#but we're always somewhat mindful of the fact that we can only somewhat manage her chronic issues

[fbwzoo]

Addy had her yearly check up today!

We're thrilled she's down to 66lbs, and the vet is happy with how she looks & the weight loss! Reducing her morning kibble to a cup & switching dinners to wet food has definitely helped with that.

She's got some tenderness in one of her front legs, which is mildly concerning everyone. She's still going to physical therapy at the rehab clinic once a week & they'd commented on it too. Our overall vet is going to talk to the rehab vet & see if they want to make some changes in her routine. We may also do some x-rays to see if there's something going on in there besides a strained muscle.

But other than that, our old lady is doing pretty good! We're trying to get back on the exercise routine, after slacking while I recovered from tree fall, and Joel changed jobs & has been dealing with that adjustment. The cooler weather is both good and bad for Addy - she prefers it for the most part, but it does make her more sore. I got a couple new heated blankets for the animals to share for this winter, so those might help keep her comfy. We'll increase her pain meds again if needed too.

Also I'm hoping to get the new age test from Embark soon to try with her!! We've always been curious about her exact age, and it would definitely help a bit with knowing what to expect for her in terms of age-related health adding to her chronic issues.

[michaelmilligan]

Hi there.

🌹🌹🌹

Please and thank you!

Hellooooo! Ask and ye shall receive WIP snippets. :3

This is from a short fic I'm writing for Midam Appreciation Week:

OH, Michael eventually said, and then: ARE YOU SURE? Adam was still trembling, and had to grip the edge of the table for balance. “If you want to break up with me, just say so,” he bellowed, hurt and exhaustion taking hold in his mind and body as the tension left him and only a bone-deep tiredness remained. Yeah, so maybe he hadn't slept in two days, and had lost a bunch of blood earlier. And maybe he hadn't eaten properly, too excited to hold anything down anyway. BREAK UP? ADAM, WE- Michael's grace sparkled in confusion and – something else. WE'RE TOGETHER?

(aka newsflash, asshole, you've been together this entire time!)

This is from a canon-divergent S14 fic I hope to finish one day:

Before anyone in the room could so much as move to investigate, the door burst open, a body flying a few feet through the air before it hit the floor, then slid further. Michael stepped to the side, out of the way of the body while managing to look both disgruntled and detached, as if his only fear was getting blood on his shoes. There were more bodies at the edge of the door, and the man who stepped over them and into the room was obviously far less bothered by getting his shoes dirty. There was already blood on his green jacket, and on the angel blade in his hands. Sam blinked at him, his brain screeching to a halt. “Adam?” he asked breathlessly. Blue eyes came to rest on him, and Sam wasn't sure how eyes could seem sarcastic, but they managed. “Really? I'm hurt, Sam. I thought you of all people would recognize me.”

(Also Midam, of course. Because what else do I ever write.)

Aaaaaand an AU loosely inspired by Jane Austen's writing (not any particular book of hers, but simply her style, which I don't think I can emulate, though I try):

Adam was eighteen years of age this season, and might possibly start thinking about marriage soon. His features had developed and, indeed, settled some since Lord Michael had first met him – he had retained his somewhat unremarkable good looks. He was cute rather than handsome or beautiful, and so naturally stood in the shadow of his eldest brother, who however did not seem inclined towards marriage. As long as he was on the market, Lord Michael supposed, Adam would always be the after-thought. (This was an uncharacteristically astute observation for Lord Michael, who otherwise gave little thought to anyone's value on the marriage market. Let it not be said that Lord Michael was entirely without insight.) It was somewhat sad in Lord Michael's opinion that Adam would not be valued for his qualities of mind and character due to his social standing and comparison to his brother. Certainly, he thought, the boy's – or by now, man's – character was without reproach. His oddities only served to make him charming. Lord Michael did not see the irony of himself chasing Sir Dean and only getting to know Adam as an addendum in the process. Meanwhile Adam was very much aware of this fact, but tried steadfastly to ignore that whom he was starting to consider one of his best friends had only started talking to him because of his brother.

(You know. Midam. And something I hope to finish. Eventually. It's only at 21k, how hard can it be, hahahah. Haha. Haaaaah.)

Tl;dr: My brain refuses to concentrate on any one story at a time, so I'm writing about fifty of them in parallel. 👍

[hiddens-eden]

That Bitch!!

Word count: A lot

Pronouns: He/Him

Paring: Reader x Male!Avengers

Spelling checked: No

Warnings: Homophobic slurs, Homophobia, cussing, minor assult, possibly triggering (idk)

Summary: High school Au, where reader is not very popular and the senior prom comes around. Though, just because he's not popular does not mean he doesn't have admirers. Say most of the male avengers (because I'm a slut for a reverse-harem). But with admirers, there will be haters. However, (Y/N) knows how to put them in their place.

"Soooo, (Y/N) the senior prom is coming around" You lifted your head from your book to see your two best friends, Natasha Romanoff and Wanda Maximoff

"And?"

"What do you mean and? Prom is the most important part of senior year!" you saw Wanda's face turn into a pout

"Even if I wanted to go, I don't have anyone to go with. The boys here avoid me like the plague" you started to go back to your book when Natasha grabbed it, putting it on her desk

"They only do that because they like you, and they're boys. If it makes you feel better, I don't have a date"

You looked at Natasha with confusion covering your face "How? You're one of the best people I know"

"To be honest, it's because boys are skank's" She shrugged

"Hey! Not all of them are!"

"You only say that because of Vision" you saw a Natasha smirk while Wanda blushed and turned away

"Not all of us will remain single for the rest of our day's" she may have tried to mumble her response, but you heard her and chuckled

"Even so, I'm not going"

Hearing that, the boy's lost all hope. To be honest, they all were going to try and ask you to the dance

"Then go with us" Natasha more demanded than asked

"What about Wanda" you turned to her "Aren't you going with Vision?"

"Well, as we always say bro's before hoe's" (que Vision sulking in the corner) the three of you burst out into a fit of laughter

"I-I guess" you managed to choke out between laughs

"Then come on!" Natasha pulled you out of your seat

"Where are we going?"

"To get some clothes for prom, duh" as the three of you made your way out of the classroom and into the hallways you were stopped by Peggy Carter and Pepper Pots

"What do you guys want" you asked scowling

"Cut the shit (Y/N)" Pepper sneere

"What are you talking about?"

"You're trying to seduce all of the guy's in the school!" Peggy shouted

"...What?"

"You heard me!"

You looked to Natasha and Wanda "Do you know what they're talking about?

They both shrugged and shook their heads

"LIARS!!!" Pepper screamed

The commotion drew the attention of the students that were in the classroom and hallways

"What the hell is going on..."

"Don't know let's just go" Wanda tried to push you past the two girls, but before you could go anywhere Peggy grabbed your arm tightly

"STEVE WILL BE MINE!!! SO DON'T TRY AND TAKE HIM AWAY" she raised her other hand and slapped you across the face. The people watching let out a collective gasp and wondered what you would do

"THE SAME WITH TONY" Pepper raised her hand to slap you too but was stopped by a firm grip on her wrist and her body couldn't move either. It was Natasha and Wanda

"Slap him one more time I break your wrist" Natasha clutched Pepper's wrist even tighter earning a hiss from the woman

"Maybe I should break her legs for good measure" Wanda stated coldly

You put a hand on their shoulders causing them to turn to you "Stop, if Peggy's slap is anything to go by, it would not have hurt. Just release them so we can go" They let her go reluctantly, but not without giving her one last glare. As you were about to leave you hear a classroom door open and turned to see the men of the hour, Steve and Tony

Immediately the two girls ran to the guy's whining about how you 'assaulted them'

"What the actual fuck"

"Really Peggy?" Steve asked

"Yeah! I was so scared!"

Then the crowd of people started to yell about how you were the victim, you only grinned. Tony and Steve looked enraged

"Why would you lie about something like that!?" Tony shouted

"What's wrong with you two?!" Steve spat walking towards you

"(Y/N) I'm sorry they did that to you" he looked down sadly

You lifted his chin up to look down at you(unfortunately you were shorter than Steve) "It's not your fault they're crazy. Don't beat yourself up that much" You turned his head to the side and planted a kiss on his cheek "I'll see you later Steve"

You turned and started to walk away with your friends in tow. Leaving a blushing Steven and extremely jealous group of males

"He has no idea what he just did, does he?" Natasha asked Wanda

She shook her head "Not a clue"

"Well lets get this over with"

They nodded and started to search for Tux's and Dresses stores. Once you found one, you all got your own fitted and talored dress and tuxedo's. Natasha doesn't really like dresses so she got a white women's tux. Wanda got an elegant white dress that draped behind her. You got a white tux with flower-like adornments. You all like the fact that you were somewhat matching. The girls completely gushed about how good you looked, but you had a weird feeling.

"I'm going to get another outfit just in case"

"Just in case what?" Wanda asked

"In case a pair of crazy ass girls decide to pull a prom cliché and try and ruin my suit"

"Seems reasonable"

You started looking around for a suit and you found it. An outfit that made you smile happily. You turned to your friends showing them the outfit "Found it"

They just smirked and nodded

~Next Day~

The last thing you were expecting today was to get asked to prom by one of the hottest guys in your school, but here you were. Steve Rogers was infront of you with a bouquet of your favorite flowers, shyly rubbing the back of his head

"I'm sorry Steve, but I'm going with my friends" once you said that he looked like a kicked puppy and you couldn't take it! So, you sighed.

"However, even though I won't be able to go to prom with you" you took the flowers from his hand "I'm willing to go wherever you want anytime your free" you smiled softly at him. He immediately perked up and gave a fast nod, making you chuckle. He asked for your number and you gave it to him and he gave you a kiss on the cheek before running off. 'Guess that's payback' you blushed hiding your face behind the flowers.

Over the week until prom you kept getting asked to the dance by almost every guy in your school. But, again you turned them down and re-scheduled making them happy. However, with most of the boy's attention on you, some of the girls started to get jealous. They would make snide remarks hoping to hurt you, but they never did. Afterall, you had your friends and they can help you through anything.

~Prom Day~

"Are you sure we should do this?" you were REALLY nervous

"Come on! Don't puss out now!" Natasha teased

"Yeah! You came this far already!" Wanda smiled

You sighed and straightened your posture "Yeah, you guys are right. Let's get in there!" You cheered along with your friends and opened the prom room door

Narrator PoV

As the door opened, someone looked over to it letting out a gasp at what they saw. This caused most of the people in the room to follow their sight and look at the door as well. Eyes widen at the sheer beauty of the new arrivals

(Y/N);

Natasha;

Wanda;

~Out of Narrator PoV~

"Guy's they're looking at us" you wanted to perish right then and there, but your friends put a reassuring hand on your shoulder

"They're looking at us because we're the most gorgeous things they've ever seen" Wanda grinned as you all walked through the room catching everyone's eyes

"Just lean into the attention" Natasha said to you

"I'll try" you chuckled lightly

"(Y/N)!) you looked behind you to see Steve waving at you, then start blushing

"Don't you look dashing Steve" you grinned at him as he turned an even darker red

"Maybe, but not as dashing as you" you both chuckled and started talking to each other

"Wow forgotten already" Wanda wiped an imaginary tear from her eye

"Oh! I'm sorry guys!" You apologized profusely

"Don't worry about it! I'll just go and find Vision. Have fun~" Wanda winked before leaving

"I'll go find Clint too, he's sad he didn't get to go with you" she chuckled before walking off

"They're both something" you smiled before turning back to Steve

You and Steve kept chatting and joking with each other. While you were talking you noticed Tony, Peitro, Thor, Bruce, Bucky, Stephen all gather around you joining in your conversation. You didn't mind, but Steve is another story. He was giving small glares to everyone who talked to you.

You were talking to Tony and Bruce about upcoming tech when you felt a tap on your shoulder. You turned only to be met with a bucket full of red fruit punch. You wiped your eyes to see Peggy, Pepper, and some other girls smirking.

"Thats what you get you stupid slut!"

"Know your place!"

"Just leave so we don't have to see you!"

A chill ran down yourself as you turned to see the guy's glaring coldly at the girls, ready to throw the "You should never hit a girl" rule out the window

You just sighed and signaled for them to stand down. Then, you looked towards Wanda and Natasha, giving them a nod and making your way to the exit.

The boy's tried to get to you, but Wanda and Natasha stopped them while smirking

"Yeah, you better get out of here whore!"

"He's probably going to cry!"

"Pathetic!"

"Who would ever love something like that!"

"Besides, dating a guy when you are one is disgusting!"

"Yeah! They need a strong woman in their life!"

This made the boy's heated. They are ready to destroy these girls for talking shit about you, but they were stopped by Wanda and Natasha again

"Why do you keep stopping us!?" Thor boomed

"He'll deal with them, just be patient" Natasha said firmly

"And we think you'll like him even more when he gets back" Wanda's smirk grew

Needless to say, they were all confused. But they let it slide...for now. Minutes passed and the girls were still talking about you. The guys are on the edge of their seats ready to pummel every single one of them. But then the door opened making everyone's head turn and eyes widen. Their jaws were on the floor as you walked in sauntering over to the girls

(Y/N)

You wore a black crop-top shirt with a black crop-top leather jacket draped over you shoulders. Possibly the most catching thing about your new look was your dress pants with thigh-high boots. Once you reached the girls you took off your shades to reveal a beautiful make-up look

(this is all optional, you can change it if you want)

You wore a black crop-top shirt with a black crop-top leather jacket draped over your shoulders. Possibly the most catching thing about your new look was your dress pants with thigh-high boots. Once you reached the girls you took off your shades to reveal a beautiful make-up look

"Ugh! You're a guy! You shouldn't be wearing make-up you slut!"

"I may be a slut, but I'm the baddest slut out there. You're just mad because no matter how hard you try you'll never be like me and I also figured out why you obsess over guys who want nothing to do with you. Your father probably left you and your family because he said he was going to get milk, so that left you without a prominent male figure in your life"

"Wha-"

"And when you attempt to get guys you have no chance with it somehow fills that hole of longing you have. You don't love them, you see them as a tool you can use for your own wishes"

"I-"

"I'm not done. Why are you homophobic? Because you can't help it when someone can share their sexuality without being afraid and you can't? Because it's not 'natural'? Let me remind you that just because something is natural does not mean it's good. Besides, it is natural considering it's been observed across many species. Even ones who have not been in contact with humans. So, I suggest you shut up and leave because I don't allow cunts in my presence" you put your shades back on and walked to the group of males + your friends

The girls started crying and ran out of the room with their faces in their hands

"Woah, (Y/N) that was badass" Natasha gave you a high five

"Good thing I recorded it" Wanda said holding her phone

"Wait what! Delete it!"

"Too late I already posted it! :P" Wanda giggled

The boys weren't paying attention since that whole encounter got them *ahem* excited, so now they're trying to calm themselves down

As the prom slowly started to resume (Y/N) was asked by almost everyone to dance which he of course obliged. He kept getting complimented about his looks and how he told each girl off. Soon it was time to announce the prom King and Queen. (Y/N) voted for (M!Avenger Name) as prom King and (Wanda or Natasha) as prom Queen

"Now it's time to reveal the prom King and Queen!" everyone started to clap and cheer in anticipation

"This year's prom King is....(Y/N) (L/N)!!!"

You were shocked! You weren't even a candidate as far as you knew. You slowly made your way to the stage as everyone started to cheer for you. Once on the stage, you were given your crown and sash by the previous prom King who congratulated you.

"Now for this year's prom Queen!" she opened the envelope

"This year's prom Queen is...(Y/N) (L/N)?" she said with confusion, but the crowd cheered even louder

The teacher looked towards the Principle who came on the stage "It seems that the majority of you voted for (Y/N) twice. Since this has never happened before we have decided that (Y/N) will be this year's prom King AND Queen!!" The previous prom Queen put the sash on you and gave you the crown to hold. She smiled and congratulated you. You were still in shock 'Prom King and Queen?!'

"(Y/N)! As the prom King and Queen, do you have a few words for the crowd?"

You stepped up to the mic "(Y/N) (L/N) breaking gender norms since (birth year)!" everyone laughed and you chuckled "One more thing, if someone tries to hurt or degrade you, look to your loved ones for help. They will always be there for you and if not then give me a call at (***)-***-**** I'll be there for you" you winked and started walking off the stage

Once you were off the stage you were swarmed by a huge crowd

"(Y/N)! Congrats!!!"

"That was such a good speech!"

"You rock!"

"You're so amazing!!"

"Thank you everyone!" you smiled making all of them swoon

"Hey, (Y/N) guess what I did" you looked at Wanda

"What did you do?"

"I may or may not have recorded not only you confronting the girls, but the prom King and Queen ceremony and posted it online" she giggled nervously

"..."

"(Y/N)?"

"Kill me now"

"(Y/N), No!"

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Pictures used are not mine! Will I do a part 2? Maybe! Bye my little otaku's!

[homieswithhades]

why steve rogers returning to the past was wrong

disclaimer: im clearly a stucky enthusiast, but please, do not be thrown off by that. i admit, there may be undertones of bias because of that in the following, but i did my best with trying to lay out the facts and draw logical conclusions, so do please give me a chance. also, i may have accidentaly omitted some moments and some quotes may not be 100% word for word, as my memory lowkey sucks. ALSO this is NOT a peggy hate post!! i think shes a dope and underrated character and quite frankly she was done dirty. but i also definitely h8 the trope of badass woman falls for the hero.

first and foremost, every sane person knows endgame was complete and utter bullshit when dealing with steves character, so this post will be more for you to maybe show (and hopefully convince) some stubborn friend or family member. nice, concise (not) and including proof from the movies (+a few tweets and stucky undertones, if u dont fw that i respect it but bucky is an integral part to steves character regardless of how u interpret their relationship) here is why steves character development was thrown away at the end of endgame.

let us begin at looking at the cap trilogy.

in ca:tfa it should be noted that steve had no one to return to in the 40s, except bucky. i believe steves relationship with peggy was no where near as developed as it should have been to elicit him returning exclusively for her. as we are aware, steves driving force has absolutely always been bucky. bucky was there for steve after his parents died, when he was sick, and always protected him from whatever trouble he got himself into. "until the end of the line" right? steves relationship with peggy was forced and short lived, literally, we're talking a matter of months here. i need to keep emphasising the important disparity between bucky and peggy, as it is absolutely key in this whole argument. steve dropped everything and went against every order just to even attempt to save bucky. even the slightest chance of him surviving being captured was enough for steve to break into a hydra camp and free the 107th division. steve even had the chance to capture zola, one of the main villains and masterminds of the war, but again, steve prioritised bucky. when theyre trying to escape the exploding hydra camp, the exchange between steve and bucky is critical. steve says "go! get out of here!" as all he wanted was bucky escaping safely. he put bucky's life over his own (this wasnt the first time he did this, nor the last) but bucky rooted himself to the spot, and yelled back "no, not without you!". they both escaped safely as we know, and then steve gathers the howling commandos to take down the red skull. bucky then falls off the train, nd steve blames himself for his death, even visibly crying over it twice. steves morals went from "i dont wanna kill anyone. i dont like bullies, i dont care where theyre from" before buckys death, to "i wont stop until all of hydra are dead or captured" after. stuff happens and steve defeats the red skull and is now in control of the flying ship with the bombs. he connects the comms with peggy and she tries to convince him theres another way to disarm the ship. steve was so dedicated at that point he didnt even want to hear it. he didnt even attempt to do anything to ensure his survival. this alone proves, peggy was not important enough to him to return to.

next is ca:tws. The stevebucky movie. in the museum, peggy confirms that steve saved the man from the 107th division who eventually became her husband (steve was never in the 107th, just to clarify) i believe her husbands name was daniel sousa (as revealed in the marvels agents of shield show) steve then finds out peggy is alive and talks to her. she, in short, tells him she's lived her life, and it was his turn to live his in the time hes in. the "my best girl" line was unnecessary and out of place; again, steve barely knew her. again, shit goes down, and steve finds out the winter soldier is bucky and immediately drops everything, and becomes dead set on saving him. not killing, not imprisoning, but saving him. no matter the cost. "he saw me, and he didnt even know me" "hes not the kind you save, hes the kind you stop. he won't recognise you" "he will." god, steve KNEW bucky would recognise him. regardless of the brainwashing, steve managed to break through the barrier hydra fought so hard to drill into buckys mind. nothing ever broke him out of that state exept for steve. "im not gonna fight you, youre my friend." "youre my mission" "then finish it. cos im with you till the end of the line." [[good fucking lord let me break out of my essay-esque semi professional format here and just say how fucking heartbreaking those lines are. oh my god. read them, over and over until it hits you.]] steve shows us again, that he is willing to not only die for bucky, but literally die by his hand. he would let bucky kill him. he'd dropped his shield. he didnt fight back. steve always, always, ALWAYS got up and fought back. always. exept that time. the time bucky could have killed him. that scene is the essence of "im with you till the end of the line" because then, it was true. it was true because steve was okay with dying at buckys mercy. theres a difference between sacrificing yourself for the greater good (steve going into the ice), willing to die for someone (steve risking his life multiple times in attempts to save bucky) and finally, being willing to let someone kill you, because you love and trust them so much (hellicarier scene). the difference between peggy and bucky's relationship to steve is that steve may be willing to die for either, but only willing to be killed by one. not to mention, bucky pulled steve from the river. he recognised him. steve broke through 70 years of brainwashing with such impact it literally drove bucky away from hydra out of his own free will.

in between ca:tws and ca:cw its confirmed (im p sure sam says it) that him and steve looked for bucky for two. years. even off screen, bucky was steves priority.

im going to squeeze in 2 points from from age of ultron here, for chronology's sake:

steves worst nightmare, as portayed in the movie, is LITERALLY going back to the 40s and being stuck there (with peggy too??lmfao) and also the quote "family, stability, the man who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. i think another one came out." objectively confirms that steve isn't the man he used to be, and doesnt want to return to the past. aou may have sucked, but that doesn't mean the character development should be thrown away.

ca:cw. hoo boy. steve went against 117 countries and half of his closest friends and colleagues because he believed bucky was innocent of the bombing of the un conference. god, steve quite literally, did everything to defend and protect bucky. though i shall acknowledge that steve did attend peggy's funeral, however, there was no real connotations there other than the fact he was mourning her death (understabdibly so). steve then proceeds to protect bucky for 2 hours 27 mins and 41 seconds to the point where they escape together to siberia after the airport fight. "i dont know if im worth all this steve" "what you did all those years... it wasnt you. you didnt have a choice." "i know. but i did it" again, absolutely heartbreaking quotes if you read it a couple of times and truly understand the meaning of them. steve somewhat indirectly tells bucky yes, yes he is worth all of this. otherwise, he wouldn't be doing it. a quote to support that would be "for the longest time, i always did what i thought was right." (disclaimer this is not a direct quote i deadass couldnt find it to save my life, i belive steve said it at some point during civil war or tws, but the point is, bucky is the only thing that could have shaken steves morals so intensely.) and finally, the most important part of cw, the fight at the end with tony. bucky and steve constantly protected each other. steve kept fighting because he was fighting for bucky. to keep him safe from tony and the world. he got up, time and time again. "i can do this all day." the fact that he said that to tony, some people consider them the closest of friends, proves again, a million times over, bucky is more important to steve than literally anything else, INCLUDING his shield. his mantle. he dropped it and left it like it was nothing, because his priority was bucky. as always.

theres not much to discuss for infinity war other than their hug whicg was honestly just adorable.

mmmmm endgame. i will not go into how much i hate that movie because it would be a rant quintuple the length of this one. in the support group, steve dead ass fucking says "you gotta move on. you gotta move on" and that sentiment was literally forgotten at the end. my main point for endgame is this. people tend to tell me, the reason steve abandoned bucky and went back to be with peggy is because he knew that he was finally safe. :/. if you had half a braincell youd know that's not true. the steve we know, never would have left bucky for good, ESPECIALLY after the "dont do anything stupid until i get back" exchange [[god i want to beat the shit out of the r*ssos]] mostly because, bucky had fucking no one in the time he was living in!!! no family, no friends and most heartbreakingly, no one he could trust. (yes sam was there but were just seeing their friendship develop now in tfatws, all that wasnt there in endgame) and secondly, what made steve think bucky was entirely safe??? half of the worlds population just suddenly reappeared, which as we see now, there were massive consequences for that. i simply believe steve is not that stupid. steve going back was disrespectful not only to his character, but to bucky AND peggy. most importantly, the steve we've been watching since 2011 would NEVER abandon bucky, no matter how safe he thought he was (he visited him frequently in wakanda, the safest place on the planet arguably ffs) especially for such a dumbass and quite frankly, nonsensical reason as going back to be with peggy, who clearly stated to him she moved on, and so should he (which he did. idk endgame writers prolly didnt watch the previous movies :/) its not even debatable. bucky is more important to steve than peggy. even in terms of screentime.

now allow some tweets to speak for me, this one being the absolute most important one:

ladies and gentlefolk, all of the stuff ive said can be summarised in that last line. "it would be contrary to who he is."

heres some more:

and now finally, id like to briefly mention steve and tfatws, so beware of spoilers (writing this as of ep 4 coming out; praying it doesn't age badly)

bucky mentions steve, unprompted, fucking constantly. he clearly isnt over steve leaving, and im hoping that gets acknowledged and talked out in the show.

in conclusion, tl:dr, steve shouldn't have returned to the past and stayed there, it is contrary to who he is, as shown to us through his trilogy and other appearances in the mcu. not to mention the timeline bullshit in endgame makes zero sense in the first place.

[neurodihuegent]

[PART ONE] Huey's character development: season 1 to season 3.

with ducktales 2017 coming to a close in less than two weeks, i thought that now was best of all times to create a post of how i think huey has developed as a character throughout all three seasons. please remember, this post is just based on how I see his character development, and you're free to have your own ideas and/or not agree with all of my points!

1.) learning to adjust to new environments/accepting failures: When we were first introduced to huey's character, one of the biggest take aways was that he's a very "by the book" kind of a person, and has a hard time adjusting to foreign environments or situations that he will need to go with the flow and what he already knows, rather than doing everything by the book.

This was mainly introduced in "The Terror of the Terrafirmians!" in season one, where we could literally see Huey scrambling to make sense of the situation, and at some points, spouting out B.S. to make sense of the situation in his head. While he did end up coming to terms that the Terrafirmians are in fact, very real, he still only decided to believe it once it was documented in his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook.

Progressively throughout the show, we see Huey being put in situations where he has to be able to think quick on his feet rather than anxiously try to sort out all that he knows from the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. Because of his personality, Huey not only had a hard time adjusting to foreign environments, but it's also been shown that he has a hard time accepting set backs as well. From what we've seen, it's easy to infer that when Huey has his mind set on something, he will do nothing short of achieving that goal: And when said goal is not achieved, or is starting to look like it won't be achieved, he takes it very personally.

