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the-girl-with-the-glass-heart · 2 years

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I've never drawn stardew valley fanart before but since you guys liked my Alex and Harvey body swap idea so much I thought I'd draw something for it.

"What happens when a 40 year old wimpy doctor with a dad bod swaps bodies with his conceited 20 year old athletic neighbor on the same day that one of them has a date for the flower dance and the other has an interview that could make or break his business? Alot of really stupid hijinks and some kinda horrifying angst."

Yeah I draw Harvey over weight, fight me.

For those who haven't seen the post I made a long long hypothetical post about what if Alex and Harvey swapped bodies and it got quite a few notes so I'm happy you guys liked it.

Here are some really great things I think would happen here that I didn't mention in the other post.

-Since Alex is a conceited asshole before he gets character development he spends alot of time complaining about how old Harvey's body is and how fat and weak it is or his stupid mustache, the good news is that Harvey doesn't hesitate to call him an asshole and a good portion of this idea is Alex being humiliated by circumstance. The very first thing he said when finding he was in Harvey's body was "look at my hands! I have witch hands! I look like I should be stirring a cauldron!". Don't worry, Alex learns better and apologizes to Harvey about it which actually helps them switch back.

-Harvey gives Alex a ton of notes on taking care of his patients in his absence and Alex is 100% sure that this is gonna be a cake walk, after all, how hard can being a doctor be when you've just got like... 20 people to look after? Pretty hard actually considering everyone in the valley is unbelievably stupid. Marnie and Jodi show up because their kids swallowed marbles, not together, they just both got the worst idea ever at the same time.

Shane calls in to complain about how he feels awful for some mysterious reason, making Alex yell at him "MAYBE CAUSE YOU LIVE OFF TWO HOURS OF SLEEP AND A DIET OF PEPPER POPPERS AND BEER!". Shane is absolutely stunned at this realization, could have never possibly conceived it.

Lewis walks in complaining that he has splinters all over his body and Alex asks why Lewis says it's cause he was naked in a bush, Alex decides not to press any further.

-Harvey attempts to walk Alex's dog, sure he's never walked one before since he's allergic to them, but it's probably not that hard. Dusty then proceeds to yeet Harvey all over stardew valley, smacking him into mail boxes and bushes and buildings.

-People keep throwing things at Harvey and expecting him him catch it, he's gonna have a broken nose by the end of the day if people don't stop.

-Like I said before, Alex has a date with Haley for the flower festival and says Harvey has to go in his place or else Haley will be crushed.

Later when Alex is at Harvey's aerobics class he sees Haley there and over hears her talking to Emily about how she's upset that Alex is avoiding her and how she doesn't even know if he will meet her at the festival.

Alex jumps in to very enthusiastically and somejeay creepily tell her that he will absolutely 100% be there no matter what because Alex told him himself.

Haley doesn't even acknowledge what he just said and asks why a man's in a dance aerobics class, Alex has no explanation.

-At the flower dance Harvey is on the phone with Alex saying that he's terrified to dance with Haley, Alex who is back at Harvey's apartment, chastises him for being a little bitch and tell him him take charge and ask her to dance.

"I don't know how to be romantic!"

"Come on Harvey you can't seriously tell me you've never seen a romance movie before!"

"I mean, I saw titanic once with my mom."

"Perfect! Act like Jack!" "You want me to drown myself?" "No! I thought you were smart dude!" "I am but I also have a generalized anxiety disorder and you're freaking me out right now!".

-Harvey is trying his best, God bless him, but Haley can tell he's incredibly nervous since he keeps looking down at their feet and his palms are incredibly sweaty, grossing Haley out.

-Meanwhile Alex is at home cause he's being interviewed by some medical magazine about what it's like to be a doctor in a small town and absolutely failing to say anything interesting or remotely substantial.

-He's barely even trying to hide that he isn't Harvey, he's putting his feet up on the table, eating the whole time, dodging questions and just generally being kind of a dick.

-Alex was very very adamant about not going to Harvey's dance aerobics class since it's obviously a class for chicks 🙄, then when he gets there all the girls are doing just fine during the exercises while he's slowly dying and can't get up.

-Evelynn keeps forcing Harvey to eat, he cannot physically eat any more food but she just keep on giving him more and more. Harvey genuinely wonders how insane Alex's metabolism is since he can eat all of this and not gain a pound.

-i like the idea of Alex passing out in the clinic from the stress of working all day and also being a 40 year old man with back pain so Harvey gives him a little blankie.

-When Shane and Sam are talking at work sam mentions Alex and Harvey have been spending a alot of time together for no reason, Shane just says "Maybe they're gay.", Sam nods agreeingly and says "good for them.".

-I thought of three angsty concepts for this where one involves Harvey thinking about the possibility thay he could just run off and leave Alex in his old body and go live his pilot dreams no that he doesn't need glasses anymore, one where Alex confesses he's been so rude about Harvey's body because being conventionally attractive and fit is all he has, and one where Alex and Harvey are hit with the very real possibility that they might never be able to switch back and Alex will miss out on a huge portion of his life and Harvey will have to relive his all over again.

-Luckily they do get switched back by the end of the day and learn to understand one another better, they might not be friends but they've learned to respect each other a little more and Alex apologizes for saying all that mean shit about Harvey's body.

So yeah, that's about it, I'd like to make a full fanfic or comic out of this but idk, also alternatively I think body swaps between pierra and Morris, sebastian and Demetrius, and Shane and marnie would be very funny.

Thx that's about it.

#stardew valley bachelors #stardew alex #alex stardew valley #stardew valley alex #stardew valley harvey #harvey stardew #stardew harvey #sdv #sdv harvey #harvey sdv #alex sdv #sdv alex #harvey stardew valley #sdv fanart

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downwiththemutantnjnjaturtles · 4 years

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We Met Within This Screen (chapt. 2)

[Donnie x fem reader]

Sfw, part 1 here

Intellectually, Donnie was the best matchup for their leader as today was sparring day. He'd gone against his oldest brother many times, sometimes even coming out the victor himself, but today was just not his day.

He held his staff with that iron grip of his and waited for Leo to come at him. Donnie was more on the defensive than any of his brothers; he had to be. Out of all he was weakest physically but superior in calculations, but he was missing range in this matchup. Leo had a hard time disarming him as his katana could sometimes get lodged in the solid wood staff, giving Donnie leverage to perform the finisher in the short time it took him to dislodge his sword. He thought this time would be how that would happen.

"You're slow today, Donnie," Leo said as he lunged at his brother with a swing of his katana, forcing Donnie to step back. He was too focused on blocking Leo's rapid succession of attacks to respond.

Leo reeled back to swing his blade again but Donnie parried and struck his arm with his staff, shoving it aside. For a split second, Leo actually thought he was fixing to go down by this move if Donnie could hit him again quick enough. But his brother hesitated in thought, and without any reluctance himself, he used his other katana to put him in a compromising position. The match was over and Donnie was forced to stand down.

"Why did you hesitate?" Leo questioned him, lowering his blade. Raph watched from the sidelines with Mikey as they prepared to go up next. Since Leo was the winner, it was Raph's turn next to spar in his younger brother's place.

Donnie huffed and dropped his stance, putting his staff away. "It's just an off day," he replied. Splinter wasn't there to dictate today's training session and tournament, so Donnie was already on his way out to go to his lab by the time Raph stepped up to spar. But Leo sheathed his sword and put a hand on Donnie's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"You've been pretty eager to run back to your lab lately," Leo said matter-of-factly. He was wondering what was going on, why Donnie seemed weirdly distant the last couple of weeks. He had gone through a very withdrawn phase in earlier times upon entering his teenage years, but now, he was legitimately making everyone guess. He didn't snap at his brothers, and he wasn't any more impatient than usual. But something was different. He'd been spending a lot more time holed up in his lab, which everyone began to notice. Leo wanted to know what was wrong.

Donnie shifted and shrugged, "Like I said, I've been busy with some projects. Also, it's not like I have much to do out here beside training and patrol."

Leo opened his mouth to speak, but Mikey jumped on between them. "You missed game night last week! You never miss it," he butted in. Both Donnie and Leo gave him a look as if to say really? and he added in, "Well, uh...not usually."

Gently moving Mikey aside, Leo wanted to continue, but he saw Donnie staring at him expecting a follow-up when he didn't really have one. Whatever this was, Leo knew that coming at Donnie with questions was not the way to go about it. So he stepped back and gave his brother some space.

"We all have off days," Leo said finally after an awkward moment of silence. "Just work on your speed, Don."

"Got it."

With that, Donnie turned to leave, and Raph entered the ring to go against Leo in the last match of the night.

Once Donnie was gone, Leo got ready to spar with Raph. As they got into position, he contemplated bringing this recent development up with the other two, but decided against it in the end. He didn't want to incriminate Donnie, especially with Raph's assertive approach to handling things. Donnie could be somewhat flighty at times when it came to resolving matters of emotion, at times a little too introspective, but Leo couldn't fault him—he had his own struggles with that very thing, too.

Done, finally, Donnie thought as he skirted into his lab and started up the game. He was late to the party quite literally; training lasted longer than he'd thought, and he was disappointed to see that his newest friend was online, but not responding to his invite. Did everyone get together and play without him? After a few minutes, he almost decided on giving up. The instance made him contemplate whether he even wanted to continue this. Perhaps he'd been too eager.

He sighed. And then the menu pinged, and he was there reading the message in an instant.

Hey, sorry I partied up without you, I just didn't know if you were gonna be on or not :/

Without even thinking, he licked his lips typed back, repeatedly deleting and retyping his message to make sure it was casual but not too casual, apologetic but not desperate—

It's okay, don't worry about it

Likewise sorry it took me so long to get here.

That would do. He'd be lying to say he wasn't feeling that flutter in his stomach; the excitement of something new got to him in a way that only a discovery in his research did, or how he felt when he mastered a new technique in his training.

Let's get started then :)

They started the game, and this time he kept the mic on, as she did. They talked back and forth as they fought creatures and enemies and looted things, eventually coming to learn that she herself was in New York City. He was surprised; suddenly, the world felt a lot smaller, and he couldn't concentrate on just playing after that. The time they spent became more of an opportunity to converse than to play a mundane game for hours on end.

At some point, she switched the topic to his whereabouts. Donnie's breath hitched.

"I'm...not anywhere near. So it doesn't really matter," he told her, cringing. If the guys found out—if Splinter found out—he would be in such trouble.

"Oh," she paused for a moment, trying to find something to say. "That's alright, I don't want you to feel like you have to tell me, you know?"

He'd muted his mic to release a deep breath. He got lost in thought thinking about how in that moment, he wanted to be human. If he weren't a giant mutant turtle, he could actually form a connection with someone. It was a very "Mikey" thing to think, he reckoned, but at times he wanted friends just like his brother did.

"Yeah, sorry, I just…"

"It's really no problem, dude."

He felt as though he could hear the smile in her voice. What did she look like, he wondered. He wanted to see her, but he couldn't ask for that when he could never do the same. If he could get her name, he'd be in the clear to do some preliminary lookups on this person, but so far, she'd been dodgy about sharing info about herself as well. He couldn't blame her. They were two strangers online, one with a huge secret and the other completely in the dark about who he truly was. For all she knew, he could have been a creep, looking to stalk her online and perhaps do even worse. The thought made him feel almost nauseous, how she could be considering that about him as a possibility as they spoke. But she seemed comfortable enough. Unlike him, who was still slightly skeptical of the entire thing, because after spending his whole life in practical isolation, he was at a loss as to what to say or do after a certain point. The conversation died off and both of them thought simultaneously about how weird the sudden silence between them felt.

She hummed, as if searching for something to bring up. When she spoke, he was taken aback—"Hey, I'm gonna be honest, I really like talking to you but this game is getting boring. Do you wanna chat somewhere else?"

"Uh…" he trailed off, mind shooting blanks. Oh, was it just a horrible idea. He couldn't keep the jig up forever; the truth was bound to get revealed somewhere down the line. He was fixing to reject the proposition, tell her that he didn't want to take it that far. She could be anyone. The likelihood of it being a clever ruse on account of the Foot Clan was slim, but the paranoia still worked ambiently in the background noise of his mind. But his other doubt stopped him—when would he ever have a chance at this again? He wanted to have the strength to say no and leave it at that. The loneliness that crept up on him from time to time had something else to say.

"Yeah," he answered after a terribly long pause of mumbling, fighting with himself all the way as she told him where to add her. He could have kicked himself had it not been for the fact that he knew how to encrypt data, and that as long as he didn't leak a word about his inner circle or life, it would be okay. It didn't feel okay, though.

"Nice! I'll text you, see you later, Bo. I had a lot of fun tonight," she chirped.

Before he could respond, she was gone from the party, and the mic went silent. It happened so fast. He was barely caught up with the fact that he was now receiving messages and prompts to talk, but he couldn't bring himself to answer right away. He had to refocus his logic; how could this be used by the enemy as a way to get to them? Could they have somehow anticipated he'd download this game and find this random on there? The more the thought about it, the more glaringly obvious it was that it was not the case. It was just too improbable.

"The probability of the Foot being able to simulate such a specific scenario in order to get intel on us is so slim, it is practically non-existent," he told himself as he finally pulled up the messages. He read through them. "Approximately a zero-point-zero-zero-zero..."

My name is (Y/N), by the way :)

Well, that was easier than expected. He figured that somehow, the name suited you—a fitting name for such a personality. But it also gave him a glimmer of hope. It made him want to ask why you appeared to trust him, as he could be anyone on the Earth over the screen, not his benevolent self. Which she had no way of proving, technically. But he soon came to realize the screen painted him in a whole new light that it casted on him. It hit then that he could be anyone. He didn't have to be himself; not necessarily. She'd never have to know, as he could wear a human mask and she'd be none the wiser. Problem was, the lying made him feel guilty, and slowly would develop to be the thorn in his side.

Donnie thoughtfully stared at the screen. Now that he was here, some of his anxiety began to fade. He found himself actually able to talk, someone to listen to his tangents and even build upon them. They spent hours texting back and forth about anything and everything until it was almost time for him to put the phone down to leave for patrol. He felt giddy, like a kid, all over again.

________________________________________

Had you ever been able to talk to someone this easily?

You asked yourself that question as you exchanged with the faceless and nameless stranger over your screen, chatting from afternoon to night. Time flew by in an instant, with him, and you loved every minute. He was someone intellectual, but funny and so easy to talk to that it was as though the conversation carried itself. After some time he came out about his age after you revealed yours. Oftentimes, he'd just present to you a random question when the subject tapered off and run with it, like now:

What do you think of reptiles?

Puzzled, you took a second to reply. Odd question.

Why do you ask? Do you have one?

I was just curious

What do you think of them?

The chat indicator flip-flopped between "typing" and "idle" a few times before a message finally popped up, and you smiled. You'd learned over this short time that he was a dork in a cute way.

Well...I think they're pretty cool.

They've got natural armor and you would be surprised to know just how fast a turtle can be

You laughed a little to yourself. It was such a random thing to bring up, yet you were endeared. Deciding you'd go along with it, you asked him what else he knew about turtles.

Well...

__________________________________________________

Donnie was wondering what he was talking about just as much as she probably was. Stupid, he thought, facepalming. His first time really speaking with a human as an equal and he starts talking about turtles. Of course he knew a lot about them, he was one himself—but for some reason he found himself wanting to dispel myths and misunderstandings about turtles as if they reflected on him, when as far as she knew, he was just a human guy like herself.

He groaned lightly and typed, thinking up a fact that wasn't too conspicuous.

Red eared sliders are semi-aquatic.

As he typed the next part, he caught himself writing "we" instead of "they", to his dismay. He quickly fixed the error and continued, feeling weirdly exposed as it was almost as though in sharing this information, he was putting himself under a microscope for her to inspect.

They can hold their breath for up to thirty minutes, usually

Holding his breath was something he'd tested numerous times before. He and his brothers had actually made a game out of it on a few occasions, with Leo leading at thirty-three minutes, Donnie in second at thirty-one. Raph broke at twenty-nine minutes and Mikey followed behind in last at just twenty-seven. The ability could be trained, nonetheless.

That's interesting, I wonder what it's like to be able to go underwater so long?

It's kind of cool, you should try sometime

For THIRTY MINUTES?

Shit. He promptly replied:

No—not like I can hold my breath that long, I just mean you should try to see sometime I guess

I tested it just for the fun of it.

Looking up how long humans could hold their breath on average (between thirty seconds and two minutes), he bumped the number up a little bit and added:

Personally, I'm at two minutes and forty-five seconds

He was embarrassed, partially covering his face as he waited for a response. Such a foolish slip-up; he couldn't afford to say anything cryptic. But he still was fairly sure that he had recovered that alright. He couldn't help but think about how awkward or weird he seemed to her. Who talked about this?

I don't think I could hold my breath for more than a minute, kudos to you haha

Anyway, sorry to switch gears all of a sudden but if you don't mind me asking, what's up with your family? You have any siblings?

He told her no. He would not bring his brothers into this, lest it be the slim chance of a ploy, after all. He said his family situation was unconventional and left it at that.

With that, he said to her goodnight and put his phone away, getting up to go get geared for patrol. It was only then he noticed the figure leaning against the doorway.

Chapter 3

#tmnt #donatello #tmnt donnie x reader #donatello x reader #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #tmnt bayverse #tmnt fanfiction #sfw #fanfiction #romance #writing

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orange-meringue · 4 years

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Lost And Found Q & A

(The Q&A is here! Yeah, I’m not sure exactly how many of you ended up coming over from AO3, but I’ve decided to do the Q&A for my fic here -sorry to those of you who are uninterested in my writing life, I’ve been really invested in Lost And Found lately.

The first question was submitted here on Tumblr, and the rest are all from AO3. I hope you’re satisfied with my answers, and if you have any more questions after this or just want some elaboration, please feel free to ask! I’ll add them on in a reblog!

Anyway, enjoy! I’ll put everything beneath the cut)

How does Donnie adjust to physical touch/affection in the future?

-Donnie is definitely touch-starved. No way around it. As mentioned in the fic, Draxum, Huginn, and Muninn never really gave him more than a few one-sided hugs, fist-bumps or handshakes. He’d never been fully hugged or held until he met his brothers, and it’s still very weird and new to him. But obviously his brothers (as well as April and Splinter, once you get to know them) are pretty touchy, but a few of them are better at picking up on Donnie’s thing with touch than others. Overtime I feel like they would be able to get him more and more acquainted with things like casual hugs and friendly touch, and the more he gets used to these things, the less they startle him every time. Though I do imagine he has a few relapses in the future (which I do plan to write about) where touch goes back to being startling and scary, and it takes him a day or so to warm back up to it. Mostly good things, though! Donnie truly does love the familial affection, though he’s not likely to admit it

When did the boys prepare Donnie’s room?

I imagine they made his room during the last chapter, after Splinter’s apology and after April and Mayhem left, when everyone began to split up to do their own things. The timeline is a little questionable, but I like to think they had a good hour in there, and most of the materials were already there and ready -the room was likely empty, too, and was acting as some sort of storage room that they never knew what to do with. I tried to make it obvious that they’d been pressed for time and hadn’t been able to do much, hence the hastily made bed frame and why there were only two other pieces of furniture

Will Donnie ever feel comfortable enough to remove his tech around the lair in the future?

