#but there's so much to do in flight rising! And I panicked 3 years ago after they just leave you without a tutorial

[cinnamon-flame]

A gift drawing of Jordana for the very kind @astra-the-dragon

When I first saw Obelisks I thought there was no way I would be able to draw them without major problems but actually it was pretty nice, the mane was ridiculously fun to draw!

[sunlightwoo]

Eyes On Us

ღ pairing: joshua x reader (gender neutral (i tried to make it as gender neutral as possible! let me know if i should fix anything!)

ღ genre: your usual angst and fluff, along with some adult language in here (like a couple swear words) in all honesty, and there’s a point where it mentions certain topics such as anorexia and starvation in the plot. however, if you are struggling with anything in your life, just know that my dms are always open if you want to talk to someone or kind of just vibe and talk about anything else <3

ღ wc: 4k

ღ plot: it was finally summer vacation and you were almost looking forward to being able to spend it this year in Hawaii, if it weren’t for the fact that it was for a family member’s wedding. not wanting to end up single once again, considering you were graduating next year, you asked the one person you least wanted to be your pretend boyfriend for the upcoming trip.

ღ a/n: this note is being written literally ten minutes before its supposed to post, but like i’ve actually been really nervous and excited about posting this because it is one of my longest oneshots that i’ve ever written on here, along with the wonwoo oneshot that is coming up soon :D i really hope that you guys enjoy reading this, as much as i liked writing it, even if i cried a bit, and please do send some feedback if you can whether through asks, dms or even in the tags if you reblog it <3333

MASTERLIST

You were panicking on the inside, and you know that you shouldn’t be considering it was now summer vacation.

It had been the day that you were receiving your scores from your final exams, and you were absolutely relieved that you managed to pass them considering you spent hours studying for them these last few weeks. The only downside was the message that you had gotten from your mother just minutes ago about a last minute trip that she already paid for to Hawaii for your cousin’s wedding, the one that you haven’t heard from in months.

You didn’t mind having to pack up and leave for a free vacation, but your only obstacle was your entire family, and knowing them, they were going to grill you the entire week that you were going to spend there. The thought of them asking you at Thanksgiving last year about why you weren’t in a relationship with anyone yet made you grimace, remembering all of the indirect remarks they made about your weight and looks that left tear stains on your cheeks that night, up until you called your best friend in your childhood bedroom.

Joshua Hong, the person you were most grateful for.

It was almost a fate that was made by chance that you both became friends after grabbing the same coffee the morning that the two of you were paired up for a project in your philosophy course freshman year, in which you both received the highest marks. You were both one another’s go to whenever you needed a pick me up, and you wonder how he has been considering you went into lockdown mode and isolated yourself from civilization.

With that thought in mind, you walked from where you were sitting in a cafe and went towards the familiar apartment complex that you came to get used to over the year that has just passed by. It was the same one that both you and Joshua had moved into, just a door away from one another, even though it would’ve been easier if you were roommates instead.

However you both agreed that it would’ve been even more chaotic, considering you were never able to accomplish anything with him around you most of the time; that was the only thing stopping you.

Joshua was like a shooting star in the sky that so happened to be there when you needed him, considering the fact that you were completely lost in your freshman year. After losses of your father, some friendships that you used to think were inseparable, he was like a breath of fresh air that you needed after a storm.

“Y/N, you’re alive.” The said male teases after you arrived at the door to his apartment and you scoffed at him playfully as you grinned, walking in after he opened the door wider and you looked around to see the same colorful walls that he decorated his place with.

“Trust me, I’m surprised that I am too. Am I interrupting anything?” You ask, turning around to face him as you put your keys and phone down on his coffee table before getting comfortable on the familiar couch that you slept on one too many times whenever you slept over after getting too drunk to walk back next door.

“Nope, I was just about to eat some lunch and I was going to bring some over anyways to check if you were dead or not,” He laughs and disappears into his kitchen temporarily, just to come back out and bring you a plate with two portions of a chicken parmesan sandwich that he made from earlier and you could feel your stomach growl quietly at the smell of its deliciousness, “Hungry?”

The two of you began to eat, catching up on whatever the other had missed in the last few weeks and it was times like these that you cherished being around him. It made you think about the butterflies that were growing in your stomach, and how they shouldn’t be there considering you were both best friends and nothing more than that.

You couldn’t ruin what you had, after everything else.

“Any plans for the summer?” He asks suddenly and you smile a bit, putting your now empty plate on the table as you nodded in response, taking small sips of your cola before frowning because of the fact that you were going to be alone again.

“I’m leaving for Hawaii on a family trip for a wedding, but they expect me to bring a date home this time around, since Thanksgiving last year didn’t go well,” You sighed and leaned back against his couch, staring at his white ceiling when you realized that the flight would be tomorrow, “I don’t think I’ll go and reunite with them…”

“Why not? They’re your family, Y/N.” You hear Joshua say from beside you and you hummed in response, turning your head to look at him and take in his presence at the time being, him being there seeming to calm your nerves because of the fact that you would have to face your horrid aunts once again.

“I don’t have anyone to go be my fake date for a week last minute. I’m pretty sure Jeonghan already left to go to Jeju with his crush, like he planned for months, and Wonwoo is who knows where this time around,” You mumbled and turned back to face the ceiling, but this time with your eyes closed as you pinched the bridge of your nose in both frustration and exhaustion, “Why do they pick on me? I’m not even that interesting…”

“Well, I can go with you as your fake boyfriend, considering it’s last minute and I need plans for the summer,” He laughs and you looked at him in shock when you notice the smile that was on his lips, seeing as though he seemed serious about all of it, “And if anything, I think you’re the most interesting person that I’ve ever met in my life. We’re best friends for a reason you know.”

“Y/N! Wake up, it’s time to leave for Hawaii!” You hear someone shout and burst through your bedroom door as you were flinched awake from the loudness of their voice, when suddenly there was light shining into your room through your windows.

Squinting at the owner of the voice, you frowned at the sight of Joshua who was standing at your door with a bright smile on his face, one that mirrored the sun that was shining outside this morning. He continues to grin at you as you fixed your bed hair, stretching out your limbs and quietly flipped him off as you went back to curling up in the comforts of your bedsheets, up until you felt his weight on top of yours, in which you groaned at the additional weight and attempted to shoo him off of your body.

“Get off, Hong-”

“We’re going to miss the stupid flight, the longer we stay here.” He taunts you and you let out an even louder groan up until you felt him smack a pillow against your head playfully, making you look up to glare at the cheshire cat smile that was spread across his lips.

After muttering a few curses underneath your breath, you pushed Joshua off of your bed and trudged to your bathroom to wake yourself up while you could hear him do his victory that you knew too well in the bedroom. Laughing to yourself in your head, you did your usual routine of washing your face and brushing your teeth as you changed into more fitting clothes for the weather that you were yet to encounter.

The entire time that you were at the airport with him, it was only chaotic from there on out since you and Joshua not only goofed off, but gave one another second hand embarrassment with the shenanigans that you both pulled off at the airport and on the plane. However you didn't do it, because he was distracting you from remembering the true intentions of the trip that you both were on at the moment.

Your family.

It was when you were only about an hour away from Hawaii that you were woken up from your slumber, looking to see that the sun was slowly rising over the clouds as you turned to see Joshua watching what seemed to be Mean Girls on his laptop.

“Morning Gretchen.” He jokes and looks at you with a small smile while you playfully flicked his forehead at the fact that he called you by the name of one of the characters.

“We’re still on the flight,” You quietly mumbled to yourself as you pulled the complementary blanket that the flight attendants gave out around your body closer, “Are you ready to meet the rest of my crazy family?”

“From all of the notes that I have gathered about them from before you slept and Thanksgiving, I think I will be ready to answer all of the questions that they throw at me.” He says in a confident tone, and you playfully scoffed at how smug he had looked.

Yet somehow with the hues of the sun rising from the window, he still looked like the most perfect person that you have ever crossed in your lifetime. You instead gave him a small smile afterwards, feeling grateful that he was going on this trip with you because you weren’t sure what you would’ve done if you went on your own.

Would you still have been sane with your aunts in particular grilling you and picking at the smallest details of your life? Probably not.

“Thanks again for helping me out, Shua. It means a lot that you’re coming.” You said and leaned your head on his shoulder as he was pulling you into a warm embrace.

“You’re not going to do something dumb, right? Because when I tell them about how we met, I’m going to tell it from my side.” He points out and you frowned a bit, pulling back to look and see the amused look in his eyes as you were recalling the day that you met him at that coffee shop.

“Who the hell orders a freaking mocha latte in the middle of September? You radiate a ‘pumpkin spice latte’ kind of vibe, if anything.” You teased as he playfully rolled his eyes at your words while holding out the other earbud that he had in his hand towards you and you shook your head at him, putting it into your ear as you decided to watch the rest of the movie with him.

“I think you just have no faith in me and spontaneity-”

“You’re right, I don’t. Remember what happened last time you tried something spontaneous with Jeonghan and Seokmin? Green hair.” You laughed and shook your head at him as he gave you a feigned look of pain, until you nudged for him to start the movie back up. 

The rest of the plane ride was silent as you laid your head on his shoulder and thought about how comforting it felt while you were with Joshua’s company. It was like taking a deep breath of fresh air when you needed it in worst case scenarios, and all you could think about was the fact that you felt like your heart would explode whenever you were around him nowadays. 

You knew that someday you should be able to tell him about the feelings you have been harboring for the time being, but there wasn’t a good time in both of your schedules at all for it to happen. It was also the fact that you liked how you were now, in which your friendship seemed more unbreakable than the other dates that you’ve seen one another go on. 

Yet, somehow when you were finally landing in Hawaii and getting off of the plane that reality hit you with the realization that you were about to get ready and lie for a week. There was a rush of adrenaline that was pumping through the course of your veins, but somehow it was Joshua’s comforting hand in yours that he held the entire way through the airport that made you feel reassured that you’d be okay.  

“Y/N’s finally here!” You hear someone screech as soon as you and Joshua claim your bags, and your head immediately turns to the owner of the voices that you recognized to be your aunt with your mother right beside her, “And they brought home a boy!” 

A soft laugh escapes Joshua’s lips as he was engulfed by your aunt afterwards before you both were being tugged to where your uncle parked the car in front of the airport. Your mother, however, was already giving you a knowing glance on her face as she was walking behind the three of you back outside where you were immediately welcomed with the hot summer heat that Hawaii had to give. 

Who knows what you were yet to face throughout the time that you were staying here?

“Wow, the night view looks amazing up here.” Joshua mumbles softly as you were sitting in chairs that were on the balcony attached to your suite at the hotel.

“Crazy how my cousin really spent all this money for us to stay here for the week.” You agreed sipping on the glass of wine that was enlaced in your fingertips as you thought about the events that led up to the very moment.

It was earlier when you were finally eating during the rehearsal dinner with your family at the hotel’s restaurant, Joshua accompanying the seat beside you that you were finally given a rest out of the day’s festivities to get ready for the wedding. You were currently digging into the plate of spaghetti and steak that were on your plate, when your mother decides to finally speak up from her end of the divided tables.

“Y/N, you’re not going to actually finish that are you? It doesn’t seem right to pig out, when you’ve lost all this weight while you were away,” She says taking a small bite of her salad that was in front of her, when suddenly she says a phrase that makes you feel shut down considering it hit harder than it should’ve, “Have you been starving yourself? Dieting? It would be a waste, if you gained more weight like you used to back then.”

It was silent as you felt all of your family members’ gazes on you, in shock of your mother’s words as you could feel the stinging tears in your eyes already pooling up. You knew that someone from her side of the family would’ve said something about your physical appearance once again, but out of all people, you didn’t think that it would hurt shooting the bullets right there into your heart.

“I’m sorry you feel that way mother. Excuse me, I think I’ll be going back up to my room.” You croaked out, pushing your chair back so that you could get out as you threw the napkin that was on your lap onto the table, not looking back as you walked out of the restaurant as quickly as you could.

Even with your head held up high, you could feel the tears stream down your face as you were heading towards the elevator while thinking about what had happened since the last time that you had encountered your family. It was then that you thought it was easier to lose weight, while you were still studying for your exams and if it weren’t for Joshua insistently checking up on you, and made sure that you still ate, you wouldn’t have been able to live in that moment.

It was when you noticed that Joshua ran after you and managed to wedge himself in between the doors, that you felt everything come crashing down as he pulled you close to him in the elevator. You couldn’t remember breathing properly at that point, as it was with his reassuring words and calm voice that lulled you back into reality, evening your breaths while you were both slowly heading back towards your suite.

When you did, he allowed you to go shower and relax as you two decided to take a breather outside in your balcony, which led to where you were now with your pajamas on and a glass of wine while collecting your thoughts.

“I’m sorry that you had to hear that, Josh.” You croaked out, putting your glass down somewhere beside you as you turned to look at the latter that was staring at you already under the dark starry night.

“I’m just glad that I was there, before anything else could happen if you were to go through that alone.” He replies, giving you a small smile as you hummed in response, feeling lighter than before and assuming that it was just the wine making you feel this way.

You were always grateful for Joshua, where sometimes in moments like these, you wished that he wasn’t just your best friend and a fake boyfriend but rather more than all of that. It was more like a secret yearning that you wanted to be able to call him yours, but more than a platonic way that was just one sided on your end.

However, you knew that it wouldn’t work considering the fact that you remembered all the times that he had best friend zoned you, and it hurt more than ever every single time.

“They didn’t ask you the boyfriend questions, when I was gone for some parts of the day, did they?” You whispered to him and he smiles a bit as he gives you a look, where you immediately knew that they definitely asked him about your relationship.

Great.

“They only asked the basics, but I was able to hold them down like you taught me to,” He chuckles and you nodded as he lets out a breath before speaking up once again, “Your aunt though, from earlier, I think she really likes me. She kept saying that I’m built like the perfect boyfriend for you and asked if I would marry you.”

Your cheeks flared with heat, knowing exactly that it was something your aunt would say to him and mentally facepalmed as you downed the rest of the wine that was in your glass, hoping that you’d be tipsy enough to fall asleep soon. However, maybe it was a good thing since you were able to hear the rest of his words just moments before you were able to finally call it a night.

“I mean I wouldn’t mind marrying you though, Y/N. If given the chance, I think we’d be a cute couple to the eyes of others.”

“Hurry up, slowpoke! We’re going to be late the longer you keep trying to decide on which shoes- oh fuck wow.”

You walked out of the bathroom with a lint roller in your hand and attire fixed up as you stood feet away from Joshua, standing irritatedly with your hand on your hip and watched as he stood there with his mouth gaped open. Fidgeting with your fingers, you turned to look in the mirror to hopefully be at least presentable and when you turned back to Joshua, you noticed that he barely made a move as he was still in shock.

“Cat’s got your tongue, Hong?” You mused and crossed your arms in front of your chest as he blinked back into reality, shaking his head in response before smiling a bit to himself.

“Nope, just a little surprised cause you don’t dress up often.”

In his perspective when you stepped out of the bathroom, Joshua was in awe and became speechless as you looked even more breathtaking than you already were. The butterflies that were usually present in his heart felt like they increased ever since you first mentioned that you wanted him to be your fake boyfriend for the week, and with your family members asking about your relationship, it made him wish that it was real.

But it wasn’t, because he was pretty confident in the fact that you only saw him as a best friend and nothing more than that.

When he snaps back to reality, you playfully scoffed at his words and took what you needed for the wedding before heading down to where the ceremony was being held in one of the banquet halls of the hotel. You, for one, were nervous about attending the wedding, because you haven’t heard anything from your mother or any other family member since you decided to storm out of the restaurant last night.

Now that you and Joshua were finally put to the test of seeing if your work paid off, you sat throughout the entire ceremony in comfortable silence with his hand in yours to comfort your nerves of what is yet to come later. With your head leaned onto his shoulder, you smiled to yourself bittersweetly as you were once again grateful for the boy that was sitting next to you with his hand in yours, breathing even and in sync with your own.

You wanted for all of this to be real, but somehow you felt as though he was giving you mixed signals considering the fact that he seemed as though he wanted to be more when you were still in the suite. However, you didn’t want to think about what was yet to happen as the ceremony was finally over and everyone was moving over to the reception hall.

“I thought that it was quite beautiful, with the sun setting behind them. Do you think that you’d have something like that at your wedding?” Joshua asks you suddenly as you were both walking to where you were both supposed to be seating at your table, and you thought about it for a moment before shrugging slightly to yourself, wondering where he was going with the conversation.

“I mean I wouldn’t mind it, if my future husband wanted something like that. Maybe something in like a garden or outdoors would fit my taste, in all honesty.” You mumbled softly, and he hums in response as he continues to swing your hands together when suddenly he stops in his place, making you stop in your tracks and turn to look at him in confusion.

He nods over to a different trail, one that you looked to see that a fountain was nearby and you walked with him thinking to yourself that maybe he wanted to talk to you about your family members again before going into the danger zone. However, it was when he lets you sit on the end of the fountain that you looked at him confusedly when he kneels down on one knee so that you were both eye level with one another, making your heart race faster than it should considering the fact that his face was pretty close to yours.

“Is everything okay, Joshua?” You whispered softly and he nodded to himself while subconsciously licking his lips nervously and held your hands in his gently, with your heart beating loudly in your chest the more that you looked into his eyes.

“I don’t think that we should keep doing this anymore, if one of our feelings are one sided,” He breathes out, and you look at him with a heavy feeling in your heart, knowing that this was what you were afraid of when suddenly he speaks up once again.

“What will it take for me to finally break out of the fake boyfriend zone, and into the let’s actually go out zone?” He says in a lighter tone, and you pretended to think about it as you stared up at the sky above you, feeling relieved that he felt the same way when you giggled to yourself while looking back at him with a small smile on your face and pulled his face close to yours to peck a small kiss against his lips.

“I think you just did it.” You whispered in response, and a light laugh escaped from him as he pulled you close to press a longer kiss on your lips, where you finally felt like things were finally in place.

Maybe this vacation wasn’t going to end terribly, after all, since you both finally admitted to believing that the fake relationship was just a secret way of confessing to one another.

[notapaladin]

take what the water gave me (3/3)

The city is drowning. With a great deal of help from his friends, Acatl brings his Emperor home. (aka me looking at history and going “no i simply do not vibe with that”)

Also on AO3!

-

The city is drowning. The rainy season this year has been long and hard, but they could have withstood that. They’ve dealt with worse weather before. But this isn’t just due to the storms; Tlaloc’s rage isn’t what’s dragging the stone and adobe back down to the depths of the lake this time. No, this is from the lake itself. There are those in the courts who blame Teomitl—the aqueduct he’s constructed is shoddy, they say, and the spring it draws on too unpredictable—but Acatl can’t credit it. Teomitl is wise, now. He’s been Revered Speaker for seventeen years, no longer a callow, impetuous youth. He’d labored over the plans for that aqueduct for a year. It can’t be his fault.

But regardless of whether it’s the pouring rain or the rising springs, the lake is covering the streets and the houses and the very steps of the temples, and Acatl can’t find his Emperor anywhere. He’s not in the Duality House, where Mihmatini has taken shelter with their children and the occupants of the womens’ chambers. He’s not at the top of the Great Temple, the highest point in the city. He’s not at Chalchiuhtlicue’s temple trying to propitiate her wrath.

Acatl can’t wait anymore. He makes sure his priests are safe on the steps of his own temple, and then he wades down into the brown and swirling muck before it can rise too high for him to walk. Ichtaca grabs him by the arm, and for a moment he thinks he’ll be stopped, but his Fire Priest only puts his cane into his hand and shoves him towards the palace.

He forges on. It’s slow going; there’s the water, of course, but also the panicked people with just enough sense to head for whatever higher ground they can find. Nobody makes way for him. He may be their High Priest for the Dead, but right now he’s just an exhausted, frightened man past his middle age with gray in his hair and a cloak turned nearly black by the water.

The palace itself feels deserted. If anywhere should have been safe, it is here. Jade Skirt has spread her aegis over the Emperor Ahuitzotl, has given him command of the creatures he is named after, has enfolded him in Her arms. He was supposed to be safe.

But as Acatl heads deeper into the complex, fear coils its scaly tail around his heart. The water isn’t rising fast enough to be an immediate threat, but it also isn’t stopping. If he doesn’t hurry, he could be swimming through the halls. “Teomitl!” he screams, splashing through the knee-deep water, but there is no answer. His voice cracks. In desperation, he screams again, and this time the form he once vowed he’d never use. So far, he’s kept that promise, but if Teomitl can hear him—if he’s trapped somewhere by the waters or the shattered foundations of mud brick that were never meant for this deluge—he must respond to it. He has to. The alternative is unthinkable.

“Teomitl-tzin!”

Only the rain answers.

Through the dark water, something darker is swimming with purpose. Something big. He grabs for his knife.

An ahuitzotl pokes its head out of the water and looks at him. Its eyes are the same mad yellow as all its fellows, but there’s a glimmer of intelligence in them and a small splotch of white on its throat. He sheathes the knife. This one, he recognizes as one of Teomitl’s favorites. “Lead me to your master. Now.”

The ahuitzotl lashes its body like a whip, speeding off down another corridor, and it’s all Acatl can do to keep up. He doesn’t bother screaming Teomitl’s name anymore; he needs his breath for running. He’s still reasonably fit (he has to be, to keep up with his lover), but a man has his limits. With the part of his mind that isn’t tamping down a flood of panic, he reaches for his connection to Mictlan. The chill calms him, steadies his limbs, and he sends a prayer of thanks to his god. Lord Death has never failed him.

He loses track of time as he makes his way through the palace. There’s only the stitch in his side and the rising water; the ahuitzotl’s wake looks like a serpent, and he’s caught in its tail. Please let me find him, he prays. Please.

Finally, his prayers are answered.

Teomitl is sprawled out on a staircase leading to higher ground, half in and half out of the water, with debris from the waterlogged doorway all around him.  He’s too still.  There’s blood spreading out beneath his head in a terrible crimson stain, and his crown is a dented wreck inches away from his hand. His eyes snag on the fallen chips of turquoise, bright against the filthy floor.

Acatl can’t breathe. Teomitl.

He doesn’t think he’s ever moved so fast in his life. Teomitl is still breathing, thank the Duality, but his thick black hair is clotted with blood, and he doesn’t so much as stir when Acatl touches him. He forces himself not to hyperventilate; he can’t give into panic yet, not when Teomitl needs him. (There’ll be time for that later, when they survive. If they survive.) He knows those with head wounds shouldn’t be moved carelessly, but the water is creeping to his waist. They’ll drown if they stay here. Something in his back pops in a flash of agony when he lifts Teomitl into his arms, but miraculously he can bear his lover’s weight. He can’t see the ahuitzotl anywhere, but that’s not important. What is important is getting to higher ground.

He drags himself up one step. Another. Another. Teomitl’s heartbeat is a slow, sluggish thing where it’s pressed against his own chest, but it doesn’t stop; he clings to that like a lifeline. His Revered Speaker has made war in the Maya lands, and come back unscathed from the terrible mountains of Danibaan. He’s faced angry gods and demons, with the scars to show for it. He will not be defeated by a flood in his own home. Acatl won’t let him. They just need to make it up this next step.

The next step...isn’t. The floor goes out from under them as they reach the landing, and they’re falling into the water below before he can even scream. The impact tears Teomitl from his grip, but only the shock of his own submersion paralyzes him; even as he snatches fruitlessly at the billow of Teomitl’s cloak, his hands refuse to obey him.

Panic grips him immediately; only sheer instinct keeps him from opening his mouth and letting in deadly water instead of precious air. In the next instant he remembers where he is, and relaxes. There’s only another floor below them; the palace is about as far from the lake as you can get. Any moment now, he’ll be able to kick off from the bottom, grab Teomitl—he’s a solidly muscled man, he can’t have drifted far—and make his way back to the surface again.

There is no bottom. Green light filters behind his eyelids, clear as jade, and when he opens them he realizes he’s not in the palace anymore. He’s far too familiar with the tight, painful sensation of being on another deity’s ground. And yet...it isn’t quite as bad as it could be. He can breathe, and when he extends his priest-senses he can feel the Fifth World all around him, a hairs’ breadth away. Not fully in Tlalocan, then.

But Chalchiuhtlicue stands in front of him, on the doorstep of Her domain. He thinks he can hear the ahuitzotls’ song scratching at the inside of his ears, scrabbling like their claws for purchase into his mind. Between them floats Teomitl, still unconscious, his face obscured by a cloud of red. He already looks like a corpse, limp and cold and hollow-cheeked.

Acatl inhales, the words of a hymn on his lips. He can fix this—he can stall Her, at least, give them time—he can bow and scrape and maybe She’ll let them go, maybe they can survive this. His own soul is seasoned enough for Her to accept, surely.

She doesn’t give him the opportunity. “Finally,” She says. And she reaches out a hand to gather Teomitl to her.

All his piety vanishes like smoke, torn out of him in a gush of blood and replaced by a horrible, howling denial. He’s stood powerless too many times while Teomitl risked certain death out on the battlefield. He can’t watch a god take him in front of his very eyes. “Give him back,” he rasps.

Chalchiuhtlicue looks at him. Looks back at Teomitl. For a long, long while, Her face is impassive.

And then She smiles, and it is slow and terrible as the tide. “No.”

His heart stops.

“Do you not remember, little mortal, the price of your brother’s life all those years ago?”

No. No. He remembers—gods, he remembers, he’ll never forget the sight of Neutemoc drawing that life-saving breath on the banks of the lake—but that—no—

“It is time to collect what I am owed.”

And Acatl—Acatl, who has served the gods these forty years and more, who knows perfectly well that the Fifth World hangs by the slimmest thread, who once wagered his sister’s very soul in a desperate attempt to keep the boundaries of the world intact—Acatl lunges for Teomitl’s floating body, with a raw scream ripping its way from his throat in a shroud of bubbles. “No!”

