant took a step towards the mystery gang, as did several of the paladins. Rose, Juleka noted, was still being restrained by one of the larger knights, from back when she'd tried to stop the ritual and been overwhelmed. That meant Rose was on the monsters' side, didn't it? The paladins wouldn't have restrained her if she had chosen her family and had just been trying to lure them here? Unless, of course, this was just a trap, unless Rose was their ace in the hole who would only betray Juleka at the last minute, because of course she would, Juleka was just a blood drinking vampire living in the shadows and it wasn't like anyone as amazing and lovely as Rose could *really* love her, was it?

Juleka tried to push those thoughts aside as the paladins advanced. "So what do we do?" she asked, knowing the answer.

Chloe had already shifted, as had Alya. Luka had already brought up his hands to cast the most powerful hexes he knew; as Juleka watched, Alix did the same. "We fight," the pink-haired girl growled. "And we save our friend."

——

(And of course...)

Juleka let out a roar of pure rage as she jumped on top of Mrs. Lavaillant, throwing her off of Chloe. The silver crucifix went tumbling away as Mrs. Lavaillant fell to the side and Chloe's shriek of agony, along with the sizzle of burning flesh and fur, ended. The werewolf roared, and Juleka turned to her--

Only for Rose's mom to grab her and roll over, so that she was on top and Juleka was being pressed into the ground. Juleka drew on her vampire strength as she fought back, but the armored knight still managed to hold her down--though Juleka could hear her labored breath and sense the pounding of her blood, and knew that Mrs. Lavaillant wasn't nearly as much stronger than her as the knight wanted to let on. But it didn't matter; as long as she was armored than Juleka couldn't really do much to her.

Ok, she thought. Then I deal with the armor.

Juleka abruptly swung her arms out, no longer pushing away at the knight, and Mrs. Lavaillant almost fell on top of her before taking advantage and slamming a fist into her ribcage. Juleka heard something break but tried to ignore it as she forced her hands to the side of Mrs. Lavaillant's helmet, then pulled with all her might. The older woman understood just a second too late and tried to block, but Juleka had already heaved, and--drawing on all her vampire strength--managed to rip the helmet clean off the armor, leaving herself staring at Mrs. Lavaillant's exposed face, head, and neck.

The older woman's face twisted into an expression of rage. "Scum," she hissed. "It's not enough for you to stalk the night and drink the blood of innocents, is it? Now you interfere to trap a human child with the fey--and for no reason!"

"The human Sabrina is happy where she is!" gasped Juleka. "And you were trying to abduct and banish my friend back to some world she's never known! She doesn't deserve that!"

"She's a monster!"

Juleka shook her head, trying and failing to shove Mrs. Lavaillant off her. "No, she's not! She's a good person! She helps people when they have trouble in school, and when I was sick she let me copy her notes, and I know sometimes she goes to people's gardens and helps them to bloom better, and--"

Mrs. Lavaillant reached behind her back and pulled a short, sharp dagger from a concealed compartment of her armor.

"She is a monster whose only purpose here is to ensnare and corrupt humans!" She thrust forwards, but Juleka just barely managed to grab her hand and stop it. Then, seeing an opportunity, she reached up with her other hand and snaked it around Mrs. Lavaillant's head before pulling inwards. The older woman yelled but couldn't stop her head and neck from being shoved down, right in range of Juleka's fangs--just as the tip of her dagger touched Juleka's chest, directly over her heart.

For a second the two froze, each having the other at her mercy, neither able to act.

And then they heard footsteps and both twisted their heads just enough to see...

..Rose.

She had gotten away, Juleka realized. She had escaped from the big paladin, and now she was here, wearing shining armor and holding a holy sword. But she wasn't moving. "Juleka," she whispered as her gaze swept between then. "Mom. Please... please don't..."

"Help me, dear!" Mrs. Lavaillant yelled. "Help me slay the vampire and save the real Sabrina!"

"Rose," whispered Juleka, in a voice that was almost begging. "Rose, please. Help me."

The young paladin looked between the two, almost shaking.

"Please, Rose, you said you love me," said Juleka in too fast of a voice. "And I--I know sometimes I'm creepy, and I'm a monster, and I'm not anywhere near as pretty or smart or anything as you, but I don't want to die. I don't deserve to die here. Please don't let her kill me."

"Rose!" yelled Mrs. Lavaillant. "Don't listen to her! She's a vampire, you know hurting people is what they do! It's her nature! It doesn't matter if she says she's good, or even if she truly believes it! Sooner or later, she won't be able to deny her nature and she'll kill people!" Her voice dropped. "We showed you pictures, Rose. Pictures of whole families, whole villages drained dry by vampires. You can stop the next tragedy, but you have to be strong! Do what you know is right!"

"Rose!" cried out Juleka, straining at Mrs. Lavaillant. "Rose please! Please!"

Slowly, as if in a trance, Rose raised her sword up and...

...she dropped it. She fell to her knees and began to sob.“I-I can’t.. I cant help you both.. I can’t.. I don’t know what to do..” She sputtered through her words “Mom I love Juleka more than anything.. I’ve loved her longer than I’ve known her she was a vampire.. b-but I cant kill anyone I can’t do this..”

Juleka was silent, still frozen as she watched the love of her life cry— but Ms Lavillant still didn’t move, and neither did she.They didn’t know what to do.So Juleka moved first. She let her head rest on the ground, leaving her body exposed as she left her perfect spot near Ms Lavillant’s exposed throat. She looked past her, staring up at the stars. Who knew this would be the perfect place to see such beauty. Juleka had never seen so many before. She drowned herself in the sounds of Rose’s sobs as Ms Lavillant didn’t move a muscle, in fact, maybe she got closer. “Then I’ll make the choice for you Rose..” She murmured, looking back to Ms Lavillant’s face “Kill me then. The monsters still win either way- metaphorically I guess.”

Looking to the side, Alya was clutching Sabrina in her arms as they mounted on top of Chloe’s wolf turned body, Alix was screaming obscenities at everything while Luka kept them away, still she laid, underneath the woman’s body, far far away.

“Come on..” She hissed through her teeth, staring up at Ms Lavillant as she felt the end of the woman’s blade meet the but centimeters away from her skin. She couldn’t hear Rose’s sobs anymore from the pounding in her ears “..I know you won’t.”

Distantly, softly, she heard the paladin speak.

"I know what you're trying to do," Mrs. Lavaillant said, and now there was an edge to her voice. It was almost, but not quite, fear. "You know you can't beat me. Your scheme to corrupt my daughter failed. Now you're trying to corrupt me. You think if you act innocent, helpless, that I'll spare you. That I'll let you go free to kill again."

Juleka said nothing.

"I've hunted hundreds of you monsters," went on Lavaillant, and now Juleka knew what it was she was hearing in the old fanatic's voice. It was uncertainty. Perhaps even doubt. "I've seen what you do to humans. I've seen how you treat us. As your prey, your food, your slaves! I know that none of you are innocent!"

She was scared, Juleka realized. Scared that she might have made mistakes. Scared to think, for the first time, that maybe some of the monsters she'd murdered hadn't deserved it. After all, she'd raised her daughter to be a zealot for the cause, and once upon a time--before meeting Juleka, before learning that half her classmates were technically inhuman--Rose had truly believed that monsters were nothing more than a bunch of creatures who spent their time planning to eat, enslave, or torment humans. Juleka knew this because Rose had confessed it to her, assuring her all the while that if Juleka hated her because of the things she'd used to believe, she would understand.

(Of course, Juleka knew Rose wasn't responsible for being indoctrinated. And even beyond that, she would never hate Rose. She could never hate Rose. She would sooner die than hate Rose...)

But while Rose had believed those things, she had changed. She'd come to see that those anti-monster views were themselves wrong and evil. And Rose was no dummy; Juleka was acutely aware that Rose was smarter than her in so many ways, and surely her own mother knew how bright the girl was. So if Rose--who had seen all the evidence presented by the paladins, who had been raised since birth to know that monsters were evil, who had cheered on her mother and father as they went on hunts to track down all manner of 'evil' monsters--now rejected those views, maybe that was because those views were wrong.

Maybe some monsters didn't deserve to be killed.

And maybe Mr. and Mrs. Lavaillant had killed some of those monsters who didn't deserve to be killed.

"You're wrong," whispered Juleka. "Some of us are innocent. And I think you know that, Mrs. Lavailllant."

The woman froze as the words hit home, and for a second Juleka allowed herself to hope that it was over. That the woman would stop.

But then Mrs. Lavaillant hissed, in a voice almost frantic with the struggle to push away doubt, "No. You did something to Rose, you bewitched her, you ensnared her. It doesn't matter! I have a holy duty to put an end to your evil!" The point of her dagger began to push at Juleka's battered body. "Even if you corrupted my daughter, I will cure her, and--"

"No," said Juleka. "I didn't corrupt her. I would rather die."

"Anyone can say that," growled Mrs. Lavaillant. Now the dagger was piercing Juleka's body; it would slide into her heart in a second or two. "But you're a monster. You might say you rather die than corrupt her, but--"

"What is it," Juleka asked, "That you think I'm doing?"

Mrs. Lavaillant met her gaze, and Juleka could tell the exact moment she understood.

Juleka and Mrs. Lavaillant had both begged Rose to take their side in good conscience. Rose had refused, saying she would never kill either of them, not under any circumstances. That was her decision, and Juleka would accept it. But what if she didn't? If Juleka hammed it up, screaming in pain and yelling that Rose would help her if she truly loved her, maybe Rose would change her mind. Maybe she could pressure Rose into attacking or killing her mother just to keep Juleka alive. It would break Rose in body and spirit, it would leave the girl a battered wreck who would never again know happiness, but if Juleka were willing to do that--to corrupt Rose to save her own life--she could certainly try.

But she wouldn't. Because she loved Rose, and if the price of keeping Rose sane and whole was dying, Juleka would pay it.

And Mrs. Lavaillant knew that, Juleka could tell. Rose's mother knew, in that moment, that Juleka cared for her daughter more than she herself did. Because after all, if Mrs. Lavaillant were the one on the ground and Juleka were about to kill her? Mrs. Lavaillant would say anything she could think of to force her daughter to kill Juleka. To sacrifice her daughter's sanity to keep herself alive. No, not quite. To keep her crusade alive.

Something seemed to break behind Mrs. Lavaillant's eyes, and Juleka knew that the woman would never be able to think of herself without drowning in self-loathing and hate.

But that wouldn't save her, so Juleka again leaned back and waited for the crazy woman on top of her to act. The knife wriggled deeper, towards her heart, and--

"HOLD PERSON!"

Mrs. Lavaillant's body suddenly went perfectly still as a strange light, so holy it felt like it was burning at Juleka's eyes, enveloped it.

Juleka froze, unbelieving. That voice had sounded like Rose, but it couldn't be. Luka had been keeping track as they got to the hill and saw Rose trying to resist the other paladins. Rose had used up all of her magic. And even if Rose had truly kept one spell in reserve, why wait until now? Why not cast it when Juleka had first asked for help?

Slowly, gingerly, she carefully lifted the immobilized paladin off of her, wincing as the blade withdrew from her chest. Then she turned, and gasped.

Rose had, indeed, cast the spell. She was down on the ground, with one hand extended, still glowing with bright holy magic. But that hand... it was pinned to the ground, Juleka saw, by Rose's dagger. Which she was holding with her other hand.

And then she couldn't help but think back to that lecture Jalil had given the mystery gang on holy magic, the one Alix had insisted he give back when they'd first learned Rose's secret, and when the ever-wary Chloe had insisted they learn how to fight paladins just in case.

"Paladins are so zealous," Jalil said as he leaned back in his chair, "That they'll even sacrifice their own flesh and blood if needed to defeat their targets. In fact, some very devout paladins have what's called a 'Spirit Cast' ability. Sort of a 'cast from hit points' mechanic for real life. By injuring themselves, they can draw from their own life force to cast a spell they wouldn't otherwise have the magic to cast. Of course, then they die sooner, but hey, if that means killing Count Chocula or whoever they're fighting this week, they don't mind." He shut the book. "Crazy, huh?"

"Rose, no," whispered Juleka as the girl stiffened and then gave a hacking cough which sprayed drops of blood on the grass. But then Rose seemed to steel herself, withdrew her dagger from her hand, and then walked to them. She helped Juleka up. "Rose..." Juleka whispered. "You shouldn't--"

"It's done," said Rose in a tiny voice.

"But how much of your life...?"

Rose shrugged and then spoke in a voice which attempted to sound disinterested but failed to hide her horror. "Hard to tell, but... I'm young, it's not a very big spell... not too much. Maybe."

Maybe wasn't good enough, and Juleka was already thinking of how she would threaten Jalil into telling her how they could reverse the effects. Maybe there was some kind of spirit transfusion? Juleka had eternal life, if there was some way to give some to Rose... well, besides the obvious and unacceptable method of turning her...

Then she heard Rose looking at her mother. "I love you," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. But I... I'm not coming home, Mom. And if you attack my friends again, if you attack anyone else who doesn't deserve it, I'll help them." She touched her free hand to the horrible wound in her other hand. "The exact same way I did this time. With Spirit Cast. So if you love me... leave us alone."

And that was that. She moved to Juleka's side, and the two began heading away into the darkness.

——

The others were gone, but that didn't surprise or upset Juleka. By all appearances she had looked trapped, and if anyone had stayed to save her, that person could have gotten killed too. They'd all agreed going in not to risk the whole party for one of them--that none of them would want the guilt of knowing the others had gotten killed in a doomed rescue attempt--and Juleka was glad they'd agreed.

But that didn't mean they hadn't left something for her. Juleka soon noticed the paper charm pinned to a tree, and the note on it. "Attach to door," she read. "I think there's a cabin about half a mile that way. Come on, Rose."

Rose followed, silently, and Juleka draped an arm over the girl. Her broken rib and other wounds still hurt--that stupid spell Mr. Lavaillant had cast which prevented her vampire regeneration still hadn't worn off, apparently--but she could walk, and that was all that mattered. More than he could say, anyways; last she'd seen of him, Chloe had snapped his lower leg in her jaws.

They reached the cabin. Juleka slapped Alix's portal charm on the door, then smashed it open, and they walked right through to Alix's house. "We're here," said Juleka, removing the charm and shutting the door behind them. "Rose, you--"

And then Rose burst into wailing tears as she fell into Juleka's arms.

Juleka froze for a moment. But then she gently sat down with Rose and held her while she cried.

When Juleka came back to herself, she wasn't sure how much time had passed.

She was still lying on the couch in the Kubdel family's comfortable, homey living room, and Rose Lavaillant was still next to her, embracing Juleka so tightly that not even Nora Cesaire could have pried them apart. Of course, Juleka was hugging Rose just as tightly herself. After the night they'd had, Juleka decided, they deserved hugs.

Someone had draped a warm, thick blanket over them and tucked pillows under their heads. Juleka sniffed the pillows and blanket, and her eyes widened slightly as she detected a hint of Chloe's perfume. So the werewolf was the one who had seen them and bustled over to tuck them in, she thought. That was somehow fitting.

From the kitchen came the familiar smell of molokhia, that Egyptian stew Alix and Jalil were always eating which was said to have been the favored food of the Pharaohs and which Jalil claimed boosted his 'vast magical prowess to even greater heights.' The smell was hours old; whoever had fixed dinner had already eaten and left without disturbing the girls.

But there were two large bowls of the stew on the coffee table next to the couch, and affixed to the rim of each bowl was a little paper charm which Juleka knew would magically keep the meals hot and fresh for as long as needed until the girls woke. Besides the bowls were a few pages written in Alya's neat script, presumably any important information the girls had missed while they were unconscious. And surrounding the couch and table were Luka's wards, of such complexity and power it must have taken him over an hour to craft them, but which would keep the two safe from almost any conceivable hostile force which might want to smash in and hurt them.

The vampire let the faintest of smiles touch her lips. It was good to have friends.

"Juleka?" she heard. She looked down to see Rose lifting her head a little. "You're still here." She sounded relieved. Like she'd really been worried Juleka would have abandoned her after seeing the true monstrosity of her parents.

"I'll always be here," said Juleka, and now it was her that was starting to cry. "For as long as you want me."