This is especially seen in "The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks!" and "The Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchuck!": Where in "The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks", even though Huey was definitely more qualified for the position by a significant amount, when Dewey got the position, his first instinct was to get angry instead of congratulate his brother: Granted, Dewey wasn't completely deserving of the position over Huey, and at this point, Huey was just a kid still learning how to manage his emotions, but his instictive reaction tells a lot about his character at the time. Thankfully, we see this progress with "The Challenfe of the Senior Junior Woodchuck!", where Huey is once again put in a situation where the odds were against him, considering that this time around, Violet was more qualified and prepared for the position than he was. At first, Huey does take this badly, getting super anxious that he'll have to do a challenging, dangerous course that no 11-12 year old probably should be doing, on his lonesome without even the help of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, which has been shown to be a source of comfort for Huey. At one point, he is only surviving through the course by creating a talking Junior Woodchuck Guidebook in his head, but even that goes south as he gets so overwhelmed and anxious to the point where he sets it on fire in his head. Eventually, noticing how far he's fallen behind Violet, and realizing how deserving she is of the title over him despite his love for everything Junior Woodchucks, he is able to come to terms with the fact that he lost, and instead of getting upset or beating himself up for it, he gracefully allows her to be announced as the winner, and shows her his full support. This is meaningful, because if this was season 1 Huey, we honestly can not say that his reaction to his loss would've been the same: He probably would've gotten a lot more upset about it than he actually did in season 3.

"Quack Pack!", despite somewhat being more of a comedic episode, also sheds light on how Huey's learned to adjust with a change in environment: He was the first character (other than Donald, who was fully aware) to pick up on the fact that they are in an alternate universe, set inside of a 1990s sitcom, and becomes increasingly anxious about it as a result, especially since everyone was pretty much oblivious of it at first. However despite this, when the family confronts Donald about the wish, while Donald does make a compelling point of how this scenario gives them a sense of normalcy and security, Huey also brings up the fact that despite the hardships they may face, adventuring is an integral part of their new found family. Even though Huey has always been pretty enthusiastic about adventuring, especially in comparison to Louie and pre-season 3 Donald, there has been times where adventuring has caused him anxiety due to being confronted with new settings or situations that he doesn't immediately know how to handle, so considering this, I think that line alone has shown the great improvement Huey has made with adjusting.

2.) embracing "The Duke": in the first two seasons, while we always had somewhat of an idea that huey was the triplet that inherited the infamous McDuck anger, "The Duke" wasn't something that was necessarily explored much in the first two seasons, leading people to believe that it was just for comedic plot. However, in season 3, we finally got an image of what "The Duke" actually is and represents, alongside with how Huey truly feels about this side of him.

Based on my perception of "The Split Sword of Swanstantine", Huey sees The Duke as an entire separate entity from himself rather than just how far his anger can really go, decides to completely reject this side and keep it locked away in his brain. Of course, we've had our early season moments where The Duke "slipped out", but for the most part, leading up to The Split Sword of Swanstantine, we never really got a full glimpse of what exactly the Duke is: and given his personality, it makes sense as to why Huey was rejecting this side of him instead. Not only does The Duke represent one of Huey's most vulnerable states, but knowing how far his anger can go, goes completely against the side of his personality that he does allow to shine: Being orderly, being well put together, and being the brain of his sibling trio, which being blinded by anger would all deter. Despite the strength that embracing his anger gives him, Huey obviously still sees it as a weakness, because it's the side of him he doesn't want people to see, especially those closest to him, because before the events of The Split Sword, Huey didn't exactly have the greatest control of his anger, so while nobody would want to think of it, no one knows how far he could really go if he's pissed enough.

However, thanks to the encouragement of Lena, Huey was finally able to embrace that side of him, and fully gain control over his anger which is something we don't typically see with the infamous McDuck Anger, given that the only way he could defeat Steelbeak who had an obvious advantage, was to tap into his true strength. The biggest takeaway Huey got from this situation, is that his anger shouldn't be treated as if it's a separate entity, or as if it's something to be embarassed of, but to truly embrace that side of himself, and learn how to control it, all things that he was able to accomplish by the end of "The Split Sword of Swanstantine".

3.) building new relationships:

Since season one, it's been hinted that Huey does struggle a bit on the friendship aspect of things. He does have very close relationships with his brothers and Webby, but even these can be hindered by clashing personalities and differing interests. Even though it's fairly obvious that HDLW all love and support each other like family, Huey has never really exactly been shown to have a bond with someone where he shares completely similar interests: Now, this isn't really important in friendship, often times opposites attract even down to the friendship aspect, but it is nice to have someone where you can just sit and chat about similar interests, and do stuff together that you'll both enjoy.

The first time we've gotten a hint at Huey struggling with making friends was in "The Day of the Only Child!", where, if the Beagle Brothers didn't show up, Huey would've been out of luck with finding two other participants for the three-man cookout, considering that everyone else was already paired up and Louie and Dewey were already off doing their own things for the day. Also hinted in that same episode, is the fact that Huey make struggle with loneliness as well (Huey "Be horribly alone." Dewey: "For once!"), given that he's spent most if not all of his life constantly with his brothers and Donald, so even if him and his brothers did have fall outs every here and there, he could always rely on them to be there given that outside of them, he didn't rely have any other friends.

Now, this somewhat turns around in season 2, when we're introduced to Fenton, who Huey not only idolizes as Gizmoduck, but looks at like a genuine best friend and most likely, as an older brother figure. Besides Huey's admiration of Gizmoduck, it's been shown that they bond over their similar interest in science, and in general, Huey is constantly looking out for Fenton and always wanting to protect his best friend from any danger or hurt that he himself can prevent. Despite Fenton undoubtedly being Huey's closest friend, I think that it's also important to shed light on the friendships that he's made that are more in his age group.

Following the events of Astro BOYD!, we are introduced to Boyd and Huey's friendship, two characters that existed in the show prior but never had any interactions. Huey and Boyd bond over their interest in the Junior Woodchucks, something that we once again see Huey get backlash for from his fellow Woodchucks, for being too "by the book" and not just "relaxing and being a kid" (even going as far to label him as a "robot"). Even in Boyd's malfunctioning, Huey is determined to stay by his side until the end, not only because of their shared interests and the bonding they began to do at the very beginning of the episode, but also because Huey understood what it was like to be cast away and treated as less just for being different (or in Huey's words, "wired a little differently"). Even though Fenton is Huey's closest friend by a margin, I would consider Boyd's friendship with him really meaningful, at least given the circumstances of how they became friends in the first place: Two people who were cast aside, for not being what society considered the "perfect/normal kid", and instead of people working with them, they were just cast aside easily. Considering how fast Huey probably had to grow up given the circumstances of living with Donald who, despite being an amazing father figure, dealt with poverty pretty often, it's no wonder why he's very mature for his age and very "by the book", but it's also no wonder why kids who probably didn't have to grow up with those circumstances, would easily be turned off. Louie and Dewey are a lot more understanding considering they grew up in the same setting, but even they dealt with it differently, often leading to their personalities clashing, which is even lampshaded in this episode as another insecurity of Huey's when building relationships ("Are you sure you want me to continue? My brothers are usually *begging* me to stop.).

We're also introduced to another friendship at the very beginning of season three, with Violet. Even though at the beginning, things were a bit rocky considering how anxious Huey was getting from the Senior Woodchuck competition, and his determination to beat Violet, even to the point of leaving him behind when she probably needed him the most, by the end of the episode, we see both Violet and Huey not only reconcile, but start to actually bond. During this high stress situation, Violet was a great source of relief for Huey, using her own experiences of failure to inspire Huey to not give up, and that even if he does lose (which he did) in this specific situation, there'll be more opportunities because he is great when it comes to the Junior Woodchucks. Even when Violet wins, instead of being bitter which would definitely be expected considering that Huey is a child and how much he was anticipating winning, he is able to put his grievances aside and congratulate her because she helped him greatly during a point of weakness. Even if Violet and Huey's friendship didn't end up as closeknit as his and Boyd's, or as prominent as his and Fenton's, I think this was still a meaningful connection for him as Violet was great balance for the anxiety that he was feeling at the time, and despite him leaving her behind, she beared no ill will towards him.

This is only the first part, where I examined what I felt were the key component to his character development over the last three seasons, and the next post will focus on other aspects that weren't as focused on during the series!

[fumiko-matsubara]

Writing Exercise // AssClass x Tower of God AU - Catching Up

Assassination Classroom - Tower of God AU

Summary: There was a sudden change in team line up and so Nakamura decided to make a call with someone who is floors away.

Word Count: 1,791 words

• ▪ • ▪ •

"Huh? Asano-kun joined your team?"

Nakamura hummed in reply, her eyes focused on the screen before her, going through the video recordings she had captured earlier during the previous floor test using one of her lighthouses in hopes of finding anything she could use in the near future. "He and that Sakakibara guy apparently got separated from the rest of their teammates during the previous test."

From the other line, Chiba let out a noise of mild disbelief, which Nakamura couldn't blame him for. For an E-rank Regular, Asano Gakushuu had proved himself to be quite the gifted Light Bearer countless of times that just the mere idea of him being separated from his teammates because of a floor test, with how organized and strong the Asano kid had made his nearly perfect team to be as their leader and strategist, is almost laughable.

But considering that the 28th Floor had nearly caused their own team to lose members for good, only having members to be separated seemed more like a blessing than a misfortune.

Nakamura shuddered at the memory.

"Surprisingly, it was them who first approached us when we arrived at the 29th floor," she mused. "Well... the Asano kid to be exact."

"Seems smart on his part, I suppose," Nakamura suddenly heard doors opening on the other line. She assumed that Chiba must have been taking a night walk when he had received her call, as it was currently evening to where she is right now. "I've heard that you guys were the only team to pass the 28th floor for this wave of Regulars... so I guess it's a no-brainer for that guy."

Nakamura swore she could almost see Chiba shrugging his shoulders just as he said those words.

"It's been days since they've joined, you said? No troubles with them so far?"

"Not at all. They've been surprisingly civil with all of us the past few days." Though there was a voice at the back of Nakamura's mind telling her that it was likely because a certain redheaded Light Bearer wasn't around to provoke the Asano. "They even sometimes help nurse some of the others who are still on bed rest."

Chiba chuckled at the other line. "Well isn't that a sight to see?"

Nakamura had discretely installed lighthouses as if they were security cameras at each room of the rather large apartment they had been sharing since their arrival on the 21st floor. It would only take few clicks on her main lighthouse to retrieve the saved recordings of Asano fussing over their injured teamates as he nurses them.

Snickering, she made a mental note to send some of them to Chiba after she's done with her current work.

"Also we definitely appreciate having a rear-type Light Bearer and a Wave Controller since, you know?" Nakamura fought the urge to roll her eyes. "The only ones we had are now floors behind us after stopping their climb to compete at the Workshop Battle?"

Chiba somewhat hissed at that. "I guess that explains why Karma seems to be in a bad mood when we called last month..."

"Yeah, we weren't in agreement that time," Nakamura sighed deeply, closing the tabs and turning off her lighthouse. She supposed it can wait tomorrow.

"I get why."

If Nakamura was being honest, it wasn't the fact that Group 4 joined the Workshop Battle that got the whole team in disagreement. It was the fact that Group 4 have already been planning to compete since they had become E-ranked and yet had never once told the rest of the team until the day they had to claim tickets to join.

Karma may be Team END's key strategist, but the redheaded Light Bearer still had the infuriating habit of strategizing and implementing plans without consulting with the rest of the team, sometimes even executing said plans on his own without anyone's help nor even knowledge.

Nakamura supposed that it was because Karma had initially been trained as a Fisherman before switching to a Light Bearer, but that can't be an excuse anymore since he had over 8 years to break out of that frontliner habit.

It's annoying, really.

Even when Group 4 had won the Workshop Battle with a powerful weapon as their winning prize, it still left a bitter taste on her mouth.

Nakamura hoped that this will be the last time Karma involves their other teammates into his lone wolf shenanigans. They can't afford to be separated much longer the higher they climb the tower.

Not when they still have yet to close the gap to catch up with Chiba and his team like they have promised.

"How are things at your end?" Nakamura asked, wanting to change the topic.

Chiba let out an exhausted sigh. "A bit too fast, I guess. Especially since Kaho's been antsy the past few months."

"Oh?" Nakamura picked up the nearly forgotten tea on the table next to her, prepared by Hara. "What gives?"

Nakamura barely had any recollection of what Tsuchiya is like in personality, as the last time they had personally met was when they were still fairly new to the tower, during the Floor of Tests, which was already about a decade ago. But from the few times that Chiba had mentioned the Light Bearer in their talks, Tsuchiya seems to be a quick thinker who strategizes and improvises well under pressure, especially during battles.

Perhaps that's why Team DREAM had been ridiculously quick with their climb, Nakamura mused.

Well, aside from the fact that they have an insanely solid team line up.

"I'm not entirely sure as we weren't around when it happened but..." There was a slight hesitation in Chiba's tone as he trailed off. "Ever since we saw her with a girl that I believe was from the Harukawa Family, based from her hair and eye colour, she's been like that for some reason."

A Harukawa huh...

Nakamura wasn't exactly the most interested in the Ten Great Families, let alone their relations with each other. But she was at least aware of the common knowledge about the tension between the Tsuchiya and the Harukawa, seemingly started by the Head of the two families themselves.

Could it be rivalry? Mortal Enemies? Nobody knows. But one thing's for sure was that a Tsuchiya and a Harukawa, whether they are direct descendants of the family Heads or not, do NOT get along.

Which is ironic considering that what the two Great families are known for made it seem like they would be a perfect team - The Tsuchiya Family known for their Defenders and the Harukawa Family for their immense talent in Spear Bearing.

But Nakamura supposed that the Tsuchiya daughter already had Chiba for that, who is a talented Spear Bearer himself.

"I mean both families don't get along anyways," Chiba remarked, echoing Nakamura's thoughts. "But it seemed like they personally knew each other beforehand from the way Kaho talked about that Harukawa girl. They probably met during the Floor of Tests... or even before they got called into the tower. Who knows."

Nakamura had never looked so amused. "Childhood rivals?" She snickered.

Chiba chuckled at the other line. "Perhaps."

"So what happens now?"

"Uh well..." Nakamura could hear some rustling from Chiba's side of the call and she swore she just heard faint screeching right after. The sudden noises concerned her a little, so she asked, "Chiba?"

"Nothing. That was Eiji, probably ate something spicy again," Chiba sounded very unamused and deadpan as he said that. Nakamura could faintly hear arguing at a distance if she listened more carefully. "Anyways, Kaho had a burn out. That's one thing."

"It took that to stop her huh," Nakamura replied with a huff. "How many floors have you guys cleared then?"

"Five in 3 months."

What the fuck.

Nakamura's jaw hung wide open when the words had registered in her mind. A normal team would take at least a year to complete 3-4 floors, nevermind five. This is ridiculous. This team is ridiculous. "Geez... and you guys still managed to keep up with her plans and all..."

"To be fair though, the previous floors have been relatively easy," Chiba waved her off nonchalantly. "I would even say that the 20th Floor was much difficult than these five."

Nakamura sighed, leaning back to her chair. Considering it took Team END a whole year to complete the 20th Floor after numerous fails, she supposed she could believe the Spear Bearer's words this time. "Say, how many of you all are from the Ten Families?"

There was a short pause at the other side. "Well there's Kaho of course, then Miki, Daisuke, Miho, Jungyoon, and then me..." he counted.

If Nakamura was smiling right now, she was sure it would have tightened uncomfortably.

It had always slipped from her mind that Chiba himself is a Ten Great Family member despite not being a direct descendant of the family Head, the family tree he's in known for their Water Users, which Chiba had utilized to form his own spears.

But nevermind that. Team DREAM had 6 members from the Great Families? No wonder they're climbing at an incredibly fast pace.

Chiba really found himself a formidable team after he had gotten separated from Team END.

"But even then, only Miki is a direct descendant. The rest of us are too unimportant to be actually feared of as a whole..." Chiba laughed sheepishly. "Well except for our family names of course."

Nakamura would beg to differ.

"Anyways, we're at the 46th floor right now," He continued the previous topic before Nakamura had made that short intermission. "But we'll be taking an indefinite break until all of us had recovered enough to continue our climb again." He informed.

Knowing where he was getting at, Nakamura sighed for the umpteenth time. Unamused, she replied, "So you want us to catch up quickly while you all are basically dormant then, is that right?"

Shit. There is no way they could clear 17 floors before the monster team springs back into action.

Nakamura could feel the cheeky grin that Chiba must be wearing right now.

"Well you have a direct descendant from the Asano family with you now, right?" His tone sounded almost challenging when he said that. "Should be easy enough."

"You can be really annoying sometimes, Ryuunosuke." Nakamura glared at the visible Pocket floating in front of her, as if she can somehow magically transfer a sort of attack towards the other line. It didn't help that there were chuckles coming out of the mechanical sphere.

"Well, what can I say? I learned from the best."

Maybe she shouldn't have teamed up with him and Maehara at the 2nd Floor.

[rheagodlywrites]

Entry One of the Zombie Apocalypse

Written from the view of a survivor of the apocalypse. She’s alive an well but no one knows where she even is. People researching and looking into the cure that she supposedly found find her journal. They hope to find her and the formula to help humanity.

Tw: DEAD PEOPLE! DEATH! MURDER! GUNS! ANGST AND MORE! THIS AIN’T NO HAPPY STORY!

Dear...Reader..

You don't know me..I don't know you. I may be dead by the time this is found if at all. My name is Tiffany Evans. Its currently July 5 in the year 2077. Today marks the first anniversary..of the zombie apocalypse.

Now this may seem,crazy. Trust me,I actually couldn't believe it either. Last year,it was insane. I was actually in my apartment when it happened. Just a 17 year old woman living in the city on her own..nothing special at all.. The news reported it but I only fully believed it when I watched a zombie eat the newscaster alive. The image of that moment has been engraved in my mind. I wish that I had been more prepared. The following months I have been doing my best to protect myself. I've done..things that I deeply regret. I apologize to Jason, Mary, and Michael along with your families. I left you all to die at the hands of those monsters. I wish that I could have saved you all. I actually hope this journal can help the voices in my head to finally be more quiet. Over the past year,I've been in a bunker with a group. The current leader is Danielle Harris.

She's a good leader. Kind, Strong, and more good qualities of a leader. She showed me so much kindness when I arrived. Even though their rations were low at the time, they still took me in. Danny as we call her had managed to help get so much food. We even manage to celebrate birthdays with a small party and a few cookies. It's a luxury that we're grateful to have every now and then.

3:17 pm

Danny had called me up to her spot in the bunker a while ago. She wanted to ask if I wanted to lead the next hunt for food. Now I've mainly been with those groups as a collector. I gather food in that group. Of course I asked her why and she..revealed something very dreadful. She's going to have to lose her leg. She told me that when limbs are severed from the body. It stops the zombie infection from spreading. But unfortunately...You'd be losing a limb. Danny wanted me to help out with leading as she considered me as a friend. I'm mostly known in the bunker as someone who talks with everyone. It helps distract me from the loud cries of my dead friends. I agreed to her request. I couldn't just deny her after learning THAT. God...why did all of this happen? I talked with a few of the kids we took in. They all didn't talk back or mumbled their words. They all were somewhat traumatized from the situation. They didn't really leave the bunker as they needed people to look after them.

Its only two hours before the hunt. I'm so..nervous. What if I get us all killed? Now isn't the time to get cold feet,Tiff..I have to. Everyone has at least lead the group once. I gotta try. I wish that kept this journal sooner. Maybe then I'll have more to talk about other than my incoming demise. I always wonder when I'll join the rest of my friends. I'm not a heaven or hell person. I believe in an afterlife that everyone is forgiven and where everyone can live at peace. Maybe I'll be forgiven. I'll never know. Those zombies are so..weird. Maybe that sounds normal but they really are. Some have distortion in their faces and can't see anything unless someone makes a sound. We call those the Blind (as one does.) This virus is strange. Its acting and responding to every type of person. The only reason I haven't died yet is the fact that...I haven't been scratched or bitten. Fucking shit. I really hope someone figures out a cure. If not then this whole place will be wiped clean.

8:30pm

Well the hunt went well. Just...one small problem. Literally. We found a child and she refuses to leave me. She says I remind her of her mom that died. Tells me that I looked cool taking out the zombie with a knife. I look cool? That's a surprise. Last time I looked cool,it was when I passed all A's in my college class. Right now this kid is going through regular procedures with Danny. She'll get cleared within a few days. If we have an outbreak within the bunker then we all will be forced to go out into the world. The lawless world to be correct. Sometimes being an American is scary. You have guns to save yourself but..who else also has guns? The criminals. The people that have vendettas against others. Gotta be mindful of who to trust. Or it may bite you in the ass. But anyway I should be more optimistic. We managed to get more food and within an hour too. We always wear masks just in case the virus is in the air. The less time we are exposed the better. I'm pretty proud of the group today. Maybe soon..I'll celebrate my birthday but that's mainly focused on the children. To give them something of hope. Hope is slim now a days.

No! No! I'm going to be optimistic! Not pessimistic! Maybe this kid will help give me hope. But..I can't let her turn out like the others. I have to protect her from them and myself. After all..I think I'm a monster too...

-------

"This is..whoa.." The woman looks to her coworker as she handles the journal with care. Her gloved fingers could feel the emotion put into the journal.

"What about it? It's just a journal."

"Just a journal? Its THE Tiffany Evans Journal. Everything documented here! But...in these first few pages..she writes as if she expects to die at any moment." Her coworker sighs. He knew why.

"Well the virus outbreak happened thanks to DIANA Labs. No one was given advice to stop it and the while world shut down. Governments,cities, people..she probably didn't have hope then until she figured it out."

"That's true. Let's bring this back to base. Maybe if we read it more we can figure out what happened to her and manage to replicate the cure or even find her!"

"You're crazy to want to figure that out. That thing is probably covered in…who knows what.."

"Then let's disinfect it. We have the tools now. We just need to read through it. Besides,I wanna know what went through her head." Her coworker shakes his head. He didn't want to bring the thing but if it could help them further the progress then he was for it.

"..Fine. Put it in the bag and you had better shower so goddamn well when we get back." He takes out a bag and she puts it in gently. He closes it and puts it in a case.

"Of course. We have to be more careful than DIANA Labs. The people really need us."

"You're right. Now let's go. I don't know how much longer I can handle being in this old place."

[mochikeiji]

You Found Me

↠ Pairing: Akaashi Keiji x Reader

↠ Warning: none, fluffy for my boy akaamshi uwu Writer!Reader, Aged Up characters.

↬ Word Count: 2.4k

Summary: He was just a fictional character, how can you be foolish enough to believe he were to be reincarnated and to be born in the same world as you live in? Will it even be possible for him to notice you in billions of people and far places?

⇢ Day 1: Reincarnation

You loved him.

More than words can describe.

"Love." can never be enough to portray the amount of adoration you had for this man. Nothing.

He doesn't know you.

He was just a character; written by people who held the most artistic perspectives into capturing a character's personality. They made him seem so real, so easy to love and to be succumbed into his entire being.

But he wasn't real.

Nor is he aware of the millions of eyes and fans from reality admiring him for simply being ethereal in his world of ink and colorful dialogues made by his author.

Nor will he be aware of the amount of love you were pouring out to his inexistence. To reciprocate the feelings, let alone acknowledge you from a crowd filled with much more dedicated people to him.

Yet every night you prayed; longed that one day there will be someone to be reborn as he is. A man to be born with that natural charismatic aura. The blunt, yet soft hearted soul of a person, the dedication he has shown in the show with his desr senior. Everything.

He was the embodiment of everything you wanted, needed.

Perfection at the most flawed world.

"Nobody compares to you, Keiji."

Day dreaming for what seemed like an everyday routine for you, you clicked on the next tab of your laptop away from the world of fictional sight— where mostly your safe haven is. Where you get to imagine a world with him and pondered back into your field of writing.

How long has it been since you've been off your draft? Was it 2 hours ago? Had you been submerged again with the same story you've memorized over the times you've read it? Well, no one can't help it. It was your coping mechanism, your escape from the cruel reality. Though the stories are imprinted in your mind and everyday dreams, you admired the fact how they were well written by different varieties of writers that came to admire his character and brought him to life. How they managed to make him and every character from the show come to life. It was as if all the scenarios you've wanted was all there, all granted. Except for one.

Where he was truly existing in the same world as you do.

"Well done, sweetie, you've lost another promised motivation to write." groaning with your head leaned back on your pillow, you closed your eyes for a short break. By instinct, the stories scenarios began playing inside your head.

All the fluffy ones that made your body feel somewhat lighter from the ghost, feathered kisses as you recalled the lines of your favorite ones. The ones where they would further describe how he would hold you in his arms like a fragile being, link his hands with yours, giving you his warm kisses as he presses you close to his chest.

The angst ones where he would be there to comfort you immediately, wiping away your tears as he helps you out of your struggles and battles in life. Letting him be your resting place and safety.

And lastly the explicit ones where you could only go so far to imagine the lewd things as the words from the screen pages come up to the surface and bound your body at his presence.

What a paradise, you would call.

Yet what a tragic for someone who longs for a person like that to be real.

Eyes opening after the self pitied thoughts, your sudden decision to go out in the cold, rainy afternoon came by. For a shy person you are, you never really liked the idea of squeezing in a crowd or to be seen, but as you eventually grew up, you begin to like places that felt like a second home to you. Be it a cafe or a bookshop, or just an area with a few people and closed walls where you were free to be in dazed once more.

Shutting you laptop closed and placing it back on your desk, you picked out some of your most comfortable clothing; mostly jogging pants and an adorable sweater. Having to be in highschool and growing out the habit of wearing long sleeved shirts even though it was hot was amusing to many. Though, today was exemptional.

You contemplated whether or not you would tie yor hair into a bun or leave it down, like that one character you read in your favorite show, he didn't like his field of vision to be wide. It brought a small amount of relief someone felt the same as you did, so you decided to just put it in a lower bun with your fringes hidig the sides of your face.

Grabbing you small bag and an umbrella, you walked out from your dorm. Your roommate had been stranded in her university from the sudden pouring, ordering her a coffee after coming back from the shop may be a good welcoming gift for her. She was the only person you managed to get close to at the time of your adulthood. It's only fair you have gotten attached and wanted to show her how much you love and appreciate her.

Thank goodness it was only pouring. If the rain happened to be coming with thunder and lightning, you would've gotten out and hid underneath your blankets. It isn't all the time you get to enjoy the droplets from the sky without the God of Thunder stomping down in anger.