Jade Skirt raises a hand, and he goes tumbling backwards end over end in the not-water. She could have killed him instantly, he knows, but She is...She is toying with him, like a jaguar with its prey, and it has him seeing red. Worse, he can hear the smug satisfaction in Her voice. “And what will you offer Me in exchange? Yourself?”

Yes. He doesn’t need air, but he sucks in a breath anyway, hissing in pain as he gets to his feet again. He’s old. His back hurts. He’d broken an ankle once, years ago, in a fall down a flight of stairs chasing after a monster, and that hurts too. He thinks fleetingly of Mihmatini’s face, of the nieces and nephews he will not now see grow up. Teomitl is forever letting each of his children try on the crown, even the girls. “If you will spare him,” he whispers. “If you will return him to us, hale and whole and alive, I will give you everything I have. Everything that is mine to give.”

She’s considering this, he can tell. A fish makes a lazy circuit of Her watery skirt somewhere around knee-height as her head tilts. “...Everything. Your soul, your body. All to serve Me.”

Terror would be a smart reaction. Grief, perhaps. But there’s none of that, at least not for himself. Teomitl hasn’t even seen forty yet, and Acatl can’t—he can’t—

“Ye—”

“No.”

His heart drops into his stomach and both organs freeze solid. He’s forgotten where he is. He’s forgotten that this is not truly Tlalocan, despite all appearances to the contrary, but a yawning rift in the Fifth World, torn open by the chaos of a Revered Speaker’s (near-)drowning. A rift in the boundaries.

And where there is a rift in the boundaries, there is bound to be the Wind of Knives investigating the cause.

He moves through the water, the obsidian shards of his body glittering like stars. His face...Acatl has never seen such an expression on His face. He did not know the Wind of Knives was capable of anger, and yet that is unmistakable in the baring of His teeth and the low rumble of His voice. When He stops by Acatl’s side, shoulder to shoulder the way they’ve fought of old, the cold of Him feels like the wind from Mictlan’s plains. “He is already spoken for. Both of them are—or do you think Lord Death will share? I do not.”

Chalchiuhtlicue draws Herself up, a wave breaking over their heads. “Keep your priest. But Ahuitzotl has sworn himself to Me these many years, and I will have him.”

“And yet,” the Wind of Knives says simply, “his mother dedicated him to the Southern Hummingbird at his birth, and he has also served Him well. The Hummingbird may be young, but do you imagine that He will not fight You for such a devoted servant?”

“He would lose,” She replies, but there is real fear in Her voice, and Acatl knows it’s far from a sure thing. Huitzilopochtli has grown very strong indeed since Teomitl was crowned Emperor.

“Nevertheless. You should give him back.” The Wind of Knives does not step forward, but the blades that make up His body ripple like a school of fish. “Him and the priest both. You have taken many souls to Your embrace tonight. What is one or two more?”

Acatl says nothing. He’s still prepared to give up his soul—prepared to tear out his very heart with his fingernails and lay it at Jade Skirt’s feet, if he must—but the Wind of Knives is here and is bargaining for their lives and he has no words for that. Instead he stares helplessly at Teomitl, watching the cloud of blood drift around his head.

Chalchiuhtlicue sweeps a slow glance over both of their faces. “Your master will owe Me something. And I do not think My ahuitzotls will come at their namesake’s call again.”

“So be it.” The Wind of Knives’ face doesn’t so much as twitch.

Her gaze settles on Acatl again, and there is no mercy in it. “You have angered Me this day, priest.”

Acatl thinks, now, that he’s surely moved to a place beyond fear. That explains the cold, calm surety in his heart. One day Chalchiuhtlicue will have her revenge, but it will not be this day. “Apologies, My Lady.”

This time, when he swims forward to gather Teomitl into his arms, She does not stop him. Nor does she stop him when he swims for the surface, when Teomitl draws in a glorious, shuddering breath, when that white-splotched ahuitzotl arrows through the water with a boat’s tow-rope in its jaws. (Jade Skirt was wrong. It nearly makes him smile.) The water’s risen too far for them to walk, and Teomitl needs medical attention. Acatl settles him in the boat as gently as he can and starts rowing.

The Wind of Knives keeps pace with them, and eventually Acatl finds the strength to ask, “Why?”

There’s something like a smile on His face. “Are we not comrades, Acatl?”

He nods, too exhausted to speak. They still aren’t safe. The Wind of Knives leaves him when they’re in sight of his temple, and then there are his priests and a healer and he can do nothing but slump down and pray, pray to the Duality that he isn’t too late to save the man he loves.

Three days later, as the waters begin to recede, Teomitl opens his eyes. It’s barely a flutter, and his pupils are blown wide and unfocused, but it’s something. A week after that, they stay open, and they are clear as the dawn. And his first word, spoken through cracked lips, is a breathless, “...Acatl...?”

Acatl doesn’t burst into tears of relief, but it’s a near thing.

[jojosbizarreblog]

Let Down your Crystal Walls

3 // 4 // 5

Chapter 4: Fire and Ire

Song Inspiration: ‘Toward the Sun’ by Rihanna

The plane shuddered and creaked around Kyogen. She gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the screams and yells of the other passengers. The armrest strained beneath her grip as Kyogen sat rigidly in her seat. 

Take a deep breath in, suppress it, don’t let it show.

She wasn’t afraid of dying, no, but the more primal part of her brain reminded her of unpleasant memories, a loud horn, blood on the sidewalk, and months in the hospital afterward. This was nowhere near what had happened but it was still close enough for her to get unpleasant memories. The plane jerked and Kyogen grunted as the seatbelt dug into her. 

Deep breath in, suppress it, don’t let it show. 

The plane shuddered, then bounced. A boom echoed throughout the cabin. It seemed like they had touched the ocean. Stars exploded in Kyogen’s vision as her head smacked into the seat in front of her. Fuck, that was going to leave a mark. Metal groaned as the plane bounced again, and shuddered to a stop. 

Joseph’s voice was heard over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for flying the Joestar air! Please remain in your seats, the rescue will be along shortly.” 

Avdol was already halfway out of his seat. “We must hurry,” he said. “We have to get to Jotaro and Mr. Joestar and give them their bags before it gets too crowded to do so.” Even with Mr. Joestar’s warning, there were already people beginning to stumble their way into the aisle. 

Kyogen unclenched her fingers from the armrest and unbuckled herself with trembling hands. She slipped her arms through her back straps and picked up the other duffle bag. Kyogen’s face was blank but the white-knuckled grip on the bags betrayed her innermost feelings. Avdol began making his way back to the cockpit and Kyogen followed after Kakyoin and him.

They met with Joseph and Jotaro at the door in front of the plane. The two tall males had no trouble pushing through the crowd and Kyogen envied that. A panicked man pushed past her, shoving her against the seats. The girl grumbled and righted herself. Walking up to Jotaro, she extended the hand holding the duffle bag to him. “This is yours, Kujo.”

The male took it from her and nodded. Kakyoin gave Joseph his bag and the American took it. “Looks like we landed perfectly fine!” He said enthusiastically.

Fine??? Kyogen was pretty sure she was sporting a massive red mark on her forehead and she was surprised that the plane didn’t break apart upon impact. But she had to thank the old man, without him, things would have turned out to be much worse. 

“We landed just outside of Hong Kong. No doubt there will be rescue coming soon,” Jotaro said. “Thank god we didn’t die.”

“Hey! I told you I had experience! We were in good hands!” Joseph boasted, hitting his chest with a closed fist. “Let’s see if the helicopters have arrived yet!” The American proceeded to pull the plane door open and precariously far out, making the others in the group move to him in concern.

A frightened voice caught Kyogen’s attention and she turned around just to see a tearful woman holding a baby in her arms. Behind her were a few other passengers, looking at Kyogen. The woman did a double-take when she saw the teen’s eyes, but recovered after. She began rapidly speaking in a language Kyogen didn’t understand. The teen put up her hands in a placating motion to quiet down the woman. “Japanese?” She asked the woman.

A blank look was given to her and the woman babbled something else.

Kyogen sighed and tried again. “English?”

The woman brightened and nodded, launching heavily accented questions at her. “What happened? Where are we? Why are people out?”

The slew of questions was almost too fast for Kyogen’s mostly self-taught ears to understand. She silently thanked her tenth-grade language teacher for making them watch and report documentaries as a grade. “Everything is safe,” she soothed the woman in English. “The plane landed near Hong Kong. Emergency landing. Help will come soon.”

The woman gave her a slow blink and Kyogen winced. Damn, her accent might be worse than she thought. She motioned for the woman to wait where she was and made her way to the old American. Pulling on his coat to get his attention, Kyogen pointed to the woman and her group and said in Japanese, “They have a few questions. My English is too accented for them to understand and they have a limited understanding of English too.”

Joseph nodded and Kyogen took his place leaning out the door as he walked to the woman. She was met with the sun rising over the sparkling buildings of Hong Kong in the distance. This would make for a perfect pictur--right, the camera. Kyogen fumbled for the Polaroid and aimed it at the scene, taking a picture and waiting for the little photo to develop. The sparkling skyline of Hong Kong, lit by the light of the rising sun, stared back at her from the picture. She reverently tucked the items away in her bag.

Kakyoin poked his head out beside her. “Careful,” he said. “Don’t want to fall into the ocean now, do you?”

Kyogen didn’t take her eyes from the sunrise. “I can swim well,” she replied simply.

Kakyoin looked at where she was looking. “Beautiful isn’t it?” He asked her.

“Yeah,” she said. Morioh had nice views too, but this was almost a whole new level.

“Uh, Wind?”

“Yes?”

“Your Stand is out.”

Kyogen craned her neck up to see Sharpnote’s upper body leaning halfway out of her back, the Stand staring at the sunrise like her. “Get back in,” Kyogen sighed. Sharpnote retreated back as the girl saw various boats and helicopters heading to the plane. “The rescue is here.”

Just as she said, the rescue teams arrived, thankfully with an English speaker in tow. Joseph was able to give them a revised version of what transpired in the plane as the passengers were being taken out of the plane and onto the boats. Kyogen was now seated in the back of a boat with the rest of the group, speeding towards Hong Kong’s harbor. The sun fell on her and Kyogen looked back at the broken plane, shrouded in shadows. 

This trip was going to be… different. She could tell.

***

Hong Kong was a pretty sight to see. Bustling and full of shops and life compared to Morioh. Kyogen uneasily eyed the road as cars whizzed by them, sticking to the wall as far as possible. Joseph was busy making a call to somebody and she was waiting with Kujo and the other two for the American to finish. 

“Hey, big guy!” A shopkeeper yelled at Jotaro in English. “Are you guys tourists? Want some rice porridge? If you’re in Hong Kong, you gotta try dim sum or rice porridge. We have some hot cola too.”

Hot cola? Kyogen recalled dim sum as a pretty famous range of foods, and rice porridge was understandable enough, but hot cola??

“Rice porridge, eh? Not bad,” Kakyoin said. He turned to Jotaro and said, “Did you know Jotaro? Unlike in Japan, rice porridge is a staple in Hong Kong,” he turned to the shopkeeper, “I’ll have it the popular way, with pork and a century egg.”

“Coming right up!”

Avdol began to order. “Then I’ll have--”

“Hey!” Joseph yelled, beginning to walk to the group. “What are you guys trying to eat? We’re going to go to my friend’s shop.”

The shopkeeper saw him coming and asked, “Hey, dandy guy. Want to try our Hong Kong hot cola?”

Joseph gawked at the shopkeeper. “Hot?! Everyone knows that cola’s supposed to be cold!”

Jotaro stopped Joseph from going further. “Old man,” the teen said. “Who were you calling?”

“Hm? Oh, I’ll explain everything when we get to the shop.” A frown hardened on Joseph’s face. “We need to work out a plan that’ll get us to Egypt and safely and as quickly as possible.”

“Mr. Joestar, we can not allow any more innocent civilians to be hurt. The quickest way would be by plane but…”

“Indeed. Come, we’ll talk over at the shop.”

Joseph began to walk away from the shop and Kyogen threw a sympathetic glance at the shopkeeper. With a few short minutes of walking, they reached an elaborately decorated building. A large sign with Chinese lettering hung between two tall red pillars. Kyogen brushed past reaching plants as she followed the group through the two wooden doors. 

A waiter greeted them. “Mr. Joestar,” he said. “Come this way please.”

They were seated at an empty corner of the restaurant, out of the way of the other patrons. Kyogen took a seat in between Kujo and Kakyoin, setting her bag onto her lap. A pot of tea and porcelain cups were placed on the table, and after waiting for everyone to get their fill, she eagerly reached for the pot. Kyogen felt her stress melt away as she took in the aroma of the steaming liquid.

Joseph was gazing at her and the other teens. “I know Jotaro is fine with it…” he mumbled, a hand on his chin. “Wind, Kakyoin, how much English do you two understand?”

Kyogen hummed. “I can read, write, and understand English fine. My speaking skills are passing but you’ll have to excuse my accent and minor mistakes. I haven’t had much practice with that.”

“My parents taught me English and I have no trouble with it. I’m very fluent with it.”

 “Alright. For now, I think it’s best if we start speaking English. Is that alright?”

The two teens nodded.

Joseph clasped his hands together and leaned forward. “Good. Back to the problem at hand. If we encounter another Stand user like the last one on the commercial flight, we’re sure to cause a disaster that’ll harm many people. We’ll have to get to Egypt by land or by sea.”

“But if we fail to meet Dio within fifty days..”

Kyogen tensed. The air around the table turned serious at the thought of that. Based on the others’ reactions, she could tell that they were thinking the same thing as she was.

“If we stayed on that plane, we’d probably be in Cairo by now.” Kakyoin mused.

Joseph closed his eyes. “I’m aware of that. But it’s too soon to worry about it.”

Kyogen tilted her head. What did he mean by that?

“A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a story in which the protagonist traveled around the world in eighty days, traveling nearly fifty thousand miles. That was in the age of trains and steamboats. Even without a plane, in fifty days we’ll be able to travel the six thousand two hundred fourteen miles to Egypt. As for the route,” Joseph reached into his coat and brought a map out, unfolding and laying it on the table. “I say we go by sea. We’ll charter a suitably-sized boat, go around the Malay Peninsula, and cross the Indian Ocean. It’ll be the Silk Road of the sea.”

Kyogen sipped her tea thoughtfully. Traveling by boat, huh? She had never been on a boat before and she hoped that it would be… smooth sailing.

“I believe it would be best, as well,” Avdol agreed. “If we go by land, the borders will be a hassle, and we would have to cross the Himalayas and a desert. If we ran into trouble, we would lose a great deal of time. There are too many dangers.”

“I haven’t been to any of those places using any of those routes, I can't say anything,” the redhead next to Kyogen said. “I’ll leave it up to you two.”

Kyogen nodded her agreement and Jotaro replied, “Same.”

“Then it’s decided. The greatest danger will be the Stand users that Dio send against us. We’ll have to do our best to get to Egypt without being spotted.”

Kyogen reached for the teapot but Kakyoin intercepted her, lifting up the lid and resting it at an angle. “This is a sign to let them know we want more tea,” he chuckled. “If you do this in Hong Kong, they’ll bring you seconds. Say Wind, you seem to like tea don’t you?”

“Hm. You seem to know a lot, don’t you?” Kyogen countered his question softly. She turned her attention to a man walking up to the table with his face hidden behind a menu. He was ripped and Kyogen wondered if she needed to drink more milk to catch up to all these people around her.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?” The man asked in English. “I’m a tourist from France, and I’m having a hard time with the kanji on the menu,” he closed his menu to reveal fair skin and a… tall hairdo, “Would you help me out?”

“You’re annoying, go away,” Jotaro said next to her.

“Come now, Jotaro. It’s fine,” Joseph said, taking the menu from the stranger’s hands. “I’ve been to Hong Kong many times, so I can at least read the kanji on the menu.” He motioned to the empty seat next to him. “Why don’t you join us? What did you want to order? Food with shrimp, duck, shark fin, and mushrooms?”

Shark fin?

Joseph flagged a waiter, who came and flipped out his notebook. “We’ll have this, this, and this…”

Kyogen blinked as the male continued pointing down the menu. The waiter nodded and left, taking the menu with him. The table was left in awkward silence. With the arrival of this stranger, there was no way the group could discuss their plans now. The stranger tilted his head and rested his arms on the table. “Are you all tourists as well? Or are you on a school project? It seems like you three are students, based on your clothes.”

Right. She, Kujo, and Kakyoin were all still in their student uniforms.

“You could say that,” Kakyoin replied.

“Oh, really? Are you here to observe the rich culture and traditions of Hong Kong? Such a diverse place this is.”

Kyogen nodded and avoided conversation by sipping on her tea. 

Lonesome. Loathsome.

Her teacup was set down harder and expected and she sent an apologetic look to Jotaro when he glanced at her. The others, with the exception of Kujo, engaged in light conversation while Kyogen sipped on her tea. Soon, waiters began flooding their table, putting down bowls and utensils. Four large dishes were put at the center. Roasted frogs, clams, rice porridge, and a large steamed fish. 

Kyogen stared at the food. “This is quite… interesting.”

The rest of her table was looking at the food too, and Avdol said, “This looks like food with beef, fish, clams, and frogs but…”

“Indeed. This is rather different,” Kakyoin agreed.

“I knew this would happen,” Jotaro grumbled.

Joseph laughed good-naturedly. “Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s on me! Everyone dig in!” 

Kyogen picked up her bowl and spooned in a bit of porridge. She watched the others’ reactions as they tried out the unique dishes.

“Well, they’ve certainly taken a lot of time to prepare this,” the man said, reaching for a dish. “Look, these carrots, they’re shaped like stars. Reminds me of something…” He smirked and stared at Joseph.

Danger.

“That’s right. Someone I know has this exact mark on their neck…”

Kyogen began reaching into her bag.

“You…” Kakyoin began. “Are you another…”

Polnareff smirked. The bowl of porridge began bubbling and a rapier emerged from it.

“Mr. Joestar! Look out!”

Said rapier swung down at Joseph, who stopped it with his fingers. Kyogen leaped out of her chair as Avdol upturned the table. “Magician’s Red!”

The Stand emerged and shot fire at the stranger, though it was intercepted by the wielder of the rapier, an armored being. The Stand twirled the fire around its blade and sent it into the wooden table, where burning numbers etched themselves around it like a clock

“Stand user,” Kyogen muttered, drawing out the daggers in her bag. She slipped the bag back on her shoulders.

“My stand holds The Chariot card! Silver Chariot! Muhammad Avdol, it appears you want to die first. I’ve made a clock on that table! I will kill you by the time that clock burns to twelve!”

A solid hand landed on her shoulders and Kyogen looked back to see Joseph. “It’s okay,” he said. “Avdol can handle it. You might hurt yourself against the man.”

Kyogen frowned. She didn’t like standing by the side helplessly like this but understood what Joseph meant. Facing an opponent a whole entire foot taller than her with two tiny knives was an ill-advised move. A move that would get her sliced up by said opponent’s much bigger “knife”. 

“Your sword is amazingly fast,” Avdol said. “It’s amazing, but do you really think you’ll defeat me by the time the flames on that table strikes 12? Aren’t you rather conceited, Mister…”

“Polnareff,” the man introduced himself. “Jean Pierre Polnareff.”

“Merci beaucoup. I appreciate your introduction but,” Kyogen flinched as the flaming table jumped and crashed down, “Monsieur Polnareff, don’t assume that my flames always burn upward or downwind as they would in nature. It’s called Magician’s Red because it controls flames freely.”

Polnareff stabbed the rapier into the ground and said, “In the beginning, the world was engulfed in flames. I expect nothing less from Magician’s Red who controls the flames that suggest the beginning of all things. But are you saying my swordsmanship is mere conceit?!”

Kyogen watched as Silver Chariot pierced five coins in midair. “There is fire between them,” she muttered.

“That’s right, my Stand has the power to severe even fire! It can slash the very air and create gaps between nothingness. This means your Magician’s Red is powerless before my Silver Chariot!”

The coins dropped and Silver Chariot disappeared. Doors were pulled open behind the group and Kyogen turned to see Polnareff leaving.

“My Stand represents The Chariot, which suggests conquest and victory. I don’t mind taking care of you in this crowded little space, but you’ll be able to use your flame abilities in open space, isn’t that right, Avdol? It would be fitting for my Stand to defeat you under those circumstances. A fitting victory. Everyone, outside!”

Kyogen tucked away her daggers and tailed the group as they reluctantly followed Polnareff outside. They passed through a peculiar place, where statues of prowling tigers nestled among plants. “This is Tiger’s Balm Garden,” Kakyoin said. 

Coming to a stop at the top of stairs where a wide-open area greeted them. Polnareff turned with a smirk on his face and said, “I will make a prediction here. First, Avdol, you will be destroyed by your own Stand’s powers.” Silver Chariot manifested behind him.

Kyogen stepped up as Jotaro said, “Avdol…”

“Jotaro, Wind. You two need not interfere. With such an open space, I can control my Stand as freely as I want.” Magician’s Red burst forth behind Avdol. 

Kyogen rejoined the others with Jotaro as Avdol and Polnareff faced off against each other.

Polnareff was the first to move. “Come on!”

The match had started.

[kpop-uni]

Confessions // Chapter 5

Choi YoungjaexReader Based on a serial killer and his documentary Words: 3.6K Warnings: Smut, language, blood and, eventually details surrounding the murders. In this chapter specifically, there are mentions of sexual abuse and triggering topics. A/N: Smut in here, not the good kind. BUT thank you guys for waiting patiently for this chapter! It’s the final one and it’s an open-end so let me know your thoughts! I hope you enjoy it and feel free to let me know your thoughts! Chapter 4 // End

Nothing made sense, Youngjae just kept his eyes on you. It wasn't until you noticed that his mom was crying hysterically, clinging to herself that you started paying attention. Parents of the victims were rejoicing, hugging each other and happy tears were streaming down their faces. Another look at Youngjae showed his head down, hiding his face as he cried, making you stand. An officer rushed over, holding your arm to make sure you didn't move toward Youngjae, keeping you back.

"Youngjae..." You watched as he was pulled up, cuffed again and pulled from the table. "Youngjae!" You screamed, trying to move closer to him only to get stopped by the officer. You kept screaming his name, crying as Bam moved toward you, holding you as you screamed for Youngjae to come back.

"He's innocent, Bam! You know he is!" You cried into Bam's chest, arms wrapped around him as he held you tight, trying to shush you as watched Youngjae disappear behind the doors. Bam gently draped his blazer over your head, covering your face as he and Jinyoung walked out with you. Reporters were asking for comments, cameras rolling as the families of the victims spoke with reports each of them looking at you. You felt their judging eyes from under the blazer, your feet moving faster to get away from everything. Once in Jinyoung's car, you dropped the blazer on your lap, Bam sliding in next to you.

You blocked the conversation Jinyoung had with Bam, your head swirling with everything that happened. Bam occasionally looking at you, trying to get you to talk but you simply stayed silent, only staring at the single spot on the car. You didn't notice the car park, or you getting out and sitting on your couch. You looked up at the TV in front of you, the black screen showing your lost reflection. Bam and Jinyoung weren’t around, only silence surrounded you before the closing of a cabinet made you turn to the hall toward the kitchen. Jinyoung’s whispers were heard and Bam’s response echoing back.

You reached for the TV remote, turning it on and sitting back on the couch, gulping down the lump on your throat.

“...we all know it must be comforting for the parents to know that this man won’t hurt any other girl.” One of the reporters spoke.

“I would hope so, they went through so much within this past year that this justice would help them even if it’s a little.”

You looked up when Bam turned the TV off, sighing heavily. “It’s not good for you to dwell on things like this,”

Bam stayed for the night, staying with you when you woke up screaming. He and Jinyoung ran to your room, Bam immediately comforting you as you clung to him, only wanting Youngjae back. You weren’t allowed to visit Youngjae, the prison saying that only family was allowed, even with his mother’s permission, you weren’t let in. Bam came out with a message from him, that he would come out and he promises to make it all up for you. You stayed home months following after, still not allowed to visit Youngjae, no matter how much you begged or tried to bribe the officers.

Jinyoung continued to come over to keep an eye on you, sometimes staying over and sleeping on the couch. Today, he had called that once he was done with work he was going to go over to help around, starting to help you get back on your feet and get yourself back in school. You scrolled through your phone, looking over old pictures of Youngjae and you. You sniffled, head resting on your blanket, thinking of all the memories you shared with him, the joy he brought you.

A text notification dropped down from the top part of the screen, your eyes glancing up to see Bam's name.

BamBam 3:57 PM: Can you call quick? I wanna run through something with you.

You clicked the drop-down message before it disappeared, letting it take you to Bam's contact info and calling him. You waiting as it rang twice before he answered. "Are you alone?"

"Yeah? What's going on?" You could hear his out of breath voice shake a bit, the sound of the city in the background.

"Yugyeom was after me to talk to him and we had a big argument about what happened with Youngjae and I was about to hang up before he told me something."

You furrowed your eyebrows, sitting up and listening to his voice as your breathing stopped, eyes widening in shock.

"Jinyoung contacted Yugyeom a week before he went on the stand and offered him 2 grand to lie. He told Yugyeom that Youngjae did do the crimes but that Jinyoung was scared for his safety if he confronted Youngjae about it.

"So, Jinyoung took a flight over to visit Yugyeom, gave him the money, buried the jacket covered in blood that who knows where he got it from and came back."

Your lips trembled, tears rising as you whimpered. "Bam... He wouldn't. Jinyoung is his best friend-"

"Jinyoung wasn't himself the past few months, have you noticed?"

You heard your front door open, the call of your name making you scramble back to the headboard of your bed. "He's here, I have to go,"

"Be careful,"

Just as you hung up, Jinyoung came in your room, smiling at you and showing you a bag in his hands, the other hiding behind his back. “Hey, I brought you takeout.”