"Oh, Juleka!" Rose squeezed her. "I am so, so sorry..."

Juleka shook her head. "No," she whispered. "Rose, you have nothing to be sorry for. You're not responsible for what your parents did."

Rose shook her head sadly. "I thought... when I heard what they were going to do to Sabrina, that was the first thing I thought. That when I told you, then you'd know how evil my whole family was, and you'd hate us..."

"I could never hate you," insisted Juleka, the words rough with emotion. "Rose, you went against your family to save Sabrina... and me, when your mother knocked me down. Even though I don't deserve it. I--"

"Don't say that!" said Rose, and Juleka jolted, because she hadn't thought the exhausted girl had so much strength and force in her. "Don't ever say that! Juleka, you are beautiful and precious and perfect, and you deserve anything I can give you!" She squeezed the goth tighter. "And you're not creepy or dumb or those other things you said during the fight either. You're wonderful, Juleka."

Juleka couldn't explain why, but the words were warmer and more soothing than the thick blanket on top of them. "I... thank you, Rose."

Rose wriggled a bit so that she could lift her head and meet Juleka's eyes. "But I wasn't just apologizing for my parents," she said. "I was kind of a jerk when I first told you about me, I know..."

Juleka strained futilely against the thick vines and cursed whatever demonic thought had convinced her to bring Rose to the distant corner of the Bois de Vincennes park just to confess her love. Everything had gone perfectly--the picnicking, the swimming, the birdwatching--but right when Juleka had been about to say the magic words, the forest sprite had popped up and began ranting about being disturbed. And now they were both being strung up by vines while the sprite talked about eating them.

"I'll start with the tall one," the sprite giggled as she hauled a thick cooking pot out of the ground. "And then the blond one for dessert! Hee! Trespassers make the best meal!"

"Rose, shut your eyes," whispered Juleka. If she used her vampire strength she might be able to break free and--

But then she heard Rose say, in a bright, powerful voice that radiated even more confidence than usual, "No, Juleka. I can do this."

And then, to her astonishment, she heard Rose yell "Smite evil!"

And the sprite...

Was smited.

A bright light burst from nowhere, hot enough to burn at Juleka, and the sprite went tumbling away. Then Rose was ripping free of the vines and taking some kind of sigil out of her pocket. "Summon sword!" she called, and a gigantic sword that vibrated with holy energy appeared in her hand. "Bind spirit!" Magical chains of light appeared around the sprite's limbs. "You will never harm another innocent human, fiend!"

"No!" the sprite pleaded as she thrashed. "Please, holy paladin, I didn't know!"

Rose kept approaching the sprite, sword point aimed squarely at her nose. A sharp, thick root suddenly sprang up towards Rose, tip sharp and glistening with what had to be poison, but Rose easily chopped it off with a single sweep of her sword. "Please!" the sprite yelled. "Mercy, o paladin!"

Juleka was gaping as Rose reached the monster and seemed to hesitate. "I will not kill you," she said at last. "I... I don't like killing."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" the sprite yelled.

"But I will banish you back to your realm. No more will you lie in wait to eat humans." Rose sketched some kind of sigil in the ground with her holy sword, then chanted something in Latin. That bizarre, hot light flashed again, and then the spirit was gone, teleported back to the fairy world.

The vines surrounding Juleka unraveled and the vampire dropped to the ground. "Rose," she managed. "What are..."

But she trailed off, because the blond had turned and was smiling brightly. "Juleka! You're okay! Yay!" And then she was flinging aside her sword to hug the goth.

Normally, Rose felt warm to Juleka. But now everything felt cold.

Distantly she heard Rose telling her everything: that the Lavaillants were a family of paladins tracing all the way back to Ancient Rome, that she'd been trained since birth to fight evil monsters, that she wasn't supposed to tell anyone but she was happy Juleka had found out because she hated keeping secrets from her best friend, and so on. And at the end she'd said something which had chilled Juleka to the core.

"Don't worry about this ever happening again," she had said sweetly. "I'll protect you. I'll smite any monsters that get anywhere near our class."

"You didn't know any better," Juleka insisted. "You thought all monsters were evil. Your parents filled your head with that garbage. Even then, you made a point of never killing anything! And as soon as you learned otherwise you changed your mind."

"But--"

"No buts!" insisted Juleka. "Rose. I judged you worse than you judged me. I was terrified you'd learn the truth and that you'd hate me, want to kill me for being an unholy monster." She sighed. "I was a real idiot when you learned about me."

—

"Stupid fucking sentimonster!" Juleka shouted in rage. "Go away already!"

But the sentimonster, a sort of zombie-bear like thing half again as tall as Juleka, didn't go away. And Ladybug and Chat Noir were off fighting an Akuma; they probably didn't even know about the sentimonster that had gotten split off and stuck in the school. Which meant that it was up to an already-exasperated Juleka to keep it away from her classmates.

"Help!" Alya pleaded as she limped away; the monster had twisted her ankle. "Help, it--"

Juleka saw the bear rear up and slash Alya, claws raking bloody lines across the journalist's back, and something in the vampire snapped.

She rocketed forwards, using all her vampire strength and speed to slam into the bear and drive it back despite its massive size. Then she began pounding and biting at it, aware her eyes were red and her fangs were showing but not caring about anything besides shutting down yet another of that idiot Hawkmoth's attempts to traumatize the city into surrender. "Die!" yelled Juleka as she punched the sentimonster so hard one of its arms flew off. It staggered backwards into a classroom window, head bonking on the glass. "Die already!"

And then it did. Juleka dealt it a massive hit that knocked off its head, and it crumbled. Juleka was left standing there, red eyes flashing, fangs out...

And she slowly realized that Rose was on the other side of the glass window. Rose, who had been so happy recently because now she had someone to talk to about her weird paladin training, all the hours of sword practice, and armor-polishing, and chanting rituals. Rose, who hadn't seemed to notice the twinges of fear Juleka suffered every time she thought Rose might learn of her monstrous nature. Sweet Rose, whom Juleka wanted only to love her even if their natures made it impossible.

Rose, who was now gaping at her.

"No," whispered Juleka. "No, no, no..."

A wave of ladybugs swept over them. The damage the Sentimonster created was gone. But Rose was still staring, and Juleka was still vampiric.

The goth turned and fled even as Rose called out behind her.

"It wasn't your fault," whispered Rose. "I'd said I fought monsters. It was my fault you were scared."

"Then you being scared of me, of vampires, wasn't yours," said Juleka. "It was your parents. And, okay, maybe me looking a little... feral... when you saw me that time."

Rose giggled at that, and Juleka somehow felt herself laughing too. Despite everything, they were alive, they were together, and they were in love. That was worth some joy.

"I guess we must have looked pretty silly when we met after that sentimonster," Rose said at last. "In the street."

Juleka nodded. She'd fled from school that day and taken roads at random, not knowing where to go or if Rose would be there. Unknown to her, Rose had been doing the same, horrified not at having revealed her identity to a vampire, but of having given Juleka reason to fear her. They'd run into each other, almost literally, on the bank of the Seine. And Juleka had prepared to flee again--until Rose had dropped down and begged forgiveness for the horrible things she'd said about hunting monsters. "I know you're not evil, Juleka," she had said. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Please don't hate me."

And Juleka had made herself approach. "Hate?" she'd whispered. "I couldn't hate you. Even if you stabbed me I couldn't hate you. I thought you'd be scared of me now."

"I can't," Rose had said. "I know you too well. Whatever my parents say. You... you're not evil."

And so they'd talked, for a long time, slowly opening up... but Juleka hadn't been able to hide that cold little nugget of fear. That this was a paladin trap, or worse, pity, a few scraps of affection for a monster that didn't really merit them but was just so pathetic, so wretched, that Rose couldn't help but engage in a little emotional charity. Rose, Juleka now knew, had felt similarly towards Juleka's love for her, wondering how it was the vampire could love the paladin who had grown up hating all magical creatures. They'd been terrified, each hoping that the other loved her despite their inherent natures, and each fearing it wouldn't be the case.

In the weeks that followed they'd cautiously extended their alliance, slowly growing more comfortable with each other. Juleka had already told the mystery gang of Rose's secret hobby; when she told them that she was friends with Rose again, they'd reacted with varying degrees of astonishment, ranging from Luka's mild warning to let him know if she needed help or support, to Chloe swearing that she'd be ready to wolf out and eat Rose's face off if Rose did anything wrong. Rose had even helped Juleka foil a couple of her parents' plans to hurt magical creatures who didn't deserve it. And then there was that final call, Rose's tear-laden voice explaining what was about to happen to Sabrina, swearing she hadn't known, preemptively apologizing in case they didn't believe her, and begging for help in saving their friend...

"I love you," said Rose, interrupting Juleka's reverie. "You're smart, and sensitive, and pretty, and an amazing friend... I mean, you fought an army of paladins to save Sabrina and me. And more than that you trusted me." Juleka could feel the tears pooling in Rose's eyes and spilling down onto her shirt. "Once I knew what my parents were doing I wasn't sure if you'd ever trust me again. Most people wouldn't. They'd have abandoned me just in case I was on their side, to be safe. But you knew my heart... and you risked your life to save me. So don't call yourself monstrous or stupid or anything like that again, Juleka! You're not any of those things!"

Juleka was taken aback, and to her own surprise she found that she was starting to believe Rose. Maybe her mistakes, her fears... maybe if Rose thought they were insignificant, if they weren't really her, then maybe they truly didn't matter. "Okay," she said at last. "But on one condition."

"What?"

"You don't blame yourself for your mistakes either," said Juleka. "Rose, you abandoned your family, the people who raised you, to save my life. You sacrificed everything you ever had for me. You literally cut out some of your own life force to save me, a person you'd been taught your whole life was only fit to be destroyed... and you did it out of love." She gently stroked a few strands of hair off of Rose's cheek. "And that's on top of how you're kind to everyone, you cheer everyone up, you work so hard on everything you put your mind to... and you're the most beautiful girl in the world. So don't you ever, ever think I could hate you. There's too much good in you, Rose." She cuddled her girlfriend closer. "Deal?"

"Deal," said Rose.

The two fell silent again. Eventually, Juleka knew, they'd have to get up and figure out their next steps. Rose would need to live somewhere, and Juleka probably wouldn't be able to go home until the paladins were known to no longer be a threat--she couldn't risk them storming the boat and attacking her mother. They'd also have to figure out what to do with poor Sabrina, the changeling one--the one they knew and cared about--who surely couldn't go home to her father now.

But for the moment, that didn't matter.

It was enough to just savor each other's love.

#paladin rose au #they said when they finished I could spot the story to tumblr #so I’m splitting this up into bits #you can read the entire story here with the paladin rose tag #I fucking love this story I’m so honored/grateful/happy that it came from my au it means so much #so yeah #now you guys can read it too it’s pretty fuckin dope

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qrow-babie · 5 years ago

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hi this is literally the first post ive ever made to tumblr since im not a really social person but theres been something bothering me since RWBY V7E12 and i just need to LET IT GO.

It somewhat feels like Clover’s character was written by 2 different people who had different ideas for him and it’s this scene.

“I enjoyed working with you, you know. Even with that endless cynicism of yours.”

Like... I’m not the only one who felt this was out of character, right??? That scene was the only thing that seemed off to me when it comes to character inconsistency. This is from the same guy who said all of this to the same character.

Clover is very uplifting and generous to Qrow here, but the one comment on Qrow’s cynicism felt... off. These two scenes show that Clover isn’t afraid to speak his opinion, but him calling someone (especially Qrow) out for being “cynical” felt really weird to me. Clover has no reason to think of Qrow as cynical, and we as the audience had no reason to believe that Clover disliked that about Qrow either, because all their interactions prior to this episode have been extremely positive and friendly.

If Clover was supposed to be like Qrow’s opposite, they should’ve shown it more instead of giving us flirty and friendly interactions between the two. It really wouldn’t be that hard. One controversial comment about how Mantle was being handled with both of them having juxtaposing facial expressions would’ve been all I needed, they wouldn’t even need to talk, but no. Literally ALL of Qrow and Clover’s interactions together are positive, but in their fight scene, Clover’s kind of an asshole to Qrow when reminicing about how they were friends. You could argue that “cynicism” isn’t really an insult, but the way it was phrased and the context definitely made it seem like it was. Y’all have no idea how long I’ve been thinking about this ONE PARTICULAR line and it’s driving me crazy.

Clover jumping out of the aircraft first felt more in character than that particular scene alone. Oh yeah, I let this scene slide as “in character”.

Listen, I’m not really a hardcore shipper. Yeah, I like fair game, but I also knew that Qrow and Clover would most likely be friends with the media’s track record of LGBT+ representation. Even with the flirtatous interactions, I thought of them as flirting in a friendly way. I liked them as friends and Clover’s death and Qrow’s reaction still BROKE. MY. HEART. (Possibly due to all the fair game content I’ve been consuming oops). Normally I like giving shows the benefit of the doubt, and I did give RWBY some benefit of the doubt at first, but this was some next level shit.

Trying to wrap my head around what this accomplishes for Qrow’s character arc is impossible. Although they had numerous positive interactions, they BARELY had any interactions. They had ONE long interaction in the back of vehicle, and it was all wholesome, but they were hardly established as FRIENDS before V7E12. I’m not saying that this is or isn’t queerbaiting, but everyone who is arguing the basis that this wasn’t queerbaiting because they were never established to be gay are hypocrites. For all we know, they could’ve just been CO-WORKERS trying to pass the time and just happened to be together every time the camera panned on them. Let’s be real here, they only started throwing the word FRIEND around on V7E12, and it was used borderline manipulatively. Objectively, we had no reason to believe Qrow and Clover were anything more than co-workers who killed time together and joked around sometimes prior to V7E12, so how could you say Qrow was so upset over Clover’s death because they were “friends” when it wasn’t explicitly said they were until that very episode. Seems pretty FORCED to me (sound familiar?). I feel like this situation is comparable to Shiro in Voltron: Legendary Defender as it was very hard to tell that Shiro was gay prior to the ENDING of Voltron. Yes, we get a glimpse of Shiro’s lover, Adam, but we literally get ZERO indication that they had any romantic relationship going on (unless you followed Voltron on social media) and BARELY any indication that Shiro was gay until the ending. So yes, it is possible to queerbait and not be explicitly told in the show that the characters are GAY (Got a little offtopic there, sorry).

It’s really hard for be to believe that Clover’s death wasn’t for shock value. If his death was really meant to “test” Qrow’s newfound sobriety, their friendship should’ve been more obvious, impactful, and meaningful. But these two barely got screen time. Yes, they aren’t the main characters, team RWBY and JONR (is that what people call them? lol idk) are, but that brings the question why would you need to test the sobriety of a side character???

That being said, I don’t think CRWBY is “homophobic” or “queerbaiting” (I’m lowkey getting there, though) or “bury your gays” (I literally never heard of this term until this whole controversy came up so I’m not 100% sure on my stance on this) intentionally and I’m not accusing them of doing such on purpose. I very well can see how Qrow and Clover’s interactions could be seen as “just friends” as that’s how I interpreted them as at first too. Regardless of how you see the situation, please be polite and respectful to each other. I really hate when people use overexaggerated words like “fanatic” and “homophobe” so loosely. And don’t attack CRWBY. Seriously, shit ain’t cool.

Sorry, I tend to go on long tangents and repeat myself, LOL. Although I seem pretty sure of myself, I’d love to know what other people think about this, especially if you have an opposing opinion. I love talking about and analysing these sorts of things. Thanks for reading. 🥺💕

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #clover ebi #qrow branwen #rant #i need to widen my vocabulary im so sorry #take this with a grain of salt pls #im dumb #fair game

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azulafangligo · 5 years ago

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Flameo! This is my first post for @azulaweek and on tumblr overall. I wrote some fanfic for day 1.