The streets were absolutely stunning during the dark or gloomy weather, the lights from each building and shop were lighted up, combining with the rain and its pattering, it felt so serene to you than it did to others. The odd musk from the rain filling nostrils as your eyes cast upon the cemented streets that had colorful lights illuminating them, made you feel at ease and somehow your mind was starting to stir up multiple writing prompts and ideas that made you excited and happy.

The whole world disappearing before you as you were at the best day you claimed. The musk of the rain mixing up with the cinnamon and coffee like scent as you opened the door from the nearby cafe from your dorm welcomes you. Smiling shyly, you moved to the side a bit and removed your glasses to cleanse it as it got fogged up from the cool air before placing it back on your face and walked towards the cashier.

It was a miracle that the infamous coffee and sweets cafe of yours wasn't crowded today, managing to order quickly and waited on the other side of the counter. Your usual frappucino and a chocolate cake for your cravings.

"Ah, you're here again?"

The lovely male behind the counter chirped at the newly arrived customer. He was the nicest crew you knew in this cafe, you loved how he makes you feel at ease.

"Yeah, I got caught up in my papers and it went pouring all of a sudden."

"Always a workaholic aren't we, Kei?"

Kei? Cute name.

Kinda reminds you of that tall, player in the show you watched, Tsukishima.

"Wait there for a second, we're preparing two orders."

In instinct of the male's voice, you scooted away from the receiving counter a little for the next person to be standing next to you. You really didn't like sitting to waot for your order, who knows? You might trip and cause an embarrassing accident.

His scent however, was filling in your nostrils. Combining with the soft, delicious treats, he smelled like someone you would love to hug for days and feel safe. He smelled like home.

Was that weird? Yes.

Suddenly, this scene had made a perfect prompt pop in your head, you had to fish out your phone from your bag to write it down on your notes. It had been too long since you've written a good story. You missed your passion in writing, a good opportunity will never be passed as this.

"Do you write as well?"

Squeaking a bit with your palms already forming a sweat from nervousness and the cold air, you turned your head to your left side of the male costumer, who had an amused smile at his face from your reaction.

You wete never one to come and talk to a random stranger as a kid and teenager. But even as an adult, you felt inferior of them. But taking a few seconds to regain your breathing and judging by your surroundings, nothing seemed to be harmful to reply, right?

"A-ah, yeah, but it's not that good or a job, y'know?....Just a hobby."

Stuttering out and muttering the last part, inside your head you were screaming, had you lost your people skills too? Soft chuckling can be heard from him, he gives you a small smile, not noticing how he scooted closer to you since he couldn't quite hear your voice from afar.

"I think it's incredible how a person can put their imaginations into words and share it so freely to everyone across the world."

Heart beating fast.

He hits it home. He was definitely speaking the language of a writer, and you find yourself standing straighter and smiling a bit wider. There wasn't much people that shared your interest, your relatives and friends were always into musical and artistic drawings, or the domestic kind of jobs and talents. You were the only one who loved writing so much and pursued secretly. Meeting someone who shared the same thought and words as you cannot be forgotten.

You had to know him.

"Thank you..I take it you write as well?"

Score, you manage out a normal reply without being awkward.

"An editor to be exact, it's not as fun as it sounds. I was aiming for literature but it seems life wanted me to have a little detour."

Nothing was boring. In fact, it was making you more happy to hear how much you had in common with him. Not able to hold back the next words, you blurted out,

"I think it's amazing you're still part of the writing community. Be it any position I know you must have such potential in your work."

You catch his eyes just staring at yours behind his glasses. Biting your lip in habit gor when you feel nervous, you clamps your hands together and immediately stammered an apology for invading his personal life.

He laughs, but not too loudly.  The longer you reviewed his features and everything, the more he was starting to look like someone you've been day dreaming.

No, fate cannot be this powerful.

But he seemed so much like him that you wanted so badly to point your fingers to all the matched characteristics he was performing. From his outfit, hair, glasses, and his feature but more realistic, different. His eyes weren't the same gun metal ones as you remember from that character, but he radiates so much of his aura.

"Here are your orders, Kei, ma'am."

Ah damn, you didn't catch his name.

The both of you thanked the kind male before walking away from the counter. Scanning your surroundings quickly for a good spot to sit, you saw the free spot by the window where the rain was pattering and went there. It was like having a television show for free. Seeting your tray down the small coffee table, you stabbed in the straw to your beverage and mixed it up a bit before taking a sip, feeling empty and sad from not getting to know who that person was or to befriend him.

He was nice, gentle, something you would in a man before befriending them. You wanted to know more about his works and his ways of writing, maybe show you his ideas on literature writing. But mostly, you were intrigued from his entire existence.

You wanted to know more about him that it made your stomach twist in guilt and regret from the opportunity slipping away.

"May I sit here?"

And it slipped right back to you.

Biting the straw in your mouth as he smiled at you holding his tray of waffle and steaming coffee, awaiting for your permission before you nod out of daze and watched as he takes a seat in front of you.

Cliche was the first word that came up in your mind. You never would've thought that the scenario of a cute boy in glasses and a sweater hugging his body would want to be seated in a cafe with you.

And you loved cliche scenarios, even dreamed of having your own story-like life.

"The cafe is pretty empty, and you looked like you could use some company."

"I didn't take it that you enjoyed company so I sat far away.."

"You're right, I'm not. I wonder why now."

Was this his way of flirting? If it was, you're buying it. You loved how his voice was smooth and calm. The stoic look on his face earlier replaced by a pleased one with a small smile while taking a sip of his coffee.

"Maybe because I look lonely and you felt bad?"

"I simply wanted to enjoy my treat while chatting with someone who knows my interest rather than myself. Besides,"

He places down his cup on the tray before leaning his head a bit and smiling,

"It's not bad to get out of my shell now, right?"

His face stayed up close as yours was heating with your body getting ligther. He looked like him, he acts like him when he was all grown up. You didn't want to believe in the source of reincarnation and their mysterious, yet hopeful glimmer, but you knew. You knew and you would bet everything that this person was the perfect resemblance to the Akaashi Keiji.

"You never told me your name."

It came out like a whisper from your lips, the rain outside pouring harder as night fall came. He remains the same, smiling like a cheeky person, now fully interested in a person like you, a random stranger whom he just caught writing a romance prompt about a man she met in a cafe.

The detour his life had turned around for him to take, and yours to be fulfilled.

All the possibilities or unexplainable books, movies, theories. The characters, the events, all now making you dizzy at the idea of it all being true at a specific time and place. All of it was too good to be true. Too much that it made your eyes a bit teary to have finally encounter the person who has raised you high and kept you moving. The person who could never compare to the other people, be it fiction or reality.

"My name is, Keiji."

[love101imagines]

Will anything happen?

(sinan | imagine)

request: could u please write an imagine, with Sinan having been in love with s/n for years, but he never knew how to tell her that, until she became friends with the group, so he sees an opportunity to approach her.

tags: @zaynlikfalls @girl-looking-out-window @imtoolazytothinkofacoolname

You were sure your life had changed the moment you were doing your philosophy homework during recess, too immersed with trying to finish Miss Ayse's assignment on time you didn't notice how five students entered the room and ushered the rest to leave, even if the room was almost empty.

"What the fuck?" You blurted out confused once someone closed your notebook.

Eda, one of your classmates, sat in front of you, while another boy you vaguely remembered leaned against the wall.

"We need to talk." Osman, a boy you had bought some homework a few times, stated as he sat down next to you.

A quick look around the room made you panic internally, with Kerem, another boy you knew because of his anger issues, closed the door. Your mind tried to come up with a reasonable reason why your classmates you had only spoken a few words were now acting so strangely.

You looked at Osman, the only one you had talked the most out of them, with a raised brow. "Do I owe you something because of the homework? I don't have any money left, I— Are you going to beat me up? What is wrong with you?" You ranted.

"No!" Işik, the one you liked most because of her charismatic personality, reassured you, taking out a chair and sitting next to you. "We only wanted to talk to you."

"We need your help." Eda continued. "It's about Miss Burcu, we want you to help us set her up with another teacher. Otherwise, she'll leave since her transfer is confirmed."

"And this way we'll all make a beautiful thing happen. We’ll spread love." Işik added with a grin.

You furrowed your brows at the strange request. It didn't take you much to see through their act, Isik being the only one who seemed genuinely sad about your teacher leaving, so you just assumed the rest were doing it to their own advantage. Probably because of what had gone down a few days ago during a school debate, in which the auditorium was almost burned down and they were almost expelled.

Still, you had a few questions left. "Why me? I don't know either of them that well."

Eda shrugged. "You have a boyfriend."

"And you two have been dating for almost two years, you must know about love and dates. That really can help us. Isik knows the theory, you know the practice." Osman explained trying to convince you with his businessman smile.

So that was the reason why they thought you were a love expert.

You only could give them an awkward smile, feeling your cheeks slightly blushing because of the obvious fact they didn't seem to be aware of. "Boran and I broke up two months ago."

Being stopped from doing your homework was worth it once you bit down on your lower lip trying to avoid laughing at their faces of sudden realization.

"Fuck. You told us they were in love." Eda complained, glaring at the boy who was leaning against the wall.

He didn't answer, his eyes fixated on the ground while the rest looked at him angrily.

You slowly stood up from your chair while the rest seemed deep in thought. "Well, this was fun but now you've realized I can't really help you. Good luck though."

"Wait, you can still help us." Işik tried, standing in front of Kerem once she noticed he wouldn't let you leave.

With a huff, you sat down back on your seat. "(Y/N), dear. You're the only person who's been in the longest relationship in the whole school." Osman continued. "Come on, help us. This is what you and Isik know best."

You thought about it for a moment, almost flinching when Kerem suddenly stood next to you even if Osman had already said that you didn't owe him anything and even if you did, they wouldn't beat you up.

"Don't worry, he only talks with his fists but we need you."

You looked up at the boy leaning against the wall, now realizing where you recognized him from. You couldn't really blame yourself, after all, Sinan usually skipped classes or never participated, only sleeping most of the time or drinking his flask. You were almost sure you had done one or two school projects with him and Isik, because even if she was the smartest girl in the class, nobody else wanted to work with them, too annoyed with the boy and his usual remarks.

He stayed silent throughout the whole interaction until you shifted uncomfortably because of Kerem and how you only knew him because of every time you had seen him punch someone during a basketball game or recess. But right now, he only glanced at you for a second before returning his gaze back to the ground.

Kerem glared at him. "I'm so sick of his bullshit."

"Calm down." Osman said once he noticed the tension in the room.

You only chuckled, almost giving in to their offer once you noticed Sinan glancing up at you again for a few seconds. But still, you couldn't do what they were asking.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm going to fail Philosophy and Miss Ayse has sent me all of this..." You said referring to the numerous papers in front of you, most of them highlighted with your own handwriting in some notes. "I'm literally fucked with this, and I can't fail another subject again."

Still, Osman wasn't going to give up. "Sinan will help you."

"What?" You both said at the same time.

"If he helps you pass, will you help us too?" Eda asked hopefully.

"These assignments aren't to help students learn what they don't understand, they only exist so teachers feel even more powerful having someone else's future on their hands." Sinan spoke, annoyance clear on his voice.

Kerem rolled his eyes. "You're the man for the job. Every sentence you say sounds like a riddle."

"Can you help me? You can lend me your notebooks if you want, I can manage." You said, trying to ignore the fact that he was always sleeping in class.

He fumbled with his hands, not answering instantly which made you wonder if it was because of a hangover or if he simply didn't like you. "I...I'm not good at writing down notes." He explained.

"But he's really good with philosophy!" Işik added nudging him forward. "He's in the debate team too."

"There you go, he'll explain to you what we covered and you'll help us make Burcu fall in love." Eda concluded.

Before he could disagree, you nodded. "Okay, deal."

They seemed finally grateful, and before you could think better about what you had just gotten into, the bell rang. You got up from your seat and started gathering your things, not noticing how the rest left and how Eda practically pushed Sinan forward in your direction.

"I'm sorry you assumed I would be of any help to you." He started somewhat reluctantly, stopping once you looked up at him in the middle of leaving your notes on your bag.

"Sinan, we've done a few projects with Işik before, and even if you didn't come to my house you helped out in the end." You said forcefully, not taking no for an answer.

Under his impressed look, you paused for a moment as he started helping you with your things, knowing you wouldn't be able to do it before the next class started.

"So..." You started with a soft smile. "Your house or mine?"

As Sinan opened the door for you, you thanked him with a silent smile before entering his house. You gathered your surroundings, amazed by the numerous pairings hanging in the walls while you followed him.

"Sinan, your house is beautiful. I can't believe you never invited us before." You said leaving your bag on the floor next to the couch.

"I have to make lunch for my grandpa and feed my dog..." He trailed off opening the fridge on his kitchen.

You made your way towards him after taking off your jacket. "I'll help you." You offered, taking the bowl of dog food out of his hands before he could say anything.

As you petted his dog, he left a tray of food for his grandpa and then you both sat down on his couch, you looking for a highlighter and him fumbling the only pencil he had.

He cleared his throat a bit, your knees touching while you unknotted your tie. "We're seeing idealism, right?" He asked and continued once you nodded. "Um, it can be classified into subjective and objective idealism, the main difference is that one believes the object is more important, and therefore, it's independent of our consciousness."

He gave you a side look to see if you understood. You looked at your notes, confusion clear on your face as your brows furrowed and you tried to search for what he had just said. You expected him to snap at you for not understanding, which would only cause you to get even more frustrated and to storm out of his house, but that wasn't the case.

"It's fine." He said patiently, taking your notebook to help you search what you needed. "Here, you mixed them up. You should remember that the objective idealism regards as the prime source of being not the human mind, but some objective other-world consciousness."

"And the subjective denies the existence of objective reality." You carried on connecting the dots.

You fixed your notes, a green highlighter on your hand, and the cap between your teeth.

Sinan stood up from his seat. "Tea?" He asked.

You nodded. "Please." You said with a smile, noticing how the corners of his lips curled in a small smile.

After that day, your usual routine changed completely. You planned the perfect date with the rest, helped with the fake fight between Burak and Kerem, went to a rock concert, and even got closer to the rest. You weren't sure, but you felt closer to Sinan after spending every afternoon at his house.

You saw a different side of his, a boy who cared for his grandpa and tried his best to help you with things you found difficult, not losing his patience and explaining it as much as you needed.

At school during recess you flopped down on a bench, Sinan sitting at the end of it like usual. “What’s up?” He asked.

"Look at this!" You beamed with a grin pushing a paper into his hands.

He raised his brows at you before reading your test, you waiting expectantly for his reaction. "You passed Philosophy?"

You let out a sigh of relief. "Yep, no more assignments from Miss Ayse. Now I can help you even more with Miss Burcu, it's a shame she has a boyfriend. We're fucked."

"You aren't." He pointed out, slowly taking out his flask from his jacket. “You can stop with everything if you want, you’ve achieved what you wanted and nothing changes for you if Burcu leaves.”

You scoffed. “Do you really think that of me? That I would leave all of you now that we don’t have to study anymore?”

He only shrugged, going to take a sip of his flask before you stopped him, your hand on top of his. “Can you...not? Please. I don’t like the smell.” You explained taking the flask from his hands to his amused look.

Sinan rolled his eyes and took the flask out of your hands, except this time he didn’t drink from it and only left it back again on his jacket.

With a soft smile, you stood up. “Come, let’s go to my house and have lunch.”

“Why?” He asked confused about why would you want to hang out with him but nevertheless stood up.

“I’m hungry...and we have another Music project to do. I don’t have a partner so, lucky you.” You tugged on his arm to walk.

“Lucky me.” He teased.

With your music cassette playing on the background a Tarkan song and a few books scattered on your bed, you continued with your research on Mozart, your legs crossed while Sinan sat opposite you.

After fumbling with his pen for a few seconds, he looked at you. “Can I ask you something?”

You glanced at him after taking a sip of your water. “Sure.”

“Why did you and Boran break up?” He asked curiously. “Everybody thought you would get married like the two high school sweethearts you are. Were.” He corrected himself.

You shuffled uncomfortably in your place, biting the inside of your cheek as you looked at the boy in front of you. You smiled weakly before starting to talk. “Um, dunno. I mean, things weren’t as smooth like they were at the beginning. I didn’t feel the same and he thought that I had too much...baggage, so we talked and decided to end things. We’re still friends though.”

Sinan’s face softened at your words. “I’m sorry, I thought you two...”

“You thought we were in love, right?” You interrupted him, your voice teasing but quiet. “I remembered Eda said that the first time we all talked, how did you know?”

He looked away as a small blush crept on his neck, and you only waited for him to answer.

“A few years ago we had a History assignment, do you remember?” He asked slowly.

You furrowed your brows. “Sinan, we have History assignments almost every day.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but this time I was with Işik and we needed someone else and you volunteered. Then she dragged me to the library and we spent some time together.” He continued trying to make you remember.

You thought about it for a few seconds until you came to the realization of what he was recalling, your mouth opening in surprise. “Yes! I remember. You slept the whole hour until I told you to help me with the dates.”

He nodded, not talking for a moment and avoiding your look before he took a gulp of his flask, ignoring how you sighed when he did that. “I...we didn’t talk much but I knew that you could see something good in everyone, even in me.”

Sinan struggled with his words, so you left the books aside and moved closer to him. “Why didn’t you talk to me after that?”

He rolled his eyes. “Why do you think?” He answered sarcastically. “You met Boran and...it wasn’t worth it. He was better for you.” He explained with his usual emotionless tone.

He looked at you for another moment, his eyes slowly trying to figure out your expression. For a moment, you basked into the attention he was giving you shamelessly, remembering even more about what had happened two years ago.

“Işik! Guess what! After you and Sinan left I met this super cute guy. His name’s Boran and we talked and he asked me on a date tomorrow!” You gushed to her the next day you went to the library to finish your History assignment, not noticing Sinan’s expression, a mix of jealousy, disappointment, and heartbreak.

“Sinan...” You started slowly. “...did you have a crush on me?”

Eyes darting from where they were fixed on your face, he stared at his lap. “Why would it matter? I’m sure you and Boran will fix things and...” He paused and took a sharp breath. “...you’ll be back again with him. You’ll forget about us, living the true romance fairytale you’ve wanted your whole life.”

Once he finished his rant, he grabbed his flask to take another sip again but you were sick of it. “That’s not true!” You scolded taking the flask out of his hands, leaving it next to your pillow. “And that wasn’t my question, why are you like this?”

He didn’t answer, only moving forward to reach for his flask, but you were faster and cupped his face to make him look at you.

“Sinan, you should have told me. Do you like me or no?”

He stopped breathing, his chest visible not moving as he stared at your eyes. “Yes.”

Your breath hitched in the back of your throat, realizing all of a sudden how close you actually were. Before you could think about it, with your hands still cupping his face, you pulled him towards you and placed your lips onto his.

He was clearly caught off guard, but it didn’t take long for him to kiss you back and place his hands on your waist, a few pencils falling off your bed while he moved to be closer to you.

Out of breath, you broke the kiss, your hands remaining on his face while he looked at you, studying every inch of your face trying to read your expression.

“Things have been different between us in the last days.” You said, your voice coming out like a whisper.

He hummed, waiting patiently for you to continue. “I...I just got out of a fucking long relationship and, I have a lot on my mind.”

“I understand.” He nodded, your hands falling to your side finding his.

Your thumb traced soothing circles into the back of his hands and his eyes almost fluttered shut at the sensation. “But we could try, right? Not a relationship right now, but maybe a date first.”

“Yeah. Yeah for sure.” He mumbled.

He had already waited two years to finally tell you how he really felt, but it seemed like it was worth it seeing how you were smiling at him at that moment.

[theseagull16]

Warning the following content includes swearing ideas of suicide attempted suicide and depression and anxiety and mental illness detailed graphic descriptions and sexual references and criminal acts which could be upsetting to some viewers viewers discretion advised before reading the rest of this post remember this is all of my own oc is not official and I don't know how to make it if it's even possible anyone knows please comment but for now is this is my personal SCP but other Scps mentioned are real as in official

At present day Dizzy has requested out of the blue for an interview it's noted that is SCP has often refused any interviews that is requested to her and any interviews normally that she participates in are immutable, lies or just plain out ignored. But Dizzy has come to researchers and bargains an interview for the deal of being allowed to visit SCP 1508 in private for an hour at least site director... has agreed to the interview and taking Dizzy bargain so long as she doesn't cause any harm at all, any sign of aggression or sines of excitemen stress to anyone during the interview any signs of escape interview and her deal will be off. Dizzy has to where when juring outside of her containment high Dennsery expense gloves to avoid causing inorganic objects to be affected with poison table and area around Dizzy is not to be approached by interviewer or touched juring interview because that would trigger the response of the poston to exploding and causing the effect to happen. Interview Dizzy being green interviewer is in blue

Begin log

Instant silence

You know we could come closer I won't bite, l said I won't hurt anyone and you're standing in the middle of the room on a chair looking like an idiot might as well come closer to the table.

I would but you're leaning your elbows on the table causing your so-called "poison" to infected it and if I touched any object infected with dos green veins I end up suffering norva and diarrhea for the next good 62 hours

sigh what's the point of having these gloves on when everything is already infected with this stuff, there's on point keeping them on

She throws the gloves into a nearby bin

I don't think you're allowed to do that

Err fuck like who's going to care anyway, not like I'm using them anyway

Still if you don't coporate this interview will be over

then herey up and say some God them questions

Alright why a sudden desire to communicate. Until say yesterday you refuse to take any interviews flipping off, telling to f*** off or any other offensive language to anyone who comes near you with the idea of doing any experiments or interviews. And in unlucky situations sometimes you even vandalised there cars, objects rooms, or just make them sick

(A laugh could be heard in a slight giggle) what can I say they deserved it

To you maybe

They do deserve it Dizzy slams her fists onto the table

Calm remember

Yeah I know stay calm or no interview blah you're probably going to ask me about that later in the questions and to answer your question about why I suddenly have the urge to talk to you bush bags I have my reasons but I don't think that's important the only thing your little Foundation fides important is I share my knowledge I ceep carefully to myself so if you want to know anything just ask you're stupid question you had on your mind since the day you started working and found out about me now then I can get on with my day

So long as it ends with you visiting SCP- 1508.

If you mean by Joe which is his name by the way then yes yes I do

Which moves on to the next question why do you dislike when we call you by your designated numbers instead of your name

AAA Dizzy Flores her head back laughing before continuing in a mocking manner you supposed to be smart but still asked me simple easy questions. What to get my opinion it's kind of obvious I don't like being called that because I'm not your property is the degrading and I have a name so I don't see why not use it. it's supposed to be respectful to use somebody's name and I don't see being called at number is very respectful it's why anything or anyone in here that doesn't have a name I give a name

Is that why you break into other SCP containment rooms.

At first usually I just go into the room for entertainment in the form of a conversation or to hopefully make a new friend like and Joe, know any other SCP but then after I get to know them better and I found out they have no identities and some of them are also as miserable as s***. So I give them a name to have an identity with the name.

why do you have the urge to break into other SCP containment for your own entertainment can't use ask for something to keep you entertained

No it's more than just entertainment is the opportunity to travel, explore, marvel and brighten up the day of different objects and people that can usually only be found in fantasy amazing and every experience is almost always something new you can't put a price on that or replicated is not same and it kind of pisses everyone off, so it's an added bonus for me ahah.

Next question are you aware of your other a anomalous traits other than your main one

Do you mean other than the fact that I didn't take a s*** in literally over 60 years, I haven't cough, sneeze, or felt anything other than normal for decades that I don't even need the shower when just for entertainment and It turned the water green with my poison, and that anything that comes on to me like bacteria that is harmful gust slides off my body and clothing and every part of me, that I can't feel actual fear other than shock seeing it's a negative emotion or the fact that I can't be affected by medication even with a positive effect and life vitals machines don't actually work from me yeah I kinda have notice

What's your opinion on the SCP held here at the site and throughout the foundation hard to pinpoint your exact your opinion on SCP even when observing other SCP is hard to get your exact opinion your reaction are randoms to say the least

Actually that kind of a hard one Doc, my reaction is random because it's really depending on what happens when I go in there I don't really know what to expect I just go with the flow and see what goes on in there really it's kinda going into a room blindfolded almost and as for my opinion for other SCP some of them I actually I'm glad they're stuck in here seeing that they will probably kill the whole god damn universe if they ever got out and others I feel sorry and also disgusted by the foundation for keeping it here it's not their fault and they're not even dangerous they just a little different that's all that star eyed girls she just want to get out but you won't let her shame on you

She which you have named galaxy never put any request for ever mentioned for going outside

That's because he is scared if you would just sedate her like other in here

She wouldn't be scared if people not mentioning names didn't tell exactly what people do in here to SCP when they are to Wiley

yeah put the blame on me why not it's not like he has brains to figure it out by yourself you really underestimated SCP that's another reason I find the foundation disgusting we're not objects or least not all of us

Moving on

Hurry up

Do you anything about the laxatives in the tea of dr ....

Maybe

now let's get to the source of this conversation in the first place, why the sudden urge to visit SCP- 1504 usually if you just want to see him you preferably or duo not encouraged method break into his containment and settings free usually or vice versa why now you deciding to go for more for the less catastrophic method of visiting

Like I said before I have my reasons

Oh really

What are you getting at is this a double course because if it's a double course I will

Don't worry we can't even double cross you know negative effect remember

We did some research on your friend Joe as you call him and surprisingly we discovered that today is his birthday and it so happens since was contained every year on his birthday he seems to be more miserable year after year it's also happened you demanded an interview you might despise us but we are intelligent we kind of put the dots together you might as well admit it

.... Alright fine I admit it I ordered this interview in hoping to get privileges of allowing me to visit him on his birthday he is miserable is sad seeing the only companion you probably have around here for who knows how long I stop counting decades ago just drink and get high on his birthday and not even happy it's a miserable sort of way in a sense of will depression and years getting older nothing to getting better for him even after me even just visiting him in his cell still miserable tied up in there but not even a single birthday cake or compliment from anyone other than me to make him feel better even though I know you don't even notice so I decided to take the long short by getting this party

That quite admirable actually your friend is not getting on well with his birthday so you decided to do something sweet for him, don't think from your records of time we let you two be together you'll probably get a reward like an extra radio but a party station I don't know

Worth a try

And what happens if it fails

I guess you'll be another miserable year then

Never realised that your friends up with SCP 1504 this toxic

Personally I think that comment is bullshit.