You hid your phone under your thigh, only looking at the bag before Jinyoung's smile fell, shoulder's slumping. "Still down?" He asked, taking a few steps to you before showing his hiding hand. "Thought that maybe you needed a little pick me up."

Jinyoung offered you a bouquet, the whole thing colorful and fill your nose with the beautiful scent of them. You reached for the wrapped flowers, taking them in your arms. "Come on, let's get food in you."

You didn't take his hand when he offered it, getting off the bed on your own, hiding your phone under the blanket. You followed him to the kitchen, watching as he turned to smile at you, setting the paper bag down. Jinyoung let you sit, taking out everything he needed, beginning to serve the food. “You okay? You look like you have something to say.”

You looked up at Jinyoung who smiled at you, setting a plate of food in front of you, giving you his full attention. “We can talk about it if you want.”

Your eyes shifted down to your food before hesitantly looking up at Jinyoung as he took a bite of his food, chewing it before swallowing. You set the flowers on the table next to your plate, fingers grazing the fork. “Did you pay Yugyeom to lie?”

Jinyoung didn’t stop eating, only looking up at you as he took another forkful of food, chewing his food. You waited for his answer, not even able to eat your food, growing tense. Jinyoung took his time eating, taking a sip of his water before looking at you. "Who told you?"

"I asked you first-"

"Yes, I did,"

You took in a breath, Jinyoung watching you closely before scoffing, picking up his fork to grab some more food. "And now you're going to ask why, right?" Jinyoung guessed, pushing his plate away as he sat back against his chair. You couldn't find words to answer Jinyoung, only sitting and waiting for him to continue.

"I figured that we could go down the old-fashioned route and I could just tell you the truth and have to prove that I'm so much better than Youngjae but then I realized that... I could've just completely removed him from the picture." Jinyoung shrugged during the pause, eyes on his plate.

You blinked, hands trembling on your lap as Jinyoung pressed his tongue to his cheek, suddenly turning into someone you didn't know. He was angry, almost shaking as he collected his thoughts.

"At first I started fucking around, you know? Mostly with girls with the same hair color, same skin complexion as you." Jinyoung waved his hand, dismissing them with a disgusted look. "I thought maybe they could substitute the feeling of you. But it wasn't the same, it never was. They wanted something more but I told them I didn't and they were just so clingy!"

You flinched when he raised his voice, Jinyoung taking a breath before relaxing. "Last year, the first girl was just calling me all the time. She told me to forget you, that she was better anyway and I just snapped."

"I panicked at first, tossing the body in the school's pool and going into hiding." Jinyoung sighed, almost as if he told this story so many times, he was growing bored of it. "There was a rush though, it felt so good to have that much power."

You tensed when Jinyoung looked at you, lips lifting in a smile. "I killed them all, just for fun. Then I realized I could just pin everything on Youngjae and have you fall for me."

You couldn't form words, too shocked to say anything but you pushed yourself back when Jinyoung stood up. You grabbed onto your chair, keeping it in front of you as Jinyoung stalked toward you.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I love you, I could never hurt you,"

"Why-"

"Because he always gets what he wants!" Jinyoung snapped, eyes blazed with anger, trembling as he grit his teeth. "It's not fair! I saw you first! I had a class with you two years ago! And you fucking chose him over me?"

You kept backing away, terrified of the change in Jinyoung, one you never saw. He got mad, sure, you've seen how angry he gets with other people but never like this. He looked like he would kill you without a second thought.

"If it wasn't for me, he would've never met you! I wanted to go to the library to talk to you, but he finally saw you and went behind my back to get to you!" Jinyoung lashed forward, yanking the chair away from your hands, tossing it like nothing toward the table.

"You know how crazy I got knowing that he was the one making you shy? The one you blushed with, flirted with, especially the one you spread those legs for so easily?" By the end, Jinyoung trapped you against the wall, hands gripping your arms.

"Jinyoung-"

"I fucking loved you! I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you and you chose him?" Jinyoung noticed the way you cowered against him, how you trembled and your eyes squeezed closed, almost hugging yourself for protection.

"Princess, I'm sorry," His voice dropped to a whisper, hands loosening on your arms as he bent to your level, carefully picking your face up to look at him. His fingertips pushed your hair behind your ear, a smile coming up on his face. You couldn't look at him, your eyes slowly opening and staying down, terrified of what he looked like.

"Remember our first night together?" He asked, hands moving down your arms and to your hips, pressing himself flush against you. "The way you held me, begged me for more... Fuck, your pussy was so wet for me and you took me in so deep and felt so good."

You shook your head, Jinyoung ignoring you as he kissed your cheek. "I couldn't get your sinful moans out of my head all day. I just wanted to come back and feel you wrapped around me again."

A choked sob left you as Jinyoung pressed kisses to your cheek, moving down to your neck and nibbling on it. You whimpered at the sudden bite, flinching as Jinyoung chuckled against your skin. "I know you like me too," He pressed a kiss under your ear, nibbling on your earlobe. "I can tell by the way you look at me when I come over, how you clung to me when Youngjae wasn’t here, that’s why I decided that you wanted me too.”

You squeezed your eyes closed, hands gripping his shirt tighter in your fist. “That sweet smile on your face when you kissed me goodbye, the way you whined when I had to leave-"

“Jinyoung, I wasn’t in my right mind-"

“Princess,” Jinyoung chuckled, pulling back to look at you as his hands went back to hold your face gently. “Youngjae isn’t here anymore, you don’t have to worry about him.” You tried looking away, tried pulling away but he held your face, pressing his lips to yours.

You cried, hands attempting to push him back before Jinyoung roughly slammed you into the wall, ignoring the way your head bounced with the hit. “Stop trying to get away from me!” Jinyoung yelled, gripping you tightly, holding you up as your legs got wobbly.

Your head spun, seeing double of  Jinyoung as he dragged you to him, making you take a couple of steps before collapsing. “Stop doing this shit! Do you want to get punished?” Jinyoung yelled, attempting to pull you up but you couldn’t, black spots appearing in your vision. You collapsed, legs finally giving out.

You opened your eyes to see the ceiling of your room, you sat up, head spinning and making you lay down again. You groaned a bit, hand covering your eyes to try to steady yourself and to try to get your head to stop spinning.

"Awake?"

Jinyoung's voice made you cower, turning away only for his hand to pull your face gently to face him, his weight falling on the bed next to you. "Baby, I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you, but you're just so stubborn."

"I don't want you," You whispered, wanting to pull away from Jinyoung but you felt so weak. "I want Youngjae, how could you do this?"

You yelped at the slap to your cheek, curling into a ball as your hands covered your face for protection. You were pinned to the bed, wrist pressed into it as Jinyoung straddled you, grunting when you tried to get away from him. “Stop! Fucking stop!” Jinyoung yelled, making your cry harder.

“I hate you!” You screamed, gasping as his hand wrapped around your throat, your free hand clawing at his arm to let you go.

“You hate me? After everything, I did for you?” Jinyoung watched your face turn red, the way you wheezed for air before he let your neck go, grabbing a hand full of your hair and dragging you off the bed. You yelped as you fell, trying to protect yourself as Jinyoung kept the tight hold on your hair.

“You just feel bad because of him, but just give it time and you’ll come around,” Jinyoung turned soft again, pulling your hair harder to make you kneel.

“I’m sorry!” You screamed, Jinyoung’s hand freezing as he was ready to hit you again. “I’m sorry! It’s the guilt! It’s happening too fast!”

You stumbled when Jinyoung’s hand left your hair, sniffling as he knelt in front of you and cooed softly, kissing your cheek. “I know, but it’ll go away. I’m never leaving you and you’re going to see how I’m so much better for you, okay?”

You forced your head to nod, crying as his lips danced on your cheek, skimming down to your neck. You let him drag you closer, arms caging around you as he gripped your body, making sure you didn’t leave. You whimpered when he flipped you both over, hovering over your body on the ground, his face lighting up. “I love your cute sounds,”

You stared up at the ceiling as Jinyoung laid on you, head on your chest, marks blooming on your body from the bites, the gripping, and the slaps he gave you. Your hair was a tangled mess from the pulls and your face was red and stained with dried tears. You stayed still, Jinyoung getting comfortable and groaning softly, smiling at your wince feeling sore. He gave your chest butterfly kisses, hands skimming across your body as he sighed.

“I can stay inside you forever... can I?” He asked, not expecting an answer, not like you were going to give him one anyway. Jinyoung moved his face down, kissing your tummy before grinning. “How many little ones do you think we’ll have? I want three, all of them to look as cute as you.”

Jinyoung looked up at you, seeing you staring off into space, body laying almost lifeless. You couldn’t cry anymore, all your tears used up and Jinyoung smiled a bit, scooting up to be face level with you. “I love you, baby. I’m always going to protect you, okay? I’m not going to let that fucking animal get near you.”

Jinyoung pulled out, giving you one last kiss before pulling on his clothes, going to the closet. You curled into yourself, eyes closed and block out the rustling he made as he walked around the room. He packed a few of your clothes, stuffing them in a bag before searching your desk and drawers.

Jinyoung sighed, frowning before searching the bed, finally finding your phone. He set it down on your bedside table, putting the ready bag down and walking over to you. He sat you up, gently pulling your clothes back on before smiling at you, cupping your cheek. "You're my girl, okay?"

You let Jinyoung take you out to his car, packing your bag in his trunk as he buckled you up. He looked at you, your eyes not once looking at him. Jinyoung grit his teeth, hand curling around your neck and making you gasp in fear.

"You scream, make one attempt to run away from me and I'm going to fucking kill you, got it?" Jinyoung warned, making you whimper, a small yes escaping your lips. He kissed you, letting go of your neck and making his way to the driver's side of the car.

Youngjae rushed into the arms of Bam, hugging his cousin tightly. "I can't thank you enough,"

Bam laughed a bit, rubbing Youngjae's back. "Don't thank me, you know I would do anything for you."

It's been two weeks since Bam heard your voice, his worry intensifying as he was unsure of what could've happened to you after Jinyoung came home. Bam was close to visiting you when he got a call from an unknown number, answering and sighing in relief at your voice.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay," You answered, looking up at Jinyoung who towered over you. You gulped silently, hand gripping the phone. "I went out of town for a bit, sorry. I have to go but I'm okay,"

You didn't have a chance to properly apologize, to even hear Bam's attempt to keep you on the line a bit longer. Jinyoung yanked the phone back, hanging up and tossing the phone aside.

Now, Bam stood with what hopefully was going to be the best thing to pick you up, Youngjae eagerly rushing inside his home.

It was cold, Youngjae shivering as he looked around. The kitchen smelled, bugs on the table as food sat there growing mold. There was a chair tossed aside, what looked like dried blood on the ground that was slightly smeared. Youngjae walked to the room to find most of your stuff missing, the bed a mess and the whole place in shambles.

Youngjae looked over at your phone, picking it up to find it barely with any battery. He plugged it into the charger, waiting slightly for it to start working properly before scrolling through your records. The last call and text you sent were over a week ago, with no activity happening other than a few social media notifications along with calls and texts from Bam.

Youngjae dialed Jinyoung's number, waiting as the line rang a few times before it answered. Jinyoung sighed, pushing his hair back as he pressed the phone to his ear, smiling. "Hello?"

"Jinyoung? It's me, Bam bailed me out, where's y/n?"

Jinyoung grinned widely, looking down at you and giving you a wink as you stared up at him, hands tied above your head to the headboard. "Wanna talk to her?" Jinyoung asked, pulling the phone away and offering it to you. "Guess what? Bam bailed Youngjae out, he's free and wants to see you,"

Your eyes widened, hands struggling against the rope. Youngjae listened to your whimpers, eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Baby, it's me-"

"Sorry, she doesn't want to talk to you," Jinyoung pressed the phone back to his ear, watching as you cried, trying to turn away. Jinyoung grinned at how broken you were, now terrified of Youngjae after all the abuse you received from Jinyoung for even thinking about him. "Right, princess? You don't want him?"

"No! I don't want him! Please, Jinyoung, I don't want him!" You cried, shaking and terrified of what could happen to you. Jinyoung hummed, the loud kisses he pressed on your neck reaching Youngjae as he stood silent, tears streaming down his face.

"If you get near my girl, I'm going to murder her just like I did to the others. I'm going to make you watch as I tear her apart, making sure you get blamed again."

Youngjae listened to your cries, the way you begged for forgiveness to Jinyoung and the way he slightly moaned, chuckling. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we're busy getting a family started."

Jinyoung pulled away from you, putting the phone down on the desk he had across the room, smashing the phone until it broke.

Youngjae looked over at Bam who stood at the entrance of the bedroom, teeth-gritting in anger. "I'm going to kill him,"

[newstfionline]

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Migration has plummeted during the pandemic (Economist) If there is one thing that people remember about the covid-19 pandemic, it is the experience of sheltering in place. Those looking to move abroad have had little choice but to stay put, too. A new report from the OECD, a think-tank, shows that travel restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic caused migration to rich countries to fall by half in the first half of the year, compared with 2019. The sharpest declines occurred in East Asia and Oceania. Rich countries there have succeeded better than most at stopping the spread of covid-19. This is in part because they were quick to recognise the threat and institute strict travel restrictions. Some countries in the region, including Japan, South Korea and New Zealand have just about stopped accepting new immigrants entirely.

Couples doing fine (Washington Post) While lots of the early pandemic and quarantine led to speculation about a spike in divorces that would ensue following couples being crammed into close quarters for extended periods, couples are actually doing pretty okay according to the latest edition of the American Family Survey: 58 percent of married men and women aged 18 to 55 said the pandemic made them appreciate their spouse more; while 8 percent said that the pandemic weakened their commitment to one another, 51 percent said it’d deepened it. The numbers bear it out too: five states report divorce stats in real time, and on balance filings are down for 2020. Year-to-date, divorce filings are down 19 percent in Florida, 13 percent in Rhode Island, 12 percent in Oregon and 9 percent in Missouri. Only Arizona, as of now, is up.

Faulty password security (Foreign Policy) A Dutch “white hat”—or ethical hacker—claims to have logged in to the Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump … simply by guessing his password. Victor Gevers, a security researcher, discovered the vulnerability last Friday before alerting U.S. security authorities. Gevers allegedly gained access using the password “maga2020!” but did not succumb to the temptation of tweeting to the president’s 87 million followers. Gevers attributes the lack of account security to Trump’s age. “‘Trump is over 70—elderly people often switch off two-step verification because they find it too complicated. My own mother, for instance.”

IMF concerned over post-COVID social unrest across Latin America (Reuters) The International Monetary Fund is concerned that social unrest will make a comeback in “lots of countries” across Latin America once the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, a top IMF official said on Thursday. Economies across Latin America and the Caribbean are forecast to contract as a group by 8.1% this year, with an uneven 2021 bounce at just 3.6%, and most countries are not seen returning to pre-COVID output levels until 2023, the Fund said earlier on Thursday. “Some of the determinants of social unease are going to worsen and that generates our concern for the region, for lots of countries in the region,” Alejandro Werner, the Fund’s director for the Western Hemisphere, said in an interview with Reuters. “Coming out of the pandemic, we will have a level of economic activity and employment that will be much lower than before, a level of poverty and income distribution that is worse,” he added. Protests that sometimes turned violent rocked countries including Chile, Ecuador and Colombia even before the pandemic hit, fueled by anger over inequality, corruption and government austerity policies.

In hard-hit Peru, worry mounts over both COVID-19 and dengue (AP) PUCALLPA, Peru—Two of Lidia Choque’s close family members had already gotten sick with the new coronavirus when the mosquitos arrived. The 53-year-old woman lives in a wooden house near the airport of a Peruvian city in the Amazon rainforest. City fumigators usually visit several times during the rainy season to eliminate the pests, but this year, because of the pandemic, they were absent. When she went to a hospital after coming down with a fever and body aches, doctors delivered a double diagnosis: COVID-19 and dengue. “I couldn’t even walk,” she said. As Peru grapples with one the world’s worst SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, another virus is starting to raise alarm: dengue. Health officials have reported over 35,000 cases this year, concentrated largely in the Amazon. The rise comes amid an overall dip in the number of new daily coronavirus infections, though authorities worry a second wave could strike as dengue cases rise.

French PM says 2nd virus wave is here, vastly extends curfew (AP) French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday a vast extension of the nightly curfew that is intended to curb the spiraling spread of the coronavirus, saying “the second wave is here.” The curfew imposed in eight regions of France last week, including Paris and its suburbs, is being extended to 38 more regions and Polynesia starting Friday at midnight, Castex said. It is likely to last six weeks before a review, he said. The extension means that 46 million of France’s 67 million people will be under 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfews that prohibit them from being out and about during those hours except for limited reasons, such as walking a dog, traveling to and from work and catching a train or flight.

Putin: Russia-China military alliance can’t be ruled out (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday there is no need for a Russia-China military alliance now, but noted it could be forged in the future. Putin’s statement signaled deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States. The Russian leader also made a strong call for extending the last remaining arms control pact between Moscow and Washington. Asked during a video conference with international foreign policy experts Thursday whether a military union between Moscow and Beijing was possible, Putin replied that “we don’t need it, but, theoretically, it’s quite possible to imagine it.” Russia and China have hailed their “strategic partnership,” but so far rejected any talk about the possibility of their forming a military alliance. Russia has sought to develop stronger ties with China as its relations with the West sank to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other rifts.

China hopes for change if Biden wins, but little likely (AP) Chinese leaders hope Washington will tone down conflicts over trade, technology and security if Joe Biden wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. But any shift is likely to be in style, not substance, as frustration with Beijing increases across the American political spectrum. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and their constituents seem disinclined to adopt a softer approach toward China, possibly presaging more strife ahead, regardless of the election’s outcome. U.S.-Chinese relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid an array of conflicts over the coronavirus pandemic, technology, trade, security and spying. Despite discord on so many other fronts, both parties are critical of Beijing’s trade record and stance toward Hong Kong, Taiwan and religious and ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, where the ruling Communist Party has detained Muslims in political re-education camps. The American public is equally negative. Two-thirds of people surveyed in March by the Pew Research Center had “unfavorable views” of China, the highest since Pew started asking in 2005.

Myanmar’s second lockdown drives hunger in city slums (Reuters) After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewelry and gold to buy food to eat. During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots. With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction laborer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city. “People are eating rats and snakes,” Ma Suu said through tears. “Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.”

Bloated public salaries at heart of Iraq’s economic woes (AP) BAGHDAD—Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills. A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears. Iraq’s government is struggling to pay the salaries of the ever-swelling ranks of public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis caused by low oil prices. September’s salaries were delayed for weeks, and October’s still haven’t been paid as the government tries to borrow once again from Iraq’s currency reserves. The crisis has fueled fears of instability ahead of mass demonstrations this week. The political elite have used the patronage system to entrench their power. A major part of that patronage is handing out state jobs in return for support. The result has been a threefold increase in public workers since 2004. The government pays 400% more in salaries than it did 15 years ago. Around three quarters of the state’s expenditures in 2020 go to paying for the public sector—a massive drain on dwindling finances. “Now the situation is very dangerous,” said Mohammed al-Daraji, a lawmaker on parliament’s Finance Committee.

Israel warms to Sudan (Foreign Policy) An Israeli government delegation visited Sudan on Thursday, in the latest sign of warming ties between the two countries. Israeli officials reportedly met with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s head of state during its transitional government. Reuters reported on Thursday that Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is ready to normalize relations with Israel as long as the country’s parliament approves the move. That approval may be some time in coming, as Sudan has yet to form a transitional parliament.

Gunfire and barricades in Guinea as President heads for third term (Reuters) Gunfire rang out across Guinea’s capital Conakry on Friday and security forces dispersed protestors after results showed President Alpha Conde winning re-election in a poll that the opposition says was unconstitutional. Conde won around twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, preliminary results from the election commission showed on Thursday night. The president’s decision to run for a third term has sparked repeated protests over the past year, resulting in dozens of deaths, including at least 17 in skirmishes since Sunday’s vote. Conde says a constitutional referendum in March reset his two-term limit, but his opponents say he is breaking the law by holding onto power. Diallo’s camp said it has found evidence of fraud and will contest the result in the constitutional court.

Resentment, smoke linger in Nigeria’s streets after unrest (AP) Resentment lingered with the smell of charred tires Friday in Nigeria’s relatively calm streets after days of protests over police abuses, as authorities barely acknowledged reports of the military killing at least 12 peaceful demonstrators earlier this week. President Muhammadu Buhari in his first comments on the unrest didn’t mention the shootings that sparked international outrage, instead warning protesters against being used by “subversive elements” and “undermining national security and law and order” during a national address Thursday night. Soldiers remained in parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, on Friday. A 24-hour curfew had not yet been lifted. The protests turned violent Wednesday after the shooting as mobs vandalized and burned police stations, courthouses, TV stations and a hotel. Police battled angry crowds with tear gas and gunfire. The looting, gunfire, and street blockades continued Thursday.

[seraph-novak]

Not sure if you take asks for one-shots but what about the GHC + TJ, Jonah and Marty (or less) taking a trip to a haunted hotel/mansion and Tyrus being equally oblivious, clingy and scared to death. You're a talented writer and I adore your tyrus fluffs

I’m sorry this is so late! Now that school is finished for the summer, I can finally get back to writing… This fic ran away from me a bit, but I hope you like it!

As always, likes/comments/reblogs are very much appreciated! Thanks for reading ♥

~~~~~

There was something undeniably creepy about the house behind the woods. It was old, for a start. And empty. Cyrus could feel it as they approached the treeline: an eerie stillness surrounding the building. It oozed from the rotting bricks and threw a strange aura into the air, discolouring the sky that hung above it. The others could feel it too, if the sudden hush that had fallen over the group was anything to go by.

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” Andi asked. She was leaning against Amber’s arm with a tight, panicked expression as she stared up at the house.

At the front of the group, Buffy turned around with a slightly manic grin. “Because it’s fun!”

Cyrus frowned, genuinely perplexed by that. “I think we have very different definitions of the word ‘fun’.”

“Look.” Buffy dumped her rucksack on the ground, a cloud of dust rising like fog around her feet, and approached the group. She was in coach-mode right now, hyping up her team before a big game. “The rules are simple, okay? The couple who lasts the longest without chickening out wins.” She considered the small sea of frightened faces staring back at her and smirked. “And judging by the fear in all of your eyes, we probably won’t last more than a couple hours. So don’t worry.”

Amber scoffed. “Is that trash talk, Driscoll?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, I wouldn’t get too cocky.” Amber slung an arm around Andi’s shoulders and smiled, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow as she looked Buffy up and down. “This idea might be dumb as hell, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna try.”

Buffy folded her arms and snorted. “You honestly think you have a chance against me and Marty?”

“Oh, I think we have more than a chance.”

“Okay. Sure.” Buffy barked a laugh. “Good luck with that, Kippen.”

Cyrus glanced at TJ. “Well, this is gonna be a fun night.”

“Yeah.” TJ tore his eyes away from the house and swallowed thickly, giving Cyrus’ hand a brief squeeze. There was a thin sheen of sweat glittering across his forehead, probably from the hike. “This place is kinda creepy, right?”

“I was actually talking about Buffy and Amber bickering, but yeah. Creepy’s one word for it.”

TJ huffed a laugh. “Oh. Right.”

“You okay?”

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine.”

Cyrus touched his boyfriend’s arm, frowning at the shudder that trembled beneath his fingertips. TJ had gone back to staring at the house, and his eyes were wide and watery. But Cyrus didn’t question it. After two years of dating, he could read TJ like an open book, and now was not the time to push him.

“What about me?” Jonah asked from the back of the group, completely dwarfed by the large rucksack mounted on his back. “I’m the only single one here.”

Andi grabbed his arm and yanked him towards her and Amber. “You can go with us!”

“Is that allowed?”

“I don’t care,” Buffy said with a shrug. “It only makes your odds of losing higher.”

Amber patted Jonah fondly on the cheek. “Jonah’s not gonna bail on us. If he can survive teaming up with two of his exes, he can handle a haunted house.”

“Wait,” Cyrus squeaked. “Both of us have to stay to win?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Well, duh.”

“Oh, no…”

“Don’t worry about it, Underdog,” TJ murmured softly. He lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed the knobbly bumps of Cyrus’ knuckles. “I’ll protect you.”

“Sure,” Amber coughed into her fist, feigning a cheery smile of innocence in response to TJ’s cautionary glare.

“TJ’s right,” Buffy said, fixing Cyrus with a mocking smile as she wrapped an arm around Marty’s waist. “There’s no point in worrying about it, because none of you have a chance at winning. You might as well accept defeat and go home now. Right, babe?”

Marty lifted his fist, and Buffy bumped it with a wicked grin. “We’re gonna own these suckers.” 

After a few more rounds of repartee, they gathered their things and broke through the trees, the house standing tall and proud without the veil of leaves cloaking its presence from the outside world. The stone steps leading up to the porch were caked in cobwebs, and there was a single band of sun-faded police tape stretched across the front door. Probably to keep out trespassers.  

“Well,” Cyrus said, his stomach twisting unpleasantly, “isn’t that inviting.”

Buffy flapped a dismissive hand in the air. “It’ll be fine.”

“People come here all the time,” Marty concurred.

“But, the police –”

“Are you forfeiting already?”

“Um…”

Andi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna do this, Cy. No one’s forcing you to.”

All it took was one glance at Amber and Buffy’s smug faces for him to make up his mind. If he backed out now, he’d never hear the end of it, and he was determined to prove them wrong. Plus, he couldn’t stand the thought of letting TJ down like that, even though he was fairly certain his boyfriend wouldn’t hold it against him.

“Okay,” he said, sucking in a deep breath. “I’m in.”

The door fell open with the slightest touch of Buffy’s hand. Inside the decaying hallway, shadows shrank away from the sunlight as it spilled inside, splashing the walls and lapping into the dank and distant corners. Specks of dust floated like stars in a beam of light that gushed from a hole in the roof, reaching through the cracks in the floors and scorching the crumbling planks of wood beneath their feet. At the end of the hallway, a regal flight of stairs ascended into the shadows, disappearing behind a wall of curling, floral paper muddied with patches of damp. There was a strange, sorrowful scent hanging in the air. Muted, but definitely noticeable. It gave Cyrus the creeps.

“Wow,” Buffy breathed, dropping her rucksack to the floor. With a stunned smile, she reached out her arms and tilted her face towards the exposed sunlight dripping from the ceiling. “Isn’t this place amazing?”

TJ scratched the back of his neck. “Do you want my honest opinion, or…?”

“There’s no internet,” Amber pointed out with a grimace as she tapped impatiently at her phone. 

“It’s very big,” Andi acknowledged.

“Yeah,” Cyrus agreed, gulping as he glanced around. There were only two rooms on the ground floor, one on either side of the staircase, and the hole in the ceiling appeared to journey through half a dozen floors before reaching the sky.

Buffy shrugged. “The more room the better, right?”

“I guess.”

They spread out their things in the room to the right, next to an ancient fireplace stuffed with hunks of festering wood and stone-grey ashes. It was already growing dark outside, the dust-speckled sunlight dwindling as the murky shadows of dusk pressed against the windows. With nothing else to do, they crawled into their sleeping bags and turned on their torches, casting stark shadows across their trembling faces.

“What do we do now?” Jonah asked, his teeth chattering at the sudden drop in temperature.

Buffy leaned back on her elbows and smirked. “Now we wait for the haunting to start.”