I feel that, much like canon Donnie, wearing his tech is a bit of a habitual thing. He doesn’t really see a reason to take it off, even if he’s technically safe in the lair, especially because it was ingrained in him via Draxum that his tech is everything keeping him safe. His tech is his armor and his safety blanket, and even if he knows, logically, he’s not going to be ambushed in the middle of the lair, it’s hard to take it off. Eventually, though, I feel like his brothers help with that. At one point Raph probably starts trying to train him to build strength and muscle on his own so he doesn’t have to rely on his limb clamps, and, as Donnie gets more comfortable with his brothers, he starts feeling relaxed enough to remove his battle shell when lounging around with them

Would Splinter try to bond with Donnie and attempt to form a better connection with him?

Splinter really does love his son and wants to spend time with him! But...uh...as of the story’s ending...he doesn’t know very much about him. He knows he was raised by Draxum to be a soldier and is very good with technology, but other than that...next to nothing. But it’s a great motivator! Splinter 100% wants to know Donnie as well as he knows his other boys, so he pulls out every stop to try and bond with him, making sure not to rush him despite his curiosity and family-oriented nature, because Donnie is currently pretty skeptical of adults (even Splinter) for...obvious reasons. But he wants to get to know Splinter, too, and, yeah, he’s willing to sit through his 5+ hour Lou Jitsu monologues to let that happen

How does Donnie feel about the boys’ future plans to capture oozesquitos and sabotage Draxum? Does he still have conflicted feelings about humans?

After the initial adrenaline and shock of everything subsides, I feel like it was Donnie’s idea to go after the oozesquitos. He probably wakes up in a cold sweat one night remembering oh yeah, Draxum and I unleashed a swarm of carrier bugs upon New York that are set on turning people into mutants and immediately feels the need to remedy his past mistake. So he builds a device to track the oozesquitos, which leads the boys to Big Mama’s hotel, and the rest is history (though slightly different than it was in canon, considering Donnie’s knowledge of Big Mama’s schemes and the Battle Nexus). But in terms of Draxum, Donnie would definitely be far more hesitant about trying to sabotage him. Donnie is still afraid of Draxum, after all -a small part of him feels like everything with his brothers is only temporary, and eventually he’s going to be stuck with Draxum again, and the further on his bad side he gets now, the worse it’s going to be when that does happen. He never directly challenges or fights Draxum whenever they run into him, and if there’s a way to avoid clashing with him altogether, he’ll take it

As for humans, Donnie’s definitely still conflicted about them. It’s been ingrained in him his whole life that humans are evil and selfish- that they forced his whole race underground and that’s the reason they now live in secrecy. And honestly, not even Splinter actually knows if that’s true. So Donnie remains skeptical, but overtime he’s able to do a lot more things around the city without fear of humans. They’re not actually that dangerous, he discovers, and maybe -just maybe- they’re alright. But there’s only one human Donnie grows to fully trust, and that’s April. In his eyes, she’s already proved her loyalty and compassion and, y’know, desire not to out him and his brothers to all of human-kind, not to mention she’s super badass and someone Donnie does not want on his bad side again. She’s a good friend, he realizes. He can definitely understand why she’s part of the family

How much does Donnie know about the Hidden City? Does he know about Big Mama and her hotel? How would the boys’ interactions with Big Mama change with this version of Donnie?

Considering he was raised with Draxum (who is apparently a well-known public figure in the Hidden City) he definitely has a fair amount of knowledge about the place, as well as a few ins and yōkai to go to when he needs something done. He’s very well-known himself, and actually has a reputation as a very intimidating soldier. He’s also well-versed in Big Mama’s tricks, because she and Draxum have done business before and she’s 100% tried to kidnap him for the Battle Nexus (emphasis on tried). Harking back to the question about Donnie’s oozesquito-capturing plan, the episode would definitely go differently with him there. It would be a great Leo and Donnie bonding episode, because neither of them trust Big Mama in the slightest, and Raph and Mikey would be far more cautious around her, though still intrigued by the concept of a mutant hotel and her apparent interest in helping them. But I think Donnie would manage to slip out with Leo before their brothers are captured, then it would be a race with a hilarious amount of arguing until they rescue Raph and Mikey, then everything would likely proceed as normal for the rest of the episode

Is Donnie jealous that April gets to attend school? What would his relationships with the Purple Dragons be like?

Donnie has no idea what school is. He’s heard mention of it in shows he’s pirated, but it isn’t until April comes to him one day complaining about her workload that he asks what she’s talking about. Once she explains it, he’s ecstatic! A place you can go to learn about math, science, history, and any other subject you could ever want? How much does it cost? ...It’s free?! He’s begging April to smuggle him in. She absolutely does not want to deal with that, but Donnie did make her a whole laptop and upgrade her phone a whole bunch, so how can she say no? She agrees to take him the next day, but it doesn’t fully occur to Donnie that the school is crowded with humans until he gets there. He’s on-edge the entire day, and it doesn’t help that he’s a weird green-skinned new kid no one’s ever seen before. I imagine it would be a great chapter for some good old fashioned Donnie and April bonding, and I’m 100% going to write it now, so anything else would be considered a spoiler

As for the Purple Dragons, I imagine their relationship wouldn’t be too different. The Purple Jacket episode would go relatively the same way, though I imagine Donnie would be a little more reluctant to actually join the Dragons, and way more irritating throughout the rest of the episode. But the plot and their feelings toward each other would likely remain the same

Does Donnie still eat bugs?

The whole thing with the bugs is basically...Draxum didn’t know what to feed Donnie as a baby, so he went to a local animal expert who recommended things like fruits, veggies, bugs, etc. So, considering that Draxum’s main priority was rebuilding his lab and he didn’t really have the resources to get food for anyone but himself (and maybe Huginn and Muninn- though they probably stuck to dumpster diving), Donnie’s appetite ended up consisting completely of typical turtle food, and only when he got older did Draxum started adding in things like nutrient bars and protein shakes, just to help him build more strength and muscle. So Donnie never really had anything else before he met his brothers, and it feels weird to him to jump straight from turtle to human food, so he slowly incorporates more of the latter into his diet overtime. He does still eat bugs, though. Splinter started getting him things like bug chips and seasoned bugs to make it less unsettling, but now he just eats those all the time and none of the others care for it. If a live bug happens to get in his way, he definitely won’t hesitate to eat it, and, yeah, sometimes it’s startling and almost made Leo throw up once, but it’s also really helpful if there’s a bug in the lair and none of the others want to deal with it. Donnie has eaten a spider before. The others just pretend it never happened

#rottmnt fic #rottmnt separated au #these were fun to write! Hope I gave you guys the answers you were looking for #special shoutout to lizwuzthere for asking literally 7/8 of the Q&A questions thank you so much alsdkfjhas #Lost And Found

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fanfiction-ahoy · 4 years

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First Kiss

A ROTTMNT Leo x OC blurb

After fighting alongside the turtles and becoming friends with them and April O'Neil, Minji felt like she had people to go to get away from some of her daily stresses. She was wary at first, not sure how she would fit in with their established dynamic. But months passed and it didn't take long to fall in stride with the group's antics.

She got nicknames like "pretty kitty," "foxy momma," and "hot shot" for her hero name (from Mikey), her lineage (via April and Leo), and for her talent (from Raph) respectively.

Hanging out with the turts always brought a smile to her face. Mikey made amazing food and she was always happy to lend a hand in prepping ingredients or taste testing new recipes. Donnie was great to challenge in video games and to discuss big brain topics with when she had the inkling to do so. Raph was the best for cuddles and venting, each other taking turns talking about shared interests to get their minds off the shared fear of letting their family down.

Finally, Leo; Leo was a wild card she'd yet to figure out. Minji knew that he was very fond of cheesy puns and definitely loved magic (she knew he enjoyed the fact that she can juggle balls of fire, at the very least). But what she didn't want to admit was the fact that, after so many one liners and casual touches, she might have grown feelings for the turtle. And she desperately hoped that he couldn't notice.

"What's up, Min?" A turtle greeted, popping into the girl's line of sight. She'd been deep in thought, sitting atop the skate ramp. It was a quiet day in the lair and she had dropped by when everyone was off doing their own things.

"Oh! Uh, hey, Leon," she smiled, waving a hand briefly. "I just came by to wind down after school, that's all."

The boy sat himself next to Minji, leaning back on his hands. Without looking at his friend, he stated, "I know your relatives are in town."

The way he said "relatives" made her shoulders bunch up. When her relatives came by, it was always a big kitsune party. "Who told you?"

"Your cousin sent me a pic of everyone and asked me where you were," he replied casually, shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal. Minji huffed. She knew it was a bad idea to tell anyone in her family about the turtles. But, what else could she have done when they barged into her apartment without warning? At least it was only her cousin that received the heart attack that night.

"Jiyoung shouldn't be dragging you into our crazy family business," Minji mumbled, slumping forward. "It's just that...with so many yokai under one roof, I just feel so awkward! Like, they can all change into foxes and I can't." As weird of a sentence that was, it was a fact she had yet to come to terms with. Her family was special and so was she, but the one thing that brought them together made her feel left out. Hell, she had to use a cloaking broach to make her feel like she was part of the fun family antics.

Leon placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to glance his way. "Yeah, but can all of them use mystic fire like you can?"

She hesitated. "No..." her cousins couldn't use the fox fire like she could. Even some of her older relatives sometimes struggled with the ancient technique. And she had unlocked this talent when she was a baby!

"Then stop moping about something you can't do and start embracing what you can! You're hot and they're not, Minji," the turtle teen announced, trying to get a laugh out of his friend.

Which it did. "I guess that's true, blue," she grinned, side-eying the boy. "But, I'm still not ready to go home just yet."

He nodded; he knew that hanging with them was a weird sanctuary she and April surprisingly enjoyed. "Wanna go on a walk, then? We can ditch mis hermanos y su familia and explore up top."

Minji suppressed the heat that started crawling up her neck. This wasn't a date, was it? They were just going on another one of their late night strolls. That had to be it, right? "Yeah, sure! I-I'd really like that."

Since he'd gotten up first, Leo offered his hand to pull her up. She'd taken it and once on her feet, got dragged to his room to watch him put on some human clothes. You know, to disguise his whole situation. As soon as he was ready, the two passed through the living room to grab Minji's hoodie before heading out.

Once out of the sewers, the girl took a deep breath and sighed. The air was crisp; a signal that autumn was near. That was probably another reason why the turtle had put on the outfit. Little did she know that he just wanted to feel like a normal teen hanging out with his normal crush.

Yes, Leonardo had realized his feelings for the girl were more than platonic after a couple months of getting to know her. It was a terrifying new experience for him, never really thinking that he'd have a chance at a relationship given that he was a mutant turtle. But, then Minji dropped into his life and he couldn't have asked for more.

Looking down at her, he smiled as she zipped up her tan jacket and pulled the hood over her head. It was big enough to fit him (he knew because he tried it on when asking why she insisted that she liked bigger hoodies to bundle up in) It amazed him just how much humans could vary in shape and size. She was short compared to him and his brothers; even shorter than April! But, that masked her mystic ninja background. Maybe that was what drew him in. The similarities and differences that caused their worlds to intertwine.

As the two walked along the sidewalk, they threw out jokes and talked about their misadventures. Since the streets were empty in the part of the city they chose, Minji conjurred a small blue flame and started flipping it between her fingers like a coin. Leo was amazed at how easy it was for her to use her mystic power. He still struggled with his sword and that was something he'd obtained. It wasn't something he'd inheritted through blood. He thought that made Minji much cooler in his eyes (despite the heat coming from the flames in her hands and in his heart).

There was a late-night cafe open that Leonardo had guided them to. It specialized in fresh baked desserts and milkshakes for those with a sweet tooth and habits of staying up til midnight. When the two entered, the scent of chocolate chip cookies hit them first. After getting a late night snack (and a compliment along the lines of "what a cute couple" from the cafe clerk that sent blushes to both of their cheeks), the pair decided to enjoy the rest of their night on the fire escape outside of Minji's apartment.

She'd grabbed a few pillows and blankets to sit on from her bedroom, the window of which they were situated outside of. Hunkering down, they both sipped on hot chocolate and munched on cookies for a quiet minute.

"Thanks for hanging out with me, Lee," Minji mentioned. She looked at him with a small smile, her cheeks still rosy from the clerk's earlier compliment (he dismissed her blushing, thinking it had to be from the cold and not over him).

"Hey, no problemo, chica," Leo smirked, holding his drink with both hands to keep them warm. "What are friends for?"

"Right; that's what friends are for..." Minji sighed. That comment unintentionally hurt both of them. Neither wanted to remain friends, but they were scared of how changing their dynamic might affect them and everyone around them.

A short silence filled the air, seemingly brought in by a harsh gust of cold air. The two shivered, not expecting a drop in temperature. "Hey, Leo? Do you maybe wanna go inside?"

They'd been sitting across from each other at first. With their knees up to their chests and their feet side-by-side atop of the blankets and pillows from Minji's room. He didn't realize that he was staring until she started to ramble. "We can go inside to get out of the cold and we can get more comfortable. Not that this isn't comfortable, but it is a little chilly. And we don't have to do anything! I know it's my bedroom and i-it's not like I'm expecting anything to happen but-"

Then he started his own clumsy reply, whilst standing up. "Yeah, no, totally! I-I got you; we should go inside and warm up because my feet are freezing."

Gathering up the stuff she'd brought out, making Leo trip by yanking a blanket from under him, they both scuttled through her bedroom window. Turning on a lamp, Leo got to see the simple layout of her space. A queen sized bed took up a corner of the room with a desk in the other. There was a small closet across from the bed, the fox mask he'd seen countless times hanging on the doorknob. The room was befitting of Minji.

"This is really nice, Min," he complimented, turning to look back at his friend. She was taking off her hoodie and shoes, thanking him with a soft smile.

"Will you be okay if I go change real quick? I'll be right back," she questioned, heading to the closet to change.

He replied that, yes he'd be fine, before she scurried inside the smaller space. Sitting on her bed, he tried to calm the fuzzy feeling in his stomach. Leon hadn't spent this much alone time with Minji without an interruption of sorts. Whether it be his brothers poking fun at him or something else. His train of thought was cut off by the girl walking out in an oversized long sleeve shirt, bike shorts, and fuzzy socks. With her hair tied up into a pony tail instead of her signature braid, she looked cute and cozy.

"Oh," Minji said, tilting her head at Leon. "I thought you'd change, too."

The turtle awkwardly looked about himself, quickly trying to come up with an explanation. "Oh! Ah, well, you see I didn't change because when I leave, I'll just have to put it all back on. Yeah, so, why not save myself the trouble, you know?"

"I guess you're not wrong," she agreed. "When are you gonna head out, then? It's getting pretty late and I would hate for Splinter to get mad at us."

He hadn't thought that through yet. Leo wanted to spend more time with his friend, but he also knew curfews were a thing now in the lair. "If you're feeling better, I can go right now," he smiled, gesturing to the window.

"Besides, I need my beauty rest. Do you think I look this good without a full eight hours of sleep?" He joked, striking a pose.

As she walked to her bedside, Minji chuckled, "you look good all the time, blue. I don't think it'd be that hard for you."

The comment caught the boy by surprise, literally throwing him off his game and balance. Did...did she just agree that he's good-looking? Was this an opening for a confession?

"Well, I, uh...thanks?" He recovered, placing a hand on the back of his very hot neck. "You look good, too; in fact, is it hot in here or is it just you?"

Finally sparing him a glance from a short distance away, Minji was doing her best at keeping her composure and firing back her own comments. "It's just me; thanks for noticing because I think I'm on fire," with that, she conjurred blue flames in the palm of her hand.

Breathing a relieved sigh, Leo laughed at her comeback. "If you're on fire, I think I'm at risk of burning up."

"Just don't stand too close then," she replied, putting the fire in her hand out as she sat on the edge of her bed facing the turtle.

"What if that's all I want, though?"

"Well, I-" she paused, watching as the blue banded teen approached her. "W-well-"

Standing over his friend, Leo leaned in close to her face. "Something wrong, Min? Kit got your tongue?"

"More like a turtle, but yes," she whispered, staring back at him. He was so close; close enough to feel his breath on her face. His hands moved from his sides and were placed on either side of her on the bed.

He could do it. He could kiss her right here and tell her all about his feelings. But, dios mio, was he nervous. I mean, she hadn't moved away after his advance, so that had to mean something, right? And she even shot back her own little comebacks! She had to share some of the same feelings, at the very least. Looking down at her lips, then back up, he silently hoped she got the cue.

What surprised him as he leaned in further was the fact that she did, too. Her lips met his briefly, in an awkwardly short first kiss. When they both backed up, Minji's face was bright red and she slapped a hand to her mouth. "I-I'm so sorry! I-"

She didn't get another muffled word out as Leon grabbed her hand away from her face and stole a second kiss. This one was more refined, as her other hand moved to his shoulder. This was it; he wasn't dreaming. He was finally kissing his crush! And she was kissing back! When they pulled away for air, he stated, "I'm definitely not sorry."

A text on Leo's phone interrupted the two, making the boy pull away with a grumpy sigh. It was from Donnie, letting him know that Splinter was making his rounds on the boys' rooms soon before going to bed. He groaned, wondering why something always had to ruin good things for him every time. Minji saw the text from the purple brother as the turtle placed his phone in her lap and his forehead on her shoulder.

"I'm guessing you have to go right meow, huh?" She giggled, nudging the side of his head with her cheek. He grumbled, moving his face into the crook of her neck. When he spoke, his lips brushed her hot skin. "I mean, yeah...but-!"

"No butts unless it's yours leaving my window, blue," the girl replied, trying to calm her nerves down and pushing on the boy to get him off her.

"I should take your butt with me..."

"Excuse you?"

"I said I should get going!"

"Uh-huh, sure you did," she rolled her eyes as Leo neared the exit. "I'll text ya later, okay? Gotta make sure you get home unscathed."

With his body already outside, Leo poked his head in to confirm that, yes, he'd text her when he got home. And before he could duck out, Minji bumped her forehead against his. An act that the two had grown accustomed to doing when saying goodbye after nights like these. It had been a running inside joke, since bonking heads into one another on a few occasions and once during a mission. But, it always held sentiment for the two. Now it was much more endearing than dangerous.

When the turtle got home, he was greeted by his disasterous twin. "Sooo, how was your date?"

"I-it wasn't a date! We were just talking," blue defended, failing to hide his blush. Purple rolled his eyes. "Riiight, and Galileo didn't discover the rings of Saturn."

"Did you do it, Leo? Did you finally confess to Minji!" Mikey gasped, poking his head around the corner.

"Or did she kiss you? You know, since you got that lovesick look on your face," Raph snickered, appearing behind his younger brothers.

"Ugh! Why can't you guys give me a break?!"

#rottmnt #rottmnt oc #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt x oc #rottmnt leo #first kiss #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt leonardo #the blue bluey

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d3-iseefire · 4 years

Text

She Walks in Shadow Chapter 18

The scar on Bilba’s back hurt, and it was pissing her off.

Largely because, up to that point, it had been about the only thing that didn’t hurt.

Having her younger body, free from scars and other wounds she’d picked up over the years, had been nice at first but the appeal was quickly fading. Every muscle hurt from her attempts to get back in shape, and the gait of the pony constantly reminded her that this body had virtually no riding experience whatsoever.

It was a miserable experience, and all of it was compounded farther by the ever-present feel of eyes boring into her back.

She shouldn’t have slept with him.

She knew that, obviously. She’d known it then and knew it doubly now. It was just that, at the time, the idea had been that she’d be the one suffering the consequences for it.

It had never occurred to her that he’d have any lasting hang-ups.

