#but the way parents of adults or even the state can forcefully put adults into treatment is fucked

[all-i-do-is-try1]

Forced recovery for adults should not be a thing.

Why does bodily autonomy not apply to those with ED’s ? Even if it’s dangerous, it’s not your body. And some people would definitely be doing much worse without their ED.

I can honestly say I’m a million times worse mentally after “recovery” than I ever was on my worst days of anorexia.

[casspurrjoybell-32]

All It Took Was One Look - Chapter 34 a

*Warning Adult Content*

Liam

It's been two weeks since I came home and a whole two weeks of sitting beside Aiden's unconscious body.

His parents told me that he was in the coma a week before I came, meaning the day I was originally planning on going home was a day before he fell.

I could have stopped this, I could have prevented him from getting hurt and ending up like this.

I stared at his face, the perfectly still plains, his cheeps a chalky white, the closed lids hiding those beautiful sky blue eyes that always made my heart beat fast.

And his lips were forced open by the tube helping his to breathe.

Long strands of black hair hung over the white bandage.

I reached out and moved them back from his forehead pressing a kiss to his cold skin.

The doctors removed the ventilation tube from his throat so it didn't damage his vocal cords and put a trach tube, as they like to call it, in his neck instead.

My chin began to quiver as I pulled back.

How many times have I begged him to wake up?

How many times have I pleaded for him to open his eyes?

The constant beeping of the heart monitor hooked up to him stayed at a steady pace, never fluctuating and of the sound of the respirator filled the room.

I haven't moved from this room, my mom or dad came by and gave me a bag of clothes.

The doctor and nurses have tried to make me leave but soon they gave up, giving me a look of pity.

I won't leave his side ever again.

This was just a cruel reminder of how frail he was, how human.

I was lying beside him in the small bed never taking my eyes off him.

I didn't want to miss the moment he finally opened those eyes.

If he ever did.

"Baby please, give me a sign you can hear me," I whimpered taking his cold still hand in mine, rubbing circles against his knuckles with my thumb.

My wolf was whining from the state our mate was in.

He hurt seeing our mate this way.

He wanted to help him, do anything he could but we both knew there was nothing we can do but stay by his side.

There was a knock at the door, I snapped my head up smelling my parents scent.

The door opened and a low rumbling growl built in my chest.

They froze a few steps in the room as they heard me.

My wolf didn't like it when anyone besides Aiden's parents came to see him.

I've let Jeanine and Eric come in but they were the only one.

Robin and Caleb tried but I wouldn't let them even cross the doorframe.

"Liam," my mom said in a soft voice trying to get me to calm down but they weren't getting near him.

"Honey, you need to come home, get some rest, eat something," she tried again but I growled again a bit more forcefully causing my dad to wrap a protective arm around her waist looking at me warily.

She sighed.

"Baby, I'm so sorry this happened to you," she said sorrowfully.

"Just leave," I demanded keeping my gaze on Aiden.

"I know this is hard on you Liam but you have to be strong for him which means getting a proper diet and rest," she pushed.

"I just want to be left alone with my mate," I told them firmly making her see the hint I was throwing at her.

"No one is stopping you from doing that but we're worried about your health baby," she said taking a hesitant step closer.

I shot from the bed fast and growled thunderously that the window in the room raddling, my eyes changing to a fierce yellow, my wolf was out and ready to get rid of the threat.

"LEAVE," I yelled at them.

My mom shrieked in fear and I would have apologized for scaring her but my wolf was in control.

My dad grabbed my mom and pressed her against his back in under a second.

He was glaring at me with yellow eyes, taking a protective stance in front of mom.

He knew I wasn't in control and I was a threat to his mate.

"Nancy go," he ordered her.

Mom looked from him to me with frightened eyes.

"But..."

"Go," he demanded sharply using his Alpha command, never taking his eyes off me.

Whimpering she left giving me one last look.

"I don't want you here, I don't anyone here. Now just leave me and my mate alone," I growled at him.

I knew it was dangerous to challenge him but I didn't care. I was sick and tired of all the interruptions, from the doctors and nurses coming in and out constantly.

I had to let Aiden's family in and his two best friends but all I wanted was to just be alone with him.

"Alright," my father said, his eyes shifting back to gray.

"We're leaving but she was only worried about you Liam and so was I but I understand."

He looked over to Aiden and his eyes softened before slowly backing out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

I stared at it for a while.

We haven't talked about the situation yet at how my mate was a guy but I just didn't want to get into that just yet. I looked back at Aiden, walking back to the bed and laid back down beside him.

Putting my arm across his chest I curled my fingers around his arm pulling him closer.

With my face buried in his neck and I cried for the millionth time.

"Come back to me Aiden."

This isn't how I wanted to be reunited with my mate after returning home.

Now I realized how stupid it was to ignore him for so long.

How I took advantage of the sound of his voice.

God how I wanted to hear him speak to me again, to say my name, to see him smile at me and his blue eyes shine with happiness.

I was gently stroking his cheek with the back of my fingers.

"I miss you baby," I whispered to him as he laid there unresponsive to everything.

I groaned as the door opened.

I looked up to see a tall guy with brown hair step in. I was ready to growl and go on the defensive but when I say his eyes I noticed they were Aiden's.

He looked over at me with the eyes I've been dying to see. Even though they were a dull replica compared to Aiden's they made me relax. This had to be a relative.

"Who the hell are you?" the guy asked and I sat up and narrowed my eyes at him.

"Who are you?" I countered.

"I'm Nash. Aiden's brother," he said, inclining his head to Aiden.

"Liam."

He nodded as if realizing something.

"Oh. So you're the guy camping out in my Brother's hospital room every day," he said walking to the other side of the bed pulling up a chair.

I gave a really weak smile, it was hard to smile these days.

"I guess you can say that."

I watched as he looked down at his brother brushing the hair from his face and I heard him sniffle.

"I tried. You know?" he said his voice clouding with grief.

"I tried to keep him safe but I failed."

The tears were falling from his eyes slowly and I lowered my gaze.

"It's not fair. He's gone through so much and now this?" his words were bitter.

"What has he ever done to deserve this?" he snapped and I looked back at Aiden.

He was right what did he do to deserve this?

"Come on bro, you're stronger than this. You can beat it. All you have do is just wake up. Please," he whispered, his forehead pressed against Aiden's.

[sariahsue]

I'd love to know what movies get wrong about orphanages if you wouldn't mind sharing!

Oh, I'm so glad you asked!

So imagine all the movies with orphanages in them: Annie, Despicable Me, Meet the Robinsons*, Stuart Little, etc. The narrative goes like this. A bunch of poor orphans live in a home run by usually one person. When prospective parents come to visit, the children eagerly all line up, hoping to get picked! So exciting! The parents find the child they want, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and go home with their new child. There may be a couple bumps as everyone gets used to the new family dynamic, but they work themselves out by the end of the movie. Happily ever after!

Literally every single thing about that scenario is wildly incorrect. First off, and this comes as a surprise to most people, there aren't any orphanages in the United States. None.

Not many kids are orphaned these days thankfully, and if they are, there’s usually extended family or other arrangements previously made by the parents (like through their wills or godparents). If there’s truly no one that can take the kid, they’d be put into foster care and given an adoption worker along with their normal social worker.

The closest thing we have to orphanages are probably residential programs and group homes (which are basically a step down from residential and in a house with a smaller group of kids). I say they’re similar because they look it from the outside. A bunch of kids living together being cared for by adults who aren’t their parents. 

That’s where the likeness ends, though. Kids in residential aren’t up for adoption. Strangers can’t go in and visit. The kids are there to receive extra care. They have something going on that make them too much to handle for their parents or foster parents, and it could be physical disability, behavioral issues, or mental health struggles. Most kids are in programs like that temporarily, though some live there for years. The adults that work there don’t live there. It’s a normal 40-hour workweek and many people work in shifts to make sure it’s properly staffed.

The government does line the kids up to show them off to prospective parents sometimes. They’re called adoption parties, and for some reason they’re held at Jordan’s Furniture store a lot. (Because they volunteer the space, I think.) There’s food and music and lots of kids up for adoption and lots of parents hoping to adopt. 

Little kids tend to like them because they’re too young to understand what’s going on and, hey, lots of people to pay attention to me! Older kids HAAATE them. If they want to be adopted, then this is a great way to feel judged and rejected for a few hours. Most aren’t really excited about being adopted. Most kids’ birth parents are still alive, but their rights were forcefully terminated by the state. The kids can feel lots of things about this. Angry. Disloyal to their birth family if they want a new family. Scared of being hurt by the new family. Sad to leave their foster family. Still want to go home even if it’s not possible. It’s not a fun time. 

Nothing concrete comes of these parties usually. Parents can talk to social workers afterward if there’s a kid that they want more information on, but it’s really the beginning of the process. There are other ways to begin that process. I’ve heard of teachers meeting a foster kid and wanting to adopt, or someone knowing a foster family taking care of a kid who’s up for adoption. Others simply talk to an adoption worker. I don’t know what the process is like for that. Quite often, foster families will take care of a kid and then adopt them. (That’s what happened to us. We fostered a newborn. He wasn’t up for adoption until he was two, and we were couldn’t even contemplate giving him up at that point.)

Sometimes, social workers will try to get prospective parents to meet kids without the kids realizing the adults are thinking about adoption, to spare the kid the worry and rejection. Once the parents have decided to move forward, there is paperwork, but I think it’s normal foster parent type paperwork because, surprise, you can’t adopt them yet. Kids have to live in your house for six months before you can adopt

Since most kids will be with a foster family before going to a pre-adoptive home, and they probably are comfortable there and attached to the family, the transition to the new home is gradual. They start out with visits for a few hours, then sleepovers. If the kid hasn’t figured it out already, they’ll let them know these people want to adopt them around this time. Some kids take it well. Some... don’t. Longer sleepovers, then finally they officially move in. This could be a couple weeks if the kid is already familiar with the adoptive family or longer if they’re particularly attached to the foster family. 

If six months are up and things are still going well, the real paperwork can start. There are home evaluations, interviews with the parents, interviews with the children already in the family, psychologists determine if the adoptee is adjusted well and securely attached. I’m sure there’s a ton more that I don’t know about. It freaking takes forever. When you’re done, you have to go to court and have papers signed by a judge. I’m sure this is the best part of every judge’s day. There are smiles and pictures and kids happily banging the gavel to make it official!

Unfortunately, the issues that come from adoption are not all solved at the end of the 90-minute movie. My brother, who never lived with his birth mother and has only had us as his family, still has issues. I know a girl who was straight up abandoned by her mother. She’s got serious mental health and self-worth issues years later, even though she and family adore each other and they are so good to her and super supportive. On the other hand, some people have zero issues over it. They don’t know and don’t care about their birth family.

Some issues go away after time and love. Some people start out with no issues, but after a few months or years, things start to change. Their subconscious realizes that they’re not in danger, and this is a safe environment where they can finally start to work through the trauma they’ve been through, and suddenly they’ll start having mental health or behavioral problems, and sometimes they’re severe. 

It’s sad, but occasionally adoptions fail. This is part of the reason for the six-month wait. Sometimes the kids have so many issues that the parents can’t help them and keep them safe. Sometimes the parents weren’t as good people as they pretended to be and should haven’t kids. Thankfully, this type. of thing is pretty rare. I’ve never met anyone who it’s happened to. Most of the time, kids are put into good homes with people who love them and help them heal from the things their birth families put them through. 

TL;DR There aren’t any orphanages in the US. Adoption is very complicated and emotionally messy, but it’s great! I’m sorry not sorry I wrote an essay. 

*I give Meet the Robinsons a pass. Lots of kids who are up for adoption or who have been adopted struggle with it a lot. For some, they feel worthless because their foundational belief about themselves is that not even their own mother wanted them. For others, they feel guilty about betraying their birth family when they start to love the adoptive family. Some are rejected repeatedly. Almost all of them have been deeply hurt in the past. Meet the Robinsons acknowledges issues like these and told the story of a boy who dealt with them in a healthy way, and showed kids that it’s okay for them to be happy, and made a very cute and imaginative movie out of it, and I love it for existing. 

[clarawatson]

It Only Takes A Taste (3)

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x [Fem]!Reader (GN pronouns, fem coded stuff, but I’m not sure where this is going as a larger work so we’ll say Fem!reader to be safe) Summary: Jack comes for dinner, I guess. W/C: 2345 Warnings: none yet! A/N: this one got a little long, oopsies. AO3 Where am I in this series? 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 |

The bed had been so warm and comfortable you hadn't wanted to get out, but the thought of seeing Aaron again made your heart grow three sizes. You'd been texting back and forth for the last couple of days, just small awkward stuff. He likes to text emojis. He's precious. Of course he's precious. 

He comes in as you're serving your first customer of the night—a sobbing thirty-year-old man who can't even order his pie without spluttering in tears. Is it favouritism to get excited by Aaron turning up? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. 

"Hello," you smile. There's a hundred things you could have called him, but he's too cute and your brain doesn't want to work. 

"Hi," he grins back. "Can I have a coffee, please. Here."

"Yes you can." Aaron splits his bill between the counter and the tip jar. "How was your day,  Aaron?" 

"Boring paperwork. Couldn't concentrate."

Concern furrows your eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? No! I kept thinking about seeing you." There's that sunshine smile again. You might even match it yourself. He points to the cake that's still in the display tin. He's in earlier in the night than usual, so there's a lot more range to choose from. "Is that carrot cake?" 

"Sure is. Do you want some?" 

"Please." 

You serve him a slice and let the coffee machine splutter and fight with you. He stabs his cake with his fork and looks like he has an out of body experience the moment the cream cheese icing hits his tongue. That's a face you want to see again under different circumstances.

"Joe?"

"Me! And Joe's recipe. I sort of mixed it together and prayed."

"Then mark me a religious man." Aaron smiles. You can't held but smile back at him.

"It's a bit early for you to be in," you say. It's not an issue, just means you got the earlier shift. Finishing at 1am instead of 7am. Plus, Aaron looks nice in the daytime. Very nice. The afternoon light suits him.

"Didn't have a case," he shrugs. 

You've googled him since getting his business card. “Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner, Section Chief of the BAU”. The fuck did that even mean? BAU was the Behavioural Analysis Unit, which was still mainly a mystery, but you think it’s maybe just an over-glorified way of saying ‘they look inside people’s heads and hope for the best’. He’s got a handful of news reports that you’ve practically memorised. 

Okay, that’s a little obsessive. Don’t admit that to him. 

He wasn’t the ‘untouched by darkness’ that you’d thought of him before, his work face held all the darkness his smile did not. You hoped you never had to see the serious man who stood before the cameras. 

“How’s Rita?” Aaron asks. He’s cut the top off his carrot cake, saving it for later. He looks at it longingly every now and then, then he scoops just a little bit of the cream cheese and lets it rest on his tongue.

“She’s good. Restless. She’s happy for the due date to arrive.” She’d also asked you to be the baby’s godparent. Rather forcefully, actually, it had felt a bit strange. That was the only reason you hadn’t jumped at the opportunity. You’d do anything for Rita, but saying yes in that instant would had felt strange. Almost… wrong, maybe.

Aaron knows you’re thinking about it. He puts his fork down and shifts in his chair, waiting for you to continue. He doesn’t fill the silence between the two of you. You think about telling him, but then Lola’s bustling through the door and grabbing her apron.

“Hot stuff, when can I go for a smoke break?” is the first thing Lola says to you. She pulls chewing gum out of her mouth (yes, pulls. She sticks her fingers in her mouth and pulls it out as far as it will go without snapping) and Aaron moves his cake around his plate a bit. Does he not like it? Don’t be silly, he asked for it. Requested it. Whatever. You put his three cookies into a plastic bag and slide it across the counter to him.

“Lola you only just came in.”

“But I want to know,” she whines like she’s a teenager with an after school job, not a thirty-five-year-old woman who works at the diner full time. “Hey, Rita’s been acting weird, right? Is that a pregnancy thing, or?” Lola rubbed her nose on the back of her wrist and sniffs. An action you’re all too familiar with by now, and of course she was doing illegal substances in the bathroom before she started her shift when there’s a legitimate federal agent in the diner.

 “Oh,” Lola says as she looks at Aaron. She looks at you, raises her eyebrows, and nods like she’s impressed. “I take back telling Rita she was a liar." Even without knowing the context of Rita and Lola's conversation, you know Rita had told Lola how pretty/handsome/gorgeous Aaron is. "I’m going to go clean some tables.”

She grabs the cleaning supplies and heads out into the dining area. The door swings open, banging against one of the booths, and you’re immensely glad Lola doesn’t scream 'watch it’ at them. A curly haired blonde woman (gorgeous, mind you) touches Aaron’s shoulder and he sits up straight, smiling, and your heart plummets a little bit. Just the tiniest amount. 

“Jack insisted we switch over here before I go to parent/teacher interviews.” As if on queue, a well mannered, sandy-haired boy sits next to Aaron and grins too much like Aaron. Aaron’s son. You can put two and two together. Profiler or not.

“How was school?” Aaron asks. Jack shrugs.

“It was school.” He learnt that from his dad, there’s no question. 

“Well, in that case. Jack, this is my friend Y/n. Y/n, this is Jack.” Jack extends a hand to shake in greeting and looks really shy about it. You shake it quickly so he doesn’t feel like a kid who’s been roped into doing adult things. There’s a pile of colouring-in pages Joe’s printed off at the local library beneath a cup of crayons that Jack’s eyeing off. 

You grab a sheet and a crayon, raising an eyebrow in invitation as you turn around to Jack. 

“Yes please,” he says, grin growing across his face. “Thank-you.”

“You’re welcome. Wonderful manners.” Jack grins even bigger and you think he, too, might combust just like his dad. Stardust! That’s the movie you were thinking of. When Yvaine sees Tristan she shines, literally, the star inside of her just can’t be contained. That’s Aaron and Jack, and the way they look when they smile. 

Aaron’s sister-in-law looks at you with a cocked head, like a curious cat. Like she’s waiting to pounce. But… curiously pounce. Like she's sussing you out. She extends a hand in greeting.

“Jess. Aaron’s talked about you.”

There’s no response but to look sheepish. This seems to greatly please Jess, who smiles softly and rubs the back of Aaron’s head affectionately. They have a long history together, it’s too familial to be just a relationship born through marriage. 

“I’ll see you later then, Rockstar,” Jess says.

“Bye,” Aaron and Jack say together. Aaron rests his cheek on his hand, watching you as Lola hands you three orders she’s taken while you’ve been talking to Aaron. Jack leans over and whispers to Aaron about his homework (it’s a whisper that belongs on a stage) as you wrestle with the coffee machine. 

It’s been grinding it’s way down to not working for a while now. Ever since you met Aaron, actually. Joe’s said he’s going to fix it, or get a new one, but everyone’s in a state of non-commital until Rita has her baby.You’ve got no idea why, it’s just the way things are. Good luck, maybe? Or luck in general? 

Somehow you get Aaron talking about Shakespeare. It might have been Jack’s doing, to be completely honest, but one moment you’re trying to make the froth… well, froth… and the next you're listening to Aaron talk animatedly about Othello. Jack's young enough to not think his Dad's passion is embarrassing. 

"Have you watched Othello?" Jack asks, a question that Aaron's neglected to ask you. "I'm not old enough to yet." 

"I haven't seen that one yet, but I've seen Much Ado About Nothing."

"Is that the one with the olive gardens?" Jack asks. Aaron frowns, eyes searching for the answer in that big beautiful minds tonight.

"Yes," he says finally. "That was the one with the olive trees."

Jack giggles. "There was kissing in that movie." 

"Lots of it," Aaron agrees. You're not sure you're talking about the same film, but it's cute to see the two of them interact. 

"With the guy who plays Lockhart in the second Harry Potter movie?" You ask. Jack laughs just like his father. It's all light and mirth. He nods in confirmation. 

"His name is Kenneth," Jack says like he's familiar with him. When Aaron smiles, you know Jack's his whole world.

It’s not long before Aaron realised he’d brought Jack in without asking if he wanted anything. The afternoon rush had died down, leaving you in the space between out-of-work and dinner. You make the most chocolate-y hot chocolate you can for Jack when Aaron says he can have one. Well, Jack says the best bit is the froth, so it’s more child-size-hot-chocolate-in-an-adult-mug-full-of-froth. Jack loves it. He slurps at the chocolate, which leaves a giant frothy mustache over his top lip that won’t go away no matter how much he licks at it.

When he’s done you let him come around to the kitchen to wash his face, because no amount of wet napkins is going to fix that mess. Jack can’t reach the sink, so you fashion a step out of old milk and bread crates. Joe gives him cake batter to taste before realising that he actually has no idea who Jack is. Aaron watches from the kitchen door with a smile on his face. You don’t catch it until Jack jumps off the crates and takes your hand, leading you back out. Aaron’s fingers brush your hand as you pass him. Electricity sparks between the two of you that's completely unavoidable. The two of you recoil involuntarily.

Aaron gives you a small smile of apology. You give exactly the same one back. Lola legitimately gasps like she too felt the electricity between the two of you. Surely that was just something that happened in movies? Or in books? That’s not a real thing, right? But Aaron brushes past you again, as if he’s making sure as well, and it’s there again. Only it’s like your whole arm becomes pins and needles, not just a quick lightning spark.

If it’s like that every time you’re with him, your not sure you could even go beyond lusting after him and giving him coffee and meals every now and then. Aaron drops his gaze, then follows Jack to the front of the counter. 

They stay for dinner (because Jack insists, he wants the nachos) but the rush comes early and there’s really not much time to talk to them, so you almost miss them leaving. Almost. You’re serving the angry couple at table three (are they angry at you, or each other? Who knows, you don’t, but they’re taking it out on you) when Jack taps your hip. 

He’s very patient as you finish the order (somehow you figure out what they want between the curse words) and bend down to him. He hands you a folded piece of paper.

“This is for you,” he says. “I did it.” You’re about to unfold it, but he insists that it belongs in your apron pocket until you can look at it with no rush. That’s a kid who knows what it’s like to have a very busy parent. So you tuck it away safely and mess with his hair, which makes him grin from ear to ear.

“See you later!” Jack yells as he runs to Aaron, who’s waving goodbye with a doggy bag full of Jack’s unfinished dinner.and his keys between his fingers. 

“I’ll see you later,” he mouths as the noise in the diner starts to rise. Without thinking you blow him a kiss, which he catches effortlessly and kisses the fist closed around it before slipping out. 

When you get to the kitchen Lola’s already in the midst of teasing you. 

“You like him,” she says with all the confidence in the world. There’s not point denying her, so you just nod. It’s met by a chorus of ‘ooo’s which, to be honest, you really didn’t need. It made the diner feel far too small.

When everything dies down you remember the paper Jack had given you. You wipe the milk and spaghetti sauce off the counter, then make sure it’s dry, and unfold Jack’s page. It’s the generic colouring page Joe’s printed out, but Jack’s tried to make the generic waitress look like you. Well, you if you had purple hair and green skin. It’s a start, you guess, there’s an apology from Aaron on the back. Makes it worth it.

You move a couple of postcards on the corkboard aside and put Jack’s picture there instead. Joe pretends not to notice, but when Lola goes out the back with one of her customers, Joe comes round the front and presses a finger to the page.

“Good kid,” Joe says. He nods a couple of times then turns to you. “You know he and his dad come as a package, right? You fuck up one, you fuck up both.” Joe’s first wife had three kids that weren’t biologically his. He’s still mad at himself for not taking the kids seriously and only turning up for their mom.

“I know,” you say. 

Joe strokes your cheek as he passes and kisses your forehead. It’s all the praise you need. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

taglist (if you want to get added, just inbox me, and if I’ve missed you I am so sorry): @willowrose99 @genevievedarcygranger @maryosprinkle @kleff03 @yoshigguk @samanthareid06 @typical-leo @leilanixx

[cuddlesslut]

Alrighty lets get started!! So i still really new to this so as to not overwhelm my self im going to try and stick to two charcters for now. I’m sorry if its not what your looking for. For the two im going to do my boys Suga and Daichi. Only because i just did Kuroo and  because im still trying to figure out how to write for Reon. I might however come back and write a part 2 with them. 

Prompt : Boys reacting to their tom boyish crushes all dolled up (Daichi & Suga)

just sayin i wrote this while drinking mojitos

P.S. this prompt reminds me of a series called Sinful Sweethearts by @thosenerdy3amthings​ so definitely go check that out!!

Warning: NSFW, FOUL LANGUAGE

Daichi Sawamura NSFW

you have know Daichi basically your whole life

growing up next to him your parents were very close which meant that you two were kept close together 

in fact until you made it to middle school and started playing volleyball for the girls team you had never had any other friends beside Diachi

so it was safe to say that growing up you were more on the boyish side

you were just more comfortable in sweats and baggy workout shorts than skirts. 

you even wore pants to school

even  highschool though you went to a different school Diachi stayed your closest friend you often finding yourself at the Karsuno practice after yours had ended.

 No matter how much your teammates fussed they couldnt convince you to ditch the large hoodies and sweats.

 You and Daichi always supported each other. you never missed his games and he never missed yours (as long as scheduling permited)

the third year boys often teased Diachi for his realtionship with you

“i dont know why yall dont just date already,” suga complained while daichi stated his usual reply “ shes my best friend you know its not like that” he huffs

Suga scowls “ first of all rude im supposed be your best friend, and second it cant be as just friends as you say when you get so protective when the seond years simp for her.”

“i just dont want her feeling weird around the team. you know Noya and Tanaka can be intense,” he explained

“still that doesnt acount for the way Y/N looks at you,” Asahi added to the convo

“what are you talking about Y/n doesnt look at me any special way, we’re just friends ,” daichi stated a little to forcefully almost as if he was convincing himself.

Suga and Asahi share a knowing look thinking about how their captain can be so dense. 

“any way are you ready for your  birthday party tomorrow night ,” Suga asked smiling brightly.

“i told you i dont need a party,” Daichi scolded for the fifth time today.

“ahh c’mon its not everyday you become an adult like the rest of us DI,”

finally admitiing defeat Diachi concluded the conversation.

...

it was finally the next day you were more nervous for this party than any volleyball game you had played.

and here you were standing in the tight black dress Suga with the help of your team, you should never wager against suga

Had convinced you to wear to diachis party tonight

still shell shocked you stood in front of the mirror of the bathroom Suga had chose.

It was weird to see yourself so girly

the black dress clung tight   to your body. leaving little the imagination.

Suga better be glad he won that bet

finally calming yourself you look around for your best friend

Finally catching sight of him Diachi stood with Suga and Asahi next to the bar of the club.

Suga was the first to recognize you a evil smirk hitting his face as he drew Diachis attention to you.

You couldnt help but notice how hot he looked in his button up and dark wash jeans, his shirt clinging so close to his chest.

he looked to damn good you thought as you bit your lip

little did you know the birthday boy was having an epiphany of this own

his eyes raked up and down you mind wandering 

had you always had such a great ass under those baggy sweats

“Happy Birthday Captain,” you teased.

Daichi took a sharp breath suddenly taken back by the way the title fell from your soft lips

all he could think about was how you would sound screaming that from under him.

lost in thought he missed the smirk his best friend had as Suga put his pan into motion

you stood there sway to the beat of the loud club music wanting to dance

“Y/n why dont you take the birthday boy for a dance,” 

you smiled before Diachi could protest saying how how he doesnt dance

you pulled him to the dance floor pushing your ass against him reaching up and wrapping your arms around his neck pulling him close to your body as you grinded to the beat

his hands found their place on your hips  

his cock twitched from the pressure of your ass in that short tight dress rubbing against his crotch

you were not helping his growing situation

bodies getting lost in the movement 

you looked up at the boy had been your best friend your whole life with one thought in you head

the same thought flashed into diachis brain

being bold he crashed his lips into yours 

Lost in the contact the kiss lasted forever getting more and more intense 

your not sure how you to got here

but here you were straddling Diachi in the back of his car

his lips sucking bruises into your neck, his large grabbing your ass as you bounced on his thick cock

“FUCK,” Daichi breathed heavily pulling you down into a sloppy kiss tongues exploring “ youre so tight come for me beautiful.”