What makes you think that don't you notice you encourage each other to drink, smoke, commit crimes, and vandalism even notice once a couple of years back that you and "Joe" somehow managed to make a secret meff lab and using it to experiment with different a SCP for fun in the basement of site 91

Hahaha I'm surprised you idiots didn't notice that earlier we somehow managed to drug up at least 6 SCP before anyone noticed and even then it was by accident when they were clean out the old basement Dizzy throws back in her seat laughing AH AH

You think it's funny to drug up SCP some of them are people you know

Bravo and in only took you experimenting on them and somebody else who having needles jabbed into them who are not scientists to say it

Regardless don't you recognise that what you and 1504 are doing is cruel and reckless

Hypocrite!!

You know what I mean

sure on the surface it sounds ridiculous and somewhat crazy and be honest we kind of are it a way but before you see anything is my explanation when you were immune to heam itself we kind of lose the will to be careful in a way and when no negative effect can be brought on to you you also lose more of that desire to hold back in a sense it doesn't mean that your conscience has been affected it does means you're a terrible person a little bit bad but deep down good people or at least I'm a good person and the people we "druged up" as you called it they were all willing to do it and some of those people even asked for those hi all of the SCPS we did it were objects creatures that were animals in a way and people who asked or couldn't get any worse if we give it to them see the records none of those SCP if you don't believe me none of them were harmed at the a little bit delirious and tired after a while but fine we're not monsters we don't do it to hurt them in the way we do it to make them feel better what do you think people take drugs in the first place to make them forget about the horrible things in life it's not good to them and it temporary but what else can I get around here some of them they even steal it from us check the records again if we didn't do it together we probably would have done it in any other scenario and as for encouraging each other for doing thinks like I said when your immune due to lose any sense of dread do it we drink and smoke but in a way is nothing other than like drinking water or leads to me and as for Joe he gets drunk and high but in the end of the day it doesn't kill him it just get a headache I only do it the keep company if I do stop him you just do it anyway so really I I don't do it nothing bad will happen we are not normal people plush employees in the foundation actually bought some of the meth we made before they were probably discovered

OK how much other scenarios like the time you and Joe still Dr.... car and drove it through a SCP portal to another dimension into a abandoned waste dump full of scrap metal that goes on for miles not only did you also kidnap a mtif soldier and through in the back of your car but you also crashed the place and then crashed the car all the time when you and Joe escaped he loading some rich women and you beated her with cricket bat and then stole her money another terrible time when you were transported to another complete by plane with a couple of other SCP they decided to be better if you travel in an like normal people instead of in an enclosure and you're scps friends including Joe before you even entered the plane you used a plank placed on a rod on the floor to hit Dr clef in the balls

Slight giggles

you turned a man into a crying wimp on the floor clutching his groinedon in the plane when a Stuart found out you were french he greeted you in French you shouted back to him vous pouvez sucer le Dr Clef glorifié boules meurtries enflées Stanley Joe got drunk and you filmed it he passed out and then insulted and walked around the whole plane during the entire flight and when you came down you did the same thing you did to Dr clef only to Dr bright even though he tried to avoid it

Ok as for the car bit I was upset about my miserable life and so was joe slightly drunk and felt like we both needed something to cheer each other we saw the car out and I know Dr.... loves that car sweat to God I think I was him kissed it. I got pissed seeing Dr.... is a go for nothing jerk he puts D class into danger for no reason that's like any other people and just like any other person I would want to punish him I told this to Joe well you know what he had the idea of and there was a testing with SCP-093 dimension portal nearby so you can guess what happens next we hijack the car with some bottles of whiskey from some security officer and a camera, Dr.... was me in the car and I flip him off you should have seen the look on his face it was priceless and so we just drove straight through the portal like nothing and mtif trucks was chasing us it was absolute thrill and never felt so alive. And I didn't give a care of anything. The car was faster than them one of the sodger somehow managed to get up to us much have been in the back we didn't notice he was out match I paralyzed him and then we throw him in the back he was a jerk anyway so I don't care Anyway when the gas run out we watching the sunset tuke pictures of the car each other and us settings to the top of the car drnking whiskey having a blast gust two friends hanging out so we have no blame it was f****** awesome then the mtif scod fade us got the guy out of the truck and tode us back the car getting distorted was a actsdet nothing to do with us when we got back one of the crans for the portal fell

Ok

As for the incident in the plane Dr clef had it coming for the looongest time just ask any female SCP or researcher I did them a favour. That'll teach him a lesson to make smart ass remarks not so tough when reality

I'll be lying to say your not a little bit right there

The flight attendant mug and I wasn't it really in a good mood since I hate the foundation ice auto be a good time to that's really good friends was making some interesting memory videos and making them all upset. The woman incident was when me and Joe escape once we needed money and there was no banks nearby but a horrible rich woman don't feel sorry for her, we only steel off people that really deserved it well I do Joe don't I make him do it because I don't want him stealing off innocence the lady was a rich scamp who treated the poor folk like trust and Roberts said she was in the black market and even sleep with one of the old judges to get off from stealing charity money from orphans she deserved what she got, we beat up a little not anything fatal just enough to make her ugly then stole some money we broke into her house and use my powers to give us so blisters on her feet to just to make sure that the hit one kill her. And Joe hit her in the back with a bat

Why do you feel like you can use your powers to punish the ones who avoid the justice system in some ways

I have to power to make people suffer I might as well use it tell me if you had a chance to save someone or just stand whilst they be killed you would obviously choose them it's similar to how when I see somebody doing harm I can't just stand there I have to make them pay for it I believe everyone gets what they deserve eventually even if not in life they will get it in hell but it's too late because they're dead so I make sure they get the punishment before the dead to know what they did was wrong

when ever you brings us this or just someone annoys you and you played a prank on them you never killed them no matter how bad things they did are

because if I killed them I will be as bad as the people I call monsters I might have lost a lot of things but I would never ever in any circumstances lose my homity and dignity by being a hypocrite and committing what I believe is the worst thing a person can do to a person bring death and personally I don't really see this as a punishment when it comes to my own suffering I feed as a way out but obviously I'm immortal so that will never happened

When you first came to this Foundation was very suicidal it seemed to approve over the time I'm are you still suicidal

Sort moment of silence

Not as before to say I'm not completely suicide that would be lying kind of faded almost as the decades went through I see it as a sort of sideeffect being a model eventually your pain blur's into the conscience of your mind and your personality over take it because nobody get the live as long as me and I have pretty of distracted seeing as Foundation always bring something new that helps friends I made since helped but to say I'm cured completely nope some days is worse than others sometimes. but if there was a better option to be free for my depression I will take it of course but I'm glad I'm better than before you wouldn't believe how dark that mindset is

Has therapy helped

Yes definitely but is not just therapy I find everything helps me in some ways when it comes to friends to talk to even strangers people to listen to it that matter to get it off your chest helps a lot.

Speaking of your oh so "lovely" friends let's talk about them apart from Joe you made a couple of them over the years some more favourable than others let's talk about them less start with your closest friend and the reason why this interview is taking place in the first place Joe

Well you already know his life from his file as an SCP there's not really much to say about him apart from the fact what is he really like because unlike the rest of you I actually know for fact what he's saying or doing hints why we're so close friends

and hints why you 2 can get away with things like robbing people only two days ago you somehow managed to borrow 50 quid out of the wallet of Dr....

And we spent it on a magic coffee dispenser to trick somebody into drinking bin water just for fun

Nmmmm

But Joe and I kind of need each other he's the first to person to really understand me a fellow SCP you became my friend somebody who knows what it feels like to be lonely and is suffer for a good majority of time in fact I could say he suffers more than me even.I had are you still have a human connection or more reality until he met me he was suicidal depressed and nobody had any idea of it or even he had a blue tick knowledge you should have seen his face when you first realise he finally found somebody to connect to you and don't leave me feel worse that he couldn't give me a hug you know that's why he's in the streets that could because the amount of fluid is Santa's lack of escape makes a mad the let us be with each other and in close proximity because if he doesn't have a human connection now he goes nuts and once he was so this before escape from the mental pain he grabbed me by the solders and end of catching severe case of schizophrenia but also seeing him like that screaming bagging blood everywhere for the 62 hours is painful to watchbut we help with turning away we keep eachother company we have each other's backs we stop each other from going crazy I can feel my world go up if you don't want them with him because he doesn't care what I am he's not here to study he's really the only person that really gives a damn for me anymore and maybe is just because he's desperate for company but it's genuine at least

What about other people But 1st oof Did you ever fall in love

No, if you'd read my record, you would know that my anomalous ability makes people unable to be sexually interested in me, including able to feel any romantic feelings towards me which really sucks because nobody can ever fall in love with me which really sucks because I didn't have a boyfriend before all of this which really fuckin' sucks

Ok let's go back to some other questions then what are some of the other friends like scp-507

Honestly he's a nice guy but we and close friends sometimes gets nervous to are idea of fun mostly pranking people not into that sort of stuff sometimes me and Joe would sneak into his room he's pretty good at using computers

Explain

don't worry we just asked him let us see some videos that we are banned on watching well Joe's banned from watching is's nothing that bad and it's not like we scanned anything light drinker doe sometimes we will go to the roof to drink and being nice we invited him to come with us if you refused he would wosh out after half a bottle

Is that even allowed

Ah F*** them

What about jonesy the half cat you seem to be close to jonesy cat

I love jonesy his sweet and cute be honest he Sims more Joe friend seeing that I can't pet him but he's not afraid of me I can always play with him I told him tricks too

What tricks

I taught him to attack on command he wrecked Dr.... face it was hilarious. Moment of silence come on it was funny he only had a scratch

Moving on how about something different about Dr bright and agent Rocky Jones.

Temporary silence

Are you alright

Yes.

I believe rocky was the first person you ever encountered after your condition so to say happened if I believed correctly you two became close friends over the years even after his hair ternd completely grey you use to joke about that and he'd take time to come to see you and often joke about it until he's unfortunate demise unfortunately turned out to be by Dr bright

Rocky was a good man he was sent to like the other mtif soldier he went to the foundation for the sole reason of wanting to help others and protect others he never shot any human and never ever killed anyone even go against orders to save people including civilians and to avoid death casualties

he still experienced poison first time and leaving the second time he cut off his own hand to avoid getting infected again

Ok f*** off that was by accident and so was the second time you can't go 50 years without hitting an accident even if it's twice the actor of him cutting his arm off surprised me he did it so quickly and so swiftly I still feel sorry for him no matter how many times I see his prosthetic arm and no matter how many times he said to me it was ok I couldn't forgive myself for it but he never blame to me I don't know why but you never blam with me I'm Grace's for that

Unfortunately Dr Jack fight thought it would be a good test subject to a SCP due to the lack of D class and he was close to retirement he killed him with an axe and then experimented on his parts with SCP....

Anger: dat no good whatever he is didn't deserve to kill an innocent man and get away with it no matter how high he's clearance I wanted revenge I wanted to bury rocky picked up what's left of him in the acid bath and bury him of cause acid has no effect on me he's a skeleton but still l made sure he had a proper funeral with me Joe, some classes who are kind of nice and some scientists to also didn't like what bight did and missed rocky but he was the closest thing to a funeral I can get And then plotted my plan it was quite easy wait until it's dark nobody around other than the D classes, SCP and Joe distracted him than the clobbered him over the head well Joe bib then we tied him up to a cargo trolley and use my powers to give him a nail fungus I wanted the real pain to be more brutal than anything I have and then we'll come up he said crossword threaten even gloated and I stuck them over the face for that I told him he was going to suffer he said didn't care he's suffered before but I doubt he'd ever suffer like he did there and you could tell him his face he knew he was f***** when he realised what was coming to him a pit full of angry D classes who all had a bone to pick with him and some SCP who are also hated his guts and so didn't take the D classes we tied him up to the trolley made sure he'd couldn't escape and through him into the pit you should have heard him screaming begging for his released and even asking for help but no he was going to suffer just how rocky did .... 10 times worse the fact that I use my powers against him meaning that he wouldn't die butter suffer for round a good 10 hours it's more worse than poison because it's gets revenger gardens Joe and I just sat there watching with show during beer with him and some cigarettes it was the most relaxing thing I ever did for revents in the morning when everyone came and they put them out he's so scared of me after that's incident and it should be

And what you hate doctor bright so much

He's a prick

Oh really because your friend the plague doctor says otherwise

f*** you the plague doctor is not my friend I met him once when I escaped and he escaped in the same time and I found him by chance I only stayed with him after that to stop him from killing more people I didn't stop him from turning the bodies into what the plague doctor called the pestilence and the curd because they're already dead but he is scared of me he felt poison my poison and he's petrified of me

True when we asked about you in an interview with him he did say he was petrified to you but he also said you hate Dr bright to because you envy him you envy everything about him that he's in a SCP and he has the freedom that you can only wish for freedom to see your family the freedom to feel love freedom to have friends without restrictions to socialise and don't need to worry about making somebody have cancer just by giving them a hug and how he's anomalous ability doesn't seem to affect him that much and you hate when he says he feels upset due to his SCP status saying that because you're the only one who understands to suffering through and SCP you haven't seen your family in their decades you didn't even get to go to your parents funeral when font out you escaped to see the graves of the died of natural causes when MTF squad found are you are weeping at the graves they let you stay there a few minutes and then you went by your own recalled you carried on crying 4 weeks after that and as three siblings you don't even know what they look like no picture of them you have nothing

That plague doctor is wise I will give him that destrudo why am I a nice SCP but I'm stuck in here but all just constrictions that any other SCP has but Dr bright probably the worst person and most dumbest person I ever met is allowed almost get away with everything is not fair and that's for the real reason I hate him he says he understands and is sad because of his predicament of being a immortal he doesn't because I'm immortal to his immortality has no chains attached to it it's it's just sad to say just like that me there's always a catch I could just walk out of here with nobody stopping me but the catch is there's always a catch there's nothing for me out there there's no hatred there's no love there's no nothing what's the point of being a immortal if you can't enjoy it the only thing I bring is sickness and sadness I have to worry about giving people cancer just buy hugging them people are scared of me because of my ability and it should be but I feel miserable Dr bright is able to enjoy his life and he dares feels upset because of his predicament he should be god damn lucky he doesn't need to worry about it I didn't himself I have to worry about not only in myself my mental health but also others are not only hurt

is that why you stay here your numbers ability does prevent us from stopping you leaving

Yes

I see

it's also the reason whenever he says he understands pain the SCP feel the pain that he brings other people I make sure he's truly feels pain and he gets punished for his wrong doing

Now can I have my our with Joe

we'll have to see but that there's a lot of checklist to go through they might be even the couple of days who knows weeks until your permission has been approved

Ash I knew I wouldn't be getting to see Joe today but ok have a backup plan I went to Joe cell and talk to him before I came here if getting is interview fails there's always plan b this is breaks out and we go to the roof to enjoy ourselves and private for an hour

What

Gjvd

Rumbling noises lights Go out

Note lights went out due to SCP 1504 sneaking into the control room and the stopping the lights dizzy then escape through her miss form through the ventilation system and the two met on the roof after SCP 1504 took couple of bottles of beer from dr.... office the two stage on the roof remaining hour on deck chairs that SCP 1504 stole from a supply closetthe towards the sunset together was drinking beers a small recording managed to be caught before cameras went off of the two on the roof

SCP 1504 is blue and dizzy is green

So how was the interview

you no it was emotional but at least I got to see you too old friends

to old friends

the two then sheared and continue watching the sunset

End log

[ineffable0husbands]

For the Them: I am a lost boy from Neverland Usually hanging out with Peter Pan And when we're bored we play in the woods Always on the run from Captain Hook "Run, run, lost boy, " they say to me Away from all of reality

Soooo…this was originally just going to be the Them playing as kids, but then I got an idea and it wouldn’t leave me alone, so here

Warning(s): growing up, crying, negative self-talk, depression, and loneliness

Ship(s): Pepper/Adam and Brian/Wensleydale 

tag list: @adoratato @iamdevilantlysatan @bri-cas@that-gender-bender@scum-of-the-earth @pieces-of-annedrew @scampycat4999@elrilsf @my-emo-child@always-reading2 @larrklopp @l-garnxtt@halbarryislife@ninjacatinsanitycrazy@impossiblynervouscycle @audder17 @boredafsposts @i-really-dig-the-purple@mycrappylife01@lostwolf-fandomlover@hamiltrashphannerd@she-who-must-not-be-named@sundry-whovengerslocked@deceitfullyanxiousprince@booklover223@twdlover03@drunkinfandomstuff @nimsy1920 @catsarebestest @sonic-spade@reprehensibleghost@to-dance-among-stars-in-dreams@afternoon-sunlight @danifandxm @oddpopsicle @rise-abxve@shipping–hell

Wensleydale was lost. 

Metaphorically of course, but lost all the same. All he did, every day, was eat, go to work, sleep, repeat. Adam, Brian, and Pepper had escaped Tadfield years ago, but Wensleydale was stuck there, working a dull office job as an accountant because everybody told him that’s what he would be good at. And he was good at it. That didn’t mean he liked it, though. Often times he would go back home after a long day of work and more work and look at pictures of the Them back when they were just kids. Wensleydale was only 25, but he felt old looking at those pictures. He felt boring and dull; he’d always thought he was boring and dull. Pepper, Adam, and Brian were the only ones who had ever managed to make him feel exciting. He was stuck in a boring life, in a boring house, with no friends and no way to feel truly happy.

It was another boring day in the office. Wensleydale leaned his chin against his hand, half asleep as he stared dully at his screen, glasses askew. He wasn’t really processing anything as he mindlessly scrolled, and his eyes kept flickering down to his watch. An Hour to go. 45 minutes to go. Half an hour to go. Wensleydale groaned and slammed his head down onto his desk, irritated beyond belief and just wanting the day to end. Someone knocked on the side of his cubicle and he jumped, startled. He looked up to see one of his superiors. He couldn’t remember his name and frankly didn’t care. 

“We’re closing up early tonight, you can start heading home,” the man said wearily, twisting his tie in his hand. He really shouldn’t have been in a management position with nerves like his. Smiling gratefully, Wensleydale nodded, grabbing his briefcase and paperwork he would have to finish at home before rushing as quickly as he could out of that dreadful building. He didn’t know why he was in such a hurry to get home. it was just as drab there as it was at work, but Wensleydale supposed he just found it more comfortable than an office cubicle. 

“Wensley! Wensleydale! Jeremy! Wait!” someone was shouting, and Wensleydale was nearly knocked off his feet as a blur of curls barreled into him, tackling him in a fierce hug. Wensleydale tried to get away when he actually saw who the person was and stopped, surprised. 

“Adam? What are you doing here?” Wensleydale exclaimed, pulling away and grabbing Adam (for it was Adam) by the shoulders to look at him better. The other man was grinning from ear to ear. he’d changed a lot since Wensleydale had last seen him. His hair was longer. going past his shoulders and down his back, and he’d grown much taller. His style had changed too, less ‘young schoolboy’ and more artsy looking. he even had a stereotypical red flannel and beanie. 

“Just back in town for a while! I was just coming down to get you, Brian and Pepper are- wait, are you wearing a suit?” Adam was rambling a bit but Wensleydale didn’t mind, and he smiled somewhat proudly at the comment about his attire. 

“Yep, I am. Part of the dress code at the office. Doesn’t it look professional?” Wensleydale asked, smoothing the front of his grey suit jacket. Adam smiled impossibly wider and nodded. He was so much happier than when Wensleydale had lost seen him, he realized. Life must be treating him well. Wish I could have that, Wensleydale thought bitterly, but he quickly pushed those thoughts aside. “You said Pepper and Brian were here. Is there any special reason you’re all back?” Wensleydale asked as Adam put an arm around his shoulders and led him down the streets. 

“Well, we wanted to see you,” Adam stated as if it were obvious. Wensleydale’s face flushed. 

“Really now Adam, please be serious-”

“I am, Wensley, I promise! We live close by to each other so we see each other all the time, but we never see you! We thought it would be nice to just visit and catch up,” Adam continued. Wensleydale didn’t know how to reply to that, so he didn’t, and Adam didn’t force him to. Pepper and Brian were perched not far away on a park bench, chatting with each other and laughing. Pepper looked the same as always, with her curly hair let down and hanging freely with jeans, beat-up tennis shoes, and a black button-up. Brian, though…

Jesus fucking Christ, Wensleydale had never been more confused and yet more attracted to a man simultaneously in his entire life. Brian had gone full punk rock. He had a leather jacket with spikes and various awareness patches stitched into it, ripped black skinny jeans, knee-high black leather boots, a lip piercing, three small piercings in both ears, and his hair styled into a faux hawk fade. It appeared college really could change a man, just like Brian had said it would to Wensleydale right before he left. Wensleydale didn’t mind it though. Not one bit. 

“There you are! I thought I was going to die before you got out here,” Pepper said as soon as she saw her two friends placing her hands on her hips, but not being able to hide her small smile. Wensleydale rolled his eyes and grinned. 

“I missed you too, Pepper. You look great!”

“Flattery never works on a married woman, Wensleydale, I thought you would know that,” Pepper teased, interlocking her fingers with Adam’s when he sat next to her. 

“And teasing doesn’t work on a gay man, so I guess we’re even,” Wensleydale retorted with a cheeky smile. Brian snorted and hid his face behind his hand, trying to conceal his smile. “What’s so funny?” Wensleydale asked, his face heating up. 

Brian looked up at him with a fond smile and said, “You haven’t changed a bit, Wensleydale.” If only he knew. Wensleydale managed to smile and nodded in thanks, but couldn’t muster up a thank you, both because he was flustered and hiding the fact that Brian’s comment made him want to crawl into a hole and die. Brian clapped his hands and stood, towering a good foot or two over Wensleydale both from his actual height and his heeled boots. “Right then, we’re all here. Where should we go?” Brian said, looking around at his three friends questioningly. 

“I was thinking we could go to Hogback woods…my father said our little hideaway is still there. Someone’s been keeping it up for us,” Adam suggested. The four adults hovered in nostalgia for a moment, and Wensleydale contained a smile, Call it an obsession, boredom, or both, he didn’t care. He’d kept their hideaway in the woods in tip-top condition for seven years, ever since they had all left after high school. It grounded him, reminded him of better times when he didn’t have to worry about what he was supposed to do next or whether or not he was wanted. 

“That’s perfect! I wonder if our wooden swords are still there,” Pepper said thoughtfully, leading Adam to their blue BMW and getting into the driver’s seat. Wensleydale knew for a fact that the swords were still there. He’d made sure of it. The two buckled in and drove off. 

“Come on, let’s catch up to them,” Brian said, grinning with excitement as he rushed over to a black motorbike, 

“Oh no, no. There’s no way I’m getting on that,” Wensleydale protested. Motorbikes were insecure and they could go off balance at any moment and he would have to grab onto Brian just to stay on, and he couldn’t think of anything more humiliating. Brian scoffed.

“Live a little! it’ll be fin, I promise. I’m really good with these,” Brian said encouragingly, grabbing the two helmets off the back and handing one to Wensleydale. The bespectacled man took it skeptically, raising an eyebrow at Brian. 

“Did you plan this?” Wensleydale asked. To his surprise, Brian blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking rather sheepish. 

“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s not talk about that right now, Adam and Pepper will be waiting for us,” Brian said hurriedly, putting on his helmet and swinging his leg over the bike. Wensleydale sighed and put his helmet on, getting on behind Brian and hesitating. “Around my waist, I like to drive fast,” Brian encouraged. Wensleydale grimaced and did as he was told, blushing furiously as he pressed his face into his friend’s back. He could have sworn he heard Brian let out a sigh of relief, but he supposed he was just hearing things.

“How fast does this go, exactly?” Wensleydale asked nervously. Brian looked back at him and smirked before flipping down the visor on his helmet.

“Just hold on really, really tight. Wensley,” Brian said, revving up the bike before taking off down the road. Wensleydale almost fell off, but he gripped onto Brian’s waist tightly, squeezing his eyes shut. Brian’s blushed crept down his neck and his ears turned red. He was grateful for his helmet then, which kept Wensleydale from seeing his face. He would’ve been mortified if his lifelong friend-turned-crush (when that happened, he couldn’t recall) had seen him. The ride lasted much too short for Brian’s liking, and when Wensleydale quickly let go of his waist when it was over he felt his heart drop. This was a stupid idea. Fuck Adam and Pepper and their ‘romantic gestures’. He stayed quiet as Wensleydale took off his helmet, hair messy but admittedly adorable. Seeing the usually put together man with messy hair was enduring. The two walked side by side into the woods until they reached their childhood hangout. Pepper and Adam were already having a sword fight while an aged but still playful Dog yipped and ran around their feet. 

“Argh, I spy two scallywags trying to board me ship!” Adam said, pointing his wooden sword at Brian and smirking. Brian’s eyes lit up mischievously and he ducked around Adam, rushing to the tree and grabbing his own wooden sword concealed under a rotting blanket. He tossed the remaining sword to Wensleydale and leaped down, immediately engaging in combat with Adam and Pepper. Wensleydale stood there dumbly, watching his friends reenact their favorite childhood game. It was either cowboys versus pirates or knights versus pirates. Adam always had come up with the best of ideas. Wensleydale smiled bitterly. Even when they were kids he’d felt left out, despite the three of them doing their very best to make sure he felt included. 

“Wensleydale, a little help here?” Brian shouted, his distressed voice alerting his attention. Wensleydale looked up to see Brian pinned up against a tree, fighting off both Adam and Pepper. Quickly rushing to the scene, Wensleydale brandished his sword and, still skiddish, poked Adam in the back with it. The other man grinned, turning to face his nervous opponent. Wensleydale gripped the handle of his makeshift weapon tighter, the sounds of Brian and Pepper continuing to fight in the background ringing in his ear. It felt just like old times. Adam whacked his sword against Wensleydake’s startling him out of his train of thought, and the fight began. They were no experts, nor were they as practiced as they were as children, but they were adults reliving some of their most wonderful memories. Even as he was hit and bruised and nearly knocked to the ground, Wensleydale had a wide, happy smile on his face, the first genuine smile he had worn since his friends had all left him behind in Tadfield. They played for hours, feeling just like the eleven-year-olds playing in the woods and annoying R.P. Tyler they had been fourteen years ago. 

The fights ended with all four of the sprawled on the ground, laughing and breathless as the stared up at the darkening night sky. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, illuminating the Them and the groves of trees in a gentle, silver light. Brian stole a glance Wensleydale’s way and his heart nearly stopped in his chest. Seeing him smiling so widely in his suit and tie and dorky glasses with the light illuminating his face could have been the last thing Brian saw and he would have died a happy man. Daringly, he moved closer to Wensleydale until they were pressed against each other like Pepper was on his other side and Adam was on hers. Wensleydale’s heart nearly leaped unto his throat when Brian did that, and he had to remind himself that it was a purely platonic gesture. 