~~~~~

For the next hour or so, they entertained themselves with cheesy ghost stories and plenty of snacks, and Cyrus was surprised to find himself having fun. While Marty tried to scare the group with his laughable Freddy Krueger impression, Cyrus snuggled against TJ’s shoulder with a contented sigh. He could feel his eyes drifting closed when he suddenly realised how tense his boyfriend felt beneath his cheek.

“TJ?” he asked, keeping his voice as soft as possible. “Are you okay?”

TJ nodded. “I’m fine, sweetheart.”

Cyrus blinked at the unexpected pet name. When TJ was being affectionate, he always called him Underdog. That was their thing. He only ever used words like ‘babe’ or ‘hon’ or ‘sweetheart’ when he felt guilty. Usually when he was hiding something from him.

“Talk to me, Teej.” He threaded their fingers together and held TJ’s clammy hand against his chest. “What’s wrong?”  

“He’s probably thinking about the Hanging Lady,” Amber said, a devious smile twisting her lips.

Cyrus frowned. “Who?”

“It’s nothing,” TJ said through gritted teeth. “Just a stupid story from when we were kids.”

Buffy clapped her hands together. “Ooh, tell us the story!”

“No way –”

“You really wanna hear it?” Amber asked, deliberately ignoring her brother. Her eyes were shining as she stood up and moved to the centre of the group, grinning like a fame-hungry actress bowing in front of a crowd. “Okay, fine.”

TJ groaned.

“In our old house, before we moved to Shadyside, there was a hot water tank in the loft that made this horrible creaking sound at 3:15 every night. TJ was, like, five at the time, so he still peed the bed –”

“Not true!”

“– and I was seven, so I loved to mess around with him. The tank was right above his bedroom, so you could hear it the loudest in there, and it really freaked him out.”

Buffy sneered. “Why?”

“Well,” Amber continued, her lips twitching with a smirk, “I told him an old lady had hung herself in the loft years ago, at exactly 3:15, and you could still hear the creaking of the rope swinging back and forth in the middle of the night.”

“You were seven when you made that up?” Buffy asked, sounding impressed. “Not bad, Kippen.”

“I know.”

“That’s sick,” Jonah said, but Cyrus could see him fighting back a smile. “I bet that really scared him, huh?”

Amber laughed. “Oh, yeah. He used to cry himself to sleep. It was hilarious.”

Cyrus wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound hilarious.”

“Calm down.” Buffy rolled her eyes. “You’re just sticking up for your boyfriend.”

“Well, yeah.”

“It’s okay,” TJ told him, a shamed blush creeping up his neck. “Don’t give them the satisfaction.”

“But –”

“Are you still scared of the Hanging Lady?” Amber asked as she crept across the room, a creaking noise rising from the back of her throat as she crouched in front of her brother. “Can you hear that? She’s coming for you, TJ. The Hanging Lady knows you’re here.”

TJ pressed his lips into a thin line. “I haven’t been scared of that story since we moved house.”

“It doesn’t matter where you go,” Amber continued. There was a cruel gleam in her eyes now, reminiscent of the old, spiteful version of the girl Amber had worked so hard to shed over the years. It was unnerving. “Ghosts latch onto people, you know? They follow you through your life, watching you grow old, waiting for the perfect moment to strike…”

As if on cue, a sudden gust of wind knocked against the house, rattling the old wood of the front door with a sickening creak. TJ yelped, and Cyrus felt the solid warmth of his hand jerk out of his grip, slicing an arc through the air as he tumbled backwards and slammed his head against the floor.

“TJ!”

“I’m okay,” his boyfriend groaned in response, blindly reaching for Cyrus’ proffered hand as the rest of the group burst into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

With his arm looped protectively around TJ’s waist, Cyrus shot the rest of the group a venomous glare. “What is wrong with you?”

“C’mon, Cy!” Buffy wheezed, her cheeks glistening with tears of laughter. “You have to admit, that was pretty funny.”

“It really wasn’t.”

“We’re just tryna have some fun,” Amber insisted, her tone surprisingly gentle. She was smiling just as widely as the rest of them, but her eyes had stopped glimmering, and Cyrus could swear he saw a flicker of guilt cross her face as she glanced over at her brother. “It was just a joke, TJ.”  

Cyrus scoffed. “He could’ve really hurt himself.”

“How was I supposed to know he was gonna flip out like that?”

“You shouldn’t be ganging up on him in the first place!”

“Well, he shouldn’t make it so easy then.”

“Screw you,” TJ spat at his sister, the hardness in his voice crushing the final titters from the group into silence. There was an angry blush creeping up his neck, and the muscles in his jaw were twitching in time with his rapidly blinking eyes. Cyrus felt him trembling in his arms as he struggled to his feet, sweeping a fierce gaze across his so-called friends before shrugging out of Cyrus’ grip and storming into the next room.     

Cyrus watched him leave, then sighed. “Well done, guys. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.”

“It’s just a game, Cy –”

“A game that’s turning you all into a bunch of jerks,” he interjected, his cheeks flaming with heat as the unfamiliar insult fizzled on his tongue, tasting like one of those sour sweets you can’t bear to swallow too quickly. He hated conflict, especially when it involved the people he cared about, but some things couldn’t go unsaid. “You knew he was getting upset, and you kept pushing him. That doesn’t sound like a game to me.”

Amber lowered her head, a curtain of blonde waves falling across her face. When she looked up again, her fair skin was glowing faintly in the shaft of white light protruding from the torch in her trembling hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she said, quiet and earnest. “Can you tell him I’m sorry?”

“Do it yourself.”

And with that, he got to his feet and walked away, following his boyfriend into the other doorless room painted an ugly, yellowing white. TJ was standing at the very back of the room, his forehead pressed against the chipped wood of an old dumbwaiter. He was shaking all over, and Cyrus’ heart pinched at the sight. All he wanted to do was rush across the room and throw his arms around him, but he knew it was best to take things slow. TJ was like a wild animal when he was hurt and embarrassed, easy to startle and quick to run away. So instead, he approached him calmly, letting TJ know he was there before putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey,” he said softly.

TJ turned away. “I’m sorry, Cyrus.”

“What are you sorry for? You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I overreacted.”

“You were scared.”

“I know.” TJ rubbed his face against his shoulder, drying his eyes as discreetly as possible. “I’m such a coward… I mean, what kind of seventeen-year-old is still scared of stupid ghost stories?”

Cyrus chuckled. “Um. Me?”

“But I’m supposed to be the brave one!”

“You’re not supposed to be anything other than who you are.”

TJ glanced up at him, his eyes underlined by dark lines. He looked exhausted. “I told you I’d protect you.”

“You still can.”

“You really believe that now?”

“I believe one thing,” he said, gently cupping TJ’s chin and tilting his face towards him. As soon as he had his boyfriend’s full attention, he kissed him sweetly on the lips and took him by the hands. His palms were slightly greasy from the thick layer of grime clinging to the wooden lip of the dumbwaiter, but Cyrus didn’t care. “You love me, right?”

TJ nodded, wide-eyed. “More than anything.”

“Good.” Cyrus smiled. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of the matter-of-fact way TJ told him he loved him, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And I love you. That much we know for certain, okay?”

“Yeah,” TJ concurred, his tears thankfully starting to cease.  

“So, if a ghost suddenly flew through this wall and tried to hurt me…”

“I’d kill it with my bare hands.”

Cyrus grinned. “Exactly.”

A tentative smile appeared on TJ’s face, instantly outshining the sticky sheen of tears drying dully beneath his eyes. “Are you saying my love for you is more powerful than an actual spirit, Underdog?”

“I’m saying there’s no one else I feel safer with than you.” As if to emphasise his point, he drew TJ closer, the toes of their shoes kissing shyly in the murky shadows swimming around their feet. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic setting, but that didn’t stop his heart from stuttering as he stared into TJ’s eyes, impossibly green and desperately tender as always.

“You really mean that?” TJ asked.

Cyrus bumped their shoulders together, a teasing smile dancing on his lips. “There aren’t many guys who would kill a ghost with their bare hands for me, are there?”

“I think you’d be surprised… I’m sure there’d be people lining up to protect you.”

“Yeah, well.” Cyrus shrugged, gave TJ’s hand a slow, meaningful squeeze. “There’s only one person I want in my corner, and he’s standing right in front of me.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

When TJ ducked his head, Cyrus could see the beginnings of a blush creeping up the back of his neck. He watched fondly as his boyfriend directed a bashful smile at the carpet of dust beneath his feet, then glanced back up at him with a dazzling grin that sucked the air out of his lungs, leaving him breathless and dizzy for a moment.

“You don’t mind having a wuss for a boyfriend?”

Cyrus pretended to consider the question, then smiled, leaning forward to press a featherlight kiss to TJ’s muck-smeared forehead. He plucked a sprinkling of rust from his dirty blond waves and gave his ruddy cheeks a playful pinch. “Only if you don’t.”

“I guess we’re okay then.”

“Yeah,” Cyrus said, his smile turning even fonder. “We’re okay.”

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed between them, the damp odours and slithering shadows of the old house fading away as they held each other close. Cyrus dried TJ’s eyes with the sleeve of his jacket while TJ wiped his grimy hands on the backs of his jeans, grimacing at the dirt still crusted beneath his fingernails. Once he was relatively muck- and tear-free, TJ’s eyes followed the muffled sound of laughter in the next room, his throat bobbing nervously. Cyrus guided his attention back to his face with a gentle smile.

“We don’t have to stay,” he told him. “If you’re not having fun, we can leave right now.”

TJ shook his head. “Nah. I’m good, I just… They’re all gonna look at me funny.”

“No, they won’t.”

“I made a scene, Cyrus. I gave them exactly what they wanted.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, Amber looked kinda guilty after you left. She asked me to tell you she’s sorry.”

“Right.” TJ rolled his eyes. He was anxiously rolling his left thumb and forefinger together, his other hand holding onto Cyrus for dear life. “I know it’s in her nature to show off. Buffy’s too. But still… I wish we could even the score, you know? Give them a taste of their own medicine.”

Cyrus paused, his thumb freezing mid-sweep across TJ’s knuckles. The outlines of a plan were taking shape in his mind, an impish smile slowly spreading across his face. He patted his back pocket, making sure his phone was still there, then turned to the dumbwaiter buried in the wall to his right. Its sliding door was nibbled with mould and crawling with dirt, but it seemed sturdy enough. And when Cyrus lifted it up (his fingers twisted in his sleeve to keep them from touching the slimy surface of the embedded handle), it easily clicked into place, revealing a gaping mouth stacked with three wooden shelves, and a fraying rope threaded through the middle.  

“Don’t worry,” he said, turning to TJ with a mischievous grin. “I have an idea.”

~~~~~

When they finally returned to the group, they were met with awkward smiles and mumbled apologies, but nothing considerable enough to put a stop to their plan. Even if they’d all fallen to their knees and begged for TJ’s forgiveness, Cyrus probably would’ve stuck to it anyway. He was tired of TJ walking on eggshells around his friends, and he was tired of constantly playing the meek and submissive role in the group. If Buffy and Amber wanted to have some real fun, then that’s exactly what they were going to get.

“Have you calmed down now?” Buffy asked TJ, the mocking lilt of her voice adding more fuel to the fire burning inside Cyrus’ gut.

TJ flashed her a fake smile. “Yeah. Thanks for asking.”

“Maybe you should worry about your own boyfriend,” Cyrus said, nodding at Marty. “He’s looking a little peaky.”

Marty sat up straighter and forced his drooping eyelids open. “Huh? Oh, no… I’m just a little tired. And cold. And, um… Hungry?”

“Suck it up!” Buffy cried, giving her boyfriend’s shoulder a firm shake.

As Buffy and Marty exploded into a bickering match, TJ turned his body towards Cyrus, effectively cutting them both off from the rest of the group, and rested his forehead on Cyrus’ shoulder. His voice was hushed when he spoke, too soft for anyone else to hear above the shrill sound of Buffy throwing insults at her boyfriend; if it weren’t for the adoring smile on Marty’s face, Cyrus would probably feel sorry for the guy.

“You don’t have to stick up for me, you know,” TJ said, affectionately rubbing his nose against the base of Cyrus’ throat. “I mean, it’s adorable, but… You don’t need to do that.”

Cyrus gave his ear a gentle flick. “Stop it, Teej. You know I’m never gonna stop sticking up for you.”

TJ responded with a kiss, his palm grazing the back of Cyrus’ neck and his thumb stroking the jut of his jawbone. When they pulled away, there was a familiar, dreamy expression lidding TJ’s eyes and softly dimpling his cheeks, and Cyrus could feel the popping of fireworks deep inside his chest, showering his heart with bursts of colour that made the dark and dusty room seem a little bit brighter, if only for a few seconds.  

“I love you,” TJ murmured.

A golden peony erupted in the sky. “I love you, too.”

“Hey, love-birds,” Buffy called over to them, leaning forward to pat the empty space they’d left in the circle. “Care to join us?”

“Sure.”

Before Cyrus could shuffle back towards the group, TJ took him gently by the arm and lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper. “So, when are we gonna do this thing?”

“Buffy told us to wait for the haunting to start,” he said simply, lifting his shoulders in a noncommittal shrug that completely contradicted the devious twinkle in his eyes. “So, that’s what we’re gonna do. We’ll wait until their defences are down, and then we’ll give them the scare they’ve been waiting for.”

TJ blinked at him in surprise. “Who are you and what have you done with my sweet and innocent boyfriend?”

“I think you secretly like it.”

“Well, you could literally spit in my face, and I’d still find you adorable, so…”

Cyrus scrunched up his nose and laughed. ”You’re disgusting.”

“I guess you don’t wanna share a sleeping bag with me then?”

“I never –”

“Hey, it’s okay! I guess I’ll just have to cuddle by myself.”

“That’s not even possible, Teej.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Just shut up and get in the sleeping bag,” Cyrus said, giving his boyfriend a gentle shove as he squeezed in beside him, a pleasant shiver rolling down his spine as the warmth of TJ’s body thawed the chill in his bones. And as the rest of the group slowly but surely fell asleep, Cyrus closed his eyes and pretended to snore, quietly waiting for the perfect time to exact their revenge…

~~~~~

It was the whispers that woke them up. One by one, they rubbed their eyes and lifted their heads, still groggy with sleep, and glanced at the same spot on the ceiling, where the noise seemed to be slipping through a spider-shaped crack in the crumbling plaster.

“What is that?” Buffy asked, sounding more annoyed than frightened.

Jonah swallowed thickly. “It… I-It sounds like a voice.”

“Huh?”

“A voice,” Andi agreed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling as she jerked her head up and down. She was clinging onto Amber’s arm so tightly that Cyrus could see the white bands of her fingers glowing against Amber’s skin. “Do you think somebody’s here?”

“No,” Amber said, wrapping a protective arm around her girlfriend all the same. “We would’ve heard them before. Right, guys?”

They all mumbled in agreement, but it did nothing to quell the whispers. In fact, they seemed to be getting louder, more pronounced, as if someone was trying to tell them something…

“Oh my god,” TJ breathed. He was staring at his phone, and looking convincingly terrified, which made Cyrus feel weirdly proud. He even felt a pinch of fear when TJ raised his head and sucked in a shuddering breath. “It’s 3:15.”

“What?” Amber squeaked.

All at once, the rest of the group started checking their phones, the blood draining from each of their faces as they saw the same time staring back at them.

“The Hanging Lady,” Jonah muttered, voicing what they’d likely all been thinking.

Marty snorted a weak laugh. “No, that’s… That’s just a stupid story. Amber told us she made it up.”

“Exactly,” Buffy said. Now that she was fully awake, her annoyance had shifted into wariness, but not absolute fear. Cyrus had predicted she’d need a little extra push.

As if on cue, the indecipherable whispers took the form of real, solid words – names, to be exact. They were distant and muffled, but definitely there, and Cyrus could see the exact moment on Jonah’s face when he decided that enough was enough.

“Nope!” Jonah sprung to his feet and raced for the door. “Sorry, guys, but I’m out.”

Andi was close behind him, followed by a slightly disgruntled- (but mainly petrified-) looking Amber clutching tightly onto Andi’s hand, the pair of them flicking panicked glances around the room as they hurried to join Jonah outside. From the doorless gap in the wall, Cyrus could see them shivering on the stone steps. They were staring up at the twisting staircase at the end of the hallway, where the whispers could be heard even more clearly, and holding onto each other with shared expressions of pure terror.  

“What’s going on?” Andi moaned.

Buffy poked her head into the hallway, clearly masking her own fear with a boastful smirk. “You’ve lost, that’s what’s going on.”

“Hey, babe?” Marty placed a hand on Buffy’s shoulder as he followed Andi’s wide-eyed gaze up the stairs. He tilted his head to the side, his ears perked up, and listened closely as the whispered words rolled steadily down the stairs, like ghostly footsteps. “I think maybe we should leave…”

For a split second, there was a crack in Buffy’s stubbornly brave façade, as if Marty’s fear had suddenly made the whole thing seem more real to her, but she quickly patched it up with a scoff. “Are you insane? You wanna forfeit the game? No way!”

“Buffy –”

“It’s probably just the wind!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “Old buildings always make weird noises.”

“Do they talk, too?”

“No one is talking, Marty! You’re hearing things. We’re all hearing things.” Buffy breathed deeply through her nose, as if trying to calm herself down, then sauntered into the hallway, shrugging off Marty’s desperate grip on her shoulder. With her back to the staircase, she placed her hands on her hips and waited. “See? There’s nothing –”

“Buffy!”

The whispers were verging on screams now. Raspy, ghoulish-sounding screams that kept calling Buffy’s name over and over again, their pleas turning sharp with impatience as Buffy stood at the bottom of the staircase, frozen still with shock.

“Marty,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut as more whispers pierced the shadowed hallway. “Please tell me this is some kind of joke.”

Before Marty could answer, another scream tumbled down the stairs and knocked Buffy forward, effectively shattering her hard exterior into a million, irreparable pieces.

“Buffy! Buffy! Buffy! Buffy –”

“Let’s get out of here!” Buffy cried, grabbing Marty by the arm and dragging him towards the exit.

Cyrus and TJ watched gleefully as they made a break for the front door, almost knocking Jonah down the stone steps in their haste to get out of the house. The moment they were outside, clutching their knees and gasping for breath, TJ fished his phone out of his pocket and silenced the voices with the press of a button.

“That turned out better than I expected,” Cyrus grinned, giving TJ a triumphant high-five as the rest of the group gawped at them from the doorway, their mouths hanging open.

Buffy frowned. “What –”

“What’s going on?” TJ completed her question with the quirk of an eyebrow. “We just won the game, that’s what’s going on.”

“But… But…”

“You messed with my boyfriend,” Cyrus explained, his eyes lingering on Amber and Buffy as he said this, “so I decided to mess with you.”

Jonah took a hesitant step towards the house. “You mean, this was all you?”

“Yep.”

“Oh.” He blinked a few times in obvious confusion, then graced them with a smile of relief as he stepped back inside the hallway. “That was pretty cool, dude.”

Andi laughed nervously. “But, how?”

“We found an old dumbwaiter in the next room,” Cyrus told them, oddly enjoying the rare attention the entire group were giving him right now. “We recorded the voices on my phone and set it as my ringtone, then put my phone in the dumbwaiter and sent it up a couple floors.” He flicked a knowing smirk at TJ. “Then TJ rang my phone when you were all asleep.”

“At 3:15?” Amber asked, sounding unimpressed.

TJ shrugged. “It was just a lucky coincidence.”

“Sure.”

“How did we not hear you recording the voices?” Buffy interjected. She was a little pink in the cheeks, either from her sprint across the hallway, or the humiliation of defeat slowly sinking in.

Cyrus mirrored TJ’s shrug, feigning innocence as he looked Buffy straight in the eye and said, “Maybe you couldn’t hear us over the sounds of you laughing at TJ’s expense?”

For a brief moment, Buffy’s cheeks flared even brighter, her eyes softening slightly as she glanced over at TJ. “Oh. Right.”

“I’m sorry for laughing,” Jonah was the first to say. He walked across the hallway and offered his hand to TJ, giving it a firm, brotherly shake. “That trick was awesome, guys. How the hell did you pull it off?”

TJ tapped his temple with his forefinger and winked. “It’s not about being brave, it’s about being smart.”

“Well, you were definitely smart,” Andi said, still looking a little bit shaken up, despite her tentative smile. She gave Cyrus a quick, one-armed hug, then shook her head at TJ. “You almost gave me a heart attack, you know?”

“Sorry,” Cyrus chuckled.

Amber heaved a heavy sigh as she joined Andi in the hallway. “I’ve gotta admit, that was pretty good… Even though you stole my bit,” she added, punching TJ in the arm.

“That’s what you get for sharing the story with all our friends.”

“Touché.”

On the opposite end of the hallway, still standing in the doorway with an expression almost as cold and grey as the stone steps she was standing on, Buffy folded her arms and lifted her eyebrows as high as her hairline. “You know that’s cheating, right?”

Marty touched her arm. “Babe –”

“I never said you were allowed to use your phones like that.”

Cyrus considered this, then shrugged once again. “Well, you never said we couldn’t either, so…”

For a quiet and seemingly endless moment, Buffy simply glared at him from across the hallway, her face twisted with a scowl as she drummed her fingers against her arm, silently judging him from afar. But then, after a beat of pregnant silence, her lips twitched with an uncontrollable smile, and Cyrus knew she’d already forgiven them.

“Okay,” she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides in surrender as she strolled across the hallway. “You got me.”

TJ grinned. “Are you admitting you lost, Driscoll?”

“Don’t push it.”

“We’re gracious losers,” Marty said, now standing behind Buffy with his arm draped around her shoulders. “Right, babe?”

Buffy plastered on a smile. “Absolutely.”

“She’s dying inside,” Amber said with a snort.

“Definitely,” Andi giggled.

Before another argument could break out, Jonah stepped between them, hands raised in a placating manner, and gave them all a soothing (if not slightly desperate) smile. “Okay, okay… Now that Cyrus and TJ have won, can we please get out of here?”

Amber nodded in eager agreement. “Yes! That sounds like a good idea.”

“You’re just having Instapic withdrawals,” Andi said fondly.

“So what if I am?”

Andi appeased her girlfriend with a kiss on the cheek, then turned to the rest of the group. “Who’s up for leaving?”

Everyone’s hands shot into the air.

“Oh, thank god.”

As he watched his friends collecting their things from the other room, each of them smiling and laughing in ways that made his heart soar with a dizzying sense of contentment, Cyrus found TJ’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Even with the shadows creeping across the splintered floorboards, and the dim wash of moonlight casting an eerie glow across their faces, Cyrus didn’t feel an ounce of fear as he stood there in that rickety old house, holding onto his boyfriend’s hand with an easy, gratified smile.

“Would you come with me to get my phone?” he asked.

TJ pulled him closer, already dialling Cyrus’ number to help lead the way. “Still scared?”

“No, I just… I think I’d like the company.”

And with that, they made their way up the creaking staircase, hand in hand, and followed the sounds of the whispers.

[afewmarvelousthoughts]

Stay Ch. 13

Master List

Pairing: Natasha X Reader (Female)

Summary: You have a gift, the ability to see other people’s innermost secrets. For years you used it to gather intel for the highest bidder when you take on The Widow. After she becomes more than a mark the two of you spend years stealing moments. Post snap you wait in your designated meeting place, look back on the sordid past you share with the woman you love and hope against everything that she’s still alive.

Warnings: Angst, light violence.

A/N:  I have been SO excited to share this with y’all. I straight up almost posted it earlier in the week because to me this is when their story really shifts and just so much is coming. 

I hope y’all enjoy! 

Tags are open!

@mywinterwolf @disagreetoagree @breezy1415 @peachthatdrinkslemonade @5aftermidnight @jeromethepsycho @marvel-randomness @daniellajocelyn @katecolleen @yanginginthere @wonderlandmind4 @piensa-bonito @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @lesbian-girls-wayhaught @siriuslycloudy2

- Post Snap -

The sound of that hotel door in New Orleans reverberates in your ears even here in the present. You sit in the windowsill, thankful this place still had windows that could be opened, and puff perfect smoke rings into the cool night air.

Old regrets bubble up. Maybe if you had been able to swallow your pride, work things out then and there, you’d be in a much different place now. Maybe she’d be here in your arms and not out somewhere in this burning world… Maybe, maybe, maybe.