“im so close Captain you moan feeling him stretch you.

thats it that one word flipped the switch for him he gripped tight on to your waist to hold you secure as he powerfully drilled his hips up into you.

hitting your spot deeper and with such accuracy you were both driven over the edge as you clinched tight around him pulling his release from him.

you both sat out of breath in the hot car, the widows fogged and the smell of sex stinging the air.

“happy birthday,” you said giving him a quick kiss.

he glanced at the watch on his wrist 

he smirked up to you “you know my birthday isnt over yet,” you smiled already liking where this was going. “lets head back to mine. I’m not done with you yet.” 

Koshi Sugawara Slight NSFW

He’s had a crush for you since the beginning of the school year

He thought you were the most adorable thing he’d seen 

with your sweaters that were  two sizes to big. (sweater paws)

You two became friends through a writing project. 

you too quickly hit it off you loving his wild humor 

its sometimes seemed like hed flirt with you but you figured it was just his personality and you were too shy to do anything

poor suga spent so much time flirting with you but you never paid it any attention so he figured you didnt view him that way and he was okay with that he just wanted to be your friend if nothing else.

and so thats how six months went by of being no more than friends

always returning Sugas simple firsts with a shy smile.

It wasnt until the celebratory party some random third year threw to congratulate the boys on making it to nationals

You sat at your best friend Kyioko’s house. 

This was the first party she was able to convince you to attend and she was making sure it counted.

there would be no big sweaters or jeans tonight 

tonight you were borrowing Kyiokos clothes. 

She dressed in a tight (favorite color) lace halter crop top with the lace exposing just the right amount of cleavage. and a pair of blaack shorts hugging your hips thighs on full display.

it wasnt what you were used to this being the most skin you had exposed to the public in years

thats coupled with the make up added to your face you almost didnt recognize yourself

it wasnt what you were used to and thats why when you reached the party and all eyes landed on you. you were slightly relieved that most of the people didnt recognize you.

it was almost exhilarating 

kind of like playing pretend.

like tonight you werent Y/N shy and closed off

you were a sexy and confident woman

that coupled with the shots you took with Kyioko. you found your new confidence 

thats why when you saw you long time crush and close friend Suga across the room you didnt hesitate to make your way over.

“No way is that Y/n” Daichi gasped causing Sugas attention to slip to where his best friend motioned. “wow i didnt expect to see her here,” Diachi let out with a low whistle.

Suga sucked in a sharp breath not prepared for the sight in front of him.

There you were making you way towards him throw the crowd. a smile on your face but it was hard for suga to focus on that smile when your whole body was on display for him. 

 His eyes trailed from down your figure taking all of the exposed skin that was normally hidden from him. 

the way the lace framed your stomach and cupped your breast. the cut into shirt showing him the most cleavage you had ever shown. moving his eyes down it was hard for him not to whimper at the site of your thighs

this man was entranced in your appearance. hed always thought you were the most beautiful even when you were covered head to toe, but seeing you like this it was hard not to drool.

And he wasnt the only one, Several guys had taken notice of you.

Some stopping you to ask if you were new,  cause there was no way’d theyd miss a hot babe like you at school. 

to which youd just roll your eyes keeping on your way to your target. 

feeling more and more emboldened by the attention you were receiving.

but these boys werent the ones you wanted

being the light weight you are you already had your eyes on your prize

go big or go home 

so you you strode right up to the vice captain

“ W- wow Y/n you look great,” Suga stuttered 

“thanks Suga,” you say placing your hand on his toned forearm

No turning back now the confidence was here to stay atleast for now

Suga took a deep breath as he took a turn being the shy one. not used to the aura you exuded. were you really the shy girl he knew. 

you moved closer enveloping him in a tight embrace

he could feel you tits press tight against him and he was trying not to focus on it not wanting to further anymore of the dirty thoughts crossing his mind

 staying close next to Suga you continued your flirtatious assault

dishing back all the flirts you had held back over the months

Finally the straw broke when one of your favorite club songs played through the crowed house and you pulled him close to dance with you.

“c’mon Koshi dont be so timid,” you teased. 

Suga wasnt sure if it was hearing his given name grace your beautiful lips or the facts that you had pressed your ass against his crotch moving seductively to the music but he snapped. 

Suga placed his hands tight to your hips pulling you closer to him not caring if you felt the growing bulge in his pants.

leaning down “you know if you wanted my attention you didnt have to dress so damn sexy. now i have to deal with all these vultures looking at you,” he whispered his breath hot on your ear.

you turned around wrapping your arms around his neck leaning even closer, 

“then why dont we go somewhere private then we wont have to worry about who’s looking,” you smirked heart racing

“i couldnt have said it better,” Suga said leading you out of the busy room ready to have you to himself. 

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

Sorry It took so long to write all my work got deleted and I had to start over! I hope you enjoy it 🍵 Anon!!! 💕💕 @🍵anon

Taglist: @emiyummy @insomniish

[halogalopaghost]

The Eyes

Do not copy this story to other sites or posts. References may be used with proper citation to this post. This story is my intellectual property and I will not tolerate copying or plagiarism of any form.

I have lived with the eyes in the dark for as long as I can remember.

I first saw them during a family fourth of July cookout, with sparklers and little fountains and firecrackers after sunset. They hung beneath the trees where my parents’ lawn met the cool, dark woods. I should have been scared, like any other child would have been, but all I remember is how transfixed I was by the glowing gaze.

The sparkler in my hand burnt out as I stared at them. It wasn't until my mother put a new one in my hand that I looked away. She patted me on the head and turned back to the party. I turned back to the eyes.

They hadn’t moved. They still floated there in the darkness, not too far from the ground. I took a careful step closer. They didn’t move. I blinked, and they blinked too, long and slow.

Someone called me away, and that’s all I remember. I was four years old.

My father loves telling the story of my ‘imaginary friend’. He remembers watching me, five years old, pressing my cheek to the cold windowpane to wish the eyes goodnight. They watched through my bedroom window from the other side of the gravel driveway. He didn’t see the eyes, but I sure did. He tried to explain them away as a reflection on the window, or animal eyes in the darkness. He tried to explain it as a lot of things, but I never bought it. The gaze wasn’t human or animal or anything else--it was something unique, and mine.

He always stops the story there, as if I stopped seeing them. What he does not tell my husband, my children, my nieces and nephews, is that they never stopped watching me. He doesn’t include the shrink they took me to when I was seven and wouldn’t stop talking about them. He doesn’t tell the children about my insistence that the eyes were real, and feeling, and watching, even though I was the only one that could see them. He doesn’t mention the priest they called out to bless the house and grounds.

He doesn't say that when I was nine years old, my mother took me to my room, paddled me with a wooden spoon, and told me never to speak of them again. He doesn’t say, because he doesn’t know, that eyes came closer to my window that night.

The night before I left for college, I opened the window and pulled a chair to it. The warm, late summer air poured in with the ambient chirps of insects. The eyes hovered in the low branches of a tree near the edge of the lawn, a spot they seemed to like. I folded my arms on the windowsill and spoke to them for the first time in ten years.

“I’m leaving for a while,” I said. I didn’t dare shout, still worried that my parents would somehow hear and punish me. “I’ll visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I guess I’ll see you then.”

There wasn’t a blink for a long while. Either they couldn’t hear me, or they couldn’t understand. I sat with them for a while anyway.

Nineteen years old, headed for an Ivy League college, I still wasn’t sure what to make of them. Were they a hallucination? Something more complicated? Maybe it was only a coincidence after all, and it had been an owl or something all those years.

For a while, I was able to leave that lonely part of my life behind me. I went to college and stayed busy with classes, new friends, and plenty of underaged partying. This time, I really did forget about the eyes.

A couple months into my first semester, I stayed at the library until after dark—much longer than I usually would. Of course, a boy was involved. I had convinced him to study with me, and we chatted the hours away like nothing. I was walking on clouds as I left the library, expecting him to walk me back to my dorm building. But when he waved goodbye at the door and walked the opposite direction, my spirits fell. The autumn night felt even colder.

A breeze rustled the crunchy leaves in the dark, raising goosebumps on my flesh. I didn't want to be alone out there any longer than I had to—I made a beeline for the dorm. I walked the path around the expansive lawn, lit only around the perimeter. Leaves rustled again. I looked out into the yawning darkness of the field, barely able to see the lights on the other side, and walked faster.

I muttered a passing greeting to my roommate, Dana, as I quickly opened and shut the door. Dana grunted a hello back. She sat with her back to me at the desk, pouring over a textbook and hand-made flash cards. A single-bulb lamp lit the room by itself, casting long shadows across our bookshelves and narrow beds.

I tossed my backpack onto my bed and made straight for the open curtains. We lived on the ground floor, and passing students would stare into our room like an exhibit at the zoo if the curtains weren’t closed tight.

With my hands gripping the curtains, I froze. Out in the vast, devouring darkness of the lawn, past the sidewalk and the trees, two eyes stared right into the window. I couldn’t look away from them, afraid that if I moved my eyes even a millimeter, they would disappear. They looked into my soul, and I stared back.

I hissed my roommate’s name, telling her to come look.

She stood beside me at the window. “See what?”

“The eyes.”

Dana was quiet for a moment.

The eyes blinked.

“Oh,” she scoffed, “okay, I get it. You had me going there for a second, but it’s way too close to Halloween for me to fall for that!” She laughed it off and went back to her desk.

I stayed frozen at the window, waiting for the eyes to move or blink or something, but they kept staring. They looked just like my eyes—the eyes back home. But how could that be? I was several state lines away from home, nearly two months into the semester! How in the world could they have followed me?

I felt outside of myself, like in some kind of dream where you try to run and find your feet won't move. I don't know how long I stood there before my hands moved of their own accord and pulled the curtains shut forcefully.

They were just animal eyes in the darkness. A deer had wandered into the lawn for a midnight snack, and that was all. Just like Dad said.

After that night, I saw them everywhere. They watched through the window at night, they watched me walk home after dark, they watched when I went to parties and made out behind the science department. I just had to ignore them as much as possible. Nobody else ever saw them, and I couldn't risk my social reputation by asking someone directly. But for the first time in my life, I wondered why I was being watched. The gaze that once soothed and transfixed became something that put me on edge. I hated to walk alone after dark with them watching me, silent and unseen as they crept through the shadows to keep pace. I wished they would go away.

One night just before Christmas break, I was drunk and homesick. I ran from my dorm out into the snow, barefoot, all the way out to the edge of the lawn that they watched from. “What do you want?” I yelled. “I’m here, you son of a bitch! If you want to kill me, I’m right here! What are you waiting for?”

Dana and her boyfriend, also drunk, wrestled me back inside.

“What are you shouting at?” she demanded.

“The eyes! They’re out there, on the lawn. Don’t you see them?”

She walked to the window, and stared out for a while. Without saying anything else, she locked the window with her fumbling, drunk fingers, and pulled the curtains tight. “Go to sleep,” she said. “You’re drunk.”

It wasn’t just college. They always found me, those piercing eyes in the dark. Sometimes it took a few weeks to catch up, maybe even months; but wherever I went, the eyes followed.

After graduating, I moved to a different state for a job, and they watched me from the alley across the street from my new apartment. I saw them in the hedge below my third-floor apartment when I moved back to my hometown. They stared from the parking lot of the Vegas hotel where I spent my honeymoon, far from any lights.

My first Christmas as a married woman, my husband and I tossed a coin and spent the week at my parent’s house. The eyes must have known that place well, because they showed up on the edge of the woods the very same night we arrived. Unprompted, Dad told my husband his version of the story. Later that night as we laid in bed in my childhood room, my husband asked if I had ever seen them again.

“You know, as an adult.”

I looked out the window. There was snow falling gently in the perfect picture of a white Christmas and the eyes, though hard to distinguish from the fat snowflakes, were still there. Staring.

They blinked lazily, and I said, “No.”

For as much as I had avoided being close to them, I never really feared the eyes until I had my first child. I sat in the dark of her nursery just days after her birth, watching the eyes outside the window of my own home in the woods. I held her to my chest, rocking in the chair, and held their gaze as I whispered.

“Go away. Don’t touch her, don’t you even think about touching her. Haven’t you watched me long enough? What do you want?”

My husband caught me doing it before she was even a month old. He thought I had postpartum depression, and maybe I did, but that didn’t change the fact that they stared into her nursery as much as they stared into our bedroom. But I went to the appointments he made for me, I took their medications, and I kept a watchful eye on the wood line.

It became clear quickly enough that they wanted nothing to do with my kids. Still, I wouldn’t let them outside after dark without an adult. I closed all the blinds in the house at sunset, like clockwork. I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to see the eyes like me, but I knew their father would react like mine had and I wasn’t going to let them go through that.

My husband and I became distant, always arguing over the children’s restrictions. He treated me like I was breakable, like I would explode if he pressed too hard. To me, that was more maddening than if he’d been angry and loud. I think he knew somewhere deep down that I was still seeing the eyes. I felt the madness of my childhood slowly repeating itself.

So when my four year old son drew the blinds last night, pointed out the window and said what’s that—I knew something had to be done.

This morning I left the kids with a babysitter and went straight to the library. I gathered up every book they had on the supernatural, paranormal, or just plain weird. I read about things that made me shudder, and things that made me scoff. The chupacabra, Bigfoot, hauntings, aliens. I say the word ‘cryptid’ under my breath, and find it in a dictionary.

At the end of all my skimming and studying, I find that the books invariably have one of two conclusions: either the entity is very real and very dangerous, or the individual giving the accounts are unreliable, maybe even insane. Am I insane?

I walk to the library counter and pay for a half-hour of computer time with the spare change at the bottom of my handbag. I read as much about schizophrenia as I can stomach before switching tactics.

Websites about ghosts

Eyes in the woods

Floating eyes

Am I haunted?

Ghosts following people to different homes

Friendly ghost websites

People driven insane by ghosts

The computer screen closes out suddenly, and I startle at my own reflection in the screen. It’s run out of time while I wasn't paying attention.

I rub my tired eyes and turn away from the computer. As my eye catches the clock, my heart drops out of my chest. It’s past six! My husband must be worried. I consider calling him from the library’s phone, or maybe trying to find a pay phone outside, but I really want to get home before it gets too much later. I’m always afraid to make the dash from my car to the house after dark, worried that the eyes will appear and I’ll have to face their owner.

I drive home without answers, more frustrated than before. The kids are going to be hungry when I get home. What am I going to tell them? What am I going to tell my husband?

On the winding country road near home, my headlights catch something on the side of the road. Something tall, thin, and bright white. I hit the breaks and swerve toward the center of the road.

Not a second after I’ve stopped, three huge does come flying out of the wood line where my car would have been. I was speeding, going maybe fifty five miles an hour on this dark back road. I would have hit those deer, and it might have killed me.

I have to remind myself to breathe, then peel my hands away from the steering wheel. In all the years I’ve been driving this road, I’ve never seen anything like that thing on the side of the road. It couldn’t have been an animal, but it definitely wasn't a tree either. Was it a person? I take a deep breath and turn around to look.

My blood runs cold at the sight of the thing behind me. All I see are two long, impossibly thin legs. My heart twists and speeds up in my chest, urging me to run, go, get away! I should drive away. I should throw the car into reverse and snap those thin bones. It would give me time to get away, if not kill it. And I want to, I want to get away so badly, but my body doesn't respond. I can't move.

A long hand enters my view, lit red by the tail lights, as it leaaaaans over. The face slowly comes into view, sideways and upside down. I see the eyes first—my eyes, the eyes that have watched me so long. I’m lightheaded. Those eyes have just saved my life. If I had hit those deer, I certainly would have died, and my family wouldn’t have known until they came looking.

And it all clicks into place.

This thing has been protecting me! All my childhood, I wanted it to watch me. I never feared it because the watching wasn’t sinister, it was protective. Walking home alone on campus, honeymooning in Vegas, living out in these wild woods, how many times had it saved me and I didn't know?

My hand trembles as I reach for the door. It takes all of the willpower in my body to consciously put my foot on the pavement and stand. My knees feel like gelatin. I turn my body slowly to face it, and nearly scream when I see it, now standing at the rear bumper of my car. It’s standing up straight again—all I can see the outline of its ribs. It has...so many ribs. Hundreds. White skin stretches over the rib ends that jut out like knives, pockmarked with red bug bites and browned spots. The face is—oh God no, I can’t look up, I can’t look at the face. The face is horrible and hollow and inhuman. But the eyes, the eyes are all the intelligent, slow, warmth that I’ve watched for years, and watched me in return.

“Th-thank you.” My mouth is so dry.

It takes a step forward, lifting one long, terrible foot clear over the car to do so. I whimper as it kneels in front of me. I can smell it, green and wet like moss on a riverbank, musty like bones in a basement. What is it? What is this thing? It kneels on both knees in front of me. I stare at its chest because I cannot look at the face. My heart is in my throat and I’m going to faint, I know it. It’s saved my life, I’ve thanked it, what more does it want?

No, I'm safe. I am safe and I have been safe because this guardian has been watching me. Maybe this is just what angels look like. In the Bible, angels appear to man and say do not be afraid. They wouldn't say such a thing unless they knew themselves fearful to be beheld, so this must be my angel.

Yes, I am safe.

Its bones creak like branches in a winter wind. It’s waiting for something—some sign of respect? I breathe deep to muster the courage, and lift my head to meet its gaze.

The eyes are stretching. Oh, they are consuming, they’re huge and warm and so inviting. It lifts a hand to my face, gently brushing my cheek with long, cold fingers. My eyes flutter shut. For a moment I feel faint, like it’s all finally gone to my head and I'm sure to black out. A finger touches my chest right above my heart and lingers there. A cold chill cuts through my body. The weight on my chest disappears...and returns in a blow.

My back hits the open car door and I clutch at my chest, full-bodied fear now coursing through me. What does it want, what does it want? The car’s beeping turns into a shrill roar in my ears and I can't hear it moving—I don't now where it is. WHERE IS IT?

My eyes open to its gaping mouth. It has opened its mouth and it’s opened to the size of my head. The thing’s earthy smell is gone. The thoughts of holy angels and protection and comfort are gone. This is death, this is rot, this has been waiting hundreds of years for my soul and the time has come. I don’t know how, but I know it has followed me through lifetimes and watched for its opportunity. Not to protect, but attack.

I open my own mouth and scream. I scream until my lungs are empty, and then there is nothing but the crickets and the soft fluttering of wind through the trees. The creature doesn't move, jaw hanging open still. Each yellowed tooth is as long as my finger. This thing is starving. I have starved it with my trust. A dry roar peels from its throat. It sounds like burnt grass crunching beneath feet and crops giving way to sand and brown and death and dry rot. The eyes are no longer warm. They are as pale white as the body, and delighting in my terror. I am transfixed once more, unable to move or rationalize thought as I stare into this horrible face. All I can do is whimper and tremble and pray.

The bones rub dryly together as it lifts its arm and brings a long, terrible hand toward my face. The last thing I see is two white fingers coming toward my eyes in the dark.

[chandelier-s-notebook]

Chapter 10

Let me know if you wanna get tagged when I post new chapters in “These Streets Are Made For Walking”. @sleepysnails. Ao3 Link

————————

“You got food, bitch?” Tommy shouted as the door unlocked.

“No!” Purpled yelled.

“Fuck you! Why the fuck are you here?” Tommy screamed. “And without food! It’s dinner time!”

“Calm,” Tubbo muttered in Tommy’s ear, wrapping his arms around his shoulders.

“I have your brother,” Purpled said.

Tubbo stood quickly at attention. It was probably his brother, and he would need to show Dream that he could handle himself. His friends were fine and safe, he wasn't hurt.

Tubbo froze. It wasn’t Dream standing on the other side of the door. It was Techno.

Tommy’s face crumpled; why was Techno here? “Where’s Dream? Dream’s supposed to be here?” Tommy asked desperately. Techno wasn’t in this gang stuff. He was just a petty thief so that they could eat.

Ranboo didn’t care. He simply saw salvation and he ran into its arms. He trusted Techno with everything in his body.

“Hey buddy,” Techno said, taking a step back from the force.

“Where’s Dream?” Tubbo demanded.

“Being a dumbass upstairs. Got himself arrested.”

Tubbo’s panicked expression left his face, and was replaced with one of slight disappointment. He took a deep breath to soothe the wrinkles in his forehead. “I want to go home,” he said, stepping out of the room. “Why is George here?”

George slipped into Techno’s shotgun seat before any of the boys. Techno tried to turn on the radio, but all three freshmen were adamant that they weren’t feeling up to it on the ride to the station.

Quackity, Wilbur, Fundy, Slimecicle, Dream, and Sapnap all get taken in for individual questioning in a separate wing of the station.

Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo each give their stories to the interviewer with Techno in the room: something about his presence was comforting.

George waited in the lobby with the two boys not getting interviewed. At some point news cameras showed up and tried to get pictures through the glass windows of the station. George knew from experience that it was not a fun experience to have your picture in the paper, so he took the bullet and used his body to try to shield the boys.

Tubbo and Ranboo were playing battleship over text when Tommy dropped heavily into the seat next to him.

“You good?”

“No. Techno. Techno’s not supposed to be wading in your shit,” he scorned.

George’s phone buzzed. Pulling it out of his pocket and checking the screen; his blood ran cold. The problem with the media is that they are very quick.

Momma Lore I’m on my way.

Shit. George hadn’t even called anyone to come pick him up. He figured that since Purpled had called Bad in to be in the room with him for his interview that he didn’t need to call anyone. He was at the police station, of course he was calling his friend’s dad and not his own mother.

He started panicking.

“George,” a voice broke him out of his fog. “George. Hey. It’s Techno.”

George inhaled. “Hey Techno.”

“You good?”

“Mother.” He took a gasping breath and dug his nails into the armrest to ground himself. “Mother texted. She’s coming.”

“Oh.” Techno shifted slightly. “It’s your turn to make a statement. So you can hide in there.”

George quirked a smile before returning to a tight expression. “Yeah. Yeah.” He stood up. “I’ll be back.”

Techno nodded to George and moved to let him pass. He then took up George’s seat next to Tommy, and turned to face him.

“Not now,” Tommy said. “I want a pillow to throw at you.”

“That’s fair, but we’re talking about this later.” Techno turned back forward, and picked up his phone. “We just gotta wait for Bad to sign us out and then we’ll go to the house.”

“Ok.”

“I’ll deal with the Foster Bitch.” Techno raised his hand in greeting when Bad entered the building.

“Please.” Tommy grabbed Techno’s arm and threw it behind the back of the chair. Using his newfound space, he snuggled up to Techno and rested his head on his shoulder. “I’m tired of pizza.”

“Did you eat anything other than pizza?” Techno asked jokingly.

“No.”

Techno snorted. He glanced over at Tommy’s phone. He smiled.The kid was playing crazy eights with all three of his friends; no hard feelings, he supposed.

A still nervous George was then walked out by Captain Craft and brought to the receptionist. Techno nudged Tommy with his head. “George. I’ll be back.”

Tommy pursed his lips, but he let Techno up.

“Bad’s here. No need to call.”

“Oh. Yeah.” George took one more intake of breath. “Who called him?”

“Purpled,” F1NN supplied. “He wanted an adult present during his interview.”

“Makes sense.”

Techno and George continued to crowd the desk. George may be more Dream’s friend than his, but he was growing on Techno.

The doors of the station were thrown open forcefully.

Techno didn’t like George <i> that </i> much.

“You useless boy! I am planning for your future here, and you are ruining it by getting into the paper! Grades are what count! Nothing but the grades and you know this!”

George subtly tried to lean away. In fact he seemed to be trying to hide behind Techno, who deftly stepped to the side and went to sit back next to Tommy.

“You can’t be getting into stuff like this.” She took a deep breath and put on her smile. “Thank you officer for dealing with my son. I’ll take it from here.”

“Uhm actually!” the receptionist floundered, clearly noticing that George does not want to go home with this woman. “We’d like to keep him here. We have a few more questions we’d like to ask about the situation.” She held up a finger before Mrs. Lore could get a word in. “And I know he’s had a long night, and should start resting soon, but we’d like to get this mess cleaned up today if possible. We’d rather not have to call him back to the station on a later date. The memories will be fresher tonight.”

Mrs. Lore sneered at the receptionist before turning to her son. “You’re in so deep that they’re not even done with you yet?”

George straightened his back.

“Don’t even think about coming home tonight.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Bad butted in, rushling slightly to reach them, having just finished up with Purpled. “Mine now. Muffin off if you please. Pack a bag and leave it on your porch, we’ll come pick it up once we’re all done here. I’ll take him out of your hair if he's such a disappointment.”

Mrs. Lore shoved her finger in Bad’s face. “You have corrupted my son! With your complete and utter tolerance and downwrite encouragement of illegal activities.”

“What my parents didn’t know couldn’t hurt them,” Bad said, defending his parenting skills. “You don’t give him enough freedom.”

“You give him too much!” she shouted back.

George took a step behind Bad and tugged lightly at his arm.  “I don’t need my stuff,” he whispered. “I’ll just use Sapnap’s.”

“You keep him.” And with that Mrs. Lore stomped off, passing the cameras once more and getting into her car.

Bad let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry about her.”

“It’s okay,” George said; toneless.

George went to sit by Techno and Bad turned to F1NN. “What’s the plan?”

In the end Bad was taking everyone home. Purpled was given a court date--after getting vouched by everyone else in Las Nevadas that he didn’t hurt anyone--and was put on probation at Bad’s house instead of waiting in juvenile detention. But the rest of the Las Nevadas crew were sent to jail to await their trial dates.

Dream and Sapnap were let go with yet another change added to their list and a court date. Bad signed everyone who was eligible out.

“Tubbo,” Bad addressed the boy lying on the floor. “You are having a proper dinner at my place, and I will force you to stay the night. Then you can Dream can figure out where you’re staying, because he’s trapped with me.” He points at Tommy, “Don’t think I don’t know you barely eat. You are coming over as well. Techno.” Bad points in his face.

“I’ll go kidnap Ranboo from his place.”

“Hey!”

Captain Craft paused his paper signing to look up at Techno. “Mate I’m literally right here.”

“Ranboo?”

“I’ll come willingly but hey!”

“See? No kidnapping. No abduction. Just a teenager running away from home.”

“That’s still gonna get called in mate.”

“You overestimate my father,” Ranboo plainly stated.

[halothenthehorns]

THE DREAM

Before Harry could get started, Sirius turned pouting eyes on Lily, who was already excusing herself for the kitchen. She came back not too long later, with no food in sight.

"I set something to bake, it'll be done by the time we are with this chapter," she smiled pleasantly at the fact that she was clearly annoying Sirius. In truth, she'd made the heartiest meal she could think of, she still couldn't shake the image from her mind Sirius was losing weight by the minute.

Sirius didn't argue with her, but instead sat back in his seat with mutiny while Harry began.

Hermione was laying out the groundwork for the end results, ether Crouch attacked Krum, or someone attacked them both.

"So, I wonder what you guys are discussing." James chuckled in surprise.

"You know, I'm surprised at you though Harry," Remus turned to him. "Looking back, you sort of just ran off to do as you were told, didn't it occur to you to go to Hagrid first? He was closer?"*

Harry opened, then just as quickly closed his mouth, that was an obvious enough answer.

"Don't be like that Remus," Lily scolded at once with a sigh, "it's easy to think of those things after the fact, as you just did."

He shrugged in acknowledgment even if he was still puzzled at Harry for it. Clearly the act of doing what he was told by the Dursleys still hadn't really ever left him, or he trusted Dumbledore more than Hagrid, either way it was odd to him.

    Ron was insisting Crouch was the true criminal here, he'd sent Harry to get Dumbledore so he could run.

"While I'd love for him to get sent to a very certain place for pulling a stunt like that," Sirius declared with a nasty look in place, "it fails me to see why he'd do that. Why come all the way up to the school just to pull a stunt like that?"