“So, how have you been Wensleydale? Really?” Adam suddenly asked, turning on his side to face his friend. Wensleydale gave him a confused look. “What? We really did come here to see you, we see each other all the time and we have no idea what you’re doing or how things are with you,” Adam continued. Wensleydale’s smile melted off his face and he shifted slightly on the ground, looking up at the stars overhead. Brian turned on his side to face him as well and Pepper linked her arm through his, resting her head on his shoulder. Wensleydale closed his eyes and sighed deeply. 

“You really want to know?” Wensleydale asked. This was their last chance to back out. They all made varying noises and gestures of agreement, and Wensleydale swallowed the lump in his throat. He was finally going to come clean to them all. “It’s been lonely without you all here.” Silence. Wensleydale continued. “Mum and dad moved out of town two years ago. Mr. Tyler passed away around the same time. All I’ve really done is go to work…and I hate my job. I only became an accountant because everybody told me to. I wanted to do something with science…but now I’m stuck in an office every day for hours on end doing absolutely nothing,” Wensleydale muttered. Brian looked down at him sympathetically and came to rest at his side, putting his head on his chest and wrapping an arm around him. Wensleydale shivered slightly. 

“That sounds awfully dull,” Pepper commented, playing with Wensleydale’s ie and frowning. His throat tightened. 

“It’s not just boring, it’s-” his voice broke “-it’s absolutely horrid! I fucking hate it!” Wensleydale’s voice trembled and his eyes began to well up with tears. “I feel…I feel so trapped here. I thought I would want to stay but I’m so lonely all the time and-” Wensleydale clamped a hand over his mouth as a sob threatened to escape. His closed his eyes tightly and tried to gain control over himself. Brian held him tighter and Pepper curled into his side while Adam tried to get closer, putting an arm over both Pepper and Wensleydale. 

“It’s alright to cry, Wensley. You may be an adult but you’re still allowed to feel things-” Pepper started before she was cut off by Wensleydale.

“But you were all so happy just a moment ago! I don’t want to ruin it! I always…I always ruin everything,” Wensleydale said between sobs. He hid his face in his hands, burning with shame as he cried uncontrollably between his three friends. 

“You haven’t ruined anything,” Adam said firmly, using his free hand to rest on top of Wensleydale’s head in a comforting but somewhat awkward gesture. “We came here for you. We want you to be honest with us, and you are. We love you, Wensley. We care about you and we want you to be happy. Just because we’re grownups now doesn’t mean we don’t care anymore.” Wensleydale nodded. 

“I-I know, I just…I’ve felt like this for so long, and I…I honestly hate myself, and I hate this town, and I hate feeling so lonely all the time and I wish everything would just stop, but I can’t do anything about it!” Wensleydale said miserably, not sobbing anymore but still crying. “I have no money, no ambition, no real talent. It’s hard for me to even get out of bed in the morning without…without wanting to…” Wensleydale closed his eyes, unable to finish his thought, but he didn’t have to. The others understood. 

“We’ll take you with us. We aren’t rich but we can help you get on your feet. You could go to school!” Brian said, hovering over Wensleydale and looking down at him earnestly. Wensleydale sniffed and wiped his face. 

“I...I appreciate that, Brian, but I wouldn’t want to be a burden,” Wensleydale said softly, looking up into Brian’s eyes and cursing his heart for hammering so loudly in his chest. Brian’s gaze softened. 

“You could never be a burden, not to us. Alright? promise,” Brian said with a smile, placing a hand over his heart to seal the deal. Wensleydale smiled back shakily, letting out another sigh. He did that a lot. Brian settled back down next to him ad wrapped his arm around his waist again. Wensleydale closed his eyes and breathed deeply, allowing himself to relish in the moment. He’d wanted this for so long, it was hard to believe that they were all really here. And they loved him. And wanted to help him. Love was a word that was thrown around too much these days, but Wensleydale knew that he could trust his friends when they said it. 

“It’s getting late,” Wensleydale murmured. “It’s nearly midnight. We should probably go.” Brian whined in protest and Pepper sighed, but Adam took Wensleydale’s side. 

“We’re leaving tomorrow, we need to get up early so we can start driving,” Adam piped up. Wensleydale’ stomach twisted into knots. 

“You’re....you’re leaving tomorrow?” Wensleydale asked weakly. Adam smiled apologetically.

“Yeah. But we’re coming back very, very soon. Unless...you want to come with us now, rather than later?” Adam replied. His voice was hopeful. Wensleydale's face fell. 

“No. I’m sorry, but I’m not that spontaneous. I couldn’t quit my job on a second’s notice, and...and I’d have to sell the house and do so many other things before I would be ready to move.”

“You worry too much,” Pepper insisted, but Brian shook his head.

“No, Wensleydale is right. A lot goes into leaving a place, even if you don’t like it very much. The best thing we can do right now is support him as he works his way up to leaving here,” Brian said. Wensleydale felt a pang in his chest. He knew Brian meant well and he was really repeating but Wensleydale had just said, but it almost sounded like he didn’t want Wensleydale to come with them. With Brian’s words, the conversation was over and Adam got to his feet, helping Pepper up. Brian scrambled to his feet and grabbed Wensleydale’s hand to lift him up.

“We’ll figure this out soon, right?” Wensleydale asked hopefully, looking around at the three of them as they began to walk back to their vehicles. 

“Of course! A promise is a promise. We won’t leave you here a second longer than necessary,” Pepper said with a curt nod. Wensleydale didn’t reply. Adam and pepper got into their car and Wensleydale put on his helmet and got onto Brian’s motorbike, holding on to him as they sped down the road. Wensleydale managed to direct Brian to where his house was without getting them into a wreck, and he felt both relief and sadness when they reached his modest abode. He didn’t want the night to end, but he just felt like curling up in bed and crying for hours. He should’ve known his happiness would be shortlived. The universe would never be that kind to him. To his surprise, Brian got off the bike with him and walked with him to the front door, hands in his pockets and kicking at a loose stone on the pathway. 

“I’m glad I was able to see you again,” Brian said, lifting his head to look at Wensleydale and smiling. Wensleydale just hummed in acknowledgment. Brian sighed. “Is this about what I said before? I didn’t mean anything by it. I was...I was just trying to help,” he said softly. The thought of adding to Wensleydale’s pain made Brian’s heart ache. He cared about his friend in a way that was much stronger than just the love between friends. He wanted to make him happy, not discourage him and make him feel worthless. 

“I know, Brian. And you were right. I suppose I just wish you all would stay here longer,” Wensleydale admitted. Brian smiled and playfully ruffled the other’s man’s hair, making him yelp in protest and hurry to fix it. 

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere! I may live a ways off but I’ll always be here or you. We will always be here for you.” Brian quickly corrected himself and his face grew hot. Wensleydale blushed too, but the darkness and the moonlight made it impossible to see. They got to the front door and Wensleydale turned to Brian, smiling weakly. 

“I look forward to seeing you again. You better come back soon,” Wensleydale warned, a playful smile on his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. Brian laughed and hugged Wensleydale tightly, holding him close and probably lingering longer than he should have.

“I will, I promise. Take care, Wensleydale,” Brian said, pulling away from the hug. Wensleydale nodded and gave one last smile before turning and opening the door to go inside. Something stopped him, though. As he heard the soft crunch of Brian’s footsteps against the gravel of his driveway, his stomach suddenly churned with fear. he was letting him walk away again. He was letting Brian leave without telling him...everything.

“Wait…Brian, wait!” Wensleydale cried out suddenly, turning around and grabbing his friend by the back of the shirt. Startled, Brian turned around to see his friend and was shocked to see tears rolling down his face and fogging up his glasses. Alarmed, Brian held Wensleydale by the shoulders. 

“What’s wrong? Come on, talk to me,” Brian said gently. Despite his beating heart, he plucked up the courage to wipe away the tears falling rapidly down his friend’s face. Wensleydale let out a sob and hung his head, ashamed. 

“I don’t want you to go…I don’t want to be alone anymore,” Wensleydale admitted, his grip on Brian’s shirt tightening. Brian’s face flushed and despite himself, despite every nerve in his body screaming for him to stop, he cupped Wensleydale’s face in his hands and tilted his face upwards, running his thumb across his cheek and wiping away the tears there. Wensleydale’s eyes widened but he didn’t pull away, looking up into Brian’s eyes desperately. 

“Then I’ll take you with me. I know what I said earlier, and I know that just dropping everything and leaving will be stressful, but you shouldn’t be here Wensleydale. This place is suffocating you. Come with me,” Brian said breathlessly, hands moving from Wensleydale’s face back to his shoulders and gripping tighter than he probably should have. Wensleydale smiled gently and his eyes softened as he looked up at Brian, the tension leaving his shoulders and the tears slowing to a stop. 

“I…I would like that. Very much,” Wensleydale whispered. Brian smiled back down at him, eyes fond. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” 

They stared at each other for a while. Rather, it seemed like a while, but Wensleydale knew that it had been only a few seconds. His heart was thumping in his chest and his face was heating up as he looked up at Brian. His friend never ceased to amaze him. From his freckles to his toothy grin to his constant griminess to the way his eyes sparkled when he was happy or told a joke, Brian was absolutely perfect in Wensleydale’s eyes.  And perhaps that’s why Wensleydale cast aside all rational thought and surged forward, wrapping his arms around Brian’s neck and kissing him, closing his eyes and leaning into him. Brian squeaked in surprise and froze for a moment, arms stuck out awkwardly, but he quickly composed himself and returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around Wensleydale’s waist and kissing him as if it were the most natural thing in the world. When they pulled away, Wensleydale nestled into the crook of Brian’s neck and hummed with content as the taller man rested his head on top of his. 

“Come inside. It’s far too late for you to drive back to your motel,” Wensleydale murmured, looking up at Brian and smiling gently. Brian grinned and pulled away, holding his hand and walking up to the front door. 

“I could ‘t agree more, dear.” 

They walked inside hand in hand and shared another kiss in the dark, hands tangled in hair and love held back for years pouring out in its fullness. They fell asleep next to each other, limbs tangled and hearts intertwined.

Wensleydale was found. 

[treasure7boys]

Sunny Summer || Park Jihoon

♡♡♡♡

Type: Angst/Fluff

Word Count: 4.7K (Lol, I got really carried away)

Warning: Cursing, mature-ish themes (lol, not really) [Not Edited]

Description: You've matured since the last time Jihoon saw you ... and he's not the only one who's noticed

♡♡♡♡

Honestly, the thought of spending every summer in Jeju with your family wasn't exactly ideal. You wanted to spend the summer with your friends, not on an island where you knew almost no one. Still, you had one saving grace: Park Jihoon. The Park family was close friends with your own, so they had been staying at the same beach house with you since you were seven years old. Jihoon was the same age as you, so you naturally became close friends.

Your families both lived in Seoul, but you never really hung out with Jihoon unless it was some holiday or celebration and his family was over. As you senior year came to an end, you realized you hadn't seen Jihoon at all since that summer. It wasn't surprising, though, since you were both busy with studying for entrance exams and whatnot.

“He's going to be so surprised with how beautiful you've become,” your mother smiled as your plane landed in Jeju, stroking your hair lovingly.

You blushed, feeling embarrassed by the compliment. “It's not like I've changed that much,” you told her.

That wasn't necessarily true, however, you were just being humble. In all honesty, puberty did finally hit and it was kind to you. The boyish figure you once had finally had some shape to it. Your chest was still on the flatter side, but you couldn't have it all. Your braces were also removed and your now straight smile was beautiful. It was the little things that changed that made you look even prettier.

Your heart pounded like a drum as you neared the familiar beach house, which was basically your second home at that point. At first, you hadn't anticipated anything, but, after your mother's comment, you were wondering if this summer would be different.

“You're here!” Mrs. Park shouted as she rushed down the sandy steps of the beach house and to your mother, tightly hugging her. “Jihoon! Hurry to help with bags!”

Your own father hugged Mrs. Park and then Mr. Park, who was chuckling at how excited his wife was. “She's been waiting at the window for you guys,” he informed you all, making you smile fondly.

Mrs. Park turned to you. “Look how much you've grown in the past year! You're even more gorgeous, Y/N!”

Again, you blushed as you thanked her but politely said you looked the same. You watched as Jihoon appeared and they disappeared, always leaving the two of you to unload the rental car. “What happened to your face?” Jihoon asked as he opened the trunk.

You scowled, already knowing this summer would be like every other one. “Gee, thanks for that confidence boost,” you said, rolling your eyes.

He smiled and shook his head. “That's not what I meant. You just look different.” He inspected you and you felt like a bug under a microscope. “You got your braces off, huh?”

Nodding, you flashed him a smile. “You did, too. You look good.” The two of you embraced tightly before turning to the bags. “Are Junkyu and Yoonbin here yet?”

He nodded. “Yoonbin got here two days ago and Junkyu last night,” he informed you. “There's a party on the beach thrown by some college kids and Yoonbin managed to get us an invite.”

“Sounds cool,” you said, but you weren't sure how you felt. You had never been to a college party or any party for that matter. You liked to stay in bed where it was warm and safe, eating snacks and watching movies. Still, maybe you might like the party scene.

After unloading everything and putting the bags in your respective rooms, you put your swimsuit on, some shorts and a tank top, and then joined Jihoon downstairs to meet Junkyu and Yoonbin for a swim.

“What happened to you?” Junkyu asked, his eyebrows furrowing the moment he laid eyes on you.

You scoffed in disbelief, “Did I get so ugly over the span of one year?”

Yoonbin smiled. “I think he's talking about that giant bruise on your knee,” he commented.

“No, I'm talking about how my little brother, Y/N, is now my sister,” Junkyu said. “When did you get a figure?”

You shoved him aside, going to set your towel down. “Shut up,” you huffed.

“Wait, who called you ugly?” Yoonbin asked.

Junkyu nodded. “Yeah! I'll fight him for you!”

You glanced at Jihoon. “I didn't call you ugly!” he exclaimed. “I just couldn't figure out what about you changed.”

Letting out a laugh, you jumped up to your feet and threw an arm around him. “I know, I know! I just like to give you a hard time,” you teased. “Now, let's get in the water. It's so hot out.”

As you removed your shirt and shorts, you watched the boys rush into the water. Every year before, you had worn a one-piece swimsuit. That year, however, you wore your first bikini. With your new figure, your friend had somehow convinced you to show it off. You felt slightly self-conscious, but you knew you just had to fake it until you make it.

After some swimming and goofing off, you finally decided you wanted to dry off and enjoy the warm sun. The boys agreed but already planned on playing some volleyball with a beach ball in a little bit.

“Yeah, I fell down the stairs because I was so excited after finding out I got accepted into one of my top three universities,” you told Yoonbin, explaining why your knee was bruised. “I'm just glad I didn't break it.”

He laughed, “I'm surprised you didn't.”

“I'll have the whole house to myself for two nights, so we can have our own mini party,” Junkyu said to Jihoon. You didn't hear the whole conversation because you and Yoonbin had just tuned in.

You looked at Jihoon. “You're gonna leave me alone for two nights with just our parents?” you asked him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Junkyu cut him off. “You can come, too. I don't think your parents would mind. What would even happen?”

Yoonbin nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we're all like siblings,” he added.

“Good point. I'll ask, but I'm sure they'll be fine with it,” you said. Your eyes wandered towards three guys passing by. Your jaw just about dropped. “That guy is so hot.”

They looked to see who you were drooling over. “Yugyeom-hyung?” Jihoon questioned. “The guy we've known since we were kids?”

You shook your head, “No, the one in the middle.”

“His name is Eunwoo, this summer's heartthrob,” Junkyu told you. “All the girls are talking about him and he just got here.”

Eunwoo looked over, seeing you staring. He sent you a sweet smile before turning away. “Well, you've certainly got his attention,” Yoonbin smirked, standing up to go play volleyball.

“I'm in love,” you said. “What I wouldn't give to have even just two minutes in heaven with him.”

You felt something hit your head. It didn't hurt, but sometimes you liked to be dramatic. “Ouch! What the heck?!”

Jihoon looked at you as he picked up the beach ball he had just hit you with. “Stop drooling over him and come play,” he said.

Scowling, you stood up and joined Junkyu on the other side of the net.

♡♡♡♡

“Hurry up, Y/N! Before I'm old!” Jihoon called to you somewhat jokingly, waiting on the porch of the beach house.

You hurriedly slipped your bracelet onto your wrist before jogging down the stairs. “Well, don't you look gorgeous,” your mother smiled, lovingly smoothing down your hair.

You were wearing a skirt and top set. They were both red with white flowers on them. The top was a crop top with sleeves that wrapped around your upper arm, showing off both your stomach and shoulders. You had bought it on a whim hoping it would look good and maybe you could try and find a style that you really liked. Hopefully your mother was right and you looked gorgeous.

“Watch after Jihoon, yeah? Now that you guys can drink, he thinks he's a pro,” Mrs. Park snickered.

Smiling, you nodded. “Of course,” you told her. “I'm not planning on drinking much or at all in order to keep an eye on the three of them.”

“That's my girl,” your mother smiled. You quickly put your sandals on and then joined Jihoon outside.

He looked at you and stopped swaying, inspecting you. It felt like he stared at you forever until he finally said, “You look nice, now let's go before Junkyu gets impatient.”

You nodded, joining his side as you walked down the beach and to the house. Honestly, you weren't sure whose house or party it was, but you didn't really care.

“That's a cute outfit,” a girl told you. You were pretty sure her name was Herin.

“Thanks,” you said, smiling at her. She ended up spending a lot of the night with you and the boys. It turned out it was her first summer there, just a whim on her parent's end.

Junkyu's eyes wandered and spotted Eunwoo standing near the cooler. “Look, Y/N, your boyfriend is here,” he teased.

You looked over, blushing slightly when you saw Eunwoo. “He's totally yummy,” Herin said.

That made you smile. You could never really talk about guys on a real level with the three boys. “Thank you!” you exclaimed, turning back to look at Eunwoo. “He's seriously gorgeous.”

Her arm looped with your own, “Come on, let's go refill our drinks.”

The two of you quickly left, going over to the cooler where Eunwoo was with another tall, handsome boy. He spotted you and Herin before smiling. “Hi,” he spoke, his voice as beautiful and angelic as himself. “You're Y/N, right?”

The fact that he knew your name made your mind go blank and insides become mush. “Y-yeah,” you managed out, feeling Herin lightly squeeze your arm. You didn't care if Yugyeom had told him your name, you were just happy he had remembered.

Jihoon watched on with Yoonbin and Junkyu. “What could they possibly be talking about?” Jihoon scoffed. “They probably have nothing in common.”

Yoonbin smirked. “Jihoon, your jealousy is showing,” he said in a sing-song tone. “If you want to date Y/N so badly, then tell her how you feel. You won't get anywhere by not saying anything.”

That made Junkyu laugh but nod in agreement. Once again, Jihoon scoffed, but much more dramatically as he took another gulp of his beer. “Jealous? No way!”

“Come on, you've glared at any guy who stared at Y/N too long. An appreciative glance her way equals a glare from you,” Junkyu said. “Admit it, Y/N finally grew up during senior year and tons of guys have noticed. You're so used to her always being with you and us, so you're bothered that she has a thing for that Eunwoo guy and vice-versa.”

Jihoon was upset at the fact that he was so transparent to his two friends and the fact that they were right. He didn't want to be jealous, but he couldn't help it. You were practically his best friend and he was so used to having you around him almost at all times. Seeing you making new friends and spreading your wings bothered him because he feared you leave him and he hated that.

You were so caught up in your conversation with Eunwoo that you hadn't noticed Herin and Mingyu totally hitting it off. Eunwoo was really nice, sweet, and handsome, but he wasn't very funny. In fact, he was kind of awkward. Still, you enjoyed his company enough and he enjoyed yours, but it was obvious to both of you that things would never turn romantic.

In all that time, you completely forgot about Jihoon, Junkyu, and Yoonbin. You felt really guilty since the summer was for them, but you were sure you'd see them plenty during university and were hoping you guys would start hanging out in Seoul. “I really had a nice time talking with you, but I think I should go find my friends and make sure they're not doing something stupid,” you told Eunwoo.

He smiled and nodded. “It was nice meeting you, Y/N. I hope we can talk again soon,” he said.

Herin sent you a look, one that clearly asked if you wanted her to go with you. You slightly shook your head, wanting her to spend more time with Mingyu. Without another word or silent communication, you left.

“There you are!” you exclaimed when you finally found Jihoon. He was alone in one of the bedrooms, sitting at the foot of the bed with his arms wrapped around a pillow. “I've been looking for you everywhere! Where are Yoonbin and Junkyu?”

Jihoon didn't respond right away and you watched his head bob up and down slightly. That was when you realized he was drunk. He reeked of alcohol. “Y/N! There you are!” he exclaimed, his words only slightly slurred, which was surprising.

You giggled but felt bad for not watching out for him and stopping him from drinking too much. “Come on, let's go find Junkyu and Yoonbin and then get you to bed.”

Grabbing his hands, you struggled to help him to his feet. You threw the pillow back onto the bed and lightly slapped Jihoon's face to wake him up. “Why didn't you hang out with me tonight? This is our time, Y/N. All these guys are suddenly talking to you because you're so hot and you have no time for me.”

Then, without any warning, he kissed you. It wasn't a long kiss, but longer than expected. When he pulled away, his head fell on your shoulder. “Holy shit,” Yoonbin's voice said. You hadn't even noticed him and Junkyu.

“We never speak of this,” you say and they nod. “Come on, help me get him home.”

It was kind of a struggle, but you guys eventually got him on Junkyu's back and then home. You were relieved your parents weren't awake because you didn't want Jihoon to do something dumb.

Before Jihoon fell asleep, you made him eat something and drink water.

♡♡♡♡

“I did what?!” Jihoon shrieked, rubbing at his temples right after. His headache had gone down a great deal, but not completely. “No, there's no way. Did I do anything else?”

Yoonbin nodded, “You called her hot.”

That made him groan and bury his head in his hands. You had gone to get ice cream with Herin and he was sure you were telling her what happened. The two of you had only just met but he could tell you hit it off and finally had a girl to confide in.

“How bad is this? Like, have I made things totally awkward or will Y/N and I be okay?”

Silence took over as the three boys thought about this. “Honestly, I think Y/N just chalked it up to a drunken mistake on your part,” Junkyu confessed. “Knowing Y/N, she'll pretend it never happened.”

Jihoon didn't know how he felt about that. On one hand, he wished it had never happened, so pretending it didn't was the next best thing. On the other, all he wanted to do was talk about it with you. He couldn't just leave the situation up in the air, could he? This was why he never wanted to confess his feelings to you. When feelings got involved, things only got complicated.

The front door opened and Jihoon wondered if it was your guys’ parents coming back from whatever thing they had planned to do in town. “I'm back!” you called out, shutting the door behind you. You went upstairs and found the three boys in Jihoon's room. “Feeling better?”

Jihoon swallowed hard as he nodded. Things felt weird but he knew that was only on his end. “How was ice cream with Herin?” Junkyu asked, trying to ease the awkwardness caused by Jihoon.

You sat down next to Jihoon. You were close, closer than he expected. He felt like he couldn't breathe properly. “Good. We ran into Eunwoo-oppa and Mingyu-oppa. I think Herin and Mingyu-oppa are really hitting it off.”

Oppa? You were calling Eunwoo that already? The two of you just met! Were you really already that close? It made Jihoon feel upset and jealous and he hated that. He didn't want to be that guy, but he couldn't help it.

“What about you and Eunwoo?” Yoonbin asked. Jihoon looked at him, wondering why he'd ask that. Was he trying to make Jihoon even more jealous? Or was it just to get some clarity. Maybe both.

You shrugged. “I don't know. He's really nice, but I don't think it'll go anywhere,” you confessed, making Jihoon feel relieved. You looked at him and then grabbed his chin gently between your thumb and index finger. “Are you sure you're feeling better? You look flushed.”

Probably because he was. He wasn't sure how he looked, but he was freaking out on the inside. His heart was beating like a drum and he thought he would combust any second from your touch.

“I-I'm fine, just a little hot,” he finally said, cringing at his word choice.

Nodding slowly, you said, “Okay. Let's all watch a movie together. I'll meet you guys down there.”

They watched you leave before Junkyu hit Jihoon's arm. “Are you trying to make it awkward?!” he exclaimed. “Y/N was acting completely normal but you were acting like you two just met!”

“I know! I'm sorry!” Jihoon exclaimed. “I just can't help it. Even though I don't remember the kiss, I still feel like it only made me like her more. Now that I've crossed that line of friendship, it's hard to be just friends.”

Yoonbin sighed, “Then either talk to Y/N or get over it. This summer will be painful if you keep acting this way.”

That night, Jihoon couldn't sleep. He just laid in bed staring up at his ceiling, listening to the soft, low hum of the fan he had on his dresser. Earlier at dinner, he spazzed out when you got too close to grab some more rice and he ended up spilling soda all over you. He was sure his mother noticed he was acting weird and was thankful she didn't say anything … yet.

Normal. He just wanted things to be normal again. Checking the clock, he saw that midnight was just a few minutes away. With a smile on his face, he threw his covers off and went to your bedroom. You were sound asleep and he felt guilty waking you up, but only a little.

“Y/N, wake up,” he said softly, shaking you gently. You woke up fairly quickly.

Rubbing at your eyes, you whined, “What are you doing?”

“Come on, let's go for a midnight swim.”

That made you smile. A midnight swim was a tradition for you and Jihoon. The first midnight swim always occurred within the first week of summer to mark its official start. Midnight swims were sacred for the two of you because they were just yours. No parents, no Junkyu, and no Yoonbin. It was your time with each other, so it was special.

“Okay, let me just change.”

He shook his head as you climbed out of bed. “No time! We'll just swim in our clothes!” he exclaimed in a hushed tone. Without another word, he grabbed your hand and pulled you along with him.

The two of you were panting slightly as you stood on the beach near the water. The night was quiet and no one else was out, which was kind of surprising. “Um, Jihoon?” you questioned, finally able to get a word in. He hummed in response, his eyes taking in the waves in the moonlight. “I'm not wearing pants.”

His eyes immediately went to your legs, realizing you were only in a T-shirt and underwear. “Sorry!” he exclaimed, peeling his eyes away. “I shouldn't have just pulled you out of there like that or looked at you.”

That made you giggle and he was kind of confused. “It's fine. It was basically an invitation for you to look.”

“Well, we can just swim in our underwear? It's like swimwear anyway.”

You both knew that wasn't completely true. Underwear was more intimate than swimwear, which was why they were called “intimates”. Still, you didn't say anything and nodded instead. Jihoon was quick to strip and remove his shirt and sweatpants. He waited nervously as you removed your shirt.