Just further proof of how little she’d known him to begin with.

In any event, sleeping with him had not had the desired effect. She’d expected it to settle her down, prove that neither of them was the same person. She’d expected it to help her stop wondering, cheapen it all even. Take it from the lost fantasy in her mind to the grounded reality, to the knowledge that what was lost could never again be found.

She’d expected it allow her to move on.

Or at least…she thought that was what her intention had been.

Instead she’d just ended up hurting him which, in hindsight, shouldn’t have surprised her. That was what she did, after all, wasn’t it? Hurt him. Failed him when he needed her most. It only made sense that ---

Bilba cursed quietly. Stop it, she ordered herself. Stop thinking of him as him. Even if he felt the same, smelled the same, even if the sun brightened his hair to the same burnished gold and his smile lit the same fire she’d felt back then.

It wasn’t him.

He was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.

Now if he’d just stop staring at her all the damn time.

He was probably still convinced he’d gotten her pregnant.

He hadn’t, of that she had no doubt. She’d been sent back to accomplish a task, and it wasn’t to give her a second chance. The Valar didn’t care a single, small hobbit and, even if they did, that hobbit certainly was never going to be her.

She was there to accomplish a task. A pregnancy would get in the way of that task which meant, simply put, she wasn’t pregnant.

He’d relax eventually, breathe a sigh of relief and place the entire incident in the back of his mind, under the label of “Mistakes Not to Be Repeated.” His interest would wane and turn elsewhere and…that would be that.

The discomfort in her back spiked unexpectedly and she tensed, unconsciously pulling her shoulders back as if she could somehow squeeze the pain out of her body.

“Are you all right?” Dwalin asked quietly from where he rode next to her.

“I’m fine,” she said shortly.

Dwalin’s gaze went to the horizon where the sun was in the process of sinking toward the earth. “We should be stopping soon.”

Bilba tsked. “I don’t care.”

He chuckled. “Sure you don’t.”

Bilba considered throwing a knife at him, but decided it wasn’t worth losing the progress she’d made in trying to gain Thorin’s trust. She’d ridden next to him nearly all day, simply chatting and trying to forge a relationship. If she wanted to get anywhere with him in the future, if she wanted any hope of changing things, having his trust and respect would be vital.

Dwalin settled back into silence next to her. He knew better than to try and push her, especially when she was in a bad mood.

The pain in her back spiked again, like a severe pinch she couldn’t relieve, and she let out an annoyed hiss. Her younger body was fast proving to be more of an irritant than her battle scarred one had been.

She forced herself to study the landscape, watching for potential threats. There hadn’t been anything this early the first time around but, then again, there hadn’t been orcs in the Shire the first time either.

They were still traveling through a mostly open plain and would continue to do so until they reached the Trollshaws.

The Trollshaws, and the actual trolls they’d met there the first time. Bilba still hadn’t decided what to do about them. As things stood at present, she had the advantage of knowing everything that was coming. The second she started to change things she would lose that advantage and be as blind as if she had been back then.

Movement came up on her left side and she turned her head to see Bofur riding alongside her. He grinned and reached up to tap his hat. “Lovely day we’re having.”

“It’s no different than the one that came before,” Bilba said, pain making her temper short, “or the one that will come after.” At least until they got closer to Erebor and winter began to set in. A cold breeze seemed to rush through her veins and, in the back of her mind, echoed the splintering sound of ice cracking on a frozen river.

She tensed, and her fingers curled around the reins.

Beside her, Bofur was chattering about something or other and she struggled to focus on him in the hopes it would take her mind off where it was trying to go.

It took her only a few minutes to become completely enthralled.

He was just so…alive.

It was such a stark contrast to how he’d been the last time she’d seen him. There’d been no light in his eyes then, and the few smiles he’d managed to dredge up were brittle and false.

None of them had come out of that last battle unscathed.

From Bombur who’d lost himself in the monotony of work, to Ori who’d found a second quest and followed it to the same bitter end as the first. Nori who’d given himself to the streets, Dori to the dark halls of his mind, and Balin who’d fled Erebor in search of something he could never find. Even Gloin who’d come out the best of them all with family and fortune awaiting him back in Ered Luin. He’d never spoken of the quest after returning, and stories she’d heard from others spoke of his struggle with nightmares, moodiness and flashes of temper.

It made her wonder sometimes, just what they had all hoped for that first time around. What would drive someone to set out on a mission where, going in, they knew the most likely outcome was death. Was it loyalty? Hope? Desperation?

What was it that had driven her to go? To give up the comforts of home and hearth to set out with a lot of strangers on a quest doomed to fail?

Whatever the case might have been, there was one thing she knew without question and that was that all their hopes, dreams and fears had been bound up in the figure of Thorin Oakenshield.

Bound with him, and died with him, and as Thorin had gone so had they all.

She rode now with a company of ghosts.

Fourteen souls had marched to Ravenhill, and eleven husks had left it.

Bofur cleared his throat awkwardly next to her. “Ah, I’m sorry, Lass. I didn’t mean to bother you. I’ll leave you alone.”

Bilba blinked in confusion, and then reached out and put a hand on his arm before he could drop back. “No, wait.” She hesitated as something inside her almost overwhelmed her, nearly desperate to replace the last image she’d had of Bofur with the one riding beside her now. “I’m the one who should apologize. I’m not used to riding. It’s put me in a foul mood.”

He grinned; a genuine one that poked at some dark corner of her heart and threatened to open a door she’d long since shut. “Well, it just so happens cheering up pretty lasses is a specialty of mine.”

The barest hint of a smile tugged at Bilba’s lips. “Is it?”

He nodded sagely. “That it is. If you’d like, I’d be happy to do my best to get your mind off—” he stumbled slightly, face reddening slightly, “—other things, that might be distressing you.”

He made a vague gesture in the direction of her saddle and, again, Bilba felt that ghost of a smile along with an almost desperate desire to recapture, if even for only a moment, some small piece of what that first journey had been.

Minus Thorin glaring at her every five seconds. That she was happy to do without.

But, as for the rest, what little of it that could be recaptured…that she was happy to entertain for however long it might last.

***

They traveled for several more hours, finally stopping only as the light began to change to the brilliant oranges and red of sunset.

By that time, she’d gathered quite the little group around her. Apparently, her willingness to have Bofur riding next to her had made various members of the company decide she was…approachable.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like them, or that she didn’t want to spend time with them. It was just that she was so out of practice. Out of practice with small talk, being in groups, being around more than just herself and her own thoughts. Before, she could go weeks without seeing someone, days without remembering to say a single word and then only to her pony.

She was out of practice with hospitality. She’d been bad at it to begin with and was worse now. Knowing when to smile and laugh and make small talk, thinking of questions to ask or answers to give. She had tried, a little, at first. There were just so many of them, though, and they were all crowded about her and it felt like the air was being sucked out even though they were all outside.

She’d eventually stopped trying and lapsed into silence, eyes focused on what little of the landscape she could see through the people around her. They hadn’t really noticed, or perhaps had simply allowed it, their conversation flowing around and over her in a cacophony of sound she couldn’t begin to follow.

Thorin finally called a halt on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the forest that lay before Rivendell and the foot of the Misty Mountains. Said mountains loomed before them even now, a craggy rock face rising up hundreds of feet into the air. When she’d been younger, her mother would sometimes take her on trips to see the elves and Bilba had always loved the sight of the mountains. They called forth a feeling of mystery and romanticism that would have her awake late into the night dreaming up epic tales of what fantastical sorts of creatures might live there.

She’d never told anyone but at least a tiny part of her decision to go on the quest had been a desire to finally set foot on those rocks and see for herself what lay beyond.

The answer, she’d soon found, was apparently rocks. Giant, rude rocks that couldn’t be bothered to tell you when you were standing on them and that liked to play catch…with other rocks.

She really was not looking forward to a repeat of that. Judging by the look on Dwalin’s face as he gazed up toward the not-so-distant peaks neither was he.

They set up camp under a low overhang very near to the edge of the cliff. Bilba had a vague memory of it from the first time but it was overshadowed by everything else that had happened and was preparing to happen again.

She did remember the sight of Fili and Kili huddled up under the overhang, mostly because she could recall being mesmerized by how the firelight played off Thorin’s oldest nephew.

The reality now, when compared to the memory still lurking in her mind, did not disappoint.

She waited until most everyone else had set up their bedrolls before unfurling hers on the edge near where Thorin’s was. It was far from the chatter of the rest of the Company and, after listening to them for the entire day, she could understand his desire for some peace and quiet, as much as could be found under the circumstances.

She wasn’t surprised when Dwalin dropped his bedroll next to hers.

He headed off to speak to Thorin and Bilba wandered over to drop down next to where Gandalf was seated on a large boulder.

“Are you all right?” he asked as she dropped down next to him.

Bilba’s eyes tracked over the company, watching as they laughed and chatted amongst themselves, joking and carrying on as if they were on a lark and not a suicide mission. “No,” she said finally, eyes going toward where Fili lounged against the rock shelf next to his brother, “but sometimes I wish I was.” Her voice dropped to a near whisper on the last, but she wasn’t surprised that Gandalf caught it anyway.

“And, what, pray tell,” he prodded gently, “is keeping you back, my dear?”

Fili’s eyes shifted toward hers, as if he knew she was looking, and Bilba turned away. “You know the answer to that, old man.” She pushed to her feet. “Neither of us is who we once were.”

“And is there a reason you can’t begin again?” his voice questioned from behind her. “As you both are now?”

Bilba didn’t answer. Instead she went to stand at the edge of the cliff, overlooking the forest far below. Night had fallen and there was little to see but a black void stretching out beneath her feet.

“What’s so fascinating about the dark?” an amused voice asked from behind her.

Bilba barely reacted. She’d felt him approaching, like a too tight string suddenly going slack.

Fili moved to stand next to her, arms crossed in an unconscious mirroring of her pose. A breeze coming up from below brushed an errant strand of hair over his shoulder and she had to clench her teeth against a surge of irrational jealousy.

It physically hurt to not be able to touch him. She’d ridden ahead of him all day, and had barely seen him outside of rest stops, but she’d been aware of him every second. She was convinced that, if pressed, she could have turned and pointed to his exact position without a moment’s hesitation.

“What will you do at the end?” The words came out of nowhere, born from a sudden need to give him a reason to keep standing beside her as long as possible. “After reclaiming Erebor?”

He shrugged. “Same thing I’m doing now, I suppose, just in a different place.”

“Oh.” She forgot sometimes that Fili already had a life well before he ever met her. That he’d been a prince in his own right, helping to rule Ered Luin alongside his uncle. In her mind, only the journey had existed. An independent world separate from the rest of Middle Earth.

She’d never met Fili outside of that. Had no idea about his life in Ered Luin. What his daily responsibilities had been, things that had annoyed him or made him happy, what he’d done in his free time.

If there had been a girl he’d had his eye on.

How she could have gone nearly an entire year without knowing any of that showed just how shallow their relationship must have been.

Just a dream, one that would never have survived the light of day. If they had retaken Erebor, he would have realized it. Seen just how poorly she measured up against those he’d left behind, just how out of place she was in the life he’d long ago established.

He’d have grown tired of her, and she’d have ended up in the same place she had the first time around.

But at least he’d have still been alive.

She’d have traded it all for him to have still been alive.

Would have traded it then and would trade it now.

“What are you planning to do?” Fili asked, breaking into her thoughts. “I heard that you sold your house before leaving.”

“I haven’t decided,” Bilba lied. “Perhaps I’ll go stay with the elves.”

“Because life in the Shire wasn’t boring enough?” Fili’s lips twisted. “My apologies, that was uncalled for.”

Bilba surprised herself by chuckling. “But fair. Life in the Shire isn’t exactly known for excitement. As for the elves—” she frowned. “I’ve been to Rivendell and I have to say that I have no idea what it is they do all day.”

“Right?” Fili asked. “Perhaps they simply wander about and practice looking pensive.”

Bilba’s lips quirked into a smile. “Perhaps, and let’s working on sounding grave and mysterious.” She shot a glance over her shoulder. “I wonder sometimes if Gandalf might not be part elf.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Fili said dryly. “He does seem incapable of simply speaking straight. I think we could be in mortal peril and he’d waste time trying to cryptically tell us how to defend ourselves.”

“So he would,” Bilba murmured. Her good spirits flagged a bit at the thought of them being in mortal peril. They would be going through that soon enough.

Her eyes went to Thorin who was still resting against the edge of the stone. The last time around he had been the one standing here, staring out over the darkness while Balin had recounted the story of how he’d gotten his title, Oakenshield.

Disquiet moved through her. Why was it different? She tried to think back, and a hazy memory began to form. He’d been asleep back then too, but then he’d awakened…for dinner? No…it had been something else, but she couldn’t remember what.

Beside her, Fili raised an eyebrow. “Problem?”

“No.” Bilba shook her head. She was being ridiculous. She was so used to living in constant danger, so used to paranoia, that she was seeing danger where there wasn’t any. Everything was fine. It was a miniscule change that could have been caused by any number of small, infinitesimal actions. It didn’t mean that –

A loud screen came from somewhere behind them, off in the darkness, and both she and Fili half turned to look.

“Looks like an owl got its dinner,” Fili mused.

“I suppose,” Bilba said slowly. The memory of their first trip pressed forward again.

A screech, she remembered. There had been a screech that time too, but from down below, in the valley. Fili and Kili had made a joke about orcs and that had…

She twisted back to look down into the darkness that masked the valley floor. Why would that have changed? She could understand other things, things that might have changed because they rode at a different pace or she said something different or a host of other things. She, Dwalin and Gandalf all remembered the first trip, it made perfect sense for some things to change no matter what they did or did not do.

But not this.

Nothing had delayed them that long, and they were in the same place so what could change –

Realization hit.

Ice ran through her veins and her heart thundered so hard in her chest it was a wonder it didn’t burst right through.

She spun, mouth opening to raise the alarm…and it was already too late.

Dark shadows stepped into the flickering firelight, and quickly resolved into orcs.

At least a dozen of them, if not more.

A shout rang out, she had no idea from whom, and then a flurry of activity broke out as everyone dove for their weapons at the same time. Thorin went from sleeping to standing at ready, sword clasped in hand all in one, simple move.

Bilba stood frozen. Her blood thundered in her veins and her heart threatened to burst right out of her chest. She felt cold, ice cold, and her eyes remained helplessly fixed on the empty spot between two of the larger orcs.

Orcs didn’t travel alone, and they didn’t travel without a leader. The bigger the group the more important the leader and for this one to be here…to be here when they shouldn’t be, when they hadn’t been…

Please don’t be him, she thought desperately. Please don’t, not yet. I’m not ready yet.

Please.

A new orc stepped into the light. One bigger, and stronger than any she’d seen in a very long time.

An albino, a condition so rare and unique amongst the species he was often referred as the pale orc.

One she hadn’t seen outside of her nightmares, in what felt like an Age.

One she’d have been grateful to never see again.

Azog.

Follow on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16547237/chapters/38767136

#Writing #My Writing #Fanfic #Fanfiction #The Hobbit #female bilbo baggins #Romance #Bilbo #Angst #Happy Ending #time travel fix it #Fix It #tolkien

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kusunogatari · 4 years

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[ ObiRyū October | Day Six | 666 ] [ @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū, Hatake Kakashi, Nohara Rin, Jiraiya ] [ Verse: Ghost Among the Ghosts ]

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If there’s one thing sure to cause trouble...it’s a couple of kids with nothing to do.

Boredly scrolling through her social media, Ryū jumps at the sound of something plinking against her window. Watching the panes, she sees a little pebble bounce off the glass.

What the…?

Getting up from her desk, she peers out and spies one of her classmates on the front lawn: Obito Uchiha. A flash of pink crosses her cheeks, taking a moment before lifting the window open. “What are you doing?” she whispers. “If my dad hears you throwing stuff at the house, he’s gonna flip!”

Down below, Obito just grins, dropping the rest of his rocks back into the little decorative display at the foot of the house. “C’mere!”

She pouts. “You could have just texted me, y’know…”

“That’s not nearly as fun!”

Rolling her eyes, Ryū pulls the window shut, making her way down to the front door. On her way, she passes by her dad.

“Where are you off to?”

“Just to the yard - a friend’s outside,” she replies vaguely, pulling on her shoes.

“Well if you venture out somewhere, let me know first, okay?”

“I will Dad, don’t worry.” Tapping her sneaker into place, Ryū then makes her way out.

Obito, distracted by a squirrel tightrope-walking the power lines, turns at the sound of the door. “Hey!”

“Hey. Um...so, what’s up?” As always, Ryū tries not to get her hopes up. While she’s had a crush on Obito for a while now, nothing’s ever come from it...mostly because he in turn has had feelings for her best friend, Rin. And Rin is head over heels for Kakashi.

But she can’t help but wonder why he’s here alone…

Obito’s mouth lifts into a wide grin. “To ask if you wanna go ghost hunting, duh!”

A white brow perks. “...what?”

“There’s an old, creepy house just outside of town! Rin found out it’s gonna get torn down next week, so we were gonna go sneak in and explore before it’s gone. Everyone says the place is haunted!”

Surprise slackens Ryū’s face. “...really?”

“Yeah! You wanna come? We’re gonna go in after dark!”

“Is that...gonna get us in trouble…?”

Obito groans at her worrying. “Aw, c’mon! This is pretty much our last chance to look around! We’re not gonna break anything, we just wanna see if there’s really any ghosts in there. If no one sees us go in, there’s no way they’ll ever know.”

Unsure, Ryū nibbles her lip. It does sound fun, but...she doesn’t want to get in trouble. If her father ever found out, she’d be grounded for a month for going someplace dangerous - surely the old house is about to collapse. Besides...if it really is haunted…

“Um...why did you ask me to go…?”

Obito hesitates for a moment. “Well...Rin and Kakashi said they’d go, so...I thought you’d wanna tag along! You and Rin are best friends, right?”

In spite of herself, Ryū feels a painful pang in her stomach. “...yeah.”

“So, whaddaya say? Wanna go?”

She sighs, mulling it over. “...okay. I’ll...figure out a way to get out of the house.”

“You could just sneak out, y’know.”

Ryū pouts at her friend. “Not all of us live with a half-deaf grandma. My dad would totally notice the minute I tried it.”

“You don’t take enough risks. Kids are supposed to do stupid stuff, right?” He grins at her.

“We’re hardly kids anymore! I’m almost fifteen!”

“Yeah, yeah...and soon enough we’re all gonna be boring adults who never get to do anything fun. Come onnn, Ryū!”

“Okay, okay! I’ll...think of something.” She can probably just claim another sleepover at Rin’s - she goes over there all the time as it is. “Now get going before my dad sees you!”

“Why? Would he be mad?” Obito’s grin gets a little wider, leaning in toward her. “Gonna get in trouble talking to a boy…?”

Her face flushes pink, pushing him toward the road. “Uh, duh!” Nevermind the fact that Obito is the one boy she actually likes. “I’ll text you later, now get out of here you dork!”

“Okay, okay! See ya later!” Waving, Obito takes off back down the street, hopping astride his bike and pedaling out of sight.

Once he’s gone, Ryū can’t help a sigh. Getting out of the house shouldn’t be too hard...and she can pack any supplies she’ll need under the guise of stuff to take to her sleepover. But as excited as Obito seems to be for a bit of ghost hunting, it makes her...nervous.

Because she’s seen things before.