"You got me," Lily sighed, "the whole situation feels like something out of a murder mystery novel, and I always hate reading those."

Harry disagreed, saying Crouch had looked too weak to be pulling stunts like that, then offering himself a Disapparition.

Hermione said, for the umpteenth time, you couldn't do that on Hogwarts grounds!

"You might have to say it a few more times, just to make sure he got it," James smirked at Harry's eye roll.

Ron tackled a new theory, that Krum attacked Crouch, and then stunned himself.

Remus burst out laughing at this level of enthusiasm from him trying to figure this out, and though he could poke many holes in that, he couldn't deny Ron's spirit.

Hermione's cool response was to remind that Crouch had just evaporated then?

"How come we're not speculating on this?" Sirius pouted, "I've got a few ideas-"

"No Sirius," Lily said at once. "I want as little to do with that man as possible, and having to listen to what happened to him might satisfy you, but it'll only infuriate me more having to hear his name."

"It really won't bother you to at least try to guess what happened?" Remus asked her in surprise.

"I honestly couldn't care less what did, no matter what it was." She stated in no uncertain terms. "If you two want to chat about it later, leave me out of it."

Sirius grumbled at her being a killjoy, but James more than agreed with his wife on this one and waved Harry on.

It was the crack of dawn, and the three of them had never gone to bed. Instead they were on their way up to the Owlery to send a note of all this to Sirius.

"About time," Sirius' pouting increased, he couldn't believe how long it took Harry to get around to that, he should have used his cloak and done it without Dumbledore's say so!

Everyone disagreed with Sirius about that though, now that Harry was one hundred percent away from that, they didn't want Sirius anywhere near it either.

They were all puffy-eyed from exhaustion having stayed up all night discussing the events.

"Of all the fun, late night conversations you could have been having," James groaned. Would it kill his son to have a fun conversation once in a while like a normal kid?

Hermione was coaching Harry to give them a full account one more time.

When Harry got the part about Crouch saying everything was all his fault, he'd even brought up his own son, Hermione agreed that was Crouch's fault.

Harry made a testy noise of agreement along with everyone else, no one was cutting Crouch any slack in here.

Ron asked for a recount of the You-Know-Who part.

Harry repeated all the mention was, that he was getting stronger.

"Because that's always encouraging," James moaned, letting his head fall back against the cushions as the mention of Voldemort always caused such a horrid stirring in him lately even more than it had before his adult son fell into his living room. Now all he could picture was someone who was once a brother making that possible, when Voldemort was the reason he couldn't be there for his son! How on earth had Pettigrew ever worked out that this was okay, that he could continue going along with it? He tried to force himself to keep listening in on Harry, those kinds of questions kept plaguing him in what little time he actually spent asleep, he refused to dwell on it longer than he could.

Ron tried to force some confidence into his voice that this was the speaking's of a madman

"Here's to hope!" Sirius mock raised a glass, which he honestly wished was filled right now.

but Harry corrected he'd spoken of Voldemort when he was in his saner moments. Ron winced as always at the use of the real name.

"You been saying that nearly four years and he still flinches?" Remus asked in surprise.

"As well as Hermione," Harry agreed.

"I wish you'd start referring to him as Riddle," James muttered sullenly, this wasn't helping him feel any better, but he'd never miss an opportunity to mock either. "Be a nice knock to his ego and something everyone might catch on."

Harry honestly never thought about why he hadn't, he supposed the Riddle he met down in the Chamber had just seemed like such a wholly other person it was hard to put that together with the monster who had murdered his parents and so calling him Voldemort somehow made that make more sense.

Harry bitterly put in that if Snape hadn't held him up, they could know what had really happened.

"I absolutely believe that," Sirius snarled.

"Still can't believe anyone so cruel can be allowed in the school," James agreed bitterly.

Lily was still more pissed than anything Snape even still had his job after what he'd done to Remus last year, but this more than anything should have gotten him sacked! What if someone had really been hurt, and he'd just stood in the way and taunted Harry? What teacher could actually get away with that even if they had the audacity to do it?

Harry mockingly quoted Snape as he'd told of what rubbish his story was, and Harry followed up with demanding why Snape hadn't just moved.

"The man would murder his own child if he thought it would upset you," Sirius barked.

Remus gave him a sideways look for that disgusting metaphor, but Sirius raised a brow back to emphasize he wasn't taking it back. Not like anyone would get near that slimy little thing anyways to make it true.

Ron speculated that what if he'd done it all on purpose, what if he'd actually gotten down to the Forest before Harry and Dumbledore had made it?

"I really don't see how," James's face puckered with thought. "Dumbledore appeared and you two made a straight beeline there. Unless he jumped out the window and flew..." he trailed off with a shake of his head, still admiring Ron for keeping at this.

Harry said it wasn't possible unless he could turn into a bat.

"Would not put that past him," Sirius huffed.

Ron muttered he would not put that past him.

Sirius beamed and even Remus chuckled a bit at that one.

Hermione voiced that they needed to go see Moody, to see if he'd found Crouch or anything after they'd all left.

Harry agreed it should have been easy for him if he had the Map.

"Ture that," James nodded along.

"Hey, you think that's how he knew to come down in the first place?" Remus' eyes lit with understanding. "He was lying about Snape telling him, I can't believe otherwise, but maybe he hasn't told Dumbledore about the Map and he made that up on the spot."

"Why wouldn't he tell Dumbledore about the map?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It's on loan from Harry," Sirius reminded forcefully, he'd give that old auror hell if anything was said otherwise, "it's not his to tell about, Moody's respecting that while he's using it."

Nobody disagreed with him, though Harry could still feel a little niggle in him telling him that wasn't really everything.

Ron reminded it only showed up to the school's boundaries, so if-

He was cut off by Hermione shushing him as two more voices approached talking about blackmail.

"What on earth are these folks up to?" James couldn't help but smile in surprise.

"You lot spent way too much time getting blackmail on everyone in the castle," Lily grumbled.

"We did no such thing," Sirius said at once on reflex.

"We were merely keeping an ear out for certain rumors," James added on from old habits, his eyes flickering to Remus and away, "and just happened to come across other things on the way."

All of the boys felt an odd twitch possess them as they realized who should have finished that old joke, what his line would have been less than a week ago and how much they'd all missed having him around. Remus didn't know how he felt about it, he didn't know how the other two would feel about it, but the nasty lingering silence had to feel worse than him finishing instead, "and we only put it to good use."

James ruffled up his hair in unease and Sirius quickly forced a smile that looked almost painful, and Harry quickly read past the moment.

The other told that they'd tried the polite way, now it was time to play dirty unless their blackmailed target wanted them to get the Ministry involved.

The three Marauders had gotten so distracted by their own problem they'd almost forgotten what had started the mess, and weren't nearly as entertained as they knew they should have been by listening to this.

The first was still insisting it was the act of blackmail!

The second was just saying how the complaining would stop once they're payoff came in, when Fred and George walked into view.

"You said what now?" Lily balked, finally dragging worried eyes off her husband to land on Harry.

Harry was blinking down at the pages in shock, some wire in his brain going crazy as he knew he was finally getting to the bottom of how odd Fred and George had been acting all year!

Either the boys were still distracted by their own problem and were only half listening, or too stunned to speak, Harry quickly read out the exchange to silence.

Both parties stayed frozen, until Ron and Fred spoke at once of what the other was doing here?

"Oh lookie, now they're even mimicking each other in the books," Sirius said with a forced smile.

Harry and George responded in unison of sending a letter.

James honestly cracked a grin, egging Harry on and hoping this would continue.

While Hermione and Fred pointed out what time it was.

Now all five of them were giggling, there had never been a better timing for that release.

Fred broke the train first, forcing a smile and saying he wouldn't ask them, if they didn't ask.

He was holding a sealed letter, but whoever it was written for Harry didn't get a chance to read. Whether accidentally or not, George shifted just enough that the words were covered.

"On purpose," the other four said at once.

"Those boys have far too much experience by now to at least try otherwise," Lily told.

Fred tried to wave them out the door, but Ron asked who they were blackmailing?

"Blunt as a brick to the face," James beamed after his own laughing fit.

The twins smile vanished at once, before George played it off as a joke.

Ron insisted it hadn't sounded that way, then the twins exchanged a glance.

"These two are doing remarkably poor at this," Remus looked so disappointed.

"I know, you'd really think they'd learned diversionary tactics by now," Sirius nodded furiously, "change the topic to the most outlandish thing they can until they can slip away."

"You think that would work on their brother?" Lily asked, "Especially one as stubborn as Ron?"

"Worth a shot," James shrugged.

"Better than what they're doing, which is nothing," Remus agreed.

Fred abruptly switched to violence, telling Ron to let it go or he'd take his nose off.

"Oh, threats, that works much better," James rolled his eyes.

"Especially as we've never once seen them carry through on them," Sirius sighed in disappointment, he'd had such high hopes for these twins, yet they couldn't even evade their own brother.

"What are you lot trying to protect the twins for anyways," Harry grumbled in annoyance as a twitching continued just behind his eye. "You want to know what they're up to just as much as me."

"True," Lily instantly agreed.

"But we'd be remiss not to pass on our wisdom," James finished obviously.

Harry fought down the urge to point out the twins weren't here to be receiving this, nor did Harry have much use for it, but simply decided to ignore them.

Ron insisted this was his business if there was blackmail involved, this sounded like serious trouble.

"No one could be in as much trouble as I am," Sirius said instantly.

"That one was actually true," James nodded along, "I'm not even mad at you for that one."

"Miracles do happen," Remus smirked.

George insisted he'd been joking! Clearly thinking they'd argued long enough, he took the letter from his brother, tied it to the nearest owl, and told Ron he was starting to sound like Percy. If he kept acting this way, he was headed for a prefect.

The other's made noises of agitation that the twins were brushing this off, this really had carried on long enough it wasn't funny anymore and actually had verged into honest worry of what those two were up to. No one noticed a funny little smile on Harry's face for George's comment.

Ron snapped back that would never happen!

Harry couldn't stop a surprised bit of laughter even if he had no idea where it came from, though this did draw Remus' attention as he pouted, "and what's so funny? You going to stop hanging around Ron if he does become one?"

Harry rolled his eyes at the joke, shrugging and saying, "don't know, just imagining what the twins would really say if it did happen I guess."

George pitched the owl out of the tower as he concluded for Ron to stop poking his nose where it belonged then.

They left as quickly as they'd come.

Hermione whispered anyways if they could have any news to do with Crouch?

"Way," James drew the word out dramatically, "off topic. There's no way they should even have a clue Crouch was on school grounds unless you lot have mentioned it."

Harry shook his head no, it had gone without saying in his opinion that they hadn't exactly spread this story around.

"It does still boggle the mind what they are doing," Sirius sighed, "it's been going on for ages."

"And escalating," Lily agreed, fear still lacing her tones.

Harry said no at once, they'd never get into something so serious and not tell someone.

"Well of course you'd tell me," Sirius gave Harry as wide eyed a stare as he could, "why would you do anything else?"

It boggled all of their minds how Harry still laughed at this.

Ron didn't looked as convinced, sharing how they'd been going on about needing money for their joke shop, they'd talked about it all the time when, ah well-

Harry supplied for him, when he and Ron hadn't been talking.

"Much quieter and boring times," Harry added on when he saw how agitated they all got at the reminder. They'd clearly forgiven Ron for it, but it didn't stop them being annoyed when it was brought back up.

Hermione still wasn't convinced they'd go as far as blackmail.

Ron insisted they were really into this joke shop, whereas before Ron had just thought they were doing it to annoy their Mum.

"I never thought that for a second!" Sirius yelped indignantly.

They only had a year of school left and were really looking for some ways to make gold.

"But, they already have it, don't they?" James struggled to remember back, "I don't remember how much exactly, but they put a huge price up for that bet of the World Cup, and earned it back double. Bagman paid them back, so unless they've already wasted that away and are trying to get more..." he trailed off with a frown still in place.

"You think they're trying to blackmail Bagman?" Sirius asked in concern. "Trying to convince him to give them more so they can keep going?"

"It would explain why they keep hounding him as much as he is to Harry," Remus agreed uneasily.

Lily was biting at her lip, still wanting to believe the twins would never actually do this, but it was getting hard to come up with alternatives.

Harry was starting to look a little green around the edges, he was utterly convinced they were on the right track with this...but something was wrong, or backwards, or- he forced his mind to cut off before the ache in his head developed further.

Hermione still didn't think they'd do anything like break the law for gold.

None of them were any kind of happy that they couldn't one hundred percent say no to that. They wouldn't claim to know the twins well enough, and well, blackmail wasn't a happy start to the conversation.

Ron wasn't as convinced, saying they broke rules all the time.

"There's a difference between school rules and the actual law," Lily groaned, more for the Marauders benefit than anyone else's, who all blatantly ignored her.

Hermione insisted this was different! They could get a lot worse than detention for this! Maybe they should tell Percy-

"Ouch!" Sirius jumped like he'd been set aflame. "Merlin Hermione, have you no shame, setting those brothers against each other like that!"

"Leave the twins to do their own thing, and they're own consequences," Lily agreed, "Telling on them won't make anything better."

Harry was surprised at his mother actually agreeing with these boys, as often as she tried to scold them, but then he reflected how despite her disapproval of it, she hadn't gone and turned them in for their illegal animagus status either.

Ron told her she was mad telling Percy! He'd do a Crouch and turn them in.

"I, honestly think I believe that," James shivered, "and in no way want to dwell on it."

"Blackmail isn't bad enough to get you a stint in Azkaban," Lily barely got the word out without flushing in anger all over again and throwing a protective look to Sirius, "they'd be severely fined for it, maybe put on watch for a while to make sure they didn't try again."

"Moving on," Remus groaned, honestly still clinging to the hope that Percy wouldn't do any such thing at all.

There was a shifty silence for a moment before Ron insisted they go get breakfast.

Hermione tried to say they should go see Moody first, but Harry pointed out it would be bad to try at this hour, he'd probably attack them in his sleep.

"I believe that," Sirius instantly agreed, trying to force a smile in place at a topic switch. "Who wants to bet he's got his office booby trapped with trip wires to send people to Iceland if they so much as put a toe in there without his knowing."

"Stop exaggerating Sirius," Lily sighed, already growing weary of this chapter and looking forward to lunch just to get a momentary break from his commentary.

Instead he said they'd wait until their break.

History of Magic was usually torturously slow, but even though Harry kept checking Ron's watch to be sure, time seemed to move twice as slow as usual

"I'm sure Ron just loved sharing his arm with you all lesson," James chuckled.

All three of them were exhausted from their sleepless night and would have happily started snoozing,

"I see no reason why you didn't," Remus shrugged, "I know I was guilty of that on several occasions."

"And Binns never said a word, no matter how loud he snored," Sirius smirked.

even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes, but was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus.

Sirius let out a wild gasp of shock, tearing the book away and holding it up to the light and declaring, "What nonsense is this! Say it ain't so, we've all been duped, there's no way this is real!"

Everyone was too busy laughing as Harry tried to wrestle the book back away with a grin in place to say anything.

When the bell did ring, they sprinted off to find Moody just leaving his office, and he looked in as bad a shape as them. His normal eye half sagging with sleep, giving his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.

"I just realized, he literally always sleeps with one eye open," Remus raised a curious brow.

"He's an artist's nightmare to draw," Sirius chuckled, remembering a few of James rants when he tried to sketch someone and their eyes came out lopsided, "all those disproportionate features, no one would ever believe the drawing wasn't abstract."

James gave an agreeable laugh he didn't really feel, he was still very weirded out trying to picture the whole thing and had no want to take Sirius' joke as a challenge as he normally would have.

He stood back to let them into his empty classroom, limped in after them, and closed the door.

Harry called for his attention, and when Moody spotted them, he waited until the corridor was clear before inviting them inside.

"Well, we didn't transport to Iceland," Harry reminded Sirius.

"I said if you snuck in there," Sirius emphasized, "keep up Harry."

Harry asked if they'd found Crouch, and when receiving a no, asked if he'd used the Map?

Moody said of course he had, he'd summoned it to him on the grounds when Dumbledore sent him off looking.

"Well there goes our idea of how he even knew to come down," Remus groaned in frustration. "I can't believe he'd be so careless as to both be looking, and then not grabbing when he left. It's too much of an oversight to him."

"Maybe Harry will ask again how he knew to come down," Lily pacified.

Ron again suggested he Disapparated, only for Hermione to say in exasperation that wasn't possible!

Then she turned to Moody and said there are other ways he could have disappeared though.

Moody watched her steadily as he said she'd make quite the Auror,

"Nah, can't picture it," Sirius shook his head. "She still panics a little too easily."

"You're never going to let that troll thing go," Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"Or the Devil's Snare," James agreed.

with a mind like hers.

"I'll give that one though," Lily shook her head, "Hermione's going to go great places, wouldn't surprise me if she shot up the Ministry ladder faster than Percy, became the youngest head of whatever department she chose."

Harry had a kind smile in place, knowing he had no clue what the real answer was, but very assured his mother was right.

Hermione flushed with pleasure while Harry told Moody that the Map even showed those who were invisible, so Crouch must have left the grounds.

Hermione still questioned if he'd done it himself, or someone forced him to.

"He was acting to out of it for it to be the first, I can't believe anyone's that good an actor. I'm, going with the second?" Remus still managed to make it a question more than a statement, there was just too much weirdness around this and they had no clue what it could be connected to. Their top suspects would have been Snape or Karkaroff, but both had some pretty good alibis, so they had absolutely nothing to work with.

Ron gave the suggestion that someone could have pulled him onto a broom and flown away,

"Now that's a fair theory," James eyes lit with excitement. "Actually I quite like it, the more I'm thinking. Sneak attack on Krum who wouldn't have seen it coming, and the way Crouch was going on, did anyone else get the feeling he was being held against his will or something? I believe he mentioned the word escaped. This mystery person would have been pursuing him."

"So, who then?" Sirius insisted. "Must be a Death Eater," his face twitched with hatred but he kept going, "so is Voldemort still recruiting, and Crouch was one of his targets? Crouch would know where a ton of Death Eaters were, I'll bet he keeps a list of people he thinks are some and where they are from when they'd have gotten off at some point or another."

While this was looking promising, Harry was starting to feel a little sick to his stomach and didn't feel like indulging them as much as usual, so he asked if he could go on and they could keep speculating later.

looking hopefully at Moody as if he too wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.

"Poor Ron," James muttered absently.

Moody agreed they weren't ruling out a kidnaping.

Ron asked if it was possible he was somewhere in Hogsmeade?

"Don't go suggesting that!" James said so sharply it made everyone else jump. "Sirius is hanging around there, I don't want Moody anywhere closer to the area than he has to be."

"Alright, breathe Prongs," Sirius pacified at once, his eyes were still a little too dark. "You know Ron didn't mean anything by it, Moody doesn't know about Padfoot, and I want Crouch found, so it was sound enough."

James did not look appeased enough to take it back.

Moody agreed he could be anywhere that wasn't here.

Harry's stomach ache took a nasty turn, whether heading up or down he wasn't sure, but it didn't take much to figure out that meant something to him, something bad.

Moody switched then to telling he'd heard of their previous detective work, and he didn't want to hear of it this time. He and Dumbledore were working this, Harry needed to stay focused on his third task.

Harry asked what he meant.

"Do you have very many other numbered tasks we should be concerned about?" Lily asked in surprise.

"It kind of slipped my mind after the whole Crouch thing," Harry admitted sheepishly.

Then his mind caught up, and Harry realized he hadn't thought about that since he'd left the field with Krum.

"Honestly can't blame you though," James shrugged, "this was plenty distracting."

Moody told Harry that he'd heard of some of Potters previous exploits and this last task should be easy enough for him compared to those challenges about the Stone.

"I still swear on my wand that was too easy for a bunch of first years," Lily grumbled hatefully, that had been one of her first problems with Dumbledore, and it had only gotten worse.

"Moody's got a point though," Remus said fairly, "Harry does have some practice with this, this task sounds at least doable for him."

"Joyful," James deadpanned, "you'll excuse me if I'm not a bundle of glee he's still in there."

Remus rolled his eyes at them but stopped arguing.

Ron quickly said he and Hermione had helped him along.

"And there's that," Sirius nodded, "Harry did get help through the majority of those things, he really only caught that key from Flitwick."

"And stopped Voldemort," Harry reminded with some unease, the act of having second hand killed Quirrell still giving him nightmares sometimes.

"Not trying to forget that exactly," James promised, "but it's not exactly a fun reminder."

He pulled out his hip flask then and took a large swig of it as his magical eye kept on them.

Harry wondered why every time that hip flask was mentioned he felt his gut tightening up. Maybe he was regretting not having ever gotten one of his own?

Moody grinned at Ron, telling him to stick by that and Potter, could never have too many eyes on him.

"As normally I'm not out of their company," Harry rolled his eyes at this display of paranoia, "I don't see that being a problem."

Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning.

"So I'm guessing these caves are going to be a permanent thing," James was actually smiling in relief, while he'd been against the idea originally, he couldn't deny he liked the idea of Sirius' quick replies.

"Why did it still take you a whole day?" Remus asked in surprise, "should have been able to reply in hours."

"I'm probably not inside all that much," Sirius shrugged, he liked to imagine he was reliving old memories by snooping around Hogsmeade and the Forest.

Hermione only delayed his reading it by doing a quick search of her copy of the Daily Prophet and informing them there was no new information before Harry read out.

It did not start happy, with Sirius scolding Harry for going off with Krum.

"Wow Padfoot," James raised a brow at his friend that Sirius couldn't quite interpret. It made him uneasy, since he could usually read James in an instant and go along, but this time he honestly wasn't sure if he was being mocked, or if James was being jealous again that he was scolding Harry.

Sirius opened, then closed his mouth since he wasn't sure which way he was supposed to be talking, but Harry had mostly ignored the pair, reading on with an agitated look in place for how this had started.

He wanted a swear by return of this owl Harry would not be going out at night again.

"Yes sir," Harry told him tartly, some residual shock that anyone even cared that much to tell him to do otherwise not putting enough force behind the sarcasm.

Sirius was starting to look flustered now, he wasn't used to being so wrong-footed and now both of them were giving him a spin.

There was somebody at Hogwarts trying to hurt Harry, and it was obvious someone stopped Crouch from seeing Dumbledore feet away from Harry, he could have been killed.

"Aww," Lily couldn't help but coo, clearly fixing to follow that up with a thank you for Sirius acting like an adult, while Remus pantomimed while she wasn't looking about him being whipped; clearly getting his revenge for all the times Sirius had teased him of this advice previously.

"I'm going to strangle the lot of you!" Sirius threatened as he hit his wits end.

Harry's name had not been in that Goblet by accident, someone was trying to hurt him and this task was their last chance. Stay in the company of Ron and Hermione, and do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours. Stay focused on the third task and start practicing Stunning and Disarming jinxes, as well as hexes. Keep his nose out of whatever Crouch was doing and keep his head down. He'd be waiting for that promise of not going out.

He didn't even sign off as Snuffles, but Sirius.

Harry finished and looked up at his Godfather expectantly, though Sirius had no clue what he was wanting. "What? You waiting for me to apologize? That was sound advice."

"You just agreed with me at the end of the last chapter Hagrid was overreacting," Harry rolled his eyes at him, "I figured you'd do it again for yourself."

"I'll apologize when you admit you weren't thinking," Sirius shot back. "It was foolhardy even if Krum wasn't the problem, you haven't once this year actually acted like your life's been threatened."

"That's rich coming from you," Harry scowled back, "since you won't admit for a second how stupid and dangerous it is to even be in the country."

"I'm getting scared," Lily whispered to Remus as the two kept sniping at each other.

"Harry's certainly growing more and more outspoken about being told what to do the longer this drags on," Remus nodded along, grimacing slightly as he reminded, "but to be fair, no one's ever really earned the right to tell him what to do. Aside from the teachers at Hogwarts, Harry's never exactly had a good role model for authority, Sirius included."

It hurt in the worst way for the mother to be reminded of this, but she conceded the point.

James had been watching on in honest bemusement as Harry and Sirius kept trying to tell each other what idiots the other was being, but finally he cut in, "alright, you're both idiots, can we move on."

"Hey!" Harry and Sirius yelped at the same time, but then they exchanged a grin for that and Harry decided to let it go.

Harry was instantly insulted that Sirius was telling him off for being out of bounds after everything he'd ever done.

Harry gave Sirius an extra look that his point had been said twice, which Sirius acknowledge in the most adult way possible, sticking his tongue out at him and muttering petulantly about how different that was.

Hermione reminded he was just worried, and Harry needed to listen to him.

Harry insisted no one had tried to attack him all year, no one had done anything.

"Which, if you think about it, is the weird part," Remus acknowledged.

He winced when he got some nasty looks for that, but Harry defended, "well he is right. So far it's just been the dragon and some grindylows. So unless someone is hoping I'd gone out with these tasks, it's not exactly been that bad." He finished with an absent minded frown on his face he didn't even seem to realize was there for his own saying this.

He did not get any pleased responses from anyone for pointing this out, nor did he himself feel much better for the reminder. Something about this third task, it was going to be a big game changer, the closer it got the more sure he was of that.

Hermione pointed out the Goblet of Fire, someone had put his name in there for a reason and maybe they'd just been biding their time till now.

They all shivered at that, Harry hardest of all as he heard some color of truth in what she'd said.

Harry insisted that even if Sirius was right,

"I can see how well you took to Snuffles," Sirius gave a half hearted smirk.

Harry did give a sheepish shrug for that, admitting he had been terrible about that one, Hermione and Ron were much better at remembering.

and the person who attacked attacked Crouch and Krum had been right by him, then clearly Harry wasn't the target. They'd waited until he'd left to do anything.

"I think that's giving the kidnappers too much credit," James shuddered at the thought. "They must have just caught up at the best opportune time when you weren't there."

"Still," Remus sighed, "the timing of it all really isn't feeling much better."

Hermione shot back they couldn't make it look like accidental murder in front of the forest.

"She's just sunshine and rainbows lately," Lily scowled in response to that statement.

Harry insisted it could have been done, someone could have made it look like he and Krum and dulled to death.

"You are making some great points," Sirius acknowledged, the only apology Harry was going to get for that letter.

Hermione was getting desperate as she agreed she didn't understand this, but Moody and Sirius were right,

"No one sticks with Snuffles for long," Remus forced a laugh.

"That's your fault Moony," Sirius smirked, "you need to come up with more obscure nicknames."

he needed to be prepared for this last task. And he needed to send that letter to Sirius promising he wasn't going to be sneaking around.

"Pretty sure that owl's flown off by now," James shrugged, "so you've already not done as told, and you'll have to grab a new one."

"You're just full of helpful advice," Harry grumbled.

The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when Harry had to stay indoors.

Harry looked all the more disgruntled at this happening to him at the end of the semester, again! He wanted to ask Sirius if he was happy with himself this time, but that comment just felt too vicious, he didn't want to bring up last year.

For the next few days he spent all of his free time either in the library with Hermione and Ron,

"At some point, I think you three forgot you were Gryffindor's," Remus looked on in pity for Harry, "and you're trying to convince Pince to let you start a new house in the library."

"You're certainly in there enough," James sighed.

looking up spells they could practice in empty classrooms.

Harry was practicing his Stunning Spell.

"You would think it would be easier than Petrificus Totalus," Harry sighed, "the body seizes up and then falls, Stupify just makes you fall on the spot."

"It takes much longer to wear off without Innervate though, so there's more power behind a Stunners magic," Remus told. "Petrificus Totalus will wear off in half the time."

"Trust him on this," Sirius muttered in disgust, "takes nearly an hour for a stunner to go away."

Harry sadly remembered Sirius telling him about the time Snape had managed to stun him and leave him behind a broom shed, so he didn't question the experience.

The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices on Ron and Hermione's part.