“You can look at me, Jihoon. I won't think you're a pervert or anything,” you said. He nodded and looked at you, trying his best to not check you out. You held out your hand. “Come on, let's go.”

He took your hand and then the two of you ran into the water. For the next half hour or so, you just swam and talked. Things felt normal for the first time all day. Maybe things didn't have to return to normal, though. Things had changed, clearly, but maybe it wasn't bad. Maybe things could change to a new kind of normal.

“Summer has officially begun,” Jihoon grunted softly as he sat down on the porch of the house. Content smiles were on both of your faces.

You sighed happily. “I thought it was going to be like any other summer, but it feels different. It feels like something big will happen.”

You sounded wistful; like you hoped it would be different. “Are you talking about the kiss?”

Jihoon couldn't believe he blurted that out. All he wanted to do was disappear, but he couldn't. “That kiss didn't mean anything, Jihoon. I mean, you were just drunk and upset,” you said. “We can't like each other, either, right? We just wouldn't work. I mean, me with you?”

What was that supposed to mean? “Yeah, you're right. We wouldn't work,” Jihoon said, getting worked up because he was upset. “I'm not good enough for you, right? I can't compare to Eunwoo. He's gorgeous, tall, and x, y, and z. Why would you want me when you could have him?”

You opened your mouth to talk, but Jihoon was already storming inside.

♡♡♡♡

“Where's Jihoon?” your mother asked, joining you on the porch the next afternoon.

You shrugged, “Probably with Junkyu or Yoonbin. I don't know.”

She sat down next to you. “Interesting.”

Letting out a small sigh, you bookmarked your page and set your book down. It was obvious your mother knew something was going on between you and Jihoon and wanted answers. “We got into a fight last night, okay?”

Clearly, you were upset. “What happened? Come on, vent to Momma,” she said, making you smile a bit.

“At that party the other night, he got really drunk and kissed me. I was gonna act like it hadn't happened for the rest of my life since I thought it was just a drunken kiss, but I think it meant more to Jihoon than I thought,” you confessed to her. “He brought it up last night and then stormed off looking upset. I was just flustered and couldn't stop talking, so I think there was some misunderstanding. I've tried to clear things up, but he's avoiding me, ignoring my calls and texts, and even hangs up Yoonbin and Junkyu's phones when I call them.”

She smiled, soothingly stroking your hair. “He's just upset. Give him time to cool off and I'm sure he'll be open to talking again. Jihoon could never stay mad at you.” You nodded, hoping she was right. “The more important thing is if you like Jihoon back. From what I can tell, he likes you but is jealous of other guys, especially Eunwoo.”

You had no idea how she knew about Eunwoo and could only assume she had eavesdropped when you were on the phone with Herin earlier. “Eunwoo is nice and everything, but he's a little dull and awkward. I really like Jihoon. He's like my best friend. He understands me so well and everything about him is great. I think I've always liked him but I've wanted things to stay normal.”

“Well, sometimes normal has to change and become a new normal. Don't let ideas like that keep you from being happy, sweetie,” she told you. She made a really good point.

You smiled at her, “Thanks, Mom. I really needed this.”

“Of course, kiddo.”

She went back inside and you picked your book back up, feeling better than you had all day.

That evening, you had been so prepared to talk to Jihoon, but he didn't come home. You had forgotten Junkyu was going to have his house to himself, so Jihoon was staying over along with Yoonbin. Junkyu had invited you, but you felt awkward to just show up after a whole day of avoiding each other. You decided to just stay at home with all the parents. It was weird since Jihoon and you were almost always together, but it really helped you to realize just how much Jihoon meant to you.

You couldn't sleep that night. It was so weird that the whole day passed without you and Jihoon talking. It made you feel weird and unsettled. Instead of just laying in bed, you went downstairs for ice cream. When you got down there, you just about had a heart attack when you saw Jihoon sitting at the table.

“What are you doing here?!” you exclaimed in a hushed tone, a hand over your pounding heart. “I almost peed my pants!”

That made the corners of his mouth twitch slightly. “I couldn't sleep, so I left Junkyu's,” he told you. You nodded, feeling awkward. “Okay, that's not the complete truth. I felt really guilty for ignoring you all day and couldn't sleep. I came here to talk to you, but I chickened out and have been sitting here trying to give myself the confidence for the past 10 minutes.”

“You didn't have to chicken out. I've been trying to talk to you all day.”

He nodded. “I know, but I was hurt and upset.”

“That's why I was trying to talk to you. It was a misunderstanding, Jihoon. I was just talking without thinking because I like you, too. Eunwoo-oppa is just a friend. He may be good looking and stuff, but he doesn't begin to compare to you,” you confessed. “You're my best friend, Jihoon, and you'll always be my number one. I never told you this because I was afraid of things changing, but I shouldn't be. Change is good and that's how a new normal can come about.”

He finally cracked a smile. “God, I'm an idiot,” he said softly. He was going to say something else but shut his mouth when you used your finger to angle his head and kiss him.

It was awkward since he was sitting and you were standing, but he was quick to pull you down onto his lap. The kiss spoke more than actual words. You knew he wanted you and vice-versa. You guys loved each other and didn't have to be afraid anymore. The kiss was filled with passion as your lips moved in sync and tongues explored. It probably wouldn't have escalated from there, but you would never know. The kiss was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a camera. You turned and saw both of your mother's.

Letting out a small yelp, you threw yourself off Jihoon. In the process, you tripped over your own foot and fell on your back. “You guys are so embarrassing!” Jihoon cried out as he quickly helped you up.

“Hey! Let us be happy!” his mother exclaimed. “Do you know how long we've waited for this? We've been wanting you two to end up together since you were kids.”

You sighed. “You got your wish, happy?” you asked. They nodded and you shook your head slightly. “We're going to bed, now, so goodnight.”

All of you went to your respective rooms. You pecked Jihoon's lips one last time before turning to go to your room. Jihoon grabbed your wrist and spun you around, crashing his lips onto your own. Once again, you got distracted and lost in the kiss.

“Sleep well, Y/N,” he said softly as you went to your room, making your insides melt.

You both shut your doors and let out dreamy sighs before climbing into bed, ready for whatever the rest of the summer had in store for you guys.

[emjenenla]

Feels like we're on the edge right now [A Folk of the Air Fanfic]

The one where Jude doesn’t kill Balekin and Roiben shows up ready to give Cardan a piece of his mind.

Warnings: brief mention of vomiting, much discussion of murder

Also posted on AO3 (my username there is Emjen_Enla).

I don't own The Folk of the Air or Modern Faerie Tales, they both belong to Holly Black. The title comes from the song "Let You Down" by NF.

I'm not sure how accurate Roiben's characterization is because I haven't read the Modern Faerie Tales books. I did start Tithe, but this semester has been nuts so I haven't had time to finish it. Hopefully I'll have more time to read soon.

Jude stoppered the bottle of antidote and tossed it to the Bomb, before returning her attention to Balekin.

“What have you done?” Balekin demanded.

Jude just smiled and waited for the sound of rushing footsteps which would announce the Bomb heading away to give the antidote to Cardan, but there was none. Why wasn’t the Bomb leaving?

“What are you waiting for?” she asked. “Go!”

The Bomb’s hand closed around Jude’s upper arm. “Jude,” she said quietly. “The High King commanded me not to allow you to kill Prince Balekin. Let’s go.”

Of course, before they’d left Cardan in her room, he had taken the Bomb’s hand and told her, “Liliver, as your king, I command you: Go with Jude and do not allow Balekin to die.” Jude had hoped that the plan as she’d laid it out to the Bomb would convince her that Balekin was in no danger of dying, but apparently the Bomb knew her better than that.

She wanted to argue, but any second Balekin was going to get over his shock at being outmaneuvered and come at them. She let the Bomb drag her back towards the palace. The guards at the door jumped at their sudden appearance and reached for the their weapons. “Do not allow Prince Balekin to enter the palace,” the Bomb ordered. “He is making trouble for the High King.”

They nodded in acknowledgement and the Bomb and Jude pounded into the building. “You couldn’t have just left me to make sure he wouldn’t follow us?” Jude growled as they ran.

“Cardan ordered me not to let you kill his brother using my true name,” the Bomb said. “I cannot disobey him.”

Jude knew that and that was what frustrated her. Cardan had been able to come up with a plan to keep her from hurting his brother while poisoned by wraithberry. That shouldn’t have been possible. She would need to think on this a bit more, and find a way to convince Cardan that Balekin needed to die. After all, there was no other way to keep the Court of Termites happy. Balekin needed to be out of the picture.

The Bomb shoved the door to Jude’s chambers open with her shoulder and they practically tumbled inside. Cardan was sitting back against the couch, his head thrown back. His eyes were half closed and his lips were slightly parted. For one horrible instant Jude thought he was already dead, then she saw him breathe in very faintly.

She crossed the room in a couple strides and shook him with perhaps more force than you were supposed to use on a sick person, but she didn’t want him to die and he needed to be conscious enough to drink the antidote.

Cardan’s eyes slid all the way open and almost but not quite focused on her face. He looked like he was about to fall asleep. He needed the antidote now.

“What did you do to my brother?” Cardan asked, he was speaking more quietly than she had ever heard before. He was undeniably slurring.

“Don’t worry about it,” She said. She reached out behind her, not quite sure what she was doing, but the Bomb pressed the antidote vial into her hand.

Jude unstoppered vial and held it to Cardan’s lips. He looked like he was going to say something, but she cut him off. “Drink. You can screech and complain all you want once you’re not actively dying.”

He swallowed slowly, something that Jude hadn’t even realized was possible. When the antidote was gone, she set the bottle aside carefully. There was nothing to do but wait and hope that whatever Balekin had given her was really the antidote. Sure he’d said it was the antidote and he couldn’t lie, but Jude couldn’t help being paranoid.

Very slowly, some of the color started returning to Cardan’s face. He fingers twitched and he gave her hand a squeeze. Jude hadn’t even realized she was holding one of his hands in both of hers, and snatched her hands free as quickly as possible. For an instant he looked a little disappointed but he didn’t comment.

The Bomb knelt down on Cardan’s other side and looked him over quickly, testing his temperature and pulse and pressing her ear against his chest to listen to his breathing. “Do you feel any better?” she asked when she was done.

“Yes,” Cardan said, though his eyes were still half-closed and he still looked like he was instants from falling asleep. “Somewhat.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that was actually the antidote,” the Bomb sat back on her heels and patted Cardan’s arm with surprising gentleness. “I’ll try to find a way to get my hands on more so we can double-dose him just to be safe, but he’ll most likely be fine.”

“Most likely?” Jude asked. Her voice sounded a little too thin and brittle for her own good.

“There are always possible complications,” Cardan said. He was still slurring, but the fact that he was aware enough to keep track of the conversation was probably a good thing. “Who knows, all your dire pronouncements of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption might come true and I could have a massive heart attack two minutes from now.”

“You do that and I will bring you back from the dead just to kill you myself,” Jude snapped, only mostly joking.

Cardan smiled faintly. “Of that I have no doubt.”

“What now?” The Bomb asked. “Balekin is still running around. I have no idea how long the guards will be able to keep him out of the palace.”

“Make sure he goes back to the Hollow Hall,” Cardan said. “Post guards to keep him there. My previous order about making sure no one kills him still stands, Liliver.”

“I understand,” the Bomb said, and left the room.

“Have you considered whether or not expending so much effort on keeping Balekin alive is wise?” Jude said after a minute. Now that Cardan wasn’t dying this was something that needed to be discussed. Especially since she was going to have to kill Balekin in order to appease Roiben. “It might be politically expedient to just kill him.”

“It wouldn’t be politically expedient,” Cardan said, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the couch. “It would just be expedient.”

“He’s not going to love you just because you won’t kill him,” Jude snapped, only realizing after the words were spoken that this was probably the wrong time for that.

Cardan winced but when he replied his voice was steady. “I know that,” he said coolly.

“He’ll kill you,” she said.

“He’ll definitely try,” Cardan said. “But I won’t return the favor.”

That wasn’t good enough. Balekin needed to die and she needed Cardan and the Bomb not to get in the way. She briefly considered telling him what Roiben had demanded, but stopped herself. That would be a bad idea. She couldn’t afford to reveal that weak spot to Cardan, he might be able to find a way around her orders to exploit it. She stood up and planted her fists on her hips. “So are you going to get up and go back to your chambers or are you just going to sit there like a lump?” she asked.

“The second one,” Cardan closed his eyes again. “I’ll contemplate moving when I’m not so dizzy I feel like I’m going to fall off the face of the world.”

Jude bit her lip to keep from saying something that would make it sound like she was worried about him. She needed to stay detached.

There was a knock on the door. Jude tried to ignore it, but whoever it was kept knocking incessantly. She stalked over to the door and pulled it open. “What is it?” she snapped.

It was the Roach. “Roiben wants to speak to the High King,” he said.

Roiben no doubt wanted to rage about how Cardan had insulted the Court of Termites. Jude glanced over her shoulder at Cardan, who was still leaning back against the couch, his eyes closed. “Tell him that the High King is not accepting visitors at this time,” Jude said.

“He’s very insistent,” The Roach said. His eyes were large with fear.

“I don’t care,” Jude said and started to close the door. She didn’t get the door closed, however, because someone threw their shoulder against it and forced their way in.

It was Roiben and he did not look happy.

“How dare you try to keep me from speaking to the High King?” he snarled leaning in so close to Jude’s face that his spit flecked her face. “He shows appalling lack of care for my people in the face of the Undersea’s demands, and he has the audacity to show up drunk to the most important function of his reign. Not only that, but I have it on good intelligence that Balekin still lives and has returned to his home. I begin to suspect that you do not want our allegiance.”

“If you are here to scream at me, Roiben, you could at least be good enough to do it to my face.”

Jude and Roiben whirled to see that Cardan had managed to drag himself to his feet. He was leaning on the back of a chair, his fingers bloodless from the force of his grip. His face had lost all the hectic color it had had during the party and now he just looked like he was trying not to pass out.

Jude could tell his appearance was not lost on Roiben. In the ballroom it had been easy to mistake Cardan’s condition for being the result of too much to drink. He didn’t look drunk now. He looked sick.

After a moment, Roiben shoved aside his confusion and drew himself up. “Your behavior tonight was insulting,” he said. “This is a vital issue for us and you treat our anger foolishly. You have proved to us that you care not for the Court of Termites.”

“Do you want a war with the Undersea?” Cardan asked. “Do you think you would actually survive such a war unscathed?”

Jude was guiltily proud of his response. He actually sounded like a king for once. He sounded like he could actually deal with the situation. If only he wasn’t clinging to the back of a chair and visibly fighting to stay conscious. Her mind whirled as she tried to find a way out of this situation. She needed to diffuse the tension and get rid of Roiben before Cardan reached the end of his ability to pretend to be fine.

She stepped forward, ready to say something, though she still wasn’t sure what, but Roiben beat her to it. He stalked forward, getting up into Cardan’s face. It was something no one would ever have tried with Eldred, which showed just how little respect Roiben and possibly all of faerie had for Cardan. It was terrifying. Jude and Cardan were tied together; if he went down, she would go down with him.

Cardan tried to straighten up and let go of the chair, but he stumbled and almost fell. He foot hit the bucket he’d been retching into before and it toppled over, spilling out its contents which still looked like matted leaves.

Roiben glanced down at it and froze. Jude almost lunged forward to move the bucket, but that would just make it all even more suspicious. Cardan grabbed hold of the chair again and lowered his head. He was trembling and his face was gray. He really should be lying down.

Roiben looked at the contents of the bucket, then at Cardan and Jude several times. Jude’s hands clenched into fists as she watched him put everything together. There was no way out of this now.

Eventually, Roiben looked up at Jude, his eyes steady. “You were lying when you said he wasn’t poisoned,” he said. It was not a question and Jude saw no reason to respond. The answer was obvious.

“Alright,” Cardan said after a moment. “Now that the cat is out of the bag, can I sit down before I pass out?” His words were flippant, but his voice was weak. He stumbled over to the couch and snatched up a blanket that was hanging over the back. He wrapped it tightly around his shoulders and all but collapsed onto the couch, leaning heavily against the armrest.

Roiben looked surprisingly thrown. Obviously, he hadn’t been expecting his confrontation with the High King of Elfhame to go quite like this.

“He needs the antidote,” he finally said, oddly talking to Jude. “Wraithberry will kill him and quickly.”

“Already taken care of,” Cardan slurred. “I’m not about to drop dead before you can declare war on me.”

“Then he needs to drink water,” Roiben continued, still talking to Jude. “Even if he’s had the antidote, it would be a good idea to wash out his system as much as possible.”

Jude almost snapped that she wasn’t a servant and couldn’t be ordered about, then she realized he was trying to keep her from assuming he was making another attempt to poison Cardan. She stalked over the table and poured another goblet of water. Cardan took it looking a little queasy, but started to drink it without complaint.

Roiben pursed his lips. “Balekin did this,” he said after a moment. “And he tried to frame you,” he turned his intense gaze to Jude.

She wasn’t going to respond, but Cardan hummed in woozy affirmation. She shot him and glare before she thought better of it. He gave her a weak, but teasing smile in return.

Roiben swallowed and Jude could see him deciding how to proceed. “I demand Balekin’s death in recompense for all that has been done to my people,” he said. “You should not disagree given that he has just tried to assassinate you.”

“Killing Balekin will destroy any chance we have of not going to war with the Undersea,” Cardan said. “I will not sanction his death.”

“Your seneschal owes me a favor,” Roiben said. “And I have demanded his death from her.”

The look Cardan shot her was one of pure malice and promised a discussion later, but then he turned back to Roiben. “If you or anyone even remotely connected to you kills Balekin Greenbriar, I will destroy the Undersea then come back and destroy you,” he snarled. “That I swear on my true name.”

Roiben raised his eyebrows almost to his hairline, he did not seem particularly threatened even though they all knew Cardan hadn’t been joking. “No need to threaten, High King,” he said.

“Really?” Cardan asked. “Because threats, violence and murder seem to be the only language anyone I know speaks.” He did not look at Jude, but it was blatantly obvious he was talking to her as well as Roiben.

Silence fell between the three of them, which was strange because Jude wouldn’t have thought of Roiben as someone capable of being shamed by someone accusing him of bloodlust. Eventually, Cardan heaved a sigh and threw his head back to stare up at the ceiling. He was terrifyingly pale and Jude hated herself for worrying about him, especially since he’d just called her out.

Someone knocked on the door. Cardan groaned. “Oh, I wonder who’s coming a-threatening now? I’ll wager on Queen Orlagh, because, let’s be honest, that’s the only way this day could get any worse.”

Whoever it was outside knocked again. “It might be the Roach,” Jude said. Cardan grunted, but made no further comments. Seeing that he wasn’t about to take charge of the situation, Jude went to open the door.

Taryn stood outside, her hand half-raised to knock again. She was dressed in a black coat identical to Jude’s seneschal outfits and wearing the magic earrings. She startled visibly at the sight of Jude. “Jude!” she squeaked. “I didn’t expect you to be here!”

“This is my room,” Jude said. “Why are you wearing my clothes?”

“Oh,” Taryn looked down at herself like she expected her clothes to suddenly change. “I liked the coats I ordered for you so much I got one for myself. Do you like it?”

“It looks the same on you as it does on me,” Jude said slowly. “If you didn’t think I would be here, why are you here?”

“I heard that the High King was here,” Taryn said. Her shoulders were very tense and she looking like she was thinking about running. “I need to see him.”

“Why could you possibly need to see him?” Jude asked. “Couldn’t you wait until tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Taryn said. “Yes, yes. It totally could. I’ll come back tomorrow. See you later.” and then she was gone.

Jude closed the door slowly and turned around. “Who was that?” Cardan asked woozily, holding the now empty goblet loosely. She would have gone over and refilled it, but she didn’t trust that it wouldn’t slip from his hand and spill all over the floor.

“It was my sister.”

“What did she want?” Cardan slurred.

“Who knows,” Jude crossed the room and tilted her head back to look up at Roiben. “Now that you know the High King didn’t deliberately get drunk to dishonor you, are you willing to withdraw your threats?”

Roiben studied her for a moment then nodded sharply. “I will agree to table this discussion until the High King is well,” he said. “Do not attempt to put me off for longer than that. You will regret it.” He bowed perfunctorily to Cardan and swept out of the room, the door swinging closed behind him.

Cardan shifted and frowned up at her. She couldn’t tell if he was actually frowning or trying to get his eyes to focus. “So what did Taryn actually want?”

“I just told you that I don’t know,” Jude said.

“Oh,” Cardan blinked. “I figured you were just lying to keep Roiben from finding out.”

“No, she’s just not making any sense,” Jude said. “She was wearing clothes exactly like mine. We haven’t done that since we were kids.”

Cardan nodded and watched her for a minute. At first she thought he’d just zoned out then he said, “Can I ask, my dear Jude, why you didn’t immediately tell me when Roiben told you to kill Balekin?” When she didn’t respond, he went on, “No, don’t say anything, I know why: you knew I would try to stop you.”

“He needs to die,” Jude said. “If only to appease Roiben. It’s the best option.”

“No! No, it’s not!” Cardan was on his feet so quickly Jude almost jumped. He swayed wildly but didn’t fall. “You don’t understand! Maybe killing Balekin would solve all our problems, but that’s exactly what he did! He killed all of my other siblings to gain power and killing him would be exactly the same! Don’t you get it? If we kill him WE ARE NO BETTER THAN HE IS!”

Jude drew back a little in surprise. She didn’t think she’d ever heard Cardan speak so strongly. She didn’t know how to respond to him. He wasn’t exactly wrong, but as usual he was completely missing the point. To survive in faerie you needed to be as ruthless as those who would hurt you. How had Cardan lived this long as not realized that?

“Cardan...” she said, struggling for something to say.

“I’m returning to my chambers to rest,” Cardan snapped. “You will not move against Balekin. If you do or if you use my oath to compel me to move against him, I swear that I will find a way to make you regret it.”

When Jude didn’t immediately respond, Cardan nodded sharply and headed for the door. It probably would have looked more impressive if he hadn’t been visibly unsteady on his feet. He reached the other side of the room and caught himself on the doorframe. He was shaking and Jude almost called him back, told him that he could spend the night in room.

But she didn’t speak soon enough and then Cardan was out the door and into the hall, calling for the guards. The door swung closed behind him and she was left alone in her room.

She collapsed back onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling. She could go to the Hollow Hall and kill Balekin right now. She knew now that the Bomb was compelled to save him and Jude could find a way to avoid that. It would solve the Roiben problem at least, but there was no way to keep Cardan from finding out about it and then she would lose even the semblance of his cooperation. Maybe she should try to handle this Cardan’s way. Maybe everything would work out.

But it was hard to believe that things would turn out any differently than they always had...

--

[breathebangtan]

Credulous

Ch. 6: J…….

Genre: FallenGuardianAngel! Jimin, Supernatural

Members: Jimin

Pairings: Jimin x y/n

Synopsis: love is an uncontrollable feeling, even for those who were meant to protect, and only protect. Nothing more and nothing less. Yet somehow, there was always outliers.

Warnings: None really

Word count: 5.8k

A/N: Hope you all enjoy! Please like and reblog if you do!

Ch.1 | Ch.5 | Ch.7

~

The bus I took was pretty barren, like a desert with cactus in randoms spots, with the occasional eagle perched on it. I took my seat, somewhere in the middle, near the back. The driver took a few minutes to finish loading the luggage. As he did I got comfortable in my seat, resting my head on the window. The smell of vanilla with lavender and roses was slightly filling my space, it wasn’t strong in the slightest. As a matter of fact, the vanilla wasn't as apparent as the flowery smells. The connection Jimin and I shared was becoming apparent as well, but barely even there. “Rest your head on my shoulder.” He whispered, as if not to startle me. I felt slight panic though, I was afraid someone would see him and wonder how he got on. “Only you can see me right now, and hear me for that matter.” He reassures me as if he read my thoughts. I give a little sigh, relaxing as I rest my head on him. I’d be lying if I said I felt the same amount of warmth I felt when we first met. Everything about him from that night was starting to disappear, or lessen at least. I wondered if maybe it was because I was getting use to his presence or if it was the stress he’d mentioned before, taking its toll on him. If it was the latter, I worried for him. Even if he was a heavenly being, the fact that he had stress at all proved to me that he could be fragile too.

I entangled my hand in his, trying to return the comfort he’d giving me all this time, hoping that maybe I could act as a remedy that could get his heart beating again. “Malum.” Jimin whispered, repositioning his chin atop my head, ever so gently, it was as if he was barely pressing down. “Hm?” I hummed slightly, letting my eyes flutter shut. “You know I love you, right?” He asked, his voice was filled with more emotion than I’d ever heard anyone put into words. The suddenness of them catching me off guard, the genuine raw emotion burning through my ears, like hot iron making its way to my heart until it left a permanent mark. I didn’t know what to say, or what to do. “I…” I pushed away from him, staring up into his eyes. They were soft, not expecting anything, just hopeful. I just wasn't sure what they hoped for.

“All I want is your safety and happiness. You know that, right?” He continued. I don’t know why I’d felt so weird about it, he was my guardian, that’s what he meant when he said it. He loves me as much as any other guardian angel can love their assigned human, that’s what he meant. Nothing more to it. So why did I feel so oddly about it? “Of course.” I whispered back to him, as I noticed that the driver had finally made it in, getting ready to pull out of the station. Anyone who was remotely close to me, was wearing headphones. I could talk freely to Jimin without anyone questioning me, but I didn’t want to be louder than a whisper because the same silence would make my voice identifiable. If the driver heard me, he’d think I was crazy.

My hold on his hand tightens, as if to assure him. “I’d be lost without you.” The words escape my lips in such a breathy whisper, as I let myself rest on his shoulder again, hoping to drift into sleep even if just for a little while. His soft humming lulling me into slumber. I was supposed to be back home, at my parents house before midnight, which gave me plenty of time to rest. So I let the movement of the bus’ wheels on the concrete ground rock me, like a baby being carried by its mother on a rocking chair. Everything was so peaceful.

~

“We are currently 8 minutes away from our destination. Please be sure to gather all your belongings and be ready for our arrival. Don’t forget to wait for your luggage after you’ve gotten off.” The drivers announcement wakes me up. I’m thankful that he speaks in such a soft voice, saving me from being startled awake. As I regain consciousness, I realise that Jimin is gone now. My eyes look to the window to see the familiar city I’d been away from longer than I’d like. I waited for the bus driver to give me my luggage before walking into the bus station to await a taxi I'd called.