It would be easy to drive yourself crazy thinking about all the may have beens that have piled up over the years. Regret got you nothing, you remember telling your team that. No point in mourning the past, but here you were. Hypocrite.

Regardless, you didn’t make it to January.

- November 2006 -

After a month or so it hurt less. You knew she was out there doing what she needed to and you were making money like a fucking mad woman.

Admittedly not being with her may have been soothed by the revolving door your bed had become. So what? You were having a good time, had the cash to burn, why not spend it on beautiful women and good booze?

It had been a particularly wild couple of weeks. The job you just wrapped put you smack in the middle of Amsterdam’s Red Light district and… well… you weren’t sad about it. If more jobs were likes this one, you’d go to hell with a smile on your face and damn good stories to tell the devil.

The night before you leave you wake up panicked. A dream so fucking real you were confused when consciousness came barreling into you. Practically pushing the two women off your bed you stumble to your duffle for your phone, hands shaking.

You hadn’t checked the voicemail. It wasn’t the first time you’d forgotten for more than a few days. Nothing was ever there. For some reason that dream… Natasha running, scared, panicked… you could feel it in your bones.

The women ask what’s going on and you tell them to shut up as you dial the codes with trembling fingers.

“Palais.” Natasha’s voice was trembling, breathless, scared. Left over a week ago. Panic pulses out of every pore on your body. The phone slides from your grasp and you hit your knees.

“What’s happening?!” You hear one of the women scream. 

It’s all so far away. The other starts to sob, thick choking sobs. Both on the brink of full-fledged panic attacks. While you... are strangely calm, feeling your emotions and yet… not. Turning to them you stare in shock.

Somehow you know you’ve done this. How you don’t fully understand. But they’re trapped in your emotions, their confusion making them all the more terrified. You can’t blame them. You also can’t fucking care.

“Get out,” you growl at them both.

“But… what’s…”

“Get. Out.” Quickly they slip into their clothes and run out, still scared out of their minds.

Within the hour you’re out of the hotel and on your way to the airport. Any other time you’d drive, easier to stay off the radar but it was 11 hours and you couldn’t wait that long. You book the first flight out. 

Five hours later you’re tearing into the doors of the hotel, the strange sense of deja vu hitting you hard.

It’s early but you know if she was here she would be in the bar. Still you check with the front desk for Nancy Rustin, your agreed name for her to use, nothing. You feel that same panic rise in you like it did in Amsterdam and you bring it in. A hotel lobby freaking like the women had would be newsworthy and not something you had the time for.

You slam back a whiskey neat at the bar and another, the warmth calming your nerves just a little bit. The third one you sip trying to figure out what to do.

If she was… no. You refuse to believe that, can’t allow yourself to go down that road. Instead, you start to plan just what strings you need to pull to figure out where the fuck she was. Whoever had her wouldn’t be standing for long, because you’d burn the world to get her back… You had to… had to tell her you loved her… Why hadn’t you just said it when she left in New Orleans? Now…

A man slides onto the stool next to you and you bristle. There’s a whole open bar and he just had to sit beside you. You’re about to let him have it when he orders a vodka neat. It’s a normal enough order but it packs salt into the wound nonetheless, sucking the words from you.

From your peripheral you see him take a sip and look at you. An emotion rolls off him. Apprehension? Disapproval? Curiosity?

“Palais,” he says matter of factly.

Your heartbeat kicks up but you remain facing forward. After taking a sip of your drink you respond, “Very good, you know where ya are. Want a fuckin’ gold star?” You aren’t sure why you let your natural accent show but you do.

He snorts, “She said you had a mouth.”

You slide a sidelong venomous glare to him, “Who?” It’s practically a hiss. You’re already formulating ways to kill this man right here.

“We have a mutual friend?”

“I don’t have friends.”

“No?” He sips his drink, obviously not enjoying the taste. “How about someone who’s more than that?” You say nothing.

Reaching into your pocket you pull out a few bills, grab your bag and walk out of the hotel. The man hot on your heels. You turn down an alley and as soon as he’s close enough you pull your gun. His hands are up a smirk on his face.

“Hey, let’s take a second here,” he’s not projecting any kind of fear. Actually, he’s almost too calm.

“You have exactly five to tell me where the fuck she is before I blow that smile off your face.”

“She’s safe.”

“Not good enough. Three.”

“If I was lying you could tell, right? So why don’t you work your magic trick before shooting me.” He lowers to his knees, “I’m trying to help. Just… look.”

Cautiously you approach him, gun still drawn. Going behind him you press the barrel to his temple with your right and press your left to the other side of his head. Not enough to harm, just to pull information. Focusing on one thing, her. 

Natasha, looking tired but smiling fills your mind. “Y/N, I’m ok, I swear I’m ok baby. You can trust Clint. He’ll bring you to me. I’m telling him this so you’ll believe him. Oh, and when you’re done say the word pineapple, he doesn’t believe you can do what I said. I love you.”

You release him and lower your gun, tears stinging in the back of your eyes. Nothing but honesty and determination radiates from him. He’s legit.

“Fuck,” he rubs his temples, “that really does suck.”

“Pineapple,” you say barely audible.

“Huh?” He looks at you, “Sorry, shot hearing.” Now you notice the barely visible high tech hearing aids in his ears.

“Pineapple.”

A smile fills his face, “Jesus Christ. That’s pretty damn cool.” He stands slowly extending his hand, “Clint.” You take it and get a flash of a rural house, countryside, a brunette woman with kind eyes, arrows. This man is like an open book.

“Y/N.”

“Good to meet you.” His hands are calloused and you get the distinct feeling that he’s military of some sort. “I realize it’s asking a lot to-”

“I’ll go where ever you want.���

“Oh. I had a whole speech prepared and everything. Didn’t think you’d make this easy.” He shrugs, “Well come on then.”

On cue, a black nondescript sedan pulls up and he opens the back passenger door, you can see the barrier between the front and back seats, no handles on the interior of the doors. Fuck.

“Nothing personal just can’t be too careful,” he says, a weak smile on his face. It doesn’t matter. He knows where she is, you’ll play along for now. 

Your voice is soft and sweet as you toss your bag ahead of you into the back seat, “Understandable.” If she told him you can read people she likely also told him about some of the other tricks up your sleeve.

“Oh, and Clint,” he turns to you releasing the door. 

You slide his feet from under him sending him to the ground. Pinning him you press your right hand to his forehead, his eyes wide with panic. Good, she did tell him. There's the sound of feet as the driver rushes up behind you but he signals for them to stand down.

Leaning down you hiss in his ear, “If she’s not alright, I’ll burn your little farmhouse to the fuckin’ ground with that pretty brunette inside. We clear?”

“Crystal,” Clint growls out. He’s like a fortress now, actively fighting to shut you out.

“Excellent,” you stand smiling big and extend your hand to him. Suspiciously he eyes you before taking your hand and pulling himself up.

You push past the visibly confused woman who’s gun hangs limply in her hand. “Let’s get goin’ then.” As soon as you’re in the back seat she slams the door.

Admittedly you didn’t expect to be driving this long but 3 hours later you’re desperate for a pit stop. Two whiskeys plus the gallon of coffee on the flight meant you had to pee. Now.

“Can y’all even hear me up there?” The barrier was clear, maybe bullet-resistant glass of some kind, and you hadn’t heard anything from the front the whole time.

“Yes.” The woman’s tone is clipped.

“Good. How much longer we gonna be on this joy ride?”

“Another hour at least,” Clint responds. You note that the driver glares at him as if she didn’t approve of him answering you.

“Ah, well, any chance for a pit stop before then?”

“No.”/“Yes.” The driver and Clint respond at the same time.

“We are not stopping,” the woman sounds like she’s about to throttle Clint.

“That’s fine,” you say and watch her shoulders relax. “As long as you’re not the one having to clean up later.” She catches your smirk in the rearview and woo, if looks could kill.

Violently the car jerks to the side of the road and you slam into the driver’s side door. “What the hell?”

She gets out and flings the door open, “Should have worn a seat belt.” There’s the whisper of a grin on her face as you rub your left arm. “Neither of us have to go. There’s the woods.” The look on her face isn’t quite smug but it’s almost there.

You laugh, “Girl, you barkin’ up the wrong tree if you think my country ass is too prim to piss in the woods.” Quickly you stride toward the trees.

“Agent,” she says, voice low and you freeze. “Agent Hill. I’m not your girl.” Slowly you turn back to her. “And I suggest you don’t run, Oracle.” Your blood runs cold.

“Am I under arrest agent?”

“Not exactly.”

“Hmm.” You weigh your options. If they could just get you to Natasha as was promised you figured you both had a good chance of slipping them. If you ran… well if they had her and who knows what they may do…

“Well, if you’re done posturing, Agent Hill. I have some private business to attend to. Unless you’re wanting to accompany me, I’ll be back in a minute.” You turn back toward the woods and she doesn’t follow.

Once you’re done, you walk a few paces further into the trees and lean against a trunk for a minute thinking. Agent Hill didn’t specify exactly who she was an agent for. She’s clearly American unless it’s a ruse. But given that Clint is most definitely American you’re going to bet it’s not. Sure they could be with any number of U.S. agencies but your gut is telling you just who this is. If you’re right… this is very bad.

You stride back to the car, “So, Agent,” you practically spit the word, “we headin’ to some kind of S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house in Europe or are you toting me back to the good ol’ U.S.A.?” Her brows lift just a touch in surprise but otherwise, she appears unfazed. “Guess it’ll be a surprise then,” you say as you get back in the car.

Almost two hours later you pull into what seems to be an old abandoned airport. Clint opens your door.

“The states it is,” you quip looking over at Agent Hill. She says nothing and begins striding to a hangar. You grab your bag and follow Clint.

Before getting on the jet Agent Hill turns to you, “I’ll need all weapons you have on your person, Oracle.” You stare at her for a minute, curious if she will try to physically remove them if you don’t comply.

“You can give them over freely or spend the flight in shackles. Your choice.”

Giving her a slight smile you begin to disarm. Weapons were good and all but you didn’t need them to be a threat. The way Clint looks at you shows he knows this but she doesn’t. Interesting.

Not moving toward her you hold out your knives and gun, “Here.” She rolls her eyes but takes the bait coming to grab them. Your fingers just graze hers.

“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a Maria.” The look she flashes you is murderous. You smile smugly as Clint restrains a small laugh. It never got old using something so simple as their own name to throw people. “Suits you though.” Unfortunately, she’s too good to take your bait this time and simply turns practically storming into the jet.

“Hill didn’t believe it either. What Nat said you could do,” Clint says standing bravely next to a woman that threatened him five hours ago. You bristle a bit at his casual mention of Natasha.

“Good. The less people who believe in it the better off I am,” he nods in agreement and leads the way to the jet.

You’ve never been on something so advanced. Despite yourself, you’re a little in awe. You stand in the middle of it all gawking.

“Sit,” Hill barks pointing to a bucket seat near the back. “Buckle up if you want I don’t care either way. And if you hurl it’s your mess to clean up. Got it?”

You sit down and lounge like a cat looking up at her, “Got it, Maria.”

“Agent. Hill,” she spits.

A chuckle slips from you at her reaction, “You don’t like me much do you, Agent?”

“No,” with that she heads to the pilot seat.

A few minutes later you feel the jet start to roll forward. The takeoff is so abrupt you do feel more than a little nauseous but you keep it down, not willing to give in. Once it’s passed your mind focuses on what the hell you’re walking into.

Whatever it was if she was there… it would be worth it.

[ursae-minoris-world]

The lost Jedi

G, 2,605 words, chapters : 1/1, AU: Star Wars setting; basically a rewrite of the pilot episode in a Star Wars setting from Keith’s point of view (with some liberties, of course!); so some scenes and dialogues will be familiar!

This was written for @sheithauweek,day 3: ships and stars!

Read it here on AO3, and find it here on twitter!

As the big geek that I am, I also made an animated intro like in the movies, that you can play here. (if this doesn’t work, there are screncaps on the twitter link)

---

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The Rebellion is struggling against the Forces of the Empire. The Planet of Altea has been destroyed by the Empire after it joined the Rebellion. One of the rare survivors because she was off planet, Princess Allura is now an important leader of the Rebellion. A group of Jedi on a diplomatic mission on planet Kerberos has been missing, and are reported to have been killed by the Empire. However, Keith Kogane, a young Jedi apprentice, is still looking for his friend Takashi Shirogane, who was part of the mission.

---

"Transferring prisoner 117-9875 for further investigation"

"That is Takashi Shirogane. A Jedi master. We need appropriate security protocol"

"We'll be following protocol AX-711. And he will be sedated."

Keith's world collapsed on him when his father's old radio transmitted this coded message from an Empire fleet to the local Empire base. For a moment, the walls of his tiny shack had seemed to close on him, and he felt like he was being buried alive. Everything became black and suffocating.

He slowly regained control of himself again, trying hard to breathe, his fingers white from the tight grip he had on the desk he had been sitting at. He was panting and drenched in cold sweat. And angry at himself for overreacting like that. It just confirmed his suspicions, after all. He had never really believed in Shiro's death. He knew, because if Shiro had been killed in that mission like the Jedi Order had told him, he would have felt it in the Force, and he hadn't.

He had kept telling them Shiro was alive, had kept pushing for a rescue, but no one listened to him. They told him to get hold of himself, that his behavior was dangerous for a Jedi, that he shouldn't give in to anger or he would fall to the Dark Side. He had kept falling apart, and when Master Iverson accused Shiro of being responsible of the failure of the mission, Keith stopped thinking. He punched him. This is how he was exiled from the Jedi Order. He returned to Tatooine, his home planet. To his dad's shack, empty since his childhood; since Empire soldiers had come and killed his father for being part of the Rebellion. After settling here, Keith had tried to survive how he could, but mostly he had been searching for Shiro.

"Patience yields focus", he muttered under his breath, repeating the mantra his former mentor had taught him when he needed to calm down. That helped him getting his head clear. If he wanted to save Shiro, he needed to hurry.

He knew the coordinates of the Empire base; he just needed a plan.

----

The distraction had worked, and while troops were being sent away to inspect the explosion, Keith managed to enter the base. It was still guarded, but he used the Force on the clone troopers, so that they didn't pay attention to him.

From listening to their communications, he had gathered that Shiro was being brought to the lab section first, rather than to the cells. What that meant, Keith didn't know, but a knot of anxiety was festering in his stomach.

He managed to keep hidden while exploring the base, and, even if he somehow got lost on the way, he finally found the medical area. The first few rooms he looked into were empty, but he did find a lab that was guarded. He tried to use the Force to get in, but that didn't work.

There were soldiers and medics inside, and they all surged at him when he entered. It was too late to try and curb their will wit the Force, so he just used his fists. When they were all knocked out, he sped to free Shiro, who was strapped to a table. He almost tripped over one of the medics laying on the ground in his haste.

He gasped when he got a better view of Shiro. He was unconscious, and seemed to have aged much more than the two years they had been apart; his right arm had been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, a scar was barring his nose, and the hair from his bangs had turned white. Keith felt tears well up in his eyes as he muttered his friend's name, wondering what he had been through. But he didn't have time to linger on his emotions.

He took out the lightsaber he had inherited from his mother, and cut the straps that were holding Shiro prisoner. Gently, he tried to lift the big man from the table. The motion caused Shiro to wake up; he panicked and tried to free himself from Keith's hold. Keith didn't restrain him.

"Shiro, it's me!"

"Keith?" Shiro's voice was hoarse and his eyes unfocused. He was obviously still under the effect of some kind of anesthetic. Reassured, he let himself fall against Keith again with a sigh. Keith wrapped Shiro's left arm around his shoulders, and tried a few steps, but Shiro could barely stand. Keith hadn't expected that. Getting out of the base without being caught was about to get more complicated than anticipated.

While he was hesitating, three people barged in. It was obvious they didn't belong there, and were infiltrating the base just like him. A little Mark IV sentry droid was with them, but to Keith's relief, it didn't attack;  from the way it was flying alongside them, it seemed re-purposed to be at their service.

Before Keith could even react, a lanky guy strode toward him, waggling his finger disapprovingly: "No no no no, no! No, you don’t! I'm saving Shiro!". He took Shiro's other arm, helping Keith carrying him. His long face, tan skin, blue eyes and pointy chin were somewhat familiar.

"Who are you?" asked Keith, confused.

"Who am I? Uh, the name’s Lance?” He seemed to expect Keith to react, but that didn’t ring any bell. “We were in the same flight school? We were like rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, neck to neck..."

Oh, right, the flight school Keith had been part of.. before he stole Shiro's landspeeder for a ride, and Shiro insisted on bringing him to the Jedi temple. He hadn't paid much attention to the other cadets at the flight school, but after thinking about it harder, Lance had been difficult to ignore. Loud, cocky, and always trying to confront Keith for some reason. Keith still didn’t get what he meant about being rivals. Wasn't Lance a cargo pilot?

"Oh, yeah, I remember you." grunted Keith. "What are you doing here."

"Saving Shiro!" repeated Lance. "Don't try to one-up me on that!"

That left Keith confused. He was just trying to help his best friend. He didn't even know they were coming. Why would Lance believe...?

"I'm Pidge. We're from the Rebel Alliance" stated the shortest, and apparently youngest, member of the group. They examined Keith sharply through their round glasses. "What about you?"

"Keith. Former Jedi apprentice," mumbled Keith.

"What?! Former? Did they kick you out?" There was some underlying excitement in Lance's tone that had Keith's hackles rise.

"Sorry to interrupt", said the big guy nervously, "but I think we should go. My sensor is signaling droids coming this way. And the troops are going to come back to the base soon!"

Pidge nodded. "Let's go. Rover, you go as a scoot!". The sentry droid took the lead.

They followed the less crowded paths according to the sensor, with Pidge going first after Rover, then Lance and Keith carrying Shiro, and the last one, who introduced himself as Hunk, covering their tail with his blaster rifle.

---

Once they escaped, Keith brought them to where he had hidden his hoverbike. Their ship was bigger, and further away to avoid it being discovered by the Empire troops.

Said troops were back from inspecting the explosion Keith had caused as a decoy. They hoped to go unnoticed, but shots in their direction proved them otherwise. Keith pulled the throttle. The troops started chasing them.

Keith's heart was in his throat. Alone, he would have shaken them off them easily, but with everyone on board, they were overloaded. The hoverbike was slow and unresponsive. The tanks, land troops and battle droids weren't much of an issue, but the droideka were catching up. Thankfully, fire wasn't much nourished, maybe because they wanted Shiro alive.

Still, Rover, who was firing back at the enemy, got shot and exploded. Pidge let out a long wail when they saw that, and fired back desperately. Lance caught Shiro, who was still dazed and almost fell down as Pidge let go of him.  Hunk leaned forwards to comfort the young rebel; it caused the whole hovercraft to nose down. That gave Keith an idea.

"Hunk, lean left!" Hunk did, and the hoverbike did too; Keith used it to gain speed. Going on with this trick, he managed to keep distance between them and their pursuers. Adrenaline was flooding his veins. He shouldn't have fun doing this.

"Guys, i-is that a cliff overhead?!" Hunk's voice was tight with fear. It was.

They were all yelling at him to stop. As if it was an option. He pulled the throttle. The rush of blood was chanting in his ears, the wind from the acceleration tossing his hair and adding to his elation.  

This was a trick Shiro had taught him. Everyone kept screaming, but Keith let out a laugh. He managed to stick the landing. Unable to come down, the Empire troops had abandoned pursuit.

Lance, who had a good sense of direction, guided him towards their ship.

"That's Blue!", he claimed proudly. "Isn't she beautiful?"

Keith lifted a skeptical brow. The ship was older than themselves, and looked like a wreck. It was indeed painted blue, to be less conspicuous while flying in the atmosphere, maybe?

Hunk grinned, patting the metallic carcass: "She doesn't look like much, but believe me, she can fly! Pidge and I make sure of that."

---

They managed to take off from the planet without trouble. Lance had improved his piloting a lot since flight school, but Keith still had to fight back an urge to push him off the pilot seat and to take the commands.

They were headed towards a Rebellion base on Arus, where they would join Princess Allura. Lance said they hoped Shiro could share some of what he had learned in his mission and during his captivity. Shiro nodded, but Keith noticed how tense he had gotten.

Even with light speed, the trip would last at least a few days, which was good, because Shiro obviously needed some rest.

----

After catching up some sleep, Keith noticed Shiro's bunk was empty. He finally found him gazing through one of the ship's viewing bays. Shiro was lost in the contemplation of the stars, but as Keith was approaching him, his focus shifted to his prosthetic arm. Keith's chest tightened; they still hadn't spoken about what had happened to Shiro.

Gently, he put his hand on his friend's shoulder, a gesture that Shiro had used so often to comfort him in the past. "It's good to have you back."

Shiro turned towards him, a wistful smile on his lips. "It's good to be back".

Keith hesitated. "So, what happened out there?"

Shiro let out a distressed sight. "I wish I remembered. My head’s still pretty scrambled. It’s all a blur..." Keith felt worry grow in his heart. He wasn't the most informed, but between this and Shiro's nightmares that night, it wasn't hard to see symptoms of trauma. Shiro continued: "How did you know to come to save me?"

Keith shifted uneasily. "I... heard stuff. Coded communications from the Empire. On my dad's radio."

Shiro was now looking at him with a concerned expression: "But... what were you doing, alone on Tatooine?"

Keith hesitated, and there was a short silence while Shiro held his gaze. Keith bit his lip, folding his arms and looking away. "They said you died. I didn't believe them. I would have felt it. In the Force."

"I... I understand. Sometimes... I remember... sometimes, I felt you try to reach out to me."

Keith felt his heart stop. He had thought of Shiro, often, missed him terribly. He had no idea Shiro would be able to feel that. "I... missed you." Shiro was still looking at him perplexedly, and he realized he hadn't answered Shiro's question. "After being booted from the Jedi Temple..." he heard Shiro's intake of breath, "I was kinda... lost, and felt myself drawn out to this place." His voice was breaking.

"You went home."

"Yeah."

Shiro knew about Keith's past on Tatooine. About his mother disappearing when he was a baby, about his father being killed by the Empire. Shiro was the one who had found him there at the flight school. He had seen him flying, and  had insisted that Keith was force sensitive, and that he used it without knowing for piloting. Keith had been reticent at first, but Shiro had managed to convince him to try becoming a Jedi. He brought him back to the Jedi Temple. They had begrudgingly accepted him, despite his sixteen years- much older than the usual recruits. Shiro was the one who helped him finding his footing living with the Jedi. Who taught him how to manage his emotions better. Keith had hoped becoming his padawan when he was deemed ready. It was the closest bond to him that he could wish for - Jedi were not supposed to love, after all.

As Shiro didn't answer, he added:  "I kept looking for you..." He found himself incapable of speaking more. Emotions were overflowing him and he could barely keep himself together.

"You found me", Shiro said softly. He reached out a hand, tentatively. Keith knew that signal. He took Shiro's hand and they hugged, a long time. It felt nostalgic, and it felt different and new too. Keith hadn't even realized how much he'd missed this. When they separated, they were both a bit awkward and flushed.

"You grew", commented Shiro; he sounded shaken.

"Eh. It's been two years." He hadn't even paid attention to his growth. His pants were a bit short, now, but it didn't matter when he was wearing boots. He knew his work as a farmhand had developed his muscles, but he had never reflected on how changed his figure.

Shiro had changed too. He too had gained muscles. His embrace was still as warm and welcoming as before, but there was metal now mixed with his familiar scent. He was however clearly not ready to talk about it, so Keith changed subject.

"Are you going to contact the Jedi Order?"

Shiro took a moment to consider the question. "I...I don't know. Let's meet that Princess first. We can see from there."

Keith let out a relieved sight. Now that he wasn't part of the Jedi Order anymore, he was worried of being separated from Shiro again if he went back to the Temple. And after they had abandoned Shiro to his fate, Keith didn't trust the Jedi anymore. He wanted Shiro safe. And close to him, if possible.

"What about you?" asked Shiro.

Keith shrugged. "The Jedi won't take me back, so. I guess I could join the Rebellion... Like you said. Let's meet the Princess."

---

A few days later, Blue landed on planet of Arus. Lance, Hunk and Pidge brought them in front of the Princess.

She was in a conference room, discussing strategy with a group of commanders. Her white hair was in a bun, and the pointy ears and cheek marks revealing her altean origins. She was wearing simple flight clothes, despite her rank. When she saw them, she left the holographic map they were examination and walked towards them.

"Hello, I am Princess Allura, from Altea. You are in a Rebel Base. Master Shirogane, as a survivor from the Kerberos mission, we believe you may have valuable information about Lord Zarkon and the Empire. Would you accept to share them with us?"

"It is an honor. This is my friend Keith. We are at your service, Princess."

[weaselle]

Sample fic, scifi

Wolfe came to, checked himself over, and sighed in relief before remembering to panic about the air. Logic caught up. He was breathing fine. That was, after all one of the primary reasons this planet had been chosen. Of course they hadn't quite trusted their extremely long range sensory data regarding the planet's atmosphere, but their emergency lan- no, the word “landing” didn't really apply. Their incoming circumstances... Well, they hadn't had much time. Wolfe suffered a quick flashback of tumbling through the air and shivered.

There had been serious errors upon entering the six-planet solar system. Equipment had broken. Backups had failed. By the time anyone knew anything was wrong it was far too late. Two thirds of the crew had been lost in an emergency transition out of stasis, as The Intrepid had been sucked down the gravity well of the local star. There was nothing that could save the massive ship. In their efforts to escape, the remaining crew wound up all crammed in the ship's dispatch shuttle, just barely kicking out of the star’s grav well near its second planet's orbit, aimed at the mission's target planet, down to fumes for fuel.