"Those poor kids," Lily winced in pity.

"There's really no other way to learn though," Remus shrugged without remorse, "sadly they just don't know about embedding cushioning charms on the floor for this particular lesson."

"There's no better way than to practice on a moving target," James agreed.

Ron suggested trying this on Mrs. Norris,

"I would not recommend it," Sirius said instantly. "Filch will know, and he will not wait for permission to gut you."

"Speaking from more experience?" Harry asked wearily.

"Thankfully not me," Sirius said with the height of innocence, "but I did hear a rumor of some Hufflepuff taking revenge on Filch out on his cat, poor kid was never seen alive again."

Harry had no clue how much truth was being put in this, but he was laughing at Sirius again and he didn't want to ask.

after his fifth time in a row landing on the floor. If they didn't want to use the cat, then Harry could at least try Dobby, he'd do it happily.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Sirius theatrically clapped his forehead, "do you realize how much better I could have felt any number of times if I'd just summoned Kreacher to me and cursed him!"

"Let's just be thankful it never occurred to you," Remus said quickly as Lily gave him a nasty look for that.

He insisted he wasn't complaining,

"Well offering up alternatives isn't complaining per say," James agreed.

while rubbing at his side.

"But honestly I don't blame Ron for complaining," James smiled sadly, "at least he's being a trooper and allowing it to be done to him, I think that involves a little moaning when he lands."

Hermione pointed out he kept missing the pillows she'd laid out for him to land on. He should try falling backwards.

"Did she just try to tell a stunned person where to fall?" Lily giggled in surprise. "I don't think even Hermione could manage that."

Ron told her to take a try and see how she did.

Hermione decided it was time Harry moved on from that spell.

Causing them all to laugh, clearly Hermione wasn't up to taking her own advice.

There was no point practicing Disarming, he'd been able to do that one for a while.

"Always with impressive results," the boys laughter doubled even more as Lily said that, though taking a minute for her to realize the last time Harry had done that, and admitted a bit of a giggle escaped her as well.

Instead she wanted to try out this Impediment Curse, which slowed things down.

"I enjoyed the recreational uses of that spell," Sirius got a lazy grin. "It's the best thing to throw something at someone, using the Impediment Curse on it, and watch them freak out and dive for cover as something went towards them in slow motion."

"Thankfully that joke did wear off fast enough," James chuckled.

"But the looks on their faces were priceless," Remus snickered.

The bell rang before they could try, and Hermione promised to see them at dinner as she ran for her Arithmancy class while the boys went for Divination.

No one exactly looked excited for this, but they were hoping for a few more laughs to crop up so no one protested either. Harry was the only one who didn't seem to be looking forward to this, the ghost of his scar prickling across his forehead as foreboding as it could get.

The sun was still gleaming in the sky as they went up the spiral stairs, and Ron groaned how hot it was going to be in the room, Trelawney never put out that fire.

"Ergh," they winced in sympathy for that heat stroke waiting to happen.

Ron was right, the room was a sauna with the thick curtains and the fireplace crackling as high as ever. Harry took his usual seat next to the shadows and pried open a window while the teacher wasn't watching so that a nice breeze could at least blow in on him.

"There's my ingenuity shining through," James beamed at his son.

"Yes," Lily rolled her eyes at him, "I'm so sure only you could have the power of knowledge in opening a window on a hot day."

"Don't be jealous our son got everything from me," James teased back.

Trelawney called attention as she took her seat, saying today they would be focusing on the planet Mars.

"Ah the Roman god of war," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'm not surprised that would be her second favorite one."

She pulled a planetarium up for all to see, and while she began dissecting the planets orbits in conjunction with each other, Harry felt his eyes drifting shut, the breeze blowing clean air into his face as an insect hummed somewhere nearby.

Harry wasn't remotely feeling sleepy now, on the contrary as some deep sense of warning was trying to go off in his head so loud, though he had no clue what the connection could be. Surely not to a bug, or even dozing off in class like he was clearly doing.

He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, soaring through the clear blue sky,

"Finally it sounds like one of your dreams is something normal," James smiled. "I can't count the number of times I've dreamed of flying, though normally for me it's on a broom, not a bird."

"I think he's subconsciously missing Buckbeak," Sirius chuckled.

Everyone was laughing happily around Harry, it was such a wonderful sound to him. Even after these days he spent with them, it was still always a happy feeling to realize he was just sitting around and listening to his family laugh...so why was he getting such a bad feeling about having to keep going?

He was going through the window of an ivy swarmed house, and landing in a high backed chair.

The longer Harry read, the tighter his voice was getting, like someone was slowly strangling him while he forced this out. The laughter had already died out, but no one bothered to interrupt him to ask why as they must be about to get an answer.

Two shapes were moving, one on the floor, the other writhing on the floor. It was a squat man with watery eyes and a pointed nose.

The growl that erupted from everyone was not unexpected the moment the description registered, and though Harry felt like he was reading past a nail spike driving through his brain as this was being returned to him, he was suddenly very grateful he was the one to be reading this. No one liked to hear more mention of this rat after all, but at least Harry could pretend to force past it without threatening murder every other word.

He was wheezing and sobbing on the hearth rug. . .

James wished this feeling would go away, this bleeding conflict he felt whenever he heard of Peter like this like he had the first time. He didn't know why the rat was acting like that, but he knew with everything in him he deserved it for giving him up, for causing his death and Lily's and what should have been Harry's. He wanted to just feel that murder pulsing through him, rather than anything else...

A voice like pure ice spoke of Wormtail's luck, how fortunate he was his blunder had been fixed and he was dead.

Harry was entirely concerned when no one in here rhetorically asked who that 'he' could be, but that was the kind of reaction mentioning this betrayer wrought in them, nowhere near their normal personalities.

The shadow on the floor gasped its pleasure for the news, and how sorry he still was for it all.

James felt like he was the only one paying attention to the actual words rather than the festering thoughts everyone else was harboring at the mention of him, so he was certain he was the only one trying to figure out what exactly he'd done to be apologizing for, not that he cared one bit, it could only be good news for them.

The cold voice continued ignoring him, instead telling Nagini she was out of luck, she would not be eating Wormtail,

"Here I am again, pitying a snake."

Harry never would have believed that was Sirius if he hadn't been keeping an uneasy eye on him.

but there was still Harry Potter.

Harry looked flummoxed that his being fed to a snake was part of any plan, but even if someone did want to voice their outrage at it, he was reading too fast to let them.

The snakes tongue flicked in the direction of the voice as it continued addressing Wormtail.

In between her mental tirade of wanting to rip every last one of his remaining fingers off, Lily was still trying to understand why Voldemort called him that. Her mind must have been working on it in her recess while she tried to ignore it, because now the only idea she could offer up was Voldemort using that as a derogatory on the rat. What had once been an affectionate nickname given to him by his friends for his rat animal was now being turned on its head by the very man he'd served those friends up to, the rat status still stood but now in the darkest way possible.

Saying he would be given one more reminder of his blunder.

Wormtail begged for mercy even as the shout of Crucio rang.

Sirius should have been far more concerned that he didn't feel a damn thing except disappointment that wasn't him using that curse. Crucio wasn't even the beginning of what he owed that rat, twelve years in Azkaban for starters, then he'd work his way up to other tortures from there.

Wormtail was screaming, every nerve in his body alight with pain, and Harry was screaming just as loud through the fire in his forehead,

If anything could snap them back to the actual purpose of this story rather than sucking on revenge, it was Harry, and him reading in a tight pain laced voice as he remembered this set all of them back on the opposite edge of how they felt for the rat.

he had to stop, or Voldemort would hear him.**

Harry was surprised when the walls didn't shake with them, they were all trembling by the end though for all very different reasons. Too many emotions raining too high to deeply question what needed to be asked, number one of which was: why was Harry still seeing this!? They'd by no means forgotten the first time, but as no new information had arisen from anyone regarding this, they had nothing new to go on, and too much of a chance of it dissolving into another break out attempt in their temper if they tried to dissect it.

Someone was shouting his name, and Harry came back to himself on Trelawney's floor, his hands covering his face as tears burned his eyes from the pain of his scar.

Harry was making sure to breathe slowly through his nose, concentrating on every word so that he wouldn't be thinking on that pain that he could all too vividly remember now. It helped nothing when he glanced up and saw all the scared white faces around him for what this could mean.

The whole class was hovering over him, Ron right by his head as he whispered if Harry was alright?

"Oh he's just spiffing, and you?" Remus got out, surprised when he tasted copper in his mouth after swallowing, he must have bitten his tongue at some point to stop himself screaming in outrage.

Trelawney told Ron of course he wasn't, while looking excitedly down at Harry.

Lily found something to break her temper on, and it wasn't pretty. "Are you kidding me? Is there not one bloody useful teacher in that school! First Snape now her, what in Merlin's sack is wrong with these people! He was on the floor, in pain, and she's excited! I swear if a student didn't take the initiative to run off to get Madam Pomfrey I'm going to curse every last one of them!"

In retrospect that was way too harsh for her, they knew if this had happened in say McGonagall's class or basically any other teacher except these two it would have gotten the proper response of the adult making sure Harry was okay, but no one could blame her heaving chest and wild eyed outrage.

Harry honestly felt in fear for his life if he actually tried to keep going while she was still like this, all for letting her get it all out now, but she seemed to have at least temporarily restrained herself and sat a look on him that said in no uncertain terms for him to keep going.

She demanded what Harry had been seeing, a premonition?

"And this is why no one was disagreeing with you Lily," James looked just as outraged as his wife at this lack of concern for their son, but he was more quietly scheming in the back of his head what exactly he planned to do to Trelawney as payback.

Harry instantly lied it was nothing while struggling to his feet, flinching at every shadow and sure he could still hear Voldemort uttering that curse.

Harry couldn't suppress another shiver for that, that terrible voice still echoing in the back of his mind. Thankfully no corner of this room was shadowed, the warm lights and cozy fireplace in exact opposite of Trelawney's eerie room, and he was surrounded on all sides feeling very safe.

Trelawney insisted it had been something, he'd been holding his scar, and insisted she had experience with this.

"You have as much experience as Lockhart you-" Remus forcibly cut himself off before he went on his own Lily like tangent which still wouldn't resolve anything.

Harry glared at her as he said he was going to the hospital wing for a headache.

"If only that's what it had been," Harry whispered to himself, as sickly looking as everyone else in fear and worry of what all this could mean for him.

Trelawney began to refuse, saying if he left the confines of her clairvoyant powers he'd lose his stimulated and extraordinary moment.

Lily looked ready to incite murder any second, her wand even appeared and she was glaring at every exit clearly wanting to take Trelawney's head off for actually putting her baby's pain on the powers of that bleeding room!

If he left now he may not get another opportunity to see-

"Then by all means, please leave Harry," Sirius ground out, at least mocking Trelawney felt better than thinking of rats.

Harry snapped he wasn't seeing anything but a headache cure, and left with a quick muttered goodbye to Ron.

Trelawney watched him go with a look saying she'd just been denied a treat.

Lily had to concentrate on each one of her fingers not to perform a strangling motion as she heard that, but at least he was finally leaving.

Harry did not go for Madam Pomfrey, instead his feet doing as Sirius had told,

Harry released a breathy laugh he didn't really feel, but any release would be savored as he picked back up his earlier argument with his godfather. "See Sirius, I do listen to some of your advice."

"Oh sure, when it involves Dumbledore," he said back, flipping his hair over his shoulder dramatically but there was still too much anger in his gray eyes for all the recent rat mentions lately for the joke to really be there.

and go tell Dumbledore. This time had been as vivid as the one in Privet Drive.

"Gathered that bit," James groaned, ruffling up his own hair in unease, the longer they sat and thought about it, the more worry they gained with no new ideas, but at least some of the blood lust was being forcibly pounded away as Harry got farther away from mentions of who all had been in the dream again.

He kept replaying the events over in his mind so as not to forget the details, how Voldemort had accused Wormtail of a blunder,

Nope, there it was! Harry was going to keep thinking on it until he got it all out to Dumbledore as well, so he decided now he may as well start trying to remove his finger nails, it would hurt less. The only coherent thought he had left was his prayer Harry wouldn't pass this along to Sirius again, the reaction he could have still terrified him as much as what was happening to Harry. He didn't need Sirius going off on a murder rampage and getting caught, that had to be his next step from going back to Harry's side from that first dream. Then again, Harry hadn't mentioned the rat in his first later, so there was still some hope he wouldn't this time, it wouldn't do Sirius any more good than it was them.

but Voldemort had received good new that someone was dead, and Wormtail was not going to be fed to the snake, that would be Harry.

Hearing it all a second time didn't make any of that more bearable, or comprehensible, if possible it was actually getting worse with Harry's rendition. Now they didn't have anger to cling onto while listening, now they were just a bubbling, twisting mess of worry of how much pain Harry had to go through to get to the age he was at now.

Harry had walked right past the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office without noticing.

Remus forced out a laugh he didn't really feel, but at this point any actual noise besides Harry forcing himself to read through pain was a kindness.

Only when he traced back did he remember that he didn't know the password.

"Oh yeah," they all muttered, having been so lost in their own thoughts they hadn't recognized this problem either. Now what was Harry going to do?

"I swear if Snape shows up again, I'm getting a shovel and digging my way to his useless arse, the magic keeping me in here be damned," James vowed on the spot.

"You could always try what you were going to last time, go to the staff room and tell an actual useful teacher it's an emergency and need to talk to Dumbledore," Remus offered. "I'm sure they'd give you the password."

Harry gave a listless shrug, he had no clue what he was going to do, but managed a brave smile for all of them at even pretending at a joke and normal conversation again...at least he hoped his dad was joking.

He still tried sherbet lemon.

"T for effort," Sirius scolded, "you already knew that wouldn't work."

"Sirius, don't call my son a troll," Lily instantly snapped.

Sirius rolled his eyes at her.

Instead he started trying others, like Licorice Wand and Fizzing Whizbee,

"Upgraded to an A for this though," Remus smiled, "he knows Dumbledore has a sweet tooth, and going off the previous password is taking a good guess it could be more candy."

"He's most likely not wrong," James forced some tension out of his shoulders to try and smile along. It didn't at all work, but he no longer looked like he was sitting on Hickory anymore. "All the times we were there, it was some form of this."

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Oh wait, he didn't like those.

"Who knows, maybe he's found one not earwax flavored since then," Sirius did his very best at a sincere tone, almost getting there.

When none of that worked, Harry told it was an emergency, but still the gargoyle didn't move.

"I'd be more concerned if it did move," Lily sighed.

Harry kicked it, achieving nothing but an excruciating pain in his big toe.

"Did you at least feel better?" James actually did manage a genuine laugh for that one.

Harry ignored the, in his opinion, stupid question.

Now shouting Chocolate Frog and standing on one leg.

"Is this a new game?" Sirius found honest laughter bubbling in his chest, though he wasn't surprised. If anything could make him smile again, it would be his godson. "Hop on one foot and shout treats until you run out, I like this."

Harry tried to keep being angry with them for laughing like this when he knew in the book he was still upset over what he'd seen, but he recognized as well as them that getting angry wasn't helping a thing, at least smiling gave the feeling that everything would turn out okay.

At last shouting Cockroach Cluster in anger, and the gargoyle sprang aside.

"Cockroach Cluster?" Remus crinkled his nose in disgust. "Really Dumbledore?"

"I've heard they actually taste rather like crispy chocolates," Lily offered with her own look of concern at this, she'd never believed the friend that had tried to convince her of this.

"I can't believe he went with that over the Beans!" Sirius gasped.

"I guess anyone who eats Peppermint Humbug has this kind of strange taste," Harry shrugged.

"At least it wasn't Jelly Slugs," James smirked, "I'm still hoping Dumbledore remembers that one personally."

"I do not want to know," Lily groaned at once. Harry was still too distracted thinking about his dream and what all it could mean for him to be to invested in asking for now.

Harry looked at the opening in surprise, admitting he'd been joking.

"Well don't tell it that!" Sirius said mock frantically.

Still he went inside and traveled up to the headmaster's office, but when he got near he heard voices and hesitated.

"You seem to do that quite a lot for someone who insists he's not a snooper," Remus snorted in surprise.

Harry was finally distracted from his own problem by that, looking up at Remus with the widest most innocent eyes he had.

Remus snorted again and shook his head in disbelief, jabbing a thumb at Sirius and saying, "try looking at me with literal puppy eyes and get back to me on that one."

Sirius cracked up laughing so hard he nearly missed Harry pouting but moving on.

The voice inside was telling Dumbledore he saw no connections, it was Fudge.

"Oh, because he's always a joy to have around," Lily said in contempt, not one of them forgetting how last year he'd happily sanctioned Sirius getting Kissed!

Sirius was too busy suppressing his giggles that Remus had admitted out loud that had worked to garner the hatred he should have felt.

He was still insisting that while Bertha was missing, it didn't mean foul play.

"I swear his head is as empty as the Shrieking Shack," James scowled. "What person actually goes missing this long without not being declared dead? It's been what, almost a year now?"

It was their insight that they knew she was dead, but James's logic was still sound that no one would have argued with him otherwise.

There was just no way it had anything to do with Crouch.

They all sat in puzzlement on that for a second, Lily saying slowly, "yes, alright, I can kind of put together how Dumbledore would think that. Harry did verbatim what Crouch had been rambling on about, and he did mention Bertha, but I still can't see how Crouch knew anything."

"Maybe Dumbledore sees a more clear line connection than just the passing along information Harry got?" Remus tried with no honest belief.

Moody's voice spoke up what he thought the Minister thought happened to Crouch?

Fudge said he had two ideas,

"Oh I'm going to love hearing this," James sneered.

the first was that Crouch had cracked and gone wandering off.

"If that is option one, I am terrified for my sanity what option two is," Lily looked dumbstruck anyone could reach that conclusion in these circumstances. Surely Dumbledore had given Harry's account of the matter, no one could be so stupid and blind as to draw that kind of conclusion from it!

Dumbledore simply answered he wandered extremely quickly then.

"Still got to love how Dumbledore kindly points out how dumb the people around him are," Sirius muttered to himself.

Fudge said he'd reserve judgement on the second idea until he saw the place for himself.

"What does that even mean?" Remus asked in surprise. "It was on the edge of the Forest, why do you need to be there to declare anything of it."

"I don't see why we're hearing his opinion on it at all," James's scowl kept deepening the longer this guy was around, "since I hold its weight on the same level as dragon dung."

Confirming this had happened right around the Beauxbatons carriage? Reminding Dumbledore of what she was.

"He did not!" Harry heard everyone bark in outrage. The way his lip curled in protest of having said that however left no one in doubts. No one currently liked Maxime for what she'd done to Hagrid, in all honesty they still blamed her for it even being out, but no one was accusing her of pulling this simply because she was like Hagrid! And the worst part was, no one had any doubts if Fudge was saying this about her, he could be thinking about Hagrid as well!

Dumbledore quietly returned he found her an able headmistress, and an excellent dancer.

"Thank you for that useful information," Remus muttered sullenly, wishing Dumbledore would take that a little more offensively like they had.

Fudge was getting angry now, saying Dumbledore may be acting a little blind for his trust in Hagrid. They didn't all turn out harmless, and Hagrid didn't even sound that with all his monsters.

"That's it, where's the nearest tiny box, I'm cramming his arse in it," Sirius followed that up with a few more swears just as the timer went off from the kitchen.

Lily was saved from having to listen to the rest no matter how much she agreed by going to let dinner cool, by the time she came back all of the boys were still in a temper like her for the slur of a comment but at least willing to let Harry finish as he fingered the last page.

Dumbledore forcefully replied he did not suspect either of them, and in fact flipped back on Fudge perhaps he was the one being blinded by prejudice.

"Least Dumbledore's saying that much," Remus muttered as he poked at a hole in his sleeve, his mind was starting to get a bit stung around the edges his old headmaster wasn't being a bit more vocally against this.

Moody suggested they wrap this up, and while Fudge agreed he wanted a look around the grounds, Moody instead pointed out that Potter must want a word because he was outside the door.

"Got to love Moody must have known he was there the whole time and waited this long to say something," James said.

"Chapter's over," Harry sighed as he gave the book an unfriendly toss onto the table and being the first to exit the room.

HPHPHPHP

Update on Cursed Child: If my review wasn't enough for you guys, I found a guy who emulates everything I ever could think to say. Mine is really puny small in comparison, and I can't disagree with a single thing he says. I left a lot out of mine, but he covers the whole thing! It's funny, go watch!

The Script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - The Dom Reviews

*nahte123456 pointed this out, and yeah, it's a really good point.

**If anybody remembers my rant from the second chapter about how much it bothered me they never explained these third person dreams Harry has, I thank you all for all the suggestions you gave, but I'm still not sold on why it happens. Just because Voldemort doesn't have his normal body shouldn't disrupt the horcrux connection that allows Harry to see inside Voldemort's mind of the body he's in, not from the window's perspective. This isn't from Nagini ...it's just information insert. I do acknowledge that it could well be Harry seeing through Voldemort and we're just getting the outside perspective, JK has done this in the past by switching between characters like in Harry's first Quidditch match, and that's basically the only running thing I can go with, but it still annoys me to no end it's never acknowledged in that way, it's just there.

[shigarakis-fifth-hand]

The “Better Half”; A Poly KiriBaku x Reader Fanfic

As Izuku Midoryia’s twin sister, you face many issues. But as life throws you one after another, somehow there are two people who are always there for you.

Enjoy the series | one two three four five

It was September 13th, and you came into the world. Into the arms of your mother, she was able to look at you lovingly before handing you to your father. Big, bright green eyes and dark green hair with pale skin and few freckles. You were healthy if not on the skinny side, and surprisingly, not crying your eyes out like most children do. It would be something to be concerned about if you were not looking at your father’s face curiously, and then at the room around you. To your eyes which had seen nothing but darkness, the bright room looked like heaven.

Five minutes and two seconds after, your brother came to the world after you, crying and screaming louder than most children, but at least it was more normal than you. Your mother held him for a minute, before you both were taken by the nurses to be checked for health. Your brother, with dark green hair with lighter highlights and dark green eyes with more freckles than you, was smaller although he had been the one getting the most food. He wiggled around and cried, being the loudest one around.

You, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm except when a needle had been stuck into you to check for your health, causing you to cry for a minute before getting distracted by the nice nurse caring for you. You were washed, and put into the softest blanket-outfit thing with mittens, which you hated, and taken back to your parents with the nurses’ disappointment. Your brother’s caretaker was more than happy to give him back though. Your mother held your brother, loving looking at him with happiness in her eyes as he looked at his sleeping face.

“Look how sweet, he’s snoring.” Your dear mother, Inko Midoryia, looked up at her husband, Hizashi, who held you. “She’s looking around. She’s so calm, it’s almost worrying.” He smiled at you, who was now running your entire hand along one of his fingers, surprised by the rough texture. “They look different.” Inko smiled, now looking at you with lust in her eyes. “She’s prettier. Hands down. And better behaved.” He explained as Inko smiled back at her son, sighing. “They’re going to be equal, and be best friends.” She smiled happily.

“She’s going to protect him, and he’s going to do the same for her. If they’re not, then we’ve failed as parents.” Inko explained, thinking about how her own sister hadn't talked to her in years. “Yes, but I can tell she’s going to be the leader.” Hizashi explained to his wife, who shot him an annoyed side-eye that went un-noticed. “That’s okay though. As long as they’re both happy.” Inko smiled back at her son, hoping that she wouldn't have to worry about them. Little did she know...

Four years later from that day, you and your brother went to the theme park for your birthday with your two parents. Your brother, named Izuku by your dear mother, was holding onto your arm as you both entered the park. “Ichiko! Look!” He pointed up to the tall rollercoaster overlooking the rest of the park, using your name. You had been named Ichiko by your father, which meant “Alpha” or “First child”. It was known to everyone who observed his actions that your father not only favored you, but loved that you were the stronger, taller, and “best” compared to your brother.

“We should ride it! Come on Dad, let’s go!” You began to run before your father grabbed onto your arm and pulled you back forcefully, making him receive several glances from the parents around him for treating a young child with such force and strength. Yet, in his words “you could handle it”, and thanks to his forceful parenting, you had built up the strength to get used to it. “Not yet, we’re waiting on someone.” Just as he finished his sentence, he was met with yelling from nearby. “Is that Inko Midoryia?!” 

You all turned to see a spiky-haired blonde woman running towards you. “Inko babe! It’s been so long!! You haven’t changed a bit!!” She hugged your mother, before turning to your father. “Aye! ‘Zashi bro! How’s it going?! God, you two are such highschool sweetheart goals!” She yelled loudly and full of energy, before turning to the two of you. “Are these who I think they are?! Oh my gosh, you guys are adorable! God I wish I would have had a daughter, you’re such a dollface! And you, such a lady’s man! Goodness me!”

‘Mitsuki, it’s so good to see you. Where’s little Katsuki and-” Inko was interrupted by yelling from a small child walking up to you. “Mommmm. Where’s my water bottle, I can’t find it!” You turned to see a smaller, male version of Mitsuki with the same hairstyle and a black skull t-shirt with shorts. “Katsuki, be quiet. At least say hi to Inko and her children. We brought you to have a play date. It’s their birthday.” Mitsuki explained, before turning back to continue her conversation with the adults. 

“Hi! I’m Ichiko!” You waved at the boy, who looked quite shocked. “It’s your birthday?” Katsuki asked as you nodded, before pulling out a plastic water bottle from your tiny backpack. “It’s unopened. You look hot.” You grinned, tossing it to him as he caught it. He inspected the closed lid before opening it slowly and taking a long sip suspiciously. “I didn’t put anything in it silly. Now do you want to go on that flipping ship or the roller-coaster? I think the two of us meet the height requirement!” You asked as his eyes lit up. A girl who liked rollercoasters??!!

No way, he had to reveal you for the fake extra you really were. “Rollercoaster. I heard it does two 180s, and it’s really fast. I heard someone fell off and broke their leg.” He tried to make you nervous, but only was even more confused when you began smiling. “Well if it’s really fun and it was only the leg, we’ll be fine! Plus two 180s is better than one, so that’s great!!” Bakugo watched as you turned to Izuku who was behind you. “This is my brother Izuku.” You gestured to him, who waved shyly, receiving a confused glance from Katsuki.

So the girl was the outgoing one and the boy was the shy, short one? Strange, but also weirdly cool. Katsuki didn’t have any girl friends, and barely any friends to begin with, so many you could be cool. “Alright kiddies, let’s go.” Katsuki’s dad came up behind you three, smiling as you and the blond got excited, Izuku not so much. Without warning, you grabbed Katsuki’s hand and pulled him towards the nearest ride, a fast rollercoaster that allowed smaller children to ride, not the safest decision, but one that you were more than overjoyed with.

You and Katsuki must of gone on that rollercoaster over five times, loving each one more than the last. After the first one, Izuku choose to stay with the parents who watched the kids and talked about their recent lives. The habit of Izuku staying behind seemed to continue, when the ride was only 2 people per row, or you two wanted to ride something that was two scary. You and Katsuki shared a cotton candy, and Bakugo got you a balloon who he had “ borrowed” from another kid just for you.

You and Katsuki spent hours talking, laughing, and becoming friends. Mitsuki was beyond shocked, seeing her son socialize like never before with a child his age. Katsuki told you about the preschool his mom had looked at, and how his older cousin had gotten his quirk and he was beyond jealous. “I don’t know what mine is, but it’ll be awesome! I know it!” He told you as you nodded, content with just listening to his rant. Just as you two turned the corner to walk down the sidewalk towards the carousel, the kid who Bakugo had “borrowed” the balloon from ran towards him.

“You little brat! You’re going to pay for this!” He freaked out, grabbing a football from his friend’s hand and throwing it at Bakugo. “Hey!” You yelled, reaching out your hand in front of Bakugo. As if time was slowing down, you watched as the football separate into particles, almost like droplets of melted football, and stand mid-air before your face. You pushed your hand back, and as it moved, the droplets joined back together and fell to the dirt below your feet. “Dude, let’s go! These kids are crazy!”