Second chance

It was a warm, sunny day in the Fire Nation. The streets around the Royal Palace were crowded with hundreds of people, cheering and applauding. Apparently the Crown Princess returned from a mission and the citizens were welcoming her home. Chan didn't really care. He was, of course, loyal to the Fire Lord and the princess like all civilians and soldiers, but he didn't worship them or anything like other fanatics did. They were the leaders of their nation, leading them to glory, prosperity and happiness. He respected them and appreciated their efforts, but that was it. He would bow before them if he had to, but he wasn't interested at all in seeing them or knowing anything about them. He didn't have any interest in politics or in the leadership of the country, even though his father was an admiral and all he did in the little free time he had with his family was chatter about the war and about politics. Chan made his way through the crowds, pushing and shoving when someone didn't get out of the way. He was going to meet with Ruon-Jian and some of his other friends at a restaurant a few blocks away. If he could get there. There's so many people here! I'll take me at least a day to get there! he thought, frustrated.

"Excuse me," he told a man in front of him who was obstructing his way. Chan feigned a cough to get his attention.

"Excuse me!" he said again. That was it. He shoved the man aside and continued walking.

"Hey, watch it!" the person said. Chan rolled his eyes in annoyance and didn't turn back. After more swimming through the unending waves of people, his mind took him back to the night when he kissed that girl on Ember Island. A weak had passed since that party where she and her friends destroyed the stuff in his house. His father had been so mad and punished him severely. He thought he'd never hear the end of that one. He barely managed to leave home for a couple of hours and come here. That girl had gotten him into a lot of trouble and she'd also sacred him with her firebending and all that "We will be the strongest couple in the universe! We'll dominate the Earth." thing. Like really, what was that all about? But, even so, he couldn't manage to get her out of his mind. He was always thinking about her. He wanted to forget her, he really did, but he couldn't. She was stunning. He'd never seen a girl more beautiful than her and he had quite a lot of experience if he did say so himself. He should be angry at her, but when he thought about the destroyed house, the only thing that came to mind was her sweet, soft kiss. That moment when their lips touched had been magical. Chan had to admit that, at least to himself. I'm stupid… and crazy, but… I love her. She creeped me out, but I think I kinda like that in a way… and I just can't be mad at her for getting me punished and yelled at by dad. Well, that doesn't matter now. She didn't even tell me her name and I'll never see her again. Besides, she seemed like someone who really cared about her image. I embarrassed her by leaving her, even though no one saw that. He started feeling very regretful. What he'd give to see her again, to be able to talk to her and ask for a second chance. And this crowd is too loud and it's suffocating. I can barely hear my own thoughts. The Royal Palace was about a dozen metres away to his right. Horrible moment to be there with all this agitation.

"Here comes the princess!" someone in front of Chan yelled. His ears were suffering horribly as the cheers got even louder. Beyond the sea of heads before him, he saw the princess's palanquin. The servants caring it stopped in front of the palace gates as they were opening. A man came to the side of the palanquin to greet the princess. He was a highly decorated officer by the looks of his uniform, probably a colonel or general. The princess raised the curtain to salute him back… Chan couldn't believe it. It's her! It's her! But… how? She didn't tell me she was the princess. This is impossible! I almost got together with the Fire Lord's daughter! I'm surprised she didn't kill me for leaving her… She was pretty far away, but he was sure it was her. Without thinking, Chan rushed ahead, almost knocking down the people in front of him and getting a few not-exactly-nice words in return. He ran forward, toward her, pushing and shoving everyone in his way. He almost reached her, just a few metres… Suddenly, he was almost knocked off his feet as a royal guard pushed him back in line with the others.

"Keep the distance," he said commandingly.

"But I have to talk to the princess! Please," Chan stepped forward, only for the soldier to shove him back again.

"Stay in line, citizen. I'm not telling you nicely again."

"Please, I need to-," Chan began

"Yeah, yeah, everyone wants to talk to the princess, I know," the guard cut him off. It was too late-the gates were closing behind the palanquin. That's it. That was the only occasion to say sorry and tell her how I feel. I'll never be able to talk to her again… He felt hopeless and he hated it. He hated that stupid guard, but, after all, the man was only doing his job, and Chan had to admit he did look like just another crazy fan of the Royal family.

Now the masses of citizens were beginning to dissipate. The guard that stopped Chan for talking to princess Azula-he finally knew her name now-as well as the other soldiers, were also moving away and positioning themselves at the gate to guard it.

Well, he was late already late for the lunch with his friends, but he wasn't a punctual person anyway. Now that he was starting to think about it, running like that toward the princess and trying to pass by that guard had been really reckless… and crazy. He should just forget it. He'd gotten what he'd asked for, he can't deny that. But… the princess? I'm the son of an admiral, that's a really big deal, but I'm nothing compared to her… HeHe hated giving up, accepting defeat. He should just be grateful she didn't kill him on Ember Island for leaving her completely alone on that balcony, during the night. I should just go to the restaurant, meet with my friends and forget all about this. She's the Fire Lord's daughter… and I already dumped her. How could have I been such an idiot? Not only that she's pretty much one of the most important and powerful people ever, but… she's wonderful. I love her. I really do. I missed the chance to be together with such a beautiful girl. She still scared him. Even more so now. But, he had to admit it made her very interesting and unique from all the other girls he went out with. That was really great. A normal person would back away from trying to get involved in a relationship with the princess. But if anything love did, it was making people not normal at all. This could, and probably would, end very badly, but Chan was a ladies man. He wasn't going to give up on the princess. If anyone could charm her, it was him.

Chan entered the restaurant and scanned the large room. Ruon-Jian and the others were sitting at a table in the far right corner. As he reached them, Yuo, the joker of the group, smiled sarcastically at him and said, "You're early."

"Hello to you too," Chan said, also sarcastically. "Man, it's a mess in the city. The princess returned and everyone was looming on the streets. I could barely breathe between all those people. Not to mention all their screaming and applauding."

"Yeah, that's why we came here earlier," Rua, the most cheerful of them. She was a beautiful girl, but Chan only thought of her as a friend. He'd known her since they were five years old. "We already ordered for you," she continued and gestured toward a bowl with noodles and vegetables in front of the empty seat next to Tuya, the most talented and creative of the group. She was a great singer, but she was also interested in fashion.

"Thanks," Chan said as he sat down to eat. "Guys, I gotta tell you something," he said. All of them turned their attention toward him, curiosity covering their faces.

"Do you remember that girl I kissed at the Ember Island party last week?" Chan asked.

"Sure," Ruon-Jian asked, raising his eyebrows. "The one that destroyed your house with her friends and scared all of us outta there. Pretty hard to forget her. Didn't you say she creeped you out with her firebending and all that nonsense about ruling the word. How crazy is that? I heard a lot of weird stuff, but never anything like that."

"Well, you're right," Chan admitted, "but, I can't stop thinking about her. I really love her. Oh, and she's the Crown Princess. The Fire Lord's daughter. That's why she said all that stuff about dominating the planet." All of them were shocked and stared in surprise and disbelief. Yuo spit the food he was chewing on the floor.

"What?" he said. "Princess Azula? At our party? And you almost got together with her? And then dumped her? Wow, your an idiot, Chan. She's like the richest, most influential person in the world! If she had a boyfriend, man, that guy would become prince at some point and could have everything he wanted.

"I know, I know," Chan said. "But my family has a lot of money too and I have pretty much everything I want, or at least I did before dad almost threw me out after the house was ruined. The point is, her status is great, but that's not why I want to be with her. I love her and I'm starting to think that a girl who can scare me like she did is pretty cool."

"Chan, you're out of your mind," Ruon-Jian said bluntly. "I know you think you can get any girl you want," he glanced at Rua and Tuya, "no offense. Anyway, you can't be together with the princess. You're lucky she even noticed you, not to mention liking you and not killing you for leaving her. You broke her heart and she still let you live. Man, she must've really been in love with you and all you did was-"

"Ok, ok!" Chan cut him off, annoyed. "I know I screwed up, but maybe she still has feelings for me. I mean, letting me walk away with my head above my shoulders after that is a big deal."

"I agree with Ruon-Jian," Tuya said. "I'm sorry to say it, but it's a horrible idea and you're gonna end up dead."

"Forget her," Yuo said. "They're right. It's not gonna turn out well."

"I can't," Chan said frustrated. "What you're saying is true, but I just can't stop thinking about her. I have to try talking to her."

"She's going to kill you," Rua said."Come on, Chan, we're your friends. We wouldn't want anything like that to happen to you."

"I wouldn't want that either, but I can't help it. I need to go to her, apologise and tell her how I feel."

"I'm telling you again," Ruon-Jian replied, "if you go to her, you're dead. And what are you gonna do anyway? Call her name at the palace doors?"

"I don't know," Chan said. "Maybe."

The sun shone high in the cloudless morning sky. Zuko didn't sleep well at all. He couldn't forget what he did in Ba Sing Se to his uncle. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself uncle was a traitor, he couldn't escape his… his guilt. Uncle Iroh's face when he decided to join Azula always came before his eyes when he tried to sleep. And it wasn't an angry face-it was far worse. It was a sad, disappointed face. But that was in the past. He shouldn't let that ruin the present. It was a beautiful day and the best part was that he was going to see Mai today and spend some nice time with her. Azula and him would meet her and Ty Lee at Mai's house. She'd help him forget all these miserable feelings. Zuko hadn't seen Azula this morning. She was probably still sleeping, but they agreed with Mai and Ty Lee to meet them in half an hour. He didn't want to be late when he'd see his girlfriend. The prince was ready to go. He just needed to wake Azula up.

Zuko walked through a couple of corridors until he reached his sister's room. He slowly opened the door and peeked inside, realising he had been right. Azula was sleeping soundly. He walked to the side of her bed and looked at her face for a few seconds. Her expression was so calm and innocent. Zuko smiled at his sleeping sister. Even after all the things she'd done to him, he still loved her and cared about her. He felt a little sorry to wake her up, but he had to, so he tapped her gently on the shoulder and said softly, "Wake up, Azula. We have to go."

She half opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Good morning, Zuzu," she said with a muffled voice as she was rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning," he said. "How did you sleep?"

"Really good, though I could've done without you waking me up," Azula answered yawning. "I'll go get dressed and put some makeup on."

"I'll wait for you at the palace gates," he said and started toward the door.

As Zuko left her room, Azula slowly got up from her bed and stretched her back a little. The princess had slept deeply and was well rested, ready to start her day. She stretched her back a little and stepped toward the wardrobe, opening it and taking out a kimono. She put it on and tied her hair. Then, she got to the mirror, washed her face and put makeup on her eyelashes. She blinked twice, making sure it was perfect and headed out.

It wasn't a very long way to the gates, but it wasn't short either. She enjoyed taking a breath of fresh air as she entered the front yard and continued toward the palace entrance. The sun rays were bathing her face and hair. They were so warm and gentle. She closed her eyes for a moment and just stood there under the sun's caress. It was very pleasant and relaxing. After a few moments though, she started walking again.

At the gates, there were eight servants waiting and two palanquins. Zuko was already seated in his, so Azula entered hers and pulled the curtains.

Chan reached the Royal Palace's gates. He knew he wouldn't be allowed to talk to Azula, so he wrote her a letter. He'll ask a guard to give it to her. Normally, no soldier would agree, but Chan will use his father's name so a firebender would do him a favour. He'd also bought her a very expensive and exotic necklace. It was a remarkable example of wonderful craftsmanship. The gold it was made of matched her beautiful, bright eyes perfectly and the red jewels it was decorated with would fit perfectly with her red clothes. Well, everyone in the Fire Nation wore red clothing, but the point is the necklace would be perfect for Azula. Chan was aware that she had access to the most expensive necklaces and jewelry in the world, but the one he bought her wasn't pretty close to the top.

There were four Imperial Firebenders at the gates led by an officer. Chan could tell he was a lieutenant, because his chest and shoulder armour was black. Other officers in the Royal Procession had more or less black and gold on their armour, depending on their rank.

Chan took two more steps before the lieutenant came forward.

"That's close enough, citizen. Turn back now," he said holding his palm forward.

"Hello," Chan began. "I would like to-"

"I said turn back," the lieutenant cut him off, in a louder and menacing tone. He quickly took a fighting stance as did the soldiers behind him.

Chan swallowed hard. These men were frightening and deadly, but he wouldn't back away. At least not until he did everything he could.

"Please, I need your help. My dad's an admiral and-"

"That's great, kid, but I don't really care. Get him out of here," the lieutenant ordered and motioned toward his soldiers. Two of the man passed him by and grabbed Chan's arms tightly. They started walking away from the gate and dragging him after them.

"Please! I need you to give this letter and necklace to the princess!" Chan said. He was struggling to get free, but the firebenders' grip was to firm, even for a strong man like him. "Everyone wants to give gifts to the princess. Don't you people get it? The Royal Family doesn't have time for your nonsense," the lieutenant said mockingly. Chan was beginning to lose any hope of making it up to Azula when suddenly the palace gates opened. The lieutenant and the other two guards turned to see who was coming out and immediately bowed before two palanquins carried by servants.

Chan felt a rush of happiness as he thought that Azula was likely in one of the two palanquins. The curtains from both carriages were lifted and both passengers looked confused outside. He was glad to see one of the two to be Azula and surprised that the other was that guy he and Ruon-Jian kicked out of the house during the party. Azula did say he was her brother after all. Oh dear, I threw the Fire Prince out of my house… and he didn't kill me on the spot either. Man, these two are the members of the Royal Family and had been kind and I was a jerk to them. I acted horribly. Even if they got me into trouble. He started to think he should just be grateful he wasn't dead and leave, but no. This was his chance. He'd take it.

"What's going on here?" the prince asked, annoyed.

"Prince, princess," the lieutenant greeted them. Chan couldn't see the man's expression behind his helmet, but he sounded anxious. He had to smile at that. Now that rude idiot became a respectful servant. "My men are taking this stupid citizen a few streets away from the palace. Just another fan who wanted to speak with you, princess. Like you had time to waste on something like this."

"That's Chan from the party at Ember Island," Zuko told Azula, a note of contempt in his voice.

Azula stared at Chan in surprise. She couldn't believe it. She was surprised he was stupid and defiant enough to come to the palace and demand to see her. It was unacceptable. Azula felt a powerful rush of anger run through her. The princess was outraged by his insolence. How dare he come here? No people are allowed in the palace, especially him after what he did… He humiliated me! I… really felt something for him. It was the first time I ever fell in love. And he just left me, the princess of the Fire Nation and a perfect girl whom every men would yearn to be together with! How ungrateful could he be! He stained my image! I should've killed him then and there, but I let him walk away, because I still loved him for a short while. And now he has the guts to come here? This shouldn't go unpunished.

The guards were continuing to drag Cahn away.

"Princess Azula, please hear me out! I'm so sorry about what I did. I was an idiot. I love you and I came to ask for your forgiveness."

Those last words touched a sore point. The images of how he left her on, that balcony, alone, were replaying through her mind. She pretended to laugh at his stupid jokes as Ty Lee had told her. Then, she said his arms looked very strong and they kissed.

Azula was now staring at a random spot, her eyes very distant as she was deep in thought and unaware of what was happening around her anymore.

Chan told her she was pretty. No one had ever made her such an honest and selfless compliment. Her father complimented her often, but that was because she was the perfect daughter for him. It was the least he could do and he still said those things only as long as she met his expectations. She always will, but his praise wasn't coming from an unconditionally loving and caring parent. Mai and Ty Lee also complimented her, but as friends. It was very different from the words of a lover, who would appreciate her far more and in a special way.

She had been really happy to hear Chan say that. That sensation, plus the exhilarating idea of someone loving her and wanting to make a couple with her got her carried away and she said they'd rule the world together. Maybe it hadn't been the best thing to say, but she just couldn't control what she said, only thinking about how great she was feeling. However, it really had been the best thing someone could offer you and that fool just got scared by a few words and a little fire. Pathetic.

In a corner of her mind, Azula was aware that Zuko had just asked her a question, but she couldn't hear him as she kept following her line of thought.

Chan should've thanked her bowing. This made her really angry, but also sad. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he'd broke her heart that night and she suffered. It didn't that the feeling only lasted for a short time. It had been horrible. Maybe worse than even having to see everyday that mom loved Zuko more…

"Azula?" Zuko asked. Suddenly, she woke up from her reverie and shook her head.

"What?" she replied confusedly.

"I asked you what you want done with him," he said, nodding toward Chan. "His here for you, so it's your decision."