The science team members had worked in a morbid frenzy, half of them computing frantic equations, the others leading teams of military personnel through two engineering reconfigurations. This was because the shuttle was meant to dock in the mag. bay  of the the larger landing module, and wasn't designed for independent planetary landing. They had ten days of in-system travel to do something about that before they hit atmosphere. One team was to basically harvest the fumes and tweak the engine to maximize the dribbles of fuel they did have, while another team was assigned the shuttle's orbital communications satellite, removing everything except the metal-paneled framing, and redesigning it to fall completely apart at the push of a button. Nobody slept much. Everybody was both solemn and frenetic, like over-caffeinated zombies.  

The closer they got, the worse it all was, crowded, resources rationed. Fifty-nine people on a shuttle made for a crew of fifteen. They'd had time to pack some food and equipment, there was plenty of water, but the life support systems were taxed by so many lives, and  their chances of surviving planet-fall were slim. Tensions were high. There were no parachutes.

There was a brief, deathly earnest debate among the equation-working group that seemed to Wolfe to be essentially a three way argument of air friction versus planetary spin, versus 'just how damn sure are you of this value you've assigned gravitational pull?' Then they'd grilled the military pilot about in-atmosphere handling until the man was in tears. Of course, it wouldn't have taken much to bring any of them to tears, stuck in a giant metal can, hurtling toward an unfamiliar planet, uncountable light years from home. Not to mention... no parachutes. A nervous vote was taken among the mathematicians while an even more nervous crew stood by, and the proposed trajectory was altered 3 degrees. The plan sounded bat-shit to Wolfe. They were to come close in, flip to facing mostly backward, wait until less than a minute from impact, pulse the last bit of fuel in a fifteen second burn, and then launch the gutted communication satellite upward with themselves inside it in an effort to counter as much of their incoming velocity as possible. The satellite was meant to be deployed in outer space, and while the trajectory could be controlled quite precisely, the launch was mechanical, not fuel driven. Basically, it was a damn catapult. And the injuries, it was determined, would be worse all crowded inside the frail metal cube of the satellite, so they were going to have the thing fall to pieces right after it launched, leaving them to free-fall an estimated fifteen to thirty feet. The science team members insisted it was their best chance at survival. Wolfe had listened to the plan, helped all he could, and then, as the imminent entry alarm rang, he went hand over hand through the wobbling shuttle to his bunk. Once there, he stuffed all of his bedding inside his flight suit. He zipped up, grabbed his knife and a coil of thin rope, added the food bars he'd been squirreling away, filled his canteen, and stood there a minute, looking at that small collection of improvements to his odds of survival, thinking. He was missing one of the big basics. So he went looking for a mechanic he'd played cards with. He had found the man nervously taping his joints, starting with his fingers.

“Hey Mirez, you know how I told you I quit smoking years ago?”

“Yeah?”

“You wanna go sit in the satellite and have a smoke?”

Ramirez laughed shakily “Hell yes. Fuck the regs.” Wolfe had a stray thought about how drunks survived more accidents through muscle relaxation.

“Yo,” he said, “grab a flask off Burton.” Later, he'd pocketed the lighter. _______________________________________________________________________

      When Wolfe tried to stand up, the first thing he noticed was that the ground was very odd. He had to spend some time on his hands and knees looking at it just to figure out how to stand on it. It appeared to be mostly a lattice of wrist-thick vines, that knobbled and arched and curled. He tried to part them to see what the actual planetary surface looked like, but couldn't  push them much. Figuring he could reach through them and at least touch the ground, he'd only wiggled his hand in to the wrist before he wondered what kind of insect-things might live on a planet like this, and his hand came whipping back out as if under it's own power. So he stood up, made sure he still had the food bars, knife, rope, canteen, and lighter, then looked about.

Around him were strange collections of shrubs. He was in some kind of field of them. They seemed to grow in clusters by type, and he wondered if they mightn't have been planted by something intelligent. Impossible hope of a friendly, star-faring population fought near paralyzing fear that there would be horrifying creatures with a taste for people meat. The planet's star hung halfway between the horizon and it's zenith, and by the way the air was growing slowly warmer, Wolfe supposed it was rising and not setting. It was already quite warm, and he knew from his planetary facts memo that it was likely to get much hotter. He unstuffed himself, pealed his flight suit to his waist, and tied the arms to keep it there. He put the blankets and pillow cases and fitted sheet in the middle of the top sheet, twisted it into a sling, and tied it over one shoulder like a bandoleer. Then, walking with extreme care, he set out to find the others. He left the heavy, visored helmet on the ground, facing the way he went, as a message for any fellow survivors that might be looking for him.

There was no sign of any wreckage. He had no sense of direction. Additionally, either the ground was moving, or he had some kind of land sickness. Or it could be the concussion. Shit. How could there not be any sign of the shuttle wreck? There should be a long, tore up trench, or smoke on the horizon- something. The shrub-things were creepy in their little clusters. The place smelled funny. Like fertilizer soaked in fruit punch. He strained his ears and heard a catalog of curious far away groans and clicks and wind that blended into a faint, cavernous hum of worrisome background noise, but no voices or nearby movement. He was afraid to yell for other survivors in case some kind of alien THINGS came out of hiding and devoured him alive. Everything was too yellow. Wolfe squinted into the bright day and assured himself repeatedly that he wasn't panicking. After several minutes of this, he felt less panicked and crouched near (but not too near) one of the bush-a-ma-bobs to have a think.

The pale greenish sky was too large, somehow; he felt small beneath it. Looking at the bush-a-ma-bob nearest him, he saw that it came up to about waist height, and branched into an umbrella of what might be called leaves: very thick, spade-shaped, greenish yellow, each waxy leaf about as big as a door. Amazingly, each enormous leaf appeared to have grown a support strut from halfway along the bottom of it, angled back down to the base of the trunk. The vines that were everywhere  sprouted into a lush undergrowth of  aqua-colored leafery beneath each bush-a-ma-bob. A few in the group near him were nearly as tall as he, and a couple in the general area were even a bit taller.  They were arranged in fairly evenly dispersed clumps of about fifteen or so. Each bush-a-ma-bob was several feet from the next, each clump of them separated from each of the other clumps by a few meters. It wasn't structured beyond that, and Wolfe tentatively abandoned his farm theory. Most of the things looked to be bush-a-ma-bobs, but some clumps of them were some other kinds of shrubaroo, and he was on the edge of the mixed field of them. Beyond this field and in all directions, stretched a vast yellow plain full of dark brown, knee high things, like skeletal ferns. He was about to leave the bush-a-ma-bobs for a closer look at one of the shrubaroos, when he caught a slight movement out of the corner of his eye.

There, at the edge of the field to his right, was a plant that didn't look like any of the other plants. It was a single radio-dish shaped greenish yellow flower with a diameter of about five feet, atop a stacked coil of brownish orange vine as thick as Wolfe's upper arm, facing the sun. As he watched, the flower frill gently folded back to lay flat along the stem. His heart rate had just about returned to normal when it slowly began uncoiling along the ground. This took several minutes, at the end of which it was clear that there were no roots or attachment of any kind. His first alien creature. Thankfully it was moving away from him and out into the yellow plain at what he estimated to be about two meters an hour, spiraling awkwardly along the vine-covered ground. It stretched out it's coil, and then did a sort of slow-motion, twisty inchworm act to get along. Weird.

Satisfied that he wasn't in immediate danger, Wolfe forgot about aliens and shrubaroos and tried to apply some logic to his situation.  The crew should have all fallen somewhat close together, even though his swirling memories of the satellite coming apart mid-air had him suspecting they had bailed out a good bit higher than planned. As for why he might be a bit farther from the rest of them, that was probably his own stupid fault... in an effort to augment his personal chances of survival, he had hung on tightly to one of the aluminum panels as the com sat exoskeleton broke apart, hoping it would create enough air resistance to slow his fall. It hadn't been that great an idea. From what he could tell of his kaleidoscope recollections, the large thin metal sheet had indeed created a fair amount of drag, which had seemed to yank him quickly away from the dissipating cloud of his companions, and spun him crazily around and around before tearing out of his hands. Now that he thought about it, he could feel the strain in his hands and shoulders still. Actually, he was realizing, he was pretty damn sore all over. Falling from the sun will do that to you, he thought, and then clapped a hand over his mouth, in case man-eating E.T.s were attracted to slightly hysterical laughter.

About a kilometer away, Intrepid military personnel were gathering resources from people into a pile, and maintaining a perimeter, while several surviving members of the science team were having a heated debate over why they weren't all dead.

“Fuck you, Martin! You just can't handle the fact that my plan worked and we're all alive!”

“Bullshit, Franz! Okay? A: it wasn't YOUR plan, ass-hat, and secondly: It's pretty fucking obvious we came out too high up, I don't give a damn that your precious three degrees was complete horse-shit, all I said was, after a fall from that height, more of us should be dead and injured!”

“Yeah, right! What, you had time to take some measurements while we were all in free fall!? You just can't face that I was right!”

“Right? You wouldn't know how to express a variable quotient if.. if it fucked your sister!”

“And you couldn't plot a multiple-input trajectory if it came in your ass!!”

“Um, guys? Guys, this isn't really... that's not how math works...”

“Shut up, Phil. Kim, can you please explain AGAIN to Martin why the planet's rotational momentum doesn't goddamn apply to the final equation because it was ALREADY expressed in the orbital calculations?”

“No, actually; even if I wasn't busy being thankful that we're all in one piece, I-”

“But what I was SAYING, Franz, is that it WASN'T already expressed in the- y'know what? I don't even CARE, all I'm.. Look, I've cliff dived a whole lot, and I'm telling you, we fell too far to be all walking around like this! Mirez!” Martin said to the passing military mechanic, “Did we fall twenty feet, or did we fall two or three times that? What do you think?” Ramirez paused

“Me? I think if there are any E.T. Boogiemen on this planet, they'll probably attack people having stupid noisy arguments first, and I just might live one more day.” They all stopped and looked around apprehensively.

“Well, okay, good point by Ramirez.” Martin said, in a barely audible mutter.

“Yeah, fine,” murmured Franz sullenly, “stupid argument.”

“Hey,” whispered Kim “anyone else feel like the ground is moving?”

Meanwhile, lieutenants Felix and Jones were having their own little debate with Commander Johnson and the first officer.

“What do you mean there's no sign of the shuttle? We should have come down nearly on top of it! No no, it's got to be here; we need to salvage the equipment on board” Felix exchanged a look with Jones, and tried again “Sir, not only is there no sign of the shuttle, but, in about three hours, it's going to be well in excess of one hundred degrees fahrenheit-”

“Really, Felix?” the first officer interjected, “Razor-toothed demon-beasts could be headed our direction and you're worried you'll have to sweat? A little warm weather never killed anyone, come on!”

“Um...” said Jones quietly “No, see, that's the opposite of true...”

“Randy is right, we need to address the most serious threats first” The captain was so wrong that he was saying the right things and still getting it wrong.

“That's what I mean, sir,” said Jones, “any creatures are just theories, but the sun is right there” ______________________________________________________________________

      Wolfe was beginning to suspect he wasn't thinking clearly. He'd certainly had a rough ten days, which might account for the way he was staring out at nothing, thinking about how he needed a plan of action, and how he needed more information before he could make any reasonable plans. Then he would consider how many teeth information might turn out to have if he went looking for it, decide he was much more likely to die of heat exposure, and wonder where in this alien world he should start doing what. Then he would laugh to himself, and start the thought process over again. It wasn't helping.

So he stopped. Made himself think about something else for a minute. He chose cards. He liked cards. He liked the way they felt in his hands, he liked the 'fnap' sound they made when you flipped a finger across the edge of one, and how they helicoptered through the air when you tossed one just right. He liked playing cards, the way card games always seemed to be part math part con. He was good at cards. Not the best player at the table, but usually in til the end of the game. Now, he had to stay in this game. Well, he was going to need water. He had his canteen, but, since he was planning on living longer than a week, he was going to have to find more. Compatible atmosphere , water, and temperature were the top three requisites to target a planet for an advance mission, so, if he found some water, there was a decent chance he could drink it, and only get horribly ill from whatever microbes or alien sediment was in it. Horaaaaaay. At least he was beginning to focus.

  Well, breathable air meant condensation was a possibility. He mulled that over as a back up option as he picked a direction and started walking.

[sleepylop]

One Night on Floor Seven: A Hallway Opera

Well, well… welcome to the hallway carpet! Hope you can learn to put up with the smell of curdled soymilk and sour-fragranced aerosol. Personally, I’d like to believe that unrelenting decay is what gives floor seven its character. A delightfully all-consuming “decay,” which extends past just mold caked with chemical lavender. Here, you’ll find five residual units, installed as an afterthought for the sake of filling out surplus space. (A cluster of tumorous apartments, if you will.) That being said, I’d like to introduce our cast—or, better yet, I’ll open the stage and allow them to introduce themselves.

Enjoy the show!

1. Friday, April 19th, 9:42 PM:

Tonight, he’s sat near the top of the stairwell, broadcasting his thoughts on the status of neo-Pagan reptilians and their rapid encroachment on social values:

“I am warning you all so early on, with what we all know is coming, but are too chemically possessed to acknowledge! Our creator died long ago, but a God greater than him has stepped up to rule us; and, he is testing our integrity each and every day! Still, we’re—” He lets out a feral, yet impassioned belch, before continuing, “—we… we’re failing! We’re failing his tests, and we are willingly submitting to witchcraft, and the demonic reptiles who wield it against us! We must come together through a shared blood offering, and repent for our stupidity! Blood! We must give him our blood! Evil will drown in our blood!”

He’s preaching to what seems to be an empty hallway, relying only on the possibility that his voice will slip its way into the surrounding units. For him, walls with the thickness of battered cardboard are a fantastic asset for his ministry.

Each slurred syllable is coated with a residue of cheap cider, as is the inner thighs of his sweatpants. “His” legal name is unknown. His apartment door sits just three feet to his left, and the dilapidated “worship space” he now rents out can be found just two blocks up the street.

He’s also been asked, on a series of occasions, for clarification on exactly what higher power he’s touting as humankind’s omnipresent foster parent. He has yet to give an explanation more concise than simply, “Well, I invite you to join me, for this week’s Sunday evening worship! Together, one day, we will have the honour to bleed for our beautiful, beautiful king. Join us in the only true path to holy redemption! You will soon understand all, I promise you that.”

It’s been just short of two months, and the residents of floor seven have come to a silent consensus: Do not engage with the righteous-ass preacher in room 703, lest you be roped into joining his non-denominational suicide cult. Do not speak or further enable him. Just walk past, again and again. And, most importantly, keep an eye out for any bold-faced, blood-centric news headlines.

Surely enough, morbid curiosity has become the collective vice of floor seven.

2. Friday, April 19th, 11:08 PM:

At the edge of the staircase, right where the carpet is beginning to peel away from water-corroded wood, the preacher has fallen asleep. Oh shit, his snores sound fucked. Possibly, maybe, suggestive of sleep apnea… maybe?

At least, this assessment of symptoms is what twists its way into Evie’s thoughts, via what is beginning to feel like a paranoid reflex. Having just reached the peak of the seven-flight climb, especially, her attention is already shrouded by fog and gorging itself on any thought that’s not this is where I tumble to my death, I’ve lost all feeling in my calves and I’m forgetting how to climb stairs.

The lone elevator is out of service, just as it has been for the past four years or so.

Ahead of Evie, the wallpaper is beginning to distort, her tired eyes directing a show of yellowed roses rearranging and twisting into one-another. Her room, 705, lies directly ahead, the front door bulging in synch with the walls.

It has been a miserable day. Like, an exceptionally shitty day. Far too often, as much as she cares for her own future as a registered nurse, Evie finds herself considering the legitimacy of the suicide cult. Sometimes, school and a lifetime of anxious baggage don’t mesh remarkably well.

Just as she raises her foot to proceed onward toward freedom, Evie feels a cold hand latch onto her ankle. And, before she’s able to come to a conscious halt, she hurdles toward the off-green carpet. Evie’s fall forward is then ceremoniously punctuated by her right knee jabbing into floor, sending a shockwave of pain down her calf. Her backpack presses its weight down onto her, prompting Evie to lose her balance and roll off to the side, twisting her captive ankle in the process. Well, if only I had fallen backwards, to my sudden, wonderful death.

Evie jerks her head around to see, as she had expected, the liquified form of the preacher brandishing her leg, his pale hand squeezing at her ankle. Before Evie can determine the most effective explanatives for the situation, the preacher mumbles, “G’evening, miss. I almost didn’t see you passing by. Can I talk to you ‘bout something, while you’re here?”

Evie doesn’t respond. Instead, she yanks her ankle away from the preacher, making a deliberate effort to at least dislocate his wrist in the process. This effort seems to have failed, as while Evie scrambles to her feet, the preacher continues to slur, “I noticed that you’ve been living what looks like, um, a homosexual lifestyle. I’d like to discuss that with you, maybe, just a bit?”

Growing rapidly more jaded toward the absurd universe that is floor seven, Evie keeps her mouth shut—which, is truly a test of will. God fucking damn, is this guy even a real person? Or is this just the start of my inevitable breakdown?

As Evie makes the short dash to her front door, she hears the preacher continue to babble from the floor. “It’s just, I wanted to have a little discussion, y’know? Homosexuality isn’t, uh, innately bad, I guess, but sometimes it is the product of psychic population control, and I just wanted to let you know, so that our New World Order is never able to—”

The sound of Evie’s door creaking on its rusted hinges is directly followed by a thunderous slam. The preacher’s words catch in his throat, seeming to choke him in the process.

No, really, he’s suddenly gagging on air. He’s beginning to go blue in the face.

Neither he nor Evie notice: Her wallet is now buried in the carpet, just a foot from where the preacher’s head hovers barely over the ground.

Left with no opportunities for further harassment, he dozes back to sleep, cuddling his empty bottle of cider into his chest.

3. Saturday, April 20th, 12:31 AM:

A grey-haired man, dressed in loafers and a faded tie-dye shirt, is approaching room 702. He’s certainly not a resident of floor seven, but he has a very important appointment.

He notices the familiar shape of the preacher curled into a tight lump, snores echoing throughout the narrow hallway. Still, the sight is unsettling, even for a frequent visitor. Something about this strange situation will never, ever sit right with him.

In his peripheral vision, as the visitor raps softly onto the door of room 702, he notices a metallic glint, nestling against his foot. Is that… oh, a lost wallet? Jesus, it looks like the kind of wallet a little girl would strap to her matching purse. Do any kids even live on this floor?

Shrugging to himself, the visitor kneels down, scooping up the glitter-dusted wallet. It fits oh-so snuggly into the palm of his hand. Maybe Mistress Delia will know who this little thing belongs to.

After a moment more spent on standby, the door eases open.

Snores continue to cannibalize the airspace.

4. Saturday, April 20th, 2:06 AM:

A lopsided smile softening his face, the visitor steps back into the hallway of floor seven. He shuts the door softly behind himself. A half-formed bruise is visible on the meat of his bicep.

He swivels around on his heels, readjusting to the sound of snoring and the smell of asbestos and rot. And, before he can even will himself to take a step deeper into reality, the visitor is hit with a second resounding noise: A hollow tapping, rising from the nearby stairwell.

Then, within seconds of the visitor’s panicked acknowledgement, a new man reaches the crest of floor seven. A batlike man, dressed in an elaborate mixture of dark, free-flowing fabric and romantic embroidery. His face and hands are deeply wrinkled, and his platform boots only emphasize his height—which, towers well over the visitor. White roots are beginning to tease his otherwise purple-black hair, which has been tied back into a tight ponytail.

With a relaxed smile and a custard voice, he addresses the visitor. “Oh, hey, have I seen you around here before? I feel like I’ve seen you comin’ in and out, before.” He follows this up with a string of deep breaths, still recovering from his upward journey. Clearly, the fabric wings are entirely nonfunctional.

Feeling heat rise to the surface of his face, the visitor shrugs. “Yeah, you may have,” he says, staring over the other man’s shoulder, eyes losing focus. “I’ve been around here a few times, before.”

With a curt nod, the retirement-bound vampire begins to stretch his right arm across his chest, his silver jewelry chiming faintly. “Cool, cool. Anyway, don’t mean to hold you up. I’m Oscar, by the way; feel free to say hi, next time, alright?”

“I… I can remember that, okay,” the visitor replies, his voice barely audible over the violent snoring, which has practically become ambient noise. “Do you live here?” he asks, after a beat of hesitation.

Oscar hums. “Indeed, I do. I was just gettin’ back a bit later than usual. Had an interesting night,” he says, then hums again, softly.

“Where are you coming from?” the visitor asks, before any social phobias can drag him back down to hell. He’s still baking in his own endorphins, as he often is after some therapeutic-grade flogging. Mistress Delia may be a professional domme, but she places spectacular concentration on the emotional relief of her clients.

“Well, since you ask, I just got done with ‘goth night,’” Oscar says, air quotes included, paired with a dramatic eye roll. Which, is made exceptionally dramatic, thanks to his purple lenses. “The last goth club ‘round here closed years back, which continues to suck profound ass, but occasionally I hear about a ‘goth night’ happenin’, usually at some club downtown. This one had been… not brilliant. Mainly just played a grating loop of 2000s industrial. And, major points off for all the Marilyn Manson tracks. Do people still think the dude’s music is ‘goth’? Really?” Oscar yawns, as if the freshly branded memory is enough to further exhaust him.

Still, the visitor responds with a nervous smile. “That’s, um, interesting. I… didn’t know about any of that.” He pauses. Snoring takes over again, for a moment. “Anyway, I should be going, now. It was nice meeting you.”

With that, the visitor makes a beeline for the stairwell. As he weaves around Oscar, the elder goth offers a quick, “Nice meeting you too, man. Hope good ol’ Delia is treatin’ you right.”

And, finally, the visitor is no longer a visitor of floor seven. Or, of anywhere, currently.

Oscar retreats to room 701, boots tapping in rhythm with the preacher’s sour attempts at breathing.

5. Saturday, April 20th, 4:38 AM:

Later that morning, after a violently disoriented and hungover preacher returns to his own apartment, the door to room 704 opens for the first time.

Out comes Sal.

Sal’s a normal guy. He works in accounting. He’s gluten-free and recently took on a side gig in multilevel marketing. He calls his mom every night, just before 8 PM.

Sal just wants to catch the bus.

Sal’s been searching for a new apartment.

Wish Sal luck.

[tadakixd-blog]

Rika Kihira, 3A, Quads and Goals

Qn: What was ... ... your most regretful moment of your skating life?

It might be the All Japan Juniors 2 years ago ... ... At that time too my condition wasn't good, but I was too pumped up, and thought that it was better to focus completely on definitely landing my jumps, and focused my energy in the wrong way. I didn't understand my own self. In the actual competition I panicked, and that was the competition that was the most shocking one for me.

~*~ Now that Rika is moving to seniors, there is certainly a lot more mainstream interest in her. Much thanks to @jumpitwithashuulanditwithapa​ for pointing me in the direction of this very interesting interview by Sports Navi. 

~*~

Rika Kihira talks about the relationship between the 3A and the edge of the blade, and the reason to continue competing even though "adjusting is difficult" 

Caption: Rika Kihira, successfully landing the first 3A-3T in the history of Women's Figure Skating. We asked the anticipated 15 year old to look back on a season of great progress. (Photo by Kiyoshi Sakamoto)

The one who broke into a shy smile the moment she faced the camera, was that 15 year old. A 3rd year student in middle school, she made an appearance at her first All Japan Championships [t/n: aka Nationals] held at the end of last year, and placed 3rd on the podium. Rika Kihira (Kansai University KFSC), who wedged herself in amongst the senior level skaters who were aiming for the Pyeongchang Olympics, had an extraordinary presence about her. On top of that, at the Junior Grand Prix Final held just 2 weeks before this competition, she accomplished the incredible feat of becoming the first woman to successfully land the 3A-3T combination jump in competition.

To Kihira, the 3A is a jump she can "challenge [herself]" with, and is something she "will not let go of in the future either". Each time she changes her boots, she must readjust the edge (of the blade) to the best position, and it seems that she is keenly aware of how difficult that is.

The 3A and its rising success rate

Full Translation under the cut

Caption: Placing 3rd in her first All Japan Championships. She showed her efforts by wedging herself in amongst the senior level skaters [Photo by Kiyoshi Sakamoto] Qn: This season was one of great advancements, such as placing third in your first All Japan Championships.

If I were to sum up the whole season, it was one where there were both good and bad times. It was my first time at the All Japan Championships so I did feel nervous but inside the rink both my condition and my feel (for the ice) matched and I was glad that I was able to skate as I usually do in practice.

Qn: You became the first woman to ever land the 3A-3T successfully in competition at the JGPF.

Before that I had landed that jump in local competitions and such, but those are not recognised by the ISU, so I was very conscious (of the fact that it would be recognised if landed) at the JGPF. And, even with that on my mind, it was good that I was still able to land the jump.

Qn: Comparing this season with all the seasons before it, what areas do you think have changed?

The success rate of my jumps has increased, and with skating practice my skating skills have improved too. However, out of all of that, I think the best (part) is that the success rate of my 3A has increased.

Qn: What do you think is the reason why your 3A success rate has increased?

Up until the year before last, even though I could jump it when I was in good condition, it felt like once I took 2 days off I'd have to start again right from the beginning at the next practice, and in that one day it would take everything I had just to get the feel (for the jump) back. For the rest of the jumps, even if there was a break in between practices it would be find, but for the 3A, the moment there was a break, the timing of the jump would change in accordance with the condition of my muscles, and that was very difficult (to deal with). But since about last year, I've begun to know the timing, and it may be that I've come to remember the form of the jump with the number of times I've practiced it in training. I think that's how my success rate has increased.

Qn: Are you now able to jump the 3A normally even if you take 2 days off?

Yes that's right. When I can't land it, there are many reasons such as when I've changed to a new pair of boots. Like I said earlier, up until around the year before last, my condition was up and down. But recently even with a break in between trainings, I'll spend one day readjusting, and the next day I will be able to jump with a good sense (of it) right from the very beginning (of practice). So even if, for example, I spend a long time travelling on flights during competitions, (my feel for the jump) won't change.