You turned around to see Katsuki, his parents, your parents, and your dear twin brother all staring at you, stars in their eyes. “Mama! Daddy! Did you see what I did?!” You cheered, jumping up and down as your father picked you up happily. “That’s my girl! On your fourth birthday too! Your mom and I didn’t even get ours until we were at least five!” He hugged you proudly, before setting you down as Izuku gave you a high five. “Wow! You can move things with your mind, and separate them into liquids! That’s like mom and dad’s quirk together!” Izu cheered happily as you turned to Bakugo.

“Your... your quirk is SO COOL!” He exclaimed, running to you, grabbing your hands, and jumping excitingly. “God, imagine what you could do with that! You could kick a soccer ball and make it go forever! Or you could even make all the rain come off of you if you don’t have an umbrella!” He continued smiling, before engulfing you in a tight hug. Mitsuki almost cried, shaking a teary-eyed look with Inko, happy her son was socializing. She had become worried about his mental state, being such an angry human being from the beginning. She was worried he wouldn’t be able to function with other kids, and would be an outcast. But no...

“What are we waiting for?! Let’s go! I saw a water gun thing to win a stuffed pokemon! I want the Pikachu!” He yelled out, laughing playfully as he grabbed your hand and pulled you into the crowd and towards the fun. As Izuku trailed behind with the adults, he smiled at how happy you were. You and Bakugo were such good friends, he couldn’t help but be happy that you had another friend to keep you company and make you happy, exactly what you deserved. Little did Izuku know that when he had let you and Bakugo go ahead, he bought himself a life of being the third wheel on your friendship with Katsuki.

It was September 13th, a year later, and birthday decorations laid around the apartment of Inko Midoryia. “Happy birthday Ichiko and Izuku, happy birthday to you.” The children around you sang, crowded around a table. You sat next to your twin brother, smiling before you both turned and blew out the five candles on the cake in front of you. “Good job guys!” Your mom, Inko Midoryia, ran up to you, cutting a piece for each of you, giving one to you first. You looked around at the table, seeing fifteen children from your preschool who you were friends with.

Mitsuki Bakugo and her husband were taking the presents that you and Izuku had unwrapped to your room, and your own mother was making lively conversation with the rest of the parents at the party. Looking around, you were upset to find your father gone, braking his promise that he would come this time. On and off, your father’s visits seemed to grow farther from one another as time passed. After you had gotten your quirk, your parents had quickly begun arguing, eventually causing your father to storm out.

Throughout the divorce and your fifth birthday, your mom had moved to a smaller apartment while saving for a house, began getting interested in medication, forcing you and your twin brother to take certain pills and supplements to prevent any depression or abandonment issues from your father leaving, had gotten you, Izuku, and Katsuki together almost daily for play dates, and had put an offer on a townhouse near the Bakugo household.

“Finally you’re five years old! Now you can go on the slide at the playground by yourself! Lucky!” You turned to a spiky-haired blond boy next to you, smiling ear-to-ear as he talked/ yelled at you. “I know, but it’s okay. I won’t go on until you can too.” You smiled as he laughed, high-fiving you. “That’s awesome! But it’s okay, only two more months and then we both can go on it!” He grinned again, even wider than before as you nodded. “All three of us.” You smiled, grabbing the shirt of your twin brother who was listening in on the conversation. 

“Aww, look at you cuties!! Say birthday!!” Bakugo’s mother, a blonde lady with the exact hairstyle as her toddler son, jumped out from nowhere and held up her phone. “Mommmm.” Bakugo complained as the three kids turned to his mother, smiling as her phone flashed, partially blinding them. “Now let’s get out of here, these kids are getting on my nerves. Someone already asked me if they could touch my hair!” Bakugo complained, grabbing your hand and pulling you out as Izuku followed you guys to the doorway. 

“Izu! Ichi! Don’t you want to say goodbye to your guests?” Inko asked as you nodded, grinning as you ran back inside to the table quickly. “Aren’t you going to go?” Katsuki asked Izuku as he shook his head slowly, turning to watch you hug the kids goodbye. “I’m not friends with any of them really. I don’t even know half of them, they’re just Ichi’s friends.” Izuku explained sitting next to Katsuki on the step outside the doorway. “She’s always been the one to make a lot of friends. It’s okay though, I only need her... and you of course.” Izuku smiled at the blond.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, going un-noticed by the green-haired one as the two turned to see their friend and sister walk up behind them. “Bye Maria! I’ll see you tomorrow!” She turned to the boys who stood up quickly at her arrival, smiling at her from behind. “Come on boys, let’s go. The forest is waiting to explore, and the first one we have a year older must be awesome!” Bakugo grabbed the jar that he had brought next to him for bugs, and smiled, walking after her. “Heck ya! My mom uses candles, but we should totally use those lighting bulb bugs.”

You rolled your eyes, giggling as you entered the elevator with the two boys and clicking the elevator button. Bakugo was taller than you by 2.5 inches, and you were taller than Izuku by 4. Yet you and Bakugo had the agreement that when you took the elevator down, you pressed the button, and he would do the same when you all went back up. “Don’t you mean lightning bugs Kacchan?” You asked as he blushed at his own mistake, you and Izuku giggling. “It’s okay, lightbulb bugs sounds cooler, and it’s more accurate.” You hugged Bakugo, grabbing onto his arm. 

“They don’t even look like lightning.” You told him, making him feel only a bit better as the door opened to the first floor and you all walked out. Again, there was an unspoken rule that Izuku would walk behind you two, although you personally never had noticed, Bakugo and Izuku had made it clear with each other. Bakugo liked being by your side when you would grip his arm, and Izuku liked being in the back “to protect you” when really there was no room on the sidewalk for a third.

When you guys got to the forest behind Bakugo’s neighborhood, next to the apartment building that you lived in, you immediately jumped into the nearby tree and began to climb up. Bakugo laughed, knowing how much you loved tree-climbing to no-end. You swung your legs over the branch and hung upside down, fluffing the hair of the two boys who passed beneath you towards the river. “Ichi! Ichi! It’s a bug! Get it Kacchan!” Izuku yelled, receiving a glare from the blond boy as he looked at your brother annoyed.

“Why don’t you get it! I’m busy trying to find the spider my mom put out the other day. She put it under a cup and walked outside and I haven’t found seen him since! She’s a killer!” He yelled, returning to rummaging around the forest bushes with his bare hands. “Hey, be careful. Turns out all snakes aren’t nice like your snake. Look.” You lifted your pant leg and showed two bite marks to the blond as his eyes widened, looking at you, and then back at the bite. “Woah! You survived a whole snake?!” He asked as you nodded, feeling like a champion.

“Yep, here.” You handed him a stick you had taken off the tree before going to your brother, holding your own empty jar to collect the bug Izuku found. Bakugo watched you though, completely shocked at your strength. You were a girl, yet you were here collecting bugs and fighting snakes?! You were incredible!!! He turned. “So Ichiko, have you been training? I still haven’t gotten mine, but I’ve been working on it!” Bakugo flexed his muscles through his black t-shirt, a silver skull on it this time.

“Actually I have. I helped my mom clean the entire house, and I was able to put away all of the groceries in a few seconds. My mom says it’s very helpful, and she’s proud of me.” You grinned as he stared at you, his eyes shining at your talent. “Lemme see Ichi! Lemme see!” He cried out, jumping up and down happily. You smiled, realizing how he hadn’t changed since you met him. “Okay. Izuku, stand still!” You yelled at your brother as he turned to you, shaking in fear as you extended your hand out. 

Before he could respond, the dirt beneath him began to turn into small, liquid pieces and rose in the air, carrying him with it. “Woah! You can lift humans?! That’s amazing!” Katsuki exclaimed as you set your brother down, turning to the blonde boy. “You’re amazing Ichiko! You’re incredible, better than anyone I’ve ever met our age! You’re going to become the best pro hero in the world!” He exclaimed, staring at you as if you were God yourself. “That’s right Katsuki, but you’re going to do it with me!”

You put your hand on Bakugo’s shoulders as he looked at you, very confused as you both ignored your watching twin from the sidelines. “You’re going to be just as good as me, and we’ll become the Dream Team forever!” You smiled as he couldn’t help but feel emotional at you not only accepting him but promising him a future of hope. It was no secret that Bakugo had confidence issues, from where you would never understand, but you saying that made his day. His week. His entire life was altered that moment, where you recognized him as an equal.

Little did you know that you had begun the start of Bakugo’s confidence spree, bullying beginning, and his craving for the constant attention and compliments, not to mention the start to him seeing everyone else as extras. Because... you were perfect in every way, and you had said that he was an equal, so he had to be perfect! Everyone else was an extra, meaningless and weak compared to you both, the Dream Team. Watching from afar, Izuku couldn’t help but feel conflicted, feeling left out and desperate for attention more than ever.

As the years passed, Bakugo and your relationship began to evolve from friends to the best of friends, and to the point where you two were never seen apart from each other. With Izuku in the background, always the one to walk behind when the sidewalk could only fit two people, or the one to sit on the side and just watch as the other two continued a conversation. 

Your father visited you every other weekend, only paying attention to you these days. You and Katsuki played video games all weekend, trained your quirks after school daily, loved rock-climbing on Saturday nights, and even went on “dates” that were never confirmed dates. You’ll never forget the day that everything changed though, when you and Bakugo were playing hide and seek in his house while your mom and Izuku, your small seven-year-old self being able to fit under the table in the hallway. 

As you hid though, you remained undetected as the phone rang, Mitsuki walking and picking it up. From the other side, you could hear your mother’s voice, and the sound of her crying filling your ears. “Whaaaat? Oh Inko, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what to say!” Mitsuki exclaimed as you leaned closer, desperate to hear. “He’s quirkless Suki! I don’t know what to do! I can’t fix this with medicine or a doctors visit! His dream was becoming a hero, and proving himself to Ichiko and Katsuki... but now.” You listened to your mother, currently sobbing as she ranted.

“Oh god, he’s going to get bullied so much Mitsuki! I just... I don’t know what to do! His father isn’t picking up any of my calls, but... he texted me. He says he wants to release any rights to Izuku. Just Izuku! His own father is abandoning him because he’s quirkless, but still wanting a relationship with his daughter?! He’s such a douche, the poor boy has been through enough! You should have seen the look on his face when the doctor told him he would never have a quirk.” You sighed, trying not to make a noise as Mitsuki and your mother continued.

You waited, getting lost in your own thoughts before Mitsuki hung up, sighing sadly before walking back to the living room to talk to her husband who waited by the door, having heard some of the conversation. Finally, you were able to walk back to Bakugo’s room to see him checking under the bed for the 100th time. “There you are!! I’ve been looking all over!” he complained, jumping up and walking over to you. “Hey, what’s wrong with you? You look sad.” He asked as you looked at him, a single tear sliding down your face.

“Katsuki!” You began sobbing, jumping into his arms and clinging to his chest. Unaware of what to do, he patted your back awkwardly, trying to figure out why you were crying. His mom got emotional sometimes and did this, but that was usually fixed by chocolate and that adult grape juice his mom loved. “It’s Izuku. My mom called your mom. She was crying. She said... she said...” You looked up at the blond, still crying. “He’s quirkless! Izuku is quirkless! Oh god, I can’t believe it!” You cried, seeing his eyes open wide as a shocked response.

“He is? But, you have one! Izuku can’t be... He was going to become a hero with us. We were going to be the Dream Team.” Bakugo thought out loud as you nodded, letting him wipe a tear from your cheek gently. “You know what? It’s okay...” You perked up, returning to a smiling state. “Izuku has always been quirkless, we’re just finding out. He’s still my brother, and we’re going to protect him from anyone who wants to make fun of him! Right?! The Dream Duo can do anything!” You smiled as Bakugo watched you, feeling warm inside.

Thanks to Izuku being quirkless, he was able to be even closer to you. He was now going to not just be your partner, but your other half. Izuku might have been your twin at birth, but as soon as Bakugo had met you, he knew he was meant to be the one who you would spend the rest of your life with. Now, with Izuku out of the way, Izuku didn’t have to come to when you guys went to train on the beach, and he didn’t have to come to when you guys fantasized about heroes! Now that he thought about it, Izuku didn’t have to come anywhere with you guys!

And that idea stayed with Bakugo throughout the rest of the years following. Throughout middle and high school, Katsuki began slowly slipping away from any friendship with Izuku. It all started at the beginning of middle school when Katsuki brought the name “Deku” out of nowhere. You said it was an insult, but Bakugo just said that it was an inside joke, turning Izuku’s quirklessness into something funny and not so sad. Izuku said he had no issue with it, and you said you didn’t either if he just didn’t say it around you.

Near the end of middle school, Katsuki began only hanging out with you. Izuku told you that he just didn’t want to come whenever you would invite him, but little did you know what Bakugo had made sure to give him hints that he didn’t want Izuku around. Whether it was an annoyed glance whenever Izuku would talk to him, or purposely tripping him whenever you weren’t around. Izuku just knew it was best if he just stayed behind, and let Bakugo get his way with having alone time with you.

At the beginning of high school, Katsuki gained “followers” who constantly worshipped him, did whatever he wanted, and would do anything for him. This included putting maple syrup in Izuku’s lockers, spamming any social media with hateful messages, and even taking his backpack and lighting it on fire in the parking lot. To you, this was all just unfortunate events due to everyone around the school being hateful. You never would have guessed that your best friend and life-time crush would have been the one torturing your dear twin brother.

Unlike your dear best friend with the spiky hair, you gained many friends during high school. Being the most powerful girl in school, and half of the iconic duo that the entire school worshipped, you constantly had people drooling over you literally and figuratively. You gladly took in as many friends as possible, and had built yourself quite a group of friends. You were friends with the mean girls, who always invited you to sleepovers, the athletes who wanted you at every single game to cheer for them and who you did volleyball with, and even the nerds who did your homework just because you were so nice and defended them.

But now it was the last year of high school for you, and a single month before the end of school no less. You sat in your leadership class, your final period before you could go to volleyball practice and enjoy the donuts they gave out every Thursday. “Now, as I’m sure you all know, the ones currently applying for UA are Ichiko…” The class erupted into claps and hollers in your direction, cheerful faces staring at you from every way. “Bakugo...” The teacher continued as Bakugo smiled widely, happy about the same applause towards him. You couldn’t help but blush as Bakugo winked at you, ignoring the high-fives his way.

“And Izuku...” The entire class grew silent as they looked at the empty desk in front of you. On purpose obviously, Izuku had left to go to the bathroom to avoid any side-eyes. “Oh gosh, he won’t stand a chance...” You heard a random voice murmur, along with many giggled and snickers as you turned to the teacher. “Go on Mr. Kiyoko, we don’t have all day.” You commanded as he nodded, following your orders. “He’ll get crushed by a robot the first chance he gets, am I right?” Bakugo asked you with a cocky tone, smirking as he looked your direction.

“I know... it’s so concerning. I’ll have to protect him at the entrance exam since he won’t have a chance on the physical aspect, but it’ll be so hard to compete against the other students if I’m protecting a helpless human being as well . Plus, even if he gets all of the academic side, so will some of the other students with quirks. I need to convince him not to go, I just have to.” You thought out loud, receiving a smirk from Bakugo and his followers that you didn’t notice. At the same time, Bakugo hated the way that Izuku affected you, and if Deku dared to ruin your high chances of going to your dream school, he would pay big-time.

“Anyways, I hope you all think about your future and complete the essay I gave you about your career choices past high school. I can only hope that you do have a plan after all, or else you wouldn’t bother with high school. Class dismissed.” The teacher lectured as the sound of chairs and desks moving filled the room. “H-hey, Ichiko?” You turned to see Bakugo, looking surprisingly nervous with his blush and the fact that he was avoiding eye contact with you. “Yea?” You smiled, confused by his sudden change in attitude.

“Before practice... could you walk with me for a minute?” He asked as your eyes widened, pretending to be shocked. “And risk missing the donuts at practice?! Of course...” You smirked as he sighed in relief, grabbing his backpack and pulling it onto one of his shoulders. “Lead the way ‘Suki.” You smiled sweetly, making his heart melt at his nickname as he passed you and walked out into the hallway. You followed, grabbing onto his arm, a habit you always did with him. 

Down one of the side hallways and into the main one, you saw how all of the classrooms had been cleared of people, leaving you alone. Bakugo stopped, causing you to stop abruptly. “Ichiko, I- I need to say something, and I need you to let me finish please.” You nodded at him, slightly nervous at what he could possibly be saying. You had been confessed to multiple times by both girls and guys, told that they had undying love for you and that you needed to “let them finish”.

Was Bakugo about to do the same, and fufill your dreams at the same time? You knew that you had strong feelings for him, constantly being unable to peel your eyes away from him while at the gym, and always clinging onto him whenever you would walk. You would blush when your friends would tease, and giggle nervously whenever Bakugo’s “friends” called you his girlfriend. It was no secret that almost the entire school shipped you itself, and that you two would be a perfect match. 

You were sweet, and he was salty. You were gorgeous, and he was handsome. You were the most heroic, and he was a villain but with morals. “I... I don’t know how to say this actually. I wrote this entire speech in my room at 2 am a few months ago, and I’ve been practicing for weeks...” He looked up at you, meeting eye contact with your gorgeous dark green eyes that he could get lost in if he wanted to, which he did most times. “God, please go easy on me. This isn’t-” Bakugo was interrupted by you cupping his face and kissing him suddenly.

As an instinct, he used his hand on your back to push you into him, and his other hand to hold the back of your head and intensify the kiss. He couldn’t describe how much he had wanted this, and you felt the same. Like a wave washing over you and releasing all the daydreams and urges, you felt at ease for once in months. “I feel the same way Katsuki.” You told him, using his full name because it felt right. “God, what are you doing to me?” Katsuki asked, feeling as if he was melting at your touch.

In an instant, he was single-handily able to push you into a classroom and lock the door behind him, pushing you up against the wall as he kissed you. “God, I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” He whispered, moving his lips to your neck and beginning to kiss it tenderly and hard. He couldn't count how many times he had stared at your neck and wanted to decorate it, to show that you were his. And now you were, finally after all this time. “M-me too.” You confessed, letting your hands roan his back freely.

You slipped off your shirt happily, him staring at you the entire time. “Oh god... ‘Chiko. I’m in love with you.” He confessed as you stood there, standing at him with open eyes. “I mean it... I promise, I wouldn't just say it to get what I want or make you like me more. I love you, and I have for awhile.” He leaned in to kiss you slowly and passionately. “I love you too Katsuki. I’ve always loved you, and I’ll never stop.” You smiled, grabbing your arms around his torso as you continued the slow and hot kiss.

In the rush and heat of the moment, mixed with the lust and sexual tension that filled the air, you began to strip yourself of your shirt as he stared at you, your pastel blue lacy bra and the tan lines from when you could go to the beach every afternoon when you weren’t playing video games. You really were Katsuki’s dream girl, and you had always been. Katsuki pressed himself against your bare skin before stripping off his own shirt, throwing it to the side without a care in the world. He was going to make you feel so good...

“Ichiko?! Where are you?!” You stared at Bakugo worryingly, recognizing Izuku’s voice immediately. You jumped from Bakugo's torso to your shirt, throwing it on and fixing the wrinkles. You grabbed the hair tie on the floor next to you and threw it into a messy bun. “Is my lip gloss okay?” You whispered, facing him as he looked at you up and down. Moving his thumb along the line of your lip to fix it, he smiled sadly before meeting your eyes. “Perfect as always.”

You smiled, a blush returning to your face as you recalled the actions that had just taken place. You moved and kissed his lips, holding him closely. “We can resume this tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives.” You smiled, kissing his nose and pecking his lips again before racing out. “Yea?! Izuku? I’m here!” You called out before seeing your twin come out of another classroom. “Oh good. You weren’t in the gym when I went to look and the team is passing out donuts.”

You smiled, nodded, and fixed the tie on your uniform before walking to the gym with him, looking back from time to time. The feeling of Bakugo’s hands remained on your body, sending sensational chills and an addictive feeling that was better than any drugs. You were in love with Katsuki Bakugo, and he felt the same! On the other side of the school, Katsuki was walking home angrily, before stopping by the gym. He watched you walk in, nearly tackled by your friends.

He also saw Izuku, friend-less and lonely, walking in after you with a sad smile. “Deku...” Bakugo murmured angrily, upset that even after years of trying to stop him, Izuku couldn't get the hint. Bakugo knew that he would not be able to be with the love of his life until Deku learned his place, and stayed far away from you. It was quite simple actually, and if Deku had a brain, surely he would realize that you were better off. You were athletic, brilliant, popular, out-going, and powerful beyond anyone could ever imagine. 

Deku was weak as humanly possible, a nerd without the brains, disliked and avoided by close to everyone in the school, shy and nervous, and of course, quirkless. No, useless. There were quirkless people who did something productive with their lives, but here Izuku was wasting away, begging for a quirk that was suitable for a hero to magically drop out of the sky and turn him into the next All Might. It was laughable honestly, that Izuku was trying to be a hero when he could have done something good with his pathetic life instead of dreaming.

It was about time that Bakugo stopped Deku from ruining his life, and began forcing the poor boy to see the truth of his life, and to learn his place in the back of the line. He didn’t deserve his sister’s love like Bakugo did, and he had to make sure that he got it. Deku would ruin everything if he could, and he had to be stopped. As Bakugo watched Deku sit on the bleachers and scroll through his phone, Bakugo smirked, an idea popping into his head as he pulled out his phone.

That night, Bakugo texted you for hours upon hours, sweet nothings and simple conversation like usual. Above everything else, you loved the fact that over years of friendly flirting and sexual tension, nothing changed once your love for each other was out there in the open. You still talked about heroes, how annoying your classmates were, and how excited you were about the UA exams coming up. You both planned to have you spend the night with Bakugo the night before, and that morning you would go on a 3 mile run and chug protein shakes.

The night before, he even promised to allow you to give him a face mask, but only if you would go night swimming with him. You happily agreed, and began fantasizing about your futures together. You both wanted a luxury condo with a salt water pool and a home gym, and a single cat and dog. You would travel a lot, and have a Summer home in Hawaii, the single place both of you guys just dreamed about. Little did you know that in the room over, your brother was feeling the opposite of happiness.

When you sat at the dinner table, you were on your phone texting Bakugo and couldn’t see him playing with his food. When you were brushing your teeth next to him, you were on a call with Bakugo and didn’t see his red, puffy eyes. And when you said goodnight, you were laughing about a joke Bakugo had said and didn’t realize he didn’t say it back, which was beyond abnormal. It wasn’t until morning, when you arrived at the table for breakfast and found Izuku gone, was when you realized that something was up. He had even forgotten his lunch??

You rode your skateboard to school like normal, meeting up with Bakugo for the first class of the day, which you didn’t have with Izuku. You and Bakugo sat down next to each other, playing footsies under the table as you did your math. He then walked you to your social studies when he went to the science classroom next to it. You guys switched classes after, him going to social studies and you going to science, doing the signature high-five you guys had created from childhood while swapping.

Finally it was fourth period, the first class of the day that you had with Izuku and Bakugo. It was Hero Studies, your favorite class. But first, you had to give Izuku his lunch. You walked down the hallway, seeing the green-haired boy from afar. “Izu! You forgot this at home!” You called out, still skipping happily wth the memories from yesterday fresh in your mind. This time, you finally noticed Izuku’s weird behavior when he didn’t turn around. “Thank you Ichiko, you can leave.” You looked over to see he was staring at his phone intensely.

When you saw the single tear drip from his cheek to the phone screen, you snatched it out of his hand and held it up, staring back at your brother who was now facing you. A single black eye, a light scrape on his right cheek, and bright red, puffy eyes looked back at you. “Oh my god, what the hell happened?” You asked as he closed his eyes, trying not to cry. You hugged him while bringing the phone screen in front of you, looking at his recents. It was Bakugo’s number which you knew by heart, followed by all of his “friends”.

Kill yourself.                                      You fucking ruin everything.                

                    Worthless Deku.                                         Die you fucker.

Waste of space.                               Take a dive off the roof.              

                     You’re pathetic.                                          Your own dad hates you.

Freak.                                              Nobody likes you.  

                     Your sister hates you.                                You deserve to die.

Don’t come to school tomorrow.      Meet us behind the school early.

You looked up at your brother, unable to believe your own eyes. “I-I was going to tell you, but you just seemed so happy with him. I didn’t... I didn’t want to ruin anything else!” Izuku began sobbing into your chest as you held him close. “Bakugo sent you these?” You asked your brother, unable to believe it even though it was right in front of your eyes. How could you have not seen it sooner? Bakugo wasn’t a jerk to Izuku because it was funny or friendly, but because Izuku was quirkless, he was terrible to him. 

You couldn't help but feel tricked, practically lied to that that point. The same boy who would tell you that he loved you, and had always loved you, would beat up your dear brother and tell him to kill himself. You couldn't help but feel tears overwhelming up as you ran down the hall and to the Hero Studies class, seeing Bakugo. “Hey cutie, what’s u-” As he went to do the handshake, you punched him right in the face, sending him to the floor as a crowd surrounded you. “What was that for?!” Bakugo yelled as you grabbed his water bottle.

“You!” You kicked him in his stomach, seeing the students surround you in a circle. “You kiss me and tell me you love me, but then you beat up my brother and tell him to kill himself!” You threw Bakugo’s backpack at him, hitting him in the face. “You’re pathetic! You go threw all the trouble of calling me your best friend and then you do shit like this! You’re pathetic and heart-breaking and I hate you! I hate you so much Katsuki!” You screamed, tears pooling down your face as he stared back at you, unable to believe your words.

“I hate you so much! And I’m never speaking to you again!” You screamed before running out of the classroom, and out of the school towards downtown.

[sleepyimpala]

distant

FANDOM: knives out. PAIRING: jacob thrombey x reader. GENRE: angst. WARNINGS: mentions of suicide. REQUESTED: yes. FROM MY OLD BLOG: phenomenally-thrombey. REQUESTS FOR KNIVES OUT ARE CLOSED.

For @taradenbrough12 who asked, I’m really fine with any idea. Can it be in Jacob’s house please?

A/N: So I’ve been procrastinating a LOT. I’m really sorry about that, but I hope you like it!!!

You were a distant family friend of the Thrombeys.

Your family, the L/Ns, were helping Jacob’s parents, Walt and Donna out with a case about the publishing company.

You’d asked your mom to bring you along because the last time you and Jacob were together you had the best time in the world.

However, ever since the two of you got older, you seemed to grow apart.

A few years ago you moved house and got other friends but now you were back, and you were overjoyed to be moving into your old house.

Little did you know that Jacob, unlike you, had changed very much.

Of course, Jacob’s cousin, Meg, had warned you of this, phoning you and saying she was happy you were back, but also that Jacob was now an alt-right troll and dipshit, sorry to disappoint yourself.

You highly doubted her, going to the Thrombey’s house in high spirits, the day before Harlan Thrombey’s birthday party, something which your family were invited to.

Today, however, he completely ignored you. All he did was scroll through his phone.

The only time he spoke to you was when he was forced to greet you by his parents.

Then he retreated to the fireplace.

Even when he hugged you forcefully it was different, as if he’s forgotten everything the two of you did together when you were kids.

He’d pushed you away from him so stiffly you were going to cry.

Apparently, his parents and your parents thought that nothing had changed.

Of course they didn’t, whenever your families were together they always spoke about some money related thing or something heartless like the government.

You were forced to get along. And you did. You were the best of friends.

But now, it was like you were invisible.

It was like losing contact with each other had created some sort of wall between the two of you - an iron wall which couldn’t be broken.

Your eyes dart to Jacob, near the fire place from your seat on the couch.

He didn’t even notice you, or bother to look up from his phone.

Your heart drops all the way down to your stomach in dismay.

You needed answers.

You missed him. The old him.