"I made a wrong choice and I regret it," Chan continued. The guards had dragged him about ten metres from the gate already and he kept struggling to get free, even though it was useless. "I can't stop thinking about you. I was so ungrateful for the opportunity to spend time with you and thank you for not killing me. I'm so sorry! Please, give me a second chance!"

Azula shouldn't even think about it. She already moved on and he didn't deserve anything. The princess was still surprised he dared to come here in the first place. She should probably order the firebenders to kill him, or do it herself. Azula opened her mouth to give the order, but something stopped her from speaking. She saw Chan's expression. He was pretty far from her, but she could read him well enough. To her disbelief, there was only truth in his eyes. He was honest with what he was saying. He… really loved her. No, my mind is playing tricks on me. It's impossible. But maybe… this is what I want to see? It doesn't matter, he's lying. He can't be telling the truth. If he loved me he wouldn't have left me. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself Chan was lying, she couldn't. She wanted to believe he was just faking. She didn't want to get hurt again. He was just playing with her. Of course he wanted to be with her, she was the princess.

"You're lying! You're a filthy liar! Sure you love me. Anything to be the princess's boyfriend. You just care about my status," she was trying to be calm, but she couldn't hold back her surge of anger.

"No, I don't care about that. My family is reach. I have everything I want. Why would I need more? I want to be with you because of how you are-amazing-not who you are," Chan said.

"Don't you think you've done her enough harm?" Zuko cut in."You had your chance and you missed it. Leave and never come back here again!"

Azula didn't need Zuko to stand up for her, but… she liked it in a way. There was a chance that, even with all his flaws and weaknesses and with the fact that he was inferior to her, he still cared about her. Zuzu really loved her. I may be better than him at everything, but maybe he isn't that pathetic after all. Thinking back to the current situation, she had to admit Chan had a point. Although she'd be surprised if his parents still fed him after what she, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee did to his house-Azula had to smile at that memory-he had a point. His parents probably forgave him and he was just punished. This was just temporary and he'd get all the money and things he wants again in the near future. Azula didn't want to be hurt again and she couldn't believe her decision. It's stupid. It doesn't make any sense, but… I'll hear what this peasant has to say. Somewhere deep down, she knew she still loved him and wanted him to be honest, but she despised these feelings. Love makes you weak. I don't need it. I have my friends and that's enough. I could also do without them if I had to. Still, my heart keeps telling me to hear him out and I can't make it shut up… I just want this to be over with.

"Guards, release him," Azula said. The two men immediately let Chan go.

"Thank you," he said. "Again, I apologise-"

"Shut up already," she told him. Her eyes were closed and she put to fingers on her temple in a sign of tiredness.

"I guess I'll just leave you two alone," Zuko said. "I'll tell Mai and Ty Lee you're busy. The servants caring his palanquin started walking away from the palace. Azula exited hers amd motioned the servants caring it to go back inside.

"Come inside," she told Chan.

Chan followed Azula into a big, exoticly decorated room. He could see what looked like the most comfortable furniture in the world.

"I… I brought you these." He showed her the letter and the necklace. Before he could say another word, Azula grabbed Chan's collar and slammed him hard into the wall. He was shocked by her sudden movement and by her sheer strength. He worked out a lot and was very strong and also taller than her, yet she easily pushed him. This made her even more impressive. And scarier. She made a small flame from her palm and held it threateningly at Chan's neck, while keeping the other hand on his collar.

"You broke my heart! You humiliated me! You left me like I was just another one of those brainless girls you go on dates with! How dare you! And more than that, how dare you come to me after what you did? You're my and my father's servant like everyone else in this country. How insolent and arrogant could you be to even consider coming to our palace, lowly peasant?" she said. He noticed Azula's face was red with anger and she was frowning. She was right about him, though.

"I've been thinking about you everyday after the party. At first you creeped me out, but then I realised how cool your power and ambition make you. Never seen a girl like you before. I began to realise I was fool to leave you. I've been a jerk. I didn't appreciate the wonderful chance to be your boyfriend. I regret that decision more than anything I've done in my life. I know citizens aren't allowed to come to the palace, but I couldn't stand not being with you. I really began to miss you. Thank you and your brother for not ending me in a couple of flames after abandoning you and kicking him out of my house. I… I had no idea who you were."

"Oh, so if I'd told you I'm the Fire Lord's daughter you would have behaved differently? You're not doing a good job of making me forgive you," Azula told him sarcastically, bringing her hand with the flame closer to his face. Chan could feel it's heat and knew that it was a centimetre away from burnishing his face.

"What I'm trying to say is that knowing you were the princess would have helped me understand how fortunate I was to meet you. But you're not just the Crown Princess, wonderful for who you are. You're so beautiful and smart and I enjoyed spending time with you at the party. You're really interesting. You are a no-nonsense, strong and confident person and I'd like to get to know you better. I've already told you this, but I love you. From the bottom of my heart."

After hearing those words, Azula's frown was gone as her features relaxed. Instead, a wave of sadness covered her face. She extinguished the flame coming out of her hand and let him go.

"You're the first person I fell in love with. I wanted you to be my boyfriend and all you did was make me suffer. You don't deserve me. You're nothing." Azula folded her arms and looked away from him with an indifferent expression.

"I don't know what else I could say or how I could show you how sorry I am for letting you down. All I can say is, my life would be miserable without you and I'll never forgive myself for losing you. I'll feel regret and desperation for years to come, perhaps for ever. I'd live horribly and pitifully, even with another girlfriend. Azula, I need you," Chan said humbly. The princess still wasn't looking at him, but something in his voice, the sincerity or perhaps the humbleness, made her turn her head and look him in the eye. He really… needs me to be happy? If I don't forgive him, would that really brake him? Countless servants, soldiers and the rest of the population of the Fire Nation have humiliated themselves before me, because they were respectful and scared, but Chan is doing it out of love. True, selfless love. He may be a dullard, but he actually cares about me.

"No one told me things like these before. I've never heard something nicer, not even from my parents." She heard a hint of sorrow in her own voice after saying that. Her family life wasn't great at all, but this wasn't the time to think about that. "I say you deserve a second chance." Without thinking, she stepped closer to Chan and noticed he was doing the same. Their gazes were locked. He put his arms around her and their lips touched in a sweet, gentle kiss. They parted after almost a minute.

"I'm the most fortunate man in the world," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, you are," Azula said, smiling back at him.

"I wanted to give you this letter, but I guess it's not the case anymore. Also, I bought you this necklace. It's one of the most expensive ones on the market. I figured I'd either give you this or a bouquet of fire lilies. I decided the necklace is a more convincing apology gift," Chan told the princess, handing her the necklace. She took it and looked at it.

"Well, I've seen better, but it's not bad. Not at all." She chuckled as she put on the necklace. "Thanks."

"It fits you perfectly," Chan said. "You look great," he passed. "I know you were supposed to meet with your friends and that this is all out of a sudden, but would you like to go with me to Ember Island? It's pretty far, but we can be back tomorrow."

"Mai, Ty Lee and my brother can wait. I'll spare a day to go with you to Ember Island."

The weather was perfect on Ember Island during that afternoon. It was very sunny and the sky was as blue as the ocean ahead.

Azula and Chan were sitting on two mattresses, staring at the wonderful scenery before them. He put his right arm around her shoulders. They stayed there silently for a long time. There was no need for words. They just enjoyed the time spent together. After a while, Azula started to speak.

"You know, I didn't get much love as a kid. Mom loved my brother more and while I was, and still am, my dad's favourite, he rarely gave me any attention." She hesitated. "He expects so much of me and while I'm more than up to the challenge, sometimes it's hard to just catch my breath. I'm just happy I found someone who does show me he loves and cares about me."

"I do care about you," he began, "but it must be frustrating to live like that. Don't you have moments when you just break down under all that stress? You're really though if you can stand it."

"I deal very well with it, actually. I got used to, I guess."

"Well, you have me now and I don't expect anything from you. I love you just like that."

"I love you too," Azula said. She really did and she was glad she gave him the opportunity to make up for his mistake.

Chan noticed she seemed a little upset.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine," the princess replied. "It's just… maybe I am a little stressed." Azula found it pretty hard to talk about her feelings. For years she'd been used to keeping everything to herself. There were things she didn't even discuss with Mai and Ty Lee. However, Chan was encouraging her to talk about what was on her mind and she admitted it could do her good. There's no harm in trying. "All my life I've been struggling to be the best, to be perfect. I know I sound like an old woman, but I think I'm a little tired."

"That's fine," Chan said. He got up from the mattress and sat down behind Azula, putting his hands on her shoulders. "We're here to relax. You are pretty tensed. Do you think some massage could help?"

"It's worth a try," she told him as she lay down on the mattress.

"Try to relax and think about our surroundings, like the ocean, the sun, the birds' songs."

As Chan placed his hands on her back, Azula felt his kind and gentle touch. She hadn't experienced anything like that before, but it was very pleasant. As Chan was massaging her back, she concentrated at everything around her: the bright sun, the feeling of it's warm rays on her skin, the pure blue sky at which she could stare for hours and the slow, wide movements of the waves. Azula liked the smell of the ocean as well. It was an unusual odour, the scent of the salt making it special and enjoyable. The princess could hear the birds singing around them. They made beautiful sounds as peaceful as the splashing of the waves against the shore. It was really relaxing to hear this and Chan's massage was also helping a lot. Azula felt so good, she forgot about everything else besides his touch and what she was hearing. She felt very calm and relaxed.

After a while it became hard to focus. The princess was starting to lose awareness of what was around her and soon, she couldn't keep her eyelids open anymore. Azula felt her eyes close as she fell asleep.

Azula's skin was so soft and Chan felt a sudden rise of temperature minutes ago when he started massaging her and he was still feeling it now. He began sweating as well. He was aware that, while it was very warm outside, he was feeling like this because he enjoyed touching her very much.

"Do you feel better?" Chan asked her. She didn't say anything. "Azula?" he said again, putting his hand on her left shoulder and giving her a nudge. She still didn't say anything. He looked at her face and noticed that her eyes were closed and she was sleeping peacefully. Wow. That means she really liked my massage. She was so relaxed that she fell asleep.

Chan turned Azula with her back on the mattress and put his arms around her, the princess's head resting on his right shoulder. He looked at her beautiful face with soft features and caressed her on the top of her head. I'm the luckiest man in the world. I have the best girlfriend ever, he thought joyfully. He just sat there, his girlfriend in his arms as he stared at the ocean. He didn't need anything else. He felt great with Azula and spending time her was all he wanted.

After sometime, an hour or two, Chan had no idea, the princess opened her eyes. She seemed a little confused.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked.

"Yeah. You looked so calm and peaceful. This means you felt good and that my massage was good as well."

Azula chuckled at that joke. Far better than the sand jokes she thought.

They kissed again, passionately, for minutes as the sun was beginning to set and they both felt it's last rays on their cheeks.

Azula was standing in the living room of Mai's house with her, Zuko and Ty Lee. She was thinking how great she felt yesterday with Chan and she was looking forward for the next time.

"So, how did it go with Chan?" Mai asked.

"It was good," Azula said, trying to sound neutral. She didn't want to show other people her side that loved Chan. It was only for him and it would make her weak. Even in front of her friends and brother.

"I'm actually surprised you gave him a second chance," Mai continued. "I wouldn't."

"Well, he proved me his feelings are true, even if he made a wrong step at first."

"It's good you found someone you like," Zuko said as he put his hand around Mai's shoulders. They smiled at each other.

Normally, Azula would find that gross and wouldn't hold back from telling them just that, but being together with Chan changed her perspective on showing affection to another person.

"You must like him a lot," Ty Lee told Azula, smiling.

"He's, uh, not bad. I guess he's kind of handsome," she was speaking fast with uncertain words, not knowing what to say and stuttering. She looked away as she felt her heart beating very fast and her face warm. She knew she was blushing. Azula was always sure of herself and always spoke clearly, never stuttering. The princess was even a little shy now. All these scared her. I'm not like this. I'm strong and confident. Always. She was annoyed with herself. But with these pathetic reactions came the wonderful feeling of having a loving boyfriend. It's funny how love makes me timid and confused. Chan is the only one who should see me like this. I have to control my emotions around others.

"Azula, you're blushing," Ty Lee said, chuckling

"I'm not!" Azula replied, raising her voice and frowning.

"Just relax, it's nothing to be ashamed. Love is amazing."

"Shut up! I'm not blushing!" the princess yelled.

Ty Lee suddenly became sad and hurt that her friend shouted at her.

That's what she deserves for mocking me. She should be thankful I didn't throw flames at her.

"Azula, calm down," Zuko told her. "She didn't do anything wrong."

The princess gritted her teeth.

"I'm sure you'd be just as neutral if I picked on you for spending time with Mai," she said.

Zuko frowned but didn't say anything. He didn't want to escalate the fight, though he would reply to her if she continued. The best thing to do was to just let Azula say what she had to say and then they'd all get over this.

"Let's forget this," Ty Lee said.

After a few seconds, Azula felt her anger dissipate. I guess I've just proved how I feel about Chan by yelling.

"Just don't ask me private stuff again," she said.

"I won't. I promise," Ty Lee said, her smile reappearing on her face.

#Azula Week 2020 #romance #azulaweek2020 #Day1 #Fanfiction

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mamahanu · 5 years ago

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8, 14, 20, 23?

Thanks @darksidekelz for the lovely ask! :-) By the way, it took so long to answer this because I was searching through 3 of my stories (and then 3 or 4 chapters of the last one) to find what I wanted to use.

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Oh wow. I was not expecting this. I’m a dialogue fanatic, too. I could probably answer this more than once, to be honest. I’m going to choose a scene from Chapter 23 of Omertà. Sorry, it’s not a short one. I’ll try to edit. If you want to skim, my reasoning is after the second set of asterisks.

***

“I messed up,” he said, sniffling and closing his eyes. “Oh God, I messed up so badly.”

“So what do you do now?”

Peter’s eyes snapped open and he looked around, but there was no one present that he could see.

“Hello?” he called. There was no response. Peter let out a quiet sob, closing his eyes against the fresh wave of tears trying to escape him.

“What do you do when you mess up, bud?”

Peter opened his eyes again with a gasp and he looked around. That voice—who—why was it so familiar? “Who—where are you? I can’t see you?”

“Come on, you know this. When you fall down, what do you do?”

Peter heard it. He heard it clear as day, but when he focused his senses, he knew he was the only person here. Peter took a careful breath and thought hard about what he was hearing.

“You… you get back up?” he asked, tentatively.

“That’s right, bud. The thing about Parkers is no matter how much people knock us down, we always get back up, right? We get back up until we can’t anymore.” Peter shivered, sniffling slightly. He knew that voice.

“Ben?”

“Who else?” Peter felt his eyes drift shut. Strong calloused fingers were combing through his hair. His eyes opened again and the feeling disappeared.

“Ben,” he whispered, closing his eyes. The fingers returned, calming him. “Ben I’m so scared. I’m stuck.”

“I know buddy, I know,” Ben said, soothingly. “I wish I could carry this for you.” Peter’s shoulders shook from his crying and exertion. He was so tired. “All this power you have—well it’s a bit much, isn’t it? Too much, sometimes.” Peter nodded. “But Pete, I know you. I know you and I know what you can do. Trust me when I say you can do this.”

“I can’t, Ben, I can’t. I’m not strong enough.”

Peter heard Ben’s low, smokey chuckle. He could practically see the man’s brown eyes staring at him, twinkling. “You think your strength comes from you arms? From your muscles and these fancy powers?” Peter nodded. The fingers left his hair and he whined, bereft at the loss of contact. He kept his eyes shut.

“Peter, your power has always come from here,” Peter felt warm fingertips pressing against his forehead, “and here.” The large palm of a hand was pressed against his chest over his heart. Peter sniffled.