The feel that changes with the position of the blade's edge

Caption: During Junior Worlds in March, she had a fracture of her left ring finger, and was not able to adjust (the position of) her edges before the competition. She was not able to land the 3A either. (Photo by Joosep Martinson - ISU via Getty Images)

Qn: It seems like you've really made the 3A your own haven't you?

But once I change my boots, the feeling changes with the position of the edges. I have been making a lot of adjustments to the edges, and attaching them at the position where I feel "this is it". So there is still that problem when it comes to my boots.

Qn: Once you've changed your boots, how long does it take before you are able to land the 3A properly?

If I get a good edge (position) then I can jump it within that day itself. However, after around a week the boots are broken in, so I have to shift the position of the edge just a little. And then as I use them for about just under 2 weeks, I shift (the edge) bit by bit, and then it feels like I've finally found the right position. When I can't find that position it's really tough, so in order for that not to happen I need to take the competitions into consideration in order to match them up with the timing of my boot changes. Recently I've been paying attention to that.

Qn: Has there been a competition where your 3A has been affected because of a change of boots?

Actually, at Junior World (Championships) in March, the boots were new and the edges in a bad position. I had changed the boots about 1 month beforehand but because of the fracture in my left ring finger I hadn't been jumping the 3A...... I was landing the other jumps so, I thought I might be able to land the 3A too, and forgot about the edge position (strained laugh). I think the edge was in a position that wasn't good for me personally, to jump. I had realised it only 3 days before I was supposed to leave, so (I thought), in any case I had no choice but to jump with the edge in that position and left it as it was, and as expected it didn't go well. One week after I came back from Junior Worlds, I still couldn't land the jump so I thought "Just change the boots already" and changed them, and then I was able to land the jump right away...... Actually my condition improved so much that I thought "so this is how good my condition can become" (laughs). It was my own mistake, but through this experience, I thought that I want to be able to perfect the condition of my boots. From now on, I want to start considering when I should change my boots for the next competition, and the timeframe to change them, even when I am still able to use my current pair.

Qn: Do you adjust the position of the edges yourself?

There are many things that I pay attention to only for the 3A so I'll tell my mother "I think it's a little off" and she helps me change them, and Mr Kosugi Skate* (a shop inside the Kansai University Ice Arena, her training base) helps me to adjust the position of the edges. If I think it's hard to land the jump, then I'll jump it many times and see. If I think the issue lies with the boots, then I go about changing (either the boots or the edges) quickly.

[*t/n: The shop name is just Kosugi Skate, so yes, Rika added a -san to the name and hence the Mr Kosugi Skate. It's quite cute, but also a very normal thing for girls to do, especially girls of her age]

Qn: While there is a "best" position for the edge to be in order to land the 3A, but for the other jumps is that position alright too?

Yes that's right. If I shift it slightly, I don't realise it when doing the other jumps, so even if the position is slightly off for them, I can jump them. But, for the 3A, the timing becomes very important, so I always pay super close attention and change the edge of the position (as needed).

Currently, she is practicing the 4S and 4T

Caption: She's already declared that she will challenge the quad jump. Currently she is said to be practicing the 4S and 4T. [Photo by Yutaka/Afro Sports]

Qn: You are becoming known for the 3A. What thoughts do you have and what are you particular about?

Recently, changing the boots and adjusting the edge position is extremely difficult. Even now there are still competitions where, depending on my condition, I'll think "maybe I shouldn't jump (the 3A)". But in a situation where most skaters don't jump the 3A, by adding it in I can challenge myself, and I can accumulate the experiences that can only be had by adding the jump in, so from here on I think I will not be leaving it out.

Qn: You have also declared that you will be challenging the quad jumps. Are you actually practicing them now?

Right now I am attempting the 4S with a two-legged take off. There are 2 styles of jumping the Salchow, and Skater Yuzuru Hanyu (ANA) and Skater Nathan Chen (USA) both have different ways of jumping it. Hanyu is the type who takes off with both feet on the ice, whilst Nathan is the type who takes off with just his left foot on the ice, and the right foot kept as it is, floating (just above the ice). I think other skaters mostly fall into one of these 2 patterns. I tried to see which of the 2 was easier to jump, but the two-legged take off doesn't really fit well with me, so now I am thinking about going back to taking off with just the left foot. I still have not been able to perfect it yet, but when I jump it with one leg, if I can take off right at the start then I've just about come to the point where it's mostly fully rotated.

I am practicing the 4T a lot, and it has gotten better than it was last year, so I think I hope to perfect it within the season.

Qn: You also have a reputation for your skill in expression.

The senior level skaters definitely have wonderful skill in expression, and especially if you compare the skating to the junior level, it's completely different. I do think that I myself might also be getting better year by year, but compared to the senior level skaters it's absolutely inadequate. Since I have plans to move to seniors next season, I want to improve my expression through ballet and dance, and make changes as I watch videos (of myself) during on-ice practice.

Qn: It seems like in April, you received choreography from Mr Tom Dickson for next season's free skate.

It's a piece of music called "Beautiful Storm", and there are sounds of thunder, sounds of waves. It's a piece that gets better and better as you listen to it. Rather than calling it a pretty (program), it's more like it's been done with a sort of cool feel to it, that's how I feel it's becoming.

Qn: Is your jump layout confirmed?

There are rule changes so it's not confirmed yet but, I'll start with either the 4T or the 3A+3T, and then the 3A, 3Lo, 3Lz+3T, 3F, 3Lz+2T+2Lo, and finally the 3S, something like that. It's only recently been created so from here on I want to be able to make it a wonderful program.

Qn: What about your short program?

I will be receiving the choreography from Coach David Wilson. The music has not been confirmed yet but I have suggested a piece that I like so we will be deciding whether or not to use it.

Winning at the Beijing Olympics is her current goal

Caption: Winning at the 2022 Beijing Olympics is her current goal. In order to achieve that, Kihira will devote herself as a competitor from here on too. [Photo by Sports Navi]

Qn: Please tell us about a time in your skating life thus far where you felt you had matured.

I failed terribly (11th place) at the All Japan Junior Championships 2 years ago (Nov 2016). When I think about it now, while I had been practicing the 3A a lot, my Lutz and all had not been well established yet, and I wasn't able to skate the program through properly. It had been my goal to participate in the All Japan Championships that year, but I was not able to in the end.* However, I was able to gain a lot from that experience, and it was a good practice for me as well.

This season, during the JGPF, I participated while running a fever. As the competitions were late in the evening, having to perform with my muscles in a different condition from usual was also a new experience for me. Now, I'm more conscious of needing to wear a mask on the plane so that I don't catch a cold. I can't pinpoint a competition and say "this one" was the one I matured in, but in all my competitions, there are at least 2 points to learn from, and with all these competitions I've gained quite a bit of knowledge. I can feel that I am maturing (as I take part in) these many competitions.

*[t/n: You must be 15 years old to participate in Nationals, but the top 6 junior skaters in the Junior Championships will be allowed to participate even if they are under 15, as Rika was then]

Qn: What was your happiest moment, and your most regretful moment of your skating life?

The happiest was last year's  All Japan Championships when I placed 3rd. The most regretful was...what was it (strained laugh). It might be the All Japan Juniors 2 years ago that I mentioned earlier. At that time too my condition wasn't good, but I was too pumped up, and thought that it was better to focus completely on definitely landing my jumps, and focused my energy in the wrong way. I didn't understand my own self. In the actual competition I panicked, and that was the competition that was the most shocking one for me.

Qn: A new 4 year cycle towards the Beijing Olympics has started. What are the areas you are thinking of improving on?

I can't narrow it down to just one area but, (I want to improve on) the stability of my jumps, and I want to add on new jumps too. And also, my expression and my skating skills too. I think it would be good if I could perform a program where every component gets positive GOE, and up until I participate in the Beijing Olympics I want to improve every component to the point where I can say there is nothing left undone. Being able to participate in the Beijing Olympics is my first goal but, if I do get to participate then I must be at the level at which I can aim for a medal. Till then, I want to steadily gain experience, and be able to think "there is nothing to be afraid of in competition".

Qn: Do you have a goal as a competitor, as a skater?

I have practiced this much with the goal of one day winning the Olympics. Winning the Beijing Olympics is my current goal so, I'd like to continue forward with that in mind.

I was surprised at intensity with which she stated her goal for Beijing. After a light hearted and slightly self-conscious interview, she certainly wasn't shy about her ambitions hahah Very excited to see her next season. Stay injury free Rika!

[chiefhiccstrid]

Thank you for 2000 followers!

Wow. 2000 followers? I just cannot believe it. Thank you to all who follow this crazy blog filled with httyd and hiccstrid trash. It really means a lot. 

When I started this blog (wow over 4 years ago) I never thought that it would have this much of an impact on my life. I have made some friendships on here that I am so thankful for. That I know I will have for a long, long time. (shoutout to babe ;) )

This blog has helped me get through some of my toughest times and but also has created some of the best memories that I will remember for a long time. 

Thank you for always making me smile and reading my fics and for being the people I freak out over httyd with. It is so amazing to have a group of people who all enjoy the same things you do. We all may live far away from one another, but I still feel pretty close to all of you. 

I love you all. A lot. So, thank you. And to show my thanks, have this little short and fluffy hiccstrid fic I typed up real quick. 

Thank you all again, really. From the bottom of my heart, I will never ever forget you all. I enjoy every moment on here with you all and I can’t imagine a world without you in it. (see what I did there?). 

Thank you all for helping create some amazing memories and I can’t wait to create more.

Okay okay I will shut up with the sappy stuff now so you can read this tiny fic I wrote! Enjoy! <3 

Memories

The flight suit is a finicky thing because it doesn’t work over half the time. Astrid keeps telling Hiccup that he is going to hurt himself one day, but he never listens. 

The words ran through his mind again as he stood on top of Toothless, ready for flight and the feeling of freedom, “Hiccup, I swear, that thing is going to get you killed one day.”

But he jumped off anyways. He was needing to clear his mind from all the stress being chief brings him and while flying on Toothless helps, there is nothing like flying on your own. It is just so free. 

His arms were spread out and the chilly air was hitting his face. There was nothing but blue skies in front of him. It was the perfect day to fly. 

He reached over to his chest to pop the fin out but it wouldn’t come out. He started to panic but the panicking made him lose focus and he didn’t see the sea stack that he was flying towards. 

And by the time Toothless noticed, it was too late. He was already crashing towards it. Hiccup screamed as the ground came closer and closer. Toothless finally made his way to his rider but during mid-crash, Hiccup’s scream was cut off when his head hit a boulder. Everything went dark. 

Astrid was worried when night came and Hiccup was nowhere to be found. He was only supposed to be gone a couple of hours but a couple hours turned into the whole day. 

So, she hopped on Stormfly and went to find their reckless chief. It took her longer to find him than she was comfortable with and the nighttime sky did not help her any.

She saw Toothless and at first, she was relieved. From a distance, all she could see was him lying there next to his dragon, so she thought he had just fallen asleep. It wouldn’t have been the first time her husband has disappeared for hours only to have fallen asleep on some random sea stack in the middle of the archipelago. But as she inched closer, she saw the look of horror and worry upon the dragons’ face when he turned his head towards the two after hearing their arrival. 

Astrid hopped off Stormfly even before she had fully landed and ran straight towards her husband, “Hiccup!” 

She began checking him out, wondering what was wrong. She saw the ripped flight suit first and then the blood coming from his head, “Oh, gods...”

His auburn hair was matted with blood, fresh and old. She checked the rest of him out and all she could see were some scrapes and bruises. She prayed nothing else was wrong. 

“Hiccup, can you hear me? Hiccup? She gently shook his shoulder. Nothing. Then she noticed his chest rising and falling and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her next task was to stop the bleeding. 

She was wrapping his head with a piece of torn fabric from his clothes when Hiccup’s eyes began to flutter open. She stopped wrapping when she realized that he was waking up. 

“Astrid?” Hiccup managed to choke out, the look on his face was both pain and utter confusion. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” he began to move but she stopped him by placing a hand on his chest. “Don’t move, you’ve hurt your head pretty bad.”

The chief looked confused again and touched his head for a moment, wincing when he hit a tender spot. He looked at the blood on his fingers and then back to the girl that was hanging over him. She went back to bandaging his head, and she looked very concentrated on the task in front of her. Hiccup noticed her furrowed brow and the way she bit her lip. 

“Wow...You’re beautiful...” Hiccup trailed off, still looking at the girl above him. 

“Thank you. Now I am in the process of saving your life, so if we could just focus on that for a moment...”

There was silence for a few minutes, the only sound was the waves crashing against the rocks down below. 

“I just...don’t understand why you are here right now,” Hiccup said.

Astrid had finally finished wrapping his “bandage” when he said this. It confused her. 

“What do you mean? You were gone all day, I started to get worried, and then I came to find you. How is that confusing?” Astrid grabbed his hand. 

“I didn’t even think you knew I existed.”

“What are you talking about?” Astrid was more worried than confused now. He was talking nonsense. 

“I mean...I’ve had a crush on you forever but never thought you actually cared enough about me to save my life,” Hiccup said, more to himself than Astrid. 

Astrid placed her free hand on his cheek and forced him to look her in the eyes, “Hiccup. We’re married.”

Hiccup’s eyes grew three sizes and the pain in his face grew into a smile of pleasure. 

“Married?” He noticed the rings on their fingers. “Oh thank you Freya and Thor and Odin and all the other gods up there who may be listening to this and anyone who had anything to do with this.” He continued thanking the gods rambling about the news. 

Astrid just shook her head and picked him up and got on Toothless, telling the dragon to hurry. 

“Toothless! Astrid and I are married!” Hiccup announced when the dragon made his way off the ground and into the skies. 

Hiccup fell back into unconsciousness not long after that and Astrid silently prayed to the gods that Hiccup’s memories would come back.

It took a few days, but Hiccup finally woke up with all his memories restored. Well, except the one where he crashed, hurt his head, and forgot he was married. 

“Did I forget about Toothless too?” Hiccup asked, trying not to laugh too hard because it made the painful throbbing in his head worse. 

“No, you announced our marriage to him as soon as you saw him,” Astrid chuckled. 

“Gods, how embarrassing.”

Astrid laughed, “It was actually kind of sweet, even though I was worried as hell. I mean the look on your face when I told you we were married was priceless. Almost as good as the look on your face when I agreed to marry you,” she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before telling him to scoot over so she could lay down next to him. Hiccup rested his head on her shoulder. 

Hiccup was almost asleep when Astrid spoke once more, “Just so you know when you get better, you are so dead for almost getting yourself killed.” 

[mysidewriting]

Through the Storm

Note: Okay, so I'm just going to go ahead and post this now! Two chapters in one day! This one is much longer and a LOT more eventful than the last. So enjoy c: (Make sure you read chapter four before this! Just want to make sure thats clear since I'm posting twice in a day)

From the start --> Previous chapter

Chapter Five:

Of course my final day with Oak would be the most eventful, and not on purpose.

Another small team of researchers plus Oak and myself had gotten on a boat, going to check some small islands far off the coast. The salty smell of the sea, although much different than the scent of Alola's seas, was still refreshing to me. One of the younger researchers was horrified to see me hanging over the edge of the boat, brushing my fingers across the top of the passing water. I explained I was use to boat travel after spending nearly 3 years in Alola, I wasn't afraid of water whatsoever. If anything the deep blue scenery was comforting to me at this point.

Far over the horizon a small dot appeared. Oak was the first to notice it and immediately rushed to use one of the assistant's binoculars hanging around their necks, almost choking the woman in his excitement. He called me over to see for myself what crazy a chance this was. I respectfully took the binoculars from the woman, and gazed out at the dot.

In such close focus I could see the large flamed wings beating furiously hard against the opposing winds. An intimidatingly long beak stretched out before the large bird. I handed the binoculars back to the woman and asked if we could try to get closer to the rarely seen Moltres. Oak, aware of my peaked interest in the legends of the area, had already requested the boat to follow the bird.

We managed to steer up right beneath the large flamed beast. Many cameras snapped in the direction of the bird, excited chatter as people quickly took down notes of the appearance.

It gazed down at us, its eyes holding an intensity similar to the fire that spurted from its wings. Its beak opened to let out a booming loud screech and swooped away, moments later flames exploded next to the ship, plumes of smoke surrounding the crew.

The boat shuddered and every person panicked momentarily, the smoke clouding our view of where the Pokémon had went. I released Tsunami and it quickly disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean, I could see the long figure weaving through the waves closest to the haul.

The smoke cleared just enough to grant a view of the bird swooping back around to attack once again. Oak swore, remarking about how it was always dangerous to get so close to a powerful Pokémon.

I shouted that I would take care of it, if no one scared off the beast it was likely that the boat would sink.

I thought of Gladion for a moment, he'd be pissed when he found out what I did. Or at least planned on doing.

I readied myself, the figure beneath the water doing the same. Once Moltres was within five feet of the boat I leapt off the side, someone behind me shouted. Tsunami burst from the water suddenly, catching me on it's back as its form shifted and shimmered.

The newly evolved dragonite shot a plume of fire from its mouth on my command, nailing Moltres hard enough for it to redirect and ascend higher into the sky.

Tsunami followed, its wings beating just as furiously as the legendary in order to support my weight. My heart pounded painfully hard in my chest as we approached the angered bird. Waves of heat could be felt as we drew nearer. It screeched at us and attempted to swerve away from its approaching foe. Tsunami was ready though and quickly veered to cut off the bird's escape route. A dangerously powerful dragon's tail slamming the bird out of the sky.

I watched, worried for the Pokémon to hit the water... but it managed to regain its flight before making contact with the surface. It screeched again and flew in the opposite direction of the boat quickly, fleeing.

My legs shook as I slid off the back of Tsunami and to the deck of the boat. The large Pokémon let out a jubilant roar and everyone on the boat applauded both of us. Oak commended me for my bravery and I told him it was nothing in comparison to the things I'd done in the past.

Everything seemed uneventful after that insane encounter. The assistants asked me thousands of questions about Moltres, most of which I still could not answer. The islands we found had minimal Pokémon population, most of it being slowpoke unsurprisingly.

At the end of the day Oak handed me a pokeball. Inside was a newly hatched charmander - waiting anxiously to meet me. Oak explained that he had planned on giving me something else as a reward for all the hard work I'd done to help him, but after watching me bravely ward off the fearsome bird he didn't think anything else was appropriate.

I asked if I could borrow one of his old books covering legendary Pokémon and he agreed on the condition that I bring it back before I left Kanto. I obviously agreed and I made my departure from the office for the last time, at least in the context of work.

Daisy let me use the computer in the living room with no hesitation. I had been waiting for Green to get back from...where ever he was... so I could ask about our planned trip to Seafoam but he was taking longer than I thought he would. Hau wanted to have another video chat so I agreed, figuring it would pass the time.

I sat on the computer chair, my knees pulled up to my chest and the borrowed book resting in the crevice between my tummy and legs. The screen popped up, Hau's grinning face the first I saw before Lillie and Gladion came up as well.

"Lillie!" Hau shouted in a musical tone. "How was shopping?"

She giggled, shaking her head with a sheepish grin. "It went great."

Hau just laughed, seemingly excited by this small exchange. I'd asked Lillie if she'd been talking to Hau a lot after I forced her to text him a few days ago, apparently they talked nearly all day now. They both enjoyed it so I couldn't criticize all the attention on a screen. It seemed the both of them were heading in a good direction.

"Don't you shop too much?" Gladion asked, defiance on his face. "The last I saw your closet was overflowing."

She shrugged, "I like getting new clothes and I have the money for it so..." she laughed and I mentally applauded her for her own defiance to her brother - totally unmoved by his mildly offensive words.

Lillie's attention switched to me as she asked, "Moon, how was the last day with Oak?"

"It went well!" I paused, remembering the wind rushing past my face as I rode on the back of Tsunami. The heat of the huge legendary bird. I slammed my hands down on the desk, shouting "Oh! Something crazy happened!"

Lillie and Hau's eyes widened in suspense and excitement at my reaction. Gladion only rose an eyebrow and stated plainly, "What happened?"

I excitedly explained the events that had happened earlier in the day, how I'd faced off against one of Kanto's legends on the back of my newly evolved dragonite after nearly being killed by it. How I'd flown through the skies and felt the heat of the huge Moltres that was so rarely seen in the region. That dragonite and I had successfully scared the bird away from harming all of Oak's team and been rewarded with one of Kanto's most famous starters. Hau and Lillie reacted just as would be expected to my words, rising and falling with the tides of the tale.

Gladion just watched my face and I imagined he was gauging whether or not to yell at me for putting myself in danger. After I finished explaining I reclined back in the chair, letting my feet drop to the ground and nearly dropping the book that had been held up by my legs.

Hau and Lillie gushed their shared excitement. Hau exploded about the battle description I had given him and his jealousy of my new teammates. Lillie freaked about the appearance of a legendary she had read so little about and wanted to see for herself. I answered both their questions and tried my best to explain the Phoenix-like Pokémon.

Hau started going on about his own adventures of the day. He'd been working with his grandfather, training, and ran into former leader of team skull, Guzma. I watched Gladion visibly cringe as he heard the name and I passed him an understanding smirk that only he caught. Apparently Guzma had challenged Hau to a battle and completely wrecked him. The man had gotten much more skillful with his Pokémon recently, and cared more for them - or so it seemed by Hau.

"I kind of talked him into going to hang out with your mom, Moon." Hau said with a hesitant grin, tossing a hand behind his head and laughing with just as much hesitance.

My jaw dropped, "why would you do that?" I half snapped.

Hau shrugged, "I didn't really mean too? I don't think it'll cause issues."

"I hope it doesn't." Lillie said quietly. "Your mom has enough to handle already."

"Sorry." Hau said.

I shook my head and cupped my face in my hands, "I'll call her and warn her some kind of crazy guy is possibly going to visit."

"Did anyone tell Bub about all this?" Lillie asked, drawing a sigh out of Gladion and an annoyed eyeroll... likely in reaction to the new name she'd been calling him.

"I didn't." I said, "We had other things to discuss." I pointed a glare towards Gladion, referencing his drunken night.

I vowed to not poke any more fun at him when I noticed the dark expression that had taken hold of his face. "My parents are getting a divorce." I stated calmly, surprised to see his face lighten quite a bit - shock replacing the darkness.

The heavy wooden door leading outside slammed shut behind me and I twisted to see Green standing in the doorway, he met my gaze then with a face of disgust towards me before continuing down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Finally!" I mockingly shouted after him. He made loud fake gagging noises in response - drawing a laugh from my gut.

"Who is that?!" Hau asked, excited as a growlithe pup at the sight of a new person.

I was about to respond when Green's voice boomed from the kitchen. "Who said you could use my computer, kid?"

"Your sister!" I said with a sly smirk on my face, turning to look in the direction his voice came from.

He made more fake gagging noises and I rolled my eyes. "That's Green." I said in response to Hau finally. "And I've been waiting for him all day!" I shouted.

"He he he." He fake chuckled and wandered back into the room. He appeared behind me and folded his arms atop my head, pushing me down so he was in the camera too - a blank look on his face.

"Hi!" Hau said.

"Who are these people, eh?" Green asked.

"Friends." I moved so he stumbled and I burst out laughing as he quickly had to correct his stance. He flipped me off and wandered back out of the room.

"Are you ready for our trip tomorrow?" He called.

A grin burst across my face and I turned to face him in the hallway. "Yeah of course! When are we going?" I looked back to the screen and quickly apologized to them for stealing all the attention and conversation away. "I'll just go so you guys can talk."

"Finish talking with him and come back!" Lillie said with a smile, "I'm sure we'll still be on."

I checked the time, "I should probably get ready for tomorrow too though, I need to make sure I packed all my stuff." I shouted towards Green again, taunting him. "I'd hate to come back here again."

"Shut up, Moon." He snapped back.

"Just go." Gladion flatly assured, his gaze directed away from the computer screen and his face shrouded by those long bangs.

His tone was so... irritated sounding. My shoulders dropped and a frown creased my face. "Okay, talk later guys..." I waited for just a second to see if he'd see me off but he didn't budge so I just logged off.

Green planned to meet up with Red around one in the afternoon, we'd leave shortly after that. It would likely be an all-day thing since the caves were so confusing and hard to get through with ice. I made a quick request to bring someone along with me, even though I had yet to ask them if they wanted to come. Green shrugged, muttering that they'd be my responsibility but 'sure'.

So after making sure all my stuff was packed away and all my Pokémon were accounted for, I called Lillie. It had gotten pretty late and I doubted the guys would still be online considering the huge time difference between the regions. She picked up rather quickly.

"Hey, Moon. What's up?" She said, her voice cheerful as always.

"Hey! I was wondering if you wanted to come explore Seafoam islands with Red, Green, and I tomorrow. It'll be all day thing but should be super cool!" I offered.

She gasped, "Really? I can go? With the champions?"

I laughed, "yeah of course."

"Yeah I want to go! What time? When should I get to Pallet?"

"We're leaving around one so I'm sure you could come now if you wanted too? I'll check with Green for sure."

"You check with him and I'll fly right over!" Her voice dripped with excitement.

Two hours later Lillie was in my borrowed room, freaking out about some message Hau had sent that was super sweet and hinted at romantic and how her brother was being weirdly jealous about me. I listened to her go on and on about Hau and all the things they talked about and nearly teared up to see her so happy. It was so odd that all it had taken for this to start was forcing her to text the guy.

I remarked about this and her face turned so red I started laughing. She'd always been too hesitant to actually hold such long conversations with him, worried she would say something dumb. I questioned how she could even think she'd come off dumb but of course she didn't have a real reason other than fear.

As for the part about her brother, I figured she meant how he had acted right before I'd left the video call. "Yeah, what was that about... do you know?"