And it doesn’t help that her own appearance has always gotten her teased as one. She was rather soured to the notion from a very young age. But when she realized she could see things pretty much no one else did? She wondered if that was truer than her bullies thought.

And on top of her uncertainty is the notion that she’s just a tagalong - while Rin, Kakashi, and Obito have known each other throughout their school years, Ryū was a new arrival a few years later. Rin was quick to adopt her, but dynamics were mostly already settled.

When she saw Obito here by himself, she thought...well…

She cuts the thought off with a curt sigh. She’ll go. Dipping out would only make things weirder. So once she’s back inside, she starts spinning her tale.

“Who was that?” Jiraiya asks, looking up from his desk.

“Rin! She wanted to know if I could spend the night. Can I?”

“Hm...I don’t see why not. Just be back in good time tomorrow morning - I’ve got a meeting and I’d like to know you’re home safe.”

“Okay Dad!” Crossing the room, she gives his cheek a peck. “Thanks!”

“You know I can’t say no to you,” he replies with a grin, shooing her off. “I gotta finish this manuscript by tonight.”

“You’ll get it done. I’ll go start dinner, okay?”

“Thanks, kiddo.”

Juggling multiple parts of dinner, Ryū manages to get the meal done in good time. Her father takes his plate back to his desk, leaving her to take her own up to her room.

Then, it’s time to prepare.

Behind her closed door, Ryū puts together her supplies: namely a flashlight, extra batteries, a coat (the Autumn nights get cold, after all), some snacks and water, and her phone.

As the sun begins to set, she heads out, wishing her father goodnight before getting her bike from the garage and pedaling.

[ sms Obito: ] Where are we meeting?

[ sms Ryū: ] Kakashi’s, it’s closest!

Pulling up to the right house, Ryū finds Obito and Rin already arrived, the former up at the front door talking to Kakashi. “Sorry I’m late, had to make dinner before I left…”

“No worries!” Rin assures her. “Got all you need?”

“I hope so. Um...how long are we gonna stay…?”

“No idea! I guess until we get bored…? Probably not too long, I mean...I doubt there’ll be much to find. Lots of kids have been in there before.” The brunette’s shoulders shrug. “But Obito wanted to go, so…”

Ryū frowns. “I thought he said this was your idea?”

“I told him about the demolition, but yeah, he decided to go. I figured we couldn’t let him do it by himself, he might get hurt. You know how he is.”

“...yeah.”

Brow furrowing, Rin moves to say something, but is cut off as the boys make their way down to the sidewalk.

“Okay! Everyone ready to go?” Grinning once more, Obito looks psyched to get started.

“I keep telling you not to get your hopes up,” Kakashi warns, arms folding. “It’s gonna be boring. Just an empty, dusty house.”

“But you heard what Genma said! There’s totally spooks in there, Kakashi!”

“Genma was probably a little less than sober. Everyone goes there to drink and get high. He saw what he wanted to see and scared himself like an idiot.”

At that, Ryū gets awkward, having always been rather straight-laced. “We’re not, uh...gonna do that, are we?”

“Oh gosh no,” Rin cuts in. “If I came home like that I’d be grounded ‘til I died.”

“Same,” Kakashi agrees. “We’re just gonna go in, prove there’s nothing weird, and then go home so Obito can stop geeking out.”

“I’m not geeking out!” the Uchiha insists, going so far as to stomp a foot.

“You haven’t stopped talking about this since Rin told you about the demolition. You’re geeking out.”

“Let’s just...get going,” Rin then cuts in, already standing beside her bike. “It’s getting dark and we should get there before it’s pitch black out. Otherwise we’re gonna get spotted using our flashlights.”

The boys grumble but agree, and soon enough all four of them head down the street to the very edges of the suburb where it starts to bleed out into the countryside. Houses start to get further and further apart...until they find the one they’re looking for.

Ryū has to admit...it is pretty spooky looking. An old Victorian, the striking shapes and sweeping rooflines do indeed look like your classic haunted house. No wonder kids sneak in all the time.

“All right, this is it. Come on, let’s put our bikes in the bushes in case a cop drives by.” Kakashi leads the way, stashing their rides before holding open a cut in the chain link fence.

Nearby, a sign declaring the demo hangs.

Once they’re all through, they hurry to the silhouette of the house, climbing in through an unlocked window. Only then do they dare to turn on their lights.

“...whoa,” Rin murmurs.

They’ve emerged into the kitchen. Above them, the ceiling has splintered, boards hanging at striking angles and wires draping in the gap. All manner of kitchenware is scattered on the floor and countertops, everything covered in dust...save for varying levels of footprints from other, previous intruders. Beams of light streak everywhere as they take it all in.

“...okay...this is pretty cool,” Kakashi admits. “Let’s go.”

“What exactly are we...looking for?” Rin asks, following close behind him.

“I dunno. Guess we’re just gonna wander until we realize there’s nothing supernatural.”

From the kitchen they enter the belly of the house: a large foyer that opens up to the second story, a sweeping staircase leading up. Above the front door is a large window that gives a full view of the moon outside.

“Okay...now what?”

Kakashi examines the room, thinking. “...Rin and I will go upstairs. Ryū, you and Obito check the main level. Once we’ve done a sweep, we can leave.”

Obito’s cheeks puff as Kakashi assumes the lead, but Ryū nods. “Be careful, the floors might be unstable, given what we saw in the kitchen. Stay close to the walls.”

Agreeing, the other pair carefully ascend the stairs, which creak and groan in protest at the weight.

“...well, I...guess we should look around.”

Obito doesn’t reply, watching the other two with an unreadable expression.

“Hey...you okay?”

He sighs. “...yeah. C’mon, let’s go.”

Seeing the wind suddenly cut from his sails, Ryū’s brow wilts. Together, they make their way through a door under the stairs. Within is a study, books torn off the shelves and papers scattered everywhere. The windows, broken, have been boarded up.

Approaching a bookshelf built into the wall, Ryū carefully picks up a picture frame, blowing off dust to reveal a family portrait: a mother, father, and five sons.

“Hey, check this out.”

Obito peers over her shoulder. “Whoa. That looks kinda old.”

“Yeah…” Turning it over, there’s nothing written on the back to indicate a date, or names. “Darn...I wonder why they left.”

“Maybe they died, and they’re haunting this place!”

Ryū gives Obito a gentle look. “I mean, I haven’t felt anything yet.”

“What do you mean, felt?”

She jolts, realizing what she let slip. “Um...y’know, like...don’t people say they feel they’re being watched, or...they walk through a cold spot if there’s a ghost?”

Obito doesn’t look wholly convinced, but shrugs. “I guess so...let’s keep looking.”

From the study, they move across the room to another door.

This time, it’s the master bedroom. A huge four poster bed sits along the far wall, its curtains torn and moth-eaten.

“Whoa…!”

Gawking, Obito makes his way further into the room. As he does, the floor creaks...and Ryū hesitates. “Be careful!”

“Huh?”

“Hear that? It sounds like there’s empty space under the floor.”

“Really? Think there’s a basement?”

“Maybe...just...be very careful where you’re walking, it could give out.”

“I dunno, seems pretty solid to me.” Approaching the bed, Obito shines his light over it. “Huh...it’s all made up. But there’s something, like...stained on the cover. It kinda looks like…” Lifting a leg, he starts crawling atop the bed.

The floor heaves a mighty groan, and Ryū’s stomach drops.

“Obito!”

With a horrible cacophony, the floorboards give out, too much weight beared on too little material. The entire bed falls through, and a plume of dust and debris clogs the air.

Ryū lifts an arm to cover her mouth before looking back in horror. “Obito!”

Coughing cuts through the air, and she risks edging closer to the hole. “I...I’m okay! The bed caught my fall. Man, it’s super dark down here…”

“D-do you see another way down?”

“Uh…” She hears the bedsprings move as he leaves the bed just as footsteps race up behind her.

“What the hell was that?!” Rin demands.

“The bed fell through the floor, with Obito on it. He’s okay, he’s trying to find the stairs up.”

“Uh...guys…?”

The upstairs trio glance to the hole. “What is it?” Kakashi asks, tone oddly serious.

“You, uh...you should come down here…”

Exchanging a glance with the girls, Kakashi counters, “What, just...jump down?”

Obito doesn’t reply.

Something twists in Ryū’s gut. “I...have a really bad feeling about this.”

“I don’t wanna go down there,” Rin admits in a whisper. “What if we can’t get back out?”

“One of us should stay up here in case a door to the stairs is locked, or we need help. Rin, you stay. I’ll go down.”

“Me too,” Ryū insists.

“You sure?”

She nods grimly.

“...all right. I’ll go first.” Carefully shuffling to the edge, Kakashi then leaps to the splintered remains of the bed, landing with another cloud of dust. “It’s fine!”

Once he steps aside, Ryū does the same, falling to a knee with a grunt and a cough. “Ugh…”

“You guys okay?” Rin calls.

“Fine! Stay right there, just in case more of the floor collapses. Listen for creaking, okay?”

“Okay!”

Armed with their lights, Ryū and Kakashi find no trace of Obito in the room they’ve fallen to. It looks to be some kind of storage room full of crates and boxes. “...this is weird,” Kakashi murmurs. “Where the hell did he go…?”

Not having a reply, Ryū steps forward through a doorway into a hall. “...how big is this place…?”

“Too damn big. I’m gonna punch Obito when I find him for dragging us here...I only came cuz Rin asked me to.”

“Wait, what?”

“Originally Obito was going to go by himself, but Rin didn’t want him going alone. But I didn’t want them alone since Rin and I are dating, and Obito used to crush on her.”

Ryū blinks at the sudden overload of information. “Wait...you and Rin are…?”

“Yeah, three months now. But I’m pretty sure Obito caught the hint before that. So then he insisted we ask you. Probably didn’t want to third wheel it.”

At that, she wilts. “...oh.”

“...look, I know you like him Ryū, but he’s about as oblivious as a box of rocks.”

“W-what -?”

“Just warning you that if you’re waiting for him to notice, odds are you’re going to be waiting a long t-”

Kakashi, however, finds himself cut off by a scream. A high-pitched, but obviously male scream, accompanied by a rumble.

Ryū’s heart leaps to her throat. That had to be -! “Obito!”

“Ryū, wait -!”

Running through the hall, she tries to find the proper door. There’s so damn many, this basement is ridiculous! But as she shines her light into one of the rooms, she has to do a double take.

At the rear, a wall has collapsed inward, stone and rubble littering the floor. Beyond it...is a tunnel. And as she steps in to investigate, she pauses.

All over the walls is graffiti, most bearing dark-themed symbols and numbers: the mark of the beast, pentagrams, strange verses...but none of it feels active. It’s all just empty spray paint, probably from kids here before them.

“Ryū, don’t just -! Oh shit…” Coming in behind her, Kakashi looks around before grabbing her coat, pulling her back as she steps further. “Stop!”

“What?”

“Look!”

On the floor is yet another pentagram.

“It’s not real.”

“How do you -?”

“There’s nothing in it. Come on, I think he went this way. There’s a tunnel.”

“You can’t go in there!”

“Why not?”

“It’s collapsing! What if it falls on you?”

“It’s fine! Besides, Obito has to be in there, I can’t just leave him there alone - I need to get him out!”

“...well I’m not going. Sorry, but screw that.”

Ryū huffs a sigh. “Fine. Go back to Rin, see if you guys can find a place outside where this might pop up. A shed, or something.”

He nods, backtracking as she presses onward. While the room doesn’t offer a feeling of any presence...something seems to seep from the tunnel like a fog.

Wherever it leads, it can’t be good.

Peering down from the mouth, Ryū takes a steeling breath before stepping in, careful to touch as little as possible. The collapse looks fresh. More could come down at any moment, but her gut tells her he’s down here.

And if something were to happen to him…

She presses on, jaw set. Ten paces. Twenty. Fifty. Maybe it’s some kind of...root cellar. Or an escape route. Or…

Suddenly it widens, opening up into what looks like a room. But at the sight of seven stone rectangles along the middle, Ryū realizes it’s more than just a room.

It’s a crypt. Surely for the family that lived here before.

By now, the feeling of...something weighs on her chest like a stone, making it hard to breathe. But still, she sees nothing. “Obito…?” she calls, out of breath.

“Wha!”

Stumbling out of an alcove, Obito shines his light on her, eyes wide. “Jeez, you scared me! I didn’t think you guys would follow me.”

“Obito, we have to leave!”

“But this is so cool! Look, there’s coffins and -!”

“Obito -!”

A blast of cold seems to wash over them, and Ryū feels her knees give out. A feeling of anger, hate, and vengeance fills the cavern from floor to ceiling. The ground shakes like an earthquake.

But this is no quake.

Obito stumbles, catching himself on one of the stone boxes that bear a body. And just as he does, an ear-splitting crack sounds above them. The stone of the ceiling splinters, about to give way.

Every muscle tenses. She fights her body and urges it forward. Colliding with Obito, Ryū sends the pair of them sprawling aside, caught in a tangle of limbs.

Nearby, the sounds of an iron gate screech on rusted hinges. Someone’s opening the crypt. And with it, a great wind blows up and out into the night.

Everything goes quiet.

Curled up against any debris, Ryū slowly goes slack as the silence and stillness stretches on. Pushing herself up, she comes to realize that she’s lying atop Obito, who stares up at her with wide eyes and a red face.

“You...you saved -?”

“Ryū! Obito!”

They both look aside to the steps leading in, spying Rin scrambling down them but pausing at the mess. A huge pile of rubble has smashed the main parts of the crypt...including one piece the size of a small car.

Right where Obito had been standing.

Kakashi, right behind, offers a very appropriate, “Holy shit!”

Ryū and Obito both stare for a moment before looking back to each other. Heart racing, Ryū tries to get herself to move, but...to no avail.

All the while, Obito stares back.

“...don’t ever...wander off by yourself...again,” she instructs breathlessly. And then, with adrenaline still pumping through her veins, Ryū lowers herself down and kisses him.

Rin gasps before squealing, silenced by Kakashi as he snags her back with a look.

Obito stiffens, eyes round as dinner plates until Ryū retreats. “...o-okay,” is his simple reply, cheeks blazing hot.

Looking over his face, Ryū then gives in to the ringing in her head...and faints.

When she wakes up...it takes her a moment to realize she’s in Rin’s room. A trace of a headache still remains, and she’s a little sore...but otherwise fine.

And then she notices there’s daylight coming in between the curtains.

...how long has she -?!

“Oh! You’re awake!”

Turning, she spots Rin. “...how did I…?”

“Obito and Kakashi helped bring you in. After that weird earthquake, we bailed out. But no one else felt it, apparently. The boys stayed in my brother’s old room, so they’re still -”

“She’s up?”

Rin turns to Kakashi behind her. “Yeah, where’s -?”

“Does she remember anything? I mean...she passed out.”

Sitting up gingerly, Ryū winces. “...I remember the house, and...that weird tunnel. Then things got really...heavy. And the ceiling…”

“Heavy…?” Rin asks, brow furrowing.

“...yeah. Look, I dunno if you guys believe in ghosts or whatever, but...there was something down there. Something angry. But it left when you opened the gate.”

Her friend hesitates. “...Ryū...we didn’t open the gate.”

“...what?”

“It was already open when we got there.”

“But...I heard -?”

“Okay...none of us tell anybody about this,” Kakashi cuts in. “No one will believe us. I dunno what really happened, but that was way too close of a call. You and Obito could have gotten killed. So what happened last night never leaves this room...got it?”

Both girls somberly nod. “...so is that...all you remember, Ryū?”

“...well…”

“Guys?”

In the doorway, Rin and Kakashi both turn to spot Obito in the hall. “Obito! You feeling okay?”

“Yeah...my back hurts, but...I’m all right.”

An odd silence falls.

“Well, um...Kakashi, why don’t you...come downstairs with me, and we’ll make breakfast!”

“But -?” Before he can protest, Kakashi finds himself pushed toward the stairwell by a very insistent Rin.

“Take your time getting up, Ryū!” she calls before they disappear.

Having already sat up from the bed, Ryū looks to Obito just as he peers into the room.

...another strange silence.

“...you okay?”

She nods. “Yeah...my head kinda hurts, but...I’m fine.” Getting to her feet, Ryū murmurs a soft, “Oh…!” as her legs turn to jelly.

But as though he was expecting it, Obito is there to keep her upright, hugging her to his chest.

They both bloom pink.

“Er...you sure you’re okay to get up…?”

She hesitates. “I...I think so...I was just a little d-dizzy for a sec.”

“And...now?”

Realizing how close their faces are, Ryū admits, “I’m...still dizzy.” But it has nothing to do with her head.

“Oh, uh...here…” He helps her sit back on the mattress, doing the same. “...look, uh…” A hand itches at his neck, looking nervous. “...you saved my life last night. I dunno if you remember, but -?”

“I do.”

“...oh. Well...thanks. I know that’s...not really adequate, but…”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re all right. That was...really scary,” Ryū replies softly.

“...yeah. Yeah it was. Uh…” Another pause. “...so...d’you -? Is there anything else -?”

“I kissed you, didn’t I?”

He jumps at the blunt question. “...er...y-yeah.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“What -?”

Shame colors Ryū’s face. “That was really thoughtless of me, I mean...you almost died, and I acted without your permission. I...I let my feelings get ahead of me. It was a really shitty thing to do. I’m sorry.”

“Ryū, I…” Clamming up for a moment, Obito seems to struggle with something. “...I didn’t say it was a...a bad thing. It surprised me, but…” His cheeks slowly flare red. “...I’m...glad you did.”

“...you…?”

“Look, I -!” He hesitates a moment, and then starts rambling. “I-I didn’t even mean for Kakashi and Rin to come! When she told me, I was so excited, I was gonna go tell you! But then she thought I was gonna go alone, so she insisted she come along, and...I couldn’t tell her what I wanted to do, so then Kakashi invited himself because he’s such a hardass, so by the time I got to ask you, it was already this big thing, and -!”

“O-Obito, slow down,” Ryū laughs. “...do you mean...you were going to ask me first…?”

“...yeah...I noticed you seemed to like spooky stuff, so...I thought it could be like...y’know, a...a -”

“Date?”

The word makes him jolt. “...y-yeah.”

Utterly surprised, Ryū just...blinks. “...Obito, I…” How to explain…? “It’s...not that I like spooky stuff, I just…”

“Is it true, then? You really do see ghosts?”

It’s her turn to flinch. “...yes.”

His eyes go wide. “...that’s so cool. But I bet it’s scary too, huh?”

“It...can be. Like last night. Nothing felt...off to you in there?”

“No.”

“I felt like I was drowning. I never saw anything, but...I sure felt it. Something in there was angry. Probably because the house has been so desecrated.”

At that, Obito’s ears go red, shrinking. “...you think I made them mad…?”

“No. We didn’t hurt anything. But we were there. I think it was just ‘wrong place, wrong time’ on our part. We got all the blame for everything that happened before we got there. But maybe once the house is gone and no one else bothers it, things will...settle down.”

“...I hope so…”

The pair fade into a thoughtful silence.

“So, uh...I know that was a total catastrophe, so...if you say no, I’ll understand, but...would you -? I mean, if we did something else, would -?”

“I’d totally go on another date with you,” Ryū replies, smiling as Obito jumps in surprise. “Just...nothing else dangerous, okay? I’ve had enough excitement for a while.”

“Uh...y-yeah, okay! Sure! Uh...cool! So…?”

“So, it’s a date.”

“Ryū! Obito! Breakfaaast!” Rin calls, making them both stiffen.

“Coming!” Standing, Obito offers a hand. “...still dizzy?”