The Jacob that would read books with you and debate things and laugh when you fell down but always help you up but demand the two of you have matching sweaters each Christmas from Great Nana Thrombey.

The Jacob that cared for you and asked if you were ok when others didn’t and heard what you had to say.

The boy who knew all of your dark secrets and you knew all of his - yet he’d never tell a soul. Now, you weren’t so sure.

Where did that Jacob go?

You get up, not realising that you’d started crying, or that he was suddenly watching you, eyeing your every movement carefully, his eyebrows raised in - is that concern?

“Mom?” You say in a meek voice.

Your mother turns to look at you for a brief session as Walt and your dad talk about the publishing company.

“Yes, darling?” It was a brisk tone.

“Why is he so - why is he so different? Does he hate me? Did I do something wrong?”

“Why does who hate you, Y/N? Who’s so different? You didn’t do anything wrong,” she was distracted.

“Nothing. It’s OK,” you sigh softly and look down at the shiny polished floor.

You and Jacob were best friends… once.

You go and sit back down. Jacob hadn’t even glanced up from the device at all.

As you do, about to cry, shaking, your phone buzzes.

It was Meg.

MEG 🖤: u at the house yet?

Y/N: yeah. i didn’t think it was so -

MEG 🖤: ha! so bad? i TOLD you he was a dipshit, N/N.

Y/N: but i didn’t think it would be so bad! does he hate me?

MEG ���: nah, he’s just a dick. It probably comes with puberty. You’ll get over it.

Y/N: i don’t think so. i have to go. bye.

MEG 🖤: bye, good luck xo

You blink harshly and shut your phone off without bothering to close the app.

You look at him hopefully again. You wanted to scream at him.

Why would he leave you confused after do many years? You were happy to be back.

Really happy. But now you just wanted to go hime.

You totally regretted bothering to have any sort of idea or thought that he would even CARE about your absence and sudden return.

You get up, this time trembling, darting your eyes a third time to his posture.

He ignored you a third time.

That was it - that was all  it took for you to break.

You had no idea what you did to him that he would suddenly hate your guts - why couldn’t things be the same again?

“I’m - I’m going to the bathroom,” you announce in a shaky voice. “It’s down the hall, right?”

It wasn’t down the hall. You just needed to get out.

The adults didn’t even turn around.

You walk quickly, holding your head high, your whole body trembling as you clench your fists tightly, the nails digging into your palms thickly.

Deep enough to leave red marks.

Once you believe you’re out of earshot, you sob, choking back tears as a hand reaches to the door knob.

You just wanted to disappear.

That’s what you were afraid you were going to do, without him. Disappear.

Already, after you moved and lost contact, You entered a state of depression.

Sometimes it got so bad you wanted to hurt yourself but you didn’t.

Jacob, just his name, just the thought of him, kept you alive.

The feeling of his body and skin and the comforting sound of his voice kept you sane.

But now there was no reason to -

“Whatever you’re going to do, stop it.”

Your head whirls around. Angrily, you snap at him.

“Why should I listen to you? You’ve completely ignored me the entire day!”

Tears threaten at your eyes.

He blinks, flinching, his phone suddenly in his pocket.

He makes a swift move toward your clenched fist with his hand, you want to scream at him.

“FIRST YOU IGNORE ME AND NOW YOU WANT TO SAVE MY LIFE?! GET A GRIP, JACOB! WHY WOULD I - ”

“S - save - save your - ” he murmurs, his eyes suddenly a dangerous, dark firery black. “What?! Don’t you fucking DARE.”

“Cottoned on, have you?” You spit.

“Y/N, wait - ”

“ASSHOLE! You rejected me the entire day! You fucking asshole! You - you pushed me away when I tried to hug you - don’t deny it!”

He’s about to stutter something else out at you but you interrupt him quickly.

“You built a wall, Jacob! You put a fucking wall between us and suddenly you’re going to be protective and debate with me the stupid reasons why I shouldn’t kill myself? FUCK OFF!”

“Stop. Stop. You’re making this harder than it already is. Just - please - ”

He’s begging you now.

“I’M NOT LISTENING TO A SINGLE WORD THAT COMES OUT OF YOUR GOOD-FOR-NOTHING MOUTH BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN A TOTAL AND COMPLETE DICK TO ME, JACOB! YOU’VE BEEN A DICK! I MOVE BACK THINKING YOU’LL BE HAPPY BUT ALL YOU DO IS MAKE ME FEEL LIKE SHIT! YOU’RE A DICK! YOU’RE A DICK, JACOB THROMBEY! YOU’RE A FUCKING DICK!”

Now the tears fell. You don’t bother to hide them.

He stiffens. He reaches over but stops himself and you shake him off violently.

“I don’t know why you hate me,” you say quietly. “I don’t know what I did. I’m sorry if it was because I moved, I- it wasnt my choice! Do you think I wanted to move?! Did you REALLY think I WANTED to leave you?!”

“Don’t be retarded,” he hisses. You blink and roll your eyes.

“You can’t stop me from killing - ”

“Yes I can.”

“No you can’t! You can’t, Jacob! Nothing you say will change ANYTHING that I’m going to do right now! Nothing!”

“Yes it will.”

“No it WON’T! Shut up! Just shut UP! You ignored me earlier today so why can’t you ignore me now and let me go on my MERRY FUCKING WAY?!”

“I’ll tell you why,” he says dangerously, his hand grabbing my arm. “If you just listen to me for once in your fucking life.”

“LET GO OF ME, ASSHOLE!”

“You’re not going to do it,” he says calmly, his voice so commanding it made you want to retreat.

“Oh yeah? Give me your WORST.”

“I’ll give you my best,” he says smugly, cocking his head.

“I fucking HATE that STUPID smug smirk,” you hiss.

“You used to like it,” he comments, smirking again.

“JUST SHUT UP!”

“Here’s why you’re not going to kill yourself,” he used the same calm tone which pissed you off to no end.

You spit at him and he flinches.

“I’m really not going to listen to you. I don’t see why I should - ”

“You should,” he starts confidently. “Because I’m about to do this,”

His lips collide with yours. A muffled angry gasp comes put of your mouth but all he does is give another cocky smirk.

Your eyes widen with hatred and loathing. That was one thing you didn’t see coming.

The kiss.

“I hate you,” you mutter. “I really fucking HATE you.”

He doesn’t give you time to breathe, sealing your lips with his once more.

This time it’s more passionate and less rushed. His arms are around your neck, he’s got you pressed tightly into the wall.

You can’t help but tangle your hands in his hair. He smirks again.

Finally he pulls apart.

“So?” He cocks his head. “Was I worth listening to in the end?”

“It still doesn’t explain why you were a dick,” you snap. He groans loudly. “But yeah, I guess.” You add.

“Look, I’m sorry about that, OK? I didn’t mean to. And I did pay attention to you. I was watching you. I saw it coming,”

“You’re a fucking creep, Jacob,” you mutter. “A Nazi and a fucking creep,”

“Maybe,”

“But you’re my creep,”

“That’s true. And you’re mine, and I promise I won’t hurt you any more,”

“Shut up, I know you’re not good at sentimental stuff.”

“You’re right.”

MASTERLIST (requests for jacob/knives out are closed)

[ibelieveinharrystyles]

Chapter Seven: We’re Not Who We Used To Be

Harry’s heart had been shattered since his phone call with Ashley, his head was all over the place, the one positive thing he had in his life and he had lost it. After another month of moping about in Europe he found his way back to England, visiting Bath in an attempt to regain some sense of normality. He was now back in London and it had never felt less like home, as he stepped into his house it didn’t feel at all like home. The memories of eating ice cream at 2am on his sofa with Ashley when she had her first heartbreak, the late night two person dance parties in the kitchen when they were barely adults, the time he showed her how he truly felt. It felt as though all these memories had faded from existence. He moped into the kitchen, spotting a pink piece of paper on the spotless kitchen counter, he picked it up, seeing a picture that could only have been drawn by Daisy, it was the three of them. When lockdown slowly started easing, Harry had asked Ashley to pop over to his house every so often to check it was okay, he assumed she must have left it then.

“Everything seems to be going the way I’d like it to.” Ashley’s health visitor assured her as she helped Ashley sit up properly. Since Ashley was now seven months pregnant she was becoming fearful that the baby would come early like Daisy did, she had organised several home visits from the midwifery team.

“So the baby’s not too small?” Ashley asked.

“Definitely not, the baby is nearly the same size Daisy was when she was born, so fingers crossed you’ll get the natural birth you hoped for last time.”

“That’s perfect thank you Dianne,” Ashley smiled as the doorbell rang, “Could you just pop your head round the curtain and see who that is?” Ashley asked.

“It’s a man, with lots of tattoos on his arm, holding a massive bunch of flowers.” Dianne told her, “Do you want me to let him in?”

“No thanks, he doesn’t know about the baby.” Ashley told her, she knew full well it was probably Harry, and she had no desire to see him.

Harry stood awkwardly on the step of Ashley’s house, holding the biggest bouquet of flowers he could find. The door was opened by an older lady, wearing a nurse’s uniform, “Where’s Ashley? Is she okay?” Harry whispered, all sorts of things running through his head.

“She’s fine, she just doesn’t want any visitors.” Dianne told him.

“But I need to make it up to her, I need to apologise.” Harry insisted.

“Sir, I’m afraid if you continue to be persistent I will have to call the police.” Dianne told him forcefully.

“Is everything okay?” Lou asked,walking up the road towards Ashlet’s house, she had been looking after Daisy while Dianne visited Ashley. Daisy stood beside her, holding her hand.

“Harry!” Daisy slipped her hand from Lou’s, running into his arms, “I missed you Harry, I’m a proper big girl now!” She exclaimed.

“I missed you too princess, it’s so good to see you,” Harry held her tight as a single tear rolled down his face.

“I don’t think this is a good idea Harry, if Ash sees-”

“I don’t see what the problem is Lou,” Harry replied.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to let Daisy come inside and then I need you to leave.” Dianne insisted.

“What is going on? I have no clue who you are so why should I trust you with Daisy?” Harry replied.

Ashley was watching the commotion unfold from behind the curtain, she couldn’t watch it go on much longer, and she didn’t want the neighbours involving themselves. “Harry.” She said softly, appearing at the front door, he looked up at her, noticing the bump, and the look on her face.

“You’re pregnant?” His voice wobbled.

“Yeah I am, can we have this conversation inside? Lou, would Daisy be able to go back to yours for a bit?”

“Of course.” Lou smiled, taking Daisy from Harry’s arms.

The pair made their way into the living room, both aware of how difficult this conversation would be, “Why didn’t you tell me Ash?” Harry asked, placing the flowers on the side.

“I never really knew how to, you weren’t here, and part of me wanted to be sure that when you came back it would be for me, not for the baby.” Ashley told him.

“Did you not think I deserved to know?” Harry asked.

“Do you not think I deserved to have you by my side as I gave evidence against Will for beating me up after he found out about me and you?” Ashley replied bluntly.

“I know I messed up.”

“You can say that again.” Ashley remarked.

“You’re the most important thing in my life Ash, I need you more than anyone else.”

“It’s too late for that.” Ashley told him.

“But what about us? What about the baby?” Harry asked, “We’re good together Ash, you know that.”

“Are we though? We were together for two months, we barely spent any time together before I got pregnant, Daisy starts school in September, I can’t leave London just to follow you around the world.”

“I’m not asking you to do that Ash, I’m asking you for another chance.” Harry replied.

“We can’t be those people Harry,” Ashley told him, “You’ll still see the baby, you’ll still be their dad, I just can’t do this to myself, I can’t let myself love you more than I already do, only to be let down again. Whenever you’re in America all it does is drive a wedge between us.”

“What did you want me to do? Drop everything and come back?” Harry said.

“Yes Harry, because that is what being in a relationship comes down to. Sacrifice.” Ashley cried, “I think you need to leave now.”

“Before I go, who else knows about the baby?” Harry asked.

“Lou, Lottie, Niall and Louis.” Ashley whispered, knowing how much it would hurt him.

“So our mums don’t know?” Harry asked.

“No. Because I knew what would happen if they did.”

“I want you to know, you never have to worry about a custody battle, I don’t want to take a baby away from their mum.” Harry assured her.

“Goodbye Harry.”

“Goodbye Ash.” As Harry left Ashley’s house he felt as though he could crumble right there on the pavement outside her house, he loved Ashley in ways he had never loved anyone else and he didn’t want a life without her.

Harry had a habit of turning up at Gemma’s house unannounced when he was upset, there he stood on her doorstep as she opened the door to her brother with tear stained cheeks. “Come here H,” She wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his back as he sobbed into her shoulder.

“I’ve ruined everything Gem.” he cried.

“It can’t be that bad H,” she assured him.

“Ash is pregnant, and she doesn’t want me back, she doesn’t want to let herself get hurt again.” He told her.

“Oh Harry, come on, let's get you a drink so you can explain properly.” She led him into the kitchen, taking a glass and pouring him some of Michael’s whiskey. “I’m lost, so Ash is pregnant?”

“When did you last see her?” Harry asked.

“It must have been the Brits, we had planned to have a picnic for Daisy’s birthday but she said she was unwell, so I guess that was because of the baby.” Gemma told him.

“She said she didn’t tell me because she wanted me to come back because of her, not because of the baby. I get that, I do, I think I just assumed she would always be there, and that I’d never lose her, but I was so wrong wasn’t I?” Harry sighed, downing his glass of whiskey in one go before pouring another one.

“Harry you are Ash’s world, her heart beats for you, I don’t see this break, or whatever it is lasting, there’s no way you two could co-parent a child without ending up together again.” Gemma assured him.

“I know I should’ve come back Gem, and I wish I did, but I was scared that one day I’d break her heart, but it looks like I’ve already done the one thing I was scared of.” Harry sighed, fiddling with the rim of his glass.

“It’ll get better H, I promise.”

“Can I stay here tonight Gem? Home doesn’t really feel like home at the moment.”

“Of course you can H.”

The cool breeze of the summer evening came through the open window as Ashley sat on the living room floor, looking through old pictures of her and Harry. After putting Daisy to bed she put on one of Harry’s hoodies he had left before lockdown as the faint sound of When We Were Young by Adele came from her record player. She sifted through the pictures, remembering how much easier life was back then,pictures from the band’s first and last arena tours, pictures of Harry and Daisy when she was a little baby, her favourite picture of them both, which did nothing but shatter her heart. Those days when all she was to the world was their favourite candidate for Harry’s secret girlfriend, during the days of the band she was pictured with him constantly, she was blamed for his break up with Taylor and the failure of his on and off relationship with Kendall. That man meant everything to her, which made the pain even more unbearable, she didn’t want to let him go, but it was what she needed, and she knew that. A harsh knock on the door bought her out of her feels, she made her way to the hallway, opening the door to see Gemma, “Can I come in? Before you ask, Harry doesn’t know I’m here.” She told her.

“Sure,” Ashley smiled, leading her into the kitchen, not wanting Gemma to see the piles of old pictures on the floor in the living room.

“How have you been?” Gemma asked, noticing how red and puffy Ashley’s cheeks were.

“I’ll get there Gem, I’m just not in a place to raise two children while worrying about my relationship with Harry, I know he’s there for me emotionally, but with a four year old and another baby on the way, I need him there physically too.”

“I get that, and I know he’s going to be in and out of the country a lot, it’s his job, but he’ll never deprive you of time with your child. When he goes away the rest of us will all be here to support you.” Gemma told her.

Several days had passed and Linda had travelled down from Holmes Chapel to be with her daughter, she let herself into the house using her spare key. As she entered the living room she saw Ashley curled up on the sofa, cradling her baby bump. “Where’s Daisy?” Linda whispered, knowing Ashley wouldn’t want her to see her in this state.

“She stayed the night at Lou’s.” Ashley sniffed.

“And how are you sweetheart?” Linda asked, sitting beside her and allowing Ashley to rest her head in her lap.

“I didn’t know how much I needed Harry until I let him go.” Ashley whispered.

“I know angel, but it’s going to be alright in the end.”

[byakuyasdarling]

I mean — I would like to have some AU ideas to put the epic ship in (/j, we are not very epic, but I would like ideas); I think it would really help me feel better about him fully :)

Okay, technically they do have one AU too, but I do not think I can talk about it here in detail.

—————

I’ll talk about it vaguely, but actually stating direct facts about it would require trigger warnings.

It was created for a folio (YEAH, I had the balls to put self ship art into my folio, got a 24/25; you can’t argue with that) but it was a critique on the monarchy and how they treated lower classes and how society treated woman. That throne piece is so off-beat because it was all symbolic and stuff.

Byakuya

So naturally, Byakuya would be the royal (as he is an exact match to the prince stereotype in looks and general attitude: arrogant). They act a bit different because their backstories obviously are shifted. Byakuya is an actual royal but becomes next heir in a very similar means to how he does in canon, except it’s more — gory. He has all his main traits and becomes attached to S/I for almost the exact same reasons in their canon universe (relating over family drama to cut it short, but that’s a big oversimplification), but is wayyy more extreme about it.

Canonically, he is next in line to be head male, in this AU he is just a young king pushed into the role as he’s the only surviving heir (and he made sure that he rose to power early), so naturally it went way more to his head than it already does. His power trips are amplified.

S/I

Onto S/I, her backstory is also similar to that of their canon universe but her family situation goes beyond being extremely pressured into success (which twisted her worldview and self-image). I can’t go into it — so I’ll just leave it up for interpretation unless asked. Normally, her family are well-intentioned people unintentionally parenting in the wrong ways, in this AU they’re straight up awful. S/I is part of a noble family close to the royals.

Their relationship

I like to think they met at a fancy ball (because I’m a sucker for that). It takes quite a lot of meetings though (and for Byakuya to directly see how her family treats her) to take some interest in her.

I like to think that before Byakuya was even next-in-line for heir, he used to try and hide her in the royal library because she seemed to get sad when her family came (they were 10, and Byakuya wasn’t that calloused yet). They liked to read to each other while their families kicked them out of the room because they were to young to hear the ‘important adult business’. To be honest Byakuya got more curious, but let it go because he’s a 10-year-old LMAO. It’s dumb, but I like the idea of little him trying to hide little her because she was so scared of her family, and he was scared of his too back then as well. He knew how it felt to felt to be so afraid too; he didn’t want her to feel all that (because again, he’s 10 and not really corrupted by his family ideals yet in this AU; he still has tangible empathy).

Their relationship builds very similar to how it does in their canon universe. They start to really grow a bond and connect with each other over the balls they socialise in. Eventually, when he was crowned king, S/I entrusts him with a secret regarding her and her family with the promise he wouldn’t act on it. But he so acted on it out of rage.

Anyway, he took S/I in (I mean, no one can stop him) and eliminated her family as an issue. She doesn’t need to worry about them anymore, she has him after all. What else could she need? (Yeah, I think — I think you can see where this is a bit messed up).

Some key points about them

Byakuya is extremely overprotective of her (somehow way more so than in their canon universe) because of the vaguely mentioned stuff prior, and it’s not meant to be portrayed as cutesy, it’s straight-up unhealthy.

Her view of him is very sugar-coated (unlike the canon AU where she is very aware of how bad he can be and tries to facilitate him being better). She only sees all the good he does for her; he’s been good to her ever since they were kids.

His intention is to create a good life for her, but he does it through the exploitation of his power and rather extreme measures.

Conclusion

I can’t really decide to make this AU official for them. It’s really hard to talk about while being safe for everyone to read and it’s dark. It wasn’t created to be a proper AU for them, but there’s quite a few artworks that actually make up this AU. They’re not very healthy in this either — so I’m debating even talking about it.

I do like the childhood part where they read to each other in the library before their innocence was broken forcefully by their families.

Anyway, send AU ideas if you like :) and only if you want to!! You don’t have to!! I will be happy to expand on anything you come up with. You’re all so amazing ^//v//^

[hopeswriting]

FANDOM: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

EVENT: Flufftober 2020 

PROMPT: Breakfast in Bed

AUTHOR: @hopeswriting​

RATING: G

PAIRING: Adult!Verde & Adult!Fon

SUMMARY:

Verde is sick and Fon brings him his breakfast in bed to be nice.

WORDS: 915 (BONUS: 1502)

*

Fon releases a burst of Storm flames through Verde’s room, then two more before he takes a step in. He’s not fool enough to think he disabled every devices set up by Verde though, but it’ll have to do.

He puts the tray on the bedside table, and turns on the lamp.

Verde is hidden under the blanket, doesn’t move, breathes evenly as if sleeping. Fon kicks the bed.

“Don’t make me knock you out to actually get you to sleep. Hand them over.”

Verde plays dead. Fon flares his flames and he bursts out of the blanket, his skin pale, his stubble unkempt, with dark bags under his eyes, and his hair in a total disarray.

He throws his phone at him.

“The others too.”

Verde rummages under the blanket and throws a couple of more phones, gives up two laptops from under the pillows, and a third one from a secret place in the headboard.

“Your watch too.”

Verde glares at him throughout the whole process of throwing his watch at him, aiming for it to go straight through his skull if the force—and the flames—he used is anything to go by.

Fon rolls his eyes.

He fries the devices one by one with his flames, and slips in the bed. He releases one last burst of Storm flames through the mattress and the bed frame to disable the last of hidden devices.

“Be glad I'm leaving you your glasses. And speaking of them, you didn’t even take them off. How much of an idiot do you think I am?”

“A lifetime wouldn’t be enough for me to answer you.”

Fon plays deaf out of the sheer generosity of his heart. He picks up the tray, and holds it still on his lap the time for Verde to settle against the headboard too.

“How do you feel today?”

“Perfectly fine. And I have things to do, so I would like it if you could release me already.”

“You’re sick. Science told us that, or are you going to deny it? Here, try some bread.”

Verde slaps the slice of bread from his hands. “And whose fault is that? Who’s the idiot who infected me?”

“Yes, because you live such a healthy life Verde. I can’t possibly imagine how else you could have gotten sick.”

“I’m the smartest man in the world.” Fon slumps against the headboard and starts munching on the bread. “I could single-handedly bring society into a new age, a society you’re part of, but here I am.”

“Single-handedly? That’s quite rude to all your fellows competent scientists.”

“You’re right, actually. They might even contribute more than me, as I’m certain they’re not being forcefully bed-ridden as we’re talking.”

“Are you going to just keep talking?” Fon holds a spoonful to his mouth. “Here, try some soup then. I don’t want you to go on a coughing fit on me again.”

Verde drinks his soup obediently, and oh, he does plan to keep talking then? God forbid.

“Where’s Reborn when you need him?”

“On a job.”

“Where’s Luce? She can’t possibly agree with this.”

Fon scoffs. “Luce can’t save you now. She said she won’t take a step in the mansion again before we’re all proven to be in perfect health.”

Verde grumbles, and mumbles, and mutters, kicking his feet—kicking Fon’s feet, and on purpose, Fon is sure.

He slumps against him, rests his head on his shoulder, so obviously sick Fon can’t believe they managed to debate on the fact so many times already.

“You’re all incompetent.”

“For the record, Viper proposed to attach you to the bed until you’re healed, and I’m the only one who stood against that. So you might want to show some gratefulness sometimes soon.”

“You’re all incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space.”

“You want some yogurt?”

“You’re all so incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space, and—”

Fon shoves the spoonful of yogurt into his mouth. Verde spits it out right back on the tray.

Fon musters all the patience he can.

Was it him that also stood against Lal when she proposed to daze him in Rain flames? What an unwise man he was then.

“This is disgusting Verde.”

“That was incredibly rude. I was talking.”

Fon smiles, with teeth. “I’m listening.”

“Well, as I was saying, you’re all so incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space, and I hate you all.” He pushes his glasses back up his nose, smirking smugly. “That’s all.”

Fon crushes the spoon in his fist, stabs it in the tray. He grabs his chin.

“You listen to me well. You will play nice with me from now on, or I will stop playing nice with you and make this whole recovery so much worse than you could imagine. You’ll never be afraid of anything more than falling sick ever again, because every time you’ll catch the symptoms I’ll come haunt you in your dreams like the most frightening omen of death.” He leans his forehead against his, and brushes their noses together tenderly. “Rightfully so. Did we understand each other?”

Verde blinks slowly, a sharp focus shining in his green eyes. “Interesting. I feel unreasonably turned on right now.”

Fon raises his eyebrow. “What’s so unreasonable about that?” He headbutts him lightly, and settles against the headboard again so Verde can rest his head back on his shoulder. “Now be reasonable and finish your soup sagely.”

*

BONUS:

I headcanon Fon as a sweetheart at heart who can and will go feral if needed, but let’s go with just Feral!Fon instead.

That’s just who he is at his core, his default state, just completely feral, Take No Shit and Give No Fuck, very indulgent to his every desire, 24/7.

Now of course he learned all about being mannered, and harmless/trustworthy looking, and sweet, and restrained because it is needed for the job sometimes, and he can play the part flawlessly, but even then sometimes he just can’t bother.

Just… No, You Live In A Society And I Intend To Break Every Last One Of Its Rules!Fon, you know?

Fon being an actual Storm à la Gokudera, but so much worse (or so much better I guess, depending on how you see it asdfgh).

And so when he meets with the other Arcobaleno, he kind of just sets the tone for all their future interactions.

------

He meets with the Arcobaleno at the meeting of the Chosen Seven, and his vibes instantly rub Reborn’s, Verde’s, Lal’s and Luce’s the wrong way.

On the other hand Skull and Viper decide to love him, and it’s the birth of such a chaotic trio, Reborn can only be jealous and admiring.

(And he can’t help but side with them whenever it’s time to face consequences, because he just can’t let such a harbinger of chaos being censored.)

------

Reborn takes one look at Fon and immediately feels so deeply offended and challenged. “I can see you’re a little shit who likes to be a pain in the ass with the people you care about, but this is my role and there can be only one of us.”

Fon takes one look at Reborn and goes “We could have been such a wonderful team, but I can see you like to be the only one in control and I don’t like being told what to do, so you will have to go down.”

It’s not even an hour in the mansion on their first day, and Fon tries to rip Reborn’s smirk off of his face, and pluck his smug black eyes, and cut off his sliver tongued all with his bare hands, because “No, sorry, I’m Take No Shit Give No Fuck!Fon, so you’ll just have to be your insufferable self with someone else.”

It’s their first fight of many more to come.

------

Luce has none of their bullshit. She is pregnant, and she can’t believe she even needs to point it out because “Hello, can’t you see this big belly of mine? You will behave or god help you.”

She straight up uses her flames on them to daze them whenever they’re about to lash out on each other too much.

Not in a way where she’s forcing her flames on them or crossing boundaries of course, but just enough they don’t want to risk losing their own limbs if they were to power through her flames.

And when she really can give no fuck either, she just straight up… fakes some kind of help-my-pregnancy-is-going-wrong induced attack.

She just collapses on the ground, wailing, her arms tight around her belly, fake tears rolling on her face, begging like she’s being murdered in the worst of way.

The others are losing their mind other this because “What if one day it’s for real??? And what if we’re too late because we wasted time thinking it wasn’t?????? You can’t keep doing this, we’re begging you to stop.”

And Luce looks them straight in the eye and goes “Well maybe it’s time for you to act like adults who are actually adulting like they should.”

And then they all laugh because “What kind of unrealistic demand is that? Woah, you’re so hilarious Luce, who knew.”

(They just start doing it behind Luce’s back like little kids being naughty and not wanting their parents to catch them.)

------

Skull takes absolutely none of their shits either and it puzzles them all because “Uhmm, excuse you? You’re a civilian?? And we’re literally the Strongest people in the world???”

And he’s like “What, like it’s hard???”

(And it really doesn’t look like it’s hard for him, and it makes them lose their mind like nothing else ever did.)

Now Skull isn’t BAMF in this, and didn’t learn to use his flames in any significant way before meeting them, but he simply has the highest amount of flames and can go on for the longest time.

(And he’s actually very high on the list of the ones whose flames have the most raw power.)

Skull just retreats in what he calls his Cocoon whenever they want to try anything.