“But Ben—”

“You’ve always, always had such a mind, Peter. The only thing bigger is your heart. That’s where your power comes from,” Ben said resolutely. “You know what’s right, and what you have to do.” Peter broke down and wept, body shaking with each little sob. The hand returned to his hair, another touching the tear trails on his cheeks. “I don’t anymore. I don’t do good things anymore, Ben. I’m—I’m not—” I’m not good, he thought. “Peter, you listen to me,” Ben said sternly. “You are good. You are so, so good. The best of all of us. Rich and Mary are so proud of you. I’m proud of you. How could you possibly think you’re anything but good?” Peter sniffled. “I’ve done—I’ve done bad things,” he cried. “I—I knew they were bad. I knew it, but I did them anyway. I did it to protect May and Ned and MJ, but people got hurt because of me. People died because of me.” Peter heard Ben sigh. “Peter, I’m not gonna say what you did was right.” Peter trembled, new cries trying to make their way out of his throat. “But your heart was in the right place, hmm? We all lose our way, sometimes.” “We do?” “Of course,” Ben chuckled. “We’re human. We’re not infallible. Life is full of twists and turns, and we have to react to the situation with what we’re given. The important thing is finding your way back, right?” “I’m sorry,” Peter said, crying. “I’m sorry that I let that guy go—” “Stop right there, bud,” Ben said, stern again. “That was not your fault. That could never be your fault.” “But if I just—” “No,” Ben sighed again, letting his hand still on the back of Peter’s head. “You can’t live this way, buddy. You can’t live your life through what-ifs. It’ll eat you alive. Okay, yeah, what if you stopped that guy? I’d be alive. But what if he pulled a gun on you for stopping him? Would you still be here?” “I—” Peter had never thought of that. “I don’t know.” “Exactly,” Ben replied. “May taught you to keep yourself safe when you don’t know all the ins and outs of a situation. I taught you that when you’re strong enough to protect yourself and others, it’s your responsibility to do so. At the time, you were doing exactly what we would have wanted. What happened wasn’t your fault. Okay?” Peter sniffled. “Benny,” he whispered. “I didn’t say I love you, when you—I love you—” Ben sighed again, petting Peter’s hair. “Oh, Pete. I know. I knew it then and I know it now.” Peter’s heart ached. Ben couldn’t be there, but he felt so very real. He could even smell him now—cedar wood and old spice deodorant and dust and sweat all mingled together, covered by that old cologne Ben always put on. “And I love you. I’ll never stop loving you, no matter what.” “I miss you. I miss you so much,” Peter whispered. “I miss you too, bud,” Ben said in a watery voice. “But to be honest, I would much rather you stay right here.” Peter laughed, almost hysterically. “I can’t. I can’t get out.” “Okay,” Ben said, gently. “If you can’t, if you really can’t and you want to stop, I’ll stay with you.” Peter sighed, relieved. “But I know you, son. I know you, and if I remember rightly, you’ve never, ever wanted to stop, and you’ve always been able to shake off anything life tried to throw at you.” Peter felt a warmth fill him at his uncle’s words. “You—you think I can do it?” Peter asked, hesitantly. A bright light burned red behind his eyelids, and even though his eyes were still closed, for a moment, a brief, shining moment, Peter could see his uncle clear as day. Peter saw his long, silvering brown hair that was always pulled back in a ponytail. He saw his uncle’s weathered face, tanned from working outside so much, freckles spread across his nose. He saw Ben’s warm brown eyes, and warmer smile. “Of course you can, Pete,” his uncle said, looking at him with such pride—a look Peter hadn’t realized how much he missed until now. “How can you not? You’re Spider-Man.”

***

I’m proud of this for a couple of reasons. The main reason I like that dialogue so much is because it comes from a very personal place for me. My mom passed away when I was 19, and I often wonder what she would think of me and my life. There are many times (especially lately) where I’ve really wished I could have a conversation with her and get her advice. Peter in this sequence is going through some heavy stuff, and Ben was his father-figure, and all the source material implies that he loved and supported Peter very much. I think sometimes, Peter gets lost, and with all this stuff from MCU, Ben gets forgotten or shuffled off to the side, but he is essentially the catalyst for Peter becoming Spider-Man. Whether it’s real or in Peter’s head is open to interpretation, but the conversation came from a very honest place, and I think it’s something that many people who have lost a loved one can relate to.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Well, I don’t think any writing advice is bad, per se. I think the pieces we take and leave behind are helpful to our own individual styles. For me, I I don’t like when people say, “Don’t use italics for emphasis.” I like italics. I like reading italics, and I like putting emphasis on words with it. That’s my writing style, though. For someone else, that may be wonderful writing advice.

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

Whenever my kid is asleep and I’m in a private room, preferably my living room, Spotify playing whatever playlist I need to get me in the right mood. I’ll write anywhere, but that is ideal.

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

Oh dear. To be honest, I think I would revise all of them, even the ones I’m writing right now lol. For the older fics, it’s a toss up between Hear me, which is a Diabolo fic that takes place during the crazy epic fight at the end and is told from Rai’s perspective, and Leave the Dead to Rest, which is a Weiss Kreuz fic that is told from Omi’s perspective. A kind of, “this is after,” confrontation type piece. Hear me is really muddled, and while that was partly the point, now I think I have the skill of telling the story while also keeping it disjointed and weird. Leave the Dead to Rest feels a little out of character, looking back on it. I could have given Omi a better voice.

#asks #friends #fanfics #hanuko writes #hanuko answers #thanks!

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bensboynton · 6 years ago

Text

Good Enough b.h; Part 2

part 1 is in my masterlist: link in my blog description

Word Count: 5.1k

Warnings: angst, swearing, mentions of drugs/alcohol, infidelity(PLS DON’T CHEAT ON YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD)

feedback would be greatly appreciated:)

Key: Y/BF/N = your boyfriend’s name

A/N: this gets heavy towards the middle and end, but i promise part three will be really fluffy and have a lot more ben in it okay? okay.

also i should probably mention that your boyfriend is also an extremely successful singer.

“Gwil, you’re needed on set.” Gwilym rolled his eyes playfully, looking over at you. “I’ve just sat down!” you giggled at the man’s exasperated response, lightly tapping his leg with your foot as he stood up to leave.

“Go get em’ tiger.” you murmured as he gave you a thumbs up, flipping his mop of brown curly hair over his shoulder. You laughed and turned your attention back to the book currently laying in your lap.

The PA’s voice had interrupted the extremely interesting conversation you were having with Gwilym; a heated debate over the better type of chocolate. Clearly, dark chocolate was superior, but Gwil was very passionate about milk chocolate.

You had only been working on the set of the movie for a few days, (you weren’t exactly sure how many, though. Due to the ever-present jet lag and SEVERE lack of sleep, the days were starting to melt together) but you already felt like your cast mates were your second family. You had grown especially close with Gwilym and Joe, who acted like your big brothers.

So far, you had already had one lack-of-sleep-induced mental breakdown, (these happened more often than you’d like to admit) and both Gwilym and Joe were there to comfort you every step of the way.

You began blocking out the rest of the world as you focused on the story sitting in your lap. It was the original Romeo and Juliet play, one of your favorites. Since minoring in creative writing in college, you had become quite the sucker for Shakespeare.

“Romeo and Juliet, eh?” you heard a deep British voice echo from your left. You spun a piece of your hair around your finger, meeting the forest green eyes of the only other man in the room. “One of my favorites,” he continued, biting into a green apple in his large hand.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” Ben spoke dramatically, “or something like that.”

You nodded, biting your bottom lip as he made his way over to sit down on the couch opposite of you. Ben was in his full Roger Taylor gear, his wig and costume astonishing enough to make even the biggest of Queen fanatics do a double take.

“It’s been my favorite since I did an analysis in college.” you murmured, flipping the page over quickly, beginning to chew on what was left of the nail on your right thumb.

“What was your major?” Ben inquired, furrowing his brows in curiosity.

“Technically psychology, and I minored in creative writing. But my psychology degree doesn’t really get much use now.” Ben nodded thoughtfully at your response.

You glanced back down to the play, continuing to gnaw at the skin on your thumb.

“Stop that.”

You glanced up at Ben through your thick eyelashes, confusedly cocking an eyebrow at him.

“Stop what?”

“Biting your nails. I’ve noticed you do that a lot.” He spoke as he lazily leaned back on the green couch.

You quickly placed your hand at your side, sitting on your fingers as you meet the eyes of the crazy good-looking British man.

Your friendship with Ben was… unnecessarily complicated. He acted strange around you sometimes, and the awkwardness that resulted in some of your conversations was unnatural compared to the camaraderie you shared with the rest of the cast.

“Sorry if that came off as rude or something, I used to bite my nails too.” you smiled up at him, noticing the slight bouncing of his left leg as your eyes drifted back to the page of your book. But no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t seem to comprehend a single thing.

You glanced back up at the jittery blonde man. “I feel you. It’s been a bad habit of mine since grade school.”

He hummed in acknowledgment. The quiet buzz of the heater unit in the small waiting room was the only disturbance in the increasingly awkward silence between you and Ben.

“Oh, before I forget,” he exclaimed as he rummaged through his pockets, “I forgot to give this to you yesterday before you left, but you dropped this napkin on set and the lyrics on it kind of looked important.” your heart soared at the sight of your familiar blue ink on the white piece of fabric.

“Oh my god. You found it!” you practically shot off the couch and snatched it from his hand. “Thank you so much, I thought someone had thrown this away. This is the chorus for my next song, I think.”

Without really thinking, you leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You know, you shouldn’t worry as much about how you’re perceived by me. Or anyone else, really. Just a word of advice.” you spoke as you admired the napkin in your hand.

You noticed the beaming smile resting on his face, accompanied by a slight flush of pink as you identified the smell of cigarettes and an oddly scented cologne that suited him strangely well.

“It was really no problem. I had a feeling it was important, especially with lyrics as amazing as those,” you blushed as you hastily pushed a few strands of hair behind your ear, “and thank you for the advice. I’ll try to keep it in mind.”

Ben winked at you playfully, causing you to let out a small chuckle, but your heart was doing backflips in your chest. He just had this effect on you…

There was a small pause as you skimmed over the lyrics on the napkin before you placed it in the small bag you brought with you to set every day.

“Not that my opinion really has much merit, but I think you’re really talented,” Ben paused, moving a piece of his blonde wig out of his eyes, “not a lot of people can compose something like that on a napkin and have it be solid enough to make a complete record out of it."

You bit back a big smile as you met his stunningly wide eyes that could blow a breath of fresh air into you anytime you looked at them. His tiny grin was gentle, with sincerity practically bleeding through the edges of his lips.

"That truly means a lot to me, Ben, thank you. Means more than you could ever know, actually.” he lightly scratched the back of his neck, breaking your intense eye contact, “and, not that my opinion has much merit, but I think you’re an amazing drummer.”

He laughed, lightly rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger, reaching to adjust the wrist band that was tightly coiled around his left arm, “I appreciate it, but I’m no Roger Taylor.”

“Woah, hold up there. I never said you were that good.” Ben’s jaw fell slack as he playfully glared at you, his eyes seeming to be searching you for something.

You carefully moved to go sit back down, but before you could even take a step, the door swung open.

“Ben, Y/N, you’re needed on set now.”

You offered Ben a soft grin as he held the door open for you, walking into the hustle and bustle of the movie set. Today was going to be a long, long, day.

You had been working on the Bohemian Rhapsody movie for about two weeks at this point. Saying that out loud makes it seem like a lot less time than how it felt. Nevertheless, the glamour of being an actress has most definitely worn off.

The dazzling red carpets and interviews felt like they were eons away, seemingly working their way farther and farther into your future with each passing hour.

Don’t get it confused, you loved acting, you loved your job, but the long days and long nights were starting to mess with your system more than you’d like to admit.

Just last week, you were in the middle of shooting a scene with Rami when you felt lightheaded and fainted for a few seconds. Right there, in front of the entire cast and crew. Definitely not one of proudest moments.

The combination of lack of sleep, all the caffeine to attempt to make up for said lack of sleep, having to memorize your lines, rehearse for the final three shows of your tour, and deal with all the absolutely wonderful elements of being a woman was really starting to wear on your wellbeing. Mentally, and physically.

But, nevertheless, you were playing your dream role in your dream movie about Queen, whom you got to go to work with and talk to every day. There really wasn’t that much for you to be complaining about.

And, for the first time in a really, really long time, you felt completely and totally happy.

“Y/N, we’re going out to get some drinks. Wanna tag along?” Allen smirked at you, nudging your shoulder as he grabbed a bottle of water before turning to leave.

“Dumbass question, of course I wanna go.” You spoke, turning to grab your purse on the counter and beginning to follow Allen and the rest of the cast out the door.

You were about two feet away from the exit, able to feel the cold London air on your legs when someone called your name. You turned around and saw it was one of the PA’s.

“Y/N, you have a visitor. Says his name is Y/BF/N? Should I let him in?” she inquired from across the room.

You stopped dead in your tracks, all the color quickly leaving your face. He couldn’t really be here, could he?

“Yeah, let him in,” you said breathlessly, sympathetically looking up at your friends, “could you guys wait here for a few minutes while I deal with this?"

They all nodded and went to sit back down on the couches and chairs in the little side room. Ben gave you a reassuring smile from across the room, before reaching over and putting a rugby game on the TV. You turned towards the woman at the door.

You walked with the PA who informed you that he was in the room right across the hall. You took a deep breath and stood in front of the maroon colored door.

It wasn’t like him to come for surprise visits. And he knew you hated surprises, so there was definitely an ulterior motive here. Just the thought of that made butterflies erupt in the pits of your stomach as you gathered your courage. You finally knocked on the door twice before letting yourself in.

Seeing him awkwardly standing there was certainly… something. For lack of a better word, he looked like shit. Pure, unadulterated shit. And you weren’t surprised, because he had a bad habit of getting absolutely wasted most nights while he was on tour.

Whether it was backstage after his show or at some random club or bar near the venue he performed at, he was always under the influence of something. That’s why you never went with him on his tours, because he’d be too drunk or too high to have a conversation with you that didn’t end in a screaming fight. And something about his posture signified that this meeting was about to end in a similar way.

You now realized how long you had truly been avoiding this. The inevitability of the conversation you two were about to have felt to be swarming around your bodies. You were truly now able to realize how unhealthy this has been for you. How you kept everything that bothered you or made you even slightly upset inside rather than provoke the man you “loved” over something so small.

You two definitely didn’t have the healthiest of relationships, you’ll be the first to admit that. But the idea of having to eventually have to go to weddings alone, go home to an empty apartment and live in constant silence scared the everliving shit out of you. You hated silence, you hated being alone.

So you had just put up with it.

Sometimes you would think that he gave up on you. He would stop returning your calls and the number of goodnight text messages from him would dwindle, so you’d think maybe he was done with you. Maybe you wouldn’t have to put up with the heartbreak of the severing of your relationship. Maybe the connection would diminish over time until it eventually dissipated into thin air.

But now here he was, in all his drunken, grimy glory on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody in London, about 6000 miles away from what should’ve been his current tour stop. And you felt like you were going to throw up.

All the feelings for him you thought you had lost came rushing back with a force so strong it almost knocked you off your feet. You wanted so desperately to run into his arms and greet him with a kiss, but you couldn’t. You had to fight your muscle memory.

"Hi.” he murmured, his voice slightly hoarse as he shifted his gaze to your shoes. He couldn’t even make eye contact with you.

“Hey,” you whispered back, staying quiet for the fear that a normal sound would shatter the delicate chain that was tying your faltering relationship together.

He turned away from you, walking over to the tiny window in the eerily silent room, pulling out a cigarette and lighter from his black leather jacket. You sighed to yourself. You weren’t allowed to smoke in here but you would be damned if you were going to tell him that, and risk angering him.

You acted… different, around him. It was like he was a damp towel that was thrown on top of you whenever you two were together. You suddenly became a shell, a ghostly hollow of whom you were supposed to be. And you fucking hated that. And you hated him for that.

The silence in the room was so heavy on your shoulders you swore your feet would break through the wooden floor. It was uncomfortable, just like everything about him. He was an uncomfortable person.

“I don’t want to draw this out, because this won’t be pleasant for me or for you.” He broke the silence, speaking louder than before. And just like you feared, it shattered whatever was left.

“My management agency got a courtesy letter two nights ago from TMZ about a story that was breaking tomorrow about me. And I wanted you to hear this from me, not some stupid fucking twitter news highlight.”

The sharp, stunningly cold tone in his voice was so foreign to you. The last time you two were together for longer than three days, his voice had been warm, welcoming, and like a home. He was your home. And now you felt like you were listening to a stranger speak.