Ryū smiles, accepting and letting him pull her to her feet. “...I think I’m okay, now.”

Sooo I know this isn’t explicitly about the mark of the beast, but...it was very briefly mentioned xD I wasn’t sure how to make a whole plot about it, so it’s mostly a minor part of this one. Instead it just adds to the atmosphere of the overall plot! ANYWAY. Spooky spooks! I don’t get to use Ryū’s medium verse very much so I thought this would be a good way to do so. Given the religious importance of the number, I kinda left it...vague? Like most people I have my own interpretations about this sort of thing and didn’t want to get too far into it, especially since I’m not very knowledgeable about it lol So instead we have a Scooby-Doo type plot with a bunch of silly teenagers running around in an actually haunted house xD I should have added one of Kakashi’s dogs and then it would be a full crossover kdfjghdgf Buuut yeah, not too much else to say on this one...? I shifted a few things mid-write and tried to go back and make it coherent so if anything’s a bit off, that’s probably why xD I’m indecisive. Or rather, the muses were and didn’t bother telling me until I was almost done. Goobers. Thanks for reading!

#obiryū october #abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #hatake kakashi #nohara rin #jiraiya #ghost among the ghosts [ au ]

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gaycrouton · 5 years

Note

Prompt: Scully’s thoughts during “the scene” in Small Potatoes

s4 // small potatoes // angst

Hahaha so #1, so sorry I was #ThatBitch and brought angst into it and #2 I’m sure this is probably heavily subconciously influenced by all the Small Potates fics I’ve read, but I still hope it’s a little different.

—————————————————————————-

Last night, alone in a second-rate motel room, she tended to a nosebleed so bad that she was afraid she might pass out if it lasted any longer. By the time it’d ended, she had several blood-soaked napkins littered around her, and a shirt with blood on it that told her the effort to save it had been fruitless.

With a sigh of resignation, she’d gone into the bathroom and stripped off her shirt, but before she had a chance to grab her spare, her breath caught in her throat.

Who was that?

She usually changed in her bathroom at home, leisure time was a luxury, so it was usually done in haste. The mirror there was above the sink, and relatively small. This one, however, showed her everything she’d been avoiding.

When her hands slid over her body in the morning, she felt it, she knew. She used to pride herself on her lean muscles, but now she felt like a skeleton with skin. Her ribs protruded grotesquely, her hip bones felt like knives, even her breasts seemed to be shrinking. She didn’t feel like Dana Scully anymore.

She felt like a personified death rattle. Looking into her face was no better. Her eyes looked tired and there was dried blood all over her nose.

Deciding she couldn’t face herself anymore, she quickly splashed water on her face, the red running clockwise down the sink reminding her of the time she had left slipping away from her. She had to brush her teeth twice to get the taste of iron out of her mouth from the rivulets that’d caught on her lip. Part of her hesitated though because it was one of the first times she remembered tasting something that the meds didn’t dull.

Then, with a sigh, she pulled her spare shirt over head and ignored the way it sexlessly draped over her, nothing to cling to, nothing to emphasize. She turned the light off, crawled into bed and listened to the lively sounds of Mulder on the other side of the wall. Undoubtedly he was still working. Every part of her wanted to go and ask him if he needed help. Maybe they would order a pizza while she laughed as he tried to find something to watch. Maybe he’d smile at her in that way he did when she hung out in his room that made her feel like a teen who’d snuck out of her parent’s house - doing something she knew she shouldn’t, but loving it too much to leave. Maybe he’d even flirt, he’d been doing that more often.

No.

He had been doing that more often.

Now she knew if she went to his room, she’d just get the same thing she always did nowadays. Those fucking sad eyes when he saw her that he tried to compensate for with the world’s weakest smile. “How are you?” he’d say gently, stopping everything he was doing to accommodate her. He’d look sad when she said “fine” but not early as sad as she’d know he’d look if she said “Sometimes the pain medicine doesn’t work and it makes me want to crawl out of my body. All I want is for you to make me feel better, but there’s nothing you can do and you’d kill yourself trying and there’s no use in both of us dying. I’ve had to throw away three pillowcases because I wake up and they are covered in blood. My hair’s thinning. My mom cried last time I saw her. I didn’t even say anything, she just saw me. “

He didn’t look at her like a woman; he looked at her like a half-written epigraph.

So, instead of going to him, she’d laid in bed and cried herself to sleep.

That was yesterday. Tonight, he’d come to her.

Tonight she felt like a woman.

His self-conscious approach initially had her worried, but it quickly turned to endearing. He came over just to see her, just to spend time with her, just because he wanted to talk.

She’d been hesitant when he mentioned that they never talked. She feared it was “You never tell me how you’re doing living with cancer” in disguise. But it wasn’t. It almost felt like he was pretending the cancer didn’t even exist, and it was a dream come true. It was like the past few months hadn’t happened. It was just good ol’ Mulder and her talking. And he’d brought wine - what a plus.

Now she was tipsy and felt oddly exposed, yet not unpleasantly. She’d always thought of how nice it would be to reveal some of herself with Mulder. She knew so much about him - what drove him on his mission, what upset him, even little memories he’d occasionally share with her offhandedly. Maybe it was her mortality nagging at her every move, but she sometimes regretted spending so much time being so prudent on maintaining their professionalism. Mulder was her friend, her best friend, and in her dreams so much more. She wanted him to know little things she loved in her childhood, stupid things she did with her highschool sweetheart, what she dreamed of at night.

Apparently he wanted too as well. He was being so attentive, hanging off her every word, and he was staring at her face like it was the first time he’d ever been this close to her. She wasn’t lying when she said she liked it.

He’d been acting pleasantly differently, but then “-you ever wish that you could go back and do it all differently?” Suddenly she couldn’t connect the dots of his logic through her tipsy haze. He dismissed the career comment as if it was a footnote, as if it wasn’t the very foundation of their relationship. She couldn’t make sense of a Mulder who disregarded the X-Files.

He brow furrowed in confusion and she asked, “Do you?”

He didn’t answer. He just stared at her, and she had no idea what he was thinking. She always knew how he was feeling.

He started moving towards her and she felt her heart starting to pound out of her chest. Did he mean he wished he could have done everything in their relationship differently? But-what could be changed? Every single moment led them to who they are, every moment led to the intensity of the bond they had - regardless of how tense it’d been lately. She was thinking a mile a minute as he started slowly moving towards her, that strange look in his eye. She could just turn her head, if she turned her head he would know right now, but his hand was already pressing in between her legs for stability. He was just going to go with it and she didn’t even know how to respond other than to put her own hand in between her leg, instinctively acting as a barrier.

When he was close enough that she could feel his breath hit her lips, she realized she didn’t smell much wine coming off him , and she realized he’d been filling up her glass all evening. His own glass was behind them with wine from his first fill still untouched. Why did he want her to get drunk?

She could feel her heart beating in her ears as he leaned in further. Something wasn’t right. That was her last thought before she heard the loud splintering of wood. Turning her head over, she saw Mulder standing in the middle of her busted door frame.

Mulder? Oh my god.

She turned back in shock and Eddie Van Mulder had the audacity to smile at her. She raised her hands and pushed him away in disgust, practically jumping from the couch.

She saw her Mulder look like a million thoughts were running through his head. Shock, anger, hurt, confusion, betrayal, they all painted him like a portrait of a man mourning the loss of something that could have been and he hadn’t even known it. She probably looked the same.

Eddie morphed back on the couch and shrugged. Fucking shrugged. As if he hadn’t tried to violate her. As if he hadn’t just messed up their already fucked up relationship. With a terse voice, she heard Mulder start, “Eddie Van Bluhnt, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will-” he droned on as she mentally retreated. She watched the same mouth that had smiled at her joke earlier, purse when he looked in her direction - the same eyes that had affectionately wandering her face now looking at her with the words “you couldn’t fucking tell” screaming at her.

How ironic, the cancer probably wasn’t even on his mind and yet he was still looking at her with pity. She felt her throat closing up as the realization that none of tonight even mattered. It wasn’t him. Mulder had pulled out his phone and was calling for the police to come pick him up as she all but ran over to the bathroom to have a moment to herself.

By the time she came out, she’d prevented a breakdown, for now at least, and Mulder was talking to an officer who was currently bagging the wine glasses. He looked up and pointed at her, “She the vic?”

“Nothing happend,” she snapped before the “yes” that had formed on Mulder’s lips had a chance to be verbalized.

“Scully,” he started with a sigh.

“If my statement is needed for anything I’d prefer to give it tomorrow. I’m tired,” she sighed.

“Alright, we just need to take a few pictures and then we’ll be out of your hair miss,” the officer nodded.

“Scully, can I talk to you in the other room?” he asked, already making his way over to her and putting his hand on her side. Already making the decision for her.

He lead her into her bedroom, much like Eddie Van Bluhnt had hoped to do, and closed the door behind him. “Are you okay?” he asked.

His trademark.

She felt the question like a stab in the heart even though she knew it was warranted and in a different context. “I’m fine. He didn’t do anything,” she bit. She was being mean to him and he was just worried. She was just sick of him always being worried.

“Are you sure?”

“He brought over wine and we drank it. Big deal,” she said, knowing she was avoiding the elephant in the room.

“Did he touch you?” Mulder asked, his voice softening only fueling to her aggravation.

“No, Mulder. Were you even listening to me?” she snapped.

“I just wasn’t sure. His hand seemed pretty friendly from where I was, and you didn’t seem to be too upset about it,” he snapped back. They were both upset about what just happened, but instead of it bringing them together, they were fighting. Of course.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d take a rapist trying to make me his next victim and somehow manage to make it my fault.” She didn’t want to be fighting anymore. She was tired and she was starting to feel pain in her muscles.

“I didn’t,” he sighed, rubbing his hand across his face. “I just feared the worst when I realized he’d gone with you.”

“Yeah. Apparently you were so certain he’d come over and try to seduce me like the other women that you felt the need to bust through my door without even knocking.”

He looked embarrassed at that, but before he could defend himself, she was already adding fuel to the fire. “What? You were so certain that I’d fall for the charms of some low-life creep masquerading as you that you came here immediately. Let me guess, you were urgent to get in here because you thought you’d find me getting fuc-”

“No!” he interrupted, looking flustered at his instinctive actions being called out as well as the crudeness of her words.

“Then why didn’t you knock?” she almost whispered, her tone sharp as a knife.

“Why were you about to kiss him?” he cut back.

“I froze, Mulder. He was being pushy and flagrantly ignoring my discomfort at the end, and I couldn’t understand why you would do that and I was confused. That’s when you barged in. Is it even possible for you to try to put yourself into my shoes for even a second? To imagine how confused I was when you were acting so weird.” He looked like he was about to answer, but she wasn’t done.

“Do you think I couldn’t tell, seriously? Do you think he just came in here and I didn’t think anything different? You can even ask him, I mentioned he was acting different several times, Mulder,” she explained, she stumbled a little bit from the wine in her system, and she saw him resist the urge to reach out and steady her. “You shouldn’t have been drinking on your meds” evident in his gaze. Heaven forbid she make a decision for herself.

“So you thought I was acting different, and yet you spent how long with him?” he asked defensively.

“I didn’t say it was a bad different,” she replied.

He looked like she’d slapped him.

The thick tension only lasted for a minute before there was a knock at the door. They turned and it was the officer standing with a camera and a few other baggies. “We’re done here, Agent Mulder.”

“Thank you, Officer. Where are you taking him?” Mulder asked, his voice sounding exhausted.

“I’ll have to confirm that with my partner,” he answered. He looked like he was about to say more when he focused on Scully and his brow furrowed. “Ma’am, you have a nosebleed.”

She raised her hand to her face and when she pulled back, her index and middle finger were saturated with blood. When she looked up she saw Mulder was looking at her with so much pity she could drown herself in it. “Scully-” he started softly, going towards her.

“I’m fine,” she snapped, raising one hand to cover the bleed from his gaze and raising the other to prevent him from coming any further. “Thank you for your help officer, but I’d like to be left alone.”

“Of course,” he nodded, leaving.

She turned to Mulder and said, “Close the door on the way out, I’ll lock the deadbolt later. You didn’t break that off at least.”

He looked like he was about to argue, but she didn’t want to hear it. She just turned and walked into the bathroom and closed the door. She saw herself in the mirror and her face crumpled in silent agony.

If her nose had started bleeding an half an hour ago, she’d have let Mulder help her. He probably would have grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her face and she might have let him. She might have even told her about how she was feeling lately and he would have listened to every word. That was the last thing she thought as she listened to Mulder sigh, clearly upset, as he left her apartment.

#x files fanfic #gaycrouton #my fanfiction #small potatoes #x files 4 x 20 #4x20 #blaze it lol #eddie van bluhnt #msr #angst #cancer arc

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fabermemorialrink · 7 years

Text

some mistake, part 7

Last part of chapter two! Chowder’s back, and we meet some new friends!

Also, a quick PSA: if I ever screw up with regards to race/gender/sexuality (or anything else), please don’t hesitate to let me know so I can do better! I want everyone to have a positive reading experience. Thanks!!

Chowder’s reaction to Dex bleeding on his shoes was a complex cocktail of fascination and disturbed worry: the cherry on top of a very informative face journey that Derek studied like visual poetry as Dex caught him up to speed. Like Derek, Chowder emphatically refused to stop visiting, which they proved so often that Dex had to kick them out after they skipped a team game night.

More often than not, Derek and Chowder head over to see Dex together, though there are times when one of them is too busy with work to go. Derek loves being part of a trio, but he also appreciates the time he gets to spend with each of his friends individually. Chowder’s roomie is often out and about socializing, so Derek takes to setting up a base camp on C’s floor, where they study and philosophize together. Most questions are open-ended and profound (who would win in a fight, Mr. Rogers or Elmo? would you rather sleep on legos or have a splinter in your tongue?), but the most important question of all cycles back into rotation every few days:

What’s up with Dex and the forest?

Chowder thinks it’s better not to prod, but Derek can’t leave it alone. It’s a secret, but the kind that Dex is willing to entertain guesses about. He archly shoots down Derek’s suggestions that he might be a woodland nymph like the girls, and repeatedly insists that if he had any kind of therianthropy, he would have already shifted and eaten one of Derek’s limbs in annoyance.

It comes up again in conversation when Derek’s helping Dex cut up invasive vines again. Knowing that the forest is alive puts this activity in a new light; Dex tells him that he knows which plants belong to the woods, and which ones the forest considers a threat, so Derek just follows suit and rips out the roots he’s instructed to. There was a lingering uneasiness at the thought of touching the plants again at first, but they’re in the outer ring, where the light filters in, and Dex promises that if anything tries to grab Derek again, he’ll hatchet it right off. Maybe he should be more freaked out, but he can almost feel the truce between himself and the forest now. At the very least, Dex’s presence always makes him feel at ease.

“How’s it going? Not too tough for your delicate poet’s hands, is it?” Dex calls over across the grove. The sleeves of his plaid shirt have been rolled up, and his hatchet and lantern have been put aside next to Derek’s calc homework that Dex was looking over - dangling from the lantern’s wire handle are his crab keychain and a small bottle filled with a rainbow of miniscule origami lucky stars that Chowder gifted him. There’s dirt all over Dex’s knees and hands, but his posture is loose and he seems content. It's a good look for him.

Derek makes an obscene gesture in his direction. Dex wholeheartedly refuses to believe that Derek would ever drop his gloves during a game, citing Derek’s chill masquerade and elegant piano student fingers which would surely shatter on some goon’s cheekbones. Derek’s not big on fighting either, but he resents the implication that he couldn’t at least hold his own to defend his teammates.

“What, you wanna have a go at me?” Dex says with a grin, straightening up to his full height, which is still obnoxiously taller than Derek.

Derek snorts, kicking a clump of roots and dirt toward him. “Don’t go crying to Chowder when I whoop your ass, you skinny bastard.”

“Right, like you wouldn’t trip over your own head while trying to throw a punch. I’m not going to fight you, pretty boy.”

The way he says those words isn’t much different from the Wicked Witch of the West calling Dorothy ‘my pretty,’ but it causes a curl of embarrassment in Derek’s stomach anyway. Dex does this sometimes - calls Derek pretty in that wry tone of his. But it’s not pointedly sarcastic, like the way he gets when he’s intentionally needling Derek about rich people stuff, so Derek is left wondering what it’s supposed to mean. He knows he has nice eyes, and that he’ll hopefully grow into the good facial features he inherited from his parents, but currently, he’s just kind of plain, and full of teenage awkward. Nothing close to pretty.

Still, when Dex says it with a hint of smile Derek’s dumb guts do a strange twisting thing where he thinks they might turn inside out, accompanied by a tightness in his chest from being put on the spot. Not chill. But it's probably good for him to get it out of his system now, in preparation for the far future when someone really does compliment him so he doesn't look like a total loser.

Still, it always gives him a second of pause, throwing a hiccup into his thought process and leaving him scrambling for words, like now. “Are you a witch?” he winds up asking, apropos of nothing, still stuck on the thought of Dex zooming around on a broomstick and cursing young girls from Kansas.

“Am I a witch,” Dex repeats, raising an eyebrow. Derek almost goes to change the subject, then thinks on it a moment, and decides he actually does want to hear the answer to this.

“Yeah, or a wizard? Or whatever the preferred terminology is.”

Dex’s brow wrinkles, and he shakes his head like Derek is a particularly foolish child. “I’m not a witch, Nursey. Where’d you get that idea from?”

“Never mind. Are you a cryptid?”

“What-”

“Animals or creatures known only through anecdotal evidence, like the sasquatch, or-”

“I know what a fuckin’ cryptid is, you dope, but I’m not some kind of goat man-”

Derek chuckles at the expression Dex is sporting. He looks utterly offended. “I was thinking more like the Dover Demon? Glowing orange eyes, weird-ass hands…”

“You’re dead to me,” Dex laughs. And he pointedly ignores Derek for the next ten minutes until Derek literally jumps on him. He successfully catches him, arms wrapped tight around Derek’s middle, but keels over when his knees give out.

So, no progress on that end, but Derek isn’t going to forget about it anytime soon.

Winter is wild and blustery this year, and Dex decides they can’t meet his friends until after all the snow has passed. Derek tries asking a few times, but Dex always buries his face in Derek’s latest history essay and starts commenting loudly in order to ignore him. There finally comes a day in February where Derek and Chowder show up on Dex’s figurative doorstep bundled to the nines and freshly brewed bribery hot chocolate. The snow isn’t anything more than a crisp flatbread layer under their boots (which Dex has also bled all over) but he still glares crossly at them nonetheless, trying to shoo them back to the dorms until they force feed him some hot chocolate.

“Dex. Bro. French Vanilla Truffle. Extra marshmallows.”

“Alright, fine, fine, get in here.” Dex finally concedes after he swallows three boiling marshmallows whole.

They stop by a spring that begins in the inner ring, though the other end of the water seems to disappear into a haze of shade and foliage. The water is frosted over in shattered panes of ice; Dex crouches down at the embankment and cards his fingers through the weeds as he peers under the surface, but stands shortly after and waves them along.

“She’s not in right now. We’ll have to catch her another day,” he says, and switches on his lantern.

Derek and Chowder link arms when they enter the heart, taking care to follow Dex carefully. Today, the heart is less terrifying, giving off just an aura of general unwelcomeness, but Dex’s steps are sure as ever, like he’s walked this unmarked non-path over the roots and through the maze of trunks a thousand times. They have to readjust to the wildlife noises again, but what’s even weirder is the sound that Derek finally notices coming out of Dex.