He surrounds himself with thick, dense (and powerful) amount of Cloud flames—the others swear they could actually cut like butter—, and chills in the middle of it until they tire themselves trying to push through.

(And then when they grow out of their urge to bully/take advantage of their “weakest” link, and they actual have a healthy relationship with him, he uses his Cocoon to avoid any consequences whenever he messes with them.)

Fon loves trying to break through his Cocoon. Fon is the best at trying to break through his Cocoon. Fon gets worryingly better and better at trying to break through his Cocoon.

Skull asks for proper flames trying from Viper and Lal because hell no, he doesn’t want to find out what will happen once Fon actually breaks through.

------

Verde never regretted his intelligence more than now he has to be around these people because of it.

And it’s actually saying all that needs to be said because he actually never regretted his intelligence even once in his life before.

He takes it upon himself to be the bigger person, and just ignores them and lets them to their devices. He fully expects the favor to be returned.

The favor is not returned.

Mostly because the others always want him to help them with their new childish plan of the day, or playing referee, or tacking side.

But also they’d be simply heartbroken to have to play favorites, and so they simply have to mess with him too.

And even then Verde takes it and bears with it because he’s the Smartest Man in the World, and he has other things of utmost importance to do, thank you very much.

But he’s just a man at the end of the day, and always snap at them eventually.

It’s always the most interesting weeks to live in the mansion when he does.

------

Lal just wants some predictability in this godforsaken house. She wants to have landmarks, a routine to fall back to.

Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Is it going to stop her? It will not.

If the others aren’t willing to cooperate with her, she simply will make them do it anyway. This is a treat.

She falls in a master-and-their-pet type of relationship with them, and the others find it funny because “What, you want to train us? Good luck with that.”

It’s a lot less funny when they go “Hold on, this isn’t right, is it actually working???”

Lal finds it cute they bothered doubting her skills to begin with. One of her jobs is literally to teach people to look death in the eye and tell it to fuck off, but they thought they??? were??? going to be a challenge????

She thinks the fuck not.<3

Her team ups with Luce or Verde (or both) are feared by the others.

------

Viper is there for the sheer chaos of it all. It would be Reborn’s role but he’s too busy competing with Fon, so it’s Viper’s instead.

They’re in it for the blackmail and information gathering too. Nothing like people lashing out when you want them to be their most open selves.<3

But they’re not neutral at all, on the contrary. They’re the wild card.

Some days they want the brand of chaos that will specifically piss off Reborn, so they team up with Fon and Skull.

Some days they want the brand of chaos that will piss off everyone else but them, so they team up with Reborn.

Some days they want a brand of chaos that is organized, so they team up with Lal and Luce.

Some days they don’t want to deal with any kind of chaos at all, so they team up with Verde.

The others treat them cautiously in this regard, and they love it. They love it even more when they dig a knife in their back and abruptly switch sides lol.

They absolutely do favorites too. (Fon/Skull and, surprisingly, Verde.)

------

And you know, I’m a big Polyamory!Arcobaleno shipper but I strongly feel in this one they’re just strongly and intimately platonic.

Just, you know, Arcobaleno as Family. The Arcobaleno bonding together by giving each other the childhood they never had.

And maybe they don’t deserve it, but I love them so much so they need to have this anyway.<3

*

This verse was a lot of fun to flesh out a bit! If it spoke to you too, maybe we can talk together about this? I’d love to!

Thank you for reading! Any and all review are appreciated ^^.

[midnight1990]

Good Raven Chapter 1. Cofio — Remembering

July, 1995

As I unpack my trunk in the dusty, dingy room above the shop where my uncle, two brothers and two sisters live, I feel the slight dread of not knowing where my future will lead.  I’m of age now and done with school, so finding work and avoiding trouble should be my first worries, but it ain’t just me I have to worry about. I can’t let the babanod grow up here for much longer — it’s eaten them and me for three years already.

We live in Knockturn Alley, the street off of lovely Diagon Alley where all of the things your decent witches and wizards won’t meddle in are sold; bought; traded or just plain found. In my uncle’s shop is sold potion ingredients, and because this is Knockturn Alley, they’re not normal ingredients — poisons; live creatures; contraband that he (Uncle) said if I ever told someone about he’d hex me for 7 years straight. He also threatened to feed me on only cold gruel if I sold anything cheap, ‘cause once I was all moved in those three years ago he was leaving me at the counter to haggle and sell while he went off to the Cauldron for drinks, or Borgin’s to try and buy even more nasty supplies to bring back to his own business.

I should be honest when I talk about the things we sell — they’re rather compelling. It’s a bit exciting to know that the fungi you’re holding (with a handkerchief that’s been charmed to keep the nerves in your hand from suddenly burning and losing all function) are one: that bloody dangerous and two: can put you on the ministry’s list of “Most Dark and Dangerous in Illicit Magical Trade”. Some of the things that the Ministry comes up with!

As interesting as my uncle’s business can be, me and the kids need our own place to live. It’s just too, well, dark in this alley. Ninety nine percent of the people who come through this place are just trying to get their business done; do their shopping — however ill-intentioned it may be — and go home, but that one percent that’s not so good is too noticeable for any decent body to want to raise four little ones here. I’ve been followed by a hag who wanted my fingernails (taken from a living witch or wizard, they’re more useful); groped by warlocks both drunken and sober; sang at by more drunken warlocks (some ditty with lyrics like “I once had a lass with a nice round ass” and it got even nastier) and I’ve even seen duels that ended up in the Prophet! One time, a curse missed its intended target and hit an old wizard who was just trying to get home with the flesh-eating slug repellent he’d bought! The poor old grandpa! I hope he lived.

I go into the smaller room across the hall where the boys sleep and of course Llon’s trunk is sitting wide open on the bed he and Afon, who’s only three, share. I see his rumpled up belongings and I know he scrambled to find his wand as soon as he got up here; I hid it in his trunk as soon we boarded the train to come back for his first summer holiday (and the rest of my life) so he wouldn’t try any last minute jinxes. Sometimes I’m amazed at how easily he obeys me, then again his most vivid experience with a female relative other than me is of Mam throwing him outside at night — all night — so she could drink and have a shag with that big warlock she came home with. He was nine, I was 15 and we were all lucky that it was spring holiday so’s I was home.  I don’t know how they found out, but when the ministry officials who deal with family problems came a’visiting two days later, I was able to convince them to let the kids remain at Mam’s house so long as I was allowed to be there, courtesy of the school and a satisfied ministry witch. I had to write and beg Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore himself to let me skip a few weeks. I remember feeling quite touched when the first two came to visit, a ministry witch in tow. I don’t think Dumbledore even considers his students well-being outside of Hogwarts.

Professor Snape was my head of house — good ol’ Slytherins looking out for each other — and I distinctly recall the feeling I had when I greeted him and McGonagall at the door that he’d been waiting for something like this to occur. You get that feeling when he looks at you sometimes - that he knows things about you.

I had expected McGonagall to be much less kinder than she actually was — more grave and pitying. She was certainly that way with Mam, “Eira, what have you gotten yourself and your family into?!”

Snape mostly sat all stiff in the chair I’d offered, his spidery black eyes glancing everywhere they could, taking in my raggedy siblings, Mam’s wan expression and the Welsh words doodled haphazardly on our cottage’s stone walls. Words like cariad — love — which had a bright pink heart drawn beside it and calon which had an arrow pointing from it to the rosy heart.

Witch, Welsh and Slytherin. That’s me. Even my name is Welsh, though my dad is English (obviously, my surname is Burke after all): Branda — brân dda — raven good; Good Raven. I have a middle name that isn’t Welsh at all, though; Patreva. Something Latin like what so many of our kind in Britain have — names like Draco, Severus or my Tad’s name, “Nicander” which may actually be Greek. It’s fancy and magical sounding. I’m the only one of my parent’s brood with any name like that — something about a Naming Seer who suggested it for me, but they never went back for their other four kids’s names. The younger ones have a Welsh name and that’s it. I like Welsh names quite a lot, though. Some of the names wizarding parents give their children are too — well — ostentatious is a good word.

Anyway, McGonagall, Snape and the quiet little ministry witch with the clipboard came to a decision: I could stay at home with Mam and the kids while the school year continued as long as one: Mam wasn’t bringing her “gentlemen friends” home anymore and two: I would take remedial lessons in all core classes the following school year.

“Of course, you will receive some lessons by post this spring and over the summer, miss Burke.” McGonagall can be so caring, sometimes.

“Your head of house has stated that you are among the more reliable students at Hogwarts, miss Burke.”

The little ministry witch hadn’t spoken at all to me, only to Mam and to my professors, but now she was gazing at me with what I believe was meant to be a placating — if somewhat sharp — look.

“He says you are quite skilled in his potions class as well as in mentoring the younger students.”

The look on Professor Snape’s face suggested this was meant to be unspoken. I’ve never had problems with Snape; he’s certainly a terror to many (okay, most) students, but he’s only ever had clipped praises or short orders for me to teach the first years how to behave without their parents around to guide them and comfort them and all that. A lot of the prefects were shite at that kind of thing.

Life at Mam’s with the kids was alright for awhile — could’ve probably gone quite tolerably if she hadn’t gone off to the Leakey Cauldron and met some bloke who took her to his flat in wherever-the-hell-it-was. Whatever they did in those six days she was gone, it was bad enough that he went to Azkaban, but not interesting enough for the Daily Prophet to report on. Mam got off, but us kids had to go live with the only relative who was willing to take us — Tad’s second-or-something cousin whom he’d done business with before Mam kicked him out: Mr. Donius Burke, purveyor of dark and illicit potion ingredients since 1974.

Fuck.

***

“Oi, girl! Come down here now! I need you for something!”

Calm down old man, I haven’t finished folding my jumpers yet. I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s already got a task for me, even though I’ve only been off the train for two hours. Sunset’s nearly come, and I don’t want to be outside in Knockturn Alley after dark, which ought to spur me faster down the stairs to see what he wants. Making him wait can feel too good though - not that he’s not willing to stomp his way up here which, as I put my last woolen top away, I can hear him doing. Thump, creak; thump creak; the ancient wooden steps groaning loudly as always. Has he still not fallen through them?!

“Are you going deaf?!”

I turn my head to look at him there, his reedy frame silhouetted from the dim light of the hallway. He hasn’t changed in the ten months since I’ve last seen him, and he hasn’t since we arrived here three years ago; grey hair slicked back, his aging face freakishly smooth without a hint of stubble (does he shave, or did he magic the hairs off?).

Before I can say anything he’s stepped into the room to stand over me.

“Get down there, now!”

He points his finger so forcefully that it’s curving up towards the ceiling, and I have to keep myself from glancing up to see if it’ll confuse him. He follows me out of the bedroom and down to the back of the shop, where Llon and the other two kids are on the floor playing with Mouser, the cranky black cat we keep to eat any mice or cockroaches in the the building.

Gwenyn is nine and has long blonde hair like Mam, round hazel eyes and a pink mischievous face. Next to her is five year-old Ffionwyn, who’s brown hair will turn nearly black like Tad’s and mine someday. For now, her head’s as shiny as a chestnut, with a pale face and a shifty quietness about her - probably because she’s been growing up in this dark hole of a place.

“Here”. A small roll of parchment is pressed into my hand.

“Take this to Aunt Onyxia, she’s been expecting it all day.”

He nods his head towards the children - “You can bring back the other one, as well.”

Of course, he’s talking about Afon, the youngest of the family. Three, dark haired and quiet like Ffionwyn, he had to come here when he was just four months old! Unwilling to keep a baby where his customers could hear him crying, Uncle struck a deal with the ministry officials who’d arranged for his guardianship — he would have to remain the legal guardian of Afon, but would be allowed to shunt him off to another adult so long as they were nearby and had no criminal record — a relative preferred. Enter Aunt Onyxia, Uncle Donius’s first cousin.

Onyxia Burke runs a “gift” shop right at the end of Knockturn Alley where she sells candles, cheap jewelry and clothing items, all of which are enchanted for various purposes; making someone fall in love with you; manipulating another’s dreams; even changing their moods or emotions. I hope she’s been keeping Afon away from her shit.

As I step through the door of my uncle’s shop into the balmy night air, I glance up at the old wooden sign hanging above the door: “Apothecary” it reads, surrounded by engraved bats, spiders and toads. I force a heavy breath through my nose as memories come creeping up again, for we used to sell those things — well, Mam ‘n Tad did - before everything went to Hell.

Mam ‘n Tad were gatherers and procurers of potion ingredients. Magical plants and animals, of course, some of which you must have a special permit to collect, but also things that are not so magical — bats, rats and adders; green things that grow in your back garden like nettles and dandelions; even farm animals like chickens and goats, the latter of which produce bezoars —hard stones that form in their gut and which counteract poisons.

Things that could not be grown or raised near our home (a dragon in the barn might’ve been a bit troublesome) we would search for. This was the best part of my family’s livelihood. Tad would research where things could be found, and we would gather our equipment and head off to some chosen spot ready to work.

He taught me to do many things without magic, which I never knew was unusual for our kind —until I went to Hogwarts. Nobody else knew how to butcher a chicken or start a fire without a wand (except maybe a few muggleborns, but even most of them didn’t know how, either)! My classmates didn’t seem to know what to make of me until the incident with Hagrid’s giant chicken.

One of Hagrid’s roosters had grown to a rather impressive size, comparable to that of a Shetland pony (he had to have charmed it somehow). Well, one day it managed to escape the coop and terrorize the courtyard where all of us first years were learning broom maintenance. Madam Hooch was knocked over before she even saw it, and a boy called Derrick attempted to scare it by kicking it away, his robed arms flapping all around him whilst yelling at it to go away. Unfortunately, Drumsticks now thought Derrick was trying to start a real cock-fight — chest to chest, wings flapping and spurs kicking!

Before it finished its little war-dance with his head bobbing low, neck-feathers puffed out trembling, I’d managed to grab one of the brooms off the work table; as soon as Drumsticks began to step towards Derrick I ran towards that overgrown alarm-clock and jabbed it as hard as I could with that broomstick!

I won’t say it was a smart idea, but the frustration I’d felt over those first weeks at school — people giggling behind their hands when I spoke in my Welsh accent; discovering that students in other houses whom I’d wanted to befriend would scoff at the idea of hanging around with a Slytherin — seemed to take hold of me. It felt good when the broom’s handle hit Drumsticks’ chest, shocking him backwards and confusing him so. It’s likely a good thing that Hooch had finally recovered herself enough to properly stun that scaly-footed bastard before I’d lost my mind completely — that broomstick was starting to feel like a skewer.

Dinner that evening consisted of a hearty chicken soup, platters of little chicken pies, mashed potatoes, boiled peas and fresh, steamy bread rolls on the side.

Oh, and most everyone in my year stopped calling me “Spleens”.

Tad had been bi— Tad had been given the boot by Mam by the the time I’d started school, and in the summers I’d been the one to continue most of the hunting work while Mam settled herself with tending the garden and foraging for plants. Mam knew the work alright, but she’d mainly been the one to keep records of what was brought home; researching the markets and packaging items properly. Didn’t take long for Tad’s absence to start its work on her though, did it? A little kid can only hunt so many kinds of creatures, and of course I couldn’t have a permit to collect things like doxy venom or dragon eggshells, nor could I travel more than a few miles from home.

Soon the goats were sold to another ingredi-wizard, then any magical plants in our garden that required consistent tending died. I didn’t understand how that could’ve happened, not at the time anyway. Mam was good at hiding her drinking back then. Since we were no longer able to provide the great amount of products as before, businesses started abandoning us for more reliable resources.

Sometimes — just every once in awhile — Tad would show up for a visit.

“Only a few days” I imagine Mam whispering harshly, fearfully, her eyes darting ‘round as though expecting whatever forces demanded they keep apart to come bursting out of her cottage’s walls.

He always went out to try and gather more for us to sell, did Tad. He didn’t take me anywhere with him that was outside of the county, though. The last time I went with him was at the beginning of summer after my third year at Hogwarts. He looked so much older than I’d remembered, or perhaps I hadn’t paid enough attention during his previous visits? Grey streaks were beginning to shoot through his thick black hair, which hadn’t been cut in years. He walked slower than I was used to, moving like his body had turned all sore and stiff; his head constantly swiveled around as we worked, as though the very land that surrounded us could not be trusted.

“Don’t let your sisters and your brother stay inside all day. Teach them how to look after themselves, better than your mam or I have done for ourselves”.

Until he said that, it hadn’t really occurred to me just how reckless my parents were compared to those of my classmates. Before Tad had been forced to leave, he and Mam had thought little of hauling me, toddling Llon and squalling Gwenyn to all kinds of strange and exciting places — places I now know where most parents wouldn’t allow their children to set foot. When they needed to collect dragon eggshells from high up in the mountains, us kids sometimes went along.

I learned where to find snakes before I was seven; how to untangle wire snares without slicing my wrist open when I was eight. I nearly drowned in a lake searching for plimpys — round little creatures with long legs you can tie together — Tad said that’s how Merpeople deal with them because they consider them pests.

My parents also enjoyed firewhiskey. Many times after we’d spent a long day trekking through bracken for mokes and doxy eggs, or slogging around in muddy ditches for flobberworms, Mam ‘n Tad would build up a fire. We would toast sausages, slices of bread and even apples for supper, while two of them added the throat-burning drink to their meal. I can’t recall the bottle ever not being empty the next morning.

The drinking didn’t interfere with much until after Tad was gone.

It’s a wonder all of us kids have lived to see three.

I worry Afon won’t recognize me, after I’ve stayed all year at Hogwarts instead of returning to the Alley during holidays. I know I have a responsibility to my siblings, but the Triwizard tournament and its accompanying delights were hard to resist. Uncle was furious when I refused to return to work at Christmas, while Onyxia wrote that I should try and catch a wealthy boy from Beauxbatons, though a Durmstranger would do.

By the time I make it to Onyxia’s front door the few glass street lamps holding charmed candles have sprung to life, casting faint and eerie shadows. I’ve only just touched the brass kneazle-head knocker when the door is wrenched open from behind.

“It’s about time - oh, Patreva! I hadn’t realized you’d returned already!”

I curl my lips into the sparest of smiles — it’s often a struggle to remain polite with this woman. Patreva is my middle name, not my real name. I don’t even know what it means, and Mam ‘n Tad always avoided using it.

“Noswaith dda, Modryb. Sut ydych chi?”

The pleasure I feel when I speak Welsh at Onyxia is the same as ever: sweet but all too bloody short.

“Patreva Burke! You know far better than to speak that way, to me!”

As if she understood a word I’ve just said?! She’s convinced that any language other than French or Latin is used to disparage her.

“Llon and I came back a few hours ago, Auntie. Uncle Donius sent me to give you this” - I hand her the roll of parchment - “and to take Afon back with me”.

Onyxia stares at the parchment in her hand, eyes narrowing in obvious displeasure.

“Did he send me no money, girl?”

Uh-oh

“I haven’t stolen it, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

Her eyes have gotten even narrower, if that’s possible.

“No, no girl. I suppose...I should’ve expected as much...this time.”

She isn’t looking at me as she says this, rather she’s gazing nowhere in particular at the space behind me, as if suddenly lost in thought...

“Well, wait here a moment, then. Here’s the boy’s belongings.” Before shuffling down her entryway she reaches down and hands me a midsized bag filled with clothes, children’s medicines and very few toys. No tea to be had in her house, apparently. Rude sow.

“Here you are, girl.” Onyxia appears at the door with my youngest brother in tow, his eyes widening at the sight of me and his fist going to his mouth in an image of absolute preciousness.

“Oooh fy mach i! Fy mrawd cy-“

“Speak English to him!” Shrieks the old hag I am forced to respect. “I had to teach him prop—“

But I’m not staying for her xenophobic rant tonight, and neither is fy mrawd bach — my little brother. He’s had enough, and I’ve had enough.

“Goodnight Auntie! Thank you for taking care of him, we need to go back!”

And with that, Afon and I are trotting up the alleyway and into the warm summer night.

Well, I’m trotting; Afon’s on my back.

[pattonsperfectfamily-asks]

Chapter 14- A Very Long Goodbye Chapter from Mod Iva

Masterpost

TW: past stalking (so much. so. much.), nonconsensual recording, crying, forcing someone to hit someone else, r slur, mention of almost forced contact, pushing someone into water, past kidnapping, murder, torture, flashback, breaking into someones house, brainwashing, electrocution

“98.2!” Patton cheers as he pulls the thermometer out of Damien’s mouth. “Now you’re all better!”

Damien sniffles, forcing his head down, his glare aimed passively at the floor. “I wouldn’t have gotten sick if you hadn’t been an idiot and put Virgil in the damn ice bath.”

“Don’t be rude to your father.” Logan scolds, watching the angry look in Patton’s eyes as he pulled Damien closer to him. “And we do not swear in this household.”

“Ohh what, so you’re fucking brainwashed as well?” Damien snaps. “You know, Virgil is one thing, but you’re a grown-ass adult. What’s your excuse?”

Logan froze, tears welling up in his eyes. “I-”

“Punish him,” Patton says curtly. “Do it. Damien, your father is going to punish you for talking back and swearing.”

“W-What?” Logan was shaking. “What would you want me t-to do?”

Patton mimes a harsh smack, his eyes cold. “Do it, Bunny. Or we could go into my room to cuddle if you don’t want to…”

Logan’s eyes widen as he faces Damien nervously.

“Really?” Damien snarks. “Maybe you deserve to be here with Patton, seeing how you like bending to his fucking will 24/7.”

“Glasses, now Logan,” Patton said firmly.

“Sush, we’re just cuddling. This could be much worse, couldn’t it Logie?”

“Get in the box Bunny.”

Alex didn’t take his eyes off him.

“Just shut up and go back to sleep,” Alex says forcefully.

“If you tell, well I won’t be able to go back up and give them food,” Patton says cheerfully. “They’d starve up there, and it’d be all your fault.”

“Husbands are supposed to be faithful, Lolo.”

“You won’t be taking this ring off.”

Logan makes a noise in the back of his throat, a mix of a scream and a sob, and slams his hand down on Damien’s face.

Damien drops to the floor and Patton moves over to Logan, wrapping his arm around Logan’s waist. Damien gingerly touches his cheek, looking up at Logan in shock, who hid his face in Patton’s shoulder and sobbed.

“Shh, it’s okay bunny. You’re okay…” Patton presses a kiss to the top of Logan’s forehead, moving to sit him down on the couch.

Roman watched as the sun slowly set.

Dinner had gone quietly, and Damien sat across from Roman on his bed, sitting silently as Roman peered out the window.

“I think Patton will be asleep soon.” Roman muses.

“I hate him.”

“We all hate him, Dami.”

“Not Patton, I loathe him. I hate Logan.”

Roman looked over at Damien in shock. “He didn’t mean to hurt you Dami, you know that.”

“Yes, he did.” Damien crossed his arms, staring at the door, a seething look in his eyes.

“Logan is just hurting,” Roman says quietly. “He’s doing what he thinks is best for his survival. And Damien, if you hadn’t noticed, it’s working. You shouldn’t have sworn at Patton.”

“But I-”

“No.” Roman cuts Damien off with a shake of his head. “You need to control your attitude around Patton. You know how he’s like, if you act like a happy kid, he won’t bother you. He’s not the problem here.”

“Jason’s only a problem for you,” Damien mutters.

“That’s not fair. That’s not fair, and you know it, Damien.” Roman says quietly. “Patton only bothers you because you argue with him, Jason hurts me no matter what I do. You could ignore Patton for the most part, you just chose not too.”

“Because I’m supposed to be in college right now!” Damien protests, “Which, by the way, I had to work for all summer because I missed most of high school because I was kidnapped by a sociopath!”

“We’ll escape,” Roman says quietly. “We did it before.”

“We got rescued. When we were in the state we were taken from, and in a house that Patton owned.” Damien argues. Roman hides his head in his hands.

“Let’s just go, they should be asleep by now.”

Damien begrudgingly grabs the flashlight they had taken, and carefully follows Roman out into the hallway.

“The closets the only place he could hide something…Besides the basement.” Roman shudders, quietly opening the door and beginning to pull boxes out.

Damien shines the light for him as he opens the first box and began to rifle through the contents.

Inside was a small photo album, which Roman grabs and sets aside. “Old receipts…But they’re from all over America…Some pins…A children’s book, maybe we could convince Patton to give that to Remus? Some old glass figures…barbies…”

Roman gasped, hurriedly grabbing a camcorder and holding it to his chest. “Hurry, help me put this stuff back.”

Damien and Roman quickly shove the box back into the closet and hurry back to Roman’s room, the photo album, and camcorder in their hands.

“So what exactly are we looking for?”

“Maybe one of the pictures will have an address or a map. Something to tell us more of where exactly we are.” Roman says hopefully.

“Sure.” Damien rolled his eyes, beginning to flip through the pages. “There’s just normal pictures of small Jason, and what I’m assuming is his family. This one has Jason and that priest that’s also named Jason…And here’s one with Patton, Amelia, Jason, the other Jason, and Alex. All of them together.”

Roman shuddered at the reminder of Alex, looking at the photo curiously.

The five kids, around twelve, sat together in a treehouse, their arms around each other’s waist. Patton, priest Jason, and Amelia all had big smiles on their faces, but Jason and Alex looked like they were plotting something. In the back, a smaller figure with long hair and a blurred face laid curled up.

“They look like they were in a club.” Roman hums. “Who’s the girl in the back…?”

Damien shrugs, turning on the camcorder and going to the back of the gallery, to the first ever video.

“Here she is! Little Miss Amelia, all done with her initiation!” A female voice from off-camera spoke, and Amelia giggled, clumsily curtsying.

“Doesn’t she look gorgeous!” Another female voice compliments. “You two are so lucky!”

“Amelia, say hello to the video.” A male voice prompts.

The young Amelia tugged at one of her braids. “Hello.”

“Do you know why we’re filming?” The first female asks. Amelia pauses, her face falling as she shook her head.

“We’re filming this to celebrate darling! One last little test, alright?”

“Okay, Daddy!” Amelia smiles once more, and the camera shakes as it’s set down on a table.

An older woman appears in the frame, her hair and eyes dark, wearing a fancy silver dress. “Go ahead and sit down Amelia.”

Amelia sits across from the mother, her legs kicking slightly as she smoothed out her pink dress.

“Amelia,” The man rummaged in a box and held out a photograph. “Do you know who this is?”

Amelia peered at the man and woman in the photo closely. “No.”

“Do you know any girls at your school named Sarah Jonas?” The mother prompts.

“No.” Amelia giggles.

“What’s your full name?” The woman offscreen asks.

“Amelia Marie Lebent.” Amelia says with a little nod of her head.

The mother and father beam and the video ends.

Roman stares down at the frozen screen in confusion, worry growing in the pit of his stomach. “This belonged to Amelia’s family…?”

“But why were they asking her what her name was?” Damien asks. “Was she in an accident?”

Roman looks at Damien, deciding not to build off of anything, and instead playing the next video.

“Look! It’s huge!” A young Patton struggles to hold up a fish to the camera, his fishing pole knocking off his bucket hat.

“Careful!” The offscreen voice of a young Alex snaps as Amelia grabs Patton’s hat and puts it back on his head.

The group of kids were on a boat in the middle of a lake, a town in the distance.

“Mummy said we had to come home soon.” Amelia pouts, looking seasick as she tried to read her book amongst the chaos on the boat.

“Look at my fish!” Patton appears in front of the camera again, holding up the same trout.

“You already showed us the damn fish, stupid.” A young Jason snaps.

“Isn’t it cool?!” Patton asks excitedly, showing it again to Jason.

“Patton, you have to put the fish in the cooler, remember buddy?” Priest Jason says gently, guiding Patton off-screen.

“Patton! Come'ere, lookit this!” Alex says excitedly. From behind the camera, Jason snickers.

“What?!” Patton practically trips over his own feet as he rushes to Alex’s side of the boat.

“Look, do you see that fish, it looks like a shark!”