You almost stopped him. You almost barged out of the room and left whatever it was that he was going to say unsaid. He was hesitating, and you could feel how hard he was trying to force the words out of his throat. And that scared you more than anything. He was never the type to shy away from the truth, or what needed to be said.

That used to be something you admired, something about him you were in love with. He was crazy and wild, completely explicit and transparent. The complete opposite of you.

And maybe when you went on your first date with him you thought being around someone like him would change someone like you. Maybe you thought he would be able to coax you out of your shell.

He suddenly looked away from the window, meeting your eyes. Your stomach dropped at his pin-head sized pupils, the harsh color of his blue irises reaching out and slapping you across your face.

He let out a shaky breath, retrieving a piece of yellow folded paper from his jacket pocket. “You know, I’ve never been good with words, so to be completely honest with you,” he paused, taking a drag from the cigarette perched between his slender fingers, “I have no fucking idea how to say this right now.”

You wanted to comment, to say something, but it was like you suddenly forgot how to speak. You were frozen. He had his imaginary grip around your throat and you couldn’t move. You couldn’t breathe. These few seconds felt like they were dragging on for an eternity.

“You cheated on me, didn’t you?” you whispered, feeling the familiarity of strain in your throat.

You weren’t religious, you had never been to a church in your life. But at this moment you would’ve dropped to your knees and prayed to any God that you were wrong. That he hadn’t been unfaithful to you.

He handed you the piece of paper he had been holding for a few minutes, “I wrote down as many as I could remember. But some of the times I-” he began before you let out a laugh.

“Because you were too drunk?” you continued. He nodded, letting his head fall to stare at his shoes.

You had run through this scenario in your head before, on a particularly late night when you couldn’t fall asleep. You never thought you’d be actually living it, yet here you are.

To be honest, you expected to be a tearful mess. But all you felt was pure anger coursing through your veins as you unfolded the paper and glanced at the words.

Jessica from Calgary, July. Allison and Tiffany from Montreal, June. Megan from Iowa, mid-August. And there were way more on the list that you couldn’t bring yourself to read. You let out a chuckle. You should’ve known.

“Did you think about me, when you were with them? Did you ever give me a second thought?” you inquired. He looked back up at you like a deer in headlights.

“Did you ever wake up and see my voicemails, my text messages, and regret it?” He was still speechless, looking at you like you were speaking in some long lost foreign language.

You let out a deep breath of disbelief that you hadn’t realized you’d been holding, collapsing down on the upholstered couch, “when did you decide you didn’t love me anymore?"

"Y/N, I never stopped-”

“Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t sit here and try to make everything better with your cheesy bullshit of how you never stopped loving me, how you still love me even after all we’ve been through. I really don’t want to hear it."

There was an uncomfortable pause as you felt scalding hot tears well up in your eyes. You tried blinking them away but this just caused them to spill down your cheeks. "I’ve been on two world tours across five continents and I never once thought about betraying you. Betraying us. Betraying what we had. It wasn’t even a question.”

You looked back up at him, your tears dripping off your chin and settling into the hollows of your collar bone. And you suddenly lost the loose leash you had on the emotions running rampant in your gut.

"I would’ve done literally anything for you. If you asked me to not take the part in this movie, my absolute dream job, I would’ve declined and apologized for being an inconvenience to you.”

“If you asked me to throw myself off a cliff, I would’ve done it in a fucking heartbeat. And you have the nerve to stand here and act like you cheating on me however many times you did is no big deal? Like you didn’t just betray the only person you had left?”

You were yelling now, and to be frank, you didn’t care. You didn’t have the empathy nor mental capacity left to care. You had never experienced a heartbreak so severe it made you nauseous.

You were confused and so dizzy. You felt like you were about to pass out or throw up the sandwich you had for lunch, but you couldn’t tell which one. You’re weren’t sure if you were dreaming but also not sure if you were even alive. Maybe this was Hell. Maybe you passed away in your sleep last night and you were living in your own, personal Hell.

Because you could deny it all you wanted, but you were still in love with this man. Hell, you’d still die for him. That wouldn’t change. He had you wrapped around his pinky finger and both of you knew it. And that’s why it hurt so bad. Because everything hurts more when it comes from someone you love.

"I came out here as a fucking courtesy, so you didn’t have to find out about this on the internet. I didn’t have to fly out here, didn’t even have to tell you, but I did. There’s no need to act like a god damn child!” he screamed, angrily opening the window to his right.

He threw his cigarette butt out the slim opening and slammed it shut, causing you to jump slightly. It sent shivers up and down both of your arms.

“A courtesy? Oh wow! All for little old me? Well, aren’t you just a fucking saint! You deserve to be knighted by the fucking Queen of England for that, really.”

You took a deep breath, grabbing your hair by the roots before throwing your head back with frustration, “All I ever fucking did was care for you, look after you, and put up with your bullshit excuses and mistreatment and I’m done. I am so, so fucking done."

You stood up abruptly to get a little closer to his towering height. "Looking at this entire shit show in retrospect, I can’t believe I ever wasted even a moment of my time on you. I’m over it. I’m over you. I’m over us.”

After speaking those words into the quiet atmosphere of the room you were in, you felt your anger evaporate into thin air. “You know, you’re a real piece of shit? I pray to God that the next girl has some standards and goes running for the hills when she gets to know the real you. Because I sure as hell didn’t.”

Suddenly, your tears were back, welling up in your eyes as you looked him over once again, his face a mixture of shock, sadness, and disbelief.

He chuckled, returning to his spot near the window, mumbling something under his breath. “So, we’re done? That’s it? Just like that, two years out the window?” he huffed out in disbelief.

“Yeah, just like that. Because you’re not supposed to cheat on your significant other. This isn’t an open relationship. This isn’t how this works, genius.”

He rolls his eyes, walking over to the window yet again as he mumbles something under his breath. "Speak up.” you snarled. He studied you for a moment, an amused expression on his stupidly perfect face.

“I said, you wonder why I would cheat on you, then you go and act like this.”

You were speechless. Your head was pounding so ferociously hard, you didn’t want to believe he had actually just said that to you. You wished you could wake up in a cold sweat in your bed back home in LA and you could turn over and go back to sleep. You just wanted this to be over with.

“Get out,” you mumbled. Your voice cracked, and noticeably so, and it allowed your sadness to leak out of your words into this already small room that felt like it was getting smaller.

“What did you just say to me?"You could hear the aggression practically gushing out of his mouth, and you didn’t want to stick around to find out what happens next.

"I said,” you spoke, taking a pause to soak the absolute hatred form the air into your skin, “get. out.”

“So you’re really going to tell me to leave? After a 12-hour flight?” he let out an exasperated sigh, “God, you’re such a fucking bitch.”

You’re not quite sure what, but something snapped deep inside you, like a gate opened and all the immature anger you had been trying to contain escaped like air escaping a popped balloon.

“Get the fuck out and leave me and my friends alone! I hate you. I fucking hate you!” your voice was hoarse, and every word leaving your throat was like a punch to your stomach. “I never want to see you again. Just leave, please. Leave me alone.” you cried out, clutching your arms as close to your sides as humanly possible.

He stomped past you and slammed the door behind him, and you swore the ripped it off it’s hinges. And it was definitely enough to make you shatter into a thousand little pieces.

He was finally gone.

You managed to make your way to the wall, resting your shoulder againsst it handle before turning around and slowly sinking down to the ground. You covered your mouth with your hands, letting the tears freely slip down your fiery red cheeks.

You don’t know exactly how long you sat there, but it was definitely a long time. By the time you recovered, the sky outside had darkened and the moon was becoming ever more present in the evening sky.

You made your way over to grab your phone from its spot on the table. You pulled up the camera app and looked at yourself. Your eyes were puffy and swollen, and your nose was raw from wiping it so many times. Frankly, you were a mess. You attempted to calm yourself down, trying to take deep breaths.

After finally returning back to Earth, you grabbed your bag and walked out of the room and across the hallway where your group of friends was still waiting. You briskly walked across the room, pretending that nothing had happened.

Your cheeks and eyes were red, but you didn’t wanna give away the fact that you had been crying, so you turned to the table of snacks and started tidying it up, moving your hair in your face.

"So sorry that took so long guys. We can head out now if you’d like.” There was no response.

“If you guys are okay with it, do you think we could stop at McDonald’s on the way there? I could really use a milkshake.” Silence. You ignored the quiet in a room that would normally be filled to the absolute brim with sound.

“Y/N…” you heard the uncertainty in Gwilym’s voice as your name rolled off his tongue.

“Do British McDonald’s even have milkshakes?” you inquired, taking a shaky breath, “I’ve just realized I’ve never been to a McDonald’s here. Personally I’d prefer chocolate but vanilla would do the job.” Your voice seemed to shrink until you were speaking at the volume of a whisper.

You just kept your hands moving, trying to distract yourself from the tears welling up in your eyes yet again. There was still silence other than you organizing the snacks and rummaging through your purse.

Suddenly, you felt a large, warm hand on your wrist. You slightly turned your head to the side to see Ben, his brows furrowed together and a look of genuine distress powdered across his normally light and carefree eyes. And that’s what caused you to hit your breaking point.

You slammed your face into his chest, letting your fatally weak sobs echo in the silent room. His arms were around you in a second, supporting most of your weight due to your knees suddenly giving out.

Your body was shaking with your echoing cries, your sobs so intense they were comparable to dry heaves.

Rami’s voice was heard behind you, quiet and still. “I don’t think we’re going out tonight.” This caused you to rip yourself out of Ben’s iron-tight grasp.

“Please don’t let me and my personal problems put a damper on your fun night out. Go and enjoy yourself,” you wiped a few tears from your eyes, “I’ll be fine, I promise.” you heard Joe let out an exasperated sigh from the couch, drawing your attention to him.

“No, you’re not fine. And you probably won’t be for the immediate future. And that’s completely okay because you have us,” he took a deep breath, looking you up and down slowly. You could see a flash of pain in his deep brown eyes.

“I’m really very sorry that we eavesdropped on you, but we can’t change the fact that we heard almost everything that happened in there and I know that you’re not okay right now,” he spoke quietly, the usual tinge of humor in his voice gone without a trace, “and I may not have known you for a year or even a month yet, but I do know that no one likes to be alone when they’re hurt. So we’re staying.”

Being truthful, you could’ve collapsed right then and there at the sound of someone having your back as unquestionably as Joe did. It was such a relief, tears began leaking out of your eyes again. Ben pulled you into another one of his comfortingly tight hugs and led you over to the couch, where he sat you down between himself and Joe.

Looking up to momentarily meet Ben’s eyes, he gave you a sad grin. Not having the energy left in your bones to return it, you slouched down and plopped your head on his muscular shoulder.

You felt his body stiffen slightly beneath you, but at this point, you didn’t care. You just wanted to go to sleep for a really, really long time. Part of you didn’t want to have to deal with this absolute disaster.

You were tired. And tired of being tired. And tired of being used and thrown around and treated like you were nothing but a toy. You wanted to stand up and shout how you weren’t something to butter up and taste when others got bored, you wanted to scream and cry and break things and punch holes in the wall. But your body was so fragile at the moment, everyone around you thought the smallest touch might cause you to break.

Yet somehow, even after the most violent break up of your life, you had never felt so accepted and genuinely cared for in your entire life. Ben’s arm was now wrapped around your fatigued body, your head still on his shoulder, the TV in the dressing room was on, and you were surrounded by your new family. Strangely, you had never felt more wanted in all of your years of existence.

This feeling of comfort was just enough to lull you to sleep in the middle of the evening, sitting on an uncomfortable couch, slouched over and your neck already beginning to stiffen.

But somehow, through all of this, you managed to feel one overwhelming thing for the first time in your life; inner peace.

taglist: @pastel-world14 @benhardyseyesjj

#ben hardy #ben hardy headcanon #ben hardy fic #ben hardy x reader #ben #bohemian rhapsody #borhap #lucy boynton #rami malek #gwilym lee #ben hardy fanfic #ben hardy fanfiction #borhap boys #borhap cast #queen #joe mazzello #allen leech #bohemian rapsody movie

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icarus-imagines · 6 years ago

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Len Kagamine X Fan!Reader -Part 1-

Request from an internet friend~

How about a Len Kagamine, from Vocaloid, and I'm his biggest fan that shows up to all concerts/fan meets but isn’t weird and or creepy, please?

Word Count: 2,187

Category: Vocaloid

~My Idol~

Your hands shook as you held one of the smallest yet most significant pieces of paper. A VIP ticket to your all-time favorite band, Vocaloid. Which included backstage passes, spending time with the whole band, and a short date with your favorite band member. You didn't obsess over them. But you loved them. They helped you get through your life, through thick and thin with their motivational songs and heart-wrenching lyrics. You owed a lot to them. This was your once in a lifetime ticket to finally thank them for all they had done for you. The only problem was...

How are you going to get to Japan?

You lived in (C/n). You couldn't possibly round up enough money to get a round trip plane pass by the time the date was set. And like that you're hopes to meet them were crushed. You would never be able to meet them you looked back to the box you had taken the small card from. Had they given you a ticket?

Setting the ticket down carefully, like it was your newborn baby, you searched the box carefully for anything in the stuffing.

Aha!

You're (Pale/Tanned/Black/etc) skin brushed against something and as you pulled it out your eyes widened. In big black and build letter read:

ROUND TRIP TICKET

(YOU'RE COUNTRY & CAPITAL)

TOKYO, JAPAN

Tears almost began filling your eyes as your dreams were refilled like a big yellow balloon at a birthday party. Your life was saved! Setting the ticket down next to the VIP pass an envelope dropped. Picking it up your eyes scanned the envelope, discovering it looked exactly the same as the envelope which you found your VIP ticket in.

Slowly opening the envelope you pulled out...Another VIP ticket? It looked the same, but instead, it was silver instead of a platinum gold. Even so, it still shined as brightly.

You carefully read the written contents to find out, by some miracle you could bring a friend. They would be able to go backstage with you and spend some time with the band. The only downside was they didn't get to go on a date, but rather choose a band member to give them a bouquet.

You instantly knew who was going to go with you on this special occasion. (BF/n). It was an obvious choice and you knew if you didn't pick them nobody else would go with. You were both Vocaloid fanatics, though you knew she was a bit more crazy.

You thought of yourself as an average lover of Vocaloid. You didn't go crazy and rarely told anybody you loved Vocaloid. But deep down maybe you were a bit crazy though. Maybe, because of that one special person in the group...

Len...

Len Kagamine...

The way he beautifully sang from the depths of his heart. Whether it be an emotionally heart-wrenching or a hope-filled song, you were always brought to tears by his depth. He was your all-time favorite, and what you wouldn't do to meet him just once and tell him from the bottom of your heart just how much you felt about his music.

How lucky you were to be given this chance.

~*~*~*~

Your feet made the littlest bit of noise on the hot concrete as you raced with a big smile on your face to your best friends house. Sprinting up to the doors you almost couldn't contain your excitement as you knocked in the dark wood door a bit too hard.

It was opened almost instantly, by your best friend. You're words almost stumbled over each other, still panting from your quick run. They stopped you a bit confused.

"Take it slow, tell me what happened."

"Len...VIP ticket...Vocaloid," you panted out. "Come with me?"

You're friends excited (E/c) eyes widened. Their arms wrapped around you and squeezed you. Hard.

They realized this as your face turned a light hue of blue. Setting you down they apologized immediately.

"Sorry, it's just are we really going!?"

"Yes, but you didn't answer my question," you repeated it. "Coming with me?"

"Of course!" They almost screamed in happiness. "Now when are we going?"

"Two days..."

~*~*~*~

You and (BF/n) had packed together the whole rest of the day. The plane was scheduled for the early hours of tomorrow so you two slept earlier than normal. It would take (**) hours, so you prepared to be energized for the trip there.

Rising early in the morning you both were ready and set. Taking a quick cab there you both boarded. And as you both sat down looking out of the window at the sky you couldn't help but sort of shut down and really think.

You were given the chance of meeting the one person in the world you never thought would ever know you even existed. Your heart clenched just imagining the shining face of your beloved idol telling you hello and welcoming you to the rest of the band. It was like a fairy tale. Even if you only had two days to spend in Japan. You would make the most of it.