It starts off as a kind of uneven hum, but builds up to faint words he can hear when he concentrates.

“Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl…”

“Are you singing Schoolhouse Rock?” Derek asks, trying not to sound as horribly giddy as he feels. He can get Dex to sing with him sometimes: mostly classic rock and Beyonce and pop hits from the mid-aughts. But Dex rarely begins on his own, no matter how much Derek waxes lyrical about his nice voice, which aggrieves Derek to no end.

Dex freezes for a split second, then keeps walking like it never happened. “Uh. It’s been stuck in my head for a while.” Probably since Chowder first started complaining about his independent science paper about new planets, Derek guesses.

“Oh, the grammar ones are the best! I like the adverb song,” Chowder says, starting to hum the starting notes.

Derek can practically see the shock of discomfort running through Dex’s spine, like electricity through a live wire. “It’s catchy, but a little too barbershop for me…”

“Oh my god, they’re not even a quartet,” Derek says in exasperation.

“Still…”

“What about Conjunction Junction?” C suggests next, which Dex agrees easily too, and then they’re off, Dex in a pitchy falsetto and Chowder’s tenor lowered to a raspy growl. Derek holds his breath, not trusting himself not to say something dumb and provoke them into stopping. Chowder has a way of getting Dex to do things that Derek never could in a hundred lifetimes, probably because C has secret mutant powers of persuasiveness and friendship and undetectable bullshittery.

Their duet continues into “Do the Circulation,” complete with Chowder spinning Dex around on his arm in a sloppy swing-dance, and Derek curses the forest gods and anyone else listening for not letting his fucking phone work out here, because when else will he ever get the chance to record this masterpiece? They both just look so charmingly happy, and Derek’s heart swells with it.

He almost forgets where they are until the darkness lightens slightly and the smog of flora opens up into a tiny clearing with a cottage nestled right in the center. It’s the very picture of a stereotypical fairy-tale cottage, covered in climbing ivy and magenta blossoms, built of gray stonework and wooden accents, complete with curved roof tiles and wall mounted lanterns that light the area with a homey glow.

“Uh,” Chowder says, mouth falling open. “So how many houses are hidden in this pocket dimension forest?”

“Not as many as you think,” Dex says, releasing Chowder’s arm, and turning to make sure he doesn’t lose Derek before they enter the house. “Bits? You home? I brought my friends,” he calls, rapping his knuckles against the heavy wood door.

“Come on in!” comes the response, with a slight southern lilt.

Dex pushes the door open and lets the other two in first. The inside is just as adorably quaint as expected from the outside, with a fireplace in the den, cacti on the windowsills and bundles of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and an enormous kitchen where a very busy blond is hustling back and forth, his arms cradling a glass bowl. The scent of peaches and sugar fills the brightly lit room, and Dex directs Derek and C to sit on a plump gingham couch in front of the fire. Right after they sit, Derek catches sight of three strange objects bobbing their way through the air toward them.

“Um,” Derek says. “I’m not imagining that, right?” He elbows Chowder, who turns to gape at what is apparently a few glasses of iced tea floating their way.

“Y’all like tea, don’t you? And I don’t mean that gritty, bitter nonsense you serve up here-”

“Sweet tea sounds great,” Derek says automatically as a glass settles into his confused hands. Dex catches his own, and guides the last glass into Chowder’s grasp, the other boy being too dazed still to do anything but stare in the direction of the kitchen, where whisks and butter and sugar are spinning in a waltz around Bitty. On the counter, peaches fall neatly into segments, pits falling to the side. Flour begins threading through the air like a curtain of snowfall, obscuring their sight for a moment before it settles down into his bowl, the whisk still dancing.

“Thanks, Bitty,” Dex says, jolting Chowder back to reality. He calls out a thanks as well, before chugging half his glass in one go, and sinking deeper into the couch.

Derek sips slowly at the tea in silence as he starts to piece together the scene before them. Flying objects usually means magic. And magic means...

“Wait a second- Bitty’s a witch? Didn’t you say witches didn’t exist?” he asks, whirling on Dex, who’s leaning casually against the wall.

Dex and Bitty share a look, then a short laugh at Derek’s expense. “I just said I wasn’t a witch. You made your own inferences from that. Wrong ones.”

Bitty shakes his head, sending his bowl to settle gently on the counter with a wave of his hand. “Oh, Dex, you didn’t tell them? Wait just a second, I’ll be right over,” he says while hurrying to wash his hands at the sink.

“Nah, Bits, I thought maybe you’d wanna show ‘em yourself. Though, I think you kinda already have.”

Dex smiles briefly as Bitty dashes around his kitchen in a flurry, before turning back to Derek, who makes meaningful Eye Contact with him, but all he does is scrunch his mouth and shrug.

“What?” he mouths silently back, and Derek throws his hands in the air. Chowder continues to be slowly absorbed by the couch.

Bitty finally arrives, holding three pies in his arms. “Now, Dex never did tell me what your favorite pies are, so we’ll have to make do with these for today, but I promise I'll have something special for you boys next time you come around.” He places the pies - French silk, lemon meringue, and apple - on the table, then waves his hand absently toward the kitchen, summoning plates and silverware.

“I didn't want you flipping out and making a thousand pies. You know you always over-bake when you know guests are coming. Anyway, it's rhubarb for Nursey and honey walnut for Chowder.”

In short order, Derek and Chowder learn that Bitty is much, much older than looks, definitely a witch, and quite possibly the greatest piemaker in all of New England. Bitty preens under their compliments, and has no trouble answering the barrage of questions they pelt him with, or dodging them with practiced southern flair, but he’s much more interested in learning about “Dex’s darling little friends.”

Dex has to finally excuse them so they can leave the forest before it gets dark, but they don’t escape without each of them taking a pie for the road and the promise to return again soon. Bitty starts rattling off all the sweaters and birthday mini pies they’re going to get, and Dex has to physically drag Chowder out the door, since he’s too amiable and polite to know how to leave Bitty’s orbit.

Derek is stopped on his way out by a strong hand to his elbow, and he’s afraid (slash hopeful) that Bitty is going to try and unload another pie on him, but he only gives Derek a smile.

“I just wanted to thank you two for being such good friends to our Dex. I know he can be a bit cantankerous, but I think you’ve really brought him out of his shell, Nursey. All of us in here have noticed just how much he talks about the two of you. I’m glad we could finally meet.”

His approval feels significant, like Derek’s passed some sort of test. Derek swallows, and offers his sincerest smile back. “Thanks, Bitty. He’s- he’s one of us. He’s my best friend.” There’s more he wants to say, but from the way Bitty nods, it seems like he understands even without words.

Dex introduces them to The Falconer and her boys a few days later. She lives in a house on a small outcropping at the edge of the heart, her flock scattered in trees and small satellite houses nearby, except J, who resides with Bitty when he isn’t transformed.

She shakes Derek’s hand with a firm grip, and he trusts her instinctively. Something about her brown eyes and messy bun give her an aura of put-together trustworthiness, and from the way she handles Tater when he swoops down to land on her shoulder, it’s for good reason.

“Only J is actually a falcon,” Dex explains as they sit on her porch watching J and Tater circle each other in the air in the more open space of the inner ring. “Tater’s a white-tailed eagle. Snowy’s a snowy owl.”

“Wow, wonder where he got the nickname,” Chowder snorts, and Dex grins.

“Yeah. There used to be a few others - Thirdy, Marty - but their curses ended, so they left. Marty, at least, was also a falcon, so that’s where she gets the title, I guess.”

“So they’re just cursed? For thirteen years? Because of some old family bullshit from like a zillion years ago?” Chowder tries to clarify, and Dex nods.

“Something like that. I never really got the specifics, but yeah, it’s like some primogeniture fairy curse thing. The Falconer’s been watching over them in here for decades now, so they always send the next in line back here to roost when he transforms for the first time.”

“And no one’s ever looked into breaking this curse?” Derek asks, raising an eyebrow when Dex just draws his knees up to his chest and makes a non-committal noise.

“Some curses can't be broken.”

“No way, dude. Every clause has a loophole. Every bad deal has a way out. And every curse should be breakable. Otherwise, how could we ever hold onto hope?”

“How could we,” Dex echoes, staring up at the loose feathers that flutter down like errant flakes of snow.

They meet the flock over the course of several days, since their human hours don’t always align with daylight. J, as a human, is reserved and broadly Canadian, but there’s a quiet warmth in his eyes that really comes out when he’s with Bitty. Tater is gregarious and friendly, Snowy more calm and settled, but none of them hesitate to gently chirp Dex when he makes introductions, spouting off things like “finally, we are meeting Dex’s frogs!” and “so this is who you’ve been skipping flight practice to hang out with, eh?”.

“I can’t even fly!” Dex exclaims, and J laughs, leaving the room to help Bits in the kitchen.

“That’s why you shouldn’t skip practice,” Snowy says through a bite of honey walnut pie, and Dex flings a fork at him. It stops in mid-air, accompanied by a “what did I tell you about throwing my good silverware?” from Bitty.

Dex mumbles an apology and sinks back into the couch between Derek and C.

“Hey, why are we your frogs?” Chowder asks, and Dex coughs awkwardly and takes a sip of his tea before explaining.

“Uh, there was a year I rescued some frog eggs and watched over them that spring.”

“Dex watches tadpoles like mother hen, every day sitting at Lardo’s pond,” Tater says, crouching on the rug to imitate Dex staring into the water.

Dex ignores Chowder’s “d’awwww” and mutters out, “Yeah, so now they call any of my rescues ‘frogs’. And you guys are, like, the frogs, I guess. The rest are just people I helped back out.”

“That’s mad adorable. Frogs, C, how about that?”

“It is adorable,” C agrees. Dex buries his face in his hands and they slide in toward him to sandwich him on the couch more securely.

“This was a terrible idea,” he mutters as Chowder rests his head on his shoulder and Derek steals the rest of his coconut cream pie.

Terrible idea or not, Dex does reluctantly bring them to meet the nymphs when winter starts to fade into spring. Camilla, an athletic blonde dryad with a wry sense of humor, shows them her tree: a towering, conical red spruce. Dex points out the nearby tree that J accidentally damaged that time he changed back to a human while perched on a thin branch.

April’s grove of yellow birches is located in the far end of Lardo’s spring, the bare grass underfoot dotted with translucent violet flowers. She regards them sternly as Dex introduces her as a nymph of groves, “not a dryad,” as she emphatically insists.

“Oh, like an alseid?” Derek asks.

“Yeah, actually,” April says, looking almost impressed, her pretty mouth curving with a hint of a smile.

“Of course you would know that,” Dex says.

And Lardo, she whose bro-itude holds no parallel, they finally meet on a slow afternoon after midterms. She emerges halfway from the water to meet them, resting her arms on the bank.

“Your old frogs were cuter,” she says brightly, leaning her cheek against one hand.

“They're plenty cute,” Dex tells her automatically, then pauses, squints, and changes his mind. “No, sorry, you were right. These two are...eh.” He makes an ambivalent motion with his hand, and Lardo nods sagely.

“Disrespectful to say that,” Chowder scoffs, “when you have two of Andover’s most eligible bachelors gracing you with their presence all the time.”

“He’s been over-exposed,” Derek says. “Kinda hurts my feelings, honestly.”

“Well, when you two dreamboats are done complaining, Lardo can give us a tour.” Dex rolls his eyes when Derek tries his best smolder on him and gives him a gentle shove.

Lardo is sweet and sharply funny, and much more knowledgeable about art and literature than Derek would’ve expected from a naiad. Dex explains after another visit that almost all of the forest’s denizens can leave, though whether they want to varies from person to person. The flock tends to travel together, just in case one of them transforms out of cycle. None of the nymphs can travel more than a few miles from their true bodies, but it’s enough to be able to go to the library or the movie theater. They never do meet Jenny or Mandy; all Dex will tell Derek is “they’re around somewhere” whenever he asks.

Over the remainder of sophomore year, they hang out with Dex’s friends several more times. Derek doesn’t know when he starts noticing it, but it feels like he understands Dex better now, after seeing who he is when he’s with the others. It’s not that Dex is a different person, but some of that always present distance that even Derek can’t close disappears when they’re in the heart with his friends.

It’s to be expected, he supposes. They’ve known him longer than Derek has, but still, he wonders when they’ll reach the day when Dex will feel as free around him. Not as long he feels he has secrets he needs to keep, but Derek won’t press it. As it is, he appreciates how much more open Dex already is, now that he and Chowder know about the woods. It feels like they've grown closer.

“What is it? My hair weird or something?” Dex asks when he catches Derek looking one day. He'd just been laughing about something April muttered under her breath as J walked by. Derek had been transfixed for a moment, watching the soft lamplight of Bitty’s porch lanterns casting bronze over Dex’s face while a wheezing cackle escaped his mouth. It's an extremely stupid noise, but it's endearingly free, and Derek feels for a moment like there are no more walls standing between them. Here he is, light-hearted and golden in the darkest part of the woods, and Derek can almost see all of him.

“Nah, just thought I saw a bug,” Derek lies, and Dex frowns.

“Ugh, mosquitoes,” he says, annoyed. “You might want to start wearing bug spray; they're relentless out here, and you have a scratching problem. Better to prepare now, or we’ll have to spend all summer slathering calamine lotion on you.”

Derek agrees absently, thinking about how odd it is that a flower can bloom in the darkness.

When the year ends, Derek returns to the city with a promise to come back with cotton candy, since Dex hasn't had any for well over a decade.

Over the summer, Derek finds himself missing them more than usual. He's overseas with mama for a good chunk of vacation, and doesn't have the chance this year to visit Chowder. August feels like it drags on, and though he loves hanging out with his New York friends, he can't help but wonder what Dex is up to for the summer. At least he can call and skype C, though their time zone difference and Chowder’s bizarre summer sleep schedule make it difficult sometimes.

But Dex could be doing anything. On the nights when no one else is in the apartment but himself, Derek wishes more than ever he could convince Dex to come see him. Maybe he could help cure that guilty brand of loneliness that afflicts Derek even when he's surrounded by people.

Maybe Dex will finally feel like he can be all of himself around Derek.

#nurseydex #nursey #dex #chowder #omgcp fic #some mistake #hey i love the frogs #cw: blood

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domain-of-friendship-blog · 7 years

Text

04: Nuts and Bolts

"...and the spare key should be on the nightstand. If you need anything, the intercom is on the wall here."

Twilight fiddled with her glasses. "Um... thanks."

"Sleep well!" With that, the attendant left the room, the door closing quietly after.

Twilight's eyes scanned the sparsely decorated room. It reminded her of a college dormitory: a bed, a nightstand, a desk, and a dresser were all the furniture provided.

She wandered into the attached bathroom. Like the room proper, it was fairly small, but at least featured everything essential. She glanced over the bathtub and briefly considered taking a shower, but decided she wasn't all that keen on changing back into her dirty clothes afterward. Instead, she settled for looking herself over in the mirror for a moment, confirming what she had already assumed: yes, she did look just about as tired as she felt, her hair askew and her smudged glasses only barely hiding the dark color under her eyes.

Sighing, Twilight flopped face-first onto the bed. She wasn't sure whether it had been the journey through the portal, everything that had happened afterward, or some combination of the two, but she couldn't remember the last time she had felt nearly this exhausted... and it would be several hours yet before Sunset arrived, so spending at least some of the intervening time asleep sounded like the best idea she had heard all day. With a subtle wave of her hand, her glasses floated off her face and came to rest on the nightstand as she settled in on top of the covers.

...As it turns out, trying to sleep when you're not used to having wings poking out of your back is somewhat difficult. It took several moments of tossing and turning for her to find a suitably comfortable position and close her eyes.

"..."

The only problem: she couldn't sleep.

To be fair... after all that had just happened, how could she? With nothing else to focus on, Twilight's mind raced, still trying its best to process the events of the past few hours...

*******

"611! Repeat, we have a code 611! Doctor, report to the portal room immediately!"

Still disoriented from her trip through the void, Twilight struggled to shake the fog from her brain and take stock of the situation. Information trickled over her consciousness like water from a leaky faucet.

She looked to be inside a very large building, one that reminded her of a warehouse with its painted brick walls, corrugated metal ceiling, stacks of wooden crates here and there, and some large machinery here and there.

She was a few feet off the ground, but how? Oh, wings, okay... but how was she all pony-ified already? Her hazy brain couldn't seem to tell her when that had happened.

"What is it? What's it doing?" "Look at those wings! That's so cool!" "Protocol, people! Stay back! This could be dangerous!"

Several people began yelling things, which immediately drew her attention. Looking below, she spotted four humans nearby, watching her intently. Each one held something in their hands, various objects pointed at her that looked - WAIT IS THAT A GUN

In a panic, Twilight swung her arm upward in an arc, a purple glow enveloping all four of them as telekinetic force lifted them into the air and ripped their weapons from their hands. In the same motion, she closed her hand sharply, causing each of the confiscated weapons to snap in half with the sound of splintering wood and creaking metal.

"Marvelous...!"

Standing before a set of double doors thrown wide open were two people in lab coats. The taller of the two looked quite strange - his skin was pale as a ghost, his ears were strangely long and pointy, and his thick glasses must have been obscuring his eyes in some way because Twilight could have sworn they were entirely white, featuring neither irises nor pupils. He seemed to be staring at her in awe, oblivious to anything else in the room.

The second was a girl with dark skin whose curly hair was tied back in a ponytail - not unlike Twilight's own, but significantly shorter. Unlike her companion, her eyes shifted rapidly around the room, quickly noticing the people Twilight still held in midair as well as their ruined weapons on the floor nearby.

"Simply marvelous," the pointy-eared man repeated. "I've never seen such powers before... Oh, where did I leave my clipboard? I simply must begin taking notes immediately!"

"W-Who are you? Where am I?" Twilight demanded, finally finding her voice. "What happened to my friends?"

The pointy-eared man gasped, suddenly beaming. "It speaks our language? Oh, this is unprecedented!"

"Uncle, focus!" his companion snapped. "Save your gawking for later - we have a situation to defuse!"

As Twilight watched, the girl straightened her collar a bit and began walking slowly and purposefully toward her, her demeanor completely different; where she had been all business just a moment ago, she now seemed much... softer, for lack of a better word. "Don't worry... I promise we're not going to hurt you." Now that she was a bit closer, she looked barely older than Twilight herself. "My name is Penny. What's yours?"

"T-Twi... Twilight Sparkle." Twilight found herself making eye contact with a nearby crate much more readily than she could manage with this girl.

"That's a beautiful name." Penny's smile grew. "Miss Sparkle, I'm here to help you... but I'd like you to do a favor for me first, okay?"

Twilight hesitated, still glancing about the room.

"I need you to put our guards down," Penny explained, her hands folded in front of her. "I'm sure they're sorry for scaring you."

Now it was Twilight's turn to gasp; she hadn't meant to hold onto them this long. As slowly and gently as she could manage, she lowered them back to the ground.

"Thank you!" Penny stepped closer. "Do you want to come down so we can talk? I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have, but this isn't the best place for it."

Twilight descended one wingbeat at a time, landing somewhat clumsily on the floor below.

"Ah, and before I forget... this man here is my uncle, Doctor Darian Mobius." At this, she sighed quietly and turned toward him. "That is how you handle a 611, uncle. Now it's a much more manageable 619 instead."