“Really?!” Patton hurriedly bends over the side of the boat.

Alex quickly pushes Patton in, who falls with a big splash.

“Alex!” Amelia yells, snapping her book closed and jumping up. She and priest Jason hurry to the side of the boat where Patton was pushed, while Alex and Jason laugh.

“It’s not my fault his parents fried his brain and made him a r*tard!” Alex laughs as Patton surfaces.

“You’re so funny!” Patton laughs, looking panicked. “Can I come back on the boat now…I don’t wanna get bit by a shark…”

“There’s no shark.” Priest Jason reassures him as he, Amelia, and Alex pull Patton back onto the boat. “We’re on the lake. Sharks are in oceans.”

Patton shivers. “Can we go home now?” He asks, his voice small. His entire chest was shaking.

The video ended.

"He deserved it.“ Damien had laughed when Patton fell in, but Roman simply looked horrified at the video. "What?”

Roman’s mouth stayed open in shock as he played the next video.

A girl with brown hair was on the screen.

“She looks like the girl from the picture…” Roman notices.

“What’s your name?” The mother from the first video asks.

“…Olivia…” The girl can’t even manage to get out her last name as a button is pressed. She writhes around in front of the camera, sweat pouring down her face as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“Your name is Valerie, say it!” Amelia orders, marching over to the girl. “Say it! Your my sister Valerie!”

“That’s enough Amelia. Come back over here please.”

Amelia quickly complies as the girl tries to catch her breath.

“I…I want to go h-” She cuts off with another scream.

The video cut off, and they began again, now outside, where Patton and priest Jason peeked out from inside a large hole in the ground.

“Get out boys.” A man demands.

“But we’re playing Pop!” Priest Jason complains.

“This is a funeral! Out!” A woman says firmly. The two boys groan and pull themselves out.

“I still want a sister.” Amelia’s voice says from off-camera. Amelia’s dad appears in frame, holding Olivia’s body.

“We can try again next year darling, mummy can’t invest in another one right now.” Amelia’s voice says.

The man lays the girl down in the hole and begins shoveling the dirt back in as the camera moves to face a small seated crowd.

“That’s why I tell you, you go younger. My Alex never gave me any problems.” A woman holding a toddler in overalls says to Amelia’s mother.

The mother sips at her champagne in thought. “I don’t know, I think we might have only the one.”

“But I want a sister!” Amelia protests again.

“Daddy will get you a pony instead darling.” Amelia’s father promises.

“I already have a pony. I need a sister to play with.” Amelia pouts. “I’m the only girl except for baby Madeline.”

“Madeline won’t be a baby forever, and you have fun playing with your cousins.” The mother waves offhandedly, taking another sip of champagne.

The video ended.

“They…They tortured her…” Damien gasps. “Ohh my god she was Virgil’s age and they fucking killed her!”

“I think Alex said they did that to Patton too…I think they did that to all of them…” Roman switches to the next video, before gasping.

“Careful!” The camera shakes and then straightens out, zooming in on a thirteen-year-old Roman and Remus, playing together in the river.

“Sorry, dad,” Fourteen-year-old Patton says quietly, laughing when Remus shoved Roman under the water.

Roman spits water in his brother’s face in retaliation.

Roman switches to the next video, cutting off Patton’s voice.

“Look, Virgil, I borrowed this camcorder from my friend!” Twenty-four-year-old Patton says, pushing it closer so that Virgil’s face took up the entire screen.

The five-year-old giggled, gently pushing the camera back.

“Can you show me your drawing?” Patton asks.

Virgil carefully grabs the blue piece of construction paper, showing the camera. “Isa puppy!”

“It’s so good!” Patton praises, “You did such a good job Virgey!”

Virgil giggles, bouncing in place. “When Kai an mommy an daddy gonna get bac’?”

“Don’t be silly Virgey, your dad’s right here!” Patton says cheerfully.

Virgil giggles. “You na my daddy Pat-Pat! You my fwend!”

“Aww!” Patton shifts the camera, holding it away as he quickly came into view, kissing Virgil over and over on the head, which made the boy giggle. “I love being your friend, baby!”

The video ended.

“I feel sick,” Damien says quietly. “That video…It’s creepy, I don’t want to watch anymore…”

“They’ve been watching us this whole time…Patton knew about Remus and me since we were thirteen, maybe sooner.” Roman hid his head in his hands. “Holy fuck…We have to get out of here.”

Damien stands, backing towards the door. “I’m going to bed…I…I can’t finish watching…”

He hurriedly leaves, and Roman skips a few of the videos of Patton babysitting Virgil, his heart sinking when he saw Damien on one.

“Just ignore the camera.” Patton encourages.

“I don’t think I can-”

“No you’ll be great! I have to document this!” Patton laughs. “C'mon Dami, you’re so talented.”

Damien looks up at Patton then nods, blowing out a slow breath of air as he placed his fingers over the piano keys.

The video plays silently as Damien plays a classical piece, Patton cheering loudly at the end. “You did so good kiddo! You could win the competition next week!”

“Competition?” Damien looks up, confused.

“That must have been a few days before the first kidnapping…” Roman says to himself.

A quiet creak sounds from the hallway and Roman covers his mouth, hoping whoever was in the hall wouldn’t be Jason, and wouldn’t open his door.

Footsteps pad down the outside, and suddenly stop.

Roman’s door swings open, and Logan stares in at him.

“Why are you still up?” Logan asks, suddenly noticing the camcorder, “Where did you get that?”

“Why are you still up?” Roman asks as Logan sits next to him on the bed. “And why are you upstairs?”

“I couldn’t sleep after what I did to Damien…” Logan looks down in shame, fighting back tears. “I came up to apologize…But I couldn’t do it…What are you doing with a camcorder?”

Roman looked miserable at the question, holding the camcorder out to Logan and switching to the next video.

“Is that me?”

Roman grabs it back and looks. Sure enough, you could see Logan from through a window next to a door leading into his old classroom.

Roman plays the video.

A few moments pass in silence as Patton zooms in on Logan, seemingly grading papers.

“We’ve known each other so long…” Patton says wistfully. “I…Today I’m gonna do it!” He hurriedly moves away from the door and heads down a hallway. “We’re the only one’s that teach on this side of the building…I’ll just run into him, and he can help me pick up my stuff!”

The video ended.

The next video played.

Patton zoomed in through a window, the camera shaky.

Logan, maybe seventeen years old, sat down at a table with his family, eating with one hand and reading a book with the other.

“Ohh my god.” Logan chokes back a sob.

The next video played.

Fifteen-year-old Logan laid fast asleep in his bed, and the camera stayed on him for a minute before Patton began walking around the room.

“He likes science, and the planets, and pluto!” Patton giggles quietly, gently touching Logan’s space poster. “His favorite food is Crofter’s jam, and we’re going to have it every day on toast for breakfast!”

Patton returns to Logan’s bed and gently kisses him on the forehead. “I promise Bunny. We’re gonna have the most perfect little house, and kids and my brother Roman is gonna live with us!”

Logan stifled a sob, silent tears rolling down his face. “Ohh gods and goddesses…He…He ran into me on purpose…He snuck into my bedroom…Roman, he could have done anything when I was asleep, what if he-!”

Roman wrapped his arms around Logan, doing his best to comfort him. “We have to get out of here. I…I always just thought I was in the wrong place at the wrong time…Fuck…I never should have let him sit with me at the damn cafe!”

Logan sniffed, pressing the button to start the next recording.

Logan, only seven, sat on the swings at the park, reading a book and lazily kicking his feet.

“Are you sure Patton?” Patton’s mother asks, looking down at Patton. Patton smiles up at the camera.

“Yeah! I really really love him, Mama!” The boy giggled, and Jason shoved him lightly.

“Patton’s got a cr-ush, Patton’s got a cr-ush!” Amelia sand teasily. Alex said nothing, simply stared ahead at Logan deviously.

Patton went red. “Stop it!” He whined. “Mama, please can he be my husband when I’m big?”

“Of course love, whatever you want. Only the best for you.” She says. Patton beams.

“We’re gonna get married and live happily ever after!” Patton sighs happily.

“Only if you do what I say love, adults are tricky.” The mother reminds him. “You must go slow.”

“But he’s gonna love me forever and ever?” Patton asks innocently.

“Of course.” His mother repeats.

The video ended.

“I-” Logan choked up, staring at the ending screen. “At least he wasn’t in my room, right?”

Roman smiles sadly. “Yeah. I don’t think he did anything. I think that was the only time he went in your house.”

Roman shuts the camcorder off before Logan can look through the rest of the obsessive stalking videos, hiding it under his bed and turning to Logan.

“Why don’t we make a plan, okay Logan?” Roman says gently. “We’ll do that, but first you have to be very brave and go sleep with Patton, okay?”

“Okay…” Logan nods.

Roman stares up at him sadly as Logan stood. “Goodnight, Logan.”

“Goodnight…” Logan whispers. “R-Roman…Can you do something for me?”

“Of course.” Roman nods. “Anything, what?”

Logan hurriedly sat down and stared Roman in the eyes for a few seconds, pulling Roman into a tight hug, Logan chokes out a “Goodnight Remus” before crying more and hurrying downstairs.

Words: 3150

Taglist

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[noona-clock]

Look After You - Part 6, Final Chapter

Genre: Regency!AU/Single Parent!AU

Pairing: Choi Minho x You (Female Reader)

Warnings: Mentions of death and some mature themes

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Words: 4,208

“What are you -- what are you doing here?” you asked, your breath catching in your throat as your eyes took in the sight of him. The rumpled, exhausted, heavenly sight of him.

“I cannot let you do this,” he replied in-between heavy breaths.

“Do what? What on Earth --” And then you remembered he was standing outside. “Please, come in.”

You opened the door wider, reaching for his dusty coat and hanging it on the coat rack in your entryway.

“Do you not have a butler?” Minho asked with concern, his brow furrowed deeply.

“No,” you shook your head. “I have no need. Just a cook and a maid. What on Earth do you mean you cannot let me do this? Do what?”

Minho took a step closer to you, your heart first skipping a beat before it began thumping inside your ribcage. “I cannot,” he began, his voice lowered. “Let you live here like this. Alone.”

Your eyes searched his for a few moments before you opened your mouth to speak -- but before you could, you heard a very shrill but very delighted shriek.

“Uncle Minho!” Caroline squealed as she came barreling down the hallway.

Your head jerked back in surprise. Since when had she called him ‘Uncle Minho’?!

The man himself, of course, bent down to catch her and envelop her in his arms. Louisa was right behind, and Minho extended his arms back out to allow her to join them.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Mama, you didn’t tell us you had invited him,” Caroline added, her voice muffled as she had her face buried in his neck.

“I hope you don’t think I’m rude,” he answered, squeezing the two girls before pulling away to look at them. “I was not invited. I came here because I needed to talk to your mother.”

“Talk to her about what?” Louisa asked curiously.

“My darlings,” you interrupted, stepping toward them. “Go and help Mrs. Henderson with luncheon. Mr. Choi will eat with us, and we want to make a good impression on him in our new house.”

Both Caroline and Louisa nodded and turned around to head down the hall to the kitchen. You could tell they didn’t really want to, but you had raised them to listen well to adults they knew and trusted -- especially you.

“Tell her we have a special guest!” you called out after them.

Once they had turned the corner, you let out a soft sigh before facing your guest once more.

“Come into the parlor, please,” you murmured, gesturing toward the room you’d just come from.

You followed him in there, assuming he would venture around and remark on the coziness of the room. But, apparently, he meant business.

He strode into the middle of the room, turned on his heel, and faced you with a very determined expression.

“I’m listening,” you said quietly as you took your spot right in front of him.

“First, please forgive my disheveled appearance. I got on my horse as soon as I read your letter and did not stop until I arrived,” he told you, and only then did you notice the dark circles under his tired eyes. “But I could wait no longer.”

Just as he had in the garden after the tea party, Minho reached for your hands, taking them gently in his. He ran his thumbs over your knuckles once before continuing on.

“I know you said the timing wasn’t right. And I understand that, truly. I cannot begin to tell you how much I understand that --”

“It was not just the timing,” you cut in with a shake of your head. “I am sorry to interrupt, but I feel I must tell you this.”

Minho pressed his lips together and nodded briefly.

“Back then... I felt that having feelings for you would be a sort of... betrayal to him. The two of you were friends, and even though it was years ago... What man would ever want to see his wife with his friend?”

To your dismay, Minho’s expression fell. His gaze focused on your hands, and he took a small step back. “I am sorry for --”

“But then I realized -- before he died, he made me promise him countless times that I would be happy again. That I would find someone to fall in love with, to fall in love with me. That’s what he wanted. He didn’t want me to mourn him for the rest of my life. I mean, I will, but you understand what I’m saying. He refused --” 

You stopped for a moment, swallowing down the emotion gathering in your throat. 

“He refused to leave this Earth until I had sincerely promised him I would find a husband again, one who would make me happy. One who was strong and dependable and loving. One who would love Caroline and Louisa as if they were his own. One who would never leave us, and you said yourself that you felt it was your duty to look after us --”

Now, it was Minho’s turn to interrupt.

“Please do not think I am only here because I believe it to be my duty,” he said quietly but forcefully. “I do not love you, do not wish to marry you solely because I think it is my duty.”

Your heart stopped at the sounds of those words leaving his lips: love and marry.

“I do not think that,” you assured him, doing your best to keep yourself from grinning like an idiot. “I swear to you, I do not.”

Minho squeezed your hands, bringing them up to his lips and pressing a lingering kiss to your knuckles. And then he lifted his gaze to meet yours.

“I do love you, though,” he assured you, the meaning of his words very apparent in his warm gaze. “I told you back then I had never felt this way about anyone before, and it is still true. Writing to you these past few months, getting to know you better has only made me fall in love with you more. You do not belong here. And I do not mean you don’t belong in a small house with no butler. I only mean... you simply belong... with me.”

Your poor heart did not stand a chance the second you saw him standing at your front door. Ever since it had been skipping beats and racing and doing loop-the-loops. And now, hearing him say he felt you belonged with him, your heart soared.

A small smile tugged at your lips as you squeezed his hands. “I... believe I quite agree with you,” you murmured.

Minho’s eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead. “You do?”

You chuckled softly before nodding. “I realized I would have thought marrying anyone was a betrayal. I guess I just told myself he didn’t mean all that about me being happy again, but... I know that’s not true. You remember what kind of person he was.”

“I do, very well,” Minho agreed. “Your husband was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever known. He never said anything he didn’t mean, and if he said he wanted you to be happy, I know he meant it.”

“He did,” you agreed, feeling tears pooling in your eyes. “And -- and you are the first person I’ve felt I could be happy with. The only person.”

Minho’s lips suddenly formed into a smile, and he tilted his head to press his forehead against yours.

“Do you truly mean that?” he whispered hopefully.

“I truly mean that,” you assured him. “I’m terrified but I mean it.”

Minho let out a soft chuckle, but then... he paused. He took a deep breath. He lifted his head from yours.

“Before I... ask you something, I must make sure that you are sure,” he said, moving one of his hands to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. “I told you about what I used to be like, but you should know everything before you make a decision --”

“I don’t need to know.”

Minho’s brow immediately furrowed. “You... what do you mean?”

Since his hand was still by your ear, you leaned your head into it, letting your cheek rest in his palm. You briefly closed your eyes and allowed yourself just a short moment to revel in how wonderful it felt to touch him like this.

“I don’t care,” you told him after you’d opened your eyes. “Whatever happened in your past... I love who you are now, and everything which happened back then led you to be who you are now. You would not be the man I love if you hadn’t been the man you used to be.”

Minho’s brow continued to furrow, and he shook his head slowly. “Who... are you?” he asked dazedly.

You chuckled softly, turning to place a kiss in his palm. “I am the woman who accepts you for everything you are... and who loves you for it.”

Upon hearing you say that you loved him, Minho’s lips immediately formed into a smile, and he looked as if he were about to burst from happiness. He barely waited five seconds before asking, “Can I kiss you?”

“Of course, you can kiss me, you silly --”

But his lips were on yours before you could even finish your sentence.

As much as you wanted to enjoy the kiss, you had no control over the smile forming on your lips. You had dreamed for months now about kissing him, and now you finally were -- again. It simply made you far too happy.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Minho murmured against your lips. “I have been traveling all night and half the day, I am probably not the most agreeable person to kiss right now.”

“No, it’s all right,” you chuckled.

“And I will ask you again -- properly -- when I have bathed and slept and look decent...” Minho pulled away but only enough to break your kiss. The tip of his nose brushed over yours, and he leaned his forehead against yours. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” you breathed. “And my answer will be the same no matter when you ask me.”

You stood on your toes to capture his lips in another kiss, though it only lasted a few seconds before you heard:

“Mama! Uncle Minho! Luncheon is --”

You broke away from your betrothed to see your oldest daughter standing stock still in the doorway to the parlor. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and her mouth hung open in a very unladylike fashion.

“Darling,” you said with an awkward laugh. “Yes, we’ll be right --”

“You were kissing,” she stated.

Well, there was no use denying it. 

“...Yes. We’re... Actually, call your sister in here, please.”

When Caroline turned to call out Louisa’s name down the hall, you let go of Minho and stepped away.

“Come, sit,” you whispered, putting a hand on Minho’s arm and guiding him back to the sofa.

When Louisa appeared next to her sister in the doorway, you grinned and held your arms out. “Come here, my loves,” you invited.

Caroline looked incredibly suspicious as she followed Louisa over to the sofa, and while Louisa climbed onto your lap, Caroline perched hesitantly on the cushion in-between you and Minho.

You let out a soft sigh as you began combing through Louisa’s hair, thinking of exactly how to tell them...

You furrowed your brow and shot Minho a look, one he clearly understood.

“I have asked your mother to marry me,” he said confidently, letting a small grin tug at his lips.

“And...” you added. “I said ‘yes.’”

“Well, I should hope so!” Caroline blurted out. “You were kissing!”

Clearly, your grandfather had been talking to her too much about this subject. He had been an overprotective father, but apparently, he was even worse as a grandfather. You could just imagine him telling Caroline she should never let a man kiss her unless he has proposed marriage first.

“What do you think?” you asked with a soft chuckle, gently bouncing Louisa on your knee. “Mr. Choi will be a part of our family.”

“Will he live here with us?” Louisa asked.

Thankfully, Minho answered just as you opened your mouth to reply. “I... would like it very much if the three of you came to live with me.”

“With Penelope?!”

“Yes, with Penelope,” he laughed. “And Hercules. And the gazebo with a tea party once a month.”

Your heart fluttered tremendously as you remembered what you’d daydreamed about all those months ago. And now it was going to become reality.

Caroline turned to face Minho, and you could hear how furrowed her brow was in her tone when she spoke. “So... you will be our new Papa?”

Minho gently took Caroline’s hands in his, his gaze softening as he looked at her. “Only if you want me to be. I am not trying to replace your real father. I knew him, remember? And I know I could never take his place. If you would like to call me Papa, you can. If you would like to call me Uncle Minho, you can. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Caroline nodded slowly, and then she turned back to face you.

“When are we going to move?” she asked, her little eyebrows raised curiously.

A smile appeared on your lips, and you reached out to cradle her cheek in your palm briefly. “How about we go and eat our luncheon, and we can talk about it later? I’m sure Mr. Choi -- Uncle Minho -- is quite hungry from his journey.”

“If you don’t mind,” Minho piped in, sounding a bit guilty. “Could I quickly wash up before I eat? You’re absolutely right, though, I am starving.”

“Yes, of course,” you chuckled, letting Louisa slide off your lap so you could stand and direct him upstairs to the bathroom. “There should be some fresh water in the basin. Please, take your time.”

“Oh, no, I will be as quick as I can,” he assured you, dashing to the staircase and taking the stairs two at a time.

You herded Caroline and Louisa into the dining room, allowing them to start eating while you waited for Minho to return. The girls, unsurprisingly, filled the time by asking questions about their soon-to-be family member.

“But why would we call him Uncle if he’s going to our father?” Louisa asked, furrowing her brow dubiously at Caroline.

“Because he said we could!” Caroline retorted. “We already have a papa, and he’s in Heaven.”

Louisa huffed a little, frowning and resting her cheek in her palm. “I don’t remember him,” she muttered.

Caroline sagged in her chair a little, as well. “I don’t really either. A little bit.”

Of course, it broke your heart to hear your daughters had very little memories of their father. They really only knew what you told them.

“My loves,” you said softly. “If you would rather me not marry --”

“Mama, he kissed you,” Caroline interjected. “You have to marry him now. That’s what Grandpapa said. You cannot kiss a man unless you marry him.”

You simply rolled your eyes and held back an amused grin.

“Do you love him?” Louisa asked in a small, somewhat timid voice.

Your smile turned soft as you shifted your gaze to your youngest daughter sitting across the table from you, and you nodded.

“Like you used to love Papa?” she added.

“It’s... hard to explain, darling,” you answered. “I will always love your papa. But he’s gone now, and marriage is more than just love. Marriage is also friendship. Spending time together and being with each other and helping each other if things go wrong.”

“Like how Uncle Minho helped us with Hercules,” Caroline pointed out.

“Exactly,” you agreed. “And one of the reasons why I knew I wanted to marry him was because of how much he loves you two. I know he will protect you the same way your real papa would have.”

“I think I will like living in a very, very, very big house,” Caroline mused with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, you will?” you chuckled.

“Yes, me too,” Louisa agreed with a nod.

You were in the middle of shaking your head in amusement when Minho arrived in the dining room. His clothes were still a bit rumpled, but he smelled like soap and looked far too dashing with freshly washed hair.

“I do apologize,” he breathed, his lips pulled into a grin. “You will do what?”

You waited until he sat down in the chair next to you before serving yourself some food and answering his question.

“They will like living in a very, very, very big house,” you informed him.

“Ah, yes,” Minho agreed. When you glanced over at him, you saw him shooting your daughters a very mischievous look. “A very big house means many rooms to hide from your mother.”

“Now, listen here!” you cried, though you couldn’t help but laugh with delight.

Caroline and Louisa, of course, squealed and ran with the idea of playing pranks on you in their new home. They had never played a trick on you in their lives, but suddenly they had decided to become proper jokers.

It was all Minho’s influence, of that you had no doubt. He was encouraging them, after all.

Of course... you couldn’t help but wonder how else he would influence your daughters. After you married, whenever that would be, he would step into the role of their father. He could no longer fall back on the title of ‘Uncle’ and spoil them rotten. You rather wondered how he would fare...

But then you came to your senses just in time to see Minho raise his eyebrows at Caroline and say, “You’d better eat one more spoonful of those peas. You can’t grow up to be strong and healthy if you don’t eat your vegetables.”

“But I --” Caroline began to whine.

Before you could intervene, Minho said, “No ‘buts’ about it, missy. Eat up.”

And as Caroline let out a little huff before scooping up a pile of peas and sliding the spoon into her mouth, your worries had already floated out of the window.

Six Months Later

“Can I open my eyes now?” Louisa asked for about the tenth time in the past few minutes - however long it took you to carry her from the nursery down to the stables.

“Just a few more moments!” you chuckled. “Did turning four suddenly turn you into an impatient little rascal?”

“No, Mama,” Louisa pouted. “I’m just cold!”

“I know, darling, but it’s not my fault your birthday is in the middle of winter.”

...It most certainly was your fault, but Louisa didn’t need to understand that just yet.

“All right, my sweetheart!” Minho called out from inside the stables once you’d gotten close enough. “Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Louisa cried, her smile widening as she clutched your neck.

“Are you sure?!” Caroline teased. She was standing next to Minho in the stable, a very impish smirk on her lips.

“Yes!” Louisa squealed.

You walked closer, pressing your lips together to keep from letting out a delighted squeal yourself. The three of you had been planning this birthday present for weeks now, and you were about as impatient as Louisa to finally give it to her.

“All right,” Minho grinned as you stepped onto the stone floor of the stable. “One... two... open your eyes!”

You quickly glanced at your four-year-old daughter, seeing her eyes go from being shut tight to as wide as saucers.

“A -- a -- a pony?!” she gasped.

Since you and your daughters had moved to the farm several months ago, Louisa’s curiosity for farm animals had developed into a passion. She always begged Minho to let her ride with him, to teach her how to milk the cows, to let her help him feed the pigs.

Just about every morning, before Minho left for the day, you heard her little voice pleading. “Please, Papa, can I go see Penelope with you today?”

And, of course, he let her. Just about every morning, he answered her with, “You know, Penelope was asking about you yesterday. Shall we go and see her together?”

Even though Minho was no longer just an “Uncle,” he still spoiled your girls like crazy.

Including gifting Louisa with a pony for her fourth birthday.

As your daughter took in the caramel-colored pony standing in front of her, she wriggled out of your hold and tip-toed carefully up to it.

“Is it a girl or a boy?” she asked, timidly reaching one hand out to stroke its mane.

“It’s a girl,” Minho informed her. “You can name her whatever you would like.”

“I think you should name her --”

“Caroline,” you warned. “It is your sister’s birthday present.”

Caroline simply let out a dramatic sigh as she always did when she didn’t get to be the boss.

“Well,” Louisa said softly as she stood closer to the pony. “She’s the color of a biscuit. Can I name her Biscuit?”

“Of course,” Minho answered. “Would you like to ride Biscuit?”

Louisa nodded furiously, and Minho reached to grab the blanket draped over the nearby stall door.

You took a step back, watching as Minho laid the blanket over Biscuit’s back, picked Louisa up, and carefully set her down atop her new pony.

Not for the first time in the last six months, your eyes filled with tears as you watched the scene before you, as you watched Minho being a true father to your children.

When he’d proposed to you back in the parlor of your home -- your home for about a week -- you had already known you’d loved him and wanted to spend the rest of your life with him. But in the weeks following, that knowledge had been cemented in your brain because Minho never once brought up any sort of doubt when it came to Caroline and Louisa.

A minuscule part of you had wondered if maybe he would’ve asked something along the lines of, “What if I’m not ready to be their father?” or said something akin to, “I never thought I would have children so soon,” or “Marrying a woman with children is not what I had planned on.”

But he never said anything of the sort. Never once.

In fact, the only time he even mentioned that his life was about to change drastically, he’d said, “Can you believe how lucky I am? I’m marrying only one woman, but I’m getting three in return. I’m not sure what I did to deserve such a prize.” And he had been completely serious.

That was probably when you’d known, when you’d been absolutely sure you had made the right decision.

Minho had been the right decision, not just for you but for all of you.

He was an incredible husband. Attentive and loving and very affectionate. He made you laugh, he trusted you with his secrets, he comforted you when you woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare.

He was an amazing father. Even though Caroline and Louisa were not his, nobody would’ve ever guessed it. He hugged them and kissed their cheeks and played with them and read to them and scolded them and lectured them. They had started calling him Papa not even two weeks after the wedding, and your heart had never been the same.

As you stood there watching Minho holding Louisa as she sat astride on Biscuit, as he chuckled and promised that Caroline was next, your hand instinctively slipped underneath your shawl and settled on your lower abdomen.

You weren’t entirely sure just yet, but you were almost positive your family of four would be expanding sometime next year. You hadn’t told anyone, of course, and to be quite honest...

You weren’t nervous in the least.

You could vividly imagine the shock and utter joy on Minho’s face when you eventually told him Caroline and Louisa would have a new brother or sister. There was no doubt in your mind he would be as happy as any man could be upon hearing that kind of news.

And there was no doubt in your mind you would be as happy as any woman could be.

There were times, yes, when you did still feel twinges of guilt. It had only been two and a half years since the death of your late husband, and you still missed him every day. A portion of your heart still belonged to him, as it always would.

But you also couldn’t stop yourself from feeling a sort of satisfaction because you had, indeed, fulfilled the promise you’d made him. You had found someone who made you blissfully happy. Someone who loved you entirely and truly. Someone who loved Caroline and Louisa as much as anyone possibly could. Someone strong and dependable. Someone who would never leave you.

Someone to look after you.