It didn't take long to arrive home from the station, nothing over 10 minutes. Which was great because I made it home with a little less than half an hour left before 12. I paid off the taxi with the remainder of the 100 dollar tip I'd received from the odd customer. I still could not believe that, that money was literally just enough to pay for my bus ticket and the taxi ride here. My head was starting to throb as I tried to explain how a simple customer, who had given me a weird nickname by the way, was able to predict what I’d go through? There was no way, he’d probably just been generous with what he decided was a fair amount to tip, and decided to write whatever?

Trying my best to put the thought aside, I knocked on my parents door and waited for them to open. I hoped I wasn't waking them, I had warned them I'd be here around this time. “Y/n! My beautiful daughter, oh you're home!” My mother says excitedly as she opens the door, pulling me into a tight hug. My father laughing behind her, bringing my suitcase inside with him. “Come on in sweetheart, you must be cold.” She ushers me inside the warm home, the one I've missed for quite some time now. Being an adult was tough, and being away from your parents for the first time was worse. I knew it was part of life, and I didn't mind it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss being in this house. In their presence. “I've missed you both. So much.” I sigh as I hug my dad, he pats my back slowly.

“We're so glad to have you home.” He smiles down at me, kissing the top of my head. The lights are mostly off but the ones that are, are dim creating a cozy environment. “Why don't you go rest, and we’ll plan something for tomorrow in the morning.” Mom asks me as they lead me up stairs. Even though I’d slept on the way here, I’m still exhausted. So of course I nod my head in agreement as we come up to my room. “Goodnight sweetie.” My mother says as she opens my door before walking off with dad. It’s just as I left it before moving out into my apartment. My white desk with all sorts of stationary on it, sticky notes on the wall in front of it. The fairy lights I had hung all over my room still intact, I wondered if they still worked though. I laid my suitcase on the floor and opened it, bringing out my pajamas. My burgundy bed covers perfectly made, it looked so inviting. I changed quickly and got into bed, leaving my phone charging on my nightstand. My mind drifted off not too long after and I welcomed it, ready to rest.

Instead of drifting into peaceful sleep, however, my mind started to go into dreamland for the first time in awhile. Only it wasn't a dream, but a nightmare. A weird distorted image of Jimin replying in my head. Oddly enough, the strange customer who had given me the 100 dollar tip was behind him, wicked smile on his lips, horns on his head paired with dark crimson wings. The same color as the tears streaming down Jimin's face, which was contorted into a pained expression. His hands tied behind his back whispering apologizes as I tried to run towards him, but I wasn't moving, my body trapped in place. The man behind him brought his hand up, his fingers getting ready to snap. All I could hear was my agonizing screams, asking him to stop, but it was useless. He'd snapped his fingers, and flames consumed Jimin. My body shot up in my bed as hot tears slipped down my cheeks, burning like alcohol on fresh wounds. I couldn't believe I had witnessed that, even if it was just a nightmare. So vividly, it was like it had truly happened. My hand came to my throat as I tried to breathe, but it was hard as I started hyperventilating.

“Malum? Are you okay?” Jimin was quick to rush to my side, bringing me into his embrace. “I thought I'd lost you.” I manage through heavy breathing. It didn't seem like just a nightmare, if I was honest, and that scared me. I wrapped my arms around him, not wanting to let him go. Afraid that he'd be taken from me. I've only known him for half a month, but I felt like I'd known him my whole life. I hadn't realised the gravity of just how much I cared for him. The way he looked at me when I studied, his adoring smile always made me blush. How he'd always check on me, to make sure I was alright, helping me out with such meaningless things like finding my keys. The fact that he knew what I wanted, when I wanted it. All he wanted was for me to be okay, but I didn't know that all I wanted was for him to be so too. I wanted him to stay by my side for as long as I could have him.

I was afraid I was becoming too attached to him, of what my feelings for him really were. He was my guardian, and he could never be anything more. “Please say that you'll always stay.” Another stream of tears slipped down, as I couldn't imagine him being ripped away from me. He pushed back the strands of my hair, holding my face from either side, wiping away my tears with his thumbs. His eyes staring into my soul, their beautiful dark brown shade was mesmerizing. “What are you saying? I'll always stay here. With you.” He leans in, leaving a reassuring kiss on my forehead. God I hoped my nightmare as meaningless, I hoped with everything inside me that his words weren't anything but the truth.

“I just can't imagine not having you.” I sighed into his neck as he held me close. Just as I'd said that, a knock came from my door. “Honey? Is someone in there with you?” My mother's voice chimed in, somewhat muffled because of the door. A slight panic came over me as I tried to think of an excuse. “No… No, not at all. I'm just talking to myself.” I face palmed at my own excuse, I'd probably sounded crazy. Not like most people didn't do it, but no one would admit it, because it would make them sound like a lunatic.

“Are you sure? I swear a heard a man's voice.” She insists, Jimin leans back slightly, his head falling back as he giggles quietly, watching me struggle. “Oh, I'm just watching something on my phone. But did you need anything?” I ask trying to change the subject as I hit Jimin’s arm. Not that it helps, so instead I cover his mouth with my hand. “Okay, well breakfast is ready. Why don't you come down and eat with us.” She says, thankfully not mentioning it again.

“I'll be right down.” I wait for her footsteps to sound further away before I remove my hand from his mouth, giving him a stern look. All he can do is raise his hands in the air as if he wasn't sure what he'd done wrong. “You just love seeing me panic, trying to cover for you, don't you?” He chuckles shaking his head. I get up from my bed, walking to my suitcase.

“Of course not… Besides that would be bad for me.” I could tell from his tone he wasn't being serious, even though half of his sentence was true. “Just admit it. You evil man, making me struggle.” I try my best to sound serious, but the slight laugh in my tone is apparent.

“Okay, just a little.” He giggles again. I grab my shoe and fling it at him, but once I turn to look at him he's gone and in his place is the shoe I’d thrown laying on my bed. There's a slight pull at my heart, as the images of my nightmare flashback for a second. Hoping this isn't the last time I see him, I gather a change of clothes and my toothbrush. After I'd washed up and changed, I walked down to the dining table. My favorites were set up on the table, in elaborate arrangements, pleasing to the eye. I was more than ready to dig in. “Mom… You really didn't have too.” I smile at her, taking a seat. I'd missed her cooking so much, and to wake up with all my breakfast favorites was a wish come true. At the same time I didn't want her to overwork herself for me. “It's been so long since you were home. I thought it would be perfect.” She smiles, as the smell of everything makes my mouth water.

“It is, it's perfect. Thank you, mom.” I pick up my fork, taking a bite. All of the flavors coming together in perfect harmony, nothing to overpowering, but just right. A symphony of flavors bursting in my mouth. It really had been so long since I'd had her cooking. “Your mother and I were thinking of going to the science museum. The one we use to go to when you were younger. You loved that place so much, we thought it would be perfect.” Dad smiles at me, waiting to see my reaction. I nod quickly, loving the idea. I could barely remember the place, as it had been that long.

“I heard they added some new stuff, is it true?” I wondered out loud. The website for the museum had mentioned something along those lines a couple months ago, but I wasn't sure if I'd read correctly because I was multitasking as I had done it. “A colleague of mine went with her son just a few weeks ago. She said there was new additions and some changes to already existing exhibitions.” Mom explained, which made me get so much more excited for it. Both my parents were what some might call, science nerds, so naturally growing up they'd shown me related things. I grew a liking to it, of course. But I had a feeling my parents always knew it wasn’t for me. Although, to be fair I wasn’t sure what was for me.

“Well I’m excited to go! It’s been so long since we’ve done something as a family.” I smiled happily at the both of them. We finished eating soon after, mom sending me up to my room to get ready, stating that surely I had nicer clothes to wear. I laughed at her comment and agreed, a somewhat prestigious place like that wasn’t to show up in ripped jeans and a simple tee. I replaced my current outfit for a black skirt and a beige blouse tucked into it, pairing it with black boots. The car ride to the museum wasn't too long, at least it didn't feel long, but it did take close to 40 minutes. It was pretty far away from home, but we still managed to make it relatively early in the morning.

The line to get inside was pretty big, so much so that many were standing outside waiting to go in. Surprisingly so, the line moved relatively fast. More than I'd expect it to with this many people waiting. We finally made it inside and started exploring. Taking pictures here and there. As we went along we noticed all the new additions that were made. Like the electric wall that makes your hair go crazy because of negative and positive energy mixing. Or the new area that was dedicated to climate change, and the negative effects it had on the atmosphere, and the earth in the long run. Everything was just as interesting as I’d remembered it, my parents throwing big scientific words around as they explained things to me. Not that I’d understand everything, but I got the gist of it, I enjoyed listening to them happily explain things to me. Watching them enjoy it made me happy.

After some time of walking, we headed out for lunch. “Wasn’t that just amazing?” Dad asked me as he buckled his seatbelt. The both of them with big smiles on their faces. “They adore you so much. How could they not?” Jimin’s voice says from beside me, my head turns so quickly to see him seated beside me, I think I nearly gave myself whiplash. He can only laugh at me, as I try to go back to conversing with my parents. “Yeah, just how I remember it as a child. I love the climate change section they added.” I try to keep our conversation going. Which works, my parents both busy talking to each other about it now. “Did you miss me.” He asks, innocent smile across his lips, I can only shake my head at his comment. “Do you always have to startle me when I’m around people?” I giggle slightly as I whisper to him, my parents not even aware, thankfully.

“I’m sorry, I just needed to check on you. After what seemed like a nightmare this morning, I wanted to see for myself that you were alright.” His eyes are sincere, as I hold his hand in mine. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to be my guardian. “As long as you’re here, I’ll always be alright.” I couldn’t help but smile at him. I was starting to forget my parents were still in the car, because my mom was calling my name when I heard their voices again. “Hmm?” I ask her.

“I was just asking where you’d like to go for lunch.” She repeats herself. I didn't realise I completely stop listening to them, I'd only paid attention to Jimin in that short span of time. I was just so glad that he was back, because to be honest with myself, my heart had been beating irrationally this whole time. Worried he'd never comeback, I couldn't help but feel anxious. Maybe I should get use to it though, seeing as he was breaking rules letting me see him. Letting me know he exists, not that he ever mentioned it, but I was starting to realise it. “Anywhere is fine.” I smiled slowly at my mom as she nodded, my dad pulled out of the parking lot, taking us wherever. I could only look back to Jimin, trying to burn his image in my head, in case the ones upstairs decided it was time he stopped visiting me.

My parents started talking again and I commented here and there, as I did I felt Jimin’s hand leave mine. He was gone again. I fought the anxiety that was building up inside me, and tried to keep smiling for my parents. We finally made it to a restaurant we use to frequent when I was much younger. We made it in, and got seated almost immediately and just as quickly got our orders taken. “Sweetie.” My mom spoke to me, fixing her shirt.

“Yeah?” I gave her my full attention, waiting for her to say what was on her mind. “You never told us why you had the week of from both work and school.” She wondered, which she was right about, I’d only mentioned I had the week off but never explained why to her. I was still quite shocked at what was happening in school to be honest. “I still can’t believe why myself, but apparently the dean and couple professors have been money laundering with the students tuitions.” I shook my head slight as I sighed. Both my parents went wide eyed, not being able to believe it. “Money laundering?” My dad repeated as I nodded my head, insuring him that’s what I’d said. There reactions were similar to mine, when Rae had first told me.

“Yeah, Rae said that one of our professors was involved so there was a chance that by the time we went back to school, we’d have a new professors.” My mother raised an eyebrow as if saying wow. Which I agreed to. “What about work?” My dad questioned. I took a sip of my drink before answering his questions. I made a mental note to call Stephen later this week, see how he's doing. Poor guy, I could only imagine what he was going through. He'd seemed so rough the last time I'd seen him at work. “My boss gave us the week off, apparently his mother was in an accident. He just didn't want to deal with the shop, since he had to go and take care of her.” They both nodded, taking in the information.

“Poor guy, is his mother badly injured?” Mom inquiries, but frankly I didn't know. Stephen didn't give us any specifics, and I didn't blame him. He didn't have to tell us, if he wanted to keep his private life as that, private, then I was okay with that. “I'm not sure, he didn't say. He looked really stressed out though. I hope she's okay.” I sighed, I really hoped for the best for him and his family. The rest of the lunch went peacefully as we reminisced. Silly things I use to do as a child, places we'd use to go together, or short vacations we'd go on. I'd missed my parents and spending today with them was great. I felt refreshed.

That was until we'd gotten home, and I realised that I still didn't have my wallet or anything with me. Which of course I needed. I knew my parents could probably buy my ticket for me without a problem, as a matter of fact they insisted once I told them why I needed to go to the bank. But I didn't want to rely on them or their money. So, I walked to the bank that was near our house. Of course, dad argued that he could drive me, but it was in walking distance and I didn't mind. Eventually he gave up and they let me walk. The walk there was around ten minutes, which wasn't too bad, but it was chilly out so I was glad I decided to put on a sweater. I just hadn’t noticed that I’d mindlessly put on Jimin’s sweater until my mom pointed it out, before I’d left.

“Is that a man’s sweater?” She asked me, as she inspected it. I was caught by surprise, looking down at it. “Oh… I uh… I saw it at a store and really liked it. I didn’t mind that it was a man’s. Why? Does it look okay?” I asked her, trying to sound as innocent as possible. She brushed it off saying it looked nice on e regardless and walked away to the living room with my dad.

It still had his scent on it, strong vanilla with slight lavender and roses. I missed that smell. These days, his stress was making him change in all aspects. His light was dimmed, his roots turning black, his scent barely there, and our connection was weak. But his sweater reminded me of how cheerful and full of light he was when I first met him. I wished I could do something to help him get over his stress. I made it to the bank sooner than I thought, must have been because I was so caught up thinking of my guardian. “Hi, how can I help you today?” The woman behind the desk asked as she looked away from her computer screen. Her perfectly placed dark brown hair. Not a strand out of place.

“Hi, I just wanted to take out some money. I’m here on vacation, but I forgot my wallet at home. I wondering if I could do something about it?” I asked her. She smiled kindly, nodding at me, typing something into her keyboard. “Of course, do you have your ID?” She asked me, and I reached into my purse. Thankfully I had left a second ID at home with my parents before leaving to college. I got it out and handed it to the woman her took a look before typing some more. The process wasn’t as hard as I had imagined. She just asked a couple questions that seemed to be routinely. Once she’d given me my money inside a little envelope which I stuffed in my purse, I walked out. Before heading home I decided I wanted to buy some junk food from a convenience store that was close. Little did I know I’d run into David here, much less in my hometown. An odd thought that he’d been stalking me came to mind, but I remembered that he’d said he loved in a different town as well. Maybe he was here visiting as well.

“Y/n? Hey? How are you doing?” He asks, walking closer to me. I smiled at him as he leaned in for a hug. I didn’t want to be rude so I returned it. “I’m fine, I’m sorry about the other day. I really didn’t mean to just leave you there.” I sigh, feeling sorry that I’d done that to him, he didn’t do anything wrong. But I also just couldn’t be there, after what I’d gone through before that, I just needed to run away. “Don’t worry about it, I understand.” He smiles back. I nodded, walking with him through the store as we got what we needed.

“I’d like to take you out soon though, like we said that night.” He smiles, paying for his things, as I wait for him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out with him. Leading him on wasn’t fair, and to be quite frank I don’t even know what took over me that night that made me say and agree to things I wasn’t truly feeling.

He’s everything I’ve ever wanted, how could I say no? My mind started up again, just like that night. The vacancy inside my chest coming back just as addictive yet unpleasant as before. The sudden emptiness taking my breath away. But I was quick to regain it, a little use to it. “Yeah… you know what?” I pause, thinking of what I was about to say.

Just say yes, look at those pink lips. So kissable. I need to try them. My voice was starting to become more seductive, but it was odd, didn’t sound exactly like myself. I was confused. “Let’s do it. I've been meaning to see you again.” I was confused at my own words, but I went along with them, even if I wanted to disagree, I couldn’t bring myself to do so. I couldn’t explain why either. But I did notice that everytime I spoke in such away to him, or the thoughts that I was having came to mind, the smell of lavender and roses was growing stronger.

His smile grew from ear to ear which made me do so as well. “Oh great, I’d love that. Maybe when we get back? I know the perfect place to go to. I think you’ll really like it.” He speaks as he guides me out of the store. I just nod my head, walking close to him.

“Sounds great, getting to know you better. We barely got the chance to last time,” I pout slightly, looking up at him. “and I know from the short time we spent together last time, it’ll be fun doing so.” His cheeks stained with a rosy color that I knew well enough it wasn’t from the cold breeze. “But David, you never said why you’re in town.” I wondered out loud.

“Oh, I came to pick something up from a friend who lives here. Since we have the week off school, I decided I’d stay over a little longer. Haven’t seen the guy in a couple months.” He explained with ease, and I nodded as he did, taking in the information as I walked. Relief when he explained, the thoughts of him stalking me escaping. I breathed a little more freely after that. “Are you here visiting someone too?” He questions me now.

“Uh, yeah I came to visit my parents.” I smiled, we were getting closer to the street I had to take a turn on, which meant I may have to say goodbye to David. “Oh that's right. You mentioned you lived two cities away.” His face expressing the sudden remembrance to the piece of information I'd told him that night. I giggled slightly at it, before we were interrupted.

“Malum? What are you doing?” Jimin's familiar voice calls out to me, as I hear his footsteps get closer. My mind told me to ignore him, because if I responded, David would think I was weird, talking to air. My heart dropped in a matter of seconds when David questioned me, however. “Is he talking to you?” He asked, and I realised Jimin wasn't hiding, he was making himself visible to David. I turned around to face him. I noticed the black in his hair was starting to pass being just in his roots. Was he okay?

“Ji… What are you doing here?” I stopped myself from saying his name, not wanting David to hear. Instead I questioned him on his presence, and the fact that he was openly letting David see him. “Your mother sent me out to get you, she felt you were taking too long. Was a bit worried.” He explained as he grabbed the bag from my hand. Obviously I knew he was lying, but why was he? “Let's go home, yeah?” He gestured towards my house with a slight nod of his head.

“Who is he?” David questioned, his expression was a bit bitter at Jimin, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice Jimin's sour one as well. “Uh, who are you?” Jimin retorted. My eyes going wide for a second. “This is just, uh… My neighbor, were childhood friends.” I giggled as I tried to come up with an excuse on the spot, hoping David would ignore Jimin's comment. “I really should get going now.” I smiled, I was about to hug him goodbye, but Jimin's hand slipped in mine, catching me off guard. He pulled me away towards my house, all I could do was wave at David instead, as he stood their dumbfounded. His expression growing more confused when Jimin snaked his arm around my waist and kissed near my temple. Leaving me just as confused, as I looked up at him.

I would have said something, but I was just so speechless at Jimin's actions. Once we were a couple houses away from mine, I took my bag and pushed him away. “What were you thinking?” I angrily said, as I walked away. My mom and dad were chatting in the kitchen and didn't stop to ask what they were up to, instead just announcing I was home before rushing up to my room. “What was I thinking? What about you?” Jimin's voice was a bit louder than it usually was with me, a tad bit aggressive as well. I was use to him scolding me sometimes, but even then it was sweet and calm. This? I'd never heard from him, he was so different now.

“Me? I did nothing wrong? I was talking to a friend, coming home. Until you decided to show up, and reveal yourself to him. What the hell was that about?” I fought back, my voice wanting to yell at him, but I knew I couldn't. My parents would come and ask what was going on, and that was out of the question. “Out of all people, him? After what happened a couple nights ago? I don't want you around him. Is that too much to ask? Only look at me. I've told you, you're mine,” He takes a few steps closer to me, his stare is intense, and where his usually brown eyes that had a spark of light in them use to reside, are now deep dark brown eyes that could easily be mistaken for black. An emotion I wasn't familiar with expressed in them. “I need to know you're safe.” I felt like my body was floating, my mind was not existent now, and I was losing myself inside his eyes. That was until I realised that the moment his words left his lips, the black in his hair start consuming the blonde that was left. At the same time, the little bit of light that still followed him was gone, nothing at all was left. I wasn't sure why, but I felt a piece of me leave, in that instant. A single tear fell from my eye, as I reached to touch his hair.

“What's happening to you?” I questioned, my fingers touching the dark strands. The blonde disappeared so quickly, leaving nothing behind but black hair that resembled the feathers of a raven sitting on a windowsill. My heart ached, as I wasn't sure who was standing in front of me anymore. His hand wasn't as warm as it use to be, as he wrapped it around my wrist. His soft lips leaving a kiss on my hand. “I've told you, it's just stress.” I couldn't help but think that I was the one causing him all that stress. He didn't want me around David because of what happened the last time I was with him. He was afraid I would be in danger around him. Here I was, trying to relive his stress, but I was just adding on to it.

“I'm… I'm sorry, I'll stay away from him. Just, please don't worry so much.” I needed to find a way to help him, I just wasn't sure how. “I just need to have you here with me, and everything will be okay.” He pulls me into his embrace, one that feels oddly different in a pool of familiarity.

I was his? As I let him hold me, his words came back and repeated themselves in my head. Only look at me. What did he mean?

[insanely-creative-things]

Obake’s Origins Part 2

Big Hero 7 Special

Part 2

(T.D: Blood, murder, mentions of fun times, emotional/psychological abuse, insanity, and escort service. Heed with caution.)

Course there were problems that did stifle their time together, such as high school and college hours conflicting each other; and Kage at times returning home before Nozako got suspicious. But they managed due to Kage's determination to make time together. They both learned about each other and enjoying each other's interest. With Chara, he saw that he is a well meaning, intelligent, and somewhat charismatic guy despite their first (and awkward) meeting, and the few days afterward she learned of his naivety- seeing him blush at every other compliment about him or the snarks about High school. If there was one complaint she had about Kage, though she didn't tell him, it was the fact that he had been a little...clingy. It wasn't something too serious, he just asked about her life and her family and her day... and hold her hand tightly in a vice grip. When she tried to ask about his own life the only people he would talk about was his brother, his father and his teacher, Professor Grandville; but when she asked about his mother though he would go quiet and be visibly uncomfortable. When she saw that expression whenever she asked about her, she realized that his mother isn't exactly someone he is comfortable with and couldn't bear to talk about. So she stopped asking questions alltogether about his mother.

With Kage he learned that despite her occasional snark or when she made cynical remarks about her school; she was a caring, sweet, and thoughtful person. He knew this when there was one time when he forgot to bring money to buy lunch for himself, to which Chara responded by sharing her own lunch with him. He was touched and amazed by this thoughtful act; not to mention that he liked the fact that Chara cooked her own meals and enjoyed it. As of now they are heading to SFIT to hangout, which to say is something as Chara is excited since this is her first time going there.

"So are we any closer now?" asked Chara, giving a slight chuckle as he excitedly leads the way.

"Yep, in fact we're here right now!"

With that they arrived at SFIT, just as lively and colorful as Kage remembered. He wore a big grin and a twinge of pride rise as he saw Chara look around amazed at the scenery.

"Wow! You weren't kidding when you said SFIT is something else!" She then turned her head to meet Kage's eyes, to which he lightly blushed.

"Think you can show me around Kage?"

"Oh umm...Y-yeah!"

He walked ahead a little so that Chara would be close and wouldn't get lost. They had just entered the quad when a classmate spotted them.

"Oh hey Kage!"

When he heard his name he looked up and recognized the student.

"Hey Wendy." Replied Kage, his voice rather luke warm.

"So how's it going buddy?" Asked Wendy. She was a classmate of his that he shares with another student named Trevor Trengrove. While Wendy was OK on his terms, he never really saw her as anything then a classmate to talk to once in a while. Trevor was a different story... and sometimes he wished that Wendy would knock some sense to that sell out at times. While he was lost in his thought Wendy noticed that he was not alone.

"Oh! Hello there! I'm Wendy Wower! What's yours?"

"Chara Bonete. Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Kage's?"

"Classmates really, but we're cool."

Kage gave a small cough to get Chara's attention, wanting her to enjoy their time.

"Oh!" When Wendy saw Kage's expression she caught on immediately on what he wants and what he's feeling.. a feeling he wasn't aware of.

"I see you two are busy so I better take my leave! I gotta get my robotics thesis complete! Wish me luck!"

With that Wendy left, slightly smiling at the two teens.

With that over and done with Kage and Chara continued exploring around the campus, Kage explaining some of the buildings and projects that the students are developing. They had arrived at the robotics lab where Kage proudly showed his projects to Chara, happy to see her stare in awe of them.

"You really are something Kage. The most advanced project I've made was just exploring electricity with salt water."

"Its still amazing either way,'' responded Kage, " You're special in ways I'm not."

Chara slightly blushed at Kage's compliment, to which Kage blushed in return. They leave the lab where Kage spotted another professor of his going over papers.

"Hi Professor Callaghan!"

"Hello Kage, nice to see you too."

Chara looked back and forth at the two as she immediately recognizes the man.

"Callaghan... As in Callaghan's laws of Robotics? I'm Chara Bonete! Its nice to meet you sir!" Blurted out Chara, holding out her hand to shake his. Callaghan blinked before he chuckled lightly.

"She's a lot more excitedly then you mentioned Kage. Its nice to meet you Chara." When he shook her hand she was stuck between excitement and curiosity.

"Wait...Kage talked about me?"

This causes Kage's heart to pause as he realized that Callaghan revealed that he talked about her.

"Kage told me and Professor Grandville about you from time to time. He certainly values your companionship and says you're very smart."

"T-thank you." Chara's eyes looked down, still smiling but blushing as she was flattered that Kage talked to them about her and enjoyed her company. Callaghan's eyes directed to Kage to which he is blushing madly and using his black jacket to actually cover his face.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your visit here. Have a good day you two."

And so he walked away, a smile on his lips as he looked back and saw Kage flustered to which Chara calmed him down and held his hand. With that Kage led Chara to head out and walk around the city when he looked down and realized that they are still holding hands. Now both teens are blushing as they stood in awkward silence, finally Chara spoke up.

"T-thanks for showing me around SFIT. It's certainly an experience here."

"I-If you want you could apply here.." said Kage, his other hand twisting the hem of his jacket.

"I'll think about it." said Chara, rubbing her neck as she turned her head as Kage tried to calm his beating heart as he looked at the blushed face of his friend.

"I better get home now... See ya later Kage?" Asked Chara.

"Definitely...'' replied Kage.

They both waited for the other to let go of their hand only to find that they hadn't. After a few moments, Kage finally let go of Chara's hand, to which she gave a small smile before she went back home, with Kage smiling to himself as he remembered how her hand felt on his... A feeling he'll definitely remember later that day, his face turning pink.