You only hoped that he would be as happy to see you.

~*~*~*~

"Hurry! We don't have much time!" (BF/n) yelled taking a hold of your left wrist. In your right hand, you clutched the tickets close to your chest as not to lose them.

You had both woken up a bit late and were know hurriedly running to the ginormous building that held the concert after hauling a cab on the crowded streets.

You passed a few people who either gave you confused and/or knowing smiles making you blush at the unwanted attention.

Arriving at the gate you were escorted by two head bodyguards to a slightly hidden door to the side. Going through it you were both walking through a long winding hallway. As you went through you read the permanent nameplates:

-MIKU-

-KAITO-

-GAKUPO-

-RIN-

-LEN-

Your body almost stopped in surprise at seeing Len's dressing room. You almost thought of yourself as a pervert for a second, thinking about Len getting undressed in that very room. Shaking away the thought you trailed behind the bodyguards until they got to a door labeled:

-BACKSTAGE-

You tried to even your breathing as (BF/n) took a hold of your (Smooth/Rough/etc) hand on their own. You turned your head to them and smiled as they offered a reassuring smile.

The door opened and your breath caught in your throat at the sight.

Disregarding the few select others that also received VIP tickets who were talking to their respective idols your eyes trailed to the one person your heart beat the fastest for.

His back was to you, but you knew it was him instantly. His hair was in the usual short ponytail, the yellow of his hair bright and radiant like the sun itself. Maybe it was an exaggeration, but he was practically beauty.

He raised his head up, almost as if he knew someone was looking at him and turned towards you two. You're eyes met and locked instantly. A blush raised to your cheeks as he offered a small smile and approached you.

"You must be (L/n)-san, correct?" He bowed low in greeting. You did the same, a bit nervously. Raising up he continued, holding his hand out to you. "It's nice to meet you, miss. My names Len Kagamine."

Such a gentleman, you thought.

You took his hand in yours, and you noticed how soft and warm it was. But unfortunately, you had to let go. You took notice of his clothes. You instantly knew he was going to sing 'Remote Control', meaning he would be joined by Rin.

"Likewise,"you're replied shyly. "But," you started,"how do you know my name?"

He emitted a small chuckle at your question as he answered, "You're the last ones to arrive." Your blush deepens.

The last ones?

"Sorry, did we keep you waiting long?" You ask worriedly. "We tried to be as quick as possible..."

He waved his hand, brushing it off. "No, no. You're right on time actually."

You breathed out a silent sigh of relief at his words. "Thank god. We wouldn't want to keep you waiting."

"Ya," (BF/n) joined in. "that would make us look horrible."

Len nodded as he looked at the other members. He turned back to you with a grin. "It seems we'll be starting in a few minutes. Do you think you'll be able to pick you Vocaloid member?"

Your eyes squinted a bit in confusion, but after a second you understand what he was trying to ask. You nodded. "I see, but I don't know who's been taken..."

Len nodded in understanding. "Well everybody has been taken except for (Your Choice) and me. You can both decide which one of us you would like. Be careful of your choice," he said. You looked at him noticing he was looking at you expectantly.

"Yes, we'll be careful."

"Oh!" his blue orbs widen in realization. "Can you help me with something?"

"Um, sure." before you could say goodbye to your best friend he had taken hold of your wrist and had taken you to a table that held a variety of cosmetics and other small accessories.

"You would think that after all this time I would be able to do it myself, but unfortunately no," he mumbled in disappointment.Did he hold up a box with...contacts? "Can you help me put these in?"

"Of course," you replied as you took the box. "But what if I hurt you?"

"I'm sure you won't," he reassured you. "I trust you."

Sitting down in the nearest chair he got into position as he raised his head up. "This alright?" he asked.

"Yes, perfect," you said.

Taking one contact out you put your other hand on his shoulder to keep him from moving him. Though honestly, it might be to help you to not shake and be stable. You lowered it onto his eyes carefully. You set it down and quickly retracted your arms as he blinked rapidly getting used to it. You did the other the same exact way taking notice of the way his even breathing almost sped up the closer you got to him. Finishing the job quickly and without error, you were extremely happy you didn't hurt him at all.

He quickly stood up and caught you by surprise by giving you a hug. You were hesitant, but eventually, you hugged him back as you secretly were screaming on the inside your mind.

He let go after a bit, beaming down at you. You looked up seeing his eyes a vibrant green with a lighter green plus sign. It perfectly matched his outfit. Yoh almost which you had beautiful eyes like Len or even just his fake contacts instead of your own (E/c) orbs. But dismissed it.

"Thank you so much. My sister, Rin, is busy getting dressed so you do this for me instead was a big help," he gushed still beaming down at you.

You simply gave him a small smile as you waved your hand in their hair, dismissing your help as a mere kindness. "No need to thank me, it was a pleasure helping you."

He nodded but frowned as you both heard the cheering get louder, signaling the beginning of the long-awaited concert.

"Seems you have to go," you silently sighed hoping you had got more time to speak with him. You hadn't yet thanked him or anything.

He nodded,"Yes, being me is quite a hassle. I hope to see you front row in the audience, I'll wave to you?"

You nodded at his friendly suggestion. "I would like that."

Nodding Len turned and began walking towards the entryway to the stage, unwrinkling his outfit along the way.

Your hands started to fidget as they clasped together. You stood there as you built up the courage to talk to him and just as he was beginning to put on the head here to sing you desperately called out for him, hoping he could hear you over the shouts of thousands of fangirls.

"Len!"

He turned to you confusion and relief on his face.

"Is," you started shakily. "Is it alright if you could be my idol?"

A few seconds to you felt like years and when he finally offered a big smile and a final nod before going onstage to greet his fans you let out a big breath of air you had unintentionally held in. You couldn't believe your own words even as they had flown out of your mouth.

You asked Len.

And he said yes...

Len was your Idol.

What did you get yourself into?

#x reader #drabble #imagine #oneshot #request #len kagamine #vocaloid #fan reader #len kagamine x reader #len kagamine x fan reader #len kagamine x fan reader part 1

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miraclesnail · 6 years ago

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When your primary ship in a big fandom are crackpairs or rarepairs 😞

And for PJO that has to be Will/Travis and I wrote a fanfic on how I think their dynamic will work! rather than study for microbiology like a good student

[Travis]

Travis Stoll. Son of Hermes. Head Counselor. A prankster. Can pickpocket and steal like no other, a prodigy in that sense.

A decent swordsman.

A slightly above average bowsman.

And absolutely incapable of being remotely serious.

Even when the situation direly calls for it. Even on the verge of death, is too lax. Even seconds away from passing out, got to get one last joke in. Even when I’m about to nag his ears off for being too careless, will nod attentively with a stupid, stupid grin and do the stupid, stupid thing again.

Ask me what I find attractive about Travis, and I’ll definitely say its not his unhealthy love for pranks. His desire for some ‘fun in his very boring life as a yearrounder’ sometimes (most times) bringing only pain and misery and even acrimony. And even though he apologizes, the very next day he’s doing it again.

Travis doesn’t learn. Not from lectures. Not from mistakes. Not from him or Chiron. Only Connor can change his behaviors (and Connor doesn’t. Connor only just encourages and pushes Travis to go further by bringing Travis’s ideas to fruition.)

Travis is tactless. He jokes around when no one should be and he says stuff that never needs to be said. ‘No, Travis, you shouldn’t be joking about how Clarisse is a chicken for not wanting to enter the labyrinth again. And you shouldn’t be joking about your dead half-brother actually being Olympus’s savior when he was the one to start it all. And you really shouldn’t be joking about breaking into the camp store in such precise detail when Chiron is right there.’ But he still does it.

Travis is careless too. How does someone set landmines on the wrong hill? Seriously? When there are only so many hills at camp? And that time during the 2nd titan war when he wanted to raid a candy store, who the heck thinks of such things in the middle of a freaking war?! I wonder sometimes how he made it this far in life with his attitude. Maybe it’s his brother. Connor’s (only slightly) more level headed than Travis.

But even though Travis can be too casual at times, and too careless, and his morals sometimes delve too much into the grey, he’s a kind friend and a kind brother.

He likes to have fun. To live life to the fullest. To laugh and smile as much as he possibly can. To never waste a second regretting the past. Even when some of his pranks backfire on him or when he gets caught and cursed, he doesn’t dwell on it for too long. I met people who said they don’t look in the past, but Travis is the only one I know who commits to it. Snide comments. Unkind gestures. The Sneering and taunting he’ll get from other campers simply for being Luke’s half-brother back during the Second Titan War. He really doesn’t linger on any of that even though it gets my blood boiling.

He doesn’t hold a grudge towards any of them and that’s admirable. If it was me, I would have made them beg for my forgiveness, maybe made them do some of my side chores. It grates on my nerves whenever I recall those years. The fact that he refused Luke even though he’s his brother, even though almost all of his siblings followed Luke, even though he knows first hand how neglectful the gods are, Travis still refused. That counts for something.

Travis is also stupidly powerful. I don’t know anyone who can get into so much trouble yet still find a way out. 90% of the time, he gets away with his pranks because nobody can prove he and Connor set it up. That takes skills. He once moved live mines from Ares cabin to the other side of camp. Not anyone can just move landmines but he somehow did.

He has a soft side too. It’s not really hidden, but it’s not really apparent either. I can see it whenever he welcomes a new camper to his cabin. Or whenever he says goodbye to a newly claimed camper. Although I find it debatable when Travis teaches his cabinmates how to beat anyone at poker, he truly offers them a home in his cabin.

And whenever he tried to teach me how to pickpocket or how to lie with a straight face or even shoot an arrow, he’s so patient. Even though I am so bad at it, he doesn’t laugh or make fun of me. He doesn’t give up on me even though I never make progress.

I try.

I really, truly do try to aim, but after years of faulted attempts, most people give up on me. Even Chiron did eventually. But Travis would still follow me to the archery range. Travis would still be in the same room as me as everyone else hurries to leave. Travis would still stay as my arrows go everywhere but the bullseye. Travis would still give me advice. Travis would still follow me again the next day even if I utterly failed today.

“It’s okay,” he would say calmly as an arrow thunk a centimeter to the right of his knee cap, “You don’t have to be perfect at everything you do.”

I’ll admit, Travis worries me some time with how carefree he can be and he may be morally gray at times, but when it comes down to it, he just wants people to know life is fun.

And I guess that’s what I like about him.

[Will]

Will Solace.

What can I say about the Will Solace? He’s a son of Apollo. He’s blond. He has blue eyes. And he can be a total prick, but I guess that’s what draws me to him.

Will is talented at so many things, but he also sucks at many things.

Do you all know Will is very bad at thievery? Pickpocketing, lockpicking, even just lying or fibbing, he’s bad at it all. He can’t keep a straight face and will starts talking faster and faster and faster. It’s adorable. He’s so honest and righteous, I don’t know why he ever liked someone as dishonest and shifty as me.

Back during the battle in Manhattan when I volunteered to get some medical supplies, Will actually told me to leave money. Who the heck thinks about businesses when we’re right smack in the middle of the battle of the century? Will Solace, that’s who. Only Will Solace.

Oh, and Will is bad at being… what’s the word? Compassionate? Kind? Merciful? Sympathetic! He’s not very sympathetic when it is absolutely needed. He’s blunter than unsharpen pencils. Normally, he’s a chill person but if someone is being bullheaded, out comes his fangs. He says what he thinks even though he doesn’t know the full picture. When he told Nico di Angelo that the camp’s dislike of him was all in his head, I wanted to wince. I know Will means well but he didn’t had Nico living in his cabin for a couple of months.

People were scared of him. People did avoid him. Maybe nobody outright confronted him, but they all certainly gave him a lot of space. When it was game night, only Connor or I would partner up with him. It wasn’t all in his head.

Will is that way with everybody.

Luckily for me, I have skin made of titanium. Years of pranking and getting caught and suffering the worst humiliation I ever can has made me immune to all criticizations.

“Travis, you’re never going to make friends if you piss everybody off with your pranks. Travis you can’t keep using comedy as your coping mechanism for everything. Travis, stop bottling everything up and talk to someone.”

I admit Will can be pushy and forward, but his heart is in the right place. He just has an indelicate way of showing it.

Will is also awful at archery. He’s remarkably bad actually. It’s one of the few things he’s insecure about. He can be surprisingly fragile when it comes to that. Hours of training and nothing comes out of it. I feel like when Apollo was deciding what to gift Will in, rather than distribute it evenly across healing, archery, music and prophetic abilities, Apollo just shove all he can into healing.

Maybe that’s why Will is so great in his medic role. He is the best healer of this millennia. I don’t know how his whole healing power works but it’s crazy taxing on him. And the more monster related the wound is, the more power it takes to heal it. He almost passed out trying to heal Annabeth back in Manhattan. You would think Will the health fanatic, the perpetual worrywart, the ‘If you shadow travel one more time, I’m going to seriously handcuff my arm to yours’ Will Solace would limit himself. But no. The guy goes and goes till he gets the job done. Either the person is healed or he passes out.

I wish he wouldn’t do that.

I wish he knows it’s okay to not be 100% perfect.

Will tries more than anyone I know. I would have given up archery after a month of training and no improvement. Just write it off as a lack of talent, you know? But not Will. He goes and goes till his fingers are blistered and his arms ache.

Will is incredible sort of in that way. He’s incredibly hardworking. He’s incredibly ethical. And he’s incredibly nice.

Will genuinely cares for everyone. Even for someone like Octavian who was seconds away from destroying our home. I’m kind of ashamed to admit this but I would have let Octavian go. I might have even lighted the cannon myself if given the chance. Because if it was Octavian's life over my brother’s, over my siblings, over my friends, over Will’s, I wouldn’t hesitate.

Will is genuinely nice, remarkably nice, even to someone like me, to someone like Octavian, to the point I worry if he’ll be taken advantage of.

But his unconditional kindness is what I like about him.

(Tell me what you think! Good, bad, okay, down to hell, up to heaven, or just plain nothing. I’m okay with it all.)

#Willvis #Will Solace #Travis Stoll #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #ao3 #fanfiction #somebody please #make content for them other than me #not saying I'm needy for validation but like...#validation is great #my writing

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idreamofhazeleyes · 5 years ago

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Ties in Blood Chapter 4

I was informed that the link for chapter 4 is just chapter 2. So, this is me fixing that.

Chapter 4

Aaliyah looked through the few books Dean had left in the room as she attempted to starve off boredom. They and Amanda had agreed that Aaliyah would stay with Xander while Dean made a run to the store for her brother and Amanda made a food run. Aaliyah’s stomach had twisted into knots at the thought of being the only one to stay and protect her brother. Amanda stepped in and assured her that they’d be gone no longer than an hour tops. Dean also left a hand gun and a few full clips in the off chance of receiving unexpected visitors.

Aaliyah froze when there was a knock at the door. She reached for the gun and motioned Xander to the bathroom. Another knock sounded as the bathroom door closed.

“Who is it?” Aaliyah called, easing a round into the chamber.

“Housekeeping.”

Daring a look through the peephole, Aaliyah didn’t see the cart housekeeping would have for their rounds. “We’re fine, thanks.”

“I insist.”

The knob jiggled as Aaliyah put the chain on and took a couple steps back. She brought the gun up just as the door slammed against the chain. One good shoulder hit and the person was in the room. Panic set in before something clicked in Aaliyah’s mind. She aimed and pulled the trigger, the unexpected kickback sent her back a few steps.

The intruder straightened and rolled their shoulders. “That wasn’t very nice.”

Aaliyah glared as she aimed and pulled the trigger. The intruder continued to move toward her, eyes completely black.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop going around digging?” the demon asked Aaliyah. “You’re going to …”

Aaliyah shot the person in the chest. The body thumped to the floor as she waited for the black cloud to burst from the mouth. She dared to get close to the body before the black smoke shot out. Startled, Aaliyah backpedaled and hit a bed. The second time the same demon came with the same message: Stop digging. Why would a demon want her to stop digging around for her father?

“Aaliyah!” Xander’s muffled voice called from the bathroom. “Aaliyah, talk to me!”