"Hoho! Splendid work as always, my dear Penny. What would I do without you?" Dr. Mobius chuckled, poking the bridge of his glasses to adjust them. "In any case... now that our guest has been sufficiently mollified, perhaps she would like to accompany us to the conference room? I have ever so many questions to ask!"

"Are you hungry, Miss Sparkle?" Penny asked, largely ignoring her uncle. "If you tell us about your diet, perhaps we can accommodate."

"Thank you, but..." Twilight rubbed her elbow and looked back at the portal, swirling ominously in the air behind her. In spite of the hospitality, something felt very wrong. "My friends... W-We all got pulled into the portal together," she explained. They had to know something, hadn't they? "Has anyone else been through here?"

The two scientists stared at Twilight for a few seconds before exchanging blank looks.

Penny shook her head. "I'm sorry... you were the only one."

"Oh." Twilight's heart sank.

"But... is that really true? You all entered the portal together, but didn't end up at the same destination?" Penny looked worryingly over at her uncle.

Twilight swallowed hard. "Y-Yes... why?"

Dr. Mobius adjusted his glasses again. "I'm afraid that's... impossible."

*******

Impossible...

The word echoed in Twilight's mind. Obviously that couldn't be right; Sunset was already on her way to prove them wrong... but what did it mean? Thinking about it only made her worry more. What if something catastrophically bad was happening that even these experienced scientists wouldn't be able to solve?

Groaning, she sat up and raised a hand to her head. Trying to sleep was getting her nowhere, obviously. Maybe a walk would help her clear her head? Assuming no one minded her wandering about, that is.

Slipping the spare key into her pocket, Twilight snuck through the door, closing it behind her as quietly as she could.

"Can't sleep?"

Startled, Twilight whirled around to find Penny leaning against the wall.

"Y-Yeah... sorry." Twilight fidgeted with the end of her skirt. "I was hoping a walk would help calm my nerves."

"I guess I can't blame you. It's been a pretty eventful few hours." Penny approached her slowly. "You really shouldn't wander the lab by yourself though. Would you like me to show you around?"

A smile slowly grew on Twilight's face. "Yes please! I'd love to learn more about what you study here."

"Great!" Penny motioned for Twilight to follow her down the hallway. "Let's start with the senior offices, they're just down here..."

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

#mlp #mlpfim #my little pony friendship is magic #equestria girls #mlp fanfic #pony fanfic

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heeeatofthemoment · 7 years

Text

Destiny x Reader Fan Fic

Soooo, this is my first one of these and I am doing one for each Endless and it’s probably not great but it’s my first one soooooooooo :D It’s about you and your meeting with Destiny of the Endless. Here we go:

You were very turned around, which sort of made sense, you figured. After all, you were in a maze and that’s sort of the point. But, you could have sworn you were in a hedge maze, with thick blocky walls that had sharp turns and narrow lanes.

Now, however, you were surrounded by crops of maize, with a bumpy dirt path underfoot and more curved walkways. Spinning a full circle, you realise you hadn’t even noticed a transition between the walls. In fact, you couldn’t even see where the hedge had stopped and maize had started.

You stand there for a few more seconds before muttering, “maybe this a section I couldn’t see from the outside?” Content with this idea, you continue walking, overhearing the odd faint laughter from other families making their way through the labyrinth. You amble at a causal pace, enjoying the fresh air and ambience.

You weren’t taking a specific route, or using the best method of escaping a maze, sticking to a single direction of left or right. Instead you try your best to be random about which ways you went. Left. Left. Right. Left again.

Unlike your friends, who ran ahead from the get go, intent on being the first to find the centre and then the exit, you enjoyed the way mazes functioned. You were so drawn in by these thoughts, you once again didn’t notice that the walls had once again changed. They were now wooden, bare, with only a garnish on it so one wouldn’t get splinters. Once again, you couldn’t see any signs of where the maize became wood.

Though you felt more disturbed, you pressed on. Right. Left. Right. Straight on. You blink and look up, suddenly noticing that the sky had become a slight shade of pink. Sunset? You hadn’t been here that long surely? You press on, with more pace in your steps. Left. Right. Right. Left, and left once more.

It had suddenly become dark and you thought, for a moment, that it was somehow night, but you look up to a see a ceiling. How had you gotten inside? You look back down and you are met with yourself, which causes you to almost jump out of your skin. Quickly scanning your surroundings, you realise you were now in a house of mirrors.

This was most certainly not part of the theme park she was originally in. Despite hating the idea, you decide to try and backtrack, though instead of finding the wooden section once again, you are now met with the hedge maze once again. This would have been relieving, if not for the fact that there was thick snow underfoot, which was not there when you entered.

You turn around to backtrack again, but there is no longer a path from which you came. “Oh, come on!” you exclaim, before sprinting away. This time you decide to follow the rule, and only turn a single direction. In the next few minutes, you run through another hedge maze, a maze decorated with images of clowns, a maze of glass, a dense wood and what you were sure was just a storage warehouse of some sorts.

You almost gave up and fell to the floor. You were confused, tired and scared.

But then you run around another corner into a small clearing. The area was a square pavilion, that reminded you a fancy garden at a manor you once visited. There were several marble seats (which looked extremely uncomfortable), which all surrounded a large fountain in the centre. It wasn’t particularly extravagant, and it wasn’t flowing water, but was adorned with several of the same robed figure.

The sky had become a deep shade of red, a shade somewhere between blood and fine wine, but there was no sun. You turned a full 360 degrees and saw there were several directions you could take, but upon finishing your turn you noticed that he had suddenly appeared before you.

He wore a basic brown robe, similar to that of medieval monk you saw in pictures from when you were younger. He wasn’t wearing shoes, which you figured must be incredibly uncomfortable when walking over the gravel paths, but you notice there was no indication he had even trodden on it. No footprints of indication of where he walked from.

Most predominant though was his holding an opened book, which he held in both hands as it was so large. As a whole it didn’t look particularly unique, with a basic cover and spine, but the thing was as large as a 32-inch TV screen.

Perhaps he was simply a caretaker for the park you were visiting. If that was even where you were still.

“Um… Hello?” you begin, “If you don’t mind, I think I’m lost, can you direct me back?”

“Lost? How can you be lost if this is where you are supposed to be? And as for getting back, I will show you the way back at the end of this conversation,” he answered without hesitation.

You take a step forward, trying to act confident before this oddly scary individual. Though you weren’t sure what it was that made him so.

“Please? I need to be getting back, my friends are probably worried,”

“This is where you need to be, and when you need to be back, you will be”.

Was that a threat? You can’t tell. Though this relatively elderly man didn’t seem like he meant harm.

“You have no need to fear (Y/N), I will not hurt you”. He says this as such a throw-away comment you almost don’t notice he knows your name.

“What? How did-”

“I read it,” he gently lifts the book slightly in gesture. As he does you notice a chain that is linked to his wrist and the book. In the small glance you had, there didn’t appear to be any key or lock that could remove it.

“How was my name in that book?”

“It has every name”.

“Like a census or something?”

“In a manner of speaking. It has everything in it. Everyone’s lives. All past, present and future events. All stories and happenings. Even this conversation”.

You stare at the book. This man was clearly crazy, not only was what he was saying not possible, since the book seemed too small to contain everything, but it also seemed too simple. Surely such an important manuscript wouldn’t casually be in the hands of an elderly man some maze?

“This isn’t some maze, this is my realm”.

“How did you… Look doesn’t matter, are you going to show me the way back now? You said you would at the end of the conversation and I’m pretty much done”. You cross your arms in an attempt to assert some sort of dominance, but the man doesn’t move at all.

“Not quite yet (Y/N), there are still several things that need to be said”.

You sigh and take a couple steps closer.

“Look, mister… what’s your name?”

“I have quite a few, but the one you will call me is Destiny”.

“Right… listen mister Destiny, I don’t know what this whole thing you have going on is but-”

“You are here because that is how it is to happen,” he interrupts you. “You didn’t happen into my garden by accident, your story is and always has meant to come via this place. Though, admittedly, you are the first human in many eons to pass consciously through here”.

You have no words to respond with. This man seemed crazy, this place seemed crazy, and what he said seemed crazy. Was it possible you were crazy? After all, appearing in random places and meeting a man with a book chained to his wrist wasn’t normal?

“I can assure you, you are perfectly sane,” he said plainly.

“Ok, how are you actually doing that?” you shout, become agitated and exasperated. There was no way he was doing this from some book? You begin to march over, fully intent on taking a peek. Before you can, he shuts the book with a sharp movement and gently rests his palm on the cover.

“Really? Why can’t I have a look?”

“Even if you could understand it, it would not be wise to see one’s own future, and if I were to read aloud some of its contents, it would become part of its own story, the effects of which would be catastrophic”.

You almost completely lose your nerve. You were confused, tired and wanted answers. However, now that you were closer to Destiny, you notice a few more odd details. Firstly, he wasn’t actually casting a shadow.

Every object in the area had some form of dark patch on the floor as a result of the strange red sky, but he didn’t, which kind of reminded you of a graphical glitch in a video game. As well as this, you could see his face a bit clearer, and you realise his eyes aren’t looking at you. He’s not looking at anything in particular at all, in fact he appears to be blind.

“Why do you live in a maze?” You ask, unsure as to why, of all the more important questions you could be asking, this was the one you needed answering.

“As I have said, this isn’t just a maze. This is my garden. One could spend their whole lifetime searching it and not take the same route twice. In fact, everyone spends their lives here. Choosing their futures, their possible lives, jobs, wives, husbands, everything.”

“So this is… I’m in-”

“Yes, you are in my realm. The realm of Destiny”.

Despite how far-fetched this seemed, you believe it. Since you entered, this place felt… off in some way. “So… how did I get here?”

Under his thick hood, you see him raise an eyebrow. “Physically, the garden can be accessed by any form of labyrinth if you know how. As for why, you are here because you are meant to be”.

“What do you mean? Am I here for some purpose?”

“That is not my place to say, you are simply here because you must be”.

“You keep saying that…” you mutter to yourself.

“No matter how many choices you make, and how random you think they are, all lives are set out for you to follow. When you pass through my garden you may see many forking paths and darkness ahead. But look back and you will see that there is only one route. One singular journey you have travelled.”

“Even you?”

“Yes, I am here, talking to you, because that is what the book has said will happen”.

This was a moment billions of people only dream of hearing. Learning how the world worked, whether all was fate or choice. But having been given the truth, you only felt disappointment.

“So, nothing I do makes a difference? No matter how hard I try, all my failings and successes are predetermined by some book?” You ask, a mixture of anger and dejection in your voice.

“The book didn’t make these decisions, but yes, you have a path that you will and always will have to follow”.

You wanted to explode. Complain, shout, cry. All of these things. But what was the point? You felt helpless and insignificant. You wanted to give Destiny a piece of your mind, but you knew he would already know what you would say.

Falling to your knees, you let out a small sob. Suddenly, you feel a hand on you shoulder. You look up and see Destiny, despite his appeared blindness he is looking into your eyes. He almost looks like he has a glint of kindness on his face.

“You’ve known for weeks that you and your friends would be visiting that park, and yet you still enjoyed you time, yes?”

You hesitate, then nod slowly, unsure as to the point he is getting at.

“And the relationship you were in up until recently, deep in your heart, you knew that it wouldn’t last?”

Standing up quickly, you take a short step back, letting his hand drop from your shoulder.

“This isn’t making me feel better,” you quietly say, but he doesn’t stop.

“And when walked into the maze, you knew that you would find the exit. Even though there were dozens of turns, dead ends and straights, you knew that you’d find a way out”.

“What’s your point?”

“Despite knowing the, you still enjoyed the journey. Although you will know how things will turn out, you always feel happy, sad, angry and all manner of emotions as you experience them. Merely knowing what will happen doesn’t mean life is pointless”.

You stare back, speechless. Thinking on every word.

“With that, our time together is at a close, I will show you the way home now”. He says, with a bow gesturing toward a pathway to his left.

“Wait? What? But I have more questions, how do you… No, I got it, because the book says so,” you say, realising before you ask. “Though, before I go, can I ask one more question?”

“You may”.

“If you don’t write the book, what do you do? And why is it chained to you?”

Destiny appears to hold back a smile, but you unsure if it is a playful or melancholy grin.

“I am simply to read it. As for the chain, is it chained to me? Or am I chained to it? It is sometimes hard to tell. This path will take you home, I suggest you don’t dwell here too long”.

You almost blurt out more questions, but you stop yourself. You nod to Destiny one last time and make your way through. You are almost instantly walking through the exit of the maze.

You recognise the area from when you passed by earlier. The sky is back to normal and you see people all around you. You see your friends sat on a bench nearby, sweating and panting.

You smile and make your way over to them. You knew that they would want a cold drink and some ice-cream, but despite this knowledge, you knew you would enjoy every second.

Thanks for reading if you made it this faaar :D

#destiny #the endless #fanfic #destiny x reader

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tatooedlaura-blog · 8 years

Text

Fourteenth Christmas

the series is as follows so far:

First … Second … Third … Fourth … Fifth … Fifth Christmas, Part 2 … Sixth … Seventh … Eighth … Ninth … Tenth … Eleventh … Twelfth … Thirteenth … Fourteenth … Fifteenth … Sixteenth … Seventeenth … Eighteenth … Nineteenth … Twentieth … Twenty-first … Twenty-second … Twenty-third

———————–

Only Mulder would suggest the Phillipines for a Christmas holiday when Scully was thinking, at most, maybe, maybe Hawaii, to escape the darkness. They’d pulled down a fair amount of money consulting on the FBI case and the pair of them decided a vacation was in order. Scully off-handedly suggested Hawaii, Mulder tossed two plane tickets to the other side of the world on the bed one night.

She hadn’t argued and now, at this very moment, they were shaded by palm frond umbrellas with their feet in the Pacific Ocean roasting their ever-loving asses off while everyone else they knew in the world was buried under two feet of snow.

Clinking glasses with Mulder, “pretty sure I’m never going home. I wonder how to resign from the hospital without having to actually move more than a quarter inch from this spot?”

“Just don’t go back. Eventually they’ll realize you aren’t just taking a really, really long lunch.”

With a grin, she took a deep pull on her straw, rattling both ice cubes and tiny umbrellas, the alcohol sliding smoothly down her throat, “a few more of these and I may just forget I ever had a job in the first place.”

“Drink up.”

As they lay there, nothing but ocean ahead of them, Mulder unconsciously rolled his ankle several times before Scully reached her fingers over, touching his wrist, “do you still feel it there sometimes?”

“Like fucking ghost shackles. Right now, one ankle actually feels heavier than the other and I tell myself I’m an idiot but still, I gotta lift it up just to make sure.”

Crawling her hand up to hold his, “well, you’ll never get it back now. You are free and clear and as far from any of it and them as you could possibly be.”

His mind wouldn’t let it go but he swallowed his anxiety and gave her a smile, “better knock on some wood there, Scully.”

“Never took you for superstitious.” Her eyes danced in his direction, “unless you’ve been throwing salt over your shoulders for years in secret.”

“I always sweep up when I’m done.” Taking her drink and setting it on the table on his other side, he then stood, beckoning towards the waves, “come on, I want to go see if I still remember how to body surf.”

About to let him go so she could keep relaxing in the sun, she saw the hope in his eyes and immediately bounced up beside him, “right behind you.”

He stared at her fully from head to toe and back up, eyes dragging clothes off, imaginary tongue tracing her soon to be showing tan lines, his hands toying with the smooth skin of her breasts …

If he didn’t get in the water right now, he was going to have an issue.

&&&&&&&&&&&

On their row boat, the one that came with their little over-the-water hut, Mulder had packed a lunch, several blankets and plenty of sunscreen. The rowing had been a damn chore but seeing her lounging across from him, sun hat low, turquoise bikini turning his brain to mush, he couldn’t think of a better way to spend the rest of his life.

They’d been buzzed by a helicopter with National Geographic emblazoned on the side, taking what Scully assumed to be program footage but Mulder, swallowing hard, waved but wondered if maybe the camera was meant for them, following them, tracing their whereabouts, tracking them to the ends of the Earth.

Scully chased that thought to the back of his mind, however, when she undid the front string of her bikini and let it fall to her sides, full breasts bared for him and him alone. Immediately abandoning the oars, he threw a blanket on the bottom of the boat and proceeded to remove the bottom half of her suit with his teeth.

He then used his tongue to get her to yell his name for absolutely no one in the world to hear but him in possibly the most erotically charged thing they’d ever done. He then dropped his own suit, sliding into her as the boat drifted across the crystal-clear seas with no destination in mind.

&&&&&&

That night, however, lying naked under the gauze canopy surrounding their bed, he woke, terrified, a nightmare the likes of which he hadn’t experienced in years clenching his throat, squeezing his heart and lungs to twisted wreckages. Scully looked justifiably terrified as well, gripping his fists inches from her face and chest, stopping him moments before he apparently would have beaten the living hell out of her.

When Mulder could finally comprehend where he was and remember how to get oxygen to his brain, he pulled away from her, sliding across the smooth, wooden floor until he came in contact with the rounded wall, sliding down it to rest on his back end in a crouch. Catching her breath, she moved to get out of bed as well, follow him, hold him but he held up his hand, “don’t.”

“Mulder?”

“Just … don’t. Not yet.”

Reaching over to the chair, she pulled on a tank top and a pair of Mulder’s basketball shorts, cinching them up tight around her waist before she sat down on the floor, leaning on the bed, a respectable distance from her shattering partner, knowing he would call her when he was ready.

It took awhile but eventually, he managed to meet her eye. All it took was that half-second connection for her to scoot across the floor, sliding in between his lifted knees, dragging a beach towel with her to settle over his shoulders before moving to hug him. He accepted her touch, gathering her up, her warm flesh against his chilled skin, fear making him colder than he should be for the climate. Scully, feeling the sheen of cold sweat, coaxed him to stand, pulling him to the bed to lie down. He burrowed into her, hiding his head in her breasts.

“Mulder? Mulder, hon, please, tell me what you were dreaming?”

She so rarely pulled out the ‘hon’ that it caught his ear and he released his strangle hold on her waist, “did I hurt you?”

Pulling his head up slightly, she kissed his damp hair, hand combing behind his ear, “no. I’m fine. I promise.”

“They were coming for us. That damn helicopter was spying for them and they found us and they came in here and were trying to take you and …” shutting his eyes and pressing his ear to her heart, “they’re not taking you from me again.”

“Of course, they aren’t. There isn’t anyone who really wants us anymore. We don’t have to hide. We can go on vacation, get jobs, go to the store.” Taking his face in her hands so she could look at him, “when we get back, so help me God, we are going to the grocery store, then we’re going to go to an actual bookstore, then, to go totally wild, we’re going to eat at Mickey’s Diner and not just stop for the takeout.”

Having finally gotten some semblance of his faculties back, Mulder met her eyes, wishing it were all true and hanging on her words as if they were golden hooks of truth hung from heaven itself. Scully recognized that look and slipped from his grasp for a moment, shedding her meager clothing to press against him fully, she continued her ministrations to his splintered psyche, her fingers running over him, kneading a muscle here, ringing a collarbone there until he came back to her all at once with a Mulderesque quip, “but I don’t actually miss the grocery shopping.”

With a relieved groan, she snaked limbs and torso over him, the warm ocean breeze floating through their room, chasing away the last vestiges of chill from his skin, “what happened?”

Having thought he was long past hiding his dreams from her, he hesitated, “I already told you.”

“No, I mean, was it really a simply helicopter that brought on your first nightmare in years or has this been happening and it’s the first time I’ve been around for it?”