Kage was sitting with Chara in the Quad after his classes had been done with for the day as did hers. He was enjoying the lunch she made for him on a clear sunny day, a day he was happy to share with her. It is now his 15th birthday, and the first one he's spending outside. He had already received his birthday present from his brother before he left, which was a set of tools for his schoolwork, and money to buy Ube cake for him and Chara. When he finally revealed Mizuchi his feelings about Chara, Mizuchi ultimately pulled out what he had been feeling for her for the passing months: He had fallen in love with her. At first he wanted to deny such a feeling, certain that it was just a deep friendship. But as he focused more on the feeling and pieced together what it truly is...he finally admitted to himself that he had fallen in love... which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Mother had always told him that no one, not even the most insane lunatics, would ever consider him boyfriend material. Which was why that part of him wanted to deny his love so badly, because he's afraid that if he admitted his emotions to Chara, she would reject him and therefore prove his mother that she had been right all along... that no one would love him...

"So you were saying something that happened at school earlier about Wendy Wower and her friends?"

Kage shook out of his thoughts and slightly chuckled at himself as he recalled the memory.

"Oh yeah! As I was saying, Ren tried to warn Trevor not to lean too close to the crustacean tank but it was too late, his nose was pinched by a crab and he went running in circles before Ren ripped it off his nose."

Chara chuckled at the story, smiling mischievously. Finally she calmed down as she looked at Kage again.

"So... Whatcha got for your birthday Kage?"

"I got a tool set by my brother, a birthday card from Wendy and Ren...and a hair comb from Trevor." replied Kage, slightly chuckling at the thought of Trevor.

"Oh cool. So then..."

Chara slowly pulled out a package wrapped in blue wrapping paper with the words Happy Birthday! on it.

"Y-You got me a present Chara?" Asked Kage, his heart fluttering in the highest setting.

"Y-Yeah...Are ya gonna open it or not?" Asked Chara, leaning forward to give it to Kage. He grabbed the package and soon ripped off the paper to reveal a red, hand knitted scarf just for him. He held up the scarf to look closer, noting every stitch that wove perfectly and the softness of the yarn before he wrapped it around his neck.

"It took me a while to learn how to knit but I kept going till I got it right...do you like it?" Asked Chara, rubbing the back of her head shyly. Kage looked up and gave a heartwarming smile to which had Chara's own heart fluttering.

"I love it Chara...as much as I love you."

When those words flew out of his mouth both teens froze and could not believe what had just happened. To Kage his mind is going into panic mode as he realized what he just said to her, scolding himself for even saying the L word to her, especially with his mother's words ringing at the back of his mind. Finally Chara broke the silence.

"You like me? Really? Are you serious?"

So far her tone isn't mocking thankfully, just sounding genuinely confused, but he was still unsure about it.

"Yeah... It just feels so right...You know that I'm not usually those spiritual types but this feeling I have...about you just feels right..."

A few moment pass before he heard giggling. Fearing the worst he tried looking down only to see Chara's hand on his.

"Huh...I'd figured you would like someone else instead of me. After all, from what you told me so far...there's lots of pretty girls where you live. But I guess...what I mean is..I-I thought you would just see me as a friend. So much for being smart kids huh?"

When he heard her answer, her response to his confession...his entire world gained new light.

She loves him...She genuinely loves him...

Before either was aware he had already leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. Their hearts pounded loudly in sync as at this new action happening between them. It is after the kiss ended that Kage realized what he had done and began to blush immensely.

"I-I'm so Sorry! I d-Didn't-What I mean is-"

Chara quieted him by giving him a quick kiss on the lips, to which he gave a very lovesick smile. She blushed as she twisted the hem of her jean skirt in a blushy mess.

"Its OK Kage. Sides...Glad you're my first and second kiss."

"...Mine too."

While they had their moment two certain students were watching this happen in front of them.

"Yes! They did it!" Whispered shouted Wendy.

"Yeah! Now Trevor owes us twenty bucks!" replied Ren.

Just then Professor Grandville came walking by, seeing one of her students and her friend giggling happily over something.

"Professor Grandville! Guess what! It happened!" Smiled Wendy.

"What happened?" Asked Grandville, genuinely confused. Finally Ren pointed to the scene in front of them. Now the two teens are kissing each other for the third time, now fully allowing them to relax and enjoy this blissful, peaceful moment. Needless to say Grandville was surprised. She did know about Kage's relationship with Chara and had chatted with her a few times, but it seems that their feelings are far more deeper than she originally thought. Nonetheless, she says nothings and waves good bye to her students, slightly smiling to herself, wondering just how these two teens would affect those around them now that they went from friends to being a couple.

Kage and Mizuchi are now at the elder's room chatting together as he hears his little brother describe his latest date with his girlfriend Chara.

"After Grandville took our photo a squirrel literally jumped on Chara's head then landed on my lap. She was so freaked out that she slammed her text book on my lap!...Except the squirrel had already left my lap by then." Giggle Kage.

"Oof! That must've hurt!" said Mizuchi, wincing at the thought.

"No, it was fine. She made up for it later at our date." Said Kage, who is now beginning to blush.

"What did she do? Did she make you dinner or?..." Asked Mizuchi, not getting the picture. And when Kage hears his brother's confusion he realized what he almost spilled out. But before either could respond they hear a knock on the door. Soon a robotic servant entered.

"Madame Mizichio requests you two join her at the main hall for a discussion."

"Of course." Nodded Mizuchi, bowing his head respectfully. After the robot left both brothers stood up and Mizuchi immediately set to work on his brother's appearance, making sure his clothes were not ruffled and quickly hid away Kage's precious scarf. Finally the two brothers leave the room and meet their mother, sitting down respectfully as they await for her to speak first. But from what they could catch a glimpse of, her expression showed that whatever they had done greatly displeased her which confused the boys. But they held back their tongue.

"Boys... I know that we all have our hobbies, and our 'interests' tend to develop as we age."

'Yes mother." Replied Mizuchi, neutral faced as his brother.

"I pride myself as an understanding woman,'' spoke Nozako, though Kage thought of rather venomous snarks at her when she described herself as that, " And there are situations I can be accepting. But I do not want to be left in the dark when it comes to you two..now could either of you tell me..what exactly is this?"

From her sleeve pocket she pulled out a ripped wrapper. At first Mizuchi thought it was a candy wrapper which made him furrow his eyebrows a little as he thought it was his mother nitpicking over a childish act they clearly didn't do. But then he noticed his brother's eyes which were frozen at the wrapper. Now focusing his new eyes he saw what kind of wrapper it truly is. 

An opened condom wrapper.

" You two can be excused if you answer me this question: Did either of you have intercourse with someone?"

Both boys sat in fear as they pieced together was its going on. Nozako pressed further.

"If its you Mizuchi, its understandable. Afterall you are the heir, and you are aware that impregnating someone of lesser value would damage our legacy. If its you Kage… well at least you are responsible enough to know that no one would want the burden of carrying your child. But one of you should tell me what are their names...I would like to talk to them personally."

Their hearts froze as they tried to think of an answer. Just then one of their guards walked through the door, surprising the two boys.

"What do you think you are doing? I'm having a conversation with my sons." replied Nozako.

"Madame Mizichio, there's trouble by the docks. One of our servants fighting one of our suppliers and they're threatening to do harm to the village."

Nozako stood up and soon starts walking out of the room. She waves her hand to let them know that they are excused. But the look in her eyes showed that this was far from over. When the boys returned to Mizuchi's room Kage immediately went to get his scarf only for Mizuchi to block him.

"What?"

"Kage… I want you to answer me truthfully.." When Mizuchi asked this his voice is calm, but the feeling of dread is as palpable as the fog at the docks.

"When did you and Chara… you know..." It seemed that Mizuchi couldn't bring himself to spit it out, but the look of Kage's face confirmed his suspicion. Kage's mind immediately went to one night where they had been dating for a month; it was a rainy night and they were at Kage's apartment(One chosen by his guardians), they were drying out their clothes to wait the storm. They had a kiss here and there, where it soon grows heated until it eventually lead them to his bedroom...

"Kage… as much as I'm relieved that you are taking steps to protect yourself and Chara...are you out of your mind?!"

Kage snapped out his memory of his first time to look at his brother's face, now exposing the feeling of dread. This confused Kage. Shouldn't Mizuchi be having that he was having all that he wanted now that he is attending SFIT? That he has someone that he could consider having a family with?!

"What do you mean by that?"

" Don't get me wrong Kage, I'm happy you have someone like Chara in your life. But did you see how Mother looked like when she asked us about what you've done!"

"Well lets be glad that we didn't have to answer her."

"Yes! Right now we're safe, but she will come back and make us answer...Kage. I think you should stop attending SFIT and not see Chara anymore."

When he heard those words uttered, something in Kage's mind went...dark.

"What?"

"A-at least for about a month or two-"

"No."

This time Mizuchi is the one to look shocked.

"I am not going to stop going to SFIT or stop seeing my Chara. I need to be there, I almost have everything ready!"

" Before this we had plenty of time in the world! But At this point only a miracle could get us out of here! You need to slow down and think about what to do next! Actually think with that big brain of yours!"

" I thought you trusted me!"

"I do trust you! But I'm trying to tell you that you're not thinking clearly! Its like what Father said, If you don't watch where you run you'll fall off the edge and-"

"You're not my father Mizuchi!"

Mizuchi's eyes widened as he heard that hateful shout directed at him by his little brother, now glaring at him heatedly before he grabbed his scarf and stormed back to his room, slamming the door behind him. He flopped to his bed as he held his scarf close. He could do this! He has to!...But Mizuchi had a point. Now Nozako is getting suspicious, which meant that now he has to create something that could get them away from her and live in peace. And Chara….his heart pounded at the thought of his love. Now he wanted nothing more than to hold her close and hear her heartbeat. He began to fantasize a future where they were far away from Nozako, living in a simple house. Chara would greet him every morning as they wake up, having a kiss or two before their children woke up.

It seemed he became a hopeless romantic as time passed by. But now Nozako is threatening his future and his Chara. He mind went to overdrive mode, brainstorming ideas to see what could get them out of there. Then he thought of one...

Perhaps he will succeed...where Lenore Shimamoto had failed.

Despite their fight Mizuchi still let Kage go to school and see Chara despite his worries, hoping that kage would slow down and watch where he is going. If he doesn't realize how fast he is running he would be too late to do anything as with too slow. With Kage his mind was sent to work. He gathered what plans his great grandfather wrote about Shimamoto's experiment and reviewed it over, checking over calculations and designing it to be more portable. When the time came for the finals at SFIT Kage informed Grandville that he is building a machine that would change the world and would need extra hours to perfect it, to which she agreed despite him not telling what it is. As he built it he realized something...when his invention become global news Nozako would hound him down. But by then he would be protected by business men and government officials to interfere...but that meant that Chara would be exposed to Nozako's wrath. And so with his heart pounding, he told her his plans...and asked her to runaway with him to elope.

"E-Elope?"

"I-I know its a really big question but once I complete the project and sell it I could provide for both of us!"

"Kage...this is really fast..."

Kage looked deep into Chara's eyes.

"You are the most important person in my whole life...would you be mine to hold?"

With that he revealed in his hand a necklace, a silver custom made necklace with a heart. When Chara looked at Kage her mind is caught between immense love or heart tearing dread of the unknown... but she also knew that when Kage had his mind in a goal he would do anything to achieve it, including making each other happy.

"...So..when do we elope?"

When he hear her say that he kissed her passionately, to which she returned in kind. Despite their fears and uncertainties they knew that with each other they will face hell and back and grow from their experience...

BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!

"Ka...Where are...Kage!"

a voice... there was a voice calling out to him...it sounded familiar.

"There you are! Hold on!"

There was pain allover his body, excruciating to the point where even moving a finger would send massive shocks of pain all throughout. Once his eyes cleared enough to focus he realized that the voice belonged to Grandville, whose appearance is covered in smoke and soot.

"The ambulance will arrive soon!"

When he heard that he mustered out what strength he had to tell Grandville.

"P-Please...don't let M-Mother know...she'll kill me...Please!"

He lost consciousness afterwards, his world fading to black. A part of his mind begged him to stay strong, to stay alive for his promised future. When he opened his eyes again there were doctors and nurses wrapping his body in bandages, assessing his damage as Grandville stayed by his side until they delivered him to the van, where he saw her face for the last time..

"Hold on... this boy is Kage Mizichio!" said one nurse.

"Nozako's son? What is he doing here?!"

"Never mind! We must take him back to Madame Mizichio!"

The next time he woke up he saw the bright lights of a hospital, the same nurses that spoke carrying him to the operating table, keeping him stable. Then when they were about to lay him at the operating table he saw her... She walked slowly and calmly...after she had received his book bag containing his journals, textbooks...and letters from Chara that he had exchanged... She walked over and whispered to his ear, which was the last thing he heard before the anesthesia finally injected in his system.

"Shhh...it will be alright Kage... I. Will .Put. You. Back. Together ."

When he woke up he heard the sound of people muttering as well as the beeps of a hospital monitor. He moved his arm only to find himself able to move. Just the he sees a nurse walk inside...one of the nurses that often made check ups on him and Mizuchi.

"Good Morning Young Master. You've slept for quiet a while."

His eyes widened.

"For about three days to be exact. They spent a long time making sure you are healthy and well, even replacing your bones with metal like with the Young Lord."

Three days? Was that how long he was unconscious? Then his memories came crashing through his mind like a tsunami. He was working at the energy amplifier, pride swelling up as he saw spark glow brightly, signaling that his work is nearly complete...then it exploded. Then Grandville found him and made sure to stay by his side till the ambulance came...but the nurses were workers for Mother...which meant-

"Hello Kage."

His eyes froze as he saw his mother enter the room, a small smile gracing her lips as she walked closer to him despite wanting to back away from her. She then pulled out from her pocket sleeve which revealed a journal containing his plans and thoughts, flipping through the pages with an amused glint in her eyes.

"You certainly have been very busy, keeping up with your schoolwork and projects at SFIT...without my permission."

Her nails dug into the book cover, scratching through the surface. She then pulled out a photo...of him and Chara.

"You've also made a new friend too... one you have gotten very intimate with."

She pulled out papers that clearly stated that he had dropped out.

"I took the liberty to cut you off the school, explaining to your Professor Grandville that you will not be attending there anymore after her reckless behavior lead you to your injuries, thus allowing this to happen. She was a pleasant woman...pity that she took on a charity case. There's also a fact about this?"

She flipped to a page where it explained how and where are Chara and him going to meet to elope.

"She's certainly a pretty little thing, and quiet clever in her own way. I sent a letter on your behalf to meet at the place you had planned. On the bright side..."

She pulled out one more item from her sleeve... a sliver necklace with a heart hanging in the middle...soaked in blood.

Nurses had rushed in to restrain Kage as he screamed, cursed, yelled, wailing and sobbed as Nozako's smile turned cruel. Dangling Chara's necklace as a trophy, explaining that now Chara would never learn what had happened to him. His hopes and dreams, his future, his Chara were destroyed. He lost consciousness after one of the nurses injected him with a sleeping medicine to finally shush his tears.

After he had woken up he was thrown in the dark room, slumped like a doll. When he was thrown in his brother looked on with sadness and guilt, helpless as Nozako locked the door before she continued her day as if nothing happened. He felt around to find a corner when he felt something familiar... it was one of his possession and a letter. Using his new robotic eyes the read the letter from Mizuchi which had explained that he managed to place his favorite possessions and food so he would have something to keep him company while Nozako wasn't looking.

Did Mizuchi pity him? Did he dare have the nerve to send his possessions and food like he was a child? Why would he do this unless?...

Kage’s eyes suddenly turned red with rage...

Two weeks finally passed and now Nozako was with Mizuchi, standing by the dark room with an African American servant nearby. The door opened and they were hit with a horrid stench of rotten food. When Mizuchi looked inside he gasped in horror. Kage sat quietly like a doll, but his surroundings were as if it were inhabited by an animal. There were finger nail scratches on the walls, bits of blood from what he presumed were his head banging against it. The food was left untouched, rotten with mold. And his possessions were mangled and ravaged. When he looked up he saw Nozako, Mizuchi and...

His eyes widened as he lunged forward and began attacking the poor maid. Mizuchi stared in shock as he saw Kage punch the woman as she cried out, begging Nozako to restrain him as he shouted obscenities.

"TRAITOR!TRAITOR TRAITOR TRAITOR! I'M GONNA KILL YOU GRANDVILLE! YOU PROMISED I WOULD BE SAFE! YOU PROMISED!"

The guards immediately removed Kage from the woman, her form shaking as she was covered in bruises and cuts. When he was restrained he saw his brother and began growling like an animal.

"I HATE YOU! YOU SAID YOU WOULD BE THERE FOR ME! YOU SPOILED BRAT DIE! YOU DON'T DESRVE TO LIVE!"

Nozako whispered as she had summoned her doctors to help Kage calm down, dragging him like a rabid dog. When she turned her attention to her son, his eyes went hollow, silent tears flowing down as he stared at his brother's deranged form. She sighed as she begins to walk away.

"This is what happens when you allow your self to grow soft. Now Kage is broken...and its your fault. If you had obeyed none of this would be happening. I better not see you make this mistake again."

Kage sat quietly as he saw the Bethrotal ceremony happen. Mizuchi's betrothal to a woman named Momakase, the daughter of wealthy merchants that had moved in the island and a rising sushi chef and skilled ninja. When he met her for the first time he immediately disliked her, finding her to be uninteresting and too cocksure of her skills. The feeling was mutual as Momakase thought of him as a creep and disturbed. It took months of his "therapy' to make him stop behaving as a savage and calm him down to at least bein civilized. His physical recovery had been a success, with doctors reassuring that despite the metallic bones and new robotic eyes he could still process his organs normally and had increased his fertility. Not that it mattered, the one girl who had given him affection and intimacy is gone and with it, his desire to start a family. Over the year Mizuchi had changed as well...his smile was absent everyday, his eyes emotionless and did what his mother told. She had groomed him to be a weapon more than a leader, his height increasing ten fold, his strength rising to the point that he could bench press a truck, and his arms can shift to canons when desired. She had turned Mizuchi to a mindless slave designed to obey, to carry out her orders. This what benefitted them. All of them: To Nozako she could use him to continue her twisted rule on the island now fearing for their lives, Momakase is now the fiancée of a poweful heir with immense riches for her desires.. and Kage would use him to personally insult without his complaint, taking out his anger and blame onto his brother.

His heart tightened as he saw Mizuchi present a betrothal necklace to Momakase; a royal blue chocker with gold threads stitched beautifully, with a gold medallion hanging with their symbol as status of her future role as the Madame. His father told them as young boys that a betrothal necklace should be handmade to their chosen bride/or groom, to show that they will make the effort to support and work with them for long as they lived.

Now his Chara's betrothal necklace, one that he had crafted when he planned their elopement, hangs in Nozako's jewelry pile.

He gave a small smirk when he saw Momakase's eyes have a slight twinge of fear as it made contact with her future mother in law. At least it showed that she could not boast so loudly or else she would displease Nozako.

A week later Nozako announced that she will be gone in a long period of time.

"There are some matters I will have to deal with in York town. When I return we will commence Mizuchi's and Momakase's wedding date. Till then..." She turned her eyes to Mizuchi and Kage, her eyes glaring.

"Don't try to mess it up."

With that she left, no goodbyes. Nothing. Kage grinned as he saw the emotionless glaze continue to stay. Perhaps now he could have the power to do what he wanted...a power that would better be used in his hands.

"Lord Mizichio, we have discovered some particular news during our business trade."

Mizuchi looked up to show that he was listening while Kage stood beside him, placing his hand on his shoulder like a guard dog.

"Explain."

" When were on route we came across a small provincial town just outside of Muirahara woods, we heard the townspeople talk about an old woman and her daughter living in the woods. She works as an herbal medicine doctor with her daughter as an apprentice."

"'And your point is?" Asked Kage.

"They spoke that they have a very powerful herbal medicine that could all wounds and sicknesses...even saving those in the brink of death itself."

Kage wasn't sure if this was meant to take seriously or laugh it off as worthless rumors...but if it were true...It would be very useful.

"You are dismissed."

"Of course Lord Mizuchi."

Kage's fist twitched as he heard the guard address his brother instead of himself.

"A-And you too Kage...have a nice day."

With that the guard left, with Kage looking at Mizuchi as he awaited any orders.

"Brother..." Kage's tone being bitter with slight envy, "Tomorrow I will send you off to Muirahara woods and search for the old woman and her child, learn all you can about the' medicine'... or perhaps send its recipe to me. After wards...to hide suspicion... you will kill them."

Mizuchi flinched when he heard the word kill slip so easily from Kage's lips. So the Demonic Titan has yet to take a life...

"Is that understood you brainless oaf?"

"...Yes Kage… I will carry out your order."

"Good... you are dismissed."

Mizuchi's thoughts ran as he saw his beloved brother's smile slowly grow into the same perverted smile as their mother. Despite handling their people with the respect and care that was remotely close to their father... it was only a matter of time until he became another Nozako…

Kage looked over the papers that had been sent to his brother, to which he groaned in envy and annoyance, requesting for a potential partnership. One was from a small rising gang lead by Yama, wanting money and protection from the police. And another being an aging supervillain who wants to control Mizuchi as a guard dog to defeat Boss Awesome. He threw the old man's letter to the shredder but kept Yama's, already devising a plan to set out protection fees and how to exploit them.

"Hello...Kage."

Kage turned around and saw Momakase, dressed in the finest kimonos and her hair style beautifully. He scoffed as he went back to looking over the papers.

"Hello Sister in law... Is there anything you want from me?...or are you gonna be a nuisance?"

Momakase growled silently.

"Where is Mizuchi? It has been months since you sent him on a scouting mission! And She will be arriving home next week!"

Kage groaned internally at her complaint. He did not like to be reminded that his time in power is cutting short now that Nozako is returning back. He turned his swivel chair around to look at Momakase clearly.

"And the point is?..."

"I want him back here in time for our wedding!"

"Hmmph. Didn't know you're that desperate. Guess you want to get it over and done with at your wedding night."

Momakase blushed red as she glared at Kage, who gave a taunting smirk. She turns around to leave with a handmaiden in tow.

"Good luck raising my brother's brat...Mommy dearest."

She gave out an exasperated screech as she stomped her way out the office. But she did have a point...what was Mizuchi doing there? This is a simple mission, he should have given the go ahead sign and be transported back home. He shrugs it off as Mizuchi being lost in the forest and immediately crawl back home and wait for Mother to come home and fulfill his duties.

That very night a servant came running through the halls; their face showing shock, disbelief, and horror as their heart pounded. they finally burst to Kage's room, who was just preparing to rest when he saw the panting, exhausted servant.

"K-Kage! I-I couldn't believ it!...You-your...he's-"

"Spit it out you moron!" shouted Kage, impatient at the servant's prattle.

"... The lord of the house...your brother...Mizuchi has been slain by the village!"

Time froze as Kage processed what he just heard. Mizuchi... the demonic titan designed by Nozako, who can destroy cities at her command...had been slayed?

His older brother, who had did his best to protect him despite failing him...is dead.

"Lord Mizuchi is dead?"

They turned around as they saw another servant, who had overheard the news and soon ran out, shouting at the top of their lungs about the news. The shouting woke the rest of the servants as they went to alert the rest of the staff, and eventually to two more people. The first was Momakase, who was annoyed at being woken up only to be stuck in shocked silence at her fiancé's demise...

It was approximately five hours later when Nozako arrived to the island, the residents staring in fear as they saw the Madame run in inhumane speed towards the castle… her rage making her look like a possessed demon as she shouts at the top of her lungs, freezing the hearts of everyone who heard it, especially his.

"KAGE MIZICHIO!"

Kage was shoved to the docks, landing painfully as he saw Nozako's furious scowl on the ship. When she stormed in the castle she ordered the guards to bring Kage to her. Soon he was subjected to her wrath, shouting how he had lead his own brother to his demise, how all her process to make Mizuchi into the perfect leader had been wasted to Kage's carelessness. That is when Kage tried to protest that he could take over the clan and lead them in memory of his brother. Nozako gave a cruel laugh in return.

"You seemed to have forgotten boy, but only one with Mizichio blood can lead this clan. And you are no true Mizichio. The only was you could ever hope to be even my equal is to wed the Mizichio Heir! And guess what? Now that he is dead there is no heir for you to even fornicate!”

Then she had dragged him to the docks and pushed him to the ship she had arrived him and sailed towards San Fransokyo where they are now.

"The only reason you managed to stay with us after your father died is because of your brother. How he had allowed himself to let you latch onto him like a parasite. Now you have nothing in this world! You will die alone and forgotten like the rat you've always been! A shadow in a world that will damn you for the rest of your miserable existence! I hope you're happy."

Kage looked at the sailing boat, with nothing but the clothes he's wearing and money he managed to grab. Finally, like a ticking alarm, the reality of this finally struck him. His mind racing with memories of his life. He had lost everything he ever had: First his father, his school, his teachers, his Chara, His dreams...and now his brother...

Oh god... his brother! Memories of his brother crashed through, now breaking the emotional wall as he cried. His older brother, who did everything to make him happy, his first friend is no more...

He did try to start over, to try living an honest life. But he was soon exposed to the grittier side of San Fransokyo. And while it was the criminals and thugs that had inhabited the smaller parts of the city, it was also the corrupt loan sharks that made surviving nearly impossible. He lost count on how many jobs he lost due to his weak frame and his 'ego' driving others into jealous rage. He shuddered at the times where he had gotten so desperate for money that he had allowed others to...have fun with him. It wasn't like his experiences with Chara, where it was filled with soft words and warmth and love. This was dirty, cold, and harsh...and just for loose cash to feed himself. 

He resumed his habit of scratching himself till he bled when it started.

What had he done in a past life to deserve such cruelty? To loose everything that he had and wanted so much? No...

It wasn't him that's the problem... it was the city.

He recalled the stories of San Fransokyo, where before the great catastrophe Lenore Shimamoto lived in a city of San Francisco. Where people like her and others not possessing white skin were disregarded, tossed aside and ignored. His father told him that's why the Mizichio Clan originated from: when the founder had been an outcast by society along with others...and decided to take fate to their own hands and create their own world. Where they finally stood up to their oppressors and claimed their place.

Lenore Shimamoto's experiment led to the birth of San Fransokyo, where it had progressed the minorities stand on living and given more power.

At that moment, he smiled to himself as he realized what he can do. What actions he would make to gain all the love and praise that should rightfully be his instead of his brother's. He just needed to find the actual blue prints and rebuilt the amplifier, adjust it to his liking.

And recreate this city to his values, his morals. Where people can venture into science without limits, where they do not have to wonder when their next meal is.

He would create the perfect city from its ashes, become their leader and guide them to a prosperous future...

He will go back and slay the monster he had to call his mother and claim back his home.

He finally found his purpose.

And the World will finally know the name..

of Obake.