“I’m here,” she called back. “Just … Hang on for a minute.” She spent a few minutes looking for her cell and with a shaky hand dialed Amanda. “Hey … um … remember that demon that told me to stop? The one that said that there was a hit on me? It decided to make another visit. No, I’m fine; just a little shaken. There’s a body to take care of though. Xander’s in the bathroom. Okay.” Aaliyah ended the call and with a shaky hand tossed the cell onto a bed. She had gone to college to learn how to save lives, not to take ‘em. She opened the bathroom door to find Xander sitting in the tub with his knees to his chest. “It’s safe to come out.”

Xander sat there for a moment before easing himself slowly out of the tub. Aaliyah stepped back out into the room and looked down to the gun still in her hand.

“What happened?” Xander’s voice broke into Aaliyah’s mind. “Aaliyah, talk to me.”

“Demon possession,” she told him, her eyes on the dead body. “Had to kill the person.”

“Demons? This is crazy, Liyra.”

“I’m not so sure, Xander.” Aaliyah pulled off the blanket of one of the beds and put it over the dead body.

“How is a demon possession not crazy to you?” Xander tilted his head as a few pieces fell into place. “This isn’t a first for you.”

Aaliyah nodded. “Think it’s the same demon, always the same message though. Stop digging around.”

“Digging for what?”

Aaliyah caught a shadow from the motel door and brought up the gun before her brain recognized Dean standing in the threshold.

“Nice reflexes, sweetheart,” he complimented. Dean held up a couple bags in Xander’s direction. “Here’s a bunch of stuff for ya.”

Xander accepted the bags and returned to the bathroom while Dean peered under the blanket.

“What happened here?”

“I’ve got a fanatic after me,” Aaliyah half joked, getting a look from Dean that told her to tell the truth. “A demon. Don’t ask me why, but this is the second time it told me to stop digging.”

“Well, that’s one thing we’re not going to do,” Dean said, standing. “We’ll head out when Amanda gets back. Don’t wanna be around when the locals find the body.”

***

Aaliyah put the last few pieces of wood on the pyre as Dean tossed a match onto it. The lighter fluid caught the flame and for a moment the sarcastic thought of wanting marshmallows passed through her mind. She allowed her mind to wander back to the days before her fight with the werewolf before mentally questioning herself why she decided to dive back into that world. Answers to the questions that had been floating through her mind for the past few years.

“You did good,” Dean’s voice broke into her thoughts.

“Huh? What?” Aaliyah did that little head shake as her mind came back from wherever it wandered off to.

“Handling the demon today,” Dean reminded her. “You did good.”

“Then why’s there a big hole in my gut? There’s gotta be a way to save people from that … demon.”

“The only way to stop it is to solve the case,” Dean told her. “We’ll get a few hours of sleep before we move again.”

Aaliyah watched the pyre burn a little more before joining Dean in returning back to the motel.

***

“Why is there never anything good on?” Amanda complained when Aaliyah walked into the motel room.

“Because it’s a motel,” Aaliyah told her, stepping out of the bathroom. “What did you expect? Casa Erotica Seven?”

“No, they’ve got that.” Dean held up the little display showing the porn movie.

“Yeah, not watching a porn movie.” Amanda started flipping through the channels again. “Way too awkward at the moment.”

“You’re telling me.” Aaliyah tossed the towel she had been using to dry her hair back toward the bathroom. “I don’t wanna be watching it with my brother in the room.” She picked through the leftover food, taking a few bites of a burger before her body refused more. Unsure if she was still full from earlier or if she just wasn’t in the mood for eating, Aaliyah joined Amanda on the bed they were sharing. “Oh, wait. Go back a couple channels. There.”

“Disney channel?” Dean half questioned.

“Hey, television’s still a new thing for me,” Aaliyah defended. “We had no tv growing up. All books and imagination.”

“It got us up through middle school,” Xander tossed into the conversation. “That one, though.” He gestured to Aaliyah. “Still read.”

“Still do, when given the chance,” Aaliyah countered. “Granted it’s been mostly medical books.”

“Why medical books?” Xander asked.

“I was in the medical program up at U of M.” Aaliyah shifted on the bed.

“Was?”

Aaliyah looked down at her hands in her lap. “I left to meet up with Dean to find out what happened to Dad and you. Hadn’t expected to find you first.”

The mattress sank under a new weight. A hand came into Aaliyah’s view, bringing her gaze up. “I should have come back and told you what I was doing,” Xander told her.

A groan came from Dean. “Chick flick moments.”

***

Aaliyah grimaced at the outfit Amanda had picked out for her. “Really?” A few hours roaming the clothing section of the store and the two of them returned to the motel with two matching sets of a black skirt and coat with a white button up shirt. Tan hose and black heels that didn’t go any higher than an inch or two.

“Gotta have the right outfit if you’re gonna play the part of the Feds,” Amanda told her, putting the clothes down. “Take it from experience, you won’t get answers from the local government if you’re look like a civilian.”

“But I am a civilian,” Aaliyah argued.

“Not since the moment you called for help,” Dean pointed out. “Better yet, when you put that knife into the werewolf.”

“Which reminds me?” Xander asked, approaching Aaliyah.

Aaliyah was turned away from the outfit. “There was a werewolf roaming the University of Michigan campus. Took a bit of work, but I managed to take it out.”

“She kicked ass,” Dean tossed in. “Took some scratches, but she came out alive.”

“You got hurt?” Xander started looking for scars.

She brushed him off. “I got scarred, not bitten.”

“How bad?” Aaliyah glanced over to Amanda, who nodded, before stripping off her shirt. She heard a hiss behind her before feeling a light touch of a few fingers tracing her scars.

“If I had known…” Xander told her.

Aaliyah flared her arms a little to keep Xander away from her. “I survived despite what you see.” She lifted her arm to show off the scars on her side. “I don’t know how it happened, but I survived. As for the Feds suit, I don’t see how it’d help if we have … two and a half days to figure out what happened to Father before Amanda and I need to get back to college.”

“Short time for finishing a case,” Dean commented.

“Thanksgiving break,” Aaliyah told him. “Believe it or not, I actually wanna graduate in a couple years.”

“Then we got work to do.”

***

Aaliyah stood at the side of the car and looked up to the single story home that held her childhood. Waist high tan grass hid whatever toys she and Xander had growing up. The late fall sun barely gave enough heat as a breeze rustled the grass.

“We shouldn’t be here,” Amanda said. “The place could be monitored.”

“We’re far enough way from the neighbors they can’t see us,” Xander told her. “Not like anyone’s gonna worry about a house that’s sat vacant for six years now.”

“Are you sure there’s answers here?” Dean asked Aaliyah when she caught up to him.

“I want to believe it. Something’s not sitting right in what my father did when he wasn’t working.” She looked around as Dean pulled out something and started picking at the locks.

The locks gave way and Dean eased the door open. He pulled out his handgun before stepping into the house. Aaliyah followed his movements, still unsure about having a gun in her hands. Her footsteps led the way into the kitchen where dishes from the day the local law enforcement came and told her and Xander what happened. Cobwebs hung off the ceiling and walls and Aaliyah could swear she saw droppings from creatures she didn’t want to know of.

“House is clear,” Dean called from somewhere.

Aaliyah whistled and started into the living room. More signs of rodent life, maybe a racoon or two. Flashes of childhood memories leapt through her mind as she continued for her father’s room. Dean was looking at the numerous pieces of paper and lines of yarn strung up and stuck to the wall with push pins. Aaliyah’s mouth dropped a little.

“I can’t make heads or tails on what’s happening here,” Dean told her.

She picked up an old newspaper article with the headline “Large Wolf Sightings”. The article also sported a blurry picture of what the caption said to be the large wolf. Tilting her head in such a way, Aaliyah swore the image was similar to the werewolf she took down. “Dean, look.” She held up the article for him to take. “It might be something.”

“So, this was what Father was doing all that time,” Xander commented when he walked in.

“You knew?” Aaliyah turned her attention on her older brother.

Xander shrugged. “Like I was gonna come out and ask him about what he was doing in here alone. Never thought it went this far.”

“Xander, ever see your father with this?” Dean held up a leather bound book with small pieces of paper sticking out of the pages.

“Once or twice for a quick minute. Why?”

“It’s like the one my old man has. Seems yours was a hunter.”

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rktingyan-blog · 6 years ago

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𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐲𝐚𝐧 & 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 !

the hard part was over with, thank god. all that was left were the interviews, and to tingyan, that was the most fun part. while she intended on showing her personality, she was fairly certain the interview would have some sort of impact on her success throughout the show, so she was careful with her words. so after a few minutes rather impatiently waiting on the interviewer, she's asked if she's ready to begin. smiling at the woman, she nodded, encouraging her to begin asking the series of questions. "sure! let's get to it."

"alright, welcome to the interview! could you introduce yourself, please?"

tingyan was immensely grateful for a much friendlier interviewer than she'd been provided with last time, smiling in agreement as she began. "of course. my name is chong tingyan and i'm a university student and model from shanghai, china! i'm not a princess - but i'm this season's queen!" putting her hands in the form of a crown over her head, she can't help but laugh. the statement is a little silly and boastful at best, but it's her way of getting her name stuck in the judges' head.

"how did you feel when you received the news of the callback?"

"ah..." she doesn't want to mention the fact that she laughed, although being true it didn't sound good from an outside perspective. "i was in shock! there were...so many people at the first auditions? ah, it was crazy..." her eyes become faraway, returning to the hectic day she'd first came in to show her talents. it seemed like it was just a few hours ago - and now here she was, at the second round. even though there were still many contestants, more had been cut already, and it hadn't even passed the first interview. tingyan couldn't help but wonder what that meant for her, and how many of the people she'd grown to like would be leaving soon. if she would be leaving soon. but there was no time for such negativity. so she concludes with a "i'm so ecstatic to be here! i can't wait to show even more of myself to you all."

"how was it seeing the set for the first time?"

"it was so beautiful! really, i got excited before anything had even started," she confesses, covering her mouth as she lets out a laugh. did they expect anyone to say anything but good things? "really, i used to watch the show all the time when i lived in shanghai. i always was fangirling over the contestants - i was quite a big fan of season 2!" she figures bringing it back to her childhood sounds a little humbling, not so focused on her confidence now and more on the teen she once was. "when i walked on set, i felt like i was really a teenager again, living out my dream! i was so nervous, i could barely speak!"

"what did you think when the judges were revealed?"

i expected it? she almost says, the mga fanatic aware of the judge's appearance. however, her casual bluntness she's used to displaying won't work this time, so she decides to focus on the excitement she got from it. "i thought i was nervous before they walked in?" exhaling, she looks to the sky, hands pressed to her cheeks. "oh my gosh, it got so much more intense! i know everyone else felt it too. that's when it got really quiet, like we were all fighting for our lives." in a way they were, but instead of their lives, each was battling for the most screentime and a chance to win a contract. "i noticed hyun bin-ssi looked really handsome," she notes, immediately regretting the statement as her cheeks turn red and she covered her face. didn't everyone, though? the statement was a result of both her flirty tendencies and hope to get nova's attention, but it wasn't exactly supposed to say it out loud. falling over into a fit of giggles, the girl waves her hands, as if to ask the other to forget she said anything. "unnie...could we cut that part out, please?"

"how do you think you did?"

truthfully? she doesn't know. the audience seemed fairly please, but, as always the judges had kept their poker face up for the majority of the time there. it was hard to read them, especially when she was so reluctant to look them in their eyes, but one thing was for certain . "i had a lot of fun," she says truthfully, thinking back on the fun song shift. "i think i did very well! i tried my best to show my confidence, enthusiasm, and skill!" she lists each, counting them off with her hand. "it was different, and my goal was to gain their attention by switching things up. it worked well to me!" her subconscious tells her to die down the boasting, so she flips the script by lessening her praise on herself. "but of course, there were a lot of great competitors. i'm looking forward to seeing what the judges thought and how they can help me in the future!" she's sure to put the thought of her remaining in the competition at the front of her mind, knowing better than to seem pessimistic on camera. if she wanted something, she had to speak it into existence.

"did anyone stand out to you?"

"mm, of course! there was moonbok ( @moonbokrk ) ," she says, the name sticking with her. many others did as well, as she'd tried her very best to retain them in case an interview such as this was initiated. she wanted to be a queen, but not careless, after all. she's sure other mentioned him as well, if not for anything for his desirable hair. "i remember seeing him at the first auditions! i mean, of course his hair is beautiful - i want it so bad!" she laughed, twirling her own curled strands. "but aside from that, i didn't expect him to rap! it was really nice." she sits silent for a moment, thinking over other performers that she felt were nice. "to be so young, hohyeon ( @rkhyeon ) seemed very confident in himself and his skills. i think he'll have no trouble getting used to the competitive atmosphere."

"were there any performances you liked?"

"oh, a lot!" really, she hadn't been paying attention the first half due to crazy nerves, but she won't let that slip out. of course, being a very opinionated person, sharing her thoughts is in her veins, and it shows in the way she sits up with excitement. after all, they're asking a girl who used to have a mga opinions blog - what did they expect? "well....yoorim's ( @rkaisha ) performance was really good! or was her name aisha...? i think she goes by both. anyways, she was such a bada-" she stops herself before the curse can properly exit her mouth, her claim of a graceful queen ringing at the back of her mind. "she was very cool, i genuinely enjoyed watching her perfomance." tapping her fake nails on each other, she tries her best t think of the others she watched. a certain face popped in her head, the younger so eager to support everyone during performances she can't help but support him. "there was also youngjae ( @ericxrk )! he had a lot of enthusiasm, and i have to say, i was really surprised his performance was that good." it's not intentionally a diss, but for such a childish personality it was hard for her to take him seriously as a performer. he'd obviously proved her wrong.

"were there any performances you didn’t like?"

"ah....that's a little rude to answer, right?" scratching her ear, she feigns remorse, but on the inside she's living for this. there'd been a few performances which had been a little underwhelming and she was never afraid to say so....unless it may affect her results. so she spoke carefully, saying her opinion but gentler than she may have otherwise. "i think yewon ( @rkumji ) could have performed a little more confidently. of course, everyone makes mistakes but...what matters is recovering from them. i don't think she did that as well as she could have." to be fair, tingyan's skills weren't top tier, but the way the interviewer looks expectantly proves they were looking for more than a few words to spice up this seasons drama. alright, alright. whatever gets more screentime. "i'd also say vernon ( @rkchwev )?" she says hesitantly. "he was good, don't get me wrong, but the performance was lacking something...maybe fun?" it sounds bad, but it was really the only way she could put it. "i like fun, excitement, all that. it seemed to lack those, which sometimes can be more important than talent."

"what did you think of kyulkyung's performance?"

"jieqiong ( @rkkyul )?" she asks, the second name being the one she remembered in her mind. "it was...good?" she asks, confusion etching her features as she wonders why they'd center the attention on her. she wonders if it's because of their shared hometown, both hailing from shanghai. "she was good! that performance was totally something i'd do," she says, wondering if they were trying to start some sort of rivalry. if anything, foreign muses needed to stick together, so she decided against slandering her. "when she took of the pointe shoes? ah, i was really shocked! i'd be excited to see what she has prepared in the future."

"is there anyone you are certain will move onto the next phase of the mgas?"

"for sure! there's chan ( @rkchris ) - even if i saw some who were better skill wise, he's very creative and shows a lot of promise! i'd imagine they'd want to keep him around. and maybe....haruto ( @rkharuto )?" more than anything, he crosses her mind because he'd looked a little pitiful to her, like a lost puppy as he wandered around the auditions. he was still so little, but more than anything tingyan hoped he'd win the judges favor. “and yuzu ( @yuzurk )? who could forget about her! she has enough confidence to last a lifetime, she may even be able to compete with me! idol material for sure.” when the interviewer coughs to say tingyan’s said more than enough, she blushes and nods in understanding. “alright, that’s all for me! don’t forget about your mga queen - miss chong tingyan!”

#rkmga5 #rkmg5callback #*inhales* y'all ready #moonbokrk #rkhyeon #rkaisha #ericxrk #rkumji #rkchwev #rkkyul #rkchris #yuzurk #❝ solos. ❞#pHew look y'all i tried so hard to include everyone who asked #i read all your solos but lmk if something's incorrect!!#ok wOw we done!!!#i just fixed some formatting & added a title!

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