Mulder settled his lips against her forehead, “first nightmare but I’ve … I’ve been … ever since … I’ve been … wondering about things for a couple of months … maybe the last year?”

“Wondering what?”

“If maybe things aren’t as finished as you think.”

Her body shivered despite the climate as this idea bored itself quickly into her soul, “why do you think that? Has something happened you didn’t tell me?”

“No, no … I … I think I’ve just been in that house too long. Maybe I need to do the grocery shopping after all.” Hugging her to him as he felt another quaver pass up her spine, “I’m okay. Just … it was just that stupid black helicopter … hovering there.” Fingers playing up her bared ribs, “I’ll go hunt down the supermarket as soon as we get home and dinner at Mickey’s sounds great.”

“I know you know I know you’re full of shit, right?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Should I stop questioning you for now?”

No anger hiding behind his words, “yes, please. I just want to see how much of your skin I can taste before you demand a good, hard fuck off the side of the bed.”

Despite her misgivings and concerns, his blunt proposition told her that he was swimming his way slowly back to being Mulder and the wet rush at his whispered ‘taste’ melted her into primal compliance.

&&&&&&&&&&

The next morning, she woke late, sprawled from one end of the bed to the other, foot dangling, bare ass warm from the hint of sun passing through the gently flapping curtains. Lifting her head to look around, she noticed not only was she alone but there was a mysterious, wrapped package on the nightstand. For a brief, terrifying moment, she fleetingly wondered in this could possibly be some kind of package bomb, explosive container, alien virus.

Well, fuck.

Shaking her head, she realized the thing was wrapped in plain brown paper and had Mulder’s handwriting all over it. Rolling to her back, she immediately forgot any kind of dark thoughts, “Mulder?”

His voice carried from downstairs, “up in a second.” Patiently waiting in that way she’d learned with him by their second case, she smiled when he walked into the room stark naked, carrying a tray with fruit, bread, cheese and water, “Merry Christmas!”

Sitting up, she let the sheets fall where they may, giving Mulder a view he drooled over a little but kept his cool, walking just a little faster to the bed to kiss her good morning, “Merry Christmas, Mulder!”

Settling tray and himself, he then handed her her box, “happy 14th Christmas.”

First popping several grapes in her mouth, she removed the paper, revealing a box which, when opened, revealed another box, which, in succession, revealed a third box and finally a well-packed, stained-glass, heavy and beautiful cross, complete with starburst sunrays in the most brilliant of reds-orange hues. Holding it up, catching that stray beam of sun that had warmed her earlier, the ornament glowed, “God. Mulder. It’s … beyond beautiful but I don’t have a word for that right now so it’s …” mesmerized, she trailed for a second before, “I found my word … it’s radiant.”

Mulder beamed himself a little here, reaching out to spin it gently, “I had them pack it like I’d be shipping it home. That’s why there were so many boxes but I thought it might be fun to have to work a little for it.”

Poking him in the shin with her toe, “make me work for my Christmas gifts. That’s just mean.”

“But you still love me.”

“Yeah … I know.”

Watching it a few more seconds, she then lay it gently on the pillow, rolling off the bed to amble to her suitcase, digging then retrieving her own gift. Handing it over, “I bought yours with me.”

Always giddy for a gift, he tore into it, finding an ornament replicating the United States. Squinting towards it, he then looked at her, “are all these dots what I think they are?”

“Yes. It matches, as best I could anyways, the map we made years ago in your apartment. That’s everyplace we’ve been together, both on cases and vacations and even while we were running. I had to update it from the one on your wall a little, given we had another 10 years of travel after.” From his smile, he didn’t mind that she’d included their ‘on the lam’ destinations, “I thought it’d be a good reminder that I’d follow you anywhere, anytime.”

Crushing her in a sudden hug, he apologized quietly again for the previous night, then kissed her, tasting grapes and cheese on her tongue, “and I’d follow you.”

#msr #the boat #the helicopter #the ocean #christmas series #my writing #xf fanfic #xfiles fanfic

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bastardfur · 8 years

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Chapter 2

Sammy walked into his apartment with a greater appreciation for his home than he had before the trip. I wonder if this is what the point of camping is? To remind yourself how shitty life could be so you appreciate yours more, Sammy thought. Then again, being attacked by a wolf isn't exactly a typical camping experience.

Sammy's apartment was a medium sized studio apartment with a high industrial ceiling and hardwood floors. He expertly arranged the open space into sections using IKEA furniture and giant rugs. The rugs served as little islands to compartmentalize his stuff and apartment. He had a living area with his 60-inch TV and game systems and work area that held his desk, computer, and a large white board he used to keep his life organized. In the corner, next to the bathroom was his bed and nightstand. His bed was never made and there was a pile of dirty clothes next to his dresser. As organized as Sammy like to be in every other aspect of his life, laundry was his weakness. Sammy had a kitchen in his apartment but it went mostly unused. It's not that he couldn't cook, he just didn't want to put in the effort. Cooking for one always seemed like the loneliest activity to Sammy and he could just make a sandwich or order food just as easily.

After a shower, Sammy fell into bed and took a nap. It was Sunday, but he was already making mental plans to work from home tomorrow. Sammy didn't have any meetings to go to and since he worked on the website, he could just stay home and be just as productive. Sammy woke up late that afternoon and decided he should probably eat something. He got dressed to go down to the deli across the street. Another perk of living in the city, he thought. I don't understand how Eric survives the suburbs.

As Sammy was locking up his door, his neighbor from across the hall walked out of his apartment. "Hello, Samuel" he greeted.

"Hi Clint" Sammy sheepishly replied. Clint Blackbill had lived across from Sammy since he moved in 3 years ago. Clint was an older man (Sammy guessed late 40s early 50s) with silver hair and a salt and pepper beard. Clint refused to call Sammy anything other than Samuel. Clint told him he couldn't bring himself to call a grown man Sammy, and he didn't argue with Clint. Mostly because he was distracted by how handsome Clint was. Clint had piercing blue eyes and a confident aura that drove Sammy nuts. After 3 years, Sammy was no longer paralyzed by talking to Clint, but the attraction was still there. Sammy had spent his first week patrolling the dating apps to see if Clint showed up, but he never did. To this day, Sammy still had no idea if Clint was gay or not. For a man with such powerful eyes, they revealed nothing of his true intentions. "Heading out anywhere special tonight?" Sammy was always trying to find out more about him.

"Afraid not. I just got back from a weekend trip and need some groceries to get me through the week. What happened to your arm?" Clint said as he finished locking his door. "Looks like something pretty nasty got a hold of you."

Sammy was confused for half second, and then remembered the bandage on his arm and the last 48 hours. He was surprised at how quickly his trauma and faded in his mind and how little his arm was hurting. "Oh this? I had a run in with a wolf of all things. Damn thing cornered me in the woods."

"A wolf? That's rare for Georgia. I'm sure it was just a coyote."

"No, for real. It was definitely a wolf. It got right in my face." Sammy noticed a slight hesitation behind Clint's usual confident demeanor.

"How strange. I hope that heals ok. Let me know if you need anything. I'm always right across the hall. Take care, Samuel." Clint left down the stairs toward the lobby while Sammy waited for the elevator. They lived on the 15th floor of the building and yet Clint always insisted on taking the stairs. Clint may have been over 20 years older than Sammy, but he was in much better shape than he was.

Sammy went and grabbed some dinner and brought it back to his apartment. After dinner, Sammy sat down to watch some TV before bed. Curious to how his arm was doing, he decided to unwrap the bandage and check on it. It won't hurt to peek, he said to justify his actions. Plus, I should probably change the bandage anyways.

Sammy unwrapped the bandage to find that wound had significantly healed itself from last night. It was nowhere near perfectly healed, but Sammy was still impressed with how little it hurt. He put fresh bandages on and went back to watching TV.

Over the next few weeks, Sammy’s life went on as it pretty much always did with one notable exception. To Sammy's enjoyment, he seemed to be running into Clint more often than usual. Mostly has he left the house, but sometimes around town. Sammy thought nothing of it except how much he had been enjoying seeing and talking to Clint. Clint was just as friendly as always and even seemed to be taking more of an interest in Sammy's personal life. The bite healed up within a couple of weeks and surprisingly didn't even leave a scar. Sammy had almost completely put the whole ordeal out of his mind until the night of the next full moon.

It was a cold November evening, but luckily Sammy had been able to work from home. Sammy enjoyed his work from home days because it allowed him to spend all day in his underwear and take breaks to play video games. No one ever noticed if he took long breaks because of how much work he could accomplish when he did sit down to focus. Once five o'clock hit he decided that he was done with work and logged out of his company's VPN. He went over towards the kitchen to see if he had any food. Haven't left the house all day, why start now? He thought as he grabbed some ham and cheese from the fridge to make a sandwich. He could see from his window all the rush hour traffic down below as the sun set behind the buildings. Sammy was glad to not have to deal with Atlanta traffic. He didn't live far from work, but it would still have been fully night by the time he would get home.

Sammy sat down to eat and then play some video games for the rest of the night. Just as the Sammy was about to power on his Xbox, he heard a knock on the door. Who the fuck is knocking? Who visits me? Sammy grabbed some shorts laying nearby and went to the door. He opened the door to see Clint staring at him looking worried.

"I need to come in." He demanded. Sammy looked at him with a blank stare as if he had just spoken in German. "Now, Samuel" He demanded as he barged into Sammy's apartment. Clint pushed him out of the way and locked the door.

Sammy was trying his best to keep up with the situation. "Is everything ok, Clint? You're usually a lot more.... stoic than this."

Clint walked through the house as if he were looking for something that would jump out at them at any moment. He made his way to the windows and studied the sky intently. "Samuel, it's almost time. Whatever happens tonight, I want you to trust me." Clint grabbed the curtains and shut them obscuring the freshly darkened night sky. Clint turned back to Sammy and instructed him, "Take off your clothes. All of them."

Sammy could feel his brain stutter. As if someone had hard reset his brain and he was stuck until it restarted itself. He had imagined Clint saying these words to him a million times, but somehow hearing them said aloud was enough to make his jaw slip open and become a mindless mouth breather. As soon as he started to gain control of himself, Clint started to undress right in front of him. This can't be real, Sammy thought. As Clint undressed, Sammy saw that the salt and pepper hair he had on his face was mirrored in the hair that covered his surprisingly fit torso for a man his age. Sammy knew he should have looked away when Clint's shorts came off, but as weird as this night was going why should he care.

Clint stood there in his full glory glaring at Sammy. Sammy still stood there, too dumbstruck to speak. Clint was visibly impatient with Sammy's behavior. He walked over to Sammy's stereo system and turned the volume up just past comfortably loud. Clint yelled over the music,” Samuel. Remove your clothes. You'll only make it harder for yourself."

"What..." Sammy replied as a lightning bolt of pain shot through his back with a sickening crack that reverberated in his ears. The first strike of pain was all the convincing Sammy needed to head Clint's warning. He removed his shorts just in time to be sent to the ground in agony. He could feel his bones splintering and rearranging themselves under his skin, which was burning and stretching to compensate for all the turmoil happening just below the skin. He cried out in pain and caught a glimpse of Clint. He was no longer standing confidently, but was on the ground seemingly undergoing a similar process that he was undergoing. Every inch of Sammy's body was changing. His fingers retracted as sharp claws burst out from where his fingernails use to be. He felt his jaw snap loose and narrow as it protruded forward, allowing more room for the sharp fangs to move into place. Hair was erupting all over his body as he began to shift his weight evenly between his limbs. After an excruciating few minutes, the pain subsided but Sammy was far from okay.

#Bastard Fur #Novel #werewolf #gay #text post

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nellie-elizabeth · 7 years

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Grey's Anatomy: Leave It Inside (13x22)

Ugh. Minnick is kind of the worst again. Which bums me out. But I liked a lot of the other stuff going on here!

Cons:

So, Minnick spends this episode being really sanctimonious and up in everybody's business. Which I guess is how she was at the start of the season, but this time around I feel like she doesn't have as much of a point, so she comes across really super obnoxious. A little boy named Liam shows up at the hospital asking for help. Turns out his parents won't allow him to have surgery or any other kind of intervention because of their faith. Alex and Stephanie really want to help the kid, but they can't. Minnick is snippy and uptight about the whole thing, refusing to consider Alex and Stephanie's point of view, and saying things like "who taught you to talk to a patient like that?" when Stephanie is a bit cold to the sick boy's mother. She just annoyed the heck out of me. We see in the end that Eliza and Arizona finally have sex, and while I was rooting for these crazy kids initially, now I feel sort of weird about it. Eliza seems like kind of a bad person, and I don't really get why Arizona is so into her.

Maggie didn't annoy me in this episode, and somehow that slightly annoyed me? Apparently she's decided to support Meredith and Nathan's relationship now, since she sees that it might be serious. But the thing is, where did this come from? If somebody were to watch this episode by itself, they wouldn't even really know that Maggie had a thing for Riggs. We were forced to sit through so much whining and drama with this whole thing, and now we're just done with it? I guess I'm glad... but I'm also confused.

DeLuca tries to confess his feelings to Jo in this episode, but she shuts him down pretty quickly. Mercifully, this didn't take too much time away from the episode, but my complaint still must be lodged. I just don't care about these two. They are about as bland as characters get on this show. And if something is going to happen between Jo and Alex, are we going to get that going? This is just a nothing of a plot development, and I'm sick of it. DeLuca could do better, even if he is boring as all hell.

Pros:

Before we get to the two main patient stories, one more little subplot thing:

During a resident review, Minnick says that Ben is very good and reliable, but he plays it too safe. Richard takes this to heart and begins questioning Ben about his work as a resident. It seems this talk galvanizes Ben to want to up his game, so hopefully we'll see how that plays out. I'll admit this plot thread wasn't super impacting, because we hadn't really seen Ben "playing it safe" and so therefore the stakes are pretty nonexistent. However, the resident review scene with Bailey, Minnick, and Richard was Minnick's only shining moment in the whole episode. I liked seeing this balance, where Webber was included and his input was valuable, but he also listened to what Eliza said and took it to heart. And I'd like to do some more stuff with Ben. He's almost always been a background character, except when he's making terrible mistakes and causing problems for Bailey.

As is often the case on Grey's Anatomy, each of our patient stories connects to stuff going on in the doctors' personal lives.

Liam is the sick kid who shows up at the hospital alone and scared. He lies and says he doesn't have parents, and wants help with his pain. He has a tumor, but his parents show up and demand that he be released, since their religion doesn't allow surgery. Alex is furious when the kid goes home, but when Liam shows up again unattended, Alex and Stephanie work together to make a lie, saying that Liam was seizing and they had to rush him in for emergency surgery. Minnick is suspicious of this, but Liam's life is saved. Stephanie confronts Liam's father, and ends up throwing her chart at the wall in anger. This leads Minnick to suspend her for her inappropriate behavior. Meanwhile, we learn through subtle coded conversation that Liam's mom actually helped him to get to the hospital, going against her purported faith and her husband's wishes, all to save her son. Alex ends the episode by making a mysterious phone call, saying he needs help finding someone.

Okay. Lots to unpack. I gathered that something strange was going on with Liam from the beginning, but I did like the twist that the mother was going against the husband the whole time. This is obviously a really sticky ethical issue, but for me the choice was clear from the moment the little boy lied about having parents because he was so desperate to be saved. He may be a child, but he doesn't want to die and he's not old enough to make an informed decision about letting his faith do the healing. The consent of a minor thing has to go both ways, doesn't it? If he can't consent to surgery on his own, how can he consent to dying because his parents won't help him?

Alex actually played a big-ish role in this episode, which is something we haven't seen in quite some time, so I was happy to see that. Obviously his attachment to kids makes him super endearing, and I liked the fact that he made sure to shield Stephanie as best as possible from the consequences of his illegal deception. There's this pretty intense moment when some of the other doctors figure out what he did, and Liam's dad is threatening to sue the hospital and all that, and someone says "you could go to jail," and Alex responds, angry, "I'd go to jail for this one." Damn!

Meanwhile, we see the continued splintering of Stephanie's confidence and competence. For a while now, since her boyfriend died, she's started to seem more and more nihilistic and negative about her job. In this episode, she is able to help save a child's life, and she even gets a grateful hug from the adorable little Liam. But by the rules of her profession, she's not supposed to save this kid's life. It's enough to shake anybody's faith in the system. There's been a really lovely and delicate examination of Stephanie's character throughout the last season or so. It's subtle, it sticks to the background, and then it comes out in this explosion of anger and makes so much sense. I've said before that I'm happy for this actress for going on to bigger and better things, but I'm really going to miss Stephanie next season. She became one of my favorites.

The other patient of the week is Holly, a woman with an inoperable heart tumor who is making the most of her last year of life by having a lot of casual sex and not worrying about leaving life behind. Maggie insists that she might be able to fix the tumor, but Holly has done this dance in the past, and she knows that they can't really help her, and she'll end up having to reassure her doctors that she's okay and they did the best they can. Despite this, Maggie convinces her to give it a shot and... well, they might have bought her a bit more time? But Maggie was wrong, and Holly was right. Meanwhile, Holly's one-night stand from the night before is sort of in puppy-love with her, and keeps hanging out at the hospital until Meredith has to let him down easy for Holly.

I said that Maggie wasn't annoying this week, and that's not entirely true, since I did think her insistence on the heart surgery was a bit obnoxious. However, I like the fact that it didn't work. She tried, she failed, but she didn't kill the girl or anything. It was a bit humbling, and a lot more realistic than the idea that Maggie could succeed where so many before her had failed.

Also, Holly was kind of hilarious and awesome. Her attitude about life, sex, and death was refreshing, and I like the fact that there was no twist where she ended up falling apart. It sucks that she's going to die, but at the same time, she knows what's up. She's made her own peace with it, and even a whole group of doctors trying to tell her how she should feel doesn't stop her from doing whatever she wants. Poor Cory, her awkward one-night-stand dude. There was this sort of tragicomic element to it, where the guy just could not grasp that Holly was done with him, but at the same time, if Holly hadn't been dying, maybe there could have been more there.

Maggie, Meredith, and April are all amused and rather delighted by Holly, which I found awesome. As the episode ends, all of these women are galvanized to move forward with their relationships, in one way or another. Maggie wants to go out and get laid, and April expresses her desire to have some fun as well, although she says that she doesn't want a boyfriend. Meredith, in the meantime, makes an important gesture too.

Earlier in the episode, we see Meredith taking out the giant tumor drawing hanging in her bedroom, as a symbol of moving on from Derek. She chickens out on having Riggs over to spend the night, but then makes the heartbreaking decision to put her and Derek's marriage post-it note away in a drawer. Later when she sees Riggs as he leaves the hospital, she reaches out and holds his hand. In this moment, she decides to celebrate and cherish the time she had with Derek, but not let it hold her back from ever being happy again. Her hesitation with Riggs came from a lot of different places, but now that the Maggie issue seems resolved, she can focus on making a decision for herself.

I like Riggs. I like Meredith. I like them together. I really wish I could believe that Owen's sister wasn't about to show up in a shocking twist that we all saw coming from a mile away, and ruin their tenuous grasp on happiness. But hey. Until it actually happens, I can pretend it won't, right?

That's where I'll wrap this one up. A fine episode, for the most part. Minnick is starting to really piss me off now. I try and try to be as supportive as I can, for Arizona's sake, but at this point I just really miss Callie.

8/10

#review #grey's anatomy #grey's anatomy review #greys anatomy #greys anatomy review #grey's #grey's abc #greys abc

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