She threw her arms up in confusion, "All I know is that he was totally being a jealous baby."

"What does he have to be jealous about though?" I laughed, the sound was hesitant. Something twisted in my gut, an odd feeling of satisfaction about the situation settled in. Why would it be satisfying for him to be jealous...?

"Probably because of Green." She tapped a finger to her bottom lip. "Maybe he's jealous that you made new friends."

I shrugged, brushing the conversation off as though I didn't really care what he was jealous about. But the thought lingered at the back of my mind, waiting to be thoroughly mulled over.

The two of us stayed up far later than we really should have considering how grueling the exploration of the caves would be. She had so much to talk about - Hau, her mother, her brother, her Pokémon evolving, the research she did about the Kanto legends as well. It was eleven when we finally tucked ourselves into the shared bed. An hour of further chatting about her and Hau's possibility of dating passed before she managed to drift off to sleep.

G//Hey, Moon...?

I was shocked to see the text. He was staying up so late these days... I glanced at Lillie to make sure she was in fact asleep before responding.

M// yeah?

G//What happened with your parents?

Oh, right. I'd sort of bluntly told him my parents were divorcing without explaining anything. I'd been distracted by Green getting home and totally fell off the train of the call in general. Guilt punched me in the gut, why did I focus on Green when I was talking to my friends? I felt pretty shit about it.

M//oh yeah... well my dad was hanging around with some other lady while I was staying at his house... so I had to tell my mom. //obviously her natural response was divorce.

G//Wow. Your dad is an ass.

M//yeeeah... I didn't expect it at all...

G//You okay?

M// I think so? I don't know if I've fully processed it yet //my mom seems to be handling it fairly well though, so that's good. I'm the most worried for her being upset.

G//Well... if you need someone to talk too... you know I'm here.

Maybe I shouldn't have been smiling about that, but for some reason I was.

M//Thank you //I'm sorry for not telling you earlier... when I told everyone else...

G//It's okay. Apparently it was my fault anyway.

M//no it wasn't. I should have told you, I was just distracted and worried about you drinking.

G//Shit G//I'm sorry...

M//no need to apologize~

G//... G//It's late. Talk tomorrow...

M//haha okay. Night

I needed to tell him about the information I found about Mewtwo. He'd be interested considering his closest and most trusted Pokémon was also a manmade creation. Hopefully he was serious about talking tomorrow...

I drifted off after another twenty minutes, my mind spiraling off into thoughts of dangerous legendary and experimental Pokémon.

Seafoam was further away than we had expected. It took us a solid two hours to arrive on the shore of the massive chunk of rock. Green withdrew the abnormally large gyardos he had enlisted to transport us over the ocean with a thanks.

The caves were strange. Lillie had done some minimal research on them while riding here and apparently there were two separate areas where they broke the surface of the ocean and opened to the skies. One of the openings was harder to access and almost nobody had ever entered or exited through it unless flying. We both figured that was how articuno managed to get into the cave.

The other entrance was currently in front of us, a gaping maw of jutting rock and cold breezy air. I'd stuffed an extra sweater in my backpack this morning just in case and I was ready to throw it on already.

There was something unsettling about underwater caves. This fear that they would collapse out of nowhere. I tried to ignore it as we carefully entered the cave, avoiding the sharp, ice covered rocks near the entrance.

The further in we ventured the further the temperature dropped and the dimmer the lighting became. Lillie vice gripped my forearm in fear of sliding on a stray patch of ice on the floor. Large stalactites hung over head and flocks of zubat fluttered between them with strange chirping noises. Green entertained himself by shouting out random Pokémon names and listening to his own voice echo back at him in a strange octave. Red snickered at the noise, his pikachu that rode on his shoulders tilting its head in confusion each time the warped version of Green's voice met its ears.

Eventually the flashlights came out. Red's pikachu's cheeks released a small amount of discharge to provide some small light and it bounced around in front of us to guide the way. It made this adorable little noise as it hopped and skipped around large rocks, ice, and small pools of water. Lillie and I couldn't help but giggle at it, she attempted to imitate the noise quietly so the two guys with us couldn't hear - but she ended up laughing every time she tried instead.

After about twenty minutes of walking through tight, descending passages, the walls opened up to a larger space. The sound of rushing water coming from somewhere below us. Smalls bits of light flooded through cracks in the ceiling where thin trickles of water leaked into the depths of the cave. It was gorgeous, all four of us paused for a moment to take a good look at the scenery. Lillie snapped a few pics on her phone before tugging out her own extra sweater, the chill of the cave reaching me at the same moment.

I shivered and quickly pulled out my own sweater. Green noticed both of us pulling the fabric over our heads and laughed, "It's not that cold, ya babies."

Lillie pouted, her signature annoyed pout that was way too cute to have any significant effect on people. "It's freezing, you're just trying to be cool."

I laughed, she was right. Green rolled his eyes, "I'm not cold."

"You already have two jackets on though." I pointed out, which brought a snide grin to Red's face as well.

Green flipped me off and took the lead. Lillie, Red and I followed after. I fiddled with the double hoods, trying to get them to lay in such a way that it didn't feel like there was 10 pounds on the back of my neck. Then I realized what sweater I had grabbed this morning and my cheeks burned. I give it ten minutes at most before Lillie comments about this.

A loud screech stopped us in our tracks. A black figure dive bombing from the ceiling directly in front of me specifically. Stumbling backwards, my foot hit a slippery piece of ice and I landed backwards on my ass before realizing it was an oversized golbat that had assaulted us. It angrily lunged at me and I quickly tossed out lycanroc without thinking, having the Pokémon quickly blast the foe away with accelerock.

Lillie helped me up quickly as Kai danced around the golbat, another five zubat fluttering down from the ceiling in reaction to the disturbance.

Suddenly both Red and Green had their Pokémon out, knocking out the bats as quickly as possible. Lillie, Kai, and I raced to a lower level of the cave and hid beneath an overhang of rock where the bats wouldn't see us as easily.

"Those were really big." Lillie's eyes were wide and round, freaked out by the attack. "I've never seen them so big."

I shook my head, "me neither. It was freaky."

Kai had been bitten in the process of attacking the golbat and I quickly patched her up before the poison could set in. I gave her a tight hug and thanked her for having such quick reflexes. Lillie thanked her as well before I recalled her to her ball where she could rest. The noise of the battle continued on overhead, though it sounded as though it were dying down now. There are way too many zubat here.

Lillie tugged at my sleeve and my cheeks started going red before she could even open her mouth.

"So...why do you..." she started.

I cut her off, "He forced me to take it before I went up Lanikala that first time. I tried giving it back like twenty times but he wouldn't take it."

She giggled, "So two years?"

I nodded, afraid to make eye contact with her.

"I was wondering why he hadn't worn that old sweater in so long." She laughed again, "How strange..." Her words drifted off and I could tell by the expression on her face that she was lost in her thoughts.

I forced myself out of my own thoughts, out of the memory of running into her brother right before making the trek up to the league. The way he'd grinned at me that day was something that still plagued my mind once in a while... I bounced around on my feet to get everything out of my head and refocus on the task at hand. Lillie laughed at me and I locked gazes with her.

"Okay let's forget about the fact that I use your brother's emo sweater when it's cold and go try to find articuno!" I said with a fist towards the ceiling.

The whole zubat fiasco only took another ten minutes after that. We didn't run into any other rouge ones the rest of the way and Green jokingly remarked about knocking out or scaring all of them. Lillie made the mistake of agreeing with him and suddenly his arrogance was back in full force.

Before we could make much more progress through the stoned passages we had to clear out some larger boulders. Green had his machamp help us with that, though even the four armed Pokémon struggled to shove some of the massive rocks aside its self. As such the four of us plus the muscular Pokémon all helped with pushing the blockade out of the way. Beyond that point there was a lot of steep vaults that Lillie and I carefully shimmied down while Red and Green enjoyed themselves leaping across them as quickly as possible.

The rock was slick with water and ice and the two of them nearly fell a good ten times before the terrain evened out once again. They'd gotten so far ahead of us though that I'd decided to have dragonite help Lillie and I catch up with them, carrying us carefully down to meet up with them.

I wondered how we could had made any of the progress we had if Red, Green, and I hadn't had powerful Pokémon to help. The chances of other trainers reaching this point was extremely minimal. I tossed that idea out to the group and a strange atmosphere settled around us as we realized we could possibly be feeling out unmapped territory. Seeing things no one else had seen before.

Lillie was giddy to think she was experiencing something like that again. She released her ivysaur to have it experience the caves, letting it wander with us while the ground wasn't too treacherous.

We happened upon this room where the ceiling was completely made of thick ice. Light flittered through from above the ocean, casting strange reflections of the surface of the ocean across the glass like dome. Thousands of shades of blue rippled and flowed throughout the isolated bubble of air beneath the tides. The floor, completely covered in ice as well, was grounds for entertainment for all of us - started by Lillie's clumsy ivysaur that slid halfway across the room whilst chasing a passing school of golden beyond the ice.

Red, Green, and I tested how far we could slide across the ice without trying. It quickly became a contest of who could slide the farthest. Lillie recorded all of it, a soundtrack of our laughter filling the silence of the videotaping. Red ended up with the furthest distance of sliding and Green and I spent way too long trying to figure out why he could go so far.

It became dark once again as we descended even further into the chilled cave. That sound of rushing water becoming louder and louder until we reached what seemed to be the bottom. The floor was almost entirely submerged in deep water, small chunks of ice covered rocks peaked out over the top of the dark waves. The light coming from pikachu's cheeks was by far not enough to illuminate the cave, so Red released charizard who roared as it realized how dark it was in the cave.

A large pillar of fire shot from the dragon's mouth, the cave lit up in an orange glow. Ice reflecting the color across the ceiling and the water. It stayed lit even after charizard had stopped shooting flames, the ice somehow retaining that glow. Red and Green were just as awestruck as Lillie and I were.

In the center of the room a large bird stood, perched on the ice coated stone that jutted from the water. Its blue plumage seemed to emanate a frosted mist, the air around it somehow colder than the rest of the already freezing room. There was a darker blue crest on the forehead of the beast that was shockingly similar to the large icicles hanging around the room. Its tail feathers were twice its body length and shimmered with ice shards as though it were composed of thin sheets of diamond.

"So that's it, eh?" Green said, appearing behind Lillie and I and dropping his arms across our shoulders. "That's the legendary articuno little Moon here has been freaking out about all week."

The bird's eyes locked on us and I tensed, waiting for a scenario similar to what had happened yesterday to ensue. Instead, articuno only ruffled its sparkling feathers and coo'ed at us. My heart skipped a few beats as I felt its gaze meet mine, I ached to get closer, to feel its cold feathers.

"I think it likes you, Moon!" Lillie grinned.

The water was too dangerous to transverse on my own so I glanced to everyone else, "do we want to get closer?"

Red wordlessly tossed out another pokeball, releasing a lapras and inviting everyone to step onto its back. Articuno extended its wings to full width as we approached, it's strong flaps sent icy winds through the air directly towards us. I yanked up my hood as the frost nipped at my ears and combed through my hair.

"Moon." Lillie stage whispered at me. I span to look at her and noticed she had her phone held in such a way that she was clearly recording me. I grinned at her and turned to look at articuno once again, readying myself to step off the lapras once we got close enough.

Lapras cried out and articuno responded with a booming caw. My limbs tensed once again and I found myself carefully stepping off lapras's back without really thinking about it. I felt a hand grab my arm and lock me in place.

"What are you doing, kid!" Green shouted at me. "Are you crazy?"

I simply nodded and he released me, allowing me to approach the bird. Its wings folded back down and its head lowered so it could stare me straight in the eye. My body was shaking now, between the cold and the nerves - I found it hard to take each step. I held out my trembling hand and the bird tapped its beak against my palm.

My whole body locked up... couldn't move, couldn't speak. The bird's eyes pierced mine and the knowledge behind them made my stomach churn, it was trying to tell me something. I could tell by the way it gazed at me. A warning of some sort that I could only read through the ferocity and concern in the beasts eyes.

Nausea overtook me and I finally broke from the hold the bird had taken over me. I stumbled back a step and articuno reared up once again, its wings folding out and exposing its large feathered chest to me. It called out, this gorgeous song that sent a shiver down my spine... then it took off with a strong beat of its wings. It flew up through a small passageway in the ceiling that I hadn't noticed before - likely the location of the other entrance.

[ultrasfcb-blog]

Premier League predictions: Lawro v Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas on opening weekend

Premier League predictions: Lawro v Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas on opening weekend

Premier League predictions: Lawro v Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas on opening weekend

The Premier League is back, but who will enjoy a fast start to the season, and who will suffer the pain of a defeat on the opening weekend?

BBC Sport’s football expert Mark Lawrenson has made his predictions for the first 10 games of the new campaign, which include Manchester United hosting Leicester on Friday night, newly-promoted Wolves against Everton on Saturday and champions Manchester City’s trip to Arsenal on Sunday.

Lawro is making predictions for all 380 top-flight matches this season, against a variety of guests.

His first guest for the 2018-19 campaign is actor Joe Thomas.

The former star of ‘The Inbetweeners’ is in a new film called ‘The Festival’ – and is also looking forward to seeing how Tottenham fare in the forthcoming campaign.

Joe is the first guest to take on Lawro this season and says “I am terrified about going first because there is not much to go on”

“My favourite times as a Spurs fan were the Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker era of the early 1990s, but this is a good time too,” Thomas said.

“We have quite a few England players and I think expectations are going to be quite high for the likes of Kieran Trippier and Harry Kane to follow up what they did at the World Cup.

“The first target is the top four but then we will see what happens beyond that.

“There is a lot of excitement around the new stadium because there is a sense that, once we move in, things are going to be a bit more settled.”

You can hear more from Thomas on Football Focus at 12:00 BST on Saturday on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.

Premier League predictions – week 1 Result Lawro Joe FRIDAY Man Utd v Leicester x-x 1-0 1-0 SATURDAY Newcastle v Tottenham x-x 1-1 1-2 Bournemouth v Cardiff x-x 1-1 1-2 Fulham v Crystal Palace x-x 2-1 1-1 Huddersfield v Chelsea x-x 0-2 0-2 Watford v Brighton x-x 1-0 5-0 Wolves v Everton x-x 2-1 2-2 SUNDAY Liverpool v West Ham x-x 2-0 3-1 Southampton v Burnley x-x 2-1 0-2 Arsenal v Man City x-x 0-2 2-3

A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.

LAWRO’S PREDICTIONS

All kick-offs 15:00 BST unless stated.

FRIDAY

Man Utd v Leicester (20:00 BST)

The atmosphere at Old Trafford will be interesting, because Manchester United have not had the greatest pre-season.

But does that matter if you win your first game? I would suggest not, and I do think United will start with a victory.

Jose Mourinho did not get the new centre-half he wanted, because Harry Maguire will be playing in this game in a Leicester shirt.

Even so, when I look at their squad, United are basically nailed on to finish in the top three. They might not have become a better team since last season, when they were runners-up, but they have not become a bad one either.

The only concern I would have is if Paul Pogba is genuinely unhappy at the club, amid the rumours that his agent has been touting him to the likes of Barcelona and Juventus.

That situation becomes a problem for Mourinho if he has a great player who is a World Cup winner, but cannot find him a role in his team that makes him happy playing for United.

Leicester have been more active in the transfer market but I was surprised they did not do more to bolster their attack over the summer, because they rely so heavily on Jamie Vardy.

The Foxes lost five of their last seven games last season and the first few weeks of this campaign are going to be crucial for their manager Claude Puel because, if they start poorly, he will be under pressure again.

Lawro’s prediction: 1-0

Joe’s prediction: This should be a United home win, but I think it might be quite tight. 1-0

SATURDAY

Newcastle v Tottenham (12:30 BST)

Mourinho may be unhappy about not making enough signings, but Tottenham did not bring in any new faces whatsoever.

This is a big season for Spurs with their move into their new ground, but I am not sure about how it will go for them.

Newcastle have had a difficult summer, with their fans and the manager Rafa Benitez questioning the level of investment in the team.

It was never going to be any different, though, was it? Magpies owner Mike Ashley wants to sell up and he was never going to say ‘Here’s £150m Rafa, go and enjoy yourself’.

As for the game, I am going for a draw. We already know Rafa will set his side up to get a point and I think he would take that result now.

Lawro’s prediction: 1-1

Joe’s prediction: Spurs have been good on the road recently, and I fancy us to win this one. 1-2

Bournemouth v Cardiff

His team’s survival is probably the only aim for Cardiff manager Neil Warnock this season and he has bought in some interesting players to try to achieve it.

A lot of them are from the Championship, including Preston left-back Greg Cunningham, Bristol City striker Bobby Reid and Norwich winger Josh Murphy, and Warnock has been very clever there.

Between them, they have not played much in the Premier League, if at all, but they will have something to prove.

And although I think Cardiff will struggle, if they end up going down then they will have a very good team at that level.

Cardiff City defender Callum Paterson says he is ‘buzzing’ ahead of the Premier League season

This is Bournemouth’s fourth season in the top flight, and they have just spent big by their standards by bringing in Colombia midfielder Jefferson Lerma for £25m.

Last year, the Cherries had to wait until the middle of September to get their first win, but it never felt like they panicked.

You know what style of football you are getting from Eddie Howe’s side, but it is the same with Warnock’s teams and I think they will scrap their way to a point on Saturday.

Lawro’s prediction: 1-1

Joe’s prediction: Bournemouth can be a bit shaky at the back sometimes and I actually think Cardiff could sneak this one. They need to do well in their first few fixtures, and I am backing them to make a winning start. 1-2

Fulham v Crystal Palace

Keeping hold of Wilfried Zaha was massive for Crystal Palace because he makes such a difference to their team.

It is going to be interesting to see how new Eagles midfielder Max Meyer gets on in the Premier League too, after his arrival from Schalke.

Max Meyer scored for Germany in the Rio 2016 Olympics final before they lost to Brazil on penalties

Fulham have signed a lot of players following their promotion so I am not sure what to expect from them.

But it is sure to be a good atmosphere at their first game back in the top flight since 2014, and I am backing them to start with a win.

Lawro’s prediction: 2-1

Joe’s prediction: This one is hard to call but it is obviously one that Fulham will be targeting, as a newly-promoted team at home on the opening day. 1-1

Huddersfield v Chelsea

Huddersfield basically swam the channel to stay up last season and I think the next few months are going to be a similar story for them.

I know the Terriers have strengthened their squad, but they are not going to come out and play open attacking football, and I think they probably already know they will be fighting to keep their head above the water again.

This might be a good time for them to play Chelsea, who are in a mess at the moment.

The Blues at least managed to replace goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who is on his way to Real Madrid, but they look short up front with Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud.

Watch: Thibaut Courtois swaps Chelsea for Real Madrid

For their sake, I hope it does not quickly turn into a season where, a few weeks in, Eden Hazard starts to wonder why he did not also leave for Real.

It is going to take their new manager Maurizio Sarri a while to settle in and sort things out, which is why I don’t think they will finish in the top four, but I am still backing them to win this game.

Lawro’s prediction: 0-2

Joe’s prediction: Chelsea are an interesting one with a new manager who is quite technical, and they might take a bit of time to bed in. Having said that, I still think they will have too much for Huddersfield. 0-2

Watford v Brighton

Every year I seem to say Watford will have a tough season and they always come good.

And although their fans would probably be delighted if I tipped them to have a rough time again, I actually think they will stay up.

Brighton did well to beat the drop last time out after winning promotion, and I think they will build on that this year.

It looks like they have made some good signings that might have gone under the radar – a bit like Pascal Gross did when he joined them a year ago.

Seagulls manager Chris Hughton has got a plan in place, and his teams are always very steady. I am going with a Watford win here, but I don’t see Brighton going down this season.

Lawro’s prediction: 1-0

Joe’s prediction: One of my colleagues on ‘The Festival’ is a Watford fan so I have got to back them here. 5-0

Wolves v Everton (17:30 BST)

I look at Wolves and what they have done over the summer in the transfer market and think they are going to go for it again after winning promotion.

They have got some very talented Portuguese players and they are a team that I can see scoring lots of goals and having a decent season.

The Toffees are believed to have paid Watford an initial £35m for 21-year-old Richarlison, with the fee potentially rising to £50m

I am still waiting to be convinced by Everton manager Marco Silva after his time in charge of Hull and Watford, but he has signed some interesting players.

I think Everton will have a less turbulent season than last time but it might take Silva a while to work out what his best team is. That’s why I am going for Wolves to win this one.

Lawro’s prediction: 2-1

Joe’s prediction: This is another home game for a promoted team, and I think they will give Everton a test. 2-2

SUNDAY

Liverpool v West Ham (13:30 BST)

Both of these teams have had a busy summer in the transfer market and, after struggling last season, West Ham have got to be aiming for the top 10 this time.

Klopp on pressure, expectation and Karius

Liverpool are aspiring to finish a bit higher, obviously, and when I look at the signings that all the teams have made, they look like they have done the best business.

I think the Reds will push City for the title this season and I am backing them to begin with a win.

Lawro’s top-four prediction 1. Man City 2. Liverpool 3. Man Utd 4. Arsenal

Lawro’s prediction: 2-0

Joe’s prediction: 3-1

Southampton v Burnley (13:30 BST)

Burnley are usually very steady but are they going to be able to deal with the demands of Europa League football too?

If they get to the group stage, then continuously playing Thursday-Sunday is a difficult one to adjust to.

Southampton only scored 37 goals in 38 league games last season and that area is my biggest concern with them at the moment.

Norway international, Elyounoussi, 24, who scored 23 goals in 83 games in his last two seasons for Swiss side Basel, can play anywhere across the front three

Saints boss Mark Hughes has brought in Mohamed Elyounoussi and Danny Ings to give him more options up front but how their season goes will depend on whether they can find a regular goalscorer, who can stay fit.

Do I think they will beat Burnley? I do.

The Clarets, who were in action in Turkey on Thursday night, have already had a few games in the Europa League but they have not had the chance to find any rhythm and I don’t feel as if starting their season early has given them any advantage.

Lawro’s prediction: 2-1

Joe’s prediction: If they can kick on where they left off last season then his was the kind of game that Burnley were winning (they did indeed triumph 1-0 at St Mary’s Stadium in November) so let’s say they will win again on Sunday too. 0-2

Arsenal v Man City (16:00 BST)

What a game this is to start the season for both teams.

New Arsenal manager Unai Emery might not have made any really big stand-out signings, but, with the players he has brought in, I think he has addressed the fact that they have been weak defensively through the middle of midfield and at the back.

But while Emery might not work out his best team for a few weeks, we know all about City – who looked very smooth in their win over Chelsea in the Community Shield last weekend.

Community Shield: Chelsea 0-2 Manchester City highlights

City should win this game too, but Emery deserves time to work things out and by that I mean longer than the first few weeks of the season when his side also play Chelsea (away), West Ham (home) and Cardiff (away).

When a manager leaves after being at a club for more than 20 years, like Arsene Wenger was, there is always going to be a lot of change going on and we should leave Emery alone to get on with it.

Lawro’s prediction: 0-2

Joe’s prediction: Well, I think Arsenal will score – but so will City. What a game this could be. 2-3

Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.

How did Lawro do last season?

In Lawro’s league table based on his 2017-18 weekly predictions, Manchester City finished champions – just as they did in reality.

Overall, he had seven teams out of 20 in their correct positions, with four more only one or two places out (see bottom of the page).

Total scores at the end of the 2017-18 season Lawro 3,410 Guests 2,820

Lawro v Guests – the final total P38 W23 D3 L12

+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO’S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION POS TEAM P W D L PTS +/- 1 Man City 38 31 6 1 99 0 2 Man Utd 38 30 7 1 97 0 3 Tottenham 38 30 7 1 97 0 4 Liverpool 38 23 15 0 84 0 5 Chelsea 38 24 9 5 81 0 6 Arsenal 38 19 13 6 68 0 7 Leicester 38 16 8 14 56 +2 8 Burnley 38 12 12 14 48 -1 9 West Ham 38 10 17 11 47 +4 10 Southampton 38 12 10 16 46 +7 11 Bournemouth 38 11 10 17 43 +1 12 West Brom 38 12 7 19 43 +8 13 Stoke 38 8 13 17 37 +6 14 Crystal Palace 38 9 8 21 35 -3 15 Everton 38 8 11 19 35 -7 16 Newcastle 38 7 10 21 31 -6 17 Brighton 38 4 13 21 25 -2 18 Swansea 38 6 6 26 24 0 19 Watford 38 5 7 26 22 -5 20 Huddersfield 38 2 13 23 19 -4

GUEST LEADERBOARD – FINAL STANDINGS 2017-18

SCORE GUEST LEADERBOARD 160 Justin Hawkins, Chris Shiflett 130 James Anderson*, Joe Johnson* 120 Russel Leetch*, Will Poulter, Moeen Ali 110 Aron Baynes* 100 Noreen Khan, Cesaro & Seamus, Wretch 32 91 Lawro (average after 38 weeks) 90 John Bishop, Arni and Justin from The Vaccines, Pete Wentz 80 John Cena, Darren Campbell 70 Plan B, Brendan Foster*, Mark Strong 60 Jimmy from Django Django, Will Ferrell, Nish Kumar, Non Stanford, Rick Witter 50 Steve Cram, Michael Dapaah, Russell Howard, Channing Tatum, Joe Root, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, Dario Saric, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, 40 James Bay, Craig David, Ed Lay 30 Elis James, Rhys James, Felix White 20 Charlie Cooper, Richard Osman, Emmanuel Sanders and Josh Norman

* Shows weeks where Lawro had more than one guest, and only the highest score contributed to the guest total.

Lawro’s best score: 170 points (week 30 v Arni and Justin from The Vaccines)

Lawro’s worst score: 40 points (week four v Umenyiora and Bell, week five v Non Stanford, week 21 v Darren Campbell and week 23 v Saric and Baynes)

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